;)
The Commentariat -- Oct. 20, 2013
** Freeeeedom! Garry Wills in the New York Review of Books on "Back Door Secession." CW: As I wrote some while back, President Obama is fighting the same civil war that President Lincoln fought. Wills makes this abundantly clear. A very fine piece. BTW, every time I write that Lincoln made a terrible -- if understandable -- mistake in prosecuting the Civil War, I get great howls of objection. Here's the thing: people want self-governance. That was ostensibly the purpose of the American Revolution, after all. The North has been forcing its laws on the South for 150 years. Southerners keep resisting. It is reasonable to hate white Southern values. I don't think it is reasonable to hate white Southerners for wanting home rule, no matter how terrible that rule is. Let 'em secede. Please. ...
... Jonathan Martin, et al., of the New York Times: Meanwhile, Republicans are engaged in their own internal civil war. "The budget fight that led to the first government shutdown in 17 years did not just set off a round of recriminations among Republicans over who was to blame for the politically disastrous standoff. It also heralded a very public escalation of a far more consequential battle for control of the Republican Party, a confrontation between Tea Party conservatives and establishment Republicans that will play out in the coming Congressional and presidential primaries in 2014 and 2016 but has been simmering since President George W. Bush’s administration, if not before."
Maureen Dowd: "The paradox of Obama is that he believes in his own magical powers, but then he doesn't turn up to use them." I liked this line: "(We have met the enemy and they are ... bloggers?)" Nothing Dowd hasn't written before. ...
... AND this from Dana Milbank: "These 'extremes' who 'don't like the word "compromise" were the obvious target of Obama's demand that we all 'stop focusing on the lobbyists and the bloggers and the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict.' (He did not mention newspaper columnists, so you are free to continue reading.) The gloating was a bit unseemly, but the president is entitled to savor a victory lap. The more important thing is that Obama now maintain the forceful leadership that won him the budget and debt fights. In that sense, the rest of Obama's speech had some worrisome indications that he was returning to his familiar position in the rear."...
Every day, I jump out of bed with a smile on my face, because it is a joy to have the opportunity to stand with the American people and work to help restore people's faith and optimism in our nation. It's an incredible honor to play a small role in expanding the American dream. -- Sen. Ted Cruz
Apparently Ted figures the American dream is to die of a treatable illness for want of affordable health care. Also, the image of Ted jumping out of bed with a diabolical smile on his face is ultra-creepy. -- Constant Weader ...
... Tailgunner Ted Is Still Shooting. Robert Costa of National Review: "According to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, it's his [Republican] colleagues, more than anyone, who should be blamed for the failure of the defund-Obamacare campaign -- and he expects conservatives to remember come primary season."
I am excited about being a member of the budget conference committee and I look forward to working with my Democratic and Republican colleagues to end the absurdity of sequestration and to develop a budget which works for all Americans. In my view, it is imperative that this new budget helps us create the millions of jobs we desperately need and does not balance the budget on the backs of working people, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ...
... Jason Easley of Politics USA: "Majority Leader Harry Reid has shattered Paul Ryan's dreams of killing Social Security and Medicare by putting Sen. Bernie Sanders on the budget conference committee." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. ...
... "The Biggest Victim of the Debt Ceiling Deal -- Your Retirement." Adam Levin of ABC News: "Congressional leaders are playing a dangerous game with their constituents' money, their livelihoods and their retirement savings. On Wednesday, all Congress did was flip over the hourglass on a game of chicken that cost our economy $24 billion and left America's future up in the air -- and, by doing so, may cause some of our hard-earned retirement savings to disappear into it."
Julie Pace of the AP: "Last week, President Barack Obama gathered some of his top advisers in the Oval Office to discuss the problem-plagued rollout of his health care legislation. He told his team the administration had to own up to the fact that there were no excuses for not having the health care website ready to operate on Day One. The admonition from a frustrated president came amid the embarrassing start to sign-ups for the health care insurance exchanges. The president is expected to address the cascade of computer problems Monday during an event at the White House."
