REALITYCHEX.COM - Constant Comments - The Commentariat -- November 3

The Ledes

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Washington Post: “Rescue teams raced to submerged homes, scoured collapsed buildings and steered thousands from overflowing dams as Helene carved a destructive path Friday, knocking out power and flooding a vast arc of communities across the southeastern United States. At least 40 people were confirmed killed in five states since the storm made landfall late Thursday as a Category 4 behemoth, unleashing record-breaking storm surge and tree-snapping gusts. 4 million homes and businesses have lost electricity across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, prompting concerns that outages could drag on for weeks. Mudslides closed highways. Water swept over roofs and snapped phone lines. Houses vanished from their foundations. Tornadoes added to the chaos. The mayor of hard-hit Canton, N.C., called the scene 'apocalyptic.'” An AP report is here.

The Wires

The Ledes

Friday, September 27, 2024

New York Times: “Maggie Smith, one of the finest British stage and screen actors of her generation, whose award-winning roles ranged from a freethinking Scottish schoolteacher in 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' to the acid-tongued dowager countess on 'Downton Abbey,' died on Friday in London. She was 89.”

The Washington Post's live updates of developments related to Hurricane Helene are here: “Hurricane Helene left one person dead in Florida and two in Georgia as it sped north. One of the biggest storms on record to hit the Gulf Coast, Helene slammed into Florida’s Big Bend area on Thursday night as a Category 4 colossus with winds of up to 140 mph before weakening to Category 1. Catastrophic winds and torrential rain from the storm — which the National Hurricane Center forecast would eventually slow over the Tennessee Valley — were expected to continue Friday across the Southeast and southern Appalachians.” ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here.

Mediaite: “Fox Weather’s Bob Van Dillen was reporting live on Fox & Friends about flooding in Atlanta from Hurricane Helene when he was interrupted by the screams of a woman trapped in her car. During the 7 a.m. hour, Van Dillen was filing a live report on the massive flooding in the area. Fox News viewers could clearly hear the urgent screams for help emerging from a car stuck on a flooded road in the background of the live shot. Van Dillen ... told Fox & Friends that 911 had been called and that the local Fire Department was on its way. But as he continued to file the report, the screams did not stop, so Van Dillen cut the live shot short.... Some 10 minutes later, Fox & Friends aired live footage of Van Dillen carrying the woman to safety, waking through chest-deep water while the flooding engulfed her car in the background[.]”

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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.'”

Page Links

Wednesday

Nov022011

The Commentariat -- November 3

Lovely Occupy Story. Jose DelReal of the Harvard Crimson: "Nearly 70 Harvard student protesters walked out of Economics 10 on Wednesday afternoon, expressing dissatisfaction with what they perceive to be an overly conservative bias in the course. The walkout was meant to be a show of support for the 'Occupy' movement’s principal criticism that conservative economic policies have increased income inequality in the United States.... Economics 10—more commonly referred to as 'Ec 10' — is taught by professor N. Gregory Mankiw, and has the highest enrollment of any course at the College, boasting over 700 enrollees.... Mankiw served as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the second Bush Administration and is currently an adviser to former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. Mankiw declined to comment for this article." CW: Mankiw did deign to talk to NPR, but as of noon ET, NPR has held back the audio. ...

... Update: here's the NPR segment. Thanks to a commenter for letting me know it was up:

... Here's Mankiw's blogpost on the subject. ...

... Paul Krugman presponded to Mankiw yesterday, accusing the Mankiw-types of suffering from Krugman Derangement Syndrome: "OK, I see that some people are doubling down on the claim that rising inequality is all about education — when what the CBO report drives home is that this is all wrong, the big increase has come from gains at the very top." ...

... AND Krugman on the "income mobility" lie: "... many people who have incomes greater than $1 million one year fall out of the category the next year — but that’s typically because their income fell from, say, 1.05 million to 0.95 million, not because they went back to being middle class. And the new millionaires are typically people who were making just shy of a million the year before, not Horatio Alger stories. And if you’d been following this subject you would know that this fallacy has been well understood for decades." CW: note also that these Horatio Alger's who got a little boost in income did not get that boost because they got their MBAs that year.

