;)
Thursday
May282015
The Commentariat -- May 29, 2015
All internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Owen Gibson of the Guardian: "Despite the chaos and controversy engulfing world football's governing body, Fifa president Sepp Blatter has secured a fifth term in charge. The 79-year-old defeated his rival, the Jordanian Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein, to whoops and cheers from his supporters. Blatter polled 133 votes to Prince Ali's 73, which would have been enough to take the contest to a potential second round but his 39-year-old challenger withdrew."
Julie Davis of the New York Times: "The Obama administration on Friday removed Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a crucial step in normalizing ties between Washington and Havana and the latest progress in President Obama's push to thaw relations between the United States and the island nation. Secretary of State John F. Kerry rescinded Cuba's designation as a terrorism sponsor at the end of a 45-day congressional notification period that began on April 14, when Mr. Obama announced his intention to remove Cuba from the list."
Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "A day after a recanvass of the ballot boxes left him still trailing by 83 votes, James R. Comer, the Kentucky agriculture commissioner, conceded the Republican primary race for governor on Friday to Matt Bevin, a wealthy Louisville businessman and Tea Party favorite."
*****
... The underlying story will be juicier than the indictment. Mark Berman & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "J. Dennis Hastert, the longest serving Republican speaker in the U.S. House, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges that he violated banking laws in a bid to pay $3.5 million because of 'past misconduct' against an unnamed individual from their hometown west of Chicago.... The indictment did not spell out the exact nature of the 'prior misconduct' by Hastert against the individual from his hometown, Yorkville, but noted that before entering politics in 1981, Hastert spent more than a decade as a teacher and wrestling coach at the local high school. The unnamed individual has known Hastert for most of that person's life, the indictment states." CW: So, screwing a high-school kid. ...
... John Stanton of BuzzFeed broke the story. ...
... The indictment is here. ...
... Monica Davey of the New York Times: "Mr. Hastert ... was providing money to an unnamed person in order to 'compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct' against that person, according to a federal indictment issued by the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. The indictment says that Mr. Hastert ... paid $1.7 million to the person from 2010 to 2014. Since 2012, the indictment alleges, Mr. Hastert had begun structuring withdrawals of less than $10,000 from various accounts to avoid bank reporting requirements as he made the payments. And in late 2014, Mr. Hastert told federal agents that he was not paying anyone with the money, but was keeping the withdrawals for himself." ...
... Justin Moyer & Fred Barbash of the Washington Post: "Indeed, there was far more media interest in what the indictment didn't say than in what it did.... What kind of 'misconduct' could the Republican from Illinois been a part of as a coach and teacher?" ...
BuzzFeed: "U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Fardon agreed to withhold details of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's alleged 'prior misconduct' against an unidentified individual as part of an indictment against the Illinois Republican, two sources familiar with the case told BuzzFeed News.... Fardon had originally been prepared to move forward with a much more explicit indictment of Hastert...." ...
... Steve M.: "I'd like to be irresponsible and note that rumors about Hastert were being spread in 2006, the last full year of his term as as House Speaker.... At the Huffington Post, Lawrence O'Donnell insinuated that Hastert and a male top aide were more than friends." AMERICAblog's John Aravosis had heard the rumors, too. The rumors began to circulate as a result of the Mark Foley scandal. Foley, a Florida GOP Congressman, had a penchant for male House pages.
Christi Parsons & Brian Bennett of the Los Angeles Times: "The National Security Agency will mothball its mammoth archive of Americans' telephone records, isolating the computer servers where they are stored and blocking investigators' access, but will not destroy the database if its legal authority to collect the material expires on schedule this Sunday, officials said Thursday." ...
... ** To What End? Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "... the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent agency created by Congress, studied classified reports about how the [bulk records collection] program had been used and what the government considered to be its greatest success stories. The board found no instances in which it had been abused, but also none in which it stopped a terrorist attack."