John Whitesides of Reuters: "Hillary Clinton returned to the campaign trail on Saturday to endorse old friend Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor's race.... At her first overtly political appearance since leaving her post as secretary of state in February..., [Clinton] said the outcome of the bitter governor's battle would show whether voters were ready to choose common sense over ideology. She received a hero's welcome from the packed crowd in a theater in Falls Church, a Washington suburb, during an appearance certain to heighten speculation about a possible 2016 presidential bid."
Ben Protess & Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "JPMorgan Chase and the Justice Department are moving closer to a $13 billion settlement over the bank's mortgage practices, a record penalty that would cap weeks of heated negotiating and underscore the extent of the bank's legal woes, people briefed on the talks said. To resolve an array of federal and state investigations into the bank's sale of troubled mortgage securities to investors in the lead up to the financial crisis, the bank would be expected to pay about $9 billion in fines.... JPMorgan, the nation's largest bank, is also likely to spend $4 billion in relief for struggling homeowners, another person briefed on the talks said." (Emphasis added.)
News Lede
New York Times: "Mother Antonia Brenner, who left a comfortable life in Beverly Hills to minister to inmates in a notorious Mexican prison, eventually becoming a nun and spending more than 30 years living in a cell to be closer to those she served, died on Thursday in Tijuana, Mexico. She was 86."
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Reader Comments (27)
Re: JPMorgan. Can we please have Jamie Dimon's head on a pike, too.
And Dowd really is a tiresome twit. This column is less than all she's written before, if that's possible.
"I have endeavored to disguise my nationality in the last weeks as a hedge against embarrassment."
From the son who lives in Germany
@ I'm with your son. He could say "Hey" a lot & pretend he's a Canadian. May you should send him a T-shirt with a maple leaf. (During the Iraq war, I read that American tourists wore T-shirts that read, "I didn't vote for George Bush.") I do feel sorry for world-traveling, English-speaking Canadians, as they must constantly be mistaken for U.S. citizens.
When I used to travel in Europe, I always tried to blend in, wearing clothing of the type the natives wore. This worked pretty well from France on north; I couldn't "pass" in countries like Italy & Spain. Carrying a baguette in France was a great cover. People constantly spoke to me in French, asking for directions, etc. The giveaway, alas, was when I responded in heavily-accented pidgin French.
Marie
I find it very annoying (to put it politely) that we don't hear Democrats including the POTUS screaming out loud every day that because of a lack of health insurance an estimated 45,000 Americans die every year.
Apparently 45,000 dead bodies is no big deal.
@Re: Healthcare rollout: All these glitches would have been avoided with Medicare for all. As I recall, it was very easy for my wife and me to sign up for Medicare. OK, maybe the site would still have been overwhelmed but all the nonsense about shopping for health insurance would have been avoided.
What about the insurance companies? IMHO, their days are numbered anyway because their business model is unsustainable in the long run.
This is an interesting story about Obamacare:
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/18/inside_the_fox_news_lie_machine_i_fact_checked_sean_hannity_on_obamacare/
The revelation that Sean Hannity lies is hardly a surprise.
Re: secession.
Marie, with all due respect, you got it plain wrong (as do so many left-ish pundits). All states are integral parts of this nation. The people within any state are free to pick up stakes and leave - they are not free to steal the geography they inhabit - not the soil, nor that water, nor the air, nor the forests, nor the wildlife, nor the national parks & monuments. All those things belong to the entire nation, and cannot be taken without fight. Been tried once. If tried again, many people will die in the trying, and the resisting.
Bern, with all due respect you got it plain wrong. There once was two countries, the United States of America where their was belief and respect for the constitution and the Confederate States of America which did not. The fact is most of the latter group still have no regard for the basic principles of the USA. If they cannot live with that annoying idea of equal rights, promote the general welfare, and that other crap they should leave. There won't be a war, just a very large celebration. The USA is not about national parks or any other physical entities, it is about a genuine belief in the founding principles.
