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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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
May112012

The Commentariat -- May 12, 2012

The President's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here.

David Ingram of Reuters: "Two big cases addressing marriage rights for gays and lesbians are on track to reach the U.S. Supreme Court as soon as this year, keeping the focus on an issue President Barack Obama reignited with his endorsement this week."

Risky Business

Edward Wyatt of the New York Times: "Soon after lawmakers finished work on the nation's new financial regulatory law, a team of JPMorgan Chase lobbyists descended on Washington. Their goal was to obtain special breaks that would allow banks to make big bets in their portfolios, including some of the types of trading that led to the $2 billion loss now rocking the bank."

Peter Eavis & Susan Craig of the New York Times: "Every big bank has risk controls. Teams of executives are assigned to manage and review trades to ensure the bank’s safety and health. Yet trading debacles happen with surprising regularity. Last year, losses at two big institutions rocked the financial world. MF Global went out of business after making an ill-timed bet on European debt. Before that, a UBS trader in London lost the firm $2.3 billion. The 2008 financial crisis was the result of major risk miscalculations that brought down several big financial institutions, including Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and the American International Group."

It just shows they can't manage risk -- and if JPMorgan can't, no one can. -- Simon Johnson, former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund.

Daniel Wagner of the AP: "JPMorgan is the largest bank in the United States and was the only major bank to remain profitable during the 2008 financial crisis. That lent credibility to its tough-talking CEO, Jamie Dimon, as he opposed stricter regulation in the aftermath. But Dimon's contention that the $2 billion loss came from a hedging strategy that backfired, not an opportunistic bet with the bank's own money, faced doubt on Friday, if not outright ridicule."

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "While the [$2BB] loss [JPMorgan Chase experienced] is not a huge threat to a bank as large and powerful as JPMorgan, whose shares tumbled 9.3 percent on Friday, it is a stark reminder that the banking system remains vulnerable to market shocks more than three years after the financial crisis. It has heightened concerns that big banks continue to make risky financial bets that could threaten the economy. ...

JPMorgan has lost, in this one set of transactions, five times the amount they claim financial regulation is costing them. -- Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) ...

... Nelson Schwartz & Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie "Dimon's reputation and possibly his influence have been cut down to size. The trading loss disclosed late Thursday is a rare misstep by a man who prides himself on having his fingers on the pulse of his 270,000-employee company, and it suggests his vaunted confidence edged toward hubris." ...

... Here are some videos of Dimon complaining about regulation & the Volcker Rule.

... New York Times Editors: "... the loss also occurred because of a continued lack, nearly four years after the crisis, of rules and regulators up to the task of protecting taxpayers and the economy from the excesses of too big to fail banks; and, yes, of protecting the banks from their executives' and traders' destructive risk-taking.... JP Morgan, like the nation's other big banks, is still engaged in activities that can provoke catastrophic losses.... Mitt Romney has called for repealing Dodd Frank. That may win him Wall Street cash, but it is profoundly dangerous."

Presidential Race

Dan Eggen & Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "President Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage is energizing Christian conservative support for Mitt Romney in a way that the likely GOP nominee has so far not been able to do on his own, according to religious leaders and activists. Pastors in Ohio, North Carolina, Florida and other swing states are readying Sunday sermons inveighing against same-sex unions, while activist groups have begun laying plans for social media campaigns, leaflet drives and other get-out-the-vote efforts centered on the same-sex marriage issue. Romney could benefit from a strong turnout among evangelicals and other social conservatives, many of whom remain skeptical of his commitment to their causes."

Jeffrey Jones of Gallup: "A majority of Americans, 60%, say President Barack Obama's newly announced support for same-sex marriage will make no difference to their vote. Twice as many say it will make them less likely to vote for Obama as say more likely, though roughly half of the 'less likely' group are Republicans who probably would not support Obama anyway."

