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.” ~~~

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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

Thursday
Jul212016

The Commentariat -- July 22, 2016

Coming up on Reality Chex: Trump-free Sunday. Unless Trump announces he's going to quit and release his voters to Bernie Sanders, I'm skipping all the Trump news and commentary here Sunday. So get your last blast tomorrow. I'm sure I'll have to post some retro-links in Monday's Commentariat. -- Constant Weader 

Afternoon Update:

Nick Gass of Politico: "President Barack Obama wasted no time Friday delivering another implicit rebuke of Donald Trump on Mexico and immigration, hours after the Republican nominee officially claimed the party mantle to take on ... Hillary Clinton in November. 'Let me start by saying something that is too often overlooked, but bears repeating -- especially given some of the heated rhetoric that we sometimes hear. The United States values tremendously our enduring partnership with Mexico and our extraordinary ties of family and friendship with the Mexican people,' Obama said at the start of a joint press conference with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto." -- CW ...

Frank Rich on the Republican convention, the Roger Ailes scandal & the future of the Republican party: "... the only defense we have against Trump is his opponent. She must make sure that the other America, the America that is appalled, victimized, and scandalized by Trump and what he represents, goes to the polls to vote "no." Is Hillary Clinton up to it? I don't know." -- CW

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "After bragging that he had unified the party in one of the most 'love-filled' conventions in political history [this morning], Mr. Trump went on an extended diatribe against Mr. Cruz, who declined to endorse him during his own convention speech on Wednesday night and urged people to vote with their conscience. The speech embarrassed Mr. Trump and cast a shadow of discord over the convention." -- CW ...

... Dan Spinelli of Politico: "A day after accepting the Republican Party's nomination for president, Donald Trump rehashed a conspiracy theory that claims the man who killed President John F. Kennedy once cavorted with Ted Cruz's father. -- CW ...

... Nick Gass has more on Trump's remarks about Cruz. -- CW

Philip Bump of the Washington Post can't figure out who Ivanka Trump was endorsing inasmuch as her claims about his support for equality opportunity for women is pretty much nonexistent beyond his claim to be "the best for women" & a promise to "look into [equal pay] very strongly." (CW: whatever that means).

*****

GOP Convention & Presidential Race

I alone can fix it. -- Donald Trump, acceptance speech

Big Brother Harangues the Mole People.The Demiurge. Patrick Healy & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times on Trump's acceptance speech: "With dark imagery and an almost angry tone, Mr. Trump portrayed the United States as a diminished and even humiliated nation, and offered himself as an all-powerful savior who could resurrect the country's standing in the eyes of both enemies and law-abiding Americans." -- CW ...

... Philip Rucker & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Rather than pivoting to the political middle with an uplifting address, Trump ... focused intensively on the alleged dangers posed by immigrants and refugees, showing that on the biggest stage of his campaign he would not shy away from rhetoric that many minority voters find repulsive.... Trump spoke with so much gusto it sounded much of the time as though he were screaming, and by the end his face was notably red and glistening with sweat. The address lasted an extraordinary 76 minutes...." -- CW ...

... Glenn Kessler & Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: "The dark portrait of America that ... Trump sketched .. is a compendium of doomsday stats that fall apart upon close scrutiny. Numbers are taken out of context, data is manipulated, and sometimes the facts are wrong. When facts are inconveniently positive -- such as rising incomes and an unemployment rate under 5 percent -- Trump simply declines to mention them.... In his speech, Trump promised to present 'the plain facts that have been edited out of your nightly news and your morning newspaper.' But he relies on statistics that are ripe for manipulation.: Kessler & Lee provide "a rundown of 25 of Trump's key claims -- and how they differ from reality...." -- CW ...

... Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "In the most consequential speech of his life..., Mr. Trump sounded much like the unreflective man who had started it with an escalator ride in the lobby of Trump Tower: He conjured up chaos and promised overnight solutions.... He portrayed himself, over and over, as an almost messianic figure prepared to rescue the country from the ills of urban crime, illegal immigration and global terrorism.... But Mr. Trump made no real case for his qualifications to lead the world's largest largest economy and strongest military.... Speechwriters from both parties were stupefied." -- CW ...

