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
powered by Surfing Waves
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.

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.

INAUGURATION 2029

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

Friday
Apr262013

The Commentariat -- April 27, 2013

Making the Planes Run on Time

Convenient Desequestration. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The House gave quick and overwhelming approval Friday to legislation to give the secretary of transportation enough financial flexibility to bring the nation's air traffic control system back up to full strength and end the mounting flight delays that had become a political headache for Congress. The vote came despite objections from some lawmakers that the nation's air travel was being given special treatment. The 361-to-41 vote came less than 24 hours after the Senate reached accord on the measure, which effectively undoes one of the thorniest results of 'sequestration,' $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts that took effect March 1. That is remarkable speed for an issue that has been brewing for more than a year, with ample warning of the consequences. Once signed, the law, which passed the Senate without objection Thursday night, will allow as much as $253 million to be moved from other parts of the Transportation Department to the Federal Aviation Administration." ...

     ... Update. New lede: "President Obama and Congressional Democrats on Friday abandoned their once-firm stand that growing airport bottlenecks would be addressed only in a broader fix to across-the-board spending cuts...." And atop the 3rd graf: "Republicans claimed victory." ...

... The President's Weekly Address, in which he declares he is not amused (but will sign the bill anyway):

     ... The transcript is here. Josh Lederman of the AP: "President Barack Obama chided lawmakers Saturday over their fix for widespread flight delays, deeming it an irresponsible way to govern even as he prepared to sign the legislation they hurriedly pushed through Congress. Wary of letting Republicans set a precedent he might later regret, Obama dubbed the bipartisan bill to end furloughs of air traffic controllers a "Band-Aid" and a quick fix, rather than a lasting solution to this year's $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester." ...

... . New York Times Editors: "Congress can't pass a budget or control guns or confirm judges on time, but this week members of both parties found something they could agree on, and in a big hurry: avoiding blame for inconveniencing air travelers.... Catering to the needs of people with money, such as business travelers, is the kind of thing the country has come to expect in recent years from Congressional Republicans. But Democrats share full responsibility for this moment of cowardice." ...

... Charles Pierce: "Did I miss a memo, or wasn't the whole point of the sequester to give Congress the choice of acting like adults on the budget, or visiting enough inconvenience on ordinary citizens so that they demand that same thing? Now, it appears, the point was to visit inconvenience only on those ordinary citizens who have no lobby to inconvenience you in return. Airport delays were what was supposed to happen." ...

... AND the Losers Are ... Democrats. Ezra Klein: "In effect, what Democrats said Friday was that in any case where the political pain caused by sequestration becomes unbearable, they will agree to cancel that particular piece of the bill while leaving the rest of the law untouched. The result is that sequestration is no longer particularly politically threatening, but it's even more unbalanced: Cuts to programs used by the politically powerful will be addressed, but cuts to programs that affects the politically powerless will persist. It's worth saying this clearly: The pain of sequestration will be concentrated on those who lack political power." ...

... Robert Reich: "Washington ... has now adopted the same kind of austerity economics that's doomed Europe -- cutting federal spending and reducing total demand. And the sequester doesn't end September 30. It takes an even bigger bite out of the federal budget next fiscal year. Earth to Washington: The economy is slowing. The recovery is stalling. At the very least, repeal the sequester." ...

... To Hell with Those People. Travis Waldron & Bryce Covert of Think Progress list "12 programs that have experienced devastating cuts because Congress insists on cutting spending when it doesn't need to -- and that have been ignored by the same lawmakers who leaped to action as soon as their trips home were going to take a little longer." Among them, long-term unemployment compensation, Head Start & cancer treatment. ...

... Bill Moyers & Michael Winship, in Salon: "If you want to see why the public approval rating of Congress is down in the sub-arctic range -- an icy 15 percent by last count -- all you have to do is take a quick look at how the House and Senate pay worship at the altar of corporations, banks and other special interests at the expense of public aspirations and need." CW: read it and weep. None of this will change without a Constitutional Amendment eliminating corporate financing of political campaigns. ...

... Dana Milbank: "This last weekend of April displays the very best and the very worst of Washington. The worst is the part most of the country sees most of the time in the capital: the triumph of money and power [at the White House Correspondents' dinner].... In Meadowbrook Park in Chevy Chase, just a few hundred feet from the D.C. line, about 500 people will assemble Saturday morning in a Race to End Poverty. Sponsored by the local nonprofit A Wider Circle, the race is a 4K -- a nod to the group's hope of furnishing 4,000 homes this year for people living in poverty in the Washington area." ...

... Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "When all is said and paid for after all the parties surrounding the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this weekend, some media organizations will drop as much as $200,000 each to entertain an elite list of guests." ...

... "The Annual Versailles Cotillion." Charles Pierce again: "These would be the same 'media organizations' that are laying people off by the carload, slashing the benefits of those they don't lay off, and making people do more work in less time for smaller salaries."

Katie McDonough of Salon: "President Obama addressed more than a thousand Planned Parenthood supporters at the organization's national conference on Friday, becoming the first sitting president to do so. After reaffirming his longstanding support of Planned Parenthood, the president denounced Republican efforts to turn the organization into a 'punching bag.' ... Despite his spirited defense of abortion rights, Obama did not use the word 'abortion' once during his remarks":

Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "After years of insisting that the primary cure for Europe's malaise is to slash spending, the champions of austerity, most notably Chancellor Angela Merkel find themselves under intensified pressure to back off unpopular remedies and find some way to restore faltering growth to the world's largest economic bloc.... The flurry of activity comes after an influential academic paper embraced by austerity advocates as evidence that even recessionary economies should cut spending to avoid high debt levels, written by the Harvard scholars Carmen m. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff, has come under attack for errors that opponents of austerity say helped lead European policy makers astray." Thanks to MAG for the link.

Adam Serwer explains the federal rules of criminal procedure to law professor & torture-memo author John Yoo., who never met a Constitutional right he didn't want to trample.

Kevin Bogardus of the Hill: "Sen. John McCain on Friday pleaded with business leaders to rally behind the immigration reform bill that he negotiated as part of the Senate's Gang of Eight. Speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's immigration reform summit, McCain (R-Ariz.) said the bill needs the full-throated support of industry to make it to President Obama's desk."

Sam Baker of the Hill: "Democratic leaders said Thursday they're not seeking an exemption from a central requirement of ObamaCare -- that members of Congress and their staff purchase healthcare coverage through insurance exchanges. Republicans spent the day hammering Democrats for allegedly seeking to carve themselves out of a requirement in the healthcare law."

Jack Ohman of the Sacramento Bee.... Joack Ohman of the Sacramento Bee: "Several readers wrote me ... expressing varying levels of concern about the cartoon depicting Gov. Rick Perry's marketing of Texas' loose regulations, juxtaposed with the explosion of the fertilizer plant in West, Texas. Their comments ranged from 'you are a sick human being' to 'insensitive and tasteless.' ... What I am trying to do is make readers think about an issue in a striking way.... What makes me angry, and, yes, I am driven by anger, is that it could have been prevented." CW: if those readers are looking for sick & tasteless, they should latch onto Rick Perry, who doesn't see anything wrong about lobbying for Texas on the very basis of Texas's willingness to look the other way at industries that compromise the safety of workers & neighboring citizens. ...

... Here's the ProPublica report, by Theodoric Meyer, which Ohman links in his post. It includes gems like this: "Has Congress introduced any new regulation legislation? Yes, but it would roll back regulations rather than strengthen them. Eleven representatives -- one Democrat and 10 Republicans -- sponsored a bill in February that would limit the EPA's regulatory authority over fertilizer plants. It has been endorsed by industry groups such as the Fertilizer Institute." ...

... "The Koch Brothers Bill." Tim Murphy of Mother Jones, in the Huffington Post: "In February, 11 congressmen ... joined some two dozen industry groups, including the Fertilizer Institute, the American Chemistry Council, and the International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration, to back the General Duty Clarification Act. The bill is designed to sap the Environmental Protection Agency of its powers to regulate safety and security at major chemical sites, as prescribed by the Clean Air Act. 'We call that the Koch brothers bill,' Greenpeace legislative director Rick Hind says, because the bill's sponsor, GOP Rep. Mike Pompeo, represents the conservative megadonors' home city of Wichita, Kansas. (The sponsor of the sister legislation in the senate, GOP Sen. Pat Roberts, represents the Kochs' home state of Kansas.) The brothers have huge investments in fertilizer production...." ...

... HOW did the Koch boys become "the world's largest producer of nitrogen the fertilizer? ... Thanks to the advent of fracking (hydrofracturing), natural gas is now the #1 source for ammonia (which is used to supply the nitrogen portion of most fertilizers) in the world."

