The Ledes

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

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.

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.”

Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

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Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

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 -- January 13, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "In a series of tweets and retweets riddled with typos and offensive images, President Trump lashed out Monday morning against criticism over the way he and his administration have handled the killing of a top Iranian general. Trump's message conflated doubts raised about the process that led to the controversial airstrike on Gen. Qassem Soleimani with 'trying to make terrorist Soleimani into a wonderful guy.'... One of the retweets by the president included& a Photoshopped image of [Nancy] Pelosi and ... Chuck Schumer wearing hijabs. Another included the photo of a bloody dead body, presumably in Iran, hanging over barbed wire. 'Question: Who in America supports this mullahs' crime?' the tweet read. 'Answer: Nancy Pelosi.'" Thanks to safari for the lead. See also his commentary below. Mrs. McC: Yo, mikey. Twentyfifth Amendment.

Trump's Most Shameless Lie Yet. Aaron Rupar of Vox: "Trump -- who in 2017 pushed health care legislation [link fixed] that would've resulted in 23 million Americans losing coverage, and whose administration is currently fighting in federal court to strike down the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including its protections for people with preexisting conditions -- nonetheless claimed in a tweet attacking Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg on Monday that 'I was the person who saved Pre-Existing Conditions in your Healthcare, you have it now.' Alluding to the aforementioned lawsuit, Trump went on to write that 'if Republicans win in court and take back the House of Represenatives [sic], your healthcare, that I have now brought to the best place in many years, will become the best ever, by far. I will always protect your Pre-Existing Conditions, the Dems will not!'" Rupar allows that "The possibility Trump knows so little about health care policy that he actually believes he saved protections for preexisting conditions can't be ruled out." Mrs. McC: Ignorance of his own actions is no excuse; this is a horrible lie. Trump is trying to kill Americans, and those Americans he plans to kill come in every color & political persuasion.

Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "Protesters and riot police faced off in at least two cities in Iran on Monday, a third day of angry demonstrations at the country's leaders after the government acknowledged having shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing 176 people.... Videos from inside Iran shared on social media on Monday showed university students in Isfahan and the capital, Tehran, chanting against the country's clerical rulers while riot police deployed nearby. The extent of the protests and the amount of violence used to try to stop them were hard to assess because of tight restrictions on social media and the news media inside the country. Videos from previous have shown protesters carrying off bleeding comrades while gunshots echoed in the background."