The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon -- and I mean soon -- come to an end. Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored. -- Donald Trump, acceptance speech ...

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "'I am the law and order candidate,' Donald Trump declared.... Despite a small uptick this year, crime in America has been in steep decline since 1992 and is currently near a four-decade low.... For Trump..., crime links together the various strands of Trump's politics that might otherwise be diffuse: immigration (enforcing the law at the border), racial resentment (supporting police in the age of Black Lives Matter), foreign affairs (a tough military stance being a form of international crime control), and partisan politics ('Crooked Hillary' being an imagined criminal).... Trump is running to be a strong man, and as such it's in his interest to stir up fear and anxiety about a world spinning out of control, which only he can bring order to.... Even if the crime and violence issue isn't a sure bet, it's something that has paid off for Trump before and just might again." -- CW ...

... BUT. Matt Yglesias of Vox: "For a candidate who just delivered an entire high-profile speech on the supposedly sky-high crime rates in the US, he doesn't seem to have very many ideas about fixing them.... The reason Trump doesn't have anything to say about [crime-abatement policy] is that he's too lazy to look into it and come up with anything." -- CW ...

     ... CW: I'll disagree with Yglesias on the cause of Trump's vagueness. I think Trump does have plans to quash what he thinks of as crime. The problem is that they're all extra-Constitutional. He would ignore all of the guarantees of the First Amendment, not to mention the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh & Eighth. Trump may not know or care about this, but at least his speechwriter or other vetters knew better than to let him spell them out. ...

... ** Greg Sargent: Donald Trump "has explicitly said he is modeling his campaign on Nixon's 1968 effort.... If Trump set out to emulate Nixon, and to draw a link between our times and the tumultuous late 1960s, Trump ended up proving to be more divisive, demagogic, hateful, xenophobic, ethno-nationalist, and overtly authoritarian than Nixon ever was." -- CW ...

... Make America White Again. Jonathan Chait: "What makes his acceptance speech new and different is that he offers more than just himself as the solution. He offers his supporters a restoration of the social order Obama inverted. Trump's election will not only make Trump the president, it will represent white America attaining the necessary level of collective consciousness, rising as one." -- CW ...

... David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "The prepared text of Trump's remarks, released ahead of his speech, shows he will paint a dire and frightening vision of an America besieged by hostile forces abroad and unrest at home -- and cast Hillary Clinton, his presumptive Democratic opponent, as unfit to face those dire times." -- CW ...

... Philip Bump & Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's prepared remarks accepting the Republican nomination in Cleveland on Thursday night were provided on an embargoed basis. The embargo was broken by other news organizations; therefore we are posting them here. A note: These remarks can and likely will change before Trump delivers them Thursday night. We will update them as necessary, and note what changed." -- CW ...

... A Mole in the Trump Campaign. Ken Vogel & Julia Ioffe in Politico: "A super PAC backing Hillary Clinton on Thursday night mysteriously obtained and leaked drafts of Donald Trump's nomination speech -- and those of several other convention speakers -- hours before the night's proceedings were set to kick off, sending the Trump campaign scrambling on the final night of what has been a chaotic convention.... Correct the Record [-- founded by Clinton ally David Brock --] sent the text of Trump's draft speech to its press list a little after 6 p.m., gloating 'as if this convention hasn't been enough of a failure for Trump, somehow he let US get a hold of his full remarks before the speech.'" -- CW ...

... The Washington Post's liveblog of tonight's convention is here. The New York Times' liveblog, which is usually funnier, is here. ...

... Maureen Dowd: Ivanka Trump "was glossy, both in how she looked and how she spoke. She glossed over all of her father's ugly rhetoric and incitements, his erratic behavior and lack of any policy depth or even any policy, and offered a gauzy, idealized vision of a Bobby Kennedy-style figure as her father channeled Richard Nixon in '68." -- CW ...

