The Ledes

Thursday, October 10, 2024

CNBC: “The pace of price increases over the past year was higher than forecast in September while jobless claims posted an unexpected jump following Hurricane Helene and the Boeing strike, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The consumer price index, a broad gauge measuring the costs of goods and services across the U.S. economy, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%. Both readings were 0.1 percentage point above the Dow Jones consensus. The annual inflation rate was 0.1 percentage point lower than August and is the lowest since February 2021.”

The New York Times' live updates of Hurrucane Milton consequences Thursday are here: “Milton was still producing damaging hurricane-force winds and heavy rainfall to parts of East and Central Florida, forecasters said early Thursday, even as the powerful storm roared away from the Atlantic coast and left deaths and widespread damage across the state. Cities along Florida’s east coast are now facing flash flooding, damaging winds and storm surges. Some had already been battered by powerful tornadoes spun out by the storm before it made landfall on the Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane. In [St. Lucie] county [Fort Pierce], several people in a retirement community were killed by a tornado, the police said.... More than three million customers were without power in Florida as of early Thursday.” ~~~

     ~~~ Here are the Weater Channel's live updates.

CNN: “The 2024 Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to Han Kang, a South Korean author, for her 'intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.' Han, 53, began her career with a group of poems in a South Korean magazine, before making her prose debut in 1995 with a short story collection. She later began writing longer prose works, most notably 'The Vegetarian,' one of her first books to be translated into English. The novel, which won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, charts a young woman’s attempt to live a more 'plant-like' existence after suffering macabre nightmares about human cruelty. Han is the first South Korean author to win the literature prize, and just the 18th woman out of the 117 prizes awarded since 1901.” The New York Times story is here.

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The Ledes

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Washington Post: “Hours before Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida, a spate of unusually strong and long-lived tornadoes touched down across the state, flipping tractor-trailers and ripping off roofs. The twisters surprised anxious residents, even as the storm’s eye still loomed. Authorities said there had been 'multiple' deaths after the intense and destructive tornadoes.” MB: I'm still on Florida's emergency-call list, and I received several calls from Lee County, urging me to shelter in place.

The Washington Post's live updates of Hurricane Milton developments are here: “Hurricane Milton, which has strengthened to a 'catastrophic' Category 5 storm, is closing in on Florida’s west coast and is expected to make landfall Wednesday night or early Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said. The hurricane, which could bring maximum sustained winds of nearly 160 mph with bigger gusts, poses a dire threat to the densely populated zone that includes Tampa, Sarasota and Fort Myers. As well as 'damaging hurricane-force winds,' coastal communities face a 'life-threatening' storm surge, the center said.” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here: “Milton carved a path of destruction after crashing ashore Wednesday evening on Florida’s Gulf Coast, making landfall near Sarasota as the second powerful hurricane to pound the region in less than two weeks. The storm battered the state for much of the day, with heavy winds, pelting rain and a spate of tornadoes.... By around midnight, the storm had destroyed more than 100 homes, killed several people in a retirement community and ripped the roof off Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays.”

Washington Post: “The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to David Baker at the University of Washington and Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper of Google DeepMind.... The prize was awarded to scientists who cracked the code of proteins. Hassabis and Jumper used artificial intelligence to predict the structure of proteins, one of the toughest problems in biology. Baker created computational tools to design novel proteins with shapes and functions that can be used in drugs, vaccines and sensors.”

Sorry, forgot this yesterday: ~~~

Reuters: “U.S. scientist John Hopfield and British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for discoveries and inventions in machine learning that paved the way for the artificial intelligence boom. Heralded for its revolutionary potential in areas ranging from cutting-edge scientific discovery to more efficient admin, the emerging technology on which the duo worked has also raised fears humankind may soon be outsmarted and outcompeted by its own creation.”

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

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.”

