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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
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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
Oct072018

The Commentariat -- October 7, 2018

Late Morning Update:

Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump said Saturday he's 'a hundred percent' certain that Christine Blasey Ford named the wrong person when she said Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her, he told reporters on Air Force One. He also called Kavanaugh, who was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice today after being confirmed in a 50-48 Senate vote, 'squeaky clean.' Beyond the sexual assault accusation, a number of his Yale classmates have said Kavanaugh lied under oath about his drinking habits.... Trump also insisted women were 'extremely happy' about Kavanaugh's confirmation because they're apparently relieved the men in their lives are less likely now to be accused of sexual assault. 'Women were outraged at what happened to Brett Kavanaugh,' he added, according to pool reports." ...

... Christal Hayes of USA Today: "Hours after his Supreme Court pick was sworn in Saturday..., Donald Trump said on Fox News that those who made up 'false' stories about Brett Kavanaugh should be penalized. Trump, talking with Fox News' Jeanine Pirro, said he hated watching the slew of sexual assault allegations grow against Kavanaugh and dubbed all the accusations 'fabrications' with 'not a bit of truth.' 'I think that they should be held liable,' Trump told Pirro. 'You can't go around and whether it's making up stories or making false statement about such an important position, you can't do that. You can destroy somebody's life.'"

*****

Nasty, Lying, Unhinged Violent Would-be Rapist Drunk to Join Supreme Court. Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "A deeply divided Senate voted on Saturday to confirm Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, delivering a victory to President Trump and ending a rancorous Washington battle that began as a debate over ideology and jurisprudence and concluded with questions of sexual misconduct. The vote, 50 to 48, was interrupted repeatedly by protesters, with the Capitol Police dragging screaming demonstrators out of the gallery as the senators sat somberly at their wooden desks in the chamber below.... The final tally fell almost entirely along party lines, with Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska -- the lone Republican to break with her party -- recorded as 'present' instead of 'no' as a gesture to a colleague, Senator Steve Daines of Montana, who was attending his daughter's wedding and would have voted 'yes.' Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia was the lone Democrat to support Judge Kavanaugh." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update: Powerful Old White Men Fall All Over Themselves to Sign up Nasty, Lying, Unhinged Violent Would-be Rapist Drunk. "[Kavanaugh] was promptly sworn in by both Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the retired Justice Anthony M. Kennedy -- the court's longtime swing vote, whom he will replace -- in a private ceremony." ...

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Trump predicted Saturday that Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) 'will never recover' politically for her vote against Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh as he celebrated his nominee's ascension following an extraordinarily brutal confirmation process.... 'I think she will never recover from this,' Trump said. 'I think the people from Alaska will never forgive her for what she did.'... He singled out Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) for praise.... 'I think what Susan Collins did for herself was incredibly positive,' Trump said. 'It showed her to be an honorable, incredible woman. I think she's got a level of respect that's unbelievable. I really mean it.' Trump called The Post from the White House residence on Saturday afternoon, shortly before the Senate held its final vote and before he jetted to Kansas for an evening campaign rally, where he was looking to take a victory lap." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Trump likes to say when he has no idea what he's talking about, "We'll see." His point of course is that there's a price to pay for integrity. ...

... Speaking of "We'll See." Chas Danner of New York: "[R]egarding the political cost the GOP may have to pay for its pushing of Kavanaugh and its self-serving dismissal of the allegations against him, [Mitch] McConnell brushed off the outrage, insisting that 'these things always blow over.' He's also happy that Kavanaugh, who he has called a 'political gift,' came out on top because it demonstrated GOP resolve and, in his mind, cleared Kavanaugh of any wrongdoing.... McConnell seems to see himself as both the hero, and a victim, in this story. His victimhood is at the hands of the women who spoke up and confronted members of Congress, and on behalf of his fellow Republicans, including Kavanaugh. His heroism is a result of his willingness to do anything to grab and hold onto power in service of his ultraconservative cause.... Indeed, with his dream achieved on Saturday, McConnell admitted that his whole stated premise for blocking [Merrick] Garland -- that it was, as he once said, 'about a principle, not a person' -- was bullshit, unless the right to take over the judicial branch by any means necessary was the principle. Asked if he would commit to not confirming a Trump nominee to the Supreme Court if another vacancy happened in 2020, McConnell replied: 'We'll see what it looks like in 2020. First, do we have a vacancy. Second, who is in charge of the Senate.'" --s ...

