The Ledes

Thursday, September 26, 2024

The New York Times:' live updates of Hurricane Helene developments today are here. “Hurricane Helene was barreling through the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday en route to Florida, where residents were bracing for extreme rain, destructive winds and deadly storm surge ahead of the storm’s expected landfall. The storm could intensify to a Category 4, if not higher, before making landfall late Thursday, and forecasters warned Helene’s anticipated large size could make its impacts felt across an extensive area. Areas as distant as Atlanta and the Appalachians are at risk for heavy rains.... Many forecast models show the storm making landfall late Thursday near Florida’s Big Bend Coast, a sparsely populated stretch....” ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post has forecasts for some cites in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina & Tennessee that are in or near the probable path of Helene. ~~~

     ~~~ This morning, an MSNBC weatherperson said Tallahassee (which is inland) would experience wind gusts of up to 120 m.p.h. and that the National Weather Service said expected 20-foot storm surges near the coast would be “unsurvivable.”

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The Ledes

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

The New York Times is live-updating developments in the progress of Hurricane Helene. “Helene continued to power north in the Caribbean Sea, strengthening into a hurricane Wednesday morning, on a path that forecasters expect will bring heavy amounts of rain to Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and western Cuba before it begins to move toward Florida’s Gulf Coast.” ~~~

~~~ CNN: “Helene rapidly intensified into a hurricane Wednesday as it plows toward a Florida landfall as the strongest hurricane to hit the United States in over a year. The storm will also grow into a massive, sprawling monster as it continues to intensify, one that won’t just slam Florida, but also much of the Southeast.... Thousands of Florida residents have already been forced to evacuate and nearly the entire state is under alerts as the storm threatens to unleash flooding rainfall, damaging winds and life-threatening storm surge.... The hurricane unleashed its fury on parts of Mexico’s Yucátan Peninsula and Cuba Wednesday.“

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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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July 22, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "In a text message [sent before January 6, 2021,] that has been scrutinized by federal prosecutors, [Trump Chief-of-Staff Mark] Meadows wrote to a White House lawyer that his son, Atlanta-area attorney Blake Meadows, had been probing possible fraud and had found only a handful of possible votes cast in dead voters' names, far short of what Trump was alleging. The lawyer teasingly responded that perhaps Meadows's son could locate the thousands of votes Trump would need to win the election. [Marie: according to MSNBC, Meadows texted back, "LOL."]... [At the time, numerous] Trump aides and other Republican officials expressed deep skepticism or even openly mocked the election claims being made publicly by Trump.... Days after Meadows sent the text, he organized the [Jan. 3 call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad] Raffensperger..., in which Trump pressed to 'find' the votes in the state necessary to overturn Biden's win.... A person close to Meadows said he knows his relationship with Trump is permanently ruptured and has told others he does not seek to antagonize Trump and his supporters but concluded he had to cooperate with Smith's office as required by law." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That is, Meadows thought it was ludicrous to pretend there were some 12,000 missing Trump votes in Georgia. Yet days later he arranged a call in which Trump told the Georgia secretary of state to find him 11,780 votes. And on that same call, Meadows claimed -- in response to the secretary's assertion that they had found only two dead voters, "That may be what your investigation shows, but I can promise you there are more than that."

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "A man is running to run the government he tried to overthrow while he was running it, even as he is running to stay ahead of the law.... On an Iowa radio show on Tuesday, Trump warned it would be 'very dangerous' if [Jack] Smith jailed him, since his supporters have 'much more passion than they had in 2020.'... Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis, Trump's closest Republican challenger, defended Trump on Russell Brand's podcast Friday, dismissing the idea that there was an overt effort to upend the 2020 election. 'The idea that this was a plan to somehow overthrow the government of the United States is not true,' DeSantis said, 'and it's something that the media had spun up just to try to basically get as much mileage out of it and use it for partisan and political aims.' DeSantis seems almost as delusional as Trump...."

I Can't Believe I Read It on Fox "News": "In an article for the Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies, academics from Oregon State University wrote about their shock at receiving sarcasm and mockery in response to their research into undergraduate LGBTQ students studying in STEM fields. The team claimed 50 of 349 responses to their questionnaire on the topic contained 'slurs, hate speech, or direct targeting of the research team.' Labeling them 'malicious respondents,' they adapted their project to examine how the joke responses 'relate to engineering culture by framing them within larger social contexts -- namely, the rise of online fascism.'... Several answers contained profanity and other offensive and obscene language and many referenced memes. 'Online memes associated with white nationalist and fascist movements were present throughout the data, alongside memes and content referencing gaming and "nerd" culture,' the researchers further claimed." MB: The one tell that this is a Fox story is that the writer repeatedly reports that researchers "claimed" this and that; an MSM report would likely says researchers "found" those results.

