The Ledes

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Washington Post: “Rescue teams raced to submerged homes, scoured collapsed buildings and steered thousands from overflowing dams as Helene carved a destructive path Friday, knocking out power and flooding a vast arc of communities across the southeastern United States. At least 40 people were confirmed killed in five states since the storm made landfall late Thursday as a Category 4 behemoth, unleashing record-breaking storm surge and tree-snapping gusts. 4 million homes and businesses have lost electricity across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, prompting concerns that outages could drag on for weeks. Mudslides closed highways. Water swept over roofs and snapped phone lines. Houses vanished from their foundations. Tornadoes added to the chaos. The mayor of hard-hit Canton, N.C., called the scene 'apocalyptic.'” An AP report is here.

The Wires
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The Ledes

Friday, September 27, 2024

New York Times: “Maggie Smith, one of the finest British stage and screen actors of her generation, whose award-winning roles ranged from a freethinking Scottish schoolteacher in 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' to the acid-tongued dowager countess on 'Downton Abbey,' died on Friday in London. She was 89.”

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[.]”

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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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March 11, 2023

Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "In one of the most consequential climate decisions of his administration, President Biden is planning to greenlightan enormous $8 billion oil drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska, according to a person familiar with the decision. Alaska lawmakers and oil executives have put intense pressure on the White House to approve the project, citing President Biden's own calls for the industry to increase production amid volatile gas prices stemming from Russia's war against Ukraine. But the proposal to drill for oil has also galvanized young voters and climate activists, many of whom helped elect Mr. Biden and who would view the decision as a betrayal of the president's promise that he would pivot the nation away from fossil fuels. The approval of the largest proposed oil project in the country would mark a turning point in the administration's approach to fossil fuel development." CNN's story is here.

Tony Romm, et al., of the Washington Post: "A powerful group of far-right Republicans on Friday issued a new set of demands in the fight over the debt ceiling, stressing they would only supply their votes to raise the limit if they can secure about $130 billion in spending cuts, cap federal agencies' future budgets and unwind the Biden administration's economic agenda. The ultimatum from the House Freedom Caucus -- led by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) -- threatened to deal a massive blow to government health care, education, science and labor programs. Seeking tougher work requirements on welfare recipients and the repeal of federal funds to fight coronavirus and climate change, the conservatives' wish list appeared to complicate the work to clinch a deal and avert a looming fiscal calamity." MB: Yeah, and cookies & ice cream for every MOC who visits the patriots held at the D.C. jail. Now STFU. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wingers Notice Jordan Panel Is a Joke. Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "... Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is facing growing frustrations over how he's conducted that panel's business thus far. Some leaders in [MB: oxymoron alert!] hard-right intellectual circles have critiqued the initial work of the subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government as lackluster and unfocused, and some Republican lawmakers have privately raised concerns. Critics say the committee has been too slow to staff up, insufficiently aggressive in issuing subpoenas for interviews and testimony, and lacking in substance." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The underlying problem is that the right's caterwaulling that everything is so unfa-a-a-ir to them is "lacking in substance." Of course, you can't tell that to these "hard-right intellectuals" because they seldom leave Right Wing World.

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "It doesn't seem to matter what you ask [Kevin McCarthy]. He hasn't read it, seen it or heard about it....'I didn't see what was aired,' McCarthy [said of Tucker Carlson's egregious whitewashing of the insurrection]." Among other newsworthy items McCarthy missed: Mitch McConnell's criticism of Tucker's fake report; Trump's speech on the Ellipse; "Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) calling the insurrectionists' rampage a 'normal tourist visit"; Trump's infamous phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; Marjorie Taylor Greene's harassing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), etc."'Do you agree with his portrayal of what happened that day?' [CNN's Manu] Raju pressed. 'Look,' McCarthy said. 'Each person can come up with their own conclusion.'... Given a choice between fact and fiction, between law and anarchy, between democracy and thuggery, the speaker of the House proclaimed his agnosticism. In doing so, he threw the power of the speakership behind the insurrectionists and against the constitutional order he swore to uphold.... Truth -- and this democracy -- are threatened by a dangerously weak speaker of the House, who has concluded that the only way to preserve his own power is to support Fox News in its sabotage of this country.&" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: McCarthy is a busy man, so it's quite possible he "didn't see" the news he claims to have missed (especially matters than Fox "News" may not have aired). But he should fire his entire staff if they're not keeping him up-to-date on what the Senate Minority Leader & members of McCarthy's own caucus are doing.

