REALITYCHEX.COM - Constant Comments - The Commentariat -- Sept. 15, 2013

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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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The Commentariat -- Sept. 15, 2013

Devin Dwyer of ABC News: "President Obama says a tumultuous month as commander in chief, when his policy toward Syria took a number of unexpected turns, may not have looked 'smooth and disciplined and linear,' but it;s working." CW: Stephanopoulos says in his lead-in to the interview, "If it works, and that's big 'if' right now, the President may be able to claim a measure [a word he stretches out & delivers with a skeptical inflection] of victory for an approach that's brought him a mountain of criticism." That's George, perfectly playing one of the Village people, unhappy perhaps that Obama has deprived ABC News of increased ratings courtesy of war coverage. Schmuck. (For more on Village people groupspeak, see Michael Tomasky's review of Mark Leibovich's Our Town, linked below.)

Steve Holland of Reuters: "President Barack Obama vowed on Saturday that Syria will be held to account if it fails to live up to its promises to surrender chemical weapons as he faced questions about how a deal brokered by U.S. and Russian diplomats would be enforced." Here's the "Statement by the President on U.S.-Russian Agreement on Framework for Elimination of Syrian Chemical Weapons." ...

... Here's the framework of the agreement between the U.S. & Russia for the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons, via the State Department. ...

... The AP summarizes the points of agreement & unresolved issues. ...

... NEW. Here is a transcript of remarks by Kerry & Lavrov, following the meeting in which they forged the agreement on Syrian chemical weapons, via the U.S. State Department. ...

... NEW. Right on cue, Margaret Wente of the Toronto Globe & Mail, writes a column that's getting a lot of Internet action titled, "Barack Obama, the 98-pound weakling." (See my headline prediction in yesterday's Commentariat. Thanks, Margaret. ...

... Oliver Holmes of Reuters: "Syrian warplanes and artillery bombarded rebel suburbs of the capital on Sunday after the United States agreed to call off military action in a deal with Russia to remove President Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons." ...

... CW: forgot to run President Obama's weekly address yesterday. He follows up on his speech re: reaching a diplomatic solution. He cut it, of course, before the U.S. & Russia reached the above agreement:

Forget the Syria debate, we need a debate on why we're always debating whether to bomb someone. Because we're starting to look not so much like the world's policeman, but more like George Zimmerman. Itching to use force and then pretending it's because we had no choice. -- Bill Maher

... Actually, James Fearon, writing in the Monkey Cage, suggests a reason: "... where [Russia & the U.S.] have ended up should be starting to look familiar, and arguably tells us something about the structure of post-Cold War international politics.... Multilateral cooperation through the UNSC [United Nations Security Council] thus often take the form of the US, sometimes with allies, threatening to intervene without UNSC authorization. This is the 'outside option,' and it stands behind negotiations over whether there are terms for a UN resolution that both the US and the 'constrainers' would both prefer to its exercise. Usually this leads to intervention or multilateral action with UNSC authorization, as in Bosnia or Haiti. But sometimes not, as in Kosovo or Iraq."

Jim Kuhnhenn of the AP: "President Barack Obama is marking the fifth anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse by trying to lay claim to an economic turnaround and warning Republicans against moves that he contends would risk a backslide. His message to the GOP: Don't oppose raising the nation's debt limit, don't threaten to close down the government in a budget fight, and don't push to delay the health care law or starve it of federal money. The economic emphasis, after weeks devoted to the Syrian crisis, begins coming into focus in a series of events kicked off by a Rose Garden speech Monday." ...

... NEW. Economist James Galbraith in Al Jazeera America takes a realistic; i.e., pessimistic, view of our economic future. & provides quite a useful sketch of the last 100 years of economic history. Thanks to contributor Barbarossa for the link.

Bill Barrow of the AP: "Tea party activists, once unquestioned as a benefit to the Republican Party for supplying it with votes and energy, are now criticizing GOP leaders at seemingly every turn. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that more than 7 in 10 self-identified 'tea party Republicans' disapprove of the job performance of GOP congressional leaders. Many of the major tea party groups are backing 2014 primary challengers against Republicans the activists deem too moderate, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell." ...

... ** Thomas Mann & Norm Ornstein, from an update of their book It's Even Worse Than It Looks: "The old conservative GOP has been transformed into a party beholden to ideological zealots, one that sees little need to balance individualism with community, freedom with equality, markets with regulation, state with national power, or policy commitments with respect for facts, evidence, science, and a willingness to compromise. These two factors -- asymmetric polarization and the mismatch between our parties and governing institutions -- continue to account for the major share of our governing problems. But the media continues, for the most part, to miss this story." ...

