The Ledes

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

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

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here.

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

Sorry, forgot this yesterday: ~~~

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

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The Ledes

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

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

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

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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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Friday
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The Commentariat -- March 19, 2021

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here: "In a major policy revision intended to encourage more schools to welcome children back to in-person instruction, federal health officials on Friday relaxed the six-foot distancing rule for elementary school students, saying they need only remain three feet apart in classrooms as long as everyone is wearing a mask. The three-foot rule also now applies to students in middle schools and high schools, as long as community transmission is not high, officials said. When transmission is high, however, these students must be at least six feet apart, unless they are taught in cohorts, or small groups that are kept separate from others."

William Wan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Health-care workers were the first group in the United States to be offered coronavirus vaccinations. But three months into the effort, many remain unconvinced, unreached and unprotected. The lingering obstacles to vaccinating health-care workers foreshadows the challenge the United States will face as it expands the pool of people eligible and attempts to get the vast majority of the U.S. population vaccinated. According to a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll, barely half of front-line health-care workers (52 percent) said they had received at least their first vaccine dose at the time they were surveyed. More than 1 in 3 said they were not confident vaccines were sufficiently tested for safety and effectiveness."

Mary Jalonick of the AP: "The House has dismissed a Republican attempt to remove California Rep. Eric Swalwell from the House intelligence panel over his contact more than six years ago with a suspected Chinese spy who targeted politicians in the United States. Democrats scuttled the effort from House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, 218-200, after he forced a vote. His resolution against Swalwell cited information, first reported by Axios, that the suspected spy, Christine Fang, came into contact with Swalwell's campaign as he was first running for Congress in 2012. She also participated in fundraising for his 2014 campaign and helped place an intern in his office, the report said."

Real Election Fraud. Think GOP. Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "When incumbent Democrat José Javier Rodríguez lost his Florida state senate seat to Republican challenger Ileana Garcia by just 32 votes in November, the losing party and investigators began asking questions about a suspicious third candidate. A man named Alexis 'Alex' Rodriguez -- who shared the incumbent's last name -- appeared on the ballot but never campaigned, never spoke publicly, and could not be reached by reporters after he took thousands of votes on Election Day. Now, the mysterious candidate and a former Republican state senator are facing felony charges for crimes stemming from a plot to 'confuse voters and siphon votes from the incumbent,' police said in an affidavit filed this week.... The case is a rare instance when a criminal scheme may have changed an election outcome, helping the GOP flip a state senate seat."

