;)
The Commentariat -- Dec. 11, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Afternoon Update:
Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: "The House on Friday passed a stop-gap spending bill that will give Congress until the middle of next week to complete a deal on a year-end appropriations package needed to fund the government. The measure passed in a voice vote after minimal debate. The Senate passed the legislation by voice vote on Thursday.... Negotiators plan to work through the weekend as they continue to haggle over what policy riders should be attached to the legislation and how to handle a separate package of tax breaks for businesses and individuals that will likely be attached to the bill or moved at the same time."
Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "More than seven in 10 residents of Kentucky want their new governor, Matt Bevin, to keep the state's expanded Medicaid program as it is, according to a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. And more than half of respondents described Medicaid as important for themselves and their families, underscoring the program's substantial reach in the state and the challenges Mr. Bevin may face if he seeks to scale back or modify it." CW: But, you know, we voted in the guy who promised to gut the program.
Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "The gunslinging bystander who drew national attention when she opened fire at fleeing shoplifters in a Home Depot parking lot [in Michigan] vowed Wednesday that she will never help anyone again." CW: See, she made a mistake & she learned her lesson. Now if she see's a drowning puppy or a house on fire she'll just walk on by.
*****
Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Thursday night's draft text of a new climate change accord skates on the edge of historical significance, and we won't see the next version of it until Saturday.... The ultimate measure of whether the Paris pact is a success or a failure is whether it will send a market signal for investors to take their money out of fossil fuels and put it into low or zero-carbon energy sources. If it does do that, then the Paris accord will play a major role in transforming the global economy from dependence on fossil fuels to reliance on renewable energy, and thus save the world's population from catastrophic climate impacts. If it doesn't send a market signal, the Paris deal is basically just an expression of political goodwill."
"A Christmas Miracle -- A Bipartisan Bill":
... Cory Turner of NPR: "... the bipartisan bill being signed was the Every Student Succeeds Act -- a long-overdue replacement of the unpopular federal education law known as No Child Left Behind. The new law changes much about the federal government's role in education, largely by scaling back Washington's influence. While ESSA keeps in place the basic testing requirements of No Child Left Behind, it strips away many of the high stakes that had been attached to student scores. The job of evaluating schools and deciding how to fix them will shift largely back to states. Gone too is the requirement, added several years ago by the Obama administration, that states use student scores to evaluate teachers. The new law, which passed the House and Senate with rare, resounding bipartisan support, would also expand access to high-quality preschool." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
AP: "President Barack Obama's advisers are finalizing a proposal that would expand background checks on gun sales without congressional approval. White House adviser Valerie Jarrett says the president has asked his team to complete a proposal and submit it for his review 'in short order.' She says the recommendations will include measures to expand background checks." ...
... Lauren French of Politico: "House Democrats are adding a controversial new demand to the government funding talks: ending a 19-year old ban on gun violence research by the federal government. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi D-Calif.) announced Thursday that Democrats will insist that the research ban be removed from law as part of the $1.1 trillion omnibus that Congress needs to pass by next week to fund the government." CW: Yes, Lauren, science is quite "controversial." ...
... Elizabeth Harris of the New York Times: "Gov. Dannel P. Malloy [D] of Connecticut announced on Thursday that he would sign an executive order that would bar people on federal terrorism watch lists from buying firearms in the state. Mr. Malloy said Connecticut would become the first state in the nation to have such a measure." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Thomas Gibbons-Neff & Adam Goldman of the Washington Post: "An investigation that once focused primarily on the husband and wife responsible for killing 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif..., continues to expand as the FBI questions an ever-growing network of people with ties to the couple." ...
... Richard Serrano, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "An examination of digital equipment recovered from the home of the couple who killed 14 people in San Bernardino last week has led FBI investigators to believe the shooters were planning an even larger assault, according to ... sources." ...
... Mark Hosenball & Alexandria Sage of Reuters: "Islamic militant groups ignored contact attempts from Pakistan-born Tashfeen Malik in the months before she and her husband killed 14 people..., probably because they feared getting caught in a U.S. law enforcement sting, U.S. government sources said on Thursday. Disclosures of her overtures to extremists abroad surfaced as the investigation of the Dec. 2 shooting rampage in San Bernardino ... appeared to take a new turn with divers searching a small lake near the scene of the massacre." ...
