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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.
New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~
~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”
New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”
Click on photo to enlarge.
~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI."
Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”
New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”
Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”
Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."
If you couldn't stand to watch the Super Bowl but want to see the ads, AdBlitz seems to have them all.
In the meantime, there's this from Stuart Elliott of the New York Times: "The advertising bowl that took place inside Super Bowl XLV on Sunday offered a wild — and somewhat welcome — ride through six decades of popular culture.... It would also have been difficult to figure out most of the 60-plus commercials without a working knowledge of Americana.... The spots dished up a dizzying — and at times ditzy — mélange of celebrity star turns, movie references, homages to television shows, snippets of songs and even hat-tips to other spots."
Bruce Horovitz of USA Today: "For the first time, two ads tied for the top Super Bowl commercial as selected by consumer panelists rating the ads as they aired in the game for USA TODAY'S 23rd annual exclusive Ad Meter. Both starred dogs acting like, well, people." Here they are:
Fox Sports says this Bridgestone ad got the most viewer votes. If you're into irony, as I am, you'll like it, too:
This VW ad is the big favorite with the kids. It already has more than 15 millions views on YouTube:
AND this two-minute Chrysler ad, starring Eminem, is pretty fine:
Not an ad, BUT, Christiana Aguilera, besides singing the most grating rendition of the National Anthem I've ever heard, decided to abridge it:
... CBS News: "Faced with widespread criticism over her flub in singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl Sunday evening in Dallas, pop star Christina Aguilerahas issued an apology saying she lost her place.... Just three lines into her performance , Aguilera mixed up the words. Instead of singing the song's fourth line with the correct words - 'O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?' -- Aguilera sang, 'What so proudly we watched at the twilight's last gleaming?'"
... David Sanger of the New York Times: "... the Obama administration is struggling to determine if a democratic revolution can succeed while President Hosni Mubarak remains in office, even if his powers are neutered and he is sidelined from negotiations over the country’s future." ...
... Jake Tapper has the backstory: "The Obama administration on Saturday distanced itself from comments about Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak made by a man the president had used as an envoy to Mubarak just days before. Saying he was speaking for himself, former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner said at a security conference in Munich, Germany, that 'President Mubarak remains utterly critical in the days ahead as we sort our way toward the future.'" CW: Wisner is a diplomat??? WTF? ...
... "A Neo-Sultanistic Regime." Will Englund & Samuel Sockol of the Washington Post do a fair job of explaining how President Mubarak maintained power and the dynamic that caught him off guard: "Hosni Mubarak kept Egypt under total control for nearly three decades, not through charisma or inspiration, but by building a system of patronage and brutality that was beyond challenge.... Change here has been pushed by a new generation that refuses to accept the rationalizations of its parents. When the economy began to sour two years ago, young people discovered that a system built on nepotism and bribery was shutting them out of university slots and jobs." ...
... Nichols Kristof interviewed protesters in Tahrir Square, and is optimistic about Egypt's ability to self-govern. Also, see the rationale put forward by the insufferable snob David Brooks in the post below. What a contrast! ...
... Frank Rich disputes "the default assumption that the Egyptian uprising, like every other paroxysm in the region since the Green Revolution in Iran 18 months ago, must be powered by the twin American-born phenomena of Twitter and Facebook."
Bryan Bender of the Boston Globe: "Once a key supporter of President Obama’s surge of troops in Afghanistan, [Massachusetts Sen. John] Kerry said he has concluded that the US strategy in Afghanistan has to be revised. He is calling for a more limited focus and fewer American troops.... In the coming weeks, Kerry [who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee] said he will hold a series of oversight hearings" on the progress of & prospects for the war effort.
Budget Director Jacob Lew in a New York Times op-ed, describes a few of the painful budget cuts President Obama is proposing to make in programs he supports, but he says these cuts won't be nearly enough to address the deficit in any significant way. The President urges Congress to reform the tax code.
Eric Dash of the New York Times: "... lawmakers and regulators pushed Wall Street to overhaul its pay practices. Big banks responded by shifting more compensation into stock, a move intended to align employees’ interests more closely with those of investors and discourage excessive risk-taking. But it turns out that executives have ... [used] complex investment transactions ... [to] limit the downside on their holdings, or even profit, as other shareholders are suffering. More than a quarter of oldman Sachs’s partners ... used these hedging strategies from July 2007 through November 2010.... One prominent Goldman investment banker avoided more than $7 million in losses over a four-month period. Such transactions are at the center of a debate over whether Wall Street executives should be allowed to hedge their stock holdings."
Here's a video by Russia Today on last week's protest of the billionaire Koch brothers' appropriately named Rancho Mirage retreat for rich right-wing political movers & shakers. Thanks to Gilda S. for forwarding the video.
... I hate to get my U.S. news from Russia Today, but the content of the video is accurate, as far as I know. Here's a transcript of the video's text. AND here's the New York Times story on the protest, to which I linked last week.
Ed Connolly & Michael Luo of the New York Times: "Tens of thousands of gun owners ... bought their weapons legally but under the law should no longer have them because of subsequent mental health or criminal issues.... Policing these prohibitions is difficult, however, in most states.... California is unique in the country ... because of its computerized database.... It was created, in part, to enable law enforcement officials to handle the issue pre-emptively.... The list had 18,374 names on it as of the beginning of this month — 15 to 20 are added a day — swamping law enforcement’s ability to keep up. Some police departments admitted that they had not even tried."
