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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
Nov252023

The Conversation -- November 26, 2023

From the CNN liveblog, also linked below: "US President Joe Biden is now delivering remarks [at about 12:08 pm ET] following the release of 17 hostages from captivity in Gaza -- including a 4-year-old American-Israeli girl. The Red Cross received 17 hostages on Sunday, including Israelis and foreign nationals, Israel's military confirmed. Thirty-nine Palestinians will be released later today, Qatar said, in the third such exchange of a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas. Biden confirmed in the news conference that 4-year-old American-Israeli Abigail Edan was freed on Sunday, marking the first successful release of an American hostage since the start of the truce."

A Crook Grants a Crook a Last-Minute Commutation. Other Crooks Help Out. Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "Jonathan Braun of New York had served just two and a half years of a decade-long sentence for running a massive marijuana ring, when [Donald] Trump, at 12:51 a.m. on his last day in office, announced he would be freed. Mr. Braun was, to say the least, an unusual candidate for clemency.... Mr. Braun's family had told confidants they were willing to spend millions of dollars to get him out of prison. At the time, Mr. Trump's own Justice Department and federal regulators, as well as New York state authorities, were still after him for his role in an entirely separate matter: his work as a predatory lender.... Just months after Mr. Trump freed him, Mr. Braun returned to working as a predatory lender, according to New York State's attorney general.... Nearly three years later, the consequences of Mr. Braun's commutation are becoming clearer, raising new questions about how Mr. Trump intervened in criminal justice decisions and what he could do in a second term.... A New York Times investigation ... found there were even greater ramifications stemming from the commutation than previously known and revealed new details about Mr. Braun's history and how the commutation came about."

