The Ledes

Friday, September 27, 2024

New York Times: “Maggie Smith, one of the finest British stage and screen actors of her generation, whose award-winning roles ranged from a freethinking Scottish schoolteacher in 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' to the acid-tongued dowager countess on 'Downton Abbey,' died on Friday in London. She was 89.”

The Washington Post's live updates of developments related to Hurricane Helene are here: “Hurricane Helene left one person dead in Florida and two in Georgia as it sped north. One of the biggest storms on record to hit the Gulf Coast, Helene slammed into Florida’s Big Bend area on Thursday night as a Category 4 colossus with winds of up to 140 mph before weakening to Category 1. Catastrophic winds and torrential rain from the storm — which the National Hurricane Center forecast would eventually slow over the Tennessee Valley — were expected to continue Friday across the Southeast and southern Appalachians.” ~~~

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

Mediaite: “Fox Weather’s Bob Van Dillen was reporting live on Fox & Friends about flooding in Atlanta from Hurricane Helene when he was interrupted by the screams of a woman trapped in her car. During the 7 a.m. hour, Van Dillen was filing a live report on the massive flooding in the area. Fox News viewers could clearly hear the urgent screams for help emerging from a car stuck on a flooded road in the background of the live shot. Van Dillen ... told Fox & Friends that 911 had been called and that the local Fire Department was on its way. But as he continued to file the report, the screams did not stop, so Van Dillen cut the live shot short.... Some 10 minutes later, Fox & Friends aired live footage of Van Dillen carrying the woman to safety, waking through chest-deep water while the flooding engulfed her car in the background[.]”

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The Ledes

Thursday, September 26, 2024

The New York Times:' live updates of Hurricane Helene developments today are here. “Hurricane Helene was barreling through the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday en route to Florida, where residents were bracing for extreme rain, destructive winds and deadly storm surge ahead of the storm’s expected landfall. The storm could intensify to a Category 4, if not higher, before making landfall late Thursday, and forecasters warned Helene’s anticipated large size could make its impacts felt across an extensive area. Areas as distant as Atlanta and the Appalachians are at risk for heavy rains.... Many forecast models show the storm making landfall late Thursday near Florida’s Big Bend Coast, a sparsely populated stretch....” ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post has forecasts for some cites in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina & Tennessee that are in or near the probable path of Helene. ~~~

     ~~~ This morning, an MSNBC weatherperson said Tallahassee (which is inland) would experience wind gusts of up to 120 m.p.h. and that the National Weather Service said expected 20-foot storm surges near the coast would be “unsurvivable.”

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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.”

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.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Aug142011

The Commentariat -- August 15

Paul Krugman: "when [Texas Gov. Rick] Perry presents himself as the candidate who knows how to create jobs, don’t believe him. His prescriptions for job creation would work about as well in practice as his prayer-based attempt to end Texas’s crippling drought." ...

... I've posted a page on Off Times Square on Krugman's column. Comment on Krugman/Perry or something else. See more on Perry in Right Wing World below.

Beth Reinhard of the National Journal: "Despite Bachmann's success, the real GOP race is now Perry vs. Romney."

** Warren Buffett in a New York Times op-ed: "While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks.... Last year my federal tax bill ... was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.... For those making more than $1 million ... I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more ... I would suggest an additional increase in rate. My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice." ...

In fact, 88 of the 400 in 2008 reported no wages at all, though every one of them reported capital gains. Some of my brethren may shun work but they all like to invest. -- Warren Buffett ...

... Marcy Wheeler: "Buffett is making an argument ... that would go a long way to counter the 'job creators' myth that the Republicans invented and now Obama has adopted. And with Republicans like Rick Perry now spewing the line that half of Americans don’t pay taxes (meaning, of course, that many Americans make so little they pay only the regressive FICA taxes), we’d do well to talk about all the deadbeats at the top – the deadbeats Republicans want to reward for shunning work." ...

... Warren Buffett, Myth-Buster. Henry Blodget of Clusterstock: Buffett "takes aim at the biggest rationale for preserving these astonishing tax breaks: The claim that, if taxes on deca-millionaires and billionaires were increased, these super-rich Americans would stop investing, thus clobbering the economy and hurting job growth":

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, tax rates for the rich were far higher.... According to a theory I sometimes hear, I should have thrown a fit and refused to invest because of the elevated tax rates on capital gains and dividends. I didn’t refuse, nor did others.... People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation. -- Warren Buffett

"Wrong-Way Corrigans in Charge at the White House." John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "Even after the recent sell-off on Wall Street, the political geniuses at the White House don’t want the President to push for something that might actually give the economy a boost before next year’s election, because it would involve taking on the Republicans, and voters don’t like political strife."

