The Ledes

Thursday, October 10, 2024

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

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

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

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

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The Ledes

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

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

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

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

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

Sorry, forgot this yesterday: ~~~

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

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Public Service Announcement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click on photo to enlarge.

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

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

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

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The Commentariat -- January 3, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Heather Caygle & Sarah Ferris of Politico: "Nancy Pelosi was elected speaker of the House for the 117th Congress, clinching the gavel for the fourth and potentially final time. Pelosi won 216 votes to secure the speakership with five Democrats breaking ranks to support someone else or vote present. All Republicans voted for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Pelosi remains the only woman to ever lead the House."

** Lordy, There's a Tape.* Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to 'find' enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that election experts said raised legal questions. The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking 'a big risk.' Throughout the call, Raffensperger and his office's general counsel rejected his assertions, explaining that Trump is relying on debunked conspiracy theories and that President-elect Joe Biden's 11,779-vote victory in Georgia was fair and accurate. Trump dismissed their arguments.... At [one] point, Trump said: 'So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.' The rambling, at times incoherent conversation, offered a remarkable glimpse of how consumed and desperate the president remains about his loss, unwilling or unable to let the matter go and still believing he can reverse the results in enough battleground states to remain in office. 'There's no way I lost Georgia,' Trump said, a phrase he repeated again and again on the call." *Thanks to Shakezula for the headline. ~~~

     ~~~ Mother Jones has a summary report here. The Guardian's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is astounding. One of the most powerful people in the world is threatening a relatively insignificant state official that if he doesn't manufacture votes to throw an important election, he and his attorney will suffer dire consequences. This smoking gun is a fitting end to Trump's thoroughly corrupt presidency*. Another perfect call, one that will go down in history. ~~~

     ~~~ Leading up to the WashPo Report. Ryan Nobles of CNN: "Just days before the crucial Georgia runoffs that will determine control of the US Senate, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger delivered a strong message to Donald Trump as the President persists in attacking the Peach State's electoral process and the Republican leaders in charge of administering the system. 'Respectfully, President Trump: What you're saying is not true. The truth will come out,' Raffensperger tweeted. Raffensperger's comment was in response to a tweet Sunday morning by the President, in which Trump said he spoke to Raffensperger on the phone in an attempt to convince Raffensperger to look into unfounded conspiracy theories about the vote in November. According to Trump, Raffensperger refused to do so. 'I spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger yesterday about Fulton County and voter fraud in Georgia. He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the 'ballots under table' scam, ballot destruction, out of state 'voters,' dead voters, and more. He has no clue!' Trump wrote." MB: Sure enough, the truth did come out.

The New York Times' live updates of the federal government's transition Sunday are here: "Lawmakers of the 117th Congress will take the oath of office on Sunday, officially convening for the first time as the capital prepares for a new president, feuds over the mendacious claims of victory by the departing one and continues to battle a deadly pandemic.In the House, Democrats are poised to re-elect Nancy Pelosi of California as speaker, handing her control of an exceedingly narrow majority for what may be her final term."

Jemima McEvoy of Forbes: "As the U.S. hit its latest grim milestone early Sunday morning in the coronavirus pandemic -- 350,000 Americans dead -- PresidentTrump claimed the country's high numbers of cases and deaths have been 'exaggerated,' maligning the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's statistics.... 'The number of cases and deaths of the China Virus is far exaggerated in the United States because of @CDCgov's ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries, many of whom report, purposely, very inaccurately and low. "When in doubt, call it Covid." Fake News!,' [Trump tweeted Sunday morning]." ~~~

~~~ Devan Cole of CNN: "US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams on Sunday said he has 'no reason to doubt' the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Covid-19 death toll, contradicting ... Donald Trump's claim that the agency has 'exaggerated' its numbers.... 'And I think people need to be very aware that it's not just about the deaths...," he added. "It's about the hospitalizations, the capacity. These cases are having an impact in an array of ways...,' [Adams said on CNN Sunday]." ~~~

~~~ Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Appearing on ABC's 'This Week,' [Dr. Anthony] Fauci was asked by ... host Martha Raddatz about a tweet by the president calling the coronavirus case and death toll 'fake news' and blaming it on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention methodology. 'Well, the deaths are real deaths. I mean, all you need to do is to go out into the trenches, go to the hospitals, see what the health care workers are dealing with. They are under very stressed situations in many areas of the country. The hospital beds are stretched,' Fauci responded." MB: Of course, Trump has not been "in the trenches." He doesn't give a rat's ass about the loss of life, the devastating illness, the strain on medical workers and on the rest of us whose lives have been put on hold, or worse.

