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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

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.

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."

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."

Page Links

Tuesday

Sep142010

The Newt Embraces Social Darwinism and Reincarnation

Art by Barbara Broido.(For more great doodles, go to Broido's site, Barbara's Doodle Blog.)

Maureen Dowd uses her bully pulpit wisely today to excoriate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for "shamelessly embracing his party's lunacy." She notes that Newt is "claiming not only that the president is a socialist but that he suffers from a socialism gene." The Newt's muse, an "Ann Coulter-in-pants" named Dinesh D'Souza, argues that Barack Obama's father "is now setting the nation’s agenda through the reincarnation of his dreams in his son."

The Constant Weader comments:

Oh boy! Social Darwinism and reincarnation!

In fairness, it's quite possible Newt has a mental disease and we should be more understanding. But as long as the media give him a microphone & introduce him as "the former Speaker," we must treat him as if he knows what he's saying.

Barack Obama barely ever saw his father after the younger Obama was two years old. The President's mother & maternal grandparents reared him. If he has any "intellectual heritage," it comes from Kansas (and I'm not talking about The Wizard of Oz, Newt).

How was it exactly that Papa Obama infiltrated the mind of the future President? Is a man really genetically engineered to take on his father's political beliefs? Nature beats nurture? Or is it that reincarnation thing? Let's have a seance!

It's fairly hilarious that Gingrich is busy rewriting President Obama's childhood inasmuch as Gingrich -- according to an Esquire profile -- has completely rewritten his own. Writer John Richardson details how Newt makes his childhood "sound ideal," yet,

His mother married his father when she was sixteen, left him a few days later, and struggled with manic depression most of her life. His stepfather [who reared Newt & moved the family to a series of Army bases] was an infantry officer who viewed his plump, nearsighted, flat-footed son as unfit for the Army.

Whatever Newt's actual family history, he appears to be the reincarnation of a cruel, mendacious, opportunistic lowlife -- a newt with a personality disorder. It is one of the tragedies of American history that this man once held a powerful position. He was never a leader, always a follower, & now he is following his party over a cliff of right-wing extremism that knows no boundaries and is trying to break its fall by holding tight to an umbrella of fear-mongering, prejudice and outright lies.

Update: Commenter Jim F. of Los Altos (#3) points to Paul Krugman's blogpost on the Gingrich/D'Souza "madness." Krugman remarks that the whole basis of the "Kenyan" plot theory is an Export-Import Bank loan to Brazil. Says Krugman,

Except, you know, the Ex-Im bank’s job is to promote US exports — and this was a loan for the specific purpose of buying US-made oilfield equipment. And the board approving the loan was … a board appointed by George W. Bush. In other words, aside from being ignorant, this is complete the-Commies-are-putting flouride in the water to steal our vital bodily fluids stuff.

Update: without actually employing the terms "racial prejudice" or "ethnic stereotyping" or "lying through their yellow teeth," Matt Bai of the New York Times postulates that Republican lowlifes (another term he doesn't use) are trying to cast President Obama as "The Other" in order to motivate their base of stupid, racist yahoos (okay, Bai doesn't describe the base as "yahoos," either, but you know that's what he would write in a less hoity-toity publication).

Update. Brendan Patrick Keane in Irish Central: the real scandal in Newt's outrageous rant is this: "Newt Gingrich embraces British colonialism."

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