The Ledes

Friday, September 27, 2024

The Washington Post's live updates of developments related to Hurricane Helene are here: “Hurricane Helene left one person dead in Florida and two in Georgia as it sped north. One of the biggest storms on record to hit the Gulf Coast, Helene slammed into Florida’s Big Bend area on Thursday night as a Category 4 colossus with winds of up to 140 mph before weakening to Category 1. Catastrophic winds and torrential rain from the storm — which the National Hurricane Center forecast would eventually slow over the Tennessee Valley — were expected to continue Friday across the Southeast and southern Appalachians.” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here.

Mediaite: “Fox Weather’s Bob Van Dillen was reporting live on Fox & Friends about flooding in Atlanta from Hurricane Helene when he was interrupted by the screams of a woman trapped in her car. During the 7 a.m. hour, Van Dillen was filing a live report on the massive flooding in the area. Fox News viewers could clearly hear the urgent screams for help emerging from a car stuck on a flooded road in the background of the live shot. Van Dillen ... told Fox & Friends that 911 had been called and that the local Fire Department was on its way. But as he continued to file the report, the screams did not stop, so Van Dillen cut the live shot short.... Some 10 minutes later, Fox & Friends aired live footage of Van Dillen carrying the woman to safety, waking through chest-deep water while the flooding engulfed her car in the background[.]”

The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
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.”

Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

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."

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Page Links
Thursday
Jun152023

June 16, 2023

Afternoon Update:

The Discovery Materials, along with any information derived therefrom, shall not be disclosed to the public or the news media, or disseminated on any news or social media platform, without prior notice to and consent of the United States or approval of the Court. -- From text of proposed protective order in U.S. v. Trump & Nauta ~~~

~~~ DOJ Tries to Control Trump. Good Luck with That. Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "The Justice Department on Friday filed a motion seeking to block former President Trump from releasing any classified materials that will be shared with his legal team during his prosecution for the mishandling of records at Mar-a-Lago, noting that some are still being used in the course of their investigation. The documents 'include information pertaining to ongoing investigations' which could be used to further cases against uncharged individuals, the Department of Justice (DOJ) wrote. The suggested protective order, which will be reviewed by Judge Bruce Reinhart, would allow Trump to review the 31 documents the DOJ is using in the case only while in the presence of his attorneys.... Judge Aileen Cannon, who oversaw Trump's previous challenge to the investigation, referred the motion to Reinhart, who approved the initial search of Mar-a-Lago."~~~

     ~~~ Update: While Beitsch describes the protective order as one that proscribes release of classified information, CNN's reporting is different:

     ~~~ Tierney Sneed of CNN: "... [Special Counsel Jack] Smith’s team said in the filing that the 'government is ready to provide unclassified discovery to the defense.'... [The team] said that among the unclassified materials that prosecutors are set to turn over to the defense is 'information pertaining to ongoing investigations, the disclosure of which could compromise those investigations and identify uncharged individuals.'... 'The discovery materials include sensitive and confidential information,' including personal and financial data, information that reveals 'sensitive' investigative techniques and information about potential witnesses, according to the filing. Some of that information could be in grand jury transcripts or recordings of witness interviews.... Lawyers for Trump and his co-defendant Walt Nauta do not oppose the requested protective order, according to the filing." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Dave Aronberg, the Palm Beach County D.A., said on CNN that the most interesting part of the proposed order is the indication that there are "ongoing investigations." Jack Smith, Aronberg says, is putting the Trump team on notice that he ain't done yet. ~~~

~~~ “Irreconcilable Differences.” Tierney Sneed of CNN: "A lawyer who was representing ... Donald Trump in his defamation lawsuit against CNN said Friday that he was withdrawing from the case, in the latest sign of the break-up of the Trump legal team since the lawyer, Jim Trusty, and another Trump attorney stopped representing the former president in the criminal documents case against him. 'Mr. Trusty's withdrawal is based upon irreconcilable differences between Counsel and Plaintiff and Counsel can no longer effectively and properly represent Plaintiff,' Trusty said in a filing requesting the court's permission to withdraw."

