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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
Oct162022

October 16, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Colleen Long & Zeke Miller of the AP: "Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced ... Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted 'cruelty and exclusion at every turn,' including toward those fleeing the 'brutal' government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor's playbook. Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 -- which Biden's own Justice Department is fighting in court -- to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19."

Robert Barnes & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Over eight oral arguments, [Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson] dominated the questioning and commentary, speaking twice as much as her next most loquacious colleague. It is likely a record for a new justice.... Her contributions ranged from the sweeping -- a rejection of an originalist interpretation of a colorblind Constitution that provoked swoons from the liberal legal community -- to the kind of mundane minutiae upon which even Supreme Court decisions turn."

Arizona. Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake sparred with CNN's Dana Bash over unfounded claims of mass election fraud in 2020 during an interview on Sunday. 'You called the 2020 election corrupt, stolen, rotten and rigged, and there was no evidence of any of that presented in a court of law or anywhere else that any of those things are true. So why do you keep saying that?' Bash asked Lake on CNN's 'State of the Union.'... A series of investigations into Arizona's 2020 elections failed to find evidence of substantial fraud that would have overturned President Biden's victory in the state. Lake went on to portray the media as covering only 'one side' of the issue, while Bash repeatedly contested Lake's claims of electoral fraud.... During a subsequent interview on 'State of the Union' with Lake's opponent, Katie Hobbs, the Arizona Democrat lambasted Lake's position. 'This is disqualifying,' Hobbs said. 'This is a basic core of our democracy, and she has nothing else to run on.'"

Ohio. Cleveland Plain Dealer Editors Endorse Democrat Tim Ryan for U.S. Senate: "There is not much question as to what the state would get from either of the two candidates -- Ryan, as a congressman, having voted with Democrats virtually all of the time and [Republican J.D.] Vance having signed on to Donald Trump's Big Lie and extremist approach to politics after being highly critical of the former president during the 2016 campaign and afterward.... During his [20] years in Congress, Ryan has shown himself to be an able collaborator who is willing to work across the aisle, an important quality in a deeply divided Senate.... The pragmatic grasp he showed in discussing the need to stand firm against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the potential threat of China doing the same with Taiwan add up to a strong argument for Ryan to replace [Rob] Portman [R] in the Senate.... Who can forget [Vance's] initial reaction to the Russian invasion: 'I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.' Unfortunately, Vance elected not to appear before our editorial board to explain his indefensible embrace of Trump's Big Lie or clarify where he stands on Ukraine, abortion restrictions, domestic violence against women or other matters."

Pennsylvania. Julia Mueller of the Hill: "The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday endorsed Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) in the state's Senate race after declining to endorse him in his party's primary earlier this year. 'There is no reason Fetterman cannot serve effectively after his stroke,' the editorial board wrote, noting that the Democrat struggles with slightly delayed auditory processing after suffering a stroke shortly before the primary but contending that the lag of a 'couple of moments ... should not significantly impair him' from serving as a senator. The editors added that 'Fetterman knows what his values are and is capable of communicating them. The same cannot be said for his opponent, Mehmet Oz, a man wholly unprepared to be Pennsylvania's U.S. senator.' Republican nominee Mehmet Oz, a former cardiothoracic surgeon-turned-television personality, has mocked his opponent's stroke and painted Fetterman as unfit."

Ukraine, et al. Charlotte Higgins & Artem Mazhulin of the Guardian: "Russian soldiers have shot dead a Ukrainian musician in his home after he refused to take part in a concert in occupied Kherson, according to the culture ministry in Kyiv. Conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko declined to take part in a concert 'intended by the occupiers to demonstrate the so-called 'improvement of peaceful life' in Kherson', the ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page.... Kerpatenko, who was also the principal conductor of Kherson's Mykola Kulish Music and Drama Theatre, had been posting defiant messages on his Facebook page until May. The Kherson regional prosecutor's office in Ukraine has launched a formal investigation 'on the basis of violations of the laws and customs of war, combined with intentional murder'.... Condemnation by Ukrainian and international artists was swift."

