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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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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The Commentariat -- January 31, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Her Cheatin' Heart. Ben Smith, et al., of BuzzFeed: "Hillary Clinton's campaign for president is instructing its Iowa caucus leaders to -- in certain cases -- throw support to former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, with the goal blocking her main opponent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, from securing additional delegates. The tactical move is rooted in the complex math of the Iowa caucuses Monday night, where the campaign is looking to defeat Sanders in a state whose caucus-goers have historically backed progressive challengers.... The goal, in the caucuses' complex terms, is to cost Clinton no delegates in the state's 1,681 caucuses while ensuring stray O'Malley supporters don't defect to Sanders." Clinton isn't the first candidate to use this ploy, & her aides were "outraged" when candidates Obama & Bill Richardson pulled a similar stunt in 2008.

Donald Trump, Nouveau Tenther. Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump criticized the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage and said he would 'strongly consider' appointing judges inclined to overrule it if he is elected president. 'I don't like the way they ruled,' Trump said on 'Fox News Sunday.' 'I disagree with the Supreme Court from the standpoint that it should be a states' rights issue and that's the way it should have been ruled on ... I would have much preferred that they ruled at a state level and let the states make those rulings themselves.'"

*****

Michelle Boorstein & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "President Obama will make the first visit during his presidency to a U.S. mosque, the White House announced Saturday, part of the administration's push to promote religious tolerance at a time when rhetoric linking Islam with terrorism is growing. On Wednesday, the president will visit the Islamic Society of Baltimore, a sprawling community center in the city's western suburbs that serves thousands of people with a place of worship, a housing complex and schools, according to its website."

Craig Whitlock & Adam Goldman of the Washington Post: "Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter has decided not to impose any further punishment on David H. Petraeus, the former CIA director and retired Army general who was forced to resign in a sex-and-secrets scandal in 2012." CW: Big surprise.

Presidential Race

CNN: "Caucus meetings for Iowa Democrats and Republicans begin at 7 p.m. Central Time, or 8 p.m. for the East Coast [Monday night]. Anyone who shows up on time can take part. But don't be late. Once the doors close, there is no entry for stragglers."

The New York Times editors endorse Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Making her final push before the Iowa caucuses, Hillary Clinton staked out her position as the lone defender of the Affordable Care Act on Saturday night, warning that her Democratic rival, Senator Bernie Sanders, would scrap it and start over and that Republicans [--specifically mentioning Ted Cruz's inability to offer an alternative plan (see Katie Zezima's story, linked below) --)] would hand healthcare back to insurers and drug-makers." ...

... CW: Cedar Rapids is Iowa's second largest city. From the photo accompanying the story, it would appear about 150 people showed up for Clinton's rally.

... Rachel Bade of Politico: "Hillary Clinton told NBC she did not generate any of the 22 newly upgraded 'top secret' emails recently withheld by the State Department and is not concerned about the contents of the messages. 'No, I did not,' she told NBC News' Monica Alba when asked whether she personally wrote any of the emails. She waived [sic.] them off as old news, according to excerpts of the conversation distributed by NBC News. 'I'm really not concerned because it's the same story that has been going on for months now, and I just don't think most people are as concerned about that....'" ...

... Evan McMorris-Santoro & Ruby Cramer of BuzzFeed: "The campaigns of the two major candidates for the Democratic nomination have agreed to hold four more debates, should they be sanctioned, sources from both the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigns tell BuzzFeed News. The details -- where and when -- remain unresolved, and the Democratic National Committee has not yet agreed to the arrangement...."

Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Bernie Sanders held a rally and concert at the University of Iowa tonight with thousands of students, whom he urged to vote for him on Monday and 'make the pundits look dumb.'... Many of the thousands of students also showed up for the musical portion of the evening. (One band sang 'It's nothing to fear, you are a socialist too.') The main attraction, beyond Mr. Sanders, was the indie rock group Vampire Weekend." ...

... Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "... Bernie Sanders will receive protection from Secret Service, according to Fox News' Ed Henry. Sanders joins Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton and Republican candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson as the only White House contenders with details from the agency."

Steven Shepard of Politico: "Both parties' races in Monday's Iowa caucuses are coming down to the wire, with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton slightly ahead, according to the state's most influential poll. Trump ... has a 5-point lead in the Republican race over Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, according to the Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is in third place at 15 percent, and retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson is at 10 percent. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is at 5 percent, and no other candidate earns more than 3 percent. In the Democratic race, Clinton is running neck-and-neck with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 45 percent to 42 percent -- though Clinton's support appears more secure. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is at 3 percent and appears unlikely to be viable at most caucus sites on Monday night."

The New York Times editors sort of endorse Ohio Gov. John Kasich for the Republican nomination as the best of a bad lot: "Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, though a distinct underdog, is the only plausible choice for Republicans tired of the extremism and inexperience on display in this race. And Mr. Kasich is no moderate. As governor, he's gone after public-sector unions, fought to limit abortion rights and opposed same-sex marriage."

