The Ledes

Monday, October 7, 2024

Weather Channel: “H​urricane Milton has rapidly intensified into a Category 3 and hurricane and storm surge watches are now posted along Florida's western Gulf Coast, where the storm poses threats of life-threatening storm surge, destructive winds and flooding rainfall by midweek. 'Milton will be a historic storm for the west coast of Florida,' the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay said in a briefing Monday morning.”

CNN: “This year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their work on the discovery of microRNA, a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated. Their research revealed how genes give rise to different cells within the human body, a process known as gene regulation. Gene regulation by microRNA – a family of molecules that helps cells control the sort of proteins they make – ... was first revealed by Ambros and Ruvkun. The Nobel Prize committee announced the prestigious honor ... in Sweden on Monday.... Ambros, a professor of natural science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, conducted the research that earned him the prize at Harvard University. Ruvkun conducted his research at Massachusetts General Hospital, and is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School.”

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The Ledes

Sunday, October 6, 2024

New York Times: “Two boys have been arrested and charged in a street attack on David A. Paterson, a former governor of New York, and his stepson, the police said. One boy, who is 12, was charged with second-degree gang assault, and the other, a 13-year-old, was charged with third-degree gang assault, the police said on Saturday night. Both boys, accompanied by their parents, turned themselves in to the police, according to Sean Darcy, a spokesman for Mr. Paterson. A third person, also a minor, went to the police but was not charged in the Friday night attack in Manhattan, according to an internal police report.... Two other people, both adults, were involved in the attack, according to the police. They fled on foot and have not been caught, the police said. The former governor was not believed to have been targeted in the assault....”

Weather Channel: “Tropical Storm Milton, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, is expected to become a hurricane late Sunday or early Monday. The storm is expected to pose a major hurricane threat to Florida by midweek, just over a week after Helene pushed through the region. The National Hurricane Center says that 'there is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and wind impacts for portions of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula beginning late Tuesday or Wednesday.'”

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Public Service Announcement

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."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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The Conversation -- October 7, 2024

Presidential Race

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: “For the first time, Vice President Kamala Harris dismissed criticism from some Republicans that she does not have biological children.... In an appearance on the podcast 'Call Her Daddy,' which is popular with Gen Z and millennial women, Ms. Harris discussed reproductive rights and economic issues. She addressed comments from Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the governor of Arkansas, who recently suggested that having biological children helped with her humility — a virtue she implied Ms. Harris lacked.... When the conversation turned to attacks by Republicans against “childless cat ladies,” Ms. Harris called the criticism, popularized by past comments by Senator JD Vance of Ohio ... 'mean and meanspirited.' Ms. Harris referred to her stepchildren, Cole and Ella Emhoff, as her children.... The 'Call Her Daddy' interview was part of several appearances that Ms. Harris will make this week with news outlets and niche podcasts or radio shows.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~ 

     ~~~ Politico's story. which includes a snarky responses from Sanders, is here. ~~~

You will no longer be abandoned, lonely or scared. You will no longer be in danger. … You will no longer have anxiety from all of the problems our country has today. You will be protected, and I will be your protector. -- Donald Trump, at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, in September ~~~

     ~~~ Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: “Speaking on a popular podcast aimed at young women, Vice President Kamala Harris took issue with ... Donald Trump calling himself a 'protector' of women.... [Harris reminded listeners of Trump's] successful efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case guaranteeing a constitutional right to an abortion. Harris countered that Trump had made life more difficult for women, especially those making an often-searing decision to terminate a pregnancy. She spoke of the increasing hardships faced by women who need abortion care, including one woman who died as a result of new abortion restrictions.”

Kellen Browning of the New York Times: “Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota fielded tough questions on abortion, immigration, the economy and his own past misstatements in an interview on 'Fox News Sunday,' that was mainly noteworthy because it was his first appearance on a Sunday news program since becoming Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate. He turned some questions into critiques of ... Donald J. Trump and sidestepped others. Asked whether Israel had the right to strike Iranian oil facilities or nuclear facilities, he did not directly answer.... Confronted by a series of misstatements he has made — including on China, where he traveled in August 1989, and indicating he and his wife had used in vitro fertilization when they in fact used a different fertility treatment called intrauterine insemination — Mr. Walz acknowledged that he sometimes misspeaks.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Mia McCarthy & Holly Otterbein of Politico: “Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is directly invoking special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation to attack ... Donald Trump, in a new ad.... The digital ad will air in battleground states starting Sunday. The ad comes after new developments from Smith’s investigation were detailed in a 165-page filing last week.” ~~~

Philip Nieto of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump promised his supporters at a Wisconsin rally on Sunday to free the state from a 'mass migration invasion.'... He blamed Vice President Kamala Harris for the death of Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old who was strangled to death in Houston[:]... 'An illegal alien released by Kamala Harris was arrested for tying up and blindfolding a 12 year old. You know this you read it’s big story. A 12 year old girl in a back of a van and viciously assaulting her in so many ways sexually. Today I make you this promise. I will liberate Wisconsin and our entire nation from this mass migration invasion of murderers, child predators, drug dealers, gang members and thugs.'”

