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Wednesday, June 11, 2025

New York Times: “Brian Wilson, who as the leader and chief songwriter of the Beach Boys became rock’s poet laureate of surf-and-sun innocence, but also an embodiment of damaged genius through his struggles with mental illness and drugs, has died. He was 82.” ~~~

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Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.

 

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The Washington Post publishes a series of U.S. maps here to tell you what weather to expect in your area this summer in terms of temperatures, humidity, precipitation, and cloud cover. The maps compare this year's forecasts with 1993-2016 averages.

Zoë Schlanger in the Atlantic: "Throw out your black plastic spatula. In a world of plastic consumer goods, avoiding the material entirely requires the fervor of a religious conversion. But getting rid of black plastic kitchen utensils is a low-stakes move, and worth it. Cooking with any plastic is a dubious enterprise, because heat encourages potentially harmful plastic compounds to migrate out of the polymers and potentially into the food. But, as Andrew Turner, a biochemist at the University of Plymouth recently told me, black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid." This is a gift link from laura h.

Mashable: "Following the 2024 presidential election results and [Elon] Musk's support for ... Donald Trump, users have been deactivating en masse. And this time, it appears most everyone has settled on one particular X alternative: Bluesky.... Bluesky has gained more than 100,000 new sign ups per day since the U.S. election on Nov. 5. It now has over 15 million users. It's enjoyed a prolonged stay on the very top of Apple's App Store charts as well. Ready to join? Here's how to get started on Bluesky[.]"

CNN did a live telecast Saturday night (June 7) of the Broadway play "Good Night, and Good Luck," written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, about legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow's effort to hold to account Sen. Joe McCarthy, "the junior senator from Wisconsin." Clooney plays Murrow. Here's Murrow himself with his famous take on McCarthy & McCarthyism, brief remarks that especially resonate today: ~~~

     ~~~ This article lists ways you still can watch the play. 

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.”

NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.

Wherein Michael McIntyre explains how Americans adapted English to their needs. With examples:

 

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The Commentariat -- January 30, 2016

Danielle Paquette & Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "President Obama proposed a new rule Friday that would require every large company in America to report employees' pay based on race and gender, an effort to reduce longstanding pay inequities for women and minorities. The new policy, already drawing criticism from some business leaders, would order companies with at least 100 employees to add salary numbers on a form they already annually submit that reports employees' sex, age and job groups. The new pay information would alert the EEOC to companies with significant wage disparities, which could result in lawsuits." ...

... Lily Ledbetter introduces the President. It was the seventh anniversary of President Obama's signing the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law, the first bill he signed into law:

CW: Yesterday, in linking Elizabeth Warren's New York Times op-ed, I forgot to link her report on lax enforcement of corporate criminal lawbreaking. Here it is. As Warren wrote in her op-ed, & documents in the report, "In a single year, in case after case, across many sectors of the economy, federal agencies caught big companies breaking the law -- defrauding taxpayers, covering up deadly safety problems, even precipitating the financial collapse in 2008 -- and let them off the hook with barely a slap on the wrist. Often, companies paid meager fines, which some will try to write off as a tax deduction." ...

... David Dayen in the Intercept: "The Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders camps -- and their allies in the press -- have been arguing increasingly harshly over who has the most perfect or most attainable policies. But the real issue, as Warren sees it, comes in installing the personnel to carry out the laws on the books that protect public safety and the economy." Dayen calls the report "what might have been [Warren's] closing argument had she been a candidate in the presidential race." ...

... CW: BUT I think Steve M. gets closer to Warren's motivation: "Elizabeth Warren just semi-endorsed Bernie Sanders -- again.... Warren is clearly saying: This, at the very least, is the point of nominating Sanders. This is a power he'll have. Warren also semi-endorsed Sanders in a speech on the Senate floor last week, as Salon's Sean Illing has noted."

