The Commentariat -- August 27, 2014
Internal links, graphic removed.
Side-Stepping Congress to Save the World. Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Obama administration is working to forge a sweeping international climate change agreement to compel nations to cut their planet-warming fossil fuel emissions, but without ratification from Congress. In preparation for this agreement, to be signed at a United Nations summit meeting in 2015 in Paris, the negotiators are meeting with diplomats from other countries to broker a deal to commit some of the world's largest economies to enact laws to reduce their carbon pollution. But under the Constitution, a president may enter into a legally binding treaty only if it is approved by a two-thirds majority of the Senate. To sidestep that requirement, President Obama's climate negotiators are devising what they call a 'politically binding' deal that would 'name and shame' countries into cutting their emissions."
Julia Preston of the New York Times: "United States Senator Marco Rubio, the Republican from Florida who once advocated for a broad immigration overhaul that would have included a path to legal status for people now in the country illegally, urged President Obama [in a letter] on Tuesday not to take unilateral action on the issue even to slow the pace of deportations.... In an interview..., Mr. Rubio said he found that the 'fundamental impediment' to an overhaul was that Republican lawmakers and many voters did not trust Mr. Obama to carry out enforcement provisions. By taking unilateral action to suspend deportations, Mr. Rubio said, the White House would be 'proving them right' and would 'further exacerbate the divisions.' Rubio's new immigration plan: border security!" ...
... Peter Hamby of CNN: Marco Rubio "... the Florida senator and likely presidential candidate, was the headline speaker at a 'Faith and Freedom' barbecue fundraiser for Rep. Jeff Duncan, the tea party-backed congressman who represents what many Republicans consider the most conservative House district in the state.... Rubio ... was quickly interrupted by a group of protestors -- self-identified DREAMers..., who loudly heckled the senator for abandoning last year's sweeping immigration package.... The audience of nearly 1,200 conservatives jeered the protestors as Rubio waited for them to be escorted out of the Anderson Civic Center, scolding them in the process. 'We are a sovereign country that deserves to have immigration laws,' Rubio said. 'You're doing harm to your own cause because you don't have a right to illegally immigrate to the United States.' The crowd cheered him on." ...
... Greg Sargent has a good post reminding us how far Rubio & other Republicans have descended on immigration reform. ...
... NEW. Obama Is Not Listening to Marco. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "The White House is considering proposals from business and immigrant rights groups that are pressing President Obama to provide hundreds of thousands of new green cards for high-tech workers and the relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent residents."
Maureen Dowd: President Obama "dispatched Eric Holder to Ferguson, and deputized Al Sharpton, detaching himself at the very moment when he could have helped move the country forward on an issue close to his heart. It's another perverse reflection of his ambivalent relationship to power." ...
... CW: I would like to know exactly how Dowd thinks Obama "could have helped move the country forward" on race relations. Maybe Marco Rubio has some ideas. Or Cornel West! ...
Jonathan Chait: "The political subculture of anti-Obama leftists has entered a phase by this point in the Obama presidency where the truth of its worldview is so well-established to its own adherents that it requires no exposition. Tom Frank, an anti-Obama leftist, interviews Cornel West, another anti-Obama leftist, in a conversation so deeply marinated in shared assumptions that, at one point, both interviewer and interviewee agree that nobody disagrees with them.... Because they cannot conceive of any limits to Obama's power, betrayal and haplessness are the only causes they can imagine for their distress." CW Note: Some readers thought I should link the Frank-West interview, tho I had already decided against it. Well, it's linked now.
BTW, Simon Maloy of Salon has a good response to Dowd's previous column excoriating President Obama (from way back on Sunday), which you could just apply to today's Dowd column excoriating Obama.
Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "The Obama administration on Tuesday named Kevin J. Counihan, who ran Connecticut's successful health insurance marketplace, as the chief executive of the federal marketplace serving consumers in 36 states." ...
... MEANWHILE.... Andrea Peterson of the Washington Post: "A former acting director of cybersecurity at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was convicted on child pornography charges, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday. Timothy DeFoggi, 56, was convicted of 'engaging in a child exploitation enterprise, conspiracy to advertise and distribute child pornography, and accessing a computer with intent to view child pornography.'" ...