Maureen Dowd interviews Donald Trump. CW: Why bother, since he can't even tell the truth about himself. ...

... Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "Five myths Donald Trump tells about Donald Trump.... 1. 'I'm, like, a really smart person.'... 2. 'I have the world's greatest memory.'... 3. I'm proud of my net worth. I've done an amazing job.'... 4. 'I'm self-funding my campaign.'... 5. 'I'm probably the least racist person on Earth.'"

Vampire Weekend, Ctd. Shane Goldmacher of Politico: "Iowa's top elections official condemned Ted Cruz's campaign on Saturday for sending mailers to Iowa voters designed to look like official documents that accuse them of a 'VOTING VIOLATION' for failure to turn out in past elections. Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate said in a statement Cruz's mailers, which has the words 'official public record' printed in red at the top, 'misrepresents the role of my office, and worse, misrepresents Iowa election law.' 'There is no such thing as an election violation related to frequency of voting,' said Paul, who was elected statewide as a Republican in 2014.... The controversial Cruz mailers show the name of the person receiving the mail at the top and then give them a grade on an A to F scale. Below, it shows their neighbors and their voting scores. CW: Ted just likes to frighten people. And shame them, while he's at it. ...

... Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: An Iowa voter, who is a Democrat, challenged Ted Cruz for his attacks on ObamaCare. The voter said his brother-in-law, who was unable to get coverage until he obtained it through the ACA, died shortly thereafter for previously undiagnosed cancer. The voter "said after the exchange that Cruz hadn't answered his question. The answer, he said, was incomplete." CW: No kidding. ...

... ** digby: "Cruz does have a plan. He wants to repeal Obamacare and all the requirement that are in it including the ban on denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions. Then he will make it so people can buy insurance across state lines (in order to avoid state regulations requiring insurers to treat their customers fairly.) He wants to get rid of employer sponsored health care so everyone can 'own' their own insurance policy. And he wants to 'expand' health savings accounts. In other words, he wants to go back to the way it was before and then make it a hundred times worse. Because freedom. Oh, and he even lies about his own insurance."

About That Iowa Poll. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "A Bloomberg-sponsored poll, made public in extravagant Bloomberg style amid shrimp and champagne, delivered some sour news about Michael R. Bloomberg himself: Few Iowa voters like him as he weighs a third party White House run. A poll of likely caucusgoers conducted for Bloomberg Politics and The Des Moines Register and released on Saturday night found just 17 percent of Democrats and 9 percent of Republicans had a 'favorable' view of Mr. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York.... By comparison, 50 percent of the Republicans polled had a favorable view of another Manhattan billionaire, Donald J. Trump, whose candidacy has offended and baffled Mr. Bloomberg. And 46 percent of the Democrats had a favorable view of Martin O'Malley, who is faring poorly in polls...."

Congressional Race

Worse Than Dick. Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Liz Cheney, the older daughter of former vice president Richard B. Cheney, is running for Wyoming's sole seat in the House of Representatives, according to federal campaign documents she filed Friday establishing her candidacy."

Beyond the Beltway

Carissa Wolf & Kevin Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Heeding calls for daily protests after Tuesday's shooting death of a man who had been occupying a nearby national wildlife refuge, a 'rolling rally' of dozens of vehicles clogged the streets of this tiny rural town [of Burns, Oregon,] Saturday evening. The cars and trucks, many of them the oversized, rugged models favored in this rough desert terrain, roared around town bearing U.S. flags, Confederate flags and passengers brimming with rage."

Way Beyond

Rick Noack of the Washington Post: "Up to 100 masked men threatened to attack refugee children in central Stockholm on Friday, according to local police accounts. Fredrik Nylén, a spokesman for Stockholm police, told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, that several men had been arrested because they may have gathered 'with the purpose of attacking refugee children.'"

Comments Off

Reader Comments (13)

Charles Koch welcomed 500 wealthy associates/friends of/et ilk to his annual Palm Springs retreat, saying: "We are not some 'secret'cabal..."

No, of course not Charlie! I agree. Your cabal not a secret at all. Nope! not a surprise to anyone!

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/charles-koch-we-are-not-some-secret-cabal-n507916

January 31, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Here's the latest New Yorker cover, a very pointed portrayal of five of our greatest presidents looking on with various expressions of horror at a TV screen. You can guess who is on the screen!

January 31, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterVictoria D.

RE: Sanders' High School's Zipped Lips

Thank you, Marie, for yesterday's reply. Your assessment of the school's over-dramatizing the matter sounded on target.

When I read of the (alleged?) zipped-lip protocol, I was gripped by its resemblance to so much of "What's Going On" (a salute to Marvin Gaye, whose lyrics - in spite of his silken vocals - spoke to society's ills) in our "civilization", now.

No need for me to elaborate, as your dedicated & labor-intensive postings - along with the comments & contributions of your readership - say it all.

