The Commentariat -- April 18, 2014
Graphics removed.
** Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "The United States, Russia, Ukraine and the European Union reached an agreement [in Geneva] on Thursday evening that calls for armed pro-Russian bands to give up the government buildings they have seized in eastern Ukraine and outlines other steps to de-escalate the crisis. Secretary of State John Kerry described the package of measures as an important first step to avert 'a complete and total implosion' in eastern Ukraine and said that it could be followed by negotiation of more far-reaching steps to ease a crisis in which violence seemed to be growing by the day. [Russian Minister Sergey] Lavrov said the deal was 'largely based on compromise' and that a settlement of the crisis was primarily the responsibility of Ukraine's. Mr. Lavrov made the remarks at a news conference that he gave before Mr. Kerry had spoken." ...
... Update. Luke Harding, et al., of the Guardian: "Pro-Russian groups occupying a string of public buildings across eastern Ukraine have insisted that they would not end their occupation until a referendum to decide the status of the region had taken place. There was no sign of separatist groups pulling out from their positions at city halls and in town squares, although several said they would hold meetings on Friday to discuss the implications of the Geneva agreement between Russia, Ukraine, the European Union and the United States to de-escalate the crisis." ...
... Update 2. Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "The leader of a group of pro-Russian separatists said Friday that he would ignore an international agreement to de-escalate the political crisis in eastern Ukraine, saying his group would remain in the government buildings in the regional capital of Donetsk that it commandeered last weekend." ...
... Oren Dorell of USA Today: "World leaders and Jewish groups condemned a leaflet handed out in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk in which Jews were told to 'register' with the pro-Russian militants who have taken over a government office in an attempt to make Ukraine part of Russia, according to Ukrainian and Israeli media. Jews emerging from a synagogue say they were handed leaflets that ordered the city's Jews to provide a list of property they own and pay a registration fee 'or else have their citizenship revoked, face deportation and see their assets confiscated,' reported Ynet News, Israel's largest news website, and Ukraine's Donbass news agency." ...
... Julia Ioffe of the New Republic thinks distribution of the flyers is probably a hoax devised by the administration of a nearby town. ...
... Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: The provenance of the flyers is murky. "Whatever actually happened, there is one clear takeaway here: With both sides accusing the other of being 'Nazis,' and accusing the other of anti-Semitism, Eastern Ukraine's Jewish community is having an especially tough time during the Ukrainian crisis."
** Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama announced Thursday that eight million people had signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, and that 35 percent of them were under the age of 35, countering those who predicted it would attract mainly older and sicker people. The final number exceeds by a million the target set by the administration for people to buy insurance through government-run health care exchanges. In addition, the number of young people signing up appears to have surged during the final weeks of enrollment":
... The President began his address by expressing condolences to the people of South Korea because of the ferry sinking. CW: As he began speaking, I thought he was going to offer condolences to the Republican party. Later, in the Q&A, Obama did whack Republicans. Often. And forcefully. Lovely to hear. ...
I find it strange that the Republican position on this law is still stuck in the same place that it has always been. They still can't bring themselves to admit that the Affordable Care Act is working. They said nobody would sign up. They were wrong about that ... They were wrong to keep trying to repeal a law that is working when they have no alternative answer. -- President Obama, at today's press conference
... Paul Krugman: "How did enrollment manage to surge so impressively despite the initial debacle of healthcare.gov? Obviously they fixed the website; but the broader issue ... is that being uninsured is truly terrible." ...
... Jonathan Cohn: "This is probably Obamacare's best news day since March 23, 2010, when the president signed it into law." Cohn explains why. CW: Another good day (whatever date that was): the day John Roberts decided not to overturn the core law.
... Jason Millman of the Washington Post: "If we learned one thing from this enrollment period, it's this: Never underestimate the power of procrastination. California's exchange on Thursday reported that April 15, its last day of enrollment, saw 50,000 people sign up -- its best day ever." ...
... CW: We'll probably start seeing more confrontations like these -- between a constituent & Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.). Many reps won't handle it as well as Ross did (even tho the so-called replacement he mentions is farcical). Via Scott Keyes of Think Progress:
Decarbonize! Paul Krugman: "Even as the report [by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] calls for drastic action to limit emissions of greenhouse gases, it asserts that the economic impact of such drastic action would be surprisingly small.... It reflects a technological revolution many people don't know about, the incredible recent decline in the cost of renewable energy, solar power in particular."
All Krugman All the Time. Krugman on Inequality. Via Elias Isquith of Salon:
CW: Oh, Look! Here's one little despicable reason for increased inequality. ...
... Stealing from the Poor. Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "'Wage theft' is an old problem. It can take many forms, including paying less than the minimum hourly wage, working employees off the clock, not paying required overtime rates and shifting hours into the next pay period so that overtime isn't incurred.... In the past few weeks, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman extracted settlements from dozens of McDonald's and Domino's locations around the state for off-the-clock work. Last month, workers in California, Michigan and New York filed class-action lawsuits against McDonald's alleging multiple charges of wage theft. These suits have upped the ante by implicating the McDonald's corporation, not just individual franchisees, in bad behavior.... Harsher penalties, including prison time, should be on the table more often when willful wrongdoing is proved."
