;)
Tuesday
May272014
The Commentariat -- May 28, 2014
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama plans to use a speech at the West Point military academy on Wednesday to lay out a foreign policy vision for his final two-and-a-half years in office, defending his approach against a wave of criticism that he has been too passive on the world stage."
Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama said on Tuesday that he planned to withdraw the last combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2016, declaring that 'it’s time to turn the page on a decade in which so much of our foreign policy was focused on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.' Under the plan, outlined by Mr. Obama in the Rose Garden, the United States would leave 9,800 troops in Afghanistan after 2014, but cut that number by half in 2015. By the end of 2016, it would keep only a vestigial force to protect the embassy in Kabul and help the Afghans with military purchases and other security matters":
Unwarranted Optimism Trumps Reality -- Again. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama has directed the secretary of Homeland Security to delay until after the summer a deportation enforcement review that officials feared would anger House Republicans and doom any lingering hopes for an immigration overhaul in Congress this year, officials said Tuesday night. Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, has spent the last two months searching for ways that the president could legally shield some of the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally from deportation."
Robert Barnes & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court gave greater protection Tuesday to death row inmates seeking to prove they should not be executed because they are intellectually disabled, and it ruled that laws such as those in Florida and Virginia are too rigid. The court ruled 5 to 4 that state laws that draw a bright line on IQ-test results are unconstitutional. Under those laws, an inmate who scores above 70 on the test does not meet the first step of proving that he or she is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for the death penalty." ...
... Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog: "The main opinion relied heavily upon medical learning about the nature of intellectual disability -- the phrase the Court adopted from that community, replacing the traditional phrase it had previously used, 'mental retardation.' The ruling ... stressed that any use of [IQ] scores must always take into account the 'inherent' imprecision of such scores, and commended those states that go beyond test scores to use more standards of clinical measure to determine such incapacity." ...
... The decision by Justice Kennedy, & Justice Alito's dissent are here. Alito is appalled that "elites" now have the power to make life-&-death decisions when these should be left up to the bloodthirsty "American people" & their vengeful/afraid-to-lose-the-next-election representatives. ...
... Noah Feldman in Bloomberg View: "The trouble is, each time the Supreme Court limits the death penalty, it offers an implicit justification for preserving it in most cases. The decision in this case accepts the argument that it's inhumane to execute people who don't fully comprehend what they've done or why they're being punished. In so doing, it implies that a murderer who does comprehend his crimes deserves to die."
Lyle Denniston: "In an opinion filled with chilling, repeated references to being within shooting or grenade-throwing distance of the president, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Tuesday that the Secret Service did not engage in unconstitutional censorship when its agents moved protesters out of range of a president [Bush II] as he dined on an outdoor restaurant patio."
Eric Cline in a New York Times op-ed: "... climate change has been leading to global conflict — and even the collapse of civilizations -- for more than 3,000 years. Drought and famine led to internal rebellions in some societies and the sacking of others, as people fleeing hardship at home became conquerors abroad. One of the most vivid examples comes from around 1200 B.C. A centuries-long drought in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean regions, contributed to -- if not caused -- widespread famine, unrest and ultimately the destruction of many once prosperous cities, according to four recent studies.... But there is one important difference. The Late Bronze Age civilizations collapsed at the hands of Mother Nature. It remains to be seen if we will cause the collapse of our own." Also, Jim Inhofe is an idiot.
** Ezra Klein: "As appalling as the wait times are for VA care, the people living in states that refused the Medicaid expansion aren't just waiting too long for care. They're not getting it at all. They're going completely uninsured when federal law grants them comprehensive coverage. Many of these people will get sick and find they can't afford treatment and some of them will die. Many of the victims here, by the way, are also veterans." Klein lists the states that are denying healthcare coverage to poor citizens & estimates how many are eligible for coverage they are not receiving; e.g.,Florida: "Obamacare's Medicaid expansion would provide 1,212,000 poor Floridians with comprehensive health insurance, including 41,200 veterans. But the state has refused to let the expansion go forward."
Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post: Richard Martinez, the father of Christopher Michaels-Martinez, one of the victims in the Isla Vista/Santa Barbara rampage, is "asking members of Congress to stop calling him to offer condolences but nothing more for the death of his only child.... 'I don't care about your sympathy. I don't give a s--- that you feel sorry for me,' Richard Martinez said during an extensive interview, his face flushed as tears rolled down his face. 'Get to work and do something. I'll tell the president the same thing if he calls me. Getting a call from a politician doesn't impress me.'" Here are excerpts from the interview.
