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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.
Ad-libbing into War. Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: President Obama's remark last year that use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government would "cross a red line" was "unscripted." But, "as a result, the president seems to be moving closer to providing lethal assistance to the Syrian rebels, even though he rejected such a policy just months ago. "
What's the best thing for an "austerian" economist to do when his theories are debunked? Gay-bash John Maynard Keynes! ...
... Tom Kostigan of the Financial Advisor: "Harvard Professor and author Niall Ferguson says John Maynard Keynes' economic philosophy was flawed and he didn't care about future generations because he was gay and didn't have children.... This takes gay-bashing to new heights." ...
... Good. The Boston Globe is reporting this as a top headline: "Prominent Harvard history professor Niall Ferguson apologized Saturday for saying in a public speech that economist John Maynard Keynes' policies were too short-sighted because he was gay and did not have children." ...
... NEW. P. D. Pepe (see Comments) is quite right; Pankaj Mishra's review of a book by Ferguson is an excellent read. (So are Ferguson's whining complaints about Mishra's review, which follow the original article.)
... Matt Gertz of Media Matters: Ferguson "was harshly criticized for a 2009 column in which he comparedObama to the cartoon character Felix the Cat, writing that Obama was 'not only black' but 'also very, very lucky.' More recently he claimed that New York Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul Krugman's supposed 'inability to debate a question without insulting his opponent suggests some kind of deep insecurity perhaps the result of a childhood trauma.'" ...
... John Aravosis of AmericaBlog: "Ferguson rather-famously has had a long-going feud with liberal economist Paul Krugman. Krugman has been married twice, the first time to an artist, and has no children." ...
... Kathleen Geier of the Washington Monthly: It turns out gay-bashing Keynes is a longstanding right-wing meme, & Ferguson himself has commented on Keynes' homosexuality at least twice before. Also, Ferguson is not exactly a paragon of "traditional family values." ...
... Henry Blodget of Business Insider: "... this is the first time we have heard a respectable academic tie another economist's beliefs to his or her personal situation rather than his or her research.... Keynes' policies did not suggest that he did not care about future generations. On the contrary. ... For the sake of both future generations and current generations, Keynes believed that governments should run deficits during recessions and then run surpluses during economic booms." ...
... Ezra Klein: "Quite a few studies and surveys have found that gay couples save much more than straight couples.... The fact is that Ferguson would like our government to act a bit more like the nation's gay couples than its straight couples and stop doing so much spending and investing now and begin doing more saving for later.... Somewhat ironically, the financial lives of gay couples fit right-wing economic theories pretty well." ...
... A couple of other bad things that have happened to conservatives recently because ... the gays:
(a) Obama won re-election ... because Mitt Romney is gay. He has a dancing horse, for Pete's sake. ...
(b) The Supreme Court declared the Affordable Care Act Constitutional ... because Chief Justice John Roberts is gay. His children are adopted.
Ben Pershing & Jon Cohen of the Washington Post: " Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has an early lead over businessman Terry McAuliffe in their race for governor, a new Washington Post poll shows, even as most voters in the commonwealth have yet to engage in the nationally watched contest." CW: either way, Virginia is going to have another lousy governor.
Andrea Lorenz of Reuters: "Heavy-handed gun laws and a culture disapproving of gun ownership put citizens in a vulnerable position during the door-to-door search for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev last month, NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre said on Saturday. 'How many Bostonians wished they had a gun two weeks ago?' LaPierre asked in a speech at the National Rifle Association's annual convention in Houston."
News Ledes
CNN: "A series of massive explosions illuminated the dark sky over Damascus early Sunday, igniting renewed claims that Israel has launched attacks into the war-torn country. Syria's government said the explosions were the second Israeli airstrike in three days. The latest target, officials said, was a military research facility outside the Syrian capital. A top Syrian official told CNN ... that the attack was a 'declaration of war' by Israel."
