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 4, 2021

Afternoon Update:

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "Several health experts in recent days have suggested delaying the second dose of the coronavirus vaccine in order to inoculate more people, to at least some extent, sooner rather than later. The advice comes amid concerns about the highly transmissive U.K. variant which has been reported in more than 30 countries, including the United States."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump's relentless effort to overturn the result of the election that he lost has become the most serious stress test of American democracy in generations, led not by outside revolutionaries intent on bringing down the system but by the very leader charged with defending it. In the 220 years since a defeated John Adams turned over the White House to his rival, firmly establishing the peaceful transfer of power as a bedrock principle, no sitting president who lost an election has tried to hang onto power by rejecting the Electoral College and subverting the will of the voters -- until now. It is a scenario at once utterly unthinkable and yet feared since the beginning of Mr. Trump's tenure. The president has gone well beyond simply venting his grievances or creating a face-saving narrative to explain away a loss, as advisers privately suggested he was doing in the days after the Nov. 3 vote, but instead has pressed the boundaries of tradition, propriety and the law to find any way he can to cling to office beyond his term that expires in two weeks. That he is almost certain to fail does not mitigate the damage he is doing to democracy by undermining public faith in the electoral system." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When Peter Both-Sides-Do-It Baker is as alarmed as this, you can be assured the situation is alarming.

In a Twitter thread, NBC News' Geoff Bennett writes that Trump had tried to telephone Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger 18 times during the past two months. People in Raffensperger's office recorded the call, and he told them not to release it unless Trump mischaracterized the call. MB: Trump did mischaracterize Raffensperger's responses in a tweet, which Ryan Nobles of CNN reported in a story linked below. None of these previous efforts has been previously reported, so I this implies an answer to a question I asked below: has Trump called other state officials around the country trying to overturn the results in their states? I'd guess yes, yes and yes. ~~~

~~~ Allan Smith & Alex Moe of NBC News: "A pair of House Democrats are asking FBI Director Christopher Wray to open a criminal probe into ... Donald Trump after a leaked phone call showed him pleading with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn his state's election. 'As members of Congress and former prosecutors, we believe Donald Trump engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes,' Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., wrote in a letter to Wray on Monday. 'We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the president.'" ~~~

~~~ Worse Than Watergate: ~~~

~~~ Coincidence??? Tierney Sneed of TPM: "The U.S. attorney in Atlanta departed his post Monday ... after previously indicating that he would not leave until Inauguration Day. The reason for U.S. Attorney Byung 'BJay' Pak's change of plans are not clear. In an internal email announcing his departure obtained by TPM, Pak cited only 'unforeseen circumstances' as the reason he was leaving Monday rather than Jan. 20." MB: Seems likely the "unforeseen circumstances" were Trump's call to Raffensperger & having to decided whether or not to prosecute Trump.

Trump to Flee U.S.? Peter Swindon of the Dundee, Scotland, Sunday Post: "... Donald Trump could be planning a trip to Scotland to avoid attending his successor Joe Biden's inauguration, according to aviation sources. Prestwick airport has been told to expect the arrival of a US military Boeing 757 aircraft, that is occasionally used by Trump, on January 19 -- the day before his Democratic rival takes charge at the White House. Speculation surrounding Trump's plans has been fuelled by the activity of US Army aircraft, which were based at Prestwick airport for a week and said to be carrying out 3D reconnaissance of the president's Turnberry resort." MB: The new AG should be checking our extradition treaties with Scotland. I don't think Trump is going to play golf. The average high temp in Ayrshire in January is 43 degrees & the average low is 34.

The Radical Right. Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "... the true radicals are the enablers of President Trump's ongoing attempted coup: the media bloviators on Fox News, One America and Newsmax who parrot his lies about election fraud; and the members of Congress who plan to object on Wednesday to what should be a pro forma step of approving the electoral college results.... But instead of being called what they are, these media and political figures get a mild label: conservative.... In applying this innocuous-sounding description, the reality-based media does the public a terrible disservice. Instead of calling out the truth, it normalizes; it softens the dangerous edges.... I'd call them members of the radical right."

Kate Conger of the New York Times: "More than 225 Google engineers and other workers have formed a union, the group revealed on Monday, capping years of growing activism at one of the world's largest companies and presenting a rare beachhead for labor organizers in staunchly anti-union Silicon Valley. The union's creation is highly unusual for the tech industry, which has long resisted efforts to organize its largely white-collar work force. It follows increasing demands by employees at Google for policy overhauls on pay, harassment and ethics, and is likely to escalate tensions with top leadership." The Hill's story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

** 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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mother Jones has a summary report here. The Guardian's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Shear & Stephanie Saul of the New York Times now have a non-derivative story up. My favorite criticism of the phone call: "David Shafer, the chairman of the Republican Party in Georgia, tweeted that the decision to release the audio was 'lawlessness.'" MB: That's right: the POTUS* is exposed for trying to intimidate an official into overturning the results of a presidential election, & the "lawless" one is the person who provided the evidence. There is something really wrong with these people. ~~~

     ~~~ Full audio, via the Washington Post, is here. Includes transcript. Update: The New York Times, subscriber-firewalled like the WashPo, now has audio of the full conversation & a transcript here. Update Update: CNN now has audio & a transcript of the full call 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. It could not look worse for Trump. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday that it was unlikely his office would open an investigation into his weekend phone call with ... Donald Trump, but suggested a criminal probe could still be launched by an Atlanta-area district attorney. Because Trump personally spoke with the secretary on Saturday and recently had a conversation with the secretary of state office's chief investigator, Raffensperger told ABC's 'Good Morning America' in an interview Monday morning that 'there may be a conflict of interest' that would inhibit any potential investigation." ~~~

