REALITYCHEX.COM

The Ledes

Thursday, July 3, 2025

CNBC: “Job growth proved better than expected in June, as the labor market showed surprising resilience and likely taking a July interest rate cut off the table. Nonfarm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 147,000 for the month, higher than the estimate for 110,000 and just above the upwardly revised 144,000 in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. April’s tally also saw a small upward revision, now at 158,000 following an 11,000 increase.... Though the jobless rates fell [to 4.1%], it was due largely to a decrease in those working or looking for jobs.”

Washington Post: “A warehouse storing fireworks in Northern California exploded on Tuesday, leaving seven people missing and two injured as explosions continued into Wednesday evening, officials said. Dramatic video footage captured by KCRA 3 News, a Sacramento broadcaster, showed smoke pouring from the building’s roof before a massive explosion created a fireball that seemed to engulf much of the warehouse, accompanied by an echoing boom. Hundreds of fireworks appeared to be going off and were sparkling within the smoke. Photos of the aftermath showed multiple destroyed buildings and a large area covered in gray ash.” ~~~

The Wires

The Ledes

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

New York Times: “The Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, who emerged from the backwoods of Louisiana to become a television evangelist with global reach, preaching about an eternal struggle between good and evil and warning of the temptations of the flesh, a theme that played out in his own life in a sex scandal, died on July 1. He was 90.” ~~~

~~~ For another sort of obituary, see Akhilleus' commentary near the end of yesterday's thread.

Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code: <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

New York Times: “The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon for use in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence platforms, the company said on Thursday. The multiyear agreement 'will bring Times editorial content to a variety of Amazon customer experiences,' the news organization said in a statement. Besides news articles, the agreement encompasses material from NYT Cooking, The Times’s food and recipe site, and The Athletic, which focuses on sports. This is The Times’s first licensing arrangement with a focus on generative A.I. technology. In 2023, The Times sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, for copyright infringement, accusing the tech companies of using millions of articles published by The Times to train automated chatbots without any kind of compensation. OpenAI and Microsoft have rejected those accusations.” ~~~

~~~ Marie: I have no idea what this means for "the Amazon customer experience." Does it mean that if I don't have a NYT subscription but do have Amazon Prime I can read NYT content? And where, exactly, would I find that content? I don't know. I don't know.

