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INAUGURATION 2029

Commencement ceremonies are joyous occasions, and Steve Carell made sure that was true this past weekend (mid-June) at Northwestern's commencement:

~~~ Carell's entire commencement speech was hilarious. The audio and video here isn't great, but I laughed till I cried.

CNN did a live telecast Saturday night (June 7) of the Broadway play "Good Night, and Good Luck," written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, about legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow's effort to hold to account Sen. Joe McCarthy, "the junior senator from Wisconsin." Clooney plays Murrow. Here's Murrow himself with his famous take on McCarthy & McCarthyism, brief remarks that especially resonate today: ~~~

     ~~~ This article lists ways you still can watch the play. 

New York Times: “The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon for use in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence platforms, the company said on Thursday. The multiyear agreement 'will bring Times editorial content to a variety of Amazon customer experiences,' the news organization said in a statement. Besides news articles, the agreement encompasses material from NYT Cooking, The Times’s food and recipe site, and The Athletic, which focuses on sports. This is The Times’s first licensing arrangement with a focus on generative A.I. technology. In 2023, The Times sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, for copyright infringement, accusing the tech companies of using millions of articles published by The Times to train automated chatbots without any kind of compensation. OpenAI and Microsoft have rejected those accusations.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I have no idea what this means for "the Amazon customer experience." Does it mean that if I don't have a NYT subscription but do have Amazon Prime I can read NYT content? And where, exactly, would I find that content? I don't know. I don't know.

Washington Post reporters asked three AI image generators what a beautiful woman looks like. "The Post found that they steer users toward a startlingly narrow vision of attractiveness. Prompted to show a 'beautiful woman,' all three tools generated thin women, without exception.... Her body looks like Barbie — slim hips, impossible waist, round breasts.... Just 2 percent of the images showed visible signs of aging. More than a third of the images had medium skin tones. But only nine percent had dark skin tones. Asked to show 'normal women,' the tools produced images that remained overwhelmingly thin.... However bias originates, The Post’s analysis found that popular image tools struggle to render realistic images of women outside the Western ideal." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The reporters seem to think they are calling out the AI programs for being unrealistic. But there's a lot about the "beautiful women" images they miss. I find these omissions remarkably sexist. For one thing, the reporters seem to think AI is a magical "thing" that self-generates. It isn't. It's programmed. It's programmed by boys, many of them incels who have little or no experience or insights beyond comic books and Internet porn of how to gauge female "beauty." As a result, the AI-generated women look like cartoons; that is, a lot like an air-brushed photo of Kristi Noem: globs of every kind of dark eye makeup, Scandinavian nose, Botox lips, slathered-on skin concealer/toner/etc. makeup, long dark hair and the aforementioned impossible Barbie body shape, including huge, round plastic breasts. 

New York Times: “George Clooney’s Broadway debut, 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' has been one of the sensations of the 2024-25 theater season, breaking box office records and drawing packed houses of audiences eager to see the popular movie star in a timely drama about the importance of an independent press. Now the play will become much more widely available: CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism.”

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. -- Magna Carta ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “Bought for $27.50 after World War II, the faint, water stained manuscript in the library of Harvard Law School had attracted relatively little attention since it arrived there in 1946. That is about to change. Two British academics, one of whom happened on the manuscript by chance, have discovered that it is an original 1300 version — not a copy, as long thought — of Magna Carta, the medieval document that helped establish some of the world’s most cherished liberties. It is one of just seven such documents from that date still in existence.... A 710-year-old version of Magna Carta was sold in 2007 for $21.3 million.... First issued in 1215, it put into writing a set of concessions won by rebellious barons from a recalcitrant King John of England — or Bad King John, as he became known in folklore. He later revoked the charter, but his son, Henry III, issued amended versions, the last one in 1225, and Henry’s son, Edward I, in turn confirmed the 1225 version in 1297 and again in 1300.”

NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

Saturday
May232015

The Commentariat -- May 24, 2015

Internal links removed.

Aw, Poor Mitch. As Ye Sow, so Shall Ye Reap: the Misadventures of Mitch. Jennifer Steinhauer & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: ... as senators raced for the airport on Saturday after a six-week session that ended in disarray, they left behind a wreck of promises made by Mr. McConnell on how a renewed Senate would operate. Mr. McConnell has found himself vexed by Democratic delaying tactics he honed in the minority, five presidential aspirants with their own agendas and a new crop of conservative firebrands demanding their say." CW: Quite an enjoyable read. Steinhauser & Weisman really let McConnell have it. ...