We are headed into another presidential election and I speak out today because I'm genuinely alarmed for our democracy ... It is time to fight back against a complete capture of our government by the rich and powerful.... A new presidential election is upon us. The first votes will be cast in Iowa in just eleven days. Anyone who shrugs and claims that change is just too hard has crawled into bed with the billionaires who want to run the country like some private club. -- Elizabeth Warren, speaking on the Senate floor, January 21

CW: I also failed to timely embed President Obama's speech at the Israeli Embassy on Holocaust Remembrance Day, which honored four new inductees into the "Righteous Among Nations": gentiles who protected Jews during the Nazi era. Colbert King of the Washington Post reminds me I was remiss. Read his column. It is lovely. And he rightly takes the opportunity to smack his colleague Jennifer Rubin upside the head. It's not the first time she's deserved it.

... Here's the story of my husband's first wife, the extraordinary Jeanne Daman, who also has been honored as a Righteous Among the Nations. At the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., she is credited with having helped to save 2,000 Belgian children.

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Senator John Cornyn, a former Texas judge and attorney general, is a devoted believer in the criminal justice overhaul awaiting its moment in the Senate. Now, he just has to convert doubting Republican colleagues.... 'John has some work to do, big-time work,' to secure enough support to persuade [Mitch] McConnell to go forward, said one Republican senator...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ian Millhiser of Think Progress writes a perceptive analysis of the Texas solicitor general's "devious plan to silently kill Roe v. Wade.... It's an effort to bypass [Justice Anthony] Kennedy's brain and go straight to his gag reflex." CW: Of course this is, generally speaking, tried-and-true anti-abortion propaganda. Most of us who are not medical professionals are put off or even frightened by bloody things. Invoking horror-movie-type imagery surely has helped persuade many a squeamish gentleman that abortion is evil.

CW: While I'm making up for stuff I missed this week, I wondered yesterday when the slow-mo economic news came in if the Fed hadn't made a mistake in raising interest rates last year. Paul Krugman sez yes, it did.

Matt O'Brien of the Washington Post: "The only question now is whether Venezuela's government or economy will completely collapse first.... Both are well into their death throes. Indeed, Venezuela's ruling party just lost congressional elections that gave the opposition a veto-proof majority, and it's hard to see that getting any better for them any time soon -- or ever.... According to the International Monetary Fund, their economy shrinks 10 percent one year, an additional 6 percent the next, and inflation explodes to 720 percent. It's no wonder, then, that markets expect Venezuela to default on its debt in the very near future. The country is basically bankrupt." O'Brien explains why.

Presidential Race

Steven Myers of the New York Times: "The State Department on Friday said for the first time that 'top secret' material had been sent through Hillary Clinton's private computer server, and that it would not make public 22 of her emails because they contained highly classified information. The department announced that 18 emails exchanged between Mrs. Clinton and President Obama would also be withheld, citing the longstanding practice of preserving presidential communications for future release.... The disclosure of the top secret emails ... is certain to fuel the political debate over the unclassified computer server that Mrs. Clinton ... kept in her home. The State Department released another set of her emails on Friday night in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.... The State Department said it had 'upgraded' the classification of the emails at the request of the nation's intelligence agencies. [State Department spokesman John] Kirby said that none of the emails had been marked at any level of classification at the time they were sent through Mrs. Clinton's computer server." ...

... Paul Krugman, who is precluded from endorsing candidates because of NYT rules, implied on explicit, stands up for Hillary again, citing first-hand experience that the feds over-classify stuff. Krugman says he was a serial offender when it came to mishandling these so-called secret docs.

Feeling the Bern:

... Greg Sargent: "The Sanders phenomenon raises possible warning signs for Clinton's chances in a general election. His ability to engage, excite and involve younger voters -- his ability to make them feel invested in politics -- throws into sharp relief Clinton's relative failure, at least for now, to do the same." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Bernie Sanders, long-distance runner. Sanders was a high-school track star at Brooklyn's Madison High when distance running was a big deal. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CW: When you think about it, Bernie Sanders has a better argument against Donald Trump & Ted Cruz, a/k/a Mr. Goldman-Sachs, than does Hillary Clinton. As Bernie says, "Don't underestimate me."

