The Ledes

Thursday, July 3, 2025

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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Thursday
Feb022012

The Commentariat -- February 3, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is titled "Brooksio ad Absurdum -- Start the Revolution without Him." I touch on Brooks' Tuesday column, too, which was merely duplicitous, smarmy and racist -- not absurd. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute to NYTX here.

** Jennifer Preston & Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "The nation’s leading breast cancer advocacy organization confronted the growing furor Thursday to its decision to largely end its decades-long partnership with Planned Parenthood, with rising dissension in its own ranks and a roiling anger on the Internet showing the power of social media to harness protest." ...

... Michael Paulson & Kate Taylor of the New York Times: New York City "Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, responding to the controversy over a breast cancer advocacy group that cut off most of its grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening, said Thursday that he would make up a large part of the missing money. Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire with a long-term interest in public health, said he would give Planned Parenthood Federation of America a $250,000 matching gift — he will donate $1 for every new dollar Planned Parenthood raises up to $250,000." ...

... Andrea Mitchell lights into Nancy Brinker, the founder of the Susan G. Komer Foundation; then Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) & Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) pile on:

... The New York Times Editorial Board accuses the Susan G. Komen Foundation of betraying women & politicizing a non-political matter: "To try to justify its move, the foundation cited a new policy against making grants to groups under federal or state investigation — in Planned Parenthood’s case, an inquiry into how it spends its taxpayer money by Representative Cliff Stearns, a Republican of Florida.... Mr. Stearns’s 'investigation' is nothing more than a political witch hunt, stirred up by Republican leaders and by a right-wing antichoice group, Americans United for Life, which now displays the pink ribbon on its Web site as part of a fund-raising campaign for Komen. The inquiry is part of the Republican campaign to stigmatize Planned Parenthood...." CW: as Sen. Boxer points out, the foundation keeps coming up with new excuses. ...

... E. J. Graff of the American Prospect reprises what others have reported about the foundation's ulterior motives for cutting off Planned Parenthood.

In Case You Hadn't Noticed. Edward Wyatt of the New York Times: "Even as the Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped up its investigations of Wall Street in the last decade, the agency has repeatedly allowed the biggest firms to avoid punishments specifically meant to apply to fraud cases. By granting exemptions to laws and regulations that act as a deterrent to securities fraud, the S.E.C. has let financial giants like JPMorganChase, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America continue to have advantages reserved for the most dependable companies, making it easier for them to raise money from investors, for example, and to avoid liability from lawsuits if their financial forecasts turn out to be wrong."

Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "... the [Obama] administration has put together a far-ranging set of proposals" to help bring back or keep manufacturing jobs in the U.S. "It all adds up to what economists might call an industrial policy, the out-of-favor practice of using tariffs, taxes and other measures to help a particular industry." CW: oh gosh, once again Obama has failed to listen to Tom Friedman. ...

... Prof. Duncan Moore in a New York Times op-ed: "... there is no single answer for cities facing the departure of a major employer, and there are many things unique to Rochester, Pittsburgh and San Diego that have allowed them to thrive where others have foundered. But long-term investments in education, culture and community have made all three postindustrial success stories, and there is no reason such a strategy can’t help the next city hit by a big-business bankruptcy to follow their lead."

** Tim Egan is in Las Vegas for the big GOP show. His column is titled "The Great Mirage," but it's hard to tell if he's referring to Vegas or the GOP platform. Egan is far and away the Times' most lyric op-ed writer.

CW: this probably should go in Right Wing World. Alex Isenstadt & Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "North Carolina Rep. Heath Shuler will not seek reelection in 2012, he announced Thursday. Shuler, a prominent Blue Dog Democrat and former Washington Redskins quarterback, faced an uphill path to a fourth term after redistricting, which made his western North Carolina-based 11th District seat more conservative."

Charles Riley of CNN Money: "President Obama offered a new line of reasoning for hiking taxes on the rich on Thursday, saying at the National Prayer Breakfast that his policy proposals are shaped by his religious beliefs."

Right Wing World

Steve LeBlanc of the AP: Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Barack Obama's new BFF CW: or at least until November 6.

Mark Murray & Matt Loffman of NBC News try to keep track of Romney's remarks about President Obama's effects on the economy. CW: a difficult task when a flip-flopper consistently disagrees with himself.

** Paul Krugman on that lying, greedy scum Mitt Romney: Mr. Romney’s position seems to be that we need not worry about the poor thanks to programs that he insists, falsely, don’t actually help the needy, and which he intends, in any case, to destroy. Still, I believe Mr. Romney when he says he isn’t concerned about the poor. What I don’t believe is his assertion that he’s equally unconcerned about the rich, who are 'doing fine.' After all, if that’s what he really feels, why does he propose showering them with money?" CW: This is a really good summary of the moral turpitude of Willard. ...

... ** Aah, It's All a Dog Whistle. Jamison Foser of Media Matters: "Romney's comments were an invocation of a decades-long right-wing narrative designed to drive a wedge between the poor and middle class, to the benefit of a handful of wealthy elites.... The message is clear: The middle class — the 'very heart of America' — is struggling while we lavish countless benefits on the poor." ...

