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.”

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[.]”

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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 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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Tuesday
Jun202023

June 20, 2023

Late Morning Update:

Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "The federal judge presiding over the prosecution of ... Donald J. Trump in the classified documents case set an aggressive schedule on Tuesday, ordering a trial to begin as soon as Aug. 14. While the timeline set by the judge, Aileen M. Cannon, is likely to be delayed by extensive pretrial litigation -- including over how to handle classified material -- its brisk pace suggests that she is seeking to avoid any criticism for dragging her feet or for slow-walking the proceeding. In each of four other criminal trials she has overseen that were identified in a New York Times review, she has initially set a relatively quick trial date and later pushed it back. The early moves by Judge Cannon, a relatively inexperienced jurist who was appointed by Mr. Trump in 2020, are being particularly closely watched. She disrupted the documents investigation last year with several rulings favorable to the former president before a conservative appeals court overturned her, saying that she never had legitimate legal authority to intervene." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. A CNBC report is here.

Stefano Dazio & Michael Blood of the AP: "An effort to disbar conservative attorney John Eastman, who devised ways to keep ... Donald Trump in the White House after his defeat in the 2020 election, will begin Tuesday in Los Angeles. Eastman is expected to spend the day testifying before the State Bar of California in a proceeding that could result in him losing his license to practice law in the state. He faces 11 disciplinary charges stemming from his development of a dubious legal strategy that was aimed at helping Trump remain in power by disrupting the counting of state electoral votes. The State Bar's counsel will seek Eastman's disbarment during a hearing before the State Bar Court that's expected to last at least eight days. If the court finds Eastman culpable of the alleged violations it can recommend a punishment such as suspending or revoking his law license. The California Supreme Court makes the final decision."

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "On a remote site at the edge of the Gulf of Oman, thousands of migrant laborers from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are at work in 103-degree heat, toiling in shifts from dawn until nightfall to build a new city, a multibillion-dollar project backed by Oman's oil-rich government that has an unusual partner: ... Donald J. Trump.... The Oman deal has taken [Mr. Trump's] financial stake in one of the world's most strategically important and volatile regions to a new level, underscoring how his business and his politics intersect as he runs for president again amid intensifying legal and ethical troubles.... The venture puts Mr. Trump in business with the government of Oman, an ally of the United States with which Mr. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, cultivated ties while in office and which plays a vital diplomatic role in a volatile region.... Mr. Trump was brought into the deal by a Saudi real estate firm, Dar Al Arkan, which is closely intertwined with the Saudi government. While in office, Mr. Trump developed a tight relationship with Saudi leaders.... Mr. Trump's company, the Trump Organization, has already brought in at least $5 million from the Oman deal. Under its terms, Trump Organization will not put up any money for the development.... The project could also draw scrutiny in the West for its treatment of its migrant workers...."

Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "President Biden's son Hunter has reached a tentative agreement with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to two minor tax crimes and admit to the facts of a gun charge under terms that would likely keep him out of jail, according to court papers filed Tuesday. Any proposed plea deal would have to be approved by a federal judge. Both the prosecutors and the defense counsel have requested a court hearing at which Hunter Biden, 53, can enter his plea. The agreement caps an investigation that was opened in 2018 during the Trump administration, and has generated intense interest and criticism since 2020 from Republican politicians who accused the Biden administration of reluctance to pursue the case. The terms of the proposed deal -- negotiated with Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a holdover from ... Donald Trump's administration -- are likely to face similar scrutiny." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. The AP's report is here.

Florida. Beth Reinhard & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: Florida Gov. Ron "DeSantis seized on the unusual retirement of three liberal justices at once to quickly remake the [state's supreme] court. He did so with the help of a secretive panel led by Leonard Leo -- the key architect of the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority -- that quietly vetted judicial nominees in an Orlando conference room three weeks before the governor's inauguration.... After taking office in January 2019, DeSantis appointed three new justices in two weeks, flipping the court from what he described as a 4-3 liberal majority to a 6-1 conservative advantage. More recently, two justices appointed by past Republicans stepped down and took more lucrative jobs with allies of the governor, allowing DeSantis to handpick his own stalwarts. The governor's efforts have yielded one of the most conservative state Supreme Courts in the country, reflecting Florida's shift from a politically competitive state to a testing ground for culture war legislation over immigration, race and sex education that is now at the heart of DeSantis's presidential bid.... The governor's confidential vetting process for the high court was one of the earliest examples of what would become a signature tactic of his administration -- testing the boundaries of executive authority, while defying protocols aimed at transparency and accountability."

