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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
Dec302023

The Conversation -- 123123

Thanks to RAS for the new page name. Marie: This is a rarer date than I realized. Europe didn't start widely using the Hindu-Arabic numeral system until the 14th century C.E. So this is, at best, only the eighth time in history the date 123123 has popped up on a Western calendar. Before that, I guess the date was IIIIIIIIIIII. P.S. Because of the date, Las Vegas wedding venues are expecting a surfeit of brides and grooms.

"Mistruth & Consequences." Ben Terris & Monica Hesse of the Washington Post look back at the year in government, starting of course with "Week 1: Kevin McCarthy submits to some sort of hazing ritual to secure the gavel as speaker of the House, lining up for 14 smackdowns before limping into power on the 15th ballot."; And ending with "Week 52: A few weeks after submitting his letter of resignation, Kevin McCarthy leaves the House of Representatives."

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors asked an appeals court on Saturday to reject ... Donald J. Trump's claims that he is immune from criminal charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election.... 'The presidency plays a vital role in our constitutional system, but so does the principle of accountability for criminal acts -- particularly those that strike at the heart of the democratic process,' wrote James I. Pearce, one of [Jack] Smith's deputies. 'Rather than vindicating our constitutional framework, the defendant's sweeping immunity claim threatens to license presidents to commit crimes to remain in office. The founders did not intend and would never have countenanced such a result.'... [Mr. Trump's] appeal is legally significant because it centers on a question that has never before been asked or fully answered. That is because Mr. Trump is both the first former president to have been charged with crimes and because he has chosen to defend himself in this case with a novel claim: that the office he held at the time should shield him entirely from prosecution." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Politico's report, by Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney, is here. The DOJ brief, via the U.S. Courts, is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Stand Up to Trump. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), in a New York Times op-ed: "Being in [Donald] Trump's tunnel of hate is not enjoyable.... Like many of my colleagues, I have received hostile calls, antagonistic mail and death threats, and I have had people outside my home with weapons. And it reflects the vitriol, bullying, rage and threats we are witnessing across the country today -- from our exchanges on social media to dialogue with each other and with those in our workplaces, schools, gathering places, families and communities. It's a real danger to our democracy and our safety.... What Mr. Trump is doing isn't honesty or candor, it's ruthless and deliberate viciousness.... What I would encourage people to do, if attacked by Mr. Trump or his supporters, is to not be afraid to challenge the attack."

Presidential Race 2024

Maeve Reston, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump uses dehumanizing rhetoric to describe undocumented immigrants before largely White audiences.... Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defended part of his state's African American history curriculum standards that claimed some enslaved people developed skills that 'could be applied for their personal benefit.' And Nikki Haley omitted any mention of slavery when she was asked to explain the cause of the Civil War at a town hall event this past week.... [Comments by] the Republican Party's three leading presidential candidates ... have stoked outrage among many Americans and risk alienating wide swaths of voters.... But their rhetoric is also appealing to many Americans who lean conservative.... " MB: This article is a good example of both-sider "journalism," where the writers "criticize" bigoted language by couching it in "some liberals say" qualifiers and "balance" what "some liberals say" with citations from "average Republican voters" who are fine with the language. The reporters, all women, might want to take some advice from Debbie Dingell.

Kayla Gallagher of the Messenger: "... Donald Trump claimed in a Truth Social post that droves of migrants are crossing the border into the U.S. to cast ballots for 'crazed' Democrats. 'It's becoming more and more obvious to me why the "Crazed" Democrats are allowing millions and millions of totally unvetted migrants into our once great Country. IT'S SO THEY CAN VOTE, VOTE, VOTE,' Trump wrote in his post Friday. 'They are signing them up at a rapid pace, without even knowing who the hell they are ... Republicans better wake up and do something, before it is too late,' he added. 'Are you listening Mitch McConnell?' People who aren't citizens can't vote in federal and almost all local elections -- and the process for an immigrant to become a citizen typically takes several years." (Also linked yesterday.)

