The Ledes

Saturday, April 2, 2025

New York Times: “Charlotte Webb, who as a young woman helped code breakers decipher enemy signals at Britain’s top-secret Bletchley Park, died on Monday. She was 101.... Ms. Webb, known as Betty, was 18 when she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British Army, and was assigned to work at the base in Buckinghamshire where Bletchley Park was located. From 1941 to 1945, she helped in the decryption of German messages, and also worked on Japanese signals. In 2015, Ms. Webb was appointed as Member of the Order of the British Empire and in 2021 she was awarded the Légion d’Honneur, France’s most prestigious honor. She was one of the last surviving members of the storied Bletchley Park code breaking team.”

New York Times: “Val Kilmer, a homegrown Hollywood actor who tasted leading-man stardom as Jim Morrison and Batman, but whose protean gifts and elusive personality also made him a high-profile supporting player, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 65.”

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To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

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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.

Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.

 

Public Service Announcement

Zoë Schlanger in the Atlantic: "Throw out your black plastic spatula. In a world of plastic consumer goods, avoiding the material entirely requires the fervor of a religious conversion. But getting rid of black plastic kitchen utensils is a low-stakes move, and worth it. Cooking with any plastic is a dubious enterprise, because heat encourages potentially harmful plastic compounds to migrate out of the polymers and potentially into the food. But, as Andrew Turner, a biochemist at the University of Plymouth recently told me, black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid." This is a gift link from laura h.

Mashable: "Following the 2024 presidential election results and [Elon] Musk's support for ... Donald Trump, users have been deactivating en masse. And this time, it appears most everyone has settled on one particular X alternative: Bluesky.... Bluesky has gained more than 100,000 new sign ups per day since the U.S. election on Nov. 5. It now has over 15 million users. It's enjoyed a prolonged stay on the very top of Apple's App Store charts as well. Ready to join? Here's how to get started on Bluesky[.]"

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."

Wherein Michael McIntyre explains how Americans adapted English to their needs. With examples:

Beat the Buzzer. Some amazing young athletes:

     ~~~ Here's the WashPo story (March 23).

Back when the Washington Post had an owner/publisher who dared to stand up to a president:

Prime video is carrying the documentary. If you watch it, I suggest watching the Spielberg film "The Post" afterwards. There is currently a free copy (type "the post full movie" in the YouTube search box) on YouTube (or you can rent it on YouTube, on Prime & [I think] on Hulu). Near the end, Daniel Ellsberg (played by Matthew Rhys), says "I was struck in fact by the way President Johnson's reaction to these revelations was [that they were] 'close to treason,' because it reflected to me the sense that what was damaging to the reputation of a particular administration or a particular individual was in itself treason, which is very close to saying, 'I am the state.'" Sound familiar?

Out with the Black. In with the White. New York Times: “Lester Holt, the veteran NBC newscaster and anchor of the 'NBC Nightly News' over the last decade, announced on Monday that he will step down from the flagship evening newscast in the coming months. Mr. Holt told colleagues that he would remain at NBC, expanding his duties at 'Dateline,' where he serves as the show’s anchor.... He said that he would continue anchoring the evening news until 'the start of summer.' The network did not immediately name a successor.” ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “MSNBC said on Monday that Jen Psaki, the former White House press secretary who has become one of the most prominent hosts at the network, would anchor a nightly weekday show in prime time. Ms. Psaki, 46, will host a show at 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, replacing Alex Wagner, a longtime political journalist who has anchored that hour since 2022, according to a memo to staff from Rebecca Kutler, MSNBC’s president. Ms. Wagner will remain at MSNBC as an on-air correspondent. Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s biggest star, has been anchoring the 9 p.m. hour on weeknights for the early days of ... [Donald] Trump’s administration but will return to hosting one night a week at the end of April.”

