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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
Mar092024

The Conversation -- March 10, 2024

IOKIYAR. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Senator Katie Britt of Alabama on Sunday sought to defend comments she made in her response to President Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday, when she described the experience of a woman who was sexually trafficked in Mexico between 2004 and 2008 in a way that falsely implied it had happened in the United States under President Biden." MB: So naturally she went on Fox to tell some more lies.

** IOKIYA$$$$$$$$$$. David Fahrenthold & Ryan Mac of the New York Times: Elon "Musk, the world's second-richest person according to Forbes..., runs a charity with billions of dollars, the kind of resources that could make a global impact. But unlike Bill Gates, who has deployed his fortune in an effort to improve health care across Africa, or Walmart's Walton family, which has spurred change in the American education system, Mr. Musk's philanthropy has been haphazard and largely self-serving -- making him eligible for enormous tax breaks and helping his businesses.... The foundation that houses [his tax-deductible donations] has failed in recent years to give away the bare minimum required by law to justify the tax break, exposing it to the risk of having to pay the government a substantial financial penalty.... [The foundation's] billions are handled by a board that consists of himself and two volunteers, one of whom reports putting in so little time that it averages out to six minutes per week. In 2022, the last year for which records are available, they gave away $160 million, which was $234 million less than the law required....

"Once he set up a nonprofit and filled it with tax-deductible gifts, he was required by law to ensure that his foundation served the public, and that it did not operate for the 'private benefit' of its leader. A New York Times analysis found that, of the Musk Foundation's giving in 2021 and 2022 -- the latest years for which full data is available -- about half of the donations had some link to Mr. Musk, one of his employees or one of his businesses. Among the donations the Musk Foundation has made, there was $55 million to help a major SpaceX customer meet a charitable pledge. There were the millions that went to Cameron County, Texas, after [a SpaceX] rocket blew up [there]. And there were donations to two schools closely tied to his businesses: one walled off inside a SpaceX compound, the other located next to a new subdivision for Musk's employees." MB: Maybe Musk went to Mar-a-Lardo recently to get tips on how to run a fake foundation. Luckily for Elon, he doesn't have Letitia James to dissolve his scammy "charity."

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) exploded at ABC host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday after he asked why she supported Donald Trump after he was found liable for sexual assault. During an interview on This Week, Mace became angry and defensive about her support for Trump, who was found to have raped writer E. Jean Carroll. Mace is also a rape survivor.... Stephanopoulos pressed Mace several times, and she accused him of shaming her each time." MB: Gosh, Nancy, you said all you wanted was to be on teevee, then when you get on the teevee, you're not happy. As for you, George, damned good questions. Why does a rape survivor support Donald Trump?

~~~~~~~~~~

Alexandra Marquez of NBC News: "President Joe Biden in a wide-ranging interview with MSNBC on Saturday defended his direct criticism of the Supreme Court for its 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health and said that he regrets having referred to an undocumented immigrant as an 'illegal.'"

When I took office..., I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas. That's where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at the age of 12. She told me not just that she was raped every day, but how many times a day she was raped. The cartels put her on a mattress in a shoebox of a room, and they sent men through that door over and over again for hours and hours on end. We wouldn't be ok with this happening in a third world country. This is the United States of America, and it is past time, in my opinion, that we start acting like it. President Biden's border policies are a disgrace. -- Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), SOTU rebuttal ~~~

