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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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Sep052021

The Commentariat -- September 6, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Hamza Shaban of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department is exploring 'all options' to challenge Texas's restrictive abortion law, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday, as he vowed to provide support to abortion clinics that are 'under attack' in the state and to protect those seeking and providing reproductive health services. The move by the nation's top law enforcement official comes just days after the Supreme Court refused to block a Texas abortion statute that bans the procedure as early as six weeks into pregnancy with no exceptions for rape or incest. The court's action stands as the most serious threat to Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling establishing a woman's right to abortion, in nearly 50 years."

"Always Look on the Bright Side." Miriam Jordan & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Throughout the United States, Americans across the political spectrum are stepping forward to welcome Afghans who aided the U.S. war effort in one of the largest mass mobilizations of volunteers since the end of the Vietnam War.... In a nation that is polarized on issues from abortion to the coronavirus pandemic, Afghan refugees have cleaved a special place for many Americans, especially those who worked for U.S. forces and NGOs, or who otherwise aided the U.S. effort to free Afghanistan from the Taliban. The moment stands in contrast to the last four years when the country, led by a president who restricted immigration and enacted a ban on travel from several majority-Muslim countries, was split over whether to welcome or shun people seeking safe haven." PD Pepe reminds us in today's Comments of Monty Python's ironical admonition, but in fact there are a few bright lights dotting our shameful horizon.

The Freedom Phone, a Smartphone for Dimwits. Jack Nicas of the New York Times: There is "a growing right-wing tech industry taking on the challenge [or providing services for so-called conservatives], relying more on their conservative customers' distaste for Silicon Valley than expertise or experience. There are cloud providers hosting right-wing websites, a so-called free-speech video site competing with YouTube and at least seven conservative social networks trying to compete with Facebook." The story profiles an obnoxious twit named Eric Finman, who introduced -- with little preparation & a crap Chinese android phone -- the "Freedom Phone."

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: I hoped I would not have use for this Labor Day illustration again.~~~ Happy Labor Day. P.S. No More Jobless Benefits. Yeganeh Torbati, et al., of the New York Times: "More than 7 million out-of-work people across the United States are set to lose all of their jobless benefits this week as three federal programs expire on Monday, in what several experts described as one of the largest and most abrupt ends to government aid in U.S. history. In addition to the more than 7 million people who will lose all their benefits, nearly 3 million more people will lose a $300 weekly boost to their state unemployment benefits." The Hill's story is here.

Anne Barnard of the New York Times: "As residents scrambled to clean up and assess damage from catastrophic flash floods that swept the Northeast last week, President Biden prepared to visit hard-hit areas in New York and New Jersey, where he will confront political ferment that is growing over the climate-driven disaster. The lethal deluge from the remnants of Hurricane Ida, which killed more than 45 people in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, has amped up battles that began in 2012 with Hurricane Sandy over how to slow climate change and protect communities. The floods are already sharpening debate over whether city, state and national leaders are doing enough -- even those who, like Mr. Biden, publicly champion strong measures." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'd like to know how President Biden is supposed to take many effective measures against climate change when Joe Manchin & Kyrsten Sinema & all 50 Republican Senators think either that climate change is a hoax or that the best way to deal with it is to drill for more oil, send shale slurry through pipelines from Canada to Lake Charles and frack their way through the Midwest. ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Falconer of Axios: "Global warming is affecting people's health — and world leaders need to address the climate crisis now as it can't wait until the COVID-19 pandemic is over, editors of over 230 medical journals warned Sunday evening.... This is the first time so many publications have come together to issue such a joint statement to world leaders, underscoring the severity of the situation -- with the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Lancet and the British Medical Journal among those issuing the warning. Ahead of this November's UN general assembly and the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, the journals warned: 'The greatest threat to global public health is the continued failure of world leaders to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5C and to restore nature.'"

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The U.S. military's top officer asserted last week that a drone attack on a sedan near the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, was a 'righteous strike' that foiled a plot by the Islamic State in the waning hours of the immense evacuation effort. The officer, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that secondary explosions after the drone strike last Sunday supported the military's conclusion that the car contained explosive s-- either suicide vests or a large bomb. General Milley said that military planners took proper precautions beforehand to limit risks to civilians nearby. But the military's preliminary analysis of the strike and the circumstances surrounding it offer much less conclusive evidence to support those claims, military officials acknowledge. It also raises questions about an attack that friends and family members of the car's driver say killed 10 people, seven of them children. So far, there is no ironclad proof that explosives were in the car."

