New York Times: “Frederick W. Smith, [the founder of FedEx,] who bet everything he had on a plan to revolutionize freight transport, courting disaster early on but ultimately winning vindication in the form of power in Washington, billions in personal wealth and changes in how people all over the world send and receive goods, died on Saturday. He was 80. FedEx was conceived in a paper that Mr. Smith wrote as a Yale University undergraduate in 1965. He argued that an increasingly automated economy would depend on fast and dependable door-to-door shipping of small packages containing computer parts. He got a C.”
The Washington Posthas posted U.S. maps to show when & where the heat and humidity will be the worst this week.
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.
Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.
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.
On the 50th anniversary of "The Great Debate" between presidential candidates Vice President Richard Nixon & Sen. John Kennedy, historian & former Kennedy aide Ted Sorensen, who was a witness to history, explores & explodes some of the myths surrounding the debate. Here's the transcript of the first Kennedy-Nixon debate. Here are good-quality videos taken from a kinescope of that first debate, provided by The Film Archive:
** Larry's Not-so-Brilliant Career. Maxwell Strachen, in Salon, reports on Larry Summers' biggest blunders. CW: Summers is reportedly returning to Harvard to teach about job creation. How did this train wreck/blowhard get so arrogant?
Steven Lee Myers of the New York Times: corrupt Iraqi officials made off with $1.4 million worth of computers purchased by the U.S. & designated for Iraqi schoolchildren. The U.S. has forced the Iraqi government to investigate, sort of, & some computers have been recovered.
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar & Jennifer Agiesta of the AP: "President Barack Obama's health care overhaul has divided the nation, and Republicans believe their call for repeal will help them win elections in November. But ... a new AP poll finds that Americans who think the law should have done more outnumber those who think the government should stay out of health care by 2-to-1."
My link to biographer Ron Chernow's excellent op-ed in yesterday's New York Times got lost in the ether, so better late than never. Chernow addresses the Tea Party's ahistorical view of the Constitution & its authors. "The truth is that the disputatious founders — who were revolutionaries, not choir boys — seldom agreed about anything." They definitely did not agree on how the Constitution should be interpreted, & George Washington himself came down on the side of a strong federal government.
The Republicans, I think, merged with the Tea Party, and in many instances they're finding out it's the Donner Party, because it's knocking off Republicans left and right. -- DNC Chair Tim Kaine
... Dana Milbank, a Donner descendant, thinks Kaine was unfair to the Donners (stranded in the Sierras & starving, the Donners resorted to dining on their own dead): "Republicans have been doing things to each other that would make a Donner's stomach turn." Milbank cites some examples of Republicans gleefully eating their own.
Gail Collins: Republican Sens. Jim DeMint & Tom Coburn, for no good reason, have put a hold on a bill that would allow the creation of a National Woman's History Museum which would be privately-funded. Coburn's "reason" is that there are already plenty of museums with women in them....
... CW: I liked Akhilleus' (#5) explanation: "National Women's History Museum. Now can you think of four things far right extremists like DeMint find more unappealing?" Karen Garcia (#4) thinks that if Meryl Streep, who gave $1MM to the women's museum & is playing former British PM & Reagan chum Margaret Thatcher in an upcoming film, should testify before Congress, in character, which will "bring back such fond memories of Uncle Ronnie the Republicans will ... give her whatever she wants."
Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post asks a question on the minds of many of us: why let Bob Woodwardinto the White House? She doesn't answer the question, but she does make some thoughtful observations about President Obama's decision-making process, as Woodward describes it.
A.G. Sulzberger of the New York Times: "Judicial elections that were designed to be as apolitical as possible are suddenly as contentious as any another race."
Andrew Lehren of the New York Times: "Experts say that weak oversight of the 2.7 million miles of gas pipeline in the United States has contributed to hundreds of episodes that have killed 60 people in the last five years."
Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: under the Obama Administration, the Food & Drug Administration has become more transparent & more flexible as demonstrated by their unusual decision on the controversial diabetes drug Avandia.
