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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Friday
Dec042020

The Commentariat -- December 5, 2020

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Kate Sullivan of CNN: "President-elect Joe Biden said Friday that the Trump administration had shared information with his transition team about distributing a vaccine to various states, but Biden said his team had not seen a 'detailed plan.' 'There is no detailed plan that we've seen, anyway, as to how you get the vaccine out of a container, into an injection syringe, into somebody's arm,' Biden said at an event in Wilmington, Delaware. 'It's going to be very difficult for that to be done and it's a very expensive proposition,' Biden said. He noted, 'There's a lot more that has to be done.' Biden stressed the importance of distributing the vaccine in an equitable manner across the country, noting that Black and Hispanic people infected with the virus have died& at disproportionately higher rates than White people. He said his team is also looking at getting health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities the vaccine first, as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently advised." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: No one should be surprised by this, of course, but here's where we stand: (1) Trump is taking credit for the rapid development of anti-Covid vaccines (and urging the public not to give Biden credit). But of course it was drug companies who developed vaccines. (2) The Trump administration has no "detailed plan" to coordinate & facilitate distribution of vaccination units. That's the government's job. That is, Trump wants credit for something he didn't do, and isn't doing what he must do. You can bet that before the end of January, Trump will be down at Mar-a-Lago complaining that Biden hasn't distributed the vaccinations that He Trump developed. Congressional Republicans will amplify the fake complaint, reporters will report it, and millions of Republicans will buy into the lie.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here: "'We have not yet seen the post-Thanksgiving peak,' Anthony S. Fauci said Friday. 'That's the concerning thing, because the numbers in and of themselves are alarming.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Axios: "The government's top infectious-disease expert Anthony Fauci said Friday that he 'absolutely' will accept the offer from President-elect Joe Biden to serve as his chief medical adviser, telling NBC's 'Today' that he said yes 'right on the spot.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Real Political News

Michael Blood & Nicholas Riccardi of the AP: "California certified its presidential election Friday and appointed 55 electors pledged to vote for Democrat Joe Biden, officially handing him the Electoral College majority needed to win the White House. Secretary of State Alex Padilla's formal approval of Biden's win in the state brought his tally of pledged electors so far to 279, according to a tally by The Associated Press. That's just over the 270 threshold for victory. These steps in the election are often ignored formalities. But the hidden mechanics of electing a U.S. president have drawn new scrutiny this year as ... Donald Trump continues to deny Biden's victory and pursues increasingly specious legal strategies aimed at overturning the results before they are finalized."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President-elect Joe Biden on Friday urged Congress to pass a $900 billion coronavirus relief bill during the lame-duck session as a starting point in public remarks notable for their care in dealing with GOP and Democratic objections to the emerging compromise. Biden said it was critical to get a bill passed soon to provide relief to Americans hours after a new labor report showed slowing job growth as coronavirus cases spike across the country. He repeatedly dodged questions about whether he's spoken to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), while deflecting questions about progressive concerns that the legislation does not provide enough immediate help to families in need."

Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "President-elect Joe Biden says he thinks it's important for the sake of appearances that President Trump attend his inauguration -- although as far as he's concerned 'it's of no personal consequence.'... In an interview that aired on Thursday night, Biden told CNN's Jake Tapper that the gesture would be 'important in the sense that we are able to demonstrate, at the end of this chaos that he's created, that there is peaceful transfer of power, with the competing parties standing there, shaking hands and moving on.'"

Greg Miller & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration has refused to allow members of President-elect Joe Biden's transition team to meet with officials at U.S. intelligence agencies that are controlled by the Pentagon, undermining prospects for a smooth transfer of power, current and former U.S. officials said. The officials said the Biden team has not been able to engage with leaders at the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other military-run spy services with classified budgets and global espionage platforms.... The delays came even as Biden advisers spent much of this week meeting with officials at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA, intelligence agencies that are independent of the Defense Department." CNN's story is here.

