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.”

Help!

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

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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 -- Nov. 30, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Geoff Bennett & Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "President-elect Joe Biden on Monday will receive his first presidential daily briefing since winning the 2020 election after the Trump administration delayed approving the transition process. The report, which Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is also scheduled to receive, is a classified document outlining high-level intelligence and analysis on a range of national security issues. It's prepared by the director of national intelligence and includes information from the CIA and other elements of the intelligence community." MB: I wonder if Biden & Harris will get real PDBs or copies of the same coloring/picture books Trump receives. ~~~

A recently-released early PDB tailored for Donald Trump. By the Onion, via the Verge.

The Latest from the Mad Kaiser. Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump called on 'hapless' Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to 'use his emergency powers' to search for alleged 2020 election fraud in the state on Monday. 'Why won't Governor @BrianKempGA, the hapless Governor of Georgia, use his emergency powers, which can be easily done, to overrule his obstinate Secretary of State, and do a match of signatures on envelopes,' questioned Trump on Twitter, claiming, 'It will be a "goldmine" of fraud, and we will easily WIN the state.... Also, quickly check the number of envelopes versus the number of ballots. You may just find that there are many more ballots than there are envelopes. So simple, and so easy to do,' he continued. 'Georgia Republicans are angry, all Republicans are angry. Get it done!'... Business Insider ... reporter Grace Panetta soon pointed out to the president that Kemp 'does not have this power,' and, 'Signature matching already happened twice, first when the voter applied for the ballot and then the ballot was received.... It's impossible to do signature matching *again* because the ballots have already been separated from the envelopes with the voter's name and signature on them.'" ~~~

~~~ So Then. Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Gov. Brian Kemp's office responded Monday to ... Donald Trump's demands to help him overturn Georgia's election results with a reminder that state law 'prohibits the governor from interfering in the election.'... 'Georgia law prohibits the governor from interfering in elections. The Secretary of State, who is an elected constitutional officer, has oversight over elections that cannot be overridden by executive order,' said Kemp spokesman Cody Hall.... The governor has been largely silent for weeks over Trump's attacks, which have escalated after he became the first Republican to lose Georgia in a presidential vote in nearly 30 years.... Kemp has had little backup from other GOP officials."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "Dr. [Anthony] Fauci, during an appearance on the Sunday news program 'This Week,' said the best course for Thanksgiving travelers might be 'to quarantine yourself for a period of time.' Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said that travelers 'have to assume that you were exposed and you became infected and you really need to get tested in the next week.' She urged that travelers avoid anyone in their family over 65 or with underlying illnesses."

Maggie Fox & John Bonifield of CNN: "Advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have called an emergency meeting for Tuesday to vote on who they recommend should be the first to get a coronavirus vaccine once one is authorized. The CDC's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices wants to have advice out to the public ahead of any decision from the US Food and Drug Administration about emergency authorization of a vaccine, ACIP chair Dr. Jose Romero told CNN.... 'This is not something that is being rushed. We have already discussed the groups within the first tier. We are simply going over the data once again and having a vote primarily on the first tier group 1a -- healthcare providers and the people in the long term, congregate facilities.'"

Lauren Feiner of CNBC: "Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai will step down from his post on Jan. 20, the day President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated, he announced Monday. The announcement means that the FCC could reach a Democratic majority sooner than it would otherwise be able to. Pai's term was slated to expire in June 2021, though Biden will be able to choose a Democrat to chair the commission once in office.... Pai's decision to step down could have significant implications on net neutrality, an issue that helped define his term as chairman. In 2017, Pai voted with his fellow Republican commissioners to remove rules that prohibited internet providers from blocking or slowing traffic to particular sites and offering higher speed 'lanes' at higher prices. Many major internet providers have not yet taken advantage of that rule change, however.... Pai had recently said that the FCC could move forward with rule-making around ... Donald Trump's executive order targeting social media companies.... Pai's departure makes it much less likely that significant action on the executive order will take place anytime soon, given that the two Democratic commissioners opposed Pai's decision."