Daniel Dale of CNN fact-checks “Six Days of Trump Lies about the Hurricane Helene Response.... Donald Trump has delivered a barrage of lies and distortions about the federal response to Hurricane Helene. While various misinformation about the response has spread widely without Trump’s involvement, the Republican presidential nominee has been one of the country’s leading deceivers on the subject. Over a span of six days, in public comments and social media posts, Trump has used his powerful megaphone to endorse or invent false or unsubstantiated claims. The chief targets of his hurricane-related dishonesty have been Vice President Kamala Harris ... and President Joe Biden.” (Also linked yesterday.)

It’s almost difficult to come up with a tax plan that would raise taxes on most Americans, but still increase the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars a year — and that’s what [Donald Trump's plan] does. -- Steve Wamhoff of the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy ~~~

~~~ Andrew Duehren & Alan Rappaport of the New York Times: “... Donald J. Trump’s economic proposals could inflame the nation’s debt burden while ultimately raising costs for a vast majority of Americans, according to a pair of new economic analyses that are among the most in-depth studies to date of the Republican nominee’s plans. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group that seeks lower deficits, found that Mr. Trump’s various plans could add as much as $15 trillion to the nation’s debt over a decade. That is nearly twice as much as the economic plans being proposed by Vice President Kamala Harris. And an analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a liberal think tank, found that Mr. Trump’s tax and tariff plans would, on average, amount to a tax increase for every income group except the top 5 percent of highest-earning Americans.... The richest 1 percent [would pay] $36,320 less in taxes, while the bottom 20 percent [would] pay $790 more, I.T.E.P. estimated. The middle 20 percent of Americans would pay $1,530 more, on average, equivalent to 2.1 percent of their income.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What a surprise! Trump comes up with a "plan" that's bad for everybody except Trump & his wealthy benefactors.

David French of the New York Times: “... as the 2020 election approached, countless Christians were not only certain that Trump would win, they were certain that Trump was divinely appointed to save the United States of America, either as King Cyrus figure (a pagan ruler who helped save the people of Israel) or as a King David figure (a flawed king, but still God’s anointed ruler). Any dissent from that idea was met with ruthless opposition.... [A Pentacostal doctrine called] the Seven Mountain Mandate provided a theological justification for supporting Trump’s quest for power.... Traditional Christianity teaches that Christian virtues should be applied to all spheres of life.... [But according to the Mandate,] other characteristics are necessary to dominate the ['mountains' other than the church].... Ruthlessness is useful in business and politics. In those spheres, pugilism isn’t just valuable, it’s often essential. Looked at this way, Trump’s rage and fury become assets.... [JD] Vance’s presence [at a Seven Mountain event on September 28] ... helps illustrate why he refuses to acknowledge that Biden won a free and fair election in 2020. He’d be directly contradicting the prophets of Trumpism, and if you contradict the prophets of Trumpism, you will be made to pay.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you are looking for the single greatest stroke of brilliance of members of the U.S. Constitutional Convention, it was to leave every reference to "God" out of the new nation's most important document. If you need examples of why politics & religion should not mix, David French provides it here, and Bibi Netanyahu, as well as his Muslim opponents, provide it every day. It's why I cringe when politicians end their speeches with "God bless America," when people recite the "new" pledge of allegiance with that "under God" addition, and so forth.

Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: “House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wouldn’t acknowledge Sunday that Joe Biden won the 2020 election when asked directly about the election denialism that former president Donald Trump continues to promote on the campaign trail. During a testy exchange on ABC News’s 'This Week,' host George Stephanopoulos asked Johnson if he could say 'unequivocally that Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Trump lost.' Johnson declined, saying only that 'this is the game that is always played by mainstream media with mainstream Republicans. It’s a gotcha game.'... In the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election, Johnson led a congressional effort to overturn the presidential results in four battleground states.... Johnson was also among the Republicans who, on Jan. 6, 2021, voted against certifying the electoral college vote for Biden in two key battleground states.... Johnson’s comments Sunday may draw scrutiny about what he might do between Election Day on Nov. 5 and Congress’s certification of the vote on Jan. 6 if Trump does not win in the electoral college.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: “George Stephanopoulos battled House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) over comments from Eric Trump at a rally on Saturday — during which [Eric Trump] claimed Democrats were behind the assassination attempts against his father.... 'They tried to kill him,' Eric Trump said at the rally. 'And it’s because the Democratic Party, they can’t do anything right.'... In a heated exchange on ABC’s This Week, Stephanopoulos pressed Johnson about former President Donald Trump and his family toning down their rhetoric.” After Johnson said he couldn't comment because he needed to hear Eric's comment “in context,” Stephanopoulos said, 'Here’s exactly what Eric Trump said. “They tried to smear us. They came after us. They impeached him twice. And then, guys, they tried to kill him. They tried to kill him, and it’s because the Democratic Party, they can’t do anything right.” What more context do you need? Do you support that statement or not?' [Johnson replied,] 'George, I’m not going to parse the language what people say at rallies.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What Bible Mike is arguing is that it's okay for Republicans to falsely accuse Democrats of attempted murder/assassination, as long as they do so at rallies where everybody is pumped up and might be more prone to plan action against an accused murderer.

