;)
The Commentariat -- Nov. 14, 2014
Internal links removed.
Peter Baker & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "In the 10 days since 'we got beat,' as [President Obama] put it, by Republicans who captured the Senate and bolstered control over the House, Mr. Obama has flexed his muscles on immigration, climate change and the Internet, demonstrating that he still aspires to enact sweeping policies that could help define his legacy.... The back-to-back moves have reinforced Mr. Obama's desire to assert himself in a period when his poll numbers and political capital are at their lowest ebbs.... Advisers said that he feels liberated. He can now pursue his long-term agenda, they said, without being tethered to the short-term electoral concerns of his party's leadership in Congress." ...
... Michael McAuliff of the Huffington Post: "'I've been very disturbed about the way the president has proceeded in the wake of the election,' [Mitch] McConnell told reporters on Capitol Hill soon after his caucus voted to keep him as its leader when Republicans take control of the Senate in January." ...
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker on "Obama's Unexpectedly Good Week.... Insomuch as there was any analysis of what the [election] results would mean for the next two years, it tended to dwell on when the President would recognize the error of his ways. In the narrative promulgated by the panjandrums of the Washington commentariat, this would involve publicly acknowledging his grave character flaws, disassembling the tight-knit circle of aides that surrounds him, inviting over some Capitol Hill bigwigs (and possibly some media bigwigs) for whiskey-and-poker evenings, and generally being less of an arrogant, aloof jerk.... During his first week of living in reduced circumstances after the midterms, Obama showed that he is capable of exceeding expectations, and he isn't done yet." ...
... (From yesterday's News Ledes.) Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "President Obama will ignore angry protests from Republicans and announce as soon as next week a broad overhaul of the nation's immigration enforcement system that will protect up to five million undocumented immigrants from the threat of deportation and provide many of them with work permits, according to administration officials who have direct knowledge of the plan." ...
... Ted Barrett of CNN: Harry Reid asked President Obama to wait to announce his executive order on immigration until after December 11, by which time Congress is supposed to have approved a continuing resolution to fund the government. CW: So Feliz Navidad, I guess, although Reid may not care if Obama holds off; he may just want to appear to be nice to Mitch, who is, you know, disturbed. ...
... MEANWHILE. Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Wary that President Obama might back away from vows to ease deportations unilaterally, House Democrats on Wednesday sought to hold the president's feet to the fire. On the first day of Congress's return to Washington after the midterm elections, the lawmakers pressed Obama to act swiftly and decisively to reduce deportations, even in the face of Republican warnings that sidestepping Congress could undermine immigration reform legislation and sink the confirmation of Obama's pick for attorney general."
... If you like to think of politics as a game, with people as helpless pawns, here's Chris Cillizza's analysis of the Immigrants Game. ...
(Contributor Nancy found this piece by Brett Line & Linda Poon, published in June 2013 in National Geographic, on how some other wealthy countries approach immigration. Denmark is awful.)
... Remember the Lawsuit! Robert Costa & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) is considering expanding a proposed federal lawsuit over President Obama's executive orders to include action on immigration." ...
... In a previous episode of the long-running sideshow "Remember the Lawsuit," it was revealed that Boehner's lawyers kept quitting. CW: I wonder why. ...
... NOW Look Who's on a Bumpy Ride. Update. Costa & O'Keefe: "Congressional Republicans have split into competing factions over how to respond to President Obama's expected moves to overhaul the nation's immigration system, which are likely to include protecting millions from being deported. The first, favored by the GOP leadership, would have Republicans denounce what House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has called 'executive amnesty' and use the party's new grip on Congress to contest changes to the law incrementally in the months ahead. The second, which has become the rallying cry for conservatives, would seek to block the president's decision by shutting down the government for an extended period until he relents." Read it and smirk.
Paul Kane & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Seeking ideological and regional balance, a chastened Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) expanded his leadership team Thursday, including the addition of liberal icon Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), to beat back internal critics.... Reid appointed Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), a second-term senator close to many of the caucus's agitated members from then upper Midwest and Plains States, as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.... This came after Reid won another term leading the Democrats, over the objection of several centrist Democrats. Sens. Claire McCaskill and Joe Manchin told reporters afterward that they didn't cast a ballot for Reid or anyone else, a protest vote that was unusual simply by being held." ...
