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The Ledes

Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Washington Post's liveblog of developments in the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse is here: “Divers recovered the bodies of two construction workers who died when a massive cargo ship struck and collapsed a Baltimore bridge, as investigators revealed Wednesday that hazardous material was leaking from breached containers on the stranded vessel and state and federal lawmakers rushed to begin the recovery from the disaster that crippled the Port of Baltimore. Rescue crews found the victims shortly before 10 a.m. trapped in a red pickup truck in about 25 feet of water in the Patapsco River near the mid-span of the hulking wreck of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Maryland State Police Secretary Roland L. Butler Jr. said at a news conference. The conditions were treacherous for the divers, so Butler said they were suspending the search for the bodies of four other construction workers who plunged to their deaths when the container ship in distress struck the bridge shortly before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, causing it to fall.

“The workers are believed to be the only victims in the disaster.... The victims recovered were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Md. Other victims identified Wednesday were Maynor Suazo Sandoval, 38, from Honduras, and Miguel Luna, from El Salvador, who was the father of three. The names of the remaining two victims have not been released.” ~~~

~~~ CNN's live updates are here.

The Wires
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The Ledes

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Washington Post: “As a cargo ship the size of a skyscraper drifted dangerously close to a major Baltimore bridge that carried more than 30,000 cars a day, the crew of the Dali issued an urgent 'mayday,' hoping to avert disaster Tuesday. First responders sprang into action, shutting down most traffic on the four-lane Francis Scott Key Bridge just before the 95,000 gross-ton vessel plowed into a bridge piling at about 1:30 a.m., causing multiple sections of the span to bow and snap in a harrowing scene captured on video.... Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) hailed those who carried out the quick work as 'heroes' and said they saved lives, but the scale of the destruction was catastrophic and will probably have far-reaching impacts for the economy and travel on the East Coast for months to come.” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here. CNN's live updates are here. ~~~

     ~~~ A Washington Post liveblog of developments is here: “Six people [-- bridge construction workers --] were presumed dead Tuesday evening, authorities announced as they shifted from a search and rescue operation to a recovery effort.... The governor declared a state of emergency, and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) announced that the city has deployed its emergency operations plan. Vessel traffic into and out of the Port of Baltimore was 'suspended until further notice.'”

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

The Hollywood Reporter has the full list of 2024 Oscar winners here.

Ryan Gosling performs "I'm Just Ken" at the Academy Awards: ~~~

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.”

Washington Post: “The last known location of 'Portrait of Fräulein Lieser' by world-renowned Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was in Vienna in the mid-1920s. The vivid painting featuring a young woman was listed as property of a 'Mrs Lieser' — believed to be Henriette Lieser, who was deported and killed by the Nazis. The only remaining record of the work was a black and white photograph from 1925, around the time it was last exhibited, which was kept in the archives of the Austrian National Library. Now, almost 100 years later, this painting by one of the world’s most famous modernist artists is on display and up for sale — having been rediscovered in what the auction house has hailed as a sensational find.... It is unclear which member of the Lieser family is depicted in the piece[.]”

CNN: “Jon Stewart is heading back to 'The Daily Show.' The comedian, who during his 16-year run as host of the Comedy Central program established it as an entertainment and cultural force, will return to host the show each week on Mondays starting February 12, Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios announced Wednesday. Stewart, who returns as the 2024 presidential election season heats up, will also executive produce the show and work with a rotating line-up of comedians who will helm the program the rest of the week, Tuesdays through Thursdays.”

~~~ Marie: I don't know if this podcast will update automatically, or if I have to do it manually. In any event, both you and I can find the latest update of the published episodes here. The episodes begin with ads, but you can fast-forward through them.

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Monday
Mar112013

The Commentariat -- March 12, 2013

Please sign the White House petition "Save Social Security." If you think means-testing is a good idea, see my argument as to why it is not -- it's the 12th comment in the Comments section.

CW: I will post very lightly for the next few days as my long-standing time crunch just got crunchier.

** Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Constitution has always given residents of states with small populations a lift, but the size and importance of the gap has grown markedly in recent decades, in ways the framers probably never anticipated.... The Senate may be the least democratic legislative chamber in any developed nation."

Jeff Toobin: "... senatorial entropy has taken an enormous toll on President Obama's judicial appointments. This was the second time that Halligan received majority support, but, because she never passed the threshold of sixty, her nomination now appears doomed. And so, in the fifth year of his Presidency, Obama has failed to place even a single judge on the D.C. Circuit, considered the second most important court in the nation, as it deals with cases of national importance."

