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[.]”

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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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Page Links
Tuesday
Mar072023

March 8, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Marie: Yeah, I know it's International Women's Day. And what a cruel joke that is this year in our neck of the woods -- and elsewhere. Fer instance,

Victoria Bisset & Naomi Schanen of the Washington Post: "As the world marks International Women's Day on Wednesday, the United Nations has warned that the world is 300 years away from gender equality, with hard-won progress toward the goal 'vanishing before our eyes.'... More than a dozen [U.S.] states have banned most abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June -- either by prohibiting them completely, with limited exceptions, or after six weeks of pregnancy. Courts have blocked bans in several other states while legal challenges proceed.... The United Nations' human rights chief has described the ruling as a 'major setback' and 'a huge blow to women's human rights and gender equality.'" The reporters assess atrocities against women in Iran & Afghanistan and note that, ";Women remain underrepresented in government -- as of January, just 31 countries have a woman serving as a head of state or government.... The recent resignations of two high-profile female leaders ... -- New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern [and] ... Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon -- ... in particular have sparked discussion about the sexism and personal attacks female leaders often face." MB: So by my standards, it's more a day of mourning than a day of celebration.

Aw, Poor TuKKKums. Christopher Cadelago of Politico: "The White House joined in widespread condemnation of Fox News star Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, singling out the prime-time ratings king for his misleading portrayal of the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.... 'We agree with the chief of the Capitol Police and the wide range of bipartisan lawmakers who have condemned this false depiction of the unprecedented, violent attack on our Constitution and the rule of law -- which cost police officers their lives,' White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said. 'We also agree with what Fox News's own attorneys and executives have now repeatedly stressed in multiple courts of law: that Tucker Carlson is not credible,' Bates added. The statement was a rare rebuke of Carlson by name, suggesting an escalation of tensions between the White House and the conservative-leaning, beleaguered cable giant."

Arkansas, the Dickensian State. Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed into law this week legislation that rolls back significant portions of the state's child labor protections. The law eliminates requirements for the state to verify the age of children younger than 16 before they can take a job.... Republican leaders in Congress tapped Sanders, 40, the youngest governor in the nation, to deliver the GOP response to President Biden's State of the Union address last month." ~~~

     ~~~ The New Civil Rights report is here, published by Alternet. David Badash notes, "While Republican governors and lawmakers across the country have taken up the mantle of 'parents' rights' as they support bans on books, sex education, and any discussion of LGBTQ people, Governor [Sarah] Huckabee has removed the right of parents to be informed of or consent to their young minor children getting a job."

Kentucky. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The police department in Louisville, Ky., engaged in a yearslong pattern of discriminatory law enforcement practices, the Justice Department said on Wednesday after conducting a two-year investigation prompted by the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor by the police in 2020. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, appearing in Louisville alongside the city's mayor and acting police chief, announced an agreement to overhaul policing practices he said had led to systemic discrimination against Black people, including Ms. Taylor. Ms. Taylor, a Black medical worker, was shot and killed by police officers assigned to a drug enforcement unit in March 2020 during a botched raid of her apartment. In a damning 90-page report, investigators painted a grim portrait of the Louisville Metro Police Department, detailing a variety of serious abuses, including excessive force; searches based on invalid and so-called no-knock warrants; unlawful car stops, detentions and harassment of people during street sweeps; and broad patterns of discrimination against Black people and people with behavioral health problems." An AP report is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "The U.S. economy could quickly shed a million jobs and fall into recession if lawmakers fail to raise the nation's borrowing limit before the federal government exhausts its ability to pay its bills on time, the chief economist of Moody's Analytics, Mark Zandi, warned a Senate panel on Tuesday. The damage could spiral to seven million jobs lost and a 2008-style financial crisis in the event of a prolonged breach of the debt limit, in which House Republicans refuse for months to join Democrats in voting to raise the cap, Mr. Zandi and his colleagues Cristian deRitis and Bernard Yaros wrote in an analysis prepared for the Senate Banking Committee's Subcommittee on Economic Policy. The warning comes at a moment of fiscal brinkmanship. House Republicans are demanding deep spending cuts from President Biden in exchange for voting to raise the debt limit, which caps how much money the government can borrow." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, made clear on Tuesday that the central bank is prepared to react to recent signs of economic strength by raising interest rates higher than previously expected and, if incoming data remain hot, potentially returning to a quicker pace of rate increases. Mr. Powell, in remarks before the Senate Banking Committee, also noted that the Fed's fight against inflation was 'very likely' to come at some cost to the labor market. His comments are the clearest acknowledgment yet that recent reports showing inflation remains stubborn and the job market remains resilient are likely to shake up the policy trajectory for America's central bank." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: "President Biden's pick to serve as a telecommunications regulator is withdrawing her nomination to the Federal Communications Commission, following a bitter 16-month lobbying battle that blocked her appointment and opened her up to relentless personal attacks. Gigi Sohn, a longtime public interest advocate and former Democratic FCC official who was first nominated by the White House in October 2021, said her decision to withdraw follows 'unrelenting, dishonest and cruel attacks' seeded by cable and media industry lobbyists. The opposition to Sohn catapulted the relatively low-profile position to the center of an unprecedented fight, which involved three Senate confirmation hearings, a series of ads and a billboard criticizing Sohn as 'extreme' and 'partisan' amid dissection of her social media posts. Sohn's decision to bow out leaves the Biden administration's ambitious internet agenda mired in limbo.... he FCC remains stalled on these commitments amid a 2-2 split, imperiling the administration's plans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) An NPR story is here.

