The Ledes

Monday, September 30, 2024

New York Times: “Kris Kristofferson, the singer and songwriter whose literary yet plain-spoken compositions infused country music with rarely heard candor and depth, and who later had a successful second career in movies, died at his home on Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday. He was 88.”

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The Ledes

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Washington Post: “Towns throughout western North Carolina ... were transformed overnight by ... [Hurricane Helene]. Muddy floodwaters lifted homes from their foundations. Landslides and overflowing rivers severed the only way in and out of small mountain communities. Rescuers said they were struggling to respond to the high number of emergency calls.... The death toll grew throughout the Southeast as the scope of Helene’s devastation came into clearer view. At least 49 people had been killed in five states — Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. By early counts, South Carolina suffered the greatest loss of life, registering at least 19 deaths.”

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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....”

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~~~ 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.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

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The Conversation -- September 30, 2024

Presidential Race

Stephanie Murray of the Arizona Republic: “Former Republican Sen. Jeff Flake is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris because of his conservative values — not in spite of them — he said Saturday in an interview announcing his support for the Democratic presidential nominee. Flake, R-Ariz., is crossing party lines to endorse a Democrat for the second presidential election in a row. He backed President Joe Biden over ... Donald Trump in 2020 and voted third-party rather than cast a ballot for Trump in 2016. 'I'm a conservative. I believe in the rule of law,' Flake said during an interview at The Nile Coffee Shop in Mesa on Saturday afternoon. 'First and foremost, I want to support a presidential candidate that respects the rule of law, somebody who, if they lose an election, wouldn't try to use the presidential powers to overturn that election.'” (Also linked yesterday.)

Greta Reich of Politico: “Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan will again not be voting for ... Donald Trump, despite Trump’s endorsement of Hogan’s bid for Senate in June. 'I didn’t vote for him in 2016 or 2020,' Hogan said on CBS’ 'Face the Nation' to guest host Robert Costa on Sunday, without saying who he would vote for. Hogan didn’t vote for Democratic candidates ... in those years either. In 2016, he wrote in his own father, former Maryland Rep. Lawrence Hogan. In 2020, he wrote in former President Ronald Reagan.... Hogan, a Republican, is running against Democrat Angela Alsobrooks, the current county executive of Prince George’s County.” Hogan also said Trump's attack of Kamala Harris as “mentally unstable” was “outrageous and unacceptable”: “I think that’s insulting not only to the vice president, but to people that actually do have mental disabilities.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Kipp Jones of Mediaite: “The editorial board for The New Yorker endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential bid on Sunday in a piece in which President Joe Biden’s “nationally televised disintegration” in his debate with Donald Trump was hailed as a 'gift' for Democrats. Sunday’s endorsement of Harris was a notable pivot from a piece published by the outlet in March in which Biden was praised for remaining 'defiant' amid concerns about his mental acuity and age.... [In March,] The New Yorker praised Biden for remaining mentally sharp even if he appeared frail after he had sat down for an interview with [New Yorker] journalist Evan Osnos.”

Talyler Mitchell of the Huffington Post: “At a rally on Sunday in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump casually seemed to suggest that one day of violence would put an end to crime. Trump declared that Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) should be put in charge for 'one really violent day.' 'One rough hour. And I mean real rough, the world will get it out and it will end immediately. End immediately. You know, it will end immediately,' he added without sharing any logistics.... His dangerous remark Sunday came on the heels of his saying that crime is skyrocketing, a false claim that the far right uses to fearmonger. He also echoed the lie that the supposed rise in crime is the fault of migrants.” Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I think Mitchell misunderstands Trump's alarming suggestion. She writes, “The concept mirrors a fictional film series called 'The Purge,' in which all crime is legal for 12 hours on a single day of the year.” BUT ~~~