... CW: Wouldn't you think a cybersecurity expert would know how to hide his Web identity? DeFoggi worked for HHS during the Obama administration (not clear if he's a civil servant or a Sebelius hire). His disgusting little sexual proclivities aside, his carelessness is another indicator of the ineptitude of HHS. Maybe the new team can fix it.
Down the Donut Hole. Kelsey Snell of Politico on Burger King's move from the U.S. to Canada (via it's purchase of Tim Hortons, a Canadian donut shop chain): "Even the loss of the Whopper and fries won't budge Congress.... The impotent Washington response to losing an iconic American fast food company over a tax issue is a reflection of just how dysfunctional Congress has become -- and a stark illustration of how far apart the two parties are on tax reform. Simply put, many Democrats want to ban these so-called tax inversions, where companies flee U.S. taxes by taking headquarters overseas. Republicans say the solution is cutting corporate taxes to make the U.S. more competitive. And not surprisingly, broad tax reform has gone nowhere."
Helene Cooper & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "The United States has begun to mobilize a broad coalition of allies behind potential American military action in Syria and is moving toward expanded airstrikes in northern Iraq, administration officials said on Tuesday. President Obama, the officials said, was broadening his campaign against the Sunni militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and nearing a decision to authorize airstrikes and airdrops of food and water around the northern Iraqi town of Amerli, home to members of Iraq's& Turkmen minority. The town of 12,000 has been under siege for more than two months by the militants." ...
... Aaron Miller of Foreign Policy explains why air strikes against ISIS in Syria won't work & why President Obama will initiate them anyway. ...
... Andrew Kirell of Mediaite: "Bill Kristol wants to bomb first and figure it out later. News at ten. During a Monday interview with Laura Ingraham on the ongoing situation in Iraq, the Weekly Standard founder discussed his desire to forgo national debates and simply bomb ISIS forces immediately." ...
... ** George Packer of the New Yorker: "Among the many reasons to mourn [James] Foley's death is the loss of his reporting, and of reporting in general, from Syria. News of the civil war from Western media organizations has been dwindling as security has deteriorated, and it is now likely to dry up. Local Syrian reporters face an even greater threat. The Committee to Protect Journalists says that at least eighty journalists have been kidnapped since the start of the war and at least seventy have been killed, almost all of them Syrians, and almost all in 2012 and 2013." Read the whole post. Packer points out the huge disservice Darryl Issa, John McCain, et al., do to developing & maintaining sensible U.S. foreign policy.
Zach Carter of the Huffington Post: "House Republicans are agitating to dramatically curb federal bank regulators' ability to combat money laundering, calling for changes in decades-old financial fraud standards in an effort to aid payday lenders."
Melinda Deslatte of the AP: "Gov. Bobby Jindal filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Obama administration, accusing it of illegally manipulating federal grant money and regulations to force states to adopt the Common Core education standards. The U.S. Department of Education has used a $4.3 billion grant program and federal policy waivers to encourage states to adopt uniform education standards and testing. The Republican governor says that 'effectively forces states down a path toward a national curriculum" in violation of the state sovereignty clause in the Constitution and federal laws that prohibit national control of education content.'"
Kathleen Hennessey of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama said Tuesday that he is working to 'regain the trust' of the nation's veterans by improving their access to quality healthcare and education as he struggles to recover from a scandal that thrust the beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs into the spotlight earlier this year. 'We are going to get to the bottom of these problems. We're going to fix what is wrong,' Obama told thousands of veterans gathered in Charlotte, N.C., for the annual American Legion conference.... Shortly before Obama's remarks, the White House announced a series of policy changes and public-private partnerships aimed at easing service members' transition to civilian life":
Jonathan Chait: Paul Ryan picks his favorite books, accidentally forgets Atlas Shrugged. Never fear. According to Chait, one of Ryan's picks "is a weird, rambly, mostly unoriginal recitation of free-market homilies" & another "is a work of genuine derangement on the same intellectual level as the sorts of unpublishable hand-scrawled diatribes that I used to scan through when I sorted the mail as a magazine intern.... So it seems the lesson Ryan has drawn from the harmful publicity surrounding his Rand fixation is not that he shouldn't associate himself publicly with crackpot authors but merely that he should find different crackpot authors."
... CW Note: Ryan's reading list provides more evidence of his perpetually child-like mind. Some commenters to yesterday's thread discussed the book & film Being There, about a simple-minded man whom the Very Serious People all take very seriously. I believe we have found the real Chauncey Gardiner, & he is about to become chair of the House Ways & Means Committee. Worth remembering: Mitt Romney thought this inchoate goofball would make a great president.
