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.”

Help!

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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 13, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Some Are More Equal Than Others. Annie Karni & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "White House staff members who work in close quarters with President Trump have been told they are scheduled to receive injections of the coronavirus vaccine soon, at a time when the first doses of the vaccine are being distributed only to high-risk health care workers.... The hope is to eventually distribute the vaccine to everyone who works in the White House, but will begin with some of the most senior people who work around the president, one of the people said.... While many Trump officials said they were eager to receive the vaccine and would take it if it were offered, others said they were concerned it would send the wrong message by making it look like Trump staff members were hopping the line in order to protect a president who already had the virus and has bragged that he is now 'immune.'"

Seung Min Kim & Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: "President-elect Joe Biden's decision to fill his White House and Cabinet with longtime colleagues has led to frustration from liberals, civil rights leaders and younger activists, who worry he's relegating racial minorities to lower-status jobs while leaning on Obama-era appointees for key positions. Biden's Cabinet process has also discomforted some allies on the Hill, who say senators from his own party have not been sufficiently consulted about picks, even though Biden will need influential Senate Democrats to help steer nominees through the confirmation gauntlet. Senior Democratic senators have gotten little or no advance warning about the president-elect's selections, according to a half-dozen senior congressional officials and others familiar with the process."

Tweeto. Darlene Superville of the AP: "... Donald Trump offered a new rationale Sunday for threatening to veto the annual defense policy bill that covers the military's budget for equipment and pay raises for service members: China. He did not outline his concerns. Republican and Democratic lawmakers say the wide-ranging defense policy bill, which the Senate sent to the president on Friday, would be tough on China and must become law as soon as possible. Both the House and Senate passed the measure by margins large enough to override a potential veto from the president, who has a history of failing to carry out actions he has threatened. 'The biggest winner of our new defense bill is China! I will veto!' Trump said in a new tweet."

It's the Dopamine! James Kimmel in Politico Magazine: "... brain imaging studies show that harboring a grievance (a perceived wrong or injustice, real or imagined) activates the same neural reward circuitry as narcotics. This isn't a metaphor; it's brain biology. Scientists have found that in substance addiction, environmental cues ... cause sharp surges of dopamine in crucial reward and habit regions of the brain.... Recent studies show that similarly, cues such as experiencing or being reminded of a perceived wrong or injustice -- a grievance -- activate these same reward and habit regions of the brain, triggering cravings in anticipation of experiencing pleasure and relief through retaliation.... The hallmark of addiction is compulsive behavior despite harmful consequences. Trump's unrelenting efforts to retaliate against those he believes have treated him unjustly (including, now, American voters) appear to be compulsive and uncontrollable.... Reports suggest he has been doing this for much of his life. He seems powerless to stop. He also seems to derive a great deal of pleasure from it." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump seemed to recognize early on that he was prone to addiction. It's the reason he doesn't drink. Kimmel says we should have compassion for Trump. Sorry, I guess I need to go to WhinersAnon, because I don't feel sorry for Trump. At all.

Yesterday, Trump did a flyover in Marine 1 to salute his Proud Boy fans, who took a brief break from protesting & stabbing people in D.C. to cheer him on. (Stories linked below.) For some of us of a certain age, it's impossible not to speculate that Saturday's flyover may be a precursor to Trump's plans for a Grand Finale on January 20:

David Siders of Politico: "The down-ballot parroting of Trump's baseless claims of widespread voter fraud began right after the election. But in the weeks since, it has evolved into a self-sustaining phenomenon of its own. Republican candidates for House, legislative and gubernatorial races in more than half a dozen states are still refusing to concede. Echoing the president, these candidates are an early sign of what Republicans say will be a sustained, post-Trump effort to tighten voting restrictions and to reverse measures implemented in many states to make voting easier. They also may mark the beginning of a Trump-inspired trend of candidates who never fold -- they just fade away after weeks and months of unsubstantiated allegations of fraud." MB: This is something I missed completely; even candidates who lost by as much as 70 percent! are claiming fraud & "irregularities." As many have observed, the only "real votes" are votes for Republicans.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here: "The first of nearly three million doses of the first Covid-19 vaccine were packed in dry ice and put on trucks at a Pfizer plant in Kalamazoo, Mich., on Sunday morning, destined for hundreds of distribution centers in all 50 states, the most ambitious vaccination campaign in American history. Workers applauded as the first shipment left the plant for loading on the trucks.... The first injections are expected to be given by Monday to high-risk health care workers.... The total number of U.S. cases [is] more than 16 million, by far the most in the world, less than a week after the country surpassed 15 million."

