;)
The Commentariat -- October 27, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Seething at the Export-Import Bank’s expiration, 62 Republicans voted with 184 Democrats Monday on a rarely used procedure to force a vote to reopen the bank with some modest reforms. Final passage will be Tuesday, sending the legislation to the Senate, where its outcome is unclear but where it counts the support of almost 70 of 100 senators."
*****
Boehner Cleans House. David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Congressional leaders and the Obama administration are close to a crucial budget deal that would modestly increase domestic spending over the next two years and raise the federal borrowing limit. The accord would avert a potentially cataclysmic default on the government's debt and dispense with perhaps the most divisive issue in Washington just days before Speaker John A. Boehner is expected to turn over his gavel to Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin. While congressional aides cautioned that the deal was far from certain, and the CW: That last of which is mighty stupid. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update: "After five years of bitter clashes, Republican congressional leaders and President Obama on Monday night appeared to settle their last budget fight by reaching a tentative deal that would modestly increase spending over the next two years, cut some social programs, and raise the federal borrowing limit.... With Mr. Boehner's backing, the House moved with rare bipartisanship -- employing an even rarer legislative maneuver -- toward ... reauthorization of the 81-year-old Export-Import Bank, the government's lender of last resort for American exporters. The House voted, 246 to 177, to wrest a bill that would revive the bank's charter from a hostile committee chairman [-- Jeb Hensarling (RTP-Texas --] and set it up for House passage on Tuesday."
... The Washington Post story, by Kelsey Snell, is here. "House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) led the negotiations with the White House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Snell's updated story, reflecting the finalization of the agreement, is here. ...
... Greg Sargent says the deal is not too bad. "On Medicare and Social Security: Nancy Altman, the president of Social Security Works, a group that strenuously opposes benefits cuts and argues for their expansion, tells me that the deal 'doesn't actually cut benefits or really hurt beneficiaries who aren't gaming the system.' Altman says the Medicare cuts are all on the provider side, which could harm beneficiaries at some point, but it's not a major concern. 'On the Medicare side, they limited their cuts to far in the future, and to providers," Altman says. ...
... CW: One tidbit I learned today: John Boehner actually knows his way around a kitchen, while his heir-apparent, Prince Paul, only pretends to. Look for the House to go totally fake under new managemement. ...
... Seung Min Kim, et al., of Politico: "The ink isn't even dry on a tentative two-year budget agreement, but conservatives in Congress are already pouncing.... Not only will the increased spending levels make for heartburn with conservatives, but many of the offsets touch on political hot buttons." ...
... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "If the deal comes to fruition, it will be a huge gift for Paul Ryan.... Ryan is likely to face much of the same conservative opposition that Boehner did, but the deal could make the Wisconsin representative's tenure less miserable.... Boehner met with House Republicans to outline the agreement on Monday night, and according to Representative John Fleming, he was confronted for going around House committees. 'I would say that we're very skeptical at this point,' Fleming said, when asked if he'll support the measure. 'He threw the committee chairmen under the bus.' Others complained that the GOP leadership made too many concessions to the White House.... Ryan was not involved in the negotiations.... Ryan has yet to comment on the deal.... Representative Raúl Labrador, a founding member of the Freedom Caucus..., [said,] 'I think it would be a wise idea for us to just move forward and let Ryan start negotiating this stuff.'... The Freedom Caucus is clearly not going to help Boehner make things easy for his successor."
Conservative Matt Lewis of the Daily Beast: "There's a lot of range between being a heartless, grandma-murdering ideologue and being an effete, squishy RINO -- but in a short period of time, Paul Ryan has run the gamut.... He would certainly be the most conservative Speaker of the House in modern history.... he would certainly be the most conservative Speaker of the House in modern history.... Once the conservative battle against the 'establishment' was about ideology; the 'Rockefeller Republicans' really were liberals. Today, the fight isn't about political philosophy. It's not about right versus left, but us versus them. Being an institutionalist (someone who doesn't want to figuratively burn everything down) is tantamount to being a liberal. Believing in prudence, experience, and wisdom once defined being a Burkean conservative; today, those values label you a RINO."
