Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is facing growing calls to be more transparent about his health nearly six weeks after he was hospitalized.
Lazy Caturday Reads and Huge Maine Coon Cats
Posted: July 25, 2026 Filed under: just because | Tags: cat art, caturday, Cyclospoiasis, cyclospora, Donald Trump, Maine coon cats, Mitch McConnell disappearance, Qatar gifted Air Force One, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, White House Correspondents' Dinner 7 CommentsGood Afternoon!!
Last night was the make-up date for the White House Correspondents Association Dinner. I didn’t know it was happening, and I can’t imagine why the journalists felt it was necessary. The first one–in April–was cancelled because of Cole Thomas Allen, who supposedly attempted to assassinate Trump, but didn’t get anywhere near him.
One possible reason for the redo was the awards that were handed out–mostly for negative coverage of Trump. Trump had to sit there and pretend to be a good sport. The top award–the Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability–went to The Wall Street Journal for the story on Trump’s crude 50th birthday message to Jeffrey Epstein. The photography award went to Andrew Harnik of Getty Images for the famous photo of Trump standing staring into space after a guest collapsed in the oval office. You can see the photo and the rest of the awards here.
AP via NPR: Trump returns to correspondents’ dinner 3 months after shooting.
President Donald Trump returned to the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Friday night, delivering a rambling, hour-long speech that praised some journalists, took potshots at others, made jokes about public figures’ weight and intellect, and quipped about a third presidential term….
Trump’s return to the correspondents’ dinner — and his promise to come back next year as well — represented a notable moment in his relationship with the news media, which he has attacked, sued and taken administrative action against since he began his second term early last year. Among the audience members were reporters he had denounced and barred from events.
Trump’s sometimes off-color speech, which lasted just over an hour, was full of vague potshots directed at individuals he doesn’t like — from Jane Fonda to Bruce Springsteen to “Barack Hussein Obama.” The audience, reacting at first with some friendly laughs, slowly quieted to scattered titters as the insults piled up.
Among other targets of Trump’s humor: Late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel; Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; California Gov. Gavin Newsom; former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; and Trump’s own speechwriters, whose jokes he sometimes criticized even as he delivered them. Some of the comments flirted with racism.
The president also spent some time expressing pride in the ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, formerly the Trump International Hotel. “It’s great to be back at a place that I know very well, because I built it,” Trump said….
He made a brief mention of the Iran war and several remarks about the ballroom he is building at the White House. He also used the occasion to joke about the possibility he would serve a third term — something barred by the U.S. Constitution’s 22nd Amendment.
“Just like my presidency, the second time is always better,” the president quipped. “And the third time will be better yet.”
He added: “I’m only kidding.” Then, at the end, he donned a red cap that said “Trump 2028” and delivered the “scoop” that he was running again.
The Guardian published more of Trump’s unfunny insults: Trump forced to play good sport at correspondents’ dinner – but it couldn’t last.
As often happens with his stump speeches these days, the president lost his audience. Phones were gazed at, silence ensued. Never more so than when he embarked on a tiresome bigoted diatribe against the Democratic representative from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar, one of his frequent targets….
Instead of the vast auditorium at the Washington Hilton – the dinner’s venue for several decades and once the site of an attempt on the life of Ronald Reagan – the Astoria Waldorf was chosen to stage a drastically scaled-down dinner, with just 700 guests attending, compared with the 2,600 who were at the original event in April….
Trump, when he spoke – after being forcibly humbled by the dishing out of awards to a succession of journalists for their unflattering portrayal of his presidency – quickly established that humility would not feature strongly in his speech.
His first comment on the changed venue was to observe that he had once owned it, when it was the Trump International Hotel.
“This has not been an easy evening. All these awards. Do I have a say?” he asked. “But it’s great to be back at a place that I know very well because I built it, and I’m very proud of it because I built it for $2.9bn less than the Federal Reserve Building, which is a lot smaller, by the way.”
More from Trump’s speech:
From there, it was on to the insults, taunts, jokes – and grievances. Some of it was amusing and drew laughter, notably when he jested at the expense of the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
“I hope that everyone finally got to enjoy their entire, very delicious beef tenderloins, very special beef,” he said. “And I want you all to know that Bobby Kennedy, who’s right here, personally ran over the cow and he cut it
up, and he brought it here for you to eat tonight. Bobby also suggested appetizer featuring his favorite cut of male raccoon roadkill, but we drew the line at that.”
Adam Schiff, the Democratic senator for California and a particular Trump bete noire, was mocked as “watermelon head because he has the largest head I’ve ever seen with the smallest pencil neck”.
Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert, all comedians who have mocked Trump unceasingly, were derided as “people without talent”….
“I hope you all know that I believe in the free press more than anyone in this room,” Trump told the gathering later, overlooking the fact that his administration had filed subpoenas for several New York Times reporters and their relatives after the paper had reported on security breaches on the new Air Force One jet, gifted by Qatar.
“You people have no idea how lucky you are. When I’m gone, you’re all going to be broke. There’s not going to be anybody to report on.”
Has there ever been a more malignant narcissist?
The New York Times has another story today by Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager, and Maggie Haberman that will probably enrage Trump (gift link): Inside the Rushed Effort to Get Trump His New Air Force One.
