REALITYCHEX.COM - Constant Comments - The Commentariat -- March 16, 2012

The Ledes

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

New York Times: “Severe winds are whipping through Southern California, creating conditions for new fires in an area where the most destructive blazes in state history have left tens of thousands scrambling to find temporary housing. Tuesday’s forecast for the Los Angeles area is extreme by any measure, even after a week in which high winds and perilously dry conditions fueled fires that have killed at least 24 people, with at least 23 others missing. More than 100,000 people have been displaced and whole neighborhoods destroyed.” This is a liveblog.

The Wires

The Ledes

Monday, January 13, 2025

New York Times: “Dangerous winds were again expected to sweep through Los Angeles late Monday, threatening the progress that firefighters have made in recent days against the devastating wildfires that have raged across the city. Forecasters have issued a rare fire danger alert for Monday night through Wednesday morning. That is the same level of alert that was issued a week ago, as strong wind gusts fueled some of the deadliest and most destructive fires in California history.” This is a liveblog.

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Public Service Announcement

Zoë Schlanger in the Atlantic: "Throw out your black plastic spatula. In a world of plastic consumer goods, avoiding the material entirely requires the fervor of a religious conversion. But getting rid of black plastic kitchen utensils is a low-stakes move, and worth it. Cooking with any plastic is a dubious enterprise, because heat encourages potentially harmful plastic compounds to migrate out of the polymers and potentially into the food. But, as Andrew Turner, a biochemist at the University of Plymouth recently told me, black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid." This is a gift link from laura h.

Mashable: "Following the 2024 presidential election results and [Elon] Musk's support for ... Donald Trump, users have been deactivating en masse. And this time, it appears most everyone has settled on one particular X alternative: Bluesky.... Bluesky has gained more than 100,000 new sign ups per day since the U.S. election on Nov. 5. It now has over 15 million users. It's enjoyed a prolonged stay on the very top of Apple's App Store charts as well. Ready to join? Here's how to get started on Bluesky[.]"

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

New York Times: “The president of MSNBC, Rashida Jones, is stepping down from that position, the company said on Tuesday, a major change at the news network just days before ... Donald J. Trump takes office. Rebecca Kutler, senior vice president for content strategy at MSNBC, will succeed Ms. Jones as interim president, effective immediately. Ms. Jones will stay on in an advisory role through March.... MSNBC is among a bundle of cable channels that its parent company, Comcast, is planning to spin out later this year into a new company.” ~~~

~~~ MSNBC: “On Monday, Jan. 20, MSNBC will present wall-to-wall coverage of the inauguration of ... Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance and will kick off special programming for the first 100 days of the new Trump administration.... On the heels of her field reporting during the last 100 days of the 2024 presidential campaign, Alex Wagner will travel the country to follow the biggest stories as they develop in real-time during Trump’s first 100 days in office, reporting on the impact of his early promises and policies on the electorate for 'Trumpland: The First 100 Days.'... During the first 100 days, Rachel Maddow will bring her signature voice and distinct perspective to the anchor desk every weeknight at 9 p.m. ET, offering viewers in-depth analysis of the key issues facing the country at the outset of Trump’s second term. After April 30, 'The Rachel Maddow Show' will return to its regular schedule of Mondays at 9 p.m. ET and Wagner will return to anchoring 'Alex Wagner Tonight' Tuesday through Friday.”

New York Times: "Neil Cavuto, a business journalist who hosted a weekday afternoon program on the Fox News Channel since the network began in 1996, signed off for the final time on Thursday[, December 19]. Mr. Cavuto could be an outlier on Fox News, often criticizing President Trump and his policies, and crediting the Covid-19 vaccination with saving his life."

Have Cello, May Not Travel. New York Times: “Sheku Kanneh-Mason, a rising star in classical music who performed at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018 and has since become a regular on many of the world’s most prestigious concert stages, was forced to cancel a concert in Toronto last week because Air Canada refused to allow him to board a plane with his cello, even though he had purchased a separate ticket for it.... 'Air Canada has a comprehensive policy of accepting cellos in the cabin when a separate seat is booked for it,' it said in a statement. 'In this case, the customers made a last-minute booking due to their original flight on another airline being canceled.' The airline’s policy for carry-on instruments, outlined on its website, specifies that travelers must purchase a seat for their instruments at least 48 hours before departure.”

Here are photos of the White House Christmas decorations, via the White House. Also a link to last year's decorations. Sorry, no halls of blood-red fake trees.

Yes, You May Be a Neanderthal. Me Too! Washington Post: “A pair of new studies sheds light on a pivotal but mysterious chapter of the human origin story, revealing that modern humans and Neanderthals had babies together for an extended period, peaking 47,000 years ago — leaving genetic fingerprints in modern-day people.... [According to the report in Science,] Neanderthals and humans interbred for 7,000 years starting about 50,500 years ago.... Modern humans, Homo sapiens, originated in Africa about 300,000 years ago. Somewhere around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, a key group left the continent and encountered Neanderthals, a hominin relative that was established across western Eurasia but went extinct about 39,000 years ago.” ~~~

