;)
The Commentariat -- Nov. 11, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Frank Rich comments on last night's GOP "debate": "The least substantive candidates were the two leading the polls: Trump and Ben Carson, both of whom are running on sheer ego. Dealing with questions about national security and financial regulation, Carson spoke in generalities and non sequiturs that suggest he has no intention of learning the most rudimentary information he needs to execute the job he seeks. Asked, with kid gloves, to address the controversies attending his own biography, the good doctor said, 'People who know me know that I'm an honest person.' Well, that settles that! Trump also had little to offer beyond braggadocio and his usual self-congratulation on his ability to vanquish any adversary through sheer lung power and his Art of the Deal." ...
... From Hillary Clinton's campaign:
... Emily Steel of the New York Times: "More than 13 million people tuned in to Fox Business Network to watch the fourth Republican presidential debate on Tuesday night in Milwaukee, according to Nielsen ratings data provided on Wednesday by the business news network. The viewership was the most ever in the history of the business news network, but less than previous debates in the 2016 presidential race. The highest rated debate so far this campaign season was the first on Fox News in August, which drew 24 million viewers. A subsequent debate on CNN in September drew nearly 23 million viewers."
Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "Ben Carson took a shot at Bernie Sanders in an address to students at the nation's largest Christian college on Wednesday, warning against 'unscrupulous politicians' offering free college that will add to the national debt and hasten 'the destruction of the nation.' Just 12 hours after the fourth Republican presidential debate concluded Tuesday night in Milwaukee, Carson told students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., that a successful democracy depends on 'a well-informed and educated populace.'" Also, too, the Liberty U. kidz wouldn't get free tuition because Bernie would apply it only to public colleges & universities. ...
... CW: Too bad that under Ole Doc's "plan," the "populace" won't be able to afford an education. As for "Unscrupulous Bernie"'s plan, it would not "add to the national debt" & hasten "the destruction of the nation." Bernie would pay for the plan by "imposing a Robin Hood tax on Wall Street." So who's unscrupulous? Maybe your friends know you as Honest Ben Carson (see Frank Rich's comment above), but the rest of us are onto your grift. As for that picture of you & Jesus you have hanging in the front hall -- take a second look. That guy with his hand on your shoulder might just be the devil in a white nightgown.
Richard Perez-Pena & Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "Dr. [David] Kurpius[, dean of the University of Missouri's journalism department,] said in a message on Twitter late Tuesday that [Melissa] Click resigned her courtesy appointment with the journalism school during a faculty meeting that day. It was unclear whether her status within the department of communication, which is in the College of Arts and Sciences, had changed." See Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. below for links to background stories.
*****
Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "Why are so many veterans on death row?... Veterans who kill are not, by and large, hit men or members of organized crime or gangs. They very often lash out at those around them.... A third of the homicide victims killed by veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were family members or girlfriends. Another quarter were fellow service members. This record suggests that, if these veterans had received adequate mental-health care, at least some of them and their victims might have had a different fate." Thanks to Islander for the link.
Presidential Race
Philip Rucker & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "The leading Republican presidential candidates clashed sharply over immigration policy, military spending, and other intractable and emotional issues in a debate here Tuesday night, bringing into sharp relief the party's fault line between rigid conservatism and mainstream practicality." CW: "Mainstream practicality"? Really? ...
... ** For a better synopsis/blow-by-blow of the GOP "debates,' Driftglass has it all.
Glenn Kessler & Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: fact-check some of the candidates' remarks. Most play fast-&-loose with statistics. ...
Politico staffers also fact-checked the "debaters," & theirs is funnier. The one on Carly Fiorina is priceless. CW: I believe she bests Ben Carson on both sheer mendacity & resume'-plumping. And Rand Paul's climate-change-denial moment was pretty hilarious. But, hey, dinosaurs are thriving, aren't they? ...
... What the Candidates Don't Know. Jordan Weissman of Slate: International entrepreneur Donald Trump seemed unaware that China is not part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal or that it is, if anything, a U.S. plot to achieve hegemony in East Asian trade & leave China out in the cold. Also, "John Kasich appeared unaware that bank accounts are backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation during a discussion about financial industry bailouts."
Stephen Stromberg of the Washington Post: "... though Bush and Kasich did much more to demonstrate that they are reasonable policy minds, Rubio 'won' the debate. Cruz, meanwhile, did a fine job appealing to immigration ultras and anti-Fed cranks on the right -- not that anyone should be impressed." Rubio "won" because he's very good at reciting his stump speech. ...
... Or, as Frank Rich tweeted, "Fox Business's debate innovation: ask questions that allow candidates to give their stump speeches without fear of any follow up questions." ...
... Steve M.: Yeah, that's what everyone is saying. Even Ben Carson! The whole idea, after all, is to present a "debate" forum that is "a safe, nurturing space." CW: And you can bet the ratings for the ensuing so-called debates will slip. Stump speeches are boorrring.