~~~~~~~~~~

Betsy Klein & Shawna Mizelle of CNN: "President Joe Biden said on Saturday the video and testimony shared at the January 6 hearing this week was 'devastating' and said the committee overall has made an 'overwhelming' case. Asked his thoughts on the hearing during an unannounced stop at a Baskin-Robbins in Portland, Oregon, Biden said, 'I think the testimony, the video are absolutely devastating. And I've been going out of my way not to comment, see what happens, but it's just -- I think it's been devastating.'"

** Whistleblower Outs Trump's Media "Empire." Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "Will Wilkerson, [once] an executive at ... Donald Trump's start-up Trump Media & Technology Group..., [has turned over] hundreds of previously unreported company messages, documents, photos and audio recordings ... in connection with a whistleblower submission [that] reveals a stunning portrait of the animosity that has built up inside Trump Media since its high-profile debut last year.... Inside the company, Wilkerson said..., plans [to create a media empire] gave way to bitter infighting, technical failures and a chaotic jockeying for power among Trump allies that undermined its potential.... Wilkerson, who was fired from his job Thursday ... after he spoke to The Post, filed the whistleblower complaint with the SEC in August.... Wilkerson is cooperating with investigations into Trump Media by the SEC and federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, said his attorneys...." In an anecdote cited at the top of the story, Trump telephoned Andy Litinsky, a co-founder of Trump Media, & demanded that Litinsky turn over some of his corporate shares to Melania Trump. Five months later, Litinisky was removed from the board of directors in a move Litinsky claimed "was payback for his refusal to turn over a small fortune to the former president's wife."

Kyle Cheney of Politico (Oct. 14): "A federal judge on Friday denied an effort by John Eastman, the attorney who helped devise Donald Trump's last-ditch effort to subvert the 2020 election, to reclaim his phone from the Justice Department. New Mexico-based Senior U.S. District Court Judge Robert Brack ruled that Eastman had failed to show that the government's seizure of his phone -- by FBI agents who confronted him outside a restaurant in June -- had caused 'irreparable harm.' Brack noted that Eastman had obtained a replacement phone and that his desire to bar the government from combing the contents of his seized phone was not a sufficient reason to reclaim it from the Justice Department." MB: Brack is a Bush II appointee.

November Elections. Mainstreaming Bigotry. Liz Gooswin of the Washington Post: "As the campaign heats up in the final weeks before November's midterm elections, so have [Republicans'] overt appeals to racial animus and resentment. And the toxic remarks appear to be receiving less pushback from Republicans than in past years, suggesting that some candidates in the first post-Trump election cycle have been influenced by the ex-president's norm-breaking example.... 'Here's the difference between Democrats and MAGA Republicans. When a Democrat says something racist or antisemitic, we hold Democrats accountable,' said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. 'When a MAGA Republican says something racist or antisemitic, they are embraced by cheering crowds.'... 'It is not new to see antisemitism or overt racism in politics,' [Jonathan] Greenblatt [of the Anti-Defamation League] said. 'What is new is after years ... in which it was clear that to be credible in public life politicians had to reject prejudice, it's now been normalized in ways that are really quite breathtaking.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. More DeSantis Stunts in the Works. AP: "The Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, plans to continue flying undocumented migrants to Democratic strongholds, his spokeswoman said on Saturday, a day after released records showed the state paid nearly $1m to arrange two sets of flights to Delaware and Illinois. Documents released on Friday showed that the planned flights will transport about 100 migrants. They were scheduled for before 3 October but were halted or postponed. The contractor hired by Florida extended the window for the trips until 1 December, according to memos released by the state transportation department."

Michigan. AP: "A judge has dismissed a young woman from the jury hearing the trial of three men in connection with a 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer after attorneys accused her of flirting with one of the defendants. Judge Thomas Wilson announced Friday that the woman has been removed from the jury, two days after attorneys raised concerns the juror was having too much non-verbal communication with defendant Paul Bellar, the Jackson Citizen Patriot reported."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Sunday are here: "Russia's effort to limit Ukrainian counteroffensives by pounding Kyiv and other cities with missiles and mobilizing more troops is unlikely to shift the dynamics of the conflict, which is now clearly tilting in favor of Ukraine, Western intelligence assessments and military experts say.... [Ukrainian President] Zelensky says the Russian death toll is 'approaching 65,000.'... The Kremlin is still conducting massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians, the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said -- and it may be replacing them with imported Russian citizens."