Sharon LaFraniere & David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times: “Chase Herro is an online salesman who proudly calls himself a 'dirtbag of the internet,' able to sell anything to anyone. Zachary Folkman ran a company called Date Hotter Girls, offering advice under a pseudonym on how to pick up women at bars. For the past decade or so, the two men have been serial entrepreneurs, leaving behind a trail of lawsuits and unpaid debt and taxes. Now they are ... Donald J. Trump’s business partners [in a cryptocurrency venture].... Mr. Herro and Mr. Folkman have a history of jumping from project to project.... Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University, said Mr. Herro and Mr. Folkman did not appear to have the technical or financial savvy to make the venture work.... Like his social media company, [Mr. Trump's] new crypto business stands out for its potential conflicts of interest.” MB: Oh, read on. This is a scheme that seems to have been developed by Donnie Junior & Eric, and it has all of the stability you might expect to find in a Dumb & Dumber enterprise.


David Ovalle of the Washington Post: “Overdose deaths appear to be declining sharply in the United States, a sign that efforts to combat the scourge of lethal fentanyl may be paying off even as experts caution that the toll remains unacceptably high and could rise again. Preliminary data compiled by states and released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show a 10 percent drop in deaths during the 12-month period ending in April 2024, with about 101,000 people succumbing to overdoses. Public health officials and researchers said the decline could reflect multiple forces, including widespread availability of the overdose-reversal medication naloxone, greater access to opioid addiction treatment and law-enforcement crackdowns on illicitly manufactured fentanyl, which had become the leading killer of 18-to-49-year-olds.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Monday in Israel's wars are here: “More than 41,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. In Lebanon, hundreds have been killed and more than 1.2 million displaced, according to the United Nations refugee agency.” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Monday are here.

Patrick Kingsley, et al., of the New York Times: “... the war in Gaza has dragged on for a year, with no end in sight.... A wider, multifront war between Israel and Hamas’s regional allies is now unfolding ... but the core of the conflict remains the original battle between Hamas and Israel, and the almost Sisyphean challenge of ending it. Inside a deeply traumatized Israel, that conflict has magnified long-running social schisms and set off bitter debate about whether to prioritize Hamas’s destruction or a deal to free the hostages. Outside Israel, it has spurred horror at the Israeli military response to Hamas’s atrocities, accusations of genocide and war crimes, and widespread protests in the United States and beyond.The war in Gaza has also highlighted the limits of American influence, with the Biden administration unable or unwilling to exert the pressure needed to broker a truce.”

Comment1 Comment

Reader Comments (1)

Heading out of town and mostly off the net again for a couple of weeks.

On Sarah, long one of my favorite people:

Don't know what breeding has to do with humility, but do know that if you think god is speaking to you and telling you that you have the right to control the private lives of others, you might be something, but you sure ain't humble.

And this on last week's lies, national and local.


"Oh, what to believe?

Are those Haitians really eating Springfield, Ohio’s cats and dogs? Did the Biden administration ignore the Hurricane Helene disaster because it struck Red states? Is FEMA broke because the Democrats spent all the money on immigrants? Did Democrats cause Hurricane Helene, as Marjorie Taylor Greene said they did?

Those fabrications are just a small portion of this last month’s laughable claims made by the Right, reminding us again that all that is laughable is not funny.

Though government is a serious business, the Right treats it as a joke. In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Elon Musk’s X spread nonsense to millions of users about the disaster and the administration’s response to it (npr.org). Musk, a vocal proponent of his brand of “free speech,” will appear alongside Trump at his upcoming rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “I will be there to support,” he said (theguardian.com)

Musk says he will be there to support someone whom he knows lies all the time. About the mythical hordes of non-citizens voting in our elections. About how unfair our elections are--when he loses. In 2016, when the Electoral College put him in the White House, Trump claimed that the three million popular votes Clinton won by were fraudulent (cnn.com). But Musk can’t support Trump’s lies. In the face of fact, they are insupportable.

Mark Twain called lies “stretchers,” and today stretchers are everywhere.

A recent letter to the editor took Kamala Harris to task for her failure as internet “czar.” It claimed “not one home or business has been connected to the internet” under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

In fact, more than 2.4 million previously unserved homes and small businesses have been connected to high-speed Internet service in the last three years(commerce.gov).

Missing by 2.4 million is quite a stretch."

October 7, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

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