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 Ledes

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

The New York Times is live-updating developments in the progress of Hurricane Helene. “Helene continued to power north in the Caribbean Sea, strengthening into a hurricane Wednesday morning, on a path that forecasters expect will bring heavy amounts of rain to Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and western Cuba before it begins to move toward Florida’s Gulf Coast.” ~~~

~~~ CNN: “Helene rapidly intensified into a hurricane Wednesday as it plows toward a Florida landfall as the strongest hurricane to hit the United States in over a year. The storm will also grow into a massive, sprawling monster as it continues to intensify, one that won’t just slam Florida, but also much of the Southeast.... Thousands of Florida residents have already been forced to evacuate and nearly the entire state is under alerts as the storm threatens to unleash flooding rainfall, damaging winds and life-threatening storm surge.... The hurricane unleashed its fury on parts of Mexico’s Yucátan Peninsula and Cuba Wednesday.“

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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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Sunday
Jul102011

The Commentariat -- July 11

President Obama's press conference today:

... AND Follow-up:

     ... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "... what was new ... was [Obama's] direct criticism of Republicans on three separate grounds: rigidity (for refusing to compromise, when Democrats have made it clear they are prepared to do that), hypocrisy (for insisting that deficits are the major obstacle to economic growth and then balking now that an actual deal is under discussion), and lack of social conscience (for opposing higher taxes on the rich and seeking to reduce deficits almost entirely by cutting programs that benefit the poor and middle class)." Also, "The efforts to bring in major new revenue wouldn’t begin for a little while, until the economy is in better shape. This is a response to Republicans, like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who have been suggesting Obama and the Democrats want to raise taxes in the middle of a slump." ...

     ... Ezra Klein: "... though we continue to hear assurances that we’ll reach a compromise before August, it seems increasingly likely that we won’t, and it’ll be a market panic or a government shutdown that forces a deal.... It’s clear from Obama’s remarks as well as the negotiating positions of the two parties that the final deal is going to include a lot of very deep spending cuts but little-to-no taxes or stimulus." ...

I think the President's goal is exactly what he says it is: to do Big Things. I just don't think it matters much what the substance of those Big Things is. -- Digby

     ... Greg Sargent: "Far more than he has in the past, the President seems determined to make Republicans pay the maximum political price for their intransigence on taxes.... However, Obama also confirmed in his clearest terms yet that he is willing to give ground on Social Security and Medicare in a way that will certainly alienate many Democrats.... Finally, in a move that’s likely to annoy liberals, Obama explicitly endorsed the idea that the deficit issue is the primary obstacle to focusing on jobs." ...

     ... Steve Kornacki of Salon: "If [Obama] were to enjoy a brief polling bounce, it would vanish very quickly, because it isn't really the deficit that voters are worried about. It's the economy, and as long as it is stuck in neutral -- or reverse-- no amount of deficit reduction will meaningfully improve Obama's chances of winning reelection in 2012."


Paul Krugman writes a boffo column that is essentially a smackdown of the "self-satisfied pundit" David Brooks. "Our failure to create jobs is a choice, not a necessity — a choice rationalized by an ever-shifting set of excuses." CW: this is Krugman's most direct hit on Brooks. If you think I'm kidding, take a look at this Krugman post from earlier Sunday. ...

... AND Ross Douthat poses four premises that are mostly right, outlining some reasons for Republican intransigence. He just leaves out the real reasons. ... 

... I've posted a Krugman-Douthat page on Off Times Square. Karen Garcia & I have added our comments. ...

... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "Does anything matter to Republicans more than protecting tax cuts for the very wealthy? Developments of the last 18 hours suggest very strongly that the answer is no.... Boehner isn't really in charge of the House Republican caucus. The lunatics are. And it looks like they've won." ...

... Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "Close to $2 of every $10 that went into Americans’ wallets last year were payments like jobless benefits, food stamps, Social Security and disability, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics. In states hit hard by the downturn, like Arizona, Florida, Michigan and Ohio, residents derived even more of their income from the government. By the end of this year, however, many of those dollars are going to disappear, with the expiration of extended benefits intended to help people cope with the lingering effects of the recession.... Economists fear that the lost income will further crimp consumer spending and act as a drag on a recovery that is still quite fragile." CW: Mr. Obama, are you listening? ...

... "The Glum & the Restless." Jim Tankersley of the National Journal: "Two years after the Great Recession officially ended, job prospects for young Americans remain historically grim. More than 17 percent of 16-to-24-year-olds who are looking for work can’t find a job, a rate that is close to a 30-year high. The employment-to-population ratio for that demographic ... has plunged to 45 percent. That’s the lowest level since the Labor Department began tracking the data in 1948. This is a dangerous proposition, economically (for the United States as a whole) and politically (for the president)." CW: Mr. Obama are you listening now?


Dim Bulbs. Robert Semple of the New York Times: "The House is scheduled to vote this week on a daft and destructive measure that — in the name of individual freedom — would repeal national energy efficiency standards for light bulbs enacted by Congress in 2007. Though utterly without merit, the bill stands a fighting chance in a legislative body where ideology now routinely trumps common sense.... What appears to have escaped these freedom-fighters is that the 2007 law actually expanded consumer choice, which has largely been limited to a technology essentially unchanged since Thomas Edison."

David Carr of the New York Times: Rupert Murdoch's "News Corporation has historically used its four newspapers — it also owns The Sun, The Times of London, and The Sunday Times — to shape and quash public debate, routinely helping to elect prime ministers with timely endorsements while punishing enemies at every turn.... Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International and previous editor of The News of the World, responded by saying that it was 'inconceivable' that she knew of the hacking. I’d suggest it was inconceivable she did not know." To wit: ...

