The Commentariat -- Sept. 15, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "Researchers knew California's drought was already a record breaker..., but they were surprised by what they discovered: It has been 500 years since what is now the Golden State has been this dry."
"The Ignorant Villagers," Now Playing. Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "Congressional Republicans say they are determined to shut Planned Parenthood down, regardless of whether it broke any laws. In more than two months of investigations, members have yet to turn up evidence that Planned Parenthood acted illegally, the same conclusion reached by a half-dozen state investigations. The Department of Justice has so far declined to launch a formal probe." ...
... "The Ignorant Villagers," The Prequel. Which reminds Steve Benen of a scene from "Monty Python & the Holy Grail": "The villagers decide they want to burn a suspected witch, and John Cleese offers proof of her evil ways: 'She turned me into a newt!' It's obvious, of course, that he's not a newt, leading Cleese to say, 'I got better.' To which the ignorant villagers exclaim, 'Burn her anyway!' Congressional Republicans decided they want to defund Planned Parenthood as a result of the health group's crimes. They then realized there's no evidence that Planned Parenthood committed any crimes. To which GOP lawmakers exclaim, 'Defund it anyway!'"
... Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post on Louisiana's attempt to rescind its Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood: "One, Republicans officials apparently don't care enough about women's health to make the effort to really understand it, since some seem to think women get pap smears from their dentists.... Two, this is a preview of what might happen if congressional Republicans succeed in their attempt to hold the federal budget hostage unless Planned Parenthood is defunded nationwide.... And three, it's probably also an indication of how well thought-through Republicans' plans to dismantle other major health-care programs are. If this is what repealing-and-replacing Obamacare would look like, be very afraid."
Here's a problem Charles Pierce notices: Our top spies, in the persons of John Brennan (CIA) & James Clapper, (NSA) don't understand why nobody likes them. They chalk it up to "cynicism" and "misunderstanding" "fueled by our adversaries." Pierce seems to think it's something about democracy.
AND, speaking of threats to our democracy, Simon Lazarus of the New Republic explains in short order how Bush II appointee Rosemary Collyer has "broken new ground" in pursuit of blowing up any remaining shards of our fractured federal government. You fans of Jonathan Turley should take note. It was he who thought up this radical idea & gave Collyer permission to copy it down & turn it from theory to practice.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. The 2000 Election All Over Again. Matt Yglesias of Vox: "... reading mainstream political reporters characterize the Jeb tax plan as 'populist' or some kind of break with conservative orthodoxy paired with endless front-page coverage of every new micro-development in the Hillary Clinton email inquiry is giving me a very uncomfortable sense of déjà vu.... America's collective journalistic manpower has spent a lot more time and energy on scrutinizing Clinton's emails than on scrutinizing the content of Bush's economic policy. And that's a lucky thing for him, because what he's put out there is an appalling edifice of flimflam based on three claims that don't withstand cursory examination." ...
... Kevin Drum has the obvious answers to Yglesias's wonderment about the media's attention to Hillary's e-mails & inattention to Jeb!'s tax plan: (a) tax plans are boring (like Jeb!), & (b) there's no narrative: Hillary's e-mails have that and-then-and-then-and-then advantage over the release of a stupid tax plan: "You can't keep writing the same story over and over based on nothing more than yet another liberal saying that big tax cuts are stupid and won't do anything to help the economy." ...
... CW: I'd add this: to most people, words like "taxes" and "budget" have highly-negative connotations. People don't like to pay taxes & they hate having to live within budgets. They don't want to think about them. Besides, most people aren't very good at arithmetic, so the complexities of federal budgets seem way too hard to even contemplate. As for the public's understanding of macroeconomics, well, HA! Moreover, "plan," as in "tax plan" seems too abstract to bother with. Yesterday during the Q&A session following Bernie Sanders' speech at Liberty University, he mentioned the Republicans' "immoral" budget. The moderator brushed aside Sanders' remark, saying something like, "I don't know much about budgets." I'm sure that's true. And it's a problem. Voters have no idea that at the legislative level, budgets & appropriations are policy. They determine not only how much you pay in taxes but where those tax dollars go. A legislator can speak "Populist" incessantly, but if she votes for a tax bill like the one Jeb! proposes or for a budget to Li'l Randy's liking, her supposed populism is a sham. Most voters absolutely, positively don't get any of this. It's much more fun to contemplate whether or not Hillary Clinton is a criminal/traitor who sent coded messages to Russian spy-hackers in her now-deleted yoga schedules.
