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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Thursday
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July 7, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Bill Barrow of the AP: "Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are marking their 77th wedding anniversary with a quiet Friday at their south Georgia home, extending their record as the longest-married first couple ever as both nonagenarians face significant health challenges. The 39th president is 98 and has been in home hospice care since February. The former first lady is 95 and has dementia. The Carter family has not offered details of either Jimmy or Rosalynn Carter's condition but has said they both have enjoyed time with each other and a stream of family members, along with occasional visits from close friends, in recent months."

Michelle Price of the AP: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed President Joe Biden's reelection campaign, sending a strong sign of Democratic unity from one of the party's most liberal members. 'I think he's done quite well, given the limitations that we have,' Ocasio-Cortez said on the 'Pod Save America' podcast Thursday. 'I do think that there are ebbs and flows.' Ocasio-Cortez, a self-described democratic socialist from New York, has sometimes bucked Biden and the party's leaders, including voting against the deal the president negotiated with Republicans in May to raise the nation's debt ceiling and casting the lone Democratic vote against a spending bill to keep the government operating and avoid a partial government shutdown."

Sarah Ferris & Olivia Beavers of Politico: "Kevin McCarthy is risking Donald Trump's wrath by not officially endorsing his third White House bid, but the speaker is also fulfilling an important mission: sparing the House GOP a civil war over 2024. While scores of McCarthy's members have already backed Trump, plenty of other Republicans are steering clear of the polarizing former president in the GOP primary. That camp includes virtually every swing-seat lawmaker, many of whom fear that embracing Trump could spell their electoral doom next fall -- as well as allies of Trump's rivals, from Ron DeSantis to Doug Burgum."

Kari Lake for Veep! Tom Sullivan in Hullabaloo: "Kari Lake's oh-so-unsubtle efforts to audition as Donald Trump's 2024 running mate may be backfiring.... The failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate and championship election-denier seems not to know to avoid upstaging The Donald. Lake has spent more time at Mar-a-Lago than Melania Trump lately, a source told People, in 'a suite there that she practically lives in.' The Daily Beast reports that Lake is falling out of Trump's favor: 'She's a shameless, ruthless demagogue who wants power and will do whatever she has to do to get it,' a Trump adviser told The Daily Beast."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times debunks the notion that Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan's lone dissent in Plessey v. Ferguson was a milestone in civil rights jurisprudence. Rather, Bouie posits that Harlan embraced the notion that Jim Crow laws were unnecessary because white people were naturally superior to Blacks. Bouie notes that later justices, like Renquist, Thomas and most infamously, Roberts, have adopted and exploited Harlan's theory of a "colorblind Constitution" just as Harlan did: to quash advancements in civil rights legislation & executive actions. Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link.

Marie: I was opining earlier today that dumb people believe whatever fits into their skewed worldview. So whaddaya think about this guy? ~~~

     ~~~ Oklahoma. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "Far-right Oklahoma State [School] Superintendent Ryan Walters suggested at a public hearing in Norman that lessons about the infamous racial massacre that destroyed the most prosperous Black community in Oklahoma don't have to mention race, reported Fox 25 News.... Someone asked him if teaching about the infamous 'Black Wall Street' massacre in the city of Tulsa would be banned under his restrictions on teaching 'Critical Race Theory.' 'Let's not tie it to the skin color and say that the skin color determined that,' Walters replied." MB: Let that sink in: whites massacred Black people & burned of their neighborood. But that had nothing to do with race.

Texas. Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Washington Post: "... an impeachment trial Sept. 5 [of state attorney general (and [alleged!] crook) Ken Paxton] ... is likely to further divide [Republicans] and spur primary challenges next year. Democrats, meantime, are sensing opportunities as they expect the battle to drive a party that's already among the most conservative in the country even further to the right ahead of the 2024 election, turning a slew of state legislative and congressional races competitive. The Texas Republican infighting mimics the party's national dispute, which has pitted traditional conservatives against Trump allies -- and has largely gone Trump's way so far. Paxton is perhaps the most powerful Trump surrogate in Texas. He's an evangelical champion of anti-immigrant, antiabortion, anti-transgender and so-called 'election integrity' legislation revered by his party for his legal battles against the Biden administration. Paxton spoke at Trump's 'Stop the Steal' rally ... ahead of the insurrection.... Paxton ... had faced criminal investigations, legal battles and accusations of wrongdoing for years."

