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.” ~~~

The Wires
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The Ledes

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

New York Times: “The Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, who emerged from the backwoods of Louisiana to become a television evangelist with global reach, preaching about an eternal struggle between good and evil and warning of the temptations of the flesh, a theme that played out in his own life in a sex scandal, died on July 1. He was 90.” ~~~

     ~~~ For another sort of obituary, see Akhilleus' commentary near the end of yesterday's thread.

Help!

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

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Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

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

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Tuesday
Mar272012

The Commentariat -- March 28, 2012

CW: Matt Bai of the New York Times writes a long article for the Times Magazine on President Obama and Speaker Boehner's failed 2011 deficit-reduction negotiations. Much of this has been reported before, but Bai adds some reporting & puts it all together in a readable history. If you followed the negotiations last year, Bai's report won't make you appreciate Obama any more; for instance, the agreement he made to raise the Medicare eligibility age would cost lives AND more money.

Shaila Dewan & Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times detail a number of ways in which the deal the state attorneys general negotiated with banks helps the banks but does not help distressed homeowners.

"When in Doubt, Smear the Dead Kid." Dave Weigel on the right's "new cottage industry of 'truth about Trayvon' content, calibrated to convince people that they really shouldn't worry about the implications of this killing."

This Is Journalism. Stephen Colbert exposes Barack Obama's gun control conspiracy:

Right Wing World

Michael Shear & Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Newt Gingrich is acknowledging that it is impossible for him to win the Republican presidential nomination outright and is cutting back on his staff and campaign schedule to focus on emerging victorious at the party’s convention this summer." ...

... CW: As one who does not follow the passions of Newt Gingrich except for laughs or while on hypocrisy watch, I was surprised to learn that the Newt always wanted to be a zoo director, a job which you might argue he held while Speaker. Now that even he has acknowledged his campaign is kaput & his only hope of becoming president is via a coup, perhaps he should think of switching careers. I hope some actual zoo director will give Newt a chance -- how about a job cleaning out the elephant exhibit, a shovel-ready job for which Newt is already well-qualified.

International Incident. Arnie Parnes of The Hill: "Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took aim at Mitt Romney on Tuesday, telling the GOP frontrunner to 'look at his watch,' and dismissing his comments that Russia was an enemy of the United States. 'We are in 2012 and not the mid-1970s," Medvedev said Tuesday, on the last day of a nuclear security summit in Asia. His comment came a day after Romney called Russia the United States’ 'No. 1 geopolitical foe.'" ...

... Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "On Tuesday morning when he was asked to respond to a comment Mitt Romney made that Russia is the United States’ number one geopolitical foe, [Speaker John] Boehner [said] ..., 'While the president is overseas..., I think it’s appropriate that we not be critical of him or of our country.' The comment could be interpreted as a subtle swipe at Romney...." CW: I do enjoy it when the son of a barkeep has to teach a rich son of a bitch a thing or two about decorum. ...

... Update. Andy Rosenthal of the New York Times: "If you’re a Republican candidate for the presidency, and you’re trying to figure out if you’ve reached the limits of acceptability in attacking Barack Obama, here’s an easy marker: Even House Speaker John Boehner thinks you’re tactless." ...

... Update 2. Cold War 2.0. Romney Keeps Shoveling. Eschewing Speaker Boehner's advice, Romney pens an op-ed for Foreign Policy criticizing President Obama for "bowing to the Kremlin."

Joe Romm of Think Progress: "Conservatives, led by Fox News, have been pushing a variety of lies about the Chevy Volt. They’ve falsely asserted that it is unsafe and a creation of the Obama administration, using absurd terms to discourage sales like, 'exploding Obamamobiles.' This relentless partisan campaign against American products and American jobs has been so successful that GM CEO Dan Akerson suggested it contributed to lower than expected demand.... [Monday], in an astonishing burst of candor, Fox & Friends has set the record straight with its story, 'Can the Chevy Volt help win the War on Terror?' Their conservative guest, Lee Spieckerman, CEO of Spieckerman Media, a self-described 'drill, baby, drill guy,' debunks every single right-wing myth about the Volt." Here's the video, thanks to reader Bill M. Steve Doucy's lead-in -- "It's all Obama's fault" -- is hilarious, & Spieckerman pretty much debunks it in the first seconds:

Local News

Voter Suppression Florida-Style. Michael Cooper & Jo McGinty of the New York Times: "Florida, which is expected to be a vital swing state once again in this year’s presidential election, is enrolling fewer new voters than it did four years ago as prominent civic organizations have suspended registration drives because of what they describe as onerous restrictions imposed last year by Republican state officials."

News Ledes

Reuters: "Banjo innovator and bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, died on Wednesday at a Nashville hospital at age 88."

New York Times: "Adrienne Rich, a poet of towering reputation and towering rage, whose work — distinguished by an unswerving progressive vision and a dazzling, empathic ferocity — brought the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse and kept it there for nearly a half-century, died on Tuesday at her home in Santa Cruz, Calif. She was 82."

Washington Post: "The Supreme Court will complete its review of President Obama’s health care law Wednesday by considering whether all of the law must fall if part of it is found unconstitutional, and whether the law’s proposed Medicaid expansion violates the federal-state partnership. New York Times story here. ...

... The New York Times The Lede blog is liveblogging the oral arguments; one begins @ 10 am ET; the second, & final, session begins at 1 pm ET. ...

     ... Update. The audio for today's morning session is here. The transcript is here (pdf). ...

     ... Update 2: The audio for this afternoon's session is here. The transcript is here (pdf).

ABC News: "The lead homicide investigator in the shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin recommended that neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman be charged with manslaughter the night of the shooting, multiple sources told ABC News. But Sanford, Fla., Investigator Chris Serino was instructed to not press charges against Zimmerman because the state attorney's office headed by Norman Wolfinger determined there wasn't enough evidence to lead to a conviction...."

Orlando Sentinel: "With the parents of Trayvon Martin looking on, congressional Democrats met Tuesday on Capitol Hill to explore ways they could use federal law to prevent a repeat of the Feb. 26 shooting in Sanford that claimed the life of the Miami Gardens teenager."

ABC News reports on the JetBlue pilot's meltdown:

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

Guardian: "The captain of a JetBlue plane screamed 'They're going to take us down!' and rambled about al-Qaida as passengers pinned him to the floor while another pilot took charge to make an emergency landing. An off-duty airline captain who was a passenger on the flight entered the cockpit, locked the door and landed in Amarillo, Texas, the airline said in a statement." This ABC News story adds some details. ...

     ... CNN Update: "A JetBlue pilot has been charged with interfering with a flight crew after his midair behavioral meltdown led to an emergency landing." You can read the criminal complaint here, (pdf) which is fairly scary.

Los Angeles Times: "A group led by Lakers legend Magic Johnson emerged Tuesday night as the new owners of the Dodgers, ending months of uncertainty for the storied but troubled baseball franchise."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (1)

I hope some actual zoo director will give Newt a chance -- how about a job cleaning out the elephant exhibit, a shovel-ready job for which Newt is already well-qualified.

Marie,
There are days I wish your site were set up like Facebook, so I could "like" your specific contributions to an article you're linking to.... like the one above. Of course, that one deserves not just a Like, but a LOL. Perfect.

March 28, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterTrish Ramey, Louisville, KY
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