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Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

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.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Friday
Jan122024

The Conversation -- January 12, 2024

Catie Edmondson & Kayla Guo of the New York Times: "Speaker Mike Johnson said on Friday that he stood by the spending deal he negotiated with Democrats to avert a government shutdown, spurning demands from ultraconservatives who have pressured him to jettison the agreement. The announcement, after days of public silence about what he would do, all but guaranteed that Mr. Johnson will have to work with Democrats in the coming days to pass a short-term bill to keep the government funded past a pair of deadlines on Jan. 19 and Feb. 2, going back on his promise to never bring up another temporary spending measure." Related NYT & Politico stories linked below.

Reversal of Rhetoric. Kyle Cheney & Betsy Swan of Politico: "In the months after the 2020 election, Donald Trump leaned on his campaign to launch ad blitzes and legal challenges to the results, insisting to his supporters that the election was 'a long way from over.' He even told state and federal courts he was suing in his capacity as a political candidate. Now, in a bid to derail crimina charges, he's saying the opposite. At least six times in the past two weeks, Trump has declared that the election was 'long over' by the time he began pushing state officials and then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn his defeat. It's a new piece of rhetoric that's meant to bolster Trump's assertion of 'presidential immunity' from his criminal charges for interfering with the transfer of power. He wasn't a candidate anymore, Trump's new theory goes, so he must have been doing his job as president to ensure elections are fair." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Just yesterday, we were pointing out that Trump's legal arguments are components of a shell game in which he reveals one that suits the circumstance, whether or not that argument contradicts one that he's used before and is hidden under one of the other nutshells, ripe to be pulled out again if a different circumstance fits the old argument. Here's yet another instance of the same ole game.

Ha Ha. Brandi Buchman of Law & Crime: "A judge in New York has ordered Donald Trump to fork over nearly $400,000 in legal fees underpinning a now-dismissed lawsuit he brought against the newspaper and a trio of its reporters when they published a bombshell series of reports on his history of tax schemes and 'riches' reaped from his father. The order was first reported by Times reporter Susanne Craig, one of the report's authors. Per the order, fees are also due to reporters David Barstow and Russ Buettner. The claim from Trump was dismissed by a New York Supreme Court judge last May, who found that reporters were 'entitled to engage in legal and ordinary news-gathering activities without fear or tort liability -- as their actions are at the very core of protected first amendment activity.'... In fact, the in-depth, deeply-sourced report won a Pulitzer Prize and exposed a massive empire 'riddled with tax dodges,' award judges said at the time."

David French of the New York Times: }Eight years of bitter experience have taught us that supporting Trump degrades the character of his core supporters.... The most enduring legacy of a second Trump term could well be the conviction on the part of millions of Americans that Trumpism isn't just a temporary political expediency, but the model for Republican political success and -- still worse -- the way that God wants Christian believers to practice politics.... Polling data again and again backs up the reality that the right is abandoning decency.... An increasing percentage [of Republicans] are now tempted to embrace political violence.... The Economist reported on the astonishing number of Christian Republicans who believe Donald Trump is God's chosen man to save America.... In the upside-down world of MAGA morality, vice is virtue and virtue is vice.... Trump's core supporters ... [are] often deliberately rude, transgressive or otherwise unpleasant, just to demonstrate how little they care about conventional moral norms." Thanks to laura h. for the link.

Diane Falzone of Mediaite: "Roger Stone has contested Mediaite's reporting this week regarding comments he made on tape floating the assassination of two members of Congress [Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) & Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.)].... He wrote that Mediaite 'has produced NO audio of me threatening 2 Dem Congressmen. Where is it? Post it !' Mediaite is now publishing an excerpt of the audio, which was recorded ... weeks before the 2020 election. It has been lightly edited in order to protect our source, who requested anonymity out of fear of repercussions from Stone, whom they believe to be dangerous."

