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2024 Paris Olympic Games, July 26-August 11
Despite weather glitch, the Paris Olympics flame is lit at the Greek cradle of ancient games
By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS
Updated 7:06 AM CDT, April 16, 2024
The Olympic torch was lit on Tuesday at the site of the ancient games in Greece, ahead of the Paris Olympics this summer.
00:49
https://apnews.com/article/olympics-flame-lighting-greece-6ba355b34a5c6c8e4d037fa00f3b1321
20 Photos
ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece (AP) — Even without the help of Apollo, the flame that is to burn at the Paris Olympics was kindled Tuesday at the site of the ancient games in southern Greece.
Cloudy skies prevented the traditional lighting. .. https://apnews.com/article/olympics-flame-lighting-greece-ceremony-ancient-olympia-f68de04bd8871d08f06c5c6c724c3bdc , when an actress dressed as an ancient Greek priestess uses the sun to ignite a silver torch — after offering up a symbolic prayer to Apollo, the ancient Greek sun god.
Instead, she used a backup flame that had been lit on the same spot Monday, during the final rehearsal.
Normally, the foremost of a group of priestesses in long, pleated dresses dips the fuel-filled torch into a parabolic mirror which focuses the sun’s rays on it, and fire spurts forth.
But this time she didn’t even try, going straight for the backup flame, kept in a copy of an ancient Greek pot. Ironically, a few minutes later the sun shone forth.
From the ancient stadium in Olympia, a relay of torchbearers will carry the flame along a 5,000-kilometer (3,100-mile) route through Greece, including several islands, until the handover to Paris Games organizers in Athens on April 26.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said the flame lighting combined “a pilgrimage to our past in ancient Olympia, and an act of faith in our future.”
“In these difficult times ... with wars and conflicts on the rise, people are fed up with all the hate, the aggression and negative news,” he said. “We are longing for something which brings us together; something that is unifying; something that gives us hope.”
Thousands of spectators from all over the world packed Olympia for Tuesday’s event amid the ruined temples and sports grounds where the ancient games were held from 776 B.C.-393 A.D.
The sprawling site, in a lush valley by the confluence of two rivers, is at its prettiest in the spring, teeming with pink-flowering Judas trees, small blue irises and the occasional red anemone.
Greek authorities maintained high security around Olympia on Tuesday, after protests by rights activists disrupted the lighting ceremonies for the Beijing summer and winter games. Armed police stopped incoming vehicles and checked for explosives, while sniffer dogs combed the grounds.
The first torchbearer was Greek rower Stefanos Douskos, a gold medalist in 2021 in Tokyo. He ran to a nearby monument that contains the heart of French Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the driving force behind the modern revival of the games.
The next runner was Laure Manaudou, a French swimmer who won three medals at Athens in 2004. She handed over to senior European Union official Margaritis Schinas, a Greek.
The IOC’s Bach praised Paris organizers for doing “an outstanding job” with preparations for the July 26-August 11 games.
He also highlighted their environmental impact, saying that cleanup efforts will make it possible to swim in the River Seine, which traverses Paris, “for the first time in a hundred years.”
IOC politics briefly reared their head in Olympia as well, with the heads of two sports federations criticizing track and field leader Sebastian Coe for breaking with Olympic tradition last week by promising prize money of $50,000 to each of its gold medalists in Paris. The money will be paid from the share of Olympic games revenues that the IOC pays governing bodies of Olympic sports.
International Cycling Union President David Lappartient complained that Coe did not consult with other sports before announcing his move.
“We really believe that that’s not the Olympic spirit,” Lappartient said. “If we concentrate the money ... on only top athletes, only gold, then of course a lot of opportunities will disappear for athletes all over the world.”
Coe has been widely expected to run for the IOC presidency, which should become vacant in 2025. Lappartient is close to Bach and is increasingly seen as a potential successor.
From Greece, the Olympic flame will travel from Athens’ port of Piraeus on the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship built in 1896 — the year of the first modern games in Athens.
According to Captain Aymeric Gibet, it’s due on May 8 in the southern French port of Marseille, a city founded by Greek colonists some 2,600 years ago.
The Belem arrived in Katakolo, near Olympia, on Monday. Lookers-on included a small, enthusiastic group of tourists from the northwestern French region of Brittany, where the ship’s homeport of Nantes is, waving French and Breton flags.
“We thought it would be a unique opportunity to see the flame lighting at the historic site of Olympia,” said Jean-Michel Pasquet from Lorient, near Nantes. “And when we also learnt the Belem would carry the flame ... we said we must do this.”
But Pasquet said he’d have to watch the Paris Games from home.
“For us, it would be really very expensive, unaffordable,” to go to the venues, he said. “So we’ll watch them on television ... from our armchairs.”
Graham Dunbar in Geneva, Switzerland, and Theodora Tongas in Ancient Olympia contributed.