~~~ Allie Bice, et al., of Politico: "Legal experts say the combination of Trump's request to 'find' a specific number of votes -- just enough to put him ahead of Biden -- and his veiled reference to criminal liability for Raffensperger and his aides could violate federal and state statutes aimed at guarding against the solicitation of election fraud. The potential violations of state law are particularly notable, given that they would fall outside the reach of a potential pardon by Trump or his successor.... 'I've charged extortion in mob cases with similar language,' said Daniel Goldman, a former prosecutor who helped lead the House Intelligence Committee's impeachment inquiry in 2019.... Georgia state law includes two provisions that criminalize 'solicitation of election fraud' and 'conspiracy to commit election fraud.' Trump’s detractors also pointed to a federal statute that criminalizes 'the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent.' Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State University law professor, said: '... "Soliciting or requesting" is the key language. The president asked, in no uncertain terms, the secretary of state to invent votes, to create votes that were not there. Not only did he ask for that in terms of just overturning the specific margin that Joe Biden won by, but then said we needed one additional vote to secure victory in Georgia.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "The call by President Trump on Saturday to Georgia's secretary of state raised the prospect that Mr. Trump may have violated laws that prohibit interference in federal or state elections, but lawyers said on Sunday that it would be difficult to pursue such a charge.... At the federal level, anyone who 'knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a state of a fair and impartially conducted election process' is breaking the law." ~~~

~~~ David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "However difficult it might be to prosecute Trump for this as a private citizen, more pointedly this sort of transgression is exactly what impeachment was designed to cover.... Of course the Republican Senate would not vote to remove him, and of course Trump is leaving in just two weeks. But there must be some sort of official accountability for this behavior. If neither the Congress nor the criminal courts register any significant objection to it beyond a strongly worded letter, it will happen again and again until a would-be dictator succeeds in destroying what remains of American democracy." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Atkins may be wrong about Senate Republicans. Most senators look in the mirror & see a president. Yet as long as Trump threatens to run again in 2024, he is an impediment to the senators' ambitions. One of the penalties of impeachment is "disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States," rendering Trump an awfully attractive candidate for Senate conviction. ~~~

