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The Ledes

Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Washington Post's liveblog of developments in the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse is here: “Divers recovered the bodies of two construction workers who died when a massive cargo ship struck and collapsed a Baltimore bridge, as investigators revealed Wednesday that hazardous material was leaking from breached containers on the stranded vessel and state and federal lawmakers rushed to begin the recovery from the disaster that crippled the Port of Baltimore. Rescue crews found the victims shortly before 10 a.m. trapped in a red pickup truck in about 25 feet of water in the Patapsco River near the mid-span of the hulking wreck of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Maryland State Police Secretary Roland L. Butler Jr. said at a news conference. The conditions were treacherous for the divers, so Butler said they were suspending the search for the bodies of four other construction workers who plunged to their deaths when the container ship in distress struck the bridge shortly before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, causing it to fall.

“The workers are believed to be the only victims in the disaster.... The victims recovered were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Md. Other victims identified Wednesday were Maynor Suazo Sandoval, 38, from Honduras, and Miguel Luna, from El Salvador, who was the father of three. The names of the remaining two victims have not been released.” ~~~

~~~ CNN's live updates are here.

The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
The Ledes

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Washington Post: “As a cargo ship the size of a skyscraper drifted dangerously close to a major Baltimore bridge that carried more than 30,000 cars a day, the crew of the Dali issued an urgent 'mayday,' hoping to avert disaster Tuesday. First responders sprang into action, shutting down most traffic on the four-lane Francis Scott Key Bridge just before the 95,000 gross-ton vessel plowed into a bridge piling at about 1:30 a.m., causing multiple sections of the span to bow and snap in a harrowing scene captured on video.... Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) hailed those who carried out the quick work as 'heroes' and said they saved lives, but the scale of the destruction was catastrophic and will probably have far-reaching impacts for the economy and travel on the East Coast for months to come.” ~~~

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

     ~~~ A Washington Post liveblog of developments is here: “Six people [-- bridge construction workers --] were presumed dead Tuesday evening, authorities announced as they shifted from a search and rescue operation to a recovery effort.... The governor declared a state of emergency, and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) announced that the city has deployed its emergency operations plan. Vessel traffic into and out of the Port of Baltimore was 'suspended until further notice.'”

Public Service Announcement

The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705

The Hollywood Reporter has the full list of 2024 Oscar winners here.

Ryan Gosling performs "I'm Just Ken" at the Academy Awards: ~~~

Marie: If you don't like birthing stories, don't watch this video. But I thought it was pretty sweet -- and funny:

If you like Larry David, you may find this interview enjoyable:


Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Allison Hope comments in a CNN opinion piece:

~~~ Here's Chapman singing "Fast Car" at the Oakland Coliseum in December 1988. ~~~

~~~ Here's the full 2024 Grammy winner's list, via CBS.

He Shot the Messenger. Washington Post: “The Messenger is shutting down immediately, the news site’s founder told employees in an email Wednesday, marking the abrupt demise of one of the stranger and more expensive recent experiments in digital media. In his email, Jimmy Finkelstein said he was 'personally devastated' to announce that he had failed in a last-ditch effort to raise more money for the site, saying that he had been fundraising as recently as the night before. Finkelstein said the site, which launched last year with outsize ambitions and a mammoth $50 million budget, would close 'effective immediately.' The New York Times first reported the site’s closure late Wednesday afternoon, appearing to catch many staffers off-guard, including editor in chief Dan Wakeford. As employees read the news story, the internal work chat service Slack erupted in what one employee called 'pandemonium.'... Minutes later, as staffers read Finkelstein’s email, its message was underscored as they were forcibly logged out of their Slack accounts. Former Messenger reporter Jim LaPorta posted on social media that employees would not receive health care or severance.”

Washington Post: “The last known location of 'Portrait of Fräulein Lieser' by world-renowned Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was in Vienna in the mid-1920s. The vivid painting featuring a young woman was listed as property of a 'Mrs Lieser' — believed to be Henriette Lieser, who was deported and killed by the Nazis. The only remaining record of the work was a black and white photograph from 1925, around the time it was last exhibited, which was kept in the archives of the Austrian National Library. Now, almost 100 years later, this painting by one of the world’s most famous modernist artists is on display and up for sale — having been rediscovered in what the auction house has hailed as a sensational find.... It is unclear which member of the Lieser family is depicted in the piece[.]”

CNN: “Jon Stewart is heading back to 'The Daily Show.' The comedian, who during his 16-year run as host of the Comedy Central program established it as an entertainment and cultural force, will return to host the show each week on Mondays starting February 12, Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios announced Wednesday. Stewart, who returns as the 2024 presidential election season heats up, will also executive produce the show and work with a rotating line-up of comedians who will helm the program the rest of the week, Tuesdays through Thursdays.”

~~~ Marie: I don't know if this podcast will update automatically, or if I have to do it manually. In any event, both you and I can find the latest update of the published episodes here. The episodes begin with ads, but you can fast-forward through them.

