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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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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Tuesday
Jun032014

The Commentariat -- June 3, 2014

Internal links removed; obsolete video & related text removed.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama announced more steps on Tuesday to bolster security in central and eastern Europe with additional deployments and training as he arrived in Poland for the start of a four-day European trip aimed at locking arms with allies following Russia's intervention in Ukraine."

Dana Milbank: "Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy sounded like the sort of unflinching liberal that progressives had hoped Barack Obama would be. Not only did McCarthy roll out a broad new rule Monday that would cut carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent at existing power plants over 16 years, but she did so while ridiculing those on the other side." ...

... Clifford Krauss & Diane Cardwell of the New York Times: "Leaders in the fossil fuel industries said they would need time to read the fine print of the long E.P.A. draft, and they noted that there were sure to be years of lawsuits and negotiations over compliance. But many of them said they could live with the new policy." ...

... Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker: "... the new rules aren't really very ambitious. (Many commentators pointed this out even before the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Gina McCarthy, had signed them.) In many ways, the Administration seems to be benefitting from what might be called, to paraphrase George W. Bush, the sympathy of low expectations." ...

... Not According to Mary Landrieu. Clare Foran of the National Journal: "Mary Landrieu is not a fan of President Obama's global-warming rule -- and she wants Louisiana voters to know it. 'While it is important to reduce carbon in the atmosphere, this should not be achieved by EPA regulations,'." the Democratic senator said in a statement Monday." ...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has found that each year this regulation will kill 224,000 jobs and force energy rates to skyrocket, so it's no wonder President Obama is circumventing Congress to implement his latest job-killing regulation. -- RNC Chair Reince Priebus, in a statement similar to ones made by top GOP lawmakers

Adam Weinstein of Gawker provides an excellent, balanced account of the controversies surrounding the retrieval of Taliban hostage prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl. ...

     ... Zeke Miller of Time: "At a press conference in Warsaw on Tuesday, Obama batted away congressional objections that he violated a provision of a 2013 law that required congressional notification before the release of any prisoners from Guantanamo Bay. 'We've consulted with Congress for some time about prisoner exchange,' the president said. 'We don't leave our men or women behind,' he added":

... Ken Gude in Think Progress: "The five detainees that were included in the deal would have to be released soon anyway because the U.S. involvement in the armed conflict against the Taliban is ending. And the Obama administration has been exceptionally good at preventing released Guantanamo detainees from engaging in militant activities against the United States, especially compared to the Bush administration." ...

... Mark Thompson of Time profiles the six U.S. soldiers who died hunting for Bergdahl. ...

... Maggie Haberman of Politico: "Hillary Clinton defended President Obama's move to free a long-held U.S. prisoner of war from Afghanistan in exchange for five men being held at Guantanamo Bay in a speech on the outskirts of Denver on Monday night." ...

... Conspiracy Theory No. 789. What Did Hillary Know & When Did She Know It? Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Republicans are raising questions about whether Hillary Clinton knew about the White House plan to release senior Taliban commanders in exchange for the last U.S. prisoner of war. President Obama met with his former secretary of State for lunch on Thursday, two days before it was announced that Bowe Bergdahl had been released from captivity in exchange for five high-profile Taliban prisoners."

Alexander Bolton: "Tea Party Patriots has filed a complaint against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) with the Senate Ethics Committee to protest his repeated attacks against Charles and David Koch.... The complaint further states that Reid 'has misused Senate staff or resources to engage in partisan campaign activity in violation of federal laws and Senate rules.'" ...

... Tarini Parti of Politico: "Outside groups poured a staggering $2.5 billion into the 2012 election — far more than the $1.6 billion spent by party committees -- as power migrated from party honchos to a handful of billionaires and political consultants, according to a book released Tuesday by Politico Chief Investigative Reporter Kenneth P. Vogel.... Vogel details the explosion of cash in politics and the efforts of conservative and liberal millionaires whose costly forays into politics are not dissimilar from those of rich sports junkies who spend millions to buy a professional team. There's even some overlap between big donors and team owners."

