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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Saturday
May122012

The Commentariat -- May 13, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on Ross Douthat's fact-free ruminations. The guy is almost as talented as Willard at making up stuff. The NYTX front page is here.

William Black gets into the nitty-gritty of the Times' flawed reporting on the European economic crisis, which boils down to (a) they view it solely from the German perspective, and (b) they don't read Krugman so they don't understand where the problems lie.

** "Capitalists & Other Psychopaths." William Deresiewicz, in a New York Times op-ed: "A recent study found that 10 percent of people who work on Wall Street are 'clinical psychopaths,' exhibiting a lack of interest in and empathy for others and an 'unparalleled capacity for lying, fabrication, and manipulation.' ... Ethics in capitalism is purely optional, purely extrinsic." CW: this really is a must-read. And it sure helped me understand why Mitt Romney is such a facile liar.

Tom Friedman: philosopher Michael Sandel argues that "market values are crowding out civic practices."

My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks. -- President Barack Obama, to Wall Street fat cats, Spring 2009

Peter Boyer & Peter Schweitzer in Newsweek: "Despite his populist posturing, the president has failed to pin a single top finance exec on criminal charges since the economic collapse. Are the banks too big to jail — or is Washington’s revolving door at to blame?" Follow the money. ...

... Glenn Greenwald: "But the worst part of it all is that Obama is going to spend the next six months deceitfully parading around as some sort of populist hero standing up for ordinary Americans and the safety net against big business, and hordes of people who know how false that is will echo it as loudly and repeatedly as they can, tricking many people who don't know better into believing it." ...

... A pretty funny and informative post by Jessica Pressler of New York magazine on "Dimonfreude." ...

... AND Matt Yglesias: JPMorgan loses $2 billion in massive failed effort to exploit Volcker Rule loophole."

Joe Romm of Think Progress: think climatologists are exaggerating the effects of climate change? Actually, they've been downplaying it for decades.

Dean Baker & Kevin Hassett in a New York Times op-ed: "The American economy is experiencing a crisis in long-term unemployment that has enormous human and economic costs.... Policy makers must come together and recognize that this is an emergency, and fashion a comprehensive re-employment policy that addresses the specific needs of the long-term unemployed.

N. C. Aizenman of the Washington Post: "In about two dozen states across the country, the insurance marketplaces at the heart of the 2010 health-care law remain in limbo, with Republican governors or lawmakers who oppose the statute refusing to act until the Supreme Court decides its constitutionality. New Jersey's Republican governor, Chris Christie, joined the ranks Thursday,vetoing a bill from the majority Democratic legislature that would have set up the Garden State's version of the 'exchanges,' through which individuals and small businesses could shop for insurance."

In a New Yorker post, novelist Edmund White remembers his time at Cranbrook.

Matt Williams of the Guardian: "A leading Republican pollster has pushed for a party rethink on gay marriage, stressing the conservative nature of encouraging commitment between same-sex couples. In a memo to GOP operatives, Jan van Lohuizen -- a former public opinion researcher for George Bush -- notes a shift in attitudes towards gay marriage and calls for a Republican response."

David Maraniss in the Washington Post: "Obama is his mother's son." ...

... AND Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post: Anna Jarvis, who was the driving force behind the celebration of Mothers Day, eventually came to despise it because of its commercialization. Jarvis got Congress to designate Mothers Day, and later joined her sister in spending the family assets to try to end it. Jarvis had no children.

Presidential Race

War-Weary Vets. Margot Roosevelt of Reuters: "Disaffection with the politics of shock and awe runs deep among men and women who have served in the military during the past decade of conflict.... If the election were held today, Obama would win the veteran vote by as much as seven points over Romney, higher than his margin in the general population."

John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "Obama's stance [against gay marriage] in 2008 was a product of careful cost-benefit analysis, and so, I would wager, was his reversal yesterday.... Make no mistake, he has handed a wedge issue to an opposing party that has a long history of successfully exploiting them." ...

Maureen Dowd: Obama's "embrace of gay marriage was not a profile in courage."

Don Melvin & Rod McGuirk of the AP: "In a world weary of war and economic crises, and concerned about global climate change, the consensus is that Obama has not lived up to the lofty expectations that surrounded his 2008 election and Nobel Peace Prize a year later. Many in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America were also taken aback by his support for gay marriage, a taboo subject among religious conservatives. But the Democrat still enjoys broad international support. In large part, it's because of unfavorable memories of his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, and many people would still prefer Obama over his presumptive Republican challenger Mitt Romney."