Louisiana. Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "The last four Roman Catholic archbishops of New Orleans went to shocking lengths to conceal a confessed serial child molester who is still living but has never been prosecuted, a Guardian investigation has found. Upon review of hundreds of pages of previously secret church files, the Guardian has uncovered arguably the most complete account yet about the extremes to which the second-oldest Catholic archdiocese in the US went to coddle the admitted child molester Lawrence Hecker. Back in 1999, Hecker confessed to his superiors at the archdiocese of New Orleans that he had either sexually molested or otherwise shared a bed with multiple teenagers whom he met through his work as a Roman Catholic priest." Read on to get an idea of "shocking lengths" the archdiocese went to in order to conceal Hecker's crimes.

~~~~~~~~~~

Matthew Lee of the AP: "U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met on Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and said they agreed to 'stabilize' badly deteriorated U.S.-China ties, but America's top diplomat left Beijing with his biggest ask rebuffed: better communications between their militaries. After meeting Xi, Blinken said China is not ready to resume military-to-military contacts, something the U.S. considers crucial to avoid miscalculation and conflict, particularly over Taiwan. Still, China's main diplomat for the Western Hemisphere, Yang Tao, said he thought Blinken's visit to China 'marks a new beginning.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Amy Hawkins of the Guardian: "Antony Blinken's meeting with Xi Jinping on Monday may have lasted only 35 minutes, but both sides insisted that it represented progress in the strained relationship. The two men exchanged warm words while both refusing to budge on their respective core interests. That the US secretary of state was able to meet China's leader at all was a diplomatic coup for the highly anticipated visit. Blinken is the highest-ranking US official to visit Beijing since 2018, but until he arrived in the Chinese capital it was not confirmed that he would meet China's leader. The meeting was brief compared with Blinken's seven-and-a-half-hour marathon encounter with his Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang. But it was the culmination of an effort to stabilise the fraught relationship between the world's two biggest economies." ~~~

     ~~~ Edward Wong & David Pierson of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with Xi Jinping, China's leader, on Monday in Beijing, as the two governments sought to pull relations out of a deep chill that has raised global concerns about the growing risk of a conflict between them. The 35-minute meeting, which capped a two-day visit by Mr. Blinken, sent a signal, at least for now, that the United States and China do not want their relationship to be defined by open hostility, and that they recognize that their rivalry and their diplomatic efforts carry enormous stakes. Mr. Blinken and Mr. Xi held talks at the Great Hall of the People, the grand building on the west side of Tiananmen Square where Mr. Xi often receives dignitaries. Striking a congenial note at the top of the meeting, Mr. Xi praised the two sides for making progress on some unspecified issues during Mr. Blinken's visit...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's worth remembering that Republicans excoriated Blinken for trying to normalize relations with China (NYT link).

Trumpty Dumpty News -- Socks & Pants Edition

Marie: Perhaps you remember how we all were complaining that DOJ was doing nothing about Trump, et al.'s incitement of the January 6 insurrection, the worst treachery of any president* in U.S. history. Meanwhile, calmer voices were reminding us how the DOJ & FBI did their investigating in secret, so the public had no idea how hard they were working to ferret out Trump's culpability. Well, we wuz right: ~~~

** Merrick the Unready, Ctd. Carol Leonnig & Aaron Davis of the Washington Post: "A Washington Post investigation found that more than a year would pass before prosecutors and FBI agents jointly embarked on a formal probe of actions directed from the White House to try to steal the election. Even then, the FBI stopped short of identifying the former president as a focus of that investigation. A wariness about appearing partisan, institutional caution, and clashes over how much evidence was sufficient to investigate the actions of Trump and those around him all contributed to the slow pace. [Attorney General Merrick] Garland and the deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, charted a cautious course aimed at restoring public trust in the department while some prosecutors below them chafed, feeling top officials were shying away from looking at evidence of potential crimes by Trump and those close to him, The Post found....

"Senior Justice Department [and FBI] officials ... quashed a plan by prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office to directly investigate Trump associates for any links to the riot, deeming it premature, according to five individuals familiar with the decision. Instead, they insisted on a methodical approach -- focusing first on rioters and going up the ladder. The strategy was embraced by Garland, Monaco and [FBI Director Christopher] Wray.... The National Archives inspector general's office asked the Justice Department's election crimes branch to consider investigating the seemingly coordinated ['fake electors'] effort in swing states. Citing its prosecutors' discretion, the department told the Archives it would not pursue the topic, according to two people with knowledge of the decision." This is a long investigative article, well-worth reading. It confirms and even magnifies what we hair-on-fire skeptics had suspected all along. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a shorter version by Davis & Leonnig, but you need to read the full version to get a good understanding of how Garland, Monaco and Wray dragged their feet and only allowed investigations into Trump & his cronies when press reports, a federal judge's ruling and January 6 House committee findings embarrassed them into it. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Leonnig pointed out during a discussion on MSNBC yesterday that the "going up the ladder" methodology doesn't work on a multi-pronged criminal endeavor. For instance, there is no connection between the rioters/insurrection leaders and the fake-electors plot. Successfully prosecuting Oath Keepers does not get you to the fake-electors scheme. Ergo, there's not much excuse for DOJ's turning down the National Archives' referral on Trump's coordinated plan to submit false slates of electors in swing states.

     ~~~ Marcy Wheeler has many thoughts. (Also linked yesterday.)

What About Pence and Biden & Bill Clinton? Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite: "Donald Trump told Fox News' Bret Baier on Monday that the law was on his side and he had no worries about the 37 federal charges against him.... 'Based on the law? Zero. Zero. Presidential Records Act plus the Clinton case -- the Clinton case which was won by Clinton as president because he took he and hid them in his socks. Zero.... Every good lawyer has said that.'... Trump [also] pushed back by blaming [Mike] Pence for also retaining classified documents.... '... No, he didn't turn them over. He got caught. His lawyers found some documents and then he turned them over. Why did he have them? He shouldn't be saying that, because he had classified documents. And immediately they said, "That's OK." And I suppose it's going to be OK with Biden, too, even though he has them in Chinatown? Even though he has them in Delaware and probably 100 times more than I have?'" ~~~