... Reuters: "The White House on Thursday said it was possible it would ask Congress to reform the fiancée visa program that allowed California shooter Tashfeen Malik to enter the United States, but not until more was learned from the probe of the shooting."
** Paul Krugman: The "ugliness [of bigotry] has been empowered by the very establishments that now act so horrified at the seemingly sudden turn of events. In Europe the problem is the arrogance and rigidity of elite figures who refuse to learn from economic failure; in the U.S. it's the cynicism of Republicans who summoned up prejudice to support their electoral prospects. And now both are facing the monsters they helped create." ...
... Tim Egan: "The Republican Party is now home to millions of people who would throw out the Constitution, welcome a police state against Latinos and Muslims, and enforce a religious test for entry into a country built by people fleeing religious persecution. This stuff polls well in their party, even if the Bill of Rights does not.... What [Donald Trump has] done is to give marginalized Americans permission to hate. He doesn't use dog whistles or code. His bigotry is overt. But the table was set by years of dog whistles and code. The very 'un-American' sentiment that Republican elders now claim to despise has been a mainstay of conservative media for at least a decade." ...
... CW: Egan is underestimating the timeframe. Republican candidates have been stoking racial animus &/or homophobia since Strom Thurmond abandoned the Democratic party. Every GOP presidential nominee after Eisenhower has relied on Nixon's "southern stragegy" except Jerry Ford (as far as I can recall). He lost to a southerner. Republicans don't just rely on the racist vote; they make racism & other forms of bigotry acceptable. When Trump followers say their candidate "is saying things others won't say," this is what they mean. ...
... Trumpism, Medieval-Style. Sara Lipton in a New York Times op-ed: "In the decades around 1100, a shift in the focus of Christian veneration brought Jews to the fore.... Preachers and artists began to dwell in vivid detail on Christ's pain. Christ morphed from triumphant divine judge to suffering human savior. A parallel tactic, designed to foster a sense of Christian unity, was to emphasize the cruelty of his supposed tormentors, the Jews.... Ferocious anti-Jewish rhetoric began to permeate sermons, plays and polemical texts.... The first records of large-scale anti-Jewish violence coincide with this rhetorical shift.... Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Jews were massacred in towns where they had peacefully resided for generations. At no point did Christian authorities promote or consent to the violence.... It was repeated and dehumanizing excoriation that led those medieval Christians to attack people who had long been their neighbors." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.
... But some of those kids will have to go to "slow college" (even if Michelle Obama did go to Princeton & Harvard & saw her efforts pay off). ...
... "Scalia Was Wrong." Sigal Alon in the Washington Post: In a comprehensive study, I found "that the beneficiaries of race-based affirmative action at elite American institutions are better integrated academically and socially by the end of their first years in college, compared to their counterparts from socioeconomically underprivileged backgrounds who attended less selective schools, and are more likely to complete their bachelor's studies.... The beneficiaries of preferential treatment in college admissions ... thrive at elite colleges. They would not be better off attending less selective colleges instead." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Yanan Wang of the Washington Post: "Scalia was referring to a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the case, which details a notion popular among affirmative action opponents: the 'mismatch' theory.... The most prominent articulation of mismatch theory comes from Richard Sander.... [His] assertions have been widely disputed...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Anemona Hartocollis of the New York Times: "... proponents of the 'mismatch effect' say that large allowances based on a student's race are harmful to those who receive them.... Oren Sellstrom, one of the lawyers on a brief attacking the mismatch theory, said that 'there is a vast body of social science evidence that shows exactly the opposite of what the mismatch theory purports to show, that actually minority students who benefit from affirmative action get higher grades at the institutions they attend, leave school at lower rates than others, and are generally more satisfied in higher education, and that attendance at a selective institution is associated with higher earnings and higher college completion rates.' Mr. Sellstrom called the mismatch theory 'paternalistic,' and said that the concern Mr. Scalia's remarks raised for him was that, 'At root he does not believe that students of color belong at elite institutions. I hope that's not the case, but the tenor of the remarks certainly suggests that that is underlying his thinking.'" ...
... Paul Campos in Salon: "Something that has been obscured by the outcry over Scalia's rhetoric is that this argument -- that affirmative action is bad for its putative beneficiaries ... -- is, from a legal standpoint, completely irrelevant to the issue before the Supreme Court... The legal issue in the case is whether affirmative action programs such as that being employed by the University of Texas are unconstitutional, not whether they are a good idea." CW: C'mon, Paul. Scalia just wanted to make the point, since the moment seemed ripe, that black people are dumb & should stick to ag schools where they will happily learn the art of plowing behind a mule. ...
