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.”

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The Ledes

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Washington Post: “Towns throughout western North Carolina ... were transformed overnight by ... [Hurricane Helene]. Muddy floodwaters lifted homes from their foundations. Landslides and overflowing rivers severed the only way in and out of small mountain communities. Rescuers said they were struggling to respond to the high number of emergency calls.... The death toll grew throughout the Southeast as the scope of Helene’s devastation came into clearer view. At least 49 people had been killed in five states — Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. By early counts, South Carolina suffered the greatest loss of life, registering at least 19 deaths.”

Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

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Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

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.

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.”

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.'”

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Mar092012

The Commentariat -- March 10, 2012

President Obama's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here. Ann Gearan of the AP: "President Barack Obama is hitting back at Republican criticism of his energy policies and his role in controlling gasoline prices. Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to underscore his administration's work to develop alternative energy sources and increase fuel efficiency.... He accused Republicans of a 'bumper sticker' approach to solving the nation's energy problems."

I've brought this forward from yesterday, as I submitted my column late yesterday. By popular request (see yesterday's Comments), I've written a column for the New York Times eXaminer, incorporating the wisdom of Gemli. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here. ...

     ... Update: here's the new trailer for the film "On the Road":

Nicholas Kulish & Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "The International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, who is French, finds herself on a collision course with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, posing a test for the unusually close relationship between the two leaders. They have opposing stances on how much money is need to protect vulnerable economies, and how it should be raised."

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "The fragile gains Republicans had been making among female voters have been erased, a shift that has coincided with what has become a national shouting match over reproductive issues, potentially handing President Obama and the Democrats an enormous advantage this fall." ...

... Gail Collins: "Every time a state considers a 'personhood' amendment that would give a fertilized egg the standing of a human being, outlawing some forms of fertility treatment and common contraceptives, it reinforces the argument that the current abortion debate is actually about theology, not generally held national principles. And ... every time we have one of those exciting discussions about the Limbaugh theory on making women who get health care coverage for contraception broadcast their sex lives on the Internet, the more the Republican Party loses votes, money, sympathy — you name it."

President Obama spoke at the Rolls Royce engine manufacturing plant in Petersburg, Virginia, yesterday:

New York Times Editors: "The oceans have always served as a sink for carbon dioxide, but the burning of fossil fuels since the beginning of the industrial revolution, especially over the last 40 years, has given them more than they can safely absorb. The result is acidification — a change in the chemical balance that threatens the oceans’ web of life." CW: sounds like a hoax to me. God would never let this happen OR, alternatively, acidification is part of God's plan. See Jim Inhofe's Quote of the Day below.

Right Wing World

Quote of the Day. Genesis 8:22 [says] ... that 'as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night.' My point is, God's still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous. -- Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla), presenting his proof that climate change is a hoax

Hey, y'all, Mitt likes them grits. He also says the federal government should run more like the Mississippi state government. CW: Yep, Mississippi is doing a great job; by per capita income, health & healthcare, & educational measures, it ranks 50th best among 50 states. But, hey, it's the most conservative (which tells you how well conservative principles translate to policy):

... Charles Blow is unimpressed with the new Cornpone Willard. "As a Southerner, I’ve never known us to find caricature endearing."

Nancy Cook of the National Journal: "One of Mitt Romney’s chief selling points as a presidential candidate is his business background and self-proclaimed ability to create jobs and boost a lagging economy.... Yet, Romney’s record from his days as Massachusetts governor paints a ... portrait ... of a politician who swept into office with big promises and a Harvard MBA but who failed to create a meaningful number of jobs for his home state and lacked a clear, concrete economic vision. Economists from Massachusetts also say Romney was never able to solve the structural problems inherent in the state’s economy — issues that now plague the country as a whole and will challenge whoever becomes president in 2013 -- such as the decline in manufacturing and the dearth of employment for less-educated, low-income workers." ...

Gov. Willard M. Aloof. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Even though he worked just a few hundred feet from them for four years, Mr. Romney displayed little interest in getting to know lawmakers and never developed real relationships with most members of the Democratic-dominated body, according to interviews with two dozen current and former lawmakers of both parties and members of the governor’s staff.... Mr. Romney wielded his veto pen as no Massachusetts governor has before or since. He issued 844 vetoes, most of which the legislature overrode, sometimes unanimously, in marathon sessions."

... Steve Benen details Willard's ten most audacious lies of the week. Why do the major media give next to no attention to Willard's unrelenting mendacity? Are they rooting for the guy? ...

... Paul Waldman of the American Prospect asks the same question.

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones anticipates a summer of racism. CW: If he's right, I think it will backfire; except for the GOP base, Americans -- including people who are, well "race-conscious" -- are disgusted by overt racism. I think it will be even worse for racists now that "race-conscious" whites are accustomed to having a black president.