Karla Adam & William Booth of the Washington Post: "Queen Elizabeth II announced Monday that she and her royal family were 'entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan's desire to create a new life' and that she had agreed to a 'period of transition' during which her grandson and his wife would split their time between Canada and Britain. In a statement, the queen wrote, 'Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working Members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.' The queen acknowledged that Harry and Meghan 'made clear that they do not want to be reliant on public funds in their new lives,' but she did not describe their new duties or ventures. She cautioned there is more work to be done on the 'complex matters for the family to decide' and said she expects final decisions to be made in the coming days.' The announcement from the 93-year-old sovereign ... followed a meeting at her Sandringham estate attended by princes Harry, William and Charles. It is believed that Meghan, who is in Canada, participated by phone." Here's an AP story. ~~~

~~~ The Guardian of course is liveblogging developments & reactions.

Ali Vitali, et al., of NBC News: "Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., announced Monday he is dropping out of the Democratic presidential race."

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday said it didn't matter if Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani posed an imminent threat to the United States because of his 'horrible past.' Trump also asserted that his national security team agreed on the imminent threat posed by Soleimani that led to the decision to kill him. He made this assertion despite remarks from Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Sunday that undercut Trump's claim that the Iranian general was planning to target four American embassies before a U.S. drone strike killed him in Baghdad on Jan. 3.... 'The Fake News Media and their Democrat Partners are working hard to determine whether or not the future attack by terrorist Soleimani was "eminent" or not, & was my team in agreement,' Trump tweeted Monday morning." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So this is an update to a discussion in today's Comments on whether or not anyone had used "eminent" to mean "imminent" in discussing the fake reason for assassinating Soleimani. Thanks for this contribution, Donnie! On a more serious note, it "matters" because assassinating a foreign state leader -- in a third country, no less -- is certainly provocation for war, and only Congress can declare war. In such situations, Congressional leaders, at the least, must be consulted or advised of the Pentagon's plans. According to NBC News (story linked below), this plan had been an option since June; there's no excuse for consulting the Gang of 8. Refusing to notify them -- and then lying about why the leaders were not notified-- is just one more example of Trump's false notion that Article II of the Constitution says, "I can do whatever I want as president*." (Paraphrase. WashPo link.) And it's a big "screw you" to Congress.

Tim Shipman of the [U.K.] Times: "Britain must prepare to fight wars without America, the defence secretary has warned, amid concerns that President Donald Trump will pursue an ever more isolationist foreign policy. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Ben Wallace admitted that the prospect of America withdrawing from the world 'keeps me awake at night'. He said the government needed to rethink military assumptions, in place since 2010, that the UK would always be fighting alongside the Americans -- and should use the upcoming defence review to buy new kit to ensure that the armed forces do not have to rely on US air cover and spy planes in future conflicts." [article firewalled] --s

Adam Federman of the Guardian: "A group of US environmental activists engaged in non-violent civil disobedience targeting the oil industry have been listed in internal Department of Homeland Security documents as 'extremists' and some of its members listed alongside white nationalists and mass killers, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.... The document ... listed two of the group's members alongside violent white supremacists and other extremists who have engaged in mass killings, including the man [Dylann Roof] behind the racist 2015 slaying of 9 black church-goers in Charleston, South Carolina." --s

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~ Extreme Climate Change Denial. That's an actual White House tweet sent out last night. Matt Stieb of New York: "D.C. on Sunday hit a high of 69 degrees, and bottomed out at 49 degrees." No, it was not a snowy eve in Washington, D.C.

Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said on Sunday that he never saw any specific piece of evidence that Iran was planning an attack on four American embassies, as President Trump had claimed last week as a justification for the strike on an Iranian general that sent the United States and Iran to the brink of war. 'I didn't see one with regard to four embassies,' Mr. Esper said on CBS's 'Face the Nation.' But he added: 'I share the president's view that probably -- my expectation was they were going to go after our embassies....' The muddled message on Sunday by Mr. Esper and other administration officials only added to the public debate regarding the Jan. 3 strike that killed Iran's most important general, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani and whether there was appropriate justification for the killing. The administration has offered shifting justifications for the strike.... Appearing on 'Fox News Sunday,' Robert O'Brien, the national security adviser, had also played down Mr. Trump's claim of specific, imminent threats to four American embassies in the region. 'Look, it's always difficult, even with the exquisite intelligence that we have, to know exactly what the targets are,' Mr. O'Brien said. 'We knew there were threats to American facilities, now whether they were bases, embassies -- you know it's always hard until the attack happens." The CBS News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The Secretary of Defense is confirming on national TV that the POTUS* & Secretary of State lied about the reasons for setting the U.S. on a war footing. Oh, Nancy, could you bring us another Article of Impeachment, please. ~~~

~~~ Daniel Politi of Slate: Some Senators are pissed off that obnoxious Fox "News" host Laura Ingraham got more details about the assassination of Qassem Suleimani than they did in a classified briefing.

Rishika Dugyala of Politico: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that the Trump administration was not 'straight with Congress' about its killing of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani.... Pelosi on Sunday reiterated Democratic concerns with ... Donald Trump's justification for killing Soleimani the way he did and when he did.... On Sunday, [Sen. Mike] Lee [R-Utah] said the briefing didn't provide much information that wasn't already public. 'When something like this happens, when events are unfolding quickly, events that will have a profound impact on national security and military strategy, Congress does need to know about it, in part so we can evaluate the scope of our authority to act or choose not to act,' Lee said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'We didn't get that. And that was disappointing.'"