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Sunday
Jun172018

The Commentariat -- June 18, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

When you walk down a busy street, there's a good chance half the people you see are morons. Jeffrey Jones of Gallup: "President Donald Trump's job approval rating averaged 45% in Gallup polling last week, tying his personal high. His previous 45% rating occurred in the first week after he was inaugurated as president."

Noah Lanard of Mother Jones: "The top human rights official at the United Nations condemned the Trump administration's 'cruel practice' of separating parents from their children at the border, saying that the 'thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable.' Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein used his final address to the body to criticize a familiar list of failed states and authoritarian regimes, including North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela. But he added the United States to the list for forcibly separating nearly 2,000 children from their parents from April 19 to May 31." ...

... Look Over There! Over There! Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "[1]President Trump warned on Monday that the United States must avoid the immigration problems facing Europe and he attacked the policies of Germany, one of America's closest allies. [2] In a series of Twitter posts, Mr. Trump falsely claimed that crime in Germany is on the rise, and railed against immigration policies in Europe, even as his own policies at home face bipartisan criticism about the separation of children from parents when they are stopped at American borders. Germany's government is on precarious political footing as disputes grow about Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door refugee policy for those seeking asylum.... [3] On Sunday, leaders in Mr. Trump's own party and Democrats called for the end of the president's practice of separating children from their parents when families arrive at American borders seeking entry." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Under the "truth sandwich rule," the order of the numbered sentences should be 2, 1, 3. ...

     ... Update. Katie Rogers has been added to the byline. The new lede is much better: "President Trump remained resistant on Monday in the face of growing public outcry over his administration's policy of separating children from their parents at the border, repeating the false assertion that Democrats were the ones to blame for it, and suggesting that criminals -- not parents -- were toting juveniles to the United States.

'They could be murderers and thieves and so much else,' Mr. Trump said of the people crossing the border, as he delivered somewhat incongruous remarks during a meeting of the National Space Council on Monday. 'We want a safe country, and it starts with the borders, and that's the way it is.'... In a series of tweets and speeches on Monday, Mr. Trump instead relied on fear to curry support for a 'zero tolerance' policy that refers for criminal prosecution all immigrants apprehended crossing the border without authorization. The president used the threat of gang violence and other crime, and a change in the fabric of American culture as a means to stoke support among supporters and push Congress into figuring out a way to drum up funding for his long-promised border wall.

... A Cage by Any Other Name.... Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "On Monday morning's edition of Fox & Friends, host Steve Doocy defended President Trump's immigrant child detention facilities by arguing the media is unfairly describing cages as 'cages.' 'And you know, while some have likened them to concentration camps or cages, you do see that they have those thermal blankets, you do see some fencing ... some have referring to them as cages, but keep in mind this a great big warehouse facility where they built walls out of chain-link fences,' Doocy said.... During a subsequent interview with White House spokesman Hogan Gidley, Doocy again objected to the characterization of cages as 'cages,' saying they are more accurately described as a 'security pen.'"

Shawn Boburg & Aaron Davis of the Washington Post: "A South Korean aviation firm that hired President Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen failed last year to disclose that it was the subject of a corruption investigation as it won work from the U.S. military, records show. On Oct. 11, nine current and former executives at Korea Aerospace Industries were indicted in Seoul on charges that included bribery, embezzlement and defrauding the South Korean government, records show. Just two weeks later, KAI cleared a business integrity review by the U.S Air Force and won a contract worth up to $48 million -- its largest ever from the Air Force -- to maintain fighter jets. Experts said the criminal case should have subjected the company to additional scrutiny.... Companies are required to provide 'immediate written notice' if their 'certification was erroneous when submitted or has become erroneous by reason of changed circumstances,' according to federal guidelines.... But KAI did not alter filings it had previously submitted to the U.S. government certifying that none of its executives were under indictment.... Cohen was a consultant for KAI at the time.... There is no indication Cohen was involved in the awarding of the contract. KAI said he was not, and the Air Force said no senior leaders or contracting officers were contacted by Cohen." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In other words, Cohen's "consulting" arrangement with KAI was just a shakedown. Cohen knew it; KAI knew it.

Punt! Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court declined on Monday to decide two challenges to partisan gerrymandering, citing technical grounds. In a case from Wisconsin, the court said plaintiffs there had not proved they had suffered the sort of direct injury to give them standing to sue. The court sent the case back to the lower courts to allow the plaintiffs to try again. In a second case, from Maryland, the court ruled against the challengers in an unsigned opinion. The decisions were a setback for critics of partisan gerrymandering, who had hoped that the Supreme Court would decide the cases on their merits and rule in their favor, transforming American democracy by subjecting to close judicial scrutiny oddly shaped districts that amplify one party's political power. The court has never struck down a voting district as a partisan gerrymander, in which the political party in power draws maps to favor its candidates."

