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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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Apr152019

The Commentariat -- April 16, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Julian Barnes & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "As she approaches her first full year on the job, [CIA Director Gina] Haspel has proved an adept tactician, charming the president with small gestures and talking to him with a blend of a hardheaded realism and appeals to emotion. A career case officer trained to handle informants, she has relied on the skills of a spy -- good listening, empathy and an ability to connect -- to make sure her voice is heard at the White House. But ... dor all of Ms. Haspel's ability to stay in Mr. Trump's good graces, there is little evidence she has changed his mind on major issues, underscoring the limits of her approach.... Unusually for a president, Mr. Trump has publicly rejected not only intelligence agencies' analysis, but also the facts they have gathered. And that has created a perilous situation for the C.I.A." ...

     ... Trump A-OK with Assassinations. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: “One detail in paragraph 15 [of the NYT report] stands out: 'Last March, top national security officials gathered inside the White House to discuss with Mr. Trump how to respond to the nerve agent attack in Britain on Sergei V. Skripal, the former Russian intelligence agent. London was pushing for the White House to expel dozens of suspected Russian operatives, but Mr. Trump was skeptical. He had initially written off the poisoning as part of legitimate spy games.... Some officials said they thought that Mr. Trump, who has frequently criticized 'rats' and other turncoats, had some sympathy for the Russian government's going after someone viewed as a traitor.' The story goes on to say Haspel was able to prevail upon President Trump to offer a tough response, after showing him images of children [Mrs. McC: and dead ducks!] who had come into contact with the same nerve agent.... Put plainly: Trump's default mode seems to border on indifference toward strongmen and their political assassinations." Blake goes on to cite numerous other instances in which Trump downplayed assassinations carried out by subordinates of dictators. Emphasis added.

Of Course Trump Is OK with Inciting Violence against a Muslim Woman. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump has no regrets about posting a video that spliced together footage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with Rep. Ilhan Omar, telling a Minneapolis ABC affiliate that the congresswoman is 'extremely unpatriotic and disrespectful to our country. She is somebody that doesn't really understand, I think, life, real life, what it's all about. It's unfortunate -- she's got a way about her that's very, very bad, I think, for our country,' he told local TV station KSTP during a visit to Minnesota on Monday.... Trump tore into [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi on Monday for her continued support of Omar, imploring her in a tweet to 'look at the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and ungrateful U.S. HATE statements Omar has made.'"

Marianne Levine of Politico: "Rick Scott campaigned on standing up for Puerto Rico. But with ... Donald Trump warning senators not to provide more aid to the island, the Florida Republican is caught between his party and his promises. And Democrats are eager to exploit that tension -- blasting Scott for sticking with the president on a critical disaster relief bill and throwing the freshman senator into the middle of a broader fight over stalled assistance for millions of Americans devastated by wildfires, flooding and hurricanes. Scott, meanwhile, is lashing out at his Democratic critics, feuding in particular with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in increasingly personal terms.... Schumer responded [in a tweet]..., 'How can you say you're Puerto Rico's voice in the Senate while supporting a disaster bill that strips needed help from the island and is opposed by PR's Governor? Why not stand up for both PR & Florida, and have the courage to tell @realDonaldTrump to leave no community behind?'"

~~~~~~~~~~

The Usual Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department expects to release on Thursday a redacted version of specialcounsel Robert S. Mueller III's report on President Trump, his associates and Russia's interference in the 2016 election, setting the stage for further battles in Congress over the politically explosive inquiry. Kerri Kupec, a spokeswoman for the department, said Monday that officials plan to issue the report to Congress and the public on Thursday morning." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Danielle McLean of ThinkProgress: "As ... Donald Trump publicly boasts that ... Robert Mueller's anticipated 400-page report 'totally exonerated' him, White House officials are completing a counter-report that rebuts its findings.... The White House has been briefed 'in broad-brush strokes' on the report and it will not invoke executive privilege to get further redactions, ABC News reported Sunday. Despite all this, Trump's legal team has been working on a counter-report for months, which will attack the legitimacy of the investigation and focus on obstruction of justice claims the special counsel lays out in his report, according to Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani. The counter-report is reportedly 140 pages long, and Giuliani said the team is trying to cut it down to around 50 pages." ...