** Trump Okayed Soleimani Assassination Last June. Carol Lee & Courtney Kube of NBC News: "... Donald Trump authorized the killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani seven months ago if Iran's increased aggression resulted in the death of an American, according to five current and former senior administration officials. The presidential directive in June came with the condition that Trump would have final sign-off on any specific operation to kill Soleimani, officials said. That decision explains why assassinating Soleimani was on the menu of options that the military presented to Trump two weeks ago for responding to an attack by Iranian proxies in Iraq...." Read on for details. Mrs. McC: In case you thought Trump honchos, including Trump himself, just might be lying to you -- yeah, big-time.

David Stern & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Within hours of Iran's stunning admission Saturday that its missile mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, Ukraine ... put out photos, taken a day earlier, showing wreckage riddled with small holes, suggesting damage from shrapnel. Well before Iran admitted shooting down Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 outside Tehran on Wednesday, Ukraine realized the plane had been destroyed by a missile. But the country's leaders tread a careful diplomatic path.... Soon after the plane went down..., U.S. officials and the leaders of Canada and Britain told the world they believed the plane was likely shot down by Iran. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked them to share their information with him, but held off announcing any of Ukraine's conclusions -- a strategic decision.... [Ukrainian] officials were careful to avoid sharp criticism of Iran during this time to ensure its cooperation in the probe. Zelensky, caught between the United States and Iran after a U.S. drone strike killed Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani..., had the difficult task of securing the 'cooperation of Western backers and Iran without being drawn into either side's narrative of the Iran-U. S. conflict,' said Katharine Quinn-Judge, a Kyiv-based analyst for International Crisis Group." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's kind of amazing that a year ago, Volodymyr Zelensky was a teevee comic. Right now he looks like about the smartest politician on the world stage. Let's hope he stays honest.

Joseph Krauss & Jon Gambrell of the AP: "Iranian demonstrators defied a heavy police presence Sunday night to protest their country's days of denials that it shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane carrying 176 people, the latest unrest to roil the capital amid soaring tensions with the United States. Videos posted online showed protesters shouting anti-government slogans and moving through subway stations and sidewalks, many around Azadi, or Freedom, Square.... Other videos suggested similar protests were taking place in other Iranian cities. Protesters often wore hoods and covered their faces, probably to avoid being recognized by surveillance cameras. Some online videos purported to show police firing tear gas sporadically, though there was no immediate wholesale crackdown on demonstrators. Meanwhile, in an emotional speech before parliament, the head of the Revolutionary Guard apologized for the shootdown and insisted it was a tragic mistake." The New York Times story is here.

To the leaders of Iran - DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS. Thousands have already been killed or imprisoned by you, and the World is watching. More importantly, the USA is watching. Turn your internet back on and let reporters roam free! Stop the killing of your great Iranian people! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet, Sunday

... the president's claim of supporting reporters abroad directly contradicts his messaging at home, where he has casually and consistently eroded the relationship between the White House and the press. -- Matt Stieb of New York

Kendall Karson of ABC News: "... a majority of Americans said they disapprove of President Trump's handling of the situation with Iran and feel less safe, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.... The poll showed a majority of Independents, 57%, and all U.S. adults, 56%, disapproving of Trump's handling of the situation with Iran, with 43% of both Independents and U.S. adults approving." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


"Impeached for Life." Elise Viebeck & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that President Trump is 'impeached for life' regardless of 'any gamesmanship' by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whom she accused of orchestrating a 'coverup' of Trump's actions as the Senate waits for the House to transmit the articles of impeachment. Challenging McConnell to hold a serious trial that includes testimony from witnesses, Pelosi did not rule out the possibility that the House would subpoena former national security adviser John Bolton if the Senate chooses not to. She repeatedly chastised McConnell for signaling that he is not interested in fully weighing the House's charges." Politico has the story here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "President Trump on Sunday injected fresh instability into final preparations for the Senate's impeachment trial, suggesting that senators should dismiss the House's charges of high crimes and misdemeanors against him outright rather than dignifying them with a full tribunal. That unexpected statement, arriving amid a flurry of tweets, not only appeared to put the president at odds with Republican Senate leaders moving toward a full trial but also contradicted Mr. Trump's own words from just hours earlier, when he argued for a trial that would include as witnesses Democratic House leaders who are prosecuting him. 'Many believe that by the Senate giving credence to a trial based on the no evidence, no crime, read the transcripts, "no pressure" Impeachment Hoax, rather than an outright dismissal, it gives the partisan Democrat Witch Hunt credibility that it otherwise does not have,' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday afternoon. 'I agree!'"