A performer holds a ceramic pot with the flame during the official ceremony of the flame lighting for the Paris Olympics, at the Ancient Olympia site, Greece, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
___
AP Olympics https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
https://apnews.com/article/olympics-flame-lighting-greece-6ba355b34a5c6c8e4d037fa00f3b1321
2024 Paris Olympic Games, July 26-August 11
Despite weather glitch, the Paris Olympics flame is lit at the Greek cradle of ancient games
By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS
Updated 7:06 AM CDT, April 16, 2024
The Olympic torch was lit on Tuesday at the site of the ancient games in Greece, ahead of the Paris Olympics this summer.
00:49
https://apnews.com/article/olympics-flame-lighting-greece-6ba355b34a5c6c8e4d037fa00f3b1321
20 Photos
ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece (AP) — Even without the help of Apollo, the flame that is to burn at the Paris Olympics was kindled Tuesday at the site of the ancient games in southern Greece.
Cloudy skies prevented the traditional lighting. .. https://apnews.com/article/olympics-flame-lighting-greece-ceremony-ancient-olympia-f68de04bd8871d08f06c5c6c724c3bdc , when an actress dressed as an ancient Greek priestess uses the sun to ignite a silver torch — after offering up a symbolic prayer to Apollo, the ancient Greek sun god.
Instead, she used a backup flame that had been lit on the same spot Monday, during the final rehearsal.
Normally, the foremost of a group of priestesses in long, pleated dresses dips the fuel-filled torch into a parabolic mirror which focuses the sun’s rays on it, and fire spurts forth.
But this time she didn’t even try, going straight for the backup flame, kept in a copy of an ancient Greek pot. Ironically, a few minutes later the sun shone forth.
From the ancient stadium in Olympia, a relay of torchbearers will carry the flame along a 5,000-kilometer (3,100-mile) route through Greece, including several islands, until the handover to Paris Games organizers in Athens on April 26.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said the flame lighting combined “a pilgrimage to our past in ancient Olympia, and an act of faith in our future.”
“In these difficult times ... with wars and conflicts on the rise, people are fed up with all the hate, the aggression and negative news,” he said. “We are longing for something which brings us together; something that is unifying; something that gives us hope.”
Thousands of spectators from all over the world packed Olympia for Tuesday’s event amid the ruined temples and sports grounds where the ancient games were held from 776 B.C.-393 A.D.
The sprawling site, in a lush valley by the confluence of two rivers, is at its prettiest in the spring, teeming with pink-flowering Judas trees, small blue irises and the occasional red anemone.
Greek authorities maintained high security around Olympia on Tuesday, after protests by rights activists disrupted the lighting ceremonies for the Beijing summer and winter games. Armed police stopped incoming vehicles and checked for explosives, while sniffer dogs combed the grounds.
The first torchbearer was Greek rower Stefanos Douskos, a gold medalist in 2021 in Tokyo. He ran to a nearby monument that contains the heart of French Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the driving force behind the modern revival of the games.
The next runner was Laure Manaudou, a French swimmer who won three medals at Athens in 2004. She handed over to senior European Union official Margaritis Schinas, a Greek.
The IOC’s Bach praised Paris organizers for doing “an outstanding job” with preparations for the July 26-August 11 games.
He also highlighted their environmental impact, saying that cleanup efforts will make it possible to swim in the River Seine, which traverses Paris, “for the first time in a hundred years.”
IOC politics briefly reared their head in Olympia as well, with the heads of two sports federations criticizing track and field leader Sebastian Coe for breaking with Olympic tradition last week by promising prize money of $50,000 to each of its gold medalists in Paris. The money will be paid from the share of Olympic games revenues that the IOC pays governing bodies of Olympic sports.
International Cycling Union President David Lappartient complained that Coe did not consult with other sports before announcing his move.
“We really believe that that’s not the Olympic spirit,” Lappartient said. “If we concentrate the money ... on only top athletes, only gold, then of course a lot of opportunities will disappear for athletes all over the world.”
Coe has been widely expected to run for the IOC presidency, which should become vacant in 2025. Lappartient is close to Bach and is increasingly seen as a potential successor.
From Greece, the Olympic flame will travel from Athens’ port of Piraeus on the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship built in 1896 — the year of the first modern games in Athens.
According to Captain Aymeric Gibet, it’s due on May 8 in the southern French port of Marseille, a city founded by Greek colonists some 2,600 years ago.
The Belem arrived in Katakolo, near Olympia, on Monday. Lookers-on included a small, enthusiastic group of tourists from the northwestern French region of Brittany, where the ship’s homeport of Nantes is, waving French and Breton flags.
“We thought it would be a unique opportunity to see the flame lighting at the historic site of Olympia,” said Jean-Michel Pasquet from Lorient, near Nantes. “And when we also learnt the Belem would carry the flame ... we said we must do this.”
But Pasquet said he’d have to watch the Paris Games from home.
“For us, it would be really very expensive, unaffordable,” to go to the venues, he said. “So we’ll watch them on television ... from our armchairs.”
Graham Dunbar in Geneva, Switzerland, and Theodora Tongas in Ancient Olympia contributed.
