The Ledes

Thursday, July 3, 2025

CNBC: “Job growth proved better than expected in June, as the labor market showed surprising resilience and likely taking a July interest rate cut off the table. Nonfarm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 147,000 for the month, higher than the estimate for 110,000 and just above the upwardly revised 144,000 in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. April’s tally also saw a small upward revision, now at 158,000 following an 11,000 increase.... Though the jobless rates fell [to 4.1%], it was due largely to a decrease in those working or looking for jobs.”

Washington Post: “A warehouse storing fireworks in Northern California exploded on Tuesday, leaving seven people missing and two injured as explosions continued into Wednesday evening, officials said. Dramatic video footage captured by KCRA 3 News, a Sacramento broadcaster, showed smoke pouring from the building’s roof before a massive explosion created a fireball that seemed to engulf much of the warehouse, accompanied by an echoing boom. Hundreds of fireworks appeared to be going off and were sparkling within the smoke. Photos of the aftermath showed multiple destroyed buildings and a large area covered in gray ash.” ~~~

The Wires
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The Ledes

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

New York Times: “The Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, who emerged from the backwoods of Louisiana to become a television evangelist with global reach, preaching about an eternal struggle between good and evil and warning of the temptations of the flesh, a theme that played out in his own life in a sex scandal, died on July 1. He was 90.” ~~~

     ~~~ For another sort of obituary, see Akhilleus' commentary near the end of yesterday's thread.

Help!

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

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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

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

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Monday
Jan102011

Tucson Shootings -- January 11

Paul Davenport of the AP: "Arizona legislators planned to consider emergency legislation Tuesday to head off picketing by a Topeka, Kan., church at the funeral service for a 9-year-old girl who was among six people killed during Saturday's shooting in Tucson. The proposed law would prohibit protests at or near funeral sites. It would take effect immediately if passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer," who says she will sign it. "The Westboro Baptist Church said Monday it plans to picket Thursday's funeral for Christina Taylor Green because 'God sent the shooter to deal with idolatrous America.'"

"Armed Giffords Hero Nearly Shot Wrong Man." William Saleton of Slate: "... what do gun advocates propose? More guns.... The new poster boy for this agenda is Joe Zamudio, a hero in the Tucson incident. Zamudio was in a nearby drug store when the shooting began, and he was armed. He ran to the scene and helped subdue the killer.... 'I came out of that store, I clicked the safety off, and I was ready,' [Zamudio] explained on Fox and Friends. 'I had my hand on my gun. I had it in my jacket pocket....' As he rounded the corner, he saw a man holding a gun. 'And that's who I at first thought was the shooter.... I told him to "Drop it, drop it!'" But the man with the gun wasn't the shooter. He had wrested the gun away from the shooter." Saleton elaborates details of the encounter to show "how close [Zamudio] came to killing an innocent man."

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence posts an "Insurrectionism Timeline": "On June 26, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court embraced the National Rifle Association's contention that the Second Amendment provides individuals with the right to take violent action against our government should it become 'tyrannical.' The ... timeline catalogues incidents of insurrectionist violence (or the promotion of such violence) that have occurred since that decision was issued."

Jennifer Medina on Suzi Hileman, one of the shooting victims who is recovering in University Medical Center from three bullet wounds. Hileman had taken 9-year-old Christina Green to meet Rep. Giffords.

Today doctors at University Medical Center discuss the status of Rep. Giffords & others:

Arizona Republic: "Doctors caring for U.S. Rep Gabrielle Giffords said this morning she is breathing on her own and is otherwise recovering from a devastating head wound she suffered when a gunman opened fire at point-blank range. In addition to Giffords, five patients remain in the hospital with three listed in serious condition and two in fair condition...." ...

... Tucson Sentinel: "Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is '100 percent' certain to survive, said Dr. Peter Rhee, a surgeon treating her for a gunshot wound to the head. 'As a physician I'm going to get into a lot of trouble for this, but her prognosis for survival is 100 percent, as far as it being short term,' Rhee told Britain's Channel 4 News.... 'Hopefully she'll live to be 95 years old,' said Rhee, the medical director for University Medical Center's trauma center." ...

Last night Dr. Peter Rhee spoke to PBS "News Hours"' Judy Woodruff:

David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "As Loughner appeared in court, acquaintances in Arizona revealed new details about his past few years -- in which an increasingly erratic Loughner distanced himself from family members and friends and made decisions that sabotaged his ambitions." ...

... CBS News: "The parents of the suspect in the shooting rampage that left six people dead in Tucson, Ariz., released a statement Tuesday saying that they don't understand why the shooting happened and that they can't express their feelings in words.... Both parents have been interviewed extensively by the FBI.... Earlier, the parents told federal investigators they knew their son was becoming increasingly troubled but were not aware how much he had drifted and were 'completely surprised' that he actually committed a violent act." ...

... CBS/AP: Jared Loughner "wrote 'Die, bitch' in a note found at his home.... Investigators believe the handwritten message was a reference to Giffords.... The note was found in a safe alongside other ones, including 'I planned ahead,' 'My assassination' and the name 'Giffords.' ... On Saturday morning, Jared Loughner's father saw him take a black bag out of a car trunk.... The father approached Loughner, and he mumbled something and took off running.... The father got in his truck and chased his son as he fled on foot." ...

... Ben Smith links to a conspiracy theory Website which Loughner apparently frequented in November 2010. One of Smith's readers pointed to a conversation between Loughner & another user; the other person tells Loughner that he (Loughner) is "frankly schizophrenic" & urges him to "Seek help before you hurt yourself or others...." 

