The Full Belmonte, 9/17/2023
Texas’s impeached attorney general acquitted by fellow Republicans
Ken Paxton, impeached in May, has been found not guilty of bribery and dereliction of duty and may resume office
Erum Salam and Maya Yang
“After a dramatic impeachment trial that lasted more than a week, Ken Paxton, the ultraconservative Texas attorney general, has been acquitted and will be able to resume his work in elected office.
Paxton, who faced 16 articles of impeachment against him in this trial – involving bribery, dereliction of duty and disregard for official duty – and four more separately, avoided becoming Texas’s highest-ranking elected official to be removed from state office. He quickly issued a statement boasting that, in his case, ‘the truth prevailed’.
Texas liberals condemned the acquittal as the result of partisan politics.
The only two successful impeachments of Texas state officials were governor James “Pa” Ferguson in 1917 and a district judge in 1975….” Read more at The Guardian
Trump claims genetic edge
Photo: NBC News
“Former President Trump, 77 — in an interview for Kristen Welker's debut tomorrow as moderator of NBC's ‘Meet the Press’ — said he isn't concerned that he'd be in his 80s if re-elected.
‘Well, I will be toward the end,’ Trump said in an interview taped Thursday in Bedminster, N.J. — his first broadcast-network interview since leaving office.
‘No, because my father lived much longer than that [age 93]. My mother lived much longer than that [age 88]. So genetically, that's a good thing.’
Asked if he's leaning toward a woman for V.P., Trump said: ‘I like the concept, but we're going to pick the best person. But I do like the concept, yes.’
On whether he has his eye on South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), who endorsed Trump for '24 last week, he said: ‘I do. I think she's fantastic. ... But we ... have a lot of great people in the Republican Party.’” [Axios]
Gay, bisexual men can donate blood, making good on two-decade-old promise
When Dr. Rochelle Walensky wanted to donate blood with a colleague who was gay, she realized he couldn't. She promised him she would change that.
READ MORE at USA Today
Boebert Apologizes for Vaping in a Denver Theater
“The Colorado congresswoman previously denied vaping during the performance, but could be seen doing so on surveillance video.
Representative Lauren Boebert, a hard-right Republican rabble-rouser from Colorado, apologized on Friday night for her behavior at a recent performance of the family-friendly musical “Beetlejuice” in Denver, after surveillance video revealed her vaping and behaving disruptively in the theater.
Ms. Boebert, 36, previously denied reports that she had been vaping. A pregnant woman seated behind her asked her to stop before she was ejected for ‘causing a disturbance’ at the show, according to The Denver Post.
‘The past few days have been difficult and humbling, and I’m truly sorry for the unwanted attention my Sunday evening in Denver has brought to the community,’ Ms. Boebert said in a statement Friday night. ‘While none of my actions or words as a private citizen that night were intended to be malicious or meant to cause harm, the reality is they did and I regret that.’
Ms. Boebert, who can be seen on the video touching and carrying on with her date while sitting in the middle of a crowded theater, blamed what she called her ‘public and difficult divorce’ for her behavior and said, ‘I simply fell short of my values on Sunday.’
Ms. Boebert, a mother of four boys who likes to show off pictures of her new grandchild to colleagues in Congress, said she “genuinely did not recall vaping that evening” when she told her campaign to issue a statement denying she had done so. She said she would have to work hard to earn back trust from voters in her district.
It may be a heavy lift for Ms. Boebert, who won re-election in 2022 by just 546 votes.
If her too-close-for-comfort re-election campaign was a message that Colorado voters didn’t like her brand of disruptive politics, she hasn’t appeared to have received it. Since January, she has often acted in ways many Republicans view as detrimental to keeping control of the House in 2024 and to her keeping her seat.
In June, Ms. Boebert tried to force a vote on articles of impeachment against President Biden, claiming his immigration policies constituted high crimes and misdemeanors. Some of her colleagues called the move “crazy,” and it was eventually shunted off to committees for further study.
