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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

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."

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Sunday
Jul242022

July 25, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "The former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence appeared last week before a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. Marc Short was caught by an ABC News camera departing D.C. District Court on Friday alongside his attorney, Emmet Flood. Short appeared under subpoena, sources said. Short would be the highest-ranking Trump White House official known to have appeared before the grand jury." MB: Since there's no reason to think the grand jury is investigating pence or his staff for criminal behavior, it is reasonable to assume that the subjects of the questioning were Trump & Co. ~~~

     ~~~ Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Mr. Short's appearance was the latest indication that the Justice Department's criminal investigation into the events surrounding and leading up to the events of Jan. 6 is intensifying amid growing questions about the urgency the department has placed on examining Mr. Trump's potential criminal liability.... Mr. Short's grand jury appearance marks the first time it has become publicly known that a figure with firsthand knowledge of what took place inside the White House in the tumultuous days leading up to Jan. 6 has cooperated with federal prosecutors.... Mr. Short ... previously gave a[n] interview to the House select committee in which he described Mr. Trump's campaign to pressure Mr. Pence into disrupting the normal tally of Electoral College votes on Jan. 6.... Mr. Short also informed Mr. Pence's lead Secret Service agent on Jan. 5, 2021, that Mr. Trump was about to turn publicly on Mr. Pence, potentially creating a security risk."

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump didn't want to disavow the rioters who had stormed the U.S. Capitol in his name on Jan. 6, 2021, and he removed lines from prepared remarks the following day calling for their prosecution, according to new evidence released by a member of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) posted a video Monday on Twitter showing previously unpublicized testimony from several people close to Trump, centered on a speech he was supposed to give Jan. 7, 2021.... During the hearing on Thursday, former deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews testified that Trump 'did not want to include any sort of mention of peace' in a tweet that aides urged him to send as the Capitol riot was unfolding." ~~~

Chico Harlan & Amanda Coletta of the Washington Post: "Pope Francis on Monday began a long-sought act of reconciliation in Canada, decrying the country's 'catastrophic' residential school system for Indigenous children and asking forgiveness for the 'evil committed by so many Christians.... I am deeply sorry -- sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the Indigenous peoples,' Francis said in his native Spanish. He addressed his comments to several thousand residential school survivors in a grass field encircled by a small grandstand on the first full day of a trip aimed at penitence for one of Canada's greatest tragedies: a school system that forcibly removed Indigenous children from their parents and tried to assimilate them into Euro-Christian society -- often brutally. Students were forbidden from speaking their native languages or practicing traditional customs; many were physically or sexually abused."

Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "A forgotten co-defendant of the Central Park Five, who, like them, was charged with the rape of a jogger in a case that shook New York City and the nation, is expected to have a related conviction overturned Monday. The case against the Five -- teenagers of color who were innocent of the 1989 sexual assault on a white woman but who were convicted on the basis of false confessions that the police elicited -- continues to shape attitudes surrounding racism in the criminal justice system, the media and society writ large. But the story of the sixth man -- Steven Lopez -- had previously been all but ignored. Mr. Lopez, who was arrested when he was 15, struck a deal with prosecutors just before his trial two years later to avoid the more serious rape charge, instead pleading guilty to robbery of a male jogger.... [Unlike the Exonerated Five,] Mr. Lopez, now 48, has not received any settlement money or media attention, and his story is far less well-known.... [Shortly after the teens' arrests & false confessions, Donald Trump] placed full-page ads in the city's newspapers calling for them to face the death penalty." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump is never wrong. In June 2019 -- five year after the city settled $41 million on the men for violation of their civil rights -- Trump refused to apologize for the ads or for remarks he made at the time. He said, "You have people on both sides of that.... They admitted their guilt. If you look at Linda Fairstein [-- once the top city sex crimes prosecutor --] and if you look at some of the prosecutors, they think that the city never should have settled that case -- so we'll leave it at that." (NYT link)

Meena Venkataramanan of the Washington Post: "Elaine Riddick was 13 years old when she says she was raped by a neighbor in Winfall, N.C. Nine months later, in 1968, she was involuntarily sterilized in the hospital while delivering her first and only child.... North Carolina had labeled Riddick 'feebleminded' -- the same justification that had been used in 1924 to authorize the sterilization of Carrie Buck, a Virginia woman who had also been raped as a minor. Buck's case went to the Supreme Court, which in its 1927 ruling in Buck v. Bell upheld mandatory sterilizations of people considered unfit to bear and raise children. That decision has never formally been overturned.... For many activists and legal experts, [the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision last month] isn't a far cry from Buck, which used similar legal reasoning to allow the government to prevent certain people from becoming pregnant in the first place.... The Buck case paved the way for thousands of forced sterilizations throughout the 20th century. Today, these sterilizations continue, primarily affecting people with disabilities.... Justice Clarence Thomas cited Buck in a 2019 opinion on two Indiana abortion laws...."

