The Ledes

Saturday, April 2, 2025

New York Times: “Charlotte Webb, who as a young woman helped code breakers decipher enemy signals at Britain’s top-secret Bletchley Park, died on Monday. She was 101.... Ms. Webb, known as Betty, was 18 when she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British Army, and was assigned to work at the base in Buckinghamshire where Bletchley Park was located. From 1941 to 1945, she helped in the decryption of German messages, and also worked on Japanese signals. In 2015, Ms. Webb was appointed as Member of the Order of the British Empire and in 2021 she was awarded the Légion d’Honneur, France’s most prestigious honor. She was one of the last surviving members of the storied Bletchley Park code breaking team.”

New York Times: “Val Kilmer, a homegrown Hollywood actor who tasted leading-man stardom as Jim Morrison and Batman, but whose protean gifts and elusive personality also made him a high-profile supporting player, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 65.”

The Wires
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To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.

 

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."

Wherein Michael McIntyre explains how Americans adapted English to their needs. With examples:

Beat the Buzzer. Some amazing young athletes:

     ~~~ Here's the WashPo story (March 23).

Back when the Washington Post had an owner/publisher who dared to stand up to a president:

Prime video is carrying the documentary. If you watch it, I suggest watching the Spielberg film "The Post" afterwards. There is currently a free copy (type "the post full movie" in the YouTube search box) on YouTube (or you can rent it on YouTube, on Prime & [I think] on Hulu). Near the end, Daniel Ellsberg (played by Matthew Rhys), says "I was struck in fact by the way President Johnson's reaction to these revelations was [that they were] 'close to treason,' because it reflected to me the sense that what was damaging to the reputation of a particular administration or a particular individual was in itself treason, which is very close to saying, 'I am the state.'" Sound familiar?

Out with the Black. In with the White. New York Times: “Lester Holt, the veteran NBC newscaster and anchor of the 'NBC Nightly News' over the last decade, announced on Monday that he will step down from the flagship evening newscast in the coming months. Mr. Holt told colleagues that he would remain at NBC, expanding his duties at 'Dateline,' where he serves as the show’s anchor.... He said that he would continue anchoring the evening news until 'the start of summer.' The network did not immediately name a successor.” ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “MSNBC said on Monday that Jen Psaki, the former White House press secretary who has become one of the most prominent hosts at the network, would anchor a nightly weekday show in prime time. Ms. Psaki, 46, will host a show at 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, replacing Alex Wagner, a longtime political journalist who has anchored that hour since 2022, according to a memo to staff from Rebecca Kutler, MSNBC’s president. Ms. Wagner will remain at MSNBC as an on-air correspondent. Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s biggest star, has been anchoring the 9 p.m. hour on weeknights for the early days of ... [Donald] Trump’s administration but will return to hosting one night a week at the end of April.”

New York Times: “Joy Reid’s evening news show on MSNBC is being canceled, part of a far-reaching programming overhaul orchestrated by Rebecca Kutler, the network’s new president, two people familiar with the changes said. The final episode of Ms. Reid’s 7 p.m. show, 'The ReidOut,' is planned for sometime this week, according to the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly. The show, which features in-depth interviews with politicians and other newsmakers, has been a fixture of MSNBC’s lineup for the past five years. MSNBC is planning to replace Ms. Reid’s program with a show led by a trio of anchors: Symone Sanders Townsend, a political commentator and former Democratic strategist; Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee; and Alicia Menendez, the TV journalist, the people said. They currently co-host 'The Weekend,' which airs Saturday and Sunday mornings.” MB: In case you've never seen “The Weekend,” let me assure you it's pretty awful. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: "Joy Reid is leaving MSNBC, the network’s new president announced in a memo to staff on Monday, marking an end to the political analyst and anchor’s prime time news show."

Y! Entertainment: "Meanwhile, [Alex] Wagner will also be removed from her 9 pm weeknight slot. Wagner has already been working as a correspondent after Rachel Maddow took over hosting duties during ... Trump’s first 100 days in office. It’s now expected that Wagner will not return as host, but is expected to stay on as a contributor. Jen Psaki, President Biden’s former White House press secretary, is a likely replacement for Wagner, though a decision has not been finalized." MB: In fairness to Psaki, she is really too boring to watch. On the other hand, she is White. ~~~

     ~~~ RAS: "So MSNBC is getting rid of both of their minority evening hosts. Both women of color who are not afraid to call out the truth. Outspoken minorities don't have a long shelf life in the world of our corporate news media."

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

Saturday
Oct162010

Tea with Adolf

Frank Rich: "Don’t expect the extremism and violence in our politics to subside magically after Election Day — no matter what the results. If Tea Party candidates triumph, they’ll be emboldened. If they lose, the anger and bitterness will grow. The only development that can change this equation is a decisive rescue from our prolonged economic crisis. Not for the first time in history — and not just American history — fear itself is at the root of a rabid outbreak of populist rage against government, minorities and conspiratorial 'elites.'”

Not surprisingly, the Times moderators would not publish this comment on Rich's column:


Since Frank began with Carl Paladino's embrace of a reference to Adolf Hitler, I was reminded of how much the current tea party "populism" resembles German populism between the world wars.

The socio-economic situations then and now were similar. Both the 'tween-wars Germany & today's U.S. were suffering through dire economic times. The European nations who defeated Germany made Germany pay reparations for the first world war. It appears we will be paying our own "reparations" to China because of our profligate borrowing.

Beginning in 1929, all of Europe & the U.S. began to suffer through a Great Depression; the situation is Germany was even worse. Unemployment doubled & the parties began bickering about the cost of unemployment benefits. We are now suffering through the Great Recession & the parties are bickering about unemployment benefits.

After the first world war, Germans lost faith in "establishment parties" & sought answers from outliers. The government could not hold things together. Similarly, tea partiers have formed their own loose "anti-establishment" groups & are fielding candidates who would not pass muster in the established Republican & Democratic parties. Paladino, of course, is the poster boy for the dismal tea party candidate parade. Meanwhile, popular approval of the American Congress is at an all-time low.

Germans accused the Weimer government of betraying their nation by signing the Treaty of Versailles. Today's tea partiers think our government is illegitimate; they think the President is not even an American, and they know he is not "one of them."

In Germany, radicals like Hitler promised the people they would return Germany to its pre-World War I glory. In this country, tea partiers & their candidates vow "to take our country back." Just as Hitler was militaristic, so are today's tea partiers, carrying guns to political rallies, forming militias in the Hinterlands, & looking for leaders like Sarah Palin & Sharron Angle who pepper their speeches with incendiary words & phrases like "lock-and-load" and "target" and "bulls-eye" and "revolution." The entire right wing is obsessed with the Second Amendment, as if that were the only amendment that mattered. At the same time, many right-wingers see the military as the best solution to every foreign problem. John McCain is hardly the only conservative singing "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran." In both 1930s Germany & the modern U.S., many people view jingoism as sensible public policy.

Germany had a significant ethnic minority to scapegoat, & Hitler encouraged the centuries-old bigotry against Jews. Though he was not religious himself, he borrowed from Martin Luther's playbook (Luther became a horrible anti-Semite) & named a Lutheran anti-Semitic bishop to head the German church. We have quite a few minorities to choose from, and the right enjoys scapegoating them all. The other day a Fox "News" host said, "All terrorists are Muslims." As far as I know, he still has his job. While it's unacceptable to specifically scapegoat black Americans & Jews, the tea party is not immune from doing so. Much of the animus against President Obama is based on his race, and talk-show pundits like Glenn Beck & Rush Limbaugh make racist statements about him.

In Germany, big money interests secretly funded Hitler's Nazi party. (Many of those financial backers came from Europe & the U.S.) In this country, the Supreme Court has just made secret funding of politicians legal, and we're seeing the effects in this election.

Tea partiers like to paint Hitler mustaches on President Obama. But it seems much more apt to apply little brush mustaches to their own upper lips. Although the causes of the economic crises in Germany & in the U.S. were different, the early political responses appear to be much the same. Most important, the attitudes of the so-called populists of both eras are identical. We should worry.


Update
: the news of Angela Merkel's speech on the failure of multiculturalism, linked here & below, suggests another layer of connections between then & now.