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

Wednesday
Feb012012

The Commentariat -- February 2, 2012

My column in the New York Times eXaminer is on "Revisionist History at the New York Times -- How a Fact Becomes an Anonymous Accusation." The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here. ...

... Peter Hart of FAIR critiques the New York Times' odd coverage of President Obama's addressing a question about U.S. use of drones. Here's my favorite sentence from Hart's review: "Granting anonymity to official sources because of 'intense public interest' in a story is a little puzzling." ...

... AND economist Dean Baker explains to New York Times business writer Steven Davidoff why it's a good idea for the creators of collaterized loan obligations (CLOs) to "have skin in the game," a requirement of Dodd-Frank. Apparently, it didn't occur to Davidoff that these creative financiers occasionally might be dishonest.

... BTW, the comments section is open, comme d'habitude.

Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon: Susan B. Komen for the Cure "has repeatedly come under fire for its extravagant promotion of itself as an organization dedicated to a 'cure,' when only a small portion of its expenses go to, you know, curing cancer.... Komen has also ... aligned itself with more dubious product placement than a 'Jersey Shore' marathon.... Its senior vice president of public policy [is] Karen Handel. During the Sarah Palin-endorsed, Tea Party favorite’s 2010 campaign for governor of Georgia, Handel declared, 'I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood,' making clear that she 'strongly supports' laws prohibiting 'the use of taxpayer funds for abortions or abortion-related services.'" ...

... "Why the Right Hates Planned Parenthood." Irin Carmon of Slate: "As long as women remember Planned Parenthood as their lifesaver in providing sexual health counseling, emergency contraception or a pap smear, it’s harder to peg abortion providers as back-alley butchers. And it’s easier for them to understand the reality that abortion services are inseparable from any truly comprehensive women’s healthcare, whether one wants to choose them or not." ...

... Sam Baker of The Hill: "The country’s leading breast-cancer charity is facing massive blowback from the left over its decision to pull funding for cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics. Planned Parenthood’s supporters rallied to its defense, pouring money into the controversial organization and threatening to walk away in droves from the Susan G. Komen foundation." ...

... Gardiner Harris & Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "... the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, is now engulfed in a controversy that threatens to undermine one of the most successful advocacy campaigns. The foundation’s decision to eliminate most of its grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening caused a cascade of criticism from prominent women’s groups, politicians and public health advocates and a similarly strong outpouring of support from conservative women and religious groups that oppose abortion. Now, leaders of both the Komen foundation and Planned Parenthood are accusing each other of bad faith and actions that undermine women." CW: She said/she said. 'Nuff said.

Steve Benen: "When making a list of what issues are likely to be important in the general election, it's probably best to put housing policy near the top of the list." President Obama took his first shot at Romney:

It is wrong for anyone to suggest that the only option for struggling, responsible homeowners is to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom. I refuse to accept that, and so do the American people. -- Barack Obama, yesterday

Don't try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom. -- Mitt Romney, in October 2011

      ... Here's President Obama, speaking in Falls Church, Virginia, yesterday:

Right Wing World

Qoute of the Day:

 ... "The Safety Net Is Not a Hammock." Joan Walsh of Salon: "... not only will Romney not repair the safety net, he is likely to shred it further. Romney supports Paul Ryan’s budget plan, which would cut funding for virtually all the federal programs that help the poor. In fact, Romney’s own budget proposals would make even deeper cuts.... And Romney’s tax plan raises taxes on the bottom 20 percent of families, while giving millionaires a $146,000 tax break." ...

... Here's Walsh on Chris Matthews' show with John Harris, one of the executive editors of Politico. In case anyone has bought into the right's ludicrous claim that Politico is a left-wing rag, I give you -- John Harris:

... Jamison Foser of Media Matters has an excellent post on just how much Willard cares about "the plight of the poor," and how different he is from his father George Romney, who actually did care. ...

... Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "... for a campaign that has itself been accused of taking President Obama’s words out of context, the remark about the poor immediately became cataloged in a growing list of awkward comments by Mr. Romney, including a remark that his speaking fees last year of $374,327 were 'not very much' and his line that 'corporations are people.'” CW: "Been accused of"? Um, Romney's campaign did take the President's remarks out of context, used them in an ad, & Romney himself boasted about it. The ad got a Pants-on-Fire "award" from PolitiFact. How would Parker know? Gosh, she herself wrote last year that the Obama quote was "taken out of context." ...

... Like Mitt Romney and me, you may be guilty of not feeling sorry enough for billionaires. Fortunately, Ted Olsen, former Bush II solicitor general and current attorney for the Koch brothers, feels their pain. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed yesterday, Olsen complains that in a move of Nixonian & McCarthyite proportions, President Obama has placed Charles & David Koch who are, after all, merely "private citizens," on an "enemies list." Olsen writes, "it is exceedingly important for all Americans to respond with outrage to what the president and his allies are doing to demonize and stigmatize David and Charles Koch." CW: Though Olsen implies in his lede that, "the president of the United States singled [the Kochs] out by name for attack," the evidence for this enemies list of two, according to this winger report, is an ad that doesn't actually name the Kochs. Olsen himself does not name a single instance in which the president on his minions of wannabe McCarthys have defamed his upstanding, philanthropic clients. Nonetheless, please, please, let us hear your outrage. As for me, I have no earthly idea how a somewhat unflattering image of a Two-Headed Koch Monster found its way onto this page. ...