Steve Karnowski & Amy Forliti of the AP: "A judge said Friday he won't delay or move the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd's death over concerns that a $27 million settlement for Floyd's family could taint the jury pool, but he'll allow limited evidence from a 2019 arrest. Meanwhile, a 13th juror was seated Friday -- a woman who said she has only seen clips of the video of Floyd's arrest and needs to learn more about what happened beforehand. The jury will include 12 jurors and two alternates."

~~~~~~~~~~

Quint Forgey of Politico: "President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered that the American flag be flown at half-staff at the White House and on all U.S. government grounds as a 'mark of respect' for the victims of the [Atlanta] attacks. The White House also announced that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris would postpone a political event on their trip to Georgia on Friday evening -- part of their tour to promote the new $1.9 trillion Covid relief and stimulus package -- and would instead meet with Asian American leaders in Atlanta and visit the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.... A Georgia sheriff's office captain was replaced on Thursday as a spokesman for the investigation into the killings at three separate Atlanta-area spas, amid criticism over his perceived callousness in addressing the public." ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Lemire & Bill Barrow of the AP: "During his visit to Atlanta on Friday, President Joe Biden will meet with former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who has been widely credited with helping flip the former Republican stronghold blue.... The meeting will come as Republicans in the Georgia state General Assembly push several proposals to make it harder to vote in the state.... Biden's visit to Atlanta was originally meant to tout that accomplishment but it has been recast after spa shootings in the area this week left eight dead and fueled fear of a rise in violence against Asian Americans."

Patrick Reevell of ABC News: "Russian President Vladimir Putin has reacted to President Joe Biden calling him a 'killer' by challenging Biden to take part in a conversation with him broadcast live online."

Lara Jakes of the New York Times: "Even before the Biden administration's first face-to-face meeting with senior Chinese diplomats on Thursday, American officials predicted the discussions would not go well. They were right: The traditional few minutes of opening greetings and remarks dissolved into more than an hour of very public verbal jousting, confirming the expected confrontational tone between the geopolitical rivals. U.S. officials said the two days of talks would continue, but immediately accused the Chinese delegation of violating the format for the sensitive discussions that had sought to find some common ground amid the many conflict points between them. Yang Jiechi, China's top diplomat, accused the United States of taking a 'condescending' approach to the talks and said the American delegation had no right to accuse Beijing of human rights abuses or give lectures on the merits of democracy." CNN's story is here. MB: Sounds as if Yang thinks he is talking to the former guy's administration.

FBI Washington, D.C.: "The FBI's Washington Field Office has released new information and videos of suspects in the most egregious assaults on federal officers during the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and is seeking the public's help to identify them." The page contains the newly-released videos.

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "About 72,000 people will have their federal loans fully canceled after Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Thursday scrapped a plan to give partial debt relief to students defrauded by their colleges, ending a controversial policy instituted by his predecessor Betsy DeVos. The move -- Cardona's first major higher education announcement since being confirmed -- amounts to roughly $1 billion in debt relief. But it only addresses a subset of the nearly 200,000 people who have filed claims in the last six years under a statute known as 'borrower defense to repayment.'"

Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "Xavier Becerra narrowly won confirmation Thursday to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency pivotal to President Biden's urgent goal of defeating the coronavirus pandemic and expanding access to health care. Becerra, a congressman from Los Angeles for two dozen years and then California attorney general, squeaked by on a vote of 50 to 49, the closest margin for any of the Biden Cabinet members the Senate has confirmed so far. He becomes the first Latino secretary of HHS, the largest federal department in terms of spending." The Hill's story is here.

Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "The Senate confirmed William J. Burns as the next director of the CIA on Thursday, placing one of the country's most experienced career diplomats in charge of the spy agency. The chamber confirmed Burns by unanimous consent, an indication of broad bipartisan support. Burns, who retired from the Foreign Service in 2014 after a three-decade career, will take over at the agency at a moment of high tension between the United States and Russia, where he once served as the U.S. ambassador."

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The Democratic-led House voted on Thursday to create a path to citizenship for an estimated four million undocumented immigrants, reopening a politically charged debate over the nation's broken immigration system just as President Biden confronts a growing surge of migrants at the border. In a near party-line vote of 228 to 197, the House first moved to set up a permanent legal pathway for more than 2.5 million undocumented immigrants, including those brought to the United States as children, known as Dreamers, and others granted Temporary Protected Status for humanitarian reasons. Just nine Republicans voted yes. Hours later, lawmakers approved a second measure with more bipartisan backing that would eventually grant legal status to close to a million farmworkers and their families while updating a key agricultural visa program. This time, 30 Republicans, many representing agriculture-heavy districts, joined nearly every Democrat to vote in favor." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, Republicans don't care about granting citizenship to the immigrants who will do the most to help the American economy & otherwise contribute to society. DREAMers, on the whole, are far-better-educated than farm workers. Thus, DREAMers are much more likely to get high-paying jobs and contribute much more to the U.S. economy. How you gonna keep 'em down on the farm? -- Make sure farm labor is all they can do.