President Trump was entranced. It was a few weeks into his second term, and he was on the tarmac of the Palm Beach airport, getting a tour of a luxury Boeing 747-8 that had been flown from Doha for his perusal.
The double-decker jet, which had been outfitted for the Qatari royal family, had a spacious bedroom adorned with leather and wood and a lounge featuring a chandelier and another with suede seats.
Two planes being built by Boeing to replace the aging Air Force One fleet were years behind schedule, and Mr. Trump’s team had asked the Air Force to find a temporary aircraft. This was the one, the president decided.
Mr. Trump’s February 2025 tour of the Qatari jet led to a frantic sprint inside the White House and the Pentagon. The administration sought to upgrade the plane in time to meet his demand for it to be ready by the nation’s 250th birthday this summer, with an accelerated retrofit.
An investigation by The New York Times found that the president’s push to get the luxury aircraft quickly led to ballooning costs and trade-offs in safety features that potentially left Mr. Trump and others who travel with him on Air Force One vulnerable.
Some of the findings of the investigation:
— Mr. Trump was personally engaged in making decisions about the retrofitting of the donated plane, giving the final approval on the features and security measures that would be included, according to people familiar with his role. They and others interviewed for this article described the sensitive information about the process and the plane on the condition of anonymity.
— Several key security and safety features on the Boeing planes that have been used for decades as Air Force One are not visible on the upgraded jet, including a lower-level exit for high-risk situations, additional backup power capacity and an advanced antimissile system, public Air Force records and photographs examined by The Times show. The planes currently being built to serve as the permanent presidential fleet are all set to have such features, federal records show.
— The 747-8 plane was overhauled on a compressed timeline of just about eight months. Experts said the jet would have needed several years for a full upgrade.
— Because the Qatari jet was being pushed into service so quickly, some White House officials initially expected it would only be used for domestic travel or to visit allied countries with U.S. military bases.
–The government spent hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase equipment needed to train pilots to fly the 747-8 plane so quickly, on top of the approximately $400 million cost of the upgrades that the administration has publicly acknowledged. The Pentagon has tried to mask the total price tag — including from Congress — by taking the funds from a classified budget for nuclear modernization.
I hope Congress will prevent him from taking the plane with all those secret security upgrades with him. How can that possibly be permitted?
This is unbelievable from Kyla Guilfoil at NBC News: Trump orders signage warning visitors of ‘inaccurate information’ at Smithsonian.
The president on Friday ordered that “warning” signs be placed in front of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to inform visitors of the “inaccurate information presented in the Museum.”
The executive order comes after a White House report released July 4 claimed the museum “cannot be trusted to tell America’s story honestly and in a way that is inspiring, unifying, and worthy of our great republic.”
Trump said in March 2025 that he intended to force changes at the Smithsonian Institution, signing an executive order that sought to target federal funding for programs that present “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology.”
In his order on Friday, Trump wrote that the “Smithsonian leadership does not present American history as a shared national inheritance to be taught and celebrated, but instead views American history as a ‘prime tool’ to advance ideas of social justice and the radical transformation of our society.”
He wrote that the leadership of both the institution and of the museum “cannot be trusted to tell America’s story with honesty and gratitude.”
What the new order says:
Trump directed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to work alongside the National Park Service to install “temporary signage along the NPS-maintained sidewalks and walkways used by the public to access the Museum.”
The signage will “inform visitors” of the July 4 report and Trump’s demand that the report findings be enforced in accordance with his March 2025 executive order, Trump wrote.
Trump said that the signage will correct “inaccurate information presented in the Museum” and direct visitors to “locations and resources for accurate information regarding America’s history.”
The president directed that Burgum, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and the administrator of the General Services Administration alongside the assistant to the president for domestic policy shall “use all available authorities” to promote the order’s policies.
It’s going to take decades to repair all the damage Trump is doing.
Yesterday, in a press availability in the oval office, Trump was asked when it will be safe to eat lettuce again. His response was
“I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it. It’s the first time I’ve been asked that question.
“Well I think what we’re going to do is we’re gonna put a major tariff on Mexico because of the lettuce, and we’re going to put a big tariff on Canada because of the smoke.”
There is usually some lettuce on those fast food burgers he likes. Regardless of Trump’s uncaring attitude, the Cyclospora situation is getting very serious.
Marcia Brown at Politico: Trump’s former top food official: Cyclospora outbreak ‘approaching catastrophic’ level.
President Donald Trump’s former top food safety official is calling for an independent review of the federal government’s response to a cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands of people this summer.
“This one deserves a lot of questions, and it is starting to approach a catastrophic level in terms of how mismanaged it’s been on multiple fronts,” said Frank Yiannas, who served as the Food and Drug Administration’s deputy commissioner for food policy and response during both Trump and former President Joe Biden’s administration from 2018 to 2023.
He pointed to the outbreak’s magnitude, the widespread consumer confusion and the “lack of strong federal leadership” as well as what he described as uncoordinated messaging from federal authorities.
“My point is not to find fault, but to find facts on how we can further strengthen the system,” Yiannas told POLITICO. “It’s not being critical of any particular agency, but it is being critical of the system. In some respects, I think there’s been some dismantling of the system.”
