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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Saturday
May292021

The Commentariat -- May 30, 2021

Late Morning Update:

Aaron Morrison of the AP: Commemoration of the Tulsa Race Massacre is proceeding, but not exactly as planned. "... a march this weekend [will] memorialize those who ran from what is considered one of the worst and deadliest acts of racial violence in American history. That march is just one of an array of events, culminating Tuesday with a visit by President Joe Biden, who is expected to join local leaders in marking the occasion. The weekend was to include a keynote speech from former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams and a performance by singer John Legend at Tulsa's ONEOK Field in the historic Greenwood district. But organizers canceled the event on Thursday, citing 'unexpected circumstances with entertainers and speakers.'... Law enforcement organizations around the U.S. received a bulletin this week from the Department of Homeland Security warning of the potential for targeted violence at the commemoration of the Tulsa massacre...."

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

Florida. AP: "A former Florida Department of Health employee has received whistleblower status a year after being fired for repeatedly violating the agency's policy about communicating with the media. The employee, Rebekah Jones, had raised questions about Florida's COVID-19 data after being ousted as the data's curator. State officials said she was fired for insubordination after being reprimanded several times, according to state records. The Miami Herald reported that the Office of the Inspector General told her attorneys on Friday that 'the information disclosed does meet the criteria for whistleblower status as described by ... Florida statutes.' Jones, who helped build the state's online presentation of its COVID-19 data, received national attention a year ago when she sowed doubt about the information being reported by the state when Florida was an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.... Under the state's whistleblower rules, Jones could be reinstated or be eligible for compensation if an investigation finds her firing was in retaliation for the the concerns she raised." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When Florida state law enforcement officials raided her home, they collected evidence they claimed justified charging her with a criminal offense, and in January 2021 they jailed her overnight before she posted bond.

Wingers Accuse Regulators of Being Health Nazis

Tennessee. When You Think, "At Least They Can't Get Worse." Jordan Williams of the Hill: "Several prominent hat makers have distanced themselves from a Nashville hat store amid online backlash over the store's decision to sell yellow 'not vaccinated' patches shaped like the Star of David.... HatWRKS originally defended its move on Friday in two Instagram posts, saying people were outraged by the badges but not the 'tyranny the world is experiencing.'... According to WRKN in Nashville, protestors surrounded the store on Saturday, with demonstrators holding up a 'No Nazis in Nashville' sign in front of the store. American hat maker Stetson announced on Twitter on Saturday that it was no longer selling its hats with the store.... Another hat maker, Goorin Bros, said on Instagram that it was 'horrified by the display and selling of the Jewish badge by HatWRKS.'... On Saturday evening, HatWRKS posted an apology for the badges to Instagram, saying 'in NO WAY did I intend to trivialize the Star of David or disrespect what happened to millions of people.'" MB Translation: "I never intended to hurt my business." ~~~

~~~ Texas. Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: "A group of 117 unvaccinated staffers from Houston Methodist Hospital filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to avoid the hospital's coronavirus vaccine mandate, saying it's unlawful for bosses to require the shots. The staffers join a growing list of employees challenging compulsory immunizations at businesses, colleges and other workplaces essential to the country's reopening.... The lawsuit against Houston Methodist was filed by Jared Woodfill, a Houston-area attorney and conservative activist. It appears to mirror a legal strategy used by a New York-based law firm, Siri & Glimstad, that is closely aligned with one of the country's biggest anti-vaccination organizations but unaffiliated with the Houston litigation. The complaint ... says Houston Methodist's vaccine mandate violates a set of medical ethics standards known as the Nuremberg Code, which ... was created after World War II in response to the medical atrocities Nazis committed against prisoners in concentration camps."


Massachusetts. Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "Nearly 50 years ago, the body of Danny Croteau, a 13-year-old altar boy, was found floating in the Chicopee River in Springfield, Mass. His head had been beaten with a blunt object. Richard R. Lavigne, a Catholic priest who was close to the boy's family, presided over his funeral Mass at Saint Catherine of Siena Church in Springfield and comforted his parents. But the police began investigating the priest almost immediately after the boy's death. Soon, the parents of Danny, the youngest in a family of five boys and two girls, became suspicious as well. Over the years, investigators repeatedly interviewed Mr. Lavigne and searched his house for evidence.... On May 21, prosecutors and investigators in Hampden County decided they finally had enough evidence to arrest Mr. Lavigne, who had been defrocked in 2004 for molesting two boys.... But just hours after they had begun preparing a request for an arrest warrant for murder, investigators learned that Mr. Lavigne, 80, had died, said the Hampden County district attorney, Anthony D. Gulluni."

Texas. Voter Suppression, Super-sized, Ctd. Alexa Ura of the Texas Tribune: "In the course of several hours Saturday and early Sunday, Senate Republicans hurtled to move forward on a sweeping voting bill negotiated behind closed doors where it doubled in length and grew to include voting law changes that weren't previously considered. Over Democrats' objections, they suspended the chamber's own rules to narrow the window lawmakers had to review the new massive piece of legislation before giving it final approval ahead of the end of Monday's end to the legislative session. This culminated in an overnight debate and party line vote early Sunday to sign off on a raft of new voting restrictions and changes to elections and get it one step closer to the governor's desk. Senate Bill 7, the GOP's priority voting bill, emerged Saturday from a conference committee as an expansive bill that would touch nearly the entire voting process, including provisions to limit early voting hours, curtail local voting options and further tighten voting-by-mail, among several other provisions." Related stories linked below.