~~~~~~~~~~

Christina Wilkie of CNBC: "Morgan Stanley is crediting President Joe Biden's economic policies with driving an unexpected surge in the U.S. economy that is so significant that the bank was forced to make a 'sizable upward revision' to its estimates for U.S. gross domestic product. Biden's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is 'driving a boom in large-scale infrastructure,' wrote Ellen Zentner, chief U.S. economist for Morgan Stanley, in a research note released Thursday. In addition to infrastructure, 'manufacturing construction has shown broad strength,' she wrote."

Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "President Biden has asked CIA Director William J. Burns to become a member of his Cabinet, reflecting the central role the veteran diplomat has taken carrying out the administration's foreign policy and his key role as a messenger to Russia. The move, which is largely symbolic, will not give Burns any new authorities. But it underscores the influence Burns has in the administration and will be read as a victory for the CIA, which was among the agencies in the U.S. intelligence community that accurately forecast the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.... Burns, who repeatedly stresses that he is not engaged in diplomacy, has nevertheless emerged as a sort of 'secretary of hard problems,' U.S. officials have said. Since well before Russia invaded Ukraine, Burns has been the White House's key interlocutor to Moscow, having had the most direct interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin of anyone in the administration.... Burns, who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, has been one of the sharpest public critics of Putin...." (Also linked yesterday.)

John Ismay of the New York Times: "The White House announced on Friday that President Biden intends to nominate Adm. Lisa Franchetti to become the Navy's highest-ranking officer following the retirement of Adm. Michael M. Gilday this summer.... Currently the Navy's vice chief, Admiral Franchetti will serve in an acting role as the Navy's top officer, awaiting confirmation by the Senate -- a process that Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, has blocked for hundreds of admirals and generals in an attempt to force the Pentagon to drop a policy offering time off and travel reimbursement to service members who need to go out of state for abortions.... Admiral Franchetti would be the second woman to lead a branch of the armed forces. Adm. Linda L. Fagan became the first to do so when she took the oath of office as commandant of the Coast Guard on June 1, 2022. The White House and Pentagon both noted that Admiral Franchetti would be the first female officer to serve as a permanent member of the Joint Chiefs." The AP's story is here.