Texas. Morgan Lee & Paul Weber of the AP: "A white gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack on Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in ... [El Paso] was sentenced Friday to 90 consecutive life sentences but could still face more punishment, including the death penalty. Patrick Crusius, 24, pleaded guilty earlier this year to nearly 50 federal hate crime charges in the 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, making it one of the U.S. government's largest hate crime cases. Crusius, wearing a jumpsuit and shackles, did not speak during the hearing and showed no reaction as the verdict was read. The judge recommended that Crusius serve his sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorado." The Washington Post's report is here.

Marie: When I linked to an AP story Thursday about how Democratic Gov. Tony Evers used his line-item veto power to increase school funding for four centuries, I neglected to include the part that explained how he did it: According to Alex Wagner of MSNBC, the governor is prohibited by law from striking strategic words to change the meaning of legislation. That is, the governor can't cross out a "not" to reverse the legislature's intent. But the law doesn't say anything about vetoing numbers. So the AP notes that "Evers took language that originally applied [a] $325 increase for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years and instead vetoed the '20' and the hyphen to make the end date 2425." Ergo, "... 2024-2025" became "...2024-2025" i.e." ... 2425". Sweet.

~~~~~~~~~~

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Biden outlined an economic agenda on Thursday that he believes has helped all voters, regardless of whether they voted for him, and name-checked Republican lawmakers who have attacked his policies but whose constituents have benefited from billions in federal funding. 'I didn't get much help from the other team, but that didn't stop us from getting it done,' Mr. Biden said, drawing applause from a crowd at the facility, in a state that revived his 2020 presidential campaign. He thanked Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who had voted for both pieces of legislation. Mr. Biden said that his policies had brought some 14,000 jobs to the state and that 'jobs that used to go to Mexico, India, Romania and China are now coming home to South Carolina.'"

Alan Rappaport of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen on Friday criticized the Chinese government's harsh treatment of companies with foreign ties and its recent decision to impose export controls on certain critical minerals, suggesting that such actions justify the Biden administration's efforts to make U.S. manufacturers less reliant on China. Ms. Yellen delivered the forceful defense of American industry on her first day of meetings in Beijing during a high-stakes trip to ease tension between the United States and China. Her comments, to a group of executives from American businesses operating in China, underscored challenges that the world's two largest economies face as they look to move beyond their deep differences. 'During meetings with my counterparts, I am communicating the concerns that I've heard from the U.S. business community -- including China's use of nonmarket tools like expanded subsidies for its state-owned enterprises and domestic firms, as well as barriers to market access for foreign firms,' Ms. Yellen told business leaders at an event held by the American Chamber of Commerce in China. 'I've been particularly troubled by punitive actions that have been taken against U.S. firms in recent months.'"

Joseph Menn of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday asked a federal judge to stay his sweeping July 4 injunction barring many government interactions with social media companies on free-speech grounds, arguing that it was vague, confusing and likely to be overturned on appeal.... The government team asked for a stay to be granted by July 10 until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit rules on the Justice Department's planned appeal of the injunction, or else that [Judge Terry] Doughty stay the order for a week to allow time for a faster emergency appeal. The six-page motion argues that parts of the order contradict each other, such as a prohibition on some officials speaking publicly about false social media posts conflicting with a provision that nothing should stop officials from exercising their own right to free speech." MB: Are we surprised that a Trump-appointed judge doesn't know what he's doing?