... White House Staff Worried Because They Told the Truth. Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "Some of the more than one dozen current and former White House officials who cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller are worried that the version of his report expected to be made public on Thursday will expose them as the source of damaging information about ... Donald Trump, according to multiple witnesses in the investigation. Some of the officials and their lawyers have sought clarity from the Justice Department on whether the names of those who cooperated with Mueller's team will be redacted or if the public report will be written in a way that makes it obvious who shared certain details of Trump's actions that were part of the obstruction of justice probe, people familiar with the discussions said. But, they said, the Justice Department has refused to elaborate." ...

... Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "The top two members of the House intelligence committee have said Special Counsel Robert Mueller 'must' brief them on his investigation, according to a letter obtained by The Daily Beast. The letter, signed by Democratic Chairman Adam Schiff and Republican Ranking Member Rep. Devin Nunes, was sent on March 27, shortly after Attorney General Bill Barr released a short letter summarizing Mueller's findings. They sent it to Barr, FBI Director Chris Wray, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The letter asked for Mueller and other senior members of his team to brief the committee on their work. It also asked for all the materials Mueller gathered during his probe: 'all materials, regardless of form and classification, obtained or produced by the Special Counsel's Office in the course of the investigation, including but not limited to any addenda or annexes to the full report, or separate intelligence or counterintelligence-related reports; scope-related materials regarding the investigation's parameters, areas of inquiry, and subjects; investigative records and materials,' as well as raw reporting and finished analysis related to his work. The letter was a rare moment of bipartisan concord on the notoriously fractured committee, and suggests Schiff and Nunes will work together to extract as much information and detail as possible from Mueller's team." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Devin Nunes' Cow must have been munching on some cannibis plants. And Devin's got milk.

... Bill Barr Has Only One Songbook. Ryan Goodman in Just Security: "On Friday the thirteenth October 1989..., news leaked of a legal memo authored by William Barr. He was then serving as head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). [The memo] ... concluded that the FBI could forcibly abduct people in other countries without the consent of the foreign state. The headline also noted the implication of the legal opinion at that moment in time. It appeared to pave the way for abducting Panama's leader, Gen. Manuel Noriega. Members of Congress asked to see the full legal opinion. Barr refused, but said he would provide an account that 'summarizes the principal conclusions.'... When the OLC opinion was finally made public long after Barr left office, it was clear that Barr's summary had failed to fully disclose the opinion's principal conclusions." (Also linked yesterday.)

Emily Flitter & David Enrich of the New York Times: "Congressional investigators on Monday issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and numerous other banks, seeking information about President Trump's finances and the lenders' business dealings with Russians, according to several people with knowledge of the investigation. The subpoenas, from the House's Intelligence and Financial Services committees, were the latest attempts by congressional Democrats to collect information about the finances of Mr. Trump and his family-owned company.... The committees that issued subpoenas on Monday are jointly investigating Deutsche Bank's relationship with Mr. Trump. Over the past two decades, Deutsche Bank was the only mainstream bank consistently willing to do business with Mr. Trump, who has a long history of defaults and bankruptcies. The bank has lent him well over $2 billion, and Mr. Trump had more than $300 million in outstanding loans from Deutsche Bank by the time he took office, making the German bank the president's biggest creditor." ...

... Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "... Donald Trump's attorneys are warning of potential legal action if an accounting firm turns over a decade of the president's financial records to the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Trump attorneys William S. Consovoy and Stefan Passantino are urging Mazars USA not to comply with a subpoena that Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) plans to issue on Monday for Trump's financial documents, calling it a politically motivated scheme to take down the president." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Eric Levenson of CNN: "In attacking the fight to obtain Trump's tax returns, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders argued that members of Congress aren't smart enough to understand them anyway. But three Democratic members of Congress are trained as certified public accountants -- professionals licensed by their states to do just that. The Congressional Research Service said there are 10 accountants in this Congress, including two senators and eight House members.... [For instance,] Rep. Brad Sherman of California is a tax law specialist and a CPA, and he was an instructor at Harvard Law School's International Tax Program, according to his biography. He sits on the House Committee on Financial Services." (Also linked yesterday.)


"I Alone." Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "Republicans on Capitol Hill are raising alarms at the White House's resistance to congressional demands, fearing ... Donald Trump is bolstering the power of his office at the expense of Congress. The White House has stonewalled House Democrats on nearly all aspects of their sprawling investigations into the President, refusing to provide documents as requested by committee chairmen, preventing former White House officials from complying with Democratic demands and fighting subpoenas pertaining to the US Census and the administration's handling of the security clearance process.... In the past few months, Trump pushed for [Republicans] to return to the politically risky fight to replace the Affordable Care Act. He considered nominees key Republican senators don't want for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. And he pulled another -- Ron Vitiello to lead US Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- that Republicans actually liked.... The White House has also ignored the growing concerns from GOP senators over Trump's reliance on acting secretaries to run his Cabinet, a move that allows them to avoid the Senate confirmation process and his officials to temporarily escape nomination hearings intended to get their positions on the record and accountable to oversight." (Also linked yesterday.)

Matt Stieb of New York: "According to the White House, [former president Jimmy] Carter wrote Trump 'a beautiful letter about the current negotiations with China,' after which the two spoke over the phone on Saturday. By Monday, the White House was ready to share the good news: 'The President has always liked President Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter and extended his best wishes to them on behalf of the American people.'... President Trump ... has previously called Carter 'the worst President in the history of the United States.' Carter, for his part, told the Washington Post in 2017 that the Trump presidency was 'a disaster' in terms of 'human rights and taking care of people and treating people equal.'"

Peter Nicholas of the Atlantic examines what it takes to have staying power in Trump's tumultuous White House. "No one risks getting fired for being too effusive in praise of Trump.... Perhaps the most obsequious of all the president's men and women is his No. 2, present and past White House staff members say. 'I'd like my wife to look at me just for one day the way Mike Pence looks at President Trump every day they're together. That would be special,' Kenneth Adelman, an official in Reagan's administration, told me."

Ted Hesson of Politico: "The White House is weighing travel restrictions for nationals of countries with high rates of overstaying visas in the United States, according to a Department of Homeland Security official. Some of the countries with the highest rates of overstaying temporary visas are in Africa. Chad, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Eritrea, Liberia, Somalia, and South Sudan have among the highest overstay rates for short-term tourist and business visas, although they send relatively small numbers of travelers to the U.S. each year. During a meeting in January 2018..., Donald Trump reportedly referred to Haiti and some African nations as 'shithole countries' and questioned why their nationals should be admitted to the U.S.... The White House could issue a related presidential proclamation as soon as this week, a Homeland Security Department official told Politico." ...

