;)
The Commentariat -- Feb. 14, 2015
Internal links removed.
Nicole Perlroth & David Sanger of the New York Times: "Declaring that the Internet has become the 'Wild Wild West' with consumers and industries as top targets, President Obama on Friday called for a new era of cooperation between the government and the private sector to defeat a range of fast-evolving online threats."
Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "Senate Republicans are seizing on the global tax scandal engulfing HSBC to delay the confirmation of Loretta Lynch, Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general, the Guardian can reveal. The Republican chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, Chuck Grassley, was on Friday preparing a fresh tranche of questions for Lynch about the huge cache of leaked data showing how HSBC's subsidiary helped conceal billions of dollars from domestic tax authorities. Grassley and another Republican senator are planning to investigate whether Lynch could have done more to stand up to the world's second largest bank."
The Wasteland Cometh. Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "The long and severe drought in the U.S. Southwest pales in comparison with what's coming: a 'megadrought' that will grip that region and the central Plains later this century and probably stay there for decades, a new study says. Thirty-five years from now, if the current pace of climate change continues unabated, those areas of the country will experience a weather shift that will linger for as long as three decades, according to the study, released Thursday [by NASA & Columbia & Cornell universities]."
CW: This week, wingers were very, very upset with Justice Ruth Ginsburg for remarking in an interview that the country's attitudes about gay marriage were changing. Some insisted she recuse herself. Ginsburg said nothing about cases coming before the Court or the legal implications of society's changing views. ...
... Lou Chibbaro of the Washington Blade: "'The issue of gay rights, on abortion, on many of the issues in which Ruth's opinions and mine differ does not pertain to the substance,' [Justice Antonin Scalia] said [at a Smithsonian forum event with Ginsburg]. 'It doesn't pertain to whether gay people ought to have those rights or whether there ought to be a constitutional right or a right to an abortion,' he said. 'That isn't the issue. The issue is who decides,' Scalia told the gathering. 'That's all. I don't have any public views on any of those things. The point is who decides? Should these decisions be made by the Supreme Court without any text in the Constitution or any history in the Constitution to support imposing on the whole country or is it a matter left to the people?' he asked. 'But don't paint me as anti-gay or anti-abortion or anything else," he added. 'All I'm doing on the Supreme Court is opining about who should decide.'" ...
... CW: Obviously, Scalia is speaking directly to what he believes is a Constitutional question -- one that the Court will address at least once this term. How many wingers do you suppose will demand Scalia recuse himself. Funny, I can't find a one.
White House: "In this week’s address, the President laid out his plan to ensure more children graduate from school fully prepared for college and a career":
Oh, Yeah? Not so fast, Mr. President:
Socrates trained Plato in on a rock and then Plato trained in Aristotle roughly speaking on a rock. So, huge funding is not necessary to achieve the greatest minds and the greatest intellects in history. -- Rep. Dave Brat (RTP-Va.), advocating for cutting funding to schools in high-poverty areas. Brat has a Ph.D., but he's no Plato. The rocks in his education are all in his head.
Dana Milbank: "Now that no further harm can come to Kayla [Mueller], it can be told what an exceptional person she was." CW: Milbank's column provides a lovely response to a tiny gaggle of American confederate writers who cheered Mueller's death.
Adam Lerner of Politico: "President Barack Obama called the slayings earlier this week of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina 'brutal and outrageous' in a statement released Friday, but he declined to say whether or not he believes the killings constitute a hate crime. The statement came ... the day after the FBI announced it would begin investigating whether any federal laws -- including those relating to hate crimes -- had been violated. The U.S. Attorney's office in North Carolina's Middle District and the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department also opened preliminary inquiries to determine if any federal laws were broken." President Obama's statement is here.
CW: For most of the day yesterday, i had a bad link to a BuzzFeed video of President Obama's finding an unusual way to promote Healthcare.gov. If you missed the video because I led you astray, here's a proper link. Enjoy!
John Bresnahan & Jake Sherman of Politico: "Texas GOP Rep. Blake Farenthold has denied most of the salacious accusations lodged against him by a former press aide who is suing him over her firing. But Farenthold did admit that he was propositioned by a woman to be part of a 'threesome.' And House lawyers acting on Farenthold's behalf acknowledged in a Thursday court filing that some of his aides 'occasionally joked that Rep. Farenthold finds redheads attractive....'... House lawyers raised the prospect that Farenthold may use the 'Speech or Debate Clause' as a defense to fend off some accusations. Under that constitutional clause, lawmakers and aides cannot face legal action for legitimate legislative activities...."