~~~ Bret Baier of Fox "News" Does Some Journalism. Ted Johnson of Deadline: "Donald Trump offered a fusillade of unfounded claims and falsehoods in his interview with Fox News' Bret Baier.... 'Why did you have this very sensitive national security defense documents, like the war plans for a strike on Iran?' Baier asked, referring to a central claim by federal prosecutors in last week's indictment. Trump responded, 'So like every other president, I take things out, and in my case I took it out pretty much in a hurry but people packed it up and we left. I had clothing in there. I had all sorts of personal items, and they are much, much stuff.' He then went on to bashing his former attorney general William Barr, insisting that he fired him 'because he didn't have the courage to go after so many different things. He was a coward.'... During the interview, Fox News also ran clips of Trump from 2016, where he talked of the importance of protecting classified information. Baier also ran through a list of Trump's attacks on members of his own administration, while reminding him that he had pledged to only 'surround himself with the very best people.'" ~~~

~~~ Trump Test-runs the I-Was-Busy-So-I-Lied-to-the-FBI Defense. Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump claimed to a Fox News anchor in an interview on Monday that he did not have a classified document with him in a meeting with a book publisher.... According to the transcript [of the meeting], Mr. Trump describes the document, which he claims shows General [Mark] Milley's desire to attack Iran, as 'secret' and 'like, highly confidential.' He also declares that 'as president, I could have declassified it,' adding, 'Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret.'... The comments were ... the latest in a string of shifting stories that he and his allies have offered since it became public that officials at the National Archives and Records Administration recovered 15 boxes of material from Mr. Trump in January 2022. Earlier in the interview with [Bret] Baier, Mr. Trump appeared to concede that even after the Justice Department issued a subpoena last year for all classified documents in his possession, he delayed complying with it in order to separate any personal records that might have been among them. 'Before I send boxes over, I have to take all of my things out,' Mr. Trump said. 'These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things.'... Mr. Trump also acknowledged that he did not immediately comply with an earlier request to return government records to the archives, telling Mr. Baier that he gave the archives 'some' and maintaining, 'I was very busy, as you've sort of seen.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The Confessions of Trump, Ctd. Sam Stein of Politico: "The comments from Trump are an admission that he did not move to satisfy the federal government's demands that he comply with their requests to hand over the documents.... Pressed by [Bret] Baier, Trump did not deny that he told his lawyers to say he fully complied with the subpoena when he hadn't. Instead, he said once more that he needed time to sort through the boxes to take out personal items like 'golf shirts, clothing, pants, shoes.'" ~~~

