Katie Herzog notes a commonality in mourning cultural destruction:

As I watched Notre Dame burn yesterday, I was reminded of the fire at the National Museum of Brazil last year and the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan by the Taliban in 2001. You didn’t have to be a Brazilian or a Buddhist to care about those losses, and you don’t have to be a Catholic or a Parisian to care about Notre Dame now.

I’ve blogged about both of those, and a lot more – the shrines in Timbuktu, the statues in Palmyra, the mosques in Gujarat.

Art works aren’t people, but art works matter to people, so it’s not devaluing people to give a damn when examples of the human genius for creating objects that matter to people are demolished. Ancient artifacts have a big place on the universal mattering map.

https://twitter.com/DoctorChristian/status/1118168023406395394

The replies are even funnier.

Damn!
I thought it was real too.
At least this Cockenoserous is real. pic.twitter.com/7WRfEgiMpw

— Nige Rudd (@nigelrudd) April 16, 2019

https://twitter.com/nigelrudd/status/1118256741748285440

Dahlia Lithwick points out many things Trump has done in full public view that amount to the various kinds of wrongdoing Mueller’s team investigated.

There’s the alleged telling an official to close the southern border and promising a pardon in advance, there’s the lying about Wikileaks, there’s the spreading filth.

Last week, as professor David Rothkopf ably summarized here, Attorney General William Barr testified that he was able to be the arbiter of whether the president obstructed justice, which is actually not the case. He also reversed a long-standing Department of Justice policy to defend statutes because the president told him to. The treasury secretary has refused to abide by a law that on its face demands that the president’s tax returns be turned over to the House Ways and Means Committee, again at the president’s request. In other words, in many departments, we are seeing Trump appointees willing to put the president above the law. We saw a mass purge at the Department of Homeland Security ostensibly because no senior officials are willing to break the law hard enough and fast enough to mollify the president. We heard the president invoke the word treason explicitly to describe his critics. But we are waiting for William Barr to summarize for us whether Robert Mueller concluded that the president has violated the law.

They’re doing all this out in the open, while we watch.

There is no crime called collusion. There has never been a crime called collusion, but that is the crime from which Donald Trump—never having seen the Mueller report—says he has received “complete and total exoneration.” Very few people have actually seen the Mueller report, but we do know that there was no explicit finding by Mueller on the question of whether Trump obstructed justice. And yet, when it comes to that very question, much of what we saw happen before our very eyes—Trump’s treatment of James Comey, his complaints about Jeff Sessions, multiple efforts to stymie the investigations—could certainly be understood to be elements of obstruction of justice. So acute is the sense of national shock and trauma at Trump’s open and flagrant misconduct that we are waiting patiently for a Mueller report to confirm that we have all been seeing what we’ve all been seeing for the past two years. We are standing next to a burning building and waiting for Robert Mueller to let us know if he smells smoke.

We don’t know what else we can do.

What may have happened:

A heritage fire safety expert has said his heart sinks and he fears for the worst every time he sees scaffolding on a historic building.

Stewart Kidd said all construction sites were inherently dangerous places, but the danger was so much higher in a heritage building.

“We’re talking about timber, we’re talking about very dry buildings because they are old, we’re talking about nooks and crannies, we’re talking about voids and ducts where fire can spread unseen and pop out a long way from where it started.”

He said data from Scotland suggested that about 8-12% of fires in heritage buildings occured when contractors were present.

“What we know is that any kind of hot work, effectively any form of heat application during construction, is dangerous. So not just welding, not just brazing, it is also cutting, it is also grinding, it is also soldering and it is particularly lead work on roofs.”

Kidd, a consultant who has written numerous books on fire risks in heritage buildings, pointed to the loss of the National Trust country house Uppark in 1989 which occurred while contractors were putting a new roof on after the 1987 gales. “They applied too much heat and set fire to the timber under the lead which smouldered and then burst into flames.”

I bet the people who were working on Notre Dame are feeling like crap today.

Cue Trump screaming.

