;)
The Commentariat -- August 7, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama will slip out of Washington on Friday afternoon for his annual Martha's Vineyard vacation...."
*****
Jennifer Steinhauer & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senator Chuck Schumer, the most influential Jewish voice in Congress, said Thursday night that he would oppose President Obama's deal to limit Iran's nuclear program.... As if on cue, Representative Eliot L. Engel of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who was widely expected to oppose the deal, announced his opposition Thursday night." ...
... Here's Schumer's statement. ...
... CW: Seems Schumer's decision to "quietly" make his announcement during the Big Debate Din was neither a tactical move nor a gentlemanly concession to the Obama administration. Seung Min Kim, et al., of Politico: "Though his announced opposition came as the political realm was preoccupied with the Republican presidential debate, Schumer had planned to make his position on the Iran deal official on Friday, according to a person familiar with the situation. The New York senator had told the White House that he had decided to reject the nuclear agreement and would announce it on Friday. But the source accused the White House of leaking Schumer's decision to the Huffington Post, forcing the senator to announce his decision Thursday night." ...
... Julian Hattem of the Hill: "The liberal activist group MoveOn is assailing Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) for his decision, announced late Thursday night, to oppose the nuclear deal with Iran. 'Our country doesn't need another Joe Lieberman in the Senate, and it certainly doesn't need him as Democratic leader,' MoveOn political action executive director Ilya Sheyman said in a statement about Schumer, who is next to line to be the Senate's top Democrat." CW: Yo'bama, the "professional left" has your back here. ...
... Greg Sargent: "Here's the real story: Schumer's opposition is not likely to matter that much to the outcome either way. Does that mean the deal will certainly go forward? No. Rather, the point is, if enough Senate Democrats are inclined to support the deal to prevent an override of President Obama's veto of a motion disapproving the deal -- which isn't assured, but still seems likely -- then Schumer's opposition is unlikely to change that.... My best guess: enough Dems will oppose the deal to get past the 60 needed to break the filibuster of the disapproval motion, but not enough will oppose it to get to the 67 needed to override Obama's veto. And remember, whatever happens in the Senate, there's another potential firewall in the House, which could fail to override and the deal would go forward." ...
... Kirsten Gillibrand, New York's junior senator, explains why she is supporting the Iran deal. ...
... Guardian: "The US secretary of state, John Kerry, has said the Vietnam war was the result of a 'most profound failure of diplomatic insight and political vision' as he marked the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Kerry on Friday extolled the virtues of reconciling with former enemies at the end of a five-nation tour of the Middle East and south-east Asia that has been dogged by domestic US debate over the Iran nuclear deal."
Hakskis. Courtney Kube & Jim Miklaszewski of NBC News/CNBC: "U.S. officials tell NBC News that Russia launched a sophisticated cyberattack' against the Pentagon's Joint Staff unclassified email system, which has been shut down and taken offline for nearly two weeks. According to the officials, the 'sophisticated cyber intrusion' occurred sometime around July 25 and affected some 4,000 military and civilian personnel who work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff."
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) & President Obama spoke on the Voting Rights Act yesterday:
... New York Times Editors: "The real voter fraud is Texas' ID laws.... The voter ID issue will almost certainly be decided by the Supreme Court. The justices last considered such a law in 2008, upholding Indiana's statute despite a total lack of evidence of fraud. Justice John Paul Stevens, now retired, who wrote the 2008 decision, has since later said that these laws are 'a means of voter suppression rather than of fraud prevention.' How much more do the justices need to see before they reach the same conclusion?"
Annals of Journalism. David Itskoff of the New York Times: "After 16 years of taking satirical aim at the hypocrisy of politics and the fatuousness of the news media, Jon Stewart said goodbye to 'The Daily Show' on Thursday evening with a farewell broadcast that mixed wry parting shots with earnest displays of emotion and with a passionate speech urging his audience not to accept falsehoods and misinformation in their lives." ...
Neil Genzlinger of the New York Times: In the last moments of his last show, "Mr. Stewart was returning to the beginning -- he was delivering a mission statement. The mere fact that it had a mission is what made 'The Daily Show' stand out in the first place."