Nick Chokshi of the New York Times: "The Justice Department on Tuesday filed a lawsuit seeking to stop JetBlue Airways from buying Spirit Airlines, arguing that the $3.8 billion deal would reduce competition in a highly concentrated industry. By absorbing Spirit, JetBlue would eliminate a disruptive force that has kept fares low across the country, the department's antitrust division argued in its lawsuit. The merger would also give JetBlue an outsize hold on dozens of routes, result in higher fares and reduce options for travelers, particularly for those most sensitive to costs, it said." (Also linked yesterday.)

Let's Bomb Mexico! Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "The House Republican chairman with oversight of border issues said Tuesday that it was 'a mistake' that ... Donald Trump didn't bomb meth labs in Mexico, an idea so extreme that even Trump wouldn't confirm he reportedly said this behind closed doors. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the new chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said during an appearance on 'Fox and Friends' that it was too bad that Trump didn't launch a military attack on Mexico, a longtime U.S. ally, to try to stop drug traffickers. 'One of the things we learned post-Trump presidency is that he had ordered a bombing of a couple of fentanyl labs, crystal meth labs, in Mexico, just across the border and for whatever reason, the military didn't do it,' said Comer. 'I think that was a mistake.'" MB: Yeah, for whatever reason.

Fox Entertainment

I hate him passionately. -- Tucker Carlson, in a text message to staff, expressing his feelings about Donald Trump

Jeremy Peters & Katie Robertson of the New York Times: Documents "released on Tuesday evening as part of Dominion [Voting System]'s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, offer some of the clearest evidence yet about the serious misgivings that many inside the [Fox News] network expressed to one another even as they told their audiences of millions a very different story of fraud and malfeasance at the polls. Some Fox hosts and guests have continued to air claims about widespread election fraud and advance a revisionist account of what happened during the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 -- few more so than [Tucker] Carlson.... Mr. Carlson -- who ridiculed claims about a plot to steal the election as 'shockingly reckless' and 'absurd' in his November 2020 text messages -- also continued to give credence to lies about widespread voter fraud this week.... Fox lawyers redacted the documents extensively, leaving much of what people said to one another under seal. The New York Times and several other media outlets are challenging the legality of those redactions." ~~~

~~~ Sarah Ellison of the Washington Post: “For years, Fox News executives and hosts cultivated a close relationship with Donald Trump. But after he lost the 2020 presidential election and turned his back on the network -- inspiring many once-loyal viewers to do the same -- the relationship curdled. And the ensuing pressure caused tension, second-guessing and infighting within Fox on the scale of an 'existential crisis,' as one senior executive called it, a cache of internal communications released Tuesday as part of a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit indicates. 'We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,' prime-time host Tucker Carlson texted a colleague on Jan. 4, 2021. 'I truly can't wait.'" ~~~

