The Ledes

Friday, October 11, 2024

Washington Post: “Floridians began returning to damaged and waterlogged homes on Thursday after Hurricane Milton carved a path of destruction and grief across the state, the second massive storm to strike Florida in as many weeks. At least 14 storm-related deaths were attributed to the hurricane, which made landfall south of Sarasota at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, officials said. Six of them were killed when two tornadoes touched down ahead of the storm in St. Lucie County on Florida’s central Atlantic coast. The deadly tornadoes, rising waters, torrential rain and punishing winds battered the state from coast to coast as Milton churned eastward before heading out to sea early Thursday.”

Washington Post: “Twelve people were rescued from an inactive Colorado gold mine after they were trapped 1,000 feet underground for about six hours following an elevator malfunction. One person was killed in the accident, which happened about 500 feet underground at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine near Cripple Creek, Colo., Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said at a Thursday news conference. The site is a tourist attraction. Eleven other people aboard the elevator at the time, including two children, were rescued shortly after the mechanical malfunction, which Mikesell said 'created a severe danger for the participants.' He said four suffered minor injuries.... Twelve others in a separate group remained trapped in a mine shaft 1,000 feet underground for several hours after the incident, before they were rescued Thursday evening, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said.”

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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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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 -- June 7, 2020

Afternoon Update:

The Washington Post's live updates of protest developments Sunday are here. The Post also has live updates for events in D.C., Maryland & Virginia; a crowd of tens of thousands is expected in the District. New York Times Sunday updates are here.

Virginia. Sabrina Moreno of the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "After a day and evening of peaceful protests and marches in Richmond and its suburbs, protesters using ropes pulled down a statue honoring Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham, which has stood in the park since 1891.... Monroe Park is in the heart of the Virginia Commonwealth University campus."

David Martin of CBS News: "In a heated and contentious debate in the Oval Office last Monday morning, President Trump demanded the military put 10,000 active duty troops into the streets immediately, a senior administration official told CBS News. Attorney General William Barr, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley objected to the demand, the official said. In an attempt to satisfy Mr. Trump's demand, Esper and Milley used a call with the nation's governors later that morning to implore them to call up the National Guard in their own states, the official said.... On 'Face the Nation' Sunday, Barr disputed the characterization of the Oval Office meeting, calling it 'completely false' and denying the president demanded active-duty troops in the streets immediately, rather than having them on standby." Mrs. McC: Because Bill Barr always tells the truth.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The Washington Post's live updates of protest developments Saturday are here. The Post also has live updates for events in D.C., Maryland & Virginia; a crowd of tens of thousands is expected in the District. New York Times Saturday updates are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)&

Damien Cave, et al., of the New York Times: "From Paris to Berlin -- as in demonstrations this past week in Japan, Sweden and Zimbabwe -- people around the world once again turned out in solidarity with Americans protesters calling for justice in the death of an African-American man, George Floyd, at the hands of the police in Minneapolis.... Tens of thousands flowed to Parliament Square in London on Saturday afternoon, shouting anti-racist slogans and carrying signs paying homage to Mr. Floyd.... The global demonstrations, continuing for a week now, were inspired by the demonstrations in the United States to call for an end to racism and police brutality in their own countries.... Large crowds gathered on Saturday in cities and towns for the 11th straight day in the United States, denouncing police brutality and seeking reforms after a long line of deaths of African-Americans like Mr. Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., and others at the hands of law enforcement. In the nation's capital, peaceful rallies took place near the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial and other iconic locations."

Lauren Egan of NBC News: "Thousands of people gathered outside Washington, D.C., monuments and the White House on Saturday protesting the killing of George Floyd, years of unanswered calls for police reform and ... Donald Trump's use of military personnel in response to largely peaceful demonstrations.... Protesters moved fluidly through the city, marching from the White House to the Lincoln Memorial to the U.S. Capitol, and back again.... Many D.C. residents have also expressed anger over Trump's use of federal forces in the city, complaining that the presence of Humvees, Army helicopters and armed soldiers every few blocks has turned the city into a military zone." A Politico story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: On Monday, Trump told the nation's governors, "You have to dominate, if you don't dominate you're wasting your time. They're going to run over you, you're going to look like a bunch of jerks." Who looks like a jerk now?