A performer holds a ceramic pot with the flame during the official ceremony of the flame lighting for the Paris Olympics, at the Ancient Olympia site, Greece, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
___
AP Olympics https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
https://apnews.com/article/olympics-flame-lighting-greece-6ba355b34a5c6c8e4d037fa00f3b1321
The LOSER
Which Trump lies stick?
Republicans believe some falsehoods more than they did six years ago, our poll finds.
Analysis by Glenn Kessler
Scott Clement andEmily Guskin
April 9, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
Complete article... with links and graphics
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/09/some-trump-falsehoods-stick-more-than-others-fact-checker-poll-finds/
(Illustration by Natalie Vineberg/The Washington Post; AP Photo)
Fictions, misleading claims, wild exaggerations, lies — former president Donald Trump dispenses untruths of one variant or another relentlessly. The falsehoods range from the inconsequential, like the crowd size at his inauguration, to the democracy-shaking, like the “stolen” 2020 election.
With Trump barreling toward November, when Americans will have a chance to choose him to lead the nation again, The Washington Post Fact Checker sought to get a sense of the staying power of his lies — whether people are more or less likely to believe them over time and which lies prove the stickiest — as well as measure the value Americans place in a president’s honesty, however they define it.
Midway through Trump’s presidency, in 2018, we documented through a poll that most Americans, including Republicans, did not believe many of his most repeated claims.
A fresh Washington Post-Schar School poll shows that remains largely the case, with an average of 28 percent of Americans believing Trump’s false claims tested in the poll.
But Trump has made significant inroads in convincing Republicans that his lies are the truth. That applies to election integrity especially — the basis of Trump’s “big lie.”
Even more significant, Americans appear to have diverged on the meaning of honesty itself. Among Republicans, fewer now say that Trump regularly makes misleading statements. Slightly more view him as more honest than they did in 2018, despite an extraordinarily large amount of evidence that Trump often does not tell the truth. During Trump’s presidency, The Fact Checker documented more than 30,000 misleading or outright false claims, and since he began his second campaign for the White House against Joe Biden, he’s introduced new falsehoods to his catalogue: Inflation is “almost 50 percent” under President Biden; “nearly 1 million jobs held by native-born Americans” have been lost to immigrants. In a single December interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump made 24 false or misleading claims in five minutes — one every 12.5 seconds.
The Post-Schar School Fact Checker survey included 10 pairs of opposing statements — one true, one false — without identifying who made the statement. Seven questions gauging belief in false claims by Trump, including four measured in 2018, were mixed among a false claim by Biden and two other factual questions.
Six years ago, just about 1 in 4 Republicans (26 percent) agreed that millions of fraudulent votes were cast in the 2016 election. Now, 38 percent of Republicans — and 47 percent of strong Trump supporters — believe that is the case. Among all Americans, belief in this false claim hardly changed because Democrats moved sharply in the opposite direction from Republicans. Trump often made this claim to justify his loss of the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016, when the electoral college propelled him to the Oval Office.
Relatedly, in 2018, a little more than a quarter of Republicans, 27 percent, said they believed Trump’s claim that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election, benefiting Trump, despite substantial evidence assembled by intelligence agencies that it did interfere. Today, more Republicans, 37 percent, say they believe the false claim, despite the addition of a bipartisan Senate report concluding that Russia interfered, and criminal indictments of a dozen Russians. Overall, just about 1 in 5 Americans believe this.
Trump has convinced 70 percent of Republicans — and 81 percent of his strong supporters — that Biden won the 2020 election because of voter fraud, though not a single allegation has been proven. Slightly more than one-third of Americans overall believe this.
He has even convinced 51 percent of Republicans — and 58 percent of his most fervent supporters — that some cities tallied more votes than registered voters. This ludicrous claim is disproven simply by checking the statistics. Yet Trump has repeated it in rally after rally, often identifying Democratic strongholds like Detroit and Philadelphia.
False claims about election integrity are not the only ones that have taken hold.
While Biden has pushed forward with significant investment in green energy to combat climate change, the poll finds that Trump’s argument that global temperatures are rising mainly because of natural causes has gained traction with Republicans. Whereas one-third believed this in 2018, now nearly half (46 percent) think this is the case. As a result, the share of Americans overall saying human activity had little to do with climate change has climbed to 26 percent, from 19 percent in 2018.
Only one Trump false claim tested showed some slippage in support among Republicans — that the United States funds a majority of the NATO budget. (The United States provides 15.9 percent of the NATO budget for military-related operations, maintenance and headquarters activity — the same percentage as Germany.) More than half of Republicans believed this in 2018 (53 percent); now the percentage ticked down to 46 percent. Just over one-third of Americans overall believe this. Trump’s rhetoric has had to contend with news reports of NATO allies rushing to send weapons to Ukraine as it fends off a Russian invasion, focusing new attention on the share of the load they shoulder for NATO.
As for that Russian invasion, Trump’s claim — without evidence — that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have invaded if Trump had remained president has resonated with Republicans. Over 6 in 10 Republicans (63 percent) and 74 percent of strong Trump approvers say Putin wouldn’t have invaded if Trump was president; majorities of independents (51 percent) and Democrats (78 percent) say Putin would have invaded Ukraine regardless of whether Trump or Biden was president.
