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

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

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

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

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

Click on photo to enlarge.

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

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

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

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

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

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The Conversation -- December 11, 2023

** Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider special counsel Jack Smith's request to fast-track consideration of Donald Trump's claim he is immune from prosecution for alleged election obstruction in 2020 -- intensifying the legal jockeying over whether Trump's criminal trial in D.C. will stay on schedule for early next year. The decision by the nation's highest court doesn't mean that the justices will definitely short-circuit the typical appeals process, but it means they are going to hear arguments from both sides about whether they should act quickly. Trump's lawyers were told to file briefs on the issue by Dec. 20. The quick response by the Supreme Court came hours after Smith's office filed its request seeking to essentially leapfrog an appeals court process that Trump has already started but which could take months to resolve." The ABC News report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Adam Liptak & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting ... Donald J. Trump on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, asked the Supreme Court on Monday to rule on Mr. Trump's argument that he is immune from prosecution. The request was unusual in two ways: Mr. Smith asked the justices to rule before an appeals court acted, and he urged them to move with exceptional speed. 'This case presents a fundamental question at the heart of our democracy: whether a former president is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin,' Mr. Smith wrote. He added that speed was of the essence, as Mr. Trump's appeal of a trial judge's ruling rejecting his claim of immunity suspends the trial of the charges against him. The trial is scheduled to begin on March 4 in Federal District Court in Washington." The NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "'... The Court should grant a writ of certiorari before judgment to ensure that it can provide the expeditious resolution that this case warrants, just as it did in United States v. Nixon,' Smith wrote.... 'It is of paramount public importance that respondent's claims of immunity be resolved as expeditiously as possible -- and, if respondent is not immune, that he receive a fair and speedy trial on these charges. The public, respondent, and the government are entitled to nothing less,' Smith wrote." See also Akhilleus' commentary in today's thread. ~~~

     ~~~ You can read Smith's petition here, via the Supreme Court.

Russia. This Story Will Not End Well. Francesca Ebel of the Washington Post: "Supporters of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that they had lost contact with him and that they have been unable to ascertain his whereabouts for almost a week. Navalny, who has been convicted on an array of charges widely viewed as political retribution and carrying combined sentences totaling 30 years, was no longer in the prison colony IK-6, in the Vladimir region, about 140 miles east of Moscow where he had been held in recent months, his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, posted Monday on X. Following his conviction last summer on extremism charges, Navalny was due to be transferred to a 'special security' penal colony, a facility with the most severe restrictions in the Russian prison system, but officials from Russia's penitentiary service had not informed Navalny's lawyers or family of his new location." CNN's story is here.

** Texas Horror Story. David Goodman of the New York Times: "The Texas Supreme Court on Monday overturned a lower court order allowing an abortion for a pregnant woman whose fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition, hours after her lawyers said she had decided to leave Texas for the procedure in the face of the state's abortion bans. The court ruled that the lower court made a mistake in ruling that the woman, Kate Cox, who is more than 20 weeks pregnant, was entitled to a medical exception. In its seven-page ruling, the Supreme Court found that Ms. Cox's doctor, Damla Karsan, 'asked a court to pre-authorize the abortion yet she could not, or at least did not, attest to the court that Ms. Cox's condition poses the risks the exception requires.' Texas' overlapping bans allow for abortions only when a pregnancy seriously threatens the health or life of the woman." ~~~

     ~~~ Earlier Monday. Eleanor Klibanoff of the Texas Tribune: "Kate Cox, a Dallas woman who sued for the right to terminate her non-viable pregnancy, has left Texas to have an abortion outside the state. Last Tuesday, Cox filed a historic lawsuit, asking the courts to allow her to terminate her pregnancy after she learned her fetus had full trisomy 18, a lethal fetal anomaly..., but her doctors refused to perform an abortion due to the state's near-total ban on the procedure. Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble ruled Thursday that neither Cox, nor her husband or OB/GYN, should be criminally or civilly penalized for terminating her pregnancy. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed an emergency petition, asking the state Supreme Court to overturn that ruling. On Friday night, the high court put Guerra Gamble's order on hold while they considered the merits of the case. Meanwhile, though, Cox's condition was deteriorating, and she was in and out of the emergency room, according to her lawyers.... The Center for Reproductive Rights intends to continue litigating this case before the Texas Supreme Court, according to a letter sent to the court clerk Monday."

