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
powered by Surfing Waves
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[.]”

Help!

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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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Saturday
Mar042023

March 4, 2023

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Biden and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany on Friday showed a united front on the war in Ukraine, vowing to keep Western support intact amid mounting concerns that China could move to supply weapons to Moscow. Speaking to reporters before a private meeting in the Oval Office, Mr. Biden said that both leaders would work in 'lock step' for as long as it takes to provide military support to Kyiv.... In a statement on Friday, the White House said that the two leaders discussed their 'commitment to impose costs on Russia for its aggression for as long as necessary,' and that they 'exchanged perspectives on other global issues,' without naming China.... Still, Mr. Scholz arrived in Washington hours after speaking to the German Parliament and directly calling on Beijing -- his country's largest trading partner -- to 'use your influence in Moscow to press for the withdrawal of Russian troops.'... Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said on Friday that 'every step China takes toward Russia makes it harder for China with Europe and other countries around the world.'" ~~~

~~~ Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Attorney General Merrick B. Garland made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Friday to reaffirm America's commitment to help hold Russia responsible for war crimes, a Justice Department spokeswoman said. Mr. Garland held several meetings with President Volodymyr Zelensky and foreign law enforcement officials in Lviv, while attending the United for Justice Conference, the department said in an email. During the conference, Mr. Garland 'reaffirmed our determination to hold Russia accountable for crimes committed in its unjust and unprovoked invasion against its sovereign neighbor,' the email said." More on Russia's war against Ukraine linked below under Way Beyond the Beltway. CNN's report is here.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "Nearly 60 years after one of the first Black officers in the Special Forces was nominated -- and then overlooked -- for the nation's highest military honor, President Biden on Friday awarded the Medal of Honor to that officer, Col. Paris Davis, for exemplifying 'everything our nation is at our best.... Brave and big hearted. Determined and devoted. Selfless and steadfast. American,' Mr. Biden said of Colonel Davis, who refused to leave behind his fellow soldiers in the midst of battle after suffering multiple gun shot injuries.... Arriving in Vietnam just a month after the bloody civil rights march in Selma, Ala., Colonel Davis and three other Special Forces troops led South Vietnamese volunteers to strike an enemy camp on June 18, 1965, when they came under fire. Even after a grenade blasted off part of his trigger finger and several other soldiers were shot down, he kept fighting. When reinforcements arrived and he was ordered to evacuate, he refused to leave before saving his medic. All four of the Special Forces soldiers made it out alive." ~~~

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Biden had a cancerous lesion removed from his chest during his physical last month, the president's doctor said Friday. The existence of the lesion was included in the summary of Mr. Biden's physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in mid-February. On Friday, Dr. Kevin C. O'Connor, the president's longtime physician, said a biopsy confirmed that it was basal cell carcinoma, a common and relatively unaggressive form of skin cancer." An AP story is here.

Joe Jacquez of the Hill: "Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized President Biden's handling of a GOP-led resolution that would overturn parts of a District of Columbia crime bill, decrying that he should have given Democrats 'a heads up.' 'If he was going to do it I wish he would've told us first, because this was a hard vote for the House members,' Pelosi said at a University of Chicago event on Friday, after being asked whether she agreed with Biden on the bill. 'And it's a hard vote for the Senate members. And the mayor of District of Columbia even differed from the legislators who passed it, so it wasn't that clear.'... But if the president's going to do it, hey, could you give us a heads up too in the House?'"

Hannah Dreier & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Members of Congress are pressing for stricter laws to prevent and penalize the use of child labor and tougher vetting by the Biden administration of adults who take custody of unaccompanied migrant children, as revelations about the exploitation of underage migrants by employers have prompted outrage among policymakers. Days after an investigation by The New York Times revealed the explosive growth of migrant child labor in the United States, federal and state enforcement agencies have begun a crackdown on companies that employ children, and the Biden administration is under pressure to make broader changes to the way it deals with minors who arrive in the country without their parents. Top Senate Democrats sent a letter Friday demanding answers from the secretaries of the federal health and labor agencies by April 1, saying they were 'deeply disturbed' that 'large numbers of unaccompanied noncitizen children are being placed with exploitative sponsors and working long hours in dangerous conditions.'... Senator Richard J. Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat and chairman of the Judiciary Committee..., and other Democrats also are proposing tough new legislation to increase maximum civil fines and criminal penalties for violations of child labor laws, as well as make it more difficult for employers to get around existing prohibitions against hiring minors."