Mark Follman of Mother Jones: The NRA notices it has gone too far. "In an extraordinary move on Friday, the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action -- the organization's powerful lobbying arm in Washington -- issued a lengthy statement seeking to distinguish between 'responsible behavior' and 'legal mandates. It told the Texas gun activists in no uncertain terms to stand down." In response, Open Carry Texas labeled the NRA "gun control extremists." ...

Yup, that's the NRA warning gun owners against 'acting without thinking' because it might lead to the 'lasting consequence' of gun restrictions -- not, you know, people being shot. -- Evan McMurry of Mediaite

Gender Bias Kills. Jason Samenow of the Washington Post: "People don't take hurricanes as seriously if they have a feminine name and the consequences are deadly, finds a new groundbreaking study. Female-named storms have historically killed more because people neither consider them as risky nor take the same precautions, the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concludes." ...

     ... Caveat. The study's findings may be bogus.

High Hopes. Evan Halper of the Los Angeles Times: "Newly discovered documents from tobacco company archives at UC San Francisco show that major companies in the cigarette industry investigated joining the marijuana business in the late 1960s and early 1970s.... The documents, discovered by public health researchers, were disclosed Tuesday in the Milbank Quarterly, a health policy journal. They not only shed new light on the Nixon era, but appear when some Wall Street analysts and health advocates say tobacco companies may again be considering the expanding market for legalized weed."

Congressional Election

Evan Wyloge of the Arizona Capitol Times: After losing two local elections, GOP candidate Scott Fistler decided to run for Congress in a heavily-Hispanic district. So he changed his name to Cesar Chavez & (belatedly) registered as a Democrat. Fistler/Chavez is not taking media questions just now, but "should he be able to get to them. Questions must be screened, no more than five questions, no question longer than five words and Chavez will not discuss his name change, he explained in the email." On his campaign Website, Fistler/Chavez confuses Hugo Chavez with Cesar Chavez with photos that depict "Chavez" (Hugo & Cesar) supporters. ...

... SFK of Lawyers, Guns & Money calls this "the GOP's 2014 Hispanic outreach plan." ...

... Hunter of Daily Kos: "I think we've found the Republican path forward once they finally exhaust all remaining electoral options. Just pretend to be someone else."

Beyond the Beltway

Stephanie Clifford & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "A New York City Department of Investigation inquiry has implicated Charles J. Hynes, the former Brooklyn district attorney, in the improper use of money seized from drug dealers and other criminal defendants to pay a political consultant more than $200,000 for his work on Mr. Hynes's unsuccessful re-election campaign last year. The report, which has been referred to the state attorney general and several other agencies, concluded that Mr. Hynes could face larceny charges for the misuse of public funds."

Beyond the Borders

The Elephant Slayer. Jon Lee Anderson of the New Yorker: How an elephant-hunting jaunt with a paramour, paid for by a Saudi businessman, brought down Juan Carlos of Spain, who yesterday announced he would abdicate.

Marie's Sports Report
... Includes Some News That Actually Matters

Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times: "Dan Marino, the Hall of Fame member and former Miami Dolphins quarterback, last week sued the NFL over concussions, according to federal court records. As the behind-the-scenes effort to gain approval for the proposed $765-million settlement of the concussion litigation continues, Marino and 14 other former players sued in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. At least 41 members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, or their estates, are among about 5,000 former players suing." CW: The headline & lede are accurate but misleading. Marino is among 15 litigants in this particular suit, each of whom is equally important.

Debbie Emery of the Hollywood Reporter: In a lawsuit filed Monday, "Maiko Maya King claims to have been in a romantic relationship with ... Clippers owner [Donald Sterling] from 2005 to 2011, and says that she was later subjected to "a steady stream of racially and sexually offensive comments" when she was employed by him, according to the lawsuit. Read the complaint here." ...

     ... Via Margaret Hartmann, who notes, "King is represented by Gloria Allred, whose appearance in this debacle is long overdue."