In 2003, Christine O'Donnell vowed to "stop the whole country from having sex. Yeah, yeah.... Kids are not dogs in heat":
"Evolution Is a Myth." As promised, Bill Mahar has more. From his ABC show, "Politically Incorrect":
Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "After years of focusing U.S. time and attention on the Middle East, the Obama administration is seeking to reorient its foreign policy toward Asia, largely as a way to ensure domestic economic growth in the decades ahead."
"Postcards from the Pledge." Jon Stewart examines the "fresh new ideas" reflected in the Republicans' "Pledge to America":
... Tanya Somanader of Think Progress has a transcript of the comparisons which Stewart highlighted of Republicans' "old ideas" & "new ideas." ...
... Michael Linden & Michael Ettlinger of the Center for American Progress: "The budget deficit would be about $200 billion larger in 2020 under the 'Pledge to America' plan than it would be under President Barack Obama’s budget, and over the next 10 years deficits would be $1.5 trillion higher than under the president’s budget." (pdf) ...
... "War on Arithmetic." Paul Krugman: "On Thursday, House Republicans released their 'Pledge to America,' supposedly outlining their policy agenda. In essence, what they say is, 'Deficits are a terrible thing. Let’s make them much bigger.'” ...
... Dana Milbank: "It took the Republicans just three minutes to violate their Pledge to America.... Their pledge..., among other things, promises to rein in an 'arrogant and out-of-touch government of self-appointed elites.' Yet moments after taking the stage to face the cameras, Republican leaders appointed themselves arrogant elites. They compared themselves to the founding fathers and likened their actions ... to the signing of the Declaration of Independence." ...
... "Profile in Cowardice." Even the Washington Post's conservative Editorial Board writes, "The House Republicans' 'Pledge to America ... mixes irresponsible tax cuts with implausible spending caps and unspecified actions to control entitlement spending.... The 'Pledge' ... would increase the debt by $4 trillion -- yes, trillion -- by extending all the expiring Bush tax cuts and adding new ones, including a poorly conceived deduction for small businesses." ...
... David Corn, in Mother Jones, on what is not in the Republican "Pledge." (It's a long list.)
Mike McIntire of the New York Times: "With every election cycle comes a shadow army of benignly titled nonprofit groups like Americans for Job Security, devoted to politically charged 'issue advocacy,' much of it negative. But they are now being heard as never before.... Americans for Job Security ... spent $6 million on ads during the primary season. This week, emboldened by the [Supreme] Court ruling, the group paid close to $4 million more for ads directly attacking nine Democratic candidates for Congress.... Its deep ties to a Republican consulting operation raise questions about whether, under cover of its tax-exempt mission..., the group is largely a funnel for anonymous donations."
We don’t get our food from farms anymore. We get it from grocery stores. -- Stephen Colbert
Christina Wilkie of The Hill: "Comedian Stephen Colbert’s scheduled appearance on Capitol Hill Friday elicited mixed reactions from lawmakers.... At the hearing, the late-night talk show host will appear in the form of his fictional character...."
... Here's the Colbert segment with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Cal.), who chairs the House subcommittee on immigration:
Jason Zengerle, in GQ, profilesRand Paul, & doesn't make young Paul sound as bad as he is. What Paul does appear to be, is totally uninformed & willing to change his views, such as they are, on everything.
Well, isn't this an effective ad from some right-wing fake-name front group called "Citizens for the Republic":
... CW: and how, pray tell, is the government going to be both "smaller" AND "more caring, one that remembers us"? Obviously, if the government is smaller, it isn't going to be "more caring."; it will have to be "less caring." And will "the government" "remember us"? Yes, maybe after we're dead from lack of care. Oh, look, even Daniel Larison of Pat Buchanan's! American Conservativeagrees with me.
John Pomfret of the Washington Post: "A new generation of officials in the military, key government ministries and state-owned companies has begun to define how China deals with the rest of the world. Emboldened by China's economic expansion, these officials are taking advantage of a weakened leadership at the top of the Communist Party to assert their interests in ways that would have been impossible even a decade ago.... Today, from Washington to Tokyo, the talk is about how difficult it is to contend with the explosion of special interests shaping China's worldview."
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