;)
The Commentariat -- March 1, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Glenn Blain & Dareh Gregorian of the New York Daily News: "Super Tuesday has gotten off to a not-so-super start for Donald Trump - a state appeals court has denied his bid to toss out a lawsuit that charges his Trump University was a fraud. In a unanimous ruling, a four judge panel of the state Appellate Division said the state Attorney General's office is 'authorized to bring a cause of action for fraud' - despite ... [Trump]'s claims to the contrary."
Jonathan Chait: "The fact that Trump threatens rather than promotes conservative interests has enabled conservative intellectuals to see certain truths that they once obscured: There are deep strands of racial resentment and anti-intellectualism running through the Republican electorate. But these angry spasms of half-recognition attempt to quarantine Trump from a political tradition of which he is very much a part."
Charles Pierce: "As near as I can tell, there's only one elected Republican who's out there being completely principled about what's happening to his party.... [Sen. Ben] Sasse [RTP-Neb.] is every bit the soul of wingnut chewiness that Ted Cruz is. His Tea Party street cred is unassailable."
Charles Pierce: John Kasich is cranky but evidently not crazy: "I know that human beings affect the climate.... I know we need to develop all of the renewables, and we need to do it in an orderly way." CW: The next thing you know, he'll be saying science is a good thing.
*****
Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "President Obama is to confer in the Oval Office on Tuesday with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican majority leader, and Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, about filling the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. If everyone maintains previously stated positions, it might be a very short meeting. Mr. Obama is adamant that he will name a nominee to the court, most likely in the next few weeks. Republicans remain just as adamant that they will not even meet with Mr. Obama's nominee, let alone hold confirmation hearings." ...
... The story has been updated: "It was a 'very short' meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday between President Obama, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican majority leader, and Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, about filling the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.... Leaving the meeting, [Senate Minority Leader Harry] Reid [D-Nev.] suggested that the Republicans appear to be waiting for Donald Trump to be in the White House." ...
... Get Over It, Mitch & Chuck. Barbara Perry, in a Washington Post op-ed: "A half-dozen presidents, classic lame ducks, filled Supreme Court seats even though their successors had been elected.... Aside from genuine lame ducks, one-third of U.S. presidents appointed justices during presidential election years."
Clarence Speaks! Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Breaking a decade-long silence, Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday asked several questions from the Supreme Court bench. He spoke just weeks after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, whose empty seat next to Justice Thomas's remains draped in black. It was hard to escape the conclusion that the absence of the voluble Justice Scalia, who had dominated Supreme Court arguments for nearly 30 years, somehow liberated Justice Thomas and allowed him to resume participating in the court's most public activity." ...
... CW: OR maybe Thomas just finally had something important to say:
... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Monday's case involved a federal law that bans people convicted of domestic violence from owning a gun.... When Thomas spoke, the questioning of Assistant Solicitor General Ilana H. Eisenstein was just winding down.... 'Ms. Eisenstein, just one question,' Thomas said. '... this is a misdemeanor violation. It suspends a constitutional right. Can you give me another area where a misdemeanor violation suspends a constitutional right?'... Thomas again pointed out that the case involves a 'misdemeanor violation of domestic conduct that results in a lifetime ban on possession of a gun, which, at least as of now, is still a constitutional right.'... Thomas then went on to ask a number of follow-up questions and pointed out that neither of the men challenging the gun ban ... had a weapon in the domestic violence incidents for which they were convicted." ...
... Paul Waldman: "So just to clarify, after 10 years he finally spoke up in defense of the right of domestic abusers to buy guns. Inspiring!" ...
... Garrett Epps of the Atlantic: "... Monday's surprise is powerful evidence that the Court today is a different place than it was on February 12. (If you doubt me, consider that no justice on the current court has ever sat on it without Scalia.)" ...
... Robert Barnes: The Supreme Court considers the ethics of judicial recusal.
Katie Benner of the New York Times: "A federal judge denied the United States government's request to open an Apple iPhone in a drug case in New York, a move that gives Apple's pro-privacy stance a boost and that has implications for other cases where federal investigators are trying to get data from tech companies. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein in New York's Eastern District said in a ruling on Monday that the United States government couldn't use a law called the All Writs Act to force Apple to hack into an iPhone that was seized in connection with a drug case. The government overstepped what the All Writs Act was intended for, the judge wrote." ...
