;)
The Commentariat -- Dec. 9, 2014
Internal links removed.
CW: My power may go out again for an extended period beginning some time today; ergo, I won't post any updates to Reality Chex till (1) it's safe to travel & (2) I can find an operating public wifi source.
Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Negotiators were racing the clock Monday to release a more than $1 trillion spending package to keep the federal government open through the end of the fiscal year, capping the least productive congressional session in modern American history. House and Senate leaders were reviewing the final details of the massive bill on Monday afternoon with the goal of posting the text by midnight so that the Republican-controlled House can vote as early as Wednesday morning. Failure to do so might delay plans to approve the legislation by Thursday night when current funds expire." ...
... Oops! New Lede: "Plans to quickly approve a $1.1 trillion spending package to keep most of the federal government open through the end of the fiscal year fell apart late Monday, increasing the chance lawmakers will miss a Thursday deadline. Just in case, top appropriators said Monday that they were ready to pass a short-term extension of a few days in order to give the House and Senate more time to pass the final bill and end the least productive congressional session in modern history.... Both sides had reached agreement on continuing the program by Monday evening, but differences remained regarding proposed changes to 2010 financial regulatory reforms that were sought as part of the deal...." CW: Not surprisingly, Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Secessions is also causing problems: he considers it an "abdication of congressional responsibility" not to use the bill to halt President Obama's immigration reforms.
Mark Landler & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "On the eve of a long-awaited Senate report on the use of torture by the United States government -- a detailed account that will shed an unsparing light on the Central Intelligence Agency's darkest practices after the September 2001 terrorist attacks -- the Obama administration and its Republican critics clashed on Monday over the wisdom of making it public.... While the United States has put diplomatic facilities and military bases on alert for heightened security risks, administration officials said they do not expect the report ... to ignite the kind of violence that killed four Americans at a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012. Such violent reprisals, they said, tend to be fueled more by perceived attacks against Islam as a religion than by violence against individual Muslims. But some leading Republican lawmakers have warned against releasing the report...." ...
... Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "The Senate intelligence committee is poised to release a landmark inquiry into torture as early as Tuesday, after the Obama administration made a last-ditch effort to suppress a report that has plunged relations between the CIA and its Senate overseer to a historic low point.. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday the administration welcomed the release of the report, but warned US interests overseas were at risk of potentially violent reactions to its contents." ...
... AP: "The chairman of the House intelligence committee..., Representative Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican..., told CNN [Sunday] that the US intelligence community had assessed that the release of the report would be used by extremists to incite violence." ...
... Mark Hosenball & Jeff Mason of Reuters: "Graphic details about sexual threats and other harsh interrogation techniques the CIA meted out to captured militants will be detailed by a Senate Intelligence Committee report on the spy agency's anti-terror tactics, sources familiar with the document said." ...
... ** Pardon the Bastids! Anthony Romero, head of the ACLU, in a New York Times op-ed: "That officials at the highest levels of government authorized and ordered torture is not in dispute. Mr. Bush issued a secret order authorizing the C.I.A. to build secret prisons overseas. The C.I.A. requested authority to torture prisoners in those 'black sites.' The National Security Council approved the request. And the Justice Department drafted memos providing the brutal program with a veneer of legality.... My organization and others have spent 13 years arguing for accountability for these crimes.... Prosecutions would be preferable, but pardons may be the only viable and lasting way to close the Pandora's box of torture once and for all.... Pardons would make clear that crimes were committed.... Mr. Obama could pardon George J. Tenet for authorizing torture at the C.I.A.'s black sites overseas, Donald H. Rumsfeld for authorizing the use of torture at the Guantánamo Bay prison, David S. Addington, John C. Yoo and Jay S. Bybee for crafting the legal cover for torture, and George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for overseeing it all." ...
