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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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Friday
May282021

The Commentariat -- May 29, 2021

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here.

Marie: The Senate vote yesterday on the January 6 commission fell six votes short of passage. Contributer Unwashed posted a list of eleven senators who were too busy to vote. They included Richard Burr, who is retiring, so he could have been an "aye" vote (tho he said he opposed the commission). Patty Murray, a Washington senator, would have been a definite "aye." Kyrsten Sinema, who says she's a Democrat, could have been an "aye" vote, too. Pat Toomey, who said he would have voted "aye" if he hadn't gone home to take care of personal business, would have been another "aye." So they still would have been at least two votes short if the possible/probable missing "aye" votes had showed up for work. (I don't think the Vice President can vote to bring cloture, although the Senate could change that rule.)

Racist Backlash. Bryan Anderson of the AP: "Teachers and professors in Idaho will be prevented from 'indoctrinating' students on race. Oklahoma teachers will be prohibited from saying certain people are inherently racist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously. Tennessee schools will risk losing state aid if their lessons include particular concepts about race and racism. Governors and legislatures in Republican-controlled states across the country are moving to define what race-related ideas can be taught in public schools and colleges, a reaction to the nation's racial reckoning after last year's police killing of George Floyd. The measures have been signed into law in at least three states and are being considered in many more. Educators and education groups are concerned that the proposals will have a chilling effect in the classroom and that students could be given a whitewashed version of the nation's history. Teachers are also worried about possible repercussions if a student or parent complains."

~~~~~~~~~~

Lesson 1, U.S. Senate Math Class: 35 > 54. Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The bipartisan push to launch an independent and nonpartisan investigation of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol suffered a fatal blow Friday, after nearly all Senate Republicans banded together in opposition. The 54 to 35 outcome, which fell six votes shy of the 60 needed to circumvent a procedural filibuster, followed hours of overnight chaos as lawmakers haggled over unrelated legislation. The vote stood as a blunt rejection by Republicans of an emotional last-minute appeal from the family of a Capitol Police officer who died after responding to the insurrection, and an eleventh-hour bid by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to save the measure by introducing changes intended to address her party's principal objections.... Six [Republicans] -- Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rob Portman (Ohio), Mitt Romney (Utah), Ben Sasse (Neb.) and Collins -- joined all voting Democrats to back the commission. All except Portman voted earlier this year to convict Trump on impeachment charges for inciting an insurrection." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ U.S. Senate Game Results: Tyranny 1; Democracy 0. A Shut-out. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Republicans on Friday blocked the creation of an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, using their filibuster power in the Senate for the first time this year to doom a full accounting of the deadliest attack on Congress in centuries. The vote was a stark display of political self-interest by Republicans determined to shield themselves from an inquiry that could have publicly tarnished their party. They feared an investigation that would remind voters of the consequences of Donald J. Trump's election lies and how Republican lawmakers indulged them, spurring their supporters to violence." ~~~

~~~ Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "Nearly five months after a pro-Trump mob of rioters stormed the Capitol, Senate Republicans have delivered another blow to the country, blocking the creation of an independent commission to investigate the attacks. It was a partisan act and another reflection of democracy under stress. Led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), all but a handful of Republican senators joined to scuttle creation of a commission that would have been given the authority and resources to probe more fully what happened and why on that terrible day in January. Absent the use of a filibuster, there were enough votes to let the commission go forward."

Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime: “Hours before Senate Republicans killed an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6th siege, federal prosecutors disclosed communications about how Oath Keepers allegedly plotted to storm Washington, D.C. with guns by boat by way of the Potomac River.... Those discussions became public in a filing seeking to maintain the strict pretrial release conditions of Oath Keepers member Thomas Caldwell, whom prosecutors allege organized a group of militia members on 'standby with guns in a hotel across the river.'... '1 if by land,' [Oath Keepers' Florida leader Kelly] Meggs allegedly wrote in an encrypted message on the group's Signal channel, quoting [Henry Wadsworth] Longfellow's 1861 poem 'Paul Revere's Ride.' 'North side of Lincoln Memorial,' Meggs's message continued, according to the government. '2 if by sea[,] Corner of west basin and Ohio is a water transport landing !!' [Caldwell responded in a lengthy message, '[We could] more or less be hanging around sipping coffee and maybe scooting on the river a bit and pretending to fish, then if it all went to shit, our guy loads our weps AND Blue Ridge Militia weps and ferries them across.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The idea was that the river route would keep authorities from finding their guns, as could happen if they drove into D.C. So yeah, Republicans, these were just tourists enjoying a leisurely fishing excursion on the Potomac before they hiked up to the Capitol to admire Brumidi's "Apotheosis of Washington" in the dome & check out the chambers. No need for a commission to document that!


Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Despite President Biden's pledge to aggressively cut the pollution from fossil fuels that is driving climate change, his administration has quietly taken actions this month that will guarantee the drilling and burning of oil and gas for decades to come. The clash between Mr. Biden's pledges and some of his recent decisions illustrates the political, technical and legal difficulties of disentangling the country from the oil, gas and coal that have underpinned its economy for more than a century. On Wednesday, the Biden administration defended in federal court the Willow project, a huge oil drilling operation proposed on Alaska's North Slope that was approved by the Trump administration and is being fought by environmentalists. Weeks earlier, it backed ... Donald J. Trump's decision to grant oil and gas leases on federal land in Wyoming. Also this month, it declined to act when it had an opportunity to stop crude oil from continuing to flow through the bitterly contested, 2,700-mile Dakota Access pipeline, which lacks a federal permit." (Also linked yesterday.)

News You Can Use: Restock Your Supply of "Forever" Stamps. Now. Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Postal Service is raising rates on letters, magazines and marketing missives by as much as 6.9 percent this summer, sending the cost of a first-class stamp from 55 to 58 cents, as it leans into an expansive restructuring plan that codifies slower mail delivery and streamlines agency operations. The rate structure announced Friday is the latest installment of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's plan to erase a projected $160 billon in liabilities over the next decade. The agency has struggled for the better part of a year with inconsistent delivery service and soaring package volumes that have gridlocked its processing network. The Postal Service's on-time delivery scores have not topped 90 percent since July 2020." ~~~

~~~ Caroline Kelly of CNN: "The US Postal Service on Friday proposed raising the cost of mailing a letter to 58 cents, an increase that's within the range of recent years and comes as Postmaster General Louis DeJoy pursues sweeping changes with an eye on the agency's finances.... The price increase, which would take effect on August 29 if approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, comes in response to lagging mail volume, according to an agency news release."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Lawyers for the Justice Department urged a federal judge on Friday to dismiss lawsuits against ... Donald Trump, former attorney general William P. Barr and other officials for last June's violent clearing of demonstrators from Lafayette Square by U.S. military and police. Trump and other U.S. officials are immune from civil lawsuits over police actions taken to protect a president and to secure his movements, government lawyers said of the actions taken ahead of a photo op of Trump holding a Bible in front of the historic St. John's Church. A crowd of more than 1,000 largely peaceful demonstrators were protesting the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis before the park was cleared.... Military, federal and local police forcibly cleared the square using batons, clubs, horses, pepper spray, smoke and fired projectiles 30 minutes before a citywide curfew began.... Justice Department lawyers argued that the lawsuits should also be tossed because last November's presidential election made future violations unlikely." ~~~

     ~~~ Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Trump has repeatedly said he is considering running for president again in 2024."

Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "A federal judge overseeing an investigation of Rudolph W. Giuliani will appoint an independent attorney to sort through 18 electronic devices seized by federal authorities and shield any content that, because Giuliani is an attorney, may be off limits to investigators examining his foreign contacts while representing ... Donald Trump. U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken on Friday adopted a proposal from prosecutors to appoint what's called a 'special master' to review the materials and filter out items that could be considered privileged, a process expected to take months. Attorney-client privilege applies to communications between a lawyer and a client, and such messages are protected as long as they do not advance criminal activity." MB: The special master's job should be easy; everything Rudy & Donald do "advances criminal activity."

Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: At a rally Thursday night in Dalton, Georgia, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) "got some of his biggest cheers from the crowd when he took aim at social media giants. He told the audience they shouldn't succumb to 'the Internet's hall monitors out in Silicon Valley' for trying to 'suppress us, discourage us.'... Seconds later, Gaetz ... abruptly shifted into a defense of the Second Amendment -- what some interpreted as a suggestion of what conservatives should do in response to Silicon Valley. 'We have a Second Amendment in this country, and I think we have an obligation to use it!... The Second Amendment is about maintaining, within the citizenry, the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government, if that becomes necessary.... I hope it never does...' he said. Video posted to Twitter went viral and resulted in lawmakers slamming Gaetz's language for inciting violence.... 'We have a right to bear arms in this country, and we better use it!' Gaetz said earlier this month to a similarly raucous ovation." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Matt made these incendiary remarks during his tour with Marjorie Taylor Greene. The tour may not be going as well as its stars had hoped. I was unsure of the location of Gaetz's speech Thursday, so I looked up the venue: Dalton Convention Center, which according to the Googles, has a seating capacity of 2,100. Bella writes that Gaetz spoke "to a crowd of more than 100 Thursday night...." Matt & Margie might as well have booked a church basement or a community center.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "Onscreen and off, in ways subtle and overt, Fox News has adapted to the post-Trump era by moving in a single direction: Trumpward. The network has rewarded pro-Trump pundits like Greg Gutfeld and Dan Bongino with prize time slots. Some opinion hosts who ventured on-air criticism of the former president have been replaced.... The shifts at Fox News, which is controlled by the father-and-son moguls Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, have come in the wake of what amounted to an existential moment for a cable channel that is home to Trump cheerleaders like Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham: the 2020 election.... In January, the network fired its veteran politics editor, Chris Stirewalt, who had been an onscreen face of the early call in Arizona for [Joe] Biden. This month, it brought on a new editor in the Washington bureau: Kerri Kupec, a former spokeswoman for ... William P. Barr. She had no journalistic experience." MB: But, but Paul Ryan!

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Amy Walker of the New York Times: "In the two and a half weeks since [12-15-year-olds] ha[ve] become eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, about 2.5 million have gotten their first shot, making up about a quarter of all new vaccinations. But public health experts also say that they expect the burst of vaccinations among adolescents to be short-lived, just as adults' eagerness to get vaccinated rose and fell. MB: We should be grateful to these children, but it seems likely to me that their parents deserve much of the credit. These kids are too young to drive, so in most cases, some adult has to get them to the vaccination location. I imagine laws vary by state, but I assume (and I could be wrong) that many young people are required to produce parental permissions.

Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "President Biden joined Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam at an indoor rock-climbing facility in Alexandria on Friday to tout progress against the coronavirus pandemic in the state and nationwide. Northam announced two weeks ago that, due to rising vaccination numbers and falling case counts, he would do away with all limits on business capacity and social distancing on Friday -- more than two weeks ahead of the June 15 date he had previously announced.... [Northam] said 66 percent of Virginia adults have had at least one dose and 54 percent are fully vaccinated, placing Virginia 14th among all states and first in the South." Video of Northam's & Biden's remarks are here.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

** Dan Keating & Leslie Shapiro of the Washington Post: "The country's declining covid-19 case rates present an unrealistically optimistic perspective for half of the nation -- the half that is still not vaccinated. As more people receive vaccines, covid-19 cases are occurring mostly in the increasingly narrow slice of the unprotected population. So The Washington Post adjusted its case, death and hospitalization rates to account for that -- and found that in some places, the virus continues to rage among those who haven't received a shot.... Adjustments for vaccinations show the rate among susceptible, unvaccinated people is 69 percent higher than the standard figures being publicized. With that adjustment, the national death rate is roughly the same as it was two months ago and is barely inching down. The adjusted hospitalization rate is as high as it was three months ago. The case rate is still declining after the adjustment. Unvaccinated people are getting the wrong message, experts said. 'They think it's safe to take off the mask. It's not,' said Lynn Goldman ... [of] George Washington University. 'It looks like fewer numbers, looks like it's getting better, but it's not necessarily better for those who aren't vaccinated.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The story is subscriber-firewalled, and it shouldn't be. Not that I think lazy people & anti-vaxxers will actually read the Washington Post, but now you can't even send a link to the story to your cousin the slacker with a toljaso note. So the nuts & ne'er-do-wells are still making each other sick, encouraging mutations to more virulent strains of the virus, running exhausted healthcare personnel ragged, driving up costs of health insurance (including Medicare & Medicaid, which we all pay for), and I don't know what-all else.

Karin Bruilliard & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "The federal government relaxed its guidance Friday for summer camps, saying that vaccinated adolescents do not need to wear masks at camp and that even younger campers who have not been inoculated can generally shed face coverings when outdoors. The updated guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention remove some glaring inconsistencies between earlier camp recommendations that all staffers and campers wear masks and more recent general announcements that face coverings are rarely needed outdoors and that vaccinated people can often forgo masks entirely. Still, even the updated guidance comes with a complex set of considerations that may prompt camps to change policies just days before they open." The story is free to nonsubscribers.

