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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OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

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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.

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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Mar102012

The Commentariat -- March 11, 2012

Daylight Saving Time (United States) begins Sunday, March 11, 2012 at 2:00 am local time, except Arizona and Hawaii. Move your clocks ahead 1 hour ("Spring forward; fall back").

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer takes a look at how the New York Times handles Mitt's Mendacity -- the candidate's propensity to telling somewhere around a lie a day. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here.

CW: sorry, I meant to link this a while back but forgot (I think I did link to a story on this last year). David Savage of the Los Angeles Times: "Mary Brown, a 56-year-old Florida woman who owned a small auto repair shop but had no health insurance, became the lead plaintiff challenging President Obama's healthcare law because she was passionate about the issue.... But court records reveal that Brown and her husband filed for bankruptcy last fall with $4,500 in unpaid medical bills. Those bills could change Brown from a symbol of proud independence into an example of exactly the problem the healthcare law was intended to address."

Susn Saulny of the New York Times: "In Iowa, one of the crucial battlegrounds in the coming presidential election, and in other states, dozens of interviews in recent weeks have found that moderate Republican and independent women — one of the most important electoral swing groups — are disenchanted by the Republican focus on social issues like contraception and abortion in an election that, until recently, had been mostly dominated by the economy. And in what appears to be an abrupt shift, some Republican-leaning women like Ms. Russell said they might switch sides and vote for Mr. Obama — if they turn out to vote at all." ...

... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "President Obama’s re-election campaign is beginning an intensified effort this week to build support among women, using the debate over the new health care law to amplify an appeal that already appears to be benefiting from partisan clashes over birth control and abortion."

David Catanese of Politico: "Washington Rep. Jay Inslee [D] is resigning his Hous seat to fully focus his attention on his gubernatorial campaign against GOP Attorney General Rob McKenna.... The move is a tacit acknowledgment that the Inslee campaign is not where Democrats would like it to be eight months from the open-seat election to replace Gov. Christine Gregoire."

Judd Legum of Think Progress fowards a story reported by RadioInfo.com: "When it comes to advertisers avoiding controversial shows, it’s not just Rush From today’s TRI Newsletter: Premiere Networks is circulating a list of 98 advertisers who want to avoid 'environments likely to stir negative sentiments.' The list includes carmakers (Ford, GM, Toyota), insurance companies (Allstate, Geico, Prudential, State Farm) and restaurants (McDonald’s, Subway)." ...

... Arthur Goldwag has a good post in Salon on "The Right Wing's Pornography of Resentment." Goldwag puts Limbaugh's crude weirdness in historical perspective. "Prudery and prurience often go hand in glove. Prurience and paranoia are fellow travelers as well."

There's a new storyline floating around the the Supremes' Citizens United decision (along with follow-up rullings based on Citizens) are not responsible for all that SuperPAC spending. Richard Hasen, writing in Slate, runs the numbers to refute this defense of the Court.

Nicholas Kristof: A British businessman, Robert Bittlestone, thinks he has found ancient Ithaca, and some scholars agree. Includes an interesting video.

Right Wing World

Josh Dorner of Think Progress: a billionaire Romney backer says the super-rich don't have enough influence over politics. Hedge fund billionare Ken Griffth said "that the ultrawealthy 'have a duty' to step forward and save the U.S. from what he says is a drift toward Soviet-style state control of the economy."

News Ledes

The Hill: "U.S. officials worked quickly to calm tensions after an American service member in Kandahar province opened fire on Afghan civilians Sunday, killing at least sixteen. President Obama said he was 'deeply saddened' by news of the attack, in a released statement. He said the shooting was 'tragic and shocking, and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan.'" ...

... New York Times: "A United States service member walked out of a military base in a rural district of southern Afghanistan on Sunday and opened fire on three nearby houses, killing at least 15 civilians, local villagers and provincial officials said." ...

     ... Story has been updated. New lede: "Stalking from home to home, a United States Army sergeant methodically killed at least 16 civilians, 9 of them children, in a rural stretch of southern Afghanistan early on Sunday, igniting fears of a new wave of anti-American hostility, Afghan and American officials said."