Oregon. Marshall Cohen of CNN: "The Oregon Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear a bid to remove ... Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot based on the 14th Amendment's 'insurrectionist ban,' saying it's waiting for the US Supreme Court to rule on the issue."

~~~~~~~~~~

** Eric Schmitt & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "The United States and five of its allies on Thursday carried out military strikes against more than a dozen targets in Yemen controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, in an expansion of the war in the Middle East that the Biden administration had sought to avoid for the past three months. The American-led air and naval strikes came in response to more than two dozen Houthi drone and missile attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea since November, and after warnings to the Houthis in the past week from the Biden administration and several international allies of serious consequences if the salvos did not stop. On Thursday night, President Biden called the strikes a 'clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world]s most critical commercial routes.'} The AP's report is here. CNN's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday are here. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's President Biden's initial statement, via the White House.

Michael Birnbaum, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Defense Department has not properly kept tabs on more than $1 billion worth of shoulder-fired missiles, night-vision goggles, one-way attack drones and other sensitive equipment that the United States has provided to Ukraine in its fight against Russia, the Pentagon's inspector general said in a report released Thursday.... The report, published with some sensitive information redacted, suggested that U.S. officials had struggled to meet requirements for closer accountability and tracking for much of the sensitive military items that have been provided to Ukraine. The tracking, known as enhanced end-use monitoring, or EEUM, is flagged for equipment and weapons that contain especially sensitive technology or are easy to smuggle or steal." The Stars & Stripes report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Losing millions of dollars of military equipment has long been a feature of Pentagon "management." But with today's computerized tracking systems, there is much less excuse for it. If Fedex can email me almost immediately after it has delivered a package to my front porch, surely the U.S. military has the capability of recording delivery of costly, "sensitive military items" to another nation. I expect the failure here is part of the same hubristic culture that led Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a former tippity-top four-star Army general, to decide it was okay not to inform the POTUS that he was having a surgical procedure that would require him to go under general anesthesia. Update: See Patrick's commentary in today's thread.

We have publicly and clearly and unequivocally reached an agreement on the top-line spending number. There is nothing more to discuss. To the extent that House Republicans back away from an agreement that was just announced a few days ago, it will make clear that House Republicans are determined to shut down the government, crash the economy and hurt the American people. -- House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) ~~~

~~~ Catie Edmondson & Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Speaker Mike Johnson came under mounting pressure on Thursday from House G.O.P. hard-liners to renege on the spending deal he struck with Democrats over the weekend for avoiding a government shutdown, as ultraconservatives demanded he put forward a new plan with deeper cuts. After meeting privately in his office in the Capitol with Republicans irate about the spending agreement, Mr. Johnson said he was discussing their demand to walk away from the bipartisan agreement but had 'made no commitments' to do so. But Republicans ... threatened to wreak havoc in the House if he did not advance a different one." A Politico report is here.

Michael Sisak & Jennifer Peltz of the AP: "Barred from giving a formal closing argument, Donald Trump wrested an opportunity to speak in court at the conclusion of his New York civil fraud trial Thursday, unleashing a barrage of attacks in a six-minute diatribe before being cut off by the judge. In an extraordinary move for any defendant, Trump not only sought to make his own summation but then brushed past a question from the judge about whether he would follow rules requiring him to keep his remarks focused on matters related to the trial. 'I am an innocent man,' Trump protested. 'I'm being persecuted by someone running for office, and I think you have to go outside the bounds.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's civil fraud trial concluded on Thursday much as it unfolded over the past three months: in chaos, with the former president insulting the judge to his face, lashing out at the New York attorney general who brought the case and declaring himself 'an innocent man.'" For details of the proceedings, see yesterday's Conversation OR ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times liveblogged developments yesterday. CNN's live updates are here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Here are a few details from the New York Times liveblog:

Kate Christobek: "Addressing cameras outside the courtroom [during a break in proceedings], Trump says that [New York AG] Letitia James is an attorney general 'who hates Donald Trump' and who sued him only for publicity. He continues that she should be 'criminally liable' for pursuing this case."

Jonah Bromwich: "Trump, speaking into the microphone, says the case goes outside the law and the facts, and that the annual financial statements were perfect. 'There wasn't one witness against us,' Trump says, calling the case a 'political witch hunt.'... 'I'm an innocent man,' he says. 'I've been persecuted by someone running for office,' apparently referring to the attorney general.... 'This is a fraud on me,' he says of the case. Engoron is staring stonily at him.... [Trump] is attacking Letitia James, saying she 'hates Trump and uses Trump to get elected.' He says that James 'found nothing.'... And Trump is now attacking the judge to his face, saying 'You can't listen for more than one minute.' Engoron asks Kise to 'control your client.' Trump says 'I did nothing wrong,' and says the attorney general 'should pay me' for what he's gone through.... Engoron cuts Trump off. The former president stands slowly and prepares to leave the room."

[Marie: I am struck again at how monumentally stupid Trump is. The fact that millions of Americans think he a demigod is sad evidence of how many Americans are even stupider than he. ~~~

~~~ Update. Marie: To make Trump's inappropriate, irrelevant rant even more ridiculous, RAS found evidence (linked at the end of yesterday's Comments) that Trump had been planning and rehearsing this pathetic speech for days and week. IOW, this is the best he could do.)]

Nate Schweber: "During a short and rambling news conference at 40 Wall Street, Trump repeatedly attacked both Letitia James and Joe Biden. 'She's got serious Trump Derangement Syndrome,' he said of James. Twice, Trump said that Biden could not 'string two sentences together.'"