Sahil Kapur & Liz Brown-Kaiser of NBC News: "The White House plans to use a little-known law to keep acting Labor Secretary Julie Su in the job even if she fails to win Senate approval, a White House official told NBC News. 'Upon Secretary [Marty] Walsh's departure, Acting Secretary Su automatically became Acting Secretary under its organic statute, not under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act,' the White House official said in an email.... 'As a result, Su is not subject to the time limits of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and she can serve as Acting Secretary indefinitely.'... A law dating back to 1946 allows the deputy labor secretary, to which Su was confirmed by the Senate in 2021, to 'perform the duties of the Secretary until a successor is appointed.'... After Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., came out against her, the White House called on him and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., who hasn't publicly taken a stance, to 'reconsider' their positions, implying that she also opposes the Su nomination." ~~~

~~~ Burgess Everett of Politico writes about the many ways in which Manchin & Sinema are "bedeviling" the White House & other Democrats.

Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "Hunter Biden's attorney on Friday requested that a congressional ethics panel take action against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), citing her use of sexually explicit images of the president's son that she displayed during a congressional hearing earlier this week. 'Your colleague has lowered herself, and by extension the entire House of Representatives, to a new level of abhorrent behavior that blatantly violates House Ethics rules and standards of official conduct,' Abbe Lowell wrote in a four-page letter sent to the Office of Congressional Ethics." (Also linked yesterday.)

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The federal judge overseeing ... Donald J. Trump's prosecution on charges of illegally retaining dozens of classified documents set a trial date on Friday for May 2024, taking a middle position between the government's request to go to trial in December and Mr. Trump's desire to push the proceeding until after the 2024 election. In her order, Judge Aileen M. Cannon said the trial was to be held in her home courthouse in Fort Pierce, Fla., a coastal city two-and-a-half hours north of Miami that will draw its jury pool from several counties that Mr. Trump won handily in his two previous presidential campaigns. Judge Cannon also laid out a calendar of hearings, throughout the remainder of this year and into next year.... The date Judge Cannon chose to start the trial -- May 20, 2024 -- falls after the bulk of the primary contests. But it is less than two months before the start of the Republican National Convention in July and the formal start of the general election season." (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Special counsel Jack Smith recently asked Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for information about efforts by ... President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the election results in Georgia in 2020, the governor's spokesman confirmed Friday afternoon.... Trump also pressured Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to help him overturn the results in Georgia after the 2020 election, calling both men, publicly attacking them when they declined to join his effort and sending advisers and emissaries to the state. Kemp has also been questioned by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) as part of her investigation of efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results...."

Vaughn Hillyard, et al., of NBC News: "Prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smith's office questioned former White House aide William Russell about ... Donald Trump's state of mind during and after the 2020 election period, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News. Russell -- who was with Trump for some of the day on Jan. 6, 2021 -- testified for hours Thursday before the federal grand jury deciding whether to indict the former president over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.... A source familiar with [Russell's] work at the White House told NBC News that he would often informally engage in conversations with Trump and key staff, including Mark Meadows who served as chief of staff, in the West Wing and Oval Office."

Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "... a long-running investigation into election interference by prosecutors in Atlanta has cast a ... broad net, with nearly 20 people already warned that they could face charges.... A special grand jury that heard evidence for roughly seven months recommended more than a dozen people for indictments, and its forewoman strongly hinted in an interview in February that [Donald] Trump was among them. The Trump aides and allies whose conduct has been closely scrutinized in the inquiry include Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump's former personal lawyer; Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff; John Eastman, a legal architect of Mr. Trump's efforts to stay in power; and Jeffrey Clark, a former high-ranking official at the Department of Justice who sought to intervene in Georgia after the 2020 election.... The Trump team filed an amended petition [Friday] seeking to have [Fulton County D.A. Fani] Willis disqualified and the work of the special grand jury thrown out. Ural Glanville, the chief judge of the Fulton County Superior Court, issued an order recusing all of the judges in Fulton County from deciding the question and referred it to another court. Earlier this week, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously rejected a similar request by Mr. Trump's lawyers." ~~~

~~~ ** Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "The Fulton county district attorney investigating Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia has developed evidence to charge a sprawling racketeering indictment next month, according to two people briefed on the matter.... In the Trump investigation, the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, has evidence to pursue a racketeering indictment predicated on statutes related to influencing witnesses and computer trespass, the people said." MB: We don't know what's happening the grand jury Willis has convened, and we don't know that the grand jury will direct Willis to bring any charges. But treating Trump as a dirty mob boss seems entirely appropriate to me. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen, the longtime fixer to Donald J. Trump, who was set to go to trial next week against his former boss's company in a dispute over legal fees, has agreed to settle his lawsuit with the Trump Organization, lawyers for both parties said at a brief court hearing on Friday. Mr. Cohen's lawsuit, filed in 2019, accused the Trump Organization of failing to abide by the terms of a deal and refusing to pay more than $1 million in legal costs. Jury selection for the trial began earlier this week, and opening arguments were scheduled for Monday." (Also linked yesterday.) An AP story is here.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta "on Friday sentenced a Jan. 6 'operations coordinator' for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes to two years' probation and 60 hours of community service, rejecting federal prosecutors' requests for prison time. Michael Greene, 40, of Indianapolis, was a paid contractor known as 'Whip' who helped the extremist group run security details for Republican VIPs at events leading up to and including the pro-Donald Trump rally before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Greene, who did not enter the Capitol, was convicted at trial in May on one count of trespassing on restricted grounds. Greene's defense argued he was not a core follower, and a jury acquitted him of three felony counts, including conspiring with Rhodes and others and tampering with evidence. A judge declared a mistrial on a fifth count after a jury hung on a charge of conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Over a forceful dissent from its three liberal members, the Supreme Court early Friday morning refused to halt the execution of a death row inmate in Alabama who said that the state's history of botched executions made it likely that he would suffer intense pain as he was put to death. The inmate, James Barber, was executed about two hours after the court's 1 a.m. order. Early news reports did not note major flaws in the procedure. Mr. Barber was convicted in 2003 of beating Dorothy Epps, 75, to death with his fists and a claw hammer. The Supreme Court's brief order gave no reasons for denying the stay.... In an 11-page dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said the majority had empowered 'Alabama to experiment again with a human life.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "After pressure from the White House..., seven leading A.I. companies in the United States have agreed to voluntary safeguards on the technology's development, the White House announced on Friday, pledging to strive for safety, security and trust even as they compete over the potential of artificial intelligence. The seven companies -- Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI -- will formally announce their commitment to the new standards at a meeting with President Biden at the White House on Friday afternoon. The announcement comes as the companies are racing to outdo each other with versions of A.I. that offer powerful new tools to create text, photos, music and video without human input. But the technological leaps have prompted fears that the tools will facilitate the spread of disinformation and dire warnings of a 'risk of extinction' as self-aware computers evolve." (Also linked yesterday.) The story has been updated. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: President* Trump could not get such an agreement because he thought "A.I." stood for "Article I" of the Constitution, which covers the powers of Congress, powers that under Trump's thumb are themselves already under a "risk of extinction." (See today's "My Kevin" news, for instance.)

