The Ledes

Friday, February 28, 2025

New York Times: “Boris Spassky, the world chess champion whose career was overshadowed by his loss to Bobby Fischer in the 'Match of the Century' in 1972, died on Thursday in Moscow. He was 88.”

New York Times: “The actor Gene Hackman was found dead in a mud room in his New Mexico home and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, was found dead on the floor of a bathroom on Wednesday, according to a search warrant affidavit. An open prescription bottle and scattered pills were discovered near her body on a counter in the bathroom. A dead German shepherd was found between 10 and 15 feet away from Ms. Arakawa in a closet of the bathroom, the affidavit said. There were no obvious signs of a gas leak in the home, it said, and the Fire Department did not find signs of a carbon monoxide leak. The maintenance workers who found them said they had not been in contact with the couple for two weeks. The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Thursday afternoon that 'there were no apparent signs of foul play.'... The causes of their deaths had not been determined.”

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The Ledes

Thursday, February 27, 2025

CNBC: “Initial filings for unemployment benefits hit their highest level of the year last week in another potential signs of weakness in the labor market. Jobless claims for the week ended Feb. 22 totaled a seasonally adjusted 242,000, up 22,000 from the previous week’s revised level and higher than the Dow Jones estimate for 225,000, according to a Labor Department report Thursday. The level of claims matched the highest since early October 2024 and comes amid questions over broader economic growth and worrying signs in recent consumer sentiment surveys.”

CNBC: “High mortgage rates and elevated home prices combined to crush home sales in January. Pending sales, which are based on signed contracts for existing homes, dropped 4.6% from December to the lowest level since the National Association of Realtors began tracking this metric in 2001. Sales were down 5.2% from January 2024. These sales are an indicator of future closings.”

New York Times: “Gene Hackman, who never fit the mold of a Hollywood movie star, but who became one all the same, playing seemingly ordinary characters with deceptive subtlety, intensity and often charm in some of the most noted films of the 1970s and ’80s, has died, the authorities in New Mexico said on Thursday. He was 95. Mr. Hackman and his wife were found dead on Wednesday afternoon at a home in Santa Fe., N.M., where they had been living, according to a statement from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff’s deputies found the bodies of Mr. Hackman; his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 64; and a dog, according to the statement, which said that foul play was not suspected.” ~~~

     ~~~ Update. New York Times: “An investigation was underway on Thursday after the prolific actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead along with their dog at a house in New Mexico, the local authorities said. The bodies of Mr. Hackman, 95, and Ms. Arakawa, 64, were found by sheriff’s deputies in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Santa Fe on Wednesday afternoon, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. The couple had lived in the Santa Fe area for years. Sheriff Adan Mendoza of Santa Fe County said in a phone interview that an associate of Mr. Hackman and his family had placed an emergency call on Wednesday afternoon after discovering the bodies of the actor and his wife.”

New York Times: “Michelle Trachtenberg, a touchstone of millennial youth culture who grew up onscreen, rising to fame as a troubled teenager on the supernatural 1990s series 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and as a conniving young socialite on 'Gossip Girl,' was found dead on Wednesday in Manhattan. She was 39. The New York Police Department said in a statement that officers, responding to a 911 call just after 8 a.m. on Wednesday, found Ms. Trachtenberg unconscious and unresponsive in a Manhattan apartment. She was pronounced dead by emergency medical workers, who had also responded.”

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 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.

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.

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."

Democrats' Weekly Address

Marie (Feb 23): As far as I can tell, there isn't any. I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like Democrats are so screwed up, they can't even put together a couple of minutes of video to tell us how screwed we are.

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.”

New York Times: “Joy Reid’s evening news show on MSNBC is being canceled, part of a far-reaching programming overhaul orchestrated by Rebecca Kutler, the network’s new president, two people familiar with the changes said. The final episode of Ms. Reid’s 7 p.m. show, 'The ReidOut,' is planned for sometime this week, according to the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly. The show, which features in-depth interviews with politicians and other newsmakers, has been a fixture of MSNBC’s lineup for the past five years. MSNBC is planning to replace Ms. Reid’s program with a show led by a trio of anchors: Symone Sanders Townsend, a political commentator and former Democratic strategist; Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee; and Alicia Menendez, the TV journalist, the people said. They currently co-host 'The Weekend,' which airs Saturday and Sunday mornings.” MB: In case you've never seen “The Weekend,” let me assure you it's pretty awful. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: "Joy Reid is leaving MSNBC, the network’s new president announced in a memo to staff on Monday, marking an end to the political analyst and anchor’s prime time news show."

