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 intoWednesday 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.” ~~~
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.
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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.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. — Anonymous
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. — Edward R. Murrow
Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns
I have a Bluesky account now. The URL ishttps://bsky.app/profile/marie-burns.bsky.social . When Reality Chex goes down, check my Bluesky page for whatever info I am able to report on the status of Reality Chex. If you can't access the URL, I found that I could Google Bluesky and ask for Marie Burns. Google will include links to accounts for people whose names are, at least in part, Maria Burns, so you'll have to tell Google you looking only for Marie.
Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "President Obama will deliver a speech Thursday at the National Defense University in which he will address how he intends to bring his counterterrorism policies, including the drone program and the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in line with the legal framework he promised after taking office." CW: but can substance beat scandalmania?
Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times has a very good report on how the Cincinnati IRS office got into trouble, and the answer is -- quite innocently. ...
... Justin Elliott & Kim Barker of ProPublica have another excellent take on the makings of a mess. They also answer the question that may have been floating int the back of your mind -- why Cincinnati? ...
... CW: the real culprits here are not IRS bureaucrats but Congressional Republicans, President Obama & the Supreme Court, who have (1) cut funding for the IRS, (2) cut staffing, (3) increased the IRS workload, & (3) failed to write laws that provide clearcut guidelines. Needless to say, this was not an entirely innocent series of errors on conservatives' part; they have long tried to prove that government doesn't work by setting it up for failure. What better agency to hold up as a nest of vipers than the IRS? Naturally, Obama & Congressional Democrats fell into the GOP trap. Again. ...
... Update. Oh, pretty much what I said. Robert Reich on "the real IRS scandal," a short post that gets to the heart of it. ...
... But Seth Meyers & Amy Poehler are still really pissed off:
CW: Reading a Maureen Dowdcolumn on Obama almost always makes me want to defend Obama.
James Dao of the New York Times: Members of Congress -- and more importantly, Jon Stewart -- are holding Secretary of Veterans of Affairs Eric Shinsekiresponsible for the huge and growing backlog of unprocessed veterans' claims for disability compensation. CW: to me, failing to process 600,000 veterans' claims is a much bigger scandal than making a few phonies sweat over their claimed "social welfare" tax exemption.
Lincoln Caplan of the New York Times: "There is little doubt, statistically, that the Supreme Court presided over by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.has been more sympathetic to corporate interests than any court since World War II. A comprehensive study of more than 1,750 decisions from 1946 to 2011, published recently in the Minnesota Law Review, found that the Roberts court has repeatedly shielded business from lawsuits involving class actions, workplace disputes and consumer complaints.... There are few better (and more outrageous) examples of this pro-business bias than Genesis HealthCare Corp. v. Symczyk." CW: read the post. Kagan (in her dissent) lets Thomas have it, saying flat-out that the majority opinion is the product of fantasyland & bears no relation to reality. "By taking a fallacy as its premise, the majority ensures it will reach the wrong decision." The Court's conservatives are dumber than first-year law students, she implies. The decision & dissent are here (pdf). Kagan's dissent starts on the 14th page. She knows how to write!
Local News
Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Thousands of Virginia Republicans on Saturday picked a slate of statewide candidates who vowed to stay true to conservative principles, resisting calls to remake the GOP message after losses in 2012. At the top of the ticket is gubernatorial hopeful Ken Cuccinelli II, the attorney general. Known for high-profile battles against 'Obamacare,' abortion and a university climate scientist, Cuccinelli stood by what detractors have called an out-of-the-mainstream agenda."
Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post elaborates on conservative outrage over President Obama's elitist, unamerican activity. (The true challenge of the conservative life is that one must exist in a perpetual state of outrage. It seems likely that the only reason liberals are liberals is that they are too lazy & irresponsible to live in a constant cloud of fury and existential indignation.)