... Tony Romm of Politico: "Technology investor [CW: and obsessed Gawker avenger] Peter Thiel implored Republicans from the convention stage on Thursday against waging 'culture wars' on lesbian, gay and transgender communities, mere days after the GOP approved a national platform that defines marriage as between 'one man and one woman.'... He said attempts to require transgender Americans to use particular bathrooms is a 'distraction from our real problem.' And in a first for a GOP convention, the Facebook board member and PayPal co-founder drew attention to his own sexuality: 'I am proud to be gay, I am proud to be a Republican, but most of all, I am proud to be an American,' he said." ...

     ... CW: For some reason, there weren't any speakers imploring Republicans not to wage "cultural wars" against non-Christian religions or against non-white people.

Ezra Klein: [Thursday] night, Donald J. Trump will accept the Republican Party's nomination for president of the United States. And I am, for the first time since I began covering American politics, genuinely afraid.... Trump is the most dangerous major candidate for president in memory. He pairs terrible ideas with an alarming temperament; he's a racist, a sexist, and a demagogue, but he's also a narcissist, a bully, and a dilettante. He lies so constantly and so fluently that it's hard to know if he even realizes he's lying. He delights in schoolyard taunts and luxuriates in backlash.... He has continued to retweet white supremacists, make racist comments, pick unnecessary fights, contradict himself on the stump, and show an almost gleeful disinterest in building a real campaign or learning about policy." ...

     ... CW: My fear is that Trump will be elected for the same reason motorists slow down to gawk at car accidents. Shocking, messy, gruesome -- these are entertaining. The hope is that more Americans than not will realize that in voting for Trump, they're not just driving by; they will be the victims of the car wreck, their lives forever diminished by a momentary lapse. ...

... Tim Egan: "The man who couldn't manage his own convention, the creator of a 'university' built on fraud, bet his shot at the top job in the world on a panicked public and collective amnesia of his serial misdeeds. 'I will restore law and order to our country, believe me, believe me,' he said. And the instigator of four corporate bankruptcies, the man who stiffed plumbers and carpenters, the failed casino owner, promised to use his dark arts to 'make our country rich again.'" -- CW ...

... ** Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg: "Trump's convention has been a fiasco.... leaving the rationales for [his] candidacy in tatters.... Incompetence is everywhere. Seats throughout the arena are empty in prime time. The schedule has run late, causing key speakers to miss valuable television slots.... And, of course, there was the epic plagiarism in Melania Trump's speech. The series of blatant untruths the campaign produced to try to quell the controversy was amateurish even for this group. Worse, the speech plagiarized Michelle Obama of all people. Worse again, it plagiarized a passage on the Obama family values -- which Donald Trump had gone to great lengths to portray as alien and un-American. ('There's something going on there.') -- CW

Trump's Idea of a Charm Offensive. Alex Isenstadt, et al., of Politico: "Just hours before accepting the Republican Party's presidential nomination, Donald Trump taunted his party on Thursday, ripping into his rivals and joking that, had he run as an independent, he could have defeated the GOP.... Trump said the way the audience reacted to [Ted] Cruz showed the party is united, lambasting the media for suggesting otherwise.... He also continued his assault on Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has refused to endorse Trump or appear at this week's convention...." -- CW

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says Donald Trump was wrong to suggest the U.S. wouldn't defend a NATO ally if they are attacked. '... I thought what he said about NATO yesterday was ... not accurate,' McConnell said Thursday during a Facebook Live interview with The New York Times. 'I'm willing to kind of chalk that up to a rookie mistake.'" ...

     ... CW: Sorry, Mitch, a "rookie mistake" is something like thinking you're speaking in private & saying "they cling to their guns and religion," not telling the NYT the U.S must "always be prepared to walk" out on NATO. ...

... Nahal Toosi of Politico: "The comments [on NATO] drew scorn not only from American allies but also from several top Republicans, undermining the party's efforts to project unity during its national convention.... The international blowback was swift.... Trump's comments were especially unnerving to smaller NATO countries, such as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, who in recent years have begun to fear Russia's military aims.... 'Ronald Reagan would be ashamed. Harry Truman would be ashamed. Republicans, Democrats and Independents who help build NATO into the most successful military alliance in history would all come to the same conclusion: Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit and fundamentally ill-prepared to be our commander in chief,' [Hillary] Clinton senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan said in the statement." -- CW ...

