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

Monday
Dec132010

The Commentariat -- December 14

You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan. -- Richard Holbrooke's last words*

* But the Obama Administration says he was only kidding.

... ** Blake Hounshell of Foreign Policy on Holbrooke's last words. ...

Richard Holbrooke, March 2010. AP photo.

** New York Times: "Richard C. Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2009 and a diplomatic troubleshooter in Asia, Europe and the Middle East who worked for every Democratic president since the late 1960s, died on Monday evening in Washington. He was 69 and lived in Manhattan."

... George Packer of the New Yorker profiled Richard Holbrooke in September 2009. ...

... Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times writes a remembrance of diplomat Richard Holbrooke. ...

... Susan Glasser of Foreign Policy remembers Richard Holbrooke, who edited FP in the 1970s. ...

... Massimo Calabresi writes Richard Holbrooke's obituary for Time. ...

... Slobodan Lekic of the AP: "World leaders on Tuesday praised Richard Holbrooke as the 'Bulldozer' diplomat who engineered the end of Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II and sought to bring stability to war-torn Afghanistan." ...

... Statements from Presidents Obama & Clinton, Vice President Biden, Secretary Clinton & others. ...

... Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The death of Richard C. Holbrooke, who directed the civilian side of the war in Afghanistan, leaves a major void in what has always been the most difficult and vulnerable aspect of President Obama's strategy."

Bad News for Buckley T. Ratchford:

Writer James Ledbetter, in a New York Times op-ed, on President Eisenhower's famous farewell speech. in which he warned about "the military-industrial complex." Sam Roberts of the Times has a story on the release of documents related to & earlier drafts of the speech. You can read those documents here, and watch the speech here.

So, first you read this:

I don't think there's a sense that I've been successful. I think people still feel that over all, Washington is about a lot of politics and special interests and big money, but that ordinary people's voices too often aren't represented, and so my hope is that we're going to continue rebuilding a trust in government. -- Barack Obama ...

... THEN, on the same page, you read this:

President Obama met with the billionaire investor Warren Buffett, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Gates's wife, Melinda, in the Oval Office on Tuesday to discuss their pledge to give away most of their money to charity. 'During the visit, they also discussed ideas for growing the economy and making America more competitive including investment in education to better prepare the next generation and investing in innovative areas with opportunity for growth,' a White House official said in an e-mail to reporters."

In a Bloomberg poll..., just 7% [of respondents] said [Wall Street bonuses] should remain an incentive. To put that 7% figure in perspective, 6% of Americans believe the moon landings were a hoax; 7% believe Elvis lives; 24% believe that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim; 41% believe in ESP; and 48% believe in creationism. Americans will believe anything, it seems — except the idea that incentivizing bankers at systemically-important institutions to take big risks makes any sense at all. Now all we need to do is find one or two people in the Obama administration who are aligned with the 88% rather than the 7%. I’m not holding my breath. -- Felix Salmon of Bloomberg ...

... "Welcome to the World of the Temporary Tax Code." John McKinnon, et al. of the Wall Street Journal: if the Obama tax-cut deal passes, as expected, "the U.S. will have no permanent regime governing levies on salaries, capital gains and dividends, the Social Security tax, as well as a slew of targeted breaks for families, students and other groups. This on top of dozens of corporate-tax provisions that already were subject to annual renewal. The level of uncertainty, unusual for developed nations, complicates planning and discourages hiring and investment, many economists and corporate executives say." ...

... AP: "The struggle over tax cuts is seriously straining President Barack Obama's relationship with House Democrats, who have backed him on key issues even when it cost them politically. Expressing hurt and bewilderment, Democratic lawmakers say Obama ignored them at crucial negotiating moments, misled them about his intentions and made needless concessions to Republicans."

Two analyses of the ruling against the Affordable Care Law from the New York Times:

     ... Sheryl Gay Stolberg: "Judge Henry E. Hudson’s decision leaves the White House playing defense for the foreseeable future on an issue it once thought would secure Mr. Obama’s legacy." ...