One Less Contestant in the Miss Freedom Caucus Pageant. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is no longer enough of a hardline right-wing lawmaker for the House Freedom Caucus. Freedom Caucus Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) tells Politico reporter Olivia Beavers that it's his 'understanding' that Greene is no longer a member of the caucus after it took a secret vote on her expulsion last month. Beavers says that Harris also 'called it "an appropriate action,"' and cited her debt deal vote, support of [Kevin] McCarthy, and criticism of other HFC [Republicans." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Politico has a full story up now, by Jordain Carney. It seems one reason for Miss Georgia's disqualification is that she lost the Shouting & Name-Calling Contest to Miss Colorado.

Adriana Licon & Eric Tucker of the AP: "Donald Trump's valet, Walt Nauta, made a brief court appearance Thursday as he entered a not guilty plea to charges that he helped the former president hide classified documents from federal authorities. He also hired a new Florida-based lawyer to represent him as the case moves forward. Nauta was charged alongside Trump in June in a 38-count indictment alleging the mishandling of classified documents. His arraignment was to have happened twice before, but he had struggled to retain a lawyer licensed in Florida and one appearance was postponed because of his travel troubles. Ahead of his arraignment, Nauta hired Sasha Dadan, a criminal defense attorney and former public defender whose main law office is in Fort Pierce, where the judge who would be handling the trial is based, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the court appearance." The Washington Post's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Kaitlan Collins, et al., of CNN: "Special counsel Jack Smith's team has signaled a continued interest in a chaotic Oval Office meeting that took place in the final days of the Trump administration, during which the former president considered some of the most desperate proposals to keep him in power over objections from his White House counsel.... Some witnesses were asked about the meeting months ago, while several others have faced questions about it more recently, including Rudy Giuliani.... Prosecutors have specifically inquired about three outside Trump advisers who participated in the meeting: former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, sources said.... During the heated Oval Office meeting on December 18, 2020, outside advisers faced off with top West Wing attorneys over a plan to have the military seize voting machines in crucial states that Trump had lost. They also discussed naming Powell as special counsel to investigate supposed voter fraud, and Trump invoking martial law as part of his efforts to overturn the election. Shouting and insults ensued; the night ended with Trump tweeting that a coming gathering in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, to protest the election results 'will be wild.'"

Perry Stein & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Individual prosecutors involved in the classified documents case against ... Donald Trump are facing substantial harassment and threats online and elsewhere, according to extremism experts and a government official familiar with the matter. At the same time, two officials said, federal agencies have not observed a general increase in threats against law enforcement in the weeks since Trump was indicted in South Florida -- a sharp contrast from the surge of violent rhetoric in the days after FBI agents searched the former president's Florida property last August.... Far-right Trump supporters are posting the names of prosecutors and government workers online and yelling [at] them at demonstrations, threatening them and sometimes revealing details about their personal lives, the experts said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When a former POTUS* writes that the lead prosecutor should be "put out to rest," what do you expect? I think the prosecutors should collect some of Trump's more incendiary messages targeting them, along with some of the public's threats inspired by such attacks, then send the collection to the judge as part of a motion to order Trump to STFU. Some of Trump's attacks are not just unbelievably bad taste; they're obviously dangerous. Nobody has a free-speech right to endanger others. ~~~

     ~~~ Yes, Trump Is Getting Worse. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "A week ago, a Jan. 6 defendant was arrested near Barack Obama's home in D.C. with what the government says was a machete, two guns and 400 rounds of ammunition.... The man showed up shortly after Donald Trump posted images of an article featuring what was claimed to be Obama's address, which the man promoted.... Trump's Truth Social post featuring the address remained live on Thursday morning.... And it's only the latest evidence of social media posts from the former president that have increasingly gone off the rails.... Even by his standards, the past week has been remarkable.... 'Does anybody really believe that the COCAINE found in the West Wing of the White House, very close to the Oval Office, is for the use of anyone other than Hunter & Joe Biden,' he posted. He followed this up with: 'Has Deranged Jack Smith, the crazy, Trump hating Special Prosecutor, been seen in the area of the COCAINE?' Trump added. 'He looks like a crackhead to me!' A day earlier, on the Fourth of July no less, Trump said Smith should be ... 'put out to rest.'... Also on the Fourth, Trump promoted an image of a flag saying 'F---BIDEN' -- uncensored -- in one of repeated recent posts featuring images of vulgar slogans."

