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Sunday, October 6, 2024

Weather Channel: “Tropical Storm Milton, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, is expected to become a hurricane late Sunday or early Monday. The storm is expected to pose a major hurricane threat to Florida by midweek, just over a week after Helene pushed through the region. The National Hurricane Center says that 'there is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and wind impacts for portions of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula beginning late Tuesday or Wednesday.'”

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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
Sep282013

The Commentariat -- Sept. 29, 2013

Stupid Party Tricks, Ctd.

Chris Moody of, appropriately enough, Yahoo News: "The House approved a spending bill early Sunday morning that would fund the government through Dec. 15, but tacked on amendments that would delay ... Obamacare for one year and repeal the medical device tax, a move that sets up a showdown with Senate Democrats and increases the probability of a government shutdown Tuesday. The Obamacare delay amendment passed 231-192, and the vote on the medical device tax, which would help cover the costs of Obamacare, was 248-174. The House also unanimously passed a bill to fund the military in the event of a shutdown." ...

... John Bresnahan & Jake Sherman of Politico: "Republicans moved onto the House floor Saturday evening to attempt to pass a bill that funds the government for three months, delays Obamacare for one and permanently repeals a tax on medical devices. The House Republican Conference appeared, for once, unified behind the measure, and was expected to vote late into Saturday night. House Republicans also intend to advance a bill to pay U.S. troops in the case of a government shutdown." ...

... Lisa Desjardins of CNN: "House Republicans have added a measure aimed at limiting contraceptive coverage to the spending bill coming up for a vote Saturday night...." CW: Hell, why not? All you federal workers or furlough can just stay home & make babies. ...

     ... Scott Lemieux in Lawyers, Guns & Money: Never waste a crisis for neglecting to punish women!.... I remember when the hot proposition among centrist pundits was a 'Grand Bargain' in which pro-choicers would agree that abortion was gross and should be made arbitrarily less accessible to poor women in exchange for greater access to contraception. In addition to the first part being a terrible idea, the crucial flaw in the plan has always been that most actually existing American anti-choicers care about regulating female sexuality, not protecting fetal life.... And don't call it a 'conscience clause.' It's a 'denial of healthcare people are legally entitled to' clause and an 'imposing one's religious beliefs on others' clause.'"

... Paul Kane, et al., of the Washington Post: "House Republican leaders proposed a new plan to the GOP rank-and-file Saturday afternoon: Make a new gesture of defiance toward President Obama's health-care law, even if it increases the chances of a government shutdown Monday night. Their plan calls for amendments to a bill designed to keep the government open for a few more weeks. The changes would include a one-year delay in the health-care law, which is set to take effect next month. The GOP plan would also repeal, permanently, a medical-device tax included in the law. The advantage of that plan -- for Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and his team -- is political. After being criticized by GOP hard-liners for not doing enough to undermine the health-care law, Boehner has taken a far more aggressive position. Instead of seeking to take away some of the money to implement Obamacare, their new plan would push back the whole thing." ...

... AP: "The White House says President Barack Obama would veto House Republican legislation that would delay much of the president's health care overhaul for a year and cancel a tax on medical devices." CW: Read the "Statement by the Press Secretary." It is really tough. We should be delighted. ...

By pandering to the Tea Party minority and trying to delay the benefits of health care reform for millions of seniors and families, House Republicans are now actively pushing for a completely unnecessary government shutdown. -- Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Budget Committee

This is a warmup act to the debt ceiling. The inability to get a clean [short-term budget] out of the House -- something I believe the Republican leadership actually wants -- should dispel any lingering doubts about who's in control over there. -- Jared Bernstein, former Obama administration economist

Mr. President, we are at one of the most dangerous points in our history right now. Every bit as dangerous as the break-up of the Union before the Civil War. -- Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), on the Senate floor Friday

... Burgess Everett & Manu Raju of Politico: "Senate Democrats will reject the House government funding bill on the eve of a shutdown, seeking to pressure House Republicans to approve their plan to keep government running past Tuesday. 'We are not discussing extensions. The only way out of this is for the House to pass our clean CR [continuing resolution],' a senior Senate Democratic aide said. 'A one-year delay will not pass the Senate and the House knows it,' added a second Democratic aide." ...