     ... Kevin Sack: "Judge Henry E. Hudson of Federal District Court in Richmond wrote with conviction that the law’s requirement that most Americans obtain insurance goes 'beyond the historical reach' of Supreme Court cases that limit federal regulation of commercial activity. During the last two months, however, two other federal judges ruled with equal force that the provision fell squarely within the authority Congress was granted under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution." ...

... Orin Kerr in the Volokh Conspiracy writes that Judge Hudson completely misunderstands the Necessary & Proper Clause of the Constitution & has no idea of its history of interpretation from John Marshall forward. ...

... Eric Holder & Kathleen Sebelius in a Washington Post op-ed, decry Hudson's ruling & opponents of the law who are trying to block it: "... these attacks are wrong on the law, and if allowed to succeed, they would have devastating consequences for everyone with health insurance." ...

... AND Joe Weisenthal of the Business Insider reminds us, "The health insurance companies ... are up in knee-jerk fashion on the news that a judge has struck down the individual mandate aspect of Obamacare. Investors should wake up: If this were ultimately upheld, it would be horrible news for the insurers." ...

... BUT Ezra Klein, who is a real wonk on the healthcare debate, goes into some detail on the implications of Judge Hudson's ruling & concludes:

If Republicans succeed in taking it off the table, they may sign the death warrant for private insurers in America: Eventually, rising cost pressures will force more aggressive reforms than even Obama has proposed, and if conservative judges have made the private market unfixable by removing the most effective way to deal with adverse selection problems, the only alternative will be the very constitutional, but decidedly non-conservative, single-payer path. ...

... President Obama on Hudson's ruling. Sam Stein has a portion of the transcript:

M. J. Lee of Politico: "... The Obama administration’s loan modification program will prevent 700,000 foreclosures, a fraction of the 8 to 13 million that was initially expected, by 2012," according to a report by the Congressional Oversight Panel. Former Sen. Ted Kaufman, who headed the panel, said, “'Many of the problems now plaguing HAMP are inherent in its design and cannot be fixed at this late date.'” Kaufmann urged the Treasury Department to take the necessary steps to keep home owners in their homes, such as carefully monitoring and intervening in cases where borrowers are falling behind on their payments and preventing re-defaults." CW: no kidding. This program was so fucking bank-friendly that there was no chance it was ever going to work for those in need of assistance. There's a pdf of the report here.

The collapsed roof of the Metrodome is shown in this aerial view in Minneapolis on Sunday, December 12. AP photo.Andy Borowitz: "In a move that took many political observers by surprise, the Democratic National Committee decided today to move its 2012 nominating convention to the Minneapolis Metrodome. Insiders questioned the wisdom of choosing a venue which collapsed over the weekend, but Obama political adviser David Axelrod told reporters, 'Quite frankly, we can’t think of a more appropriate site.'”

Rep. Ron Paul on the WikiLeaks dumps & our foreign policy. He speaks for me:

... AP: "A British judge granted bail to Julian Assange on Tuesday under strict monitoring conditions but the WikiLeaks founder remained in custody pending a possible appeal by Sweden. Swedish authorities had two hours to lodge an appeal against the bail decision and their lawyer, Gemma Lindfield, said it was likely she would. An appeal would have to be heard by Britain's High Court within 48 hours." New York Times story here. ...

 ... Michael Moore takes the same tack as Paul, & Moore puts his money where his mouth is; he's contributed $20,000 to Assange's bail.

Rod Norland of the New York Times: "At least 100 relief workers in Afghanistan have been killed so far this year, far more than in any previous year, prompting a debate within humanitarian organizations about whether American military strategy is putting them and the Afghans they serve at unnecessary risk. Most of the victims worked for aid contractors employed by NATO countries, with fewer victims among traditional nonprofit aid groups."

AP: "America's neighborhoods became more integrated last year than during any time in at least a century as a rising black middle class moved into fast-growing white areas in the South and West. Still, ethnic segregation in many parts of the U.S. persisted, particularly for Hispanics."

President Obama speaks at a reception for the foreign diplomatic corps, and honors Richard Holbrooke, at the United States Department of State:

The President and members of the Los Angeles Lakers work with children at a Boys and Girls Club in Washington, D.C. to send holiday greetings and care packages to service men and women: