The Ledes

Thursday, October 10, 2024

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

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

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

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

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The Ledes

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

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

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

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

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

Sorry, forgot this yesterday: ~~~

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

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Public Service Announcement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click on photo to enlarge.

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

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

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

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The Commentariat -- December 9, 2020

Real News

Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "President-elect Joe Biden Tuesday laid out a three-point plan to begin defeating the coronavirus pandemic during his first 100 days in office, saying he will sign an executive order the day he is sworn in to require Americans to wear masks on buses and trains crossing state lines, as well as in federal buildings. Biden also pledged to distribute at least 100 million vaccines during that time, singling out educators, who he said should get shots 'as soon as possible' after they are given first, under current plans, to health workers and peoPerfectple who live and work in long-term care facilities.... The other goal of his 100-day plan, Biden said, is to enable 'the majority of our schools' to reopen within that time horizon and to remain open. He called on Congress to devote the funding needed to make it safe for students and teachers to return to classrooms." Politico's story is here. More on Biden's remarks linked under "The Trumpidemic" below.

Katy O'Donnell, et al., of Politico: "President-elect Joe Biden has selected Rep. Marcia Fudge [D-Ohio] to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to two people with knowledge of the decision." MB: Nice, but could be a problem for House Democrats who hold an extremely thin majority. Gov. Mike DeWine is a Republican. According to an item in the New York Times, Ohio requires a special election for a vacated seat; Fudge noted that her District was a "safe seat" for Democrats." ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "Mr. Biden also chose Tom Vilsack, who served as the secretary of agriculture for eight years under former President Barack Obama, to lead that department again, according to two people familiar with the president-elect's deliberations. Mr. Vilsack, 69, a former governor of Iowa, is the seventh member of his cabinet Mr. Biden has now chosen." A CNN story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ He's So White. Marie: Vilsack? Really? His claim to fame is getting punked by Andrew Breitbart, then racing to fire a Black woman -- Shirley Sherrod -- based on an egregious Breitbart smear. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would be a more effective ag secretary. Vilsack soon apologized to Sherrod & offered her a new job, but the damage was done & Sherrod moved on, suing Breitbart before reaching a settlement agreement.

Mike Memoli, et al., of NBC News: "Alabama Sen. Doug Jones is the leading contender to be nominated for attorney general by President-elect Joe Biden, three sources familiar with the discussions tell NBC News. Biden is also considering Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, who was denied a seat on the Supreme Court in 2016 by a Republican-led Senate, and Sally Yates, a former deputy attorney general, sources said." MB: IOW, Biden is considering white moderates for the job, according to the scuttlebutt. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Marie: Tony Fauci stood up to Trump Tuesday afternoon. He made brief remarks at an event announcing Joe Biden's healthcare team, of which Fauci is a part. Hope Fauci made Trump hopping mad.

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Two Senate Democrats are signaling that they will oppose giving retired Gen. Lloyd Austin a waiver to serve as President-elect Joe Biden's Pentagon chief. 'I have the deepest respect and administration for General Austin and this nomination, and this nomination is exciting and historic. But I believe that a waiver of the seven year rule would contravene the basic principle that there should be civilian control over a nonpolitical military,' Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told reporters on Tuesday.... Blumenthal was one of 17 Democratic senators who in 2017 voted against providing a waiver to retired Gen. James Mattis, who was President Trump's first pick to lead the Pentagon.... Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), another one of the 17 'no' votes in 2017, said on Tuesday that he was also unlikely to support granting Austin a waiver.... The law mandates a Defense secretary must be retired from active service for at least seven years before assuming the top civilian role unless Congress grants a waiver. Austin retired in 2016." ~~~

     ~~~ Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also has said she will not support a waiver for Austin.

Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The House on Tuesday passed a bipartisan $741 billion defense authorization bill by a sizeable veto-proof majority, throwing down the first of two expected gauntlets before President Trump, who has escalated his threat to scuttle the legislation. The 335 to 78 vote represents a bigger margin of victory for the bill than the House mustered for an earlier version of the legislation this summer. House leaders credit the increased support to changes that were made during a months-long negotiation process between the Senate and House, despite Trump's exhortations to House Republicans to vote against the bill. The House's vote sets up a challenge for the Senate, which has yet to vote on the legislation. Should senators approve the bill by a similarly decisive margin, leaders are hopeful the president will reconsider his veto threat." A Politico story is here.

