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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

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.

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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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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.”

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Saturday

Dec242022

December 25, 2022

I turned on the local station that plays popular Christmas music. Frankly, I had forgot how bad it was: the lyrics, the music, the sentiment, the performances. Awful. I have very kindly eliminated almost all of them. So, Peace, everybody!

Not the worst Christmas music ever, but bad in a humorous way:

If you remember Elvis, this will tug at your heartstrings, and not just because SNL (or Radio Shack) is saying goodbye to Cecily Strong:

~~~ In retrospect, this is kind of amazing.

This is another of those campy so-bad-it's-good numbers:

On the other hand, there are some who know how to turn a seasonal pop song into a classic:

If you're in the mood for heavenly, we'll leave the big stars behind:

Aled Jones & Malakai Bahot also capture the essence of "O Holy Night. BTW, here's Aled in 1985 when he was the treble." ~~~

~~~ Okay, I guess it's only fair to let these guys have a go at it:

I should have run this when TFG was pretending to be president*:

This got me to wondering what it was like to tell the Christmas story to young Donald (text borrow from Matthew 1.18-2.11):

... before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. So this Mary got knocked up? That Holy Spirit sounds like my kind of guy.

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. What? What? Joseph married this girl that somebody else knocked up? And then Joseph didn't even have sex with her? Total loser!

And going into the house, [the wise men] saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. Oh, I get it now: a surprise ending, like when all you losers thought Hillary would be president & I beat her by millions of votes if you don't count all the dead people & other fake voters who supposed voted for Hillary. But this lame story didn't fool me; I never said the Holy Spirit was cool. Because Joseph has this good dream, too, and he sees these guys coming with all these gifts for the kid. He was a ... a visionary. Like me. So then Joseph grabs those goodies from the kid & buys up some real estate. Cheap apartments for Arabs probably. Ha! Jews are great negotiators. Like me. No wonder everybody likes Christmas. And I'm still president*.

Stay tuned for when somebody tries to explain Easter to Donald.

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Reader Comments (9)

Merry merry to all out here in RC Land, and a special thanks to our hostess, Marie, for the gift of this oasis of sanity in a mad world. As for Fatty and Easter, I’m sure he thinks “That Jesus guy was no big deal. He only came back from the dead once. I’ve done it a bunch of times. And I’ll do it again, because only I can fix it.”

And thanks for that clip from “The West Wing”. Lots of writers try to tell good stories; Aaron Sorkin’s storytelling chops were first rate. That quick shot of Toby flinching when the twenty one gun salute begins reminded me of something I hadn’t thought of in a long time.

When I was 16, my aunt was in the hospital, not long for this world. Her son Ray, my cousin, was driving home from an Army base in Texas where he was stationed. On the trip, a drunk driver crossed the median strip and hit his car. He was killed. About an hour later, up in Massachusetts, his mother died in the hospital. Neither knew what had happened to the other. At his funeral, on a base in Massachusetts, I remember having that same reaction when the guns went off. Life can be wonderful, but there’s a lot of weirdness that comes with it.

Here’s wishing all of you a maximum of wonder and a minimum of weird, at least the bad kind.

December 25, 2022 |

Akhilleus

And on this blessed day of Christmas the Lord came down for just a minute or two to give high fives to a Marie Burns who feeds her R.C. family with food for thought throughout the year but especially on Christmas with songs and stuff which pleases the Lord who can't carry a tune to save his life. We join the Lord with our thanks and gratitude for our oasis in the desert. Now come on people–––sing some songs!

December 25, 2022 |

P.D. Pepe

Maureen Dowd's column today is worth a read–-Dickens reigns!
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/24/opinion/why-dickens-haunts-us.html

December 25, 2022 |

P.D. Pepe

If CDs could wear out, my CD of Diana Krall's jazzy Christmas
music would be gone by now. It's about the only one I can stand.

Aren't leftovers great?

December 25, 2022 |

Forrest Morris

Forrest,

The Krall album is an excellent choice. A couple more: jazz pianist Dave McKenna’s “Christmas Party” album, featuring his distinctive rolling left hand, good stuff.

And check out Tony Bennett’s “A Swingin’ Christmas” with the Count Basie orchestra. And in case you’re a Basie fan and wondering if this newer version of his big band might miss his particular style of stripped down piano phrasing, Tony has Jamaican jazz master, Monty Alexander sit in to do a remarkable Basie piano.

Also a big fan of Leon Redbone’s “Christmas Island”.

Good listening.

December 25, 2022 |

Akhilleus

Basically, I hate christmas. There are numerous reasons why but one big one is having to be, repeatedly, subjected to the months of hearing the same banal songs over and over, year after year, decade after decade. The vast majority of them bad. To me it's a physical assault on my aural cavities. Enough already.

I admit, though, that I do own one vinyl album of christmas-themed music. It's by John Fahey, an acoustic guitarist of folk tradition using finger-picking on steel strings. He released his album of christmas music in 1968, titled "The New Possibility: John Fahey's Guitar Soli Christmas Album" on his own label, Takoma. One interesting thing is that my copy has no date or copyright information on either the cover or disc label. It only lists the catalog number C-1020. I recall purchasing it sometime between 1972 and 1977. I played it this afternoon for my wife after years without listening to it.

It's a soothing album, almost meditative, particularly if seated near a fire with your favorite adult beverage. I highly recommend it, especially compared to the vocal gymnastics of others, like Mariah Carey's kitschy tune.

Lo and behold, I found it on Youtube so you don't have to. Let me know if you agree of my assessment.

December 25, 2022 |

unwashed

Thanks so much, unwashed. It's beautiful, reminding us that the peace and solitude of the cold solstice will eventually be followed by the warmth of spring.

December 25, 2022 |

Victoria

Unwashed,

Fahey’s album was groundbreaking when it first appeared. It offered a stripped down, solo guitar instrumental approach without any of the fancier, knuckle-busting finger picking starting to be in vogue.

His approach highlights the music rather than technical prowess, although Fahey’s style was anything but simple. It was clean, and well thought out; every note mattered.

Thanks for reminding us of this excellent album.

December 25, 2022 |

Akhilleus

Dog bless us every one. To the RC community: you give me hope, springing eternal, in spite of myself. Thanks and love and bushels of peace be yours. To Marie—. You keep us sane. Many many thanks for your impeccable touch and priceless work. Cheers to you and all your fans.

December 25, 2022 |

Jeanne

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