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.

 

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Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

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Tuesday
Oct252011

The Commentariat -- October 26

I've put up a comments page on Off Times Square on Occupy protesters' recent battles with authorities.

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The top 1 percent of earners more than doubled their share of the nation’s income over the last three decades, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday, in a new report likely to figure prominently in the escalating political fight over how to revive the economy, create jobs and lower the federal debt. In addition, the report said, government policy has become less redistributive since the late 1970s, doing less to reduce the concentration of income." CW: What could possibly be wrong with that? The report is here. ...

... ** Cheaters Always Win. Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone ticks off a few reasons you're losing & banks are "winning." Well, the banks can't lose: they have a "cheat code." OWS protesters aren't jealous of bankers, as the right claims; they just bank bankers to quit cheating & play by the same rules we 99 Percent do. ...

... ** Kevin Carey in The New Republic: "THE STUDENTS IN ZUCCOTTI PARK are right to focus on the injustices of student debt: Many of them are indentured to the very banks that destroyed the economy and along with it the jobs students need to pay their loans back.... But much of the guilt lies with higher education institutions themselves. They have spent billions on vanity building projects, administrative overhead, and money-losing sports programs in order to compete for status and fame. Students and parents have been left with the bill."

I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do. I support what they do. -- Elizabeth Warren, candidate for U.S. Senate, Massachusetts, on the Occupy protests ...

... Greg Sargent: "National Republicans are now attacking Elizabeth Warren for embracing the protests.... The conservative effort to turn blue collar whites and independents against the protesters and their broader populist message — exploiting a traditional cultural fault line in our politics — will now unfold in the context of a high profile political campaign." ...

... Meghan Barr of the AP: in cities across the U.S., neighbors, nearby workers visitors and city officials are sick of the noise, mess & unsanitary conditions at Occupy campsites. ...

... Prof. James Miller, in a New York Times op-ed, says Occupy's "fetishization of participatory democracy" may allow extremists to hijack the Occupy movement, as happened in the protest movements of the 1960s. CW: Miller is pretty dismissive of the protesters, but we did see this "democratic process" occur in Atlanta, where protesters decided not to allow civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) to speak. I watched video of the Lewis battle, & frankly, I thought the protesters were beyond naive & foolish. Their "reason" for not allowing Lewis to speak: some didn't want to privilege one person over others. Well, there was no reason others couldn't speak, was there? ...

Thanassis Cambanis of The Atlantic: Tahrir Square = Liberty Park, Manhattan? Not exactly.

Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times: Here's the headline & subhead: "Obama jobs plan vs. GOP proposal: No comparison, really. Obama's American Jobs Act would raise economic demand and boost employment, while Republicans' Jobs Through Growth Act would do little except protect corporate profits." Hiltzig writes, "The GOP plan is shot through with measures aimed at protecting corporate profits, including a cut in the corporate tax rate, attacks on the power of unionized workers, the repeal of financial regulations and incentives for U.S. corporations to repatriate overseas earnings. In job-creating terms, these are entirely beside the point.... One big element of the GOP plan ... is enactment of a balanced budget amendment. If that got passed during this period of economic strain, [an expert economist] said, 'it would be catastrophic.'" ...

... Mark Drajem & Catherine Dodge of Bloomberg News: "Republican presidential candidates have accused [President] Obama of stifling job creation by imposing rules on businesses, and House Republicans have vowed to rein in proposed regulations on everything from the environment to health care to banking." BUT "Obama’s White House has approved fewer regulations than his predecessor George W. Bush at this same point in their tenures, and the estimated costs of those rules haven’t reached the annual peak set in fiscal 1992 under Bush’s father, according to government data reviewed by Bloomberg News." ...

... Pat Garofalo of Think Progress: Mitt Romney's chief economic advisor Glenn Hubbard tells the Wall Street Journal & NPR that Obama's revamped mortgage assistance plan "could be a very big deal" and is "a good plan." Hubbard would like the plan, of course; it is based largely on his ideas. CW: let's see how Romney manages to twist this one.

CW: I've watched only Part 1 of Leno's interview of President Obama, & it's actually substantive. I'll check out the rest later:

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: No, Barack Obama 2012 is not analgous to Harry Truman 1948: for one thing, the economy was improving when Truman narrowly won re-election.

David Rogers of Politico: "With time running out, House and Senate leaders are inserting themselves more into behind-the-scenes deficit talks, exchanging proposals and trying to help the so-called supercommittee avert the threat of a $1.2 trillion across-the board spending cut if no agreement is reached.... The level of activity goes well beyond what has been reported to date with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid taking the lead in reaching out to Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a series of recent meetings. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the two co-chairs of the panel, participated in the closely guarded discussions last week, and Boehner Tuesday hosted a meeting in his office with both House and Senate Republicans on the 12-member panel."

