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.

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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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Thursday
Dec082011

The Commentariat -- December 9

** Chris Spannos, editor of the New York Times eXaminer, discusses the mainstream media's coverage of Occupy Wall Street with Kalle Lasn, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Adbusters magazine, and author of "Culture Jam." Lasn's Adbusters first proposed Occupy Wall Street. Includes audio. ...

... My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on David Brooks' comparison of Mitt Romney & Newt Gingrich. I incorporate remarks on Krugman's column, linked below. ...

... Paul Krugman compares the real Willard Romney with the fictional Gordon Gekko of "Wall Street." Main difference: the SEC gave the fictional character his comeuppance; Romney's still around bragging about his "business expertise," an expertise that meant more money for him and his wealthy partners, fewer jobs for Americans. ...

CW: AND the views of A Brain-Dead Simpleton (that would be me) on today's Off Times Square. Plus, I'm interested in hearing your own views on HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' decision not to allow OTC sale of the morning-after Plan B pill. (See also today's Ledes & yesterday's Commentariat & OTS.) ...

... More "Science Takes a Holiday" from Bryan Walsh of Time on the Obama Administration's Plan B politics.

If you think Jon Stewart is just a comedian, you have another think coming:

Michelle Goldberg of the Daily Beast: "Already under fire from Catholics, the Obama administration clearly caved to conservative pressure when it overruled an FDA decision to expand the accessibility of a morning-after pill.... What’s confusing, though, is why the White House thinks it’s a smart strategy to try and appease its foes while infuriating its friends." CW: Obviously, what is needed and which just as obviously won't happen, is for Obama to overrule HHS Secretary Sebelius. It would be a smart, dramatic move. It would also be, you know, the ethical, humane and scientifically-supported thing to do. But this is politics. Some little girls will just have to have babies. BTW, all other arguments aside, does anybody think pregnancy is not a health risk for young girls? This is stupid and cruel any way you look at it.

Bob Reich on President Obama's Osawatomie speech: "Here, finally, is the Barack Obama many of us thought we had elected in 2008. Since then we’ve had a president who has only reluctantly stood up to the moneyed interests Teddy Roosevelt and his cousin Franklin stood up to." ...

... Here is a very fine post from Charles Pierce titled "President Obama Does Not Fully Understand the 99 Percent." With great irreverence, Pierce often gets to the heart of the political dynamic, and this is one of those times.

Jonathan Bernstein of the Washington Post: Senate Republicans' successful filibuster of Richard Cordray, President Obama's nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is yet another instance of "a radical tactic that defies Senate and Constitutional norms as they were understood from the dawn of the republic up through 2008." Here's the President on the filibuster:

Oops! Matt Yglesias of Salon: while whining that his tax rate was too high, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who is also president of the One Percenters Whiners' Club (a hotly-contested position with fellow 1%ers constantly jockeying to topple Dimon), accidentally said he'd be fine with the tax increase President Obama has proposed for millionaires & billionaires.

Adam Sorensen of Time: having flamed out in its attempt to turn Elizabeth Warren into an Occupy Wall Street anarchist, Crossroads GPS, a/k/a Karl Rove & Friends, has done a 180, putting out an ad claiming Warren is Wall Street's BFF. Pretty soon, Karl, even the disengaged voter may notice your ads are stunning, contradictory lies. With video I won't run. ...

... Lawrence O'Donnell speaks to Prof. Warren, where they discuss this ad & the Senate Republicans' refusal to allow a confirmation vote for Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

Prof. Eric Segall, writing in Slate, makes the case that Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan should recuse herself from hearing the Affordable Care Act challenge coming before the court. Segall says he is a liberal Democrat who supports the law.

Andrew Grossman of the Wall Street Journal: "New York University plans to offer two classes next semester on [Occupy Wall Street], whose participants frequently marched and rallied around the school’s Greenwich Village campus this fall. The for-credit undergraduate class, offered through the university’s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, examines economy and culture."

Right Wing World

Vicki Needham of The Hill: "GOP leaders hope to build momentum for an end-of-year tax package with sweeping reforms to federal unemployment benefits. The Republican proposal is expected to reduce the total number of weeks unemployed workers are eligible for aid by as much as 40 weeks and tighten rules for eligibility." See also today's Ledes. ...

... Digby on "the next step in our Randian dystopia: stigmatize the unemployed."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry is out with a new television ad in Iowa that accuses President Obama of engaging in a 'war on religion' and criticizes his decision to overturn the 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' policy for gays in the military. 'I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a Christian,' the Texas governor says in the spot. 'But you don’t have to be in the pew every Sunday to know that there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military, but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school. As president, I’ll end Obama’s war on religion, and I’ll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage.'” Includes embedded ad.

