The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
Help!

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

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, but Akhilleus found this new one that he says is easy to use.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

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.

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."

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Page Links
Thursday
Mar192015

The Commentariat -- March 20, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Afternoon Updates:

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Obama administration on Friday unveiled the nation's first major federal regulations on hydraulic fracturing, the controversial technique for oil and gas drilling that has led to a dramatic increase in American energy production but has also raised concerns about health and safety risks."

NEW. AP: "The Justice Department is investigating the congressional expenses and business dealings of Rep. Aaron Schock, and FBI agents have begun issuing subpoenas to potential witnesses...."

*****

Is He Lying Now or Was He Lying Then? Jodi Rudoren & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Thursday tried to backtrack from his pre-election declaration that no Palestinian state would be established on his watch, but his new assertions appeared to do nothing to assuage an infuriated Obama administration. In a series of interviews with American broadcasters, Mr. Netanyahu also said he had not been trying to suppress the votes of Arab citizens with an Election Day video warning that they were being bused to polling stations in 'droves,' remarks that had also caused outrage at the White House and around the world.... President Obama waited nearly two full days before making a congratulatory phone call to Mr. Netanyahu on Thursday evening.... Mr. Obama told Mr. Netanyahu directly that the United States would have to 're-assess our options' after the prime minister's 'new positions and comments.'" ...

... William Booth & Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backtracked Thursday from a clear campaign statement that as long as he was the leader of Israel there would be no independent Palestinian state.... Netanyahu went on U.S. TV news shows -- and not Israeli programs -- on Thursday to walk back his statements.... The head-spinning pivot did not convince White House officials, who suggested Thursday that Netanyahu's maneuvers could prompt a shift in U.S. policy toward Israel, particularly in the United Nations...." ...

... William Saletan of Slate: "In the final days of his campaign, Netanyahu pitched himself to Israelis as the candidate who would stand up to President Obama, 'American money,' the 'international community,' and Israel's Arab minority. He bragged that he had used settlements to seize strategic Palestinian land, and he vowed to keep doing so. A day before the election, he renounced Israel's commitment to a Palestinian state. He pledged that if he were re-elected, he wouldn't permit such a state. He implored Jews to flock to the polls and drown out the ballots of Arab Israelis.... More than 55 percent of the electorate [voted for right-wing candidates]. It's more than 60 percent of Israel's Jewish voters. Netanyahu ... has proved that his people stand behind him.... Israel has descended to its current level of disregard for others [because] it hasn't paid a price.... We have enabled this behavior, and we must end it." ...

... Peter Beinart of the Atlantic argues that among the big losers in the Israeli election was AIPAC, which relies on bipartisan support for Israel.

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has begun an aggressive campaign to block President Obama's climate change agenda in statehouses and courtrooms across the country, arenas far beyond Mr. McConnell's official reach and authority. The campaign of Mr. McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is aimed at stopping a set of Environmental Protection Agency regulations requiring states to reduce carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, the nation's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.... Since Mr. McConnell is limited in how he can use his role in the Senate to block regulations, he has taken the unusual step of reaching out to governors with a legal blueprint for them to follow to stop the rules in their states." ...

... CW PS: Thanks, Larry Tribe, for taking a paying gig to aid & abet the deterioration of the natural environment. I'm sure "Stooge to coal barons" is an eye-popping addition to your résumé. ...

... Eric Holthaus of Slate: "On Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that Earth's global temperature for February was among the hottest ever measured. So far, 2015 is tracking above record-warm 2014 -- which, when combined with the newly resurgent El Niño, means we're on pace for another hottest year in history. In addition to the just-completed warmest winter on record globally (despite the brutal cold and record snow in the eastern U.S.), new data on Thursday from the National Snow and Ice Data Center show that this year's peak Arctic sea ice reached its lowest ever maximum extent.... In a very real way, we can now say that for our given location -- the planet Earth -- global warming is now 'normal.' Forget debating -- our climate has officially changed." ...

... Elana Schor of Politico: "The Obama administration is set to unveil the first major nationwide safety restrictions on fracking, touching off a fresh political confrontation between the president and his critics in Congress and the energy industry."

Paul Krugman: "By now it's a Republican Party tradition: Every year the party produces a budget that allegedly slashes deficits, but which turns out to contain a trillion-dollar 'magic asterisk' -- a line that promises huge spending cuts and/or revenue increases, but without explaining where the money is supposed to come from. But the just-released budgets from the House and Senate majorities break new ground. Each contains not one but two trillion-dollar magic asterisks: one on spending, one on revenue.... If either budget were to become law, it would leave the federal government several trillion dollars deeper in debt than claimed, and that's just in the first decade.... The modern G.O.P.'s raw fiscal dishonesty is something new in American politics.... The simplest way to understand these budgets is surely to suppose that they are intended to do what they would, in fact, actually do: make the rich richer and ordinary families poorer.... We're looking at an enormous, destructive con job, and you should be very, very angry." ...