*****

Children in Cages. Nomann Merchant of the AP: "Inside an old warehouse in South Texas, hundreds of children wait in a series of cages created by metal fencing. One cage had 20 children inside. Scattered about are bottles of water, bags of chips and large foil sheets intended to serve as blankets. One teenager told an advocate who visited that she was helping care for a young child she didn't know because the child's aunt was somewhere else in the facility. She said she had to show others in her cell how to change the girl's diaper.... More than 1,100 people were inside the large, dark facility that's divided into separate wings for unaccompanied children, adults on their own, and mothers and fathers with children. The cages in each wing open out into common areas to use portable restrooms. The overhead lighting in the warehouse stays on around the clock. The Border Patrol said close to 200 people inside the facility were minors unaccompanied by a parent. Another 500 were 'family units,' parents and children. Many adults who crossed the border without legal permission could be charged with illegal entry and placed in jail, away from their children. Reporters were not allowed by agents to interview any of the detainees or take photos." ...

... Rafia Zakaria in the New Republic: Jeff Sessions is "sending women home to die." ...

... AP & Mark Abadi of Business Insiders: "First lady Melania Trump is wading into the emotional controversy over policies enacted by her husband's administration that have increased the number of migrant children being separated from their parents. Trump's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham told CNN on Sunday that the first lady believes 'we need to be a country that follows all laws,' but also one 'that governs with heart.' She says that [Melania] Trump 'hates to see children separated from their families' and hopes 'both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform.'... [Donald] Trump has tried to blame the practice on a law passed by Democrats that doesn't exist." Mrs. McC: Melania doesn't really dispute that. "Wading in," maybe, but barely getting her feet damp. ...

     ... Update. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "By laying responsibility for the situation on 'both sides,' Mrs. Trump effectively echoed her husband's assertion that it was the result of a law written by Democrats. In fact, the administration announced a 'zero tolerance' approach this spring, leading to the separations.... The administration approach has drawn a cascade of criticism in recent days." ...

     ... Steve M. contrasts Baker's story with Karen Tumulty's story in the Washington Post. Shame on you, Karen. ...

     ... What the Trump Ladies Say. Benjamin Hart of New York: "Amid widespread, increasingly loud outrage over the Trump administration's policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, President Trump has deployed his time-tested strategies of bald-faced lying and passing the buck. Trump has claimed repeatedly that while it pains him to watch children wrenched from their mothers, it's only Democratic intransigence that prevents him from ending a policy he personally put into motion, and could halt at any time. On Sunday, First Lady Melania Trump put out a mealy mouthed statement that echoed her husband, calling for congressional action where none is necessary.... During an appearance on Meet the Press earlier in the day, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway applied the same tactic. 'As a mother, as a Catholic, as somebody who has a conscience ... I will tell you that nobody likes this policy,' she said, making it sound like the White House didn't have a choice on the matter.... 'If the Democrats are serious, and if a lot of Republicans are serious, they'll come together,' she said.... Department of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen ... pretended the policy she (supposedly) dislikes so much doesn't exist at all.... 'We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period,' [she tweeted]." ...

... Laura Bush, in a Washington Post op-ed is a bit more forthright, though she doesn't name Trump, Sessions, Miller, et al.: "... this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart. Our government should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert outside of El Paso. These images are eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history." Mrs. McC: The reader has to be smart enough to know who is responsible for the zero tolerance policy, and it's safe to say that the majority of readers have no idea. ...

... Shane Harris, et al., of the Washington Post: "Democrats expanded their campaign Sunday to spotlight the Trump administration's forced separation of migrant children from their families at the U.S. border, trying to compel a change of policy and gain political advantage five months before midterm elections. Against a notable silence on the part of many Republicans who usually defend President Trump, Democratic lawmakers fanned out across the country, visiting a detention center outside New York City and heading to Texas to inspect facilities where children have been detained.... Trump has falsely blamed the separations on a law he said was written by Democrats. But the separations instead largely stem from a 'zero-tolerance' policy announced with fanfare last month by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The White House also has interpreted a 1997 legal agreement and a 2008 bipartisan human trafficking bill as requiring the separation of families -- a posture not taken by the George W. Bush or Obama administrations." ...

... Speaker of the Oblivious. Avi Selk of the Washington Post: "For Father's Day 2016, Paul D. Ryan ... tweeted a soft-focus video about life with his three growing children. 'We fish. We hike. We go do something,' Ryan said as a string instrument plucked in the background...." He retweeted what appears to be the same video in 2017. It was so superb, he retweeted it again this year. (Mrs. McC: Maybe his "growing children" never grow.) "What might have been appreciated on Father's Days past went over like a used food processor this time, amid the Trump administration's 'zero-tolerance' crackdown on illegal migration that has resulted in the forced separation of thousands of children from their mothers and fathers at the Southwestern U.S. border.... Many of the [30,000] replies [to the video] are variations on the same theme: images of children being physically taken from their parents, compared with the family fun on display in the House speaker's video."

