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 you can try this Link Generator, which a contributor recommends: "All you do is paste in the URL and supply the text to highlight. Then hit 'Get Code.'... Return to RealityChex and paste it in."

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.

The Ledes

Friday, March 29, 2024

CNBC: “Inflation rose in line with expectations in February, likely keeping the Federal Reserve on hold before it can start considering interest rate cuts, according to a measure the central bank considers its more important barometer. The personal consumption expenditures price index excluding food and energy increased 2.8% on a 12-month basis and was up 0.3% from a month ago, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Both numbers matched the Dow Jones estimates.... Along with the inflation increase, consumer spending shot up 0.8% on the month, well ahead of the 0.5% estimate, possibly indicating additional inflation pressures. Personal income increased 0.3%, slightly softer than the 0.4% estimate.”

The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
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.

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.

Sunday
Mar242013

The Commentariat -- March 25, 2013

Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: President "Obama is set to sign a government funding measure that leaves in place the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration -- a policy that undermines many of the goals he laid out during the 2012 campaign. Obama thinks the cuts are, in his words, 'dumb,' and he says they will slow the economy and harm priorities by cutting spending on education, research and development, and many other programs. Yet Obama now finds himself enacting a broad domestic policy that he doesn't support and that he believes will harm the country."

Greg Miller, et al., of the New York Times: "The suspicious attack that killed 26 people in northern Syria last week exposed the difficulty of determining whether the Syrian regime has resorted to using chemical weapons as well as the lingering uncertainty over how President Obama would respond if what he has called a 'red line' is crossed."

Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker on the DOMA & Prop 8 cases which the Supremes will hear this week. ...

... Here's a lovely profile of Edith Windsor, the widow/plaintiff in the DOMA case, written in December by Peter Applebome of the New York Times. ...

... A Tea Leaf? Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times: "Jean Podrasky, 48, a lesbian who wants to marry her partner, will be at Tuesday's U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Proposition 8 in seating reserved for family members and guests of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.... Podrasky [is] ... the first cousin of the chief justice on his mother's side.... She said Roberts knows she is gay and introduced her along with other relatives during his Senate confirmation hearing. She hopes he will meet her partner of four years, Grace Fasano, during their Washington visit. The couple flew to Washington on Sunday." ...

I have come to the conclusion that our government should not limit the right to marry based on who you love. While churches should never be required to conduct marriages outside of their religious beliefs, neither should the government tell people who they have a right to marry. -- Sen. Claire McCaskill (ConservaD-Mo.)

There are now 42 sitting U.S. Senators who back gay marriage. -- Taegan Goddard ...

... Steve Benen: "With the Supreme Court set to hear landmark cases this week on marriage rights, the evidence is overwhelming that the right has lost the larger national debate. 'There's no putting this genie back in the bottle,' Republican strategist Ana Navarro conceded yesterday. "This is now undeniable. The shift is here. We're not going back." BUT winger-bigot Gary Bauer trots out the "skewed polls" argument. CW: what this says, I think, is not that 54 or whatever percentage of Americans have gay friends/relatives who have made them see the light, but that the majority of Americans believe in fundamental fairness & individual self-determination, both of which are supposedly defining tenets of the American ethos. ...

... Will Portman, Sen. Rob Portman's (R-Ohio) son, in a Yale Daily News guest column, on his coming out as gay. CW: sorry, Will, I know it isn't nice to say so, but Gary Bauer is a winger-bigot, and not just on this matter.

** David Carr of the New York Times: "In pretrial hearings [in the Bradley Manning case]..., basic information has been withheld, including dockets of court activity, transcripts of the proceedings and orders issued from the bench by the military judge, Col. Denise Lind. A public trial over state secrets was itself becoming a state secret in plain sight. Finally, at the end of last month, in response to numerous Freedom of Information requests from news media organizations, the court agreed to release 84 of the roughly 400 documents filed in the case, suggesting it was finally unbuttoning the uniform a bit to make room for some public scrutiny. Then again, the released documents contained redactions that are mystifying at best and at times almost comic. One of the redacted details was the name of the judge, who sat in open court for months." (Emphasis added.)

Micah Cohen of the New York Times: "... with more budget battles approaching, over raising the nation's borrowing limit and perhaps reaching a grand bargain, Mr. Obama’s advantage over Congressional Republicans has all but vanished. Public approval of his handling of the economy has slipped, according to polls, and surveys now show that a roughly equal number of Americans favor Mr. Obama as favor Congressional Republicans on economic matters." CW: that's because Obama has conceded that Republican priorities of reducing the deficit are fundamentally correct; i.e., it's his own damned fault.