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst who after experiencing a sobbing antiwar epiphany on a bathroom floor made the momentous decision in 1971 to disclose a secret history of American lies and deceit in Vietnam, what came to be known as the Pentagon Papers, died on Friday at his home in Kensington, Calif., in the Bay Area. He was 92." ~~~

~~~ Alex Kingsbury of the New York Times: "Months before his death, Mr. Ellsberg agreed to speak with Times Opinion at his California home about the lessons he's learned."

Arlette Saenz & Betsy Klein of CNN: "First lady Dr. Jill Biden is emerging as a prominent voice taking on Republicans and ... Donald Trump since his indictment -- even as the White House has maintained a stay-silent strategy on the legal case. In her first solo events of the campaign, the first lady has not shied away from critiquing the former president and offered a rare comment related to his legal woes as she reflected on Republican support for Trump despite his indictment. 'My heart feels so broken by a lot of the headlines that we see on the news,' she said during an off-camera fundraiser in New York City Monday.... 'Like I just saw, when I was on my plane, it said 61% of Republicans are going to vote, they would vote for Trump.... They don't care about the indictment. So that's a little shocking, I think.'... In a pair of Democratic fundraisers in California Tuesday evening, she warned of the impact 'MAGA Republicans' would have on the country and framed the presidential election as a choice between the 'corruption and chaos' of the Trump administration and stability offered by her husband. 'We cannot go back to those dark days,' the first lady said at a fundraiser in Marin County, California."

The Insurrection, Ctd. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump could not have asked for a nicer arraignment-day celebration. During the very same hour in which the former president surrendered to federal authorities in Miami, his Republican allies in the House were, in their most visible and official way yet, embracing as heroes and martyrs the people who sacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in hopes of overturning Trump's election defeat. In the Capitol complex, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), with sidekick Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and four other far-right lawmakers, held a 'hearing' that honored participants in the riot, family members of Jan. 6 rioters and organizers of the attempted overthrow of the 2020 vote. Technically, Gaetz couldn't call such a hearing, because he isn't a committee chairman. But ... Gaetz did his all to make the proceedings look official." Read on.

Philip Bump of the Washington Post on allegations that Fox "News" and other right-wing outlets constantly cover: that Joe Biden took a bribe from a Ukrainian when Biden was vice president. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) characterized the charge like so: "a three-year-old, secondhand, hearsay, uncorroborated rehashing of Rudy Giuliani's bogus allegations that he got from corrupt Ukrainian officials." After reviewing walk-backs by some of Biden's accusers like Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) & Rep. Jim Comer (R), Bump writes, "Even a number of Republicans aren't willing to vouch for it much more than that."

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "A Pennsylvania man was found guilty Friday on federal charges of fatally shooting 11 people and wounding seven others at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, a verdict that makes him eligible for the death penalty for what authorities say was the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. A 12-member jury in federal court in Pittsburgh convicted Robert G. Bowers, 50, of Baldwin, Pa., on multiple counts after two weeks of searing testimony from dozens of prosecution witnesses, according to the Associated Press. Among those who testified were survivors, including police officers, who had been shot during the attack."

David Nakamura, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Minneapolis Police Department engaged in the systemic use of excessive force and discriminated against racial minorities in the years leading up to the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in 2020, federal authorities said Friday. In a scathing 89-page report released following a more than two-year federal civil rights investigation, the Justice Department excoriated the Minneapolis police force as an agency that put officers and local residents at unnecessary risk and failed to act upon repeated warnings about biased behavior. Specifically, the report criticizes the Minneapolis police for: using 'dangerous tactics and weapons' -- including neck restraints and Tasers -- against people for petty offense or no crimes; punishing residents who criticized the police; patrolling neighborhoods differently based on their racial makeup; and discriminating against those with behavioral health disabilities."

~~~~~~~~~~

SO NOW THAT EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS THAT THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT, PLUS THE CLINTON SOCKS CASE, TOTALLY EXONERATED ME FROM THE CONTINUING WITCH HUNT BROUGHT ON BY CORRUPT JOE BIDEN, THE DOJ, DERANGED JACK SMITH, AND THEIR RADICAL LEFT, MARXIST THUGS, WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST ME, APOLOGIZE, AND RETURN EVERYTHING THAT WAS ILLEGALLY TAKEN (FOURTH AMENDMENT) FROM MY HOME? THIS WAS NOTHING OTHER THAN ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!! -- Donald Trump, social media post, June 15

(If you've never heard of THE CLINTON SOCKS CASE, the AP explains it here and shows that it in no way parallels THE TRUMP STOLEN CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS CASE. -- Marie Burns)