** Steve Benen: "Merrill Lynch said [Monday] morning that job creation will likely shrink to below 100,000 in April and May as 'sequester-related job cuts are implemented.' I mention this for a couple of reasons. The first, obviously, is the mind-numbing realization that Americans' own elected officials are choosing to deliberately make the economy worse. [Emphasis added.] But the other reason is that it offers an important rejoinder to those who spent last week asking whether President Obama 'cried wolf' over the dangers associated with sequestration."

Justin Sink of The Hill: "White House press secretary Jay Carney on Monday said Obama's budget will seek to put the U.S. on a 'fiscally sustainable path' that brings the deficit below 3 percent of gross domestic product. He said Obama's proposal would not attempt to hit an arbitrary target, however, and that it will only project over the next decade." ...

... Paul Ryan, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, explains how he plans to balance the budget in 10 years. CW: I'll bet only "urban people" who were counting on "the free stuff" so they could loll around in their "hammock" will be shocked out of their "complacency." ...

... Jill Lawrence of the National Journal: "Even though President Obama won the 2012 election, Ryan's new plan to balance the federal budget in 10 years relies on repealing the Affordable Care Act." CW: the National Journal is not a liberal site. Ryan's budget is just a bad joke that forces straight reporters & analysts to snicker. ...

... Gene Robinson: "Ryan ... is coming back with an ostensibly new and improved version of the framework that voters rejected in November. Judging by the preview he offered Sunday, the new plan is even less grounded in reality than was the old one.... From the evidence, Ryan cares less about deficits or tax rates than about finding some way to dramatically reduce the size of the federal government.... It's hard to take him seriously as long as he refuses to come clean about his intentions."

Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times sort of argues that prosecuting big corporations -- including big banks -- is terribly unfair to the corporations' other employees who are faultless. CW: accepting that argument does not preclude prosecuting the big fish at the big banks. That. Has. Not. Happened. ...

... Mike Konczal of the Washington Post: Sen. Sherrod Brown wants to break up the big banks.

Joe Nocera: in Oregon, gun extremists harass legislators pursuing sensible gun-safety measures. ...

... Gary Langer of ABC News: "While Senate negotiators struggle for a deal on mandatory background checks at gun shows, the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll finds vast public support for the measure, as well as for a committee-approved step to make illegal gun sales a federal crime. A smaller majority, 57 percent, also continues to favor banning assault weapons, a measure said to be less likely to prevail in Congress." ...

... CW: the problem is that we live in a quasi-progressive country with a government controlled by the right and far-right. More people voted for Democrats than for Republicans in 2012, despite the best efforts of Republicans to suppress Democratic vote. The result? The House is majority Republican, & the Speaker has no control over the nut jobs, who effectively run the party. The Senate is minority Republican -- 45 to 55 -- which today means they also control the Senate. (Also see Adam Liptak above re: small-state advantage.) So that's Congress. The Supremes are a majority wacko winger party, though both Kennedy & Roberts have occasional fits of reality-connect. Remember that before Souter & Stevens left the court, 7 of the Justices were Republican appointees. So the only branch of government Democrats control right now is the executive, & despite what all the pundits pretend, the President doesn't write laws, & he has limited control on how the vast agencies operate. In addition, both he & Congress are largely controlled by the vast capitalist-wing conspiracy. That is to say, we live under a non-democratic system. American exceptionalism, my ass.

Unemployment Rate for New England's Conservative Ex-Senators: 0.0 Percent

Peter Lattman of the New York Times: "Scott Brown, the former Massachusetts senator who lost his seat to Elizabeth Warren last year, said on Monday that he was joining the law firm Nixon Peabody. He will work in the firm's Boston headquarters and focus one the financial services industry and commercial real estate matters, according to firm." Emphasis added.

Byron Tau of Politico: "Former Sen. Joe Lieberman is joining the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, the organization announced Monday. Lieberman -- Al Gore's vice presidential running mate in 2000 and a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 -- will co-chair AEI's American Internationalism Project, an effort to rebuild a bipartisan consensus about big foreign policy questions." ...

     ... Ed Kilgore: "He is extremely unlikely to create any 'bipartisan consensus' around his own national security views. This self-appointed role, however, will give him plenty of opportunity to nurse grudges and settle scores, or if nothing else, to bask in the praise of Republicans...."