Ron Brownstein of the National Journal: "Washington’s key players look like picnickers laying out a nice spread while Vesuvius smolders behind them. The problem isn’t that Congress and President Obama are taking some vacation; it’s that neither is displaying enough urgency about finding fresh answers for the stagnant economy.... Judging by their appointments, congressional leaders today view stalemate as a safer course than compromise.... Many Democrats are ... hoping that public pressure rouses Obama."

Your Chart(s) of the Day (click on the graphs to see a larger image):

Click to see larger image.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times writes a fascinating piece on the polarization of the nation: 'Americans are self-segregating,' said Bill Bishop, author of 'The Big Sort.' ... Mr. Bishop said Americans now choose 'in their neighborhoods and their churches, to be around others who live like they do and think like they do — and, every four years, vote like they do.' ... In 1976...,  26.8 percent of Americans lived in 'landslide counties,' which voted either Democratic or Republican by 20 percentage points or more. By 2000..., 45.3 percent of Americans lived in landslide counties. In 2008, the figure was 47.6 percent."

Garrett Epps of The Atlantic writes a terrific post on the National Popular Vote Initiative, a proposed means to guarantee that the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote takes the White House, no matter how the Electoral College count would turn out. CW: I have long thought that the NPVI is a dumb idea, except as a catalyst for a Constitutional Amendment. Epps doesn't change my mind on that, but I do think it would be a very good idea if the dumb idea gained enough traction to scare Congress into passing a Constitutional Amendment & the states into ratifying it (yeah, I know, good luck with that).

CW: I found reading this post a hard slog, but the bottom line is probably worth the slog. Yves Smith in Salon: "... this haranguing about certainty simply reveals how warped big commerce has become in the US. Top management of supposedly capitalist enterprises want a high degree of certainty in their own profits and pay. Rather than earn their returns the old fashioned way, by serving customers well, by innovating, by expanding into new markets, their 'certainty' amounts to being paid handsomely for doing things that carry no risk. But since risk and uncertainty are inherent to the human condition, what they instead have engaged in is a massive scheme of risk transfer, of increasing rewards to themselves to the long term detriment of their enterprises and ultimately society as a whole."

Right Wing World *

CW: It's always dangerous to pick the most unscrupulous crook in Washington, what with their being so many contenders, but Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) might be the guy. Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "Mr. Issa [has] dual careers, a meshing of public and private interests rarely seen in government. Most wealthy members of Congress push their financial activities to the side.... But Mr. Issa..., one of Washington’s richest lawmakers, may be alone in the hands-on role he has played in overseeing a remarkable array of outside business interests since his election in 2000.... It is sometimes difficult to separate the business of Congress from the business of Darrell Issa.... His pro-business policies usually align closely with those of the firms he has worked with in his wide-ranging business career both before and after he joined Congress.... According to his filings, Mr. Issa’s minimum wealth doubled in the last year...." CW: Read the whole article for the particulars. They stink.

Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "The reign of the Tea Party may be coming to an end in Washington, according to academic political experts who say polls show a backlash against the conservative movement. Two national polls released this month by CNN and The New York Times in conjunction with CBS News showed the Tea Party’s unfavorable rating at an all-time high."

[Rick] Perry wears more cowboy gear than a six-year-old boy on Halloween. -- Rick Hertzberg

... Paul Begala writes a funny but substantive column on Crotch Rick Perry in the Daily Beast: "Rick Perry threw his hair in the ring on Saturday. His entrance into the GOP presidential field can be a game changer. Perry can raise money as well as Mitt. He can rally the base as well as Michele Bachmann, and he will say or do anything—annnnnnnyyyyyyything—to win. And in today’s Republican Party, if you want to be the nominee you have to be willing to do some really crazy s--t." ...

... Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post fact-checker, checks Rick Perry's announcement speech: "On a blended basis, we would rate this as a Two Pinocchio speech, similar to many of the other announcement speeches — a mishmash of high-flying rhetoric and facts sometimes tethered uncertainly to the truth." Of this line,

We don’t need a president who apologizes for America. We need a president who protects and projects those values.

