;)
The Commentariat -- July 23, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Michael Gordon & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday told skeptical lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the recently negotiated accord with Iran is the only chance to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions, and that failure to enact the agreement would isolate the United States internationally.... Mr. Kerry's testimony, along with the testimony of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, came as the Iran deal architects made their first public appearance before lawmakers since the accord was announced last week." ...
... Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Senate Republicans opened the first public hearing on the Iranian nuclear agreement Thursday with sharp criticism that made clear they are unlikely to be persuaded to support a deal aimed at preventing Tehran from developing a bomb."
Tom Dart of the Guardian: "Hillary Clinton said that the death of Sandra Bland is an example of the 'hard truths about race and justice' that America needs to face as uncertainty and anger over the circumstances of the 28-year-old's death continued on Thursday."
*****
Julia Preston of the New York Times: "Under new immigration enforcement programs the Obama administration is putting in place across the country, the vast majority of unauthorized immigrants -- up to 87 percent -- would not be the focus of deportation operations and would have 'a degree of protection' to remain in the United States, according to a report published Thursday by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Washington. The report found that about 13 percent of an estimated 11 million immigrants without papers, or about 1.4 million people, have criminal records or recently crossed the border illegally, making them priorities for deportation under guidelines the administration announced in November and put into effect July 1. The new program is likely to result in a drop in overall deportations from inside the country by as much as 25,000 a year..., but an increase in deportations of immigrants who were convicted of serious crimes, pose national security threats or were caught crossing the border illegally."
Alexander Bolton & Peter Schroeder of the Hill: "The Senate late Wednesday voted to move forward with a six-year federal highway bill, giving Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a significant victory even as his legislation encounters stiff opposition from his own party in the House. In a 62-36 vote, the Senate agreed to begin debate on the legislation." CW: Sorry, I don't consider it a "significant victory" to get an agreement to debate a bill a week before funding for its programs run out, especially when "Democrats and Republicans in the lower chamber united in objecting to the Senate bill on Wednesday, with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) saying it wouldn't fly." ...
... "Congress Can't Write A Highway Bill Without Punching Poor People In The Face." Laura Barron-Lopez & Arthur Delaney of Huffington Post: "Instead of a gas tax, senators went looking for loose change in the couch cushions and came up with the money by cobbling together 16 separate provisions, most of which are unrelated to transportation.... One proposal ... saves billion by eliminating retirement or disability benefits for certain recipients with outstanding felony warrants.... The [transportation] fund will expire on July 31" if the Senate & House can't pass, then reconcile their bills into one President Obama will sign. CW: What's the rush? In case I haven't mentioned it before, the Turtle & the Orange Man are incompetent boobs.
Stephen Ohlemacher & Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the AP: "The trustees that oversee Social Security said the disability trust fund will run out of money in late 2016, right in the middle of a presidential campaign. That would trigger an automatic 19 percent cut in benefits. The report said the fund faces 'an urgent threat' that requires prompt action by Congress. There is an easy fix available: Congress could shift tax revenue from Social Security's much larger retirement fund, as it has done in the past. President Barack Obama supports the move. But Republicans say they want changes in the program to reduce fraud and to encourage disabled workers to re-enter the work force." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times: "The Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday proposed a rule aimed at ending a common and lucrative practice among private equity firms that allows them to artificially lower their partners' personal income tax bills. The practice targeted by the I.R.S. allows private equity firms to convert management fees they receive from their investors, which would normally be taxed as ordinary income, into capital contributions invested in their funds. Profits generated on such contributions are treated as capital gains or dividend income and subject to a sharply lower tax rate."
Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Wednesday her department is going to review all information surrounding the controversial videos of Planned Parenthood officials taken by an anti-abortion group.... Republican members of Congress have been calling on the DOJ to investigate whether Planned Parenthood is in violation of the law after the first video, showing members of the group discussing fetal tissue, surfaced.... Two GOP-led committees, both in the House, launched investigations into the organization after the first video was released last week."
Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "The Washington Post appealed to the United Nations on Wednesday to help secure the release of jailed reporter Jason Rezaian, accusing the Iranian government of flagrant human rights violations in a year of 'arbitrary and unlawful' detention of the veteran journalist, company officials said. A petition filed before the U.N. Human Rights Council sought to increase the international pressure on the Iranian government over its treatment of Rezaian, whose 365 days in prison as of Wednesday amount to the longest incarceration by far of any Western journalist held by the Islamic republic." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
In a Washington Post op-ed, Secretaries John Kerry & Ernest Moniz make their case for the international nuclear deal with Iran. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Illustration by David Parkins for Nature.Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker: It now appears that holding global warming to the 2-degree Celsius limit brokered in the Copenhagen Accord (and which will require a "herculean effort" to achieve even if nations actually make the effort) is still too much to avoid environmental catastrophe. ...
... Here's the Nature story (which Kolbert cites) by David Victor & Charles Kennel: "Politically and scientifically, the 2 °C goal is wrong-headed. Politically, it has allowed some governments to pretend that they are taking serious action to mitigate global warming, when in reality they have achieved almost nothing. Scientifically, there are better ways to measure the stress that humans are placing on the climate system than the growth of average global surface temperature...."
Presidential Race
Wesley Lowery & Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "The rise of Black Lives Matter has presented opportunities for [Democratic presidential candidates], who are seeking to energize black voters to build on the multiethnic coalitions that twice elected Barack Obama. But the candidates have struggled to tap into a movement that has proved unpredictable and fiercely independent. It is a largely organic web of young African American activists -- many of them unbound by partisan allegiances and largely unaffiliated with establishment groups such as the NAACP that typically forge close ties with Democrats." ...
... CW: Just like the Occupy movement, these kids are angry, rude, disorganized & naive. That may be a good way to make headlines (just ask Donald Trump), & in the long haul, their methods may work because they highlight genuine issues. In the near term, the approach is not a good way to materially influence policy. Pissing off policymakers doesn't really encourage them to cave to your demands. Worse, it emboldens the opposition: I'm sure Republicans are thrilled with Black Lives Matter because the group's tactics give them more reason to ignore the needs & rights of "those people" while further instilling fear & loathing in their racist constituency.
Official GOP Position: Science, U.S. Military Are "Absurd." New York Times: Martin O'Malley cites climate change as a contributor to Middle East unrest; the National Academy of Sciences & the U.S. military agree; Prince Rebus calls the thesis "absurd."
Marc Caputo of Politico: "In his highly touted speech on government reform this week, Jeb Bush ... [said] he would take on 'Mount Washington' in the same way he made 'Mount Tallahassee' more accountable when he was governor of Florida.... But Bush's eight-year record shows he often stood by appointees who were mired in scandal or mismanagement until long after damaging revelations emerged, and in only three reported instances clearly fired agency heads -- including one in the wake of a sexual harassment allegation and another who was implicated in a kickback scheme."
Katie Glueck of Politico: "Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has already emerged as one of the GOP presidential field's most vocal critics of Donald Trump, ratcheted up his rhetoric again Wednesday as he slammed the real estate mogul's presidential bid as a 'cancer on conservatism' and warned that, left unchecked, Trump could be the demise of the Republican Party." ...
... Frank Rich: "For all the other much-discussed factors contributing to the Trump boom -- the power of celebrity, his 'anti-politician' vibe, his freak-show outrageousness, his Don Rickles-style putdowns -- it is the substantive issue of immigration that remains the core of his appeal to his fans." CW: Why, it almost seems Rich is saying that the GOP is the party of racists. Rich also discusses the cult of Cosby & the musical "Hamilton."
Another Supplicant Bows to Lord Romney. Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who jumped into the race for the Republican presidential nomination earlier this week, will huddle with Mitt Romney on Thursday in Wolfeboro, N.H., where [the] former GOP nominee has for years been a summertime resident."
Beyond the Beltway
Patrick McGeehan of the New York Times: "A panel appointed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo recommended on Wednesday that the minimum wage be raised for employees of fast-food chain restaurants throughout the state to $15 an hour over the next few years. Wages would be raised faster in New York City than in the rest of the state to account for the higher cost of living there. The panel's recommendations, which are expected to be put into effect by an order of the state's acting commissioner of labor, represent a major triumph for the advocates who have rallied burger-flippers and fry cooks to demand pay that covers their basic needs. They argued that taxpayers were subsidizing the workforces of some multinational corporations, like McDonald's, that were not paying enough to keep their workers from relying on food stamps and other welfare benefits. The $15 wage would represent a raise of more than 70 percent for workers earning the state's current minimum wage of $8.75 an hour. Advocates for low-wage workers said they believed the mandate would quickly spur raises for employees in other industries across the state, and a jubilant Mr. Cuomo predicted that other states would follow his lead."
