The Ledes

Thursday, September 19, 2024

New York Times: “A body believed to be of the suspect in a Kentucky highway shooting that left five people seriously injured this month was found on Wednesday, the authorities said, ending a manhunt that stretched into a second week and set the local community on edge. The Kentucky State Police commissioner, Phillip Burnett Jr., said in a Wednesday night news conference that at approximately 3:30 p.m., two troopers and two civilians found an unidentified body in the brush behind the highway exit where the shooting occurred.... The police have identified the suspect of the shooting as Joseph A. Couch, 32. They said that on Sept. 7, Mr. Couch perched on a cliff overlooking Interstate 75 about eight miles north of London, Ky., and opened fire. One of the wounded was shot in the face, and another was shot in the chest. A dozen vehicles were riddled with gunfire.”

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
Friday
May222015

The Commentariat -- May 23, 2015

All internal links removed.

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "After vigorous debate and intense last-minute pressure by Republican leaders, the Senate on Saturday rejected legislation that would end the federal government's bulk collection of phone records. With the death of that measure -- passed overwhelmingly in the House earlier this month -- senators then scrambled to hastily pass a short-term measure to keep the program from going dark when it expires June 1 but failed. The disarray in Congress appeared to significantly increase the chances that the government will lose systematic access to newly created calling records by Americans, at least temporarily, after June 1.... The measure failed in the Senate 57 to 42, with 12 Republicans voting for it, shortly after midnight because [Rand] Paul, a candidate for the White House, dragged the procedure out as he promised to do in fund-raising tweets and emails." ...

... CW: I read Steinhauer's lede three times, & I still didn't get it. ...

... Mike DeBonis & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Senators left Capitol Hill early Saturday morning without taking action to extend or replace a controversial surveillance program set to expire at month's end, paralyzed by a debate over the proper balance between civil liberties and national security. In an after-midnight vote, the Senate turned back a House-passed bill that would end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of private telephone records, the only legislation that offered a smooth transition ahead of a June 1 deadline.... That led Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to recall senators to the Capitol a day earlier than planned, on May 31, for a rare Sunday session hours ahead of the deadline." ...

... Alan Rusbridger, et al., of the Guardian: In an interview with the Guardian, "Edward Snowden has hailed landmark shifts in Congress and the US courts on NSA surveillance but cautioned that much more needs to be done to restore the balance in favour of privacy. He also warned this was only the beginning of reform of the NSA, saying there are still many bulk collection programmes which are 'even more intrusive', but expressed hope that the Senate would act to curb the NSA, saying retention of the status quo is untenable."

Danielle Ivory, et al., of the New York Times: "Justice Department investigators have identified criminal wrongdoing in General Motors' failure to disclose a defect tied to at least 104 deaths, and are negotiating what is expected to be a record penalty, according to people briefed on the inquiry.... Former G.M. employees, some of whom were dismissed last year, are under investigation as well and could face criminal charges."

Deborah Sontag of the New York Times: "In what appeared to be a reversal of his predecessor's position, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas wrote to Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch last week to assure her that his state intended to abide by national standards to prevent, detect and respond to prison rape 'wherever feasible.'... But the Justice Department said late Thursday that it had rejected his assurance. Texas, which has a high rate of reported sexual abuse against inmates, is expected to be financially penalized for a second straight year for failing to follow the procedures that the federal government has established to document progress in eliminating prison rape." CW: No doubt Lynch's actions are part of the federal government's plan to declare martial law in Texas. She'll probably release a bunch of alleged rape victims & have them do their Count of Monte Cristo thing under all the Texas WalMarts.

Dana Milbank: "After more than three decades of income growth for the wealthiest 10 percent and stagnation for everybody else, the top 3 percent now has more wealth than the bottom 90 percent.... An International Monetary Fund study released in March found that the decline in union membership has been responsible for half of the rise in the share of income going to the top 10 percent.... Straws in the wind suggest a building backlash."

CW: I do not know how I missed it, but last week Frank Rich wrote a marvelous feature piece on race riots. There are few writers of English prose who can so seamlessly wrap their personal stories into the broader cultural context (without making the piece All About Me). ...

     ... The photo that accompanies Rich's essay is striking. Looking at it, I thought, "This photographer should get a Pulitzer." Then I noticed that the credit went to someone named Devin Allen, with no affiliated media outfit designated. So I looked up Allen. Here's another post on Allen. (Its author, Charise Frazier, & her copywriter should look up the meaning of "notoriety.") And another. I hope most of those media who used Allen's photos have paid him handsomely.

White House: "In this week's address, the President commemorated Memorial Day by paying tribute to the men and women in uniform who have given their lives in service to our country":

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dean Baker in FAIR: "In a Washington Post column (5/22/15), Delaware Gov. Jack Markell and Third Way president Jonathan Cowan took a swipe at the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in arguing for a set of ill-defined centrist proposals.... There is much about their piece that is wrong or misleading ... but the best part is in the last paragraph, where they tell readers, 'Nine years ago, Borders Books had more than 1,000 stores and more than 35,000 employees. Four years ago, it liquidated. Those stores ... closed because technology brought us Amazon and the Kindle.' Actually, Border Books did close in large part because the economic system is rigged against ordinary Americans. One of the main reasons Amazon has been able to grow as rapidly as it did is that Amazon has not been required to collect the same sales tax as its brick-and-mortar competitors in most states for most of its existence." CW: Three things: (1) Jeff Bezos, the billionaire who started & owns Amazon, also owns the Washington Post, which is the point of Baker's piece; (2) likely Borders wasn't the slavedriver that Amazon is;* & (3) Jack Markell has to be one of the dumbest elected Democrats in the country. Thanks to Bonita for the lead.