One of the more striking findings in 2018 was that Republicans appeared to have grown less concerned about presidents being honest than they were a decade earlier. In 2007, an Associated Press-Yahoo poll found 71 percent of Republicans saying it was “extremely important” for presidential candidates to be honest, similar to 70 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of independents. The 2018 Post poll showed nearly identical shares of Democrats and independents prioritizing honesty in presidential candidates, but the share of Republicans who said honesty was extremely important had fallen to 49 percent, 22 points lower than what the AP-Yahoo poll showed.
The new survey finds that Republicans now align more closely with the 2007 result, with 63 percent of them saying being honest is extremely important. (Democrats are essentially unchanged.) Having a Democrat in the White House — especially one who often mangles facts and repeats dubious stories — might account for the return to the 2007 finding, but there may be a more startling reason, too.
In one of the clearest measures of how deeply Trump’s lies have pierced the public consciousness, slightly more Republicans now view Trump as more honest than they did in 2018. Asked whether Trump regularly makes misleading statements, the share of Republicans who say he does dipped by 10 percentage points, to 38 percent. The percentage of Republicans who say Trump usually makes flat-out false claims ticked down to 8 percent from 14 percent; he also made small inroads with independents, with the percentage saying he made flat-out false statements slipping by seven points, to 41 percent.
Perceptions of Biden’s honesty weren’t measured in 2018, but the survey found that 56 percent of Americans said that Democrats in Congress regularly made misleading statements — and in 2024, an identical share say the same of Biden. Overall, 66 percent of U.S. adults say Trump regularly makes misleading statements, down slightly from 71 percent in 2018 because of the shift among Republicans.
Both in 2018 and this year, respondents were asked whether unemployment was near a 50-year low. This was a true statement by Trump in 2018, when he was president — and it is true today, when Biden is president. The unemployment rate, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, reached a low of 3.5 percent in 2019 under Trump and 3.4 percent in 2023 under Biden — levels not seen since 1969. The unemployment rate just before the 2018 poll was 3.8 percent; it was 3.9 percent just before the 2024 poll — both near 50-year lows at the time.
Similar percentages — about 1 in 4 — rejected this fact in both surveys, but perceptions have splintered by partisanship. The share of Democrats rejecting the claim dropped from 33 percent in 2018 to 20 percent today, while the share of Republicans rejecting it grew from 19 percent to 37 percent. Among strong Trump approvers, rejection of the claim more than doubled, from 19 percent to 45 percent.
Biden has frequently argued that Trump is a threat to democracy, citing his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election and his open admiration of autocrats. Trump has tried to turn the tables, claiming that Biden is the real threat to democracy. Without evidence, Trump claims Biden is responsible for the myriad criminal cases brought against the former president. About half of Americans say they are “extremely” or “very” worried about threats to democracy in the United States (52 percent), including majorities of Democrats (58 percent) and independents (54 percent) and almost half of Republicans (47 percent). Nearly 6 in 10 of those who strongly approve of Trump (57 percent) are at least very worried about democracy.
Americans who say Fox News is one of their main news sources are 13 percentage points more likely to believe the average false Trump claim than the public overall (41 percent versus 28 percent of Americans overall). People who rely on Fox News as a main source of news also are more likely to say Biden won the election because of voter fraud (58 percent to 36 percent among the public overall), whereas a majority of people who rely on all other news sources with sufficient sample sizes, including social media, say Biden won fair and square.
Meanwhile, college graduates are eight percentage points less likely to believe Trump’s false claims than those without college degrees, 23 percent versus 31 percent.
[...]
MORE
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/09/some-trump-falsehoods-stick-more-than-others-fact-checker-poll-finds/
AP PHOTOS: Total solar eclipse sweeps across North America
By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN
Updated 3:55 PM CDT, April 8, 2024
DALLAS (AP) — Millions across North America witnessed the moon block out the sun during a total solar eclipse Monday.
The eclipse’s path of totality stretched from Mazatlán, Mexico to Newfoundland, an area that crosses 15 U.S. states and is home to 44 million people. Revelers were engulfed in darkness at state parks, on city rooftops and in small towns.
Most of those in North America, but not in the direct path, still witnessed a partial eclipse, with the moon transforming the sun into a fiery crescent.
Totality’s first stop on land cast Mazatlán’s sparkling beaches into darkness before continuing northeast toward Eagle Pass, Texas, one its first stops in the U.S.
Total solar eclipses happen somewhere around the world every 11 to 18 months, but they don’t often cross paths with millions of people. The U.S. last got a taste in 2017, and won’t again see a coast-to-coast spectacle until 2045.
[...]
https://apnews.com/article/2024-total-solar-eclipse-photos-us-0a07725f59906849b00949e43177e6d9
AP PHOTOS: Total solar eclipse sweeps across North America
By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN
Updated 3:55 PM CDT, April 8, 2024
DALLAS (AP) — Millions across North America witnessed the moon block out the sun during a total solar eclipse Monday.