David Roberts of Vox: "The Benghazi committee is not even the worst committee in the House. I'd argue that the House science committee, under the chairmanship of Lamar Smith (R-TX), deserves that superlative for its open-ended, Orwellian attempts to intimidate some of the nation's leading scientists and scientific institutions. The science committee's modus operandi is similar to the Benghazi committee's -- sweeping, catchall investigations, with no specific allegations of wrongdoing or clear rationale, searching through private documents for out-of-context bits and pieces to leak to the press, hoping to gain short-term political advantage -- but it stands to do more lasting long-term damage."
Ryan Cooper of the Week explains -- more clearly & concisely than New York Times reporters did a few days ago -- how conservative scammers work & how their grift is turning the GOP ever-more radically right.
Jonathan Chait: Sen. Jim "Inhofe, the Environment and Public Works Committee chairperson, and Kentucky representative Ed Whitfield, the House Energy and Commerce Committee energy and power subpanel chairperson, are thinking of going to the Paris climate talks to persuade the diplomats there that the Republican party really is crazy & it really will derail any hopes of progress on climate change abatement. CW: These fellas will have little trouble convincing world leaders that they're nuts; besides, most already know.
Steve M. disagrees with Bill Daley's assertion (linked yesterday) that Sarah Palin was the canary in the coal mine of GOP dysfunction: "Maybe Palin's nomination represented a turning point -- although I don't know how can she can be regarded as much more of an ignorant simpleton than Dan Quayle or George W. Bush. I think it's more likely that what destroyed the GOP was not nominating a few simpletons, but rather a day-to-day reliance on the political equivalent of superstition."
** Missy Ryan & Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "President Obama's most senior national security advisers have recommended measures that would move U.S. troops closer to the front lines in Iraq and Syria, officials said.... The debate over the proposed steps, which would for the first time position a limited number of Special Operations forces on the ground in Syria and put U.S. advisers closer to the firefights in Iraq, comes as Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter presses the military to deliver new options for greater military involvement in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan."
** Ken Dilanian of the Washington Post: "The Army Green Berets who requested the Oct. 3 airstrike on the Doctors without Borders trauma center in Afghanistan were aware it was a functioning hospital but believed it was under Taliban control, The Associated Press has learned. The information adds to the evidence the site was familiar to the U.S. and raises questions about whether the attack violated international law.... The attack left a mounting death toll, now up to 30 people." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama will make his case on Tuesday for an overhaul of the nation's sentencing laws, telling a gathering of top law enforcement officials in Chicago that putting large numbers of nonviolent drug offenders in prison is neither fair nor an effective way of combating crime, White House officials said.... White House officials said Mr. Obama would take note of the unusually high murder rate in Chicago, his hometown, by also renewing his call for gun control measures, though the president is not expected to announce any new proposals to limit gun purchases."
Ciara McCarthy & Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "FBI director James Comey conceded on Monday that he had little evidence to support his theory that a recent increase in crime was caused by heightened scrutiny of the police, as the White House appeared to distance itself from his remarks. Addressing police chiefs at a conference in Chicago, Comey said he could not be certain that the so-called 'Ferguson effect' ... had led to a retreat by officers, but said this was 'common sense'.... Barack Obama's press secretary [Josh Earnest], however, said at a White House briefing on Monday that available evidence 'does not support the notion that law enforcement officers around the country are shying away from fulfilling their responsibilities'." CW: Aw, c'mon, Josh; when shit happens, it's "common sense" to blame minority activists. ...
... New York Times Editors: "Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey -- the increasingly desperate presidential candidate who is going nowhere fast -- ...on Sunday ... accused President Obama of encouraging 'lawlessness' and violence against police officers by acknowledging that the country needed to take both police brutality and the 'Black Lives Matter' protest movement seriously. The president is absolutely right. This movement focuses on the irrefutable fact that black citizens are far more likely than whites to die at the hands of the police.... The recent remarks of James Comey ... were not as racially poisonous as Mr. Christie's, but they were no less incendiary.... His suggestion plays into the right-wing view that holding the police to constitutional standards endangers the public.... His formulation implies that for the police to do their jobs, they need to have free rein to be abusive.... Mr. Comey's speculations about alleged pressure on officers to stand down shows that he hasn't begun to grasp the nature of the problem." ...