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, who enjoys thumbing her nose at Trump as much as anyone, now takes on Mitch & his confederate mob with a dose of reality: "The refusal by Republicans to acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden's election victory is remarkable in its contempt for democracy and defiance of reality.... Biden not only received a majority of the popular vote, but also cleared 51 percent -- the largest vote percentage obtained against an incumbent president since 1932 and a bigger percentage of the popular vote than any Republican president since George H.W. Bush in 1988, when Bush was essentially running for a third Ronald Reagan term. In the process, Biden amassed the largest total number of ballots in U.S. history. He pummeled Trump by more than 7 million votes (and exceeded Barack Obama's 2008 vote total by more than 11 million).... Biden's victory..., far from narrow..., represents the overwhelming verdict of the voters. If there is such a thing as a mandate, Biden has one.... Treating Biden as anything but the president-elect and denying him ample latitude to compile the Cabinet and senior staff of his choosing represents an outlandish attempt to preempt the will of more than 80 million Americans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ To be fair, Senate Republicans have cobbled together a swell abdication excuse: it's not in their job description to call elections.

Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The final draft of the bicameral, bipartisan-approved defense authorization bill contains a number of rebukes of President Trump's actions as commander in chief, in addition to defying him over both of the grounds on which he has threatened to veto the legislation. Topping the list is a prohibition on reducing the number of troops stationed in Germany and South Korea below current levels unless Congress receives certain guarantees that it is strategically safe and lawmakers are given ample time to consider the drawdown. The proscription against troop movements was written in response to the Trump administration's summer announcement that it planned to move about 12,000 U.S. troops out of Germany.... The defense bill directs the president within 30 days to impose sanctions against Turkey for its purchase of S-400 missile systems from Russia, a reflection of how both Republicans and Democrats in Congress have been frustrated by the administration's reluctant approach to addressing Ankara's challenges to NATO. It also orders the defense secretary to submit an annual report about any Russian-sponsored bounties for attacks against U.S. military personnel. Trump came under fire this summer for dismissing intelligence about such a scheme in Afghanistan as 'not credible.'"

Natalie Fertig of Politico: "The House on Friday passed a landmark bill that would remove federal penalties on marijuana and erase cannabis-related criminal records. The bill passed by a vote of 228-164, with several Republicans on board. While the MORE Act is not expected to come up in the Senate this year, and likely won't in the next session of Congress either, its passage nevertheless marks a monumental step in marijuana policy.... Friday's vote reflects the shift in American and global views on marijuana over the past decade...." The New York Times report is here.

Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to fully restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors from deportation, scoring a key win for immigrant advocacy groups. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, a Clinton appointee, restores the Obama-era program and also mandates that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) post a public notice by Monday saying it is accepting new applicants. It would mark the first time since 2017 that the government has admitted new immigrants into the program." This is a developing story. The Washington Post's story is here. The New York Times' story is here.

** Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dan Froomkin, a great critic of U.S. journalism, excoriates the major media for their failure to call out Trump's lies & for giving major kudos to the few reporters who occasionally, in hit-or-miss fashion, manage to write a sentence or two that point to Trumpian mendacity. "Acting with courage and integrity would have entailed news reporters and organizations calling Trump out when they would have taken some heat for it, rather than now, when Trump is quite literally a loser. And it would not reserve truth-telling for the leader alone, but for his entire movement." MB: The way I see it, we're moving almost seamlessly from he-said/she-said Trump "journalism" to he-said/she-said Biden "journalism," with a few reporters taking a short break to lick their wounds after Trump -- for five years -- called them "fake news" and "enemies of the state" and lashed out at some individual reporters.

The Last Days of the Kaiser

Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Donald Trump and his legal allies earned a platinum sombrero Friday, striking out five times in a matter of hours in states pivotal to the president's push to overturn the election results -- and losing a sixth in Minnesota for good measure.... Several of the most devastating opinions, both Friday and in recent weeks, have come from conservative judges and, in some federal cases, Trump appointees. The losses included a rejection in Wisconsin from the state Supreme Court, where the majority was gobsmacked at the effort by a conservative group to invalidate the entire election without any compelling evidence of voter fraud or misconduct." The Washington Post's story is here.

