;)
The Commentariat -- February 5, 2015
Internal links removed.
Nedra Pickler of the AP: "President Barack Obama condemned those who seek to use religion as a rationale for carrying out violence around the world, declaring Thursday that 'no god condones terror.' 'We are summoned to push back against those who would distort our religion for their nihilistic ends,' Obama said during remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast.... Among those attending the annual gathering of politicians, dignitaries and faith leaders was the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. As with the Dalai Lama's past visits to Washington, his attendance at Thursday's breakfast drew criticism from Beijing...."
Federal Communications Commission Chair Tom Wheeler in Wired: "After more than a decade of debate and a record-setting proceeding that attracted nearly 4 million public comments, the time to settle the Net Neutrality question has arrived. This week, I will circulate to the members of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed new rules to preserve the internet as an open platform for innovation and free expression. This proposal is rooted in long-standing regulatory principles, marketplace experience, and public input received over the last several months." ...
... Brian Fung of the Washington Post: "The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday proposed the 'strongest open Internet protections' the Web has ever seen. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said by placing broadband Internet providers such as Comcast and Verizon Wireless under a stricter regulatory regime, consumers would be ensured an open Internet. Under the new regime, broadband providers would be explicitly banned from blocking content or creating fast lanes for Web services that can pay for preferential treatment into American homes.... The proposed rules are much more aggressive than many had initially predicted. Just a few months ago, Wheeler appeared ready to side with cable providers. But after much prodding, including protests in his driveway and a public plea from President Obama, Wheeler said Wednesday that the industry needs strong oversight."
... Evan McMorris-Santoro of BuzzFeed: "The trade group representing the nation's biggest technology firms moved quickly to get behind proposed Net Neutrality rules announced by the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Wednesday. The new rules, proposed by FCC Chair Tom Wheeler in a Wired op-ed, would regulate internet service providers like a utility, giving the government broad regulatory powers to ensure ISPs don't create preferred pathways for some websites while chocking off access to others." ...
... Joan McCarter of Daily Kos: "We spoke. He listened."
Craig Whitlock & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "Ashton B. Carter, President Obama's choice to become the next secretary of defense, promised lawmakers Wednesday that he would keep an independent voice and showed a willingness to differ with the White House over its strategy in several global hot spots. Carter, 60, a physicist who has held several senior posts at the Pentagon dating to the Carter administration, said he was 'very much inclined' to provide arms to Ukraine, would be open to reviewing U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan and would be cautious about releasing prisoners from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- in each case potentially putting him at odds with Obama." (Missing link.) ...
... Dana Milbank: "Ashton Carter, President Obama's nominee to be the next defense secretary, gave the Senate Armed Services Committee every indication Wednesday that he would be a hard-liner at the Pentagon and a strong counterweight to administration doves -- and conservatives on the panel were besotted.... Carter's sweet nothings were just what the hawks wanted to hear. But will he break their hearts like all the ones before him?" Milbank argues that he will.
Dan Mangan of CNBC: "More than 10 million people have selected Obamacare insurance plans or been automatically re-enrolled in existing plans, with just 11 days of open enrollment in health coverage remaining this season, according to official data released Wednesday." ...
... If You Don't Like ObamaCare, Here Are Some Worse Ideas. Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Three influential Republican members of Congress unveiled a comprehensive proposal on Wednesday to replace President Obama's health care overhaul with an alternative that would halt the expansion of Medicaid and scale back subsidies for middle-income people to buy private insurance. The plan, drafted with encouragement from Republican leaders in the Senate and the House, would retain some consumer protections in the Affordable Care Act, but would reduce federal regulation of insurance policies. States would have more authority to specify the 'essential health benefits' that must be provided by insurance. As an example, the federal government would no longer require insurance policies to include coverage for maternity care. The proposal was devised by Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the chairman of the Finance Committee; Representative Fred Upton of Michigan, the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee; and Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, a member of the Finance and Health committees." ...
... ** "Read the Briefs." Linda Greenhouse on King v. Burwell, which poses a statutory, not a constitutional challenge: "The court has permitted itself to be recruited into the front lines of a partisan war. Not only the Affordable Care Act but the court itself is in peril as a result.... The fate of the statute ... hangs in the balance today, but I mean more than that. This time, so does the honor of the Supreme Court." ...
... ** CW: In trying to psyche out John Roberts, as we do every time the Court takes on a case that matters to us, here's one possible motive that I don't believe anyone has considered: his purpose in King could be to do exactly what Greenhouse argues the justices must: preserve the honor of the Court. Roberts like 9-0 decisions; they demonstrate that he has gathered his flock of quasi-liberals & full-blown loons into one happy brood. Ergo, it is not inconceivable that (a) Roberts is using King as a high-stakes, high-publicity case to show he is a master of consensus-building; (b) the Court is using King to send a signal to flamethrowers of every persuasion that they should quit clogging the courts with nonsense; (c) we'll get a 9-0 decision in favor of the government. Indeed, I'll make that my far-out prediction. I'm not dumb enough to put money on it. Readers have every right, needless to say, to mock my starry-eyed optimism if the Supremes rule for the plaintiffs. On the other hand, if I turn out to be right -- or close to right (think Alito, Thomas) -- you're permitted to register kudos. ...
... Paul Waldman: on the Not-Ready-for-Primetime Players: "... after six years of waiting for the moment they'd take complete control, you'd think [Republicans would] have some kind of plan. If they do, it's hard to discern how it's supposed to work. Every conflict they have with the president only seems to make them look worse, and they seem to be lurching from day to day with no idea how to do anything but fall on their faces." ...
... Rachana Pradhan of Politico: Tennessee Gov. "Bill Haslam's [R] alternative plan to expand Medicaid under Obamacare was dealt a devastating blow on Wednesday, when a Senate panel rejected it on the third day of a legislative special session called solely for that issue. Tennessee was widely seen as the next Republican state that could expand Medicaid under Obamacare, with Haslam negotiating with federal officials for months on an approach that included conservative policy elements. But Insure Tennessee always faced significant obstacles in getting legislative approval, and it was killed even though hospitals had agreed to cover the state's share of the costs."
