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.

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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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Tuesday
Feb282012

The Commentariat -- February 29, 2012

My column in the New York Times eXaminer is on Tom Friedman's latest. My column won't take you long to read and is meant to suggest, implicitly, that you can spend even less time on Friedman. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here.

Michael Hastings of Rolling Stone: "As Occupy Wall Street spread across the nation last fall..., the Department of Homeland Security began keeping tabs on the movement.... The five-page report --  contained in 5 million newly leaked documents examined by Rolling Stone in an investigative partnership with WikiLeaks -- goes on to sum up the history of Occupy Wall Street and assess its 'impact' on everything from financial services to government facilities."

President Obama spoke to U.A.W. members yesterday. And good luck, GOP candidates. You ain't gonna beat this guy:

     ... Greg Sargent on the President's speech. ...

     ... Jamelle Bouie of American Prospect: "Obama Smash!" Yep.

CW: This bears repeating. New York Times Editors: "A wave of mergers between Roman Catholic and secular hospitals is threatening to deprive women in many areas of the country of ready access to important reproductive services." ...

... CW: So does this. New York Times Editors: "The state [of New Hampshire] extended the right to marry to all its citizens in 2009, but right-wingers vowed to overturn the law and now stand a good chance of doing so. Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, has said he would veto such a bill, but the Republicans in both houses of the Legislature have veto-proof majorities.... Iintolerance, fear and an attempt to impose religious beliefs through the law [are the] motivations, and they have been evident in abundance. Representative David Bates, the Republican who filed the repeal bill, argues that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice...."

Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) launched a pre-emptive strike against the GOP’s forthcoming budget during a committee hearing Tuesday morning, arguing that the Republicans’ plan to transform Medicare through 'premium support' would increase costs for seniors. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) is expected to release the party’s budget sometime next month, which will call for lowering federal health spending by providing seniors with a 'premium support' voucher to purchase insurance from an exchange of private health care plans." With a good video of Van Hollen questioning Medicare's chief actuary during a Congressional hearing.

Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "Western spy agencies for years have kept watch on a craggy peak in northwest Iran that houses of one the world’s most unusual nuclear sites. Known as Fordow, the facility is built into mountain bunkers designed to withstand aerial attack. Iran’s civil-defense chief has declared the site 'impregnable.' But impregnable it is not, say U.S. military planners who are increasingly confident of their ability to deliver a serious blow against Fordow, should the president ever order an attack." CW: Maybe this article should be headlined "Washington Post Assists Obama Administration."

John Sides & Lynn Vavrek in Model Politics: "Mitt Romney’s most recent offhand remarks — about his wife’s 'couple of Cadillacs' and his friendships with NASCAR team owners — once again illuminated his privilege.  Meanwhile, Rick Santorum’s challenge to Romney is built on his possible appeal to blue-collar voters — an appeal that could even help Santorum against Obama in November." Below are the results of a mid-February poll, in graphic form. CW: I'm not sure who the poll respondents are: voters, likely voters, adults???

Steve Kornacki of Salon: "... even if she wasn’t particularly helpful to them these past few years, [Sen Olympia] Snowe [R-Maine] is doing Democrats a huge favor now [by deciding not to run for re-election]. With Snowe in it, Democrats had virtually no chance of winning the Maine Senate race this year. Now they are likely to do so, given the state’s partisan bent. Two Democrats, Chellie Pingree and Michael Michaud, represent the state in the U.S. House now and are potential candidates. So is John Baldacci, who was governor from 2003 to 2011, and Tom Allen, who gave up his House seat after six terms in 2008 to run unsuccessfully against Sen. Susan Collins. The race is not a gimme for Democrats.... But it’s very, very winnable for them."

Right Wing World

NEW. Interesting post by Charles Pierce on Kelo v. Keystone XL pipeline. What's a winger to do?

Jon Stewart provides an update on GOP primary results & explains how to cover the news in Right Wing World. (Don't be surprised if this video doesn't load for you; the Comedy Central site is down for maintenance, & I had to go elsewhere for the vid; this one is problematic.)

Amy Gardner of the Washington Post writes an overview of what happens next in the GOP primary march. ...

... Sean Trende of Real Clear Politics employs his homemade delegate counter to conclude that "Assuming that none of the four candidates drops out of the race, it looks increasingly as if no one will be able to claim a majority of the delegates. The candidate with the best chance is Mitt Romney, but he probably wouldn't be able to wrap up the nomination until May or even June. The other candidates will probably have to hope for a brokered convention." ...

... Nonetheless, Dana Milbank writes Mitt Romney's nomination acceptance speech. Pretty much in Romney's own words, and pretty funny. The speech begins: "Fellow Republicans, as I stand here tonight to accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States, I feel like a million bucks. Actually, I feel as if I am worth between 150 and about 200 some-odd million dollars. It is difficult to say with certainty because some of it is in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Luxembourg and a Swiss bank account."

The Hypocrite of the Week Award comes early, thanks to Jed Lewison of Daily Kos, who produced this video:

... BUT ALL the GOP Presidential Candidates Are Hypocrites. Paul Krugman: "... as Republicans yell about Obama’s deficits and cry that we’re turning into Greece..., all of them, all of them, propose making the deficit bigger [than Obama's proposed budget]. And for what? For reverse Robin-Hoodism, taking from the poor and the middle class to lavish huge tax cuts on the rich. And I believe that all of them know this, too. It’s pure hypocrisy – and it’s all in the service of class warfare waged on behalf of the top 0.1 or 0.01 percent of the income distribution."

Michael Barbaro & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "After a bruising week in which he drew unwanted attention to his wealth, by declaring that his wife owned two Cadillacs and that he was friends with Nascar team owners, Mr. Romney said he had made 'some mistakes,' acknowledging that those off-the-cuff comments had damaged his campaign.... As Republicans across Michigan headed to the polls, the race here took a volatile new turn with the admission from Rick Santorum’s campaign that it had begun urging Democratic voters to turn out at the polls on Tuesday and vote against Mr. Romney."

Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post: "While Mitt Romney is merely guilty of saying things that make him seem disconnected from the lives of most Americans, Rick Santorum makes ideological statements that make him appear to be disconnected from the present tense."

Local News

Richard Fausset of the Los Angeles Times: "... a new bill picking up steam in the statehouse in Atlanta would allow human history's most famous Top 10 List [-- the Ten Commandments --] to be displayed in all Georgia government buildings, including schools.... The bill ... is well-positioned to pass the state Senate. Rather predictably, the group Americans United For Separation of Church and State is raising red flags about the bill, and sending a pretty clear message to Georgia lawmakers: Thou shalt not feign surprise when thou art served with a lawsuit." CW: One of the funnier straight news reports you will read. Apparently the Georgia state legislators have nothing better to do than defy the U.S. Constitution & the intents of the Founding Fathers they so revere. Thanks to Dave S. for the link.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (1)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-ten-commandments-bill-20121129,0,2606486.story

The GOP continues to be a fountain of tone deaf nonsensical legislation. How many jobs will this create? How will it reduce inequality? Is this really all they have to offer when ALEC's not writing the Bills?

February 29, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterDaveS
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