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The Commentariat -- March 25, 2016
If you are interested in taking over Reality Chex -- that is, owning it to do with as you will -- please contact me. I am looking forward to discontinuing my work on the site but would like to see it continue "under new management." I'll help you get started. Thank you to all who have contributed over the years. If I don't find a suitable "buyer," I'll close down next Friday, April 1. -- Constant Weader
Afternoon Update -- GOP Not-Sex Report:
Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Ted Cruz on Friday accused 'Donald Trump and his henchmen' of planting the seeds behind a 'garbage' National Enquirer report alleging that the Texas senator has had extramarital affairs. 'This National Enquirer story is garbage. It is complete and utter lies,' Cruz said after a campaign event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. 'It is a tabloid smear, and it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen.'” ...
... CW: Earlier today, I seriously considered skipping the reports of the National Enquirer story, but it seemed to be part-and-parcel of the Nasty Boys' Sleaze-Throwing Fight, so I didn't want to deprive readers of the escalation of said fight. If I made an error, Cruz has retroactively justified my error by addressing it. (And I don't think he had a choice.) If it was just crap earlier; it's crap news now.
Howard Koplowitz of AL.com: "A complaint into possible misuse of state property by Gov. Robert Bentley and potential violations by his alleged mistress and senior political advisor, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, was filed Friday by State Auditor Jim Zeigler. Both Bentley and Mason have denied an affair, although the governor admitted earlier this week that he made sexually inappropriate remarks to his senior political advisor after audio of Bentley's side of the conversation was leaked."
MEANWHILE, in Congress. Charles Pierce: "... there's some serious McCarthyite damage being done to medical research by a congressional committee chaired by a member of Congress whose brains are leaking out of her shell-pink ears. You should pay attention if you or any members of your family has been struck by diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's or ALS. I think, at this point, former NFL football players should take special note, too." The anti-choice wackos have "moved on from the people who actually perform abortions to the people who use fetal tissue in medical research." CW: This perversion of Congress, people, also is all about sex. They're just pretending it's something else.
*****
"There Is No Biden Rule." Kathleen Hennessey of the AP: "Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday tried to clear his name and tout his record on Supreme Court nominations, calling Republican branding of his past remarks on the subject 'ridiculous' and casting himself as a longtime advocate of bipartisan compromise in filling seats on the high court. In a speech at Georgetown Law School, Biden issued a broad warning that Republicans' election-year blockade of President Barack Obama's nominee 'can lead to a genuine Constitutional crisis' and sought to distance himself from the strategy. He argued Republicans have distorted a 1992 speech in which he seemed to endorse the notion of blocking any Supreme Court nominee put forward in the throes of the election season. Republicans have labeled their strategy the 'Biden rule.'... But there is division within the ranks on that front. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., made the case earlier this week that [Judge Merrick] Garland should get a vote":
... Nick Gass of Politico: "A top conservative group threatened to back a primary challenger against Sen. Jerry Moran on Friday, days after the Kansas Republican told constituents that he was calling upon the Senate to take up Merrick Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court." CW: Because the Tea party reveres the Constitution, but only in a special, secret form that can morph to fit their needs of the day. I think they're still solid with the 3/5ths solution, tho. ...
... Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker games out the likely path of Garland's Supreme dreams (not going to happen this term) & sees this: "Merrick Garland’s nomination will prove consequential indeed if it helps usher the filibuster to its long-overdue demise." CW: You'll have to read his post to see how Toobin reaches his conclusion, but it seems plausible, to me, too. Until Democrats control of the House, I don't see how that body will function, but if the Senate eventually dropped the filibuster (and individual holds!), it might start legislating.
Mary Walsh of the New York Times: "Politicians in Washington are coalescing around a financial plan to rescue Puerto Rico, just weeks before an expected major default on bond payments that would spread more turmoil through the island’s shaky economy. The plan, being drafted as legislation by House Republicans, would not grant Puerto Rico’s most fervent request: permission to restructure its entire $72 billion debt in bankruptcy. It would, however, give the island certain crucial tools that bankruptcy proceedings can offer — but only if it first comes under close federal oversight and meets other conditions."
Patrick Clark of Bloomberg: "It's been more than 15 years since Congress increased funding for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, the government's primary method for encouraging construction of affordable housing. On Thursday, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) is to announce a plan that calls for Congress to spend 50 percent more on the program, enough to build as many as 400,000 homes over the next decade. That makes the Democrat's plan an ambitious attempt to increase the stock of affordable rental housing, one that comes in the face of potential opposition by a Republican majority, along with the legislative gridlock of a presidential election year. It’s also just a drop in the bucket."
Nick Gass: "Dianne Feinstein's office on Friday released a blistering rebuttal to the latest book from former CIA Director Michael Hayden, slamming numerous examples of what it characterizes as misrepresentations or plain falsehoods related to the use of enhanced interrogation techniques. The 38-page document from the staff of the California Democrat, who is vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, methodically goes over statements from Hayden's 464-page book released in February, titled 'Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror.'"
** Gene Demby of NPR: "... the tug of war over who gets to enjoy the benefits reserved for 'real Americans' has always been all tied up with racial politics. People of color were overwhelmingly excluded during the 'glory days' that so many white voters this election cycle look back on as better times. That's why Trump's 'Make America Great Again' mantra reads so menacingly to so many — whiteness seems to be a necessary precondition for that nostalgia." Via Paul Waldman. ...
... CW: Demby's essay also helps explain -- tho he doesn't discuss this -- Paul Ryan's new disavowal of his infamous "makers & takers" dissection. This was not a moment of self-reflection & correction on Ryan's part; rather, it was another GOP con -- an appeal to the white working-class "takers"/voters who have fled to Trump. A proper translation would be, "Yo, yahoos! My party is your party. You don't need Trump when you've got me, Paul Ryan -- elite, brilliant wonk -- on your side. (P.S. Never mind that just this week I used elite brilliant wonkish jargon to secretly endorse tax breaks for the rich & screw you undeserving yahoos.)" ...
