;)
Wednesday
Sep182013
The Commentariat -- Sept. 19, 2013
Ben Protess & Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "More than a year after a group of traders at JPMorgan Chase caused a multibillion-dollar loss, government authorities on Thursday imposed a $920 million fine on the bank and shifted scrutiny to its senior management. Extracting the fines and a rare admission of wrongdoing from JPMorgan Chase, the nation's largest bank, regulators in Washington and London took aim at a pervasive breakdown in controls and leadership at the bank. The deal resolves investigations from four regulators..., but the bank has struggled to settle with another regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is investigating whether the bank's trading manipulated the market for financial contracts known as derivatives."
We have anarchists running the House of Representatives. -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
We are completely united on this issue. We're not defunding ObamaCare and we're not negotiating on the debt ceiling.... If they think we're going to back off, they're wrong, they're on a different planet. -- Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), on Senate Democrats
We can't let the government shut down. We can't be kamikazes and we can't be General Custer. -- Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who now passes for a moderate
... Any strategy to repeal, delay or replace the law must have a credible chance of succeeding or affecting broad public opinion positively. The defunding strategy doesn't. Going down that road would strengthen the president while alienating independents. It is an ill-conceived tactic, and Republicans should reject it. -- Karl Rove, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed
... Paul Kane & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "House Republican leaders announced Wednesday morning that they would take a risky double-barreled attack on President Obama's health-care law, making it the cornerstone fight over government funding due to expire Sept. 30 and the effort to lift the Treasury's borrowing authority. Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), flanked by his leadership team, told reporters that the stopgap government funding bill that they will advance Friday would yield to conservative demands of including a rider to block funding for the law commonly known as Obamacare." ...
... Greg Sargent: "... all that has changed today is that GOP leaders have just confirmed they are not yet willing to face the inevitable reckoning that will take place when they admit House Republicans don't have the leverage they need to block Obamacare. House GOP leaders have simply confirmed that they can't overcome internal conservative demands for a Total War posture against the health law, and -- for now, anyway -- will continue to placate those demands, even though those leaders themselves think this posture is insane, unworkable, and self destructive." ...
... The New York Times Editors call Boehner's move a step in "the march to anarchy." ...
... Dana Milbank: "As House Republican backbenchers hurtle toward a government shutdown and a default on the national debt, their leaders remain in charge in title only.... The GOP followership surrendered without much of a fight Wednesday morning at a meeting of House Republicans in the Capitol basement. After rank-and-file members shot down their plan to avoid a shutdown, the followers announced to the media a new plan: Not only would they refuse to fund the government beyond Sept. 30 unless President Obama agrees to abolish Obamacare ... but they would allow the government to default on its debt in October if Obama does not meet their demands on taxes, energy policy and the health-care law." OR, as Nicole G. writes in today's Comments, "Oxymoron Alert!!! 'House Republican leaders...'" ...
... Gail Collins, with a little help from Ted Cruz, summarizes the Republican obsession with repealing ObamaCare: "The new health care law is going to be terrible, wreaking havoc on American families, ruining their lives. And they are going to love it so much they will never have the self-control necessary to give it up." CW: the real problem Republicans have with ObamaCare is that they know it's a fairly good law, one that every voting American knows Republicans oppose. ...
... MEANWHILE, Elise Viebeck of the Hill: "Tensions are rising between House and Senate Republicans over which conference will lead the fight to defund ObamaCare. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) each said Wednesday that the task is for Republicans in the other chamber as pressure rises to fund the government." ...
... Josh Marshall of TPM. "Truly in Lord of the Flies territory.... So [Cruz has] created this monster he can't control. Only he was the monster the last crew created. I can't keep up." ...