Jonathan Chait: "In a debate where chastened moderators avoided interruptions or follow-ups, the candidates were free to inhabit any alternate reality of their choosing, unperturbed by inconvenient facts. Presumably, the general election will intrude, and the nominee will be forced to make a stronger case against what looks, at the moment, like peace and prosperity."
John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... the three moderators oversaw a lively, if not always informed, debate centered on economic issues. At times, matters of real substance intruded on the rote recitations of Obamaphobia and supply-side economics.... Throughout the debate, the candidates did a resolute job of sticking to their fantastical scripts about cutting the tax rate to ten per cent (Cruz and Carson), abolishing the payroll tax (Cruz and Paul), doubling the economic-growth rate (Bush), and somehow balancing the budget (everyone). At one point, a frustrated Bartiromo said to Cruz, 'But you haven't told us how to pay for it' -- a remark that could have been directed at virtually any of the candidates."
Jamelle Bouie of Slate: "Even ignoring [their] flubs, misstatements, and half-truths, the GOP contenders were out of step with the actual economic needs of ordinary Americans.... Candidates came out against raising the minimum wage, called for a new gold standard for currency, and pushed plans for massive upper-income tax cuts. Unlike the first Democratic debate -- when [the candidates] ... tusseled over college affordability and health care costs -- there was little in the Republican debate that spoke to the challenges of ordinary people rather than businesses."
Michael Grunwald of Politico: "At last night's Fox Business debate on the economy, Republicans had to talk about the [2008 financial] crisis. It was a reminder of why they don't like doing that." Great fun when the only two candidates who made any (but not much) sense at all -- Bush & Kasich -- are former Lehman Brothers bankers.
The New York Times' report on last night's GOP debate, by Jonathan Martin & Patrick Healy, is here.
The New York Times is liveblogging the GOP debates here. The Guardian's liveblog is here. ...
... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Fox Business will carry [tonight's GOP] debates live [at 7 & 9 pm ET]. Several cable providers are making the network available during the debates to subscribers who do not normally get it.... The network will be streaming the debate live on its website, and cable logins will not be required to watch.... The debate will also be streaming on the Fox News app, available on mobile phones and tablets." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Tuesday night's main event will be moderated by Fox Business personalities Maria Bartiromo and Neil Cavuto. In an interview with The Washington Post, they said they aimed to do better [than the CNBC moderators] -- and that they wouldn't put up with whining.... Tuesday night's debate could be a last stand for [Jeb] Bush, who came into the race as the well-funded front-runner and has never shown a fire to match his fundraising." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
"They Can Have Everything!" Tom Friedman (yes, Tom Friedman) gets it very right: Donald Trump is "not, as people say, an 'anti-politician.' He's actually caricaturing politicians. And like any great caricaturist, Trump identifies his subject's most salient features and then exaggerates them. In Trump's case the feature he's identifying is the ease with which career politicians look right into a camera and lie or embellish.... Mario Cuomo famously said: 'You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.' Trump says, in effect: That's for normal hack politicians. I will campaign in fantasy and govern in prose.... So enjoy the fun of this campaign while it lasts, because the next president will not be governing in poetry or prose or fantasy -- but with excruciating trade-offs. The joke is on us."
Apocalypse Now, Please. Digby, in Salon: "Donald Trump is running to be a strongman.... Ben Carson is ... running as a quasi-religious leader who will be able to overcome all these obstacles through the same miraculous process that has characterized his life story.... In both cases, the people who like them are not merely attracted to the fact that these men are outsiders, but also by qualities that will ostensibly allow them to transcend the normal process of democratic government. Despite their professions of love for the constitution, these voters no longer believe in the system of government that constitution sets forth."
Get to Know Your GOP Candidates. Yesterday, contributors mentioned this Rachel Maddow segment on how Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee & Bobby Jindal spent the time during Maddow's Democratic candidates' forum. The part about the GOP candidates begins just shy of 6 min. in. It could scarcely be more disgusting. It's hard to believe that Kevin Swanson has more or less the same kind of brain as I do. Maybe President Obama should get working on those re-education camps. If you have the stomach for it, watch:
Doc Ben's Fabulous Funny Bone. Caitlin Yilek: "... Ben Carson is mocking the media's scrutiny of his past by posting fake breaking news headlines on his Facebook page. 'During his residency, Ben offended a cupcake by calling it a muffin,' reads a fake Politico headline posted on Carson's timeline." CW: Hahahaha. I just can't stop laughing. ...
... Kevin Drum points out all the discrepancies between the real psych exam hoax & Ben Carson's made-up "honesty test." "At best, the hoax happened during Carson's freshman year in Psychology 10, and he then embellished it considerably in order to make it a proper testimonial to the power of God. At worst, he simply heard about the hoax and used it as the basis for a completely invented story in his book. I don't know which. But either way, the story in his book is substantially exaggerated in ways that really matter. This is not just nitpicking." ...
