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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Monday
Jan162023

January 16, 2023

Afternoon Update:

M.J. Lee & Kevin Liptak of CNN: "The White House counsel's office says there are no visitors logs that track guests who come and go at President Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware. House Republicans have been demanding that the White House turn over all information related to misplaced classified documents from Biden's time as vice president, including any visitors logs to Biden's private residence and who might have had access to his private office in Washington, DC, where the first batch of documents were discovered in early November. 'Like every President across decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,' the counsel's office said in a statement Monday morning. 'But upon taking office, President Biden restored the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitors logs, including publishing them regularly, after the previous administration ended them.'"

Jennifer Hansler & Kylie Atwood of CNN: "An American wrongfully detained in Iran is calling on President Joe Biden to take notice of US detainees there, launching a hunger strike Monday to mark seven years since he was left behind in a prisoner swap that brought other Americans home. In a letter to Biden, Siamak Namazi called on the US president to think of him every day for the seven days he intends to carry out the hunger strike commemorating the grim milestone. 'In the past I implored you to reach for your moral compass and find the resolve to bring the US hostages in Iran home. To no avail. Not only do we remain Iran's prisoners, but you have not so much as granted our families a meeting,' wrote Namazi, who is one of three Americans who remain wrongfully detained in Iran. Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz have also been imprisoned there for years."

Isaac Stanley-Becker & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "George Santos ... has deeper ties than previously known to a businessman who cultivated close links with a onetime Trump confidant and who is the cousin of a sanctioned Russian oligarch.... Andrew Intrater and his wife each gave the maximum $5,800 to Santos' main campaign committee and tens of thousands more since 2020 to committees linked to him, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Intrater's cousin is Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. government for his role in the Russian energy industry. The relationship between Santos and Intrater goes beyond campaign contributions.... The evidence suggests Santos may have had a business relationship with Intrater as Santos was first entering politics in 2020. It also shows, according to the SEC filing, that Intrater put hundreds of thousands of dollars into Santos' onetime employer, Harbor City, which was accused by regulators of running a Ponzi scheme."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Esau McCaulley in a New York Times op-ed: "In 1968, four days before he was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his last Sunday sermon at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. It was entitled, 'Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,' and although King doesn't say the word 'woke,' he uses the concept as it was understood by many Black folks then, well before the term was co-opted by the political right to refer to any left-leaning policy that it wanted to condemn. King opened his sermon by ... ... [noting that in Washington Irving's story 'Rip Van Winkle,' when Rip went to sleep, King George III reigned, and when he awoke, George Washington had become president.... King believed that too many Americans, especially those in its churches, were also snoozing through a time ripe for transformation.... But the war on 'wokeness' will no doubt continue."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: Martin Luther "King [Jr.] first delivered 'A Christmas Sermon on Peace' on Christmas Eve, 1967, at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he served as co-pastor.... [His] message of obligation and interconnectedness is as relevant today as ever.... To connect to laborers around the world, to see that their struggles relate to ours and ours relate to theirs, is to begin to forge the 'network of mutuality' that we will need to tackle our global problems as well as to confront the obstacles to our collective liberation from domination and hierarchy"

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "None of the sweeping voting rights measures [President Biden] championed passed the Democratic-controlled Congress last year, and the prospects of any passing a newly elected Republican-controlled House seem vanishingly small. And so a leader who arguably owes his presidency to the critical and timely support of Black voters in 2020 was left to offer only vague exhortations of hope and no concrete policy plans or legislative strategies. He assured an audience at Dr. King's fabled Ebenezer Baptist Church that its side in the struggle would, indeed, overcome someday."


Stephen Neukam of the Hill: "Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) is pressing the White House to release the visitor log for President Biden's Delaware residence, as Republicans ratchet up their probe into the recent discovery of Obama-era classified documents from Biden's time as vice president. 'Given the serious national security implications, the White House must provide the Wilmington residence's visitor log,' Comer wrote in a letter to Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wait, wait! Trump wouldn't release even the White House visitor logs [NYT link], much less the visitor logs to Bedminster and Mar-a-Lardo, where he hoarded secret documents, and now Republicans demand visitor logs to Biden's private home? These people cannot see themselves.

