;)
The Commentariat -- May 22, 2016
Michael Crowley of Politico: "Obama's visit comes at a moment when U.S. and Asian officials fear the region is entering a newly dangerous atomic future, threatening Obama's vow to roll back the spread of nuclear arms and possibly touching off an Asian nuclear arms race...Most strikingly, Pentagon planners worry that Japan and South Korea might explore developing nuclear arms of their own for the first time." --safari...
...Gardiner Harris & David Sanger of the New York Times: "When President Obama arrives [in Vietnam] early Monday, his task ... [is] to create a partnership that seemed unlikely even three years ago. Since then, China's expansion in the South China Sea has deeply shaken a new Vietnamese government. While the leadership here has not let up on its repression of its people -- the police have beaten protesters in demonstrations over an environmental disaster -- it now appears more interested in playing one superpower off against the other, perhaps even giving the Pentagon some rotating access to key Vietnamese ports.... It could throw Beijing off balance in the daily shadowboxing over who will dominate one of the world's most strategically vital waterways." -- CW
Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... over the course of [this] year, [President] Obama's approval numbers changed -- quickly, and a lot. In Gallup's most recent weekly average, Obama is at 51-45 -- the exact opposite of where he was on Jan. 1 and a 12-point swing since then. Among the groups that have seen the biggest increases in approval of Obama since last May are Hispanics, people under 30, women and people who identify their political ideology as 'independent.'" -- CW
David Atkins of the Washington Monthly: "[T]he most glaring and infuriating evidence of the willful failure to prosecute the gang of thieves and criminals on Wall Street comes from David Dayen's tremendous new book Chain of Title. Dayen recounts in painstaking, meticulous detail how the entire banking industry violated every precept of property law in what has become known as the robo-signing scandal or more neutrally the 'foreclosure crisis.'...Time and time again, Holder and the Obama Administration deliberately chose to stonewall investigations or to accept meager cash settlements for obvious illegal activity when criminal securities fraud prosecutions could easily have been undertaken." --safari
Kevin Sullivan of the Washington Post writes a compelling piece on the "patriot" movement, focusing on one particular loony-toon. CW: What is readily apparent is the inherent selfishness, greed & paranoia that drives the movement. This struck me: "He followed his mother's advice and stayed away from politics: She taught him young that registering to vote was just a way for the government to call you to jury duty." That's right: basic civic responsibilities -- voting & jury service -- are tools of government oppression. The "patriot" movement is a howling misnomer. And, as so often goes unsaid, it's racist.
Presidential Race
Lois Beckett & Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "For years seen as a losing battle, the push for gun control has become a central conflict of the 2016 presidential election, and part of a broader struggle between competing visions of policing, justice and racism in America." -- CW ...
... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "The day after Mr. Trump received the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, Mrs. Clinton assailed her probable general election rival as pandering to the group.... Speaking in a ballroom full of mothers who had lost children to gun violence, Mrs. Clinton defended her position on gun control and her promise to overhaul the criminal justice system." -- CW
Maureen Dowd: "Hillary says Sanders needs to 'do his part' to unify the party, as she did in 2008. But even on the day of the last primaries in that race, when she was the one who was mathematically eliminated unless the superdelegates turned, she came onstage to Terry McAuliffe heralding her as 'the next president of the United States.' She then touted having more votes than any primary candidate in history as her fans cheered 'Yes, she will!' and 'Denver!'" ...
... CW: Thanks, Ed! MoDo: Former Pennsylvania "Gov. Ed Rendell said Trump's obsession with '10s' and D-cups would 'come back to haunt him and give Democrats wins because 'there are probably more ugly women in America than attractive women.'"
Jill Filipovic in a Washington Post op-ed: "... Hillary has pledged that Bill wouldn't be on traditional first lady duty -- he'd be in charge of fixing the economy, not picking out the flowers and china for state dinners. But why shouldn't he pick the china? If one goal of a Hillary Clinton presidency is to challenge traditional gender roles, then her husband should flout them, too. The best way he could do that is by taking on the domestic issues facing women and children that are too often derided as 'softer' than economic or foreign policy topics -- and, yes, doing the stereotypically feminine work of party planning and decorating, too. A first man managing the White House household would be just as groundbreaking as a female president." ...
... CW: Does anybody think Bill Clinton is capable of managing the household help? Maybe he could get Ed Rendell to help him weed out all the "ugly" applicants.
Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "Doubling down on his feud with the Democratic Party leadership, Senator Bernie Sanders said that if elected president, he will not reappoint Democratic National Committee chairwoman, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. He made the comments during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper that is set to air on Sunday. Mr. Sanders also said he was supporting Tim Canova, a law professor who has begun an insurgent campaign against Ms. Wasserman Schultz for her South Florida congressional seat. They will face off in a primary this summer." -- CW
David Atkins: "Contrary to conventional wisdom, the drawn out Democratic primary and the consolidation of the Republican field behind Trump is actually helping Democrats overall by encouraging progressive voter turnout and registration in the large state contests that remain, including and especially in California...As long as Sanders stays away from personal attacks on Clinton, the ongoing primary should be a boon to Democrats in the remaining primary states." --safari
Bruenigate. Kristen East of Politico: "A progressive blogger was fired Friday for referring to a Hillary Clinton ally as a 'scumbag,' igniting a fiery social-media exchange between the two and other high-profile writers who are at odds over the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. The comment from Matt Bruenig, who wrote about philosophy and political economy at liberal think tank, Demos, came after a Twitter back-and-forth between Bruenig and Joan Walsh, a writer for The Nation, on a piece Walsh wrote, which is entitled, 'Bernie Sanders is hurting himself by playing the victim.'" -- CW ...
... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "... to many, [this contretemps] reflects something larger, the latest in a series of efforts by the forces of centrist liberalism to stifle more left-wing voices in order to serve the interests of capitalism. Or, at minimum, the latest in a series of moves by allies of Hillary Clinton to keep Bernie Sanders' political revolution down." -- CW
Gideon Resnick of The Daily Beast: "After floating a series of ridiculous Vice Presidential picks, [Ben] Carson was axed from Trump's selection team, sources close to the campaign told The Daily Beast. According to sources close to Trump's campaign, Carson was demoted after Trump specifically wanted him to head up the VP selection team. He submitted names that he thought would be valuable picks and inevitably lost his top spot days later...In the absence of a person to head up the operation, embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski stepped in and took over the spot." --safari
Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "A powerful array of the Republican Party's largest financial backers remains deeply resistant to Donald J. Trump's presidential candidacy, forming a wall of opposition that could make it exceedingly difficult for him to meet his goal of raising $1 billion before the November election. Interviews and emails with more than 50 of the Republican Party's largest donors, or their representatives, revealed a measure of contempt and distrust toward their own party's nominee that is unheard of in modern presidential politics." -- CW
Lindsey Bever of the Washington Post: "A day after Donald Trump told people at the National Rifle Association that Hillary Clinton would strip away their right to bear arms, the Republican seemed to suggest on social media that his opponent, who he thinks totes a hard line on gun control, should disarm her Secret Service team. 'Crooked Hillary wants to get rid of all guns and yet she is surrounded by bodyguards who are fully armed,' Trump tweeted Saturday morning. 'No more guns to protect Hillary!'" CW: This is the sort of ignorant absolutism Gloria discusses in today's Comments. Meanwhile, we're waiting for Drumpf to declare Mar-a-Lago a "gun-free zone." Which it ain't. Everything about the guy is fake...
...Sarah Wheaton of Politico: "With its last-minute decision to formally endorse Donald Trump, the National Rifle Association put itself out in front of the fight for Republican party unity.... But not all NRA members are eager to fall in line." Seems some members don't trust Trump's recent embrace of gun-rights absolutism. CW: As for me, I get a kick out of how Drumpf has sold himself as the only candidate who isn't beholden to "Washington lobbyists," then turns around & prostrates himself in front of the nation's most powerful lobbying firm. Everything about the guy is fake.
Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: "The American Republic stands threatened by the first overtly anti-democratic leader of a large party in its modern history -- an authoritarian with no grasp of history, no impulse control, and no apparent barriers on his will to power.... If Trump came to power, there is a decent chance that the American experiment would be over." -- CW
... AND the media will be complicit: Neal Gabler, Bill Moyers.com at Salon: "While Republicans have worked tirelessly to destroy the public's confidence in government -- to the point where government now barely functions -- they also have been working to destroy public confidence in the idea of an objective media...[because] they have an impossible time with fact and truth." -- LT
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. CW: I'm a bit late linking Steve M.'s critique of "Morning Joe"'s interview of the Call-in Guy. But you should read it anyway. These so-called Morning Joe "interviews" of the Call-in Guy are akin to the way you "interview" Uncle Fred during Thanksgiving dinner. You just let him say whatever crackpot ideas come forth because he's too irrational to try to correct. Fortunately, Uncle Fred is unlikely to become POTUS. The Call-in Guy? He has a real shot.
