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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

Constant Comments

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 wolvesEdward 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.

Sunday
Jun302013

The Snowden Saga, Ctd.

One Thing. It is worth noting that Ed Snowden is now shopping his wares to publications that have the most interest in particular U.S. spying programs. He told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post that the U.S. had been hacking Hong Kong & China for years. Then he released documents -- evidently via American documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras -- to the German magazine Der Spiegel, showing that the NSA was eavesdropping on European Union officials' conversations.

The only way one can find positive value in making such information public is to hold the belief that spying on our allies is unethical & that the public, here and in Europe, should have certain knowledge that the U.S. does so. I do not hold those views.

Another Thing. What the public does now know, with certainty, is the the National Secuity Agency is woefully insecure. Perhaps the most shocking thing about Snowden's disclosures is not what he revealed but the ease with which an NSA new hire is able to waltz out of one of its facilities with flashdrives and perhaps laptops loaded with classified data. In a story I linked yesterday, Former NSA director Mike McConnell, who is now a top guy at Booz Allen, told people at the Aspen Ideas Festival that his new favorite idea is making sure it takes two people to access classified data. What a concept! A buddy system! Good grief.

I watched the 2001 film "Spy Game" Sunday. The plot-line has the Robert Redford character -- a mid-level CIA spy -- trying to save an old friend that the CIA honchos see as expendable. Most of the film's main-story action takes place at Langley, where Redford plays a cat-and-mouse game with the higher-ups. Every time Redford makes a phone call or accesses data, the CIA bigwigs know all about it, even tho the Redford character takes steps to hide his activities. To get in and out of the building (in the film, anyway), CIA employees have to run through fairly rigorous security checks. Yeah, I know it's a movie. But if the NSA had any security at its Hawaiian facility, I don't see how Snowden's thefts would go undetected.

So when commentators hypothesize about who might have aided & abetted Snowden, I'd have to say, "Well, first, the buffoons at the NSA."

Sunday
Jun302013

The Commentariat -- July 1, 2013

Michael Shear of the New York Times: On Sunday, President Obama visited the Robben Island cell where former South African President Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years of the first 27 years of his life.

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Julian Assange ... said on Sunday that ... the disclosures from the classified documents [Edward Snowden] took as a National Security Agency contractor would continue." Here's the ABC News interview:

... Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "European officials reacted angrily on Sunday to a report that the United States had been spying on its European Union allies, saying the claims could threaten talks with Washington on an important trade agreement." ...

... Laura Poitras, et al., in Der Spiegel: "America's National Security Agency (NSA) is apparently spying on Germany more than previously believed. Secret documents from the US intelligence service, which have been viewed by Spiegel journalists, reveal that the NSA systematically monitors and stores a large share of the country's telephone and Internet connection data." Spiegel Online International will publish its full report some time today. ...

... Der Spiegel: "Germany's Federal Prosecutors' Office confirmed to Spiegel on Sunday that it is looking into whether systematic data spying against the country conducted by America's National Security Agency violated laws aimed at protecting German citizens." ...

... Ewen MacAskill & Julian Borger of the Guardian have a bit more on the U.S.'s bugging our European friends. ...

... Get Over It. Lara Jakes & Frank Jordans in Salon: "The U.S. says it gathers the same kinds of intelligence as other nations to safeguard against foreign terror threats, pushing back on fresh outrage from key allies over secret American surveillance programs that reportedly installed covert listening devices in European Union offices. Facing threatened investigations and sanctions from Europe, U.S. intelligence officials plan to discuss the new allegations -- reported in Sunday's editions of the German newsweekly Der Spiegel -- directly with EU officials.... Some European counties have much stronger privacy laws than does the U.S." ...

... Hadas Gold of Politico: "NSA leaker Edward Snowden damaged the 'security of the country,' former President George W. Bush said in an interview that aired Monday." CW: ah, well, good. Then it's all okay. The video & CNN story are here. ...

... Ian Traynor, et al., of the Guardian: "The prospects for a new trade pact between the US and the European Union worth hundreds of billions have suffered a severe setback following allegations that Washington bugged key EU offices and intercepted phonecalls and emails from top officials." CW: as contributor Ken Winkes pointed out, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps, however, sabotaging our so-called national security apparatus is not the best way to sink the trade agreement. ...

... Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "... an examination of public statements over a period of years suggests that officials, [including President Obama,] have often relied on legalistic parsing and carefully hedged characterizations in discussing the NSA's collection of communications." ...