~~~ Steve M.: "Trump tries to intimidate Raffensperger just the way you'd expect from a prize pupil of Roy Cohn. But he's also just another old white crackpot who consumes massive amounts of right-wing 'news,' and who believes every absurd story that confirms his prior assumptions.... He seems genuinely convinced that he won a massive victory in the state -- 'I think I probably did win [Georgia] by half a million,' he says at one point, which would be a ten-point blowout and a margin more than twice the size of his 2016 margin in the state.... I'm not sure he's guilty of the crimes some people say he committed...[.] At least on some level, I don't think he's lying. He believes crazy things." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Steve is essentially saying what some of the lawyers cited in the Bice & Lipton articles are arguing. What they're all saying, more or less, is that the POTUS* is not guilty by reason of insanity. That's the quality of person the Trumpenlumpen chose for a president*. ~~~

~~~ Dan Balz of the Washington Post is indignant: "There are but 16 days left in President Trump's term, but there is no doubt that he will use all of his remaining time in office to inflict as much damage as he can on democracy -- with members of a now-divided Republican Party acting as enablers.... [In his call to Raffensperger,] The president was not arguing facts or offering evidence.... He was trolling with rumor, innuendo (and the muscle that comes with calling from the White House), attempting one more time to bully and intimidate Raffensperger.... The president ... continues to gather support from members of a party he has remade in his own image.... The Republicans who will object [to the court of Electoral College votes] are acting on the basis either of fear of the president or sheer political opportunism, or both." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Here's my question. Obviously, flipping the Georgia election results wouldn't cut it for Trump. For a win, he has to change the results in several states that went for Biden. So has he sought out & bullied GOP election officials in other states & we just haven't heard about it?

** Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The time to question election results has passed, and there is no role for the military in changing them, all of the living former defense secretaries said in an extraordinary rebuke to President Trump and other Republicans who are backing unfounded claims of widespread fraud at the ballot box. The former Pentagon chiefs issued their warning Sunday evening in an opinion piece that they co-authored and published in The Washington Post. Its authors include Trump's two former defense secretaries, Jim Mattis and Mark T. Esper, as well as each surviving, Senate-confirmed Pentagon chief dating back to former Vice President Dick Cheney, who was defense secretary under President George H.W. Bush. The article was published as some Republicans plan to take the controversial step of contesting the electoral college vote certification on Wednesday, even after the president's repeated attempts to challenge election results in court have failed. It also comes as concerns persist that Trump might seek to use the military to keep him in office despite his electoral loss.... [The] genesis [of the essay was] a conversation between Eric Edelman, a former U.S. ambassador and defense official in Republican administrations, and Cheney about how the military might be used in coming days, Edelman said in an interview." An AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney, William Cohen, Mark Esper, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, James Mattis, Leon Panetta, William Perry & Donald Rumsfeld in a Washington Post op-ed: "As former secretaries of defense, we hold a common view of the solemn obligations of the U.S. armed forces and the Defense Department.... American elections and the peaceful transfers of power that result are hallmarks of our democracy. With one singular and tragic exception that cost the lives of more Americans than all of our other wars combined, the United States has had an unbroken record of such transitions since 1789, including in times of partisan strife, war, epidemics and economic depression. This year should be no exception. Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.... Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory."

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. (Also linked yesterday.)

Kyle Cheney & Melanie Zanona of Politico: "The rules of Congress' Jan. 6 session governing he counting of Electoral College votes will remain identical to those used for decades, under a resolution adopted Sunday by the House and Senate. The rules ... were passed on voice votes in both chambers, in keeping with recent history in which they've been uncontroversial afterthoughts in the process of finalizing the results of presidential elections. As dozens of Republicans in the House and Senate threaten to challenge President-elect Joe Biden's victory..., the rules have taken on new prominence, but none of those Republicans sought to block the adoption of the rules, even though some had supported an effort to block them in court.... [Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) forced] a vote on whether to allow Speaker Nancy Pelosi to seat the House members in the states Trump is challenging. The move forced Republicans on the record validating the results of the House elections that occurred on the same ballots that resulted in Biden's win in November. The result was a 371-2 vote in favor of seating all of the members."

Orion Rummler of Axios rounds up some statements from Republicans who are slamming Ted Cruz & his gang from their stunt to challenge the Electoral College votes. They include Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) & Bill Cassidy (La.) ~~~

~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a possible contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, broke with his rivals Sunday night by announcing he will not object to the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6. Cotton warned that an effort spearheaded by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), two other 2024 White House hopefuls, to challenge the electoral votes of several swing states that went for President-elect Joe Biden could 'establish unwise precedents.' While Cotton said he is concerned about how the 2020 presidential election was carried out, such as changes to election law allowing mail-in ballots arriving after Election Day to be counted, he argued it is up to the states and the courts -- not Congress -- to handle election laws." ~~~

