;)
Friday
Jan272023
January 27, 2023
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Tim Arango of the New York Times: "A San Francisco court on Friday released police body camera footage showing the frenzied seconds when an intruder wielding a hammer attacked Paul Pelosi, 82, the husband of Nancy Pelosi, in the foyer of the couple's home in Pacific Heights in the early hours of Oct. 28, 2022." The report includes the video. This is a liveblog. An earlier entry reports, "Capitol Police surveillance video from outside former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home in San Francisco, released publicly on Friday, shows the man who attacked her husband in October breaking in." That post includes the surveillance video.
~~~ Politico's report, by Jeremy White, also includes both videos. ~~~
Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Biden said on Friday that Jeffrey D. Zients, who served as the coronavirus response coordinator and a chairman of Mr. Biden's transition, would take over as the White House chief of staff. The formal announcement came several days after it was reported that Mr. Zients had been tapped to replace Ron Klain, the longtime Biden adviser and skilled political operative who has served the first two years of the president's term." ~~~
~~~ Here's President Biden's statement, which is worth reading.
Cameron Joseph of Vice: "It's hard to imagine a dumber way to protect our national intelligence.... Experts and sources describe the classification process as messy and cumbersome, with far too much information needlessly marked classified. And they complain that when the handful of people at the top of the government mishandle classified information, they're treated very differently than the (literal) millions of other people with security clearances would be treated if they accidentally misplaced classified material.... Most [experts] argued that it was unsurprising that Pence's and Biden's teams had screwed up and brought a few classified documents with them when they left office -- and that the documents themselves were likely pretty innocuous.... Part of the problem is that there's just way too many things being unnecessarily classified." One of the classified documents that wound up in Hillary Clinton's infamous emails was a copy of a newspaper article.
Lisa Lerer & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The 168 members of the Republican National Committee will vote Friday morning in California on their next party chair, choosing between handing their current leader, Ronna [Romney] McDaniel, a fourth term or turning her position over to hard-line challengers who say new blood is needed after three disappointing national elections."
The Fix Was Always In. Joan Biskupic of CNN: "The Supreme Court did not disclose its longstanding financial ties with former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff even as it touted him as an expert who independently validated its investigation into who leaked the draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. The court's inquiry, released last week with Chertoff's endorsement, failed to identify who was responsible for the unprecedented leak. The decision to keep the relationship with Chertoff quiet is a reflection of a pattern of opacity at the nation's highest court.... CNN has learned ... that the court in recent years has privately contracted with The Chertoff Group for security assessments, some broadly covering justices' safety and some specifically related to Covid-19 protocols at the court itself. The estimated payments to Chertoff's risk assessment firm, for consultations that extended over several months and involved a review of the justices' homes, reached at least $1 million.... Chertoff, whose financial ties to the court have not been previously reported, already had well-known personal connections to the justices through his Ivy League education, prior judicial clerkships and tenure in the two Bush administrations."
Azi Paybarah, et al., of the Washington Post: "Here's a look at how [Rep. George] Santos defined and redefined himself in his biography on his campaign website. Below is an analysis of how that biography was rewritten from 2020 through 2023.... Three version of [his] campaign 'About' page included fewer and fewer biographical details."
Henry Gomez of NBC News: "A Republican technology firm says it is asking Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., to correct yet another apparent error on his campaign spending records. Santos reported paying WinRed more than $206,000 to process donations to his 2022 campaign, records show. But that amount doesn't match up with how much money Santos actually raised. A Republican fundraising platform, WinRed charges candidates a 3.94% fee for contributions made online by credit card. At that rate, Santos would have had to have raised more than $5.2 million through WinRed to warrant a $206,000 payment to the firm. Through November, however, his campaign reported total contributions of $1.7 million, including donations that didn't come through WinRed.... 'At this point,' [campaign finance lawyer Brett] Kappel said, 'nothing that appears on Rep. Santos's FEC reports can be taken at face value.'" MB: Hey, if you can make up your entire biography, why not make up numbers (and a treasurer!) for a silly little FEC report?
