;)
The Commentariat -- June 17, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Afternoon Update:
Unlimited Crappy Service. Brian Fung of the Washington Post: "The Federal Communications Commission slapped AT&T with a $100 million fine Wednesday, accusing the country's second-largest cellular carrier of improperly slowing down Internet speeds for customers who had signed up for 'unlimited' data plans. The FCC found that when customers used up a certain amount of data watching movies or browsing the Web, AT&T 'throttled' their Internet speeds so that they were much slower than normal. Millions of AT&T customers were affected by the practice.... AT&T implemented the practice in 2011, prompting thousands of customers to complain to the FCC, according to an agency statement.... AT&T disputed the charges."
Mike Isaac & Natasha Singer of the New York Times: "In what could prove to be a ruling with serious implications for the on-demand economy, the California Labor Commission has ruled that an Uber driver should be classified as an employee, not an independent contractor."
Housing Prices Stabilize. Neil Irwin of the New York Times: "Now, by a wide range of measures, nationwide home prices look relatively normal when compared with incomes, rents and other fundamentals -- and are rising at similar low, single-digit rates.In contrast to the periods of irrational optimism and pessimism, the market is settling into a balance in which buyers are comfortable spending what they can afford given their income and savings, but aren't willing (or able to persuade lenders) to stretch beyond that." ...
... Lori Aratani of the Washington Post: Washington D.C.'s Metro "central train control center -- tasked with ensuring the safety of thousands of passengers moving through the nation's second busiest rail system -- is chronically understaffed, chaotic and filled with distractions, according to a federal report released Wednesday."
The Ugly American. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: As a budget crisis looms in Wisconsin, Scott Walker takes a taxpayer-funded six-day vacation trade mission to Quebec. "Walker's four foreign trips in five months stand out. He now sprinkles details of his world travels into his stump speeches. While in Canada, Walker suggested that he had qualms about drinking the water in other countries he had visited." CW: Yeah, that's really showing your foreign policy creds, Scottie, & demonstrating what a great diplomat you are, too. The other countries he's visited were Britain, Germany, France & Spain, none of which is likely to serve up non-potable water, & certainly not in the fancy hotels where he stays. Oh, and he lies about his meetings with foreign leaders, too:
At a donor retreat hosted by Mitt Romney last week, Walker said in a speech that British Minister David Cameron told him that he was dissatisfied with President Obama's leadership. Cameron's staff quickly denied Walker's account, telling Time that Cameron did not make such a remark and does not feel that way.
... CW: I've been trying to think who Scottie reminds me of. Now I remember: George W. Bush.
*****
Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post lays out how Congressional Republicans will get the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement passed.
Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "More than 20 Republican senators rejected a ban on the use of cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners on Tuesday, voting against an ultimately successful measure to permanently prevent a repeat of the CIA's once secret and now widely-discredited torture program. The bipartisan amendment reaffirms President Barack Obama's prohibition of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation, which were developed by the CIA under the administration of his predecessor, George W Bush. The measure passed in the Senate, 78-21." ...
... Julian Hattem of the Hill: The ban is an "amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) [which] would limit the entire U.S. government to the interrogation and detention techniques outlined in the Army Field Manual." CW: So it's not a done deal, even in the Senate. ...
... Joshua Keating of Slate: "If the massive defense bill, with the amendment intact, reaches President Obama's desk -- which could depend on the outcome of a number of unrelated debates -- it will mark a significant step forward in the effort to restrict the use of torture, though a few ambiguities still remain."
Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chair of the House Oversight Committee, "Tuesday called on the government's personnel chief and her chief information officer to resign after saying that she 'failed utterly and totally' to prevent the massive hack that exposed the personal data of 4.2 million active and former employees.... Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta and the agency's chief information officer, Donna Seymour, were grilled for almost three hours by angry lawmakers from both parties.... Lawmakers noted that OPM was warned repeatedly by the agency's inspector general to make computer security upgrades, but took too long."
Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. and Justice Department prosecutors are investigating whether front-office officials for the St. Louis Cardinals, one of the most successful teams in baseball over the past two decades, hacked into internal networks of a rival team to steal closely guarded information about player personnel. Investigators have uncovered evidence that Cardinals officials broke into a network of the Houston Astros that housed special databases the team had built, according to law enforcement officials. Internal discussions about trades, proprietary statistics and scouting reports were compromised, the officials said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday said it will give manufacturers three years to remove artificial trans fat from the nation's food supply, a move that the agency estimates could reduce coronary heart disease and prevent thousands of heart attack deaths each year." ...
... Hero of the Day. Brady Dennis: "No one was more pleased by the Food and Drug Administration's decision Tuesday to eliminate artificial trans fats from the U.S. food supply than Fred Kummerow, a 100-year-old University of Illinois professor who has warned about the dangers of the artery-clogging substance for nearly six decades. 'Science won out,' Kummerow, who sued the FDA in 2013 for not acting sooner, said in an interview from his home in Illinois. 'It's very important that we don't have this in our diet.'"
Todd Frankel of the Washington Post: "The world's largest underground aquifers -- a source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people -- are being depleted at alarming rates, according to new NASA satellite data that provides the most detailed picture yet of vital water reserves hidden under the Earth's surface. Twenty-one of the world's 37 largest aquifers -- in locations from India and China to the United States and France -- have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water was removed than replaced during the decade-long study period, researchers announced Tuesday."
Dahlia Lithwick on the Supreme Court's decision not to hear an appeal of the Fourth Circuit's decision to strike down a North Carolina law that required doctors to "specifically describe the fetus to any pregnant woman seeking an abortion." The Court's rejection of the North Carolina appeal does not strike similar laws in 23 other states.
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) explains the Constitution to shut-ins. McKayla Bean of Right Wing News: "'right now, the American people don't understand that the Supreme Court, when it makes a ruling, it's just an opinion if no one enforces that ruling. The Supreme Court doesn't have a police force; the Supreme Court doesn't have an army; the Supreme Court doesn't have people that can enforce their ruling.' Therefore, if conservatives 'stand up to them and invoke the Constitution, then we don't have to accept a ruling on marriage that redefines marriage.... We're sending a message to the Supreme Court that, number one, it's illegal that they have this case before them; it's not in their jurisdiction.' Proving his Constitutional prowess, DeLay argued that 'it's not in their authority to write law by ten unelected, unaccountable people, lawyers, and if -- this is a red line that we're drawing. If they rule against marriage, we will all defy them.'" ...
... CW: In other words, a man who was once one of the most powerful lawmakers in the country says law-abiding is strictly voluntary -- unless the President sends the Army after you. Please, Mr. President, send in the Army. First order of business: make Tom DeLay get gay-married. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.
Matt Bonesteel of the Washington Post: "Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber on Wednesday gave the first inclination of the size and scope of that country's investigation into wrongdoing at FIFA, saying he is investigating 53 instances of possible money-laundering related to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding processes. Lauber described his investigation, which is running parallel to one being conducted by U.S. prosecutors, as 'huge and complex' and refused to set a timetable. He did say, however, that Russia and Qatar could be stripped of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups...."
Dan McQuade of the Guardian: Electronic espionage has a long history in American sports, dating back more than a century.
Presidential Race
Hannah Fraser-Chanpong & Ellen Uchimiya of CBS News: "During a visit to South Carolina Wednesday, Hillary Clinton will introduce a plan to reduce youth unemployment. The Democratic frontrunner is encouraging businesses to hire apprentices by offering them a tax credit of $1500 per apprentice hired, according to a Clinton campaign aide. Clinton will talk about her proposal at a forum at Trident Technical College in North Charleston." Via Greg Sargent.