... Brian Beutler has an excellent piece in Salon on how Boehner has boxed in Senate Republicans -- like Ted Cruz & Mike Lee (Utah) who have been working the Defund ObamaCare circuit. "If they pass up the chance [to filibuster ObamaCare funding], they'll expose the defund campaign as a sham. And at the end of the process, some Senate Republicans are going to have to vote -- at least -- to give Reid and Democrats the power to strip the defunding measure. They'll be damaged goods. Either way, someone loses, and all because conservatives in the Senate thought they could demagogue the issue without ever having to put their credibility on the line." ...
... Bloomberg News Editors: "A mere 48 months after the law was introduced, only 42 months after it was signed, with just two weeks until one of its main provisions takes effect, Republicans today finally offered their alternative to the Affordable Care Act. Which would be cause for genuine (if belated) congratulations, except for one thing: It's not really an alternative.... Any plan billed as an alternative has to meet one definitional threshold, and only one: covering a similar number of Americans as Obamacare. To ... be a better alternative, a proposal should cover a similar number of Americans at a lower cost or with fewer unwanted consequences." Republicans provided no evidence their plan would do either.
... The Manchurian President. The good news out of all this is that John Boehner has finally found the smoking gun that proves once & for all that there is a commie-loving, anti-American imposter in the White House. Could be grounds for impeachment:
... Paul Krugman: "A decade ago..., I argued that the modern Republican party was a 'revolutionary power' in the sense once defined by, of all people, Henry Kissinger -- a power that no longer accepted any of the norms of politics as usual, that was willing not just to take radical positions but to act in ways that undermined the whole system of governance people thought they understood. At the time, I got a lot of grief for being so 'shrill'. The accepted thing was to criticize both sides equally.... So, now we face the imminent threat of a government shutdown and/or a U.S. government default because Republicans refuse to accept the notion that duly enacted legislation should be allowed to go into effect, and repealed only through constitutional means. Oh, and the cause for which most of the GOP is willing to threaten chaos is the noble endeavor of ensuring that tens of millions of Americans continue to lack essential health care." ...
... Tom Kludt of TPM: "MSNBC host Chuck Todd said Wednesday that when it comes to misinformation about the new federal health care law, don't expect members of the media to correct the record. During a segment on 'Morning Joe,' former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) speculated that most opponents of the Affordable Care Act have been fed erroneous information about the law. Todd said that Republicans 'have successfully messaged against it' but he disagrees with those who argue that the media should educate the public on the law. According to Todd, that's President Barack Obama's job.... Todd took to Twitter later in the morning to argue that his actual point was that 'folks shouldn't expect media' to do what the White House has failed to do in its rollout of the health care law." Thanks to contributor James S. for the heads-up. Includes video. You decide. ...
... Charles Pierce: "What is my profession's primary contribution to the fact that this country is utterly fked? Right there, folks." ...
... Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "As Congressional Republicans and the White House hurtle toward another showdown over federal spending, the Fed said it was concerned that fiscal policy once again 'is restraining economic growth,' threatening to undermine what the Fed had described just months ago as a recovery gaining strength. Stock markets jumped after the 2 p.m. announcement, with the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index touching a record high and the Dow Jones industrial average ahead more than 150 points." ...
... Kevin Drum: Bernanke to Republicans: stop being the stupid party." ...
... Patti Domm of CNBC: "Stocks roared to new all-time highs and bond yields retreated as the Fed defied the market's conventional thinking by keeping its unconventional bond-buying program intact. Most major Wall Street banks and firms expected the Fed to slightly pare back its $85 billion monthly bond buying program, by $10 billion to $15 billion. But the Fed said it wasn't ready to cut back, citing a tightening in financial conditions that it said could hurt the economy and employment." ...
... Neil Irwin of the Washington Post: "Why didn't the Fed taper? Because Congress is horrible."
CW: In today's issue of Obama the Weakling, Major Garrett of the National Journal (formerly of Fox "News") provides the copy, putting the onus on Senate Democrats for crippling Obama. I'd give Garrett the David Brooks Award for this little masterpiece of hyperbole, carefully woven around scraps of factual fabric.