The program was authorized. The agency did not want to proceed without authorization, and it was also reviewed legally by the Justice Department before they undertook the program.... They deserve a lot of praise.... As far as I'm concerned, they ought to be decorated, not criticized. -- Dick Cheney, to the New York Times, yesterday
We're authorized. -- "Law & Order" Det. Joe Fontana (Dennis Farina), to people from whom he wanted to get something without bothering to obtain a court order
... "Dick Cheney Was Lying About Torture." Mark Fallon, a former interrogator, in Politico Magazine: " It's official: torture doesn't work. Waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, did not in fact 'produce the intelligence that allowed us to get Osama bin Laden,' as former Vice President Dick Cheney asserted in 2011. Those are among the central findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA interrogation and detention after 9/11... As those of us on the inside knew.... The ostensible purpose of torture was to save lives, but it has had the exact opposite effect. Torture was a PR bonanza for enemies of the United States. It enabled -- and, in fact, is still enabling — al Qaeda and its allies to attract more fighters, more sympathizers, and more money."
Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "The US government suspected that a mole inside the FBI was passing secrets to Irish republican militants who repeatedly plotted to assassinate Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s and 90s, files released to the Guardian showed on Monday."
Charles Babington of the AP: "Appearing before a House Oversight panel Tuesday, [MIT professor Jonathan Gruber] expanded on earlier apologies [for remarks he made while discussing the healthcare law]. Gruber said his comments were uninformed, 'glib, thoughtless and sometimes downright insulting.' He said passage of the health law was transparent and heavily debated in public, despite his earlier comments. Gruber said he was not the 'architect' of the law, and apologized for 'inexcusable arrogance.'" ...
... CW: Hats off to Gruber. Admitting stupid mistakes & apologizing for them is hard enough, but it takes real guts to make those apologies in front of Darrell Issa. ...
... This Is Sick. Jennifer Haberkorn & Manu Raju of Politico: "In high-level strategy sessions on Capitol Hill, Republicans are going through reams of historical information and sitting through marathon slide show presentations, trying to figure out how to gut Obamacare through a complicated budget process that requires only a simple majority -- a sign of how seriously they're taking their best shot yet at dealing a long-term blow to the health care law." ...
... CW: Republicans decided to oppose ObamaCare in 2009 as a political strategy. They made up a long list of phony arguments against it, but since it was a Republican-inspired idea, they must have favored it (in what passes for their hearts) in principle. But somewhere along the way, these calculating bastards morphed their strategic plots into an ideological belief system. Now they really think depriving millions of people of health insurance is a good thing. They must be crazy. ...
... Greg Sargent: "A new Bloomberg poll finds that by a large margin of 55-34, Americans believe Republicans are acting 'more out of antagonism towards Obama' than out of a 'deep belief in their vision for the country.' By contrast, Americans believe by 54-36 that Obama is more driven by his vision than by antagonism towards Republicans. Perhaps the American people ought to have a word with our both-sides-to-blame pundits. On the other hand, the poll also finds the GOP's approval rating at a five year high while Obama has hit bottom. So maybe there's no downside in being perceived as driven by antagonism towards Obama!" The poll is here.
Burgess Everett of Politico: "Vivek Murthy, who has drawn opposition for remarks drawing a link between gun violence and health, is likely to get a [confirmation] vote [for surgeon general] before Democrats hand control of the chamber to Republicans in January, a senior Senate Democratic aide said Monday evening. But winning confirmation is another matter."
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday rejected BP's challenge to a multibillion-dollar settlement arising from the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, declining to hear the company's case that it is being forced to compensate businesses with losses unrelated to the disaster.... But the Supreme Court without comment declined to review lower-court rulings that rejected BP's claims . Those courts said the company must abide by an agreement that did not require the kind of proof BP now insists upon."
Independent expenditures do not lead to, or create the appearance of, quid pro quo corruption. -- Anthony Kennedy, who is probably not the dumbest Supreme ...
... Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Charles Pierce applauds the New York Times piece (linked here Sunday, I think) that takes an "incredibly deep dive into the reeking, murky waters of legalized corruption and influence-peddling that our Nine Wise Souls in Washington have enabled so blithely.... This is smooth and edgeless corporate fascism in its classic sense -- a marriage of government and industry that is so tightly consummated that the former is entirely indistinguishable from the latter.... The real work of converting a self-governing republic into a seamless corporate oligarchy -- is being done in the states, where politicians can be purchased more cheaply, and where the infrastructure of the corruption on the national level is developed." ...