... The Bluffdale Black Box. Tony Semerad of the Salt Lake Tribune: "The [NSA's] Utah Data Center spans 1 million square feet, with a 100,000-square-foot, raised-floor area divided into four separate data halls, each holding what the NSA calls 'mission-critical' computing servers and data-storage capacity. An additional 900,000 square feet will be devoted to technical support and administrative staff, amounting to fewer than 200 NSA employees." (It's a 3-pager; click thru.) The official government site describing the Bluffdale facility, which is still under construction, is here. ...

... Rick Hamilton, in Salon, on the last significant NSA defections: William Martin & Bernon Mitchell, who defected to Russia in 1960 amid charges they were "sex deviates."

Paul Krugman: "... there's a nationwide [Republican] movement under way to punish the unemployed, based on the proposition that we can cure unemployment by making the jobless even more miserable.... The war on the unemployed isn't motivated solely by cruelty; rather, it's a case of meanspiritedness converging with bad economic analysis."

Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog: "Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy turned down at midday Sunday a request to stop same-sex marriages from occurring in California. Without comment, and without seeking views from the other side, Kennedy rejected a challenge to action by the Ninth Circuit Court on Friday implementing a federal judge's ruling allowing such marriages. The plea had been made on Saturday b the sponsors of California's 'Proposition 8,' a voter-approved measure that permitted marriage only between a man and a woman." ...

... Jeff Toobin, in the New Yorker, on Anthony Kennedy's decisions to strike DOMA & gut the Voting Rights Act. "... the real reason that [Edie] Windsor, and the country, won [the DOMA case] was that Democrats won -- in the eighties, when the Senate turned down Bork, and in 2008, when Barack Obama defeated John McCain. To an extent that the public and, especially, the Justices themselves rarely acknowledge, the Supreme Court is a political body. It reflects, above all, the values and the priorities of the Presidents who nominate the Justices and the senators who confirm them (or refuse to do so)." CW: I dedicate this post to Kate Madison -- "Remember the Supremes!" ...

... Julia Preston of the New York Times: "An American man in Florida and his husband, who is from Bulgaria, have become the first same-sex married couple to be approved for a permanent resident visa, an immigration milestone that comes after the Supreme Court struck down a federal law against same-sex marriage.... The approval was evidence that the Obama administration was acting swiftly to change its visa policies in the wake of the court's decision on Wednesday invalidating ... DOMA."

... Andrew of Clean Technica: "Already cost-competitive with thermal coal and natural gas power generation -- not to mention its numerous other often ignored and unaccounted for social and ecological benefits and cost savings, which are substantial -- GE's looking to drive the cost of wind energy down further, pushing the envelope outward by incorporating 'industrial Internet' capabilities and short-term, grid-scale power storage...." Via Juan Cole.

Local News

Corrie MacLaggan of Reuters: " When the Texas Legislature convenes on Monday for a second special session, the Republican majority will seek to ... pass sweeping abortion restrictions." ...

... Ann Friedman writes a moving account in New York magazine, about her reaction to Wendy Davis's filibuster & the women who supported her: "The burden of proof is on women and gay people and nonwhite Americans to justify their lives, to explain to those who have never felt this sort of powerlessness or discrimination that it's very much real." CW: the trouble is, of course, that no matter what the powerless say, the powerful don't listen. See, Alito, Sam; Perry, Rick.

News Ledes

The Orlando Sentinel has the latest on the George Zimmerman trial.

Washington Post: "Citigroup announced Monday that it had agreed to pay mortgage-finance giant Fannie Mae $968 million to resolve claims on 3.7 million home loans that have soured or might go bad. The bank is one of many institutions that sell home loans to the government-sponsored entity, which bundles them into mortgage-backed securities and guarantees the bonds."

Arizona Republic: "Nineteen firefighters, including 18 from the elite Granite Mountain Hotshots of Prescott, died Sunday fighting an out-of-control wildfire in Yarnell, a tiny Yavapai County town roughly 80 miles northwest of Phoenix. About half of the town's 500 homes were feared destroyed by the blaze, which began early Friday evening, and by Sunday the fire had spread to 8,000 acres. All of Yarnell and the neighboring Peeples Valley were evacuated."

AP: "Protesters stormed and ransacked the Cairo headquarters of President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group early Monday, in an attack that could spark more violence as demonstrators gear up for a second day of mass rallies aimed at forcing the Islamist leader from power. Organizers of the protests, meanwhile, gave Morsi until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to step down and called on the police and the military to clearly state their support for what the protest movement called the popular will." ...

     ... Al Jazeera Update: "The Egyptian army has asked President Mohamed Morsi to resolve huge protests against his rule or face intervention within 48 hours, placing huge pressure on country's first democratically elected leader." ...

