News Nuggets 1348

DAYLEE PICTURE:  Storm waves off of Porto, Portugal.  From National Geographic.

Iran, From Enemy to Ally (David Patrikarakos) from the New York Times  
"The nuclear deal opens the door for a much bigger breakthrough. ..."

Kiev Protesters Toppled Lenin Statue from Reuters
"The statue's felling - a symbolic rejection of Moscow's power - came after opposition leaders told hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to keep up pressure on Yanukovich to sack his government."

Moment Kim Jong-Un's Uncle was Dragged Out of Parliament and into Disgrace… and Already the Airbrushing has Begun from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Jang Song Thaek was accused of daring to 'dream different dreams'.  Footage shows him being dragged from meeting by police in Pyongyang.  The footage was aired on national TV in humiliating public dismissal.  He is also accused of womanising, corruption, abusing alcohol and drugs.  His removal said to be part of Kim's plan to form a younger cabal around him."
Yes, indeed.  Ten or twenty years in a "re-education camp" will teach him to dream the right dreams next time!  It is interesting to watch what is increasingly looking like a bloody purge of the old guard in North Korea. Based on my limited knowledge of these folks, there's not one that doesn't deserve it!

Now There's a Zombie Drone That Hunts, Controls, and Kills Other Drones (Dana Liebelson) from Mother Jones Magazine
"He knew that whenever new technology, like drones, becomes popular quickly, there are bound to be security flaws. And he claims that he found one within 24 hours and promptly exploited it: America, meet the zombie drone that Kamkar says hunts, hacks, and takes over nearby drones."

The Thing That Used to Be Conservatism Puts Out a Hit on Francis from the National Catholic Register
"Having condemned Francis for his "pure Marxism" the coordinated strategy that is emerging in Right Wing organs of propaganda is to identify Francis with the Right's most reviled bogeyman: Obama. ... Like Limbaugh, FOX understands that merely to make the comparison is, of course, to signal to the FOX faithful that Francis is being denounced as Worst Pope Ever in the FOX universe of discourse. The whole strategy of the Limbaugh/FOX attack is designed to make clear to the sort of person who gets all his thinking from Talk Radio (and there are a lot of these) that Francis has been designated an Ideological Enemy."

The Punishment Cure (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"The view of most labor economists now is that unemployment benefits have only a modest negative effect on job search — and in today’s economy have no negative effect at all on overall employment. On the contrary, unemployment benefits help create jobs, and cutting those benefits would depress the economy as a whole."

First Thoughts: Don't Sleep on the Economy (Chuck Todd et al.,) from MSNBC 
"Friday's solid job numbers were a reminder that there's another issue could play a more powerful force in 2014 -- a healing economy."

Huge Stores of Fresh Groundwater Discovered Beneath Ocean Floor (Elliot Hannon) from Slate
"Scientists have discovered vast reserves of freshwater underneath the ocean floor, according to a new study. The discovery, published in the journal Nature last week, is part of “mounting evidence for the global occurrence of offshore fresh and brackish groundwater reserves.”"

Amid the Uproar Over the Health Law, Voices of Quiet Optimism and Relief from the New York Times
"Many have complained that the prices are too high, especially if they earn too much to qualify for federal subsidies. And many will have a limited choice of doctors and hospitals under the new exchange plans, which have “narrow networks” to hold down premiums. But Mr. Acosta, like the people in the following profiles, says the health care law has given him a cautious sense of hope."

When Does Lying about Obamacare Become Immoral and Evil? (Egberto Willies) from Daily Kos
"Opposition to Obamacare has characteristics of an addiction. One knows intrinsically when one is doing wrong or doing something detrimental. However, the cravings make one disregard reality and acquiesce to the drug. What is the drug? The drug is hate for all things Obama."

Americans Discover They're Trapped In GOP's Medicaid Expansion Gap from Talking Points Memo
"Navigators are forced to tell more and more people that they probably won't be able to get covered because their states, all of which had a GOP-controlled legislative chamber or governor, have refused to expand Medicaid. Lynne Thorp, who is overseeing the University of South Florida's navigator program in that state, told TPM that about one in four people who contact her team fall into that Medicaid gap."