For you mean fake-news-lovin' critics who claim the Dear Leader isn't making America great again ~~~

~~~ Andrew Blake of the Washington Times: "President Trump broke several personal records for Twitter usage Friday with a barrage of social media activity amid crises caused by the coronavirus and killing of George Floyd. Mr. Trump's account on Twitter ... posted on the platform a total of 200 times within 24 hours, shattering his previous record of 142."

David Nakamura, et al., of the Washington Post: Since Donald Trump personally attacked her on May 30, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel "Bowser has fought back fiercely against the president's bullying, taunting him with tweets and criticisms of her own. On Friday, she rebuked him with a defiant display of street art in which she sought to draw a clear contrast with Trump's calls for 'law and order' by demonstrating active support for peaceful protesters of the Black Lives Matter movement. Over the past 10 days -- set against the backdrop of the pitched national protests over police violence -- their once relatively temperate relationship has erupted into an ugly schism freighted with the overtones of race and power that have infused the protests, as well as city leaders' long and fruitless fight for D.C. statehood." ~~~

~~~ Maureen Dowd: "After the country was rocked to its soul by the sight of a handcuffed black man dying while being held down by a police officer as those around begged for mercy, Trump could hardly summon a shred of empathy. His only move was to grab a can of kerosene and cry 'Domination!'... He called Muriel Bowser, the poised black mayor of D.C. who wanted the federal troops out of the capital, 'incompetent' and then upgraded her to 'grossly incompetent.'... But Bowser offered the best troll on the First Troller when she had the words 'Black Lives Matter' painted in yellow in front of the White House and St. John's."

Robert Burns of the AP: "Tensions between the White House and Pentagon have stretched to near a breaking point over ... Donald Trump's threat to use military force against street protests triggered by George Floyd's death.... In recent days, and for the second time in Trump's term, it has raised a prospect of high-level resignations and the risk of lasting damage to the military’s reputation.... The nub of the problem is that Trump sees no constraint on his authority to use what he calls the 'unlimited power' of the military even against U.S. citizens if he believes it necessary. Military leaders generally ... believe that active-duty troops, trained to hunt and kill an enemy, should be used to enforce the law only in the most extreme emergency, such as an attempted actual rebellion."