Matthew Daly & Steven Ohlemacher of the AP: Hillary Clinton confidant "Sidney Blumenthal, testified in a closed session before the House Benghazi committee Tuesday morning about frequent emails on Libya he sent to Clinton when she served as secretary of state." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Rachel Bade of Politico: "Sidney Blumenthal did not write or know the source of any of the Libya intelligence he passed on to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the top Clinton ally told investigators on the House Select Committee on Benghazi Tuesday in a closed-door deposition. Blumenthal, subpoenaed by the committee, also did not verify any of the intelligence he forwarded to the nation's top diplomat. Instead, Blumenthal was copying and pasting memos from Tyler Drumheller, a former CIA operative who was looking into a Libya-related business venture, and sending them to Clinton, two people familiar with his testimony told Politico." ...
... BONUS STORY: Darryl Issa tried to crash the Blumenthal depo & committee chair Trey Gowdy threw him out. Issa "stormed off." Complete with grainy video!
Grainy photo! Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Pat Leahy and Howard Dean meet with a Vermont store manager in 1993. Vermont Standard photo.... When Bernie Met Hillary. Ben Schreckinger of Politico on Bernie Sanders' many encounters & dealings with Hillary & Bill Clinton. Interesting reading.
Jeb! and Sex! Nick Gass of Politico: "Jeb Bush became the latest politician to 'slow jam the news' with Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday's episode of 'The Tonight Show,' joining a list that includes President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and Chris Christie. And it was just a little ... awkward":
... See P. D. Pepe's commentary in today's thread.
... Jeb! to "Pass Judgment" on Pope. Katie Glueck of Politico: "'I hope I'm not going to get castigated for saying this by my priest back home, but I don't get economic policy from my bishops or my cardinals or my pope,' said Bush, a devout Catholic. He added that he wanted to see exactly what the Pope recommended 'before I pass judgment, but I think religion ought to be about making us better as people, less about things [that] end up getting into the political realm.'" ...
... Coral Davenport of the New York Times: Miami's "Roman Catholic archbishop, Thomas G. Wenski, is planning a summer of sermons, homilies and press events designed to highlight the threat that a warming planet, rising sea levels and more extreme storms pose to his community's poorest and most vulnerable. His sermons and speeches are meant to amplify the message of Pope Francis' highly anticipated, highly controversial encyclical on the environment.... Archbishop Wenski ... hopes that they will resonate with two members of his flock in particular: Florida's junior senator, Marco Rubio, and former Gov. Jeb Bush, both Catholics and both Republican presidential candidates." CW: Big tactical mistake, Your Excellency. Jeb! & Marco think helping the poor is for sissy liberals & communist sympathizers. When the seas rise & engulf Miami, those layabouts can swim -- or sink.
Trump's entry adds much-needed seriousness to the GOP field. -- Democratic National Committee
Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump, the garrulous real estate developer whose name has adorned apartment buildings, hotels, Trump-brand neckties and Trump-brand steaks, announced on Tuesday his entry into the 2016 presidential race, brandishing his wealth and fame as chief qualifications in an improbable quest for the Republican nomination." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Bump on Trump. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's spectacular, unending, utterly baffling, often-wrong campaign launch." Bump attempts to fact-check Trump. Eventually, he gives up. Funny. ...
... Another Fake Run? Seems Unpossible. Annie Karni & Adam Lerner of Politico: "Federal Elections Commission records show Trump has yet to file any paperwork making his candidacy official. He has 15 days to do so." ...
... Dana Milbank: "If the American Dream weren't already dead, it would have killed itself listening to Trump's 45-minute greed-is-good speech at a time when the gap between rich and poor is wider than it has been since the Great Depression." ...
... Kerry Eleveld of Daily Kos argues that Trump IS the GOP. With proofs. ...
... Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: Trump "is the hand the Republicans have dealt themselves and they're looking at possibly twenty candidates, most of whom seem to being playing some kind of long game grift, but none more offensive -- and entertaining! -- than Donald Trump. You broke it, you bought it, GOP. Gold-plated crapper and all." Entertaining read. ...
