;)
The Commentariat -- June 3, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: Judge Gonzalo Curiel, when he was a federal prosecutor in California, went into hiding for a time because he was a target of a Mexican drug cartel. CW: This is an aspect of Curiel's career that I haven't emphasized, though it has been reported in a number of reports I linked. And of course it makes Donald Trump's repeated attacks on Curiel all the more disgusting -- as if anything could shame Drumpf.
AP: "President Barack Obama has signed into law a measure meant to bolster protections for Native American children placed into the tribal foster care system. The measure signed Friday requires background checks before foster care placements are made by tribal social services agencies. The agencies will review national criminal records and child abuse or neglect registries in any state in which a would-be foster parent has lived in the preceding five years." -- CW
Tim Egan on "Bernie's last stand." CW: Egan has been happy to dismiss Bernie Sanders throughout the political season, & he does so again in today's column, but he does concede that "If Sanders were to concede at last after Tuesday, even if he won California, he could boast of having moved the Democratic Party to the populist left."
You, Too, Could Get a Ph.D. in Kochonomics. Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: Charles "Koch’s donations have fueled the expansion of a branch of economic research that aligns closely with his personal beliefs of how markets work best: with strong personal freedom and limited government intervention. They have seeded research centers, professors and graduate students devoted to the study of free enterprise, who often provide the intellectual foundation for legislation seeking to reduce regulations and taxes.... Koch's academic giving has now landed him at the center of a white-hot debate over freedom and speech on campus. His critics accuse Koch, 80, of corrupting the academy with his money, pushing students and faculty to embrace a small-government philosophy that they say benefits Koch financially." -- CW
*****
Presidential Race
Donald Trump's ideas aren't just different -- they are dangerously incoherent. They're not even really ideas -- just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds, and outright lies. -- Hillary Clinton, yesterday
... Amy Chozick & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton delivered a lacerating rebuke on Thursday of ... Donald J. Trump, declaring that he was hopelessly unprepared and temperamentally unfit to be commander in chief. Electing him, she said, would be a 'historic mistake.' Speaking in a steady, modulated tone but lobbing some of the most fiery lines of her presidential campaign, Mrs. Clinton painted Mr. Trump as a reckless, childish and uninformed amateur who was playing at the game of global statecraft." -- CW ....
... Here's the transcript, via Time. ...
... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "For those who thought Hillary Clinton needed proxies or a running mate to attack Donald Trump with the savagery required of a long-slog campaign, her Thursday speech in San Diego should be a mind-changer.... It was a full takedown of Trump..., spoken not in vague adolescent epithets..., but in an itemized checklist of his utter, almost laughable unsuitability for the job.... She flung forth the entire litany of his shortcomings.... On each point, she contrasted his flimsy prejudices not only with her own experience and thought-out views but also with the long-standing, bipartisan traditions of American diplomacy.... This election suddenly got a little bit fun." -- CW ...
... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "Some progressives fear that this kind of campaign means Clinton won't build a mandate for progressive policy if she wins the election. The reality, however, is that the biggest objective determinant of how a Clinton administration governs is what happens in November's congressional elections. Clinton is aiming for a landslide, and if she can deliver one, it will set the stage for a lot of progressive policy -- whether or not she talks about it on the campaign trail." -- CW ...
... Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "What makes this speech so strong -- and so much better than the kind of weak attacks the Clinton camp has floated recently -- is that Clinton has really put her finger on the reasons people around the country are worried about Trump. It's true that Trump knows nothing about foreign affairs. It's true he has blithely proposed dangerous ideas, like conquering Iraq and stealing its oil. It's true he says bigoted things. It's true he is a volatile person, that he's demonstrated over and over again that he acts wildly based on petty grievances. These are the things that make Trump qualitatively different from any past presidents...." -- CW...