Y! Entertainment: "Meanwhile, [Alex] Wagner will also be removed from her 9 pm weeknight slot. Wagner has already been working as a correspondent after Rachel Maddow took over hosting duties during ... Trump’s first 100 days in office. It’s now expected that Wagner will not return as host, but is expected to stay on as a contributor. Jen Psaki, President Biden’s former White House press secretary, is a likely replacement for Wagner, though a decision has not been finalized." MB: In fairness to Psaki, she is really too boring to watch. On the other hand, she is White. ~~~

     ~~~ RAS: "So MSNBC is getting rid of both of their minority evening hosts. Both women of color who are not afraid to call out the truth. Outspoken minorities don't have a long shelf life in the world of our corporate news media."

As we watch in horror the rapid destruction of our democratic form of government, it is comforting to remember there is life outside politics. I took a break a while ago to enjoy a brief lesson in the history of the moonwalk: ~~~

But it may go back even further:

And this chronological account is helpful:

New York Times: “Chuck Todd, the former 'Meet the Press' moderator and a longtime fixture of NBC’s political coverage, told colleagues on Friday that he was leaving the network. A nearly two-decade veteran of NBC, Mr. Todd said that Friday would be his last day at NBC.... Mr. Todd, 52, is the latest TV news star to step aside at a moment when salaries are being scrutinized — and slashed — by major media companies. Hoda Kotb exited NBC’s 'Today' show this month, and Neil Cavuto of Fox News and CNN’s Chris Wallace departed their cable news homes late last year.”

CNBC: “ CNN plans to lay off hundreds of employees Thursday [Jan. 23] as it refocuses the business around a global digital audience.... The layoffs come as CNN is rearranging its linear TV lineup and building out digital subscription products. The cuts will help CNN lower production costs and consolidate teams, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic changes. Certain shows that are produced in New York or Washington may move to Atlanta, where production can be done more cheaply, said the people. For the most part, the job cuts won’t affect CNN’s most recognizable names, who are under contract, said the people. CNN has about 3,500 employees worldwide.... NBC News is also planning cuts later this week, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic changes. While the exact number couldn’t be determined, the job losses will be well under 50....”

 

Contact Marie

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Thursday
Jan062011

The Commentariat -- January 7

Lesley Hazleton reads the Koran:

Justin Fox of the Harvard Business Review: "There doesn't have to be a problem with a revolving door between government jobs and non-government jobs. The fact that people in the U.S. can easily pop back and forth between government, academia, and the private sector has for most of the nation's history been more strength than weakness.... The Wall Street connection is something different.... This gap between what ... Wall Street [employees] ... make and the money to be earned in government or other sectors of the economy is huge — and it cannot help but have consequences.... With that kind of pay differential [nearly 3,000 %!], Wall Street inevitably begins to emit a giant sucking sound as it hoovers up smart, self-interested people." ...

... Felix Salmon of Reuters: "Government is perfectly capable, were it so inclined, of shrinking the financial sector and making it much less profitable.... But it’s not going to happen, because the public servants who could enact such a change currently have the ability to earn millions ... when they leave DC....  The real value of a government position, especially in the economic team, is in the marginal net present value of all those juicy future earnings that you’ll be offered.... [Conversely,] people like Hank Paulson or Bill Daley have already made their Wall Street millions.... The problem in these cases is that after so many years on Wall Street these people have internalized the worldview of the financial sector...: what good for Goldman Sachs is good for America."