... Terry Schwadron of DC Report: "Once again, the lesson is being rammed home: We care only about winning even if it means trampling personal reputations.... [W]e ought to be yet more concerned about what is passing as reasonable behavior by our public officials.... Though Kavanaugh's Republican advocates suggest unfounded, personal allegations against the judge are out of control, he's actually a public figure.... It seems to me to be quite another thing for Trump and Senate Republicans to level their rhetorical guns on private citizens, particularly women who have nothing to gain and lots to lose by stepping up to say that they were subject to private, bad behavior, however long ago.... Rather than Trump himself, Mitch McConnell turns out to be the heavy, the bully, in this story." --s ...

... ** Chief Justice Part of Kavanaugh Conspiracy. Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has received more than a dozen judicial misconduct complaints against ... Brett M. Kavanaugh in recent weeks but has chosen for the time being not to refer them to a judicial panel for investigation. A judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit -- the court on which Kavanaugh serves -- sent a string of complaints to Roberts starting three weeks ago, according to four people familiar with the matter. That judge, Karen LeCraft Henderson, had dismissed other complaints against Kavanaugh as frivolous, but she concluded that some were substantive enough that they should not be handled by Kavanaugh's fellow judges in the D.C. Circuit. In a statement Saturday, Henderson acknowledged the complaints and said they centered on statements Kavanaugh made during his Senate confirmation hearings.... The situation is highly unusual.... Never before has a Supreme Court nominee been poised to join the court while a fellow judge recommends that a series of misconduct claims against that nominee warrant review. Roberts/s decision not to immediately refer the cases to another appeals court has caused some concern in the legal community. If Kavanaugh is confirmed, legal experts say, the details of the misconduct complaints against him may not become public and instead will be dismissed. Supreme Court justices are not subject to the misconduct rules governing these claims." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: "Chief Judge Merrick Garland disqualified himself from handling ethics complaints against ... Brett Kavanaugh, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit announced Saturday morning. The statement did not explain why Garland ... had decided to step aside, or provide an update on the status of the complaints. Multiple ethics complaints have been filed against Kavanaugh in his current court, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, about his testimony in recent weeks in the US Senate and his response to allegations of sexual misconduct. The chief judge of the circuit normally handles ethics cases, but they have discretion to step aside if they conclude 'circumstances warrant disqualification,' under the federal judiciary's rules. If the chief judge is disqualified, the complaint falls to the next most senior judge of the court, in this case Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, who issued Saturday's statement.... 'The complaints do not pertain to any conduct in which Judge Kavanaugh engaged as a judge. The complaints seek investigations only of the public statements he has made as a nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States[, Henderson said in her statement.]" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Justin Wise of the Hill: "Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said Friday she fears the high court may lack a justice going forward who would serve as a swing vote on cases, speaking hours after ... Brett Kavanaugh secured enough votes to be confirmed. Kagan said at a conference for women at Princeton University that over the past three decades, starting with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and continuing with Justice Anthony Kennedy, that there was a figure on the bench 'who found the center or people couldn't predict in that sort of way.' 'It's not so clear, that I think going forward, that sort of middle position -- it's not so clear whether we'll have it,' Kagan said."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... John Bresnahan of Politico: "After weeks of backroom deals, dramatic hearings and rage-filled protests that pitted the #MeToo movement against ... Donald Trump, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is on track to be confirmed by the Senate on Saturday by the narrowest of margins. The vote, scheduled for late Saturday afternoon, is expected to be anticlimactic after the Senate soap opera that has come before." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... John Wagner & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "The Senate was poised to confirm Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh as the next Supreme Court justice Saturday afternoon by one of the narrowest margins in the institution's history, capping off a brutal confirmation fight that underscored how deeply polarized the nation has become under President Trump. After the remaining votes fell into place on Friday, Democrats, in a show of defiance, spent all night making impassioned floor speeches against the nomination and continued into Saturday morning. They voiced fears about how Kavanaugh would rule on an array of issues, including abortion rights and executive power, and highlighted the allegations of decades-old sexual assault that roiled his confirmation process for the past three weeks." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Michael Scherer & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Now-Justice Kavanaugh was narrowly confirmed Saturday by the Senate, 50-48, in a vote that tracked expectations from the summer, with only one Democrat and one Republican defecting from the party line. But few of the players emerged from the process unchanged or unblemished, underscoring the uncharted territory of deepening distrust and polarization that now defines the American system. The events further distanced the Senate Judiciary Committee from its nearly forgotten bipartisan traditions and raised new questions about the potential for the Supreme Court to maintain an independent authority outside the maelstrom of politics." Mrs. McC: Both of these reporters are conservatives, but their piece is worth reading to get a perspective on what Republicans/Fox "News" think about their "victory." ...