...Jamell Bouie of Slate: "There is a widespread belief that Donald Trump is immune to criticism, that he's the new Teflon Don. And the proof of his apparent invulnerability is his success against a field of Republican leading lights.... Look carefully at the Republican primaries and one fact sticks out: From the time Trump announced his campaign in July to the last stretch of the Iowa caucuses, Trump was untouched by his competitors.... He isn't just unaccustomed to the attention and scrutiny of the political press; he's temperamentally unsuited to it as well." --safari...
... Nick Corasaniti & Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "With escalating vitriol, Donald J. Trump unleashed an attack on Hillary Clinton on Thursday in response to her speech earlier in the day criticizing his foreign policy positions. Speaking at a campaign rally [in San Jose, California], he began by calling her speech 'pathetic,' dismissing it as a stunt and saying, 'It had nothing to do with foreign policy.... Anything Obama wants, she's going forward with,' Mr. Trump said. 'Because you know why? She doesn't want to go to jail....' That line of attack closely aligns with the writing of Ed Klein, the conservative author whose books on Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have been dismissed by critics as including fabricated accounts of events. Mr. Trump recently met with Mr. Klein." -- CW ...
... Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "Donald Trump on Thursday called for his likely Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to be imprisoned. 'I will say this, Hillary Clinton has got to go to jail,' Trump told supporters here as he slammed Clinton's foreign policy speech earlier in the day.... 'Folks, honestly, she's guilty as hell,' Trump said of the Clinton's use of a private email server...." -- CW ...
... Martha Mendoza of the AP: "A group of protesters attacked Donald Trump supporters who were leaving the presidential candidate's rally in San Jose on Thursday night. A dozen or more people were punched, at least one person was pelted with an egg and Trump hats grabbed from supporters were set on fire on the ground. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Police stood their ground at first but after about 90 minutes moved into the remaining crowd to break it up and make arrests. At least four people were taken into custody." -- CW
Mark Hosenball of Reuters: "Some U.S. intelligence officials are concerned that Donald Trump's 'shoot from the hip' style could pose national security risks as they prepare to give him a routine pre-election briefing once he is formally anointed as the Republican presidential nominee. Eight senior security officials told Reuters they had concerns over briefing Trump.... Despite their worries, the officials said the 'Top Secret' briefing to each candidate would not deviate from the usual format to avoid any appearance of bias.... Current and former officials said that the scandal over Hillary Clinton's use of emails also raises concerns about her handling of sensitive information." -- CW...
...Ian Bremmer, a global risk analyst, in Poltico: "Even if Trump falls short, his America First approach to foreign policy deserves a close look because it will survive his candidacy. And if he does manage to pull of the upset, the implications of an America First foreign policy directed by Trump himself will be far reaching.Here are the 'Trump Top Risks, the most worrisome implications of a Trump foreign policy, and a few red herrings we won't need to worry about" --safari
Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump said in an interview published Thursday that that a federal judge's Mexican heritage presents a 'absolute conflict' in his fitness to hear lawsuits against Trump University because of the mogul's hard-line stance on immigration. While Trump has assailed the judge before with racially imbued language, his comments marked the first time he explicitly said the judge's ethnicity should have disqualified him for presiding over the cases." CW: Trump just disqualified Justice Sotomayor and every Hispanic judge from ruling on any case in which the Trump administration is a litigant. This position alone should disqualify Trump himself from high national office. It isn't just offensive; it's unconstitutional. ...
... Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's blustery attacks on the press, complaints about the judicial system and bold claims of presidential power collectively sketch out a constitutional worldview that shows contempt for the First Amendment, the separation of powers and the rule of law, legal experts across the political spectrum say. Even as much of the Republican political establishment lines up behind its presumptive nominee, many conservative and libertarian legal scholars warn that electing Mr. Trump is a recipe for a constitutional crisis." -- CW
Kevin Drum: "Once and for all, let's put the whole 'economic angst' argument into the ashcan of history. It's out there. It's an issue. But it's not a big one. The folks who support Trump are doing it because they think white male culture is under siege. That's why Trump doesn't spend much time talking about his tax plan but does spend day after day ranting about judge Gonzalo Curiel being unfair to Trump because he's 'of Mexican heritage' and a member of a Latino lawyers' association. His followers eat that stuff up, and we're going to be hearing a lot more of it over the next few months." -- CW
Nick Gass of Politico: "Donald Trump on Thursday vowed to reopen Trump University, the beleaguered real estate seminar business that is the target of multiple lawsuits and has become a new favorite attack line for Hillary Clinton. 'After the litigation is disposed of and the case won, I have instructed my execs to open Trump U(?), so much interest in it! I will be pres.' Trump tweeted Thursday.... 'Even though I have a very biased and unfair judge in the Trump U civil case in San Diego, I have thousands of great reviews & will win case!" Trump tweeted earlier Thursday." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Nick Gass: "New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman stepped up his attacks on Donald Trump's Trump University business venture on Thursday, alleging the businessman and presumptive Republican nominee ran a thoroughly fraudulent enterprise.... 'It's fraud. This is just straight up fraud. It's like selling people something you say is a Mercedes and it turns out to be a Volkswagen," he said [on 'Morning Joe]. 'And even if some people say, "Well I actually kind of like the Volkswagen, it's still fraud, 'cause it's not a Mercedes. This is not a university. And in New York, we are a little sensitive -- you can't just put up a sign saying Scarborough Hospital, Scarborough University, Scarborough Law Firm.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Paul Krugman: "At this point Donald Trump's personality endangers the whole planet." -- CW
Shocking Newsflash! Emmarie Huetteman & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Ending weeks of reluctance to embrace his party's presumptive nominee, Speaker Paul D. Ryan endorsed Donald J. Trump for president on Thursday in a modest but unequivocal backing of a candidate whose views Mr. Ryan has frequently condemned. In a column in his hometown newspaper in Janesville, Wis., Mr. Ryan said that recent conversations with Mr. Trump had convinced him that the billionaire developer will help advance the conservative agenda that the speaker is trying to introduce." CW: I'm sure this is a relief to everyone. ...
... BUT not to the Washington Post Editors: "On Thursday Mr. Ryan capitulated to ugliness. It was a sad day for the speaker, for his party and for all Americans who hoped that some Republican leaders would have the fortitude to put principle over partisanship, job security or the forlorn fantasy that Mr. Trump will advance a traditional GOP agenda.... Mr. Ryan has endorsed a man whose 'solutions' include banning Muslims from entering the country, who casts aspersions on judges because of their ethnicity, who mocks people with disabilities, who lies repeatedly, who would muzzle the free press. Each one of these is disqualifying...." -- CW ...
... Eric Levitz of New York: "In 2012, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist argued that the only thing the GOP needed in its next president was 'enough working digits to handle a pen.' More specifically, Norquist wanted a president who would use those digits to sign Paul Ryan's austerity budget.... Trump's digits might be short (and he might be an authoritarian demagogue with transparent contempt for the norms of liberal democracy) but those stubby fingers can handle a pen. For Paul Ryan, that's enough." -- CW ...
... Steve Benen: Ryan obviously had hoped that Trump, "entering the general election, would put some distance between himself and the buffoonish persona Ryan repeatedly condemned. Soon after, Trump started peddling Vince Foster conspiracy theories, called for more guns in school classrooms, got caught lying about money for veterans' charities, falsely attacked a federal judge for being 'Mexican,' got caught up in ugly new revelations about 'Trump University,' and went after Republican Governors' Association Chair Susana Martinez because she 'hurt his feelings. Paul Ryan saw all of this unfold and then decided to endorse him.... I don't know if it's the most pathetic development in Republican politics this year, but it's close." -- CW
Detroit News: "Gov. Rick Snyder [R] has sidelined himself in the race for president, choosing not to make an endorsement of ... Donald Trump." -- CW ...
