The Ledes

Friday, April 18, 2025

New York Times: “A 20-year-old student at Florida State University in Tallahassee shot and killed two people on Thursday and injured six, the police said. The gunman was identified as the son of a deputy in the local sheriff’s department, and was taken into custody after being shot by the police, law enforcement officials said. Officials said that the gunman, identified as Phoenix Ikner, was armed with a former service revolver of his mother, a deputy who has worked at the Leon County Sheriff’s Office for 18 years and was allowed to keep the gun for personal use. Mr. Ikner had been involved in training programs at the Sheriff’s Office and was a member of its youth advisory committee, Sheriff Walter McNeil told reporters.”

The Wires
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The Ledes

Friday, April 11, 2025

New York Times: “Two American Airlines jets, including one carrying at least six members of Congress from New York and New Jersey, clipped wings on a taxiway at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington on Thursday, officials said. There were no injuries, according to American Airlines, which said that the damage was limited to the winglets of the two planes and that both jets had been taken out of service for inspection. The six House members were departing for Kennedy International Airport when the right winglet of their Embraer E175, which was stationary, was clipped by a regional jet heading to Charleston, S.C., officials said.”

Help!

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

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

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."

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

Page Links
Thursday
Sep162010

The Commentariat -- September 16

Note: Internal links have been removed.

** Michael Moore, with a true history lesson on the lead-up to the Iraq War: "We invaded Iraq because most Americans -- including good liberals like Al Franken, Nicholas Kristof & Bill Keller of the New York Times, David Remnick of the New Yorker, the editors of the Atlantic and the New Republic, Harvey Weinstein, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer and John Kerry -- wanted to."

Random Reflections from the Mouse Brain of O'Donnell:

American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains. So they're already into this experiment. -- Christine O'Donnell, 2007

And then there's also the issue of murder with Vincent Foster. That's a much more serious charge than failing to seek legal advice, and yet we're all just blowing that off, and everybody's trying to focus on Newt Gingrich like a witch hunt, to bring him to the stake and burn him, because they don't like the policy that he's behind. -- Christine O'Donnell, 1996

... Let's agree on this: "the Republican party has kicked out the moderates":

Christine O'Donnell is a sideshow freak.... O'Donnell is a creature of an age in which politics have no meaning beyond performance art.... Her résumé is so thin as to be opaque, and a lot of it seems to be a lie. She seems to be something of a deadbeat, and 'U.S. Senator' seems to be her idea of an entry-level position. This morning, she stands one step away from the job. She is what politics produces when you divorce politics from government.... She is what politics produces when you turn it into a game show and the coverage of it over to a generation of high-technology racetrack touts. -- Charles Pierce, Esquire

... The Starfish Eats the Spider, Creepy Metaphors for Creeps:

When you can't compete on ideas..., you try to delegitimize the other guy.... They're attempting to delegitimize one of the most talented men to enter politics in three generations. They did the same thing with Bill Clinton. -- Joe Biden, on the "Republican playbook"

... Rachel Maddow talks to Joe Biden about the upcoming election, and the "garbage" Newt Gingrich repeats:

... AND about the candidates for his Senatorial seat:

... Kate Zirnicke of the New York Times tries to figure out what the relationship between Republicans & the tea party is. She identifies South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint as a likely "bridge" between the two. ...

... John Dickerson in Slate: "Democrats now believe they have a body of evidence -- eight Senate races in which Tea Party candidates won the Republican nomination -- that allows them to argue that the Republican Party has gone nuts." ...

... "The Daily Show" panel of political experts discusses how the Democrats will fuck up the November elections:

Bloomberg: "The U.S. poverty rate rose to the highest level in 15 years in 2009, government data show, underscoring the toll the recession took on household incomes and adding fuel to an election-year debate over the Obama administration's economic poliies."

Fred Kaplan in Slate: the war on corruption in Afghanistan is as important as the war against the Taliban.

President Jimmy Carter in a New York Times op-ed: "During my recent travels to North Korea and China, I received clear, strong signals that Pyongyang wants to restart negotiations on a comprehensive peace treaty with the United States and South Korea and on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

Jeff Israely of Time has some background on Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the British Isles. For one thing, he won't be arrested.

ABC News: Justice Stephen Breyer ... said he wasn't convinced the First Amendment protected the burning of the Koran:

     ... NEW. Dahlia Lithwick, in Slate: maybe Stephen Breyer should stop talking on the teevee; it sure got the history of jurisprudence wrong in his musings with Stephanopoulos.

Steven Chu: How to Save the World. Really!

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy ride on one of the firstdesegregated buses. Montgomery, Alabama, December 21, 1956. Photo by Ernest C. Withers.

Whitney Johnson of The New Yorker publishes more photos by Ernest C. Withers, whom the Memphis Commercial Appeal exposed last week as an F.B.I. informant.

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