     ... Guardian Update: "Mohamen Morsi's regime has indicated that it will not give in to the threat of a military coup, just hours after the Egyptian army gave it 48 hours to placate the millions who have taken to the streets calling for the president's departure.... The presidency indicated that it viewed the statement as a coup d'etat, and implied that Morsi was safe as long as his administration still had US support."

AP: As 200,000 people travel to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War battle -- July 1-3, 1863 -- capitalism thrives!

Saturday
Jun292013

The Commentariat -- June 30, 2013

Michael Shear & Rick Lyman of the New York Times: "... President Obama abandoned his hope for a visit [with Nelson Mandela] and instead on Saturday used every stop [in South Africa] to talk in emotional and sweeping terms about what Mr. Mandela meant to the world, and to him."

Enough Already. Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSblog: "Attorneys for the parties who sought to defend Proposition 8 in federal court have filed an emergency motion in the Supreme Court seeking to block same-sex marriages from proceeding in California. The filing (via Jess Bravin) is available here." ...

... "The Real John Roberts Emerges." Linda Greenhouse: "In its sweeping disregard of history, precedent and constitutional text, the chief justice's 5-to-4 opinion in the voting rights case was startling for its naked activism, but no one watching the court over the past few years could have been surprised by the outcome.... Clearly, he doesn't trust Congress.... But oddly for someone who earned his early stripes in the Justice Department and White House Counsel's Office, he doesn't like the executive branch any better.... What's left? The Supreme Court." ...

... New York Times Editors: "The most fundamental change Congress could make would be a law declaring a universal right to vote that could not be infringed by any level of government. The Voting Rights Act was aimed at combating discrimination 'on account of race or color,' which was the urgent problem of the time. Discrimination has now broadened to encompass more groups of different kinds, and it is time for a broader law, especially given the Supreme Court's clear intent to dismantle all racial protections." CW: oh yeah? Watch the Tenthers on the Court find universal voting rights unconstitutional. ...

... Lincoln Caplan of the New York Times: "Elena Kagan..., the first Supreme Court justice appointed in almost 40 years who wasn't a judge before she arrived at the court..., is achieving a goal that other justices say they strive for and yet seldom attain: writing readable judicial opinions that non-lawyers can understand.... What puts her in a class by herself is her combination of down-to-earth writing and the ingredients essential to influential opinions: conceptual insight, penetrating legal analysis and argumentative verve.... Before she joined the court in 2010, the dominance of the five conservatives was bolstered by their aggressiveness and sometimes arrogance at oral arguments and in opinions. Their bravado and occasional bullying haven't abated much, but she is an effective counterweight." ...

... Just the fact that he talks about black people voting as an entitlement, that is so much more racist than anything Paula Deen ever said. -- Bill Maher on Antonin Scalia

New York Times Editors: "Wendy Davis's filibuster is a reminder of the need for engagement by elected officials and voters to prevent further restrictions that trample on the rights and health of women. With so many damaging restrictions already on the books, though, much also depends on the courts to do their job and insist on respect for existing constitutional protections. That includes the Supreme Court...."

David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Edward Snowden is 'marooned in Russia' without a valid U.S. passport, [Julian Assange,] the leader of the WikiLeaks organization said Sunday morning on ABC's 'This Week With George Stephanopoulos.'" ...

... Joe's on the Case. William Neuman of the New York Times: "President Rafael Correa of Ecuador said Saturday that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had asked him in a telephone call not to grant asylum to Edward J. Snowden.... Mr. Correa, speaking on his weekly television broadcast, said that the two had a 'cordial' conversation on Friday initiated by Mr. Biden, but said he could not decide on Mr. Snowden's request until he entered Ecuador." ...

... Poornima Gupta of Reuters: "Former National Security Agency director Mike McConnell, who now works for defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, said people employed to sift through classified government data should not have solo access to the information. McConnell, a Booz Allen vice chairman, was making one of his first public comments since former U.S. spy agency contractor and Booz Allen employee Edward Snowden revealed the agency's top-secret monitoring of phone and internet data. Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Friday, McConnell said he supports a proposal made by NSA chief General Keith Alexander." CW: so I guess this safeguard hasn't been obvious for, oh, the last half-century. ...

... Laura Poitras, et al., in Der Spiegel: "Information obtained by Spiegel shows that America's National Security Agency (NSA) not only conducted online surveillance of European citizens, but also appears to have specifically targeted buildings housing European Union institutions. The information appears in secret documents obtained by whistleblower Edward Snowden that Spiegel has in part seen. A 'top secret' 2010 document describes how the secret service attacked the EU's diplomatic representation in Washington. The document suggests that in addition to installing bugs in the building in downtown Washington, DC, the EU representation's computer network was also infiltrated. In this way, the Americans were able to access discussions in EU rooms as well as emails and internal documents on computers."

