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.” Amos's New York Times obituary is here.

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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Friday
May092014

The Commentariat -- May 10, 2014

Obsolete audio removed.

Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "Putting his personal seal on the annexation of Crimea, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia arrived in the naval port of Sevastopol on Friday, where he used the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany to assert that Moscow had the right to take over the Black Sea peninsula." ...

... Shaun Walker, et al., of the Guardian: Meanwhile, "the gravity of the crisis gripping the rest of Ukraine was underscored by more deadly clashes in the southern city of Mariupol."

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "President Obama on Friday stood between patio lights and women's blouses in a Walmart [in Mountain View, California,] as he unveiled his latest executive actions aimed at increasing energy efficiency. Mr. Obama said that he had ordered $2 billion in upgrades to federal buildings to increase their energy efficiency, adding that the Department of Energy would also be adopting new standards that would be the equivalent of taking 80 million cars off the road":

Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post: "As Congress left Capitol Hill for a two-week recess on Friday night, it remained unclear whether Democrats will participate in the newly minted House committee to investigate the Obama administration's handling of the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) announced a roster of seven Republicans -- primarily comprised of members loyal to the GOP leadership -- who will serve on the committee, which is charged with determining whether the State Department responded to the attacks properly.... The Republicans named to the committee were Reps. Susan Brooks (Ind.), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Mike Pompeo (Kan.), Martha Roby (Ala.), Peter Roskam (Ill.) and Lynn A. Westmoreland (Ga.). The roster notably excludes many of the Republican caucus's most vocal members when it comes to the controversy over the Benghazi attacks. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) will chair the panel." ...

... Paul Waldman watches some YouTube videos & finds out why Boehner pegged Gowdy to prosecute investigate the State Department's handling of Benghaaazi! "To call Gowdy prosecutorial would be an understatement. Uniformly angry and outraged, these videos show Gowdy always seemingly on the verge of shouting, he's so damn mad. Like any good lawyer, he never asks a question to which he doesn't already know the answer. But when a witness gives him an answer other than the one he expects, he repeats his question at a slightly louder volume and angrier pitch, as though the question hadn't actually been answered." ...

     ... CW: Waldman's discovery is more confirmation of the obvious: we're going to see fake outrage over a fake scandal. At this point, the only thing authentic about the Republican party is that some of its members -- including legislators -- are too dumb to know their outrage is fake. Gowdy, however, apparently knows what he's doing.

... The New York Times Editors wrote a scathing rebuke of the whole "Benghazi kangaroo court, also known as the Select House Committee to Inflate a Tragedy Into a Scandal." ...

... OR, as Andy Borowitz puts it, "A new poll indicates ... millions of Americans who need jobs want Congress to get to bottom of this Benghazi thing first."

Robert Costa & Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Several leading Republicans have called for raising the federal minimum wage and others are speaking more forcefully about the party's failure to connect with low-income Americans -- stances that are causing a growing rift within the party over how best to address the gulf between the rich and poor.... The latest GOP fissure came Friday and involved the party's 2012 presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.... Appearing on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' Romney said he parts company 'with many of the conservatives in my party on the issue of the minimum wage' and thinks 'we ought to raise it.'"

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: In an interview, "Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky on Friday broke with fellow Republicans who have pushed for stricter voting laws as a way to crack down on fraud, saying the party was alienating and insulting African-Americans.... In the interview, Mr. Paul stressed his commitment to restoring voting rights for felons, an issue he said black crowds repeatedly brought up whenever he visited them."

If You Don't Agree with Ted Cruz, You're a Criminal. Dana Milbank: "Sen. Ted Cruz, in a speech to fellow conservatives at the Federalist Society this week, provided detailed evidence of what the right calls the 'lawlessness' of the Obama administration. The Texas Republican, in his latest McCarthyesque flourish, said he had a list of '76 instances of lawlessness and other abuses of power.' ... An examination of the accusations reveals less about the lawlessness of the accused than about the recklessness of the accuser.... Cruz disagrees with Obama on just about everything. But this doesn't make Obama a criminal."

Congressional Races

Gail Collins write a hilarious column about the GOP's ridiculous candidates, especially their ridiculous females candidates.

Beyond the Beltway

Andrew DeMillo of the AP: "A judge has struck down Arkansas' ban on same-sex marriage, saying the state has 'no rational reason' for preventing gay couples from marrying. Pulaski county circuit Judge Chris Piazza ruled on Friday that the 2004 voter-approved amendment to the state constitution violates the rights of same-sex couples. The ruling came nearly a week after state attorney general Dustin McDaniel announced he personally supports gay marriage rights but that he will continue to defend the constitutional ban in court. McDaniel's office said he would appeal Friday's ruling."

Josh Israel of Think Progress: "Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz (R), one of the nation's most enthusiastic voter suppressors, released a report on Thursday outlining the results a two-year investigation into possible voter fraud, conducted by the Iowa Department of Public Safety's Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) at his request. But while Schultz has frequently scared Iowa voters with allegations of thousands of possible non-citizens voting in the state and living people showing up at the polls to cast ballots in the name of dead voters, the investigation revealed found an infinitesimal number of illegal votes cast and zero cases of impersonation at the polls." ...