... Digby, in Salon: "... while [Ryan] may be softly chastising Donald Trump for his rudeness and bad manners, it’s highly unlikely that anything fundamental in the GOP has changed. All these modern Republicans, whether Rand-loving 'intellectuals' like Ryan, power-mad hawks like Dick Cheney, anarchic nihilists like Cruz or vulgarians like Trump come from the same toxic ideological swamp."
CW: I'm late with this link, but Graciela Mochkofsky, writing in the New Yorker, provides some essential context for President Obama's declassification of American documents that may reveal the U.S.'s involvement in the Argentine coup that ushered in the infamous junta. (Note to Hillary: You may not want to mention again how much Henry Kissinger likes you.)
Mr. & Mrs. Kelley Learn Their Lawyers Are Not Their Friends. Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "A Florida couple on Thursday dropped a lawsuit over the federal government’s disclosure of their identities in connection with the investigation that uncovered evidence that , the C.I.A. director at the time, was having an affair.... This month, [Jill] Kelley’s lawyers told a federal judge that they would no longer represent the couple, citing irreconcilable differences.... In a statement, Ms. Kelley said she had difficulty finding a new lawyer because her previous ones had demanded that they be paid $7 million of any money she received."
Presidential Race
Nick Gass: "Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are effectively tied among Democratic voters, according to the results of a [national] Bloomberg Politics poll released Thursday. Of the 311 people who indicated that they have voted or will vote in their state's Democratic primary or caucus, 49 percent said they support Sanders, while 48 percent indicated that they prefer Clinton and the remaining 3 percent said they are not sure." CW: This is just one poll, so nothing to get excited about. But it is a reminder that Clinton, assuming she prevails in the delegate count, can't ignore half of her party. Sanders' popularity makes it impossible -- or at least stupid -- for her to Etch-a-Sketch out his platform.
Harold Meyerson of the American Prospect: "Are all these experienced activists even right in hoping that this time will be different, that this time a powerful social democratic left might just take root in America’s political soil? I think they are. Chiefly because Bernie Sanders’s campaign didn’t create a new American left. It revealed it.... At first glance, this new socialist presence just seems to have sprung up, unsummoned, unannounced. And yet, it clearly has been building for years. Its emergence was foretold by Occupy Wall Street...." ...
... CW: Meyerson may be dreaming, but his essay is heartening. Read it & smile.
Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Bernie Sanders’ campaign on Thursday officially served the Democratic National Committee with a lawsuit, alleging the organization unfairly revoked its access to voter file data. Sanders’ campaign initially filed a suit in December and was facing a Thursday deadline to serve the committee with the suit. The allegations stem from a controversy late last year in which Sanders staffers improperly accessed information from Hillary Clinton's data file after a firewall between the campaigns' information was inadvertently dropped."
Steve LeBlanc of the AP: "U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren waded deeper into the presidential primary debate Thursday, sharpening her criticism of Donald Trump and cheering on Bernie Sanders.... Warren said. 'He has put the right issues on the table both for the Democratic Party and for the country in general so I'm still cheering Bernie on.' Warren declined to say which candidate she voted for in the Massachusetts primary. She said she plans to make an endorsement, but not yet.... The Massachusetts Democrat described the Republican presidential front-runner as a failed businessman who inherited a fortune from his father and then maintained it 'by cheating people, by defrauding people, and by skipping out on paying his creditors through Chapter 11' bankruptcy protection." ...
... Jim Newell of Slate: "The Democrats won’t force [Bernie Sanders] out of the race, no; they’ll just smother him with smarmy condescension.... They’re asking Sanders to continue running for the nomination without really running for the nomination. It doesn’t work that way.... Sanders has earned the right to finish out his candidacy, just as Clinton had in 2008.... Clinton and her supporters, which include the vast majority of the Democratic Party apparatus, would like Sanders to back the hell off and not put her in any uncomfortable positions. Putting Clinton in uncomfortable positions is exactly what Sanders wants to do."
Drip, Drip. Julian Hattem of the Hill: "Conservative legal watchdogs have discovered new emails from Hillary Clinton’s private email server dating back to the first days of her tenure as secretary of State. The previously undisclosed February 2009 emails between Clinton from her then-chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, raise new questions about the scope of emails from Clinton’s early days in office that were not handed over to the State Department for recordkeeping and may have been lost entirely. Clinton’s presidential campaign has previously claimed that the former top diplomat did not use her personal 'clintonemail.com' account before March 2009, weeks after she was sworn in as secretary of State. But on Thursday, the watchdog group Judicial Watch released one message from Feb. 13, 2009, in which Mills communicated with Clinton on the account to discuss the National Security Agency’s (NSA) efforts to produce a secure BlackBerry device for her to use as secretary of State."
Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker on the fall of Rome -- and other places: "Today ... we find ourselves in the midst of the ascent of a figure right out of Petronius: an orange-colored vulgarian of meretricious display, right down to the trophy wives from Far Elsewhere — with an ambition to dominate, a cunning out of proportion to his wisdom, a contempt for truth coupled with a readiness to manipulate, and a personal arrogance combined with, and indifferent to, a universal understanding that he is utterly unfit to govern. Now that we are in possession of an honest-to-God demagogue of the classical model, old portents of doom seem pertinent.... Democracy remains more delicate than we imagine."
Katy Tur & Ari Melber of NBC News: "While [Donald] Trump publicly dismisses talk of a battle in Cleveland, he is quietly assembling a team of seasoned operatives to manage a contested convention. Their strategy, NBC has learned, is to convert delegates in the crucial 40 days between the end of the primaries and the convention - while girding for a floor fight in Cleveland if necessary. The outreach is already underway." ...