Annie Grayer & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "House Republicans are preparing to formalize their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden with a House vote this week, as their investigation reaches a critical juncture while right-wing pressure grows. Up until this point, House Republicans have not had enough votes to legitimize their ongoing inquiry with a full chamber vote. The probe has struggled to uncover wrongdoing by the president which is why it hasn't garnered the unified support of the full GOP conference. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy unilaterally launched the inquiry in September, even though he had previously criticized Democrats for taking the same step in 2019 when they launched the first impeachment probe of ... Donald Trump without taking a vote at the beginning." ~~~

     ~~~ Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "House Speaker Mike Johnson is pursuing an impeachment strategy against President Joe Biden that he once said could cause 'irreparable damage' to the country when Democrats sought to oust ... Donald Trump.... Just four years ago, Johnson blasted Democrats for opening an impeachment inquiry into Trump largely along party lines less than a year before the next presidential election -- the exact circumstances Johnson finds himself in now.... He argued the Democrats' grievances against Trump should be settled by voters and not through such an extreme remedy as impeachment."

Emily Badger, et al., of the New York Times: "Sometime around 2009, American roads started to become deadlier for pedestrians, particularly at night. Fatalities have risen ever since, reversing the effects of decades of safety improvements. And it's not clear why.... Nothing resembling this pattern has occurred in other comparably wealthy countries. In places like Canada and Australia, a much lower share of pedestrian fatalities occurs at night, and those fatalities -- rarer in number -- have generally been declining, not rising." Experts not only missed this trend, they don't agree on the reasons for it: "Speed limits on local roads are often higher in the U.S., laws and cultural prohibitions against dangerous driving can be weaker, and American infrastructure in many ways has been designed to enable speeding cars.... The most obvious potential risks that have changed in America since 2009 are found inside vehicles -- in the drivers there fiddling with smartphones, in the dashboard displays that have grown ever more complex, in the growing weight and force of vehicles themselves.... [Also,] the pervasiveness in the U.S. of automatic transmissions, which help free up a driver's hand for other uses." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I haven't driven a stick-shift since 2009, when a dealer told my husband that stick-shifts were hard to sell because nobody knew how to drive them. But I noticed the other day that I was driving in town with my right hand on the stick, even though my car has an automatic shift and I had no intention of manually shifting gears. And I still, when I have to come to a quick stop, sometimes also bear down on the clutch-that isn't-there with my left foot. Old habits die hard.

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: digby posts answers to the central question I had when I read about Hunter Biden's nine-count indictment: how come it included details of how Hunter spent money on frivious and/or illegal things when all tax evaders spend money on things that are not tax payments, some of those other things often being frivolous or even illegal? Former prosecutor Harry Litman answers: "Huge chunks of the 56-page indictment of Hunter Biden are about his'extravagant lifestyle,' drugs escorts etc. The relevance of this info to non-payment of taxes is tenuous in the extreme. But it certainly dirties him up."

And former prosecutor Shan Wu concludes, "... Weiss' indictment includes gratuitous digs at what can only be construed as Hunter Biden's character rather than his alleged tax evasion.... Weiss' rhetorical flourish seems silly since I suspect most people who fail to pay the taxes also spend their money on things other than paying their taxes. Weiss' focus on the more sensationalistic aspects of the spending seems to be a result of his wanting to play in the echo chamber of the holier-than-thou conservative right. But Biden isn't being prosecuted for being a drug addict or engaging in prostitution. He's being prosecuted for tax evasion." Read the whole post, as the former prosecutors may answer your questions, too, about an indictment that looks to me like a travesty of justice. Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) was wondering on the teevee Sunday morning why Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) is so exercised about antisemitism on campus when she supports a presidential* candidate who dines with a Holocaust denier (Nick Fuentes). And I'm wondering the same thing when you consider that most of the on-the-ground "generals" in the Trump insurrection were white supremacists of the sort who like to chant, "Jews will not replace us." It would seem Rep. Stefanik's "principles" are mighty selective.

