The Commentariat -- Sept. 8, 2015
** The GOP Against the World. Jonathan Chait: "Those who have consigned the world to its doom should reconsider. The technological and political underpinnings are at last in place to actually consummate the first global pact to limit greenhouse-gas emissions. The world is suddenly responding to the climate emergency with -- by the standards of its previous behavior -- astonishing speed. The game is not over. And the good guys are starting to win.... If this sounds surprisingly optimistic, that may be because you reside in a highly peculiar place: the United States of America.... Of course, it is unfortunate for the future of mankind that climate-change denialism has surfaced as a regional quirk in the most powerful country on Earth.... The world is racing to decarbonize before the Republican Party -- as constituted in its current, delirious form -- can regain power over the U.S.... Eventually the world will wean itself almost completely off carbon-based energy. There is, suddenly, hope." ...
... Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "Top Republican lawmakers are planning a wide-ranging offensive -- including outreach to foreign officials by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office -- to undermine President Barack Obama's hopes of reaching an international climate change agreement that would cement his environmental legacy. The GOP strategy, emerging after months of quiet discussions, includes sowing doubts about Obama's climate policies at home and abroad, trying to block key environmental regulations in Congress, and challenging the legitimacy of the president's attempts to craft a global agreement without submitting a treaty to the Senate.... By design, the State Department is pushing for a broad political agreement that has buy-in from each country but won't carry the legal authority of a treaty -- getting around the Constitution's requirement that treaties be ratified through a two-thirds vote in the Senate." CW: Love the way Politico treats the GOP as normal.
Charles Pierce: "The Keystone pipeline would probably leak, just like TransCanada's other projects.... Pretty plainly, TransCanada puts its pipelines in the ground and then you're on your own, rube." ...
... CW: Leak? How about go ka-boom? Let's run an XL-Xtension under Mitch McConnell's house.
Welcome Back, Congress. Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Congress returns from its long summer vacation Tuesday to an all-out, three-week sprint to avert a government shutdown -- and no apparent plan yet to quell the conservative rebellion over Planned Parenthood that has dramatically increased the odds of a closure. The mad dash -- just 10 legislative work days to solve the shutdown crisis, in between major votes on the Iran nuclear deal and the first-ever papal address to a joint session of Congress -- presents a major test for Republican leaders in both chambers who vowed to end crisis-driven legislating."
Jake Sherman & John Bresnahan of Politico: "Figures in his close-knit circle of allies are starting to privately wonder whether [John Boehner] can survive an all-but-certain floor vote this fall to remain speaker of the House. And, for the first time, many top aides and lawmakers in the House do not believe he will run for another term as House leader in 2017."
Matt Apuzzo, et al., of the New York Times: Justice Department "conflicts with Apple and Microsoft reflect heightened corporate resistance, in the post-Edward J. Snowden era, by American technology companies intent on demonstrating that they are trying to protect customer information."
Gene Robinson: President Obama is on a roll. "Obama gives the impression of having rediscovered the joy of being president." CW: Actually, I think President Obama has been on a roll since late 2014, when it finally dawned on him he didn't have to be nice to Republicans who treat him like dirt & accuse him of everything from fascism to terrorism to communism to tyranny. So thanks to whoever convinced him (Michelle) to lay off the polite."
Juan Williams of the Hill: "#BlackLivesMatter is fast becoming its own worst enemy. It lacks an agenda, it is antagonizing the black community's top white political allies, including Democrats running for the party's 2016 presidential nomination, and it is not finding common ground with any of the Republican majority in Congress.... The movement's failure to get its collective act together carries real danger for the political clout of the African-American community in the 2016 elections and beyond. With the movement potentially discouraging black American trust in Democrats, #BlackLivesMatter is increasing the odds of a sharp drop in black voter turnout in 2016."
Nahal Toosi of Politico: "The Obama administration is 'actively considering' ways to help ease the growing refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe, an official confirmed Monday as pressure increased on the United States to take in more of the desperate migrants. The White House gave no details as to what it may do, but the administration official suggested that the contours of the United States' refugee resettlement program, which as of now accepts up to 70,000 people a year, were being examined. If the administration decides to let in more refugees, it could prompt a backlash among Republicans who fear terrorists lurk among those seeking aid." ...