Shock! New College Board History Exam Does Not Insist the U.S. Is the Greatest Country Ever. Nor does it name Newt Gingrich & Phyllis Schlafly among great Americans. Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "The National Review on Monday published a piece claiming that the College Board's new framework for the AP U.S. History exam was the result of a leftist movement to change the way American history is taught.... According to [NRO blogger Stanley] Kurtz, the College Board's redesign of the exam is linked to an 'attack on American exceptionalism' and 'a highly politicized and left-leaning approach to American history.'" ...
I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism. -- Barack Obama
For the rest of Obama's comment, see this piece by Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post.
... CW Note to Kurtz: American "exceptionalism" is an opinion (or a belief), not a fact. Ergo, it has no place in teaching curricula, other than in, say, attempts to decipher what drove Dubya's foreign policy views. As an underpinning of U.S. policy, American exceptionalism it is just as valid as whatever they're teaching North Korean kiddies about North Korean exceptionalism. It's a crock. In my opinion.
Beyond the Beltway
Maureen McDonnell's lawyers are presenting her defense today in the Bob & Maureen McDonnell corruption trial. The Washington Post is liveblogging testimony here. ...
... Matt Zapotosky & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell concluded his nearly 24 hours on the witness stand Tuesday by telling jurors he regretted taking lavish gifts from a businessman, but firmly insisting he never promised favors in return. 'I, as governor, allowed my life to get out of balance,' McDonnell testified, agreeing that he and his family should not have accepted as many luxury goods from Jonnie R. Williams Sr. 'That was my error.'" ...
... Here's the Post's liveblog for Tuesday. ...
... Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Five days of grueling, often contentious testimony by Bob McDonnell, the former Virginia governor accused of corruption, ended Tuesday with an apology from Mr. McDonnell for accepting so many gifts and so much money, but an emphatic denial that he had conspired with his wife to sell his office. The federal trial, already 22 days long, could go to the jury as early as Wednesday. Lawyers for the former Virginia first lady, Maureen McDonnell, must present her defense, but her lead attorney promised that it might take only three hours."
Walking While Black in Beverly Hills. Anthony Kurzweil of KTLA: "A film producer who was in Beverly Hills to attend a pre-Emmy party Friday night was handcuffed and detained for about six hours before authorities investigating a nearby bank robbery realized they had the wrong man." The "suspect," Charles Belk, is black. The Beverly Hills police released a statement saying "A witness then positively identified Belk as the second suspect, according to the news release." Because all black people look alike to people in Beverly Hills. ...
... Worse. Shopping While Black in WalMart. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Surveillance video shows an Ohio man talking on a cell phone, leaning on a toy gun, and facing away from officers moments before police shot and killed him in a Walmart store, according to an attorney for the man's family. John Crawford III died Aug. 5 after police were called to Walmart in Beavercreek, near Dayton, by another shopper who reported a man carrying what appeared to be an AR-15 rifle. The 22-year-old Crawford was instead carrying an unpackaged MK-177 (.177 caliber) BB/pellet rifle he picked up in the store's toy department.... Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine [R] announced Tuesday handed the case over to a special prosecutor...." ...
He was doing nothing more, nothing less than just shopping. -- Michael Wright, attorney for John Crawford's family
... Kim Palmer of Reuters: "... lawyers for the family of John Crawford III, who was shot and killed by Beavercreek police earlier this month, said his death was unjustified, demanded that all surveillance video of the shooting be released and called for the case to be turned over to federal authorities."
Lauren Raab of the Los Angeles Times: "An instructor at a shooting range in Arizona died Monday after a 9-year-old girl accidentally shot him in the head with an Uzi he was showing her how to use, the Mohave County Sheriff's Office said. Charles Vacca, 39, of Lake Havasu City was shot Monday morning, airlifted to a medical center in Las Vegas and pronounced dead shortly before 9 p.m., the sheriff's office said." CW: I'm not sure the girl is the killer here. No one in his right mind would give a child an Uzi. ...
... Susie Madrak of Crooks & Liars: "Just another one of those tragic accidents that so often happen with responsible gun owners!"