Ryan Koronowski, et al., in Think Progress: "Senate rules allow for consideration of any amendment [to the budget] that is brought to the floor. Senators introduced hundreds of amendments, which resulted in a 'vote-o-rama.' Many conservatives offered amendments to undermine existing and potential public health safeguards, particularly those that would attempt to reduce climate pollution. [We list] seven deadly amendments to curtail protection for our children's health and heritage. As usual, these conservatives are focused on protecting dirty energy companies profits at the expense of public health."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Sunday that while he doesn't want to legalize drugs, he doesn't think people should go to jail for non-violent drug crimes. Paul and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) last week introduced a bill that would give judges greater flexibility by allowing them to work around mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes, which civil rights groups say often don't fit the crime." Like a broken clock that is right twice a day, Aqua Buddha Man gets it right for once. See also Jack Mahoney's contribution in today's Comments.

Frank Rich (published last week) on everything.

Paul Krugman: "... unrestricted movement of capital [across national borders] is looking more and more like a failed experiment.... The best predictor of crisis is large inflows of foreign money."

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "In weighing a bid for The Los Angeles Times, Rupert Murdoch finds himself in a familiar role: waiting for rule changes from the government. With the resignation last week of Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, he may have to wait a little longer. Mr. Murdoch ... has been beefing up News Corporation's lobbying efforts in Washington in the last few months to urge regulators to revise a media ownership rule that would prevent the company from acquiring The Los Angeles Times and other newspapers in markets in which it already owns television stations."

Driftglass: strangely enough, the Sunday Morning Iraq War Cheerleading Camp denizens do not discuss the Iraq War during their camp meetings surrounding the 10th Annual Cheerleaders Reunion.

Local News

Ron Brownstein of the National Journal: Gov. Rick Perry's refusal to accept ObamaCare funds for Medicaid expansion & rejection of ACA health insurance exchanges -- in a state that has the highest percentage of uninsured residents -- could help turn Texas blue. CW: it would be nice to think that at some point, stupid-&-cruel becomes a losing platform.

Bill Keller makes the point that state legislatures do not hew to public opinion because the public pays little attention to them. Do you know who your state legislators are? I haven't a clue other than to be certain they're a couple of rabid, not-too-bright Republicans, like my Congressman Tripp or Trap or Trug Whatizface, who is a pathetic, dumber-than-dirt winger.

Something else I missed last week: David Seifman of the New York Post: "The first-responder son of city Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano resigned today after The Post revealed his history of racist, anti-semitic writings." ...

... BUT Andre Tartar of New York reports that "racist FDNY employees [are] still posting racist things on Twitter." Here's the Post story, which is a doozy.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The American military formally transferred all but 'a small number' of the Afghan prisoners at the Bagram Prison to the Afghan government on Monday in a ceremony that almost, but not quite, marked the end of the American involvement in the long-term detention of insurgents [at Bagram].

New York Times: "Anthony Lewis, a former New York Times reporter and columnist whose work won two Pulitzer Prizes and transformed American legal journalism, died on Monday at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 85."

KKTV Denver: "Police have determined the gun used by Evan Ebel in Texas was the same weapon used in the shooting death of Department of Corrections Director Tom Clements. The confirmation comes after analysis by the Colorado Springs Metro Crime Lab based on analysis of shell casings collected in Texas by El Paso County Sheriff's Office investigators. Analysis is based on unique markings left on the casings at both crime scenes." Via TPM.

Politico: "The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will take up another affirmative action case related to race-based considerations in college admissions in Michigan."

Reuters: "Regulators on Monday approved a plan to compensate market makers who lost money in a botched Facebook Inc public offering in May on the Nasdaq exchange.... The decision from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was in response to a series of high-profile glitches last year that shook the market, including the handling of Facebook's long-anticipated initial public offering."

Los Angeles Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry pressed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Sunday to stop Iran from flying arms across Iraqi territory to the beleaguered Syrian regime, but found him unwilling to give ground.... The overflights have become an increasingly important issue for the Obama administration, which believes that they have reinforced [Syrian President Bashir] Assad

AP: "A rebel military leader who was among the first to call openly for armed insurrection against President Bashar Assad was wounded by a bomb planted in his car in eastern Syria, anti-regime activists said Monday. Col. Riad al-Asaad, leader of a now-sidelined rebel umbrella group known as the Free Syrian Army, had his right foot amputated following the blast late on Sunday...."

New York Times: "With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria's opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad...."

Washington Post: "Secretary of State John F. Kerry made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan on Monday to smooth over relations with President Hamid Karzai, who recently accused the United States of colluding with the Taliban."

Reader Comments (3)

For all the Republican nonsense inherent in Reince Priebus's "Looking for America" tour, libertarians like Rand Paul could preempt Democrats on the vital issue of drug decriminalization. This issue and that of private incarceration should be on the front burner for every liberal politician. The U.S. prison system is an ongoing human rights violation and should be addressed as such.

March 25, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJack Mahoney

Marie, "it would be nice to think that at some point, stupid-&-cruel becomes a losing platform." Perry is undeniable proof that shit-for-brains has a purpose. The constant fertilization has produced some very good hair.

March 25, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

If you think drones are killing only terrorists, watch this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2013/mar/25/drone-attacks-pakistan-visualised

March 25, 2013 | Unregistered Commentercowichan's opinion
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.