     ...* There are other reasons Borders failed, of course, & one of those reasons is its partnership with Amazon.

Presidential Race

CW: As usual, our own Commentariat was excellent yesterday. I particularly appreciated Akhilleus's putting the Clintons' fortune into context. As he noted, in the course of some 16 months, the accumulated earnings of all three Clintons amounted to "a third of what Robert Downey, Jr. made in a few months for making 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'." To extend Akhiilleus's commentary, I would ask: Is a former President earns $250K for a speech in which he tries to talk some fat cats & lesser richy-riches into forking over some of their millions to, say, reduce mortality rates in parts of Africa, doing pretty much the same as an oil company exec taking in a multi-million-dollar salary so he can buy a yacht, etc. -- while his company begrudgingly pays a pittance in fines for multiple safety violations until it ends up polluting the beaches, the wetlands & the oceans? And if Bill Clinton is so smart, why can't he out-earn a guy who "was a lot more interesting when he was on drugs"? ...

... (Less appreciated: Akhilleus's extensive commentary on Josh Dugger, although Akhilleus did manage to tie that repulsive, repeat child-molester to the leading lights of the Republican party, just to show you how dim those lights are. Anyhow, unless one of those dim bulbs comments on the Dugger boy, I'm leaving staying clear of him. And, no, I don't really mind Akhilleus's post on a sanctimonious punk who would tell most Reality Chex readers we were going to hell.)

Gail Collins: August 6 is "the [70th] anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and the date of the first Republican presidential debate." Collins notes that not all of 2,376 candidates will make the cut, meaning there may be no Carly Fiorina or Rick Santorum.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Henry McDonald of the Guardian: "Voters in Ireland appear to have voted strongly in favour of legalising same-sex marriage in the republic's referendum, the country's equality minister said on Saturday shortly, after counting began. 'I think it's won. I've seen bellwether boxes open, middle-of-the road areas who wouldn't necessarily be liberal and they are resoundingly voting yes,' equality minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin told Reuters at the main count centre in Dublin." ...

News Ledes

New York Times: "The United States and China on Friday escalated their dispute over contested territory in the South China Sea, after the Chinese repeatedly ordered an American military surveillance plane to abandon flights over areas where China has been building artificial islands. The continued American surveillance flights in areas where China is creating new islands in the South China Sea are intended to challenge the Chinese government's claims of expanded territorial sovereignty. Further raising the challenge, Pentagon officials said they were discussing sending warships into waters that the United States asserts are international and open to passage, but that China says are within its zone of control."

Guardian: "An inflatable dam in drought-stricken California was damaged on Thursday, causing the loss of nearly 50,000,000 gallons (190m litres) of water. Police said vandals caused 'irreversible damage' to the inflatable dam in Fremont, a city in the San Francisco Bay Area. The vandalism caused water meant for local residents to instead flow into San Francisco bay."

Washington Post: "The man convicted in the 2001 killing of federal intern Chandra Levy is likely to get a new trial after prosecutors on Friday dropped their long-standing opposition to defense efforts to have a new jury hear the case. Since 2013, attorneys for Ingmar Guandique, 34, have argued that a key witness in the 2010 trial had lied when he testified that Guandique, his onetime cellmate, confessed to him that he killed Levy."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (4)

It gives on pause (this one anyway)

According the the NYTimes, Rush Limbaugh and I are on the same side, both weighing in against the TPP deal. Of course Rush is agin' it because Obama is for it. I take comfort in my opposition because my labor friends think it will bring more havoc to the American worker. But then, Elizabeth Warren doesn't like it and neither does Harry Reid.

So let's see. Limbaugh, Warren, Reid and Ken. In the other corner, Obama and most the the Republicans. We have some very strange bedfellows to share this night.

May 22, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Yesterdays commentary on Heroes and Villains recalled a favorite anecdote: Einstein often spoke about God: "Subtle is the Lord... God does not play dice... etc." To which Danish physicist Niels Bohr responded: "Albert, stop telling God what to do."

I've always thought that was excellent advice for all of us -- especially politicians and members of the clergy. Can any of them string together more than two sentences without demanding that: "God Bless America"? What more do they want? God (if he exists) has given us hands, hearts, minds, and a magnificent planet -- which we have throughly trashed when we weren't otherwise occupied slaughtering each other in God's name. Is it possible that God is thinking: "Stop bothering Me. STFU, get off your asses, and get to work with what I've already blessed you."

May 23, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterD.C.Clark

Good work Frank Rich. However I do not think the American public is making the comparison of domestic protests with the growth of the haters in Iraq.
A huge group of under educated, unemployed young men with no hope and no future exists in Iraq and in major American cities.
In Iraq, they will fight and kill forever.
In America, they will riot and burn as the perceived injustices occur and the process will continue until it becomes an economic burden and cities, states and counties change attitudes and practices and attack the problems of the city poor.

May 23, 2015 | Unregistered Commentercarlyle

The Frank Rich piece was terrific––is so good I'm left with a feeling of fullness. He covers this problem with such a broad brush and yet we have these intimate details. How fortunate for him to have had such a good role model for a father, someone who obviously had a moral and ethical conscience.

Thanks Marie for posting this most important essay that one wishes many people will read, but sadly, that won't be the case. We'll muddle on as before––it's what we do.

May 23, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.