... The Editor & the Ax Murderers. Jo Becker & Sarah Lyall of the Times report an instance in which Scotland Yard informed Brooks that one of the News of the World's senior editors had ordered illegal surveillance of a police detective as a favor to two men suspected of commiting an ax murder; the purpose of the surveillance was apparently to compromise the detective.

Right Wing World *

Alex Pareene of Salon: God told Michele Bachmann to be a tax-collecting attorney for the IRS, but His instructions may not help her political career -- CW: which, come to think of it, He also advised her to pursue. Does God had a devilish sense of humor? ...

... Bachmann, BTW, has taken a slight lead over the other candidates in a recent Iowa Republican poll.

A Bottle of Wine for Paul Ryan? $350. An Exposé by Susan Crabtree of TPM? Priceless. Crabtree identifies Paul Ryan's dinner companions (see the July 9 Commentariat). Ryan described them as "economists." Well, yeah. They do both hold Ph.D.s in economics, but one of Ryan's dinner partners was Cliff Asness, who runs the high-profile hedge fund AQR Capital, which received a $12.9 billion bailout ($10 billion of which it repaid in 2009). Asness, whom Jake Tapper of ABC News once described as having "a name and occupation right out of Dickens," is a virulent Obama basher. The other guy in the party is a University of Chicago business professor, & he even holds an endowed chair -- endowed by none other than his Ass-ness.

* Where the Ghost of Charles Dickens is writer-in-residence.

Local News

Jillian Rayfield of TPM: "S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson (R) is reviewing the case of Lieutenant Gov. Ken Ard (R), following a settlement between Ard and the state's Ethics Commission over his illegal campaign expenditures on, among other things, a Playstation, women's clothing, and his wife's cell phone bill.... Last week, Ard settled his 107 ethics violations with the State Ethics Commission, agreeing to pay a $48,400 fine, cover the cost of the investigation, and reimburse his campaign for $12,121 in illegal expenditures. Among those expenditures, the South Carolina Free Times reported, was more than $3000 at Best Buy for a 'Playstation 3, a flat-screen TV, an iPod Touch 8G, and two 3G iPads.' Ard initially claimed the purchases were 'computer equip' for 'campaign and office-related purposes.' The Commission also found that Ard lied about some of the expenditures during its investigation."

News Ledes

New York Times: "In a big step to carry out the new health care law, the Obama administration unveiled standards on Monday for insurance marketplaces that will allow individuals, families and small businesses in every state to shop for insurance, compare prices and benefits and buy coverage."

New York Times: "Stocks on Wall Street took a tumble on Monday, following Asian and European markets lower, as concerns about the euro zone debt crisis continued to overwhelm investors around the world.... After weeks of uncertainty related to bailouts for Greece, the Italian authorities moved to rein in short-selling on the Milan stock exchange as fears mounted that Italy could become the next victim of the sovereign debt crisis." ...

     ... AND a graph from Krugman on the Italian crisis.

President Obama will hold a news conference on the deficit negotiations at 11 am ET. Could be interesting. ...

     ... Washington Post post-presser Update: "President Obama, facing a bitter partisan stalemate over how to raise the federal borrowing limit, summoned congressional leaders to a new round of White House talks Monday and warned that he would not accept a temporary, stopgap measure." Video in left column. ...

     ... New York Times post-press conference report: "President Obama on Monday morning challenged Republicans to live up to their demands to cut the nation’s deficit and address its long-term debt by enacting spending cuts, revenue increases and changes to entitlement programs.... The president also called on Congressional Democrats to be open to a deal that would makes changes to entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare...."

It's very hard, but it's doable.
-- Gen. David Petraeus, on Afghanistan's ability to govern & secure itself

New York Times: "Just days away from the end of his tour as the supreme military commander in Afghanistan, and the end of a 37-year military career, Gen. David H. Petraeus said he was leaving in the belief that his plan to turn around the war and hand over security to the Afghans could be achieved."

AP: "The U.S. will not 'walk away' from the challenge of Iran's stepped-up arming of Iraqi insurgents who are targeting and killing American troops, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday." New York Times story here.

New York Times: "Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on Monday became the most senior official to publicly urge Rupert Murdoch to drop a $12 billion bid by his embattled News Corporation for Britain’s most lucrative satellite broadcast company, British Sky Broadcasting, as the government sought advice on possible regulatory proceedings. The developments deepened the fallout from The News of the World phone-hacking scandal which has been transformed from a long-simmering controversy into a full-blown crisis swirling around Mr. Murdoch’s British operation, News International, and its chief executive, Rebekah Brooks." Guardian story here. ...

     ... NEW. Worse & Worser. Guardian: "Journalists from across News International repeatedly targeted the former prime minister Gordon Brown, attempting to access his voicemail and obtaining information from his bank account and legal file as well as his family's medical records. There is also evidence that a private investigator used a serving police officer to trawl the police national computer for information about him.... Separately, Brown's tax paperwork was taken from his accountant's office apparently by hacking into the firm's computer. This was passed to another newspaper. Brown was targeted during a period of more than 10 years, both as chancellor of the exchequer and as prime minister. Some of the activity clearly was illegal...." ...

     ... NEW. Guardian: "Police have warned Buckingham Palace that they have found evidence that the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall may have had their voicemail hacked by the News of the World."

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