;)
Wednesday
Jun042014
The Commentariat -- June 4, 2014
Internal links removed.
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama met on Wednesday for the first time with the newly elected president of Ukraine and pledged American support for efforts to stabilize a country.... Mr. Obama used the meeting to announce that the United States would increase nonlethal aid to Ukraine with $5 million worth of night-vision goggles, body armor and communications equipment sought by its security forces. He praised President-elect Petro O. Poroshenko, saying that Mr. Poroshenko 'understands the aspirations and hopes of the Ukrainian people' and represents a better future for his country."
Adam Goldman & Scott Wilson of the Washington Post report on the debate inside the Obama administration re: the retrieval of Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier held by the Taliban. ...
... Boehner Checks Off His Umbrage-Taking Chore of the Day. John Parkinson of ABC News: "House Speaker John Boehner called on the Obama administration today to clarify not only what steps it took to finalize the exchange of five Taliban detainees for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, but also 'what steps the president has taken to guarantee this exchange is not a signal that it is open season on our fellow citizens, both military and civilian personnel, serving our country abroad.'" ...
... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "The White House has apologized to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for failing to alert her in advance of a decision to release Taliban commanders from Guantanamo Bay. Feinstein told reporters that she received a call from Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken on Monday evening apologizing for what the administration is calling an 'oversight.'" ...
... Telegraph: "A video released through the Taliban's media arm appears to show the moment Bowe Bergdahl, the US soldier who spent five years in captivity, is released [no link]":
... Jake Tapper of CNN: "Former Army Sgt. Evan Buetow was the team leader with Bowe Bergdahl the night Bergdahl disappeared.... Within days of his disappearance, says Buetow, teams monitoring radio chatter and cell phone communications intercepted an alarming message: The American is in Yahya Khel (a village two miles away). He's looking for someone who speaks English so he can talk to the Taliban. 'I heard it straight from the interpreter's lips as he heard it over the radio,' said Buetow. 'There's a lot more to this story than a soldier walking away.'" ...
... CW: Gee, I was so impressed that our excellent media so quickly located so many of Bergdahl's former mates. To a man, they describe him as a deserter or traitor. So I guess it must be true. Or maybe, just maybe somebody is writing this plotline:
... Rosie Gray & Kate Nocera of BuzzFeed: "A former Bush administration official who was hired, then resigned, as Mitt Romney's foreign policy spokesman played a key role in publicizing critics of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the released prisoner of war. The involvement of Richard Grenell, who once served as a key aide to Bush-era U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton and later worked for Romney's 2012 campaign, comes as the Bergdahl release has turned into an increasingly vicious partisan issue." ...
... ** Adam Weinstein of Gawker has more. BTW, from a New York Times story that featured the soldiers' beefs: "Pentagon officials say those charges are unsubstantiated and are not supported by a review of a database of casualties in the Afghan war." ...
... Charlie Savage & Andrew Lehren of the New York Times: "... a review of casualty reports and contemporaneous military logs from the Afghanistan war shows that the facts surrounding the eight deaths [Bergdahl's critics are attributing to the search for him] are far murkier than definitive — even as critics of Sergeant Bergdahl contend that every American combat death in Paktika Province in the months after he disappeared, from July to September 2009, was his fault." ...
... Jack Shafer of Reuters: "... instead of facing an Army court-martial for allegedly deserting his post on June 30, 2009, Bergdahl finds himself facing a brisk public court-martial in the press.... The press ... has a responsibility to cover Bergdahl's alleged desertion and its fallout. But whatever Bergdahl's alleged transgressions, his guilt or innocence should be determined by the military, not the media. Bergdahl also deserves something better than being treated as a political pawn by the Republicans who have brought the full weight of their tongues down on President Barack Obama." ...
... Tom Kludt of TPM: "Conservatives Go From Zero To Impeachment In Record Time On Bergdahl." ...
... CW: This column, by Alan Gomez of USA Today, is appearing in local newspapers across the country under the headline "Is It Ever Right to Negotiate with Terrorists?" But in the local paper where I am today, the piece gets a banner headline that better matches the content: "U.S. Has Long Negotiated with Terrorists." ...
... Paul Waldman, in the Washington Post: "... even when they have a reasonable complaint about a decision President Obama has made, Republicans are so quick to jump on the train to Crazytown that they undermine their own legitimate arguments."
Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "The new director of the National Security Agency says he believes whistleblower Edward Snowden was 'probably not' working for a foreign intelligence agency, despite frequent speculation and assertion by the NSA's allies to the contrary. In one of his first public remarks since becoming NSA director in April, Admiral Michael Rogers, who also leads the military's cybersecurity and cyberattack command, distanced himself on Tuesday from contentions that Snowden is or has been a spy for Russia or another intelligence service." CW: Read the whole story. Rogers sounds like less of a dick than Keith Alexander, the previous NSA director. Admittedly, Alexander set a high standard of dickery.
