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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The Ledes

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

The New York Times is live-updating developments Tuesday as powerful Hurricane Milton moves through the Gulf of Mexico toward Central Florida.

New York Times: “Cissy Houston, a Grammy Award-winning soul and gospel star who helped shepherd her daughter Whitney Houston to superstardom, died on Monday at her home in Newark. She was 91.”

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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 -- February 2, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Amy Gardner, et al., of the Washington Post: "House Democrats made their case to convict ... Donald Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in a sweeping impeachment brief filed with the Senate Tuesday that accused Trump of jeopardizing the foundations of American democracy by whipping his supporters into a 'frenzy' for the sole purpose of retaining his hold on the presidency. In the brief, the House's nine impeachment managers made an impassioned case that Trump was 'singularly responsible' for the mayhem that day -- and that he is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors..., primarily because he used the powers of his office to advance his own personal political interests at the expense of the nation." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the House brief for Trump's second impeachment trial, via NPR.

Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "As Republicans splinter over how to deal with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene..., Democrats are seizing on the infighting to make her the avatar for an array of G.O.P. lawmakers. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Tuesday began a $500,000 advertising campaign on television and online tying eight House Republicans, including Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, to Ms. Greene and QAnon, an effort to force them to make a public affirmation about Ms. Greene." MB: Not sure how smart this ad run is; a large percentage of Republicans are glad MTG & Kevin are saving us from Hillary & the other "Democrat" pedophiles.

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "It's Marjorie Taylor Greene's party now." Here's the graf P.D. Pepe highlighted in today's Comments: "If you're steeped in creationism and believe that elites are lying to you about the origins of life on earth, it's not a stretch to believe they're lying to you about a life-threatening virus. If what you know of history is the revisionist version of the Christian right, in which God deeded America to the faithful, then pluralism will feel like the theft of your birthright. If you believe that the last Democratic president was illegitimate, as Trump and other birthers claimed, then it's not hard to believe that dark forces would foist another unconstitutional leader on the country." MB: That's a good explanation of why the GOP is what it is.

Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: "A Russian court sentenced Aleksei A. Navalny, Russia's most prominent opposition leader, to more than two years in prison on Tuesday, a decision likely to send him for a lengthy term in a far-flung penal colony for the first time. Tuesday's sentencing represented a pivotal moment for President Vladimir V. Putin's Russia. Mr. Navalny, one of the main challengers of the Kremlin, has inspired some of the biggest street protests of the Putin era and repeatedly embarrassed the president and his close allies with investigative reports about alleged corruption that were viewed many millions of times on YouTube. Until now, the authorities have tried to contain him with short jail terms of a few weeks to avoid making Mr. Navalny into a political martyr. The decision to send him to prison removes his direct voice from Russia's political landscape, but it could energize his supporters and further rally Russian opposition to Mr. Putin around the figure of Mr. Navalny."

~~~~~~~~~~

January 31, 2021. Washington Post photo.Burgess Everett of Politico: "Ten Senate Republicans attempted to sell President Joe Biden Monday night on a coronavirus relief compromise, even as Biden's own party made plans to leave the GOP in the dust. In the two-hour meeting, the GOP senators presented their $618 billion counterproposal to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and the president described his own $1.9 trillion plan to the senators. They agreed to keep talking, although senators conceded their discussions were just beginning.... 'While there were areas of agreement, the President also reiterated his view that Congress must respond boldly and urgently, and noted many areas which the Republican senators' proposal does not address. He reiterated that while he is hopeful that the Rescue Plan can pass with bipartisan support, a reconciliation package is a path to achieve that end,' White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said after the meeting."

Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath & Stef Kight of Axios: "President Biden will sign three immigration-related executive orders on Tuesday -- including one that will establish a task force aimed at reuniting migrant families separated under former President Trump's hardline immigration policies, according to senior administraiton officials."