Edward-Isaac Dovere, et al., of Politico: "The combustible, complicated dynamics of American and Israeli politics collided Wednesday on Capitol Hill, with Democrats and Republicans holding separate meetings with Israeli representatives while addressing the fallout from the deepening tension between leaders of the two nations." ...
... Jim Fallows of the Atlantic, after revisiting the unprecedented treachery of John Boehner's invitation to Benjamin Netanyahu, writes, "The Israeli prime minister argues that the world of 2015 is fundamentally similar to that of 1938. Americans can give him a hearing, and then pursue a more reasonable policy based on less far-fetched comparisons."
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia with President George W. Bush, April 2005.Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "... new claims by Zacarias Moussaoui, a convicted former member of Al Qaeda, that he had high-level contact with officials of the Saudi Arabian government in the prelude to Sept. 11 have brought renewed attention to the [9/11 Commission]'s withheld findings, which lawmakers and relatives of those killed in the attacks have tried unsuccessfully to declassify.... White House officials say the administration has undertaken a review on whether to release the pages but has no timetable for when they might be made public.... Former Senator Bob Graham of Florida..., as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee was a leader of the [9/11] inquiry. He has called for the release of the report's Part 4, which dealt with Saudi Arabia, since President George W. Bush ordered it classified when the rest of the report was released in December 2002."
Annals of "Journalism," Bullshit Edition. Travis Tritten of Stars & Stripes: "NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams admitted Wednesday he was not aboard a helicopter hit and forced down by RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] fire during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a false claim that has been repeated by the network for years. Williams repeated the claim Friday during NBC's coverage of a public tribute at a New York Rangers hockey game for a retired soldier that had provided ground security for the grounded helicopters, a game to which Williams accompanied him.... The admission came after crew members on the 159th Aviation Regiment's Chinook that was hit by two rockets and small arms fire told Stars and Stripes that the NBC anchor was nowhere near that aircraft or two other Chinooks flying in the formation that took fire. Williams arrived in the area about an hour later on another helicopter.... 'I would not have chosen to make this mistake,' Williams said. 'I don't know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.'" ...
... CW: Yeah, me neither, Brian. Bet you were with Hillary Clinton when she & her party had to dodge sniper bullets in Bosnia, too. Williams had colleagues who died in Iraq, for Pete's sake. Did he really have to make up a story of his heroism? ...
... Here's the Washington Post story, by Paul Farhi, which is comprehensive. ...
... Hadas Gold & Dylan Byers of Politico: "On Friday night's broadcast, Williams cited 'a terrible moment a dozen years back during the invasion of Iraq when the helicopter we were traveling in was forced down after being hit by an RPG. Our traveling NBC News team was rescued, surrounded and kept alive by an armor mechanized platoon from the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry.' One crew member responded to the story on Facebook the following day, writing to Williams, 'Sorry dude, I don't remember you being on my aircraft. I do remember you walking up about an hour after we had landed to ask me what had happened.'... On Facebook, Williams ... apologized to the members of the crew." ...
... Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast has a good post on the implications of Williams' fake war story. "The Brian Williams Apology Tour has begun...." ...
** NEW. Wherein Driftglass explains Glenn Greenwald's MO.
Nicky Wolfe of the Guardian: "Fox News has chosen to embed on its website the video of Islamic State burning a hostage to death, a move which makes them the only US media organisation to broadcast the video in full. The extremely graphic 22-minute video shows Muadh al-Kasasbeh, a Jordanian pilot, being set on fire and burned to death in a cage. Fox News did not post the videos of the killings of previous Isis hostages, and no other media company has hosted this video.... On Twitter, accounts associated with Isis supporters are sharing the video via the links to the Fox News site.... YouTube removed a link to the video a few hours after it was posted, and a spokesperson for Facebook told the Guardian that if anyone posted the video to the social networking site it would be taken down.... The television network's decision to host the footage drew criticism from terrorism analysts." ...
... Steve M.: "But Islamic State operatives also videotaped the executions of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Alan Henning, Peter Kassig, and Haruna Yukawa. Why didn't Fox solemnly declare the need to share those videos? I have to assume it's because those victims were all white, with the exception of Yukawa, who was Japanese.... [Fox] probably couldn't have handled outrage from the family of any of the white execution victims.... Fox presumes that Heartland America sees Muadh al-Kasasbeh as just some guy from the Middle East."
... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "Of all the networks, Fox News may stand to lose the most from any editorial decision believed to advance a terrorist agenda, given its hard-line audience that keeps coming back for denunciations of President Obama's alleged softness in this area."
Toni Clarke of Reuters: "Dr. Margaret Hamburg, who as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for almost six years has overseen public health initiatives ranging from tobacco control and food safety to personalized medicine and drug approvals, is stepping down, the agency said on Thursday."
Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "Dan Pfeiffer, one of President Obama's closest and most trusted advisers, is leaving the White House within weeks. Pfeiffer is one of the president's longest-serving aides, having joined Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign. The White House said he will leave in early March." (See also the WashPo story linked under Presidential Race.) ...
... Juliet Eilperin & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "The flurry of departures presents a challenge for the president, who has a limited window for action before the political center of gravity shifts toward the 2016 presidential campaign. The Pfeiffer departure means that nearly every member of the team who helped orchestrate Obama's rise to prominence has left the White House."
Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Secret Service agents investigating the man who operated the drone that crashed on the White House lawn last week said they believed there was enough evidence to charge him with a crime, and they have presented the case to federal prosecutors, according to law enforcement officials. But the decision on whether to indict the man, Shawn Usman, has been a vexing one for the prosecutors because laws designed to protect the airspace around the White House were written for manned aircraft like planes, long before ... drones, became popular toys. There is also a question of whether Mr. Usman should face charges for something he contends happened because of a malfunction with the drone.... If the prosecutors decide against criminal charges, Mr. Usman may face civil charges from the Federal Aviation Administration." CW: Malfunction? I thought he was drunk.
Charles Pierce highlights an Indiana case which gives a glimpse into what the U.S. would be like post-Roe-v.-Wade, when abortion law would be "up to the states." CW: Let me just add that you can count on state prosecutors to bring cases in such a manner as to discriminate against the poor & minorities. Sweet little blonde upper-crusty girl? She made a "mistake." Poor young woman of color? She's a criminal.