... As the Washington Post report (linked above) states, "The GOP plan would also repeal, permanently, a medical-device tax included in the law." In case you're wondering what that's all about, Lee Fang of the Nation has the skinny on that. Let's be fair to teabaggers: they aren't just foaming-at-the-mouth ideologues; sometimes they can be cute little lobbyists' puppets, too.

... This must be Ezra Klein's philosophy:

      ... BECAUSE Klein sees Boehner's plan to shut down the government as good news: "Boehner's original plan was to pass a clean bill to fund the government and then attach the one-year delay of Obamacare to the debt-ceiling bill. It was a strategy that would minimize the chances of a shutdown but maximize the chances of a default.... But that strategy failed. Boehner's members refused to wait for the debt ceiling.... Moving the one-year delay of Obamacare to the CR maximizes the chances of a shutdown but makes a default at least somewhat less likely." CW: We'll see. The obvious solution is to bring bills to the floor that can pass with Democratic & some Republican support. That may be Boehner's Hail Mary on the debt ceiling bill. ...

CW: Read this, Ezra, & let us know if you think these teabaggers can be chastened:

The whole room [said], 'Let's vote!' I said, like 9/11, 'Let's roll! -- Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), likening himself and his fellow teabagger saboteurs to Todd Beamer & the other heroes of Flight 93, who lost their lives in Pennsylvania but prevented hijackers from crashing their plane into a Washington, D.C. building on 9/11 ...

... Molly Ball of the Atlantic: "Optimistic commentators think closure could keep the country from breaching the debt ceiling. But there's no reason a few stubborn House members can't provoke both." Remember, "Earlier this week, Boehner sought to rally his caucus around a proposal to raise the debt ceiling while enacting a laundry list of unrelated Republican agenda items. Though liberals mocked this as an absurdity, the hard-core minority of House Republicans regarded it as too much of a concession." ...

... Steve M. of NMMNB: " Why does [Boehner's] desire to cling to his speakership supersede the needs of the country? If he genuinely thinks the crazy caucus is leading the country to a cataclysm, why shouldn't he sacrifice his damn speakership and do what's patriotic, suspending the Hastert 'rule' (which is just self-imposed and isn't a rule at all) and getting a continuing resolution and debt ceiling increase passed with Democratic and sane Republican votes? What does he lose if he's deposed, besides power -- which, as is obvious by now, is not something he has much of? ... There's something pathological about the craven, desperate way that members of Congress -- people with so many options -- cling to their seats. The rest of us are regularly told that we simply can't expect to hold the same job for life -- the real world just doesn't work that way anymore. Our elected officials just don't live in our world." ...

Ted Cruz, Megalomaniac. Jack Balkin in the Atlantic: Ted Cruz "is not a terrorist or a bomb thrower. He is a Leninist. He wants to sow discord among his erstwhile allies so that he can seize control.... Cruz wants to take over the Republican Party.... That is why Cruz is attacking his fellow Republicans for being weak-kneed and insufficiently devoted to the conservative cause.... In some sense this is a repeat of the conservative movement's playbook from 1964 on: Push moderates out of the Republican Party and make it a wholly owned subsidiary of the conservative movement." ...

... Ha Ha. Naureen Khan of Al Jazeera: "During his 21+-hour floor speech, Ted Cruz cited 22-year-old Rutgers student John Connelly as an example of someone who has struggled because of President Obama's policies. But Connelly "describes his politics as 'left of most of the people in the Democratic Party on social and economic issues.' He thinks a single-payer system would be preferable to the Affordable Care Act but appreciates the provisions of the law that have helped him out already. His father's union-provided health insurance still covers him, thanks to the provision of the ACA that allows children to stay on their parents' plan until the age of 26.... 'Maybe []Cruz should've spent less time reading Dr. Seuss and more time looking into the policies that he's talking about,. Connelly said." Thanks to Barbarossa for the link.