Ernesto Londoño, et al., of the Washington Post: "Defense Department officials on Wednesday ordered a broad review of the procedures used to grant security clearances to employees and contractors, acknowledging that years of escalating warning signs about Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis went unheeded. Top intelligence and military officials concede that issuing millions of people security clearances for up to 10 years without regular reviews is a serious safety risk." ...
... Steve Vogel, et al., of the Washington Post: "Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis had sought treatment for insomnia in the emergency rooms of two Veterans Affairs hospitals in the past month, but he told doctors he was not depressed and was not thinking of harming others, federal officials said Wednesday.... Alexis had left records of his troubles in local police reports, in Navy files and in VA medical records. But it was never quite enough to set off broader alarms or to revoke any of the privileges that the government had extended Alexis as an IT contractor." ...
... Sari Horwitz, et al., of the Washington Post: "Aaron Alexis carved bizarre phrases on the stock of his shotgun before he killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday, and investigators are hoping the words provide clues to what prompted the shooting, two law enforcement officials said. The phrases were 'Better off this way' and 'My ELF weapon,' according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.... ELF generally stands for 'extremely low frequency' and can refer to weather or communications efforts, among other things." ...
... CBS News: "Washington Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis tried to buy an AR-15 assault rifle at a Virginia gun store last week after test firing one, but the store wouldn't sell it to him right away, CBS News has learned. The reason for the refusal isn't clear. Alexis then purchased a shotgun he used in his rampage, sources tell CBS News." ...
... ** Frank Rich: "Perhaps the best thing we can do is at least call out the problem for what it is: state-sponsored terrorism. The American people and their elected representatives allow our own homegrown equivalent of suicide bombers -- suicide shooters -- legal access to weapons with which they can mow down innocents almost anywhere they please.... This country is soft on domestic terrorism." Rich also weighs in -- brilliantly -- on other topics. ...
... On Tuesday, Ryan Broderick of BuzzFeed knocked out a piece titled "9 Potential Mass Shootings That Were Stopped by Someone with a Personally-Owned Firearm." ...
... Justin Peters of Slate: "The [Broderick] piece has been wildly popular on social media, which isn't surprising: it's a simple, provocative piece that ostensibly validates the gun lobby's contention that there’s an inverse relationship between private gun ownership and mass shootings. But like many simple and provocative things, the BuzzFeed story is more than a little misleading." Peters systematically, um, shoots down Broderick's post. Worth a read.
Chris Geider of BuzzFeed: "The Labor Department announced Wednesday that federal laws governing private employee pension and related benefit plans will be interpreted to recognize all legal marriages of same-sex couples, regardless of where the couple is living currently. The decision to utilize a 'place of celebration' rule, rather than a 'place of domicile' rule follows the lead set by the Treasury Department in recognizing marriages for purposes of the tax code so long as they were legal in the state where the marriage was granted."
Ray Hennessey of Entrepreneur: "Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is asking customers to no longer bring guns to the coffee chain, saying the presence of weapons in its stores is 'unsettling and upsetting' to too many of its customers. The request is not an outright ban. Customers who bring a gun will still be served, Schultz says. But it is a marked change in policy for the chain, which, up to now, simply respected state law on the issue. The vast majority of U.S. states allow the open carrying of firearms." Via Patrick Himes of Salon.
CW: Pravda.ru published this opinion piece by John McCain, which he wrote in response to Vladimir Putin's New York Times op-ed, published last week. McCain ignores Syria & focuses instead on this theme: "Russians deserve better than Putin." It's a powerful piece. ...
... Pravda.ru, however is not exactly Pravda. Vadim Gorshenim, the CEO of Pravda.ru, gives his characterization of what Pravda is. Or isn't.