First, Indict All the Lawyers. Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election have asked witnesses extensive questions about the actions of Rudy Giuliani.... Investigators looking into classified documents taken to Mar-a-Lago ... have sought to force testimony from another Trump lawyer, Evan Corcoran, by saying there is evidence that the former president used the attorney's legal services in furtherance of a crime. And prosecutors have repeatedly sought information on the actions of yet another Trump lawyer, Boris Epshteyn, in connection with both classified documents and Trump's false electors scheme.... They have quizzed multiple Trump attorneys involved with the documents case...."

Judge Curbs McCarthy Plan to Aid & Abet Insurrectionists. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A federal judge on Friday denied a Jan. 6 defendant's request to delay her imminent trial in order to review thousands of hours of security footage recently made available by Speaker Kevin McCarthy. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg said he understood why Sara Carpenter -- who is facing two felony charges for her actions at the Capitol -- would like time to review the material. But he said she had failed to explain why any additional footage of her movements inside the building would be exculpatory, particularly when prosecutors had already turned over footage of the vast majority of Carpenter's 34 minutes inside the building. Boasberg ... -- who is set to become Washington D.C.'s chief district court judge later this month -- ... worried that widely permitting Jan. 6 defendants to slow down their criminal proceedings in order to review this footage could 'derail dozens of trials that are set in the next few months.'"

Casey Gannon of CNN: "A New York man who assaulted former Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol pleaded guilty on Friday to several felony charges. Thomas Sibick, 37, pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting or impeding of an officer and two counts of theft. On January 6, Sibick, along with others, attacked Fanone and forcibly took his badge and radio. Prosecutors said that Sibick falsely claimed to the FBI that he tried to help Fanone and used the emergency button on the radio to signal help. Yet evidence showed that Sibick did not press the button until 16 minutes after Fanone was escorted to safety.... Prosecutors also said that Sibick was not truthful about what he did with Fanone's badge and radio following the attack on the Capitol. While he told law enforcement he threw Fanone's badge in a dumpster in Buffalo, New York, investigators later learned that Sibick had buried Fanone's badge in his backyard. The badge was ultimately returned to investigators covered in dirt."

Daniella Silva of NBC News: "The U.S. Capitol Police confiscated an assault-style 'ghost gun' and a handgun capable of automatic fire during the arrests of two people near the Capitol, police said Friday. Police said they found the M4-style 'ghost gun' and a 'Glock handgun with a full auto switch' on Thursday during the arrests of two suspects while patrolling the complex.... Kwame T. Keith, 24, of Hyattsville, Maryland, and Justin B. Campos, 19, of Landover, Maryland, were arrested after police encountered them while they were in a stolen car, police said. 'The arrests were made a short walk from the Congressional Buildings and across the street from television studios Members of Congress frequently use,' [a police] statement said."

Jane Timm of NBC News: "Two progressive groups want the Federal Election Commission to investigate Fox Corp. and ... Donald Trump's 2020 campaign for breaking campaign finance laws. On Friday, End Citizens United PAC filed a complaint with the FEC arguing that Fox Corp. chair Rupert Murdoch broke the law when he shared Joe Biden's campaign ad and debate strategy with Trump adviser Jared Kushner.... According to a [Dominion Voting system] filing citing Murdoch's sworn deposition, the Fox boss admitted to providing a preview of the ads with Kushner before they were public, as well as sharing Biden's debate strategy during the 2020 campaign.... 'Fox Corporation's blatant and cavalier act is a prohibited corporate contribution. The commission must immediately investigate,' wrote End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller.... Media Matters for America also filed an FEC complaint Friday against the two entities, alleging that Fox made 'illegal corporate in-kind contribution.'"