The eclipse’s path of totality stretched from Mazatlán, Mexico to Newfoundland, an area that crosses 15 U.S. states and is home to 44 million people. Revelers were engulfed in darkness at state parks, on city rooftops and in small towns.
Most of those in North America, but not in the direct path, still witnessed a partial eclipse, with the moon transforming the sun into a fiery crescent.
Totality’s first stop on land cast Mazatlán’s sparkling beaches into darkness before continuing northeast toward Eagle Pass, Texas, one its first stops in the U.S.
Total solar eclipses happen somewhere around the world every 11 to 18 months, but they don’t often cross paths with millions of people. The U.S. last got a taste in 2017, and won’t again see a coast-to-coast spectacle until 2045.
[...]
https://apnews.com/article/2024-total-solar-eclipse-photos-us-0a07725f59906849b00949e43177e6d9
Bestest Buddies
3 presidents, celebrity performances and protester interruptions at Biden campaign's $26M fundraiser
The Biden campaign said a sold-out crowd of more than 5,000 supporters at Radio City Music Hall helped raise a record amount for a single event.
March 28, 2024, 7:41 PM CDT / Updated March 28, 2024, 10:52 PM CDT
By Mike Memoli and Megan Lebowitz
President Joe Biden was joined Thursday by two of his Democratic predecessors for a star-studded fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall that his campaign said brought in more than $26 million.
Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton participated in the event in New York with more than 5,000 supporters in attendance — including several protesters who interrupted the program when the three presidents were speaking.
Actor and comedian Mindy Kaling hosted the program, which ended at around 10 p.m., and late night host Stephen Colbert moderated a conversation with Biden, Clinton and Obama. Special guests include celebrities like Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele.
During the nearly hourlong moderated conversation, Colbert joked that the moment was historic because “three presidents have come to New York, and not one of them to appear in court,” taking a jab at former President Donald Trump’s criminal indictments and civil trials.
Clinton also took a swipe at Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, arguing that he "had a good couple of years because he stole them from Barack Obama.”
But the discussion was interrupted at least five times by protesters. Colbert acknowledged one protester and asked Biden about the U.S. role in ensuring a peaceful and prosperous future for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Biden said more needed to be done to get relief into Gaza but added that Israel's very existence was at stake.
"There has to be a train for a two-state solution," Biden said. "It doesn’t have to carry today. There has to be a progression. And I think we can do that."
His response was met with a standing ovation and chants of "four more years."
Obama sternly addressed a protester when he was interrupted, saying, "You can’t just talk and not listen."
"That’s part of democracy," Obama added. "Part of democracy is not just talking. It’s listening. That’s what the other side does, and it is important for us to understand that it is possible to have moral clarity and have deeply held beliefs but still recognize that the world is complicated and it is hard to solve these problems."
The crowd erupted in applause.
Biden’s team has taken steps to minimize disruptions, including making events smaller and withholding exact locations longer than usual, after a speech in January when pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted him about a dozen times.
Outside the New York venue Thursday, more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters chanted slogans like “Biden, Biden, you’re a liar,” and waved Palestinian flags and signs with anti-war messages.
The group Abandon Biden encouraged people to protest the president during his visit over the White House’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
“We cannot idly sit by as our president aides and abets genocide in Gaza,” the group’s New York co-chair Mosaab Sadia said in a statement. “The movement to Abandon Biden is only just beginning.
Pro-Palestinian protesters gather outside Radio City Music Hall ahead of a fundraiser for President Joe Biden in New York on Thursday.Leonardo Munoz / AFP - Getty Images
Inside Radio City Music Hall, the novelty of having three presidents in the same room was not lost on attendees.
Earlier in the program, Kaling joked about having Biden, Obama and Clinton in the same room, saying that when someone shouts “Mr. President,” three people turn around.
Ticket prices started at $250, but the largest contributions shot up to half a million dollars. Some of the biggest donors were to have their pictures taken with all three presidents by photographer Annie Leibovitz.
First lady Jill Biden called the program “the fundraiser to end all fundraisers.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also delivered remarks.
For the three presidents, the fundraiser capped off a day of mobilization efforts that included sitting for an interview with the podcast "SmartLess," which the White House said would be available at a later, unspecified date.
President Joe Biden participates in the "SmartLess" podcast Thursday.Courtesy Biden for President NCX
They also sat for a discussion with Biden's campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, which was streamed to grassroots donors. The presidents talked about re-election efforts — both Clinton and Obama served two terms — as well as lighter topics, like favorite ice cream favors.
"You're all part of an incredible team we're building, and we're just getting started," Biden said in his closing message during the discussion. "So let's keep going. Let's win this November."
The trio arrived at Radio City Music Hall together in "The Beast" — the president’s car in the motorcade.
Biden also invited Obama to ride in The Beast after he landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport, where they enjoyed catching up on their personal and professional lives, an aide to Obama told NBC News.
The show of unity among Biden, Clinton and Obama stands in stark contrast to Trump, who faces opposition from members of his own administration, including former Vice President Mike Pence, as he seeks a return to the White House in November.