... CW: Another aspect that Drum doesn't illuminate is the way Carson shifted his story this week to fit the actual event, documentation of which his campaign miraculously found. In the Gifted Hands version of his tall tale, Carson said that "the professor then told him the makeup test was a hoax designed 'to see who was the most honest student in the class.'" That is, it wasn't really a hoax, but a quasi-controlled experiment. Carson wasn't a "victim"; he was a subject of the study. But last week, on his Facebook page, Carson wrote, "On Saturday a reporter with the Wall Street Journal published a story that my account of being the victim of a hoax at Yale where students were led to believe the exams they had just taken were destroyed and we needed to retake the exam was false." (Emphasis added.) In his Gifted Hands "account," however, he did not describe himself as a victim at all, but as the winner of a test of integrity. Moreover, Carson is slyly attributing to the WSJ reporter Reid Epstein an assertion that Epstein did not make. In addition, how was Epstein supposed to check the facts on a story where Carson changed almost every fact, including the year of the event. the name of the course, the purpose of the test & the perp? Then Carson has the gall to say the paper should apologize. He's a snake. ...
... CW: Robert Bateman of Esquire backs up a statement I've made regarding Carson's claim he was offered a "full scholarship" -- or appointment -- to West Point. Bateman's detailed analysis shows that Carson's claim, including his "clarifications" this past week, was unpossible.
Jeb! Can't Handle the Small Stuff. Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly: Jeb! is supposed to be competent and experienced. His team is supposed to know what it is doing and have a shot at matching the team the Clintons will bring to the general election contest. He's supposed to have enough establishment support and resources to not have to worry about things like ballot access that can be a real challenge to cash-strapped and little-known candidates. And, yet, even in a deep red state where he's got significant establishment support, he couldn't accomplish the simple job of finding a couple of handfuls of people to serve as his delegates. It's almost sad, really." ...
... CW: Sad Jeb! needs a big, dramatic event to jumpstart his candidacy. I would suggest he go back in time & slay Baby Hitler. But Simon Maloy of Salon doesn't think Jeb! is up to that job, either.
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge set in motion a process Tuesday that could result in thousands more pages of emails and other records from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's top aides being made public in the coming months as Clinton's presidential campaign rolls forward. U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras ordered the State Department to turn over 700 pages of those records to Vice News reporter Jason Leopold by December 1 and promised to set a schedule for monthly releases thereafter. He said the volume of pages the agency must produce each month would increase over time." ...
All the News That's Fit to Hypothesize. Rachel Bade of Politico: "... the FBI has stepped up inquiries into the security of the former secretary of state's home-made email system and how aides communicated over email, Politico has learned. The FBI's recent moves suggest that its inquiry could have evolved from the preliminary fact-finding stage that the agency launches when it receives a credible referral, according to former FBI and Justice Department officials interviewed by Politico."
Real News
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama will ask the Supreme Court to clear the way for his long-delayed immigration overhaul, administration lawyers said Tuesday, setting up another high-stakes legal contest in the nation's highest court over the fate of one of the president's signature achievements. The Department of Justice said in a statement that it will appeal a federal appeals court ruling that blocked Mr. Obama's plan to provide work permits to as many as five million undocumented immigrants while shielding most of them from deportation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Julia Preston of the New York Times: "Congress set up the H-1B [immigration visa] program to help American companies hire foreigners with exceptional skills, to fill open jobs and to help their businesses grow. But the program has been failing many American employers who cannot get visas for foreigners with the special skills they need. Instead, the outsourcing firms are increasingly dominating the program, federal records show. In recent years, they have obtained many thousands of the visas -- which are limited to 85,000 a year -- by learning to game the H-1B system without breaking the rules, researchers and lawyers said.... And the share of H-1B visas obtained by outsourcing firms has grown, more Americans say they are being put out of work, or are seeing their jobs moved overseas.... Lawmakers have largely overlooked the outsourcing companies' role in the visa process." CW: Because they're busy writing laws to repeal ObamaCare, curtail women's rights & Benghaaazi! ...
... WhaddidItellya? Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "The Senate parliamentarian has ruled that defunding Planned Parenthood can be part of a special Republican package repealing parts of ObamaCare, The Hill has learned. The parliamentarian on Tuesday gave word that the provision passes muster under the Senate's Byrd Rule, which means it can be attached to a reconciliation package that cannot be filibustered on the Senate floor." If only Bolton could have worked Benghaazi! into that lede. ...
... But that's not enough for the grandstanding presidential candidates. Alexander Bolton: "Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Ted Cruz (Texas) ... have forced [Mitch] McConnell's hand by announcing they will not support the House bill [described above]. They say it does not go far enough to repeal President Obama's healthcare law.... Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) ... has said he won&'t rest until ObamaCare is '100 percent repealed.'"
Cory Bennett of the Hill: "President Obama on Tuesday nominated Beth Cobert to be permanent director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), just months after the agency's previous director resigned amid likely the largest government data breach ever. Cobert has been the agency's acting director since former OPM head Katherine Archuleta stepped down, bowing to the growing calls for her firing from lawmakers claiming the OPM needed a more tech-savvy leader."
