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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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Mar152024

The Conversation -- March 16, 2024

The Trials of Trump & the Trump Gang

Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "After revelations of Fani T. Willis's romance with a subordinate sent the Georgia criminal case against Donald J. Trump down a two-month detour worthy of a soap opera, a judge's ruling on Friday resolved a major cliffhanger. Ms. Willis could continue prosecuting the case, so long as her ex-boyfriend withdrew from it. But the resignation hours later of the former boyfriend, Nathan J. Wade, whom Ms. Willis hired as a special prosector, only settled so much. A fresh and complicated array of problems lies ahead for Ms. Willis, and for one of the most significant state criminal cases in American history.... The G.O.P. lawmakers who dominate Georgia politics have created new ways to investigate Ms. Willis, which could potentially lead to her removal from office. And last week, a young lawyer named Courtney Kramer, a former intern in the Trump White House, announced that she would run against Ms. Willis in this year's race for district attorney." The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Judge Scott McAfee's decision, via CNN, is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ The New York Times live-updates of the ruling, backstory & developments were also linked yesterday. ~~~

     ~~~ Wade's resignation letter is here, via CNN. Willis' acceptance letter is here, via CNN. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Andrew Weissmann, speaking on MSNBC, says Willis should recuse herself. One of the NBC legal analysts -- maybe Danny Cevallos -- said the Fulton County line prosecutors must be furious because some of them will have to continue working on various aspects of the fallout from the Willis-Wade affair instead of on the case-in-chief they signed up for.

Erica Orden of Politico: "Donald Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan will be delayed by at least three weeks after the judge overseeing the matter agreed Friday that the former president and the district attorney's office need additional time to review records from federal prosecutors that are related to the case. Even with the delay, the Manhattan case, which concerns a hush money payment Trump allegedly orchestrated during the 2016 election to silence a porn star who claimed she had a sexual encounter with him, will likely remain the first to proceed to trial." The New York Times story is here.

Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "A senior aide to ... Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to keep him out of prison while he appeals his conviction for refusing to testify before Congress about his involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Peter Navarro, a 74-year-old economist, is required to report to a prison in Miami by Tuesday, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said this week that he 'has not shown that his appeal presents substantial questions of law or fact likely' to undo his conviction or four-month sentence. Navarro's attorneys told the Supreme Court on Friday that Navarro is 'indisputably neither a flight risk nor a danger to public safety should he be released pending appeal.'" CNN's report is here.


The Trump Kleptocracy, Ctd. Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: "Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald J. Trump, confirmed on Friday that he was closing in on major real estate deals in Albania and Serbia, the latest example of the former president's family doing business abroad even as Mr. Trump seeks to return to the White House. Mr. Kushner's plans in the Balkans appear to have come about in part through relationships built while Mr. Trump was in office. Mr. Kushner, who was a senior White House official, said he had been working on the deals with Richard Grenell, who served briefly as acting director of national intelligence under Mr. Trump and also as ambassador to Germany and special envoy to the Balkans....

"Two [major] projects ... involve land now controlled by the governments, meaning a deal would have to be finalized with foreign governments.... Mr. Kushner's participation would be through his investment firm, Affinity Partners, which has $2 billion in funding from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, among other foreign investors.... Mr. Kushner set up his investment company after he left his White House job as a senior adviser. He capitalized on relationships he had built in government negotiating in the Middle East, which included a close relationship with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.... Mr. Grenell also made valuable connections while in government, including some that appear to have given the Kushner team an inside track for investments in the Balkans." MB: Hey, Jim Comer, you might want to investigate! Hold some Congressional hearings! How 'bout asking Miss Margie to whip up some large poster boards featuring some dick pics for the hearings!