~~~ ** Rapes that Occurred 20 Years Ago (during the Bush II Administration) in Mexico Are Biden's Fault. Rebecca Picciotto of CNBC: "In her Thursday rebuttal to [President] Biden’s State of the Union, Britt referenced a visit to the Del Rio sector of the Texas border where she had a seemingly private conversation with someone who had survived sex trafficking by groups in the U.S.... The woman in question was later found out to be Karla Jacinto Romero, an activist who has publicly testified about her experience with sex trafficking, which took place from 2004 to 2008 in Guadalajara and other Mexican cities. Britt seemingly attempted to present the anecdote as a damning example of Biden's border management.... But Jacinto Romero did not experience sex trafficking in the U.S. as a result of Biden's border policy -- because he was not president from 2004 to 2008 and because she was sex trafficked in Mexico. Britt visited the Del Rio area in January 2023 on a joint trip with Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Cindy Hyde-Smith R-Miss. During that trip, Jacinto Romero appeared at a press conference with Britt, Blackburn and Hyde-Smith where she publicly relayed her grueling sex-trafficking story. Jacinto Romero is an advocate for sex-trafficking victims and has repeatedly shared her story in testimony to U.S. Congress, the Mexican House of Representatives and the Vatican.... Journalist Jonathan Katz first pieced together Britt's presentation of Jacinto Romero's experience in a TikTok video on Friday." Thanks to laura h. for the link to Katz's TikTok video. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is the kind of emotional manipulation and truth-twisting that really pisses me off. In fairness to Britt, perhaps it's the best a powerless housewife, bound to the kitchen, can do. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. The New York Times has picked up the story. Ken Bensinger -- in a straight news report -- calls Britt's narrative "highly misleading.... Ms. Jacinto continues to live in Mexico and does not appear to have ever lived in the United States or to have sought asylum here.... None of this happened during President Biden's administration. But that did not stop the first-term senator from strongly implying that the president could have somehow prevented it from happening, using rhetoric that seemed calibrated to inflame public fears about immigration.... A spokesman for Ms. Britt, Sean Ross, stood behind her speech.... He did not immediately respond to a ... question about ... what an anecdote about sex trafficking entirely within another country has to do with U.S. border policies." AND ~~~

In a high-profile speech like this, a politician should not mislead voters with emotionally charged language. Romero's story is tragic and may be evocative of other Mexican girls trapped in the sex trade in that country. But she was not trafficked across the border -- and her story has nothing to do with Biden. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post

AND another reminder about that "Biden Migrant Crime" wave Trump, Britt and every Republican running for office likes to tout: ~~~

     ~~~ Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "Never mind that violent crime rates, especially for homicide in large cities, have fallen sharply during Biden's presidency, after a surge during the pandemic. Trump, as he often did during his presidency, is using anecdotal evidence to make an emotional case against undocumented immigrants.... There is little evidence that immigrants -- or even undocumented immigrants -- cause more crime. Still, there is enough ambiguity in the data -- or so little hard data -- that it's difficult to point to conclusive findings that would change opinions.... There is strong evidence that all immigrants -- in the United States legally or otherwise -- are more law-abiding than native-born American citizens."

** Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "... Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala..., portray[ed] her powerful position as little more than the hobby of a housewife. While allowing that it's an 'honor' to be a senator, Britt argued, 'that's not the job that matters most.' Instead, she said her real job is to be 'a proud wife and mom of two school-aged kids.'... It's all nonsense, of course. She is exactly the "permanent politician" she accused [President] Biden of being, as any perusal of her resume will show. Britt holds a political science degree and law degree from the University of Alabama. She went straight from graduation to work on the staff of her predecessor, Sen. Richard Shelby. She worked in private practice and government, but never as a full-time stay-at-home mother. [Yet] as feminist writer Jill Filipovic wrote, Britt's was a message of who women should be: 'Afraid, valued only for being mothers, and in the kitchen.'... Britt's bizarre speech Thursday night is part of a larger effort by the Christian right to put a cheerful face on their repressive and hateful policy preferences." Read on. Marcotte demonstrates that Republicans' war on women is way worse than this excerpt suggest.

Marie: Can't tell if that's Katie Britt or Scarlett Johanssen:

Presidential Campaign

Tyler Pager & Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: "President Biden and ... Donald Trump painted starkly different visions for the country Saturday night as they campaigned 70 miles apart in Georgia, with Trump delivering an insult-filled, mocking diatribe against the sitting president.... Trump spoke for nearly two hours and leveled his attacks in particularly personal and inflammatory ways. He mocked Biden for having a stutter, called the press 'criminals' and blamed the president for the death of a young woman who was allegedly killed by a Venezuelan migrant who entered the country illegally.... Trump falsely claimed that Biden had 'announced a plan to send our brave U.S. military men and women into Gaza to resupply the terrorists of Hamas.'... By contrast, Biden only spoke for about 20 minutes, largely focusing on comparing his record with Trump's. He hammered Trump for cozying up to authoritarian leaders, rolling back women's reproductive rights and trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act -- while touting his record defending individual rights, freedom and democracy."