... Nicole Flatow of Think Progress: "Since Pennsylvania's embattled law requiring photo ID at the polls was passed two years ago, it has not been in effect during an election. Officials blocked the photo ID law from going into effect during the 2012 election, after estimates that some 750,000 did not have the required ID. And in January, a trial court struck down the law, calling the burden imposed by the requirement 'so difficult as to amount to a denial' of the right to vote. On Thursday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) announced he would not appeal the ruling, meaning that trial court's ruling will stand, and the law remains invalidated. Corbett, however, stood behind the idea of a photo ID requirement...."

Something is happening to Tuck Chodd. He's trying to do his job. Here he questions "Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted (R) on Thursday over the state’s recent decision to reduce the amount of time available to voters in the state to cast their votes":

     ... BUT Tuck lets Husted get away with a whopper. Josh Israel: "Husted, who has been one of the nation's strongest advocates of measures to suppress voter participation, attempted to deflect the blame to the state legislature -- even though it acted on his own recommendations." (Emphasis added.) Here's the exchange, much abbreviated:

Tuck: Why did you make the decision to round down, right? You could have rounded up and said, 'I want fair and uniform elections and the standard has been Sundays, we're going to do these two Sundays, expand the hours, and make sure every voting jurisdiction has the same set of hours.'

Husted: ... Actually, the legislature shortened the early voting period... But that's not me, Chuck. That's the legislature. I have clashed with the legislature.

Tuck: Do you think they made a mistake? Do you wish they didn't do that?

Washington Post: "The Pledge of Allegiance does not discriminate against atheists and can be recited at the start of the day in public schools, Massachusetts' highest court ruled Friday. The Supreme Judicial Court said the words 'under God' in the pledge reflect patriotic practice, not a religious one. The court acknowledged that the wording has a 'religious tinge' but said it is fundamentally patriotic and voluntary."

News Ledes

AFP: " Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz on Saturday angrily denied the latest media charge of Israeli spying on its US ally and said that someone was trying to sour bilateral relations. Newsweek magazine on Thursday said that during a 1998 visit to Israel by then US vice president Al Gore a Secret Service agent surprised an intruder emerging from an air duct in Gore's room, before his arrival."

Guardian: "A hastily organised referendum on creating the quasi-independent statelet of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine will go ahead on Sunday, as violence and chaos rage in the region in what increasingly resembles the beginning of a civil war. At least seven people died in the southern port city of Mariupol on Friday when the Ukrainian army entered the city in armoured vehicles, apparently to regain control of the city's police HQ, where separatist fighters were exchanging fire with barricaded police."

New York Times: "A United States Special Operations commando and a Central Intelligence Agency officer in Yemen shot and killed two armed Yemeni civilians who tried to kidnap them while the Americans were in a barbershop in the country's capital two weeks ago, American officials said on Friday. The two Americans, attached to the United States Embassy, were whisked out of the volatile Middle East nation within a few days of the shooting, with the blessing of the Yemeni government, American officials said."

New York Times: "On the granite plaza of the World Trade Center memorial, families of Sept. 11 victims gathered on Saturday morning beneath mist-shrouded skyscrapers to watch as the unidentified remains of people killed there nearly 13 years ago were moved to what may be their final resting place. A slow-moving procession transferred the remains on their short journey across from a city medical examiner's office on 26th Street, near the East River, to a specially built repository at ground zero, between the footprints of the old Twin Towers."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (3)

I know some of you have been holding your breath about my asparagus. Previously I had commented that my plants looked iffy and I was worried they wouldn't raise their little heads from the dirt and I said I'd blame Louie G. for casting aspersions on my asparagus. Today I'm happy to report that we have a bumper crop and they are delicious. Just goes to show you can't pay any mind to those nincompoops in Congress who continue to try and cast spells on various and sundry. Obviously their power is in slow decline.

Re: Monica Wehby and the video that went viral. I'm at a loss as to how to connect the trust issue of a pediatric procedure with how someone would perform in Congress. There are a slew of doctors sitting in those leather chairs that I wouldn't trust with anything legislative much less an ingrown hair. Dr. Wehby was against the ACA, then backtracked a little, but now says it should be repealed after Obama leaves office. The fact that Romney and Snowe have endorsed her doesn't hold much sway I would think, but maybe I think incorrectly. It's happened before.

May 10, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

CW wrote: "Something is happening to Tuck Chodd. He's trying to do his job."

Yes, what could be happening here? Last week I finally read Mark Leibovich's "This Town" and it was quite timely what with the White House Correspondent's Dinner just concluded. There was a lot of juicy food for thought regarding ongoing media news items. Book starts around the time of Tim Russert's death and then the competition of those vying as his replacement. Todd was in the back of the pack of those in the running, but relatively new and less experienced for program hosting. Hence, the honor went to Gregory.

Which isn't working out so well for NBC. Hmmmmmm, could we be looking at a future change....and who might that lead contender be for MTP? Just thinking aloud here.

By the way, 'This Town' is a good read (just out in paperback). Came away with a new appreciation for Harry Reid. He's really a pretty gutsy, in-your-face guy.

May 10, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Likely a primer RC readers don't need, but this short piece by Ezra Klein on wealth inequality is worth passing on to that brother or brother-in-law I occasionally encounter on this site:

http://www.vox.com/2014/5/7/5690976/wealth-inequality-is-dangerous-for-america#ooid=phcG9zbTqANSSlpcdtUbWaF4wM0KxJHv

May 10, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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