... David Corn of Mother Jones: "Trump's remarks [about NATO] were so potentially damaging to his campaign that when I asked Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager, about the interview, he falsely claimed that the Times reporters -- David Sanger and Maggie Habermanhad made up the damning quotes. Trump's majordomo was trying to BS his way through another Trump controversy." -- CW ...

... Washington Post Editors: "Trump would wreck, not restore, America's standing in the world.... What's astonishing about Mr. Trump ... is the obvious casualness with which he muses about such matters [as abandoning NATO] -- as if the words of even a potential commander in chief do not influence world affairs the moment they are uttered." -- CW ...

... Steve M.: "Trump wants to destabilize NATO and doesn't care if World War III starts. Hillary Clinton wants to appoint left-centrist judges to the Supreme Court. Verdict from the vast majority of Very Serious Republicans: 'The choice is clear! Hillary's too dangerous!'" -- CW ...

... "The Siberian Candidate." Paul Krugman: "... the Trump campaign's recent behavior has quite a few foreign policy experts wondering just what kind of hold Mr. Putin has over the Republican nominee, and whether that influence will continue if he wins." CW: Krugman's column echoes conspiracy theorist language, and the evidence he piles up is a bit sketchy. But it's a big enough pile that the aggregate makes the theory look highly plausible.

On the Menu: Green Eggs & A Ham. Matt Flegenheimer & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Facing jeers even from many of his own constituents, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas on Thursday defended his non-endorsement of Donald J. Trump, talking down hecklers at a fractious breakfast forum the morning after his performance onstage upended the Republican National Convention. In an extraordinary display of party division -- at a typically staid Texas state delegation breakfast that is held with the intentions of exemplifying convention-week harmony -- Mr. Cruz strained to manage the vitriol directed his way, stressing that he had not said a cross word about Mr. Trump.... 'I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father,' he said...." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... David Brooks' column is almost worth reading today: "I'm not a Cruz fan, but his naked ambition does fuel amazing courage. As the Republican Party is slouching off on a suicide march, at least Cruz is standing athwart history yelling 'Stop!' When the Trump train implodes, the docile followers who are now booing and denouncing Ted Cruz will claim they were on his side all along." -- CW

... Tony Cook of the Indianapolis Star: "Sen. Dan Coats [R-Ind.] issued a blistering rebuke Thursday of fellow Sen. Ted Cruz... Coats told IndyStar, 'He only thinks of himself, he doesn't think about party. He's a wrecking ball.... He's the most self-centered, narcissistic, pathological liar I've ever seen -- and you can quote me on that,' he said." ...

     ... CW: Well, yeah, that's true enough, but the description fits Donald Trump even better.

"Make American Afraid Again." David Maraniss in the Washington Post on how the GOP convention is going: "More talk about who and what they wanted to undo, dismantle, destroy, obliterate or send off to the clink than create and build and empower. More boilerplate speeches in a half-empty hall by third-rate celebs and second-tier pols than the showbiz glitz and glam promised by the man who hates to be bored.... And most noticeable of all, more disharmony than unity." -- CW

Joon Suh of Third Way: "'My tax plan is going to cost me a fortune,' Donald Trump said at press conference in Trump Tower last September. It won't. One lesser-noticed section of Trump's tax plan would bestow a $7.1 billion tax cut on the Trump family dynasty. That's just through his proposed elimination of the federal estate tax -- not counting breaks on capital gains and income that would also disproportionately favor the wealthy and, altogether, increase the national debt by $9.5 trillion in just 10 years." -- CW

Are You a "Real American"? CW: I'm Not. Nate Silver: Republican "politicians, implicitly and often explicitly, usually have certain people in mind when they refer to 'real Americans.' They often mean white people without college degrees.... They usually mean practicing Christians. Their examples usually refer to people in the South or the Midwest — not East Coast elites or West Coast hippies.... To be a 'real American' means that a lot of people are left out. Overall, 'real Americans' made up only 20 percent of the electorate in 2012. And 'real American' men were just 9 percent of it." -- CW ...

