The Commentariat -- June 23, 2014
Internal links removed.
Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Baghdad on Monday morning to urge the Iraqis to bridge their sectarian differences and to encourage them to form a new, inclusive government." ...
... The Guardian is liveblogging talks between Kerry & Al-Maliki, & other developments. ...
... Loveday Morris & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The 300 U.S. advisers authorized to assist the Iraqi security forces will find an army in crisis mode, so lacking in equipment and shaken by desertions that it may not be able to win back significant chunks of territory from al-Qaeda renegades for months or even years, analysts and officials say. After tens of thousands of desertions, the Iraqi military is reeling from what one U.S. official described as 'psychological collapse' in the face of the offensive from militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)." ...
... Alissa Rubin of the New York Times: "The Iraqi government said Sunday that Sunni militants had taken control of a major Iraqi post on the Syrian border, strengthening their ability to move men and supplies into Iraq's heartland. As the government tried to cast the setback in a positive light, saying troops had made a 'tactical' decision to withdraw, Secretary of State John Kerry appeared to increase the pressure on Iraq's leadership by signaling that the United States was open to the selection of a new prime minister who could bridge the deep sectarian divides in the country." ...
... Rachel Maddow in the Washington Post: "After meeting with President Obama last week, congressional leaders emerged in rare bipartisan agreement: All said the president would need no further authorization from Congress for new U.S. military intervention in Iraq. They may agree on that, but they're wrong.... Beyond the 60-day window afforded by the War Powers Act, Obama will need overt congressional authorization for additional troops to protect the U.S. Embassy and U.S. personnel, for the several hundred military 'advisers' he has just announced, for air strikes by manned or unmanned planes or for any further military intervention." ...
... CW: There is an irony in the contrast between the right's bitter criticisms of Obama's "imperial presidency" and their acquiescence when an issue of war -- the means by which empires are usually built -- arises. As usual, what wingers really want is an imperial president, one who will use force to compel other countries to comply with U.S. interests.
David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Three journalists working for Al Jazeera were convicted Monday by an Egyptian court and sentenced to seven years each in prison for conspiring to broadcast false news in order to destabilize Egypt. The journalists for the network's English-language channel -- Mohared Fadel Fahmy, an Egyptian-Canadian who has previously worked for CNN and The New York Times; Peter Greste, an Australian who has previously worked for the BBC; and Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian who has worked for other international news organizations -- have been in jail since December." ...
... Al Jazeera America: "Greste and Fahmy were sentenced to seven years in jail, while Mohamed was sentenced to an additional three years for possession of ammunition. Other Al Jazeera journalists being tried in absentia were sentenced to 10 years. Their names are: Alaa Bayoumi, Anas Abdel-Wahab Khalawi Hasan, Khaleel Aly Khaleel Bahnasy, Mohamed Fawzi, Dominic Kane and Sue Turton. Al Jazeera has always rejected the charges against its journalists and maintains their innocence."
Shaila Dewan of the New York Times: "... at the annual meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors, which convened over the weekend [in Dallas], the subject of income inequality seemed to be on almost everyone's lips, and mayors wondered aloud how best to use their powers to help the lowest-paid workers." CW: Why a female Times reporter would write (in the lede, no less) that a female mayor "bellied up to the table" is beyond me.
Henry Paulson, one of Dubya's Treasury Secretaries, best known for kneeling down & begging Nancy Pelosi to save him from members of his own party who were fighting his efforts to save Wall Street is 2008 with a $700 billion bailout, is now begging Republicans to save the planet. "... it is perverse that those who want limited government and rail against bailouts would put the economy at risk by ignoring climate change.... Climate change is the challenge of our time," Paulson wrote in a Sunday New York Times op-ed. Thanks to MAG for the link. ...