Former President George W. Bush — the only other Republican former president — declined to support Trump in 2020.
The Trump campaign has not held a major event since March 16. Earlier Thursday, Trump attended the wake for a New York police officer who was shot and killed in Queens on Monday.
Biden and Trump are polling neck-and-neck, with 46% of voters supporting Trump and 45% supporting Biden, according to a March poll by CNBC. That poll, however, had Trump leading Biden by 30 percentage points when respondents were asked which candidate was the best on economic issues.
During Thursday's moderated discussion, Colbert asked Clinton what he would say to voters who do not feel like the economy is strong. Clinton answered that the 2008 recession and Covid are still affecting voters and that Trump did not sustain economic growth spurred by Obama. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have methodically "put Humpty Dumpty back together again," Clinton said.
"We should not make 2016's mistake again," he added, referring to when Trump defeated his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/biden-rakes-25-million-new-york-fundraiser-obama-clinton-rcna145534
MORE: President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and former President Bill Clinton
3 of 5 | FILE - President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and former President Bill Clinton attend at a memorial service for Sen. Robert Byrd, July 2, 2010, at the Capitol in Charleston, W.Va.
Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are teaming up with President Joe Biden for a glitzy reelection fundraiser Thursday night at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
The event brings together more than three decades of Democratic leadership.
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
. . .
YARD SALE
"An appeals court on Monday gave Trump a little more time to pay his massive bond"
Biden Campaign Hits 'Feeble' and 'Confused' Donald Trump in Gloves-Off Statement
" They see the signs of Trump’s cognitive decline through the eyes of years of training and experience "
Story by Johnny Palmadessa
President Biden's campaign issued a statement denouncing Donald Trump's recent behavior, declaring, "Trump is weak and desperate — both as a man and as a candidate for President."
The statement continued to lambast Trump for spending his days golfing, likening himself to Jesus, and dishonestly claiming to possess wealth he clearly lacks.
President Biden's campaign issued a statement denouncing Donald Trump's recent behavior, declaring, "Trump is weak and desperate — both as a man and as a candidate for President." The statement continued to lambast Trump for spending his days golfing, likening himself to Jesus, and dishonestly claiming to possess wealth he clearly lacks.
The Biden campaign directly remarked, "His campaign can’t raise money, he is uninterested in campaigning outside his country club, and every time he opens his mouth, he pushes moderate and suburban voters away with his dangerous agenda." The statement underscored the campaign's criticisms of Trump's fundraising, lack of effort, and rhetoric, suggesting a pattern of behavior that is detrimental to those Trump is seeking to represent as President.
This pattern is further reflected in the onslaught of insults delivered by Donald Trump to Nikki Haley's supporters after she had suspended her presidential campaign following Super Tuesday. In contrast, President Biden embraced Haley's supporters, expressing a welcoming attitude by stating, "Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters. I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign."
The Biden campaign's statement emphasized a stark contrast between Trump and their vision for America, declaring, "America deserves better than a feeble, confused, and tired Donald Trump."
This statement highlights President Biden's view of Trump as unfit for the presidency, further emphasizing his campaign's inclusive approach compared to Trump's divisive rhetoric.
Critics have raised concerns about Donald Trump possibly experiencing cognitive decline, citing incidents like when he stared directly into a solar eclipse, which they view as a symbol of his inability to discern clearly. Additionally, Trump's comparisons of himself to Jesus and Elvis Presley have been seen as indications of a detachment from reality and a tendency towards delusion.
It's clear that President Biden's campaign is taking an fierce and strong approach as they head towards the general election.
They are not holding back in their criticisms of Trump. They are prepared to confront him head-on in the upcoming general election.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-campaign-hits-feeble-and-confused-donald-trump-in-gloves-off-statement/ar-BB1kw7rY?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=LCTS&cvid=23c213eae47d4ee6af88e6aed3bf80fe&ei=25
Ghost Army members who deceived Nazis with battlefield ruses in WWII given Congressional Gold Medal
02:25
https://apnews.com/article/ghost-army-congressional-gold-medal-ceremony-world-war-ii-7a2deaf1686bca3194d46c77fa0bccb9
Three U.S. veterans who served during World War II in a secret unit known as the Ghost Army that used inflated tanks and sound effects to fool their enemies were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on Thursday, 80 years after they saw combat.
Photo 2 of 16
Ghost Army members John Christman, of Leesburg, N.J., second from left standing, Seymour Nussenbaum, of Monroe Township, N.J, in wheelchair at left, and Bernard Bluestein, of Hoffman Estates, Ill., in wheelchair at right, join military and congressional officials as members of their secretive WWII-era unit were presented with the Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony on Capitol Hill, March 21, 2024, in Washington. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
By JAMIE STENGLE
Updated 6:51 PM CDT, March 21, 2024
DALLAS (AP) — With inflatable tanks, radio trickery, costume uniforms and acting, the American military units that became known as the Ghost Army outwitted the enemy during World War II.