Miranda Blue of Right Wing Watch: This week "... Phyllis Schlafly attacked President Obama for weakening American by bringing in 'foreign ideas and diseases and people who don't believe in self-government.' Schlafly said that while she believes that the United States 'should be the biggest and the best and the strongest,' the president believes 'just the opposite,' which is why he is letting into the country 'all these people with Ebola' and immigrants who 'are not familiar with the whole concept of limited government.' 'He wants us to be one of the boys,' she said. 'He wants us to be just like everybody else. That's why he's letting all these people with Ebola in. There's no reason why we should take on the African diseases.'..." ...
... CW Translation: "Barack Obama is black so he doesn't share our values." You have to give Schlafly credit for manageing to make references to the President's race in three or four different ways without saying, "he's black." Impressive.
Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "American Family Association governmental affairs director Sandy Rios is upset that media commentators like George Will are mocking Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for refusing to say this week whether he believes in evolution.... 'There is no scientific evidence' to substantiate evolution, she said, at least according to 'the real experts.... Evolution has become the religion of the elite,' Rios said. '... The truth of the matter is that the evolutionists like George Will, waving their evolutionary theory, have become as rabid and unreasoned as what they accuse the Scopes monkey religionists of doing to Darwin during that time.... Science has disproven so much of evolution.... These guys are wrong, Scott Walker is right.'" CW: Thanks, Prof. Rios. ...
... Jamelle Bouie of Slate argues that in most instances, its' silly to ask a politician his views on evolution. "Views on evolution don't actually tell you anything about how a politician will act or how he'll approach science-based issues. Neither do they give any insight into public attitudes toward science.... A view on evolution doesn't say much about public policy, but it can mark you as a certain kind of religious believer or give you a chance to affirm your membership in one tribe or another."
Beyond the Beltway
No Happy Valentine's Day Here. Rob Davis of the Oregonian: "Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned Friday amid the growing influence-peddling scandal involving him and his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, becoming the state's first governor to resign in disgrace.... Kitzhaber's historic fourth term lasted just one month and one day, starting under a cloud of allegations that he and Hayes had abused his office, possibly committing crimes and ethics violations. The scandal only grew with revelations that Hayes was taking money as a private consultant and pushing the same policies in her public role as first lady. Secretary of State Kate Brown, a fellow Democrat, will succeed Kitzhaber." ...
... Kitzhaber's full statement, via the Washington Post, is here. ...
... The Oregonian has live updates here. The one at 4:20 pm PT is intriguing: "Kitzhaber could commute sentences of all 34 death row inmates before leaving office." ...
... Hunter Schwartz of the Washington Post: "Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown (D) will become the first openly bisexual governor in U.S. history when Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) resigns Wednesday.... Brown isn't without her own controversy. Even as Kitzhaber's personal troubles were mounting late last month, she was facing questions about having written to the FCC endorsing Comcast's merger with Time Warner Cable after having received campaign contributions from Comcast -- a letter that was reportedly written in large part by a Comcast lobbyist. Comcast has given Brown $9,500 since 2009, according the National Institute of Money in State Politics."
Mark Schleifstein of the Times-Picayune: "A federal judge in New Orleans on Friday (Feb. 13) dismissed a controversial wetlands damage lawsuit filed by the east bank levee authority against more than 80 oil, gas and pipeline companies, ruling that the authority failed to make a valid claim against the energy firms.... U.S. District Court Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown found that the levee authority's standing as a third party to federal and state permits granted to the energy companies was not strong enough to justify a financial claim against the companies.... The ruling also was praised by the administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal, who opposed the suit." Brown is an Obama appointee. CW: Note that Brown threw out the case largely because she found the plaintiffs did not have sufficient standing, something we've discussed over the last couple of days re: the plaintiffs in King v. Burwell.
Ha! Mary Wisniewski of Reuters: "Illinois' comptroller will not implement an anti-union executive order issued by the state's new Republican governor earlier this week.... Leslie Munger, a fellow Republican who was appointed by Governor Bruce Rauner, is following current law in not enforcing Rauner's order to eliminate 'fair share' fees for about 6,500 state employees, said a spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. The fees are paid by workers who are represented by a union but have chosen not to join. A spokesman for Munger said that the comptroller will defer to Madigan's guidance as it relates to actions 'within the scope of her legal authority.' In addition to his order on Monday, Rauner also filed a lawsuit seeking to have the fees declared unconstitutional and wanted them placed in an escrow account during the legal process."
