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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Friday
Jul152011

The Commentariat -- July 16

President Obama's Weekly Address:

     ... AP story here. Transcript here.

I've posted an Open Thread on Off Times Square.

Charles Blow writes a really fine essay on "honest people who do honest work — crack-the-bones work; lift-it, chop-it, empty-it, glide-it-in-smooth work; feel-the-flames-up-close work; crawl-down-in-there work — things that no one wants to do but that someone must." While President Obama talks about "winning the future" with high-tech jobs, Blow points to a more realistic assessment:

As the Bureau of Labor Statistics points out, half of the top 30 occupations expected to see the largest job growth over [a ten-year] period, and seven of the top 10, are low-wage or very low-wage jobs. Only eight even require a degree. Most simply require on-the-job training. ...

... Jake Tapper does a pretty good job of summarizing both an important take-away from the President's presser & the ramifications of a default:

... Michael Cooper of the New York Times: "The rancorous debate in Washington over whether to raise the federal debt ceiling is alarming many of the nation’s governors from both parties, who fear that whatever the outcome, much-needed money will almost certainly be drained from their states."

... Karen Garcia parses President Obama's "Equal Opportunity Pain" and doesn't find it so equal. ...

... CW: Of the several weak arguments Obama made yesterday for deficit reduction, this was the weakest: if we "get our fiscal house in order," then we can start spending on programs to "win the future." Oh yeah, because Republicans will go along with that. As Joan Walsh of Salon points out, that's not the way it worked for President Clinton, even during an economic boom, which brought in enough new tax revenues to create a federal surplus. Walsh writes, "Instead, the conciliating Clinton met increasingly savage political opposition, while a prosperity-addled, value-free media at best enjoyed the spectacle, and at worst joined that opposition." I don't know if Obama's push to reduce the deficit is (a) a bluff, (b) a political ploy, (c) or evidence he's not all that smart. But it's one or more of those. ...

... Worse than Paul Ryan. Bold Progressives in DailyKos: "Today, for the first time, President Obama made clear that he's considering benefit cuts even for Americans who currently depend on Social Security and Medicare. This is something Paul Ryan didn't even embrace publicly." [emphasis added] ...

... Lisa Mascaro & Kathleen Hennessey of the Los Angeles Times: "Republican leaders in the House have begun to prepare their troops for politically painful votes to raise the nation's debt limit, offering warnings and concessions to move the hard-line majority toward a compromise that would avert a federal default.... At a closed-door meeting Friday morning, GOP leaders turned to their most trusted budget expert, Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, to explain to rank-and-file members what many others have come to understand: A fiscal meltdown could occur if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling." ...

... CW: we've already established that Republicans don't care about deficits & are just using the Deficit Bogeyman to effect tax cuts -- mostly for the rich. But Jonathan Bernstein, in the Washington Post, brings up a point worth noting: most Democrats, including progressive Democrats, do care about reducing the federal deficit.


David Dayan of Firedoglake has some thoughts on the White House Friday night so-called "leak" that President Obama will not nominate Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (See today's Ledes.) The Bureau will transfer to the Federal Reserve July 21, where -- being headless -- it will not have authority over non-bank lending institutions. Very convenient.

James Pethokoukis of Reuters: "Last night in a new report, Democrat-friendly Goldman Sachs dropped an economic bomb on President Obama’s chances for reelection." Goldman Sachs' has cut its outlook for real GDP growth, says unemployment will remain high & doesn't rule out the economy's return to recession. CW: Millions of Americans didn't need a Goldman Sachs report to tell them the economy was in the tank. Yet Pethokoukis thinks the White House would have no idea of the economic outlook unless their friends at Goldman told them what it was. Trouble is, he might be right.

The High Cost of Honor. Whistleblower Thomas Drake, largely vindicated yesterday as a federal judge gave him a light sentence & criticized the government for its egregiously handling of his case, speaks to the press. New York Times story here. Baltimore Sun story here.

Right Wing World *

Oh, never let it be said that Fox "News" isn't covering the Rupert Murdoch empire scandal. Here are "Fox & Friends"' Steve Doocy and guest Robert Dilenschneider urging other media outlets to "move on" & cover "more important things." Alex Seitz-Wald of Think Progress: "... their defense of News Corp. really got embarrassing when Dilenschneider and Doocy engaged in some stunning subject/object slight of hand, comparing News Corp. to companies that have been hacked, while failing to note it was News Corp. that did the hacking in this case.":

James Oliphant of the Los Angeles Times: "Taking a page from President Obama’s political playbook, Michele Bachmann has formally left a church in Minnesota accused of holding anti-Catholic views.... Earlier this week, the Atlantic reported that that the synod’s website contains a statement that equates the pope with the antichrist."

