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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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Jan302020

The Commentariat -- January 30, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Adam Schiff is remarkable. Listen to how he not only thinks on his feet but also nails it on his feet:

Mrs. McCrabbie: As Adam Schiff said in today's proceedings, "You can't make this stuff up." Trump's lawyers are of course arguing that the House has no authority to subpoena the President* so the second article of impeachment is invalid and Trump must be acquitted. According to Schiff, the DOJ is in court today arguing that the courts have no jurisdiction over the executive to force the President* to answer Congressional subpoenas. "What's the remedy, then?" a judge asked the DOJ lawyers. The DOJ's response: "Impeachment!"

Here are the New York Times' live updates of today's impeachment proceedings. ~~~

~~~ Sheryl Stolberg & Michael Shear: "After failing to get Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to read the name of the person widely thought to be the whistle-blower whose complaint prompted the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, did so himself on Thursday. Mr. Paul, who left the Senate chamber while the impeachment trial was in session to hold a news conference about Mr. Roberts's refusal to read his question, said it 'deserved to be asked.' He said the question had nothing to do with the whistle-blower, then he proceeded to read it aloud and name the person." See also Akhilleus's earlier comment in today's thread.

Taking advantage of the fact most of their viewers didn't actually hear the senate Q and A, CNN, MSNBC and some other media willfully distorted my answers. -- Alan Dershowitz, in a tweet today

     ~~~ You horrible people have mischaracterized Alan Dershowitz because you listened to the left-wing, lamestream media. In responses to Dersh's tweet, Elie Honig (CNN) and Barbara McQuade (MSNBC) disagree for some reason: like -- because what Alan said. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~

~~~ "I Don't Want to Know What You Did Last Summer." Stephen Colbert Explains the Trial:

Mitch Gets More Felicitous Lessons in Quid-Pro-Quos. Ben Tobin & Morgan Watkins of the Louisville Courier Journal: "Several members of ... Donald Trump's impeachment defense team recently gave money to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's 2020 reelection campaign, a Courier Journal analysis of campaign finance data found. Ke Starr ... gave the maximum individual contribution allowed -- $2,800 -- to the McConnell Senate Committee on July 31, 2019.... [Starr] ... has given to every McConnell reelection campaign since 2002. Another member of the president's impeachment defense team, Robert Ray, gave a total of $5,600 to the McConnell Senate Committee through two separate donations -- one for the primary election, one for the general -- on Sept. 30, 2019. Ray ... did not donate to previous McConnell reelection efforts, according to campaign finance data from the Federal Election Commission."

AND in today's Comments, Linda in Denver explains Chauncey Gardiner Cory Gardner's motives.

Marcy Wheeler (@emptywheel) lays out a completely different view of the prosecutor's memo in the Flynn sentencing. She writes that it does not really differ from the guideline recommendation. Wheeler thinks the memo is responsive to Judge Sullivan's previous rulings and his stated views of Flynn's actions (and the Petraeus sentence): "And, yes, they mention probation, just like Flynn did. But in doing so, they almost certainly did so in a way that only exacerbates Sullivan's innate disgust with powerful people who ask for special treatment." -- Anonymous, in today's Comments

The Dress: Speaking of Impeachment Trials of Yore.... Jennifer Peltz of the AP: Lawyers for a woman who accuses ... Donald Trump of raping her in the 1990s are asking for a DNA sample, seeking to determine whether his genetic material is on a dress she says she wore during the encounter. Advice columnist E. Jean Carroll's lawyers served notice to a Trump attorney Thursday for Trump to submit a sample on March 2 in Washington for 'analysis and comparison against unidentified male DNA present on the dress.'"