Après Anthony. Sarah Ferris & Ally Mutnick of Politico: "Just months after [George] Santos' win helped seal a GOP majority, New York Democrats and Republicans are drafting contingency plans for a potential special election in the battleground district, despite the currently high likelihood that the incumbent stays put. No matter what Santos does, the freshman fabricator's toxicity has forced House members and campaign hands to think about 2024 months before they otherwise would. 'We're preparing because that should be a Democratic seat. And we're going to make sure that whoever gets the Democratic line is in a position to win,' said Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.), a Queens party boss."
If you don't have a New York Times subscription, Andrew Prokop of Vox covers a great deal of the Times report, linked below, on the Bill Barr/John Durham plot to finger the FBI for picking on Donald Trump.
Tierney Sneed of CNN: "A federal judge on Friday delayed the contempt of Congress trial for former Donald Trump adviser Peter Navarro, likely for months, to allow for additional pre-trial debate over the role executive privilege could play when the case goes to a jury. Over the course of a nearly two-hour hearing Friday, US District Judge Amit Mehta grilled Justice Department prosecutors on the position the department has taken, in previous internal Office of Legal Counsel opinions, that close aides to a president can be immune from congressional subpoenas. The trial had been scheduled to begin on Monday. With the questions Mehta is raising about executive privilege, the Justice Department has been put on the spot to clarify its murky interpretations about the scope of presidential immunity."
Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Days before ... Donald Trump left the White House, federal prosecutors in New York discussed whether to potentially charge Trump with campaign finance crimes once he was out of office, according to a new book from CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig. Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York developed significant evidence against Trump when they charged his former attorney Michael Cohen in 2018 over a hush money scheme paying two women claiming affairs with Trump, including adult film star Stormy Daniels, Honig writes.... With Trump about to leave office in January 2021, however, Audrey Strauss, the acting US attorney, held multiple discussions with a small group of prosecutors to discuss its evidence against Trump. They decided to not seek an indictment Trump for several reasons, Honig writes, including the political ramifications and the fact that Trump's other scandals, such as efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the January 6, 2021, insurrection, 'made the campaign finance violations seem somehow trivial and outdated by comparison.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Inasmuch as the worst thing that's happened to Trump as a result of leading an insurrection is that he got kicked off Twitter & Facebook for a few years, it seems to me Audrey and her team miscalculated. Besides, if you commit multiple crimes, you will usually be prosecuted for all of them, not just the worst one.
Schlock Social. Stuart Thompson of the New York Times: "Between posts about conspiracy theories and right-wing grievances ... on Truth Social, the right-wing social network started by [Donald] Trump in late 2021..., [are] many pitches from hucksters and fringe marketers dominating the ads on the site. Ads from major brands are nonexistent on the site. Instead, the ads on Truth Social are for alternative medicine, diet pills, gun accessories and Trump-themed trinkets...." Thompson goes to to explain why major brands stay away from the site, then reports on and reproduces some of the ads that appear on the site.
~~~~~~~~~~
Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "President Biden sharply rebuked House Republicans on Thursday for trying to slash seniors' retirement benefits and hold hostage the nation's finances, stressing that the new majority's agenda -- and its staunch demands for spending cuts -- threatened to plunge the United States into an economic crisis. On a day when the administration received a burst of positive news, with the nation's economic growth exceeding expectations last quarter, Biden took to a union facility in Springfield, Va., to highlight the political stakes: Pointing to the country's recent turnaround, the president stressed a need to battle back GOP lawmakers 'who are trying to destroy this progress.'... Biden on Thursday again called on Republicans to raise or suspend the [debt ceiling], stressing he is unwilling to negotiate over one of the country's most important fiscal obligations. 'I will not let anyone use the full faith and credit of the United States as a bargaining chip,' Biden said. 'In the United States of America, we pay our debts.'"
Timothy Puko of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration is banning mining for 20 years in a giant watershed near Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the president's latest effort to deliver on conservation pledges that would shape the future of America's wild lands. The move, announced Thursday, extends a temporary decision from a year ago to block copper, nickel and other hard-rock mining that the Trump administration had tried to greenlight near the Canadian border. Officials said they determined the potential toxic leaching from mining would be too threatening to nature, local Native American communities and a growing recreation economy. Boundary Waters is the most heavily visited wilderness area in the country, according to the Interior Department. And Thursday's decision will affect 225,000 acres of federal lands and waters in the Rainy River Watershed, which abuts the wilderness area northwest of Lake Superior."