Ms. Boebert distinguished herself during the fraught speaker’s race in January as one of the most committed holdouts against Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, milking the moment for maximum Fox News exposure. In the House, she has cultivated an abrasive public persona, sometimes heckling her Democratic colleagues in the halls of the Capitol and largely ignoring reporters’ questions, except to loudly proclaim at times, ‘I love President Trump!’
The behavior has also earned a cult following on the right. Ms. Boebert, who often wears five-inch Lucite heels and skintight dresses, has a national base of fans who enjoy her disruptive antics and extreme rhetoric.
On the House floor, Ms. Boebert has railed against drag performances for children and claimed the left was ‘grooming’ children by exposing them to ‘obscene content.’
Read and view video at New York Times
Car prices could rise in 60 days
UAW members march past the Detroit Auto Show yesterday. Photo: Paul Sancya/AP
“The UAW's novel targeted strike strategy against U.S. automakers is already starting to have ripple effects on other factories, Axios' Joann Muller reports from Detroit.
Why it matters: Auto inventories are tight. Should the strike escalate, prices of new and used automobiles could rise within two months, according to RSM U.S. chief economist Joe Brusuelas.
Context: Until yesterday, the UAW had never gone on strike simultaneously against GM, Ford and Stellantis (Chrysler's parent).
What's happening: UAW President Shawn Fain devised a unique plan aimed at ratcheting up the pain at the Big 3 without wrecking the economy.
The plan was to target a trio of strategic factories — in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri — while keeping 90% of members working under expired contracts.
Reality check: GM and Ford have already said they will have to shutter other factories impacted by the work stoppage at the targeted plants.
GM said it will have to idle a Kansas assembly plant next week.
Ford said the work stoppage in the assembly and paint departments at a Michigan factory means 600 other employees at the plant have been told to stay home.” [Axios]
Women authors soar
Data: Joel Waldfogel. Chart: Axios Visuals
“The gender gap in book publishing has pretty much been closed, Ashley May writes for the weekend edition of Axios Markets.
By the numbers: Women's share of all books published grew over the past 60 years to roughly 50%, according to data analyzed by Joel Waldfogel, an economist at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.
Women are attaining a higher share of bestseller lists, as well as nominations for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
They now account for 58.1% of sales in the ‘literature and fiction’ category.
Between the lines: Book publishing is far ahead of other fields. Waldfogel points out that in other areas of intellectual property, especially patents, women still lag men.” [Axios]
Limiting airline lounges
This 21,000-square-foot Delta Sky Club with a theme of nautical history — seating 400+ and overlooking Boston Harbor — opened last month at Boston Logan Terminal E. Photo: Delta
“Delta is making big changes to its SkyMiles program that will soon start restricting access to its Sky Club airport lounges, Axios' Kelly Tyko reports.
Why it matters: Pent-up travel demand has been driving travelers to frequent-flyer programs and rewards credit cards. But airlines are making it harder to cash in on popular perks.
The big picture: Airlines, including American and United, have been raising the qualification requirements to earn or maintain their ‘elite’ frequent-flyer tiers to pre-pandemic levels and beyond.
‘Beginning Jan. 1,’ Delta announced, ‘Delta SkyMiles Platinum and Platinum Business American Express Card Members and those customers traveling in Basic Economy, regardless of card type, will no longer be eligible for Club access.’
‘These changes are part of Delta's ongoing efforts to help balance the popularity of the Clubs with the premium experience they provide.’” [Axios]
Jann Wenner Removed From Rock Hall Board After Times Interview
The Rolling Stone co-founder’s exit comes a day after The New York Times published an interview in which he made widely criticized comments.
By Ben Sisario
Sept. 16, 2023
“Jann Wenner, the co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine, has been removed from the board of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, which he also helped found, one day after an interview with him was published in The New York Times in which he made comments that were widely criticized as sexist and racist.
The foundation — which inducts artists into the hall of fame and was the organization behind the creation of its affiliated museum in Cleveland — made the announcement in a brief statement released Saturday.
‘Jann Wenner has been removed from the board of directors of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation,’ the statement said. Joel Peresman, the president and chief executive of the foundation, declined to comment further when reached by phone.
