;)
The Commentariat -- April 22, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Sari Horwitz & Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post: "Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) will make all ex-felons in Virginia eligible to vote in the upcoming presidential election, part of a years-long effort to restore full voting rights to former convicts. McAuliffe's announcement in Richmond on Friday will allow an estimated 180,000 to 210,000 former felons who are not in prison or on probation or parole to register to vote this year in Virginia, a battleground state, according to a coalition of civil rights groups that had pushed for the restoration of voting rights. Advocates said McAuliffe's move was the biggest-ever single action taken to restore voting rights in this country." -- CW
*****
CW: The Washington Post has just posted a big package of stories & opinion pieces on President Obama's legacy. It begins with this essay by biographer David Maraniss. I haven't delved into any of it yet, but thought you'd like to know.
Arlette Saenz of ABC News: "President Obama is extending birthday greetings to Queen Elizabeth over lunch today, one day after Britain's longest-serving monarch turned 90. On his first full day in London, the president and First Lady Michelle Obama traveled to Windsor Castle for lunch with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip." -- CW
Mark Berman & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "FBI Director James Comey suggested Thursday that the bureau paid more than $1 million to access an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino attackers, the first time the agency has offered a possible price tag in the high-profile case. While speaking at a security forum in London hosted by the Aspen Institute, Comey would not offer a precise dollar figure, saying only that it cost 'a lot' to get into the phone." -- CW ...
... The Guardian story, by Danny Yadron, is here. --safari ...
... Update. Eric Lichtblau & Katie Benner of the New York Times do the math: "The director of the F.B.I. suggested Thursday that his agency paid at least $1.3 million to an undisclosed group to help hack into the encrypted iPhone used by an attacker in the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif." -- CW
Nathaniel Popper of the New York Times: "Regulators released on Thursday long-awaited proposed rules that would restrict how big financial institutions can pay their top executives. The new rules would make bankers wait at least four years to receive portions of their bonuses and force banks to find ways to claw back bonuses from bankers if their behavior leads to big financial losses. The new rules would apply only to incentive-based compensation -- generally bonuses -- which varies according to the performance of the bank and the individual executive." -- CW
Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "Volkswagen agreed on Thursday to fix or buy back nearly 500,000 diesel cars in the United States that are equipped with illegal emissions software. But the measures fell short of a broader settlement that will eventually also include fines and additional compensation for owners stemming from the carmaker's admission that it rigged diesel vehicles to cheat on pollution tests." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
...Christoph Rauwald of Bloomberg: "Volkswagen AG more than doubled provisions to pay for the emissions-cheating scandal, leading to the biggest loss in the German automaker's history while giving it a path toward assessing the full financial impact of the crisis." -- unwashed
Devin Henry of the Hill: "Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked a Republican effort to prevent further spending on an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule designed to establish federal regulatory control over small waterways. The measure ... failed to meet the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster; the vote was 56-42." -- CW
Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said he thinks he's doing a better job than his predecessor, John Boehner (R-Ohio). 'I think I do it better,' he told CNN in an interview this week." CW: That's not really a boast. A hampster would do a better job than the Boehner.
... Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) warned Thursday that overturning North Carolina's controversial bathroom law would make it easier for sex offenders to harass young children.... Gohmert singled out Target, which this week said that it will allow transgender people to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identities. That didn't sit well with Gohmert, who declared he won't be shopping at the retail giant anymore." -- CW
Dan Keating & Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post: "The U.S. suicide rate has increased sharply since the turn of the century, led by an even greater rise among middle-aged white people, particularly women, according to federal data released Friday. Last decade's severe recession, more drug addiction, 'gray divorce,' increased social isolation, and even the rise of the Internet and social media may have contributed to the growth in suicide, according to a variety of people who study the issue." -- CW
Tiq Milan of The Guardian: "Over the last few years, trans people have been visible like never before, with several television shows and reality series showcasing their lived experience... That increased cultural prominence has led to more acceptance than ever, yes, but also to an uncloaking of an ongoing strain of anti-trans prejudice and hatred." --safari
Paul Krugman reminds us of why we are in Alexander Hamilton's debt, in more senses than one. ...
Andrew Jackson had a great history. I think it's very rough when you take somebody off the bill. Andrew Jackson had a history of tremendous success for the country.... I think Harriet Tubman is fantastic. I would love to leave Andrew Jackson and see if we can come up with another denomination. Maybe we do the $2 bill or another bill. I don't like seeing it.... Yes, I think it's pure political correctness [to replace Jackson. He's] been on the bill for many, many years and really represented somebody that was really very important to this country. -- Donald Trump, on the "Today" show yesterday
If you saw yesterday's Commentariat, you know this is exactly what Ben Carson said, & if you read Steve M.'s post linked yesterday, you also know both of these nitwits learned their "history" watching Fox "News" Three Stooges morning show. -- Constant Weader ...