~~~~~~~~~~

Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "... Mitch McConnell, was adamant: he would oppose the bill [to create a January 6 commission], regardless of any amendments -- and he expected his colleagues to follow suit. The commission that would have likely found Donald Trump and some Republicans responsible for the insurrection posed an existential threat to the GOP ahead of the midterms, he said.... McConnell's sharp warning ... underscored the alarm that gripped McConnell and Senate Republican leadership in the fraught political moments leading up to the vote, and how they exploited fears within the GOP of crossing a mercurial former president to galvanize opposition to the commission. The story of how Republicans undermined an inquiry into one of the darkest days for American democracy ... is informed by eight House and Senate aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity." ~~~

     ~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link.

Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: "The latest front in the culture wars over how U.S. students should learn history and civics is the concept of critical race theory, an intellectual tool set for examining systemic racism. With roots in academia, the framework has become a flash point as Republican officials across the country seek to prevent it from being taught in schools.... At least five Republican-led state legislatures have passed bans on critical race theory or related topics in recent months, and conservatives in roughly nine other states are pressing for similar measures.... Critical race theory ... holds that racial inequality is woven into legal systems and negatively affects people of color in ... [many aspects] of life.... Conservative activists and politicians now use the term as a catchall phrase for nearly any examination of systemic racism in the present.... In September..., Donald Trump directed federal agencies to cease any trainings related to critical race theory, White privilege or other forms of what he called 'propaganda.' A federal judge later blocked the directive on First Amendment grounds, and President Biden rescinded the ban after he took office.... The American Civil Liberties Union characterized the bans as an attempt to silence teachers and students and impose a version of American history 'that erases the legacy of discrimination and lived experiences of Black and Brown people.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Republicans are afraid of any attempts to get to essential truths, because those projects will expose their rotten, racist core. Whether it's the plot to overturn the election results, the ensuing voter suppression movement -- or addresing the systemic racism that underlies these efforts -- the GOP is going all-out to squelch it.

You, Too, Can Be a Cybercriminal! Andrew Kramer, et al., of the New York Times: The cybergang "DarkSide's attack on ... Colonial Pipeline ... cast a spotlight on a rapidly expanding criminal industry based primarily in Russia that has morphed from a specialty demanding highly sophisticated hacking skills into a conveyor-belt-like process. Now, even small-time criminal syndicates and hackers with mediocre computer capabilities can pose a potential national security threat. Where once criminals had to play psychological games to trick people into handing over bank passwords and have the technical know-how to siphon money out of secure personal accounts, now virtually anyone can obtain ransomware off the shelf and load it into a compromised computer system using tricks picked up from YouTube tutorials or with the help of groups like DarkSide.... A glimpse into DarkSide's secret communications ... reveals a criminal operation on the rise, pulling in millions of dollars in ransom payments each month. DarkSide offers what is known as 'ransomware as a service,' in which a malware developer charges a user fee to so-called affiliates.... DarkSide's services include providing technical support for hackers, negotiating with targets like the publishing company, processing payments, and devising tailored pressure campaigns through blackmail and other means...."

