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The Ledes

Saturday, May 18, 2024

Washington Post: “Paul D. Parkman, a scientist who in the 1960s played a central role in identifying the rubella virus and developing a vaccine to combat it, breakthroughs that have eliminated from much of the world a disease that can cause catastrophic birth defects and fetal death, died May 7 at his home in Auburn, N.Y. He was 91.”

New York Times: “Dabney Coleman, an award-winning television and movie actor best known for his over-the-top portrayals of garrulous, egomaniacal characters, died on Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 92.”

The Wires
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The Ledes

Friday, May 17, 2024

AP: “Fast-moving thunderstorms pummeled southeastern Texas for the second time this month, killing at least four people, blowing out windows in high-rise buildings, downing trees and knocking out power to more than 900,000 homes and businesses in the Houston area.”

Public Service Announcement

The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705

Marie: BTW, if you think our government sucks, I invite you to watch the PBS special "The Real story of Mr Bates vs the Post Office," about how the British post office falsely accused hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of subpostmasters of theft and fraud, succeeded in obtaining convictions and jail time, and essentially stole tens of thousands of pounds from some of them. Oh, and lied about it all. A dramatization of the story appeared as a four-part "Masterpiece Theater," which you still may be able to pick it up on your local PBS station. Otherwise, you can catch it here (for now). Just hope this does give our own Postmaster General Extraordinaire Louis DeJoy any ideas.

The Mysterious Roman Dodecahedron. Washington Post: A “group of amateur archaeologists sift[ing] through ... an ancient Roman pit in eastern England [found] ... a Roman dodecahedron, likely to have been placed there 1,700 years earlier.... Each of its pentagon-shaped faces is punctuated by a hole, varying in size, and each of its 20 corners is accented by a semi-spherical knob.” Archaeologists don't know what the Romans used these small dodecahedrons for but the best guess is that they have some religious significance.

"Countless studies have shown that people who spend less time in nature die younger and suffer higher rates of mental and physical ailments." So this Washington Post page allows you to check your own area to see how good your access to nature is.

Marie: If you don't like birthing stories, don't watch this video. But I thought it was pretty sweet -- and funny:

If you like Larry David, you may find this interview enjoyable:


Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Allison Hope comments in a CNN opinion piece:

~~~ Here's Chapman singing "Fast Car" at the Oakland Coliseum in December 1988. ~~~

~~~ Here's the full 2024 Grammy winner's list, via CBS.

He Shot the Messenger. Washington Post: “The Messenger is shutting down immediately, the news site’s founder told employees in an email Wednesday, marking the abrupt demise of one of the stranger and more expensive recent experiments in digital media. In his email, Jimmy Finkelstein said he was 'personally devastated' to announce that he had failed in a last-ditch effort to raise more money for the site, saying that he had been fundraising as recently as the night before. Finkelstein said the site, which launched last year with outsize ambitions and a mammoth $50 million budget, would close 'effective immediately.' The New York Times first reported the site’s closure late Wednesday afternoon, appearing to catch many staffers off-guard, including editor in chief Dan Wakeford. As employees read the news story, the internal work chat service Slack erupted in what one employee called 'pandemonium.'... Minutes later, as staffers read Finkelstein’s email, its message was underscored as they were forcibly logged out of their Slack accounts. Former Messenger reporter Jim LaPorta posted on social media that employees would not receive health care or severance.”

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Page Links
Saturday
Jul022016

The Commentariat -- July 3, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Anthony Smith of Mic.com: Donald Trump got that anti-Semitic Star of David graphic he tweeted yesterday "from an Internet message board for the alt-right, a digital movement of Neo-Nazis, anti-Semites and white supremacists newly emboldened by the success of Trump's rhetoric." CW: Trump is really plugged in to the hatemonger network. ...

... Kevin Robillard of Politico: "Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski on Sunday blamed the blowup over his former campaign's use of imagery some saw as anti-Semitic on 'political correctness.'" CW: We really must all stop being so squeamish about a presidential nominee retweeting anti-Semitic, white supremacist messages.

Kristen East of Politico: "An aide to the former president gave a statement on condition of anonymity to both CNN and The Associated Press, describing the meeting as 'entirely social in nature.'... But recognizing how others could take another view of it, he agrees with the attorney general that he would not do it again,' the aide said." CW: Really? Apology by anonymous aide? Heartfelt, I'm sure.

