REALITYCHEX.COM - Constant Comments - Some Are Seized, Some Are Found

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

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

Wednesday

Jan252023

Some Are Seized, Some Are Found

Reality Chex commentators have been complaining -- some subtly (unwashed), some not so subtly (Akhilleus) -- that the "liberal" New York Times is devoted to both-sider-style reporting, which inevitably leans right.

Unwashed noted (Reality Chex Comments, January 22) that the Times headline describing recovery of classified documents at President Biden's (D) Wilmington home read, "Investigators Sieze More Classified Documents From Biden's Home." Reporters Michael Shear & Katie Rogers' lede for the story: "Investigators for the Justice Department on Friday seized more than a half-dozen documents, some of them classified, at President Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Del., after conducting a 13-hour search of the home, the president’s personal lawyer said Saturday evening." (Emphasis added.) In their next sentence, Shear & Rogers write that this "dramatically escalated the legal and political situation for the president." OMG! FBI agents "dramatically" "seized" (synonyms: "grabbed," "snatched") ill-gotten classified documents from President Biden's home!

Well, it turns out that, according to Biden's personal attorney Bob Bauer, as related by said Shear & Rogers, "the president’s lawyers had offered to provide access for a search 'in the interest of moving the process forward as expeditiously as possible.' Justice Department investigators coordinated the search with Mr. Biden’s lawyers in advance...." Doesn't sound quite so "dramatic," does it?

So Then. Days later, FBI agents took about a dozen classified documents from former Vice President Pence's (R) new Indiana home, too. The headline in Maggie Haberman's story about the discovery of the pence papers: "Classified Documents Found at Pence’s Home in Indiana." Not "seized," but "found." According to Haberman, pence's lawyer Greg Jacob (you may remember him from the January 6 committee hearings) "wrote that despite having a conversation with archives officials on Jan. 19 about procedures for obtaining records from former presidents and vice presidents, the Justice Department that evening 'bypassed the standard procedures and requested direct possession' of the documents.... Mr. Jacob also wrote that there were two boxes in which the records with classified markings had been found, as well as two additional boxes with copies of administration papers. He said he would personally bring those boxes to the National Archives on Jan. 23," according to Haberman's report.

It turns out that "requested direct possession" was a little more aggressive than a mere polite "request." Though Haberman doesn't say so, CNN's updated report says, "Agents from the FBI’s field office in Indianapolis picked up the documents from Pence’s home, [a Pence] lawyer said. On Monday, Pence’s legal team drove the boxes [absent the "found" classified docs] back to Washington, DC, and handed them over to the Archives to review the rest of the material for compliance with the Presidential Records Act." And these agents carried out their "request" with some dispatch. CNN reports that as soon as they found the classified docs, "Pence’s lawyer immediately alerted the National Archives, the sources said. In turn, the Archives informed the Justice Department. A lawyer for Pence told CNN that the FBI requested to pick up the documents with classified markings that evening, and Pence agreed." (Emphasis added.) But, as Marcy Wheeler notes, pence's lawyer wasn't pleased with the the late-day knock on the door: "Jacob complained [it] was against standard protocol."

Why, it sounds like the FBI immediately "seized" those classified docs Pence was storing at his home in a manner than annoyed -- if not pence -- his attorney. Further, it is odd that pence's lawyers didn't tell the FBI about the classified documents. The FBI found out only indirectly, through a tip from the National Archives. Moreover, it was days or even months before the FBI got around to "dramatically" "seizing" President Biden's classified documents. But FBI agents insisted on picking up pence's classified documents right away, and they rushed to pence's home the same day the Archives told them that pence was holding the documents.

Plus. According to on-air reporting, pence had previously stored these documents and other papers at a rented home where he and Mother lived after January 20, 2021, while they were house-hunting. I will note that when you rent a residence, the landlord and her handyman, plumber, and other agents have access to the home. The landlord and/or the rental management agency of course have keys so they can enter the house while the tenants are away on househunting excursions or whatever.

