White Smoke, Another Shooting and “Yongle Tongbao”
Posted: March 13, 2013 Filed under: American Gun Fetish, Breaking News, Federal Budget and Budget deficit, Gun Control, History, open thread, Political Affective Disorder, Politics as Usual, SDB Evening News Reads, Senate, Sequester | Tags: ancient coins, Argentina, Herkimer NY shootings, Pope Frances 51 Comments »
Good Evening
Well, you have probably heard the news about the new pope….Cardinals Elect Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina as New Pope.
The new pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (pronounced Ber-GOAL-io), will be called Francis, the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. He is also the first non-European leader of the church in more than 1,200 years.
In choosing Francis, 76, who had been the archbishop of Buenos Aires, the cardinals sent a powerful message that the future of the church lies in the global south, home to the bulk of the world’s Catholics.
I don’t know about that global south statement, but I wonder if there any Catholic Church sex abuse trials going on in Argentina. Bergoglio was runner-up to Ratzinger in 2005…and he is a Jesuit…okay, enough of that.
You also may have heard about the shooting in Herkimer, New York: Four Killed in Shootings in Upstate New York
New York State Police, via Associated Press
Kurt Myers
As firefighters made their way to battle the blaze, the police said, a man made his way to a barbershop at the heart of the village and then a carwash, about one mile away, in neighboring Herkimer, killing four people and wounding two others before fleeing and setting off a manhunt that still was unresolved by late afternoon.
Updates to this shooting can be found here.
And….here is the latest on the US Senate Democrat budget plan.
Annual U.S. deficits under a new plan from Senate Democrats would be in the $400-600 billion range for much of the next decade, a level they say would allow stronger near-term job growth than Republicans’ balanced-budget vision.
Full details of the plan released by House Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray on Wednesday showed that deficits would average 2.4 percent of U.S. economic output through 2023, a rate many economists view as sustainable.
U.S. deficits have exceeded $1 trillion during each of the past four years due largely to economic damage from the recent financial crisis. Under the assumptions used in Murray’s budget, the fiscal 2013 deficit is forecast at $891 billion, or 5.6 percent of gross domestic product.
The Democratic plan would add $5.2 trillion to U.S. public debt over the decade, pushing it above $18 trillion in 2023. As a share of a growing economy, however, the debt would decline gradually to 70.4 percent from 76.6 percent now.
The plan, given to Budget Committee members only after the panel opened debate on it, aims to shrink U.S. deficits by $1.85 billion over 10 years – including the replacement of about $960 billion in automatic spending cuts known as the sequester.
It adds $100 billion in new spending to rebuild roads, bridges, schools and workers’ job skills and prescribes $975 billion in spending cuts and $975 billion in new revenues from the elimination of tax deductions and loopholes that benefit the wealthy.
“The highest priority of our budget is to create the conditions for job creation, economic growth, and prosperity built from the middle out, not the top down,” Murray told the committee.
Blah, blah, blah….yada, yada, yada…I just don’t have the energy to comment on any of these news stories.
I will however end with this very cool discovery out of Africa: Ancient Chinese coin found on Kenyan island
A joint expedition of scientists led by Chapurukha M. Kusimba of The Field Museum and Sloan R. Williams of the University of Illinois at Chicago has unearthed a 600-year-old Chinese coin on the Kenyan island of Manda that shows trade existed between China and east Africa decades before European explorers set sail and changed the map of the world.
The coin, a small disk of copper and silver with a square hole in the center so it could be worn on a belt, is called “Yongle Tongbao” and was issued by Emperor Yongle who reigned from 1403-1425AD during the Ming Dynasty. The emperor’s name is written on the coin, making it easy to date. Emperor Yongle, who started construction of China’s Forbidden City, was interested in political and trade missions to the lands that ring the Indian Ocean and sent Admiral Zheng He, also known as Cheng Ho, to explore those shores.
“Zheng He was, in many ways, the Christopher Columbus of China,” said Dr. Kusimba, curator of African Anthropology at The Field Museum. “It’s wonderful to have a coin that may ultimately prove he came to Kenya,” he added.
Dr. Kusimba continued, “This finding is significant. We know Africa has always been connected to the rest of the world, but this coin opens a discussion about the relationship between China and Indian Ocean nations.”
Cue the “It’s a small world” music…well maybe we will just stick with Carmen Miranda.
This is an open thread.
Sima
dakinikat
ecocatwoman
fiscalliberal
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
quixote
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
More Carmen Miranda here:
I tried to post another video from this movie but it disappeared. It’s a great movie. I think it was Carmen Miranda’s Hollywood debut.
The Nicholas Brothers:
Is anyone else watching the Ed Show. This guy who filmed the 47% video is very interesting. Seems like a bright guy. I hate to think what the right wing media are going to try to do to him.
I have PAD too but the Chinese coin story is fascinating!
Agree! That is fascinating. Archeology keeps finding out that humans were wide-ranging traders and travellers even in long-ago times and with “primitive” equipment.
Ed Schultz announces that MSNBC is expanding its weekend programming, and he is moving to Saturday and Sunday, 5-7PM starting in April. Will keep doing his radio show on weekdays.
I wonder who is going to get the 8PM weekday time slot?
U don’t think they’re going to slide Ezra Klein into that slot, do you? Or maybe Michael Eric Dyson. We need another WOMAN in an evening spot. I’ll take Jennifer Granholm
Dyson would be great. Klein is a nice boy, but boring if you have to listen to him for more than a few mins. Granholm–wonderful idea!