Thomas Bishop of Media Matters: "Fox News' misleading attacks on President Obama's health care law reached new heights in the week preceding the opening of insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act Fox figures also pressured Republican politicians to defund or repeal the law, even at the expense of shutting down the federal government." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

"Use It or Lose It." David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "All week, while Congress fought over next year's budget, federal workers were immersed in a separate frantic drama. They were trying to spend the rest of this year's budget before it is too late. The reason for their haste is a system set up by Congress that ... requires agencies to spend all their allotted funds by Sept. 30."


James Risen of the New York Times & Laura Poitras: " Since 2010, the National Security Agency has been exploiting its huge collections of data to create sophisticated graphs of some Americans' social connections that can identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with officials. The spy agency began allowing the analysis of phone call and e-mail logs in November 2010 to examine Americans' networks of associations for foreign intelligence purposes after N.S.A. officials lifted restrictions on the practice, according to documents provided by Edward J. Snowden...." ...

... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Senate Intelligence Committee appears to be moving toward swift passage of a bill that would 'change but preserve' the once-secret National Security Agency program that is keeping logs of every American's phone calls, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who leads the panel, said Thursday." ...

... Maureen Dowd on the (false) testimony of "Emperor" Keith Alexander, the NSA chief.

Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times: "District court judges are not generally known as flamethrowers, but some seem to be losing patience with the banks.... Judges who take a more aggressive stance against the banks in such cases are doing what they can to hold these institutions accountable. It may not seem like a lot, but it is progress."

Michael Luo & Mike McIntire of the New York Times: "Children shot accidentally -- usually by other children -- are collateral casualties of the accessibility of guns in America, their deaths all the more devastating for being eminently preventable.... And there are far more of these innocent victims than official records show." The NRA's "lobbying arm recently posted on its Web site a claim that adult criminals who mishandle firearms -- as opposed to law-abiding gun owners -- are responsible for most fatal accidents involving children. But The Times's review found that a vast majority of cases revolved around children's access to firearms, with the shooting either self-inflicted or done by another child."

Andrew Cohen of the Atlantic: "What a sham trial in Louisiana says about our criminal justice system."

News Ledes

New York Times: Marcella "Hazan, the chain-smoking, determined former biology scholar who reluctantly moved to America and went on to teach a nation to cook Italian food, died Sunday at her home in Longboat Key, Fla. She was 89."

New York Times: "Dozens of gunmen attacked an agricultural college in northeastern Nigeria late Saturday and early Sunday, killing more than 40 students, local officials said. The attackers were thought to belong to the extremist group Boko Haram."

AP: "Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi appeared to backpedal on Sunday in his strategy aimed at collapsing Italy's fragile coalition government and triggering early elections, after some key supporters chafed at his order to quit the Cabinet. Berlusconi had demanded those resignations in a show of solidarity ahead of a Senate vote to strip him of his seat because of his tax-fraud conviction and prison sentence."

AFP: "Iran is willing to discuss limits in the level to which it enriches uranium but will never suspend the process altogether, the deputy foreign minister said in comments reported Sunday." ...

... ABC News: "In an exclusive interview this morning on 'This Week,' Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif condemned the Holocaust as a 'heinous crime' and a 'genocide,' dismissing as a poor translation the appearance of the word 'myth' about the Holocaust on the Iranian Supreme Leader's English website."

New York Times: Vice Adm. Timothy M. Giardina, "who is second in command at the United States Strategic Command, which oversees nuclear war-fighting forces for the military, has been suspended amid an investigation into his possible involvement in illegal gambling, officials said on Saturday." Washington Post story here, via Barbarossa.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (8)

Call me crazy, but until they catch the "white widow", I am not impressed by the NSA surveillence power.