... Transitional Family Values. The Geisha & the Businesswoman. Jill Filipovic in a New York Times op-ed: "Convention-goers ... [will] witness how the Trump family embodies a very old sexist hypocrisy: Men who want one thing for their wives and another for their children.... Mr. Trump ... blames giving his wife too much responsibility in his business for his first divorce, and his wife's wanting him to spend too much time at home with her and their daughter for his second.... Melania Trump ... emphasizes that her role as a mother comes before all else; Mr. Trump has spoken disparagingly of working women, does little in the way of child care, and expects women to be more aesthetically appealing than intellectually substantive.... By contrast, Mr. Trump took out a campaign ad featuring Ivanka, and said of her: 'I am so proud of Ivanka. She is a terrific person, a devoted mother and an exceptional entrepreneur.'" -- CW


Eric Levitz
of New York: Tim Kaine, reportedly the Clintons' favorite for veep, has given liberals quite a few reasons not to like him. "This week, Kaine provided left Democrats with two fresh reasons to see his selection as a repudiation of their agenda. On Monday, the senator added his name to two letters urging the federal government to scale back regulations on community and regional banks.... According to the Intercept's David Dayen, the rule Kaine proposes 'could allow community banks and credit unions to sell high-risk mortgages or personal loans without the disclosure and ability to pay rules in place across the industry.' Such bad loans may not take down our financial system, but they could ruin the lives of the families that receive them." ...

     ... CW: Kaine is very much Bill Clinton-style. He reminds me of Bill's choosing Al & Al's choosing that whiney prick Joe Lieberman. We'll see if Hillary is wearing the pants in the Clinton family or just the pantsuit when we learn her veep pick. If she chooses Kaine, we can pretty much count on Clinton II being just that. ...

... Amy Chozick of the New York Times has more on the many reasons liberals will be disappointed if Clinton chooses Kaine. ...

     ... CW Update: Here's the disheartening new lede to Chozick's story: "Democrats close to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign signaled strongly Thursday that she would choose Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her running mate, rounding out the ticket with a popular politician from a battleground state." So it's Clinton II: Change You Can Forget About. Bank deregulation? Check. TPP? Check. Reproductive rights? Meh. ...

... Daniel Strauss & Zachary Warmbrodt of Politico: "A few days before Hillary Clinton is expected to unveil her running mate, a group of progressives are lashing out at Sen. Tim Kaine, widely seen as the frontrunner for the spot, over his support for loosening bank regulations." -- CW

Other News & Views

** Adios, Mo-Fo. John Koblin, et al., of the New York Times: "Roger Ailes stepped down on Thursday as chairman and chief executive of Fox News after a sexual harassment scandal, ending a 20-year reign as head of the cable network he built into a ratings juggernaut and an influential platform for Republican politics. Rupert Murdoch, the 85-year-old media mogul who started Fox News with Mr. Ailes, will assume the role of chairman and will be an interim chief executive of Fox News channel and Fox Business Network until a permanent replacement for Mr. Ailes is found. Mr. Ailes will receive about $40 million as part of a settlement agreement, according to two people briefed on the matter, which essentially amounts to the remainder of his existing employment contract through 2018." -- CW ...

... Here's 21st Century Fox's lawyer-crafted statement. -- CW ...

... Jim Rutenberg, et al., of the New York Times: "Executives at 21st Century Fox decided to end the tenure of Roger Ailes after lawyers they hired to investigate an allegation of sexual harassment against him took statements from at least six other women who described inappropriate behavior from Mr. Ailes, two people briefed on the inquiry said Wednesday.... In interviews, several current and former Fox News employees said inappropriate comments about a woman’s appearance and her sex life were frequent in the newsroom." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... BFFs. Brian Stelter of CNN: "Even as he was negotiating the end of his time leading Fox News, Roger Ailes was still talking with ... Donald Trump. The two counseled each other in multiple phone calls this week, two Trump aides told CNNMoney." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

Scott Cacciola of the New York Times: "The National Basketball Association announced on Thursday that it would not hold the 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte, N.C., the most significant fallout yet from state legislation that eliminated specific anti-discrimination protections for lesbians, gays and bisexuals." -- CW