Cliff Schecter of the Daily Beast: "The firearms fanboys have been more creative than usual, scrambling to defend their precious weapons in the wake of the massacre in Santa Barbara. It's only made their excuses lamer." CW: an excellent piece that destroys the usual gun-nut arguments. Of course facts & reason won't shut 'em up ...
Your dead kids don't trump my Constitutional rights.... Any feelings you have toward my rights being taken away from me, lose those. -- Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher in an open "letter of condolence" to the parents whose children died in the Santa Barbara killings ...
... AND, thanks to a comment by Akhilleus, I guess we should hear from Todd Kincannon, South Carolina mole person.
** Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: An FTC report, issued Tuesday, "provided an unusually detailed account of the system of commercial surveillance that draws on government records, shopping habits and social-media postings to help marketers hone their advertising pitches. Officials said the intimacy of these profiles would unnerve some consumers who have little ability to track what's being collected or how it's used — or even to correct false information. The FTC called for legislation to bring transparency to the multibillion-dollar industry and give consumers some control over how their data is used." ...
... CW: While governmental domestically spying is potentially more dangerous to individuals than is commercial spying, the current level of legal "commercial surveillance" certainly has a more direct impact on people's lives.
Annals of Journalism, Ctd.
Washington Post critic Ann Hornaday responds to criticisms of her column:
Ken Auletta of the New Yorker is not giving up. He does a forensic analysis of the he-said/she-said re: the New York Times' firing of executive editor Jill Abramson. Auletta doesn't buy the claim that publisher Arthur Sulzberger fired Abramson because she lied about telling another top editor about a hiring decision.
Margaret Sullivan, the New York Times' public editor, & Pamela Paul, the Times Book Review editor, kind of get into it over Michael Kinsley's negative review of Glenn Greenwald's book.
As long as I'm attorney general, no reporter who is doing his job is going to go to jail. As long as I'm attorney general, someone who is doing their job is not going to get prosecuted. -- Eric Holder, in a meeting with reporters yesterday ...
... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. hinted Tuesday that the Justice Department might choose not to jail a New York Times reporter [James Risen] for defying a subpoena forcing him to discuss his confidential sources -- even as the Obama administration continues to pursue the right to do so before the Supreme Court."
... Tracy Connor of NBC News: "Edward Snowden, in an exclusive interview with 'Nightly News' anchor Brian Williams, blamed the State Department for stranding him in Russia, saying he 'never intended' to wind up there....Secretary of State John Kerry hit back in a live interview on 'Today.' 'For a supposedly smart guy, that's a pretty dumb answer, frankly," Kerry said. "If Mr. Snowden wants to come back to the United States today, we'll have him on a flight today.'" ...
... Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Fugitive former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden said in his first U.S. network television interview that he was 'trained as a spy' and rejected the notion that he was a low-level operative."
Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Hector Xavier Monsegur, who by the US government's calculations participated in computer hacker attacks on more than 250 public and private entities at a cost of up to $50m in damages, was released from a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday after the judge saluted his 'extraordinary cooperation' with the FBI. Monsegur, or 'Sabu' as the celebrated hacker was known, was sentenced to time served -- equivalent to the seven months he spent in prison last year -- plus a year's supervised release, in reward for having spent much of the past three years working as a federal informant. He had been facing a maximum sentence according to official guidelines of more than 26 years."
Jay Newton-Small of Time: "In one of the most overtly political speeches during her tenure as First Lady, [Michelle] Obama slammed Republicans on Tuesday for trying to weaken school nutritional standards, one of her key policy achievements." ...
... CW: I can't listen to it, but I think this video includes Obama's remarks.
The State of Republican "Leadership." Sean Sullivan: "Phil Robertson, the controversial star of the hit TV show 'Duck Dynasty' will address the upcoming Republican Leadership Conference on Thursday."
Randall Balmer in Politico: The real origins of today's religious right was not Roe v. Wade, as fundamentalists now claim; the movement began for the purpose of protecting the private, white segregated schools that were the response to Brown v. Board of Education. ...