Igor Volsky, et al., of Think Progress: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Center for American Progress head Neera Tanden on Tuesday as part of his latest visit to the United States, during which he's attempting to appeal to both conservatives and progressives. In a wide-ranging forum, the hawkish prime minister invoked several of his favorite claims about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." CAP fact-checked Netanyahu's remarks. The title of the post is "10 Falsehoods that Netanyahu Told During His Appearance at CAP."
Annals of "Justice," Ctd. Ashley Southall of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that Louisiana could keep an inmate locked up for the 1972 murder of a prison guard and said prosecutors may try him a third time for the killing. The three-judge panel of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit decided 2 to 1 to reverse a lower-court ruling ordering the release of the inmate, Albert Woodfox, and barring state prosecutors from retrying him. Mr. Woodfox has served more than 40 years in solitary confinement." ...
... Charles Pierce States the Obvious: "Woodfox was in solitary at Angola for 43 freaking years. That's not American jurisprudence. That's a dungeon out of medieval Europe. He's old and he's sick. If the Louisiana authorities waste time and money retrying this case, when all the witnesses are dead, they deserve every bit of waste-fraud-and-abuse scorn that gets heaped on imaginary welfare queens and their imaginary Cadillacs. Put an ankle bracelet on the guy, if you must, and let him go home."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Mizzou Journalism Prof Uses Force to Shut Down Free Press. Austin Huguelet & Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "A video that showed University of Missouri protesters restricting a student photographer's access to a public area of campus on Monday has ignited discussions about press freedom.... Protesters blocked [the] view [of photographer Tim Tai,] and argued with him, eventually pushing him away.... [The videographer,] Mark Schierbecker..., approached a woman, later identified as an assistant professor of mass media, Melissa Click.... When he revealed that he was a journalist, Ms. Click appeared to grab at his camera. She then yelled, 'Who wants to help me get this reporter out of here? I need some muscle over here.'... The dean of the Missouri School of Journalism, David Kurpius, said in a statement on Tuesday that the school was 'proud' of the way Mr. Tai handled himself.... He also noted that Ms. Click is a faculty member of the communications department, which is separate from the journalism school. He said she holds a 'courtesy appointment' with the journalism school that faculty members would take 'immediate action' to review." ...
... Melissa Click, Professor of Inanity. Bethania Markus of the Raw Story: "Revoking Click's courtesy appointment [to the School of Journalism] only prevents her from teaching journalism classes. According to the Federalist, Click's current research involves, '50 Shades of Grey readers, the impact of social media in fans' relationship with Lady Gaga, masculinity and male fans, messages about class and food in reality television programming, and messages about work in children's television programs.'" CW: Where do i sign up? ...
... Jim Fallows of the Atlantic: "The point the photographer makes is that they're all standing on public property, and just as they have a First Amendment right to protest, he has a First Amendment right to record what is going on. And, as he points out, to document it for history.... What struck me as the encounter intensified was his unflappable, always polite, but unrelenting insistence on his First Amendment rights, as they are insisting on theirs.... Sincere congratulations to someone who this morning had no idea he would be in the national eye. But he turned out to be, and behaved in a way that reflects credit on him and the calling of news-gathering. Update Admiration as well to Mark Schierbecker, the video journalist who recorded the entire episode." ...
... Steve M.: "... in America, those protesters [are] far from the only people who think they can banish non-allies from their 'safe space.' And the conservative counterparts of those protesters think their 'safe space' should be the whole damn country."
Beyond the Beltway
Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: New York "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo plans to unilaterally create a $15 minimum wage for all state workers, making New York the first state to set such a high wage for a large group of public employees." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
AP: "University of Missouri police say the department has arrested a suspect accused of making online threats against black students and faculty."
News Ledes
Washington Post: "The European Union set new guidelines Wednesday requiring that Jewish settlements clearly label export products as coming from occupied territories. Israeli leaders condemned the move as discriminatory and warned relations could suffer with its biggest trading partner."
AP: "Russia has circulated a document on ending the nearly five-year-old Syrian conflict that calls for drafting a new constitution in up to 18 months that would be put to a popular referendum and be followed by an early presidential election. The document ... makes no mention of Syrian President Bashar Assad stepping down during the transition -- a key opposition demand. It only mentions that 'the president of Syria will not chair the constitutional commission.'" ...
... AP: "A Russian proposal to end Syria's conflict that would include early presidential elections faced opposition from both sides on Wednesday, as deep divisions remained over the fate of President Bashar Assad."
New York Times: "Myanmar's military establishment on Wednesday acknowledged the victory of the country's democracy movement led by the Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, raising hopes for a peaceful transfer of power after five decades of military domination."
AP: "Russia will counter NATO's U.S.-led missile defense program by deploying new strike weapons capable of piercing the shield, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday. Putin told defense officials that by developing defenses against ballistic missiles Washington aims to 'neutralize' Russia's strategic nuclear deterrent and gain a "decisive military superiority."
AP: "Church bells tolled and officials laid wreaths across Europe on Armistice Day on Wednesday to pay tribute to the millions of soldiers killed during World War I. Thousands of people lined the Champs Elysees boulevard in Paris to see President Francois Hollande lay a wreath at the Arc de Triomphe, where an eternal flame burns aside France's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier."