But the dismissal of Mr. Wenner comes after an interview with The Times, published Friday and timed to the publication of his new book, called ‘The Masters,’ which collects his decades of interviews with rock legends like Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen and Bono — all of them white and male.
In the interview, David Marchese of The Times asked Mr. Wenner, 77, why the book included no women or people of color.
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Regarding women, Mr. Wenner said, ‘Just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level,’ and remarked that Joni Mitchell “was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll.”
His answer about artists of color was less direct. ‘Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right?’ he said. ‘I suppose when you use a word as broad as ‘masters,’ the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.’
Mr. Wenner’s comments drew an immediate reaction, with his quotes mocked on social media and past criticisms unearthed of Rolling Stone’s coverage of female artists under Mr. Wenner. Joe Hagan, who in 2017 wrote a harshly critical biography of Mr. Wenner, “Sticky Fingers,” cited a comment by the feminist critic Ellen Willis, who in 1970 called the magazine ‘viciously anti-woman.’
In a statement issued late Saturday by a representative for Little, Brown and Company, the publisher of his book, Mr. Wenner said: ‘In my interview with The New York Times I made comments that diminished the contributions, genius and impact of Black and women artists and I apologize wholeheartedly for those remarks.’…” Read more at New York Times
Week 3 college football winners and losers: Georgia shows grit, Alabama is listless
USA TODAY
The impossible can happen on any college football Saturday, even one without any matchups of teams in the US LBM Coaches Poll and as many games between Power Five and Championship Subdivision opponents as there were non-conference games between two teams from the Power Five.
There was even a window of time when the impossible seemed, well, possible: South Carolina led No. 1 Georgia 14-3 at halftime and had the two-time defending national champions on the ropes.
What Kirby Smart told the Bulldogs in the locker room is between Smart and the Bulldogs, though the language probably veered into the TV-MA territory. The message was delivered, and it was received. Georgia held the Gamecocks scoreless in the second half and won 24-14 behind 269 yards on 7.7 yards per throw from Carson Beck and 118 rushing yards from Daijun Edwards.
The Bulldogs will have games like this — even last year's juggernaut had to overcome a pair of double-digit deficits, including in the College Football Playoff semifinal against Ohio State. And after easing into the season against Tennessee-Martin and Ball State, Georgia had to combat a different level of talent and athleticism, and needed two quarters to get back up to speed.
Crisis averted. Winning streak intact. The Bulldogs will stay atop the Top 25 and continue a march toward college football immortality in an effort to become the first program to threepeat in the modern era.
The Bulldogs top this week's list of winners. Another SEC powerhouse wasn't so lucky.
Here's the best and worst from Saturday:
Winners
Colorado
The hottest story in college football keeps delivering in front of a captive national audience. Down 28-20 with under two minutes left and 98 yards from the end zone, No. 21 Colorado tied the game with 32 seconds left and then beat rival Colorado State 43-35 in overtime to avoid a possibly deflating loss before meeting No. 13 Oregon and No. 5 Southern California to start Pac-12 play. Quarterback Shedeur Sanders threw 348 yards and four touchdowns despite playing much of the game without Travis Hunter, who was injured in the first half after taking a late hit on the sideline. (Late hits and personal fouls were kind of the Rams' thing.) The win will definitely keep Colorado on the national radar heading into next weekend's matchup against the Ducks, but the close call revealed flaws some of the best teams in the Pac-12 will be able to exploit.
Florida
There was never a realistic scenario that saw Billy Napier fall into danger of being the latest Florida coach to be jettisoned ahead of schedule despite last year's losing record and this season's uneven start. But you can't overstate the importance of a 29-16 win against No. 9 Tennessee in terms of breathing fresh life into Napier's tenure and providing a glimpse into his end goal: a physical team looking to run at and through opponents to take pressure off quarterback Graham Mertz. The Gators mostly did just that, racking up 191 rushing yards on 42 carries with three scores while Mertz completed 19 of 24 throws for 166 yards without an interception. The offense sputtered in the second half, so this is obviously not a finished product. But this is an overall performance Florida can build on during a four-game stretch against Charlotte, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and South Carolina before facing Georgia on the final Saturday of October.