Hawaii, Birthplace of Umbrella-Gate. Not surprisingly, then-Vice President Richard Nixon began the tradition of having retainers hold the umbrellas of Presidents & presidential hopefuls. Nixon began this practice in Hawaii, of all places, a year before President Obama was allegedly born there. The obvious similarities between the Nixon & Obama scandals are stunning & incontrovertible:
Update. Contributor Dan Sheerin adds this excellent image of President Gerald Ford one-upping the guy who handed him the top job. Ford's umbrella-holding serviceman is Lt. Col. Robert Blake, a military aide with a chestful of medals. AND, as Sheerin points out, you can purchase the photo on ebay. Buy It Now for $23.88! Like Obama, Ford was hosting foreign dignitaries, among them West German President Walter Scheel. Unlike Obama, who called for the umbrellas specifically for the benefit of PM Erdogan, Ford did not bother to protect his distinguished guests from the rain. A shocking diplomatic catastrophe made all the more curious by Scheel's apparent indifference (he's smiling in the photo) to the affront. Not to mention, Col. Blake, the Umbrella Man, looks pretty content, too.
President & Mrs. Reagan greet guests while scandalously standing under an umbrella which a retainer holds:
Carrying on the grotesque tradition which Nixon & the Reagans firmly established, Reagan's successor George H. W. Bush stands beneath an umbrella held by a marine. Note how the marine has to hold his arm WAY UP because the upper-crusty Bush has placed himself on a pedestal. Not surprisingly, Bush lost his re-election bid. Later, combat veteran Sgt. Randolph C. Bumbershoot told reporters that holding an umbrella for a tall guy standing on a pedestal was the most difficult mission of his military career.
Update: Commenter DTA1401 has assumed that Marine means "U.S. Marine." As s/he says, "those are not American military uniforms." I think Sgt. Bumbershoot is a Maltese Marine.
Campaigning in 2008, Palin's hapless running-mate John McCain stands under an umbrella which an aide is holding:
When asked why he couldn't hold his own umbrella, McCain apologized, explaining he has difficulty raising his arms as the result of injuries sustained while in captivity during the Vietnam War. But his real reason was likely a fear of looking like this:
Update. Commenter American Vet -- one of those perpetual-state-of-outrage people -- observes, "Not one picture you posted, shows any American Military Personnel holding an umbrella for any leader. Investigative report indeed, big difference." Howz this? The man to the left of Bush Pere appears to me to be an "American Military Person" as does the man to the right of Bush Fils. Each of these apparent American Military Personnel is holding an umbrella for the President. (Note also that the populist Democratic president appearing in photo with Bush Iis holding his own umbrella, & perhaps coincidentally, looks like the happiest guy in the crowd):
OOPS! Palin herself is not like "most Americans" who "hold their own umbrellas":
... Christi Parsons of the Los Angeles Times: " President Obama said Friday he wanted to put more Americans to work by slashing the amount of time it takes to grant federal approval for big job-creating projects. But Obama's choice of venue for his remarks -- a Baltimore company that makes mining and pumping equipment -- provided fodder for Republicans. They noted that the company president had, just the day before, testified on Capitol Hill in support of the Keystone XL pipeline, which the Obama administration has delayed for years over environmental concerns. Ellicott Dredges President Peter Bowe said the pipeline ... would pour money into his business. 'For us, it's all about jobs,' Bowe told members of the House Committee on Small Business on Thursday." ...
... CW: this is a good example of how second-term controversies develop. Odds are that if President Obama faced a re-election bid, his crack staff would have vetted Bowe & his business and would not have sent the President to Ellicot Dredges. Whether this oopsie was the result of B-team incompetence, laziness or political staff attrition, it is representative of second-term carelessness. ...
Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "Two senior military officers ... Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Air Force Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, the service's top commander ... said for the first time Friday that they were 'open' to proposed legislation that would overhaul military law in response to an epidemic of sexual assaults, acknowledging that victims lack faith in commanders to handle the problem.... A bipartisan group of lawmakers announced Thursday that they support a bill from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) that would force the most significant changes in military law in 30 years by giving prosecutors, instead of unit commanders, the power to open investigations into serious crimes and send the cases to trial.... The Pentagon has resisted taking such power away from military commanders.... Ten days earlier, [Welsh] testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that he was opposed to the idea.... Although neither Dempsey nor Welsh endorsed the proposal, their comments aligned them with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who has said he is willing to discuss it with lawmakers."
Brendan Nyhan, in the Columbia Journalism Review: "... media scandals are a 'co-production' of the opposition party and the press.... Reporters [should take] more responsibility for their role in creating and sustaining the media narratives that they are covering."