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Reader Comments (25)
The cover story in winter issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center's "Intelligence Report" is a round up of 10 conspiracy theories that have become mainstream to the political right. Not new information, but a good summary of the trajectory of these theories.
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2015/10/27/new-intelligence-report-focuses-conspiracy-theories-mainstream
I continue to be aghast at how stupid voters have become. Who would not want healthcare, preferably as a right of US citizenship?
Diane, all Republicans want healthcare, they just don't want, to put it politely, 'others' to have benefits. You know, when the 'others' have care they have to share a penny or two.
Having just watched the latest Republican "debate" with the Fox Business News sweeties--plus the editor of WSJ--I can say only: "Whatta fuckin' bunch of Ass Hats!" Ditto for the Milwaukee, Wisconsin audience. As a former resident of Milwaukee, I scanned the audience to see if I recognized any of my former rich, corporate neighbors. Sorry to say, I did not--probly 'cuz most of them are either dead or demented! Anyways (as we usta say by Milwaukee), I can see things have not changed there since I left in 1960. They does not want no immigrants, no way! And, for sure, the US of A is necessary to LEAD in the Middle East. No worry about getting a trillion dollars to fuck up there again. But they absolutely will not spend it raising the minimum wage or funding Medicaid. Ohhhh.....I am so embarrassed to have spent my teen years in Milwaukee! That is why, when I say I am from Wisconsin, I always reference Madison. That is where I was born and spent my early, mostly (sane) years!
About the debate. Same old shit! Marco Rubio is especially odious to me--as is Teddy Cruz. But what can ya expect from kids born to ignorant immigrants? (John Kaisich and even 'Lil Ran (on the Middle East) sorta made temporary sense. However, the Milwaukee audience, naturally, hated on them.)
Trump and Carson: MEH! But I gotta say I absolutely detest Carly Fiorina! She gives womankind a bad rap! So practiced, cynical, psychopathic and hateful. And not a muscle moves in her over-botoxed face as she spews her venom. For that matter, I noticed that several of the menfolk seemed to have gone for the botox as well--Marco Baby, Jeb!, 'Lil Randy and Kaisich. And possibly Ted Cruz. Although his face is so screwed up, it is hard to tell--same with The Donald! Ben Carson not so much. He has the face of a crazy innocent who feels victimized by others' reactions to his bizarre political ambition.
I got through the pain of the bullshit by drinking a couple of Pimms' Cups with Gingerale. When I turned to Chris Matthews "Hardball" to help me make sense of it all, I felt more depressed, poured it out and came to my study to read Reality Chex and "spew" MY venom!
Thanks for listening. Sigh.....
Kate, I went to the UW Bookstore last week with the intent of buying Badgerwear for myself and the family, but thinking about wearing shirts proclaiming we are from Wisconsin gave me a creepy feeling, and I passed. We used to be proud of our state. However, during last night's debate I did remind myself when listening to the audience reactions that these people are all hardcore republicans, as are audiences for all the R debates. I'm sure all Milwaukeeans can't be like that. In fact, they were likely from the blood-red suburbs that have put Scott Walker (the failed presidential candidate) in the governor's office three times.
@Nadd2: I still have my Bucky Badger sweatshirt that I bought in 1962. It's in better shape than I am; figuratively (I no longer weigh 105 pounds) & philosophically, I've outgrown it.
Marie
Well, I should have had some of Kate's Pimms' Cups with maybe nothing while watching the debates. I instead doodled––drew caricatures of candidates along with sketches of bald men with glasses. The Kessler/Lee fact-checking pretty well answered some of my questions––China is in Syria? I yelled at Carson. But here are a few of my take-aways:
Steve Schmitt–-the Republican who handled Sarah Palin's campaign and is on MSNBC as "guest from the other side"––said he thinks Christie is going to rise. Yep–-rise he did by loudly proclaiming that "Hillary will drown us in debt! Watch out folks, she's coming for your wallets!"
Carson: It occurred to me that the "uplift' stories Carson tells are Redemption tales–-he's satisfying his Evangelical base whose mojo gets going by hearing––"I was sinful, corrupt, hateful, etc. but I found Jesus and the Bible and it SAVED me. "People that know me know I'm an honest person." (you bet, Ben, we hear ya!)
The over all theme was doing away with anything Obama has implemented––getting rid of all those pesky regulations–-reform the tax code--"WE WANT TO TAKE OUR GOVERNMENT BACK!" and loud clapping and cheering heard from that Milwaukee audience. Free markets! No more 'handouts," no more Obama Care, No more Dodd Frank––cut the government down to itty bitty bite size pieces. Recall what Barney Frank said:
"The real animus against big government is a protective maneuver for big business; the former is made too small to work so that the latter can become too big to fail"
There were among many of the candidates disparaging words about not only Obama, but Hillary, especially from Carly, who by the way is touting once again her tight relationships with all those Middle Eastern leaders and vows to equip them all with lots of weapons so they can fight the bad guys––something she says Obama refuses to do. Carly is going to make everything better because she has the leadership skills NO one else has.