~~~ Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "In the weeks after the November 2020 election, Rupert Murdoch, the powerful chairman of Fox Corp., fretted that Donald Trump, the president he had supported, was going 'increasingly mad' ... with ... Rudy Giuliani 'encouraging ... and misleading him.' 'Apparently not sleeping and bouncing off walls!' Murdoch added. 'Don't know about Melania, but kids no help.'... He vented about the pollsters who worked for him at Fox News. 'I hate our Decision Desk people!' he wrote in one email as the network -- driven by analysis from the unit -- prepared to declare that Joe Biden had won the election. He worried some ideas proposed by Trump's allies to convince state legislatures to reject Biden victories in key swing states 'sound ridiculous' and could lead to 'riots like never before.'... Two days [after the January 6 insurrection], he emailed a former Fox executive: 'Fox News very busy pivoting ... We want to make Trump a non person.'" ~~~

~~~ Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime: "Fox News host Tucker Carlson savaged conspiracy theorist lawyer Sidney Powell in jaw-dropping unsealed messages released in Dominion's $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit. 'Sidney Powell is lying,' Carlson said of ... Donald Trump's would-be special counsel for the 2020 election in a message dated Nov. 17, 2020. 'F—ing b--,' Carlson added."

Marie: If you haven't had time to watch TuKKKer's full show debunking insurrection conspiracy theories, Forrest M., via the Democratic Underground, has brought us Shorter TuKKKer:

Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: "After watching the first installment of Fox News host Tucker Carlson's look at Capitol surveillance video from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger sent out a memo to his department Tuesday morning denouncing the show as 'filled with offensive and misleading conclusions.'... Carlson's program 'conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video,' Manger wrote. 'The commentary fails to provide context about the chaos and violence that happened before or during these less tense moments.'... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he sided with Manger's account of events, appearing to hold up a copy of the chief's memo. 'With regard to the presentation on Fox News last night, I want to associate myself entirely with the opinion of the Chief of the Capitol Police about what happened on January 6th,' he said." CNN's story is here. MB: Everybody get together now and shout out, "Thanks, Kevin!" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) called Carlson's presentation of Jan. 6 as 'mostly peaceful chaos' both 'bull----' and 'inexcusable.' Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) ... said to put what happened 'in the same category as ... permitted peaceful protest is just a lie.' Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said ..., 'I'm not interested in whitewashing Jan. 6.' Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called it 'dangerous and disgusting' and compared it to Alex Jones's portrayal of the Sandy Hook massacre. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said, 'I thought it was an insurrection at that time. I still think it was an insurrection today.' Senate Republicans' No. 2 John Thune (S.D.) said, 'I think it was an attack on the Capitol.... There were a lot of people in the Capitol at the time that were scared for their lives.'... The comments from GOP senators are striking given how influential Carlson is in the conservative movement. They're also striking because several of them reflect how [Kevin] McCarthy himself has also spoken about the insurrection.... [The Republican senators have not criticized McCarthy publicly, but] given how predictable Monday's presentation was, there's little question about who paved the way for the 'whitewashing' they now deride." The NBC News story, on which Blake relied for senators' reactions, is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Luke Broadwater & Stephanie Lai of the New York Times: "On Tuesday morning, the House Republican Conference, the party's main messaging arm, tweeted a link to a portion of [Tucker Carlson's] report calling it a 'MUST WATCH,' including four siren emojis for emphasis.... House Republican leaders cheered Mr. Carlson's work, as many of them accused the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack, which had recommended criminal referrals for Mr. Trump and his allies and condemned the conduct of Republicans who attempted to help overturn the 2020 election, of mistreating them.... [Kevin] McCarthy said on Tuesday evening that he had not watched the segment, but he defended his decision to give Mr. Carlson the footage, stating that he wanted 'transparency.'... Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, condemned [Carlson's 'report'] on the Senate floor Tuesday.... He said Mr. McCarthy had played a 'treacherous game' by collaborating with Mr. Carlson and his conspiracy theories, and called the broadcast 'shameful.'" ~~~

~~~ AND THEN. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "During [Tuesday's 6:00 pm ET 'news'] program, anchor Bret Baier ran a report by Senior Congressional Correspondent Chad Pergram. Though a piece of straight news reporting, the thrust of it cast serious doubt on [Tucker] Carlson's framing of the events of Jan. 6.... Pergram noted that while some people at the Capitol that day did not engage in violence, plenty of lawmakers present -- including Republicans -- stated the obvious.... [After airing Republican senators' comments dissing Carlson's 'report,'] Pergram noted that some 140 officers were assaulted during the attack, and 106 people were charged with using a deadly weapon.... 'And to be clear, no one here at Fox News condones any of the violence that happened on Jan. 6,' [Baier] said."