... Remembering Reagan. When the [segregated Bob Jones University's] appeal finally reached the Supreme Court in 1982, the Reagan administration announced that it planned to argue in defense of Bob Jones University and its racial policies. A public outcry forced the administration to reconsider; Reagan backpedaled by saying that the legislature should determine such matters, not the courts. The Supreme Court's decision in the case, handed down on May 24, 1983, ruled against Bob Jones University in an 8-to-1 decision. Three years later Reagan elevated the sole dissenter, William Rehnquist, to chief justice of the Supreme Court. -- Randall Balmer
Reagan's fallback position is a perfect example of employing the "states' rights" or "Tenthers" argument to provide cover for all manner of bigotry, cruelty & anti-social policy. Just as Southerners claim states' rights were the "real reason" for the Civil War, Justice Alito -- in his dissent in Hall v. Florida published yesterday -- argued that "laws enacted by state legislatures" should determine who gets the death penalty, while Chief Justice Roberts decided a few years ago that individual states should decide who gets life-saving health insurance & who doesn't. (See Ezra Klein's column, linked above.) -- Constant Weader
Senate Races
Say Anything, Do Anything. Joe Sonka of LEO Weekly: Mitch McConnell doubles down on his outlandish, fact-averse claim that Kentucky's health exchange is "unconnected" to ObamaCare & could survive if the GOP is successful in repealing the Affordable Care Act. "... this might also be a good opportunity for Alison Lundergan Grimes to get off of the sidelines and actually talk about health care with the media and voters so they know exactly what McConnell is trying to do, and have an honest conversation about what she would do. Or, she can continue staying out of this fight, and just hope for the best. Your call, Alison.
Tom Kludt of TPM: Long-shot South Dakoka GOP Senate candidate Annette Bosworth covered the room where she held a press conference with sexist epithets critics had used against her. Bosworth said, in a statement, "The Democrats talk about a war on women, but much of what you see is written by the supposedly tolerant liberals. Their message is clear: conservative women are fair game. If you are a female and a Republican, anything goes." ...
... Erin Ryan of Jezebel comments.
Congressional Race
Nolan Feeney of Time: "The oldest elected politician in Washington lost a runoff election in a Republican primary Tuesday night. Texas Rep. Ralph Hall, 91, was ousted by 48-year-old John Ratcliffe, who emphasized the importance of new leadership after Hall's 34 years in office...."
Gubernatorial Race
Payback. Brendan Fischer of PR Watch: "The federal judge who ordered a halt to Wisconsin's 'John Doe' criminal investigation into [Scott Walker's] spending during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections has regularly attended all-expenses paid 'judicial junkets' funded by the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and other ideological and corporate interests.... Judge [Rudolph] Randa ... ordered prosecutors to destroy all evidence gathered in the investigation, an extraordinary edict in a criminal case made even more astounding by the fact that it came in the context of a preliminary injunction. The Seventh Circuit has blocked this part of his ruling; an appeal of the remainder of his decision is pending.... The Bradley Foundation's President and CEO, Michael Grebe, chaired Scott Walker's 2010 and 2012 gubernatorial campaigns. Walker's 2012 campaign is under investigation in the John Doe for allegedly illegal coordination." CW: Randa is a Bush I appointee.
Texas Primary Elections
Brandi Grissom of the Texas Tribune: "Tea Party-backed candidate state Sen. Dan Patrick became the Republican candidate for Texas lieutenant governor on Tuesday, soundly defeating three-time incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in a bitterly fought runoff election." Grissom also reports the results of other Texas elections.
Beyond the Beltway
Monica Davey of the New York Times: "A task force convened by the Obama administration issued the most detailed study yet of blight in Detroit on Tuesday and recommended that the city spend at least $850 million to quickly tear down about 40,000 dilapidated buildings, demolish or restore tens of thousands more, and clear thousands of trash-packed lots. It also said that the hulking remains of factories that dot Detroit, crumbling reminders of the city's manufacturing prowess, must be salvaged or demolished, which could cost as much as $1 billion more."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Maya Angelou, the memoirist and poet whose landmark book of 1969, 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' -- which describes in lyrical, unsparing prose her childhood in the Jim Crow South -- was among the first autobiographies by a 20th-century black woman to reach a wide general readership, died on Wednesday in her home. She was 86 and lived in Winston-Salem, N.C."
New York Times: "The Army ousted the commander of one of its busiest hospitals and suspended three top deputies on Tuesday after two patients in their 20s unexpectedly died in the past 10 days, shortly after they sought treatment at the hospital's emergency room."
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Reader Comments (10)
Regarding the SCOTUS ruling that it was okay for protesters to have been moved to another zip code so as not to bother King George with any tiresome shows of outrage over any one of his many horrific policies, I would not be surprised that had the president in question been the current occupant, at least five justices would have no problem letting protesters don aprons and serve the gazpacho while screaming in his ear. Because freedom.
Or something.
Those infamous Bush "security bubbles" which made sure he never had to interact with any Americans whose views differed from his always reminded me of the essential totalitarian nature of that administration, the worst in the history of the nation.
Ken & Ak. How do you teach the filtering skills needed in today's society? --JJG
A day late with this assignment, I know, so I expect to be marked down accordingly.
