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 intoWednesday 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.” ~~~
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.
Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.
Commencement ceremonies are joyous occasions, and Steve Carell made sure that was true this past weekend (mid-June) at Northwestern's commencement:
~~~ Carell's entire commencement speech was hilarious. The audio and video here isn't great, but I laughed till I cried.
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.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. — Anonymous
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. — Edward R. Murrow
Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns
I have a Bluesky account now. The URL ishttps://bsky.app/profile/marie-burns.bsky.social . When Reality Chex goes down, check my Bluesky page for whatever info I am able to report on the status of Reality Chex. If you can't access the URL, I found that I could Google Bluesky and ask for Marie Burns. Google will include links to accounts for people whose names are, at least in part, Maria Burns, so you'll have to tell Google you looking only for Marie.
Wednesday
Dec012010
Gail Collinsmakes sport of the lame duck Senate. She notes that they did get one bill passed: one that is supposed to bring the FDA into the 21st century. Collins notes that
... the bipartisan bill, which would overhaul the nation’s food safety system, still has to go back to the House, so there’s plenty of time to screw it up.
The Times moderators have again held back my comment, so here it is, with an additional boost from Rachel Maddow & Sen. Stabenow:
According to Roll Call, the Senate has already screwed up the food safety bill. It seems the Senate added tax provisions, and only the House has the Constitutional authority to initiate revenue-raisers. House Democrats are planning to block the bill. How about that? The Senate can't pass a bill without violating the Constitution!
As for Lamar Alexander's confidence in the "White House’s willingness to negotiate away taxes on the rich," I'm with Alexander. The minute we learned President Obama had outsourced negotiating duties to Tim Geithner, I figured the die was cast. Does anybody really think Geithner is going to draw a line in the sand and refuse to repeal tax breaks for his millionaire & billionaire friends on Wall Street? What a terrible thing to do as the holiday season is upon us.
I got a kick of the President today when he claimed Republicans were just engaging in political posturing and that "at the end of the day people of good will can come together and recognize that ... we're going to be able to solve this problem (of the tax cuts)." You would think he didn't notice that all 42 Republican Senators signed a letter saying they were going to obstruct everything until they got their way. And then, as we all know, once they get their way, they're going to obstruct everything. Here are Rachel Maddow & Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow forcefully making the same point:
I hope Congress does get "in a holiday mood," because they're going to be spending the holidays in Washington, D.C. Let's hope it snows, so the Jim Inhofe family can build another igloo this year as proof positive there's no such thing as global warming.
The Inhofe family builds an igloo at their Washington, D.C. home. Winter 2009-2010.
Politico: "House Republicans will scrap the committee set up by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to investigate global warming, the panel’s top Republican announced Wednesday. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) made official what many had already expected — the GOP majority will axe the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming...."
Bloomberg News: "The Federal Reserve, under orders from Congress, today named the counterparties of about 21,000 transactions from $3.3 trillion in aid provided to stem the worst financial panic since the Great Depression." ...
New York Times: "The Obama administration is rescinding its decision to expand offshore oil exploration into the eastern Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic Coast because of the BP oil spill, administration officials said Tuesday."
President Obama meets with Gen. Colin Powell:
Bruce Bartlett of Capital Gains & Games on an "important" economic speech by Republican Rep. Mike Pence, who is likely to run for governor of Indiana: "Pence's speech ... was a hackneyed rehash of every simplistic idea ever floated on Larry Kudlow's TV show, which appears to be the only source of information Pence has on the economy. I don't know how else to explain his obsession with inflation, a strong dollar, Fed bashing, tax cuts and the gold standard."
Sen. Chris Dodd sings his swan song:
Politics as Criminal Exercise. Michael Scherer of Time on the Tom DeLay verdict: "In Washington, it is widely assumed that the difference between bribery and proper business practices is not being stupid: Don't write down any evidence of a quid pro quo. Always maintain plausible deniability. Always maintain that financial backscratching is a result of deep respect, mutual admiration and altruism, not transactional value."