We're Incompetent & Trigger-Happy But Not Racist! Alex Harris, et al., of the Miami Herald: "The North Miami police officer who shot an unarmed, black mental health worker caring for a patient actually took aim at the autistic man next to him, but missed, the head of the police union said Thursday." Both the supposedly intended victim & the shooter are Hispanic, so it's all okay. The police union claims the cops couldn't hear the victim repeatedly shouting that all the autistic man had was a toy truck. -- CW

Way Beyond

Dom Phillips of the Washington Post: "Brazilian police have arrested 10 people suspected of planning terrorist attacks during the Rio Olympics, Brazilian prosecutors in the southern state of Parana said Thursday. The 10, all Brazilians, had declared loyalty to the Islamic State and were communicating via cellphone messenger services Telegram and WhatsApp to plan attacks during the Summer Games, which open Aug. 5, Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes told reporters in the capital, Brasilia." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Elaine Ganley & Thomas Adamson of the AP: "The truck driver who killed 84 people on a Nice beachfront had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, the Paris prosecutor said Thursday. Prosecutor Francois Molins said five suspects currently in custody are facing preliminary terrorism charges for their alleged roles in helping 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in the July 14 attack...." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)

Max Bearak of the Washington Post: Air strikes on Tuesday -- which may have been led by the U.S. coalition -- killed dozens of Syrians fleeing ISIS, but no ISIS fighters. "If Tuesday's airstrikes were indeed by coalition jets, and not Russian or Syrian government warplanes, this would easily be the highest civilian toll from any action by the coalition since it formed in 2014. Faced with the likelihood of a grave error by the coalition, U.S. officials responded cautiously, emphasizing the need to verify what had happened." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Reader Comments (16)

Here is another voting rights decision that came down this week. This time it strikes down Michigan's straight ticket ban. Never knew this was a problem. Read it and learn:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/07/21/michigan_judge_strikes_down_straight_party_voting_ban.html?sid=5388d805dd52b8870b00f6bf&wpsrc=newsletter_slatest

July 21, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterHaley Simon

Let me guess. Russia has offered Trump some space to build a golf course.

July 22, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMarvin Schwalb

GOP CONVENTION ENDGAME

It's Midnight in America:
A man unfit to take on the reins of President of the United States makes a pivotal speech full of lies, distortions, exaggerated promises and presents himself as a cartoon super hero who will save the day and fix all the things that need fixing. And only he can do it, he says. He will be the people's voice––their champion––nobody knows the system better than he and he alone can fix it. Some truly believe him; but many know that if that man wins, this country will lose––so much and when Ezra says he's scared we can push that up a notch and use the word terrified.

Last night there was a full moon and I thought of it's harsh mistress tag and wondered whether our world is really becoming colder and less embracing. But I hold on to that little bit of moonlight to guide us in these dark times––those little bits needed to bite back the bleak landscape of the potential front runner. Stumble and fall, my friend!

July 22, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@PD Pepe: Here's a silver lining I see in the light of the full moon.

When my father was a boy, he watched a newsreel in which an elderly grade-school teacher told her class that the newly-elected president, Herbert Hoover, had been one of her pupils. "And any one of you boys can grow up to be president, too," the teacher said in a shaky voice my father tried to re-create.

Of course it struck me when my father told me the story that I would not be one of the children who might hold such aspirations. But today, all that has changed, and now any one of us might have grown up to be president, and if you're young enough, who knows? maybe you will. In any event, you can rest assured that you are at least as qualified, and likely far more qualified, to be POTUS than is the Republican nominee.

So the good news in Trump's nomination (and arguably Hoover's, too), is that there are now millions of Americans who can legitimately aspire to lead the nation, based on their qualifications & talents. Sadly, should Trump be elected, they cannot hope to be Leaders of the Free World, because Trump will take U.S. citizens out of the running for that job.

Marie

July 22, 2016 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Haley Simon writes "never new this was a problem" (straight
ticket voting). It wasn't a problem, but Snyder (R-Flint water crisis)
and his cronies figured out that a large percentage of minorities
vote straight ticket Democratic party. That takes one ballot mark.
So let's slow down that process and make everyone check the 30
or 40 boxes instead. That plan was designed to make long lines
at election time to discourage lots of people. If you're poor and
working 2 or 3 jobs, standing in line for hours is a problem.
Our local city clerk warned everyone who is eligible to vote absentee
ballot to do so in order to avoid long lines come November.

