;)
The Commentariat -- August 30, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Nick Gass of Politico: "Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley on Sunday announced his support for the Iran nuclear deal, becoming the 31st Democratic senator to back President Barack Obama on the issue. Just two Senate Democrats have come out against the deal -- New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez. Just three more senators are needed in the Senate to sustain any veto of a resolution of disapproval."
Crazy Immigration Idea o' the Day. Julian Hattem of the Hill: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is open to the idea of building a wall along America's northern border with Canada, he said on Sunday. Given that the northern border poses a potential risk for terrorists to bleed into the U.S., the Republican presidential candidate said that he would not rule out a wall to increase security there. 'That is a legitimate issue for us to look at,' Walker said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'" CW: Hey, at least it would create a honking-big jobs stimulus for the next 20 years. Meanwhile, can't we just immediately incarcerate anyone who speaks with a suspected Quebecois accent?
Crazy Clinton Slam o' the Day. Mark Hensch of the Hill: "'With Hillary Clinton, it just seems to be one scandal after another,' [Bobby Jindal] told host Martha Raddatz on ABC's 'This Week.' 'She's literally one email away from going to jail,' Jindal said. 'What I fear is that maybe we'll have to go to the Chinese and the Russians to actually see her emails.'" CW: Literally one email? I think it must be that one where she did a blast-mailing of the nuclear codes.
Standard-Issue Clinton Slam: Mark Hensch: Chris "Christie argued on Sunday that [Hillary] Clinton's actions as secretary of State flaunted her disregard for the laws governing transparency and national security. He added that she is now presenting a haughty attitude.... 'The worst part about this is her arrogance,' Christie said.... 'This is not royalty in the United States,' he said, referring to Clinton as 'queen.' 'This is not a familial ascendancy.' 'She's wiped away tens of thousands of emails that have relevant information because she feels entitled to do that,' Christie added."
*****
Dan Balz & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz prevented consideration of a resolution at the party's summer meeting here that praised President Obama and offered backing for the nuclear agreement with Iran, according to knowledgeable Democrats.... As a fallback, James Zogby, the co-chair of the Resolutions Committee, led a move to prepare a letter of support for the president and the Iran agreement that eventually gained signatures from a sizable majority of the members of the national committee."
Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "Four years after nearly collapsing amid the financial crisis, Amalgamated [Bank] has aggressively carved out a position as the left's private banker, leveraging deep connections with the Democratic establishment to expand rapidly in a niche long dominated by larger but less nimble financial institutions. The bank's rise has been driven not only by the pace and complexity of modern campaigns, which demand increasingly specialized financial services, but by their vastly expanded scale: Billion-dollar presidential campaigns are expected for both parties in 2016, bolstered by super PACs raising hundreds of millions of dollars more.... Founded and still principally owned by labor unions, the 92-year-old bank has signed up hundreds of new political clients, including most of the Democratic Party's major committees, the progressive organizations that align with them, and several of their top Senate recruits."
Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "Whether California's application of the death penalty is so drawn out and arbitrary that it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment will be argued on Monday before a federal appeals court in Pasadena. If the lawyers for a condemned man are victorious, the case could bring a reprieve to more than 740 prisoners now on death row at San Quentin State Prison and send legal ripples across the country."
Josh Lederman of the AP: "With melting glaciers and rising seas as his backdrop, President Barack Obama will visit Alaska next week to press for urgent global action to combat climate change, even as he carefully calibrates his message in a state heavily dependent on oil." ...
... Steven Myers of the New York Times: "Some lawmakers in Congress, analysts, and even some government officials say the United States is lagging behind other nations, chief among them Russia, in preparing for the new environmental, economic and geopolitical realities facing the [Alaskan] region."
** Roberto Ferdman of the Washington Post: "... over the next two years, bottled water is expected to eclipse soda as the most consumed packaged drink in the United States.... [Peter Gleick, a sustainable-water researcher, estimates that] only about a third of all bottles of water consumed in the United States are recycled, meaning that about two-thirds end up in the garbage.... As of 2006, it took 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water, according to the Pacific Institute. In other words, before even including the energy required to produce the actual bottles -- which is significant -- bottled water was already three times as inefficient as its unpackaged alternative."