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian & Zach Dorfman in Axios: "A suspected Chinese intelligence operative [named Fang Fang or Christine Fang] developed extensive ties with local and national politicians, including a U.S. congressman [Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).], in what U.S. officials believe was a political intelligence operation run by China's main civilian spy agency between 2011 and 2015, Axios found in a yearlong investigation.... Through campaign fundraising, extensive networking, personal charisma, and romantic or sexual relationships with at least two Midwestern mayors, Fang was able to gain proximity to political power.... U.S. officials do not believe Fang received or passed on classified information" --s

The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

Nick Corasaniti, et al., of the New York Times: Donald Trump's "baseless conspiracy theories about voting fraud have devolved into an exercise in delegitimizing the election results, and the rhetoric is accelerating among his most fervent allies. This has prompted outrage among Trump loyalists and led to behavior that Democrats and even some Republicans say has become dangerous. Supporters of the president, some of them armed, gathered outside the home of the Michigan secretary of state Saturday night. Racist death threats filled the voice mail of Cynthia A. Johnson, a Michigan state representative. Georgia election officials, mostly Republicans, say they have received threats of violence. The Republican Party of Arizona, on Twitter, twice called for supporters to be willing to 'die for something' or 'give my life for this fight.' 'People on Twitter have posted photographs of my house,' said Ann Jacobs, the chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, who alerted her neighbors and the police about the constant threats."