Piper Sauer of the Guardian: "At least 11 people were killed and 15 more wounded at a military training ground in the Belgorod region in south-western Russia on Saturday when two volunteers opened fire on other troops, the Russian defence ministry has said. The ministry said in a statement that the two shooters were nationals from a former Soviet republic and had been shot dead after the attack. The ministry called the incident a terrorist attack."

Robyn Dixon & Natalia Abbakumova of the Washington Post: "In cities and towns across Russia, men of fighting age are going into hiding to avoid the officials who are seizing them and sending them to fight in Ukraine. Police and military press-gangs in recent days have snatched men off the streets and outside Metro stations."

AFP: "Elon Musk on Saturday announced that his company would continue to pay for Starlink satellite internet in war-torn Ukraine, a day after suggesting he could not keep funding the project. 'The hell with it,' the world's richest man wrote on Twitter. 'Even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we'll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.' Musk had said on Friday that SpaceX would not be able to pay for Starlink in Ukraine indefinitely, as the US military confirmed it was communicating with the billionaire's company about funding for the key network."


China. Christian Shepherd & Lily Kuo of the Washington Post: "Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged Sunday to turn China into a 'great modern socialist country' that represents a 'new choice' for humanity, as he opened a Chinese Communist Party meeting where he is expected to secure a precedent-breaking third term. From a lectern onstage at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Xi spoke without a mask for an hour and 45 minutes to open the twice-per-decade meeting that sets the national agenda for the next five years." ~~~

     ~~~ Helen Davidson & Emma Graham-Harrison of the Guardian: “Xi Jinping celebrated China's crushing of Hong Kong's autonomy and warned Taiwan that the 'wheels of history are turning towards Beijing taking control of the island democracy in his speech opening the Communist party congress. The most important gathering in the five-year Chinese political cycle is expected to hand Xi another five-year term running China, cementing his position as the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times is live-updating developments related to the party congress.

Haiti, et al. Danica Coto of the AP: "The U.S. and Canada sent armored vehicles and other supplies to Haiti on Saturday to help police fight a powerful gang amid a pending request from the Haitian government for the immediate deployment of foreign troops. A U.S. State Department statement said the equipment was bought by Haiti's government, but it did not provide further details on the supplies flown on military aircraft to the capital of Port-au-Prince."

Iran. Sarah Dadouch & Babak Denghanpisheh of the Washington Post: "A massive fire broke out Saturday night in Iran's notorious Evin prison, which holds hundreds of dissidents and has detained hundreds more during the past month of street protests. Iran's state news agency IRNA reported that eight people were injured in the fire and that it was under control by Sunday morning, while citing officials who insisted there was no link between the blaze and the recent demonstrations." A BBC report is here.

U.K. Toby Helm & Michael Savage of the Guardian: "Senior Conservatives will this week hold talks on a 'rescue mission' that would see the swift removal of Liz Truss as leader, after the new chancellor Jeremy Hunt dramatically tore up her economic package and signalled a new era of austerity. A group of senior MPs will meet on Monday to discuss the prime minister's future, with some wanting her to resign within days and others saying she is now 'in office but not in control'. Some are threatening to publicly call on Truss to stand down after the implosion of her tax-cutting programme. In a rearguard action to prop up the prime minister, her cabinet allies tonight warned MPs they would precipitate an election and ensure the Tories were 'finished as a party' if they toppled a second leader in just a few months."

However, support for Truss is also evaporating inside the cabinet, with members keeping in close touch with her critics.

News Ledes

New York Times: "A man the police described as a 'potential serial killer' who terrorized residents in California's Central Valley in a string of fatal shootings was arrested early on Saturday while he was 'out hunting' for more victims, the authorities said. The man, Wesley Brownlee, 43, was arrested in Stockton after an investigation that connected five fatal shootings across Stockton along with a killing about 70 miles away." The Guardian's report is here.

AP: "A 15-year-old boy alleged to have killed five people and injured two in a shooting rampage in Raleigh, North Carolina, will be charged as an adult, authorities said.... 'In this situation, there's no question the mass loss of life, in my opinion, this case be transferred and tried in superior court,' [Wake County D.A. Lorrin] Freeman said at a press conference on Friday."

