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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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Monday
Jun202022

June 20, 2022

Afternoon Update:

The next hearing of the House January 6 committee is scheduled to begin Tuesday at 1:00 pm ET. You can watch on the linked page, which is a page of the committee's Website.

A Piece of the Plot Comes into Focus. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... internal campaign emails and memos reveal that the convening of ... fake electors [in seven states on December 14, 2020,] appeared to be a ... concerted strategy, intended to give Vice President Mike Pence a reason to declare the outcome of the election was somehow in doubt on Jan. 6, 2021, when he was to preside over the congressional counting of the electoral college votes. The documents show Trump's team pushed ahead and urged the electors to meet -- then pressured Pence to cite the alternate Trump slates -- even as various Trump lawyers acknowledged privately they did not have legal validity and the gatherings had not been in compliance with state laws.... Committee members have said that Tuesday's hearing will focus on ... how the elector scheme was organized and the ways Trump pressured officials in swing states to go along with his false claims that Biden had lost.... The Justice Department and an Atlanta-area prosecutor are also investigating the elector scheme...." ~~~

     ~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post provides a timeline of events relating to the fake electors plots. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As I recall, we heard bits & pieces of Trump's pressure on states more-or-less in real time, but it was not till some time later that we learned that Republicans in several states had fronted slates of fake electors for Trump. When this story first came out, only one or two states were mentioned, and the effort seemed ridiculous &, frankly, humorous. It took a while for the press to catch on to the central purpose of these fake slates of electors.

Zachary Cohen, et al., of CNN: "The House select committee investigating the January 6 riot is set to hear live testimony from four witnesses during Tuesday's hearing that will focus on how ... Donald Trump and his allies pressured state-level officials to overturn the 2020 election results. The committee will also show evidence that Trump was involved in a scheme to submit fake slates of electors in the 2020 presidential election, US Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and member of the panel who is expected to play a leading role in the presentation, said Sunday.... The witness list for Tuesday's hearing includes three individuals from Georgia: Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, his deputy Gabe Sterling and former election worker Wandrea ArShaye "Shaye" Moss. Rusty Bowers, a Republican who is the Arizona House speaker, is also scheduled to testify, the committee formally announced Monday. Tuesday's hearing will ... detail how Trump, his former attorney Rudy Giuliani and then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows pressured officials, as well as, how false election claims fueled death threats for those at the state level."

Texas. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "The [Texas Republican party's] new platform, which thousands of GOP activists in Texas agreed to at the state party convention over the weekend, is a veritable piñata bursting with far-right extremist fantasies. It states that Texas retains the right to secede from the United States and urges the Texas legislature to reaffirm this. It describes homosexuality as 'an abnormal lifestyle choice.' It flatly declares that no validation of transgender identity is legitimate. It dismisses all gun regulations as a violation of 'God given rights.'... But the document might be most revealing in its treatment of voting an democracy. It declares President Biden was 'not legitimately elected' in 2020. It says Biden's win was tainted by voting in swing-state cities, furthering a GOP trend toward more explicitly declaring votes in urban centers illegitimate." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When I first read about Texas's GOP platform a couple of days ago, I wondered what gay Texas Republicans had to say about the platform's odd declaration that homosexuality was "an abnormal lifestyle choice." Conover Kennard of Crooks & Liars discovered that they didn't have much of an opportunity to object. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "The Fort Worth Log Cabin Republicans is a new chapter of a national organization. The local group and the organization's state affiliate were denied booths at the event that drew Republicans from across the state, a spokesperson for the party confirmed." This seems like a good time for Texans who consider themselves to be "normal" Republicans to get out of the abnormal Texas Republican party. Right away.

Israel. Patrick Kingsley & Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Israel's governing coalition will dissolve Parliament before the end of the month, bringing down the government and sending the country to a fifth election in three years, the prime minister said on Monday. The decision plunged Israel back into paralysis and threw a political lifeline to Benjamin Netanyahu, the right-wing prime minister who left office just one year ago upon the formation of the current government. Mr. Netanyahu is currently standing trial on corruption charges but has refused to leave politics, and his Likud party is leading in the polls."

