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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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Saturday
Dec222018

The Commentariat -- Dec. 23, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Sunday that he would remove Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who issued a stinging rebuke of the president when he announced his resignation last week, from his post by Jan. 1, two months before he had planned to depart. Mr. Trump, in a Twitter post, said that Patrick M. Shanahan, Mr. Mattis's deputy, would serve as the acting defense secretary. Aides said that the president was furious that Mr. Mattis's resignation letter -- in which he rebuked the president's rejection of international allies and his failure to check authoritarian governments -- had led to days of negative news coverage. Mr. Mattis resigned in large part over Mr. Trump's hasty decision to withdraw American forces from Syria. When Mr. Trump first announced that Mr. Mattis was leaving, effective Feb. 28, he praised the defense secretary on Twitter, saying he was retiring 'with distinction.' One aide said that although Mr. Trump had already seen the resignation letter when he praised Mr. Mattis, the president did not understand just how forceful a rejection of his strategy Mr. Mattis had issued." Mrs. McC: Because Trump is really, really stupid and/or he can't read.

David Cohen of Politico: "In explaining Democratic opposition to border wall funding, Sen. Jeff Merkley on Sunday dubbed the wall 'a fourth-century strategy' that his party would not support."

David Cohen: 'I was one of many senators who privately sat down with General Mattis and said, "Please stay, stay as long as you possibly can,"' [Sen. Dick] Durbin (D-Ill.) said on NBC's Meet the Press. '"We desperately need your mature voice, your patriotism in the room when this president's making life or death decisions about national security...."' Added the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate: 'It breaks my heart that he's going to step aside. We counted on him to be there and to stop this president from his worst impulse.'" ...

... David Cohen: "Lamenting that ... Donald Trump doesn't share the foreign policy views of many Republicans, Sen. Pat Toomey [R-Pa.] said Sunday on NBC that James Mattis' resignation letter 'put his finger on' those differences. 'I strongly disagree with this decision to withdraw, prematurely in my view, from Syria.'... 'I think senators need to step up and reassert a bigger role for the Senate' in foreign policy, Toomey said, adding that he would be looking for Trump to nominate a new Defense secretary who has 'a more traditional view' of U.S. foreign policy. Toomey said he customarily gives the president wide latitude in picking his Cabinet but would be more cautious in this case. 'The president's views are so divergent, certainly, from mine that I think I'll be much -- this one's going to be tough,' he said." ...

... Michael Burke of the Hill: "French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday criticized President Trump over his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria, saying that ]an ally should be dependable.' Macron added that fighting 'shoulder to shoulder' is the 'most important thing for a head of state.' 'I very deeply regret the decision made on Syria,' Macron said during a news conference, according to Reuters.... Macron also emphasized that Kurdish forces in Syria, whom the U.S. forces have supported, have done important work, Reuters reported. 'I call on everyone ... not to forget what we owe them,' he said."

Quinn Scanlan & Kris Schneider of ABC News: "The president's incoming chief of staff [Mick Mulvaney] said Sunday that any money for the border wall would have to come from the Treasury Department, saying 'the Department of Homeland Security can't actually spend money from Mexico,'.... when pressed about President Trump's campaign promise that Mexico would pay for the wall.... Mulvaney also echoed a claim from President Trump and the White House that Mexico will 'pay' for the wall through cost savings to the U.S. from the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, or the USMCA." Mrs. McC: Actually, Mulvaney did not "echo" the cost-savings claim; he more-or-less agreed it was a silly assertion.

Shocking Scandal! It's Not Just the Government Shutdown. ...

