The Ledes

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Washington Post: “ John Amos, a running back turned actor who appeared in scores of TV shows — including groundbreaking 1970s programs such as the sitcom 'Good Times' and the epic miniseries 'Roots' — and risked his career to protest demeaning portrayals of Black characters, died Aug. 21 in Los Angeles. He was 84.”

New York Times: “Pete Rose, one of baseball’s greatest players and most confounding characters, who earned glory as the game’s hit king and shame as a gambler and dissembler, died on Monday. He was 83.”

The Ledes

Monday, September 30, 2024

New York Times: “Kris Kristofferson, the singer and songwriter whose literary yet plain-spoken compositions infused country music with rarely heard candor and depth, and who later had a successful second career in movies, died at his home on Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday. He was 88.”

~~~ The New York Times highlights “twelve essential Kristofferson songs.”

The Wires
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Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

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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Wednesday
Jun062012

The Commentariat -- June 7, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on David Brooks' distorted take on the Wisconsin recall results. The NYTX front page is here. ...

... There's Debt and There's Debt. Andrew Fieldhouse of the Economic Policy Institute explains high school-level economics to David Brooks.

Robert Scheer of Truthdig writes a column about Obama's use of drones. CW: I have some fundamental disagreements with Scheer (I also agree with a number of his specific criticisms), but I expect his piece will resonate with a lot of readers, & I consider his POV, in general, well-worth reading.

E. J. Dionne: "Only about a quarter of those who went to the polls [in Wisconsin] Tuesday said that a recall was appropriate for any reason.... Most voters ... rejected the very premise of the election in which they were casting ballots.... It's worth comparing what happened in Wisconsin with what happened last year in Ohio, where unions forced a referendum on the anti-labor legislation pushed through by Gov. John Kasich (R) and the Republican-controlled legislature. The unions and the Democrats won 61 percent in that vote, repealing the law. But this remedy was not available in Wisconsin." ...

... ** David Dayen of Firedoglake: "The real culprit was an obscure state campaign finance law that allowed Walker, the incumbent, to raise unlimited money while recall petitions were processed.... Barrett's donations were term-limited.... But the most important point: ... The policy of defunding the left ... was the entire point of Scott Walker's agenda. And it was successful when he signed Act 10, the anti-worker law, last year.... As a result, labor couldn't keep up with outside spending to compensate for the massive loophole-induced funding lead Walker had. Walker divided and conquered.... This becomes a downward spiral; labor cannot get back their rights, workers see no reason to keep paying dues for nothing, and the organization fades away." Read the whole post. ...

... Jonathan Chait of New York magazine: "Walker's win will certainly provide a blueprint for fellow Republicans. When they gain a majority, they can quickly move to not just wrest concessions from public sector unions but completely destroy them, which in turn eliminates one of the strongest sources of political organization for the Democratic Party. And whatever backlash develops, it's probably not enough to outweigh the political benefit. Walker has pioneered a tactic that will likely become a staple of Republican governance."

** David Kay Johnston of Reuters: "Six American families paid no federal income taxes in 2009 while making something on the order of $200 million each. This is one of many stunning revelations in new IRS data that deserves a thorough airing in this year's election campaign.... Congress has created two income tax systems, separate and unequal, burdening millions much more heavily than the few, those with gigantic incomes and a propensity to make campaign contributions." ...

... Robert Reich: actually, Bill Clinton agrees with me -- the Bush tax cuts must end. ...

... John Harris & Alexander Burns of Politico: Obama & Clinton aides agree: Bill Clinton is a doddering old fool who can't keep his foot out of his mouth.

... "The New Feudalism":

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in a Washington Post op-ed: "I've reintroduced the SAFE Banking Act, which would end 'too big to fail' once and for all by placing sensible size limits on our nation's megabanks and ensuring that if they gamble, they have the resources to cover their losses."