Joseph Slobodzian & Angela Couloumbis of the Philadelphia Inquirer: Pennsylvania's death penalty - used just three times since 1978 but as controversial as ever - was shelved by Gov. [Tom] Wolf [D] on Friday until after he gets the report of a task force studying the future of capital punishment. Acting on concerns he first expressed during last year's campaign, the new governor cited a wave of exonerationsf nationwide and questions about the effectiveness of executions."
Today in Responsible Gun Ownership. Veronica Rocha of the Los Angeles Times: "A 10-year-old girl accidentally shot her 8-year-old sister with her father's service weapon Friday morning after he left it on the bed while getting ready for work, police said. The girl's injury does not appear to be life threatening, Fresno Police Lt. Joe Gomez said. The girls' father is a deputy with the Madera County Sheriff's Department.... There was one bullet in the handgun's chamber. The magazine had been removed, [Gomez] said."
Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd. Kim Holland of KQRE News Albuquerque: When 79-year-old Francis Wilson accidentally mailed her rent check with her Comcast bill, Comcast cashed it, although the check was not made out to the giant media company. "Comcast said it wouldn't give Wilson a reimbursement check. They would only credit her Comcast account even though Wilson needed the money to pay her rent.... Within an hour of KRQE News 13 calling Comcast, a fix was in the works. The company gave her a $235 reimbursement check, $235 cash and a $235 credit on her cable bill." CW: Hey, at least when Wilson complained, Comcast didn't change her name to Asshole Wilson.
Presidential Race
Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Jeb Bush's money juggernaut is far eclipsing the efforts of his would-be rivals for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, putting his two political committees on pace to amass an unprecedented sum of tens of millions of dollars by early spring."
Gail Collins discusses Scott Walker's views on education. "His view of teaching is apparently that anybody can do it. Just the way anybody can be president. As long as they don't make you talk about evolution." ...
... Scott Bauer of the AP: "Walker has frequently told the story of how 'outstanding teacher of the year' Megan Sampson lost her job in 2010.... Sampson actually won the Nancy Hoefs Memorial Award, given by the Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English for first-year language arts teachers. And while she was laid off in June 2010 from a job in Milwaukee, she was hired by another nearby district for a job that following fall." CW: Ergo, she was never out of work.
Voodoo Economics I. Alan Pyke of Think Progress: "Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) wants to mimic a tax cut experiment that has already brought fiscal calamity and public service cuts to a state 600 miles west of his. Kasich describes his $696 million tax cut as a helping hand to small businesses. But the design of the cut would put the bulk of that benefit into the hands of just a few high-income business entities with a handful of employees while providing just a few hundred dollars each to the vast majority of the people who would benefit, according to an analysis by the Cleveland Plain Dealer." ...
... CW: Kasich, a former chair of the House Budget Committee, doesn't have just the Worst Idea in American Politics; he also has the Second World Idea in American Politics.
Voodoo Economics II. Rand Paul.
Way Beyond the Beltway
Andrew Kramer & Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "As fighting erupted throughout eastern Ukraine on Friday before a cease-fire at midnight on Saturday, the United States accused Russia of joining separatist rebels in an all-out attack on Ukrainian forces around the contested town of Debaltseve. When the pact was signed with a two-day window before the truce, some last-minute jockeying for position was expected. But the intensity and scope of the violence raised concerns that the agreement signed this week, rife with ill-defined and ambiguous provisions, might prove as ineffective as the first cease-fire pact, signed in September."
News Ledes
AFP: "A gunman killed at least one person and wounded three police officers after opening fire Saturday on a cultural centre in Copenhagen as it was hosting a debate on Islam and free speech. Swedish artist Lars Vilks -- the author of controversial Prophet Mohammed cartoons that sparked worldwide protests in 2007 -- was among those at the debate targeted by the gunman, who fled the scene after a shootout with police."
New York Times: "The United States released satellite images on Saturday meant to bolster its case that Russia has joined separatists in an all-out assault on the Ukrainian Army during the window before a midnight cease-fire is to take effect. When the pact was announced Thursday, some last-minute jockeying for position was expected before the cease-fire went into effect. Instead, a bloody free-for-all, alarming in its scope and intensity, ensued on the snowy steppe south of here, near the contested town of Debaltseve."