... CW: As David Byler of Roll Call pointed out early last month, "The GOP now controls 68 out of 98 partisan state legislative chambers -- the highest number in the history of the party. Republicans currently hold the governorship and both houses of the legislature in 23 states (24 if Sean Parnell wins re-election in Alaska [he didn't, but the governorship went to Bill Walker, a former Republican who ran as an independent]), while Democrats have that level of control in only seven." No word of what percentage of these neanderthals (apologies to Neanderthals!) are corporate puppets, but I'd bet it's most of 'em. There is a reason fatcats & their Tea Party minions are pushing for repeal of the 17th Amendment, which provides for the direct election of U.S. senators. If repealed, state legislators could once again choose U.S. senators. This process would save fatcats a lot of money -- Senate races are expensive; legislators come cheap. That is, the oligarchs would change the Constitution -- not just the interpretation of the Constitution -- in the interest of maximizing their profits.
David Leonhardt of the New York Times on the GOP debate about whether or not to reappoint Doug Elmendorf as head of the CBO. CW: The value of CBO reports is in their apolitical nature. As Leonhardt points out, Elmendorf's CBO has not always been right. But its judgments have been based on actual calculations, not on political calculations. Surely, surely Republicans will go for a charlatan, making CBO reports meaningless political craptrap.
Charles Pierce comments on Michael Tomasky's post, linked yesterday, urging Democrats to abandon the South: "To me, the key to the problem is to break the stranglehold of the Washington-based consultant class over what candidates will be run in what places.... Forging an actual alliance of working people, black and white, in the places that need it the most, is a worthwhile effort whether it fails initially or not." CW: Pierce's view is interesting, especially in light of Nicholas Confessore's article about the GOP establishment picking that party's presidential candidate (linked under "Presidential Election" below).
Michael Schwirtz of the New York Times: "A correction officer who was on duty when a homeless veteran died in an overheated cell at Rikers Island was charged on Monday with lying on jail records, falsely claiming she had checked on the inmate that night, according to prosecutors. The charges against the officer, Carol Lackner, come 10 months after the death of Jerome Murdough, who was arrested on trespassing charges in February after seeking shelter from the cold in the stairwell of a Harlem public housing project. Officer Lackner, 35, so far is the only person to face criminal charges in the 56-year-old man's death, which provoked condemnation from city leaders and drew attention to deep-seated problems at Rikers that have become the focus of federal and city investigators."
Seth Masket in Pacific Standard with a history lesson on the civil rights movement: "... if the [current] movement fails to achieve much, it won't be because it got push-back from white moderates. Pretty much every important movement faces that."
Jesse McKinley & David Goodman of the New York Times: "Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman of New York asked Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Monday to immediately grant his office the power to investigate and prosecute killings of unarmed civilians by law enforcement officials. Mr. Schneiderman also challenged state legislators to pass new laws to repair public confidence in the criminal justice system, which he said was badly damaged after grand juries in Missouri and on Staten Island declined to bring criminal charges against officers in fatal encounters with unarmed black men." ...
... New York Times Editors: "In 2010 alone, federal prosecutors sought indictments in 162,000 cases. All but 11 times, they succeeded.Yet the results are entirely different when police officers kill unarmed civilians. In those cases, the officers are almost never prosecuted.... Whether or not bias can be proved in a given case, the public perception of it is real and must be addressed. The best solution would be a law that automatically transfers to an independent prosecutor all cases in which a civilian is dead at the hands of the police."
... Soraya McDonald of the Washington Post: The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge meet (or rather avoid) "I Can't Breath" protesters at a New York Nets/Cleveland Cavaliers game in New York. "Those protesting the death of Eric Garner rallied abound the hashtag #RoyalShutdown, determined to make the event more than just a lighthearted photo-op for the NBA and William and Kate.... LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Kyrie Irving, Deron Williams, Jarrett Jack and Alan Anderson all warmed up in 'I Can't Breathe' shirts to pay tribute to Garner and protest the lack of charges against officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death." Kate & William didn't show up till the third quarter. CW: The royals did meet Beyonce & Jay Z at the game, a meeting which this Post decided to treat to a slo-mo video, because it's such an historic event, I guess. ...