~~~ Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "The former president repeated his claim that the Presidential Records Act gave him the right to take the material with him. This defense has been widely panned by legal experts across the spectrum.... Shortly after the interview aired, [Fox 'News" political analyst Brit] Hume ... said, 'His answers on the matters of the law seem to me to verge on incoherent,' he said. 'He seemed to be saying that the documents were really his and that he didn't give them back when he was requested to do when they were subpoenaed because, you know, he wasn't ready to because he sorted them and separated the classified information or whatever from his golf shirts or whatever he was saying. It was not altogether clear what he was saying.... But he seemed to believe that documents were his, that he had declassified them' he continued. 'Evidence to the contrary. And therefore, he, you know, he could do whatever he wanted with them, which I don't think it's going to hold up in court.'" ~~~

~~~ Lawrence O'Donnell plays "Defense or Confession" with legal experts:

Judge Orders Trump to STFU. Tierney Sneed of CNN: "A magistrate judge has signed off on special counsel Jack Smith's request that ... Donald Trump and his co-defendant Walt Nauta be prohibited from disclosing information the discovery handed over to the defense in the criminal case Trump and Nauta now face from the special counsel. Among the restrictions approved by US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who previously approved the search warrant the FBI executed at Mar-a-Lago last year, is that '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.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Republicans Suppress Truth about Themselves by Burying Truthtellers in Lawsuits & Subpoenas. Steven Myers & Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "... Republican lawmakers and activists are mounting a sweeping legal campaign against universities, think tanks and private companies that study the spread of disinformation, accusing them of colluding with the government to suppress conservative speech online. The effort has encumbered its targets with expansive requests for information and, in some cases, subpoenas -- demanding notes, emails and other information related to social media companies and the government dating back to 2015.... [The targets] and others warned that the campaign undermined the fight against disinformation in American society when the problem is, by most accounts, on the rise -- and when another presidential election is around the corner. Many of those behind the Republican effort had also joined ... Donald J. Trump in falsely challenging the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.... The House Judiciary Committee ... has sent scores of letters and subpoenas to the researchers -- only some of which have been made public.... A conservative advocacy group led by Stephen Miller, the former adviser to Mr. Trump, filed a class-action lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court in Louisiana that echoes many of the committee's accusations and focuses on some of the same defendants." (Also linked yesterday.)

Other News

Philip Nieto of Mediaite: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) shared some of his thoughts on Dr. Anthony Fauci, billionaire Bill Gates and the viruses the two men, along with the World Health Organization, are bent on unleashing in large American cities. Or something like that.

What Twitter Giveth, Elon Taketh Away. Louisa Loveluck of the Washington Post: "Twitter's recent decision under new owner Elon Musk to charge more than $500,000 annually for a once-free tool to analyze posts on the platform is hampering disinformation and war crimes research, and could slow rescue efforts during natural disasters, according to experts and nonprofit groups. Since 2006, users have had unlimited access to the social media platform's application programming interface, or API -- allowing researchers to extract and analyze data that provided critical insights into the website's role in election meddling and the spread of disinformation, as well as to gather and synthesize photographic and video evidence that could be used to indict potential war criminals in international tribunals. Twitter announced in April that access to the API will now require a paid subscription, with those most useful to researchers ranging from $42,000 to $210,000 per month. The change has left many policy shops, NGOs, independent researchers and students without access."

What Facebook Giveth, Meta Taketh Away. Rebecca Tan of the Washington Post: "When Facebook took off in Vietnam about a decade ago, it was like a 'revolution,' said two of the company's early employees in Asia. For the first time, people across the country could communicate directly about current affairs. Users posted about police abuse and government waste, poking holes in the propaganda of the ruling Communist Party.... But as Facebook's popularity exploded in Vietnam, soon making this country the company's seventh largest market worldwide, the government increasingly demanded greater restrictions. Since then, the social media giant Meta, which owns Facebook, has been making repeated concessions to Vietnam's authoritarian government, routinely censoring dissent and allowing those seen as threats by the government to be forced off the platform...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2024. The Krazy Kennedy. Brandy Zadrozny of NBC News: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. "sees America as a divided place, where an elite few conspire to crush the rest, where doctors poison the public, and where few institutions or experts can be trusted. 'People should be scared,' he tells me.... In a 108-minute speech in Boston in April announcing his run, Kennedy never brought up vaccines -- alluding only once to some mystery cause for all childhood ailments. It was a striking omission for the founder of Children's Health Defense, the country's largest anti-vaccine organization, which describes itself as a 'child health protection and advocacy group.' Full-page newspaper ads supporting Kennedy make no mention of vaccines.... Kennedy has his vocal supporters -- anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, internet contrarians, billionaire tech bros, Camelot nostalgists and right-wing provocateurs who seem to be pumping Kennedy as a spoiler candidate.... Kennedy’s pivot to Covid denialism, and his subsequent banning by social media companies, made him a darling of the right, while his criticism of corporations and the military-industrial complex has drawn supporters from the left.... Recent polls show him making a dent against an incumbent whom many voters see as too old.... Kennedy believes the government, specifically the CIA, is responsible for [killing his father and his uncle, President John F. Kennedy].... For Kennedy, even the assumption that childhood vaccines work is up for argument.... Kennedy claimed Operation Warp Speed..., Donald Trump's interagency vaccine initiative, was a nefarious plot engineered by the intelligence agencies and the military." ~~~