"A Run on Guns." Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "... the country's appetite for firearms has only been increasing, with more being bought by more Americans than ever before. While gun sales have been climbing for decades -- they often spike in election years and after high-profile crimes -- Americans have been on an unusual, prolonged buying spree fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, the protests last summer and the fears they both stoked.... 'There was a surge in purchasing unlike anything we've ever seen,' said Dr. Garen J. Wintemute, a gun researcher at the University of California, Davis.... Not only were people who already had guns buying more, but people who had never owned one were buying them too." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Although I wouldn't do it myself, it seems rational to me for some people to own handguns for personal protection and non-repeating rifles, or two, for hunting. But everything else is nuts or criminal. I do think part of it is people's -- and especially men's -- inability to spend their leisure time productively. By "productively," I don't mean just making things or helping others (tho those are good things), but learning, exercising or honing skills. Buying guns or watching contact sports are signs of incurious minds. As our brilliant former veep Dan Quayle once said, "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."

Sam Roberts of the New York Times: Faye Schulman, a Polish Jewish resistance fighter who photographed the Holocaust, "died on April 24 in Toronto, her daughter, Dr. Susan Schulman, said. Mrs. Schulman was believed to be 101.... On Aug. 14, 1942, a year after German troops invaded Soviet-occupied Poland, they massacred the last 1,850 Jews from a shtetl named Lenin near the Sluch River. Only 27 were spared, their skills deemed essential by the invaders. The survivors included shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, blacksmiths, a barber and a young novice photographer named Faigel Lazebnik, who later in marriage would become known as Faye Schulman. The Germans enlisted her to take commemorative photographs of them and, in some cases, their newly acquired mistresses.... At one point the Germans witlessly gave her film to develop that contained pictures they had taken of the three trenches into which they, their Lithuanian collaborators and the local Polish police had machine-gunned Lenin's remaining Jews, including her parents, sisters and younger brother. She kept a copy of the photos as evidence of the atrocity, then later joined a band of Russian guerrilla Resistance fighters."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Saturday, Business Insider reported that Arizona has purchased the materials needed to manufacture hydrogen cyanide gas -- the same chemical the Nazis used to murder Jewish prisoners at Auschwitz and other death camps -- just as they are refurbishing a gas chamber used in death row executions.... Asphyxiation by hydrogen cyanide gas is an extremely painful way to die, causing violent seizures and cardiac arrest as the body's cells are blocked from respirating."

Florida. Hannah Sampson of the Washington Post: "Cruise lines see vaccine requirements as their quickest path back to sailing from the United States. But Florida, home to the largest operators and busiest cruise ports in the world, has passed a law saying those companies are not allowed to ask passengers for proof of vaccination status.... Cruising has been banned [by the CDC] from U.S. ports since March of 2020. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) sued the CDC last month over the ban and has continued to challenge the agency's authority. After Celebrity Cruises announced this week that it had approval to sail in late June with vaccinated passengers, a representative for the governor warned of potentially 'millions of dollars in fines' for violating [Florida's] law.... Legal experts are betting ... the cruise lines [will win the battle] -- and calling out Florida's governor for political posturing."

Texas. Voters Suppression, Super-sized. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Texas lawmakers on Saturday finished drafting a bill that would impose a raft of new voting restrictions, setting up the likely passage of what would be among the most far-reaching laws in Republicans' nationwide drive to overhaul elections systems and limit voting. The bill would ... specifically target balloting methods that were employed for the first time last year by Harris County, home to Houston.... In a statement on Saturday, President Biden called the proposed law, along with similar measures in Georgia and Florida, 'an assault on democracy' that disproportionately targeted 'Black and Brown Americans.' He called on lawmakers to address the issue by passing Democratic voting bills that are pending in Congress." The Texas Tribune story is here.