... Kevin Levin of The Daily Beast: "While the announcement [of Harriet Tubman] has been received with a great deal of excitement, it is not the first time in American history that African Americans have been featured on currency. African Americans were depicted in a wide range of scenes on Confederate currency during the first year of the war. Their presence ... highlight[s] the importance that Confederate leaders placed on the preservation of slavery and white supremacy to their new nation." --safari ...
... Ana Swanson of the Washington Post speaks to Harriet Tubman biographer Catherine Clinton about Tubman. -- CW
Brianna Ehley of Politico: "The Florida mailman who piloted a gyrocopter over Washington, D.C. and landed on the West Lawn of the Capitol last year was sentenced to 120 days of prison, U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips announced on Thursday. Douglas Hughes of Ruskin, Fla., pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last fall for flying his gyrocopter without a license into D.C. airspace. Hughes, dressed as a mailman at the time of the incident, said he was protesting campaign finance laws and came to deliver letters to members of Congress." -- CW
Presidential Race
And This Pantsuit Comes with a Full Metal Jacket, Ma'am. Mark Landler in the New York Times Magazine: "Throughout her career [Hillary Clinton] has displayed instincts on foreign policy that are more aggressive than those of President Obama -- and most Democrats.... Clinton's foreign-policy instincts are bred in the bone -- grounded in cold realism about human nature and what one aide calls 'a textbook view of American exceptionalism.'... For all their bluster about bombing the Islamic State into oblivion, neither Donald J. Trump nor Senator Ted Cruz of Texas have demonstrated anywhere near the appetite for military engagement abroad that Clinton has." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... CW: To readers put off by Ben Nelson's Norton's over-the-top diatribe against the Clintons -- here's a scary dose of reality for ya.
Stephan Braun of the AP: "It's not just Wall Street banks. Most companies and groups that paid ... Hillary Clinton to speak between 2013 and 2015 have lobbied federal agencies in recent years, and more than one-third are government contractors, an Associated Press review has found. Their interests are sprawling and would follow Clinton to the White House should she win election this fall.... Clinton's two-year speaking tour, which took place after she resigned as secretary of state, 'puts her in the position of having to disavow that money is an influence on her while at the same time backing campaign reform based on the influence of money,' said [Lawrence] Noble [of the Campaign Legal Center &], a former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission. 'It ends up creating the appearance of influence.'" -- CW
John Harwood of the New York Times: Vice President Joe Biden "remains neutral in the battle between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, but not between their campaign styles. He'll take Mr. Sanders's aspirational approach over Mrs. Clinton's caution any day. 'I like the idea of saying, "We can do much more," because we can,' Mr. Biden said in an interview on the Washington-to-Wilmington, Del., Amtrak train.... 'I don't think any Democrat's ever won saying, "We can't think that big -- we ought to really downsize here because it's not realistic,"' he said in a mocking tone. 'C'mon man, this is the Democratic Party! I'm not part of the party that says, "Well, we can't do it."'" -- CW ...
... Tim Egan, who uses his column today to slam Bernie Sanders & Donald Trump, acknowledges that Hillary Clinton lacks a big idea, & he urges her to get one.
Nicholas Confessore & Sarah Cohen of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton has burned through tens of millions of dollars to counter Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in states that are unlikely to be general election battlegrounds, delaying any pivot to the general election and shrinking her potential financial advantage over the eventual Republican nominee." -- CW
Nick Gass of Politico: "Hillary Clinton slammed the abundance of guns in the United States on Thursday, in her latest remarks stressing the need for a national movement to blunt the influence of the gun lobby and end the cycle of violence perpetuated with firearms. 'It is just too easy for people to reach for a gun to solve their problems. It makes no sense,' Clinton said in remarks preceding a panel in Hartford, Connecticut, that featured family members of gun-violence victims, including at nearby Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012." -- CW ...
... Christine Stuart of ctnewsjunkie.com: "Hillary Clinton ... focus[ed] her message on the gun issue Thursday during a campaign stop at the YMCA on Albany Avenue in Hartford's north end'... 'If anything else we're killing 33,000 people a year,' Clinton said. If that was any other epidemic 'we'd be doing everything we possibly could to save lives.'" -- unwashed
... While Hill's talking guns, Bill's getting pizza according to Randall Beach of the New Haven Register: "Bill Clinton gets a warm welcome at New Haven's Pepe's." -- unwashed
... Nick Gass: Jane Sanders ... laced into [Clinton's] approach Thursday. 'I just don't like to see it be politicized. I think that Secretary Clinton's gun record is a lot more spotty than Bernie's,' Jane Sanders ... said in an interview with CNN.... Sanders noted that her husband [Bernie] has, since 1988, 'been consistently supportive of instant background checks, opposed to assault weapons, the sale and manufacture of assault weapons, for closing the gun show loophole, ending the strawman problem. And I think that's been since 1988.." -- CW
Robert Costa & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "A contested [Republican] convention would mean that instead of focusing on a running mate that would most improve their chances of swaying voters nationwide in November, Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich may first consider whether someone will help them win over delegates. -- CW
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: A Republican National Committee panel on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected an effort to make preliminary changes to the rules governing the party's convention this summer, batting away a move to make it more difficult for party leaders to draft a 'white knight' candidate into the race.... The House Rules[, which the panel let stand,] can be interpreted as allowing the chairman of the convention, Speaker Paul D. Ryan, to reopen presidential nominations...." -- CW ...