** Thomas Gibbons-Neff & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Top Pentagon officials ordered National Guard helicopters to use what they called 'persistent presence' to disperse protests in the capital this week, according to military officials. The loosely worded order prompted a series of low-altitude maneuvers that human rights organizations quickly criticized as a show of force usually reserved for combat zones. Ryan D. McCarthy, the Army secretary and one of the officials who authorized part of the planning for the helicopters' mission Monday night, said on Friday that the Army had opened an investigation into the episode.... Military officials said that the National Guard's aggressive approach to crowd control was prompted by a pointed threat from the Pentagon: If the Guard was unable to handle the situation, then active-duty military units, such as a rapid-reaction unit of the 82nd Airborne Division, would be sent into the city.... The episode has stirred outrage among lawmakers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This does not look like a headline that ever would appear in a more-or-less mainstream news outlet: "Chainsaw-wielding racist gets boosted by a top presidential aide as race protests sweep the nation." I did change one word to make the headline seem more implausible: instead of "presidential," the actual headline reads "Trump." Suddenly the headline seems as real as it is. Here's the story:

~~~ Marc Caputo of Politico: On her Twitter feed, "... Trump campaign senior adviser Mercedes Schlapp ... boosted a tweet that lauded a man in Texas in a viral video as he yelled the n-word and wielded a chainsaw to chase away anti-racism demonstrators.... The video originated in McAllen, Texas, where demonstrators had gathered downtown, only to be confronted by a man with a chainsaw that he revved at them as they fled. 'Go home!' yells the man, who was arrested Friday. 'Don't let those f------ n------ out there fool you!'... After Politico reached out to her and the campaign Saturday morning, Schlapp then retweeted another account that posted a version of the video that muted the racist slur. After this story published, she removed both her retweets and issued a written apology Saturday evening.... On one hand, Schlapp favorably promoted a man spewing anti-black racism and on the other she urged black people to vote for Trump just three days prior in an online campaign discussion on race." ** More from the Intercept. Mrs. McC: As we so often say, you can't make up this stuff.

California. Dan Noyes of KGO: San Jose, California, police last week severely injured activist Derrick Sanderlin, who was trying to diffuse conflicts during a protest. "He stood a good distance away [from police], made no aggressive motions to police, yet they fired on him [with rubber bullets] several times, one round hitting him in the groin.... Video shows the officers' training their riot guns on Sanderlin." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Kansas. Chance Swaim & Michael Stavola of The Wichita Eagle: "Wichita State University and WSU Tech canceled Ivanka Trump's commencement speech without explanation Thursday in a late-night news release following a public outcry from faculty, students and alumni.... Trump will be replaced by nursing graduate Rebecca Zinabu.... Pressure was on the Wichita State administration after Jennifer Ray, associate professor of photo media, authored a scathing open letter asking the university to cancel Trump.... 'Ivanka Trump, obviously, represents her father's administration as one of his closest advisors,' Ray wrote. 'To many Americans, that administration has come to signify the worst of our country, particularly in its recent actions toward those peacefully protesting against racist police brutality.'" --s ~~~

     ~~~ Womp Womp. Guardian: "Ivanka Trump has hit out at 'cancel culture and viewpoint discrimination' after plans for her to give a virtual commencement speech to students in Kansas were canceled amid criticism of Donald Trump's response to anti-police brutality protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd...The move clearly angered Ivanka Trump[.]" --safari: She'll never get her father's fascist stench off of her.

New York. Nicole Acevedo of NBC News: "Two Buffalo officers who were suspended without pay after a video showed police shoving a 75-year-old man to the ground at a George Floyd protest on Thursday night, were charged with second-degree assault, according to the Erie County District Attorney's Office. A large crowd of police officers and firefighters stood in front of Buffalo City Court to show support for the officers as they both attended a virtual arraignment on Saturday. Officers Robert McCabe, 32, and Aaron Torgalski, 39, pleaded not guilty to the charges of second-degree assault and will be released on his own recognizance, according to NBC affiliate WGRZ in Buffalo." Mrs. McC: Apparently Buffalo cops & firefighters really don't get it. Both forces need attitude tests. & Test administrators should come equipped with thick books of pink slips. (Also linked yesterday.)

