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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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Friday
Nov252022

November 26, 2022

The Company He Keeps: A Dinner at Mar-a-Lardo. Jonathan Swan & Zachary Basu of Axios: "Former President Trump dined and conversed with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and rapper Ye at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Tuesday night, according to two sources familiar with the matter.... Trump's direct engagement with a man labeled a 'white supremacist' by the Justice Department, one week after declaring his 2024 candidacy, is likely to draw renewed outrage over the former president's embrace of extremists. Fuentes, who frequently promotes racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, had been spotted with Ye at Mar-a-Lago, but reports erroneously suggested he did not have dinner with the former president." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ "Uneventful" Dinner Conversation Was Hilarious. Marc Caputo of NBC News: "... Donald Trump distanced himself Friday from a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, claiming he didn't know the identity of the far-right activist who was unexpectedly brought along with the rapper.... But despite Trump suggesting that the event was 'uneventful,' the fallout over his dinner with Fuentes appears to have thrown Trump's campaign into damage control mode.... 'This is a f[uck]ing nightmare,' said one longtime Trump adviser.... [A] source familiar with the dinner conversation said the dinner grew heated after Ye -- who announced another run for president in 2024 on Thursday -- asked Trump to be his running mate. Trump then began insulting Ye's ex-wife, Kim Kardashian...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is the only time I ever wished I was sitting at a table next to Trump & his party. Of course I probably would have choked on my high-priced entree from laughing so hard at Donald & guest for getting into a virtual food fight over who would be the next president*.

Sharon Kann & Angelo Carusone of Media Matters: "In recent weeks, 50 of the top 100 advertisers have either announced or seemingly stopped advertising on Twitter. These advertisers have accounted for nearly $2 billion in spending on the platform since 2020, and over $750 million in advertising in 2022 alone. In addition to advertisers that have seemingly stopped all advertising on Twitter as of November 21, there are an additional seven advertisers which appear to be slowing the rate of their advertising on the platform to almost nothing. Since 2020, these seven advertisers have accounted for over $255 million in spending on Twitter, and nearly $118 million in advertising in 2022. Emphases removed.

2024 Presidential Election. Megalomaniac prefers Florida Fascist Over Florida Fascist. Guardian: "Elon Musk has said he would support Donald Trump's arch rival, Ron DeSantis, in 2024 if the Florida governor were to run for president.... 'My preference for the 2024 presidency is someone sensible and centrist. I had hoped that would the case for the Biden administration, but have been disappointed so far,' Musk tweeted."

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona Gubernatorial Race. Jonathan Cooper of the AP: "Kari Lake, the defeated Republican candidate for Arizona governor, has filed a public records lawsuit demanding Maricopa County hand over a variety of documents related to the election. Lake has refused to acknowledge that she lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs and has for weeks drawn attention to voters who said they experienced long lines and other difficulties while voting on Election Day in Arizona's largest county."

Virginia. David Goodman of the New Your Times: "The Walmart supervisor who shot and killed six of his co-workers at a store in Chesapeake, Va., late on Tuesday purchased a pistol only hours before the massacre and left a note on his phone, in which he described how he planned to target some colleagues and spare others, according to new details released by the Chesapeake police on Friday.... The new details released Friday indicated the ease with which the gunman had purchased the pistol used in the killing, a 9-millimeter handgun. 'The gun was legally purchased from a local store on the morning of Tuesday,' the city said in a statement. 'He had no criminal history.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The Guardian's live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Saturday are here: "Patients were evacuated from several hospitals in Kherson, after Russian strikes on the southern city recently liberated by Ukraine, authorities said. Across the city, at least 10 people were killed and dozens injured, the regional governor said on Telegram. Many Ukrainians continued to lack assured access to power and water, with 6 million customers suffering from blackouts, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as the country entered what NATO's chief called an 'already horrific' winter.... Strong winds, rain and freezing temperatures are hampering repair work on infrastructure hit in the recent strikes, power grid operator Ukrenergo said Friday.... Pope Francis praised the 'noble and martyred people' of Ukraine in a letter addressed to Ukrainians nine months after the start of the war. The pope condemned 'the absurd madness of war' and compared Ukrainians' suffering to that of Jesus on the cross."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (11)

Marie,

Love the dead bird graphic. Such a genius. I guess he forget that Twitter is supposed to tweet not croak.

November 25, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Musk, concerned that his newly shit-stained toy might get booted off Apple and Google app stores, vows to invent his own smartphone if it comes to that.

Hey! I got it! How about a phone that’s connected to the wall with a wire? Then maybe a dial on the top, you know, and it can spin or rotate when you make a call. That’d be fun, right? And it could make little clicking noises. The kids have never seen anything like it. They’ll love it.

November 25, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Okay kids, Thanksgiving is in the rear view. So we all know what that means, right?