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The Commentariat -- December 10, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Marie: Here's a story I missed (Dec. 1-2), so I'll present it as a test: You are President* of the United States. You hear that a Nevada hospital is so crowded with Covid patients that it has set up a field hospital in its parking garage. You (a) thank the doctors, nurses & other personnel for working under extreme conditions; (b) offer federal aid to the afflicted region; (c) retweet a tweet that describes the parking-garage hospital as "fake" & add that the state's election results are fake, too. If you chose (c), congratulations! You, too, are qualified to be the worst president* in U.S. history.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. Free to non-subscribers, they include video of the FDA panel's deliberations of emergency use authorization (EUA) of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The hearing is expected to take most of the day. ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "Late Wednesday in the United States, the daily death toll exceeded the record set just one week earlier, 2,885. By midnight it had climbed to 3,053, and total deaths since the coronavirus spread into the country at the beginning of the year and began laying siege had reached 289,529. If American hospitals were any guide, those numbers are unlikely to dip any time soon."

Republicans Still Don't Want You to Vote. Michael Wines of the New York Times: "President Trump's barrage of losses in court cases trying to undermine the election has not stopped Republicans from ... attempts to limit or undermine the future use of the vote-by-mail ballots that so infuriated Mr. Trump. Absentee ballots constituted nearly half the votes cast in the 2020 election, and the experiment in mass voting by mail has been viewed by election experts as a remarkable success, one that was less prone to errors than expected and had almost no documented fraud.... This week in Georgia..., Republican state senators promised to make getting and casting mail ballots far more difficult.... In Pennsylvania, Republicans preparing for the legislative session that convenes on Jan. 11 are seeking co-sponsors for bills to stiffen identification requirements for mail ballots.... Michigan Republicans have signaled that they want to review a 2018 ballot initiative approved by two-thirds of voters that authorized no-excuse absentee balloting as well as same-day registration and straight-ticket voting. Texas already has some of the nation's toughest restrictions on voting by mail. But Republicans have filed bills ... that would crimp officials' ability to distribute absentee ballot applications and even make it a felony to offer to help a voter fill out a ballot."

Tyler Pager of Politico: "President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Obama's former national security adviser Susan Rice to run the White House Domestic Policy Council, according to people familiar with the decision. Rice, who also served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was vetted to serve as Biden's vice president and was a contender to be secretary of State, a position that went to Antony Blinken. The director of the Domestic Policy Council is not a Senate-confirmed position.... The ... top domestic policy job comes as a surprise given her expertise and experience in foreign policy."

Megan Cassella & Alex Thompson of Politico: "President-elect Joe Biden will nominate longtime Obama aide Denis McDonough for secretary of Veterans Affairs, according to two people with knowledge of the decision. McDonough served as former President Barack Obama's chief of staff from 2013 until 2017."

Toljaso. Aamer Madhani & Zeke Miller of the AP: Dr Deborah "Birx has made clear that she wants to stick around to help the Biden administration roll out vaccines and persuade the American people to be inoculated. She has reached out to Biden advisers in recent days as she tries to make the case for a role in the incoming Democratic president's virus response effort, according to a person familiar with the Biden team's personnel deliberations and a Trump administration coronavirus task force official.... When ... Birx was brought into ... Donald Trump's orbit..., she had a sterling reputation as a former U.S. Army physician, a globally recognized AIDS researcher and a rare Obama administration holdover. Less than 10 months later..., the White House coronavirus task force coordinator's reputation is frayed And after serving every president since Ronald Reagan, her future in the incoming Joe Biden administration is uncertain."

Trump Continues to Try to Force Constitutional Crisis. Rachel Bade, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump is shifting his focus to Congress after the courts roundly rejected his bid to overturn the results of the election, pressuring congressional Republicans into taking a final stand to keep him in power. Trump's push is part of a multipronged approach as he also seeks to lobby state lawmakers and officials to give him cover for his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, as well as rally support for a last-gasp legal challenge in the Supreme Court that election law experts almost universally dismiss. The president has been calling Republicans, imploring them to keep fighting and more loudly proclaim the election was stolen while pressing them on what they plan to do.... The president also has enlisted Vice President Pence to reach out to governors and other party leaders ... to see what else can be done to help the president. A person familiar with the calls said Pence has not exerted pressure on lawmakers to take specific actions.... Meanwhile..., Trump's conservative allies in the House have been privately buttonholing GOP senators, seeking to enlist one to join in objecting to slates of electors on Jan. 6.... On that day, Congress will meet in a joint session to count the electoral votes and declare Joe Biden as the 46th president.... If a member of the House and a member of the Senate challenge a state's results, the whole Congress would vote..., forcing Republicans to choose between accepting the election results or Trump's bid to overturn the outcome."