The Party of Weanies. Amanda Carpenter, a serious winger, of the Bulwark: "Why aren't more Republicans standing up and speaking out about Donald Trump's reprehensible acts?... They're fine with it. All of it.... Take your pick of the worst events of the Trump presidency. Charlottesville, Lafayette Square, kids in cages, Trump's egging on of militiamen, pipe bombers, mass shooters, and vigilantes. None of it led to a significant break between Trump and elected Republicans.... [In Georgia,] two Republican elections officials are speaking out against Trump for the looney conspiracy theories he's pushing about how the election was supposedly stolen from him. But, one has to ask, would they be saying anything if they weren't the ones being targeted?... You see, I remember Trump calling lots of other Americans 'an enemy of the people' and putting them in danger before he attached that label to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. For some reason, though, it didn't matter to Raffensperger until it happened to him." ~~~

~~~ Georgia. Where There's Smoke, There's Smoke. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "To date, the [Trump] campaign has done little more than throw smoke bombs and insist there's a fire. In a triumphant appearance on Sean Hannity's Fox News program Thursday night, however, Giuliani announced that all of that had changed. 'Today's video was really explosive,' he said.... The video at issue is a collection of feeds from security cameras apparently recording a ballot-counting operation in Fulton County, Ga. In it, an individual is seen directing others to pull black containers from either a shelving unit or from under a table. The containers are then taken to nearby tables, opened and apparent ballots removed. It's hard to tell what happens next, but a voice-over suggests that the half-dozen individuals in the room then scanned the ballots. What Giuliani and others claim happened is that observers were cleared from the room and that ballots hidden in suitcases were then brought out to be counted without oversight.... The fact-checking site Lead Stories dug into the claims, speaking with several Georgia officials about what the video showed. '... the work you see is the work you would expect,' said Gabriel Sterling, the state's voting systems manager, 'which is you take the sealed suitcase-looking things in, you place the ballots on the scanner in manageable batches and you scan them.'... Another official ... also denied that anyone had been told to leave the room. A monitor from the state election board also told Lead Stories that he was present the entire time." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "The Georgia Kraken, when arguing on Friday that the Eleventh Circuit has jurisdiction to hear its appeal, said Dominion Voting Systems rigged the election against Joe Biden. The assertion can be found in the first paragraph of Sidney Powell and Lin Wood's background presentation of their case.... '[T]here were all imaginable varieties of voting fraud,' appellants said, 'including machine-controlled algorithms deliberately run by Dominion Voting Systems that generally took more than 2.5% of the votes from Mr. Biden and flipped them to Mr. Trump for a more than 5% fraudulent increase for Mr. Biden.' To be clear, this line says that Dominion took votes from Biden and gave them to Trump -- to increase Biden's vote. That's an ... interesting theory and 'epic fail.'" Thanks to NiskyGuy for the laugh. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Matt Naham: "A federal appellate court bookended a roller coaster of a week by rejecting Sidney Powell and Lin Wood's appeal in the so-called Kraken case that they filed in the state of Georgia. First Powell and Wood ran to the U.S. District Court over the weekend and asked for a temporary restraining order so they could conduct forensic analyses of Dominion Voting Systems machines in 10 Peach State counties. When they didn't get the order they really wanted, they went to the Eleventh Circuit with an interlocutory appeal and filed a brief just before midnight on Wednesday, asking the appellate court to decertify the presidential election. On Friday morning, Powell et al. managed to claim that Dominion had actually rigged the election against Joe Biden. By Friday evening, a ... Trump-appointed circuit judge penned the opinion of the court flatly denying their appeal on grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction."

Georgia Senate Race. Allan Smith & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Former President Barack Obama and Vice President Mike Pence held dueling rallies courting Georgia voters on Friday, seeking to drum up support in the battle for control of the Senate. Obama joined 2018 gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams and the two Democratic Senate candidates, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, for a virtual rally Friday afternoon. At roughly the same time, Pence joined Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., for an in-person rally in Savannah. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., was slated to attend as well but changed plans after a campaign staffer, Harrison Deal, died in a car accident, she announced in a statement.... Donald Trump will hold a rally on Saturday in Valdosta with the two Republicans in the runoff, which is about a month away."

