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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.
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."
Yesterday in the Commentariat I mentioned that I disliked the use of words like "oily" & "oleaginous" applied to Marco Rubio, as I felt (and feel) they invoke the term "greaser," a derogatory term whites called Latino men in the 1950s & '60s. Several readers objected to my objection.
As I learned from Wikipedia, use of the term greaser has a long history:
Greaser was a derogatory term for a Mexican in what is now the U.S. Southwest in the 19th century. The slur likely derived from what was considered one of the lowliest occupations typically held by Mexicans, the greasing of the axles of wagons; they also greased animal hides that were taken to California where Mexicans loaded them onto clipper ships (a greaser). It was in common usage among U.S. troops during the Mexican-American War.
By the time I heard the word greaser, in the late 1950s, my Anglo schoolmates were using it to disparage Latinos -- almost all Cubans -- and Italians. As far as I knew, it referred to their D.A. hairstyles, which they held in place with a lot of pomade. I think that was an assumption on my part, & I've read elsewhere that it also referred to their diets of greasy food. It also may relate to Hispanics' love of cars -- low-riders -- which back in the day ran on a lot of grease.
At the same time, Anglo boys adopted the greaser look: the D.A. hairstyle, T-shirts with rolled-up sleeves (a pack of Lucky Strikes fit nicely in the cuffs), waist-length leather jackets (tho not so much in the Miami, Florida, where I lived). You might remember Elvis. And James Dean. As far as I can recall, Anglos who adopted the style in my schools did not refer to themselves as greasers, & neither did anyone else. Greasers were Hispanic or Italian, and they were the rough boys or those perceived to be toughs. The president of my high school class was of Italian heritage & wore his hair in a D.A. & the cuffs of his (short-sleeved sports) shirts rolled up, but no one referred to him as a greaser.
As it passed into history, the greaser culture became an object of nostalgic recollection. Ergo, the supposedly-Italian tough but lovable Fonzie in the 1970's teevee show "Happy Days," which was set in the 1950s. And of course the play & film "Grease" (set in 1959; first performed in 1971) is all about greasers: a gang of boys from working-class families, not all of whom are Latino or Italian. A gang of greasers -- the Pharaohs -- were important in George Lucas's classic remembrance of his boyhood past, "American Graffiti."
Latinos & Italians are more apt than other ethnic groups to have oily skin. This is likey why Donald Trumphas repeatedly mentionedMarco Rubio's "sweating a lot." There is something wrong with Marco's skin, see. It seeps something. It's not like white skin (even tho Marco looks white to me).
Richard Dreyfuss, playing an actor playing a Latin American dictator in "Moon Over Parador."So when Charles Pierce refers in one post to Marco Rubio as being "oily" and to Ted Cruz -- who is half-Hispanic, albeit from Spain -- as "oleaginous," I cringe. In addition, in the same piece, Pierce writes, "young Marco Rubio ... is just dying to put on a hat with some braid and stand on a balcony." Who does that? Um, Latin American dictators, at least in the movies.
Yes, Ted is oleaginous, & Marco is slick. But when a white American writer gets the adjective thesaurus out of his head, he should be careful that the adjectives he chooses don''t convey or invoke an ethnic stereotype. I don't know what was in Pierce's head when he described Rubio as "oily enough to fry chicken in." I don't know what he was thinking when he likened Marco to a stereotype of a South American dictator. He may have done so purposely; he may be unaware of his prejudice. But I do think it betrays a prejudice, or at least an unfortunate carelessness.
If I did it myself, I'd apologize.
Both Marco & Ted merit plenty of criticism; it's easy to slam them without alluding to their cultural heritage and assumed ethnicity.
Carol Morello, et al., of the Washington Post: "Iran released Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and three other detained Iranian Americans on Saturday in exchange for seven people imprisoned or charged in the United States, U.S. and Iranian officials said, a swap linked to the imminent implementation of a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers." ...
... From the liveblog (1:58 pm). Swati Sharma: "Yeganeh Salehi, the wife of Jason Rezaian, was arrested along with her husband on July 22, 2014. Although she was released on bail, she was ordered not to leave Iran. Until Saturday. According to U.S. officials, Salehi is allowed to leave Iran." The Post still doesn't know if Salehi is on the plane with Rezaian.
... From the liveblog (1:05 pm). Ariana Cha: "The family of an American man who disappeared in Iran in 2007 said the news of prison exchange appears to confirm their fears he may no longer be alive. Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent, traveled to the Iranian island of Kish to investigate corruption, then vanished. Iran has denied knowledge of his whereabouts but his family believes he is being held there." ...
... From the liveblog (11:39 am). Niraj Cokshi: "U.S. officials tell the Associated Press that Iran plans to release a fifth American, though that decision is unrelated to the prisoner exchange. From Vienna, AP diplomatic writer Matt Lee reports that the other released American is a student who was detained in Tehran in recent months."
We shouldn't have to swap prisoners. These [Americans] were taken illegally in violation of international law and they should have been released without condition, but you know, the Iranians have treated this president with disrespect for years and he continues to take it. I would not take it as president. -- Chris Christie
The fact of the matter is that this tells us everything we need to know about the Iranian regime. That they take people hostage in order to gain concessions. And the fact that they can get away with it with this administration I think has created an incentive for more governments to do this around the world.... Governments are taking American hostage because they believe they can gain concessions from this government under Barack Obama. -- Marco Rubio ...