Zoe Richards of TPM: "... Donald Trump is said to have warned Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (R) not to rally other Republican officials against a Texas lawsuit seeking to discard the state's election results, according to a report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution late Wednesday. Trump's plea to the attorney general on Tuesday, came after Carr's office had called the request filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) which aims to toss out election results in four battleground states 'constitutionally, legally and factually wrong.' According to the Journal-Constitution, Trump had also called Georgia Sens. David Perdue (R) and Kelly Loeffler (R) and complained about Carr's opposition to the lawsuit. Two Republican officials told the Journal-Constitution that the President had been 'furious' in his call with Loeffler.... The senators issued a joint statement later on Tuesday saying they 'fully support' the Texas lawsuit to reject election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin...."

Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime: "The last of the four lawsuits filed by President Donald Trump's former lawyer Sidney Powell bit the dust late Wednesday in Wisconsin, where a federal judge noted that voters choose who goes to the White House in the United States. 'Federal judges do not appoint the president in this country,' U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper wrote in a 45-page ruling.... The decision fell hours after a similar decision by a federal judge in Arizona, who found Powell's claims of voter fraud entirely unsupported. 'Not only have Plaintiffs failed to provide the Court with factual support for their extraordinary claims, but they have wholly failed to establish that they have standing for the Court to consider them,' U.S. District Judge Diane Joyce Humetewa said."