Look for the Silver Lining. Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the Chinese coronavirus -- which has killed 171 in China and infected more than 8,100 people -- could 'help' to bring jobs to the United States because companies will be moving operations away from impacted areas. During an appearance Thursday morning on Fox Business, Ross said that he didn't 'want to talk about a victory lap over a very unfortunate, very malignant disease,' and expressed sympathy for the victims. But he said the pneumonia-like virus would be a consideration for American businesses that are scrambling to determine how the outbreak will affect their supply chains.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Vast Cover-up Conspiracy, Ctd. Sheryl Stolberg & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The White House and Senate Republicans worked aggressively on Wednesday to discount damaging revelations from John R. Bolton and line up the votes to block new witnesses from testifying in President Trump's impeachment trial, in a push to bring the proceeding to a swift close. As the Senate opened a two-day, 16-hour period of questioning from senators, Mr. Trump laced into Mr. Bolton.... The president described Mr. Bolton on Twitter as a warmonger who had 'begged' for his job, was fired, and then wrote 'a nasty & untrue book.' On Capitol Hill, Mr. Trump's aides circulated a letter informing Mr. Bolton that the White House was moving to block publication of his forthcoming book, in which he wrote that the president refused to release military aid to Ukraine until its leaders committed to investigating his political rivals. That is a core element of the Democrats' case.... Before the trial convened, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, and other Republicans signaled that they were regaining confidence that they would be able to cobble together the 51 votes needed to block new witnesses and documents and bring the trial to an acquittal verdict as soon as Friday, after the revelations from Mr. Bolton, reported Sunday by The New York Times, had threatened to knock their plans off course." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The concensus on MSNBC this morning is that the call for witnesses will get a the most three GOP votes, leaving a tie that "they" say goes to no witnesses. CJ Roberts could break the tie, but who thinks -- if he did -- that he would come down on the side of witnesses?

     ~~~ Ernest Luning of Colorado Politics: "U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner [R-Colo.] said Wednesday that he thinks the Senate has heard from enough witnesses in ... Donald Trump's impeachment trial.... Gardner had previously been noncommittal about Democrats' demands to call more witnesses, including Bolton...."

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "... the question of who [in the White House] did review [John Bolton's] book -- and to what extent -- has become a subject of the Senate impeachment trial of Mr. Trump. The White House has acknowledged that National Security Council staff members reviewed the draft, and that they briefed the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone. But the president's impeachment defense lawyers -- Mr. Cipollone among them -- insisted on Wednesday that they were unaware it contained the explosive revelation by Mr. Bolton, the former national security adviser, that Mr. Trump had directly linked aid for Ukraine to investigations he sought for personal gain.... Patrick F. Philbin, a deputy White House counsel and one of Mr. Trump's lawyers, said on the Senate floor..., 'We assumed Mr. Bolton was disgruntled and wouldn't be saying a lot of nice things about the president, but no one told us anything like that.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Maggie Haberman of the New York Times reported Monday, Jan. 27 @9:51 am ET: "John Ullyot, a spokesman for the National Security Council, issued a carefully worded statement on Monday morning, 16 hours after the Times story was published. 'Ambassador Bolton's manuscript was submitted to the N.S.C. for pre-publication review and has been under initial review by the N.S.C.,' he said. 'No White House personnel outside N.S.C. have reviewed the manuscript.'" Mrs. McC: I guess it depends upon what the meaning of "reviewed" is. In addition, Trump -- who, admittedly, can't read -- tweeted this about the book yesterday: "All Classified National Security." Really? Where did he come up with that idea?

AND There's This from Barnes' report: "The lawyers asked career civil servants, not political appointees, to review the book, in an effort to ensure it was handled similarly to any other book written by a former official with access to classified secrets, the officials said.... One of the career lawyers, Yevgeny Vindman, did not take part in the review to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. His twin brother is Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, a Pentagon official detailed to the National Security Council and a key witness about the president's Ukraine dealings in the impeachment hearings." ~~~

     ~~~ Courtney Hagle of Media Matters (Jan. 28): "... Breitbart News swiftly posted a conspiratorial smear against the brother of Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.... Breitbart claimed 'a source close to the Trump administration' told the outlet that Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, Alexander's brother, 'is in charge of reviewing all publications by current and former NSC officials,' which would include Bolton's book manuscript.... Fox News' John Roberts tweeted on January 27 that his sources say Yevgeny 'is NOT part of the NSC team vetting John Bolton's manuscript.' Still, that didn't stop right-wing media figures -- including some from Roberts' own network -- from promoting the smear that the leak of Bolton's book manuscript was a conspiracy stemming from the Vindmans." ~~~

