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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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

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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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 is https://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.

Saturday
Mar172012

The Commentariat -- March 18, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on the Myth of the Grand Bargain. I posted it myself as my editor is away, & couldn't figure out how to get it on the front page, so only YOU will know it's there.

... "Doonesbury" appears in Slate here.

Peterr of Firedoglake: "The Obama administration continues its caving to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops on the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, and seeks input on ways in which to continue its spelunking in the future.... HHS did not announce final rules, but put forward a 32 page proposal for comment [pdf] on religious organizations and their obligation (or lack thereof) to provide coverage for 'certain preventive services.' [allowing exemptions for religious organizations that self-insure & possibly changing the definition of "religious employers"] That 'self insurance' loophole is a huge exemption. Look for any Roman Catholic institutions that aren’t self-insured already to set themselves up that way in short order. If you wish to take HHS up on their offer to listen to comments on this proposal, page 3 of the pdf has four ways to submit your thoughts." ...

   ... CW: Peterr claims in his post that Georgetown U., which Sandra Fluke attends, will be exempted from providing students with contraceptive coverage. However, according to a Washington Post story I linked yesterday, because the Georgetown "policy is not a self-insured plan, the birth control mandate will soon apply." The New York Times report agrees, in essence, with the Post report; that is, Georgetown students will be covered. Peterr is right about this much, tho: if a religiously-affiliated institution is not self-insuring now, it is likely to do so to get out of having to provide contraceptive coverage.

New York Times Editors: "... homeowners are still bearing the brunt of the mortgage debacle. Taxpayers are still supporting too-big-to-fail banks. And banks are still not being held accountable."

Former Reagan budget director David Stockman & New York Times financial reporter Gretchen Morgenson talk to Bill Moyers about the crony capitalism that controls Washington. Thanks to contributor Dave S. for the link:

Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times reports on some of the blog entries of Karilyn Bales, wife of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers last week. "Though much of the family’s online presence appears to have been removed in recent days, the fragments that remain capture the daily travails typical of any family with a loved one stationed abroad." ...

... Jennifer Preston of the Times has more. ...

... Elisabeth Bumiller of the Times looks at the issue of high stress for troops deployed numerous times.

CW: Here's something I knew absolutely zero about. Nicholas Kristof writes that Backpage.com, "the premier Web site for human trafficking in the United States, according to the National Association of Attorneys General..., is owned by Village Voice Media, which also owns the estimable Village Voice newspaper. the Village Voice.... The Brooklyn district attorney’s office says that the great majority of the sex trafficking cases it prosecutes involve girls marketed on Backpage."

How Not to Attract Tourists. Pilot Mark Vanhoenacker  in a New York Times op-ed: "... a 2006 survey by the U.S. Travel Association ... found that foreign travelers were more afraid of United States immigration officials than of terrorism or crime. They rated America’s borders by far the least welcoming in the world. Two-thirds feared being detained for 'minor mistakes or misstatements.'”

Right Wing World

** Rick Perlstein in Rolling Stone: conservatives have always been crazy.

Charles Babington of the AP: "The millions of dollars spent by Mitt Romney's allies on TV ads attacking his two main rivals have helped Romney pull ahead in the GOP presidential race.... Republican insiders say Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are fuming over the hard-hitting 30-second spots that sent them tumbling after they gained early leads in Iowa, Florida, Michigan and other states.... Campaign veterans say Santorum and Gingrich feel the commercials were pointedly unfair, and that's a big reason they keep fighting...."

Doyle McManus of the Los Angeles Times: Mitt "Romney's beginning to look a bit like a Republican version of Dukakis: a Massachusetts governor who might win the nomination by outlasting weak opponents but who may never quite win his party's heart — or the nation's. That's partly because, as Dukakis did, Romney is selling himself as a better manager for the federal government, not as the leader of a grand crusade." ...

... If Governor Romney thinks that he is the CEO of America and can run and manage the economy, he doesn’t understand what conservatives believe in. We don’t want someone in Washington, D.C. to manage the economy. We want someone who can get Washington out of our lives. -- Rick Santorum, on CNN's "State of the Nation" today

CW: Kasie Hunt & Rachel Zoll of the AP are "puzzled" that Roman Catholic Republicans are not lining up behind Rick Santorum. Maybe it's because of this: "Less than one-quarter of Catholics attend Mass weekly. Most use artificial contraception, support gay civil unions or marriage, and hold other views contrary to church teaching." Not to mention this: "Less than half of the Catholic Republicans surveyed knew Santorum's faith, the survey showed, while 11 percent of Catholic Republicans and 35 percent of white evangelical Republicans thought Santorum was an evangelical."

Fore! Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "In an article that would appear to be a poorly-executed parody of Texas Senate candidate Ted Cruz’s (R) right-wing beliefs it Cruz had not posted it on his own website, the Tea Party stalwart touts a truly ridiculous conspiracy theory about George Soros secretly partnering with the United Nations to come into our cities and eliminate our right to play golf." Apparently Cruz is a viable candidate & could soon become the Honorable Senator Cruz.