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors on Sunday asked the judge handling ... Donald J. Trump's trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election to reject his request to freeze the case in its entirety as Mr. Trump appeals her recent ruling that he is not immune from prosecution. The prosecutors told the judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, that even as the former president's appeal of the immunity decision moved forward, she should continue working on several of the unresolved legal issues in the case and not postpone the trial's current start date of March 4.... The expansive stay Mr. Trump's lawyers have asked for would in essence stop the case in its tracks. The appeal is the centerpiece of a long-planned strategy by the former president's legal team to postpone the trial in Federal District Court in Washington until after the 2024 election."

An 11th-Hour Retreat. Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump has decided not to return to the witness stand to testify on Monday as he had planned, setting up an abrupt and anticlimactic ending to the defense's case in his civil fraud trial in Manhattan. As recently as Sunday morning, Mr. Trump had been expected to testify in his own defense in the case.... But just before 3:30 in the afternoon, Mr. Trump announced on his social media platform in two all-caps messages that he had already testified 'very successfully and conclusively' and that 'I will not be testifying on Monday.'... When he first testified, in early November, the former president ... lashed out at those he perceived as his enemies -- including [New York AG Letitia] James and Justice [Arthur] Engoron -- while admitting to some involvement in the conduct at the heart of the case." The NBC News story is here.

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "There will be no good news -- only shades of bad -- for Rudolph W. Giuliani when he appears in court on Monday for a trial to determine how much he will have to pay two Georgia election workers he lied about after the 2020 presidential race. Nearly two years ago, the election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, sued Mr. Giuliani for defamation, accusing him of some of the most pernicious falsehoods to have emerged from his attempts to keep his friend and client, Donald J. Trump, in office. Over and over, the women claimed, Mr. Giuliani dishonestly asserted that they had tried to cheat Mr. Trump out of a victory by manipulating ballots they were counting at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta. After fighting the case for months, Mr. Giuliani reversed himself this summer and, seeking to avoid crippling legal fees, abruptly acknowledged that his serial attacks against the women were false. Weeks later, a federal judge agreed with him and entered a judgment holding him liable for defamation, civil conspiracy and intentional infliction of emotional distress." ~~~

     ~~~ Rule 1: Do not befriend Donald Trump. Rule 2: Trump will corrupt you (even if you're already a slimy bastard). Rule 3: Your corrupt acts on Trump's behalf will get you into trouble. Rule 4: Trump will abandon you. Rule 5: Do not befriend Donald Trump.

Presidential Race 2024

Jason Beeferman of Politico describes a MAGA gala sponsored by the New York Young Republicans Club. Keynote speaker: Donald Trump, who doubled down on his Day One Dictatorship plans. Trump did repeat his Day One plans for a border wall and oil-drilling, but he also expanded on his Day One Dictator agenda: "'On day one, I will break up the Biden administration's illegal censorship machine and any official who has violated Americans constitutional rights will be held very, very accountable,' Trump said." MB: Day One, BTW, does not begin until noon and would be filled with a fake oath-taking, a presidential* speech, a parade, and numerous balls & galas. Since Trump has never done a full day's work when he had a full day to do it, we'll just have to assume that Day One will last quite a long time.

Kelly Garrity of Politico: "Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has officially pledged his fealty to ... Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election -- despite some concerns about Trump's messaging. 'What President Trump needs to do in this campaign, it needs to be about rebuilding, restoring, renewing America. It can't be about revenge,' McCarthy said during an interview with CBS' Robert Costa that aired Sunday. 'He's talking about retribution, day in, day out,' Costa pointed out. 'He needs to stop that,' McCarthy responded, adding later that he expects Trump 'adapt' when he 'gets all the facts.'" MB: Yes, yes, that's just like Trump: adapting when he gets all the facts. A pragmatic realist, if there ever was one.


