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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Aug242013

The Commentariat -- Aug. 25, 2013

John Lewis, speech at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963. The text of the speech:

... Danny Glover reads John Lewis's prepared speech for the March on Washington, 1963. The March leaders persuaded him to tone down his rhetoric:

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), Saturday:

** Maureen Dowd is in excellent form today: "For some of the rodeo clowns clamoring for impeachment around the country, Barack Obama's real crime is presiding while black." ...

... Gee, maybe MoDo cribbed her column from this report by Jennifer Steinhauer of the Times. In any event, it is nice to see the Times ridiculing these ignorant Tea Party reprobates.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 80, vowed in an interview to stay on the Supreme Court as long as her health and intellect remained strong, saying she was fully engaged in her work as the leader of the liberal opposition on what she called 'one of the most activist courts in history.'"

** Steve Coll of the New Yorker: "In American courthouses this summer, a vitally important ... struggle over the First Amendment's scope is taking place between the Obama Administration and the press. At issue is whether the Administration will fulfill a recent pledge to end its heavy-handed pursuit of professional journalists' sources. The ripest case concerns a Times reporter, James Risen.

CW: I missed Frank Rich again this week, but he's interesting -- on Egypt, the NSA & the Clintons.

Art by Jen Sorensen for Daily Kos. Thanks to Kate M. for the link.... Also read the post Sorensen wrote to accompany her cartoon. It ain't so funny (links that follow are original -- and interesting): "There are so many egregious moments from [Summers'] career that I wanted to include in this cartoon, but couldn't -- the fact that he sided with Ken Lay and Enron during the California energy crisis, even after some economists were raising the possibility of market manipulation; his dismissive attitude toward climate change while Chief Economist of the World Bank, and subsequent opposition to the Kyoto Protocol; his opposition to the Volcker Rule as part of the Dodd-Frank banking reforms; his memo to Obama significantly underestimating the amount of stimulus needed.... Seriously, no woman who has been as wrong about as many things as Larry Summers would ever be considered to lead the Fed."

CW: I missed this, but Matt Yglesias earlier this week addressed an issue we briefly discussed here: "Let's tax churches! All of them, in a non-discriminatory way that doesn't consider faith or creed or level of political engagement." Via Steve Benen. ...

... ** Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post: "Ryan T. Cragun, a sociologist at the University of Tampa, and two of his students ... estimate the total subsidy [to religious institutions] at $71 billion [annually]. That's almost certainly a lowball, as they didn't estimate the cost of a number of subsidies, like local income and property tax exemptions, the sales tax exemption, and -- most importantly -- the charitable deduction for religious given." Via Benen. CW: viewed this way, the separation of church & state is really a farce. We do have an "established" religion: it's all of them.

Amanda Marcotte, in Salon: "To hear activists on the Christian right tell the story, the conservative Christian American -- especially the male conservative Christian American -- is the most oppressed, victimized person in the country, and perhaps in the history of the world. It's all utterly disingenuous, of course: Painting themselves as victims creates a cover to actually victimize other people, usually by imposing their fanatical religious views." Marcotte provides "a rundown of various ways Christian conservatives paint themselves as victims, and who the real victims actually are." Also via Benen.

Right Wing World

Canada, the 51st State. According to Teabagger logic, the reason it's okay that Ted Cruz was born in Canada is that "Canada is not really foreign soil." President Obama's "strong ties" to Kenya, however, are "disturbing." CW Translation: lots of nice white people in Canada; not so many in Kenya.

Steve M. of NMMNB: "Bob Filner has finally resigned as mayor of San Diego -- but they're not happy over at Free Republic, because the president of the city council will become the interim mayor, and he's gay." Steve republishes some of the Free Republic comments. Extremely sickening.

News Ledes

** New York Times: "Moving a step closer to possible American military action in Syria, a senior Obama administration official said Sunday that there was 'very little doubt' that President Bashar al-Assad's military forces had used chemical weapons against civilians last week and that a Syrian promise to allow United Nations inspectors access to the site was 'too late to be credible.'"