... Sam Thielman & Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "The war of words between Apple and US law enforcement escalated again on Monday as their fight over personal versus national security prepared to move beyond the courthouse and into the halls of Congress. In testimony released ahead of a hotly anticipated congressional hearing, Apple's chief attorney argued that helping unlock an iPhone used by a terrorist in San Bernardino will ultimately create more crime. New York's chief prosecutor said the company's devices were beyond the law and urged Congress to pass new legislation keeping encryption keys to user data in the hands of the tech giants."
** Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post: "... a massive group of Americans ... reject any label or affiliation to describe their faith. At 23 percent of the U.S. population, this left-leaning group called 'Nones' are the Democratic parallel to the GOP's white evangelicals -- except without organization, PACs, leadership and a clear agenda. They do, however, have one big expectation of political candidates: Be ethical, and go light on the God talk."
Helene Cooper & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Recent gains against the Islamic State in eastern Syria have helped sever critical supply lines to Iraq and set the stage for what will be the biggest fight yet against the Sunni militancy, the battle to retake Mosul, Pentagon officials said on Monday."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. New York Times: "A webpage that masqueraded as a New York Times article and claimed that Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts had endorsed Bernie Sanders for president circulated widely on social media on Monday.... The fake news article, which mimicked The Times's typefaces and design and included the bylines of two of the newspaper's political reporters, appeared with the headline 'Warren Endorses Sanders, Breaking With Colleagues.'... Many readers appeared to be taken in.... The Times has asked Clone Zone, which displays examples of other fake Times articles, to take down the page as well as any others intended to mimic The Times."
Presidential Race
Jonathan Martin & Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "Voters in 12 states go to the polls on Tuesday as Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton, who have had the most success in the early nominating contests, look to extend their delegate leads over their nearest rivals. Here are some of the things we will be watching." ...
... Harry Enten has 538's "super guide to Super Tuesday -- Republican edition" here & Democratic edition here.
Jeffrey Frank of the New Yorker: Parties like it's 1964 all over again.
Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "More than half a million registered Texans don't have the right ID to vote on Super Tuesday.... Out of the 13 states holding primaries or caucuses, there are five where voters will face new rules: Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. The laws range from asking voters to present photo IDs at the polls to requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote."
Something to Think about Today. Jennifer Agiesta of CNN: "Both of the remaining Democratic candidates for president easily top Republican front-runner Donald Trump in hypothetical general election match-ups, according to a new CNN/ORC Poll. But Hillary Clinton, who is well ahead in the Democratic race for the presidency, would likely face a stronger challenge should Florida Sen. Marco Rubio or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz capture the Republican nomination for president.... Sanders -- who enjoys the most positive favorable rating of any presidential candidate in the field, according to the poll -- tops all three Republicans by wide margins: 57% to 40% against Cruz, 55% to 43% against Trump, and 53% to 45% against Rubio."
Secret Tapes! Ben Smith of BuzzFeed: "The New York Times is sitting on an audio recording that some of its staff believes could deal a serious blow to Donald Trump, who, in an off-the-record meeting with the newspaper, called into question whether he would stand by his own immigration views.... On Saturday, columnist Gail Collins, one of the attendees at the meeting..., floated a bit of speculation in her column: 'The most optimistic analysis of Trump as a presidential candidate is that he just doesn't believe in positions, except the ones you adopt for strategic purposes when you're making a deal. So you obviously can't explain how you're going to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, because it's going to be the first bid in some future monster negotiation session.' Sources familiar with the recording and transcript -- which have reached near-mythical status at the Times -- tell me that the second sentence is a bit more than speculation. It reflects, instead, something Trump said about the flexibility of his hardline anti-immigration stance." However, Smith doesn't know what Trump said. ...
... Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "... Rubio allies and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) have demanded answers from Trump on BuzzFeed's report that the candidate had more immigration wiggle room than he'd admitted.... Joe Pounder, the opposition researcher who has become Rubio's most effective messenger on Twitter, led a volley of Rubio supporters in pushing the story." ...