Mark Landler & Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "President Obama said Friday that he would respond 'prudently' and 'deliberately' to evidence that Syria has used chemical weapons, tamping down any expectations that he would take swift action after an American intelligence assessment that the Syrian government has used the chemical agent sarin on a small scale in the nation's civil war." ...

Speaking of "deliberate" & "prudent," we now remember our former deliberator-in-chief ...

** Our Misunderestimated Former President. Do Watch. (If you listen closely, you'll hear Fugelsang take a crack at Al Gore, too):

Congressional Races

Thomas Beaumont of the AP: "Republicans are struggling to recruit strong Senate candidates in states that present the party's best opportunities to reclaim the majority, a sign that the GOP's post-2012 soul-searching may end up creeping into the midterm congressional elections." ...

... Scott Bland of the National Journal: "House Democrats now have candidates lined up in about half of the Republican-held seats that Obama also carried in 2012, part of the DCCC's concentrated effort to get an early start on recruiting this election cycle after redistricting kept potential candidates on the sidelines until relatively late in the process in 2012. Democrats would need to gain 17 seats to retake the House majority in 2012."

Gohmert Weekly News

This administration has so many Muslim brotherhood members that have influence that they just are making wrong decisions for America. -- Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)

... Jonathan Bernstein, in the Washington Post: "I don't care about condemning Gohmert -- but mainstream conservatives are making a big mistake, it seems to me, by allowing themselves to be defined by the worst Republicans out there."

News Ledes

AP: "U.S. officials say Russian authorities secretly recorded a conversation in 2011 in which one of the Boston bombing suspects vaguely discussed jihad with his mother. Officials say a second call was recorded between the suspects' mother and a man under FBI investigation living in southern Russia.... They say the Russians shared this intelligence with the U.S. in the past few days."

New York Times: "Ending a crushing two-month political stalemate that had spooked European leaders, Prime Minister-elect Enrico Letta formed a rare coalition government on Saturday uniting left and right -- and including a record number of women and Italy's first nonwhite minister -- to steer Italy, with the euro zone's third-largest economy, out of the doldrums."

AP: "A Mississippi man whose home and business were searched as part of an investigation into poisoned letters sent to the president and others has been arrested in the case, according to the FBI. Everett Dutschke, 41, was arrested about 12:50 a.m. Saturday at his Tupelo home by FBI special agents in connection with the letters...."

AP: "Police in Bangladesh took five people into custody in connection with the collapse of a shoddily-constructed building this week, as rescue workers pulled 19 survivors out of the rubble on Saturday and vowed to continue as long as necessary to find others despite fading hopes. At least 340 people are known to have died...." CW: meanwhile, in the U.S., Donald Adair, the owner of the West Fertilizer Company, is facing only private lawsuits. Well, shuck, Don is "a prominent member of the community." Suing him don't seem sportin'.

Reuters: "The economy regained speed in the first quarter, but not as much as expected, heightening fears it could struggle to cope with deep government spending cuts and higher taxes. Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday, after growth nearly stalled in the fourth quarter. Economists had expected a 3.0 percent growth pace." ...

... Washington Post: "A steep slowdown in defense spending tied to the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is undercutting the country’s economic recovery, new government data released Friday revealed." CW: oh. Government spending has an impact on the economy.

AP: "North Korea announced Saturday that [Kenneth Bae,] an American detained for nearly six months, is being tried in the Supreme Court on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, a crime that could draw the death penalty if he is convicted."

References (1)

References allow you to track sources for this article, as well as articles that were written in response to this article.
  • Response
    Response: valises rigides
    REALITYCHEX.COM - Constant Comments - The Commentariat -- April 27, 2013

Reader Comments (5)

Oh geez! Cannot believe the Dumb-old-rats (as my right-wing brother calls them) dealt in with the Repugs today in Congress to "restore" on-time air travel to themselves and the rest of the elite "business travelers"--while ignoring any restoration of funds to Head Start, Meals on Wheels, Cancer Research, and several other WORTHY programs. They are to my mind just as guilty as the admittedly selfish and ignorant Repugs! Am sickened that to realize that Obama's people let this one pass. Or maybe I can. YUK!

I like Anna Deavere Smith's idea on "Real Time with Bill Maher" tonight. She suggested the next time Congress has funding restored for the elites, that all of us contribute to a fund to fly into National Airport in Washington D.C. 40,000 Head Start kids and 20,000 Meals on Wheels Recipients--together with some patients who are being denied potential cancer treatments--and have them all line up across the airfield at National Airport so that planes full of Senate and Congressional asswipes cannot take off. I, for one, will be a contributor--and I bet most of you will be, too!