     ... David Atkins of Hullabaloo: "... one of the Right's strategies is to go trolling for morally deficient, easily corrupted neoliberal 'Democrats' to assist their efforts at creating a 'bipartisan consensus' to override popular will and common sense in the service of the conservative agenda. Fifty years ago, Joe Lieberman would have been seen for exactly what he is: a hardline rightwing conservative.... But then, we're not the same country we were fifty years ago. We're still battling the deep, horrific wounds caused by the Southern Strategy and the Powell Memo."


Dana Milbank: Jay Carney
puts the "offense" in "charm offensive." But, really, overall, White House staff are getting more charming: "White House reporters [say] ... the phone calls and e-mails from the president's aides have become less confrontational and less vulgar...."

Senator Robert Byrd (1917-2010) of West Virginia (fiddle and vocals) is accompanied in this 1978 recording by Doyle Lawson (guitar), James Bailey (banjo) and Spider Gilliam (bass). Recorded this track from the LP, 'U.S. Senator Robert Byrd - Mountain Fiddler,' produced in 1978. See yesterday's Comments for context. Thanks to James S. for the inspiration:

AND Krugman gets Breitbarted! Breitbart "News" reports Krugman filed for personal bankruptcy. Krugman's response: "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go give a lavishly paid speech to Friends of Hamas." CW: seriously, winger "news" sites like Breitbart & Daily Caller have settled on a new journalistic standard: if a rumor puts a liberal in an unfavorable light, publish. I wish Krugman would sue Breitbart & put the site out of business. And, in case you're wondering, Andrew Ross Sorkin, there are no innocent employees at Breitbart. Also, I wonder why ARS news uses three names. ...

... Max Read of Gawker: "When a Washington Post columnist fell for a fake news story on the "satire" site Daily Currant a few weeks ago, Breitbart.com's John Nolte suggested the paper was without 'a shred of self-awareness, integrity, and dignity' and wrote that it 'never... let facts get in the way of a good Narrative.. Of course, that was before his own outlet got fooled by the exact same 'satire' site." ...

... Ben Dimiero of Media Matters: "In his post, [Breitbart's Larry] O'Connor jabbed Krugman for supposedly spending '$84,000 in one month' on Portuguese wines and 'a dress from the Victorian period,' and concluded that 'apparently this Keynsian [sic] thing doesn't really work on the micro level.'"

... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: the fake Krugman story also appeared on Boston.com, a Boston Globe site. "Brian McGrory, the Globe's editor, explains that no editorial official at his paper ever made a decision to post the piece. 'The story arrived deep within our site from a third party vendor who partners on some finance and market pages on our site,' says McGrory.... 'We never knew it was there till we heard about it from outside.' Since the posting went up, McGrory attests to having done 'urgent work to get it the hell down.' ... McGrory ... vows to 'address our relationship with that vendor.'"

What a meeting of the Clan looks like. European Pressphoto Agency.Anthony Faiola & Jason Horowitz of the Washington Post: "The sacred politicking to elect the next pope moved into its final phase Tuesday, as 115 cardinals checked into isolated quarters, attended a reverent Mass and prepared to lock themselves into the Sistine Chapel to begin the secret and highly ceremonial conclave to choose Benedict XVI's successor." New York Times story, with links to related stories, is here. ...

... CW: to get myself in the mood for all this, I started watching "The Borgias" series this morning, as I've seen only a few episodes of it. In the first episode, which I watched when I finished working -- at about 3 am -- the cardinals gather to elect a new pope. In this episode, Rodrigo Borgia begins with very few votes, but over the next days he buys off enough cardinals to get the job.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The United States government is buying enough of a new smallpox medicine to treat two million people in the event of a bioterrorism attack, and took delivery of the first shipment of it last week. But the purchase has set off a debate about the lucrative contract, with some experts saying the government is buying too much of the drug at too high a price."

Reuters: "Residents of the Falkland Islands voted almost unanimously to stay under British rule in a referendum aimed at winning global sympathy as Argentina intensifies its sovereignty claim. The official count on Monday showed 99.8 percent of islanders voted in favour of remaining a British Overseas Territory in the two-day poll, which was rejected by Argentina as a meaningless publicity stunt. There only three 'no' votes out of about 1,500 cast."