~~~ Marie: Maybe you parents were upset when you told them you planned to marry someone of a different race or religion. But, hey, think how distressed they would have been if you'd told them you were hooking up with a person of a different species!

There's No Money in Bananas. New York Times: “A week after a Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur bought an artwork composed of a fresh banana stuck to a wall with duct tape for $6.2 million at auction, the man, Justin Sun, announced a grand gesture on X. He said he planned on purchasing 100,000 bananas — or $25,000 worth of the produce — from the Manhattan stand where the original fruit was sold for 25 cents. But at the fruit stand at East 72nd Street and York Avenue, outside the doors of the Sotheby’s auction house where the conceptual artwork was sold, the offer landed with a thud against the realities of the life of a New York City street vendor. [Even if it were practicable to buy that many bananas at once,] the net profit ... would be about $6,000. 'There’s not any profit in selling bananas,' [the vendor Shah] Alam said.”

Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post on what's to become of MSNBC: “In the days that followed [the November election], MSNBC began seeing a significant decline in viewership (as has CNN), as left-leaning viewers opted to turn off the channel rather than watch the aftermath of Donald Trump’s victory. One of the network’s most valuable franchises, 'Morning Joe,' faced backlash after hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski revealed Nov. 18 that they had traveled to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in an effort to 'restart communications.'... Questions about the future of the network picked up considerably Nov. 20, when parent company Comcast announced that it would spin off MSNBC and some of its other cable channels into a separate company.... The fear inside the building is about whether the move could portend a less ambitious future for MSNBC — with a smaller, lower-compensated staff and a lot less journalism, considering the network will be separated from the NBC News operation that contributes much of the reporting.”

New York Times: “Chris Wallace, a veteran TV anchor who left Fox News for CNN three years ago, announced on Monday that he was leaving his post to venture into the streaming or podcasting worlds.... He said his decision to leave CNN at the end of his three-year contract did not come from discontent. 'I have nothing but positive things to say. CNN was very good to me,' he said.”