Washington Post: "In Wyoming, where some counties had held caucuses earlier in the week, Romney easily outpaced his rivals and won seven of the 12 delegates at stake. Santorum won three, Paul one. (One delegate went uncommitted.)"

Guardian: "A 12-year-old boy was among those reported to have been killed in Gaza on Sunday amid a spiralling round of militant rocket attacks and Israeli air strikes over the weekend that left at least 18 Palestinians dead and four people in Israel injured."

AP: "Across Japan, people paused at 2:46 p.m. — the moment the magnitude-9.0 quake struck a year ago — for moments of silence, prayer and reflection about the enormous losses suffered and monumental tasks ahead."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (5)

I am looking forward to your take on today's Ross Douthat's column like a child looks forward to Christmas.

March 11, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterJack Mahoney

Identifying the two worlds. That is what the GOP primaries have truly accomplished. A large proportion of the people who actually bother to vote in these primaries are in their own tight world. The world of fear, blame, anger and for a significant number hate. They hide in their cocoon of ignorance. They listen to only those stories that they want to hear. Fox 'news', Santorum, Gingrich and depending on the moment, Romney. Their toughest choice is whether to have their hate for the black President outweigh their hate of the Mormon. For these people, the current world is a new challenge, so much science, so much exposure to the world, you know, TV and the internet. It is so much harder to hide. They need to fight back, to keep the cocoon tight and the GOP candidates are spending all of their words trying to help them hide. I mean, ya know, college is for the liberal elites. States have rights, except if they approve gay marriage. People need to be free of government intervention in their lives except women. The recession is the fault of the socialist president, not the Wall Street Republicans.
Unfortunately for the Republicans, their primary voters are not the majority of our world. Now it is time for the rest of the America to stand up and put an end to this. Thanks to the GOP primary voters, it might not be that difficult.

March 11, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMarvin Schwalb

@Marvin Schwalb. Exactly right. The TPing of the nation has been astounding. And it runs the gamut of policies -- from the traditional "family values" issues (to which they have now added a fight against contraception, a fairly amazing development) to basic economics -- screw everybody but the rich, with super gifts for the super-rich.

@Jack Mahoney. I haven't faced Douthat yet, but I'll take a look. I gathered from the blurb that he's written a paean to Republican voters. I would have something to say about that. I think "Game Change," which I watched last night, may give me my lede.

March 11, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMarie Burns

Not that you need any help but here's my slightly amended NYTimes post on Douthat. And with no more than that I'll leave the rest (I'm sure there will be much more and better) up to you. I look forward to it.

Not since Eisenhower and Nixon (but for the large exception of his part in prosecuting the Vietnam War and a little accident like Watergate) have we heard a Republican message based on the world we really live in rather than on the one we might wish we did.

Currently, the Republican Party is a loose and increasingly cantankerous amalgam of anti-Obama, anti-government, anti-gay, anti-tax, anti-minority, anti-science, of late, anti-women, and anti-anything that might tap into enough fear or resentment to motivate a contribution or a vote.

The Reagan happy talk is threadbare. Most know that all that talk aside, he left us with both higher taxes and a higher deficit. Bush II's ownership society has come to pass, but even most Republicans realize it's now owned by the 1%.

No, those who did not run in the Republican primary are not crazy. But if they had to pander to the current incarnation of the Republican Party they've all had a hand in creating, what could they say to appeal to them that was not?

March 11, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@Ken Winkes. I agree that those who chose not to run are not crazy. But lets be clear about those that did decide to run, they are crazy. And I mean that in terms of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Crazy, as in a real diagnosable disorder. There is controversy over the new version of the DSM currently being put together in that it is certainly not always clear what constitutes 'disorder' and what is just bad behavior. But it takes special character to be able to lie without obvious guilt, believe in your self importance beyond any other human or think that you represent the only truth.

March 11, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMarvin Schwalb
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