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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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Wednesday
Apr202011

The Commentariat -- April 21

Krugman writes that the Times' whole comments system has gone down. You can always post on the Off Times Square page. I'll ignore the off-topic rule today. You'll probably want to allude to or link the article you're commenting on. Update: in an e-mail exchange with Karen Garcia, who first alerted me to Krugman's post, I theorized that the Times problem might have to do with Amazon's hosting service going down (see today's Ledes). As Karen discovered, that was the case. From the Times: "The [Amazon] problem also affected some functions of the Web site of The New York Times, including readers’ ability to comment on articles and blog posts."

Digby, writing under her real name, Heather Parton, in The Hill, demonstrates that Congressional Republicans have already decided to raise the debt ceiling. "It’s clear everyone understands the debt limit will be raised. The crazy Republicans aren’t completely crazy (and according to The Washington Post, Wall Street is having a very special chat with those who are).... So the only real question is why the White House and the Democrats are pretending that they need to negotiate at all." CW: Democrats like to lie down and roll over, even though Republicans never stratch their bellies. ...

... So Naturally ... Jake Sherman & Jonathan Allen of Politico: "One day after being named to a presidential task force to negotiate deficit reduction, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor fired off a stark warning to Democrats that the GOP 'will not grant their request for a debt limit increase' without major spending cuts or budget process reforms."

Looking for Tax Revenues in All the Wrong Places. Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post makes the case for taxing investment income at a higher rate than ordinary income: "Only bankers and the depraved believe that income from other people’s labor rates a moral discount over income from one’s own labor. The case for taxing capital at a lower rate is economic: that low tax rates on investment spurs more investment, and more jobs, in the American economy. Plainly, that’s no longer the case. The dividends that go to shareholders in America’s major corporations increasingly derive from investments those corporations make overseas."

Ben Bernanke Steps Out. Jon Hilsenrath of the Wall Street Journal: "Next Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will do something no Fed chief has done before: Stand before a room full of journalists after officials conclude a policy meeting and answer questions about the central bank's decisions.... In stepping out now, the chairman has a chance to assert his voice over the Fed's cacophonous internal debates—before any of his colleagues can get to a microphone—and reassure the public that he'll keep inflation under control."

 

Jia Lynn Yang of the Washington Post: "Not since antitrust officials took on Microsoft in the 1990s has the [Department of Justice] taken on this much responsibility enforcing restrictions on some of America’s most dominant companies. Some experts worry that the agency, now reviewing the blockbuster deal between AT&T and T-Mobile, is trying to regulate complex businesses when it should instead be blocking controversial mergers in court."

Gail Collins writes one of her most affecting columns on the Texas fiscal crisis and how the state legislature plans to make it worse by cutting family planning funds. Post your own comment on the Off Times Square page. CW Note: my comment on Collins has the word "sex" in it, so it's been held back. You can read it on the Off Times Square page.

Nicholas Kristof defends his friend Greg Mortenson against charges of misuse of charitable contributions. Post your own comment on the Off Times Square page, which also contains background info on the Mortenson matter.

"Lessons from Bradley Manning's Transfer." Glenn Greenwald: the Bradley Manning detention" episode should be a potent antidote to defeatism, as it provides a template for how issues that would be otherwise ignored can be amplified by independent voices creatively using the democratizing and organizing power of the Internet, and meaningful activism achieved."

Dahlia Lithwick in Slate: "Opponents and supporters of abortion appear to have taken the position that Roe v. Wade is no longer the law of the land." Although state after state has introduced &/or passed legislation that violates Roe, pro-choice groups are afraid to bring cases through the courts, as they fear Justice Sam Alito will cast a deciding vote to overturn Roe. "The end result is that Roe remains on the books, while for all practical purposes women can't get an abortion in Ohio, North Dakota, or Florida. I suppose you can call it half a loaf, but then, having half a loaf only really works if you are sort of pregnant."

The Washington Post has a retrospective of the work of photographer Chris Hondros, who was killed in Libya Wednesday.

Dana Milbank. "Obama likes Facebook. Facebook likes Obama."

Right Wing World *

Magical Thinking. Andrew Leonard of Salon: Texas Gov. Rick Perry's official solution to the effects of climate change is to pray to God! "He's officially declaring the next three days as 'Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas....' It's almost too classic -- let's ignore all the science that might help prepare us to confront the challenges of the future, and then, when disaster hits, we'll just do a rain dance! It's not like we're, uh, civilized or anything." But Leonard thinks God-fearing Texans should worry that "God is punishing them for their flagrant disregard of the human impact on his (or her) beauteous creation!"

Here's what happens when facts intrude into Right Wing World. Scott Keyes of Think Progress posts this video of Paul Ryan defending tax cuts for the wealthy at a community meeting in Milton, Wisconsin. A man who describes himself as "a lifelong conservative" complains about growing income disparity & says "we're wrong" not to let tax cuts for the wealth expire & not to raise the Social Security cap. The audience boos Ryan's response:

... Jonathan Chait of The New Republic demonstrates why Paul Ryan "and his defenders have to stop insisting that he doesn't propose tax cuts for the rich. He indisputably does so."

I Got Mine, but You Won't Get Yours. Kase Wickman of Raw Story: "Rep. Paul Ryan, the GOP's most outspoken advocate for cutting and privatizing Social Security, has already benefited from Social Security himself, in the form of survivor benefits he received after his father's untimely death."

CW: I've been avoiding Sarah Palin stories, including the latest brouhaha over the Birth of Trig "Hoax," but this article by Geoffrey Dunn in Business Insider is measured and sensible. Dunn ably backs up his contention that Palin's account(s) of Trig's birth are more troubling than the hoax theory. I don't have any idea who Trig's natural mother is, but there's very little reason to think she is Sarah Palin.

T. W. Farnam of the Washington Post: "Many of the Republican freshmen in the House won election vowing to shake up Washington, so it’s a little surprising that many of them seem to be playing an old Washington game: raising much of their campaign money from corporate political action committees. More than 50 members of the class of 87 GOP freshmen took in more than $50,000 from PACs during the first quarter of 2011, according to new campaign disclosure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Eighteen of the lawmakers took in more than $100,000." CW: "A little surprising?" Hardly. Consistency is the hobgoblin of Right Wing World.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, I published a photo of candidate Barack Obama's certificate of live birth from the State of Hawaii. It was/is WIDELY available online. "As recently as Tuesday night [Michelle Bachmann] called questions about President Obama's birthplace 'legitimate.'" So yesterday morning, George Stephanopoulos showed Bachmann a certified & sealed copy of that same document that the State of Hawaii has made available for at least two-and-a-half years. Watch her reaction:

     ... Okay, George, time to book the Donald. ...

... Steve Benen: "When 47% of Republicans, literally years after the birther garbage was debunked, believe the president was born in another country, it reinforces the notion that there's a deeply ugly strain of madness that runs through Republican politics."

"No Honor among Scoundrels." Jed Lewison of the Daily Kos: Andrew Breitbart complains that Glenn Beck "threw me under the bus" by publishing the unedited Shirley Sherrod tape (which completely exonerated Sherrod & proved Breitbart had edited the tape to falsely make her appear to be a racist) & calling for Breitbart to apologize.

* Where facts occasionaly intrude, with unpleasant results.

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