... David Corn of Mother Jones: "When Donald Trump strode on to the stage at Trump Tower on Tuesday to announce that he would enter the Republican race for president, a rock and roll anthem blared: Neil Young's 'Rockin' in the Free World.' It was an odd choice, given that the 1989 song seemed to slam a Republican administration for not giving a damn about the poor....A statement issued to Mother Jones for Young by his longtime manager Elliot Roberts suggests Young was not pleased...: 'Donald Trump's use of "Rockin' in the Free World" was not authorized. Mr. Young is a longtime supporter of Bernie Sanders.'"
... Update. Jason Newman of Rolling Stone: "When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign told Rolling Stone that the candidate was a fan of Young's music, despite their differing views, and that the track was used legally. 'Through a license agreement with [performance-rights organization] ASCAP, Mr. Trump's campaign paid for and obtained the legal right to use Neil Young's recording of 'Rockin' in the Free World' at today's event,' the spokesperson tells Rolling Stone." ...
... Neil Young? Why Trump didn't lead with this, I'll never know. The O'Jays song is the theme song for Donald's teevee shows, or so I hear:
... Steve M: "Chris Christie ... is the guy who should just hang it up if Trump really does file all the necessary paperwork.... Without Trump, Christie would be the only mouthy Northeasterner in the field. But Trump does Christie's act in a more lapel-grabbing way than Christie does. If Trump's in the debates, there's just no niche for Christie to fill." ...
... Matt Latimer in Politico Magazine: "Seven Reasons the GOP Should Fear Donald Trump. He's a nuisance, a hothead and totally unqualified. But that's what they said about Ross Perot." An enjoyable read. Unless you're Prince Rebus.
Beyond the Beltway
Tom Boggioni: "An Iowa mall cop -- with a Facebook account loaded with open-carry and right-wing memes and photos of multiple weapons -- is under arrest for shooting and killing a fellow mall worker because she filed sexual harassment complaints against him." Boggioni reposts some of the gun-nut "literature" shooter Alex Kozak had posted. CW: You can't tell me the NRA- & ALEC-written gun laws don't give these murderous jackasses a sense of entitlement to use their weapons against anyone who crosses them. I am now officially afraid to live in this country.
News Lede
AP: "A prison worker charged with helping two convicted murderers escape from a maximum-security facility had discussed with them a murder-for-hire plot..., a district attorney confirmed Wednesday. Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said at a news conference that Joyce Mitchell had talked to inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat about the possibility of them killing her husband, Lyle." CW: What a sweet person. And here I thought her complicity with these murdering SOBs was all about love.
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Reader Comments (24)
Over on the nymag Web site is a piece by Jaime Fuller: "How Rich Is Donald Trump? America Has Been Trying to Find Out for a Long Time" followed by some pithy comments. My favorite came from someone posting as "clippityclop."
"How rich is Donald Trump? I'd say he's about 52% butterfat."
@MAG: If that butterfat is trans fat, we only have three more years to endure the Donald. Which means no 2020 fake presidential run.
Marie
The comments (900 of them, I see) on Brooks' latest NYTimes eructation...
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/opinion/david-brooks-the-democratic-tea-party
...are worth a little time, if you admire Brooks as much as I do.
It seems to me that it wasn't too long ago that Obama was criticized for appearing on so many late night shows––"not dignified!"––It's demeaning to the role of President"––and so on, forgetting, of course, that all our modern past presidents have appeared on late night shows. A few nights ago Jeb! did one of those "slow news raps" with Fallin. The whole segment was sexual, even to the extent of Jeb "Mass debating." Bush, himself, was straight talking in a monotone (the guy does not do well comically), but I found it strange (interesting?) that Jeb! would one, find this humorous; two, not find this demeaning to him as a presidential candidate. Could the very clever rap, inherently sexual, be a liberal "set-up" for Bush? Would be a gas, if it was intended that way.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/17/jeb-bush-slow-jam-jimmy-fallon_n_7600108.html
@Ken: And gemli responds and as always pretty damn accurately:
"When David Brooks comes riding in on a white horse to save the world it's probably best to take a close look at the horse, because it's usually of the Trojan variety.