Presidential Race
Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders on Monday took the lectern at Liberty University, an evangelical Christian college, and repeatedly sought to build what he called 'common ground' with students, beginning with the foundations of Christianity itself: the Bible": ...
... Here's the full text of Sanders' speech, via Chris Cillizza of the WashPo. ...
... Evan McMorris-Santoro of BuzzFeed calls the speech "Sanders’ Peak Progressive Dreamboat Moment," & relishes Sanders telling "12,000 evangelicals what morality is." ...
... ** Ezra Klein: "Why Bernie Sanders's rise is more impressive than Donald Trump's." And why Bernie could have a more positive, & more enduring effect than Trump will.
Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton is suffering rapid erosion of support among Democratic women -- the voters long presumed to be her bedrock in her bid to become the nation's first female president. The numbers in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll are an alarm siren: Where 71 percent of Democratic-leaning female voters said in July that they expected t vote for Clinton, only 42 percent do now, a drop of 29 percentage points in eight weeks." ...
... The Unknown Works of a Fracking Queen. Mariah Blake of Mother Jones: "Under [Hillary Clinton's] leadership, the State Department worked closely with energy companies to spread fracking around the globe -- part of a broader push to fight climate change, boost global energy supply, and undercut the power of adversaries such as Russia that use their energy resources as a cudgel. But environmental groups fear that exporting fracking, which has been linked to drinking-water contamination and earthquakes at home, could wreak havoc in countries with scant environmental regulation. And according to interviews, diplomatic cables, and other documents obtained by Mother Jones, American officials -- some with deep ties to industry -- also helped US firms clinch potentially lucrative shale concessions overseas, raising troubling questions about whose interests the program actually serves."
Super-Doofus!... Nick Gass of Politico details how all the GOP presidential candidates have been trying to "out-Reagan one another." ...
... Charles Posner, et al., of the Center for American Progress: "... at critical moments on critical issues, Reagan took positions that are anathema to the leaders of today's Republican Party -- advancing sensible immigration reform, supporting pollution control, curbing nuclear arms, closing tax loopholes for the wealthy, and advocating gun background checks. As president, Reagan passed immigration reform with a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. He also passed a landmark treaty on the climate and raised taxes 11 times. He even negotiated with America's main adversary, the Soviet Union, signing a treaty with the communist nation to reduce nuclear weapons."
Flim-Flam Men. Nicholas Riccardi of the AP: "Jeb Bush went to Detroit and talked about leveling the playing field. Marco Rubio wrote a book about helping the working class. Rand Paul is promising to expand the Republican Party beyond its traditional base. Yet all three Republican presidential candidates have offered tax proposals that would, for reasons such as nomination politics and tax rate realities, benefit overwhelmingly the wealthiest." ...
... CW: AND here's a dirty little secret that no one has been mentioning. Pundits criticized Jeb!'s tax proposal, for instance, because it would significantly raise the deficit. But that's actually a feature of GOP tax plans: (1) raise the deficit; (2) blame some outside factor -- say, Democrats; (3) cut safety net programs because they "are too expensive," & "are robbing our grandchildren." The plans, then, however bad the pundits say they are, are actually worse, because the longterm goal is to take even more from the poor & middle class when the resulting deficits "necessitate" "belt-tightening."
Donald Does Dallas. Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: Trump holds a raucus campaign rally in Texas. On the hardship of being a Big Star: "Like most Trump outings in recent weeks, the campaign stop doubled as a television event of sorts, a reality that Mr. Trump clearly relished during a characteristically meandering speech that lasted over an hour. Turning to the cameras assembled before him, he said that, unlike other candidates, he was required to produce fresh material for every stump speech. 'Every time I speak they put me on live television,' he said, 'so I have to make different speeches.'... He appraised himself as an unrivaled builder, a self-funder unencumbered by political 'blood money' and an all-around winner of the highest order." ...
... California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is running for governor, "welcomes" Donald Trump to California for the GOP presidential debate at the Reagan Library:
Joe Miller in Salon: It isn't just Trump "University." Miller exposes a Ponzi scheme that Trump fronted for years -- until the Wall Street Journal asked him about the millions he made from the Ponzi-modeled company. "Immediately he had nearly all traces of himself removed from its website. 'I know nothing about the company,' Trump told the paper. 'I'm not familiar with what they do or how they go about doing it, and I make that clear in my speeches.'... This is a blatant lie, and the truth behind it reveals something very dark in his character. At best, it shows that he's for sale. Worse, it betrays an utter disregard for those who would trust him...." ...
... Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg: "Trump appears to be reinforcing, and validating, the anxieties of a sizable tranche of conservatives who fear that the world they've known, once neatly organized to favor white males, is slipping away.... There is no way for Republicans to give resentful conservatives what they want while simultaneously expanding the party to include more Hispanics and Asians (blacks will probably remain out of reach). If your goal is a whiter country, a less white political party must seem a very curious means for achieving it." ...
... Calling Doctor Carson. Steve M.: Wall Street, according to Politico, is "terrified" that Donald Trump might become president. Steve suggests that instead of being bewildered & frightened by Trump's rise in the polls & hoping Super-Doofus there will swoop in to save the day, the Streeters should get behind Ben Carson: "Unlike your current champions, he actually seems popular. And unlike Trump, he seems as if he'd be happy to pursue your agenda -- he certainly doesn't seem to have one of his own, apart from generalized right-wing revanchism and a distaste for 'political correctness.' But he's somewhat less rabid on immigration than Trump. He acknowledges that gay marriage is the law of the land.... On taxes, he likes tithing, which would be a huge tax windfall for the rich."
The Dull Boy. Anna North of the New York Times: According to family & friends, Jeb!'s reputation as "the smarter brother" stems more from his lack of social skills & his humorless demeanor than from any measure of intelligence.
Never Let the Facts Get in the Way. Jamelle Bouie: Scott "Walker's underlying idea -- that unions are deleterious to American well-being -- is unfounded. Yes, there are union abuses and union corruption. On the whole, however, the opposite is true: Unions have been an important ally for middle-class workers, and the fall of labor has widened the gap between productivity and pay, and increased income inequality.... Taken together, [his proposal] is an incredible change to American labor law -- a transformation that would greatly alter the relationship between employers and employees." ...
... Charles Pierce: "... reeking of desperation and flop sweat, [Scott] Walker has decided to appeal to that portion of the electorate which is nostalgic for the days of the breaker boys, starvation wages, and large-scale industrial accidents." ...
... CW: As for me, I just wish Scottie would sink into an ice-fishing hole at a pristine pond near Eau Claire & never again remind me that spawned in Wisconsin was a boy who would grow up to blow up that institution where Prof. Lovejoy once revealed that the Puritans were not all about making friends with the natives, & inspired my shocked realization that those public school history books which I had taken on faith were bigger cons than Santa Claus. Of course the Professors Lovejoy of this world are exactly the sorts of truthtellers that the Scotties of said planet have every reason to whack.
Beyond the Beltway
James Higdon & Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "... a gay couple successfully obtained a marriage license [in Rowan County, Kentucky,] just before 11 a.m. -- putting an end to days of speculation about whether clerk Kim Davis would block the licenses. Shannon and Carmen Wampler-Collins quietly filled out forms as supporters of Davis, the clerk who was jailed over her refusal to issue marriage licenses, jeered at them about the 'sin' of homosexuality.... Deputy clerk Brian Mason handed the couple their completed paperwork, with gay rights supporters shouting, 'Thank you, Brian!'" ...
... Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "On Monday, [Kim] Davis said that she wouldn't stop her deputies from granting licenses, but she also suggested that marriages certified by mere deputies might not be legally valid.... Not too long ago, it was all but unquestioned that, in cases like these, civic obligation trumped religious expression.... But the broader conservative movement had other ideas.... Now Davis is seeking to extend the concept of accommodation [to religious beliefs] even more -- to government officials, like her, who want to pick and choose which legal obligations to honor. It's one thing to allow cafeteria citizenship; Davis wants cafeteria government."
Way Beyond
Helene Bienvenu & Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times: Hungary declared a state of emergency along its border with Serbia early Tuesday, threatening to prosecute and imprison migrants trying to enter the country illegally from Serbia.The Hungarian measures were a harsh new element in the European Union's struggle with the influx of migrants, as the bloc's cherished principle of open borders continued to fray." ...
... Maher Samaan & Anne Barnard of the New York Times: "For those who remain in Syria, life is a nightmare."