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Reader Comments (6)
Gee, no scientific evidence of evolution. I guess those thousands and thousands of scientific papers were published by fake experts. Of course, to be fair, I doubt if Ms. Rios could or would read any of them. But this reminds me of something about 10 years ago when an intelligent design believer said that the eye is so complex it could never have evolved. Then a week is so later I attended a scientific conference. The very first speaker presented, in great detail, the genetic basis of the evolution of the eye from amoeba to human. Loved it.
And BTW, one of the many things the deniers manage to ignore is that one of the results of the Human Genome Project was providing the exquisite details of the molecular basis of evolution. Darwin would love it.
Lastly, I just cannot understand how anyone can make the Rios statement. And I am willing to bet that Walker does accept evolution.
A few days ago I gave a link to a New Yorker piece on Jeb Bush which concentrated on his involvement with the education system in Florida while he was governor. I said at the time it appeared he was pushing hard for schools other than public. In my current New Yorker today I find in "The Mail" section of the magazine a letter from the founder and president of The Center for Education Reform in Washington, D.C. who cannot praise Bush enough for the student achievement in his state –-big gains in math and reading, more seniors were graduating––called it Florida's success story. So––given all that ( if indeed this has some truth to it) and given Scott Walker's dismal educational history (his own and as governor) plus this letter by Claudia Felske which is so damaging, (and really good) you can bet someone running for president other than Scotty will use this letter to their advantage.
When I was first interviewing for a teaching job (English) one of the principals said : " In this school our English teachers also teach Social Studies." But, I said, I did not have a degree in that field. "Ah, heck," he said, "If you can teach English, you can teach Social Studies." I bid him adieu but not before telling him I found that reprehensible.
Word has it that Ms Shoflypie, as we in the Eye on Everything Circle call her, has just contracted Ebola although she has not been to Africa nor has she rubbed elbows with those nasty immigrants. Evidently Obama, himself, being of kingly power and endowed with a splendid sense of humor has cast his spell over Phyllis and has left his calling card that reads: "Hi, Phyll, just living up to your 'just one of the boys'
remark, cuz we boys jest love dem pranks and shit. God bless and please don't die on my watch."
Hunter Schwartz of the Washington Post, who apparently can’t get it up without Viagra, reported on Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown’s bisexuality….
I'm contnually astonished at how many logical fallacies wingnuts can pack into a couple of simple declarative sentences. So David Brat believes that draconian cuts to certain school systems (inner cities schools but not Beverly Hills) are acceptable and necessary because Plato and Aristotle were educated on "a rock".
Where to begin with such folderol?
First, this is an excellent example of the overwhelming exception fallacy, a problem of generalization. The problem becomes clearer when Brat's claim is properly reformulated: as long you 're Plato or Aristotle, you don't need much in the way of funding in order to attain the status of one of the great minds of western civilization.
It's also a demonstration of the mind projection fallacy, as common among wingnuts as tinfoil hats, the idea being that the speaker, projecting his or her personal views upon the rest of the world takes it as a truism that that the world is exactly as they see it.
Brat also suffers, as do Cruz and Li'l Randy, from a certain show off syndrome, thinking that by making references to individuals like Socrates, he will automatically be considered a smart person.
Sadly, it only demonstrates the opposite.
Wingers incensed because RBG stated the obvious, that same sex marriage, despite the wails of fundamentalist haters, will shortly become a commonplace?
She should recuse herself for that? A congressional investigation? Really?
Scalia is on record saying that just being gay is a sin against god and that the founders would not have allowed same sex marriage because just being gay was punishable by death in the 18th C. But these views shouldn't bar him from casting his (predetermined--no need to consider the evidence) vote?
More logical fallacies. The most obvious being the argument resulting from stupidity.
Nick Hanhauer has a most interesting article linking stock manipulation via buybacks to the downward plight of middle class incomes. He claims that a rule change by the SEC in the early 80's resulted in more leeway for corporations to buy-back stock yet avoid charges of stock manipulation. Money that would have previously gone to research and development or directly to workers is going to buy back stock which in turn benefits the company's executives and others who own stock. A rule change or legislation might reverse this and help the middle class. Like that's gonna happen.