Elahe Izadi & Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "Sandra Bland previously attempted suicide after the loss of a baby and was feeling 'very depressed' on the day of her arrest, according to a handwritten jail intake screening form Texas officials released Wednesday. Bland -- a 28 year-old African American woman -- died in a Waller County jail three days after a Texas trooper pulled her over on July 10 during a routine traffic stop. Officials classified her death as suicide by hanging, but those who knew the Illinois woman treated that classification with skepticism and as 'unfathomable.'" CW: Since the screener determined that Bland was "very depressed" & had previously attempted suicide, why didn't her jailers put her on suicide watch? ...
... Washington Post Editors: "... it's plain to us that Ms. Bland shouldn't have died in jail -- because she never should have been in that cell to begin with. A dashcam video the Texas Department of Public Safety released Tuesday shows that the encounter that led to her arrest and charging spiraled out of control, in large part because of the arresting officer's confrontational behavior.... We see no reason why Ms. Bland shouldn't have collected her traffic warning and driven on -- annoyed, but alive."
Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Dylann Roof, the man suspected of killing nine people at a historically black church in Charleston, S.C., last month was indicted on Wednesday on federal hate crime and other charges, including some that carry the federal death penalty, two law enforcement officials said on Wednesday. Mr. Roof, 21, already faces nine counts of murder in state court and could face the death penalty there. But Justice Department and F.B.I. officials have said the Charleston shooting was so horrific and racially motivated that the federal government must address it." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Ledes
New York Times: "Turkey scrambled fighter jets to its border with Syria on Thursday after gunmen on the Syrian side opened fire on a Turkish outpost, killing one military officer and wounding five soldiers, a senior government official said. The official said the gunmen were Islamic State militants. If the government is right, the shooting would be the first time the Islamic State and the Turkish military have engaged in a direct clash since the militant group gained large sections of territory along Turkey's 500-mile border with Syria, where a civil war has been raging for more than four years."
New York Times: "The defense secretary, Ashton B. Carter, made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Thursday morning as American and Iraqi military officials finished plans for an assault meant to retake Ramadi from the Sunni militant group known as the Islamic State."
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Reader Comments (19)
My ever lasting thanks to Ken (from yesterday' comments) for retrieving the bit about the reverse baseball cap business. Yowsa! So now whenever I see someone with his cap on backwards I'll think of...
Do you recall in "The Last Picture Show" ( a truly perfect film) when Duane keeps reversing Billy's cap?
Last night Rachel interviewed Santorum.––worth your while to watch how skillfully she sets him up, eases him into the muddy waters, gives him an oar or two and then carefully lets him drown. Just click on the link for the Maddow show below on the right hand side. She not only gives him a civics lesson, but asks directly, "Do you think gayness is a choice?"
From "Bill Cosby Unplugged" 1997 by Frank Rich"
"This American syndrome -- of ascribing extrahuman attributes to celebrities, especially show-business celebrities, and then reacting with shock and often rage when the more complex human reality is inevitably exposed -- is hardly new. We are no less stunned by the revelation of Bill Cosby's infidelity than we once were about Lucy's and Desi's marital woes or Rock Hudson's homosexuality or, for that matter, the suicidal depression of Robert Young (the ur-Cliff Huxtable of ''Father Knows Best''). Though we wouldn't buy a refrigerator without opening the door, we seem perennially eager to buy each new celebrity image we're sold, no questions asked. It's as if Dorothy kept believing in the Wizard of Oz even after Toto pulled back the curtain revealing the humbug."
We still open refrigerator doors, but are we still eager to embrace celebrity ––and I would add here political––images (and messages) we are sold? Why the Donald is on top of the heap at this time answers the question, I think.
Marie ran this lovely rendition of "Union Maid" a few years ago,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs5_gB582IM
and I was reminded of it when I read this article in today's Washington Po
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-the-supreme-court-headed-for-bush-v-gore-ii/2015/07/22/2b85da98-306a-11e5-97ae-30a30cca95d7_story.html?hpid=z3
If the SC removes public employee unions' ability to collect dues from free riders, it could alter not just labor's meager direct strength, but the support that organized labor gives to progressive causes and election efforts.