... The story has been updated with a new URL & new lede: "Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid faced the first internal opposition to his grip on power Thursday as at least six Democrats rejected his bid for another leadership term during an emotional meeting following last week's drubbing in the midterm elections." ...
... Digby explains in plain English: "Red state Dems have a little hissy fit inside the Democratic Senate caucus, hoping a Tea partier will give them a hug.... From what we're hearing about this lovely group of Quislings, they couldn't be happier to be free now to vote with the Republicans and pass some noxious shit that people who will never vote for them want. Again." ...
... David Firestone of the New York Times: Making Elizabeth Warren "a mere liaison" to the Democratic leadership " is not what the Democrats need right now.... If Ms. Warren is allowed to become the voice of Democratic opposition to the worst Republican policies, she may just help lead the party out of the wilderness." ...
... MEANWHILE, in the House. Billy House of the National Journal: "Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, who is expecting a baby in December, is being denied a request to vote by proxy in the House Democratic Caucus leadership and committee member elections next week -- even though her doctor advises she can't travel to Washington in the late stages of her pregnancy.... Democratic aides, speaking on the condition they not be identified, said they believe the decision to block Duckworth, 46, from doing so is related ... to the tight intra-party race for the party's top seat next session on the Energy and Commerce Committee. The seat is being vacated by retiring Rep. Henry Waxman." ...
... So, okay, expect a bumpy ride on the Democratic side, too. Brian Beutler: "... structural difficulties ... make it harder for Democrats than Republicans to be a united, rejectionist opposition party. Their coalition includes many moderates; isn't overwhelmed by ideological liberals; is in hock to big business; and, unlike Republicans, is invested in the idea that government should function well.... That the Democratic Party's favorables have just fallen below the Republican Party's favorables for the first time since the last Republican midterm blowout (and really for the first time in about a decade) compounds the problem -- Democrats don't want to become even more unfavorable, and they saw what obstruction did to the House GOP's approval numbers."
Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "Barack Obama will make a substantial pledge to a fund to help poor countries fight climate change, only days after his historic carbon pollution deal with China. In a one-two punch, America plans to pledge at least $2.5bn and as much as $3bn over the next four years to help poor countries invest in clean energy and cope with rising seas and extreme weather, according to those briefed by administration officials." ...
... Paul Krugman: "The agreement between China and the United States on carbon emissions is, in fact, a big deal. To understand why, you first have to understand the defense in depth that fossil-fuel interests and their loyal servants -- nowadays including the entire Republican Party -- have erected against any action to save the planet.... I don't expect the usual suspects to concede that a major part of the anti-environmentalist argument has just collapsed. But it has. This was a good week for the planet." ...
... Oh Yeah? Jim Inhofe in a USA Today op-ed: "This is a non-binding charade because as China's economy grows, so will its demand for electricity.... As Republicans take the majority in the new Congress, I will be working to ensure these rules do not become final or put at risk our economy and domestic energy expansion." CW: Again, significantly, Inhofe says nothing about climate change being a hoax. Is he giving up on that argument?
** Charles Pierce: "... there was no braver American amid the tumult of the 1960's and the 1970's than John Doar."
Annals of "Justice," Ctd.
It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Eric Holder! Devlin Barrett of the Wall Street Journal: "The Justice Department is scooping up data from thousands of mobile phones through devices deployed on airplanes that mimic cellphone towers, a high-tech hunt for criminal suspects that is snagging a large number of innocent Americans, according to people familiar with the operations." CW: Firewalled; copy & paste a clause or two into a search engine. ...
... Kate Knibbs of Gizmodo: "This is a huge deal. If the details in the WSJ are accurate, this program is as invasive and disturbing as the NSA surveillance programs exposed last year.... The fake phone tower signals used work even on phones with encryption, like the iPhone 6, so there's virtually no way phone makers could've prevented this from happening. The Justice Department has neither confirmed or denied the WSJ report."