I find it highly unlikely that a very experienced official such as Ambassador Bolton, the former national security adviser, would put top-secret material in his manuscript. -- Kevin Carroll, who represents other former officials trying to publish a book, to the New York Times ~~~

~~~ Meredith McGraw of Politico: "The White House sent a letter last week to John Bolton's attorney informing him that Bolton's forthcoming book revealing sensitive details about his conversations with ... Donald Trump could not be published because it contained classified information. An official with the National Security Council sent the letter on Jan. 23 to Charles Cooper, shortly before The New York Times published an explosive article detailing how Bolton planned to reveal that Trump directly tied the withholding of foreign aid to Ukraine as he pressured the country to launch investigations into his political rivals.... 'Under federal law and the nondisclosure agreements your client signed as a condition for gaining access to classified information, the manuscript may not be published or otherwise disclosed without the deletion of this classified information,' Ellen Knight of the National Security Council Records Management Division wrote to Cooper." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Bolton's Revenge. Josh Marshall of TPM: "... this news really confirms what has long been suspected without public proof: that Bolton has had a clear hand driving this whole scandal forward from the beginning. Or at least since his ouster or resignation on Sept. 10." (Also linked yesterday.)

Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's legal team ... argu[ed] that presidents could do nearly anything so long as they believe their reelection is in the public interest. The assertion from Alan Dershowitz ... made his comments as the Senate launched into a question-and-answer session in the second week of the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history. Following a model established during President Bill Clinton';s impeachment, senators wrote their questions on slips of paper that Senate pages passed to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.... Roberts then read the questions out loud from the dais, glancing over his glasses as he addressed the queries either to the White House defense team or the seven House Democratic impeachment managers." ~~~

~~~ L'état, C'est Moi. Alan Smith of NBC News (from NBC's liveblog @3:41 pm ET): "Alan Dershowitz argued that a quid pro quo involving a president's political benefit was fine because all presidents believe their elections are in the public's interest." Mrs. McC: No wonder Trump thinks he's king. He listens to idiots like Dershowitz who tell him he is. (Also linked yesterday.)

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "We seem to have passed the point where Trump will be able to claim legitimate vindication from acquittal. His cultists will think he has been cleared. But to the 75 percent or so of voters who see witnesses as necessary, the trial is more likely to be regarded as the last frantic gasps of a president who cannot grasp that his own political interests diverge from the nation's. In following him down this path, Republicans will be seen as accomplices and entirely unfit to hold power."

~~~ CJ Thwarts Li'l Randy's Plot to Expose Whistleblower. John Bresnahan of Politico: "Chief Justice John Roberts has communicated to senators that he will not read aloud the alleged Ukraine whistleblower's name or otherwise publicly relay questions that might out the official, a move that's effectively blocked Sen. Rand Paul from asking a question. In a behind-the-scenes fight, Paul, a Kentucky Republican, has composed questions that violate Roberts's edict, according to several Republicans familiar with the dynamics.... Paul -- who has strongly opposed the impeachment proceedings against ... Donald Trump -- has been floating the alleged whistleblower's name in media interviews for months.... Roberts was allowed to screen senators' questions before they were submitted for reading on the Senate floor, the sources noted."

The New York Times' live update page for Wednesday's developments is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Patricia Mazzei: "Lev Parnas..., who worked with the president's personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to pressure Ukraine's government to investigate political rivals of President Trump, had hoped to watch the impeachment trial up close. But he could not get around the special security restrictions at the Capitol because Mr. Parnas, who is under house arrest, wears an electronic ankle monitor. Still, his arrival created a tizzy at the office of Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, when Mr. Parnas and his lawyers arrived to pick up their Senate gallery passes."


Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The new legal team for former national security adviser Michael Flynn unleashed a withering assault Wednesday on Flynn's old lawyers, accusing them of a conflict of interest so severe that it merits allowing the ex-Trump aide to withdraw the guilty plea he entered more than two years ago.... Flynn also submitted a formal, written statement to the court on Wednesday proclaiming his innocence and seeking to explain why he pleaded guilty to a crime he now says he didn't commit. 'I am innocent of this crime and I wish to withdraw my plea,' Flynn wrote in his new declaration. 'In truth, I never lied.'" ~~~

~~~ Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors backed away from their recommendation that former national security adviser Michael Flynn serve up to six months in prison, saying in a court filing Wednesday that probation remained a 'reasonable sentence' that they would not oppose. The filing comes as Flynn continues his effort to withdraw his guilty plea in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's Russia probe. Prosecutors did not explain in their filing why they reemphasized probation as a reasonable sentence for Flynn. The shift represents the latest turn in the case in which federal prosecutors once held up Flynn as a model cooperator and suggested probation but shifted their stance to include prison time after Flynn hired a new defense team, attacked investigators and undermined the prosecution of his former business partner."