     ~~~ Adam Wren of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Sunday called for 'one real rough, nasty' and 'violent day' of police retaliation in order to eradicate crime 'immediately.'... 'One rough hour — and I mean real rough — the word will get out and it will end immediately, you know? It will end immediately,' Trump said.... Trump has a long history of endorsing police violence....” His campaign said Trump's suggestion was not a policy proposal but a “joke.” MB: That is, Trump is not proposing that people be allowed to commit crimes for 12 hours but that the police be allowed to violently brutalize suspected criminals for 24 hours.

~~~ David McAfee of the Raw Story: “Donald Trump on Sunday admitted that he refused to pay his workers overtime.... Trump said, 'I hated to give overtime. I hated it. I shouldn't say this, but I'd get other people in. I wouldn't pay.'... The ... AFL-CIO said..., 'This isn’t a gaffe and he didn’t just misspeak — Trump said this in Michigan on Friday and Pennsylvania today. Trump cut overtime for millions of Americans as President — and his Project 2025 agenda will do it again.'”

~~~ Meryl Kornfield & Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump, in a speech that repeatedly painted a dark caricature of immigrants, seized on a recent report to claim falsely that thousands of immigrants with homicide records had been allowed to go free by the Biden administration. 'They’re coming into our cities and our small towns, here in Pennsylvania and all over the country,' Trump said in a speech that meandered widely and made several other unsupported assertions. 'These towns are petrified. Even if they’re not there yet, they will be there.'... Trump spent much of his two-hour speech on elaborate descriptions of the individuals purportedly roaming the nation, calling them 'stone-cold killers,' 'worse than any of our criminals,' 'monsters,' and people who ... 'don’t care who they kill.'...

“Trump cited a new letter from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to falsely suggest that more than 13,000 immigrants convicted of homicide had been let into the United States on President Joe Biden’s watch and then released. But allies of Vice President Kamala Harris and nonpartisan experts say Trump is badly misrepresenting the data. The people he cited entered the United States over several decades, including during the Trump presidency. And while they are listed as 'non-detained,' that means only that ICE is not detaining them; in many cases, they are being held by another agency, and are often serving prison sentences.”

Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “... Mr. Trump and those around him have plied the plots against his life for political benefit.... Mr. Trump plans to return to Butler[, Pa. where a gunman winged him] for a rally on Oct. 5, and he relives these attempts on his life at nearly every campaign stop. Lately he has taken to saying that he has one of the most dangerous professions in the world.... He has bragged about the mortal danger in which he finds himself ('they only go after consequential presidents'); used it as evidence of divine intervention ('God has now spared my life — it must have been God, thank you — not once, but twice') and as inspiration for set design (he decorated the stage at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee with images of his bloodied face).... If he really is the most marked man in the world, why was he wandering around a football stadium [Saturday] in the Deep South [-- Tuscaloosa, Ala. --] in a state he does not need to campaign in, tossing out poultry [-- boxes of chicken --] and posing for selfies?” ~~~

     ~~~ Arrested Development. Marie: One of the few Democrats at the Alabama-Georgia game, a lawyer named Thomas Radney had a theory about why Trump went to the game: “'Alabama is going to vote for him by huge numbers,' he [told the Times], 'so the fact that he is here just proves what he wants is accolades and people waving, that’s his whole deal. I want people to cheer for me.'” I suspect that when he was a boy, little Donnie saw the Leni Reifenstahl film “Triumph of the Will,” which includes a scene of 700,000 Germans cheering Hitler at Nuremburg. The boy Trump -- perhaps with encouragement from papa Fred -- decided then and there that Hitler was a great man and one to be emulated. Trump is an old man now, but he never got past childish perceptions, so he is not that hard to figure out. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Looks as if Colin Jost & I are on the same wavelength. Watch to the end: ~~~

Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: “At a rally Friday in Walker, Mich., Trump said he was thinking of those in Alabama and other states hit by the storm, saying, 'We’re with you all the way, and if we were there we’d be helping you. You’ll be okay.' KamalaHQ, the Harris campaign’s X account, immediately shared the video clip with its roughly 1.3 million followers, suggesting that the former president was downplaying a deadly disaster and showing a lack of empathy. 'You’ll be okay,' the tweet read, along with the parenthetical note, '(Dozens of deaths have already been reported)'. On and off social media, the campaign and its supporters also hammered Trump for denying human-caused climate change, which scientists say is allowing hurricanes such as Helene to rapidly intensify. In addition, Harris allies highlighted that Project 2025 — the road map for a second Trump administration drafted by conservative think tanks in Washington — would privatize weather forecasting now done by federal agencies.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What Trump was “thinking of” was “Will I still be able to get to the Alabama-Georgia game so thousands of fans can cheer for their favorite president*, me?”