Paul Krugman points out that the GOP's Iowa race is down to this:

... Gail Collins is looking for a miracle in Iowa. Barring that, she'd be happy if Iowans would knock Ted out of the race. Oh, & Marco, whom she compares to the "Leave It to Beaver" character Eddie Haskell. CW: To me, most or all of the GOP candidates are Eddie Haskells -- smooth-talking, ingratiating & obvious phonies. And let me just add, as Gail implies by citing Marco's debate remark, that any candidate for public office who declares as fact that his faith is the true faith has automatically disqualified himself. A person who makes such statements cannot be president or city councilmember to all the people, as their oaths of office require.

Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Donald Trump slammed Ted Cruz as a Canadian 'anchor baby' during a Friday rally in New Hampshire as he continues to ratchet up the attacks against his closest polling rival days before the Iowa caucuses. 'Ted Cruz may not be a U.S. citizen,' Trump said at a town hall in New Hampshire.... Trump also threw punches on Cruz's Thursday night debate performance in the event he chose to skip in response to a spat with Fox News. 'I'm glad I wasn't there, he got pummeled,' Trump said at a town hall in New Hampshire Friday. 'And they didn't even mention that he was born in Canada. When you were born in Canada you aren't supposed to be running for president of the United States.'" ...

... CW: On a rational level, I know Trump is a fascistic scumbag who poses a danger to our nation & the world, but on another level, he can seem like a harmless late-night comic. I can't help but laugh when he says outrageous things about his Republican opponents. ...

... Since today's theme seems to be "Stuff I Missed This Week," here's one more item. Watch to the bitter end, which is uncanny:

Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: Union leaders worry that Donald Trump will appeal to some of their members.

Contra much of the punditocracy, Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker says Roger Ailes won the battle with Donald Trump. CW: A happy day for journalism? ...

... If you're wondering about the Nielsen ratings for the debate (and the Trump event), Claire Landsbaum of New York has 'em.

Jonathan Cohn of the Huffington Post: Thursday night, debate moderator Bret Baier asked Ted Cruz what he would do about health care. Cruz "knows it sounds cruel to say he'd take away Obamacare without a replacement. And so he did what every other Republican does when pressed on his alternative: He dodged the question entirely." CW: The crowd cheered, according to Cohn, when Cruz "promised to 'repeal every word of ObamaCare.'" What is it exactly these people are applauding? Haven't they noticed they and/or their friends, neighbors & relatives are making themselves vulnerable all over again? Haven't they noticed that Republicans have no plan at all to cover them? As Donald Trump would ask, "How stupid are the people of Iowa?" ...

... Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: Possibly the only genuine moment in Thursday's GOP debate came when Sens. Rand Paul & Marco Rubio demonstrated how much they loathed Ted Cruz. Both accused him of lying; in fact, Rubio said Cruz's campaign is built on a lie. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... "Pastor-in-Chief." Benjamin Landy of Vanity Fair summarizes Marco's evolving campaign theme, which is now Jesus-centric. ...

... Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian takes a longer look at Rubio's changing messages. CW: Since he's a master at double-speak, he claims not to be changing his message at all. I'm struck by Marco's lame answer to every argument against his own positions & proposals: "People have a right to believe...." It's another way of saying, "Vote for me even if you disagree with everything I would do as president." It doesn't make a lot of sense.

Putin is a one-horse country: oil & energy. -- Ben Carson, at Thursday's debate

** Paul Waldman, in the Week: "Earlier this week, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates ... said of the debate between Republican presidential candidates, 'The level of dialogue on national security issues would embarrass a middle schooler.' In Thursday night's GOP debate, those candidates set out to prove his point -- and they didn't even need Donald Trump in order to do it." Waldman runs down & "annotates" some of the candidates' remarks: funny, maddening, frightening, stupid.