... BUT Dylan Scott of Vox has perhaps a more accurate read: "This is the governing ideology of the Republican Party: We don't care what anybody else thinks. We have the power. We have the will. We have the votes. We'll do what we want. In politics, there's winning the argument, and there's winning the vote. Republicans lost the argument, but they ultimately had the votes.... Republicans ... have no evidence to support their claims that [Christine Blasey] Ford might have been assaulted some other time, in some other place, by some other person. Yet they kept making them, ignoring any questions about Kavanaugh's own honesty and clinging to an ill-defined standard of additional corroboration for an alleged assault that took place nearly 40 years ago. And Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin took the same position. But that was typical of the GOP's argument. Whatever rhetorical contortions were necessary, whatever procedural formalities must be endured, whatever must be done to put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court would be done." ...

... AND Republicans Don't Give Two F@#ks about Your Democracy. Steve M.: "Republicans have demonstrated that they see public confidence in institutions as an expendable luxury. Americans will now lose confidence in the Supreme Court as they've lost confidence in Congress, the presidency, and our electoral system. Republicans don't care. They control all these institutions, which do what they want done. That's all that matters to them. What's the approval rating of Congress? It's 19%, according to Gallup. Gallup polls this question monthly, and the number has been 20% or less every month since Republicans took over the House in January 2011.... Republicans elected a president who dishonors the presidency at every opportunity. So what? He's signing the bills they want and appointing the judges they want. So we should all stop saying that institutions are being damaged as if we expect anyone in power to care. The people who run the government have calculated that respected institutions simply aren't necessary. And that's working out just fine for them." --s ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Republicans ignored Brett's lies & his insane rant & based their excuse for confirming him on one of two legal standards: "beyond a reasonable doubt" -- the criminal standard -- or "preponderance of the evidence" -- the civil standard. (Trump raised the standard to no doubt at all.) So voters should apply a legal standard to them on this election day & every election day thereafter: the penalty for aiding & abetting. You & your buddy rob a bank; after you race outside with the loot, your buddy shoots the guard dead. Even though you didn't shoot anyone & never intended to do so, you are criminally liable for the murder. Under this legal standard, every Senator who voted to confirm Kavanaugh is guilty of all the crimes & bad judgment the hearings revealed. Vote 'em out & lock 'em up. ...

** Francis Wilkinson in Bloomberg: "It's worth noting ... that in a battle over whether a woman's claims against a powerful man were to be believed, the decisive event was a speech by a woman who had no expectation, or even intention, of being believed herself. Senator Susan ... Collins's speech offered a series of ostensible rationales for her vote in favor of Kavanaugh. But her rationales were reminiscent of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell feigning outrage over the perfidious delaying tactics of Democrats.... McConnell didn't expect his protests to be taken seriously. He was showing the Republican base, which has been conditioned by Donald Trump to savor such displays, that he could spin out an absurd falsehood in service to the cause.... The open contempt for truth -- a comic level of gas-lighting -- is the whole point.... But she anchored her speech in the vapors of Trump and McConnell's post-truth, confirming it as the lingua franca of the entire party." [Open in private window] --s

... Alexis Grenell in a New York Times op-ed: "With the exception of Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, all the women in the Republican conference caved.... These women are gender traitors, to borrow a term from the dystopian TV series 'The Handmaid's Tale.' They've made standing by the patriarchy a full-time job.... The women who supported them ... we're talking about white women. The same 53 percent who put their racial privilege ahead of their second-class gender status in 2016 by voting to uphold a system that values only their whiteness, just as they have for decades.... White women benefit from patriarchy by trading on their whiteness to monopolize resources for mutual gain. In return they're placed on a pedestal to be 'cherished and revered,' as Speaker Paul D. Ryan has said about women, but all the while denied basic rights." Read on. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I found Grenell's essay helpful. I've been unable to understand why any woman would vote for Trump, and Grenell has part of the answer. By the fact of their gender, white women already are second-class citizens, so they're afraid if they "elevate" people of color (of both genders) by giving them equal protection, their own status will suffer. It's a pathetic, self-defeating type of selfishness -- racism in the cause of retaining their tenuous "place" in a patriarchal hierarchy that sets them above men & women of color. This country has always been an elitist white patriarchy, and these women haven't the vision to see what in a brief period in the 1960s & '70s looked like hope for racial & gender equality. They have voluntarily enslaved themselves. ...

