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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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The Commentariat -- May 12, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Paul Waugh of the Huffington Post: "Donald Trump will be denied the historic honour of addressing parliament during his state visit to the UK next month, government sources have confirmed. In a major snub to the US President, lingering hopes of him delivering a speech to MPs and peers have been dashed following defiant opposition by Commons Speaker John Bercow, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and others. Although Barack Obama made a landmark address in Westminster Hall in 2011, Trump will not be allowed the same privilege after the visit's organisers decided to avoid a diplomatic row over his 'racism and sexism'."

Rebekah Entralago of ThinkProgress: "Space at certain Border Patrol stations has become so scarce that [ICE] authorities have resorted to transporting immigrants on aircrafts to other parts of the U.S.-Mexico just to be processed.... The first flight left McAllen, Texas, on Friday for Del Rio, Texas. Daily flights are scheduled over the next few days. It is not out of the ordinary for ICE to transport immigrants on a plane, as they frequently use flights as a way of transferring individuals from one detention center to another. What is new, however, is the practice of transporting recently-arrived immigrants via aircraft to different parts of the border so that they can go through a preliminary booking procedure." --s

Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "Electric vehicles are increasingly popular, with sales up a whopping 81% between 2017 and 2018.... On Thursday, congressional lawmakers received a letter signed by 34 conservative organizations urging them to oppose any expansion of tax credits for electric vehicles. Signatories to the letter include several think tanks that promote climate science denial, a group run by a former Koch lobbyist, and the newly launched Energy 45 Fund set up by a former Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official." --s

Juan Cole: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told NBC that Iran is an active threat to US interests and 'sowing chaos' in the Middle East. It strikes me that exactly the opposite is true. The Islamic Republic of Iran has in recent years, despite its heritage in the 1979 revolution, acted as an Establishment, status quo power. I don't agree with Iranian policy, e.g. its Syria intervention; I'm just acting as a dispassionate analyst and asking if it is really destabilizing. I conclude, not so much. In contrast, the United States (and more especially the Republican Party) has sown enormous amounts of chaos in the Middle East just in the past 20 years." --s

Juan Cole: "[T]here are 2 million solar home installations in the United States. That is enough to power 12 million homes. (There are 127 million households in the US, and about 64% of Americans own a home). It was only in 2016 that the country hit 1 million.... By two years from now, the number of solar home installations will climb to 3 million, and in 2023 it will climb to 4 million, having doubled in 4 years. By 2024, new home panels will be installed at the rate of one a minute.... The cost of solar panels has dropped 70% since 2010, and dropped 5% just in the past year. There is still a $7500 Federal tax rebate, and many states also offer tax incentives (the states not controlled by Big Oil)." --s

Dylan Matthews of Vox: "The Trump administration has been incredibly consistent, from day one, about its desire to slash benefits for poor Americans.... [T]he latest [attempt] is subtle but profound: changing the inflation rate used to update the poverty line.... The change the administration is proposing would, over the course of many years, shrink the size of Medicaid, food stamps, free school breakfasts, Head Start, and many, many other programs." --s

Robert Burns of the AP: "Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan visited a border city in Texas on Saturday and said he intends to accelerate planning to secure the border and bolster the administration's ability to accomplish that without the Pentagon's continuous help.... Shanahan told Congress this past week that there are 4,364 military troops on the border, including active-duty and National Guard. They are erecting barriers, providing logistics and transportation service and other activities in support of Customs and Border Protection. The troops are prohibited from performing law enforcement duties. Troops have been deployed on the border since last October and are committed to being there through September." --s

Justin Wise of the Hill: "White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Sunday contradicted President Trump, saying he didn't disagree with the characterization that China is not paying the tariffs on goods coming into the U.S. Kudlow made the comments after Fox News anchor Chris Wallace repeatedly pressed him on "Fox News Sunday" about Trump's recent comments in regard to trade with China.... Wallace ... [noted] that Trump has said China pays the tariffs. 'They may suffer consequences, but it's U.S. businesses and U.S. consumers who pay, correct?' he asked. Kudlow responded by saying he didn't disagree with that characterization, adding that both sides will suffer because of new tariffs." Mrs. McC: Even on the rare occasions Trump's surrogates know the facts, interviewers have to pull out their two front teeth to get them to even implicitly disagree with Trump's lies.