New York Times: “Joy Reid’s evening news show on MSNBC is being canceled, part of a far-reaching programming overhaul orchestrated by Rebecca Kutler, the network’s new president, two people familiar with the changes said. The final episode of Ms. Reid’s 7 p.m. show, 'The ReidOut,' is planned for sometime this week, according to the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly. The show, which features in-depth interviews with politicians and other newsmakers, has been a fixture of MSNBC’s lineup for the past five years. MSNBC is planning to replace Ms. Reid’s program with a show led by a trio of anchors: Symone Sanders Townsend, a political commentator and former Democratic strategist; Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee; and Alicia Menendez, the TV journalist, the people said. They currently co-host 'The Weekend,' which airs Saturday and Sunday mornings.” MB: In case you've never seen “The Weekend,” let me assure you it's pretty awful. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: "Joy Reid is leaving MSNBC, the network’s new president announced in a memo to staff on Monday, marking an end to the political analyst and anchor’s prime time news show."

Y! Entertainment: "Meanwhile, [Alex] Wagner will also be removed from her 9 pm weeknight slot. Wagner has already been working as a correspondent after Rachel Maddow took over hosting duties during ... Trump’s first 100 days in office. It’s now expected that Wagner will not return as host, but is expected to stay on as a contributor. Jen Psaki, President Biden’s former White House press secretary, is a likely replacement for Wagner, though a decision has not been finalized." MB: In fairness to Psaki, she is really too boring to watch. On the other hand, she is White. ~~~

     ~~~ RAS: "So MSNBC is getting rid of both of their minority evening hosts. Both women of color who are not afraid to call out the truth. Outspoken minorities don't have a long shelf life in the world of our corporate news media."

 

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The Commentariat -- October 4

AP: "Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell of Delaware said in a 2006 debate that China was plotting to take over America and claimed to have classified information about the country that she couldn't divulge." CW: later O'Donnell revealed that the CIA sends her classified information via coded radio transmissions which her teeth pick up. (Perhaps I made that last bit up.) ...

     ... the ever-so-level-headed Jim Fallows of The Atlantic: "... the 'privy to classified information' riff ..., to anyone who knows anything about the world of politics, instantly signals, 'I am completely insane.'" ...

     ... Steve Benen: "even for a Senate candidate who's lied repeatedly about her educational background, is suspected of campaign embezzlement, is suspected of tax fraud, rejects modern science, hates gays, has crusaded against masturbation, has talked about stopping Americans from having sex, and embraces a hysterically extreme political worldview, this is pretty extraordinary." More on O'Donnell on the Delaware page.

** Robbing from the Bereaved & the Taxpayer to Give to -- Prudential. David Evans of the Washington Post: "... Prudential [Financial] is investing - and profiting from - death benefits owed to service members' families, using money provided by the government.... The government has paid Prudential $1.7 billion for these benefits since 2003, when the war in Iraq began." Prudential holds & invests money due to survivors, setting them up with "quasi-checking accounts" while Prudential retains profits on the remaining balance for itself rather than for the survivors. 

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) writes a great op-ed in USA Today: "... rage on the right should not be confused with populism. The far right attacks government regulation as it feeds Wall Street and the insurance companies. It rails against government spending for the least privileged as it lavishes tax cuts favoring the most privileged." Read it all. ...

... ** Paul Krugman writes a terrific column about how Rupert Murdoch's Fox "News" & the billionaires club have co-opted the Republican party for their own gain. ...

... "A Spending Frenzy Conducted Largely in the Shadows." T. W. Farnam & Dan Eggen of the Washington Post: "Interest groups are spending five times as much on the 2010 congressional elections as they did on the last midterms, and they are more secretive than ever about where that money is coming from. The bulk of the money is being spent by conservatives, who have swamped their Democratic-aligned competition by 7 to 1 in recent weeks. The wave of spending is made possible in part by a series of Supreme Court rulings...." ...

