;)
The Commentariat -- Sept. 19, 2014
Internal links removed.
Jennifer Epstein of Politico: "President Barack Obama on Thursday thanked members of Congress from both parties for coming together and acting quickly to approve funding that will aid in the international campaign against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant":
... Jonathan Weisman & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The Senate gave overwhelming approval on Thursday to a measure on the training and arming of Syrian rebels, then fled the Capitol for the fall campaign, sidestepping the debate over the extent of American military action until the lame-duck session of Congress later this year. The training measure, pushed hard by President Obama, was tucked into a larger Senate bill to keep the government funded past Sept. 30, a maneuver that leaders of both parties favored to ensure as few defections as possible. The Senate's 78-to-22 vote, a day after the House passed the measure, masked the serious doubts that many senators had." ...
... Justin Sink of the Hill: "The White House on Friday strongly disputed suggestions of friction between President Obama and the Pentagon over the strategy for confronting fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). White House press secretary Josh Earnest unloaded on a front-page headline in The Washington Post pointing to skepticism in the military of Obama's plan, calling its conclusions 'wrong.' 'All they do is they misinterpret Chairman Dempsey's testimony, and the rest of the time, they essentially quote either people who are frequent critics or people who supported the previous Iraq conflict,' Earnest said on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.' 'So the more accurate headline would be, "Supporters of the Bush war in Iraq criticize President Obama's strategy." And that's been true since 2002,' Earnest said." ...
... CW: I saw the piece yesterday & got as far as the first "expert" reporter Craig Whitlock cited: an ex-general. So I didn't link it. I think Earnest's assertion is correct. As I indicated in the Dempsey sensation of a few days ago, it turned out that the headlines & ledes touting Dempsey's supposed concession on American "boots on the ground" was a far-out hypothetical forced by Lindsey Graham's repeated questioning/badgering the witness during Senate testimony. ...
... Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "In President Obama's strategy of building an international coalition to fight the Islamic State without American troops..., moderate [Syrian] rebels loom large as the best force to fight the extremists in Syria.... At present the rebels are a beleaguered lot, far from becoming a force that can take on the fanatical and seasoned fighters of the Islamic State.... [A] scaled-up training program would be overseen by the Defense Department, unlike the current covert program here and a similar program in Jordan, both overseen by the C.I.A." ...
... we underestimated ISIL and overestimated the fighting capability of the Iraqi army. .... I didn't see the collapse of the Iraqi security force in the north coming. I didn't see that. It boils down to predicting the will to fight, which is an imponderable. -- James Clapper, National Intelligence Director ...
... David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "The United States has made the same mistake in evaluating fighters from the Islamic State that it did in Vietnam -- underestimating the enemy's will, according to James Clapper, the director of national intelligence."
We are supposed to keep the country safe, predict anticipatory intelligence, with no risk, and no embarrassment if revealed, and without a scintilla of jeopardy to privacy of any domestic person or foreign person. We call that 'immaculate collection.' --James Clapper, on the mission of the agencies he oversees
This is what the average voter thinks President Obama should be able to do. If, by some miracle he could perfectly secure the nation, millions of Americans would still oppose him because the weather sucks or their neighbors are jerks. If it turned out Obama was the second coming of Jesus, these people would choose to be "left behind." -- Constant Weader
... Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "Departing from its serial beheading videos of Western hostages that have outraged the world, the Islamic State released a new video on Thursday featuring a captive British journalist seated behind a desk, explaining the group's message and warning that America and its allies are foolishly heading into another unwinnable war. The Internet video,..., subtitled in Arabic, shows the journalist, John Cantlie, dressed in an orange jumpsuit and apparently reading from a script, recalling how he was captured by the militant group also known by the acronyms ISIS and ISIL after he arrived in Syria in November 2012." ...
... Andy Greenberg of Wired with an update on those iPhones for Criminals: "A reminder to iPhone owners cheering Apple's latest privacy win: Just because Apple will no longer help police to turn your smartphone inside out doesn't mean it can prevent the cops from vivisecting the device on their own." ...