July 22, 2016 | Unregistered Commenterforrest morris

Actually, I thought the full moon was three days ago and it is frequently referred to as the Buck Moon, which is when male deer begin their new antler/horn growth. With that in mind, seems there was new horn growth in evidence in Cleveland!
(In addition, to the vast number of long-haired blondes dancing on the floor—thought the Swedish Bikini Team had returned.)

It certainly was one of the strangest conventions in my memory. Disorganized, uneven, problematic, fourth & fifth rate speakers, and yes, joyless. I began looking forward to Clint Eastwood's chair making a comeback. The "celebration" on stage at the end was stiff and lackluster. Everyone stood well to the rear of the set, with Trump's young son, Barron looking totally bored.

Maureen Dowd regained her stride with her op-ed piece
Ivanka the Fabulist
" and notes the odd embrace on stage "And in return, her dad came onstage and cupped his hands around her hips and patted them."

As I said, strange!

July 22, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

MAG,

Creepier still, all those evangelicals will be lining up to vote for a man who has suggested that he would like to sleep with his own daughter.

Some have wondered whether or not Trump believes his own rhetoric. I can't say for sure. I think the whole thing started as a bit of a stunt, a "Let's shake the tree and see what falls out" attempt to upgrade the Trump brand.

I think early on, and even as late as last night, he knew for sure he had no interest in doing the hard work it takes to run the country. He so much as said so with his back alley deal offered to John Kasich: he could be president in all but name and Trump would wave to the rubes, give the speeches, and enjoy lording it over anyone who ever came across as an enemy. But as the ball got rolling, so did he. The rhetoric became ever more extreme and outrageous. Narcissists don't feel that anything is out of their range. They can do anything, and do it better than anyone. It could be that Trump believes this, or at least enough to make is seem believable to his marks. After all, great con men have got to believe, to an extent, in the malarkey they peddle.

But it's one thing to peddle happy talk bullshit. It's quite another to promise Armageddon to one's perceived enemies. It's quite another to sell the idea that we are a crippled nation on the verge of extinction, enemies all around, always pissing on us, in need of a strong man savior to make things perfect literally overnight--he promised that crime will disappear the very day he takes office, after all.

I hate to go all Hitler here, but if, as Marvin has suggested, and as seems entirely possible, Trump is mentally unstable, he might not be interested in the day-to-day slog of real governance, but he absolutely revels in the Big Show. He loves rocking the boat, being the bad boy, just to prove to all those who hate or mock him that he is indeed the greatest. And is there a source of power more tempting than the presidency for someone like that?

Okay, rather than go all Hitler, let me go a little bit Stephen King. In one of his earlier novels, "The Dead Zone", King develops a story line about a high school teacher who awakens from a coma after years, years in the dead zone, after which he is able to see things, things that will happen in the future. At a presidential rally in New Hampshire the teacher (played perfectly by Christopher Walken), encounters a narcissistic Trump-like demagogue. Upon shaking his hand, he sees the future. And it ain't fun.

When I read the book, this all seemed like a pleasantly eerie, but entirely impossible plot line.

Not anymore.

See if you think Trump could be capable of something like this as his megalomania and mental instability increase. Does Trump have the self-discipline to refuse to use the power he may be given by idiot voters who buy his line?

I know he doesn't.

July 22, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Just took time out to watch the 'return' of Jon Stewart and checked in here to see the video is also posted at the top of the page! The out-of-view Ailes antics were amusing. Though being let go with a $40-million dollar package isn't much to laugh about.

@Ak: your link to The Dead Zone does speak to a scary Trump future prospect—the dialogue in that short clip has an almost prescient & foreboding aspect...and you are right, maybe King didn't write an impossible plot line.

July 22, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Oh, and there was this Trump oddity (I was reminded upon reading the Frank Rich 'interview": That party is all white — only 18 of the convention’s 2,472 delegates were black, in the estimate of the Washington Post. And Trump’s absurd expression of LGBT solidarity notwithstanding, it’s a homophobic party — ...