... Steve M.: "... Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel has said similar things:
With Chicago's annual murder count soaring, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is laying blame on what he sees as the chilling effects of high-profile protests against police brutality and officers' fear of cell phone videos of their actions going viral. 'Officers themselves were telling me about how the news over the last 15 months have impacted their instincts -- do they stop, or do they keep driving? When I stop here, is it going to be my career on the line?' Emanuel said this week....
... See also related links under Beyond the Beltway below.
Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "The region that gave birth to civilization six millennia ago could soon witness a grim milestone in the history of urban development: the first cities to experience temperatures too extreme for human survival. A scientific study released Monday predicts that parts of the Persian Gulf could see lethally hot summers by the end of the century, thanks to human-induced global warming that is already contributing to soaring temperatures around the globe. The report's authors say coastal cities from Dubai to Iran's Bandar Abbas could experience summer days that surpass the 'human habitability' limit, with heat and humidity so high that even the healthiest people could not withstand more than a few hours outdoors." CW: The irony is that oil production, which has been the economic lifeblood of the region for a century, will be the death of it in the next century.
Presidential Race
Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "The Republican presidential campaign has focused all along on matters of honor more than matters of policy.... The ... candidates need a more formal way of settling the issues of honor that Trump has placed at the center of GOP politics.... Duels are the ideal solution.... And surely a party as firmly committed to NRA dogma would have no objections."
Unpossible! On our side, you’ve got the No. 2 guy [who] tried to kill someone at 14, and the No. 1 is high energy and crazy as hell. How am I losing to these people? -- Sen. Lindsey Graham, GOP presidential candidate
... Poll Finds Nearly Half of Republican Primary Voters Are Idiotic. Jonathan Martin & Dalia Sussman of the New York Times: Ben Carson has taken a narrow lead nationally in the Republican presidential campaign, dislodging Donald J. Trump from the top spot for the first time in months, according to a New York Times/CBS News survey released on Tuesday. Mr. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, is the choice of 26 percent of Republican primary voters, the poll found, while Mr. Trump now wins support from 22 percent, although the difference lies within the margin of sampling error.... No other candidate comes close to Mr. Carson and Mr. Trump." Not that the alternatives are way better.
Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "A new television ad by the Carson campaign aims to capitalize on his unusual experience and style of campaigning. The 30-second spot, which is airing in the Greenville, S.C., market, features Mr. Carson ... standing next to an empty cardboard box that says 'Washington political class' on one side and a sketch of the Capitol on another.... [In the end,] turning to the box, Mr. Carson concludes, 'There must be a good idea in there somewhere.'" ...
... Margaret Hartmann: "We recommend to 'stop comparing things to Hitler and the Holocaust.' That one's been in there for a while, so he might have to do some digging."
A Different World. Jonathan Swan of the Hill: "... Jeb Bush says his brother George W. Bush responded in an 'awe-inspiring' way to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and suggests he would learn from his sibling's leadership if he wins the presidency. The Republican presidential candidate's comments, which were made in a staged conversation with his brother at a Bush family donor retreat in Houston on Monday, were another attempt to rebut Republican front-runner Donald Trump." CW: And all of the reality-based world. Well, I suppose Dubya's seven minutes reading "The Pet Goat" after he learned of the first WTC attack was awesome in a jaw-dropping way. Wait, wait. A "staged conversation"? That must have been awesome, too, if awesome also means "dopey." These people are just embarrassing. ...
... digby wasn't awed, either. ...
... David Jackson of USA Today: At the staged conversation, "George W. Bush said 9/11 underscores the need for a president who can deal with unexpected event[s]. He ascribed that quality to his younger brother, saying, 'I am absolutely certain given his background and his steadiness that he'd be able to deal with the unexpected.'" ...
