;)
The Commentariat -- March 7, 2014
Internal links removed.
Here's the Guardian's liveblog of events re: the Ukraine crisis. ...
... Steven Myers, et al., of the New York Times: "Leaders of both houses of Russia's Parliament said on Friday that they would support a vote by Crimea to break away from Ukraine and become a new region of the Russian Federation, the first public signal that the Kremlin was backing the secessionist move that Ukraine, the United States and other countries have denounced as a violation of international law." ...
... Carol Morello & Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "Pro-Russian lawmakers in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea sparked a showdown reminiscent of the Cold War on Thursday, accelerating their bid to leave Ukraine and join Russia in a move that President Obama, the new government in Kiev and European leaders described as provocative and illegal. Lawmakers in the autonomous region voted Thursday to join the Russian Federation and hold a referendum March 16 to validate the decision. The regional parliament, now led by Sergei Aksyonov -- a businessman and politician known around Kiev as the 'Goblin' because of his alleged ties to organized crime, vowed to nationalize Ukrainian state industries and begin setting up government ministries separate from Ukraine, which it joined in 1954 when the nation was still a satellite of the Soviet Union." ...
... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "President Barack Obama held an hour-long telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday afternoon in an effort to resolve the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, according to the White House. The White House statement indicated no breakthrough or even any progress in the dispute about Russian troop movements into Ukraine's Crimea region and Russia's support for a referendum on making Crimea a part of Russia." Here's the White House readout. ...
... Lidia Kelly & Alissa DeCarbonnel of Reuters: "After an hour-long telephone call, Putin said in a statement that Moscow and Washington were still far apart on the situation in the former Soviet republic, where he said the new authorities had taken 'absolutely illegitimate decisions on the eastern, southeastern and Crimea regions.'" ...
... AFP: "The United States on Thursday sent six additional F-15 fighter jets to step up NATO's air patrols over the Baltic states, mission host Lithuania said as West-Russia tensions simmered over Ukraine." ...
... Natalia Antelava of the New Yorker on the precarious position of Crimean Tatars. ...
... Darlene Superville of the AP: "Russia's intervention in Ukraine has put Obama's [weekend vacation] plans in doubt, making it very likely the family will end up at the White House.... The weekend stay was to be tacked on to a visit by Obama and his wife Friday to Coral Reef High School in Miami, where they are to address students on the importance of education."
Mark Landler of the New York Times: President "Obama has fixed ideas about how best to pursue peace in the Middle East, and a far less solicitous style than his secretary of state, John Kerry, who has drawn close to [Israeli PM Benjamin] Netanyahu over many hours of painstaking negotiations. With the deadline nearing for the Israelis and Palestinians to sign on to an American framework accord, Mr. Obama and Mr. Kerry have fallen into a good-cop, bad-cop routine with Israel -- a strategy that may push through a deal but will bruise feelings along the way."
Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "The Senate on Thursday rejected a controversial bipartisan bill to remove military commanders from decisions over the prosecution of sexual assault cases in the armed forces, delivering a defeat to advocacy groups who argued that wholesale changes are necessary to combat an epidemic of rapes and sexual assaults in the military. The measure, pushed by Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, received 55 votes -- five short of the 60 votes needed for advancement to a floor vote -- after Ms. Gillibrand's fellow Democrat, Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, led the charge to block its advancement." ...
... BTW, Here's McCaskill, speaking to Nora Caplan-Bricker of the New Republic immediately before she filibustered Gillibrand's bill:
I can assure you, I am not filibustering Senator Gillibrand's bill. There is a requirement in the Senate that for controversial things and major issues, 60 votes are required. I spent a day on the floor arguing for these votes [to occur on both military sexual assault bills]. I have never stood in the way of these votes going forward. For people supporting Senator Gillibrand to try to make me out as the bad guy on this is unfair.
... CW: McCaskill has taken the political lie to a new level. I cannot imagine what her problem is, but it's pathological. And, yeah, Claire, I'm so unfair. ...
... Chris Carroll & John Vandiver of Stars & Stripes: "The top Army prosecutor for sexual assault cases has been suspended after a lawyer who worked for him recently reported he'd groped her and tried to kiss her at a sexual-assault legal conference more than two years ago."