New York Times: In a collection of memorabilia filed at New York City's Morgan Library, curator Robinson McClellan discovered the manuscript of a previously unknown waltz by Frédéric Chopin. Jeffrey Kallberg, a Chopin scholar at the University of Pennsylvania as well as other experts authenticated the manuscript. Includes video of Lang Lang performing the short waltz. ~~~

~~~ Marie: The Times article goes into some of Chopin's life in Paris at the time he wrote the waltz, but it doesn't mention that he helped make ends meet by giving piano lessons. I know this because my great grandmother was one of his students. If her musical talent were anything like mine, those particular lessons would have been painful hours for Chopin.

New York Times: “Improbably, [the political/celebrity magazine] George[, originally a project by John F. Kennedy, Jr.] is back, with the same logo and the same catchy slogan: 'Not just politics as usual.' This time, though, a QAnon conspiracy theorist and passionate Trump fan is its editor in chief.... It is a reanimation story bizarre enough for a zombie movie, made possible by the fact that the original George trademark lapsed, only to be secured by a little-known conservative lawyer named Thomas D. Foster.”

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Thursday

Mar152012

The Commentariat -- March 16, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer takes a swipe at the Yellow-bellied Deficit Hawks, especially Our Mister Brooks. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here. ...

... AND. Dean Baker: Brooks also says the CBO is wrong, PLUS Brooks has no idea Obama put out a budget proposal in February 2011. Otherwise, Brooks' column is totally perfect. Like most Republicans, Brooks never lets facts get in the way of his standard-issue, knee-jerk argument to cut the social safety net.

... The Doonesbury page in Slate is here. (Previous panels this week in the March 14 Commentariat.)

Paul Krugman explains why "Drill, Baby, Drill" won't help the U.S. economy or the jobs picture. "Why, then, are Republicans pretending otherwise? Part of the answer is that the party is rewarding its benefactors: the oil and gas industry doesn’t create many jobs, but it does spend a lot of money on lobbying and campaign contributions. The rest of the answer is simply the fact that conservatives have no other job-creation ideas to offer. And intellectual bankruptcy ... is a problem that no amount of drilling and fracking can solve."

CW: This article by Joe Stiglitz is nearly a year old, but if you want a primer in what's wrong with our economy and why it will only get worse, this one would be good to memorize. Stiglitz, BTW, practically predicted the Occupy movement.

Glenn Thrush & Jennifer Epstein of Politico: "Vice President Joe Biden kicked off the 2012 Obama-Biden presidential campaign with a fiery union-hall speech in this northwestern Ohio auto town — and 600 miles away President Barack Obama turned the latest in a line of energy speeches into an amped-up event with the distinct feel of a general-election stump speech. In one of the nuances that matter greatly to campaigns — and not at all to the general public — Biden ditched the pre-campaign 'our opponents' line and lit into them by name, with particular attention to Mitt Romney."...

... Update: here's the New York Times story -- by Mark Leibovich -- on Vice President Biden's speech & factor tour.

... Here's President Obama's speech:

One of my predecessors, President Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone: 'It’s a great invention but who would ever want to use one?' That's why he's not on Mt. Rushmore. -- Barack Obama

Actually, No. Dan Amira of New York magazine: "Hayes was not only the first president to have a telephone in the White House, but he was also the first to use the typewriter, and he had Thomas Edison come to the White House to demonstrate the phonograph." CW: President Obama has a piss-poor grasp of what former residents of the Oval did. He got Reagan wrong; he got FDR wrong; he even got Lincoln wrong on the Emancipation Proclamation. Kind of a big deal.

... Here's a local news report on Biden's visit to Toledo:

Jamelle Bouie of the American Prospect on why there are no black U.S. Senators & only one black governor -- who will not run for re-election.

Sam Baker of The Hill: "The Obama administration has shifted its legal arguments as it prepares to defend the president’s healthcare law before the Supreme Court.... Some legal experts say the shift could steer the case in a direction that would make Justice Antonin Scalia more likely to uphold the healthcare law’s mandate requiring individuals to purchase health insurance.... The shift moves the focus of Justice’s argument from the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to the Necessary and Proper Clause, which says Congress can make laws that are necessary for carrying out its other powers."

Right Wing World

Primary Numbers: One Man, 4,182 Votes. Dave Weigel of Slate: "Let's say you're a Republican voter in American Samoa. This week, you joined 69 of your peers at Toa Bar and Grill, and together you decided to assign nine delegates to Mitt Romney.... Every delegate represented eight voters. Now, say you're a Florida Republican voter. You were one of 1,672,634 people casting votes.... When the race was called, every delegate represented 33,453 voters.... A Republican's vote in [Samoa] was worth 4,182 times more than a Republican's vote in Florida."

In response to Rick Santorum's claim that Fox "News" is "shilling for Romney," media critic Willard Romney says Fox is "pretty fair and balanced," and is not "shilling for anyone." Audio. ...

... Donna Ladd, Editor-in-Chief of the Jackson (Mississippi) Free Press: "Romney uttered words that made us nearly sputter in response: 'If the federal government were run more like here in Mississippi, the whole country would be a lot better off.' Say what, Gov. Romney?! See, we JFP folks cover the state government... How can we say this nicely? It's a bona fide mess.... To say -- even while pandering for votes -- that our state is a model of governance is flabbergasting and insulting to our citizens." Via Steve Benen. ...

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: Gail Collins' shaggy dog story goes mainstream.

CW: Juana Summers of Politico reports that Rick Santorum tried to walk back his English-or-vamoose dictum to Puerto Rico; only it doesn't sound like much of a walk-back to me. He still has that "adios, mofos" 'tude. ...