... AND Speaking of Dubya, Another Nice Occupy Story. Austin Wright of Politico: "George W. Bush visited Goldman Sachs headquarters in New York City on Wednesday.... His arrival brought some more visitors: Occupy Wall Street protesters circled the building in Lower Manhattan because they heard the former president was inside.... The protesters were chanting 'Arrest George Bush.' ... There was no indication the protesters had any opportunity to confront the former president before he departed."

Rev. Barry Lynn writes a Washington Post "On Faith" post on the House of Representive's taking time out of its busy schedule to remind President Obama & other heathens that "In God We Trust" is our national motto: "President Theodore Roosevelt ... opposed putting 'In God We Trust' on coins, remarking, 'To put such a motto on coins or to use it in any kindred manner, not only does no good but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence, which comes dangerously close to sacrilege.' Using religious resolutions for displays of false piety, to fire a salvo at political opponents or to foster another 'culture war' doesn’t come 'dangerously close' to sacrilege. It is sacrilege."

Nate Silver, in his usual thorough fashion, runs a lot of numbers to try to preduct the outcome of the 2012 presidential election: "The Bottom Line: ... With Perry having slumped in the polls ... and Romney the more likely nominee, the odds tilt slightly toward Obama joining the list of one-termers. It is early, and almost no matter what, the election will be a losable one for Republicans. But Obama’s position is tenuous enough that it might not be a winnable one for him.

Susanne Craig, et al., of the New York Times: "The details that have emerged about MF Global’s final 72 hours ... illustrate that three years after the financial crisis, Wall Street executives are still fighting regulators’ demands. It also shows that even when the watchdogs sound the alarm, it is not necessarily enough to save a firm."

The News Has a Familiar Ring. William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "Current and former prosecutors who have handled corruption cases, as well as some current and former Internal Affairs supervisors and investigators ... [say a] spate of unrelated corruption prosecutions [of NYPD officiers], and what some see as the Internal Affairs Bureau’s spotty record of uncovering major cases involving crooked officers, raise questions about the department’s ability to police itself....Several of them blamed a lack of effective outside oversight of the department’s anticorruption program, characterizing the monitoring as weak at best in recent years, with monitors having neither the political will to press the department nor support from City Hall [i.e., Baron von Bloomberg]. They also cited low starting salaries for new officers, poor morale, recruits drawn from a smaller pool of qualified candidates and a hidebound Internal Affairs Bureau bureaucracy." ...

... Daniel Rosen of the New York Observer has more on the NYPD, including this info bit of info, which I didn't know, about Sergeant Pepper-Spray: "After Ron Kuby, an attorney for one of the protesters, demanded Mr. Bologna’s arrest, he was instead docked 10 vacation days and given a cozy reassignment to Staten Island, where he lives."

Right Wing World

Via the Daily Beast.Daniel Stone of the Daily Beast: "Tea Party hero & Majority Leader Eric Cantor public derided a high-speed rail project for Nevada at the same time he asked for $3 billion for one in Virginia. At the same time Cantor was "bashing" Hud, "he owned as much as $50,000 in preferred stock in a real-estate company that receives federal housing assistance from the department." As the government showdown over debt continues—the so-called congressional supercommittee negotiating cuts has been floundering for weeks — Newsweek found about five dozen of the most fiscally conservative Republicans, from Tea Party freshmen like Allen West to anti-spending presidential candidates like Rick Perry and Ron Paul, trying to gobble up the very largesse they publicly disown, in the time-honored, budget-busting tradition of bringing home the bacon for local constituents. The stack of spending-request letters between these GOP members and federal agencies stands more than a foot tall, and disheartens some of the activists who sent Republicans to Washington in the last election."

Who Is Responsible for the Cain Harassment Leak? Michael Shear of the New York Times: A pro-Cain PAC blames the "radical left." Cain blamed it on Rick Perry. The Perry camp blamed it on Mitt Romney. The Washington Times has a story blaming it on associates of Rahm Emanuel. CW: I definitely see the hand of the Chicago mob in this story. ...

... "Blame It on Cain" -- Elvis Costello:

... Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: Cain says the allegations against him are racist but he can't prove it. "... one of the things that irks the right the very most is when they perceive the left crying racist with no evidence." Here's Cain on Fox "News"' "Special Report":

Richard Miniter in Forbes: Herman Cain fingers Curt Anderson, an ex-staffer on Cain's unsuccessful 2004 Senate bid whom Rick Perry's campaign recently hired as a consultant, for leaking the sexual harassment stories to Politico. Anderson & a spokesman for the Perry campaign both deny Cain's allegations. ...