Nicholas Kristof: 1976 Olympic Gold Medalist Bruce Jenner, who is apparently going through a cross-gender protocol which he will share in a television documentary, "seems to be preparing for a bold public mission involving something intensely personal, in a way that should open minds and hearts."
Rod Nordland & Anne Barnard of the New York Times: "There was one feeling that many of the Middle East's fractious clerics, competing ethnic groups and warring sects could agree on Wednesday: a shared sense of revulsion at the Islamic State's latest excess, its video showing a Jordanian pilot being burned alive inside a cage."
Fwiw, I thought the office looked rad. http://t.co/dhDUoBMnNF pic.twitter.com/XKnK5yNori
— Ben Terris (@bterris) February 3, 2015
... Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) gets a schock when his decorator invites WashPo reporter Ben Terris into his "Downton Abbey"-inspired Congressional office, replete with "a drippy crystal chandelier, a table propped up by two eagles, a bust of Abraham Lincoln and massive arrangements of pheasant feathers." ...
... Evan Hurst of Wonkette: "... a New Development has occurred, because the interior decorator did that for free, and some liberals called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) have ... have gone and filed themselves an ethics complaint on the owner of Congress's sexy timiest Instagram account holder.... Ha ha ha, maybe if he would stop looking at his perfect body in the mirror for five seconds and read THE RULES, he would know that he is in direct violation of Congress's longstanding NO FREE SCONCES policy." And do read the snark in CREW's press release. It seems the Earl of Peoria has a history of violating the RULES & federal law. Thanks to Akhilleus for the links. ...
... CW: Oops! I would be remiss in failing to note that the Earl of Peoria there voted to defund public teevee, which, when it gets around to it, airs "Downtown Abbey" in these here United States. Also, I wonder at the wisdom of a red-blooded American Re-publican Congressman hiring a decorating establishment named "Euro Trash." Shouldn't the ladies have changed the name of their company to Mom's American Freedom Apple Pie or something before embarking on this (unpaid) commission?
Gail Collins looks for a positive moral in the film "American Sniper." I'd say that's putting a ☺ on it.
Alex Pareene, in Gawker, on that time Michael Bloomberg gave President Obama an unsolicited charm-school lesson.
Presidential Race
Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri will leave the administration this spring, according to individuals familiar with the decision, to serve as communications director for Hillary Rodham Clinton's likely presidential campaign.... Palmieri's departure comes the same day White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer announced he would leave in March."
The Cheese Stands Alone. Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) holds a big lead among New Hampshire Republicans in the early primary state, drawing 21 percent support among likely voters in a poll by news network NH1 released Wednesday." Molotov, Scottie! ...
... Steve M.: "... there's a lot of effort going into the process of making Walker seem like the people's choice. And -- for now, at least -- it seems to be working." ...
... MEANWHILE, back in Wisconsin.... Scott Walker Can't Handle the "Search for Truth." Karen Herzog of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Scott Walker tries to limit the mission of the state's university system to jobs factory, then pretends it was a "drafting error," an excuse that Herzog disproves. CW: But never mind. Walker's fervent anti-intellectualism should be super-popular with the Cult-of-the-Stupid, a/k/a the Republican base. Fear of Thinking is a malignant gene that forever eats away at our national DNA.
Michael Bender of Bloomberg Politics: "Inside an expansive ballroom in one of America's most troubled cities [Detroit], Jeb Bush sketched a broad outline for his increasingly likely presidential campaign, saying the nation -- on the verge of another golden era -- could double its rate of economic growth and should welcome immigrants willing to embrace U.S. values." ...
... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "In the first major policy speech of his basically-but-not-yet-formalized campaign for the Republican nomination in 2016, former Florida governor Jeb Bush established a very ambitious economic goal: 4 percent annual GDP growth. Over the last 30 years, that's been achieved seven times -- none of them under a president named 'Bush.'"
... Hey! A Compassionate Conservative! Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Jeb Bush used his first campaign-style speech on Wednesday to focus on the difficulties of low-income Americans, signaling that he intends to take a position on economic issues like income inequality that diverges with the approach traditionally championed by the Republican Party. Speaking in a city that was once synonymous with middle-class opportunity and stability but has been battered by the exodus of well-paying jobs, Mr. Bush framed the country's resurgent economy as a comeback for only the affluent." ...
... Alexandra Jaffe of CNN: "During a 'Family Reunion' conference hosted by the Hispanic Leadership Network in April 2013, Jeb Bush spoke freely on the promise immigrants hold for America and his views on reform. He said, during a discussion with Univision, that it was 'ridiculous' to think that DREAMers, children brought to the U.S. by their parents illegally, shouldn't have an 'accelerated path' to citizenship.... The comments Bush made several years ago weren't dealbreakers for him in a primary, multiple conservative operatives and lawmakers said." Other GOP operatives were far more negative. Jaffe provides multiple citations from the shocked & bewildered.
Frank Rich: "... Chris Christie was already a dead presidential candidate walking. So he doesn't have to worry about how his endorsement of 'choice' for vaccinations (but not for reproductive rights), or his previous public-health fiasco, incarcerating a nurse who'd treated Ebola patients, will play out in a national election. He's done. Rand Paul, on the other hand, has been a leading Republican contender, and he may have done himself serious political damage even within his own party ranks. The conservative columnist John Podhoretz has called Paul's musings on vaccinations among 'the most irresponsible remarks ever uttered by a major American politician." And more. ...
... Paul Waldman is pretty sure Rand Paul's past -- as his father's acolyte & surrogate -- is going to catch up with him. Waldman cites a case in which Paul the Younger was caught on tape espousing a crazy conspiracy theory that "they" were planning to build a "NAFTA superhighway" between Mexico & Canada, "the purpose of which is to unite the three countries in a single political entity known as the North American Union, under which American sovereignty will be lost and the dollar will be replaced with a currency known as the Amero." ...