Presidential Race

digby republishes a big chunk of Susan Glasser's New Yorker article about watching a Trump stump speech. Marie: I highly recommend your reading it. In the meantime, I continue to wonder if Glasser wakes up most mornings next to her husband Peter Baker and asks herself, "Oh why, oh why did I marry Mr. Both Sides?" (They do have a lovely child.) Many thanks to Charles B. for the link. ~~~

~~~ Although both digby & Glasser recommend subjecting yourself to an entire Trump speech, Glasser does recommend this mash-up of Trump's recent rally speech in Georgia:

Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "When asked whether he would endorse Mr. Trump now that the former president had clinched the party's nomination, [Mike] Pence said on Fox News that he 'could not in good conscience' support him. 'It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,' he told Martha MacCallum.... The former vice president declined to say whether he would vote for Mr. Trump in the November election, but answered, 'I would never vote for Joe Biden.' He also ruled out running as a third-party or independent candidate for president, saying he remained a Republican." The AP's story is here. MB: It's not exactly a profile in courage to decline to endorse someone who was happy to see you hanged, but not as lily-livered as, say, Ron DeSantolini, either. (Also linked yesterday.)


It Depends on What the Meaning of "And" Is. Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court sided with the government on Friday, narrowly interpreting a provision of a landmark criminal justice law in a decision likely to limit the number of federal prisoners who are eligible for reduced sentences for nonviolent drug crimes. The decision, by a vote of 6 to 3, did not split along ideological lines. The majority opinion, written by Justice Elena Kagan, concluded that a criminal defendant must meet a series of criminal history conditions to qualify for relief. A failure to meet any of the criteria, she wrote, would render a prisoner ineligible. The case focused on who is eligible for shorter prison sentences under the First Step Act, bipartisan legislation passed in 2018 to address the human and financial costs of the country's booming prison population. Under a provision known as the 'safety valve,' judges can disregard federal mandatory minimum sentences for people with limited criminal history convicted of certain nonviolent drug offenses. The law lists three types of criminal history among its criteria for eligibility. The justices were asked to decide whether just one type of criminal history disqualifies a person from a lighter sentence, or whether all three must be present for a disqualification." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You'll have to read the full article -- carefully -- to get what the dispute is about: "Like the arguments, which were focused on grammar -- basically, what does 'and' mean in a list -- Justice Kagan's opinion adopted the tone of an English teacher." Sadly, the Oxford comma is not at issue. Anyway, it looks like the U.S. will remain one of the top lock-'em-up countries on the world. ~~~

     ~~~ The NBC News report is here.

Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Friday set new ground rules for when public officials can block critical voices from their social media accounts, ruling in two of several tech-focused cases this term that will shape the future of online interactions between the government and its citizens. In a pair of unanimous decisions, the court acknowledged the challenge of determining when public employees are acting in an official capacity on social media -- and therefore must adhere to First Amendment restrictions on censorship -- and when they are acting as private citizens with their own constitutional rights. Writing for the court, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said: 'The distinction between private conduct and state action turns on substance, not labels: Private parties can act with the authority of the State, and state officials have private lives and their own constitutional rights. Categorizing conduct, therefore, can require a close look.' Public officials can be sued for blocking or deleting critical commentary, the opinion said, if a public employee has the 'actual authority to speak on the state's behalf' and 'purported to exercise that authority' in the social media post at issue." Politico's report, by Josh Gerstein, is here.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request from an L.G.B.T.Q. student group at a public university in Texas to let it put on a drag show on campus over the objections of the university's president, who had refused to allow it. In an emergency application, the students said the president's action violated the First Amendment. As is the court's custom when ruling on emergency matters, the justices' brief order gave no reasons. There were no noted dissents." MB: I guess the applicants should have known that First Amendment rights are reserved for Christian extremists who oppose LGBTQ+ people, definitely not for LGBTQ+ people themselves. Some are more equal than others, kids.

Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "A federal court on Friday temporarily halted new rules from the Securities Exchange Commission that require public companies to disclose more about the business risks they face from climate change, siding with two oil and gas companies that criticized the requirements as costly and arbitrary. Approved by the S.E.C. this month, the rules require some publicly traded companies to disclose their climate risks, and how much greenhouse gas emissions they produce. Industry groups, as well as their political allies, have filed numerous lawsuits challenging the regulation."

W.T.F.??? Minho Kim of the New York Times: "When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a champion of liberal causes whose advocacy of women's rights catapulted her to pop culture fame, helped establish a leadership award in 2019, she said she intended to celebrate 'women who exemplify human qualities of empathy and humility.' But this year, four of the recipients are men, including Elon Musk, the tech entrepreneur who frequently lobs tirades at perceived critics; Rupert Murdoch, the business magnate whose empire gave rise to conservative media; and Michael Milken, the face of corporate greed in the 1980s who served nearly two years in prison. It has prompted family members and close colleagues of Justice Ginsburg to demand that her name be removed from the honor, commonly called the R.B.G. Award. In a statement, her daughter, Jane C. Ginsburg, a law professor at Columbia University, said the choice of winners this year was 'an affront to the memory of our mother.'" MB: These awards are way past where ironic turns into outrageous. ~~~

     ~~~ Ah, the Explanation. David Corn & Ali Breland of Mother Jones: "Veteran corporate lawyer Brendan Sullivan, who was Oliver North's attorney during the Iran-contra scandal and who now chairs the RBG Award, noted, 'The honorees reflect the integrity and achievement that defined Justice Ginsburg's career and legend.' And the chair of the foundation, Julie Opperman, a big Republican donor and the widow of publishing titan Dwight Opperman, who once was CEO of Thomson Reuters, remarked that the award embraces 'the fullness of Justice Ginsburg's legacy.'" MB: There is no mention whatsoever of the right-wingerly affiliations of Sullivan & Julie Opperman in the NYT story. So call that half a story. BTW, you old folks may remember Sullivan for his famous remark during the North hearings: "I'm not a potted plant." Evidently, he's trying to prove that anew.