... Jerry Bohnen of Oklahoma radio station K-TOK: "Oklahoma political consultant Chris Wilson says if the woman behind the reported sexual harassment complaint against GOP Presidential hopeful Herman Cain is allowed to speak publicly, it'll be the end of Cain's run for the White House. ...

... Jonathan Martin of Politico: "In an interview with POLITICO, Wilson said he was present for the episode and that it took place in the late '90s. Wilson declined to say specifically what Cain said or did to the woman, but that the CEO's actions made other individuals at the table uneasy. 'It was very uncomfortable,' said the pollster, recalling that other individuals present asked Cain to stop." ...

... Martin, again: Steve Deace, a syndicated conservative radio host who works out of Des Moines, Iowa, told Politico that "Cain said 'awkward' and 'inappropriate' things to the [female] staff at his station." CW: as nearly as I can tell, this was a recent incident. ...

... Jonathan Easley of The Hill: Joel Bennett, "the lawyer for one of the women who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment, said his client might get a chance to speak publicly about the allegations because [Herman Cain] violated the confidentiality agreement between the two." ...

... Aargh! I Can't Keep Up! Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "Joel P. Bennett, the lawyer for one of the women who has made accusations against Mr. Cain, said that his client had decided not to go public or to make a public statement herself in an effort to shield herself from the media frenzy swirling around the situation." ...

... Update. Jonathan Martin of Politico: "The attorney for one of the women accusing Herman Cain of sexual harassment is asking the National Restaurant Association permission to allow her to issue a public statement about her allegations." ...

... Update on the Update of the Update: "The National Restaurant Association issued a statement Thursday afternoon indicating that they'd decide tomorrow on whether to let one of the women who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment to issue a statement."

... Update: Martin: "... one of the women who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment at the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s received a payout of about $45,000 as part of her settlement — significantly more than the two or three months’ salary Cain initially recalled the woman obtained.The woman who received the approximately $45,000 is the staffer who Cain has acknowledged formally lodged a complaint about his behavior.... According to The New York Times, the second woman received $35,000 — a year’s pay. Cain ... has not acknowledged that there is more than one settlement."

... Dana Milbank: Cain cracks up. ...

... Ashley Southall of the New York Times: "Reacting to new harassment allegations against Herman Cain on Wednesday, some conservative bloggers began tempering their defense of the embattled Republican presidential candidate."

The crowd that was elected the last time not only came here to do nothing, they also came to put down the president. And the way to put him down is not to give him any kind of opportunity to be successful. Republicans made a decision right after the election—don’t give Obama any victories. The heck with putting people to work, because we can score points. -- Ray LaHood

Eleanor Clift of the Daily Beast: "Democrats aren’t alone anymore in sounding the alarm about the paralysis gripping Congress these days. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former congressman and the lone Republican in the Cabinet, says he believes his own party has put defeating President Obama ahead of creating jobs in America."

Teachers Are Incompetent AND Overpaid! Kayla Webley of Time: "... conservative thinkers at the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation< issued a paper on Tuesday arguing not only that teachers are overpaid, but when you factor in pensions, health care and other benefits, that total compensation for teachers is 52% higher than fair market value...." ...

... "You Get the Teachers You Pay For." Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine: "The paper doesn’t really show that we pay teachers enough. It shows that the skill level of the teaching workforce is, on average, commensurate with the pay level. Pay teachers badly, and you’ll get a lot of bad teachers.... If we paid teachers more, we’d get better teachers."

News Ledes

New York Times: "President Obama plunged Thursday into the fast-moving European debt crisis, arriving [in Cannes, France] to exhort European leaders to get their financial house in order. But while the president hustled from meeting to meeting with world leaders, he was in many ways thrust into the rare position of bystander, as the unfolding drama over whether the Greek government would fall (it did not) and whether Greece would back the comprehensive accord to protect the euro reached last week (it will, at least for now) dominated conversations...."

The Atlantic: "Protesters occupied Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office on Thursday, a notably partisan move that aligns the protesters more closely with congressional Democrats who say McConnell is a key roadblock to action on economic legislation President Obama has proposed."