Paul Krugman suspects the Pax America is over. The barbarians are already inside the White House. ...

... George Packer of the New Yorker: "A network of institutions and alliances -- the United Nations, nato, the international monetary system, and others -- became the foundation for 'the rules-based international order' that the leaders in Charlevoix saluted. It imposed restraints on the power politics that had nearly destroyed the world. It was a liberal order, based on coöperation among countries and respect for individual rights, and it was created and upheld by the world's leading liberal democracy. America's goals weren't selfless, and we often failed to live up to our stated principles.... The system endured, flawed and adaptable, for seventy years. In four days, between Quebec and Singapore, Trump showed that the liberal order is hateful to him, and that he wants out.... Kim Jong Un is Trump's kind of world leader.... The alternative to an interconnected system of security partnerships and trade treaties is a return to the old system of unfettered power politics.... Without allies and treaties, without universal values, American foreign policy largely depends on what goes on inside Trump's head. Kim, like Putin, already seems to have got there."

A Bizarre Tale from the Trump Campaign. Manuel Roig-Franzia & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... in late May 2016, Roger Stone ... [met with a Russian] man, wh called himself Henry Greenberg, [and who] offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton..., according to Stone who spoke about the previously unreported incident in interviews with The Washington Post. Greenberg, who did not reveal the information he claimed to possess, wanted Trump to pay $2 million for the political dirt, Stone said. 'You don't understand Donald Trump,' Stone recalled saying before rejecting the offer at a restaurant in the Russian-expat magnet of Sunny Isles, Fla. 'He doesn't pay for anything.' Later, Stone got a text message from Michael Caputo, a Trump campaign communications official who'd arranged the meeting after Greenberg had approached Caputo's Russian-immigrant business partner. 'How crazy is the Russian?' Caputo wrote according to a text message reviewed by The Post. Noting that Greenberg wanted 'big' money, Stone replied: 'waste of time.'... Caputo said he was asked about the meeting by prosecutors during a sometimes-heated questioning session last month.... Stone and Caputo, who did not previously disclose the meeting to congressional investigators, now say they believe they were the targets of a setup by U.S. law enforcement officials hostile to Trump. They cite records -- independently examined by The Post -- showing that the man who approached Stone is actually a Russian national who has claimed to work as an FBI informant.... There is no evidence that Greenberg was working with the FBI in his interactions with Stone, and in his court filing, Greenberg said that he had stopped his FBI cooperation sometime after 2013. Greenberg, in text messages with The Post, denied that he had been acting on the FBI's behalf when he met with Stone.... [The meeting] came in the same time period as other episodes in which Russian interests approached the Trump campaign." Greenberg now claims there was a third man at the meeting, a Ukrainian called Alexei who said the Clinton Foundation had fired him & he wanted to "tell his story." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Caputo is a regular contributor to CNN. Now it appears that while working for the Trump campaign, he actively sought dirt on Clinton from a shady or "crazy" foreign national. I think he's in trouble. CNN should let him go. ...

     ... The Coverup Is More Elaborate than the Crime. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... unlike other previously undisclosed meetings, this one was very, very clearly denied -- and repeatedly -- by both parties. It was also apparently denied in or at least omitted from their testimonies to congressional investigators. Although someone like Attorney General Jeff Sessions may have a credible argument that his denials of contact with Russians were the results of misunderstandings, Stone's and Caputo's denials were ironclad. 'I didn't talk to anybody who was identifiably Russian during the two-year run-up to this campaign,' Stone told The Post in April 2017.... Stone reasserted this in a March interview with Chuck Todd.... Caputo ... [said] in emphatic and unmistakable terms that he told the House Intelligence Committee that he had no contact with Russians.... Their public denials weren't 'I don't recall'; they were 'It didn't happen.'... Whatever transpired before or during that apparently strange meeting with [someone called Henry] Greenberg [who offered them dirt on Hillary Clinton] and whatever legal accountability there may or may not be, it doesn't change that it looks significantly more like there was a coverup than it did 24 hours ago."

... Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "Just hours after The Washington Post published a bombshell story about a previously undisclosed May 2016 meeting between Roger Stone and a Russian national who promised political dirt about Hillary Clinton, President Trump encouraged Post employees to go on strike. 'Washington Post employees want to go on strike because Bezos isn't paying them enough,' Trump tweeted. 'I think a really long strike would be a great idea. Employees would get more money and we would get rid of Fake News for an extended period of time! Is @WaPo a registered lobbyist?'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump & Giuliani Dangle a Pardon in Front of Manafort. Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "White House lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani suggested Sunday that President Trump might pardon his former campaign manager Paul Manafort if he is convicted -- but only after special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has completed his investigation. 'When it's over, hey, he's the president of the United States, he retains his pardon power, nobody's taking that away from him,' Giuliani said on CNN's 'State of the Union' when asked whether Trump would pardon Manafort should he be convicted. 'I couldn't and I don't want to take any prerogatives away from him.' But Giuliani stressed that Trump has not issued, would not issue and should not issue any pardons related to the Mueller probe while it is still ongoing, so as not to give the appearance that he has anything to hide." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Patrick mentioned in yesterday's Comments a column by Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post (June 15) in which she outlines how Russia entices Western businessmen to do their bidding by offering them "deals with friendly Russian businessmen.... 'Let us introduce you to some useful business contacts' was also, it seems, one of the ways in which the Russian government kept the attention of the Trump family." ...

