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To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

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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.

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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.

Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.

 

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."

NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.

Wherein Michael McIntyre explains how Americans adapted English to their needs. With examples:

Beat the Buzzer. Some amazing young athletes:

     ~~~ Here's the WashPo story (March 23).

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.”

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

Page Links
Sunday
May292011

The Commentariat -- May 30

Memorial Day, May 1, 1865. Art by Owen Freeman for the New York Times.Historian David Blight, in a New York Times op-ed on the first Memorial Day, which took place on May 1, 1865, and was organized by freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina. It has long, and no doubt purposely, slipped from the nation's memory.

I've posted an Open Thread for today's Off Times Square. ...

... Krugman says it's time to come up with a jobs program, and Douthat says it's time to whack businesses who employ illegal immigrants. Write whatever moves you. ...

... In a story related to Douthat's column, Julia Preston of the New York Times writes, "Obama administration officials are sharpening their crackdown on the hiring of illegal immigrants by focusing increasingly tough criminal charges on employers while moving away from criminal arrests of the workers themselves.... In a break with Bush-era policies, the number of criminal cases against unauthorized immigrant workers has dropped sharply over the last two years." CW: coincidentally, this is what I advocated for in my comment on Douthat (#3). I just posted the comment on Off Times Square.

Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "There are no national surveys that track doctors’ political leanings, but as more doctors move from business owner to shift worker [and are no longer almost all male], their historic alliance with the Republican Party is weakening.... That change could have a profound effect on the nation’s health care debate. Indeed, after opposing almost every major health overhaul proposal for nearly a century, the American Medical Association supported President Obama’s legislation last year...."

Ariel Levy of the New Yorker writes a long article on Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister. Her story also details the status of women in Italy: "According to the World Economic Forum’s 2010 Global Gender Gap Report, Italy ranks seventy-fourth in women’s rights, between the Dominican Republic and Gambia." Berlusconi's remarks about women are appalling. Here's one, his answer to complaints about sexual assaults: "We don’t have enough soldiers to stop rape because our women are so beautiful."

Graham Bowley of the New York Times: "At the International Monetary Fund, there is one set of ethics guidelines for the rank-and-file staff and another for the 24 elite executive directors who oversee the powerful organization.... The fund’s board members remain largely above controls [imposed on staff]. The ethics adviser, for example, is not able to investigate any of them."

Karen Garcia is incensed by the Sheryl Gay Stolberg's New York Times article on Elizabeth Warren's "breach of Congressional etiquette," which I linked yesterday. Garcia suspects a White House set-up. Plus she has the goods on Rep. Patrick McHenry, the perp in this matter. CW: For the record, Stolberg's article didn't bother me at all. I always think it's great when somebody gives back as good as she gets, and I thought Warren came out smelling like a rose. Who the hell is horrified -- other than the blowhard -- by somebody dissing a blowhard? Just for the fun of it, in case you missed it, here's the video of the final exchange between McHenry, who accuses Warren of lying, and Warren. As Stolberg says, it was, "depending on one's point of view, delightful":

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post: not everybody was thrilled to see Palin at the Rolling Thunder rally for veterans & MIAs. With video. ...

... Running for president is not 'American Idol.' -- David Brooks, on Sarah Palin ...

... BUT ... Where's Waldo David?

Sarah Palin and admirers at the Rolling Thunder rally.     ... Photo via Joshua Green of The Atlantic.

Do Not Let Sarah Palin Near a Nuclear (Nuke-U-Lar) Weapon:

Local News

Ben Thrush & Byron Tau of Politico: President "Obama’s biggest asset in [Florida,] a critical swing state he won by a mere 2.8-percentage-point margin in 2008, might be Rick Scott, the wildly unpopular Republican governor Democrats are casting as Lex Luthor to Obama’s Clark Kent.... Broward County, Fla., political blogger Brandon Thorp summed it up this way: 'If presidential and gubernatorial elections were held in Florida today, no declared Republican presidential candidate could unseat Obama, while Rick Scott would have a hard time beating [Cuban President] Raul Castro.'”

News Ledes

 

President Obama participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns this morning & spoke at a Memorial Day remembrance at Arlington National Cemetery:

President Obama made an announcement about Defense Department personnel this morning. The Washington Post has a related profile of Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, whom the President will name as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Politico Update: "President Barack Obama said Monday that he is nominating Army Gen. Martin Dempsey as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.... The president also nominated Adm. James 'Sandy' Winnefeld, the commander of Northern Command, as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the Joint Forces Command, to replace Dempsey as Army chief of staff":

New York Times: "President Obama has decided to send [Michael McFaul,] the architect of his so-called Russia reset policy, to Moscow as the next United States ambassador there, seeking to further bolster an improved relationship as both countries head into a potentially volatile election season."

AP: "Endeavour and its crew of six left the International Space Station and headed home to close out NASA’s next-to-last shuttle flight, pausing just long enough Monday to perform a victory lap and test equipment for a future interplanetary ship."

AP: "Yemeni warplanes carried out airstrikes Monday on a southern town seized by hundreds of Islamic militants over the weekend, witnesses said, as the political crisis surrounding the embattled president descended into more bloodshed."

AP: "Germany’s coalition government agreed early Monday to shut down all the country’s nuclear power plants by 2022, the environment minister said, making it the first major industrialized nation in the last quarter century to announce plans to go nuclear-free.... Energy from wind, solar and hydroelectric power currently produces about 17 percent of the country’s electricity, but the government aims to boost its share to around 50 percent in the coming decades." ...

... Reuters: "Ratings agency Standard and Poor's cut its credit rating on Tokyo Electric Power (9501.T) to junk status on Monday, saying the utility's bank lenders were more likely to be forced to write off debt as part of a restructuring scheme to compensate victims of an ongoing nuclear crisis."

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