;)
September 25, 2022
Adela Suliman of the Washington Post: "British singer Elton John was left teary eyed and 'flabbergasted' after being awarded a surprise national humanities medal by President Biden, following a concert at the White House on Friday night. John, 75, who was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, is a world-renowned singer, pianist and songwriter. He has also championed numerous charities and humanitarian causes, especially those tackling HIV/AIDS. Flanked by the president and first lady, John, wearing his signature red-tinted spectacles, looked visibly shocked as he first spotted the medal, covering his face with his hands in disbelief." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Losers, Losing. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, long entwined, continue on vile parallel paths: They would rather destroy their countries than admit they have lost. They have each created a scrim of lies to justify lunatic personal ambition. And while it should be easy to see through these lies, both cult-of-personality leaders are able to con and bully enough people to remain puissant.... Both thugs are getting boxed in, Trump by a bouquet of investigations into his chicanery and Putin by an angry public pushback against his bloody vanity war.... Both Putin and Trump are famous for accusing everyone else of their own sins.... It would be poetic justice to think the walls were closing in on Putin and Trump at the same time, because at some point, all this will become unsustainable. Losers, refusing to admit defeat." MB: Yes, I had to look up the meaning of "puissant." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Annie Grayer of CNN: "Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney said at The Texas Tribune festival Saturday that if ... Donald Trump becomes the Republican Party's nominee for president in 2024, she will not remain a Republican. 'I'm going to make sure Donald Trump, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure he is not the nominee. And if he is the nominee, I won't be a Republican,' Cheney said. Cheney also said she will campaign for Democrats to ensure that Republican candidates who promote election lies do not get elected. Cheney was talking about the Arizona gubernatorial race, and how she will work to ensure that GOP nominee Kari Lake, the former television journalist who has become a leading voice behind Trump's lies about election fraud, does not get elected."
Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "A QAnon conspiracy theorist who led a pack of Donald Trump supporters that chased a solitary police officer [Eugene Goodman] around the US Capitol on the day of the January 6 attack has been found guilty of several felonies. Douglas Jensen -- the bearded 43-year-old Iowa man who appeared in several media photos of the attack while wearing a black T-shirt with a large 'Q' -- could in theory face more than 50 years in prison after a federal jury in Washington DC convicted him on Friday, US justice department prosecutors said in a statement.... Prosecutors said that Jensen -- carrying a knife with a three-inch blade in his pocket -- barked at Goodman as well as other officers to 'back up' and ordered them to arrest ... Mike Pence, whom the mob was threatening to hang if he didn't halt the certification of [Joe] Biden's electoral college win.... Jurors needed just four hours to convict Jensen as charged of assaulting police, obstructing a congressional proceeding, interfering with law enforcement, entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct with a dangerous weapon, which are all felonies."
The kindly gentleman who sent this photo our way expressed concern that the carefully-laid-out maze still looked too difficult for some Trumpenlumpen to navigate.
Taylor Lorenz of the Washington Post: "The most prominent forum for men who consider themselves involuntarily celibate or 'incels' has become significantly more radicalized over the past year and a half and is seeking to normalize child rape, a new report says. The report, by the Center for Countering Digital Hate's new Quant Lab, is the culmination of an investigation that analyzed more than 1 million posts on the site. It found a marked spike in conversations about mass murder and growing approval of sexually assaulting prepubescent girls. The report also says that platforms including YouTube and Google, as well as internet infrastructure companies like Cloudflare are facilitating the growth of the forum,which the report said is visited by 2.6 million people every month." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
You Are the Lab Rat. Natasha Singer of the New York Times: "LinkedIn ran experiments on more than 20 million users over five years that, while intended to improve how the platform worked for members, could have affected some people's livelihoods, according to a new study. In experiments conducted around the world from 2015 to 2019, Linkedin randomly varied the proportion of weak and strong contacts suggested by its 'People You May Know' algorithm -- the company's automated system for recommending new connections to its users. The tests were detailed in a study published this month in the journal Science and co-authored by researchers at LinkedIn, M.I.T., Stanford and Harvard Business School.... The company did not inform users that the tests were underway. Tech giants like LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network, routinely run large-scale experiments in which ... users often have no idea that companies are running the tests on them."