~~~ Christopher Kane of the Washington Blade: "In a recently unearthed video interview, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the noted anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist and a Democratic challenger of President Joe Biden's 2024 reelection bid, claimed chemicals in the water supply are turning boys trans. 'A lot of the problems we see in kids, particularly boys, it's probably underappreciated how much of that is coming from chemical exposures, including a lot of sexual dysphoria that we're seeing,' the scion of the Kennedy political dynasty said during an interview with Canadian psychologist and ring-wing pundit Jordan Peterson. 'I mean, they're swimming through a soup of toxic chemicals today, and many of those are endocrine disruptors,' Kennedy said, adding, 'there's Atrazine throughout our water supply, and atrazine, by the way, if you, in a lab, put Atrazine in a tank full of frogs, it will chemically castrate and forcibly feminize every frog in there and 10 percent of the frogs, the male frogs, will turn into fully viable females able to produce viable eggs.'... If it's doing that to frogs,' he said, 'there's a lot of other evidence that it's doing it to human beings as well.'... According to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 'When the general population is exposed to atrazine, exposure levels are expected to be very low.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Punishing the Publishers. Emily Flitter of the New York Times: "In most of the country, state and local laws require public announcements -- about town meetings, elections, land sales and dozens of other routine occurrences -- to be published in old-fashioned, print-and-ink newspapers, as well as online, so that citizens are aware of matters of public note. The payments for publishing these notices are among the steadiest sources of revenue left for local papers. Sometimes, though, public officials revoke the contracts in an effort to punish their hometown newspapers for aggressive coverage of local politics. Such retaliation is not new, but it appears to be occurring more frequently now.... In recent years, newspapers in Colorado, North Carolina, New Jersey and California, as well as New York, have been stripped of their contracts for public notices after publishing articles critical of their local governments. Some states, like Florida, are going even further, revoking the requirement that such notices have to appear in newspapers." (Also linked yesterday.)

North Carolina. Andrew McMillan of WSOC-TV (Charlotte): "A detailed lawsuit filed by a former Apex City Councilman claims that North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland County) started an affair with his wife and engaged in group sex with other people seeking political favor. Scott Riley Lassiter is suing Moore and an unnamed John Doe defendant for several claims, including alienation of affections and civil conspiracy. Channel 9 obtained the court documents, which allege that Moore 'used his position as Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives to initiate contact and develop a personal relationship with [Lassiter's wife Jamie Liles] Lassiter, despite knowing that she was married to Plaintiff.'... The lawsuit says Lassiter's wife confessed she had been having an affair for three years, and that 'she had engaged in sexual activity with Defendant Tim Moore (including group sex with other individuals seeking Tim Moore's political favor), and that she feared ending the relationship with [Moore] would result in losing her job.'... [Mrs.] Lassiter is currently the executive director of the North Carolina Conference of Clerks of Superior Court."