House Democrats issued subpoenas Monday for records from Deutsche Bank and other financial institutions, seeking information regarding President Trump’s business ventures as several congressional panels took steps to intensify their scrutiny of the president’s personal accounts and corporate dealings.

The subpoenas, first reported by the New York Times, were issued by the House Intelligence and Financial Services committees, which have been leading the Democrats’ probe of Trump’s finances. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee, said in a statement Monday that Trump’s “potential use of the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes is a very serious concern.”

This was reportedly one of Trump’s red lines for Mueller—Trump was so angry over reports that Mueller had subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for records about their relationship that he sought to fire him in Dec. 2017, per NYT https://t.co/7RJME39f1T https://t.co/S3cNXE59d5

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) April 15, 2019

The NY AG has also sent subpoenas to Deutsche Bank. If there’s nothing there, the President has nothing to worry about. https://t.co/uLzaV4k3po

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) April 16, 2019

And if there is…

And the courage awards go to…

Highly decorated track athletes Andraya Yearwood of Cromwell High School and Terry Miller of Bloomfield High School have been selected co-recipients of the 2019 Bob Casey Courage Award by the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance.

And why are they “highly decorated”? Because they have male bodies but race against girls and so they win all the races. I’m not at all sure I consider that “courage”…

Both juniors, Yearwood and Miller are transgender athletes in girls track who have won individual Connecticut state track championships in multiple sprint events. Miller, who previously attended Hartford’s Bulkeley High School, recently won New England indoor track championships in the 55 and 300 meters.

Yes, of course they have, because they are male-bodied. They won all these events by stealing the wins from the girls who would have won if it weren’t for “courageous” Yearwood and Miller.

The teenage girls have publicly and courageously championed the rights of transgender high school athletes. Yearwood and Miller continue to face criticism from opponents who have questioned the fairness of their inclusion in girls track events. Opposition has ranged from anonymous digital comments and social media posts from across the country to a petition to ban Yearwood and Miller from currently competing in girls track. The girls have brought national attention in support of all high school athletes’ right to respect and inclusion, including an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America.

Notice the speed with which we rush right past those questions about the fairness of their inclusion in girls’ track events. What about that?

One for the “least worrying worry ever” file: some Trump people who talked to Mueller are in a sweat that Trump might get mad at them. Waa waa; we’re in a sweat that Trump might kill us all.

Of particular concern is how Trump — and his allies — will react if it appears to be clear precisely what specific officials shared with Mueller, these people said.

“They got asked questions and told the truth and now they’re worried the wrath will follow,” one former White House official said.

Some of those who spoke with Mueller’s team, such as former White House counsel Don McGahn, witnessed Trump’s actions up close and were privy to key moments in the obstruction investigation and spent many hours with investigators.

One person close to the White House said there is “breakdown-level anxiety” among some current and former staffers who cooperated with the investigation at the direction of Trump’s legal team at the time.

They work for Trump. I can’t summon any sympathy.

In other news – Trump does another disgusting thing.

For the first time in years, the United Nations’ committee on racism will not contain anyone from the U.S.

According to a report from POLITICO on Saturday, the White House blocked the renomination of human rights lawyer Gay McDougall, who had served on the committee since 2015. The White House has not announced why it failed to renominate McDougall, or why it opted not to nominate anyone else to the 18-member commission. POLITICO reported that State Department officials had already informed McDougall that she would be renominated before the White House abruptly nixed the move.

NOPE. No American on any stinkin’ international commission on racism on his watch. America was born in racism and grew up in racism, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.

McDougall, who was originally nominated by former president Barack Obama, is widely regarded as an expert on international human rights. She has recently spent much of her time highlighting the ongoing plight of Uighurs and other Muslim populations in western China, where an estimated 1 million or more Muslims are currently held in internment camps and forced to praise the Chinese Communist Party.