Ken Terry on B-Net: "Even as congressional Republicans try to repeal the healthcare reform law, and as a federal court in Florida nears a decision on its constitutionality, evidence is emerging that that legislation is benefiting small companies by making health coverage more affordable. Considering that small businesspeople are among the most reliable Republican supporters, this unexpected bonus to small firms is another blow to the GOP’s claim that it has a popular mandate to overturn reform." Terry mentions an underlying Los Angeles Times story by Noam Levey, which is here. ...

... CW: Ezra Klein has better, less dismissive answers to David Brooks' objections to the healthcare bill than I did. ...

... And here's Klein's argument against the irrational Republican Tea Party-bred disdain for public sector workers: "The main argument against the Obama administration is that it hasn't saved enough jobs. But in the public sector, which is obviously where the government has the easiest time savings jobs, the argument is that they've saved too many of them." ...

... Felix Salmon explains the reality behind today's jobs number: "... For those keeping track at home, that’s employment up by 103,000 and unemployment down by a whopping 556,000.... We need to see 150,000 new jobs a month just to keep pace with population growth.... Unemployment is down ... only for those who have been out of work for less than 26 weeks. The ranks of the long-term unemployed are still rising. Meanwhile, the numbers of 'discouraged' people continue to rise very fast." ...

... Michael Powell & Sewell Chan of the New York Times: "The rate of growth — 103,000 jobs in December — is an indication that the unemployment rate will likely remain high through the rest of President Obama’s four-year term."

Constitutional law Prof. David Cole has found a WikeLeaked copy of "The Conservative Constitution of the United States," & has unveiled it to Washington Post readers. The Preamble:

We, the Real Americans, in order to form a more God-Fearing Union, establish Justice as we see it, Defeat Health-Care Reform, and Preserve and Protect our Property, our Guns and our Right Not to Pay Taxes, do ordain and establish this Conservative Constitution for the United States of Real America.

Here's something else that's LOL funny, and it's real. Jonathan Allen of Politico: "In a letter to be distributed Friday night, Reps. Pete Sessions and Mike Fitzpatrick apologize to all 433 of their House colleagues for voting after missing out on taking their official oath of office.... The swearing-in of members of Congress is required by Article 6 of the Constitution, and Republican leaders scrambled to come up with a fix to rectify their invalid votes." ...

... Anthony Weiner has a lot of fun at Republicans' expense. Think Progress reports:

This [Pentagon] budget has basically doubled in the last decade. And my own experience here is in that doubling, we've lost our ability to prioritize, to make hard decisions, to do tough analysis, to make trades. -- Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs ...

... Mark Thompson of Time on Mullen's remark: "Such profound truths are rarely heard on-camera inside the Pentagon." Thompson's take on the Pentagon's proposed budget trims is worth reading. Basically, he says the cuts aren't as big as the headlines suggest.

** "The 'Benjamin Button' Congress." Ron Brownstein of the National Journal: "House Republicans' ... agenda revolves almost entirely around reducing Washington’s role.... Politically, their strategy rests on the assumption that Americans who recoiled from the president’s agenda to expand government will welcome Republican efforts to diminish it.... But ... in several respects, this second round of conflicts could allow Obama and Democrats to frame the choices in ways more favorable to them." ...

... Also, Brownstein on "White Flight": "By any standard, white voters’ rejection of Democrats in November’s elections was daunting and even historic. Fully 60 percent of whites nationwide backed Republican candidates for the House of Representatives; only 37 percent supported Democrats.... These results ... could carry profound implications for 2012. They suggest that economic recovery alone may not solve the president’s problems with many of the white voters...."

Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post: "Republicans these days can't get through a sentence without tossing in their new favorite adjective, 'job-killing.' ... What's so curious is that it's hard to find almost any Republican concern about employment homicide during 2008, when George W. Bush was president and the economy was shedding 4.4 million jobs.' ... There is an unmistakable redbaiting quality to the 'job-killing' rhetoric." What's so ironic about the tactic is that it is Republicans who are proposing job-killing legislation.

** Matt Yglesias likes Gene Sperling, and here's why.

Matt Bai of the New York Times: "... if anything, this week’s appointments [of Bill Daley & the anticipated appointment of Gene Sperling] would seem to represent a continuation of the ideological course Mr. Obama has been following since before he took the oath of office, rather than any substantive shift in his worldview." CW: Obama was never a liberal, kids. ...

... Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "... in tapping Daley, Obama has begun to reach outside his comfort zone." ...

... Think Daley is a good choice? Well there's this from David Drucker of Roll Call: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell praised President Barack Obama on Thursday for choosing business executive William Daley to serve as White House chief of staff." ...

... On the other hand, there's this:

With Wall Street reporting record profits while middle class Americans continue to struggle in a deep recession, the announcement that William Daley, who has close ties to Big Banks and Big Business, will now lead the White House staff is troubling and sends the wrong message to the American people. -- Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org

... Royal Court Gossip. Toby Harnden of the Telegraph: "It’s being reported by John King on CNN right now that [Robert] Gibbs wanted to be a presidential counsellor ... but William Daley, the new chief of staff, nixed this.... So that’s why Gibbs is out. Additionally, King reports that Valerie Jarrett, whose sole qualification to being a senior counsellor seems to be that she’s a long-time Chicago buddy of Barack and Michelle Obama, will have her wings clipped. Daley, not Jarrett, will be the person speaking to the business community." ...

     ... Sam Stein: both Gibbs & Daley deny the story about Gibbs. CW: neither man says anything about Jarrett's "demotion." ...

... This story by Elizabeth Williamson of the Wall Street Journal is receiving a lot of attention today; headline -- "President Revs up Campaign to Make Peace with Business." Very reassuring. Because he was always so anti-business till now.

Oh, here's a surprise. Speaker Boehner can't think of a single military or homeland security program to cut:

Mark Landler & Scott Shane of the New York Times: "The State Department is warning hundreds of human rights activists, foreign government officials and businesspeople identified in leaked diplomatic cables of potential threats to their safety and has moved a handful of them to safer locations, administration officials said Thursday. The operation ... reflects the administration’s fear that the disclosure of cables obtained by the organization WikiLeaks has damaged American interests by exposing foreigners who supply valuable information to the United States." ...

... Intrigue! Kim Severson & Robbie Brown of the New York Times: "Odyssey Marine Exploration, a Tampa, Fla., deep-sea treasure hunting company, is using classified cables from the State Department [released by WikiLeaks] in its legal battle with Spain over who owns $500 million of gold and silver retrieved in 2007 from the wreckage of a Spanish galleon off the coast of Portugal.... Odyssey says [the cables] show that the [American] ambassador [to Spain] offered to assist Spain in the fight over the sunken treasure." A stolen Pissarro figures in! Nazis! Eric Holder is implicated! Congressmen are blaming Hillary Clinton!

Jon Stewart seems to disapprove of the Goldman Sachs-Facebook deal:

Bill Vlasic of the New York Times: "The Big Three automakers have made strides in fuel economy but still rely on light trucks and S.U.V.’s for profits."

State of the States

Paul Krugman: the conservative governor and legislators in Texas have left the state in a fiscal mess even after Gov. Rick Perry boasted/lied about the state's having a huge surplus. Oh, and they're not of a mind to make things right. Krugman sees Texas as an omen of what to expect in every state where conservatives reign. ...

... Kim Severson of the New York Times: A Georgia state Hope program, "the largest merit-based college scholarship program in the United States..., offers any Georgia high school student with a B-average four years of free college tuition. But the Hope scholarship program is about to be cut by a new governor and Legislature facing staggering financial troubles."


Aflockalypse. Seth Borenstein of the AP: "First, the blackbirds fell out of the sky on New Year's Eve in Arkansas. In recent days, wildlife have mysteriously died in big numbers: 2 million fish in the Chesapeake Bay, 150 tons of red tilapia in Vietnam, 40,000 crabs in Britain and other places across the world. Blogs connected the deadly dots, joking about the "aflockalypse" while others saw real signs of something sinister, either biblical or environmental. The reality, say biologists, is that these mass die-offs happen all the time and usually are unrelated."

Update on Ted Williams. JoAnne Viviano of the AP: "A homeless man whose silky announcing voice has catapulted him to national fame reunited Thursday with his mother, recorded a commercial for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and agreed to do voiceover work for MSNBC." CW: I sure hope this guy is getting some high-quality help.

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