... Here's Jeb! dealing with "the unexpected." During a punishing "economic freedom" forum organized by his arch-enemies the Koch brothers, an evil inquisitor rose from his hiding place in the audience & demanded that Jeb! name his favorite Marvel cartoon character. After hemming & hawing (but not for seven whole minutes!), Jeb! mustered the forces of his background & responded with Bush-family steadiness:
She looked kind of ... she looked pretty hot. I don't know which channel it's on, but I'm looking forward to that. -- Jeb!, on actor Melissa Benoist, who plays "Supergirl" on TV
Benoist is five years younger than Jeb's youngest child. -- Constant Weader
Cruz Tells Rick Donors He's a Phony; They're Impressed. Katie Zezima & Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "For all his bashing of 'billionaire Republican donors' who 'actively despise our base,' [Ted Cruz,] the anti-establishment senator from Texas, is being bolstered by his own robust base of wealthy contributors.... Cruz's unorthodox campaign has hit on a fundraising formula that no other candidate has been able to match: raising millions from a robust base of grass-roots supporters while building a substantial network of rich backers.... Cruz has had trouble making inroads in New York financial circles or on Florida's donor-rich Gold Coast. But he is finding support among like-minded constitutionalists, religious conservatives, and oil and gas executives.... A Republican strategist well connected to the donor world [said]: 'When he's with major donors, they expect the guy they see with all the red meat, but they instead see an intelligent but toned-down lawyer with real bona fides. He will say things like, basically, "This is politics -- you've got go out there and sell and perform."'"
Beyond the Beltway
Jaeah Lee of Mother Jones: "Authorities in Richland County, South Carolina, are investigating a video that surfaced Monday showing a uniformed officer aggressively confronting a high school student.... The video, which appears to have been recorded on a cellphone by a classmate, shows a white male officer standing over a black female student sitting at her desk; moments later he grabs the student and flips her on her back. After dragging her across the floor, the officer says, 'Hands behind your back -- give me your hands.' The video has no additional context as to what led to or followed the altercation." Includes video. ...
... Steve M.: "Um, I thought cops were so intimidated by cellphones these days that they're afraid to do any policing at all. Looks like the school cop doing the body-slamming here has a history of committing similar acts of brutality against the kids. ...
... Tom Cleary of Heavy has the goods on Sheriff's Deputy Ben Fields, the cop in the video. ...
... The New York Times story, by Richard Fausset & Ashley Southall, is here.
Ole Miss Joins USA 150 Years after Civil War. Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "The Mississippi flag was taken down at the state's public university Monday morning, after student leaders, faculty and staff called for its removal because of its prominent Confederate emblem. It was a dramatic change for a university long proud of its southern traditions and ties to the Confederacy...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond
Totally texas! Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: "Norway, when a party goes wild, when a soccer match gets heated, when a rare swordfish shoots out of a fjord with a loud noise and a massive splash, there is only one appropriate response: 'Det var helt Texas!' ... That is totally texas!'... No, it's not really a compliment.... Norwegians have been using the term 'texas' (always lower case, often accompanied by an exclamation point) to mean 'exciting,' 'crazy' or 'out of control' for roughly half a century." CW: Hey, what do they know? They're socialists.
News Ledes
Guardian: "China reportedly summoned the US ambassador on Tuesday after Washington launched a direct military challenge to Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea with naval manoeuvres near two artificial islands in the region. State television reported that the Chinese vice-foreign minister, Zhang Yesui, had branded the move 'extremely irresponsible' when meeting with the US ambassador to China, Max Baucus."
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Reader Comments (24)
The first rule for a diplomat is to think before saying out loud the things that pop into one's head. Jeb! is failing miserably, although in the upside-down world of R politics, that behavior is seen as a positive, according to the polls.
Miss Benoist was a guest on Late Night with Colbert last night. I didn't stay up to see her, but did catch Stanley Tucci barging in on Stephen's Hungry For Power Games segment, which was worth watching.
"FBI director James Comey conceded on Monday that he had little evidence to support his theory that a recent increase in crime was caused by heightened scrutiny of the police... Comey said he could not be certain that the so-called 'Ferguson effect ... had led to a retreat by officers, but said this was 'common sense'...."
What does 'common sense' mean? If a sense really were held in common, there would be no dispute about it. 'Just common sense' is not an argument. It's a demonstration that one has no argument -- no facts, no evidence, no reason, no logic -- only a lame and baseless appeal to those who already agree with the premise. It informs no one, persuades no one, convinces no one, changes no one's view. It is a locution utterly devoid of meaning.
I truly wish that any time anyone utters the words 'just common sense' someone would have enough damn sense to challenge that folly.
