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.

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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

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Friday
Dec202013

The Commentariat -- Dec. 21, 2013

Justin Greiser of the Washington Post: Today "is the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, marking our shortest daylight period and longest night of the year. At 12:11 p.m. EST on December 21, the sun appears directly overhead along the Tropic of Capricorn, at 23.5 degrees south latitude. With the Earth's north pole at its maximum tilt from the sun, locations north of the equator see the sun follow its lowest and shortest arc across the southern sky."

White House: "In his weekly address, President Obama highlights the bipartisan budget agreement that unwinds some of the cuts that were damaging to the economy and keeps investments in areas that help us grow, and urges both parties to work together to extend emergency unemployment insurance and act on new measures to create jobs and strengthen the middle class":

Philip Rucker & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama said Friday that he would review the National Security Agency's far-reaching surveillance programs over the holiday break and would make a 'pretty definitive statement' in January about possible reforms.... He signaled that he may end the NSA's collection and storage of millions of Americans' phone records and instead require phone companies to hold the data. More broadly, Obama indicated that his views on the viability of the NSA's surveillance programs have changed significantly since they were publicly revealed in June." CW: The President's remarks lend weight to POV conveyed in the WashPo piece I questioned yesterday.

Here's the full transcript of the President's remarks. ...

... Abby Phillip of ABC News: "President Obama acknowledged that his administration 'screwed it up' on the rollout of the Affordable Care Act in an end-of-year news conference at the White House today but, eager to pivot to 2014, suggested that the new year should be a 'year of action' on his economic priorities.... He announced that more than 1 million people had signed up for health insurance through federal and state marketplaces." ...

... AP: "The Obama administration says nearly 3.9 million people have qualified for coverage through the health care law's Medicaid expansion. The numbers released Friday cover the period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30 and underscore a pattern of Medicaid outpacing the law's expansion of private insurance. Through the same time period, about 365,000 people had signed up for subsidized private insurance through new federal and state markets." ...

... Dylan Scott of TPM: "After the Obama administration announced Thursday that it would exempt Americans whose health plans had been canceled from Obamacare's individual mandate, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said Friday morning that the mandate should be delayed for everybody for one year." ...

... Dylan Scott: "... some of the law's most ardent supporters acknowledge that the administration seems to have cracked open a door that could be difficult to close. 'I think by itself this is a not a huge problem. This group should be relatively small,' Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economist who helped craft Obamacare, told TPM. 'But I think that the administration has to hold the line here. More widespread cracks in the mandate could start to cause enormous problems for insurers.'"

James Ball & Nick Hopkins of the Guardian: "British and American intelligence agencies had a comprehensive list of surveillance targets that included the EU's competition commissioner, German government buildings in Berlin and overseas, and the heads of institutions that provide humanitarian and financial help to Africa, top-secret documents [provided by Edward Snowden] reveal. The papers show GCHQ, in collaboration with America's National Security Agency (NSA), was targeting organisations such as the United Nations development programme, the UN's children's charity Unicef and Médecins du Monde, a French organisation that provides doctors and medical volunteers to conflict zones. The head of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) also appears in the documents, along with text messages he sent to colleagues." ...

... Laura Poitras, et al., in Der Spiegel: "Documents from the archive of whistleblower and former NSA worker Edward Snowden show that Britain's GCHQ signals intelligence agency has targeted European, German and Israeli politicians for surveillance." ...

... The New York Times story, by James Glanz & Andrew Lehren is here.

Paul Kane & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "In a series of largely party-line votes, the Senate approved the confirmations of a deputy to the Department of Homeland Security, a lower-level federal judge and a commissioner to the Internal Revenue Service, while setting up a final vote early next month for the confirmation of Janet Yellen to become chairman of the Federal Reserve."

Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "Proponents of Senate legislation that threatens Iran with tough new sanctions if nuclear negotiators fail to reach a comprehensive agreement contend it will pressure the Iranians to honor the pledges they made.... But a number of American and Iranian political analysts say the legislation could have the opposite effect by undermining President Hassan Rouhani.... The Obama administration's condemnation of the legislation, introduced Thursday, was partly aimed at assuring Mr. Rouhani that it has little prospect of advancing."

In case you missed the disgusting stuff Phil Robertson of "Duck Nasty" said in his GQ interview, Taylor Berman has the rundown in Gawker. ...