Zack Ford of Think Progress: Mitt Romney's support of same-sex adoption lasts one day.

Frank Rich: Romney isn't qualified to be a dictator.

Local News

Gary Fineout of the AP: Florida "Gov. Rick Scott's embattled chief of staff abruptly resigned from his job on Saturday following a series of news stories detailing his job performance and handling of contracts. Steve MacNamara said in his resignation letter that he would step down from his post July 1.... The Associated Press recently reported that while working for the Senate, MacNamara helped steer a $360,000 no-bid consulting contract to a friend who now leads a task force rooting out state government waste. The Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times this week wrote a series of additional stories about other contracts and how MacNamara clashed with one agency head.... Several top agency heads -- who were hired by Scott when he first took office -- wound up resigning within months of MacNamara's arrival." You can find the Miami Herald background stories here.

News Ledes

AP: "California's budget deficit has swelled to a projected $16 billion -- much larger than had been predicted just months ago -- and will force severe cuts to schools and public safety if voters fail to approve tax increases in November, Gov. Jerry Brown said Saturday."

New York Times: "Mullah Arsala Rahmani, a former Taliban minister who was an important go-between in potential peace talks, was shot and killed on Sunday as he headed to a government meeting on reconciliation, Afghan officials said."

New York Times: "In the face of spiraling costs and Iraqi officials who say they never wanted it in the first place, the State Department has slashed -- and may jettison entirely by the end of the year -- a multibillion-dollar police training program that was to have been the centerpiece of a hugely expanded civilian mission here."

New York Times: "China's central bank announced late Saturday that it would loosen monetary policy in a clear effort to stimulate the economy after the release on Thursday and Friday of a batch of economic indicators for April that were considerably weaker than most economists had expected."

Al Jazeera: "Israel and the Palestinian Authority have issued a rare joint statement saying both are committed to peace, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dispatched an envoy to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Netanyahu's office issued the joint statement on Saturday after envoy Yitzhak Molcho met Abbas in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority's administrative capital."

Al Jazeera: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel looks poised for a setback as polls show the country's most populous state will likely vote in favour of a centre-left government, which she has sought to label as irresponsibly spendthrift. A week after voters in Greece and France clearly plumped for anti-austerity policies, the citizens of North Rhine-Westphalia could also punish conservative champions of belt-tightening."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (4)

I was shocked by the 10% number until I realized that the category was "those who work on Wall Street," which includes receptionists, back office number crunchers, caterers, and custodians. I would imagine if the category were restricted to traders the number would be closer to 100%. In fact, those who admire John Paulson for swindling some poor schmucks (who of course regarded themselves as financial geniuses) out of $4 billion need to remind themselves that this is the world's wealth we're talking about here, not Fantasy Baseball.

May 13, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterJack Mahoney

To continue with Akhilleus' "slippery slope" and Denny Crane's "slippery slerp", today we have some slippery slime. A fascinating article about this substance and connecting it with highway systems:
From the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/opinion/sunday/the-wisdom-of-slime.html?ref=todayspaper

Anna Jarvis' change of heart re: the Mother's Day celebration every year because of consumerism is certainly understandable, but when anything like this boosts the economy it needs to stay put and dare I say exploited––something that I am not comfortable with, but I do recognize its benefits. My mother would always say, "Now for heaven's sake, don't spend your money getting me flowers for Mother's Day (we always had to wire them because she lived in a different state than we did). We always sent flowers; she always responded with ahhs and oohs about their beauty and abundance. I now tell my three sons the same thing––they believe me and send cards and call. I miss flowers––sigh~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Greenwald's piece is most depressing. There seems to be no light at the end of this tunnel of "you rub my back and I'll rub yours" mentality. It's like the game is rigged and we suckers can't compete at the table no matter how hard we try. Boy, talk about mixed metaphors! Happy Sunday everyone.

May 13, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

"My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks."

I say the timid shit should get out of the way and let the pitchforks at them.

May 13, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

Second James Singer.

Krugman's column tomorrow promises a scary prediction for the world economy. If what he predicts is even half true, we are in for more hard travelin,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfq5b1bppJQ

May 13, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterDaveS
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