Don't have the whole answer, JJG, but do have a few hints, one from my second grade grandson who has recently studied advertising in the media and learned some of the tricks of the trade. When I asked him last night the tricks he could remember included "repetition," "emotion," and the use of "celebrities" to sell a product. He hasn't got it all figured out yet, but sounds like he's on the path to understanding that the explicit "message" is always packaged in layers of implicit meaning.
A more direct answer lies in our culture's uneasy relationship with scientific method. We accept it when it provides us with a goodie or solves an immediate, practical problem, but beyond that we toss inquiry, open-mindedness and reflection out the window. To a large degree, it's a matter of comfort. There are a lot of things we don't want to hear or think about, like climate change and the carrying capacity of the earth. Instead we filter them by ignoring them. As adults we continue to play a game of let's pretend.
To counter that pretense, we should be teaching our children to question everything, to adopt skepticism as a way of life (like your own father strongly suggested), and apply empirical standards of proof to any claim. No doubt, applying the methods of rational inquiry to any set of beliefs or established practice is disruptive; hence half our states' reluctance to allow evolution or any discussion of the harmful effects of fossil fuel consumption into the classroom.
So the answer to the question is relatively easy to come up with but very hard to implement. I used to think it was a matter of intelligence. Smart people get it; dumb ones don't. But I was very wrong about that. I know some very smart (by common definition), mature (again by common definition) people who in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary choose to believe absolutely ridiculous things. These are the same people, of course, who cannot tolerate ridicule, a sure sign that they don't have any interest in learning how wrong they and their filters might be. Their psychology's defenses were formed early.
The challenge to teaching the filtering skills we all need is that by the time they're adults, people like their filters and don't want to change them. So the answer is to teach our children more rational inquiry skills in the early grades, teach them to apply those skills and methods to everything they encounter from classroom to playground, even into their life at home, that is mess with their heads, and be prepared to deal with the predictable social disruptions that will ensue. Teach them all to live a little on the outside, observing everything, collecting evidence, understanding conclusions are best left tentative--and the hardest task of all, teach them to apply those same skills to themselves...
Something I'm still working on.
To try to figure out the sources that influence popular culture is hardly "masterbatory." Most often we're probably dealing with a chicken-&-egg effect.
Of one thing I can be sure, whatever parts of popular culture influenced Rodger to carry out his murderous fantasies, his BMW was not likely among them. His parents were not wealthy (he resented that), & the BMW was used, not new. It was probably a divorce-guilt gift -- hardly an unusual phenomenon or one that would lead the typical young giftee to plan & commit mass murder. So if there's any masterbatory thinking here, it's exactly the opposite of what one commenter suggested. The BMW was not the cause; it was not even part of the cause.
Marie
From yesterday's discussion re: the Roger shootings and the speculative reasons for such sickness I recalled this this bit from 2011:
** David Rothkopf of Foreign Policy: "... no society that holds itself up as an example to the world should, as the United States does, brazenly shrug off what are clearly deep national character flaws when it comes to our love of guns or our celebration of hate politics. Tragedies like that which unfolded in Arizona this weekend not only wound the victims, but also America's ability to lead and to advance our interests and values worldwide.... We are not talking about the aberrant behavior of a lone gunman here. Instead we should see that what we are discussing are grossly uncivilized aspects of American society, aspects of ourselves that we ought to change not because we fall below international norms, but because we fall so short of doing what is right, moral, or sensible."
Thinking about the various filtering systems used by some to scrub information before dumping it into their database, I can only wonder at the amazing filtration (must be super industrial strength) required to hear the responses by GOP spokespeople (official or not) to the outpouring of grief by a father whose son had been senselessly murdered at Isla Vista.
Here's Todd Kincannon, former Executive Director of the South Carolina Republican Party:
"Fuck him. He (Martinez) is a piece of shit. His tragedy sucks, but he blamed me for it and wants to take away my rights. The guy is trying to take away my rights to protect my family. Fuck him every day of the week and twice on Sunday."
"A piece of shit" Todd?? Remember this guy ran the GOP for the entire state. Ex-ec-u-tive Di-rec-tor.
Right Wing Icon Joe (Wurzelbacher) the Plumber:
"...your dead kids don’t trump my Constitutional rights."
Nice, Joe. Joe would also prefer that Mr. Martinez' first amendment rights not trump his as well, 'cause that's the kind of "American" he is.
The day after the killings, a California GOP state senate candidate, Tony Strickland, released a robocall message to voters touting his undiminished support for gun ownership and the NRA.
Can't waste any opportunity to take the high ground, now, can we?