Shailagh Murray & Perry Bacon of the Washington Post on yesterday White House meeting with Congressional leaders: "... according to people in the room, both sides engaged in the kind of cross-party dealmaking that seems to have faded away in today's Washington. The participants emerged smiling and with a loose framework - though they did not outline it publicly - that could result in the temporary extension of all the tax cuts, as well as the ratification of a nuclear arms treaty with Russia, the continuation of unemployment benefits and funding for government operations into next year." ...
... Dana Milbankwas less impressed with the non-results: "Boehner, in his news conference, wasn't unduly optimistic as he explained: 'We had a very nice meeting today. Of course, we've had a lot of very nice meetings....' That was about the time Obama began his competing statement, which included a lament about the 'hyperpartisan climate' in which 'both sides come to the table. They read their talking points. Then they head out to the microphones, trying to win the news cycle instead of solving problems.' Obama called that 'a game that we can't afford.' The statement might have carried more weight if Obama hadn't just preempted his opponents' news conference." ...
... So was David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "Much of the recent commentary about the tax cuts has skipped over this political reality." Leonhardt goes into what the limited Democratic options are, but his bottom line is that -- once again -- they will cave to Republicans. ...
... Sam Stein: Obamaoutsources negotiations with Republicans, Democrats are in their usual disarray & Schumer touts his million-dollar deal.
... Let's factor in this AP story in today's news: "Senate Republicans intend to block action on virtually all Democratic-backed legislation unrelated to tax cuts and government spending in the current postelection session of Congress." ...
... Update: here's the Republican leaders' hostage letter, now signed by all 42 Senate Republicans.
... Jena McGregor of the Washington Post: "Never mind that Senate Republicans have obstinately fought most Democratic legislation for the past two years already. Now they want to make it official. Whether it's a political gimmick or a real effort to force a focus on urgent deadlines, the letter sets aside a reality of productive leadership we expect from the people we elect."
Jackie Calmes & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The chairmen of President Obama’s debt-reduction commission have been unable to win support from any of the panel’s elected officials for their proposed spending cuts and tax increases, underscoring the reluctance of both parties to risk short-term political backlash in pursuit of the nation’s long-term fiscal health. The chairmen of the commission ... delayed for two days, until Friday, a final vote by its 18 members."...
... AP Update: "A tough new cost-cutting playbook submitted by the co-chairmen of President Barack Obama's deficit commission has been embraced by Sens. Kent Conrad and Judd Gregg, the first two elected officials to endorse it."
... Paul Krugman: "Bowles-Simpson, the revision, is out. It has not improved." ...
... Matt Yglesias: "Surely the strangest thing about the Bowles-Simpson debt reduction plan is that, relative to current law, it . . . increases the public debt load over the next ten years.... Barack Obama saying 'I will veto any laws that increase the deficit relative to current law' would do more to reduce the debt over the next 2 or 6 years than would adopting Simpson-Bowles."
Richard Stengel of Time interviewsJulian Assange. ...
... Glenn Greenwald on the attacks on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. ...
... Edward Djerjian & Christoper Bronkof Foreign Policy: "While the Times has worked with the Obama administration to remove information of potential harm to national security, unredacted release of the cables by WikiLeaks may hold a cost measured in lives.... The leak of U.S. diplomatic cables may well produce an environment in which American diplomats will be shut out of confidential exchanges and the decision-making processes of U.S. allies and friends around the globe."
George W. Bush, in a Washington Post op-ed, recounts progress, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, on the U.S.'s fight against AIDS but says more must be done.
This Will Not Turn out Well or Obama Signals He'll Cave Immediately. Glenn Thrush, et al. of Politico: "President Barack Obama emerged from his two-hour bipartisan summit Tuesday, saying he was encouraged by the 'extremely civil' atmosphere — and immediately assigned two cabinet members [Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner & OMB chief Jack Lew] to hammer out a deal on Bush-era tax cuts."
... So does former Justice John Paul Stevens, as he writes in this compelling New York Review of Books review.
