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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

Nov232013

Today's Munch Prize Goes to ...

Last week, Frank Rich asked this:

How could a president whose signature achievements include the health-care law and two brilliantly tech-centric presidential campaigns screw this up so badly? How could he say even as late as September 26 that the site would work 'the same way you shop for a TV on Amazon'? How could he repeatedly make the false promise that all Americans could keep their insurance plans, and then take so long to recognize that he was wrong and mobilize to correct it? This is hardly Kathleen Sebelius’s fault. It is Barack Obama’s fault — a failure of management for sure, and possibly one of character. There is something rotten in the inner-management cocoon of the White House, and if the president doesn’t move to correct it, his situation will truly be hopeless for the rest of this term.

"A failure of character"?? That seemed rather over-the-top. I considered Rich a candidate for the Munch Prize, but I so value his opinion that I couldn't just dismiss his charge as the usual hyperbole.

Rich points out that the President was claiming days before the big Healthcare.gov fail that using the Website would be as easy as ordering small appliances online. It seems plausible, if dismaying, that White House & HHS staff kept the president in the dark -- that he had no idea, days before the launch of the Website -- that it was a giant clusterfuck. Kathleen Sebelius claimed as much when Sanjay Gupta interviewed her in late October:

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta asked when the President first learned about the considerable issues with the Obamacare website. Sebelius responded that it was in "the first couple of days" after the site went live October 1. 'But not before that?' Gupta followed up. To which Sebelius replied, 'No, sir.'

But what about that claim, "If you like your health plan you can keep it"? Surely the President knew that wasn't true. Indeed, the record makes pretty clear that the President did understand this. The last time he made the flat-out claim that people could keep the policies they liked was way back in April 2010, barely a week after passage of the ACA:

And if you like your insurance plan, you will keep it. No one will be able to take that away from you. It hasn’t happened yet. It won’t happen in the future. -- Barack Obama, speech in Portland, Maine, April 1, 2010

Let's call that an April Fools joke. And let's accept that it is possible and understandable that on that date, the President -- and his speechwriter -- weren't aware this was a false statement. The ACA is some 2,000 pages long. Maybe the President hadn't read all the fine print.

After that date, President Obama began subtly changing his message to align it with the facts. The next time the President made any comment about the supposed inviolability of current health insurance policies, according to PolitiFact, was after the Supreme Court ruled the ACA constitutional:

If you’re one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance — this law will only make it more secure and more affordable. -- Barack Obama, June 28, 2012

Notice how the President shifted his message. He was no longer claiming you will keep the same policy; in fact, he's implying -- to those who are good at reading between the lines -- that you're going to get a new & better policy.

The President continued this theme throughout the 2012 campaign, never specifically promising "you can keep it." Here's the language the President used in a typical campaign speech:

If you have health insurance, the only thing that changes for you is you’re more secure because insurance companies can't drop you when you get sick. -- Barack Obama, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 6, 2012

Post-campaign, that language too evolved. Here is a remark from the September 26, 2013, speech Rich cites:

... If you already have health care, you don’t have to do anything. -- Barack Obama, Largo, Maryland

"You don't have to do anything." Uh, well, until your insurer sends you that cancellation notice. Or your employer tells you this year's plans aren't like the old plans.

Is there some duplicity here? Duplicity that rises to the level of a character issue? It depends upon how much control you imagine President Obama has over the White House Website. Here is surely the most confounded graf that has ever appeared on the Website. This is not some relic from 2010. It is on the White House Website today:

For those Americans who already have health insurance, the only changes you will see under the law are new benefits, better protections from insurance company abuses, and more value for every dollar you spend on health care. If you like your plan you can keep it and you don’t have to change a thing due to the health care law. The President addressed concerns from Americans who have received letters of policy cancellations or changes from their insurance companies in an interview with NBC News, watch the video or read a transcript. (Emphasis added.)

A character issue? I seriously doubt President Obama has read the text of the White House Website. He has other things to do.

Rich claims, "There is something rotten in the inner-management cocoon of the White House, and if the president doesn’t move to correct it, his situation will truly be hopeless for the rest of this term." I have to give Rich that. The graf above is an exemplar of double-speak and rank incompetence. Obviously, it was updated on or after November 7, 2013, when the President spoke to Chuck Todd during the height of the uproar over the President's "broken promise." Whoever updated the Website should start updating his resume' instead. Firing that lamebrain would be one "move to correct" the "rotten" thing in "the inner-management cocoon."