... Dustin Volz & most of the National Journal's reporting staff, though more circumspect than the Times reporters, demonstrate how McConnell screwed up the vote. As Harry Reid remarked, "'That's what happens when you try to jam everything in just a short period of time.'... When asked if anything would change next Sunday, Reid said, 'I don't know, you'll have to ask Rand Paul [and] the Republicans.'" CW: I kind of enjoy the fact that this is an All-Kentucky Show. And, BTW, Li'l Randy's amendments -- for which McConnell refused/didn't have time to schedule a vote -- sound like pretty good ones. They certainly deserved Senate consideration. Also, both stories suggest that Randy is just grandstanding for fun & profit -- and he is doing that, too -- but I think there's a big measure of sincerity here, at least by politicians' standards.

... Julian Hattem & Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "The Senate is preparing for a last-minute attempt to save expiring portions of the Patriot Act, but it may already be too late. The Obama administration is already starting to end the National Security Agency's (NSA) bulk collection of Americans' phone records, after legislative inaction forced the upper chamber to kick the can until next Sunday -- mere hours before the laws expire. Without congressional approval, the White House failed to ask the secretive Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court to renew the program by a Friday deadline." ...

... Salon excerpts a portion of a book titled After Snowden, etc." by Hodding Carter III, in which Carter, a long-time journalist & former Carter (no relation) administration official, reveals that he has changed his mind about Ed Snowden. He blames much of the mainstream media for attacking, rather than embracing, Snowden's contributions.

Anna Palmer of Politico: "Unions are keeping their fight against a trade bill alive. The AFL-CIO and its allies are organizing dozens of events over the Memorial Day recess to keep the pressure on House Democrats and Republicans as the chamber nears consideration of 'fast track' trade legislation."

Campbell Robertson & John Schwartz of the New York Times: A new peer-reviewed report puts most of the blame for the failure of New Orleans' levees during Hurricane Katrina on the Army Corps of Engineers, largely, though not entirely, absolving local politicians, lobbyists & Congress.

Chris McGreal of the Guardian: "A judge in Las Vegas has ruled that a lawsuit involving accusations of graft and organised crime ties to casinos owned by the multibillionaire and Republican party funder, Sheldon Adelson, will be heard in the US. The decision raises the prospect of Adelson facing difficult questions about his business practices following allegations by a former chief executive of his highly profitable casinos in the Chinese enclave of Macau that a well-known triad crime figure was used to bring in high-rolling gamblers and of influence peddling with Chinese officials.... [The case could] have a bearing on the 81-year-old billionaire's considerable political influence." CW: Yeah, because Scott Walker, et al., won't take his money.

God News

Joan Walsh of Salon: Last week was a bad week for the family-values crowd. "The entire Republican field is united on the inferiority of gay families, but hails parents like the Duggars, who let their son prey on his sisters for a year without going to authorities. Meanwhile, Fox News remains silent about the behavior of [Bill] O'Reilly, [who ignored & abused his own family,] because his angry white patriarch shtick is the core of its brand. The NFL is now more sensitive to the concerns of women’s rights advocates than Fox is." ...

... Emma Margolin of MSNBC: Mike Huckabee is standing by the Duggar parents, who covered up their son's sexual abuse of his sisters and other young girls. Akhilleus wrote about this last week. Because god will forgive them or something. CW: I hate that this "news" has crept into the political sphere, but when you have an entire political party that has aligned itself with the fundamentalist right, it seems inevitable.

Steve Benen: The religious right doesn't seem to care about First Amendment freedoms when a minister is arrested & taken into custody by exercising her religious freedom to officiate at a same-sex wedding in Alabama where "a federal judge ruled Thursday that same-sex couples have the right to marry in every Alabama county, but the ruling is on hold pending the Supreme Court's verdict in a related case." Yo, Ben Carson, where are you? (See story linked under Presidential Race.) ...

Presidential Race

Patrick Healy & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "As President Obama grapples with the unnerving territorial gains of the Islamic State last week, the Republicans eyeing the White House are struggling to put forward strategies of their own. The most detailed ideas have come from [Lindsey] Graham, a United States senator from South Carolina who is on the Armed Services Committee, yet he ranks so low in polls that it is unclear if he will qualify to participate in the coming candidate debates."

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Ben Carson won the straw poll at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference Saturday, demonstrating his popularity among conservative activists at one of the party's traditional presidential cattle call events. Carson... finished first with 25 percent. He was followed by Scott Walker, who received 20 percent, and Ted Cruz at 16 percent. Chris Christie and Rick Perry tied at 5 percent, with Jeb Bush narrowly behind. Marco Rubio tied with Bobby Jindal and Rand Paul at 4 percent." ...