It turns out Krugman has been wrong all along. The U.S. is in danger of becoming the next Greece. Greece, New York, that is. Sahil Kapur of Think Progress: "Earlier this year, the Supreme Court gave its blessing to local governments that want to open their public meetings with religious prayer. It was a victory for the town board of Greece, N.Y., which stressed that it was fighting not just for Christian prayer but for the right of all people express their views regardless of their faith. In a 5-4 ruling along ideological lines, the Court ruled against the Jewish and atheist plaintiffs, who argued that the practice violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment. Less than four months later, the town of Greece has adopted an invocation policy that excludes non-religious citizens and potentially shuts out faiths that aren't well-established in the town, according to a top secular group."
Mireya Navarro of the New York Times: "A 33-story glassy tower rising on Manhattan's waterfront will offer all the extras that a condo buyer paying up to $25 million would expect, like concierge service, entertainment rooms, and unobstructed views of the Hudson River and miles beyond. The project will also cater to renters who make no more than about $50,000. They will not share the same perks, and they will also not share the same entrance. The so-called poor door has brought an outcry, with numerous officials now demanding an end to the strategy. But the question of how to best incorporate affordable units into projects built for the rich has become more relevant than ever as Mayor Bill de Blasio seeks the construction of 80,000 new affordable units over the next 10 years. The answer is not a simple one."
Gubernatorial Races
Mark Caputo of the Miami Herald: Former Florida Republican governor-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist easily won his primary race, but the general election battle between current Gov. Rick Scott (RCrook) is a toss-up. "While each solidifies his base and tries to snatch as many independent voters as possible -- anywhere from 15 to 25 percent of the electorate -- Crist and Scott also have to warily eye the Libertarian Party's nominee, Adrian Wyllie, who could draw as much as 9 percent of the vote, according to one recent poll." ...
... Politico's report, by James Hohmann, is here.
The New York Times Editors pointedly make no endorsement in the Democratic primary for governor of New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who most certainly will win the primary & likely the general election, has one primary opponent, "Zephyr Teachout, a professor at Fordham Law School who is a national expert on political corruption and an advocate of precisely the kind of transparency and political reform that Albany needs. Her description of Mr. Cuomo as part of a broken system 'where public servants just end up serving the wealthy' is exactly on point, but we decline to endorse her because she has not shown the breadth of interests and experience needed to govern a big and diverse state."
Noam Scheiber of the New Republic argues that the Wisconsin gubernatorial race is "a very big deal," & its result "could shape U.S. politics for years to come."
Congressional Races
Alexandra Jaffe of the Hill: "The GOP primary in Arizona's 1st district remained too close to call hours after polls closed Tuesday night. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Republicans' best- and worst-case candidates to take on Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) this fall were just a few hundred votes apart.... As of 4:30 a.m. EST, Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin, the establishment pick..., led rancher Gary Kiehne by just 291 votes, 15,168 to 14,877, about half a percentage point difference.... A win by Kiehne would deliver Democrats their best shot at holding onto a seat that routinely ranks at the top of the party's most-vulnerable list. Republicans won it at the presidential level twice, and Kirkpatrick lost it once before, before going on to narrowly win her seat back in 2012 against a flawed challenger in a favorable Democratic year." ...
... Alexandra Jaffe: "Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Wendy Rogers defeated former Arizona State University quarterback Andrew Walter for the chance to take on Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) this fall.... Rogers' nomination gives Democrats an early and easy opportunity for attacks, due to comments during her unsuccessful 2012 congressional run when she suggested she wants to see Social Security 'phased out.'"...
... Alexandra Jaffe: "Former state Rep. Ruben Gallego defeated retiring Rep. Ed Pastor's (D-Ariz.) choice to succeed him, former Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, in a fiery primary fight on Tuesday night.... Gallego ran a ground- and youth-focused campaign that utilized data and technology to facilitate voter outreach in the young district, and he drew the support of a number of national progressive groups." ...
PLUS. Mary Beth Faller of the Arizona Republic: "Diane Douglas defeated incumbent John Huppenthal in the Republican primary for Arizona superintendent of public instruction on Tuesday.... During the campaign, Huppenthal faced relentless questioning about controversial comments he posted on local political blogs using pseudonyms -- including remarks that people who receive public assistance are 'lazy pigs' and that Spanish-language media should be shut down." CW: Huppenthal led the effort to ban Mexican-American studies in Tucson public schools. Via Roque Planes of the Huffington Post.
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: All Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wants to be is Senate Majority Leader.