"Estonian Rhapsody" in Three Four Movements. As a follow-up to his contretemps with the two Brits in the video posted in yesterday's Commentariat -- (Presto:) one of whom held up Estonia as a model of successful austerity -- Paul Krugman produced a chart showing the progress of Estonia's economy and wrote, (Vivace:) "So, a terrible -- Depression-level -- slump, followed by a significant but still incomplete recovery. Better than no recovery at all, obviously -- but this is what passes for economic triumph?" ...

... Liz Goodwin of Yahoo! News: "Estonia's president Toomas Hendrik Ilves struck back on Twitter. (Agitato:) 'Let's write about something we know nothing about & be smug, overbearing & patronizing: after all, they're just wogs,' Ilves wrote, using the derogatory British slang term for dark-skinned people from Africa or the East. 'Guess a Nobel in trade means you can pontificate on fiscal matters & declare my country a "wasteland". Must be a Princeton vs Columbia thing,' he added, referencing the two men's alma maters." ...

... Krugman responds (Adagio) with a chart of New Deal recovery results.

Richard Yeselson of The New Republic on "the long, slow death spiral of the American labor movement": most people don't care about unions.

Scott Shane of the New York Times, reporting on his own reporting. Congressional sieves concerned about leaks: "Prompted in part by recent articles in The New York Times on the use of drones to carry out targeted killings and the deployment of the Stuxnet computer worm against the Iranian nuclear program<, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees issued a joint statement on Wednesday urging the administration 'to fully, fairly and impartially investigate' the recent disclosures and vowing new legislation to crack down on leaks."

This long New York Times Magazine piece by Amos Kamil, who went to the private, prestigious Horace Mann School in the Bronx, relates how a number of the teachers at Horace Mann sexually abused students. CW: I might be wrong, but I think we're going to be seeing a lot of these pedophiles-in-prep-schools stories. The story is an easy, if disturbing, read.

Lisa Abend of Time: Amid an economic crisis, Spanish officials at the state & local levels are considering ways to eliminate some of the tax exemptions the Catholic Church receives; the Church threatens to retaliate by cutting back social programs.

Presidential Race

Justin Sink of The Hill: "Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee raised $76.8 million in May, outpacing President Obama in the first full head-to-head month of the campaign. The president's reelection campaign said Thursday that it had raised $60 million in May, itself an improvement of more than 30 percent from April."

Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: the neighbors around the Romneys' La Jolla, California, home, which he has plans to quadruple in size, are neither thrilled with his plans nor with him. ...

... Max Read of Gawker: "Mitt Romney is a narc."

Steve Peoples of the AP: "Though an early supporter of the Vietnam War, Romney avoided military service at the height of the fighting after high school by seeking and receiving four draft deferments, according to Selective Service records.... Because Romney, now 65, was of draft age during Vietnam, his military background -- or, rather, his lack of one -- is facing new scrutiny as he courts veterans and makes his case to the nation to be commander in chief. He's also intensified his criticism lately of Obama's plans to scale back the nation's military commitments abroad, suggesting that Romney would pursue an aggressive foreign policy as president that could involve U.S. troops."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "With a July 1 rate increase on education loans approaching, President Obama told students [in Las Vegas, Nevada] on Thursday that it is Congress's job to move swiftly to prevent the rise, even as Republicans in Washington accused him of ignoring their most recent proposals and refusing to negotiate":

Bloomberg News: "Fewer Americans applied for unemployment insurance payments last week, indicating limited progress in the labor market after a two-month slowdown in hiring."

Washington Post: "Nasdaq said Wednesday afternoon that it would hand out $40 million in cash and credit to reimburse investment firms that lost money on Facebook's opening day because of computer glitches at the exchange. Nasdaq's chief rival, the New York Stock Exchange, fired off a statement condemning the move, saying Nasdaq was giving itself an unfair advantage and rewarding itself for its own mistakes."

New York Times: "Leon E. Panetta, the United States defense secretary, arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday, after the deadliest day for civilians this year and amid controversy over a NATO airstrike the day before in which Afghan officials say 18 women and children were killed. President Hamid Karzai condemned the strike in the strongest terms and decided the incident was serious enough to cut short his trip to China...."