Frances Sellers, et al., of the Washington Post: "The initial distribution of 2.9 million doses, a sliver of what was initially anticipated and intended only for health care workers and residents and staff of long-term care facilities, will arrive at hospitals battling climbing case counts and mounting deaths. Immunization in its early phases will not curtail intensifying outbreaks, experts cautioned, underscoring the need for continued public-health precautions. But the vaccine's clearance on Friday night from the FDA, followed by backing on Saturday from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory group, set into motion one of one of the most complicated logistical missions in U.S. history, marking a new phase of the pandemic." ~~~

~~~ Lena Sun & Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "A federal advisory panel voted overwhelmingly Saturday to recommend the nation's first coronavirus vaccine for people 16 and older.... The advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the benefits of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has been shown to be 95 percent effective at preventing illness after two shots, far outweighed side effects, including sore arms, fatigue, headaches, muscle pain and chills that resolved within a few days.... The vote was 11 in favor, with three members not voting because of conflicts of interest.... While [the panel's chairperson Beth] Bell applauded the huge scientific achievement of developing a vaccine, she and others noted the stark imbalance between the $10 billion of taxpayer money used to fund vaccine development and the lack of funding -- only 'hundreds of millions' -- for the enormously complicated and challenging distribution and vaccination effort rolling out across the country during the next year.... 'We are not going to be able to protect Americans if we don't have a way to deliver the vaccine to them.'" MB: IOW, Trump demands "credit" for developing a vaccine he didn't develop, but actually getting shots in arms was not his concern.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here: "At a news conference on Saturday, Gen. Gustave F. Perna, the chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, the federal effort to bring a vaccine to market, said that boxes [of Pfizer's vaccine] were being packed at Pfizer's plant in Kalamazoo, Mich., and would be shipped to UPS and FedEx distribution hubs, where they would be dispersed to 636 locations across the country. Pfizer said shipping would start early Sunday morning. Mr. Perna specified that 145 sites would receive the vaccine on Monday, 425 on Tuesday and 66 on Wednesday." (Also linked yesterday.)

Florida. Kirby Wilson of the Tampa Bay Times: "A White House Coronavirus Task Force report about the state of the pandemic in Florida made public Saturday urges state leaders to take immediate action to slow the virus' spread. Officials should close or severely limit indoor dining, limit capacity at bars and issue stronger policies around mask wearing, the report states. Those are the same public health measures that Gov. Ron DeSantis has publicly assailed for months as ineffective. While he was making the case for no new business restrictions, DeSantis' office refused to publicize reports from the task force which recommended a more robust public response.... Earlier this week, the Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel sued the governor's office to release the reports. The governor's office had not released any of the weekly reports issued during the month of November, the suit alleged."

Ronald Shafer in the Washington Post on the time in 1776 when future First Lady Abigail Adams had herself & her four children inoculated against smallpox. "... the procedure was considered so dangerous that a number of states eventually banned it."


Michael Balsamo & Eric Tucker of the AP: "A subpoena seeking documents from Hunter Biden asked for information related to more than two dozen entities, including Ukraine gas company Burisma, according to a person familiar with a Justice Department tax investigation of President-elect Joe Biden's son. The breadth of the subpoena, issued Tuesday, underscores the wide-angle lens prosecutors are taking as they examine the younger Biden's finances and international business ventures." ~~~

     ~~~ Molly Jong-Fast in Vogue: "The rebirth of the Hunter Biden story made the right wing media giddy.... But is Hunter Biden the presidential offspring we really need to worry about? How about those two grifters-in-chief, Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner? Hunter Biden is no Boy Scout.... But he had no official role in his father's campaign. He will not join his father's administration in any capacity. Ivanka and Jared, on the other hand, work in the White House!"

Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite: "A Wall Street Journal op-ed Saturday drew swift backlash for not just criticizing soon-to-be First Lady Dr. Jill Biden for using the title denoting her doctorate, but for what many viewed as a condescending and sexist tone. The piece, written by Joseph Epstein..., kicks off the insults right away. 'Madame First Lady -- Mrs. Biden -- Jill -- kiddo,' is how Epstein began his written tirade encouraging Biden to abandon the honorific that she earned. '"Dr. Jill Biden" sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic.' He also demeans her dissertation topic.... Unsurprisingly, Epstein's view met with some fierce criticism.... Many commenters criticized Epstein for the sexist tone, and CNN's Jake Tapper also highlighted a passage where Epstein complained about Black women receiving honorary doctorates." A New York Times story is here.

The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

Anti-Democracy Republicans Plot to Overturn Election. Nicholas Fandos & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "... as the president continues to refuse to concede, a small group of his most loyal backers in Congress are plotting a final-stage challenge on the floor of the House of Representatives in early January to try to reverse Mr. Biden's victory.... The looming battle on Jan. 6 is likely to culminate in a messy and deeply divisive spectacle that could thrust Vice President Mike Pence into the excruciating position of having to declare once and for all that Mr. Trump has indeed lost the election.... The effort is being led by Representative Mo Brooks, Republican of Alabama, a backbench conservative. Along with a group of allies in the House, he is eyeing challenges to the election results in five different states -- Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin.... Under rules laid out in the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act of 1887, their challenges must be submitted in writing with a senator's signature also affixed. No Republican senator has yet stepped forward to say he or she will back such an effort, though a handful of reliable allies of Mr. Trump, including Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have signaled they would be open to doing so.... Once an objection is heard from a member of each house of Congress, senators and representatives will retreat to their chambers on opposite sides of the Capitol for a two-hour debate and then a vote on whether to disqualify a state's votes. Both the Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate would have to agree to toss out a state's electoral votes -- something that has not happened since the 19th century."

Toluse Olorunnipa & Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "President Trump's push to overturn his election loss has been repeatedly defeated and rebuffed by the courts.... But the campaign has also served another purpose -- rallying Republicans across the country to back Trump's assault on democratic principles and further cementing his control over the party even as he prepares to leave the White House.... Through public displays of support and lengthy silences, the vast majority of elected Republicans chose to back Trump. Nearly two-thirds of House Republicans and 18 state attorneys general signed their names to the failed Supreme Court lawsuit seeking to have justices overturn the will of voters in multiple states. Others have gone on television to parrot the president's baseless conspiracy theories about vote-rigging. Some are using rhetoric reminiscent of the Civil War to express their fealty to the president's cause." ~~~