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "A federal judge ruled Thursday that Donald Trump can be deposed in the lawsuit ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok brought against the Justice Department for his wrongful termination after the Russia investigation. In the lawsuit, Strzok alleges Trump's political vendetta against him -- whom Trump criticized in tweets -- led to his wrongful termination, and that the Justice Department wrongfully released text messages he exchanged with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page. Page is also suing. Trump has denied wrongdoing. Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed with the request to depose Trump."

Alasdair Pal of Reuters: "Australian Home Minister Clare O'Neil on Thursday called Donald Trump Jr. a 'big baby', after ... [he] cancelled a planned speaking tour. The younger Trump, who had been booked on a three-day tour of Australia that was scheduled to begin in Sydney on Sunday, cancelled the trip on Wednesday, with organisers suggesting the reason was visa issues.... But O'Neil, one of the highest-ranking ministers in the centre-left Labor government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, said Trump had been granted a visa, and poor ticket sales was the reason he called off his visit.... 'Donald Trump Jr has been given a visa to come to Australia. He didn't get cancelled. He's just a big baby, who isn't very popular.' Albanese also said the eldest son of former President Donald Trump had not been blocked from entering." (Also linked yesterday.)

"The Rich Are Crazier than You & Me.” Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a crank. His views are a mishmash of right-wing fantasies mixed with remnants of the progressive he once was.... Yet now that Ron DeSantis's campaign (slogan: 'woke woke immigrants woke woke') seems to be on the skids, Kennedy is suddenly getting support from some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley. Jack Dorsey, who founded Twitter, has endorsed him, while some other prominent tech figures have been holding fund-raisers on his behalf. Elon Musk, who is in the process of destroying what Dorsey built, hosted him for a Twitter spaces event.... What seems to attract some technology types to R.F.K. Jr. is his contrarianism.... Tech bros appear to be especially susceptible to brain-rotting contrarianism.... Add to this the fact that great wealth makes it all too easy to surround yourself with people who tell you what you want to hear, validating your belief in your own brilliance -- a sort of intellectual version of the emperor's new clothes. And to the extent that contrarian tech bros talk to anyone else, it's to one another." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is just one more argument for an extremely progressive income & wealth tax structure.

Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday gave full approval to the Alzheimer's drug Leqembi, and Medicare said it would cover much of its high cost, laying the foundation for widespread use of a medication that can modestly slow cognitive decline in the early stages of the disease but also carries significant safety risks. The F.D.A.'s decision marks the first time in two decades that a drug for Alzheimer's has received full approval, meaning that the agency concluded there is solid evidence of potential benefit. But the agency also added a so-called black-box warning -- the most urgent level -- on the drug's label, stating that in rare cases the drug can cause 'serious and life-threatening events' and that there have been cases of brain bleeding, 'some of which have been fatal.'"

Kate Selig of the Washington Post: "In the latest evidence of the pervasiveness of 'forever chemicals,' a new study from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that these contaminants now taint nearly half of the nation's tap water. The federal study, one of the most extensive of its kind looking directly at water coming out of a tap, adds to a body of research showing that PFAS -- per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances -- chemicals are not only long-lasting but widespread in drinking supplies. PFAS refers to more than 12,000 chemicals that persist in the environment and can build up in the body."

Annie Palmer & Rohan Goswami of CNBC: "Just sixteen hours after launch, Instagram's text-based social network Threads has already surpassed 30 million signups, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said early Thursday.... As of Thursday, the app is available for download from Apple's App Store, and it's free to use.... Users are required to have an Instagram account in order to use Threads." (Also linked yesterday.)