... CW: Okay, Democrats. If Paul Krugman can call your Republican friends con men, so can you. Let's hear a few Villagers chime in, too. The wonks have done the hard part -- reading & interpreting the GOP's so-called budgets; it's your job to share the news with the electorate.

Charles Pierce: "The willingness of the Republican party to tolerate an almost limitless amount of sheer public lunacy has led us to this moment, where the only answer [Rick] Santorum dares give to a woman who believes the president intended to nuke an American city was to say that he wasn't in Washington at the time." CW: You'll have to read Pierce's column to get the full gist of Santorum's abdication of his civic responsibility. I watched the video of the Santorum show yesterday, thanks to a lead from contrubtor James S., & was more stunned by Santorum's reply to the crazy lady (a retired schoolteacher?? Really??) than by the crazy lady's diatribe. His silence on her multiple insane claims is a profile in cowardice. ...

... This, BTW, is not the first time Santorum has been too frightened to stand up to a crazy audience member who made a loony remark about President Obama. If you were thinking of knitting him a sweater vest, my suggest would be to use yellow yarn for the body & a skein of Santorum Fecal Brown(TM) to knit the word "CHICKEN" across the chest portion. ("Chicken" here is, admittedly, only half a word, but the TM color choice should convey your meaning well enough.)

Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "Much of the surveillance video taken during a March 4 incident at the White House complex, in which Secret Service agents drove into a barricade marking off a bomb-threat investigation, has been erased.... Director Joseph P. Clancy, testifying before Congress for the second time this week, said the footage of the incident no longer exists, because of an agency practice of recording over surveillance video every three days." ...

... Beth Ethier of Slate has a bit more on the Secret Service's recorded-over tapes. As Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Chair of the House Oversight Committee, told CNN, "This is not your local 7-11. This is the White House."

David Zucchino of the Los Angeles Times: "A federal judge threatened Thursday to sanction the Justice Department if he finds that government lawyers misled him about the rollout of President Obama's plan to shield up to 5 million people from deportation.... [Judge Andrew] Hanen's barbed comments left little doubt that he sympathized with lawyers for the 26 states, who said they suffered 'irreparable harm' when federal officials granted more than 100,000 applications for deferred action after Obama announced the program Nov. 20. He said government lawyers had assured him that 'nothing was happening' regarding the applications."

Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "... the president of the United States telling the heir to the British throne that Americans prefer the royal family to their own politicians livened up an otherwise routine White House photo-op on Thursday.... [The conversation] was picked up by a boom mike deployed by an Associated Press radio journalist and relayed by a White House pool reporter."

Nick Gass & David Nather of Politico: Marty Nesbitt, a close friend of President Obama's, has purchased/"invested in" a beachfront Oahu home that was part of the set for the 80s TV series "Magnum, P.I." Nesbitt has acknowledged the purchase & the White House isn't talking, so there's plenty of speculation that Nesbitt made the purchase for the Obamas. The 80-year-old house is in disrepair. Here's more from Gina Mangieri of KHON Honolulu.

CLICK ON DOCUMENT TO SEE LARGER VIEW.... Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.): "I only break out the red pen on special occasions. So when I saw Marco Rubio's recent op-ed on Net Neutrality, you know I couldn't resist. It is intentionally misleading, poorly researched, and littered with errors. Marco, please don't draft essays on your return flight from Iowa. See me in my office and I'll walk you through Net Neutrality." Via Kay Steiger of Think Progress.

Marin Cogan of New York considers Aaron Schock's change-of-career options, "assuming he isn't eventually indicted."

This comment refers to a video, now defunct, which has been removed. CW BTW: I'm not convinced the DOJ report "exonerates" Wilson as both Fox "News" & Jon Stewart contend; rather, it concludes that there is substantial eyewitness testimony & forensic evidence that Wilson had reasonable cause to fear for his safety to an extent that prosecutors could not prove a charge of excessive force. I don't think someone who creates a situation in which deadly force becomes (or may become) necessary is faultless. Brown was a citizen, & Wilson had a duty to protect him. Fox "News" commentators' reactions, to borrow a Fox "News" rhetorical device, were "racist, racist, racist." As contributor Whyte O. noted yesterday, Arizona cops found the means to take alive mass shooter & white supremacist skinhead Ryan Giroux even though Giroux was armed, resisting arrest & had just shot numerous victims.