~~~ Jim Rutenberg & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court repudiation of President Trump's desperate bid for a second term not only shredded his effort to overturn the will of voters: It also was a blunt rebuke to Republican leaders in Congress and the states who were willing to damage American democracy by embracing a partisan power grab over a free and fair election.... Much of the G.O.P. leadership now shares responsibility for the quixotic attempt to ignore the nation's founding principles and engineer a different verdict from the one voters cast in November.... With direct buy-in from senior officials like Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and the Republican leader in House, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the president's effort required the party to promote false theory upon unsubstantiated claim upon outright lie about unproved, widespread fraud -- in an election that ... officials agreed was notably smooth given the challenges of the pandemic. And it meant that Republican leaders now stand for a new notion: that the final decisions of voters can be challenged without a basis in fact if the results are not to the liking of the losing side, running counter to decades of work by the United States to convince developing nations that peaceful transfers of power are key to any freely elected government's credibility." (Also linked yesterday.)


Hailey Fuchs, et al., of the New York Times: "Incensed by a Supreme Court ruling that further dashed President Trump's hopes of invalidating his November electoral defeat, thousands of his supporters marched in Washington and several state capitals on Saturday to protest what they contended, against all evidence, was a stolen election. In some places, angry confrontations between protesters and counterprotesters escalated into violence. There were a number of scuffles in the national capital, and the police declared a riot in Olympia, Wash., where one person was shot. In videos of a clash in Olympia that were posted on social media, a single gunshot can be heard as black-clad counterprotesters move toward members of the pro-Trump group, including one person waving a large Trump flag. After the gunshot, one of the counterprotesters is seen falling to the ground, and others call for help. In one video, a man with a gun can be seen running from the scene and putting on a red hat.... A spokesman for the Washington State Patrol, said that one person was in custody in connection with the episode.... Mr. Trump flew over the protesters in Marine One on his way to attend the Army-Navy football game at West Point." ~~~

~~~ Emily Davies, et al., of the Washington Post: "Thousands of maskless rallygoers who refuse to accept the results of the election turned downtown Washington into a falsehood-filled spectacle Saturday.... The crowds cheered for recently pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn, marched with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and stood in awe of a flyover from what appeared to be Marine One. But at night, the scene became violent. At least four people were stabbed near Harry's Bar at 11th and F streets NW, a gathering point for the Proud Boys, a male-chauvinist organization with ties to white nationalism.... In helmets and bulletproof vests, Proud Boys marched through downtown in militarylike rows.... They became increasingly angry as they wove through streets and alleys, only to find police continuously blocking their course with lines of bikes." The Guardian's story is here.

Andrew Solender of Forbes: "Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) on Friday urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to refuse to seat any of the 126 Republican House members who signed an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit aimed at overturning the results of the presidential election.... Pascrell cites Section 3 of the 14th amendment -- which states that anyone who 'engaged in insurrection or rebellion' cannot serve in federal office -- claiming the lawsuit seeks to 'obliterate public confidence in our democratic system' and that those who signed it committed 'unbecoming acts that reflect poorly on our chamber.'... Pelosi herself has signaled firm opposition to the Trump-backed effort, calling it 'an act of flailing GOP desperation, which violates the principles enshrined in our American Democracy' in a letter to Democratic colleagues."

Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "President Trump on Saturday excoriated Attorney General William P. Barr, castigating him on Twitter for not violating Justice Department policy to publicly reveal an investigation into President-Elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s son.... Mr. Trump benefited from [the DOJ's] policy [of not discussing ongoing inquiries] himself in 2016, when officials kept quiet the inquiry into possible conspiracy between his campaign and Russian officials.... In the weeks after the election, Mr. Barr refused to refute Mr. Trump's specious claims of widespread voter fraud. But this month, after Mr. Trump raised the prospect that the Justice Department and F.B.I. may have been involved in tipping the election to Mr. Biden, Mr. Barr ... said that he saw no examples of widespread voter fraud that could have meaningfully affected the election." (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

~~~ Kevin Liptak of CNN: "... Donald Trump raised the prospect of firing Attorney General William Barr in a meeting on Friday, but it's unclear whether he'll choose to dismiss Barr before the end of his term next month. A person familiar with the matter told CNN that Trump was furious in the meeting with advisers at the White House that Barr had worked to keep the federal investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes from becoming public before the November election. Trump was also upset at reports Barr was considering departing the administration before January 20, believing the leaks to be self-serving. Trump told officials he is serious about replacing Barr, but whether he actually goes ahead with the move remains in question. He has been encouraged by advisers over the past several months not to do so." (Also linked yesterday.)

Tweets So Bad.... Celine Castronuova of the Hill: "Twitter on Saturday prevented users from liking and replying to a series of tweets from President Trump in which he repeated false claims that he won the election and that the race was 'stolen' from him, though the company later reversed the move. In three separate tweets Saturday morning, Trump responded to the Supreme Court's decision to throw out a lawsuit from Texas aiming to nullify President-elect Joe Biden's win in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania..... 'This is a great and disgraceful miscarriage of justice,' Trump wrote. 'The people of the United States were cheated, and our Country disgraced. Never even given our day in Court!' In separate tweets limited by Twitter, the president claimed that he 'won the election in a landslide' and that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) allowed votes to be 'stolen' from him." (Also linked yesterday.)

Wisconsin. Another Trump-Appointed Judge Tosses a Trump Lawsuit. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Milwaukee on Saturday tossed out President Trump's latest effort to overturn the election results in Wisconsin, dismissing the case and ruling that it had failed 'as a matter of law and fact.' In a strongly worded decision, Judge Brett H. Ludwig, a Trump appointee who took his post only three months ago, shot down one of the president's last remaining attempts to alter the results of a statewide race.... Judge Ludwig's ruling was especially significant because after the Supreme Court's terse decision Friday night, Mr. Trump complained that courts around the country have thrown out dozens of his lawsuits based on technicalities, and have not given him a chance to fully present his legal arguments. Judge Ludwig, however, held a daylong hearing on Thursday and still found that Mr. Trump's claims were lacking. He dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning Mr. Trump cannot refile it in the same court."

Ronald Shafer in the Washington Post on how Southerners plotted to overturn the 1960 presidential results and deprive the winner, John Kennedy, of the presidency. Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

News Lede

Guardian: "John le Carré, who forged thrillers from equal parts of adventure, moral courage and literary flair, has died aged 89. Le Carré explored the gap between the west's high-flown rhetoric of freedom and the gritty reality of defending it, in novels such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Night Manager, which gained him critical acclaim and made him a bestseller around the world." The New York Times obituary is here.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (17)

The fourteen year old boy, only partially politically conscious, but who knew his very conservative Catholic father was conflicted on what had been a very close presidential race, missed this this part of the drama, and sixty years later found it a good Sunday morning read:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/12/13/electoral-college-jfk-trump/


And on another subject, anyone have a solid opinion (OK, doesn't have to be solid) on who--besides Putin--will benefit from Brexit? Since I've read that were there another vote, the original close vote to leave the European Union would be reversed, there must be more than lingering British pride and its resultant snobbery at work...