Rohan Goswami of CNBC: "Twitter's lawyer wrote a letter to Facebook parent Meta on Wednesday, accusing the company of 'systematic' and 'unlawful misappropriation' of trade secrets following the launch of its Threads service. The letter from longtime Elon Musk attorney Alex Spiro alleged that Meta's new Twitter clone was built by former Twitter employees 'deliberately assigned' to develop a 'copycat' app.... 'No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee,' Andy Stone, Meta communications director, posted on Threads." ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "It seems worth noting here that non-compete clauses are generally illegal in California. And Elon is an excellent illustration of why this is good policy: 'In a tweet posted ... on Thursday, Musk wrote that "competition is fine, cheating is not."' I dunno, when you define 'cheating' as 'hiring employees that I fired because I claimed that they had no useful skills' I tend question the sincerity of your commitment to competition."

Timothy Puko of the Washington Post: "Some of the largest manufacturers of heavy trucks and engines in the country have agreed to accept a California plan to ban sales of new diesel big rigs by 2036 under a deal aimed in part at thwarting potential litigation and maintaining a single national standard for truck pollution rules."

Graffiti Vandal Surprised Colosseum Is So Old. Elisabetta Povoledo of the New York Times: "A man seen on video last month using his keys to etch his love for his girlfriend on a wall in the Colosseum in Rome has written a letter of apology, saying he had no idea the nearly 2,000-year-old monument was so ancient. 'I admit with deepest embarrassment that it was only after what regrettably happened that I learned of the monument;s antiquity,' the man -- identified by his lawyer as 31-year-old Ivan Danailov Dimitrov -- wrote in a letter dated July 4 and addressed to the Rome prosecutor's office, the mayor of Rome and 'the municipality of Rome.'... Mr. Dimitrov was eventually identified by Italian military police officers who crosschecked the two lovers' names with registered guests in Rome and found they had stayed in an Airbnb rental in the Cinecittà neighborhood. Roberto Martina, the police commander who oversaw the operation, said they tracked Mr. Dimitrov to England, where he and his girlfriend, who is not under investigation, live." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Dimitrov is hoping for clemency, but I think the best thing is to feed him to the lions. Tickets available. Suggested event-wear: togas.

Beyond the Beltway

Shawn Hubler of the New York Times: "Democratic leaders in California and Texas urged the Justice Department on Thursday to investigate a Florida program that has solicited asylum seekers in Texas and sent them with no apparent notice to Martha's Vineyard and Sacramento. In a letter that called the state-funded initiative an 'ongoing scheme' that appeared to be driven by Florida's Republican governor and based on deception, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California; the state's attorney general, Rob Bonta; and the sheriff of Bexar County in Texas, Javier Salazar, asked for an examination of the Florida program for possible violations of federal law."

Ohio, et al. Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "Ohio moved one step closer to becoming the next big test case in the nation's fight over abortion, after supporters of a measure that would ask voters to establish a right to abortion in the state's Constitution this week said they had filed more than enough signatures to put it on the ballot in November. Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights said on Wednesday that it had collected roughly 710,000 signatures across all of the state's 88 counties over the last 12 weeks. Under state law, the coalition needed 413,466 to qualify for the ballot. State election officials now have until July 25 to verify the signatures.... Republican leaders in the legislature have placed a measure on the primary ballot in August that would raise the threshold required to pass any ballot measure amending the state's Constitution to 60 percent, from a simple majority. They aimed that measure -- which would require 50 percent of voters to pass -- squarely at the abortion question.... Voters in six states, including conservative ones such as Kentucky and Kansas, voted to protect or establish a right to abortion in their constitutions in last year's elections, and abortion rights advocates in about 10 other states are considering similar plans."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Friday is here: "... Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are scheduled to meet in Istanbul for talks that will likely focus on Sweden's bid for NATO membership and a soon-to-expire grain deal that was brokered by Turkey and allows Ukraine to export agricultural products through the Black Sea.... Zelensky visited NATO member states Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, ahead of the bloc's summit next week.... Meanwhile, questions remain about the agreement under which the Wagner mercenary leader [Yevgeniy Prigozhin] at the helm of the failed rebellion against Russian defense officials avoided insurgency charges.... A St. Petersburg businessman ... confirmed Prigozhin's presence in the country and said money and weapons seized by Russian authorities had been returned to him, The Washington Post reported.... More than 120 nations have joined a convention banning cluster munitions, which release smaller submunitions that can remain unexploded and endanger civilians years after a conflict has ended. The United States, Ukraine and Russia -- which has allegedly used cluster munitions extensively in Ukraine -- are not parties to the convention. Human Rights Watch urged the U.S. to refrain from sending them, and for Russia and Ukraine to 'immediately stop' using cluster weapons.... The European Union has moved toward a deal to use half a billion euros (around $544 million) from its budget to ramp up its production of ammunition and missiles....

