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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Jan282023

January 29, 2023

Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: "Prosecutors say [Russian] oligarch [Oleg Deripaska] recruited one of the bureau's top spy catchers, just as he entered retirement, to carry out work that they say violated U.S. sanctions. The charges unsealed this week against Charles McGonigal -- who ran the counterintelligence unit at the bureau's New York field office and investigated Russian oligarchs, including Mr. Deripaska, according to the indictment -- showed the extent of the oligarch's reach into the highest levels of U.S. power." O'Brien attempts to establish how Deripaska turned McGonigal. Well, with money, of course.

Merrick Garland and FBI agents discuss developments in the classified documents scandal: ~~~

In other news: ~~~

Presidential Race 2024. Michael Bender & Mei-Ling McNamara of the New York Times: "More than two months after formally opening his White House comeback bid..., [Donald Trump] held his first two public events on Saturday. Both were the type of textbook campaign stops he mostly skipped in his first two runs for office. In New Hampshire, Mr. Trump spoke in a high school auditorium in Salem, where he addressed an annual state party meeting. In South Carolina, where he has previously attracted thousands to rallies, Mr. Trump introduced his state leadership team at the State Capitol.... Mr. Trump's attempt to drape himself with the trappings of a traditional campaign is an unspoken acknowledgment that he begins the race in one of the most politically vulnerable positions of his public life." MB: Of course his speeches were replete with his usual lies and grievances. CNN's report is here. ~~~

~~~ More Crazy After All These Years. Ken Bessinger & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "In September..., Donald J. Trump ... deliver[ed] what amounted to an unmistakable endorsement of the [QAnon] movement, which falsely and violently claims that leading Democrats are baby-eating devil worshipers. Even as the parent company of Facebook and Instagram announced this past week that Mr. Trump would be reinstated -- a move that followed the lifting of his ban from Twitter, though he has not yet returned -- there is no sign that he has curtailed his behavior or stopped spreading the kinds of messages that got him exiled in the first place. In fact, two years after he was banished from most mainstream social media sites for his role in inciting the Capitol riot, his online presence has grown only more extreme.... Since introducing his social media website in February 2022, Mr. Trump has shared hundreds of posts from accounts promoting QAnon ideas. He has continued to falsely insist that the 2020 election was stolen and that he is a victim of corrupt federal law enforcement agencies. And he has made personal attacks against his many perceived enemies, including private citizens whose names he has elevated."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Rebecca Robbins of the New York Times: "Through its savvy but legal exploitation of the U.S. patent system, [the anti-inflammatory drug] Humira's manufacturer, AbbVie, blocked competitors from ... selling knockoffs. For the next six years, the drug's price kept rising. Today, Humira is the most lucrative franchise in pharmaceutical history. Next week, the curtain is expected to come down on a monopoly that has generated $114 billion in revenue for AbbVie just since the end of 2016. The knockoff drug that regulators authorized more than six years ago, Amgen's Amjevita, will come to market in the United States, and as many as nine more Humira competitors will follow this year from pharmaceutical giants including Pfizer. Prices are likely to tumble. The reason that it has taken so long to get to this point is a case study in how drug companies artificially prop up prices on their best-selling drugs.... The [AbbVie] strategy has been a gold mine for AbbVie, at the expense of patients and taxpayers."

Beyond the Beltway

Tennessee. Rick Rojas of the New York Times: "The Memphis Police Department said on Saturday that it had disbanded a specialized group known as the Scorpion unit after five of its officers were charged with second-degree murder in the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who was shown on video being kicked, struck and pepper-sprayed by those officers. Mr. Nichols's family and activists in the city had demanded that the Police Department dismantle the unit, which deployed officers to patrol higher-crime areas of the city and had drawn scorn in the communities it served even before Mr. Nichols's death this month."

Way Beyond

