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 Ledes

Thursday, September 26, 2024

The New York Times:' live updates of Hurricane Helene developments today are here. “Hurricane Helene was barreling through the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday en route to Florida, where residents were bracing for extreme rain, destructive winds and deadly storm surge ahead of the storm’s expected landfall. The storm could intensify to a Category 4, if not higher, before making landfall late Thursday, and forecasters warned Helene’s anticipated large size could make its impacts felt across an extensive area. Areas as distant as Atlanta and the Appalachians are at risk for heavy rains.... Many forecast models show the storm making landfall late Thursday near Florida’s Big Bend Coast, a sparsely populated stretch....” ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post has forecasts for some cites in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina & Tennessee that are in or near the probable path of Helene. ~~~

     ~~~ This morning, an MSNBC weatherperson said Tallahassee (which is inland) would experience wind gusts of up to 120 m.p.h. and that the National Weather Service said expected 20-foot storm surges near the coast would be “unsurvivable.”

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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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May 1, 2023

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Alan Rappeport & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said on Monday that the United States could run out of money to pay its bills by June 1 if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit, putting pressure on President Biden and lawmakers to reach an agreement swiftly to avoid defaulting on the nation's debt. The more precise warning over when the United States could hit the so-called X-date dramatically reduces the projected amount of time lawmakers have to reach a deal before the government runs out of money to pay all of its bills on time. The new timeline could force a flurry of negotiations between the House, Senate and White House over government spending -- or a high-stakes standoff between Mr. Biden and the House Republicans who have refused to raise the limit without deep spending cuts attached." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Frankly, I think Biden should direct Yellen to raise the debt ceiling, whether My Kevin & his Klan go along with it or not. If Congress has approved spending beyond the debt ceiling it has approved, Congress is in effect compelling leaders of the executive branch to violate their oaths of office. Congress cannot pass a law, IMO, that forbids the President, Vice President, Cabinet officials & other executive branch officials from carrying out their duties under other laws. And, okay, I'm no Laurence Tribe.

Lola Fadulu, et al., of the New York Times: "The writer strong> E. Jean Carroll's case accusing Donald J. Trump of raping her in a department-store dressing room continues Monday in Federal District Court in Manhattan.... Mr. Trump's lawyers on Monday filed an unsuccessful motion for a mistrial, arguing that the court had made 'pervasive unfair and prejudicial rulings.'" ~~~

      ~~~ The Washington Post is liveblogging developments in the trial and provides some details of Joe Tacopina's cross-examination of E. Jean Carroll.

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Biden will meet with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. of the Philippines at the White House on Monday, a visit that is meant to send a message to China that the Filipino leader plans to deepen his country's relationship with the United States. Mr. Marcos's trip comes days after the U.S. and Philippine militaries held joint exercises aimed at curbing China's influence in the South China Sea and strengthening the United States' ability to defend Taiwan if China invades. The exercises were part of a rapid and intensifying effort between the two countries: In February, the Pentagon announced that the U.S. military would expand its presence in the Philippines."

Florida. "Have You Left no Sense of Decency?" Lori Rozsa of the Washington Post: "One by one, many of the initial 20 arrests announced by [Florida's] Office of Election Crimes and Security have stumbled in court. Six cases have been dismissed. Five other defendants accepted plea deals that resulted in no jail time. Only one case has gone to trial, resulting in a split verdict. The others are pending. In its first nine months, the new unit made just four other arrests.... Nonetheless..., [Gov. Ron] DeSantis is moving to give the office more teeth, asking the legislature to nearly triple the division's annual budget from $1.2 million to $3.1 million.... [He also] pushed through a bill [making sure a state prosecutor had jurisdiction over the cases].... Defense attorneys say DeSantis is using the statewide prosecutor's office to circumvent the role of local prosecutors, who have declined to pursue such cases." Nope, no sense of decency.