Beyond the Beltway
Cyper Punks. Olga Khazan of The Atlantic: "Through the early 2000s, skinheads and other groups would host dozens of events per year with hundreds of attendees, she says, but now there are only a handful of those rallies each year. Jessie Daniels, a sociologist who studies cyber racism, has also noticed that racist groups are now much more active online than in the streets. 'People online are talking about the same kinds of things that used to happen at the rallies, but now they're doing it completely through the web,'" --safari
Way Beyond
Eyes on Austria. Philip Oltermann of the Guardian: "A majority vote tonight for Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party (FPÖ) would not only confront the EU with a far-right president in its midst for the first time, butcould send Austria on a journey towards becoming an autocratic, illiberal state more akin to Viktor Orbán's Hungary than Angela Merkel's Germany." --safari
Juan Cole: "What do Israel's Arab neighbors think about the political earthquake that struck PM Binyamin Netanyahu's cabinet on Thursday and Friday? ...Making the Egyptians deal with [Avigdor] Lieberman is a slap in the face to Cairo, given that he once suggested destroying the Aswan Dam and sweeping the Egyptians into the sea...The pan-Arab leftwing London daily, al-Quds al-`Arabi, reported that circles around [Egyptian President] al-Sisi were 'shocked' at the prospect of having to work with Lieberman, and that they consider his appointment a 'red line' after he threatened them with genocide." --safari
Jon Boone & Sune Engel Rasmussen of the Guardian: "The leader of the Afghan Taliban has been killed by a US drone strike in an area of Pakistan hitherto off-limits for the remote-controlled aircraft, sources confirmed on Sunday...Mullah Mansoor had been killed by an attack in the southern Pakistani province of Balochistan in an operation involving multiple drones...The killing of the Taliban leader is likely to have major ramificationsboth for efforts to kickstart peace talks and for the often stormy relationship between the US and Pakistan." --safari
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Reader Comments (9)
Lest we forget, good ole Ed reminds us that even in the Age of Trump boorishness can afflict both parties, and that the thoughtless can always find more than one way to be "ugly."
We have been seeing articles like these about the infiltration of Saudi style Wahhabism in moderate Muslim communities around the world for some years. I commented a while ago that I believe turning a blind eye to Erdogan's increasing totalitarianism is a mistake. Turning a similarly blind eye to Middle East extremists is a catastrophe. So much money and blood was invested in fighting communism, but we get all convoluted about religious liberty when confronted by Wahhabism, which is a threat like no other. Richard Holbrooke warned of it in the Balkan States thirteen years ago. What is described in the NYT article is happening all over the Islamic world. I believe we must shut down the flow of money. Will we look back in perhaps twenty years and think the chaos the world is plunging into was worth those perfidious ME relationships? What bargaining chips do they really have? We see already the pressure their finances are under with a lower price of oil. It has always been a mistake to place religion and religionists beyond the state and beyond the law. There are over one and a half billion Muslims in countries around the world, many of whom are moderates living peacefully for centuries with their multi denominational neighbours. But we are seeing so many of these moderate societies being infiltrated by Wahhabists and money, and people recruited into a death cult aimed only at killing.
Apologies for this. We just don't need a buffoon spouting incoherent claptrap and surrounded by maniacs with the issues we are facing in the world today. Last time we tried that, it magnified the chaos and plunged the world into war and recession. I wish there were better alternatives than HRC, but we are where we are.
From the New Republic link of May 20, Elizabeth Warren certainly has her finger on the pulse of the main problems of the US economy. Other countries do these things reasonably successfully. There are plenty of precedents to look at around the world where safety nets mostly work, though that would be in that deviant Europe. Enacting these reforms would make such a difference to so many people's lives, it fees like a statement of the bleeding obvious.
I didn't see this article from The Atlantic of May 19 linked here earlier, so I hope you don't mind me linking it now. With several references, it describes trump's "..... depiction of himself as blameless, and his foes as vicious, [justifying] whatever Trump does in response". Beinart concludes by saying "Trump is Niebuhr’s nightmare: an American leader totally devoid of moral introspection. He depicts America as preyed upon by predators and crooks, and he depicts himself the same way. Thus, whatever America does—and whatever he does—is merely self-defense. Whoever suffers is merely getting what they deserve." As Beinart points out with several historical references, international politics and personal relationships are usually more nuanced and convoluted than "I'm always right, you're always wrong". The thin skinned trump's responses aren't and don't have to be proportional, reasonable or moral, and are always justified. It is this unthinking simplicity and absolutism (Might is Right) that has attracted so many passionate supporters, and is disturbing to me.
Marie - I also saw the article on the "patriot" movement, and thought as you that these people have chosen not to participate in society, but want to wage war with it (with us). They don't vote for government that will represent their views (whatever they are), or stand for election themselves. They only talk of taking up weapons to get their own way (might is right), and "tread on" everyone else. Very trump-like. What all these cons disregard is that even in a two party system, roughly 50% of the people didn't vote for the winner, and that is why compromise and negotiation are a vital part of democracy. I thought of the way environmentalists have gone about achieving their goals of cleaner air, water, habitats for various species and many things that benefit all. They didn't do it by pointing guns at farmers, foresters, miners and industrial polluters, they lobbied, founded grass roots organisations and worked for decades to educate and inform people so that laws could be enacted to achieve their goals. Of course they had coherent goals and therein lies a difference.