Photos via AmericaBlog.Rick Perry Comes out of the Closet. Matt Ortega of AmericaBlog: "Rick Perry launched an anti-gay ad called, 'Strong.' In the ad, he attacks gays openly serving in the armed forces. As it turns out, the gays get their revenge... the jacket Rick Perry wore in the ad? Heath Ledger wore it in 'Brokeback Mountain.'" CW: I won't run the original ad, but this follow-up is pretty sweet:

... And here's another F/U from Andy Cobb of Second City:

... Jon Bershad of Mediaite has a post on the Perry ad titled "The Internet Really Hates Rick Perry and His 'Gay Soldiers Are Killing Christmas' Ad" that includes another spoof too yucky for me to post.

News Ledes

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "The nation's highest court late Friday temporarily blocked the interim court-drawn boundaries that form state legislative and congressional districts for next year's election. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an emergency challenge by Texas Republicans to determine which maps should be used in next year's elections in Texas, setting Jan. 9 as the date they will hear arguments."

New York Times: "European leaders, meeting until the early hours of Friday, agreed to sign an intergovernmental treaty that would require them to enforce stricter fiscal and financial discipline in their future budgets. But efforts to get unanimity among the 27 members of the European Union, as desired by Germany, failed as Britain and Hungary refused to go along for now. Importantly, all 17 members of the European Union that use the euro agreed to the new treaty, along with six other countries who wish to join the currency union one day." ...

... Guardian: "Britain is facing isolation in Europe after David Cameron vetoed a revision of the Lisbon treaty, prompting a majority of EU members to agree to draw up their own deal outside the architecture of the union. In one of the most significant developments in Britain's 38-year membership of the EU, the British prime minister said early on Friday morning he could not allow a "treaty within a treaty" that would undermine the UK's position in the single market."

BBC: "Iranian TV has shown the first video footage of an advanced US drone aircraft that Tehran says it downed 140 miles (225km) from the Afghan border. Images show Iranian military officials inspecting the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft which appears to be undamaged." ...

     ... Fox "News": "U.S. officials have confirmed to Fox News that images aired by Iranian state television do in fact show the secret U.S. drone that went down last week in eastern Iran."

New York Times: "President Obama, who took office pledging to put science ahead of politics, averted a skirmish with conservatives in the nation’s culture wars on Thursday by endorsing his health secretary’s decision to block over-the-counter sales of an after-sex contraceptive pill to girls under age 17."

The Hill: "Senate Republicans blocked the latest installment of President Obama's jobs plan — a bill to extend the payroll tax cut — for the second week in a row on Thursday. The bill, titled the Middle Class Tax Cut Act, was shot down 50-48. It would have cut the payroll tax paid by employees to 3.1 percent from the current 4.2 percent while funding itself by imposing a surtax on millionaires." ...

... New York Times: "Pivoting to challenge President Obama and Senate Democrats, House Republicans said Thursday that they would forge ahead with a payroll tax holiday bill that includes an oil pipeline opposed by the president and that looks to changes in social programs to pay for the tax cut and added unemployment benefits."

ABC News: "The Supreme Court will meet behind closed doors on Friday to take a first look at a challenge to Arizona's strict immigration law and decide whether or not to take up the case. The law, passed in April 2010, is one of several recent attempts by various states to play a more aggressive role in immigration-related matters. The Obama administration challenged the Arizona law as soon as it passed, arguing that it interferes with existing federal law."

New York Times: "Jon S. Corzine, who came to Washington in 2001 as a Democratic senator from New Jersey, made a humbling return on Thursday, defending his tenure as MF Global’s top executive and sounding a note of contrition about the brokerage firm’s startling collapse. Mr. Corzine told the House Agriculture Committee that he was 'stunned' when he learned late on Oct. 30 that about $1 billion of customer money could not be located, a discovery that thwarted a sale of the firm and led to its filing for bankruptcy."

Guardian: "Vladimir Putin has accused Hillary Clinton ... of fomenting an increasingly vociferous opposition movement in Russia, threatening to derail the two countries' fragile resetting of relations."

Washington Post: "The leaders of a congressional committee investigating the Dover Air Force Base mortuary said Thursday that they would broaden their probe to include all military burial practices over the past decade, including reports that partial remains of hundreds of war dead were incinerated and dumped in a Virginia landfill."

AP: "The family of retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished years ago in Iran, issued a plea to his kidnappers Friday and, for the first time, released a hostage video they received from his unidentified captors. The video message released on the Levinson family’s website publicly transformed the mysterious disappearance into an international hostage standoff. Despite a lengthy investigation, however, the U.S. government has no evidence of who is holding the 63-year-old father of seven."

The Apprentices Decline. ABC News: "Michele Bachmann has officially said 'no' to the Donald Trump-moderated Newsmax debate scheduled for later this month.... So, this leaves just two candidates — Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum — who plan to show up at the Dec. 27 event in Des Moines. Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, Rick Perry, Ron Paul have all declined to attend. Perry became the latest to decline Trump’s invitation on Thursday."

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