Right Wing News
Maureen DowdreviewsDon Rumsfeld's memoir which is to hit the bookstores this week. Dowd liked it as much as Dana Milbankdid. AND here's a more serious review by Michiko Kakutani. You won't want to rush out a buy a copy.
The Family Plot. Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "Ginni Thomas’ new career advising clients on how to donate money to political causes" appears to be a direct result of her husband Clarence's siding with the 5-4 majority in the Citizens United v. FEC case. "Clarence Thomas released countless amounts of corporate spending on U.S. elections, and Ginni Thomas can get rich advising those corporate clients on how to direct that spending."
David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network (Pat Robertson's outfit) interviewsSarah Palin: "In an exclusive interview with The Brody File, Sarah Palin criticized President Obama for his handling of the situation in Egypt saying that this was his, '3am White House phone call' and, 'that call went right to the answering machine.' Her answers about Egypt are the first time she’s talked publicly about the situation." Includes a partial transcript of the interview, which you know is authentic because it's in classic Palin-speak -- an incoherent, syntactically-challenged, non-specific criticism that in the end says nothing more than "Obama, Muslims bad." ...
... Jeremy Meyer of the Denver Post: "Saying it received an 'onslaught of personal attacks,' a Colorado nonprofit announced in a news release today that it was canceling a scheduled May appearance ... by former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin."
Happy Hundredth Birthday, Mr. President. Alex Seitz-Wald of Think Progress: "ten things conservatives don't want you to know about Ronald Reagan." Actually, the post should probably be titled "ten things conservatives don't know about Reagan," because most really seem to be completely ignorant of Reagan's careless policies and his unpopularity during his presidency.
Fox "News": "The United States can't force out Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, but the Egyptian people will no longer allow unresponsive government without representation or free and fair elections, President Obamasaid in an interview Sunday with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly." See video above.
New York Times: "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned on Sunday that removing President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt too hastily could threaten the country’s transition to democracy. Her remarks were the Obama administration’s most explicit sign yet of its growing emphasis on averting instability in Egypt, even at the expense of the key demand from the Egyptian protest movement: Mr. Mubarak’s immediate removal."
... New York Times: "As the United States and leading European nations threw their weight behind the Egyptian vice president’s attempt to defuse a popular uprising, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood said it would meet with him for the first time on Sunday in what seemed a significant departure in the nation’s uprising and political history." The Times story has been updated to reflect the results of the meeting: "The opposition groups ... said that there were no new agreements or concessions." -- CW: which is to say that HuffPost banner headline "Protesters Win Major Concessions" just ain't true. ...
... AP Update: "Representatives from a wide range of Egypt's major opposition groups met Sunday with Vice President Omar Suleiman to discuss a blueprint for reforms.... The opposition groups represented included the youthful supporters of leading democracy advocate Mohamed ElBaradei, who are one of the main forces behind nearly two weeks of mass protests." ...
... ** AP Update 2: "Egypt's vice president met a broad representation of major opposition groups ... and agreed to allow freedom of the press, to release those detained since anti-government protests began nearly two weeks and ago and to lift the country's hated emergency laws when security permits. Vice President Omar Suleiman endorsed a plan with the opposition to set up a committee of judiciary and political figures to study proposed constitutional reforms.... The regime also pledged not to harass those participating in anti-government protests.... The government agreed not to hamper freedom of press and not to interfere with text messaging and Internet." ...
... The Guardian has the full text of the statement on today's meetings from Suleiman's office (English trans.) on their liveblog @ 3:46 pm GMT.
... Politico: "The White House is now openly pushing for replacing Egypt President Hosni Mubarak with a temporary caretaker government that includes the military and is applauding a decision by Mubarak’s son to step down as head of the country’s ruling party. But a senior administration official said those steps weren’t enough -- and suggested that Mubarak needs to take 'additional steps' to quell the chaos in the streets of Cairo, which is threatening to sink Egypt’s already foundering economy."
AP: "An Iranian court began closed-door proceedings Sunday in the espionage trial of three Americans — two still in custody and one freed on bail — whose detention has been the subject of impassioned family appeals and backdoor outreach by Washington through an Arab ally in the Gulf. The case also highlights the power of Iran's judiciary, which is controlled directly by the nation's ruling clerics and has rejected apparent efforts by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to urge for some leniency."
David Brooks is at his 100 percent best, which is none too good, when he assesses Egypt's ability to master a democratic form of government. He concludes, "It’s a 40 percent nation, mediocre in the world rankings, but not a basket case," but, "if led wisely, it has a reasonable shot at joining the normal, democratic world." He writes,
Many countries end up in a ‘gray zone,’ with semi-functioning governments and powerful oligarchies.... But the quality of the educational system is terrible.... The government’s economic reform effort illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of the governing institutions.... Socially, the country seems stymied. The biggest gap, by far, is political.
The Constant Weader comments:
Mr. Brooks, if you had not kept typing the word “Egypt” in between the sentences I cited, I would have thought you were writing about the U.S.
Egypt has the one thing a country seems to need to govern itself – a middle class. That’s how we got started, after all. We had a group of educated men and gentlemen farmers, and a whole lot of illiterate men and women, some of whom were slaves, and none of whom was allowed to vote or otherwise enjoy full participation in the government.
Please look at the history of our own democracy before you look down your nose at Egypt and label it a “40 percent nation.” And, speaking of fractions of the whole, even though Egyptians invented arithmetic, they don’t count anyone as three-fifths of a person. I’d say the odds are at least as good as ours were that Egyptians can develop a functioning democratic system. They won't want to use us as a model, though.
;)
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