... Somebody might oughta slap that little turd upside the head. -- Constant Weader
... Thomas Erdbrink & Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "Iran announced Saturday that it had released four Iranian-Americans as part of a prisoner exchange with the United States, a move that came as the United States and Iran were negotiating the final steps before the expected lifting of oil and financial sanctions related to its nuclear program. Obama administration officials confirmed the prisoner-swap arrangement, calling it the result of diplomacy that intensified after the nuclear deal had been reached last July."
Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "... a surge in opinion polls has brought [Sen. Bernie] Sanders a neck-and-neck position in Iowa, a steady lead in the New Hampshire primary due a week later, and validation from the most unlikely of quarters -- Secretary Clinton's own campaign team. The surprise early state polling has provoked a flurry of activity from Clinton's Brooklyn headquarters. A gaze that had been fixed on potential Republican opponents has swung back to focus on the challenger in Clinton's own party."
*****
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obamagave interviews at the White House on Friday to three popular YouTube figures: Adande Thorne, a self-described 'vlogger, time traveler, professional cuddler and professional gamer' who has 3.7 million subscribers and goes by the screen name sWooZie; Destin Sandlin, who hosts a show called 'Smarter Every Day' for 3.5 million subscribers; and Ingrid Nilsen, who goes by MissGlamorazzi and hosts a channel 'for curious minds and adventurous hearts' with 3.9 million subscribers":
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Justice Department official overseeing President Barack Obama's drive to commute the sentences of drug offenders serving long prison terms has decided to resign.... Pardon Attorney Deborah Leff took the job on an acting basis in April 2014 and was formally appointed to the post in November of that year. Under her tenure the pace of commutations has picked up significantly, but a backlog of clemency applications has also mushroomed in response to an initiative the administration announced in 2014 to encourage commutation applications from federal drug prisoners who had served more than ten years behind bars and met other criteria.... Just last week, the Justice Department announced plans to dramatically increase the staffing of Leff's office by hiring 16 attorneys."
Julian Hattem of the Hill: "House Republicans have abandoned their ambitions to sue the Obama administration over the nuclear deal with Iran.... Now, on the eve of the deal's implementation, the dream has drifted away, and been supplanted by a handful of legislative efforts designed to prevent the U.S. from lifting sanctions against Iran."
Congressman Unable to See Own Face in Mirror. Christopher Massie of BuzzFeed: "Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks [RTP-White] said on Thursday that Barack Obamais the most 'racially divisive' president since the days when American presidents supported slavery." Here's Brooks in 2014 talking about the "war on whites."
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court will decide whether former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell was rightly convicted of corruption for his efforts on behalf of a businessman who bestowed money and gifts on the governor and his family.The court announced Friday that it would intervene in the long-running saga of McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, and the case provides the justices a fresh opportunity to define what kind of political conduct crosses the line into criminal behavior....In recent years, the Supreme Court has limited the legal scope of what is considered public corruption." CW: Yes, it has. I'd say, "In recent years, the Supreme Court has all but announced it favored public corruption."
Margaret Talbot of the New Yorker on an "especially promising ... series of public-service announcements launched by the N.B.A. in late December. Directed by Spike Lee, they feature N.B.A. players voicing their personal worries about American gun violence.... Gun-rights supporters jumped all over the ads, which also feature victims of gun violence, as soon they appeared. 'You're vilifying Americans who are scared right now, who have the right to bear arms,' Meghan McCain [-- John McCain's daughter --] said. 'It doesn't help though, when it is just the President, when it's Spike Lee, when it's just these basketball players who, I assume every single person on there is liberal.'" CW: Well, sure, because they're all black or at least blackish. You'll have to check with Mo Brooks (see link above), but I'll bet they're all "racially divisive," too.
Clifford Krauss of the New York Times: "The world is awash in crude oil, with enough extra produced last year to fuel all of Britain or Thailand. And the price of oil will not stop falling until the glut shrinks. The oil glut -- the unsold crude that is piling up around the world -- is a quandary and a source of investor anxiety that once again rattled global markets on Friday."
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Walmart, whose supercenters once transformed the way Americans shop, announced on Friday that it would close a record number of stores in the United States and overseas, as it fights to hold its ground in a retail landscape under siege by the behemoth Amazon. The giant retailer, based in Bentonville, Ark., said in a statement that it would shutter 154 stores in the United States, or about 3 percent of its locations, as well as 115 stores overseas. It will also end its Walmart Express small-store format, which failed to catch on in urban areas. As many as 10,000 employees could lose their jobs in the United States and 6,000 elsewhere, it added." CW: Good for local retailers, bad for underserved urban areas. ...
Gail Collins: "There's a Democratic debate Sunday night! The party honchos scheduled it in the middle of a three-day weekend, obviously in a bid to ensure maximum attention. The American public, perky from eight straight hours of football playoffs, will totally be in the mood for a serious policy dialogue."
Emailgate All Over Again. Cory Bennett of the Hill: "A second congressional committee has launched an investigation into the security of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server. House Science, Space and Technology Committee Chairman [and the Anti-Science Guy] Lamar Smith (R-Texas) sent letters this week to four companies that played roles in maintaining and protecting the server.... The investigation will run alongside a similar inquiry led by Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman [and America's Dumbest Senator] Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)." CW: This should all be riveting.
Robert Schlesinger of US News: "Dear Republican establishment: The horns of your dilemma were laid bare [Thursday] evening. You've spent the last few months worrying about the damage Donald Trump will do to the GOP brand; the latest debate proved that there is indeed a candidate who can take on the tyrant of Trump Tower directly and deftly. But that candidate is Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who may actually stir more loathing in the Republican establishment breast than even Trump."
Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The harshest and most antagonistic phase of the Republican presidential race began in earnest on Friday as the candidates departed the debate hall for the campaign trail, leaving behind any pretense of good will that might have remained.... Mr. Trump, appearing on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' accused Mr. Cruz of being 'inappropriate' in raising questions about whether Mr. Trump's mother's citizenship status -- she was born in Scotland -- disqualifies him from running for president. And Mr. Trump said the Texas senator's remark about his 'New York values,' a dig at the real estate mogul's perceived liberal tendencies, was 'disgraceful.'... Though he had pledged to stay above the Republican-on-Republican attacks, Mr. Rubio on Friday was even sharper in his questioning of Mr. Cruz's devotion to conservative principles than he was during the debate." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Dana Milbank: "Republicans like to blame Trump for hijacking the party, but equally to blame are the others in the race for letting it happen -- and continuing to do so, now just two weeks from the Iowa caucuses. Thursday night's debate was another depressing development: Any of four men on the stage -- Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie or John Kasich -- could have been a viable alternative to the fear and demagoguery offered by Trump and Ted Cruz. Instead, they cluttered the stage and quarreled among themselves, offering little beyond faint echoes of Trump's rage." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
... Charles Piercehas some thoughts on the debaters. For the most part, one would not describe them as positive, although he did enjoy it when "He, Trump ... squash[ed] that demagogic bug [being Cruz] in just that way and, just for a second, I began to see the sense behind He, Trump's poll numbers." CW: I object when Pierce, or anyone, describes Marco and Tedas "oily" & "oleaginous"; Pierce means "greaser," whether he realizes it or not, & it's decidedly not P.C. to use such a term when referring to a person of the Hispanic persuasion. Pierce should cut that out. But he won't. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: Donald Trump's campaign threw Gabriel out of a Trump event. According to the operative who, along with a cop, forcibly removed Gabriel from the venue, Gabriel was being ejected on orders from Trump's Iowa state campaign director -- a day after the Times published Gabriel's piece critical of Trump's Iowa operation. CW: That's how "freedom of the press" would work in a Trump administration. As Gabriel notes, "It was not the first time the Trump campaign had excluded members of the news media from its Iowa events. After The Des Moines Register published an editorial in July calling on Mr. Trump to quit the Republican race..., reporters from The Register were barred from Mr. Trump's rallies." ...
Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register: "Donald Trump has rented space at an Urbandale movie theater and will give Iowans free tickets to a showing of the Benghazi movie that critics of Hillary Clinton have been eagerly awaiting.... The movie depicts the terrorist raid on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012. It reportedly makes no mention of Clinton, then the U.S. Secretary of State, but has again raised the topic of the Democratic presidential candidate's role in the tragedy...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)...
... Adam Goldman & Greg Miller of the Washington Post: The former CIA chief in Benghazi says a pivotal scene in the movie "13 Hours" is fictional: there was never a "stand-down order." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Elliot Smilowitz of the Hill: "... Donald Trumptook aim at rivalTed Cruz in a series of Saturday morning tweets, taunting Cruz over challenges to his citizenship and reports that he did not disclose campaign loans." ...
... Mike McIntire of the New York Times: "...Ted Cruz, already facing scrutiny for not disclosing a Goldman Sachs loan he used for his 2012 Senate campaign, also failed to disclose a second loan, from Citibank, for the same race, according to a letter he sent Thursday to federal election officials. The one-page letter said that the 'underlying source' of money for a series of personal loans Mr. Cruz made to his Senate campaign in Texas included both bank loans, which totaled as much as $1 million. Both loans were 'inadvertently omitted; from the required filings, the letter said.... The latest disclosure casts further doubt on his oft-stated story of having liquidated his entire family savings of slightly more than $1 million to fuel a come-from-behind win in the Republican primary. The tale has become part of a campaign narrative of a populist, scrappy Mr. Cruz putting everything on the line to overcome a wealthy establishment opponent." ...
... Will Weissert of the AP: "Ted Cruz has said that after working on George W. Bush's 2000 campaign, being passed over for a senior position with the new administration was 'a crushing blow.' Turns out, it was his own choice. Cruz was offered a job as White House associate counsel shortly after Al Gore conceded the race in December, but he rejected it, members of the Bush transition team told The Associated Press. Cruz thought he was in line for the more senior role of deputy White House counsel."
... Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Ted Cruzmade fake apologies to New Yorkers after disparaging Donald Trump as an avatar of "New York values." ...
... Birtherism 2.0. Laurel Calkins & Kevin Cirilli of Bloomberg: "... Ted Cruzshould be disqualified from the race because he isn't a 'natural-born citizen,' a fellow Texan claims in a 'birther' challenge filed against the senator in a U.S. court. The suit seeks a court definition of the term to clarify whether Cruz -- who was born in Canada to an American mother -- can or can't serve if elected. 'This 229-year question has never been pled, presented to or finally decided by or resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court,' Houston attorney Newton B. Schwartz Sr. said in his 28-page complaint. 'Only the U.S. Supreme Court can finally decide, determine judicially and settle this issue now.'... Schwartz, 85, said in a phone interview he isn't connected to any particular campaign, though he personally 'probably' supports Bernie Sanders...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Peace on Earth & Mercy Mild; Shoot 'em for the Newborn Child. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Mr. Rubio on Friday told employees of Sturm, Ruger & Co., a gun manufacturing company [in Newport, New Hampshire], that he sought to buy a weapon on Dec. 24 and found that the store he went to 'was packed' with young and old customers, some of them, he said, worried that President Obama would further restrict their right to purchase guns. He did not say whether the gun was meant as a gift or where the store was. 'I went to go purchase a handgun on the 24, on Christmas Eve,' he said, lamenting efforts by Democrats to 'stigmatize gun owners.'" ...