AP: "The Texas fertilizer plant that exploded last month, killing 14 people, injuring more than 200 others and causing tens of millions of dollars in damage to the surrounding area had only $1 million in liability coverage, lawyers said Saturday." CW: if I'm not mistaken, I have a million dollars of liability coverage on both my homeowners' and auto policies.
Guardian: "Seven US service members were killed on Saturday in one of the deadliest days for Americans in Afghanistan in recent months and the latest of attacks against international troops since the Taliban announced the start of their spring offensive."
AP: "A 46-year-old soccer referee who was punched by a teenage player during a game and later slipped into a coma has died, police said. Ricardo Portillo of Salt Lake City passed away at the hospital, where he was being treated following the assault last weekend...."
... Randal Archibold & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama, speaking to an enthusiastic crowd of young people [in Mexico City], on Friday declared a new era in relations with Mexico that will focus on strengthening the countries' economic ties and that will play down the battle against drug gangs that has dominated the discourse for several years":
... Kathleen Hennessey & Tracy Wilkinson of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama on Friday painted a sunny picture of a modern Mexico emerging from its past troubles, an attempt at rebranding that serves the political aims of both governments but clashes with the realities of a country beset by violence and poverty."
Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The American economy continues to add jobs in proportion to population growth. Nothing less, nothing more. The share of American adults with jobs has barely changed since 2010, hovering between 58.2 percent and 58.7 percent. This employment-to-population ratio stood at 58.6 percent in April. That is about four percentage points lower than the employment rate before the recession, a difference of roughly 10 million jobs. In other words, the United States economy is not getting any closer to recreating the jobs lost during the recession." ...
... David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "Over the last 12 years, the United States has gone from having the highest share of employed 25- to 34-year-olds among large, wealthy economies to having among the lowest." ...
... Catherine Rampell of the New York Times: "The unemployment rate for college graduates in April was a mere 3.9 percent, compared with 7.5 percent for the work force as a whole.... Among all segments of workers sorted by educational attainment, college graduates are the only group that has more people employed today than when the recession started.... ... There is ample evidence that employers are hiring college-educated workers for jobs that do not actually require college-level skills -- positions like receptionists, file clerks, waitresses, car rental agents and so on." ...
... Floyd Norris of the New York Times: "The economic recovery from the recession that officially ended in 2009 has been extremely disappointing for American consumers. But for business, it has been the best recovery in decades."
"It's the GOP's World; We Just Live in It." Kevin Drum points out, in case nobody noticed, that Congressional Democrats & President Obamaare playing into Republicans' hands. ...
... Jonathan Bernstein, in the Washington Post: "The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has released an important new report that details Barack Obama's record on nominating judges during his first term. It's no surprise: Republican obstruction against his selections was unprecedented.... Ordinary people who just want to get their legal matters taken care of promptly have suffered because of all the vacancies on federal courts. It's really a disgrace."
Lyin' Ryan, Ctd. Rebecca Leber of Think Progress: "David Novak, who works for the Environmental Protection Agency in Wisconsin, confronted [Paul] Ryan over the impact the sequester is having.... Ryan's response to Novak reinvented his long standing position on budget cuts. Not only did Ryan disavow any responsibility for helping create the sequester, he also omitted how his budget plan similarly shrinks the EPA" for which Novak works. Novak, BTW, was satisfied with Ryan's response. Lies work. ...
Joe Nocera: "For all the protestations by gun owners that most are responsible with their weapons, I have been struck by how many killings take place because people do careless, stupid things. In the gun report that my assistant, Jennifer Mascia, and I compile on my blog, I see daily examples of children accidentally shooting other children with a gun found in the house.... When a passenger dies in a car accident that is the result of negligence, there are usually serious legal consequences for the driver. If we really want to reduce gun violence, there must be consequences for negligent gun owners, too." ...