Perry Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "The FBI and law enforcement in Europe have shut down a major ransomware operation accused of extorting more than $100 million from organizations across the world by encrypting victims' computer systems and demanding payments to provide a key to unlock them, top U.S. officials said Thursday. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the ransomware group -- called Hive -- attacked hospitals, school districts, financial firms and other entities, stealing and sometimes publishing their data." (Also linked yesterday.)
Laurie McGinley, et al., of the Washington Post: "Gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships will no longer be forced to abstain from sex to donate blood under federal guidelines to be proposed in coming days, ending a vestige of the earliest days of the AIDS crisis. The planned relaxation of restrictions by the Food and Drug Administration follows years of pressure by blood banks, the American Medical Association and LGBT rights organizations to abandon rules some experts say are outdated, homophobic and ineffective at keeping the nation's blood supply safe. The new approach eliminates rules that target men who have sex with men and instead focuses on sexual behaviors by people, regardless of gender, that pose a higher risk of contracting and transmitting HIV...."
Glenn Thrush & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The National Archives has asked former presidents and vice presidents to check their personal files for classified or presidential records that might have been missed in previous searches.... The responsibility to comply with federal records law 'does not diminish after the end of an administration,' William J. Bosanko, the chief operating officer with the National Archives and Records Administration, wrote in the letter.... The letter was sent to representatives for former Presidents Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, and former Vice Presidents Pence, Biden, Dick Cheney, Al Gore and Dan Quayle, according to CNN, which reported on the letter earlier on Thursday. Former President Jimmy Carter did not receive a request because the Presidential Records Act took effect after he left office in 1981."
Melissa Quinn of CBS News: "The Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee are urging the director of national intelligence to provide the panel with access to the documents marked classified that were found in the homes of President Biden and ... Donald Trump." MB: I guess they're not interested in mike pence's papers.
Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "The State Bar of California intends to seek the disbarment of ... Donald Trump's election attorney John Eastman for his role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In a statement, the office of California bar Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona said Eastman faces 11 disciplinary charges, all arising from allegations that he was behind Trump's plan to obstruct the count of electoral votes.... In the explanation of the charges, the California bar directly connects Eastman's speech [at the Ellipse on January 6, 2021,] to the insurrection, saying he 'contributed to provoking a crowd to assault and breach the Capitol to intimidate then-Vice President [Mike] Pence and prevent the electoral count from proceeding.'... If the State Bar Court decides that Eastman's actions warrant a disbarment or suspension, the recommendation would be forwarded to the California Supreme Court, which will determine Eastman's fate."
Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "Former Trump-era Department of Homeland Security official Ken Cuccinelli is testifying before a federal grand jury in Washington, DC, on Thursday.... Cuccinelli was a notable figure in Donald Trump's attempts to use his administration to pursue unfounded election fraud claims after the 2020 election and was a frequent presence around Trump's Oval Office.... The House select committee reported that Cuccinelli fielded an inquiry from Trump and his top advisers about the executive branch seizing voting machines after the election, but Cuccinelli said his department didn't have that authority. Yet Cuccinelli had also messaged then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in November 2020 about Dominion voting machines, which Trump's advisers falsely believed were part of a fraud conspiracy in the election...."