He Huffed and He Puffed ... And the Wall Came Tumbling Down. Matt Stieb of New York: "On the campaign trail and trips to the southern border, President Trump has called his big, beautiful wall 'tough' [and] 'virtually impenetrable.'... On a September visit to the Otay Mesa border site in San Diego, he boasted, 'This wall is not something that can be really knocked down.' But on Wednesday, Customs and Border Protection confirmed to CNN that newly-installed wall panels in Calexico, California were knocked down by wind gusts of up to 37-miles-per-hour, causing the metal slats to timber into Mexican territory[.]... The wall has faced a few setbacks that contradict Trump's claims of near-impenetrability, like in November when the Washington Post reported that smugglers were using reciprocating saws -- available for less than $100 -- to cut through sections of the steel-bollard barrier in minutes. And though the president has claimed that no one would be able to climb the wall, smugglers have found a simple summiting method, using rebar ladders to hoist up one side, and rope ladders to scale down the other." Mrs. McC: In Florida, we call 37-mph air movement a "breeze."

The Incredible Lightness of Hubris 

Matt Stieb of New York: "... when justifying his fitness for taking on the 72-year Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Speaking with Sky News Arabia on Wednesday, [Jared] Kushner explained why -- nepotism aside -- he was the right man ... [to take] on the 72-year Israeli-Palestinian conflict]: 'I've been studying this now for three years. I've read 25 books on it, I've spoken to every leader in the region, I've spoken to everyone who's been involved in this.' That's all but impossible, considering that the Palestinian National Authority has rejected Trump administration invitations to come to the table, aware that any deal made by the current White House would be designed to exert power in the region and to benefit Benjamin Netanyahu." The expert Jared also apparently never heard of Israeli politician Yossi Beilin, who was instrumental in cementing the 1993 Oslo accords; Kushner dismissed Beilin as an example of "random individuals who don't have a lot of say or maybe knowledge." ~~~

~~~ This Is Rich. Justine Coleman of the Hill: "... Jared Kushner said Tuesday that Palestinians have a 'big opportunity' with President Trump's Middle East peace plan, saying if they reject the plan 'they're going to screw up another opportunity.'... 'It's a big opportunity for the Palestinians,' he said. 'And they have a perfect track record of blowing every opportunity they've had in their past.'... Palestinian leaders were not included in the negotiations after cutting off contact with the U.S. in 2017." Mrs. McC: Opinions I've scanned say the plan is heavily-weighted against Palestinian interests. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Juan Cole, for instance, after writing unflattering descriptions of the plan's authors, goes on to lay out the "Top 5 ways Trump plan for Palestinians is a Crime against Humanity." So, uh, not so good. (Also linked yesterday.)


Juliegrace Brufke & Scott Wong of the Hill: "Rep. Doug Collins's decision to run for the Senate in Georgia will set in motion a game of musical chairs that could put two of President Trump's most loyal defenders in the top GOP slots of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees. Collins has been serving as the top Republican on the powerful Judiciary Committee since January 2019, but House GOP conference rules require lawmakers to relinquish chairman or ranking member posts once they launch bids for higher office.... A key GOP lawmaker said [Jacketless Jim] Jordan is in a strong position for the Judiciary job.... That would open up the top GOP job on [the] Oversight [Committee], which some lawmakers said could temporarily be filled by another Trump loyalist, retiring Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.)."

Presidential Race

Sydney Ember & Lazaro Gamio of the New York Times have composed an 10-question interactive quiz to help you figure out which of the top eight Democratic presidential candidates you most agree with. Mrs. McC: I took the quiz & the quiz-makers couldn't decide: I most agreed with two candidates: Sanders & Warren.

Street Money. Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "Allies of Donald Trump have begun holding events in black communities where organizers lavish praise on the president as they hand out tens of thousands of dollars to lucky attendees. The first giveaway took place last month in Cleveland, where recipients whose winning tickets were drawn from a bin landed cash gifts in increments of several hundred dollars, stuffed into envelopes. A second giveaway scheduled for this month in Virginia has been postponed, and more are said to be in the works.... The cash giveaways are organized under the auspices of an outside charity, the Urban Revitalization Coalition, permitting donors to remain anonymous and make tax-deductible contributions. The organizers say the events are run by the book and intended to promote economic development in inner cities. But the group behind the cash giveaways is registered as a 501(c)3 charitable organization. One leading legal expert on nonprofit law said the arrangement raises questions about the group's tax-exempt status, because it does not appear to be vetting the recipients of its money for legitimate charitable need."