Beyond the Beltway
November Elections. Not Racist, Not Racist at All. Annie Linskey & Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "Republicans have said [their] ads [against Wisconsin's Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes] are part of a broader strategy of calling out Democrats on crime, an argument they believe will be potent in the closing stage of this year's midterm elections. But some allies of Barnes, who would be Wisconsin's first Black Senator, have derided the attacks as racist messages that feed on stereotypes.... In the Senate race in Florida, incumbent Marco Rubio (R) launched ads featuring local law enforcement officers who claim that his opponent, Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), [MB: who also is Black,] 'turned her back on law enforcement.' Before she was elected to Congress, Demings served as chief of the Orlando Police Department.Republicans are increasingly centering their pitch to voters on crime, casting Democrats as weak and ineffective buffers against violent criminal conduct.... During the first three weeks of September, the Republican candidates and allies aired about 53,000 commercials on crime, according to AdImpact, which tracks political spots on network TV."
Colorado. Maya Yang of the Guardian: "A dramatic video released by Colorado authorities shows the moment a freight train hit a police patrol cruiser parked on the train tracks with a person handcuffed in the backseat. The video, which was released on Friday by the Platteville and Fort Lupton police departments, shows how Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, 20, was hurt after officers from both agencies detained her in a patrol car on 16 September as they searched her pickup truck for weapons.... A Platteville police officer stopped Rios-Gonzalez's truck near a set of railroad tracks and parked the patrol vehicle atop the tracks.... [As the officers searched the truck and surrounding area,] a train's horn is heard in the distance. The officers appear to take at least 15 seconds to realize a Union Pacific train was incoming. Once one of the officers grasps that the train is approaching..., they yell while another officer tells his colleague to 'stay back'. An officer is then shown turning around a few times near the patrol vehicle before ultimately running for cover as the train slammed into the car, pushing it several yards down the tracks." Here's a short-version video of the crash: ~~~
~~~ Marie: Have we not now have collected ample anecdotal evidence that police departments must stop discriminating against applicants with better-than-average or high IQs?
Maine Gubernatorial Race. Alyce McFadden & Michael Bender of the New York Times: "Making a comeback attempt now against his successor, Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, [former Gov. Paul] LePage [Rrrrr] is focusing heavily in his campaign on a push to phase out Maine's income tax. He argues that the change is needed to keep wealthy residents from moving to Florida for just long enough each year to take advantage of the Sunshine State's tax breaks. But Mr. LePage and his wife, Ann LePage, who have owned property in Florida for over a decade, have themselves benefited from that state's tax laws while living in the Maine governor's mansion, and again as he campaigns to return to the job. From 2009 to 2015, and also from 2018 through the end of this year, the couple received property tax breaks reserved for permanent Florida residents, public records show.... Mr. LePage's campaign defended the tax moves, saying that Mrs. LePage's mother had used the Florida home as her primary residence from 2009 until her death in 2015, when the couple removed the first homestead exemption.... A seldom-used provision in the Florida tax code allows homeowners to claim a homestead exemption if a dependent is residing on the property." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: It's not clear from the story that LePage had declared his mother was his dependent. Moreover, I don't believe that, as the story says, that the LePages realized only about $8,500 in tax breaks over the course of seven or eight years. As I recall, the taxes on my Florida home were reduced by more than that nearly every year I was eligible for the break. It said so right on my tax bills. The main reason for the substantial break is that under Florida's "Save Our Homes" law, homesteaded property taxes cannot rise more than three percent every year. So if the valuation of your property increases 100 percent in a year, your taxes would be 103% of what they had been the previous year, not 200% of the previous year.
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al.
The Guardian's live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. The New York Times' live updates for Sunday are here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Sunday are here: "Russian strikes hit the city of Zaporizhzhia, the only one of four regions where Kremlin-backed authorities are staging referendums on the prospect of joining Russia where the regional capital is not under military occupation. Voting is underway in occupied areas of Ukraine, including the Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson regions, as Russia's foreign minister insisted that these regions would be 'under the full protection of the state' if they are annexed -- despite widespread condemnation. Some residents called it a vote 'under a gun barrel,' with the outcome predetermined by the Kremlin. Russia is attempting to crack down on massive protests sweeping across the country, including in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other big cities, in a defiant turnout against President Vladimir Putin's mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists to fight in Ukraine.... China and India -- traditionally allied with Russia -- have called for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. 'China supports all efforts conducive to the peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis. The pressing priority is to facilitate talks for peace,' Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in New York during the U.N. General Assembly. India's foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said: 'India is on the side of peace and will remain firmly there.'"