Presidential Race
Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register: "... Bernie Sanders, riding an updraft of insurgent passion in Iowa, has closed to within 7 points of Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential race." ...
... Steve M.: "... Ben Carson is only 5 points behind Trump -- and at 18%, he's 10 points ahead of the next two guys, Scott Walker and Ted Cruz, who are at 8%. (Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio are tied for fifth, at 6%.) What's more, Carson has the highest favorable rating among Republicans, at 79%.... He's not an obnoxious sexist blowhard like Trump, but he's the one other candidate in the race who seems as unqualified and ill-informed as Trump, and, in his quiet way, he says plenty of imprudent, outrageous things. Abortion is comparable to human sacrifice! Obamacare is the worst thing since slavery! President Obama acts like a psychopath! The Advance Placement history curriculum is so bad it would inspire students to sign up for ISIS! Who's waiting to seize the GOP lead if Trump falters? Not Bush or Kasich or Rubio or Walker. This guy."
Pied Piper. Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "Donald Trump says it’s not all about him. No, seriously. Campaigning in Nashville, Tennessee, Trump on Saturday paid homage to his supporters.... 'This is a movement,' said Trump, who often speaks about himself in campaign appearances. 'I don't want it to be about me. This is about common sense. It's about doing the right thing.'" ...
... James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "Sharpening his pitch to what he calls 'the silent majority,' Donald Trump presented himself Saturday as the 'law and order' candidate in the 2016 presidential race, pledging to 'get rid' of gangs and give more power to police officers. Speaking to the National Federation of Republican Assemblies for more than an hour, in the heart of a Southern city where student sit-ins helped launch the 1960s-era civil rights movement, the Republican complained that cops are afraid to be tough in the face of more scrutiny over their tactics." ...
Are there any women in this room who are in love with their husbands who wouldn't be telling them everything? -- Donald Trump, on why Hillary Clinton aide Human Abedin should not be trusted with classified information ...
... Jennifer Shutt of Politico: "... Donald Trump alleged late Friday that Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin shared classified information with husband Anthony Weiner, while also referring to the former congressman as a pervert.... 'Who is Huma married to? One of the great sleezebags of our time: Anthony Weiner. So now -- think of it -- Huma is getting classified secrets. She is married to Anthony Weiner, who is a perv,' Trump said during a campaign rally in Norwood, Massachusetts.... 'So she's married to Anthony Weiner. Do you think there is even a 5 percent chance she is not telling Anthony Weiner -- now of a public relations firm -- what the hell is coming across?" Trump said. Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill called Trump's comments about Abedin and her marriage 'patently false.'... Hillary for America Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri [wrote,] 'Trump repeated bizarre attack on Huma today. Lots of married men worked at State, why is Huma the one who would pass on secrets to spouse?'" ...
... CW: Wouldn't it be good for a presidential candidate to have, say, a shred of evidence before he accuses someone of espionage?
... Welcome to Dystopia. Rebecca Shabad of the Hill: "To create a system that tracks illegal immigrants in the United States, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wants to look to the way FedEx tracks packages.... 'So here's what I'm going to do as president: I'm going to ask Fred Smith, the founder of Federal Express, to come work for the government for three months at Immigration and Custom Enforcement and show these people,' Christie added. 'We need to have a system that tracks you from the moment you come in, and then when your time is up ... however long your visa is, then we go get you. We tap you on the shoulder and say, 'Thanks for coming. Time to go."'... Christie's campaign spokeswoman, Samantha Smith, is Fred Smith's daughter." CW: Freeedom for me; ankle bracelets for thee. ...
... CW: Saturday while I was doing some gruntwork, I occupied myself with thinking up ludicrous ways Republican could enforce their ideology. People-tracking chips came to mind. Meanwhile, not far up the road from me, a GOP presidential candidate was actually proposing to physically track visitors "from the moment they come in" into this country. Christie makes the Patriot Act look like a milquetoast measure. Republicans are scary. ...