Supremes to Trumpies: Get Out! Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused a request from Pennsylvania Republicans to overturn the state's election results. The justices said they would not block a ruling from Pennsylvania's highest court that had rejected a challenge to the use of mail ballots in the state. The Supreme Court's order was all of one sentence, and there were no noted dissents. The request that the Supreme Court intercede had faced substantial legal hurdles, as it was filed long after the enactment of the challenged statute that allowed mailed ballots and was based on questions of state rather than federal law. In late November, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled against the plaintiffs, led by Representative Mike Kelly, a Republican, on the first ground, saying they could have challenged a 2019 law allowing vote by mail for any reason more than a year ago." Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Robert Barnes & Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "Tuesday afternoon, just before the court's order was released, Trump appealed for help in his boast that he had won, rather than lost, reelection. 'Now, let's see whether or not somebody has the courage, whether it's a legislator or legislatures, or whether it's a justice of the Supreme Court, or a number of justices of the Supreme Court -- let's see if they have the courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right,' Trump said [at what was supposed to be an event touting the Covid-19 vaccine]." MB: Looks as if even winger justices had the "courage" to thumb their noses at the Biggest Loser. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Shortest legal doc I've ever seen. Here's the order: "The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied." So whaddaya think the chances are for the nonsense case Texas AG Ken Paxton [ARRRR!] plans to present to the Court? ~~~

~~~ Harper Neidig of the Hill: "Texas announced on Tuesday that it would be filing a lawsuit in the Supreme Court against four battleground states in an effort to halt presidential electors from finalizing President-elect Joe Biden's victory. Texas argued that electors from Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin should not be allowed to cast their votes in part because those states unconstitutionally changed their voting procedures during the coronavirus pandemic to allow for increased mail-in ballots. Biden won all four states.... [Texas AG Ken] Paxton's 154-page complaint echoes the legal arguments made by President Trump and his allies in courts across the country seeking to overturn election results in key states Biden won." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ The headline to Tierney Sneed's TPM story calls Paxton's suit "bonkers," and her lede is equally dismissive: "Everything is bigger in Texas, including the lengths its top attorney will go to to do the anti-democratic bidding of President Trump." ~~~

     ~~~ Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, called Paxton's motion 'a publicity stunt, not a serious legal pleading.'... Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul [D] said, 'I feel sorry for Texans that their tax dollars are being wasted on such a genuinely embarrassing lawsuit.'... Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs [R] said the allegation in Paxton's suit are 'false and irresponsible.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ MB: Rachel Maddow pointed out last night that Paxton is in a boatload of legal trouble, under indictment for one set of crimes & under FBI investigation for a more recent spate of crimes committed while in office & alleged by seven of his deputy & associate AGs. Paxton's target audience, Maddow reasonably speculates, is not the Supremes but the Pardon King who is encouraging gifts from others in exchange for pardons.

Summer Concepcion of TPM: "Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) on Tuesday called out President Trump for his 'completely unacceptable' attempt at persuading state lawmakers to overturn Pennsylvania's election results that handed President-elect Joe Biden a win in the battleground state. Toomey's condemnation of Trump comes amid ... most congressional Republicans refusing to recognize Biden as President-elect as they egg on Trump's flailing legal battles contesting the legitimacy of the election process.... Toomey, who is not seeking re-election in 2022, condemned Trump in light of the Washington Post's report that the President called the Republican speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Bryan Cutler, twice as part of his flailing attempts to overturn election results." Toomey is not running for re-election.

Arizona. David Baker of CBS 5 Arizona: "Arizona's highest court has agreed with the lower courts that Democrat President-elect Joe Biden won Arizona's 11 electoral votes. In court documents released on Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court said Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward requested more time to review duplicate ballots aside from the 1,626-ballot sample that was already done. The results found an audit of those ballots was 99.45% accurate, with only nine errors. The high court said Ward 'offered no evidence' to show that the sample was inadequate or that there was any widespread fraud that could be proven with more samples. The Supreme Court said even if the error rate stayed the same for all 27,869 duplicate ballots, there would only be 153 votes with errors, which would not be enough to call the election results into questions."


Jordan Libowitz of CREW: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spent more than $40,000 in taxpayer money on a series of 'Madison Dinners' attended by major donors and figures in the Republican party, according to documents obtained by CREW. While that number appears low for roughly two dozen events, the documents obtained by CREW represent just the first production from State as part of a records lawsuit against the agency." --s

Ryan Browne of CNN: "A member of the Defense Business Board has resigned in protest at the Trump White House's recent purge of the board's membership, replacing members with arch Trump loyalists and campaign staffers. 'The abrupt termination of more than half of the Defense Business Board and their replacement with political partisans has now put the nation's safety and security at risk,' Steve Blank wrote in his letter of resignation to acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller. Blank, a longtime entrepreneur, wrote: 'My service to the Department of Defense was a service to the country, not to a party. I hereby tender my resignation.'" --s