... CW: Since the candidates are playing in the schoolyard, let me join in by saying that I can't believe the guy who fed Marco the line about Trump's teensy-weensy dick is really named Joe Pounder. Is this entire campaign season a farce writ large? Are we all being had? ...
... Weigel, BTW, speculates, based on sound evidence, on what Trump may have told the Times. ...
... UDDATE: Dave Weigel: Sean Hannity, inquiring reporter, asked Trump Monday night about the secret tapes. Part of the answer: "The most dishonest media group [that would be the Times].... It's negotiable.... I'll be honest with you -- I'll make the wall two feet shorter, or something. I mean, everything's negotiable." ...
"Guard chokeslams photographer at Trump rally in Virginia." Yes, that's a real headline on a real news site. Jonathan Swan of the Hill: "A photographer was slammed down on a table by someone who appears to be a security guard during a Donald Trump rally Monday in Virginia. A short video of the encounter was posted on Twitter by Independent Journal reporter Joe Perticone and other reporters. The photographer, Time magazine's Christopher Morris, ended up on the ground, kicking out his legs at a man in a gray suit who was trying to hold him. It was not immediately clear who the man in the gray suit was working for. A video of the incident posted on Instagram showed the guard clearly grabbing Morris by the neck before slamming him down on a table. The video has now been taken down.... Trump's campaign issued a statement indicating that the security agent involved in the incident was with the U.S. Secret Service...." ...
... This raw video is stunning:
... Here's Time's response to the altercation. ...
... Fenit Nirappil of the Washington Post : "A Donald Trump rally in southwest Virginia on the eve of Super Tuesday turned nasty, with repeated disruptions by protesters, and a scuffle between a Secret Service agent and a photographer.... Trump was describing how he would react to companies like Carrier moving air conditioner production to Mexico when he was interrupted by commotion in nearby bleachers. The crowd was jeering at an apparent protester. 'Are you from Mexico?' he repeatedly shouted at the woman as she stepped down from the bleachers." ...
... CW: If you watch Trump & the Mob in the video above, take a moment to recall how an actual President handles protesters who interrupt him. The linked video is one of at least a dozen similar examples of how President Obama has treated disruptive demonstrators. This isn't a difference of style; it's a difference between a scary, mob-inciting demagogue & a responsible leader. Trump says the tumult is kind of fun; there is nothing in that video that is remotely amusing. ...
... Here's another shocker. Standing While Black. Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register: "About 30 black students who were standing silently at the top of the bleachers at Donald Trump's rally [in Valdosta, Georgia,] Monday night were escorted out by Secret Service agents who said the presidential candidate had requested their removal before he began speaking. The sight of the students, who were visibly upset, being led outside by law enforcement officials created a stir at a university that was a whites-only campus until 1963. 'We didn't plan to do anything,' said a tearful Tahjila Davis, a 19-year-old mass media major, who was among the Valdosta State University students who was removed. 'They said, "This is Trump's property; it's a private event." But I paid my tuition to be here.'... Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks in an email late Monday night denied that the students were shown the door 'at the request of the candidate.'" ...
... CW: I want to know why the Secret Service, whose members are bound to uphold the Constitution, are muscling journalists (First Amendment) & excluding black Americans (13th, 14th, 15th). If you wonder if President Trump could get away with ditching our Constitutional rights, this is a preview. Last Friday, former CIA director Michael Hayden said he could foresee situations in which the military would refuse to act on orders from a President Trump (linked in the February 29 Commentariat). As revolutionary as that sounds, it appears Hayden was being optimistic. ...
... 12 noon ET UPDATE: I've been talking to a couple of WashPo reporters about this, & they tell me they've now learned that it wasn't the Secret Service who ousted the black students but "security officials." ...
... Update Update: Jacobs' story has been updated to indicate it was Trump's people who removed the students, with help from local police. Note that Trump's spokesperson denied they had anything to do with it, & it turns out the Trump people had everything to do with it.