Yiannas’ call for an independent review of the government’s response adds to pressure facing the FDA since the agency scrambled to do damage control this week after announcing a positive lab test linked a new batch of Taylor Farms lettuce to the outbreak — only to reverse course to say final test results contradicted the initial finding.
Well, I’m not sure I trust that report of a false positive. The Wall Street Journal reported today on Taylor Farms efforts to control the narrative. I can only post a brief section of the story since it’s behind the paywall:
Sabrina Siddiqui, Jesse Newman, and Josh Dawsy: Taylor Farms Called White House to Try to Delay Cyclospora Recall.
Representatives for produce giant Taylor Farms contacted the White House with an urgent plea: the company wanted to delay announcing a recall tied to one of the largest foodborne illness outbreaks in U.S. history.
The call, during which the company asked for more proof and more time before being linked to the outbreak, illustrates how one of the country’s largest produce suppliers sought to limit its exposure to a public-relations nightmare, while grappling with a costly and complicated recall. Over the past several weeks, health officials have been scrambling to contain the outbreak of cyclospora, which can cause explosive diarrhea. Some current and former government officials have criticized the handling of the outbreak, both by the administration and Taylor Farms.
One more on this topic from Erika Edwards at NBC News: Cyclosporiasis outbreak expands to 9 states.
The massive, multistate outbreak of cyclosporiasis has expanded to nine states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
Outbreaks in Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania have now been connected to cases in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia, as well as hard-hit Michigan.
The discovery doesn’t necessarily mean that cases are accelerating, but it provides a clearer picture of what’s been so unusual about the record-high number of cyclosporiasis cases this summer.
“We’re getting more complete case data that covers the range of the outbreak,” said Gwen Biggerstaff, deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases. “States are completing interviews with people, and we’re filling in the data.”
The CDC has confirmed 1,947 cases in those nine states. Shredded iceberg lettuce sourced from Taylor Farms de Mexico is the likely source, the Food and Drug Administration said last week. The company voluntarily recalled the product from the U.S. market.
“We know it went to many states, to many points of sale,” said Kari Irvin, deputy director of the FDA’s Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation Network. The FDA watches the CDC’s confirmed case counts closely, she said, “because it will help tell us if the recall is enough, that they’ve recovered all products that need to be removed from the market.”
The clue that linked cases to Taylor Farms came from interviews with people who got sick. Many said they’d eaten at Taco Bell in June, before the waves of cases took off. The restaurant chain pulled lettuce from its menu ahead of the recall from Taylor Farms.
Irvin said FDA investigators are working to determine whether additional growers might have played a role. “The data that we have now really continues to home in on growers that were already identified,” she said.
I hope it stays away from Massachusetts. In any case, I will never buy anything from Taylor Farms. I’ve seen their products when ordering on-line, but have never bought them.
Mitch McConnell is still missing and it’s unclear whether he is alive, brain dead, or dead as a doornail. We have no idea what hospital he is supposedly in, and no indication when he might be back at work in the Senate. Here’s the latest:
Theodoric Meyer at The Washington Post (gift link): McConnell faces growing questions about absence nearly six weeks after fall.
Mostly Monday Reads: Of Manifestos and Wannabe Monarchs
Posted: April 27, 2026 Filed under: #FARTUS, Orange Caligula's Ballroom Dreams, Trump Assassination Attempts Hypotheses, U.S. Politics | Tags: @johnbuss.bsky.social John Buss, Cole Allen, Trump Assassination attempt #3, White House Correspondents' Dinner 6 Comments
“President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Chuck Grassley, laments not attending the ill-fated White House Correspondents Dinner. A President Grassley would be something to behold.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Another day, another fishy attempt at assassinating Trump. I’ll just put my hypothesis right up top, then provide the analysis and details from the media about the weirdness surrounding the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting Saturday night. We know the details about the shooter and have gotten a chance to review his manifesto. We also know the Secret Service had an unusually insecure setup to guard the large number of high-value targets present for what was supposed to be Trump’s first visit to the event after hating on the press continually.
JJ, Boomer, and I discussed the situation via text chat as the entire scene unfolded. I’m finding that a large number of friends and colleagues share my view. Here’s one that eloquently aligns with my hypothesis about the entire show from fellow New Orleanian Louis Maestros, who owns and runs Old Arabi Lighthouse Records and Books with his wife and cat. It’s just one of those places that you should visit.
Well, that is the most lucid and thoughtful shooter “manifesto” I’ve ever read.
I now am under the impression that the complete lack of security was meant to invite some kind of attack just to make the supposedly less vulnerable magic ballroom seem like a good idea after all. Which would be an incredibly stupid and reckless thing to do, and completely on brand.
Here’s JJ’s take from Saturday night via the group text.
I guess what I am trying to say, is I don’t think the man was put in there as a fake setup. But I do think that he was organically there…however, they knew about him, and chose not to do anything until the last minute.
Here’s something from me.
Just think we could’ve had Chuck Grassley as president today.
But I already put my real take on a discussion with some of my old high school friends. I called shenanigans because I have experience from my time at the Fed, with 10 days of pre-Clinton and pre-Greenspan visits to the New Orleans Fed. The Secret Service Swarms the venues and the hotels for more than a week.