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Christopher Krebs, the nation's former top election security official, tells 'Axios on HBO' that President Trump is spreading disinformation, which he described as a form of domestic 'threat' that he swore an oath to defend against in his job. 'The caller was inside the house,' Krebs told me. 'The president is a big part of the disinformation that's coming out there about the rigged election, but there are absolutely others.'... Despite receiving death threats from Trump supporters, Krebs is continuing to speak out against Trump's campaign to falsely claim the election was stolen from him. And Krebs is calling on Republican leaders to join him. 'Republican leadership needs to stand up and say that, "This is not, this is just not what we need to be telling the American people right now,'" Krebs said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Spencer Hsu & Dan Morse of the Washington Post: "The former top U.S. cybersecurity official responsible for securing November's presidential election sued the Trump campaign and one of its lawyers for defamation Tuesday, asserting that they conspired to falsely claim the election was stolen, attack dissenting Republicans and fraudulently reap political donations. Christopher Krebs ... singled out comments made almost two weeks later by attorney Joseph diGenova, who said..., 'He should be drawn and quartered.... Taken out at dawn and shot.'... The lawsuit accused diGenova and the Trump campaign of defamation and 'intentional infliction of emotional distress.' It labeled Newsmax [-- which aired diGenova's remarks --] an aider and abettor." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "A Trump appointee with a short but controversial record of overseeing Voice of America and other federally funded news agencies has declined to cooperate with President-elect Joe Biden's representatives as they seek access to records and personnel. Michael Pack, who has headed the U.S. Agency for Global Media since June, has defied requests from Biden's transition team to make officials from his agency available to answer questions about the agencies' operations.... Among other things, Pack has instructed associates not to discuss his agency's operations, budget and personnel with Biden's transition team, as transition officials have requested, these people said.... Biden's aides have indicated that he would replace Pack, who has ordered a series of sweeping changes that have shaken up VOA and sister agencies, such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Office for Cuba Broadcasting and Radio Free Asia." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "President Donald Trump's pick to lead a federal media agency is attempting one last purge of personnel before Joe Biden is sworn in as the next commander-in-chief. Michael Pack, the CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, is pushing for the removal of agency officials he previously put on administrative leave.... Many of his targets are part of a whistleblower complaint against the CEO.... The latest move comes as Biden's transition team has been meeting with former officials, some of whom were ousted by Pack himself.... Biden has said he plans to& fire Pack after inauguration day in January.... The U.S. Office of Special Counsel, according to National Public Radio, recently disclosed that it had found 'a substantial likelihood of wrongdoing' at USAGM since Pack became the chief executive." --s Paul Farhi writes the Washington Post's story.

He Scammed the Scammer-in-Chief. Jack Nicas of the New York Times: "Last month..., President Trump posted an article from a conservative website that said his sister Elizabeth Trump Grau had just joined Twitter to publicly back her brother's fight to overturn the vote.... 'Thank you Elizabeth,' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. 'LOVE!' But the Twitter account that prompted the article was not his sister's. It was a fake profile run by Josh Hall, a 21-year-old food-delivery driver in Mechanicsburg, Pa.... It was a surreal coda to nearly a year of deception for Mr. Hall. Since February, he had posed as political figures and their families on Twitter, including five of the president's relatives. He had pretended to be Robert Trump, the president's brother; Barron Trump, the president's 14-year-old son; and Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator. The accounts collectively amassed more than 160,000 followers.... 'There was no nefarious intention behind it,' Mr. Hall said. 'I was just trying to rally up MAGA supporters and have fun.'... Records also show that some accounts ... direct[ed] people to give Mr. Hall money." MB: I linked to a story on Hall's deception a while back, but the Times' story is broader.


Martyn McLaughlin of The Scotsman: "[New FOIA requests show that] Mr Trump's flagship Turnberry resort has been paid nearly £25,000 by his own government to cover accommodation costs for Secret Service agents assigned to protect his son, Eric, on [four] trips to Scotland to attend to the family's business affairs.... Once car rentals and other expenses are taken into account, the total cost to US taxpayers for the visits was $62,960 (£46,880).... It means that, since his election, Mr Trump's Turnberry resort has now received close to £300,000 from the Secret Service, US State Department, and US Defence Department, according to an ongoing analysis of spending.... [T]he property has yet to turn a profit, having run up losses of nearly £43m under Mr Trump's ownership. Its most recent annual losses stood at £10.7m." --s

