;)
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."
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Reader Comments (18)
If the GOP governors have souls, and that's a BIG IF, this 8 million number has to be gnawing away at their flabby black hearts, even if it's subconsciously. They have to know, somewhere in those muddied numbskulls of theirs, that they could have vastly improved the lives of MILLIONS of people, taken credit for it, and left the tab to the federal government.
Yet they chose to stonewall while not even considering a true alternative. Too much corporate ass-kissing, fine wine and cigars left them with too little time to actually work up an alternative. Almost 50 votes of repeal and NO ALTERNATIVE even in sight. Nothing. And wow the public is finally coming around to thinking maybe the Democrats have a better health plan (smacks forehead). And now the GOP's own constituents, the people they were voted into office to represent, are getting sicker, preventable diseases are becoming terminal, and immune systems are shutting down.
Just to spite Obama.
It truly is awesome in its sterile coldheartedness.
I'm always puzzled by Republicans' promotion of Health Savings Accounts, and the idea of shopping around for medical care. First of all, like IRAs, HRAs are highly regulated, and rule #1 is that you MUST already have insurance in order to open an account. http://www.healthequity.com/HealthAccounts/HSA/HSAFAQ.aspx
Secondly, when faced with an illness or injury, will people really shop around for the best price similar to buying a new TV? Last November I was rear-ended by a tractor trailer truck, and fortunately suffered only minor injuries. As I was being extricated from the car, the paramedics gave me a choice of hospital to go to. I can tell you that comparing prices never entered my mind; however, I did choose the one where I'd had minor surgery a few years ago because they already had all my information, thus saving me the hassle of finding my insurance card and answering questions.
Indeed, let's hope Republican candidates face real death panel questions during this election season, i.e. the consequences of putting profits before people.
*I should edit to add: the consequences of putting profits and SPITE before people.
Janice,
Don't worry. If Republicans actually do have to answer questions about why they've been going to such great lengths to degrade the quality (and duration) of life for millions of Americans, they'll get out of it by whining about being picked on and complaining that everyone's always out to get them.
On the Cliven Bundy, etc. freeeedom thing, a fundamental problem is that the conservative worldview calls for extraordinary repression of feelings -- sexual feelings in particular, but I wouldn't limit it to sex. These people think they have to follow a set of unnatural, repressive rules, & they think -- for the most part -- that these are good, moral rules to live by. But the rules put so much constraint on their natural behavior that they have to let it out someplace else. So they blame the government, they blame "those people," they blame immigrants, they blame "promiscuous" women, whatever, whoever. They do this blaming in the most overt way that their rules allow.
Those cries for "freeeedom" are real; they are just pathologically misdirected.
And, well, yes: spite and greed. But a lot of it comes down to a dysfunctional view of what's righteous -- and do-able.
Marie
Marie, naw, Bundy just doesn't want to pay. He's not acting out his repression.
And the others appear to be young guys with time on their hands, a longstanding source of trouble in the west (or, anywhere).
In one of those odd associative moments that seem to beset my thought process, I dredged up a comparison (and contrast) to the Nevada Range War for Freedom and Bundy's Riders of the Purple Sage, while recalling a fine speech from an old movie.
It's seems to be a function of state that conservatives love to adopt tropes and stances they see as heroic, Freedom loving, independent, and patriotic.
Bundy, of course, is none of these.
But about 60 years ago, the victim of an earlier brand of conservative "patriots", Dalton Trumbo, one of the original Hollywood Ten, spent years on the infamous blacklist, essentially a career death penalty imposed by studio chiefs fearful of the vindictive witch hunters on the HUAC. For refusing to name names, they stuck him in a federal prison.
In 1962, after 13 years official banishment for being an independent (and liberal) thinker, Trumbo wrote one of his best screenplays, "Lonely are the Brave" which starred Kirk Douglas. Douglas, who, hired Trumbo to write the screenplay for "Spartacus" a couple of years earlier, caused a stir when he announced publicly that the blacklisted Trumbo was the real author of that script. He later called Trumbo's script for LATB the most perfect he'd ever read "...one draft, no revisions, a hole in one."
LATB recounts the story of a lone cowboy who needs to go his own way. He regrets the diminishing aspects of his life in the west, but he also recognizes that if his independence requires it, he'll pay the price.
In a speech very early in the film, the cowboy, Jack Burns, lays out his philosophy:
"A westerner likes open country. That means he's got to hate fences. And the more fences there are, the more he hates them...Have you ever noticed how many fences there're getting to be? And the signs they got on them: no hunting, no hiking, no admission, no trespassing, private property, closed area, start moving, go away, get lost, drop dead! Do you know what I mean?"