~~~~~~~~~~

Real Political News (+ Commentary on Nitwits)

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "President-elect Joe Biden sprained his right foot Saturday while playing with his dog, his transition team said Sunday after Biden was taken to an orthopedist 'out of an abundance of caution.' Biden, 78, slipped while playing with his dog Major, one of his two German shepherds, his office said. Late Sunday afternoon, Biden visited Delaware Orthopaedic Specialists in Newark, Del., about a half-hour from his home near Wilmington. There, initial X-rays showed 'no obvious fracture,' according to a statement from his physician, Kevin O'Connor.... A Biden spokesperson said the president-elect visited the doctor's office on Sunday to avoid disrupting the clinic's regularly scheduled appointments on Monday. After spending about two hours at the orthopedics office, Biden traveled to a nearby imaging facility to have a CT scan. A cameraperson traveling with the press pool observed him walking with a limp." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Annie Karni of the New York Times: “President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. twisted his ankle playing with one of his dogs over the holiday weekend, an injury that his doctor said on Sunday resulted in hairline fractures in his foot that would most likely require him to wear a walking boot for several weeks. Although initial X-rays showed no obvious fracture, a 'follow-up CT scan confirmed hairline (small) fractures of President-elect Biden's lateral and intermediate cuneiform bones, which are in the midfoot,' Dr. Kevin O'Connor, the director of executive medicine at GW Medical Faculty Associates, said in a statement distributed by Mr. Biden's office." MB: Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that teeny-weeny foot fractures really hurt when you move it or try to put weight on it.

Annie Linskey & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: President-elect Joe "Biden is expected to nominate Neera Tanden, the chief executive of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, as director of the influential Office of Management and Budget, according to people familiar with the matter.... Tanden, whose parents immigrated from India, would be the first woman of color to oversee the agency. In addition, Biden is set to appoint Princeton University labor economist Cecilia Rouse as chair of the three-member Council of Economic Advisers, with economists Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey serving as the other members. Rouse, who is African American, would be the first woman of color to chair the council, which will play a key role in advising the president on the economy...." Politico's story is here.

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Sunday announced an all-female White House communications staff, with Jennifer Psaki, a veteran of the Obama administration, in the most visible role as White House press secretary. 'Communicating directly and truthfully to the American people is one of the most important duties of a president,' Mr. Biden said in a statement, drawing an implicit contrast with the Trump administration's use of the White House briefing room to disseminate falsehoods and try to undermine the credibility of the news media. The transition team also announced that Kate Bedingfield, 39, who served as a deputy campaign manager for Mr. Biden, will serve as the White House communications director. Karine Jean Pierre, who previously served as the chief public affairs officer for MoveOn.org, will be the principal deputy press secretary. Pili Tobar, a former immigrant advocate with the group America's Voice, will serve as the deputy White House communications director. Symone Sanders, a senior adviser to Mr. Biden on the campaign, will serve as the senior adviser and chief spokeswoman for Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Ashley Etienne, a former senior adviser to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will serve as the communications director for Ms. Harris."