... Rebecca Morin of Politico: "Susan Rice on Friday appeared to toy with a possible Senate run against Susan Collins after the Maine Republican announced her support for ... Brett Kavanaugh. Rice, who served as President Barack Obama's National Security Adviser responded to a tweet calling on someone to challenge Collins. Jen Psaki, who served as Obama's communications director and is now vice president of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, tweeted: 'who wants to run for Senate in Maine? there will be an army of supporters with you.' Eleven minutes later, Rice had a simple response. 'Me.' Rice later clarified her tweet saying she is 'not making any announcements' about a possible campaign run." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Kristine Phillips & Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "A crowdfunding site where activists have been raising money to defeat Sen. Susan Collins in 2020 was inundated with pledges Friday afternoon, after the Maine Republican announced she would support Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. By 3:55 p.m., the site had crashed, apparently overwhelmed. 'Senator Susan Collins has people more motivated than we've ever seen before,' Crowdpac tweeted.... The site was back online a little less than two hours later. By Saturday afternoon, the campaign that vows to support Collins's future opponent had surpassed $3.2 million -- not an insignificant amount for a political race in a state with among the smallest populations in the country (1.3 million)." ...

... That time a drunken Brett Kavanaugh smashed the cargo box of a pickup truck & refused to pay for it -- one of the many complaints lodged against Kavanaugh on the FBI's tip line. This is a WSJ story, but at the time I linked it, it was not firewalled. Mrs. McC BTW: The WSJ makes this sound like a crank trip, but the complainant provided details of Brett's behavior & his own attempt to collect from Brett, AND he had a witness to corroborate the story. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

John Harris of Politico: "The president's gleeful taunts of [Al] Franken as a quitter at a campaign rally in Minnesota Thursday night -- he folded 'like a wet rag,' Trump cackled -- were, for Democrats, a wicked preface to their ash-in-mouth defeat this weekend in the Kavanaugh nomination fight. Whether Trump knew it or not, his remarks were perfectly pitched to stoke anxieties that have haunted many top Democratic operatives for a generation: the fear that their party loses big power struggles because Republicans are simply tougher, meaner, more cynical and more ruthless than they are. A belief in one's own virtue feels good. Losing a battle that could shape the American political landscape for decades feels bad. The tension between the two left some Democrats grappling anew this weekend with the implications: Maybe they really are the Wet Rag Party." --s

Kellen Browning of McClatchy DC [Oct. 3]: "The Trump administration has repealed a safety regulation governing trains that carry large quantities of oil, sparking new fears among Washington state officials and environmental activists that devastating oil spills could be more likely. The Department of Transportation announced last week that trains carrying flammable liquids such as crude oil and ethanol would no longer be required to install electronically controlled pneumatic braking systems, an Obama-era rule instituted to decrease the chance of train derailments." --s

Benign Bribery. Jeremy Slevin & Zahra Mion of ThinkProgress: "The D.C. City Council voted this week to overturn Initiative 77, a ballot measure that would have raised the tipped minimum wage in the nation's capital to $15 an hour by 2026. The initiative itself passe by an 11-point margin in June, bolstered by support in predominantly African-American precincts. But a group of legislators led by Democratic Council Chairman Phil Mendelson quickly moved to repeal the ballot initiative, citing economic concerns and opposition from small businesses, which culminated in this week's vote.... The lawmakers behind the recent repeal ... received thousands of dollars in contributions from the restaurant industry, raising doubt about their motivation for rolling back the popular measure." --s

Way Beyond the Beltway

Tom Phillips of the Guardian: "The far-right frontrunner [Jair Bolsonaro, a 63-year-old former paratrooper notorious for his hostility to black and gay people, the environment and the left] to become the next president of Latin America's largest democracy has vowed to make Brazil great again, as election-eve polls gave him a commanding lead in what many view as the most important election in its history.... With just hours to go until 147 million Brazilians choose their next leader on Sunday, polls gave Bolsonaro a 15-point lead over his closest rival, the Workers' party (PT) candidate Fernando Haddad,.... That would not be enough to avoid a second-round showdown..., since an outright majority is required for a win.... However, Bolsonaro's ascendancy in the polls and the palpably erratic mood in Brazil is such that a first-round win is no longer considered an impossibility." --safari: Trump's America has become a disease worldwide. We haven't reckoned with the fact we're no longer a "force for good".