Marie: On the day reports emerged of the mass shooting in Cleveland, Texas, Forrest M. opined there would be no "thoughts and prayers" because the victims weren't straight, white & mostly male. Well, Forrest, Gov. Greggers has not let you down: ~~~

~~~ Texas. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "On Friday night, a man living in a small town north of Houston allegedly responded to a request from his neighbor to stop firing his rifle by shooting and killing five people in his neighbor's house, including a 9-year-old boy.... On Twitter, [Gov. Greg] Abbott announced a reward for his capture -- including identifying both [the shooter] and the five victims as undocumented immigrants. For what it's worth, that last point appears not to be true. Diana Velasquez Alvarado, 21, seems to have been a legal permanent resident of the country. If the slain boy was born in the United States, he would be a citizen; if not, he would have fallen into the group of minor immigrants that has been long segmented out of discussions about illegal immigration.... The point is that Abbott and his team decided to highlight the immigration status of five people killed in a mass killing.... Had all parties involved been U.S. citizens, that would not have been mentioned by Abbott at all."

Sudan. Ruth Maclean of the New York Times: "Thousands of people have descended on a port city in eastern Sudan in recent days, fleeing the violence in the capital and trying to secure their escape aboard vessels heading over the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia. The coastal city of Port Sudan -- the country's biggest seaport -- has been transformed into a hub for displaced people, with people stringing together makeshift tents, packing an amusement park for shelter and waiting for help in three-digit heat. The conflict that erupted on April 15 between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group, has killed more than 500 civilians, according to the World Health Organization, and has thrust Africa's third-largest nation into chaos, with many people displaced but unsure of how to escape the violence. The true number of casualties is likely much higher."

~~~~~~~~~~

Maureen Farrell, et al., of the New York Times: "Regulators seized control of First Republic Bank and sold it to JPMorgan Chase on Monday, a dramatic move aimed at curbing a two-month banking crisis that has rattled the financial system. First Republic, whose assets were battered by the rise in interest rates, had struggled to stay alive after two other lenders collapsed last month, spooking depositors and investors. First Republic was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and immediately sold to JPMorgan. The deal was announced hours before U.S. markets are set to open, and after a scramble by officials over the weekend. Later on Monday, 84 First Republic branches in eight states will reopen as JPMorgan branches." The AP's report is here.

Joe Davidson of the Washington Post: "In fiscal 2022, [the federal government] dished out $200 billion in overpayments related to various government programs that racked up a total of $247 billion in improper disbursements, according to the chief federal watchdog auditing agency. And that does not count everything.... Surprisingly, that astronomical number represents an improvement from the previous fiscal year, when improper payments, which include all those that cannot be properly accounted for, totaled $281 billion.... The 2022 improper payments were spread across 18 agencies and 82 programs. About 78 percent were from five programs: Medicaid, Medicare, the Paycheck Protection Program, Unemployment Insurance and the Earned Income Tax Credit."

Steve Eder & Jo Becker of the New York Times: "George Mason University;s law school cultivated ties to [right-wing] justices, with generous pay and unusual perks. In turn, it gained prestige, donations and influence.... Its renaming after Justice Scalia in 2016 was the result of a $30 million gift brokered by Leonard Leo, prime architect of a grand project then gathering force to transform the federal judiciary and further the legal imperatives of the right.... Since the rebranding, the law school has developed an unusually expansive relationship with the justices ... -- welcoming them as teachers but also as lecturers and special guests at school events. Scalia Law, in turn, has marketed that closeness with the justices as a unique draw to prospective students and donors." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Read on. This is more than just schmoozing among like-minded people. Besides giving the poor justices (they make a little less than $300K/year) easy teaching gigs, speaking engagements and lovely vacations, the justices' co-professors at the school practically write their opinions for them, in the form of amicus briefs: "Scalia Law professors are not simply regular filers; a quarter of the school's briefs submitted to the court since the justices joined the faculty have been written by professors who served as the justices' co-teachers, some while classes were ongoing." It's obvious why Roberts, et al., are pushing back against ethics constraints. They don't want to have to give up (or reveal) any of their high-flying lifestyle, paid for with a few opinions in favor of their benefactors.