Would unorganized labor be better for our democracy? Where to go for influence when workers' interests are not advanced by responsible unions? The streets? I fear that legislators' and justices' catering to the plutocracy can drive the disadvantaged into some nasty areas (labor black markets, smuggling, counterfeiting of debt instruments, counterfeit goods are common coping strategies in 3rd world economies -- and preludes to street violence and gang economics.)
In this election (2016) it would be good to see the issue of unions' pros and cons debated among the candidates.
PD,
In addition to the Cosby revelations I notice that every third web link these days refers to the Blake Shelton/Miranda Lambert troubles. My personal opinion is first, who the hell cares, and second, it's their own business. But people like Shelton and Lambert and the music and celebrity industries (and that includes certain elements of the political media) thrive on celebrity status as, primarily, a way to make money. Every time I read a review of a just released recording or film and see the word "genius" attached, a warning alarm sounds in my head. It could be true genius but more likely it's commercial shilling. Everyone makes out.
Bill Cosby was a very funny guy. I owned all of his comedy albums as a kid. He seemed like a regular guy. Plus, for most white people, he was inoffensive. He talked about football and childhood and old radio shows. He wasn't the guy who would stand on the stage and give the black power salute. So he became the acceptable black man. But still, a man, and a man with faults like anyone. But now you take someone, with personal failings and blind spots and perhaps a few bad inclinations, and you add to that the shield of celebrity and tens of millions of dollars. Bad combination for many people.
Which brings us to the double edged sword of celebrity. People become famous for certain things. Some because of what they do, like Michael Jackson or Steve Jobs. Some, in today's web-based society, become famous for being famous, like the Kardashians. But as surely as fans ascribe superhuman qualities to celebrities, they are just as happy to see them fall. In fact, more happy. And the same industries that made money off celebrities as they come up can make even more money when they fall. The week after Michael Jackson died, he had his first number one album in almost 20 years. For years after Jimi Hendrix died, fly by night record companies as well as major labels were making a bundle by repackaging and releasing outtakes, alternate takes that were terrible, and stuff he would never have wanted released. Necro-capitalism.
In fact, the best thing for a celebrity to do in order to stay on top is to die young. And if it can be a tragic death, so much the better. JFK, Marilyn Monroe, Kurt Cobain, are all revered largely because of early, tragic deaths. James Dean made only three films and he wasn't even the lead actor in one of them ("Giant") but his legendary status is assured.
I wonder though, if they had it to do over, and could avoid their tragic ends even if it meant their celebrity would tarnish and fade, would they choose that route.
My own namesake, Akhilleus, was given that choice. In the Iliad, we are told that his mother, Thetis, had revealed to him there were two paths he could follow. One led to a long and happy but largely obscure life back in his homeland. The other led to a short life with a violent end but glory to burn. Initially he chooses the former but events turn and next thing you know, he's out on the battlefield kicking ass, taking names and getting a poison arrow in the ankle. He had chosen eternal celebrity and fame.
Years later, Odysseus, returning from the Trojan Wars, encounters the shade of Akhilleus in the underworld. The dead hero admits that he made the wrong choice. That he would rather have lived to be old and happy and unknown than to be a king among the dead.
It remains to be seen how Trump's story will end. One thing I can tell you is that it is most certainly not the tragedy of a hero. Trump is less like Akhilleus and more like the Kardashians.
Someone who regularly, as they say in the south, shows his ass.
The additional charges brought against Dylann Roof by the federal government stem from the fact that his actions were racially motivated and the government felt that it was important to charge this asshole with hate crimes.
The reason the feds had to do it?
South Carolina has no hate crimes statutes.
Surprised? Crimes directed against specific groups, blacks, gays, etc., cannot, despite the crystal clarity of their provenance, even if the words of the perpetrator describe them as such (Roof's hate manifesto, for example), be called hate crimes.
Because, I guess, Heritage. And FREEEDOM.
Another reason to hate the guv'mint.
@Patrick: Your comment jibes with mine about Black Lives Matter. Most people remember the March on Washington for Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech (the "Dream" part, BTW, was not part of his text), but it was organized -- you might say choreographed -- by a number of groups, not the least of which was the UAW, & the most prominent of whom was A. Philip Randolph, the groundbreaking organizer of the railroad porters' union.
Officials anticipated chaos & rioting, & prepared for it. The press was so excited about this possibility that it sent more reporters than covered Kennedy's inauguration. But the organizers ruled out any kind of "civil disobedience." They cut the incendiary parts of John Lewis's speech, for instance, & wouldn't allow James Baldwin to speak. As a result, there were more serious threats of violence from radical opponents of the march than from the marchers.