... Greg Sargent follows up : "If Trump is far ahead of both his two rivals in delegates, accepting him might look like the most plausible — or the least undesirable — path. Obviously this might not work, because GOP elites and delegates may continue to hold to their #NeverTrump resolve. But it might!"
Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... it is with pleasure that we can present [RNC chair Reince] Priebus with a bit of good news.... There is someone even less popular than the Republican Party and less popular than Congress. That person is Donald Trump." ...
... Jamelle Bouie of Slate: "... Donald Trump is one of the most unpopular figures in national politics. He’s disliked (or despised) by a large majority of Americans. This isn’t because the public doesn’t know him. With nearly $2 billion in free coverage from news networks — dwarfing Hillary Clinton’s $746 million — the public knows him well. And they don’t like what they see. Far from scrambling political alliances in his favor, Trump may be the key to further gains for Democrats, from solidifying an advantage with Hispanics to making inroads with college-educated whites."
Tim Egan on the symbiotic relationship between Trump & terrorists: "The more people who are murdered by the savages from the Islamic State, the better it is for [Donald Trump]. The Islamic State is a gift to Trump. And he is a gift to them, playing into the grand scheme of the killers. He would make the world far less safe, and bring the Islamic State closer to the global clash of worlds that those monsters desire."
Gene Robinson: "Donald Trump’s ignorance of government policy, both foreign and domestic, is breathtaking. The Republican Party is likely to nominate for president a man who appears to know next to nothing about the issues that would confront him in the job." ...
... CW: Yeah? So? Drumpf knows what he needs to know: like the beans on Heidi he's going to spill. ...
This Is What Republicans Call "Presidential"
"Your wife is a slut!" "Your wife is an ugly, angry nut-job."
The "comparison" Trump tweeted.Nolan McCaskill: "Ted Cruz blasted Donald Trump on Thursday, calling the Republican front-runner a 'sniveling coward' for bringing Cruz’s wife to the forefront of his presidential campaign. 'Donald, you’re a sniveling coward,' Cruz told reporters Thursday in Dane, Wisconsin, forcefully pointing his finger. 'Leave Heidi the hell alone.'” ...
... CW: As far as I can tell, based partly on a Google search, Cruz never disavowed the anti-Trump ad featuring Melania Trump in a nude pose. So his self-righteous "leave my wife the hell alone" is, like all of his temper tantrums, rather hollow dudgeon.
Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Donald Trump has intensified his feud with Ted Cruz over the Republican presidential rival's wife after she slammed his statements for having 'no basis in reality.' Trump shared an image on Twitter around midnight Wednesday comparing his wife, Melania, a former model, to Cruz's wife, stating, 'A picture is worth a thousand words.'... CNN’s Kate Bolduan sparred with a Trump adviser over the tweet during an interview Thursday.... 'As a woman, it’s demeaning to not only Ted Cruz’s wife, it’s demeaning to Melania Trump because she has a lot more going for her than just her looks, and you don’t see that in this retweet,' Bolduan said...."
Jose DelReal & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "A nasty feud that escalated Thursday between Donald Trump and ... [Ted Cruz] over their wives set off a new wave of alarm among establishment Republicans, who fear the GOP front-runner would drive away female voters in a general-election fight with likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.... GOP strategist Katie Packer, who leads the anti-Trump Our Principles super PAC[, said,] 'Half of the reason why I’m fighting so hard to stop Donald Trump is because I think he’s a walking, talking stereotype of a sexist misogynistic pig.'”
Emma Green of the Atlantic: "Ted Cruz was ... always that guy ... who would look away as his allies circulated a naked picture of the wife of his enemy, and then suggest that 'real men don’t attack women.'... That guy who would suggest the only female Democratic presidential candidate in this race needs a spanking."
Women, you have to treat them like shit. -- Donald Trump, ca. 1990s
** Franklin Foer in Slate: "... there’s one ideology that [Donald Trump] does hold with sincerity and practices with unwavering fervor: misogyny.... In his view, treating women like meat is a necessary precondition for winning.... By winning, Trump means asserting superiority. And since life is a zero-sum game, superiority can only be achieved at someone else’s expense.... He relishes judging women on the basis of their looks, which he seems to believe amounts to the sum of their character.... Misogyny isn’t an incidental part of Donald Trump. It’s who he is."
CW: Like Karoli Kuns of Crooks & Liars, I don't buy the National Enquirer story that Ted Cruz found five attractive women who would have sex with him. (Okay, one is supposedly a sex worker, so maybe she was just doing her job.) "It feels to me like Trump dropped a whole lot of garbage over at the Enquirer to discredit Ted Cruz, and that sense is backed up even more by the fact that one of the lovely ladies is supposedly Donald Trump's spokeswoman. That's just a little too convenient.... It's hearsay at this point, but it leaves a nice pile of grist for the rumor mill." ...
... AND it's fun stuff in Twitter World. ...
Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Ted Cruz says he declined to directly attack Donald Trump for much of the Republican primary because those who did ended up 'as roadkill.'... Cruz said Wednesday to radio host Charlie Sykes of WTMJ..., '... If you look at a number of the candidates that took on Donald Trump early on, they ended up as roadkill.... I am very strongly committed on the anti-roadkill approach.'”
Paul Krugman: "... Mr. Cruz has staked out positions on crucial issues that are, not to put too fine a point on it, crazy. How can elite Republicans back him? The answer is the same for Mr. Cruz and the elite as it is for Mr. Trump and the base: Leading Republicans support Mr. Cruz, not despite his policy positions, but because of them. They may not like his style, but they agree with his substance.... While his policy ideas are extreme, they reflect the same extremism that pervades the party’s elite. There are no moderates, or for that matter, sensible people, anywhere in this story."