Biden's Unique Path to Victory. Harry Enten of CNN (Nov. 26): Joe "Biden has won in a way that was perhaps surprising to some. He was the first candidate to win without taking at least Florida or Ohio since 1960. Biden did considerably worse with Hispanics than Hillary Clinton in municipalities throughout the country. And Biden won the presidency even as President Donald Trump's base largely stuck with him. So how'd he do it? Biden's pathway to victory intensified the gains Clinton made in 2016. In doing so, he became the seventh Democrat in eight times to win the popular vote, which is the first time since 1828 that one party won the popular vote that often in eight straight elections." --s ~~~

~~~ The End of White Grievance Hegemony? Juan Cole: "Now that the judges have laughed Trump's challenges and conspiracy theories out of court, it is time to consider further why Biden won.... In short, 2016 may have been one of the the last times a candidate like Trump could run primarily on white grievance and win. Non-Hispanic whites will be a minority by 2045, by which time the strategy will be entirely useless.... [An estimated] 86 percent of Trump's voters were white.... Biden won 90 percent of the African-American vote.... Biden's electorate looked more like America, which benefited him [according to John Johnson]: '63% of his supporters were white and 37% were people of color.' Johnson points out that 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas.... Trump only got 27% of the Hispanic vote.... George W. Bush got 40% of the Hispanic vote in 2000." --s

Wisconsin. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "The recount of presidential ballots in Wisconsin's two largest counties finished Sunday, reconfirming that President-elect Joe Biden defeated President Trump in the key swing state by more than 20,000 votes. After Milwaukee County completed its tally Friday and Dane County concluded its count Sunday, there was little change in the final breakdown of the more than 800,000 ballots that had been cast in the two jurisdictions. As a result of the recount, Biden's lead over Trump in Wisconsin grew by 87 votes. Under Wisconsin law, Trump was required to foot the bill for the partial recount -- meaning his campaign paid $3 million only to see Biden's lead expand. The results of the Wisconsin recount cemented Trump's failure to alter the results of the November election in a series of states where he has falsely alleged there was widespread fraud and irregularities.... The Wisconsin Election Commission is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, at which time state law says the election results will be certified by the chairwoman of the six-member panel, who is a Democrat." An AP story is here.

Marie: I'm no fan of Fred Hiatt's but good on him for this: ~~~

~~~ Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post: "Let's say you're a Republican senator who ... [has] spent four years excusing and supporting a president who fawned over North Korea's odious dictator, encouraged China's ruling tyrant to build his concentration camps, took the word of Russia's strongman over U.S. intelligence agencies and celebrated the Saudi despot who orchestrated the dismemberment of a dissident journalist. And let's posit that, on top of all that, you've been a profile in cowardice as your president tried to nullify a democratic election here at home. Now the president-elect appoints a team of seasoned, moderate foreign policy experts who support democracy and American leadership in the world.... It shouldn't surprise us to see [Marco] Rubio [Fla.], along with Tom Cotton (Ark.), Josh Hawley (Mo.) and other Republican senators, disparaging the incoming Biden team.... But there is something particularly galling about this instant pivot to attack mode from senators who couldn't even bring themselves to acknowledge the results of the election.... Almost no Republicans on the national stage had the integrity or courage to offer backup for ... local officials ... [who] had the integrity and courage to resist Trump's pressure.... Instead..., Rubio is already suiting up for the politics of destruction...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Brianna Keilar of CNN on Little Marco:

The Last Days of the Kaiser

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "In his first television interview since the Nov. 3 election, President Trump suggested Sunday that he will never accept his loss to Democrat Joe Biden and continued to fling baseless accusations of election fraud. 'My mind will not change in six months,' Trump told host Maria Bartiromo by telephone.... 'There was tremendous cheating here.'... 'Joe Biden did not get 80 million votes,' Trump declared Sunday, providing no evidence for his assertion. He claimed that some foreign leaders have been calling and telling him that this was the most 'messed-up' election they have ever seen, although he did not name any of the leaders. The White House has not released the details of any such calls, and most U.S. allies have congratulated Biden on his win. Bartiromo did not dispute any of Trump's false claims." ~~~

~~~ Alexis Benveniste of CNN: "... Donald Trump on Sunday spoke with Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo -- his first TV interview since the election. The conversation was riddled with lies and conspiracy theories. Bartiromo opened the interview with a question about election fraud, telling Trump, 'The facts are on your side.' Trump responded, falsely saying, 'This election was a fraud; it was a rigged election.' The Fox anchor then reflected the president's anger, saying, 'This is disgusting and we cannot allow America's election to be corrupted.' The interview highlighted that Trump is 'unable or unwilling to accept reality,' CNN's Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter said on 'Reliable Sources' Sunday. Trump spewed misinformation throughout the conversation." MB: On-air, CNN -- which shares responsibility for the rise of Trump the Phony Politician -- can't get enough of calling out his lies. ~~~