** Charlie Savage, et al., of the New York Times: "Egged on by [Donald] Trump, Attorney General William P. Barr set out in 2019 to dig into their shared theory that the Russia investigation likely stemmed from a conspiracy by intelligence or law enforcement agencies. To lead the inquiry, Mr. Barr turned to a hard-nosed prosecutor named John H. Durham, and later granted him special counsel status to carry on after Mr. Trump left office. But after almost four years -- far longer than the Russia investigation itself -- Mr. Durham's work is coming to an end without uncovering anything like the deep state plot alleged by Mr. Trump and suspected by Mr. Barr.... Interviews by The Times with more than a dozen current and former officials have revealed an array of previously unreported episodes that show how the Durham inquiry became roiled by internal dissent and ethical disputes as it went unsuccessfully down one path after another even as Mr. Trump and Mr. Barr promoted a misleading narrative of its progress." (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ Marie: The main reason to appoint a special counsel is to keep the attorney general -- a political appointee -- at arms'-length from a politically-sensitive inquiry. But Barr ignored that. He constantly kept tabs on Durham's investigation, even traveling with Durham to Europe to try to dig up dirt on supposedly anti-Trump investigators. Barr also made false public statements claiming Durham was finding all kinds of dirt on federal officials. At the same time, he withheld the fact that by the summer of 2020 -- i.e., during election season -- Durham had turned up nothing. Still, Barr pressed Durham to write a pre-election interim report implicating Hillary Clinton's campaign at the same time he & Durham publicly contradicted a report by the department's inspector general. (Durham urged the IG to change his report and implicate the FBI.) ~~~
~~~ But wait! There's more! During one of their European excursions, "Italian officials -- while denying any role in setting off the Russia investigation -- unexpectedly offered a potentially explosive tip linking Mr. Trump to certain suspected financial crimes (emphasis added). Mr. Barr and Mr. Durham decided that the tip was too serious and credible to ignore." So Barr told Durham to open a criminal investigation. "The extraordinary fact that Mr. Durham opened a criminal investigation that included scrutinizing Mr. Trump has remained secret." ~~~
~~~ P.S. Merrick, Dear, you need to appoint a special counsel to investigate the investigation of the investigators. At the very least, the DOJ inspector general must open a case. Barr is gone, out in the world slamming his old boss, and Durham is on the way out, but this corruption of the DOJ will happen again if you don't at least shame Hans & Fritz. Just what did Fritz turn up about those "suspected financial crimes" and why wasn't anybody charged? ~~~
~~~ Marcy Wheeler: "There are a lot of questions about why Durham remains at DOJ. But one potential reasons is that [Deputy AG] Lisa Monaco believes [the report he is required by regulation to write] could be a worthwhile thing: basically a long list of conspiracy theories that Barr had Durham chase that turned out to be conspiracy theories. And this story may put some pressure on DOJ to make sure that happens."
Stephen Neukam of the Hill: "House Republicans are planning their first hearings on the Biden administration's COVID-19 response, summoning top federal health officials to Congress to testify in the coming weeks. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce is planning to interrogate officials from federal agencies such as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), according to Bloomberg [firewalled]. The hearing is set for Feb. 8."
Computer-Savvy Ted Lieu Puts AI to Work. Kate Santaliz & Julie Tsirkin of NBC News: "Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif..., [is] introducing a nonbinding measure Thursday that would direct the House to take a look at artificial intelligence, a bill that was written entirely by the online AI chatbot ChatGPT.... Lieu is also pushing for Congress to establish a nonpartisan commission that would provide recommendations about how to regulate AI. 'The rapid advancements in AI technology have made it clear that the time to act is now to ensure that AI is used in ways that are safe, ethical and beneficial for society,' ChatGPT wrote in an op-ed Lieu published in The New York Times this week. 'Failure to do so could lead to a future where the risks of AI far outweigh its benefits.'"
The Party of Violence. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Newly elected Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) passed out [dummy] grenades Thursday to other members of Congress, along with a note on his office letterhead emphasizing that the ordnance was made in Florida.... [The grenades were] stamped with the GOP logo.... Mills, who was endorsed by ... Donald Trump..., is among several new House members who deny that President Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential election. A veteran and defense contractor, Mills also bragged in his campaign that he 'sold tear gas used on Black Lives Matter protesters.'" Mediaite has an item here.
Keith Alexander of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors said Thursday they have dropped the charges against Ashli Babbitt's mother, Micki Witthoeft, who was arrested for blocking traffic on Capitol grounds on Jan. 6 -- the two-year anniversary of when her daughter was fatally shot by a police officer as she tried to storm the building. Witthoeft had been arrested for failing to obey police orders and blocking and obstructing roadways, according to a statement from U.S. Capitol Police. She was processed and released the same day, police said. A spokeswoman for the D.C. attorney general confirmed Thursday that the office declined to prosecute the case, but would not give a reason."