Mitch Weiss of the AP: "Once a bright spot for President Barack Obama, North Carolina is now more like a political migraine less than four months before Democrats open the party's national convention in Charlotte. Labor unions, a core Democratic constituency, are up in arms. Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue isn't running for re-election; Democrats say she was likely to lose. The state Democratic Party is in disarray over an explosive sexual harassment scandal. Voters recently approved amending the state constitution to ban gay marriage.... And unemployment in the state remains persistently high.... Now traditional Democratic Party groups are threatening huge protests in part because they're deeply uncomfortable that the convention is being held in one of the least union-friendly states. And thousands of Democrats across the country are calling for the convention to be relocated because of the gay-marriage vote."

Not Bringing the Scissors Today. Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "Mitt Romney's commencement address Saturday at Liberty University, the evangelical institution in Virginia founded by Jerry Falwell, comes on the heels of President's Obama's announcement Wednesday that he supports same-sex marriage. But in a conference call with reporters Friday, Romney campaign aides said ... Mr. Romney would not overtly wade into the issue of same-sex marriage. 'Marriage isn't the focus of the speech, but he will mention the fact that marriage is an enduring institution, which deserves to be defended,' one aide said." ...

     ... Update. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post reports on Romney's speech at Liberty.

Steve Benen catches Romney in 20 lies this week. (CW: The funniest one, to me, is his repeated insistence that Syria is Iran's route to the sea -- funny because Iran & Syria don't even share a border & Iran has hundreds of miles of coastline. Maybe if Romney hadn't let Ric Grenell go, Grenell would have updated Romney's stupid stump speech.)

Charles Blow: "There was a malicious streak at the core of the high-school boy in these accounts. Romney's muddled and confusing explanation and half-apologies only reinforce concerns that there is also something missing from the core of the man: sincerity and sensitivity. Targeting the vulnerable is an act of cowardice. The only way to vanquish cowardice is to brandish courage. Romney refused to do so."

Beth Reinhard of the National Journal: As Massachusetts governor, Romney's evolving record on anti-gay bullying got worse, not better, as he repositioned himself to run for president.

Right Wing World

New York Times Editors: "Mr. Broun owes an apology to history."to

Dana Milbank compares Richard Mourdock, who beat out Sen. Dick Lugar in the Indiana primary to Keith Judd, the federal inmate "who won 41 percent of the ballots against President Obama in West Virginia’s Democratic presidential primary."

New York Times Editors: "For more than a year, House Republicans have energetically worked to demolish vital social programs that have made this country both stronger and fairer over the last half-century. At the same time, they have insisted on preserving bloated military spending and unjustifiably low tax rates for the rich. That effort reached a nadir on Thursday when the House voted to prevent $55 billion in automatic cuts imposed on the Pentagon as part of last year’s debt-ceiling deal, choosing instead to make all those cuts, and much more, from domestic programs."

Local News

Tim Ghianni of Reuters: "Tennessee teachers can no longer condone so-called 'gateway sexual activity' such as touching genitals under a new law that critics say is too vague and could hamper discussion about safe sexual behavior. Governor Bill Haslam's office Friday confirmed that he had signed the bill, which stirred up controversy nationwide and even was lampooned by comedian Stephen Colbert." CW: in related news, the state's top sociologists, psychiatrists and other members of the scientific community have remarked on the anomaly that the state's adult legislators are more interested in sex than are teens. A Vanderbilt University bacteriologist has recommended testing the water in the drinking fountains at the capitol building in Nashville. "There's something wrong with these people," she said.

Jason Stein & Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "A filmmaker released a video Thursday that shows Gov. Scott Walker saying he would use 'divide and conquer' as a strategy against unions. Walker made the comments to Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks, who has since given $510,000 to the governor's campaign -- making her Walker's single-largest donor and the largest known donor to a candidate in state history.... In the 2010 campaign, Walker won the support of Operating Engineers Local 139, a union that represents about 9,000 heavy equipment operators in Wisconsin. The union is not endorsing anyone in this year's recall election. Terry McGowan, the union's business manager, said the union gave its 2010 endorsement only after getting assurances Walker would not pursue right-to-work legislation.... But he added that divide and conquer is a phrase that is anathema to those in the labor movement. 'It means turning worker against worker,' he said." Via Charles Pierce.