New York Times reporters hit the trail, and here's a bit of what they learned. It's worth reading the full entries in this liveblog:

Nicholas Nehamas: On Saturday, at a campaign rally in Atlanta, [President] Biden ... lashed out directly at Mr. Trump, who was holding his own rally 90 minutes to the northwest.... One line of attack he did not pursue, however, was the former president's criminal indictments."

Michael Gold: "... in a speech replete with digressive rants, Mr. Trump reserved some of his most incendiary rhetoric to vilify migrants crossing the border illegally.... Mr. Trump described the continuing surge of migrants across the southern border as 'the agony of our people, the plunder of our cities, the sacking of our towns, the violation of our citizens and the conquest of our country.'... Mr. Trump also attacked Mr. Biden for expressing regret that he used the word 'illegal' to describe the man accused in Ms. Riley's death during an exchange at the State of the Union address on Thursday."

No. Self. Control. Maggie Haberman & Michael Gold: "... Donald J. Trump on Saturday denounced the New York writer E. Jean Carroll and the federal judge in the case in which he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, and was forced to post a nearly $92 million bond. 'Ninety-one million based on false accusations made about me by a woman that I knew nothing about,' Mr. Trump said. 'Didn't know, never heard of. I know nothing about her. She wrote a book. She said things. And when I denied it, I said, "It's so crazy. It's false," I get sued for defamation. That's where it starts.' Later, he went on, 'I posted a $91 million bond. And the woman didn't even know when it happened. And she admitted on Anderson Cooper. Oh, she said, "I think it was sexy." It was this -- can you believe this? Ninety-one million.' Mr. Trump said of Ms. Carroll: 'This woman is not a believable person.'... Ms. Carroll ... could file a fresh defamation claim for new attacks."

Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post on the Trump/Orban dictators' club meeting at Mar-a-Lardo as well as Orban's stop in Washington, D.C., where he missed meeting with the real President but stopped by the Trump-aligned Heritage Foundation.


Niraj Chokshi, et al., of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation into Boeing after a panel on one of the company's planes blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight in early January, a person ... said. The airline said it was cooperating with the inquiry."

~~~~~~~~~~

Florida. DeFeat of DeSantis. Lori Rozsa of the Washington Post: "Florida has firmly cemented itself in recent years as ground zero for the nation's culture wars. The Sunshine State is the birthplace of conservative parental rights group Moms for Liberty, the original law restricting LGBTQ+ discussion in classrooms, one of the strictest abortion laws in the country and legislation that has led to the banning of more books than in any other state in America. But the pushback is growing.... Instead of sailing through the Republican-dominated legislature, the DeSantis-backed bill [to ban rainbow flags in public buildings] died a quick legislative death.... [Another] rejected bill would have banned the removal of Confederate monuments. Another would have required transgender people to use their sex assigned at birth on driver's licenses -- something the state Department of Motor Vehicles is already mandating. A third proposed forbidding local and state government officials from using transgender people's pronouns.... [Ron DeSantis'] doomed presidential bid changed political calculations in and out of the state." Other factors contributed. Like, uh, the Constitution.

~~~~~~~~~~

Haiti. Frances Robles, et al., of the New York Times: "Haiti is in the throes of an uprising not seen in decades. As politicians around the region scramble to hash out a diplomatic solution to a political crisis that has the prime minister, Ariel Henry, stranded in Puerto Rico and gangs attacking police stations, a humanitarian disaster is quickly escalating. The food supply is threatened, and access to water and health care have been severely curtailed.... The United States and Caribbean leaders have been trying to convince Mr. Henry that to continue in power is 'untenable.' An international security mission led by Kenya has been stalled. The United States has offered to finance the mission, but showed little interest in sending troops of its own."