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen, the former fixer who for years did Donald J. Trump's dirty work, is expected to testify before a Manhattan grand jury next week, a sign that prosecutors are poised to indict the former president for his role in paying hush money to a porn star, according to people with knowledge of the matter.... Once he has testified, nearly every crucial player in the hush money matter will have appeared before the grand jury -- with the exception of the porn star herself, Stormy Daniels, who may not be called to testify.... Mr. Trump has consistently derided the investigation as a partisan 'witch hunt' engineered by his political enemies and has called Mr. Bragg, a Democrat who is Black, 'racist.' On Thursday, in a lengthy, unrestrained statement on Truth Social, Mr. Trump denied having an affair with Ms. Daniels and insulted her appearance while painting the investigation as part of a conspiracy to keep him from returning to the White House. He and his followers, he wrote, are 'victims of this corrupt, depraved, and weaponized justice system.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Sisak & Jill Colvin of the AP: "Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is scheduled to testify Monday before a Manhattan grand jury investigating hush-money payments made on the former president's behalf, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press."

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "While the facts [behind the Manhattan D.A.'s case against Donald Trump] are dramatic, the case ... would likely hinge on a complex interplay of laws. And a conviction is far from assured." The reporters outline the publicly-known facts of the case and "an untested and therefore risky legal theory...." They also report on Trump's reaction to the story that Trump was likely to be indicted. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime: "... Donald Trump cannot keep E. Jean Carroll from showing a jury the infamous 'Access Hollywood' tape that nearly derailed his 2016 campaign in a lawsuit accusing him of rape, a federal judge ruled. 'In this case, a jury reasonably could find, even from the "Access Hollywood" tape alone, that Mr. Trump admitted in the Access Hollywood tape that he in fact has had contact with women's genitalia in the past without their consent, or that he has attempted to do so,' Senior U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in a 23-page memorandum opinion." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beth Reinhard & Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "The longtime Republican campaign aide who has leveled sexual misconduct allegations against Matt Schlapp, the influential leader of the Conservative Political Action Conference, was accused last month of sexual battery. Carlton Huffman, 39, was recently ordered by a judge to stay away for one year from a Raleigh, N.C., housemate who alleged he performed unwanted sex acts on her and another woman, according to court documents filed in Wake County Superior Court. The Feb. 27 protective order was issued about one month after Huffman filed a lawsuit in Virginia alleging sexual battery and defamation by Schlapp. Schlapp has denied the claims.... Raleigh police said the case was investigated and closed; an incident report shows no charges were filed. The 19-year-old woman was granted the year-long restraining order against Huffman, while the 22-year-old obtained a protective order for 10 days; a judge then dismissed her complaint." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Andy Kroll & Andrea Bernstein of ProPublica, and Nick Surgey of Documented: "Leonard Leo..., the longtime Federalist Society leader [who] helped create a conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court..., declared in a slick but private video to potential donors, he planned to 'crush liberal dominance' across American life. The country was plagued by 'woke-ism' in corporations and education, 'one-sided journalism' and 'entertainment that's really corrupting our youth,' said Leo amid snippets of cheery music and shots of sunsets and American flags.... Leo revealed his latest battle plan in the previously unreported video for the Teneo Network.... Teneo is building what Leo called in the video 'networks of conservatives that can roll back' liberal influence in Wall Street and Silicon Valley, among authors and academics, with pro athletes and Hollywood producers. A Federalist Society for everything." ~~~

~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Given [Leonard] Leo's past success, he should be taken seriously.... But while Leo's grandiose project could pose a danger to liberalism, it can also be seen as a sign of existential crisis on the right. It demonstrates how conservatives are relying on fantastical ideas about wokeness to tie together a movement that has otherwise lost much of its raison d'être. After all, the nearly 50-year project of ending Roe is complete. Stirring crusades against Communism and then against radical Islam have subsided. The cult of personality around [Donald] Trump has splintered. Many on the right would still like to obliterate the welfare state, but they're deeply defensive about it.... To support the weight [the right are] putting on wokeness, conservatives have had to create a hallucinatory conspiracy theory about how progressive social change works." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oddly, Goldberg doesn't mention it, but I see the "war on wokeness" as a less-than-subtle "war on Black people" & other minorities, including LGBTQ+ people. At its core, it's a racist movement, and a telltale sign is that many of its leaders like Fat Leonard, Fat DeSantolini & Fat Trumpolini (see German Americans, WWI) belong to ethnic groups that were once (and sometimes still now) discriminated against by elites who claimed British heritage and long American pedigrees. Goldberg is correct; the war on wokeness comes from weakness, but it's the weakness of bullies who shoulder a huge chip of resentment over their own sense of "not belonging." This mindset works just as well for people of British and/or Scottish heritage who have not fully realized (at least in their own minds) "the American dream." If they see themselves as failures, they look for somebody else to blame.

