;)
The Commentariat -- December 6, 2015
Mario Trujillo of the Hill: "President Obama will discuss the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings and the broader threat of terrorism on Sunday night in a rare prime time address from the Oval Office. The address at 8 p.m. will hit on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) and how the terror threat has "evolved, and how we will defeat it," according to the White House." CW: I was just thinking he should do this. And I hope he tells Republican presidential candidates & other loudmouths to STFU. ...
Peter Baker & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times :"'We have moved to an entirely new phase in the global terrorist threat and in our homeland security efforts,' Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, said in an interview on Saturday. Terrorists have 'in effect outsourced attempts to attack our homeland. We've seen this not just here but in other places. This requires a whole new approach, in my view.'... Mr. Johnson said the government should continue to augment airline security by placing more agents in overseas departure airports and further toughen standards for the visa waiver program that allows visitors from certain friendly nations easy entry into the country. He and other officials said the government needed to reach out even more to Muslim communities to help identify threats that might otherwise escape notice." ...
... Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "The intelligence community told President Obama during a briefing Saturday that the suspects in the San Bernardino, Calif., shooting were not part of an 'organized group' or 'terrorist cell,' the White House said in a statement." ...
... Faith Karimi, et al., of CNN: "ISIS on Saturday hailed the two people who massacred 14 people in Southern California this week as 'supporters' of the terror group -- a message that came after U.S. investigators said they suspect one of the shooters professed loyalty to the Islamist network. The terror group's official Iraq-based station made the declaration days after Wednesday's San Bernardino shooting that also left 21 injured, but -- notable for a group quick to claim attacks -- did not say the couple were members or that ISIS was responsible." ...
... Abby Phillip, et al., of the Washington Post: "Early on Saturday, law enforcement authorities raided a home next door to one where the Farook family once lived in Riverside, Calif. According to a law enforcement official, the raid targeted Enrique Marquez, who is thought to have bought the two military-grade rifles used in the attack. Both weapons were modified in a way that allowed them to be used with greater lethality, suggesting extensive planning for the attack. Marquez, who has not been charged with a crime, has checked himself into a nearby mental health facility." ...
... Missed this one. Dan Frosch & Ashby Jones of the Wall Street Journal: "The weapons were illegal under California law because they were modified and violated the state's ban on assault weapons, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said on Thursday.... While they were originally sold legally, with magazine locking devices commonly known as bullet buttons, the rifles were subsequently altered in different ways to enhance them, according to Meredith Davis, a special agent with the ATF." CW: To read this story, unless you have a WSJ subscription, you'll have to Google it. ...
... Tim Craig & others at the Washington Post try to profile Tashfeen Malik, the San Bernardino shooter. ...
... Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "The president of Liberty University[, Jerry Falwell, Jr.,] ... urged students during the school's convocation Friday to get their permits to carry concealed weapons.... 'I've always thought that if more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in,' he says, the rest of his sentence drowned out by loud applause while he said, 'and killed them.'... Falwell said that when he referred to 'those Muslims,' he was referring to Islamic terrorists, specifically those behind the attacks in Paris and in San Bernardino.... A spokesperson for Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) sent the following statement on Saturday: 'My administration is committed to making Virginia an open and welcoming Commonwealth, while also ensuring the safety of all of our citizens. Mr. Falwell's rash and repugnant comments detract from both of those crucial goals,' McAuliffe said." Read the whole article to get a better idea of what a flaming ass Falwell is. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... CW: It seems Marco Rubio, who never knows what's he talking about unless it's his parents' humble occupations, criticized Democratic candidates for going on & on about gun control but never mentioning "bomb control." The sick-funny thing is, as Steve M. points out, President Clinton did try to introduce some bomb control: "a requirement that traceable 'taggants' be included in explosives. The NRA was having none of it, and therefore neither was the GOP." Obviously, taggants won't deter a bomber, but they can help authorities catch him. And Republicans are against that. As one of Steve's commenters wrote, Democrats should -- accurately --portray Republicans as soft on crime. Well, how 'bout soft on terrorism, too. ...
... Andy Parker in the New York Daily News: "On Aug. 26, our daughter Alison was murdered on live television here in Virginia.... [Coupled with the House's refusal to address gun control measures,] the Senate vote Thursday that defeated a measure to deny known or suspected terrorists the ability to obtain firearms and explosives and you have what amounts to, in my opinion, TREASON. These cowards would rather cash their NRA checks than protect our families and our country."