Help world peace and make a lot of money, I would say that's a great lifetime goal for us to go after. -- Felix Sater to Michael Cohen, while they were discussing Trump Tower Moscow ...

... So think about that when you read about Jared's backchannel to North Korea in the story linked next. I suspect Jared had in mind to "help world peace -- and make a lot of money." Donald's goal was more like: "get a Nobel Peace Prize & make a lot of money on beach condos." ...

... Mark Mazzetti & Mark Landler of the New York Times: An American financier living in Singapore reached out to Jared Kushner last year to try to establish "a back channel to explore a meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, who for months had traded threats of military confrontation. Mr. Schulze ... had built a network of contacts in North Korea on trips he had taken to develop business opportunities in the isolated state. For some in North Korea..., Mr. Kushner appeared to be a promising contact. As a member of the president's family, officials in Pyongyang judged, Mr. Kushner would have the ear of his father-in-law and be immune from the personnel changes that had convulsed the early months of the administration. Mr. Schulze's quiet outreach was but one step in a circuitous path that led to last week's handshake between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim at a colonial-style island hotel in Singapore -- a path that involved secret meetings among spies, discussions between profit-minded entrepreneurs, and a previously unreported role for Mr. Kushner, according to interviews with current and former American officials and others familiar with the negotiations.... For Mr. Schulze, the scion of a family that made billions in mining, a thaw in America's relationship with North Korea would be potentially lucrative."

The people that like me best are those people, the workers. They're the people I understand the best. Those are the people I grew up with. Those are the people I worked on construction sites with. -- Donald Trump, November 2017

When Donnie was a lad, his mean father Fred made him spend his summer vacation building an apartment complex. On the job, Donnie's supervisor Joe Rosebud treated him kindly and even told Donnie he liked him. Donnie's bonding with Joe was the closest he ever got to having a positive feeling for someone else. Sadly, when Fred found out Joe was wasting time talking to Donnie, he fired Joe. Donnie put Joe in his rearview mirror. Years later, when Joe was running Rosebud Construction, Donnie stiffed him, then sued him. But there had been a moment. ...

... Brad Plumer & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "By crafting an industrial policy that largely looks to the past, Mr. Trump ... has largely focused on saving legacy sectors whose workforces have been hurt by globalization, automation and innovation.... While the approach has helped Mr. Trump remain popular with many working-class white voters, it has done little to help those populations prepare for changes that could further decimate their professions.... In the latest ... move, Mr. Trump asked Energy Secretary Rick Perry on June 1 to 'prepare immediate steps' to halt the closing of unprofitable coal and nuclear plants.... Any plan to rescue these power plants would probably entail dramatic government intervention in America's energy markets and come at the expense of newer, cheaper power sources like natural gas or wind."


Margaret Sullivan
of the Washington Post: Cognitive scientist and linguist George Lakoff says the media are mishandling Trump's lies. Rather, news stories should read like a "truth sandwich": "First, he says, get as close to the overall, big-picture truth as possible right away. (Thus the gist of the Trump-in-Singapore story: Little of substance was accomplished in the summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, despite the pageantry.) Then report what Trump is claiming about it: achievement of world peace. And then, in the same story or broadcast, fact-check his claims. That's the truth sandwich -- reality, spin, reality.... Avoid retelling the lies. Avoid putting them in headlines, leads or tweets.... Because it is that very amplification that gives them power. That's how propaganda works on the brain: through repetition, even when part of that repetition is fact-checking.... Jay Rosen of New York University sums up one such proposal in three words: 'Send the interns.' White House briefings ... are no place for talented, highly compensated reporters.... They have also become a place where reporters get insulted instead of answered, as Sarah Huckabee Sanders showed last week when she refused to answer reasonable question and repeated lies about Trump's immigration policy...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... They're Not Lies. They're Not "Alternatives Facts." They're a "Particular Vernacular." Good Grief! Caleb Howe of Mediaite: Steve Bannon, on ABC's "This Week," insisted that Trump had never lied to the American people. "After some back and forth, [host Jon] Karl repeated again, 'he says things that aren't true all the time.' 'I don't believe that,' said Bannon. 'I think he speaks in a particular vernacular that connects to people in this country.'" Mrs. McC: To present this as a truth sandwich: Trump lies; Bannon says he doesn't; fact-check." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... MEANWHILE, maybe New Yorkers shouldn't try to get all folksy and borrow from Texas "vernacular." "All cattle and no hat," Chuck?