"Cabaret" All Over Again. Robert Reich, in a Guardian op-ed: "... bigotry against minority groups based on sexual orientation or gender identity, such as the trans community, is a way fascism takes root. As the world tragically witnessed in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, the politics of sexual anxiety gains traction when traditional male gender roles of family provider and protector are hit by economic insecurity. Fascist politics distorts and expands this male anxiety into fear that one's family is under existential threat from LGBTQ+ people."

Presidential Race 2024. Not that I care but, ~~~

~~~ Meg Kinnard of the AP: "Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is nearly ready to reveal his decision on entering the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, saying Sunday that he would make an announcement on May 22." AND ~~~

~~~ Harry Enten of CNN: "Things have gotten so bad for [Ron] DeSantis that a recent Fox News poll shows him at 21% -- comparable with the 19% that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has pushed debunked conspiracy theories about vaccine safety, is receiving on the Democratic side." MB: IOW, one-fifth of Americans say they will vote for anything that moves.

Beyond the Beltway

North Carolina. Tom Sullivan in Hullabaloo: "... librul college professors oppose mandating even one course in U.S. history for graduating from the UNC system, alleges Fox's Pete Hegseth. Never mind that a high school course in United States history is a prerequisite for admission to the system's colleges. 'They think learning about America is, and this is their words, "indoctrination",' Hegseth tells viewers his network indoctrinates 24-7-365. I'm having trouble even finding indoctrination among 'their words.' You're not surprised, I know. And even less surprised that Fox does not find room for a link to the actual letter in its four-paragraph story.... The GOP-controlled NC state legislature proposes to set the course of study for this required history that degreed professionals will teach.... Let's see, sponsors include Rep. Keith Kidwell who knows something vaguely about business management and whose name appears on the Oath Keeper's roster. Majority Whip Rep. John Hardister has a B.A. in Political Science and worked in marketing for his family's mortgage firm. And Rep. Ray Pickett who seems to have no higher education and can barely manage a web or Facebook page; he's the primary sponsor."

     ~~~ Marie: Bills like this are the result of the conceit that "common sense" trumps expertise or "book-learning." This rule doesn't apply only to rubes v. educators, of course. The "common sense" legislators bring to their state houses tops the expertise of doctors, researchers & scientists of all stripes. "Common sense" bromides like "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun" beat all fact-based statistics: "If more guns everywhere made us safer, America would be the safest country on earth. Instead, we have a gun homicide rate 26x that of other high-income countries." You cannot win a logic-based argument against these guys because "you don't have the sense you were born with."

Way Beyond

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Monday are here: "Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine early Monday, including in Kyiv, as Russia retaliated after a weekend drone strike by Ukrainian forces on a fuel depot in Kremlin-occupied Crimea. No casualties were reported in an assault on the capital lasting several hours, according to local authorities, with missiles and drones shot down above the city. Ukraine's armed forces said in an operational update early Monday that 15 of the 18 missiles launched by Russia had been destroyed. Ukrainian officials say Saturday's attack on the depot in Sevastopol -- home to the Russian navy's Black Sea Fleet -- was part of the buildup to a long-awaited counteroffensive by Kyiv's forces to retake territory seized by Moscow.... President Volodymyr Zelensky ... has pledged to take back all Ukrainian territory including Crimea, the peninsula Russia illegally annexed in 2014.... Pope Francis said over the weekend that the Vatican is involved in a secret peace mission."

Iran/U.K. Farnaz Fassihi & Ronen Bergman of the New York Times: "... on Jan. 11, the execution in Iran of a former deputy defense minister named Alireza Akbari on espionage charges brought to light something that had been hidden for 15 years: Mr. Akbari was [a] British mole [who provided British intelligence with critical information about Iran's nuclear and defense secrets.]... In addition to accusing Mr. Akbari of revealing its nuclear and military secrets, Iran has also said he disclosed the identity and activities of over 100 officials, most significantly Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the chief nuclear scientist whom Israel assassinated in 2020."