Laura Reiley of the Washington Post: "If confirmed as U.S. agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, 70, will reprise his role in a political and economic landscape vastly different from that during his eight years in the same job during the Obama administration. In prepared remarks ahead of his Tuesday hearing before the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, he alluded to those differences. 'Then, a Great Recession challenged us. Today, the pandemic, racial justice and equity, and climate change must be our priorities,' Vilsack wrote. Although the Iowa native is expected to enjoy a smooth confirmation process with broad bipartisan support, he has come under criticism from civil rights groups and Black farmers who say he didn't go far enough last time to eradicate long-standing racial discrimination in farming and at the department."

Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A whistle-blower complaint filed on Monday said a top Trump homeland security official sought to constrain the Biden administration's immigration agenda by agreeing to hand policy controls to the pro-Trump union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The complaint accuses Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II of 'gross mismanagement, gross waste of government funds and abuse of authority' over the labor agreements he signed with the immigration agents' union the day before President Biden's inauguration. Mr. Cuccinelli -- an immigration hard-liner whose legal legitimacy to serve in senior positions at the Department of Homeland Security was contested -- essentially sought to tie Mr. Biden's hands, according to the complaint. 'This abuse of authority is shocking,' wrote David Z. Seide, a lawyer representing the whistle-blower, whom he described as 'a current federal employee who wishes to remain anonymous' and who 'possesses information concerning significant acts of misconduct' by Mr. Cuccinelli." ~~~

      ~~~ Marie: It appears that in some regards, the union is more powerful than the POTUS* & the DHS secretary in that Cuccinelli's "deal" allows the union to veto presidential & Cabinet-level policy orders for the next eight years (i.e., the maximum length of a Biden administration).

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Monday vacated the Trump administration rule limiting which scientific studies the Environmental Protection Agency can use in crafting public health protections, overturning one of the last major actions taken by the agency before President Biden took office. The ruling by Judge Brian Morris, chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, Great Falls, marked a victory for environmental groups and public health advocates. Just two weeks before Biden's inauguration, EPA finalized a rule requiring researchers to disclose the raw data involved in their public health studies before the agency could rely upon their conclusions. The rule, which was made effective immediately, would assign less weight to studies built on medical histories and other confidential data from human subjects where the underlying information was not revealed. That sort of research -- including dose-response studies, which evaluate how much a person's exposure to a substance increases the risk of harm -- have been used for decades to justify EPA regulations."

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The federal prosecutor tapped by ... Donald Trump to lead the Atlanta U.S. Attorney's Office during Trump's failed bid to overturn the election has resigned from that post, a spokesman confirmed Monday. Bobby Christine ... had been appointed by Trump as the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia after fellow Trump appointee Byung J. 'Bjay' Pak suddenly resigned Jan. 4. The move raised questions of possible political interference, as Trump bypassed Pak's deputy -- who would otherwise have taken over as acting U.S. attorney by default -- to install an official who was leading the U.S. attorney's office in the Southern District of Georgia. At the time, Trump was pressing officials in the state to support his unfounded claims of voter fraud, and Christine brought with him to Atlanta two prosecutors who had been assigned to monitor election malfeasance. Christine will remain as the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Georgia, a post Trump appointed him to in 2017, officials said. Kurt Erskine, who had been Pak's deputy, will take over in Atlanta on an acting basis, a spokesman for that office said. The Justice Department has previously told employees that President Biden's administration had asked Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys who remained after the inauguration to stay on 'for the time being.'"