Not holding my breath,
D.C.,
Regarding the so-called "Ferguson Effect", I would direct Confederates and others who are blaming increased scrutiny of policing processes and outcomes to the standard finger-wagging "common sense" defense of the kind of blanket surveillance so in vogue during the Bush Debacle in which there were stern calls from the right for what amounted to police state oversight of things like library and DVD rentals, phone calls, e-mail searches, right up to personal surveillance and rendition (whether legal or not): "If you're not doing anything wrong, if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about."
Clearly turnaround is not considered fair play by Confederates.
And I have no data to base this on, but I wonder if many cops, even those who are doing the right things, are concerned with the YouTube effect, that is, of having some action of theirs caught on a cell camera and edited or presented in a contextual way that makes them look bad. Of course they've certainly seen how this can happen. In fact, it happens all the time in Right Wing World.
I'm not a fan of the "if you haven't done anything wrong..." bullshit. Private citizens should have the expectation of privacy. Such is not the case for police officers, and cops who decide to sit in their patrol cars while crimes are being committed because they're afraid of showing up on YouTube need to think about what new careers they should be investigating.
This, of course, brings us around to a much larger problem, that of the entire enterprise of policing. Much has been made of the fact that police departments may routinely reject candidates who are too smart. The thinking, perhaps, is that smart candidates might not be as easy to mold into the newly militarized, much favored us against them mentality, or that they might not be tough enough for the job. Policing certainly is a tough job requiring proper physical capabilities to deal with some pretty nasty people at times, but certainly a balance could be struck.
The us against them mindset and the military accoutrements surely cause their own set of problems when dealing with the public. A cop who shows up in body armor, carrying clubs, shields and weaponry out of some first-person-shooter video game presents him or herself immediately as something of a threat, a rather ominous appearance that undercuts the "protect and serve" aspect of neighborhood policing.
Recent studies like the traffic stop head count done in North Carolina that demonstrate the outrageously lopsided numbers in blacks stopped compared to whites don't provide much reassurance either, as do the disproportionate numbers of black men killed or injured while being arrested.
And to get back to my original point, perhaps there may be a sense among some cops that what they get up to in the normal course of interaction, especially with certain groups, really wouldn't stand up to any kind of scrutiny.
More's the pity. For them, and most certainly for us.
@D.C.Clark: I agree that "common sense" is often another term for "my personal prejudices," & just as often, as you say, demonstrates nothing more than a lack of empirical evidence.
But it seems to me that "common sense" is a fair term in other circumstances. Saying "I can learn to fly by jumping off this cliff" could fairly be described as showing a lack of common sense. There's no evidence out there that I can't fly off a cliff because I've never tried it, but there's some bit of evidence that suggests humans can't. It's common sense not to jump off cliffs.
I think we do things every day by attempting to arrive at common-sense solutions to minor problems. When the Truly Nolen guy didn't show up for his appointment yesterday, I could have called the company & yelled & screamed at how pissed that made me. But common sense -- to me -- dictates that a polite request would work better. So no yelling & screaming from here. When my gate remote quit working the other day, my neighbor & I used common sense methods to try to arrive at a solution. We did eventually succeed, but the earliest common-sense "solution" -- just changing the battery -- didn't do the trick.
Common sense is an expression of life experience, & that includes observation. It has its limits.
Comey is not, BTW, necessarily wrong on the facts; he's wrong on his attitude. There is anecdotal evidence he's right: some Balto cops, ferinstance, said or strongly implied they were engaging in a work slowdown after the condemnatory reactions to Freddie Gray's killing. As I recall (might be wrong here), arrests went way down in NYC in response to reactions against the cop who killed Eric Garner. Comey sort of implies that's okay or to be expected but that the result will be higher crime. Worse, he implicitly blames videographers & protesters for the rise in crime: cops won't confront criminals because if they do, the criminals' friends will make the cops into social media stars.
Marie
Thanks for that, Marie. I have been thinking about exactly what you said since hearing about this guy Comey. I distinctly remember the reported slow-down in New York, orchestrated by the union, I think, but never actually admitted-to. After all, slowing down overly-quick reflexes of some hotheads on police forces is not a bad thing, but refusing to do the job IS...where oh where is the happy medium? Of course, refusal to do the job is not limited to police-- our state legislature is doing nothing with regard to the lack of budget, leading to a huge mess in the making, and Marco Rubio is refusing to do his Senate job, and all these people are still getting paychecks. It wonders me, as they say here in central PA...