Oh Gawd, puhleeze not Ezra, but he’s been doing a lot of subbing lately hasn’t he? That will be something I”ll have to change the channel on.
Pentagon under fire over sexual assaults.
http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-and-strategy/288057-pentagon-under-fire-on-assaults
Scott Prouty grew up in Boston.
As far as I’m concerned Scott Proudy should receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.
I’m out all day only to come home and find Chris Matthews salivating over the new pope whom he describes as “genuine and down to earth”. How Chris knows this since no one until today actually ever heard of this guy is amazing!
Then it begins to bubble out that Francis 1 is against gay marriage and gay adoption and there are “hints” he may have been in league with the military junta who ruled Argentina a decade or so ago.
So much for progress and reform when the best they can do is name a 76 yr old white male antiquarian to rule over 1 billion Catholics who has yet to extract himself from the 3rd century.
Oh well, I never thought it would be otherwise but can we at least the next time find somebody who was born after 1950?
Damn Pat, I think the born after 1950 thing disqualifies almost everyone who blogs here, except maybe JJ & Dak. And I was so hoping to be the first American/Scilian, ex-catholic, lesbian, papa. I already have a pair of red Nike sneakers and a white bathrobe, just in case.
You could probably add “soccer Mom” to your list of accomplishments which would at least satisfy some on the Radical Right who love this stuff.
Let’s see:
Pope Pius the Twelfth was associated with the fascists in Italy during WW2.
Benedict was once a nazi youth member.
John Paul 11 covered up the crimes of Fr. Maciel of France.
Francis has ties to the bloody military junta that ruled Argentina back in the 70s.
And the entire hierarchy of the CC worked in tandem to protect pedophile priests for decades.
And for this the news coverage of this event was non stop until the white smoke arose to a cheerleading mob.
Fabulous!
Did you notice that the new pope’s father left Italy shortly after Mussolini died? No doubt his father was a fascist. As Dak pointed out to me today, those guys ended up in Argentina–whether Nazis from Germany or fascists from Italy.
Honest to God bb, I said the same thing myself to a friend this afternoon: those fascists fled to South America in droves and hid out for years.
Great minds think alike!
“Did you notice that the new pope’s father left Italy shortly after Mussolini died?”
Don’t you mean shortly after Mussolini was hanged by the neck, alongside his lover, by a mob of angry Italians?
Chris Matthews was disgusting tonight.
I had to turn it off. I felt like a “voyeur” after awhile.
First he slavered over the pope, then he did a moronic interview on the sexual assaults in the military. He implied that sexual harassment is just men whistling at women as they walk by and professed not to understand why military officers would cover up rapes. He needs to retire.
Rachel Maddow went on and on about the new pope, without ever mentioning the sexual abuse scandal or this guy’s involvement in the Argentine “disappearances.”
Did Matthews say the new pope’s the kind of guy he’d love to have a beer with? That’s usually his ultimate compliment.
chris was definitely experiencing the “leg trickling”
Yes, Mouse, but I was too lazy to type all that.
I wonder if there’s anyway to know if that was the reason his father immigrated to Argentina. My family came to America to get away from the fascists, because my great uncles were members of the La Cosa Nostra and the facists hated the mob. I suppose that makes me the seed of criminals.
Ok, BB…..I’m going to quit picking on you tonight and go on to bed. I didn’t sleep until 10:30AM this morning like some people I know. Goodnight!!!
Sleep well, Mouse!
For those interested in the timing of the pope’s parents arrival in Argentina, wikipedia lists the new pope as born in 1936 in Buenos Aires.
You’re right. So the father left before WWII. That’s interesting.
The new pope’s parents were married in Buenos Aires in 1935. They were working class. His father was a railway worker.
Rachel is a Roman Catholic with an aunt who is a nun. Perhaps this is why she failed to bring out the “baggage” Francis is carrying.
On the other hand, Rachel is also a lesbian which makes her a “double problem” in the sights of the Holy See. A gay female.
I just received a message on Facebook from a former high school friend “blessing” Francis. Some of us never really “get over” their devotion to these people. I’m hoping my silence says it all.
Any institution who believes their Big Man is infallible is full of it. So are their followers. I’ll never understand the appeal of organized religion to those who are demeaned in its teachings. Wish more got away.
Okay, Google is going to retire their reader in July, why the hell are they doing that!
How can I download my Reader data? – Reader Help
Something to do with money, I suspect.
I just downloaded Feed Demon, which will sync with your Google reader stuff.
http://www.feeddemon.com/
I just downloaded it too…but it looks very confusing. I use this google reader every day, all the time.
I never really used Google reader much, but I decided to try this. I think there is an instructional video.
FeedDemon to shut down, other tools to stay on after Google Reader closes – Computerworld
Fucking google…damn them.
Oh, fine. I read about some other ones–I’ll put something in the morning reads.
But sir…think of google glass…
Fuck those fucking glasses and the nerd they rode in on…
It sounds like President Obama knows the truth. That may make him nearly unique within the Beltway.
President Obama: There Is No Debt Crisis
So why did Jay Carney renew the offer to cut Social Security yesterday? I just don’t get it.
One of Yahoo’s current top searches is “Pope one lung”.
JJ will like this story: The grave of a Medieval knight has been discovered in an Edinburgh car park.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-21762422
That is so cool…the stone with a sword carved into it is something to see.
Well, it is over: Man Who Fatally Shot 4 in Upstate New York Is Killed by Police – NYTimes.com
The morning post is up, folks!