Juliegrace Brufke & Scott Wong of the Hill: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday blasted Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's embrace of 'loony lies and conspiracy theories' as a 'cancer for the Republican Party.' 'Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.'s airplane is not living in reality,' McConnell said in a statement first shared with The Hill.... McConnell didn't mention Greene by name in his three-sentence statement, but his rare, scathing remarks about a freshman GOP lawmaker from the other chamber suggests he recognizes the potential damage her violent rhetoric and bizarre conspiracy theories could inflict on congressional Republicans as they try to take back both the House and Senate in next year's midterms. Greene responded on Twitter, writing that 'the real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully.'" The New York Times' story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Heather Caygle, et al., of Politico: "Top House Democrats are moving to force Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene [R] off multiple committees this week -- with or without Kevin McCarthy's help. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer delivered an ultimatum to McCarthy on Monday: Either Republicans move on their own to strip Greene (R-Ga.) of her committee assignments within 72 hours, or Democrats will bring the issue to the House floor. ~~~

     ~~~ Tina Nguyen of Politico: "Freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene [R] said on Monday that she would soon be visiting ... Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Amid revelations of more inflammatory social media posts she has made and videos she's produced, the controversial Georgia Republican has claimed to have Trump's backing, saying last week that the former president had called her and supported her.

Manu Raju of CNN: "Rep. Liz Cheney, under fire from ... Donald Trump and his staunchest defenders, is picking up support from some influential Republicans as her allies close ranks and resist the effort to oust her from the third-ranking spot in House GOP leadership. On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was the latest Republican to give her a boost, saying in a statement to CNN that she had 'the courage' to act on her convictions in the aftermath of her vote to impeach Trump last month on a charge he incited the deadly insurrection that ransacked Capitol Hill on January 6. 'Liz Cheney is a leader with deep convictions and the courage to act on them,' McConnell said. 'She is an important leader in our party and in our nation....' The statement comes as a cross-section of GOP lawmakers -- from top Republicans in Senate leadership like fellow Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso to some conservative House Freedom Caucus members like Rep. Chip Roy of Texas -- have publicly defended Cheney in the face of the onslaught from Trump defenders eager to see her defeated." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Between his comments about Marjorie Greene & those about Liz Cheney, it appears Mitch is sending a message to Kevin McCarthy, along the lines of, "You're useless." Public disagreements among the two top party leaders is, to say the least, highly unusual. So is it rare for the party leader of one House of Congress to meddle with that party's business in the other House. Update: I see the WashPo agrees: ~~~

     ~~~ Felicia Sonmez & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday delivered a scathing rebuke of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's actions and defended Rep. Liz Cheney's decision to vote to impeach former president Donald Trump, weighing in for the first time on the criticism facing both lawmakers. The statements together are both an unusual venture from a Senate leader onto the other chamber's turf and an unmistakable signal to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) that, for the party's sake, he must sideline extremists such as Greene (R-Ga.) and maintain a place for traditional Republicans such as Cheney (R-Wyo.). On Wednesday morning, House Republicans will hold a conference-wide meeting during which the actions of both lawmakers are expected to be discussed."

Alayna Treene of Axios: "Disagreements over legal strategy weren't the only reason Donald Trump's defense team collapsed just days before his second impeachment trial, Axios has learned.... The notoriously stingy former president and his lead lawyer, Butch Bowers, wrangled over compensation during a series of tense phone calls, sources familiar with their conversations said. The argument came even though Trump has raised over $170 million from the public that could be used on his legal defenses."

Gabby Orr & Meredith McGraw of Politico: "A constellation of conservative groups that rallied behind ... Donald Trump during his first impeachment is sitting this one out, confident that the outcome is preordained. The groups have gone quiet on social media, eschewing the pro-Trump tweets and calls for action that dominated their Twitter feeds last time Trump was approaching a Senate trial. Others said they are content to watch from the sidelines...."

Thanks, Trump! A Good Time to Be a Panda (see Feb. 1 news lede). Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "As inches of snow pile up during Washington's biggest winter storm in two years, there is one place that won't be seeing any snowball fights. The Capitol grounds, one of the best spots in the city for sledding, are now off limits, another reverberation of the rampage there on Jan. 6. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's nonvoting House delegate, has urged the Capitol Police to allow the tradition to continue this week. The activity could be done safely, Ms. Norton said in a statement on Saturday, 'by allowing only children and adults accompanied by children' into the area. But a Capitol Police spokeswoman, Eva Malecki, citing the current security concerns and the city's coronavirus restrictions, said it could not be permitted. 'We, however, look forward to welcoming sledders back in the future,' she said in a statement."