~~~ Marie: I didn't link this story yesterday because a U.S. senator accidentally "admitting" Joe Biden won the presidential election is no longer remarkable. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) appeared to tacitly acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden's victory in a video recording obtained by The Washington Post on Thursday.... In a video meeting recorded Wednesday with members of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), Perdue spoke pragmatically about the role a GOP-controlled Senate could play as a check on the Biden administration." BUT there is something remarkable in Gardner's story: the walk-back: "Perdue spokesman John Burke called the video a 'non-story,' adding: 'Senator Perdue totally supports President Trump and his fight for transparency and accuracy in this election.'" The state of the federal government is that a U.S. senator has to have a staffer go out & self-pretzelize in order to downplay a fact that everyone but the Mad Kaiser accepts.


Making the World Less Safe for Democracy. Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "President Trump, pressing his end-of-term troop withdrawals from conflicts around the world, will pull American forces out of Somalia, where they have been trying to push back advances by Islamist insurgents in the Horn of Africa. The Pentagon announced on Friday that virtually all of the approximately 700 troops in Somalia -- most Special Operations forces who have been conducting training and counterterrorism missions -- will be leaving by Jan. 15, five days before President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is scheduled to be inaugurated. The withdrawal from Somalia followed Mr. Trump's orders to reduce the American presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, and reflected the president's longstanding desire to end long-running military engagements against Islamist insurgencies in failed and fragile countries in Africa and the Middle East, a grinding mission that has spread since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.... Mr. Trump's push to leave Somalia before he leaves office comes at a delicate time for the East African nation: It is preparing for parliamentary elections next month and a presidential election scheduled for early February.... Many of the American troops will be 'repositioned' to nearby Kenya, a Defense Department official said Friday." MB: Looks like "deep-state" Pentagon push-back. An AP story is here.

Lara Seligman, et al., of Politico: "The White House removed nine members of the Pentagon's Defense Business Board on Friday and installed people loyal to ... Donald Trump in their place, including presidential allies Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie. The firings marked the latest effort by the Trump administration to clean out the Defense Department in the final weeks of the president's term.... 'A number of board members have been terminated with a form letter. In my experience, I was very surprised that the White House would, at the eleventh hour, adjust an advisory board that for 19 years has had a record of nonpartisan support with the department,' Michael Bayer, who until today was board chair, told Politico. 'This kind of a move really will weigh heavily on people in the future and their willingness to serve on these outside advisory boards if they're going to be subjected to political loyalty tests. It's unprecedented. I'm just saddened,' he added."

Nathan McDermott, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump's nominee to become a senior Pentagon official spread debunked conspiracies on Twitter that called Trump's election loss to Joe Biden a 'coup' attempt and shared tweets that suggest Trump should declare martial law. Scott O'Grady, a former fighter pilot and Trump loyalist, repeatedly retweeted tweets that falsely stated Trump won the election in 'landslide fashion' and that millions of votes were stolen from the President.... O'Grady was nominated by the White House to become an assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs at the Pentagon.... CNN's KFile reviewed O'Grady's tweets and media appearances and found that O'Grady shared other debunked election conspiracies and that he also degraded top military and intelligence officials. In a radio interview, he called former President Barack Obama and military generals 'sworn socialists,' and advocated that the military justice system should bring back treason charges. He retweeted a tweet that called former Defense Secretary James Mattis a 'traitor.'" And so forth. Lotsa so-forth. MB: I'm just thinking top DOD jobs should go to people who are (1) fairly apolitical and (2) fairly sane. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

John Hudson of the Washington Post: "The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to cancel several holiday parties, saying they violate his own guidelines against holding 'non-mission critical' gatherings during a raging pandemic and needlessly jeopardize the health of federal employees. 'I am concerned that these parties pose a significant health risk, not only to attendees, but to the employees and workers who must staff these events, as well as to State Department employees who may feel pressured to attend,' Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey said in a letter addressed to Pompeo on Thursday.... 'We plan to fully enforce social distancing measures at this reception, and face coverings are mandatory for admittance,' said a State Department spokesman.... When asked how he could expect attendees to keep masks on at a reception that includes food and drinks, the spokesman did not offer a response. He also did not explain how the department would enforce social distancing, if even a fraction of the 900 guests [for one event] show up." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's something I really don't get: why are the Pompeos doing this? There is ample evidence that most Republicans are sadists. But still.

