May 22, 2022

Russell Goldman of the New York Times: "President Biden raised the alarm on Sunday about monkeypox, a viral infection fast spreading around the world, and warned that the disease, which can be spread as easily as through handling a contaminated object, is something 'that everybody should be concerned about.' Monkeypox, rarely seen outside Africa, has been found in recent weeks in Europe and the United States. As of Saturday, 92 cases and 28 suspected cases had been identified in 12 countries outside of those African nations where it is endemic, according to the World Health Organization. There has been one confirmed case in the United States -- a man in Boston was diagnosed last week -- but public health officials believe case numbers will soon increase."

Michael Conroy of the AP: "A military plane carrying enough specialty infant formula for more than half a million baby bottles arrived Sunday in Indianapolis, the first of several flights expected from Europe aimed at relieving a shortage that has sent parents scrambling to find enough to feed their children. President Joe Biden authorized the use of Air Force planes for the effort, dubbed 'Operation Fly Formula,' because no commercial flights were available. The formula weighed 78,000 pounds (35,380 kilograms), White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One as Biden flew from South Korea to Japan.... The flights are intended to provide 'some incremental relief in the coming days' as the government works on a more lasting response to the shortage, Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, said Sunday."

"How Trump's 2020 Election Lies Have Gripped State Legislatures." Nick Corasaniti, et al., of the New York Times: A New York Times "analysis exposes how deeply rooted lies and misinformation about ... Donald J. Trump's defeat have become in state legislatures, which play an integral role in U.S. democracy. In some, the false view that the election was stolen -- either by fraud or as a result of pandemic-related changes to the process -- is now widely accepted as fact among Republican lawmakers, turning statehouses into hotbeds of conspiratorial thinking and specious legal theories.... Election and democracy experts say they see the rise of anti-democratic impulses in statehouses as a clear, new threat to the health of American democracy. State legislatures hold a unique position in the country's democratic apparatus, wielding a constitutionally mandated power to set the 'times, places and manner of holding elections.' Cheered on by Mr. Trump as he eyes another run for the White House in 2024, many state legislators have shown they see that power as license to exert greater control over the outcome of elections."

Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention on Sunday released a major third-party investigation that found that sex abuse survivors were often ignored, minimized and 'even vilified' by top clergy in the nation's largest Protestant denomination. The findings of nearly 300 pages include shocking new details about specific abuse cases and shine a light on how denominational leaders for decades actively resisted calls for abuse prevention and reform. Evidence in the report suggests leaders also lied to Southern Baptists over whether they could maintain a database of offenders to prevent more abuse when top leaders were secretly keeping a private list for years." A CBS News report is here.

Israel. Steve Hendrix & Shira Rubin of the Washington Post: "After decades of demolition, rebuilding and a more than 20-year legal battle, Israel's highest court this month gave the military permission to permanently evict more than 1,000 Palestinians [from the West Bank] and repurpose the land for an army firing range.... The demolitions have sparked expressions of concern from Washington ahead of a planned June visit to Israel by President Biden, coming at a time of mounting instability in Israel's coalition government and the recent approval of more than 4,200 new housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.... The European Union urged Israel to halt the demolitions. A United Nations human rights panel warned that the 'forcible transfer' of residents would amount to 'a serious breach of international and humanitarian and human rights laws.'"

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Josh Boak & Aamer Madhani of the AP: "President Joe Biden tended to both business and security interests Sunday as he wrapped up a three-day trip to South Korea, first showcasing Hyundai's pledge to invest at least $10 billion in the United States and later mingling with troops at a nearby military base. Biden's visit to Osan Air Base, where thousands of U.S. and South Korean service members monitor the rapidly evolving North Korean nuclear threat, was his final stop before he arrived in Tokyo later Sunday."

Peter Baker & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "In his first meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol, [President] Biden sought to put the relationship with South Korea, traditionally one of the United States' strongest allies in Asia, on a firmer foundation after the volatile years of ... Donald J. Trump, who frequently undercut ties with the South while wooing the North's mercurial dictator, Kim Jong-un. 'The alliance between the Republic of Korea and the United States has never been stronger, more vibrant or, I might add, more vital,' said Mr. Biden, using South Korea's formal name, at a news conference in Seoul with Mr. Yoon.... Unlike Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden hailed the continuing American troop presence in South Korea.... Mr. Biden said that cooperation between the United States and South Korea showed 'our readiness to take on all threats together.' He also said that his administration would collaborate to confront cyberattacks from North Korea. Mr. Biden's team is focused, through engaging with allies in the region, on returning to a North Korea strategy aimed at deterrence. It views the Trump administration's approach, in which Mr. Trump ignored the usual diplomatic process and directly embraced Mr. Kim, as an aberration in American foreign policy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Video of the joint press conference is here.