Edward Helmore of the Guardian: “Senior Republicans distanced themselves Sunday from comments made by Donald Trump at campaign stops over the weekend that opponent Kamala Harris was born 'mentally disabled' and had compared her actions to that of 'a mentally disabled person'. Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican..., said on CNN. 'I’m not saying she’s crazy, her policies are crazy.'” ~~~

     ~~~ According to Joe DePaolo of Mediaite, what Lindsey actually said was, “I’m not saying she’s crazy. I’m saying your party, your policies are batshit crazy.” MB: I think I'll adopt DePaolo's citation.

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: “A day after ... Donald J. Trump met with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, criticized the Ukrainian president Saturday during a campaign stop in [Newtown,] Pennsylvania.... Mr. Vance opened his speech by criticizing Mr. Zelensky for having toured an ammunition factory in Scranton with the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat. 'He came to campaign with the Democratic leadership of this country,' Mr. Vance said in Newtown. 'We spent $200 billion on Ukraine. You know what I wish Zelensky would do when he comes to the United States of America? Say thank you to the people of Pennsylvania and everybody else.'

     ~~~ Marie: Uh, JayDee, you ignorant sofa-slut, President Zelensky did say thank you to the people of Pennsylvania -- precisely when he was speaking in that ammo factory in Scranton, Joe Biden's hometown. Why, even the New York Times sez so. Cameron again: “In fact, Mr. Zelensky did use his visit to the plant to thank the United States for its support, as well as to thank the workers in Scranton for manufacturing artillery shells to support Ukraine. Mr. Zelensky told the 400 workers churning out shells to support the war effort that they 'have saved millions of Ukrainians.' He added in a message on social media that 'it is in places like this where you can truly feel that the democratic world can prevail.” And when President Zelensky went to NYC to “campaign” with Donald Trump a/k/a the Republican “leadership” of this country, Trump heaped insults upon him and the people of Ukraine who have suffered & died under Putin's war of aggression. (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: How to combine (a) projection, (b) conspiracy theory & (c) xenophobia, and come out the other side with (d) a sort of "reasoned" prediction ~~~