In this case, he says the world will be saved by embracing secret deals made by corporations, which, as we all know, have the interests of third-world laborers at heart. (Or at least they have since they got religion, thanks to the Supreme Court, and are able to buy politicians to do their bidding, thanks to the Supreme Court. Whenever you combine enormous wealth with secret deals, political power and religion, things generally work out well.)
There a bit of irony in Brooks' defense of the TPP, since he's suddenly concerned about the world's poor. Mr. Brooks is worried about their take-home, although he argued in "The Inequality Problem," January 16, 2014, that raising the minimum wage in this country wouldn't help workers escape poverty, so I'm not sure why it would help foreign workers. He also railed against the unwashed hippies who occupied Wall Street, and nearly lost his cool castigating the ungrateful louts who dared to complain about income inequality ("The Milquetoast Radicals," October 10, 2011).
The Democrats who have come out against this deal are those who have a history of fighting for the economic rights of people, not corporations. Elizabeth Warren isn't running, so I intend to improve the economy of Bernie Sanders' presidential bid by sending him a few bucks. Sorry, world."
Re yesterdays discussion of Bill and Monica:
When I was a lad of 22, just returned from Viet Nam, I had a two year affair with a divorced woman of 45. It was wonderful. I believe the currently vogue locution is: 'Friends with benefits.' She took me places -- the theater, opera, travel, that opened my mind to worlds I might never have known. We shared experiences, companionship, and physical affection, with no expectations or strings attached. When the time came for both of us to move on, we parted the best of friends.
Flash forward 20 to 40 years. During my career with NASA, I served as a mentor to more than 30 young interns of ages ranging from high school to grad school. Half of them women. I could no more have had sexual contact with any of them than with my nieces, whom I regard as though they were my daughters.
So what's the difference? Why is it that as a young man I felt great about having an affair with an older woman, but, as an older man, found the thought of an affair with a young intern as repugnant as incest?
The difference, I think, was my role as mentor -- a position of trust and fiduciary duty. Regardless of what Monica may have done to tempt him, Clinton's conduct was a deplorable betrayal of decency, honor, and trust.
@D.C.Clark: Exactly. To embark on a relationship, both parties have to have some sense that they're playing fair -- that there will be reciprocity &, in an affair of any duration, mutual affection. Of course the heart IS a lonely hunter, & often we misjudge how things will evolve, but an honorable partner doesn't start with the idea s/he will use & dispose of the partner, & certainly not when that person holds a position of trust, or as you say, "fiduciary responsibility."
This is not to suggest that a mentor-mentee relationship is always verboten; Michelle Robinson, after all, was Barack Obama's official mentor at the law firm where they worked, & that turned out pretty well. But such situations do demand an extra layer of caution on the part of the mentor.
Marie
@DC: Our literature is fraught with the kind of relationship you describe initially (and so glad for you that it was a wonderful experience), but it also portrays men in high places taking the budding blossoms of young females or like Zöe Heller's superb novel, "What Was She Thinking" (film was made "Notes on a Scandal") about older married women with children, and in this case, a teacher, who has an affair with one of her teenage male students. In the Monica/ Bill case, when we first discussed it here, I, like Haley, put a lot of the responsibility on Monica (I have known a few wily, young women who have tried to seduce older men in mentor positions just to see if they could–-a sort of power play–-"All men are alike, they can't resist a bit of the booty" kind of thing. However––this attitude puts the male in a passive position, thereby making him the prey , taking away his role as the grownup who should know better (something Bill didn't cotton to). So––when you, DC, say what the difference is in these cases, I think you are absolutely right. Your last paragraph says it all. Thank you.
Loose ends, what happens when you pull on.