** Alec MacGillis of the New Republic: "... what is going on right now in Wisconsin's Sixth Congressional District is truly historic, and demands more attention. The district, northwest of Milwaukee, has been represented for nearly half a century by only two men, both of whom were standard bearers for a brand of moderate Republicanism that has all but vanished from the landscape. The latter of the two, Tom Petri, is retiring after 35 years in office, and the Republican primary earlier this month to replace him was won, very narrowly, by Glenn Grothman, a proudly polarizing state senator (pictured above) considered by many to be the most radically conservative member of the Wisconsin legislature." ...
... Here's the August 13 story by Ben Jacobs of the Daily Beast, which MacGillis links.
Meet a strong runner-up for Worst-Congressman-in-Waiting, Jody Hice. Hice won the primary in Georgia's ultra-conservative 10th District, currently represented by serious loon Paul Broun, who gave up his seat to run for Senate. (He lost the primary.) Hice is expected to easily win the general election. Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: Hice "really loves freedom. He calls himself a 'constitutional conservative' and LOVES the Founding Fathers.... Hice also loves to naturally share Founding Fathers quotes. Unfortunately, many of them are fake." Kaczynski provides ample examples.
Sam Stein of the Huffington Post: "Three top Republican Senate candidates heaped praise on the political network built by the conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch during a secretive conference held by the brothers this past summer, according to audio of the event. Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst and Arkansas Rep. Tom Cotton directly credited donors present at the June 16 retreat in Dana Point, California, for propelling them forward. Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner told attendees that his race would likely be decided by the presence of 'third party' money -- an obvious pitch for generosity from the well-heeled crowd." ...
... Greg Sargent: "... this ... undercuts GOP complaints about the Dem strategy of targeting the Koch brothers and linking GOP candidates to them. Republicans have fretted that this is all about a concerted strategy to 'demonize' big GOP donors."
Peter Suderman of Reason: Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS "is knocking ... [Democratic Senators Mark Pryor (Ak.) & Kay Hagan (N.C.)] ... from the left -- criticizing both candidates for wanting to cut and reform entitlements.... These shallow, shell-game attack ads are meant to play on voter fear and confusion about important policy details, but what they end up revealing is the party's own fear and confusion about how to answer some of the biggest policy questions of the day." Via Paul Waldman.
Elise Viebeck of the Hill: "Republican Senate candidates are staying silent on President Obama's latest changes to the birth control coverage mandate even as the policy catches flak from the religious right.... The lack of response reveals would-be GOP senators' extreme caution as they approach the birth control debate at this point in the election cycle."
News Ledes
Los Angeles Times: "One of the longest-running shows in television history suffered its worst tragedy this week when an audio technician for the reality program 'Cops' was accidentally shot and killed by police while trying to film a robbery in Omaha. Officers thought the suspect was shooting at them. They opened fire, killing the suspect as well as Bryce Dion, 38, a seven-year veteran of the show. When police examined the suspect's weapon, they discovered it was a pistol that fired only pellets." ...
... New York Times: "The Omaha police chief said Wednesday that the fatal shooting of a crew member filming the television show 'Cops' by one of his officers was an 'unfortunate incident' and that it appeared that the three officers involved had acted professionally.
New York Times: "Tanks, artillery and infantry have crossed from Russia into an unbreached part of eastern Ukraine in recent days, attacking Ukrainian forces and causing panic and wholesale retreat not only in [the] small border town [of Novoazovsk, Ukraine,] but also a wide section of territory, in what Ukrainian and Western military officials described on Wednesday as a stealth invasion. The attacks outside this city and in an area to the north essentially have opened a new, third front in the war in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists, along with the fighting outside the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk."
Washington Post: "The mother of Steven J. Sotloff, an American journalist who was captured last year by the Islamic State, has made a video plea to the head of the terrorist organization asking for her son's release. In a video released Wednesday, Shirley Sotloff asks Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to 'please release my child. And as a mother, I ask your justice to be merciful and not punish my son for matters he has no control over.'" Story includes video.
Guardian: "The US has said little about Mount Sinjar since 14 August, when Obama declared the siege broken, but recent satellite imagery and interviews with Yazidis still on the mountain indicate a humanitarian emergency continuing to unfold."