"Bite Me." Hamilton Nolan of Gawker: "Dick Fuld was the head of the investment bank Lehman Bros. in 2008 when the bank collapsed in the biggest bankruptcy in history, kicking off the worst part of the financial crisis. Who can say if Dick Fuld ever did anything 'wrong?' Not Dick Fuld!... As the Wall Street Journal reports..., 'When asked why he didn't simply ride off into the sunset after Lehman's collapse, Mr. Fuld responded, 'Why don't you just bite me?'"
Greg Sargent: If President Obama signed into law Ron Johnson's (R-Wis.) so-called ObamaCare fix (or any of the other GOP version thereof, "A new issue brief from the American Academy of Actuaries finds that the GOP contingency fix plans could actually result in more disruptions to the insurance markets." What a surprise. ...
... Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post: Ron Johnson "says 'The Lego Movie' is part of an 'insidious' propaganda campaign against business owners." Read the whole post. If he weren't a U.S. senator, Johnson would be a just a dimwitted cliche, quite fit as the model for the sort of movie villain who is the source of his complaint. If you wondered, BTW, how suck a dumb cluck could be a "self-made millionaire," Grim has the answer. Also, thanks again, Dick Morris! ...
... CW: In case you're still not convinced Johnson is a clueless boob, read his response to Grim's post. Ron's thesis notwithstanding, there's no hint whatever in Grim's column that he has no idea that fat cats are often portrayed in films as villains.
Paul Krugman: "... it's startling how little room for error there is in many American lives.... There is no such thing as perfect security, but American families could easily have much more security than they have. All it would take is for politicians and pundits to stop talking blithely about the need to cut 'entitlements' and start looking at the way their less-fortunate fellow citizens actually live."
Amtrak has some infrastructure that is so old it was built and put into service when Jesse James and Butch Cassidy were still alive and robbing trains. -- Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
In Connecticut we have a bridge that was built when Grover Cleveland was president. -- Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct.) ...
Gail Collins: "Everybody knows that the government can waste money.... But making money-losing links between different parts of the theoretically United States doesn't seem to be in that category. Fix Amtrak. Connect the country." ...
... Ron Nixon of the New York Times: "Since the days when Jesse James robbed trains in the Old West, obscure police forces run by the nation's railroads have operated with the power to make arrests, issue warrants and perform undercover work.These railroad police officers, who have been licensed by states, have been accused of physical assaults, racial profiling and harassment of railroad employees.... The records and interviews show that there have been numerous complaints and dozens of lawsuits filed against railroad police officers in recent years. While police departments across the country face increasing scrutiny and demand for reform after several cases of brutality, the railroad authorities appear to operate with near impunity.... Since 2009, the railroad police have arrested more than 300 residents in Overtown, a predominantly black neighborhood in Miami, on charges of trespassing. Nearly 90 percent of those charges have been dismissed."
Joe Conason, in Politico, & Jim Fallows of the Atlantic defend their long-time friend Sid Blumenthal.
Neil McFarquhar & Andrew Roth of the New York Times: Russian "President Vladimir V. Putin sought to transform the burgeoning scandal over corruption in soccer's international governing body into an extension of the confrontation between Russia and the West on Thursday, accusing the United States of global overreach while invoking the fates of Edward J. Snowden and Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder.... He used the moment to again portray Russia as under siege -- in this case threatened with the humiliating loss of the right to host the 2018 World Cup, a move considered unlikely." ...
Will Hobson & Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "Chuck Blazer ... cooperated with the federal investigation into FIFA after he pleaded guilty to crimes including racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering and tax evasion in November 2013." Blazer, a U.S. soccer official, wore a wire & provided evidence that may be used in the cases against FIFA officials.