America’s Clash of Generations is Inevitable (Robert Samuelson) from the Washington Post
"Parents are supposed to care for their children, and children are supposed to care for their aging parents. For families, these collective obligations may work. But what makes sense for families doesn't always succeed for society as a whole. The clash of generations is intensifying."
I agree with the general proposition here -- but, as usual, Samuelson puts a right-wing spin on it such that it ends up in the been-there-heard-that bin.

Filibuster Rule's End Should Help Obama Reshape a Key Court from the Los Angeles Times
"On Monday, the U.S. Senate is scheduled to cast a historic vote to confirm Patricia Millett, an experienced Supreme Court advocate and taekwondo black belt, as a judge on the second-most powerful court in the land, tipping that court's balance of power to Democrats for the first time in nearly three decades."

Tea Party Obstruction and Liberal Hypocrisy, Defied: NYU Grad Students Poised to Make History from Salon
"GOP senators and Obama's Treasury Secretary helped NYU shut out its grad students for 8 years. That's about to end."

No Soul Searching for Virginia GOP after Losses from Politico
"Just as many party activists insisted after Romney’s loss, key figures here said that their shortcomings are cosmetic — that the problem is largely about campaign mechanics and how the conservative message is being delivered, not the message itself."

Here Are The Issues Democrats Can Win On In 2014 (Ruy Teixeira) from Think Progress 
"As the Obamacare situation stabilizes, Democrats are starting to come to their strategic senses and realize their best course of action is to defend the program, not run away from it. But that’s not enough."

Pa. Catholic School Teacher Fired for Gay Wedding from the San Francisco Chronicle
"A gay teacher at a suburban Philadelphia Catholic high school was fired Friday after he applied for a New Jersey marriage license. Michael Griffin was fired from Holy Ghost Preparatory School after administrators said his obtaining a license to marry his same-sex partner was a violation of his contract."

In Surprise, Steve Stockman Challenges John Cornyn from Politico
"Firebrand Texas Republican Rep. Steve Stockman on Monday mounted a surprise primary challenge to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), setting the stage for the latest potentially explosive battle between a tea party darling and an incumbent firmly backed by the GOP establishment."
Oh GOOD!  Let these two waste millions of bucks fighting each other!

AWARD WINNING BOOK NUGGET!!
National Book Award Winner for Nonfiction: The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer
"If you were born around 1960 or afterward, you have spent your adult life in the vertigo of that unwinding. You watched structures that had been in place before your birth collapse like pillars of salt across the vast visible landscape—the farms of the Carolina Piedmont, the factories of the Mahoning Valley, Florida subdivisions, California schools. And other things, harder to see but no less vital in supporting the order of everyday life, changed beyond recognition— ways and means in Washington caucus rooms, taboos on New York trading desks, manners and morals everywhere. When the norms that made the old institutions useful began to unwind, and the leaders abandoned their posts, the Roosevelt Republic that had reigned for almost half a century came undone. The void was filled by the default force in American life, organized money."

BRITISH SINGER NUGGET!!
Susan Boyle’s Powerful, Graceful Asperger’s Statement from Salon
"The singer reveals her diagnosis -- and the "relief" of it."

MOVIE REVIEW NUGGET!!
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: It Lives! (Richard Corliss) from Time Magazine
"Smaug is different: a really good movie, superior to the first in that it brings its characters to rambunctious life, to joust not just with Orcs but with a bear-man, a clutter of giant spiders and the grim dragon that gives the movie its title. The Desolation of Smaug — a strangely oppressive name, by the way, for such a sturdy rollick — satisfies both as a Saturday-matinee serial and as a tempting fanfare for the climactic There and Back Again, due next December." Peter Jackson's middle episode of his Middle Earth saga revs up the action, the peril and the wonder!"