2024 Presidential Election. Meredith McGraw of Politico: "... Donald Trump is unveiling a 2024 education policy plan, one focusing heavily on the culture war components that have animated conservatives. The plan ... calls for cutting federal funding for any school or program that includes 'critical race theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto our children.' It also calls for opening 'civil rights investigations into any school district that has engaged in race-based discrimination,' particularly against Asian American students, and promises to 'keep men out of women's sports.'... Trump also calls for making significant cuts to administrative personnel and the end of teacher tenure and the election of school principals." MB: This looks to me like an attempt to out-DeSantis DeSantolini. The GOP's 2024 presidential primaries may shape up to be a Fascists on Parade extravaganza.
Beyond the Beltway
Arizona Legislature Goes Dark. Patrick Marley & Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: "Arizona Republicans shielded legislators from the state's open-records law this week -- a move that comes months after the release of thousands of documents detailing extensive efforts to undermine Joe Biden's victory here in the 2020 presidential >election. Documents that have surfaced over the past two years include correspondence describing the inner workings of a partisan review of the 2020 election by the Cyber Ninjas, as well as emails by Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, urging lawmakers to overturn ... Donald Trump's narrow defeat in the state. The new rules will greatly limit the public release of lawmakers' communications. State senators will not have to disclose any text messages sent on personal devices, even when dealing with state business. For lawmakers in both the Senate and the House, emails and other documents will be destroyed after 90 days -- in many cases, well before members of the public know to ask for them."
California Senate Race 2024. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: Representative Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who emerged as one of ... Donald J. Trump's chief congressional tormentors from his perch atop the House Intelligence Committee, announced on Thursday that he would seek the Senate seat long held by Dianne Feinstein.... Mr. Schiff, 62, is the second member of California's Democratic congressional delegation to join the 2024 race, after Representative Katie Porter." (Also linked yesterday.)
California. Steven Myers of the New York Times: "A federal judge in California has temporarily blocked enforcement of a new state law allowing regulators to punish doctors for spreading false or misleading information about Covid-19 vaccinations and treatments to their patients. The law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year, had been intended to address the waves of misinformation that have churned through the course of the pandemic. Though the wording of the law had been narrowly tailored, the judge, William B. Shubb of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, ruled on Wednesday that its definitions of misinformation and the uncertainty about its enforcement were 'unconstitutionally vague.' The case is one of two legal challenges facing the law, the first of its kind in the nation to try to address a problem that the U.S. Surgeon General, the American Medical Association and others have said has cost unnecessary illnesses and lives." MB: Shubb is a Bush I appointee.
Colorado. Colleen Slevin of the AP: "The Colorado baker who won a partial U.S. Supreme Court victory after refusing to make a gay couple's wedding cake because of his Christian faith lost an appeal Thursday in his latest legal fight, involving his rejection of a request for a birthday cake celebrating a gender transition. The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that that the cake Autumn Scardina requested from Jack Phillips and Masterpiece Cakeshop, which was to be pink with blue frosting, is not a form of speech. It also found that the state law that makes it illegal to refuse to provide services to people based on protected characteristics like race religion or sexual orientation does not violate business owners' right to practice or express their religion."
Florida. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A legal battle over Florida's ban on Medicaid spending for gender-affirming medical care spilled into Washington on Thursday as a federal judge partially granted an urgent request by 18 American medical and mental health groups to quash subpoenas sent to them by the state after they opposed the prohibition. The professional associations accused Florida of targeting members such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association and the Endocrine Society after they expressed the widely accepted medical view that care such as puberty blockers, hormones and gender transition surgery can be appropriate treatment for transgender youth and adults. The groups spoke out last fall in support of a lawsuit filed by four transgender patients and their parents to overturn the ban in federal court in Tallahassee. But the organizations said state officials responded with a 'highly inappropriate and invasive' fishing expedition for internal documents and communications about their policy positions."
New York. Benjamin Weiser & Lola Fadulu of the New York Times: "A man who raced a truck down a Hudson River bike path in 2017, killing eight people in what the authorities have called the deadliest terrorist attack in New York City since 9/11, was convicted of murder charges on Thursday by a federal jury and could now face the death penalty. The man, Sayfullo Saipov, a 34-year-old Uzbek native, said after his arrest that he was inspired to carry out the attack by Islamic State videos that he watched on his phone and that he chose a truck to inflict maximum damage against civilians. Mr. Saipov is the first defendant to face a federal death penalty trial during the administration of President Biden, who had campaigned against capital punishment."