Washington Post reporters asked three AI image generators what a beautiful woman looks like. "The Post found that they steer users toward a startlingly narrow vision of attractiveness. Prompted to show a 'beautiful woman,' all three tools generated thin women, without exception.... Her body looks like Barbie — slim hips, impossible waist, round breasts.... Just 2 percent of the images showed visible signs of aging. More than a third of the images had medium skin tones. But only nine percent had dark skin tones. Asked to show 'normal women,' the tools produced images that remained overwhelmingly thin.... However bias originates, The Post’s analysis found that popular image tools struggle to render realistic images of women outside the Western ideal." ~~~

~~~ Marie: The reporters seem to think they are calling out the AI programs for being unrealistic. But there's a lot about the "beautiful women" images they miss. I find these omissions remarkably sexist. For one thing, the reporters seem to think AI is a magical "thing" that self-generates. It isn't. It's programmed. It's programmed by boys, many of them incels who have little or no experience or insights beyond comic books and Internet porn of how to gauge female "beauty." As a result, the AI-generated women look like cartoons; that is, a lot like an air-brushed photo of Kristi Noem: globs of every kind of dark eye makeup, Scandinavian nose, Botox lips, slathered-on skin concealer/toner/etc. makeup, long dark hair and the aforementioned impossible Barbie body shape, including huge, round plastic breasts.

New York Times: “George Clooney’s Broadway debut, 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' has been one of the sensations of the 2024-25 theater season, breaking box office records and drawing packed houses of audiences eager to see the popular movie star in a timely drama about the importance of an independent press. Now the play will become much more widely available: CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism.”

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. -- Magna Carta ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “Bought for $27.50 after World War II, the faint, water stained manuscript in the library of Harvard Law School had attracted relatively little attention since it arrived there in 1946. That is about to change. Two British academics, one of whom happened on the manuscript by chance, have discovered that it is an original 1300 version — not a copy, as long thought — of Magna Carta, the medieval document that helped establish some of the world’s most cherished liberties. It is one of just seven such documents from that date still in existence.... A 710-year-old version of Magna Carta was sold in 2007 for $21.3 million.... First issued in 1215, it put into writing a set of concessions won by rebellious barons from a recalcitrant King John of England — or Bad King John, as he became known in folklore. He later revoked the charter, but his son, Henry III, issued amended versions, the last one in 1225, and Henry’s son, Edward I, in turn confirmed the 1225 version in 1297 and again in 1300.”

Page Links

Arizona

You're on an auxiliary page. Click Constant Comments-Home on the bar above to go to the main page.

AP, November 12: "A measure that would legalize medical marijuana in Arizona pulled ahead for the first time Friday, with both supporters and opponents saying they believed the proposal that went before voters on Election Day would pass."

Epoch Times: "Ben Quayle, the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, won in Arizona’s 3rd congressional district on Tuesday."

NBC News projects that Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer will retain her governorship.

CBS News projects that Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain will retain his Senate seat.

"The Man Who Never Was." Todd Purdum in Vanity Fair: "Desperate to keep his Senate seat, John McCain repudiated his record, his principles, and even his maverick reputation, entrenching himself as the anti-Obama. Which raises the issue of whether the leader so many Americans admired—and so many journalists covered—ever truly existed."

Jason Linkins (October 5) has a pretty funny, & accurate, take on the candidacy of Ben Quayle.

Democratic Congressional candidate John Hulburd v. Republican Ben Quayle & TheDirty.com:

New York Times, September 13: Steve May, a Republican "former legislator who recruited several drifters to run for office as Green Party candidates has canceled his own run for the State House.... Besides facing an uproar over his recruitment efforts, he was criticized in the news media for having been arrested on charges of driving under the influence." His name & those of his drifter buddies will remain on the November ballot.

The New York Times picks up on this Arizona Republic story about the Arizona Republican party's "recruiting" sham candidates to run on the Green party slot with the idea the Green "candidates" will siphon votes from Democrats. The Times reports that among their "recruits" are homeless men. The Democratic party of Arizona has launched complaints with federal, state & local agencies.

Governor Headless. AP, September 4: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer finally admits she "misspoke" about headless bodies turning up in the desert: "That was an error, if I said that."

Gail Collins reports, "In her postdebate repair effort, Brewer told a radio interviewer that 'the bottom line is that there have been beheadings in the border region in Mexico.'” But later on Friday, the AP reports that Brewer did an about-face: "That was an error, if I said that."

No More Debates. The Arizona Star: "Incumbent Republican Jan Brewer said Thursday she has no intention of participating in any more events with Democrat Terry Goddard. She said the only reason she debated him on Wednesday is she had to to qualify for more than $1.7 million in public funds for her campaign."

In what was supposed to be her opening statement in a debate with her Democratic opponent Terry Goddard, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, freezes up:

... Brewer then refuses to answer questions about her false claims that police have found "headless bodies" in the desert:

Here's Gov. Headless making her beheading claims on Fox "News":