~~~ Another Trump-Inspired Threat. Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "Nassau County authorities on Thursday responded to a bomb threat at the house of the judge presiding over the civil fraud trial of Donald J. Trump. A spokesman for the Nassau County Police Department confirmed that there was an investigation at the house of the judge, Arthur F. Engoron, who in several hours is expected to hear closing arguments in Mr. Trump's case. Two people with knowledge of the matter said that the threat involved a bomb and that the bomb squad came to the house." (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link.

Danny Hakim & Richard Fausset of the New York Times: Fani "Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., was accused this week of being romantically involved with the lead prosecutor she hired for the Trump case, a turn of events that has invigorated Republicans and raised a flurry of questions about her conduct and judgment. The prosecutor, Nathan Wade, has reaped more than $650,000 in legal fees. While many legal experts doubt that the accusations -- if true -- will derail the case, they could present significant problems for Ms. Willis and create distractions around the case. The allegations have already created a firestorm on the political right, with [Donald] Trump and his allies accusing her of violating a raft of county and state laws. They have even given pause to some Democrats.... The allegations, which were lodged without supporting documents or named witnesses, surfaced in a court filing on Monday from a lawyer for Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign staff member who faces charges in the case along with Mr. Trump and 13 others.... Amid the tumult, Ms. Willis's office has not denied the allegations and has made little comment beyond saying that it will respond in a court filing." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This isn't the first time we've heard that Willis lacks the discretion of say, Jack Smith. (But then so do we all.) Last year, Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney "effectively barred ... [her] from investigating Republican state Sen. Burt Jones -- one of 16 'fake electors' ... -- saying she was disqualified by hosting a campaign fundraiser for Jones' political opponent." And some have criticized her for giving too many interviews in which she says too much about the Big Case. So -- if true or partially true -- it is what it is.

Johnny Diaz of the New York Times: "A Maryland elections board official resigned this week after he was arrested on federal charges related to his participation in the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the authorities said. The official, Carlos Ayala, 52, of Salisbury, Md., climbed police barricades during the riot and jabbed a flag he was carrying at an officer, federal prosecutors said. He was charged with civil disorder, a felony, in a criminal complaint filed in the District of Columbia. Mr. Ayala is also charged with related misdemeanor offenses, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said in a statement on Tuesday. The F.BI. in Maryland arrested Mr. Ayala on Tuesday, and he made his initial appearance in court that day. He was released on pretrial services supervision."

Presidential Race 2024. Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "Strictly speaking, [Donald Trump] didn't call for a[n economic] crash, he predicted one, positing that the economy is running on 'fumes' -- and that he hopes the inevitable crash will happen this year, 'because I don't want to be Herbert Hoover.'... Trump start predicting economic disaster under President Biden ... before the 2020 election.... Here we have a guy who spent much of his time in office bragging about a rising stock market suddenly declaring that stock gains are bad when someone else is in power, while insisting that he deserves credit for good things (or are they bad things?) that happen when he isn't even running the country.... I do understand why millions of people are drawn to Trump's dictatorial ambitions, his encouragement of violence, his declarations that immigrants are 'poisoning the blood of our country.' The sad truth is that there have always been many Americans who fundamentally don't believe in America's democratic ideals. But I find it puzzling that Trump doesn't pay more of a political price for his boasting, whining and transparently self-serving lies." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Krugman concludes, Trump's "supporters either don't see that or don't care, which seems to me to be a bigger departure from traditional values than all the wokeness in the world." What has been evident for a couple of decades is that for Republicans, "traditional values" don't mean ideal "Leave It to Beaver" families as much as they do straight, white, male, nativist Christian hegemony. Republicans have dressed up their values in gauzy nostalgic fantasies, but the truth is largely sinister.