David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "Obama has accomplished goals that most Americans endorse [re: Syria], given the unpalatable menu of choices. Polls suggest that the public overwhelmingly backs the course Obama has chosen.... Yet the opinion of elites is sharply negative... He can propose what the country wants, succeed at it and still get hammered as a failure." Via Greg Sargent. ...
... A Step on the Road to Damascus. Barbara Starr of CNN: "The Pentagon has 'put a proposal on the table' for U.S. military forces to train and equip moderate Syrian opposition forces for the first time, two Obama administration officials told CNN. The idea has been under consideration since the August 21 chemical weapons attack outside Damascus, which the United States says was carried out by the regime of Bashar al-Assad. There are few specifics on troops or other aspects of the military proposal, but both officials said the effort envisions training taking place in a country near Syria." ...
... CW: There are back roads to my cottage in the Catskills. Taking them shortens my route, but the roads are not well-marked, & my car doesn't have a GPS. One of these routes takes me through the tiny town pf Damascus, New York. This year, I had to stop & ask a woman jogger, "Is this the road to Damascus?" This pleased me a great deal, but I did not experience a conversion, just a surer sense that I would not be getting lost in the backwoods. ...
... Nour Malas of the Wall Street Journal: "The spread of ISIS..., an Iraqi al Qaeda outfit..., illustrates the failure of Western-backed Syrian moderates to establish authority in opposition-held parts of Syria, some of which have been under rebel control for over a year. The proliferation of the Sunni jihadists and extremists has brought a new type of terror to the lives of many Syrians who have endured civil war in the north. Summary executions of Alawites and Shiites, who are seen as apostates, attacks on Shiite shrines, and kidnappings and assassinations of pro-Western rebels are on the rise." ...
... Sammy Ketz of AFP: "Syria and key ally Russia joined forces on Wednesday against any Western-backed United Nations resolution that would allow military action, as Moscow accused UN chemical weapons inspectors of bias. The United States, meanwhile, said it will maintain the threat of force if Damascus fails to abide by an accord to surrender its chemical arsenal, and the United Nations hit back at the Russian accusations." ...
... Thomas Erdbrink of the New York Times: "On the eve of a visit by Iran's moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, to the United States, the Iranian authorities on Wednesday unexpectedly freed 11 of Iran's most prominent political prisoners, including Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer." ...
... Tracy Connor of NBC News: "Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told NBC News on Wednesday that the country will never develop nuclear weapons and that he has the clout to make a deal with the West on the disputed atomic program." ...
... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "At the core of Iran's recent diplomatic charm offensive -- a process that has included the release of 11 prominent political prisoners and a series of conciliatory statements by top Iranian officials -- is an exchange of letters, confirmed by both sides, between Mr. Obama and President Hassan Rouhani. The election of Mr. Rouhani, a moderate, in June kindled hopes that diplomacy might end the chronic impasse with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. But the letters, and the cautious hope they have generated, suggest there is a genuine opportunity for change." ...
... Fareed Zakaria of Time: "This has been a particularly bad time for Obama officials to thump their chests about credibility because for the past few months, the Iranian government has been sending remarkably conciliatory signals."
Massimo Calabresi of Time: Rick "Perry's full-time job: taking credit for jobs he didn't create.... Unless Perry is claiming his policies would create more oil and gas, spike immigration or change the established borders of the United States, he might better serve Texans, and America, by cutting the amount of taxpayer-funded job posturing he engages in." CW: in fairness to Perry, he may be so damned dumb that he believes his own BS.
More Social Scientists Produce More Predictable Results. Tom Jacobs of Salon: "Writing in the Psychology of Women Quarterly, Indiana University researchers Paul Wright and Michelle Funk report people who admitted to watching pornography were less likely to support affirmative action for women...."
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Reader Comments (22)
It would be nice if Chuck Todd and Maureen Dowd hooked up. As my dad used to say, that way they'd only F-up one family. Jeebus.
Frank Rich makes succinct and logical arguments. 99% of the time (yes I checked my math) when I finish reading his pieces, I have to say well of course!