... Jonathan Martin: "The Republican National Committee is scaling back its financial commitments to some of the most hotly contested states because of flagging fund-raising, the most concrete evidence yet of how the party's divisive and protracted presidential race is threatening the entire Republican ticket in November." -- CW ...
... Jonathan Martin & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's newly installed campaign chief sought to assure members of the Republican National Committee on Thursday night that Mr. Trump recognized the need to reshape his persona and that his campaign would begin working with the political establishment that he has scorned to great effect. Addressing about 100 committee members at the spring meeting [in Hollywood, Florida]..., the campaign chief, Paul Manafort, bluntly suggested the candidate's incendiary style amounted to an act." ...
... CW: Maybe Trump is capable of toning down the obnoxious. (Or maybe not.) Maybe he can learn to use a teleprompter. Reportedly, he is practicing. But exactly how is he going to stop being ignorant? Are we to believe a guy who is "speaking mainly with myself" because "I've said a lot of things" will now master policy books compiled by the leading (Oxymoron Warning!) confederate intellectuals"? ...
... Best sentence in Times story: "Mr. Manafort's comments, which included a PowerPoint presentation, came during a happy-hour reception at the beachside hotel resort here." Kinda reflects the gravity of the matter, doesn't it? ...
... ** Will the Real Donald Trump Please Stand Up? Paul Waldman comments, in the Washington Post, on Trump's upcoming "transformation": "... the truth is that Trump is the most inauthentic candidate there is.... Just try to imagine for a moment what the reaction in the media would be if Hillary Clinton -- another politician who is constantly criticized for being insufficiently 'real' -- had her campaign manager say in public that she would be transforming her personality for the general election, because it's all an act anyway." -- CW
Eli Stokols & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Delegates face death threats from Trump supporters. At the Republican National Committee's spring meeting, delegates describe vicious missives demanding they support the GOP front-runner." -- CW
Clinton May Be a Scary Hawk, but Trump Is Scarier. Edward-Isaac Dovere & Bryan Bender of Politico: "President Barack Obama is trying but failing to reassure foreign leaders convinced that Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. They're in full-boil panic.... In meetings, private dinners and phone calls, world leaders are urgently seeking explanations from Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Trade Representative Michael Froman on down. American ambassadors are asking for guidance from Washington about what they're supposed to say. 'They're scared and they're trying to understand how real this is,' said one American official in touch with foreign leaders." -- CW
Eric Levitz of New York: "Donald Trump says transgender people should be able to "use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate.' On NBC's Today show Thursday morning, the GOP front-runner said he opposes North Carolina's 'very strong' bathroom bill, which allows businesses to prohibit transgender people from doing just that." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Eric Levitz: "Call Ted Cruz old-fashioned, but he just doesn't think we should legalize child molestation for the sake of political correctness. That was the essence of the Texas senator's rebuttal to Donald Trump on Thursday, after the GOP front-runner declared his opposition to North Carolina's 'bathroom bill.'" --safari ...
Donald Trump is no different from politically correct leftist elites. Today, he joined them in calling for grown men to be allowed to use little girls'; public restrooms. As the dad of young daughters, I dread what this will mean for our daughters -- and for our sisters and our wives. It is a reckless policy that will endanger our loved ones.... Donald stands up for this irresponsible policy while at the same time caving in on defending individual freedoms and religious liberty. -- Ted Cruz, in a thoughtful, measured response to Donald Trump's opposition to the North Carolina law -- CW
Steve Benen: Donald Trump said again Thursday morning, to applause, that he believes in raising taxes for the wealthy. "... when Trump earns applause for saying he supports raising taxes on the wealthy, he conveniently overlooks the fact that he's running on a platform that calls for massive tax breaks for the wealthy.... It's entirely possible ... that Trump has no idea what his campaign has put forward in terms of tax plans, and in turn, he may not realize the great distance between his rhetoric and reality.... But either way, there's ample evidence that Trump does not agree with his most popular policy position." -- CW ...