"The death count in Lviv has risen to 10 after Russian cruise missiles struck the western Ukrainian city early Thursday, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi wrote on social media. The attack -- which Sadovyi said was the largest on civilian infrastructure in Lviv since the war began -- also left at least 36 injured, damaged 35 houses, and hit the 'buffer zone' of the UNESCO World Heritage site, officials said.... Russia and Ukraine announced a prisoner exchange Thursday."

David Sanger & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "For more than six months, President Biden and his aides have been wrestling with one of the most vexing questions in the war in Ukraine: whether to risk letting Ukrainian forces run out of the artillery rounds they desperately need to fight Russia, or agree to ship them cluster munitions -- widely banned weapons known to cause grievous injury to civilians, especially children. On Thursday, Mr. Biden appeared on the verge of providing the cluster munitions to Ukraine, a step that would sharply separate him from many of his closest allies, who have signed an international treaty banning the use, stockpiling or transfer of such weapons. Several of Mr. Biden's top aides, including Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, recommended he make the move at a meeting of top national security officials last week, despite what they have described as their own deep reservations...." ~~~

     ** Karen DeYoung, et al., of the Washington Post tell a different story: "President Biden has approved the provision of U.S. cluster munitions for Ukraine, with drawdown of the weapons from Defense Department stocks due to be announced Friday. The move, which will bypass U.S. law prohibiting the production, use or transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of more than 1 percent, comes amid concerns about Kyiv's lagging counteroffensive against entrenched Russian troops and dwindling Western stocks of conventional artillery."

Robyn Dixon & Catherine Belton of the Washington Post: "Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin was in Russia on Thursday, according to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, raising further questions about the murky agreement under which Prigozhin avoided insurgency charges for a failed rebellion that posed a brazen challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin's authority.... On Thursday, 12 days after Prigozhin abruptly turned around columns of fighters that he had sent rolling toward Moscow, Lukashenko said the mercenary boss had been back in his home city of St. Petersburg and may have flown to Moscow on Thursday morning. Lukashenko said a final deal on the move by Prigozhin and his fighters to Belarus was still not settled.... In a sign of Prigozhin's potential vulnerability, pro-Kremlin media mounted an apparently coordinated campaign to discredit him and undermine his popularity, which had surged before his rebellion. They aired video and photos of his luxury home, showing bundles of cash, weapons, fake passports, and wigs used for disguises." The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Emily Rauhala & Natalia Abbakumova of the Washington Post: "Russia has withdrawn consent for Finland to operate its consulate in St. Petersburg and expelled nine Finnish diplomats, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday. The decision was announced just days before NATO heads of state and government gather in Vilnius, Lithuania, for the alliance&'s annual summit, which is to be followed by a visit to Finland by President Biden. Moscow's decision also comes about a month after Finland announced that it would expel nine Russian diplomats on suspicion of spying. Although the expulsion of diplomats -- nine for nine -- appears to be a tit-for-tat move, the closing of the Finnish Consulate in St. Petersburg, not far from the Russia-Finland border, suggests an escalation designed to get the attention of Helsinki -- and Washington."

News Lede

New York Times: "As fears of a recession persist but have yet to be realized, U.S. employers added 209,000 jobs in June, the Labor Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate was 3.6 percent, compared with 3.7 percent in May. It was the 30th consecutive month of gains in American payrolls, but the June figure represented a continued cooling of the labor market. The total was down from a revised 306,000 in May and was the lowest since the streak began." This is a liveblog.