South Carolina Gothic, Ctd. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "When the first sheriff's deputy arrived at the scene of a grisly double murder in South Carolina, Alex Murdaugh, whose wife and son had been slain, said right away that he knew the killer's motive.... 'My son was in a boat wreck months back; he's been getting threats.'... Mr. Murdaugh's initial encounter with the police was heard publicly for the first time on Thursday in a courtroom where he is now on trial accused of murdering his wife, Maggie, and the younger of his two adult sons, Paul, in June 2021. Prosecutors played police body camera footage from the scene and suggested in court that Mr. Murdaugh had been trying to throw investigators off his trail when he offered up an explanation for the crime.... Later in the day, Capt. Jason Chapman of the Colleton County Sheriff's Office said ... that Mr. Murdaugh had not appeared to have any blood on him when they arrived, even though he had told a 911 dispatcher that he had checked both victims' pulses. Both victims were bloody, the police witnesses testified, and Captain Chapman said that it would have been particularly difficult to check Paul Murdaugh's pulse without coming into contact with his blood."
Tennessee. David Li of NBC News: "At least one former Memphis, Tennessee, police officer has been indicted in connection with the death of Tyre Nichols, his attorney said Thursday. Emmitt Martin III surrendered to authorities, the attorney, William Massey, told NBC News. Five officers in total -- Martin, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith -- were fired Friday after police Chief C.J. Davis said they violated department policies during the Jan. 7 traffic stop that led to Nichols' death." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update: Rick Rojas of the New York Times: "Five fired Memphis police officers have been charged with murder following the death of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old Black man who died following an encounter with officers that the city police chief described as 'heinous, reckless and inhumane.'" This is part of a liveblog. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update: Rick Rojas & Jessica Jagois of the New York Times: "Five Memphis police officers were charged on Thursday with second-degree murder for the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, after a traffic stop that escalated into what the authorities have described as a display of staggering brutality. The city has been bracing for more than a week for the release of video footage that officials say depicts in agonizing detail how a stop this month for suspicion of reckless driving ended with Mr. Nichols being hospitalized in critical condition on Jan. 7 and dying three days later.... A grand jury returned indictments on Thursday against the five officers -- Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith -- with charges that include kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression, in addition to second-degree murder, prosecutors said. The officers, all of whom are Black, were fired last week."
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed defiance against the Kremlin after another barrage of Russian missiles hit targets throughout Ukraine on Thursday, in the wake of Western pledges to ship heavy battle tanks to Kyiv.... U.S. government auditors are in Kyiv this week as part of broader measures aimed at ensuring 'no aid or weapons' sent to Ukraine are diverted, Victoria Nuland, the undersecretary for political affairs at the State Department, told lawmakers Thursday. The remarks came after senior Ukrainian officials resigned or faced dismissal this week due to allegations of corruption.... The Wagner group appears to have suffered heavy losses in recent battles in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reported Thursday. Videos and photographs of a gravesite in southern Russia show a formerly empty plot of land steadily being filled with freshly-dug graves.... International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi warned that 'powerful explosions have been occurring outside' the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant."
Israel/Palestine. Sufian Taha, et al., of the Washington Post: "Israeli forces conducted a huge raid on the Palestinian city of Jenin in the northern West Bank on Thursday, engaging in a lengthy shootout that left extensive destruction and was one of the deadliest operations in nearly two decades. Palestinian officials said nine people were killed Thursday. Israel said six 'terrorists' were killed, while another surrendered, adding that reports of other deaths were being 'looked into.' No Israeli casualties were reported. The Israeli military described the raid as a 'counterterrorism operation' against Islamic Jihad militants involved in attacks against Israelis, which spiked this past spring and led to more than a dozen deaths.... According to the Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank, seven of the dead in Jenin were 30 or younger and included an 18-year-old. A civilian man and a 61-year-old woman were also killed in the violence in the densely populated urban refugee camp, Palestinian officials said."
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Reader Comments (15)
Still no special prosecutor to look into the half-pence’s document problem?