(Metaphoric whiplash strikes whenever trying to wrap my brain around our current reality.)

Herr Comb-Over returned to his gilded cave yesterday for re-grouping: too much Holiday Inn can be disorienting.

One-Heckuva-Day for our Donald Tramp Cité

.

January 31, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterOphelia M.

For those of us out in Lefty Land, it may be impossible to understand how the Trumpeter's absurd claims that Glenn Kessler lists ("Five myths Donald Trump tells about Donald Trump.... 1. 'I’m, like, a really smart person.'... 2. 'I have the world’s greatest memory.'... 3. I’m proud of my net worth. I’ve done an amazing job.'... 4. '“I’m self-funding my campaign.'... 5. 'I’m probably the least racist person on Earth.'") could be anything but a source of bewildered mockery.

But while such mockery is an understandable response, if we remember the diet of absurd, counter-factual political and economic pablum Trump supporters have been happily consuming for years, it's not to hard to grasp how they could take one more step down the slippery slope of delusion and slide all the way to Fantasyland.

How about these whoppers?

Trickle down economics works for everyone.

We must treat the Job Creators with deference (as in, don't tax 'em)

Global warming is a hoax.

Welfare queens are everywhere.

American exceptionalism should be fundamental to foreign policy.

The govmint's the enemy.

Private enterprise is efficient.

....which is why it provides the best health care on the planet

Guns don't kill people.

The days of racism are over.

Obama was not born in America.

What this country needs is more and higher walls.

Not a complete list by any means but long enough to comprise the first few entries in the Trump Primer of Grand Delusions that his supporters were evidently raised on even before they knew the Donald's name and how rich and smart he was.

January 31, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

From Reuters -

"David Petraeus To Receive No Further Punishment"

(And, uh, his previous "punishment" was . . . ?!?)

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSKCN0V80SH

January 31, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterOphelia M.

Oops! - I short-shrifted the Reuters site, which is wholly here:

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSKCN0V80SH

January 31, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterOphelia M.

Merde! Will 3 be a charm? . . .

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/
idUSKCN0V80SH

January 31, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterOphelia M.

Oh, Shit! & Mea Culpa!
Better luck with The Guardian?
Final Attempt . . .

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/31/general-cia-david-petraeus-no-further-punishment-classified-information

January 31, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterOphelia M.

Picture yourself in a small cafe by the bay sipping your chilled chardonnay and you glance at the table nearby where three men, while digging into their seafood salad, are into heavy conversation. One of the men is writing something on a napkin, the other two scrutinize it carefully. The napkin writer is Arthur Laffer, the influential conservative economist; the other two are Nixon aides, Rumsfeld and Cheney. This cozy lunch bunch tax hatch, written on napkin, was the beginning of the beguine of what we now know as the "Laffer Curve"–-the tax policy that Conservatives praise and implement to their peril. The year was 1974.

The impetus of this meandering came about by my thinking about the differences between states that are governed by Republicans and governed by Democrats. I did some research –-looked at graphs, read statistics but found this piece entitled, "The Party of Red Ink" by J.P. Williams, news editor with U.S. News & World Report, the best for getting to the heart of it. The fact that it was published in May of last year makes it even more interesting since it features Walker, Jindal, Brownback, Christi and Jeb. As the article stresses, few issues unite the GOP like tax cuts and since tax policy is a crucial part of any candidate's platform, it would behove voters to pay attention to their state's fiscal policies and the candidate's policies they intend to vote for.

http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/05/29/republicans-have-become-the-party-of-red-ink

January 31, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

PD
Too bad Rick Snyder wasn't mentioned in that cut taxes and don't
spend article in USNews. Sometimes cutting taxes, or switching
the burden to retirees and the middle class results in deaths and
suffering (Flint Mi, for example).

January 31, 2016 | Unregistered Commenterforrest morris

Adolf's view on gay marriage says he thinks that the US Constitution has no meaning. In other words, according to the moron, each state should decide whether to allow slavery. This issue of 'states' rights has always been a game for conservatives but under the moron, we are not the US of America but are in fact 50 different countries.

January 31, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMarvin Schwalb

@ Forest: Yes, Snyder, which, of course, was why I was thinking what I was thinking re: Republican Governors cutting taxes via the Laffer method. Trying to cut your budget because you are following this inane policy leads to lead poisoning your people is the extreme example of this. But since this was not known (but known by those who knew) last May, we can forgive Williams for not including it.

@Marvin: Well, wouldn't that be ducky? Trump, who towers high above, or so he envisions, would be ruler of what exactly? Fifty states that become separate countries? Wow! no more golfing for him--he be real busy taking care of chaos and–– poor thing––he would, like he did with the last debate, just not show up. Guy doesn't do well with strife.

January 31, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@PD Pepe: Excellent point. I suspect der Drumpf there, should he become president, would suddenly find states' rights -- or any rights except his own -- null & void.

Marie

January 31, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMarie Burns
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