... Christian Nation. Ahiza Garcia of TPM: "Ben Carson ... told Republicans on Saturday that they shouldn't allow the government to encroach on their religious liberties. Carson's comments came during the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Oklahoma City. 'Don't let the secular progressives drive God out of our lives,' Carson said. 'We have to stop letting them bully us.... We back down too easily. It's an important part of who we are.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Ida Lieszkovszky of Cleveland.com: "A judge ruled Saturday morning that Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo is not guilty of two charges of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the Nov. 29, 2012 police chase and shooting that ended in the deaths of two people. Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge John P. O'Donnell said that while Brelo did fire lethal shots at Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, other officers did as well. O'Donnell also concluded that Brelo was not guilty of the lesser included offense of felonious assault because he was legally justified in his use of deadly force." ...

... Adam Ferrise of Cleveland.com: "Demonstrators on Saturday reacted with anger after the not guilty verdicts in Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo's trial. Some three to four dozen protestors carrying signs outside the Cuyahoga County Justice Center expressed anger but said they would remain calm following the verdicts." ...

... Patrick Cooley of Cleveland.com has the backstory. ...

... Kimbriell Kelly & Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post write more about how the killings of Russell & Williams went down & on the history of the case. "The Department of Justice began investigating Cleveland police in March 2013 following a string of 'highly-publicized' use-of-force incidents. The investigation ended in 2014, concluding that the department 'engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force.' Officials with Justice and Cleveland are working to develop reforms overseen by a monitor. After the judge's verdict, the Civil Rights Division at Justice, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office issued a joint statement that said they would review testimony and evidence from the trial and 'collaboratively determine what, if any, additional steps are available and appropriate.' That review is independent, the statement said, of the federal pattern and practice investigation."

Timothy Phelps of the Los Angeles Times: "Subtle changes made in the criminal charges against six Baltimore police officers could reflect weaknesses in the hurriedly filed case arising from the death of Freddie Gray, legal experts say. A grand jury on Thursday presented its indictment against the officers. Though it largely mirrored the original charges filed by State's Atty. Marilyn Mosby, the revisions renewed complaints that Mosby moved too quickly and overcharged the officers."

Way Beyond

Danny Hakim & Douglas Dalby of the New York Times: "Ireland became the first nation to approve same-sex marriage by a popular vote, sweeping aside the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church in a resounding victory Saturday for the gay rights movement and placing the country at the vanguard of social change. With the final ballots counted, the vote was 62 percent in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, and 38 percent opposed." ...

... It's worth checking out the front page of the Irish Times.

Sondos Asem, an Egyptian political activist, in a Washington Post op-ed, discusses her work in Egypt & the death sentence which an Egyptian court imposed upon her & others, including former President Mohamed Morsi. Asem is in Britain.

Reader Comments (5)

What possible effect can a peaceful protest have in Cleveland? The Cleveland police have a terrible record of brutalizing black suspects. Things will change in Cleveland only when it becomes too expensive to support a police department with the mentality of an occupying army.
The Justice Dept. reported December 4th, 2014, the department had "A pattern of unreasonable and unnecessary use of force".
I do not want to be misunderstood, I say directly, riot and damage and the threat of riot and damage are the only tools poor black citizens have that will cause change.

May 23, 2015 | Unregistered Commentercarlyle

Carlyle, I sadly agree with you, as do all those armed insurrectionists on the right who incessantly claim that second amendment methods are the only solutions to tyrranical and brutal government forces. I am certain that the like minded Bundy posse will be standing shoulder to shouder with the oppressed citizens of Cleveland.

May 23, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterGloria

Maybe the best "Because Obama..." so far, tho' I'm sure there will be more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/22/us/arizona-wife-sentenced-for-vehicular-assault.html?emc=eta1

May 24, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@Ken: Ho ho. Thanks. I linked to a story about this shortly after the woman ran down her husband because he hadn't voted. I'm just glad she's so into civil responsibility. Too bad she forfeited her own right to vote in the next presidential election; that's probably what's upsetting her most about her jail sentence.

Marie

May 24, 2015 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

There is a phrase for a place where citizens can be shot and killed with impunity solely for running away from law enforcement: it's called a police state.
It seems that years of poor choices by those in charge have brought us to this moment where, for example, failure to signal a turn results in two deaths. There are court cases giving police far too much leeway to "defend themselves," there is the militarization of local police courtesy of donations of equipment by the Feds, there is a whole culture of stamp out crime mentality which fails to distinguish between petty and serious offenses.....
How many bullets would Cleveland cops have had to drill into that car before it was too much ? A thousand? Our current mania to enforce every insignificant law and protect police at all costs is getting to be absurd.

May 24, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterVictoria D.
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