It took Neville Chamberlain Garland TWO YEARS to name a special prosecutor to investigate Trump’s role in the insurrection and his stolen documents. It took ten minutes for him to appoint a Trump stooge to fuck with Biden.
And for little mikey? Who’s probably going to run for president?
Nothing.
Pretty sure there’ll be three special prosecutors to investigate Hunter Biden’s dick pix.
All because Biden felt bad that Creampuff Merrick didn’t get his chance at the Supreme Court.
Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, or the International Day in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. Just wondering if Fox or News-nax will mention this even once. They wouldn’t want to piss off all their white supremacist, Holocaust denier viewers. It’s a lead pipe cinch that Fatty won’t mention it. The Holocaust doesn’t register in a mind fogged in by wild-ass conspiracy theories, hatred, revenge fantasies, and a dung heap of personal grievances.
Maybe Fox will invite Kitara on to talk about Jew-ish-ness. That would be instructive.
PBS might (or should) be showing the recent Ken Burns documentary on the Holocaust and America. Hard to get through. Not as hard as being there though. And not as hard as actual survivors or descendants of survivors having to listen to bigots spewing antisemitism all these years later, or seeing TFG entertaining a couple of Holocaust deniers at dinner in his “wonderful home”, one of whom promises to go DEFCON 4 on Jews, or whatever the hell he said.
But this asshole will very likely be the GQP nominee for president.
If not him, some other hate-filled bigot.
Jesus (a Jew) must be pleased.
Regarding the awful tragedy in Memphis, you can be sure that Fox, which hardly ever mentions police brutality, especially if it involves a black citizen beaten or murdered, will be all over this one because in this case the cops doing the murdering are all black. The obvious takeaway is that this is a POLICE PROBLEM, regardless of race. But Fox will play it up as a black on black crime.
Trump better downshift and floor it if he wants to get out in front on the tough on crime issue. Gov DeSantis is weighing in for the death penalty for child sex offenders. Also for life in prison for selling candy like fentamyl.
As a non lethal aside he is opposing bail reform and warns he will block "rogue judges" who are soft on crime.
@Ak: Watched Ken Burns documentary the U.S. and the Holocaust
earlier this week. Too bad there was no internet back then. But then,
many would still have called it 'fake news'.
I'm reading a book this week, "Irena's Children" about a woman who
saved thousands of children in Poland (Jewish children) from death
and deportation in Nazi-occupied Poland during WW II.
Things like that should be taught in schools. Maybe they are in some
schools. Don't know 'cause I been out a long time.
I think we have the right to know what were those "suspicious
financial dealings" that the Italians tipped off Barr and Durham about.
But then, are there any other kinds of dealings in connection with
the trump crime family?
AK: PBS was showing the Ken Burns; documentary on the Holocaust last week and this week their "Secrets of the Dead" featured the problems the US had in the decision ––-a hard fought one---to bomb the crematoriums; one of the problems was our planes were not geared for pin point attacks. hence, those bombs did indeed kill many Jews.
What I found heartbreaking in this coverage is the reluctance by so many in this country to halt immigration of the Jews or slow it down. and how long it took to finally realize the horror the Nazi's were accomplishing.
Years ago my parents became close friends with a German woman and her husband who had been in the German military. They had only been in the US for about six months. As time went on Sonia confessed to my mother that her husband had been beating her and she was afraid he might actually kill her so my parents had her live with them for awhile until the law intervened and it was revealed this ex- officer was actually a Nazi; he was deported and maybe charged with assult and battery but I'm not sure about that. Sonia picked herself up, found a job and eventually married––another military official but this time an American with the best of intentions.
Forest: Marie can tell you about a woman who was the first wife of her late husband who was instrumental in getting Jews out of Germany. Sounds like the woman in the book you are reading.
@P.D. Pepe: Different woman, but doing the same kind of work. There were many gentiles who found ways to save Jews and specifically Jewish children. My husband's first wife was a Belgian named Jeanne Daman, and she also saved thousands of Jewish children, mostly those of children whose parents the Nazis sent to concentration camps. Her main method was to find people who lived out in the country and who would take in the Jewish children & pretend the children were their own.