Idaho. Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: "Idaho's Republican governor, Brad Little, rescinded an executive order Friday canceling mask mandates that his second-in-command issued this week while he was away at a conference, calling it an 'abuse of power.' 'I do not like petty politics. I do not like political stunts over the rule of law,' Little said in a statement. 'However, the significant consequences of the Lt. Governor's flimsy executive order require me to clean up a mess.' It was the latest clash in a pandemic-long feud between Little and Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, also a Republican, over public-health measures designed to protect Idahoans from the coronavirus." A CNN story is here.

Beyond the Beltway

North Carolina. Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "The board of trustees at the University of North Carolina is under intensifying pressure to grant tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times Magazine journalist who is scheduled to start as a professor at its journalism school in July. Ms. Hannah-Jones, who helped create The Times's 1619 Project, a series that has drawn criticism from conservatives because of its re-examination of slavery in American history, said she was considering legal action after the university's board did not formally consider the matter of her tenure. In a statement on Thursday, Ms. Hannah-Jones, who earned a master's degree from the university's journalism school in 2003, said she had retained legal counsel to respond to the board's 'failure to consider and approve my application for tenure -- despite the recommendation of the faculty, dean, provost and chancellor.'&" The Hill has a story here.

News Lede

CNN: 'More than 22,000 rounds of ammunition, a dozen firearms, suspected Molotov cocktails and multiple cans of gasoline were found in the home of Sam Cassidy, the gunman who took nine lives at his workplace on Wednesday, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office. The motive for Cassidy's rampage has not been determined, but authorities have said he appeared to have long been a disgruntled employee at the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light rail yard in San Jose where he shot and killed nine people Wednesday morning while reportedly letting others escape."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (10)

Just wondering if DINO Manchin still loves the filibuster. This won’t be the last time Evil Turtle Man screws the Dems and the country in order to win one for himself and his Party of Traitors. Thanks, Joe.

May 29, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Ak: From some who know Joe say he's not the brightest bulb-- so maybe yesterday's 54-35 vote will unleash that something deep in the brain area that changes his mind.

Amazing to watch in full regalia what fear and fealty looks like.

May 29, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

P.S. From yesterday: Looks like Jeanne's "hope" for rain today and for the next few days--at least on the east coast–- has come true. As for all you people who wished death by any means for that poor sod of shell bearing turtle status, I gleefully join you. He is devoid of anything resembling what we can call an inner core of humanity otherwise known as a soul.

As for Patty Murray I understand she had to get back home for a family situation.

May 29, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@PD Pepe: The next time the mob makes another "tourist stop" at the Capitol, the capitol police might just put up a series of "This Way to the Insurrection" signs -- leading to Mitch's office.

May 29, 2021 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Bipartisanship in the Age of Trump

Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan will rebuild roads and bridges, improve waterways and rail lines, deliver high speed broadband, develop renewable energy sources, construct environmentally sound projects, and create millions of new jobs. It’s a huge, once in a generation undertaking that can only be done by an activist, committed, functioning government. He’s asking for about $2 trillion. An investment in the future of America.

Republicans say “We’ll give you $250 for new stop signs in Texarkana, and $100 to fix that pothole in front of the Capital Grille on Pennsylvania Avenue. It’s a pain for our chauffeurs.

May 29, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Heading south— pouring and pouring...I thought Manchin seemed shocked by that vote—is he naive?! I wrote Toomey and plan a diatribe to Mr. West VA. Sin-ema couldn’t even be bothered. Heaven knows they are overworked by their three-day schedule. Well, I plan to read novels and sit on the beach and ride a bike and pretend Monstrous Mitch is no more...happy first of summer, everyone!

May 29, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

Manchin looks to suffer from the same affliction as the qanon and Trump people (including Trump), he can't recognize the difference between reality and fantasy. But it might not be an uncommon problem up on the Hill. Democrats are always talking about what their Republican friends are saying to them behind closed doors. Who are these friends of theirs and why are they friends with people who make their living hurting the most vulnerable among us? There seems to be a great disconnect between what Democrats think of their fellow coworkers across the aisle and who those Republicans actually are and what they do.

May 29, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

@Akhilleus: Yeah, well, they'll all vote against the $250 (but the bill can pass the Senate thru reconciliation). Then Ted Cruz & Greg Abbott will insist on headlining the ribbon-cutting on that Texarkana stop sign.

May 29, 2021 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns
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