Texas. Naomi Andu, et al., of the Texas Tribune: "On Friday morning, Texas' top Republican officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott, had condemned four GOP [county] chairs for proliferating conspiracy theories on Facebook. The posts, from chairs of some of the largest counties in Texas, suggested George Floyd's death was staged to erode black support for ... Donald Trump. Meanwhile, a fifth chairperson, Harris County GOP chair-elect Keith Nielsen, announced Saturday he will not take office as planned after coming under fire for posting a Martin Luther King Jr. quote -- 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere' -- on a background with a banana. On Friday afternoon, The Texas Tribune identified similar posts from seven more GOP chairs across the state. Some of these posts suggested people who have been protesting Floyd's death across the state and the country were being paid by Jewish billionaire George Soros -- an oft-used anti-Semitic trope. GOP county chairs are elected leaders of the Republican Party who help oversee local elections and head up county-level meetings and events." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As ignorant & bigoted as these unsocial media posts were, the county chairs still did not -- as far as we know -- promote video of a chainsaw-wielding maniac running after protesters & yelling "fucking n-----s!" as did Trump's top aide & former White House communications honcho Mercedes Schlapp.


"Petty & Preposterous." Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "President Trump has signed off on a plan to permanently withdraw up to one-third of about 34,500 U.S. troops currently based in Germany, bringing the total down to no more than 25,000, according to U.S. officials. Implementation of the plan is being turned over to the Defense Department, a senior administration official said.... As of late Friday, Germany had not been officially informed of the withdrawal order.... The fact that Germany was given no 'heads up' that Trump had signed off on the withdrawal 'speaks for itself,' said one senior European official, and is unlikely to improve the generally low state of 'the transatlantic environment.'... As word of the plan became public, Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called Trump's order 'petty and preposterous.' 'It's another favor to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and another leadership failure by this Administration that further strains relations with our allies,' Reed said in a statement...."

Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "Food insecurity, underscored by government figures that 40% of lowest-paid workers are now idled, has led to calls for a profound adaptation or wholesale reform of the food system, if a sustained crisis is to be avoided.... At the same time, pressure [to] adapt is revealing cracks in the system: farmers have reported that crops and herds may have to be destroyed if processing and distribution doesn't pick up.... Some states have recorded record spikes in hunting licence applications, a reversal of recent trends, and in Vermont, fishing license sales are up more than 50%. How much of this can be ascribed to people with time on their hands, and how much to need is still hard to discern. What is clear is some trends, including the smallholding organic farm movement, coupled with greater awareness of food justice and food insecurity, are coalescing under Covid-19." --s

Presidential Race

John Naughton in the Guardian: "[T]he thinking goes, if we all hold our nerve, the nightmare will end on 20 January 2021, when Trump has to hand over power to his victorious opponent.... At which point my mind goes back to this time in 2016...; how could Nate Silver and co have got it so wrong? The answer is simple: nobody, including opinion pollsters, knew about the Trump campaign's astonishing mastery of social media, especially Facebook. Trump may not have known much about that at the time -- he really only understood Twitter -- but Brad Parscale and his team sure knew how to make use of Facebook's micro-targeting machine. And they did.... What it all comes down to is this: only one man -- Mark Zuckerberg -- now stands between Joe Biden and the US presidency." --s


Julie Brown of The Miami Herald: "The Palm Beach judge [Krista Marx] who has thus far refused to release grand jury records in the Jeffrey Epstein case has both professional and family ties to three of the politicians who have a stake in keeping those records secret, the Miami Herald has learned...[:] State Attorney Dave Aronberg, who has been sued by the Palm Beach Post to release the grand jury records; Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, whose department's favored treatment of Epstein while he was in the Palm Beach County jail is part of an ongoing state criminal investigation; and ex-State Attorney Barry Krischer, part of the same investigation in connection with his decision not to prosecute Epstein on child-sex charges.... The original handling of the Epstein case a decade ago stands as a flagrant example of the corrosive effects of power, wealth and privilege on the criminal justice system." --s

News Lede

Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Cristobal is now moving inland over southeastern Louisiana, but threats of flooding rainfall, storm-surge flooding, tornadoes and gusty winds will continue along the Gulf Coast into Monday. Cristobal is also expected to spread heavy rain and gusty winds through the lower Mississippi Valley and upper Midwest early this week. The National Hurricane Center said Cristobal made landfall along the coast of southeastern Louisiana between the mouth of the Mississippi River and Grand Isle at 5 p.m. CDT Sunday evening. Maximum sustained winds at the time were estimated near 50 mph. Bands of heavier rain are affecting areas from southeastern Louisiana into southern Mississippi, southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. Rainfall rates of 3 to 6 inches per hour Sunday morning triggered significant flash flooding in parts of downtown Jacksonville, Florida, trapping cars.... Cristobal is tracking north-northwestward with a forward speed of 10 mph as it moves inland over southeastern Louisiana." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Although you never know. If Trump has a Sharpie in the bunker, he may tell us that storm is headed for Wyoming.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (19)

Conditions Necessary and Sufficient

The Anne Applebaum article on the status of the near entirety of the Party of Traitors in collaborating with the treasonous, unethical, amoral, and often murderous Trump regime points any unbiased observer to conclude that, in legal terms, the party, the Trump administration*, its enablers, apparatchiks, functionaries, media cheerleaders (many of whom also serve as Trump advisors), state and local officials who push and support Trump-GOP positions, and even (actually it’s more like especially) Trump-GOP voters, are all accomplices complicit in the attack on the nation’s founding principles.

The law typically considers that accomplices and those complicit in the commission of crimes (lookin’ at you, Herr Barr), are legally guilty and subject to punishment.

In philosophical terms, this egregious panoply of accomplices, schemers, complicit actors, and those directly carrying out the many operations designed to turn a democracy into an autocratic, theocratic state, have created and provided conditions both necessary and sufficient for the Fat Authoritarian to get away, literally, with murder.

This is no simple or easy matter. The conditions necessary for the demolition of democracy (including epic gerrymandering, vote suppression, and election rigging) and the killing and/or injuring of Americans either by viral means or via heavily armed troops sicced on protesters who are far and away mostly peaceful (ie, exercising their Constitutionally guaranteed rights), must be present, but this is not enough to create the end results (destruction of the American Experiment, undermining of foundational principles, and sabotaging any semblance of the rule of law). The conditions must also be sufficient.

Philosophers consider sufficiency to be the presence of conditions that will bring about the event, in other words all necessary conditions must be in play. In this case such conditions require the actions of such as Putin, Zuckerberg, a reliably complicit legal system (especially a Supreme Court willing to look the other way in the presence of authoritarian, anti-democratic and anti-American actions, eg, contending that racism is no longer a cause for concern in America, either socially or legally), and people like this reprehensible Schlapp idiot and those racist pigs in Texas and pretty much everywhere an R has been elected.

They are all complicit. And collectively, they provide the necessary and sufficient conditions for Trumpism to succeed.

But there are other necessary conditions gathering steam. As the obscene incompetence and dangerously destabilizing nature of Trump and his band of crooks and cutthroats become more and more clear, his hold on power has started to wane. Sensing this, he has become even more extreme and unstable in his responses, his lies, and his many illegal attempts to enforce his will. The fact that he and Barr send out armed thugs with orders to “dominate”, actions that have seriously backfired with an Gigantic upwelling of support for the protests, which have in turmgotten at least a few collaborators to reconsider their slavish fealty to treason should not be underestimated for the sea change it could become. Governors who might have once been cowed into submission now tell him and his lawyer to fuck off.

Those are necessary conditions. But as long as R’s happily look the other way at foreign interference, as long as someone like Mark Zuckerberg continues his complicity, as long as much of the media maintains its reguritative stance with regard to the myriad lies spread by this administration, conditions for overthrowing Trump and his gang of crooks may not be sufficient.

We shall see.

Nevertheless, whatever happens, the stain of collaboration and the legal status of complicity in the many crimes perpetrated by, for, and under this administration*, will never disappear.

The French had an idea for handling collaborators with Nazi German occupiers, and even though the mind reels at the image of Barr, McConnell, Graham, et al, shorn and forced to parade around in their underwear, it wouldn’t be a bad initial outcome.

Conditions are changing. But sufficiency is required. This includes (again, especially) women and men of good conscience to vote. Use it or lose it.

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

One more thing about this Schlapp moron. Let’s discount the racial slurs in this video. In fact, let’s pretend this idiot never used any. Who thinks a video of a maniac threatening peaceful protesters with a CHAINSAW is a really great idea? These people are not just accomplices, not merely stupid, or racist, or awful human beings. They’re fucking insane. And yet a person who thinks like this has the ear of the president*.