X: the Place for Antisemites to Let Loose. Emily Wax-Thibodeaux of the Washington Post: "The account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was restored on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday after owner Elon Musk conducted a poll among followers on Saturday and pronounced: 'The People have spoken and so it shall be. This will be bad for X financially, but principles matter more than money,' he added. It's a reversal of a 2018 decision by the social media platform's former management to ban Jones after he promoted hate speech and antisemitic conspiracy theories and elevated extremist voices." MB: If only those free-speech-advocating university presidents had conducted polls to find out how many of the kids were down with antisemitic conspiracy theories. I see their inquisitor Elise Stefanik is still on X & is using her account to boast of her victory over campus antisemitism. Whatta gal!

~~~~~~~~~~

Pennsylvania. Chris Walker of Truthout: "A newly inaugurated school board president in a Philadelphia suburb took an oath of office Monday evening by placing her hand on a stack of books that have been targeted by book bans. Karen Smith, an incumbent member of the Central Bucks School District board, won reelection in November, helping to lead Democrats in taking control of the board from Republicans who had sought to implement restrictions in the district's libraries." One of the banned books: Night, by Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace prize winner Elie Wiesel. MB: Um, isn't it antisemitic to ban a memoir about the horrors of the Holocaust, especially when the narrative covers a period when Wiesel was still a teenager, so, you know, age-appropriate? (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The Israel Defense Forces said it is fighting 'fierce and difficult battles' across Gaza, including in three Hamas 'strongholds': Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza, and Shejaiya and Jabalya in the north. World Health Organization director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that Gaza's health system is near collapse, saying a cease-fire is 'the only way to truly protect and promote the health of the people of Gaza.'" ~~~

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

Kelly Garrity of Politico: "As the war between Israel and Hamas passes the two-month mark, it's still unclear how the fighting will end and how long it will last, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday. 'We have these discussions with Israel including about the duration as well as how it is prosecuting this campaign against Hamas. These are decisions for Israel to make,' Blinken said Sunday during an interview on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'But Hamas has decisions to make, too. It could get out from hiding behind civilians tomorrow. It could put down its arms tomorrow. It could surrender tomorrow and this would be over,' he added."

Ukraine, et al. Michael Shear & Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine will travel to Washington on Tuesday for a last-ditch lobbying effort with President Biden and members of Congress aimed at securing billions of dollars of U.S. aid, officials said on Sunday.... Last week, Republicans blocked a $110.5 billion emergency spending bill that includes funding for Ukraine's war effort.... Mr. Zelensky will have an opportunity to face some of the lawmakers directly on Tuesday morning during a closed-door session with senators, according to a senior Democratic aide." ~~~

     ~~~ MEANWHILE. Flora Garamvolgyi & David Smith of the Guardian: "Allies of Hungary's far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán will hold a closed-door meeting with Republicans in Washington to push for an end to US military support for Ukraine.... Members of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs and staff from the Hungarian embassy in Washington will on Monday begin a two-day event hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (22)

Screaming Mimi Elise Stefanik’s triumphalist parading around about a university president’s resignation has zero to do with her Susan Collins-like concerns™ about antisemitism or any other form of bigotry or racism (those being existential elements for Party of Traitors hacks).

It’s all about scalp taking. There’s no policy concerns™ here, no ethical or moral concerns™. This is pure Gotcha. And she didn’t “get” anyone. Liz Magill was self got.

And if PoT scalp takers were so exercised about antisemitism, why block aid to Israel? Oh…cuz there are more scalps to be torn off at the border.

And that’s all there is to it.

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

One possible (or IMO probable) cause of the university presidents' flameout at the hands of Slippery Elise is what I call "schoolgirl's syndrome." Various studies have showed that girls do better in gradeschool than boys, not because girls are smarter, but because they are more anxious to please the teachers than are boys.

A NYT article I linked this weekend said that one "white-shoe" lawfirm prepped all three of the presidents for their Congressional testimony. So I think it may be that these smart girls decided that the "authority figures" they wanted to please was not the members of Congress who were battering them but the lawyers who prepped them. A bad calculation.

Moreover, various newspaper articles and attestations have suggested that the universities for some time have not included Jews as a group of marginalized students who warranted protection. This probably made sense because for most of my life, antisemitism has been on the wane, and I've never seen it on college campuses, even though I've lived on or near college campuses most of my life.