HORROR SHOW: Tennessee again humbed by Florida in The Swamp
LSU
Two weeks after losing handily to No. 3 Florida State in the season opener, No. 14 LSU provided an impressive response with a dominant 41-14 win against Mississippi State. Jayden Daniels completed 30 of 34 attempts for 361 yards and four total touchdowns, with most of the damage going to wide receiver Malik Nabers, who erupted for 13 catches for 239 yards and both scores. Defensively, the Tigers limited Bulldogs quarterback Will Rogers to just 11 completions in 28 attempts for 103 yards and gave up just 94 rushing yards, 52 yards coming on one play. This was the sort of well-rounded performance that speaks to the Tigers' ability to repeat atop the SEC West and contend for the playoff.
Missouri
An unbelievable, make-your-blood-boil delay of game penalty with seconds left seemed to doom Missouri's chances of beating No. 15 Kansas State in regulation and, should the Tigers lost in extra frames, might've placed coach Eli Drinkwitz under a white-hot spotlight even before the start of SEC play. But the kicker saved the day: Harrison Mevis — the 245-pound senior known as the ‘Thicker Kicker’ — drilled an SEC-record 61-yard field goal with room to spare to lift Missouri to the 30-27 win. Just like Drinkwitz drew it up, right? The win moves Missouri to 3-0 with Memphis and Vanderbilt next on the schedule, leaving the Tigers in range of a spot in the Top 25 before hosting LSU on Oct. 7.
Ohio State
The offense has stirred to life. No. 4 Ohio State scored 35 points in the second quarter and beat Western Kentucky 63-10, racking up 562 yards of offense with 9.4 yards per play against one of the better teams in the Group of Five. After a few sluggish weeks to start the season amid the loss of star quarterback C.J. Stroud, the Buckeyes seem poised to again rank among the best in the Big Ten and Power Five behind All-America wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. and Stroud's replacement, Kyle McCord. Harrison finished with 126 receiving yards, including a 75-yard score, and McCord completed 82.6% of his passes for 318 yards and three touchdowns.
Brian Ferentz
We've covered the metrics placed on Iowa's embattled offensive coordinator a few times already this season, but a quick refresher: For Ferentz to get back on his previous two-year rolling contract, the Hawkeyes must win at least seven games and average at least 25 points per game, or a total of 350 points over the course of a 13-game season. After scoring 44 points through two games, both wins, Iowa tacked on a meaningless score with 33 seconds left to beat Western Michigan 41-10, the program's highest point total since dropping 51 points on Maryland in 2021. This leaves the Hawkeyes at 85 points on the year, or 28.3 points per game, and things are looking up for Ferentz.
Nebraska
Northern Illinois is not very good, so we can get that part out of the way. But the Cornhuskers are in the win column for the first time under Matt Rhule after bottling up the Huskies in a 35-11 victory that saw another strong performance from a defense that may be one of the top four or five units in the Big Ten. The Cornhuskers gave up just 26 rushing yards on 22 carries to help smooth the way for redshirt freshman quarterback Heinrich Haarberg, who replaced an injured Jeff Sims and threw for 158 yards, ran for a team-high 98 yards on 21 carries and had three total touchdowns.
Losers
Alabama
Take away the helmet. Ignore the scowling Nick Saban on the sideline, if you can. Forget about the national championships, the history, the reputation, the legacy of success. If this wasn't Alabama — let's say it was Auburn instead — would this team be sniffing next week's Top 25? One week after losing at home to No. 4 Texas, the Crimson Tide were drawn into a dogfight against South Florida and barely escaped with a 17-3 win that raises another series of difficult questions about the state of the offense under new coordinator Tommy Rees and what Saban plans to do at quarterback. He replaced Jalen Milroe with Notre Dame transfer Tyler Buchner only to see Buchner struggle, completing just 5 of 14 attempts for 34 yards, before turning things over to redshirt freshman Ty Simpson, who hit on 5 of 9 throws for 73 yards and might be the starter moving forward.