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: On Thursday, President "Obama was appearing at a town hall-style event at the Newseum to encourage the Latino community to sign up for health-insurance policies under the Affordable Care Act. But the hosts, Jose Diaz-Balart of Telemundo and Enrique Acevedo of Univision, turned their sights on another issue: immigration. 'Your reputation has been tarnished among Latinos over deportations,' Acevedo said, referring to the administration's removal of nearly 2 million immigrants who were in the country illegally. 'How can you ask the Latino community to trust you?' 'I would challenge the premise,' Obama shot back testily as he sat onstage before a live audience of 150."
Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "The new health insurance marketplaces appear to be making little headway in signing up Americans who lack insurance, the Affordable Care Act's central goal, according to a pair of new surveys. Only one in 10 uninsured people who qualify for private plans through the new marketplaces enrolled as of last month, one of the surveys shows. The other found that about half of uninsured adults have looked for information on the online exchanges or planned to look."
Jay Newton-Small of Time interviews Bernie Sanders. Bernie says he would be better president than Hillary Clinton. CW: No kidding. ...
... John Nichols of the Nation interviews Sanders. He says he is prepared to run for president.
Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post: "In a strongly worded letter to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), the Congressional Black Caucus lashed out at [Rep. Darrell] Issa [R-Calif.], who on Wednesday halted a hearing of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee without allowing any Democrats to speak.... But Boehner defended Issa's actions during his weekly news briefing, saying that the California congressman was not out of line to cut off Cummings' microphone and walk out.... House Democrats also attempted Thursday to introduce a resolution condemning Issa's behavior at the hearing and have called on him to issue a public apology to [Rep. Elijah] Cummings [D-Md.]. However, in a party-line vote, the House tabled the resolution."
Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "A measured Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, returning to the national political spotlight at a convention of conservative activists on Thursday, chided Washington for its political dysfunction, played up his social conservatism and urged the Republican Party to broaden its electoral appeal.... And he defended the billionaire Koch brothers.... The crowd responded warmly, interrupting Mr. Christie about a half-dozen times with applause and giving him a standing ovation." CW: Sorry, I can't help seeing a parallel between Christie & the new mafioso boss of the Crimea, not to mention the parallel between their respective separatist followers. ...
... Tom Moran of the Star-Ledger: Christie "took his familiar shots at President Obama over his failure to solve the fiscal crisis in Washington. The president is not a real leader, he says. But what about Trenton's fiscal crisis? And what about Christie's leadership? He pushed hard last year for a tax cut, tilted to the advantage of the state's wealthiest families, and claimed against all evidence that the state could afford it. Now he has flip-flopped, and is warning of a looming fiscal crisis that will require tough sacrifices. That is not sturdy leadership. It is the herky-jerky dance of a political opportunist." CW P.S.: I don't think there's a real "fiscal crisis in Washington" anyway. ...
... A Story Paul Ryan Found "Too Good to Check." CW: Glenn Kessler's takedown is fascinating. the origins of the story come from people whose purpose in telling it was to expand school lunch programs:
The left is making a big mistake here. What they're offering people is a full stomach and an empty soul. The American people want more than that. This reminds me of a story I heard from Eloise Anderson. She serves in the cabinet of my buddy, Governor Scott Walker. She once met a young boy from a very poor family, and every day at school, he would get a free lunch from a government program. He told Eloise he didn't want a free lunch. He wanted his own lunch, one in a brown-paper bag just like the other kids. He wanted one, he said, because he knew a kid with a brown-paper bag had someone who cared for him. This is what the left does not understand. -- Paul Ryan, speaking at CPAC
... Speaking of Ryan & his diabolical efforts to starve needy children -- "The Hammock Fallacy." Availing himself a a school lunch program or food stamps, Paul Krugman eats Paul Ryan for lunch. ...
... Robin Abcarian of the Los Angeles Times sums up yesterday's CPAC speeches. "So what were Republican presidential hopefuls telling conservatives Thursday on opening day of the annual CPAC conference? Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz: Washington sucks. Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan: Democrats suck. Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: Everyone but governors sucks." Thanks to James S. for the link. ...
... AND Mitch McConnell brandished a rifle at CPAC. ...
... WHICH may make you wonder what Wayne LaPierre of the NRA had to tell the folks at CPAC. Charles Pierce obliges. "The woods are full of monsters."
Public Policy Polling: "PPP's newest Arizona poll finds that John McCain is unpopular with Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike and has now become the least popular Senator in the country."