Kevin McCarthy Thinks You're a Stupid as He Is. Annie Grayer & Caroline Kelly of CNN: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tried to rewrite history on Thursday by claiming that he was not involved in former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the election in a heated exchange during a news briefing. When asked by CNN's Manu Raju why it was acceptable for him to support Trump's efforts to overturn the presidential election in Congress but to criticize Democrats for doing the same in a contested Iowa US House race, McCarthy repeatedly rejected the notion that he was trying to overturn the election at all. 'You're saying something that is not true,' [McCarthy told Raju].... Trump tried to pressure Congress to overturn the election and McCarthy raised no concerns about it. He also backed a Texas lawsuit to invalidate millions of votes, and ultimately voted in favor of overturning the election results of two states during votes that took place after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.... McCarthy tried to make the case that he was objecting to only two states, Arizona and Pennsylvania, which he argued would ultimately not have changed the outcome of the election."

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: There's an idea floating around "that [Mitch] McConnell doesn't want a simple-majority Senate because many things Republicans want to do can't get 50 GOP votes anyway, because they&'re deeply unpopular. Meanwhile, important GOP priorities that can get 50 GOP votes, such as tax cuts, can be passed via the simple-majority reconciliation process: This is how the 2017 tax cut passed. As Benjy Sarlin put it in a Twitter thread, there aren't 'many GOP priorities that could get 50 votes.' And Sarlin added a nuance: If the filibuster were done away with, and Republicans did take the majority, there would be tremendous pressure from the conservative grass roots to pass unpopular items, something McConnell might prefer to avoid."Sargent specifies a few other reasons McConnell's threat -- that Republicans would wreak havoc on the country if the filibuster were eliminated -- are hollow. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Somebody is right here. If McConnell had wanted to eliminate the filibuster, he would have done so already. And if, in the future, he becomes majority leader, and he wants to eliminate the filibuster, he will do so; the fact that he had railed against majority rule wouldn't make a whit of difference to him.

Texas Rep Touts Lynchings at Hearing on Racism. Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "Two days after an Atlanta-area shooting left eight dead, including six Asian women, members of a House judiciary subcommittee met to discuss the rise in racist rhetoric and attacks aimed at Asian Americans during the pandemic. But GOP Rep. Chip Roy (Tex.) decided to focus on ... the right of Republicans to criticize China.... The San Antonio-area congressman also seemed to celebrate lynchings..., in urging justice for wrongdoers: 'There's old sayings in Texas about "find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree."' Roy's remarks sparked an immediate and emotional outcry -- including a tearful response from Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) -- and set the tone for Thursday's tense and often divisive three-hour hearing, as members battled along partisan lines over the extent of the threats facing Asian Americans and whether Republicans, including ... Donald Trump, were partly to blame.... Many Democrats say a steady rise in attacks focused on Asian Americans during the pandemic has been due in part to divisive rhetoric from Republicans, including Trump's descriptions of the coronavirus as the 'China virus' and 'kung flu.' In a Fox News interview on the same night of the Atlanta shootings, the former president complained that the 'China virus' had tanked the U.S. economy."

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (RAnon-Ga.) claimed she had no idea she was spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories because she didn't know the Rothschild banking family was Jewish. MB: Maybe Margie should take this opportunity to acknowledge that she's pretty ignorant in general, and that her entire conspiracy theory -- that the California wildfires were purposely started by a space laser (funded by bankers of, uh, unknown ethnicity) -- is stupid.

Putin's Republican Tools. Steve Benen of MSNBC: "The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) this week released a declassified intelligence community assessment on foreign threats to our 2020 elections, and the top-line takeaway was important: Russia once again targeted our political system for the express purposes of giving Donald Trump power.... This week's ODNI report also made clear that many leading Trump administration officials deliberately misled the public about foreign threats, especially related to alleged Chinese election interference.... It's obviously not great that Donald Trump's personal lawyer [Rudy Giuliani] partnered with a Russian agent [Andriy Derkach], directed by [Vladimir] Putin.... But ... Derkach claimed he fed information to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who was searching for anti-Biden dirt ahead of last fall's elections.... A month earlier, at a House Intelligence Committee meeting, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) pressed Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) ... on whether the Republican had received anti-Biden information from Derkach. According to a transcript from the closed-door discussion, Nunes didn't want to answer.... Maloney spoke [Wednesday] to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace and said, '[T]he fact is that [Russian operatives] were so comfortable using people like Devin Nunes that Andriy Derkach ... sent information to Devin Nunes at the Intelligence Committee. We literally had the package receipt.'"