Do You Wonder If TuKKKer Persuaded Any of the Rubes? Sara Boboltz of the Huffington Post: "Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday joined the right-wing chorus denying that a violent riot took place at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after Fox News aired cherry-picked footage of the incident provided by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.... 'Besides misleading the public, [the January 6 committee] withheld evidence for partisan political reasons that sent people to prison for far more serious crimes than they committed. That is deeply wrong, legally and morally.' 'This is crazy. The public was misled,' Musk said in a separate tweet about the footage.... Other commentary came over the course of several hours early Tuesday, shortly after Musk, the world's richest person, suggested that he uses Twitter while on the toilet for long periods." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In the 1950s, my mother made me read an article by the political cartoonist Bill Mauldin titled "If You're So Smart, Why Ain't You Rich?" Well, now I must ask Elon, "If you're so rich, why ain't you smart?"

Back When My Kevin Had a Passing Moment of Clarity. Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy once spoke about the violence at the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, in starkly different terms than the narrative Fox News host Tucker Carlson is presenting with footage McCarthy provided to him, which has been selectively used to downplay the violence. In the days following the riot, McCarthy said rioters 'overtook' the Capitol, speculating the rioters who he said broke a window in his office could have kidnapped or even hung [hanged!] members of Congress, and called the mob attacking the Capitol 'un-American.' In other comments made a week later ..., McCarthy said anyone who participated should go to jail and spoke in stark terms of the violence unleashed on Capitol Police officers. 'These men and women in the uniform, they got overrun,' McCarthy said. 'One officer got killed --- they got broken arms. You don't understand what was transpiring at that moment and that time.... When I got back into my building, I found the straps that they had. I don't know if they come and try to kidnap somebody or whatever. But they, they were well planned for it.... They scaled walls,' he added. 'They brought ropes. A couple of protesters died because they scaled. And when you have the inaugural there was scaffolding. They were scaling the scaffolding. They, they overtook the place.'"

Oliver Darcy of CNN: "The face of Fox News is doing everything in his power to sanitize the horrific violence the nation saw unfold in real-time at the U.S. Capitol in the aftermath of the 2020 election. And on Monday night, he had a major assist from Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who granted him exclusive access to tens of thousands of hours of January 6 security camera footage. After continuing to sow doubt about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election ('it is clear the 2020 election was a grave betrayal of American democracy'), Tucker Carlson used the footage on Monday night to portray those who broke into the U.S. Capitol as mostly peaceful patriots who simply felt wronged by the system. Carlson ... falsely claimed the footage provided 'conclusive' evidence proving Democrats 'lied' about the events of January 6.... In effect, McCarthy served as Carlson's reluctant, but obedient, accomplice.... McCarthy, like the rest of his flock in Congress, knows that Carlson is the real boss inside the Republican Party." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race 2024. "Trump Engages in Fascist Rhetoric." Maggie Haberman & Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump has for decades trafficked in the language of vengeance, from his days as a New York developer ... to ticking through an enemies ledger in 2022 as he sought to oust every last Republican who voted for his impeachment.... But even though payback has long been part of his public persona, Mr. Trump's speech on Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference was striking for how explicitly he signaled that any return trip to the White House would amount to a term of spite. 'In 2016, I declared, "I am your voice,"' Mr. Trump told the crowd in National Harbor, Md. 'Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.' He repeated the phrase for emphasis: 'I am your retribution.' Framing the 2024 election as a dire moment in an us-versus-them struggle -- 'the final battle,' as he put it -- Mr. Trump charged forward in an uncharted direction for American politics, talking openly about leveraging the power of the presidency for political reprisals.... In essence, [John] Bolton [-- Trump's former national security advisor --] said, the former president is 'pretty much calling for something close to civil insurrection.'... [Jason] Stanley [-- a Yale University professor --] said that such language was all the more notable given the context of Jan. 6. 'He's saying it's a war,' he said. 'There is not law versus chaos, there is just him versus his enemies, your enemies.' He added bluntly, 'Trump engages in fascist rhetoric.'"