Way Beyond the Beltway

Pope Still Catholic. Hilary Clarke, et al., of CNN: "Pope Francis compared having an abortion to avoid birth defects to the Nazi era idea of trying to create a pure race. Speaking to a delegation of Italy's Family Association in Rome on Saturday, he also reiterated the Roman Catholic belief that a true human family is comprised of a man and woman."

Reader Comments (13)

Poor Melanie. She has a sad that little immigrant children who are not Einsteins like her are being ripped apart from their parents. Both sides (but not hubby) are to blame. Is so sad. *sigh* Too bad they don't have Get Out of Detention Cell card like she did. And too bad they aren't able to chain migrate their parents to the Land of the Free either. *double sigh*

Oh well. Time to walk the dog, or rather have one of the servants walk the dog. Also time to look in mirror and see how plastic surgery coming.

And Laura Bush (a tad less, um, calculating) thinks the whole thing is immoral. But who's to blame? She doesn't seem to know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Must be the Democrats again.

Paul Ryan wants everyone to see what a great daddy he is and that his kids are all fat and happy. They're not wailing and hungry like those icky Messican kids. Ewww.

And Trumpy and Jeffy? They're leaning back in their Barcaloungers fondling their overseer's slave whips, grinning at the thought of weeping immigrants. Now if only the lying fake news media would take their word for it that its all the fault of Democrats!

June 18, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

There's only so many windows. Wait your turn.

I'm really liking George Lakoff's idea about offering the public "truth sandwiches" rather than the same 'ol approach to reporting the news in which headlines merely regurgitate whatever Trump lies for that day bubble up out of his black soul.

I'm so tired of seeing headlines and ledes that read "Trump Says Summit Huge Success!". You don't really get to "...but nothing was accomplished" until the fourth or fifth graf.

He knows this. Another reason he'll never stop lying.

Lakoff, by the way, is an immensely interesting guy. If you're ever of a mind, check out his book "Metaphors We Live By" written with Mark Johnson. They detail the ways in which metaphors order our thinking and can sometimes derail our investigations into various aspects of society by short circuiting rational thought and sending us instead down well worn metaphorical pathways. They also outline how metaphors can provide an editorial approach to understanding how and why people think what they do about the world, creating organizing principles around which their thinking coalesces (liberals: the nurturing mother, Confederates: the punishing father).

Any way it happens--desperate times call for a different approach--truth must not be subsumed and hidden because the media is trying to cover this disaster the way they covered all modern presidencies. We simply cannot treat the Trump Monster as if he's just another politician. You might as well report on the Bubonic Plague as if it's a cold. Doing so deprives the nation of the kind of hard truth it needs at the moment we need it most. Not doing so is like reporting that there's been a small fire in the wastebasket, which has been contained, when the building is engulfed in flames and people are jumping out of windows.

"GOP working on immigration plan" needs to be replaced with "Trump and Sessions Take Babies in Diapers Away From Parents and Put Them in Cages."

Of course, you know what's going to happen. The pressure will become immense (one reason why the Trumpies are keeping reporters from taking pictures inside these cages; they remember what Abu Ghraib did to Bush and Cheney). Finally, Trump will agree not to separate families. But then he'll take credit for being a decent guy and fixing the problem created by those horrible Democrats.

Headlines will read "Trump Helps Immigrant Families Stay Together".

And a few more people will jump out of the burning house.

June 18, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: So you would have us believe that Barcaloungers come in gold brocade with 24K-gold-plated recliner handles? Well, I guess it's just as plausible as "The Democrats made me do it."

Meanwhile, JeffBo is having trouble with that Sir Walter Scott/"Gone-with-the-Wind"y Southern chivalric code thing. Fortunately for him, he figured out that a woman whose complexion is assumed to be even slightly darker than his pretty pink face falls outside the category of "damsel in distress." It says so in the Bible. Someplace.

June 18, 2018 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Big doings at World Cup. First, little Iceland plays mighty Argentina to a tie in their very first Cup match. Ekkert að þakka!

Then, yesterday, Mexico beats perennial power, and reigning World Cup champ, Germany. Oh si!

The play of goaltender Guillermo Ochoa was outstanding. The guy was, well, a wall, prompting one wag to offer this pithy take on the outcome.

(Mexico should be glad this match wasn't played in the US. Sessions and Trump would have had ICE agents round them up and shoved into a cage somewhere.)

June 18, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Me thinks the baby narrative is driving Drumpf and his acolytes into brain spasms. I think the only ones truly enjoying this are Stephen "KKK" Miller and Jeff "chain gang" Sessions. Donny only cares about what other people think of Donny; he feels nothing for the immigrant kids, except maybe some visceral contempt for not being Caucasian. He's only mad and rage tweeting because he's getting bad press and probably knows somewhere deep down inside that deteriorating brain of his that this is all on him.