Sudan. Ellen Knickmeyer of the AP: "In the wholesale looting that has accompanied fighting in [Sudan's] capital, Khartoum, a city of 5 million, a roving band of strangers surrounded [American doctor Bushra Ibnauf Sulieman] in his yard Tuesday, stabbing him to death in front of his family. Friends suspect robbery was the motive. He became one of two Americans confirmed killed in Sudan in the fighting, both dual nationals.... He was a well-respected colleague at the Gastroenterology Clinic and Mercy Hospital in Iowa City, hospital president Tom Clancy said. Sulieman's older children live in Iowa. He traveled back to Sudan several times a year with medical supplies he had collected for that country, colleagues said."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian folk singer whose rich, plaintive baritone and gift for melodic songwriting made him one of the most popular recording artists of the 1970s, died on Monday night in Toronto. He was 84."

Washington Post: "Hundreds of law enforcement agents descended on [Cleveland, Texas,] to search door-to-door for a man accused of shooting and killing five people, including a 9-year-old, using an AR-15-style rifle, shattering life's normal rhythm for locals. More than 250 officers from local, state and federal agencies are part of the manhunt for the suspect, who has been at large since allegedly gunning down his neighbors on Friday night after they asked him to stop shooting in his yard while their baby was trying to sleep." ~~~

     ~~~ The AP's story is here.

Hill: "A baseball player with Texas A&M University-Texarkana was hospitalized after being struck by a stray bullet during a game Saturday evening.... 'The shots came from a neighborhood to the west of Spring Lake Park and was the result of some type of disturbance that happened there,' Shawn Vaughn, the department's public information officer, explained. 'The bullet traveled travel several hundred feet and struck the victim as he was standing near the bullpen area of the ball field in the park. He was not targeted nor was the shooting related to any activity going on in the park....'"

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Reader Comments (17)

Carrying on in the tradition of how confederate “common sense” trumps “book-larnin’” or, ya know, actual knowledge, we find two stalwarts of that device, the stupidest man in Congress, Ron Johnson, and the equally stupid but more dangerous MTG, holding forth on why climate change is not something to worry about.

First, MTG, in what can only be described as the sort of delirium-soaked history that no sixth grade C student would try to float. According to this mammoth imbecile, climate change is no reason to spend money trying to stop it.

Why?

“How much money were governments taxing people during the Ice Age? To fight climate change?! Huh? Huh? Answer that!”

Then she goes on to say “And they’re using the climate change hoax to bring furriners into the country!!! Aieeee!” She also claimed the US is sending trillions (yeah, trillions, with a T) to undeserving countries because of climate change.

Now sometimes I’m tempted to say “Wow, I want whatever she’s smoking”, but in this case I’m not. There’s a difference between “high” and “mentally deficient”.

Whew…

Now Ron Johnson, who doesn’t say climate change doesn’t exist. No. He sez it’s great! Yeah. Cuz in Wisconsin, where he needs to return to, and asap, global warming means fewer cold days in the winter. Yay!

When a researcher pointed out that Wisconsin is not the only place on earth, Ron, ever the standard issue R racist pig sez “So people in Africa can fry. So what? The US and Europe will be fine.”

Here’s the takeaway from these jaw dropping displays of stupidity and bigotry (two mighty pillars of the Party of Traitors): people voted for these lunatics. You vote for someone to represent your views, to speak for you. Clearly, there are a lot of mentally disturbed idiots casting votes in this country (not a “breaking news” revelation, just sayin’).

https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/amp/shows/maddow/blog/rcna81963

May 1, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: As Joe Biden said before his remarks at the White House Correspondents' dinner, "Ladies and gentlemen, if you're having trouble finding your seats, if you're disoriented -- either you're drunk or you're Marjorie Taylor Greene."

May 1, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

It seems "common sense isn't so common" is one of the many things attributed to Mark Twain that he might not have said. Voltaire might have originated the phrase, I read this AM, and see Will Rogers uttered some version of it, too.

Voltaire, Twain and Rogers. All students of the human race, each with democratic proclivities, all sensibly questioning the automatic wisdom of the masses.

As any barely conscious observer knows, while people en masse can get things right, and democracy requires they have the right and opportunity to do so, not all opinions are of equal worth and there is also such a thing as mass delusion.