... Steve Benen has more on the GOP's continuing effort to demonize the poor: House conservatives are ginning up the idea that wanton welfare recipients are spending your tax dollars at strip clubs. This evidence-challenged contention will force new regulations on the states, but, hey, who cares when the "issue" feeds so nicely into their class warfare meme?

Quote of the Day. There are some things that you just can’t imagine happening in your life. This is one of them. -- Mitt Romney, on Donald Trump's endorsement of  his candidacy ...

... Ashley Parker & Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney [in Las Vegas, Nevada] Thursday afternoon in a joint appearance that lasted less than seven minutes and included no questions."

Bonus Quote. American Exceptionalism. We are the only people on earth who put our hand over our heart during the playing of the National Anthem. -- Mitt Romney, Wrong about Everything. See photographic rebuttal.

Steve Benen: "GOP officials have noticed that the Fed is interested in addressing unemployment, and it wants this to stop as soon as possible."

"Do as I Say, Not as I Did & Got Rich Doing." Contributor Janice likes this simple explanation of Mitt Romney's "qualifying" career at Bain Capital. So do I:

... "Corruption Is Like Gravity -- It Just Is." Stewart then gets the better of corporate law Prof. Jonathan Macey about the intersection of Wall Street & Washington. This is a three-parter, which starts here. Curson through.

Local News

Tim Mak of Politico: "Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) defended Thursday his state’s newly-approved right-to-work legislation, saying that the phones have been ringing off the hook with companies wanting to come to the state since he signed the measure." CW: three cheers for slave labor!

News Ledes

New York Times: "The House on Friday approved $63 billion to pay for federal aviation programs through 2015, acting after five years of dispute and 23 short-term extensions of financing that the Federal Aviation Administration said made it harder to carry out its mandate.... The measure, a compromise between the Republican-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate, passed on a 248-169 vote. A majority of Republicans supported the bill, while Democrats overwhelmingly opposed it. The Senate is expected to approve the bill next week."

Ha! Bloomberg News: "Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast cancer advocacy group, said it will continue existing grants to Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc. and is changing its policy on investigations of groups it supports."

AP: "In an effort to cut the unemployment rate among veterans, the Obama administration is calling for a new conservation program that would put veterans to work rebuilding trails, roads and levees on public lands."

AP: "The U.S. economy likely produced another solid month of hiring in January, a promising start for 2012. Economists forecast that employers added a net 155,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate remained 8.5 percent for a second straight month...." ...

... Bloomberg News Update: "The U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly fell in January to the lowest in three years as payrolls climbed more than forecast, casting doubt on the Federal Reserve’s plan to keep interest rates low until late 2014.The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent, the lowest since February 2009. The 243,000 increase in jobs was the biggest in nine months and exceeded all forecast...." ...

... Bloomberg News: "U.S. stocks advanced, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average toward its highest level since May 2008, after a report showed that employment growth topped estimates and the jobless rate unexpectedly fell to 8.3 percent." ...

... Washington Post: Boehner & Romney are totally pissed off (tho that's not precisely what they said).

People Are So Cheesy. AP (via the NYT): "British Prime Minister David Cameron was making a third unwanted shake up of his government Friday, after prosecutors charged Cabinet minister Chris Huhne over an alleged attempt to pin a speeding penalty on his ex-wife."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (6)

Two sides of Right Wing world this morning. First the "Ideology Before Everything But We'll Never Admit That" rule is on embarrassing display in the Komen fiasco.

First, in order to defund Planned Parenthood, a longstanding goal for many years by right-wing ideologues and their fundamentalist Christian controllers, they take over the Susan G. Komen foundation and then pull the plug. But instead of standing up for what they claim to believe and stating clearly that they don't go along with some of what Planned Parenthood does (only God can do the planning--oh, and maybe right-wing politicians and apparatchiks who know best) and that they're pulling their support because of that, they do what the right does best: they lie.

The cover story (and this a wonderful bit of convoluted, incestuous logic) for the right-wingers who have killed the PPFA funding is that Planned Parenthood is under investigation!! Heaven's to Betsy! Not an investigation! Holy Crap! You mean, like the federal investigation Penn State is under for rape of minors? The same Penn State that Komen is continuing to fund? Oh wait....that means this is just a cover story--a false pretense for defunding the hated Planned Parenthood? Well, then, why didn't you say so?

Why? Because they're cowards. If they really had the courage of their convictions they'd come right out and say "We're pulling the plug because we're anti-choice and Planned Parenthood is big on giving women choices". Yes, they are. Including giving women the choice on for an early chance at surviving breast cancer.