Their mission was kept secret for decades, but on Thursday the group stepped out of the shadows as they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal at a ceremony in Washington.
“The actions of the Ghost Army helped change the course of the war for thousands of American and Allied troops and contributed to the liberation of a continent from a terrible evil,” Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said during the ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.
She said that many of the techniques the Ghost Army pioneered are still used on the battlefield. “Even though technology has changed quite a bit since 1944, our modern techniques build on a lot of what the Ghost Army did and we are still learning from your legacy,” she said.
Three of the seven known surviving members attended the ceremony: Bernard Bluestein, 100, of Hoffman Estates, Illinois; John Christman, 99, of Leesburg, New Jersey; and Seymour Nussenbaum, 100, of Monroe Township, New Jersey.
Their work during the war “was like putting on a big production,” Nussenbaum said in an interview before the ceremony.
“We have had in some cases people impersonating generals, putting on a general’s uniform and walking around the streets,” he said.
Nussenbaum, who grew up in New York City, was studying art at the Pratt Institute before he joined the Army. Eventually, he joined a unit specializing in camouflage that was part of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops.
“Our mission was to fool the enemy, to put on a big act,” said Nussenbaum, a painter who went on to a career in commercial art.
Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts said during the ceremony that the Ghost Army members were “creative, original thinkers, who used engineering, art, architecture and advertising to wage battle with the enemy.”
“Their weapons were unconventional but their patriotism was unquestionable,” he said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said during the ceremony that it’s estimated that between 15,000 to 30,000 lives were saved because of the Ghost Army’s work.
The legislation to honor the military units with the Congressional Gold Medal — Congress’ highest honor — was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. That came after almost a decade of work by family members of the soldiers and Rick Beyer, a filmmaker and author who has who helped bring their story to light after their mission was declassified in 1996. Beyer, president of the Ghost Army Legacy Project, produced and directed the 2013 documentary “The Ghost Army” and co-authored the 2015 book “The Ghost Army of World War II.”
“They put themselves in harm’s way wielding imagination, bravado and creativity in order that other soldiers might be able to fight and live,” Beyer told those gathered Thursday.
“This is a day that has been a long time coming but it has been well worth the wait,” Beyer said.
The Ghost Army included about 1,100 soldiers in the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, which carried out about 20 battlefield deceptions in France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany, and around 200 soldiers in the 3133rd Signal Company Special, which carried out two deceptions in Italy.
Ghost Army members who deceived Nazis with battlefield ruses in WWII given Congressional Gold Medal
02:25
https://apnews.com/article/ghost-army-congressional-gold-medal-ceremony-world-war-ii-7a2deaf1686bca3194d46c77fa0bccb9
Three U.S. veterans who served during World War II in a secret unit known as the Ghost Army that used inflated tanks and sound effects to fool their enemies were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on Thursday, 80 years after they saw combat.
Photo 2 of 16
By JAMIE STENGLE
Updated 6:51 PM CDT, March 21, 2024
DALLAS (AP) — With inflatable tanks, radio trickery, costume uniforms and acting, the American military units that became known as the Ghost Army outwitted the enemy during World War II.
Their mission was kept secret for decades, but on Thursday the group stepped out of the shadows as they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal at a ceremony in Washington.
“The actions of the Ghost Army helped change the course of the war for thousands of American and Allied troops and contributed to the liberation of a continent from a terrible evil,” Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said during the ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.
She said that many of the techniques the Ghost Army pioneered are still used on the battlefield. “Even though technology has changed quite a bit since 1944, our modern techniques build on a lot of what the Ghost Army did and we are still learning from your legacy,” she said.
Three of the seven known surviving members attended the ceremony: Bernard Bluestein, 100, of Hoffman Estates, Illinois; John Christman, 99, of Leesburg, New Jersey; and Seymour Nussenbaum, 100, of Monroe Township, New Jersey.
Their work during the war “was like putting on a big production,” Nussenbaum said in an interview before the ceremony.
“We have had in some cases people impersonating generals, putting on a general’s uniform and walking around the streets,” he said.
Nussenbaum, who grew up in New York City, was studying art at the Pratt Institute before he joined the Army. Eventually, he joined a unit specializing in camouflage that was part of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops.
“Our mission was to fool the enemy, to put on a big act,” said Nussenbaum, a painter who went on to a career in commercial art.
Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts said during the ceremony that the Ghost Army members were “creative, original thinkers, who used engineering, art, architecture and advertising to wage battle with the enemy.”
“Their weapons were unconventional but their patriotism was unquestionable,” he said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said during the ceremony that it’s estimated that between 15,000 to 30,000 lives were saved because of the Ghost Army’s work.
The legislation to honor the military units with the Congressional Gold Medal — Congress’ highest honor — was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. That came after almost a decade of work by family members of the soldiers and Rick Beyer, a filmmaker and author who has who helped bring their story to light after their mission was declassified in 1996. Beyer, president of the Ghost Army Legacy Project, produced and directed the 2013 documentary “The Ghost Army” and co-authored the 2015 book “The Ghost Army of World War II.”