"A Perfect Fit." Isaac Stanley-Becker, et al., of the Washington Post: "In July 2020, a small Florida-based investment firm announced that a man named George Devolder had been hired as its New York regional director. 'When we had the opportunity to welcome him to our team, I was delighted,' the company's founder and chief executive said in a news release. 'He's a perfect fit.' Devolder is now better known as George Santos, the 34-year-old freshman Republican congressman from New York's 3rd Congressional District who brazenly lied to voters about key details of his biography. And the company for which he was 'a perfect fit,' Harbor City Capital, is no longer in operation. Its assets were frozen in 2021, when the Securities and Exchange Commission accused it of running a 'classic Ponzi scheme' that had defrauded investors of millions of dollars. The SEC complaint did not name Santos, who has denied knowledge of the alleged wrongdoing.... Records ... obtained by the Washington Post, as well as interviews..., reveal how the firm ... acquainted [Santos] with business associates who have gone on to play notable roles in his scandal-plagued political career." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Worth bookmarking if you want to remind yourself some day about how sleazy people operate. Oh, and a cameo appearance by Don Junior & the lovely Kimberly. And it's good to learn What's-His-Name had yet another alias: George Devolder. He said he used the name to keep his political ambitions & professional career separate; in fact, it appears he used his political contacts to try to secure investors in the Ponzi scheme and his wealthy contacts to enhance his political schemes. ~~~

~~~ The Fantastical Volleyball Career of George Santos. BTW, George did not attend Baruch College, did not have any first-hand knowledge of Baruch professors' in-class methods, was not graduated from Baruch College, was not on the Baruch College volleyball team and did not get knee injuries as a result of playing for that team. Otherwise, quite a bit of what he says in this audio tape is true*:

     * Update: Oops, George lied about other stuff in this short audio, too. See Akhilleus' commentary below.

Beyond the Beltway

Missouri. Marie: The New York Times just got around to publishing an article (by Eduardo Medina) on the Missouri House's revision of the dress code for women members, and that has irritated me all over again. "'I think we're being quite pedantic here by making rules so petty,' State Representative Raychel Proudie, a Democrat, said on Wednesday in the chamber. 'And what it will ultimately lead to is the disenfranchisement of folks. For example, they don't make jackets or blazers for women who are pregnant. That can be very uncomfortable.'" Well, gosh, can't those pregnant ladies just knit themselves a super-sized cardigan wardrobe? They should learn to knit, you know. I think all the House Democrats -- men and women -- should get together one day and show up in bathing suits or hula outfits or pjs or whatever they feel like. Then let's see what happens. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

You can tell the English, you can tell the Dutch. You can tell the Trumpies, but you can't tell 'em much. As contributor Jeanne & others repeatedly remind us, it's the GQP party. And if you live in Lycoming County, Pa., the local stars of that party just wasted your tax dollars: ~~~

~~~ Pennsylvania. Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "On the 797th day after the defeat of ... Donald J. Trump, a rural Pennsylvania county on Monday began a recount of ballots from Election Day 2020. Under pressure from conspiracy theorists and election deniers, 28 employees of Lycoming County counted -- by hand -- nearly 60,000 ballots. It took three days and an estimated 560 work hours.... The results of Lycoming County's hand recount -- like earlier recounts of the 2020 election in Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona -- revealed no evidence of fraud. The numbers reported more than two years ago were nearly identical to the numbers reported on Thursday. Mr. Trump ended up with seven fewer votes than were recorded on voting machines in 2020. Joseph R. Biden Jr. had 15 fewer votes. Overall, Mr. Trump gained eight votes against his rival.... [That did not] quell the doubts of election deniers, who had circulated a petition claiming there was a likelihood of 'rampant fraud' in Lycoming in 2020[.]... The county director of elections ... attributed the slight discrepancies between the hand recount and voting machine results to human error in reading ambiguous marks on the paper ballots. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.

     ~~~ Marie: One of the "proofs" of fraud cited by petitioners who implored the county to conduct a recount: "registered Republicans grew their numbers in Lycoming County compared with Democrats from 2016 to 2020," so if was unpossible for Biden to get more votes than Hillary Clinton. They didn't seem to notice that Trump got 16 percent more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. These people are not very bright.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Monday is here: "The death toll from a weekend missile strike on an apartment building in Dnipro has risen to at least 35, according to the local governor, with a similar number of residents unaccounted for. Kyiv renewed its calls for more advanced Western air defense systems after the strike, a plea that was echoed by civilians gathered at the scene.'How many other people have to die until the world will see us?' asked Aziza Nosenko, 30, a baker who was handing out sandwiches to volunteer rescuers Sunday. Meanwhile, Kyiv and Moscow continue to dispute control of the eastern salt mining town of Soledar, a gateway to the city of Bakhmut that has been the focus of recent fighting. Russia claims to have seized the town, but Ukraine's 46th Air Assault Brigade said Ukrainian soldiers are still fighting there.

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The U.S. military has launched an expanded, more sophisticated training program of Ukrainian forces that is focused on large-scale combat and meant to bolster Ukraine's ability to take back territory from Russian forces, the Pentagon's top general said Sunday. Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on a flight from Washington to Europe that the training began Sunday at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany and will continue for five or six weeks. About 500 soldiers will go through the initial version of training...."

Keeping It Classy. Bryan Pietsch of the Washington Post: "Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and a senior security official in President Vladimir Putin's administration, said Saturday that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida should perform a ritualistic suicide by disembowelment to repent for what Medvedev called servitude to the United States.... Medvedev's remarks were in response to a joint statement Friday by President Biden and Kishida, in which the leaders said that 'any use of a nuclear weapon by Russia in Ukraine would be an act of hostility against humanity and unjustifiable in any way." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Gina Lollobrigida, the Italian movie actress who became one of the post-World War II era's first major European sex symbols, died on Monday in Rome. She was 95."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (10)

What do you call a guy who brazenly lies about stuff ridiculously easy to fact check?

