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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Sunday
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The Commentariat -- September 6, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Hamza Shaban of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department is exploring 'all options' to challenge Texas's restrictive abortion law, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday, as he vowed to provide support to abortion clinics that are 'under attack' in the state and to protect those seeking and providing reproductive health services. The move by the nation's top law enforcement official comes just days after the Supreme Court refused to block a Texas abortion statute that bans the procedure as early as six weeks into pregnancy with no exceptions for rape or incest. The court's action stands as the most serious threat to Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling establishing a woman's right to abortion, in nearly 50 years."

"Always Look on the Bright Side." Miriam Jordan & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Throughout the United States, Americans across the political spectrum are stepping forward to welcome Afghans who aided the U.S. war effort in one of the largest mass mobilizations of volunteers since the end of the Vietnam War.... In a nation that is polarized on issues from abortion to the coronavirus pandemic, Afghan refugees have cleaved a special place for many Americans, especially those who worked for U.S. forces and NGOs, or who otherwise aided the U.S. effort to free Afghanistan from the Taliban. The moment stands in contrast to the last four years when the country, led by a president who restricted immigration and enacted a ban on travel from several majority-Muslim countries, was split over whether to welcome or shun people seeking safe haven." PD Pepe reminds us in today's Comments of Monty Python's ironical admonition, but in fact there are a few bright lights dotting our shameful horizon.

The Freedom Phone, a Smartphone for Dimwits. Jack Nicas of the New York Times: There is "a growing right-wing tech industry taking on the challenge [or providing services for so-called conservatives], relying more on their conservative customers' distaste for Silicon Valley than expertise or experience. There are cloud providers hosting right-wing websites, a so-called free-speech video site competing with YouTube and at least seven conservative social networks trying to compete with Facebook." The story profiles an obnoxious twit named Eric Finman, who introduced -- with little preparation & a crap Chinese android phone -- the "Freedom Phone."

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: I hoped I would not have use for this Labor Day illustration again.~~~ Happy Labor Day. P.S. No More Jobless Benefits. Yeganeh Torbati, et al., of the New York Times: "More than 7 million out-of-work people across the United States are set to lose all of their jobless benefits this week as three federal programs expire on Monday, in what several experts described as one of the largest and most abrupt ends to government aid in U.S. history. In addition to the more than 7 million people who will lose all their benefits, nearly 3 million more people will lose a $300 weekly boost to their state unemployment benefits." The Hill's story is here.

Anne Barnard of the New York Times: "As residents scrambled to clean up and assess damage from catastrophic flash floods that swept the Northeast last week, President Biden prepared to visit hard-hit areas in New York and New Jersey, where he will confront political ferment that is growing over the climate-driven disaster. The lethal deluge from the remnants of Hurricane Ida, which killed more than 45 people in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, has amped up battles that began in 2012 with Hurricane Sandy over how to slow climate change and protect communities. The floods are already sharpening debate over whether city, state and national leaders are doing enough -- even those who, like Mr. Biden, publicly champion strong measures." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'd like to know how President Biden is supposed to take many effective measures against climate change when Joe Manchin & Kyrsten Sinema & all 50 Republican Senators think either that climate change is a hoax or that the best way to deal with it is to drill for more oil, send shale slurry through pipelines from Canada to Lake Charles and frack their way through the Midwest. ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Falconer of Axios: "Global warming is affecting people's health — and world leaders need to address the climate crisis now as it can't wait until the COVID-19 pandemic is over, editors of over 230 medical journals warned Sunday evening.... This is the first time so many publications have come together to issue such a joint statement to world leaders, underscoring the severity of the situation -- with the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Lancet and the British Medical Journal among those issuing the warning. Ahead of this November's UN general assembly and the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, the journals warned: 'The greatest threat to global public health is the continued failure of world leaders to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5C and to restore nature.'"

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The U.S. military's top officer asserted last week that a drone attack on a sedan near the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, was a 'righteous strike' that foiled a plot by the Islamic State in the waning hours of the immense evacuation effort. The officer, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that secondary explosions after the drone strike last Sunday supported the military's conclusion that the car contained explosive s-- either suicide vests or a large bomb. General Milley said that military planners took proper precautions beforehand to limit risks to civilians nearby. But the military's preliminary analysis of the strike and the circumstances surrounding it offer much less conclusive evidence to support those claims, military officials acknowledge. It also raises questions about an attack that friends and family members of the car's driver say killed 10 people, seven of them children. So far, there is no ironclad proof that explosives were in the car."