... "The Human Toll of FIFA's Corruption." Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post (May 27): "The decision to award the 2022 World Cup to the rich Gulf state [of Qatar] with a terrible human rights record was a controversial one right out of the gate. There have been extensive allegations of bribery.... Human rights advocates' worst fears about Qatar seemed to be confirmed as Qatar began building the infrastructure to host the Cup, and reports of migrant worker deaths started to pile up. The numbers, to the extent that we know them, appear startling.... It is hard to know how many of those are specifically World Cup associated."
Carol Morello of the Washington Post: A piece of Iran's "evidence" that WashPo reporter Jason Rezaian is a U.S. spy: he once applied online for a job in the Obama administration. (He got a form-letter rejection.)
AP: Gokul Venkatachalam and Vanya Shivashankar tied to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Vanya's sister Kavya won the title in 2009. "Fourteen-year-old Cole Shafer-Ray of Norman, Oklahoma, making his first appearance in the finals, finished third."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
Adam Lerner of Politico: "A Pennsylvania newspaper [-- the Daily Item of Sunbury --] has apologized for publishing a letter to the editor calling for President Barack Obama to be executed.... The nearly 78-year-old paper wrote that it was prompted to apologize by reader outrage." The editorial board wrote that the editor who submitted the letter for publication didn't see anything wrong with it: "no bells & whistles went off." In future the board said the paper will opt for "a higher standard for civil discourse." Very nice.
CW: The other day, I complained about Jonathan Topaz of Politico's lede (and theme): "These weren't your everyday Americans who came out to support Bernie Sanders on Tuesday." Driftglass liked it as much as I did:
Just shoot me right now.... I don't know Jonathan Topaz, nor do I know much about his work. His bio is that of a smart, shining young man out of the Ivy League with a pretty cool name, but this passage should be a career-killer. What, pray tell, young Jonathan, do 'everyday Americans' look like? Perhaps like the Duggars of Springdale, Arkansas? The hayshaking Bible-banging cultists whom I saw gather in Iowa earlier this spring? Sheldon Adelson? But Jonathan should not bear the punishment alone. Every editor, sub-editor, and researcher who read this and didn't say, 'Holy hell, this is some cheap bullshit right here. It's beneath even our standards!' also should find their careers taking on water...
Presidential Race
Patrick Healy of the New York Times: Bernie Sanders is a hit with a good number of voters of his own generation. ...
... Annie Karni of Politico: "One candidate is 73, with a shock of wispy white hair and a famously rumpled demeanor that makes him look more like a mad scientist than a politician.... The other is central casting's image of a presidential candidate: square-jawed, athletic-looking and 52 years old -- the ideal age that Fortune 500 companies look for in a CEO and that voters find appealing in a president. But ... it's Sanders ... that Democratic strategists and Clinton insiders expect to pose a bigger threat to the former secretary of state than the mainstream O'Malley, who has been trying to build a national constituency by positioning himself slightly to her left." ...
... Tim Murphy of Mother Jones profiles young Bernie. Entertaining. (If you can't get to the page directly -- I couldn't -- try going here, then scroll down to the link to the story. ...
... Alex Seitz-Wald of MSNBC highlights interesting stuff from Sanders' 1997 political memoir (written with Huck Gutman). When he was a Congressman, Bernie had Richard Nixon's old office. ...
... Inae Oh of Mother Jones: AND Bernie has the best 404 error page ever. Also, an excellent URL: berniesanders.com/wtf
Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: GOP "presidential hopefuls are scrambling to show who is most aggressive on national security and who is most passive on climate change. The ideal candidate would, presumably, be able to claim both superlatives. But this set of stances is incoherent as a policy platform. Actually it's worse than incoherent. It's an oxymoron. That's because climate change is a national security issue." CW: Rampell goes on to explain why. But she's missing the point: these presidential candidates crave political instability. They're exceptionalist bullies who want to drop bombs on "lesser mortals."
Charles Pierce: "... now that he's moving toward an actual national campaign, [Scott] Walker and his friends are moving on several fronts to make sure that they are seen as doing right by Zygote-Americans. First, back in Wisconsin, his pet legislature is doing him a solid by trying to pass a very restrictive -- as well as non-scientific and likely unconstitutional -- abortion rights bill." ...
... Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "... unlike a federal bill on the issue, this legislation doesn't include an exception allowing abortions for victims of rape or incest. [Walker] plans to sign the legislation, Laurel Patrick, a spokeswoman for Walker's office, emailed."
Charles Pierce: Rick Santorum "remains the perfect blend of smug sanctimony and greasy smarm.... Rick Santorum remains a colossal dick. I may have mentioned that.... In his announcement speech, Rick went full wingnut. He wants to 'drive a stake' through Common Core (Hi, 'Bobby' Jindal!). He wants to junk the IRS (Hi, Ted Cruz!) and institute a flat tax (Hi, Steve Forbes!). This, of course, means that you and Bill Gates will pay exactly the same percentage of your income in taxes, and Rick is only doing that because he's 'stands for someone -- the American worker.'"
News Ledes
New York Times: "Ross W. Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, a notorious online marketplace for the sale of heroin, cocaine, LSD and other illegal drugs, was sentenced to life in prison on Friday in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Mr. Ulbricht, 31, was sentenced by the judge, Katherine B. Forrest, for his role as what prosecutors described as 'the kingpin of a worldwide digital drug-trafficking enterprise.'"
Washington Post: "The U.S. economy shrank at an annualized pace of 0.7 percent in the first three months of the year, according to government data released Friday morning, a tumble for a recovering nation that until recently seemed poised for takeoff. The contraction, the country's third in the aftermath of the Great Recession, provides a troubling picture of an economy that many figured would get a lift from cheap oil, rapid hiring and growing consumer confidence. Instead, consumers have proved cautious, and oil companies have frozen investment -- all while a nasty winter caused havoc for transportation and construction and a strong dollar widened the trade deficit."
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Reader Comments (12)
The average cost of a fetal ultrasound is $263. Governor Wanker has just mandated that women seeking abortions receive one because they're "cool." He's making people spend good money for no usefull purpose because he thinks it's cool. So much for limited, small government.
Wow! Who woulda thunk it? Denny Hastert? I remember him as the least controversial speaker we ever had. Always thought of him as a good old boy that they plucked out of nowhere but needed to be free of sexual scandal ( two previous speakers had to resign because of that), a squeaky, clean kind of ordinary guy––dull, almost. It appears, and I'm only guessing here, that the hush-up payments to someone only known as "A" smacks of some kind of sexual conduct. I doubt whether Denny has a buried body somewhere, but then you never know, do you? What we do know is a hell of a lot of money has been given to someone to shut them up.
Ron Johnson is what the Germans would call a Besserwisser–-a know it all or to put it more politely, an asshole. As a young boy, Ronny, proud as peach over his johnson, would engage in pissing contests with the neighborhood boys––how high can you whizz? This apparently is something Wisconsin males indulge in quite frequently; I heard once that it had to do with all that bratwurst they consume or in the case of Scott Walker it probably originated in the womb and if there had been ultra-sounds in Scott's day, you could have pinpointed that bisserwisser right there next to his tiny, puny pecker.
PD,
And talking about peckers...
Ron Johnson comes immediately to mind.
Is he a bit slow? Is he somewhat mentally defective? A dimwit? A backward dumbo, or just a pinhead?
Did I hear someone out there say "All of the above?"
I've been complaining for what seems like eons now, about the horrifying stupidity of elected Confederates. Ron Johnson would have to muscle aside a couple hundred other guys, but his presence on the Dais of Dummies would not be inappropriate. He could hold his own with the stupidest of them. His own what I will leave unsaid.
The "Hollywood is full of socialist liberals who hate business and America" meme is right up there with the idea that global warming is a hoax being perpetrated by a thousands of evil scientists around the world and pretty close to the Army's takeover of Texas.