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Just a few days shy of his 80th birthday, [Sen. Bernie] Sanders was back on the campaign trail last week, trekking across Republican-leaning districts in the Midwest to cap off a blitz of local television interviews and opinion essays placed in traditionally conservative news outlets. But this time, instead of pursuing a higher political office, he was campaigning for a legislative legacy: a $3.5 trillion package that, if passed, would amount to the most significant expansion of the social safety net since the Great Society of the 1960s.... It is Mr. Sanders who will oversee the drafting of the legislation in the Senate, which Democrats plan to steer through Congress using fast-track budget reconciliation rules, which shield it from a filibuster but will require the support of every Democrat in the Senate and nearly every Democrat in the House. Among the steepest challenges will be persuading conservative-leaning Democrats, such as Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, to drop their reservations about the plan's cost and support it."

Laurence Tribe, in a Washington Post op-ed: "... the federal government has -- and should use -- its own powers, including criminal prosecution, to prevent the [Texas abortion] law from being enforced and to reduce its chilling effects.... There are ... solutions that already exist in federal law. Attorney General Merrick Garland has the power, under federal civil rights laws, to go after any vigilantes who employ the Texas law to seek bounties from abortion providers or others who help women obtain abortions.... Section 242 of the federal criminal code makes it a crime for those who, 'under color of law,' willfully deprive individuals 'of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.' This statute -- originally designed to go after the Ku Klux Klan -- fits the Texas situation perfectly.... Section 241 of the federal criminal code makes it an even more serious crime for 'two or more persons' to agree to 'oppress, threaten, or intimidate' anyone 'in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States....' In addition to these criminal provisions, there are civil actions available under federal law, including the ability to seek and obtain court orders to halt the illegal state scheme."

Guardian & Agencies: "Divers searching for the source of an oil spill spotted in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of Hurricane Ida have identified a broken pipeline on the ocean floor as the possible cause. Talos Energy, the Houston-based company currently paying for the cleanup, said in a statement issued on Sunday evening that the broken pipeline, which is around 30cm (1ft) in diameter, did not belong to them. The company said it is working with the US Coast Guard and other state and federal agencies to coordinate the response and identify the owner of the ruptured pipeline. Divers also identified two 10cm-wide (4in) pipelines that were open and apparently abandoned. The company's statement did not make clear if oil was leaking from the two smaller pipelines, but satellite images reviewed by the Associated Press on Saturday appeared to show at least three different slicks in the same area, the largest drifting more than a dozen miles (more than 19km) eastward along the Gulf coast."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Mychael Schnell of the Hill: "Anthony Fauci on Sunday said the Pfizer-BioNTech shot will likely be the only approved COVID-19 vaccine booster by Sept. 20, the date the Biden administration previously recommended for beginning to administer booster shots for all fully vaccinated individuals.... [Fauci said] that Moderna will need some additional time for appropriate approval."