And I agree with Kate––turning to "Hardball" for the aftermath was not helpful–-Matthews drives me nuts–-he completely takes over, and talks over his guests which I hate. Turned off the T.V., went to bed and read a few chapters of Hilary Mantel's "Bring Up the Bodies."
The only Badgerwear that I wish I still had is my old "Fuck 'm Bucky" t-shirt. Except now it would be missing the " 'm".
As a Milwaukee County resident, I, too, was appalled and embarrassed by the audience reaction to some of the unworkable, mean-spirited and downright crazy comments last night. However, given the popularity of our local right-wing radio (one of the hosts occasionally substitutes for Rush Limbaugh) and that Fox News plays in places like some medical office waiting rooms, I am not surprised.
Missed the debate last night (don't even know if Fox Bidness is one of my available channels).
Instead, went to a town hall about the TPP hosted by our Representative from Boeing (and my hometown). It went on for a little over two hours with the city council chamber full of people asking questions about various chapters of the multi-thousand page document and the representative responding with answers when he thought he knew them and admissions of ignorance and promises to check on it when he could not. It was all very reasonable and polite, a far cry, as I reminded him, from the raucous, downright frightening town hall he hosted some years back in another nearby city about the ACA when lynching didn't seem that far from some of the Rightwing loonies' minds.
I'm thinking this AM, though, that the relative calm of last night's meeting might have been equally as frightening. Here we are, in truly revolutionary times, changing our form of government in ways as profound as the Founders did, and few seem to recognize what we are doing.
The TPP, building on previous trade deals--there are 51 of them I heard last night--sets up Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) tribunals that have the power to award damages to investors--read international corporations or wealthy individuals--whose expected profits have been curtailed by conditions, regulations, laws or court decisions within any of the signatory countries.
We already have international courts and international laws, but they are largely toothless because when their rulings are inconvenient nations feel free to ignore them. Hence hey do not threaten state sovereignty The ISDS tribunals exist outside the established international courts, but in a sense superior to them because the TPP's 12 signatories have already agreed to abide by their rulings, thus making a gift of their sovereignty to business interests.
The mere existence of ISDS courts is troublesome by itself. Beyond that is their purpose. The ISDS mechanism is all about profit. Unlike our present international courts which treat of moral and human rights issues (which is why their rulings are so often ignored), the only sin likely to be adjudicated through an ISDS action is that of curtailed profit.
There are two implications here. First the ISDS mechanism replaces occasionally thorny questions of right and wrong with simplistic statements of profit and loss, thus eliminating at the outset all moral considerations. Second, because profit and loss are the only measures of morality the ISDS admits of, there will seldom be any incentive for corporations or individual investors to object to substandard labor or environmental practices, as history tells us that billions upon billions have been made over the years abusing both. In other words, under the ISDS regime we can expect more of the business as usual that already victimizes workers and degrades our planet.
As I said, we are in the midst of an unrecognized and unacknowledged revolution. Nation states are being superseded by gigantic international business interests, themselves more powerful and wealthy than many individual countries, and those interests are calling the shots.
Thousands of pages but little about justice and right and wrong.
Nothing about "all men are created equal" here, and certainly nothing about "a new birth of freedom."
As one of the speakers said last night, the TPP seems like a Bill of Rights for international corporations. It surely does.
BTW, did gather from this morning's news that Trump, Masterful American Businessman, knew so little about the TPP that he thought China was one of the 12 signatories. (That is not is in some circles one of the stronger geopolitical arguments for it.) What a dummy!
To have been graphically correct I should have written " 'Em ".
Once more, the day after another of these Confederate hoedowns, much of the MSM still gives them all the benefit of the doubt. What's the doubt? That they have anything of value to say about anything remotely important to Americans, oh, except their masters, billionaire oligarchs.
How 'bout an example Akh?
Why, I'd love to. This morning on NPR, Mara Liasson reviewed the "debate" and gave everyone high marks for talking about policy.
Well, okay. Let's define "talking about policy" because if I said something like "I think the idea of gravity is stupid" you could legitimately say I was "talking about physics...something, something", right? So let's not get too generous with our descriptions without adding a few details that might refine that statement to say something more like "...tried talking about policy, but most of them barely understand underlying issues, never mind coming up with practical decisions to address them, but when they did mention some "policy" ideas, they descended into pure wingnut fantasy."
Then, talking about a minor set-to between Li'l Randy and Marco Rubio, Liasson explained to listeners that this was a dramatic moment because it involved two "...pillars of Republican orthodoxy: a strong military and fiscal responsibility". I certainly hope she was quietly slapping her knee when she said that because Republicans are horrific at both of these issues. Just look at the last Confederate president. The Bush Debacle is more proof than anyone would ever need regarding dangerous Republican ineptness in military matters (they created ISIS, fer crissakes!) and the fact that the country's economy flourishes under Democrats but wilts under Republicans is indisputable.