Annie Waldman in the New York Times: New Jersey's student loan program does not forgive debts when a student dies. In 2007, the state agency that runs the program "was caught in what amounted to a kickback scheme.... In 2010, Congress and the Obama administration decided to effectively eliminate the role of state agencies by having only the federal government lend directly to students" because many state agencies were "unwieldy, expensive and marked by scandal.... The combination of a lack of flexibility, an unwillingness to discharge loans and the state [of New Jersey]'s power to seize wages has resulted in even 'more intractable problems for our clients than predatory mortgages, deceptive car loans or illegal internet payday lending,' said David McMillin, a lawyer with Legal Services of New Jersey...." -- CW

*****

Falih Hassan & Tim Arango of the New York Times: "As Iraqis gathered late on Saturday night in central Baghdad to eat, shop and just be together to celebrate one of the last evenings of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a huge bomb exploded and killed at least 123 people, the third mass slaughter of civilians in three countries carried out by the Islamic State in recent days."-- CW

** Joseph Berger of the New York Times: "Elie Wiesel, the Auschwitz survivor who became an eloquent witness for the six million Jews slaughtered in World War II and who, more than anyone else, seared the memory of the Holocaust on the world's conscience, died on Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87." -- CW

Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "With an assist from members of the Hello Racist Facebook community, [a new Website] Hello Bigot shines a light on the racists among us -- allowing followers to spread the word via social media of the not-so-secret lives of folks who can't seem to help themselves when it comes to posting hateful memes and horrific comments." -- CW

Presidential Race

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. interviewed Hillary Clinton on Saturday morning for its investigation into whether she or her aides broke the law by setting up a private email server for her use as secretary of state, her campaign said.... The campaign declined to elaborate on the substance of the interview, which lasted about three and a half hours at F.B.I. Headquarters in Washington." -- CW ...

... The Washington Post story, by Anne Gearan & Matt Zapotosky, is here.

CW: Dan Balz of the Washington Post, BTW, has twisted his shorts in knots over the meeting between Bill Clinton & Loretta Lynch. Either that, or he's just trying to give his GOP buds some better talking points: "Bill Clinton has made a mess. It was either out of foolish indifference or plain foolishness, but it has created a terrible moment for his wife and the Democrats, and for President Obama and perceptions of the integrity of his administration." Sorry, Dan, this is pure bull. Why don't you cover the Trump child-rape case with such fervor? ...

... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker agrees with Balz: "Whatever Bill Clinton thought he was doing, he has cast a pall over what should have been his wife's most triumphant moment in politics." -- CW ...

... Also, too, Charles Pierce: "My god, is it even necessary to describe how stupid and reckless this is? For the second presidential campaign in a row, Hillary Rodham Clinton is afflicted with a husband who can't make a political move any more without breaking the china across the room.... This would be bad enough if it were only the appearance of impropriety. This exercise in Mixed Doubles Stupid actually was improper." ...

... CW: I still think the story is much ado about nothing. However, mitigating "nothing" is the fact that Bill Clinton certainly knew that the FBI would be interviewing Hillary Clinton this weekend. That does make his decision to go "chat about the grandkids" with Lynch stoopid (or, as contributor Haley S. suggested, an attempt to derail his wife's candidacy). As for Lynch, I don't think she made a mistake. When a former president comes calling, that's a command performance. You don't, as Pierce suggested, "have ... armed agents stop him halfway up the jet-stairs." The armed agents, BTW, according to news reports, were in the room with Lynch & Clinton when they spoke. There are, in other words, independent witnesses to the "grandkids" chat.

Anne Gearan: "Hillary Clinton will attempt to paint Donald Trump as a callous and irresponsible businessman with a campaign stop next week in Atlantic City, site of shuttered Trump casinos." -- CW

Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "Saturday morning, Donald Trump tweeted out a graphic attacking Hillary Clinton as corrupt.... [The graphic] overlays a six-pointed star, which looks a lot like a Star of David, on a pile of money.... The idea that politicians are controlled by Jewish money is one of the defining tropes of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. The apparent subtext of the graphic is that Hillary Clinton is corrupt, and that the source of the corruption is the Jews.... About two hours after the first tweet, he sent out a new version of the graphic which replaced the six-pointed star with a circle. He deleted the six-pointed star tweet about an hour later." CW: Includes reproduction of graphic, which I won't post.

Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "On the 2016 campaign trail, Donald Trump has insisted that he is worth more than $10bn. However, a statement filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission by Wells Fargo Securities on Trump's behalf in 2012 indicated that the real estate developer was then worth less than half that, with comparatively few of the liquid assets that may now [be needed to] finance his campaign for president.... A a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo, insisted the 2012 filing was correct." -- CW 

Beyond the Beltway

Harper Neidig of the Hill: "Arizona now has the strictest regulation on welfare of any state. A new law enacted Friday prohibits low-income families from receiving cash assistance from the Temporary Aid to Needy Families program for more than a year, according to the Arizona Republic. The state legislature approved the law last year in the midst of a budget crisis, but the state has since recuperated and had a modest surplus this year. Arizona's Democratic minority fought to keep the current limit of two years...." -- CW

Graig Graziosi & Jerod MacDonald-Evoy of the Arizona Republic: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Arizona Attorney General's Office have arrested an 18-year-old Tucson man they say conspired to carry out acts of terrorism against government buildings in Maricopa and Pima counties. Mahin Khan was arrested in Tucson following an investigation by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, according to the FBI. He was booked into Maricopa County jail on suspicion of conspiring to commit terrorism." -- CW

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Rees Shapiro of the Washington Post: Court documents, including the Rolling Stone reporter's extensive notes, show that there were red flags -- even before publication of the story -- that the supposed victim was lying when she claims fraternity boys at the University of Virginia gang-raped her. -- CW

Way Beyond

Ishaan Tharoor of the Washington Post: "U.S. State Department officials confirmed Saturday that an American was among the hostages killed in the attack [on a Dhaka, Bangladesh, restaurant]. The identity of the victim, however, was not released.... At least one of the assailants has been taken into custody, according to reports." -- CW ...

... Emily Reyes, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "Three students from American universities were among the victims of an armed attack at a restaurant in Bangladesh early Saturday, university and foreign officials confirmed." -- CW

Rukmini Callimachi of the New York Times: "For the Islamic State terrorist group, which broadly advised operatives it sent to Europe to kill 'anyone and everyone,' the group's tactics in Bangladesh have seemed more controlled. In the past nine months, it has claimed 19 attacks in the South Asian country, nearly all of them targeted assassinations singling out religious minorities and foreigners.... They included hacking to death a Hindu man, stabbing to death a Shiite preacher, murdering a Muslim villager who had been accused of converting to Christianity and sending suicide bombers into Shiite mosques.... A closer look ... suggests a group that is tailoring its approach for different regions and for different target audiences." -- CW

Ed Vulliamy of the Guardian: Tens of thousands of upper-crusty Brits marched in the streets of London in the "March for Europe." "At the end of the march, in Parliament Square, protesters listened to speakers including Bob Geldof and Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker as well as politicians..." -- CW

Comments Off

Reader Comments (3)

The unadulterated hatred directed toward the poor by Confederate controlled states, urged on , no doubt, by far right radio millionaires who themselves take advantage of every tax loophole designed to make life easier for the rich, is displayed in wide screen technicolor in Florida and Arizona. Forcing poor families in need of assistance to wait a year--two years??-- before they get anything is the kind cruelty the worst Dickens villains would stand in awe of.

Does anyone think for a second these or any other Republican controlled state would tell giant corporations like Exxon or filthy rich oligarchs like the Kochs they'd have to wait two years before their corporate welfare bennies kicked in?

July 3, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

It seems to be the case with republican governors "monkey see,
monkey do". We now (in Michigan) have a bill pending to regulate
which restroom transgender persons will use. One republican
governor does it and the rest follow suit. Don't think about the
consequences, just do it. Should increase employment though.
Somebody has to check all those birth certificates. Der trump
should be good at that; he spent months checking out President
Obama's.

July 3, 2016 | Unregistered Commenterforrest morris

@Ak - law actually says they would get corporate welfare right away, but only for a year.

July 3, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterWhyte Owen
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