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. "Mostly Crickets."Katie Robertson & Stuart Thompson of the New York Times: "Over the past two weeks, legal filings containing private messages and testimony from Fox hosts and executives revealed that many of them had serious doubts that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election through widespread voter fraud, even as those claims were made repeatedly on Fox's shows. The revelations, made public in a defamation lawsuit against Fox brought by Dominion Voting Systems, have generated headlines around the world. But in the conservative media world? Mostly crickets. On 26 of the most popular conservative television news networks, radio shows, podcasts and websites, only four -- The National Review, Townhall, The Federalist and Breitbart News == have mentioned the private messages from Fox News hosts that disparaged election fraud claims since Feb. 16, when the first batch of court filings were released publicly, according to a review by The New York Times. The majority -- 18 in all, including Fox News itself -- did not cover the lawsuit at all with their own staff. (Some of those 18 published wire stories originally written by The Associated Press or other services.)... One of those, The Gateway Pundit, published three articles that included additional unfounded allegations about Dominion...."

From the Gossip Page. Oli Coleman & Ian Mohr of the New York Post's Page Six: "Page Six hears that Kellyanne Conway, the longtime advisor to ... Donald Trump, and George Conway, the longtime tormentor of President Trump, have decided to divorce after 22 years of marriage."

Vaugh Hillyard & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Nick Fuentes, the antisemitic white nationalist provocateur who dined with ... Donald Trump last year, was 'removed' from the premises of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, the chair of the group that stages the event said Friday. 'We removed Nick Fuentes from his attempt to attend our conference. His hateful racist rhetoric and actions are not consistent with the mission of CPAC,' Matt Schlapp said in a statement posted on Instagram."

Presidential Race 2024

Isaac Arnsdorf & Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: "Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley stepped into the hallway after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday to supporters asking for selfies and autographs -- and, from others, a less friendly greeting. 'We love Trump, we love Trump!' a crowd around her started chanting. Some Haley supporters shouted her name back as the former U.N. ambassador escaped with staff to an elevator. The dust-up showed the risks of taking the primary fight to what has clearly become Trump's home turf. Though CPAC has long been seen as a big-tent forum for the conservative movement and a mandatory cattle call for presidential hopefuls, the annual conference has increasingly grown into a stomping ground for the 45th president and his 'Make America Great Again' wing of the GOP. Trump will speak at the event Saturday." The report goes on to describe the Trumpy scene at the "conference."

The Jerk Who Dares Not Say His Name. Aarone Blake of the Washington Post: "... Mike Pompeo tested quite a message [at CPAC] Friday. 'Don't hand that government more power under the guise of conservatism,' the likely GOP presidential contender and former secretary of state said. 'We shouldn't look for larger-than-life personalities, but rather we should fight power in the rooms like this one.' Pompeo continued: 'We can't become the left, following celebrity leaders with their own brand of identity politics -- those with fragile egos who refuse to acknowledge reality.... We can't shift blame to others, but must accept the responsibility that comes to those of us who step forward and lead.'" Blake goes on to break down Pompeo's very personal attack on Donald Trump.


Larry Neumeister
of the AP: "A former U.S. Army private from Kentucky who was devoted to a violent extremist group seeking to erode or destroy Western civilization was sentenced to the maximum 45 years in prison Friday for plotting a murderous terrorist attack on his paratrooper unit. Ethan Melzer's hands trembled as the judge said he deserved the maximum because of the lasting harm he caused by sharing U.S. military secrets with other followers of a radical violent group known as the Order of Nine Angles, or 09A, and other terrorist groups. U.S. District Judge Gregory H. Woods rejected the 24-year-old's claim to be a remorseful, reformed man, saying it was more likely he was 'playing another role' in pursuit of leniency just as he had 'played soldier' so he could conspire to try to murder fellow paratroopers."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Andrew Kaczynski, et al., of CNN: "An appointee to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis&' new oversight board in control of Disney's special tax district called homosexuality 'evil' last year and shared a baseless conspiracy theory that tap water could be making more people gay. On Monday, the Republican governor appointed Ron Peri, an Orlando-based former pastor and the CEO of The Gathering -- a Christian ministry focused on outreach to men -- as one of five people who will now oversee the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the government body that has given Disney unique powers in Central Florida for more than half a century." MB: In case you were wondering what a DeSantis administration would look like. I know it's wrong to laugh at people who are so dangerous & hateful, but it's hard not to suspect Peri is having an affair with the Culligan man.