Way Beyond

Greece. Jason Horowitz, et al., of the New York Times: "... in the aftermath of the deadliest shipwreck in Greece in a decade, and perhaps ever, with possibly more than 700 men, women and children from Syria, Pakistan and Egypt drowned, the decision not to intervene has raised concerns that an alignment of interests between [human] smugglers paid to reach Italy and Greek authorities who would rather the migrants be Italy's problem led to an avoidable catastrophe.... Shortly after [the] rickety fishing boat carrying hundreds of smuggled migrants sank in front of a Greek Coast Guard vessel last week, Greek officials explained that they had not intervened because the smugglers didn't want them to.... On Monday, the Greek authorities came under more pressure as new accusations of negligence surfaced and survivor accounts began to trickle out, describing a hapless captain, engine trouble and even suggestions that the Greek Coast Guard had accidentally caused the sinking.... Experts say the Greek authorities also violated maritime law." A related Guardian story is here.

Russia/U.S. Ronen Bergman, et al., of the New York Times: "As President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has pursued enemies abroad, his intelligence operatives now appear prepared to cross a line that they previously avoided: trying to kill a valuable informant for the U.S. government on American soil. The clandestine operation, seeking to eliminate a C.I.A. informant in Miami who had been a high-ranking Russian intelligence official more than a decade earlier, represented a brazen expansion of Mr. Putin's campaign of targeted assassinations. It also signaled a dangerous low point even between intelligence services that have long had a strained history.... The assassination failed, but the aftermath in part spiraled into tit-for-tat retaliation by the United States and Russia.... Sanctions and expulsions, including of top intelligence officials in Moscow and Washington, followed." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Tuesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Tuesday is here: "Two weeks after the Kakhovka dam collapse that displaced thousands and killed dozens of people, areas in eastern Ukraine continue to grapple with the repercussions, including water contamination and flooded homes.... There is 'significant' water contamination in areas affected by the dam collapse, the Ukrainian Health Ministry said in a report on Monday. There are reports of salmonella, rotavirus and E. coli, among other contaminants.... There is no water supply to 167,000 subscribers in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and more than 800 houses remain flooded as a result of the dam collapse, which killed at least 17 Ukrainians, according to the Interior Ministry.... Ukraine conducted counteroffensive operations in at least three front-line areas and made gains on Monday, the Institute for the Study of War said in a report.... The United Nations has accused Moscow of blocking humanitarian aid to Russian-controlled areas.... China has reassured the United States and other governments that it is not and will not provide lethal assistance to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday."

U.K. Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Ten days after Boris Johnson abruptly quit Britain's Parliament, his former colleagues delivered a stinging rebuke to the former prime minister, overwhelmingly ratifying a report that concluded he deliberately misled lawmakers about lockdown-breaking parties held in Downing Street during the coronavirus pandemic. The vote revealed a Conservative Party still somewhat divided by Mr. Johnson's polarizing leadership. But rather than take a clear position on the findings, by a powerful parliamentary committee, a large proportion of Conservative lawmakers abstained and just seven members of Parliament rejected the report. That allowed it to be accepted by the House of Commons without Conservatives having to go on the record.... Still, however tortured the deliberations, the outcome was a damning verdict for Mr. Johnson. It foreclosed -- at least for the moment -- any plausible return to power for a flamboyant figure whose three years in Downing Street were marked by a landslide electoral victory in 2019 but nearly ceaseless scandals after that."

News Lede

New York Times: "The U.S. Coast Guard was racing against time on Tuesday and facing a host of extreme logistical challenges, including crushing pressure deep below the ocean, to find a deep-diving submersible and its five-person crew in the North Atlantic. The submersible, the Titan, had been in the area to explore the wreck of the Titanic when it lost contact on Sunday morning with a chartered research ship at the dive site. At the time, the 22-foot-long vessel was more than halfway into what should have been a two-and-a-half-hour dive. The submersible is thought to be equipped with only a few days' worth of oxygen. Even if the Titan can be located -- in a remote patch of ocean where the seafloor lies more than two miles below the choppy surface -- retrieving it will not be easy." This is an update of a liveblog also linked yesterday. ~~~

     ~~~ A Guardian liveblog is here.

