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
Oct112014

The Commentariat -- Oct. 12, 2014

Internal links removed.

Robert O'Harrow & Steven Rich of the Washington Post: "Police agencies have used hundreds of millions of dollars taken from Americans under federal civil forfeiture law in recent years to buy guns, armored cars and electronic surveillance gear. They have also spent money on luxury vehicles, travel and a clown named Sparkles.... Brad Cates, a former director of asset forfeiture programs at the Justice Department, said the spending identified by The Post suggests police are using Equitable Sharing as 'a free floating slush fund.' Cates, who oversaw the program while at Justice from 1985 to 1989, said it has enabled police to sidestep the traditional budget process, in which elected leaders create law enforcement spending priorities."

The Proliferation of Dark Money:

Louis Sahagun of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama on Friday officially set aside 346,000 acres of the San Gabriel Mountains as a national monument, a move to link more communities east of Los Angeles with wild places in their own backyards. 'This is an issue of social justice, because it's not enough to have this awesome natural wonder within your sight -- you have to be able to access it,' Obama said at a ceremony attended by more than 150 people at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas":

... CW: We now have a president who sees the designation of a national monument/wilderness area near a vast urban area as an instrument of social justice. We used to have a president who saw public lands as resources to be exploited by miners, loggers & ranchers. Elections matter.

Daniel Lippman of Politico: "N.S.A. leaker Edward Snowden on Saturday defended his disclosure of reams of classified information and said his actions were worth fleeing his seemingly idyllic life in Hawaii and ending up in hiding in Russia, where he was joined by his girlfriend in July.... But he also suggested that if he had been a journalist handling the leaked documents, he would have been more conservative than some of the reporters who wrote about the surveillance programs." ....

... The New Yorker has video of Jane Mayer's full interview of Ed Snowden here. Also see Infotainment.

The New York Times publishes an excerpt from Times reporter James Risen's new book, in which Paul Bremer, whom George W. Bush awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his stellar work in Iraq, defends the way he lost billions of dollars to thieves during the course of his stellar work.

Peggy Noonan doesn't like Leon Panetta's book because he trashes Republicans. Here's some text, part of which you can copy & paste into a search engine if you want to read Our Lady of the Daiquiri's random thoughts:

He is catty about David Petraeus -- his office is 'a shrine ... to himself.' Mr. Panetta subtly, deftly, with a winning oh-goshness, takes a whole lot of credit for the bin Laden raid. This section is accompanied by unctuous compliments for Mr. Obama, whose chief brilliance appears to be that he listened to Mr. Panetta. 'Worthy Fights' is highly self-regarding even for a Washington book.

Carrie Brown of Politico: "The Clinton White House tried just about everything to pull itself through the Monica Lewinsky scandal. A trove of documents released Friday by the Clinton Presidential Library sheds light on the White House's internal machinations as it coped with the scandal -- from efforts to discredit rivals and attack the media to attempts to boost West Wing spirits by sharing supportive op-eds or the unfavorable poll numbers for special prosecutor Kenneth Starr."

God News

Steve Bittenbender of Reuters: "The developer of a Noah's Ark-based theme park in Kentucky said on Wednesday he would fight for his religious rights after state officials warned he could lose millions in potential tax credits if he hires only people who believe in the biblical flood." ...

... Simon Brown in Americans United: "... the ministry claims it has a First Amendment right to a tax break. You read that right. These guys believe they have a constitutional right to public support." Both articles via Steve Benen.

Michael Paulson of the New York Times: The "Mass mob -- the latest trend in Rust Belt Catholicism -- which is part heritage tour and part mixer (crudités in the fellowship hall followed the service) ... is bringing thousands of suburban Catholics to visit the struggling, and in some cases closed, urban churches of their parents and grandparents.... Named after flash mobs ... Mass mobs are ... fueled by social media, [and] they are doing best around Lake Erie...."