Nonetheless, MSM reporters (and she's not the only one) continue to parade these canards across the media landscape, keeping up the intolerable fiction that Republicans are good at anything other than fucking things up.
But this attitude is a corollary to "both sides do it". Republicans demand to be taken seriously by the media and they are. Just watch five minutes of Upchuck Todd nodding gravely while listening to some Confederate stooge expectorate nonsense all over his $2,500 suits every Sunday morning.
It's like bringing a surly 6 year old to a high level meeting about international security and demanding that everyone take him seriously when he suggests that the best thing to do is to get Batman on the Bat Phone and send him after the Joker...because bad guys.
Ken,
Big Bidness Man (thank you Molly Ivins) Trumpy was also whining that there is no mechanism for handing currency manipulation in the TPP. Except there is. All signatories signed a separate agreement to address this issue. No doubt the low information, low IQ voters to whom Trumpy aims such appeals (seasoned with a large dollop of xenophobic hatred for the Chinese) think the Trumpet sounds terribly, terribly smart giving out with big words like "currency manipulation". This guy is so used to scamming the rubes, he doesn't even bother to do his homework so what does it matter if he spouts off on something he knows little about? He can backtrack later or declare that he was taken out of context of misrepresented by insignificant media worms who aren't fit to hold his limo door open for his royal person.
I can just see President Trumpy denying he said any of the things he's been spitting out during this most depressing of campaign seasons.
Gawd! The insulting doltishness of it all.
Wow! The nefarious plots of the International Zionist Conspiracy didn't even make the SPLC's top ten this year. It has to be a carefully planned and masterfully orchestrated coverup.
As I was driving to a shopping destination this morning, I remembered something from back in my college days. In 1964 (I think it was) I received, unsolicited, letters from two branches of the service -- Air Force & Marines, as I recall, but that might be wrong. The letters invited me to apply to become a member of the women's corps. The mail was addressed to me at my dorm, & as I recall, the idea was that on accounta my outstanding grades (they were pretty good), I should apply to OTS. (I'm not sure how they knew my GPA, but maybe the university was cooperating with the Armed Forces or maybe the names of "honor roll" students was published or otherwise available someplace.) I think the letters differed some in what benefits they promised, should I be selected. Probably one of the perks mentioned was tuition assistance after I'd completed my service.
I mentioned the letters (or one of the letters) to a few other girls in the dorm, & they said they hadn't received such letters. (Later, a friend who was in nursing school told me one of the services had recruited her.)
Like Ben Carson, then, the services "offered me a full scholarship." Like Ben, apparently the services chose me for my unique awesomeness. Like Ben, the services offered to fast-track me to officer status.
This solicitation to apply was of so little moment to me that I haven't thought of it (or mentioned it) since. As I recall, the services made it pretty easy for me to apply, but that's what they did -- they did not make an offer; they encouraged me to apply. For any number of reasons, including my eyesight (I had just started wearing glasses, as Ben did when he was in high school), they could have turned down my application, had I made one. I didn't.
I'll bet if some Reality Chex readers think back, they also received similar "invitations."
Marie
I doubt that the Evangelicals realize or care that if we had one more candidate for POTUS named Jesus, he would make Bernie look like a conservative.
Inside the brain of a grifter:
I've been wondering about the genesis moment of a grifter's plan, i.e. Ben Carson. I'm following the theory that he's building a Palinesque future of book tours and paid speeches to ride out his years, and that future is all dependent on the construction of his "brand". Yet that said, the two are wholly different in their approaches. Palin just got handed the Golden Ticket by the McCain campaign and through sheer luck was thus thrust in front of the media to have her star grow until she could milk it for all that it's worth, quitting her job and replacing it with some poor camera guy/gal following her around all day and recording her nonsense.
Carson, however, seems to have thought this one out ahead of time, transitioning from doctor to politics and slowly wiggling his way into the primetime spotlight where he's shining so brightly now. That said, with grifters like Carson, it's unclear to me whether he's so delusional that his inflated ego has led him to believe in all of this crazy shit he's been coming up with lately, "sincerely" replacing fiction with "facts"; or whether the transition's genesis was truly as cynical as it appears, with him one day foreseeing his manipulative and bald-faced lies sticking with a portion of America and therefore building his "biography" with this self-promotion in mind from the start.
I'm assuming it's option #2, but psychologically it seems like such an incredible scheme to put together and then spend so many years and so much energy sticking to the script that you'd have to be, well, partially insane to go through with it...All that trouble and lies for what in the end? Retirement savings?
On another thought I forgot to mention, thanks Marie for linking the Maddow piece with the fucking insane Kevin Swanson rant. I literally couldn't believe what I was seeing, with his ranting and raving and shrilling and panting about murdering homosexuals. It was painful indeed, but I recommend RC readers to watch it as a warning as to what is at stake (as if we need more examples) in the next presidential elections: In 2015, the "top Republican candidates" can attend such an event, be welcomed personally by the bigot, and then play to the crowd with a shitty grin on their face, while receiving no political blowback from the "moderate" Republicans who don't exist. Un-fuck'n-believable.