Clearly, there was evidence of Alexis' criminal history that should have been a red flag to his employers. At least in California, involuntary mental health treatment must meet a danger to self, danger to others threshold, or the individual must be gravely disabled. Responding to internal voices, unless they are commanding harm, don't fit those criteria. Self identification of severe mental illness, in the midst of acute psychosis, is not going to happen. I think the emphasis on identifying persons with mental illness as a reason to ban gun ownership is just a way to obscure the real solution of responsible regulation that should apply to everyone. Mental illness is an easy dodge. I am really worried about who determines mental illness as well as the definition of mentally ill that would be disqualifying. Will it be an involuntary commitment during your lifetime, certain prescriptions, somebody reporting you as "crazy", being under the care of psychiatrist or psychologist? That debate will take up a lot of time and energy while gun manufacturers continue to sell guns to people like George Zimmerman. Unless and until dickhead is a diagnosis that disqualifies a person from gun ownership, mental illness is merely a marketing tool to increase sales. Fur Christ sakes, at least 1/2 the Congress meets my personal definition for mentally ill.
Oxymoron Alert!!! "House Republican leaders..."
On the issue of top security clearances: I must return to my former profession as a therapist (LCSW) in the Washington, D.C. Metro area. I had a private practice there for 35 years, and saw many political people, including CIA, DIA, and military defense contractors (hard to admit this)! If they were men, they mostly got into therapy after coming in with their wives--who were threatening to leave them. In a word, not truly voluntary
My worst memory is of a cocaine dealer, probably an addict--a defense contractor working for the CIA--who came in with his girlfriend, who soon dumped him. (I fired him from therapy about two months after he started--when he wrecked his car on New Year's Eve while high--almost killing an innocent driver while crossing the line on a local highway. He, of course, claimed he was innocent--dark night, headlights in his eyes, etc.--and had no remorse whatsoever. Amazingly, he was not charged with Driving While Impaired!)
Forward several months. Same (former) patient decided he wanted to go to Saudi Arabia to make some easy money as a defense contractor. Only problem: he needed a top secret security clearance. Therefore, the security apparati had to interview me, his former therapist. (This was fairly common practice, since I worked with a number of people who required security clearances.)
Long story short. The security agent made an appointment, and we talked about my former patient. I opened my file, and told him the complete truth--which I always did. Could have been in big trouble if I did not, and something bad happened as a result. Agent left and called again--saying he wanted to bring his supervisor in with him to interview me. Did that--told them both the same story. Another phone call and another interview--this time with three honchos. Before they left, they asked me the SAME QUESTION, the question every security agent asks about potential top secret employees: "Do you think s/he is loyal to the American flag?" Seriously. I had no idea and told them so.
Never heard from them again. Three months later, I had a picture postcard from my former patient in Saudi Arabia (showing, I think, an oil well). He thanked me for my "help," said he was making money hand over fist, and hoped I was "doing well."
Of course, I became a complete cynic about our national security clearance system. After that, I told agents who came to question me that I had no faith in the system, and my testimony would most likely be irrelevant. And, also, that I had absolutely no idea whether their prospective employee would be "loyal to the flag."
There is an irony to my story. One of the agents (a woman), who came to question me about an applicant, called several months later and asked to go into therapy with me. Her job was making her crazy! She was an excellent patient, ended up quitting her job and going to work for a non-profit.
So it goes..........
Does Chuck Todd understand that on the Administration's web site there is health care info? Does he not realize that many people, those that read as little as possible, get their news on the TEE VEE and wouldn't it be loverly if the MEDIA would, like PBS is doing, have instructive sessions re: the AFCA in its complexity. Obama has given us many speeches where he touts the plan, but he's a busy guy and can't be expected to give lessons. Finally people can access information from their states who should be passing out pamphlets explaining the procedures.