... The Mentalist. Steve Benen: "Marco Rubiorecently launched a television ad in which he insists President Obama is trying to take away Americans' guns. ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked the senator the other day to defend the claim, which appears to be completely at odds with reality. 'Well,' Rubio replied, 'if he could he would.' In other words, the Republican presidential candidate lied in his campaign commercial, but he feels justified in doing so because of what he imagines the president might be secretly thinking.... Rubio is to play the role of a mind-reader: sure, the president isn't actually doing scary things, but if we imagine his secret thoughts, we find evidence of how correct we are about his nefarious agenda." ...
... Ed Kilgore: Marco Rubio's "long march back from a fatally miscalculated stand as a champion of comprehensive immigration reform -- a.k.a. 'amnesty' -- has now culminated in the retroactive claim that the terrorist threat justified his abrupt about-face on the subject. It is clear, he said in [Thursday] night's Republican candidates' debate, that all border crossings, legal or illegal, must now be given fresh scrutiny."
Adios, Arbusto! Anna Palmer & Ben White of Politico: "Politico talked to nearly two dozen major donors [to Jeb!'s campaign], and most say they are waiting for what one veteran Republican and former Bush 43 administration appointee described as the 'family hall pass' to jump to another campaign after the New Hampshire primary." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)...
... AND Just in the Nick of Time. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Sen. Lindsey Graham on Friday endorsedJeb Bush for president, a major get for the former Florida governor who has struggled to gain traction in the contest." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Greg Sargent: "And Lindsey GrahamendorsedJeb Bush... Shockingly, Donald Trump's response was basically, it's not surprising that one loser endorsed another loser. Also, you losers really are losers, losers!"
Eliza Collins & Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Chris Christie has gone into damage control mode after Florida Sen. Marco Rubio began hammering him on his record with Planned Parenthood, pointing to comments from 1994 that say he made private donations to the organization." CW: That's the GOP. A candidate has to do "damage control" for supporting women's health.
Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "John Kasichpinned his presidential campaign's future on New Hampshire in a new interview where he said he'd drop out if he struggles during the state's February primary.'If I get smoked in New Hampshire, then you know kind of the ballgame is over ... because then it becomes very hard to raise money,' Kasich said during an interview on WABC Radio's "Election Central with Rita Cosby."
MEANWHILE. Andrew Kaczynski & Megan Apper of BuzzFeed: Also-ran "Rand Paul says he's going to spend 'every waking hour' trying to stop Donald Trump from getting the Republican nomination.... Still, Paul said he would support Trump should he win the nomination." ...
... The trouble is, Li'l Randy, the Donald never sleeps.
Beyond the Beltway
Scott Atkinson, et al., of the New York Times: "Michigan's attorney general opened an investigation Friday into lead contamination in Flint's drinking water, and the governor [-- Rick Snyder (R) --] asked President Obama to declare a disaster as National Guard troops fanned out across this anxious city to help distribute bottled water, water filters and testing kits.... The governor sent two requests Thursday night to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which this week has been distributing its own surplus supplies of bottled water, saying that the crisis was beyond the state's ability to manage. One asks that the president declare a state of emergency, allowing for immediate assistance like water, food and generators; the other asks him to declare a major disaster, allowing for millions of dollars in loans and grants to residents and the state for long-term needs like new water pipes, an improved filtration plant or temporary housing for residents." ...
... CW: As Akhilleus pointed out in yesterday's commentary, Republicans hate the federal government right up until the moment they start crying, "Help me! Help me!" Then, when the feds do help, they start hating the federal government again. Also read Diane's report in yesterday's comments thread & safari's comments re: Michigan's lucky-ducky "emergency managers." Akhilleus wrote, "I doubt it was made clear to Flint residents that the Emergency Manager was there to create the emergencies, not solve them." One good thing about Snyder's cry for help is that it puts the Flint fiasco in the national spotlight; ergo, the Times story.
Laura Gunderson of the Oregonian: "Holding signs that read 'Birders against bullies,' protesters took to the street in Bend, a two-hour drive from where a group of occupiers have held the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for two weeks." ...
... Les Zaitz of the Oregonian: "Oregon State Police on Friday arrested one of the protesters occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge after he drove into town, accusing him of having a stolen vehicle. The man was identified as Kenneth Medenbach, 62, of Crescent. He was arrested on suspicion of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, a class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison. He was to be booked into the Deschutes County Jail in Bend with bail set at $10,000, officials said. According to federal court records, Medenbach is currently facing federal charges in Medford[, Oregon,] and was released from custody in November. A condition of his release was that he would not 'occupy' any federal land. He was accused of illegally camping on federal property." ...
... Elliot Njus of the Oregonian: "A meeting where armed protesters occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge planned to announce their exit strategy has been called off for want of a venue.... Steven Grasty, judge of the Harney County Court, which functions as the county commission, said earlier this week that county won't let any group affiliated with the occupiers use its property.... Grasty issued a statement Friday saying Bundy didn't follow the proper procedure to use the fairgrounds. He also noted that the county 'has publicly stated it would not allow the facility to be used by those who are committing criminal activities.'"