Sarah Ellison & others at the Washington Post contrast what key figures at Fox "News" said about Donald Trump publicly vs. privately.

Martha Ross of the Mercury News: "After Kimberly Guilfoyle mysteriously left Fox News in the summer o 2018, she found herself vehemently denying news reports that said her departure was due to allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior. But her former boss, Fox News Chairman Rupert Murdoch, has apparently confirmed that he wanted her gone because of the allegations, which were detailed in a 2020 report in The New Yorker. Murdoch's concerns about Guifoyle, a former top campaign aide for Trump, were revealed in a trove of texts and emails that were recently leaked in Dominion Voting Systems' lawsuit against Fox News. Murdoch said in an email, sent in the wake of the 2020 election, that he had 'insisted' Fox News fire Guilfoyle 'for inappropriate behavior.' The 91-year-old executive also ripped into his once-popular Fox News host in other ways, according to the email, which was shared [in a tweet] by Semafor media reporter Max Tani."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The data of more than 56,000 people, including Social Security numbers and other personal information, was stolen in a hack of the online health insurance marketplace for members of Congress and Washington, D.C., small businesses and residents, officials said in a statement on Friday night. The D.C. Health Benefit Exchange Authority revealed the size and scope of the data breach on Friday.... The data stolen includes names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, health plan information and other personal information, including home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, ethnicity and citizenship status.It was not immediately known how many of those affected were members of Congress.... Exchange officials said they had reached out to affected enrollees to provide three years of identity and credit monitoring."

Rob Copeland, et al., of the New York Times: "Silicon Valley Bank, a lender to some of the biggest names in the technology world..., [became] the largest bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis. The move put nearly $175 billion in customer deposits, including money from some of the biggest names in the technology world, under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. It was an extraordinary denouement less than two days after the bank shocked Wall Street and its depositors with emergency moves to raise cash and stave off a collapse in the face of withdrawal requests and a precipitous decline in the value of its investment holdings.... The F.D.I.C. created a new bank, the National Bank of Santa Clara, to hold the deposits and other assets of the failed one." (Also linked yesterday.)

2024 Presidential Race. Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: Donald "Trump -- who stoked an insurrection trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and is running again in 2024 -- finds himself in growing peril, both legal and political. Multiple investigations into him and his actions are entering advanced stages, all while many in the Republican Party -- in private conversations and public declarations -- are increasingly trying to find an alternative to him.:

Beyond the Beltway

Tennessee. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "Tennessee Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R) acknowledged Thursday that he frequently commented on racy and shirtless photos of a man on Instagram, sparking backlash from critics and LGBTQ advocates at a time when the state's No. 2 elected official has supported bills targeting the LGBTQ community. McNally, 79, repeatedly left supportive statements and emoji, some of them arguably flirtatious, on provocative and half-nude photos posted by Franklin McClure, 20..., according to the Tennessee Holler. That outlet ... reported the story Wednesday. Screenshots of McClure's Instagram posts show that McNally left heart and fire emoji from the lawmaker's verified Instagram account in response to a close-up photo of the man's backside that appears to show him only wearing briefs.... 'I'm really, really sorry if I've embarrassed my family, embarrassed my friends, embarrassed any of the members of the legislature with the posts,' McNally, who is also speaker of the state Senate, told [WTVF Nashville]." McClure "told WMC that McNally offered to help find him a job in Tennessee government." McNally's spokesman said McNally "enjoys interacting with constituents and Tennesseans of all religions, backgrounds and orientations on social media." Apparently so. I do feel sorry for McNally, who -- even at 79 -- thinks he has to hide who he is.

Texas. Eleanor Klibanoff of the Texas Tribune: "A Texas man is suing three women under the wrongful death statute, alleging that they assisted his ex-wife in terminating her pregnancy, the first such case brought since the state's near-total ban on abortion last summer. Marcus Silva is represented by Jonathan Mitchell, the former Texas solicitor general and architect of the state's prohibition on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, and state Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park. The lawsuit is filed in state court in Galveston County, where Silva lives. Silva alleges that his now ex-wife learned she was pregnant in July 2022, the month after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and conspired with two friends to illegally obtain abortion-inducing medication and terminate the pregnancy."