Matthew Choi of Politico: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday offered a deeply personal account of the Capitol insurrection, denouncing Republican calls to move on from the event as akin to tactics used by abusers and opening up about her own history with sexual assault. Via Instagram Live, the New York Democrat excoriated Republicans, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, saying they had encouraged the rioters by supporting ... Donald Trump's challenges to the 2020 election, and accusing them of failing to take responsibility for their role. She said members of Congress were aware of the risks days before the attack, adding that some of her colleagues had warned her to be careful on Jan. 6.... 'We cannot move on without accountability. We cannot heal without accountability,' Ocasio-Cortez said. 'And so all of these people who want to tell us to move on are doing so at their own convenience.' What they are saying is that '"I would do it again. I don't regret it at all."' she continued. 'If that's their stance, they continue to be a danger for their colleagues.'" YouTube has a video of the Instagram forum here. (Discussion of the Capitol siege begins @ about 1:30 min. in.) It runs about an hour-and-a-half.

Gaetz Staffer Cheers on the Insurrection. Dell Cameron of Gizmodo: "As police struggled futilely to fend off a wave of rioters outside the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, Joel Valdez, an aide to Congressman Matt Gaetz, made his way to the rooftop of his boss's office building across the street on Independence Ave. Surveying the mob as it surrounded the complex, he captured a five-second video with his phone and posted it to Parler -- the now-defunct social network where some supporters of President Trump are reported to have openly planned an insurrection for weeks. 'From the top of the Capitol office buildings, WE HEAR YOU LOUD AND CLEAR!' Valdez posted, adding the hashtag '#StopTheSteal'.... Metadata from Valdez's video ... reveals it was taken at roughly 1:14 p.m. ET that day. The rioters had by that time already breached at least three police barricades and forced officers back onto the Capitol steps where they were violently engaged, according to a timeline of events reported by the New York Times."

Evan Perez & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Investigators have recommended that prosecutors decline to bring charges against a US Capitol Police officer in the shooting of a pro-Trump rioter who was killed during the insurrection, according to people familiar with the matter. The shooting of pro-Trump rioter, Ashli Babbitt, remains under investigation by the DC Metropolitan Police, the US Attorney's Office in Washington, DC, and civil rights prosecutors, a routine process for shootings involving the Capitol Police. A final decision hasn't been made, the people familiar with the probe told CNN. Justice Department officials could make a final decision in the coming days."

Cowboy Couy to Stay over in Bunkhouse Fed. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal magistrate judge in Washington has ordered that a New Mexico county commissioner charged for breaching security lines at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot be detained pending trial. Lawyers for Couy Griffin, 47, urged that he be allowed to return home, but Judge Zia Faruqui sided with prosecutors who said the Cowboys for Trump founder was a flight risk. During a videoconference hearing Monday afternoon, Faruqui said Griffin's disdain for the government was so intense that he was unlikely to obey the court's orders."

The Dingbat Brigade. Blake Ellis & Melanie Hicken of CNN: "... at least eight of the people who are now facing criminal charges for their involvement in the [insurrectionist] events at the Capitol did not vote in the November 2020 presidential election, according to an analysis of voting records from the states where protestors were arrested and those states where public records show they have lived." MB: This is hardly surprising. These are irresponsible, impulsive nitwits, and consistency plays no part in their lives.