... CW: Now wouldn't it be something if some journalist asked him about the discrepancy between his rhetoric & his plan-on-paper? Nah, too much to ask when we're more concerned about the source of that thing on his head:
Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Senator Ted Cruz says the party's nominating rules have been in place from the beginning. Mr. Cruz is right, and he may be losing the public argument anyway. With polls showing a strong preference for nominating the candidate with the most popular votes -- even if he fails to secure a majority of delegates before the convention in July -- Mr. Cruz has brushed up this week against an uncomfortable reality: His only road to victory is a messy one.... Mr. Cruz ... has appeared increasingly frustrated amid questions about his path." -- CW
Unsurprisingly, Ted Cruz rushes to the defense of longtime jerkwad Curt Schilling. -- Paul Waldman
ESPN fired Curt Schilling for making the rather obvious point that we shouldn't allow grown male adult strangers alone in a bathroom with little girls. That's a point anyone who is rational should understand. -- Ted Cruz, in a thoughtful, measured response to Curt Schilling's firing for forwarding & defending an obnoxious photo of his idea of a trans person -- CW
"John Kasich Reveals Secret Balanced-Budget Plan Is Stored in Undisclosed Location in Columbus, Ohio." Jonathan Chait:" John Kasich has been running for president as the candidate of sobriety and 'ideas,' the main one of which is his 'plan' to balance the budget. The trouble ... is that such a plan does not exist.... The other day, Kasich stopped by the Washington Post editorial page for an interview, where columnists Catherine Rampell and Ruth Marcus attempted to pin him down. The result was a comic masterpiece best appreciated if read in the voice of Jerry Lundegaard, William H. Macy's Fargo character." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Here's a transcript of the full Kasich interview. -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Kevin Miller of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald: Maine's "Gov. Paul LePage vetoed a bill Wednesday that would allow pharmacists to dispense an anti-overdose drug without a prescription, saying that allowing addicts to keep naloxone on hand 'serves only to perpetuate the cycle of addiction.' The Legislature passed the bill 'under the hammer' -- or unanimously without a roll call -- this month as part of lawmakers' attempts to address Maine's growing opioid addiction epidemic." -- CW
David Edwards of RawStory: "Sheriff Chuck Wright of Spartanburg County, South Carolina came under fire this week after he recently argued that minorities were 'the most racist people in America' and compared the NAACP to the Ku Klux Klan." --safari
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge in Los Angeles has again shut down California Attorney General Kamala Harris' drive to obtain the donor list for Americans for Prosperity, an influential political group funded by Charles and David Koch. U.S. District Court Judge Manuel Real issued a permanent injunction Thursday barring Harris' office from requiring AFP to submit the donor list. And AFP may not be considered deficient or delinquent in its filings because it won't turn over the form, the judge said. In his ruling, Real said the California attorney general's claims that she needed the information for investigative purposes were dubious...." -- CW
Derek Markham of Treehugger: San Francisco "just took a big step toward its goal of powering the city with 100% renewable electricity by 2025 with the passage of a bill that will require new residential and commercial buildings to include rooftop solar, either solar electric or solar water heating. This ordinance, which was unanimously passed by the city's Board of Supervisors, is essentially the extension of an existing regulation that required new building projects to designate 15% of a building's roof as being "solar ready," which means unshaded and clear of obstructions and reserved for solar." -- CW
Way Beyond
Ian Shapira of the Washington Post: "More than 13 years after an Egyptian cleric was kidnapped off the streets of Milan by CIA operatives, one former agency officer now living in Portugal faces extradition to Italy and the possibility of a four-year prison sentence for the abduction -- an outcome that a former agency historian describes as 'unprecedented.' Sabrina De Sousa, 60, was one of 26 Americans convicted in absentia by Italian courts for her alleged role in the February 2003 rendition of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Robinson Meyer of The Atlantic: "Among the world's rivers, the Amazon reigns with the heaviest crown. Now, researchers have added yet another jewel to the river's crown. A team of Brazilian and American scientists have discovered a new sponge and coral reef more than 600 miles long (1,000 kilometers), located at the mouth of the Amazon River." --safari
Bennish Ahmed of ThinkProgress: "A state of emergency was declared after 11 members of a single, remote community of Aboriginal Canadians tried to take their lives earlier this month. But as many indigenous and political leaders noted, the issue isn't isolated to Attawapiskat Canada -- it isn't even limited to Canada. According to a report by Survive International, interference by outside forces has effected indigenous communities around the world for the worst."--safari
News Lede
TMZ: The performer "Prince was treated for a drug overdose 6 days before his death ... multiple sources tell TMZ." CW: TMZ is not the most reliable source, but the celebrity sheet does often get stories right. Obviously, I have no idea if TMZ is right about this, but I read elsewhere that an autopsy would be performed, so sooner or later, the public should get some clarity.
Share Article
Reader Comments (24)
I have just re-read Henry Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" for the first time since maybe 1960, when I was too young to form a sensible opinion. I was surprised to find it crap mitigated only by the last paragraph.
But Rand Paul would like it. And so would those freeedom secessionists (altho Thoreau would go further than they, as he would secede from the state, too). Admittedly, Thoreau wrote "Civil Disobedience" when he was a young man, & young men don't make the best philosophers, but really, it is crap.
I don't think I've ever read "Walden Pond." Maybe I'll give it a go. I do like simple living.