Dan Diamond of Politico: "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield instructed staff to delete an email from a Trump political appointee seeking control over the agency's scientific reports on the pandemic, a senior CDC official told congressional investigators this week. Redfield's apparent instruction was revealed in a Monday closed-door interview with the House subcommittee probing the White House's coronavirus response, which includes the Trump administration's interference at the federal public health agency. It came following an Aug. 8 email sent by Paul Alexander, who was then the scientific adviser to Health and Human Services spokesperson Michael Caputo, aiming to water down the CDC's famed Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports to match ... Donald Trump's efforts to downplay the virus.... Rep. Jim Clyburn, who chairs the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, on Thursday warned Redfield and HHS Secretary Alex Azar that instructing staff to delete documents is unethical and possibly a violation of federal record-keeping requirements...."

~~~~~~~~~~

Seung Min Kim & Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "President-elect Joe Biden, introducing his pick for defense secretary, launched Wednesday into what could be a tough, weeks-long sales pitch to persuade members of both parties that retired Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III is the right choice despite the long-standing principle of civilian leadership at the Pentagon. 'I fully understand and respect' the law requiring service members to be retired for at least seven years before heading the Defense Department, Biden said. But Austin, the retired former head of U.S. Central Command, was uniquely qualified and deserved the once-in-a-generation exception, Biden said. 'I would not be asking for this exception if I [thought] this moment in our history didn't call for it,' Biden said. 'It does call for it.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Crowley & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Mr. Biden's team has already begun making its case to lawmakers, where Democratic leaders have expressed strong support for the nomination, and believe General Austin's prospects are good. 'Lloyd Austin served our nation for more than four decades and his willingness to serve his country again is admirable,' the Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said on the chamber floor on Wednesday. 'He will make an excellent secretary of defense.' On Tuesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also declared her support for General Austin in a statement that did not address his recent retirement. Some lawmakers have acknowledged that it was hard to justify opposing a waiver for General Austin after Congress approved one for [the recently retired former Marine general Jim] Mattis.... But many Democrats still have qualms."

Gavin Bade, et al., of Politico:"President-elect Joe Biden will nominate House Ways and Means Committee trade lawyer Katherine Tai as U.S. trade representative, according to two people familiar with the decision. Biden's pick will be responsible for repairing economic ties with allies chastened by ... Donald Trump's trade wars while fulfilling his campaign pledge to stay tough on China."

Scott Wong & Mike Lillis of the Hill: "President-elect Joe Biden's decision to tap Reps. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) and Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) for his new administration will mean Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) fragile House majority -- already decimated in the November elections — will temporarily shrink by a couple more seats next month. Democrats will easily refill those deep-blue seats in New Orleans and Cleveland, but they'll have to wait for special elections to do so. The looming vacancies mean Democrats will likely hold a precarious 220-213 majority, the slimmest in modern history, just as they kick off the 117th Congress and Biden and his Hill allies grapple with twin public health and economic crises." --s

Evan Perez & Pamela Brown of CNN: "After pausing in the months before the election, federal authorities are now actively investigating the business dealings of Hunter Biden, a person with knowledge of the probe said. His father, President-elect Joe Biden, is not implicated. Now that the election is over, the investigation is entering a new phase. Federal prosecutors in Delaware, working with the IRS Criminal Investigation agency and the FBI, are taking overt steps such as issuing subpoenas and seeking interviews, the person with knowledge said. Activity in the investigation had been largely dormant in recent months due to Justice Department guidelines prohibiting overt actions that could affect an election, the person said." The New York Times' story is here. MB: Pretty amazing that news of this probe didn't leak during the election cycle. That must mean that neither Bill Barr nor Trump's man at the IRS Charles Rettig clued in Trump. So something else to infuriate Trump.

Cecilia Kang & Mike Isaac of the New York Times: "The Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 states accused Facebook on Wednesday of buying up its rivals to illegally squash competition, and they called for the deals to be unwound, escalating regulators' battle against the biggest tech companies in a way that could remake the social media industry. Federal and state regulators of both parties, who have investigated the company for over 18 months, said in separate lawsuits that Facebook's purchases, especially Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion two years later, eliminated competition that could have one day challenged the company's dominance. Since those deals, Instagram and WhatsApp have skyrocketed in popularity, giving Facebook control over three of the world's most popular social media and messaging apps." CNN's story is here.

The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