Ewan Palmer of Newsweek: "QAnon followers are once again pulling in all directions as they struggle to explain why Donald Trump would urge people to get COVID-19 vaccinations, which are highly-detested among Q-conspiracists.... With Trump contradicting QAnon theories that the vaccine is dangerous and the coronavirus is a hoax, many of its supporters came up with ways to cope with the latest cognitive dissonance, including suggesting it was not actually Trump speaking to Fox."

Annals of "Teen Journalism," Ctd. Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "Alexi McCammond, who made her name as a politics reporter at the Washington news site Axios, had planned to start as the editor in chief of Teen Vogue next Wednesday. Now, after Teen Vogue staff members publicly condemned racist and homophobic tweets Ms. McCammond had posted a decade ago, she has resigned from the job." A Mediaite story is here. MB: I'm more open-minded about stupid teenaged tricks. While I had the advantage of an upbringing that would have rendered me highly unlikely to write racist & homophobic tweets, I get that many young people did not have my good fortune. These young people can evolve. I have no idea if McCammond -- who is Black -- is a racist & homophobe today, but if she isn't, I'd ignore her stupid teenaged "opinions."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Molly Nagle & Arielle Mitropoulos of ABC News: "President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that on Friday his administration will deliver on his promise to get 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine into the arms of Americans in his first 100 days in office. 'Fifty-eight days into our administration, we will have met my goal of administering 100 million shots to our fellow Americans. That's weeks ahead of schedule,' Biden said, speaking Thursday afternoon at the White House." MB: Mighty remarkable. My thanks to every individual who made that possible, including the National Guard who took time out of their personal lives to manage distribution & shoot us in the arms.

Natalie Kitroeff, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States plans to send millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and Canada, the White House said Thursday, a notable step into vaccine diplomacy just as the Biden administration is quietly pressing Mexico to curb the stream of migrants coming to the border.... Tens of millions of doses of the vaccine have been sitting in American manufacturing sites. While their use has already been approved in dozens of countries, including Mexico and Canada, the vaccine has not yet been authorized by American regulators. [Press Secretary Jen] Psaki said the shipments to Mexico and Canada would essentially be a loan, with the United States receiving doses of AstraZeneca, or other vaccines, in the future. The announcement of the vaccine distribution came at a critical time in negotiations with Mexico. President Biden has moved quickly to dismantle some of former President Trump's signature immigration policies, halting construction of a border wall, stopping the swift expulsion of children at the border and proposing a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the United States."

Tony Fauci Has Had Enough of Rand Paul. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "From the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has positioned himself as the Senate's foremost skeptic of coronavirus expert Anthony S. Fauci. The two have tussled repeatedly. Paul brought it again Thursday, and Fauci again made clear he has little patience for Paul's nonexpert theories about the outbreak and Paul's reading of studies about it. At a Senate hearing, Paul pressed Fauci on health experts' continued recommendation of masks even for people who have contracted the virus or who have been vaccinated. Paul repeatedly suggested wearing masks in those cases was 'theater' -- pointing specifically to Fauci wearing masks even though he has been vaccinated." Fauci tried to explain to Paul why he (Paul) was misreading a study on the subject. MB: At one point, Fauci said to Paul, "I totally disagree with you, Senator." The Hill's story is here.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (13)

Finally! Monday is the beginning of Infrastructure Week
here in West Michigan. For the last four years about a
ten mile section of Interstate 196 became so rough as to
be a real wheel buster. Thank you Mayor Pete!
Of course the local R's will complain that the tourists
won't like detours. So let them go to Missouri or Alabama.

March 19, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Forrest: you're a lucky man! Here in south central PA, we are so accustomed to our wheels landing in holes, our cars that magically warn of line breeches close to our house have sighed and said oooo-kay-- we know you always avoid the rough spots by dipping over the line, so no more warnings...

I marvel at the sheer stupidity of Rand (Repug Dr.????) Paul, Marjorie the (really dumb) Menace, Devin (Cow and bushes) Nunes, Matt (Please notice me) Gaetz, Kevin (I'll say anything, then reverse it) McCarthy, Chip Roy and Louie (Cantelopes) Gohmert, among many. If they would just keep their mouths shut, most of us would not know their names. I never heard of Chip Roy until he decided that TX can hang whomever it pleases. Now I know who he is, a round-headed goblin with a gift for idiocy. Also, as I was writing, I realized the list of loons was getting longer and longer. Actually too many to count.

March 19, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