~~~ Ken Meyer of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump gave a wild interview on Sunday where he complained that federal law enforcement isn't doing anything to validate his unsubstantiated 2020 election claims, in addition to suggesting that the FBI and the Department of Justice were 'involved' somehow with how things went.... After complaining about his old enemies in the intelligence community, Trump whined, '[I]t's inconceivable. You would think if you're in the FBI or Department of Justice, this is the biggest thing you could be looking at.... Where are they? I've not seen anything. I mean, they just keep moving along and they go on to the next president,' he said. 'All I can say is with all of the fraud that's taken place, no one has come to me and said the FBI has nabbed the people that are doing this scheme.'" At another point, Trump asserted the FBI was "looking at it." ~~~

~~~ Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. ~~~

~~~ Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: "... Bartiromo's questions were few and far between. Trump spoke for much of the [45-minute] interview.... The host nodded agreeably throughout the conversation, saying 'right' after the president relayed a claim about 'cheating' in Pennsylvania's elections, particularly in the Philadelphia area, claiming that 'you have to allow five points for cheating.'... At another point, Trump said, 'We won the election easily.' The president praised Bartiromo, whom he called 'brave' for covering claims about election fraud, claiming that the media does not want to cover the story.... While th president made baseless claims of fraud and made notable attacks on Republicans such as Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the interview made very little news, in line with Trump's past conversations with such opinion shows as 'Fox & Friends.' But Trump seems to have been a fan. As of Sunday afternoon, he has tweeted four clips from his interview with Bartiromo."

Andrew Solender of Forbes has a timeline of the seven times that Trump has falsely cried foul of election fraud against conservatives or his sad, pathetic self. --s

Trump's Hustler Buddy Relies on the High Birthrate of Suckers. Ben Smith of the New York Times: "The chief executive of Newsmax and part of President Trump's South Florida social circle, [Chris] Ruddy has capitalized on the anger of Mr. Trump's supporters at Fox News for delivering the unwelcome news ... that Mr. Trump had lost his re-election campaign. On Newsmax, however, the fight is still on, the imaginary election-altering Kraken is yet to be released, Mr. Trump is striving valiantly for four more years and the ratings are incredible. Newsmax's prime-time ratings, which averaged 58,000 before Election Day, soared to 1.1 million afterward for its top shows.... But Mr. Ruddy ... is not the sort of true-believing ideologue his viewers may imagine in the foxhole alongside them. He is, rather, perhaps the purest embodiment of another classic television type, the revenue-minded cynic for whom the substance of programming is just a path to money and power.... When Trumpism turned this month from an electoral strategy into a hallucinatory attempt to overturn the election, Mr. Ruddy saw opportunity: Newsmax, available on cable in most American households and streaming online, became the home of alternate reality."

