REALITYCHEX.COM - Constant Comments - The Commentariat -- July 1, 2013

The Ledes

Monday, October 7, 2024

Weather Channel: “Hurricane 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.” ~~~

~~~ New York Times live updates are here for what is now a Cat 5 hurricane.

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.”

The Wires

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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Jun302013

The Commentariat -- July 1, 2013

Michael Shear of the New York Times: On Sunday, President Obama visited the Robben Island cell where former South African President Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years of the first 27 years of his life.

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Julian Assange ... said on Sunday that ... the disclosures from the classified documents [Edward Snowden] took as a National Security Agency contractor would continue." Here's the ABC News interview:

... Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "European officials reacted angrily on Sunday to a report that the United States had been spying on its European Union allies, saying the claims could threaten talks with Washington on an important trade agreement." ...

... Laura Poitras, et al., in Der Spiegel: "America's National Security Agency (NSA) is apparently spying on Germany more than previously believed. Secret documents from the US intelligence service, which have been viewed by Spiegel journalists, reveal that the NSA systematically monitors and stores a large share of the country's telephone and Internet connection data." Spiegel Online International will publish its full report some time today. ...

... Der Spiegel: "Germany's Federal Prosecutors' Office confirmed to Spiegel on Sunday that it is looking into whether systematic data spying against the country conducted by America's National Security Agency violated laws aimed at protecting German citizens." ...

... Ewen MacAskill & Julian Borger of the Guardian have a bit more on the U.S.'s bugging our European friends. ...

... Get Over It. Lara Jakes & Frank Jordans in Salon: "The U.S. says it gathers the same kinds of intelligence as other nations to safeguard against foreign terror threats, pushing back on fresh outrage from key allies over secret American surveillance programs that reportedly installed covert listening devices in European Union offices. Facing threatened investigations and sanctions from Europe, U.S. intelligence officials plan to discuss the new allegations -- reported in Sunday's editions of the German newsweekly Der Spiegel -- directly with EU officials.... Some European counties have much stronger privacy laws than does the U.S." ...

... Hadas Gold of Politico: "NSA leaker Edward Snowden damaged the 'security of the country,' former President George W. Bush said in an interview that aired Monday." CW: ah, well, good. Then it's all okay. The video & CNN story are here. ...

... Ian Traynor, et al., of the Guardian: "The prospects for a new trade pact between the US and the European Union worth hundreds of billions have suffered a severe setback following allegations that Washington bugged key EU offices and intercepted phonecalls and emails from top officials." CW: as contributor Ken Winkes pointed out, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps, however, sabotaging our so-called national security apparatus is not the best way to sink the trade agreement. ...

... Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "... an examination of public statements over a period of years suggests that officials, [including President Obama,] have often relied on legalistic parsing and carefully hedged characterizations in discussing the NSA's collection of communications." ...

... The Bluffdale Black Box. Tony Semerad of the Salt Lake Tribune: "The [NSA's] Utah Data Center spans 1 million square feet, with a 100,000-square-foot, raised-floor area divided into four separate data halls, each holding what the NSA calls 'mission-critical' computing servers and data-storage capacity. An additional 900,000 square feet will be devoted to technical support and administrative staff, amounting to fewer than 200 NSA employees." (It's a 3-pager; click thru.) The official government site describing the Bluffdale facility, which is still under construction, is here. ...

... Rick Hamilton, in Salon, on the last significant NSA defections: William Martin & Bernon Mitchell, who defected to Russia in 1960 amid charges they were "sex deviates."

Paul Krugman: "... there's a nationwide [Republican] movement under way to punish the unemployed, based on the proposition that we can cure unemployment by making the jobless even more miserable.... The war on the unemployed isn't motivated solely by cruelty; rather, it's a case of meanspiritedness converging with bad economic analysis."

Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog: "Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy turned down at midday Sunday a request to stop same-sex marriages from occurring in California. Without comment, and without seeking views from the other side, Kennedy rejected a challenge to action by the Ninth Circuit Court on Friday implementing a federal judge's ruling allowing such marriages. The plea had been made on Saturday b the sponsors of California's 'Proposition 8,' a voter-approved measure that permitted marriage only between a man and a woman." ...

