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.”

The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

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

Page Links
Saturday
Jun212014

The Commentariat -- June 22, 2014

Internal links removed; graphic & related text removed.

Juan Cole: "With the alleged fall to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria of Qa’im on Saturday, and of Talafar a few days ago, the border between Iraq and Syria has now been effectively erased. A new country exists, stretching from the outskirts of Baghdad all the way to Aleppo. In history, it uncannily resembles the state ruled by Imad ad-Din Zangi (AD 1085 -- 1146), a Turkish notable who came to power in 1128 after a Shiite Assassin killed his father." Thanks to contributor safari for the link. ...

Whenever the conversation is on Iraq, it's not good news for Republicans. That's not helped at all over the last week by a bunch of people who we hadn't heard from in several years -- Republican figures associated with Iraq from the Bush administration -- who were suddenly back on major shows discussing the current state of affairs in Iraq. It was not a helpful reminder. They probably should have stayed off the shows. -- John Ullyot, a GOP strategist and former Senate aide

Remembrances of Cheney, et al. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "For Republicans still smarting from the Bush years, this week's Iraq deja vu brought back painful memories."

"The Big Lobotomy." Paul Glastris & Haley Edwards have a long cover piece in the Washington Monthly on "how Republicans made Congress stupid." Major culprit: right-wing "intellectual" Newt Gingrich, who not only slashed staffed, he instituted a number of rules & policies that made Congressional committees less competent. "In addition to the outsourcing of policy development, the other big effect of the brain drain has been the atrophying of congressional oversight." And even some small-government conservatives have realized, belatedly, "that making Congress dumber has not, in fact, made government smaller." CW: After reading this article, you'll see that it isn't just gerrymandering and a more ideological voting that has made Congress more partisan & less effective.

In the Times, Maureen Dowd continues her Pulitzer-winning series My Obession with the Clintons. In today's* episode, Dowd psychoanalyzes Hillary Clinton & reveals Hillary is cautious & calculating & is something like a Disney character. Also, Chelsea Clinton makes far too much money (way more than MoDo!) at NBC. ...

     ... * Oops! Sorry, the above was linked in today's NYT Sunday Review section in the Saturday afternoon online edition, & I made the incorrect assumption that it was, well, this Sunday's Review. As I was on the road last Sunday so had no idea the column is a week old. Thanks to contributor Jack M. for setting me straight. No MoDo today. She's probably in rehab recovering from her Rocky Mountain high.

Oh, look what Politico just noticed: "Oil Boom Downside: Exploding Trains." Kathryn Wolfe & Bob King: "Communities throughout the U.S. and Canada are waking up to the dark side of North America's energy boom: Trains hauling crude oil are crashing, exploding and spilling in record numbers as a fast-growing industry outpaces the federal government's oversight." CW: The writers don't really advocate for Keystone XL to save the day.

Jake Sherman of Politico: "Longtime Alaska Rep. Don Young improperly used campaign funds for personal use, accepted 'impermissible' gifts and failed to report those gifts, the House Ethics Committee announced Friday. Young, a Republican, has to repay nearly $60,000 to his campaign, and donors, the Ethics Committee said. He has also been reproved by the committee."

Mike Allen of Politico (June 18): "SPOTTED: Rupert Murdoch, eating dinner with Valerie Jarrett at the Blue Duck Tavern in D.C. Among the topics they discussed: immigration reform." ...

... OR, as the Website Fire Andrea Mitchell (because Mitchell is so liberal -- ha!) put it: "The real POTUS, Valerie Jarrett, the unelected Iranian born Obama 'adviser' with Secret Service protect it meeting with big, bad Rupert Murdoch to help Fox News plan their amnesty pimping. The Obama, errr Jarrett regime always whines about Fox News' 'conservative bias.' Yet it seems after Bill O'Reilly two Obama softball interviews on Super Bowl Sunday, they are becoming quite chummy. Murdoch, like other Republican whores to big business wants the cheap labor. Obama/Jarrett want the future Democrat voter." ...

... Kos publishes some more reactions from Right Wing World's own special Commentariat. Hilarious. Thanks to James S. for the link. ...

... CW: Murdoch, a U.S. immigrant, as well as an immigrant from Australia to England, has long favored immigration reform here. As Jonathan Topaz of Politico reported last week, "He is a co-chairman of the bipartisan Partnership for a New American Economy, a pro-immigration group whose other chairmen include former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Democratic San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, Democratic Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Disney CEO Bob Iger." I am grateful to Fire Andrea Mitchell, though, for alerting me that Jarrett, gender-ineligible to be the Ayatollah, has compensated by becoming the real POTUS.

MEANWHILE, George Will is fighting his slow-moving forced retirement by encouraging Congress to stop "a lawless president," because President Obama has failed to fully implement the Affordable Care Act, as written. ...

... Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly: "Mr. Will's concern that a law he loathes, the Affordable Care Act, isn't being implemented according to the exact wording of the bill is touching. These are the same crocodile tears they shed for the American victims in Benghazi and for prisoner-of-war Bowe Bergdahl. They politicize every single little thing. So, by all means, try to take the president to court to enforce the Affordable Care Act. It would be poetic justice."

 

Reuters: "Pope Francis has issued the strongest condemnation of organised crime groups by a pontiff in two decades, accusing them of practising 'the adoration of evil' and saying that mafiosi were excommunicated."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (8)

Gonna be fun to see how faux snooze begins playing immigration reform. As Lyndon Johnson said, wear a dark suit.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/21/1308561/-Saturday-nutpick-a-palooza-Murdoch-betrays-conservatives

June 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

Prof. Juan Cole gives us a good historical breakdown of the role of Sir Percy Cox, the British statesman responsible for the creation of the Syrian/Iraq border that followed very little logic except to be visually appealing with its artificial straightness. Local socio-cultural realities be damned.

http://www.juancole.com/2014/06/erases-border-hizbullah.html

June 22, 2014 | Unregistered Commentersafari

Marie, no need to post this. Just wanted you to know that the MoDo story is from last Sunday.

June 22, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterJack Mahoney

@Haley Simon: My opinion on the VA. I have no complaints from my standpoint. Since the VA considers ALS service connected (veterans have a higher incidence of ALS than non-veterans), I'm classified 100% disabled. Therefore, I receive excellent care. My neurologist specializes in ALS. She works at both the VA and the Emory University Hospital ALS Clinic. The surgeons who did my cataract surgery also are shared by both. I've had the same GP for several years, so she knows me well. The doctors typically spend about an hour with me at each visit. Once you're in the system, things work pretty well. It's getting that first visit that's the problem. 

Why is that an issue? We're looking at you deserter GW Bush, Five Deferment, "I had other priorities" Cheney, Rumsfeld ( cold war Navy), Bremer, et al. I don't remember who said there would be few casualties, but sadly that wasn't the case. The VA was overwhelmed. On top of that, troops were surviving wounds that would have been fatal just a few years earlier. I see young people at the VA hospital now where it used to be elderly.

Since there were going to be few casualties (they thought), Bush cut the VA budget and 
put an idiot in charge of the VA. 

Not only that, the wars were "off the books." And the chicken hawks have the unmitigated gall to scream about the deficit that they caused. 

Moral: if you can't take care of veterans, don't start dumb wars in places you know nothing about. 

There has also been sloppy reporting about the VA. It seemed reporters would trot out Walter Reed when covering the VA's problems. News flash: Walter Reed is NOT a VA hospital; it was an Army hospital at the time of its problems. 

If you get the idea that the crowd that started this whole mess makes my blood boil, you are correct, ESPECIALLY when people even listen to Dick Cheney!

June 22, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa

@Barbarossa, as a current VA employee and patient, I completely agree with your explanation of the VA's present predicament. I would only add that VA continues to be overwhelmed by the large number of newly-enrolling veterans; at the clinic where I work, the waiting time for initial primary care appointments is 4-5 weeks, due to large number of veterans signing up for benefits on a daily basis.There are mechanisms in place to provide care to active duty personnel not yet separated from service, and initial psychological evaluations and social work intakes are provided within days, if not the same day, of enrollment in VA healthcare.

Experientially, the increasing number of veterans enrolling in VA is not limited to the younger, Iraq war vets, but includes older vets who never previously considered enrolling and also those who somehow "didn't know" that healthcare was available to them.

IMHO, the only way the VA can manage the challenge of caring for the increasing number of veteran patients is to add more doctors, nurses, social workers, and front-line medical support assistants. I acknowledge that this will be costly and time-consuming but, economically speaking, the supply is at best inadequate to meet the rapidly rising demand.

June 22, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterDavid Wainwright

LOOK WHO IS TALKING! Former Goldman Sachs Chair & former U.S. Treasury Secretary weighs in on climate change.

"The Coming Climate Crash
Lessons for Climate Change in the 2008 Recession"

"We need to act now, even though there is much disagreement, including from members of my own Republican Party, on how to address this issue while remaining economically competitive. They’re right to consider the economic implications. But we must not lose sight of the profound economic risks of doing nothing."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/opinion/sunday/lessons-for-climate-change-in-the-2008-recession.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

It's a start in the right direction—even as Paulson sidesteps
some of the comparative issues to make his case. (As one commenter pointed out: "...First, the 2008 financial collapse was not caused by government "incentivizing us to borrow too much to finance homes.")

June 22, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Barbarossa, I'm glad to learn you are getting good care. Thanks to both you and David Wainwright for the feedback. Here's hoping the Republicans will allow an increase to the VA budget. When they make me king, I will implement a plan whereby some percent of med school costs will be covered by the government in exchange for some service as a VA doc.

June 22, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterHaley Simon

This is America, my friends. This is how it thinks and votes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/23/us/politics/running-on-tea-party-energy-chris-mcdaniel-barrels-through-mississippi.html?hp

June 22, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.