Perry Stein & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to nine tax charges in a federal courthouse [in Los Angeles] Thursday and was told he should expect to go on trial in June.... Biden already pleaded not guilty in October to a separate three-count federal indictment in Delaware that alleges he made false statements in 2018 when he completed paperwork to purchase a pistol." An NBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Justin Gomez of ABC News: "First lady Jill Biden is defending her family amid accusations from Republicans about President Joe Biden and their son Hunter, while also attempting to ease concerns over the president's age going into the 2024 election. During an interview that aired Thursday on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,['] Biden called it 'horrible' that GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene displayed an explicit photo of Hunter Biden during a House Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday. Greene did so after he made a surprise appearance as Republicans pushed a contempt of Congress resolution against him. MB: I didn't know MTG was still exhibiting huge nude photos of Hunter Biden. One does wonder exactly what sort of pleasure she gets from these pornographic displays."

~~~~~~~~~~

Ohio. Remi Tumin of the New York Times: "A grand jury in Ohio on Thursday declined to indict a woman who had miscarried a nonviable fetus at home on a felony charge of abuse of a corpse, ending a case that had drawn international scrutiny from lawyers and reproductive health advocates who had argued the charge was baseless and could endanger other patients. The woman, Brittany Watts, 34, of Warren, Ohio, was arrested in October after passing a fetus in her bathroom and trying to flush the remains down the toilet. The police in Trumbull County had charged Ms. Watts using an extremely rare interpretation of a state law.... In a lengthy statement outlining the case and prosecution timeline, Dennis Watkins, the Trumbull County prosecutor, said that his office had found that Ms. Watts had not violated the law as claimed in the initial complaint and that it disagreed with a lower court's application of the law after interviewing witnesses 'and researching and applying the law.'" It's worth reading the details. Watts sought hospital care several times before her miscarriage, and the hospital got all wrapped up in so-called "ethics" debates. ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's report is here. The reported details differ somewhat from those in the Times report.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (12)

Just a final thought or two on the Orange Monster’s equivocations, casuistries, and general “Heads I win, tails you lose” approach to jurisprudence, especially regarding his hilarious but nonetheless dangerous claims of monarchical* immunity.

The pretzel logic required to admit of legal culpability if, and only if, impeachment has succeeded is entirely Swiss cheesed by the fact that politicians must first agree to hold the wrongdoer accountable via a political procedure. Stupid, right? First, because there is no way a two thirds vote to impeach could be arrived at with half the Congress composed of sycophantic traitors who view law breaking their god given right and punishment reserved only for their enemies.

Surely, the founders never envisioned a situation in which so many political hacks, scoundrels, and liars would put party and personal power, and greed before country. But then they likely never envisioned the possibility of a president who would attack and attempt to destroy the existential structures of the nation they had just survived a bloody revolution to create, and likewise never envisioned the likelihood of an entire party of cowards who would happily junk the whole thing in obeisance to that traitor.

Then there’s the argument that immunity is necessary cuz, like, what if, I mean, like, there was a president who thought he had to do terrible nasty things, like ya know, for like the country? You wouldn’t want him looking over his shoulder all the time wondering if he was gonna be, like impeached and charged with crime stuff, right?

Um…well, here’s the thing. That supposedly hypothetical person you’re describing is your client. So what you’re saying is that we have to bend over backwards, disregard laws, common sense, and ethical standards in order to accommodate…Trump.

I am less and less sanguine as days go by that that traitor will ever see the inside of a courtroom for crimes against this country, never mind a jail cell, because something else the founders likely never envisioned was a Supreme Court so ideologically linked to a party of traitors and their wealthy benefactors.

Guess you can’t think of everything. Even if your name is Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Jay, Franklin, Washington….

*Oh, and speaking of names…about that monarchical immunity thing? I would suggest conferring with Charles I of England and Louis XVI of France about how that immunity shit worked out for them.

January 12, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

The trumped up charges arrayed against a guy whose real “crime” is having Biden for a last name aren’t enough for the PoT hacks waving their pitchforks around.

Some idiot named Pat Fallon (PoT-TX), goes on Faux and the completely false claim of sex trafficking .

Because why not? How about we add rape, insurrection, fraud, and fiscal shenanigans?

Oh, wait. Those are ACTUAL crimes committed by Fallon’s Dear Leader. The Faux host doing this interview corrected Fallon and pointed out that Hunter Biden has NOT been charged with sex trafficking. Undeterred, Fallon sputtered “No, yes…he participated in sex trafficking!”

The biggest lesson these hacks and traitors have learned from Trump is to keep repeating the lie. Never admit you’re wrong, just keep lying.

That’s how to get elected.

January 12, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Isn't there something more than a little "off" about a billionaire who has never missed a meal, who has always been able to mistreat others with impunity, who has always had at hand an abundance of willing lackeys, and who has even occupied the highest office in the land, calling himself any kind of "victim."

That behavior alone should certify his mental unfitness.