Please do not complain to the editor about her choice of artwork.... Josh Barro of Forbes Rick "Santorum avers that 'America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography.' He pledges to use the resources of the Department of Justice to fight that 'pandemic,' by bringing obscenity prosecutions against pornographers.... Some of Santorum’s defenders have taken the tack of separating his personal views from his policy views. Santorum thinks contraception is 'not OK' and he has announced his intention to use the bully pulpit to discuss 'the dangers of contraception.' But he doesn’t think contraception should be illegal, and he voted for Title X contraception subsidies (though he said in a recent debate that he opposes Title X....) On pornography, though, Santorum’s views can’t be written off as purely persona l— he has stated a clear intent to use the levers of government to stop adults from making and watching porn." CW: I'll bet President Santorum would review every damned porn video to make sure it was "not the way things are meant to be in the sexual realm." The guy is obsessed with other people's sex lives. ...

... Nia-Malika Henderson of the Washington Post: "... in what is perhaps the most astonishing turnaround of the 2012 political season, Santorum has, after 10 weeks of contests, all but claimed the title of leader of the conservative wing of the GOP — someone who deserves the right, at a minimum, to be a major player at the Republican National Convention and perhaps to be considered as a vice presidential nominee."

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) on how to make ultrasound screening non-obstrucive: "You just have to close your eyes":

Kirk Johnson of the New York Times: "The Tea Party-inspired drive to oust Senator Orrin G. Hatch, a six-term Republican, got a bit more complicated on Thursday night. Supporters of Mr. Hatch turned up in strong numbers at some packed Republican caucus meetings around the state, where delegates were elected to next month’s state party convention." The state GOP holds its nominating convention April 21. Salt Lake City Tribune report here.

George Zornick of The Nation on Congressional wingers' nonsensical objections to raising the loan limit on the Export-Import bank. No taxpayer funding is involved. The wingnuts just want to say no to an agency that boosts American exports and jobs.

News Ledes

New York Times: "A terrorist whom Osama bin Laden wanted to assassinate President Obamawas himself killed in a drone strike last year, shortly after evidence of the plot showed up in documents seized by the SEAL team that killed Bin Laden in Pakistan."

Politico: Actor & activist "George Clooney was arrested outside of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Friday, his rep confirms. The actor, who just returned from a trip to Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, was protesting a blockade of food and humanitarian aid to people in the conflict-torn region."

AP: "A New Jersey jury today found former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi guilty of the most serious charges for spying on his roommate, Tyler Clementi, having a gay sexual encounter in 2010. Ravi was convicted of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, witness tampering, and hindering arrest, stemming from his role in activating a webcam to peek at Clementi's date with a man on Sept. 19, 2010.... Clementi's case gained national attention when he committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge Sept. 22, 2010."

New York Times: "The American staff sergeant suspected of killing 16 Afghan villagers had been drinking alcohol — a violation of military rules in combat zones — and suffering from the stress related to his fourth combat tour and tensions with his wife about the deployments on the night of the massacre, a senior American official said Thursday." ...

... Guardian: "The US soldier accused of shooting dead 16 Afghan villagers saw his friend's leg blown off the day before and is himself a decorated survivor of war wounds from mutliple tours of duty, his lawyer has said. Seattle attorney John Henry Browne said that according to his client's family the soldier had been standing next to his friend when the blast happened." ...

... Update: The suspect in the killing of Afghan civilians is Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, official says....

... Update 2: "New York Times story here.

New York Times: "North Korea announced on Friday that it planned to launch a satellite into orbit next month, testing a technology that the United States and the United Nations Security Council have condemned as a cover for developing and testing long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles."

Guardian: "The archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is to resign and return to academia as master of Magdalene college, Cambridge. Williams, 61, will leave at the end of December in time to start his new role next January. His time in office has been marked by a slowly growing schism in the worldwide Anglican church, which he has failed to heal. Williams has been attacked by conservatives for his liberal views on homosexuality and by liberals for failing to live up to these principles." With video.

Washington Post: "The measured Afghanistan endgame that President Obama outlined this week suffered new setbacks Thursday, as the Taliban suspended peace talks with the United States and Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded that NATO withdraw forces from the small, rural outposts that are at the heart of its military mission here."

AP: "Apple-mania gripped Asia on Friday as the company's latest iPad went on sale, drawing hordes of die-hard fans to shops selling the highly anticipated tablet. Gadget fans lined up in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore so they could be among the first to get their hands on the device."

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coming attractions: Obama/Biden- If this is a preview; from here on in I can actually enjoy the republican primary freak show.

Corbett is a douche. Just signed yet another voter ID law. How long before all of these ID laws are struck down? Even this SC can uphold them, can they?

March 15, 2012 |

DaveS

*even this SC can't uphold

March 15, 2012 |

DaveS

We can't get there from here. There is nothing in either plans or proposals that will really cause the growth we need to prosper as a country. Any grand bargain that includes three dollars of spending cuts to one dollar of income increase is a failure and will only increase the deficit and increase pain.
A progressive income tax increase totaling six percent and a spending inccrease of two percent would dig us out of this ditch in a few years. Coupled with a two dollar increase in the minimum wage we would have the opposite of "trickle down." This would be a"push up" economy with real growth. We could re-hire our teachers and cops and bail out our cities.
A six percent income tax increase is only a small step, nowhere near our historical tax levels. We have prospered as a country with much higher taxes. Bush tax reductions have harmed our economy and we are in denial of this.

March 16, 2012 |

Carlyle

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