Scott Pelley of CBS News' "60 Minutes" interviewed Christopher Krebs, the life-long Republican whom Trump fired for calling the 2020 election "the most secure in American history." Video & transcript here. ~~~

~~~ Mad Kaiser Still Mad. John Bowden of the Hill: "President Trump ripped CBS News's '60 Minutes' on Sunday after an interview with his former cybersecurity chief was broadcast on the program.... '.@60Minutes never asked us for a comment about their ridiculous, one sided story on election security, which is an international joke. Our 2020 Election, from poorly rated Dominion to a Country FLOODED with unaccounted for Mail-In ballots, was probably our least secure EVER!' the president claimed [in a tweet] Sunday evening."

Marie's Mea Culpa: Sadly, I allowed that leftist, elitist rag New York Times to mislead me the other day, and I misused Reality Chex to pass along an apparently Photoshopped image. Fortunately, contributor Forrest M. caught me out and sent along the real, original, undoctored photo, which I share with you now. Thanks, Forrest! ~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

** Elizabeth Cohen of CNN: "Pharmaceutical company Moderna intends to apply Monday to the US Food and Drug Administration for authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine. The company will ask the FDA to review an expanded data set showing the vaccine is 94.1% effective at preventing Covid-19 and 100% effective at preventing severe cases of the disease."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

AFP: "At least 110 people have been killed in an attack on a village in north-east Nigeria blamed on the Boko Haram jihadist group, according to the UN humanitarian coordinator in the country.... The attack took place in the village of Koshobe near the main city of Maiduguri, with assailants targeting farmers on rice fields. The Borno state governor, Babagana Umara Zulum, attended the burial on Sunday in the nearby village of Zabarmari of 43 bodies recovered on Saturday, saying the toll could rise after search operations resumed. The assailants tied up the agricultural workers and slit their throats, according to a pro-government anti-jihadist militia. The victims were among labourers from Sokoto state in north-west Nigeria, about 1,000km (600 miles) away, who had travelled to the north-east to find work, it said. Six others were wounded in the attack and eight remained missing as of Saturday."

Iran. Najhem Bozorgmehr & Mehul Srivstava of the Financial Times: "The hit squad behind last week's deadly attack on the man long thought to be the mastermind of Iran's alleged military nuclear programme left nothing to chance. As nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh's black Nissan sedan car approached a boulevard in the Damavand region, about 60km from the capital Tehran, an automatic machine gun, installed inside a blue pick-up truck parked under an electric transmitter, began firing. The pick-up truck, packed with explosives, was then detonated by remote control. Assailants then opened fire, according to Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, a nuclear scientist who survived an attempt on his life in 2010, and domestic media. Javad Mogouei, a documentary maker close to hardliners, said there were as many as 12 attackers, including those on motorbikes, in a Hyundai SUV as well as hidden snipers." [Firewalled] --s

Middle East. Tim O'Donnell of Yahoo!: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly flew to Saudi Arabia last week for a secret meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Saudi Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in the hopes of striking a deal that would normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. But he came home empty handed after Prince Mohammed backed out, The Wall Street Journal reports. His reasoning ... was President-elect Joe Biden's victory.... Prince Mohammed reportedly wants to build ties with Biden and was reluctant about following suit while Trump is still in office, although the chances of that happening reportedly aren't impossible." --s

Earth. "Capitalism is Awesome," Ctd. Jonathan Watts, et al. of the Guardian (Nov. 27): "Supermarkets and fast food outlets are selling chicken fed on imported soya linked to thousands of forest fires and at least 300 sq miles (800 sq km) of tree clearance in the Brazilian Cerrado, a joint cross-border investigation has revealed. Tesco, Lidl, Asda, McDonald's, Nando's and other high street retailers all source chicken fed on soya supplied by trading behemoth Cargill, the US's second largest private company. The combination of minimal protection for the Cerrado -- a globally important carbon sink and wildlife habitat -- with an opaque supply chain and confusing labelling systems, means that shoppers may be inadvertently contributing to its destruction." --s

Comments Off

Reader Comments (13)

Very revealing picture of the Orange Menace. Tiny table, tiny hands, tiny feet, but enormous, fully loaded diaper. No wonder reporters keep their distance.

November 29, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Can we agree to just lock Biden in his basement until Jan. 20th?
Maybe build him one of the plastic walls where people can hug without possibility of transmission so he can talk with whomever he needs to?
If he needs to move, can we get him a giant inflated bubble where he can't harm himself? Or just Rascal scooter him everywhere?

Gotta say I agree with the deplorable crowd and say Lock Him Up!

November 30, 2020 | Unregistered Commentersafari

I watched, or rather listened to, the 60 Minutes interview of Chris Krebs as I was making breakfast this morning.