Martin Farrer of the Guardian: "As higher US interest rates and fears of a trade war piles pressure on economies around the world, China's central bank said on Sunday that it was cutting the reserve requirement ratios (RRRs) by 1% from 15 October to lower financing costs and spur growth in the world's second-biggest economy.... Investment growth has slowed to a record low and net exports have been a drag on growth in the first half of the year. China releases a snapshot of its services sector on Monday, which will be closely watched for signs of slower growth. The injection of cash into the economy, which will be 750bn yuan ($109.2 billion), will also boost hopes that the negative impact of higher US tariffs on Chinese exports can be eased." --s

Carlotta Gall, et al., of the New York Times: "Turkish investigators believe a well-known Saudi dissident was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.... The critic of the Saudi government, Jamal Khashoggi, entered the consulate on Tuesday to obtain a document he needed to get married and never emerged, according to his fiancée, who had stayed outside. Waiting for him inside the consulate, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation, were Saudi agents who had recently arrived in Turkey with the intent to silence Mr. Khashoggi. It was not clear if the plan had been to bring him back to Saudi Arabia alive, and something went wrong, or if the intention was to kill him there."

News Lede

New York Times: A limousine "crash killed all 18 occupants of the limousine, including its driver, as well as two pedestrians, in an accident that left deep tire tracks in the ground and the small town of Schoharie, N.Y., reeling.... The loss of life stunned even seasoned investigators, who called it the nation's deadliest transportation accident since a 2009 plane crash near Buffalo, N.Y., killed 50 people."

Reader Comments (13)

@Marie: Your " So voters should apply a legal standard to them on this election day & every election day thereafter: the penalty for aiding & abetting. You & your buddy rob a bank; after you race outside with the loot, your buddy shoots the guard dead. Even though you didn't shoot anyone & never intended to do so, you are criminally liable for the murder. Under this legal standard, every Senator who voted to confirm Kavanaugh is guilty of all the crimes & bad judgment the hearings revealed. Vote 'em out & lock 'em up. ..."

Reading this I am reminded of the 1988 film "The Accused," a riveting account of a woman, played by Jodie Foster, who is raped by three men on top of a pin ball machine in a sleazy dive. The three rapists are finally sentenced thanks to a dogged female lawyer but when she tries to bring to trial the other three bystanders who were responsible for egging the others on–-especially one guy who was reluctant–- "Come on you pussy–-stick it into hers" along with yelling, yelping, spewing other foul urgings–-she runs into great difficulty because she can find no eye witness until she does–-and he, with great difficulty, gives testimony and those bystanders are found guilty.

It's a hard film to watch (the rape scene is terrifying) and Jodie's character is not some sweet docile creature but a loose, provocative, hard drinking, pot smoking female with "a mouth on her" which gave the film the edge it needed. The "She was asking for it" message is loud and clear and the other message–-the one that's loudest and clearest is–– No woman should be raped––period!

So Kavanaugh is confirmed and has placed his hand on "the good book" and will sit on the good bench with his like minded brethren along with the few that aren't and life goes on.

I suddenly feel kind of emptied out.

October 7, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

PD, I don't think that the Kavanaugh issue is even close to over. If the Dems win the House we will have real investigations. Never mind the journalists looking to publish a book!

October 7, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterMarvin Schwalb

@PD Pepe: I've thought of that film often during the Month of Brett, as I think the film introduced many people to the idea that blaming the victim of rape was ridiculous. I clearly remember discussions with other women before the movie came out where they weighed whether or not a woman "asked for it" in some case of sexual assault. "She was wearing a mini-skirt; she wears heavy make-up; she's a flirt; she was out late at night; she was out alone; she was in a bar; she's single" -- all of those "factors" (and others I haven't recalled) would be weighed in to their decision of whether or not the victim "deserved it." My own mother once told me that if I didn't want men to "bother" me, I should wear a wedding ring at all times (even tho I was single).

Obviously, Republicans missed the movie or the message. And not just Congressional Republicans. One of the female reporters on CNN interviewed some Republican ladies in Miami, & sure enough, one of them made the case that Christine Blasey "deserved it" because she had gone to a party where there were no chaperones. I'm surprised Orrin Hatch didn't say that out loud.

But that "deserved it" argument is not one I've heard from anyone I know in decades. It denigrates not just women but men by buying into the idea that men "can't control themselves." Actually, they can.