~~~ Chuck Todd Takes on Stupidest Senator. An Even Match-up. David Cohen of Politico: "In a contentious interview, NBC host Chuck Todd and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson on Sunday accused each other of hypocrisy, double standards and working to undermine faith in democracy. On 'Meet the Press,' Todd attacked Johnson for joining a GOP effort to challenge the certification of Joe Biden's presidential election victory on Jan. 6; Johnson responded by saying the press had spent four years trying to destroy ... Donald Trump. At one point, a frustrated Todd asked Johnson, 'How about the moon landing? Are you going to hold hearings on that?'... 'You're the arsonist here,' Todd said to Johnson in discussing battles over election fraud. 'President Trump is the arsonist here. You started this fire and now you're saying whoa, look at this, oh my god, all these people believe what we told them because you didn't have the guts to tell the truth that this election was fair.' Johnson responded by accusing the mainstream media of working to overthrow Trump throughout his administration. 'This fire was started back in, you know, January of 2017,' he said. Both told each other they've 'had enough' of those arguments, but then rapidly circled back to them."

Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday is expected to give Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, according to someone familiar with the plans.... Nunes has long supported some of Trump's more outlandish conspiracy theories, including claiming that the intelligence community improperly 'unmasked' the identities of several officials working on Trump's presidential transition. Trump -- who is using his final days in the White House in part to reward friends and allies with pardons and other decorations -- is also expected to give Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), another confidant, the same award next week, although those plans have not yet been finalized."; Axios has an item here.


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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) NPR's story is here.

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Transition Proceeds Apace

Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s inaugural committee released new details on Sunday about his trip to the White House after his swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol that further underscore the downsized and largely virtual nature of his Inauguration Day plans. After taking the oath of office, Mr. Biden will conduct a traditional review of military troops meant to highlight the peaceful transfer of power, the Presidential Inaugural Committee said in a statement. The committee also said Mr. Biden would receive an official escort, with representatives from every branch of the military, for one city block before arriving at the White House. The statement left many details unclear, including the nature of the rest of Mr. Biden's trip of about 1.5 miles to the White House from the Capitol. By long tradition, a huge presidential motorcade rolls slowly down Pennsylvania Avenue past thousands of cheering spectators, with the newly inaugurated president walking some of the route." The Hill's story is here.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Jemima McEvoy of Forbes: "As the U.S. hit its latest grim milestone early Sunday morning in the coronavirus pandemic -- 350,000 Americans dead -- President Trump 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]." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ 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]." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ 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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

African Countries. 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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

South Africa. Jason Burke of the Guardian: "Across the continent Covid has hit South Africa the hardest with more than a million confirmed cases and 29,000 deaths according to official figures. As elsewhere in Africa, the pandemic has wreaked massive economic damage.... South Africa's 500 or so private game reserves are often in more remote and impoverished parts of the country. They spend considerable amounts each month to feed and care for the animals. Many have been forced to close permanently, lay off staff and sell, or even shoot, animals.... Many fear that if the crisis continues for many more months, hundreds of thousands of hectares across South Africa that have been converted to more lucrative game reserves in recent decades will revert to cattle or cereal farming -- with a massive loss of habitat for endangered animals and other species." --s