But now here comes Fox to the rescue. Komen was right to deny funding to Planned Parenthood because, for one thing, it's under investigation. Nowhere does anyone state that that 'investigation' was started by right-wing apparatchiks in congress who are on board with the KILL PLANNED PARENTHOOD AT ALL COSTS scheme. Brilliant, isn't it? First the right starts a bogus investigation of Planned Parenthood, then Komen, now run by right-wing ideologues, stops the funding because PPFA is under investigation. Positively totalitarian! But Fox doesn't stop there. No. They go on to pile on the lies by stating, categorically that Planned Parenthood does nothing to prevent breast cancer. Say what? Wasn't that the whole idea of the Komen funding in the first place? To help Planned Parenthood set up breast cancer screenings for women? But Fox has an answer for that obvious question. According to Right-Wing TV, Planned Parenthood does nothing but provide abortions.

Honestly, folks, why all the lying? Just come out and say it: "We're against helping women stay healthy if it has anything to do with choice."

Think that's gonna happen?

February 3, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

On Donald Trump endorsing Willard Romney: A guy who likes to fire people giving his presidential candidate endorsement to a guy who likes to fire people. Was ever a public pronouncement more redundant?

February 3, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMickNamVet

Oh and I almost forgto. One other bit of right-wing hypocrisy has to do with everyone's favorite Ken doll robo Richy Rich candidate for president of these United States (only, really, he means the president of the .0006%).

Willard has taken to singing America the Beautiful at his appearances to demonstrate that he sings patriotic songs, not soul music written by Nee-groes. But Willard sings the wrong verse. I have a feeling we won't ever hear him singing these words from the lyrics of America the Beautiful:

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

Whaddaya think?

February 3, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@MickNamVet: Well said.

@Akhilleus: Yeah, no chance that Romney, or any other likely Republican candidate, will sing that verse.

@Marie: “Tin Man” Romney — or perhaps I should say “Platinum Man” — may put his hand on his chest during the playing of the National Anthem, but it can’t possibly be over his heart, as neither he nor any of the Republican candidates have one. Nor do they have any brains. Continuing the metaphor, the Democrats during the past three years (and more) unfortunately have not had sufficient courage to fight for the needed progressive change; often, they haven’t even adequately fought against the dismemberment of existing programs.

February 3, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterFred Drumlevitch

@ Akhilleus. To top that off, one of the board members of the Komen Foundation contradicted the party line. "John D. Raffaelli, a Komen board member and Washington lobbyist..., told The New York Times on Wednesday that Komen made the changes to its grant-making process specifically to end its relationship with Planned Parenthood."

Then yesterday, appearing on Andrea Mitchell, Komen's sister Nancy Brinker, who started the foundation, came up with a whole new excuse: certain organizations didn't meet the foundation's scientific standards, whatever they might be. Mitchell pressed & asked Brinker if Planned Parenthood was one that didn't meet their standards. Brinker kind of said that was right.

Today of course the Komen Foundation sort of reversed itself & said it would honor all of this year's contracts with Planned Parenthood after all. But I've gotten e-mails saying that's just too-late damage control, and Planned Parenthood shouldn't count on any help next year.

I'm so pleased so many people protested the foundation's cave to the crazoids. These purity tests of the right are making me sick. The Roman Catholic Church can't possibly go on if they have to spend a teeny, tiny bit of their vast resources to fund insurance for contraception; the Komen Foundation has to defund a program that has nothing to do with abortion because that organization devotes 3 percent of its other revenues to funding abortions.

At the current rate of abortion services, 35 percent of American women will have had an abortion by the time they are 45. Are one-third of the American female population really horrible, sinful people? I don't think so. And certainly, a large percentage of women who do have abortions, share that decision with the men who got them pregnant. Are these men horrible, too? five When I was in college, the dean of women told us, "Look to your left, look to your right. One of the three of you won't get married." (Of course in 1962, that struck us dumb with dread and of horror.) Now, she might say, "Look to your left, look to your right. One of the three of you will have an abortion." This is an inconvenient truth. Nobody thinks abortion is a great idea, but especially when the right puts up barriers to contraception, the abortion rate will remain unnecessarily high. (And thank you, President Obama & Kathleen Sebelius for your high-minded eeeww-girls-having-sex effort to increase the number of abortions.)

I can't repeat this often enough. In their Planned Parenthood v. Casey opinion upholding Roe, Justice Souter wrote,

"... for two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail. The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives."

This is not just about wanton women having unprotected sex with men they pick up in bars. It's about keeping women in their place. And now that "place," especially for low-income women, includes the graveyard if they have the audacity to get breast cancer.

February 3, 2012 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Abortion is not something that can be controlled by law, courts, or cops. Roe vs Wade happened a long time ago. In those days middle class Americans had family doctors. If the family was unified in the desire for a termination of a pregnancy, the Dr. took care of it during the first term. If there was doubt, the Dr. would tell the family where to go to get a safe abortion.
Kids and poor people that did not have a family Dr. ended up in motel rooms in the hands of a quack.
Middle class America would soon adjust to a means of getting abortions. Kids and poor will suffer. The number of abortions will go down. The number of tragedies will go up.
Anti abortion legislation is a lose.lose.

February 3, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterCarlyle
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