... Charlotte Alter of Time: "Prince William visited the White House for the first time Monday during the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first official trip to the USA." ...
... Andy Borowitz: "President Barack Obama spent several hours on Monday in a closed-door Oval Office meeting seeking advice on how to establish a monarchy, Fox News reports.... According to the Fox report, the President came away 'intrigued' by the meeting and said he would explore the idea further next week when Congress is on vacation."
Speaking of titled (and entitled) people, James Kirchick of the Daily Beast does quite a number on "America's Worst Gay Power Couple," Chris Hughes of the New Republic & Sean Eldridge of nothing. He also does a nice job knocking down their (former) fans: "They are little more than entitled brats who, like most fabulously wealthy arrivistes who attain their fortunes through sheer luck rather than hard work, are used to getting everything they want, when they want it, and throw temper tantrums when they don't." ...
... Ha Ha. Brad DeLong, "Jamie Kirchick, who benefitted mightily in launching his career from being part of a corrupt and compliant media establishment that grasped at Martin Peretz's filthy lucre, complains about Chris Hughes.... No, there is not a hint of self-consciousness, self-reflection, or irony in there." DeLong has a good roundup of commentary on the fiasco that is/was the New Republic. CW: Maybe journalists shouldn't write about journalists. They're not very good at it.
Presidential Election
Oh, Who Will Be the Billionaires' Man? Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "Dozens of the Republican Party’s leading presidential donors and fund-raisers have begun privately discussing how to clear the field for a single establishment candidate to carry the party's banner in 2016, fearing that a prolonged primary would bolster Hillary Rodham Clinton, the likely Democratic candidate. The conversations, described in interviews with a variety of the Republican Party's most sought-after donors, are centered on the three potential candidates who have the largest existing base of major contributors and overlapping ties to the top tier of those who are uncommitted: Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida and Mitt Romney.... With the midterms over, Mr. Christie and Mr. Bush have begun pushing top bundlers to commit to them in advance should they announce a White House bid...." ...
If I were Mitt Romney, Chris Christie and Jeb Bush, I would be really irritated by that article. The last thing they need to become is the pet candidate of billionaires. It's a disastrously bad idea and it won't happen. -- Newt Gingrich
... Ed KIlgore: "... the Daddy Warbucks wing of the GOP does not seem especially aware of the hate-rage that will break out among 'movement conservatives' if the Establishment culls the field before 'the base' weighs in." ...
... digby: "This is democracy?... The Democratic elites would be no better if the rank and file were clamoring for a left wing fire-brand they assumed would lose them the election. In fact, they took the reins under very similar circumstance back in 1976. It worked out really well for them. They ended up with a one term presidency followed by 12 years of Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Let's just say that this "move to the middle" is no panacea." ...
... CW: digby doesn't say so, but that what the Democrats' "super-delegates" are all about: restraining the liberal wing. ...
... Hunter of Daily Kos: "This isn't to say others won't run, of course. There will be the usual half-dozen batshit insane candidates hailing from the various regions of teapartyism and theocracy-lite.... But the 'real' candidate, the 'establishment' candidate, need only putter and try to dodge blows until it is time to flood the market with the necessary ads, and we'll have our winner. Don't think of it as damaging to democracy -- think of it as a streamlining of the process. The megadonors will pick the best candidate for you, then you will get to vote for that person. It certainly sounds more efficient, doesn't it?"
November Elections
Steve Kraske of the Kansas City Star: "Campaign reports filed late last week revealed that key Democrats funneled money to Greg Orman's campaign for the U.S. Senate in Kansas. A political committee known as the Senate Majority PAC run by former advisers to Majority Leader Harry Reid sent about $1.5 million to two other campaign committees that were backing Orman's campaign.... Meanwhile, HuffPost reported that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, gave $1 million to pro-Orman groups." CW P.S.: Orman lost big anyway.