... CW: I have been trying for a couple of days to get to Michael Tomasky's NYRB review of Mark Leibovich's Our Town, which is here. Contributor Ken Winkes, who cited the review, picked out the most interesting part: "Alan I. Abramowitz ... performs a multivariate analysis of the factors that are likely to make a citizen a Tea Party supporter. Conservative ideology matters most. But next -- ahead of demographic factors like age, gender, and income, ahead of church attendance and even party identification -- are 'racial resentment, and dislike of Obama.'" I do ask that you remember the right's antipathy for the Clintons, though. Wingers accused Hillary Clinton of being a socialist & a murderer & Bill Clinton of running drugs out of the Arkansas woods. Darrell Issa's hearings on the IRS & Benghazi look fairly tame compared to Congressional hearings & special counsel investigations of Watergate, Travelgate, Vince Foster, Hillary's missing billing records, etc.

** Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Lawrence H. Summers's prospects of becoming chairman of the Federal Reserve have become murkier since three key Democratic senators signaled in recent days that they would oppose his nomination. Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana and a member of the Banking Committee, said on Friday that he would vote against sending Mr. Summers's nomination.... Two of Mr. Tester's fellow Democrats on the committee, Senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, have also signaled through their aides that they would vote no.... As skepticism grows..., the White House has made it clear to Democrats on Capitol Hill that Mr. Summers is Mr. Obama's choice. Republicans, too, are wary of Mr. Summers. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, and Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas have both said that they would not vote for Mr. Summers. In August, Mr. Roberts said, 'I wouldn't want Larry Summers to mow my yard.'" ...

Gretchen Morgenson & Robert Gebeloff of the New York Times: big banks have been hoarding ethanol credits & selling them at prices 20 times the rates they sold for just 6 months ago as EPA regs force refineries to purchase them. "The market in ethanol credits is exactly the kind Wall Street loves: opaque, lightly regulated and potentially very lucrative." Oh, and they're not exactly regulated, but Scott Mixon, acting chief economist of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said the agency was thinking about thinking about it. Thomas "O'Malley, the chairman of PBF Energy, likens the outcome to a hidden tax on the public. Unlike other taxes, which go to the government, this one goes to the speculators. CW: of course the ultimate victim in this banking scam is the driving public, who will have to pay for the price-gouging. AND/OR our gas tanks will corrode thanks to too much ethanol in the mix. Simple solution: change the law to reduce the ethanol requirement. Oh. Congress.

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "Dan Pfeiffer, President Obama's 37-year-old chief strategist and one of his longest-serving advisers, was hospitalized twice last week after suffering 'stroke-like symptoms,' White House officials confirmed on Friday."

Missed this Friday afternoon news dump. Byron Tau & Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "The Obama administration on Friday told labor union leaders that their health plans would not be eligible for tax subsidies under Obamacare next year. A White House official said the Treasury Department has concluded that such an exemption is not possible under the Affordable Care Act. The labor unions have been asking that their union plans, known as Taft-Hartley plans, be eligible for premium subsidies the way plans on the new insurance exchange will be. A senior administration official said the White House looked at several ways to make the union plans eligible for subsidies but couldn't find one."

Maureen Dowd takes us on a field trip to the C.I.A.'s Langley HQ with actors Claire Danes & Mandy Potamkin, who star in "Homeland," a Showtime series about the C.I.A.'s complicated ops. CW: maybe MoDo thinks it's her job to give us little people thrilling peeks behind-the-scenes peeks at places we're not likely to go; otherwise, I don't know why she writes this stuff.

Local News

** Aaron Davis of the Washington Post: Washington D.C. "Mayor Vincent C. Gray's decision this week to veto a law requiring Wal-Mart to offer higher pay pitted support for a 'living wage 'against a desire to spur investment and job growth in the city.... Barring a last-minute change by one of five council members who voted against the measure in July, it appears likely to die during an override attempt on Tuesday... For ... thousands ... who cross the city line every day on their way to the Landover Wal-Mart, the battle was about something more basic: low prices. Gray's decision brought focus to the flipside of the living-wage debate: that Wal-Mart's customers are often as economically disadvantaged as those who scrape by on its hourly wages."

Mark Guarino of the Christian Science Monitor: "Marriage licenses will no longer be given out to same-sex couples in Pennsylvania, a state judge has ruled, putting into limbo the legal status of more than 100 couples who married recently despite a long-standing ban on same-sex marriage in the state."

Sarah Jones in Wall of Separation: Texas creationists are making new trouble for Texas schools. The Board of Education appointed several creationists to a panel to review biology textbooks, and -- surprise, surprise -- they're attempting to get the teaching of creationism into the kids' biology books. One reviewer wrote,

I understand the National Academy of Science's [sic] strong support of the theory of evolution. At the same time, this is a theory. As an educator, parent, and grandparent, I feel very firmly that 'creation science' based on Biblical principles should be incorporated into every Biology book that is up for adoption.