... Trumpolini. Bushbot Michael Gerson of the Washington Post has a pretty good column outlining Trump's longstanding admiration for authoritarianism. "This is more than a personality disorder talking. Trump roots his intimidation in a worldview -- the need for the strong hand.... We have seen the lengths to which Trump will go to threaten and intimidate his enemies, armed mainly with social media. It seems reckless beyond reason -- reckless with the republic itself -- to arm him with the immense power of the executive branch." Gerson calls Trump "a cut-rate Mussolini." CW: Not sure about the "cut-rate" part. ...
... Roger Cohen of the New York Times: "Europe, the soil on which Fascism took root, is watching the rise of Donald Trump with dismay. Contempt for the excesses of America is a European reflex, but when the United States seems tempted by a latter-day Mussolini, smugness in London, Paris and Berlin gives way to alarm. Europe knows that democracies can collapse."
Tom Hamburger & Michael Kranish of the Washington Post follow up on John Oliver's takedown of Donald Drumpf: "Within 18 months [of Donald Trump's launch of Trump Mortgage LLC in the spring of 2006], as the experts' worst fears began to pan out and home prices began to dip, Trump Mortgage closed, leaving some bills unpaid and a spotty sales record that fell short of Trump's lofty predictions. Trump distanced himself from the firm's demise, saying at the time that he had not been involved in the company's management and that its executives had performed poorly." ...
... CW: Perhaps trying to balance the Mussolini quote he tweeted Sunday, on Monday Donald Trump claimed to cite Mahatma Gandhi in an Instagram post: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Trouble is, Gandhi never said that, tho it often has been misattributed to him.
... Kevin Drum on Joe Scarborough's sudden about-face on the Drumpfenfallen: "Scarborough has probably done more than any other single human being to help Trump get where he is. And he's only now noticing that Trump's bigoted rhetoric has turned out to be pretty popular among the Republican base?... Aside from a brief spat with Trump over his proposed ban on Muslims,* Scarborough has been practically a one-man super-PAC pushing Trump's candidacy." ...
... * Steve M.: And, no, Scarborough did not hang up on Trump for his anti-Muslim comments, as Scarborough claims in his WashPo op-ed, linked yesterday. Rather, he went to commercial break because Joe felt Trump was being rude to Mika, who was asking the questions about Muslim bigotry. "... this is more about rescuing Scarborough's own reputation than it is about condemning Trump." Read the whole post. ...
... Manu Raju of CNN: "Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn raised serious concerns Monday about Donald Trump's surging presidential bid, becoming the highest-ranking congressional Republican to express fears about the real estate mogul's candidacy. 'We can't have a nominee be an albatross around the down-ballot races,' Cornyn told CNN when asked if he had concerns about the prospect of Trump winning the GOP race. 'That's a concern of mine.'" Cornyn has not officially endorsed a candidate for president.
Great Moments in American History. CW: We should all pause in recognition of the historic moment that a sitting U.S. senator & a leading candidate for president of the United States belittled in public the size of the penis of one of his rivals. The dick in question may be of indeterminate size & functionality, but the willingness of one candidate to make penis jokes about another is yuuuuge. ...
... Ed O'Keefe & Dave Weigel of the Washington Post agree: "In the run-up to Super Tuesday, Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Ted Cruz (Tex.) are hurling deeply personal attacks about one another's appearances and personal backgrounds -- amounting to a level of petty and profane discourse unprecedented in a presidential campaign.... Republican Party leaders fear that the deteriorating tone of the race could have longer-term implications." ...
... Eric Levitz of New York: "'He's always calling me "little Marco,"' Rubio said, while reading strong> Trump's Twitter feed at a rally in Virgina on Sunday. 'I'll admit he's taller than me. He's like 6'2", which is why I don't understand why his hands are the size of someone who's 5'2". Have you seen his hands? And you know what they say about men with small hands?' Rubio's supporters, realizing that their presidential candidate had just suggested that the other presidential candidate has an unusually small penis, roared with approval." ...
... digby cites national polling that shows Trump is gaining ground & Rubio is slipping: "Rubio's attacks came very late and are, in my opinion, the wrong kind for someone like him. He's too fresh faced and callow to get away with schoolyard taunts. Now, if Christie had been in his position it might have worked. But Rubio had enough trouble being seen as a mature, presidential-level leader. This doesn't help. He should have attacked him quite seriously on his honesty about his business record. That's the foundation on which the Trump mystique relies and if he'd been able to show it for the house of cards it really is he might gotten headway. Cheap dick jokes only work for bully boys like Christie and Trump."