So here I was already to go to town about Trump's idiotic choice of Neil Young's anthem about the disparity between Poppy Bush's thousand points of lights as an answer to all the nation's problems (so's the government can get back to helping the rich), and homeless Americans who have lost hope; about one more kid
"...that will never go to school
Never get to fall in love,
never get to be cool."
Is this what Trump is promising more of? Or...maybe he's promising to fix this. Make it all better. Sure. And monkeys will fly out of my butt.
Like so many Republicans who want to appear hip and cool, he hasn't bothered to either listen to the lyrics or gotten permission from Neil Young to use his song. Trump did harrumph that he paid the ASCAP license fee, but there's a lot more to it than that. He was in violation of at least three other laws (IOKIYAR again), at least according to ASCAP's guide to using copyrighted music in political campaigns.
So anyway, I was going to jump up and down about that but (in addition to thinking "why bother?") I read the Politico piece, linked above, about how the GOP should be on its guard against Trump.
While reading this, I ran across a misstated idiomatic expression ("...Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, they can’t hold a candle...against the likes of...") and immediately thought "'candle against?' who is this idiot?" Turns out the idiot who wrote the piece is one Matt Latimer, a former speechwriter for The Decider (is there any end to former Bush speechwriters? They're like self-replicating computer viruses). I remembered the name from somewhere so I looked him up. Turns out he had spent a few months in the Bush White House after working for a couple of GOP congressmen and Donald Rumsfeld, and, thinking himself far superior to everyone he encountered, wrote a blistering tell all.
The book, from an excerpt I found, reads like a surrealistic horror story. If you thought things were bad in Bush World, you have no idea just how bad. And even though I'm sure Latimer paints the rosiest picture of his own contributions, I believe some of what he says to have at least the ring of truth, such as callow speechwriters making up public policy on the fly so The Decider could tell the nation what he had decided to do about things like the Bush Economic Crash. At one point, Bush is storming around asking if someone could please give him reasons for supporting the solution he is proposing. It really was that bad. He also thought that Sarah Palin was mayor of Guam.
Latimer himself appears to have complete disdain for everyone who is not as pure a conservative as himself. One review of Latimer's book by Kevin Kosar, a free market, Friederich Hayek type Republican no less, suggests that he "...had many opportunities to develop a substantive knowledge in policy and policymaking. Yet, Latimer does not appear to know much more about government than when he arrived. Rather than recognizing that politics necessarily requires bargaining amongst diverse parties, Latimer continues to cling to his youthful, purist view in which conservatism is righteous and compromise is a dirty word."
And where is he now? This former Decider speechwriter who characterizes Jimmy Carter as "History's Greatest Monster? He's writing for sites like Politico telling Americans all about how Washington works.
The point here is not simply that the guy is an idiot, although he certainly comes across as a cleverer-than-thou egotistical bounder. His first person accounts of the Bush White House are staggering. But he seems symptomatic of the kind of hide-bound conservative, largely ignorant of much of the real world who believes that fealty to ideology trumps any need to understand or put into effect the finer points of effective governance.
Thus, his knife job of Trump is done at the service of the GOP, for which he stills holds out hope for a last minute rescue by the ghost of Saint Ronald of Reagan.
This throws an additional spotlight on Marie's comment yesterday about how much we owe to the mid level management types in DC who keep things from going completely off the rails (whom he disses as worthless in his book) while people like Matt Latimer help to create policy to address issues they neither understand nor care about.
A further caution to make sure to vett any source you encounter online. There are so many axe grinders, vengeance seekers, and self-promoters, one has to exercise good judgement before buying in.
But you guys already know that. See what happens when you start pulling on those loose ends?
Oh, and Donald Trump is still an ignorant douche. More later.
@Akilleus: I had Matt Latimer mixed up with Mike Lofgren, a former GOP Congressional staffer who wrote this piece in 2011.
I still think Latimer makes some good points, & I do hope Trump gets in some of the debates. But despite Latimer's (& some others) trying to equate Trump with Ross Perot, I don't think Trump has the potential to be that kind of spoiler, because (a) he isn't likely to jump ship & run an independent campaign as Perot did, & (b) even bumpkin confederates aren't dumb enough to see him as their champion. He has a massive unfavorability rating within the GOP base.