So first, she said, repeatedly, there were headless bodies in the desert, then she wouldn't say, the she said there were, then she said there weren't:

Running on Fear. Rachel Maddow reports on Queen Jan's fake campaign, her cozy relationship with a private prison company that benefits from the anti-immigration law, & her retribution againt a local CBS affiliate that has investigated that connection:

Arizona Republic, August 31: "The state Democratic Party is alleging possible voter fraud in what it called a scheme to undermine its candidates by recruiting "sham" Green Party hopefuls....

Marc Lacey of the New York Times profiles Ben Quayle. Jon Hulburd, Quayle's Democratic opponent, who has an uphill battle in a "safe" Republican district, said of the race, "This election is now between Jon Hulburd and Brock Landers,” referring to Quayle's porn star nom de plume.

AP: in Arizona, Ben Quayle, Son of Dan, won his congressional primary race in a heavily Republican district. CW: still the general election could be fun.

Today, the Republican party of Arizona nominated for Senate JD Hayworth in the shell of a politician that was once John McCain. The complete takeover of the Republican party by the Tea Party has included taking over the soul of a Senator who was once the face of comprehensive immigration reform and who now would just build the ‘danged fence;’ a man who once reveled in being a maverick and who now is a rubber stamp for the extreme rightwing; a man whose name was synonymous with campaign finance reform and who now barely registers a notice when the law that bears his name was gutted by the Supreme Court to favor corporate America. So, we congratulate JD Hayworth on his nomination tonight. -- Hari Sevugen, DNC National Press Secretary

AP: "U.S. Sen. John McCain has defeated conservative challenger J.D. Hayworth in the Republican primary in his bid for a fifth term."

AP: "Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer is headed to the general election after handily winning a GOP primary marked by a surge in her popularity after she signed a tough law targeting illegal immigration."

AP: "Gov. Jan Brewer faces a little-known moderate Tuesday in a Republican primary election contest in that saw her prospects boosted by her signing of a controversial law targeting illegal immigration. Meanwhile, Attorney General Terry Goddard is unopposed for the Democratic nomination."

Marc Lacey of the New York Times on John McCain's primary campaign: "The question now is whether Mr. McCain’s sharp shift to the right during the campaign — the onetime maverick declared at one point that he no longer wanted anything to do with that label — will ultimately come back to haunt him and perhaps tarnish his legacy as a pragmatist willing to reach across the aisle."

CW: I'm no fan of Mark Halperin's or Chris Matthew's, but when they're knocking John McCain, I'm flexible:

I’m a tall drink of water who is easy on the eyes. Plus, my moral compass is so broken I can barely find the parking lot. Long story short, on a scale of 1-to-10, I’m awesome. -- Ben Quayle, Arizona Congressional family-values candidate (& Son of Dan), using the pseudonym "Brock Landers," a character in a porn film, on the DirtyScottsdale.com Website ...

... Anyway, after concluding that sipping mint juleps dockside had been replaced with taking body shots off of scantily clad ladies, it was time to lose my yachting attire–and that’s when things started to get interesting. -- Ben Quayle, as Brock Landers, on a day at the lake

Another Republican Demonstrates How Not to Handle an Embarrassing Revelation. Rachel Slajda of Talking Points Memo: after the owner of a somewhat raunchy website outed family values Congressional candidate Ben Quayle as a writer for and "one of the original creators of the site," Quayle first denied it, later admitted he knew the site's founder, still later said he had written "two, possibly three" posts. ...

... The Arizona Capitol Times has more. Quayle categorically denied he wrote under the pseudonym "Brock Landers," the name of a porn-film character, but seems to have backed off that denial, too. ...

... TheDirty.com Webmaster Nik Ritchie (surprisingly, not his real name) posts Quayle's literary efforts in a post called "Ben Quayle is Brock Landers."

... Update: So now the whiney boy awesome dude tells Politico his political enemies are trying to "assassinate my character." CW; why would they, Mr. Easy-on-the-Eyes, when you're killing yourself with a thousands cuts?

ABC News: is Ben Quayle a chip off the old block- potatoe-head?

This is nauseating: Dan Quayle's son Ben is running for Congress.

... Update: this ad has been subscriber-firewalled. That's okay; the parody below is even funnier.

... BUT this is funny: Andy Cobb of Second City wants Ben's old job, whatever it is:

GQ artwork.Robert Draper has an excellent, long piece in GQ about the Arizona Republican primary battle between Sen. John McCain & former Rep. J. D. Hayworth. Draper & his subjects employs such images as "like a buzzard on desert carrion," "a mosquito at a nudist colony," & "going batshit about the border."

New York Times, July 17: Arizona Republican primary candidates John McCain, J. D. Hayworth & tea partier Jim Deakin faced off in a nasty debate. The Arizona Republic story is here.

AP: Scott Rothstein, "a now-disbarred Florida lawyer who admitted to orchestrating a huge Ponzi scheme, gave more than $180,000 to Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign contributions that McCain's Senate rival [J. D. Hayworth] is now making an issue in their competitive primary.... Rothstein was sentenced Wednesday to 50 years in prison after he confessed to running a $1.2 billion fraud using faked legal settlements."

Los Angeles Times: "Late Friday night as the Memorial Day weekend began, Arizona's Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, in effect, suspended the state's Democratic attorney general from defending the new law in upcoming legal challenges." The AG, Terry Goddard, is also running for governor & likely will be Brewer's opponent. He opposes the immigration legislation.

Public Policy Polling: "The Governor's race in Arizona continues to shape up as a rare opportunity for Democrats this year to pick up a major office they don't already have control of."