... Well, There's This. Washington Free Beacon: "Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) said in& a 2009 interview with Alex Jones' InfoWars that mandatory vaccines for illnesses such as the swine flu could be an early step toward 'martial law,' and said the procedures have a long history of lethal side effects." CW: Remember, this guy is a medical doctor. ...
... CW: Also, too, he's not much of an arithmetician: He said in 2009 that "20 years ago my parents gave me smallpox vaccine." Paul was born in 1963. That would have made him about 26 years old when his parents got around to giving him the smallpox vaccination. This would, of course, have been after his becoming the Aqua Buddha. ...
... Jeremy Peters & Barry Meier of the New York Times have gotten around to highlighting Rand Paul's long association with the wacko Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, which pushes theories -- including the link between vaccinations & various disabilities -- all rejected by research & mainstream doctors. Meanwhile, Dr. Randy invited "a New York Times reporter to accompany him to the Capitol physician's office to watch him receive a hepatitis A booster vaccination. During the visit, Mr. Paul said he believed that the science was definitive on the matter and that vaccines were not harmful. 'It just annoys me that I'm being characterized as someone who's against vaccines,' he said as he rolled up his T-shirt sleeve before the shot. 'That's not what I said. I said I've heard of people who've had vaccines, and they see a temporal association and they believe that.'" ...
... CW: Excuse me? Paul is an amazing liar. What he said -- two days ago -- was, "I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines." Dave Levitan of FactCheck.org sets the record straight in USA Today. Read the whole post. Paul doesn't understand the purpose of the hepatitis B vaccine, either, & his advice on that, said pediatrics professor James Cherry "is stupid." Dangerous, too. ...
... ** David Fahrenthold & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post look at Paul's missteps this week. Here's a bit of their report: "On the subject of vaccines, Paul struggled with what might be the first rule of presidential campaigning: try not to shoot yourself in the foot. And if you do, stop shooting.... After [his comments] raised a controversy, Paul reacted first with sarcasm: 'Well, I guess being for freedom would be really, uh, unusual? I guess I don't understand the point,' he said on CNBC.... Then he tried spin, saying he hadn't meant what he'd seemed to say about vaccines and mental disorders. Finally, he sought to play the victim. Paul posted a photo of himself getting a vaccine booster shot on Twitter, with a caption that included the line: 'Wonder how the liberal media will misreport this?' Paul's handling of the vaccine issue was one of several times recently where he seemed to struggle with the kind of high-pressure interactions that would become run-of-the-mill for a presidential candidate."
Beyond the Beltway
Jon Seidel of the Chicago Sun-Times on Gov. Bruce Rauner's (R-Ill.) state of the state address. CW: He sounds suspiciously like the governor of the state directly to the north of Illinois; i.e., a nasty piece of work. Fortunately, a Democratic legislature might not let him get away with much.
Nick Budnick of the Oregonian (Feb. 3): "Two longtime associates of Gov. John Kitzhaber [D] helped create jobs for first lady Cylvia Hayes with groups hoping to influence Oregon's state energy policy.... Hayes, the governor's fiancée, held the paying jobs even as her role inside Kitzhaber's office as an unpaid energy adviser geared up in 2011, her state calendar shows.... Greg Wolf, currently Kitzhaber's deputy chief of staff for field implementation, was key in creating [one] job [which paid Hayes $5,000 a month] and recommending Hayes for it just before he joined the administration.... Another paid her $118,000 over two years, a fellowship orchestrated by Dan Carol, a Kitzhaber campaign adviser. He joined Kitzhaber's staff the same month Hayes started collecting on her fellowship. Both arrangements involved foundations and organizations that had direct interests in influencing state policy in Oregon." ...
... Oregonian Editors: "John Kitzhaber must resign. 'I'm not going to consider resigning,' said Gov. John Kitzhaber at a disastrous press conference held Friday following revelations about the apparently borderless world of public policy and private gain in which he and fiancée Cylvia Hayes exist.... [Kitzhaber's] credibility has evaporated to such a degree that he can no longer serve effectively as governor. If he wants to serve his constituents he should resign.... The governor has not yet quibbled about the meaning of 'is,' but Friday's evasions were almost Clintonian."
No, you a USA citizen!.. Learn & understand the language!!!.
... Vermont Political Observer: When Vermont's Senate Minority Leader Joe Benning (R) received a letter from an 8th-grader suggesting the state adopt a Latin motto as well as its English-language one -- "Freedom and Unity" -- Benning thought it was a good idea & introduced a bill to adopt the Latin motto "Stella quarta decima fulgeat, English translation: "May the Fourteenth Star Shine Bright." But when Burlington station WCAX ran a feel-good story on Benning's move, angry stupid people didn't feel so good & protested on WCAX's Facebook page. Read some of their comments; nice to know there are plenty of idiots in blue Vermont. Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the lead.
News Ledes
Contributor MAG (today's Comments) & the Weather Channel Remind Us It's February. The Weather Channel forecasts "prolonged snow from Sunday through at least early Tuesday over a significant swath of the Northeast, in particular, much of New England, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey."
Reuters: "Health insurer Anthem Inc, which has nearly 40m US customers, said late on Wednesday that hackers had breached one of its IT systems and stolen personal information relating to current and former consumers and employees. The No. 2 health insurer in the United States said the breach did not appear to involve medical information or financial details such as credit card or bank account numbers."
AP: "Jordanian fighter jets have carried out new air strikes, the military said, a day after the country's king vowed to wage a harsh war against Islamic State (Isis) fighters who control parts of neighbouring Syria and Iraq. King Abdullah II pledged to step up the fight against Isis after the militants burned a captive Jordanian pilot to death in a cage and released a video of the killing. The images caused revulsion across the region. The army statement did not say which country was targeted."
New York Times: "With the White House weighing whether to send arms to Ukraine, Western nations intensified efforts Thursday to bring an end to the fighting. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President François Hollande of France are traveling to Kiev on Thursday to hold talks with President Petro O. Poroschenko of Ukraine, officials from the two countries said. On Friday, the German and French leaders are to continue to Moscow, where they are to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to discuss the situation in Ukraine. The German and French moves were announced as Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Kiev for high-level talks. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. prepared for parallel consultations on Friday with European leaders in Brussels."