Stephen Losey of the Air Force Times: "Robins Air Force Base in Georgia has taken down a flyer advertising a 'Martin Luther King Jr. Fun Shoot' scheduled for the holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader. In a statement to Air Force Times, Robins apologized for the advertising tying the event to the holiday honoring King, who was shot by an assassin in Memphis in 1968." CW: As a result of criticisms lodged against the event, organizers announced they would reschedule the event to February 12 & rename it "Abe Lincoln Fun Shoot." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Ledes
Guardian: "Burkina Faso security forces have freed more than 120 hostages from a hotel seized by al-Qaida-linked fighters in the capital of Ouagadougou, but a second assault has begun at another hotel nearby, according to reports. 'Three jihadists were killed. They were an Arab and two black Africans,' Simon Compaore, the country's security minister, said of the raid which concluded early on Saturday morning. Up to 20 people had been killed and 33 people wounded in the attack, with forces still determining the number of casualties. Islamic extremists invaded the Splendid Hotel and the Cappuccino cafe on Friday night. The militants took control of the five-storey hotel, which is popular with UN staff and foreigners, burning cars outside and firing in the air to drive back crowds." ...
... New York TimesUpdate: "Twenty-eight people were killed and 56 were wounded in the attack that loudly announced the end to a long, mostly peaceful stretch in Burkina Faso."
Guardian: "Venezuelan president Nicolás Madurohas declared an economic emergency, seeking broad powers to address a crippling recession in the oil-dependent country after official figures showed that inflation has spiralled to 141%."
Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register: "Donald Trump has rented space at an Urbandale movie theater and will give Iowans free tickets to a showing of the Benghazi movie that critics of Hillary Clinton have been eagerly awaiting.... The movie depicts the terrorist raid on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012. It reportedly makes no mention of Clinton, then the U.S. Secretary of State, but has again raised the topic of the Democratic presidential candidate’s role in the tragedy...." ...
... Adam Goldman & Greg Miller of the Washington Post: The former CIA chief in Benghazi says a pivotal scene in the movie "13 Hours" is fictional: there was never a "stand-down order."
Birtherism 2.0. Laurel Calkins & Kevin Cirilli of Bloomberg: "Republican presidential contender Ted Cruzshould be disqualified from the race because he isn't a 'natural-born citizen,' a fellow Texan claims in a 'birther' challenge filed against the senator in a U.S. court. The suit seeks a court definition of the term to clarify whether Cruz -- who was born in Canada to an American mother -- can or can't serve if elected. 'This 229-year question has never been pled, presented to or finally decided by or resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court,' Houston attorney Newton B. Schwartz Sr. said in his 28-page complaint. 'Only the U.S. Supreme Court can finally decide, determine judicially and settle this issue now.'... Schwartz, 85, said in a phone interview he isn't connected to any particular campaign, though he personally 'probably' supports Bernie Sanders...."
Adios, Arbusto! Anna Palmer & Ben White of Politico: "Politico talked to nearly two dozen major donors [to Jeb!'s campaign], and most say they are waiting for what one veteran Republican and former Bush 43 administration appointee described as the 'family hall pass' to jump to another campaign after the New Hampshire primary." ...
... AND Just in the Nick of Time. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Sen. Lindsey Graham on Friday endorsedJeb Bush for president, a major get for the former Florida governor who has struggled to gain traction in the contest."
Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The harshest and most antagonistic phase of the Republican presidential race began in earnest on Friday as the candidates departed the debate hall for the campaign trail, leaving behind any pretense of good will that might have remained.... Mr. Trump, appearing on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' accused Mr. Cruz of being 'inappropriate' in raising questions about whether Mr. Trump's mother's citizenship status -- she was born in Scotland -- disqualifies him from running for president. And Mr. Trump said the Texas senator's remark about his 'New York values,' a dig at the real estate mogul's perceived liberal tendencies, was 'disgraceful.'... Though he had pledged to stay above the Republican-on-Republican attacks, Mr. Rubio on Friday was even sharper in his questioning of Mr. Cruz's devotion to conservative principles than he was during the debate." ...
... Charles Piercehas some thoughts on the debaters. For the most part, one would not describe them as positive, although he did enjoy it when "He, Trump ... squash[ed] that demagogic bug [being Cruz] in just that way and, just for a second, I began to see the sense behind He, Trump's poll numbers." CW: I object when Pierce, or anyone, describes that turd Marco as "oily" & "oleaginous"; Pierce means "greaser," whether he realizes it or not, & it's decidedly not P.C. to use such a term when referring to a person of the Hispanic persuasion. Pierce should cut that out. But he won't. ...
... Dana Milbank: "Republicans like to blame Trump for hijacking the party, but equally to blame are the others in the race for letting it happen -- and continuing to do so, now just two weeks from the Iowa caucuses. Thursday night's debate was another depressing development: Any of four men on the stage -- Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie or John Kasich -- could have been a viable alternative to the fear and demagoguery offered by Trump and Ted Cruz. Instead, they cluttered the stage and quarreled among themselves, offering little beyond faint echoes of Trump's rage."
Stephen Losey of the Air Force Times: "Robins Air Force Base in Georgia has taken down a flyer advertising a 'Martin Luther King Jr. Fun Shoot' scheduled for the holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader. In a statement to Air Force Times, Robins apologized for the advertising tying the event to the holiday honoring King, who was shot by an assassin in Memphis in 1968." CW: As a result of criticisms lodged against the event, organizers announced they would reschedule the event to February 12 & rename it "Abe Lincoln Fun Shoot."
*****
Presidential Race
Jonathan Martin & Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas sharply attacked each other on Thursday night over the Canadian-born Mr. Cruz's eligibility to be president and Mr. Trump's 'New York values,' shedding any semblance of cordiality as they dominated a Republican debate less than three weeks before the Iowa caucuses.... In many ways, it was the darkest debate of the campaign, as the Republicans tried to paint the grimmest possible portrait of an America in decline economically, despite rapid job growth, and militarily, though they praised service members.... Neither Mr. Rubio, who spent most of the debate delivering rehearsed lines that seemed to come out of speeches, nor the other four Republicans on the debate stage left nearly as big an impression during the night as Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz." ...