... The "Real" Trump War on Christmas. Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian: "During Donald Trump's presidential campaign he talked often about his determination to win ... the war on Christmas. But despite Trump's repeated claims that 'people are saying Merry Christmas again' instead of the more inclusive 'happy holidays', there are several places where the Christmas greeting is absent: Trump's own businesses.... Instead of a Christmas gift guide ...[the Trump S]tore offers a holiday gift guide. 'Shop our Holiday Gift Guide and find the perfect present for the enthusiast on your list,' the online store urges. 'Carefully curated to celebrate the most wonderful time of year with truly unique gifts found only at Trump Store. Add a bow on top with our custom gift wrapping. Happy Holiday's! The use of the phrase 'Happy Holiday's' [sic] in Trump marketing would seem particularly egregious. The long-standing 'War-on-Christmas' complaint from the political right is that stores use the phrase 'Happy Holidays', rather than specifically mentioning the Christian celebration.'... But it's not just the online Trump store, that is failing to keep the president's Christmas promise."

*****

Sheryl Stolberg & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "As the White House and Democrats remained locked in a standoff over funding for President Trump's border wall, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, sent his colleagues home for the Christmas holiday on Saturday, virtually ensuring that the government will remain partially shuttered for at least several more days. Mr. McConnell's adjournment of the Senate until Thursday came after a frenzied day of negotiations in Washington and conflicting signals from the White House. Around the country, the partial shutdown, which began at 12:01 a.m. Saturday and affects roughly one-quarter of the federal government, deprived 800,000 workers of their pay and was visible at places like national parks, where sites were unstaffed or, in some cases, closed.... With lawmakers cleared out of Washington and no end to the impasse in sight, some speculated that it would be left to Democrats to reopen the government when they take over the House next month." ...

... Kathryn Watson & Caroline Linton of CBS News: "Mr. Trump will remain in [Washington, D.C.,] for Christmas. He was supposed to go to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida." Mrs. McC: Not sure why, since Congress is out of town. Maybe he thinks it makes him look more presidenty. ...

     ... On second thought, it looks as if Stephen Colbert came up with a more likely reason: the Nixon Mar-a-Lago Curse. "... Richard Nixon went to Mar-a-Lago a month before he resigned from the presidency. Oh history, please repeat yourself! We did our part by not learning from you!" ...

... Daniel Politi of Slate: "... on Friday ... the commander in chief finally put the steel slats to paper and social media reaction to Trump's crude image was fast and furious. Many mocked just how simple the design was considering the promise of a wall has long been at the forefront of the president's platform.... Many joked that the image looked like it was drawn with MS Paint while others pointed at how the president seemed to be particularly fixated on the pointy part of the slabs. 'Shocked Trump didn't illustrate the spikes with the heads of his enemies,' Ben Shapiro wrote. NBC reporter Ken Dilanian succinctly summarized his feelings: 'Not the Onion, Chapter 989.'" ...

The Madman in the White House. Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "For two years, Mr. Trump has waged war against his own government, convinced that people around him are fools. Angry that they resist his wishes, uninterested in the details of their briefings, he becomes especially agitated when they tell him he does not have the power to do what he wants, which makes him suspicious that they are secretly undermining him.... At the midpoint of his term, Mr. Trump has grown more sure of his own judgment and more cut off from anyone else's than at any point since taking office. He spends ever more time in front of a television, often retreating to his residence out of concern that he is being watched too closely. As he sheds advisers at a head-spinning rate, he ... complain[s] that few of the people around him were there at the beginning.... As tumultuous as events have been so far, Mr. Trump's first two years may ultimately look calm compared to what lies ahead." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: So he fires people, then complains they're not there to serve him? In the lede, we learn that Trump regularly calls his staff "fucking idiots" to their faces. Most of these people can get other jobs, tho I'll admit their odds diminish the longer they work for him. If I worked for Trump -- the Fates forbid -- & he called me a "fucking idiot," I'd demand he apologize. If he didn't, I'd quit & sue him for creating a hostile workplace. Besides, his aides are "all the best people," so I don't see how they can be "fucking idiots." ...

'Twas right before Christmas, when all through the House

Not a creature was stirring, not even a louse.

The Congress was shuttered, the Mall had gone dark,

The glow of the White House was eerie and stark.

Congressmen nestled at home in their beds,

While visions of dark money danced in their heads;

Lindsey Graham in his kerchief and Mitch in his cap,

Had just settled down for a government gap,

 

When on the South Lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my chair to see what was the matter.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a huge orange man who filled me with fear.