But what of those who hear him cry how unfair it all is and still want this poor little rich boy back in the White House?

January 12, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Some of you will recall Cliff Clavin, the "Cheers" character who sat at the end of the bar making stupid pronouncements about weighty matters he had no facility to grasp. Now, Cliff was a postman, so it didn't matter much what he said; he was a laughable character who was harmless unless he, well, went postal.

But what if Cliff had fallen into a vast fortune and enough celebrity to give him the power to do worse than annoy other Cheers patrons? Well, then he would be Donald Trump.

And then -- among other horrors of horrors -- he would be inspiring some real-life Cliff Clavins to, well, go postal.

January 12, 2024 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

USA Today, via a Yahoo feed, has a satire article that rips Fox/Jesse Watters for purveying a story that Taylor Swift is part of a Biden psy-op effort to gather youth votes for Biden.

It is sort of fun. But the headline gives no clue that this is an Onion-like satire. "Asset Tay': Fox News' Jesse Watters ruins Taylor Swift psy-op unit meant to reelect Biden"

Headlines stick in empty heads that don't read the TLDR article.

January 12, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Trump admitted what a grade A whiner he was back in 2015.

January 12, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

Gov Abbott is saying the quiet parts out loud. TFG has made the GQP feel safe to be true selves.

"Gov. Greg Abbott says Texas is doing everything to stop border crossings short of shooting migrants because the Biden administration would “charge us with murder.”

“We are deploying every tool and strategy that we possibly can,” the governor said in an interview with conservative commentator Dana Loesch. “The only thing that we’re not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border because of course the Biden administration would charge us with murder.”"

January 12, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

In another frightening take on the cult, David French, self-described as a conservative evangelical living in the South in "the heart of MAGA country" describes his greatest worries as "the change I see in ordinary Americans ... where Donald Trump is the single most culturally influential person here ....He has changed people politically and also personally...resulting in a religious movement steeped in fanaticism but stripped of virtue." New York Times share link:

maga country

January 12, 2024 | Unregistered Commenterlaura hunter

Rep Morgan Luttrell was reading from the same talking points as Fallon.

"Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas) suggested Wednesday that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas should be impeached because slavery exists in the world and fentanyl is killing people ― a claim that law professor Frank Bowman, a witness in this House hearing, had to keep informing the congressman made no sense."

January 12, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

Marie, you wrote "... surely the U.S. military has the capability of recording delivery of costly, “sensitive military items” . And you are correct. In fact, the tracking systems that FEDEX and others use originated in Department of Transportation and DOD, which developed systems to coordinate the capabilities of scanners, code printing, RFID, GPS and data management, back in the late '80s. These systems were tested and critical during US/NATO efforts in the Balkans in the 1990s, keeping tabs on stuff going to and through the conflict region, when not under direct US control.

The real problem in Ukraine is not tracking and accounting from origin to entrepot to end user. The problem is in diversion by corrupt black marketeers embedded in official logistics chains. The grab and go thieves are pretty easy to catch, but the professional black marketeers know how to defeat and counterfeit the seals and tamper alarms of most systems. DOD/military tracking systems are designed to service US and allied troops to maximize speed and concentration, and tamperproof systems slow things down quite a bit. The military has always accepted that huge shrinkage occurs in combat supply, and pays that price rather than shorting our combatants. Ukrainians are not "ours", but they are end-users of "our" systems.

But that is not the biggest problem here. The problem is that these types of weapons, particularly Man Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS - Stingers etc.) are among terrorists' most sought after weapons. The USG has long-term programs around the world to locate those that get out of known control, and destroy, buy back or take back. The most advanced of these various portable weapons are among Ukraine's most effective battlefield advantages. They get used at a high rate. That front-line dispersal and high-burn rate make diversion more possible. Black marketeers are ubiquitous, and Ukraine has more than its share of world-class ones.

The problem is not unsolvable, but in a continuous active combat zone it is VERY hard to control. Super-Eliot Ness hard.

January 12, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

@Patrick: Okay, thanks for the explanation. I can certainly see that any military equipment would be a hot commodity, especially in a war zone where potential buyers may be conveniently nearby.

But why doesn't the U.S. military know who takes receipt of the packages? Don't they need a door-cam to see who snatches the Stingers off Ukraine's front porch? The U.S. military should be able to outsmart even most professional blackmailers. I'll admit you're not going to catch every bad actor -- the supply sergeant with a crooked side-business, for instance -- but a billion-dollar loss makes it seem to the average person like me that the U.S. & Ukraine militaries aren't trying hard enough.

January 12, 2024 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

A long Politico piece

"‘This to Him Is the Grand Finale’: Donald Trump’s 50-Year Mission to Discredit the Justice System
The former president is in unparalleled legal peril, but he has mastered the ability to grind down the legal system to his advantage. It’s already changing our democracy."

January 12, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterRAS
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