... Bravery v. Braggadocio. Jim Vertuno & Juan Lozano of the AP report on the first day of the NRA convention. Pretty sickening stuff. One bright note: "Erica Lafferty, whose mother, Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, was killed by the gunman, was outside the building and said she hoped to talk to as many NRA members as she could. 'I am not against people owning guns. I am asking for safe and responsible gun ownership and gun laws. I don't understand where the problem is with background checks,' Lafferty said." That young woman has more courage in her little finger than the whole bunch of convention-goers cheering Sarah Palin, et al. (The photo accompanying the AP story in the Houston Chronicle is of a guy standing next to a tee-shirt emblazoned with a picture of a pistol beneath the statement "I Don't Dial 911."
The NRA was started ... by some Yankee generals who didn't like the way my southern boys had the ability to shoot in what we call the 'War of Northern Aggression.' Now, y'all might call it the Civil War, but we call it the War of Northern Aggression down south.... The very reason that they started the National Rifle Association, was to teach and train the civilian in the use of the standard military firearm. And I am one who still feels very strongly that that is one of our most greatest charges that we can have today, is to train the civilian in the use of the standard military firearm, so that when they have to fight for their country they're ready to do it. Also, when they're ready to fight tyranny, they're ready to do it. -- Incoming NRA President Jim Porter, in a 2012 speech
... Vertuno has more on Porter: "As shown by his 'culture war' comment Friday and others in his past, Porter's style is likely to be one that fans the flames of an emotionally combustible debate."
Alex Seitz-Wald of Salon: "Libertarian activist and radio host Adam Kokesh is hoping to get 1,000 people to march on Washington on July 4 -- armed with loaded rifles. The plan, launched with a Facebook group today, is to gather on the Virginia side of the Potomac, where gun laws are lax, and then march across the bridge with loaded rifles slung over their shoulders into the District, where openly carrying weapons is generally prohibited. 'This will be a non-violent event,' the Facebook group warns, 'unless the government chooses to make it violent.' ... [Friday] he tweeted this: 'When the government comes to take your guns, you can shoot government agents, or submit to slavery.'" Thanks to Akhilleus for the link & commentary on same. ...
... Ed Kilgore follows up in a big way on my comment re: Louie Gohmert's dangerous rabble-rousing rhetoric: "... please join me in calling on conservatives to cut this crap out and separate themselves from those who believe in vindicating the 'original constitution' or defending their property rights or exalting their God or protecting the unborn via armed revolution. If William F. Buckley could 'excommunicate' Robert Welch and the John Birch Society from the conservative movement back in the 1960s, today's leaders on the Right can certainly do the same to those who not only share many of that Society's views, but are willing to talk about implementing them by killing cops and soldiers."
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department has acknowledged flaws in forensic testimony by the FBI that helped convict a man in the 1992 slayings of two Mississippi State University students, and federal officials have now offered to retest the DNA in the case. The extraordinary admission and offer come just days before the man is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday and present a quandary for Mississippi officials about whether to stop the execution of Willie Jerome Manning, 44."
FINALLY, in its annual spring cleaning feature, the Washington Post asks reporters what should be tossed out. Thomas Hicks, a former Post reporter, suggests Texas.
Congressional Races
Michael Levenson of the Boston Globe: "Gabriel E. Gomez, the Republican nominee for US Senate in Massachusetts, is nearly tied with his Democratic opponent, US Representative Edward J. Markey, according to a poll released Friday. Gomez, who scored an upset victory over two rivals in the Republican primary on Tuesday, has the support of 40 percent of likely voters in the June 25 general election,compared to 44 percent for Markey, according to the survey by Public Policy Polling.... Sixteen percent of respondents said they were undecided. The four percentage point spread is surprisingly thin in such a heavily Democratic state and suggests Markey, a 36-year veteran of the US House, is far from a lock in the general election."
Alexander Burns of Politico: Michael McFadden, "a wealthy Minneapolis finance executive, appears poised to enter the race against first-term Democratic Sen. Al Franken." Sez McFadden: "Minnesotans would rather have a crass materialist represent them than a clown who gives a shit about people." CW: okay, maybe he didn't say that, but no doubt that's what he thinks.