... Daniel Politi of Slate: "The United States issued 9,932,480 nonimmigrant visas last year, according to the State Department." CW: Richard Nixon had only 20 people on his infamous enemies list; Christie plans to put 10 million ordinary people on his. ...
... Peter Whoriskey of the Washington Post: "In 2010, in his first months as governor, [Christie] favored securing the border as well as 'a common sense path to citizenship for people.' But earlier this year, Christie said he no longer supported the path to citizenship for undocumented residents and, in fact, criticized Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's plan as 'pandering.'"
Jessica Winter of Slate: "Wisconsin governor Scott Walker -- who has framed the fight for equal pay as 'pit[ting] one group of Americans versus another,' who has called abortions performed to save a woman's life the result of a 'false choice,' who has indicated support for forcing C-sections on women who require a medically necessary abortion, and who has cited his assault on teachers' and nurses' unions as preparation for taking on ISIS as president -- has a gift designed just for the ladies.... It's a shirt!" CW: Yeah, who wants equal pay & reproductive rights when she can get a shirt (that reportedly will really show her curves as it runs two sizes too small) in Reagan Red.
Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly was upset by all the GOP hatemongering, so she turned to a source of hope & inspiration: President Obama.
Beyond the Beltway
Rebecca Santana & Kevin McGill of the AP: "The Gulf Coast and New Orleans observed the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest storms in American history, in ways both devout and festive. Church bells rang and brass bands played as people across the storm-ravaged coast remembered the past and looked to the future."
Liam Stack & Nate Scwerber of the New York Times: "A bystander accidentally shot by an undercover New York City police officer on Friday afternoon during an illegal firearms sting gone awry has died, the Police Department said on Saturday. The bystander, identified as Felix Kumi, 61, was shot twice in the torso as the officer fired at a man involved in the botched sting. That man, a 37-year old who was not immediately named, was hit three times and hospitalized in serious condition. Mr. Kumi died early Saturday at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, according to the police. The New York Police Department said that in the midst of the sting, a suspect pulled a gun on the undercover officer, stole the cash changing hands in the transaction and ran. When the officer opened fire, police officials and witnesses said, he shot the suspect, but he also hit Mr. Kumi, 61, who was walking to retrieve his van from a nearby repair shop."
AP: "The Kentucky clerk at the centre of a conflict over same-sex marriage closed her office on Saturday, ahead of a rally protesting her refusal to issue marriage licenses. The protest came a day after Rowan County clerk Kim Davis asked the US supreme court to grant her 'asylum for her conscience'."
Manny Fernandez & David Montgomery of the New York Times: "Law enforcement officials said Saturday that a 30-year-old Houston man had been arrested in the fatal shooting the night before of a sheriff's deputy as he filled the gas tank of his patrol car.... Even as officials at an earlier news conference stressed that they had not established a motive, they tied the attack to the wave of protests across the country over police shootings, including the demonstrations after the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner on Staten Island." ...
... Update: St. John Barned-Smith & John D. Harden of the Houston Chronicle: "Shannon J. Miles was arrested and charged in the death of Deputy Darren Goforth after authorities spent much of the day questioning him. Miles walked up behind Goforth at the gas station at Telge and West at about 8:20 p.m. Friday and shot him repeatedly in the back without any apparent provocation or motive, said Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman...."
Way Beyond
Griff Witte & Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "The smugglers responsible for driving 71 migrants to their deaths in the back of a cramped, unventilated truck in Austria were part of a vast international syndicate that has been a subject of multiple criminal investigations, a leading European law enforcement official said Saturday. So far, just four relatively low-level operatives have been arrested in connection with the deaths...."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Iran's judiciary sentenced two people to 10 years in prison on Sunday for spying for the United States and Israel, but their names were not released, local media reported. It was not clear if the Iranian-American reporter Jason Rezaian, who faces similar charges, was one of them." ...