CW: A number of posts I've linked in the past refer to the conservative justices' understanding of how the federal exchange is supposed to work as a substitute for state exchanges, as expressed in their dissent in the big Business v. Sebelius case of 2011, which upheld the ACA over their objections. Scott Lemieux does a fairly good job of explaining the four justices' analysis -- as it appears in their joint dissent -- & why they would have to reverse their own analysis if the ruled for the plaintiffs in King v. Burwell, the case the Court recently agreed to hear. Lemieux adds, "... these four justices, having made one argument in service of their political goal of destroying the ACA, [would now have to] make precisely the opposite argument in service of their political goal of destroying the ACA. The fact that [this is] probably right is pretty much all I have to say about these four gentlemen." ...
... CW: Fortunately, thanks to the "stupidity of the American voters," the conservative justices will easily get away with that. If Roberts joins them, there will be high fives all around the GOP for, as Lemieux puts it, "stripping millions of people of their health insurance, consigning some of them to needless suffering and death, and others to avoidable bankruptcy. If there's a better way of describing the Republican Party in 2014, I don't know what it is." ...
... E. J. Dionne: "Here's a hypothetical for you: First, the Supreme Court issues a ruling that installs a conservative president. Then, he appoints two conservative Supreme Court justices who then join with three of their colleagues to make mincemeat of the greatest achievement of a progressive president elected by a clear majority. If such a thing happened in any other country, would we still call it a democratic republic?" ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that, not only did Jonathan Gruber not play a significant role in drafting Obamacare, but that she doesn't even 'know who he is.'... Many have pointed out since then that Pelosi's office has cited Gruber's work in the past. That's notable, but it's very unlikely Pelosi herself wrote those press releases herself or even participated in their drafting." ...
... Sarah Kliff of Vox has an interesting rundown of Gruber's "contributions to the conversation" about ObamaCare....
... CW: What's interesting to me is that, assuming Kliff's reporting is accurate (and she has followed ACA developments closely), Gruber did not formally contribute much to the ACA; he only provided models for assessing the effects of various policy options. He was an "architect" of the ACA only in that the federal law has provisions similar to those of RomneyCare, which Gruber did do significant work on. I don't see how Gruber could get into Nancy Pelosi's head or read Max Baucus's mind; he apparently had little or no direct contact with them. He seems to be (a) projecting his own prejudices & (b) showing off by implying he has "insider" information). ...
... CW: Or maybe its just penis envy. Jake Tapper of CNN catches a talk Prof. Gruber gave in 2010 about high healthcare costs. "In the 1950s surgeons are middle class guys like professors.... Now they live on the Hamptons, the Cape, they're like investment bankers."
... Jonathan Chait explains what Gruber really meant about stupid people. Thanks to MAG for the link. ...
Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "An intruder was able to climb a fence and enter the White House in September because of a succession of 'performance, organizational, technical' and other failures by the Secret Service, according to a damning review of the incident by the Department of Homeland Security. The review found that the Secret Service's alarm systems and radios failed to function properly, and that many of the responding officers did not see the intruder as he climbed over the fence, delaying their response.... The review has not been made public, but members of Congress were briefed on it Thursday. An executive summary was obtained by The New York Times."
Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "Russia has informed the United States that it is planning to reduce its participation next year in a joint effort to secure nuclear materials on Russian territory, a move that could seriously undermine more than two decades of cooperation aimed at ensuring that nuclear bomb components do not fall into the hands of terrorists or a rogue state."
Even conservatives peg Tailgunner Ted as a tool & an ignoramus on net neutrality. Thanks to James S. for the link. ...
... Here's Teddy the Tool, in a WashPo op-ed, explaining why those conservative techies are all wrong: see, "net neutrality" is just another way to "stifle freedom." Also, Obama has arranged for "the likes of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Chinese President Xi Jinping [to] dictate what can be read, written, distributed, bought and sold on the Internet." CW: So the next time you try to log on, don't be surprised if Putin rears his head, or some dancing pandas sing quotations from the Little Red Book, or the Ayatollah just shuts you down. Thanks, Ted, for keeping us all informed of the impending doom.