Judge to Flynn: "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire." Spencer Hsu & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "A federal judge dismissed Michael Flynn's prosecution Tuesday after President Trump's pardon, but said the act of clemency does not mean the former national security adviser is innocent of lying to FBI agents about his talks with the Russian government before Trump took office. In formally ending Flynn's three-year legal saga, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said he probably would have denied the Justice Department's controversial effort this year to drop the case, which Democrats and many legal experts said appeared to be an attempt by Attorney General William P. Barr to bend the rule of law to help a Trump ally. Sullivan expressed deep skepticism about the Justice Department's stated reasons for abandoning the case, criticizing it for applying a different set of rules to Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russia's ambassador during special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's probe of 2016 election interference." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lolita Baldor of the AP: "The Army on Tuesday said it had fired or suspended 14 officers and enlisted soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, and ordered policy changes to address chronic leadership failures at the base that contributed to a widespread pattern of violence including murder, sexual assaults and harassment. Two general officers were among those being removed from their jobs, as top Army leaders announced the findings of an independent panel's investigation into problems at the Texas base. The actions, taken by Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, come in the aftermath of a year that saw 25 soldiers assigned to Fort Hood die due to suicide, homicide or accidents, including the bludgeoning death of Spc. Vanessa Guillen.... The firings and suspensions include Army Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt, who was left in charge of the base earlier this year when Guillen was killed, as well as Maj. Gen. Jeffery Broadwater, commander of the 1st Cavalry Divisions. The administrative actions are expected to trigger investigations that could lead to a wide range of punishments. Those punishments could go from a simple letter of reprimand to a military discharge." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times' story is here.

Paul Martin of The Telegraph via Yahoo!: "A former CIA agent has claimed he was excluded from the original Lockerbie bombing trial and that investigators should turn their attention to the 'true culprit' -- Iran. John Holt, 68, says he was the author of secret cables showing that the Libyan double agent put forward by Scottish prosecutors as the star witness in the Lockerbie bombing trial had a history of 'making up stories'. Mr Holt was never sent to the trial by his bosses, even though he had been the CIA handler for Libyan double agent and principal witness Abdul-Majid Giaka. 'I have reason to believe there was a concerted effort, for unexplained reasons, to switch the original investigations away from Iran and its bomb-making Palestinian extremist ally the PFLP General Command...,' he told The Telegraph in an exclusive interview. 'I would start by asking the current Attorney General, William Barr, why he suddenly switched focus in 1991, when he was also Attorney General, from where clear evidence was leading, toward a much less likely scenario involving Libyans.'" --s

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here.

Lauran Neergaard & Matthew Perrone of the AP: "U.S. regulators Tuesday released their first scientific evaluation of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine and confirmed it offers strong protection, setting the stage for the government to green-light the biggest vaccination effort in the nation's history. The analysis by Food and Drug Administration scientists comes ahead of a Thursday meeting where the FDA's independent advisers will debate if the evidence is strong enough to recommend vaccinating millions of Americans. A final FDA decision and the first shots could follow within just days. They are among a whirlwind of developments that are expected to make multiple vaccines available by early next year, in the U.S. and beyond." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times' story is here.

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "The Trump administration is requiring states to submit personal information of people vaccinated against Covid-19 -- including names, birth dates, ethnicities and addresses, raising alarms among state officials who fear that a federal vaccine registry could be misused. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is instructing states to sign so-called data use agreements that commit them for the first time to sharing personal information in existing registries with the federal government. Some states, such as New York, are pushing back, either refusing to sign or signing while refusing to share the information.... Administration officials say that the information will not be shared with other federal agencies and that it is 'critically necessary' for several reasons: to ensure that people who move across state lines receive their follow-up doses; to track adverse reactions and address safety issues; and to assess the effectiveness of the vaccine among different demographic groups."

Biden v. the Lying Braggart. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "One president all but declared victory over the pandemic, hailing new vaccines as a 'medical miracle' and congratulating himself for doing what 'nobody has ever seen before.' The next president declared the pandemic deadlier than ever, calling it a 'mass casualty' event that is leaving 'a gaping hole' in America with more misery to come.... Mr. Trump offered told-you-so triumphalism as he bragged about the 'incredible,' 'amazing' and 'unprecedented' development of vaccines for the coronavirus. Mr. Biden projected feel-your-pain empathy, urged resisters to wear masks and warned that 'this mess' would not end quickly.... Rarely has there been a single hour on a single day that saw such discordant messages emanating from Washington in a time of national crisis.... The American tradition of one president at a time during the 10-week period between election and inauguration days has fallen by the wayside as Mr. Biden seeks to assert moral leadership even without the instruments of power. Mr. Trump spreads evermore outlandish claims about an invented conspiracy to steal the election and evermore desperate efforts to overturn the will of the people."

Jeff Stein & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration on Tuesday proposed an economic relief package that would offer far skimpier federal unemployment benefits than what has been proposed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, adding an element of uncertainty into the fragile stimulus negotiations, according to two people familiar with the matter. Instead, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has proposed that lawmakers approve another stimulus check worth $600 per person and $600 per child.... The new White House proposal was a nonstarter for Democrats and a sharp rejection of the bipartisan efforts that have brought the two parties closer to a compromise...." A New York Times story is here. MB: Obviously, the point of the checks is to give Trump another chance to put his big fat signature on a check (and probably on an enclosed letter) that would go to millions of households. Aid to states' unemployment benefit coffers would yield no visible Trumpy stamp.