Ellen Mitchell of the Hill: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo must warn Russian President Vladimir Putin against meddling in the upcoming 2020 presidential election, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged on Sunday. 'During your meeting with Vladimir Putin, it is critical that you warn him that any action to interfere in our elections will be met with an immediate and robust response,' Schumer wrote in a letter to Pompeo. 'President Trump's approach to dealing with President Putin, especially on this vital issue, must change. I urge you to make absolutely clear to President Putin that interference in U.S. elections will not be tolerated.' Pompeo is set to meet with Putin on Tuesday, the first major meeting of an administration official and the Russian president since the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report...."

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump lashed out at Don McGahn on Saturday ... amid an ongoing battle between House Democrats and the administration over documents and testimony related to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. 'I was NOT going to fire Bob Mueller, and did not fire Bob Mueller. In fact, he was allowed to finish his Report with unprecedented help from the Trump Administration,' the president wrote online. 'Actually, lawyer Don McGahn had a much better chance of being fired than Mueller. Never a big fan!'"

Matt Apuzzo & Adam Satariano of the New York Times: "Less than two weeks before pivotal elections for the European Parliament, a constellation of websites and social media accounts linked to Russia or far-right groups is spreading disinformation, encouraging discord and amplifying distrust in the centrist parties that have governed for decades. European Union investigators, academics and advocacy groups say the new disinformation efforts share many of the same digital fingerprints or tactics used in previous Russian attacks, including the Kremlin's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Rachel Bade & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "President Trump and his allies are working to block more than 20 separate investigations by Democrats into his actions as president, his personal finances and his administration's policies, according to a Washington Post analysis, amounting to what many experts call the most expansive White House obstruction effort in decades. Trump's noncooperation strategy has shifted from partial resistance to all-out war as he faces mounting inquiries from the Democratic-controlled House -- a strategy that many legal and congressional experts fear could undermine the institutional power of Congress for years to come. All told, House Democrats say the Trump administration has failed to respond to or comply with at least 79 requests for documents or other information. The president is blocking aides from testifying, refusing entire document requests from some committees, filing lawsuits against corporations to bar them from responding to subpoenas and asserting executive privilege to keep information about the special counsel's Russia investigation from public view. One such case will come to a head in court on Tuesday, when a federal judge is expected to rule on whether Trump can quash a House Oversight Committee subpoena demanding financial records from his personal accounting firm." ...

... Speaking of Federal Judges ... Having thumbed his nose at one branch of government, Trump is also working to neutralize another. This is not about a "unitary executive." It's about dictatorship. ...

... King Donald's New Plan to Neuter the Judiciary. Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "President Trump is looking to stop lower courts from being able to issue wide-ranging injunctions in a move that could dramatically limit the authority of judges. The plan comes as groups opposed to Trump have been able to get several of his policies, including those seeking to limit immigration, put on hold by nationwide orders issued by lower courts in battles that were eventually decided by the Supreme Court.... Vice President Pence this week brought the issue front and center, saying in a speech to the conservative Federalist Society that the administration has been 'unfairly' targeted by injunctions -- and promising to unveil in coming days pathways to put the issue before the Supreme Court."

** "First Among Equals." Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) in a Washington Post op-ed: "Oversight isn't the only area where the president thinks he can supersede and supplant Congress. He believes he can declare a national security emergency when lawmakers reject funding for his border wall -- and then reprogram money Congress has appropriated for other purposes to build the wall behind our backs. And despite the fact that his main job is to 'take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,' as the Constitution's Article II provides, he routinely sabotages the effective administration of the Affordable Care Act (by starving recruitment efforts and promoting 'junk' plans) and encourages government officials at the border to violate the law on asylum seekers. All this falls outside of his constitutional power.... Congress was never designed as, nor should it ever become, a mere 'co-equal branch,' beseeching the president to share his awesome powers with us. We are the exclusive lawmaking branch of our national government and the preeminent part of it. We set the policy agenda, we write the laws, and we can impeach judges or executives who commit high crimes and misdemeanors against our institutions. As James Madison observed in the Federalist Papers, 'In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.' Congress is first among equals." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Now, class, Raskin's op-ed is your reading assignment for today. Raskin is a retired Constitutional law professor, & this is a Constitutional lesson.

Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "Facing withering attacks accusing him of seeking foreign assistance for President Trump's re-election campaign, Rudolph W. Giuliani announced on Friday night that he had canceled a trip to Kiev in which he planned to push the incoming Ukrainian government to press ahead with investigations that he hoped would benefit Mr. Trump. Mr. Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, explained that he felt as if he was being 'set up' by Ukrainians critical of his efforts, and he blamed Democrats for trying to 'spin' the trip.... Mr. Giuliani said on Thursday that he had hoped to meet in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, with the nation's president-elect and urge him to pursue inquiries that could yield new information about two matters of intense interest to Mr. Trump. One is the origin of the special counsel's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. The other is the involvement of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s son in a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch. The trip raised the specter of a lawyer for Mr. Trump pressing a foreign government to pursue investigations that his allies hope could help him win re-election.... Mr. Trump has suggested he would like Attorney General William P. Barr to look into the material gathered by the Ukrainian prosecutors.... After The New York Times published a report about the trip on Thursday, Democrats assailed Mr. Giuliani, accusing him of activity evoking that at the center of the recently concluded special counsel's investigation.... The change of plans came as advisers were urging the incoming Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian and political newcomer, not to meet with Mr. Giuliani, according to a person familiar with the conversations." ...

      ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah, Rudy, it's everybody else's fault. You & your boss are not just collaborating with but encouraging a foreign government to insert itself into a U.S. election, & shame on Ukrainians for not going along with your little plot & on Democrats for pointing to your potentially criminal plans. The House & Senate Intelligence Committees should haul Rudy in to testify on his scheme & what Trump knew about it (no doubt he would claim attorney-client privilege, but it doesn't hurt to ask), and the House Judiciary Committee should add this incident as part of its evidence for impeachment. It's part of continuing corrupt conduct. ...

... David Boddiger of Splinter: "In reality..., [Giuliani's] activities looked a lot like a brazen conspiracy with a foreign government to disrupt U.S. elections and possibly could have led to campaign finance law violations. Trump claimed not to know too much about Giuliani's plans, despite making several comments this week about the subject of the trip, an investigation into the business interests of Biden's son, Hunter, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, as well as Russian attacks on the 2016 U.S. election.... Giuliani, perhaps sensing that conspiracy in plain sight might not be a good idea, switched course on Friday night.... Giuliani also claimed the purpose of the trip wasn't to influence the 2020 U.S. election.... However..., Giuliani already had made his intentions clear in a tweet on Friday. 'Election is 17 months away. Let's answer [the Biden-Ukraine questions] now,' he tweeted." ...

... Maureen Dowd: "When Trump fatigue seemed to set in after the Mueller report..., I had total faith that Trump and his crazy posse would find some bizarre way to grab back the spotlight. And, indeed, what could be more insane than this? A president who has spent two years battling accusations that he colluded with a foreign power to fix the 2016 election manages to wriggle off the hook. Just three weeks later, his lawyer unveils their 2020 plan: to collude with a foreign power to fix the election." ...

... Allan Smith & Dartunorro Clark of NBC News: "Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Friday for a probe into Rudy Giuliani's efforts to influence investigations in Ukraine he anticipates as possibly beneficial to President Donald Trump, citing 'the implications of this for United States foreign policy.' In a letter to the committee's Republican chairman, Murphy, D-Conn., said that he was 'alarmed' after reading reports that Giuliani ... had planned to travel to the country to push Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president-elect, to move ahead with investigations involving former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and probes related to special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.... 'As far as we know, none of these meetings are being coordinated with the U.S. State Department or other government agencies,' Murphy wrote." ...

... Harry Siegel of the New York Daily News points out that Rudy has many shady foreign entanglements.


Trade Isn't Just about Trade. Paul Krugman: "As far as I can tell, [Trump] isn't getting a single thing about trade policy right. He doesn't know how tariffs work, or who pays them. He doesn't understand what bilateral trade imbalances mean, or what causes them. He has a zero-sum view of trade that flies in the face of everything we've learned over the past two centuries. And to the (small) extent that he is making any coherent demands on China, they're demands China can't/won't meet. But Trump's critics, while vastly more accurate than he is, also, I think, get a few things wrong.... In the short run, a tariff is a tax.... [Even though the tax is regressive,] we're still talking, at least so far, about a tax hike that is only a fraction of a percent of GDP.... [But] trade policy isn't just about economics. It's also about democracy and peace.... The postwar trading system grew out of the vision of Cordell Hull, FDR's Secretary of State, who saw commercial links between nations as a way to promote peace.... Trump/s trade war should correspondingly be seen as part and parcel of his embrace of foreign dictators, lack of respect for our allies, and evident contempt for democracy, at home as well as abroad.... He's working actively to make the world a more dangerous, less democratic place, with trade war just one manifestation of that drive." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Needless to say, all this is way more than Trump can understand, and even if he could understand it, he wouldn't care. He would still think it was great that initiating trade wars made him look tough & strong & America-Firsty. Update: See Landler & Swanson's report, linked below. ...