After the war, she worked on reuniting the families if the parents were still alive and finding homes for many of them in Palestine/Israel. During the war, she also moved arms for the resistance. And she got a job in some agency the Germans had set up in Belgium, where she spied on them & passed the information on to resistance fighters. She did all this when she was a very young woman: a teenager, in the beginning.
I was floored this morning to see Joe Scarboro (sp?) and the Second Gentleman at Auschwitz. I am not sure I have ever seen the videos they showed of victims, or of the site itself, or the museum they were in. I just kept thinking of the reformed Trumpie Joe is, and how he arranged a new persona for himself, since he and Mika welcomed the Orange Traitor onto their show by phone, just about every morning when he was running. MSNBC has quite a few of those--Lincoln Project and others not affiliated with LP. Do you suppose with enough time and enough failures of the GQP, others will become educated and see the light? It doesn't bode well for the House of Representatives of the USA though, since all the traitors and grifters and thieves have been welcomed with open arms. If Joe can say the things he says now and mean them, maybe there is a smidgen of hope.
I was "hopeful" this morning when there was a press conference by Lovely Merrick, but it proved futile. They apparently have time and resources to chase down nasty Eastern European bad guys, but none to actually indict the ones operating right here in Washington DC and Floriduh in daylight for years. Hope died yet again.
Malcolm Nance gives what he believes is the difference between pence and Biden classified documents and t**** documents:
https://youtu.be/bkkgcz4sZlk
The VPs had papers that were classified for various reasons, probably like Hillary's newspaper article. t**** had things that were checked out of SCIF locations, so security people know who checked them out and new they had not been returned. It's like comparing apples to hand grenades, to call back to an article above.
"'The rapid advancements in AI technology have made it clear that the time to act is now to ensure that AI is used in ways that are safe, ethical and beneficial for society,' ChatGPT wrote in an op-ed Lieu published in The New York Times this week. 'Failure to do so could lead to a future where the risks of AI far outweigh its benefits.'”"
I've seen a number of articles recently that we shows we are way behind on reckoning with how AI could be used in our near future.
CNET's AI Journalist Appears to Have Committed Extensive Plagiarism
CNET's AI-written articles aren't just riddled with errors. They also appear to be substantially plagiarized.
ChatGPT is enabling script kiddies to write functional malware
AI and Political Lobbying
From Hakai magazine (a British Columbia environmentally-oriented mag my wife receives online)
Not quite Shakespeare but...
Hakai Magazine, a true treasure,
Bringing stories beyond measure.
From the depths of the sea to the tops of the trees,
Hakai Magazine sets our minds at ease.
With stunning photos and expert prose,
Hakai Magazine leaves us in repose.
From ancient history to current affairs,
Hakai Magazine takes us on a journey rare.
A treasure trove of information,
Hakai Magazine, a true sensation.
We thank you for the knowledge you share,
Hakai Magazine, you truly are a rare.
That cute little poem wasn’t written by me,
Instead I hit enter on ChatGPT.
Some geniuses from OpenAI have created a bot,
That outperforms other language models by quite a lot.
Because writing takes time and time isn’t free,
Society reels toward the singularity.
With limitless knowledge and talents abundant,
Could it make our jobs redundant?
After some playing, I came to see,
At least not yet, the bot won’t replace me.
It writes poems faster, I’ll give it due credit,
But still, its rambling will always need an edit.
As for journalism, the bot condenses old information,
But finding new facts is in our vocation.
In conclusion, the tech is fun and pretty coolish,
But relying on it completely would just be foolish.
Marina Wang
Associate editor (of Hakai)
There are various silly items in the poem written by whatever robot is employed for that reason...Maybe it can work at Hallmark?
I have come to realize that my formal training in grammar is long out-dated and although I know what things should sound like, I don't know what a future perfect continuous verb might be. However, I do know that "rare" is not a noun. So, the bot probably needs a bit more training to be used for jingles etc. And now, I must go be "in repose."
@Ken Winkes: Whoever programmed that AI is no poet. Poetry does not have to rhyme, but it must follow some meter, IMO. Otherwise, it's prose, faked to look like poetry by breaking prose sentences into short lines.
Yeah, when I read it, I had a mild urge to exercise my old Dr. Seuss muscle, its clunkiness so invited correction. Old habits die hard.
That it could be produced by a device, though, did give me pause.