... Coming Soon! Androids for Criminals! Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "The next generation of Google's Android operating system, due for release next month, will encrypt data by default for the first time, the company said Thursday, raising yet another barrier to police gaining access to the troves of personal data typically kept on smartphones.... The move, which Google officials said has been in the works for many months, is part of a broad shift by American technology companies to make their products more resistant to government snooping in the aftermath of revelations of National Security Agency spying by former contractor Edward Snowden." Currently, Androids have such encryption available, but the user has to install it. ...
... CW: Timberg maintains that both Apple & Google "in most cases will make it impossible for law enforcement officials to collect evidence from smartphones -- even when authorities get legally binding search warrants." This is contrary to what the Wired experts are claiming. My personal theory: this marketing ploy is also a ruse. The NSA will bypass the encryption when they want to, so these big tech announcements may give terrorism suspects a false sense of security. (Probably not true for local police forces, which don't possess NSA-type skillsets, tho I suppose the FBI could occasionally come to their rescue.) Timberg, BTW, can read Wired as well as I can, so one is inclined to suspect that the Post is a knowledgeable co-conspirator. Fine.
Mario Trujillo of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) signed on to legislation Thursday that would remove the nonprofit status of the NFL for promoting the Washington Redskins. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) announced the legislation earlier this week.... Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced a broader bill on Tuesday that would strip the nonprofit status of most professional sports teams, and would use the extra revenue to fund domestic violence outreach." CW: I'm with Booker.
Burgess Everett of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid paid compliments on Thursday to Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz 00 but deferred to President Barack Obama on her future as the head of the party. Wasserman Schultz, a Democratic congresswoman from Florida, is under increasing scrutiny by top Democrats in Washington for her stewardship of the party since 2011. Reid called her a 'friend' but skirted answering a reporter's question on whether she's became a liability for Democrats as they head into a pitched battle to keep the Senate this November."
Alan Blinder & Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "... a federal judge[, Mark Fuller,] in Alabama on Thursday faced abrupt and potent pressure to resign after he was charged with striking his wife last month at a luxury hotel here.... Judge Fuller, an appointee of President George W. Bush and a frequent target of Democratic ire, has also received harsh criticism from Republican members of Alabama's congressional delegation, including the state's two senators, who both called for him to resign.... The reaction was a remarkable display of how accusations of domestic violence are suddenly being viewed with new urgency far beyond the N.F.L."
Linda Greenhouse: On gay marriage, Judge Posner evolves. Greenhouse does not think the Supremes will take up the issue this year.
"Errors & Emissions." Paul Krugman: "Saving the planet would be cheap; it might even be free.... If we ever get past the special interests and ideology that have blocked action to save the planet, we'll find that it's cheaper and easier than almost anyone imagines." CW: Also, kudos to the headline-writer. ...
... Ed Kilgore: "If this research breaks though the wall of false choices, then the second line of defense against action on climate change -- the first is denial, the second is 'we can't afford to do anything about it' -- could begin to crumble, and we can begin to debate 'how' more than 'whether' to act."
Capitalism Is Awesome. WalMart Finds Another Way to Profit off Its Employees. Laura Clawson of Daily Kos: WalMart has instituted a new employee "dress code." "Federal law says that employers have to provide workers with required uniforms." But the new WalMart "dress code" -- a white shirt & black pants -- does not include a company logo, so the employees -- not WalMart -- have to pay for the clothing. It's not a uniform! "Walmart has helpfully marked the tags on items that pass muster in case workers want to buy those clothes from Walmart.... Worker group OUR Walmart estimates that the company stands to make $51 million or more in sales to workers buying the new not-quite-uniforms. Walmart will also be supplying workers with a vest they're required to wear -- a vest that, for all the company's big talk about American-made products, is currently being made in Jordan."
Senate Races
** Wichita Eagle: "Democrat Chad Taylor is off the ballot for the U.S. Senate in Kansas. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled late Thursday afternoon that Taylor's letter to the Secretary of State's Office met the requirements for him to withdraw. Secretary of State Kris Kobach had said Taylor had failed to declare that he was incapable of serving as required by Kansas statute and had ruled that his name would remain on the ballot. Taylor took the unprecedented step of suing to have his name removed....[Sen. Pat] Roberts campaign issued a statement decrying the ruling. 'Today, the Kansas Supreme Court deliberately, and for political purposes, disenfranchised over 65,000 voters,'" ...
