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.
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.
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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.
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.
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "The Obama White House moved fully into reelection mode this week, leaving aside any pretense of being above the fray and beginning an unabashed political effort to lay the groundwork for what polls suggest could be eight difficult months of campaigning ahead. Thursday seemed to mark a significant shift in approach and intensity, with overtly political speeches by President Obama and Vice President Biden and the release of a 17-minute documentary-style testimonial celebrating what the administration considers its most significant achievements."
My column in today's New York Times eXaminer takes a swipe at the Yellow-bellied Deficit Hawks, especially Our Mister Brooks. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here. ...
... AND. Dean Baker: Brooks also says the CBO is wrong, PLUS Brooks has no idea Obama put out a budget proposal in February 2011. Otherwise, Brooks' column is totally perfect. Like most Republicans, Brooks never lets facts get in the way of his standard-issue, knee-jerk argument to cut the social safety net.
... The Doonesbury page in Slate is here. (Previous panels this week in the March 14 Commentariat.)
Paul Krugman explains why "Drill, Baby, Drill" won't help the U.S. economy or the jobs picture. "Why, then, are Republicans pretending otherwise? Part of the answer is that the party is rewarding its benefactors: the oil and gas industry doesn’t create many jobs, but it does spend a lot of money on lobbying and campaign contributions. The rest of the answer is simply the fact that conservatives have no other job-creation ideas to offer. And intellectual bankruptcy ... is a problem that no amount of drilling and fracking can solve."
CW: This article by Joe Stiglitz is nearly a year old, but if you want a primer in what's wrong with our economy and why it will only get worse, this one would be good to memorize. Stiglitz, BTW, practically predicted the Occupy movement.
Glenn Thrush & Jennifer Epstein of Politico: "Vice President Joe Bidenkicked off the 2012 Obama-Biden presidential campaign with a fiery union-hall speech in this northwestern Ohio auto town — and 600 miles away President Barack Obama turned the latest in a line of energy speeches into an amped-up event with the distinct feel of a general-election stump speech. In one of the nuances that matter greatly to campaigns — and not at all to the general public — Biden ditched the pre-campaign 'our opponents' line and lit into them by name, with particular attention to Mitt Romney."...
... Update: here's the New York Times story -- by Mark Leibovich -- on Vice President Biden's speech & factor tour.
... Here's President Obama's speech:
One of my predecessors, President Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone: 'It’s a great invention but who would ever want to use one?' That's why he's not on Mt. Rushmore. -- Barack Obama
Actually, No. Dan Amira of New York magazine: "Hayes was not only the first president to have a telephone in the White House, but he was also the first to use the typewriter, and he had Thomas Edison come to the White House to demonstrate the phonograph." CW: President Obama has a piss-poor grasp of what former residents of the Oval did. He got Reagan wrong; he gotFDR wrong; he even gotLincoln wrong on the Emancipation Proclamation. Kind of a big deal.
... Here's a local news report on Biden's visit to Toledo:
Jamelle Bouie of the American Prospect on why there are no black U.S. Senators & only one black governor -- who will not run for re-election.
Sam Baker of The Hill: "The Obama administration has shifted its legal arguments as it prepares to defend the president’s healthcare law before the Supreme Court.... Some legal experts say the shift could steer the case in a direction that would make Justice Antonin Scalia more likely to uphold the healthcare law’s mandate requiring individuals to purchase health insurance.... The shift moves the focus of Justice’s argument from the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to the Necessary and Proper Clause, which says Congress can make laws that are necessary for carrying out its other powers."
Right Wing World
Primary Numbers: One Man, 4,182 Votes. Dave Weigel of Slate: "Let's say you're a Republican voter in American Samoa. This week, you joined 69 of your peers at Toa Bar and Grill, and together you decided to assign nine delegates to Mitt Romney.... Every delegate represented eight voters. Now, say you're a Florida Republican voter. You were one of 1,672,634 people casting votes.... When the race was called, every delegate represented 33,453 voters.... A Republican's vote in [Samoa] was worth 4,182 times more than a Republican's vote in Florida."
In response to Rick Santorum's claim that Fox "News" is "shilling for Romney," media critic Willard Romneysays Fox is "pretty fair and balanced," and is not "shilling for anyone." Audio. ...
... Donna Ladd, Editor-in-Chief of the Jackson (Mississippi) Free Press: "Romney uttered words that made us nearly sputter in response: 'If the federal government were run more like here in Mississippi, the whole country would be a lot better off.' Say what, Gov. Romney?! See, we JFP folks cover the state government... How can we say this nicely? It's a bona fide mess.... To say -- even while pandering for votes -- that our state is a model of governance is flabbergasting and insulting to our citizens." ViaSteve Benen. ...
... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: Gail Collins' shaggy dog story goes mainstream.
CW: Juana Summers of Politico reports that Rick Santorumtried to walk back his English-or-vamoose dictum to Puerto Rico; only it doesn't sound like much of a walk-back to me. He still has that "adios, mofos" 'tude. ...
Please do not complain to the editor about her choice of artwork.... Josh Barro of Forbes Rick "Santorum avers that 'America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography.' He pledges to use the resources of the Department of Justice to fight that 'pandemic,' by bringing obscenity prosecutions against pornographers.... Some of Santorum’s defenders have taken the tack of separating his personal views from his policy views. Santorum thinks contraception is 'not OK' and he has announced his intention to use the bully pulpit to discuss 'the dangers of contraception.' But he doesn’t think contraception should be illegal, and he voted for Title X contraception subsidies (though he said in a recent debate that he opposes Title X....) On pornography, though, Santorum’s views can’t be written off as purely persona l— he has stated a clear intent to use the levers of government to stop adults from making and watching porn." CW: I'll bet President Santorum would review every damned porn video to make sure it was "not the way things are meant to be in the sexual realm." The guy is obsessed with other people's sex lives. ...