... The Washington Post story, by Karen Tumulty & Philip Rucker, is here. ...
Here's the Trump-Cruz exchange on "New York values." Trump's response starts at about 1:45 min. in:
... Stephen Stromberg of the Washington Post: "The Republican presidential candidates responded in Thursday's GOP debate by painting an even more dismal and dangerous picture than they had in the past. The president is a traitor. The military is a shell of a fighting force. The economy is a shambles. Average families are in grave danger. If Democrats win, the country is lost.... Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) 'won' the latest round of this increasingly disgusting show, with Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) coming in second. But being the most effective at exaggerating the dangers the country faces and preying on voter anger is not an achievement; it is a moral failure." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "In the end, the domination of the endless debate time by everything other than the basic economic issues you might expect from a business network showed how far into the fever swamps the GOP contest has strayed. When Donald Trump responded to the attack from host-state governor Nikki Haley on 'the angriest voices' by saying 'I will gladly welcome the mantle of anger,' he did not stand out at all. And after all the talk about the Republican field and the party Establishment conspiring to stop Trump, that's the irony: they are increasingly the party of Trumpism With or Without Trump -- plus John Kasich." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "... those of us who believed Republican elites would kill Trump's candidacy out of self-preservation have to face the increasingly plausible prospect that, for whatever reason, they may lay down their arms before a shot has been fired.
Mark Murray of NBC News: "Donald Trumphas more than doubled his national lead in the Republican presidential race ahead of Thursday night's GOP debate here, according to the results from a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Trump is the first choice of 33 percent of national Republican primary voters - his highest percentage in the poll. He's followed by Ted Cruz at 20 percent, Marco Rubio at 13 percent and Ben Carson at 12 percent. Chris Christie and Jeb Bush are tied at five percent. No other Republican presidential candidate gets more than 3 percent." CW: Remember that national polls don't mean much, especially now, when most of the country isn't concentrating on the presidential race. ...
... Kevin Cirilli of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump said he's building a movement bigger than that of former PresidentRonald Reagan. 'I think that the closest thing I can think of is Reagan, but I don't think it's the intensity that we have,' the billionaire told Mark Halperin and John Heilemann of Bloomberg's With All Due Respect just minutes after he finished a rousing speech to a capacity crowd of 10,000 inside a Pensacola, Florida, arena on Wednesday night. 'Now, Reagan had a little bit of this, but I don't think to the same extent -- but he also won,' Trump said."
Birtherism 3.0. Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Marco Rubio's lawyers are defending his eligibility to run for president in a quixotic legal challenge that alleges he isn't a natural-born citizen. A Florida voter filed the suit, which claims that the senator isn't a true 'natural-born citizen' under the Constitution because his parents were not both U.S. citizens at his birth in Miami."
Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "When asked about the federal government's role in addressing tension between the police and minority communities during a meeting with the Des Moines Register editorial board on Wednesday, Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bushbrought up black-on-black shooting rates.... 'Putting aside a police officer shooting a black man, most of the crimes are black on black in the communities. Most by far,' Bush added. 'The police shooting of unarmed black males, which is what the conversation is about as I understand it, is very small.'" CW: It's as if Jeb! & his rivals all went to the top Right Wing World Brain Surgeon to get him to implant one of his recordings in each of their tiny brains, & every time someone asks a question, the record fast-forwards to a related stereotype, & the words comes out. ...
... Oh, speaking of Right Wing World brain surgeons ...
... Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Ben Carson's national finance chairman Dean Parkerresigned Thursday morning amid questions about his use of campaign fund and criticism from Carson allies and donors."
Jeffrey Sparshott of the Wall Street Journal: "The head of the nation's biggest business lobby inveighed against presidential candidates singling out immigrants, ethnic or religious groups, highlighting divisions among supporters of the Republican establishment and the party's leading candidate Donald Trump. 'There are the voices, sometimes very loud voices, who talk about walling off America from talent and trade and who are attacking whole groups of people based not on their conduct but on their ethnicity or religion,' Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a speech on Thursday. 'This is morally wrong and politically stupid.'"
... Greg Sargent: "Interestingly, the ad doesn't nameHillary Clinton.... The Sanders argument is that nothing we've seen during the Obama years -- and nothing we've heard proposed from the Hillary Clinton campaign -- comes close to the sort of far-reaching, deep structural changes to the economy that will be required to seriously combat the soaring inequality and wage stagnation of the moment." ...
... CW: Also interestingly, I just saw Clinton's campaign strategist complaining to Tuck Chodd that the Sanders spot breaks Sanders' campaign pledge not to run negative ads. Clinton, of course, takes the ad personally, but as Sargent points out, Sanders is challenging the entire Democratic approach to economic policy. And of course the Clinton campaign's complaining about negative ads is pretty hilarious after the last week or so of her and her proxies going after Sanders, both fairly & unfairly. ...
... Update: Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Hillary Clinton's campaign on Thursday decried what it called an attack ad from Democratic presidential rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Clinton's aides claimed Sanders had broken his pledge to never run a negative advertisement by releasing his 30-second campaign spot on 'two Democratic visions for regulating Wall Street.'...Sanders's campaign insisted that the ad wasn't 'directed at Secretary Clinton exclusively.' 'It's about people in the Democratic establishment who believe you can take Wall Street's money and then somehow turn around and rein in the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior,' Sanders campaign spokesman Michael Briggs said in a statement shared with The Hill. 'Obviously she is part of the establishment that Wall Street has showered with financial support. Bernie is not,' Briggs added...." ...
