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Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Washington Post: “Valérie André, a French military officer, brain surgeon and licensed pilot who was believed to be the first woman to fly helicopter rescue missions in combat zones — during the French-Indochina war of the early 1950s — and who two decades later became the first woman to reach the rank of general in the French armed forces, died Jan. 21 in Paris. She was 102.”

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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."

Help!

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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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.

New York Times: “The president of MSNBC, Rashida Jones, is stepping down from that position, the company said on Tuesday, a major change at the news network just days before ... Donald J. Trump takes office. Rebecca Kutler, senior vice president for content strategy at MSNBC, will succeed Ms. Jones as interim president, effective immediately. Ms. Jones will stay on in an advisory role through March.... MSNBC is among a bundle of cable channels that its parent company, Comcast, is planning to spin out later this year into a new company.” ~~~

~~~ MSNBC: “On Monday, Jan. 20, MSNBC will present wall-to-wall coverage of the inauguration of ... Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance and will kick off special programming for the first 100 days of the new Trump administration.... On the heels of her field reporting during the last 100 days of the 2024 presidential campaign, Alex Wagner will travel the country to follow the biggest stories as they develop in real-time during Trump’s first 100 days in office, reporting on the impact of his early promises and policies on the electorate for 'Trumpland: The First 100 Days.'... During the first 100 days, Rachel Maddow will bring her signature voice and distinct perspective to the anchor desk every weeknight at 9 p.m. ET, offering viewers in-depth analysis of the key issues facing the country at the outset of Trump’s second term. After April 30, 'The Rachel Maddow Show' will return to its regular schedule of Mondays at 9 p.m. ET and Wagner will return to anchoring 'Alex Wagner Tonight' Tuesday through Friday.”

New York Times: "Neil Cavuto, a business journalist who hosted a weekday afternoon program on the Fox News Channel since the network began in 1996, signed off for the final time on Thursday[, December 19]. Mr. Cavuto could be an outlier on Fox News, often criticizing President Trump and his policies, and crediting the Covid-19 vaccination with saving his life."

Have Cello, May Not Travel. New York Times: “Sheku Kanneh-Mason, a rising star in classical music who performed at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018 and has since become a regular on many of the world’s most prestigious concert stages, was forced to cancel a concert in Toronto last week because Air Canada refused to allow him to board a plane with his cello, even though he had purchased a separate ticket for it.... 'Air Canada has a comprehensive policy of accepting cellos in the cabin when a separate seat is booked for it,' it said in a statement. 'In this case, the customers made a last-minute booking due to their original flight on another airline being canceled.' The airline’s policy for carry-on instruments, outlined on its website, specifies that travelers must purchase a seat for their instruments at least 48 hours before departure.”

Here are photos of the White House Christmas decorations, via the White House. Also a link to last year's decorations. Sorry, no halls of blood-red fake trees.

Yes, You May Be a Neanderthal. Me Too! Washington Post: “A pair of new studies sheds light on a pivotal but mysterious chapter of the human origin story, revealing that modern humans and Neanderthals had babies together for an extended period, peaking 47,000 years ago — leaving genetic fingerprints in modern-day people.... [According to the report in Science,] Neanderthals and humans interbred for 7,000 years starting about 50,500 years ago.... Modern humans, Homo sapiens, originated in Africa about 300,000 years ago. Somewhere around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, a key group left the continent and encountered Neanderthals, a hominin relative that was established across western Eurasia but went extinct about 39,000 years ago.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Maybe you parents were upset when you told them you planned to marry someone of a different race or religion. But, hey, think how distressed they would have been if you'd told them you were hooking up with a person of a different species!

There's No Money in Bananas. New York Times: “A week after a Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur bought an artwork composed of a fresh banana stuck to a wall with duct tape for $6.2 million at auction, the man, Justin Sun, announced a grand gesture on X. He said he planned on purchasing 100,000 bananas — or $25,000 worth of the produce — from the Manhattan stand where the original fruit was sold for 25 cents. But at the fruit stand at East 72nd Street and York Avenue, outside the doors of the Sotheby’s auction house where the conceptual artwork was sold, the offer landed with a thud against the realities of the life of a New York City street vendor. [Even if it were practicable to buy that many bananas at once,] the net profit ... would be about $6,000. 'There’s not any profit in selling bananas,' [the vendor Shah] Alam said.”

Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post on what's to become of MSNBC: “In the days that followed [the November election], MSNBC began seeing a significant decline in viewership (as has CNN), as left-leaning viewers opted to turn off the channel rather than watch the aftermath of Donald Trump’s victory. One of the network’s most valuable franchises, 'Morning Joe,' faced backlash after hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski revealed Nov. 18 that they had traveled to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in an effort to 'restart communications.'... Questions about the future of the network picked up considerably Nov. 20, when parent company Comcast announced that it would spin off MSNBC and some of its other cable channels into a separate company.... The fear inside the building is about whether the move could portend a less ambitious future for MSNBC — with a smaller, lower-compensated staff and a lot less journalism, considering the network will be separated from the NBC News operation that contributes much of the reporting.”

The Washington Post introduces us to Lucy, the small, hominid ancestor of humans who lived 3.2 million years ago. American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson discovered her skeleton in Ethiopia exactly 50 years ago, beginning on November 24, 1974. Eventually, about 40 percent of Lucy's skeleton was recovered.

New York Times: “Chris Wallace, a veteran TV anchor who left Fox News for CNN three years ago, announced on Monday that he was leaving his post to venture into the streaming or podcasting worlds.... He said his decision to leave CNN at the end of his three-year contract did not come from discontent. 'I have nothing but positive things to say. CNN was very good to me,' he said.”

New York Times: In a collection of memorabilia filed at New York City's Morgan Library, curator Robinson McClellan discovered the manuscript of a previously unknown waltz by Frédéric Chopin. Jeffrey Kallberg, a Chopin scholar at the University of Pennsylvania as well as other experts authenticated the manuscript. Includes video of Lang Lang performing the short waltz. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The Times article goes into some of Chopin's life in Paris at the time he wrote the waltz, but it doesn't mention that he helped make ends meet by giving piano lessons. I know this because my great grandmother was one of his students. If her musical talent were anything like mine, those particular lessons would have been painful hours for Chopin.

New York Times: “Improbably, [the political/celebrity magazine] George[, originally a project by John F. Kennedy, Jr.] is back, with the same logo and the same catchy slogan: 'Not just politics as usual.' This time, though, a QAnon conspiracy theorist and passionate Trump fan is its editor in chief.... It is a reanimation story bizarre enough for a zombie movie, made possible by the fact that the original George trademark lapsed, only to be secured by a little-known conservative lawyer named Thomas D. Foster.”

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

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Tuesday
Sep282010

The Commentariat -- September 28

President Obama's rally in Madison, Wisconsin:

     ... Post-event New York Times story here. AND Wisconsin State Journal report of the event here. Expanded New York Times story here. See video above.

Supreme Court Press Release: "Beginning with October Term 2010, the audio recordings of all oral arguments heard by the Supreme Court of the United States will be available free to the public on the Court’s Web site, www.supremecourt.gov, at the end of each argument week.  The audio recordings will be posted on Fridays after Conference."

The golden age of an objective press was a pretty narrow span of time in our history. Before that, you had folks like Hearst who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints. I think Fox is part of that tradition. It is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It's a point of view that I disagree with. It's a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world. But as an economic enterprise, it's been wildly successful. And I suspect that if you ask Mr. Murdoch what his number-one concern is, it's that Fox is very successful.
-- Barack Obama

Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone interviews President Obama. Full interview. ...

... Tom Curry of MSNBC: "President Barack Obama’s lecture to his supporters to snap out of their lethargy is getting a frosty reception from some on the left side of the Democratic coalition."

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka invites us to join "One Nation Working Together" at the Lincoln Memorial on October 2. The sign-up Website he mentions is OneNationWorkingTogether.org:

     ... At a forum held in New York City's Cooper Union, "Trumka said it is vital to channel working-class anger away from Fox News and Tea Party extremists who are delivering"

a cynical, deeply dishonest and incoherent message—that big government is somehow to blame for the current crisis that the budget deficit will eat our children, and that illegal immigrants took all the good jobs.