Senate Race. Justin Wise of the Hill: "Republican Rep. Doug Collins (Ga.)..., on Wednesday announced that he is launching a 2020 primary challenge against Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.).


"This Is How the Industry Works." Jan Ransom of the New York Times: Dawn "Dunning [-- a waitress and aspiring actor from Ohio --] testified [in Harvey Weinstein's rape trial --] that at one meeting, Mr. Weinstein suggested she agree to a threesome with him and one of his assistants to advance her career, telling her, 'This is how the industry works.' [Tara] Wulff [-- another waitress & aspiring actor --] said she had met Mr. Weinstein to discuss a movie role when he raped her inside of his Manhattan loft. Ms. Dunning and Ms. Wulff were the latest women to testify against Mr. Weinstein at his long awaited trial in [New York] State Supreme Court in Manhattan, which is widely seen as a watershed moment in the #MeToo era. In all, six women have agreed to testify for the prosecution about their allegations that Mr. Weinstein sexually assaulted them."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Maia de la Baume & David Herszenhorn of Politico: "The European Parliament on Wednesday ratified the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and bid farewell to its British members, capping a two-hour-long debate and more than three-and-a-half years of tortured negotiations between Brussels and the first country to ever quit the EU. It was a strange and emotional day -- one that an overwhelming majority of the Parliament had hoped would never come -- with a profusion of farewell parties that involved bagpipes, EU flags and various versions of the song 'Auld Lang Syne.' One rendition was by MEPs, many in tears, who held hands and linked arms as they sang in the plenary immediately after casting their historic vote. The tally was 621 to 49 with 13 abstentions, and it provided certainty -- finally -- that the U.K. would make an orderly departure from the EU at the stroke of midnight (Brussels time) on Friday." The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Fred Silverman, who as a top executive at CBS, ABC and finally NBC was one of the most powerful people in the three-network era -- a force behind the success of beloved series like 'All in the Family,' 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show,' 'M*A*S*H,' 'Laverne & Shirley' and 'Hill Street Blues' -- died on Thursday at his home in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles. He was 82."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (14)

Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm reprising the Q&A between unwashed & Victoria from the end of yesterday's Comments thread because I found Victoria's answer so helpful:

unwashed: "@Victoria, I think you're the current mental health expert here. What do you think of Fatty trying to pronounce 'criminal' so badly (@ ~33 sec) that even the Faux hosts had to chuckle about it?"

Victoria: "I think Fatty's repeated incidences of inability to say a word correctly are not due to one specific deteriorating brain process alone. One can make a paraphasic error (oranges instead of origin), one can slur a word so it's not clear what the word is (he does this a lot), or one can have a nonsense repetition of a syllable (criminimals), or a variety of other things. The bottom line is that he's gradually forgetting how to speak, just like someone with advancing dementia may forget how to put a sweater on. One can see that he sometimes loses coherent speech in the middle of a sentence; sometime he loses a sentence before he's finished and he doesn't recognize that this is happening. Speaking clearly, creating complete sentences, using a vocabulary appropriate to one's surroundings, remembering words, all are the job of different specific areas of the brain. The fact that so many areas are affected is the concern.
Bottom line: this is dementia. Once he starts wetting his pants, or doing something outre like that, then maybe - only maybe - people will notice something is dreadfully wrong.

"I believe that the smart republicans in the senate can see this perfectly well, and have probably consulted neurologists to get some sense of how much time they have before he has to be replaced.

"Right now, it looks like they're betting on him being presentable until at least early next year."

January 30, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

I'd love to be a fly on the wall over at the Vindman's household as twin brother gets smeared after twin brother got smeared after dedicating their lives and service to the ideals of a rudderless nation.

That the GOP is now wholly invested in careening us into icebergs and crashing us into shores all because we once elected a competent and scandal-free African American as president is absolutely mindblowing. They've collectively shot themselves in the foot so many they've severed all toes, and are now scraping their bloody stumps to the 2020 finish line. And all this for what? Dementia Donny and his harem of nepostic numbskulls.

