The Ledes

Monday, June 30, 2025

It's summer in our hemisphere, and people across Guns America have nothing to do but shoot other people.

New York Times: “A gunman deliberately started a wildfire in a rugged mountain area of Idaho and then shot at the firefighters who responded, killing two and injuring another on Sunday afternoon in what the local sheriff described as a 'total ambush.' Law enforcement officers exchanged fire with the gunman while the wildfire burned, and officials later found the body of the male suspect on the mountain with a firearm nearby, Sheriff Robert Norris of Kootenai County said at a news conference on Sunday night. The authorities said they believed the suspect had acted alone but did not release any information about his identity or motives.” A KHQ-TV (Spokane) report is here.

New York Times: “The New York City police were investigating a shooting in Manhattan on Sunday night that left two people injured steps from the Stonewall Inn, an icon of the L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement. The shooting occurred outside a nearby building in Greenwich Village at 10:15 p.m., Sgt. Matthew Forsythe of the New York Police Department said. The New York City Pride March had been held in Manhattan earlier on Sunday, and Mayor Eric Adams said on social media that the shooting happened as Pride celebrations were ending. One victim who was shot in the head was in critical condition on Monday morning, a spokeswoman for the Police Department said. A second victim was in stable condition after being shot in the leg, she said. No suspect had been identified. The police said it was unclear if the shooting was connected to the Pride march.”

New York Times: “A dangerous heat wave is gripping large swaths of Europe, driving temperatures far above seasonal norms and prompting widespread health and fire alerts. The extreme heat is forecast to persist into next week, with minimal relief expected overnight. France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are among the nations experiencing the most severe conditions, as meteorologists warn that Europe can expect more and hotter heat waves in the future because of climate change.”

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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.

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
Feb042011

The Commentariat -- February 4

President Obama made a statement about Egypt this afternoon:

     ... At 2:35 min. into the video below, President Obama takes only one question, that one coming from Reuters's Alister Bull:

     ... Here's Politico's liveblog of the presser. The full press conference is here, but you'll get the meat of it from the excerpts above:

Noam Chomsky in the Guardian: it isn't radical Islam that worries U.S. leaders -- it's independence; the U.S. supports the regimes that support us.

Maram Mazen, a Bloomberg reporter who was on vacation in her native Cairo, is set upon by plainclothesmen & police. A policeman tells her, "You will be lynched." Video.

Christiane Amanpour interviews Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman:

     ... Here's Amanpour's print report on the interview.

Nicholas Kristof reports again from Tahrir Square in Cairo with vivid descriptions like this: "As I arrived near the square in the morning, I encountered a line of Mr. Mubarak’s goons carrying wooden clubs with nails embedded in them." Here's a video report from Kristof:

New York Times Editors: Egyptian President Hosni "Mubarak’s attempt to blame the opposition and foreigners for the mayhem ... is patently absurd.... Mr. Mubarak has lost the legitimacy to continue governing Egypt, but he has chosen survival over his people.... An important question is what role the army — which gets nearly $1.5 billion in annual American aid — is prepared to play.... Egypt and its people need a quick transition to an era of greater political and economic freedoms. The violence is making that transition harder." Here's Christiane Amanpour's report of her interview of Mubarak, which the Editors mention:

... Here's a related story by Amanpour. ...

... Rachel Maddow explains the Mubarak strategy of violence & why his paid "demonstrators" are attacking journalists:

... Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "... as the crisis in Egypt has intensified this week, elevating foreign affairs above domestic political skirmishes, the potential Republican candidates and the party’s leaders in Congress have, with only a few exceptions, had little to say.... The lack of debate underscores the relative absence of muscular Republican voices on foreign affairs in general." CW: biggest loudmouth: the Newt.

Zachary Goldfarb & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration is likely to recommend reducing the size of mortgages eligible for government backing..., a move that could make getting a home loan in high-priced areas ... more expensive.... The proposal to let the higher limits lapse is among the most concrete elements in [a] long-awaited review, which examines various options for reshaping the role government plays in the mortgage finance market."

Robert Reich in Salon on House Republican budget cuts: "They discovered the job of tackling the budget will be far bigger and tougher than it looked from the far end of the campaign trail. Americans don't want big spending cuts. They want to cut what doesn't work. And now congressional Republicans have got to explain this to the Tea Partiers, who are still howling and yelling."