... ** Ta-Nehisi Coates on "Phil Robertson's America." CW: Ignorant bigots like Phil Robertson are useful only in that they engender responses like Coates.' ...

... Paul Waldman on "the conservatives now rallying to Robertson's cause.... And my conservative friends, the next time you're wondering why gay people, black people, and pretty much anybody who is a minority of any kind all consider you intolerant? It isn't liberals unfairly maligning you. It's this kind of thing." CW: Sorry, Paul, I don't think they're paying attention:

Phil Robertson, star of the A&E series 'Duck Dynasty,' is the 'Rosa Parks' of our generation. In December 1955, Rosa Parks took a stand against an unjust societal persecution of black people, and in December 2013, Robertson took a stand against persecution of Christians. -- Ian Bayne, a Republican candidate for Illinois's 11th Congressional District, in a fundraising letter

Local News

Brooke Adams of the Salt Lake Tribune: "A federal judge in Utah Friday struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage, saying the law violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantees of equal protection and due process. Ryan Bruckman, spokesman for the Utah Attorney General's Office, said its attorneys plan to appeal the decision and were currently drafting a motion to seek a stay of the ruling "as quickly as we can get it taken care of."

Brian Maffly of the Salt Lake Tribune: "Oil shale production can now move forward in Utah. Regulators on Friday issued a groundwater permit to Red Leaf Resources, a Utah company planning to develop a shale mine and below-grade ovens to heat ore mined from state land in the Uinta Basin.... The permit issued by the Utah Division of Water Quality is the last big hurdle for North America's first commercial oil shale mine. Red Leaf said it expects mining operations to begin in the spring."

Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: Former governor's mansion chef Todd Schneider, who provided authorities with the first tip about Virginia Gov. & Mrs. Bob McDonnell's acceptance of unreported gifts, disses on the McDonnells. The lovely Maureen is a screamer, sez he.

Senate Race or Something

"I Never Did Say Poor Kids." Catherine Thompson of TPM: "Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) on Friday told CNN's 'New Day' that he should have clarified his comments suggesting schools that subsidize students' meals make those students work for a free lunch.... The congressman told CNN that his comments weren't a 'policy statement,' and complained about a lack of open discussion on the matter. 'This is not targeted to any one group,' Kingston said. 'It would be very helpful for kids in any socio-economic group to do chores and learn the work ethic. Those kids aren't there because of any fault of their own and I never suggested that they were.' ... 'I never did say poor kids,' he added." CW: Ole Jack doesn't seem to know that rich & upper-middle-class kids don't get federally subsidized meals (children who receive free meals must live in families that receive no more than 130 percent of the poverty level). But, hey, when you've dug a hole for yourself, you might as well did it deeper.

News Ledes

New York Times: "United States aircraft flying into a heavily contested region of South Sudan to evacuate American citizens were attacked on Saturday and forced to turn back without completing the mission, American officials said. Four service members were wounded, one seriously. South Sudan officials said the attack had been carried out by rebel forces. President Obama had sent 45 American servicemen to South Sudan to 'support the security of U.S. personnel and our embassy,' he said on Thursday."

AP: "Astronauts removed an old space station pump Saturday, sailing through the first of a series of urgent repair spacewalks to revive a crippled cooling line. The two Americans on the crew, Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins, successfully pulled out the ammonia pump with a bad valve -- well ahead of schedule."

Guardian: "Egypt has announced that 130 people who escaped from jail during the uprising against the former president Hosni Mubarak -- including former president Mohamed Morsi -- will face trial. These are the third set of charges brought against Morsi since he was removed by the army in July and they intensify the relentless repression of his Muslim Brotherhood group in the months that followed."

AP: "President Barack Obama is starting his annual winter vacation in Hawaii on a quiet note.... The president and his wife, daughters and two dogs arrived late Friday and headed to a beachside home in the sleepy Honolulu suburb of Kailua. Obama got a late start Saturday, and by early afternoon was golfing with friends. The Obamas vacation every year in Hawaii, where Obama was born. This is the first year that last-minute wrangling in Congress didn't prevent them from departing on schedule."

Las Vegas Sun: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was released from the hospital [Friday] after being diagnosed as suffering from exhaustion and not anything more serious...."