Oh, and let me mention that the celebration will only be in the USA. The CSA which is totally dependent on that disgusting federal government money will quickly enter the third world. My celebration will be, in part, the fact that my taxes will go way down since I am quite sure the CSA will not accept something they hate, foreign aid.
@Bern: Like @Marvin Schwalb, I can't see why you would assert that "many will die." There is no reason that an orderly, lawful secession could not be designed, legislated & carried out. Voters & state legislatures in each state could decide whether to opt out. The law could allow individuals in the 50 states a long period (say, 20 years) to choose which of the (two or more) countries they wanted to live in, after which the countries could impose whatever immigration restrictions they wanted. Perhaps a sort of tax-based "moving allowance" could be built into the law. I don't think I would choose to live in the "Florida country" where I live now. States that seceded would of course lose their military bases & other U.S. government facilities. But they would not, as you say, lose the land under those facilities. Many technicalities would have to be worked out, it is true; for instance, Social Security & Medicare contributions made to date of secession would have to be honored.
I don't think you've thought this through. The U.S. has been a model for democratic state. It isn't anymore. It could become a model for peaceful restructuring.
BTW, I think some of those Freeeeedom! teabaggers might think twice when given an opportunity to secede.
Marie
Southern secession: who here believes they would do what they say? I bet any amount of money the second that secession was on the table they would see that as a sign of weakness and change the rules and ask for more. And once that was renegotiated, they would change the rules and ask for more.
These people are not trustworthy because their lives are based on a faith based, personal interpretation of Jesus' book that itself is a translation of an oral history. Secession is based on the few bullying the many. When it's not, it is called Democracy.
Finally, when liberals get wishy washy with secession, they look like Michael Dukakis who wouldn't kill the rapist/murderer of his wife Kitty. The object, however arrived at, is that no violence comes to your loved ones, even if you fight dirty. Otherwise they win. Secession I see like that.
@citizen625: I don't know what you mean by they would not do what they say. Either a state votes to secede or not. The terms & conditions would be set by the now-hypothetical law. States that opted to secede can't very well "get more," although I suppose they could try to steal military equipment, etc., that remained within their borders before the secession was completely effected. But that sort of thing would likely be the exception, not the rule.
The people who want to secede -- and who are now practicing various degrees of nullification -- have much too much power over those of us who want to live in an orderly nation where everyone is supposed to abide by the U.S. Constitution & the laws of the land. For instance, I now live in a state that has strict voter ID laws, & has revoked -- again -- the right of ex-felons to vote. Florida is thus essentially an apartheid state. I find that horrible. There are a host of laws the nullifiers don't like & parts of the Constitution they openly flout. So let 'em make their own laws. If I find those laws reprehensible, so be it. I don't have to live in the Confederate States of Reprehensible.
P.S. I don't see empowering other people as a sign of weakness. I see it as a sign of strength.
Marie
The reason why "orderly lawful secession" was not allowed to take place was because it was a clear attempt to overturn by force of arms the results of lawful elections; elections the terms of which the secessionists agreed to when choosing to join the union in the first place.
At what point does a political entity become sufficiently large as to allow it to ignore the results of an election? And if it's acceptable for large political entities (like states) to withdraw from the contract that binds us to one another, at what point does it become too small? Is Austin too small to be allowed to secede from Texas? Would New York and California become like the old Pakistan, separated by another nation that doesn't like them? Or would we degenerate into a bunch of post-Soviet states, each now free to codify the very bigotry that drove them, in part, to leave in the first place?
At some point the rule of law has to mean something, and that starts with us all accepting the consequences of the elections in which we freely take part.
You are correct, Marie, in that Obama is, in essence, fighting the same battle. But the reasons the secessionists have for waging that battle are just as illegitimate now as they were then.
I wonder how much of the secession and nullification ranting is just blather to get the rubes to stand up and wave flags so their pockets can be more easily picked?