Local News
Nullification. Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "In late April, the Kansas legislature passed and Gov. Sam Brownback (R) signed a law that blocks enforcement of any federal gun laws on guns produced and used within the state of Kansas. Under the law, 'any act, law, treaty, order, rule or regulation of the government of the United States which violates the second amendment to the constitution of the United States is null, void and unenforceable in the state of Kansas.' Attorney General Eric Holder has written to Brownback that the law is unconstitutional and that the government 'will take all appropriate action including litigation if necessary, to prevent the State of Kansas from interfering with the activities of federal officials enforcing federal law.'" Other states are pulling similar stunts.
Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times: "Six months after Florida became the butt of late-night jokes for a chaotic voting process that bedeviled the 2012 presidential election, the State Legislature passed a bill on Friday to remedy many of those problems." The Miami Herald report, by Mark Caputo & Michael Van Sickler, is here. Seems Marco Rubio (who used to speaker of the Florida house) had a hand in writing the law.
Seanna Adcox of the AP: South Carolina "State senators inserted a clause in the 2013-14 budget plan that would bar Gov. Nikki Haley's office and the Governor's Mansion from buying junk food with public money, whether for employee treats or entertaining. The move was a response to state efforts to fight obesity by limiting what people can buy with money from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, known more commonly as food stamps." Adam Beam of The State has a longer piece here. ...
... Ben Smith of BuzzFeed: "South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian, a trial lawyer, longtime Democratic leader, and legendary figure in local politics, reportedly told a South Carolina Democratic Party dinner that the Democratic challenger would send "Nikki Haleyback to wherever the hell she came from.' Haley was born in South Carolina. Her parents are from India." CW: You might be a racist if -- you're a white Southerner, no matter your political affiliation.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26-year-old man who the authorities say is one of two brothers who carried out the Boston Marathon bombing, died of gunshot wounds and blunt trauma, according to his death certificate."
AP: " A wildfire tearing through a coastal region in Southern California nearly tripled in size as high temperatures fueled the flames, but a fire official said early Saturday that a favorable shift in the weather will likely help crews make progress against the flames. The fire 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles mushroomed to 43 square miles Friday...."
Reuters: "Israel has carried out an air strike targeting a shipment of missiles in Syria bound for Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon, an Israeli official said on Saturday." ...
... Update. The Washington Post has more here. ...
... Update 2. AP: "Israeli missiles struck a research center near the Syrian capital Damascus, setting off explosions and causing casualties, Syria's state news agency reported early Sunday, citing initial reports. If confirmed, it would be the second Israeli strike on targets in Syria in three days, signaling a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war."
Reuters: "Five U.S. soldiers were killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the U.S. Armed Forces said on Saturday. The Taliban launched their annual spring offensive on Sunday, saying it would take aim at foreign military bases and diplomatic areas."
Bags of Cash Are on the Truck. AP: "Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday that the CIA's station chief in Kabul has assured him that regular funding the U.S. intelligence agency gives his government will not be cut off."
AP: "The death toll in the factory-building collapse in Bangladesh rose to more than 530 on Saturday, a day after the country's finance minister downplayed the impact of the disaster on the garment industry, saying he didn't think it was 'really serious.'"
Nelson Schwartz of the New York Times: "Whatever the data ultimately show for April, economists ... say the economy would be showing much more momentum if it were not for the combination of higher payroll taxes that went into effect in January, as well as the process of automatic spending cuts known as sequestration that began to bite last month." ...
... Jared Bernstein on today's jobs report: "Those looking for losses in sequester-sensitive industries could see some evidence in the report, as construction (down 6,000), government (down 11,000), and manufacturing (zero jobs added) all came in weak. Thus, all of the job gains last month came from private, service producing industries. Also, in signs that labor demand is still not strong enough, wage growth remains subdued, up 1.9% over the past year, and average weekly hours ticked down last month." ...
Julie Pace of the AP: "Acknowledging uncertainty ahead, President Barack Obama said Thursday the U.S. will cooperate with Mexico in fighting drug-trafficking and organized crime in any way Mexico's government deems appropriate. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto emphasized that the security relationship must be expanded to focus on trade and commerce." ...