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Reader Comments (35)
Jeb “Terri Schiavo” Bush appears to be successfully staking out the territory of the sane one in the republican scramble for king of the hill honors. That’s worrisome.
From yesterday's post by James: Here's E.O. Wilson's own words:
http://www.c-span.org/video/?322464-1/book-discussion-meaning-human-existence
I confess I'd rather Jeb than Walker. Jeb is just bad. Walker is a disaster. Our new governor thinks Walker is swell and today he (Rauner) fired his first shots at killing unions in Illinois. He couldn't get such laws through our strong Democratic legislature so he is going to push for the passage of right to work laws by individual communities. I predict they'll pass everywhere except Chicago and maybe Rockford.
Gloria, loved your "Mind the GOP". Nicely done and likely to only confuse the reactionarys so your car won't get keyed.
I fail to see how Fox posting the entire murder video of the Jordanian pilot will come back to bite them as Erik Wemple proposes.
The is the same media organization that runs "Sharia law coming to America" stories on a monthly basis. It's the same media organization that has a nuclear-parched red ball of flames that resembles Earth in the corner of their screen 24/7. The bread and butter of this organization is stoking fear and cowing their constituants into demon sheep, always looking over their shoulder with their finger on the trigger.
The worst thing that could happen is some other "moderate" news organization lose a little bit more respect (if any remains) for Murdoch's creation.
Think he gives a fuck? Nope.
On the list of annoying MSM work is the statement that 'Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) holds a big lead among New Hampshire Republicans'. Hello, that means that 79% don't want Walker. We are going to see this repeatedly in a run with so many candidates. A better statement would be that voters dislike Walker less than any other candidate.
NBC's Brian Williams did a pretty good job of eating his words, and may have learned an eternal truth: "All war stories are lies." The urge to embellish the facts after stating "There I was ..." is irresistable.
You can argue about that. You'd be wrong.
re; the few the proud the dead, I suppose most movie goers see "American Sniper" as a flag waver. I see it as an indictment. The protagonist has skills but is no more than a tool for the vast web of wrong thinking MIC overlords that generate American policy overseas. Oil and guns sent that man to serve. He did his duty. Only oil and guns came out victors. The American tragedy ends with the hero home shot dead by a boy-man with war demons of his own. Too bad the movie doesn't end showing that part of the life and death of a hero on an American Mission. We send'em to die, you and I, so we can live, the American Lie.
Alcee Hastings (D-Fl) slams Michael Burgess (R-TX) during the 36th effort to eviscerate the AFCA. You will love this exchange–-a few minutes into Jon Stewart's spiel. At the end he says, "We are run by children."
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jon-stewart-cant-take-congress-seriously-we-are-run-by-children/
So many head-shaking stories today (and yesterday, the day before, and the day before the day before........) the comments from Vermonters (thanks PD for the lead) top it all! and we stress here at RC on how to reach voters who continually vote against their own interests, how voters aren't paying attention, we wonder how & why (potential) voters don't go to the polls, yet when they do get riled up, they haven't the slightest clue WTF they are mis-talking and misspelling about!
Been waiting for Frank Rich to recognize that Rand Paul would rapidly implode and continue to do so. I worried a bit last year when Rich warned us not to under-estimate Aqua Bhudda strength in the presidential race. Well, welcome to our point of view, Frank.
As for macho man, Congressman Schock Jock and his schlocky office decor—I took a look at his Google images page. Is he auditioning for Tinder or what? The white mini-Speedo pic is especially cute.
Give me a break. Think I'll take the day off from all things political and watching the falling snow.
I think we will be deeply involved with Russia in the not too distant future so I'm posting a link to a piece in the NYRB by Anne Applebaum on Karen Dawisha's excellent and well researched book, "Putin's Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia?" Applebaum posits that the most important story of the past twenty years might not have been the failure of democracy in Russia, but the rise of a new form of Russian authoritarianism. And what a story it is! "Since 2000, Russia has been ruled by a revanchist, revisionist elite with origins in the old KGB. This elite has been working its way back to power since the late 1980s, using theft on a grand scale, taking advantage of the secrecy provided by Western off-shore havens, and cooperating with organized crime." As Rachel often says––"watch this space."
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/dec/18/how-he-and-his-cronies-stole-russia/?insrc=toc
It's so sad that even someone like Brian Williams cannot stop himself from fabricating a war scenario. My senator, Richard Blumenthal,did the same many years ago. Recall what John Kerry had to go through with that swift boat business: here was a case where Kerry actually did what he said he did, but was accused of lying. War stories: I think Patrick might be right about them.
Re: the Fox's decision to air the video of the burn victim: Why would anyone except for those that are involved in the implementation of this want to watch a guy housed in a cage burn to death. WHY? Oh, oh, I hear Akhilleus whispering in my ear––"because Freedom--and because they are assholes." Alrighty, then, she said, disgustedly.
Greenhouse has an excellent and somewhat encouraging post on SCOTUS and the ACA case:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/opinion/overturning-obamacare-would-change-the-nature-of-the-supreme-court.html
'I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams said. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.'”
NBC Nightly News anchor, Brian Williams.
Man, that is some statement. Conflate? How about Concoct?
Who remembers themselves doing things during a war that they never did? (Oh, wait. Reagan did. So did Bush II, but we don't expect a smidgin of truth from either of them, so back to the rant...)
Patrick is probably right on the money about how war stories work. Teddy Roosevelt rode into the White House on his. But when Williams says that he would not have chosen to make this mistake, my jaw is on the floor. Sorry, Brian. You DID choose. And it wasn't a "mistake", it was an out and out lie.
Look, I've never been in a war zone, but I'm guessing that flying in a helicopter in Iraq back then was pretty fucking dangerous whether you were shot at or not. The danger was ever-present. But I guess that's not as good a story as telling Letterman that you had to climb out onto the rotor and direct the chopper with your bare hands so that you didn't land on a pile of radioactive yellowcake surrounded by insurgents waiting to skin you alive and eat you and everyone else with you.
According to David Folkenflick, this morning on NPR, Williams' earliest recounting of that event did not include the claim that his helicopter had been hit by enemy fire. But as the story was told and retold over the years it gained, shall we say, more interesting details.