... Somebody at ICE Can Be Shamed. Daniel González of the Arizona Republic: "Immigration officials deported the spouse of a U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan last week, leaving the couple's 12-year-daughter in Phoenix, then abruptly reversed its decision on Monday when the deported man was allowed to return to the U.S. Jose Gonzalez Carranza, 30, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers last Monday on his way to his welding job and then deported to Nogales, Sonora, early Thursday morning, according to Gonzalez Carranza and his attorney, Ezequiel Hernandez. Gonzalez Carranza was married to Army Pfc. Barbara Vieyra, who was killed on Sept. 18, 2010, while serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. She was& 22.... ICE officials offered no explanation for the decision to allow Gonzalez Carranza to return to the U.S. But Hernandez believes the reversal was triggered by media attention the deportation received."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Interior Department's internal watchdog has opened an investigation into ethics complaints against the agency's newly installed secretary, David Bernhardt. Mr. Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for the oil and agribusiness industries, was confirmed by the Senate last week to head the agency, which oversees the nation's 500 million acres of public land and vast coastal waters. He has played a central role in writing policies designed to advance President Trump's policy of 'energy dominance' and expanding fossil fuel exploration. He has been dogged by allegations of ethics violations since joining the Trump administration as the Interior Department's deputy secretary in 2017. Eight senators, all Democrats, and four government ethics watchdog groups have requested that the Interior Department's inspector general open formal investigations into various aspects of Mr. Bernhardt's conduct."

Hey, These Guys Weren't Complete Idiots -- Back in 2015. Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "... Donald Trump's pick to serve on the Federal Reserve Stephen Moore once criticized Trump's positions on immigration, describing them as 'extreme nativist' and calling them 'crazy' and 'dangerous.' Moore made the comments in an August 2015 radio interview with Larry Kudlow, who now serves as the President's top economic adviser. In that interview, Kudlow compared Trump's immigration plans to the worst parts of World War II -- in an apparent reference to the Holocaust -- and said Trump's only real supporters came from 'the nativist fringe.' In a statement to CNN, Kudlow said he should have never made the comments about Trump's immigration proposal."

Paul Krugman: "... while today's G.O.P. can't do policy, it commands a powerful propaganda machine. And this machine is now dedicated to a strategy of portraying Democrats as extremists. It might work -- but it shouldn't, because Democrats aren't extremists, but Republicans are."

Presidential Election 2020

Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont disclosed 10 years of tax returns on Monday, providing a more detailed look at his finances than he offered when he ran for president in 2016. The returns show that Mr. Sanders's earnings shot up after his first presidential bid, when he built up a vast national following. His income topped $1 million in 2016 and 2017, lifted by proceeds from his books. Mr. Sanders and his wife, Jane O'Meara Sanders, had an adjusted gross income of $561,293 in 2018.... Mr. Sanders had about $393,000 in book income last year, and he and his wife reported giving $18,950 to charity. Their federal taxes came to $145,840, for an effective federal tax rate of 26 percent. Mr. Sanders's higher income in recent years creates some political awkwardness for the senator, who in his 2016 presidential campaign frequently railed against 'millionaires and billionaires' and their influence over the political process." ...

... Holly Otterbein of Politico: "Bernie Sanders entered the Fox's den on Monday night -- and he not only survived the hour-long encounter, but often dominated. Appearing at a Fox News-hosted town hall smack dab in the middle of Trump Country [-- Bethlehem, Pa. --], the Democratic presidential front-runner played the part, swatting down tough questions from the hosts about health care, defense spending, and his newfound wealth. At one point, the Vermont senator even led the network's audience in a call-and-response that found them cheering loudly for his policies.... The image of an audience on Fox News rallying behind the democratic socialist and his left-wing platform gave Sanders the appearance of strong support in an area that was key to the president's victory in 2016." ...

... Backfire! Bret Baier tried a gotcha question on Medicare for All to the Sanders town hall audience:

So a reporter with French-language channel BFMTV asked Pete Buttigieg about his reaction to the Notre Dame fire. Here's his response:

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I have no idea how good Mayor Pete's French is, but it sure beats Donald Trump's, who can't even say, "Oui, oui." When he tries, it comes out "Me, me."

Steve Brusk & Kate Sullivan of CNN: "Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld announced Monday he is officially entering the race for president, becoming the first Republican to challenge ... Donald Trump in the 2020 race.... In 2016, Weld was the vice presidential nominee on the Libertarian Party ticket with former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. He previously served two terms as the governor of Massachusetts in the early 1990s. Weld ran for Senate in Massachusetts in 1996 and lost against John Kerry. He later moved to New York and in 2005 unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor. Weld told CNN's Jake Tapper on 'The Lead' that it would be a 'political tragedy' and he would 'fear for the Republic' if the country had six more years of Trump as President."


Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: "The actress Lori Loughlin, one of the most high-profile defendants in the college admissions bribery case, has pleaded not guilty to the charges against her, court documents showed on Monday. Ms. Loughlin's not guilty plea comes a week after 13 other parents, including the actress Felicity Huffman, indicated that they would plead guilty in what prosecutors have described as the largest-ever college admissions prosecution."

So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet Monday

Hundreds of firemen of the Paris Fire Brigade are doing everything they can to bring the terrible #NotreDame fire under control. All means are being used, except for water-bombing aircrafts which, if used, could lead to the collapse of the entire structure of the cathedral. -- @SecCivileFrance

... Caleb Ecarma of Mediaite: "Fox News anchor Shep Smith kicked a French media figure off the network today after he began conspiring [theorizing] about the supposed malicious cause of the fire at Notre Dame. Smith's guest, Philippe Karsenty -- the deputy mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine -- was at the scene at the star of the Paris fire. 'It's like a 9/11, it's a French 9/11. It's a big shock,' Karsenty said, before wildly claiming that 'we've had churches desecrated each and every week all over France' over the past few years." ...

... Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "Fox News' Neil Cavuto had to hang up on Catholic League president Bill Donohue during live coverage of the Notre Dame fire when the conservative activist refused to stop speculating about the cause of the blaze." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Good calls, gentlemen. To avoid such incidents in the futue, you'll have to get better guests. ...

... A YouTube Algorithm Is a Conspiracy Theorist, Too. Craig Timberg & Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "A new YouTube tool for battling misinformation failed in a highly public way on Monday, wrongly linking video of the flaming collapse of the spire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As images of the iconic tower falling played on newscasts around the world -- and on the YouTube channels mirroring those newscasts -- 'information panels' appeared in boxes below the videos providing details about the collapses of New York's World Trade Center after the terrorist attack, which killed thousands of people. There appeared to be few injuries in the Paris fire. The 9/11 tragedy is a frequent subject of hoaxes, and the information panels were posted automatically, likely because of visual similarities that computer algorithms detected between the two incidents. YouTube began rolling out the information panels providing factual information about the subjects of frequent hoaxes in the past few months.... Monday's incident shows the weaknesses of computerized systems."

Olivia Solon & Cyrus Farivar of NBC News: "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg oversaw plans to consolidate the social network's power and control competitors by treating its users' data as a bargaining chip, while publicly proclaiming to be protecting that data, according to about 4,000 pages of leaked company documents largely spanning 2011 to 2015 and obtained by NBC News. The documents, which include emails, webchats, presentations, spreadsheets and meeting summaries, show how Zuckerberg, along with his board and management team, found ways to tap Facebook's trove of user data -- including information about friends, relationships and photos -- as leverage over companies it partnered with. In some cases, Facebook would reward favored companies by giving them access to the data of its users. In other cases, it would deny user-data access to rival companies or apps."

Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "The National Rifle Association sued one of its largest and most enduring contractors late last week and raised concerns about the contractor's relationship to the association's own president, Oliver North, in a stunning breach within the normally buttoned-up organization. The suit was filed late Friday by the N.R.A. in Virginia, where it is based, against Ackerman McQueen, the Oklahoma ad firm that operates NRATV, the group's incendiary online media arm. The suit asserts that Ackerman has concealed details from the N.R.A. about how the company is spending the roughly $40 million that it and its affiliates receive annually from the association. The suit creates uncertainty about Mr. North's future at the organization. And it leaves the future of NRATV in doubt.... [NRATV] has ... taken on an apocalyptic tone, warning of race wars, calling for a march on the Federal Bureau of Investigation and portraying the talking trains in the children's show 'Thomas & Friends' in Ku Klux Klan hoods.... The complaint details a peculiar standoff with Ackerman over Mr. North, who took over as president last year...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's hope these people eat each other alive, on maybe both lose in a shootout at the Not-OK Corral.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (10)

Art historian Elizabeth Lev talks about the artistic and historical treasures in the Notre Dame Cathedral: (with transcript and video)
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/notre-dame-fire-prompts-global-grief-for-a-landmark-of-civilization

Coincidently I just finished the long New Yorker piece on the sexual abuses in the Catholic Church not only by priests but by nuns who ran shelters for children and then proceeded to run them like gulags: physically abusing, sexually abusing, and sometimes implementing food deprivation. The contrast between what a monument like Notre Dame stands for and what has gone on for centuries inside these glorious structures is staggering.

Paul Elie, the author of this piece, asks what would count as a revolution, or at least a leap forward in this morass, given the multifaceted nature of the problem:

"It is a problem of celibacy and sexual ethics. It is a problem involving a subculture of secrecy surrounding gay men in the priesthood. It is a problem stemming from males institutional power over women and children such as the power that led priests in France to coerce nuns into having sex with them––part of of a wider practice that the Pope likened to "sexual slavery."

I would add that the whole structure of the Church needs to be changed but I am an atheist with an atheist's jaded eye and nary my kind of change will prevail. Beneath all these problems is, of course, the problem of truth and the fact that the Church continues to define truth in its own way will win the day.

Meanwhile the fires have been extinguished and the Dame will be restored but something precious has been lost––the original glory is gone––as it is with so much these days.

April 16, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

PD: I was thinking about all that stuff while the networks ran interviews with various priests commenting on church life and the fire-- I don't see much change on the horizon either; until they will at least admit they have been abusing women as long as children, the leadership will keep it circumscribed, business as usual... We used to work at a Catholic college in Iowa (which burned in just the same manner as ND-- from roof maintenance and spontaneous combustion--)and those women, those nuns, were all educated to the hilt and very smart...it is a shame the men don't realize how they demean women-- or maybe they do? With regard to the horror of Notre Dame burning, since it took centuries to build, we will never see it restored, our generation at least. We were between planes a few years ago and took a train in to walk around it-- that's all there was time for... I grieve too--

April 16, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

Have no favorite so far for 2020.

Anyone but the Pretender, of course.

After listening to the Maddow interview last night with the South Bend mayor, have more mixed feelings about another Dem.

My wife said this morning the interview sounded like two smart people talking. She enjoyed it because that's what it was. But as pleasurable as it might have been for those of us who like such things, I don't know how it will play in Peoria.

No doubt all the Dem candidates are smarter than the Pretender, but I'm thinking that to beat him, much as I would like a campaign waged on a high level, any successful opponent might have to out-bully him, too, deflate him and then publicly stomp on the remains.

This morning I'm not sure that Mr. Buttigieg qualifies...He may not reach that low standard.

April 16, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Ken,

Smart people, that is smart Democrats, don't generally play too well in Peoria. And smart GAY Democrats? Who speak French? Well, I'm guessing Frisbee Dog would get more votes in some precincts.

April 16, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Dang right! We don't want no smart 7 language speaking gays in
Merricaah. Specially those French speakers with their French fries
this and French toast that.
We only want one language hear like the one our presidunce speaks.
He's speaking to us, his clan (klan?), his worshippers, the savior.
Signed: Us trump lemmings.

April 16, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterforrest.morris

Wait, wait, wait...

I get that the Ollie North NRA pushes the idea of race wars to stir up the crazies, hates the FBI (didn't they investigate Mr. Iran-Contra once?), and goes heavy on the Apocalypse sauce, but KKK hoods on Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends?

I had not heard about this so I had to see for myself. And in the Times article linked, you find...well thought out, rational reasoning?