... Rick Hasen: "This is a unanimous, per curiam (unsigned) opinion from the Court holding that Democrat Chad Taylor's name will not be on the ballot in the Kansas Senate race. This has political implications, as it will likely cause more Democrats to vote for independent Greg Orman instead of incumbent Republican Pat Roberts. It puts the seat, and perhaps the Senate, up for grabs. But there's a wrinkle. There is still possible Court action now to force Democrats to name a new candidate to replace Taylor on the ballot." ...
... NEW. Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "... without a Democrat on the ballot, Mr. Orman will have a real chance to defeat Mr. Roberts. The balance of recent polling suggests that Mr. Orman is probably fairly close to 50 percent without Mr. Taylor or another Democrat on the ballot."
Simon Maloy of Slate: "Earlier this week, Buzzfeed's Andrew Kaczynski reported out the fairly bizarre story [linked in yesterday's Commentariat] of Oregon Republican Senate candidate Monica Wehby and the health plan that she plagiarized from Crossroads GPS. Her candidacy has long been a favorite of conservative pundits who convinced themselves that Wehby, a pediatric neurosurgeon running in a state that had an especially rough experience with the Affordable Care Act rollout, was ideally positioned to campaign hard on health policy and take down Democratic incumbent Jeff Merkley.... In May, the Wall Street Journal's Kimberley Strassel called Wehby the 'Democrats' worst nightmare,' citing her alleged health policy chops. 'She's a policy wonk, able to run rings around Oregon's junior senator, especially on health-care reform,' Strassel wrote. The fact that Wehby's health policy was pinched from a poll conducted by Karl Rove is, therefore, hilarious."
Alec MacGillis of the New Republic: Kentucky U.S. Senate candidate "Alison Grimes is trailing [Mitch McConnell] in the polls -- but she might not be if she had used Obamacare to her advantage.... If [the Grimes campaign is] unable to get more voters whose health care McConnell wants to take away to turn out against him in November, the fault belongs to the campaign, not the voters." CW: I agree with MacGillis; Grimes' attempts to hide from ObamaCare make her seem dishonest.
Worse Than Republicans. Alison Montoya of WLWT Cincinnati. "... write-in [U.S Senate] candidate Robert Ransdell said he knows he cannot win against Republican Mitch McConnell or Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes but wants to use the campaign to spread his slogan, 'With Jews We Lose.'... As of Wednesday the signs were gone. Apparently Ransdell did not ask the property owner for permission."
Congressional Race
Hunter of Daily Kos: "The latest candidate to sign up for the hard-fought America's Dumbest Congressman competition is Republican Mark Walker, who's running for North Carolina's deep-red 6th Congressional district.... Walker's answer to undocumented immigrants is to 'go laser or blitz somebody' in Mexico." If attacking Mexico happened to start a war, "Well," Walker says, "we did it before, if we need to do it again, I don't have a qualm about it."
Gubernatorial Race
Well, well. Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Large portions of Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke's jobs plan for Wisconsin appear to be copied directly from the plans of three Democratic candidates who ran for governor in previous election cycles.... A spokesman for the Burke campaign told BuzzFeed News an 'expert' named Eric Schnurer who also worked on the other campaigns as responsible for the similar text, a case of self-plagiarism. Schnur[er] is not listed as an advisor to the campaign nor or his ideas attributed to previous campaigns in Burke’s plan." Here's Schnurer's bio-promo. ...
... CW: I wonder if Burke even read "her" jobs "plan." If you are of the impression that candidates in both parties are colossal phonies, yeah, you're right. On the other hand, Mary Burke is Eric Schnurer, not Scott Walker.
... Update. Oh. Good, She's Read It Now. Donovan Slack of USA Today: "... Mary Burke said she is 'disappointed' that a consultant on her campaign, Eric Schnurer, copied text he had used in other campaigns and incorporated it into her jobs plan, but she maintained that the ideas are sound.... She fired Schnurer on Thursday, when Buzzfeed reported Thursday that sections of her plan had been taken verbatim from other Democratic gubernatorial campaigns in Tennessee, Indiana and Delaware."
Presidential Election
Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Thursday voted against legislation authorizing President Obama to arm and train Syrian rebels, taking a stand that could distinguish her from Hillary Clinton in 2016.... Warren has a thin foreign policy résumé but by voting against the authority Obama requested, she will earn points with members of the Democratic base who are skeptical about another military campaign in the Middle East. 'I do not want America to be dragged into another ground war in the Middle East, and it is time for those nations in the region that are most immediately affected by the rise of ISIS to step up and play a leading role in this fight,' she said in a statement."