Kate Conger , et al., of the New York Times: "The Federal Trade Commission is intensifying an investigation into Twitter's data and privacy practices and is seeking testimony from Elon Musk, who has laid off the bulk of Twitter's work force since acquiring the company last year. The investigation is focused on whether Twitter has adequate resources to protect its users' privacy after the mass layoffs and budget cuts ordered by Mr. Musk, said five people familiar with the investigation.... The inquiry has been criticized by a subcommittee of the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, which said on Tuesday that the F.T.C. was engaged in an 'aggressive campaign to harass Twitter' and had issued more than 350 requests for information since Mr. Musk took over the company in October.... Under a consent decree it reached with the agency in 2011 and expanded in 2022, Twitter is required to conduct regular security audits and keep the F.T.C. informed about how it handles sensitive data." ~~~

     ~~~ Well, There's This. Adi Robertson of the Verge: "Twitter has allowed the certificate for its Tor onion site to expire, effectively killing off a privacy and speech-protecting service that it introduced last year.... Twitter no longer has a communications department to ask about the change, but the Tor Project confirmed the service's lapse to The Verge.... Onion sites, sometimes called hidden services or 'dark web' sites, must be accessed via a browser that uses the anonymous and encrypted Tor network. (This keeps the user's web traffic and point of origin secret, and it also lets users get around government censorship efforts like those of Russia and China.)

Pam Belluck & Julie Creswell of the New York Times: "Walgreens landed at the center of a consumer and political firestorm in recent days, after saying it would not dispense an abortion pill in 21 states where Republican attorneys general have threatened legal action against pharmacies that try to distribute the medication.... While chains like CVS and Rite Aid face the same legal and reputational quagmire as Walgreens, they are staying quiet on the matter.... Walgreens' stock was down almost 4 percent, to $34.14, by the close of trading on Tuesday.... Currently, few pharmacies have completed the certification process to be able to distribute mifepristone." ~~~

~~~ Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "Before the company's decision not to distribute mifepristone pills in 20 states, there've been a series of headlines in recent years about Walgreens employees refusing to sell birth control to female and male customers based on their own individual beliefs. A longtime Walgreens company policy states that an employee can decline to complete a customer's transaction if they have religious or moral objections to the sale but that it must be handed off to a co-worker or manager so they can finish the transaction, the Associated Press reported.... Walgreens spokesman Jim Cohn told The Washington Post in a statement Tuesday that the policy of allowing pharmacists and other employees 'to step away from completing a transaction to which they have a moral objection' is still in place. 'Our policy also requires the employee to refer the transaction to another employee or manager on duty who will complete the customer's request,' Cohn said." Bella cites several documented incidents, such as the Walgreen's clerk who refused to sell condoms to a married couple. Condoms! ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Even an outspoken person like me would not relish having to stand in front of a line of customers and demand to be allowed to buy condoms which the store places on its shelves, presumably for sale and not just for display.

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. David Chen & Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "Florida Republicans introduced parallel bills on Tuesday in the House and Senate that would further restrict the state's abortion ban to six from 15 weeks of pregnancy. If a ban passes and is signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida would prohibit abortion before many women even realize they are pregnant."

Missouri. Summer Ballentine of the AP: "A Missouri law banning local police from enforcing federal gun laws is unconstitutional and void, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Brian Wimes ruled the 2021 law is preempted by the federal government under the U.S. Constitution's supremacy clause.... Missouri's Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey in a statement said he will appeal the ruling." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

~~~ Oklahoma. David Goodman of the New York Times: "In the past few years, Oklahoma, long a solid bastion of conservatism, has quietly undergone a street-level transformation when it comes to marijuana. Dispensaries dot the landscape, with more than 400 in Oklahoma City alone. And that's just for medical marijuana. On Tuesday, voters across Oklahoma opted against going further, according to The Associated Press, rejecting a ballot initiative that would have legalized recreational marijuana use by adults 21 and over. With the vote, Oklahoma joined a number of conservative states whose voters have recently decided against recreational marijuana legalization." An AP story is here.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Kyiv denied involvement in the September explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, after Western diplomats and intelligence officials said they suspect that pro-Ukraine saboteurs may have been behind the blasts. Russian officials also dismissed the report, claiming without evidence that the United States was seeking to hide its own involvement.... [President] Zelensky warned that a Russian victory in Bakhmut would give Russian forces an 'open road' to other parts of the Donetsk region." ~~~