Way Beyond

Canada. Antonia Farzan of the Washington Post: "The discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of 215 Indigenous children at a former residential school in British Columbia prompted an outpouring of grief as efforts to identify the students began.... The discovery has also prompted renewed scrutiny of the Roman Catholic Church, which operated the Kamloops school from 1890 to 1969. Nearly 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were removed from their families between 1883 and 1996 and sent to residential schools where they often faced neglect and abuse. The schools strictly banned Indigenous languages and traditions, and Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission determined in 2015 that their use constituted 'cultural genocide.' It's unclear what led to the deaths of the 215 children, some as young as 3, whose bodies were found at the former Kamloops residential school....The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has estimated at more than 4,000 children [died in the schools]. Although the Canadian government has formally apologized and paid billions in compensation to the survivors of residential schools, the Catholic Church has yet to issue an apology of its own."

U.K. Love (or Something) in a Time of Covid. Nedeem Badshah of the Guardian: "Boris Johnson has married Carrie Symonds at Westminster Cathedral in a ceremony planned in strict secrecy, according to newspapers. The pair exchanged vows in front of a small group of close friends and family on Saturday, the Mail on Sunday and the Sun newspaper reported. The ceremony had been planned for six months and a handful of church officials were involved in the preparation, according to the Sun. The 30 guests invited, the maximum number under current lockdown restrictions, were said to have been informed only at the last minute."

News Lede

Another Saturday Night in the NRA-USA. AP: "Two people died and an estimated 20 to 25 people were injured in a shooting outside a banquet hall in South Florida, police said. The gunfire erupted early Sunday at the El Mula Banquet Hall in northwest Miami-Dade County, near Hialeah, police told news outlets. The banquet hall had been rented out for a concert. Three people got out of an SUV and opened fire into a crowd outside with assault rifles and handguns, police director Alfredo 'Freddy' Ramirez III said. Authorities believe the shooting was targeted. 'These are cold blooded murderers that shot indiscriminately into a crowd and we will seek justice,' Ramirez said in a tweet." Thanks to PD Pepe for the lead. MB: I grew up in Hialeah. I think the El Mula Hall is after my time, as I don't remember it.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (5)

Another mass shooting in Miami Dade county: this time three gunmen got out of their SUV's and proceeded to gun down as many as they could before hot footing it out. Looks like this country is going to continue to be awash in these kinds of shootings because nothing is being done about gun control. Years and years of lost lives and crazy nuts being able to get their hands on as many weapons as possible. It's the American Way until one day ...
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/el-mula-banquet-hall-shooting_n_60b3727de4b02a79db8ed822

May 30, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

"The schools strictly banned Indigenous languages and traditions"
I know this atrocity happened in Canada, but this precisely the reason why "there isn't much Native American culture in American culture," as Rick Santorum put it.
So much culture and history and human beings got erraticated by the white Christians because they were convinced that the native "savages" were doing it all wrong.

May 30, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

RAS,

Not so much that they were doing it wrong as that they weren’t doing what the Christians wanted them to do. Christians are still at that and now they have their very own Supreme Court to serve as their enforcers.

May 30, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Better keep your bedroom curtains closed, we have stalkers.

May 30, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

Re the Houston Methodist Hospital staff suit against mandatory vaccination:

-- The Nuremberg Code does not apply, because it refers to experiments, not treatments; and
-- because the Methodist Hospital staff are free to be unvaccinated

You could say that they are not really free to object, because they will be let go (fired) if they are unvaccinated. But you can also say that employers can deny access to the workplace to employees who do not comply with safety and health regs. You CAN fire Typhoid Mary from her cook job.

You could also say that the vax is not "approved", still "experimental", but in fact none of the Methodist people are subjects in an experiment, they would be receiving an effective prophylactic.

If the judge doesn't just throw the case out, it will be interesting to see the arguments. Expect that some of the plaintiffs will add religious objections when they see that Nuremburg doesn't carry them over the wall.

May 30, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick
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