Hahahahahahahaha.....

Of course not!

What you find is barely articulate, heads up the ass, convoluted racist gibberish.

See if you can follow this. To protest what they see as political correctness, ie, introducing characters of different races and genders (horrors! the world is coming to an end!), they make Thomas and his pals out to be KKK nuts. Can you make sense of this? What does this mean? Sweet Thomas is now a card carrying KKK loony because there's a train from Nigeria in the mix? And how does this push the NRA narrative? Are they saying it's bad to be in the KKK ( I know, I know, just hang with me for a minute) because that would be unkind to certain groups? Or are they saying that it's a good thing that Thomas and his friends donned the hoods so they can chase those interlopers off their little island?

Really, I don't get it. C'mon guys, if you're gonna make an argument against inclusion and kindness, at least have it make some kind of sense. This is like something put together by drunk guys admiring each other's Stars and Bars underwear as they clean the guns and wonder how long before their pals get there with the meth.

And the host of this whackiness, Dana Loesch, wonders how its possible to introduce diversity when the characters are trains. Uh...well, let's see. Because it's basically a cartoon that presents the trains as anthropomorphized characters who talk and have clear personalities and individual abilities, likes and dislikes? How 'bout that? You might as well complain that the character of Goofy in Disney cartoons can't be a dog because he drives a car.

And these people are all big Trump supporters.

Finally, something that makes sense.

Even more frightening? The NRA is considered one of the most influential and powerful organizations in Right Wing World. And it's run by complete loonies. You used to have to go down into the dregs, deep into far-right swamplands to find this level of crazy. Now they run the show.

April 16, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I fully expect tomorrow's "big reveal" of a redacted, otherly-constructed (if you will) and existentially transmogrified version of the Mueller report to be about as revelatory as Geraldo Rivera's opening of Al Capone's vault. Trump didn't hire Barr to play it straight. He hired him to defuse, misdirect, baffle, confute, and confound. He hired him to muddy the waters and make sure not the slightest evidentiary standard be allowed to go unchallenged.

It's entirely possible that the real report, unbowdlerized by Barr, does not provide the kind of rock solid evidence many hoped would materialize after a long and tedious investigation. But there's a difference between suggesting, as Trump and Barr would have it, that a smoking gun is not evidence of a shot being fired. Perhaps Mueller found a number of smoking guns but was unable to directly finger the triggerman (or woman) without a shadow of a doubt. This doesn't mean that nothing happened. It also doesn't mean that Trump is completely without fault.

In scientific terms, it's like saying that the preponderance of evidence against a geocentric universe has not completely redounded to the acceptance of heliocentrism, therefore, support of a heliocentric universe must be cast as patently absurd.

I have no doubt that Trump is dirty. Maybe he didn't "collude" with Russia in the textbook definition, but standing by while Putin and his hackers helped him win doesn't exonerate him in the slightest. And there are many more areas of illegal, unconstitutional, and unethical activity on the part of Trump and his minions that Barr and Fox and company will attempt to dissolve as completely without merit because Mueller was unable to show Putin handing Trump a bag full of votes.

I await the Barr Report sans bated breath.

April 16, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I'm not surprised that conspiracy theorists abound more often these days, but I am still a little shocked at how much national air time they're getting these days. I'm feeling older by the day now as I can claim to remember a time pre-internet when this level of moron was kept to fluorescent-lit basement conversations, but now we have Faux News folk spouting off "Crazy Uncle" diatribes on national teevee and the obese shitstain in the White House getting all bugged eyed on the daily.

April 16, 2019 | Unregistered Commentersafari

@Ak, you'll have to another day. Today is only Tuesday. The report is due out Thursday.

April 16, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

Unwashed,

Ha! Thanks for the correction. Barr has one extra day to stain treat, fabric soften, rinse, repeat, and iron the report into redacted irrelevance.

April 16, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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