Israel. Raja Abdulrahim, et al., of the New York Times: "A New York Times investigation found that the bullet that killed a Palestinian-American journalist [Shireen Abu Akleh] was fired from the approximate position of an Israeli military vehicle.... The Israeli Army's preliminary investigation concluded that it was 'not possible to unequivocally determine the source of the gunfire.' A monthlong investigation by The New York Times found that the bullet that killed Ms. Abu Akleh was fired from the approximate location of the Israeli military convoy, most likely by a soldier from an elite unit. The evidence reviewed by The Times showed that there were no armed Palestinians near her when she was shot. It contradicted Israeli claims that, if a soldier had mistakenly killed her, it was because he had been shooting at a Palestinian gunman. The Times investigation also showed that 16 shots were fired from the location of the Israeli convoy, as opposed to Israeli claims that the soldier had fired five bullets in the journalists' direction."

~~~~~~~~~~

Trump Knew He Lost. Sarah Al-Arshani of Insider, republished in Yahoo! News: "A former White House aide to ... Donald Trump said she heard Trump blurt out an admission that he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. Alyssa Farah Griffin told CNN's State of the Union that she heard Trump blurt out 'Can you believe I lost to this guy?' while watching Biden on TV. 'I'm not of the mind that this is going to take down Donald Trump in a legal sort of way,' she told host Dana Bash. 'But I do think it's going to inform the public about a man who lost and couldn't do what we've done for the entirety of our history, which is allow a peaceful transition of power.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Unfortunately, I do think it's possible to interpret Trump's outburst as evidence that he believed it was impossible -- unbelievable -- that he lost to "this guy." From what we know so far, it looks as if the only way to prosecute Trump will be to demonstrate his "wilful ignorance." The committee has uncovered plenty of evidence for that.

Daniella Diaz & Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "The House January 6 committee will show evidence at its upcoming hearing [Tuesday] about ... Donald Trump's involvement in a scheme to submit fake slates of electors in the 2020 presidential election, US Rep. Adam Schiff, a member of the panel, said Sunday.... 'We'll show during the hearing what the President's role was in trying to get states to name alternate slates of electors, how that scheme depended initially on hopes that the legislators would reconvene and bless it,' he said, adding, 'We will show you what we know about his role in this.'"

Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "A Republican member of the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol said on Sunday that he believes Donald Trump's actions surrounding the deadly riots amount to 'seditious conspiracy' and 'criminal involvement by a president'. Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger's remarks on ABC's This Week came after three hearings held by the House January 6 committee presented searing testimony and mounting evidence about Trump's central role in a complex plot to overturn his defeat at the hands of Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.... Kinzinger also said that Trump's actions, as portrayed by the committee, show he 'definitely' failed to maintain his oath to uphold the US constitution." ~~~

~~~ Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "One of two Republican members of the House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, starkly warned Sunday that his own party's lies could feed additional violence. 'There is violence in the future, I'm going to tell you,' said Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), on ABC's 'This Week.' 'And until we get a grip on telling people the truth, we can't expect any differently.' Kinzinger, who defied party leadership by serving on the Democratic-led committee, described an alarming message he received at home in the mail several days ago threatening to execute him, his wife and their 5-month-old baby.... Public officials have been inundated with threats in recent months, many spurred by former president Donald Trump's continued obsession with the baseless claim that his 2020 loss was the result of a vast conspiracy of fraud.... [Kinzinger] warned that the lies have not ended and could lead to a degradation of the democratic system, pointing to a county in New Mexico where Republican commissioners last week refused to certify the results of a primary election because they did not trust their voting machines. The commission reversed its rejection only after an order from the state supreme court."

E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post: "The hearings organized by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection are getting high marks for calling public attention to new and damning information while also offering a compelling narrative of a frightening criminal effort to destroy our democracy.... In a semi-documentary style, neatly interspersing video with testimony, the committee has efficiently offered a coherent account, something that rarely happens when hearings are disjointed partisan talkfests.... Can't more congressional hearings be like this? The answer, unfortunately, is almost certainly no. In a perverse way, the country owes a debt to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). He made this refreshing presentation possible. In an astonishingly foolish decision, McCarthy withdrew all his appointees to the committee after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rejected two of his five nominees.... With none of [McCarthy's] allies there to throw sand into the gears, the committee was able to organize a seamless presentation."

Matthew Futterman of the New York Times: "The world governing body for swimming effectively barred transgender women from the highest levels of women's international competition on Sunday, intensifying a debate over gender and sports that has roiled state legislatures and increasingly divided parents, athletes and coaches at all levels. The vote by FINA, which administers international competitions in water sports, prohibits transgender women from competing unless they began medical treatments to suppress production of testosterone before going through one of the early stages of puberty, or by age 12, whichever occurred later. It establishes one of the strictest rules against transgender participation in international sports. Scientists believe the onset of male puberty gives transgender women a lasting, irreversible physical advantage over athletes who were female at birth." The Guardian's report is here.

Frederic Frommer in the Washington Post: "In a last-ditch effort to prevent Southern states from seceding on the eve of Abraham Lincoln's presidential inauguration in 1861, Congress passed a constitutional amendment that would have prevented Congress from abolishing slavery in states where it already existed. Had three-quarters of states ratified this proposal, it would have become the 13th Amendment to the Constitution -- which we know today as the amendment that banned slavery after the war. As the United States celebrates Juneteenth..., it's striking to look back at how supermajorities in both houses of Congress endorsed this pro-slavery 13th Amendment just four years earlier, with support from anti-slavery Republicans. In fact, Lincoln himself gave tacit approval to the amendment in his inaugural speech on March 4, 1861, just two days after the Senate passed it 24-12 -- meeting the two-thirds threshold without a vote to spare."