Gene Robinson: "Rather than use the veto pen that must be gathering dust in some Oval Office drawer, Obama signed legislation that cushions air travelers from the effects of the crude, cruel budget cuts known as the 'sequester.' The ... FAA is now allowed to shuffle funds around to avoid furloughing air-traffic controllers -- thus avoiding flight delays. At his news conference Tuesday, Obama said he agreed to sign the measure because the alternative was to 'impose a whole bunch of delays on passengers.' That's true -- and it's precisely why the president should have vetoed this quick-fix bill." ...
... CW: I'm totally with Gene on this. The FAA bill was an instance where Obama could have "showed some leadership" but utterly failed to do so. After all, Democrats voted for the FAA deal en masse, right along with Republicans. Signing that bill was an unconscionable act of weakness. The whole idea of the sequester, as Robiinson says, was to set up conditions so untenable that even the Tea Party brats would have to "come to the table." Obama brought their tea & crumpets right to their desks so they didn't have to doff their tricorns & act minimally responsible.
Lolita Baldor of the AP: "The Obama administration is rethinking its opposition to arming the rebels who have been locked in a civil war with the Syrian regime for more than two years, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday, becoming the first top U.S. official to publicly acknowledge the reassessment."
New York TimesEditors: "Appearing before Planned Parenthood's annual convention last Friday, President Obama pledged his continuing support for women's reproductive rights. In a speech before the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, Mr. Obama promised to keep science a sphere 'not subject to politics' or 'skewed by an agenda.' On Wednesday, his administration betrayed both reproductive rights and science. The Justice Department announced that it would appeal a federal court ruling that would make morning-after pills available without a prescription for girls and women of all ages." ...
... Justin Sink of the Hill: "President Obama on Thursday said he is 'very comfortable' with a new rule issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that would allow women ages 15 and older to buy the emergency contraceptive known as Plan B without a prescription.... Obama said he understood that there was 'solid scientific evidence' that the contraception was safe for girls of that age.... The president also defended the Justice Department's decision, announced late Wednesday, to appeal a federal court ruling that made the pill available to girls of all ages without a prescription. Obama maintained that both the appeal and the FDA rule were decisions made without the involvement of the White House. The president also left open the possibility that the FDA could revisit the Plan B rule and create over-the-counter access for girls under 15."
** Michael Tomasky of Newsweek offers the passage of the controversial Panama Canal Treaty in 1978 -- wherein the U.S. gave up the canal it had built -- as proof that today's GOP, by contrast, "is simply not a mainstream political party in the traditional American sense. It is a radical oppositionalist faction, way beyond the normal American parameters both in terms of ideology and tactics.... [Jimmy] Carter, a weakened and already not-very-popular president, got 16 Republican votes.... What was different then was ... the nature of the GOP. Imagine Obama presenting a similar treaty to the US Senate today.... It wouldn't have a prayer of getting a single Republican vote. This would not be because Obama doesn't scare people or, conversely, because he fails to drink bourbon with McConnell.... This is a unique and bleak historical situation." ...
... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "A major new study on Medicaid just became public.... This study is already getting a lot of attention: Conservatives and libertarians are citing it as evidence that expanding Medicaid is wrong. That has me wondering: Did they read read the same study that I did? ... The big news is that Medicaid virtually wiped out crippling medical expenses among the poor.... In addition, the people on Medicaid were about half as likely to experience other forms of financial strain.... The other big finding was that people on Medicaid ended up with significantly better mental health.... One place improvement did not appear was physical health. And this was something of a surprise." ...