Tales of the Grifter, Ctd. Shane Goldbacher & Rachel Shorey of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party leveraged false claims of voter fraud and promises to overturn the election to raise more than a quarter-billion dollars in November and December as hundreds of thousands of trusting supporters listened and opened their wallets. But the Trump campaign spent only a tiny fraction of its haul on lawyers and other legal bills related to those claims. Instead, Mr. Trump and the G.O.P. stored away much of the money -- $175 million or so -- even as they continued to issue breathless, aggressive and often misleading appeals for cash that promised it would help with recounts, the rooting out of election fraud and even the Republican candidates' chances in the two Senate runoff races in Georgia. What fraction of the money Mr. Trump did spend after the election was plowed mostly into a public-relations campaign and to keep his perpetual fund-raising machine whirring, with nearly $50 million going toward online advertising, text-message outreach and a small television ad campaign. Only about $10 million spent by Mr. Trump's campaign went to actual legal costs...."

Trump's Own Campaign Concludes 81 Million Americans Think He's a Lying, Incompetent Ass. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "... Donald Trump has blamed the election results on unfounded claims of fraud and malfeasance. But at the top levels of his campaign, a detailed autopsy report that circulated among his political aides paints a far different -- and more critical -- portrait of what led to his defeat. The post-mortem, a copy of which was obtained by Politico, says the former president suffered from voter perception that he wasn't honest or trustworthy and that he was crushed by disapproval of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. And while Trump spread baseless accusations of ballot-stuffing in heavily Black cities, the report notes that he was done in by hemorrhaging support from white voters. The 27-page report, which was written by Trump chief pollster Tony Fabrizio, shows how Trump advisers were privately reckoning with his loss even as the former president and many of his supporters engaged in a conspiracy theory-fueled effort to overturn the election. The autopsy was completed in December 2020 and distributed to Trump's top political advisers just before President Joe Biden's Jan. 20 inauguration. It is unclear if Trump has seen the report." The Washington Post's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Could I please be the one to read Donald the report? I will drive through the blizzard now swirling around me to get to Mar-a-Lardo to recite the highlights.

Tim Reid of Reuters: &"Dozens of Republicans in former President George W. Bush's administration are leaving the party, dismayed by a failure of many elected Republicans to disown Donald Trump after his false claims of election fraud sparked a deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol last month.... 'The Republican Party as I knew it no longer exists. I'd call it the cult of Trump,' said Jimmy Gurulé, who was Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the Bush administration. Kristopher Purcell, who worked in the Bush White House's communications office for six years, said roughly 60 to 70 former Bush officials have decided to leave the party or are cutting ties with it, from conversations he has been having. 'The number is growing every day,' Purcell said. Their defection from the Republican Party after a lifetime of service for many is another clear sign of how a growing intraparty conflict over Trump and his legacy is fracturing it."

Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Claims that conservative voices are being censored online by social media platforms are not backed by evidence and are themselves a disinformation narrative, according to a report released Monday. The NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights' report concluded that anti-conservative bias claims, boosted by some top Republican lawmakers including former President Trump, are not based on any tangible evidence. 'The claim of anti-conservative animus is itself a form of disinformation: a falsehood with no reliable evidence to support it. No trustworthy large-scale studies have determined that conservative content is being removed for ideological reasons or that searches are being manipulated to favor liberal interests,' the report stated.... Despite the repeated accusations by Republicans, the report found that by 'many measures, conservative voices -- including that of the ex-president, until he was banished from Twitter and Facebook -- often are dominant in online political debates.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You knew this already, of course, but an independent study won't cause any wingers to quit whining; they will simply discount any study coming out of a New York City (the Village yet!) university.

Samantha Kubota of NBC's Today: Dolly Parton "told Today in an interview that ... Donald Trump's administration tried to give her the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, twice but she had to turn them down. 'I couldn't accept it because my husband was ill and then they asked me again about it and I wouldn't travel because of the COVID,' she explained, adding that she has since heard from President Joe Biden about the award as well. 'Now I feel like if I take it, I'll be doing politics, so I'm not sure.'"

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "A fast-spreading coronavirus variant first observed in Britain has gained a mutation that could make it harder to control with vaccines, Public Health England reported on Monday. It is the latest evidence that the virus is undergoing a worrisome evolution worldwide. The variant, known as B.1.1.7, first came to light in December. Researchers determined that it had rapidly became more common across Britain in just a couple of months."

Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "The rate of new coronavirus infections is declining in the United States after rapid increases over the holiday season. The seven-day average of new U.S. cases was down 13 percent as of Tuesday, with an especially dramatic drop of 30 percent in Arizona. Deaths, however, increased across the country by 2 percent, following record hospitalizations early in January, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. More than 441,000 people have died after contracting the coronavirus in the United States, and there have been more than 26 million infections over the past year. Data also shows growing instances of new variants of the virus, particularly the one identified in Britain."

Akilah Johnson of the Washington Post: "Race and ethnicity data was [were!] missing for nearly half of all coronavirus vaccine recipients during the first month shots were available, further stymieing efforts to ensure an equitable response to a pandemic that continues to unduly burden communities of color, federal researchers reported Monday.... 'We must address these insufficient data points as an urgent priority,' Marcella Nunez-Smith, chair of President Biden's covid-19 equity task force, said Monday during an administration coronavirus news briefing. 'I'm worried about how behind we are. So, let me be clear: We cannot ensure an equitable vaccination program without data to guide us.' The disease has spread through communities of color at higher rates, exposing the structural racism and inequality baked into the American health system that experts say has resulted in the virus's disparate toll." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This problem is no doubt due to Trump's let-the-states-figure-it-out approach. In an normal data collection effort, every state would be submitting data on the same topics & in the same format. In the Trump "system," even data collections within states was not consistent if Louisiana is any indication. But then they really didn't care, did they?

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Rochester Needs a New Police Department. Laura Ly & Eric Levenson of CNN: "Police officers in Rochester, New York, handcuffed and pepper-sprayed a 9-year-old girl while responding to what a police official called a report of 'family trouble' in an incident sharply criticized by city officials. Two body camera videos of Friday's incident released by the police department on Sunday show officers restraining the child, putting her in handcuffs and attempting to get her inside the back of a police vehicle as she repeatedly cries and calls for her father. After the girl fails to follow commands to put her feet inside the car, the officers are seen pepper-spraying her.... The officers involved were suspended Monday, according to a news release from city officials. CNN has reached out to the police union for comment. The incident has troubling similarities to the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died in March after Rochester police pinned him to the ground and placed a hood over his head as he experienced a mental health crisis."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Hal Holbrook, who carved out a substantial acting career in television and film but who achieved his widest acclaim onstage, embodying Mark Twain in all his craggy splendor and vinegary wit in a one-man show seen around the world, died on Jan. 23 at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 95.... Mr. Holbrook had a long and fruitful run as an actor. He was the shadowy patriot Deep Throat in 'All the President's Men' (1976); an achingly grandfatherly character in 'Into the Wild' (2007), for which he received an Oscar nomination; and the influential Republican Preston Blair in Steven Spielberg's 'Lincoln' (2012). He played the 16th president himself, on television, in Carl Sandburg's 'Lincoln,' a 1974 mini-series. The performance earned him an Emmy Award, one of five he won for his acting in television movies and mini-series...."

Weather Channel: "Winter Storm Orlena is making for a trying day across most of the Northeast on Monday. Some areas have already received more than a foot and a half of snow and more is expected.... All flights at LaGuardia were suspended and over 1,600 flights canceled nationwide. Officials urge people to stay off the roads after hundreds of crashes were reported. COVID vaccination sites were closed Monday because of the storm." ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post has a photo slide show of the snow storm that hit the Mid-Atlantic & Northeast Monday.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (15)

Why all this hoo-ha about Fatty's "defense" team? The Party of Traitors has already said he's free to go. Who cares what kind of defense he's planning to offer? He really doesn't have one anyway. What will it be? "I was just kidding?" "Those crazy kids. Who knows what they'll do next?" "Nazis, Proud Boys, white supremacists, and secessionists are all good people. Who knew?" Or his favorite, "I have an Article II".