BB was observing those left behind to fend for themselves.
I just watched the video and Vance was rushed out first. Then they went to Trump. Melania got pushed aside and ended up crawling out lol
They took RFK Jr out and left his wife to fend for herself
My favorite Trumper exit was Steven Miller using his wife as a human shield while copping a feel of her breast.
One thing that we started discussing was this Washington Post Article about the security situation. “Correspondents’ dinner lacked highest security level despite presence of top officials. The White House correspondents’ dinner, attended by the president and several Cabinet members, was not given top security status that would have unlocked the full weight of federal resources.”
The Trump administration provided a lower level of security for the White House correspondents’ dinner than it has for other gatherings of high-ranking officials, even though the president and many Cabinet members were in attendance, according to officials familiar with the plan.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were quickly evacuated to safety Saturday when a gunman charged the security perimeter and attempted to storm the ballroom at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Others in attendance included Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The concentration of high-ranking leaders in one ballroom left the nation unusually vulnerable as the would-be assassin raced past Secret Service before he was apprehended. A worst-case scenario might have resulted in passing the power of the presidency to the senior-most senator of the majority party, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who was not at the event and is third in line to the presidency behind Vance and Johnson.
When so many officials gather in one place for official functions such as an inauguration or State of the Union address, the secretary of homeland security typically puts the Secret Service in charge of coordinating all security through a formal designation known as a “National Special Security Event.”
There was no such designation on Saturday night at an event also attended by thousands of journalists and other government officials, according to local and federal officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss security details. The suspected gunman, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, wrote a statement saying he wanted to target members of the Trump administration and ridiculed what he called lax security at the hotel, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the writings. He said Iranian agents could easily have brought more dangerous weapons to the venue, according to the text.
The White House referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Washington Hilton said in an email that the Secret Service “led security for the event.”
In the old days, we’d have had this discussion across several blog threads, with lots of people joining the conversation. Old school blogging is not what it used to be. JJ found this analysis at MEDIAITE. I considered it data to support my thesis that the Secret Service was either just or deliberately inept. Sean James has the analysis. “WHCD Shooter Couldn’t Believe How Bad Security Was Before Trying to Shoot Trump: ‘Incompetence Is Insane.”
The man suspected of attempting a mass shooting while targeting President Donald Trump and members of his administration at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night wrote he was shocked at how bad the security was at the venue.
“Like, this level of incompetence is insane,” Cole Tomas Allen wrote in a manifesto obtained by the New York Post. “And I very sincerely hope it’s corrected by the time this country gets actually competent leadership again.”
That was part of an entire section in his manifesto dedicated to describing the terrible security at the Hilton hotel in Washington, D.C., where the annual event took place.
“PS: Ok now that all the sappy stuff is done, what the hell is the Secret Service doing? Sorry, gonna rant a bit here and drop the formal tone,” Allen wrote. “Like, I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo.”
Instead, he said there was:
No damn security.
Not in transport.
Not in the hotel.
Not in the event.
Allen went on to say if he was an Iranian agent he could have easily smuggled in a weapon with ease. He also said the security at the hotel was entirely focused on protesters outside the event and seemingly had not considered that a wannabe assassin could check into the hotel the day before.
He added he felt a “sense of arrogance” from the hotel, as if its guests couldn’t possibly be attackers.
The Post obtained his manifesto the morning after Allen fired multiple shots in the hotel lobby, minutes after the event kicked off. It was set to be Trump’s first appearance at the dinner since he became president, but instead he was rushed off the stage by Secret Service, along with First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is due to give birth any day now.
The video clearly shows the First Escort hiding under the table.
Doomsday Scenario, this morning. “The Trouble with Trump’s Bunker and Ballroom. Is he building it to sustain an attack — or the end of democracy?” If anything, it was crystal clear that the entire Trump performance on Saturday night was to secure his Ballroom by showing that any other place would be insecure. However, the Correspondent’s dinner is associated with a professional society, and it’s difficult to see how it connects directly to Trump’s plea.
All of which brings me to the other weird unfolding current story about presidential security: Trump’s pet project of building a new presidential ballroom. In his remarks Saturday evening from the White House and in social media posts and court filings since, President Trump has used the shooting to attempt to justify and jumpstart his construction of a giant White House ballroom. The construction of the above-ground portion of the ballroom has currently been stopped by a court order, and the Justice Department moved over the weekend to dismiss the lawsuit citing the now-pressing-and-obvious national security implications.
Trump’s argument, reinvigorated since Saturday and immediately sock-puppeted by all manner of right-wing influencers, is two-fold: First, the president needs a secure facility — unlike the Washington Hilton! — where the president can host grand gatherings, and, second, that the (re)construction of now-destroyed East Wing will enable the creation of a giant secure presidential bunker.
It’s clear that the ballroom is the thing that Donald Trump cares about more than anything in his presidency — or the world. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that he even gets distracted in war-planning meetings by talking about his ballroom.
I’m less interested in the debate over the purpose of the ballroom — except, to say that I don’t buy the justification for a moment — and plenty of others have taken on that directly. The shortest possible objection is that we can’t possibly believe or agree that the world is too dangerous for the elected leader of a democracy to ever leave his compound and that all supplicants must come to him in order to have an audience (plus Trump’s ballroom is still way smaller than the ballroom of the Washington Hilton, so it’s not like it’s an actual replacement for hotel galas.)
