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INAUGURATION 2029

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
Sunday
Apr072024

The Conversation -- April 7, 2024

Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: "House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) stressed the expansive reach of Russian propaganda and said Sunday it has even presented itself on the floor of the U.S. Congress. In an interview on CNN's 'State of the Union' with Jake Tapper, Turner said he agreed with Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who singled out conservative news outlets and said, 'Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it's infected a good chunk of my party's base.... There are members of Congress today, who still incorrectly say that this conflict between Russia and Ukraine is over NATO, which of course it is not,' Turner said. '[Russian President] Vladimir Putin having made it very clear, both publicly and to his own population, that his view is that this is a conflict of a much broader claim of Russia, to Eastern Europe, and including claiming all of Ukraine territory as Russia's.' Turner said the propaganda has made it increasingly more difficult to pass Ukraine aid and to present a clear picture of a battle between democracy and authoritarianism."

Jonathan Allen, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump emphasized the importance of extending his signature tax cuts to some of the nation's wealthiest political donors, according to a readout of his private remarks Saturday night provided by a Trump campaign official. 'Trump spoke on the need to win back the White House so we can turn our country around, focusing on key issues including unleashing energy production, securing our southern border, reducing inflation, extending the Trump Tax Cuts, eliminating Joe Biden's insane [electric vehicle] mandate, protecting Israel, and avoiding gobal war,' the campaign official said of a roughly 45-minute speech to donors in Palm Beach, Florida." MB: Okay, the tax-cut-for-billionaires thing is totally believable. The rest, maybe not so much. But the speech proves Trump can tell the truth sometimes. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, over at "Fox & Friends" weekend, the hosts can't figure out how much of that $50MM haul will go to Trump's legal fees, and they think it's very unfair that Biden gets to spend all of his campaign cash for, you know, his campaign, while Trump is "fighting with one hand behind his back" because Biden's "election interference" is forcing Trump to shell out so much to lawyers.

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race

Tamara Keith & Franco Ordoñez of NPR: "The Biden reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee significantly outraised ... Donald Trump and the Republican Party in the month of March, according to new fundraising numbers released by the Biden campaign on Saturday. The Biden campaign and DNC combined to raise $90 million in March, according to figures released by the campaign. [President] Biden's reelection effort ended the month with $192 million cash on hand, a significant war chest even as the campaign is spending millions on television ads and opening field offices in key states around the country. 'The money we are raising is historic,' said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden-Harris 2024 campaign manager. 'It's a stark contrast to Trump's cash-strapped operation that is funneling the limited and billionaire-reliant funds it has to pay off his various legal fees.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Fredreka Schouten of CNN: "Donald Trump's campaign said it raised $50.5 million at a Saturday fundraiser in Florida, a staggering sum as the former president's political operation scrambles to close its big financial gap with President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. The haul announced by the campaign and top officials with the Republican National Committee far eclipses the $26 million that Biden reported collecting recently at a star-studded gathering in New York City that featured former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. The Trump total from the 'Inaugural Leadership Dinner' at the Palm Beach, Florida, home of billionaire investor John Paulson sets a record for a single fundraising event.... The price tag for the fundraiser ranged from $250,000 per person for those serving on the 'host committee' to $824,600 per person to serve as a 'chairman.' Perks for those contributing at the top level included dinner seating at Trump's table." MB: Of course this should make you feel sick.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times on Donald Trump's obsession with bloodbaths & bloodlines. (Also linked yesterday.)

Rachel Leingang of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's speeches on the 2024 campaign trail so far have been focused on a laundry list of complaints, largely personal, and an increasingly menacing tone. He's on the campaign trail less these days than he was in previous cycles.... But when he has held rallies, he speaks in dark, dehumanizing terms about migrants, promising to vanquish people crossing the border. He rails about the legal battles he faces and how they're a sign he's winning, actually. He tells lies and invents fictions. He calls his opponent a threat to democracy and claims this election could be the last one.... He's also, quite frequently, rambling and incoherent, running off on tangents that would grab headlines for their oddness should any other candidate say them." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you wonder what ails Trump when he rambles on about irrelevant matters -- like Cary Grant in a bathing suit -- and jumps from topic to topic, it turns out "it's called intelligence." Let him explain:

The fake news will say, 'Oh, he goes from subject to subject.' No, you have to be very smart to do that. You got to be very smart. You know what it is? It's called spot-checking. You're thinking about something when you're talking about something else, and then you get back to the original. And they go, 'Holy shit. Did you see what he did?' It’s called intelligence.

Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: "As ... Donald Trump escalated his attacks on President Biden's health and mental fitness last fall, Trump released the first updated report on his own condition in more than three years. This assessment, however, stood in stark contrast to the relatively detailed reports released by the White House during his term. Instead of specifics like blood pressure and medications, the letter had just three paragraphs without specific numbers proclaiming that Trump was in 'excellent health' and had 'exceptional' cognitive ability. It did not disclose Trump's weight.... [His doctor:] Bruce A. Aronwald, a 64-year-old osteopathic physician from New Jersey -- and a longtime member of Trump's Bedminster golf club.... Trump ... began his political career in 2015 by releasing a vague and hyperbolic medical report declaring that he'd be the healthiest president in history, which his physician at the time later said Trump had dictated to him. The new letter also provides none of the usual details for the public to examine, such as the precise extent to which Trump has continued to battle obesity and high cholesterol, as he did in office.... A Post review of Aronwald found him to be a well-respected local doctor who had found notable success with a 'concierge' medical service catering to well-off clientele like Trump; some patients say he has never been openly political."

RFK Jr. Is Still Crazy. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s approach to national politics is uncomplicated. Whatever the conventional wisdom -- however sound it might be and no matter the scale of the evidence supporting it -- he's against it.... On Thursday, his scattershot presidential bid was ruffled (to the extent that it can be) by an assertion that people in jail for having participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol had been 'stripped of their Constitutional liberties.' The campaign quickly asserted that this presentation, one that echoes the views of ... Donald Trump, was an error introduced by 'a new marketing contractor.' Kennedy subsequently decided to clarify his position on the Capitol riot. In a statement released on Friday afternoon, he affirmed that ... he broadly agreed with the position of ... Donald Trump." (Also linked yesterday.)


Daring the Judge. Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump said Saturday that it would be a 'great honor' to be jailed for violating a gag order, marking an escalation in attacks he's made against New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and other court officials in a case about to go to trial.... Writing on the Truth Social platform on Saturday, Trump dared Merchan to throw him in jail. He also compared himself again to Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner who became the first president of a post-apartheid South Africa."

Tom Boggiani of the Raw Story: "By his words and by his actions, Donald Trump is making it difficult for Judge Aileen Cannon to put her thumb on the scale in his favor as she issues rulings that appear to be designed to derail his obstruction of government trial.... As [Greg Sargent of the New Republic] explained, Cannon's latest ruling, 'actually made it easier for herself to kill the case later, or to steer a jury toward an acquittal,' however Trump couldn't leave well enough alone by pointing out, 'He [Trump] doesn't bother hiding his expectation that Cannon ... will put a heavy thumb on the scale in his favor. That complicates Cannon's efforts to maintain that objective legal aura she's striving for.... At issue is Trump's assertion that Smith must be 'sanctioned or censured for the way he is attacking a highly respected Judge, Aileen Cannon.'... [Sargent writes,] 'Trump [is] openly telling the world exactly what he expects her to do for him. We can only hope Trump has left her no option but to prove him wrong.'"