This isn't new. But usually it isn't one person upping the ante. In the 1941 film "Sgt. York" John Huston's script demonstrates how this sort of thing works. York and a small command, vastly outnumbered by German troops, were able to capture 132 of the enemy. Huston, in a clever bit of writing, shows the story being passed along a line of marching soldiers. The story grows with each retelling from 132 soldiers to half the German army and a lot of high officers, then on to Hindenburg and the crown prince, and finally to York capturing the Kaiser.
Williams doesn't go that far ("...and after landing, I spotted Bin Laden and chased him by myself, armed only with a cigarette lighter, for three days through the desert, overcame him in an epic mano a mano battle, and brought him back, only to have him escape later.")
Whatever he claims now, there is no way this is some kind of misremembered event. No one "misremembers" being in a car accident in which another car slammed into you, and no one misremembers being in an aircraft that was hit by enemy fire if that did not happen.
It was completely predictable that Fox, through it's media critic, the ever truthful Howard Kurtz, should jump up and down about this. Fox has never told a lie to make itself look good. Neither have Drudge or Breitbart or the other usual suspects on the right. And this isn't exactly James O'Keefe posing as a pimp for a fake "gotcha" story.
But it isn't far off. And that's what really sucks.
I've never thought all that much about Brian Williams, but I think a whole lot less of him now.
Oooops. Sorry, Marie. You already posted Greenhouse.
Brian Williams Rant, continued...
This might be piling on, but I think it's a demonstration of how the MSM, or whatever it really should be called, "conflates", as Williams is wont to say, people, places, and events, or at times, deletes (deflates?) certain important details, the outcome being an entirely different and misleading storyline.
Here's what I mean. About 20 months ago, Williams made this statement on the air:
"As a lot of American adults not so fondly remember, the last time the government was found looking into the phone calls of reporters and using the IRS for political purposes, it was the Nixon era, and while times have changed and circumstances are different that subject came up at the Obama White House today as the administration now scrambles on several fronts."
He was wrong on all counts. First, as a piece on DailyKos makes clear, there was not a span of decades between when Nixon tapped phone calls and used the IRS for political purposes and the next time, when it was supposedly done by the Obama administration.
In fact, Bush listened in on Americans' phone calls, including many reporters'. And Bush also used the IRS to attack groups such as the NAACP, Greenpeace, and certain big liberal churches who were openly against his made up war of choice. He sent the IRS after them.
But there is no mention of this, no semblance of anything remotely like this that could be gleaned from Brian Williams' lede (or any other part of the ensuing package, as far as I can tell). Now I don't care if some producer wrote that pickup for Williams. It's a statement that simply BEGS to be fact checked. And if he wrote it himself, he was either out and out lying, for who knows what reason, or being criminally sloppy with his storytelling.
Either way, it's some pretty disgraceful shit. But it happens all the time in the mainstream outlets and it's one of the reasons Americans have such a difficult time coming to any conclusions about current events and the context in which they occur. When you don't have all the facts, your story must needs be incomplete at best and completely wrong at worst.
It's too early to start drinking, isn't it?
And if the MSM were doing its job, Rand Paul would be lucky to be elected night watchman in a small burg in medieval Germany, never mind president of the United States, OR a United States senator.
This guy is supposed to be a doctor, right? A medical doctor, who went to medical school, which means, in most cases, not an idiot and one who learns a few basic things about biology and diseases like Hepatitis. The Little One certainly tries, at least, to sound doctorey and medicaley, by harumphing, in one of the linked articles, that Hep B is a blood borne disease which should rule out babies having to be immunized against it. Ah...let's see. Where to start with this piece of startling stupidity? Mothers?....Babies?....Blood? Need I go on, Buddha Boy?
Fucking moron.
Anyway, just his buddy-buddy connection with inveterate loon and lifetime president of propeller heads and tinfoil hat wearers, Alex Jones, should be a disqualifier for high office, especially because Li'l Randy appears in and offers the endorsement of his office and his stature as a Teabagger standard bearer (okay, hold the snickering, kids) to support a guy who claims that the National Weather Service has been quietly stockpiling tens of thousands of jacketed hollow point bullets. That's right: the National Weather Service. So, okay, that right there sounds pretty loopy, but here's the kicker. The reason? Obama is using seemingly innocuous federal departments to hide huge caches of arms and ammo for when he starts a shooting war on real Americans. It will be Armageddon and no real Americans will be able to purchase those wicked cool JHP's because they'll all be hidden under the desks of meteorologists.
Rand Paul thinks so too.
There just hast to be a little burg in Bavaria that needs a night watchman. Hey, burgermeister, he'll even bring his own bong.
I'm just awfully disappointed that Li'l Randy chose not to join the military & is probably just smart enough not to pretend he did.
(When I Googled "Rand Paul military service," what came up was his service in the Lions' Club.) While I guess he could make up stories about savings the lives of choking Lions via the Heimlich maneuver, you just can't get a Lions Club hero story as great as the stories Randy would have made up about his war exploits.
Or plagiarized. @Akhilleus, in a post above, provides some great stories Li'l Randy could have lifted. Maybe put out in book form, with a little help from his ghostwriter the Southern Avenger.
Seriously, though, Li'l Randy along the other politicians @PD Pepe & @Akhilleus mentioned are just that -- politicians -- & people aren't surprised when they find out a politician has lied/exaggerated -- even though the public doesn't like it. But, except for Fox "News" listeners, those who tune in want the news to be factual. If Brian Williams -- like all news anchors & wannabe anchors -- was running for Walter Cronkite's slot as "the most trusted man in America," he just lost.
Marie
Interesting related post by Charles Pierce on Walker's attempt to blow up the UW System and change the Wisconsin Idea that's been it's mission since the progressive early 1900's.
One benefit, of many, derived from the System and the Idea was the development of one of the most commonly used medications as an anticoagulant to prevent blood clots - Warfarin (a.k.a. coumadin) - and as a rodent poison.
Here's a brief history of it.
I was pissed when I heard that Walker wanted to sell off and privatize Memorial Union, now I'm ever more pissed at what he's attempting to do. Asswipe.