But I did want to talk a bit today about the bunker side of the story.
Loyal readers of RAVEN ROCK will know the short history of the White House bunker: FDR first had a facility created in World War II, to guard against surprise attack by German bombers, and then the bunker was dramatically enlarged and rebuilt for the early Cold War by Harry Truman when he embarked upon the massive renovation of the White House in 1948. The expectation was that in the event of a surprise attack, a president could be rushed down into the bunker until a special rescue mission could arrive to remove the president from the rubble. A special helicopter unit — codenamed OUTPOST MISSION — was for decades based in Pennsylvania to respond to the White House and excavate and evacuate the president. The pilots carried special dark visors and lead-shielded flight suits to protect themselves and officials from the flash and effects of a nuclear blast.
Today, the facility is known as the PEOC — the Presidential Emergency Operations Center — and is run by the White House Military Office. The facility has only been used a handful of times — including on 9/11, when it was where Vice President Cheney, the First Lady, and other administration leaders gathered and oversaw the government’s response through the day. “I was hustled inside and downstairs through a pair of big steel doors that closed behind me with a loud hiss, forming an airtight seal,” Laura Bush remembered later. “We walked along old tile floors with pipes hanging from the ceiling and all kinds of mechanical equipment.”
As with everything else we excerpt here, this article has a lot more content and is worth reading. Paul Waldman, writing at Public Notice, has this analysis. “A more secure ballroom will not stop the madness. This is the age of chaos Trump has made.”
Just to remind you what Orange Caligula really thinks about reporters and such, here’s a headline from Politico. This is reported by Eli Stokols. “Trump lashes out at ‘60 Minutes’ anchor for reading alleged gunman’s manifesto. Any detente between the president and the press after the shared horror of Saturday’s dinner appears to be short-lived.”
President Donald Trump lashed out at CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in an interview Sunday for quoting from the manifesto of the suspected gunman who tried to storm the White House Correspondents Dinner less than 24 hours earlier.
Trump had initially expressed a sense of camaraderie with members of the press corps who hosted him at their annual dinner and experienced the same initial panic when armed law enforcement agents stormed into the ballroom.
But when O’Donnell, during an interview recorded at the White House on Sunday, quoted from the accused gunman Cole Allen’s apparent manifesto — “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” she read — Trump, who’d been relatively subdued in his responses, flashed a familiar anger.
“I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you’re horrible people. Horrible people,” Trump said. “Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”
O’Donnell interjected, “Oh, do you think he was referring to you?”
But the president blew past her question, declaring, “I’m not a pedophile.”
Trump bristled at what he seemed to deem an insinuation about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, who was not mentioned by name in the manifesto or by O’Donnell. “You read that crap from some sick person,” the president said. “I got associated with stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated.”
O’Donnell had just asked Trump if he thought the experience at the dinner would change his experience with the press. He answered obliquely, asserting that the press corps was largely left-leaning and opposed to his policies on immigration and crime.
But his scathing response to her moments later offered a much clearer answer.
“You should be ashamed of yourself for reading that, because I’m not any of those things,” Trump said. “You shouldn’t be reading that on ‘60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace.”
The fact-checkers must be having a heyday with that one. Oh well, he’s the Liar and Cheat. What does anyone expect from those who interview him?
Just one more headline and then I’m out to take the box to Cox Cable, which used to provide me with online news. This is from my local NBC affiliate, WDSU. This news shouldn’t surprise you at all. “Man accused in correspondents’ dinner shooting charged with attempted assassination of Trump. “Cole Allen, charged in the attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, allegedly targeted President Trump and his administration, according to authorities.”
The man who authorities say tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives has been charged with the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump. He appeared in court Monday to face charges in a chaotic encounter that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being rushed off the stage and guests ducking for cover underneath their tables.
Cole Tomas Allen was taken into custody after the shooting on Saturday night and is being charged in federal court in Washington. Authorities say an officer wearing a bullet-resistant vest was shot in the vest but is expected to recover.
Allen, of Torrance, California, is being represented by lawyers with the federal defender’s office and sat beside them in court in a blue jail uniform.
Prosecutors have not revealed a motive, but in a message reviewed by The Associated Press that authorities say was sent by Allen to family members minutes before the attack, Allen referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin,” made repeated references to the Republican president without naming him and alluded to grievances over a range of Trump administration actions.
Investigators are treating the writings, along with a trail of social media posts and interviews with family members, as some of the clearest evidence of the suspect’s mindset and possible motives.
As usual, a lot more detail in that news report, and more will come.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Thursday Reads
Posted: April 28, 2022 Filed under: morning reads | Tags: Anthony Fauci, climate change and viruses, coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump, fasciism, nuclear weapons, Ron DeSantis, Victor Orban, Vladimir Putin, White House Correspondents' Dinner 39 CommentsGood Morning!!
Boulders with Meconopsos and Rhododendrons, Amanda Richardson
For years now, it’s been difficult for me to shake the feeling that I’m living in a dystopian novel. We lived through 4 years under an insane “president” who tried to destroy the post-WWII alliances that have prevented another world war. He also ignored and exacerbated a global pandemic that has now killed close to a million Americans.