Presidential Race
Here's the debate in three minutes, via Time, most of it incredibly stupid:
David Fahrenthold & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: Donald "Trump became the center of the debate's attention from the very beginning, when he was the only candidate who refused to forswear the idea of running a third-party campaign against the Republican party, if he could not be its nominee." ...
Patrick Healy & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Shedding any pretense of civility and party unity, Donald J. Trump overwhelmed the first Republican presidential debate on Thursday night by ripping into his rivals and the moderators alike, but also drew fire from Jeb Bush and other rivals...."
Via Washington Post liveblog.
John Cassidy of the New Yorker & Donald Trump: it was "a fantastic debate." ...
... David Graham of the Atlantic assesses the candidates' performances. ...
... Margaret Hartmann runs down some of other pundits' reviews of the individual candidates' performances. ...
... Michael Barbaro of the New York Times (in the current [7:00 am ET] Times top story) assesses the performance of The One: "From the opening moments of the evening, when he flashed a wry grin and a mischievous victory sign at the boisterous crowd, Mr. Trump remained his irrepressible self: aggrandizing, unapologetic and cutting.... Over and over, in moments that were as startling as they were comedic, he openly flouted the rules of political decorum -- not to mention those of a Republican Party that punishes disloyalty and the slightest flirtation with members of the opposition." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "The question going into the first debate was which candidate would take it upon himself to take down Trump. The answer is that none of them did. Fox News did the work itself, a division of labor that made sense for both sides.... The intense barrage of pointed questions displayed how seriously Roger Ailes takes Trump's threat to hijack the GOP for his own end. It failed to reckon with the other threat: that the Republican plan to drive Trump from their party might instead work all too well." ...
... Alex Griswold of Mediaite: Trump said on "Morning Joe' today that Fox "News" moderators were "really unfair" & "unprofessional" in questioning him, especially about negative comments he'd made about women (which he doesn't remember), that they only "softball questions" of the other candidates, & that the initial question asking for a show of hands on a pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee was "a set-up." ...
... ** Paul Krugman: "... while it's true that Mr. Trump is, fundamentally, an absurd figure, so are his rivals. If you pay attention to what any one of them is actually saying, as opposed to how he says it, you discover incoherence and extremism every bit as bad as anything Mr. Trump has to offer. And that's not an accident: Talking nonsense is what you have to do to get anywhere in today's Republican Party.... Crank economics, crank science, crank foreign policy are all necessary parts of a candidate's resume.... Judge them by positions as opposed to image, and what you have is a lineup of cranks." ...
... CW: Krugman is too kind. Republican voters are cranks (random example here); the candidates & elected officials are transparent frauds. Their overarching "principle" is Reverse Robin-Hooding, a "principle" which they necessarily try to obscure with a tome of cover stories, from "small-government/low taxes" to "I'm not a scientist, man" to "jobs" to "voter fraud" to "religious freeedom." Et-cetera.
** ... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "When it comes to foreign policy, the Republican Party’s presidential candidates are shockingly ill-informed." ...
... Luke Brinker of Salon highlights "one of the debate's rare heartening moments.... Perhaps the most remarkable moment arrived when Ohio Gov. John Kasich was asked how he'd explain his opposition to marriage equality to a hypothetical gay daughter.... 'Look, I'm an old-fashioned person here and I happen to believe in traditional marriage. But I've also said that the court has ruled ... and I said we'll accept it,' Kasich said. 'And guess what? I just went to a wedding of a friend of mine who happens to be gay.... So if one of my daughters happened to be that, of course I would love them and I would accept them. Because you know what? That's what we're taught when we have strong faith.'... The crowd strongly applauded." CW: This was one of the few moments of the debate I caught, & it was a pleasant surprise for me, too. ...
... Josh Kraushaar of the National Journal: "John Kasich is stealing Jeb Bush's thunder.... If there's room for an establishment alternative, Kasich is well-positioned to capitalize. The Ohio governor's deliberate line of being the 'son of a mailman' offers a stark contrast to Bush's elite upbringing. And if style matters as much as substance to Republicans -- something that Donald Trump's surge has demonstrated -- Kasich's ability to connect with voters emotionally trumps Bush's ability to do the same."