... Paul Krugman is amused: "Given the state of U.S. politics today, climate action is entirely dependent on Democrats, With a Democrat in the White House, we got some movement through executive action; if Democrats eventually regain the House, there could be more. If Paulson believes that he can support Republicans while still pushing for climate action, he's just delusional." CW: Get on your knees, Hank. ...
... In his Monday column, Krugman writes, "A carbon tax [which Paulson advocates] may be the best thing we could do, but we won't actually do it. Yet there are a number of second-best things ... that we're either doing already or might do soon. And the question for Mr. Paulson and other conservatives who consider themselves environmentalists is whether they're willing to accept second-best answers, and in particular whether they're willing to accept second-best answers implemented by the other party. If they aren't, their supposed environmentalism is an empty gesture." ...
... CW: We're back to All Krugman All the Time. His review in the New York Review of Books of Tim Geithner's Stress Test is easy reading, even for us non-economists. If you thought Geithner was a weasly schmuck, Krugman will not disabuse you of the notion. ...
... ALSO in the NYRB, Steve Coll of the New Yorker reviews a book by Brad Stone, The Everything Store, about Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos. CW: If you think about it, you'll see a connection between Stone's book & Krugman's review of Geithner's. ...
... AND Sue Halpern reviews books by Glenn Greenwald & Luke Harding on the Snowden leaks.
Presidential Election 2016
Too Rich to Run? Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: Hillary & Bill Clinton "are established members of the 1 percent, leading lives far removed from the millions of middle-class voters who swing elections. [Hillary] Clinton has underscored the contrast with a series of stumbles in discussing her finances -- the latest in an interview with Britain's Guardian newspaper published Sunday, in which she compared herself with other multimillionaires.... Multiple Obama campaign advisers -- who spoke only on the condition of anonymity to avoid alienating the Clintons -- said they fear [Hillary] Clinton's financial status could hurt her as it did Republican nominee Mitt Romney, whom Obama portrayed in 2012 as an out-of-touch plutocrat at a time of economic uncertainty."
... You can watch Diane Sawyer's full interview of Clinton, mentioned but not properly linked at the top of Rucker's piece, here.
Jeff Toobin has a long profile of Ted Cruz in the New Yorker.
Molly Ball of the Atlantic: Chris Christie's new campaign: liberalizing drug laws to treat rather than jail addicts: At the Faith & Freedom Coalition forum annual meeting, "he said, 'what works is giving those people -- nonviolent drug offenders, addicts -- the tools they need to be able to deal with their disease.' Christie drew a line between compassion for addicts and opposition to abortion: 'I believe if you're pro-life, as I am, you need to be pro-life for the whole life,' he said. The idea of changing the way drug offenders are treated is said to be personal to Christie. In April, he gave a speech in New Jersey where he said he had recently lost a friend to addiction...." ...
... CW: Unfortunately, this is the way with Republicans. They're against any sort of compassion for any group till they learn a friend or family member has it. So Christie has a friend who died because of drug addiction; Christie runs a state that needed federal disaster aid, etc. Apparently, Christie doesn't have any friends who are teachers, or need a pension, or smoke marijuana, or needed an abortion, etc. Republicans not only can't manage empathy for others; they think empathy is a bad thing. BTW, Christie's good friends in the private prison business must be pissed at him for this speech.
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Al-Qaeda renegades seized control of Iraq's main border crossing with Jordan late Sunday, sustaining their onslaught against crumbling Iraqi security forces as Secretary of State John F. Kerry arrived in Baghdad. The capture of the border crossing of Turabil late Sunday followed the fall of three more towns in western Iraq's Anbar province to the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)."
Guardian: "The Israeli military has carried out air strikes on targets inside Syria, including a military headquarters, in response to a cross-border attack that left an Israeli teenager dead. In all, Israel said it struck nine military targets inside Syria, and 'direct hits were confirmed.'"
Al Jazeera: "Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly expressed support Sunday for Ukraine's declaration of a cease-fire in its battle against pro-Russian separatists and called on both sides to negotiate a compromise."