Pick Me! Pick Me! Jessie Opoein of the Madison, Wisconsin, Capital Times: "If the Republican Party finds itself with an open convention in July, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker believes the nominee may not be Donald Trump, Ted Cruz or John Kasich. 'I think if it’s an open convention, it’s very likely it would be someone who’s not currently running,' Walker told reporters Thursday."
David Schwartz of Reuters: "Phoenix's mayor on Wednesday urged a federal probe into the local county's handling of voting in Arizona's presidential nominating contest, questioning whether minority voters were granted a fair chance to cast their ballots. Greg Stanton asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate a decision by Maricopa County officials to slash the number of polling locations in Arizona's most populous county and leave minority-heavy areas with seemingly fewer sites. The Democratic mayor called the vote 'a fiasco after voters had to wait in line for several hours on Tuesday to cast their ballots." ...
... CW: Cutting down the number of polling places in "urban areas" & voter ID laws are two tricks among many in a well-stuffed Republican Voter Suppression Bag. Ask President Kerry. ...
... Fernanda Santos of the New York Times: "Days later, angry and baffled voters are still trying to make sense of how democracy is working in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous, where officials cut the number of polling places by 70 percent to save money — to 60 from 200 in the last presidential election. That translated to a single polling place for every 108,000 residents in Phoenix, a majority-minority city that had exceptional turnout in Tuesday’s Democratic and Republican primaries.... But beyond the electoral breakdown here, many observers saw Arizona as a flashing neon sign pointing toward potential problems nationally at a time that 16 states will have new voting restrictions in place for the first time in a presidential election." ...
... Eliza Collins of Politico: Bernie Sanders & the Clinton campaign weigh in on the Maricopa County voting scandal.
Senate Race
Alex Roarty of Roll Call: "Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson on Wednesday was endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an important sign of support for the business-friendly lawmaker ahead of a difficult re-election test this November. But it's unclear whether the behemoth business lobby -- and other well-funded Republican-aligned groups like it -- will actually spend big money on the GOP senator's behalf in a general election.... Early surveys of the race paint a grim picture for Johnson: Since April of last year, five of six polls from Marquette Law School have found [former Sen. Russ] Feingold sporting a double-digit lead, including a mid-February survey that found the Democrat winning by 12 points."
David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Republican leaders say they are taking a principled stand against election-year appointments rather than focusing on Judge [Merrick] Garland’s qualifications, [Sen. Ron] Johnson, without any pretense, is boasting that he and his Republican colleagues are preventing Mr. Obama from tilting the ideological balance of the court to the left. And he is attacking Judge Garland — without any basis, many legal experts say — as posing a grave threat to Second Amendment gun rights.... Democrats, including [former Sen. Russ] Feingold, say they are confident that Mr. Johnson is making a politically fatal mistake by playing to the ’s conservative base in a state that despite the party’s recent inroads has voted Democratic in the past seven presidential elections, and where pocketbook issues like jobs and trade are dominant."
Beyond the Beltway
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) signed a controversial abortion bill Thursday that, among other things, would ban the procedure if it is sought because the fetus was diagnosed with a disability or defect such as Down syndrome.... The law, which was passed by the legislature earlier this month, would make Indiana the second state in the nation, after North Dakota, to ban abortion in cases where a fetal anomaly is detected.... And it could make Indiana the first state in the country to require that fetal remains be buried or cremated, rather than treated like medical waste." ...
... CW: Red State/Blue State. If you're a woman of child-bearing age, you don't want to live in a state governed by Republicans. In fact, any man who intends to be or is in a relationship with a young woman should consider getting the hell out of Red State America. ...
... Let's not forget North Carolina & Georgia:
A new North Carolina law that bars local governments from extending civil rights protections to gay and transgender people is provoking a growing backlash from businesses and others who say the law is discriminatory. American Airlines, Wells Fargo and the National Basketball Association were among those to raise concerns about the law, which was introduced and passed Wednesday in a hastily called special session and signed by Gov. Pat McCrory (R) later that day." ...
of the Washington Post: "Another industry is warning Georgia’s governor not to sign a religious-liberty bill into law — the latest to suggest that the state risks losing business over the measure. Actors, writers, producers, directors, movie studios and whole entertainment companies have weighed in on the debate, many calling the bill discriminatory and some threatening to sever ties with Georgia if it’s passed. The latest threat comes from a group of 34 individuals in the movie business, including celebrities Kristin Chenoweth, Lee Daniels, Anne Hathaway, Seth MacFarlane, Julianne Moore, Rob Reiner and Marisa Tomei. In a Thursday letter, they warn Gov. Nathan Deal (R) that they 'plan to take our business elsewhere' should he sign the bill, which passed the legislature last week. The Walt Disney Co. and its subsidiary movie studio, Marvel, said the same in a statement Wednesday.... At least 20 Fortune 500 companies — including Delta Air Lines, Google, Home Depot, IBM, Marriott, Microsoft, Nordstrom, Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, UPS and Verizon — belong to a coalition urging Deal to veto the measure. The coalition has several hundred corporate members in all." ...
... CW: Excuse me. That's no "religious liberty bill: "The bill protects religious leaders from being forced to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies and individuals from being forced to attend such events. It also allows faith-based organizations to deny use of their facilities for events they find 'objectionable' and exempts them from having to hire or retain any employee whose religious beliefs or practices differ from those of the organization." The first part is absolute nonsense; the First Amendment protects ministers from performing rituals they oppose, & who the hell thinks the government can require "individuals" to go to weddings? The second part isn't about "religious liberty," either; generally speaking, faith-based organization can hire whom they want to & rent their facilities to whom they want, unless they receive government grants.