Czech Republic. Robert Tait of the Guardian: "Petr Pavel, a retired general and former senior Nato commander, has swept to the Czech presidency after a landslide victory over the former prime minister Andrej Babiš in an election overshadowed by rows over the war between Russia and Ukraine. With nearly all the votes counted, returns showed Pavel prevailing by the emphatic margin of 58.3% to 41.68%, the largest ever recorded in a Czech presidential poll and reflecting an advantage of more than 958,000 votes nationwide. Pavel's supporters immediately hailed the result as a victory for liberal democracy over oligarchic populism, which they believe Babiš represents."

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed his plea for Western nations to supply Ukraine with more potent weapons, including the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, to help Kyiv defend against Russian attacks from places far from the front line.... Kyiv has long argued that it needs the U.S.-made weapons to strike Russian targets in places such as Crimea.... Intense fighting continues on the front lines in eastern Ukraine, where Western and Ukrainian officials and military analysts have warned that Moscow is probably gearing up for a major offensive in the spring.... Germany and Poland are set to begin tank training programs for Ukrainian forces in days, as they rush deliveries for spring.... Ukraine's energy system remains under heavy strain." ~~~

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

See today's Comments for context:

Comments Off

Reader Comments (11)

More properly last Friday's rant, delivered local time, but since today we're all together in prayer I'll call it a Sunday Sermon:

"We’ve seen this movie before.

In the first week of the 188th Congress, Republicans reintroduced the latest version of their old favorite, "The Fair Tax Act," to eliminate the IRS, all federal income and estate taxes and to replace them with a nationwide thirty percent sales tax (www.congress.gov). Not only is there serious doubt that such a tax would adequately fund the government, but it would also shift the nation’s’ tax burden further away from the wealthy (taxpolicycenter.org). Like sales taxes everywhere, by taking a bigger portion of their income from those who have less, and a smaller portion from those who have more, it would also escalate the economic inequality that is already corroding the foundations of our democracy.

Then there’s the Republican threat to default on the nation’s debt, which oddly enough occurs only when a Democrat is in the White House. As usual, they propose to hold Social Security and Medicare hostage in their “negotiations” (jec.senate.gov).

While how much national debt is too much is debatable, there’s little doubt Social Security and Medicare are not the culprits. Republicans know Social Security is self-financed and could be rendered hale and hearty for many future decades by collecting FICA taxes on incomes beyond the current $160,200 cap.

Republicans also know Medicare is the best healthcare deal around, in part due to its low administrative costs, which run at least ten percent lower than those of private insurance (politifact.com).

In the names of fairness and fiscal sanity, Republicans’ tax plans and their assault on Social Security and Medicare are not really about economics. They never have been.

They are about destroying successful non-profit government services, regardless of how many millions they hurt in the process.

I recently learned “coulrophobia,” means fear of clowns.

Seems I learned it just in time."

January 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Strange Doings...Somebody's at war with somebody:

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/blast-heard-military-plant-irans-central-city-isfahan-state-media-2023-01-28/

Israel?

Ukraine?

or Iran with itself?

January 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Here's a story that is uplifting : Women in South Korea are on strike against being "Baby Making Machines." They are not out on the streets protesting, they are LIVING it. Fed up with their country's treatment of family productivity and lack of services they are going it alone–-no sex, no babies, no maybes; the U.S. might want to copy their playbook.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/27/opinion/south-korea-fertility-rate-feminism.html

Ken: I fail to understand these clowns. Destroying important programs like Medicare and Social Security would be like taking away your right to own a home unless you were white, bright and Christian. Soon they might ban anything they felt was counter to their way of life. Shooting ones self in the foot has never been a good idea but evidently these clowns are going to do it.

January 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

I watched the Mark Twain awards on a rerun broadcast on our local PBS station. It originally aired this past June, and the recipient of the award was Jon Stewart.

First, I found out that the funniest person alive is Steve Carell. All of the performers had funny stories to tell, but Steve, whose stories weren't even quite as funny as some of the others, delivered his stories in a manner so hilarious I'm still laughing.