CW: I will not be having loofah for lunch. See "Beyond the Beltway" in yesterday's Commentariat for context. Thanks to Akhilleus for sparing me the sponge:
November December Election
Dana Milbank: "... nobody predicted that the first legislation Congress would take up would be the Mary Landrieu Preservation Act of 2014."
Beyond the Beltway
Ken Ward of the Charleston, West Virginia Gazette: "Don Blankenship, the longtime chief executive officer of Massey Energy, was indicted Thursday on charges that he violated federal mine safety laws at the company's Upper Big Branch Mine prior to an April 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners. A federal grand jury in Charleston charged Blankenship with conspiring to cause routine and willful violations of mandatory federal mine safety and health standards at Upper Big Branch between Jan. 1, 2008, and April 9, 2010, U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said."
News Ledes
AP: "Jane Byrne became part of Chicago history when she was elected its first female mayor. She became part of city lore because of how she won: beating an incumbent who voters thought had bungled the reaction to a blizzard that paralyzed the streets.... She died Friday at age 81 at a hospice in Chicago, said her daughter, Kathy." Her New York Times obituary is here.
Washington Post: "On separate trips to the opulent presidential palace in Naypyidaw and to the stately Rangoon villa of Burma's most famous politician, [president] Obama played the role of de facto adviser to President Thein Sein and the Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains blocked by constitutional rules from seeking the presidency."
AP: "A surgeon working in Sierra Leone has been diagnosed with Ebola and will be flown to Nebraska for treatment, according to a US government source. The surgeon, Dr Martin Salia, is a citizen of Sierra Leone but also a legal permanent US resident, an official with knowledge of the case told the Associated Press." Proposed Fox Headline: "Obama Ebola Epidemic Rages, Increases by 100 1,000 10,000 Incalculable Percent."
AP: "In an interview with authorities the night of his capture and in a letter to his parents, [alleged cop-killer Eric] Frein revealed himself to be deeply dissatisfied with the government and society, saying he hoped to foment a revolution to reclaim 'the liberties we once had,' said the documents, filed Thursday in support of terrorism charges against the sniper suspect."
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Reader Comments (13)
Glad you were spared the loofah lunch, Marie. About a month ago, my sister's dog ate two of mine. Took a vet and many bucks to fix the poor pooch's bowels.
Indictment of Don Blankenship: makes my day!
Here's an appalling story of animal neglect involving the son of one of our esteemed Republican senators.:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/us/in-deaths-of-dogs-a-human-story-of-loss-and-intrigue.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
Curious about how other countries handle immigration, I found this:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/130630-immigration-reform-world-refugees-asylum-canada-japan-australia-sweden-denmark-united-kingdom-undocumented-immigrants/
Note Denmark's stance!
Anyone have any other suggestions for reading?
E.J. Dionne makes some fine points in the piece, liked above, on the shenanigans connected to the Republicans' desire to crush the newly improved quality of life brought to Americans by the ACA, a program that is not only working spectacularly well, but saving money and making healthcare delivery more efficient, all things Republicans used to be for, prior to a black guy in the White House.
In addition to the (not so) hypothetical situation Marie quotes, Dionne makes the following observation followed by a question:
"Textual interpretation, Scalia insisted, should be 'holistic' and 'contextual,' not “wooden” or 'literal'...If Scalia wants to be true to his own principles, can he possibly side with a convoluted reading of the law that apparently never occurred to him before?"
E.J., of course he can.
People make the mistake of taking Scalia and the other conservative (in)justices at their word. Scalia will take the path that leads not to justice, but to ideological satisfaction. So will the others. Little Johnny may give a thought to his "legacy" but he's already pissed on civil rights and allowed elections to be bought and sold. He had to have been in on the decision to hear a spurious challenge to the ACA. If he wanted things to stay on track, he could just as easily have taken a pass on the Typo Challenge. The other possibility is that he wants to save the ACA and inoculate it from any future challenges to the state exchanges. Show of hands, class. How many think this is true?