... Andy Borowitz: "A new study conducted by legal scholars indicates that Justice Antonin Scalia would fare better if he served as a judge at a court that was 'less advanced' than the United States Supreme Court.... 'If Scalia were reassigned to a "slow track" institution such as a town traffic court, that would be better for everyone,' the study recommended." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Al Baker of the New York Times: "Most British police officers are unarmed, a distinction particularly pronounced here in Scotland, where 98 percent of the country's officers do not carry guns. Rather than escalating a situation with weapons, easing it through talk is an essential policing tool, and is what brought a delegation of top American police officials to [Scotland]...." ...
... Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post: "For the past three years, every police recruit in the state [of Washington] has undergone ... training at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, where officials are determined to produce 'guardians of democracy' who serve and protect instead of 'warriors' who conquer and control. Gone is the military-boot-camp atmosphere. Gone are the field exercises focused on using fists and weapons to batter suspects into submission. Gone, too, is a classroom poster that once warned recruits that 'officers killed in the line of duty use less force than their peers.'"
Richard Oppel & John Koblin of the New York Times: "Sergeant [Beau] Bergdahl recounted his experience publicly for the first time in the premiere episode of the second season of the podcast 'Serial,' which was released at 6 a.m. Thursday. In interviews with the screenwriter Mark Boal, he explained in his own words why he had left his base in June 2009, an action that prompted a manhunt involving thousands of troops and led him to spend nearly five years in brutal captivity under the Taliban." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "Volkswagen said on Thursday that its emissions cheating scandal began in 2005 with a decision to heavily promote diesel engines in the United States and a realization that those engines could not meet clean air standards. What followed was a textbook example of what happens when ambition combines with weak internal controls and ethical standards, the company acknowledged as it presented a preliminary report of its investigation into the origins of the scandal." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Washington Post is moving this weekend from its building on 15th St. NW. With video. (Also linked yesterday.)
Presidential Race
"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." Matt Yglesias of Vox: "... because there are more Democrats than Republicans in America, Philip Bump of the Washington Post reckons that there are actually slightly more Sanders supporters in America than Trump supporters.... In terms of analyzing broad trends in American life, the Sanders phenomenon is probably more significant than Trumpism. Trump's supporters, after all, are older than the average Republican, while Sanders's are younger than the average Democrat. The Trump movement is benefiting from an exceptionally chaotic situation among mainstream Republicans, while Sanders is up against the strongest non-incumbent frontrunner in American political history.... The values that Sanders reflects are likely to grow stronger in future cycles, while Trumpism is likely to grow weaker." Thank you, Matt Yglesias & Monty Python. ...
... Gary Sernovitz, a private-equity banker, in the New Yorker: "If you agree with the Democrats that Wall Street should be reformed..., [Hillary] Clinton's more comprehensive solution better grasps the world of finance today [than does Bernie Sanders']. Not only are Sanders's bogeybanks just one part of Wall Street but they are getting less powerful and less problematic by the year. 'It ain't complicated,' Sanders said during the debate. But Clinton is right: it is.... Sanders's bank-breaking solution doesn't seem attuned to the changes [in Wall Street]." Neither plan addresses all of the problems.
Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Hillary Clinton and her allies have seized on Donald Trump's call for a ban on Muslims entering the country to define the 2016 election as an existential battle between the Democratic front-runner and the dangerous forces of 'prejudice and paranoia' as epitomized by Trump -- but also echoed by the rest of the Republican field. 'Their language may be more veiled than Trump's, but their ideas are not so different,' Clinton asserted in Salem, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, a message repeated frequently in a wave of campaign trail lines, fundraising emails, web videos, and surrogate appearances following Trump's proposal." ...
... He's Not Funny Any More. Amy Chozick & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... since Mr. Trump's response to the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif., Mrs. Clinton and her campaign, confounded by his continued strength in the polls, have had to rethink how they handle Mr. Trump and what his candidacy, and the anger in the electorate that has fueled it, means for her chances in 2016." ...