News Ledes
AP: "U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday to consult with Iraqi government officials and confer with U.S. commanders about the campaign to defeat Islamic State fighters."
NBC News: "An Ohio man who spent 27 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit was brought to tears Tuesday when a judge dropped all charges against him. Kwame Ajamu, 56, was the last of three men exonerated in the 1975 robbery and murder of a Cleveland-area money order salesman.... Ajamu was originally sentenced to death, but it was vacated because of a paperwork error. He later earned parole in 2003."
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Reader Comments (26)
@P.D. Pepe: I loved your comment yesterday about the Kennedy Center honors. The President does indeed have the skills of a good standup comedian, with grace and elegance to spare. And I also noticed and enjoyed the "Ed McMahon" character, with his great laugh. He reflected my own feelings.
We always enjoy the broadcast of the Kennedy Center honors, which to my mind is one of the best shows all year. Looking forward to seeing it on December 30th.
Re: Pierce, Tomasky, et. al.
The problem, of course, is that there is no genuine "peoples' party" available. The Working Families Party has a light presence in some northeastern states and name recognition in a few others but does not have the muscle to propel many candidates to victory. It can nudge where there is fusion voting, but it's unlikely either the D's or R's, equally jealous of their power, are eager to bring that option to states that don't have it.
We're stuck with the third party conundrum. How to reject the lesser of two evils (and with the likes of Schumer and Harkin about, that lesser is getting even lesser) by voting for a third party without gut-shooting yourself, first, then going down with the ship of state.
There is some successful political organizing taking place around the country, much of it based on economic issues, but we're still speaking of Davids pitted against political Goliaths, the ones with the cornucopian bank accounts. And as we all know, the right-wing Supremes certainly, Citizens United didn't help...In fact, as of now, maybe no more than a reflection of my dark state of mind, it hear it and other decisions that allow and encourage unlimited money lavished on our electoral process, sounding the death knell of any peoples' party that might hope to right the ship.
Capitalism is awesome, indeed.
But that Kennedy Center thing; it made me smile, too. And with a smile comes hope. Thanks for posting it.
Marie.
Is there a way we can contribute to the "Help CW Get a Generator Fund" so we can maintain our fix of RC? Since you don't have any of that obnoxious advertising to make us deal with to support your efforts it seems like the least we can do to help. Perhaps you have a secret Cayman Islands account we can transfer funds to, tax free of course.
@Unwashed. Thanks. I have a portable generator. It looks like a pretty powerful one with lots o' bells & whistles, but one bell it's missing is an automatic starter. I doubt I have the strength to start it. I did buy some tanks of gasoline during the 2nd day of the last outage, but shoveling out a place for the generator, dragging it outside & trying to figure out how to set it up just seemed way too hard, especially because I figured my chance of success was close to nil.
I probably will give it a shot this time when it stops snowing, but the precipitation is supposed to last for 24 hours or more. Since I have to put the generator in an uncovered area, I won't be able to even try for at least a day.
If I get it set up & I can't start it, I'll just have to wait for a handsome young man to happen by. If I get my driveway shoveled out & the town plows my road, I might go down to the fire department & see if one of them will crank 'er up.
Marie
@Marie
We had to build a shed to house our generator. After one winter of dragging it up and down the basement steps, shoveling a space to place it, we determined a shed was in order. Yea, and I sure could use an automatic starter too. I'm pretty strong, but still have a heckuva time starting it.
Seem to be missing a lot lately here in the Northwest with its unseasonably warm temps two record-setting days in a row, but all this talk of generators has me dimly suspecting that the CW is not in Florida. Or have Florida and Washington State simply exchanged winter weather patterns in our topsy-turvey world?
Why not? Little would surprise me in our oxymoronic top-down democracy.
Florida or points north, good luck with that generator, or lacking that, a restful interlude away from the fray.
Re; porta power; in a word, "Honda". There, Realitychex has a sponsor. Sell the old pull start. Keep the battery on a trikle charger. Add gas saver to the fuel. Good to go.