Presidential Race

Clinton Rules. Jonathan Allen of Reuters: "In 2008, Hillary Clinton promised Barack Obama, the president-elect, there would be no mystery about who was giving money to her family's globe-circling charities. She made a pledge to publish all the donors on an annual basis.... In response to questions from Reuters, officials at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and the foundation confirmed no complete list of donors to the Clintons' charities has been published since 2010." ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "... the [Wall Street] Journal reports [firewalled] that the [Clinton] foundation never stopped accepting money from foreigners with close ties to their governments. More than a dozen foreigners were top Clinton Foundation donors during that time, giving between $34 million and $68 million total. These include a member of the Saudi royal family and a former member of the Ukrainian parliament who was simultaneously lobbying the State Department to pressure Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych to free his predecessor from jail." ...

... A. B. Stoddard of the Hill, who's a fairly conservative Villager, has this right: "Democrats know what's coming, just weeks from now when Clinton announces her run, and it won't be new or different. They've got only one candidate, who already ran and lost, whose policy positions of key interest to Democrats are not yet known, whose candidacy is based on her gender, desire for the job and feeling that it is her turn, and who is launching as she's responding to a congressional subpoena." ...

... CW: For me, besides her all-too-apparent sense of entitlement & her sleazy connections, Hillary's biggest deficit is that, despite Obama's 2008 concession, she is just not "likable enough." American voters, democracy or no, do want our president to be regal (see President Obama's comments yesterday to Prince Charles, linked above), but -- in absurdist fashion -- we also want to feel we could be friends with the king/queen.

Beyond the Beltway

It turns out that sharing & crude commenting on nonconsensual nude photos are okay because that's "satire." Amanda Marcotte suggests the a Penn State education may not be too comprehensive if the kidz don't know what satire is.

Mark Stern of Slate: New Hampshire legislators teach fourth-graders a lesson in democracy. CW: Maybe the kids should have saved their lunch money & hired a lobbyist.

Margaret Hartmann: "The body of a black Mississippi man reported missing earlier this month was found hanging from a tree on Thursday, prompting an investigation by local, state, and federal officials.... [Otis] Byrd was convicted of robbing and murdering Port Gibson convenience-store owner Elizabeth Trim in 1980. He served 25 years in prison and was paroled in 2006." The Jackson Clarion-Ledger story is here.

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "Winter Storm Ultima brought a snowy blanket to spring's official arrival (Friday 6:45 p.m. EDT). Winter weather advisories were posted for over 30 million in the Northeast, including the Philadelphia and New York City metro areas."

New York Times: "Robert W. Kastenmeier, a Wisconsin Democrat who in 32 years in the House was an early opponent of the Vietnam War and in 1976 earned the gratitude of authors when he managed the first general revision of copyright law since 1909, died on Friday at his home in Arlington, Va. He was 91."

AP: "Quadruple suicide bombers on Friday hit a pair of mosques controlled by Shiite rebels in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, unleashing blasts through crowds of worshippers that killed at least 137 people and wounded around 350 others in the deadliest violence to hit the fragile war-torn nation in decades."

Reuters: "A rookie Los Angeles police officer accused of killing a man after a fight in the bar district of a Southern California community was driven to a Texas city on the Mexican border by his father last week and has not been seen since, according to court documents filed on Thursday. Henry Solis, a 27-year-old probationary officer, is accused of shooting Salome Rodriguez Jr. multiple times on March 13 near several nightclubs in downtown Pomona...."

Wall Street Journal: "David Christopher Bird, a longtime Wall Street Journal reporter who was missing for more than a year, was found dead near his New Jersey home, police said."

Comments Off

References (2)

References allow you to track sources for this article, as well as articles that were written in response to this article.

Reader Comments (11)

I'm with Marie on the interpretation of the Feds' report on Ferguson. Officer Wilson was encased in a two ton vehicle and he could easily have just rolled up the window and called back- up patrols for support if he felt the need. He had many choices other than blowing away a young man whom he suspected of nothing more than - perhaps - shoplifting. Only in America would Wilson be seen as "exonerated." I noticed that about the otherwise good piece by Jon Stewart and was surprised he accepted that narrative.
Regarding the Times' article about Mitch McConnell and his end run around the White House to squash the new regulations regarding CO2 emissions from coal plants: I read that story last night and it made me sick. Both because of McConnell's actions as an uber-lobbyist for the coal industry (no statesman McConnell!); and that a respected constitutional lawyer, Lawrence Tribe, has pimped himself out in the service of McConnell, Peabody et al.
On a happier note, there was a total solar eclipse this morning, visible (among a few other places) in the Svalbard Islands off the coast of northern Norway. I have a friend who travelled there to see it, and apparently the weather cooperated. It must have been beautiful:
http://news.yahoo.com/faeroe-islands-ready-total-solar-eclipse-090549895.html

March 20, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterVictoria D.