Kayla Guo of the New York Times: "More than three dozen members of Congress have announced they will not seek re-election next year, some to pursue other offices and many others simply to get out of Washington. Twelve have announced their plans just this month. The wave of lawmakers across chambers and parties announcing they intend to leave Congress comes at a time of breathtaking dysfunction on Capitol Hill, primarily instigated by House Republicans."

~~~~~~~~~~

Glenn Thrush & Serge Kovaleski of the New York Times: "The stabbing on Friday of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020, at a special unit inside a Tucson, Ariz., prison is the latest in a series of attacks against high-profile inmates in the troubled, short-staffed federal Bureau of Prisons. The assault comes less than five months after Larry Nassar, the doctor convicted of sexually abusing young female gymnasts, was stabbed multiple times at the federal prison in Florida. It also follows the release of Justice Department reports detailing incompetence and mismanagement at federal detention centers that led to the deaths in recent years of James Bulger, the Boston gangster known as Whitey, and Jeffrey Epstein, who had been charged with sex trafficking." MB: Gives me a lot of confidence the feds will do a great job if successful in their effort to take over NYC's notorious Rikers Island prison.

Sara Boboltz of the Huffington Post: "Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican whose various deceptions have landed him in hot water with colleagues and the Justice Department, remained defiant during a three-hour-long appearance on a live audio program Friday.... The Republican chairman of the House ethics committee, Rep. Michael Guest (Miss.), has already filed a resolution for his expulsion that will likely be put to a vote next week. Santos initially lashed out at Guest, calling him a 'pussy,' the [Ethics Committee] report a 'vacuous political hit piece,' and the committee 'a fucking weaponization of who they don't like.'... Throughout the interview, which included an exchange with fellow Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Santos portrayed himself as a victim of cold political calculations."

Presidential Race 2024

David McAfee of the Raw Story: "Donald Trump on Saturday heard boos when he arrived at the South Carolina 'Palmetto Bowl.' He also reportedly saw billboards telling him that he lost. Trump attended the bowl at least in part to show up his GOP rival Nikki Haley at her alma mater.... He was met with two billboards saying, 'You lost. You're guilty. Welcome to Columbia, Donald,' according to the Messenger's report. "The former president was also greeted as he drove into the city by two huge electronic billboards reading: '"You lost. You're guilty. Welcome to Columbia, Donald,"' the report says. 'The billboards also noted that the message was "sponsored by League of Radical Leftist Vermin," referring to Trump's recent social media post calling those who don't support him 'vermin.'"

Romney Doesn't Like His Choices. Nick Robertson of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) signaled that nearly any candidate in the 2024 field, of either party, would be an 'upgrade' over another term for former President Trump. 'I'd be happy to support virtually any one of the Republicans -- maybe not Vivek [Ramaswamy] -- but the others that are running would be acceptable to me, and I'd be happy to vote for them,' the retiring senator said Friday in an interview with CBS's Norah O'Donnell. 'I'd be happy to vote for a number of the Democrats too,' he continued. 'It would be an upgrade, in my opinion, from Donald Trump and perhaps also from Joe Biden.'"

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Joseph Menn of the Washington Post: Jorge Ramos, "the most prominent U.S. journalist at Univision, the country's largest Spanish-language network, wrote Saturday that reporters had a moral obligation to ask hard questions of Donald Trump during his campaign to retake the White House. Jorge Ramos devoted his weekly column to making that case in the wake of his network's recent friendly interview with Trump, which was attended by three senior executives at Univision's relatively new parent company. Ramos wrote that it had 'put in doubt the independence of our news department.'... 'We cannot normalize behavior that threatens democracy and the Hispanic community, or offer Trump an open microphone to broadcast his falsehoods and conspiracy theories. We must question and fact-check everything he says,' Ramos wrote. Ramos has tangled with Trump before and was ejected from a news conference in 2015 after asking the candidate about his remarks denigrating immigrants." ~~~

     ~~~ Ramos' column, in English, is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Ireland. A Pint (and Then Some) for Caio. Christopher Schuetze of the New York Times: "In the wake of a knife attack in Dublin this past week that sparked Ireland's worst anti-immigrant violence in recent memory, people in the country and beyond are celebrating a Brazilian immigrant who intervened to end the assault. An online fund-raiser set up to 'Buy Caio Benicio a pint,' a standard token of appreciation in the country, as of Saturday afternoon had raised more than 330,000 euros, about $350,000, for Mr. Benicio, a Rio de Janeiro native who lives in the Irish capital and witnessed the stabbing while passing by on his moped.... Although the authorities have not publicly identified the citizenship of the attacker, whom witnesses described as a man in his 50s, rumors spread online claiming that he was an immigrant, drawing many members of the far right to central Dublin on Thursday, some holding signs reading 'Irish Lives Matter.' The protest quickly escalated, and roughly 500 people, mostly young men, vandalized cars, looted shops, and attacked hostels and hotels where immigrants were thought to be staying, according to the authorities.... ~~~

"'Thank you so much Caio, you deserve every penny that you get,' wrote Aine Waters, one of the online donors. 'You took off your helmet to help while others covered up their faces and wore hats later to terrorize. You are a true hero and I am so happy that you came to live in Ireland.'" MB: Gosh, do you think these winger-rioters will repent and realize a poor immigrant is a better person than any of them is? Okay, no.

Israel/Palestine

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israeli officials received a list of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip due to be released Sunday, the prime minister's office said. Their family members have been notified, it said, without specifying their identities or how many are in the group -- the third due to be released since fighting paused.... After the agreed pause in combat ends, Israeli military leaders said Sunday, they would resume efforts to eliminate Hamas and free remaining hostages." ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's live updates for Sunday are here.

Steve Hendrix, et al., of the Washington Post: "Hamas released a second group of Israeli hostages late Saturday, capping a nerve-racking day of delays and complications that underscored the fragility of the deal for a pause in fighting in Gaza, the exchange of captives and the delivery of more aid to the beleaguered enclave. The pause held for a second day, but a challenge by Hamas to Israel's implementation of the agreement delayed the planned release of Israeli hostages by seven hours, as Qatari and Egyptian diplomats held emergency talks with both sides to salvage the deal. Qatar's Foreign Ministry said late Saturday that the dispute had been resolved and that the exchange would proceed. Qatar and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is facilitating the transfers, said 13 Israeli hostages had been freed and were on their way to the Rafah crossing in Egypt. Israel reciprocated by releasing 39 Palestinian prisoners, according to Israel's prison service."

** Lauren Leatherby of the New York Times: "... experts say that even a conservative reading of the casualty figures reported from Gaza shows that the pace of death during Israel's campaign has few precedents in this century.... More than twice as many women and children have already been reported killed in Gaza than in Ukraine after almost two years of Russian attacks, according to United Nations estimates.... More women and children have been reported killed in Gaza in less than two months than the roughly 7,700 civilians documented as killed by U.S.forces and their international allies in the entire first year of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to estimates from Iraq Body Count, an independent British research group. And the number of women and children reported killed in Gaza since the Israeli campaign began last month has already started to approach the roughly 12,400 civilians documented to have been killed by the United States and its allies in Afghanistan during nearly 20 years of war.... Israel's liberal use of very large weapons in dense urban areas, including U.S.-made 2,000-pound bombs that can flatten an apartment tower, is surprising, some experts say." (Also linked yesterday.)


Ukraine, et al. Fredrick Kunkle & Kostiantun Khudov of the Washington Post: "Russia launched a fierce swarm of explosive drones at Kyiv and other targets early Saturday, interrupting a weeks-long lull in the Ukrainian capital and adding to its darkening mood. Ukraine's military said air defenses destroyed 74 of 75 Iranian-made Shahed drones during a six-hour attack that included dozens of the weapons aimed at Kyiv, in what the city's mayor said was the largest drone attack since Russia's invasion in February 2022. All of the pilotless craft headed for Kyiv were intercepted and destroyed, although falling debris struck a kindergarten, ignited a few fires and injured five people, including an 11-year-old child, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram. The noisiest day in weeks, if not months, came as a reminder of more hard days ahead -- with many Ukrainians bracing for Russia to attack civilian infrastructure throughout the winter."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (3)

https://www.dailykis.com/stories/2023/11/23/2206889/-Americans-
need-to-be-reminded-over-and-over-exactly-what-it-means-to-have-
Trump-in-office

I think that every Democrat who holds a public office and gets in
front of a microphone should repeat over and over that:
Inflation is receding
Employment upat unprecendented levels in Red and Blue states alike
Consumer spending is up
Stock market is doing well.

A lot of people weren't paying attention when the donald was in office
those four years, but then when all the problems were dumped on
Joe Biden, they seemed to wake up and blame Biden. They should
crawl back under their rock and shut up.

November 26, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

I always thought donuts were deep fried in cooking oil.
Guess I was wrong.
Donald says we should be worried about an energy crisis involving
petroleum because----there will be a donut shortage.

I'm off to the gas station to get a case of oil just in case I decide to
make some donuts for Santa this Christmas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6vbvJnpdUg

November 26, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

in the Freakonomics episode that aired here yesterday, Stephen Dubner interviewed Brendan Ballou, prosecutor in the antitrust division of the D.O.J. and author of Plunder: Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America
... "the three largest private equity firms ... if you considered each firms portfolio companies together, would be the third-, fourth-, fifth- largest employers in America, after only Walmart and Amazon." Link to the podcast and transcript can be found here: Plunder

November 26, 2023 | Unregistered Commenterlaura hunter
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