Paul Gattis of Al.com: "A state audit released last month reported no issues with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, whose director was fired Tuesday by Gov. Robert Bentley after "several areas of concern" were discovered. Spencer Collier, the first director of the new organization designed to consolidate and streamline 12 state law enforcement agencies, denied any wrongdoing at a news conference Wednesday in which he outlined elements of what he described as an inappropriate affair between the governor and senior advisor Rebekah Caldwell Mason." ...
... CW: I have a feeling Bentley didn't quite know how to "keep his friends close & his enemies closer." He got right close with one friend, but he canned an enemy -- a guy who had the goods on him -- for no reason Bentley has been willing to make public, so perhaps for no good reason. Feeling up the help, if the help was willing, appears at this time to have been a lesser mistake. The story may evolve, but right now Bentley looks like an idiot.
Way Beyond
Matthew Lee of the AP: "At least two American citizens have been confirmed killed in this week’s attacks in Brussels, a U.S. official said Friday, as Secretary of State John Kerry is visiting the city to express his condolences to the Belgian people." CW: Hate to mention it to Republicans who said President Obama should drop everything & go give some speeches in Brussels, but elite snob John Kerry, unilike Obama, actually speaks one of Belgium's official languages.
Alistair Macdonald, et al., of Reuters: "Belgian police arrested six people in their probe of Tuesday's Islamic State suicide bombings in Brussels, while authorities in France said they thwarted a militant plot there 'that was at an advanced stage.' The federal prosecutor's office in Belgium said on Thursday that the arrests came during police searches in the Brussels neighborhoods of Schaerbeek in the north and Jette in the west, as well as in the center of the Belgian capital." ...
... Aurelien Breeden, et al., of the New York Times: "’s justice and interior ministers acknowledged Thursday that the authorities had erred by not acting on Turkey’s request last year that they take custody of a Belgian citizen arrested for suspected terrorist activity. The man was one of the Islamic State suicide bombers in the devastating Brussels attacks. The acknowledgments by the justice minister, Koen Geens, and interior minister, Jan Jambon, were the first high-level Belgian admissions of blunder in the aftermath of the bombings on Tuesday. The attacks have exposed missteps by European security officials and police, just four months after the Islamic State’s assault on targets in Paris."
Liz Sly of the Washington Post: "As European governments scramble to contain the expanding terrorist threat posed by the Islamic State, on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria the group is a rapidly diminishing force. In the latest setbacks for the militants on Thursday, Syrian government troops entered the outskirts of the historic town of Palmyra after a weeks-old offensive aided by Russian airstrikes, and U.S. airstrikes helped Iraqi forces overrun a string of Islamic State villages in northern Iraq that had been threatening a U.S. base nearby. These are just two of the many fronts in both countries where the militants are being squeezed, stretched and pushed back."
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One of my last chances to comment, and I want to post about an issue that has been bugging me for a while. We get together with 5 other couples who are friends from our kids' Boy Scout and high school athletics days. Of said kids, now ages 25-35, 12 of 14 have taken their talents and college degrees to blue states. They won't come back, except for vacations while their parents are still alive. Between the lack of good jobs, dwindling support for education, and draconian social policies that our state government has put in place, Wisconsin continues to have an older population and a wretched record of job creation. Scott Walker and his cronies don't realize that when the young people leave, they take potential for startups and growth with them. This is how the red states will fall further behind more progressive areas and, hopefully, become less relevant to politics and everything else.
@Nadd2: The Senate is a big problem here. The more working-age people move out of red states for economic & social reasons, the more red those states become. Yes, they'll lose House members, but they'll still have two U.S. senators each. If the majority of working people up & moved to say, California, New York, Florida, & other coastal states, the coastal states might elect as many as 20 Democratic senators, while the rest of the country turned into a vast wasteland of elderly cranks, sending as many as 80 Republican senators to Washington. Representative government? Not so much.
Marie
Marie--yes, you're right. Not to mention the continued reddening of the state governments.
Walker is on the radio this am with his "pick me" efforts. He said that if the Republicans pick someone besides Trump, Cruz, or Kasich, "the beauty of this is, the people will be choosing, rather than the elite." Huh? Sometimes I feel like I live in Backwardville.
@Nadd2: You do live in Backwardsville. I'd rag you about it, but as I look out my window at the wide Caloosahatchie, I am forced to remember that my representative is teabagger Curt Clawson, my senator is Marco Rubio & my governor is Rick Scott.
Marie
Another way of looking at the drain from states controlled by Confederates is that their "our way or the highway" approach mirrors, in a way, what has been happening in the Catholic Church for decades, especially under the leadership of two far right-wing popes, Wojtyla, and even worse, Ratzinger. The general thrust of those papacies was "here is how we do things; if you don't like it, fuck off and die". Catholics who were hoping that as the church moved into the 21st century it might decide to leave the 13th century behind were sorely disappointed. The idea was to ensure that anyone who wasn't drinking the Kool Aid, or who thought that fresh ideas might rejuvenate a church that had, in the 60's found a way of looking forward, but since then had moved steadily backwards, would decide to simply pick up and leave of their own accord.
They did.
Most church leaders could care less, same as Confederates, who have been working hard to move the country back into the past. To take hard won victories over darkness and lay them at the feet of the ultra rich as sacrifices in hopes that they'll protect them at the ballot box. Americans who don't relish living in the age of robber barons, with no health insurance, widespread fear of scientific advances, rampant racism and misogyny with little opportunity except for the well off, are moving out of those states. Those who remain either can't leave or are happy living in the past.
The Confederacy promises a world of Savonarolas and J.P. Morgans. All packing heat. No wonder people who leave don't come back.
Barney Frank takes on Sanders and the "too big to fail"...
