The Ledes

Saturday, August 2, 2025

Washington Post: “A manhunt is underway for a person authorities believe shot and killed four people at a small-town bar in Montana on Friday morning. The shooting took place at approximately 10:30 a.m. at the Owl Bar in Anaconda, home to fewer than 10,000 residents in the southwestern part of the state, the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation said. Local law enforcement identified the suspect, whom they believe to be armed and dangerous, as Michael Paul Brown, 45.” 

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The Ledes

Friday, August 1, 2025

CNBC: “Nonfarm payroll growth was slower than expected in July and the unemployment rate ticked higher, raising potential trouble signs for the U.S. labor market. Job growth totaled 73,000 for the month, above the June total of 14,000 but below even the meager Dow Jones estimate for a gain of 100,000. June and May totals were revised sharply lower, down by a combined 258,000 from previously announced levels. At the same time, the unemployment rate rose to 4.2%, in line with the forecast.”

New York Times: “Known to many as Mary K..., Dr. Gaillard, who died on May 23 at 86, was the first woman hired by the physics department at the University of California, Berkeley, and later became a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. But much of her groundbreaking work occurred earlier, during a long stint as an unpaid visiting scientist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, a laboratory on the Franco-Swiss border.”

Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

INAUGURATION 2029

Marie: I don't know why this video came up on my YouTube recommendations, but it did. I watched it on a large-ish teevee, and I found it fascinating. ~~~

 

Hubris. One would think that a married man smart enough to start up and operate his own tech company was also smart enough to know that you don't take your girlfriend to a public concert where the equipment includes a jumbotron -- unless you want to get caught on the big camera with your arms around said girlfriend. Ah, but for Andy Bryon, CEO of A company called Astronomer, and also maybe his wife, Wednesday was a night that will live in infamy. New York Times link. ~~~

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.”

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

Page Links
Saturday
Dec072024

The Conversation -- December 7, 2024

Marie: I do have an appointment with the Geek Squad this afternoon. I don't expect them to fix my computer on the spot, but maybe I'll have to buy a new one, in which case there's a vague possibility I'll have something for you by Sunday. In the meantime, this is the best I can do. Do check the Comments, though, as yesterday several people found some very useful reports & opinion pieces to link. Many thanks to them for the help. And don't be shy about adding your own suggestions.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (8)

Trump's new cabinet of chickens dancing to his guitar playing:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DC95NnoA3Bp/

How did that Black one get in his cabinet?
Sorry, I still can't get a link to work. Someday maybe.

December 7, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

"In news deserts, Trump won in a landslide

Donald Trump won the 2024 election with one of the smallest popular-vote margins in U.S. history, but in news deserts – counties lacking a professional source of local news – it was an avalanche. Trump won 91% percent of these counties over his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, according to an analysis of voting data by Medill Journalism School’s State of Local News project.

While Trump’s national popular-vote margin was just under 1.5%, his margin in news deserts was massive. He won these counties by an average of 54 percentage points. In the few won by Harris, her margin was a comparatively slim 18 points, the analysis shows.

The findings are based on results from 193 of the 206 counties Medill has identified as news deserts, in states where county-level election results are currently available.

But if you’re exposed only to national news, you’re unlikely to know about actions they’re taking, or planning to take, for your state. In that case, “the only thing that’s going to be relevant to you is which candidate shares your views on national issues,” reinforcing basic partisan identity, he said.

In fact, access to local news appears to increase split-ticket voting, moderating the partisan drift"

December 7, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

McSweenys

"Welcome to Your Blue Cross Blue Shield GoFundMe PPO
by Brett Shollenberger

We know health care can seem complicated, but with your new GoFundMe PPO, it doesn’t have to be. Once you’ve hit your deductible and out-of-pocket max, Blue Cross will automatically launch your GoFundMe campaign, so you can get the coverage you need.

What’s Covered?
Most insurance plans don’t cover everything. Ambulance rides, major dental, even prescriptions from your own doctor—your insurance can just decide that you don’t actually need those. But with GoFundMe PPO, everything is covered 100% (by your family and friends)."

December 7, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

Heist

"Chris Hayes Sounds the Alarm on Republican Bill That Would Transfer $100 Billion to Bitcoin Owners

He aired another clip of Lummis explaining how her bill would mandate the purchase of one million Bitcoins, and that the government could only get rid of them before a period of 20 years to pay down the national debt.

Hayes explained:

Reduce our debt? You can’t pay the debt down in Bitcoin. Are you tracking this? Are you tracking what’s being planned and announced in person here, right? The U.S. government handing billions of dollars into the pockets of rich crypto-holders. The plan is the Bitcoin Act would have the government sell off some of its gold reserves – you know, the stuff from Fort Knox – and use the money to buy a [million] Bitcoin at current market value that would cost $100 billion."

December 7, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

I should have realized by now that taking over a country is not really an impeachable offense, but I guess I'm still naive to the world we live in.

South Korea

"South Korea’s president avoids an impeachment attempt over short-lived martial law

South Korea’s embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol avoided an opposition-led attempt to impeach him over his short-lived imposition of martial law, as most ruling party lawmakers boycotted a parliamentary vote Saturday to deny a two-thirds majority needed to suspend his presidential powers.

The scrapping of the motion is expected to intensify protests calling for Yoon’s ouster and deepen political chaos in South Korea, with a survey suggesting a majority of South Koreans support the president’s impeachment. Yoon’s martial law declaration drew criticism from his own ruling conservative People Power Party, but the party is also determined to oppose Yoon’s impeachment apparently because it fears losing the presidency to liberals."

December 7, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

RAS,

Seems to be little distance between Korea's People Power Party and our own weak-kneed Republicans, neither of which is interested in handing their power over to the people.

Power does not only corrupt; it trumps all else.

December 7, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Mike Baker and Ruth Graham, in the 12/05/24 New York Times add to the scary reporting on Pete Hegseth.

"In Tennessee, the Hegseth family joined Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship, a small church opened in 2021 as part of the growing Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. The denomination was co-founded by Doug Wilson....
Mr. Wilson is a self-described Christian nationalist, which he defined in an interview with The Times as someone who sees that 'secular nationalism doesn’t work,' and who wants to limit the power of the government to impose restrictions on Christians....
In his writings, Mr. Wilson has argued that slavery 'produced in the South a genuine affection between the races,' that homosexuality should be a crime and that the 19th amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote was a mistake. He has written that women should not ordinarily hold political office because 'the Bible does say that when feminine leadership is common, it should be reckoned not as a blessing but as a curse.'"

and so on and so on. How could any president* or senator entertain appointing this man to a leadership role?

New Christian Crusade

December 7, 2024 | Unregistered Commenterlaura hunter

Pity none of these foreign leaders can afford to tell Trump to come back and talk policy when he has his big boy britches on. He's so eager to get back behind that desk old Joe may find him there when he gets up one morning.

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/711009-donald-trump-talks-with-world-leaders-advances-foreign-policy-agenda/

With Trump loading his cabinet with Florida politicos y'all may find checking Floridapolitics.com worthwhile.

December 7, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee
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