Way Beyond

Saudi Arabia/Iran/China. Vivian Nereim of the New York Times: "Saudi Arabia and Iran have reached an agreement, facilitated by China, to re-establish diplomatic ties after a seven-year split, the countries said on Friday, in what could be a step toward realignment between often hostile regional rivals. Saudi and Iranian officials announced the agreement after talks this week in China, which maintains close ties with both countries, in a joint statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency. Iran's state news media also announced an agreement. The two countries agreed to reactivate a lapsed security cooperation pact -- a shift that comes after years of Iranian proxies targeting Saudi Arabia with missile and drone attacks -- as well as older trade, investment and cultural accords." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Israel. Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "The news of a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia on Friday was ... greeted in Israel with surprise, anxiety and introspection. It also compounded a sense of national peril set off by profound domestic divisions about the policies of the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And it seemed to catch Mr. Netanyahu -- who has long presented himself as the Israeli leader best qualified to fight Iran and most able to charm Saudi Arabia -- off guard. The announcement undermined Israeli hopes of forming a regional security alliance against Iran."

** Israel. Miriam Berger, et al., of the Washington Post: "Israeli security forces in an armored vehicle fired repeatedly into a group of civilians sheltering between a mosque and a clinic after a Feb. 22 raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, killing two people, including a teenager, and wounding three others, according to witnesses and a visual reconstruction of the event by The Washington Post.... The Post reconstruction shows that, while responding to what they claimed was a gunman, Israeli forces fired at least 14 times from inside their armored vehicle.... The Israelis continued firing even after those people would have been visible from the vehicle's windows, the analysis shows.... Israeli forces killed at least 11 people during and after the raid, including several Palestinian fighters, and wounded 102, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and social media posts by Palestinian armed groups.... Recent shootings of civilians by Israeli forces have alarmed human rights and advocacy groups, several of which called the events a result of soldiers being given impunity for unlawful violence against Palestinian civilians."

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Kyiv has ordered the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to leave a monastery where its headquarters is located. Ukraine's culture minister said on Telegram that the church -- which recently declared independence from the pro-war Moscow Patriarch -- 'violated the terms of the agreement regarding the use of state property.' The church said in a Facebook post that Kyiv was 'obviously biased.'" ~~~

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

News Lede

Washington Post: "Heavy rains are washing out roads and leading to emergency rescues in central California as the state braces for more storms in the coming days. The California National Guard helped with at least 56 rescues in the early hours of Saturday morning after a levee breach inundated the small community of Pajaro in Monterey County. On Saturday, the governor's office said that it was working to help the largely Latino community, which has a population of just under 3,000."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (12)

Found the Goldberg piece interesting insofar as she presents a picture of the Right whose intellectual and moral weakness may be its tendency to think everyone is just like themselves: fearful, paranoid and given to conspiratorial thinking.

Though Leonard Leo would never put it this way, they are even fearful that not everyone is in fact like themselves or wishes to be. Hence their solution to every perceived problem or difficulty they wish to treat: Force. Make everyone else like themselves.

As Goldberg said, it worked well enough on the SCOTUS who can simply dictate.

But it doesn't work quite so well when a diversity of peoples actually vote....which is why the Right doesn't like that voting thing either....

March 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

A further thought. Or another way to approach much the same thing.

The Right can't stand difference because it is so unsure of itself it takes any difference as implied criticism. Hence it worships uniformity and relies on imaginary entities to tell them they're OK, even better than all those "others."

March 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

What is the definition of hypocrisy?

I would say it's Tennessee Lt. Governor Randy Rand McNally's (R)
supporting bills targeting the LGBTQ community, then following
those same people on Instagram with likes and hearts.
Fact is, he's not the only one. Most gay bashers are hiding something
in their psyche. Wonder what it could be?

March 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Forrest,

Maybe someone should give randy Rand a map so’s he can figure out exactly where he is. But hypocrites, by their nature, probably wouldn’t benefit from actual knowledge, insisting that they were somewhere else. Maybe that’s what they’re hiding.

March 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

What angers me is that McNally has had more than an actuarial lifetime to figure out his own sexuality, yet he's perfectly happy to promote & pass legislation against kids who didn't even know they had "sexuality" a few years ago.