Elsewhere Beyond the Beltway
"The Gunshine State." Barbara Liston of Reuters: "Every Wednesday afternoon, Doug Varrieur steps into his backyard in the Florida Keys, aims his .380 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol and fires shots that ricochet through city halls around the state. Varrieur, 57, discovered a little-noticed part of Florida law which prohibits local governments from restricting gun rights in any way, and in December he set up a personal gun range on his property in a residential subdivision.... Municipal leaders, who were shocked to realize there was nothing they could do about it.... Numerous city and county leaders now trying to regain some control over recreational gunfire in their communities, particularly in dense urban zones. Palm Beach and Broward counties in south Florida have a lawsuit pending to overturn the law, noting that it forced them to rescind restrictions, for example, on taking guns into child care facilities." ...
... CW: These loons can pack heat. I am packing my belongings & moving out of Florida.
Margaret Hartmann of New York: "... on Thursday, the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill outlawing taking 'up-skirt' photos in public. Just a day earlier, the state's highest court ruled that an accused Peeping Tom didn't violate the law because technically the women he photographed on an MBTA trolley were clothed. Under the new law, which Governor Deval Patrick's aide said he will sign, taking "up-skirt" pics will be punishable by more than two years in prison or a $5,000 fine."
News Ledes
New York Times: "... the Army captain who has accused Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair of sexual assault took the witness stand on Friday on the first day of his closely watched court-martial. During five hours of testimony, the 34-year-old captain chronicled in detail a three-year affair that included casual sex ... but also, she said, violent moments where he forced her to perform oral sex and threatened to kill her if she disclosed their relationship."
AP: "Malaysia Airlines said Saturday it lost contact with a plane carrying 239 people on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and search and rescue teams were trying to locate the aircraft."
Bloomberg News: "Employers added more workers than projected in February, indicating the U.S. economy is starting to bounce back from a weather-induced setback. The jobless rate unexpectedly climbed from a five-year low. The 175,000 gain in employment followed a revised 129,000 increase the prior month that was bigger than initially estimated.... Unemployment rose to 6.7 percent from 6.6 percent as more people entered the labor force and couldn't find work."
Guardian: "A Natiional Guardsman and a civilian have been killed in Caracas after a group of men on motorcycles rode into a neighbourhood to remove a street barricade erected by anti-government protesters. The clash that erupted on Thursday in the mixed industrial and residential district of Los Ruices heightened tensions on the same day the Venezuelan government expelled foreign diplomats for the second time in a month."
Reuters: "Western countries voiced concern on Thursday that tensions in Libya could slip out of control in the absence of a functioning political system, and they urged the government and rival factions to start talking. Two-and-a-half years after the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi, the oil-rich North African state is struggling to contain violence between rival forces, with Islamist militants gaining an ever-stronger grip on the south of the country."
Share Article
Reader Comments (20)
Yeah, so much for how we once felt about Claire McCaskill: "...well, at least she isn't Todd Adkins!"
The Glenn Kessler piece awarded four Pinocchios to Paul Ryan because his anecdote of the poor child turned out to be false.. While I'm glad that Kessler checked this out (with a big assist from Wonkette) I believe there is a larger point here. Let's assume the story was true: so what? One sad little boy, understandingly looking for food and love, shares his feelings about lunch. Despite everything we know about the probability of kids going hungry if there is not adequate food support, and the effects of that nutritional deprivation on their development and educational success, Ryan seems to be saying that we should base our policies on some random touchy-feely anecdote. If Democrats spouted such nonsense the Republicans would mock them, justifiably.
And besides that, Ryan just sucks. He has gone from "granny starver" to kid starver. He is simply projecting when he calls others "soulless."
Ryan. Still lyin'.
"What the left doesn't understand....blah, blah, blah, lie, lie, lie, blah some more, lie some more."
What Ryan doesn't understand is that hungry kids need food, not finger-wagging morality tales that tell them to suck it up, especially if those tales are themselves lies based on other lies.
Oh, sorry. The right never lies. They just "misspeak".
But, as with most of what's wrong in America today, the startling aggression directed towards poor children and poor families began in earnest under Saint Ronald of Reagan, perhaps the most mean spirited, vindictive, malicious rat fucker ever to occupy the White House.
Upon taking office, Reagan declared his intention to downsize government and rein in government costs (the fact that the government hugely expanded under Reagan and then Poppy is just one more brick in the right's ever expanding Hypocrite Highway).