Marie,
Great day in the morning! Can you imagine the whoppers Li'L Randy would be trading on had he spent a fortnight in a war zone?
Even better, the stories would change from day to day and even hour to hour:
"I was teaching some poor Iraqis the importance of standing on their own two feet like Ayn Rand, you know, so maybe one of them would grow up to be an architect who built a big apartment complex which he would then blow up, because Freedom. And whaddaya know? One of those little scalawags came back with a detonator and plunged that sucker as a thousand pounds of C4 took down an entire building. My kinda kid."
When told how stupid that was, a couple of hours later we'd hear:
"I was overseeing combat operations in Fallujah, and giving Marines there pointers on improving their skills in urban fire fights. They thanked me profusely. Just then, I saw a boy carrying a Koran, you know, that book that's NOT the Bible. He had a detonator, and me being accustomed to the sneaky ways of Iraq insurgents, could smell the C4. I ran after that little boy, grabbed his detonator and that Koran, gave him my Bible, a copy of the Fountainhead, and a crash course in Christianity, and in less than 5 minutes, saved the town, converted the kid, and showed the Marines how it was done. Then it was off to stop some pesky NGO types from vaccinating poor kids. Just think of it...Americans spreading autism. And in Fallujah of all places!"
Wow. The theater we've missed.
For some reason the link to Pierce didn't take (most likely a syntax error on my part.)
And speaking of great theater, more like Grand Guignol...
I finally got around to the link Haley posted yesterday about the crazy preacher lady who opened the special session of Tennessee legislators brought together to talk about instituting a healthcare program in that state that was NOT OBAMACARE, with a prayer that was NOT CHRISTIAN. She just mentioned that Jesus, if he wasn't busy, should help save Tennesseans from the horrible scourge of being healthy, 'cause what would they have to pray about if they all weren't sick or dying of some preventable disease?
Seriously? Praying to God to keep people away from healthcare?
This is some sick shit.
They might as well post their own beheading videos. The only difference is people don't die quite as quickly their way.
It's still state sponsored terrorism. And done with a holy book and a prayer asking the Almighty to bless their actions. What's so different?
I know this is a fish in the barrel sort of thing, but I can't help myself sometime. Here are wingers losing their shit about people not knowing how to properly communicate in the English language:
“No, you a USA citizen!.. Learn & understand the language!!!.”
(You USA citizen too? Funny thing. I also.)
No cause vt ain’t no Latino area. Leave the motto alone”
(Ain't no much English good there, neither.)
“...… …stop given in to these people…PRESS 1 for English and forget the rest… worry about the problems you were elected to do”
(Yeah....no more given in to idiots. And do those problems, pronto.)
“No way this is America not Mexico or Latin America. And they nee to learn our language...
(And while they're at it, punctuation and spelling. Furriners!)
“thats un called for this is the usa”
(Ahh.....can't improve on this one.)
“I’d settle for deport illegals in spanish as a back up motto”
(And I'd settle for one grammatically correct sentence in any language.)
“Seriously?? Last time I checked..real vermonters were speakin ENGLISH”
(And not capitalizing and not writin' or readin' all that well neither.)
Sorry guys, I'm easily amused.
PD,
You got it, kid.
Freedom. It's the reason for everything we do. Why, just this morning, I said to my wife, "Hun, let's both brush our teeth an extra long time today, because we're Americans, and we're exceptional. And our teeth are exceptional."
"And Freeedddddooomm."
...and like that.
Ak: As Einstein said, "Only two things are infinite; the universe and
human stupidity, and I'm not so sure about the universe."
My mention of Walter Cronkite above reminded me of an e-mail exchange I had with a Reality Chex reader a month or so ago, in which each of us shared a story about an encounter we had had with Cronkite. Her story was pretty good, but it occurs to me that mine was a little boring. Thanks to Brian Williams, I can retell it in a more appropriate manner.
I was giving a speech on the importance of truth in media to an audience of thousands – many of them journalists – in the bowels of a great Manhattan skyscraper. Walter (or Walt, as I usually called him) was on a panel of notable journalists assembled to discuss my speech. To cheers of approbation, I completed my remarks and took a seat with the panel on the stage.
Walt had barely completed his opening sentence – “That was the greatest speech since the Gettysburg Address” – when I looked into the audience & saw that a young man sitting in the front row was wearing a vest fitted with explosives. Everyone in the room – perhaps everyone in the building – would be killed! The man had his hand on the detonator cord when I leapt from the stage & attacked him, knocking him to the floor. Walt piled on & held the man down while I deactivated the bomb, a skill I had learned from reading creepy Internet sites.
During these terrifying moments, the rest of the panelists and the audience were stunned into a catatonic fear. They could only look on in shock and awe as Walt & I saved their lives. As Walt & I secured the room, the audience regained its senses. The cheers and applause for us were deafening. (In fact, my only lingering injury from the event is a slight hearing loss, although, in the short term, I did suffer a broken ankle as a result of my leap from the stage.)
Everyone made way as Walt & I exited the room together & made for the elevator. Although my ankle was painful, I gamely walked alongside Walt so as not to further upset those who were likely still suffering the throes of overwhelming fear for their lives. At the elevator, Walt pressed the button & the door opened. Ever the gentleman, he held the door for me as I gingerly stepped inside, now out of view of our admirers. The door closed behind us, yet we could hear the thunderous applause even as we arrived at the lobby floor. Only later did we learn that the terrorist was a producer at Fox “News.”
Shorter Version: Once when I had a broken ankle, Walter Cronkite held an elevator for me.
Marie
P. S. Thanks, Brian. Your expertise has taught me how to develop a narrative.
Marie,
Oh, man. You left out the part about Cronkite telling you, once the elevator door closed, who really killed Kennedy!
(Love the part about creepy internet sites.)
I have been watching NBC news almost every night for decades. Welcome ABC.
@ CW, Sorry dudite, I was at that speech and all I remember was you showing up at the wine and cheese after party.
I guess I can tell my Cronkite anecdote now, if only to distinguish him from what passes for a newsman or woman these days.