That all changed when Donald Trump became president* and quickly associated himself with Nazis. Trump made antisemitism acceptable. Look, you could even have a Jewish daughter and still be an antisemite! Super!

How much antisemitism grew on college campuses over the past few years I don't know. But it's hard to believe it didn't creep in, especially on Ivy League campuses, where "legacy" admissions still are common and elite white guys are still elite white guys. I heard a UPenn donor -- make that former donor -- on CNN yesterday say that he wasn't donating to Penn anymore since they had lost their "mission." When Jim Acosta questioned this guy -- a hedge-fund operator, so you know he was an intellectual -- it turns out that the "mission" Penn was on, according to Chief Hedge Fund, was diversity, when their "mission" should have been turning out future business & political leaders from among their elite student body. He thought the Ivies should remain elite.

And here's my least favorite teevee "intellectual" Fareed Zakaria in a CNN opinion piece expressing a similar view: "American universities have been neglecting excellence in order to pursue a variety of agendas — many of them clustered around diversity and inclusion."

It's not possible to know all the dynamics that led to the presidents' disastrous House testimony, but we can be sure that those dynamics were both complex and conflicting. Like many leaders, they were required to think on their feet (or in their witness chairs, as it happened), and -- like many leaders (Napoleon!/Russian campaign) -- they failed to do so.

December 11, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

It’s a testament to the success of the generation long war by the right on education that it’s now considered axiomatic that higher learning should be about making money and turning out cogs for the machinery of capitalism rather than moral development. The concepts of diversity and inclusion stem directly from and immensely support a moral stance, one that at least nominally, is a founding precept of the American Experiment, that of all being created equal.

Republicans have long since extirpated the flowers of equality, morality, and any other idea that might threaten the hegemony of conservative white Christians, and replaced them with the weeds of power, hatred, and a fealty to the rich.

So when a supposed intellectual like Fareed Zakaria (“TeeVee intellectual” has it exactly right, Marie) sez “Oh, we’re wasting time on this diversity crap”, he comes across less as an independent thinker than as a Kool-Aid drinker who wants to make sure his opinions don’t antagonize too many on either side.

I’m pretty sure that Australopithecine education involved hunting, gathering, where to find water, and how best to clobber competing tribes. But by the time Socrates was pissing off the Athenian gentry, the goal of education became at least as interested in developing a moral core and living the examined life. The right, with help from people like Zakaria, would have us return to Australopithecus teachings, the sort of “Fuck you, Charlie, I got mine” lessons popularized by St. Ronnie of Raygun and carved in stone by Donald Trump.

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

From the This is Rich Department…

Melanie is being hauled out as an exemplar of immigration to speak before a bunch of people being naturalized.

How many ways is this funny? Let’s count a few of ‘em.

First, Melanie ain’t in no way, no how, in any conceivable universe, an exemplar for immigrants hoping to become American citizens. She cut the line by being Donald Trump’s girlfriend and was given an Einstein Visa. Hang on…okay, I almost passed out. Einstein and Melanie in the same sentence. Gotta watch that stuff.

“In March 2001, she was granted a green card in the elite EB-1 program, which was designed for renowned academic researchers, multinational business executives or those in other fields, such as Olympic athletes and Oscar-winning actors, who demonstrated ‘sustained national and international acclaim.’ Also included are applicants who demonstrate “exceptional abilities”. I’m pretty sure “National and international acclaim” doesn’t extend to “Nice ass” and “exceptional abilities” don’t include getting naked and rolling around on a rug. I mean, shit. I can do that. You might not wanna see it, but it ain’t no exceptional ability.

Nonetheless, Mrs. I Really Don’t Care got in and others didn’t.

But it gets better, or worse, if you will. As soon as Melanie became a citizen, she used chain migration to bring her parents here. But as soon as her fat asshole of a husband slithered into the White House, he put the kibosh on immigration of all kinds, including the EB-1 program and chain migration. More “Fuck you, Charlie, I got mine.”

But now ol’ Melanie is being trotted out to lecture immigrants. Probably tell them all about her struggles to get into the country. “See? Here’s my picture. No clothes. I get in now, right? Just like Einstein, right?”

Right.

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

So this weekend I read where Fatty was getting all big and bad about testifyin’ in court today and tellin’ that mean ol’ Judge Engoron where to get off. He was gonna show ‘em.

Sadly that is not to be.

Brave, brave Sir Donald has turned and fled. He is running away. Well, I mean if you wanna describe a waddling fat man as running…

I’m guessing it went along these lines:

Brave Sir Donald: I’ll show ‘em. Fuck with me? I’ll get on that stand and…