... AND Ben Smith found out why Rupert Murdoch sent $1 million each to the Republican Governors' Association & the anti-Obama Chamber of Commerce, thus putting the last nail in the coffin of the "fair & balanced" pretense:

A person close to News Corp. told me this week the company didn't realize its $1 million to the RGA would become public. And the $1 million to Chamber of Commerce was supposed to be secret as well.

Philosopher J. M. Bernstein applies a Hegelian model to the Wall Street fiasco. Hegel explained why Dodd-Frank should have been a lot stronger. Fairly easy-to-follow.

In his New Yorker Commentary, Steve Coll reads Bob Woodward's Obama's Wars & paints a portrait of a President who brings "realism & intelligence" to the Afghan-Pakistan conundrum. ...

... Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post: "Obama has chosen a sensible middle course in Afghanistan, trying to devote significant time and resources to that country, degrading the Taliban but also letting the U.S. military know that this is not an unlimited engagement and that America has other interests in the world.... Americans are chronically disappointed by the way their wars end. This is because while waging wars, Americans refuse to think through the political and military tradeoffs needed to get to a reasonable outcome."

Richard E. Cohen of Politico: "In an unprecedented letter to all congressional candidates in both parties, more than 130 former members of Congress" urged the current crop ... "to find common ground to solve problems” & show some "decency and respect toward opponents."

Kathleen Hennessey in the Los Angeles Times: Democrats are throwing some Republican candidates off-message, "Rarely has a set of candidates given opponents so much to work with."

The Republicans have lost their standards, they’ve lost their principles.... Really that’s why the machine in the Republican Party is fighting against me.... They have never really gone along with lower taxes and less government. -- Nevada Republican Senate nominee Sharron Angle, in a closed-door meeting with a tea party opponent

Scoop! Jon Ralston of the Las Vegas Sun obtained a tape of a meeting among Sharron Angle, her Tea Party of Nevada opponent Scott Ashjian, & their minions. Pretty raw stuff. Includes audio of the meeting. ...

     ... Update from Shira Toeplitz of Politico: "Nevada Tea Party candidate Scott Ashjian admitted Sunday that he secretly recorded a conversation with Republican Senate nominee Sharron Angle, at a meeting in which she asks him to get out of the race, and that he leaked the tape to a journalist." The recording, according to a Harvard Law professor, was illegal. ...

     ... Update: or maybe Ashjian isn't a teabagger at all. Here's an  the Tea Party Express produced:

     ... AND Christiana Bellantoni of Talking Points Memo adds, "Cleta Mitchell, a top Republican lawyer representing Sharron Angle's Senate bid in Nevada, told TPM ... that the meeting [with Ashjian] ... was 'a setup.'" See more on the Nevada senatorial race on the Nevada page.

Barry Friedman & Dahlia Lithwick in Slate: how the Roberts Court has used deft magicians' tricks to shove the law to the right without the public's noticing it. ...

... Half-Time Justice. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: Elena "Kagan's old job as solicitor general - the '10th justice' - is initially making it hard to do her new job as the ninth justice. Kagan, 50, has recused herself from 25 of the 51 cases the court has accepted so far this term, all as a result of her 14-month tenure as solicitor general, the government's chief legal representative in the Supreme Court and the nation's lower appellate courts."

** Here's the Huff Post's sign-up sheet for bus rides from New York City to Washington, D.C. for Jon Stewart's "Sanity Rally." The deadline for sign-up is this Friday, October 8.

News You Can Use (Maybe):

Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times: "As some of the nation’s largest lenders have conceded that their foreclosure procedures might have been improperly handled, lawsuits have revealed myriad missteps in crucial documents." ...

... Ylan Mui of the Washington Post: 675 colleges & a pricey credit card company collaborate to fleece students in a deal that falls outside reform legislation. ...

... Candice Choi of the AP: "... a federal study last year found that about one in four U.S. households skirts banks and relies on services such as check-cashing and payday loans. Many of these households bring in less than $30,000 a year." Choi, who tried living in the non-bank world herself, found it to be both costly & fustrating.

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