Here's the second of three articles adapted from Bob Woodward's book Obama's Wars. An audio clip of Woodward's interview of the President:

     ... Here's the transcript.

The Voodoo Factor, a/k/a the Hypnotic Oath. Joseph Gerth of the Louisville Courier-Journal: "Republican U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul belongs to a conservative doctors’ group that, among other things, has expressed doubts about the connection between HIV and AIDS and suggested that President Barack Obama may have been elected because he was able to hypnotize voters." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. See more about Rand Paul on the Campaign 2010 Kentucky page.

Bob Herbert shares the content of some of the images & videos New York's Republican candidate for governor, Carl Paladino, thought were so hilarious he had to forward them to friends & acquaintances. Here are two:

A photo showing a group of black men trying to get out of the way of an airplane that is apparently moving across a field. The caption reads: 'Run niggers, run.'

A video clip of a nude couple engaged in intercourse with the title: “Miss France [expletive].” Mr. Paladino characterized it as 'a keeper.'

The Decided. Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "At least one-third of all ballots across the country this year will be cast before Election Day, party officials said, reflecting a steady rise in early voting that is profoundly influencing how political campaigns are conducted in many parts of the country."

The Editors of the Louisville Courier-Journal explain American politics to visitors from other countries:

Republicans, riding a tide of corporate cash and public anger, are counting on voters to have such short memories they'll bring back the disastrous policies of the Bush years. And Democrats, who hold the White House and large majorities in both chambers of Congress, are too fumbling and afraid to call the Republicans out.

Vice President Biden kicks of Lawrence O'Donnell's MSNBC show, "The Last Word." The Vice President & O'Donnell discuss a range of issues from the tea party to the Afghanistan war:

No Surprise Here. Hope Yen of the AP: "The income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its widest amount on record as young adults and children in particular struggled to stay afloat in the recession. The top-earning 20 percent of Americans — those making more than $100,000 each year — received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the U.S....." The ratio of rich to poor income is nearly double what it was in 1968.

No Surprise There. Catherine Rampell of the New York Times: "Women made little progress in climbing into management positions in this country even in the boom years before the financial crisis, according to a report to be released on Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office."

Worse than I Thought. Katie Curnutte of Zillow Blog: almost one-third of Americans who apply for home mortgages have credit scores so low banks won't lend to them. Via Huffington Post.

Greg Sargent: if quitting her governor's gig & nattering on Fox "News" was part of Sarah Palin's strategy to become President, it isn't working.

Massimo Calabresi of Time: "CQ reports a deal, months in the making, between [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and the White House on tougher Congressional oversight of covert intelligence programs." [The CQ story is subscriber-firewalled.]

Believing Isn't Knowing. Rachel Zoll of the AP: "A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths." ...

     ... Sam Hodges of the Dallas Morning News puts some southern seasoning on the story: "People in the South – the Bible Belt – tended to score lower on the survey than those in other regions."

... "Junkets for Jesus." In Mother Jones, Jeff Sharlet details how Congressional "Family" members "travel the world to preach [Christianity] to dictators on the taxpayers' dime."

It's a little bit like Custer. He underestimated the number of Indians on the other side of the hill and he paid the ultimate price for it.  -- Sen. Bob Graham, on Adm. Thad Allen's assertion that underestimatetion of the Gulf oil flow was inconsequential

William Broad of the New York Times:"Federal prosecutors have charged [Los Alamos nuclear scientist] Dr. [Leonardo] Mascheroni with trying to sell nuclear secrets to Venezuela as part of a complicated scheme to have that country bring .... to life... his plan to build a giant laser for the achievement of nuclear fusion.... According to the indictment, he negotiated the deal in 2008 and 2009 with the undercover F.B.I. agent, who paid him $20,000 out of an overall promise of nearly $800,000."

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