Marie
Charles Murray is speaking on The Commonwealth Club radio show, promoting his recent book. He pretty much came out and said that America was great until the New Deal and we need to go back to the time when government does as little as possible.
The phrase "History is written by the victors" comes to mind. The people who died in preventable ways didn't write the story of the era.
Murray did talk about stupid regulations, but seemed to imply that liberals like those things, like fining a bartender for not carding a 54 year old customer.
I started listening partway through the show. I had an immediate dislike for his voice long before I began to grasp what he was saying. He seemed to exude arrogance.
Today in Torture Fandom
Even though the vote in the Senate doesn't guarantee that torture will never be used again in our names, it was a litmus test for civilized women and men, an opportunity to state clearly that you were not for stringing someone up by their thumbs and attaching electrodes to their genitals or having someone stripped and submerged in ice water until they died of hypothermia. These actions are not "enhanced" anything. They represent torture, without qualification.
Many passed that test.
A few barbarians did not. All of them Republicans:
Jeff Sessions of Alabama,
Tom Cotton of Arkansas
Michael Crapo of Idaho
James Risch of Idaho
Daniel Coats of Indiana
Joni Ernst of Iowa
Pat Roberts of Kansas
Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
David Vitter of Louisiana
Thad Cochran of Mississippi
Roy Blunt of Missouri
Deb Fischer of Nebraska
Benjamin Sasse of Nebraska
Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma
James Lankford of Oklahoma
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
Tim Scott of South Carolina
John Cornyn of Texas
Orrin Hatch of Utah
Mike Lee of Utah
John Barrasso of Wyoming
Marco Rubio might have been one of them but he didn't have the balls to put his mark down one way or the other. A mark of his future "leadership" no doubt.
These enemies of civilization are one reason the Republican Party has lost all claims to legitimacy.
@Akhilleus: Marco said that if he'd had the time or inclination to do his job, he would have voted against the anti-torture rider. He was the only senator who didn't bother to show up for the vote. Rubio has the worst attendance record in the Senate.
Marie
For those who dismiss Trump, or any other nutcase, recall that we elected a thoroughly dismissed Jesse Ventura as our MN governor. Ironically, perhaps, he shepherded major upgrades to public transit, including light rail in Minneapolis, against a brick wall of Republican opposition, but prevailed. The system continues to grow and flourish. Not a bad legacy. And then there's Michele Bachmann.
Memo to the Torturous Twenty One Club:
“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster . . . when you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Boy, oh boy, if I had any sense I'd get myself a Nazi haircut, buy a navy blue Brooks Brothers suit, a red repp tie and promote myself as a conservative opinionator. I'd be a millionaire in months and I could go on the TV machine and say bug-eyed crazy shit. I wouldn't have to make sense or adhere to logic or worry about my lack of qualifications to talk about stuff I knew absolutely nothing about. As long as I could stomach promoting the Confederacy and toe the party line, I'd be in like Flynn.
Vide S.E.Cupp. Granted, she looks a lot better than I do, but I could do "idiot" just as well if I really tried.
CNN hired her to be one of their in-house wingers and she doesn't disappoint. A couple of years ago, Cupp, not an economist, took issue with (Robert Reich) a real economist's statement that boosting union participation and raising the minimum wage would be good for the economy. Instead, she suggested the exact opposite would be a magic bullet.
She also has characterized a minimal rise in the marginal income tax rate by President Obama as "collectivist", but had to back down after being reminded that she would, given that "logic" have to say that Dwight Eisenhower was also a "collectivist".
When Bridgegate blew up and it began to look like Chris Christie was lying and actually did inflict a severe traffic jam on New Jersey citizens as payback for a political enemy, Cupp had the brilliant idea that his best way out was to confess everything and then run for president as a martyr. He'd be sure to win.