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/barney-frank-takes-on-bernie-sanders-and-the-too-big-to-fail-argument/
@Marie: Re: Cruz disavowing the naked Melania ad: Seems to me it was Heidi that came out and said they had nothing to do with it or maybe it was one of their handlers, but it was someone other than Cruz who said the Cruz campaign had nothing to do with it. My eyebrows are raised and my mouth is in a smirk.
Re: Trump, Cruz and their third grade "your wife wears army boots" spat.
First, contrary to what the Supreme Court supposedly thinks, or wants the rest of us to think, these PACs are intimately connected to the candidates they support. They take their tone, if not marching orders (but probably those as well) directly from the campaign. A campaign like Cruz's, replete with the sort of dirty tricks that must make Donald Segretti wish he were twenty years younger so he too could get in on all the fun, gives off a very distinct aroma. It stinks. It stinks of dirty tricks and double dealing and lies and counter lies and smirking denials. No PAC supporting a straight shooter would have released that Melania Trump hit job. But one supporting a louche douche like Cruz would.
The funny thing is, that the knuckledragging Trump supporters probably loved it. "Oh man, she's a babe! That Donald is Mr. Studly, alright..."
Trump is a reprehensible asshole but Cruz is a meretricious lout.
No wonder Republicans are ready to kill themselves. But not enough to declare that they'll refuse to support either of these two iniquitous dissimulators.
@PD Pepe: Cruz has said, in a tweet, I think it was, that his campaign wasn't responsible for the Melania ad. This is true. Rather than writing "disavowed," I should have written "condemned." Trump could have at least crocodile-teared the ad by saying, "Ooh, that's terrible," & providing a link to it. But he hasn't done even that.
A respectable candidate would have denounced the ad & the ad-maker, & urged voters to ignore it as defamatory sleaze. Ted is not a respectable candidate. He said nothing derogatory about the ad, only that he didn't run it. Then he acted all surprised & outraged that Trump threatened Heidi Cruz & tweeted a highly-unflattering picture of her next to an retouched shot of a younger Melania Trump.
It's the party of sleaze. When Hillary starts makes Bernie's hair a campaign issue & Bernie says Hillary looks fat in pants suits, maybe I'll stop complaining about the quality of the GOP presidential race.
Marie
Bigots or Bucks?
The heat in Georgia is intensifying by the day, and not entirely because of global warming.
As Marie has pointed out, the "religious liberty" (*snicker, snicker*) bill ready for Governor Nathan ("Confederate Flag? It's just part of our heritage".) Deal's signature poses ramifications beyond satisfying the urges of mouth-breathing Westboro Baptist types.
But before Deal puts his big X on the dotted line, he needs to consider that in addition to all those Fortune 500 companies and Hollywood studios (Georgia last year hosted 248 productions, it's the third leading state for film and TV production behind only California and New York), threatening to take their business out of the state, the NFL and the SEC are also sending messages that Georgia and its new $1.5 billion stadium could lose a super bowl shot (worth a ton of local money) and even worse, a chance at a decade's worth of SEC championship games (worth a whole lot more). Not very peachy, is it?
You know when historically virulent homophobic outfits like the National Football League and the Southeast athletic Conference are saying no to discrimination against the LGBT community, times they have surely been a-changin'.
No doubt this is just another indication to the haters that they are the victims here, as Saint Kim of Redneckia once suggested, no different than Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. (These fucking people!)
So Guv needs to Deal. He can traffic with the haters and immoral monkeys, or he can continue to bring his state much needed revenue and help to move it into the current century.
The question then is, if he pulls the lever for money, how important--really--was that bullshit religious freedom bill? It will look, to the zealots, as if he's saying "Screw Jesus. Give me the money." If, however, he elects to stay with the haters, he'll forever be enshrined as a hee-roe to the bigots but his state will drop off the map. Might as well call back General Sherman. He couldn't do worse than the blight of bigotry.
Cook County (Chicago) has lost more population than any other county in the country. Our local NPR show reports that much of that lost population is moving to Texas and Florida. They do not report the ages of the migrants and they could be retirees longing for a warmer state, but if they are young and hope to have families I cannot fathom why they would move to the land where women's health is managed by theocrats.
@Haley Simon: Here's a Trib article on Chicago's out-migration, & it doesn't seem to be limited to retirees.
If you have to Google it to get the full story, the lede is,
"After years of financial woes, Lindsey Yates and her husband had to at last address the nagging question: Should they stay or should they go?" Cut & paste part of that in the Google search engine.
Marie
@Ak: It's just a matter of your interpretation of PTL - whether you want to Praise The Lord or Pass The Loot. We'll have to wait and see which god it is that Deal prefers.
@Haley: I also heard on this morning's SC NPR that the coastline and low-land areas of SC and NC are experiencing high population growth, particularly around Myrtle Beach and Charleston. (I tried to find the statistics used to substantiate this but was unable to find/provide a link.)
Great! I can heard the crying already when they get hit with another devastating hurricane and/or flooding, made worse by the non-existing climate change and subsequent rising sea levels, looking for that nasty gubberment to bail them out.
The polls showing Russ Feingold way up over troglodyte Ron Johnson (R-Stupid) is heartening. And perhaps the support of the Chamber won't matter much in the long run. Voters may finally have gotten to the point where they are able to more clearly see the entire Confederate program as fraudulent, having done nothing but make life worse for everyone but the very rich. This is all to the good.
But in many places, inert, brainless tree stumps like Ron Johnson will continue to win elections, not because voters are so enamored of Confederate policies, such as they are, but because of the election theft.
What happened in both North Carolina, where hundreds of thousands were not allowed to vote, because (mostly) black, and Arizona, where polling places in Democratic strongholds were reduced, in some cases to none at all, should be a harbinger of things to come in the general and in future elections controlled by Confederate apparatchiks who see nothing wrong with allowing only Republicans to vote.