David Stern & Robyn Dixson of the Washington Post: "Officials in Russian-occupied territories in eastern and southern Ukraine were forcing people to vote ... as staged referendums -- intended to validate Moscow's annexation of the territory it occupies -- entered their second day. Voting is taking place in portions of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and will last five days, ending Tuesday. The outcome is not in doubt. The purported referendums are illegal under Ukrainian and international law and would not remotely meet basic democratic standards for free and fair elections. Western leaders, including President Biden, have denounced the process as a 'sham' to prepare the ground for Russia's theft of Ukrainian land.... Ukrainians who are in contact with friends and relatives in the occupied territories describe groups of men armed with Kalashnikov rifles, accompanied by a person with a portable ballot box, going door-to-door in apartment buildings and houses.... [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelensky also said that occupation authorities had begun to mobilize local Ukrainians to fight against Kyiv forces, a prospect that Ukrainians should avoid 'by any means.'"
Jared Gans of the Hill: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday offered guaranteed protections to Russian soldiers who surrender amid the conflict between the countries after ...Vladimir Putin announced he was calling up 300,000 reservists to replenish Russian forces. Appealing directly to Russians during an address, Zelensky said Ukraine could guarantee three terms to Russian soldiers in exchange for their surrender. He said such Russians will be treated in a civilized manner, the circumstances of their surrender will remain undisclosed and Ukraine will find a way to ensure those who do not want to return to Russia are not exchanged."
Nahal Toosi of Politico: "By the time Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took the stage at the United Nations General Assembly this week, he and his country had already lost much of the audience. Throughout the annual gathering, world leader after world leader had expressed deep discomfort if not outright condemnation over Russia's war in Ukraine. Even some countries that have stayed friendly with the Kremlin called for a cease-fire or other ways to end the crisis.... The growing global unhappiness with Russia was hard to miss.... But for now, it's more a shift in tone than anything tangible that could add pressure to the Kremlin economically or militarily -- many countries still rely on Russia for oil and gas supplies. Lavrov, for one, seemed to realize this, and so the veteran diplomat did not hold back in his speech Saturday. He insisted that Moscow's war was just and that Russia was defending itself and Ukraine-based Russian speakers against a neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv -- a claim not based in reality."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Tropical Storm Ian, which formed late Friday over the central Caribbean Sea, could threaten Florida as a major hurricane early next week after moving over or near western Cuba, forecasters said. Forecasters said that Ian was expected to become a hurricane by late Sunday and a major hurricane by late Monday or early Tuesday.... On Saturday, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida declared a state of emergency for all of Florida's 67 counties ahead of the storm. Under the order, money would be freed up for protective measures and the National Guard would be activated, Mr. DeSantis said." MB: DeSantis also announced a massive effort to round up and bus all immigrants to sanctuary cities in California and the Northeast.
CBS News: Post-tropical storm "Fiona washed houses into the sea, tore the roofs off others and knocked out power to the vast majority of two Canadian provinces as it made landfall before dawn Saturday as a big, powerful post-tropical cyclone. Fiona transformed from a hurricane into a post-tropical storm late Friday, but it still had hurricane-strength winds and brought drenching rains and huge waves. There was no confirmation of fatalities or injuries." The Washington Post's story is here.
Share Article
Reader Comments (16)
Now that Truss is puissant in GB, her Health Department wants to defenestrate the Oxford comma. (see Infotainment, right). That is something which the Old Queen probably up with would not put, and Charles had best put such down quickly else soon they'll be splitting infinitives in Cheapside, what? Then, Truss' HD can bind up the nation, its peoples, and their suivant concerns.
@Patrick: Thanks. I needed that. BTW, I use the Oxford comma just as the NYT does: only when it's necessary or at least helpful to add clarity. Despite the Oxford comma's having been out of fashion for decades, occasional & content-specific usage is something up with which I can put.
For instance, I'm looking at my grocery shopping list, and on it I have, among other things: "tonic water, Drano, and breakfast bars." If I wrote "tonic water, Drano and breakfast bars," it might appear that I was looking for some Drano bars for my noon & evening meals. Only those who knew I did not follow Dr. Donald Trump's suggestions for Covid cures would know better.
I certainly hope that hurricane doesn't destroy Marred-a-Lardo. If
the fat one uses himself as an anchor then the building should be
safe.
Thoughts and prayers. (Not).
@Forrest Morris: I was happily fantasizing about Trump having to evacuate to a storm shelter full of the hoi polloi & their pets when reality imposed itself & reminded me that Mar-a-Lardo has a nice basement closet where he can shelter-in-place & look over the top-secret docs he brought from Bedminster.