... Steve M.: "... it will be remembered that Ryan squirmed briefly before endorsing, and avoided the E-word ["endorse"] -- so we'll be told that he really didn't mean it. He'll emerge from this smelling like a rose. The Establishment will never stop rooting for him." -- CW
Des Bieler of the Washington Post: "For someone who claims to be in possession of the 'best words,' Donald Trump sure seems to be having some trouble with his choice of words while talking about sports on the campaign trail. The latest incident arrived Thursday, when the presidential candidate appeared to refer to the [Golden State] Warriors as 'San Francisco.'... Some in the crowd [in San Jose] may have found it unbelievable that Trump would not know that the nearby team playing 'the game tonight' (i.e., Game 1 of the NBA Finals) was called 'Golden State,' given that it won the title last year and set a record this year for most regular season victories. Oh, and the Warriors play in Oakland, not San Francisco, which is quite a meaningful distinction in those parts." CW: Since I don't follow sports, I have no idea how many balls the Warriors managed to put through the basketball "ring." I guess we should ask Ted Cruz, major sports fan.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
Max Yglesias of Vox: CNN has figured out how to deal with Trump's lies: use a chyron (the graphic at the bottom of the screen):
... it was such lies about my foreign policy, that they said I want Japan to get nuclear weapons. Give me a break. -- Donald Trump, yesterday
Maybe they [Japan] would in fact be better off if they defend themselves from North Korea.... Including with nukes, yes, including with nukes. -- Donald Trump, on Fox "News," April 2016
A lie, or short-term memory loss? Falsehood or dementia? -- Constant Weader
... Trump as Cliff Clavin. digby: "Whether you believe that Hillary Clinton lied about whatever it is you think she lied about, Trump's dishonesty is of a completely different character. It comes from him shooting his mouth off, having no clue what he's talking about but arrogantly believing that he's so gifted and special that he doesn't need to. He is that macho idiot at the end of the bar spouting whatever comes into his head. Except he's the GOP nominee for president of the United States." -- CW
** Eric Alterman of the Nation: " From the earliest days of this campaign, Times reporters have been transparently eager to blame 'both sides,' often regardless of circumstance.... In the paper of record's political coverage, false equivalence often appears to be the rule rather than the exception." Alterman provides ample examples. "... if the Times is OK with a given journalistic practice, then so is just about everyone else." Do read this excellent short-course in "journalism." -- CW ...
... Eliza Carney of the American Prospect: "Trump's skill at deflecting attention from Tuesday's unflattering legal disclosures exemplifies the complicated, influential, and not always laudatory role the news media have played in this campaign. Wall-to-wall TV coverage has earned Trump close to $2 billion worth of free media, and print news outlets have also disproportionately covered Trump.... Among other problems, Trump is a media hound who routinely calls stations and makes himself available for interviews, while Clinton shies away from news conferences and favors scripted events.... It doesn't help that the news business itself is grappling with economic and technological upheavals that have slashed jobs, sped up the news cycle and fragmented the industry. There are fewer newspapers, fewer reporters, less time for fact-checking, and more time spent counting bylines [and] tracking clicks...." -- CW
Other News & Views
Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: "The payday loan industry, which is vilified for charging exorbitant interest rates on short-term loans that many Americans depend on, could soon be gutted by a set of rules that federal regulators plan to unveil on Thursday.... Under the guidelines from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- the watchdog agency set up in the wake of 2010 banking legislation -- lenders will be required in many cases to verify their customers' income and to confirm that they can afford to repay the money they borrow. The number of times that people could roll over their loans into newer and pricier ones would be curtailed. The new guidelines do not need congressional or other approval to take effect, which could happen as soon as next year." CW: Take that, Debbie Wasserman Schultz! (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... OR Maybe Not. "A Lame Response to Predatory Loans." New York Times Editors: "The final rule -- expected next year -- will need stronger, more explicit consumer protections for the new regulatory system to be effective.... The best solution would be for Congress to give the public the same protection from predatory lending that members of the military received under the Military Lending Act of 2007. The rules created under that law made it illegal for lenders to charge more than 36 percent for payday loans, vehicle title loans, installment loans and other forms of credit. (That rate is still quite high.)" -- CW