Reader Comments (10)

The Pretender either practiced incoherence in front of the mirror before his Fox interview or his brain has deteriorated even further in the last two years. It wasn't just that he was wrong on the facts (bleach, anyone?) but he wasn't able to connect what he said to the question asked, even when he appeared to be trying to, or to tie one element of what he did say to the next.

He still has words,, but it appears he can't present them even in the form of a salad...

Did like the bit about the golf shirts, though, which I took to be a statement of genuine Pretender priorities.....as in:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/20/us/politics/trump-real-estate-deal-oman.html

The inertia of the Trump grift is a marvel to behold.

June 20, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Another whimper:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/06/20/hunter-biden-plea-deal/?

June 20, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Not a whimper?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/20/us/politics/trump-classified-documents-trial-date.html

June 20, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

"Hunter Biden to Plead Guilty on Misdemeanor Tax Charges
Under a deal with the Justice Department, the president’s son agreed to probation for filing his taxes late, and he can avoid a charge that he lied about his drug use when he purchased a handgun."

Will this shut the mouths of the GOP that have been hunting down Hunter for the gamesmanship they keep playing?

With all the important news that's fit to print lately, we are stuck with that thorn in the glory of Camelot, Bobby's boy, who obviously drank from the goblet that was filled with a witch's brew known to cloud men's minds ( something the Shadow always warned us about). Some offspring jest goes off on us big time and we can't do a dern thing about it!

June 20, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D.Pepe

Speaking of the Krazy Kennedy, he won’t be the only one trying to steal votes from Biden to help the Fat Fascist.

Now we have Cornel West throwing his hat into the ring. West has gone full Both Sides. No one is looking out for the poor (a legitimate concern at all times), so let’s make sure a guy who pisses on the poor and scapegoats them on a daily basis gets elected. Not legitimate at all, especially if, as you say, you’re concerned about the poor.

This is another Ralph Nader style narcissist campaign very much like the Libertarian and Green Party (Jill Stein and that other guy) runs that stole just enough votes from Hillary Clinton to guarantee a win (along with help from Russian hackers, James Comey, and Both Sides imbeciles in the media) for Trump and a taxpayer funded trip to the GriftLand of his dreams.

West has come right out and said he doesn’t care if his candidacy puts Trump back in the White House, he has to do it, something, something. This means that it’s all about what’s good for me, me, me.

And then we have the No Labels frauds. Sorry, but “No Labels” IS a label. Oh, but they’re not gonna help Trump, blah, blah, blah, as long as Biden is up by 200 points.

Meanwhile Fatty has a clear field (Nikki, Ronnie, Christie, mikey, Asa? Piffle) and a shitload of money.

Biden will have to win by a lot more than should be necessary because egos are more important than the fate of the nation.

June 20, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

No Labels should rename themselves Not At All Pretentious Look At Us Being All Moderate Over Here!, which would better serve their charade of bridging the chasm between the parties of the past and the present. I believe that I saw an episode of Star Trek in which the No Labels folks mediated between Kirk and the Klingons, which would be a good name for a Jethro Tull tribute band.

June 20, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterJack Mahoney

I remember seeing this headline "No Labels likely to back off third party bid if DeSantis emerges as GOP nominee" from Politico last week. It says that they'll most likely get out of the race if Trump doesn't run. I guess they think Trump is the only one who needs their help to beat Joe.

June 20, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

RAS,

But Rob (as Trump calls him) won’t be the nominee. So much for that promise. Or I guess a No Labels promise would be a No Promise promise.

Jack,

I might have thought the Aqualungs or maybe the Bungles in the Jungles would be good Tull tribute band names, but I rather like Kirk and the Klingons.

June 20, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Jack Mahoney! so nice to hear from you again––been a long time.

June 20, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D.Pepe

So how much grift will Trump pull in from The Hunter Biden plea deal?

Gods know the MAGAs have their tails in a knot over it.

June 20, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee
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