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Ken Winkes: There's a photo embedded in the WashPo story by David Nakamura & others about Muriel Bowser, linked above, that is a relative close-up of Trump holding the Bible aloft in front of St. John's, & you can (just barely) see the book's spine (not Trump's; it's made out of pasta). Clearly, Trump is holding the book right-side up. Send the picture to your friend. And never, never doubt me again. Ha ha.

June 7, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@Akhilleus: If you confuse dog whistles with chainsaws & epithets, you must be a Trumpist.

I just can't get over Schlapp's thinking that video was such a good thing she should share it with the Trump faithful. I didn't think any person who could at least momentarily pass for civilized would brook anything so vile, much less think it was presidential-campaign-ready. The whole Trump entourage is twisted, twisted, twisted. If any other executive had been caught promoting such a video, the boss would fire her immediately -- whatever lame excuse she tried to come up with.

June 7, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Germany's Merkel tells Trump she has other things to do than walk into a C-19 hotspot. "Vengeance is mine" roareth the Donald, and pulls 9500 troops out of Germany. Will these troops remain overseas or be brought stateside to impress/oppress the peasantry in Washington D.C.?

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

My friend who lives in D.C. just sent me this:

One of the most moving inscriptions in this city of monuments, is on the pedestal of the stature of Tadeusz Kosciusko at the Northeast corner of Lafayette Square:

“Hope, for a season, bade the world farewell,
And Freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell.”

It’s on the South side of the pedestal, so cannot now be seen by the thousands assembled on BLM Plaza. The Square is off limits to We The People, so that a Coward can be protected in The White House, nearly 1000 feet away from us, behind steel fences.

I can just about hear Freedom screaming — but seasons change, and Hope endures.
So do we.

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Here's the info on Kosciusko if anyone is interested:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_Kościuszko

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

I bow (wow!) to Bulldog Bea. Had buried that photo bone but don't mind seeing it dug up again. It had its tasty parts.

Tim Egan thought so, too, I noticed, when the other day he causually reported (swallowed whole) the upside-down Bible meme in his Times Op-ed.


Had a report last night from a college friend, a former journalist, who lives in D.C. who attended yesterday's event. Asked her permission to pass some of her reporting and photos along but haven't heard back so will refrain.

Just one fact. She thought the crowds roughly forty percent black and sixty percent white.

And one picture insists I mention it, as it may be symbolic of what is happening with Millennials and Gen-Xers, whoever they exactly are. Call them our successors.

The sign says, "You've fucked with the last generation."

I remember feeling the same way about fifty years ago. Now, I'm wishing the sign-holder and his cohorts better luck.

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@AK: "The French had an idea for handling collaborators with Nazi German occupiers, and even though the mind reels at the image of Barr, McConnell, Graham, et al, shorn and forced to parade around in their underwear, it wouldn’t be a bad initial outcome."

And if I recall they buzzed cut female collaborators' hair and stripped them. In your mind reeling images of the three aforementioned could we try and imagine the Fat man at the center: Shorn of his hair, (remember what a certain porn star told us about Trump's thinking his hair was somehow connected to his power–-a real Samson affliction) stumbling along in his tighty whities, his blubber billowing in the wind, his fat little fingers still trying to tweet some scurrilous message to someone suddenly falls flat on his keister. The mint julep senator from the South tries to help him but to no avail; the Big Bad Barr pretends he doesn't see the fall while the shell bearing reptile just ignores the whole thing and continues to do what he has always done–-take care of himself. The town officials put the main man in a wheel barrow––it takes at least four to do the job––and as he is wheeled down "Black Lives Matter" street we hear crowds of onlookers cheer and hold up large flags that say "Finally the deed is done, our song has been sung, it's a new day Mo-Fos!

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Bobby Lee,

Even to a touchy, thin-skinned prima-donna President, certain things should lie beyond the boundaries of personal pique and tawdry retribution. National security is one. And troops supporting NATO members against the threats of enemy states (and Trump BFF’s) most certainly abets the aim of national security.

But to a deranged, narcissistic, destabilizing monster like the Orange Menace, nothing is more sacred than his self-image. Millions should, and will be sacrificed so that the fat little king can preen in front of one of his many White House mirrors wearing his XXL orange tutu and proclaim “Oh, what a good boy am I!” before performing a grande jeté (of sorts) back into his hidey hole, scarfing down some Super-Sized fries, and tweetie-birding about his wonderful manliness from under the bed.

This is a fucking psycho here.