News Lede

Washington Post: An historian has located the bodies of more than 800 babies in a sewer at a former home for unwed mothers in Western Ireland.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (12)

CW: I'm bringing forward this comment by safari, which got the spam treatment yesterday:

Ahh, what do you know. I mentioned dimwit Allen West and here he comes crawling from out of the basement.

Apparently the rescued's soldiers father spoke Arabic at the White House and though Allen West has no idea what he said, he was certainly leaving his mark on the White House, like a dog on a firehydrant, proclaiming victory for Muslims across the world or something. Ladies and gentlemen, Benghazi Redux has commenced

http://allenbwest.com/2014/06/bombshell-first-words-bergdahls-father-white-house-arabic/

June 3, 2014 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

There comes a time when the antics of the right-wingers become so downright hilarious that you just have to throw up your hands and laugh: desperate name changing, Allen West's conspiracy theories, Tony (little prick) Perkins having a hissy fit over the Harvey Milk stamp ordering all his followers to reject any letter that has this stamp, and so on and so forth of endless unbelievable nuttiness. Now we have the release of terrorists for one of our own and "all hell has broke loose," plus the new regulations to save a wee part of our part of the planet and we have the usual uproar. In the end it really doesn't matter what this administration does–––in THEIR eyes it's wrong and BAD. But it's up to the "librul Meedia" to out these cretins and present them as clowns––one of the best ways to fight these MFers.

June 3, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Re: Himicanes or "call me Francis and I'll kill ya". More lab coats looking for press. Turns out your mother's hurricane is a killer and your dad's hurricane has no balls. I say we name all hurricanes with mixed gender names like Sue. Or, if as the study suggests, the name reflects the preparation for the storm let's name'em "You're SO fucked"; or "Winds above a hundred" or "Batten down the hatches", or "God's will" Or my personal favorite, "Die, puny human ants, Die"; that one would get my attention.

June 3, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterJJG

Re: What did Hillary know and when did she know it? Must be a conspiracy!

One possible conclusion. If you are a committed member of the know-nothing party, the one that sees no connection between CO2 emissions and climate change, between the prevalence of guns and their use, between the denial of health insurance to millions and hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths, between unlimited money in politics and general corruption....it should come as no surprise that you might be just a teensy bit jealous of anyone who knew anything at any time at all.

I smile but behind the mild humor the bozos unwittingly provide, I'm reminded of junior high and the misery the thugs visited on the nerds when we still called them (us) eggheads, brains or four-eyes? I never wholly understood it, but experience tells me the thoughtful and knowledgeable must be instinctively very threatening to the thoughtless.

Must be some kind of evolutionary mechanism at work picking winners and losers. While the thugs have their victories (wedgies and swirlies come to mind) evidence that suggests knowing nothing is a long-term loser. Choosing ignorance is like arguing with fate or demographics. In the short run, though, aside from the humor the struggle sometimes provides, the argument is messy and tiresome.

I know that, but I don't have to like it.

June 3, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Ken,

First, bullies like those in the Republican party tend not only to be ignorant wretches but also cowards, an observation supported on a daily basis.

As for your remark about the long term effects of ignorance, I recall a scene from the film "Broadcast News" in which the Albert Brooks character (the nerdy smart guy), as a boy in South Boston, is being set upon by punks, because of his non-ignorant status, very likely.

The young Brooks, as a taunt, hurls a prediction that they'll be lucky if they ever make $20K a year when they grow up, a prognosis that is met with delighted surprise by the departing delinquents.

The ignorant inhabit a world of their own, another observation about conservatives that can be verified daily.

June 3, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

The far-right Koch funded astroturf group, Tea Party Patriots (oxymoron alert) is upset that Harry Reid has not been making kissy-face with their billionaire patriarchs. In fact, they're outraged because of what they see as partisan politics being practiced by the Senate Majority Leader. You see, they would never, ever, in a million years support any partisan politicians, you know, like Ted Cruz, or Crazy Louie Gohmert, or Mike Lee, or Michele Bachmann.