~~~~~~~~~~

Maine. Jenna Russell of the New York Times: "A commission investigating the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, concluded on Friday that local law enforcement officers should have taken the gunman into custody and seized his weapons before he killed 18 people on Oct. 25. The decision to instead give the shooter's family responsibility for removing his weapons was 'an abdication of law enforcement's responsibility,' the commission wrote in its 30-page interim report, intended to provide early findings to legislators who are weighing several proposals for changes to the state's laws, spurred by the events.... The seven-member Independent Commission to Investigate the Facts of the Tragedy in Lewiston has held seven public meetings since last November, collecting testimony from Mr. Card's Army Reserve supervisors, local and state police officers, as well as survivors and family members of the victims. The panel has pressed witnesses for details of their actions in the months leading up to the shooting, when the gunman displayed increasingly erratic and paranoid behavior...."

South Dakota. The Strange Infomercial Career of Kristi Noem. Lauren Irwin of the Hill: "South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) ... posted a video on X ... promoting Fit My Feet, [a South Dakota company,] who built her custom insoles for tennis shoes and cowboy boots. She wrote online that it does 'amazing work to make custom insoles.' Noem previously posted a nearly five-minute video promoting a cosmetic dentistry company in Texas. She is being sued by the consumer advocacy group Travelers United, which accused Noem of breaking Washington, D.C., consumer protection laws. Her video was filmed in a commercial-like style that includes close-ups of her teeth, before and after shots of her smile and a dentist working with a patient. The group claims Noem's video was an undisclosed advertisement for the dentistry firm Smile Texas. The lawsuit alleges Noem, a potential running mate for former President Trump, is acting like a social media influencer."

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al.

David Sanger & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden on Friday praised Senator Chuck Schumer's address lashing out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, calling it 'a good speech' that raised concerns 'shared not only by him but by many Americans.' Even though Mr. Biden did not explicitly endorse any of the specific criticisms in the speech, or Mr. Schumer's call for elections to replace Mr. Netanyahu, the president's comments were the latest step in his escalating public critique of the Israeli prime minister.... In an interview on Friday, Mr. Schumer said he delivered the speech because 'I thought it was important to show even if you strongly disagree with Netanyahu, you can still be a strong ally of Israel.'" (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I've never been a big fan of Schumer's, but I should re-evaluate my dislike of his sometimes calculating & seemingly cynical political decisions. That speech took guts, and it must have been gut-wrenching for him to give it.

Raja Abdulrahim & Anushka Patil of the New York Times: "For at least the second time in just over two weeks, a convoy bringing aid to hunger-stricken northern Gaza ended in bloodshed late Thursday when Palestinians were killed and wounded in an attack surrounding the trucks, according to Gazan health officials and the Israeli military, which offered divergent accounts of what happened. The Gaza Health Ministry said that at least 20 people had been killed and more than 150 injured, and it accused Israeli forces of carrying out a 'targeted' attack against 'a gathering of civilians waiting for humanitarian aid' near the Kuwait traffic circle in Gaza City. The Israeli military denied the allegation in a statement on Friday, blaming Palestinian gunmen and saying that an 'intensive preliminary review' had determined 'that no tank fire, airstrike or gunfire was carried out toward the Gazan civilians at the aid convoy.' It did not say whether Israeli forces had opened fire at all." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ukraine, et al. Nick Cumming-Bruce of the New York Times: "Two years after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, United Nations investigators say they have uncovered new evidence of systematic and widespread torture of Ukrainian prisoners held by Russian security forces. A United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Friday detailed a range of what it described as Russian war crimes, including summary executions, sexual violence and forced transfer of Ukrainian children into Russia. The commission paid special attention to 'horrific' treatment of Ukrainian prisoners by Russian security services at detention centers in Russia and occupied Ukraine. The commission will deliver a report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva next week, detailing accounts of torture from four locations in Russia and seven in occupied Ukraine, strengthening previous findings that the use of torture had become widespread and systematic." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: These are the folks Donald Trump wants us to make friends with and award with half of Ukraine.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (9)

The threat of a white Christian authoritarian government is no longer abstract, it is upon us – but the corporate media remains tongue-tied on the subject.

From digby

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser watched Trump’s rally last weekend and her mind was blown. If only we could get everyone to do this at least once:

"[L]ike so much about Trump’s 2024 campaign, this insane oration was largely overlooked and under-covered, the flood of lies and B.S. seen as old news from a candidate whose greatest political success has been to acclimate a large swath of the population to his ever more dangerous alternate reality. No wonder Biden, trapped in a real world of real problems that defy easy solutions, is struggling to defeat him..."