Dahlia Lithwick: The eight members of the Supreme Court are getting bored & surly. Both Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito appear to be spending the extra hours they might have spent actually being allowed to decide cases, in penning lurid slasher-type dissents.... The justices ... have the look of resigned underemployment about them; a look that perhaps perfectly mirrors this moment in American history." -- CW
Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times: "As more states adopt more restrictive laws and the number of clinics dwindles in the so-called 'abortion desert' -- an area that stretches from Florida to New Mexico and north into the Midwest -- women are increasingly traveling across state lines to avoid long waits for appointments and escape the legal barriers in their home states." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
John Cox, et al., of the Washington Post: "Bryan Whitman, the senior Pentagon official charged with stealing a apitol Hill nanny's license plates, was placed on paid administrative leave Thursday and had his top-level security clearance revoked. It remains unclear whether Whitman, the highest-ranking career civilian in the Defense Department's public affairs office, had informed his superiors of the alleged crimes -- which he was required to do. The Pentagon's top public affairs officials were stunned by the news Wednesday that he had been charged nearly a month ago." -- CW
Joe Davidson, Washington Post columnist: "... National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis has apologized for unethical behavior that he was investigated for last year. The behavior was connected to a book about national parks he wrote for a nonprofit organization that has a cooperating agreement with the agency. The Interior Department's Office of Inspector General (IG) said he had the book published without getting approval from the department's ethics office. Jarvis received no pay for writing the book. It was published by Eastern National, a nonprofit that operates stores in many parks." -- CW
Natasha Geiling of ThinkProgress: "The New York State Assembly has passed the most ambitious climate bill in the country, one that would require the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from major sources to zero by 2050." --safari
Juan Cole: "If Manbaj [Syria] soon falls, as seems likely, Turkey will face the fait accompli of a new Kurdish mini-state on its border. Ankara is obviously furious at the US, which is urging the Kurds on. Despite Turkish oral offers of assistance, the US Pentagon has clearly decided that the YPG Kurds are the only game in town if the goal is to defeat Daesh in its lair of al-Raqqa. There are likely to be long-term repercussions for the US-Turkish relationship, on both sides, of these dramatic events." --safari
Kira Lerner of ThinkProgress: "If states do not implement voter ID laws to prevent widespread 'voter fraud' at the ballot box this November, right-wing gun advocates will have to 'resort to the bullet box,' according to Larry Pratt, the executive director of Gun Owners of America...But Pratt said he is not inciting violence. In fact, he claims the government would be inciting violence if elected officials told people to pay taxes and obey laws that they didn't have a voice in shaping." --safari
News Ledes
BBC News: "The River Seine in Paris is at its highest level for more than 30 years, with floods forcing closed parts of the metro systems and major landmarks. The Louvre and Orsay museums were shut while staff moved artworks to safety as flood levels climbed above 6m (18ft). The Seine is set to reach as high as 6.5m and unlikely to recede over the weekend, with more downpours forecast. At least 15 people have died across central Europe as heavy rainfall caused flooding from France to Ukraine." -- CW
Bloomberg: "Employers in May added the fewest number of workers in almost six years, reflecting broad cutbacks that may raise concern about U.S. growth and prompt Federal Reserve policy makers to put off an increase in interest rates. The addition of 38,000 workers, the fewest since September 2010, followed a 123,000 advance in April that was smaller than previously estimated, a Labor Department report showed Friday." -- CW
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Reader Comments (12)
The German Parliament recognizes Armenian Genocide, angering Turkey. This issue has put Merkel in a touchy position; Obama, on the other hand has remained cool, but has used the word genocide before.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/world/europe/armenian-genocide-germany-turkey.html?_r=0
"A lie, or short-term memory loss? Falsehood or dementia".