P.S. You may have noticed that I call it National Airport, rather than Reagan National Airport! Yes.....on purpose. Cannot believe the crazoids named that airport after "Bedtime with Bonzo." Since I lived there for 35 years, it will always be National Airport to me.

I am beyond pissed off!

April 27, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

One more thing to get off my mind about the rich and greedy!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/business/cancer-physicians-attack-high-drug-costs.html?pagewanted=all&src

Absolutely immoral--considering our European counterparts use the same drugs and charge much less. But then again, they are not trapped by the "greed factor" as is America.

A top researcher at OHSU in Portland, Oregon-- Dr. Brian Druker-- the main person in research to discover Gleevec to treat Acute Myloid Lukemia, is appalled--and had this to say:

“If you are making $3 billion a year on Gleevec, could you get by with $2 billion?” Dr. Druker, who is now director of the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Science University, said in an interview. “When do you cross the line from essential profits to profiteering?”

It should be noted that Dr. Druker, a physician with a conscience, gets NONE of the ridiculous profits Novartis receives--nor does he wish to. He sees his work as a benefit to his fellow humans, not an opportunity to "hold dying hostages for profit."

More is the shame! Will we ever be able to change this sick system?

April 27, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

Yesterday, the NYT offered an opinion piece by the captivating economic duo of Carmen "Miranda" Reinhart and Ken Rogaine-Rogoff. Interestingly the Comments sections was periodically unavailable. Checked the Opinion section this morning and comments on their piece were back. 320 of them. Most readers not buying the non-apologetic explanations. Then today, we get a front page article on "how austerity is NOT WORKING in Europe. More fodder for Krugman's future commentaries. Of course, he won't say "I told you so...", nah! too good an opportunity to pass on. Bet he will!


Here's today's story: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/world/europe/eu-is-pressed-to-reconsider-cuts-as-economic-cure.html?hp

"The flurry of activity comes after an influential academic paper embraced by austerity advocates as evidence that even recessionary economies should cut spending to avoid high debt levels, written by the Harvard scholars Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff, has come under attack for errors that opponents of austerity say helped lead European policy makers astray."

April 27, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Kate,

I find it particularly galling that an airport--any place, in fact, where anything larger than a glider can land, that doesn't need air traffic controllers--should be named after Ronnie the Union Killer. Perhaps Reagan had his own "sequester moment" back in the day when he used his hatred of unions to eviscerate air traffic controllers who were inconveniencing rich people.

But you're not alone in your naming preference. I still refer to it as Washington National. I mean, the place is already named for one president. Can anyone except purblind wingers convince themselves that President Bonzo offers a more worthy eponym than George Washington?

Name changes of established venues are rarely successful, except in corporate circles. I don't know a single Bostonian who says they're going to the TD Bank Garden to watch a Bruins game. It will always be the Boston Gahden for them. Likewise, whenever I fly into Chicago, I never look across the lake and think to myself, oh look, there's the Willis Tower. When I lived in the Village and walked west to my local laundromat I never thought to myself that I was heading toward the Avenue of the Americas. In all the years I lived there, the only people I ever heard refer to 6th Ave that way were tourists.

But according to Wikipedia, pilots flying into Washington National who put a call in to "Reagan Tower" are immediately disabused of that usage by air traffic controllers who let them know there is no such structure. It's either "Washington Tower" or "National Tower".

So Fuck that asshole, wherever he is, whether the Ninth Circle of Hell (for traitors) or the Eighth (for frauds), (Dante might try to vivisect him so he can inhabit both). President "There You Go Again" might be apotheosized by some, but not all. Not by a long shot.

And although I love Ms. Smith's idea, she doesn't consider the possibility that cancer patients and Meals on Wheels recipients, should they impede the Fakes' Progress at any airport, would be arrested and charged as enemy combatants. How dare anyone keep Rand Paul from showing up to mewl with the Sunday morning gasbags.

The idea!!

The poor, the starving, and the cancer ridden must now, and always, take a backseat to congressional mountebanks and their masters.

April 27, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

For those who can't get enough history articles, even economic history articles, I recommend:

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/139105/mark-blyth/the-austerity-delusion?page=8

April 27, 2013 | Unregistered Commentercowichan's opinion
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.