Any social order that produces a Jim Jone or is over taken by a mania for pet rocks invites skepticism's close questioning.

One could say it's only common sense.

May 1, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Isn't our economic and political system driven by the fact that there are millions of people that have more dollars than sense?

May 1, 2023 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

Sounds like we need to get trump's Security of Education back in
office to whip some smarts into the masses (bibles for everyone, none
of those woke thingies).
She (Betsy DeVos) just bought house number 4. It's on the next
street over from me, on the channel to Lake Michigan. She hasn't been
in the house yet. Only bought it because it has dockage for yacht
number 10. Too bad the channel needs dredging, which means she
can't yet get yacht number 10 in.
I'm going to suggest to her that she get down on her knees and beg
Gov. Whitmer to have the channel dredged.
She paid 30 million for house number 3 just north of here, but it's
on an inlet that is so shallow she can only get 60 ft yachts into it.
And you just can't entertain on such a small yacht.

May 1, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Breaking News!

Joe Tacopina (who, if one were casting a Mafia mouthpiece, would get a quick callback), Fatty’s lawyer, is demanding a mistrial in the E. Jean Carroll civil case against his client.

Why?

Cuz it looks like HE’S LOSING! Always a good reason to beg for a mistrial.

Actually (no—actually it IS because Trump is losing), Tacopina is whining that the judge has been unfair to his client. Their definition of unfair is the judge didn’t allow Trump to attack (again) and defame (again) Ms. Carroll on social media. Oh. That’s unfair? The judge, several times had to instruct the Fat Rapist to shut the pie hole. He didn’t.

This is unfair like it’s unfair to be given a ticket for doing 90 through a school zone after being warned twice.

Fuck off, Joe. And your rapist client too.

May 1, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Oh you guys! Ya got your motor running on high today–--best ever to begin a week.

As far as common sense goes: When I was being questioned by a snarky lawyer on a case involving guns near the vicinity of schools–-he was for abolishing the law that prohibited said firearms–--he asked me if I had common sense to which I asked him what he meant by that. Wham! No more questions for that little lady and the judge dismissed me.
Seems to me any sense that's common to certain parties of the right persuasion is so cockeyed crazy these days that laughing at them is the only method we can muster unless we want to stay permanently furious.
Forest: I just love the way you keep your eyes out on Betsy and inform us on her whereabouts. When I lived in Michigan she was but a whisper in the wind but that was long ago when Detroit was the hub of everything exciting–- food=wise, Jazz wise and otherwise.

May 1, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D.Pepe

@P.D. Pepe: I'm amazed the judge would dismiss you because you asked the lawyer to "clarify" his question to you. And the clarification you asked for was more than reasonable: What do you mean by "common sense"? For instance, on the matter of common sense in regard to gun control, which seems to have been the subject of the trial to which you were a potential witness, I'll reiterate the example I used above:

I suppose that lawyer (and I'd guess the "impartial" judge, too) regarded cliches like "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun" as "common sense." I, on the other hand, would look for some facts first. So there's this: "If more guns everywhere made us safer, America would be the safest country on earth. Instead, we have a gun homicide rate 26x that of other high-income countries." Only then would "common sense" tell me that good guys with guns were not making people safer.

You can apply this principle to nearly every "common sense" choice. It's not "sense" at all if it isn't based on and doesn't follow logically from measurable data or some other recognized facts.

May 1, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@Akhilleus: Theoretically, what the Donnie & Joe team is doing is setting up an argument for appeal if they lose the case. In the short run what they're doing is (1) pissing off the judge, and (2) letting the public know how unfa-a-a-a-ir the trial is.

May 1, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@Marie

Or...maybe as "common sense" would have it, the numbers prove there are far more bad guys than good guys with guns....and the country is happy to arm them.

May 1, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@Ken Winkes: Okay, yes, but if I accept your premise, then based on statistics, "common sense" tells me that there are far more bad guys per capital in the U.S. than there are in those other countries with significantly lower gun-death rates. So you're going to have to give me a "common-sense" explanation for why Americans are more murderous than the other peoples of the world.