October 7, 2018 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

The Weakness

Yesterday MickNamVet compared Mitch McConnell to Iago. I think there's something to that. But I think, in some ways, that McConnell is worse than any Shakespearean villain, worse than Richard III or Macbeth. Worse than Regan and Goneril or Claudius or the hypocritical lecher Angelo from "Measure for Measure" (likely Kavanaugh's favorite).

Iago worked his poison on the titular hero of "Othello" by finding his weaknesses and pounding on them. Othello's jealousy and his sense of personal honor confounded his ability to sniff out the subterfuge. On the surface, the idea that he could brutally murder his wife over some half-baked story about a dream and a pilfered handkerchief seems outlandish, to say the least. It's part of Shakespeare's dramatic genius that allows us to suspend that disbelief.

But no less outlandish is the idea that a so-called great nation, the land of brave, the home of the free, could be put in the position of nominating, then swearing in--to the highest court in the land--one of the pillars of democracy, one of three branches of government designed as part of the delicate balance of the Constitution, a criminal, a stinking turd whose lack of qualifications to hear cases in traffic court is his most outstanding feature, next, of course, to his being a vile tempered, mean drunk with a penchant for assaulting women.

What master of the theater would attempt to put that across?

But this is how it was worked. Iago manipulated his master Othello by leveraging his weaknesses.

McConnell has done something similar, and then some.

The founders were no hippie-dippy, peace, love, dove, all is right with the world-ers. They had no illusions about humanity's propensity for ill will or wrongdoing. Remember, they didn't craft the First Amendment by saying "Free speech is cool. Let's all do that." Nope. They assumed some conniving censorious bastards would try to do away with free speech so they wrote "Congress shall make NO LAWS..."

They thought they had it covered with their checks and balances plan. And a good plan it's been. But they never envisioned someone as conspicuously evil, someone who would blithely and gleefully disregard norms and his sworn duties, as a Mitch McConnell.

They were like the guy who "hides" his computer password by taping it to the bottom of his desk drawer. Any intruder intent on digital mischief knows where to look for the keys to the kingdom. Of course Madison, Hamilton, et al, never expected such an intrusion.
But Confederates found the weakness without much difficulty. It's been right in front of them all along.

McConnell exploited (and continues to exploit) that weakness. And what exactly is this weakness? The idea that if one, or even two branches of government went sour, the other(s) would kick them back in line. The founders never expected that ALL branches of government would become hopelessly corrupt and that one or two, or several hundred officials would jump at the chance to exploit that situation, to make off with the nation's treasures in broad daylight.

And that extra bit of evil employed by McConnell, Ryan, and the Party of Traitors?

Simple. Fuck the rules. Just do what you want.

I once read a short story (I forget by whom, one of those thirties noir-ish stories from some pulp magazine like Black Mask) in which a criminal is explaining his philosophy to a detective he's caught investigating him. He says something like "Anyone can do what I do. You could too. You wanna get rich, get everything you've always dreamed of? All you have to do is forget the rules. People go into banks to deposit their money. I go in to take it. All you need is the guts to do it."

He ain't wrong.

It's said that McConnell took a big gamble in his Supreme Court schemes. I disagree. It's no gamble when you know that no one is going to stop you. It's like that Twilight Zone episode where a bank robber is able to stop time. He walks in, snaps his fingers, and everyone freezes. Then he cleans out the cashier drawers, takes wallets, watches, and jewelry from the patrons, and snaps his fingers on the way back out. No one knows anything.

In McConnell's case, everyone know everything, but no one did anything to stop him. And that's how he won. He simply ignored the rules. That oath to protect the Constitution? Pshaw. Such nonsense. Time honored obligations? Silliness. It was easy. Norms and Senate rules? To hell with that. Rules get in the way? Just change them. And to hell with honor and decency and that whole integrity thing. Do what you want and you'll win.

And he has. He--and Trump--found the weakness in our system. The founders never thought that there'd be so many unscrupulous thugs in power at the same time.

But McConnell and Trump and their traitorous gang members have a weakness as well. One they've been trying mightily to find protection from: the ballot box.

We'll see, in a few weeks, and again in two years, and two years after that, if Americans value what McConnell and his thugs have pissed on, or whether they'll stay home and binge-watch something on Amazon or Netflix. Perhaps a well done series about political corruption. Oooh...that Frank Underwood, he's so evil.

Maybe the weakness no one can defend against is apathy.

October 7, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

PD and Marie,

R's were not the only ones who missed the message of that movie. King Pussy Grabber has missed most of the last half of the 20th century and the entirety of this one.