Dan Mangan & Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "Seventeen states whose elections were won by ... Donald Trump told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that they support Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's bid to file a lawsuit that could effectively reverse President-elect Joe Biden's projected Electoral College victory. The filing backing Paxton by those states came a day after he asked the Supreme Court for permission to sue Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all of which Biden won, over their voting processes. Later Wednesday, Trump filed a motion to intervene in the case 'in his personal capacity' as a presidential candidate. The Supreme Court has yet to rule on Paxton's request.... After Trump asked to intervene in the case, 17 former officials and lawmakers filed their own brief supporting the four swing states."; MB: I suppose we should be grateful nobody has fired on Fort Sumpter. Meanwhile, as to the real intent of the attorneys' general suit, maybe it's to wise up the last naif who believed the main job of an AG was to uphold the law. ~~~

     ~~~ Jeremy Peters & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The show of support, in a brief filed with the Supreme Court, represented the latest attempt by Trump loyalists to use the power of public office to come to his aid as he continues to deny the reality of his loss with baseless claims of voter fraud.... Legal experts ... have largely dismissed [the suit] as a publicity stunt.... That these political allies are also elected officials whose jobs involve enforcing laws, including voting rights, underscores the extraordinary nature of the brief to the court..... Late Tuesday, the president asked Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Republican, if he would be willing to argue the case, according to a person familiar with their conversation. Mr. Cruz agreed, this person said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In case the Supremes need guidance in drafting their order of dismissal, here's my suggestion: "The application for injunctive relief is denied, although the Court unanimously regrets foregoing the opportunity to tear Ted Cruz to shreds."

     ~~~ Ariane de Vogue & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "... Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday [link fixed] to block millions of votes from four battleground states that voted for President-elect Joe Biden. Trump's request came in a filing with the court asking to intervene in a lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton seeking to invalidate millions of votes cast in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The President is being represented by a new attorney, John Eastman, who is known for recently pushing a racist conspiracy theory questioning whether Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was eligible for the role because her parents were immigrants."

She Wants to Be Alone. Kate Bennett of CNN: "While the President is busy figuring out a way to stay in the White House, the first lady is determining what to put in storage, what goes to Trump's New York City digs, and what should be tagged for shipment to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. 'She just wants to go home,' said another source familiar with Melania Trump's state of mind."

Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime: "... Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Joaquin Castro opened up a new probe on Wednesday focusing on Jared Kushner's potentially compromising dealings with Qatar and other Middle Eastern governments. The latest investigation looks into whether Kushner pushed his father-in-law Trump to support a Qatari blockade while Kushner Companies sought a more than billion-dollar bailout from officials from that and other Middle Eastern governments."

Jessica Corbett of Common Dreams: "Capping off nearly four years of Trump and members of his administration working to roll back over 100 environmental and public health protections in the service of corporate polluters..., the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday finalized a rule that critics are calling a last-minute attempt to 'sabotage' future efforts by President-elect Joe Biden's incoming administration to tackle the intertwined climate and pollution crises.... [T]he new rule changes how the EPA calculates the costs and benefits of new policies on air pollution under the Clean Air Act." --s

Lisa Rein & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The Veterans Affairs inspector general informed federal prosecutors this fall of possible criminal conduct by Secretary Robert Wilkie stemming from an investigation into whether he worked to discredit a congressional aide who said she was sexually assaulted, according to three current and former federal officials. The Justice Department has not pursued a case against Wilkie, a former senior Pentagon official who has served since 2018 as President Trump's second veterans chief. Prosecutors told Inspector General Michael J. Missal they did not think there was enough evidence presented to bring charges, according to two federal officials with direct knowledge of the case. But Missal's outreach to prosecutors suggests the seriousness of a probe that has engulfed the secretary and his top political staff for almost a year, these people said.... Missal launched his inquiry into Wilkie's conduct in February after a request from House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Mark Takano (D-Calif.), who said Wilkie had worked to damage the credibility of his senior policy adviser, Navy veteran Andrea Goldstein."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here (also linked yesterday): "After weeks of surging infections and rising levels of virus hospitalizations, the United States recorded more than 3,000 covid-19 deaths in a single day, a pandemic record, according to a Washington Post analysis.... The new death record, as well as a new high of more than 106,000 covid-19 patients in hospitals, are grim reminders of the pandemic's devastating toll."

