REALITYCHEX.COM - Constant Comments - The Commentariat -- June 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.”

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.”

Page Links

Friday

May312013

The Commentariat -- June 1, 2013

The President's Weekly Address:

... The transcript is here.

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The financial outlook for Medicare has improved because of a stronger economy and slower growth in health spending, and the financial condition of Social Security has not worsened, but is still unsustainable, the Obama administration said Friday."

** Sorry, Wingers. IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman was not making weekly visits to the President's residence to powwow with Obama on which of you to audit. Garance Franke-Ruta of the Atlantic digs into the White House records & discovers that Shulman made about ELEVEN, not 157, visits to the White House, & most of those meetings were with HUD deputies re: the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. If the records are correct, Shulman & Obama attended only THREE events together, one for a daily briefing, one for a bill signing (both of these were group events), & one for a departure photo op. Shuman was cleared to attend 157 meetings or so, but in most cases, his deputies went instead. CW: If you want to know the difference between journalism & the Daily Caller, here it is. ...

... OR, as Kevin Drum puts it, in which he describes as a "technically correct sense," "That Story You Knew Was Bullshit? Yeah, It Was Bullshit." ...

... Kim Dixon of Reuters: "The Treasury Department's inspector general will issue a new report in the coming weeks that could heap more bad news on the Internal Revenue Service, showing results of an audit of the IRS use of taxpayer-funded conferences, a Republican critic of the agency said on Friday.... [A] congressional aide said the hearing would be about 'an upcoming audit uncovering information about excessive spending at IRS conferences.'"

Dana Milbank: "Eric Holder is in a mess of his own making."

Justin Sink of the Hill: "President Obama called on Congress to pass legislation to prevent an increase in student loan rates, picking a fight with Republicans on what has previously been a winning issue for the White House. Speaking from the Rose Garden, Obama warned that higher student loan interest rates will restrict access to higher education and argued legislation passed by the Republican House could leave students paying more." Here's the video:

... Greg Sargent on Congressional Republicans will use the "scandals" to avoid actual policy discussions -- by claiming, for instance, that Obama had only one reason to highlight what they call "insignificant" differences between his & the House's proposals to extend low student-loan rates: to create a "distraction" from the scandals.

Pemy Levy, in the International Business Times, on why Sen. Chuck Grassley's (RDopey-Iowa) bill to reduce the number of judges in the D.C. Circuit Court is bullshit (in a technically correct sense). Via Jonathan Bernstein. ...

... New York Times Editors: "Senator Grassley insists that the District of Columbia court 'is the least busy circuit in the country.' But that is simply not true,* if measured by the number of pending appeals divided by the number of active judges. By that count, the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, encompassing seven states in the Midwest, including Iowa, has the lowest workload of any circuit. That was apparently of no concern to the senator when he recently helped speed through the confirmation of Jane Kelly to the court. Arguing about the caseload, however, misses the point. As Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. explained in a 2005 lecture -- 'What Makes the D.C. Circuit Different?' -- the court has a 'special responsibility to review legal challenges to the conduct of the national government.'"

* Another phrase for "bullshit."

... Paul Waldman of the American Prospect on President Obama's judicial appointments.

Matthew Duss in the American Prospect: "The 'war on terror' was pretty good for conservatives. They won't give it up without a fight.... It's hard to avoid the conclusion that the sharp reaction to Obama's shift away from a 'global war' framing has more to do with fear of the loss of advantageous rhetorical ground than it does with any genuine, substantive difference in threat analysis."

** Joe Nocera on the force-feeding of Guantanamo prisoners. Not an easy read.

Peter Finn & Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post have the latest version of the shooting death of Ibragim Todashev. CW: The weapon Todashev reputedly used to attack the FBI agent has gone from being a knife to a metal pole to a broomstick to "part of a broomstick." My guess it that it will whittle down to the pencil the agent gave Todashev to write his confession.

Dan Morse & Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Naval Academy is investigating allegations that three of the school's football players sexually assaulted a female midshipman at a party last year -- an explosive allegation that surfaced Friday as the military faces increased scrutiny over whether it pursues such cases aggressively enough."

Working mom & Fox "News" anchor Megyn Kelly calls out Erick Erickson & Lou Dobbs for their misogynistic worldview. (See yesterday's Commentariat for context.) Really worth watching:

... James Poniewozik, Time's media critic, writes a related -- & fairly funny -- piece.

Right Wing World

Guess I'll Buy Me a Family-Sized Box o' Cheerios. Cord Jefferson of Gawker: "A nice Cheerios advertisement whose only discernible difference from other Cheerios commercials is that it depicts an interracial family was forced to disable its YouTube comments section [Thursday] after it became inundated with virulent racism."

For those of you already missing Michele Bachmann, never fear. There are more where she comes from....

... David Roberts of Raw Story: "In a video posted by the Far North Dallas Tea Party on Thursday, Texas Eagle Forum President and former Chairman of the Texas Republican Party Cathie Adams presented evidence that [anti-tax lobbyist Grover] Norquist was part of a 'stealth jihad' in the United States. Adams said that Norquist, who is married to a Muslim woman, was 'trouble with a capital "T" because 'he's showing signs of converting to Islam himself. As you see, he has a beard,' she pointed out.... Adams went on to suggest that CIA Director John Brennan could also be a secret Muslim. 'Where is the outcry?' she asked. 'Thank God that Ted Cruz is now in the United States Senate!'" CW: I guess Tailgunner Ted has in his hand a list of 205 names of Muslims who have infiltrated the government. ... AND, of course ...