Marie,
Forgive the quibble, but I think you meant OCS: Officer Candidate School.
It's too bad there's no Republican Candidate School. The final exam could consist of handing the students a can marked 'Shinola', and see whether they can discern the nature of the contents.
safari, I go with option #1. I know it is hard to believe and accept that their are people like that, but we are looking at a classic.
@Safari-
I agree with Marvin Schwalb. Having worked in a mental institution for 5 years and been a practicing outpatient therapist for 35 years, I can tell you that Carson is indeed a "classic." Until you have worked with delusional paranoid people, you truly cannot appreciate how creatively absurd are their minds! I will never forget the wife of a CIA officer I worked with almost forever--who thought her husband had hired a hit man to kill her. I had the husband, grown sons, neighbors and anybody I could think of, come in to dispute that idea, but all that accomplished was that they became part of the plot. (I am surprised I did not!) It got to the point that when her husband went out of town, she would put a dummy (with a wig) on her side of the bed and cover it up--then drive her car to a local all-night restaurant, park in their lot and spend the night in her car. The next day she would report that she checked the bed and the dummy had been bashed repeatedly. You get the idea, I think.
BTW, I also had a strong reaction to "Pastor" Kevin Swanson. Methinks that creepy apparition doth protest too much. Waaaaay too much! He probably carries his closet on his back, which is why he cannot stand up straight and jumps all over. It is a heavy burden for such a hateful crazoid--who could get caught any time--and then have to go through that difficult process of "redemption." Of course, it seems to be working for David Vitter. Ya nevah know!
@D.C.Clark: You're right. My point is that it was such a non-event in my life that I don't remember much about it (one of them had an illustration of a female officer in her dress uniform) & in fact had forgot everything about it till Ben Carson rattled my memory cage. If I had had occasion to write an autobiography a few decades ago -- and I didn't -- a tale of my "offer" from the services would not have appeared in its pages because: (1) I attributed no significance to the letters, & (2) I would not even have remembered them. Oh, (3) had the letters by chance come to mind, I wouldn't have mentioned them because I didn't act on them. They aren't part of the narrative I have constructed of my life.
There has to be some point to mentioning that kind of thing -- besides boasting. Say, for instance, I had received the letters & they suddenly presented to me a way to get thru college just when it looked like I wasn't going to be able to afford to go on & get a degree. Then say, I turned down the services -- even tho they presented me with an attractive offer to pay for the rest of my formal education -- because I opposed the war. This would have given the letters some meaning; it would have said something about my decision-making & my morality. But, "The Air Force offered to put me thru school, but I didn't feel like serving, so I ignored their offer," is not exactly a compelling narrative. It is, however, an awful lot like the one Carson wrote.
Marie
@Kate Madison: I agree completely on Swanson. Somebody can correct my gay-dar, but as I watched in horror, I thought, "Oh, he's gay." The gay person he wants to kill is a part of himself. But, alarmingly, he's telling the loons in his audience to kill other gay people. And we have three presidential candidates, all who hold or have held positions of great authority, sitting by while he says these terrible things. Their silence is a form of permission to kill random people. Yet except for Rachel & a few left-leaning sites, nobody has made an issue of this. Oh, where are you, Chuck Todd?
Anybody who thinks Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal & Mike Huckabee have spines is seriously mistaken. And the same goes for the media who don't call these creeps on their silence.
Marie
Definitely option #1. He's too crazy to be that smart. But what really scares me is that the number of people who support him must be in the millions, and they are much more crazy than he is. He at least has a motive for his lunacy, and is being rewarded (in cash) for it. They are just batshit crazy and are allowed to vote, and walk the streets. With guns. And they are many.
I am with Ken in being very worried by the rise of these (ISDS) tribunals that circumvent the rule of law and state sovereignty. We have currently the tobacco industry suing and/or intimidating national governments over tobacco related health initiatives, specifically plain packaging legislation. There are about a dozen governments wanting to enact legislation (eg France, Britain, Ireland, India) but watching the battles with the Australian Government in the WTO and trade pact tribunals. John Oliver did a piece on this some time ago and explained that many small countries can't afford the litigation that Australia has had to go through to be able to make their own laws, and that their people voted for. After resounding losses in the Supreme Court and the WTO, Philip Morris Asia has commenced an investor-state proceeding against Australia that exemplifies all the problems that Ken has outlined. The secret tribunals and trade agreements that these industries set up are the antithesis of democracy and the rule of law. Sorry for the rant, but globalised corporations have left us in the dust.
I think Swanson is less than simply anti gay. His ranting and, if one looks closely, his trembling and spitting, indicate something deeply primitive: I think he just gets off on the hate. I hesitate to make the comparison, but close ups of Hitler also showed his trembling excitement and spitting when he was giving his hateful antisemitic rants. Hitler had more control though: his movements were always choreographed. Hate, scream, flail about, shake, spit. The dogs have been let loose again.
Ak
My radio goes to 'mute' whenever Mara Liasson comes on.