The Times recently tracked the trend in Hollywood of the move away from the standard model of filmmaking involving agents and producers and actors and directors, to one ruled by private equity firms. "...the freewheeling days at the top talent agencies have largely disappeared, with the two largest shops — William Morris Endeavor and Creative Artists Agency, or W.M.E. and C.A.A. — now controlled by private equity firms focused on the bottom line."
Sounds like a bunch of godless 'merica hating commies to me, doncha think?
But beside the obvious fact that Hollywood is and always has been a business, let's look at Poor Ronnie's complaint, that "Lego Movie" is anti-business. Lego is the world's largest toy maker. A couple of years ago they took in almost $5 billion and their profit margin has risen every year since. Last year their profits went up by 15%. Lego execs called this "satisfactory". Hunh. Satisfactory. Sound like dirty commies to you?
Anyway, the movie.
Obviously lamebrain Johnson has never seen the movie. The character of President Business (who turns into Lord Business in another dimension of the movie...don't ask) is really an avatar for the father of a boy who loves to play with Legos (sorry...I should have mentioned there was a spoiler here). But according to Johnson, who has obviously never seen it, the movie shows kids that "...the bad guy is a heartless businessman intent on destroying the world for profit". At no time is there any mention of destroying anything or making a profit off it.
The problem is that the dad (President Business) likes everything to be just so and stifles the kid's creativity, but he learns that things don't have to be just so and everyone ends up happier and more, well, creative. A terrible, horrible thing?
According to people like Johnson who have never seen the movie, I guess it is.
But here again is what happens when ideology trumps logic, rationality, and even knowledge ( Johnson doesn't have to see for himself, he can just do an ideological extrapolation and invent his own facts).
So now, in addition to wanting kill Big Bird, wingnuts are up in arms about kids' toy blocks.
WTF, people! There are no other problems for you to tackle?*
And not for nothin' but when Johnson accuses Hollywood of trying to instill a certain worldview in young people, an insidious view that will make them think and act in certain ways as they mature towards voting age, can anyone else see the problem with his not being able to see what Confederates and their media shills have been up to for years?
Christ. These people. Paging Mr. Feingold, paging Mr. Feingold. Please bring the stupid remover when you come. Thank you kindly.
*rhetorical question.
Ooops. I forgot a PS to my last post.
Re: the "Businessmen are evil assholes" notion that so upsets Ron and his johnson because it's just not true.
May I present David and Charles Koch.
Any questions?
@AK: Do you recall the furor over Telly Tubbies? One of these adorable little creatures, a male tubby, always carried a purse. Outrageous! said the usual suspects––advocating gayness on a children's program is verboten, bad for children, and bad for Merica cuz gayness should not be encouraged nor, in this case, even recognized so any dialogue between parents and children on this issue will never take place and when kids hear the word, "faggot" at school they learn the negative connotation. And wasn't there an uproar about Sponge Bob Pants over this same thing?
But back to Johnson: When this guy harkens to the call, from the TeeVee, no less, that rich people should serve their country, it would have been better, instead of running for congress, he decided his talents would be better served by joining those Johnson sausage people. He could be one of the brothers who'd put him to work working that sausage into those casings ––an apt job for him, I'd say.
More ideological stupidity from the Right (What? You were expecting something smart, maybe?)
A report by Wade Goodwyn on NPR crystallizes the blithering stupidity of former Texas governor Rick Perry and current GOP imbeciles ruling the state.
The piece focuses, with not the tiniest intimation of the usual "both sides" minimization, on the jaw dropping economic impact to the state for deciding to let Confederate ideology trump both math and logic and telling the president he can keep those billions of dollars they'd be receiving now had they opted for the Medicaid expansion (that nice Mr. Johnny and his dwarfish buddies on the Supreme Court told them they didn't have to help any of those awful poors. So they didn't).
We've all heard the numbers in theory. Goodwyn provides concrete context. Parkland Hospital in Dallas (we all remember that place, right?) spends three quarters of a billion dollars every year on uncompensated care for people who show up at its emergency room without insurance or the ability to pay. That's just one hospital in a huge state. Voters pick up that tab. But Perry doesn't care. Neither does current yokel Abbott.