Never.

Teabaggers whining about partisan politics is like strippers complaining that other people are taking their clothes off.

Funnily enough, Charles Koch, peeved that Reid refuses to genuflect before golden images of the brothers, wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal editorial pages (actual moron alert) in which he lashed out at opponents who disagree with their attempts to rig things in their favor as "collectivists", which is rich considering that their daddy founded the Koch empire in the service of Josef Stalin.

Yup, the Koch family fortune was begun while helping atheist, freedom hating commies build up their oil operations back in the late 20's. Fred Koch built refineries all over the Soviet Union, helping to spur that country's industrialization, turning it from a third world backwards agrarian economy into a world power on a par, in some respects, with the US. Stalin, at Koch's invitation, sent streams of engineers to Kansas to bring back as much technical know-how as the Koch company could impart, and they built the Soviet Union into a powerhouse that challenged the west for world dominance.

Thanks in great part to the Koch family.

So when Koch-sucking teabaggers scream about soshulism and dirty commies in the White House, just remember where their nest egg was laid.

Teabaggers and the Kochs: brought to you by Uncle Joe and his godless pals in Soviet Russia. After a hard day of extermination, he kicked back with his good buddies, the Kochs.

So when Harry Reid describes the Kochs' agenda as antithetical to American ideals, he ain't just whistlin' Dixie. And those ignorant 'baggers can all go fuck themselves.

June 3, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

JJG,

I like the new naming convention idea.

"Hurricane "Die, Puny Human Ants, Die" is picking up steam several hundred miles southeast of Florida and should be a category 4 by morning. Puny human ants are advised to seek shelter."

Weather reports will be so much more compelling.

June 3, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

PD,

Sadly, the media too often bends over backwards to offer the most ignorant ninnies far more than a modicum of respectability. Repeating practically anything Ted Cruz, for instance, has to say as if it's worth the time it takes to recognize how loony it is, instead of simply saying straight out that this guy has no clue what he's talking about, is nothing less than saying you're all in on stupid.

"Librul media", my ass.

June 3, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

One more and we'll call it a day.

In the wake of the new EPA guidelines for lowering carbon emissions, GOP hacks are clearly all on the same page as to why we can't afford to have a safer environment: it will kill jobs. "It will kill jobs" is the all purpose GOP reason for not doing shit, especially if it's something suggested by the current president.

So here's a short list of job killers, according to the GOP:

Clean air

Clean water

Healthcare reform (originally a GOP idea)

Cap and trade (another GOP idea)

A living wage

Income equality for women (they oughta be home in the kitchen anyway)

Economic stimulus

Workplace safety regulations

Any regulation on anything, especially toxic waste dumping

Needless to say, Republicans have never provided a shred of evidence for any of their claims. It's so because they say it's so.

And now...the GOP ideas for job creation:

Questions?

June 3, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

OMG, lunchroom conversation today in Alabama:

"...Bergdahl should be executed by firing squad for desertion..."

"...Obama should be tried as a war criminal for aiding and abetting the enemy by releasing the five Taliban from Guantanamo who had direct links to Osama bin Laden..."

"...What's this country coming to? It doesn't stand for anything anymore..."

As Ak said above "The ignorant inhabit a world of their own, another observation about conservatives that can be verified daily."

Down here they actually take pride in their degree of ignorance about the rest of the world outside their little Faux News bubble. It was all I could do to keep my Yankee liberal lips shut.

June 3, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterUnwashed

When I was stationed in Germany 1974-1978, it was just after the OPEC oil embargo. The Germans decided to switch back to coal from oil, with bad results. In winter, the air turned a sickly yellow. I got sinus headaches that were so bad I could barely function, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one. More coal-bad Less coal-good.

June 3, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa

Ak & JJG: Are you two a comedy act, with JJG the setup man?

That's the funniest exchange I've seen in a long time.

June 3, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa
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