Marie,
Forgive my nitpicking scientific literal mindedness. But it's also common sense that if Chis Christie and Rand Paul were to take a flying leap off that cliff together (one can dream) Chris would arrive at the bottom sooner because he's heavier. Nearly every scientific discovery since Galileo has refuted common sense. As you point out, common sense is often based on life experience. But life experience is a sort of empirical evidence. We just need to be careful what we conclude from it.
“We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it and stop there lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove lid again and that is well but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.”
~ Mark Twain
My all time favorite definition of science is Richard Feynman's:
"Science is how we try to keep from fooling ourselves."
Best regards,
Akhilleus:
"A policeman's job isn't supposed to be easy. The only place a policeman's job is easy is in a police state."
~ various sources
Other than in a police state, policemen need to be well trained, well paid, receive excellent benefits, not overworked, and enjoy the respect and cooperation of citizens who believe in the rule of law. Try to sell any of that to the Freedom Party.
The imminent accession to the throne of the House by Fraudster and Con Man Extraordinaire Paul Ryan seems to have some of the more extreme (more extreme than Ryan it appears) denizens of the monkey house swinging from the high vines and throwing coconuts at whoever looks crosswise at them.
Confederates want it all. They want control of the House, the Senate, the White House, all the state legislatures, everything. But what would they do then? And what does "all" mean? What do they really want?
The far-right site Town Hall which spends its time inventing newer and more insidious Clinton and Obama conspiracies and trumpets every imagined outrage against Christians and Confederates, answers this question. Sort of. What do Confederates want? According to Town Hall, they sound like not entirely unreasonable people. They want everyone to obey the law. They want safe neighborhoods. They want clean air and water and a healthy environment (don't laugh; I didn't say this list was realistic), they want freedom of religion and speech and low taxes.
Not many could disagree with most of these things. But the thing to look at is not what they say but what they do. Let's compare this list with the actions of the people they vote for, then we'll have a more accurate idea of what they want.
They want women to shut up and do what they're told with limited access to birth control and healthcare (only Confederate approved procedures) and NO right to abortions, no matter the situation. They want no taxes on big business. They want freedom of religion for Christians. And not all Christians, just approved Christians. They want the Bible to trump civil laws. They want a military they can use to punish those they see as enemies. They want education controlled by religious and ideologically approved overseers. They want all immigrants out of the country. They want a strong police force to keep blah people in check. They want programs for poor and minority groups to disappear. They want the state to fund Christian schools and home schooling. They want public schools to be dissolved in favor of for profit charter schools. They want to toss out regulations on businesses, including OSHA regulations they decide are too expensive.
In short, they want Kansas.
But Kansas is a failed state. If it were a country, it would be down there with Somalia and Guinea-Bissau (okay maybe not that bad...Brownback has yet to don military attire and drive around in Caddies wearing silly hats and running over people in the street...how 'bout North Korea).
So this is what they want? Kansas?
Yes. It is. And even in the wake of the horrible failure of the Confederates' Kansas Experiment, wingers are still saying things like "Hold on...it's not that bad. If we cut taxes even more, we'll attract big name scientists and technology guys like Bill Gates (really...they say this) and things will turn around overnight."
Ahhhhhh....no. They won't. And no one is coming to Kansas. In fact, they're getting the hell out. And so are businesses. Kochotopia is not drawing in hordes of new residents, it's not creating jobs, it's not creating wealth. It's a fucking failure.
But this is, apparently, what they want. Some may want much more of a theocracy (the better to control all those nasty urges about things like SEX) and others much more of a wild west for capitalists. But what they don't want, apparently, is a government that works for everyone. They don't really care much about the environment, otherwise there wouldn't be the huge push for the XL leaky pipeline of death and "Drill, baby, drill". They don't seem to want help for anyone who truly needs it, unless the "they" is a corporation like the Kochs and Walmart. And they certainly aren't big on logic or reason. Emotion is what does it for Confederates. Especially hate and resentment.