January 30, 2020 | Unregistered Commentersafari

And I genuinely believe he and his community would be far better off I categorically rezoned all the property surrounding Dershowitz's residence(s) industrial and built slaughterhouses, tanneries and rendering plants where those houses once stood.

Shouldn't be a problem. Wouldn't expect a peep out of him.

January 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Jumpin Jehoshaphat! Alan Ders-a-witch sez that whatever a president deems necessary to do for the good of the country he's good to go. Doesn't matter if what that president does SEEMS to benefit himself/herself we just have to believe the opposite. What we got here is a monarch and the more I listened to the trial (in name only) I felt like giving up any hope that sanity would prevail. Mitch has fixed it so we move on, folks, nothing to see here, let's not waste another minute on this charade. Oh, please show me how wrong I am!

@Marie: Also took the quiz–-got the same results––Bernie and Warren.

@Victoria: Thanks for such a good rundown.

And by the way those soldiers who were injured in the Iran bombing of those barracks have serious brain disfunction in many of the cases. So far I haven't heard Trump renege on his original "Just a few headaches, folks, nothing serious."

January 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

All the president*'s Pretenders (and there are a boatload of 'em)

I read last night about little Senator What-About-Me's hissy fit over not being able to out the whistleblower. The Littlest Traitor, Aqua Buddha Boy, has once again reached the limits of his ability to stand not seeing his name in the headlines. Plus, he desperately needs to be seen as a hee-roe by the drooling Trumpies, so what to do? Oh, yeah. Let me pick up on the complete lie that this is all the fault of the whistleblower whose name and address need to be handed off to those Trumpbots who have sworn to murder him for daring to out their Dear Leader's transgressions.

That'll do it. They'll love me! Cuz that's what's important. Not the fate of a nation at the mercy of a traitor and his treasonous lapdogs.

Then I read the the Chief Justice had to put the kibosh on MULTIPLE questions from the Littlest Traitor with regard to trying to jimmy both his own and the whistleblower's name into 72 point headlines. Is there a more reprehensible, me-me-me-first asshole among congressional confederates? Unfortunately, yes. But he is certainly angling for the number one pole position of pusillanimous prickdom.

THEN we have Young Jared who....hang on to your hats kids....READ A BOOK! Oh, not one book. TWENTY FIVE books. All about something, something, something, Middle East. AND he's been studying this stuff for (be still my heart) almost THREE WHOLE YEARS! Whoa! Which makes him the mostest experty expert that ever experted in the whole world. Natch.

First, I wanna know how many of those books had pictures with word balloons in them. Second, I wanna know how "studying" a 1,000 year old problem for almost three whole years (and only meeting, for a few minutes, a handful of those currently in the mix, without a single one from the Palestinian side) makes one an experty type.

The absolute chutzpah of these fucking people. I have no doubt at all that Daddy bought this fuckwad's way into Harvard. But this falls in with Daddy-in-Law's concept of his own mental abilities (and I do mean mental), whereby he firmly believed that he was the man to broker an arms treaty between the US and the Soviet Union, by dint of his having read a few stories in the Post (the NY Post, not the WaPo, which back then was a pretty good paper). He knows more than the generals, he's the world's expert on any number of things he can barely spell.

Jared's rotten apple may not have fallen off that particular tree, but it's certainly right at home with all the rotten apples that did.

January 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Victoria,

Excellent review of the Orange Menace's worsening condition. I'm afraid however, that were he to pee his crappy, boxy Brioni pantaloons during the SOTU, while calling for lifetime sinecures for his noxious brood, demanding to be made king for life, and mispronouncing his own name seven times, not a word would be uttered by the Party of Traitors. Nothing to see here!

The Turtle and the Trumpy acolytes in the House would be happy, if he were dead, to prop him up at the desk in the Oval Office, (à la "Weekend at Bernie's"). They'd move his head, wave his arms around (it would look absolutely lifelike) and declare that, yes, the president really did just sign a bill outlawing democracy so's R's could also rule for life.

January 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Another Trump Tell...

I'm wondering if classmates at Fordham or at Wharton, where Daddy got him in, loved having Fatty show up for poker games. The guy has more tells than three classes of second graders. The "sir" tell is an obvious one (I'm surprised it hasn't morphed into "your majesty" by now), but another is the "He was a loser who begged me for the job" tell.