David Farenthold in the WaPo re Trump's fundraising for vets last fall:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-said-he-raised-6-million-for-vets-now-his-campaign-says-it-was-less/2016/05/20/871127a8-1d1f-11e6-b6e0-c53b7ef63b45_story.html?hpid=hp_special-topic-chain_trumpvets621pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
He can't/won't provide an account for either side of the ledger, and basically says that he doesn't have to account.
There is no grant application method by which vet organizations can apply for the money; any distributions appear to be based on Trump's largess.
A large percentage of the donor shortfall, by inference, seems to be attributable to Trump not honoring his own $1 million pledge.
Trump and his campaign say its all over, nothing to see here, move on.
This is a micro-version of the entirety of Trumpism. Looks classy until you actually look at it, and when people do look at it DJT declares it's all someone else's fault/problem and walks away.
By the way, since GOPers think "Waste, Fraud and Abuse" are endemic to government, this style may just be Trump's way of showing them he understands how government works!
BILL & ED'S ENTERTAINMENT ENTERPRISE:
Apply Here:
China pickers
Flower arrangers
Party planners
Decorating whatever
All interested (and interesting) D cup women are encouraged to come forward although we will consider A cups if pressed.
Kevin Sullivan's excellent reporting on the COCG group featuring the whipper snapper B.J. Soper was revealing to say the least. CW's remarks about Soper's mother's influence was key––government not to be trusted like perhaps a bad father who was never there for the family. Yet the irony here is that B.J.'s faith in the words, at least the way he interprets them, in the constitution is sacred. Sullivan doesn't mention the religious leanings of Soper nor of the group's affiliation, but I bet it's Christian fervor all the way––believing in ancient myths, but not their own country's ways and means. Yet here is someone along with his group that is involved in decent civic activities like picking up trash and feeding the poor.
Last night watched "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", the old 1939 Frank Capra film. Having seen bits and pieces of it, but never watched the whole film I was struck by its similarities to our day and age. I was interested in how this film was received back then and dug up a review in the NYT by a Frank Nugent who wrote a very positive take on it. One of my favorite characters was Harry Carey (don't we use those words to mean chaos? Kinda like "Henny Penny, the sky is falling, ala Rumsfeld) who plays the President of the Senate whose expressions of "Well, finally these sombitches are getting their due and I love it!" is pure delight.
"For Mr. Capra is a believer in democracy as well as a stout-hearted humorist. Although he is subjecting the Capitol's bill-collectors to a deal of quizzing and to a scrutiny which is not always tender, he still regards them with affection and hope as the implements, however imperfect they may be, of our kind of government. Most directors would not have attempted to express that faith otherwise than in terms of drama or melodrama. Capra, like the juggler who performed at the Virgin's shrine, has had to employ the only medium he knows. And his comedy has become, in consequence, not merely a brilliant jest, but a stirring and even inspiring testament to liberty and freedom, to simplicity and honesty and to the innate dignity of just the average man." ––––Frank Nugent 1939
RE: Atkin's piece on David Dayen's "Chain of Title": From what I understand was that after Obama was sworn in, he was cautioned by Geithner not to go after high finance too hard. Geithner worried about imperilling the fragile recovery,and he wanted to coax financiers into accepting other industry reforms. Obama had wanted to change the so called Billionaire tax loophole ( which by the way has withstood every effort at reform) as one of his signature issues before the financial meltdown. Why Holder didn't push for rounding up the usual suspects I don't know. Interesting comments follow this Atkin's piece––so complicated but one thing is clear: A lot of people were responsible for this financial crisis, but very few have paid the price.
Full Disclosure & Random Bits
Whenever I elect to read the columns of Moron Dowd, it is to shamelessly delight in Schadenfreude, inspired both by her "journalism" and the comments of like-minded readers.
In today's offering, Dowd alludes to ". . . Hillary's age."
I believe Clinton is 68 & Moron is 64.
Also -
"It must be hard for Hillary to look at all the pictures of young women swooning over Bernie as though he were Bieber."
I dunno: Was it was "hard" for Dowd to be passed-over by Michael Douglas for Catherine Zeta-Jones, nearly 20 years her junior?
Dowd was awarded The Pulitzer for her series of Clinton (POTUS) columns, in which she excoriated Monica Lewinsky.
Ophelia says:
"Female Misogyny Is *Not* An Oxymoron."
"Our Water, Our Future": Voters in Oregon Defeat Nestlé's Attempt to Privatize Their Water
"The issue that brought conservatives and progressives together in this way was clear-cut: keeping Nestlé Waters North America from building a water bottling plant and extracting over 118 million gallons annually from a spring in a small, rural community 45 miles east of Portland."
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/36129-our-water-our-future-voters-in-oregon-defeat-nestle-s-attempt-to-privatize-their-water