The Ledes

Monday, June 30, 2025

It's summer in our hemisphere, and people across Guns America have nothing to do but shoot other people.

New York Times: “A gunman deliberately started a wildfire in a rugged mountain area of Idaho and then shot at the firefighters who responded, killing two and injuring another on Sunday afternoon in what the local sheriff described as a 'total ambush.' Law enforcement officers exchanged fire with the gunman while the wildfire burned, and officials later found the body of the male suspect on the mountain with a firearm nearby, Sheriff Robert Norris of Kootenai County said at a news conference on Sunday night. The authorities said they believed the suspect had acted alone but did not release any information about his identity or motives.” A KHQ-TV (Spokane) report is here.

New York Times: “The New York City police were investigating a shooting in Manhattan on Sunday night that left two people injured steps from the Stonewall Inn, an icon of the L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement. The shooting occurred outside a nearby building in Greenwich Village at 10:15 p.m., Sgt. Matthew Forsythe of the New York Police Department said. The New York City Pride March had been held in Manhattan earlier on Sunday, and Mayor Eric Adams said on social media that the shooting happened as Pride celebrations were ending. One victim who was shot in the head was in critical condition on Monday morning, a spokeswoman for the Police Department said. A second victim was in stable condition after being shot in the leg, she said. No suspect had been identified. The police said it was unclear if the shooting was connected to the Pride march.”

New York Times: “A dangerous heat wave is gripping large swaths of Europe, driving temperatures far above seasonal norms and prompting widespread health and fire alerts. The extreme heat is forecast to persist into next week, with minimal relief expected overnight. France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are among the nations experiencing the most severe conditions, as meteorologists warn that Europe can expect more and hotter heat waves in the future because of climate change.”

The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
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.

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.

 

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.

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

Page Links
Saturday
Jul152017

In Jared's Defense

Yesterday we learned this:

Carly Sitrin of Vox: "Jared Kushner's lawyers say there's an innocent explanation for why his first security clearance application omitted his meetings with several Russians, including Sergey Kislyak and Natalia Veselnitskaya: A member of Kushner’s staff hit send on his form too early. But the thing is, there isn’t one 'send button' for this kind of security clearance form. There are 28.... Kushner filed his first SF-86 (a government document to amend his security clearance) in January and omitted any meetings with foreign government officials. In May, he submitted a revised security clearance form with more than 100 foreign names, including a meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, but still did not include the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya revealed in Donald Trump Jr.’s emails.... CBS News reported Friday that the Veselnitskaya meeting was later conveyed to the FBI and included in a third version of the form before July."

** UPDATE: . So here's another ridiculous excuse that Kushner's team of lawyers has actually proffered. Asawin Suebsaeng & Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "According to a source familiar with the situation, speaking to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, Kushner claims that he did not scan to the bottom of the email thread forwarded by his brother-in-law, therefore completely missing the part about 'Russia and its government.'... Kushner’s claim that he didn’t know precisely what was in the 'confidential' 'Russia' and 'Clinton' email sent to him sounds familiar, only because it’s the same explanation, or excuse, that Manafort has been shopping.”

Kushner has at least a couple of Washington's most able lawyers working for him. Yet the best these geniuses could come up with was, "My secretary accidentally hit 'send' 28 times." AND NOW, "I got the emails, but I didn't read them." OR "What Paul said."

So I thought I'd help them out with some less risible excuses for failing to name some of the 100+ foreign nationals with whom he met. Please add your own.

Geographical Confusion:

I didn't know he was a foreign national. I thought Canada was a state, right between Montana & Alaska.

Argentina is in South America, for Pete's sake. That's America was a capital "A." That's not foreign.

My mother-in-law is from the Czech Republic. I don't think of her as foreign. Why would I think of anyone else from around there as foreign?

My other mother-in-law is from Slovenia. I don't think of her as foreign. Why would I think of anyone else from around there as foreign?

We were in Scotland. When you're in Scotland, the Scottish people aren't foreign nationals. You are. Did you expect me to write down my own name?

Language Barrier:

His English was so good, I thought he was an American.

She didn't speak a word of English. I had no idea where she was from. I figured maybe Brighton Beach.

The Lousy Help:

My secretary couldn't spell his name. It seemed like a waste of time to include him on the form.

My secretary forgot to write it on my calendar.

Technical Difficulties:

Something went wrong with my phone while it was charging, & it deleted the meeting.

My pen ran out of ink.

I gave my notepad to a Breitbart reporter.

Auditory Problems:

They met me backstage at the convention. It was so noisy, I had no idea who they were.

I have an untreatable earwax problem. Also why I never served in the military.

Otherwise Occupied:

I was programming a new app for my iPhone.

I was texting my children. I'm a family-values guy.

I was texting my wife. She was having trouble with the girls at the factory in Bangladesh.

I was whispering in Donald's ear so he'd feel better & I missed what-all was going on.

The campaign was so hectic, I felt like I was in two places at one time. I wrote down the other place.

It Depends on What the Meaning of the Word "Meeting" Is:

It wasn't really a meeting. I sat there for only about 10 minutes. It was more a coffee break. Definitely not a meeting.

It wasn't my meeting. I popped my head in to somebody else's meeting, but I didn't know what was going on. (See also earwax.)

Miscellaneous:

She said she was a naturalized citizen. I believed her.

Eric told me she was a naturalized citizen. I believed him.

I forgot.


P.S. monoloco's contribution to yesterday's thread is hilarious.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (2)

Too, too funny! I NEEDED this!

Haven't been posting the past few days, just so fed up with the damn ongoing Trumpian saga that I need to stand back and occupy my mind elsewhere, my rants were getting exhausted...as was I. But, reading this is a splash of water much needed...Marie, this is hilarious...it should go viral!

July 15, 2017 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Premature e-documentation.
Or, I did not have text with that woman.

July 16, 2017 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.