Presidential Race 2024

I didn't know practically what a subpoena was and grand juries and all of this -- now I'm like becoming an expert. -- Donald Trump, in a speech Tuesday to the Linn County Republican Party in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

From the 1980s until he was elected president in 2016, Donald Trump and his businesses were involved in over 4,000 legal cases in U.S. federal and state courts. -- Wikipedia

I'm not sure how many -- if any -- grand juries investigated Trump before he became president*, but he and his companies surely received thousands of subpoenas and many a lawyer probably explained to Trump what a subpoena was. -- Marie~~~

~~~ Isaac Arnsdorf & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Any distinction between [Donald Trump]'s White House bid and his criminal defense is vanishing as the charges against him mount. Fighting those prosecutions is increasingly dominating his time, resources and messaging, making the centerpiece of his candidacy an appeal to stay out of prison. As he forges ahead, much of the Republican base appears to be cheering him at each turn. What is likely to come is a campaign like the country has never seen before: A candidate juggling multiple criminal indictments while slashing the Department of Justice and his opponents, shuttling between early primary states for rallies and courtrooms for hearings, and spending his supporters' money on both millions of dollars' worth of campaign ads and burgeoning legal bills.... Just over half of the money he raised last quarter went not to the campaign itself but to an affiliated PAC that is footing the legal bills."

Marie: As reasonable as it is to blame White dummkopf, nationalist, evangelical, cultist voters for Donald Trump's likely victory in the nominating process, I place the responsibility on Republican "leaders" who have led the march behind him. How different the nominating process would be if Senate Republicans had convicted Trump in his second impeachment and rendered him ineligible for public office. How different the process would be if, failing that, Republican elected officials had uniformly, or almost uniformly, turned their backs on him and condemned him as unfit for office. It was not the voters, but the leaders who rid us of this corrupt president. "Days before he resigned, [and after the Watergate tapes were published] a Gallup poll found that only 31 percent of Republican [voter]s thought Nixon should no longer be president."

Those who ended Nixon's presidency were Congressional Republicans, who sent a delegation led by Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Az.) to the White House to tell Nixon he should resign or face impeachment and conviction. This was the same Barry Goldwater who had said in his 1964 acceptance of the Republican nomination for president that "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice." That is, in 1974, Nixon resigned because even the most extreme elements of the party's leadership were among those who forced him out. Today, almost all Republican "leaders," including most of those running against Trump in the primary, either applaud him or refuse to condemn him.

Sarah Mervosh of the New York Times:"After an overhaul to Florida's African American history standards, Gov. Ron DeSantis ... is facing a barrage of criticism this week from politicians, educators and historians.... Vice President Kamala Harris directed her staffers to immediately plan a trip to Florida to respond, according to one White House official. 'How is it that anyone could suggest that in the midst of these atrocities that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?' Ms. Harris ... said in a speech in Jacksonville on Friday afternoon." MB: Contributor & Floridian Bobby Lee said in yesterday's Comments thread that he would check to see if DeSantis and the GOP had changed the historical markers at St. Augustine's Old Slave Market to read "Immigrant Welcome Center." ~~~