Samuel Lieberman of New York: "The mostly but perhaps not entirely dismissible case against Ted Cruz's eligibility to run for president will begin to unfold on Tuesday in front of New York State Supreme Court Justice David Weinstein. He'll be hearing arguments in a lawsuit filed by two New Yorkers who claim that the junior senator from Texas, born in Calgary to an American mother and Cuban father, is not a 'natural-born U.S. citizen,' and thus is constitutionally disallowed from becoming president of the United States." CW: Whaddaya bet Joe Pounder, via an intermediary, has filed a "friend of the court" brief supporting the petitioners. Knocking Ted off the ballot could do wonders for Marco's chances.
Heidi M Przybyla of USA Today: "Hillary Clinton's main target is Sen. Bernie Sanders no more.... The former secretary of State is lambasting the Republican primary field on everything from health care to 'hateful rhetoric' and gun control as she prepares for a series of Tuesday contests expected to help tighten her grip on the Democratic presidential nomination." ...
... Amy Chozick & Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "... groups that support Mrs. Clinton [are] preparing to script and test ads that would portray Mr. Trump as a misogynist and an enemy to the working class whose brash temper would put the nation and the world in grave danger. The plan is for those themes to be amplified later by two prominent surrogates: To fight Mr. Trump's ability to sway the news cycle, [Bill] Clinton would not hold back on the stump, and President Obama has told allies he would gleefully portray Mr. Trump as incapable of handling the duties of the Oval Office."
Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "The State Department on Monday released the last 3,871 pages of emails Clinton exchanged using a private server while she was secretary of state, ending a months-long review of her correspondence that concluded that more than 2,000 classified emails traversed Clinton's email server.... According to information released Monday by the State Department, Clinton's emails totaled 52,402 pages and included 2,101 emails that had been redacted in all or part because they contained material that was deemed classified."
John Wagner of the Washington Post: "On the eve of Super Tuesday, Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders took a jab at rival Hillary Clinton for the 'substantial sums' a super PAC supporting her has collected from corporate interests and reiterated his plans to stay in the race until voters in all 50 states have spoken." ...
... Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg: Sanders will "have to start thinking now, however, how he can best serve the 'revolution' he espouses. Does he really want to take his revolution into loss after loss in the remaining primaries and caucuses? Does he believe trying to pick off a handful of states is the best use of all of those small contributions he is so proud to have garnered?... Sanders hasn't been a national leader during his long political career. He is one now. He has to decide what he will do with his new influence."
CW: Peter Beinart of the Atlantic, who has the unique ability to be insightful one moment & completely daft the next, has succumbed to the Daft Side & recommended that Democrats -- in states that allow it -- abandon their own party today & vote for Marco Rubio to "save" the Republican party from Donald Trump. ...
... Here's what digby says about that. ...
... AND here's what Steve M. says. ...
CW: Needless to say, I'm with digby & Steve. Vote. Vote for Bernie, vote for Hillary, but for the good of the nation, don't vote for Marco.
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Osama bin Laden left a will indicating that he had about $29 million in Sudan, with detailed instructions to 'spend all the money I have left' continuing the global terror campaign he had led, according to newly released documents recovered by the United States from the compound in Pakistan where the al-Qaeda chief was killed in 2011. The handwritten will and 112 other documents were released Tuesday by the office of the Director of National Intelligence -- a collection that also includes letters to subordinates in al-Qaeda, messages from followers willing to carry out suicide attacks, and screeds on issues including bin Laden's conviction that the United States and Iran were poised for war." ...
... The New York Times story, which concentrates on different documents, is here.
Reuters: "Alphabet Inc's ... Google said on Monday it bears 'some responsibility' after one of its self-driving cars struck a municipal bus in a minor crash earlier this month. The crash may be the first case of one of its autonomous cars hitting another vehicle and the fault of the self-driving car. The Mountain View, California-based Internet search leader said it made changes to its software after the crash to avoid future incidents."