Philip Pullella of Reuters: "A leading Vatican cardinal said on Thursday the Roman Catholic Church will never bless gay marriage, wading into a controversy over the issue in Italy and other countries. On Tuesday, Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano ordered mayors to stop recognizing the validity of gay marriages performed outside the country, prompting protests from rights groups and local officials."

November Elections

Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly: "... the news networks have some kind of civic responsibility to cover the elections, and I don&'t think they've been doing an adequate job of it. This isn't the primary reason that interest in the elections is low, but it's a significant contributing factor."

Iowa. Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register: "Iowa's blitzkrieg U.S. Senate race is now a 1-point contest: Republican Joni Ernst is at 47 percent, and Democrat Bruce Braley is right at her heels at 46 percent with likely voters, a new Iowa Poll shows. As armies of Democratic activists go door to door urging Iowans to fill out absentee ballots, they're piling up votes for Braley, who was 6 points down just two weeks ago."

Kansas. Ken Vogel & Tarini Parti of Politico: "A small group of free-spending wildcard donors, including investment tycoons Peter Ackerman and John Burbank, are rallying to support Greg Orman's independent Senate campaign in Kansas. Michael Bloomberg and a Jonathan Soros-backed group are also considering entering the campaign on Orman's behalf.... It's a dramatic twist for a candidate who staunchly opposes big money in politics but has been badly outspent on the airwaves after surging to a surprise lead over Republican Sen. Pat Roberts." ...

... Karoli of Crooks & Liars Is Tired of Your Kvetching: "For six years I've listened to people on all sides of the debate complain because 'Obama failed to shut down Guantanamo' and for six years I've said it was Congress, not Obama." Karoli cites Sen. Pat Roberts' boast that he kept President Obama from sending Guantanamo prisoners to Leavenworth & other U.S. mainland prison facilities. As the Hill noted in its report on Roberts' boast that he would stop Obama again, "Obama ordered the closure of the prison camp as one of his first acts as president, but the Congress overrode him by prohibiting the use of federal funds to transfer detainees."

Texas. Steve M. on Wendy Davis's "nasty" campaign ad attacking her gubernatorial opponent Greg Abbott. No, it isn't the nastiest campaign ad you'll ever see. ...

... Martin Longman: "Admittedly, the advertisement is a personal attack, as it focuses on Greg Abbott's disability. But it's not about his sex life. It's not about his college transcripts or the provenance of his birth certificate. It doesn't attack his wife or children. It's about a matter of law and policy, and it's about Greg Abbott taking advantage of the law to redress an injustice that was done to himself and then denying that same remedy to other Texans who find themselves in the same or similar situations."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Turkey will allow American and coalition troops to use its bases, including a key installation within 100 miles of the Syrian border, for operations against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, Defense Department officials said Sunday."

New York Times: "A health care worker here who helped treat the Liberian man who died last week of the Ebola virus has tested positive for the disease in a preliminary test, state health officials said Sunday." ...

     ... Dallas Morning News Update: "A Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital health care worker in Dallas who had 'extensive contact' with the first Ebola patient to die in the United States has contracted the disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta confirmed the news Sunday afternoon after an official test.... [She is] the first person to contract the disease in the United States. The director for the [CDC] ... said Sunday that the infection in the health care worker, who was not on the organization's watch list for people who had contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, resulted from a 'breach in protocol.'" But they don't know precisely what the "breach" was.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (2)

regarding the god botherers:
“Ark Encounter, which is slated to open in 2016 in Williamston, Kentucky, is not hiring anyone yet, but its parent company Answers in Genesis asks employees to sign a faith statement including a belief in creationism and the flood. …”

They remind me of a certain Senator McCarthy… and his witch hunts...and asking people to take loyalty oaths.

Oh, these ark people they want Federal money?
To paraphrase George Carlin, funny how god has all the answers, but he just can't keep track of money.

mae finch

October 12, 2014 | Unregistered Commentermae finch

Thomas Frank interviews Elizabeth Warren in “Salon.” Easy to see why she ignites enthusiasm; she’s a natural pied piper, she is.

http://tinyurl.com/lqob4aq

October 12, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.