And, OMFG, all this hand wringing over what some consultant had to say. First, it's just his opinion. Can you imagine what we'd hear if we could listen to leaked tapes of Teabagger pols voicing their opinions about, say, immigrants, the poor, blah people, etc...? Your ears would fall off.
Besides, as the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding. The thing is working. Who cares what Gruber has to say? Would people complain, after watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, that the whole expedition was flawed and a failure because some NASA consultant was opining about how stupid some of the engineers were?
Oh, wait. That was a hoax, wasn't it?
Never mind.
Hey, kids, I just got a chance to check out a WSJ manifesto written by Jowly McConnell and Drink-Boy Boehner outlining their agenda for fixing America after, you know, black guy in White House has ruined everything. I mean, you can't even run over a poor old black lady anymore without some asshole with a cell phone camera putting your face on the TV. Just ain't right.
Anyhoo, here is what they propose to do in the next two years. The.Next.Two.Years. After doing squat for the last six. Make sure you're sitting. You might fall down laughing and I don't need no frivolous lawsuits (see below).
We the undersigned ("What's that mean, Mitch?" "Put that goddam bottle down Johnny and pay attention...") do solemnly swear to do all these cool things that that horrid nee-groe couldn't or wouldn't do:
Fix the tax code. Corporations and rich people are gettin' raped; raped, I tell ya.
Get healthcare costs under control because they continue to rise (even though they're dropping faster than Ted Cruz can find the nearest mirror). Oh, and don't forget, everyone hates the ACA because black guy in White House.
Kill all Obama's pals. We mean the terrorists.
Fix edumacation so that students is learning and know about histories. And stuff. Edumacation broken because liberals deny parents choice (because choice is such a big thing with Republicans).
End expensive and ridiculously frivolous lawsuits (except that one against the black guy in the White House) and end regulations on just about everything else.
Something, something, something, bullshit, ....er, um, bureaucracy, 21st century, diseases from Africa, scary, scary, scary, veterans need help, something, something, something.
National debt is crazy big and getting bigger, biggest because black guy, stealing America from kids and grand children and something, something, something, they'll have to pay everything. Um, ...something else bad.
The end.
Are you feeling all warm and cozy about Republican plans to fix everything?
But understand, kids, this was written a whole week ago. McConnell has had seven ball washing sessions with the Kochs since then and Boehner is hooked on his new hobby of lining up those little worms he gets when he finishes a bottle of mezcal, so neither of them probably remember a single thing about this list.
Except maybe, black guy in White House.
That, they remember.
Your honor, I would like to offer the following as evidence in proving that Republicans treat voters as if they are stupider than a bag of lead paint chips:
Ted Cruz's net neutrality gambit.
He obviously thinks people are complete idiots. Even, and probably especially, those of his own party.
So once again, Republican outrage about someone calling voters stupid is short circuited by evidence that they think less of the voters than a healthcare consultant with silly opinions.
Cruz is just one of many Republicans who thinks they can simply call for the "If Obama is for it, We're Against it" play, and people will line up to tell him what a genius he is and how he's saving their freedoms.
The other possibility however, is that Ted Cruz is the idiot who doesn't have a clue what "net neutrality" means. I suppose if your time online is spent googling your own name and pictures, you might not have time for other stuff.
You could probably do without hearing anything from or about Meghan McCain, but she represents the kind of stupidity that has overtaken much of America.
Her latest big idea, which I've never heard anyone say before, is that the ACA is one of the worst things ever to happen to America. You see, with these people, they can't just disagree, there just can't be a difference of opinion, although, anyone who's opinion is that sick people without insurance can just go fuck themselves is not someone I ever want to know. These people have to make it appear as if they are battling demonic powers that are pulling America into the pit of hell.
But that sort of self aggrandizement is one thing (Meghan must have spent a lot of time with Palin because that sort of bullshit is a favorite of hers--everyone's out to get her even though she's Freedom's best hope). A complete lack of understanding of how things work in the world, especially for the daughter of a guy who has been running for president for several decades, is another thing.