Lawyer: Donald. You already did that. And you admitted you’re guilty, don’t make it worse…here, let me bring in my associate. He’ll explain how this could go:

Bravely bold Sir Donald rode forth into the court
He was not afraid to die, oh, brave Sir Donald
He was not at all afraid to be killed in nasty ways
Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Donald

He was not in the least bit scared to be mashed into a pulp
Or to have his eyes gouged out and his elbows broken
To have his kneecaps split and his body burned away
And his limbs all hacked and mangled, brave Sir Donald…

Brave Sir Donald: Run away! Run away!

A tower of jello.

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Today's discussion about the purpose and effect of a university education seems to say something like this:

If the only thing you value is money, you would define everything--including excellence--in its terms.

If you value something other than money, like generosity, honesty and tolerance and wish to teach and encourage them in others, you will run headlong into into the teeth of an economic system whose every principle runs counter to those values.

No wonder capitalism hates liberal universities.

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@Ken Winkes: Whether they knew it or not, it has long been the job of Western educators to try to bridge the gap between capitalist-elites and the great unwashed. Educators have tried every means possible: from enlightening the elites (think Aristotle & Alexander the Great) to conditioning the masses to accept the status quo (many a school system run by state & religious institutions). Given the magnitude of the great divide, it is not surprising that, on the whole, educators have failed. Their task is perhaps impossible.

But I know this. Right now, capitalists are winning.

December 11, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Marie, like you I called today and cancelled my ACLU membership. The woman on the other end cheerfully said “okay” and that was that. I wonder if they’ve been instructed not to engage or ask questions about why someone was cancelling. Maybe they just don’t want to know.

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterRockyGirl

Another probable factor in the poor performances of the university presidents' testimony was the 5-6 hours they were there answering questions that were repetitive and unnoteworthy.

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

Marie,

Saw this recently.

I drive a 2001 Audi TT roadster that I bought new. Floor shift, clutch pedal, analog gauges -- wouldn't have a new car if you gave it to me.

A few years ago I had the Audi in for service and they gave me loaner. Took me five minutes to figure out how to keyless start the thing. Once I did the radio came on at earsplitting volume. Spent another five minutes studying the arcade game dash display to figure out how to turn the damn thing off.

I enjoy being a geezer.

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterD in MD

Another example of Republicans' hatred of kids.

"In September, the Biden administration’s Dept. of Health and Human Services announced new proposed rules to protect LGBTQ youth in foster care or adoption agencies, and included the basic requirement that any child who identifies as LGBTQI+ be placed in a supportive environment, “free of hostility, mistreatment, or abuse.”

Fox News reports, “[Jim] Banks’ bill, the Sensible Adoption for Every (SAFE) Home Act, would prevent child welfare agencies and related groups that receive federal funding from getting those funds if they refuse prospective parents who insist against the child’s stated LGBTQ status.”"

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

@RAS: No doubt you're right. When we're tired, we are tempted to fall back on rehearsed answers. The witnesses were there for nearly a five-hour grilling; Elise Stefanik had, I believe, only two 5-minute sessions to strut her stuff.

December 11, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

In the past few days, stories about UPenn's president resigning give the impression that the board forced her out because of what she said.

I earler had the impression that they actually pulled her ripcord because the donor (Singer?) withdrew $100 million that was supposed to set up his eponymous money-maker grad school. Because of what he thought she said.

Money talks, and apparently cannot misspeak.

BTW, the correct answer was easy: "Advocating genocide is always wrong and we will deal with students who do that. Your thoughts on what that entails are appreciated."

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Patrick,

"Money doesn't talk. It screams."
~ Bob Dylan

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterD in MD

Around ten years ago, I read Piketty's "Capital in the Twenty-First Century," which explained how a 1% world wealth tax could curb the power of the insanely wealthy who now have various havens in which they can cache the cash. I was dismayed this morning to see the following OpEd about the live possibility of our deeply compromised Supreme Court assuring that even if Congress wants to, it can't tax the rich in certain ways, such as based on wealth. As the piece explains, the last time this sort of stunt was tried, the people were smart enough to nullify the Court by passing the 16th Amendment, allowing for a tax on revenue. I was struck by how much smarter people apparently were 125 years ago when there were no mass media to keep them stupid.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/opinion/supreme-court-wealthy-taxes.html

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterJack Mahoney