Some Are Far More Equal Than Others. Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Ben Carson, Chris Christie and Donald J. Trump are not the sturdiest candidates to conquer the coronavirus: older, in some cases overweight, male and not particularly fit. Yet all seem to have gotten through Covid-19, and all have gotten an antibody treatment in such short supply that some hospitals and states are doling it out by lottery. Now Rudolph W. Giuliani, the latest member of President Trump's inner circle to contract Covid-19, has acknowledged that he received at least two of the same drugs the president received. He even conceded that his 'celebrity' status had given him access to care that others did not have. 'If it wasn't me, I wouldn't have been put in a hospital frankly,' Mr. Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, told WABC radio in New York.... Mr. Giuliani's candid admission once again exposes that Covid-19 has become a disease of the haves and the have-nots. The treatment given Mr. Trump's allies is raising alarms among medical ethicists...." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Lauren Leatherby, et al., of the New York Times: "More than a third of Americans live in areas where hospitals are running critically short of intensive care beds, federal data show.... Hospitals serving more than 100 million Americans reported having fewer than 15 percent of intensive care beds still available as of last week, according to a Times analysis.... Many areas are even worse off: One in 10 Americans -- across a large swath of the Midwest, South and Southwest -- lives in an area where intensive care beds are either completely full, or fewer than 5 percent of beds are available. At these levels, experts say maintaining existing standards of care for the sickest patients may be difficult or impossible."

Florida. Teo Armus & Melissa Iati of the Washington Post: "A Republican lawyer resigned Tuesday from a Florida judicial panel in objection to police raiding the home of a data scientist. That scientist was previously ousted from the state health department in what she has characterized as retribution for objecting to unethical requests during the pandemic.Ron Filipkowski, who served on a nominating commission for the state's 12th Circuit, wrote in a pointed resignation letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis's general counsel that he considered the search warrant executed on Rebekah Jones's home 'unconscionable.' He also said it was indicative of the state's 'reckless and irresponsible' handling of the coronavirus pandemic."

Canada. Ian Austen of the New York Times: "Canada on Wednesday become only the second Western country to approve a coronavirus vaccine, a week after Britain did so and a day before U.S. regulators will meet to consider taking that step, opening the possibility that Canadians will start being inoculated next week.The regulatory agency Health Canada approved the same vaccine, created by the American company Pfizer and a German firm, BioNTech, that was authorized in Britain and is up for a decision in the United States." MB: That's odd. Just yesterday we learned that Donald Trump "all but declared victory over the pandemic, hailing new vaccines as a 'medical miracle' and congratulating himself for doing what 'nobody has ever seen before.'" Apparently Trump's supposedly unique "medical miracle" has "been seen before": in the U.K. & Canada.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Earth. Big Foot. Sandra Laville of the Guardian: "The giant human footprint stamped across the world in 2020 is greater than the impact on the planet of all other living things, research suggests. The amount of plastic alone is greater in mass than all land animals and marine creatures combined, the study estimates.... Their research shows that human activity including production of concrete, metal, plastic, bricks and asphalt has brought the world to a crossover point where human-made mass -- driven mostly by enhanced consumption and urban development -- exceeds the overall living biomass on Earth.... On average, every person in the world is responsible for the creation of human-made matter equal to more than their bodyweight each week, the paper published in Nature says. The research found that the stamp of humanity has been increasing in size rapidly since the beginning of the 20th century, doubling every 20 years." --s

News Lede

CNBC: "The pace of weekly jobless claims jumped last week after filings caught up with a decline due in part to the Thanksgiving holiday. First-time claims for unemployment insurance totaled 853,000, an increase from the upwardly revised 716,000 total a week before, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting 730,000. This was the highest weekly total since Sept. 19 and reflects the job market's struggles lately as coronavirus cases have spiked and local and state governments have imposed restrictions on some activities.Continuing claims increased by 230,000 to 5.76 million, the first time that number has gone up since late August."

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Reader Comments (15)

Though I admit I have not read two of the books, this one sticks in my old craw:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-11-12/burbank-unified-challenges-books-including-to-kill-a-mockingbird

On the bright side, banned books have always attracted inquiring minds who like to read under the bed covers.

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

More from the crazies:

www.cnn.com/2020/12/09/us/boise-health-board-meeting-protests/index.html

Who are infected with a deadly virus not named Covid.

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

And more crazy stuff, even closer to our home.

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/dec/09/police-investigate-bomb-threat-at-labor-union-buil/

Labor Union Building, housing Spokane's Democratic Headquarters....

And I'd predict more such misbehavior to come, unless the media stop treating the Pretender and Republican antics more generally as newsworthy events.

Enough, Going to bed.

December 10, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

I think we're all in agreement that Melanie Trump can pack her bags and GTFO of the people's house at any moment now and NOBODY will miss her for one second. What a despicable, cold, calculating shrew. She didn't tone down any of the horrible despicableness her sexual abusing husband unleashed on our country BECAUSE THAT'S WHO SHE IS. On background she complained "give me a fucking break" about children refugees stuck in cages while spelling out her disgust in pretending to care with "I don't care do you?" written in loud words on her back as she departed. She's a slightly better looking Steven Miller for all I'm concerned though the soulless, robot eyes are def not my type. She'd absolutely fit the part for every movie scene of pretty immigrants chugging champagne in tight corsets with the Nazi SS soldiers while they guy down regulars from their balcony.