Nobody except the extreme minority of deeply-insecure Stephen Millers agree with this policy, And the longer they hold out, the bigger the clusterfuck grows, the longer the effects of the crisis linger. We need to hold the GOP's face to the fire on this one, sending waves of lawmakers every weekend to try to shed light on the child prisons until the public backlash makes Drumpfy fold. He may claim some credit but it's only the diehard dolts that will give the White House credit, which they're prepared to give him anyway, regardless the outcome.

June 18, 2018 | Unregistered Commentersafari

Here's another example of Trump's heartless methods when it relates to people not of his ilk–-or his liking–-or his color–-or his...

The two million residents of Gaza live in dismal conditions. Two thirds depend on humanitarian aid called U.N. R. W.A. (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.) Earlier this year Trump, in an apparent effort to increase pressure on Abbas, froze U.S. financial support. U.N. officials have repeatedly warned Trump that that this could cause shutting down schools, and curtailing food aid. Evidently the Trump administration, with Kushner the key figure here, concluded that the U.N. agency was bluffing and have stuck to their lack of financial support.

You let this information sink in coupled with the immigration scandal and it leaves you weak with fury. The feckless Congress, although some are making a mark, are letting these atrocities continue, unabated.

During the Obama administration, according to a report from Adam Entous from the New Yorker, the administration had become convinced that Netanyahu, after years of threatening to use force against Iran, was bluffing, (here's that word again–something Trump knows like the back of his hand) that he was really trying to goad the Americans into taking a harder line and even launching a strike of their own. One of Obama's advisers was quoted, calling Bibi a "chickenshit," causing a diplomatic uproar. But not everyone close to Obama regretted the epithet: A top aide said he didn't think it was strong enough, "it should have been chickenshit motherfucker."

And right now I'd like to pin that donkey on the back of that horse's ass that resides in that House that is White.


And I was thinking today about the Potemkin village we now find ourselves in and wonder how long this country is going to put up with this. How long? Not long?

June 18, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Further to Akhilleus' comments on World Cup

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Df6Npg7XUAAS_J0.jpg

Pat

June 18, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterNot that Pat

The drip, drip, drip is now a running faucet, soon to become a fire hose.

The Supreme Court in its glorious wisdom has decided that gerrymandering will continue to be indulged. Little Johnny sez "No one was harmed...*sniff, sniff*....it can stay". Gorsuch and Thomas, predictably, declared that the plaintiffs can go to hell. Even the so-called liberals, shamefully, left it alone (Justice Kagan acknowledged that gerrymandering is bad, bad, bad and that someone should do something about it. Yeah, Elena. How 'bout you? That'd be nice). Instead, the court set up that hoary winger roadblock that's been used for generations of obfuscation and status quo-ing: More Study is Needed.

Yeah. Like we need "more study" before anyone can claim that there's such a thing as global warming. Maybe we can set up some studies to make sure it gets dark at night. Not quite there yet. Hey, look! A streetlight. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

As more and more Trumpian jurists (there's an oxymoron for ya) come on line, the drip, drip, drip of winger court victories has moved from faucet turned on full and will progress shortly to fire hose intensity.
We'll all be on the receiving end of that gusher. So will democracy. So will America.

Lillian Hellman once wrote a play called "The Little Foxes". The title comes from a Biblical verse, one that very accurately describes the work of the current administration. "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." The foxes who ruin it for everyone, who rip and romp and tear it all up for their own benefit and amusement.

In the film version of this play, Bette Davis, as the head fox, Regina (of course, the queen), sits quite still and watches with eyes wide as her husband, whose death will put her in command of his wealth and give her control over her equally rapacious brothers, struggles to get life saving medicine. She sits there, refusing to act, determined not to lift a finger, as he dies. It's pretty chilling.

You know what's even more chilling? Watching the Supreme Court do the same thing to democracy. We are one seat away from a full-on Little Foxes Court. But until then, the liberals will lend a hand.

(And please don't give me that juridical wankery about standing and blah, blah, blah. There's plenty of standing here. The fucking barbarians are getting ready to run us through. Maybe there'll be standing then. Maybe not. More study might be needed. Hey, it'll be a lot easier to study when the body is dead, it won't jump around so much.)

June 18, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

In less than two years, the United States has gone from a force for good in the world to, in the eyes of the United Nations, basically a rogue nation. We now stand in line with failed states, authoritarian strongman dictatorships, and regimes that inflict pain, suffering, and death on those they consider undesirables who attempt to cross their borders.

The UN saw fit to put Trumperica in that grouping because of the shameful abuse heaped on innocent children and families as part of the Trump/Sessions Intolerance and Pain, and Punishment Policy. They also included one other state as a source of abuse of migrants, Hungary, which under Viktor Orbán seeks to criminalize any assistance given to refugees or even to any who try to monitor human rights abuses.