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Just a few days shy of his 80th birthday, [Sen. Bernie] Sanders was back on the campaign trail last week, trekking across Republican-leaning districts in the Midwest to cap off a blitz of local television interviews and opinion essays placed in traditionally conservative news outlets. But this time, instead of pursuing a higher political office, he was campaigning for a legislative legacy: a $3.5 trillion package that, if passed, would amount to the most significant expansion of the social safety net since the Great Society of the 1960s.... It is Mr. Sanders who will oversee the drafting of the legislation in the Senate, which Democrats plan to steer through Congress using fast-track budget reconciliation rules, which shield it from a filibuster but will require the support of every Democrat in the Senate and nearly every Democrat in the House. Among the steepest challenges will be persuading conservative-leaning Democrats, such as Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, to drop their reservations about the plan's cost and support it."

Laurence Tribe, in a Washington Post op-ed: "... the federal government has -- and should use -- its own powers, including criminal prosecution, to prevent the [Texas abortion] law from being enforced and to reduce its chilling effects.... There are ... solutions that already exist in federal law. Attorney General Merrick Garland has the power, under federal civil rights laws, to go after any vigilantes who employ the Texas law to seek bounties from abortion providers or others who help women obtain abortions.... Section 242 of the federal criminal code makes it a crime for those who, 'under color of law,' willfully deprive individuals 'of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.' This statute -- originally designed to go after the Ku Klux Klan -- fits the Texas situation perfectly.... Section 241 of the federal criminal code makes it an even more serious crime for 'two or more persons' to agree to 'oppress, threaten, or intimidate' anyone 'in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States....' In addition to these criminal provisions, there are civil actions available under federal law, including the ability to seek and obtain court orders to halt the illegal state scheme."

Guardian & Agencies: "Divers searching for the source of an oil spill spotted in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of Hurricane Ida have identified a broken pipeline on the ocean floor as the possible cause. Talos Energy, the Houston-based company currently paying for the cleanup, said in a statement issued on Sunday evening that the broken pipeline, which is around 30cm (1ft) in diameter, did not belong to them. The company said it is working with the US Coast Guard and other state and federal agencies to coordinate the response and identify the owner of the ruptured pipeline. Divers also identified two 10cm-wide (4in) pipelines that were open and apparently abandoned. The company's statement did not make clear if oil was leaking from the two smaller pipelines, but satellite images reviewed by the Associated Press on Saturday appeared to show at least three different slicks in the same area, the largest drifting more than a dozen miles (more than 19km) eastward along the Gulf coast."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here.

Mychael Schnell of the Hill: "Anthony Fauci on Sunday said the Pfizer-BioNTech shot will likely be the only approved COVID-19 vaccine booster by Sept. 20, the date the Biden administration previously recommended for beginning to administer booster shots for all fully vaccinated individuals.... [Fauci said] that Moderna will need some additional time for appropriate approval."