... Glenn Kessler: "Two debates, 20 fishy claims." CW: Here's one I didn't know enough about, & Scott Walker: knows less: "I would reinstate, put in place back in the missile defense system that we had in Poland and in the Czech Republic."
Adam Johnson of Alternet proposed a drinking game for the GOP debate main event. Akhilleus linked to it Thursday. WARNING: DON'T PLAY THIS GAME. It will hospitalize you, if not kill you with alcohol poisoning. Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone has devised one you might survive because he urges players to drink only the first time "Donald Trump mentions his wealth, or how smart he is" or "a candidate mentions Benghazi," etc. ...
... David Fahrenthold & Sean Sullivan: "Seven low-polling Republican candidates all needed to create a breakout moment in Thursday night's early, undercard Republican debate. After 80 minutes, it wasn't clear if any of them had. The best performance of the early debate came from former tech executive Carly Fiorina, the only woman onstage and the only non-politician on a stage full of current and former senators and governors.... Asked if the same-sex marriage decision was 'settled law,' [Rick] Santorum responded. 'It is not, any more than Dred Scott was settle law to Abraham Lincoln.'" Because expanding marriage rights to all couples is just like denying citizenship rights to African-Americans. ...
... The Post's liveblog is pretty good, with some analysis & tweets, etc. ...
... CW: I listened to the 5 pm "debate" while I was painting a kitchen cabinet I'm building. I found watching paint dry far more interesting than the debate. I'm skipping the big-boy extravaganza, but I might follow the Post's liveblog. Or not. ...
... New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman & Nicholas Confessore liveblogged the debate. They also thought Carly Fiorina was the star of the show, partly because she mentioned her "good friend Bibi Netanyahu." The reporters thought that needed a fact-check. Confessore: "She has the confidence and polish of the boardroom and the business conference, if not the policy depth of some of the other candidates. It's what makes her so effective here." My paint job came out well.
Gabriel Sherman of New York: Donald Trump's campaign is in disarray. "... inside a campaign that's been built on attacking seemingly anyone and everyone, the staff has now turned to attacking each other.... The conflict between the old guard and the new began in January when Trump hired a brash 40-year-old Republican operative named Corey Lewandowski to serve as campaign manager." (See also yesterday's Commentariat re: Lewandowski.)
King Coal & Prince Jeb! Zachary Mider of Bloomberg: "Chris Cline, the billionaire coal baron, revealed himself today as the donor behind a $1 million contribution to a super-PAC supporting Jeb Bush's presidential campaign.... In one instance described in [a Bloomberg] profile [of Cline], after teachers at his children's school aired Al Gore's film, 'An Inconvenient Truth,' Cline asked them to hand out literature suggesting other potential causes for climate change, such as sunspots or the earth wobbling on its axis.... Bush called [President Obama's Clean Power Plain, unveiled Monday,] 'irresponsible and overreaching' saying it will increase energy prices and 'throw countless people out of work.'"
Sacha Zimmerman, who debated Ted Cruz when they were in college, in a National Journal essay: "It's ... worth pointing out -- with Cruz facing long odds in the GOP primaries, and with other candidates at tonight's debate commanding a lot more attention -- that Cruz's eloquence proved to be a great equalizer for him when his back was against the wall.... THE CHALLENGE FOR Cruz -- which The New York Times highlighted several months ago in a piece about his debating career -- was that he wasn't necessarily likable. 'I remember him as a scary, driven machine who fought a protracted, bloody land war for total victory,' says Ted Niblock, a Johns Hopkins University debater...."