Susie Blann of the AP: "Russia's top diplomat said Moscow's overarching goal in Ukraine is to free its people from its 'unacceptable regime,' expressing the Kremlin's war aims in some of the bluntest terms yet as its forces pummel the country with artillery barrages and airstrikes. The remark from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov comes amid Ukraine's efforts to resume grain exports from its Black Sea ports.... 'We are determined to help the people of eastern Ukraine to liberate themselves from the burden of this absolutely unacceptable regime,' he said [at an Arab League summit in Cairo Sunday]. Apparently suggesting that Moscow's war aims extend beyond Ukraine's industrial Donbas region in the east, Lavrov said: 'We will certainly help the Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical.'... Lavrov's remarks contrasted with the Kremlin's line early in the war, when it repeatedly emphasized that Russia wasn't seeking to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government, even as Moscow's troops closed in on Kyiv."

~~~~~~~~~~

Zach Montague of the New York Times: "President Biden continues to 'improve significantly' after testing positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, his physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, said on Sunday. According to a letter released by Dr. O'Connor, Mr. Biden was experiencing no shortness of breath or reduced oxygen levels, and his main symptom on Sunday was a sore throat -- a result of the immune response. Dr. O'Connor added that the president would continue to isolate but that he 'is responding to therapy as expected.'" Politico's report is here.

Way Down the Rabbit Hole. Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "After the Jan. 6 committee's final summer hearing last week..., the response ... from the pro-Trump platforms ... reflect[ed] the lengths to which his Praetorian Guard of friendly media have gone to rewrite the violent history of that day. Even as the committee's vivid depiction of Mr. Trump's failure to intervene led two influential outlets on the right, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, to denounce him over the weekend, many top conservative media personalities have continued to push a more sanitized narrative of Jan 6, 2021. They have turned the Capitol Police into villains and alleged the existence of a government plot to criminalize political dissent.... Part of the right's message to Trump supporters is, in effect: You may have initially recoiled in horror at what you thought happened at the Capitol, but you were misled by the mainstream media."

Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "Rupert Murdoch, hitherto one of Donald Trump's most loyal media messengers, appears to have turned on the former president.... The New York Post issued an excoriating editorial indictment of Trump's failure to stop the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. The editorial, in a tabloid owned by Murdoch since 1976, began: 'As his followers stormed the Capitol, calling for his vice-president to be hanged, President Donald Trump sat in his private dining room, watching TV, doing nothing. For three hours, seven minutes.' Trump's only focus, the Post said, was to block the peaceful transfer of power.... The Wall Street Journal, another Murdoch paper, issued a similar critique in which it said evidence before the House January 6 committee was a reminder that 'Trump betrayed his supporters'. Trump, the Journal said, took an oath to defend the constitution and had an obligation to protect the Capitol from the mob he told to march there, knowing it was armed.... Columnists [for the two papers] issued similar calls."

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Josh Hawley, the Missouri senator shown running from the mob he incited on January 6, is 'a laughingstock' who should be afraid of what the Capitol attack committee might disclose next, a leading newspaper in his home state said.... In an editorial, the Kansas City Star noted that Hawley will soon publish a book entitled Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs, but said people watching the hearing 'didn't see much virile bravado as he ran from the mob'.... The senator shows no sign of backing down. Speaking at a conservative conference in Florida on Friday, apparently without irony, he said: '...I'm not going to apologise. I'm not going to cower. I'm not going to run from you. I'm not going to bend the knee'." MB: The KCStar is firewalled, but I think you get a few freebies. ~~~

~~~ ** Running Coach Analyzes the Hawley Sprint. Zoë Rom of Outside: "As a running coach, I had a ... visceral reaction [to video of Josh Hawley's fleet from Capitol insurrectionists]. His form! His apparel! His complete and utter lack of regard for democratic norms!... Whether you're on a jog around the neighborhood or fleeing the violent mobs whose fury you stoked for your own political gain, you'll want to make sure you have a good forward lean. A keen eye will notice Sen. Hawley's torso is straighter than Mike Pence;s freshly cleared search history.... In Hawley's case, it may be due to the absence of any spine. I'd recommend some lower core work and/or the adherence to any core values whatsoever." Read on. Out there on those long, lonely runs, Zoë has developed an excellent sense of humor. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I am hoping the new dance craze will be the Hawley Hop. The first step is a hop in place accompanied by a fist pump. This is followed by three feet-don't-fail-me-now strides that can take you anywhere you want to go on the dance floor.