How Many Africans have Succumbed to Covid-19? We'll Never Know. Ruth Maclean of the New York Times: "As the coronavirus pandemic swept across the world in 2020, it became increasingly evident that in the vast majority of countries on the African continent, most deaths are never formally registered.... Covid-19 is often said to have largely bypassed Africa.... But like other diseases, its true toll here will probably never be known.... In 2017, only 10 percent of deaths were registered in Nigeria, by far Africa's biggest country by population -- down from 13.5 percent a decade before. In other African countries, like Niger, the percentage is even lower." MB: Well, see, Trump was right about African countries like Namibia.

Summer Concepcion of TPM: "Living in complete denial that President Trump's one-term presidency is coming to a close, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro took to Fox News on Saturday night to falsely proclaim that President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20 can be delayed. The loyal Trump foot soldier pushed the President's voter fraud delusions while appearing on Fox News on Saturday night as he piled onto the Trumpworld's meltdown over baseless assertions of Democrats 'stealing' the election.... When Fox News anchor Jeanine Pirro cited the Constitution -- which clearly states that the term of the outgoing president ends on Jan. 20 -- while mentioning that Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20 can't be change, Navarro continued being in denial of reality. 'Well it can be changed, actually. We can go past that date, we can go past that date if we need to,' Navarro said. Pirro, who has a law degree, did not challenge Navarro's unsubstantiated claims as she raised her brows and quipped: 'Oh, okay.'" MB: Navarro, who has a Ph.D. in econ, thinks a doctorate in one field makes him an expert on everything from Covid to the Constitution.