New York Times: "A number of United States banks, including JPMorgan Chase and at least four other firms, were hit by hackers in a series of coordinated attacks this month.... The hackers infiltrated the networks of the banks, siphoning off gigabytes of data, including account information, in what security experts described as a sophisticated cyberattack."
AP: "Syrian rebels, including fighters from an al-Qaida-linked group, seized control of a frontier crossing with Israel in the Golan Heights on Wednesday after heavy clashes with President Bashar Assad's forces, activists and rebels said. The capture of the post along Syria's de facto border in the Golan held more symbolic value than strategic, but rebels said it would provide relief to nearby villages that were under siege by government troops."
Washington Post: "An open-ended cease-fire between Hamas and Israel was holding Wednesday after seven weeks of warfare that killed more than 2,200 people."
Washington Post: "Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of stepping up military activity in the annexed territory of Crimea and sending in troops to help separatists near a key seaport in southeastern Ukraine."
New York Times: "Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, said on Wednesday that French prosecutors had placed her under formal investigation over a murky business affair that dates to her time as finance minister under former President Nicolas Sarkozy."
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Reader Comments (10)
Paul Ryan reads? Who knew? We know he's a fan of Ayn Rand, but her writing doesn't even come up to the standards of a bad comic book. No real reading, at least no critical reading, is required.
And now he's let us in on his six favorite books. How precious.
So let's see how wingnutty his selections are. Friedrich Hayek. Hey! He's Glen Beck's favorite author too! Check. Milton Friedman; okay, well, Friedman was a serious guy but his anti-tax fervor has morphed into the lunacy we've seen since the onslaught of Idiot Economics brought to us by Ronald of Reagan. Friedman wasn't a wingnut but the variations and far-right extensions of his work surely appeal to them., so check.
William Manchester was no wingnut either, but an avowed adoration of Winston Churchill is de rigueur among contemporary wingnut specimins. The Decider had a bust of Churchill in his office before which he jerked off every day, so it's no surprise that good little Paulie Ryan would want to look like one of the big boys by displaying his love of all things Churchillian.
But Alexis de Tocqueville? Really? Class, a show of hands. Who thinks Paul Ryan has read more than five pages of the immense "Democracy in America"? Okay, now class, another show of hands. Who thinks he understood a single word? Yep, that's what I thought.
Then we come to a couple of real wankers, George Gilder and Jude Wanniski. I haven't read the Gilder but I recall his name being bandied about routinely by Very Serious People who helped Reagan pervert the American economy, and I'll take Chait's word for it that this book is unoriginal and weird. Kinda like Paul Ryan.
But Jude Wanniski? Now that book I did read. And let me tell you, it is fucking bonkers. I read it not long after it came out because I was young and who wouldn't want to know how the world works? Lemme tell ya, Rube Goldberg had a better idea than this jamoke. The destiny of the whole world, according to Wanniski, a right-wing economic guru and crackpot, which amount to the same thing, is contained in tax codes.
Last week I referred to a social science study about information distortion which suggested that people are less uninformed by right-wing media than they are misinformed. In other words, they take a desired end result that fits their ideology, then find, or make up, stuff that supports their conclusion, which exactly describes Wanniski's work. What is the root of all the troubles in the world? TAXES! YAY! His ascension to right-wing heaven was guaranteed. But the "details" mentioned in this book, as I recall it many years hence, were jaw-droppingly stoopid, even to a young guy just out of college whose primary source of the workings of economics was the Paul Samuelson textbook we read in EC10.
At one point he blames the entire Great Depression and the long recovery period on---TAXES! You can't get a job? Taxes are to blame. Housing costs are high? Taxes. Your sink is clogged? Taxes. At one point, and this is the thing I remember most, he develops a whacko theory that is still jabbered about by Very Serious People as if it isn't crazy. If I can recall it correctly, he maintains that if you don't tax anyone, production will skyrocket, everyone will have a job and the public sector will collapse to the size of Grover Norquist's bathtub.
So, did you catch it? What's the linchpin of all these kinds of arguments? Something that never happens. Ever. First step, reduce or eliminate taxes. Next, magically, rich people who are no longer taxed, are so happy, they ride to the rescue, quintuple productivity, give everyone jobs, and everyone lives a happy wingnut life forevermore.
It's really no different than saying "Give me a million dollars. Now I will fix everything, so stand back." And if you believe that, why, feel free to send me a million dollars. I won't fix shit, but I'll have fun with that money.