@Kate: Good story! While you were treating grown ups I was treating disturbed children and their disturbed parent/parents. I take my hat off to you for sticking to this field for as long as you did. I found I missed teaching and went back to it. This is not an easy profession, obviously. Your experience with our hole-in-the-national security clearance system was interesting, but alas, not surprising. Such dolts.
@P.D. Pepe. Right you are. And does Chuck Todd not understand that one of the ways Republicans have "won on messaging" was to intimidate nonpartisan organizations (like the NFL) into not participating in programs to educate the public on how to take advantage of ObamaCare?
In a straight news report on the NFL controversy, the WashPo said, "Republicans are now trying to discourage large mainstream organizations from encouraging people to sign up for insurance under the law." The Republicans aren't only running a disinformation campaign; they've also organized an information blackout.
Thanks, Chuck, for promoting the blackout & promising to do your little part to keep the curtain closed. Yeah, it's President Obama's fault.
Marie
I'm curious as to what Chuck Todd thinks his job IS, exactly?
Let's see, one of the great stories in the history of the country, the struggle, in one fell swoop, to raise up the entire nation in terms of quality of life through available and affordable healthcare, one of two political parties entirely aligned to kill any discussion of this enormous leap, with the exception of spreading outright lies, the lives of millions of Americans hanging in the balance, and Chuck fucking Todd, a legend in his own mind, decides that because the White House hasn't met his standard for spreading the news, he's going to sit back and drub his dick? And for this he gets paid?
I always thought this guy was a simpering, self-satisfied fraud but I never cared enough about it to actually hate him.
That just changed.
Despicable. Just despicable.
Kate,
Brilliant job of communicating the cynicism at the heart of much of our defense structure. And this business about the overriding importance of being "loyal to the flag" is just creepy. I immediately had an image of Stephen King's Low Men in Yellow Coats, mysterious government agents who impress into their service anyone who might be able to help their nefarious plans. It smacks of totalitarianism.
I realize that an appreciation of realpolitik brings with it an cognizance that sometimes we get into bed with less than squeaky clean characters (sometimes with skanky whores), and that sometimes the people needed to do the dirty work aren't exactly choir boys and girls.
But shouldn't that same sense of pragmatism apply when considering someone with mental problems (addiction, I believe, coming under that heading) who, at some point, could cause more trouble than they're worth?
Christ.
I can only shake my head so many times each day without feeling like a ragdoll.
Thanks for sharing. An important story, masterfully told.
@Akhilleus: in his famous turn at the 2006 Washington Correspondents' Dinner, Stephen Colbert joked, "The president makes decisions. He's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home." The public thought this was hilarious; the correspondents in the room, not so much.
Now Chuck Todd is complaining that the President isn't also typing the decisions. Chuck doesn't want to have to do the "type" part. Chuck didn't mention whether or not he's willing to run the President's typing through the spell-check. (Luckily "By Chuck Todd" is easy to spell.) But he's definitely into the "go home" part.
Marie
Okay, it's Lousy Limerick Time once more.
In honor of (bad phrase for this, but you know what I mean) the GOP attempt to kill healthcare, yet again, the following are proffered for your enjoyment, such as it might be.
There was a teabagger in DC
Who thought killing health care would be easy
While the media snooze
To victory he’d Cruz
If his manner and means weren’t so sleazy
If killing healthcare is the goal
The GOP surely has sold
Their souls, but no matter
Their ethics in tatters
Their party one giant asshole
Marie,
Thanks for that reminder. Chuck Todd is a fucking piece of work. But so are many others like him who live rent free on the choice land of the Fourth Estate, feet up, lolling in the hammocks of undeserved media fame.
Yesterday, Alex Parene, one of the many pithy Salonistas, compared the most recent crumbs brushed off the linen table cloth at the Washington Press Club by two renowned and rich members of media royalty, Tom Friedman and Maureen Dowd.
Read the piece, it's all true.