An acquaintance was telling me once of his arrival at the pinnacle of journalism in NYC. He was working then as a print journalist but would shortly move to television. He was invited to come along with some veteran reporters to a midtown bar frequented by editors, reporters, tv news producers, and some of the biggest names in print and television news. This was the early 70's.
As he sat down, he heard the siren of a nearby fire engine passing the bar and stopping a ways down the street. His reporter's instincts prompted him to get up and see what was going on, but he felt that now that he had arrived, at last, to the big time, chasing fire engines was a thing of the past. Just as he had almost convinced himself to stay put, a figure from the back of the room raced past his table, coat and hat in hand, and flew out the door in the direction of the fire.
It was Walter Cronkite.
People on this site seem to think that the Republican party is looking for the next Lincoln and throw rotten tomatoes at any Republican candidate who has the least trouble with facts. The truth is that this is the 21st century America, not the 19th and the ideal candidate is the anti-Lincoln. The one who if asked "Did you chop down the Cherry tree?" would have replied "I cannot tell a lie, Sarah did it." The qualification process is not to choose the honest truth teller but the one who can say day is night or propose the most foolish of policies with a straight face. Once the winner is picked none of his statements or policies will ever again be challenged by the MSM as long as he can avoid Martha Raddetz.
Becoming incensed by Republican utterances is more dangerous to your health than the measles but if it helps to relieve stress carry on.
Cowichan,
Are you confusing this site with another? One frequented by idiots?
Where and when have you read a single comment here suggesting that anyone in the Modern GOP is looking for the next Lincoln? Confederates HATE Lincoln. Despise him. Write lengthy articles--in 2015!!--describing him as the fucking Anti-Christ. His name is only floated by those not quite as insane as a way of suggesting that they really, really, really aren't the racist pig-dogs their actions and words prove that they are.
So your suggestion is that no one should trouble themselves with Republican lies, subterfuge, misdirection, prevarication, deceit, scams, distortions, and mendacious vilification? Because why? Because those who do might incur some kind of physical infirmities, but nonetheless, in spite of the obvious rational solution of shutting the fuck up about Confederate perfidy, should follow our insensible and ridiculous path if, and only if, it helps to "relieve stress"?
Yeah, sure. Why not just sit back, and take a ball peen hammer to our skulls, because no one could possibly, or should, point out the trouble Republicans have with facts, with truth, and with reality.
Because that's definitely a plan for success.
Sign me up.
So you are disturbed that anyone who "throws rotten tomatoes" at any GOP candidate presenting themselves as a moron is wasting their time.
You and Joseph P. Kennedy would have got along marvelously.
I really don't care if the zeitgeist take on things is to agree that Republicans can get away with murder. That sort of outcome only obtains, with no problem, if those of us who value rationality agree that there is no hope of challenging them.
It was such a kick to read some of your exploits, especially those with Walter G. Since I'm housebound––can't even safely get up our long driveway––more snow today–-I'm ready for mirth and merriment on a large scale. I did, however, while reading the long screeds on Williams and Rand, remember that Tom Tillis, the hand washing wuss from yesterday's conversation gave us a dodgy bona fides when he first graced the halls of congress. He fudged on the time he spent at some college somewhere which wasn't true––turns out he wasn't even there. When confronted with this LIE he said, what the heck, what difference did it make anyway–-it was just a harmless misunderstanding. The kicker for me was if it didn't make any difference then why did he make it up?
Can we clone Martha Raddetz?
P.S. did not mean "screeds" pejoratively–-just meant long.
@PD Pepe: I had forgotten the Tillis college story. The News & Observer has a good rundown of the discrepancies here.
Marie
P.S. Sorry about your being housebound. Hope you're cozy & can enjoy the view of fresh snow.
Akhilleus, Akhilleus, breath deep, think gentle thoughts. Your circulatory system is not designed to work under your present pressure range.
I said that the Republicans are NOT looking for Lincoln if you would but read what I wrote. If we are in agreement on that point I only ask why you vilify the scorpion for stinging the frog carrying it across the stream as if that act were an affront to god and nature? The Confederate has been with us since the emergence of man and is only acting according to his innate nature. The practice of lies, character assassination etc is accepted in American politics and carries no penalty. As long as that is true the rant against this or that politician is absolutely ineffective. You might as well go into the wilderness and let'r loose. The effect is the same as posting here. Excoriating me is equally as effective.
This is only the beginning of 2015. Save something in the tank for the fall of 2016.
@cowichan: As I've said, perhaps dozens of times, commenters are welcome to vent here about whatever irks them, as long as it's vaguely related to politics & policy. Criticizing other commenters for the nature or topics upon which these choose to comment should stop.
You can disagree with the substance of a comment. If you do, you should provide some sort of documentation that refutes, or purports to refute, the other commenter's remarks.
Your blanket condemnation of "people on this site" is not helpful, especially as your "evidence" is merely a prediction about what all of the media will do in the future. Your predictions, obviously, are not verifiable.
While we endlessly cite cases in which the MSM falls down in calling out politicians for their misstatements -- even as the politicians make them to reporters -- it's useful to remember that we only know about these misstatements because somebody in the media (tho not necessarily in the MSM) reported facts (or purported facts) demonstrating that the politician was untruthful.
In addition, making a meme of politicians' misstatements is indeed useful. Romney's 47% remark was reported one day by one media outlet (Mother Jones), & reported by other media. But a news cycle doesn't last longer than 48 hours. I specifically recall some pundits saying that the 47% remark wouldn't hurt Romney because people would forget it. They didn't. It came to define Romney, & it defined him because politicians, reporters, pundits, and ordinary people repeated it again & again.
Maybe Rand Paul will get away with lying about what he had just said about the link between measles & mental illness; maybe he'll get away with other lies. But constantly reminding people that Rand Paul is "an unusually good liar" will help define Rand Paul, not just for people who are keen observers of politics, but for people who just hear it at the water cooler or on the "Daily Show" or wherever.
So quit trying to limit what other commenters write. Quit lecturing them on their topics of choice. There's only one person on this site who can shut people down. That's me. And I do it rarely, & only for some of the causes I've repeatedly stated, not because I think a commenter should have some different set of concerns.
An apology to Reality Chex commenters would be welcome.
Marie