People are betting she splits with Mango Mussolini as soon as he seeks refuge in Marred-a-Lago to rant and eat meatloaf and plan the further destruction of the American experiment. She loves the world of entitled, white supremacy victimization. Why would she leave?

December 10, 2020 | Unregistered Commentersafari

One does wonder how much down-ballot fraud the Rs carried out in order for them to put up such a vast, preposterous smokescreen.

December 10, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterNiskyGuy

@safari: I'm getting the feeling that you aren't a fan of the First Lady–- Ha! She of the long skirts and "Be Best Bullshit" as she skirted her way through four years of pretending to care. I always thought she'd leave Donald when she they'd leave the W.H. but me thinks she's gonna stick with him until his ass is in jail and even then she might just hang around for the perks.


The late Tony Judt––someone I had great respect and admiration for ripping apart that American fabric that told us how great we were over and over. Born in 1948 he once spoke of the "pretty crappy" generation he belonged to, which "grew up in the 1960's in Western Europe or in America, in a world of no hard choices, neither economic nor political." In Judt's view, too many of his intellectual peers moved from radical postures into the "all consuming business of material accumulation and personal security" in the 1970's and 1980's as the postwar consensus in favor of the welfare state gave way to neoliberalism: they were especially quick to "internalize the popular belief when the Berlin Wall fell that liberal democracy and capitalism had 'won'."

I'm mentioning Judt today because last night many on MSNBC, filled with frustration and anger, were finally–-as a group–-facing the fact that Trump has been like the canary in the coal mine exposing our broken system of what we keep calling a democracy.

"The white man's world, intellectuals, morally and spiritually, has the meaningless ring of a hollow drum and the odor of slow death."
––––James Baldwin

December 10, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

The Georgia Senators are signing on to Texas BS election lawsuit. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler put out a statement saying they fully support the effort to throw out every single republican vote in the state of Georgia. These are the same people who are telling Georgia Republians to come out and vote for them today. They are all insane and spineless.

December 10, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

I am sensing that you all, and me too, are feeling pretty pessimistic about everything. The pandemic, couched by some as nothing much, rages on, and the repugnican "party", actually trumpists all, even opportunistic Mittster, continues to rage also. I am terrified about this TX lawsuit, since it is a virtual civil war. How can these states that should secede and form their own country sign on to an obvious ploy? I recognize that they were won by Dumpface, and I will take it super personally if Arkansas can tell Pennsylvania what to do, and of course, PA is partially owned by a savage lege who agrees also. I am assuming that they all are yelling about individual states' ability to make its own laws-- what the hell? These spoiled brats are the ones who screech about "states' rights" but I guess we know they are lazy hypocrites.

I don't think I have ever hated a block of people so much.

December 10, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

With all the efforts being touted in the several states to suppress the vote I have to wonder how long it will be before some Trumpist floats the old idea of freeholders elections. I don't know the legal status but they're still referenced in my county's code.

December 10, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

No lawyer I, but in the unlikely event the SCOTUS takes up the Texas case it would seem one of the questions would be why would mail in votes be disallowed in only the four states Texas, et. al. is suing?

All answers welcome.

December 10, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

It's really frightening that Congress will have the final word on who will be the next president. One senator plus one representative can deny the electoral vote of a state, then Congress decides to dismiss those votes, if I understand this procedure.
This makes no sense whatever. Maybe I don't totally get it.

December 10, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

@Forrest Morris: Here's the way Rachel Bade & others in the WashPo story linked above explain it: "... if a member of the House and a member of the Senate challenge a state’s results, the whole Congress would vote — and the GOP plotting all but assures the routine process could take a dramatic turn, forcing Republicans to choose between accepting the election results or Trump’s bid to overturn the outcome." So, yes, it's theoretically possible that Congress could put Trump back in office.

But IMO, there is no chance the Congress would in fact overturn even one state's results, especially since Trump & his gang of comical lawyers have struck out in attempting to prove extensive voter fraud anywhere. Democrats will have a slim majority in the House (we don't know the composition of the Senate on Jan. 6), and mike pence would preside over the vote, so he could break a tie vote. Still, I don't believe a majority would vote to replace, say, Pennsylvania's electors with a slate supporting Trump. My guess is that quite a few Republican Congresscritters would use their voting time to go to the bathroom, check their messages, have lunch, whatever. But they would not vote to effectively overturn the results of a state's election. Now, Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, et al., they come from a different kettle of fish.

December 10, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@Marie: Thanks for the clarification. Jan. 14 can't pass soon enough!

December 10, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

The right is scary as hell. I can't keep up with all the awful.

December 10, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

Meant to recommend this earlier today:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/10/opinion/trump-constitution-norms.html?

It appealed to the Catholic parts of me that still lurk not far below the surface.

December 10, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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