So what did he go after? Military spending (remember the $500 toilet seats)? No. Corporate welfare? Certainly not. Corporate welfare under Reagan hit unheard of levels. Farm subsidies for corporate farms? Nope. His first, his number one target was poor children. He took food straight out of their mouths, took that money and gave it to giant corporations.
Don't forget. This is the guy who, upon hearing an assertion that there were hungry people in America, laughed it off sarcastically saying something along the lines of "Sure there are. They're dieting."
According to Susan Levine, author of "School Lunch Politics", in a chapter titled "Let Them Eat Ketchup", garrulous, smiling, jokey old Ron crushed school lunch programs for the poorest Americans and then came back and kicked them in the teeth. In his first year...
"The Reagan budget eliminated $400 million...The following year's budget eliminated...$1.4 billion in child nutrition programs. This amounted to about a quarter of the National School Lunch Program's budget...According to one study three million fewer black children qualified for free lunches, and 500,000 fewer received free breakfasts."
Reagan's putative goal was to "eliminate fraud" which he and other conservatives saw as a dastardly act of theft on a grand scale.
According to Levine, no actual fraud was ever found, even after ridiculous bureaucratic roadblocks were installed to make it as difficult as possible to sign up for a slice of bread and an apple. The problem was, and still is, the irregular employment and earning ability of poor families who might have no income for several months but then find work and have a small amount coming in. This, to Reagan, was abuse. And to Ryan and other iniquitous creeps and pernicious punks in the GOP it still is.
So not only do we have Reagan to blame for the current mania for sticking it to the poor and blaming the victim, he also seems to have opened the ball on the right's hysteria for finding fraud where there is none, if for no other reason than to fuck with people. The whole ketchup-is-a-vegetable thing, as funny as it was, was just a more visible index of the lengths to which Ronald Reagan was prepared to go to hurt the poorest and most powerless in this country, a goal that still occupies most Republicans 24/7, including scam artists and lying rat bastards like Paul Ryan.
Reagan and his followers made sure to pull the safety net out from under the poorest and install those nets, with plenty of extra cushioning, under the richest.
And even though Paul Ryan owes his stature in life, his education, his home, his career, every penny in his bank account, to the US Government, he has decided in his wisdom that anyone else benefiting, even to the extent of a freakin' sandwich, is somehow unworthy.
But don't worry. He's concerned about their souls. Because we on the left have no interest in such things.
But, if you're poor and hungry. What would you prefer?
A sandwich or a sermon?
Victoria,
"He is simply projecting when he calls others 'soulless.'"
Right on the nose.
The controversial writer, Leon Wieseltier, says this in his piece in TNR on the Putin problems:
" The lack of preparedness at the White House was not merely a weakness of policy but also a weakness of worldview. The president is too often caught off guard by enmity, and by the nastiness of things. There really is no excuse for being surprised by evil. There is also no excuse for projecting one’s good intentions, one’s commitment to reason, one’s optimism about history, upon other individuals and other societies and other countries: narcissism is the enemy of empiricism, and we must perceive differences and threats empirically, lucidly, not with disbelief but with resolve."
One would think, however, that Obama having had years of experiencing enmities and "the nastiness of things" has come around to the fact that indeed there is plenty of that evil stuff in the world. When I read something like this I wonder if I'm being naive in thinking Obama is operating differently––is it my cockeyed optimism that propels me to hope for sunnier outcomes? Apropos of our discussions yesterday it's a struggle to wade through these muddy waters, but looking back at our nation's history I'd say we do get a little wiser. I say this with a frown and a question mark.
@Victoria D. Thanks. After driving many Americans into poverty with their anti-union, pro-big-business agenda, the GOP now knocks the victims of their policies as being incredibly negligent parents. Not only are these parents too fucking lazy to provide financially for their children, they -- and particularly the mothers, who are most often the caregivers -- are also too fucking lazy to pack the kids brown-bag lunches. Why, they don't even love the children they brought into this world (sometimes on accounta not having adequate access to contraception). The result, somehow, is that these lazy good-for-nothings have begot a soulless progeny.
I really wonder what it takes the poor lamebrains who vote Republican to understand that the party loathes them. Or maybe they don't care; maybe they're into self-loathing, seeing themselves as Ryan does -- sinners in the hands of an angry God.