The Louis Gohmert Weekly Reader

McCain Complicit in Benghazi Attack

... if it had not been for Sen. McCain and President Obama being for what we knew at the time included al-Qaeda in the rebel forces then we would still have a U.S. ambassador and three others alive today because Benghazi would not have happened. -- Louis Gohmert

Congressional Races

A Fundraising Letter that Might Be a Mistake. Emily Schultheis of Politico: Mitch McConnell sent out a fundraising letter for Gabriel Gomez, the GOP candidate for Senate in a Massachusetts special election, reminding potential contributors that a Gomez win was crucial to, well, making McConnell the majority leader. "The solicitation from a top Washington Republican -- and symbol, at least among the left, of congressional dysfunction -- is somewhat surprising given Gomez's mandate to win in a predominantly Democratic state."

Eric Black of MinnPost: Democrat Jim Graves, who came close to beating Michele Bachmann in 2012 & was planning to run her again (where polls showed him ahead), has dropped his candidacy now that Bachmann has said she won't run again. CW: this is a heavily-Republican district, so more than likely Republicans will retain the seat.

When Politico does a better analysis than the New York Times. (No, hell has not frozen over.):

... Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: Republicans are weighing whether to attack President Obama in 2014, a decision made more difficult by the fact that he has a 79% likeability rating. ...

... Oh, & there's this, Jeremy. Ben White of Politico: "The 2014 midterm election is shaping up as something the United States has not seen in nearly a decade: a campaign run in a strengthening economy with deficits on the decline.... The altered terrain, if it holds, could benefit Democrats and challenge Republicans...."

Local News

Peter Applebome & Elizabeth Maker of the New York Times on the police shooting last week in Ridgefield, Connecticut, of businessman & philanthropist John Valluzzo.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The United States and China have agreed to hold regular, high-level talks on how to set standards of behavior for cybersecurity and commercial espionage, the first diplomatic effort to defuse the tensions over what the United States says is a daily barrage of computer break-ins and theft of corporate and government secrets."

New York Times: "Jean Stapleton, the character actress whose portrayal of a slow-witted, big-hearted and submissive -- up to a point -- housewife on the groundbreaking series 'All in the Family' made her, along with Mary Tyler Moore and Bea Arthur, not only one of the foremost women in television comedy in the 1970s but a symbol of emergent feminism in American popular culture, died on Friday at her home in New York City. She was 90."

AP: "Emergency officials were preparing to survey tornado damage Saturday morning following the second major fatal storm to strike the Oklahoma City metropolitan area in several days.... Five people were reported killed, including a mother and baby found in a vehicle."

AP: Speaking at a security conference in Singapore, "Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered a two-pronged message to Beijing -- holding out hope for a slowly improving military relationship with the Asian giant while issuing a stern warning on cyberattacks coming from that country. But he was met with immediate skepticism from the Chinese delegation in the audience, who questioned America's role in the Pacific." Washington Post story here.

AP: "Turkey's government on Saturday appeared to be trying to placate demonstrators on the second day of anti-government demonstrations, even as police let off more tear gas and pressurized water against protesters trying to reach a main square in Istanbul or the Parliament building in the capital, Ankara."

AP: "The United Nations mission to Iraq says more than 1,000 people were killed in violence in the country last month -- the highest monthly death toll in years. The figures released Saturday showed 1,045 civilians and security personnel killed in May. That surpassed the 712 killed in April, the deadliest month recorded since June 2008. More than half of those killed were in the capital district of Baghdad."

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Reader Comments (4)

@Marie: Was thinking of your reply to the commenter yesterday re: the straw man fallacy and how important that is–– to be able to catch it when we read or listen or write ourselves. Just wanted to thank you for that.

The video displaying the "Me Tarzan, You Jane" guys that got slapped down by Ms Kelly was such a hoot. Good for her.

June 1, 2013 |

PD Pepe

Are we living in the 1960s: Lou Dobbs to Megyn Kelly: "oh, dominant one." For me to say this was a 'put down' of women is weak. Perhaps Akhilleus can give me a better description to soothe my outraged soul.

June 1, 2013 |

Mushiba

I suspect if Schulman was receiving study hall notes from Obama with directives for targeted nefarious investigations, the Romney tax records, in an undisclosed location waiting out the 2012 election, would have been the first target. Politicians, but especially the Republicans are great media partners. They feed media's insatiable need for an ongoing stream of verbal diarrhea. The "why" has been permanently left off the "who, what, where, when and why" questions that should inform journalism. Well the where and when are often just made up wholesale. Generally, when you think about the "why", much of the media hogwash is 1+1= 10. Coherent thought - WTF is that?

June 1, 2013 |

Diane

Dante Atkins in Daily Kos: "Rep. Louie Gohmert is now blaming both Sen. John McCain and President Obama for the incident at Benghazi. You know, in other eras of history, leaders had nicknames. Alexander the Great, Aethelred the Unready...so why not "Gohmert the Conspiratorially Insane"? Has a ring to it." So... who needs Bachmann?

June 1, 2013 |

James Singer

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