It's They're Obama's Watergate! Or Worse! Steve Benenmakes a list of some of the nothingburgers Republicans have compared to Watergate. (Links are Benen's):
* The White House's relationship with Media Matters might be "Obama's Watergate." ...
... Overreach? What Overreach? Dana Milbank on "Thursday morning's circus on the east lawn of the Capitol, where Republican lawmakers gathered with tea party leaders to declare their thoughts on the IRS scandal." CW: do read the quotes. And check out Ted Cruz's "sourcing." Milbank calls Cruz the "leader of the neo-McCarthyite wing of the GOP," a moniker that is precisely accurate. ...
... For a more detailed retelling of the hearing, here's the final effort of Jonathan Weisman & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times. Also, Republicans are expanding the IRS scandalette into an attack on -- ObamaCare! ...
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "If there are any conservatively minded Inspector Clouseaus out there who would like to take the probe further, I suggest you get in touch with Committee chair Dave] Camp's office, or with [Paul] Ryan's. They need your help." ...
... Nice to see AP stories like this one by Ken Thomas & Steve Peoples. I hope a lot of local newspapers pick it up: " There's an irony in the Internal Revenue Service's crackdown on conservative groups. The nation's tax agency has admitted to inappropriately scrutinizing smaller tea party organizations that applied for tax-exempt status. But the IRS largely maintained a hands-off policy with the much larger, big-budget organizations on the left and right that were most influential in the 2012 elections and are organized under a section of the tax code that allows them to hide their donors.... Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS and the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity were among those that spent tens of millions of dollars on TV ads and get-out-the-vote efforts to help Republicans. Democrats were aided in similar fashion by Priorities USA, made up of former Barack Obama campaign aides, and American Bridge 21st Century Foundation, an opposition research group led by a former adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid." ...
... The Stupidest Part of the IRS Story. Bernie Becker of the Hill: "Steven Miller, the acting IRS commissioner, said Friday that last week's revelation that the IRS gave special scrutiny to Tea Party groups came from a planted question. Lois Lerner, an IRS official with oversight of tax-exempt groups, disclosed the scrutiny at an American Bankers Association conference last Friday after a question from a lawyer who has served on IRS advisory boards." ...
... David Kay Johnstoncalls onLois Lerner to resign for multiple offenses. ...
... Good piece by Lisa Rein & Dan Zak of the Washington Post: IRS personnel in Cincinnati -- the center of controversy -- are mystified by claims they are Nixonian political hacks out to get honest, law-abiding, tax-averse yahoos in tricorns. ...
... Nate Silver: Peggy Noonanis of the impression that the IRS is targeting conservatives for audits because she heard of four -- that's right, four -- conservatives who were audited last year. Noonan's storied "impressions" are absolute bunk. She doesn't have the barest understanding of the difference between an anecdote & statistical significance. CW: Here's the "logic": My rich Uncle Moe got audited right after he gave $2,500 to the Romney campaign. I don't vote & didn't get audited. Ergo, the IRS is targeting Republicans. So Obama can take away our guns & become dictator for life.
Greg Sargent: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is increasingly focused on the month of July as the time to exercise the so-called 'nuclear option' and revisit filibuster reform, and he has privately told top advisers that he's all but certain to take action if the Senate GOP blocks three upcoming key nominations.... Reid is eyeing a change to the rules that would do away with the 60-vote threshold on all judicial and executive branch nominations." Read the whole post. ...
... Jonathan Bernstein: "... Reidis doing an excellent job at this complex game; leaking this threat now and generally upping the ante on nominations in general seems to be exactly the way to go." ...
... Kevin Drum: "I think it's unlikely that Republicans will allow [Richard] Cordray's nomination [to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] to go forward, since they're blocking him mainly as a way of blocking the operation of the CFPB itself. More than likely, then, they'll call Reid's bluff. Then we'll find out just how serious he is." ...