Betsy DeVos Does Something Decent. Michael Stratford of Politico: "The Trump administration on Friday granted an extra month of student loan relief to the 41 million Americans who have been benefiting from a freeze on monthly payments and interest that was set to expire at the end of the year. That relief was set to expire on Dec. 31 but will now end on Jan. 31. The last-minute extension averts what could have been a potentially chaotic resumption of payments just weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.... Biden has not committed to any specific executive action on student loans, but he is widely expected to further continue in some form the same freeze on monthly payments and interest the Trump administration has now twice extended through executive action." MB: The full loan repayments will still come due, so the government is losing no more than the use of the money for a period of time. But still, it's something. My guess is that Betsy doesn't want to be bothered with making the effort to to dun the loan recipients.

Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "The Republican National Committee paid more than $300,000 in October to a company owned by Donald Trump Jr. to purchase copies of his new, self-published book. Autographed copies of the book, Liberal Privilege, were given out to donors who contributed between $50 and $100 to the RNC, according to a source familiar with the arrangement.... It's common for political groups to buy books written by prominent public officials and offer them as gifts for their financial supporters.... But the RNC's payment to Trump Jr.'s company in October was the largest single payment -- out of more than 700 -- that the committee has ever reported for donor 'mementos' or 'gifts,' according to Federal Election Commission filings." MB: Darn! I didn't contribute to the RNC, but I sure could use an autographed copy of Junior's book. I lost a back foot on a small refrigerator, & Junior's book might be just right to "stand in" for the foot.

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Reader Comments (10)

To get your Saturday off to a lovely cheerful start: pretend it's 1812:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW4C2h3lPac

December 5, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterNJC

On the Why of Pompeo?

Good question, Marie, similar to the questions we've all asked time and again about what motivates any number of Pretender. administration officials or Republican leaders.

Why in the world would they be doing fill-in-the-blank?

Like everyone else I've developed a set of possible answers from which to choose, tho' I've never listed them before.

Here they are, arranged alphabetically.

Arrogant bastard.

Grifter

Ignoramus

Mean (or stupid or selfish) son of a bitch.

Pettiness

Racist pig.


Other descriptors--but never, never, public service-- might apply but I'd think one or a combination of these few would cover most of what Republicans do.

In Pompeo's case, I'd apply a hefty dose of arrogance, along with the usual grift and the meanness that exhibits itself as "fuck you. I'm doing it because I can."

December 5, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Why this story isn't front page news is a wonder: For years the ACLU and others have been trying to locate the parents of all those hundreds of immigrant children separated from their families at the border. Now we find out that the Trump administration had been withholding contact information––yes, they had phone numbers) and now we are finally getting that withheld information and can start the process of reconnecting those poor children with their families.
https://www.kqed.org/news/11849630/disturbing-judge-asks-trump-administration-to-explain-why-it-withheld-contact-information-for-separated-migrant-parents

WHY?????? was this allowed to happen? The abject cruelty is beyond understanding but as I write these words I know very well how evil played out in the Trumpian era. We are seeing it every day as the death toll climbs higher and higher.

Four years ago this monster should have been laughed out of the campaign; instead he reigned and soiled this nation. Draw him akimbo, flying in the sky with his slippery little lemmings holding onto his legs, all with those red caps to signify their allegiance to making America destroy itself. Hail to the Thief!

Have we learned some lessons?

December 5, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@PD Pepe: I agree. NBC News carried it right away as did several other outlets. But nothing from the NYT & WashPo, as far as I could tell. Maybe they're writing big Sunday stories. We'll see.

@Ken Winkes: True enough. It just seems to me that inviting someone to a superspreader is more of an insult than a demonstration of a generous holiday spirit. Many of those who would be invited to a State Department function would be of a certain age -- not necessarily doddering, but far enough along in their careers (and therefore their ages) to have attained a certain status worthy of a high-falutin invite. Pompeo himself is 56 years old, and both he & his wife have at least one risk factor. So, assuming he's a selfish bastard (yeah, I know, that's such a stretch) why subject even himself & his beloved spouse to a superspreader? The parties seem not just rash but irrational.