Betty Friedan & unidentified 1960s-era "housewife." New Yorker art.CW: Today is the fifth anniversary of feminist Betty Friedan's death & the 90th anniversary of her birthday. Last week I linked to this New Yorker article by Louis Menand on the impact of Friedan's 1963 book The Feminine Mystique. To celebrate the advances in women's rights that Friedan espoused & helped inspire, Sunday night at 10 pm ET (right after the Super Bowl!) PBS is airing a documentary about Nancy Reagan, who just said no to feminism, too. Emily Bazelon has a review of the PBS special here. So, Republicans, you wanna wait till after the Nancy Reagan Show to eliminate that PBS funding?

 

 

Local News

You are voting for the first time in the history of our state to codify discrimination into our constitution. -- Zach Wahls ...

... Zach Wahls, a 19-year-old student, speaks before the Iowa legislature against a resolution to end civil unions in the state. It's an amazing speech in every way:

 

Stephen Colbert comments on Ohio Gov. John Kasich's all-white cabinet:

... CW: in case you were wondering, Kasich is a Republican. It isn't his fault. He only knows white people.

News Ledes

President Obama met with Canadian PM Stephen Harper, this afternoon. They held a joint press conference. AP: "President Barack Obama on Friday appealed to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to begin an orderly process to relinquish the power he has held for 30 years. But Obama stopped short of calling for Mubarak's immediate resignation. 'My hope is he will end up making the right decision,' Obama said...." Washington Post story here. See videos of statement above. ...

... AP: "President Barack Obama will take questions from reporters Friday on the continuing violence in Egypt during what may be a pivotal day in the crisis, as anti-government demonstrators aim to escalate their street protests. Obama and members of his administration are edging closer to blaming the government of authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak ... for the violent clashes in Cairo." ...

... AP: "U.S. intelligence agencies are drawing criticism from the Oval Office and Capitol Hill that they failed to warn of revolts in Egypt and the downfall of an American ally in Tunisia. President Barack Obama has told National Intelligence Director James Clapper that he was 'disappointed with the intelligence community' over its failure to predict the outbreak of demonstrations would lead to the ouster of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunis...." ...

... New York Times: "Defying a wider government crackdown, tens of thousands of Egyptians packed Cairo’s central Tahrir Square on Friday, chanting slogans, bowing in prayer and waving Egyptian flags to press a campaign for the removal of President Hosni Mubarak that has transfixed the Arab world and tested American diplomacy." Story has been updated; the new lede: "Cracks in the Egyptian establishments’s support for President Hosni Mubarak began to appear Friday as jubilant crowds of hundreds of thousands packed the capitol’s central Tahrir Square to call for his ouster, this time unmolested by either security police or uniformed Mubarak loyalists."

New York Times: "A lawsuit brought by the trustee for the victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme accuses the owners of the Mets of being so enamored of the enormous profits they earned while investing over decades with Mr. Madoff that they ignored repeated and specific warnings that he might have been operating a fraud. The lawsuit, unsealed in federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan on Friday morning, contends that the team’s owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, used the profits from their investments in Madoff to establish personal fortunes, create dozens of family trusts and financially fuel their array of businesses, from the Mets to real estate to the creation of a cable sports network."

New York Times: "The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, warned Congressional Republicans on Thursday not to 'play around with' a coming vote to raise the government’s legal borrowing limit or use it as a bargaining chip for spending cuts.... It was the first time that Mr. Bernanke, who in contrast to his predecessors has avoided taking sides in partisan debates on fiscal matters, had spoken out on the debt ceiling issue."

Politico: "Mark Kelly, husband of wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, will fly the space shuttle Endeavour's final mission in April, according to a source familiar with the decision. Kelly and NASA are expected to make an announcement at a press conference Friday." AP update here.

Hattiesburg (Mississippi) American: "A federal judge has dismissed part of a lawsuit filed by Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant and 10 other Mississippians challenging the constitutionality of the health care reform law. U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett, in a 23-page decision handed down Thursday, said Bryant and the other plaintiffs did not have standing to file the lawsuit."

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