Well there’s your problem right there. Trump loves China, or at least Xi, or at least he’s under the delusion that Xi loves him and wants to help him. Trump also hates Muslims, all Muslims, liberal and theocratic equally, so he doesn’t want any US reps investigating their plight in his buddy’s country.

Neil Henderson shares some front pages.

LES ECHOS: La tragédie de Paris #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/4yIYjbErYn

— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) April 15, 2019

THE GUARDIAN: Inferno devastates Notre-Dame #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/foxfjEaNGC

— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) April 15, 2019

SCOTTISH MAIL: Nine centuries of history lost #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/yNZpe5ssRA

— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) April 15, 2019

TELEGRAPH: Paris weeps #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/gu4bTCTjfB

— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) April 15, 2019

LE PARISIEN: Notre-Dame des Larmes #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/HAkLDnLwws

— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) April 15, 2019

Fox News is obsessed with Ocasio-Cortez.

A study found that the New York City Democrat was mentioned 3,181 times on Fox News Channel and its sister Fox Business Network during the six-week period of Feb. 25 to April 7, or just under 76 times a day. Not a day went by when she wasn’t spoken about on Fox.

The liberal watchdog Media Matters for America, which did the research, called it an obsession and said the first term representative has become the network’s latest bogeyman, “someone for hosts and guests to demonize, knock down and refer to whenever grievances need to be aired against the Democratic Party.”

I’m sure they’re professional about it though.

Tucker Carlson has called her an “idiot wind bag,” a “pompous little twit,” a “fake revolutionary,” ″self-involved and dumb,” a “moron and nasty and more self-righteous than any televangelist.”

Not so professional then.

Fox Business Network’s Stuart Varney illustrated another reason that Fox would pay so much attention to Ocasio-Cortez.

“We have an AOC segment every day, almost every single hour,” he said. “She’s good for our ratings.”

The way Trump is for Don Lemon’s, no doubt. On the other hand, there’s Trump and then there’s Ocasio-Cortez. They’re not exactly comparable.

Siiiiiiigh

As the world stared in wonder this week at the first image of a black hole, a new star was born here on Earth: Katherine Bouman, a 29-year-old postdoctoral researcher who developed an algorithm that was key to capturing the stunning visual.

On the ugliest corners of the Internet, however, this sudden fame for a young woman in a male-dominated field couldn’t stand. A corrective was quickly found in Andrew Chael, another member of the Event Horizon Telescope team, who, not coincidentally, is white and male.

On Reddit and Twitter, memes quickly went viral contrasting Bouman with Chael, who — per the viral images — was actually responsible for “850,000 of the 900,000 lines of code that were written in the historic black-hole image algorithm!”

The implication was clear: Bouman, pushed by an agenda-driven media, was getting all the attention. But Chael had done all the real work.

Oh yes, that agenda-driven media that is always giving all the credit to women while ignoring men. In what galaxy?

What hostile sexism looks like: Dr. Katie Bouman’s reputation is being battered across multiple platforms. Her Wikipedia profile, marked for deletion, fake accounts, her work attributed to a man (he’s renounced the lies). “Trolls” doesn’t capture it: organized sexist harassment. https://t.co/81uooZp8cJ

— Soraya Chemaly (@schemaly) April 13, 2019

Squalid Sarah Sanders pulls us down some more:

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Sunday that she doesn’t think congressional Democrats are “smart enough” to review President Donald Trump’s tax returns should they succeed in obtaining the documents.

“This is a dangerous, dangerous road and frankly, Chris, I don’t think Congress, particularly not this group of congressmen and women, are smart enough to look through the thousands of pages that I would assume that President Trump’s taxes will be,” Sanders told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace.

Yes, that’s what the executive branch is supposed to do: go on tv to call the legislative branch stupid.

“My guess is most of them don’t do their own taxes, and I certainly don’t trust them to look through the decades of success that the President has and determine anything,” she said, adding that attempts to obtain the returns are “a disgusting overreach.”

The decades of success facilitated by decades of cheating, lying, theft, and corruption. Those decades of success.

The Far Corner Café:

Click to embiggen.