After recent elections in which 'baggers prevailed in many races, we all heard distraught progressives say something like "I'm going to Canada." Some wags have wondered where Confederates would choose to go if circumstances prevailed in which it was apparent that women, minorities, and immigrants would be given a fair shake. Where could they they go that would be conservative enough for them? The best answers seem to be North Korea, Afghanistan (Taliban controlled areas) and Saudi Arabia. But then you'd have the problem of American Exceptionalism. Damn.
And speaking of failed states, because of Right Wing policies, America is more of a failed state than Canada. Wonder why.
The larger issue is that Confederates don't want compromise. Which means they don't want reality. They don't want to have to deal with anyone who doesn't agree with them up and down the line, so some of them are screaming about Paul Ryan, one of the most far-right demagogues in US history.
What they want is a fantasy. A Disneyworld for 'baggers, haters, authoritarian religious kooks, and degulationist, no tax capitalists. If someone were of a mind to update Dante's "Inferno", it would be a good place to start.
D.C.,
True. And here again we have the problem of authoritarians not ever wishing to compromise. The thinking is that cops should be able to show up--heavily armed--order everyone to get on the fucking ground, then round them up. The idea of cops looking for some common ground with citizens, at least in situations where people aren't shooting at them, is anathema to those who believe in police state mentalities. No compromise. No reality. More fantasy; and far less effective and useful outcomes.
"(The miliary) was aware it was a functioning hospital but believed it was under Taliban control, The Associated Press has learned. The information adds to the evidence the site was familiar to the U.S. and raises questions about whether the attack violated international law."
Because we "believed it was under Taliban control" doesn't make it OK to be bombed. That's a war crime, even if they're taking care of the supposed "enemies". As the truth slowly trickles out on this catastrophic situation, the story continues to twist and turn in the chilly breeze of military machinations.
If nothing comes of this episode it's further proof that we're indeed exceptional, in the sense that we allow ourselves to drop explosives on innocent people, even those trying to reverse the scars of interminable warfare, and content ourselves with zero accountability. Shoulder shrugs and maybe a few extra bags of rice as a down payment maybe? Sickening.
This whole Boehner hailmary exit strategy wiping the slate clean for Prince Ryan is likely going to backfire spectacularly as the Freeedom Revelers start gnashing their teeth at more political compromise. Ryan's going to have to deliver Randian miracles, yet he hasn't the cajones to smack down the hounds. He'll leash 'em up, walking 'em around Washington with his shit-grin on his face, letting them piss down the hallways as a subtle warning to the Democrats that he could let 'em rip if they don't capitulate. Then, as his bluff is called by Obama, the hounds will eat his face.
I wonder if he'll be prone to crying, too?
@Akhilleus: I think what they want is 1950s Mississippi or Alabama. (Sorry, Ole Miss, you're getting out of step there.) Everybody knew his place & stayed in it. The White Citizens Councils, the "justice" system, state & federal politicians all preserved the feudalistic status quo.
Other than adding air conditioning to some places besides the picture show, I can't think of a thing those ole boys would want to change.
Marie
"After recent elections in which 'baggers prevailed in many races, we all heard distraught progressives say something like "I'm going to Canada." "
Well Akhilleus, since you bring it up -- Worst case scenario, if the Cons win it all next year, President, House, Senate, with upcoming Supreme Court appointments -- I am outta here. No fooling. Got means and opportunity, need only sufficient motivation. Canada is too far north, though.
Excuse me, got to go practice my yodeling. Auf Wiedersehen meine Freunde.
Marie,
You could be right. Hey, why not antebellum Alabama?
Oh, no air conditioning. Right. But then you'd have plenty of slaves to wave fans while you lolled in your hammock and drank mint juleps.
D.C.,
Well both Germany and Austria rank higher than the US on the Failed States index. If Confederates really do take over, look for us to drop even farther down the list.
I'd say that if you didn't mind the cold, Finland is tops on the list (or rather bottom), of those countries with the least chance of becoming a failed state along with all those Scandinavian countries Confederates love to pillory as soshulist states. Funny how that works.
Speaking of cops behaving badly on YouTube, how 'bout this one?
This is nice Officer Friendly, aka Sheriff’s deputy and school resource officer Ben Fields who clearly takes that law and order thingy seriously, especially if some black girl doesn't goosestep when she's ordered to. This wonderful role model works at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, SC. After body slamming the girl and flipping her completely over, he dragged her to the front of the class and handcuffed her.