So New Hampshire fourth graders learn a civics lesson: "Gee, these representatives are bigger butt-heads we've ever seen."

And the rep who was offended that raptors tear their prey apart would probably be totally aghast at what bald eagles do to get food. Maybe they should come up with a resolution condemning the national bird.

What small folk they are. (The reps, not the kids)

March 20, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Wouldn't it be loverly to have someone like Mark Takano who red-penciled Rubio's screed do the same for Santorum, only with a good soap scrubbing in Rickey's mouth. It's not his OBLIGATION to correct these crazies? When I first saw the video I wondered why it stopped after Santorum pleaded "not on my watch, Ma'm." Surely there was more––surely he would repute her spurious remarks one by one––nicely, of course, with a smile and end up by thanking her for participating. I find his non- performance so egregious, so lame––does he even have a backbone? What a schmuck!

And Larry Tribe? what the hell?

March 20, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

If what Netanyahu means by "stand up to American money" is not taking it any more, I say amen to that, Bibi.
Somehow I don't think that's in his plan. But how do you stand up to money if you are accepting it? Oh yeah, he already showed us: spit in the face of our president. /and keep taking the dough.

March 20, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterVictoria D.

Timothy Egan adds to Paul Krugman's reasons to be "very, very angry" at the Republicans in Congress. Egan calls out Joni Ernst, John Boehner, and Scott Walker for being traitors to their class: all claim impoverished backgrounds, yet refuse to raise the minimum wage or support subsidized health care. No empathy, just disdain for the "deserving" poor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/20/opinion/traitors-to-their-class.html?ref=opinion

And our own Jack Mahoney is not only a top commenter on this article, but his comment received a NYT pick! Thank you, Jack, for paying your workers well above minimum wage. I would gladly pay more for goods or services knowing that fair labor was part of the cost.

March 20, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterJanice

Tribe pimping out to Murray Energy Corp. is not especially surprising. His reputation is more Flee Bailey press than substance, as near as I can tell from the wiki record. And now, at age 73, he likely sees an unappealing end to cashing in.

March 20, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

Re: Turtle-boy

I've always liked John Prine's song "Paradise" about the Peabody Coal Company hauling away western KY in a train car.

Sorry, on my remote so no link but it can be easily found with a Google or Youtube search.

March 20, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterUnwashed

After reading Krugman today, I sat back and thought about it for a few minutes.

His conclusion, that the budgetary goal of Confederates in congress has nothing to do with deficits, with fiscal sobriety (please show me the last Republican congress that concerned itself with that), and the well flogged but totally meaningless GOP trope "reining in spending", but has everything to do with a massive reverse Robin Hood shell game that takes billions from the poor and middle class and transfers that cash to the rich.

This is something we've all stated in one way or another over the years, since Raygun, in fact. But news cycles being what they are, that is, microbursts of statements, events, personalities, a little truth and mountainous lies, I don't think we take enough time to carefully consider the enormity of the implications of events such as the annual Confederate budget kabuki.

Yes, no one really believes these budgets will pass or if they did, would work. But they represent not just Confederate wet dreams, these vicious exercises in misanthropy and political sociopathy, but the actual real world desires of Republicans and, ostensibly their supporters. They're clear messages to the base regarding their true beliefs: fuck the poor. Only the rich matter. We'll have to overlook the complex psychological reasons that poor wingers still rave when they hear about how their heroes want to make life worse for them as well.

The bottom line is that these people are real life black hat wearing, mustache twirling villains. Taking food away from little babies to curry favor with the motherfucking Kochs???????

Really, just think for a few minutes what these people are up to. This isn't just a difference of opinion and those who disagree with them are not just another, equally partisan, point of view.

This is true evil.

Evil, evil, evil.

Stephen King would require all of his impressive imaginative powers to match the Republican Party for pure evil. And even if he could, they'd still have him beat because his creations and their terrible deeds and inhumane desires would still only be fictions.

The Confederates are real. And they keep their knives sharp.

March 20, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Netanyahu: liar or bigot?

Answer: both.

March 20, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Unwashed. Yeah, this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vC65_cq0Js&feature=related

March 20, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

And then, of course, there's this one. The anthem of Reaganomics generation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eccz7D0QK0&feature=related

March 20, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.