Ireland. Megan Specia of the New York Times: "Voters in Ireland rejected two proposed changes to the country's Constitution that would have removed language about women's duties being in the home and broadened the definition of family beyond marriage, dealing a blow to the government that analysts said suggested the weakness of their campaign to pass the proposals. After a series of referendums in recent years had reshaped Ireland's Constitution in ways that reflect the country's more secular and liberal modern identity, the result came as a surprise to some, including the government. But analysts said that rather than signaling a step back from those values, the results reflected a confusing, disjointed campaign that had left many voters reluctant to vote yes."

Ukraine, et al. Triumph of the Trump/Putin Alliance. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Pope Francis has reiterated in a new interview that Ukraine should negotiate to end the war with Russia, but this time he used language -- adopting his interviewer's expression, 'white flag' -- that has drawn attention and raised questions about whether the pope was suggesting that Ukraine surrender. On Saturday night, the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, immediately clarified that the pope meant 'cease-fire and negotiation,' not surrender, when he said white flag.... But the pope's words and others he used during the interview have underscored how the Vatican has often bewildered Ukraine"s officials and supporters struggling to understand its position."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (4)

It’s no surprise that Katie Britt blamed Biden for something that didn’t happen in the United States and never happened while he’s been in the White House. In fact, it happened decades ago. No matter. “Biden did it.” Gym N Jim, the famous clown act, are trying the same trick.

Pretty soon we’ll be hearing about other stuff Biden is responsible for. We just didn’t know it:

Watergate. Biden blamed Nixon.

Covid. Wasn’t that Hunter Biden someone saw in that Wuhan lab screwing with test tubes? Sure it was. Putin sez so.

9/11. Hussein Obama told Biden all about it. He said NOTHING!

Bay of Pigs. Spy plane photos from 100,000 feet up show a guy with white hair on the beach in Cuba. Must have been Biden.

The Great Depression. Biden tricked those Wall St. guys. He’s always been a capitalist hatin’ Commie.

Invasion of Poland, 1939. ‘Member when Putin told that nice TuKKKer KKKarlson that Poland forced Hitler to invade? It was really Biden’s idea.

Attack on Pearl Harbor. Well…it was someone’s fault, right? Probably Biden.

The Zimmerman Telegram. He’s always liked those Mexicans!

Sinking of the Lusitania. “U-Boat” is German for “You-Biden”. Betcha didn’t know that.

Spanish Flu epidemic, 1918. Hunter again. They found it on his laptop.

The Hundred Years War. Umm…because! Yeah!

Jesus’ crucifixion. Those Democrats have always hated Jesus.

All true. Just ask Katie.

March 10, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I'm wondering if it was Biden who kidnapped Melanie and may be
holding her for ransom (he won't pay, so forget it).

She hasn't been seen or heard from for months unless I haven't been
paying attention. But I really don't care, do you?

March 10, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

Rubin tells it like it is:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/10/republican-party-radical-trump-polarization/

March 10, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Right after the speech by Britt MSNBC had Democratic Senator Chris Murphy on to talk about the night and he started off by mentioning that he likes Katie Britt and that she is better than what she showed that night. I understand that you have to work with these degenerates, but the fact that so many politicians do not take these Republicans seriously or literally annoys the he'll out of me. I would like to ask Senator Murphy what he likes about Britt. Is it her lies, her fear mongering, her manipulations, her racism, her support for a racist, rapist insurrectionist wannabe dictator? She torpedoed that same border legislation, which she helped negotiate, which she was breathlessly crying about Biden not implementing. But she didn't literally spit in his face and she might have asked about how his kids were doing so she's not all bad. The bar with Republicans is not just low with the media, many of the Democrats who see what they do on a daily basis and how little they do for the American people also give them break after break. No wonder nothing gets done in Washington.

March 10, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterRAS
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