Politico: "Prosecutors have filed criminal charges against precious metal dealer Goldline International - endorsed by conservative celebrities Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin -- accusing the company of defrauding customers and tricking them into buying coins under false pretenses. The Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office this week filed a 19-charge criminal complaint against Goldline, a California-based retailer, alleging the company runs a 'bait and switch operation' and suckers customers seeking to invest in gold bullion to instead buy overpriced coins."

President Obama participated in a second G-20 working meeting & a working dinner.

Bloomberg News: "Fewer Americans filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, signaling limited progress in the labor market."

Washington Post: "Greek politicians appeared to be rallying around a tough bailout plan Thursday, after the country’s main opposition party dropped its objections to the package and indicated it would back the measures. Prime Minister George Papandreou’s proposal to hold a national referendum on the bailout plan, a vote that would also determine Greece’s future in the euro zone, had caused fissures within his Socialist party and sent shockwaves through Europe. Thursday evening, he appeared to back away from the referendum, saying in a speech to his cabinet that if the opposition agreed to the bailout, there was no need to put it to a popular test." ...

... Bloomberg News: Italian PM Silvio "Berlusconi is going 'to Cannes empty-handed,' Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy’s leading financial daily, said in a front-page editorial. The Cabinet last night only agreed on a 'mini-plan' to fight the debt crisis, rather than accelerating a promised economic revamp through an emergency decree, the Milan-based newspaper said."

Washington Post: "Republicans on a House Energy and Commerce Committee panel on Thursday overrode vigorous Democratic objections and took the apparently unprecedented step of authorizing subpoenas for internal White House communications related to a half-billion dollar taxpayer loan guarantee for the failed solar company Solyndra. The move followed a last-minute attempt by the White House to fend off the move, with officials meeting with committee members and delivering several boxes of e-mails and other documents to committee investigators on Wednesday afternoon."

President Obama participated in a working meeting with G-20 leaders.

President Obama met with L-20 labor leaders this morning.

President Obama & Chancellor Merkel held a bilateral meeting today.

Presidents Obama & Sarkozy held a bilateral meeting this morning. AP: "Europe's debt drama dominated talks among leaders of the Group of 20 leading economies Thursday, with Greece's government facing potential collapse and European leaders admitting that the eurozone may face losing its weakest member. President Barack Obama said the most important task at the G-20 summit is to resolve the European financial crisis and urged European Union leaders to flesh out details of their ambitious plan to rescue Greece and stabilize financial markets."

Bloomberg News: "The high technology Internet industry and trial lawyers are helping President Barack Obama avoid a potential fundraising liability caused in part by a drop in support from his biggest 2008 industry backer: Wall Street.... Obama, 50, is exceeding his record fundraising pace of four years ago, even though he started later this time around."

President Obama arrived in Nice, France, early this morning to attend the G-20 meeting.

New York Times: "Hours after Prime Minister George A. Papandreou of Greece emerged from a meeting with Europe’s leaders here, pledging to hold a referendum on a new European debt deal within weeks, splits deepened Thursday within his government on the eve of a no-confidence vote that could lead to its collapse."

AP: "President Barack Obama says Iran's nuclear program continues to pose a threat, and that he and the president of France want the international community to keep pressuring Iran to come clean about its intentions. Obama commented Thursday as the International Atomic Energy Agency was preparing to soon reveal intelligence on Iran's alleged nuclear arms experiments."

New York Times: "Tear gas hung over Oakland for the second time in two weeks after a small group of demonstrators faced off against police early Thursday following a peaceful march of thousands of Occupy Oakland protesters." ...

... ABC News: "Police have used tear gas and 'flash bang' grenades on a large crowd of demonstrators that lit a massive bonfire in the streets of downtown Oakland, Calif., in a conflict following a day of action that saw the city’s port closed after demonstrators. Dozens of police in riot gear advanced on protesters who had pushed together several large metal and plastic trash bins to start a fire that reached 15 feet in the air, according to The Associated Press."

AP: "Syrian tanks mounted with machine-guns fired Thursday on a city at the heart of the country's uprising, killing at least four people one day after Damascus agreed to an Arab League plan calling on the government to pull the military out of cities, activists said."

Reuters: "Pressure mounted on Italy's besieged premier> to quit on Thursday, as six former parliamentary loyalists called for a new government and the squabbling cabinet failed to agree an urgent economic reform program."

AP: "Cuba announced Thursday it will allow real estate to be bought and sold for the first time since the early days of the revolution, the most important reform yet in a series of free-market changes under President Raul Castro

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