... Nia-Malika Henderson of the Washington Post: "... in what is perhaps the most astonishing turnaround of the 2012 political season, Santorum has, after 10 weeks of contests, all but claimed the title of leader of the conservative wing of the GOP — someone who deserves the right, at a minimum, to be a major player at the Republican National Convention and perhaps to be considered as a vice presidential nominee."
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) on how to make ultrasound screening non-obstrucive: "You just have to close your eyes":
Kirk Johnson of the New York Times: "The Tea Party-inspired drive to oust Senator Orrin G. Hatch, a six-term Republican, got a bit more complicated on Thursday night. Supporters of Mr. Hatch turned up in strong numbers at some packed Republican caucus meetings around the state, where delegates were elected to next month’s state party convention." The state GOP holds its nominating convention April 21. Salt Lake City Tribune report here.
George Zornick of The Nation on Congressional wingers' nonsensical objections to raising the loan limit on the Export-Import bank. No taxpayer funding is involved. The wingnuts just want to say no to an agency that boosts American exports and jobs.
News Ledes
New York Times: "A terrorist whom Osama bin Laden wanted to assassinate President Obamawas himself killed in a drone strike last year, shortly after evidence of the plot showed up in documents seized by the SEAL team that killed Bin Laden in Pakistan."
Politico: Actor & activist "George Clooneywas arrested outside of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Friday, his rep confirms. The actor, who just returned from a trip to Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, was protesting a blockade of food and humanitarian aid to people in the conflict-torn region."
AP: "A New Jersey jury today found former Rutgers student Dharun Raviguilty of the most serious charges for spying on his roommate, Tyler Clementi, having a gay sexual encounter in 2010. Ravi was convicted of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, witness tampering, and hindering arrest, stemming from his role in activating a webcam to peek at Clementi's date with a man on Sept. 19, 2010.... Clementi's case gained national attention when he committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge Sept. 22, 2010."
New York Times: "The American staff sergeant suspected of killing 16 Afghan villagers had been drinking alcohol — a violation of military rules in combat zones — and suffering from the stress related to his fourth combat tour and tensions with his wife about the deployments on the night of the massacre, a senior American official said Thursday." ...
... Guardian: "The US soldier accused of shooting dead 16 Afghan villagers saw his friend's leg blown off the day before and is himself a decorated survivor of war wounds from mutliple tours of duty, his lawyer has said. Seattle attorney John Henry Browne said that according to his client's family the soldier had been standing next to his friend when the blast happened." ...
... Update: The suspect in the killing of Afghan civilians is Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, official says....
New York Times: "North Korea announced on Friday that it planned to launch a satellite into orbit next month, testing a technology that the United States and the United Nations Security Council have condemned as a cover for developing and testing long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles."
Guardian: "The archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is to resign and return to academia as master of Magdalene college, Cambridge. Williams, 61, will leave at the end of December in time to start his new role next January. His time in office has been marked by a slowly growing schism in the worldwide Anglican church, which he has failed to heal. Williams has been attacked by conservatives for his liberal views on homosexuality and by liberals for failing to live up to these principles." With video.
Washington Post: "The measured Afghanistan endgame that President Obama outlined this week suffered new setbacks Thursday, as the Taliban suspended peace talks with the United States and Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded that NATO withdraw forces from the small, rural outposts that are at the heart of its military mission here."
AP: "Apple-mania gripped Asia on Friday as the company's latest iPad went on sale, drawing hordes of die-hard fans to shops selling the highly anticipated tablet. Gadget fans lined up in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore so they could be among the first to get their hands on the device."
AP: "British Prime Minister David Cameronmet Thursday with the mayor of Newark to learn about education reforms and other programs in the impoverished city before concluding his trip to the United States with a planned visit to New York City and the 9/11 memorial. Cameron was briefly greeted by Mayor Cory Booker on the front steps of City Hall before they headed inside to talk about municipal reforms that could be replicated in Great Britain. They also planned a short walk around New Jersey's largest city...."
Reuters: "President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron discussed the possibility of releasing emergency oil reserves during a meeting on Wednesday, two sources familiar with the talks said, the first sign that Obama is starting to test global support for an effort to knock back near-record fuel prices."
President Obama & PM Cameron trade toasts at the state dinner:
Samantha Cameron & Michelle Obama arrive at the state dinner.
The Obamas greet the Camerons as they arrive for the state dinner:
CNN: "Concluding the official visit of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to Washington D.C., the president and first lady hosted Cameron and his wife at a State Dinner on the South Lawn of the White House Wednesday evening. As yet another signifier of the importance of the so-called special relationship between the U.S. and Great Britain, the White House opted for a full State Dinner despite the fact that the dinner’s honoree is the head of the British government and not its head of state." Chicago Tribune story here.
First Lady Michelle Obama previews the state dinner:
Preparing the state dinner:
President Obama & Prime Minister Cameron hold a joint press conference:
The Obamas & Camerons, following the arrival ceremony Wednesday morning.
The Obamas & Bidens officially welcome the Camerons to the White House:
AP: "Basketball fan-in-chief President Barack Obama gave British Prime Minister David Camerona front-row seat to March Madness on Tuesday, taking his European partner to an election swing state [Ohio] for an NCAA tournament basketball game":
New York Times: "Britain will add its voice to President Obama’s in discouraging an Israeli military strike on Iran when Prime Minister David Cameron begins a three-day visit [to the U.S.] this week, a senior British diplomat said Monday."
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