Washington Post: "Widespread flooding caused by extreme rainfall and the release of excess water from a dam in neighboring Cameroon has left 1.4 million Nigerians displaced and claimed 500 lives, according to government officials. The floods also injured 1,546 people, inundated 70,566 hectares of farmland and 'totally damaged' 45,249 homes, said Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, the permanent secretary in Nigeria's Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (9)

Everything is wonderful…

Another fine ‘merican lad exercises his second amendment rights! Five dead and two more wounded, but shut your pie holes, liberal pansies. No law could prevent this. Shooters gonna shoot. Gunners gonna gun. Second amendmenters gonna second amend. Jesus gave us that right, so fuck off.

And how dare anyone politicize this routine day in Gun Nation, cuz those bodies are still warm, praise Jesus. We’re all free cuz 15 year old killers roam the streets. And like Saint Marge of Peach State always sez “We already got too many goddam gun laws, so just take yer medicine and shut up already! Now excuse me, I have to go cheat on my husband with my ‘trainer’. Love them big guns!”

Another day in confederate world.

https://apnews.com/article/shootings-arrests-north-carolina-raleigh-d470969568cfac88de520c6c7cc64741

October 16, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Hey, as I pointed out the other day, Britain’s wingers are incompetent hacks from Loser Town just like what we got right here in this country. But at least the other incompetent hacks there recognize that incompetence and hackery are bugs not features.

We run across losers like PM for a Month Liz Truss, and we don’t try to get rid of them, we coronate them. We celebrate idiocy and incompetence. In fact we rig elections to make sure those who think incompetence and hackery are bugs not features have no say in our elections. Cuz You Ess Ay!

October 16, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Kudos to the editors of the Cleveland Plain Dealer for seeing Trumpism for what it is. Violent, stupid, treasonous, misogynistic, racist, and…did I say stupid?

Btw, “Cleveland Plain Dealer” has long been one of my favorite newspaper names along with Sacramento Bee, NO Times-Picayune, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Hartford Courant, and the Nome Nugget. And leave us not forget the Unterrified Democrat, based in Linn, Missouri. Hats off to those people. Plenty in Missouri to terrify Democrats.

How ‘bout youse guys? Favorite names for papers? Weird or not?

October 16, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: I've always been fond of the name "Detroit Free Press" & I especially like the fact that the name gets abbreviated, including in its URL, as "freep." If we could count monthlies, then I'd go for the "Tombstone Epitaph."

October 16, 2022 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@AK: All I see on the papers today is consolidation. North Florida is becoming USA Today land. Where the stories come from, I don't know, but they seem to have about a 7 PM cutoff. Anything later is either on their website or waits until tomorrow.

October 16, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

Marie,

I almost included the Tombstone Epitaph, but I only just read about it today. Great name though.

October 16, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Bobby Lee,

The internet killed newspapers. Classified ads and other forms of advertising disappeared as soon as sites like Craigslist took over. And more and more of the remaining papers rely on wire services for their copy. This means if some schmoe in god knows where posts a story they haven’t really researched about a topic they know nothing about, it gets passed on as “news”. This is why liars and traitors and con artists like Trump succeed so easily at evading serious coverage from hundreds of media outlets.

October 16, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: Writing obituaries for the "Tombstone Epitaph" must be the toughest job in journalism:

"Hieronymus Bledsoe died Monday at his home on Allen Street near Crazy Annie's Brothel & Saloon. His wife of 37 years confirmed his death, adding that the cause has not been undetermined. "Hymie's last words," she said, "were 'I told you I was sick.'"

And the editor, born in Boston, yells at the obit writer, "Make it pithier, Pete!

"Correction made, Sir," Pete calls back: "Pythia, his wife of 37 years, confirmed his death, adding that the cause has not been undetermined."

I could go on.

October 16, 2022 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Marie…

Ba-dum-bum…

Maybe they had a Tombstone version of “Clue”:

Pythia with her scythia by Crazy Annie’s.

October 17, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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