Marie
"As the dad of young daughters, I dread what this will mean for our daughters — and for our sisters and our wives. It is a reckless policy that will endanger our loved ones." -Ted (creeper) Cruz
Ted's Tactics:
I like ol' Ted's clever use of the future simple tense here, instilling visions of imminent mass molestation in bathrooms across America now that Drumpf has declared himself indifferent to the modern day status quo. Because, in reality, if this really was such an urgent public safety issue, and this law was indeed necessary, we would have already had endless cases of evidence to turn to. And if that were the case, Ted would've hammered down on this core belief of his using the present perfect continuous tense, claiming perverted men have been molesting girls across America since time unknown, that it's been creating mass chaos in bathroom across our great nation. Obviously the present perfect tense is the one to use when linking past events to the present...
Oh, but there's one little problem here. We don't actually have mountains of evidence proving Ted's case, and Ted knows it. So he employs his snake oil tactics, enflames the bigotry among his "faith"ful followers, and preaches future Armageddon because apparently rescinding the useless law now will just open the floodgates in our bleak, paranoid future. Winger logic.
@Marie: In the 10/19/15 New Yorker Kathryn Schulz wrote a scathing piece about Thoreau called "Pond Scum." She concludes that the man who emerges in "Walden" is far closer in spirit to Ayn Rand: suspicious of government, fanatical about individualism, egotistical, elitist, convinced that other people lead pathetic lives yet categorically opposed to helping them. She does praise the scientist part in him, but it's limited. How many students were told of David's boldness, his moral high ground or that seductive listening to your own drummer thing but never really knew the man whose "deepest desire and signature act was to turn his back on the rest of us."
Both the Washington Post and the New York Times have posts on the changing numbers of suicide in various age groups in the US. Neither one discusses the problem of access to mental health care. Neither one goes into the dynamics of suicide within the various age groups, although they do note the change in the overall ways people commit suicide. So overall, they point out that in the 15-24 year old age group, there hasn't been that much of a change in suicide as a means of death. Okay, but in that age, there aren't really very many deaths to begin with. But to put it another way, homicide/suicide is now the #1 means of death in that group, and little girls have found out how to hang themselves. Homicide/suicide is not the most common form of death in the older groups, but it's a public health emergency everywhere. One has to search for numbers: f'r instance, depression is the #1 cause of lost time at work. It's prevalence in the work force is estimated to be 20% (not that those same 20% have depression all the time. Depression is remitting and relapsing). Depression was a public health emergency before the crash, and kids were killing themselves in more frequent numbers before the crash.
If you're a 50 year old man with heart disease in backwoods Maine, 200 miles from care, and your wife has left you after the mill shut down, your access to relief from misery is a gun or a bottle. Take your pick.
Deutsche Welle has a very nice video on depression in soccer players, estimated to be about 33% with high rates of completed suicide. It directly addresses the barriers to care, even in a society which allows access to mental health treatment.
http://multimedia.dw.com/depression-the-dark-side-of-football#321
Hillary Clinton's lucrative speaking tour remains a puzzlement. One might conclude that glomming onto even more millions was more important to Clinton than becoming president. She may not have "decided" she was going to run during the period she was raking in the big bucks, but she certainly knew she wanted the top job. She & Bill were already fabulously wealthy, so she didn't need the money. She also couldn't have overlooked the appearance of impropriety her financial debt to big corporations posed. She had to have known the issue would arise in relation to the shady characters who donate to the Clinton Foundation, yet during that same period, she added her name to the Foundation.
One suspects she hoped to be crowned rather than elected. I get that Hillary Clinton thinks she's above it all -- we all probably think we're more wonderful than we are -- but most of us know that others don't see us in the same gleaming light we see ourselves & that what we do reflects who we are. I guess we have to believe that IOKIYHRC.
Marie
Here is a long, but insightful piece on how Hillary Clinton has become what some call, a hawk. It is written by Mark Landler who not only has interviewed Hillary many times, but has had access to many others who weighed in. Landler writes well, lets us in the private ways and means of military and political transactions. And Hillary emerges as someone we get to know a little bit better and maybe even respect highly for her diligence and knowledge. Give it a shot.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/magazine/how-hillary-clinton-became-a-hawk.html?smid=tw-nytmag&smtyp=cur&hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
@PD Pepe: Thanks. I just read Schulz's essay on "Walden Pond," & it conforms to my view of "Civil Disobedience." It's here. I guess my hoping that Thoreau would have grown up between writings is dashed. But I still may read "Walden Pond."
In my years growing up, we had a book lying about the house that my maternal grandfather had written in 1939. He grew up not far from Concord, & like Thoreau, went to Harvard. My mother spoke highly of the book -- as if it were a marvelous family legacy -- but I don't know that she -- or anyone -- ever read it. Finally, when I was in my 40s, she gave me a copy of my grandfather's book, & I read it. I won't say I gasped at every page, but I gasped more than once. His "ideas" were horrifying -- smug, misogynistic, elitist. I suspect I'll have the same reaction when I read "Walden Pond" -- a marvelous American legacy better left on the shelf where the main thing to admire is the art of the bookbinder.