Eliza Collins of Politico: "Iranian President Hassan Rouhani wished Jews a happy new year on Sunday, a notable contrast from the clerical regime's long history of anti-Semitic statements. The tweet, which did not appear in Rouhani's Farsi account, according to the Associated Press, said 'May our shared Abrahamic roots deepen respect & bring peace & mutual understanding. L'Shanah Tovah. #RoshHashanah.'... Rouhani's boss, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has a history of making inflammatory statements about Israel and Jews. Last week, Khamenei said that Israel would cease to exist within 25 years."
Anna Fifield of the Washington Post: "North Korea Tuesday announced that it had restarted its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and was ready to use nuclear weapons 'any time' against the United States.... While Kim's regime is known for its bellicose rhetoric, Tuesday's claims are consistent with American analysts' interpretation of recent satellite imagery."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Five fraternity members from Baruch College in Manhattan will face murder charges in Pennsylvania for their involvement in the death of a freshman who was hazed during a rural retreat in 2013, officials said on Monday. A grand jury in Monroe County, Pa., recently recommended that five people face third-degree murder charges and that a total of 37 would face a range of criminal charges, including assault, hindering apprehension and hazing in Chun Hsien Deng's death."
Love in an Age of Gun Violence. New York Times: "A professor at Delta State University who was suspected of fatally shooting his companion and then another professor at the school was found dead Monday night, apparently with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The suspect, Shannon S. Lamb, who taught geography and social science education at the university, was pulled over around 10:30 p.m. by the local police in Greenville, Miss., about 35 miles to the west of the campus in Cleveland, Miss., the university's police chief, Lynn Buford, said in a phone interview early Tuesday. According to Chief Buford, Dr. Lamb ran into a wooded area. The local police followed him and, while waiting for backup, heard a gunshot. They found Dr. Lamb, who was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead."
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Reader Comments (7)
I've only just started to seriously wonder what America could be with Bernie Sanders in the White House. Naturally, Confederates would all be on the floor and would up the ante with daily threats to shut down the government should there be the slightest attempt to address the economic iniquities they've carefully piled one upon the other for a generation or more now, effectively flattening the middle class beneath the oligarchical mountain. And poor people? They barely exist.
I don't know how he'd win anything in the South in the general. The Confederate candidate wouldn't even have to rebut a single Sanders point. All he'd (it'll be a he) have to do would be to utter the magic boogeyman word: "Soshulist", and voters would pull the lever for Hitler if he was on the ballot.
He has been pretty constant, true to his beliefs which have been entirely respectable and thoughtful (you can say that plenty of Confederates have been constant as well, but that's like saying poison will always kill you) and his standards are not made of 80% rubber.
There is a long road to travel between here and the White House, and if he ever did get in, the GOP would play dead for the next four years. They've had plenty of practice at doing nothing, at trying to claw their way back to the 19th century, and they would attack him with everything they had.
And the real scary thing is that Sanders beats Hillary and loses to...Trump? Ye gods and little fishes!
Still and all, the idea of a Sanders presidency is a bit dizzying now that I've allowed myself to go there. I'll vote for Hillary, of course, if she's the nominee, but....
Wow.
Wow.
The "Burn the witch" scene from the Holy Grail is a perfect analog to Republican logic. It doesn't matter what the facts are, twist the "logic" until it makes sense to the village idiots (Confederates and their supporters).
The Pythons, all university educated boys, play with logic as they craft the most illogically stupid syllogism in this sketch. It goes something like this and would be sure to convince no one. Except Republicans:
What floats on water?
Wood.
What else?
A duck (after suggestions such as "very small rocks" and "gravy")
So if this woman weighs the same as a duck, she must be made of wood. Therefore she's a witch!
Interestingly, I heard something very like this this morning when listening to NPR interview students at "Liberty" University (are Confederates able to ever name anything without using "liberty" or "freedom" or "patriot" in the title?) after Bernie Sanders' visit.
Naturally the loudest cheer came when Sanders was asked what about the murder of unborn babies. Sanders' answer was something one would think Confederates could support, that government has no business interfering with a decision that should be made by a woman and her doctor. To which one student went on and on about the incontrovertible evidence of Planned Parenthood evil contained in the doctored videos. It's like holding up a forged letter as proof of bad intent.
If the Planned Parenthood doctor in that video looks like a duck, then she must be made of wood, ergo she's a witch.