Reader Comments (11)

Jeffrey Toobin's piece in the New Yorker reviewing how Republicans deny the president's right to appoint federal judges is just one of many tactics used by the right to reinforce their assertion that only they should be able to govern (we won't get into exactly how risible that assertion is given the fact that Republicans are to governance as global warming is to a stable climate).

Not only do the gangsters in the Republican Party (and that means all of them, every fucking one) deny Democrats seats on federal benches, they've taken to disallowing the president from appointing individuals to lead over 60 federal agencies and departments, according to Pro Publica.

The idea is that if you've just gotten your ass kicked by the public in a general election because they hate your policies and what you stand for, you go around the electorate. So you can't get around the fact that an agency like the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau has been created? No problem. Deny the president the right to fill its leadership position. They don't want consumers to be protected anyhow.

Other agencies decapitated by Republican intransigence are no brainers. What Republican gangster wants to make sure the Office of Government Ethics actually works? They can't even say the word "ethics" without triggering a major bowel movement. And what about the Federal Housing Agency? Fuck no. They'd only give financing to blah people and "those people" shouldn't be given homes anyway. The ghetto is fine for them.

Republicans will howl that Democrats stalled some Bush appointments but Bush got the vast majority approved, even ones of questionable qualifications. If Democrats demurred at some Bush appointees it's because he sent up people who were living in caves eating raw meat and carrying clubs with nails in them. Obama's appointees are highly qualified individuals. Not the thugs, cavemen, and racist pigs sent up by Bush.

But this way Republicans get to stop major legislation, filling of positions in the federal courts, AND strangle important work done by government agencies.

Sounds a lot like treason to me.

March 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Even the DSTime change did not save me enough time before this AM to post this quick review of recent history, which IMHO encapsulates and summarizes the willful ignorance of the previous administration.

So we have an energy crisis? Remember Darth Vader saying, "Let's have a secret meeting and come up with a solution," or something like that (we can't be sure because the meeting was secret). As I remember, the proposals the sequestered cabal eventually put forth were these:

Lease more federal lands cheaply for drilling. Drill more and deeper and faster. Continue direct oil company subsidies. Purchase the loyalty of Midwest agri-business with massive ethanol subsidies. Shove more money into nuclear power. (Again, who cares about the math?) Add two months of Daylight ST. And never publicly stated but... (wonder why the meeting was secret?) invade Iraq to make their oil safe for democracy.

Of all those ideas, regardless of what many might think about it, DST was the best. The empaneled geniuses did have one good idea. Some say the cows don't like it, but it does save energy. But agri-business cows, almost wholly removed from nature, are no longer milked diurnally. What do they know? And besides, they don't vote.

March 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Ken,

Re: the willful ignorance of the Bush Administration (there has to be an antonym for "administration" but until I find a good one, I'm gonna use the very handy and accurate term "cluster fuck" when referring to the Bush Debacle because calling it an "administration" just ain't right), and there was plenty of it.

Bush stockpiled ignorance and banked stupidity for which he received huge interest payments in dimwittedness; there was so much ignorance they had to store it in offshore accounts and at black sites in Syria and the Balkans. They sold vast quantities to Fox and Clear Channel. They exported as much as they could to red states and schools and then they secreted the rest in dark caverns from which it rises at night and stalks the land. Ignorance like you read about.

But where Cheney's double secret energy committee was concerned, ignorance was largely absent. Oh there was willfulness, alright, but it was willful deviousness, willful chicanery, and rampant, willful cronyism.

Cheney convened his first top secret meeting to divide the spoils of American raw materials between his buddies in oil, gas, mining, and atomic energy just 10 days into the Bush Cluster Fuck. The jury is still out on whether he further enriched his old company, Halliburton, recipient of a no-bid contract to rape the military and the populace in Iraq. (Just imagine the howling had Joe Biden handed billions in government funds to a company he once ran...)

He met with his energy cronies on a regular basis, giving the finger to congress, the press, and the public when asked who was in attendance and what did they talk about. It got so bad that public interest groups finally forced him into court. When a lower court ruled that Cheney was in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, it went to the Supreme Court, at which time, you no doubt will recall, Cheney decided to go duck hunting with his homey, the Dark Lord Nino. Scalia, when asked to recuse himself from hearing a case before him concerning his duck murdering friend, told everyone to fuck off, natch.

There never has been a complete accounting of how much wealth and resources belonging to the American people Cheney handed over to his buddies, but cronyism was to the Bush Cluster Fuck as stench is to a garbage scow.