... CW: I don't find this especially surprising, especially in light of Ezra Klein's excellent piece (which I linked a few days ago) on the very effective visiting nurse program, which the government is thinking of shutting down. I expect that, on average, poor people are less able than wealthier people to understand & follow "doctors' orders." They are probably less educated, more intimidated by doctors, less able to comprehend medical jargon, less willing to ask questions of doctors & other medical personnel, less organized in their daily habits (so have more difficulty in following routine daily medical regimens), less willing to take personal responsibility for their health & dietary needs, more skeptical about cause-and-effect, etc. To that add that doctors themselves may be partially to blame as I don't doubt that many treat Medicaid patients with less respect than they do their "paying" -- i.e., privately-insured -- patients. For Medicaid to be effective, patients must be educated -- and coaxed -- to follow through on prescribed regimens. P.S. Please save your outrage over my "stereotyping" Medicaid patients. I know that plenty of them are sharp, responsible people. I'm talking about averages, not individuals. And I might be wrong. But I doubt it. ...
... Update. Wait, wait, conservatives' glee at the study results gets even more hilarious. It turns out they could not have, um, read the study. Kevin Drum discovered that the only reason the study results showed "no improvement" in the health conditions they tested for is that the sample was too small to be statistically conclusive. In fact, in the small sample, "it turns out there were improvements" in health conditions.
This is stunning. In an ad, the Republican National Committee blames President Obama for Republicans obstructionism. In addition, they used news footage of the President consoling a grieving Newtown mother in support of their "point." So if I punch you in the mouth, it's your fault you're bleeding. The whole damned GOP is a sociopathic cancer on the nation.
Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "PPP's newest round of polling finds that Kay Hagan and Mary Landrieu helped their cause for reelection with their recent votes in support of background checks for gun sales. More than 70% of voters in each of their [red] states support such checks, and their constituents say they're more likely to vote for them next year because of their votes.... Polling we released earlier in the week showed what a backlash there was against Senators on both sides of the aisle who voted against the background checks bill. But what this polling shows is that voters aren't just mad at politicians who voted against Manchin/Toomey - they're also ready to reward Senators who supported it- even in states that voted for Mitt Romney last year like North Carolina and Louisiana."
This segment isn't particularly funny, but it speaks to an egregious government SNAFU that Stewart has highlighted before:
Jamie on the Hot Seat. Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "Government investigators have found that JPMorganChase devised 'manipulative schemes' that transformed 'money-losing power plants into powerful profit centers,' and that one of its most senior executives gave 'false and misleading statements' under oath." The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission warned the bank it would crack down on the schemes. "The possible action comes amid showdowns with other agencies. One of the bank's chief regulators, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is weighing new enforcement actions against JPMorgan over the way the bank collected credit card debt and its possible failure to alert authorities to suspicions about Bernard L. Madoff.... The comptroller's office delivered an unusually stark message to Jamie Dimon, the chief executive and chairman: the nation's biggest bank was quickly losing credibility in Washington....Dimon, who is not suspected of any wrongdoing, met this week with prosecutors and the F.B.I. to discuss the [Madoff] case."
Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times: "A day after the Walt Disney Company disclosed that it was ending apparel production in Bangladesh, that country’s garment manufacturers expressed alarm that other Western corporations might follow Disney's lead. They feared that could bring about a potential mass exodus that would devastate Bangladesh's economy and threaten the livelihoods of millions of people." CW: maybe you corrupt bastards should have thought of that before you threatened the lives of tens of thousands of workers.
Adam Serwer of Mother JonescriticizesCharles Pierce for claims that black homophobia is "the most virulent and stubborn of all."
Local News
Michael Dresser of the Baltimore Sun: "Surrounded by religious leaders, civil rights activists and others who have fought for years to stop executions in Maryland, Gov. Martin O'Malley signed legislation Thursday repealing the state's death penalty. Unless the law is overturned in a referendum, Maryland will become the 18th state to end capital punishment, leaving life without parole as the maximum penalty for any crime." ...
... New York TimesEditors: "But, in too many states, support for capital punishment continues to overwhelm good sense. The Florida Legislature this week passed a bill that requires the governor to sign a death warrant within 30 days of a review of a capital conviction by the State Supreme Court, and the state to execute the defendant within 180 days of the warrant. This rush-to-execute bill irresponsibly ignores the fact that since 1973, when the state reinstituted the death penalty, one death row inmate has been exonerated for every three executed."