Go back and check. Pretty much everyone who departed from the radioactive Trumpy Shit Show, with the exception of sycophantic moochers like Lewandowski, has been ripped by Fatty with the same sort of insults, he was stupid, he didn't know what he was doing, I tried to help him but he was disloyal to me, and described as having been a sad sack loser who "begged me" for the job.

So, either Fatty is a serial sucker, giving jobs to incompetent slobs who begged for a high ranking position in the government, without credentials or experience or smarts, OR he is a terrible judge of those he invites in to help run the country.

The truth is that in most cases, despite the Orange Menace claiming that hundreds of "incredibly qualified" candidates were lining up to work for him, he was most often the one doing the begging since, as time has gone on, very few want to get involved with the most corrupt, treasonous administration in US history. All, of course, except equally corrupt and treasonous assholes. Like Mike Pompeo.

Even if he were not suffering from increasing forms of dementia, Trump would be crippled by his raging narcissism and megalomania, and the need to surround himself, a need too often unmet, with malleable lapdogs who serve only as mirrors to his greatness.

He is a damaged, unstable personality, now made far worse by the oncoming freight train of declining mental capacity.

Maybe pants-peeing will be the next Trump Tell.

January 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

And speaking of declining mental capacity...has Cory Gardner (R-State of Treason) been attending some other impeachment trial? He sez he's heard from enough witnesses.

Um....okay. But where? Maybe he's been sitting in on night court sessions in Boulder or Denver. "Okay, that's enough. All five guys say the defendant jumped out of his car at the intersection with a bottle of booze and puked on a passerby. We've heard enough. Guilty."

Sooooo....no witnesses are....enough?

Okay. Man, that's some kinda weird-ass epistemology you got there, Cory. I thought Bishop Berkeley had him a doozie of a philosophy, but you got him beat hands down.

And sorry, watching video clips played by House Managers is not the same thing as having an actual person at the trial. But, okay. Whatever.

January 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

As long as peeing has been brought up, this clip of The Orange One (Jimmy Fallon) talking on the phone with Michael Bloomberg is worth a chuckle or two.

January 30, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

Maybe Dershowitz read my comment and that of other's here on RC.

https://twitter.com/AlanDersh/status/1222892900050030595

He said what he said but didn't really mean what he said and it's the media's fault for not understanding what he really meant, whatever that was.

On second thought, my jab about slaughterhouses, tanning and rendering might have been too subtle for him, so don't think I can take credit for his awkward reversal.

Should have said cages or crematoria, maybe, all in the interest of what's good for the larger community or the leader's re-election; then he might have gotten the reference.

January 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Marcy Wheeler (@emptywheel) lays out a completely different view of the prosecutor's memo in the Flynn sentencing. She writes that it does not really differ from the guideline recommendation. Wheeler thinks the memo is responsive to Judge Sullivan's previous rulings and his stated views of Flynn's actions (and the Petraeus sentence).

" And, yes, they mention probation, just like Flynn did. But in doing so, they almost certainly did so in a way that only exacerbates Sullivan’s innate disgust with powerful people who ask for special treatment."

https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/01/29/flynn-seizes-the-rope-to-hang-himself-with/

January 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

For Akhilleus and others that noticed that the junior senator from Colorado grabbed his moment in the news yesterday to say what we all knew he would.
My theory: Gardner knows Colorado voters will not repeat the mistake they made in 2014 by barely allowing him to take the senate seat. He's quite clearly playing to another audience, one that will give him a job after this one ends come January--lobbyist, political operative, FOX, who knows? BTW I doubt he would dare show his face in Boulder, and rarely in Denver -- he lives in Yuma CO, population 3500. I wonder what the court system is like there?

January 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterLinda in Denver

Linda,

Thanks for your insight. Your supposition sounds eminently reasonable. Fox is where confederates who lost an election, are about to lose one, couldn’t get elected if they were the only name on the ballot (another Corey, the Lewandowski kind), need to beef up their credibility with the screamers, or are otherwise unemployable go to make a quick buck off continuing to gull the rubes.

January 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Marie,

“Chauncey Gardiner”. Hahahaha. Good one. I’m guessing he “likes to watch”.

January 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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