The infantile hoo-hah of the Republican presidential clown act has dominated the news but the real news, the real problem for America and Americans is not the fact that Republicans will be offering one of two dangerous imbeciles for the highest office in the land, it's that so many of those in the House and Senate who have been effectively chloroforming the government and its services for all but the most wealthy will be coming back to wreak more havoc because of successful vote suppression and election theft schemes that are continuing unabated and unaddressed.
Nadd2 and Marie: I live in Texas. Talk to me about Backwardsville.
Unwashed,
Sea levels might be rising on every other coast around the world, but not in North Carolina. No sirree bob.
North Carolina Confederates made it a crime to even mention global warming. No global warming, no sea level rise.
So there.
If and when all those new arrivals see their homes washed out to sea, it won't be because of the effects of global warming, it will be Obama's fault.
But I do love how the idiots believe that making it illegal to say "global warming" will ensure that there is none. I guess they can't keep their heads buried in the sand for very long. Most of it will be washed out to sea during the next big storm. They'll need some other excuse then.
Ahh...Hillary's fault!
Rising waters? Here's someone's brilliant (NOT) solution! Yeah so, what do the buyers do in the future?
UNH climatologist: urges Portsmouth, NH's homeowners to " Sell now! " ? their South End homes.
_______________________________________
" .. People who live in a low-lying area of the city like the South End should consider selling their house — “and I’m not kidding,” said Cameron Wake, University of New Hampshire professor of climatology and glaciology.
If there is a big coastal storm like Hurricane Sandy, “those houses are at risk of flooding” today. And it won’t get any better in the years to come, as sea levels inevitably continue to rise.
“My recommendation is why deal with the headache? Sell now while you can still get money out of the home,” he said.."
That's an attractive selling point! I can see the real estate listings now: "Lovely waterfront property, live here while you still can. (Water rising, property values dropping). Lottsa luck sucker!"
Coastal everywhere seems to have this looming. Florida has been busily digging itself into to eroding sands for years! A friend just came back from vacation in a place called Cape Coral , FL and raved about how she'd 'love to move there." Unfamiliar with the place, I Google-mapped it and took in the aerial view.
Wow! Water, water, and canals everywhere. How does, how will a place such as that deal with rising sea levels? Not to mention hurricanes? Also looks like a haven for crocs and mosquitoes in your backyard to me!
Tho' smug I shouldn't be...some day my own place might have waterfront views. Long after I'm gone...
@Unwashed: The law Akhilleus is talking about is this one. A Democratic governor, Bev Perdue, allowed it to become law.
If your science gives you a result you don't like, pass a law saying the result is illegal. Problem solved. -- Stephen Colbert
Marie
@MAG: And monitor lizards. They will eat your friend's puppy.
Marie
Greetings, Marie.
I've decided to take a stab at your VP gauntlet:
*Rudolph "Rudy" Giuliani*
The following are a few points that have, thus, inspired my choice:
*The two blokes share much in common and might also "complement" each other . . .
(A Brief Pause, With Apologies: I've a sudden urgency to suppress breakfast-regurgitation. Okay. I'm fine. 'Mission Accomplished'.
Carry-On . . . )
* Both are Native Noo Yawkers:
Prima-Donnie from Queens. Crude-y G. from Brooklyn.
* Both migrated to Manna-hatta and elevated their statuses: one through (corrupt) real estate maneuverings & the other with a law degree that paved his path to (corrupt) politics.
* Both switched from the Democratic Party to the GOP, born out of self-interest & self-promotion.
* Both were thrice-married ("Three's A Charm"?).
* Both "lead" after the style of Fascists.
* Both distort, fabricate & falsely claim credit for others' accomplishments, while freely attributing blame to others for their own wrong-doings.
* "Rudolph" & "Rudy" could bring a Third Reich twang to the proceedings.
* Giuliani could provide balance to the mega-wealth of The Drumpf-ster, owing to his impverished, working-class origins.
* Giuliani self-identifies as an observant Catholic, in a big way. While being a White Anglo Protestant might more globally appeal (except for the Catholics), Crude-y could remain at the ready to prompt Drumpf when mis-calculating the number of Corinthians ('. . . who walked into a bar one evening, and . . . ).
* Both despise that Kenyan-born "nig-nog" named Hussein.
Etcetera, Etcetera, Etcetera.
Following, a Crude-y quote from Politico of February 2015:
“I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, [Ophelia-Interpretation: A reflexive-yet-insincere display of Catholic guilt] but I do not believe that the president loves America,” Giuliani said during the dinner at the 21 Club, a former Prohibition-era speakeasy in midtown Manhattan. “He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up [Ophelia says he means WHITE] the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.”
(The compete Politico piece is here:)
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/rudy-giuliani-president-obama-doesnt-love-america-115309#ixzz43sfaj4n2
(My personal - if fictional - choice for VP would be Julia Louis-Dreyfus.)
I'll finish here: My PCP has advised me to be mindful of reflux.
Peace -
Okay kids, time for some Stupid Confederate Tricks.
Wayne LaPierre, yeah, that guy (I did say stupid, right?), has declared categorically that gun owners are the smartest people in the world, smarter than all of you smirking, elite lib'rul stinkers out here. That's fa shuah.
But unlike Confederates, I tend to need, ya know, like, evidence to back up such a broad statement. So I tracked down some of these brilliant minds.
So Wayne,...you mean like these people? And these guys? And this idiot? And check out this heat packin' Einstein.
Gee,Wayne. You're right. Gun owners are fucking geniuses.
At being stoopid.
I found the following Truthout piece of interest:
"Can We Change the Political System? Strategic Lessons of the Bernie Sanders Campaign"
Friday, 25 March 2016 00:00
By Patrick Barrett, Truthout | Op-Ed
Excerpt -
"The Immediate Obstacle: The Democratic Party . . .