Thinking about doing a Hunter Biden next year and not pay taxes and
spend some money frivolously, like on socks and underwear and a
new winter coat. Or a new battery for my 26 year old pickup truck
(with stick shift).
If I go to jail, at least I'll have new socks and underwear.

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

As a friend said, "a breath of fresh air, though his message in this piece is rather sad and sobering." As Zach Gottlieb, the author says, "Lets start talking."

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-12-10/los-angeles-high-school-cancel-culture-free-speech

just posted to this Dec 9 comments, oops

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterMitch f

Mitch, when I read the LA Times piece I couldn't help but laugh. When I consider how hidebound society was toward adolescent original thought in the 1960's, I look at even the possibility of discussing something like transgenderism as remarkable progress. Kids' minds are closed today? Yikes. Mine was filled with Jesus and Hell and chastity and the strong urge to not be chaste. Larger societal issues? Not a chance because we lived in enclaves where original thought was not appreciated.

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterJack Mahoney

Fatty sez “I am a king, I have total immunity!”

Judge Chutkan says “Not in this world, Fatty”

Fatty cries, he kicks, he screams, he dirties his diaper.

Then he says “Appeals court judges…save your king!”

But the idea is that, should the appeals court find Judge Chutkan’s closely reasoned arguments compelling, Fatty would take his case to his buddies on the Supreme Court. In the meantime, a lot of time is wasted and his trial gets pushed back further and further.

In rides Sheriff Jack Smith who seeks to cut Fatty off at the pass.

Rather than let that fat fascist drag things out interminably, Jack is going right to the Supreme Court.

If they’re going to agree that Fatty is a king and cannot be tried for his many crimes, let them say so now, on the record.

A number of commentators think they’ll side with Chutkan. Me, I’m not so sure. We shall see if Sheriff Jack succeeds in dragging that load of narcissistic blubber back into a courtroom to stand trial or whether Trump’s judge buddies on the court are the anti-Democratic royalists they seem to be.

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

One more possible cause of more pedestrian fatalities:

We boomers are still on the road in large numbers and we don't see so good in the dark. Last night I passed at least two pedestrians walking along the side of the road dressed in dark clothing. I didn't see them until I didn't hit them.

Have also noticed that on two lane unlit roads faded fog lines present more of a hazard to me every year.

On stick shifts: Have alway driven them and like D don't want to change, tho' I might actually outlive my 2005 Nissan Sentra and will have to replace it with an automatic. Sticks are now hard to come by.

And on that clutch on my wife's Forester that doesn't exist. Have been surprised at least twice that on her car the clutch is a brake....

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Regarding the appearance of that trio of college presidents at a performance featuring nimrods like Elise Stefanik, it’s clear, as Patrick and Marie, and others have pointed out, that there’s a pretty simple answer to “Are you cool with supporters of genocide” that would have allowed them to sidestep the giant elephant droppings they tried to navigate. Answer: no.

See? Not so hard. And yeah, being grilled for hours on the hot seat can wear you down, but I think something else might be in play here as well.

If you’ve been in and around academia for some time, as a student or instructor, you know how opaque and Byzantine academic writing can become. I remember being in grad school reading papers on semiotic analyses of film and having to read passages six or seven times and still not having any clear idea what the hell the writer was on about. It was almost as if they were saying “Well, if you can’t appreciate the signification of those six frames at 43:24 minutes of Jean-Marie Straub’s “Nicht versöhnt” and the implication for a society on the verge of linguistic suicide, then why are you even here?”

The problem is that, few of these people write for the general public. They write for each other, for obscure journals with circulation numbers under room temperature, and for befuddled grad students. The complicated lexical curlicues are a feature, not a bug.

I’m not suggesting that researchers inhabiting recondite academic bowers overly simplify their writing (although the best in these fields can manage pages of writing that don’t require your Captain Marvel decoder ring), but were they to occasionally write for a general audience they’d at least have an acquaintance with and appreciation for clear and concise prose.

Academics sometimes also fall into a trap of being overly circumspect. Some circumspection is a good thing, but saying “It depends” when asked about support for genocide isn’t circumspection, it’s dithering for the sake of dithering. It’s trying to walk a skinny tightrope when there’s a perfectly good sidewalk a foot away.

Add to that the fact that university presidents are politicians in addition to academics…

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Screaming out loud "I'm Partisan" here's Florida governor Ron Desantis: https://floridapolitics.com/archives/648285-ron-desantis-puerto-rico/

December 11, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee
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