Sometimes it's difficult to keep a straight face when writing a straight news report. Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "Republicans claimed to have struck a blow for freedom on Friday when the House of Representatives voted to strip all funding from government programmes promoting energy-saving lightbulbs.... Michele Bachmann dismissed the 2007 law as an assault on individual liberty and an affront to the memory of the lightbulb inventor, Thomas Edison.... The House also strongly rejected a proposal to ban a website designed to teach children about energy efficiency." The bill doesn't have a rat's chance of becoming law. Thanks to commenter Walt W. for the link.

You won`t see a default because we have plenty of revenue as a Federal government. The Federal government will not quit collecting taxes. They`re going to still be taking it from the American people, still have $200 billion a month in revenue that comes in and plenty of resources to cover Social Security. -- Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.), in a successful attempt to prove he is totally clueless. (See, Tom, that deficit you're all worked up about means the federal government has less income than it does outgo; and no, Social Security doesn't have "plenty of resources" -- it has a shortfall this year of about $45 billion. See also, Jake Tapper's ABC News report & the L.A. Times story above. Evidently Graves doesn't even listen to Saint Paul Ryan.) PBS "Nightly Business Report" video here (interview begins about 2:30 in); transcript here. Thanks to reader Russ C. for the link.

* Where the criminals are the victims, running for office sometimes means having to make a deal with the Antichrist, Thomas Edison generates electricity by spinning in his grave, and "deficit" = "plenty of resources." Quite a world.

Local News

America's Worst Governor. A reader sends me this great article by Lisa Rab of the Miami New Times who recounts Florida Gov. "Rick Scott's dirtiest deeds" in very readable fashion. It's an impressive list, to say the least. Matthew Hendley of the New Times adds a few other recent Scott misdemeanors. in an article about Scott's unsurprisingly dismal poll numbers.

News Ledes

NPR: "President Obama is meeting with the Dalai Lama — a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate — and China isn't happy."

The Hill: "A fall-back plan to avert a national default is under negotiation by Senate leaders [Harry Reid & Mitch McConnell] and is on track to be unveiled by Wednesday or Thursday of next week.... Senate leaders estimate they will have to have the contingency plan ready to go by Thursday to have enough time to get it passed through both chambers by Aug. 2 ... because of expected filibusters." New York Times story here.

Bloomberg: "President Barack Obama has chosen a candidate other than Elizabeth Warren as director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a person briefed on the matter. The president’s choice is a person who already works at the consumer agency.... Obama may make the nomination as soon as next week...."

AP: "The military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy is back in place for the time being, with one major caveat: the government is not allowed to investigate, penalize or discharge anyone who is openly gay. A San Francisco federal appeals court ordered the military to temporarily continue the controversial policy in an order late Friday, the court's response to a request from the Obama administration."

Reuters: "A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld the use of full-body scanners to screen air travelers, but said the Transportation Security Administration should have sought public comment before deploying them. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the machines, known as Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT), were not an unconstitutional search and declined to halt their use despite TSA's failure to follow proper procedure."

CBS News: "Conservative Watchdog group Judicial Watch on Thursday released White House emails that show an Obama administration official calling Fox News anchor Bret Baier a 'lunatic' and promising to put 'some dead fish in the fox cubby.'"

Guardian: "Europe's new banking regulator [the European Banking Authority] warned that an escalation in the eurozone crisis could pose 'significant' challenges even as it announced only eight banks out of 90 had failed an annual check of their financial strength. A further 16 banks were also deemed to be in a potential danger zone.... However, the tests failed to consider what may happen to banks if a major European country – such as Greece – defaulted on its debt, promoting many analysts to argue the hurdles were set too low."

Guardian: "Scotland Yard's most senior officers tried to convince the Guardian during two private meetings [in 2009 & 2010] that its coverage of phone hacking was exaggerated and incorrect without revealing they had hired Neil Wallis, the former deputy editor of the News of the World, as an adviser.... Wallis, 60, who was deputy to Andy Coulson, the NoW editor at the time of the phone hacking, was arrested on Thursday as part of Operation Weeting. Coulson has also been arrested and bailed." ...

... NEW. New York Times: British PM David "Cameron’s aides released a diary of his meetings with executives and editors of News International... It showed that since taking office in May 2010, Mr. Cameron has met 26 times with Murdoch executives.... His meetings with the Murdoch officials exceeded all his encounters with other British media representatives put together." AP story here.

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