December 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@Ken W.: Thanks for the link. I had just turned 15 days before the 1960 election. I had met Kennedy, my mother was invited to an inaugural ball, we subscribed to the Sunday NYT & some news magazine. Yet, like you, I have no recollection whatsoever of this extensive plot. It must not have been a subject of discussion around the dinner table, and as my father was a civil rights worker, I would have expected it to be. Apparently, it was not.

The stupidest part of our Constitution is the Electoral College & the stupidest omission is the right to vote.

December 13, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

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Steve Silberman
@stevesilberman
·

The author of this paragraph, Joseph Epstein, should not miss the next chance to catch a glimpse of himself in the mirror and say honestly, "I've become a schmuck, a tool, an embarrassment to my family and colleagues. What the heck am I doing? I need to change my life."

Here's a guy, Epstein, who never got one of those degrees, I assume, since his bio says he "attended" a satellite U. of Illinois. Here's a guy who is not only a homophobe but apparently has problems with people ( mostly women?) who actually have doctorates but unless they are medical, don't acknowledge them, he says. His disrespect-able "kiddo" to Jill Biden along with his message to her paints a picture of an 83 yr. old man who thinks he has purchase in this day and age ( as does, obviously the WSJ) but his goose might very well have been cooked whose rump is way past due for consumption.

The riots in Washington D.C. –-this current culture of political warfare seems always more than crazed loonies brandishing guns to protest against falsities. Evan Osnos, writing about this kind of violence, thinks it is a mutant version of a mainstream ethos: a survival mind set derived from a sense of zero-sum contests, in which only one side can prevail. The weaker they feel, the more they grasp for gestures of force.
Looking at it from a strictly non-intellectual view, it IS a bunch of loonies who envision themselves caretakers of the other looney who refuses to budge from a job he botched and now blames others for it. How exciting for them to fight for their savior, to even kill for him, cuz hell, it's what we patriots do!!!!

god bless****

December 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@Ken: since some of us can't access the Wash=Po could you explain the Kennedy reference?

December 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

PD,

Couldn't find another neat summary of the 1960 elector maneuverings but this from Wikipedia hints at what occurred.

"Kennedy won a 303 to 219 Electoral College victory and is generally considered to have won the national popular vote by 112,827, a margin of 0.17 percent. Fourteen unpledged electors from Mississippi and Alabama cast their vote for Senator Harry F. Byrd, as did a faithless elector from Oklahoma. The 1960 presidential election was the closest election since 1916, and this closeness can be explained by a number of factors.[2] Kennedy benefited from the economic recession of 1957–58, which hurt the standing of the incumbent Republican Party, and he had the advantage of 17 million more registered Democrats than Republicans.[3] Furthermore, the new votes that Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic president, gained among Catholics almost neutralized the new votes Nixon gained among Protestants.[4] Kennedy's campaigning skills decisively outmatched Nixon's, who wasted time and resources campaigning in all fifty states while Kennedy focused on campaigning in populous swing states. Nixon's emphasis on his experience carried little weight for most voters. Kennedy relied on Johnson to hold the South, and used television effectively. Despite this, Kennedy's popular vote margin was the narrowest in the 20th century."

Even with Johnson on the ticket, the formerly solid South was a bit rocky because that damn Catholic was---Catholic, liberal and a proponent of civil rights. As a result, some southern politicians attempted an electoral coup, which ultimately failed, but the votes for Byrd, unsupported by popular votes as they were, suggest the southern unease with Kennedy's election in the air at the time.

Hope that helps.

December 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Spent enough time in the past this morning to recall a book on my shelf written some years ago by a classmate and friend, "The Real Making of the President, Kennedy, Nixon and the 1960 Election."

The author makes some scattered references to the uncommitted electors throughout, but when I skimmed through it again this AM did not find a summary of the machinations that the WAPO presents.

Too bad. But I would still recommend the book for its other virtues. The subject also caused me to remember the book and the friend, now gone, who wrote it.

December 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@Ken: thanks for the clarification–-yes, it certainly did help and I second Marie's "The stupidest part of our Constitution is the Electoral College & the stupidest omission is the right to vote."

By the way–-and your longtime friend and author of the book you cited is???

December 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

According to the googles it's W.J. Rorabaugh.