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump's lawyer Jenna Ellis has informed associates she tested positive for the coronavirus, multiple sources tell Axios, stirring West Wing fears after she attended a senior staff Christmas party on Friday.... The revelation follows Sunday's news that Ellis' legal sidekick Rudy Giuliani was hospitalized after testing positive."

Stupidest Senator Elevates Fringe Covid-19 "Treatments." AP: "A group of doctors at a U.S. Senate hearing chaired by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, touted unproven alternative treatments to COVID-19 on Tuesday, even as medical experts derided the testimony and Democrats largely skipped the proceeding.... Johnson and the witnesses he called accused the medical establishment and health agencies of failing to explore and promote the use of relatively inexpensive drugs.... 'They're safe and they're cheap and they just might be incredibly effective,' said Johnson, who claimed that 'tens of thousands of people have lost their lives' because government agencies have focused on expensive 'silver bullet' solutions instead of medications already in use for other diseases.... Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the panel..., appeared at the hearing to read his opening statement and then declined to participate further. Besides Johnson, only two other senators, both Republicans, asked questions of the witnesses." ~~~

     ~~~ Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "Mr. Johnson called witnesses who promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. The National Institutes of Health guidelines recommend against using either drug to treat coronavirus patients except in clinical trials.... Despite the regulatory warnings and the lack of substantial scientific evidence for their efficacy, Mr. Johnson claimed that 'discouraging and in some cases prohibiting the research and use of drugs that have been safely used for decades has cost tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people their lives.'... For about two and a half hours, the participants continuously challenged public health consensus, sometimes advancing inaccurate and previously debunked claims. One witness, Dr. Ramin Oskoui, a cardiologist in Washington, argued that 'masks do not work' and 'social distancing doesn't work' by [misreading the results of] a recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine." The study's lead author said Oskoui's reading was akin to "claiming that car brakes are not effective in preventing crashes because accidents still occur when they are used."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Russia. Andrew Roth of the Guardian: "A Russian businessman [Kirill Shamalov] who was married to Vladimir Putin's daughter [Katerina Tikhonova] received an estimated $380m (£283m) stake in a Russian petrochemicals company for just $100, an investigation by Russia's iStories investigative outlet has claimed.... 'It's simple,' wrote Alexey Navalny, an opposition politician and anti-corruption activist. 'Putin's daughter gets married and the newlyweds receive the present of $380m.'... The emails, which were provided to the investigative journalists by an anonymous source (possibly hacked, they noted), also revealed an ascendant circle of young power-players from St Petersburg, who generally were the children and grandchildren of Putin and his friends and colleagues in government.... The leaked emails ... are a rare, documented look at how those in Putin's circle manage to acquire fantastic wealth." --s

Russia/World. Michael Weiss of the 4 Free Russia Foundation: "... Free Russia Foundation has translated and published five documents from the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency. The documents ... details [sic] the GRU's modern psychological warfare program and are dated from within the last decade. The documents include the memoir of a former colonel in the Soviet Union's Special Propaganda Directorate who explains how psychological and information operations were conducted at the tail-end of the Cold War, and then adapted for the post-Soviet era. The documents also include the organization of psychological warfare, down to the military unit, as well as the theory and practice of working over targets in the West." --s

Earth. Damian Carrington of the Guardian: "Global soils are the source of all life on land but their future looks 'bleak' without action to halt degradation, according to the authors of a UN report. A quarter of all the animal species on Earth live beneath our feet and provide the nutrients for all food.... The report was compiled by 300 scientists, who describe the worsening state of soils as at least as important as the climate crisis and destruction of the natural world above ground. Crucially, it takes thousands of years for soils to form, meaning urgent protection and restoration of the soils that remain is needed. The scientists describe soils as like the skin of the living world, vital but thin and fragile, and easily damaged by intensive farming, forest destruction, pollution and global heating." --s

Comments Off

Reader Comments (16)

Sayonara.

Can't see.very clearly into the Republican mind, but would guess some of the House and Senate R members afraid to speak out about the Pretender's egregious, prolonged and very embarrassing attack on the election's results will eagerly vote for the DAA, thereby sending a politically safe message to the Pretender that he's no longer their guy.

Wonder if that liability protection for social media the Pretender doesn't like remains in the House bill...

December 8, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Senator Johnson's alternate medicine charade reminded me of this disturbing piece from "Vox" on the Supreme's recent decision siding with religious liberty over sense.

https://www.vox.com/2020/12/2/21726876/supreme-court-religious-liberty-revolutionary-roman-catholic-diocese-cuomo-amy-coney-barrett

It's a grim analysis, suggesting as it does that the little voices speaking inside anyone's head have every "right" to become the law of the land.

When the little voices prevail on every front, empiricism is in for a tough time.

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/opinion/republicans-civility-benson.html?

Though she doesn't say it as directly as I would have liked, Ms. Goldberg begins to make the case that it's the Constitution that has protected America's political bullies since the country's inception.