... Jeff Toobin, in the New Yorker, on Anthony Kennedy's decisions to strike DOMA & gut the Voting Rights Act. "... the real reason that [Edie] Windsor, and the country, won [the DOMA case] was that Democrats won -- in the eighties, when the Senate turned down Bork, and in 2008, when Barack Obama defeated John McCain. To an extent that the public and, especially, the Justices themselves rarely acknowledge, the Supreme Court is a political body. It reflects, above all, the values and the priorities of the Presidents who nominate the Justices and the senators who confirm them (or refuse to do so)." CW: I dedicate this post to Kate Madison -- "Remember the Supremes!" ...

... Julia Preston of the New York Times: "An American man in Florida and his husband, who is from Bulgaria, have become the first same-sex married couple to be approved for a permanent resident visa, an immigration milestone that comes after the Supreme Court struck down a federal law against same-sex marriage.... The approval was evidence that the Obama administration was acting swiftly to change its visa policies in the wake of the court's decision on Wednesday invalidating ... DOMA."

... Andrew of Clean Technica: "Already cost-competitive with thermal coal and natural gas power generation -- not to mention its numerous other often ignored and unaccounted for social and ecological benefits and cost savings, which are substantial -- GE's looking to drive the cost of wind energy down further, pushing the envelope outward by incorporating 'industrial Internet' capabilities and short-term, grid-scale power storage...." Via Juan Cole.

Local News

Corrie MacLaggan of Reuters: " When the Texas Legislature convenes on Monday for a second special session, the Republican majority will seek to ... pass sweeping abortion restrictions." ...

... Ann Friedman writes a moving account in New York magazine, about her reaction to Wendy Davis's filibuster & the women who supported her: "The burden of proof is on women and gay people and nonwhite Americans to justify their lives, to explain to those who have never felt this sort of powerlessness or discrimination that it's very much real." CW: the trouble is, of course, that no matter what the powerless say, the powerful don't listen. See, Alito, Sam; Perry, Rick.

News Ledes

The Orlando Sentinel has the latest on the George Zimmerman trial.

Washington Post: "Citigroup announced Monday that it had agreed to pay mortgage-finance giant Fannie Mae $968 million to resolve claims on 3.7 million home loans that have soured or might go bad. The bank is one of many institutions that sell home loans to the government-sponsored entity, which bundles them into mortgage-backed securities and guarantees the bonds."

Arizona Republic: "Nineteen firefighters, including 18 from the elite Granite Mountain Hotshots of Prescott, died Sunday fighting an out-of-control wildfire in Yarnell, a tiny Yavapai County town roughly 80 miles northwest of Phoenix. About half of the town's 500 homes were feared destroyed by the blaze, which began early Friday evening, and by Sunday the fire had spread to 8,000 acres. All of Yarnell and the neighboring Peeples Valley were evacuated."

AP: "Protesters stormed and ransacked the Cairo headquarters of President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group early Monday, in an attack that could spark more violence as demonstrators gear up for a second day of mass rallies aimed at forcing the Islamist leader from power. Organizers of the protests, meanwhile, gave Morsi until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to step down and called on the police and the military to clearly state their support for what the protest movement called the popular will." ...

... Al Jazeera Update: "The Egyptian army has asked President Mohamed Morsi to resolve huge protests against his rule or face intervention within 48 hours, placing huge pressure on country's first democratically elected leader." ...

... Guardian Update: "Mohamen Morsi's regime has indicated that it will not give in to the threat of a military coup, just hours after the Egyptian army gave it 48 hours to placate the millions who have taken to the streets calling for the president's departure.... The presidency indicated that it viewed the statement as a coup d'etat, and implied that Morsi was safe as long as his administration still had US support."

AP: As 200,000 people travel to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War battle -- July 1-3, 1863 -- capitalism thrives!