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Happened to have a Sunday Sermon in the form of another LTTE ready to hand. This one an example of my favorite approach to education (when I am the educator). I lecture.


"A recent letter wondered, “is this the Home of the Free or the home of Nonessential Inconvenient People?’”

It’s a great question. Unfortunately, the writer blames “socialism” for answering it.

But racism is a much better choice. Behind the Floyd-inspired protests and riots is a long-standing pattern of courts treating blacks more harshly than whites for the same offense (prisonpolicy.org) and of police assaulting or killing black men with relative impunity (cbc.com). Clearly, our society finds dark skin inconvenient.


In Washington, D. C., Attorney General Barr ordered a gathering of a thousand people peacefully protesting the murder of George Floyd to be dispersed with tear gas and rubber bullets, so the president could act tough and brandish a Bible in front of a church. The protestors and their message were obviously inconvenient.


Our crony capitalist economy also determines who is truly essential or free. Though temporarily deemed “essential,” the poverty-level wage earned by the black and brown people who provide much of our food and healthcare necessarily restricts their freedom to bare survival.


The letter then asks why Congress is essential when many workers are not.


Slowing the spread of a virus that has killed 110,000 Americans is part of the answer, but while millions have been idled by Covid-19, the Republican Senate is toiling to confirm federal judges whose record promises they will put business interests ahead of consumers or workers (huffpost.com), for Republicans, an essential qualification.


In the first Covid-19 rescue package crony capitalists also sneakily cut more billions in taxes on corporations and mega-millionaires (nytimes.com). More apparently essential work.


In contrast, socialism places community concerns over private self-interest. Because of it, we have public schools and hospitals, Social Security and Medicare.


In Trump’s America it’s racism and crony capitalism, not socialism, that’s deciding who’s “essential” or “free.” "

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Pop Quiz question:
What's more effective:
Fire hoses on the street's of Alabama?
or
Copter prop wash on the streets of D.C.?

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterDan Lowery

According to my TI-83, roughly 2-3% of the GOP county chairs in Texas don't care about their own public displays of racism and anti-semitism. Now, imagine you're the governing authorities in Charlotte, NC. Do you want out of town Dotards inciting civic chaos? I've got a wood splitting maul that possesses more subtlety than these racist baboons. I'd say put the GOP convention down there in Palm Beach with their child rapist apologists like Krista Marx and her pals. Let like sort out like.

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625

MediasTouch video is priceless. Using parts of Ivanka's speech with news reporting ala Lincoln Project.

https://youtu.be/z4ebSsN19tg

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

This is a hoot (can’t embed link from my phone, sorry)

https://youtu.be/2VBevEYELQ0

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterRockyGirl

RockyGirl,

Great clip. My favorite line involves the question of where Cowardly Bunker Boy Donald sleeps on the bunk(er) bed. Oh, wait. He doesn’t need a ladder. He doesn’t sleep on the top bunk. He’s a bottom.

Hahahahaha.

Love to be in the room when someone explains that to the fat fascist. Those tightie-whities will brown right up.

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Anonymous,

Lady Ivanka Borgia-Trump owns not the tiniest platform from which to declaim her superiority and the excellence of her treasonous gangster of a daddy-kin.

Likewise, her own ridiculous, astoundingly unearned status and that of her inept, incompetent and self-serving hubby who bought his way into an Ivy League school despite middling grades, the typical owners of which are lucky to find their way into community colleges, alongside hard working blue collar kids whose parents weren’t resplendent with Ill gotten gains and besmirched with criminality, can in no way ameliorate her stunning hypocrisy and rich kid stupidity.

She is a Right Wing Dollar Store Lady Macbeth, without either the power, the guts, or the eventual moral compunction of Shakespeare’s original.

Every member of the Fatty Clan is a cloistered, clownish cutthroat. She has no right to be whining about her state. Take the kids and your scurrilous prick of a spouse and go skiing somewhere. Anywhere, from which you can tweet your “solidarity” with actual working women.

See, here’s the difference. Eleanor Roosevelt came from a highly privileged background. But she used her situation and her background to better understand and appreciate the state of those who did not have her great good luck. She didn’t spit on those or use those she was “sure” were her inferiors.

Like ALL THE TRUMPS.

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Another crack in the Pretender evangelical wall?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2020/06/07/dc-protests-sunday-george-floyd/

Thousands would have sounded better than hundreds, but....

June 7, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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