Military Trials Are Duds. Adam Serwer in the Washington Post: "In their entire history, only five convictions have been secured through military commissions, most through plea agreement, while civilian courts convicted hundreds throughout the same period. They've yielded light sentences, except in one case where the accused simply boycotted the trial. Even with the rules tilted towards the government, they have proven to be ineffective. They're expensive and more vulnerable to overturn onappeal than convictions in civilian court. Conservatives support them not because of their efficacy, but because they sound tough."
Eric Schmidt & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The arrest on Friday of a Somali-born teenager who is accused of trying to detonate a car bomb at a crowded Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore., has again thrown a spotlight on the government’s use of sting operations to capture terrorism suspects." Related news item here.
Allan Sloan of Fortune: privatizing Social Security is still a dumb idea "because retirees shouldn't have to depend on the market's vagaries for survival money," but Republicans will bring it up again anyway.
Andy Greenberg of Forbes interviews Julian Assange. Greenberg's cover story on Assange begins here. ...
... David Sanger of the New York Times: "The [WikiLeaks] cables about North Korea — some emanating from Seoul, some from Beijing, many based on interviews with government officials, and others with scholars, defectors and other experts — are long on educated guesses and short on facts, illustrating why their subject is known as the Black Hole of Asia." ...
... New York Times Editors: "After years of revelations about the Bush administration’s abuses — including the use of torture and kidnappings — much of the Obama administration’s diplomatic wheeling and dealing is appropriate and, at times, downright skillful."
... Roget Cohen of the Washington Post: the WikiLeaks cables further illustrate "the world George Bush left us. It exists everywhere but in his book, where facts are either omitted or rearranged...." ...
... Attila Somfalvi of Y-net News: In a meeting with journalists, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says the WikiLeaks leaks did not damage Israel, but he hopes Arab leaders will tell their own people what they say behind closed doors about their desire to attack Iran. ...
... CW: fortunately, there was bound to be funny stuff in the WikiLeaks cable, and this Guardian story fills the bill: Britain's Prince Andrew, Duke of York," shocked" a U.S. ambassador with his "rude" remarks about the British press & his complaints about the "idiocy" of the country's corruption investigators. Although the ambassador expurgated her cable, apparently Andrew said, "'these fucking journalists, especially from the Guardian, who poke their noses everywhere...." ...
... Andrew's remark brings to mind a classic bit of literature a friend & I exchanged earlier today. The passage is believed to be of Australian origin:
I was walking along on this fucking fine morning, fucking sun fucking shining away, little fucking country lane, and I meets up with this fucking girl. Fucking lovely she was, so we gets into fucking conversation and I takes her over a fucking gate into a fucking field and we has sexual intercourse. [cited in Ashley Montagu, The Anatomy of Swearing, U. of Penn. Press pp. 314-315]
... Leak of a Leak. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post on how the New York Timesgot the WikiLeaks cables -- they didn't come from Julian Assange.
This proposal is a superficial panic reaction to the draconian cuts his deficit commission will recommend. A federal pay freeze saves peanuts at best and, while he may mean it as just a public relations gesture, this is no time for political scapegoating. The American people didn't vote to stick it to a VA nursing assistant making $28,000 a year or a border patrol agent earning $34,000 per year. -- John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, on President Obama's salary freeze ...
... House Minority Leader Steny Hoyerwants to extend the pay freeze to non-combat military personnel. And he is so into cutting the deficit.
Georgia Gets Real. Katharine Q. Seelye of the New York Times: "During the centennial of the Civil War starting in 1960, Georgia celebrated the Confederacy and the view that the state had seceded in a valiant act of defending states’ rights against Northern aggressors. This time around, state historians are taking a different approach, declaring that Georgia seceded to defend the institution of slavery." ...
... "AND YET as the 150th anniversary of the four-year conflict gets under way, some groups in the old Confederacy are planning at least a certain amount of hoopla, chiefly around the glory days of secession, when 11 states declared their sovereignty under a banner of states’ rights and broke from the union. The events include a 'secession ball' in the former slave port of Charleston..., which will be replicated on a smaller scale in other cities. A parade is being planned in Montgomery, Ala., along with a mock swearing-in of Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy."
The Inhofe family builds an igloo at their Washington, D.C. home. Winter 2009-2010.
Share Article 