Florida. A Cautionary Tale. Saundra Amrhein, et al., of the Washington Post: "As Florida appears to be turning the corner from a coronavirus rampage that fueled record new infections, hospitalizations and deaths, its residents and leaders are surveying the damage left from more than 7,000 deaths reported since July Fourth and the scars inflicted by feuds over masks and vaccines. New infections were averaging more than 22,000 a day in the last days of August but have fallen to about 19,000.... In late June and early July, the state averaged fewer than 30 deaths a day.... Recovery could prove fleeting: Holiday weekends such as Labor Day have acted as a tinderbox for earlier outbreaks, and late summer marks the return of students to college campuses.... Epidemiologists say Florida taught the nation important lessons as the highly transmissible delta variant of the virus accounts for nearly all new cases. Even with vaccination rates slightly above the national average, Florida provided ideal conditions for the virus to flourish. Businesses have largely reopened. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has waged high-profile fights to stop mask mandates at schools and to shield businesses from fines for allowing unvaccinated and unmasked patrons." A related (September 4) AP story is here.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Rachel Pannett, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Taliban on Monday seized Panjshir province, a restive mountain region that was the final holdout of resistance forces in the country, cementing its total control over Afghanistan a week after U.S. forces departed the country. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that the Islamist group had 'completely conquered' the Panjshir Valley. 'Our last efforts for establishing peace and security in the country have given results,' he said. Taliban officials shared a photo on social media Monday that purported to show their fighters taking control of local administrative buildings." The AP's report is here. ~~~

~~~ Melissa Eddy & Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "Around 1,000 people, including dozens of American citizens and Afghans holding visas to the United States or other countries, remained stuck in Afghanistan for the fifth day on Sunday as they awaited clearance for the departure from the Taliban. The holdup reflects the challenges of foreign governments working with the group, which has yet to form a government. Negotiations to allow the planes to depart, involving officials of the Taliban, the United States and Qatar, have dragged on for days, leaving the evacuees in an increasingly precarious limbo, according to representatives of organizations trying to get them to safety. The plight of the passengers hoping to leave the country from the airport in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif mirrors that of thousands of people who were unable to board planes from Kabul, the capital, after Taliban militants took the city on the eve of the U.S. troop withdrawal." A BBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Joshua Posaner of Politico: "Germany wants talks with the Taliban on flying its remaining local workers out of Afghanistan, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday. 'We need to talk to the Taliban about how we can continue to get people who worked for Germany out of the country and to safety,' Merkel said during a visit to the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia. On Friday, EU foreign ministers agreed an outreach plan with the Taliban but that doesn't mean the bloc is about to recognize them as the legitimate Afghan government."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Michael K. Williams, the actor best known for his role as Omar Little, a stickup man with a sharp wit and a sawed-off shotgun in the HBO series 'The Wire,' was found dead on Monday in his home in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, the police said. He was 54.... The death is being investigated, and the city's medical examiner will determine the cause."

AccuWeather: "Even though [Hurricane] Larry is forecast to remain well east of the United States, the powerful hurricane is expected to pass close to Bermuda and could make landfall in Atlantic Canada, AccuWeather meteorologists warn. But, impacts from Larry will be far-reaching even though the storm may stay hundreds of miles away from the Atlantic beaches from Florida to Maine. Larry appeared as a very healthy and dangerous Category 3 hurricane on Monday touting a large eye and maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (193 km/h). The hurricane was moving to the northwest at 10 mph (16 km/h). As of Monday morning, Larry was located 1,015 miles (1,630 km) to the southeast of Bermuda."

AP: &"A man wearing full body armor fatally shot four people, including a mother and the 3-month-old baby she was cradling, and engaged in a massive gunfight with police and deputies before he was wounded and surrendered, a Florida sheriff said Sunday. An 11-year-old girl who was shot seven times survived. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said during a press conference that even after 33-year-old Bryan Riley was arrested Sunday morning, he was so aggressive that he tried to wrestle a gun from police as he lay on his hospital gurney. Judd said Riley, a former Marine who served as a sharpshooter in both Iraq and Afghanistan, seemed to have targeted his victims at random and appeared to be suffering from mental health issues. Judd said Riley's girlfriend told authorities Riley had been slowly unraveling for weeks and repeatedly told her that he could communicate directly with God."

New York Times: "Jean-Paul Belmondo, the rugged actor whose disdainful eyes, boxer's nose, sensual lips and cynical outlook made him the idolized personification of youthful alienation in the French New Wave,most particularly in his iconic performance as an existential killer in Jean-Luc Godard's 'Breathless,' died on Monday at his home in Paris. He was 88."

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Reader Comments (3)

Well, we certainly can't say, "Happy Labor Day," can we? Yesterday Marie linked Dowd's column in which Maureen used this analogy to convey our endless circling and futile attempts at improving our country's ills.

. "With a memory like a goldfish, America circles its bowl, returning to where we have been, unable to move forward, condemned to repeat a past we should escape.”

And Marie added Fitzgerald :

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

And thinking about that this morning I wondered whether we as a species will continue like the goldfish or boats against the current to do ourselves in at the end. There appears to be more than enough humans who lack foresight and imagination to continue to quash those who can see into the future and want to prepare for it.

As I look over our land here with its glorious trees and gardens I'm thinking of all those New Yorkers who lived in basement apartments that filled with water, drowning many and leaving many homeless. I'm trying really hard to seize the day whose weather today is perfect.

"Always look on the bright side of life" ––sang all those strung up on those crosses.

September 6, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

PD: one of the bright sides of life is that we now have more access to information more easily than any time in history. I think we just don't know what to do with it all. Support with your dollars decent companies who treat the Help right. American Airlines and Dell have treated people like shit for years; of course they're based in Texas. Oil companies and now Elon Musk, seem to like Texas. We can do better, much better, supporting local decent folks. I was listening to a report on the radio yesterday about the Enbridge pipeline being built in Minnesota. Guess who owns the largest oil refinery in the state? Koch. With a Stalin supporting daddy, of course they have no background in democracy helping them get rich. Can you say Sackler? Texas fears climate change and the new economy so much that the people there will cut off their economic nose to spite their face to treat people like slaves. Or worse. Find the best alternatives and patronize that one. Personally, I do farmers markets and farmer owned cooperative gas stations and people who don't lord their Trumpism in my face. If I have to have an Apple computer with all its China baggage, I think it is more benign than Texas. Chew on that: China as more benign politically than Texas. Boycott Texas.

September 6, 2021 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625

PD,

A bit late to tell you how much I enjoyed your conversation with god that you posted yesterday, but I certainly did.

My excuse: Working on a sermon (it was Sunday, after all) and a painting job that never ends. I sometimes think my home--and my life-- has that in common with the Golden Gate Bridge.

September 6, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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