Israel. Racist AND Stupid. Oliver Holmes & Hazem Balousha of the Guardian: "Israel is celebrating an impressive, record-setting vaccination drive, having given initial jabs of coronavirus shots to more than a 10th of the population. But Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza can only watch and wait. As the world ramps up what is already on track to become a highly unequal vaccination push -- with people in richer nations first to be inoculated -- the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories provides a stark example of the divide. Israel transports batches of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine deep inside the West Bank. But they are only distributed to Jewish settlers, and not the roughly 2.7 million Palestinians living around them who may have to wait for weeks or months.... Benjamin Netanyahu has told Israelis that the country could be the first to emerge from the pandemic. As well as a highly advanced healthcare system, part of the reason for the speed could be economics. A health ministry official said the country had paid $62 a dose, compared with the $19.50 the US is paying."

~~~~~~~~~~

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: A new Congress convenes for the first time today. "The House meets at noon, and after the vote for speaker, members of the 117th Congress will be sworn in. Across the Capitol, Vice President Pence will administer the oath to the senators reelected on Nov. 3 and the newest members -- four Republicans and two Democrats. Two runoff elections in Georgia on Tuesday will decide the final contests of 2020."

Will Sommer & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Many of Donald Trump's most dogmatic supporters see a mass protest in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 ... as their last chance to disrupt President-elect Joe Biden's win.... 'Be there, will be wild!' Trump tweeted on Dec. 19.... 'I'm thinking it will be literal war on that day,' one popular comment posted last Wednesday read. 'Where we'll storm offices and physically remove and even kill all the D.C. traitors and reclaim the country.'... Two people familiar with the matter say that in recent days, Trump has told advisers and close associates that he wants to keep fighting in court past Jan. 6 if members of Congress, as expected, end up certifying the electoral college results." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Dirty Dozen. Alayna Treene of Axios: "A growing number of Republican senators -- led by Ted Cruz -- announced [Saturday] they also will object to certifying state Electoral College votes on Wednesday and called for resurrecting an Electoral Commission to conduct an emergency audit of the results.... Republicans involved include Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.), as well as Sens.-elect Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.)." Plus Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) who began this stunt among senators. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Colby Itkowitz & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Nearly a dozen Republican senators and senators-elect led by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said Saturday they will reject electors from certain states won by President-elect Joe Biden, citing unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud and calling for an emergency 10-day audit of the results, an unprecedented attempt to thwart the democratic process. The senators contend they are not trying to reverse the election results, but rather give voice to those who don't believe it was conducted fairly, despite no investigation nor court finding any evidence of wrongdoing." ~~~

     ~~~ Mikey Likes It. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Vice President Mike Pence signaled support on Saturday for a futile Republican bid to overturn the election in Congress next week, after 11 Republican senators and senators-elect said that they would vote to reject President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory when the House and Senate meet to formally certify it. The announcement by the senators -- and Mr. Pence's move to endorse it -- reflected a groundswell among Republicans to defy the unambiguous results of the election and indulge President Trump's attempts to remain in power with false claims of voting fraud. Every state in the country has certified the election results after verifying their accuracy, many following postelection audits or hand counts. Judges across the country, and a Supreme Court with a conservative majority, have rejected nearly 60 attempts by Mr. Trump and his allies to challenge the results. And neither Mr. Pence nor any of the senators who said they would vote to invalidate the election has made a specific allegation of fraud, instead offering vague suggestions that some wrongdoing might have occurred and asserting that many of their supporters believe that it has."~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Anyone surprised that mike has joined the suck-up senators has not been listening to mike. Akhilleus, invoking Sherlock Holmes, writes appropriate commentary on mike's character in today's thread. ~~~

     ~~~ Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Saturday offered blistering criticism of a plan by at least 12 Republican senators to challenge the results of the election next week, warning that they 'imperil' public trust. 'The egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic. The congressional power to reject electors is reserved for the most extreme and unusual circumstances. These are far from it,' Romney said in a statement." MB: Frankly, Mitt did a better job of belittling the Dirty Dozen than these guys did: ~~~

     ~~~Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Senate Democrats criticized their GOP colleagues after a group of 11 Republicans announced they would oppose the Electoral College results when Congress meets on Wednesday."

John Kruzel of the Hill: "A federal appeals court on Saturday dismissed a lawsuit by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and other Republicans that sought to expand Vice President Pence's legal authority to effectively overturn President-elect Joe Biden's electoral win. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court judge's decision from Friday that the GOP plaintiffs lacked a legal right to sue."

Gillian Brockell of the Washington Post: When Vice Presidents Richard Nixon & Al Gore presided over a joint session of Congress to announce their own defeats. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here: "As distribution of Covid-19 vaccines begins to open up to wider segments of the United States population, there have been scenes of chaos across the country. The initial vaccine deliveries were mostly for frontline medical workers and nursing home staff members and residents. But there was less of a clear consensus on how to distribute the second round of doses, and public health and elected officials had warned the process would become messier. Those warnings appear to have been borne out, leaving the U.S. inoculation campaign behind schedule and raising fears about how quickly the country will be able to tame the epidemic."

AP: "The COVID-19 death toll in the United States has surpassed 350,000 as experts anticipate another surge in coronavirus cases and deaths stemming from holiday gatherings over Christmas and New Year's. Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows the U.S. passed the threshold early Sunday morning. More than 20 million people in the country have been infected."