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "The acting Social Security commissioner will launch a 'full investigation' on Monday of Inspector General Gail Ennis's oversight of an anti-fraud program that imposed extensive penalties on disabled and elderly people, a senior agency official said Saturday. The action follows a Washington Post report that revealed how attorneys in charge of a little-known program run by Social Security's watchdog division issued unprecedented fines beginning in the Trump administration. More than 100 people who received disability benefits to which they were not entitled were hit with penalties as high as hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those fines were imposed on poor, disabled and elderly people, many of whom had no hope of ever being able to pay. The acting commissioner 'has very serious concerns about the issues raised by The Washington Post about the inspector general's oversight of this program,' Scott Frey, chief of staff to Kilolo Kijakazi, said in an interview."

Marie: I know it's hard to believe, but another Trumpist Member of Congress told a series of porkers about his aiding and abetting some folks “wearing red baseball caps” the day before the insurrection: ~~~

~~~ Eric Levai of the Daily Dot: The Daily Dot has obtained a radio interview from Jan. 6, 2021, from WBHF in Cartersville, Georgia, in which Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) says, 'about a dozen' people were present in his congressional office in Washington, D.C. the day before the Capitol riot. [Thursday], Loudermilk said in a statement that 'a constituent family' visited him the day before the Capitol riot. That is an updated version of a previous statement by Republicans on the Committee on House Administration -- which Loudermilk is a member of -- that originally stated 'there were no tours, no large groups, no one with MAGA hats on' given by him or other Republicans in advance of the Capitol riot. But in the interview -- given as the riot was winding down -- Loudermilk made it clear that he met with people who were planning to protest on Jan. 6, and that he discussed how they wanted to be in the crowd that day to protest the results of the 2020 election.... In a video statement released [Friday], Loudermilk claims that the family was wearing red baseball caps, which is why he's being singled out by the committee, but also admits the family brought guests with them, which he had not previously mentioned." Red baseball caps, Barry? Really? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

A Proxy Trial: Durham Goes After Hillary. Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The trial of well-connected lawyer Michael Sussmann centers on whether he lied to the FBI while sharing potentially damaging allegations about Donald Trump at a key moment in the 2016 presidential campaign. But the first week of testimony showed the prosecution's hopes for a conviction rest largely on a much broader set of assertions: that the FBI, the Hillary Clinton campaign and the press collided in ultimately harmful ways, leading to the public airing of unsubstantiated allegations shortly before Election Day. Sussman's trial is the first courtroom test of the investigative work done by special counsel John Durham, appointed by Trump administration Attorney General William P. Barr to probe whether the federal agents who investigated the 2016 Trump campaign committed wrongdoing."

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Utah hunting guide Wade Lemon is facing five years in prison for baiting a bear that was killed by [Donald] Trump, Jr. on May 18, 2018, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Saturday.... Trump, Jr.'s guided hunting trip resulted in kills of a black bear and mountain lion. 'Charging documents allege Lemon's outfitters illegally used bait on the bear shot by Trump Jr.'... Prosecutors have indicated there was no evidence showing Trump Jr. would have known about the alleged baiting that went on during the hunt,' the newspaper reported.... The vast majority of game taken in America is from hunters who do not require a hired guide. [Junior] has previously had scandals over killing an elephant in Africa, killing an endangered sheep in Mongolia, and killing pregnant prairie dogs in Montana." MB: Like father, like son, the Adventures of Junior lead to somebody else getting in trouble with the law.

Robert Ford, the CEO of Abbott, the baby-formula manufacturing company at the heart of the U.S. formula scarcity, says he's sorry & makes his case in a Washington Post op-ed.

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "A state court formally approved New York's new congressional map late Friday, ratifying a slate of House districts drawn by a neutral expert that could pave the way for Democratic losses this fall and force some of the party's most prominent incumbents to face off in primary matches. The map, approved just before a midnight deadline set by Justice Patrick F. McAllister of State Supreme Court in Steuben County, effectively unwinds an attempted Democratic gerrymander, creates a raft of new swing seats across the state, and scrambles some carefully laid lines that have long determined centers of power in New York City. Jonathan R. Cervas, the court-appointed mapmaker, made relatively minor changes to a draft proposal released earlier this week whose sweeping changes briefly united both Republicans and Democrats in exasperation and turned Democrats against each other. In Manhattan, the final map would still merge the seats of Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, setting the two Democratic committee leaders, who have serve alongside each other for 30 years, onto an increasingly inevitable collision course." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Texas. (Alleged) Rustlers! The Misadventures of Skeet & Leroy. Susan Carroll of NBC News: "Lawmen came to remote Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county judge, a former sheriff's deputy and two ranch hands on one of Texas' oldest crimes -- cattle theft. Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 in the least populated county in the continental United States, is facing three felony counts of livestock theft and one count of engaging in criminal activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities said. Jones, the scion of a powerful ranching family that settled in Loving County in the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, records show.... Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one count of engaging in criminal activity.... Word of the arrests spread faster than a prairie fire with a tailwind through this West Texas county, population 57 as of the last U.S. Census Bureau estimate."