Washington Post: "A federal judge on Friday gave President Ronald Reagan's would-be assassin [John Hinckley, Jr.] modestly more freedom, allowing the 58-year-old who has lived and received mental health treatment for more than three decades at St. Elizabeths Hospital to spend 17 days a month visiting his mother's home town of Williamsburg, Va."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (9)

So is there any surprise here?

I don't have immediate access to a breakdown of government projections of who of the 40 plus million uninsured would take advantage of the ACA but am thinking that the majority of the groups that did not have coverage but wanted it did not because 1) they couldn't afford it and would thus constitute the group eligible for expanded Medicaid coverage and 2) the young and invulnerable, who might want to risk another year or two of dodging the statistical, hence not for anyone considered individually, inevitable math.

Since it seems that it is the first category taking the trouble to sign up for the ACA in larger numbers, looks like they're not really all that lazy, doesn't it? They're just motivated, and they don't even have to sweep a cafeteria to practice or prove it.

Another take on the numbers from my son, who has his own motivation for following them:

"20% of the way there (Affordable Care Act sign-ups), from now until March 31 to get the rest...to meet CBO goal/prediction.
I actually/actuar-illy wonder whether the number of sign-ups might end up being higher due to the cancellations in the individual market (I've heard 5 million cancellations nationwide, which would increase the uninsured population in this chart to 55 million (including the 12 million who will not be covered by ACA due to to immigration status."

The chart:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AheStIw2-5S0dGkwbEJTalVNcERJQjBlWUcxbFp6M3c&usp=sharing#gid=6

December 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Canada's Supreme Court has struck down major federal anti-prostitution laws concluding that Parliament has the power to regulate against nuisances but not at the cost of the health, safety and lives of prostitutes. Justices found that the purpose of the laws was to protect "good upstanding neighbourhoods" from the unsightliness of sex workers plying their trade without considering the risks to the women.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/supreme-court-rules-on-prostitution-laws/article16067485/

December 20, 2013 | Unregistered Commentercowichan's opinion

FYI: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/12/i-got-myself-arrested-so-i-could-look-inside-the-justice-system/282360/#comments. This article of judicial system practices makes me think NYC needs a concerted effort to be boycotted by anyone remotely considered pro-civil rights. I'll take time later to see if the "flex your rights" stuff that the ACLU has previously published has expanded to contest this complete travesty, let alone notion, of the practice of justice in NYC courts.

I hope he put his assets in an asset protection trust before doing this protest.

December 21, 2013 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625

One of the stories that caught my attention this week was the Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade's arrest in N.Y. due to her scamming her hired nanny/maid from our labor law's set wage. Unfortunately, bad reporting had this woman in handcuffs(not true) in front of her children (not true) whom she had dropped off at school, cavity searched (not true) and thrown in a cell with dangerous criminals(not true). I found the outrage displayed in India appalling given their history of exploitation. I searched for some article that covered an interview from the nanny herself, but to no avail. I did find the article below by an Indian journalist who fleshes out the Indian perspective:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/21/opinion/having-a-servant-is-not-a-right.html?ref=todayspaper

December 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Interesting.

The candy-store effect of Obamacare.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131219154545.htm#.UrWxAVRlsWM.email

December 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

Gary Wills pans Joe (The Moderate Republican) Scarborough's new book and his version of history.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/jan/09/can-he-save-gop-itself/

December 21, 2013 | Unregistered Commentercowichan's opinion

@Re: Robertson: What a phony! He comes across as an ignoramus, but he has a bachelor's and master's degrees fom Lousiana Tech, and was a teacher for several years. Played quarterback for La Tech just ahead of Terry Bradshaw.

I'll give him the fact that he's a very successful businessman who appears to have made it on his own. He's also a recovering alcoholic. In my experience, there's no fanatic like a reformed addict who frequenly substitutes one addiction for another. In his case, religion for alcohol. That's my opinion, not necessarily a scientific fact. All that being said, he's still a homophbic, racist bigot.

December 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/20/1263810/-Jesus-Rebranded

Humor break!

December 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa

American medecine thru Australian eyes:
http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2013/december/1385816400/karen-hitchcock/health-care-american-style

December 21, 2013 | Unregistered Commentercowichan's opinion
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