While Rape Boy Kavanaugh was being sworn in, Trump, who was on AF1 zooming off to another "Aren't I Great?" rally in Kansas, ordered all reporters on board to come watch him watch the swearing in so he could triumphantly show off for the wingers and lord it over anyone who expected integrity to matter. When a reporter asked him what having Kavanaugh on the court would mean to women, Trump upbraided her and declared that all women love Kavanaugh, that he doesn't know of any women who don't support him.

I could offer a few thousand words on the outrageousness of such a statement and suggest some fancy analysis with historical references and quotes from great thinkers in American political theory, but why bother? I'm too fucking exhausted by this fraud and his sexual assault justice and their rape-supporting minions.

If Democrats don't show up in droves in November, I give up. There isn't a thing that will move them to vote, if that's the case.

October 7, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Okay, one more thing (guess I'm not THAT exhausted)...

All the winger commenters I've been reading or listening to protest that it's all about "process". "Due process matters" sniffs Trump, who runs from due process like Jesse Owens in Berlin if it affects him.

They all say now that Democrats were trying to circumvent due process.

No. They were DEMANDING due process. A good process. A real process. Not the sham kangaroo court they--and we--got. And that phony baloney FBI "investigation"? You'd have better luck getting to the bottom of things if they set up the board game "Clue". "Judge Kavanaugh, in the bedroom, with the keg of beer..."

Then they yelp that Democrats were trying anything they could to "get" Kavanaugh.

Yes. We were. Absolutely we were. Got a problem with that? Any one of a half dozen reasons were good enough, on their own, to keep this charlatan, this embarrassment, off the court. So yes, Democrats were doing anything they could to keep him off. It's called DUTY. If someone told you they were hiring a babysitter for your kids who was a drunk and was known to abuse children, wouldn't you do anything you could to keep that person out of your house?

Jesus. So fucking sick and tired of these liars and assholes.

October 7, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Don't have it in me this morning for a Sunday Sermon, but will take a moment to give credit where it is due.

The Pretender does have an unerring instinct for exploiting others' weakness. His Franken taunt was pretty much on the mark. Franken's resignation might have been personally admirable, but it does seem that in the present United States what is personally admirable is often political suicide. Wet Rag Party? Maybe so, in a country where integrity is for losers.

All the talk we've heard for years about bringing a pocket knife to a gunfight comes to mind, as does a thought I have always had about what it really means about the culture we have created.

Though most Republicans would like to think of themselves and the United States as a Christian nation, their values are not derived from the Sunday sermons designed as a sop to their obviously moribund conscience. Their values are derived rather from their daily lives which run in the channels created for them by American business, a fundamentally conscienceless activity that teaches that rules, where they exist at all, are impediments to be detoured around or wholly ignored.

This business first ethos permeates most everything we do, and it's not as if Democrats are not complicit. The Bush Crash offered a perfect opportunity for Democrats to stand up to corporate immorality and yet they caved, in the process reinforcing the lesson that the only thing that matters is money and power, leaving the country further mired in the absurd position, as just one instance, of punishing professional athletes who are caught using performance enhancing drugs (though it's only a game, must preserve at least the appearance of integrity you know), but letting the real elite repeatedly ruin millions of lives without even a similarly theatrical show of consequence.

Such behavior, repeated time and again, teaches who we believe the real winners and losers are, and the nation has taken notice.

It's true. In today's America nice guys too often do finish last, just as we've been taught they should.

Call it a sermonette.

October 7, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

To piggyback a bit on @Ak's thoughts, one adjective that does indeed describe the modern Republican party: ruthless.

Politicians don't go into politics to make friends, and the GOP has finally ginned up so much groupthink that McConnell has convinced them all that abandoning all norms and principles is not only normal, but their actual duty to the Cause. Doing otherwise would allow Unions to collect dues and practice collective bargaining and where would the country be then?!? In McConnell's view, elected Democrats are the enemy of the state. Reality check: under McConnell, Russians are preferable to Democrats because they advance the Cause.

The entire democratic party must be ignored in debate, marginalized in governance, and stopped from achieving any policy priorities that can improve lives because that is ultimately what will turn the tide against Republicans.