May 1, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

So, no thoughts and prayers for the people shot dead in their own house in TX and the Head TX Bigot tweeted that they were "illegal aliens" implying, who cares...It just blows my mind that we have such monsters in office AND corruption running wild in the formerly Supreme Court. Some days it just doesn't pay to get up or read the morning news or try to make sense of how miserable people make others miserable every minute of their days. A lot of kids go to George Mason U from our area, and even if they aren't at Scalia Academy for Wingers, they are learning, being "indoctrinated" by the right. I like to think that people who can think, love, express compassion, etc will prevail, but I am so not sure anymore.

May 1, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

@Marie

The short answer:

1) We have a higher portion of narcissistic, spoiled, angry, selfish idiots who have been trained to expect happiness in the form of instant gratification.

2) We have a significant national drug problem (see number 1).

3) We have lax gun laws and have long encouraged gun possession, even gun worship.

4) Our video entertainments often glorify bloody violence.

5) We have a minority government controlled by Republicans (see yesterday's sermon).

Guess that wasn't so short. Don't know if its sense was at all common.

May 1, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

You can't make this shit up. Phallic iceberg spotted(dick) off coast near Dildo, Newfoundland in Conception Bay. At least Mother Nature has a sense of humor.

May 1, 2023 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

I’ve been hearing reports about a new comedy on HBO about the Watergate Plumbers. Okay, maybe there’s some humor there. These guys were not crack CIA operatives. Apparently they had to break in four times, which I had never heard. But stumblebums who try to kneecap democracy are still criminals, still traitors. Benedict Arnold might have been a scream at cocktail parties but he was still a fucking traitor. Funny doesn’t make it okay.

And no, I haven’t seen the show, but the idea of the history of the most horrible of the many Republican schemes (until Trump) that have tainted this country (and there are many) being played for laughs serves only to sand off the rough edges. Maybe they’ll do a good job with this. I don’t know.

What I do know is that one of the worst of the Plumbers, their leader, G. Gordon Liddy, a Hitler loving fascist criminal, became a hero to the right. And still is. Haters of democracy, liberals, Democrats, and a justice system that held these guys to account loved Liddy. He became a touchstone on right-wing hate media, a flame throwing asshole predecessor to people like Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity, Alex Jones, Bannon, and KKKarlson.

He was one of the many criminals who have become heroes to the right, a precursor to Ollie North, the many Iran-Contra traitors, Kyle Rittenhouse, and Derek Chauvin, and a descendant of Father Coughlin and Joe McCarthy.

The legacy of assholes like Liddy are subsequent assholes like Dick Cheney, Trump, Gianforte, MTG, and, well, pretty much every R currently in Congress.

Here’s Liddy in an interview decades ago, laying out a position that is STILL the basis of every Republican campaign today:

“There was an antiwar movement, but there was far more to it than that. There was a whole different world overview that these people whom I opposed had. The drug culture was part of it. It was intolerable. The thought of this ideology in effect turning over, winning power and achieving power, was completely unacceptable to me.”

In other words, if they don’t think like me, they’re illegitimate and subject to whatever we deem necessary to take them down.

Despite being the major player and planner in a scheme to screw the democratic process, to ensure the reelection of a piece of shit, Liddy went on to become a multi millionaire.

Wingers love them some crooks, creeps, murderers, and traitors.

Now….

Here’s a little thought experiment.

Name me a single influential player on the right, over the last 50 years, who could be remotely seen as a hero to the American Experiment by any group other than confederates, who isn’t a criminal, a thug, or a traitor.

See?

It ain’t funny.

May 1, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Ak: For anyone who doesn't have HBO, there's also a good one
about Watergate on Netflix by mail, Gaslit, starring Julia Roberts
and Sean Penn. Julia plays Martha Mitchell, the mouth.
The motto of the film is "Watergate was wrong, Martha was right."

May 1, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Forrest,

Martha WAS right. And eternal shame on disgraced criminal conspirator John Mitchell for allowing Nixon’s Nazis to paint her as a woozy nutjob.

Misogyny still reigns on the right.

May 1, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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