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

Adam Entous, et al., of the New York Times: "New intelligence reviewed by U.S. officials suggests that a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines last year, a step toward determining responsibility for an act of sabotage that has confounded investigators on both sides of the Atlantic for months. U.S. officials said that they had no evidence President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine or his top lieutenants were involved in the operation, or that the perpetrators were acting at the direction of any Ukrainian government officials." The Guardian's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Israel. Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "A raid by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin aimed at arresting a suspect in the fatal shooting of two Israeli brothers last month spiraled into violence that left six Palestinians dead on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The suspect, Abd al-Fattah Kharousha, 49, was listed as among the dead by Palestinian health officials. An Israeli military spokesman, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with army rules, described Mr. Kharousha as an operative of the Islamist militant group Hamas. Hamas confirmed that he had been a member of its military wing, and Palestinian media reported that he had spent nine years in Israeli prisons and was released in December 2022." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

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Reader Comments (16)

Fuller Brush mustache man, John Bolton, waking, apparently, after several years sound asleep sez “Holy guacamole! I think Trump is calling for an insurrection!”

Um…Yeah, John. He’s already done that…two years ago. Where ya been?

And what’s this about people saying “Trump sounds like a fascist!”? No shit. This is nothing new. Where have YOU been?

March 8, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Here's a more accurate Tucker Carlson release of the Jan 6
insurrection, or the Jan 6 tourists, with Tucker's captions:

https://democraticunderground.com/100217707213

March 8, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Forrest,

Hey man, thanks for that graphic. I had no idea those insurrectionists were so peaceful and polite! That TuKKKer…always striving for da trute. A national treashah.

March 8, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

One wonders how Fox's fatuous fellow, now in the limelight, is taking to all this attention. Is he eating it up or crying in his sou?. There may be a new doll designed called the Tucker Fucker in which a set of pins is tucked in the package for good measure.

Women denied life saving abortions sue Texas over its 6-week ban. Their stories are horrific:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-abortion-ban-lawsuit-filed_n_64077f04e4b0e0a15960b068

March 8, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D.Pepe

Today is International Women's Day.
Let's make Marie president of the USA (she has the experience,
being president of RealityChex for all these years).

March 8, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Hey, and not for nothin’, but that TuKKKer achieved an amazing feat. In just a couple of weeks, he and his staff carefully reviewed all 40,000 hours of security camera footage from the January 6 attempted coup. If he had 20 people watching 10 hours of video every day, five days a week, it should have taken 10 months to go through everything.

Oh…but wait…if all he needed was the video that didn’t show violent attacks, deaths, screams of hanging the Vice President, breaking windows, kicking down doors, beating and pepper spraying cops, smearing feces on the interior walls of the Capitol building, smashing and grabbing, and otherwise behaving like the Mongol Horde, they’d only have to review about 15 minutes. Probably finished before their frozen Swanson lunch was microwaved.

Never mind.

March 8, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Forrest,

Great idea! And if necessary, we can hire a Republican pol to help. They know all about stealing elections.

Marie,

Call Putin right away. And Chris Wray. Other candidates might have problems with THE EMAILS.

March 8, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Oh my! Guess which sex behaves more erratically in mice (and men) challenging century old assumptions used to exclude (of course) females from research because of HORMONES! At last, at last, them little rodents done display the way we females always got the fuzzy parts of the lollipop, as Marilyn once uttered.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/07/science/female-mice-hormones.html

March 8, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D.Pepe

If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve.

But if I were 20 years younger....

March 8, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Forest: I said years ago that Marie should enter the political arena–--her story about confronting a teacher whilst in her youth re: a boy who referred to girls as "cunts" shows early moxie and determination for confrontation. I think, however, she's pretty happy being our editor and aren't we lucky.

March 8, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D.Pepe

"But if I were 20 years younger,"

Sorry, Marie, but you couldn't run for president at age 19.

March 8, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Marie,

Your mention of Bill Mauldin took me back to my high school days as a neophyte political cartoonist. Often I would do the art and my dad would fill in the captions. I used to do a pretty damn good Nixon. I thought I was on to something when, in the fifth grade, a sketch I did of LBJ made the rounds and a classmate brought it back and asked me to sign it. Famous at last!