"[I]t's hard once you take that oath to uphold and defend the constitution from threats foreign and domestic, it's hard to walk away from that."

He's definitely walking away from this administration* without any stink on him.

The other quote: "Paper ballots." KISS.

November 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterNiskyGuy

@safari: Yeah but, we can't let the dogs in.

November 30, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

DOLCHSTOSSLEGENDE––the stab in the back myth:

One hundred years ago, Jochen Bittner reminds us, amid the implosions of imperial Germany's powerful conservatives who led the country into war, and then refused to accept that they had lost should be another piece of history we need to remember: 1918 Germany has a warning for America. Bittner dredges up this bitter history to remind us how this myth fomented the rise of social fragmentation, blaming Jews and leftists as traitors which led to the reign of terror called Hitler.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/30/opinion/trump-conspiracy-germany-1918.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

"It took another war and decades of reappraisal for the Dolchstosslegende to be exposed as a disastrous fatal fallacy. If it has any worth today, it is in the lessons it can teach other nations. First among them: Beware of the beginnings."

November 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/30/upshot/republican-voters-election-doubts.htm

My comment:

Interesting from beginning to end, I thought. Much to mull over here.

Proximity does matter. People tend to trust what they know or think they do, like their local schools. Those others far away or schools considered as a large, anonymous system? Not so much.

The same with elections, it seems. Makes sense as an instance of what people trust.

But in her reaching for even-handedness the writer failed to make as least one major distinction between Democrats and Republicans.

She found that Democrats' opinions of elections are malleable, like Republicans' affected by circumstance, but there is a big difference between opinions whose origins can be traced at least tangentially to fact and those based solely on what one wishes were so.

If a Democrat is skeptical of the 2016 election's result, for instance, he or she just might have the documented voter suppression that occurred in Wisconsin and elsewhere in mind. That election' result was determined by only 80,000 of so votes in critical states.

If a Republican expresses the opinion that Trump was the 2020 victor. it's more likely completely delusional. It is the Republican Party that is given to conspiracy theories, after all. Over the last forty years it has become the Party of Let's Pretend.

That white people are superior.

That lower taxes create jobs.

That climate change isn't real.

That mask wearing is a plot...

That belief....is truth.

Pretty much today's Republican platform.

November 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@NiskyGuy: Yeah, paper ballots. Isn't it funny that the very ballots Trump has been claiming for months were illegitimate are mail-in ballots, ballots that are all paper ballots? It seems the ballots Trump dislikes are physical pieces of paper, paper that records votes that an international gang of hackers cannot manipulate with keystrokes.

November 30, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Ken: to your list about the Party of Let's Pretend: Accepting/advancing the plausible instead of the probable. Daniel Kahneman Thinking Fast and Slow has a bit about that plausible versus probable response mechanism.

November 30, 2020 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625

So I'm wondering what on earth is with Maria––not the one from "Sound of Music" but the one whose world encompasses Wall Street. Bartiromo's recent talky talk with the Big Cheese was stunning––has she gone completely off her chump? So I asked and got this long piece from Institutional Investor that reveals Maria's beginnings and endings and inbetweens but never really answers my question yet I found it a very interesting read––a 6 mil salary at Fox almost undid my socks.
https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1cq2nzw56k40k/Maria-Bartiromo-Was-a-Generational-Icon-for-Financial-Television-What-Happened

November 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

A long listen but worth the time, I think,

https://www.vox.com/2020/11/30/21726563/kim-stanley-robinson-the-ezra-klein-show-climate-change

November 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Where is Don's amazing investigative team that found all the uncredible dirt on Obama when you need them.

November 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

@RAS: They're still out in Hawaii lolling on the beach. Much better than listening to a raving lunatic in D.C.

November 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

There is no WAY that is baby donnie’s daily briefing. It’s incredibly UNFAIR TO TRUMP! What does Georgia, that state full of cheating deep state RINOs, have to do with Holy Mother Russia? Must be a lib’rul trick. Although he was thrilled to see South Ossetia. “People from the south love me!” he likes to say. And Kashmir? That’s a slimy “gotcha” too. Who ratted him out? Only a few people knew that when he gave Melanie a Kashmir coat after she caught him jerking off to pictures of Maria Bartiromo, it was as fake as his SAT test. Everyone’s out to get the great donaldo.

November 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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