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Reader Comments (16)
After watching the violent, nightmarish video posted of the assault on the Time photographer posted above, it is dispiriting to think that so many who condone violence against the 'unselected' have the reins of power. Spending all day, everyday with earnest young people while I'm studying biology, chemistry and math gives me so much hope. My fellow students want to base their future on facts and science and togetherness. Old men don't want to go back to study in college because daily your competence and ability is put to the test and evaluated. This evaluation is most humbling at times when great effort has been put forth with scant results. Trump and his kind live in an evaluation-free vacuum and any discerning animal knows it. My 80+ year old dad and life long Republican thinks all three leading candidates are idiots. The John Oliver video about Dumpster, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnpO_RTSNmQ, is totally worth seeing. If we people of reasonable conscience and temperament keep the push on, this is the Republicans last gasp for the knuckle-draggers before they are completely overwhelmed in numbers by younger, more world respecting and simply nicer people than themselves. This upcoming election is totally about the constitution of the Supreme court as the US either looks to the future with both eyes forward and open.
Do the surprising questions of the Supreme Court's very own revenant, whose voice has not been heard from the bench in over a decade, indicate his release from under the intimidating whirlwind and outsized medieval personality of his winger mentor, or is he just now realizing that his true role on the high court is to ensure that wife beaters all get to buy as many deadly weapons as they can afford, because Freeedom?
On Clarence Thomas:
Or maybe now that Scalia's death provided the opening he's so long awaited, Thomas is deliberately and publicly positioning himself as Scalia's heir apparent as the Court's reasoned, stick it in your eye you weepy do-gooders, voice of contrarian unreason.
Completely agree with Ken. CT was probably in thrall to AS, and sees himself as the one on whom the mantle has been bestowed. We always knew he was a total jerk-- nice he can rise to the occasion and prove it once again. He needs a good slap--
Looks like time for a name change. Adolf is gone and replaced by Benito.
And Marie your comment about the idea of a candidates penis being part of the search for POTUS says everything about the collapse of America.
Once upon a time in a land not far away, corporations and businesses appeared to stay removed from involvement in controversy. At the very least, they distanced themselves from taking stances on (political) matters, which might harm their business.
But, this has certainly changed. The remarks by Les Moonves " of CBS is the latest and most blatant. "....Says Trump's 'Damn Good' For Business " "Sorry. It's a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going."
Sorry! He says sorry! Not at all an apology.
We can blame it on Citizen United ...and oh, yes.... "....corporations are people, too, my friends." Recently, LL Bean issued a huge apology to their customers for having featured Gloria Steinem in a catalogue article.
Can't insult the bigots on our mailing list!
Thomas finds his long lost voice that has been hidden underneath the heavy robes of Nino all these years. It's truly fascinating. Could one speculate that for whatever reason or reasons Scalia prevented Thomas from speaking out? And what is his first shout out? Guns for abusers! yes, sir, now there's something to find your voice about. Good grief!
S0––––––the poo has finally hit the old fan and The Man is facing some blowback big time. Oliver's crushing video on Trump, and last night's coverage on nearly every station on Trump's negatives is a sign of the times that Trumps's Midsummer's Night Dream is turning into this country's nightmare. The David Duke connection (and Donald's lie about it) is damaging, yet his loyal pundits haul out Robert Byrd, for heaven's sake, (SEE? the democrats loved him") but fail to mention that Byrd apologized for his racism and even said his mistake would haunt him to the day he died.
And we now have people like Christi Todd Whitman who say if Trump becomes the Republican front runner she will refuse to vote for him and will vote for Hillary–––and she is not the only one. Yet, here we have another Christi who has endorsed Trump and we rub our eyes over that since several months ago Chris was talking smack against Trump during one of his Town Hall's ––we have a video of Christi imitating Donald, "We are going to build a yuuuge wall..." and "You won't need Social Security––you'll all be so rich you won't need it." This has an awful stink, I think. Then we have that little prick of a man, Jeff Sessions,only Senator who has endorsed Trump. Sessions has a long trail of Southern resentment otherwise known as racism. He was denied a judgeship years ago because of it, yet somehow managed to wheedle his way into the Senate.