Trump Vows to Make America Great a Banana Republic. Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: "When Donald J. Trump responded to his latest indictment by promising to appoint a special prosecutor if he's re-elected to 'go after' President Biden and his family, he signaled that a second Trump term would fully jettison the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence.... In his first term, Mr. Trump gradually ramped up pressure on the Justice Department, eroding its traditional independence from White House political control. He is now unabashedly saying he will throw that effort into overdrive if he returns to power.... Two of the most important figures in this effort work at the same Washington-based organization, the Center for Renewing America: Jeffrey B. Clark and Russell T. Vought. During the Trump presidency, Mr. Vought served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Mr. Clark, who oversaw the Justice Department's civil and environmental divisions, was the only senior official at the department who tried to help Mr. Trump overturn the 2020 election.... They are condemning Mr. Biden and Democrats for what they claim is the politicization of the justice system, but at the same time pushing an intellectual framework that a future Republican president might use to justify directing individual law enforcement investigations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That is to say, there is a striking irony in (a) wingers promoting a DOJ controlled by the president* as Trump promises to use the DOJ to rain retribution down on his political opponents for unspecified crimes, while (b) falsely accusing President Biden of being a horrible "wannabe dictator" for controlling the DOJ & using it to persecute Trump. Do these people even listen to themselves? ~~~

~~~ Speaking of ironies, Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post posits that Trump's plot to avoid prosecution by announcing a run for president* backfired because it caused Merrick the Unready to name a special prosecutor, "and that special counsel proved to be a bulldog, chasing down every lead, pursuing all needed appeals and empaneling multiple grand juries." Rubin goes on to enumerate reasons she thinks Jack Smith is likely to prosecute Trump (and some of his cronies) for crimes related to the January 6 insurrection. Worth a read.

My Boxes. Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: While he was still president*, Donald Trump's "aides employed [the term '"beautiful mind" material'] to capture a type of organized chaos that Mr. Trump insisted on, the collection and transportation of a blizzard of newspapers and official documents that he kept close and that seemed to give him a sense of security. [Aides used the term 'beautiful mind' in reference to the title of a book and movie about John Nash, the schizophrenic mathematician.] One former White House official ... said that while the materials were disorganized, Mr. Trump would notice if somebody had riffled through them or they were not arranged in a particular way.... Mr. Trump was generally able to identify what was in the boxes most immediately around him.... When Mr. Trump left the White House..., he knew the contents of the boxes around him.... [According to the indictment..., 'Trump was personally involved in this process' [of packing the boxes he would take with him].... Mr. Trump's attachment to the contents of the boxes has now left him in serious legal peril, but it appears to be in keeping with a long pattern of behavior. Mr. Trump has always hung onto news clippings, documents and other mementos, according to more than a half-dozen people who have worked for him over the years...."

The Lying Cheapskate. Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump reportedly left a restaurant within 10 minutes without paying for any food -- after telling his supporters there, 'Food for everyone!' on Tuesday. Following his arraignment in a Miami federal courthouse over his retention of government documents, Trump visited a restaurant full of his supporters in Little Havana.... According to a report from the Miami New Times, while Trump declared 'Food for everyone!' during his visit to Versailles restaurant, 'It turns out no one got anything. Not even a cafecito to-go.'" MB: This is SOP for Trump. For instance, he is infamous for making big shows of pledges to charities, so the charities give him positive publicity, after which he reneges on the pledges (WashPo link).

Aileen Is on the Job. Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "The judge overseeing ... Donald J. Trump's indictment on charges of illegally retaining national defense information[,] issued an order on Thursday instructing any lawyer who wants to take part in the case to start the process of obtaining a security clearance to handle classified material by early next week. The brief order by the federal judge, Aileen M. Cannon, instructed the lawyers to reach out to the Litigation Security Group at the Justice Department by Tuesday to 'expedite' the process for getting a clearance.... The order by Judge Cannon, who faced a barrage of criticism last year for issuing rulings favorable to Mr. Trump at an early stage of the investigation, suggested that at least for now she has no plans to recuse herself from the case. It was also a preliminary indication that she has decided to move things forward relatively briskly." CNN's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Well, that's nice. But Andrew Weissmann, appearing on MSNBC, said the "brief order" was fairly incomprehensible. First, it required lawyers whom Trump has not yet employed to self-identify and contact the Litigation Security Group by today. Second, the order demands these unidentified, not-yet-employed lawyers to "be in compliance," but it doesn't specify what constitutes "compliance."