Rather timely thread in light of the report to be released: Alert! Alert! to Dick Cheney & CIA —betcha you guys overlooked another torture method. The GD portable generator!
I can attest that following a 17 hour plus power outage a few months ago (disclosure: I have no generator), neighbor on the right has an automatic one, no noise (maybe it's broken)...the new neighbors on the left, trotted out their gasoline-fired portable one from the garage and OMG the noise pollution!
Non-stop racket for 17 hours has to equal water-boarding!
@Ken W: Well I'm in Washington state, too, and without power. It's warm but very windy, causing outages up and down the I-5 corridor. Outages aren't fun, but this sure beats ones I remember with frigid temperatures. Marie apparently has the cold variety; let's hope she stays warm and safe.
Regarding the release of the report on torture, the Right is concerned that it "would be used by extremists to incite violence"? Extremists have been inciting violence for years based on allegations of what our government has done in our name. Two things come to mind:
1. Could it be that our government has done far worse things than even the extremists have been alleging?
2. Is it possible that the Right is worried that their supporters will be driven away when they see what was really going on?
The Right's base has, for the most part, bought into the machismo of bland and general talk of torture, easy to pass off in a "they deserved it, the scum" kind of way. Will direct and concrete descriptions of the actual practices break through into the souls of the pro-torture people?
One can hope.
Nisky Guy,
Your hope may be premature.
You're correct that much of the base on the right has always reveled in their image of themselves and their he-roes as All American John Wayne, dead or alive, tough guys. But John Wayne was a draft dodger. He worked mightily to avoid having to don a real uniform. And Pres. Dead or Alive was a deserter. So much for machismo, not to mention honor. But self deception is addictive.
Still, it's the fundamentalist Christian component of the right that will provide a largely impermeable shield for the torturers and allow their supporters to sleep soundly without a care, without a sense of responsibility for their support of those who inflicted pain, suffering, and death, in many cases on innocents. Like the original crusaders, they were doing "god's work" and moreover, doing it to defeat evil Moos-lims, who are looked upon as sub-human (much like Islamic fundamentalists view infidels) so torture in any form will not viewed as beyond the pale.
Gay marriage, of course, that's a different story. That shit is the work of the devil. Also helping poor people. Torturing other human beings, not so much.
It's a dank, dark, dangerous, duplicitous place, Right Wing World.
RE: generators with hard to start ignition switches and fetching a fireman to get it started (these guys seem to be good at igniting fires as well as putting them out). I recall a poem–-think it was by Deborah Digges–- about how on her walk every day to work she had to pass the local fire station where the firemen would be hanging out, sleeves rolled up, flashing her smiles and offering greetings of a suggestive nature. She tells us how she became weak-kneed with heart pounding while shamefully revealing her love of these men–-how they could melt her stoic nature each and every day. Don't know if Marie is anything like Digges, but who knows––one of those guys is gonna get her motor running one way or another.
@PD Pepe: Very funny.
Marie
Anyone else find this hi-larious?
"If I were Mitt Romney, Chris Christie and Jeb Bush, I would be really irritated by that article. The last thing they need to become is the pet candidate of billionaires. It's a disastrously bad idea and it won't happen. -- Newt Gingrich"
This from the guy who had his face buried so far up billionaire Sheldon Adelson's ass in '12, that he self-certified himself as a proctologist (after consulting with Li'l Randy on the best way to get around proper certification).
He couldn't raise any money on his own so he donned the Begging the Billionaire BJ Kneepads (TM), hopped on his charter plane (the Newt spent almost 30K in March of '12 alone on chartered flights for himself in addition to over a quarter mill for travel for the plebes on his staff) and went to Vegas for an audience with Adelson, who had a list of tricks he wanted to see Newt perform, sit, roll over, play dead, lick himself, etc.
The level of self delusion on the right makes a paranoid schizophrenic look like the soul of hard core realism.
Ken,
I don't have the answer to our (and the Democrats') problem, but I think we need to take the long view.
The current Republican hegemony was planned decades ago; the Powell memo was written in 1971: NASA was still sending men to the moon, the Pentagon Papers were published, Charles Manson and Rusty Calley were on trial, the Allman Brothers had just played the Fillmore East and the Ed Sullivan Show was still on.