Beyond the Beltway

Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "Of all the concerns raised by the contamination of Flint's water supply, and the failure of the state and federal governments to promptly address the crisis after it began nearly two years ago, none is more chilling than the possibility that children in this tattered city may have suffered irreversible damage to their developing brains and nervous systems from exposure to lead." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Maxine Bernstein of the Oregonian: "A federal judge Friday denied release for five of 10 defendants accused of conspiring in the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge -- Ammon Bundy, brother Ryan Bundy, Ryan Payne, Jason Patrick and Dylan Anderson. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie F. Beckerman found they were among the key players who took over the federal property in Harney County with a show of force, breaking the law from 'day one,' and then ignored orders to leave the refuge for nearly a month." The story includes details of related developments. ...

... The Confederacy Lives. Fedor Zarkhin of the Oregonian: "The 154-year-old law under which Ammon Bundy and others were arrested this week was created to deal with ... Confederate sympathizers ... plotting to overthrow the government or impeding the work of federal officers.... The new anti-conspiracy law [which President Lincoln signed] also explicitly barred people from taking control of federal property, which state forces and armed groups in the seceded states had done."

My Emily Litella Moment. CW : This Oregonian headline confused me: "Black customer accuses Lake Oswego Safeway worker of lobbing racial slurs in $100K suit." How can a Safeway worker afford a $100K suit?, I wondered. Does anybody own a $100K suit? And if you did own a $100K suit, would you bother insulting Safeway customers? Doesn't a person who parades around in a $100K suit have better things to do?

The Princess Melania Story:

News Ledes

Los Angeles Times: "The two Orange County jail escapees who remained at large after a daring escape eight days ago were arrested in San Francisco after a citizen noticed a van matching the description of the one they had allegedly stolen parked in a lot near a Whole Foods Market, officials said Saturday.... A third escapee, Bac Duong, surrendered to authorities in Santa Ana on Friday, a week after the three broke out of the Santa Ana lockup. The arrests ended a massive manhunt for the men, who all were charged with violent crimes."

New York Times: "China on Saturday accused the United States Navy of violating its laws by sending a warship within the 12-mile territorial zone of an island it claims in the South China Sea after the Pentagon said a Navy vessel had conducted a freedom of navigation operation. The United States vessel, the missile destroyer Curtis Wilbur, entered the waters off Triton Island in the Paracel Islands chain on Saturday without giving China notice in an exercise intended to challenge 'excessive maritime claims' by China and two other countries, said ... a Pentagon spokesman. Vietnam and Taiwan also claim Triton Island, though the Navy operation appeared to be aimed at China."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (8)

@Marie: I learned about Jeanne Damon from reading about your husband. She truly was heroic, putting her own life in danger while rescuing all those children. Thanks for bringing her to our attention.

Obama has been first in quite a few things:
First person of color to be President of the U.S.
First U.S. President to visit prisons
First U.S. President to visit Myanmar (Burma)
And now the first American President to speak at the Israeli embassy in Washington.
There probably are more "firsts" but point is how fortunate we have been to have had a President who paves the way for the better. So it grieves me to have to watch others whose run for this position would not only besmirch it, if winning, but possibly put us in terrible straits. It's been such a gas to have someone like Trump take over our whole system of electing a president––he is larger than life–- and I mean that literally. The life of "real politics" is no longer the same when we have the phenomena of sheer comedy substituting for serious consideration. How many crowds go wild? How many will actually be stupid enough to think this country can be run by a dictator, not in a uniform, but in a baseball cap. One strike, folks, and you're out!