... AP Update: "Leila Ahsan..., The lawyer for Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who was tried for espionage in a Revolutionary Court..., says the court has yet to issue its verdict on Rezaian."
New York Times: "Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and acclaimed author who explored some of the brain's strangest pathways in best-selling case histories like 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,' using his patients' disorders as starting points for eloquent meditations on consciousness and the human condition, died Sunday at his home in New York City. He was 82." ...
... Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times: "Dr. Sacks ... was a polymath and an ardent humanist, and whether he was writing about his patients, or his love of chemistry or the power of music, he leapfrogged among disciplines, shedding light on the strange and wonderful interconnectedness of life -- the connections between science and art, physiology and psychology, the beauty and economy of the natural world and the magic of the human imagination."
AP: "Los Angeles and the U.S. Olympic Committee have struck a deal that will make the city America's 2024 Olympic bidder pending approval by the city council next week. If the council approves the deal at a meeting Tuesday, the USOC will announce Los Angeles as its candidate, a person familiar with the process told The Associated Press."
AP: "Turkish fighter jets have carried out their first air strikes as part of the US-led coalition against Islamic State in Syria. A Turkish foreign ministry statement said that late on Friday the jets began attacking Isis targets across the border in Syria that were deemed to be threats to Turkey."
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Reader Comments (11)
A follow on to Marie's "ludicrous ways Republican could enforce their ideology".
When a child is born, a birth certificate is issued, the birth is recorded, added to the census, and any abuse or neglect of that child is a criminal offense.
If a Human Being, fully protected by the laws and Constitution, exists from the moment of conception, it will be necessary to report the event and a 'Pre-Birth Certificate' issued.
Furthermore, according to the Mayo Clinic website:
"Miscarriage is the spontaneous loss of a pregnancy before the 20th week. About 10 to 20 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage. But the actual number is probably much higher because many miscarriages occur so early in pregnancy that a woman doesn't even know she's pregnant."
Since every miscarriage must be considered, and investigated as, a possible homocide, it will also be necessary to report every act of coitus to ensure that any unborn child which may result is protected. Sexually active, fertile women must not be allowed to smoke, use alcohol or other drugs, or engage in any unhealthy activity that might endanger any unborn child they may have concieved.
When an unborn child is added to the census, it will count toward proportional representation in the U.S.Congress. This, of course, must be left to the States. Since Red States are more likely to recognize the unborn, Republican representation should soar.
If the parents are not U.S. citizens, neither is the child, since it has not yet been born in the USA. Mother and unborn child should be immediately deported.
And, of course, at the earliest possible moment, an ID chip must be attached to the child via a vaginal probe.
Follow on to the follow on:
I omitted to mention the large number of U.S. residents currently frozen in liquid nitrogen at IVF clinics. Since these also must be included in the census, we may expect a boom in fertility clinics in Red States.
Then there's the potential for job growth. A boom in the Nanotechnology industry will surely result as engineers vie to produce ever smaller tracking ID chips. We may one day hope to see chips installed on each of a woman's eggs at puberty so that every one can be tracked from ovulation, ensuring that no harm is done to any unborn child.
D. C. Clark:
The gods were kind. The storm passed and the power came back on so I could read your post.
Thanks for the exquisite reductio ad absurdum. Truly worthy of Swift, methinks.
I will smile all day.
The bottled water issue is a good segue from yesterday - the Minneapolis has started a program to provide tours of their plants to immigrants who have no experience with potable tap water, and who are a disproportional consumer of the bottled product. California has led in banning plastic bags at checkout. I am hoping a ban on plastic containers is somewhere in the future, not just water but all liquids. Glass and degradable fiber are more expensive, but so what? Let's pay the actual cost. Plastic is subsidized heavily for the indirect costs, which we and our descendants are paying and will pay far into the future as our marine mother slowly expires. Glass just goes back to its source. Write your reps, senators and especially the local city and county folks.
D.C.
Why stop there? After all, isn't every sperm sacred too?