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "President Volodymyr Zelensky pressed his allies for even more military aid on Saturday after the United States signed one of its biggest war packages in decades, arguing that winning the fight against Russia would also help tame rising global food costs.... Mr. Zelensky ... argued that food prices would ease if it could break Russia's grip on its ports.... International measures targeting the Russian economy have 'practically broken' logistics in the country, its transport minister said on Saturday, a rare acknowledgment by the Kremlin minister of the impact of sanctions. The [U.S.] State Department said that a U.S. consular officer had visited Brittney Griner, the W.N.B.A. star being detained in Russia, and found her 'as well as could be expected under these exceedingly challenging circumstances.' The leaders of Sweden and Finland held separate phone calls on Saturday with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who has said he opposes the applications of the two Nordic countries to join NATO." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the New York Times' summary of Saturday's events. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Saturday are here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the only way out of the war will be through diplomacy -- in addition to a Kyiv win on the battlefield. 'Russia doesn't want to return anything,' he said.... Zelensky said the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine is facing an 'extremely difficult' situation as Russian forces concentrate on the east after Kyiv gave up its defense of Mariupol and Moscow claimed total control of the port city. Two cities are under severe assault, Zelensky said: Slovyansk, near Kramatorsk, and Severodonetsk, the easternmost city still in Ukrainian hands. A delegation of U.S. diplomats is set to travel to The Hague on Sunday for talks with allies 'regarding our responses to atrocities committed in Ukraine' and in other conflicts, and on efforts to 'bring the perpetrators of atrocities to justice,' the State Department said in a news release.... Polish President Andrzej Duda is in Kyiv and will be the first foreign leader to address Ukraine's parliament in person." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

Elena Becatoros, et al., of the AP: "With Russia claiming to have taken prisoner nearly 2,500 Ukrainian fighters from the besieged Mariupol steel plant, concerns grew about their fate as a Moscow-backed separatist leader vowed they would face tribunals. Russia has declared its full control of the Azovstal steel plant, which for weeks was the last holdout in Mariupol and a symbol of Ukrainian tenacity in the strategic port city, now in ruins with more than 20,000 residents feared dead."

Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "Russia is permanently banning nearly 1,000 Americans, including President Biden and Vice President Harris, from entering the country in response to the United States' support of Ukraine and the historic sanctions facing Moscow nearly three months into its invasion. On Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry published the list of 963 Americans barred from entering Russia -- a largely symbolic move featuring a wide-ranging collection of Biden administration members, Republicans, tech executives, journalists, lawmakers who have died, regular U.S. citizens and even actor Morgan Freeman.... One prominent name missing from the list: ... Donald Trump. In fact, the only prominent Trump administration official included in the ban is former secretary of state Mike Pompeo.... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is not on the list. Also not listed is Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who delayed a Senate vote on aid for Ukraine last week when he was the only senator to object." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"Putin's Altar Boy." Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "The leader of about 100 million faithful, [Patriarch Kirill I, the leader of the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church], 75, has staked the fortunes of his branch of Orthodox Christianity on a close and mutually beneficial alliance with Mr. Putin, offering him spiritual cover while his church -- and possibly he himself -- receives vast resources in return from the Kremlin, allowing him to extend his influence in the Orthodox world. To his critics, the arrangement has made Kirill far more than another apparatchik, oligarch or enabler of Mr. Putin, but an essential part of the nationalist ideology at the heart of the Kremlin's expansionist designs.... Kirill's role is so important that European officials have included him on a list of individuals they plan to target in an upcoming -- and still in flux -- round of sanctions against Russia, according to people who have seen the list." Read on. This is a rags (in the form of a monk's habit) to riches (possibly to the tune of billions of dollars).

Australia. Michael Miller & Frances Vinall of the Washington Post: "Australia delivered a stinging defeat to the country's ruling conservative coalition on Saturday in what amounted to a personal rebuke of Prime Minister Scott Morrison's abrasive brand of leadership. The result paves the way for opposition leader Anthony Albanese to become the next prime minister. But it was unclear whether his center-left Labor Party would win an outright majority or be forced to negotiate with a handful of independent and Greens candidates elected on platforms of combating climate change." The AP's story is here. MB: Well, let's hope this bodes well for us. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The Guardian profiles Anthony Albanese: "Anthony Albanese's election to Australia's top job will go down as one of the most remarkable in the nation's political history: both for the personal journey of the man who will move into the prime minister's residence and the circumstances in which he won the keys."

Comments

[Ken Winkes]

Lest we forget.

The Durham grasping at straws trial will, of course, entirely avoid any mention of why any sane, undead person might have had suspicions of an alliance between Russia and the Pretend candidate.

This reminder:

https://time.com/5572821/donald-trump-russia-contacts/

Have seen estimates from other sources that list over 200, but can't find them this AM. Regardless, the list of coincidental meetings is jaw-dropping, except to a Durham or Barr.

Gee....it's almost as if they are trying to miss the point.....

[P.D. Pepe]

A ray of sunshine shining on Australia––what a pleasure to read about Anthony Albanese. Thanks for posting this, M.B. –––I might have missed such good news and lord knows–-as He portends to–-we need some.