... digby: "... this wild, chaotic destruction with nothing but ignorant bellicosity and a huge military is a recipe for something very terrible happening. The US has not been a benign actor on the world stage. But it was predictable which meant that as it acted as the fulcrum for international organizing of various players, at least everyone was playing on the same field. Now we aren't. And it's anyone's guess as to how that's going to come out. Trump's idiotic trade war, based upon a sixth grade understanding of how trade works, is a big part of that." ...

... New York Times Editors: "President Trump's new tariffs on Chinese imports, which took effect at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, are taxes that will be paid by Americans. That is a simple fact, and it remains true no matter how many times Mr. Trump insists the money will come from China.... He is willfully peddling a falsehood for political gain.... A pair of recent studies by prominent academics, including the chief economist at the World Bank, have concluded that the full cost of the Trump tariffs is being paid here in the United States, although China has suffered a loss of access to the American market.... Mr. Trump -- who famously declared in March 2018 that 'trade wars are good, and easy to win' -- has yet to show he can strike a deal." ...

... Mark Landler & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "When President Trump had finished mocking the field of Democratic presidential candidates at a rally in Florida this week ('Sleepy Joe,' 'Crazy Bernie' and 'Boot-edge-edge'), he pivoted abruptly to his intensifying trade war with China. The segue was no accident: Mr. Trump is determined to present himself as tougher on the Chinese than any of his potential challengers in 2020. 'Representin us against President Xi of China,' a sarcastic Mr. Trump said of Pete Buttigieg, the young mayor of South Bend, Ind. 'That'd be great.' Taking aim at former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. earlier in the day, he said that China had pulled back from a trade deal because it wanted to wait him out and negotiate with a President Biden or 'one of the very weak Democrats, and thereby continue to rip off the United States.' Election-year politics have crept into Mr. Trump's trade policy.... His recent statements suggest he now believes that demonstrating his toughness with the Chinese and walking away from a deal might well put him in a better position politically than signing one."

Senate Republicans' support for Trump is fairly strong:

Presidential Race 2020. Alex Thompson of Politico: "It was a startling spectacle in the heart of Trump country: At least a dozen supporters of the president -- some wearing MAGA stickers -- nodding their heads, at times even clapping, for liberal firebrand Elizabeth Warren. About 150 people gathered at the Kermit [W. Va.] Fire & Rescue Headquarters Station to hear the Massachusetts senator and former Harvard professor talk about what she wants to do to fight the opioid epidemic. Trump-supporting college students in baggy t-shirts, housewives in pearls, and the fire chief dressed in uniform joined liberal retirees wearing rainbow 'Persist' shirts and teachers with six-figure student loan debt. Kermit is one of the epicenters of the opioid addiction epidemic."

It's like fucking in a cathedral. -- Leonard Bernstein to Maryan Stevens, describing the intensity of conducting a musical masterpiece ...

... ** Robert Barnes of the Washington Post reports on his interview with retired Justice John Paul Stevens. Stevens' autobiography will be published this week.

Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "The NRA has racked up huge legal bills over the last year that threaten to debilitate the organization, according to documents posted anonymously online that appear to be written by the group's ex-president Oliver North. The bills highlight the organization's extraordinary legal challenges.... Senior NRA officials disputed the documents' claims but not their authenticity.... [A memo from North & NRA official Richard Childress] says [outside counsel Bill] Brewer charged the NRA $24,324,290 since they engaged him last year, and that some of that had been reimbursed as part of a settlement of litigation against an insurance company -- leaving the NRA to pay $18.5 million."

Trouble in the Academy. Kate Taylor of the New York Times: "Harvard said on Saturday that a law professor who is representing Harvey Weinstein [-- the accused serial sex abuser --] would not continue as faculty dean of an undergraduate house after his term ends on June 30, bowing to months of pressure from students. The professor, Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., and his wife, Stephanie Robinson, who is a lecturer at the law school, have been the faculty deans of Winthrop House, one of Harvard's residential houses for undergraduate students, since 2009. They were the first African-American faculty deans in Harvard's history.... The decision not to renew the appointments of Mr. Sullivan and Ms. Robinson as faculty deans does not affect their positions at the law school, where Mr. Sullivan is the Jesse Climenko Clinical Professor of Law and the director of the Criminal Justice Institute."