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Ben Quinn of the Guardian: "Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US to face charges of espionage and of hacking government computers, a British judge has decided. Lawyer for US authorities are to appeal against the ruling, which was delivered at the central criminal court by the district judge, Vanessa Baraitser. Delivering her ruling the judge said said the WikiLeaks founder was likely to be held in conditions of isolation in a so-called supermax prison in the US and procedures described by US authorities would not prevent him from potentially finding a way to take his own life. 'I find that the mental condition of Mr Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America,' she said." MB: IOW, the U.S. federal prison system is too harsh & too careless to humanely incarcerate prisoners.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (25)

Hmm. If Dick Cheney is not on your side for screwing over ordinary Americans, you must be Waaaaaayyyy out there.

January 3, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterNiskyGuy

Cheney already got his stolen election. He helped steal it.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Late last week our local health department decided to add an extra two and a half hours Friday morning for C-19 jabs and also require an appointment. Especially glad for the latter as I was fearing a rugby scrum of a line.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

Starting with this twelve, will someone calculate the number of Trump's friends he has made to look like horses asses.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered Commentercarlyle

@carlyle: I think the number is somewhere above 74 million.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterNiskyGuy

Professional interviewers know much better than I how to keep a conversation going, and maybe keeping it going is the primary goal, but I do wish. sometime in the next 16 days, when afforded the opportunity, one of them would require the Pretender patsy in his to her sights to answer this question:

Since during the Pretender--OK, Trump-- years, our national debt was growing even before Covid, our economy was still moving along at latter Obama era rates, our trade balance with China did not change dramatically with the tariffs, there was no major resurgence in coal production, manufacturing jobs grew only minisculely, our institutions like the USPS and the CDC are now in tatters, and since we are now more divided politically than ever, with nearly half the country seemingly bent on ignoring the outcome of a democratic election, what good, exactly, do you think your boss has done for the country?

And then, taking the points one by one, make him or her answer the fucking question.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Oh, Ken-- our eyeballs can't take the vision in our minds' eyes of Trump answering the FUCKING question-- over 24 women have already accused him...haha (Sorry, couldn't resist--)

I have to hand it to our presidunce-- he manages to outdo himself every time we think, OK, we have hit the bottom now... I don't see how we can rebuild without blowing up what has happened now. There are how many traitors in congress who plan to add to their "resumes" by standing in Fatso's corner, and how do we deal with them? They should be in some way censured. I think they should be put in a box, like in the UK. How do we deal with the fact that he would be impeached again if there was time? Does he get off scot-free on the federal level, WITH his aids (Mark Meadows etc)and staff and the rest? I am afraid there are so many problems to fix with executive orders that Biden et al will not have time to punish these people. I think we inoculate them all with Covid and send them to a deserted island. I am almost serious...
Husband tested positive, so we are all under quarantine and daughter and I got tested...naturally we won't find out for days... Husband says he feels better, and we are not showing symptoms. No idea where he got it, but an ER run over a week ago stands out in my mind. I hope I can still walk in the neighborhood...if not, I will be stir-crazy...

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

Nisky: Just yesterday, I said that Cheney wouldn't pick up the phone unless X millions had already been deposited into his bank account. He sees value in his assertion supporting the election: Liz Cheney as VP to Mitt's Presidency in 2024. No way either of them goes quietly into the sunset. They offer order, stability, and MONEY to GOOPers. Everyday Cheney and his kind know that Kamala is from California, Black, and a Woman: she will not win in 2024. Trump was elected 4 short years ago. There ain't much to do in Jackson, Wyoming (Dick's home) in winter than dream fevered dreams. Less schemy people than Cheney would ski and enjoy the abundant natural beauty in Jackson Hole; an esthete Dick is not.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625

Having read the transcript of the telephone call I felt exhausted–-gazed out the window for a long time, thinking back to years ago when Marie said something about an imperial presidency and I said something about how the Right was so wrong in their treatment of Obama (a picture of a tiny Obama at the bottom of a toilet bowl had been circulating ). A search in my files retrieved it:

July: 2014

"... CW: There is an irony in the contrast between the right's bitter
criticisms of Obama's "imperial presidency" and their acquiescence when an issue of war -- the means by which empires are usually built - arises. As usual, what wingers really want is an imperial president, one who will use force to compel other countries[ OR STATES] to comply with U.S. [ WITH A PRESIDENT'S] interests."