I had hoped that when Trump was defeated, he would go away and leave us alone; but instead he is still spreading his poisonous lies– and the Republican Party is still kowtowing to him. Even worse, powerful Republicans like Governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis are building on Trump’s legacy by enabling fascist policies in their states.
Unfortunately, despite popular opinion, the pandemic is not over, we’re not dealing effectively with climate change, and we are once more living under a threat of nuclear destruction.
Recommended Reads
The Washington Post: U.S. no longer in ‘full-blown’ pandemic phase, Fauci says.
The United States is finally “out of the full-blown explosive pandemic phase” that has led to nearly 1 million deaths from covid-19 and more than two years of suffering and hardship, Anthony S. Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser, said Wednesday.
“We’re really in a transitional phase, from a deceleration of the numbers into hopefully a more controlled phase and endemicity,” Fauci told The Washington Post.
Fauci’s comments came a day after he told PBS’s “NewsHour” that he believed the country is “out of the pandemic phase,” and he expanded on, and clarified, that view Wednesday, making clear that the pandemic is not over and the United States could still see new waves of infections as the virus continues to mutate and spin off highly transmissible variants. But Fauci and other infectious-disease experts are hoping that the population has built up enough immunity from previous infections and vaccinations to avoid another devastating surge in hospitalizations and deaths.
“The world is still in a pandemic. There’s no doubt about that. Don’t anybody get any misinterpretation of that. We are still experiencing a pandemic,” Fauci said.
Huh? We’re out of the “pandemic phase,” but the pandemic is not over?
Camille Monet and child in the artist’s garden in Argenteuil, 1875 Claude Monet
His comments follow a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicating that roughly 3 in 5 people in the United States have already been infected by the coronavirus. About 1 in 4 people had a first-time infection during the winter wave caused by the omicron variant.
These startling numbers suggest the country has a much higher level of collective immunity than it did before omicron. What is far less clear is how long that immunity will persist, and to what extent it could be evaded by new coronavirus variants.
The omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1 is the latest version to seize the attention of public health experts. It is rapidly gaining traction, and CDC estimated Tuesday that it accounted for about 30 percent of new infections. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said preliminary estimates suggest it is about 25 percent more transmissible than the omicron subvariant BA.2, itself more transmissible than the original omicron strain.
There’s also the problem that we are not testing as much these days; and many people are self-testing at home, so the results are not being reported. Meanwhile, Fauci is concerned enough that he is not going to attend the next possible DC super spreader event:
Fauci, meanwhile, has decided against going to the swank White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday, which Biden reportedly plans to attend. Fauci this month attended the Gridiron dinner, at which scores of people became infected. On Wednesday, he declined to discuss his reasoning for skipping what’s often referred to as the “nerd prom,” saying simply, “It’s just my personal choice.
The WH correspondents organization has made a disturbing decision about their event. The Washington Post: A fight over coronavirus safety at journalists’ gala event.
https://twitter.com/gregggonsalves/status/1519670261347459073?s=20&t=vqwyXUXyXlIjsHTbvsleXA
The New York Times: Climate Change Will Accelerate Viral Spillovers, Study Finds.
Over the next 50 years, climate change will drive thousands of viruses to jump from one species of mammal to another, according to a study published in Nature on Thursday. The shuffling of viruses among animals may increase the risk that one will jump into humans and cause a new pandemic, the researchers said.
Scientists have long warned that a warming planet may increase the burden of diseases. Malaria, for example, is expected to spread as the mosquitoes that carry it expand their range into warming regions. But climate change might also usher in entirely new diseases, by allowing pathogens to move into new host species.
“We know that species are moving, and when they do, they’re going to have these chances to share viruses,” said Colin Carlson, a biologist at Georgetown University and a co-author of the new study.
To understand what that sharing will look like, Dr. Carlson and his colleagues built a computer model of potential spillovers in a warming world. The researchers started by projecting how thousands of mammals might shift their ranges as the climate changes between now and 2070.
As temperatures increase, many species are expected to spread away from the blazing Equator to find more comfortable habitats. Others may move up the sides of hills and mountains to find cooler altitudes. When different species come into contact for the first time, the viruses may be able to infect new hosts.
Wind from the sea, Andrew Wyeth, 1947
To understand the odds of a successful new infection, the researchers began by building a database of viruses and their mammalian hosts. Some viruses have been found in more than one species of mammal, which means that they must have jumped the species barrier at some point in the past.
Using a computational technique called machine learning, the researchers developed a model that could predict whether two host species share a virus.
The more that two species overlap geographically, the researchers found, the more likely they were to share a virus. That’s because the hosts were more likely to encounter each other, giving their viruses more opportunities to move between them.
Read the rest at the NYT.
Zach Beauchamp at Vox: Ron DeSantis is Viktor Orbán’s true American disciple.
In June of last year, Hungary’s far-right government passed a law cracking down on LGBTQ rights, including a provision prohibiting instruction on LGBTQ topics in sex education classes.
About nine months later, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill banning “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity” up through third grade. According to some knowledgeable observers on the right, these two bills were closely connected.