... Via Steve Benen.

Brinley Bruton of NBC News: "The Vatican's new secretary of state [Archbishop Pietro Parolin] has said that priestly celibacy is not church dogma and therefore open to discussion, marking a significant change in approach towards one of the thorniest issues facing the Roman Catholic Church.... He added that while it was not dogma, clerical celibacy was a deeply entrenched Catholic tradition." Also via Benen.

AND Benen posts video the Christian Broadcasting Network tried to cover up of Pat Robertson's claim that AIDS-afflicted gay people in San Francisco go around spreading the disease by means of secret rings that cut the hands of those they shake hands with. CW: Robertson's theorizing begins at about 1:50 min. into the tape & is gratuitous; it has little to do with the preceding discussion.

News Ledes

AFP: "More than 500 stranded victims of major flooding in Colorado braced for a new round of heavy rain Sunday that is threatening to impede rescue efforts. Officials noted that many of those unaccounted for may simply not be able to telephone loved ones because of flood damage to many cell phone towers." The Denver Post's lede story is here. More stories linked on the Post's front page.

AP: "Tropical Storm Manuel churned very near to Mexico's southwest Pacific shoreline Sunday as thousands on the country's Gulf rim sought shelter from approaching Hurricane Ingrid....

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Reader Comments (11)

CW writes: "otherwise, I don't know why she [MoDo] writes this stuff."

She writes it because she's lazy. And because she thinks it empowers her to write more lazy shit like this. By-lines have their privilege.

September 14, 2013 |

James Singer

Tea Party criticism of "regular" Republicans who are merely run of the mill ignorant, craven, racist and misogynistic is a good thing. Tea Partyites differ little from their counterparts. Its the same sundae with a double scoop of ice cream ( vanilla of course), heavy on the hot fudge, with extra cherries and whip cream. It is ludicrous when the media tries to beat the drum for differences with insignificant distinctions. "Lets you and them fight" can be very effective and may prove a benefit to the Democrats in elections.

Good on Obama. It seems he's been successful in shifting the responsibility to Putin for Assad's compliance with the chemical weapon agreement as well as potential future brutality. I think Obama has paradoxed Putin quite nicely. And yes, I believe it was a strategy not an accidental "remark" by Kerry.

September 14, 2013 |

Diane

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/15/the-post-lehman-economy.html

James K. Galbraith in AJAM: What needs to be done about the economy, but we know it won't. He mentions that some parts of our military will never be used again, but he has little hope that those parts will be scrapped.

He also points out that in FDR's day, Congress hadn't been bought, which made governing easier. Nor did FDR owe the banks anything.

I have found AJAM a good news source. I'm sure my Fox-loving redneck neighbors wouldn't approve.

September 15, 2013 |

Barbarossa

Apropos of our many discussions about the demimondes our politicians toy with and whether these girls/ women are victims, here is a fascinating essay on one of the most famous: Marie Duplessis whose life was drawn on by Alexandre Dumas fils for his Lady of the Camellias and became a play, a film, and an opera. The title of this piece is called "Broken Blossoms" which is the name of D. W. Griffith's silent film starring Lillian Gish.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/sep/26/broken-blossoms-marie-duplessis/

September 15, 2013 |

PD Pepe

@Barbarossa. I'm with you on AJAM. No posturing or loud talk. I have been enjoying actual journalism. The longer stories are well researched also. I was impressed with the piece on Colorado City, AZ, the town controlled by Warren Jeffs even though he is in prison. The reporter was respectful and an effective interviewer.

September 15, 2013 |

Diane

Beaking news: Tell me I'm not dreaming. Summers withdraws from consideration as Fed Chair. Pinch me!

September 15, 2013 |

MAG

aggggh! Breaking, not beaking! So excited. Even the NYT announced it.

September 15, 2013 |

MAG

Here's the WSJ report:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323981304579077442028100408.html

September 15, 2013 |

James Singer

Hooray for the Progressive Caucus in the Senate (Senators Jeff Merkley, Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown), for the blogsphere--especially Marie and Reality Chex--and to Obama, who thankfully does not want to lose his progressive base entirely!

Now Larry S. can return to Citibank and make more millions. Probly what he wanted to do anyway. A good day in the midst of so many bad ones!

September 15, 2013 |

Kate Madison

Hey, MAG, breaking or beaking this news is worth breaking out the good bubbly and toast Summers, providence, god, the good fairies and anyone else who had the good sense to say, whoa there cowboy, can't you see ya ain't wanted, no way, no how. I'm all smiles.

September 15, 2013 |

PD Pepe

'Scuze me! I said "progressive caucus" in my comment, and I meant Senate Banking Committee!

Kate

September 15, 2013 |

Kate Madison

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