While it's true that the march didn't lead to immediate legislative action (Kennedy's civil rights bill sat dormant in Congress till after his assassination), its success made civil rights legislation more palatable to white legislators & the white public.
I'm not opposed to "bad manners" or outright civil disobedience, but I know the price of both. The short-term price is always turning people against you. As a person well-practiced in bad manners, I know that. (And in exhibiting my bad manners, I almost always wait my turn to speak; I don't take over the podium when the speaker is telling how great his stupid plan is. It's what I say that pisses people off, not the manner in which I say it.)
Black Lives Matter may force Democrats to give more lip service to minority rights, but letting these leaders think or pretend they came up with the issues agenda themselves rather than creating a (likely-accurate) public perception that they were forced into the matter works a helluva lot better.
Marie
@Akhilleus: That's because in South Carolina there is no hate, only heritage.
Marie
@PD Pepe: I think we can all agree that Cosby was one of the great "Bridge Negroes." That is, he served as a symbol for white people of how black people can be "just as good as we are, if properly trained." I'm no psychologist, but I suspect some of Cosby's abusive behavior stems from his resentment of having to play the Whites-Acceptable Negro. I know it would burn me up to be stuck in that role.
On the other hand, I have always thought that the way for people to assimilate into a dominant culture is to, within the limits of their own moral code, adopt the habits of the culture. People, including those who theoretically "belong," do that constantly. I do it myself (within the limits of my own moral code, which sometimes may be too strict).
This is also a good way, I think, to introduce minority cultural elements into the broader culture. For the most part, but certainly not entirely, black culture has asserted itself into the dominant white culture via protest elements. Whatever the form of expression -- language, music, dress -- white people who appreciate or adopt black cultural elements do so when they are young & as a form of protest against the dominant culture, & the elements they tend to adopt are ones born of protest, whether whites have figured that out or not.
Marie
P.S. Re: Rich's book: I bought my new refrigerator online. Never opened the doors, never saw the inside. Also, I bought my new house online. Never opened the doors, never saw the inside. Don't know what that says about me, but now that I've got 'em, I love both the fridge & the house.
The idea that Jeb! Bush could, in any possible universe, be considered an outsider, friend of average Americans, or champion of democracy is the height of absurdity and a conclusion in direct contravention of history and facts.
I've once again started rifling through the mountains of files available on the Bush Crime Family. Bigger takers have never existed in the history of the United States.
Bush supporters pooh-pooh the idea that the family is anything other than a sort of upper class Leave it to Beaver clan, a clean-cut American family, wholesome and pure. But as Robert Parry once concluded, the many, many, many instances of Bush wrongdoing and law breaking that would have any of the rest of us in prison for a loooong time, require cargo ships full of irrefutable evidence to gain any purchase.
One can continue to reject evidence of bad behavior, but at some point, when the number of events become so huge, looking away becomes an exercise in willful ignorance or self-delusion.
Like other successful crime families, the Bushes have become expert at keeping their fingerprints off smoking guns, but the list of suspicious and outright damning capers directly involving the Bush family is startling, going all the way back to Prescott Bush's business dealings with the Nazis which were only ended because Congress passed a law against it. Had they not, he most likely would have kept it up. Wars are means to money and power for the Bush family.
Poppy Bush's ties to the early CIA gave him access to black ops involving the oil industry and helped him gain membership in the Carlyle Group, supposedly a global management group which made millions for the Bush family and their friends in the development and sale of arms and weapons systems. War has always been a money maker for the Bushes.
Dubya made millions off failed businesses like Arbuto Oil. When the company was bought by Harken, Bush sold his stock which would be next to worthless when their financials were released months later. So shareholders were screwed but Bush made out like a king. Later he would make more money in his connection to the Texas Rangers baseball team. Drafted as a front man for the team, the Rangers, through a deal with the local government, used eminent domain laws to raze neighborhoods for their new stadium, also paid for by the public. Taker Bush made millions off that too.
Brother Neil Bush displayed his talents as a taker and moocher in the Savings and Loan scandal. He never spent a day in jail but thousands lost their life savings from his shenanigans, many of which involved handing over billions in unsecured loans to his friends.
Jeb made his bones working deals for Poppy between shady Cuban refugees and Contra forces. More questionable deals followed, including suspicious medical industry schemes.