Right Wing World

The Real Story Hiding behind the Border Fence. Both Republican David Frum & libertarian Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic say the GOP presidential candidates are outdoing each other with badder & badder border fence plans (Bachmann: build a double wall! Cain: electrocute some Mexicans!) as a base-pandering subterfuge: in fact, these pro-business Republicans are vehemently opposed to workplace enforcement -- a practice that would actually cut down on illegal immigration. Frum notes that: "Herman Cain [is] a past chief lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association, one of the most powerful of the anti-enforcement lobbies in Washington." Thanks to Haley S. for the link. Haley would "love to see someone challenge Cain's present 'electric fence' position and his work with the National Restaurant Association." CW: me too.

I don't care about that. -- Rick Perry, when asked about the millions in tax benefits his flat-tax plan would provide for wealthy taxpayers

Great for the Rich/Bad for the Poor. Catherine Rampell of the New York Times: "Gov. Rick Perry of Texas ... today released some details on his flat tax proposal. The plan would give Americans the option of determining their taxes based on an alternate system that has one tax rate and fewer deductions." According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, "the highest-income households (at the 99th percentile) in every structure of family analyzed always benefit from opting into the Perry plan.The poorest households, on the other hand, do not. That’s primarily because the Perry plan, at least as currently described, does not seem to have refundable tax credits. The lowest tax liability a family can have under the family plan is $0, whereas under current law families that are poor enough can actually have a negative tax liability." With chart. ...

... "Thanks for Nothing." Clive Crook of The Atlantic states the obvious: besides the fact that Perry's flat tax isn't flat, "The comical thing is that this new tax would be voluntary: taxpayers could choose to be taxed under the existing code if they preferred. This is simpler? To know which code saves you money, you would obviously have to calculate your taxes under both systems. You or your adviser would still have to comprehend the "carve-outs that make the current code so incomprehensible". Maybe if you opted for the Perry tax you would be able to file on a postcard -- but before making that choice you'd need to do your taxes the old way first." ...

... James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute. Oh, and Perry's plan would raise much less revenue than is raised under the current tax code. ...

... Note to Perry:

Mitt Takes the Fifth. Greg Sargent: "Today, Mitt Romney refused to take a position on the big battle in Ohio over the ballot initiative to repeal Governor John Kasich’s law rolling back the collective bargaining rights of public employees. The fight is a hugely important one to conservatives, with right wing money flowing into the state, and conservative bloggers erupted in fury at Romney, asking how it is that he can be running for president when he isn’t willing to take a firm stand against the scourge of public employees." It now appears likely voters will repeal the anti-union law. ...

... BUT. He Was For It Before He Was Whatever. Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "The really strange thing about Romney's decision to hedge this morning is that in the past he has explicitly endorsed at least one of the [two initiatives]." BUt again. Even though he wouldn't take a position, he was in Ohio specifically to thank Kasich volunteers. Read the details. Romney's pretzeling is beyong comprehension. ...

... AND That's Because.... Steve Benen: Mitt Romney does not have the courage to take a stand on anything that might rattle the crazies, like Rick Perry's new foray into birtherism: "Romney criticizes Perry comments all the time. But when Perry dabbles in unhinged conspiracy theories, the Romney campaign prefers to remain silent." ...

(... BUT. Pete Hamby of CNN: after Romney's refusal take a stand in Ohio, Rick Perry comes out forcefully against unions.)

... Mitt Romney, Avatar of America's Decline. Joe Conason in the National Memo: since Mitt Romney has had to disavow his experience as governor of Massachusetts, where his signature achievement was the GOP horror of universal health coverage, a/k/a RomneyCare, he has made his business acumen his qualification for the presidency. But at Bain Capital, Romney specialized in mergers & takeovers that "led to worsening economic inequality, executive recklessness, stock manipulation, and a laser-like focus on the short term -- in short, all of the ills that underlie American economic decline. Those same incentives have been trained on the political system to ensure decisions that benefit those same overpaid, seemingly sociopathic bankers and investors -- now known as the 'one percent.'" ...

... The Economist says Romney as capitalist superman was not as super as his admirer/detractor Benjamin Wallace-Wells claimed in the lo-o-o-ong New York Magazine piece I linked a few days ago.

Daniel Stone of the Daily Beast: "Herman Cain, the multimillionaire businessman who has made tax fairness a central part of his surging presidential campaign, missed paying his state income taxes for 2006 while undergoing treatment for cancer, prompting Georgia to file a tax lien against him that wasn’t settled until late 2008.... The Republican’s campaign ... portray[ed] the unpaid taxes as an oversight while Cain was undergoing cancer treatment and the state’s lien as an excessive response that shows the need for tax reform."