     ~~~ Kipp Jones of Mediaite: “Elon Musk claimed Sunday that electing former President Donald Trump in November is the 'only way' to save the country from the tyranny of Democrats and illegal migrants. The billionaire SpaceX, Tesla, and X CEO claimed the Democratic Party would naturalize enough non-citizens as voters during a Kamala Harris presidency to turn the US into a 'one-party state.' 'Democracy is over' if Trump is not elected to a second term, Musk claimed.” Remarkable. Just remarkable.

~~~~~~~~~~

Eduardo Medina & Tim Arango of the New York Times: “Raging floods and mudslides unleashed by the remnants of Hurricane Helene have dealt an 'unprecedented tragedy' in the mountains of western North Carolina, leaving at least 37 people dead in the region and communities struggling to cope without water, food, power, gasoline and cellphone service. Hundreds of miles from where it made landfall as a powerful hurricane, Helene has continued to wreak havoc across several states, with an overall death toll reaching more than 90 on Sunday. That total is expected to rise as rescue workers reach stranded communities. Some of the worst devastation was in the towns and cities nestled between the forested mountains of western North Carolina, with roads, power lines and water treatment facilities heavily damaged throughout the region. Local and federal officials along with the National Guard raced to deliver supplies to paralyzed areas, and repair and restore what they could, while dozens of other teams searched for people who fell victim to the raging floodwaters or were still looking to escape.”

California. Cecilia Kang of the New York Times: “Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday vetoed a California artificial intelligence safety bill, blocking the most ambitious proposal in the nation aimed at curtailing the growth of the new technology. The first-of-its-kind bill, S.B. 1047, required safety testing of large A.I. systems, or models, before their release to the public. It also gave the state’s attorney general the right to sue companies over serious harm caused by their technologies, like death or property damage. And it mandated a kill switch to turn off A.I. systems in case of potential biowarfare, mass casualties or property damage. Mr. Newsom said that the bill was flawed because it focused too much on regulating the biggest A.I. systems, known as frontier models, without considering potential risks and harms from the technology. He said that legislators should go back to rewrite it for the next session.” ~~~

     ~~~ Lara Korte & Jeremy White of Politico: “Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a sweeping California bill meant to impose safety vetting requirements for powerful AI models, siding with much of Silicon Valley and leading congressional Democrats in the most high-profile fight in the Legislature this year.”

New York. Love in the Time of Corruption ... Can Be So Convenient! Alyce McFadden & Jeffery Mays of the New York Times: “A day after [New York City Mayor Eric] Adams pleaded not guilty to criminal charges including bribery and fraud, Sheena Wright, Mr. Adams’s first deputy mayor, and David C. Banks, the schools chancellor, married on [Martha's Vineyard], according to three people familiar with their plans. Their marriage was said to have been planned for some time, and it followed a yearslong relationship during which they shared a home. But it might also allow Mr. Banks and Ms. Wright to claim spousal privilege, which gives them the right to decline to testify against each other in court, should that become necessary, legal experts said. The couple’s home in Harlem was visited by federal authorities in early September. Both Mr. Banks’s and Ms. Wright’s phones were seized by investigators, who appeared to be conducting a separate inquiry from the one that resulted in Mr. Adams’s indictment.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

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Austria, “Fortress of Freedom.” Christopher Schuetze of the New York Times: “Austrian voters handed the Freedom Party of Austria a solid win in national elections on Sunday, rebuking establishment parties and notching another victory for a xenophobic party in Europe as the tide of far-right populism rises on the continent. But despite the nearly 30 percent who voted for the far-right Freedom Party and its pugilistic leader, Herbert Kickl, the victory in national parliamentary elections could turn out to be merely symbolic, as mainstream parties have promised to form a coalition government without him. Still, on Sunday Mr. Kickl, who campaigned on making Austria a 'fortress of freedom,' insisted he has a clear mandate to form a government and announced that he would be open to conversations about possible coalitions with all other parties in Parliament.”

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Israel's wars are here: “Hamas on Monday said that its leader in Lebanon had been killed during an airstrike in the southern part of the country. The attack appeared to be the latest in a series of moves by Israel targeting the leadership of militias backed by Iran across the Middle East. Fatah Sherif al-Amin was killed with his family in a refugee camp for Palestinians, Hamas said in a statement.” ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates Monday are here: “Israel is continuing its bombardment in Lebanon, hitting an apartment building in Beirut’s Cola neighborhood early Monday — the first time it has targeted the capital’s city limits with an airstrike since hostilities with Hezbollah escalated almost a year ago. The Lebanese Health Ministry said the airstrike killed at least four people and injured four others. Israel’s military has not commented on the strike, which came after it hit Hezbollah targets across Lebanon and Houthi infrastructure in Yemen on Sunday.”

Comment1 Comment

Reader Comments (1)

It makes no difference if ShadyVance did or didn’t know that President Zelensky thanked Americans for their assistance in attempting to beat back Trump’s love interest, Vladimir Putin, who has been murdering Ukrainians now for well over two years.

Both Shady and Trump, as well as Fox and the entire right-wing media circus indulge in the most toxic sort of cynicism, believing, with mountains of evidence, that Trump voters are drooling idiots who would buy sand in the desert if they were told there was no other way to get it. They also clearly feel that undecided voters are equally bereft of the capability to critically assess false information, assuming that at this late date, if they haven’t figured out we lie with each breath, might as well give those losers an extra helping of shit, ergo “Zelensky is an ungrateful bastard who needs to die!”

It’s easier than you might think. Just think of how many Trump lovers believe Adam and Eve kept pet dinosaurs. And how many more millions believeFatty is smart. QED.

September 30, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

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