Enron, the Iraq War, election stealing, Carlyle, Savings and Loan, Ignite, an educational software scam, the Iran Contra scandal, Harken Energy, the close ties to the BCCI, bank of terrorists: it's gangster capitalism on a grand scale and I haven't even gotten to the really nasty stuff
The Bush Crime Family are takers on a level never seen in US history. They are a family of privilege and power. Jeb is no outsider from this bunch. There is no noblesse and no oblige connected to the Bush
Family.
In looking at rich families in America and their connection to politics and power, you can say that Joe Kennedy was an operator and a scoundrel, and he may have been impressed by Hitler, but he didn't make money by working with him and neither he nor any of his kids made money by starting or supplying wars like the Bushes have done. Nor have they supported schemes to bilk Americans like the Bushes have done.
The Bushes are much closer to the Gambinos than they are the Cleavers. They are all out for themselves and their rich friends. Anyone who forgets that when dreaming of putting Jeb! in the White House cannot blame anyone else when he proves the equal of this forebears in criminality.
None of this is hyperbole. These are facts.
Patrick,
I anticipate Dems will mouth at least tepid support for unions during the campaigns to come. After all they do need their support, declining as their power is. But I very much doubt any real debate about the advantages/disadvantages of workers' unions will occur either within or between the two parties, the Dems or the the Koch-Confederates.
The sad fact is that while in the last century unions have made all workers' lives so much better than they would have been without them, most of today's workers have no idea where the eight hour day, forty hour week came from. Nor do they know why we have unemployment insurance, vacations or worker safety rules. Those things just are, like air and water (ironically, often in the same sad condition as unions), taken for granted. In short, for now at least, past success has dampened the fire of the labor movement.
Another factor that will keep the union subject low profile is that unions do have socialist roots and while talking about or even hinting at socialism is not as politically suicidal today as it was in the Age of Reagan, few politicians will be willing to take that chance. I wish they would, but they won't. The wraith of Reagan is still with us.
On the Koch-Confederate side, we'll hear nothing but negatives about unions, all in the name of freeeedom, of course. What we won't hear from them is where all this Right to Work truly Confederate nonsense came from. There are many sources documenting its racist history. Here's one:
http://www.southernstudies.org/2012/12/the-racist-roots-of-right-to-work-la
If I were a political consultant, I'd advise Democrats to talk about this...
And speaking of criminality...
Throwing American citizens with outstanding warrants off Social Security and taking away their retirements and benefits is out-fucking-rageous, not to mention startlingly unAmerican. But the Republican Party has become the UnAmerican Party, haven't they?
Why is it unAmerican? First, a warrant, even a felony warrant, is not a guilty verdict. These people have not been convicted of anything. This is more assuming, more head shaking and clucking and finger wagging by moralizing cocksuckers in Congress. If there's a warrant with your name on it you're guilty. Same as if you're black and a white cop shot you, there must have been a good reason. Guilty. If there's an international agreement in place, negotiated by that black guy in the White House, we don't have to read it. It sucks. Vote it down. End of story.
Taking money from Americans just because they've been arrested is unAmerican and fucking EVIL. They won't fund highway improvements with a gasoline tax because TAX! even though a tax on fuel is the perfect way to pay for something everyone who owns a car uses every day. But TAXES!! and FREEEDOM. So let's screw with citizens we don't like.
These assholes are all fond of saying "there's no free lunch" whenever they're considering helping the poor, but when they need some cash to pay for something that will benefit them politically, they stick their hands in the pockets of the poor and tell them their disability checks and social security money will now be used to fund a pet project of theirs. Guilty until proven otherwise, and subject to the whims of mustache twirling, conniving sons of bitches.
God, I hate these fucking people!
@Akhilleus: Thanks for the essay on the Bush Family, Inc. If Jeb! wins the nomination, every voter should have to read or listen to a history of the family's & Jeb!'s wheeling & dealing. I'm not in favor of literacy tests of course, but "No Bush Left Behind" should somehow be ground into the distracted brains in the way "47 percent" was.
On cutting off Social Security payments for people with outstanding warrants, the first thing that came to my mind was, "Wow! Those Republicans are geniuses for thinking up new racist rules." I don't know the stats, but I'm certain there are a higher percentage of Social Security-eligible blacks with outstanding warrants than there are eligible whites, because cops arrest black people at a higher rate than whites. So punching poor people in the face with an extra up-yours for blacks.