Randal Edgar of the Providence Journal: "With hundreds looking on, Governor Chafee signed two bills Thursday that make Rhode Island the 10th state to legalize same-sex marriage.... Chafee added his signature to the bills shortly after the House passed them on 56 to 15 votes. The bills allow same-sex weddings as of August 1 and also allow couples who joined in civil unions to change their status to married."
Congressional Races
Scott Keyes & Adam Peck of Think Progress: "South Carolina has a reputation for dirty tricks, and next week's special election between former Gov. Mark Sanford (R) and businesswoman Elizabeth Colbert Busch (D) is no exception. One of the most popular tactics is known as 'push polling,' whereby a group calls up voters under the guise of conducting a poll, only to ask questions that leave the voter with a highly-misleading impression about a certain candidate." Here are some of the questions the push-pollers asked, the hypotheses of which have no basis in fact:
What would you think of Elizabeth Colbert Busch if I told you she had had an abortion?
What would you think of Elizabeth Colbert Busch if I told you a judge held her in contempt of court at her divorce proceedings?
What would you think of Elizabeth Colbert Busch if she had done jail time?
What would you think of Elizabeth Colbert Busch if I told you she was caught running up a charge account bill?
... CW: BTW, I checked the Charleston paper, the Post & Courier News, & South Carolina's biggest paper, The State, and neither of them carried a story on the push-polling as far as I could tell, so unless some of the local TV stations reported on it, potential voters -- especially unsophisticated ones -- would have no idea they were being fed lies.
Frank Phillips of the Boston Globe: "In the first sign that Democrats are preparing to pull out the party's big financial guns for US Senate nominee Edward J. Markey, Michelle Obamais scheduled to appear at a Boston fund-raiser for the Malden congressman later this month.... The First Lady, who is making her first fund-raising appearance since the November presidential election, will headline the party at the Taj Boston on May 29...."
The Louie Gohmert Daily News
Government by Old White Boys. Tim EgannoticedLouie! -- the "un-representative" of the people. "... look at how different this Republican House is from the country they are supposed to represent. It's almost like a parallel government, sitting in for some fantasy nation created in talk-radio land...."
Washington Post: "Federal law enforcement officials are sharpening their focus on the widow of the dead suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings after finding al-Qaeda's Inspire magazine and other radical Islamist material on her computer, according to law enforcement officials."
Bloomberg News: "Employment picked up more than forecast in April and the jobless rate unexpectedly declined to a four-year low of 7.5 percent, showing the early stages of government budget cuts failed to destabilize the U.S. labor market. Payrolls expanded by 165,000 workers last month following a revised 138,000 increase in March that was larger than first estimated...."
New York Times: "The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings told F.B.I. interrogators that he and his brother considered suicide attacks and striking on the Fourth of July as they plotted their deadly assault, according to two law enforcement officials." Story includes other updates on the case, including developments in the investigation of Katherine Russell, Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow.
New York Times: "Gunmen on Friday fatally shot a Pakistani prosecutor who had been investigating the murder of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the 2008 Mumbai attacks, carrying out an assassination that threw into turmoil Pakistan's most politically charged cases. Assailants opened fire on the prosecutor, Chaudhry Zulfikar Ali, as he drove to work from his home in a suburb of the capital, Islamabad, for a court hearing in which the former military leader, Pervez Musharraf, faces charges in relation to Ms. Bhutto's death in 2007."
Atlantic: "For the second time this week an American cargo plane has crashed overseas, after a military jet has gone missing in Kyrgyzstan. The C-135 fuel transporter disappeared from radar on Friday, shortly after taking off from a U.S. air base near the Kyrgyzstan-Kazakhstan border. Kyrgyz emergency services say the plane has crashed, but there is no word yet on casualties."
Ratburgers. Reuters: "Chinese police have broken a crime ring that passed off more than $1 million in rat and small mammal meat as mutton ... in a food safety crackdown that coincides with a bird flu outbreak and other environmental pressures."
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