Kessler says: "Four Pinocchio alert! A variation of this line appears in almost every speech by a GOP candidate for president, but it is completely bogus." ...

... Reader Doug R. sends us this "Keeping 'Em Honest" segment of Anderson Cooper's "360":

... See also the comment by Rosevhs of Dallas, Texas (#2) to Ross Douthat's column. The writer serves up "7 reasons why conservatives in Texas do NOT like Perry." CW: I can't vouch for the accuracy of Rosevhs's figures, but based on what I've read elsewhere, her analysis sounds correct to me.

* Might be shrinking. But they'll lie about it.

News Ledes

New York Times: "More than a dozen members of the hacker group Anonymous joined a small group of San Francisco residents Monday evening to protest the fatal shooting of a 45-year-old man by police officers last month. The protest, which began peacefully, became more chaotic when individuals tried to disrupt the transit system at a BART station. Police officers in riot gear closed the station gates while protesters chanted at them.... The Federal Communications Commission said Monday that it was investigating BART officials decision to cut cellular service" last week to quell a protest. Here's a more extensive San Francisco Chronicle story.

President Obama held two townhall meetings in Minnesota this afternoon. Reuters: "President Barack Obama hits the road on Monday for a Midwestern bus tour that he hopes will leave doubts over his leadership behind in Washington.... The White House says the president is on listening tour to hear from Americans about the economy and to talk about how to boost jobs and hiring. There are no plans for a major policy speech to roll out new initiatives for growth." ...

     ... Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "President Barack Obama launched the first leg of his three-day bus tour of the Midwest on Monday with a stinging criticism of Republican politics and a wide-ranging promotion of his administration’s efforts to boost the ailing economy." New York Times story here.

New York Times: "Stocks swept higher Monday on Wall Street, returning the overall market to where it was before the United States credit rating was downgraded."

His Boots Are Made for Running. A day after Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced his presidential candidacy in South Carolina, he does both New Hampshire (Union Leader) and Iowa (Des Moines Register). All three are early primary states.

New York Times: "Insurgents across Iraq launched their most significant and wide-ranging attacks in months on Monday, using suicide bombers, car bombs and gunmen to attack Iraqi security forces and civilians. At least 57 people were killed in the attacks and over 100 wounded."

New York Times: "Google announced on Monday that it would acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings, the cellphone business that was split from Motorola, for $40 a share in cash, or $12.5 billion. The offer — by far Google’s largest ever for an acquisition — is 63 percent above the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday. Motorola manufactures phones that run on Google’s Android software."

AP: "Sobbing friends and relatives are gathering at the Indiana State Fairgrounds for a memorial service to honor five people who were killed when high winds toppled a stage. Gov. Mitch Daniels and others will remember the victims Monday morning in a ceremony at the fairground, which was closed for a day following the tragedy."

Al Jazeera: "Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has urged his supporters to fight for the country 'inch by inch' as opposition forces launched a two-pronged offensive in western Libya that threatens to isolate the capital of Tripoli. Facing the sternest challenge of his decades-long rule, Gaddafi on Monday called on Libyans to arm themselves to liberate the country from "traitors and from NATO" in a broadcast on state television."

AP (via the NYT): "Television cameras won't be allowed in the courtroom for the rest of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's trial, the presiding judge ruled Monday. Judge Ahmed Rifaat adjourned the trial until Sept. 5...." Al Jazeera story here.

Al Jazeera: "Robert Zoellick, the head of the World Bank, has warned that markets have been pushed into a new danger zone that policy makers have to take seriously."

Guardian: British PM "David Cameron pledged his government would 'turn around the lives of the 120,000 most troubled families' by the next election as he said his broken society analysis is 'back at the top of my political agenda'. He made the ambitious commitment in a speech delivered on Monday at a youth centre in his Witney constituency in Oxfordshire, in which he described the rioting as a 'wake-up call' for the country." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Britain’s top two politicians ventured Monday into a political landscape profoundly altered by last week’s rioting and offered competing prescriptions that seemed to rupture an uneasy consensus that has prevailed in British politics for a generation. Radically different speeches by Prime Minister David Cameron and Ed Miliband, the leaders of the Conservative and Labour Parties, appeared to set the stage for the kind of gloves-off, left-versus-right politics Britain has not seen for nearly 30 years."

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