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Reader Comments (12)

The Fat Fascist’s frenzied screams about COCAINE in the White House are the sort of untethered claims we’re used to by now, but he can’t make up his mind whether the coke belonged to Hunter and Joe Biden, or to “crackhead” Jack Smith. I realize that nothing Trump says comes closer to logic than the earth’s core to the Kuiper belt, but two things come immediately to mind.

First, Hunter and the president. Neither were in the White House when the cocaine was found, and given the number of staff, visitors, secret service that tromp through the place daily, it’s highly unlikely it was there, undiscovered, for days or weeks.

Second, if it was Hunter Biden, why would he pick an area with so much public traffic? If he wanted to do a line, I’m pretty sure he’d go up to the residence. But given the fact that he’s had enough trouble of late, that seems less than likely as well. As for the president doing lines? Sorry, no one starts doing coke in their 70’s. And there are no 70 plus year old coke addicts. They either quit or they’re dead. But of course, only a career criminal who started sharing top secret information with a representative of Russia the minute he got his tiny hands on it would be likely to assume that a US president, for sure, must be doing stupid and illegal things.

And Jack Smith…a crackhead? Has he seen pictures of that guy? Smith looks like the poster child for the words SOBER and SERIOUS.

Finally, what would our friend Occam say? Coke found in an area of the White House accessible to the public…6,000 members of which pass through that area every day…who could be responsible? A hopped up visitor? Or the president?

And what’s more dangerous to the nation? Trace amounts of coke left by some snorting visitor, or a president* who waves around top secret documents, demands that election officials throw out votes for his rival and declare him the winner, then foments a violent and treasonous attempt at overthrowing the government when he can’t get his way.

You make the call.

July 7, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: Fortunately, Donald Trump doesn't have a son with a cocaine problem. And I know this because I've been watching the "Cocaine News" (at the link).

July 7, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

More book banning. Target is refusing to carry Mark Levin's new
book "The Democrat Party Hates America."
Book banning is fine except when it's my book of lies, lies, and lies
says Mark.
https://democraticunderground.com/100218068777

July 7, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

Cut to the chase:

Is there not something fundamentally very wrong with a purportedly democratic society that allows a man so obviously crooked, so obviously nasty, so obviously mentally ill, who spreads the poison of violence publicly urging his followers to attack his enemies, who overall does so much obvious harm to so many, especially to the institutions he took an oath to protect, to continue to walk around a free man?

If not wrong, then certainly self-destructive.

July 7, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@Ken Winkes: I think you had it at "fundamentally very wrong."

And I suppose what's fundamentally very wrong with the country is the dingbat electorate. I watched a longish clip yesterday of a lady who went to a pence event & told mike pence that if he had done his job & sent the electoral votes back to the states, Biden wouldn't be president. Pence, to his credit, took the time to explain to the lady why he did do his job and that the Constitution allowed him to count the votes, not toss the ones he didn't like, and that the Constitution would suck if one person were permitted to decide who the next president would be. The one thing he accidentally forgot to say was, "The people (Donald Trump!) who told you I could overturn the election lied to you." The lady was not convinced by pence's fairly cogent explanation. She will never be convinced, not if I threatened to eat her first-born with fava beans unless she said "uncle."

People seem to need to grasp whatever bull that is available to put their worldviews in order, where "in order" means "the world I as I want it to be." Accepting the facts, even when somebody who is ostensibly "on your side" spoon-feeds them to you, is a bridge too inconvenient to traverse.

July 7, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Just wondering if we'll ever find out how much it cost the former
president* to have someone plant some of Junior's stash in the
West Wing.
And Junior is going to be pissed when he finds out that daddy took
some of his stash.
Just my opinion.