Did anyone else notice the way Trump said LGBT? His emPHAsis on the wrong SylLaBles was peculiar. Most people say it quickly, eliding one alphabetical letter into the next...but, when I heard LG BT expressed in distinct two-letter sets, I thought maybe he was talking about a sandwich!

July 22, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Forrest,

I've been concerned for some time now that the proclivity of the Republican Party for vote suppression by those who refuse to go along with them, for election rigging, for jiggering with voter rolls and for outright stealing elections has been almost completely forgotten in light of the Trumpotheosis. The Chris Kobachs and Rick Snyders of the party are still hard at work pouring sand into the gas tank of democracy.

If Trump wins it will be in no small way because of the virulent and ubiquitous anti-democratic efforts of his party. If you're voting for Trump, it will be drive through. Voting for Hillary Clinton, you'd better set aside 6-8 hours and you best have a stack of documentation.

And, as Snyder's machinations show, Confederates, realizing that down ballot races could suffer from the party's inherent malice and hatred, have taken steps to ensure that roadblocks will be in place to save their candidates from election disaster.

And what are Democrats doing about all this?

Whatever it is, it ain't enough.

July 22, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I'm going out on a limb here and suggesting this is the first Jennifer Rubin column posted here AND it is one that will not cause any vomiting:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/07/21/trump-doubles-down-fear-justifies-a-strongman/?wpisrc=nl_heads-draw6&wpmm=1#comments

July 22, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterHaley Simon

Ak

I hope this will reassure you - the court struck down Michigan's attempt to ban straight ticket voting. Your comment to forrest suggests that you think the ban is still in effect.

July 22, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterHaley Simon

Detroit Free Press, July 22, 2016: "Michigan Attorney General
Bill Schuette and Sec. of State Ruth Johnson will file an appeal on
Monday or Tuesday on U.S. District Court Judge's decision".
So it will depend on what happens next week regarding straight
ticket voting.

July 22, 2016 | Unregistered Commenterforrest morris

Marie, I am looking forward to Sunday. Great idea to have a true day of rest.

July 22, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMarvin Schwalb

Michael Barbaro and Matt Lattimer (linked above) miss the mark completely. Donald Trump is INCAPABLE of self-reflection. It's like asking him to grow taller. He can't. Why can't these writers see this? They waste their lovely words and time insisting that Trump could change if he wanted. It's not that he won't. It's that he can't. He doesn't have the mental wherewithal to even understand the concept of introspection. He doesn't see himself as simply human. He sees himself as super-human. This is is a sad, sick, pathetic person whose only aim in life is adulation. We should start to pity him at some point.

I shudder to think what will happen now that he's entitled to be briefed on U.S. security matters.

July 22, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterNancy

Three things:

First, for PDPepe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLsckvMkg7c

Beautiful, haunting, and pretty much what you said. But there's hope, even if it does come packaged as Hillary. I can't stand the Clintons, but I'll be voting for her, as will, I believe, a substantial percentage of Bernie supporters.

Brief digression: last Sunday I saw my first "Hillary For Prison 2016" yard sign -- at the end of my street. Back in February, my "Bernie 2016" yard sign was vandalized; some dickless coward (pardon my French) snuck onto my front lawn in the middle of the night and taped over the front of it a homemade sign that read, in big black block letters: A COMMUNIST LIVES HERE!! Bet that Hillary for Prison yard sign remains pristine throughout the election season. Thus, my neighborhood.

Second, for everyone, but especially Akhilleus:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/36914-trumpism-is-a-scam-you-re-actually-voting-for-mike-pence

Yet another reason for everyone who cares about the future of America, and by extension, the future of the planet, to get off the couch and GOTV.

And finally (no link here), Michigan straight-ticket voting. Yes, it will be possible to vote straight ticket in November. I've just mailed in my ballot for the August 2 primary. No straight ticket here because both parties were listed and there were intra-party contests for a limited number of seats. But by November, we'll be able to tick the Democratic box and be done with it. It's a small victory, but we'll take it.

July 22, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterRose in Michigan
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