... Ryan Cooper of the Week: "Liberals should not downplay the dangers of Trump extremism.... Trump represents a tipping point in the continual radicalization of the Republican Party -- only this time on race and prejudice. As the infamous Lee Atwater quote demonstrates, conservatives have feared to traffic in overt prejudice since the civil rights movement. But Trump is running the most nakedly bigoted campaign since George Wallace in 1968 at least. A critical mass of Republican voters ... have completely abandoned themselves to prejudice.... If Trump wins the Republican nomination, he" could win the election. ...
... Megan Thee-Brenan of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump occupies his strongest position yet in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, yet nearly two-thirds of American voters say they are concerned or frightened about the prospect of a Trump presidency, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News nationwide poll." ...
... Katie Rogers & Victor Mather of the New York Times: "Muhammad Ali, one of the most famous athletes in American history and a convert to Islam in the 1960s, returned to the public spotlight Wednesday night to say that political leaders have a responsibility to foster understanding about his religion.... In a statement delivered to NBC, Mr. Ali did not speak about Mr. Trump directly but addressed his message to 'Presidential Candidates Proposing to Ban Muslim Immigration to the United States.' 'We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda,' he said in the statement. 'They have alienated many from learning about Islam.'... Mr. Trump has also questioned President Obama's affirmation that Muslim Americans are some of the nation's sports heroes."
Robert Costa & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "Republican officials and leading figures in the party's establishment are now preparing for the possibility of a brokered convention as businessman Donald J. Trump continues sit atop the polls and the presidential race. More than 20 of them convened Monday for a dinner held by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, where the prospect of Trump nearing next year's nominating convention in Cleveland with a significant number of delegates dominated the discussion, according to five people familiar with the meeting.... Several longtime power brokers argued that if ... [Trump] storms through the primaries, the party's establishment must lay the groundwork for a floor fight, in which the GOP's mainstream wing could coalesce around an alternative, the people said." ...
... The Wages of Bigotry. Adam Schreck & Jon Gambrell of the AP: "The image and name of American presidential hopeful Donald Trump was gone on Friday from much of a Dubai golf course and housing development amid the uproar over his comments about banning Muslims from traveling to the United States.... Some of his deals appear to be in jeopardy, with the company behind the Trump Towers in Istanbul now saying it is "assessing" its partnership with the Republican presidential front-runner." CW: That's odd, because Trump says his many Muslim friends here & abroad have been cheering on his anti-Muslim proposals. ...
... He's So Vain, He Prob'ly Thinks This Post Is About Him. Sara Jerde of TPM: "... Donald Trump said Thursday that the White House press secretary's comment about his 'fake' hair was 'disgusting.'" CW: In the same breath, Josh Earnest said that Trump's remarks about Muslims disqualified him as to be president, but what upsets Trump is Earnest's comment about his hair.
Maggie Haberman & Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Senator Ted Cruz, who has carefully avoided public criticism of Donald J. Trump, said this week at a private fundraiser that the real-estate developer is facing a 'challenging question' about whether he has the 'judgment' to be president.... Inside a conference room Wednesday in a Madison Avenue office, with about 70 people pressed around a table, Mr. Cruz gave his assessment of the race, lumping Mr. Trump with another candidate whose supporters the Texas senator hopes to poach, Ben Carson." Includes audio of the meeting. ...
... Steve M. suspects this is a "leak" engineered by the Cruz campaign because Ted is too cowardly to come out & criticize Trump publicly. CW: Whether or not the NYT is shilling for Ted, Cruz is not "cowardly." If it's a team Cruz leak, then Ted is sending a signal to the party; either way, Ted is shrewd not to criticize the rivals whose voter bases Cruz hopes to cannibalize. ...
... Update. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump made clear that he considered Mr. Cruz's remarks as an attack and warned that he would regret the decision." ...
... Kira Lerner of Think Progress: "Buddy Pilgrim, [Ted] Cruz's national director for faith and religious liberty, endorsed Christian minister and former Tea Party politician E.W. Jackson Sr. on Wednesday, promising Cruz's support for Jackson's plan to 'rescue America's inner cities' from the 'new epidemic of black on black violence and murder.'... The solutions Jackson proposes and Cruz supports include many extremist, anti-gay, and racially offensive stances. Jackson's vitriolic rhetoric was denounced when he ran for office in 2013.... Earlier this month, Cruz participated in a teleconference hosted by Jackson and answered a question posed by a fringe anti-gay leader about the 'gay agenda.' Cruz responded by calling the U.S. Supreme Court's decision legalizing gay marriage 'one of the greatest threats to our democracy we had seen in modern times.' Cruz went on to criticize President Obama for being 'more interested in promoting homosexuality in the military than he is in defeating our enemy.'" ...
... Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "The National Organization for Marriage, a group that was founded to stop marriage equality but has since embraced other anti-LGBT causes, announced today that it has endorsed Ted Cruz for president.... It comes as no surprise that Cruz earned the right-wing group's support, as he has accused the gay community of waging a 'jihad' against religious liberty, likened the Obergefell ruling on marriage equality to 'Nazi decrees' and vowed not to enforce the court's ruling if elected president." ...
... Niall Stanage of the Hill: "Three candidates for the Republican nomination have broken away from the rest of the pack, and two of them -- ... Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz -- give the GOP establishment nightmares. That leaves the third member of the trio, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, potentially well placed to pick up the support of center-right Republican voters who are looking for someone to stop Trump and Cruz at almost any cost." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "The centrality of Trump has framed the Republican campaign as a binary question of Trump against whichever contender emerges as the non-Trump. Instead, the race may well be condensing into a three-way contest between Trump, Marco Rubio, and Cruz. Ben Carson, who has previously absorbed a large share of the Evangelical vote, has swiftly declined, allowing Cruz to rise into the top tier.... Washington Republicans despise Cruz, but they could learn to live with him, and it's entirely possible that they will need to do just that." ...
... John Stanton of BuzzFeed: "Sen. Ted Cruz and three other Republican senators voted on Thursday against a non-binding Senate resolution affirming that the United States does not use religious tests for immigrants seeking admission into the country. The resolution, which is an amendment to a maritime security bill..., passed [in committee] 16 to 4, with Sens. David Vitter [R-La.] and Thom Tillis [R-N.C.] joining [Jefferson Beauregard] Sessions [R-Ala.] and Cruz in opposing the language." Sessions cast Cruz's vote in proxy as Cruz did not attend the meeting.
Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times: "Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign has been crowing lately about the blow he supposedly scored against the Affordable Care Act. 'Only one candidate has actually done significant damage to Obamacare,' boasts his campaign website.... These claims are a little overheated, wholly misleading and spectacularly cynical.... As health insurance guru Richard Mayhew of Balloon-Juice points out, the Rubio rider is worse than an innocuous complication for the ACA; it actually will cost taxpayers money. That's because (among other things) the disappearance of the co-ops will reduce competition in their old markets, raising premiums and requiring the government to spend more in premium subsidies for the buyers eligible for them -- more than 80% of the buyers." ...
... See also Jonathan Cohn on the same subject, a post which contributor P. D. Pepe highlighted yesterday. ...
... CW: If your health insurance premiums have risen, don't blame ObamaCare; blame that smarmy little turd Marco. ...
... Jamelle Bouie: Marco Rubio is running a lackluster campaign with "infrequent appearances [in early states] and [a] paltry field operation." CW: Maybe he's still hoping to be Scott Walker's VP choice.
Senate Race
Christopher Massie of BuzzFeed: "California Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez said on Wednesday that 'between 5 and 20%' of Muslims 'have a desire for a caliphate and to institute that in any way possible,' including the use of terrorism.... Sanchez, who is running for Barbara Boxer's open Senate seat, added that this group of Muslims was 'willing to use and they do use terrorism.'... Update: In a statement, Sanchez said, 'I strongly support the Muslim community in America and believe that the overwhelming majority of Muslims do not support terrorism or ISIS. We must enlist the voices of the Muslim community in our fight against ISIS instead of alienating them through fear-mongering and discrimination.'" ...
... Christopher Cadelago of the Sacramento Bee: "A dynamic speaker who sometimes veers off-script, Sanchez has in the past been forced to later explain her comments and actions. In May, she apologized after making a mocking cliché of American Indians."