I could go on, but these books make it clear that not only is Ryan not a smart guy, his thinking doesn't even rise to the level of a dullard. He's an imbecile pretending to be smart.
Maybe Marie is right. Paul Ryan is our very own Chauncey Gardiner. An idiot mistaken for a genius.
The only question I have now regarding Paul Ryan's reading habits is this: does he move his lips when he reads?
Re: Dumb Georgia congress critters (specifically Jody Hice):
If you can't find an accurate quote, make one up.
He's a minister too (not surprising).
Oh, and one other (short) thing about Little Paulie's list.
He was asked to name his favorite books on economics and democracy.
There's only one book vaguely connected with democracy, and that's a book written two hundred years ago about a country and a political demesne that no longer exists. There's nothing about the actual workings or problems of modern democracy.
His economics choices are all about cutting taxes on the rich and stepping on mooching poors.
So, to sum up, Economics: no taxes on the rich; fuck the poor.
Democracy: ahh.....what's that?
Geez! I'm reminded of that old TV question in the sixties—and to paraphrase it— CW It'd 11:30 (am) do you know where your commenter(s) are today?
(Oops! amended version, as I typed and wrote and then previewed...two comments appeared!) Yaaaaah.
Me, I was away having a leaky tire repaired and while waiting for it to be fixed, was exposed to teevee. I haven't had TV in over two years (having cut the cable) and within minutes realized why I don't miss it. The gas station has a teevee to (I guess) entertain/distract their waiting customers. Starting with the overlong weather segment and irritating weatherman, which seemed to be replayed every ten minutes. ( I REALIZED NOT HEARING IRRITATING weathermen for over 2 years is such a relief) and then came the pièce de résistance—a political ad played twice as I waited. Kelly Ayotte shilling for Scott Brown. A very syrupy proclamation re Scotty Boy's attributes! Please, please Jean Shaheen...start your campaign rolling.
Barbarossa,
Loved those fake quotes. More misinformation from another dreary, predictable, self-congratulatory "Strict Constitutionalist" wingnut. And I will bet you everything I own, that like most of those Constitution lovers, he has never even read it.
I find it odd that all these Republicans who go on at great length about how terrible, awful, sinful, and evil government is, all climb over each other to secure positions in that same government. Kinda like Paul Ryan who owes everything he has, including every paycheck he's ever cashed, to government, railing against how bad it is.
Some kind of mental problem there?
@Akhilleus —"The only question I have now regarding Paul Ryan's reading habits is this: does he move his lips when he reads?"
Even worse...does his head move... ?
I'm loving the new White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest. Did you catch him, around the 9:30 mark, pointing out how GOP members, using actual quotes, seem to be in disagreement over whether Obama reveals too much about his military strategies or too little? In other words, Obama can do no right in their eyes. I hope to see more of this exposing of their hypocrisy!
..and the scandals keep going.
Live blogging comes with pitfalls! Just checked WAPO for the latest on the McDonnell case and midway through my reading came upon a three sentence paragraph (below).
Goodness gracious, sounds like the butler was into milady's underwear drawer!
"And she also seemed unhappy in her role as first lady, complaining about invasions of her privacy. The mansion butler would walk in on her in the family’s private quarters in her underwear. Niamtu said she never observed fights between Bob and Maureen McDonnell."
Did he now?
All I can say is that I can't figure out why my parents didn't take me and my siblings to a firing range that allowed instructors to hand automatic weapons to prepubescent children and told them to go nuts.
Oh, wait. Maybe I do. First, my mom and dad loved us and weren't insane. Second, I'm pretty goddam sure that prior to the NRA's infecting gun owners with incurable stupidity, gun ranges in the early 60's would have reported them to the authorities and would have immediately fired any instructor who allowed a child to close a trigger finger on that kind of weapon. Then they'd refer them to a psychiatrist.
But not today
Likely the rabid, gun crazed dogs on the right will scream about accidents happening and go on giddily inculcating the conservative culture of paranoia and violence that allows a nine year old to perforate her instructor with a weapon that most veteran police officers have never fired.
This is the world that Republicans want for your kids.
Elections matter.
This is an interesting piece about, essentially, Repub ideology fighting Repub ideology. It's Boeing lobbying for the reauthorization of the Ex-Im Bank, which is the lifeblood for a big part of its business.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/21/us-usa-exim-idUSKBN0FQ26T20140721