But to demonstrate the utter indolence of these people, especially Friedman's chronic intellectual lethargy, he boils it down into its essence, which, in all fairness, is all one needs to read to "get" Friedman's point. Such as it was.
The idea was that Friedman had been in Switzerland recently (isn't he always somewhere, helping Bibi pick out his socks, talking to a 200 year old shepherd in Uzbekistan, blah, blah, blah?). And he saw a guy with pink hair. Hey, wow. A guy with pink hair. Then he thought about how cool it would be to have pink hair. But wait a minute! What about Syria? Ooooh. Hard to figure that one. The end.
Here's how Parene puts it:
“On my vacation I saw a guy with weird hair and boy this Syria thing is a tough egg to crack, by Thomas Friedman, world’s most influential columnist, age six.”
Yeah. And like that.
Not much typing involved. Nor thought. Repeat twice weekly, cash check, go home. Just like Chuck.
I despair. And it's not even noon yet!
@Akhilleus. Linked Pareene's piece yesterday under "Infotainment." Chuck Todd's stupid remarks at least raise the question, "What is journalism?" But "pink hair" & the umpteenth Obama Is a Wimp column? That's strictly entertainment (forget the "info" part).
Marie
Chuckie Todd: Agreed. A shifty-eyed twerp. I have schooled myself (often unsuccessfully) against making snap judgments based solely on appearance, but from the first thought Todd to be one of those half-smart, spoiled boys who rose to prominence via something other than talent and worth. There has to be some explanation. Who is that guy related to?
Remember making a similar snap decision about Bush II. Just looking at him was enough. There was something fundamentally wrong with that guy, I thought, and as events proved, the instant dislike I took to the man was so well placed it called the whole schooling effort I had been making to be "fair" into severe question. I still don't trust myself to be right all the time, but I no longer believe my judgment is always poor just because it is quick.
PD Pepe: Thanks for the response to yesterday's post. Admit that as I wrote " The lesson (Duh!): There's a lot of crazy in each of us, a hefty potential for violent, destructive behavior that we either pretend doesn't exist or assign only to people we don't know because keeping that crazy out there, away from us, makes us feel more civilized and safer than we have every reason to know we really are," it gave me a bit of pause too.
That means I'm still thinking about it. When does a qualitative difference in the violence many are prone to become quantitative? Is there some kind of violence spectrum along which the egregiousness of violent acts can be arrayed? Why do few perpetrators of domestic violence become mass killers? And today's question, the one you implied: How do you and I and most of the people we know avoid outright violence?
One of the answers for me and I suspect for most of us who frequent this site is that we use words, lots of them. I once wrote about a young man I knew well who was given to the kind of anger and physical violence that often made him unwelcome in my school and even in his community.
As I wrote then, reaching for an explanation, "He doesn't have the words."
He's dead now. He didn't kill someone else. He killed himself.
As I said, I'm still thinking.
In today's episode of "Inside Journalism" Akhilleus and The Constant Weader examine the incredible laziness and truth bending of General Electrics NBC mouthpiece Chuck Turd. Tom Friedman is given an Honorable Mention for predictable blather and the always charming father figure searcher, Maureen Dowd ,or is it dowdy, receives the award for template repetition.
This will be the last episode of "Inside Journalism" as evolving awareness has forced management to change the name of our production to "Inside Stenography". See you next time!!
Fed robbing poor to pay rich.
( http://www.cnbc.com/id/101046937 ) In the accompanying CNBC video, Stanley Druckenmiller of Duquesne Capital Management calls out the Fed's decision not to taper. "This is fantastic for every rich person," he said Thursday, a day after the Fed's stunning decision to delay tightening its monetary policy. "This is the biggest redistribution of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the rich ever."
From Economist Anthony Randazzo of the Reason Foundation on QE "... has been boosting wealth for those already engaged in the financial sector or those who already own homes, but passing little along to the rest of the economy. It is a primary driver of income inequality."