     ... Ed Kilgore: "I bow in admiration to the craftsmanship with which Olsen turns the Kochs’ vast, unprecedented empire of political agitprop, special-interest lobbying, and campaign skullduggery into a wonkish set of policy preferences."

... The Confederate States of the Newt. Steve Kornacki of Salon: "The blue counties were won by Mitt Romney, while Gingrich carried the red ones.... Given that he ran 14 points behind Romney statewide, it’s striking that Gingrich actually finished first in so many counties, and his margins in some of them were considerable; all told, he beat Romney by double-digits in 20 counties." This is why Newt will keep running at least through Super Tuesday, when a number of Southern states vote. CW: There's a reason they call the Florida Panhandle the "Redneck Riviera." ...

... Ed Kilgore of the Washington Monthly: "Basically, the more a county resembled GA or AL, the more likely it was that Newt would win, and that, of course, will be part of his rationale for continuing on, at least to states where Crackro-Americans dominate."

Local News

Mary Beth Schneider & Chris Sikich of the Indianapolis Star: "Gov. Mitch Daniels signed 'right to work' legislation this afternoon without a ceremony, making Indiana the 23rd state in the nation with the law." Earlier in the day, "the Senate voted 28 to 22 today to pass the controversial labor union bill, as thousands of protesters packed Statehouse hallways shouting their disapproval, with thousands more lined-up outside waiting to get in."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Senate passed a sweeping new ethics bill on Thursday that would ban insider trading by members of Congress and require prompt disclosure of stock transactions by lawmakers and by thousands of officials in the executive branch of government.... President Obama called for passage of such legislation in his State of the Union address last week. More than half of House members, including at least 100 Republicans, have signaled support for it, and House Republican leaders said Thursday that they would schedule consideration of the Senate-passed bill on the House floor next week."

New York Times: "The police in several Egyptian cities on Thursday night battled with thousands of die-hard soccer fans angry at the military-led government’s failure to prevent dozens of deaths at a soccer riot in Port Said the previous night."

Bloomberg News: "Claims for U.S. jobless benefits fell last week, a sign the labor market is improving. Applications for unemployment insurance payments dropped by 12,000 to 367,000 in the week ended Jan. 28, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington."

New York Times: "The hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers took a new turn on Thursday when a lawmaker said police investigations had spread to the flagship Times of London. The revelation came a day after lawyers said an e-mail referring to 'a nightmare scenario' of legal repercussions from widespread phone hacking at the News of the World tabloid was deleted from James Murdoch’s computer less than two weeks before the police opened investigations."

New York Times: Washington [State] appeared almost certain to become the seventh state to allow same-sex marriage after the State Senate voted late Wednesday for a measure that would allow gay and lesbian couples to marry beginning this summer." Seattle Times story here.

Bloomberg News: "Facebook Inc. (FB)’s initial public offering may value Mark Zuckerberg’s stake at $28.4 billion, making him richer than >Google Inc. (GOOG)’s co-founders and almost on par with Larry Ellison, who started Oracle Corp. (ORCL) 35 years ago."

The Guardian is liveblogging the second & final day of Julian Assange's extradition appeal before the British Supreme Court.

New York Times: "Alzheimer’s disease seems to spread like an infection from brain cell to brain cell, two new studies in mice have found. But instead of viruses or bacteria, what is being spread is a distorted protein known as tau. The surprising finding answers a longstanding question and has immediate implications for developing treatments, researchers said. And they suspect that other degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson’s may spread in a similar way."

ABC News: "Mitt Romney offered harsh criticism of a plan outlined by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to possibly withdraw U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan in 2013, calling the administration's decision to announce its military plans to the world 'misguided' and 'naive.'"

Reader Comments (1)

As I was out running errands this morning, I heard part of a discussion on NPR about Freddie Mac betting against homeowners refinancing. Is there no shame in the corporate and financial world?

For those who didn't catch it last week, Bill Moyers's interview with David Stockman was very interesting. Moyers and Stockman agree that in this country we don't have a free market or a democracy, but have instead crony capitalism. I'd highly recommend watching the discussion:

http://billmoyers.com/video/
The program from this past Sunday is also in the same vein, but I haven't had time to watch it yet.

For some humor to sugar a bitter pill, Jon Stewart had an excellent segment on Mitt Romney aka "Bain Man," which includes a nice touché at the end:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-31-2012/indecision-2012---bain-man

The techniques the financiers create to feather their own nests are mind boggling, but Stewart does a good job of making them at least somewhat understandable. And then in the extended interview with Jonathan Macey, a Yale professor of corporate law, a serious Stewart pushes at the issues of fairness and morality (or lack thereof) in private equity firms, and the discussion heads to the state of crony capitalism. Highly recommended. If only the msm would seriously raise these issues.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-31-2012/exclusive---jonathan-macey-extended-interview-pt--1

This country is in serious trouble, I fear.

February 2, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterJanice
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.