A good example of this is Susan Collins during a congressional hearings onthe situation in Iraq questioning General Dempsy and Hagel about "all those girls and women captured by the Boko Haram­­–-"it's terrible, just terrible and we haven't done anything about it. I don't understand why our military can't go in and find those girls." Collins was visibly upset­­, cheeks getting redder by the minute. Dempsy very patiently explained to this Senator that Nigeria was a sovereign country­­we can't just go into countries willy, nilly and take over. We have done everything we are able to do in this situation. He then explained the terrain in that country and how difficult it would be to locate these women even if they could. Apparently this
explanation did not sit well with Susan whose expression was one of anger and frustration. And yet this same little lady was complaining about the Obama administration's foray into health care among other things. They want a king when it suits; when it doesn't they stick the president at the bottom of a urinal and pee on him.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@Jeanne

No apologies necessary, tho' have to say that disturbing vision had not entered my early morning mind.

Good luck with the Covid. If you do head in the crazy direction, feel free to vent here.

You vent real good.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

A medal for Dev the Obsequious? No medal for the cow? The cow has been the brains behind the operation all along. Nunes just does what he’s told. And is the Jim Jordan medal thingy for his history prowess or for allowing students to be sexually molested then lying about it?

Such smart, upstanding individuals in the Fatty corner. Republicans must be very proud.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I meant to offer a few collective nouns to yesterday’s thread but didn’t get to it in time. But better late than never, I suppose. Confederates deserve it.

To wit:

A broken polygraph of prevaricators

A mendacity of chiselers

A Nuremberg of fascists

A Molotov cocktail of mountebanks

A perambulator of whiners

A scaffold of traitors

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Sorry to say that nothing will come of Fatty’s latest criminal activity. If the Party of Traitors think it’s okay to bribe a foreign government to attack an American presidential candidate with lies and smears, they sure won’t give an amateurishly re-plugged, formerly unplugged nickel for him blackmailing a minor government official in Georgia so’s their gravy train continues to choo-choo along.

We’re talking about an entire cohort of democracy hating co-conspirators. Had Fatty flapped down to Georgia with his Magic Sharpie to cross out the actual vote count and replaced it with “King Donald: 800,000,543 and 1/2, Sleepy Joe: 2, they’d be fine with it. Hell, they’d buy him (with our tax money, of course) a few extra Sharpies.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Citizen mentions Dick Cheney, who lives in Teton County, Wyoming, which is in the northwest corner of that rectangular state. It happens to be the richest and most unequal county in America. The average income for the top one percent is $ 28.2 million a year according to a review of Justin Farrell's book on Teton County.The top one percent of Teton County residents make 233 times more than the bottom 99 percent. As for the tippy top .01 percent, their annual income is $368,823,036. (for someone like me who screwed up on her math the other day, you might say, "Oh Gawd! this woman and her sums again! but I'm taking them from the horse's mouth, so to speak, and am being extra careful).

"Wyoming has attracted the rich and extremely rich by being the Cayman Islands or Monaco of the fifty states.Wyoming has no state income tax, corporate tax, estate tax, or capital gains or interest tax and its excise tax, sale's and property taxes are some of the lowest in the country. A person with a massive house in Ct. can build another massive house in Teton, claim to be a Wyoming resident, and pay no state tax in either place."

So in essence depriving both states of taxes ––-the word greed is too lax a word here. This is a fascinating study and if anyone is interested I'll see if I can link it.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Finally got through to my county health dept. I'm too late to get a jab in the first group of seniors, but I'm scheduled for 1325 on the 25th of the month.