Planned Parenthood had better hope that Hillary Clinton wins this election," Jindal said, "because I guarantee you, under President Jindal, January 2017, the Department of Justice, and IRS, and everybody else that we can send from the federal government, will be going into Planned Parenthood. -- Bobby Jindal, August 6, 2015
Anyone who is participating in the targeting of Americans for our political beliefs ... anybody who knew about it, anybody who cynically looked the other way, anybody under whose watch this occurred, they need to be fired and they need to be fired immediately! You cannot take the freedom of law-abiding citizens, law abiding-Americans, whether you disagree with them or not, and keep your own freedom, when you do that, you go to jail! -- Bobby Jindal, January 2013, while pretending IRS was targeting Tea Party groups
Federal law does include special provisions to ban presidential meddling in the I.R.S. -- New York Times, May 2013
Charles Pierce: The moderators of the kiddie table, Martha McCallum & Bill Hemmer, were more unhinged than the candidates & showed "transparent disrespect by the moderators towards the event they were supposed to be moderating.... But nobody's freak flag flew higher and prouder than that of 'Bobby' Jindal. Nobody was prouder of having rendered his state government impotent or of keeping the sick poor people of his state out of the clutches of Medicaid which, Jindal reminded us, 'is putting more people in the wagon than are pulling the wagon.' Nobody was more outraged than he about the phony Planned Parenthood videos. He announced that, on his first day in office, he would sic the Justice Department and the IRS on Planned Parenthood. Later, in the spin room, he added the EPA to that list so, if you're keeping score at home, 'Bobby' Jindal's EPA would be just big enough to crack down on Pap smears and mammograms...." ...
... Ed Kilgore: At the kiddie table, "A lot of the candidates repeated verbatim big chunks of their rhetoric from Monday night's Voters First Forum in New Hampshire. And that was particularly true of the two consensus winners, Carly Fiorina and Bobby Jindal. It sure didn't take a lot to impress WaPo's Chris Cillizza.... It's becoming truly amazing that Republicans do not acknowledge the rather relevant fact that Fiorina has been a dismal failure in both the private sector and electoral politics. Donald Trump loves to talk about 'losers;' can he resist applying the label to Fiorina?" ...
... CW: Also, Fiorina apparently didn't learn how to use HP's printers during her botched, aborted stint at HP: she left her debate closing argument in the printer at her Cleveland hotel, & a Rand Paul staffer found it. Would President Carly leave the nuclear codes in the hotel printer while making a state visit to Russia? A nice way to save her Russian hosts the trouble of hacking the White House. ...
Zeke Miller of Time: "The Republican National Committee’s resolutions committee quietly rejected a pair of resolutions critical of homosexuality Wednesday. The controversial resolutions dealing with sex education and same-sex marriage threatened to cast a shadow on the first GOP presidential debate Thursday in Cleveland, as the party looks toward expanding its base in the key swing state."
Margaret Hartmann: "Hillary Clinton Spent Debate Night With the Kardashians." CW: Seems appropriate.
Bernie Sanders live-tweeted the debate. ...
... Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: Bernie Sanders will speak at a student-mandatory convocation at Liberty University. Kaplan explains why Liberty invited him -- it's about the money: "Liberty's non-profit status and its accreditation depend on carefully managing its religious and political affiliations."
Gabriel Debenedetti & Dylan Byers of Politico: "The first debate for the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential contenders will take place October 13 in Nevada and be hosted by CNN, the Democratic National Committee announced Thursday.... A total of six debates are [sic.] scheduled, with six different sponsors: Oct. 13 in Nevada (hosted by CNN); Nov. 14 in Des Moines, Iowa (CBS/KCCI and The Des Moines Register); Dec. 19 in Manchester, New Hampshire (ABC/WMUR); Jan. 17 in Charleston, South Carolina (NBC/Congressional Black Caucus Institute); and two scheduled for either February or March in Miami, Florida, and Wisconsin, hosted by Univision/The Washington Post and PBS, respectively." Sanders, O'Malley & Webb wanted more debates, especially before the first primary states caucus or vote. Clinton's campaign had preferred fewer.
Beyond the Beltway
Jason Whitely of WFAA Dallas-Fort Worth: "... this has not been a good week for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Two days after Collin County unsealed indictments against him for securities fraud, a federal judge ordered him to court for a contempt hearing to explain why he is not letting the state recognize same-sex marriages."
The Way of the West. Tami Hoey of CBS 5 Arizona: "Close to a dozen bounty hunters raided a Phoenix home Tuesday night, looking for a suspected fugitive.... The home they raided belongs to the Phoenix Chief of Police.... Police said at least one bondsman banged on the chief's door, yelled inside, and pointed a flashlight inside the now-surrounded home. This bondsman was armed, his weapon was not holstered, and he reportedly got into a verbal confrontation with Chief [Joseph] Yahner, demanding he come out of his residence." Giddyup.