Nora Caplan-Bricker of the New Republic: Who's the "deporter-in-chief" -- Bush or Obama? It depends upon what the meaning of "deport" is.
Jay Carney on President Obama's toughest interview. (Too bad Kathleen Sebelius didn't realize this.) Via Real Clear Politics:
Laura Myers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal: "U.S. Sen. Harry Reid on Thursday called supporters of Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy 'domestic terrorists' because they defended him against a Bureau of Land Management cattle roundup with guns and put their children in harm's way. 'Those people who hold themselves out to be patriots are not. They're nothing more than domestic terrorists,' Reid said during an appearance at a Las Vegas Review-Journal 'Hashtags & Headlines' event at the Paris. '... I repeat: what went on up there was domestic terrorism." CW: I so underestimated Harry Reid. He isn't a liberal's liberal, but he gets an awful lot right.
Floyd Norris of the New York Times: "It seems likely that the gap in tax rates between the superrich and the very rich may be narrowed."
Russia Today: "Russia has 'no mass surveillance in our country,' according to President Vladimir Putin, after he was asked a surprise question by whistleblower Edward Snowden at his Q&A session, adding 'our surveillance activities are strictly controlled by the law.'" ...
... Ed Snowden, in the Guardian: My motives in asking Putin the question are pure; I'm surprised everybody's picking on me. Also, Christians around the world will note that today is Good Friday; I am the Second Coming.
Right Wing World
** "Bundy Syndrome." Amanda Marcotte, in Salon: "... what's going on runs deeper than a knee-jerk desire on the part of the right to believe every white guy in a cowboy hat is a good guy. This is the logical extension of a push that's grown in recent years from conservatives to argue that they, and only they, have special rights to simply disregard any law they don't want to follow. And unfortunately that's an argument that may be making headway this year in the Supreme Court." ...
... Timothy Cama of the Hill: Most GOP presidential hopefuls are wary of the Bundy landmine. Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan & Marco Rubio have not weighed in. But Rand Paul & Mike Huckabee both complained about federal agents with guns. ...
I'm not here to jump in on the middle of whether Cliven Bundy ought to pay the state or pay anybody for the chance for his cows to eat some grass. Here's what I would suggest: that there is something incredibly wrong when a government believes that some blades of grass that a cow is eating is so an egregious affront to the government of the United States that we would literally put a gun in a citizen's face and threaten to shoot him over it. -- Mike Huckabee
Gubernatorial Race
CNN: "Beau Biden said Thursday he won't seek re-election this year as Delaware attorney general and plans instead to run for governor in 2016."
Beyond the Beltway
Aman Batheja of the Texas Tribune: "A Texas political action committee called Boats 'N Hoes PAC will be just a memory by Thursday, according to the Republican political consultant who is the boss of the man who started it.... 'Texas Republicans say they want to reach out to women, to be more inclusive, but actions like this reinforce a pattern of disrespect,' Texas Democratic Party spokeswoman Lisa Paul said in a statement. 'There's no defending the use of a derogatory and offensive term like 'hoes'. How can women possibly take the GOP rebranding effort seriously? Their consistent contempt towards women is simply unforgivable.'"
Charles Pierce points us to this bizarre story, by Jessica Lussenhop of the St. Louis Riverfront Times. Pierce calls it "a perfect case study in how firmly we believe in rehabilitation as a concept, and exactly how unstrained the quality of mercy really is."
Way Beyond the Beltway
Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: David Axelrod, "Barack Obama's most influential adviser during two presidential victories, has been hired to advise Labour on its 2015 election campaign, ensuring that Ed Miliband will put inequality and the break between family finances and economic growth at the centre of his election campaign."
News Ledes
Washington Post: "An avalanche swept the slopes of Mount Everest early Friday morning, killing at least 12 Nepalese guides and leaving three others missing, officials said, in what is now said to be the single deadliest disaster to hit the world's highest peak."
The New York Times outlines some of the shocking errors made after the Korean ferry began to list. ...
... UPDATE: "Prosecutors in South Korea on Friday sought to arrest the captain, third mate and another crew member of a ferry on charges of deserting their vessel and passengers after it capsized and leaving more than 270 people missing, many of them high school students on a trip to a resort island. Prosecutors asked the court to issue arrest warrants for Captain Lee Jun-seok, 69, and the 26-year-old third mate, who they said was steering the ship at the time of accident.... The vice principal, Kang Min-kyu, 52, of Danwon High School, who survived the ferry accident on Wednesday, was found hanging from a tree on a hill near a gymnasium where families of the missing had gathered. The police suspected Mr. Kang had hanged himself."