July 7, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

Marie,

Speaking of bull....Waldman has a nice op-ed this morning in the WAPO.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/07/bizarre-contradiction-republican-america/

My comment:

You put your finger on it, Mr. Waldman. Republican rhetoric is just empty rhetoric: empty words whose meaning dissipates as soon as anyone attempts to discern it.

It's the Heisenberg uncertainly principle applied to sense. Seeking it makes it go away.

In other words, Republicans offer bull____ only.

July 7, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

New lyrics, same song. The DeSantis playbook is an old one.
"the rhetoric and tactics employed by the Florida governor and many other conservatives date back at least to the start of the modern Civil Rights Movement. In the period after the Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954, segregationist politicians attempted to use state power to punish progressive corporations, civil rights groups, and media outlets; pundits condemned what they saw as the narrowing of acceptable discourse and the demonization of their racist worldview; and citizen groups organized boycotts to maintain segregation."

July 7, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

Jamelle Bouie takes on the S.C.'s Color Blindness:

"As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his opinion for the court, “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.” Or as Justice Clarence Thomas put it in his concurrence, “Under our Constitution, race is irrelevant.”

The language of colorblindness that Roberts and Thomas use to make their argument comes directly from Justice John Marshall Harlan’s lonely dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, the decision that upheld Jim Crow segregation. “There is no caste here. Our Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens,” wrote Harlan, who would have struck down a Louisiana law establishing “equal but separate” accommodations on passenger railways.
But there’s more to Harlan’s dissent than his most frequently cited words would lead you to believe. When read in its entirety, the dissent gives a picture of Harlan not as a defender of equality, but as someone who thinks the Constitution can secure hierarchy and inequality without the assistance of state law. It’s not that segregation was wrong but that, in Harlan’s view, it was unnecessary...

More important, to read Harlan’s dissent in full is to see why it was so readily embraced in the age of opposition to efforts to redress racial inequality and past injustice. As Harlan knew, a colorblind Constitution could do as much or more to preserve a hierarchical and unequal society..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/07/opinion/harlan-thomas-roberts-affirmative-action.htmllaws designed for that purpose.

July 7, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D.Pepe

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/07/target-bud-light-boycott-woke-history.html

July 7, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

Funny though, to see MTG booted from the Freeeedom Cock-ups. A crazy ass, gun toting anti-Semite and supporter of violent government overthrow, who yaps about Jewish space lasers and believes Obama is spying on her through her TV set, and who declared that had she been in charge, the insurrection would have succeeded isn’t extreme enough for the other nuts.

Their reasoning is a knee slapper. These guys showed her the door because (according to them) she was impolite and said mean things to that other nut, Lauren Boebert. One must not say things like “little bitch”. It’s disrespectful to women. This is what they said.

Emily Post would be so proud.

Oh, but let’s go to the mattresses for a convicted sexual abuser/(rapist) who brags about grabbing women by the pussy.

Okay, not so proud.

But once again, this is what passes for serious congressional discourse on the right. It’s like semi-professional wrestling. Nothing real about it, all showy, cheesy theatrics, phony wrestling moves, and loudmouth bluster. Circus without the bread, and clowns without the funny.

July 7, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

This is rich. Reacting to Kari (Loser) Lake’s swanning around Marred-a-Lardo and pumping herself up on Fatty’s dime, a Trump advisor sez “She’s a shameless, ruthless demagogue who wants power and will do whatever she has to do to get it…”

Yeah. Trump advisor. I guess he’d know. Shameless, ruthless, power mad demagogue. He doesn’t know anyone else like that?

And not for nothin’, but what do “Trump advisors” do, actually? Help him pick out the daily tightie whities? Answer the Diet Coke button? He only listens to himself. Oh, and foreign dictators.

Whatever. But seeing Kari (Liar) Lake tossed under the Treason express and turned into election denying road kill makes the ganglia dance the tarantella.

But just imagine someone like Lake actually getting the keys to power…Jesus Christ. Despots R Us would have a new face for their signage. A bug-eyed rictus, teeth bared and claws ready for the kill.

July 7, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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