So guess who gushed about what a great guy Viktor Orbán is?

You got it.

Are we great yet?

June 18, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

AK: Can we say, perhaps, not that great minds think alike but like minds think alike. This from me in March:

THE LITTLE FOXES

We need another Lillian Hellman to write another play about a corrupt, devious, despicable rich family–-this time one that takes over the government of a nation by duplicitous maneuvers putting the head of this family in the presidential seat. By the second act the administration of this head honcho is in chaos because this fool has had no experience–– and he lacks a brain and a heart–-"I am NOT a politician"–-he often told his fawning crowds. One by one all the head honcho's appointed people get fired or leave on their own which opens up the window into what this guy wanted in the first place–––ENTERTAINMENT! He appoints all the little foxes he sees on T.V. to help him run this new show of shows.

The last act is up for grabs––our imaginary playwright has sleepless nights wondering how to end it. We, the audience, hold our breaths, what will we be handed when the curtain comes down.

"Take us the foxes, that spoil the vines,
for our vines have tender grapes."

June 18, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

People are outraged! outraged! that Drumpf would use children as political pawns in his sick quest for #MAGA coronation.

Umm, ever heard of CHIP?

Way back in May (yeah, last month) Trump laid out his administration's priorities by unilaterally requesting,
(unprovoked and completely voluntary, thus realllly important for him) specific budget cuts to pay for a miniscule percentage of his Make Me Richer tax cuts under the disguise of caring about the budgets.

What did he specifically target? Feeding underprivileged kids. Yeah, eviscerating the CHIP program. That's a priority for Trump's administration, and the fake religious followers said nothing. You know why? We couldn't see any child getting their apples ripped from their hands, or their bowl of cheerios getting swatted to the floor. No images or children crying in direct relation to Republican callousness.

But now Trump and sidekick KKK Stephen Miller done fucked up. Now we've images. And they cut straight to the heart. It's no longer hypothetical but emotional.

Photos of sweaty mothers trekking through the desert looking for their own version of some Promised Land, and not only landing in prison, but losing their defenseless child in the process.

Harmless kids crying next to border agents. Sirens blasting. Kids wasting away in windowless prisons, locked in groups in metal cages (the authorities call them "pods", that sounds so much more innocent, like dolphins all chained together).

Trump's modus operandi when blatantly in the wrong is double down. Never give an inch. We saw that today with Neo-Nazi barbie Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and her "we never apologize for anything" speech, marching orders straight from Trump's massive asshole.

This will not end well, and only massive pressure will make the administration back down. Dems needs to keep this story central and hot in the headlines.

Raw pictures are the key to its downfall.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/08/politics/white-house-chip-funding/index.html

June 18, 2018 | Unregistered Commentersafari

PD,

Great minds (or at least minds in reasonably decent operational condition) DO think alike.

When I wrote that comment I was thinking that I was sure one of our RC cohort had brought up "The Little Foxes" not long ago.

I might have known it was you.

And "He appoints all the little foxes he sees on T.V. to help him run this new show of shows" is a truly distressing and frighteningly precise observation. Has there ever been, to extend your conclusion, a more indefatigably esurient, avaricious four flusher than Scotty Pruitt lasting this long in such a position of senatorially consented power?

Never in life. Or at least never in memory, historical or otherwise.

He is a pure cognate of his gluttonous lord and master, the Trump Monster, when it comes to feathering his own nest with monies plucked from taxpayer pockets.

A true little vulpine poisoner. The grapes have no chance.

June 18, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Emperor Trump of Mongo

Trump, in pursuit of military "dominance in space" (his exact words, by the way) demands a new Galactic Army. Don't worry though. His army is not a sort of Star Wars rebel alliance fighting the Empire. He IS the Empire and he wants to blast the big bang bollox out of any spaceship that doesn't pay him off.

In other words, Emperor Trump of the planet Mongo wants to make sure that space, which has heretofore been a relatively conflict free zone, becomes a TRUMPY battlezone with zipping battle cruisers blasting the shit out of non-Trump X-wing fighters. Fuck those non-Trumpy spacemen. Take that, Flash Obama!

But not only does he want TrumpAmerika to dominate the space of space, he wants to sell the space of space. He wants to sell the International Space Station (not his to sell, by the way) to the highest bidder in order to line his pockets. Condos in space. Much better than condos on radioactive Pyongyang beaches. And why not let corporations decide what's the best use of our space capability? And while we're at it, we can develop some pri-tty rich real estate in space and market spaceships with a view.

Let's kill us some alien bugs (aka immigrant brown and uppity black people), dammit! And then bury their carcasses fast so rich white investors won't see their exploded guts when they pay through the nose for our Trump Space Condos!

MAGA, motherfuckers.

June 18, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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