** CW: Once again Akhilleus has surprised me with some essential information that had eluded me; this time it was the source of the Koch family fortune. (See yesterday's Comments.) Yasha Levine, writing in AlterNet, has the story (pub. April 2010): "The secretive oil billionaires of the Koch family ... would not have the means to bankroll their favorite causes had it not been for the pile of money the family made working for the Bolsheviks in the late 1920s and early 1930s, building refineries, training Communist engineers and laying down the foundation of Soviet oil infrastructure."
The NRA Is Very Sorry It Leaned Slightly toward Reasonable for a Few Seconds. (You might call it a misfire.) Sam Frizell of Time: "The National Rifle Association has walked back its apology for the actions of pro-gun activists who carry loaded assault weapons in public places to protest gun restrictions, with a top official calling a previous critique of so-called open carriers 'a mistake.'"
Tom Edsall: Some conservative writers oppose the Tea Party's tax-slashing obsession, but these "reformers" are not likely to prevail till Republicans begin losing their base of white workers.
MoDo in Wonderland. When in Denver, don't try the Alice B. Toklas brownies. Maureen Dowd experiences a terrifying high; others have been sickened -- or worse. ...
... John Cole of Balloon Juice thinks MoDo is stupid. She should have been out taking in the Colorado scenery instead of sitting alone in her hotel room with a candy bar that said, "Eat me." He has a point, but I can imagine many people -- perhaps myself included -- being equally as stupid. ...
... Margaret Hartman: MoDo lights up Twitter. Don't miss the tweets. Some reimagine the column as if Peggy Noonan wrote it.
Primary Races
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "There was no clear winner early Wednesday in the most hard-fought Republican Senate primary race this year, with the six-term incumbent Thad Cochran of Mississippi and his Tea Party-backed challenger, State Senator Chris McDaniel, running neck and neck after a night of lead changes.... In Iowa, state party officials were heartened by the victory of State Senator Joni Ernst. Winning support from both mainline Republicans and the party's more conservative voters, Ms. Ernst took more than 50 percent of the total against four opponents. She only needed 35 percent to avoid having the nomination settled at a state convention."
The Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger story, on the Cochran-McDaniel race, is here.
Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register on Joni Ernst's victory.
Senate Race
Noah Bierman & Todd Wallack of the Boston Globe (June 2): Scott Brown, candidate for U.S. Senate representing New Hampshire, & formerly (thanks to Elizabeth Warren) Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), received stock worth $1.3 million (at the time) from a Florida start-up which is a self-proclaimed firearms manufacturer -- but somehow sells hairspray instead. "Global Digital Solutions Inc. does not yet sell or make guns. It has no revenue, no patents, no trademarks, no manufacturing facilities, and no experience developing weapons, according to its most recent corporate filings.... It is the kind of company, with scant assets and a shifting business model, that some financial professionals warn investors to steer away from. The company, instead of selling firearms, has churned out press releases to attract small investors, including the one about Brown joining the firm, and issued millions of shares of stock to fund its operations." The company has a "virtual office" as a prestigious West Palm Beach address. You could get the same prestigious address, too, for $299/month. ...
... Bierman & Wallack: Brown defends his deal. "The report [linked above] prompted one of Brown's opponents in the GOP primary, Bob Smith, former US senator, to call on Brown to file a financial disclosure form with the US Senate. Last month, Brown obtained permission to delay filing his form until Aug. 9, one month before the Republican primary. Smith and [Sen. Jean] Shaheen [D] have filed their paperwork." ...
... Charles Pierce: "It seems that our old pal McDreamy, in the wake of getting his ass kicked into the Housatonic by Senator Professor Warren, was stuck for some pocket change, and engaged his big brain in a get-rich-quick scheme so shameless that it would have embarrassed Ralph Kramden." ...
... CW: Brown is like some stock cartoon naif -- a handsome, gullible buffoon who gets everything wrong in obvious, comical fashion, but the girls love him anyway because ... handsome. Maybe he's our Candide.
Presidential Race 2016
Whenever Hillary speaks (including remarks like "No comment"), somebody writes it down & it ends up on the front page or a magazine cover.
News Ledes
Guardian: "The US has said it is looking forward to working with the government of the Egyptian president-elect Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, while urging him to carry out human rights reforms. The US president, Barack Obama, will speak with the former army chief in the coming days, the White House said in a statement."
New York: "Initially, the NYPD just wanted V. Stiviano to go away, but apparently they now believe her claim that she was assaulted by two men on Sunday night. Dominick Diorio, a 40-year-old Long Island man, has been charged with assault as a hate crime and aggravated harassment for allegedly punching Stiviano in the face and shouting racial slurs outside the Gansevoort Hotel."
