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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Wednesday
Sep142011

The Commentariat -- September 15

Unlike Sen. Merkley (see below), I'm plumb out of good ideas, so I've posted an Open Thread on today's Off Times Square.

Senator Merkley's Excellent Idea. Greg Sargent: "Senator Jeff Merkley [D-Oregon] ... is calling on both parties to agree to submit every proposal offered by the supercommittee to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, to be evaluated for the impact it will have — on jobs.... 'We need to have every proposal that the super-committee brings out to have it scored by its jobs impact,' Merkley told me.... He plans to urge Democratic and GOP leaders to agree to this standard, and hopes to build a campaign to make it happen. here’s precedent for the CBO scoring proposals for jobs impact." ...

... Steve Benen: Merkley's idea "seems like such a no-brainer, I’ll look forward to the creativity Republicans will draw upon to oppose it."

Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: A CNN poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans say creating jobs is more important than reducing the deficit (65%-29%) & they trust President Obama more than Congressional Republicans to manage the economy. What's more, the poll results indicate that the most popular Obama proposals are those that require spending. ...

... BUt. Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: the popularity of Obama's plan doesn't stop ConservaDems from attacking him personally and the plan itself. ...

... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "Today [Wednesday] the Democratic congressional caucus, in a dazzling display of circular firing squaddishness, unloaded on President Obama's jobs bill.... Republicans must be laughing their asses off right now. For a brief moment it looked as if maybe, just maybe, Obama had put them in a tough spot.... But now? All they have to do is lay low and let Democrats do the dirty work of undermining the bill for them." ...

... Mackenzie Weinger of Politico: "With frustration and disappointment mounting from stinging defeats in Tuesday’s two special elections and over Obama’s jobs plan, the media is [sic.] filled on Thursday with Democrats on the record publicly questioning and doubting the president and some of his policies, and a few even unleashing biting criticism." ...

... "With Friends like These...." Steve Benen: "... let this be the latest in a series of reminders — it’s easy to get frustrated with President Obama at times, but he’d be in a far better position if he had more reliable congressional allies to partner with." ...

... AP: "Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Republicans won't support President Barack Obama's jobs plan, but he still wants them to vote on the sweeping $450 billion economic recovery effort. 'We are going to have the Republicans belly up to the bar to turn down this plan,' Reid said during a virtual town hall meeting with supporters Wednesday." CW: I guess out there in the hinterland Reid doesn't have access to new about what his esteemed Democratic colleagues are doing. ...

... CW: So James Carville has some pretty good advice for President Obama. It is not anything that Off Times Square commenters haven't said before. And don't expect Obama to listen to Carville any more than he listens to us. But Carville has a three-step "program" -- "Fire, indict, fight" -- that is right on. Carville, naturally, does not mince words.

Jason DeParle & Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times delve into the findings of the U.S. Census report on poverty.

Steve Kornacki of Salon on the perilous road Elizabeth Warren is taking in her effort to win the Massachusetts Senate seat held by Republican Scott Brown, and perhaps to save the Democrats' Senate majority. ...

... Oh, No! Ben Smith: The Massachusetts GOP issued "a press release ... which points out that Elizabeth Warren couldn't name a Red Sox player when she was asked yesterday."

Rod Nordland & David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "The growing influence of Islamists in Libya raises hard questions about the ultimate character of the government and society that will rise in place of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s autocracy. The United States and Libya’s new leaders say the Islamists, a well-organized group in a mostly moderate country, are sending signals that they are dedicated to democratic pluralism. They say there is no reason to doubt the Islamists’ sincerity."

Right Wing World

As I watch the Republican debates, I realize that we are on the brink of a crazy person running our nation. I sit in front of the television and shudder at the thought of one of these creationism-loving, global-warming-denying, immigration-bashing, Social-Security-cutting, clean-air-hating, mortality-fascinated, Wall-Street-protecting Republicans running my country. -- James Carville

On the Danger of Saving Your Daughter's Life. Gail Collins writes, Michele "Bachmann’s strong points are her passion and determination, while her weak ones include a rather free-floating relationship with reality.... “I had a mother last night come up to me ... she told me her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter,” Bachmann told one TV interviewer after another.... Would a contender for the White House ... just blurt out something they heard from a stranger that could discourage parents from accepting vaccinations that could save their children’s lives? The Bachmann campaign did not respond to my questions about who the woman was or what the candidate did to check out the information. So I guess maybe, yeah." ...

     ... CW Note: the Times has once again held back my comment on Collins' column, but you can read it in today's Off Times Square.