... Justin Green of the Daily Beast: "... there's something not quite right about requiring a 3/5 majority for a duly elected President to appoint a cabinet. In a perverse way, if Republican intransigence on appointments finally persuades Reid to embrace filibuster reform on the limited scale Sargent describes, they'll have done the entire country a favor. I strongly believe in the filibuster for the legislative process. Permanent changes to law should not be able to sail through on a majority vote. But a circuit court judge and the head of the EPA are not permanent legislative decisions, and they deserve a simple majority vote." (Green favors the 60-vote rule for Supreme Court justices.)
Jed Lewison: Congressional Republicans are changing their debt-ceiling/hostage-taking strategy: now, instead of trying to convince voters that raising the debt ceiling is the end of civilization as we know it, they'll try to convince voters that their way of raising the debt limit is a must-do -- a tactic that clearly undercuts their ability to wage "economic terrorism."
Jeffrey Nugent, formerly the head of Revlon, says in a Washington Post op-ed that his wacko little brother Ted & the NRA are wrong about gun registration: "I believe strongly that expanding and improving mandatory background checks will keep a lot of people who aren't entitled to Second Amendment rights from having easy access to guns. As of today, a convicted felon can find a gun show or a private seller and buy a firearm without a background check. That loophole should be closed.... Why would responsible gun owners want to protect people who threaten not only our safety but our gun rights? The NRA has it wrong: Irresponsible gun owners are bad for everyone."
Unbelievable. No, Really. Unbelievable. Will Englund of the Washington Post: "All that low-tech equipment that Russian security officers displayed for the TV cameras after detaining Ryan Fogle, American diplomat and alleged spy, made it look as though he stepped right out of the annals of 1980s Cold War espionage. Now, the Interfax news agency is reporting that the wigs he allegedly had with him match a wig seized from Michael Sellers, a U.S. diplomat kicked out of the Soviet Union back in 1986. That wig is in the archives of the FSB, Russia's Federal Security Service.... It all looked a bit goofy. A compass? A street atlas? And the whole sequence of events is reminding some Russians of a popular Cold War miniseries here, about KGB agents dramatically thwarting Western spy plots...." ...
Local News
Rosalind Helderman & Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "While it's illegal for [Virginia] politicians to accept a gift in direct exchange for official acts, gifts often arrive from those who have sought or will seek some benefit from state government. In addition, the wording on the disclosure forms is so vague that it's difficult to discern any details about what the gift is for and about.... In Virginia, many members of the state legislature take gifts from people or firms with something to gain from government action. [Gov. Bob] McDonnell's predecessors, former Democratic governors Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine, took similar gifts.... But McDonnell's $19,000 gift [from the Redskins] last year was by far the largest reported by a Virginia governor in recent years." The Redskins' gift directly followed McDonnell's decision -- which was opposed by the state legislature -- to give the team $4 million of public money. Also, Virginia AG & former Kate Madison ward Ken Cucchinelli -- who is running for governor -- has taken large gifts that suggested a direct conflict-of-interest, at least one of which he failed to disclose.
Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked enforcement of one of the country's most stringent abortion laws, an Arkansas ban on the procedure at the 12th week of pregnancy, saying the law was likely to be declared unconstitutional."
News Ledes
ABC News Denver: "Witnesses tell police a Federal Heights woman was killed when the new assault rifle she was showing to friends accidentally fired on Tuesday night. Witnesses and the husband told police the group had been drinking in the garage of the couple's home at 10024 Elliot St. when 22-year-old Anastasia Adair, a new gun enthusiast, went upstairs to a bedroom to get her recently purchased assault rifle."
AP: "Two commuter trains packed with rush-hour commuters collided in an accident that sent about 70 people to the hospital, severely damaged the tracks and threatened to snarl travel in the congested Northeast Corridor."
AP: "French President Francois Hollandehas signed a law authorizing gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples, after months of nationwide protests and wrenching debate. His signature means the first gay marriages may be celebrated in France within about 10 days. Hollande's office said he signed the bill Saturday morning, a day after the Constitutional Council struck down a challenge to the law."
AP: "North Korea fired three short-range guided missiles into its eastern waters on Saturday, a South Korean official said. It routinely tests such missiles, but the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing tensions."
Chicago Tribune: "Siding with patients who say cannabis is the only drug that can safely ease their chronic pain, the Senate sent Gov. Pat Quinn a measure Friday that would make Illinois the 19th state to legalize marijuana for medical purposes."
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