Ben Tobin of the Louisville Courier Journal: "United States Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Louisville home has been vandalized following his blocking of $2,000 stimulus checks to most Americans. As of Saturday morning, messages like 'where's my money' and other expletives were written with spray paint across the front door and bricks of the Kentucky Republican's Highlands residence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Kayla Galloway of ABC-7 Los Angeles: "A home in San Francisco belonging to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was vandalized early Friday morning with an apparent reference to lawmakers' failed efforts to provide Americans with $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks. The graffiti was found on the garage door of Pelosi's home overnight with the phrases '$2K', 'Cancel rent!' and 'We want everything.' As of early Friday afternoon, the garage door was covered with black garbage bags. The vandals also left fake blood and what appears to be a pig head outside the House Speaker's San Francisco home." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


David Sanger, et al., of the New York Times: "Three weeks after the [Russian hacking] intrusion came to light, American officials are still trying to understand whether what the Russians pulled off was simply an espionage operation inside the systems of the American bureaucracy or something more sinister, inserting 'backdoor' access into government agencies, major corporations, the electric grid and laboratories developing and transporting new generations of nuclear weapons. At a minimum it has set off alarms about the vulnerability of government and private sector networks in the United States to attack and raised questions about how and why the nation's cyberdefenses failed so spectacularly.... The breach was not detected by any of the government agencies that share responsibility for cyberdefense -- the military's Cyber Command and the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security -- but by a private cybersecurity company, FireEye." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Diane Francis of The Atlantic Council: "The US Senate began 2021 by delivering a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin by passing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes sanctions designed to kill off the Kremlin's strategically important Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. The geopolitical significance of this legislation cannot be overstated. It means almost certain doom for Putin's most important energy project and prevents Russia from tightening its control over EU natural gas supplies.... In fall 2020, a proposed round of additional Nord Stream 2 sanctions received overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress and was included in the NDAA for consideration in December. In mid-December, both the House and Senate gave final approval, but President Trump then vetoed it. This required the House and Senate to override the veto by a two-thirds majority, which was finally accomplished on January 1, 2021." --s

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Thursday steered clear of the controversy concerning President Trump's reelection loss and his continued demands for Supreme Court intervention, instead using his annual report to thank the judiciary for its performance during the pandemic..... 'This year, more than ever,' he wrote, 'I am privileged and honored to thank all of the judges, court staff, and other judicial branch personnel throughout the Nation for their outstanding service.'"

Andrew Latham in Informed Comment: "People are beginning to understand that the little changes COVID-19 has already ushered in or accelerated -- telemedicine, remote work, social distancing, the death of the handshake, online shopping, the virtual disappearance of cash and so on -- have begun to change their way of life.... Three previous plagues could yield some clues about the way COVID-19 might bend the arc of history As I teach in my course 'Plagues, Pandemics and Politics,' pandemics tend to shape human affairs in three ways. First, they can profoundly alter a society's fundamental worldview. Second, they can upend core economic structures. And, finally, they can sway power struggles among nations." --s (First published in the Conversation, Oct. 1, 2020.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

Iran. AFP: "The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, General Hossein Salami, has vowed to respond to any 'action the enemy takes' during a visit to a strategic Gulf island amid tensions with the US. Salami was speaking on Saturday, on the eve of the first anniversary of the US killing of top Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani in a Baghdad drone strike. In the Iraqi capital, a mock funeral procession was held, with mourners visiting the site of the attack. Salami inspected troops stationed on Abu Musa island, accompanied by the Revolutionary Guard Corps navy commander, Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri."

U.K. Jamie Howard of the Guardian: "The government is under pressure to explain why a series of air strikes in Yemen, many involving civilian casualties, have not been recorded in its confidential log of alleged breaches of international humanitarian law (IHL). The existence of the database, which has been kept by the Ministry of Defence since 2015, emerged only when the government became embroiled in a legal challenge over its decision to grant UK arms manufacturers export licences to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen.... By last July more than 500 possible breaches had been recorded in the database. But human rights groups allege that the true number of breaches in a conflict in which Saudi-led forces have conducted more than 20,000 air strikes must be much higher." --s

Comments Off

Reader Comments (22)

Is this year starting out as nuts as the last one?

The NYPost provides an answer, but not one I like.

(I don't trust the NYPost, but it's not their survey.)

https://nypost.com/2021/01/01/alarming-number-of-us-health-care-workers-are-refusing-covid-19-vaccine/

January 2, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Anyone's curiosity peaked about why Cruz is so specific about the time period for the "audit and investigation"? Why 10 days beginning on the 6th of January? Why would it take that long? Is it a delay tactic? If the electoral college results are not accepted by January 20th - then what - inauguration cancelled? Is that their 'logic'?

Tonight I hear Pence will welcome the objections. So much for "safe harbor day"... 2021 off to a great start.

January 2, 2021 | Unregistered Commenterperiscope

What they wanted all along...

Since judges who are not insane continue to tell the morons demanding that their little king be restored to the throne despite having been beaten like a rug on a clothesline to pack it in and go home, Louie Gohmert (R-Traitor) is calling for violence. He’s instructing the droolers to take to the streets. This shit is going downhill very quickly. And we all know what Gohmert and Hawley and Cruz and Trump will say when someone gets hurt—or worse—because of their stunts: “We were only kidding...”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-02/judge-tosses-out-gohmert-suit-against-pence-over-electoral-votes

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Elementary...

Sherlock Holmes, in one of his adventures, comes upon a situation in which he must decide whether or not to help a certain gentleman whose future is appearing very Tower of Londonish.