... Komrade Snowden. Ellen Barry of the New York Times: "While Edward J. Snowden has remained mysteriously hidden from sight during his visit to Russia this week, Russian television has been making him a hero.... Since Mr. Snowden landed in Moscow on Sunday, the likelihood that he will remain in Russia has steadily crept up.... The chance that Russia will turn him in [to the U.S.] has all but vanished, as evidenced by Thursday's television programs, which were almost certainly produced under Kremlin orders and have a powerful effect on public opinion. Officials here have signaled an openness to granting him political asylum, and each passing day would seem to narrow Mr. Snowden's options, giving the United States time to negotiate with Ecuador and Venezuela, other countries that may grant him asylum." ...

... Ian Phillips of the AP: "... I deliberately got myself sequestered in the hopes of finding Edward Snowden at Moscow's main airport. The experience leaves me feeling that if the NSA leaker is indeed in the transit zone of the airport, as President Vladimir Putin claims, he may already have a taste of what it's like to be in prison.... But no sign of Snowden." ...

... Steve M. of No More Mister Nice Blog: "It's ironic if [Snowden] refused to return to the U.S. because he didn't want to face Bradley Manning's fate and is now effectively a prisoner somewhere in Putin's sphere of interest." ...

... Edith Lederer of the AP: "U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice dismissed claims that Edward Snowden's highly classified leaks have weakened the Obama presidency and damaged U.S. foreign policy, insisting that the United States will remain 'the most influential, powerful and important country in the world.'" CW: how does Rice know this? Why, because the NSA has been reading the correspondence & listening in on the phone calls of world leaders, & they're not actually all that ticked off. ...

... Really? "Germans Loved Obama. Now We Don't Trust Him. Malte Spitz, of Germany's Green Party, in a New York Times op-ed: "During Mr. Obama's presidency, no American political debate has received as much attention in Germany as the N.S.A. Prism program. People are beginning to second-guess the belief that digital communication stays private. It changes both our perception of communication and our trust in Mr. Obama." CW P.S. Our European allies also will be right pleased to read the new Der Spiegel story above.

... Glenn Greenwald's speech to the Socialism Conference in Chicago, video & transcript courtesy of Kevin Gosztola of Firedoglake. The part about Bill Keller is exceptional. ...

... Edward Epstein, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, asks who helped Ed Snowden steal classified documents. Epstein implies Glenn Greenwald & others might have done so, since they began communicating with Snowden prior to his taking the Booz Allen job, which Snowden says he sought & took only so he could get access to the data. ...

To the extent that you have aided and abetted Snowden, even in his current movements, why shouldn't you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime? -- David Gregory, to Glenn Greenwald, last week ...

... If It's Sunday, It's "Meet the Press." On the subject of accusing Greenwald, without evidence, BTW, of aiding & abetting Snowden, Frank Rich asks -- & implicitly answers -- the question, "Is David Gregory a journalist?" CW: Given the obvious answer, here's my question: "Is NBC violating truth-in-advertising standards by calling The Dancing Dave Show "Meet the Press?" Think about it. No actual reporters appear on the show -- uh, unless it's to accuse them of committing the crime of journalism. Their paid "journalists" run to Mary Matelin, Peggy Noonan & Carly Fiorina.

Brendan Farrington of the AP: "A group of atheists unveiled a monument to their nonbelief in God on Saturday to sit alongside a granite slab that lists the Ten Commandments in front of the Bradford County, [Florida,] courthouse. As a small group of protesters blasted Christian country music and waved 'Honk for Jesus' signs, the atheists celebrated what they believe is the first atheist monument allowed on government property in the United States."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding the ouster of Egypt's president, Mohamed Morsi, poured into the streets of the capital and cities across the country Sunday, while tens of thousands of his Islamist allies gathered with makeshift clubs, helmets and shields vowing to defend the presidential palace."

Jerusalem Post: "Any future agreement with the Palestinians will be brought to the country in the form of a referendum, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at the outset of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, just hours after finishing a six-hour late-night meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry.... Generally promises of a referendum are made to neutralize a political crisis by assuring ministers opposed that they need not bolt the government over the issue because the public will ultimately decide." ...

... Reuters: "U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ended a marathon round of shuttle diplomacy between Israelis and Palestinians on Sunday without an agreement on restarting peace talks."