News Ledes
Bloomberg News: "Employers added 215,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate held at a seven-year low of 5.3 percent, a Labor Department report showed Friday...."
Environmental Pollution Agency. Reuters: "A team of US regulators investigating contamination at a Colorado goldmine accidentally released a million gallons (3.8 million liters) of orange-hued waste water containing sediment and metals into a local river system, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday."
Washington Post: "A manhunt ended Thursday afternoon for the 27-year-old man who authorities suspect fatally shot an on-duty Louisiana police officer who was responding to a call.... [Grover] Cannon was found inside of a garage behind a house Thursday afternoon and was arrested without incident...."
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Reader Comments (24)
Yes, I did watch a little of IT, even in the face of one of my son's telephonic derision. Wanted to see Trump blow hard I told him, instead of just reading about it, and was not disappointed. He did.
Stayed around for the first round of "questions" before mowing more lawn. My impression, formed admittedly in advance of hearing anything said but unaltered by what I heard: The only gravitas displayed--this could be a guessing game--was by the persons who clearly had had too much to eat. Paul whines, Cruz sounds smart because he is smart and that's all, and Rubio came across as the fresh-faced valedictorian, eager to please,who someday might amount to something. The rest? Just more of what we've come to expect, which is to say nothing of substance. No real proposals, no suggested policies that don't rely on sheer economic, historical or demographic fantasy. Huckabee did say something about funding Social Security that made sense: tax the rich too, which I took to be a mere feint in the direction of economic populism which will find absolutely no support among the Koch-Confederate faithful.
Did I waste my time? My son thought so and maybe he was right; because the substance of the "debate" was little more than another reminder, not that I needed one, that the Koch-Confederate leaders are so empty of thought and so full or airy nonsense that were they not glued to the floor, they would float away....
Would that they would.
For me, the highlight of the one hour debate was Gov. Pataki
stating that he wants put into law "no abortions after 20 leaks, er
weeks". Wasn't sure if he meant leeks or leaks at first. Otherwise,
it was just the same old same old. Obama bad, Hillary worse,
medicare bad, medicaid worse, food stamps bad, jobs better,
Keystone pipeline good, foreign oil bad, taxes bad, taxes on
businesses worse than bad, etc. etc. Sorry I won't be able to watch
my recording of the main event. Have to be out of town today.
I missed the pre-lims but forced myself to watch part of the main event.
Good thing I wasn't playing Ak's game. Would have had to skip the shot glass and swigged several gulps straight from the bottle when Trumpie mentioned that everyone in government is stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid (did I miscount?) and about the first half-hour point.
I had to turn it off though after Juanito blamed Obama for the current situation with ISIL as though his dumb-ass brother had nothing to do with it despite knowing now what they didn't know then.
Did anyone watch the whole charade? I'm curious if one of Megyn's eyelash extensions ever fell off during the show and stuck to her upper lip.
Jon Stewart's "passionate speech urging his audience not to accept falsehood and misinformation in their lives" ––although delivered much more graphically––"you can usually smell the bullshit"...was on full display last night during the debates. I found the teams of political analysts (I'm being kind here) yammering about the debates even worse than the debates themselves. It's as though they were watching a dog and pony show and were deciding which dog had the best bark and which pony could strut its stuff. Suddenly we had talk of Carly F. being the front runner of the first debate (which, by the way, was handled badly by the moderators and by Fox–-empty seats and a sense of lower class status all too evident) because she could speak in clear sentences and made her B.S. sound intelligent.
What a sad display and I went away feeling angry, embarrassed, and wondered if some of our allies were rubbing their eyes and scratching their heads as much as I.
And no @Unwashed, Megyn's lash extensions stayed intact although at one point I thought I saw one of her fake nails fly off and hit the Donald in the eye. On second thought it might have just been wishful thinking on my part.
So let me get this straight. The first chance the entire field of GOP candidates for the job of President of the United States has had to get together to answer policy questions, defend their records, and make the case for their candidacies and the whole thing, including two "debate" groups, was collectively less interesting than painting a kitchen cabinet and cutting the grass.