Susan Hennessey & Benjamin Wittes in a New York Times op-ed: "What is on trial [in the Senate], at the most basic level, is Mr. Trump's vision of the American presidency.... The Ukraine scandal presents a near-perfect distillation of Mr. Trump's conception of his office -- and the House's articles of impeachment will put many of the elements of his vision before the Senate for judgment. Fundamentally, Mr. Trump proposes that the purpose of executive power is to serve the individual interests of the president. It serves the public good only coincidentally and only when convenient."

How the Food-Stamp Work Requirement Really Works. Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "Four years ago, thousands of poor people ... in ... [nine] counties in West Virginia that were affected by a state policy change found themselves having to prove that they were working or training for at least 20 hours a week in order to keep receiving food stamps consistently. In April, under a rule change by the Trump Administration, people all over the country who are 'able-bodied adults without dependents' will have to do the same.... The most visible impact has been at homeless missions and food pantries, which saw a big spike in demand that has never receded. But the policy change was barely noticeable in the work force...."

Presidential Race

Shane Goldmacher & Sydney Ember of the New York Times: Elizabeth "Warren said on Sunday she was 'disappointed' that [Bernie] Sanders's campaign had been using a script for volunteers that suggested she was appealing mainly to highly educated voters and would not be able to expand the Democratic Party coalition.... In a rare question-and-answer session with reporters after his final event of a weekend Iowa swing, Mr. Sanders -- in response to a question on whether he approved of his campaign's criticism of Ms. Warren -- denied responsibility for the script, saying he himself had never attacked Ms. Warren." Politico's story is here. Mrs. McC: "Disappointed"? Wow. That's what my father used to say about me when I'd screwed up, and it was way more effective than my mother's more traditional ways of punishing me.