... Nick Baumann of Mother Jones: a friend of Loughner's, Bryce "Tierney tells Mother Jones ... that Loughner held a years-long grudge against Giffords and had repeatedly derided her as a 'fake.' Loughner's animus toward Giffords intensified after he attended one of her campaign events and she did not, in his view, sufficiently answer a question he had posed, Tierney says."

... Brigid Schulte of the Washington Post: "Under Arizona law, any one of Jared Lee Loughner's classmates or teachers at Pima Community College so concerned about his increasingly bizarre behavior could have contacted local officials and asked that he be evaluated for mental illness and potentially committed for psychiatric treatment. That, according to local mental health and law enforcement officials, never happened." ...

... If Schulte's reporting is correct, our crack Education Secretary doesn't know WTF he's talking about: Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post writes, "Education Secretary Arne Duncan said today that the community college that forced out the suspect in the Arizona shooting rampage because he was disruptive did what it could in handling the young man."

Adam Nagourney, et al., of the New York Times: "Today, the Eighth District stands apart as one of the most emotionally and politically polarized in the nation.... The shootings came after a disconcerting run of episodes in this district..., raising temperatures here in a way that some that some of Ms. Giffords’s friends argue fed an atmosphere that might encourage violence."

Michael Levenson of the Boston Globe: "On the 50th anniversary of one of President Kennedy’s most famous speeches, his great-nephew, Joseph P. Kennedy III, stood in the same spot in the Massachusetts House today and delivered his own address, decrying the vituperative political rhetoric that he said is tearing at the nation's fabric."

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday waded into the debate about America’s political rhetoric..., saying the tone of the national conversation must change. Speaking from Haiti on the one-year anniversary of the earthquake there, Mr. Clinton suggested that passionate political speech should not be directly blamed for the kind of violence that occurred in Tucson. But he said the angry back-and-forth of modern debate is not healthy." Here's the BBC print story & video. ...

... Jim Rutenberg & Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "... even some Republicans sympathetic to [Sarah] Palin suggested that she needed to find a more substantive and nuanced means of addressing the criticism [related to her targeting Rep. Giffords] to avert any risk to her political standing and to maintain control of her political narrative."

Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "Across the ideological spectrum, officials and activists agreed after Saturday's Tucson killings that it was time to soften the harsh edges of America's raucous national dialogue. But by Monday, a bitter debate had erupted over how to do it -- and on whose terms." CW: Newt Gingrich seems crazier than usual -- he brings up "liberals" and "radical Islam".

Jake Tapper & Diane Sawyer of ABC News on vitriolic rhetoric. Sheriff Dupnik lets Rush Limbaugh have it:

Alex Pareene of Salon: "The attempted assassination of a member of Congress seems depressingly like the inevitable conclusion of two years of hysterical revolutionary language suffusing every single domestic political debate." Pareene cites many examples of how the right has "normalized political violence." ...

... Adam Serwer in the Washington Post: "We need to be clear that we're not talking about the mere use of violent imagery -- but political rhetoric that implicitly or explicitly justifies actual violence." ...

Jon Stewart, who has been excoriating the MSM for years about hyperbolic pundits, on the same:

It would be really nice if the ramblings of crazy people didn't in any way resemble how we actually talk to each other on TV. Let's at least make troubled individuals easier to spot. -- Jon Stewart

 

Tim Smith of RobotCeleb explains the screenshot below: "Glenn Beck is trending like crazy after a photo of him holding a gun was randomly generated by his website. The kicker here is that Beck had just published an article stating 'We must stand together against all violence'”:

Joe Davidson of the Washington Post: "Rhetoric against federal workers has escalated from the day Ronald Reagan famously said ;government is the problem' to last week's comment by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) that 'the enemy is the bureaucracy.'" Davidson recounts recent acts of violence against federal employees.

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "President Obama is, so far, keeping his distance from the debate over whether vitriolic political discourse contributed to the attack in Arizona... ." ...

... Two Times a Hero. Speaking to Shep Smith of Fox "News," Tucson shootings hero Patricia Maisch calls out right-wing and Republican party rhetoric, which she says she hopes will change in the wake of the shootings:

Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: "House lawmakers are considering adopting an enhanced security system that would ease the way for members of Congress to get more comprehensive protection at public appearances in their home districts. Under the bipartisan proposal, the Capitol Police ... would formalize its relationship with local police and sheriffs’ departments ... and jointly develop more standardized plans to deal with varying threat levels for ... public events.... Lawmakers could then ask the local police to execute the plans for certain events, a step now taken only on an ad hoc basis."

Bob Herbert writes about our really stupid gun laws & our out-of-control murder rate. ...

... Molly Ball & Shira Toeplitz of Politico: Members of Congress "who have brought up gun control in light of the Tucson shooting have largely been the issue’s regular standard-bearers on Capitol Hill. Even gun-control advocates aren’t very optimistic about their chances.... The signal piece of gun legislation to come out of the Arizona shooting looks to be a bill that Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) plans to bring up as soon as this week. It would ban the manufacture and sale of high-capacity magazines such as the one Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s would-be assassin, Jared Lee Loughner, attached to his Glock 19, allowing him to fire off 33 bullets without reloading, rather than the 10 or so in a typical clip. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) ... plans to introduce McCarthy’s legislation in the Senate.... But McCarthy and Lautenberg are up against a political consensus that has only hardened in recent years...."

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