Another Reason Nikki Haley Should Not Be President*. Nicholas Kerr of ABC News: Haley answered a voter's question by saying she would pardon Donald Trump "for the good of the country" and because it would be wrong for "an 80-year-old man [to be] sitting in jail." MB: Do you suppose she means to pardon all 80-year-old jailbirds? I don't think so. Update: Patrick is concerned there will be a "geriatric crime spree that will ensue when men (women too?) realize that at 80 its ollie ollie in free." (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Florida. Still Longin' for de Old Plantation. A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics: "Ron DeSantis ripped Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan in the wake of the Mayor;s Office compelling the removal of the Women of the Southland structure from Springfield Park, equating Confederate statues with those honoring American heroes. 'I'm opposed to taking down statues. The idea that we're going to just erase history is wrong. You've seen it now where they tried to take down Thomas Jefferson, they tried to take down George Washington off schools. It just gets so out of hand. So I don't support taking down statues, particularly if you don't have legal authority to do it,' DeSantis said." Thanks to Bobby Lee for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When you treat Donald Trump like an American hero, it is not a stretch to treat other traitors as heroes. Interesting that Rhonda chastised Nikki about her not-slavery answer to the question of what caused the Civil War. He said, "It's not that difficult to identify and acknowledge the role slavery played in the Civil War." He forgot to add that slavery was a good thing because slaves learned trades like blacksmithing.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel must take control of the Philadelphi Corridor -- the area along the border of Gaza and Egypt -- to 'guarantee the demilitarization' of the Strip, and that the war 'will continue for many more months.' U.S. Navy helicopters on Sunday morning exchanged fire with Houthi militants who were attempting to board a container vessel in the Red Sea, U.S. Central Command said.... Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticized the State Department for circumventing Congress to approve the sale of arms to Israel for the second time this month." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Sunday are here. CNN's live updates are here.

Ukraine, et al. Constant Méheut & Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "The Russian authorities said on Saturday that a Ukrainian attack on the city of Belgorod had killed at least 18 people and injured more than 110 others, in the deadliest strike against a Russian city since the beginning of the war nearly two years ago. Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement that Ukraine had hit Belgorod -- a regional center of around 330,000 residents about 25 miles north of the Ukrainian border -- with two missiles and several rockets, adding that the strike was 'indiscriminate' and would 'not go unpunished.'... The strike on Belgorod was in response to Russia’s air assault on Friday against Ukraine, said an official from Ukraine's intelligence services, who spoke on the condition of anonymity...." A CNN report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Comments Off

Reader Comments (7)

123123

December 30, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

The Jacksonville statue story continues to quietly rage on, with companion bills filed mainly to punish towns and officials who would remove any monument. I;d say the two mentioned here are DOA with both containing ex post facto provisions. https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/local/2023/12/29/jacksonville-decision-on-confederate-monument-praised-and-attacked/72046974007/

December 31, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

@Bobby Lee: Yeah But. I think courts can sever unconstitutional or otherwise unlawful provisions from a law but keep the rest of the law intact and enforceable.

Nice to see the Civil War still rages on in Jacksonville. My best friend from the third grade on was from Jacksonville. We were having a discussion in our 12th-grade English class that somehow or other veered into the subject of school integration. Mind you, this was seven or eight years after Brown v. Board of Education declared racial school segregation unconstitutional, but Hialeah High School was still 100 percent whitey-white. So I said, in the course of this conversation, "I don't see why the schools can't be integrated." My best friend interrupted me and said, "You need psychological help, Marie." When I learned later that Jacksonville was really a Southern city, I better understood where my friend was coming from: if a while person favored racially integrating the schools, that white person must be nuts.

December 31, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Another controversy, along with removal of Confederate statues,
is to remove or not remove trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame.
Was he famous for that dumb show he had for short while? Did he
personally pay to have the star installed? Was it for his appearance
in Home Alone 2?
https://news.yahoo.com/letters-editor-keep-trumps-star-110021893.
html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=0_00

December 31, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

A New Year’s confession:

For some time, I have been worried that the current Global Pandemic of Wackiness might have been caused by something I did:

Several years ago I was adopted by a cat whom I named Schrodinger. He was the smartest, funniest, friendliest cat that ever lived — and, he lived a long and happy life. But, the sad day came when it was necessary to make that final trip to the vet. As I held him on the vet’s table I thought: “Oh hell, we are about to kill the Schrodinger Cat.” Was this going to trigger the collapse of some quantum probability wave function and vault the universe into an alternate reality? Maybe. But then I figured we’d all just go with it, so how would I know? It’s not a testable hypotheses. Anyway, had to be done, so sayonara Schrodinger.

But, ever since, I have wondered…

December 31, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterD in MD

@D in MD: Huh. All this time Republicans have been blaming everything on Obama or Biden. Now we find out it's all your fault. A cat by any other name would not have caused the world to burst into an alternative reality.

December 31, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Marie,

I did cause an earthquake once. That was the mild quake that was felt in the DC area several years ago.

When I was a lad growing up in Northern VA, very near the epicenter, I predicted that Hell would freeze before I ever saw a Social Security check. The quake occurred the day before my 62nd birthday. So that was Hell freezing in Northern Virginia.

I try to be more careful these days.

December 31, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterD in MD
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