So, okay, I can be just as stupid. But I don't think, in the wake of Donald Trump's leap (maybe, depending on his paperwork) into the front seat of the GOP Clown Van, that I could declare that Trump would "...pull the other candidates toward reality" because he actually was very "qualified".
Reality. Wow. Qualified, too. Triple wow.
Here's some of the Donald's "qualifications" that speak directly to his connection with reality:
In 1988, he bought up the Eastern Airlines shuttle, a service that had been wildly successful, almost like a bus ride between Boston, New York and Washington, only a lot faster. It was cheap and easy. Within a couple of years it was out of business after getting the "Trump Touch". Regular shuttle patrons were completely in awe of how quickly he fucked up such a good thing.
His hold on reality convinced him to start a Trump Vodka brand to compete with the world's best. I've never even heard of Trump Vodka. I guess it was extremely successful.
The number and amount of bankruptcies are staggering. He decided that since he was Mr. Real Estate, he knew more about mortgages than anyone else so he started Trump Mortgage. It went under in less than 18 months.
Time has compiled a list of The Donald's many failures. It's lucky for him his dad was a slumlord and handed him hundreds of New York properties when he was still a kid.
So I'd be happy to sling the shit on TV, at least most of the time, for the filthy lucre, but suggesting that Trump would be leading anyone to reality would be more than I could bear.
Guess I'll put that repp tie back on the rack.
D.C.,
One of my favorite Nietzsche quotes. He knew whereof he spoke.
And here's that list again with some gems attached (like Tim Scott, fer instance-––he's against all these things, but gosh dern, he ain't against torture). This, to me, is a moral question––a humane one. How could any of these people vote FOR torture. Is their rationalization fear? Have they learned nothing from our history on this? I don't get it––do they think their base will approve? For all those believers––do they think god will approve?
CW Note: Plagiarized portion of comment removed.
@PD: Do you and Conor Friedersdorf share a researcher? I just noticed the similarity of your Republican honour roll to his and wonder the origin of it.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/17/1393794/-Global-Temperatures-Soaring-2015-starts-off-the-top-of-the-chart-El-Nino-is-just-warming-up?detail=email
Regardless of what the pope's final word on climate change, the actual climate isn't waiting. Get ready for worse to come.
@cowichan: Thanks for letting us know of the plagiarism noted above. I would not have caught it myself.
Next time, please just let me know rather than writing a snarky comment. I'll take care of it one way or the another.
Marie
Oh, for heaven's sake! I got my information from the Atlantic–-see link below–-sorry for not giving the source. P.S. And I don't even know who Conor Friedwhatsit is!!!
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/these-21-republicans-voted-against-a-torture-ban/396095/
@PD Pepe: Conor Friedwhatsit is Conor Friedersdorf, a libertarian commentator for the Atlantic. It was his post you plagiarized. It doesn't matter if you know the identity of the writer whose work you stole; the material belongs to him &/or his publisher.
Not only did you cite a long passage without attribution, you didn't put any quotes around it. I assumed it was your own work, as would any other reader who hadn't seen & recalled Friedersdorf's piece.
After reading cowichan's comment, I looked for Friedersdorf's column. As far as I could tell you copied or cut-and-pasted his work verbatim. That's not a "for heaven's sakes." That's taking someone else's effort & presenting it as your own.
Marie
@Marie: I'm confused. What I copied was just the list of names of Republicans who voted against the torture ban (same names as Ak had posted) with more info about them. How the heck is this considered plagiarism? This wasn't a long passage, it was just the list as indicated. At least that is what I thought I copied. Since RC doesn't immediately show comments I never hung around to see the finished product so if there was more than just the list then I certainly feel silly. But––I wonder––since you know me pretty well, wouldn't it have been a kinder thing to do like question my post––"hey, Phyllis, where the heck did you get this?" rather than accuse me of plagiarism? I would never use someone else''s work and present it as my own. I would have hoped you would know that.