. . . In a recent interview, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz explained the purpose of the superdelegates in stunningly blunt language: "Unpledged delegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don't have to be in a position where they are running against grassroots activists." In 2016, they number 712, or 30 percent of the total needed to win the nomination. As of this writing, Clinton has 467 to Sanders' 26."
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/35375-could-we-change-the-political-system-strategic-lessons-of-the-bernie-sanders-campaign
@Ophelia: I think Rudolph is a great choice. One problem: the Constitution requires that the president & veep be from different states. Cheney solved that problem when he nominated himself by moving to Wyoming (he'd been living in Texas). So Donald could move to Mar-al-Lago despite the hardships that might cause.
Another good thing about Rudy: he probably already has an oppo file -- albeit a dusty, dated one -- against Hillary, as he was planning to run against her in 2000 for the Senate seat when, as I recall, his divorce & testicular cancer interfered with his plans. But he's the one of the most vile s'um-bitches in politics -- you provided an example -- so he could even make Trump look like a nice guy by comparison. You'd have to check the record, but I'm sure he already said nasty things about Hillary in preparation for his run.
Excellent choice all around.
Marie
P.S. I wonder how Rudy got that Nazi-ready name. Both of his parents were Italian-Americans; his father seems to have been a Mafia goon.
Thanks for the Trib article, Marie.
What's Important in North Carolina?
Is it voting rights? The right of Americans to exercise the most basic responsibility of citizens in a democratic republic? According to NC confederates, the answer is NO. You can only vote if they say you can. Blahs and students and Democrats need not apply. You're not going to vote Confederate? Fuck off and die.
Is it the ability to express a belief in fact based science? Scientific findings that bear directly on the future of the state and the quality of life of its residents?
No....North Carolinian Confederates (read: all Confederates everywhere...) don't give a Monica Lewinsky hand wipe for science.
Sorry. What's important in North Carolina, as in all Confederate states, is money. Money owed businesses. Even defunct businesses.
So, a guy who rented a movie in 2002--the American classic, "Freddie Got Fingered", right up there with "Best Years of Our Lives", "Citizen Kane", "All About Eve" and "The Godfather"--and forgot to return it (I can see why) has been arrested and charged because of an outstanding warrant that has been issued by a court in response to a civil suit that has been "processed as a criminal case".
So, not returning a stupid, stupid, stupid, vilely stupid video rented 14 years ago is a criminal offense in North Carolina.
Pretending global warming doesn't exist and denying hundreds of thousands of NC residents the ability to vote are not.
Life in Right Wing World, kids.
Enjoy.
Does anyone else get the impression that the NRA wants to change the opening words of the second amendment from "a well regulated militia" to "an unregulated militia?"
Also it seems that most of the population growth in Florida, from the tornado magnet trailer parks to the ticky tacky suburbs of "The Villages, to the upscale golf course communities are being populated mainly with retirees. We're sliding ever further into the mire of the far right wing. Ten years ago I'd have never believed Ted Yoho could be elected, let alone re-elected..
RE: << I wonder how Rudy got that Nazi-ready name. Both of his parents were Italian-Americans; his father seems to have been a Mafia goon. >>
Marie -
You inspired me to do some ancestry-sleuthing:
Giuliani's parents, as you stated, were first generation Americans.
His paternal (?) grandfather - both sides originating from Tuscany - was named "Rodolfo". So it seems he's was named after his Italian-born grand-pappy. (Yes - I'm fairly certain that Crude-y's daddy ran into trouble with The Law.)
I'd apparently forgotten (or did I simply not know? => certainly possible) about the no-no of running mates from like-states. I've actually wondered if Drumpf has held residency (on paper) in my birth-state of New Jersey (for voter eligibility in Atlantic City). Then again, The Drumpf appears entitled to say and do as he wishes, without retribution.
You'd referenced (past) "nasty things" from Crude-y about HRC. Here's a (current) headline from Huff Post (which appeared on several other sites) and how to access the article:
" Rudy Giuliani Says Hillary Clinton 'Could Be Considered A Founding Member Of ISIS' "
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/rudy-giuliani-hillary-clinton-isis_us_56f35a1be4b04c4c3761435a
Curiouser & Curiouser -
Alice
Akhilleus -
RE: << So, a guy who rented a movie in 2002--the American classic, "Freddie Got Fingered", right up there with "Best Years of Our Lives", "Citizen Kane", "All About Eve" and "The Godfather"--and forgot to return it (I can see why) has been arrested and charged because of an outstanding warrant that has been issued by a court in response to a civil suit that has been "processed as a criminal case". >>
A) So dreadful - this man's arrest: Truly, we're livin' in a Police State.
((Never seen "Freddy Got Fingered". Just those other trashy ones you mentioned.)
B) Am really going to miss your mega-smarts & mega-humor.
Cheers -
Barbarossa,
Time is winding down here. Just wanted to let you know you are still in our thoughts and hope you are hangin' in there.
Akhilleus, in fairness to Gov Deal he appears to be coming from a better starting place than most evangical leaders, from MSNBC "Deal later went on to reference his own Christian faith, and argued that: ”What the New Testament teaches us is that Jesus reached out to those who were considered the outcasts, the ones that did not conform to the religious societies’ view of the world … We do not have a belief in my way of looking at religion that says we have to discriminate against anybody. If you were to apply those standards to the teaching of Jesus, I don’t think they fit.”
From an overseas perspective the prospect of Cruz presidency terrorises me much more than Trump. We survived a buffoon ignoramus 8 years ago I am not so confident about a nut bag zealot.
Thanks Marie for the incredible service, information, commentary and humour (Australian spelling) you have facilitated over the years.