Michael Sheridan of the New York Daily News: a "strange Herman Cain ad" is found "hidden" on YouTube; Cain's campaign manager is featured smoking a cigarette:

... "This Is Herman Cain Boning up on Foreign Policy!" Prof. Daniel Drezner in Foreign Policy: "Every time I think I'm done picking on Herman Cain's absence of foreign policy thought, his campaign pulls me back in! ... This story clearly represents the Cain campaign's efforts to push back on the notion that he doesn't know enough about foreign affairs.  And so we get ... the following:

Almost every day, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is handed a one-page briefing from his chief foreign policy adviser on news from around the world....

      ... This kind of spin on Cain's foreign policy interest ... is just f***ing absurd."

... AND Herman Cain remains solidly pro-choice even in the same paragraph he says he's "pro-life from conception." Read his position(s) here. This has to be some sort of Acme of Double-Speak. Is there an award for that?

Unbelievable! Pat Robertson says the Republican base is pushing its presidential candidates to take positions that are "too extreme." For those of you unfamiliar with Robertson, he's a televangelist whom Marie Diamond of Think Progress describes as "one of the most radical, hate-spewing figures in America":

Alex Leary of the St. Pete Times has a recap of Sen. Marco Rubio's shifting story on the immigration of his Cuban parents to the U.S. Bottom line: Rubio's parents were a non-political couple who came to the U.S. seeking permanent residence in 1956. They were not political exiles who fled Castro's Cuba as Rubio claimed on his official Senate biography. Castro's revolution forces did not take over Cuba until January 1, 1959.

News Ledes

Boston Globe: "Alan Khazei, at one point favored to win the Democratic primary to challenge US Senator Scott Brown next year, is withdrawing from the race."

President Obama spoke on college affordability at in Denver today. Christian Science Monitor: "President Obama on Wednesday is launching a new plan to lower the cost of paying back student loans for millions of borrowers – the latest installment in his bid to move a jobs agenda that bypasses a gridlocked Congress. At nearly $1 trillion, federal and private student loans now exceed US credit-card debt, posing a formidable repayment burden for many borrowers at a time of near-double digit unemployment." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "President Obama on Wednesday ended a three-day Western trip that was heavier on politics than policy, rallying thousands of college students whose enthusiasm belied the struggle he will have to win this state again in 2012."

New York Times: "Federal prosecutors are expected to file criminal charges on Wednesday against Rajat K. Gupta, the most prominent business executive ensnared in an aggressive insider trading investigation, according to people briefed on the case.... The case against Mr. Gupta, 62, who is expected to surrender to F.B.I. agents on Wednesday, would extend the reach of the government’s inquiry into America’s most prestigious corporate boardrooms." ...

     ... AP Update: "A former Goldman Sachs board member on Wednesday surrendered to federal authorities to face criminal charges stemming from a massive hedge fund insider trading case. Rajat Gupta was taken into federal custody, but the charges were not immediately disclosed."

Oakland Tribune: "Occupy Oakland demonstrators clashed all over downtown Oakland on Tuesday night with police who lobbed tear gas at least three times in futile attempts to fully disperse the more than 1,000 people who took to the streets after the early-morning raid of the movement's encampment. The rolling protest came about 12 hours after hundreds of police from across the Bay Area rousted about 300 people from the two-week old camp at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. Tensions escalated after protesters vowed to return to the plaza, which was left with tents overturned and food, carpet, personal belongings and mounds of trash strewn on the lawn."

New York Times: "New fissures and disagreements emerged on Tuesday on the eve of a European Union summit meeting promoted as the moment for agreement on a comprehensive solution to the two-year-old euro crisis. Crucial financial measures were left unresolved, and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy faced strong opposition inside his governing coalition to major changes demanded by the Europeans." ...

     ... AP Update: "The European Central Bank has loaned euro56.9 billion ($65.3 billion) to 181 banks for a year as part of its efforts to steady the banking system against the turmoil of the eurozone debt crisis. The 371-day loans announced Wednesday give eurozone banks a chance to lock up all the funding they want for longer than the usual 3-month maximum and reduce uncertainty about their finances."

AP: "NATO postponed a definite decision to end its bombing campaign in Libya as consultations continued Wednesday with the U.N. and the country's interim government over how and when to wind down the operation. Last week, the alliance announced preliminary plans to phase out its mission on Oct. 31. NATO's governing body — the North Atlantic Council, or NAC — was expected to formalize that decision Wednesday."

AP: in Seoul, South Korea, "U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday called North Korea a 'serious threat' and told U.S. troops that the Pentagon will strengthen its presence in this region to guard against North Korean provocations."

AP: "The last of the nation's most powerful nuclear bombs — a weapon hundreds of times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima — is being disassembled nearly half a century after it was put into service at the height of the Cold War. The final components of the B53 bomb will be broken down Tuesday at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo.... The completion of the dismantling program is a year ahead of schedule ... and aligns with President Barack Obama's goal of reducing the number of nuclear weapons."

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