Putting a Lot of Money Where His Mouth Is. Jason Lange of Reuters: "U.S. presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg told Reuters he is ready to spend much of his vast fortune to oust ... Donald Trump from the White House in 2020, rejecting criticism from rivals for the Democratic nomination that the billionaire is trying to buy the U.S. election." ~~~

~~~ AND Judge Judy is campaigning for Mike Bloomberg. (Link is to a NYT story.)


Blabbermouth Benedict Breaks Vow of Silence. Again. Chico Harlan of the Washington Post: "Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has issued an ardent defense of clerical celibacy, breaking his pledged silence on major church affairs just as Pope Francis is considering an exception that would allow some married men to serve as priests. Benedict's remarks, revealed in a new book excerpt published Sunday by the French newspaper Le Figaro, cast light on a once-unthinkable dynamic inside the Roman Catholic Church: A former pope trying to influence his successor in whether the church heeds or breaks with its traditions.... But no matter what Francis decides, Benedict's willingness to speak out risks the kind of inner-church tension that analysts worried about when he abdicated seven years ago. After he stepped down, Benedict -- who lives inside a Vatican monastery -- vowed silence on key issues to give room for Francis. But he has twice broken that vow in less than a year, with the excerpt Sunday and the release in April of a lengthy letter devoted to clerical sexual abuse in which his theories often contradicted Francis's."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Australia. David Crowe of the Sydney Morning Herald: "Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said he wants to take further action to tackle climate change and flagged a royal commission into the horror bushfire season but indicated the crisis would not lead to any increase in his government's target to reduce carbon emissions by 2030.... Mr Morrison has come under criticism from political opponents, climate change experts and sometimes global celebrities during the bushfire crisis for not doing enough on climate change, while appearing reluctant to talk about the issue."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (18)

Just to play devil's advocate here, perhaps Trump thinks that Fox News is on of the 17 intelligence agencies that make up the Intelligence Community.

It seems clear Esper is in over his head. He's dominated by Pompeo, probably because Pompeo has been a soldier (rank of Captain, which is normal for the length of time he served) and he never has.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterProcopius

@Procopius: I can't imagine what makes you think Esper was never a soldier.

January 13, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

I read the Wiki page for Mark Esper, and he seems totally qualified to be a repug sec def. He's been a defense contractor AND head of the most glorious Heritage Foundation in addition to his degrees and his service in the military. I'm thinking that Procopius felt he was "in over his head" purely for the relationship with Pompousasseo, a lunkhead military man himself, who is overburdened with an ego that doesn't stop. If I had to "have a beer" with either guy, I would pick Esper in a heartbeat. It was the national security guy O'Brien who managed to be equally glib on the airwaves lately. They are all useless, as they back up the military genius/cult leader presidunce, providing excuses after the fact each time the idiot does/says something off-the-wall. My beer with Esper would not comfort me, I suspect.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

Here's a piece from the WaPo about a Canadian CEO who took to twitter to criticize "..A narcissist in Washington..." for causing the deaths of his colleague's wife and son in the Ukraine airline attack.

This paragraph confuses me though:

"The Trump administration has struggled to fully explain the intelligence reports behind the drone strike that killed Soleimani, as Democrats and some Republicans argue that military leaders did not have evidence of an “eminent attack” that would have justified the strike."

Is "eminent attack" a quote from one of Dear Leader's tweets? Everywhere else I've read uses the correct word - imminent.

Could it be a Freudian slip because now the attack is famous?

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

They Really Don't Care (and not just the Trumpbots)

A picture of snow when snow is impossible. Multiple stories about an assassination, all with varying degrees of mendacity (none with a hint of actual truth, except for the killing itself), ranging from average Trumpian lies (which for the vast majority of moral beings register as the worst falsehoods they've ever told) to stunningly insulting whoppers.

Why? Why isn't there anyone there who gives the most desiccated, microscopic turd about truth, accuracy, authenticity, or simple honesty?

They really don't care. And if you do, they are especially disdainful. They know their base only cares that the Dear Leader look tough, manly, and wingnutty. Oh, they also care very much that their enemies (all the rest of us, and a huge portion of the rest of the world) can be seen as wimpy, godless, evil bastards deserving of torture, humiliation and death. But truth? Honesty? Pshaw. Such old fashioned ideas. Invented, no doubt, by liberals to try to stick it to real 'mericans and to deny the Great Leader his true place in history.

But make no mistake. Yes, all politicians lie, but Trump is a politician in the same way that plague is a medical condition. And yes, this has been coming on for a generation. Newt Gingrich, way back in the 90s, released his litany of curses and insults to be heaped on any who dared to stand in the way of Republican control, and yes, the Decider and his pet shark lied their way into a war (worse, so far, than anything on Fatty's dance card) still going on, still spreading death and destruction to human beings and generating profits for the War Machine. But the Age of Trump has brought with it an enormous paradigm shift. Even Bush and Cheney tried to hide their lies. Trump couldn't possibly care less. He lies, his lies are rebutted, he lies some more.