His hair wasn't human, his body so plump,

I knew in a moment it must be Der Trump.

 

His dull eyes were circled in big rings of white,

His cheeks were all puffy, his lips were pursed tight.

His face was contorted into a deep scowl,

And all of a sudden he let out a howl:

“Now, Mattis! Now, Kelly! Now Sessions and Pruitt!

“Oh, Comey! Oh Priebus! Oh Bannon. You blew it!

“To the top of the moon! to the top of the wall!

“Bow down!” he called out, “to the Greatest of All.”

(Though oddly enough, there was no one in sight,)

“Can't you fucking jerks get anything right?”

 

 

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Trump will enter his third year as president unbound -- at war with his perceived enemies, determined to follow through on the hard-line promises of his insurgent campaign and fearful of any cleavage in his political coalition. So far, the result has been disarray. The federal government is shut down. Stock markets are in free fall. Foreign allies are voicing alarm. Hostile powers such as Russia are cheering. And Republican lawmakers once afraid of crossing this president are now openly critical.... Trump is surrounding himself with 'yes' men and women.... He has designated some officials, including the new White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, as 'acting,' meaning they must labor to please the president to eventually be empowered in their positions permanently.... 'This is a rogue presidency,' said Barry McCaffrey, a retired four-star Army general.... 'Trump wants total freedom to do what he wants when he wants and he’s much closer to getting that, which is what will terrify not only Congress but the rest of the world as well,' said Thomas Wright of the Brookings Institution." ...

... Frank Rich: "The beginning of the end of the Trump presidency came and went a long time ago. I have never wavered from my oft-stated convictions that (a) Trump will not finish out his term, and (b), the end will be triggered by a presidential meltdown that forces the Vichy Republicans in Washington to mount an insurrection -- if only to save their own asses, not the country. This week was a big step toward that endgame, and surely one of the most remarkable weeks in American history." Thanks to MAG for the link. Mrs. McC: MAG is wondering, so now I am too, about how Trump communicates with his banker Putin. Personal iPhone?

Margaret Brennan of CBS News: "Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, had been planning to exit his post in February 2019. But sources tell CBS News that he informed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he will accelerate his departure due to a strong disagreement with President Trump's snap decision to withdraw 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria, effectively abandoning U.S. allies in the region. McGurk submitted his resignation on Friday, just one day after Defense Secretary James Mattis quit his post citing fundamental disagreements with the commander-in-chief -- including one over the importance of honoring U.S. alliances." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jordan Weissman of Slate: "Well, here we are. After months of complaining bitterly in public about the Federal Reserve's streak of recent rate hikes, Donald Trump reportedly wants to know if he can fire Chairman Jerome Powell. According to Bloomberg, the president has talked privately about canning the central bank chief 'many times in the past few days,' following the Fed's decision this week to increase rates for the fourth time in a year.... No president has ever tried to outright fire a Fed chair before, and the law on whether they can is, in fact, a bit unclear. The Federal Reserve Act states that members of the central bank's board of governors can only be removed 'for cause' -- a term that doesn't have a precise formal definition, but is generally understood to encompass basic performance issues like failing to show up for work or drinking on the job, not public policy differences with the president. Since the central bank's chair is also a governor, Trump probably can't kick Powell off the board entirely. The Fed statute says absolutely nothing, however, about what's required to remove someone from the position of chair."

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "An unnamed, foreign government-owned company in a mystery court case is asking the Supreme Court to pause a grand jury subpoena it received related to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. The Supreme Court appeal comes after a federal appeals court ruling that ordered the company to comply with the subpoena, which required it to turn over 'information' about its commercial activity in a criminal investigation. The appeals court also said the company could face fines for every day of noncompliance." Mrs. McC: Hmm, a mystery foreign government-owned company? Probably the Trump Organization.