And who will he get? He's not paying anyone anyway. And here's the other thing. If I hear a single one of these traitors who are whining about how he can't be impeached because he's a private citizen starts in on how taxpayers have to foot the bill for his defense, I'm going to bust a gasket. If he's a private citizen, he can foot the bill himself. Fucking moocher.

February 1, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Happy Groundhog Day everyone. Looks like it's going to be sunny later today in Mar A Lardo, so the hog currently living there is sure to see his shadow when he ventures out to bang balls into holes.
So I guess that means six more weeks of his B.S.
We should be so lucky to have only six more weeks of it.

February 2, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

The dangerous insidious evil of oligarchy (rampant and expanding income inequality) explained by Chris Hedges:
https://www.salon.com/2021/02/02/papering-over-the-rot-joe-bidens-window-dressing-cant-end-oligarchy/

February 2, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterNJC

@NJC: Reading Chris Hedges is a little like reading Glenn Greenwald, tho not quite as bad. Hedges is more right that wrong, while Greenwald is usually more wrong than right. But Hedges has always -- as far back as I can recall -- presented an impossible situation. As long as 74 million Americans are willing to vote for Donald Trump & his coterie, there is no chance politicians in this country ever will enact the type of legislation that is needed to reform the economic structure. Look, they can't even agree to $15/hour today; why, they don't even put it forward; instead Democrats offer a path to $15/hour, That isn't a living wage for a family. In most cities, even a single young person would struggle to make ends meet on $15/hour ($31,000 year).

So, to me, it's fine to look at Hedges' "solutions" as aspirational, but they're about as feasible as Donald Trump's growing a conscience.

February 2, 2021 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

"MB: This is hardly surprising. These are irresponsible, impulsive nitwits, and consistency plays no part in their lives." This is what prisons are for and the people they contain.

Imagine if the Bundys had been properly rounded up and thrown into jail: their crazy-assed momentum and illegal actions would have been nipped in the bud.

Forest: suddenly my lights went on: no wonder Melania always frowns. Imagine waking in the same house as Lardo, let alone the sharing rooms with Lardo, let alone sharing....anything with Lardo.

February 2, 2021 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625

WHO'S YOUR DADDY?

Remember Steve King? Two years ago he was stripped of all his committee assignments after asking, in an interview:

"White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization––how did that language become offensive?"

Today we have the GOP in an outrage over Liz Cheney's vote to impeach Fatty– obviously-the big Daddy of what is left of the Republican party. Talk of ousting Liz from her leadership role in congress.

Today ––and one would think it would be the opposite given the Jan.6 insurrection, but wonders upon wonders their true colors have graced many of those that represent the people they took an oath to protect and defend within this democracy. That red, white and blue has been shat upon, the colors bleeding together, dripping with a vengeance.


"If you’re steeped in creationism and believe that elites are lying to you about the origins of life on earth, it’s not a stretch to believe they’re lying to you about a life-threatening virus. If what you know of history is the revisionist version of the Christian right, in which God deeded America to the faithful, then pluralism will feel like the theft of your birthright. If you believe that the last Democratic president was illegitimate, as Trump and other birthers claimed, then it’s not hard to believe that dark forces would foist another unconstitutional leader on the country. " Michelle Goldberg

And if you believe in Jewish space lasers, then...

So––despite Mitch's "Oh, my goodness, we can't abide by someone like MTG–-she doesn't represent our party!" we could rightly say:

"Mitch, old sod, you've been sowing division in this party for decades, fess up old boy and get with the program!" which under another banner is the "Screw YOU: party of the faithful. Deal with it!

February 2, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Citizen,

"Lardo" doesn't share. He considers everything his and his alone. Even stuff he doesn't own and has no right to (our tax money). He might let you look (in fact he wants, he needs you to look, to admire his wonderfulness and all his gaudy gewgaws) but you better not touch. I'm sure this has been the deal for all his wives. If Melanie is frowning, it's her own fault. She's a dyspeptic climber. Once she got to the top of Shit Mountain, she realized that, hey, it really is made of shit. Like Faust, she sold her soul to a devil, Beelzeboob*. A fat, ignorant one, but a devil nonetheless.