If it takes that long for progressives to achieve the kind of power now enjoyed by the troglodytes, most of us will be dead, but we have to start somewhere.
I think that somewhere, or rather someone, is Elizabeth Warren. I think it's possible that she could attract others to the cause who can understand the impossible nature of where we're headed under mostly conservative policies and work in a steady manner to point out the internal inconsistencies we've been building on since Lewis Powell's plan for domination was published, and to develop truly populist policies that can attract and hold the voters' interest and support.
Of course, there may be nothing left by then, but we have to act as if there will be.
Akhilleus,
No blame attached, but you didn't do much to cheer me up.
My problems with the present state of affairs are impatience and disappointment. Tied to my generation, the one you highlighted with your references, as I am, I remember the optimism generated by the sixties and early seventies, when I thought things were improving, that our nation was truly and finally on a progressive social and economic path and that, as grim as some things were, the Vietnam imbroglio certainly, the the lights of democracy's future were bright.
If my age has brought with it any wisdom along with the inevitable changes in body chemistry, that wisdom takes the shape you outlined: the shape of the long view, which while intellectually satisfying because it encompasses much truth, doesn't do much for my day to day psyche.
Democracy has not always been an instant or glorious success and has since its origins as a political ideal been variously and often narrowly defined. The Greek demos was democracy in outline only and the struggle between the Jeffersonian Republicans and the Federalists was in large part about its definition. For a time, Jefferson won, but only for a time.
The tussle between rule by the few and rule by the many did not start with the Powell memo (by the way, I suspect Powell a corporate centrist would be appalled by much of what has been done in his memo's name; the memo urged persuading voters that business was not the enemy, that business was being portrayed in an unfairly bad light, not to scrub from the voter rolls anyone who might disagree with Powell and his minions.) And you're right, it won't end with my generation.
Maybe Senator Warren or someone who hasn't yet arrived on the scene can ignite an immediate spark. I certainly hope so.
But not unless the half of those who could vote but still don't notice what's happening to them and take the minor trouble to do so get off their duffs and do something about it.
The huge number who don't bother really piss me off.
God news from Michigan. (No, not good news but god news).
Last week our Republican controlled House of Representatives
approved HR5958, the so-called Religious Freedom Restoration
Act. I hadn't known that religious freedom had been done away
with, to be restored by Republicans. But basically it's not about
religious freedom at all. It's about lawfully discriminating
against minorities, GLBT, black or brown people, Muslims, etc.
The "Christians" want to take us back to the 1950's so they can
deny employment and services on the grounds of religion without
fear of legal action.
And in a state that depends on tourism for survival, this is suicide.
Looks like we may lose a lot of ground in the next 2 years, wiping
out any gains made in the last century.
It's just so sick!
Ken,
It really is astounding, when you think about it, that if half of the people who routinely stayed home came out to vote, the direction of this country could be dramatically changed. Overnight.
Unfortunately (and not to invite the black dog to find himself a comfy spot by the fire and hang around for a while), by the time many of those people decide they've had enough and hie themselves hence to their places of polling, they may find their names scrubbed from the list. Election shenanigans never stop on the right.
Why do I think it would be changed? I think that the people who align themselves with the mouth breathers, oligarchs, war mongers, and theocrats already vote. Those who stay home because "what's the difference?" or because "they're all the same" or because "I have other priorities" or--my favorite--because they are "undecided (!!)", might, if given the proper incentives, or shown a different way, vote differently than those who routinely empower ignoramuses and anti-American religious zealots and haters.
But if at this late date you still can't make up your mind, you're an idiot. There's no other way to put it.
Bottom line, many of those people who think it's just not hip to vote or who can't be bothered, deserve what they get. Sadly, they consign the rest of us to political and economic fates we don't deserve.
Forrest,
I had the same reaction when I started reading again not long ago about the RFRA.
But if you look at the history of the act and its antecedent events, you'll find another incredible case of right-wing hypocrisy and political opportunism, a textbook example of how they get what they want coming and going and can tell the rest of us to shove off.