It's been said that Scarborough has been responsible for boosting Trump's popularity––but the person who has showered Trump with the most coverage and sprinkled it with rose water and happy talk has to be Hannity, who, by the way, devoted his whole program last night interviewing–-nope, sorry, wrong word–––love festing the Donald––better word.
Two items that have nothing to do with Trump:
Governor Nicki Haley has yet to meet with the black coalition of Protective HIV/ Aids advocates. Hundreds of Black women have been infected with the Aids virus in her state and need help in procuring the right medication to counter this disease.
John Kerry once again was on the hill having to sit and speak through another hearing in which the Republicans are rude, snarky, ask questions, but won't let him finish answering––it's maddening to watch. But you can pin point the legislators who are well informed and those that don't know squat like Joe Wilson who has to read his questions prepared, I bet, by one of his minions. And Kerry is splendid––at one point said ––"I can answer your questions if you'd stop talking after you ask them."
And maybe once we take care of the small hands man we can start addressing real problems like the ones Ken mentioned in yesterday's posting–– that inequality thing––segregation in the housing market––the many evictions that cause havoc on families and neighborhoods––the list is long––and time is running out.
I heard Senator Rubio attacking Trump (via NPR) saying: "What's at stake is the party of Lincoln and Reagan" as part of the David Duke kerfluffle.
Reagan? Really? The man who announced his candidacy for president in Philadelphia, Mississippi with a message supporting "states rights"? Philadelphia, where three civil rights workers were murdered? Reagan, who went on about "welfare queens"?
Does Rubio understand a single word that comes out of his own mouth?
To Nisky: No, he flunked his ESL classes, maybe... but he excelled in 6th grade-level tauntage...very important for programming one's robot.
@Nisky Guy: Nope. Rubio thinks the president who proposed the 13th Amendment & the president who managed to ignore it as often as feasible are cut from the same cloth. If you asked him the significance of Reagan's announcement, he wouldn't know what you were talking about. And he would completely agree with the "welfare queens in pink Cadillacs" story because entitlements. He wouldn't see anything even slightly racist about it.
Somewhere in grade school, maybe around Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a teacher must have told him that "Lincoln freed the slaves" = good & Ku Klux Klan = bad. More recently, I think someone told him that filling our jails with mostly black people sucks -- bad for business or something. But that's as far as his understanding of "race relations" goes.
Meanwhile, Marco would be happy to claim Donald Trump's racist voters as his own. His comments about President Obama are plenty good evidence for that. (I love the part where he complains that Obama did a bit with a selfie-stick as evidence the president had no "class." I guess penis and wet-your-pants jokes are classy -- if you're a Republican.)
Marie
Black people? I don' see no black people. Don't hear me none neither. And don't want to.
Today we're seeing the wondrous results of John Roberts' decision that race is no longer a problem in America. There'll probably be several million Americans who won't be able to vote today because race is no longer a problem in America. All those southern states the Voting Rights Act was designed to keep from sticking it to black citizens are now free from the shackles of unfair bondage because race is no longer a problem in America. Little Johnny and the dwarfs done set them free, hallelujah. And to show how much they've reformed their ways, they set right to making sure the roadblocks to the ballot box in place for generations in the south were immediately reinstated with extra prevention mechanisms, just to make sure them darkies stayed away. It's all good. Because race is no longer a problem in America.
This is a big part of what Reagan meant by morning again in America. White picket fences, Brillcream billboards, sunny, happy, shining white faces on the way to vote for Confederate politicians, and black people off to the side of the road. Invisible and silenced, in their places, happy to steppinfetchit and catch the occasional crumb falling out off the white tables, eatin' watermelon and keepin' out of the way. Invisible and silenced. Because...
Today those southern states get to unveil how much they learned from the Voting Rights Act. The moral? "Time to teach those niggers a lesson once again. They thought those fucking liberals were gonna help them vote? Fuck that. Now here's a few dozen hoops for them to jump through. Let 'em try this shit on for size. And this time, it's all nice and legal like. The Supreme Court says so. And we'll have our open carry boys at the polling places just to make sure they get the message: they ain't Americans and they ain't welcome to vote."
And that was the message Confederates on the court sent out.