September 28, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterHaley Simon

@Haley Simon wrote yesterday, "I read that Glenn Greenwald is working on a NSA story about government assasinations. He might have even said 'Obama assasinations'. His timing will be impecable (sarcasm) if it hits around the third day of a government shutdown. That ought to guarantee that all the fury will be directed at Obama thereby getting closer to Glenn's plan that Dems abandon the party (and endure a little 'short-term' pain) in order to give birth to a new third party."

Probably you read some version of this AP story: "Jeremy Scahill, a contributor to The Nation magazine and the New York Times best-selling author of 'Dirty Wars,' said he will be working with Glenn Greenwald, the Rio-based journalist who has written stories about U.S. surveillance programs based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

"'The connections between war and surveillance are clear. I don't want to give too much away but Glenn and I are working on a project right now that has at its center how the National Security Agency plays a significant, central role in the U.S. assassination program,' said Scahill...."

The story may not be as sensational as it sounds. What we'll probably find out is that the NSA listened in on conversations of Anwar Al-Awlaki (an American citizen) before Obama made the decision to kill him. And maybe some more of the same.

While I'm generally opposed to drone strikes, if the military is going to make them, I do hope they do all they can to find out if their potential target is really a serious threat to U.S. security. That would require, um, eavesdropping & hacking & stuff.

Marie

September 29, 2013 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/no-2-chief-at-us-strategic-command-is-suspended/2013/09/28/39b6dd64-285c-11e3-bae5-e0807a60a6aa_story.html

Verry interesting. but dumb!

September 29, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa

@Barbarossa. This is from the NYT story this morning. Was not included in the AP (Washington Bezos) story.

"The Strategic Command was first alerted about the issue in mid-July. A month earlier, Admiral Giardina became the target of an inquiry being conducted by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation into possible use of counterfeit gambling chips at the Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa, said David Dales, the head of the Southwest division of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation."

September 29, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

@Barbarossa. Sorry I forgot the link; it's here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/us/vice-admiral-is-suspended-in-gambling-investigation.html?hp

September 29, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

Currently over on NBC News there's a photo from (today's) press conference with Ted Cruz. What a smarmy, smug creature. My usual mild-mannered, un-militant self just wants to haul off and deliver a hay-maker to that bastard. Please, oh, please—when he gets his comeuppance I will celebrate with Champagne! Can't happen soon enough.

In addition, I remember when I had to go 'bare' for nearly ten years on healthcare until Medicare kicked in. For decades, I always had health insurance. My faith was solid with Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Reasonable rates, good coverage. THEN I moved to another state. In a few months, I was notified my monthly rate was increasing. MORE THAN DOUBLED. I wrote, stating I would have to cancel further coverage. Guess what, because my initial notification came via their statement with the increase...when I said NO, they sent a letter to me that THEY WERE CANCELLING ME FOR NON-PAYMENT, despite my notifying them in advance that I would not/could not afford to continue. Since that time I have despised BC/BS.

But, I wanted to have insurance. As a free-lancer there are not many options. Group insurance seemed the ticket. Aha, the Chamber of Commerce is a group. I joined thinking this organization would be beneficial for my business and a way to get insurance at a reasonable rate. Nope! They don't offer any health insurance benefits to their membership. To top it off, I was getting irritating diatribes from the Washington, D.C. Chamber that pissed me off...until I finally blocked their e-mails. Furthermore, I did not renew my CC membership.

Oh, yeah...understand the Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy has been making some statements today. Geez, I'm surprised as I didn't realize he had vocal cords. Always figured they could easily get a cardboard cutout of McCarthy and set it up behind Boehner and Kantor for the photo ops. He always stands there with the same old pained, do nothing, say nothing expression on his face!

September 29, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Ezra Klein seems to still believe that the GOP is capable of logical behavior.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/28/the-house-gops-shutdown-plan-is-great-news/?hpid=z2

Good luck with that.

September 29, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

@James Singer. Agreed. See Molly Ball's response, linked above.

Marie

September 29, 2013 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns
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