“About the Don’t Say Gay law, it was in fact modeled in part on what Hungary did last summer,” Rod Dreher, a senior editor at the American Conservative magazine, said during a panel interview in Budapest. “I was told this by a conservative reporter who … said he talked to the press secretary of Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida and she said, ‘Oh yeah, we were watching the Hungarians, so yay Hungary.’” [….]
It’s easy to see the connections between the bills — in both provisions and justifications. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán described his country’s anti-LGBTQ law as an effort to prevent gay people from preying on children; Pushaw described Florida’s law as an “anti-grooming bill” on Twitter, adding that “if you’re against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer” — meaning a person preparing children to become targets of sexual abuse, a slur targeting LGBTQ people and their supporters that’s becoming increasingly common on the right.
There’s more:
Oak Grove, 1887, Ivan Shishkin
This is not a one-off example. DeSantis, who has built a profile as a pugilistic culture warrior with eyes on the presidency, has steadily put together a policy agenda with strong echoes of Orbán’s governing ethos — one in which an allegedly existential cultural threat from the left justifies aggressive uses of state power against the right’s enemies.
Most recently, there was DeSantis’s crackdown on Disney’s special tax exemption; using regulatory powers to punish opposing political speech is one of Orbán’s signature moves. On issues ranging from higher education to social media to gerrymandering, DeSantis has followed a trail blazed by Orbán, turning policy into a tool for targeting outgroups while entrenching his party’s hold on power….
DeSantis’s agenda in Florida is evidence that the Republican shift in this direction is continuing, maybe even accelerating. He has shown little interest in moderation or consensus-building instead centering his governing philosophy on using policy to own the libs. While Trump may have been an ideological catalyst for the GOP’s authoritarian lurch, DeSantis is showing how it could actually be implemented in practice. The consequences for democracy in Florida, and America in general, could be dire.
There’s much more at the Vox link.
Financial Times: The return of the 20th century’s nuclear shadow.
Vladimir Putin’s willingness to threaten nuclear weapons is in one respect a good sign: it means Russia is probably losing in Ukraine. It is also a potentially catastrophic one. If Putin’s aim is to scare the west, he is failing. Nato keeps stepping up its supplies to Ukraine. The question is what he would do if he thought Russian defeat was inescapable. Putin keeps implying he knows exactly what steps he would take. Is he bluffing? It is plausible even he does not know the answer.
Either way, the genie is out of the bottle. Putin has broken a post-Cuba taboo on threatening to go nuclear. That, in itself, puts us in new territory. Without most people being aware of it, the world is entering its most dangerous period since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. The majority under the age of 50 have grown up thinking the nuclear spectre is a relic of the last century. In the past few weeks, the prospect of a nuclear exchange has become the most live threat to this century’s peace.
In terms of public awareness, the debate about Putin’s language is a good example of “those who don’t know talk, and those who know don’t talk”. It is easy to think of Putin as a poker addict trying to bluster his way out of a bad bet. Eventually he must fold. US civilian and military officials suffer from no such complacency. Many have taken part in war game exercises where the use of low-yielding tactical nuclear weapons as often as not escalates to strategic nuclear exchange — doomsday, in plain English.
Windmills in the Ukrainian Steppe at Sunset, 1862, Ivan Aivazovsky
If there were a 5 per cent chance of Putin detonating a battlefield nuclear weapon, the world would be at more risk than at any point in most people’s lifetimes. In the past few days, Moscow’s signalling has arguably raised the chances to one in 10. Putin described last week’s test of the Sarmat hypersonic intercontinental ballistic missile as giving the west “food for thought”, which would not sound out of place from Blofeld, the 20th-century Bond villain. On Wednesday, Putin said: “We have all the instruments for this [responding to an existential threat to Russia] — ones nobody else can boast of. And we will use them, if we have to.”
The natural response is that Joe Biden and his European counterparts have made it plain Nato will not fight in Ukraine. The west, in other words, poses no “existential threat” to Russia — its threshold for use of nuclear weapons. But that is only how the west sees it. Putin’s threats, and those of his officials, have been made in the context of claiming Russia is already at war with Nato. Russians are being told every day that they are in a fight for national survival against western-backed Nazis. This level of rhetoric exceeds anything from the cold war.
One more from David Rothkopf at The Daily Beast: Putin Must Be Stopped Once and for All.
Defending Ukraine is not enough. Defeating Russia on the battlefield is not enough. We must ensure—using every means at our disposal—that Vladimir Putin may never again commit the kinds of atrocities that have marked his two decades in power.
Fortunately, this week, it was made absolutely clear that the Biden administration recognizes that necessity and has made it a strategic centerpiece of their foreign and national security policy efforts.
On Monday, after visiting Ukraine with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”
Although one senior U.S. official admitted to me (somewhat uneasily) that “Austin said the quiet part out loud,” it soon became clear that the U.S. was publicly willing to own the new goal of turning Russia’s unprovoked, brutal escalation of its ongoing eight-year war in Ukraine into a lasting and meaningful defeat for the Kremlin.