Robert Windrem of NBC News: "Two days before the 2016 presidential election, an Instagram account called @woke_blacks posted a message in support of long-shot Green Party candidate Jill Stein. 'The excuse that a lost Black vote for Hillary is a Trump win is bs,' it read. 'It could be late, but y'all might want to support Jill Stein instead.' According to a report commissioned by the Senate, the account was a fake, part of the Russian campaign to sway the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.... Building support for Stein was one of a 'roster of themes' the Moscow-sanctioned internet trolls 'turned to repeatedly' in their effort to disrupt the election, according to a research team led by the New Knowledge cybersecurity firm.... There's nothing in the reports to suggest that Stein was aware of the influence operation, but the Massachusetts physician has long been criticized for her support of international policies that mirror Russian foreign policy goals. As a frequent guest on the Russian state-owned English language broadcast and online outlets RT and Sputnik, Stein has also benefited from Moscow's help during her presidential runs in 2012 and 2016.&"

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Reader Comments (5)

Time for a Sunday Sermon, this one delivered to our local paper (in the designated "300 words or less") responding to a Christian woman who usually only repeats Faux News talking points, but this time boldly declared her support for the Pretender, claiming it was the Christian thing to do.

I have never responded to her nonsense before, but it seems two years of the Pretender is too much. He's getting to me. I'm going low. I have no standards left.

"Once, at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts, I witnessed a professional contortionist do the darndest things with her body. I was in awe. She bent over backwards and splayed her hands flat on the floor. She touched the back of her head with her feet. She twisted her torso like a corkscrew. It was as if she had no spine at all.

Today’s letter justifying Christians’ support of our extraordinarily immoral president called that day to mind. We should ignore all Mr. Trump’s shortcomings because he’s doing so many wonderful things for our country, the letter said. This time simple awe didn’t begin to cover it.

The contortions here range from the private to the very public. I will leave the private to the writer and her god, but the public distortions invite a closer look.

First is the moral hazard we always risk when we decide the ends justify the means. In this case the writer suggests we should get behind a morally defective president because he is governing the nation so well. If good government includes a skyrocketing budget deficit, the swirling corruption that caused the courts to close the Trump Foundation and prompted the resignation of three cabinet secretaries, not to mention a barrage of presidential tweets most notable for their personal attacks and misrepresentations of fact, then the nation is well served indeed.

Maybe, though, that’s not what the writer had in mind. Could Mr. Trump’s attraction for some be his racist war on immigrants, his aggressive attack on the environment, his dallying with dictators, or his installation of judges who value corporations over people, but whose anti-abortion stance excuses most other immorality and injustice?

Though I am not a trained contortionist, that definition of Christian government would be enough to make my head spin".

December 23, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Oh, Ken–-I wish you could hear my claps––well done, my man, well done! Just wonder whether Ms Jesus Loves Me person will take heed and will wonder, just a tad, whether her adoration is warranted. Talk about being able to bend in a different direction. Hard for some to even contemplate that.

And @Marie–-did you spruce up Twas the night...? Very funny!

So Trump will sequester in his digs throughout the holidays? Sour, despondent, wallowing in his Hamlet moods of despair? Any one want to bet on how long this lasts?

December 23, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

This tells us a lot when humor could turn out to be the real news of
the day.
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-named-
man-of-the-year-by-isis

December 23, 2018 | Unregistered Commenterforrest morris

An "acting" Secretary of Defense, Chief of Staff, Attorney General and I'm sure many others Google didn't lead me easily to....

It seems there's a whole lotta acting going on in the Pretender's theater of the absurd.

But maybe their "acting" qualifies them for their positions. In all senses of the word, most have proved themselves to very bad actors.

December 23, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

For a wall to be effective it must be patrolled daily to keep people from climbing over, digging under, or drilling through. We already do this patrolling so I guess the wall will slow the rapists, murderers, gang members and dope mules down. Probably there should be machine gun towers every thousand yards.
In fact, we could skip the wall and the patrols and save billions if we just put up the machine gun towers.
The idea of machine gun towers is no crazier then building a wall.

December 23, 2018 | Unregistered Commentercarlyle
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