I seem to remember after the bank-induced Great Recession that pundits and politicans alike were all singing the praises of Baron Jamie Dimon as being one of the most respectable bankers of Wall Street. A moral compass steering J.P. Morgan away from the shoddy deals that landed us in this current mess. Sounded like bullshit when they fed it to us and it's more than confirmed that bullshit it was indeed. Turns out they're all white collar felons up there, who'ver would've thunk it? You have to question the integrity of the business model that allows multi-billion dollar losses explode across the board while the dumbfuck running the casino still gets to poop in the gold-plated shitter.
Too big to fail but fail they will. Next time around, I'll be joining up with Mr. Singer in downtown Manhattan with my pitchfork. I'll buy two if we can also track down Mr. Undisclosed Location.Or maybe just a good hard thump on the ol' ticker Zinedine Zidane style. That would be much more satisfying...
On the subject of living abroad, these are interesting times indeed to be an expatriate. You wouldn't believe how many articles of clothing these days incorporate the American flag. I hardly go a day without seeing some representation of it and I can't help but wonder what motivated that particular person to purchase/wear those clothes in the first place. My initial thoughts would obviously be the values that it represents or the soft power our culture exudes in its many facets and forms. But as the fissures have deepened and the GOP has turned extremist, I can't help but view the flag on their shirt in a slightly different light. No longer as the ever-lasting symbol of the bedrock of democracy but rather I see its vulnerabilities ever more telling as it flaps in the wind, tethered to that fallible rope. A big enough storm could fray its fabric down to the core, or worse whisk it away into the unknown. Those of us who truly share its values need to bunker down and hold on tight.
Whenever asked, I don't pull the Canadian card although I can't say I haven't been tempted. Rather, I just say "Kansas" and smile that smile.
Here is some serious food for thought:
Switzerland Mulls Giving Every Citizen $2,800 a Month
Just came across this little gem over at Crooks & Liars:
http://crooksandliars.com/nonny-mouse/texas-republicans-figure-out-how-disen
A perfect example of why we should just let 'em go. If only our government had Marie's good sense...but of course, they don't, so our liberation from the CSA (Cretinous Sates of America) is but a glorious fantasy.
@James Singer and @safari: As for the Jamie Dimon and his ilk, I have to deal with media concerning those banksters in my job (which has nothing to do with my credentials or experience, but which was the only job I could find after my divorce, due entirely to my, um, "mature" age) so I'll reserve my acerbic commentary. But I will say that a former co-worker and I used to fantasize in the wee hours about a good way to commit suicide, should one be diagnosed with a terminal condition: it involved assault rifles and Wall Street denizens and lots and lots of carnage. I say "fantasized" because both of us are die-hard pacifists and don't believe anything good is ever accomplished through violence -- but it did feel good to imagine a kind of retribution for all the suffering these fat cats caused. We'd have been happy had they been locked up for life and stripped of all their ill-gotten gains, but our hopey-changey prez was too busy licking Dimon's boots (I cleaned it up for public consumption) even to entertain the possibility.
It is to weep.
CW: It's been a long time since I've had to remove a comment for cause. This was certainly the most disgusting comment I can recall reading. On any site. Ever. It's gone. The writer is asked not to comment here again unless & until s/he learns to compose a civil argument.
I apologize to other contributors. There's a price we occasionally pay for my not screening comments. Today was one of those occasions.
@Bern. Selling off the unhappy states sounds like a free-market capitalist idea I could support. I've often thought that--in lieu of raising taxes--municipalities, cities, and states should sell off their naming rights, much as they do for sports complexes and university buildings and such. I see no value to living in "Oregon" when we all know Phil Knight rules, so why not sell the naming right to Knight so he can call it the "great state of Nike."
Let me try to sum up reality. There is not going to be any secession. my point, and that i believe of others is just a way of stating reality with a dream attached. The fact is there has been two Americas from literally day one. The America that believes in the true concept of democracy and the other one filled with pathetic racism. The only thing that has happened, maybe the first time like this since the 1960's, is the exposure of the other America caused by the color of the POTUS. The America that wants to return to 1860.