AND here's the front-page headline of an "analysis" by Peter Baker of the Times: "Biden’s Handling of Secret Documents Complicates the Case Against Trump." The headline, by the way, appears in larger typeface than the headline for Haberman's story about pence's "found" documents. And Baker's "analysis" is placed in this morning's Times online main page above Haberman's report. Now, I'm sure Baker started "analyzing" before news of the Purloined Pence Papers broke. But he knew about it before his "analysis" was published, and he incorporates the pence papers discovery into his "analysis," then discounts it as an "everybody does it" boon to Trump."

OR, as Scott Lemieux puts it in LG&$, "In related news, Peter Baker has already been admitted to the Both Sides Do It Hall of Fame on the first ballot but he feels compelled to keep adding to his resume[.]... 'What Trump and Biden [did] isn’t the same, or even remotely similar really, but close enough that Democrats cannot criticize Trump' is the Platonic ideal of the form...."

You might just think the New York Times has two standards of reporting: one for Democrats and one for Republicans. And somehow that works out well for Republicans.

Comments Off

Permalink

Email Article

Reader Comments (4)

I’m going to say right now that Fatty will NOT be held liable for stealing and refusing to return highly classified documents. Our would be Caesar’s Wife AG, Neville Chamberlain Garland, will not bring charges against the Fat Fascist unless he brings similar charges against President Biden, which, now that I think of it, HE MIGHT! Of course the half-pence will escape any responsibility because that might look like Neville is piling on.

This is like a DA refusing to charge a clearly guilty suspect with armed robbery because his pal was caught jay walking and he doesn’t want to appear biased for not also throwing the book at his buddy.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Garland, by mishandling this mess AND by appointing a lifetime confederate who put shoulder to the wheel for the traitor Trump, to go after Biden, could very well have greased the skids for a GQP victory in 2024, by either Trump (who will declare himself completely absolved) or the even worse authoritarian racist, DeSantolini.

Fox and the thugs in the traitor controlled house will be jumping with both feet on Biden’s neck because of those “seized” documents, Covid response, the laptop, M&Ms, “weaponization” of the Justice Department, and who knows what the fuck else. The BS Times will keep everyone abreast of the work of the brave R’s going after the evil Biden.

This will be Benghazi, the Blue Dress, and the Tan Suit on anabolic steroids, with regular shots of nitrous.

January 25, 2023 |

Akhilleus

@Akhilleus: Garland the Reluctant is hardly alone. It has long irritated me that Democratic presidents think they have to pick Republicans for the "manly" jobs. Ergo, Clinton picked William Cohen as Defense Secretary; Obama stuck with Robert Gates. Obama also kept on Robert Mueller as FBI director; then followed with the odious Jim Comey. Republicans all.

Democrats seem to think Republicans will "trust them more" if they choose Republicans for the "boy's" jobs. Well, ha ha ha ha ha.

And the idea that only a Republican can be trusted to be special counsel to examine anyone, Democrat or Republican, is a special failing of attorneys general. Ken Starr. Robert Mueller. John Durham. 'Nuf said.

January 25, 2023 |

Marie Burns

And you know if the Republicans take the White House that Biden will quickly be getting a trial date from whatever toady AG gets appointed by those traitors. If they get enough MAGAts on the jury to convict they will show everyone how corrupt Democrats are and if he gets off then that will show TFG was innocent too and treated unfairly by us awful liberals. Win win. And the news will amplify whatever message they decide to go with.

January 25, 2023 |

RAS

Thank you. I have been fussing forever about the bothsideserism of the NYT and in particular Peter Baker. It is also a real problem about Dems appointing Rs in their administrations. Just yesterday I commented on Charlie's piece that our brand-new governor (formerly the AG of PA) is busily appointing Rs occasionally for the very reasons you all list, plus in the name of "bipartisanship", when it is a fantasy when Rs are in charge...note the s***canning of Swalwell, Schiff and soon to be the woman from Minnesota whose name just escaped me...Supposedly they aren't "fit to serve" according to the REAL monsters who are NOT fit to be in office.

Government right now is so thoroughly broken that we begin to feel we are people without a country. We/they can't even work a system for hiding high-profile pieces of paper that are probably already online somewhere and represent secrets and plans. No one is driving the boat, and it's taking on water rapidly, probably purposely. What a mess.

January 25, 2023 |

Jeanne

Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.