~~~ Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "Vice President Harris, taking aim at Gov. Ron DeSantis's 'war on woke' on Friday in his home state, blasted Florida politicians for making changes to the public school curriculum that she said amounted to little more than a 'purposeful and intentional policy to mislead our children,' especially when it comes to slavery. Harris never mentioned DeSantis (R) by name, referring only to 'extremists' and people who 'want to be talked about as American leaders.' But her fiery speech in Jacksonville focused squarely on [DeSantis'] policies..., as well as on the state's Board of Education and its Republican-controlled legislature.... 'Come on -- adults know what slavery really involved,' Harris said. 'It involved rape. It involved torture. It involved taking a baby from their mother. It involved some of the worst examples of depriving people of humanity in our world.' She added, 'How is it that anyone could suggest that in the midst of these atrocities, that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?'" An ABC News story is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Jim Crow Forever. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Alabama Republicans pushed through a new congressional map on Friday that will test the bounds of a judicial mandate to create a second majority-Black district in the state or something 'close to it,' incensing plaintiffs in the court case and Democrats who predicted the plan would never pass muster with a judicial panel charged with approving it. A month after a surprise Supreme Court ruling that found the state's existing map violated a landmark civil rights law by diluting the power of Black voters, the Republican supermajority in the Alabama Legislature backed a plan that would increase the share of Black voters in one of the state's six majority-white congressional districts to about 40 percent, from about 30 percent. The map also dropped the percentage of Black voters in the existing majority-Black district to about 51 percent from about 55 percent. In Alabama, more than one in four residents are Black. Notably, the redrawing ensures that none of the state's six white Republican incumbents would have to face one another in a primary to keep their seat. The proposal will have to be approved by a federal court, which will hold a hearing on it next month." The NBC News story is here.

Nebraska. Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "A Nebraska teenager who used abortion pills to terminate her pregnancy was sentenced on Thursday to 90 days in jail after she pleaded guilty earlier this year to illegally concealing human remains. The teenager, Celeste Burgess, 19, and her mother, Jessica Burgess, 42, were charged last year after the police obtained their private Facebook messages, which showed them discussing plans to end the pregnancy and 'burn the evidence.' Prosecutors said the mother had ordered abortion pills online and had given them to her daughter in April 2022, when Celeste Burgess was 17 and in the beginning of the third trimester of her pregnancy. The two then buried the fetal remains themselves, the police said. Jessica Burgess pleaded guilty in July to violating Nebraska's abortion law, furnishing false information to a law enforcement officer and removing or concealing human skeletal remains. She faces up to five years in prison at her sentencing on Sept. 22.... The police investigation into the Burgesses began before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022."

Texas. Priscilla Alvarez & Shimon Prokupecz of CNN: "The Justice Department told Texas [Gov. Greg Abbott] Thursday that it intends to file legal action against the placement of floating barriers in the Rio Grande as part of the state's operation along the Texas-Mexico border.... 'The State of Texas's actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government's ability to carry out its official duties,' the letter stated, citing a clause in the law that 'prohibits the creation of any obstruction to the navigable capacity of waters of the United States, and further prohibits building any structure in such waters without authorization from the United States Army Corps of Engineers....' This is separate from the ongoing assessment of mistreatment of migrants, which the Justice Department described as 'troubling reports.'... The letter ... detail[s] 'sharp razor wire' in the Rio Grande, which is 'creating death traps for migrants and violating U.S. treaty commitments with Mexico.'"

Texas. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs & Remy Tumin of the New York Times: "Texas A&M University said on Friday that its president was resigning 'immediately' following a conflict over the school's shifting offers to a candidate who appeared set to lead its journalism school but ultimately declined the position after facing pushback over her work promoting diversity. The president, M. Katherine Banks, submitted a letter of retirement late on Thursday, in which she said that the negative attention over the journalism director, Kathleen McElroy, was a distraction for Texas A&M...." The Texas Tribune's story is here.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan it was an 'absolute priority' to restore the Black Sea corridor, where ships carry Ukrainian grain to the world, according to the Ukrainian leader's office.... Brokered by Turkey and the United Nations last year, the agreement allowed the safe passage of ships carrying grain from Ukraine, a major exporter.... UNESCO condemned Russian attacks on the 'historic center of Odessa,' which is protected under the World Heritage Convention.... Radar imagery appears to show newly arrived vehicles and equipment in Belarus, at a rumored base for fighters from the Wagner Group.... The United States is planning to announce a new $400 million military assistance package for Ukraine, Reuters reported, citing three unidentified American officials.... Zelensky has dismissed Ukraine's ambassador to Britain, according to the BBC. Kyiv did not announce a reason for the removal of Vadym Prystaiko, who criticized the president's response after British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace suggested Ukraine should show gratitude for security assistance." ~~~

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

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Reader Comments (7)

Lucky Ducky Darkies

C’mon, what’s the problem now, whiny baby libs? Our great and good guv, Ronito DeSantolini (he made the swamp boats run on time), is gonna teach Black History, for real. All about how them whiny baby slaves got a free edumacation from the kindly white folks.