... Juan Cole: The "grim [U.S.] landscape of racism, religious prejudice, blaming the victim and racial exclusion from immigration is deja vu all over again. In the 30s, it was the Jews that the troglodytes didn't want. Steve Jobs's father was an immigrant from Syria. We need more like him, and we need fewer children washing up dead on beaches. If we're going to bomb Syria, we need to take care of the displaced." CW: Well, in fairness, Steve Jobs was a dick. Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the lead. ...
... Anthony Faiola, et al., of the Washington Post: German "Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabrie' ... said his country could take half a million refugees a year 'for several years,' even as some critics questioned Tuesday whether generous asylum policies serve to entice more migrants to make the dangerous trek for Western Europe." ...
... Elliot Hannon of Slate: "As the Syrian refugee crisis continues to land on Europe's shores, the continent's leading governments at last began to step up their effort to cope with the influx of Syrians and provide aid. Germany, the U.K., and France all offered to accept tens of thousands of people fleeing the war-torn country (and beyond) as pressure continued to build at access points to Europe."
Greg Sargent: "With Dick Cheney set to deliver a speech today attacking the Iran deal, the Dem-allied Americans United for Change is releasing a new video that recaps all of his claims that he was actually right about Iraq, and contrasts them with headlines illustrating the contrary rather vividly.... If there is anything that can get the last remaining undecided Senate Dems to back the deal, averting a veto-override fight, a high profile speech from Cheney is it." ...
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Chuck Todd V. Norma Rae. Jack Mirkinson in Slate: "Our media is [sic!] filled to the brim with stories of, by and for the wealthy.... A 2014 study by the stalwart media watchdog FAIR found that, over an eight-month period, exactly zero representatives of labor unions appeared on any of the five main Sunday talk shows. Billionaire CEOs, meanwhile, got lots of chances to put forward their vision of the American economy.... Every major news network in this country -- not to mention a good fraction of our top newspapers -- is owned by a multi-bajillion-dollar global conglomerate."
Presidential Race
Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "... Hillary Rodham Clinton is proposing a federal program to match small political campaign donations as a way to dilute the influence of megadonors and unregulated outside money. Clinton plans to release details of the plan Tuesday. Her campaign provided a preview Monday, as she campaigned in Iowa." ...
... Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "A special intelligence review of two emails that has endorsed a finding by the inspector general for the intelligence agencies that the emails contained highly classified information when Mrs. Clinton received them, senior intelligence officials said.... The special review -- by the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency -- concluded that the emails were 'Top Secret,' the highest classification of government intelligence, when they were sent to Mrs. Clinton in 2009 and 2011." ...
received as secretary of state on her personal account -- including one about North Korea's nuclear weapons program --... Catherine Lucey of the AP: "Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday she does not need to apologize for using a private email account and server while at the State Department because 'what I did was allowed.' In an interview with The Associated Press during a Labor Day campaign swing through Iowa, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination also said the lingering questions about her email practices while serving as President Barack Obama's first secretary of state have not damaged her campaign."
Obnoxious from Day One. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump, who received draft deferments through much of the Vietnam War, told [Michael D'Antonio,] the author of a forthcoming biography, that he nevertheless 'always felt that I was in the military' because of his education at a military-themed boarding school.... Mr. Trump memorably told Mr. D'Antonio that 'when I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I'm basically the same. The temperament is not that different.' Mr. Trump's preoccupation with winning -- at anything and everything, big or small -- dominated his youth. His mentor at the New York Military Academy, Theodore Dobias, called Mr. Trump 'a conniver, even then.'"
Beyond the Beltway
Not So Much Liking the Martyr Part of Martyrdom. Ralph Ellis & Ed Payne of CNN: "Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who's refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses, on Monday asked the Kentucky governor to immediately free her from jail, according to court documents obtained by CNN.... Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear's office said Monday he won't respond, noting that the conflict was a 'matter between her and the courts.'" ...
... Via the Raw Story.
Charles Pierce on the Washington State Supreme Court's decision disallowing public funding of charter schools. "There is now great scrambling among the masters of the universe because public accountability and democratic institutions can be so damned ... inconvenient. (Not that they're done. There are higher courts.) Public education should be conducted in public schools. Period. Good on the Washington Supremes for reinforcing this simple truth."