The Ledes

Monday, June 30, 2025

It's summer in our hemisphere, and people across Guns America have nothing to do but shoot other people.

New York Times: “A gunman deliberately started a wildfire in a rugged mountain area of Idaho and then shot at the firefighters who responded, killing two and injuring another on Sunday afternoon in what the local sheriff described as a 'total ambush.' Law enforcement officers exchanged fire with the gunman while the wildfire burned, and officials later found the body of the male suspect on the mountain with a firearm nearby, Sheriff Robert Norris of Kootenai County said at a news conference on Sunday night. The authorities said they believed the suspect had acted alone but did not release any information about his identity or motives.” A KHQ-TV (Spokane) report is here.

New York Times: “The New York City police were investigating a shooting in Manhattan on Sunday night that left two people injured steps from the Stonewall Inn, an icon of the L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement. The shooting occurred outside a nearby building in Greenwich Village at 10:15 p.m., Sgt. Matthew Forsythe of the New York Police Department said. The New York City Pride March had been held in Manhattan earlier on Sunday, and Mayor Eric Adams said on social media that the shooting happened as Pride celebrations were ending. One victim who was shot in the head was in critical condition on Monday morning, a spokeswoman for the Police Department said. A second victim was in stable condition after being shot in the leg, she said. No suspect had been identified. The police said it was unclear if the shooting was connected to the Pride march.”

New York Times: “A dangerous heat wave is gripping large swaths of Europe, driving temperatures far above seasonal norms and prompting widespread health and fire alerts. The extreme heat is forecast to persist into next week, with minimal relief expected overnight. France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are among the nations experiencing the most severe conditions, as meteorologists warn that Europe can expect more and hotter heat waves in the future because of climate change.”

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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.

 

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Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

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The Commentariat -- December 12

My column in the New York Times eXaminer, titled "Bill and Newt's Excellent Idea," is here. In it I refute the "wisdom" of Newt Gingrich's plan to implement a national identity card and New York Times columnist Bill Keller's support of Newt's plan. the NYTX front page is here.

** John Eidelson in Salon: "At a time of high unemployment and stagnating wages, the Boeing case shows why it is so hard for workers to collect a larger share of national income. It highlights Republicans’ resolute defense of law-breaking big business, and President Obama’s lack of equivalent fire in defense of the 99%.  Obama expresses sympathy for the occupation movement But it a case where he might have actually done something for the people who do America’s work, he passed.... Asked about the NLRB case at a June press conference, Obama said he shouldn’t comment on the details and then, rather than saying that in general workers need the freedom to go on strike, he said, 'as a general proposition, companies need to have the freedom to relocate.'" (Emphasis original.)

Tom Engelhardt in Salon: "... the electoral process has been occupied by the 1 percent; which means that what you hear in this “campaign” is largely refracted versions of their praise, their condemnation, their slurs, their views, their needs, their fears, and their wishes. They are making money off, and electing a president via, you. Which means that you — that all of us — are occupied, too. So stop calling this an 'election.' Whatever it is, we need a new name for it."

Matti Taibbi of Rolling Stone on indefinite detention of American citizens: "If these laws are passed, we would be forced to rely upon the discretion of a demonstrably corrupt and consistently idiotic government to not use these awful powers to strike back at legitimate domestic unrest."

Paul Krugman: ominous political trends, European-style. CW: I knew almost none of this; if you're as clueless as I was about what's going on in Hungary, for instance, read Krugman.

** Mission Creep Done Crept: "The Cowboy Chronicles." Glenn Greenwald in Salon: so now local police are using military drones to catch Americans suspected of cattle-rustling, Americans who incidentally belong to an anti-government group.

David Remnick, in a long New Yorker piece, ponders how far resistance to Vladimir Putin can go.

Elizabeth Warren's campaign sends me this new ad, which responds to the Crossroads GPS attack ads against her:

Alec Baldwin may be a jerk, but he's a hilarious jerk:

Right Wing World

Pretty clever. It's worthy clicking on to see the fine print:

Art by Brian McFadden of the New York Times. CLICK TO SEE LARGER IMAGE.Rick Hertzberg: Not long ago, the idea that Newt Gingrich could become president would be relegated to alternate-history fiction. Now it is "not inconceivable." ...

... AND here's Hertzberg on why Newt won the debate. ...

... David Remnick of the New Yorker: when it comes to pandering to Jews in hopes of softening their support for President Obama, to Newt Gingrich, "no pandering seems out of bounds." ...

... Phoebe Greenwood of the Guardian: Palestinian officials said the claims Gingrich made in Saturday's debate that Palestinian children learn terrorism in school "were based substantially on material produced by an Israeli organisation, Palestinian Media Watch," and are untrue. ...

... AND Ron Paul runs this devastating ad against Gingrich. Obama or his supporters could lose the purple hues and run the same ad in the general:

Jonathan Chait of New York magazine: Romney's electability problem: he's rich -- and he looks it. He knows that, and to counter it, he's made a capital gains tax proposal that he says will benefit the middle class. to the horror of conservatives, to push that tax reform, Romney sounds suspiciously like a librul, someone who recognizes the trade-off between taxes and spending. ...

... AND Jeff Zeleny & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: opponents -- except for frontrunner Newt Gingrich -- are using Mitt Romney's $10,000 debate challenge to Rick Perry to paint him as too rich & out-of-touch with middle-class Americans. Jon Huntsman, Jr., who wasn't invited to the debate because his poll numbers are too low, takes up Mitt's challenge (the video include the exchange between Romney & Perry):

... NEW. AND Paul Krugman bestows upon Romney the well-earned Silver Foot Award: "When a man worth circa $200 million offers to bet someone who isn’t that rich $10,000, he’s practically waving a sign saying that he has no sense of how other people live."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "President Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki outlined a broad agenda for postwar cooperation Monday as they marked the impending end of America’s long conflict in the Middle East":

Reuters: "Anti-Wall Street demonstrators, confronted by police in riot gear, marched on several West Coast ports on Monday seeking to disrupt cargo traffic and re-energize their faltering protest movement. By singling out port operations from California to Alaska, organizers hoped to call attention again to U.S. economic inequalities, high unemployment and a financial system they complain is unfairly tilted toward the wealthy. The protests disrupted morning arrivals of trucks and dockworkers at some waterfronts, including two terminals effectively closed in Portland, Oregon."

New York Times: "At least 17 Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested on Monday at the World Financial Center, whose owner, Brookfield Properties, also owns Zuccotti Park." Includes video. ...

... New York Times eXaminer: "At an Occupy Wall Street protest today in the World Financial Center, New York Police Department officers, some in riot gear, began arresting protestors by slamming them onto the highly-​polished marble floors. A veteran and credentialed New York Times photographer, with a press pass around his neck, was repeatedly physically prohibited from photographing the arrests and police activity...."

AP: "With the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq in its final days, President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will meet at the White House Monday to discuss the next phase of the relationship between their countries."

Washington Post: "It appears increasingly likely that, with little fuss, lawmakers will approve a bipartisan compromise in coming days that will keep government running past Friday, when a short-term funding measure that has kept the lights on expires."

AFP: "US online shopping rose 15 percent from November 1 to December 9 compared to the same period last year, according to industry tracker comScore."

Reuters: "A longtime ally of Vladimir Putin called on Monday for the creation of a liberal party to fill a void in Russian politics exposed by mass protests against the prime minister's 12-year rule, and cast himself as its potential leader."

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