New York Times: "Muriel Siebert, who became a legend on Wall Street as the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and the first woman to head one of the exchange's member firms, died on Saturday in Manhattan. She was 80."

AFP: "A war of words erupted Sunday over Syria as Washington said it is ready to take action over chemical weapons attacks and Tehran warned US intervention would carry 'harsh consequences'. Pressure mounted on Damascus to allow a UN probe of chemical attacks, with French President Francois Hollande saying evidence indicated the regime in war-ravaged Syria was to blame and Israel demanding action against its neighbour."

AP: "New York's attorney general sued Donald Trump for $40 million Saturday, saying the real estate mogul helped run a phony 'Trump University' that promised to make students rich but instead steered them into expensive and mostly useless seminars, and even failed to deliver promised apprenticeships."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (9)

MoDo's best one-liner from her column: "It’s lucky the president got another dog if Tom Coburn is his friend.:

August 24, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Don't normally tout MoDo because she's such a twinkie, but this time she reads okay.

August 24, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

On impeachment:

It's a question of standards, high and low.

Even with a majority in the House, Ms. Pelosi would not institute impeachment proceedings against a sitting President who had clearly lied (or arranged lies, or allowed other to arrange them) to take our country into an expensive, needless and immoral war. Some said her standards were too low; some said too high. Have to admit, I was one who often wished she had chosen to pull the impeachment trigger, but I did understand her position.

After spending millions to trap or trip up William Jefferson Clinton, the R's leaped to impeach him for lying under oath about a strictly personal, albeit strikingly tawdry and embarrassing affair. Did they exhibit standards too low, too high, or were they just like the three bears' porridge- j-u-s-t right?

If we didn't know before, today's R's provide a clue. Their standards for starting the impeachment talk are even lower than those of their party predecessors. They seem to start and end with "I don't like him." Maybe with a little "he makes me feel stupid" tossed in. If so, they're on the right track.

But I don't believe winning Presidential elections and obvious superiority are yet impeachable offenses, though they have long been so in the minds of the Party of Resentment.

August 24, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Here is a link to Jen Sorensen's excellent cartoon and post comparing Larry Summers and Janet Yellen (Daily Kos). I had forgotten that Larry-baby supported Ken Lay during the Enron scandal! Yikes.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/07/1229256/-Handy-comparison-chart-Janet-Yellen-vs-Larry-Summers?detail=email

August 25, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

I meant to post this awhile back, but never got around to it.

http://news.yahoo.com/religious-people-are-less-intelligent-than-atheists--study-finds--113350723.html

August 25, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa

Looks as if I got spammed. I meant to post this previously.

http://news.yahoo.com/religious-people-are-less-intelligent-than-atheists--study-finds--113350723.html

There's an irascible German violin maker in North Carolina who sooner or later always says "Tax the damn churches!" I agree.

August 25, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa

Thanks to Barbarossa for the Sabbath sermonette. Made for great Sunday reading....

and to the CW for Elmore Leonard links. Made me think about the difference between a Leonard character and Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, both entertaining but hefting significantly different political and social baggage. The "hero" in both fictional universes is a loner, an outsider, who wins in the end, but Clancy's character is the mild rebel within, an organization man with a brain. Leonard often arranges events so that it is the social outcast, the guy or woman who lives on the periphery, who ends up with the triumphant smirk on his face.

No doubt where my sympathies lie...

August 25, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Interesting piece in the Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/us/south-carolina-city-takes-steps-to-evict-homeless-from-downtown.html?hp

“You’ve got to get to the root of the problem: why we’re homeless,” said Jaja Akair, a homeless man who spoke to lawmakers during a City Council session that stretched past 3 a.m. “You can’t just knock us to the side like we’re a piece of meat or a piece of paper.” Turning to the business executives in the audience, Mr. Akair said: “Try giving us a shot. I guarantee you some of us would run your business better than you do.”

August 25, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

And another interesting Times piece:

Think the Kochs are not everywhere, lurking as ubiquitously as the NSA?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/sunday-review/monopoly-goes-corporat

August 25, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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