This goes back to my rant about the Obamas' call to our better angels. I don't dismiss the message as it's hugely important if we're to find any resemblance of bipartisanship and civility between liberals and Trump fanatics. But in our current system, only Democrats and liberals are expected to adhere to our lofty ideals. Conservatives? They can piss all over the circuit boards, all the while crying and whining about bullshit victimization by angry liberals, and they get a pass. Hardly anyone in Bothersiderstan seems to notice that ZERO conservatives are pleading to their political base to "go high, when they low". Nope. It's just understood de facto that Republicans kneecap, and their mobilized deplorable base would disown and decry any "lib" RINO calling for the extremism of reasonable debate.

Conservative voters are the problem, as they've collectively abandoned all sense of decency and honor in our national politics. They're elated about an openly corrupt, "pussy grabbing" president*, a wholly complacent congressional majority, and a drunkard, potential rapist Justice. Why? Simply because it provokes consternation in liberals and sane-minded citizens. That's it. They're the lowest-denominator constituency a political party could ever expect to have, and McConnell knows he can do whatever the fuck he wants to the overall system, as long as "lib tears" are provoked.

Once that traitorous piece of shit retires, he's going to give interviews chuckling away at how he might have "gone too far" in his zealous quest for absolute power, but boy was it fun?

I've wondered if the culmination of all of these strong-arm tactics, norm breaking, aiding and abetting a supremely unfit and corrupt president*, their entire "burn it down to save it" philosophy, culminating with putting Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court with a fake FBI investigation lingering over him for decades to come, could actually give a few Republican politicians pause this weekend to see how far out of the norms they veered. Who am I kidding? They won't have time between beer shotguns and jello shots with Kavanaugh and Mark Judge...

October 7, 2018 | Unregistered Commentersafari

So the same Pretender who saw Muslims dancing in the streets after the 9/11 attack and had absolute proof that Obama was born in Kenya is now 100 percent certain that Ms. Ford has the wrong guy?

This is news?

October 7, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Safari makes a point I meant to bring up in an earlier post about the rule-breaking R's.

McConnell and his scurrilous band of criminals and traitors are free to break the rules, flout the law, and upend generations of governing norms, and they expect that no one should have the temerity to call them on it. On the flip side, however, they scream bloody murder if they think they can get the drooling horde supporting them to believe that Democrats are playing fast and loose with precedent.

In other words, no rules for Republicans, but a hint of impropriety from Democrats, and it's howls of outrage.

Just listen to Trump wagging his finger about decency. It's like listening to a serial arsonist lecture the rest of us about playing with matches.

Oh, the guffaws that must assault the walls of Confederate enclaves.

October 7, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Remember what I said about the First Amendment?

Forget it.

They CAN take it away.

Down in Texas, a woman hand painted a sign as a reaction to the unconscionable support of the GOP for a would-be rapist. The sign showed the Republican elephant with its trunk up the skirt of a girl who is yelling "HELP".

Texas wingers were not amused by the accurate portrayal of their party so they called the cops who came and threatened to arrest the woman. They confiscated her sign.

Wingers claimed it was "pornographic".

No, assholes. What's pornographic is having a drunken lout, liar, and perpetrator of sexual assault on the Supreme Court.

Sorry, America. If you're gonna protest against GOP perfidy, you have to keep it to yourself. Otherwise you'll be arrested.

Here is a perfect example of how Confederates can piss on morality and ethics but sic the cops on anyone who complains about it.

Fascism slinks in without anyone noticing until its supporters overwhelm everyone who thought they were living in a free society.

October 7, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Remember what I said about the First Amendment?

Forget it.

They CAN take it away.

Down in Texas, a woman hand painted a sign as a reaction to the unconscionable support of the GOP for a would-be rapist. The sign showed the Republican elephant with its trunk up the skirt of a girl who is yelling "HELP".

Texas wingers were not amused by the accurate portrayal of their party so they called the cops who came and threatened to arrest the woman. They confiscated her sign.

Wingers claimed it was "pornographic".

No, assholes. What's pornographic is having a drunken lout, liar, and perpetrator of sexual assault on the Supreme Court.

Sorry, America. If you're gonna protest against GOP perfidy, you have to keep it to yourself. Otherwise you'll be arrested.

Here is a perfect example of how Confederates can piss on morality and ethics but sic the cops on anyone who complains about it.

Fascism slinks in without anyone noticing until its supporters overwhelm everyone who thought they were living in a free society.

October 7, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

And if you were wondering how the Party of Traitors celebrated the Kavanaugh ascension, here it is, courtesy of SNL.

(This isn't a parody, this is exactly what was going on. Note the Joe Manchin cameo. That isn't comedy, that's reality.)

October 7, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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