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
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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

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Wednesday
Apr042012

The Commentariat -- April 5, 2012

The Constant Weader Is Out Sick Today

If you want to post links to articles you find interesting, please do. Because your comment might get stuck in my annoying Approval Limbo, you might not want to bother to write long, thoughtful comments; if I malinger for days, your thoughts could linger for days unread.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (15)

Get well I miss you!

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterTuli

The light that shines from your mind and heart will soon shine again from your eyes. Thank you, from this grateful and admiring lurker.

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered Commenterjerry wechsler

Best wishes for a complete recovery. You are missed

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterPrairie

Marie,

Here's wishing you a speedy recovery.

The rest of us, watch out. Anything could happen while Marie's not around to keep everyone in line!

Look! Is that Paul Ryan I see picking the pockets of little old ladies? He knew just when to go to work. Otherwise he'd be getting a serious ass kicking.

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Heal well, heal quickly, Marie. Meanwhile, during the sight-out, a cheerful song re atheism, which we share, sung by Steve Martin and group "Atheists don't have no songs," might amuse you. Unless you, as so many others, hate the banjo...then never mind. Best wishes. May the lilies thrive as you rest and get better. Barb

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterBarbara Dix

Get well soon. Miss you.
Mae Finch

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMae Finch

Take care! I can't read the Times without checking to see what you have to say.

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered Commenteralphonsegaston

Here's a toast to you and your speedy recovery (it must be cocktail
hour somewhere!) Sincerely, we miss your words of wisdom.

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered Commenterforrest morris

Ditto on all comments!

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterJulie in Massachusetts

Get well soon!

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterE. Adams

Marie- please get well soon. The scoundrels are still at it.

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered Commenterwaltwis

Marie, thought I'd try to cheer you up by sharing my response to Our Mr. Brooks from this morning. It'll show up on the Times around 2 p.m., if at all:

One question from here in the clearly dumb peanut gallery: Why is the government giving people money to buy insurance from private companies that provide health insurance, each according to its own standard, superior to the government providing healthcare for its citizens?

Also, basta, David. The Republicans have been cavorting around like baboons in a "how drunk can we get them before they fall asleep" scientific experiment. I hear nothing from you during the entire debacle that is the Republican primaries; now, you admit that the Republicans have acted like idiots in order to set a standard that you can then accuse the President of exceeding.

Whether or not Republicans ever win another national election (and, given the combination of aggressive ignorance, latent racism, and patronizing sophists like yourself to justify the most arrant nonsense and cruelty), you and they have lost any moral high ground on which you pretend to stand. It's all a charade now, David. Your party has had repealing the New Deal on its collective small mind for seventy years; now's your chance while the country is still reeling from eight years of rapacious indifference to the nation's economic and moral standing.

April 6, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterJack Mahoney

Marie, as an appreciative reader, I hope every day finds you feeling better and better!

All best wishes,
Francie

April 6, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterFrancie

@Jack: After reading your post I immediately went to Brooks. Usually the guy doesn't get my dander up, but his column today was infuriating. Obama puts on the gloves, goes into that ring and lets out one punch after another in order to reveal Ryan's profoundly radical document peppered with ideological biases and Brooks says it's a lack of decorum? Doesn't Brooks read Krugman? What a treat it would be to have those two in an exchange over this issue. Obama could be the ring master and bring water to Brooks who would be running out of steam.

April 6, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

I hope your eye is healing well! I look forward to an even clearer and more sane look at the world when you return!

April 6, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterLisa
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