Marie
Marie,
Clinton's tone deafness where her image is concerned is a point I commented on some time ago. I'm still up in the air about how that could have happened. As you say, she must have known she was going to take another crack at the brass ring, and given what must have been excruciating years under the microscope next to philandering Bill, not to mention the phalanx of wealthy wingers whose entire lives were bent on destroying the Clintons, it is a head shaking wonder that she hasn't been more careful.
Surely she must have (or should have) had smart people whispering in her ear to cut back on the greedy speaking tours or at least go about in a less conspicuous manner. If she received such advice, she clearly didn't listen. Or perhaps she listens only to selected viziers who tell her what she wants to hear.
Maybe, she does believe she's above it all or that she's paid her dues many times over and now she gets to do what she wants and can flip off anyone who complains about it. Whatever the reason, it gives me a minor case of the willies. She is clearly not a stupid person but you don't have to be stupid to be blind to necessity and propriety (see Clinton, Bill).
Which makes me wonder what new bullshit awaits her. And us. And if elected, will she continue this sort of don't-give-a-damn approach?
Not so good for the ego to wake up this AM and see others re-reading Thoreau and actually thinking about him, while I fell asleep making my way through a biography of a occult-soaked science fiction editor from the 40's, but setting the two pursuits side by side reminds me that one sf writer in the early 70's brightly remarked, "Thoreau was a man who confused rustic vacations with life." Don't know that writer's politics.
And speaking of ego, I suspect that's at least half of what we are talking about whenever we discuss politicians. There has to be a very large, if not always healthy, ego organ-pulsating away in the middle of every politician, from the local mayor to Presidential candidates, constantly drumming out "me, me, me." That Trump and HRC (and Cruz and Sanders) have that much in common, explains a lot.
Here on Lenin's birthday and Earth Day both ( to the conspiracy-minded no coincidence, surely) a revealing picture of government at work (for those who would like it to.)
How would Volkswagen would have treated its millions of misled customers if there were no government watchdog? And how about the newly unwrapped government effort to bring sanity to financial executives' compensation? And the thoughtful democrats getting in the way of those who would have decided that we should be free to pollute "small" waterways because they're, well, apparently small enough to fail?
And for those who don't want government to work? This morning's favorite, another predictable series of Repugnant attacks on the IRS, their boogeyman of choice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/us/politics/irs-fights-back-against-house-republicans-attacks.html?
Why these R's run for office in the first place still escapes me. In their case, it must be ALL ego and no brain at all.
@Ken Winkes: Thanks for so neatly linking all of today's disparate news & opinions.
Marie
Youthful philosophizing (à la Thoreau) does not always guarantee mountain top wisdom or even much internal consistency, so one must of necessity, read something like "Civil Disobedience" with a squint in the eye.
Thoreau is one of those guys everyone seems to know but few have actually read. I'll bet there are stacks of Thoreau's books on shelves across the country that have never been cracked. Everyone seems to think they know all about it already. "Walden" is certainly one of those books. Like Joyce's "Finnegan's Wake", it's a book many own but few have ever finished (or if they started, got no further than "Brékkek Kékkek Kékkek Kékkek! Kóax Kóax Kóax! Ualu Ualu Ualu! Quaouauh!" in the fourth paragraph of the first chapter, at which point they put down the book and picked up the Jamesons.).
I didn't read the Shulz article in its entirety, but I get her point. Was Thoreau a bit of a misanthropic crank? Sure. And I remember hearing way back in high school what a hypocrite he was because mom's pies and laundry, and yada-yada-yada. Okay. But apart from all that, his nature writing, his observations about the pond itself over the course of the changing seasons are often wonderful. And there is little question about how much the environmental movement in this country owes to Thoreau.
He was a major influence on John Muir, a guy who practically single-handedly invented the modern conservation movement. So there's that. So I'm happy to take that away from "Walden" and overlook Thoreau's offbeat weirdness about his fellow human beings. In Shulz's opinion, however, this a bad idea because we cannot "cherry pick" our way through "Walden". Really? Why not? We do that for almost everything we read. I can still read Plato and come away with fresh inspirations without worrying that the fact that the guy hated the arts, distrusted democracy, and suggested that we all serve philosopher kings invalidates everything else he wrote.
And I'm most certainly not suggesting that cherry picking is the essential way to read things. If that were the case, one could read "Mein Kampf" and come away thinking "Gee, he wasn't really such a bad egg." Some books, philosophical arguments, for instance, most definitely require internal consistency and logic. The center must hold or everything falls apart. "Walden" is not that kind of book even though Thoreau may have hoped it would be and some read it with the expectation that it must be that way. One does not have to buy into Thoreau's peccadilloes in order to appreciate his estimation of the way the forces of capitalism can threaten natural wonders. His book about Maine makes this point perfectly. He saw the depletion of the forests around Mount Katahdin in northern Maine by logging interests as long term destruction for short term gain. And you know what? If you hike up the mountain today, you'll still see giant, rusting remnants of that time still scarring the tree line. I've been there.