Washington Post: "... on Wednesday, under questioning from skeptical Republicans, [Doug Elmendorf,] the director of the nonpartisan (and widely respected) Congressional Budget Office, was emphatic about the value of the 2009 stimulus. And, he said, the vast majority of economists agree."

Al Jazeera: "A top US bank regulator [-- Thomas Curry, who heads the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency --] has told legislators that 'inadequate' risk controls at JPMorgan Chase led to a $2 billion derivatives loss, as senators questioned him and others over a failure to prevent the debacle.... Senators expressed concern thatregulators were too lax in monitoring huge trades."

AFP: "US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton laid out a Syria strategy calling for a full transfer of power from the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, a senior State Department official said."

Guardian: "The judge presiding over [Bradley Manning's] trial at Fort Meade in Maryland has ordered the US government to hand over several confidential documents relating to the massive leak to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. In particular, the Obama administration must now disclose to Manning's lawyers some of the damage assessments it carried out into the impact of the leak on US interests around the world." (CW: not reported in the New York Times.)

AP: "Natasha Trethewey, 46, an English and creative writing professor at Emory University in Atlanta, will be named the 19th U.S. poet laureate Thursday." New York Times story here.

Guardian: "Spain is warning that Europe's single currency will unravel unless its leaders decide within weeks to centralise budget and tax policies in the eurozone and agree on a strategy to pool responsibility for failing banks."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (2)

Taking a step back today from the brink of the Wisconsin abyss. There are plenty of reasons for this disaster, Marie has linked numerous articles and posts outlining them. Chiefly I'd say the Wisconsin law that allowed the Republican, currently under criminal investigation, to pile up enormous mountains of cash while the Democrat, not under criminal investigation, had to sit on his hands until the last minute. Citizens United, dislike of recalls, misunderstanding of what recalls are about, and the usual poor organization by Democrats, blah, blah, blah, all combine to offer some kind of rationale for this stupidity.

But if the MSM is now hoisting this piece of shit up as worthy of even higher office, I say let this fool--if he's not yet in prison (sorry, Republicans don't go to prison) or under house arrest--go national. Let him become the poster boy for bought and paid for pols.

All that being said, I have a question for everyone. In the midst of this megillah, I read an interesting opinion piece in Wired Magazine. My immediate reaction was somewhat negative until I compared it to what we have now.

Here's the idea in a nutshell: since "One person, one vote" seems irretrievably broken, and since campaign finance reform has been permanently outlawed by Little Johnny and the Dwarfs, and since dirty tricks, election fraud, disenfranchisement of legitimate voters, and serial mendacity have mired the voting process in the stinking swamps of lethal right-wing tactics, why not throw the whole thing out and move to random representative voting?

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/05/st_essay_voting/

I admit there are potential problems with this solution as well, but barring the fact that the right would immediately set to work to hack this system, what do people think of this idea? It would immediately short-circuit Citizens United and put a huge crimp into Republican schemes to hijack, steal, and otherwise hinder free elections.

The only other decent solution I can think of is the old suggestion of letting candidates slug it out in a field with manure filled socks.

June 7, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I read your post this morning, Akhilleus, and linked onto the article that you cite. Throughout the day I have given it some thought: As interesting as these suggestions are––reminded me of how we pick jurors––I don't think either would fly. People would rebel, Congress would stifle any or all discussion of, and the people who never vote would probably yell the loudest. If money is the culprit in our so called democracy we need to get rid of first the Citizen's United fraudulent law, and then revamp our campaign finance laws. I think we'd have a better chance getting that accomplished––and yes, it will take years––than changing our voting system. Although, given the lay of the land at this time, your suggestion of a slug fest out in a farmer's field with "manure filled socks" might just be the ticket.

June 7, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe
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