I listened to that interview with George Santos (on a clearly right-wing radio show—he picked his marks it seems), where he claims to have not only graduated from Baruch College (a school he never attended) but while there led the men’s volleyball team to a championship, all while sacrificing both knees, needing knee replacement surgery on both. While lying about all of that, he claims to be 6’2”, “the shortest guy on the team”. When I heard that, I thought “Wow. I’ve always thought this schmuck was short and a little tubby, not exactly a volleyball physique.”

So I checked. He’s 5’8”. He gave himself an extra 6 inches in addition to plastic knees and a championship trophy for a sport he never played at a college he never attended.

So what do you call a guy like this who lies through his teeth about the most tangential stuff?

Republican. Congressman.

January 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Good thing that winger radio guy didn’t ask Santos about dick size. He’d have started talking about yard sticks.

January 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Wheels within wheels.....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/16/george-santos-andrew-intrater-columbus-nova/

If I'd only known some Russian oligarchs, how different my life might have been...

January 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@Akhilleus: When I searched the Googles for Santos' height, I came up with everything from 5'7" to 6'3". I guess we know the source of the Tall George reports.

So I looked for photos of George standing next to people. Since the guy stands alone these days, it's hard to find any photos. But then I came across a photo of his swearing in, and he's standing next to Matt Gaetz. (Matt has the classiest friends.) The two look to be about the same height. So I thought, gee, maybe Akhilleus is wrong. Matt Gaetz is tall, isn't he? Well, no. Gaetz is consistently described as being 5'7". So there ya go.

January 16, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

But I keep shrinking every time I have my yearly check up.
Does that mean that if I live long enough, I'll be a dwarf in my
old age?
At least that's one thing Santos hasn't claimed to be.

January 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

@Forrest Morris: Me too. I long described myself as being 5'6-1/2". I think a few times a nurse put me down for 5'7". The last time I had my height checked, I was 5'4".

January 16, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Marie: you only thought Gaetz was tall because when he stands up to speak he's on his tippy toes plus rumor has it that he has lifts in his shoes. I have often thought that Matt is the devil masquerading as a human being –-look to his eyes–--just like the ones in "Rosemary's Baby" when she is being penetrated by the Devil himself. And if this is true––-the demise of the GOP might very well BE the work of the devil–––I mean, gee, if we believe in the word of God, why not believe in the work of his enemy?

And if what's his name––and we'd like to know WHAT exactly IS his name–-isn't very soon put on the chopping block then, my friends, what we have to look forward to is what Rosemary finally concluded: "Witches! All of the Witches! and in our case–--a devil to boot!

January 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

Marie,

I noticed the same discrepancy. But upon further investigation, I found that the 6’3” height applies to a French born English footballer, Georges Santos.

Maybe now we’ll hear that George (no S) Santos has also won the World Cup.

He’s still a serial liar, no matter the height. Maybe short man syndrome plays a part in his constant self-aggrandizement. Who knows?

January 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

In a day honoring the life and work of MLK, it’s just as important to be aware of how many strident right-wing opponents of civil rights (for minorities, that is) make brazen and hypocritical use of King’s words to support their hatreds and schemes to continue racist policies unabated.

Ronald Reagan, who reluctantly signed the bill making this a national holiday was among the first to undercut the legacy of King by claiming that his words about racial justice meant that racism was over and done with. Reagan’s many successors in racial animosity, including all of today’s usual race baiting, racist assholes (Trump, DeSantis, Cotton—who claimed that slavery was a necessity!—Aunt Pittypat, My Kevin) insist that their whitesplaining of Dr. King’s words and actions supersede his actual meanings.

Effectively, they say that racism is over. Our hero, Dr. King, didn’t want anyone to talk about race anymore. So sit down and shut up. And because King was a pacifist, they proclaim that anyone employing the slightest hint of force when protesting the murder of yet another unarmed black man by police, are debasing his legacy and bringing shame upon the whole race.

They, of course, are free to engage in violence, in voter suppression and intimidation aimed at black communities, to demonize and make illegal the teaching of true American history, especially anything involving slavery, to actively depress economic opportunities for black workers, and to support law enforcement murders, beatings, and wholesale imprisonment of black males. And let’s not forget Reagan’s favorite racial trope, the welfare queens (black, of course) driving Cadillacs, eating filet mignon, throwing taxpayer money out the window as they drive, laughing, through the ghetto.

MLK Day for the right is the National Shut Up About Racism Day (and let us get on with our attacks on black Americans).

January 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: You're right about Georges. However, I did find some sites that listed George at 6'3". They probably made the same mistake I did.

Am very disappointed George has not regaled us with some of his shining moments as a footballer. But I'll stay tuned.

January 16, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns
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