Another Trumpy Grifter. Michael Brice-Saddler of the Washington Post: "A December fundraising campaign brought in more than $20 million over the course of a few weeks, its thousands of donors united by a common goal: the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, oft-promised by President Trump. Some four months later, a contingent of those supporters is ready to see what their money has built. The now-famous border wall GoFundMe was conceived by Purple Heart recipient Brian Kolfage.... Reporting on the apparent lack of progress on the private wall, published early Friday by the Daily Beast, drew criticism from Kolfage.... Back in January, Kobach told the New York Times they'd hopefully be breaking ground 'within weeks.' Some critics noted Kolfage was accused of shady behavior in the past, including allegations of misusing funds he raised.... BuzzFeed looked into Kolfage's previous crowdfunding efforts, which included an initiative to mentor wounded veterans at military hospitals -- among them Walter Reed and Brooke Army Medical Center. He raised thousands for the project, according to BuzzFeed, but spokespersons for the medical facilities told the outlet they have no record of him working at the hospitals or donating money.... Facebook removed several of the pages he operated last year, according to NBC, in a purge of pages that were used to 'drive traffic to their websites.'"

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Reader Comments (8)

THE REMARKABLE MOTHERS OF SOCIAL SECURITY:

On this day of honoring mothers here is a story about the women who gave birth to what we now find an essential program for most:

Francis Perkins––FIRST female member of a presidential cabinet; Dr.Barbara Nachtrieb Armstrong, FIRST tenured female law professor in the country; many other women who were important movers in the birth and early development of Social Security.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-remarkable-mothers-of-social-security/

May 12, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

“How Oligarchs Stash Fortunes”

Riffing off of a posting by PDPepe re: Keptocracy, I found this Oliver Bullough interview (NPR: Terry Gross / Fresh Air) edifying, entertaining, and - above all - worrisome = understatement.

(Trust this was not already posted on RC.)

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/11/721729777/fresh-air-weekend-how-oligarchs-stash-fortunes-pen15-creators

May 12, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAunt Hattie

In regards to solar installations:

I support solar installations on homes. Sadly, I am in the middle of witnessing a unique population of a state listed species that I recently discovered who WILL lose their core forested habitat due to an industrial solar installation. I have seen this happen at other sites in Massachusetts. I am sickened by this. Clearly, there are situations where solar farms are detrimental to the well being of of rare and common species and should not be permitted. Folks have been misled to believe that solar farms are the answer to our energy needs, but in too many situations our flora and fauna pay the cost. Solar energy when sited intelligently is awesome, but not when it results in the extirpation of a rare species.

May 12, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterJulie in Massachusetts

@Julie: I'm rebuilding a house in New Hampshire & am planning to ask the architect to plan for solar panels on the roof. Are there any dangers to that?

May 12, 2019 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

My experience with solar installations have involved witnessing the clearing of large tracts of forests, and from my perspective, loss of wildlife habitat, and as well exacerbating climate change. I do think (and hope) installing panels on existing structures will eventually put industrial solar farms out of business, or at least significantly reduce their footprint. I don’t know what the environmental impact may be years down the road when the panels may need to be replaced.

May 12, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterJulie in Massachusetts

@Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The April 4 2019 PBS show This Old House season 17 episode 17 featured a segment called future house demonstrating a residential ground installation of a robotic solar array which mimics a sunflower in its ability to track the sun which increases energy production relative to a fixed array. It looked pretty cool but the property on which it was installed was very large and lacked a tree canopy.
A previous episode of TOH showed a homeowner chosing to build a shed or barn to increase surface area and locate the panels in the most advantageous angle for sun exposure.
Good wishes and best of luck on your project.
P.S. Thank you again for all the work you do everyday on this brilliant website, without multiple daily doses of RC and its content and commenters I feel like I would be cracking up, so thank you all for helping to maintain my sanity and inspiring me to help GOTV!

May 13, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterJulia in Florida

Sorry for the lack of links but you can find info on:
PBS.org , thisoldhouse.com , smartflower.com and as always YouTube.com

May 13, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterJulia in Florida

@Julia: Thank you. I saw something similar on a living-off-the-grid type show. Unfortunately, my property is mostly in woods except for a small mowed garden around the house, so I pretty much determined there is no place to put the "sunflower" system, which I think would be much more efficient than a fixed-roof installation.

May 13, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterMrs. Bea McCrabbie
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