Beyond the Beltway
"Rahm Emanuel Is in Deep, Deep Trouble." Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "Thanks in part to a series of missteps by the mayor after the shooting, exacerbated by a longer-term failure to address more systemic problems with Chicago's police department, Emanuel appears to have lost much of the city's trust. His approval rating has hit a record low of 18 percent, and 51 percent of residents think he should resign, according to a new poll from the Illinois Observer.... In every new twist and turn of the McDonald shooting, Emanuel has appeared to act only after he was backed into a corner by political pressure." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Kyle Schwab of the Oklahoman: "Jurors on Thursday night found a former Oklahoma City police officer guilty of sexual offenses involving eight victims and chose punishments that could mean he will never go free. 'I didn't do it!' Daniel Ken Holtzclaw shouted inside the Oklahoma County courtroom as he was handcuffed after the verdicts were read. Holtzclaw, of Oklahoma City, was charged with 36 counts that accused him of sexually assaulting 13 black women between December 2013 and June 2014 while he was a police officer. Holtzclaw was fired in January.... An appeal is expected."
William Wan of the Washington Post: "A grand jury in Louisiana indicted two Marksville[, Louisiana,] city deputy marshals Thursday in a shooting last month that killed a 6-year-old autistic boy and critically wounded his father.... According to Associated Press and local media, the police report includes a statement from a witness, Marksville Police Sgt. Kenneth Parnell III, as well as description of a video shot from a body camera Parnell was wearing. 'The body camera video is approximately 13 minutes and 47 seconds long. At approximately 26 seconds into the video, the driver, Christopher Few's empty hands are raised and visible when gunfire becomes audible,' the report said, according to the Associated Press."
A Kollege Klannish Khristmas. Mike McPhate of the New York Times: "The Citadel said on Thursday that it was investigating the events behind images on Facebook that showed seven cadets at the Charleston, S.C., military college with white pillowcases on their heads, evoking a likeness to the Ku Klux Klan. Lt. Gen. John W. Rosa, the president of the Citadel, said in a statement that he found the posting 'offensive and disturbing.'... 'Preliminary reports are cadets were singing Christmas carols as part of a "Ghosts of Christmas Past" skit,' General Rosa said." ...
... Jaime Fuller of New York: "At least eight cadets at the Citadel ... were suspended after social-media posts showing them with white pillowcases on their heads started circulating on the internet.... Shortly after the shooting in Charleston last June, Citadel leaders voted to remove the Confederate flag from the campus chapel. According to an article in The Post and Courier from last month, it is still there, and alumni are still campaigning for it to be removed." Includes photo.
Expect to be reading many more news items like this one from the New York Daily News: "A customer at a Herald Square restaurant burst into an anti-Muslim tirade, slapping one worker than busting glass partitions with a chair while a Muslim woman in Brooklyn was kicked by a man who called her trash, police sources said."
Way Beyond
Rob Gillies of the AP: "The first Canadian government plane carrying Syrian refugees arrived in Toronto late Thursday where they were greeted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is pushing forward with his pledge to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February. The welcome given to the military flight carrying 163 refugees stands in stark contrast to the United States."
Home by Christmas. Ilya Arkhipov & Henry Meyer of Bloomberg: "U.S. President Barack Obama, facing criticism at home over his Islamic State strategy, is turning out to be right with his prediction that Vladimir Putin's own campaign in Syria will descend into a quagmire. Many senior officials in Moscow underestimated how long the operation in support of Bashar al-Assad would take when Putin entered Syria's civil war on Sept. 30 and no longer talk in terms of just a few months, with one saying the hope now is that it won't last several years. With the mission in its third month, Putin is pouring materiel and manpower into Syria at a pace unanticipated by lawmakers already struggling to meet his spending goals. The plunging price of oil is sapping revenue and prolonging Russia's first recession in six years...." ...
... Kevin Drum: "Blowhards are the same the world over, I guess. Always convinced that their wars will be short and victorious, and never willing to listen to anyone else. They just don't learn." CW: Don't you worry, Kevin. Donald Trump will "bomb the shit out of" ISIS. And if Donald doesn't get the top job, Ted Cruz "will carpet bomb [ISIS] into oblivion. I don't know if can glow in the dark, but we're going to find out." No blowhards here.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Lebanese news services reported on Friday that the youngest son of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi[, Hannibal Qaddafi]..., had been abducted in Lebanon by militants apparently seeking to avenge a prominent Lebanese Shiite cleric who disappeared in Libya in the 1970s."
AP: "This year's Nobel Peace Prize winners, the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, collected their award in Norway on Thursday, appealing for international cooperation to make the global fight against terrorism a top priority."