I guess she does care about something after all.

Herself.

*Is there a union for demons? I wonder how they feel about being represented by such a loser?

February 2, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/us/politics/ronna-romney-mcdaniel.html. Mitt and family are triangulating the "dark forces" believers perfectly. This article could have been written by their respective publicists to show their mutual independence. The race for the soul (votes) of the GOP is going with a Romney on both sides. I wonder what Mitt's view on Jewish space lasers? If they're voters, I'm sure they're people just like corporations.

February 2, 2021 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625

@AK: Melanoma can echo the words of the demon in Faust: "Why this is Hell, nor am I out of it".

February 2, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

Bobby Lee,

Quite. But Melanie (Melanoma...good one) is no Gretchen am spinnrade. Gretchen dies in prison (at least in Goethe's version--I think your quote is from the Marlowe play) as Faust and Mephistopheles watch, thinking her soul bound for the warmer regions, but lo and behold, angels descend and carry her spirit to heaven, essentially giving the Holy Finger to Faust and his cloven footed pal.

No such reclamation awaits Melanie. If she's lucky, she'll get a decrepit condo in the crumbling mausoleum that is the Trumpy Tower. Carried up by bat-winged Proud Boys, all packing heat.

February 2, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

The Goldberg piece on steroids, about a Congresswoman who has reason to know what nuts really is.

(Follow the internal link to the earlier story about her first-hand experience, which I had forgotten.)

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/2/1/2013339/-Jonestown-survivor-turned-congresswoman-calls-on-Biden-to-make-violent-extremism-a-military-crime?

February 2, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

This is How You Recover From Fascism — and America’s Not Doing Any of It
"when fascists get away with it, they’re not punished, and when they’re not punished, they’re not deterred, and when they’re not deterred….it happens all over again."
Myanmar looked the other way as their military committed genocide, no one held accountable. Monday the leader who ignored those atrocities found herself detained in a military coup with the excuse of a fake national emergency and fake voter fraud. It almost happened here, now what are we going to do about it?

February 2, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

Marie,

Hey, I'm gonna arm wrestle you for the chance to read the impeachment transcript to Fatty. It wouldn't matter. He wouldn't listen. He'd be like the little kid who sticks his (tiny) fingers in his ears and runs around the room in his ready-to-explode diaper shouting "La-la-la-la-la...I can't hear youuuuuu...wah-wah-wah".

In which case I'll make you a deal. You can read it. I just wanna be there to record the event.

And if Melanie wanders in, aghast, we can remind her that she really doesn't care.

February 2, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Trump's brownshirts (some of them) didn't vote in the election? Or the last one? But they're ready to murder people in order to protect the vote they didn't record?

Ummm....okay....

Still not got that one figured out. It's like a blind person complaining that your socks don't match. At least blind people aren't looking to slit your throat because of it. Oh, unless they voted for Trump. Then, better find the mate of that argyle sock. Quick.

February 2, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

The U.S. Spent $2.2 Million on a Cybersecurity System That Wasn’t Implemented — and Might Have Stopped a Major Hack
"As America struggles to assess the damage from the devastating SolarWinds cyberattack discovered in December, ProPublica has learned of a promising defense that could shore up the vulnerability the hackers exploited: a system the federal government funded but has never required its vendors to use."
"This problem spurred development of a new approach, backed by $2.2 million in federal grants and available for free, aimed at providing end-to-end protection for the entire software supply pipeline. Named in-toto (Latin for “as a whole”), it is the work of a team of academics led by Justin Cappos, an associate computer science and engineering professor at New York University. Cappos, 43, has made securing the software supply chain his life’s work. "

February 2, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterRAS
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