Keith Laing of the Hill: "President Obama signed into a law a five-year, $305 billion highway bill on Friday, with just hours to spare before the scheduled expiration of the nation's road and transit spending. Funding had been set to expire at midnight."
Never Mind. Nahal Toosi of Politico: "More than half of the House Democrats who voted to restrict the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the U.S. appear to be having second thoughts. At least 26 of the 47 Democrats who supported the measure have signed on to a letter urging House Speaker Paul Ryan not to include it in a must-pass omnibus spending bill likely to be voted on in the coming days, according to groups helping arrange the missive." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Missed this, too. Sarah Wheaton of Politico (Dec. 4): "President Barack Obama held an unannounced meeting with gun control advocates former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, on Friday and discussed his administration's 'ongoing effort to address gun violence in America,' according to a White House statement. The meeting, which did not appear on the president's public schedule, had been planned in advance of the shooting attack Wednesday in San Bernardino.... The White House meeting also included senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who is overseeing the process of drafting possible executive actions to prevent gun violence -- a topic that came up during the discussion...."
Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "The Supreme Court denied a request from the activist behind the Planned Parenthood sting videos to block a federal judge's order to turn over the names of people who supported his work. Lawyers representing David Daleiden had asked Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy on Friday evening to block the order from the district judge, which was upheld by an appeals panel Thursday."
Juan Cole: Receb Tayyip "Erdogan's negative divide and rule has brought Turkey to the brink of chaos. A hot war with the PKK is ongoing. HDP offices have been bombed. The Syria proxy war, supporting hard line fundamentalists allied with al-Qaeda versus Russian-backed forces, is ongoing. Press freedom, always precarious, has evaporated. A Russian economic boycott is being imposed. Whether Erdogan can still manage to become president for life is unclear. But his negative, violent divide-and-rule tactics are producing a bigger question, of what kind of Turkey he will be president of. One thing is clear. The so-called Turkish model is dead.... Turkey's downward spiral has regional implications." Thanks to safari for the link.
Election 2016
Historian Sean Wilentz, in a long & very readable Rolling Stone essay, invokes history (natch!) to argue that the election "will be one of the most pivotal moments of our time." ...
... CW: Presidential-year elections would be far less "pivotal" if Democrats, so-called independents & the other-directed would learn to vote in every Congressional election as well as in state & local off-year elections.
Amy Chozick of the New York Times on the long, complicated & often acrimonious relationship between Hillary Clinton & Rahm Emanuel.
Republican candidates criticize New York Times editorial, say every red-blooded (pale-skinned) American should be walking around with semi-automatic weapons to mow down terrorists. Or something. ...
Michael Barbaro & Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "The Republican candidates for president angrily demanded on Friday that the United States face up to a new world war, one that has breached its borders, threatened the safety of Americans and brought the menace of Islamic terrorism deep into the homeland.... Republicans have raced to fill the role of the terror-combating commander in chief, sometimes with a mix of bravado and bluster and oneupmanship.... Their language was almost apocalyptic.... For all the heated expressions from Republicans..., they favored symbolism over specific policy prescriptions." ...
... Steve M. rips apart Barbaro & Gabriel's reporting on Clinton. CW: My favorite part is where they wrote, "Democrats seemed to offer a more muddled response." What they mean by "muddled," as far as I can tell from the context, is that Democrats didn't say, "First, kill all the Muslims." I suspect that when Mike & Trip realized they had reported that Republican candidates were using "apocalyptic language," "bravado" & "bluster," they had to obey the Both-Sides Goddess & find a negative way to describe Democrats' responses, too.
Words Matter. Patrick Healy & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The dark power of words has become the defining feature of [Donald] Trump's bid for the White House to a degree rarely seen in modern politics, as he forgoes the usual campaign trappings ... and instead relies on potent language to connect with, and often stoke, the fears and grievances of Americans. The New York Times analyzed every public utterance by Mr. Trump over the past week.... The transcriptions yielded 95,000 words and several powerful patterns, demonstrating how Mr. Trump has built one of the most surprising political movements in decades and, historians say, echoing the appeals of some demagogues of the past century. Mr. Trump's breezy stage presence makes him all the more effective because he is not as off-putting as those raging men of the past, these experts say." ...