I'm certainly not a world class economist and while I am a big Paul Krugman fan, just haven't been able to agree with his arguments these past months that to begin tapering would be a bad thing for the economy, the jobless, etc. I would think, soon or later tapering has to start. If anyone sees the validity in his reasoning of why to hold off better than I can, please explain it to my dense head.
P.S. All comments (above) on Chuck Todd and the state of journalism are terrific. And the best limerick ever since Nantucket.
From the More Corrupt Bullshit from Texas Department:
Tom (the Bug Man) DeLay, corrupt former House Majority Leader, and one those most responsible for the current state of advanced clusterfuckedness that is the House of Representatives, has had his corruption conviction overturned by equally highly partisan judges on the appellate court.
The judge writing the lead opinion, Melissa Goodwin, sniffed that the prosecution didn't "prove" that DeLay was involved in criminal activities. Isn't something, by definition, a crime if it's in direct contravention of the law? I must be wrong. In any event, he skates on the kind of technicality that partisan hacks like DeLay have always screamed about.
Funnily enough, the initial complaint brought against the Bug Man came from Texans for Public Justice who had finally tired of the stench of corruption blowing out of DeLay's ass every time he put his hand out for another "contribution". Why funny? Because TPJ had also filed an ethics complaint against Judge Goodwin, whose hard right campaign was funded in part by illegal money.
Oops.
Methinks this might have been a great big Fuck You to TPJ from one corrupt Republican to help out another corrupt Republican and to give the finger to a good government group who just doesn't understand that the GOP can do whatever in the hell it wants and no one can say different.
So there. And you wonder why voters are so cynical.
DeLay's jig of vindication at 11.
MAG,
Bad limericks are a blast. Not too bad, mind you...
Der vas a shtormtrooper from Stuttgart....
Oh...never mind...
See Charles Pierce today on Diane Feinstein's wacko suggestion on licensing journalists. She think the government should get to choose who is or isn't a journalist. Pierces blog is outstanding today.
“WASHINGTON — The director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, provided on Thursday the most up-to-date account of the gunman’s rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, saying that he was “hunting people to shoot” as he made his way through the building but did not appear to have targeted a particular person or group of people.” NYTimes (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/us/gunman-was-wandering-halls-as-he-shot-fbi-chief-says.html?hp)
Obviously, any gun control legislation should include bag limits.
James,
Wow.
I guess I shouldn't laugh. The NRAssholes might consider that.
Nah...that would limit some future mass murderer's freedom. Slippery slope and all that, ya know?
Re: John Cassidy's article from The New Yorker "Four Decades: Why American Politics Is All Messed Up," referenced yesterday, I think Mr Carpenter has his cause and effect reversed.
The reality is that from the conservatives' perspective, the political system is working just fine. There is no dysfunction; the Repugs continue to successfully manipulate our culture back into the 19th century. Like a boa constrictor which doesn't crush its victim outright, but forces a little more life out of it every time the victim exhales, they won't be satisfied until every dream of economic justice is squeezed out of our plutocratic democracy.
Though he offers some interesting statistics - in case anyone chooses to embark on a fool's errand of trying to convince a rightie of the evils of self-interest gone amuck in an unconstrained "free market" economy - Mr Carpenter's vision is shallow at best.
The real reason why American politics are hopelessly fucked up is as obvious as the Supreme Corp's right-wing bias: Nothing is going to change until we have public financing of elections, term limits for Congress, and an end to monopoly media ownership.
JP Morgan Chase pays a $920 million fine. Big deal.
They have assets of over $2.5 trillion . And we're supposed to be happy with the fact that finally one of the banks has admitted criminal wrongdoing? Like we didn't know that already.
Jamie Dimon will still make over $20 million dollars this year.
Why aren't these guys in jail?
CORPORATION, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. Ambrose Bierce
Gotta love this Digby item:
http://www.digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/road-rage-for-dummies.html