It has been said that when horrific acts of shootings occur we need to concentrate on the victims, not the shooter. But–-we need to understand the motivations of these murderers. Robert Long, a seriously sick person who harbored deep shame sexually instilled by his religious teachings–-"I kept falling out of God's grace"––-was entangled in a never ending frustration. From this NYT's piece below I gather he was involved in some kind of sex at these Spas–-something the press has not commented on. Long was killing those whom he saw as fulfilling those desires that he wanted destroyed in himself.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/us/robert-aaron-long-atlanta-spa-shooting.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Steve Benen's Russian expose' ––Rachel covered this last night–-makes my blood boil! We thought we knew much of what Fatty and his fiefdom done wrought but we keep learning more and more about the depth of the destruction. And wouldn't it be loverly if we could say––new president–-new administration–-competent people at agencies–-new A.G.--etc,. we can breathe again---BUT NO–-we are left with the old guard–-the racist, bigoted, Republicans and a few Q's thrown in for good measure who are determined to throw the monkey wrenches into the works of progress. Ishiguru's words ring true for me:

" In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Ishiguru said, “'I woke up recently to the realization I’d been living for some years in a bubble.'... 'I realized that my world — a civilized, stimulating place filled with ironic, liberal-minded people — was in fact much smaller than I’d ever imagined.' The raucous discontent that Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump were laying bare had forced him to acknowledge a disturbing reality. 'The unstoppable advance of liberal-humanist values I’d taken for granted since childhood,' he said, 'may have been an illusion.'”

March 19, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Yeah PD, it does seem like "'The unstoppable advance of liberal-humanist values I’d taken for granted since childhood,' he said, 'may have been an illusion.'” As the a member of the last of the baby boomers, I can't help but think about the stewardship of "liberal-humanist values" by my older brother (and his fucking friends) has been dismal. Too many have a zero-sum world burned into their reptile brain and it is 'heads I win, tails you lose' forever. However, in a world with Rankin, MLK, Robert Service, Woolf, Frankl, and Another Starry Night more is always possible. That is why I like 'The Squad': few things of value are attained without agitation. The thing I learn from these spirited younger people is not to get comfortable in old age, particularly at the cost of others.

March 19, 2021 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625

@RAS: Just finished listening to David Cross–-the link you put on yesterday––he nails it, doesn't he? Thanks for that.

@ citizen: "The thing I learn from these spirited younger people is not to get comfortable in old age, particularly at the cost of others." You betcha!!!!!

March 19, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Forrest - detour them up to Holland in time for the tulips. They still do that, no?

March 19, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

@Patrick: Tulip Time has been cancelled for 2021.
Holland is about 150% Republican so they no doubt
distrust vaccines.

March 19, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

@Forrest

It's a longer drive but....

https://tulipfestival.org

Reminds me of the bumper sticker I saw on an old pickup when I first moved to the valley 35 years ago that said, "Nuke the tulips."

Didn't understand it then. Came to understand it very well later when Seattle moved here for a month.

March 19, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

See, here's one of the problems with stupid folk who can't read. This recent Atlanta shooter was an "active member" of his SBC church, yet didn't know or properly interpret his Matthew 5:29, "... if thine eye offend the pluck it out ..."

Instead in the NYT article today its says:

"... The police said that Mr. Long, 21, told them that he has a sexual addiction, and that the shootings were an attempt to eliminate temptation. Mr. Long has been charged with eight counts of murder in the attacks on three massage businesses."

If he knew his hardcore literal fundy stuff, he would have bought (boughten, as they say there) a kitchen knife and done a self-Bobbitt, and saved himsxelf a prison term and the added cost of a shootin arn.

Learning ... the key to a better life!

I apologize for the humor, eight dead is not funny.

March 19, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

@Patrick: I don't think you have to be very smart or very Bible-larn'ed to figure out that "I shall lead me not into temptation by killing every person who tempts me" is not a rational solution to avoiding sin.

March 19, 2021 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

I"m dead certain tha Biden stumbling on AF-1 ramp will be the headline on many a newspaper and lead subject on many a program tonight and tomorrow.

March 19, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

There are situations in which murders, or less homicidal attacks, occur in a rage, a violent explosion of passion. But killing several people then driving for half an hour or more to kill more women at a second location doesn’t smack of passion. It’s a classic example of planned, premeditated murder. This wasn’t just “a bad day” as the (white) cops would have us believe. There’s no Twinkie defense here. “Oh, this nice white boy had a Zagnut Bar and offed some Asian bitches by accident”, which I’m sure the confederate press will claim.

No. You walk in on your spouse and find them boinking someone and you croak them both? Okay, it’s murder, but there’s a chance you could argue crime of passion. But you kill someone then get in your car, drive somewhere else and shoot more people?

That ain’t passion. That’s murder, first degree.

Just imagine how the winger “press” would play this if a Korean or black guy had murdered a bunch of white women? They’d be demanding he get five days in the electric chair.

“It’s okay if you’re white” will never go away.

March 19, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/03/19/ncaa-womens-basketball-unequal/. My dad prefers women's basketball; this article says what we need to know about tax-exemption against women's sports. NCAA sports is the Southern Baptists of privatize the gains and socialize the costs. Tax 'em.

March 19, 2021 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625
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