... CW: Pretty fascinating. both in content & in the Times' willingness to forego their he-said/she-said formula & call a demagogue a demagogue. ...
... digby adds a modifier: "He is a fascist demagogue. And to a whole lot of Americans what he's saying is music to their ears. And other right wing leaders, like Ted Cruz and Jerry Falwell Jr (an alleged Christian minister) are right there with him." digby runs down some of Trump's newer, outrageous remarks. ...
... Today provides yet another good example of Trump's inflammatory, name-calling but otherwise substance-free rhetoric. Jeremy Herb of Politico: "Donald Trump says the country's 'tremendous problem' with radical Islamic terrorism will get solved once President Barack Obama 'gets the hell out' of office. Trump slammed the president Sunday for not using the term 'radical Islamic terrorism' to describe the terror attacks in Paris and this past week's mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, hitting on a frequent Republican criticism of the Obama administration's language used to describe terrorism." ...
... CW: Because demonizing everyone of the Muslim faith will definitely end terrorism & turn Daesh into mush. When will Trump start calling Falwell the Younger a radical Christian terrorist? (See Falwell's call-to-arms against Muslims, linked above.) ...
... Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "More than two dozen people were escorted from [Donald Trump's campaign] event at Dorton Arena [in Raleigh, North Carolina,] for various forms of protest, causing the candidate to stop his stump speech about 10 times until the shouts and boos subsided."
Bradford Richardson: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is pointing to this week's shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., as evidence that female refugees from Syria should not be allowed in the country." ...
... No Country for Men. CW: I am pointing to the shooting attack at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs as evidence that men from the United States should not be allowed in the country. Deport 'em all. (See also Standoff at Neenah, below, & Steve M.'s commentary.)
Beyond the Beltway
AP: "A standoff at a motorcycle shop in Wisconsin ended Saturday with one person dead, a police officer injured and one person in custody, authorities said. Police said shots were reported at Eagle Nation Cycles on Neenah's Main Street shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday, along with a report that hostages had been taken. Police responded and nearby homes and businesses in Neenah, about 85 miles northwest of Milwaukee, were evacuated." ...
... When a Guy with a Gun Has Seller's Remorse. According to unconfirmed information the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel received from the shopowner's attorney, the shooter was some guy who had sold his bike & wanted it back. The bike was in the shop for repairs. ...
... Update. Cary Spivak, et al., of the Journal Sentinel: "After most of the hostages were released, one person inside the shop exited with a gun and was shot by police when he ignored demands to drop it, and died later, said Police Chief Kevin Wilkinson. He noted that investigators were still trying to sort out a confusing situation." ..
... Steve M.: "Also, please note that even though a cop had to go to the hospital, the suspect was taken into custody alive. So I'm betting the suspect is a white guy, not a Muslim (or a black person). Therefore, it's just another day in America -- shots were fired, citizens were terrorized, but the culprit was a regular American, so it's cool."
The Thin Blue Line -- Accessories After the Fact. Monica Davey of the New York Times: "... at least five other officers on the scene that night [of the police killing of teen Laquan McDonald] corroborated a version of events similar to the one Officer [Jason] Van Dyke, now charged with murder in the shooting, gave his supervisors: that Mr. McDonald was aggressively swinging his knife and was moving toward the police, giving Officer Van Dyke no choice but to start shooting."
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Reader Comments (14)
Juan Cole has a very interesting analysis on Erdogan's mindset and the death of the idyllic Turkish "model" that had been looked up to as a possible example of stable governance, balancing the Muslim/secular divide. As he says at the end of the article, Turkey's going down a rocky road right now and it could have important regional implications.
http://www.juancole.com/2015/12/turkish-president-erdogan.html
I wish people would quit calling Trump a fascist. He is not. I doubt he even knows what that word means. He is a megalomaniac. Nothing more.
Once in a while I read Douthat, maybe just to see what that scamp's been up to when I wasn't looking.
Yesterday he wrote about the liberals' (natch!) gun problem. Maybe because he wasn't writing about fetuses he made a little more sense than usual, but the image that stuck in my head reading him was that of Pontius Pilate washing his hands as he turned Jesus over to the Jews...