Sorry Marie, none of the above. Let me say it again. Trump doesn't have the ability it lie since he has no idea about the truth. There are no truths. Anything he says, including things that are the opposite of what he said yesterday are the fact. Because there are no truths, no facts only Trumps. He has not the slightest problem changing his story in 24 hours or 24 minutes.
So let me say it again. Serious, dangerous mental illness.
(from webmd)
DSM-5 criteria for narcissistic personality disorder include these features:
Having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
Expecting to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it
Exaggerating your achievements and talents
Being preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate
Believing that you are superior and can only be understood by or associate with equally special people
Requiring constant admiration
Having a sense of entitlement
Expecting special favors and unquestioning compliance with your expectations
Taking advantage of others to get what you want
Having an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others
Being envious of others and believing others envy you
Behaving in an arrogant or haughty manner
Does this look familiar. When Emperor Trump meets with the Joint Chiefs of Staff he will no problem dismissing those idiots.
The real question is when is the media (they used to be called journalists) going to step forward and deal with reality.
Re: Alterman's excellent piece on false equivalence: When Ben Carson appeared on the horizon Scott Pelly interviewed him in a restaurant; while Carson was nibbling on his ham and eggs he called Obama a "psychopath"–––oh, said Scott, you can't really mean that! Yup, Ben said, he sure did and took another bite of his ham. I thought at the time this guy ain't gonna be taken seriously no how, but soon the paper of record and others were treating Carson as if he had purchase. When he came out with "Obamacare is the worst thing that has happened since slavery" there were only faint hues and cries. Then when we discovered this God besotted man rejected evolution, I thought, well, he's done for. But no––he was just getting started. Shortly after this declaration he spoke at Emory U. and shocked many, mostly the science dept. whose professors wrote a letter expressing their displeasure and distain (see below for the end of their letter). So here was someone, before Trump was front and center, who should have been disqualified straightaway, but instead was given press and media coverage, and entered the debates as though he could actually be president one day.
And look how long we have put up with a man that would be king who is also a crazy loon.
"The theory of evolution is as strongly supported as the theory of gravity and the theory that infectious diseases are caused by micro-organisms. Dismissing evolution disregards the importance of science and critical thinking to society. Stating that those who accept the underlying principle of biology and medicine are unethical not only encourages the insertion of unnecessary and destructive wedges between Americans but stands against many of the ideals of this University."
@Marvin Schwalb: Thank you, Dr. Schwalb. Maybe the DSM should put a photo of Trump beside the page(s) on narcissistic personality disorder for slow learners like me!
Marie
Man, things are getting good. Hillary eviscerates little Donnie, categorically, quoting chapter and verse from his "Why I Should Be President" by Donnie Trumpy, age 5. She ticks off the stupidity, cupidity, imbecility, and all around hateful narcissism that direct his swinish beliefs, then proceeds to compare the thinking of a spoiled, nasty toddler to the actual qualifications for the most important job in the world.
Little Donnie's response? " I know you are, but what am I?" and "Call the police guys! Arrest that lady !"
Very presidential.
It's also looking as if members of the fourth estate may have had enough of being so viciously insulted. I don't mean pretend journalists like Hannity and O'Reilly, but some of those who have been using Trump's outrages as clickbait may now decide that it could be just as useful to start looking more carefully at this monstrous tyro.
Good job, Hillary!
Marvin,
Oh, reality! So gloriously mysterious and confusing and so deeply uncomfortable to the two-legged hunks of protoplasm who amble somnolently about on the edge of a minor galaxy in a universe they seldom think about and surely don't begin to understand.
Who needs it? It's so frequently over-rated....
