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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Monday
Sep192011

The Commentariat -- September 20

I've posted a comments page today on Off Times Square on the President's deficit-reduction speech of yesterday.

Markos Moulitsas gives the President a Thumbs-Up: in reading "Obama's deficit reduction plan, looking for that poison pill. It looked too good to be true—an aggressive and truly progressive position at odds with his previous efforts at bipartisan compromise.... The process-focused consensus builder was a flop, and now we get to try something new, something inspiring, and something that genuinely motivates me to fight." ...

... Daily Kos & Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) are calling on the supercommittee to support (1) "Independent review by the Congressional Budget Office to measure how many jobs it would create or eliminate; & (2) "Reject any budget package that would cost more jobs than it creates." You can sign a petition in support of their position here. I did. ...

... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: President "Obama ... seems to have given up on his strategy of nearly a year, beginning when Republicans won control of the House last November, of being the eager-to-compromise 'reasonable adult' — in the White House’s phrasing — in his relations with them." ...

... Dana Milbank: "... it was refreshing to see the president in the Rose Garden on Monday morning delivering a speech that, for once, appealed to the heart rather than the cerebrum.... Whether his plan to tax the wealthy ever could — or should — become law is not really the point. Obama finally gave his side something to stand for after too much uncertainty. He also showed that he is finally learning to negotiate." ...

... Paul Krugman: "some notes on the actual class war that has taken place over the past 30 years — namely class warfare for the rich against the middle class."

... Karen Garcia: "The reviews of today's speech are mixed between those who feel it's too little, too late and a big fat fake, to those who are experiencing renewed hope that our beleaguered president has finally grown a spine, has drawn a line in the sand and thrown down the gauntlet and is fighting for the people. I tend to go along with the former. Obama should be leaving the deficit out of it. He should be leaving the social safety net out of it. He should be calling for higher taxes in order to create jobs, period. Working people will bring down the deficit once they're allowed to work." ...

... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "President Obama’s new deficit reduction plan includes about $320 billion in cuts to government health care programs. Most of the cuts [are]  from Medicare.... But these reductions are less severe, and less worrisome, than some of the proposals Obama indicated he was willing to support over the summer.... The cuts ... are more or less consistent with the kind of cuts that you find in the Affordable Care Act: They are reductions designed to change the way Medicare pays for treatment and services, ideally (although not always) in ways that will actually improve the efficiency or quality of care." ...

... Sam Baker of The Hill: "There’s something for just about everyone to dislike in the $320 billion of healthcare savings President Obama proposed Monday."

... Brad Plumer of the Washington Post reports on five unexpected ideas in President Obama's deficit reduction plan, one of which is reforming the Postal Service.

The Wrong War. CW: A commenter in yesterday's Off Times Square got miffed at me for "deliberately misleading" readers on Paul Volcker's record as Fed Chair. Well, no I didn't, but the point I made was an aside & not a very important one, so I deleted it. Now comes Paul Krugman, who gets to the heart of the Volcker Fallacy: "Volcker, I’m sorry to say, is worrying about refighting the 1970s when we’re actually refighting the 1930s. And fighting the wrong war is a good way to lose the one we’re in." ...

     ... AND Krugman: "There are worse things than inflation," Part 2.

Landon Thomas of the New York Times: "As concerns grow that Greece may default on its government debt, economists are starting to map out possible outcomes. While no one knows for certain what will happen, it’s a given that financial crises always have unexpected consequences, and many predict there will be collateral damage. Because of these fears, Greece is working frantically in concert with other European nations to avoid default, by embracing further austerity measures it has promised in return for more European bailout money...."

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "Increasingly convinced that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria will not be able to remain in power, the Obama administration has begun to make plans for American policy in the region after he exits. In coordination with Turkey, the United States has been exploring how to deal with the possibility of a civil war among Syria’s Alawite, Druse, Christian and Sunni sects, a conflict that could quickly ignite other tensions in an already volatile region."

Jeff Benedict in the Hartford Courant: At a social event, Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Richard Palmer apologized to Susette Kelo for his vote in favor of the City of New London. A vote in favor of Kelo would have changed the outcome of the case, at least at the state level. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a controversial 5-4 decision, ruled for the city to tear down a neighborhood in favor of urban redevelopment that never happened. The redeveloper backed out of the deal after the city moved Kelo's house & razed the neighborhood.

Horse Race Prelims. Susan Page of USA Today: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry leads former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for the GOP presidential nomination, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, in what is becoming a battle between the candidate who excites more Republicans and the one who shows stronger appeal among swing voters. The only other candidate in double digits is Texas Rep. Ron Paul, at 13%. Support for Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann has plummetted to 5%."

Right Wing World

Too Much Noon-Day Sun. Jillian Rayfield of TPM: After meeting with a local Tea Party group last month who thinks President Obama's long-form birth certificate could be a forgery, "infamous Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio ... announced a five-person 'Cold Case Posse' that will delve into the issue of President Obama's birth certificate."

News Ledes

Reuters: "The House of Representatives unexpectedly defeated a bill that would fund the federal government past September 30 on Wednesday as dozens of Republicans broke with their party to push for deeper spending cuts. The measure failed by a vote of 195 to 230, with 48 of the chamber's most conservative Republicans joining Democrats in opposition. It was an embarrassment for House Republican leaders who have at times struggled to rein in rank-and-file conservatives." New York Times story here.

President Obama salutes the people of Libya:

     ... New York Times: "President Obama on Tuesday extended to Libya’s transitional leader a diplomatic honor never offered his predecessor, meeting formally with Mustafa Abdel-Jalil at the United Nations and heralding the victory of Libyan rebels who brought an end to the 42-year reign of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi."

New York Times: "Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news network controlled by Qatar, named a member of the Qatari royal family on Tuesday to replace its top news director following disclosures from the group WikiLeaks indicating that the news director had modified the network’s coverage of the Iraq war in response to pressure from the United States."

New York Times: "Troy Davis, whose death row case ignited an international campaign to save his life, has lost what appeared to be his last attempt to avoid death by lethal injection on Wednesday. Rejecting pleas by Mr. Davis’s lawyers that shaky witness testimony and a lack of physical evidence presented enough doubt about his guilt to spare him death, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles ruled on Tuesday morning that Mr. Davis, 42, should die for killing Mark MacPhail, an off-duty police officer, in a Savannah parking lot in 1989." Atlanta Journal-Constitution story here. A pdf of the ruling is here.

AP: "The world economy has entered a 'dangerous new phase,' according to the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. As a result, the international lending organization has sharply downgraded its economic outlook for the United States and Europe through the end of next year."

New York Times: "Actions taken by David M. Becker, the former general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission, in the Bernard L. Madoff matter are being referred to the Department of Justice for a possible criminal investigation to determine whether they ran afoul of federal conflict-of-interest laws."

New York Times: "The most prominent Afghan official trying to negotiate a reconciliation with the Taliban was assassinated Tuesday night by a suicide bomber with explosives tucked in his turban who had been brought to his home by a trusted emissary, officials said. The assassination was a potentially devastating blow to the Afghan-led peace process aimed at ending 10 years of war."

New York Times: "The 18-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy officially ended at midnight...." Washington Post story here. AP story here.

CNN: in a surprise appearance, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) showed up at an event Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry held in Rangel's district. Rangel said his purpose was pleasantries, but he later blasted Perry in a statement.

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