Among other things, Douthat said when it comes to guns, we need a cultural revolution...
My response:
So, a cultural revolution is needed? Who could argue? When it comes to our sick love affair with guns, we do need a revolution, just as we do in many other places where our society so poorly serves its members.
But who will foment that revolution?
If we rely on our leaders to plant the seeds, Republicans will be the last to lead the way. The most strident merely misquote or contort the Second Amendment, mouthing "Freedom" and distrust of government as an incantatory substitute for thought, let alone effective action.
The semi-reasonable R's, like yourself in today's guise, simply suggest the hill is too high, the challenge too large to tackle and then blame liberals for their naivete that leads them to think we should do something.
But at least some liberals try to lead. Where are the Republicans who are not fanning the flames, telling the country to arm itself with more and more dangerous weapons, instead of trying to extinguish the fire they themselves light?
I'm reminded of my own states' Republicans who won't life a finger to solve our state's recurring financial woes caused by our heavily regressive tax system. Some like being broke so they can drown the proverbial government baby in the bathtub, which mostly means blame public sector unions for our problems.
Others simply say the people won't tolerate any rise in taxes, so they do nothing.
Not one of them, not one, goes to the public and tells them what the numbers tell us the problem really is.
That would take courage and demand leadership, both sorely lacking on the Right, even when they're safe in their ideological bunkers, locked and loaded.
Nancy, while I agree that Trump does not know what the word fascist means, I am sure that he behaving like one. Please remember that the worlds most famous fascist was also a megalomaniac. The two mental states are a perfect fit.
@Nancy: I've linked to a couple of articles in which historians & political scientists are cited tying Trump's rhetoric, tactics & proposed methodologies to those of prominent fascists from the past. While I agree with you & Dr. Schwalb that Trump is also a megalomaniac (comes with the fascist territory), megalomania does not necessarily translate to political action, except insofar as quasi-political acts are necessary to advance the person's quest for power. This was Trump in his pre-political days -- as he has said, he greased all palms, but it took him decades to get into politics bigtime. It would certainly appear that his racism was a factor: altho he didn't start the movement, he became the country's most prominent birther.
In short, I don't think it's a mistake to call Trump a fascist, although fascism is such a loaded word, it may blunt one's arguments against his kind of authoritarian, fact-free, anti-democratic politics.
Marie
SHIRTLESS MAN SHOT DEAD AT CLOSE RANGE BY POLICE
'. . . because they thought he had a bomb . . . '
One more despicable, trigger-happy "assessment" of a man's threat by our protectors in Blue.
Thus far, it's been reported that the man was holding a razor, perhaps from the barber shop he exited.
And if he, indeed, had planted a bomb in one of the locations he entered (yet to be verified), how would killing him advance its discovery?
From the visuals, this shirtless man was surrounded by more than a few cops. No other option - than death - to restrain a suspect?
(*Suspect* vs Perpetrator)
If one has the stomach, there is a video (from a bystander: the Miami Dept has not made public their own), the option exists in the following narrative which, IMO, provides more than adequate imagery.
https://news.vice.com/article/graphic-video-shows-miami-beach-police-shoot-shirtless-man-at-close-range
Good opinion piece in this morning's NYT:
http:nyti.ms/1YR06HH
"Born to be Conned" by Maria Konnikova
Why humans are born suckers for an appealing lie. Very relevant to religion and politics.
Article by Sean Wilentz cited today is excellent–-liked his "for a brief hopeful moment"––we thought we had reached something finer, better and more equal (after electing Obama) but the conservatives only dug in harder and deeper.
From yesterday: MAG's introduction into the hijab conversation which took me back to when we all had a rousing discussion about Samantha Elauf who was suing Abercrombie & Fitch for not hiring her on religious grounds. She won, I guess, unless there is an appeal, but she now has her own web site, is a blogger and merchandising manager at an Urban Outfitters (a teen-targeted clothing chain that isn’t above reproach itself––has had multiple law suits for inappropriate clothing that smacks of racism, sexism, etc.) in Oklahoma.
There are as many Muslim women living here that do not veil as there are those that do and for multiple reasons. I've thought a lot about this since I hate the idea that covering a woman's body certainly has a lot to do with male edicts way back when––the control that men have over women. But I've come to realize that many Muslim women don't see it that way and are content to choose to cover or not.