Now to stay safe for the next three weeks.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

This morning Hakeem Jeffries, chair of the house democratic caucus, made a statement in response to a CNN question about what the caucus' response to the pretenders latest election extortion attempt in Georgia would be - the reply (paraphrasing), was that the party will deal with the pandemic, give support the states to deal with the pandemic and economic recovery, and to do everything to 'build back better'. A predictable pivot for a question directed at the wrong level of party leadership. But it made me fear that the party is going to treat this event like we voters treat the blathering, delusional trumpist shouting through his megaphone across the street of the polling place - just ignore it, walk away, and do our duty. It will all be over soon. We are going to stuff the pretender into a political rubber room for another sixteen days and try not to be bothered by his rattling the barred windows and his psychotic screaming.

I would agree with Bernstein's and Scaramucci's assessments that we are missing a prime teaching moment if the democrats do anything less than demand that the president* resign.

I'll bet Ted Cruz is just frosted that Devin Nunes, and not himself, is awarded the medal. Yet another institution degraded and tarnished.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered Commenterperiscope

@Akhilleus: Maybe Biden will give Devin's Cow the Medal of Freedom, Trump's already made a joke of the "honor" so might as well go the last mile.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

What Trump is attempting in Georgia, and who knows how many other states, is criminal. Extortion is still against the law, last time I looked. But, say some pundits, it sounds like the poor man really believes he won and truly believes his own lies, so it’s not really illegal.

Sorry, but if a guy who thinks he’s Napoleon tries to run through his neighbor thinking him the Duke of Wellington, he doesn’t get a pass. Someone who robs a bank believing the money in the vaults to be truly his doesn’t get to go home with a stern talking to.

He’s a criminal. He should be arrested and put on trial. If he’s really nuts, then it’s the padded room and a straight jacket. Then maybe a frontal, pre-frontal, backal, side-al, and inside outal lobotomy. Performed with a rusty razor blade and a melon ball scoop.

Either way, he shouldn’t be allowed to slough it off and go play golf.

LOCK HIM UP!

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

A little reminder, every single Republican Senator in Congress voted to acquit Trump of obstruction of Congress during his impeachment and only One decided that his abuses of power warranted his expulsion from office. Susan Collins was right, Trump learned his lesson and learned it well. Obstuction of democracy is cool and if the president* abuses his powers it is not a problem.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

@Akhilleus: I agree with you. As part of his job, Trump is required to know & disseminate the truth. Not only that, he has more access to true things than anyone in the country does. Whether he's pretending he won the election or really is stark, staring mad, there should be a presumption that the POTUS* has access to the truth & a Constitutional responsibility to know it. Because of his unique access to intelligence, he cannot -- as others may -- get away with saying, "I believed what I heard on right-wing news."

Even if the statutes (and apparently the federal statutes do) require that the perp must know his assertions are untrue, I think it's fair for a jury to assume that Trump -- who has had the federal government at his disposal to seek & find the truth -- knows the truth.

January 4, 2021 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@RAS. In his closing impeachment speech -- which will probably be taught in law schools -- Adam Schiff asked, "What are the odds if left in office that he will continue trying to cheat? I will tell you: 100 percent."

The full closing speech is here.

January 4, 2021 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@Jeanne: Best wishes for you and your family. I'm sorry to hear your husband has been feeling ill and glad he's feeling better.

January 4, 2021 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

So the Pretender might get a final free ride on a military plane to Scotland?

There's the obvious good riddance element to my reaction, but I'm also thinking that at least the SOB will have to pay his own way back, won't he, should he foolishly choose to return to the country that regretfully spawned him?

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@Marie, I agree that I don't think the soon-to-be has-been is going to Scotland to play golf before the inauguration. It's another grift for him to get a taxpayer-paid flight out of the country. Turnberry's just a layover until BFF Putie-pute's plane arrives to pick him up. Just Vlad's little favor for having been given the pretender's password (MAGA2024?) into the US government's computer system.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

@Jeanne: Crossed fingers for you, your daughter and that husband of yours.

January 4, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe
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