Everyone is free to look at in their own way, of course, but I tend to look at this book (and Thoreau) in the way we approach certain irascible friends and acquaintances. We like them for certain things and in spite of others. If the bad shit outweighs the good, then, at some point, the consorting desists. But I can still pick up "Walden" and smile, so I'll let the other stuff go. I've been to Walden Pond and I can't help but grin at some of the silliness of Thoreau's fantasies, but even a misanthropic crank can come out with some pretty nifty observations now and then.
Just my opinion.
Akhilleus,
Your opinion...and mine. We don't have to eat the whole dinner.
Thoreau's descriptions of nature, the fact that he along with other Romantics noticed natural phenomena as something distinct, as something worthwhile in itself, his memorable lines ("Time is the stream I go a'fishing in" or something close to that) and as you mention his influence on later writers, naturalists and civil libertarians, not to mention the pages of Thoreau in the pockets of most who IMHO represented the best part of the late 60's and early 70's would be enough.
And then there was that much-quoted rejoinder to Emerson, when Emerson asked him why he was in jail protesting the Mexican War outrage. Why are you not? Thoreau reportedly said. Hard to beat that.
As in a lot of retrospective analysis, there's always the danger of whiggishness, which I understand to be the application of current standards to figures from the past. A few years back, we had that discussion about Jefferson and slavery. Seems to me that considering his time and place, Thoreau had every right to his naivete, and while we have an equal right to question and criticize it, out of respect for the mark he left and as a nod to my own youth, when life was far simpler, I do so with an affectionate smile.
Ken,
Lenin's birthday AND Earth Day? Damn commie liberals. They must have known about this all along! They were hoping for a day when Lenin would take over the earth. A-ha!
Your point about Confederate attacks on the IRS is a perfect example of the feckless and cowardly nature of the Modern Republican Party. They go after the easiest targets. And even when they don't succeed, they can say, "Hey, we went after those bastards! Din' we?" The IRS is everyone's favorite piñata. So no need for nuance or understanding or an appreciation of how their salaries are paid and how their pet projects are supported. Like the Ted Cruz/Curt Schilling/Louie Gohmert approach to public rest rooms. Anything outside a very narrow range is just that: outside. They don't like thinking, they don't like people who don't look like them or believe what they believe, and they don't like--sorry, they hate--government.
Funny that so many of them choose to spend entire careers in government, mooching off taxpayers and accomplishing nothing, people like Paul Ryan whose total legislative accomplishments, in 17 years--total!--are renaming a post office in his home town and getting a tax break for manufacturers of arrow heads. That's it. Two bills passed in 17 years. But this guy is now SPEAKER!!! Oh, but he did submit a bill for taxpayers to fund his budget committee: $12M for two years, for him and his staff and committee members. That's a lot of coffee and donuts. Where did he think that money was coming from?
Sorry for the caps and excessive exclamation points. It's a substitute for opening the window and screaming.
And since you brought it up, science fiction editor from the 40's with an interest in the occult? John W. Campbell? The only other person I can come up with who has a Sci-fi/occult connection is (eek!) L. Ron Hubbard.
Apropos of Ken's and Akhilleus' exchange reminded me of something Geoffrey Wheatcroft said about Chris Hitchens:
Reading these various pieces,[ Hitchen's works]" one begins to see an answer to the central question surrounding Hitchens: if he was so good, why was he so bad?; or at least, if he was so right, why was he so wrong? Another word too often used about him was “erudite”, but that really isn’t so. He was very well read, which is a different thing, but not deeply learned; he was a brilliant critic, but he was no historian. To the extent that he paid much attention to academic studies at Balliol, he read PPE; had he read History there he would have been taught by Maurice Keen and Richard Cobb, two great historians and teachers who might have provided some of the wider knowledge that he lacked."
And so, yes, we don't have to "eat the whole dinner," but important to know what we need to leave on the plate.
If Marie will let me sneak this in, Akhilleus, no, not Campbell but Ray Palmer, editor of "Amazing" and later "Fate" magazines, and perpetrator of the Great Shaver Mystery, er Hoax, which perfectly fit the paranoia of the WWII and post-war years. Like today's R's, who pander to the needlessly frightened and oh, so credulous, Palmer sold a ton of stuff to the ignorant. It's a living, I guess.
"Suicide Rates Climb In U.S., Especially Among Adolescent Girls"
Victoria -
Thank you for your posts re: Depression & Suicide - matters close to my heart and of great concern. Likewise, the dearth (or absence) of available Mental Health Care, which you have justifiably emphasized.
Coincidentally (or not), at midnight last night, NPR broadcast an interview with a statistician from the CDC's Nat'l Center for Health Statistics, focusing on Suicide:
"It had been decreasing almost steadily since 1986, and then what happened is there was a turnaround . . . [and] our youngest have some of the highest percent increases."
Her analysis addresses << girls between the ages of 10 and 14. Though they make up a very small portion of the total suicides, the rate in that group jumped the most - it experienced the largest percent increase, tripling over 15 years from 0.5 to 1.7 per 100,000 people. >>
If of interest, the text & broadcast are available here:
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/04/22/474888854/suicide-rates-climb-in-u-s-especially-among-adolescent-girls
Ken,
Thanks. And we'll end this right here.