The real challenge is to make the other America go away. It can be done but it requires not just real leadership but real education. And I actually think that this can happen if we can just get everyone to pick up their ass on the first day after Monday of every November.
Packer awards strategic victory to the teaparty: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2013/10/28/131028taco_talk_packer
Breaking up the US might seem attractive at the moment but to get a more realistic view you need to invite some conservatives to debate with you. You will be amazed at what 'they' feel will be their due on dissolution. The Empire Loyalists, Pakistan, Quebec. There are a lot of examples to inform you of the consequences of dissolving a union or even entertaining the idea.
@cowichan's. I'm not amazed at anything the goobers say. Only that there are goobers who will say it.
Marvin S. It's getting pretty hard to vote in many places. Read the Crooks and Liars link posted by Rose in Michigan. And the Supreme Court isn't helping by not squashing all the other voter ID laws sprouting up all over.
This is one of the most disappointing series of comments I've ever seen on RC. Secession. You seem to feel that by secession all those ignorant (less smart than you) people will just go away.
You are indulging in the same fantasy as those who want us to' just build a bigger wall' between US and Mexico to keep "those people" out.
You are all good people who have always followed the law and never colored outside the lines ever in your lives. You believe the answer to problems is to write another law because you will obey it.
The problem as I see it is lack of enforcement of the laws we have. It starts with the most visible and wealthy getting special deals and the rest of society expecting they should be afforded the same treatment.
The entertainment industry glorifies the ignorant and stupid and their ignorant behavior. They thus become role models for the young and naïve.
These people are not going away by secession. Until we develop better ways to train young minds and prosecute the corrupt in our society as an example for those young minds, our condition will continue to worsen.
There is no running from this, there is no walling it off through secession. Other civilizations have faced these same problems, most have disappeared due to their inability to find workable solutions.
When wealth becomes dominant over government, the resulting Plutocracy wipes out the law abiders with the law breakers.
Upon arising--in the Land of the Rising Sun--and heading to my morning wakeup reading of RealityChex, I was pleasantly surprised to see 23 comments--a great day for enlightenment from intelligent people making astute observations thinks I. After reading the comments, I considered writing to suggest a book I had just read, "Better Off Without 'Em, A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession," by Chuck Thompson, but decided against it. I visited my other daily reads and what to my surprise was awaiting at Salon but this:
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/20/just_secede_already_the_obstructionists_arent_going_anywhere_maybe_we_should/
So I decided to come back and post the link to now 24 comments. After reading Mr. Henry's comment, I thought about it for quite some time, weighing his argument for better enforcement of existing laws, training young minds, and prosecuting societal corruption. All noble beliefs until I reread this passage in Mr. Thompson's book:
"The persistent defiance of every Democratic attempt to deal intelligently with national problems--be they recession, debt, or childhood diabetes--has nothing to do with political ideology, taxes, health care, or acceptable degrees of federal authority. It has everything to do with nullification, disruption, zealotry, and division. It's part of a time-sharpened effort to debilitate nearly every northern-led government by injecting it with the Seven Deadly Sins of Southern Politics: demagogic dishonesty, religious fanaticism, willful obstruction, disregard for own self-interest, corporate supplication, disproportionate influence, and military adventurism."
Combine Mr. Thompson's words with those of Haley Simon's comment above Mr. Henry's as well as the never-ending, hate-filled invective spewed daily by GOP TV (AKA Fox News), Michelle Malkin, Larry Klayman, Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh and on and on, without end, that feeds the hatred, and I fail to see how this country will ever find, as Mr. Henry writes, "workable solutions."
I'm still intrigued by the idea of selling off our assets. Mitt would understand; that's how he got rich. So the first thing I'd like to sell is Alabama, maybe to Botswana.
And let's sell Texas to Somalia.