QDE or something. EQD? DQE? Hey! DQ! Must be a special at Dairy Queen, let's all go after we burn this witch!
Hooray for logic.
@Akhilleus: I'm not sure Bernie would fare any worse with Congress than would Hillary or any other Democrat. Joe Biden might be more influential within the Senate than either Bernie or Hillary, if marginally, but half the House probably considers him a traitor to his race & gender. Congressional Republicans are not going to treat any Democratic president with any measure of respect. (Foolishly, I thought they would have to treat Obama well, lest they be accused of racism. It turned out they didn't care; anything they say that appeals to their racist base they consider a plus.)
Bernie has been in Congress since 1991; he knows how it works. With a stronger Speaker (and there's no reason to think the next speaker will be any better than Boehner), Bernie could probably work with Congress as well as any Democrat -- which is to say, muddle along from faux crisis to faux crisis.
I think the bottom line is that, beginning with Bill Clinton, confederates have determined that Democratic presidents are fundamentally illegitimate.
Marie
In other news here on Hypocrisy Today, we go to Russia where Google has been declared in violation of anti-trust laws. This is knee-slappingly funny, not because there's no truth to it, but because Russia, world capital of protectionism, cronyism, criminal oligarchs and insider trading, is getting on its high horse to boo-hoo about Google embedding its own apps on certain devices.
All this whining in a country where a couple of Putin BFFs were recently handed over $8 billion in no bid contracts (sounds like the way Dick Cheney and The Decider operated!), one of which was for the construction of a bridge from the Russian mainland to Crimea (makes it all the easier for Russian tanks to get there).
But now they're upset because Google has pissed them off.
Oh Пожалуйста, cry me a река.
Marie,
Quite so. And now that I think of it, there's no reason to assume that Hillary would do any better than Bernie in Confederate held territory, aka Secession Land. I had a glimmer of that same kind of thought about Obama possibly receiving at least a grudgingly respectful treatment, but dismissed it as soon as I heard all the hate filled gasping and screeches from the crowd at McCain campaign headquarters after McCain conceded. I knew right then that it would be all out war. Too bad Obama didn't. But at least he's come around to that realization. Better late than nevah, I suppose.
While Kim Davis and her knuckledragging supporters are still screaming about how she was abused and her Constitutional rights were taken out and kicked senseless behind some barn, and going on and on about War on Christians, and let's not forget Mike Fuckabee ranting about how it's time to decriminalize Christianity, there are real abuses going on in this country, real abuses involving religion, to the point of real persecution.
But it's not being done to Christians. It's being done by Christians.
Out in New Mexico, a mom attending a court ordered counseling session designed to assist in better communication and establishing non-confrontational co-parenting for her and her husband, found herself forced into prayer sessions and to endure religious indoctrination. When she decided she wasn't going to stand for this, the state took her kids away until she agreed to complete her Christianization. Granted, the state took her kids away because she decided not to continue with the classes. But the condition for her getting her kids back was to go back and complete the religious indoctrination. All forced on her by the State of New Mexico.
But it gets better. The Christianist indoctrinator, Mary Pepper, holds her indoctrination sessions in a PUBLIC LIBRARY so she doesn't have to pay for office space. So let's see, she's paid by the state to indoctrinate clients ordered by the court to attend these sessions and the taxpayers have to pick up the tab for her office space. And attendees have to undergo religious hammering that can only be described as harassment. All in the name of Christianity Rules.
This is REAL religious persecution. Not the fantasy Kim Davis kind. And it's being pushed by Christians.
Think Fox will cover this?
There is no such thing as a War on Christians no matter what smug assholes like Kim Davis say. They're the ones doing all the screaming and making all the demands and forcing their religious beliefs on everyone else (Davis is demanding that the governor order a special session, paid for by all Kentucky taxpayers, to change the law to suit her religious requirements). They're the ones making war on the rest of the country.
Wasn't the Thirty Years War supposed to take care of shit like this? Why, over four centuries later, in modern America, do we still have religious nutjobs fucking things up?
Various writers have noticed that Donald Trump is almost certainly not as rich as he claims. I find it hard to understand the usual suspect Republicans' difficulty with Mr. Trump. Isn't it obvious that he is simply angling to be bought out? The Koch brothers could acquire the entire Trump presidential enterprise by just writing a check. They might want to do it fairly soon, however.