... Charles Pierce: "Bernie Sandersis where he is because the positions and the policies he has been championing all his career have come back somewhat into favor ever since some grifters broke the world economy and then made off with the rubble. That is why he's different from Donald Trump and that is why Hillary Rodham Clinton is noticing that things in the rear-view window are closer than they appear." ...
... Gene Robinson: "Any Clinton supporters looking for a reason to panic should consider the way the campaign attackedSanders on health care this week, [which began with Chelsea Clinton's charges against Sanders' proposals for single-payer insurance].... Such careful and misleading parsing of language can only be called Clintonesque and only be read as a danger sign. I can't help but recall how Bill Clinton invited a backlash in 2008 by calling the Obama candidacy a 'fairy tale.' Maybe Hillary Clinton should try leaving the family at home.... The Clinton campaign has a fight on its hands -- and anything smacking of politics-as-usual is more likely to lose votes than win them." ...
... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton's national lead is slipping faster in 2016 than it did in 2008."
Marlow Stern of the Daily Beast interviewsBill Maher on the candidates -- entertaining, & politically correct.
Real News
Okay, real-ish:
Tim Egan: "... on the mastery of changing hearts and minds, the 'ability to astonish and inspire,' [President Obama] falls short. His presidency, as of now, has not been transformational. He has 370 more days, or thereabouts, to make a dent in a hard history." ...
... CW: I disagree with Egan. I don't think anyone can blame the President for the vicious antics of Republican "leaders." Last night's debate was the 10,000th illustration of that -- two days after Obama chastised them for behaving badly, they behaved worse. I don't think any one of them, with the possible exception of Kasich, has a whit of common decency (and his ideology is counterproductive); their entire case is built on a foundation of lies, smears & scorn. One individual is not responsible for the immorality of an entire corrupt power structure. In my lifetime, the Republican party always has appealed to Americans' worst instincts. It has never done so more forcefully than now.
** Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Obama administration will announce on Friday a halt to new coal mining leases on public lands as it considers an overhaul of the program that could lead to increased costs for energy companies and a slowdown in extraction, according to an administration official. The move would represent a significant setback for the coal industry, effectively freezing new coal production on federal lands and sending a signal to energy markets that could turn investors away from an already flailing industry. President Obama telegraphed the step in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, saying, 'I'm going to push to change the way we manage our oil and coal resources so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet.'"
Bill Vlasic of the New York Times: "With automakers and technology companies rushing to develop self-driving cars, the Obama administration on Thursday pledged to expedite regulatory guidelines for autonomous vehicles and invest in research to help bring them to market. Until now, the federal government has taken a hands-off approach to regulating new technology that allows vehicles to operate independently and without an actual driver."
Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "Planned Parenthood on Thursday filed a long-awaited federal lawsuit against the anti-abortion activists who have targeted the group with undercover videos for the last year. The formal complaint marks the first time that Planned Parenthood has taken legal action against the group, the Center for Medical Progress. The national organization, along with its California affiliate, is accusing the Center for Medical Progress and its organizer David Daleiden for unlawful behavior ranging from secret taping to trespassing. The group said the Center for Medical Progress has violated the laws of three states as well as federal law." ...
... Nina Liss-Schultz of Mother Jones: "The federal lawsuit accuses CMP of racketeering, illegally creating and using fake driver's licenses, invading the privacy of and illegally recording Planned Parenthood officials and staff. The suit describes CMP as a 'complex criminal enterprise conceived and executed by anti-abortion extremists,' and says that 'the aim of the fake enterprise -- which stretched over years and involved fake companies, fake identifications, and large-scale illegal taping, was to demonize Planned Parenthood.'" The complaint is embedded in the story.
Paul Krugman: "... given the reality that wealth often reflects either luck or power, there's a strong case to be made for collecting some of that wealth in taxes and using it to make society as a whole stronger, as long as it doesn't destroy the incentive to keep creating more wealth. And there's no reason to believe that it would. Historically, America achieved its most rapid growth and technological progress ever during the 1950s and 1960s, despite much higher top tax rates and much lower inequality than it has today.... The rich don't have to be as rich as they are. Inequality is inevitable; the vast inequality of America today isn't."
Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "More than seven years after the worst of the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs is again paying a price for the role it played. The Wall Street firm said on Thursday it had agreed to a civil settlement of up to $5 billion with federal prosecutors and regulators to resolve claims stemming from the marketing and selling of faulty mortgage securities to investors.... The agreement in principle requires Goldman to pay $2.385 billion in civil penalties and $875 million in cash and provide up to $1.8 billion in relief to consumers."
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. CW: I don't know why public universities don't dispense with classrooms & professors & students studying literature & physics and all when they could more easily concentrate on being excellent sports enterprises. Go, Bucks! O H I O!
W. J. Hennigan & Tracy Wilkinson of the Los Angeles Times: "How U.S. sailors almost started a crisis with Iran." The vessels were a mile inside Iranian waters. "The situation became only more complicated when a U.S. aircraft carrier task force led by the Harry S. Truman, on patrol in the gulf, quickly launched search helicopters into Iranian airspace. That served to further alarm Tehran, even as U.S. officials began considering a possible rescue operation.... [The incident] also raises questions of whether Iran violated international law by using the detainees for propaganda purposes."
Hey, Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), America's Stupidest Senator is still America's stupidest senator: Christopher Massie of BuzzFeed: "Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson inaccurately described South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haleyas an immigrant while praising her response to President Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday night.... '... And Governor Haley is an immigrant. She has powerful stories of being an immigrant....'" ...