But business leaders in Texas are furious.
Over a ten year period, not expanding Medicaid will cost Texas 300,000 jobs. A year.
Let's see. Rick Perry decides to fuck over his state and millions of Texas residents just to stick it to the black fella. Sound like the kinda guy you'd want for president? These people are barking mad.
It's a good piece. Plus, Goodwyn has a great radio voice.
PD,
Oh man, I knew there were other examples of scaredy 'publicans running away from cartoon characters. Telletubbies! Forgot about that episode. Although, I have to say, apart from any fantasized issues of sexual orientation programming, those little guys kinda creeped me out.
About Ron working his way, ahem, into a sausage factory, I dunno. Sausages already have that reputation as something, the creation of which, you don't wanna know anything about. Knowing that a weirdo like Ron Johnson was skulking around inside one of those places would put me off sausages forever.
And regarding the preferred Confederate method for communicating with kids about any topic connected to sex--just say no and don't tell 'em anything-- I think we can say that technique has produced great results thus far, wouldn't you say?
Just ask the Duggars.
Dick Fuld. He seems nice.
But that picture. Yikes! A top hat and a twirlable mustache and he'd look like this guy.
Maybe sometimes you CAN judge a book by its cover.
I don't think Sen Johnson talks to his kids, or they would have set him straight about the main message of the LEGO movie. It is not about evil business, but is pretty much conveying the idea that you can make great things even if you lose the plans that came in the box. The main LEGO character-protagonist starts out hyper-regulated and dependent on authority, and by the end has learned to improvise, be creative, and make great things out of the huge potential of all the parts and pieces that came from multiple sets. Most parents will totally relate to that, but Sen. Johnson doesn't get it, so .... he doesn't observe real life, the movie itself, or what his kids would tell him the movie is about.
On the bright side, it's Friday, and "Everything Is Awesome!"
So the news of Dennis Hastert is, what many of us suspected, of a sexual nature, but not, I gather of an abuse nature. I can surmise that Dennis is/was a closeted homosexual and if true, it pains me to think he had to go through paying tawdry bribery money to shut this liaison up and had to marry a woman to "be normal" and accepted. As far as I know he has no children from this union.
Barney Frank's book, "Frank: A Life in Politics ..." was reviewed by Garry Wills in TNYRB and addresses this problem:
"The ordeal of the closeted gay man means that choice after choice must be weighed in such finely calibrated scales. Perils, and relief from them, mean something different to the man forced to hide his identity, to accept even ugly alternatives to the dangerous truth. Frank overheard the state treasurer, a close friend of Mayor White, hold up a meeting until Frank could be there: “Wait. Where’s the fat Jewish kid?” Others might resent such a dismissive description. Frank welcomed it warmly, since he knew the addition of one more word would have ended his career entirely—he was listening for, and did not hear, that word being added: Where’s “the fat Jewish gay kid”? Frank describes how he had continually to guard his language, to “desex my pronouns.”
'The strain of living in the closet takes a heavy toll on your personality. And it is hard to keep the anger that should be directed at your own self-denial from spilling over into dealings with others. When I think of the politicians I deem likely to be taking this approach, a disproportionate number share my reputation for being too quick to give and take offense.'
When the hell are we going to grow up?
Also, too, Wade Goodwyn's voice is pure molasses and honey mixed-- YUM! (Sorry-- I can't hear anything he says because all I can hear is THAT VOICE...) Thanks for mentioning, Akh!
Re: FIFA. Find the agenda for the big meeting. Item 11.2 is a request from the Palestine footballers to eject Israel from FIFA.
You think that had anything to do with the US action (w/Israel's prompting?)
Sepp got re-elected by buying the votes of dozens of tiny nations, island states, etc. Where is the list of the votes by country?