December 5, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

The Pompeo party thing may just be asshole ignorance and a last hurrah of another bully boy, but I think there’s more to it. I think it’s a signal to the Trumpen horde: I will not knuckle under to the godless commie democrat liars who are telling you to be afraid of a hoax virus. Plus, I will not allow them to steal OUR CHRISTMAS!

He’s looking at 2024.

Fatty too is looking beyond Biden’s inauguration. These never ending attacks on a free and fair election (of course, no election is fair unless Trump wins) are a ploy to present himself to the droolers as the brave Christian/confederate martyr, surrounded on all sides by dogs and traitors. It’s a plea for money. Plus, he’s holding out hope to the stormtroopers and sheep for a restoration of the Trump Reich.

These people are disgusting and debauched but they’re not complicated.

December 5, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Wow, Akhilleus. That's pretty sick. So I guess it makes sense to Pompeo.

December 5, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

I agree-- Pompouseo is a fat pig, his wife a status-crawling midget, and neither of them are above cruelty. 2024. I can't wait for them all to eat themselves. The big ole crowd of trumpster-fckers will be in the news soon enough, Cotton et al. None of them are anything but bottom-feeders.

The ACLU lawyer trying to find the families of the children last night was beside himself. He just could not believe the cruelty. I personally think that trump reich is the right word-- no better than Hitler.

I am furious this morning on picking up our paper. The head winger in the legislature has done a 180, after publicly saying the Rs will not be seeking to annul the entire PA election by saying that the mail-in ballot law of 2019 was "unconstitutional" and therefore, they win. Then he signed on to a letter to some court seeking just that. That would throw it to the lege to pick electors. I called and screamed at his office for being a NOT "nice young man..."which is how he is frequently described. I was unclear. It has something to do with Rudy's team of crazies. I ended with "Democrats are allowed to win elections" which is the whole thing: Democrats are simply illegal to these monsters.

December 5, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

I have this feeling that pompeo and his ilk really don't believe Covid can get them. They don't have to go to the grocery store or ride a bus. Other than the inconvenience of all those worriers out there making life difficult for the privileged folk, it's not real. Until it is. Clearly, Herman Cain was too much of a has-been for them to care about.

It's sort of like the story every once in a while about some R who's life was saved because of the ACA. The truth just has no chance against the torrent of "Obamacare is terrible" propaganda.

December 5, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterNiskyGuy

Re Pompeo parties:

Apparently there are several different events planned for Pompeo hosting on State's 8th Floor (the diplomatic reception areas), but the one that has had most press and for which the Christmassy invitation was shown in the stories is a big (900+) "employee event" for the family members of employees who are serving overseas on unaccompanied tours. So many embassies and consulates have been deemed unsafe for non-essential employees, any spouses or children, that there are quite a few families that reside at safe-havens or their US homes while the employee serves a tour abroad.

Apparently, these Christmas party events have been standard the past few years.

My guesses:

1. This event was scheduled because no one thought to ask Mikey if they should cancel it. And the people who organize the event now are now automatons who avoid exercising their own judgment, because they have learned Mikey doesn't like that and he's a vindictive prick.
2. Since it is an "employee event" and not a vote-getter or fund raiser, Mikey probably won't be there. Ditto Mrs. Mikey. Having his name on the invitation (e-mail invite?) is pro-forma. So, he does not have to worry about breathing employee cooties. Even if he shows, they can rope-line him 20 feet back, easily, and he can enter and leave from his private elevator. He need not mingle with the hoi polloi.
3. Turnout will probably be very small. This particular set of employees' families has no reason to kowtow and Mikey has no means of screwing with them anymore. They are looking forward to seeing Mikey&Co.'s backs on the way out.

Our national problem with these folks (all Donny's minions) will remain, because they have really broken a lot of crockery, and it will take years to recover. But at least we will shortly not have the embarassment that Donny's people are paid employees of our very own government. Imagine -- we are paying idiots to mess up our business!! We are stupid employers, folks.

December 5, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Here's another video that puts Fatty in prison singing his widdle heart out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVX0XPaEYpE&feature=youtu.be

December 5, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe
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