Who needs a Confederate flag when There Will Always Be Republicans?
Marie
Ken,
Thanks for that excellent overview of the history of Right Not to Work Laws and their origins in hatred and racism. Yeah, you're right. You won't hear Chuck Todd ask any of his Confederate guests about how and why this great idea came about and why they still support it.
If anyone doesn't get a chance to read the piece in the link, it's worth knowing a couple of brief highlights about Vance Muse, a former lobbyist and card carrying racist who started Right to Work in earnest as a way of keeping down blacks and punishing anyone with union connections as possible socialists.
Muse, who started something called the Christian American Association supported causes other than keeping certain Americans out of work:
"...these causes included opposing women's suffrage, child labor laws, integration and growing efforts to change the Southern political order, as represented in the threat of Roosevelt's New Deal."
Against child labor laws? Mighty Christian of him.
But his sister, a mucky muck in that bullshit Christian organization sounds like a female Simon Legree:
"My nigger maid wouldn’t dare sit down in the same room with me unless she sat on the floor at my feet!...Christian Americans can’t afford to be anti-Semitic, but we know where we stand on the Jews, all right."
She sounds nice.
On his deathbed, Muse was working on a plot to enshrine his Right Not to Work in an amendment to the Constitution.
Oh....and a guy instrumental in pushing the Right Not to Work ideal? Fred Koch, daddy of you know who.
Pretty much anywhere you turn in Right Wing World, you peel back the wallpaper in any room and find hatred, racism, war mongering, greed, more hatred, white supremacy, anti-humanism on a staggering scale, authoritarianism, violence, corporate hegemony, theocratic tendencies, and, did I mention hatred?
It's like visiting Mordor, the Land Where the Shadows Lie, except there's nothing fictional about this place.
Who else thinks it's hysterically funny that the GOP, the unAmerican Party, is pulling out its hair over the way Trumpy the Trumpet is damaging the Republican "brand"?
Damaging the brand? Are you serious?
It's like your product is Raid. And you've cleverly hidden your industrial sized can of Raid in the aisle with the body washes and skin creams but now here comes Trumpy who points this out.
Oh no! Our brand is ruined!
@Akhilleus: Or it's like all the pesticide companies package their roach sprays in yellow cans, then Raid puts its latest roach killer in a red can. They all pretty much do the same thing, but the Raid is more noticeable.
Marie
P.S. Also the Raid can has the product name in bigger letters because they don't "waste" space putting warnings in Spanish like Ortho & Black Flag do.
Okay last one for today, but it's a doozy.
Let's say you're a cop. And let's say you and a few other cops cause or help cause the death of a guy in your custody by, oh...I dunno...driving 100 mph then slamming on the brakes to see how many times the guy in the back will carom off the walls. Fun, right?
Then let's say that there was no reason to arrest the guy in the first place. Also, the guy is black, and residents in this particular city are pretty upset by this. Oops.
So you and your buddies get arrested. Now you need money. Along comes someone to hold a fundraiser. Sounds great, right?
But then this guy says the entertainment to be held for a fundraiser to support cops who may have killed a black guy is going to be someone doing a routine in..... blackface.
I am not even kidding. Blackface.
I think I'd have to tell this guy that there's a reason blackface, as an entertainment style, went out with Amos n Andy.
And someone thought this was a good idea? Apparently they sold 600 tickets at $45 a pop. Wow.
They sold the tickets, Ak, but the venue cancelled the event.
Blackface? Been there. Seen that.
I used to run the lighting and audio in my high school auditorium. Was paid to come in evenings and weekends when various groups would rent the hall for a nominal fee. Among the activities were country-western and gospel shows, LDS conventions (picture me, the only gentile surrounded by 2000 Saints), classical music and ballet, U.S.Military bands and choral ensembles ...
One stand out was the ever popular annual Blackface Minstrel Show put on by the local Junior Chamber of Commerce (JayCees). It was actually a pretty good show, lots of talent, good production values. ('Oh, Dem Golden Slippers') The participants were all young pillars of the business community, and I don't suppose any of them ever considered the show racist or demeaning. There were, of course, no actual black faces among the pillars, no Jews either I think.
The times they were a'changing.
@D.C.Clark: Decades ago a friend of mine, a practicing Jew whose last name was Blumenthal, taught for a year at the University of Utah. He said it was the only time in his life he was ever called a gentile.
Marie