Washington Post: "Two of corporate America's oldest institutions, chemical giants Dow Chemical and DuPont, will merge into a $130 billion behemoth -- and then split again into three companies -- in one of the largest megadeals of the year, the companies said Friday.... The resulting company, DowDuPont, will be split after 18 to 24 months via tax-free spin-offs into three independent, public companies focused on agriculture, including seeds and pesticides; materials, including coatings, plastics and industrial chemicals; and specialty products, including chemicals key to the electronics, biosciences and health industries."
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Reader Comments (12)
Good morning. If there is anyone who is not sure of my diagnosis of Adolf as delusional NPD, he said something yesterday that is absolutely classic.
"I told you @TIME Magazine would never pick me as person of the year despite being the big favorite. They picked person who is ruining Germany".
Of course he is the person of the year in the entire world. Not a question, not an issue. No one ever heard of Angela Merkel. The Times ignored the truth, never mind the fact that his highness, the Emperor of the U.S.of Trump, just insulted on of our countries most important allies. Actually if Adolf was POTUS, I doubt we would still have anything called an ally.
@Marvin Schwalb: Plus, Trump managed to incorporate a lie into his whine: "despite being the big favorite." No, Donald, you were not the big favorite. Bernie Sanders won the Time poll. And you're no Bernie Sanders.
Marie
How many times have you heard Republican pundits complain bitterly that Obama isn't doing squat about combating Isis–-ya da ya da––these bastards! A Mr. Adam Szubin has been waiting in the wings for months to be confirmed:
"Senator Sherrod Brown talks with Rachel Maddow about the ease with which Adam Szubin could be confirmed as the Treasury Department's under secretary for terrorism and financial crimes, a vital job to cut of ISIS financing and enforce Iran sanctions, if only the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Republican Richard Shelby, would allow the vote instead of playing partisan games."
and Rachel asked Brown how long would it take for him to be confirmed since he has already had his hearing.
"Two minutes––giver or take–-I was on the floor today–-yea or nay–- but Shelby shouts, "Object!"
And why? Because Shelby says, "We are not voting today, We are going home for Christmas!"
Brown, looking dismayed and furious said: They don't want Obama to take credit for anything."
And then we have Ted. Ted has been on Cruz control for months, calculating, sniffing the political air, never dissing the Donald directly, waiting for just the right time to bring out his trump card. When that happens we might just see a folded deck, but Donald will never let us see his hand––he'll finish with a flourish.
A reporter on Chris Hayes last night who interviewed as many of Trump's fans as possible during one of the Trump Talks said these people were not the poor and disgruntled, but appeared to be middle Americans who cotton to the racism, bigotry, "in your face government" rhetoric spewing from the man with the golden hair. So Bernie may be mistaken (he has said Trump's followers are the disadvantaged, economically hurt) about the bulk of the brigade that loves what Trump is extolling. The other interviews in N.H. last night on the street where you had two sides––"love him––"hate him" , those that were FOR Trump seemed to me to be middle class, well spoken true Republicans; those against appeared outraged,especially about the Muslim situation.
@Marvin: The comment about Merkel by Trump is almost beyond belief. You are running for President and you slap one of our closest allies in the face like this? Ach du Himmell!!!
Marie, Adolf didn't lie about his status in the Times poll. He never checked because he knew that he was going to be number one. I am not kidding when I use the word 'delusional'.
And the Merkel comment is just a piece of the puzzle. He canceled his trip to Israel because they didn't want him. Senior leaders all over the word have said really nasty things about him. Scotland which he claims as a part of his roots is pissing all over him. http://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-scotland-disapproval-remarks-muslims-snp/
Another contribution from another son on, as Akhilleus is fond of saying: words do matter.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/opinion/the-words-that-killed-medieval-jews.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share
Jordan Klepper has a two-segment rebuttal to the "Good Guy with a Gun" on last night's Daily Show. It's straightforward and logical, so it probably won't reach the, um, target audience.
Addicted to Bullshit
From the Beating the Dead Horse Department: So now we hear about yet another wingnut--accent on nut--theory used by Confederates to support their ideological rules, the Mismatch Theory. I've heard this theory used in discussions about evolutionary biology, but never heard of it being adapted for racist purposes. And does it surprise anyone that the adaptation used by wingers has been proven illegitimate by serious research? Of course not (see Marie's link above).