Fowl Economics. Bob Reich: "... governors have as much influence over job growth in their states as roosters do over sunrises.... If governors try hard enough, though, they can create lots of lousy jobs. They can drive out unions, attract low-wage immigrants, and turn a blind eye to businesses that fail to protect worker health and safety. Rick Perry seems to have done exactly this.... Texas has ... been specializing in minimum-wage jobs. From 2007 to 2010, the number of minimum wage workers there rose ... nearly 150 percent. And 9.5 percent of Texas workers earn the minimum wage or below -- compared to about 6 percent for the rest of the nation.... A few years ago Michele Bachmann remarked that if the minimum wage were repealed 'we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.' ... In short, the Perry (and Bachmann) model of job growth condemns Americans to lower and lower living standards. That’s nothing to crow about."

Alex Seitz-Wald of Think Progress: "Taking the GOP’s anti-tax ideology to its logical conclusion, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) introduced today his own 'American Jobs Act' ... which would completely eliminate corporate income taxes.... The two-page bill changes the tax code to replace any mention of the current '35 percent' tax rate with '0 percent.' Corporations are already sitting on trillions in cash, so cutting their taxes would likely do very little to help the economy, but would balloon the deficit by depriving the government of about $300 billions in revenues annually."

Local News

America's Worst Governor Favors Second Amendment over First. Marc Caputo of the Miami Herald: "A federal judge Wednesday blocked a Florida gun law that restricted doctors from asking patients about firearms. Judge Marcia G. Cooke said doctors had a First Amendment right to ask about firearms, and she rapped the state’s lawyers for failing to provide more than anecdotal evidence to show the law was needed.... Gov. Rick Scott, who signed the 'Firearm Owners’ Privacy Act' into law June 2nd vowed to appeal."

News Ledes

President Obama awards the Medal of Honor to Dakota Meyer:

     ... New York Times: "President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor on Thursday to [Dakota Meyer,] a young former Marine who ignored orders to stay put and fought his way five times into an ambush in an Afghan ravine, helping to rescue three dozen comrades and to recover the remains of four dead American servicemen." ...

... President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to Dakota Meyer this afternoon. AP: "Dakota Meyer saved 36 lives from an ambush in Afghanistan and the former Marine will collect the nation's highest military honor at the White House on Thursday. While he is receiving the Medal of Honor, Meyer's slain comrades will be memorialized in hometown ceremonies at his request."

New York Times: "Worried that Europe’s debt impasse posed a growing threat to the global economy, the world’s major central banks moved Thursday to assure investors that European banks would not run short of American dollars, as they nearly did at the height of the 2008 financial crisis. The banks, in a coordinated action intended to restore market confidence, agreed to pump dollars into the European banking system in the first such show of force in more than a year."

Reuters: "President Barack Obama, yielding to pressure from his political base, has backed off a proposal to reform Social Security retirement benefits in a high-stakes deficits deal Congress needs to reach this year."

New York Times: "An armed drone operated by the Central Intelligence Agency this week killed a top Qaeda operative responsible for plotting terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, two American officials said on Thursday. The killing of Abu Hafs al-Shariri occurred Sunday, the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks."

New York Times: "UBS said on Thursday that a rogue trader in its investment bank had lost $2 billion, a fresh blow to the struggling Swiss bank. Police in London have arrested European equities trader, Kweku Adoboli, in connection with the case.... Shares of UBS dropped more than 8 percent on Thursday, while the broader European banking sector was up." Guardian story here.

New York Times: "The United Automobile Workers agreed early on Thursday to extend contracts with General Motors and Chrysler after the parties were unable to reach new deals by the time the old pacts expired at midnight."

Reuters: "Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron flew in to Tripoli under heavy guard on Thursday, to be welcomed by the new leaders the French and British air forces helped install in Libya, three weeks after rebel forces overthrew Muammar Gaddafi." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "The leaders of Britain and France visited Libya on Thursday in a triumphal but heavily guarded tour intended to boost the country’s revolutionary leaders, whose forces were propelled to power with NATO’s help last month by routing Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and his military in the most violent conflict of the Arab Spring uprisings."

AP: "The Palestinians will ask the Security Council next week [September 23] to accept them as a full member of the United Nations, the top Palestinian diplomat said Thursday — a move that comes in defiance of Washington's threat to veto the statehood bid. The remarks by Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki put an end to speculation that the Palestinians might avoid a showdown with the United States by sidestepping the Security Council and going directly to the U.N. General Assembly to seek a lesser status of a non-member observer. The U.S. does not wield veto power in the General Assembly, and a Palestinian bid there would be expected to win majority approval."

Reuters: "China's Foreign Ministry urged U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday not to resort to 'excuses' for trade protectionism after U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid pushed for legislation aimed at forcing China to loosen controls on its currency."

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