On Tuesday in Germany—at a meeting of the “Ukraine Defense Consultative Group” (a gathering of the countries from around the world that have pledged to support Ukraine’s war effort)—Secretary Austin said it was the U.S. belief that Ukraine can win the war with Russia. Austin’s spokesperson, John Kirby, stated: “We don’t want a Russia that’s capable of exerting that kind of malign influence in Europe or anywhere in the world.”
That’s all I have for you today. I hope the paintings help just a little bit.
Saturday Reads: Steubenville News, Democrats’ Latest Cave, Plus Villager Snits and Fits
Posted: April 27, 2013 Filed under: Barack Obama, Crime, morning reads, Republican politics, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics | Tags: EU austerity, Frank Luntz, grand jury, Lindsay Lohan, Reno Saccoccia, sequestration, snit fits, Steubenville High School, Steubenville rape case, Tom Brokaw, Tommy Christopher, University of Pennsylvania, White House Correspondents' Dinner 16 Comments
Good Morning!!
There is some news coming out of Steubenville, Ohio in the buildup to the the grand jury investigation, which begins hearing from witnesses on Tuesday.
From The Columbus Dispatch: School, other sites searched in wider Steubenville rape probe
Police officers and investigators yesterday were searching the eastern Ohio high school attended by two football players who raped a 16-year-old girl after an alcohol-fueled party last summer, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said.
Searches also took place at Vestige Ltd., a digital-evidence company in northeastern Ohio, and the offices of the Steubenville school board in addition to Steubenville High School, DeWine said. The searches are part of an attempt to learn whether other laws were broken in connection with the rape.
“What I hope people will believe when we’re done is that we did everything we could to find the truth and that justice was done,” DeWine said in an interview. “What you’re seeing today is just part of that effort.”
Using warrants, police officers and investigators began the searches about 2 p.m. and possibly would work into the night, DeWine said. There was no immediate word on what the searches turned up…
Judges sealed investigators’ requests for the search warrants at the request of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, ruling that disclosing them “would be detrimental to the ongoing criminal investigation,” according to the judges’ orders.
Investigators leaving Steubenville High School on Thursday with documents, servers, and computers (Atlantic Wire)
The Atlantic Wire asks: What Is Steubenville Still Hiding?
Toward the end of the school day Thursday, more than eight months after a Steubenville Big Red pre-season game turned into a serious of house parties and a series of attacks on a 16-year-old girl, local police and investigators showed up — as if out of nowhere — at Steubenville High. They stayed on campus into the night, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine told the Associated Press, executing search warrants that were either new or unheard of — and certainly fascinating. “Steubenville Police assisted the Attorney General in the search warrants,” said William McCafferty, the local police chief who “begged” for evidence when the initial crime was reported. Officials for Steubenville city schools, who have been publicly silent (save for one brief statement) since that fateful August night that brought a social media and judicial storm upon the Ohio town, confirmed the search in a a statement released Friday reading in part that “we have been from the beginning and are continuing to fully cooperate with the authorities in this investigation.”
But this is a new investigation, and this week’s search appears to have an urgency of its own, as DeWine’s grand jury prepares to convene on Tuesday. The attorney general said the searches at Steubenville city schools were “just part of that effort” — an effort he announced after two Steubenville High students and football players, Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, were found guilty of rape. “We cannot bring finality to this matter without the convening of a grand jury,” DeWine said at the time. “I anticipate numerous witnesses will be called. The grand jury, quite frankly, could meet for a number of days.”
Grand juries, by their nature, are conducted in secret, and the warrants executed on Thursday remain sealed — and so it remains unclear whether investigators were searching computers, paperwork, or physical evidence. DeWine has said the grand jury will be looking for, among other things, at the crimes of failure to report a felony, tampering with evidence. DeWine explained that “indictments could be returned and additional charges could be filed” in light of the jury, the nine members of which were seated last week but will begin hearing testimony and reviewing evidence on April 30. He alsocalled the grand jury “a very good investigative tool as well as a very deliberative body,” which makes the timing of the school search all the more interesting.
It sounds like this could get interesting. Personally, I’m hoping Coach Reno Saccoccia gets his comeuppance.
Yesterday, Democrats in Congress once again allowed Republicans to treat them like doormats when they voted to ease sequestration “pain” for the mostly wealthy frequent flyers.
Late Night Laughs: Trump booed at WHCD
Posted: April 30, 2011 Filed under: just because | Tags: Fake Obama vs. Real Ron Paul, White House Correspondents' Dinner 5 Comments
WHCD red carpet: THE DONALD
Tonight is the WH correspondents’ dinner.
via the NYT Caucus blog’s live coverage:
Donald Trump, who just arrived at the White House Correspondents Dinner, was booed while walking the red carpet. #WHCD#NerdPromstableford
2 hours ago
Obama’s speaking right now… says tonight he’s going to release his birth video….
He played Lion King Circle of Life.
“I want to make clear to the Fox News channel. That was a joke.” — Obama
LOL.
Earlier… Powell and Albright share a moment:
Best pix WWR ever took at #nerdprom. WWR was chatting w/Colin Powell when another Secretary of State… http://twitpic.com/4rmk5o WestWingReport
Also, here’s some more theater of the absurd from this week… Fake Obama v. Real Ron Paul on Stossel’s Fox show (h/t Stacy):
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
dakinikat
ecocatwoman
jjlo
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
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