I don't believe there was much ignorance involved in Cheney's chthonic connivances, but plenty of illegalities. He hid as best he could from the light of day, like all blood sucking vampires.

And he continues to suck.

March 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

A few weeks ago I made a comment about Ezra Klein. Smart man but lives completely in his head. In my opinion, the intelligence masks immaturity, which isn't fatal and will hopefully pass. Yesterday Pierce had a piece on Klein that was dead on. http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/ezra-klein-gets-it-very-wrong-031113

Marie
I watched a few of the Borgia episodes because of Jeremy Irons and well...the story of the Borgias. I stopped watching after a few episodes - felt like a silly graphic novel for TV. Husband finished the season but then we have discussed his questionable taste in the past.

March 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

Re: Funny Hat Sale, a la Rodrigo Borgia.

Does this mean that when we see white smoke, we should wonder which cardinals just saw their bank accounts jump?

When I saw the the video of the guy shut the door to inter the cardinals for the conclave all I could think of was as soon as that door closes, out comes the kiddie porn.

Just, you know, as a matter of research.

March 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Akhilleus:

A short analysis of willful ignorance would have me believe it comes in two flavors, dumb and smart. Despite what his supporters have claimed, I could classify Bush II as one of the former. A bit sly maybe and charming to some but nowhere near smart. His ignorance was willful because he chose to ignore most everything he could have learned (or did once learn) about the real world of politics/geography/science because a) it was politically convenient and b) too much thinking hurt his privileged little head. I don't believe it was hard for him to avoid knowledge. He often looked puzzled for a reason.

His Vader Veep, on the other hand, was always smart enough to tell the brown stuff from the shinola. He just chose the sell the brown stuff to the unsuspecting public--choose your brand of ignorance here-- and, as you say, pocket the profits. Because he chose to convey as truth what he knew to be nonsense for personal profit, I agree the Vader Veep was/is by far the more evil of the two and would like to believe one of those special circles in Hades you refer to from time to time will become his eternal place of torment.

As for Dubya, I'm not sure how much dumbness in the face of so much privilege excuses him. Adequate excuse or not, I have to think only someone immensely dumb would have hired the far smarter and far more venal Vader as his Veep.

There were moments in the second four years of that dark age when he seemed to regret it. I sure did.

March 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

"Also, I wonder why [Andrew Ross Sorkin] news [uses?] three names..." So no one will confuse him with a;; the other Andrew Sorkins?

March 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

"all" not "a;;" Sorry; fat fingers syndrome strikes again.

March 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

Ken,

I agree with your assessmrnt of George II. In addition to his willful ignorance and generally incurious nature, he sported a vicious meanstreak and an inability to understand or appreciate the immense pain and horror he injected into the world. If Chaney could appreciate pain it was likely the sort of appreciation found in sadists.

Any way you look at it, they were the most sociopathic, egocentric, vicious pres/vice pair in US history.

March 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@James S. Thanks for your insight re: Andrew Ross Sorkin. (Also for correcting typo.) In the future, when I see a piece about Wall Street by Andrew Ross Sorkin, I will feel better knowing this guy did not write it. Also, you will never catch the real Andrew Ross Sorkin competing for the Ironman championship, much less showing a "keen interest" in Temporomandibular Disorders.

Marie

March 12, 2013 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

The Republicans had a Southern Strategy. It worked pretty well. Then comes the Dick and George show. Open up federal lands and any other lands to resource exploitation. OK. Lots of land with small populations that get thorough representation in the Senate. Good jobs. A winning strategy in Republican hands again. Now with sequestration the administration in power gets the blame and now you have a Western Strategy.
When are the Democrats going to offer some of their own strategies? Too many Democrats fail to realize that there are many counties out west that are half owned by the federal government, whether BLM, Parks, Forest Service or Military. And the federal government doesn't pay property taxes to the local governments. So the Democrats come up with gun control. A lot of places in the west it is almost impossible to hit a person with a bullet because there are no people.
The gun control strategy of the Democrats is like a political gift to the Republicans.
To often the Democrats have a culture of bitching and inaction: that is not a political strategy. Darth Cheney realized that politics is completely ruled by Machievelli tactics what ever it may be you chose to do inside your own home.
The denial of all Obama judiciary is the case in point for Republican Machievelli tactics. If Democrats fought WWll this way, we'd be talking German and buying Japanese. Democrats and Independents need to stop bitching and start playing to win. Be nice at home.

March 12, 2013 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625
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