Hopefully he'll be in that basement closet when a storm surge hits.
But then again, he wouldn't drown, because all that blubber would
keep him afloat.
Oh, you people! Don't you realize that even if two hurricanes hit American's White Palace while the King was still within, he'd, like Forest says, just float around blubber wise and of course claim we had never seen anything like this EVER! But surviving those winds of destruction his faithful followers would credit it all to God ––-"save the King"––-cuz God, they say, knows a good thing when He sees it. Nothing shakes their loyalty and I wonder what will?
@Forrest Morris: When I was a child, a read a "Life" magazine story about a couple whose small plane had gone down in the Alaska hinterlands during the winter. They were finally found six weeks after the crash -- and they were alive. What helped save them, rescuers said, was that they were both overweight, so the extra fat kept them warm -- and kept them from starving to death. The lesson I took from that was that sometimes reckless behavior pays off. (I doubt that was the intended lesson, but children do the best they can to figure out how life works, and that was my best at the time.)
Anyway, I suppose -- as you say -- that extra blubber does mean Donald will float on the ocean (or lake) as freely as Balloon Boy Trump floats in the air. I sure hope no Secret Service agents come to harm trying to reel in the Trump Float.
@P.D. Pepe: I have some scientific, if anecdotal, evidence that Forrest's Theory of Blubber is right.
For most of my life, I could not tread water. Well, I could tread water, but a lot of good it did me, because when I tried, my head would not stay above the waterline. My mother kept telling me to just relax, but that didn't work at all. My father, who like me, was thin, also sunk to below the waterline exactly as I did when he tried to tread water. He blamed it on his thinness. It may be my mother took this as an insult. (She wasn't fat by any means, but she did have more body fat than either my father or I did. She was an excellent swimmer, whatever the stroke.) At any rate, she was skeptical of my father's --and now Forrest's -- theory.
However, in my 50s I started to gain weight, and lo and behold I also found I could tread water. I am better at it in salt water, but I can do it in fresh water, too. I feel pretty confident it's because of that fat. Which could yet save my life, like those fat Alaska aviators of yore.
Marie: On the upside of having some extra fat: I have always been slim–-small frame but some years back when at my annual physical it was discovered I had lost almost two inches height wise. My weight was 109 at the time and my doctor remarked I had better put on a couple pounds cuz having more fat might just save my life in dire circumstances and when I asked what kind of dire circumstances he related what now sounds like your story about the couple in Alaska. I thought he was making that up buit apparently not. But I came back with "Well, I'm not about to venture to Alaska" and I remember he laughed but then said, "One never can tell when extra fat will come in handy––- one must be prepared when swimming with sharks." And because I know his politics I knew what he meant.
Maybe that Alaska couple were just going for an extendedforest bath, they are supposed to help with stress and help you think better.
A British comedian helped explain how trickle down economics will work under Truss.
Running Man (accent on man)
Josh (Feets Don’t Fail Me Now) Hee-Hawley is back at it. What “it” is I’m not exactly sure, but it doesn’t seem related to the real world.
Whining about his need for more money, money, money (for new running shoes, maybe?), Josh, in his latest begging email to supporters, reveals the heretofore unrecognized “fact” that there’s only one gender.
Here ya go:
“Do you want to keep transgender propaganda OUT of our classrooms today?”
“YES — keep transgender propaganda OUT or NO — Teach young children there is more than one gender.”
Wow. Silly me. All this time I thought there were two genders. Wonder which gender ol’ Joshie thinks doesn’t exist, or deserve to exist?
I’ll give you a few minutes to figure that…oh, you got it already? You guys is way too smaht.
See, Running Man goes the incel assholes one better. The incels hate women, talk about sexually assaulting young girls (sick fucks), but ol’ Josh dispenses with all that. In his mind there ain’t no women.
https://www.advocate.com/politics/2022/9/22/republican-sen-josh-hawley-seems-think-theres-only-one-gender?amp
@Ak, doesn't that make him by definition homosexual?
@unwashed: I can't speak for the whole LGBTQ community, but I
don't think he would be wanted in their community.
While checking the current predictions and path of TS Ian (us swamp state types do that) I noticed that the five day cone contains about a third of Alabama.....no need for TFGs sharpie!
Forgot to add to my comment. If this one is as bad as predicted, with damage in proportion, this could cause the total collapse of homeowners insurance in Florida.
Bobby Lee,
Don’t worry, DeSantis will blame it all on Hunter Biden’s laptop. Oh, and THE EMAILS!