Sounds about right.
And I'm glad you guys decided to opt out of the "Debate" Drinking Game. I wouldn't want to be responsible for multiple cases of alcohol poisoning. There will be plenty of opportunities--and reasons--for heavy drinking in the months to come.
I'm making a joke, of course, but it's pretty sad, not to mention scary, that this opportunity for nearly a score of candidates to lay out their vision for this country was not nearly as compelling as things like putting away the groceries or walking the dog.
And it was fitting that this Confederacy of Dunces Show took place on Fox, the network that bears a substantial responsibility for making sure that cacophonous dimwits and obdurate ideologues would be the the types most favored in the current Confederate climate of hatred and ignorance.
Schumer's rejection of the Iran nuclear deal is troubling. This is a man who voted FOR the invasion of Iraq and this is a man whose ties to APAC and Wall Street are tight and cozy. But this is a man I thought would understand the risks of a foreign policy, if not carried out, could very well be detrimental to us in the end. I had hoped for too much.
The Donald really didn't have a response to Kelly's opening bombshell re his history of vile statements about women. (Dragging in Rosie O'Donnell - seriously?). I thought his "best" moment - and possibly that of the whole night, came when he said he gave money to candidates from both sides of the aisle because it helped his business; in other words, pay to play. That's how he was able to tell Hillary Clinton: "be at my wedding!" Ah, such a man of grace. But the naked acknowledgement of the corruptness of our political system was just astonishing.
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/6/9114565/donald-trump-debate-money
A much more interesting question today is what color Marie is painting her kitchen cabinets. Photos would be nice, too.
Would expand a bit on Victoria's comment when she nailed the Koch-Confederates vacuous moral center:
Trump's explanation of his company's bankruptcies was equally telling when he said that like all business people, he simply took advantage of the laws that allow him to make money. No one objected, no eyebrows raised (or eyelashes lost). No challenge, no nothing. Just silent acquiescence.
In short, in Koch-Confederate world, it's profitable for me, it's good for the country, which is surely a leap of logic far too far to bridge, even for the most simple-minded.
Of course, the truly simple or ideologically blinded don't see the chasm, or if they do, they think they will be lofted safely across it by the magic of the market.
Confederacy of unimaginative, self-serving Dunces, indeed.
And we now we pause for some facts.
Fred Kaplan offers an excellent review in Slate of the "shocking" ignorance of the Confederate candidates when it comes to foreign policy. Admittedly, foreign policy can be a complicated subject for many new presidents who have not been steeped in that field as, for instance, governors have not. But there's a Grand Canyon like chasm between "not having been steeped" in foreign policy and the fantasy bullshit on display last night.
Here are a few of the lowlights:
Rick Perry, from his seat at the kiddie table, reminded viewers that "thousands of Americans have died in Lebanon and Iran". Ahhhh.....what? I must have slept through the Lebanon and Iran Wars.
Jeb! pointed to Obama as the sole reason for all the problems in Iraq, especially when he blamed the president for deserting the Iraqis with nary a mention of the fact that it was his brother who signed the agreement designating troop withdrawal by 2011. Oops.
Cruz wants to kill people. Lots of people.
Graham too. And right quick.
Fiorina will nix the Iran deal on day one then put in a call to "her friend" Bibi. Well, that'll fix everything.
Some other idiot wants a Mideast NATO. And that would be....who, exactly?
It's really quite astonishing how many of their policy ideas are totally bananas, based on delusions and hallucinations. Just the ticket for a rigorous engagement with the rest of the world.
Still can't figure out how I missed all those thousands of Americans who died in Iran.
To pick up on P.D.'s observation, if I were a foreign head of state or someone involved in foreign affairs, I'd be the one drinking heavily right now, thinking that one of these simpletons might be president.
I decided to watch baseball (Miami at Atlanta) instead of the "debates".
Judging by the RC commentary, I wasn't wrong.
@PD Pepe: The interior of the cabinet is Benjamin Moore's grey wisp, which is the same color I'll be painting the kitchen walls when I get around to it. The exteriors of the cabinets are/will be Sherwin Williams hi-gloss WHITE! Photos to follow months from now.