Josh Israel of Think Progress: "FreedomWorks for America, the super PAC for former Rep. Dick Armey’s (R-TX) FreedomWorks USA, just released new radio and TV ads urging the defeat of longtime Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT).... The new commercials note that Hatch 'voted 16 times' to raise the debt limit, allowing for $7.5 trillion of the national debt." But when Armey was in the House, he voted for more-or-less the same debt ceiling bills Hatch did. In other words, "FreedomWorks for America has invested about $500,000 into attacking Hatch for having a record that is not very different from Armey’s own." CW: purging the party of right-wing ideologues to replace them with right-wing nuts.

CW: I don't like to give Sarah Palin much attention, but what with "Game Change" being aired on HBO this weekend, we'll make an exception. Palin went on the Sean Hannity show Thursday night to assert that President Obama wants the U.S. to return to its pre-Civil War slave-holding days. I guess, like Stephen Colbert, Palin does not see skin color. That's great. And I find her charge totally credible.

Local News

** Robbie Brown of the New York Times: "The lieutenant governor of South Carolina, Ken Ard [R], resigned on Friday and pleaded guilty to criminal charges of spending campaign funds on personal expenses and fabricating donations.... Mr. Ard resigned in the morning, was indicted at 1 p.m. and then pleaded guilty at 3."

ABC News, Montgomery Alabama: the sponsor of a state senate bill requiring women seeking abortions to endure a transvaginal ultrasound screening has dropped the bill -- for now, anyway -- after protesters gathered at the State Capitol Thursday. Via the Maddow blog.

Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (RTP) has set up a legal defense fund, which suggests he is being investigated for violation of state elections laws. CW: what a shame if he were charged with or -- better yet -- convicted of -- a felony before he could be recalled.

News Ledes

Kansas holds caucuses today in the GOP presidential race. The Kansas City Star story is here. ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Showing his strength among conservative voters in the heartland, Rick Santorum decisively won the Kansas caucuses on Saturday." With 99 percent of the count in, Santorum won with 51.2 percent, Romney in 2nd with 20.9 percent, Gingrich with 14.4 percent & Paul with 12.6 percent.

Ha! Guardian: "The United Nations climate chief has warned that US voters risk ceding progress to China and Europe if they opt for a presidential candidate who denies climate change. Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told an audience in London: 'The one thing [the frontrunners for the Republican candidacy] have in common is saying they do not believe in climate change, so it's very much the decision of the US electorate.'" CW: as far as I can tell, not a single U.S. news outlet has covered her remark.

The Fine Print. Reuters: "A previously announced $25 billion settlement between five major banks accused of abusive mortgage practices and government officials will be filed in federal court on Monday.... Negotiators had hoped to file a settlement on Friday, but the deal was held up at the last minute over a disagreement between Nevada and Bank of America<...."

NEW. Houston Chronicle: "Two weeks after state officials announced plans to effectively ban Planned Parenthood from a health program for low-income women, the secretary of Health and Human Services confirmed in Houston Friday that federal funding for the program in Texas will end."

Guardian: "Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 14 people in an escalation of the worst clashes with Palestinian militants so far this year. The strikes began on Friday, when Israeli air raids killed the senior militant leader Zohair al-Qaisi, the secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC). Israel claimed he was targeted because he was planning an attack." Haaretz story here.

Reuters: "U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday to press for a political solution to Syria's year-long uprising, but violence raged on with a major army assault on the northwestern city of Idlib." Al Jazeera story here. And here's Al Jazeera's liveblog on Syria. ...

     ... New York Times Update: "High-level diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting in Syria yielded mixed results on Saturday as President Bashar al-Assad shut the door on any immediate negotiations with the opposition and escalated a new military assault on the city of Idlib. Mr. Assad told the United Nations envoy Kofi Annan that such talks would be fruitless as long as “terrorist groups” were operating in the country."

Reuters: "Several thousand Russians gathered in central Moscow on Saturday for a rally seen as a test of the opposition's ability to mount a sustained challenge to President-elect Vladimir Putin."

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A LITTLE BIT OF WAR
Anyone who does not feel the
need to wage a bit of war is not
in my opinion a complete man.
War is the important thing in a
man's life, like maternity in a woman's.
––Benito Mussolini




There we have it. That small qualification—
One cannot imagine Hitler ever slipping
That in.

Feeling he had not been an iron-hard
Engineer of human souls
Was he only trying to be wicked?

Today, by the way, somewhere in Iraq
Or Darfur
Women, swollen with possibilities,
Sit —and wait—

Amidst the mess of these little bits of war.

2005

Came across this while going through my files and was bemused by the fact that I wrote this 12 years ago. Sadly, nothing has changed, but only moved up a notch.

March 10, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe
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