Message received.
The other day I read that Nikki Haley was getting all bent out of shape that some people thought SC's voter ID bullshit was out of control. She sniffed that you had to show an ID to buy Sudafed (this hoary citation is right out of the Winger Playbook; they all trot out this one) or to get on a plane. Okay, Nikki. First, Sudafed can be used to make meth which has decimated large swaths of rural America, so there's a good reason for the ID check. Second, plane travel has become a dangerous business. Voting is only dangerous if you're a Republican thinking about Democrats being allowed to vote and voter ID regulations are designed to fix a non-existent problem. Oh, and since we're up in arms about all those important things you need an ID for, you don't need an ID in 30 states (30!) to purchase deadly weapons. How 'bout that asshole? Huh? Sorry, can't hear you....What'd ya say? Never mind. Scumbag.
The movement to make black Americans even more invisible than they already are is in high gear as is the effort to shut them up. Black Lives Matter is a "hate group", a "murder movement", they're for killing all police. Organized right wing efforts to silence black voices run the gamut from self-appointed "journalists" in the deep south, to presidential candidates (apart from Trump) to a TV network and its favorite political party.
Yesterday, I posted a link to a song written and performed by a politically astute Trinidadian musician back in the thirties, Growling Tiger, who sang about the differences between rich and poor, differences that are no better today. The poor are invisible to most white Americans. But poor and black? Those people don't even exist. Or at least an enormous number of white Americans try not to think about them. And they're encouraged in that effort by an entire political party for whom black America is seen as a dangerous swarm that needs to be exterminated. It really is that bad. So, you might hear about "those people" but they're criminals and murderers and rapists, so don't bother worrying about them.
In response to the Growling Tiger song, Whyte Owen replied with a pertinent and timely link of his own to a song by the great Gil Scott-Heron, "Whitey on the Moon":
I can't pay no doctor bills
But Whitey's on the moon
Ten years from now I'll be paying still
While whitey's on the moon
You know, the man just upped my rent last night
Cause whitey's on the moon
No hot water, no toilets, no lights
But whitey's on the moon
It's become a common expression: We put a man on the moon so we ought to be able to do X. But the X is never "fix race relations in this country" or "make it easier for all Americans to vote" or "find a way to keep so many black men out of jail for minor offenses."
And to prove the point, yesterday, a little known 'bagger pol, Ben Sasse, came out against Donald Trump. He's not upset because of the unchanging problems of race relations, despite his use of the David Duke endorsement; that's just a handy cudgel. I mean, seriously, a 'bagger concerned about black people?? No. He's pissed because Trump isn't a "true Conservative" (the No True Scotsman thing).
Here is Sasse's problem in a nutshell: "The American people deserve better than two fundamentally dishonest New York liberals. This is a country that put a man on the moon."
Whitey is still on the moon.
And it's pretty fucking hard to see Ferguson from there.
Akhilleus,
Wow! If you hadn't already set such stratospheric standards time and again, I'd say you've outdone yourself this time. Double WOW!
A super post for a Super Tuesday. Thanks.
"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
Hermann Göring, in an interview by Gustave Gilbert, April 18, 1946
I doubt that Trump University was a fraud. That would have required a level of planning and organization way beyond his abilities. No, it was just another total Trump business mess.
Gotta make a big apology of my own. In my earlier comment I cited LLBean, it was NOT LLBean, Land's End. Very sorry for the mistake!
@MAG: From a business perspective, Lands' End was stupid to feature Steinem & the ERA (which gets re-introduced every year, BTW, so in theory anyway, it's still a political movement), & they were stupid to drop the whole thing after they'd made the commitment. If Lands' End sold chic clothing, it might have been a good idea, but their market is middle Ameriker, & middle Ameriker is the province of millions of anti-feminist women.
I didn't know they had a men's clothing line, but they do. So you have to know there were plenty of those potential customers who are not fans of Steinem's. Guys who wear colorful polo shirts are just not that into women's rights. (P.S. If you're a guy who wears colorful polo shirts & you are a feminist, well, good for you.)
At least the company was stupid in a good way. It's nice to know it didn't occur to them that Steinem was controversial.
Marie