I mean, talk about affirmative action! Those people leaned all kinds of great stuff and got in ahead of everyone. I mean there wasn’t a single white person in class with them! Reverse discrimination! White people need reparations for that shit!

Fox “news” stalwart in racial equity and harmony, Jesse Watters, explains all the things them lucky ducky slaves learned while attending Chain U:

“The course examines the various duties and trades performed by slaves like agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation. ‘Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.’”*

Not only that, but they got intensive training in other stuff that no white “students” were ever lucky enough to learn.

Psychology: how to handle personal setbacks, such as waking up to find that your wife and kids had been sold to another kindly slave owner and learning that you’ll never see them again. Toughens you right up!

Multicultural Training: kindly whites taught them nigras all about Jesus and watermelons and even lessons in English. Much better than the culture they had back in those shithole countries in Africa.

Phys Ed: how to work at back breaking hard labor under scorching Sun or icy conditions for 12-18 hours a day. Built them muscles, that’s for sure. As an extra, for certain “students”, there was instruction in how to do all of the above after having your ankles shattered with a sledge hammer for running away from “school”.

Sex Education: black women learned the Joy of Rape, taught by specially trained white men. And still they complain…

Special Forces Training: the US military now sends only the best special forces units to SERE schools where they learn how to exist under the harshest conditions, being chased by the enemy, surviving by eating bugs and grass, and how to handle being physically and mentally tortured. And here’s the kicker: SERE training in the military lasts for about three weeks. Them lucky ducky darkies got a lifetime education in this cool stuff. For FREE!

And still they complain.

*He actually said this. Skills slaves could use for their “personal benefit”. Wow. Just…wow.

July 22, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: Don't blame Watters for the "personal benefit" comment. He was directly citing gen-u-whine language that appears in Florida's new official curriculum lessons guide.

In fairness to the "educators" who demand that students look on the bright side of slavery, they would fit right in with whoever came up with the guidelines for our history textbooks when I went to (segregated) public school in Florida in the 1950s & '60s and learned that slavery was not among the six causes of the Civil War. As I recall, our history teacher Mr. Kloo told us this was bull, not that we didn't already know that.

There's nothing that undermines book-larnin' more than books that spout obvious lies. If DeSantolini's objective is to sabotage public education -- and I suspect it is -- the social studies curriculum his flunkies have imposed upon Florida's teachers and textbooks goes a long way toward fulfilling that objective.

July 22, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Not being a slave, I missed out on all that free education, especially
those skills like hoeing cotton, etc.
Had to take shop class in High School but wanted to take Home Ec.
and learn some cooking skills.
I fooled them though. Got a job in a restaurant kitchen and probably
learned more than any Home Ec students.

July 22, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

The one American History class I remember from the late 1950's was "American History since 1870". The pre WW1 period was rapidly passed over and emphasis was on WW2 and postwar America. The modern, read Eisenhower, era was the focus with "Americanism vs Communism a heavy portion of the class.

July 22, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

We're being bought out land wise. An article in our local newspaper,
quoting Businessinsider, lists 10 foreign countries that together own
about 29 million acres of our farm land.
They're using it to grow crops that need lots of water. The produce is
flown back home, not sold in this country.
Saudi Arabia is one of them, owning about 400,000 acres of our
countries farmland. The richest country on earth should be able to
afford desalination plants, but I guess it's much cheaper to just use
someone else's water.
When these countries dry up the aquifer out west, I can see them
coming for the Great Lakes to pipe water to their farmlands.
Can politicians be bought off? Don't answer that.

July 22, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

Forrest, don’t worry… Nestle is already working on our aquifers. In maine they were undermining a family’s well and drying it up and i believe they have rights to water that is either under or near our Joshua trees. Also i was at a conference for the Lake Stewards of Maine several years ago that showed lake Erie (in an area that as a teen ager i did long distant swimming of 2-6 miles [we planned on going further]) and lake Erie was covered in blue green algae. So if they take our water perhaps the lake will find a way to fight back.

July 22, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterDede carlsten

I’m guessing the Nestlé corporation wants water for its R&D of baby formula. Hey, just like the Baby Killer formula they pushed on poor moms in the third world countries back in the 70’s when, it was determined, they were responsible for the deaths of millions of babies.

But they were mostly black and brown babies so it doesn’t really count. Now if those black and brown mommas had been slaves here in the good ol’ USA, where slaves got everything handed to them, everything would have been jake.

July 22, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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