But I do not think a misstatement -- one the President hasn't uttered since days after this very complex law passed -- speaks ill of the President's character. It is true that Obama's shift to a more accurate claim has been, well, shifty. "You don't have to do anything" isn't precisely true, either. Most insureds have to "do something" to get continued coverage. But I think it's fair to interpret Obama's new line to mean, "You don't have to do anything different from what you've done in the past." It would be really splitting hairs to insist that the President deliver a speech in the form of a contract. I find his latest shorthand acceptable. It is not, in my opinion, evidence of a "possible character flaw."

Munch Prize recipient responds to award announcement.Indeed, Rich himself makes a false claim when he accuses Obama of "repeatedly [making] the false promise that all Americans could keep their insurance plans." Rich should have said, "Obama used to make the false promise...." But in the form of his remark, Rich implies that Obama has made the false promise recently. He has not.

So, Frank Rich, Congratulations. Reluctantly, I must award you today's Munch Prize.

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Reader Comments (4)

It's always difficult when someone we admire and respect utters or writes something totally off the charts and because we admire and respect this person we mull their words over, wondering if they could possibly be right––something we wouldn't do for many others. In this case Rich is saying that lack of character is what Obama has displayed re: the awful mess of the healthcare launch. I find this ridiculous as well as strange.To criticize someone's character is a pretty big deal––it essentially puts a black mark on one's person. It looks to me as though Obama was served poorly by the people who were supposed to be in charge of this–– was there no one to tell him his words re: keeping insurance policies were incorrect?–was there no one who could tell him this was going to be a major fuck up? I know from reading many presidential biographies that some people who are supposed to serve the president do not do so, ending up serving themselves or deliberately quashing something or are just plain incapable. Although Sebelius wasn't/isn't a tech person wasn't she in charge of this rollout? Didn't someone tell HER that there were problems? And why wasn't Obama told? and let's not forget the Insurance companies who I don't trust for a minute––could it be that they were not forthright in the beginning about their plan to cancel hundreds of policies?

Frank––calm down.

November 24, 2013 |

PD Pepe

Re; Keep on keeping on, The essay above is the reason why I keep on coming back to RealityChex. A cup of scalding hot Burns with just a little float of Irish on top. Ah, Sunday morning.
As much as I like the parsing of Frank Rich's statement I disagree with some of the conclusions.
"It is Barack Obama’s fault — a failure of management for sure, and possibly one of character." Frank Rich.
"A failure of character"?? " Marie Burns.
Maybe not apples and oranges but still different. Failure of management, yes. Could not a reader infer that the failure of management is one thing, but possibly the character trait that Rich refers to is Obama's belief in his team? Rich is saying that management let down the president because his character is such that he has faith in his subordinates, which is a necessary trait for a successful president. Unfortunately his faith was misplaced.
I don't think Rich was slamming Obama's character, I think he was slamming his team. Yes, every captain of ship is responsible for his ship. Big ships require a lot of captains and if the admiral can't count on his captains, he can't do his job.
I think the message was lost when the President dumbed down the impact of the AHC. "You can keep your insurance." You have to comfort the masses. Sounds elitist but can you imagine Obama speaking to the nation and saying, "OK, everybody turn to page three, paragraph four, table "C", column five."
Hell, I'd last five minutes in and I have the attention span of an elephant compared to some gnat-like minds of guys I work with.
I get to keep my insurance and every year it keeps getting more expensive. It's keep-keep; I keep my insurance; they keep my money.
I think Rich was pointing out that the message was not a lie, but a simplification to get the idea across. The message was lost when the roll out failed. If the site was up and running true before the public logged on the president would not have his character under fire.
I'm now going on line to buy a small appliance. Color, price, type, quality and shipping options to be decided later.

November 24, 2013 |

JJG

Thanks for your analysis Marie. When I read Rich's comments last week I felt a little betrayed. He is a wonderful writer, a sharp observer and dead on point more times than not. (see his response to the anniversary of the JFK assassination) Unlike you, I didn't go back and try to make some sense of them.

I clearly see that Obama has culpability in the ACA roll out mess. However, I also believe that Sebelius was most responsible for the failures under her direction.

November 24, 2013 |

Diane

Glad to see Marie taking Frank to task on this one. Like Diane I read his 'interview' comments last week and it left me feeling betrayed— though I've been a huge fan and follower of his direct no-nonsense approach for years. Yet, he did something similar some weeks back, re his analysis and reasons why Rand Paul's popularity and gaining strength among potential voters increasingly makes him the TP/R frontrunner for 2016. (Hey! Let's not give the enemies more ammunition, Frank.)

...Maybe, maybe it's me. I can't handle the truth! Tried hard to objectively analyze and consider his point of view—then and now, but wasn't working. I think the Munch Prize award is well-bestowed this week.

(P.S. Marie it's really chilly here. You'll need to pack a down parka!)

November 24, 2013 |

MAG

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