Marie
One other quick thought about the right's perpetual attempts to kill funding for programs for the poor and the powerless and to attempt to "prove", even in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary, that such programs don't work (one surefire way, employed often by hacks like Ryan, is simply leave out statistics that don't go your way, or completely lie about research findings).
On one hand I can't, for the life of me, believe there are so many heartless pricks out there. Do these people really believe that helping others who need it is such a terrible crime? I mean, look at the enormous piles of filthy lucre we shovel at giant corporations, many of which pay NO taxes! We can't find set aside a tiny percentage of that pile so poor kids can eat? WWJD, right? I guess they don't care.
But if that's not the way it is, if it's not simply the case that they are a bunch of heartless, soulless creeps, it has to be ideological. If your ideology says "Government, bad", then government programs have to be bad (except the ones that help YOU). And anything that can be done to "prove" that such programs don't work, is a way to demonstrate the essential "badness" of government.
But then, if you have to lie and fudge facts to get there, and you know you're doing this AND hurting innocent people into the bargain, just to try to make a point that is essentially false, what kind of person does that make you?
Jesus, these fucking people.
@CW: Are you really moving out of Florida?
@PD Pepe. Yes, I am. Before the end of this year, I will be living -- someplace other than the state where I was born. I have a lot of belongings to pack (not to mention, a good deal of maintenance to do before I can put my main house up for sale), so you lot may have to help carry the ball while I'm boxing & scrubbing & what-all.
Marie
@PD Pepe. I admire Obama's temperament and his persistence. I'm pretty sure he understands the complexities of the current world a lot better than most who are stuck in the archaic dichotomy of good and evil. Solutions are no longer a straight line. If you poke your finger in an eye at one point, other eyes at different points tear up. Most importantly, everyone knows about it immediately. In our world, deliberation, "taking a breath" is rarely seen as a virtue.
Perhaps his attempt to move forward looks weak to those who can't see a different world vision. I've always thought he was trying to preserve and strengthen the US. Obama is trying to shift away from winning or losing as the single resolution. But its like moving through molasses in a blizzard. US extremism around diminishing the rights of women and minorities, unrestricted ownership and use of firearms, the celebration of idiocy, ensuring the growth of wealth for a few are all desperate moves to hold on to a worldview that might well be our demise.
PD,
Ol' Leon loves to stir the pot. He's been at it a long time.
And even though I myself think that Putin is a thug and most certainly capable of doing evil things, the chess game now afoot in Crimea is an old game. Nationalist maneuverings and backdoor gamesmanship have been around for centuries. Just take a peek at a map of Europe from the 14th century. Now look at another from the 15th, then the 16th (especially the 16th!), and on up to the 20th. Countries come and go. Borders are drawn and redrawn. Austro-Hungarian Empire. Gone. Ottoman Empire. Done for. Holy Roman Empire. Morte aeterna. Prussia. Fertig.
Just look at a world map from 1917. Now look at one from 1919. Holy crap! Where did all those countries go?
So the game in the Ukraine, while slimy, is not necessarily evil.
And to everyone saying that Obama should have known about this I say Bush knew about planes ready to hit buildings--he KNEW--and did nothing. Should the European heads of state, the late 19th century chess masters, have known that world war was coming after Sarajevo? Maybe. Did they? No. No one could have said, "Oh yeah, and in a couple of years, watch what happens at the Somme."
There's a lot to know about what's going on out there. The state department and intelligence agencies after the Bush years were compromised by hacks and crippled by idiots. Even at peak operating powers, we can't possibly know everything. Every few years some prognosticator writes a book about the next big danger spot in the world. Maybe it will be. In 30 years. Or maybe 30 months. It's just too difficult to know. Could anyone have known what would have happened in Cairo a couple of years ago?
This isn't an excuse for doing nothing. We should be better informed about things. During the Bush debacle, when it would have been useful to have had Arabic speakers in our intelligence agencies, there were practically none. We had no eyes and ears on the ground in the Arab world and we did stupid, stupid things. How's that for preparation?
But let's not waste time criticizing people for not knowing things that are often unknowable. Next week, if there was an uprising in the Malay peninsula, and Singapore were overrun, some wiseguy would rip Obama for not knowing all about it and being ready. It's a tough world. We can't possibly know what's going on everywhere. We can be as prepared as possible, and try to make good decisions as events unfold, but as I mentioned yesterday, the Owl of Minerva flies only at dusk.