Merrick Thwarts the Revolution. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Twice in recent months, allies of ... Donald J. Trump have used violent language to criticize the criminal charges brought against him, calling for vengeance and encouraging Mr. Trump's supporters to respond to the indictments as though they were acts of war.... Both times -- first in April in Manhattan and then on Tuesday in Miami -- ... the crowds that actually showed up for Mr. Trump were relatively tame and fairly small. But ... scholars of political violence said ... that after the cataclysmic events of Jan. 6, 2021, many Trump supporters have become more reluctant to act on statements by Mr. Trump's allies suggesting that a second American Revolution might be coming or calling for civil war.... One reason for the absence of conflict in Miami, [scholar Rachel] Kleinfeld wrote in an email, was that the prosecutions of Jan. 6 protesters ... have had 'a real deterrent effect' on those who might have once considered violence. She also said that many people remain 'angry at Trump for failing to provide monetary support for those jailed on his behalf after Jan. 6.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "There are obvious parallels in the political tempests convulsing Britain and the United States, but also stark differences: ... Donald J. Trump faces federal criminal charges [for stealing top secret documents] while Boris Johnson was judged to be deceitful about attending parties. And yet, Britain's Conservative Party has regularly stood up to Mr. Johnson while the Republican Party is still mostly in thrall to Mr. Trump."

Michael Sisak of the AP: "A suburban New York prosecutor said Thursday that she has closed a multiyear investigation that focused in part on whether the twice-indicted former president [Trump] or his company misled authorities to reduce taxes on properties they own. Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah [D] said in a statement that she reached the decision after an investigation that was conducted 'objectively, and independent of politics, party affiliation and personal or political beliefs.' No charges were filed against Trump or his company, the Trump Organization.... In an all-capitals post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that ending the investigation was 'the honorable thing to do in that I did nothing wrong, but where and when do I get my reputation back? When will the other fake cases against me be dropped?'" MB: Oh, your reputation is intact, Donald.

Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: "A federal judge on Thursday set the trial date in E. Jean Carroll's initial defamation lawsuit against former President Trump for January 15, 2024.... On Tuesday, [Judge Lewis] Kaplan ruled to accept an amended lawsuit in this defamation case. The amended lawsuit includes comments Trump made during a CNN town hall in May, just one day after being found liable in Carroll's other lawsuit. He claimed not to know Carroll while calling her a 'whack job' and calling the case 'fake news.'"

Oliver Darcy of CNN: "Fox News is on the verge of settling another major lawsuit. Abby Grossberg, the former network producer who filed an explosive complaint against the company earlier this year, is in the final stages of ironing out a settlement with the company, people familiar with the matter told CNN. The settlement will mark the fourth case in a string of lawsuits that the billionaire owners of Fox News, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, have moved to put an end to in recent months.... Among many of the bombshell allegations included in her complaint was the charge that Fox News lawyers coerced her into providing misleading testimony when she was deposed as part of Dominion's billion-dollar lawsuit. She later accused Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott of being complicit in the alleged coercion and claimed Fox's lawyers deleted messages from her phone. Grossberg also made a number of eye-popping allegations about the workplace environment at Fox News, accusing the network of rampant sexism."


Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Jack Teixeira, a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who posted dozens of secret intelligence reports and other sensitive documents on a social media server, on six counts of retaining and transmitting classified national defense information. The filing of criminal charges in Boston federal court against Airman Teixeira, 21, comes about two months after F.B.I. agents arrested him at his home in North Dighton, Mass., and paves the way for a trial stemming from one of the most damaging national security leaks in recent history.... Airman Teixeira's disclosures -- exposing secrets of the United States, its allies and its adversaries -- have bared rifts between the United States and its allies and given Russia information about intelligence-gathering methods, as news organizations have divulged some of the material. And Justice Department lawyers have said the extent of the information he leaked 'far exceeds what has been publicly disclosed.'" NPR's story is here.

Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a 1978 law aimed at keeping Native American adoptees with their tribes and traditions, handing a victory to tribes that had argued that a blow to the law would upend the basic principles that have allowed them to govern themselves. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion. She was joined by six other justices. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., dissented." A Guardian story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sean Lyngaas of CNN: "Several US federal government agencies have been hit in a global cyberattack by Russian cybercriminals that exploits a vulnerability in widely used software, according to a top US cybersecurity agency.... Aside from US government agencies, 'several hundred' companies and organizations in the US could be affected by the hacking spree, a senior CISA official told reporters later Thursday, citing estimates from private experts. Clop, the ransomware gang allegedly responsible, is known to demand multimillion-dollar ransoms. But no ransom demands have been made of federal agencies, the senior official told reporters in a background briefing. CISA's response comes as Progress Software, the US firm that makes the software exploited by the hackers, said it had discovered a second vulnerability in the code that the company was working to fix. The Department of Energy is among multiple federal agencies breached in the ongoing global hacking campaign, a department spokesperson confirmed to CNN."

Presidential Race 2024. Vaughn Hillyard & Dan Gallo of NBC News: "The co-chair of No Labels, the political organization trying to mount a third-party presidential campaign in 2024, vowed on Thursday to end the group's effort if polling next spring shows President Joe Biden 'way, way out ahead' of ... Donald Trump. 'No Labels is not and will not be a spoiler in favor of Donald Trump in 2024,' said Dr. Ben Chavis, the Democratic co-chair of No Labels, in an interview on Thursday." MB: Of course this makes no sense. If Biden is "way, way out ahead" of Trump, then a No Labels candidate would not be a spoiler. The spoiler problem arises if Biden and Trump are close, as they are apt to be, what with the millions of stupid voters.

Beyond the Beltway

Pennsylvania. Campbell Robertson & Jon Moss of the New York Times: "After three weeks of wrenching testimony, the prosecution and the defense delivered closing arguments on Thursday in the first phase of the federal trial of the man charged with carrying out the deadliest antisemitic attack in the country's history. Robert Bowers, 50, the man charged in the October 2018 killing of 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue, faces the possibility of a death sentence if convicted. The phase of the trial that concluded on Thursday in federal court here was to determine whether Mr. Bowers was guilty, and the outcome of this stage of the proceedings has not been in significant doubt."

Tennessee. Adam Edelman of NBC News: "The two Democratic state representatives in Tennessee who were expelled by Republicans over gun violence protests won their primary races for their old seats Thursday night. Justin Jones won in Nashville, and Justin J. Pearson won in Memphis. Pearson had faced a Democratic challenger, David Page, while Jones ran unopposed. Unofficial results showed that Pearson and Jones won overwhelmingly."

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Friday is here: "Senior officials from NATO members and partner countries are in Brussels for a second day of defense ministerial meetings. On the first day of the program, the United States and its allies were briefed by Ukrainian officials, discussed F-16 training plans for Ukrainian pilots and talked about efforts to help Kyiv maintain German tanks.... U.S. lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill that would authorize using confiscated Russian assets to pay for aid to Ukraine and help finance the country's reconstruction. The bill aims to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to pay for the damage caused by his invasion, 'not U.S. taxpayers,' the lawmakers said.

"Sweden will probably not join NATO before next month's gathering of the military alliance, said Jeff Flake, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey. His remarks, in an interview with Axios, come as Turkey continues its opposition to Sweden's membership, saying Stockholm has been too lenient toward militant Kurdish groups, which Ankara views as threats. Flake, a Republican former senator from Arizona, said U.S. lawmakers have withheld the sale of F-16s to Turkey to pressure Ankara to ease its demands against Sweden.... U.S. authorities charged a Russian national for participating in deploying ransomware and cyberattacks. Ruslan Magomedovich Astamirov, 20, directly executed at least five attacks against computer systems in the United States and abroad, the Justice Department said. Astamirov is the third person charged in the LockBit ransomware campaign and the second to be apprehended, the department said."

News Ledes

Texas. New York Times: "A storm system that swept through Texas on Thursday evening killed three people and injured dozens of others, an official said, as the state braced for a weekend of brutal heat. The three deaths and more than 75 injuries happened in Perryton, a city where a mobile home park took a direct hit from a tornado, the local fire chief, Paul Dutcher, told NBC News. He told CNN that one person died in the trailer park and two others died downtown, and that one person was missing. About 200 homes and the town firehouse were destroyed...."

Greece. Guardian: "Survivors from an overcrowded fishing boat that capsized and sank on Wednesday off the Greek coast in one of the worst disasters in the Mediterranean in recent years have told doctors and police that women and children were travelling in the hold of the vessel. Seventy-eight people have been confirmed dead, but there are fears the number of victims could run into the hundreds. 'Right now everything is guesswork but we are working on the assumption that as many as 500 are missing,' said Nicolaos Spanoudakis, a police inspector. 'Women and children, it seems, were in the hold.'"