Spare me the usual GOP refrain "we're doing (whatever) for the children." They're doing it because they're counting on scoring political points with the rubes.

Oh, & that SOB "apologized" to his family & friends in an effort to maintain his status with them, but not to the young people whose lives he's been messing up.

March 11, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

The Real Relativists

Screamers on the right are forever attacking progressives as relativists. In fact, for them, anyone who has a thought or an interpretation of events in the world that doesn’t conform to their thinking is a relativist, in other words, someone who refuses to acknowledge that there’s only one true way of looking at the world, and that’s their way.

But here’s My Kevin declaring that everyone is free to come up with their own interpretation of the events of Jan. 6. Violent mob trying to overthrow the government, peaceful patriots taking in the sights, what does it matter?

But there’s only one group, one party, that says stuff like “reality is what we say it is”. One group that claims the authority of “alternate facts”. One group that makes laws against saying “gay” or allowing the phrases “global warming” or “climate change” to be included in any piece of legislation or any proclamation made by any governing bodies they control. One group that declares huge sections of American history are not to be taught or even considered. One group with a mania bordering on the psychotic for banning books that deal with subjects they hate and fear.

The real relativists.

March 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Akhilleus,

When the facts and reality don't conform with what you wish to be true, the only alternative is to make them up.

That is, dictate them. Call it reality by decree, a natural extension of the Right's autocratic impulse.

So there are relativists at both ends of the political (psychological) spectrum. Liberals are relativists who recognize that experience tells us there is often more than one correct way to look at things, a sane recognition of a complicated reality.

The Right just makes shit up, which is nuts.

March 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@Ken Winkes: Yeah, and then the right goes bonkers on the rare occasions reality smacks them in the face. That's a big part of what is happening to Jungle Gym's various phony investigations. He's so sure there's gambling going on here, and he's shocked, shocked that he can't find it. (Sorry, Captain Renault.)

Unfortunately, I'm afraid Miss Margie will find out her patriot prisoners are being treated badly at the D.C. jail. Big city jails are notorious, and apparently the D.C. jail is as bad as the next one (except for maybe Rikers, which the feds should have taken over a long time ago). It will be up to Democrats to point out that it isn't just patriotic insurrectionists who are living with rats & eating cold cornmeal mush for Easter dinner, but so are the run-of-the-mill thieves and creeps.

(If most of Margie's patriots were not flight risks or dangers to the community, they would be home in the bosoms of their unfortunate families. I hope Democrats single out who-all is awaiting trial and so deserving of Margie's concern. "Whose side are you on, Representative Greene, your country's or this [alleged!] criminal who tried to hang the Vice President?")

March 11, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

And if we go back in time here's Learned Hand, that great man of the Court, giving his opinion:


He feared that in an age of mass communication, society could fall under "the power of the conglomerate conscience of a mass of Babbitts, whose intelligence we do not approve, and whose standard we may detest." Yet, he believed the democratic process was
superior to any available alternative. True that! but I betcha he'd be shocked at how those so called "Babbitts" have become dangerous looney lemmings that ARE destroying our democracy.

I often think–– what if Trump had never become president––how different would our country be. Was he the catalyst that started the engines of chaos ––he began by lying and continued to lie and brought along those many who believed him and now we are back to Goldberg's piece –––we keep trying to explain ourselves and those others who we fail to understand.

March 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D.Pepe

Marie,

And you can bet Q Queen and lover of all things white supremacy and insurrection-y, MTG, will race to Fox with her “breaking news” about how poorly those brave patriots are being treated. There won’t be any mention however of the Black prisoners housed there who have been eating rat turd soup for decades, only that the poor white patriots have had it really, wicked bad for a few weeks.

March 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Last week the USofA congress exercised its authority to reject the revised District of Columbia criminal code, and in this election cycle just starting, President Biden went along, knowing a "soft-on-crime" set up when he sees one.

The Congress meddled in DC's self-governance, for political stunting.

So now, the Jordan committee folks will review living conditions for the accused January 6 detainees. They will find that life in jails sucks.

So next I'm sure they will put in Kevin's Big May (be) Budget lots of funding to improve the facilities, staff, amenities, food and care at the DC jail, because it needs fixing.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha April fools, just a few weeks early.

March 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Yes, April Fool’s is a few weeks away, but we have a galumphing horde of 365, 24/7 fools running the House. I guess they voted against rational savings time, because why not? They’re fools every day.

March 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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