Saving Trump Media. Matthew Goldstein & Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Marty Davis, the wealthy Minnesota head of a kitchen countertop manufacturing company..., contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to help elect Mr. Trump in 2020, and encouraged him to fight to overturn the 2020 election results. Shortly after Mr. Trump's social media company said in October 2021 that it planned to go public by merging with a cash-rich shell company, Mr. Davis was one of the first to lend the fledgling business millions so that it could stay afloat.... Other early backers include two Texas billionaires, a Florida hedge fund manager, and a trust with ties to a Russian American owner of an offshore bank who is the nephew of a former high-ranking Russian government official.... It's not uncommon for start-ups to seek out wealthy investors for financing, but the stock holdings raise questions about the potential for conflicts of interest and undue influence over Mr. Trump should he return to the White House.... Mr. Trump, who owns 57 percent of Trump Media, did not personally put a significant amount of money into getting the company off the ground."

~~~~~~~~~~

Colorado. Freedom of the Press? Not So Much. Jennifer Brown of the Colorado Sun: "Colorado Sun politics reporter was escorted out of the state GOP assembly by a sheriff's deputy Saturday after being told that party Chairman Dave Williams found her 'current reporting to be very unfair.' Reporter Sandra Fish, who has covered politics since 1982, received a text at 3:45 a.m. Saturday from a Colorado Republican Party event organizer saying that she was no longer allowed to attend. Fish went anyway to the assembly at the Colorado State Fairgrounds in Pueblo, where she checked in at the door and received a press credential to enter. About an hour later, she was told to leave. Fish initially refused, but was later escorted out by a law enforcement officer, who told her, 'You have to be invited here. They don't want you here. We have to get you out of here,' according to video of the scene taken by other journalists.... Several Republican leaders criticized the ousting of a reporter from the state assembly, one of the most important events of the year as the party chooses its candidates for the November election."

Montana Senate Race. Meet Yer GOP Candidate. Liz Goodwin of the Washington Post: "Tim Sheehy, a charismatic former Navy SEAL who is the Republican candidate in a U.S. Senate race in Montana..., has cited a gunshot wound he received in combat that he said left a bullet in his right arm as evidence of his toughness. '... I have a bullet stuck in this arm still from Afghanistan,' Sheehy said in a video of a December campaign event posted on social media, pointing to his right forearm. It was one of several inconsistent accounts Sheehy has shared about being shot while deployed. And in October 2015, more than a year after he left active duty, he told a different story. After a family visit to Montana's Glacier National Park, he told a National Park Service ranger that he accidentally shot himself in the right arm that day.... Asked this week about the citation [he received] ... for illegally discharging his weapon in a national park..., Sheehy told The Washington Post that the statement he gave the ranger was a lie. He said he made up the story about the gun going off to protect himself and his former platoonmates from facing a potential military investigation into an old bullet wound that he said he got in Afghanistan in 2012." Read on if you'd like to know Sheehy's many tall tales about when and where and how many times he was shot. (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

Kareem Fahim, et al., of the Washington Post: "Israel's military said Friday that a deadly attack on a World Central Kitchen humanitarian convoy that killed seven of the organization's members was a 'serious violation' of its policies after the airstrikes prompted global outrage and a rare rebuke from the Biden administration. The findings of the Israel Defense Forces' own investigation, presented in a seven-paragraph statement, were unusual for the speed with which they were released: four days after an IDF drone repeatedly struck the three-car convoy on a coastal road in Gaza used as a humanitarian corridor, and two days after President Biden said he was 'outraged and heartbroken' over the deaths and that the investigation should be 'swift.' The statement said the attack was the result of 'errors' and was 'contrary' to military procedures. It added that two officers would be dismissed and commanders reprimanded but made no mention of legal actions like prosecutions."

CNN's live updates of developments Saturday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The US is preparing for a significant Iranian attack on US or Israeli assets in the region as soon as next week, a US official told CNN, after an Israeli strike in Syria killed Iranian commanders. Israel's ongoing conflicts with Iran and its proxy groups have intensified since October 7. There were large protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Israeli cities once again on Saturday. Protesters called for Israeli hostages to be freed and slammed Netanyahu's handling of the war after six months in Gaza. World Central Kitchen and some Western leaders are calling for an independent investigation into an Israeli strike that killed seven of the group's aid workers in Gaza, after Israel said its forces made a 'grave mistake' in its preliminary report. Dozens of Democrats -- including former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- called for the US to halt arms sales to Israel until a full investigation into the strike is completed." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Saturday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Comments Off

Reader Comments (3)

Mr. Sheehy, ex-SEAL would-be senator, thinks you are really stupid, because he can tell you a story he made up on the spot, change it without worrying about being consistent, and rely upon your ignorance to allow him to wiggle out of problems.

This alone: that a .45 slug discharged from a few feet away into your forearm will not pass through, nor shatter your radius and then pass through rather than remain in your arm.

And this: a .45 slug is easily identifiable in x-ray if it did travel with a hyper-low muzzle velocity into flesh without exiting. It would not deform.

And this: If Mrs. Sheehy's little boy Timmy made up such a weak story to "protect his platoon", it means that Timmy thought that some in his platoon were playing grab ass with dangerous toys. Because, no inquiry board would have a problem with friendly fire accidents unless a witness alleged intent by a shooter.

Living in a combat zone with armed young men pumping high testosterone and adrenaline can lead to some really stupid outcomes (like an object in your arm). My Dad ran a MASH in Korea -- his "stupid soldier of the month" story was about two guys who were issued chest armor. They wanted to test it, so one of them donned the armor and the other shot at it with a submachine gun. Lucky for armored-guy, the equipment sort of worked, he didn't die, but had lots of bad holes for the surgeons to work on.

I'm not saying Timmy did anything that stupid, but whatever it was was probably pretty stupid. Hence he did not claim his Purple Heart, which is unthinkable for these Alphas.

April 7, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

$824,600 and you get to sit at Trump's table?
They'd have to pay me $824,600 to sit at a table with Trump.

Then I could buy some new socks and underwear, or maybe have
a lobster dinner.

April 7, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

So much cringeworthy out there. Not just the dinner scene, Forrest, that you mention and its price tag, but an email this morning offering me a chance to have my picture taken with the Pretender. That would be a slim chance with a fat Pretender.

Just send a little money and I'll be entered to win.

I'd forward it to RC so no one here would be left out, but unfortunately I already trashed it.

April 7, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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