@Akhilleus & Ken Winkes. Nope, nope, one more thing:
"The rest of our weekend — sleeping arrangements, hand-done work, hand-prepared food — was simple enough to please Thoreau, who I am convinced was a nice fellow who confused rustic vacations with life." -- Alexei Panshin, Rite of Passage, Chapter 11 (p. 157)
Marie
Degrees of separation...
Marie,
Funny that you should bring up Alexei Panshin. I knew of his work but never really got into it as a kid. But now, looking up the book you quote, "Rite of Passage", I see that it garnered a favorable review from the sci-fi writer James Blish.
Whooooooshhhhh
Time warp back to fourteen years old!
As a young fan of the original Star Trek series (and youthful fan of sci-fi in general) I scoured local book stores for similar fiction. I discovered (at my favorite book store) an early novelization of Gene Roddenberry's wonderful universe.
I read a few more after that, all written by Blish; very well written, I might add.
It's sad to see that the universe created by the 60's era Roddenberry, of a multicultural, science based ship's company in which women were not (entirely) relegated to sex objects, and which opted for the rational before the explosive, has morphed in, contemporary culture, even under the oversight of the mostly estimable J.J. Abrams, to yet another narrative in which the most important thing is to blow shit up.
Roddenberry would be appalled. Blish also.
And very likely Thoreau (who was quoted in one of the early Star Trek episodes, if memory serves).
Re. Mental health services. Most here in N CA pin the loss of services to Gov. Reagan, who stripped funding from established institutions. We have a remarkable sheriff, Tom Allman, who has proposed a radical but plausible solution.
TMZ is, for sure, not a completely reliable source; however, in reporting on the strange death of Prince, I am guessing they got it mostly right. Below is the link from Salon. So sad.....
ww.salon.com/2016/04/22/the_first_clue_into_what_caused_princes_death_the_music_icon_reportedly_overdosed_on_percocet_a_week_before_he_was_found_dead/?source=newsletter
Cheers for McAuliffe on restring voting rights to ex-felons. They've paid the debt and done their time.
It will be a very cold day in hell when similar action is taken here in Florida.
Here is a copy of the letter I sent to Rachel Maddow after her show tonight. I am still reeling from her refusal to make the connection between opioids and Heroin!
Dear Rachel-
I am an unabashed "fangirl!" However, I feel deeply disappointed in you and your show tonight. You began with a long sequence about heroin overdoses, the lifesaving drug, Naloxone, and the creepy craziness of Paul LePage for refusing to okay this drug for those in Maine who need it. You made that VERY clear!
What you did not make clear--and skipped away from--was the death of Prince, and his connection to opioid addiction and Naloxone. We don't know all of the specifics yet, but soon we will. What we do know is that his plane flying back to MN from Atlanta made an emergency landing in Moline, ILL, and he was administered Naloxone on the plane by EMC medics. He was then transported to a hospital and told to stay--which he refused. He flew back to MN and, at some point, went to a Walgreen pharmacy and filled a prescription for Percocet. Then, home again--seemingly okay. Gave a "party" to show he was fine in the next couple of days--then mysteriously found dead in his elevator (alone) a couple of days later. HELLO! What is the mystery here?
No, there have been no conclusive autopsy results as yet, and it would be useless to speculate the where, what and when. However, we do have the information that he was prescribed Percocet after terrible pain for hip surgery about a year ago. The pain was apparently unrelenting, and he continued to take Percocet, one of the most addictive drugs known. (We do not know who prescribed it, how he got it, or how much he took.) We do know that he had been in an "unresponsive state" on the plane ride back to MN from Atlanta and had "recovered" after a dose of Naloxone. We also do not know when or how much Percocet he took upon arriving home in MN, but I do not think it will be difficult to follow the trail. His death was quite obviously caused by an overdose of opioids (timeline unknown). That is the tragedy of addiction.
What mystifies and upsets me so greatly is that you began tonight's program with an excellent presentation of Heroin addiction and lifesaving Naloxone. You did not follow your talk about Heroin with the obvious--that people turn to Heroin who can no longer get opioids. There are almost as many deaths from opioid overdoses as from Heroin--mostly those who have connections and can keep getting the drug. Those who cannot turn to Heroin. You had the making of an excellent story, which you "wussed" out on. Too bad. This is sooooooo important in our national dialogue right now.
It is an epidemic!
Prince was not a Michael Jackson (although he obviously had "enablers," as did Jackson). He was a "wunderkind" which we rarely see in a lifetime. He also could be the "poster boy" for an innocent who gets addicted to Percocet (or other opioid) to relieve actual pain. He was not a "down and outer!"
Please follow up on this story when you have the "facts" you need, Rachel. America deserves to know, and you are precisely the one to tell this story.
Sadly-
Kate Madison, LCSW (retired)
Certified Addictions Counselor