Comments Off

Reader Comments (8)

More reasons to be akeptical of this No Labels (founded by a Democrat, funded by Republicans) wolf in sheep's clothing political group.

First, it sounds like the Pretender himself provided the good doctor Chavis of No Labels with his gobbledegook "explanation" of how spoilers work.


Then there's its website, which makes as little sense.

In its words:

"Thanks to these (unnamed) leaders, a lot more has been accomplished in Washington these past few years than you might think. Our House and Senate allies led the passage of the biggest public works bill since President Eisenhower’s creation of the Interstate Highway System, the first federal gun safety bill since the 1990s, a major innovation bill to ensure America outpaces China in semiconductors and other key technologies of the future, and a rewrite of the outdated 1887 Electoral Count Act to prevent a repeat of the January 6, 2021, riots in Washington, D.C.

As these leaders have shown courage, No Labels has mobilized a nationwide network of citizens to support them. Local leaders in every state are working to grow our movement and stand with leaders willing to put their country before their party."

Goodness gracious, as my Irish grandma didn't used to say, the people No Labels are praising are DEMOCRATS!

Are they subtle--or stupid.

June 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

EVIL EVOLUTION:

Susan Glasser brings back the Republican political consultant Richard Berman and says he is something of a legend, often credited with taking the art of negative campaigning on behalf of undisclosed corporate clients to the next level. "When “60 Minutes” did a profile of him, in 2007, he was portrayed as the “Dr. Evil” of the Washington influence game. More than a decade later, when I visited his office in downtown D.C., he still had a tongue-in-cheek “Dr. Evil” nameplate on his desk. (“If they call you Mr. Nice Guy, would that be better?” he asked me. “I don’t think so.”) Berman devised an acronym to capture his firm’s aggressive approach to politics: flags—fear, love, anger, greed, and sympathy. Of those, he believed, anger and fear were undoubtedly the most effective."

"I’ve often thought of Berman’s formula while watching the descending spiral of American politics in the past few years. It’s not all that complicated, unfortunately: fear and anger, peddled by a skilled demagogue like Donald Trump, have captivated a large segment of the Republican electorate. Other politicians, recognizing Trump’s appeal, also increasingly eschew love, sympathy, and even greed in favor of this simpler and more straightforward approach. The 2024 G.O.P. primary is shaping up as a veritable stew of hatreds, with the candidates raising alarms about everyone from scary trans activists to marauding migrants and “woke” radical-left Communists. In 2016, during Trump’s campaign, he promoted a “Muslim ban” to protect L.G.B.T.Q.+ Americans from “a hateful foreign ideology”; this time, as the political writer Dave Weigel recently noted, Republicans are courting Muslim voters by promising to protect them against threatening L.G.B.T.Q.+ ideologues. The point is to have an enemy—or many enemies—whoever they are."

and thinking today of Aleen Cannon: If I were in her shoes I'd do my dam-nest to show I was up to the job. She's got the last name to show her get up and go power–––so let's go girl!!!!!

June 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D.Pepe

Our local newspaper is published on the other side of the county in
sort of R. land. This week the editor wrote an article defending the
act of taking (stealing?) secret and top secret papers.
"Everyone does it" says he.
I've got news for him, but I won't be responding since he knows
where I live and I don't have a gun.
I had a secret clearance while in the military. I was sworn to secrecy
and had a background check done by the FBI to the dismay of
friends and family who thought I was in some kind of trouble.
I never once even thought of taking any papers or telling anyone
about secret military installations or operations I was involved in.

So I'm living proof that everyone doesn't do it.

June 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

Last night on NBC news, there was no story about the Orange Puffy. Ditto for this morning's print WaPo front page.

I know it says nothing about MSM wising up, but, still, it was nice.

June 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

@Patrick: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But don't you care about THE CONTINUING WITCH HUNT BROUGHT ON BY CORRUPT JOE BIDEN, THE DOJ, DERANGED JACK SMITH, AND THEIR RADICAL LEFT, MARXIST THUGS?

June 16, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

CONTINUING WITCH HUNT BROUGHT ON BY CORRUPT JOE BIDEN, THE DOJ, DERANGED JACK SMITH, AND THEIR RADICAL LEFT, MARXIST THUGS.

Sounds like my kind of party! Count me in!

June 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I keep thinking - exhume Ivana at Bedminster. (Why was a full-size gasket/vault used for interment after her cremation?)

June 16, 2023 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

This one elicits nothing but unkind thoughts from me--and I've been told I'm a nice guy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/06/16/sorelle-incompetent-trial-oathkeepers-jan6/

June 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.