McCain talks about the evils of distribution of wealth. I think she meant re-distribution, but never mind. She's all in a lather about young people paying for older people. Guess she never heard of things like taxes or social security. But I'm a little surprised she's so adamant about the economic impact of the ACA because, if I'm not mistaken, a few years ago, she stated pretty clearly that she doesn't know jack about economics:
""I didn't even take econ in college. I keep reading and I just don't understand it."
I guess she must have been visited by the Fairy of Right Wing Economic Theory since then. Plus, she never shuts up! Christ! That voice!
It also kills me when idiots like McCain talk about how the American public hates the ACA. That apparently hasn't stopped them from signing up for it in record numbers, and mostly in red states. Also, not for nothin', but when McCain's party has expended monumental energy demonizing healthcare reform for years, it's no wonder many Americans think it's the worst thing since the Holocaust. That kind of bad press would make people think world peace was a terrible idea.
And don't hold your breath waiting for the media to correct such thinking.
@Akhilleus. Thanks for the Meghan McCain thing, I think. What a ditz.
The funny thing is that she came "armed with statistics" to which she repeatedly turned (because she couldn't remember the number 58, I guess) to make her point, which was 58 percent of Americans say they don't like it (the number I read this morning was 51 percent, but why quibble with a dimwit?). Yo, Meghan & Nino, I'll bet 58 percent of Americans don't like broccoli, either, but that doesn't mean broccoli is bad for you. Ninety-eight percent of people don't like paying taxes, but that doesn't mean governments at every level will be passing laws that eliminate all taxes.
Of course, if Republicans hadn't been telling people how bad ObamaCare is since before the Age of ObamaCare, people's opinions of it would probably be way higher. So, the basis for Meghan's "fact" -- people don't like ObamaCare -- is Meghan's conservative friends telling everybody ObamaCare was nothing but socialistic death panels. Point well-taken, dear. But stupid.
As for the idea that the poor kids are paying for old folks -- another of Meghan's brilliant points -- that's only partially true. Of course older people -- on average -- have more maladies than younger, but they also pay higher premiums. A 27-year-old does not pay the same premium as a 57-year-old.
In addition, Meghan doesn't seem to know what insurance is. And she doesn't give a rat's ass that before ObamaCare (and still somewhat now), she was paying for poor people who couldn't afford insurance & optimistic people who didn't buy insurance, when they got sick & couldn't pay their bills. Yes, the ACA is redistribution (or "distribution" in Meghan-speak), but it's a fairer, more equitable redistribution that the old system of Insured People Pay for Everybody.
Also, of course, it's not as if the kids can't use their insurance. It has to cover physicals, if I'm not mistaken, birth control unless you work for a Christianist, and regular illnesses & accidents because, um, young people get sick, too, & are way more apt to need birth control than the old fogies.
Moreover, it gives the kids something I never had: insurance that they'll always have insurance.
Also, it's not clear that Meghan realizes opinions should be based on facts. Besides citing opinion surveys to "demonstrate" that ObamaCare sucks, she gets a bit miffed when the hosts contradict her with facts. "Wait a minutes," she says, "you asked me on here to give my opinion, so don't complain." (Paraphrase.)
Marie
Marie, your comment on Megan as a ditz was apparently being kind.
I looked at her Wikipedia post and the words "buffoonish" and "idiot" appeared.
It's hilarious to see how much deference the Republicans feel they are accorded now that they have captured both houses. Yet they never acknowledged any Democratic mandate even when we won a landslide victory in 2008 and a fairly substantial result in 2012. Funny that.
Victoria D.,
It's not funny, it's arrogance and their built-in sense of righteousness no matter how wrong they are.
And by the way, Don Blankenship? May he shovel coal dust in prison 'til his lungs cave in.
Whenever I hear "The American people have spoken" or "The American people think thus and so, I cringe. Here is the perfect cartoon that expresses my thoughts:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/13/1344665/-Cartoon-The-people-have-spoken?detail=email