Florida. A Cautionary Tale. Saundra Amrhein, et al., of the Washington Post: "As Florida appears to be turning the corner from a coronavirus rampage that fueled record new infections, hospitalizations and deaths, its residents and leaders are surveying the damage left from more than 7,000 deaths reported since July Fourth and the scars inflicted by feuds over masks and vaccines. New infections were averaging more than 22,000 a day in the last days of August but have fallen to about 19,000.... In late June and early July, the state averaged fewer than 30 deaths a day.... Recovery could prove fleeting: Holiday weekends such as Labor Day have acted as a tinderbox for earlier outbreaks, and late summer marks the return of students to college campuses.... Epidemiologists say Florida taught the nation important lessons as the highly transmissible delta variant of the virus accounts for nearly all new cases. Even with vaccination rates slightly above the national average, Florida provided ideal conditions for the virus to flourish. Businesses have largely reopened. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has waged high-profile fights to stop mask mandates at schools and to shield businesses from fines for allowing unvaccinated and unmasked patrons." A related (September 4) AP story is here.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Rachel Pannett, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Taliban on Monday seized Panjshir province, a restive mountain region that was the final holdout of resistance forces in the country, cementing its total control over Afghanistan a week after U.S. forces departed the country. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that the Islamist group had 'completely conquered' the Panjshir Valley. 'Our last efforts for establishing peace and security in the country have given results,' he said. Taliban officials shared a photo on social media Monday that purported to show their fighters taking control of local administrative buildings." The AP's report is here. ~~~

~~~ Melissa Eddy & Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "Around 1,000 people, including dozens of American citizens and Afghans holding visas to the United States or other countries, remained stuck in Afghanistan for the fifth day on Sunday as they awaited clearance for the departure from the Taliban. The holdup reflects the challenges of foreign governments working with the group, which has yet to form a government. Negotiations to allow the planes to depart, involving officials of the Taliban, the United States and Qatar, have dragged on for days, leaving the evacuees in an increasingly precarious limbo, according to representatives of organizations trying to get them to safety. The plight of the passengers hoping to leave the country from the airport in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif mirrors that of thousands of people who were unable to board planes from Kabul, the capital, after Taliban militants took the city on the eve of the U.S. troop withdrawal." A BBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Joshua Posaner of Politico: "Germany wants talks with the Taliban on flying its remaining local workers out of Afghanistan, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday. 'We need to talk to the Taliban about how we can continue to get people who worked for Germany out of the country and to safety,' Merkel said during a visit to the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia. On Friday, EU foreign ministers agreed an outreach plan with the Taliban but that doesn't mean the bloc is about to recognize them as the legitimate Afghan government."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Michael K. Williams, the actor best known for his role as Omar Little, a stickup man with a sharp wit and a sawed-off shotgun in the HBO series 'The Wire,' was found dead on Monday in his home in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, the police said. He was 54.... The death is being investigated, and the city's medical examiner will determine the cause."

AccuWeather: "Even though [Hurricane] Larry is forecast to remain well east of the United States, the powerful hurricane is expected to pass close to Bermuda and could make landfall in Atlantic Canada, AccuWeather meteorologists warn. But, impacts from Larry will be far-reaching even though the storm may stay hundreds of miles away from the Atlantic beaches from Florida to Maine. Larry appeared as a very healthy and dangerous Category 3 hurricane on Monday touting a large eye and maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (193 km/h). The hurricane was moving to the northwest at 10 mph (16 km/h). As of Monday morning, Larry was located 1,015 miles (1,630 km) to the southeast of Bermuda."

AP: &"A man wearing full body armor fatally shot four people, including a mother and the 3-month-old baby she was cradling, and engaged in a massive gunfight with police and deputies before he was wounded and surrendered, a Florida sheriff said Sunday. An 11-year-old girl who was shot seven times survived. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said during a press conference that even after 33-year-old Bryan Riley was arrested Sunday morning, he was so aggressive that he tried to wrestle a gun from police as he lay on his hospital gurney. Judd said Riley, a former Marine who served as a sharpshooter in both Iraq and Afghanistan, seemed to have targeted his victims at random and appeared to be suffering from mental health issues. Judd said Riley's girlfriend told authorities Riley had been slowly unraveling for weeks and repeatedly told her that he could communicate directly with God."

New York Times: "Jean-Paul Belmondo, the rugged actor whose disdainful eyes, boxer's nose, sensual lips and cynical outlook made him the idolized personification of youthful alienation in the French New Wave,most particularly in his iconic performance as an existential killer in Jean-Luc Godard's 'Breathless,' died on Monday at his home in Paris. He was 88."

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Reader Comments (3)

Well, we certainly can't say, "Happy Labor Day," can we? Yesterday Marie linked Dowd's column in which Maureen used this analogy to convey our endless circling and futile attempts at improving our country's ills.

. "With a memory like a goldfish, America circles its bowl, returning to where we have been, unable to move forward, condemned to repeat a past we should escape.”

And Marie added Fitzgerald :

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

And thinking about that this morning I wondered whether we as a species will continue like the goldfish or boats against the current to do ourselves in at the end. There appears to be more than enough humans who lack foresight and imagination to continue to quash those who can see into the future and want to prepare for it.

As I look over our land here with its glorious trees and gardens I'm thinking of all those New Yorkers who lived in basement apartments that filled with water, drowning many and leaving many homeless. I'm trying really hard to seize the day whose weather today is perfect.

"Always look on the bright side of life" ––sang all those strung up on those crosses.

September 6, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

PD: one of the bright sides of life is that we now have more access to information more easily than any time in history. I think we just don't know what to do with it all. Support with your dollars decent companies who treat the Help right. American Airlines and Dell have treated people like shit for years; of course they're based in Texas. Oil companies and now Elon Musk, seem to like Texas. We can do better, much better, supporting local decent folks. I was listening to a report on the radio yesterday about the Enbridge pipeline being built in Minnesota. Guess who owns the largest oil refinery in the state? Koch. With a Stalin supporting daddy, of course they have no background in democracy helping them get rich. Can you say Sackler? Texas fears climate change and the new economy so much that the people there will cut off their economic nose to spite their face to treat people like slaves. Or worse. Find the best alternatives and patronize that one. Personally, I do farmers markets and farmer owned cooperative gas stations and people who don't lord their Trumpism in my face. If I have to have an Apple computer with all its China baggage, I think it is more benign than Texas. Chew on that: China as more benign politically than Texas. Boycott Texas.

September 6, 2021 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625

PD,

A bit late to tell you how much I enjoyed your conversation with god that you posted yesterday, but I certainly did.

My excuse: Working on a sermon (it was Sunday, after all) and a painting job that never ends. I sometimes think my home--and my life-- has that in common with the Golden Gate Bridge.

September 6, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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