His inauguration crowd was the biggest of all time, even though evidence proves it was one of the smallest. Snow in DC, even though people were strolling the Mall in t-shirts and shorts. Embassies in the crosshairs even though there's not only no evidence, there wasn't the smallest hint of such action.

They really don't care.

And that's truly scary. This is governance by gangsters. I'm tempted to refer to them as moral midgets, but that assumes at least a modicum of morality. They have none. Zero.

They don't care, and if you do, they're laughing at you. They have been taught that if they keep repeating the lies, eventually people give up and let them have their way.

This is control, Republican style. And no matter how both-siders try to spin it, try to claim that Democrats do it too (they don't), there has never been anything like it in American history. Ever. I guess they don't care either. If they did, they wouldn't go so far out of their way to pretend that this is just business as usual and both sides are to blame.

And that might very well be the coup de grâce to the American Experiment. It's one thing for miscreants, thugs, and career liars to act this way, it's entirely worse for a supine, lazy press to shrug their shoulders and spin their next tale of both sides. Going along to get along.

This is a hack doctor telling the patient that the plague is no worse than a cold. Take two aspirins (or hold them between your legs) and, if you're still alive in the morning, don't call. He'll be sound asleep.

No film at eleven.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Jeanne,

I think you'd need many, many beers. And a few shots of good Irish whiskey, then maybe a mainline of heroin and some old fashioned, brain killing absinthe.

Anyone now working for Trump is a degraded, debauched soul.And anyone who spent more than a cup of coffee at Heritage has lying on the brain.

Eight beers, bartender. And three fingers of Bushmills, if you please.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@unwashed: I don't get it either.

Since "eminent attack" is in quotes, one would think it refers to something someone else wrote. But a "find" search of this page and of a page that's linked in the same graf, the word "eminent" doesn't come up. I also searched the Googles, and tho they wanted me to search for "imminent attack," there were a couple of links to pages that contained the words"eminent" & "attack," but not the term "eminent attack" (except as the name of a rock group or something).

It's possible that the reference was previously in the report you cited but got deleted.

January 13, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Unwashed,

Eminent attack? Hmmm...okay. Hold on. Yeah...maybe, um, no. Well, um...

Okay, I give.

Oh, no, wait. Isn't EVERYTHING Fatty does eminent? He's a sleazy, slippery old eminent-er from way back, ain't he?

So wouldn't that make him an éminence grease?

There ya go. Problem solved.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: I'll bet there was at least one Trumpbot who went out in his shirtsleeves last night to stand in front of the White House & pay homage to the Dear Leader. After checking @realDonaldTrump when he got home, he might have checked the White House Twitter feed, too. Then he probably thought a moment and said to himself, "Yeah, it was a fucking winter wonderland!" whereupon he brushed some imaginary snowflakes off his shirtsleeves.

January 13, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

“The people are tired of reason, tired of thought and reflection,” the left-wing playwright Ernst Toller wrote of Germans in the Weimar Republic. “They ask, what has reason done in the last few years, what good have insights and knowledge done us.”

When ruling elites are unable to protect the rights and needs of citizens, or no longer interested in doing so, they become disposable, said Chris Hedges, and says that an enraged public sees any political figure or political party willing to attack and belittle the traditional ruling elites as an ally. The more crude, irrational or vulgar the attack, the more the disenfranchised rejoice. Lies and truth no longer matter. This was the appeal of the fascists. It is the appeal of Trump.

Democracy was not extinguished in 2016 when Trump was elected. It was slowly strangled to death by the Republican and Democratic parties on behalf of their corporate masters.

Yesterday Ken wrote about his problem with Dough-nut's (NYT's cleric in chief) stance on his reasoning that the lack of students majoring in the humanities was because of their veering away from religion and Ken countered with a loud NO––it had to do more with getting jobs that paid well–-very well. I couldn't agree more. To equate not believing in myth and fantasies with not going into the field of humanities is ludicrous.

And once again––money is the major player here.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

P.S. to continue on this religious vein: In the film, "The Ides of March" George Clooney plays a governor who is running for President. He is undoubtedly a liberal's heart's desire: a committed environmentalist, along with all the other progressive issues liberals fight for––or say they do. And not to mention the guy is easy on the eyes–-always a plus in some circles. But when asked about his religion he said this:
"I am not a Christian, or a Jew, or a Muslim––I am a secularist that believes strongly in the U.S. Constitution. "

And I wondered whether in my lifetime we could, in this nation of believers, ever have a president who professed that and survived.