Beyond the Beltway

Indiana. Brandon Smith of WFYI Indianapolis: "Former Mike Pence aide Diego Morales upset incumbent Holli Sullivan Saturday to earn the GOP nomination for secretary of state. Morales's bid was viewed by many as a challenge to the governor and the so-called Republican 'establishment.' Morales, whose family immigrated to Indiana from Guatemala, has previously pushed the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. He's criticized Indiana's election security, arguing the state needs to do more to prevent non-citizens from voting. And he wants to cut in half the number of early voting days before each election, from 28 days to 14."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "The European Union's executive recommended last week that Ukraine be given candidate status for membership. The European Council will meet later this week to decide whether to ratify the decision." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Monday are here. The Guardian's live updates Monday are here.

Come Now the Barbarians. Danielle Ivory, et al., of the New York Times: "Reflecting a shockingly barbaric and old-fashioned wartime strategy, Russian forces have pummeled Ukrainian cities and towns with a barrage of rockets and other munitions, most of which can be considered relatively crude relics of the Cold War, and many of which have been banned widely under international treaties, according to a New York Times analysis. The attacks have made repeated and widespread use of weapons that kill, maim and destroy indiscriminately -- a potential violation of international humanitarian law. These strikes have left civilians -- including children -- dead and injured, and they have left critical infrastructure, like schools and homes, a shambles. The Times examined more than 1,000 pictures taken by its own photojournalists and wire-service photographers working on the ground in Ukraine, as well as visual evidence presented by Ukrainian government and military agencies.... The magnitude of the evidence collected and cataloged by The Times shows that the use of these kinds of weapons by Russia has not been limited or anomalous. In fact, it has formed the backbone of the country's strategy for war since the beginning of the invasion."


Colombia. Julie Turkewitz of the New York Times: "For the first time, Colombia will have a leftist president. Gustavo Petro, a former rebel and a longtime legislator, won Colombia's presidential election on Sunday, galvanizing voters frustrated by decades of poverty and inequality under conservative leaders, with promises to expand social programs, tax the wealthy and move away from an economy he has called overly reliant on fossil fuels. His victory sets the third largest nation in Latin America on a sharply uncertain path, just as it faces rising poverty and violence that have sent record numbers of Colombians to the United States border; high levels of deforestation in the Colombian Amazon, a key buffer against climate change; and a growing distrust of key democratic institutions, which has become a trend in the region."

Ethiopia. Abdi Dahir of the New York Times: "An Ethiopian rebel group massacred more than 200 members of the Amhara ethnic group on Sunday, according to officials and news reports, the latest atrocity amid a civil war that threatens to tear apart Africa's second-most-populous nation. Witnesses and officials told The Associated Press that at least 230 people were killed when members of the Oromo Liberation Army attacked Tole, a village in Oromia, Ethiopia's largest region."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (5)

Another reason you should get the hell out of Texas––if you can. When Trump declared he was taking back the country––make it great again––Texas took it to heart, not that it wasn't in there in the first place. So when I read this morning that the newly adopted platform of the Texas Republican Party–-voted by 5,100 delegates––-declares homosexuality an abnormal choice plus affirms "all efforts to invalidate transgender identity," I thought, yup, knew this was coming down the pike. Can't have this Christian nation swept too clean, now, can we. Guns, God, & Gallimaufry ––-another shooting? Heck, yes, why not! Way to go, Merica––my country tis of thee!!!!!

June 20, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/
2022-06/ToplineABC_IpsosPollJune182022.pdf

Looks like I made a mistake in the above but anyway, 58% of those
polled think Trump should be charged with a crime in the J6
insurrection.

P.D.: As I mentioned yesterday, it's Republicanism that's an
abnormal choice.

June 20, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Just a note: Florida, the governors self proclaimed "Freedom State" does not celebrate Juneteenth as a state holiday.

June 20, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

Bobby Lee,

But surely you understand that for racist, fascist pigs like Benito DeSantollini, black people are only 3/5ths of a person, therefore ineligible for some commie, nigger-loving holiday.

I think for many Americans unaware of the origin of Juneteenth, the fact that Texas was still a full fledged slave state two years after emancipation is a surprise. But maybe not. Of course, the rest of the confederacy had to be dragged kicking and screaming (and dying to maintain enslaved humans) into a nation without slavery, but Texas, bless its withered, black, racist little heart, held onto the chains and whips longer than any other state.

So it’s no wonder that, in the modern confederacy, no self-respecting KKK lynch loving asshole has any interest in celebrating the Darkies are Free Day. Especially not some wannabe white supremacist dictator.

June 20, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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