I recall when reading "Reading "Lolita in Tehran" the author told of women get-togethers where they would throw off their veils, have very sexy dressing underneath, and seemingly become like giddy girls. I always liked that image.
@PD Pepe: There's no place else for Abercrombie to appeal. Unless you belong to Nino Scalia's crew, the Supreme Court is still the last word.
Marie
@PD Pepe: "Lolita in Tehran" was a book I also enjoyed ...thanks for the reminder as it relates to things.
As Marie added yesterday, "I am sure some Muslim women wear the hijab because they believe God wants them to (or their family says they must), & I'm perfectly okay with that. "
Yes, agree totally with that, too. My out loud, head-scratching came from observing (at times) a disconnect of modesty above and contradictory garb below!
Later, I was reminded of a funny incident I hadn't thought of in years (as in 'clothing makes the man...or woman!). One summer, my husband had invited the president of a nearby Catholic women's college to join us for a casual dinner.
I was in the kitchen as Sister Mary and her assistant arrived,
and when I went out to greet them...it took a few hurried seconds to mentally adjust my surprised brain as I welcomed the woman I usually encountered at community events in her tailored navy or dark suits, (sometimes more formally wearing a habit) ...who now appeared on my terrace in a yellow print blouse and pink Bermuda shorts!
A spastic finger spared RC a much longer version of my Sunday thoughts on fascism. Lucky you.
Fascism in its current, common and misleading use is mostly an epithet, designating little more than something or someone we don't like, its referents ranging over the last decade from Bush II to Obama.
That does not mean the term has no application to our current situation here in Fortress America. It does means we should be careful how we use it and try to sort its emotional baggage from its semantic content. Like many overused words, its overuse results in it eventually coming to mean anything or nothing at all.
Fascism, as it showed itself in 1920's and '30s Europe in France, Italy and Germany (see Ernst Nolte's "Three Faces of Fascism"), possessed five primary elements. It was nationalistic, racist, autocratic, anti-communist and forged an unholy alliance between corporate and government interests.
While fascism's face in 2015 America is not the same, current editions of the same elements are nonetheless recognizable. We certainly have the nationalism and the racism, even if the racism is aimed in other directions. And anti-communism, while attenuated, remains a real motivator for the Right. The Right's tendency to trample selectively on the rights of some, usually religious and ethnic minorities is also a clear echo from fascism's dark past.
What we tend to forget is the last aim of fascism, the one I consider the most dangerous because the most likely to be achieved: that alliance between business and government interests which has always haunted our history, but which has certainly grown much stronger in the last quarter century of my lifetime.
Not only doe we have a Supreme Court that time and again has elevated business interests above those of individuals, but because of that court our politicians now find it nearly impossible to be elected without large infusions of cash from wealthy corporate or individual sponsors, forging the connection between immense wealth and government even tighter. The result? If not autocracy, certainly oligarchy.
Trump and Cruz may be trying out for Fascist of the Year, doing a pretty good job of it, too, but some of the Supremes and groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council, working behind the scenes to create government for and by business and business alone, have long since qualified.
To some degree, our real danger is the Fascism without a face.
@Marie: In the NYT's article about this case they said, "The Supreme Court sent the case back to the appeals court for further consideration, but Monday’s ruling suggests that Ms. Elauf is likely to prevail."
So I wondered about that.
@MAG: I have a cousin who is a nun and years ago I remember seeing her swimming while at our family's cottage on a Wisconsin lake in a rather skimpy bathing suit and was equally surprised as you seeing sister Mary in her shorts and bright colored blouse. It's like seeing, when a kid, a beloved teacher who you always see in the classroom out shopping for groceries.
@PD Pepe: From the EEOC, July 2015: " A federal appeals court has granted Abercrombie & Fitch's request to dismiss its appeal of EEOC's successful religious discrimination suit against the company, the federal agency announced today. This represents the final resolution of EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch, which was first filed in 2009. The case involved Abercrombie's refusal to hire Samantha Elauf, a Muslim, because of her religious practice of wearing a hijab. Elauf filed her charge with the EEOC in 2008."
Marie
@MAG & PD Pepe: Sounds like your religious friends take the same attitude about clothing as I do: they dress for the circumstances: bermuda shorts & skimpy swimsuits in some venues, but when in Rome....
Marie