Saw the other day (maybe here) a reference to the long history of fantasy and denial on the Right, preparing the way as it were for Trump's (unreality personified) triumph, and had this thought. Much as I'd like to blame them for everything, anti-empiricism didn't begin with Reagan Republicans, tho' trickle-down was a good start, and it won't end with Trump.
Since we first stumbled off the African plains, the human race has been wrong about much more than it has had right. Outside our immediate biological purview, grasping at the food, water and shelter we need for survival and the begetting that is so immediately satisfying, we haven't had much need for reality and most people still don't.
Beyond the world of their immediate needs, which have changed in detail--for the privileged caves to MacMansions, dead, red meat to tasties from Tuscany--but not in essence. Most still live in a world only dimly understood, all that frightening space beyond ourselves filled in with comfortable fantasies--everything from astrology to religion--simplifications too simple to be correct and the plain old ignorance we have hardly banished.
Innumeracy is at least as common today as it was sixty years ago. Science education can't crack the shell of students' yawning indifference. And we make our political judgments on vague, self-serving impressions (I'm happy or I'm not) with no empirical base.
Such and such a percentage of us are reported as being dissatisfied with Congress. Meaning what? We'll never know because the surveys reported never go beyond feeling to thought. Dissatisfied? Why? Such polls are worse than useless, implying the people surveyed know something about Congress when they do not, and worse because they also suggest we now know something substantial about what people are thinking when we don't. Mere wisps. No real information, no more than vague impressions, once again.
Fact is, the Enlightenment has not yet seeped into our psyche. It's products and consequences are all around us. We have beaten back disease, gone to the moon and can now exchange our personal trivia with others across the globe at the speed of light, but little of those miracles matter, in fact are not even recognized for the real miracles they are by the majority.
And for many of those who don't or won't recognize those miracles are brought to them by thinking, not feeling, the Republicans and their Denier in Chief offer a nice, comfortable home.
They just scare the hell out of the rest of us.
BTW Paul Ryan's furrowed brow, the impression of thoughtfulness he tries so hard to convey (whadda phony!) is not the kind of thought I have in mind.
Wanted to respond earlier to the great Eric Alterman article (appreciate the link, Marie!) with its perfect sub-header " The media’s need to cover “both sides” of every story makes no sense when one side has little regard for the truth."
Ain't that so! And here at RC we've all bemoaned that!
Yet, it was only a few days ago when I came across a comment from one female journalist (evidently, a graduate of the Chuck Todd School of Journalism) who emphasized her job 'just' meant reporting both sides without the follow-up to highlight the disparities. I've searched and Googled to find that interview—but, have been unsuccessful. Don't want to call out the wrong reporter, however, my recollection is that she is featured regularly above the fold on the leading paper of record!
This so-called neutrality posturing serves no one.
@PDPepe—for a chilling read of the Armenian genocide, there's a book (paperback) that I have long recommended to others. "The Burning Tigris" by Peter Balakian.
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/05/26/election-divided-parties-red-blue-agony/
An Elizabeth review of the present state of Election 2016. My favorite sentence: "Observers are getting a sense of the righteous Sanders familiar to his Senate colleagues and of his disagreeable disposition which has been particularly displayed to Senate staff."
With The Donald soon to be the official GOP candidate he will begin receiving regular security briefings. With his style of bombastic self promotion at his rallies I'm sure that foreign diplomats will be more circumspect in what they say. Lets be thankful that he won't get the nuclear codes a a nominee.
Cartoonist Pat Bagley of the Salt Lake Tribune is always clever, but this is choice.
@Whyte Owen: Pun intended?
Marie
Bummer!
Appears the recent Heimlich story was bogus...
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/06/03/heimlich_inventor_s_viral_story_not_all_that_it_s_cracked_up_to_be.html?sid=5388d805dd52b8870b00f6bf&wpsrc=newsletter_slatest