In the present, the extraordinary powers the Constitution grants minority Republican Red States seems to have imbued them with a sense of invulnerability that has been exported from the Heartland to Republican enclaves everywhere.

Over time, they have learned that their nastiness, even violence toward Democrats and other government officials has little political consequence; and like all bullies who are not disciplined, they have only gotten worse.

Instead of discipline, the Constitution and court decisions that allow Republican gerrymandering (which Goldberg mentions) and voter suppression reward their bad behavior.

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

HYDE & SEEK

One could get the impression that our congress is playing hooky or dithering days on end waiting for the end game––but hearings do go on; they just don't get the press, I guess, for reasons we are all aware of. Yesterday, for instance, Rosa DeLauro (D-CT.) who is now the Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, had a hearing on repealing the Hyde Amendment–-something many (especially women) democrats have wanted to do for some time. Biden has said he was in favor of the appeal which would then allow federal funds to pay for abortions especially for low income women.

I watched this hearing last night and as predicted those women on the Right were passionate in their vitriol against abortion and gave their usual religious arguments (always referring to a fetus or a clump of cells as a baby) and gave testaments of women who regretted their decision even after thirty years:

"She told me, and she was crying as she said this, 'not a day goes by that I don't think of that baby I aborted–-how old would he be now–-what would he look like...'

Lots more like this countered by a few women who said they had abortions, felt it was the right decision ––period!

It will be interesting to see if Hyde can be overturned before the Supremes take on, once again, this item which rocks the socks of so many and many of those are the same folk who find separating hundreds of immigrant children from their parents not a problem.

@safari: Much appreciated your story on soil–-the GOOD EARTH–-the skin of the living world––this is what we should be embracing and protecting.

@Ken: Johnson from Wisconsin was probably the poster boy for the picture of a huge chunk of cheese imbedded in the head of a daffy looking guy with a green cap, who says:

"I'm your Dairy Land Laddie, the biggest cheese wonk in the world. Eat cheese please, cows love you for it!"

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Games Wingers Play

Games have probably been around since Cro-Magnon kiddies were playing pin the tail on the woolly mammoth. Slower kids got squashed. But hey, they learned a thing or two about life.

A famous painting by the Dutch master Pieter Bruegel (the elder), shows Renaissance era kids playing dozens of different games, all having quite a time for themselves. One of the games involves wearing masks, meaning that pubescent 17th century kids were smarter than Trump, his "superstar" legal team, bar owners on Staten Island, and domestic terrorists surrounding the homes of public health officials.

The point of games is to have fun, sure, but also to learn about life as a well rounded human being, learning fair play, how to accept a loss, how be a good winner, and how to abide by the rules. Game playing is a bit of "you buy the premise, you buy the joke". But for some kids, the joke is on the other kids. These are the cheaters. We all remember those kids who hated losing so much, they cheated. At everything. They strike out in baseball, they whine that everyone is cheating them and demand another crack at the ball. They get tagged out, they yell that you missed them.

These kids grew up to be Republicans. I mean, seriously, if you're cheating at Candyland or Chutes and Ladders, it's not a giant step to election stealing and screaming that a seven million vote difference doesn't mean anything.

Games teach kids how to be good citizens and the value of everyone staying within the bounds of the rules. One of the things that I've always loved about baseball is that inside those foul lines extending out from home plate to infinity (or the outfield wall, whichever is closer), is controlled by rules. There are rules for everything and judgement is swift and unbending. Sure, your guys get jobbed by the ump with the seeing eye dog now and then, but that's part of the game too. You learn to roll with it.

Republicans have been taught that Democrats ALWAYS cheat. This gives them permission to be even bigger cheaters. It's a hard and fast rule in certain Hollywood films (especially those starring Mel Gibson), that if the hero is cheated or done wrong by the snarling villain in the first couple of acts, he or she can drop holy hell on the bad guys in the last act. Things can get positively medieval. This is the way Republicans respond to fantasies about how their freeeedoms are being stolen by those they hate. Thus, cheating is not just allowed, it's expected, and rewarded.

But as any child development expert will tell you, kids who cheat do so because they are excessively egocentric. It's all about them. All the time. They are always being put upon so it's fine to cheat. Their development has been severely stunted.

Maybe this also accounts for how they readily swallow the most outrageously stupid fairy tales and jump when told that the boogeyman is under the bed and will get them if they don't watch out.

Do Democrats cheat? Sure. Some of them. Some of the time. But cheating is not a feature of Democratic politics. It IS for Republicans. In fact, cheating has become THE primary political tool for wingers. Trump has probably been cheating since he could walk.

The answer? Well, when we were kids, what we came up with was not to let the cheaters play. This either cured them of their bad behavior, or they found some other group of kids to cheat.

Our problem now is that we've got cheaters on the Supreme Court. And some of them, like Mel Gibson, feel they've been unjustly treated and have an axe to grind. They're like the kids who went beyond mere cheating at games to changing the rules to guarantee that they win.

That is a whole different ball game. And it's a game that doesn't get called on account of darkness. Darkness is where they do their best cheating.

Democrats will continue to play by the rules. Republicans will continue to cheat. And change the rules. It's a nasty game. But now and then, the biggest cheater can end up the biggest loser.