The act came about because Nino Scalia, in a Supreme Court decision, came down on the side of disallowing First Amendment protection for a non Christian religious group, a Native American sect that used peyote in their religious ceremonies.
This prompted the passage of the RFRA, which was written to protect the rights of these groups.
Fast forward 20 years and Scalia, on the same grounds he kicked out the Native American claim, supports a similar protection for a Christian group, Hobby Lobby. And now the RFRA is used not as a blanket protection for all religious groups, but as a cudgel with which Christian groups can lord it over everyone else and enforce their view of the world on millions of other Americans whether they like it or not.
It really is a thing of beauty, if your sense of beauty runs to scheming, hypocritical, mustache twirling assholes.
Thanks to Ak for the reminder of the Powell memo. I had never read the full text, but what a piece of work by a pending SCOTUS justice. For any interested, a site for the full text:
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/
In the midst of the TNR kerfuffle, I found this piece illuminating in a sort of schadenfreudian manner:
Of gooses and ganders.
The skinny here is a question concerning the intellectual honesty (or acuity--which is even worse) of many of the TNR masthead types (Peter Beinart, Jonathan Chait, eg) who for years have been waving the neoliberal banner of globalization, corporate control, disaster capitalism, creative destruction, which put plenty of average Americans out of work, but when personally confronted with the fallout of the systems they have supported unreservedly, scream bloody murder.
"From Chait’s perspective, the ethos that Big Business and Silicon Valley apply to reshape the global economy is good, as long as you don’t apply it to his treasured magazine."
Years ago (and I mean y e a r s), I enjoyed TNR, but over time I noticed people like Fred Barnes showing up with depressing regularity. As Marty Peretz placed his imprint on the magazine I was pretty much done. Their support of perennial scumbag Joe Lieberman for president was it for me, so I'm not crying me any rivers over the current creative destruction.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/florida-officials-reject-sunshine-state-label
With all the talk of generators and snow, I guess maybe it's too late to ask Marie WTF is going on with the Sunshine State and solar energy...
Trish,
So what are they now? The Non-Renewable Energy State?
The Big Oil n' Gas State?
How 'bout the Global Warming State?
The Climate Change Deniers' State?
Then they could offer deals on beachfront property in Orlando within 20 years. I suppose by then Miami would have to be renamed Atlantis.
And when there's no more fossil fuel, and renewable energy research has been killed by the GOP at the behest of Big Oil and Gas, they can offer residents two sticks to rub together when it gets cold at night.
If they're very nice, Marie might send them her generator. There won't be any fuel, but it'll look pretty snazzy on the front lawn.
The Torture Report.
You'd think after living through the years of Bush-Cheney perfidy, mendacity, pernicious "patriotism", criminality, lawlessness, arrogance, stupidity, and cowardice we'd have become inured to the essence of amorality at the heart of that administration, but the depths of inhumanity plumbed by these moral and intellectual midgets covers every American in shame today.
That such vicious savagery could not only be condoned, but cheered on by these monsters--savagery willingly and happily supported by much of the media and a raft of elected officials and millions of Americans who giddily returned these evil pig fuckers to power--deprives this country of any sniff of moral high ground for at least a generation.
The savage amorality of the Bush administration and its brutal and cavalier treatment of human beings has not been seen in this country since the abolition of slavery, and I do not make that charge lightly.
Anyone who attempts to defend this horror deserves eternal perdition, if you believe in that shit, and none of them should be admitted into the company of civilized women and men for the balance of their iniquitous and malformed existence.
"Maybe Senator Warren or someone who hasn't yet arrived on the scene can ignite an immediate spark. I certainly hope so." (KEN)
"NOTHING HAPPENS, NOBODY COMES, NOBODY GOES, IT'S AWFUL!"
from "Waiting for Godot"
And from same source:
Estragon: I can't go on like this.
Vladimir: that's what you think.
Ha. Well at least that clears up my wonderment of: what the hell - has Florida gotten SO bad that it is not safe to drive?
Have you left the Worst Governor forever?