(Just as a technical aside, it's a wonderful speech. Compact and smooth, it flows along quickly with a memorable staccato rhythm, slimming down to simple, punchy, monosyllabic words that pick up speed towards the end.)
It's a speech that Bundy probably wishes he could have given. But the difference (one of the differences) is that Burns, like Trumbo, stands up to pay the price for his decision to go his own way.
Conservative assholes like Bundy want all the glory without paying anything. It's all drive-through, make believe, chest thumping heroics. All for show with none of the moral or ethical backbone demonstrated by people like Trumbo who paid the price for an earlier version of phony right-wing patriotism.
The true heroes often have to go it alone. They don't have crazy wingnut shooters who show up, drooling at the prospect of being able to fire their guns at someone. Anyone. And they don't show up on Fox "news" to sling the shit with other pretentious fools like Sean Hannity.
By the way, while on the blacklist, Trumbo received two Academy Awards under pseudonyms.
If you're interested in hearing the speech, it's about 9:50 in on this clip.
It's a good one. His friend's wife is played by the always impressive Gena Rowlands.
Lonely are the Brave, but wingnuts are neither.
@Patrick: Word.
Just as a quick thought experiment, how do you think Fox would treat this story?
Inner city real estate developer (black) finds a public school that has been closed (maybe this is Chicago). He brings a construction crew over, tears down the fence, sections off the interior to create apartments then starts selling them. He makes a pretty good penny but pays no compensation to the city. When officials show up to kick him out of the building, local gang members (also black) arrive, heavily armed, to defend the real estate developer's right to steal from the city.
Think Hannity would be fawning over this guy, calling him an American hero? Think conservatives would be screaming about this is all about freeeedom?
Fox would run a time ticker at the bottom of the screen demanding to know "How Long Before Government Officials Arrest Scofflaw Thief and Throw his Black Ass into Jail?"
The big takeaway I got from "Lonely Are the Brave" was that riding a horse on the Interstate at night can get you cancelled by a 40 foot semi loaded with toilets.
Trumo tended to write with a sledgehammer.
Chelsea Clinton is going to be a mom. And the wingnuts couldn't be more outraged.
First, according to some on Planet Imbecile, Hillary and Bill have been pushing Chelsea to time the baby to help the presidential run. In one account, it seems Hillary, rather than god, was the decider here. Hillary is more powerful than god? How cool is that? The election's in the bag.
Others are infuriated that a baby will "humanize" Hillary (she's not human now?). And finally, in between sprays of spittle, it seems they're upset that Hillary might use the baby as a prop--the height of immorality.
Except when someone like Sarah Palin does it.
Do these people have no one to look out for them? I mean, how do they get dressed in the morning? Who feeds them and washes the lint out of their belly buttons?
A very funny reaction from the Babies Are Everything crowd.
Patrick,
Toilets in a truck driven by Archie Bunker.
Marie. I share you assessment of Reid. I never would've thought of him as Lassiter, but maybe he is.
According to 'Casino Jack' Abramoff, "..."I don’t believe the [Supreme Court] justices understand the connection between political money and corruption,"...
Oh, I believe that SCOTUS understands exactly—and, frankly Scarlett, they just don't give a damn.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/17/jack-abramoff-supreme-court-campaign-finance_n_5169510.html
And now we're headed to nine months of morning sickness reportage. I can't wait. George whatshisname was great; this is destined to be breathtaking.
MAG,
Actually, they do give a damn. In fact, they give multiple damns, several nods to wingnut eschatology, and three or four right-wing Armageddons.
The truth is that the Roberts Court understands implicitly that political advantage is far more important than what is ethically, morally, or legally legitimate.
They are, in the end, not much different than politically obligated judges in 1930's Germany or Stalinist Russia who put personal connections on a plane far above the law, not to mention what's right or just.
They have no truck with Justice, and no patience with precedence.
It's not that they don't give a damn only about legalisms. They view legalities as barriers to political victory. They see legal and constitutional precedence as unnecessary hindrances to ideological ascendancy.
And that, the law be damned, is something they cannot abide.
Akhilleus: I think you credit the Roberts court with much more intelligence than it has. Unless Kennedy can be excused for dementia or altzheimers or some such, he's clearly an intellectual pygmy. The others--Scalia, Thomas, Alito--are sad Peter Principle people. The real question is, how to get rid of them. Gracefully, of course.
The Bundy kerfuffle evokes Bernie Taupin's aching lyrics to "American Triangle" which, though based in a different context, capture that crowd spot on:
"Angry kids, mean and dumb"
http://lyrics.wikia.com/Elton_John:American_Triangle