The Freedom Caucus is hurrying through a Medal of Honor for Officer Friendly.
This is what I mean by an us against them mentality. Why try a different approach as long as physical violence is your personal choice, especially when a high school student is seen as The Enemy?
This is bad.
Hey kids, more NOT legal stuff from Wingnuttia.
Remember those nice Hobby Lobby people? The ones who said they don't have to do what the law says because CHRISTIAN? (nyah, nyah).
Yeah, those guys. The ones who got their buds in the Supreme Court to write them a get out of being a law-abiding American excuse slip? Well these people are sooooo holy. Besides making money by investing in a company that makes birth control devices (isn't there a Christian law against that?), they're building a gigantic Bible Museum in Washington, DC to teach the Jesus hating harlots and hellions all about Real Christian Values. And they're filling it with cool ancient artifacts and Bible type stuff dug up in middle eastern countries. Except....
Oops. They've been stealing those artifacts. A lot of them. 40,000 or so. And smuggling them into the country. Is that, like, legal?
"For the last four years, law enforcement sources tell The Daily Beast, the Greens [sainted owners of Hobby Lobby] have been under federal investigation for the illicit importation of cultural heritage from Iraq.
These tablets, like the other 40,000 or so ancient artifacts owned by the Green family, were destined for the Museum of the Bible, the giant new museum funded by the Greens, slated to open in Washington, D.C., in 2017. Both the seizure of the cuneiform tablets and the subsequent federal investigation were confirmed to us by Cary Summers, the president of the Museum of the Bible."
But I'm sure there's some kind of extra wording in the Ten Commandments that says No Stealing (except for Bible Museum stuff by Hobby Lobby Christians who want to tell everyone else that they must live according to their rules).
Nice to be so fucking self-righteous, in'it?
Golly Akhilleus, you don't suppose the Greens knew they were under investigation, and that had anything to do with bringing their 'religious freedom' suit? Make yourself a wing nut hero before you face charges? The better for your buds on Faux News to rant about harassment and selective prosecution? Naah.
BTW, I have lived and worked considerable time in Switzerland. Have many close friends there. Sixth from the bottom of the failing states list, ahead of only Luxembourg and Scandinavia. (sound of me yodeling in the background)
D.C.,
Missed the yodeling clue.
Yo, delay he who?
I couldn't get to the Foreign Policy article about the fragile state ranking but found this listing.
Finland may be number one, ahem #178, but they have too many vowels that you need to pronounce. I'd go back to Sweden in second place at #177. Just need to dust off my Svenska Ordbok and retrain my tongue to roll my R's. I can taste the herring already.
If I moved here to Treriksröset, I could be in the top three at the same time. I'm sure it'll be positively balmy in a few years.
Just now realizing that the ascension of one of the bigger fakers and liars in congress to the House Throne will ensure daily doses of Ryan Fraudiana; quotidian exposure to the wiles, whoppers, evasions, distortions, and serial mendacity that follow like grayish-brown contrails from the oral and rectal passages of one Paul Ryan.
But he will have to be lying to everyone. To regular Americans whose sense of justice and reason are not counteracted by ideological slavery and to extreme Confederates whose thought processes have been permanently warped like flood damaged floor boards. He'll be lying to everyone!
May disgrace and obloquy dog his every floppy-shoed step and decorate his reversed baseball-capped dome with his very own fright wig in streaks of garish colors never found in nature.
And may his tenure as Speaker of Lies signal, at long last, an end to his shoddy and contemptible ubiety in the nation's capital.
Prepare ye the way of the fraud.
@D.C.Clark: "Canada is too far north"
Geneva Switzerland N45.93
Toronto Canada N43.63
Cowichan,
Duh, thanks, should have said too far west.
"I like to make a mistake. It is the only assurance I have that I may not reasonably be expected to assume the burdens of omniscience."
~ Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe
@Ak,
Surely you jest but Lyin' Ryan really does have big floppy feet. I've seen them with my own eyes.
@D.C.Clark: If it's escape from the scourge of the right wing you're seeking, I don't think you'll be happy in die Schweiz, whatever the latitude & longitude.
Also, nice catch, Cowichan.
Marie