CW: "maybe they're into self-loathing, seeing themselves as Ryan does -- sinners in the hands of an angry God." Well....I think Christians have a tool box with few fixes where guilt and self-loathing are most accessible and most used. My observations of Jewish culture is that personal guilt doesn't carry nearly the same weight or prominence as Christianity. Same goes for the Muslims, too.
A past consideration of mine is that the prep school, Ivy League culture purposefully removes guilt and shame and replaces them with entitled privilege. And those institutions are good at it and that's why the rich buy child-rearing through the difficult teen years.
Low caste authoritarians who pose as conservatives just don't have the tools and refinement of their rich brothers and sisters. And they know it and accept their place accordingly on the social hierarchy. That's why the military has such a solid place with those folks: clear social lines of engagement and social protocols. And yes, conveniently for them if you are non-protestant and non white they get to out rank you.
Marie: I hope you get to move some place where you feel you fit and are appreciated.
I looked several times at the picture of Mitch McConnell holding that rifle (smoothbore?) at arm's length, trying to figure out why it was strange. The real thing ( musket) is pretty heavy, and would not be easy for a 70(?)-year old deskworker to heft at arm's length. I googled up another picture, different angle, and it was clear that Sen Mc was not brandishing a long gun, but a downsized, short, gun-like object. I'm sure it will shoot something, but it appears to have been made for a midget Minuteman. A real muzzle-loader .58 would be almost as tall as Sen McC. It doesn't seem to be a carbine (i.e. short-barrel), because the stock is not stubbed down.
I infer that the gun is a token, not quite a toy, designed for purposes of interior decoration.
It is a pretty object that Sen. Coburn can hang above his fireplace mantel.
Somehow fitting. A mini-musket.
So I heard something interesting on NPR this morning, about Bitcoin, the crypto-currency favored in certain libertarian circles for its complete lack of regulating intercessors. Now that it has reached a certain level of respectability it has become a target for hackers, thieves, and internetted rapscallions.
The world's largest Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox (I'm sorry, but something with a name like that deserves whatever it gets), as you no doubt have heard, is now shuttered after collapsing after an enormous currency theft.
Libertarians are always shouting that we should just give it a try. The only thing is that, every time we do, libertarian ideas just can't seem to cut it in the real world.
What to do?
Major proponents of Bitcoin are now saying that in order to succeed, in order to instill the necessary market confidence they need....wait for it...
GOVERNMENT REGULATION!!
Ha!
And they're right. If you think I'm going to trust some glitchy, hackable, completely off the books, unregulated currency exchange with anything more than Monopoly money, you're nuts. Or libertarian. So even some of the people who started this thing realize that in order for it to be anything more than a sideshow, regulation is necessary.
QED, bitches.
Patrick,
"Gun-like object"....very funny.
Oh and when you mentioned a "token...designed for purposes of interior decoration", I thought you were talking about McConnell.
My mistake. At least the gun-like object probably does something, unlike Jowly Boy.
@Re: leaving Florida: don't move to Georgia. The idiots in the legislature are pushing a law called "Guns Everywhere." Meaning there would be absolutely no restrictions on where one can pack heat.
IMO, Oregon west of the Cascades would be a good fit for you.
Of course, Marie already knows where she is going; someplace with broadband, we all hope. That said, several years ago as we approached retirement, and refuge from the North Coast winters, we spent some time exploring Florida and the upper Gulf Coast, but concluded the climate, political, that is, would be unbearable. Went West.
"[S]inners in the hands of an angry God." Ah, yes, Marie. Jonathan Edwards, the bane of American Lit students. President of Princeton. Victim of a fatal small pox vaccination. He lurks deep in the veins of our hubris, restlessly awaiting the Rapture.
James,
Wasn't Pastor Fire and Brimstone a slave owner?
Just sayin'...
Speaking of which, I read somewhere, recently, a series of film reviews by Cotton Mather (!) and he gave practically everything one star (works of Satan) except "12 Years a Slave" which he enjoyed as a comedy, except he deducted half a star because the Christian slave owner was too nice.
His spirit hovers over the faithful at CPAC this week, no doubt.
@Ak. For sure, Cotton, son of Increase, son of Richard. Where would the Salem witch trials have been without the Mather clan? Stalwarts of our exceptionalism they were, I say. Stalwarts.