Paint's dry. Time for a second coat.
Marie
Jeez! I so glad the rest of you watched, or partially watched the debates so that I didn't have to and could read your sharp views today. But, you all were obviously watching something totally different than Panchito (aka Frank Bruni) over at the New York Times, 'cause he said:
"This wasn’t a debate, at least not like most of those I’ve seen.
This was an inquisition."
...according to him, it was a A the Kansas Experiment " Republican Debate.
Wow! an inquisition!
If you're over on Slate perusing the Kaplan piece on the knuckleheads, stay a moment to check out this fascinating look back at the first mention of the current candidates in the New York Times.
Some are pretty anodyne and matter of fact: Jindal becomes a Rhodes Scholar (he's since left any brain matter that landed him at Oxford far behind). Huckabee lost an election. Perry won one. Hillary Clinton is not to be easily dismissed. But my favorite is this inaugural mention of Trumpy the Bigoted Trumpet way, way back in 1973.
"Major Landlord Accused of Antiblack Bias in City."
"At the corporation’s main office, 600 Avenue Z in Brooklyn, Donald Trump, president, denied the charges. “They are absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “We have never discriminated and we never would.”
And over 40 years later Trumpy is doubling down on his claims that Mexicans are rapists and murderers. Discrimination? NEVAH. Nevah would do such a thing! The idea. Ima gonna sue your ass now. You and Megyn Kelly, that bitch. Besides, "I have a great relationship with The Blacks."
Leopards, spots, and such.
@Ak: I'm with you. Reading Fred Kaplan's article, were I a foreign leader, I'd be worried that one of these clowns might be our next president. After all, the US elected Harding and GW Bush. Although Harding, unlike Bush, wanted to avoid war.
Marie,
Hi-gloss.
Definitely the way to go in the kitchen.
So much easier to clean up spills after careening floor-ward with a 3 quart saucepan of chili upon hearing idiots jabber on about destroying the world for Jesus.
Barbarossa,
You got that right, brother. The Braves don't have the pitching they once had but at least they eked out a win last night. Looks like a barn burner.
Oops. I see that Marie had already linked the Kaplan piece. So much material here today I blew right by it.
A veritable cornucopia.
Wait...wait.
Hillary spent the night watching the debates with....the Kardashians?!
My antennae must be pretzeled up. I can't tell if this is brilliant or incredibly stupid.
I know you don't have to be Ms. Gravitas all the time, but the Kardashians?
Does this mean Jebbers will spend the evening watching the Democratic debates with the Duggars? Trump with the Duck Dynasty dunces? Cruz with some Navy seals? Fiorina with Bibi? Walker with a bunch of scabs? Huckabee next to an oven? Perry with the family of one of the soldiers killed in the Iran War?
Christ, this is gonna be the longest year of my life.
I thought your suggestion that the research community should/would spring to the defense of Planned Parenthood's making fetal tissue available was a good idea until I read: http://www.vox.com/2015/8/7/9107913/fetal-tissue-planned-parenthood.
The hazards associated with working with fetal tissue from the 'terrorists' willing to bomb or kill folks involved certainly makes it reasonable to avoid public exposure. It is a shame to have Planned Parenthood run afoul of the same technique used against "Acorn', but if you are willing to lie, cheat, misrepresent, and take enough time to string together negative propaganda you apparently are able to overcome facts and reason. Guess I should not be surprised.
Sorry! Wrong link in my earlier post.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/06/opinion/a-foxy-rowdy-republican-debate.htm
When a clip of the "debates" appears on air, there is a large blurb that says "Courtesy of FOX News". Seems like this was just an exercise in branding.
@Marie: thanks for info–-sounds good and again am impressed at your handy work. Look forward to photos.
I did watch as much as I could stand, then turned to the conservative "Leaders Group" debate each other in Canada.
They could speak in complete, grammatical sentences.
Isn't anybody going to comment on Martha McCallum's wonderful comments on how great Scott Walker is? (he busted those bad unions, he deprived them of that bad collective bargaining power, he fought crony teacherism)
Crony teacherism?