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Since the European trade agreement that may (huff, puff) be jeopardized because of recent spying revelations will likely contain provisions allowing corporations with a grievance to by-pass both our courts and our laws, particularly the relative few that remain on the books to protect our environment and our workers, I'm not sure how this threat is bad news.

NAFTA, the proposed TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) and the pact being negotiated with Europe all establish extra-sovereign judicial bodies far beyond the reach of our citizens, their elected representatives and their duly constituted courts. Oddly, the same folks so hysterical about swarms of United Nations black helicopters haven't noticed the real black helicopter armada sports a corporate logo.

If the European reaction to the surveillance state fortuitously derails an agenda so dear to multi-nationals' hearts, I'm smiling, not sad at all.

June 30, 2013 |

Ken Winkes

Marie: Found the colloquy between Assange and The Clinton Guy Shocked By Blowjobs passing interesting. Thanks for posting it.

June 30, 2013 |

James Singer

Good news! Sir Rupert of Murdochia is back with more stuff to rattle right-wing ganglia and continue the worldwide spread of his own particular (and particularly) noxious idiom through the rebirth of scandal plagued News Corp.

A source quoted in a Guardian article on the latest in a long line of venomous ventures describes the latest foray as being likely to benefit from "Murdochian Magic"....('cough, cough'), that must be the same magic that stood the thoroughly disgraced News Corp in such good stead during the recent phone hacking scandal in Britain.

The best part is that, the wielders of Murdochian Magic being so well acquainted with smartphones and all, the new scheme is aimed directly at infecting those same devices. This time injecting dirt instead of fishing for it (although with Murdoch, playing dirty is never off the table).

Disinformation, lies, and alternative universe views spewed out by bigots, clowns, and propeller hatted whackjobs on demand right on your mobile device. Watch and read about the latest phoney (so to speak) scandals, the most up to date wingnut theories, and sniff the toxic crap as it radiates out of your tablet, phone, or the fillings in your teeth (for Teabaggers only).

Rupert wants your phone

July 1, 2013 |

Akhilleus

I just happened to be strolling through the opinion pages of the Times and spotted cry-baby Douthat (in response to the shocking, shocking DOMA decision) whining that gays are getting ready to beat the shit out of him for not going along with the Gay Agenda which, according to conservatives like Douchboy, means turning every American into some kind of gay/liberal/religion-hating zombie and tracking down any holdouts so they can be collared and hauled off to some commie-like re-education prison camp--all of which is news to me.

I thought the " gay agenda" involved finding a way to be treated like every other citizen, which, I suppose in some right-wing circles equals the previous nightmare scenario.

But it's always been thus whenever certain conservatives are forced to confront their bigotry and fears. Pesky women demanding rights threatened their manhood; minorities demanding the vote threatened their political dominance; now gays and lesbians demanding to be treated equally threaten their sense of themselves in ways too psychologically weird to parse.

Douche-O goes on to mewl that he hopes all those good who abide by traditional religious views of marriage (Eve, not Steve) will be treated fairly in the coming gay apocalypse but he doesn't hold out much hope.

What the fuck do these people eat?

And once more, how in the holy hell does this guy get a spot on the NY Times Opinion pages? His "opinions" are best left to a good analyst.

July 1, 2013 |

Akhilleus

Thanks AK. It's difficult to understand how much of the right-wing's self-esteem is wrapped up in keeping others in their place until some group gets uppity. My group, the unrepentant atheists, is still standing in line, and we're not sure that the bouncer will let us in, but we're hopeful.

July 1, 2013 |

Jack Mahoney

Jack,

I'm guessing that as much as Monsignor Douthat's panties are knotted over gay marriage, the challenge to his view of the universe presented by a line of of unrepentant atheists at his door would send him scurrying for the reassuring warmth of his big boy jammies and his blow up doll. Either that or a gallon of Tanqueray.

And not for nothing but I haven't met too many repentant atheists. I suppose they wouldn't be much good at it anyway, rather like orderly anarchists.

July 1, 2013 |

Akhilleus

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