January 30, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

So America is considering a collection of lying clowns for POTUS.
How could this happen? Two things. The good news is the early activity involves a group of seriously stupid voters who are a minority. These are people who would vote for the Kardashians.
The bad news is in most cases these clowns have come to the stage because people we rarely hear about are paying the bills. In the real world we are talking about candidates whose entire effort is paid for by bribes.
And as far as the Dem. candidates the only thing I am interested in is who has the best chance to win.

January 30, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMarvin Schwalb

As CW (wrote above) : The crowd cheered, according to Cohn, when Cruz "promised to 'repeal every word of ObamaCare.'" What is it exactly these people are applauding? Haven't they noticed they and/or their friends, neighbors & relatives are making themselves vulnerable all over again? Haven't they noticed that Republicans have no plan at all to cover them? As Donald Trump would ask, "How stupid are the people of Iowa?" ...

While yesterday, Tim Egan's op-ed piece drew a great many negative comments from NYT readers, (‘How Stupid Is Iowa?’) ...if one reads it carefully, Egan's observations weren't far off!

January 30, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

RE ' . . . I can't say his name. . . ' (?!?)

Thank you, Marie, for posting Bump's WaPo piece on Sanders' history in Distance Running - - an event (marathon) that has crossed my path (as it were) over the years - - of which I'd known nothing.

A Request:
Might someone help explain the following "gag order" to me?
Non capisco!

"You're not going to believe this," the athletic director at the school said when I called, "but I'm not allowed to talk about Bernie Sanders." He'd been told by lawyers from the Department of Education, he said, that Sanders was off-limits. "I can't say his name," I was told, "but you can call the principal."

January 30, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterOphelia M.

@Ophelia: My guess is that this is school administrators being overly-dramatic. I'm sure school records, especially of juveniles, are legally-protected documents, so somebody somewhere in the administration probably issued a Godfather-type edict against revealing anything about them for Bernie. I'd be surprised if "lawyers from the Department of Education" put the thumbscrews to a high-school athletic director. I don't think it's a big deal.

Marie

January 30, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMarie Burns

For folks who may have missed this interview on NPR, Dr Mona-Hanna Attisha from Hurley Hospital, Flint on her struggle to bring the lead poisoning to light as well as the effects on kids. Hurley was "the city" hospital when I was growing up, i.e the hospital of last resort.

http://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=464465059

Now that Trump has exploited veterans, I bet the farm he will move on to another top 10 vulnerable group, disabled children. As much as he talks about not being politically correct, he is creating a paradox in which, if you confront him and his motives, you can be labeled anti-American, heartless and politically very incorrect. Clearly there's no one on the right that has the wit or the balls to expose him as a self serving fraud.

I read the article on Melania Trump (First Weekly) that was linked a few days ago. It annoyed the hell out of me. I couldn't find a byline and I noticed that the online publication solicits articles. I suspect the piece was submitted by someone acting for the Trumps, probably coupled with a healthy contribution. The insistent comparison of M. Trump to Jackie Kennedy was barf worthy. The "style" that M. Trump would bring to the WH would be 2nd to none...hasn't been a stylish 1st lady since Kennedy, etc... mention of Michelle Obama was pointedly avoided. Clearly, the Trumps have the corner on gaudy and tacky (see 200K wedding gown), not hint of elegant or refined. Another campaign ad disguised as news.

January 30, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

@Diane Here an article you may have missed. (You can always count on British tabloids to dig up what our MSM appears too genteel to cover...or , errrr uncover as in this case)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3201088/Melania-Trump-Lady-pose-NUDE-talk-incredible-sex-life-Donald-Howard-Stern-rival-Jackie-Kennedy-elegance-style-quiet-strength.html

January 30, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

@Mag. Thanks. Looks like almost the same words of the article Marie posted a few days ago but with some extra pix. The Jackie Kennedy Onassis pix, in the side by side black gowns was taken for 1980 Met Gala, well after her WH years and 5 years after the death of Onassis. Wonder how much digging it took to find the black gown pix.

January 30, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterDiane
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