... CW: Here's a clue, Ron. As even you must know, Republicans are chattering about Haley as a possible vice-presidential candidate. But, see, the vice president can't be an immigrant. S/he has to be a "natural-born citizen," something that even you also should know by now, since the topic has been in the news all week. Sheesh!
Laurie Goodstein & Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura of the New York Times: "After 13 years of rancor over conflicting views on homosexuality, the archbishops of the Anglican Communion have voted to impose sanctions for three years on the Episcopal Church, the American branch of the Communion, for its decision last summer to allow clergy to perform same-sex marriages, church officials said Thursday. News of the archbishops' decision to discipline the American church leaked out near the end of a weeklong meeting in England called by the Most Rev. Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury. He had summoned the archbishops to Canterbury in an effort to break the bitter impasse that has divided the Anglican Communion since the Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire in 2003.... The Anglican Church of Canada, which has allowed some clergy members to perform same-sex marriages but has not adopted a policy for the entire province, escaped sanctions. But the archbishops' resolution fell short of the demands of conservative primates to evict the Americans and the Canadians from the Communion." ...
... CW: Oh, they're primates, all right. I believe I'll head down to St. Andrews this Sunday.
Beyond the Beltway
Daniel Bethencourt of the Detroit Free Press: "Since Flint switched its water source to the Flint River, officials have seen a spike in the number of cases of a severe form of pneumonia, called Legionnaires' disease -- but officials say they're still looking for the cause. There have been 87 cases in Genesee County from June 2014 to November 2015 -- and 10 of those cases resulted in death, said Dr. Eden Wells, chief medical executive with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, or MDHHS.... While state officials said they couldn't make a connection between the water and the spike in disease, [Marc Edwards of Virginia Tech,] a drinking water expert who studied Flint, said the rise in cases was 'dramatic,' and added there's a 'very strong likelihood' the river's water played a role." CW: So much for killing them softly with lead poisoning.
Carol Marin & Don Moseley of NBC Chicago: "Senior members of Rahm Emanuel's administration received and sent emails about the video of the police shooting of Laquan McDonaldlong before the mayor said he was fully briefed, emails obtained by NBC5 News show. The emails were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and show that the mayor's chief of staff, deputy chief of staff and top press aides were included in email chains." ...
... Mark Guarino, et al., of the Washington Post: Rahm Emanuel "faced renewed questions Thursday about whether he had known earlier than he had previously said that police accounts of the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald conflicted with a dashboard-camera video of the 2014 incident. Early in the day, a federal judge ordered the release of video footage in another case, from 2013, that shows police fatally shooting an unarmed black teenager. The city had long opposed the release, but reversed itself this week and asked a court to make the video public. It was released hours after the ruling."
Patrick Whittle of the AP: "Critics of Maine Gov. Paul LePagefailed to muster support for a vote Thursday on an independent investigation that could have led to impeachment for alleged abuse of power. LePage responded by calling the impeachment effort 'nonsense' and 'foolishness.'"
Elliot Njus of the Oregonian: "As the armed occupation of a Harney County wildlife refuge drags into its 13th day, protesters are sending mixed signals about their plans." ...
... Sam Levin of the Guardian: "Leaders of the armed militia occupying federal lands in eastern Oregon could face hefty fines and more than 10 years behind bars if government officials decide to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law, legal experts say. Ammon Bundy and his crew of rightwing anti-government followers -- who have refused to leave the Malheur national wildlife refuge since they took over its headquarters on 2 January -- appear to have violated a number of laws that prohibit the unauthorized use and destruction of public property.... Tim Colahan, Harney County district attorney, said in an email that he is working with county, state and federal law enforcement agencies and is discussing the possibility of criminal prosecution." CW: I'll believe these guys might do time when I see a criminal complaint. Meanwhile, Papa Bundy is still out there grazing his cattle on our land & refusing to pay more than $1MM in fees he owes us.
News Ledes
CNN: "The Dow dropped another 391 points on Friday, leaving the index down an incredible 1,437 points in just the first two weeks of the year. The S&P 500 lost 2.3% and the Nasdaq plunged 2.7% to its lowest level since October 2014."
AP: "Two Marine helicopters carrying 12 crew members collided off the Hawaiian island of Oahu during a nighttime training mission, and rescuers are searching a debris field in choppy waters Friday, military officials said. There was no immediate word on what caused the crash or if any survivors have been found."
AP: "A Tennessee man pulled a folded Powerball ticket from the front pocket of his shirt and told a national television audience Friday that he held one of three winners of the world-record $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot. 'Now I'll be nervous because everybody knows,' said John Robinson, who appeared in the New York studios of NBC's 'Today' show alongside his wife Lisa, their daughter and their lawyer. The Associated Press could not immediately verify the Robinsons' claim."
Los Angeles Times: "The California Public Utilities Commission agreed Thursday with a judge's recommendation to fine Uber $7.6 million for failing to meet data reporting requirements in 2014. Uber will appeal the decision, but has agreed to pay the fine to avoid a 30-day suspension of its license in its home state."
;)
Richard Dreyfuss, playing an actor playing a Latin American dictator in "Moon Over Parador."So when Charles Pierce refers in one post to Marco Rubio as being "oily" and to Ted Cruz -- who is half-Hispanic, albeit from Spain -- as "oleaginous," I cringe. In addition, in the same piece, Pierce writes, "young Marco Rubio ... is just dying to put on a hat with some braid and stand on a balcony." Who does that? Um, Latin American dictators, at least in the movies.
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