News Ledes

** New York Times: "Louis H. Pollak, a federal judge and former dean of two prestigious law schools who played a significant role in major civil rights cases before the Supreme Court, including the landmark Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case, died on Wednesday at his home in Philadelphia. He was 89."

New York Times: "Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Friday sharply criticized the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, over his handling of child sexual abuse cases among the borough's large ultra-Orthodox Jewish community."

AP: "An Israeli envoy will submit a letter to the Palestinian president regarding the possibility of substantive peace talks, said officials from both sides Saturday. The modest exchange is the highest-level communication between the two sides in months."

Guardian: "Chicago police have been accused of intimidating protesters ahead of the Nato conference next week. A video posted to YouTube appears to show officers saying they would 'come looking for' protesters after a traffic stop in the city." Includes video.

Washington Post: "Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin has given up his U.S. citizenship, a move that will reduce his taxes when Facebook goes public in the coming weeks. Saverin, who was born in Brazil and moved to the U.S. in 1992 and has been a U.S. citizen since 1998, has decided to become a resident of Singapore."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (6)

I'm confused. 18 year old Mr. Ravi videos a gay guy and it's a hate crime. 18 year old Mr. Romney physically attacks a gay guy and it's a prank?

May 12, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMarvin Schwalb

@Marvin. Was Ravi rich? Makes a difference, you know.

May 12, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

Marvin and James,

It also helps to conduct a thought experiment to test exactly how just is the Right's sense of outrage.

Let's say Barack Obama, as a high school student, constructed a prank, not even nearly as egregious as Romney's, in other words, not involving a physical assault, but one in which he and like minded liberal friends taunted and attempted to publicly humiliate a fellow student for being a conservative, or worse, a conservative Christian.

The story comes out and we hear that all those connected to this "prank" are extremely remorseful of their abuse of this student except for Obama who can't seem to remember the incident at all. And tops it off by saying, with a smirk, that he can't even seem to recall that he knew this student was a fundamentalist Christian.

There aren't enough hours in the day for the number of stories Fox would run on that story. There isn't an outrage meter strong enough to keep from exploding with the outbursts from the conservative media which currently pooh-poohs Romney's much worse behavior and attacks and castigates anyone who thinks Romney's subsequent and risible denial that any such event ever took place.

How would they play this if the perpetrator had been Obama and if he insisted on lying about not only his involvement, but whether or not the event ever actually occurred? With a smug chuckle, to boot?

Romney's gay bashing should be recalled daily from now until November to remind anyone on the fence about this election--or anyone truly concerned with character--that a vote for Romney is a vote for a committed liar who giggles when recalling a criminal assault he planned and carried out on a boy much weaker than himself.

He's a liar, a coward, and a moral midget.

May 12, 2012 | Unregistered Commenterakhilleus

@Akhilleus. You are so 8th century BCE. Welcome to Right Wing World. Obama doesn't have to have done anything terrible, then lie about it, laugh about it, call around & try to get his friends to lie about it, etc. See, over there in Right Wing World when they can't find a suitable scandal, they just MAKE UP ONE.

Marie

May 12, 2012 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@akhilleus. Let me take your last comment on step further. Romney is the most disgusting scumbag human being to ever run for POTUS. We are talking about serious lack of morality, character and humanity. When it comes to this level we are really talking about mental illness. It is called Antisocial Personality Disorder. Mitt Romney is not just ideologically bad he is really dangerous.

May 12, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMarvin Schwalb

Sure, Romney is pond scum. But what captured my attention are the comments to the New Yorker article--there's lots of scum on that pond!

I especially enjoyed the dimwits who did not understand that Romney did not need to show exceptional intelligence to be accepted at Stanford where, it is telling, he did not graduate. Given his recent display of ability in lying, I have doubts also about his Harvard work.

May 13, 2012 | Unregistered Commenteralphonsegaston
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