An "expert" on a Fox show, "Justice with Judge Jeanine", psychologist Robi Ludwig, someone who did not know nor had ever examined or even met Eliot Rodger, blamed the "homosexual impulses" for the murders and for Chris Martinez' death. The idea is that Rodger was a closet homosexual who killed men like Martinez for not falling in love with him.
Because aren't gays to blame for everything?
These are just a few of the incredible responses from conservatives to a the work of a serial killer. The comments on right-wing websites by GOP voters and 'baggers are even more foul and abusive.
What kind of filters do you need to read these responses and say to yourself, "Right on, man. You speak the truth", or to even think any of these people have a point? Those are some pretty powerful filters. If basic human emotions are effectively filtered out, and not just filtered but somehow transmogrified into perceived attacks on one's life, more complicated issues like global warming, evolution, and voting rights don't stand a chance.
We're dealing with insane people here.
"To counter that pretense,[the games of "let's pretend"] we should be teaching our children to question everything,..."
Ken: You bet! Loved your post –– have tried for a good part of my life to communicate that to my students, my children and their children. In the latter case it becomes somewhat tricky when it comes to religion, (my atheist sons married Catholics), but my questions keep coming and those young minds take it up. My ten year old grandson is already on his way–––figured out early on there was no Santa (did this by calculating time it would take to circle the world, lack of chimneys and finding out reindeers can't fly) and from there figured out there is no such thing as a heaven and when people die they die and don't come back as something else.
So yes, Ken––mess with their heads–-keep them on that edge––it takes some skill, but the rewards are endless.
When I first heard that the investigation into Scott Walker's "possible" illegal election activities had been stopped by a Walker/Koch flunky judge, I wasn't really surprised. What did surprise me was that he also ordered, likely on the recommendation of the Kochs, that all materials collected by the prosecutors be turned over and destroyed. This is pretty audacious stuff, even for the Kochs, but they're pretty much used to getting what they want, or buying it.
So much for the independence of the judicial process. If the Kochs don't like it, it goes. A higher court at first overruled Judge Randa (the flunky) but now that he has made some ridiculous finding that everything the Kochs don't like is frivolous, the order to kill the case and burn the evidence is back in effect.
At least so it seems.
Everyone knows that this sort of thing, undue influence by the rich and the powerful into legal proceedings they find inconvenient, has been going on for all time, but in this situation, the brazenness of the whole thing is jaw dropping.
A bought and paid for Koch pol, Gov. Walker, illegally uses Koch support and money to win a recall election, then an investigation into those illegalities is killed by a judge in the pocket of the Kochs, everyone skates away, and its business as usual. Kochs win another.
Increasingly, when I think of the noxious Kochs, I picture that icon of political money and power from the 30's, Edward Arnold in scenes like this:
The Koch Way.
A different kind of Koch Machine.
Ak: "We're dealing with insane people here." Indeed we are, and these people own firearms.
As someone pointed out, the Preamble to the Constitution includes the prhrase "promote the common Welfare" and the Declaration of Independence includes "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". Neither document says "gun owners only."
I don't buy that your rights are the only ones that count. What about the rest of us? I owned a gun until three months ago. I got rid of it. I don't need it. And dollars to doughnuts 90% of those packin' yahoos don't either. "Defend myself and my family??" Give me a break. It's a whole 'nother ball game when the target shoots back or shoots first. In spite of what you see on the teevee, when you get hit you don't miraculously get better, if ever.
These people make me sick.
Re: Jerk off/in a BMW; Yesterday I posted with warning my opinion that the parents of a confused kid are not helping by buying the kid a BMW. They upgraded the kid's ride so he would feel better about himself. Basically buying into the same old material trap; "If I just had the right car I'd be popular." Now I am reading,"the BMW was used, not new." Jez, Mom, a used BMW?
No wonder I'm such a loser! Mom could have bought him a Yugo and my response would still be the same; buying shit for kids is not quality child rearing; my opinion, you're just supporting the corporate lies that push the idea that money and the things that money buy bring happiness. "the BMW was used..." WTF Marie what did you drive in college?
@AK: Thanks for the black & white flickers––them Hollywood pichures sure packed a punch–-Cooper and Stewart portraying the honorable heroes fighting those greedy Koch-like look-alikes while Stanwick and Arthur (two of my favorites) cheered them on.Watching those old films always gives me a special tingle even though it's only up the back of one leg. Was that child labor we saw in the newsroom? Stewart was a Republican and not crazy about government's largesse and Cooper played the architect in "The Fountainhead," (not there's anything wrong with that) based on Ayn Rand's little novel with Stanwick again as the love object–-this time rather ruthless, if I recall. Back then we always won, didn't we? the good guys prevailed and the bad guys got their just desserts. What a difference a century makes.