While Alabama was able to avoid back-to-back losses for the first time in 189 games, this does not resemble a team capable of winning the SEC West, let alone getting back to the playoff and winning the national championship. Through three games, this is Saban's weakest and most flawed team since his debut season in 2007.
Tennessee
Losing to Florida isn't quite an annual tradition, but it's close: Tennessee has won just twice in this series since its victory in 2004, making it one of the most one-sided rivalries in the Power Five. The issues on display Saturday — penalties, pre-snap miscommunication, substandard play on both lines, MIA leadership from the sidelines — are deeply concerning, however, and if not cleaned up in the next few weeks could easily steal the momentum developed during last year's breakthrough. The good news is that the schedule is friendly, by and large, especially given Alabama's mediocrity and Texas A&M's unpredictability.
Pittsburgh
Few coaches needed a marquee win more than West Virginia's Neal Brown, and a 17-6 win against rival Pittsburgh definitely fits the bill. But the result says more about the listless and disappointing Panthers, a cold-and-colder bunch that seems so inept offensively that just getting to a bowl game will demand a major in-season overhaul at quarterback and in general scheme. Transfer quarterback Phil Jurkovec went 8 of 20 for 81 yards with three interceptions and has completed 34.6% of his throws in two games against Power Five teams. This wasted a solid showing from the defense, which held WVU to 211 yards on 3.5 yards per play.
Oklahoma State
Try this score on for size and see how it feels: South Alabama 33, Oklahoma State 7. It's the sort of loss that brings the Cowboys plummeting all the way back to reality after a so-so start against Central Arkansas and Arizona State; while OSU won both games, there were warning signs that spoke to the concerns around longtime coach Mike Gundy's team in the preseason. One, quarterback play, might be a season-long problem. Alan Bowman, Garrett Rangel and Gundy's son, Gunnar, combined for 16 of 35 passing for 114 yards and an interception. South Alabama allowed Tulane to hit on 14 of 15 throws for 294 yards and four touchdowns in the opener.
Iowa State
A dreadful run-up to the regular season that saw the program and broader athletics department embroiled in a gambling scandal has bled into a miserable start for Iowa State, which is now 1-2 after managing just 271 yards of offense and a single score in a 10-7 loss at Ohio. The Cyclones have dropped 14 of 21 games and are again one of the worst teams in the Big 12 after finishing last in the conference a year ago. Once one of the hottest names in coaching, connected at times to openings at Michigan and elsewhere, Matt Campbell's reputation has taken a tremendous hit since the start of last season.
Virginia Tech
These are dark days in Blacksburg. Virginia Tech is now 1-2 after giving up 256 rushing yards on 7.5 yards per carry and losing 35-16 to Rutgers, dropping second-year coach Brent Pry to 1-9 in games against Power Five competition. The Hokies do nothing well, including such basics as block, tackle, run or pass, and seem destined to spend this year near the bottom of the ACC. Again.
The winless seven
Only seven teams are still winless after the first three weeks of the regular season: East Carolina, Connecticut, Virginia, Sam Houston State, Buffalo, Nevada and Colorado State. The most surprising is probably ECU, which has made back-to-back bowl games under coach Mike Houston and will have to scramble from here to get to six wins. UConn were a surprising bowl team last season but have taken a clear step back following losses to Georgia State and Florida International.” [USA Today]
“This isn't just a Bob Ross painting, it's the Bob Ross painting. The very first on-air work from Ross' iconic ‘The Joy of Painting’ show is up for sale for just short of $10 million. (Wanna split it, anyone?) Ross painted ‘A Walk in the Woods’ during the first episode of the show in January of 1983. It was bought later that year by a volunteer at the Virginia PBS station where the show's first season aired. They kept the painting safe for decades before it was acquired by the Minneapolis-based art gallery Modern Artifact. It's everything that made Bob Ross so iconic: A placid gold and blue landscape painted using Ross' preferred ‘wet-on-wet’ technique, featuring rugged rocks and water and, of course, some happy little trees.”
Read the full story here. [CNN]