Time for…

The WAR ON CHRISTMAS!

Happy holidays everyone. Everybody got their “holiday tree” ready to go up, with “holiday” ornaments, and “saturnalia” stockings to hang by the chimney with care?

I suppose we could say Merry Mas. Now that’s really taking Christ out of Christmas.

How would that work in the songs?

I’ll have a blue Mas without you?
It’s beginning to look a lot like Mas?
White Mas?
We wish you a merry Mas?
O Mas Tree?

Okay, a little weird. But why not? Anything to own the traitors.

Look for the usual suspects to fire up this tired old bullshit any minute now. So predictable. No mas.

November 25, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

That smartphone that Musk invents, like his Tesla, wtf would it do,
steer itself into other phones? Spontaneously combust? Randomly
throw itself at small children?
A friend bought one of those overpriced Teslas and stopped in a few
months back to show it off. It's controlled by your smart phone.
That alone leaves me out. I suppose if you forget to charge your
phone you can't open the doors or start the car.
P. S. I have a box full of those old rotary phones in the basement.
You just never know when something will be back in style.

November 26, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

@Forrest Morris: You have done an excellent job of capturing the features of the new MuskFone, which I hear will come in a range of colors from Supremacist White to Apartheid White to Aryan White.

November 26, 2022 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@Marie: And trump orange.

November 26, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

AK: From yesterday: I thought at first reading "Nimitz" was a foul word connected to Admiral Nimitz for some reason––-did he throw loud mouths overboard? Did he violate protocol? Did he have his way with a lassie in the steam room? Evidently Auto said "nuts" to that!

As for Affect and Effect, that can be tricky for many, Here's a good way to remember----and again Auto evidently is clueless or it was just giving you a bad time–––it does that from time to time.

HOW TO REMEMBER THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AFFECT AND EFFECT

There is one trick to help you use the right word in almost every case: the word RAVEN:

R = Remember
A = Affect is a
V = Verb
E = Effect is a
N = Noun

November 26, 2022 | Unregistered Commenter`PD Pepe

@P.D. Pepe: As you say, that mnemonic trick works in most cases, but not all. For instance "effect" is a verb if you're talking about causing something to happen, like "Trump effected (verb) an effective (adjective) overhaul of the courts." And "affect" is a noun when you're talking about how someone responds: "You could see in his facial contortions that Trump's affect (noun) changed with every remark Hillary Clinton made." And the root of "affect" is commonly used as an adjective: "Trump's manner is so affected (adj.), I can't imagine how anyone puts trust in him."

English is a tough language, and I doubt that more than one percent of English speakers can say they've effectively mastered it. For the most part, it is only affected snobs who look down on the rest of us for our grammatical mistakes.

November 26, 2022 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

The rule of thumb I early learned to distinguish between "affect" and "effect" (which as Marie points out would not always work) is that the "a" in affect hints at action. Hence, it is (usually) the verb.

Another instance of how too much knowledge only leads to complications, a state of nature anathema to Republicans.

November 26, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Elections over? Kill those Democrat Crime Wave Stories

For months prior to the midterms,GQP TV, aka Faux, aired non-stop breathless tales of crime sprees caused by Democrats. Never mind that crime was much worse in red states.

But the second the midterms were over, Faux cut those crime wave stories by 50%. Since those cherry picked statistics and out and out lies didn’t have the desired effect (got it right that time), Murdoch’s Mendacious Myrmidons went back to the old standbys, attacking LGBTQ communities, reporting on election fraud, and blaming Democrats and Biden for the sun setting every day.

Not unlike how Fatty jettisoned his lies about invading caravans of murderers the minute after a previous election, Faux neatly dumps their latest media machinations down the memory hole.

All in a day’s work. Fair and balanced, right?

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-coverage-violent-crime-has-dropped-after-midterms

November 26, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

“Don’t know the guy, don’t know anything about him, never met him before!”

This is Fatty trying, once again, to lie his way out of an embarrassing situation of his own making.

It’s beyond belief that Trump, a right-wing media whore and junkie has no idea who Fuentes is or what he stands for. Complete lie.

But let’s say he really doesn’t know the guy or anything about him. Can just any Joe Shit the Ragman show up at Marred-a-Lardo and hang with the Fat Fascist at dinner? What does this say about security? Does a visit to the Shrine also include a peek at stolen top secret documents placed next to the toilets in the bathrooms to impress guests while they pay homage to the Dear Leader?

No wonder officials are concerned about the shoddy security down there. This is especially troubling when you consider that virtually the only people who visit Trump’s gaudy mausoleum are con men, losers, grifters, and the occasional foreign spies.

Still, it’s clear that the Orange Monster recognizes that when it’s CYA time, after one of his myriad fuckups, it’s also lying time again.

Or maybe it’s “Let’s let the white supremacist dude check out my stash of stolen documents” time.

November 26, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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