Paraphrasing one of Ian Flemming's villains: First time, happenstance. Second time, coincidence. Third time, enemy action.

The billionaire-owned press has elided The Donaldo's "alternate reality" from the get. There are no innocent explanations. The whole "Presidential Race" framing, so dear to the Press Lords, is enemy action.

March 16, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterCharles Bogle

Critical thinking? That's communism!

No surprise when boards of trustees are stacked with wealthy capitalists. Their corporations love mavericks in their advertising, but will not have them in their cubicles. Stick to STEM, Junior. Leave Emerson to the longhairs.

University presidents paid like CEOs and showered in perks don't rock the boat.

March 16, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterMahatma Kane

Elon Musk for the RBG award?

OK, then it's really the Racist, Biased, Gauche award. If that's it, then
he absolutely deserves it.

Or could it be his relationships with all those women?
Eleven children, 3 marriages, 2 live-ins, and some at the same time.

Whata guy!

March 16, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

@Mahatma: Right you are -- as is Masciotra. Of course many U.S. universities, especially if not exclusively state-supported ones, started out as glorified trades colleges; they were meant to teach young ladies to teach. I'm sure that back in the day, the liberal arts were presented in a rather perfunctory manner, if not quite only readin' & writin'. It was the East Coast ivies that leaned more to classical education, but I should not think more liberal. And boards of regents in both have always been, for the most part, conservative business people. What Masciotra describes as a liberal arts university has always been an endangered species. It enjoyed its heyday after student body populations exploded after WWII through the 1970s. During the Reagan greed-is-good years, many -- including the ivies this time -- became business and "communications" factories, even as their much less prestigious (and more poorly-paid) liberal arts factories may have survived. That is, what we think of as a good liberal arts education was relatively short-lived in this country.

On another note, Jeeves, one may find that to "buttle with the best of 'em," a good liberal education remains of particular value. Just ask Bertie Wooster. Great handle!

P.S. Are you and Charles Bogle one and the same? I confess I took Charles Bogle to be, you know, the name of a real person.

March 16, 2024 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

As much as we whine about Donald Trump's 91 criminal indictments (now down to 88, I surmise, because Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee threw out three of them), even the number of indicted crimes he has committed since launching his presidential* bid in 2015, the number of crimes -- violent and otherwise -- that have been committed because of him is incalculable.

It would be fairly easy -- though time-consuming -- to count up all the crimes that have been adjudicated against people inspired by his words and actions, or have committed them at his specific direction (like, say, Michael Cohen), but I can't guess how many haven't been discovered or charged, and most of them never will be.

The guy isn't just a mob boss. He is a walking (golf-cart riding?) national crime wave.

And he is only getting worse as he goes more and more nutso. As Trump would say, "You've never seen anything like it."

March 16, 2024 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Ukraine

"Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) said it is hacking online voting systems in Russia as the first day of the country's presidential election got underway on March 15.

A source in the agency confirmed to the Kyiv Independent it was currently making attempts to disrupt the vote, adding: "There are no elections or democracy there anyway."

Russia began three days of voting on March 15 in a pseudo-democratic presidential election that is expected to grant Vladimir Putin six more years in power."

March 16, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

Press Watchers

"It’s not just our democracy at stake, it’s our freedom

Across virtually every aspect of life, people’s freedoms are under assault in the United States. The forces attacking these diverse freedoms ultimately want to create a rigid, restrictive society according to their worldview only, with little room for those of different beliefs, values, or expression."

March 16, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

@Marie: Coincidentally crime goes down without the president* openly committing crimes publicly and encouraging others to do the same. Trump has also promised to pardon and release a thousand of his criminals back on the streets. We've already seen a number of the criminals that bought pardons be rearrested. Under a Trump regime we will probably see many crimes not be prosecuted if they support him and noncrimes prosecuted because of opposition to Trump. We already saw some of that in his first term and it would only get worse in a second one.

March 16, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

Rep Jim Jordan's (R- OH - 4) district just got seriously ravaged by an early Spring tornado, major damages to many thousands.

Will he tell FEMA and HUD not to bother with emergency relief, even though he has voted against "on demand" disaster relief in the past? (Hint: That's not a real question. R's are always in favor of spending fedbucks when it involves their own people.)

Also: The Old Testament Deity is clearly sending a wrathful message to his district. Such natural punishments are, of course, direct communications from fundy Jehovah that these people are big time sinners. Can Jordan read that handwriting on all those busted walls?

March 16, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick
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