He puts the man to the test to determine his moral standing. He lets it be known that the gentleman’s lady friend is looking more and more like the guilty party in the case at hand and indicates that should he offer some information to that end, he would be instantly cleared of all possible charges. Holmes tries three different ways of allowing the gentleman to slip the noose, as it were, if only he’ll cooperate. He is turned down at every opportunity, the last time, threatened with bodily harm after yet another offer to let the man go free by rolling on his girlfriend.

At this point Holmes chuckles and, turning to Dr. Watson, says “Watson, this fellow is given the chance to save himself at another’s expense, and yet he rings true each time!” Having satisfied himself that this person is indeed an upstanding and honorable gentleman, Holmes decides on the spot to assist the couple in their dilemma, which of course he does with his usual preternatural aplomb.

This is very much like little mikey pence.

In reverse.

Given, time and again, the opportunity to show that he can be an upstanding and honorable elected official, mikey demonstrates, without fail, that he is a cheese eating, treasonous little rodent. A despicable toady with the heart of a lout and the morals of a child molester.

In The Case of the Treasonous President and his Loathsome Lackeys, Holmes would determine, rightly, that his time would be better spent sawing away on his fiddle than wasting an additional millisecond pondering the worthiness of a weaselly lickspittle like the half-pence.

It’s elementary.

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Watching the fabric of U.S. democracy unravel I can understand the feelings of a Southern Unionist on the eve of the U. S. Civil War.

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

Imagine a world where the seditious GOP stands up in mass to contest the foundations of our democratic Republic, and Mitt Romney and/or Lisa Murkowski stand up, walk across the aisle, sit down, and declare they're caucusing with democracy.

Imagine their place in history.

Keep imagining, because it's pure fiction.

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered Commentersafari

Ak's "weaselly lickspittle" description for the man whose Christian heart is cracked in the center brought tears to me eyes––from laughing and his Holme's connection was exactly right: Good show!

And safari's imaginative scenario was like the old black and white films where Jimmy Stewart and Irene Dunn done stood up for something bigger than themselves.


I spent a goodly amount of time yesterday reading Lawrence Wright's novella length piece in the New Yorker in which he delves into the pandemic from the very beginning bringing in the key players along with some we should know but aren't familiar with; it's a historical time line of major proportions.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/01/04/the-plague-year

I would think that in this season of vandalism by the crowd of crazies some police protection would be forthcoming? They come out in droves during protests so how bout covering certain congress critters. As much as I despise McConnell, I am not in favor of this kind of display. If not curtailed soon someone will find their dog slaughtered or their home set on fire or....it happens in other countries, it can happen here.

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

PD says "it can happen here." Yup.

Sinclair Lewis wrote a whole book about the same in the mid 1930's.

It's title? "It Can't Happen Here."

(Maybe linked here before.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Can%27t_Happen_Here

Another frighteningly accurate (and in this case, prescient) Lewis vision of our not so great country, one I haven't read and likely will not.

At this point I don't need to. After the last four years, now into the fifth, I think I know the story.

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

My wife thinks that the Democrats should call the buff of the Repugnican traitors. Contest the elector slates in states won by Grumpy, starting with Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas...

After 12 hours of delay for the first three, they might change their minds on their ploy. I know, wishful thinking...

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

@unwashed: I'm hoping you meant "bluff". We definitely do not want to see any of those varmints in the buff!

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Fun with words contest: prize, nada.

We have a "bale" of turtles, a "murder" of crows, a ... you see how it goes.

What would be a good word to name the (11? 12? probably not yet an unlucky 13, they'll skip right to fourteen like a Trump bldg elevator) seditious senators who who just want to play fair Wednesday?

I thought of "evel", after the famous stunt rider, because of stunting and the homophonia with "evil." But EK was the genuine article, taking real (stupid, but real) risks in his stunts. Our gang here knows the only risk they take is looking stupid in the history books, and, hey, in Texas they get to edit them, and as GWB Shrub said "who cares, we'll be dead (paraphrase). "

Do us proud, name those idiots. Onomatopoeiac puns would be great!

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

@Patrick: To borrow one from Jena Friedman, a Fraud of Senators.

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterNiskyGuy

@Forrest, you are correct. I also agree that I would not like to have to unsee Cruz's hairy ass.

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

A slime of Senators?

Too easy?

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

A Haskell of senators?

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

@unwashed: I love your wife's idea of Democrats' calling for an audit of every Trump states' Electoral College votes. And starting with Alabama, they should add, "And, incidentally, we dispute the finding that Alabama voters selected Tommy Potato Head as their representative in the Senate."

As for the image of certain senators in the buff, Ted Cruz already looks like the cursed villain in every B movie ever made. Seeing All of Him would be way too much unless, perhaps, confined to a grainy scene of his being dumped into a vat of boiling chocolate.

January 3, 2021 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

A "Confederacy of Senators" ?

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterC-Ton

A sedition of treasonweasels. (Thanks, Jeanne, for that word).

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Surely there is incriminating evidence here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia-vote/2021/01/03/d45acb92-4dc4-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterNiskyGuy

Poor Mr. Raffensperger. Too polite to say, "Excuse me, Mr. President, I need to take the dog out." Or "my souffle has collapsed." Or just about any other marginal excuse to hang up on him.

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterNJC

Listening to trump berate Raffensperger, I thought that if I were casting a movie and needed a whiny little bitch, trump would fill the bill.

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Man, Trump must be looking at some industrial-sized legal problems when he no longer has immunity. Either that or he’s terrified that Putin will try to Navalny his ass.

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterRockyGirl
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