News Ledes

ABC News: "President Obama opened up a 30-minute documentary on childhood bullying for Cartoon Network this evening, continuing awareness initiatives he set into motion last year."

New York Times: "Mitt Romney was the winner of the Republican presidential primary Sunday in Puerto Rico.... Mr. Romney was defeating Mr. Santorum by a wide margin in the United States territory, which has 20 delegates, with The Associated Press saying Mr. Romney was likely to take all of them."

New York Times: "Scores of Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested on Saturday night as police officers swept Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan and closed it. Dozens of demonstrators sat down and locked arms as officers moved in about 11:30 p.m. The protesters chanted 'we are not afraid' as the police began pulling people from the crowd, one by one, and leading them out of the park in handcuffs." Reuters story here.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Crowds and chaos rattled Missouri's GOP caucuses on Saturday, threatening to put further scrutiny on a process that was already a national anomaly.... Participants in Saturday's caucuses weren't actually selecting their choice for presidential nominee. They were selecting delegates who will appear at two larger meetings in April and June, who will in turn select delegates to the national convention in Tampa."

AP: "Puerto Rico's residents cannot vote in general elections, but are set to award 20 delegates in their Sunday Republican primary."

Reuters: "Motorcycle-riding gunmen linked to al Qaeda shot and killed an American teacher in the Yemeni city of Taiz on Sunday, and Yemeni officials said government forces killed up to 14 militants in clashes and artillery attacks on their strongholds. The attacks underscore the challenges facing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who took office last month after a year of massive protests against his predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh."

Reuters: "A car bomb hit Syria's second city Aleppo on Sunday, a day after blasts killed 27 in Damascus, and security forces arrested and beat activists at a rare anti-government protest in the centre of the capital."

Reuters: "Germans resoundingly elected Joachim Gauck, a former Lutheran pastor and human rights activist from communist East Germany, as president of the European Union's largest country on Sunday, posing a potential political headache for Chancellor Angela Merkel."

Reuters: "A group of 22 Chinese authors have filed a claim against U.S. technology group Apple (APPL.O), alleging its App Store sells unlicenced copies of their books, Chinese state media reported on Sunday. The group, the Writers Rights Alliance, petitioned Apple last year to stop electronic distribution of the writers' books and had earlier persuaded Baidu (BIDU.O), China's largest search engine, to stop publishing their material on its Baidu Library product."

Blah Blah. Chicago Tribune: Romney & Santorum diss each other & the President ahead of the Illinois primary.

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Friday
Mar162012

The Commentariat -- March 17, 2012

The President's Weekly Address:

    ... The transcript is here.

Peter Behrens, in a New York Times op-ed: "... for many Irish-Americans and Irish-Canadians, including me, St. Patrick’s Day isn’t really about Ireland. It’s about our ancestors leaving that country, often in bitter circumstances, and risking everything on a hazardous journey and being met with fierce hostility and scorn. It is about immigrants struggling, and mostly succeeding, in their new life, or making success possible for their children and grandchildren. It is a story that should describe all newcomers to America. This March 17, on this side of the water, we ought to be celebrating immigration, not just Irishness." ...

... CW: I'll go along with that. I was planning not to celebrate St. Patrick's Day this year, as I've had my fill of Cardinal Timothy Dolan & his anti-sex/anti-woman crusade, not to mention the Irish Catholic Church and its venerable heritage of pedophilia. So here's to my great-grandfather, some five generations back, William Jarlath O'Beirne, who arrived here in the 1860s with his brother Dominick, when both boys were teenagers.

Aaron Restuccia of The Hill: "President Obama will embark on a four-state tour next week to highlight his energy plan amid intensifying GOP attacks on the White House over soaring gas prices.The tour comes as gas prices continue to rise, reaching a national average of $3.83 Friday, according to AAA. Obama will travel to Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Ohio on Wednesday and Thursday, and will deliver remarks in all four states." ...

... President Obama, in campaign fundraising mode:

Words Matter. Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: How the Obama administration's "deep-sixing the 'war on terror' rhetoric really did hurt al-Qaeda."

Friday Afternoon News Dump. N. C. Aizenman of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration’s controversial birth control health insurance coverage rule will not apply to a type of plan used by about 200,000 college and graduate students, officials said Friday. The administration’s authority to issue the rule stemmed from the 2010 health-care law. Officials said they have concluded that for technical legal reasons the law’s reach does not extend to 'self-insured'” student plans, meaning those for which a college or university collects premiums directly from students, then uses the pool to pay for their health care."

Right Wing World

** End Medicare Now. Dana Milbank: "Are Republicans ready to be trusted with the reins of power? If you’re thinking of answering this in the affirmative, you might want to pause long enough to learn what transpired on the third floor of the Capitol on Thursday. There, four prominent Republican lawmakers announced their proposal to abolish Medicare — 'sunset' was their pseudo-verb — even for those currently on the program or nearing retirement."

Is Rick Santorum electable? Remember his last Senate race? … By historic margins, Pennsylvania voters rejected Rick Santorum. -- Mitt Romney ad ...

... The Biggest (Okay, the Bigger) Loser. Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Romney, like Santorum lost by 17% in a Senate election, in his 1994 race vs. Ted Kennedy. Romney, however, lost big in a historically good year for Republicans, while Santorum lost big in a historically bad year for Republicans." CW Translation: "The other guy's bad, but I'm worse."

It's hard to create a job if you've never had one. -- Mitt Romney, on President Obama ...

... James Bouie of the American Prospect. Romney's assertion is so wrong, in so many ways, including the implicit racism -- black people laze around in do-nothing government jobs (living off nice white people money). Read the whole post.

Jonathan Bernstein, in the Washington Post, on the two, mutually-exclusive Barack Obamas Republicans are running against, & which people who do not live in Right Wing World will not recognize come the general election. CW: Maybe the hand-lettered sign my friend Kate M. saw at a Wisconsin rally would help get these people centered on reality:

Obama is not a brown-skinned
Anti-war socialist
Who gives away free healthcare!
You are thinking of Jesus.

 

GOP Congressmen invite lobbyists to party in Key Largo -- for a price:

Clueless in Missouri. Scott Keyes of Think Progress: "Three Missouri Republicans running to take on Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) in November were asked during a radio debate on KMOX what the federal minimum wage is and whether they would vote to increase it. None of the three knew what the minimum wage is, but all knew that they would vote against increasing it, regardless." CW Translation: "We don't know what it is, but if it helps poor people, we're against it. P.S. We're rich."

Local News

Paul Davenport of the AP: "Women in Arizona trying to get reimbursed for birth control drugs through their employer-provided health plan could be required to prove that they are taking it for a medical reason such as acne, rather than to prevent pregnancy. A bill nearing passage in the Republican-led Legislature allows all employers, not just religious institutions, to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage when doing so would violate their religious or moral beliefs." CW Translation: "We do does not want our sweet little Arizona gals having sex, and if they can't help doing what comes naturally, well, we hope they get knocked up." When this GOP primary is over, Santorum should move to Arizona. He'd be right happy there.

Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin "State Sen. Pam Galloway [R], who faces a recall election this summer, is resigning from the Senate effective Saturday, leaving an even split between Republicans and Democrats." Galloway said her family was experiencing "multiple, sudden and serious health issues" which required her full attention. "Galloway submitted a letter Friday to the Senate saying her resignation would take effect at midnight.... Her departure comes at the end of the legislative session. But her leaving will change the makeup of committees, including ones that are active when the Legislature is out of session."

How Low Can They Go? Here's a start, but I expect worse. Eric Pfeiffer of Yahoo! News: "An image purporting to show a racist, anti-Obama bumper sticker on the back of a vehicle has been garnering lots of attention on Facebook in the past 24 hours. The bumper sticker reads, 'Don't Re-Nig in 2012.' And in smaller print below, "Stop repeat offenders. Don't' reelect Obama!" The sticker also features an image of the Obama campaign logo crossed out.... It's still unclear is the image of the vehicle has been altered in any way, but a website called 'Stumpy's Stickers' offers the bumper sticker for sale for $3."

News Ledes

President Obama stops by a Washington, D.C. Irish pub for a Guiness. Politico story here. Video here.

New York Times: "But hours [after speaking to President Obama], after meeting with the families of the 16 Afghans killed this week in a shooting rampage attributed to an American soldier, [Afghan President Hamid] Karzai lashed out again at the United States, saying he was at 'the end of the rope' over the deaths of Afghan civilians at the hands of NATO forces. He reiterated his call to confine coalition forces to major bases and to speed up the handoff to Afghan troops. He also accused American officials of not cooperating with a delegation he had sent to investigate the killings in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province, in southern Afghanistan."

Reuters: "Twin blasts hit the heart of Damascus on Saturday, killing at least 27 people in an attack on security installations that state television blamed on 'terrorists' seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad."

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: President "Obama ... was feted at three events over about five hours in Georgia: a $10,000-per-person reception at a home near Morningside, a gala at the studios, where the minimum ticket was $250, and a party at Perry's mansion near Vinings for those willing to part with $38,500."

Chicago Sun-Times: "President Barack Obama returned home [to Chicago] for two fund-raisers Friday, taking aim at GOP rivals stumping in Illinois in advance of the Tuesday primary as contenders who hardly measured up to another president from Illinois — a Republican, Abe Lincoln."

New York Times: "A co-founder of Invisible Children, the nonprofit organization whose video 'Kony 2012' has become an Internet sensation, was detained by the San Diego police on Thursday, after they said he was found in the street in his underwear, screaming and interfering with traffic. The police found Jason Russell, the filmmaker behind the video, after responding to calls about a man who was acting irrationally, including one call that alleged he was naked and masturbating...."

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Thursday
Mar152012

"The Road We've Traveled"

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "The Obama White House moved fully into reelection mode this week, leaving aside any pretense of being above the fray and beginning an unabashed political effort to lay the groundwork for what polls suggest could be eight difficult months of campaigning ahead. Thursday seemed to mark a significant shift in approach and intensity, with overtly political speeches by President Obama and Vice President Biden and the release of a 17-minute documentary-style testimonial celebrating what the administration considers its most significant achievements."

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