December 13, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

@PD Pepe: Here are some highlights from Shafer's article:

"Republicans suspected voter fraud in 11 states and filed suit in two of them, Texas and Illinois, which Kennedy won by fewer than 9,000 votes. Judges threw out both suits.... Nixon took no part in the vote challenges and told a reporter that 'our country cannot afford the agony of a constitutional crisis.'...

"... electors from Alabama and Mississippi agreed not to cast their votes for Kennedy, who had won both states.... The electors lobbied their counterparts in the electoral college to follow their lead.... [One plan was to] revers[e] the position of candidates” in the election. That is, Vice President-elect Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas would be president, and Kennedy would be vice president.... [Another was for all electors] to pick a president from a list of 'outstanding southern men.' Among the choices were [Sen. Harry] Byrd [Va.], segregationist governors Orval Faubus of Arkansas and Ross Barnett of Mississippi, and Georgia Sen. Richard Russell.... If that failed, as “a last resort” the electors would seek to switch enough votes to keep Kennedy from getting the 269 electoral votes needed for election and throw the race into the House of Representatives....

",,, [In the end,] Byrd got only 15 votes, one from Oklahoma ,,, and 14 from the Alabama and Mississippi electors. All 14 electors voted for South Carolina Democratic Sen. Strom Thurmond for vice president."

December 13, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

"The stupidest part of our Constitution is the Electoral College & the stupidest omission is the right to vote." I live in one of the 'fly-over' states and realize that NYC and environs has more people than all of Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and Alaska put together. Alaska and Hawaii became states in large part because out of state interests owned the economic capacity and treated the locals like serfs. Speaking of which, the Russian system of central control of the provinces by Moscow and St. Petersburg would become a model for the dis-enfranchised if the electoral college was abolished. As an exchange student on the East coast, I got to see first hand that intellectual arrogance doesn't necessarily follow from the capacity to make wise decisions. Can you understand how I may be unwilling to acceed to communities and people that let the Orange Turd succeed and thrive for decades as final arbiter of me, my home, and surrounding lands by stripping the small people of any meaningful electoral representation? Wanna get rid of the electoral college? Give me a meaningful alternative first? Promises out here are usually followed by Superfund sites.

December 13, 2020 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625

Thanks, unwashed, for adding the link.

On a personal note, Mr. Rorabaugh who early on and for reasons I can't recall became "Wild Bill" to his friends, would drive up from Seattle to share election night festivities with our family and small circle of friends. While his politics were not as liberal as our own, we always looked forward to his clear view of what what really happening at both state and national levels as the returns came in.

Not to mention the many stories he has stored in his remarkably capacious memory.

He died not long after his retirement from the University of Washington History Dept.

Needless to say, this last November was very much darkened by his absence. Those who knew him still miss him. This morning, I find I'm still saying goodbye to Bill.

His other books, many but not all concentrating on the sixties, which college students of our generation all lived through together, are also worth a look.

December 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

The head of the Proud Boys was at the White House right before all the unrest in the streets yesterday. It's unclear if he was invited or just sightseeing, but disturbing nonetheless.

December 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

@Marie: Thanks for the info.

@Citizen: I hear your concerns–-which are certainly arguments for NOT abolishing the E.C. But, as you said, let's have a sensible alternative.

December 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@citizen625 & @PD Pepe: A sensible alternative is the popular vote. It's the way every elected official in the U.S. who is not prez or veep is chosen. Pretty simple.

December 13, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Well the cat is out of the bag. The 87 year old former Israeli general who "knows" that an alien federation exists and has been in secret contact with Americans says that Trump knows too. This could be his grand exit from the white house: announcing that his tweets about winning the election were really code for winning the election...of the alien federation, and that it will soon be evident that he is the supreme leader of the universe - well, at least the solar system. You'll see. Just wait. The aliens will show up.

Both men should be hospitalized.

December 13, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterperiscope

More critics of the Morocco dea emerge:

https://thehill.com/policy/international/529878-trump-faces-bipartisan-international-pushback-on-western-sahara

Especially liked this part.

"While welcoming the increasing number of countries normalizing relations with Israel, critics are concerned these deals are coming with a quid pro quo of large weapons sales and a disregard for human rights."


Pretender SOP, I'd say.

December 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@Ken Winkes: Wait, wait! A peace deal predicated on huge weapons sales to all the neighbors? What's wrong with that picture? Maybe the Trump "peace" symbol could be an ICBM with a tiny white flag pinned to the tip of the warhead.

December 13, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns
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