And another thing:
Since early miscarriages may be indistinguishable from normal menstruation, every fertile woman must be made to submit her menses for examination to see if an unborn child has perished. If so, once the homocide investigation is completed and justice served, the unfortunate child can be baptized and given a proper Christian burial.
Think of the market for matchbox coffins and tiny cemetery plots. Headstones wouldn't be needed as the deceased would not yet have developed a head.
OK, I'll stop now. Gonna go drive a few nails into my skull to drive these thoughts out of my mind. Or maybe I'll just go get an exorcism.
Or as Chris Christie would propose do it, a FedEx tracking bar code on every egg and sperm.
The appalling lack of self awareness on the part of Confederates rivals that of sedimentary rock formations.
Chris Christie calling Hillary Clinton arrogant is like Elton John decrying another performer for the extravagance of their stage persona.
It's like Donald Trump complaining that a rival is an opportunistically cynical racist douchebag.
It's like statutory rapist and life-long woman hater Ted Nugent deploring misogyny, altogether.
It's like George W. Bush criticizing another president for a lack of circumspection and intellect.
It's like Limabaugh, Drudge, O'Reilly, Coulter, Breitbart clones, and Hannity caviling about the demise of fact based journalism.
It's like William Kristol denouncing punditry that has been fatally flawed by a puerile and vicious ideology.
It's like a politician whose vengeful and infantile bridge closing cost a human life whining that someone who used the wrong e-mail account is a horrible person who should go to jail.
It's like the Republican Party claiming that they have a moral leg to stand on more substantial than tracing paper.
It's like the NRA claiming that they're the real Peace Corps.
Should I continue?
@Akhilleus-Thank you for NOT continuing! Your erudition overwhelms me! (:
Now for my quite large beef....But first, thanks and appreciation to Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley for coming out in favor of the Iran Agreement, albeit with a few reservations. And a big whup with a wet noodle (as Ann Landers used to say) for our other Senator, Ron Wyden. He, along with Chuckie Schumer, represents Israel--through their donor organization AIPAC. Ditto Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who probably will vote against the Agreement.
My question, other than for those AIPAC shills, is: how is it that politicians are prescient enough to know what will happen between Iran, the U.S. and the rest of the world in FIFTEEN YEARS? Shit, we don't even know what is going to happen in fifteen minutes! There is a cynical (and naive) belief, in what has been the American mindset since the Ayatollahs took over, that nothing will ever change. Iranians (ALL of them) will always wish death to us, and will always want to destroy Israel. (Of course, with Israel being our 51st state, we would nevah allow that!)
Our foreign policy has usually been myopic, but never more so than now. Even Obama--with his open-minded, pragmatic, diplomatic ideas--is no match for the small-minded, tight assed mindset of those on the Right, and (unfortunately) a few on the Left. And that, of course, is our United States Congress, she said--trying not to arc a bean.
Gotta go take a long walk and clear what is left of my mind. Praise be to those who can still think clearly--which includes all of my fellow commenters on RC. And, of course, our chief clear thinker: CW.
Kochly-brained Scott Walker thinks that using the power of the state to crush the teachers' union automatically makes him the nemesis of murderous terrorist organizations around the world.
Such thinking is, of course, counterfactual, but it also demonstrates the Confederate propensity for equating people who simply want a living wage\ and to be able to stand up to those who would prefer them to have fewer labor bargaining rights than slaves, with one of the most appalling terrorist groups in modern times, which is saying a lot.
In Walke's worldview, teachers who try to take up for themselves are worse than murderous zealots who cut people's heads off.
And I don't mean this as just a funny line. This is serious stuff. Republicans DO think that anyone who tries to stand up to Confederate ideology is worse than Nazis and ISIS and hate groups.
Interestingly, exactly the kindof hate groups the GOP gleefully supports.
If Wasserman Schultz comes out against the Iran agreement, I think she should be fired from her leadership role. And of course Schumer should never be allowed to lead in the Senate. I hope we can get the three senators needed to support the president.