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Reader Comments (10)
From yesterday: Ak was lamenting the weak response from the L.M. that I said needed to call out these dip wads that dirty our waters with their insanity––""Librul media", my ass." he said. There are two of these L.M. people that rise to the occasion time after time and I'm happy to report that last night both Chris Hayes and Rachel did a bang up job re: the "oh, my god, Obama traded terrorists for that soldier who deserted––we should have left him there––and look at his father with that beard –– he is in "cahoots" with the Taliban, ya da ya da ya da.... Both gave it their best with a history of how our country from the start has traded with the other side. Watching these two was as refreshing as a cool lemonade on a really hot day.
The Bowe Bergdahl frenzy on the right demonstrates two essential elements of conservatives in America. Well, really one big element.
They hate complexity. They love the simplicity (not to say the simplistic). This means black and white only; no forays into the grays. If you can't fit what you've got to say on a bumper sticker, it's right out, baby.
Ergo, no need to try to parse the details of the Bowe Bergdahl situation. All febrile little right-wing brains need to know are two things. His release was engineered by the hated Kenyan's administration (albeit with help from the Army, but that already complicates things so forget all about that), which means the whole thing is.....er, ah....oh yeah! illegitimate. That's the word.
Add to that the fact that Bergdahl had expressed disillusionment with the war and with United States policies that got us there in the first place, as well as the poor treatment of the locals, according to Bergdahl, by other military personnel, and you have everything you need to be able to say "Shoot the deserter, and shoot Obama too". There's your bumper sticker.
Because looking carefully at the facts (the real ones, not Bill Kristol fever dreams) might not allow one to maintain the convenient right-wing storylines profitable to the pundits, the pols, and the pukey wingnut media machine.
It's not like anyone needs proof of the right's obsession with simplistic stories and disdain for facts, subtlety, nuance, and complexity, but in honor of Caesar's wife, let's dispel any notion that I'm making this up by recalling two other war time fairy tales embraced wholeheartedly by the above mentioned pundits, pols, and media hacks, both of which were later proven to be completely false.
The stories of Jessica Lynch and Pet Tillman made conservative hearts lighter than George Bush's pre-presidential resume when they first made headlines. Hee-roes both. The plucky Lynch (god bless her!), blasting away at Osama Bin Laden's buddies before being overwhelmed, followed by a Hollywood movie rescue a week or so later. The rescue was true, but Lynch was apoplectic at the way the Army, the Bush administration, and the right-wing media fabricated her heroics and tried to use her as a poster child for their made up war. Her gun jammed, she was knocked out, and captured. That was it.
Tillman's story is far more tragic and much more cynically manipulated. Killed by friendly fire, the Army quickly covered it up. The Bushies went along with it and the story of Pat Tillman, heroically standing up to dirty ter'rist creeps who had ambushed and killed him was promoted non-stop by wingnut pols and media. Tillman was also no fan of Bush or the war itself and these inconvenient truths were covered up and never spoken of again by conservatives on the Sunday morning bullshit orgies. At his funeral, even though he was an atheist, religion was sprayed, like Raid, all over service (by such as John McCain). As Tillman's brother said at the time, in response to the religious overtones, "He's not with god. He's fucking dead."
The truth was too complicated, and more importantly, not useful for the right. So they adopted stories that suited them and their causes.
As for Bergdahl being a deserter (much better as an accompaniment to the latest "Bash Obama" conniption), there are many details that need to be examined (and not by Bill Kristol or some Breitbart hack, or John McCain) before any decision can be made as to his motives and actions. Gray areas, people, gray areas. And besides, has anyone ever heard Kristol or the wingnut punditocrazy ever call for Dubya to be shot? He was a deserter. "Whadya say? Lalalala...I can't hear you..."
The same can be applied to their reaction to evidence of global warming, racism, economic inequality, the age of the universe, why the earth isn't flat, you name it. Life is complex. There are very, very few simple stories. Most people figure this out by the fifth grade.
Unless you're a conservative.
A blast from the past via a Buzzfeed story linked above:
"... Richard Grenell, who once served as a key aide to Bush-era U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton and later worked for Romney’s 2012 campaign, comes as the Bergdahl release has turned into an increasingly vicious partisan issue."
Wait, a guy who worked for John (Let's Drop the Big One and See What Happens) Bolton connected to an effort at vicious partisanship?
Who could believe that?
And thinking of the man with the Fuller Brush mustache and the heart of flint, I wondered WTF ol' John is up to these days. Working for UNESCO? The Red Cross? Amnesty International? Greenpeace? (I must have my little jokes now and again...heh-heh.)
Why, of course not! Johnny's hit the wingnut trifecta: AEI, Fox, and the NRA.