For a while.

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Let's just keep the crazy coming. Trump has announced he is getting involved in the Texas lawsuit. How will the Supremes go on that? https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/529408-trump-says-he-will-intervene-in-texas-election-lawsuit

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

Bobby Lee,

The point now, at least for Trump, if not for his gulled and rather dim, but nonetheless vicious supporters, is not to "win". In other words, he's not looking to actually change the outcome of his historic loss. He's a goner on that score. But he is looking for two other things: martyrdom and money.

Pretty soon the trough will be off limits for him and his mooching kids. He has to find some way to weasel big bucks out of someone. Why not the suckers who love him? They're easy marks. And he can pressure big donors by promising to Twitter-out them if they don't pony up for his coming legal expenses. But (almost) more than the money, is his need to never be seen as a loser. He didn't lose. He got screwed.

He's a holy martyr for the cause of winger dominance.

But growing up Catholic, I always read that martyrs were dead. And dead from pretty gruesome stuff.

C'mon, Donnie. You wanna be a martyr? Do it up right.

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I don't get how there can be lawsuit after lawsuit that goes to the SC. If they are the endgame, why can't they just say they won't deal with any more. And how can a felon sue anyone? Stupider and stupider. Meanwhile, speaking of stupider, how come Toomey has finally said that it appears Biden has won, in so many words, and he is the only one disappearing in 2023 who has done so? Such sacks of s***.

I hope someone "important"on the cheating side of things dies soon. I don't care who it is, but they won't stop the crap about the pandemic unless it hurts one of them and so far, everyone seems to have recovered nicely, and has not been featured at the end of broadcasts as gone. I guess I am tired of the unfair deaths of so many, yet the pails of garbage amongst us are happily healthy. They are trash. All.

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

Jeanne,

If you’re Trump or Junior or Giuliani, or a member of Congress, you get superior medical attention and cutting edge treatment, paid for, mostly, by you and me (don’t know about Crazy Rudy, but it wouldn’t surprise me if his medical bills are taken care of as well). Regular people aren’t so lucky, like that Trump voter who claimed with her dying breath that it was all a hoax. Dead from a hoax. That’s winger Möbius strip logic for you, if you care to try to parse that out.

Plenty of people are dying from the Trump virus. The trick seems to be getting medical attention as quickly as possible. And since Fatty and his entourage of traitors get tested every day, they aren’t in the position of average Americans who, even if they can get tested, might not get results for days or even a week, at which point the virus is well on its way.

Them that gots, gets. ‘Twas ever so.

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Akhilleus - so when playing up, GOPers do it like Calvinball, but are mean as well as capricious and clueless to the value of rules.

And when they lose they cry.

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Talk about recognition for fitting a stereotype.: The Miami Herald opines that "Defeated, lying, narcissist ex-President Trump will make a perfect 'Florida Man'."

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

Patrick,

Hahahaha. Exactly. And after a good cry they demand a do-over in which they win.

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: Your mention of the Bruegel painting & its depiction of children learning to play by the rules brings to mind a book my husband wrote on chivalric literature. Before editing the book, I had never known much about the history of chivalry and certainly not how pervasive it has been over the centuries. Chivalry itself, IMO, is a set of "new rules" meant to supersede or update older codes of conduct. And of course what constitutes "chivalric virtues" has somewhat varied over time and place.

The chivalric code is not a "secret code"; rather, it is one that almost everyone in the "upper class" learns, while only some non-elites are taught and follow it. Knowing and at least overtly following the rules doesn't mean a person can't be a jerk, but not knowing & ostensibly following the code does mean that a jerk can't join the elite club.

Trump doesn't know it. He did not learn it at home from his nasty, grasping father. He might have learned it at military school, which has its own version of the code, but whatever his school taught, a gentleman's code did not impress young Donald. As for Donald's fans, either they don't know the code or they're vaguely aware of it and resent it. They prefer someone like Trump who they claim (falsely) "tells it like it is" to someone -- like, say, Mitt -- who embraces the gentility of "saying things in quiet rooms."

An great deal of polite, civil discourse today has its roots in the chivalric code, and many who didn't get in on why & how the code defines appropriate behavior probably end up like Trump: antisocial oafs raging against a machine that is ever a mystery to them, always on the outside looking in.

December 9, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Katie Porter Obliterates Mitch McConnell For Blocking Pandemic Relief
"The same McConnell who said that President Trump is “100% within his rights” to pursue baseless lawsuits alleging election fraud is now refusing to pass urgently-needed relief unless it strips those same rights from the most vulnerable among us."

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

Co-conspirators named in the CNBC report on the Texas and Pretender suit to overtuirn the election:

"The states supporting the suit, all of which have Republican attorneys general, are Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia."

Two thoughts about it.

A very clear statement that the (idea of) the South (and its love affair with minority government) still lives.

And I know where not to spend money.

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Another attempt to lodge another poison pill in the incoming president's throat.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/09/donald-trump-drug-card-medicare-seniors-promise-443952

It's not about politics, they say.

Sure.

December 9, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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