Clooney's character flaws were outed but I won't tell you how––just in case you haven't seen the film and want to.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

The WaPo fixed their typo. It's now "imminent attack" which I interpret as a facetious air quote.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

Ak: I hear ya and raise you almost any booze possible... I really could not have a beer with any of these liars (I don't like beer, actually--) because I now have the land speed record to the mute button ANY TIME one of them shows up on the teevee. I can tell you just about any HGTV show, tempered by Hallmark the preceding months...There is no both sides. It's one side and it's damning and they will get away with all of it. So disturbing.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

Peaceful fossil fuel protestors are now terrorists?

They are to the oil companies.

Just as are scientists whose research has proven the fossil fuel industry is wrecking the world.

And as are scientists who warn of the growing dangers to public health of ever expanding pesticide use and monoculture.

Not to mention those terrible people who have have been arrested for leaving water for hapless migrants hoping to survive the Arizona desert crossing.

Terrorists. And criminals.

We can expect that under the Pretender administration the list of such ""terrorists" and "criminals" will continue to grow.

Projection isn't limited to psychology.

What we're seeing are the projections of the real terrorists and criminals being codified into policy and law.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Marie,

On the other hand, the snow reference may be metaphorical. Recent "speeches" (such as they are) by Fatty McSniff-face have observers revisiting the possibility that he has been snorting his brains out. The "snowfall" comment might be a happy reference to delivery of a new package of coke.

Here's a video of Fatty lying his ass off and sniffing his nose off. The video shows him sniffing incessantly, 58 times in the course of an eight minute litany of lies. That's way too much for a cold. And even with a cold, one would think, someone making an important public announcement would take some kind of decongestant to stiff the sniffs, which works with a cold. With cocaine abuse or snorting some other drug? Probably not.

Here's the video. And don't miss the general standing behind him on the right. He's thinking "Holy shit, this guy is fucked up". That's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, US Army General Mark Milley, clearly uncomfortable with all the sniffing (and maybe the lying too).

And since there are no more press briefings, no more press conferences, there's no chance for anyone to ask what the hell is going on with the Sniffer in Chief.

He's a fucking wreck. How he's still alive is a miracle. He must be getting special formaldehyde sauce on his Big Macs.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: That makes sense. The Florida man has only been in Washington for a few days, so it's quite possible Sunday saw the first White House drug run of the year.

Seriously, I'd be surprised if Trump was doing coke, though he does have a number of symptoms of coke users. I just saw the old film "The Falcon & the Snowman" in which Sean Penn plays a heavy coke user. His behavior in the film -- based on a true story -- was a lot like Trump's: erratic, manic, paranoid, careless, sleepless, etc. Still

Whatever the cause, there definitely is something physically wrong with a person who sniffs 58 times in 8 minutes & mispronounces a buncha words.

January 13, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

IMPOTUS tweeted today the dead, mangled boy of some guy laying over a barbed wire fence, and went after Democrats for it....

That was right around the time he retweeted some nut job photoshopping Chuck & Nancy's faces onto hijab wearing Mooslims.

What in the actual fuck is going on right now? Like really, the crazy is getting really fucking crazy, and I can't believe NO Republicans will speak out. ZERO.

We've been hearing about brain disease, dementia, slurring words. Is that it? Is he losing his mind? We keep hearing he's just "energizing his base". They're all such deadweight that they can't see the horrificness of this daily charade?

This is making me sick to my stomach. The justice system is doing its best to guarantee we'll suffer years more of this nightmare social experiment:

"An Ozaukee County [Wisconsin] judge found the state Elections Commission and three of its members in contempt of court Monday, saying they had flouted his December order to remove thousands of people from Wisconsin's voter rolls...At issue is the voting status of more than 200,000 people in one of the most politically prized states in the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by fewer than 23,000 votes, becoming the first Republican to take the state's electoral votes since 1984."

https://eu.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/01/13/judge-contempt-court-order-wisconsin-voter-rolls-case/2804070001/

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered Commentersafari

Yeah. It ain't just theater, folks.

I'm beginning to believe that the narcissistic, paranoid Pretender has swallowed his own nonsense whole and is certifiably nuts.

All that talk about his political opponents being traitors was an early sign, and it has worsened since. The conflation that worries me most is the Pretender's obvious confusion between the fate of his person and that of the country. He has never been more dangerous. At a minimum, when picks up his phone, someone should slap it out of his had with a ruler.

Wonder what effect all this is having on the thinking of the Nine? I'd guess CJ Roberts, about to preside over the Senate impeachment "trial," can't be too pleased with what he (and the nation) is facing.

January 13, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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