Anyway, in high school, my dad bought me a copy of “The Brass Ring”, Mauldin’s memoir of his WWII days with Willie and Joe, his grizzled infantrymen featured in hundreds of cartoons. I loved the story of General Patton demanding to have him arrested as a traitor for daring to make an accurate depiction of war as experienced by guys in foxholes. Ike told him to STFU. Haha.

Mauldin’s story triggered a long-standing love of and appreciation for political cartooning, the best of which perfectly support the old saw about the worth of pictures compared to words. It’s still affecting, all these years later, to see his image of a weeping Lincoln published days after the Kennedy assassination. One can only imagine what the ACLU fan Mauldin would make of Trump era perfidy and a Supreme Court that considers human rights to be necessarily contingent.

March 8, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Forrest Morris: Yeah, hahahaha. I will say that on my last birthday, I got an unexpected surprise when I did the math and discovered I was a year younger than I thought I was.

March 8, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

The continuing harm caused by religion…

It’s like one step forward, fifteen back. When measuring the good things religion has to offer, it’s impossible not to take into account the host of baleful effects imposed in its name. Vide the assessment made in the article linked above regarding International Women’s Day that we could be 300 years from any kind of true equality. Just think of that! And it’s pretty much all the fault of misogynistic types (lookin’ at you, Alito) who use religion, or their interpretation of it, as a cudgel to attack people and ideas they hate or fear.

And as with most things spit out from right-wing world, it’s all a zero sum game. There’s no possibility of nuance or gray areas, not even the hint of a chance that secular positions have a place in the way the world is ordered. MTG, Bobo, and many others prattle on about a Christian theocracy in which religious laws trump (so to speak) the laws of civil society. Sounds very Sharia to me, but what do I know?

It used to be that religion had its place in society where there was room for other elements to hold sway in their appropriate places. No more. We’re experiencing a return to a dark ages where religion is held above all things.

A few weeks ago, the Metropolitan Opera broadcast a performance of Verdi’s Don Carlo, set in 16th C Spain. The big scene in the opera is the massive encounter between Philip II, one of the most powerful monarchs in world history, and the blind, vindictive Grand Inquisitor, who demands that the king turn his son over to the church for torture and execution at the stake. The great king, realizing he has no chance against the power of the church agrees, saying “The crown must always bow before the cross.”

This is the world the christianists wish for this country today.

When it comes to religion, much quarter is demanded, none given.

After the German philosopher Immanuel Kant published his famous “Critique of Pure Reason”, he was excoriated as a “destroyer of god” because he determined that reason alone could not prove the existence of god, overturning other philosophical tenets such as Pascal’s Wager and Anselm’s Ontological Argument. But Kant wasn’t saying there is no god; he simply said pure reason couldn’t prove the existence of god.

That made no difference to the faithful. People in his hometown started naming their dogs “Destroyer” in his, er, honor, I guess.

And guess when Kant was born?

Three hundred years ago.

Haven’t made much progress since then, have we? Well, to be more accurate, progress was made but religion is clawing it back. And here in the US, we have an entire party doing the clawing. The harm, it will continue.

March 8, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Seems to this old man that the Evangelic persuasion in America has turned into a huge "go fund me" God grift machine.

March 8, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

The front page of our paper is full of results of the last few years of strife. There is a horrible group formed for the dark money, called Moms for Liberty, I think. They are a group of people who put out talking points for the noisy jangling crap going on at school board meetings. They are trying and succeeding in portraying any school library book with more explicit photos, pictures or descriptions as it's all porn. Even though it's not like "porn" isn't everywhere... Their aim is to disrupt and ruin things for everyone in the name of god or christianity. We have race roiling our city school district by causing a Latino candidate for Superintendant withdrew from the job application after having been picked, but a sizable group want the white guy who has filled that spot since the other person left... To his credit, he is NOT providing text to any of this. AND people like the job he has done. But someone dedicated to equality quit her committee over it, and it will now devolve into a race question. The wingers love this, of course, since some have used that as a general aim. Add this to the incredible mess of emails and all the Rupert toxins-- I am all verklempt and am trying not to get invested in it. TucKKKer will fight to the death, apparently. Even if the proof is right there...How dare these people ruin ALL our lives by denying reality...they are filth.

March 8, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne
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