But the Mismatch Theory as employed by Scalia to undermine affirmative action is just one of many Right Wing World theories Confederates draw upon to "prove" that they're right and everyone else, and all their studies and facts and undeniable empirical evidence are wrong.
Winger economists and "deep thinkers" like Lyin' Ryan still refer to the Laffer Curve as if it had never been tested and summarily buried in the Graveyard of Stupid Ideas. Not only doesn't it work to bolster the economy, it has the opposite effect. But no matter, it's a way to bray for fewer taxes on the wealthy, none of whom, apparently got Laffer's memo that they're supposed to bail us out once they get their tax breaks. Oops.
Then there's the Global Warming Hiatus theory currently being bandied about by Ted (My Parents Were Scientists!) Cruz. It amounts to a single poorly done study of global temperatures by a small group of winger "scientists" in Alabama, a study that has been roundly discredited. Cruz and other science haters and climate change deniers hold up this single invalid study against hundreds, perhaps thousands of studies done by actual climate scientists as "proof" that they are right.
The Gun Control Won't Affect Gun Violence Theory is an extremely popular one with the gun nuts. Naturally reams of empirical, real world evidence to the contrary do nothing to dissuade what amounts to wishful thinking being taken as "proof" that their theory is correct.
Then we have the Legitimate Rape Theory. Nuff said there. The Poor People Deserve to be Poor Theory. The Shock and Awe Theory. We know how wonderfully that turned out, but now we have dozens of wingers in congress calling for the same sort of thing again in the Middle East.
The Young Earth Theory. Christ, even presidential candidates are too fearful of the fundies to take this one on.
It doesn't matter how often and how successfully their theories are debunked, disproved, and otherwise eviscerated, Confederates cleave to the bullshit as if for dear life. Because not to do so would be admit the misbegotten, superstitious basis for their political, social, and economic schemes. Not to mention the fact that their ignorance, bigotry, ineptitude, and discredited philosophies would stand naked in the wind, bereft of the plastic (made in China) fig leaves they use to hide their illegitimacy.
Still and all, it makes one curious as to how these people are constantly able to find such unadulterated bullshit with which to prop up their benighted world view.
Debate? What debate?
I'm getting very tired of reading about the "Gun Control Debate".
There's no debate. Debate is a method of formally presenting an argument in a disciplined manner. One side would very much like a serious debate. The other side simply throws out wild accusations then runs in the house, barricades the doors and starts cleaning the guns after which they all pile into their pickup trucks and go down to the local playground so they can strut around with their AK's and wave their Glocks around to scare the kiddies.
There is no debate here.
One side is completely insane and refuses to discuss any form of controls on deadly weapons. They're even happy to hand weapons to terrorists for additional mass killings as long as they can get out of having a debate.
And throwing around wild unsupported assertions don't count as a debate either.
But now that I think of it, there's no debate on any issue with the right. Abortion rights? No. Gun control? No. Immigration reform? No. Healthcare reform? No. Climate change? No. Income inequality? No. Pick an issue. They're right and everyone else is A.) wrong, and B.) out to get them.
When only one side is interested in talking, there's no debate.
Oops. I forgot to include a link to my definition of debate above. The line "Debate is a method of formally presenting an argument in a disciplined manner" comes from the Wikipedia entry on same.
@Akhilleus: Yeah, but. It's a "debate" because the press is devoted to both-sider "journalism." Just because one side mostly makes sense & the other side mostly just shouts, it's still a "debate." That's why Politico writer Lauren French, a straight-news reporter, can, without even thinking about it, call gun violence research "controversial." There is nothing even remotely controversial about studying gun violence -- a real true thing that everyone agrees exists. That's what social scientists do -- and it's part of what the National Health Service has a charter to do -- study what's good & bad for your health, like whole grains & bullet wounds. What is controversial is that the researchers are going to find out stuff that undermines the crap the NRA & GOP put out. Hell, they may find stuff that undermines what I put out. If they do, I'll make a correction. Unlike confederates, I know how to accept new information, even if at first it seems counterintuitive.
Marie
"Five Charts That Show American Exceptionalism Is a Myth" -
From Bloomberg Business / Featuring Jeremy Grantham:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-10/5-charts-that-show-american-exceptionalism-is-a-myth
Huff Post Headline:
"Ben Carson Threatens To Leave The GOP"
(I'm very, very frightened.)