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Allen Breed of the AP, 50 years after the AP broke the scandal of the federal government's Tuskegee syphilis "study," relates how the story broke. And here's an AP report by Jean Heller on the original. AP report. Heller was the author of the original AP report.

Ripped from the Gossip Columns. Emma Roth of the Verge: "Elon Musk allegedly fractured an old friendship with Google co-founder Sergey Brin after having an affair with his wife, Nicole Shanahan, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. Sources familiar with the situation told the WSJ that the couple filed for divorce earlier this year, citing 'irreconcilable differences.'... Brin, meanwhile, was once called 'the Google playboy' for his sexual involvement with employees...."

Beyond the Beltway

Kansas. Annie Gowen of the Washington Post: "Kansans are heading to the polls Aug. 2 to decide whether the state's constitution protects the right to abortion -- the first such constitutional amendment to be determined since the Supreme Court's historic overturning of Roe v. Wade, ending federal protection, on June 24.... The ballot measure, if approved, would effectively overturn a 2019 decision by the state's Supreme Court enshrining abortion rights in its constitution.... The measure could pave the way for the legislature to pass a ban on abortion at a time when Kansas has become a destination for pregnant patients fleeing strict abortion measures in nearby states.... Proponents of abortion rights say they are facing an uphill battle to overcome road blocks they say the Republican legislature has deliberately put in their way -- including holding the vote on a primary day rather during the general election, and the convoluted wording of the amendment that has confused many voters...[:] a 'no' vote equals support of abortion rights, 'yes' means against abortion rights."

Maryland Gubernatorial Race. Jesse Naranjo of Politico: "Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland said Sunday that he would not support his party's nominee to fill his job, predicting that the GOP has 'no chance of saving that governor seat.' In an interview on ABC's 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos,' Hogan told host Jonathan Karl that Trump-backed state Del. Dan Cox's win over Hogan's preferred candidate in the July 19 primary 'was a win for the Democrats....'Hogan accused the Democratic Governors Association, which ran ads boosting Cox in hopes of landing Democrats an easier general election opponent, of colluding with ... Donald Trump, a chief critic of the Republican governor, to boost the candidate. Hogan has referred to Cox as a 'QAnon whack job.'"

Way Beyond

Myanmar. Rebecca Ratcliffe & Maung Moe of the Guardian: "Myanmar's junta has executed four prisoners including a former politician and a veteran activist, drawing shock and revulsion at the country's first use of capital punishment in decades. Junta-controlled media reported on Monday that four men, including Phyo Zeya Thaw, a rapper and former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi's party, and the prominent democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu, known as Jimmy, had been executed. They were accused of conspiring to commit terror acts and were sentenced to death in January in closed trials."

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Monday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Monday are here: "Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of a four-day tour to try to shore up African support for the war in Ukraine. While in Egypt, the Kremlin's top diplomat cast Russia as an ally of the continent and blamed Western sanctions on Russia for the turmoil in international food markets.... Ukraine has called for shipping companies to take part in a caravan to transport grain but says efforts to resume grain exports will not be easy after Russia's missile strike on the port of Odessa.

Vatican/Canada. Nicole Winfield, et al., of the AP: "Pope Francis began a historic visit to Canada on Sunday to apologize to Indigenous peoples for abuses by missionaries at residential schools, a key step in the Catholic Church's efforts to reconcile with Native communities and help them heal from generations of trauma. Francis kissed the hand of a residential school survivor as he was greeted at the Edmonton, Alberta, airport by Indigenous representatives, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mary Simon, an Inuk who is Canada's first Indigenous governor general. The gesture set the tone of what Francis has said is a 'penitential pilgrimage' to atone for the role of Catholic missionaries in the forced assimilation of generations of Native children -- a visit that has stirred mixed emotions across Canada as survivors and their families cope with the trauma of their losses and receive a long-sought papal apology."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (6)

Marie: I didn't see your comment to me re: the NYRB's piece until yesterday. Turns out your link was, yes, exactly like mine. I never read yours since you said it was only partial so since I do have a subscription I put on the link. After reading your comment to me checked the original– checked yours–--we both got the whole article.