In his off days he spends time Poisoning Pigeons in the Park. 'Cause that's how old neocons roll.
PD,
Thanks for the reminder that all is not bleak in the media vortex. I don't think everyone out there is either supine, bovine, vulpine, or Kampf, Mein. But a lot are. Too many.
Nonetheless, I'm relieved there are people like Hayes and Maddow around to abate the ablations of MSM abattoirs to truth, justice, the American Way, and other stuff like that there.
Re: Ms. Dowd excellent vacation; Wait, don't tell me; she didn't think it was "working" so she ate more. Rookie mistake. P.S. Ms. Dowd? There's a lizard on your left shoulder.
@JJG. Funny.
I agree though, she must be an amateur despite the time of her coming of age. Can't wait until she tries the 'shrooms, buttons or blotter.
From the "Is There Room in Paul Ryan's Budget for This?" department:
I may have to slide Argentina closer to the top of my "Places to visit before I croak" list.
It appears that Argentina has a Pensamiento Nacional, a National Thinking Office (!!) to which Argentine philosopher Ricardo Forster has just been named secretario de Coordinación Estratégica, Secretary of Strategic Coordination.
Just imagine. A National Thinking Office. Run by an intellectual. Well, categorize my imperatives! Can we get us one'a them things?
How quickly do you think Republicans would say "I don't freakin' think so" to a government office dedicated to thinking?
But I ask, "Why not?" We've already got a National Unthinking Office.
The RNC.
Very un-American.
Unwashed,
I'd send her some 4 way Orange Sunshine, but I'm afraid she'd have a flashback to 15 or 20 years ago and start writing about the Clintons again.
Oh wait. She's already doing that.
Never mind.
I generally do my best to steer clear of Wally World unless it's 3 a.m. and Dowd and I are in search of munchies due to our earlier ingestion of the wacky tobacky 'cuz I personally boycott the system The Leech is founded upon, but alas they're fleecing my wallet just the same.
Those corporate masters are realllly good when they get you to pay into their business when you don't even go there. Damn. Those guys deserve a raise!
Wait a minute....
Turns out that not only are the Waltons counting on us to put food into their employees' bellies thanks to food stamps, or help pay for the infrastructure they depend on, or subsidize their health coverage so they can still operate on minimal assistance, but they take advantage of a Ted Cruz's-asshole-size of a tax loophole that is so perverse it couldn't have been created but by our own cherished Washington flackies.
It's the "CEO tax loophole", which gives a bigger tax break for the bigger bonus you award the captain of your ship. Apparently it was designed in 1993 to reduce egregious CEO pay packages, but somehow someway someone forgot to exempt stock options and "performance based" options. Imagine that. Hindsight people. Who could've known that stock options were important in 1993? We're talking Stone Ages in American terms. Wait what day did Jesus create the Stone Age? I'm forgetting my quality charter school education these days...
And exempting "performance pay" packages? Really? Could we define "performance"? Say you take the stern, run right into an iceberg, sink the whole boat, but you still get a raise because you "performed." Fair enough...
Over the last six years that adds up to $104 million for Wal Mart alone.
If we closed the loophole, it would save taxpayers $50 billion over 10 years. Think of how many military contracts we could pay for with that money.
http://www.alternet.org/economy/new-study-walmart-scammed-american-taxpayers-104-million-giving-executives-obscene-bonuses?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark
re: Like father like sons
Koch Industry's Stalinist beginnings are indeed an interesting revelation, but it only reinforces how nefarious the capitalist yearnings are for this family. Let's not forget how, in October 2011, newspapers across the country carried the story of how Koch subsidiaries were doing business with the Bearded Boogeyman Iran among other notoriously corrupt or questionable characters. And that's only because somebody found out.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-02/koch-brothers-flout-law-getting-richer-with-secret-iran-sales.html
Did we hear anything about fines then? Or now for that matter? Maybe some "unPatriotic" gibberish from the tricorns? Did Ted Cruz flip shit and foam at the mouth? Unfortunately not.
But now I see that the Justice Dept. is coming after France's biggest bank, PNB Paribas, with the biggest fine in history of $10 billion for doing business with sanctioned countries Cuba, Sudan, and Iran as a headliner.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/06/03/uk-bnpparibas-france-idUKKBN0EE0GH20140603
So the Justice Department goes after Credit Suisse because they helped Americans avoid paying taxes (anyone heard of Fiscal Paradise? Why can't we fine the oligarchs stashing their money offshore? Oh yeah because plutocracy), then set their sights on PNB Paribas because they provided services to countries on our sanctions list. I'm seeing a trend here...
Is this Holder's attempt at proving that no company is "too big to fine"? So the strategy is to unleash American corporatocracy on the world while selectively fining the international competition?
The Selective Justice Department.