But my point here is not Carell. When Jon got up to accept his award, he deflated the so-called culture wars without specifically naming the phenomenon. It is not cultural signals in literature, paintings, even journalism and education that threaten our autonomy and freedom. It's authoritarianism.

Update: Just found the Carrell clip. See it above.

January 29, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

From a friend:


"Did you catch Jim Jordan's tweet about the liberals coming for our guns, gas cars and gas stoves?

Then there was this tweeted response, aimed toward Jordan and his fellow Rethuglicans:

'Hmm.
You came after Reproductive Rights.
Gay Marriage.
Black History.
Non-Christian Religious Freedom.
Voting Rights.
Public Education.
Net Neutrality.

Clean Air and Water.
Seriously, what the Hell are you gonna attack next while distracting people w “gas stoves?”
— Mat Pruneda (@Mat4Texas) January 28, 2023'"

January 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Oh, thank you Marie for the clip–--bringing back that night of pure pleasure and so much laughter. I watched it when it was first aired and shed a few tears; to me Jon was the best–-is the best–--and I cherish all the years I watched him do his magic. And didn't you enjoy watching his lovely wife laugh? Happy to know he has such a loving family.

January 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

Ken,

My favorite answer to Gym Jordan’s fabricated outrages came from a guy who knows all about horror like the current moron laden controlling junta in the House, Stephen King.

Gym: They came for our guns!! Our gas stoves!! Our gas cars!! What’s next??!?

SK: You.

January 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Too many darkies…

Gym Jordan, supporter of treason and sexual assault of minors, a crooked scumbag now in “charge” (*cough-cough*) of the House judiciary committee, in referring to the latest cop murder in Memphis sez it’s not about bad cops, it’s about the wrong people being hired as cops (ie, black guys).

It never matters. These pigs always find a way to make it all about race in support of white supremacy. Of course he also finds a way to blame the non-existent “defund the police” idea, but what he really means is “too many darkies”.

https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/3835092-jordan-says-there-are-not-enough-good-people-applying-to-be-police-officers/

January 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

And here’s the other thing about the latest cop murder. If anyone dares to protest this killing, the right will make it all about how horrible the left is to protest police activity, thereby absolving the cops of any wrongdoing. You just know this is going to happen. Fox will make it all about the evil protesters, not about the act that triggered them.

January 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: I have noticed quite a few teevee pundits being all thrilled about the fact that the police and prosecutor acted very quickly to fire five of the cops (allegedly!) responsible for Tyre Nichols' brutal murder and to bring 2nd-degree murder charges against them. (There may be charges coming against more cops and others who reported looked on and did nothing as the cops beat Nichols to death.)

But what the pundits don't seem to acknowledge is the fact that the perps here are Black. Do we think that if the (alleged !) murderers were white, there would have been such quick action on the part of all the officials? I'm mighty skeptical.

Although the Feds have brought charges against four officers involved in the murder of Breonna Taylor in 2020, as far as I can tell, the state has not charged any of the three officers who discharged their weapons for killing her. The state did bring charges against one of the officers for shooting up the neighbor's apartment. I'm just going to guess (and I may be wrong) that all those cops who got off were white.

January 29, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Marie,

Yes. White. But forget about Breonna Taylor. The real victims here are the white cops who walked, not the innocent black woman they killed.

And guess who Republicans laud as heroes of that deadly raid?

The white cops.

Last week, the Republican Women’s Club of South Central Kentucky held a fund raising dinner. The guest of honor? Jonathan Mattingly, the cop who shot Taylor. Mattingly recently had a book published by some far right hack group which goes into great detail about his grievances and explains how everyone is out to get him just for killing some no ‘count black woman. The idea!

But to Republicans, he’s a hero. It doesn’t matter what they do, who they kill, or what elections they steal. They’re the victims.

https://spectrumnews1.com/ky/louisville/news/2023/01/18/controversial-dinner-did-take-place-

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/breonna-taylor/2022/03/16/jonathan-mattingly-uses-breonna-taylor-book-to-air-grievances/7051455001/

January 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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