July 25, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

@P.D. Pepe: You get to read the entire article because you have a subscription. When you and I enter the same URL, we get different results because our NYRB subscription statuses are different: (1) I get the first few grafs because I don't have a subscription; (2) you get the whole article because you do have a subscription (and the NYRB site "recognizes" you). I could get more technical because I looked up how Websites track logged-in subscribers, but the simple explanation should suffice.

(2) will be true of anyone who has a subscription (and is logged in to the NYRB site), and (1) will be true of anyone who does not have a subscription (and therefore cannot log in).

So when you state, "we both got the whole article," that is misleading, at least to me. I did not get the whole article, and I never will unless I subscribe to NYRB.

I post links to subscriber-firewalled sites for two reasons: (1) I don't think you can get a good picture of what is going on in national news without reading the NYT & WashPo. Nonetheless, I recognize that many readers don't have subscriptions, so I try to give the gist of the story with my link. However, in many or most cases, that isn't a substitute for reading the whole story. Meanwhile, I link to other stories on the same subject as often as possible. (2) Many Reality Chex readers do have subscriptions to some of the more popular firewalled sites, and -- when I have a way to get to the stories -- I want to make them aware of the analyses & stories. For instance, I appreciate your linking some of the most important New Yorker political stories, because I don't have a subscription, but many Reality Chex readers do.

July 25, 2022 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Marie and all: I really appreciate everyone's linking of stories in papers I don't have subscriptions to. I actually ONLY have one: to Esquire's Charlie page. It is a super-poorly-run site, of which the commenters complain daily. You have to "sign in" at never-warned-of times, and at the frequencies that make everyone furious. I find that now reading the NYT and WaPo full pieces makes me nauseous, so I rely heavily on Reality Chex to give me an excellent rundown and then I follow up on the longer pieces if I want to. You will be unsurprised to know that I don't read the longer ones often, as your synopsis of the news of the day is pretty comprehensive, and about all I want these days. So thanks to all of you who post interesting takes on the pieces I then hear about all day long on MSNBC and CNN. You are the best and the brightest!

July 25, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

Marie: Duh! I get it! Sorry for being so dense.

MARGIE'S TAILORED NEW GOP:

This sorry excuse for a congress critter has come sweeping in again with what she thinks is a brilliant idea:

"We need to be the party of nationalism and I'm a Christian and I say it proudly, we should be Christian Nationalists. "

Well, shucks, if that don't skin the hide off a rabid prairie dog! The Greene bean is just full of so many innovative ideas. However–––The Freedom of Religion Foundation didn't cotton to this one little bit and fired back at Margie, schooling her as to what the term "nationalist"actually means–-how she equates it with patriotism. They continue with their teaching about that thing called separation of Church and State.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/marjorie-taylor-greene-christian-nationalism-republican-party_n_62dd70bde4b081f3a9007344

July 25, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

@Jeanne and all: Everyone should really read the Axios article
referenced Jul 23 by Marie.
It's a long and very scary article concerning the last 2 years of
trump's presidency. His gang of nazis worked for 2 years on what
they call "Schedule F".
Basically a full takeover of all segments of government that would
question anything his gang does illegally, or plans to do illegally.
It will be his FBI, his IRS, his everything that would possibly not
bow to his every whim.
Helping Ukraine is out. Not much immigration allowed, legal or
otherwise. We have to be a white christofacist nation.

I checked my passport to make sure it's up to date.

July 25, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

A look at the costs of gun violence..
"In an average year, gun violence in America kills 40,000 people, wounds twice as many, and has an economic consequence to our nation of $557 billion.

On May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old boy shot 38 people, 21 fatally, including 19 children and two teachers—at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.2 This one horrific incident of gun violence left in its wake unspeakable human tragedy, but also an estimated $244.2 million price tag, of which $10.2 million is borne by taxpayers.3 Today in the United States we are all paying an enormous economic cost, as well as an unmeasurable human cost of trauma and loss, for our failure to prevent gun violence.

This report doesn’t try to put a price on human lives. Rather, it details the depth and breadth of America’s gun violence crisis in an effort to show yet another reason why we must work to solve it now. Quantifying what we spend in the aftermath of a shooting—whether the shooting was unintentional, an assault, a shooting by police, or an act of suicide—helps us understand the price we pay for this violence."

July 25, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterRAS
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