“They put themselves in harm’s way wielding imagination, bravado and creativity in order that other soldiers might be able to fight and live,” Beyer told those gathered Thursday.
“This is a day that has been a long time coming but it has been well worth the wait,” Beyer said.
The Ghost Army included about 1,100 soldiers in the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, which carried out about 20 battlefield deceptions in France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany, and around 200 soldiers in the 3133rd Signal Company Special, which carried out two deceptions in Italy.
HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY
Is St. Patrick’s Day Celebrated in Ireland?
The holiday was traditionally a more solemn occasion on the Emerald Isle—until Americans got involved.
By: Elizabeth Nix
Updated: March 14, 2024 | Original: March 17, 2014
In America, St. Patrick’s Day, on March 17, has long been commemorated with rollicking festivities, but until recent decades, the holiday, which honors Ireland’s patron saint, was traditionally a more solemn occasion on the Emerald Isle.
The man for whom St. Patrick’s Day is named was born into an aristocratic family in Roman Britain around the end of the fourth century. As a teenager, he was kidnapped by Irish pirates and taken to Ireland, where he was held as a slave for a number of years. He eventually escaped the island, only to return later as a missionary and convert part of the population to Christianity. Centuries after his death, which some sources cite as March 17, 461, although the exact date is unknown, Patrick became the patron saint of Ireland, and March 17 became a holy day of obligation for the nation’s Catholics.
[...]
https://www.history.com/news/is-st-patricks-day-celebrated-in-ireland
The loser's GRAND OLD PARTY
S O T U
"The State of the Union is, Finally, "Eat Shit, Republicans""
BEHOLD:
Today in History: March 1, Watergate figures indicted
" Fifty years ago, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. published “The Imperial Presidency,” a study of the growing war-making abilities of the presidency and the parallel erosion of Congress’s constitutionally mandated power to declare war. Written during the Watergate scandal... "
Democratic National Committee office in the luxurious Watergate complex in Washington, shown April 20, 1973. (AP Photo)
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published 11:00 PM CST, February 29, 2024
Today in History:
On March 1, 1974, seven people, including former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman, former Attorney General John Mitchell and former assistant Attorney General Robert Mardian, were indicted on charges of conspiring to obstruct justice in connection with the Watergate break-in. (These four defendants were convicted in January 1975, though Mardian’s conviction was later reversed.)
On this date:
In 1815, Napoleon, having escaped exile in Elba, arrived in Cannes, France, and headed for Paris to begin his “Hundred Days” rule.
In 1867, Nebraska became the 37th state as President Andrew Johnson signed a proclamation.
In 1893, inventor Nikola Tesla first publicly demonstrated radio during a meeting of the National Electric Light Association in St. Louis by transmitting electromagnetic energy without wires.
In 1932, Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, New Jersey. (Remains identified as those of the child were found the following May.)
In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, back from the Yalta Conference, proclaimed the meeting a success as he addressed a joint session of Congress.
In 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the spectators’ gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five members of Congress.
In 1966, the Soviet space probe Venera 3 impacted the surface of Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to reach another planet; however, Venera was unable to transmit any data, its communications system having failed.
In 1971, a bomb went off inside a men’s room at the U.S. Capitol; the radical group Weather Underground claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn blast.
In 2005, Dennis Rader, the churchgoing family man accused of leading a double life as the BTK serial killer, was charged in Wichita, Kansas, with 10 counts of first-degree murder. (Rader later pleaded guilty and received multiple life sentences.) A closely divided Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for juvenile criminals.
In 2010, Jay Leno returned as host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show.”
In 2012, online publisher and conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart died in Los Angeles at age 43.
In 2015, tens of thousands marched through Moscow in honor of slain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who had been shot to death on Feb. 27.
In 2020, state officials said New York City had its first confirmed case of the coronavirus, a woman in her late 30s who had contracted the virus while traveling in Iran. Health officials in Washington state, announcing what was believed at the time to be the second U.S. death from the coronavirus, said the virus may have been circulating for weeks undetected in the Seattle area.
In 2021, Vernon Jordan, who rose from humble beginnings in the segregated South to become a champion of civil rights before reinventing himself as a Washington insider, died at 85.
In 2022, in his first State of the Union address, President Joe Biden aimed to rally the American public to bear the costs of supporting Ukraine’s fight to stave off the massive Russian invasion.
https://apnews.com/article/biden-state-of-the-union-4d6eb9fed9a46bb4efb63ea4e015725c
https://apnews.com/article/today-in-history-1188cc6781283a478693f10500bed423
92-year-old Plymouth man celebrates his birthday on Leap Day for the 23rd time
Joe Mazan KSTP
Updated: 40 minutes ago
Published: February 29, 2024 - 5:28 PM
https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/92-year-old-plymouth-man-celebrates-his-birthday-on-leap-day-for-the-23rd-time/
Thursday is a special day for one Plymouth man.
Mal Moore turned 92 years old but is only celebrating his 23rd birthday.
RIGHT! ...It's not about Joe....and it's not about Hunter...