Ohio. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Tom Perkins of the Guardian: "Contaminated soil from the site around the East Palestine train wreck in Ohio is being sent to a nearby incinerator with a history of clean air violations, raising fears that the chemicals being removed from the ground will be redistributed across the region. The new plan is 'horrifying', said Kyla Bennett, a former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official now with the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility non-profit. She is one among a number of public health advocates and local residents who have slammed Norfolk Southern and state and federal officials over the decision.... Environmental researchers say the combustion of vinyl chloride almost certainly created dioxins, a highly toxic chemical that can remain in the environment for years. However, the EPA has resisted calls to test for it, and the agency removed from its website the results of its in-depth soil analyses, so it's unclear which chemicals are in the soil.... The ground also likely contains PFAS, informally called 'forever chemicals' because they do not naturally break down, and no human-made method to destroy the compounds has been fully developed."

South Carolina. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughts & Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: "A judge sentenced Alex Murdaugh to life in prison on Friday for the murders of his wife and son, condemning the once-wealthy and influential Southern lawyer to spend the remainder of his life behind bars, a powerful rebuke from the rural South Carolina legal system that his family dominated for more than a century. Judge Clifton Newman handed down the sentence after berating Mr. Murdaugh for nearly 20 minutes, urging the lawyer he had previously encountered in courtrooms to come clean about the shocking crime and the lies he said Mr. Murdaugh had told to cover it up."

Utah. Sam Metz of the AP: "Utah Gov. Spencer Cox [R] said Friday that he plans to sign a measure that would effectively ban abortion clinics from operating in the state, meaning hospitals will soon be the only places where they can be provided in the state. After passing through the [Republican-controlled] state Senate on Thursday with minor amendments, it returned to the [Republican-controlled] Utah House of Representatives Friday morning, where it was approved and then sent to the governor for final approval. The move comes less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, returning the power to regulate abortions to states."

Wyoming. Joanna Slater of the Washington Post: "Lawmakers in Wyoming approved measures on Thursday that will make it nearly impossible to terminate a pregnancy, part of a dramatic reshaping of laws governing abortion across the country in the post-Roe v. Wade era. The two bills prohibit abortions, with narrow exceptions including cases of rape and incest, and criminalize the use of medications to cause abortions. The bills were passed by both houses of the state legislature and await the signature of Gov. Mark Gordon (R), who has approved antiabortion measures in the past."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Law enforcement officials from the United States, the European Union, Britain and other jurisdictions met Friday in Lviv, including U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who traveled to the Ukrainian city unannounced.... The United States signed an agreement designed to expand information-sharing regarding alleged Russian war crimes, involving Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia and Romania, Garland said. Meanwhile, American prosecutors are aiding their Ukrainian counterparts to build cases against war criminals.... The United States announced a new $400 million military assistance package for Ukraine that includes more ammunition for artillery, armored vehicles and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS.... In Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces appeared to be still in control of some parts of the city, despite claims by pro-Kremlin forces that they had encircled the town, The Washington Post reported. ~~~

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

Reader Comments (2)

The State of Fascism, formerly known as Florida, may soon have a requirement that users of deadly weapons must register with the government. Oh…not guns. No. The deadly weapons referred to in a new bill filed in the state legislator are words.

If you’re a blogger and you write something about DeSantolini or any of his henchmen, you will have to fill out an official form letting the state know your personal information including how much you got paid to say anything about the Little Fascist or any of his Black Shirts in state government.

So, you walk into Joe Bob’s Tractor Repair and Gun Shop to purchase an AR-15, no registration is required. Hell, you don’t even need a license. But blogging about DeSantolini gets you put under the microscope, with hefty fines if you don’t fill out your form toot sweet. Just think how many forms a single blogger would have to fill out in a week simply by reporting on DeSantolini’s latest attempts at Nazification of the state.

And while this incredible attack on First Amendment rights may not become law (meaning it actually COULD become law), just the fact that Party of Traitors apparatchiks feel justified in weaponizing the legal power of the state to go after their enemies and intimidate the media is enough to give Americans who believe in freedom of speech the heebie-jeebies.

March 4, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

"... it's hard not to suspect Peri is having an affair with the Culligan man."

And, it's probably totally coincidental, but "peri" is Turkish for "fairy" or "pixie." The Tinkerbell kind.

March 4, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick
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