Beyond the Beltway
Charles Pierce: "Everything done by the local police chief, and the local police forces, from the moment [Michael] Brown's body hit the pavement, seemed oriented around a desire to provoke the maximum outrage so as to justify the maximum police response. And now, it appears, the grand jury investigating the case of Darren Wilson, the police officer who killed Brown, is headed down the same strange road." ...
... CW: Pierce's post is titled "The Latest from Ferguson," but in fact, the latest -- of which Pierce was unaware -- is that Wilson already has testified before the grand jury. In a Post-Dispatch story I linked yesterday, Robert Patrick wrote that Wilson testified for nearly four hours -- although he was not required by law to appear -- & that his "source said Wilson was 'cooperative.'" IMO, the update supports Pierce's contention. Wilson "cooperated" because he knows damned well the fix is in. If his attorney thought DA Bob McCulloch had any intention to challenge Wilson on "inconvenient facts," the lawyer would not have allowed Wilson to testify.
Will Weissert of the AP: "Amid uproar in conservative circles about perceived anti-American bias in the new [national] Advanced Placement U.S. History course and exam, Texas on Wednesday moved to require its high school students to learn only state-mandated curriculum -- not be taught to the national test.... Conservative activists, though, have decried the new course, the teachers' framework and even the exam itself as rife with liberal themes and focusing on the negative aspects of U.S. history. Some have even likened it to 'mind control' engineered by the federal government."...
... Charles Pierce: "... in a very important state of the union, a state governed by a man who is running around the country pretending he's smart enough to be president, high school students are going to learn American history in a strange, sanitized version unlike that taught anywhere else. Because the Texas Board of Education is opposed to mind control. Good for them." ...
... Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: By the few reliable measures available, it appears U.S. public schools have actually gotten better over the decades. Yet Americans "hate the public school system but like the school they actually interact with." Rampell cites a number of theories -- Diane Ravitch has a good one -- to explain this widening gap between perceptions of the local schools & public education....
... CW: I'd add one more theory: increasing tribalism. Parents are part of the rah-rah apparatus -- sports & other extracurricular activities -- that fosters school loyalty. The parents have an actual investment (taxes) as well as an emotional investment in schools that are important community-oriented institutions. At the Friday night football game -- and all through the week -- my school is better than your school.
News Ledes
Guardian: "Alex Salmond declared he will stand down as Scotland's first minister and the lead of the Scottish National party after failing to secure a majority for independence, as the country's vote to remain in the United Kingdom foreshadowed months of constitutional turmoil. After 55% of Scottish voters rejected independence, a higher margin than suggested by the final opinion polls of the campaign, Salmond, who has dominated Scottish politics for the past decade, said he would quit in November."
CBS/AP: "France said Friday it had conducted its first airstrike in Iraq, destroying a logistics depot held by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The office of President Francois Hollande's office said Rafale fighter jets struck the depot in northeastern Iraq on Friday morning and the target was 'entirely destroyed.'"
Guardian: "David Cameron has declared a 'clear result' in the Scottish independence referendum after Scotland voted by a 10.6-point margin against ending the 307-year-old union with England and Wales. Earlier, Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, struck a defiant note at a downbeat Scottish National party rally in Edinburgh, saying he accepted Scotland had not 'at this stage' decided to vote for independence. He paid tribute to what he called a 'triumph for democratic politics' and said he would work with Westminster in the best interests of Scotland and the rest of the UK -- warning the leaders of the three main parties to make good on their promises of enhanced devolution for Scotland." ...
... The Scotsman's main story is here.
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Reader Comments (24)
Marie: I do not know where I would go to find the articles and information that you provide. I do not comment much anymore but I am following your leadership to information at least three times a day. Hang in there as long as you can, your selection of information is needed.
Marie: I concur with everything everyone said yesterday and then some. Mrs. Unwashed and I are both RC addicts. If you stop RC we'll lose our home(page.)
From my experience knitting is a boring, mindless activity so I believe it would be a tremendous waste of your great mind.
Please feel free to take time for yourself as you need it, we'll be jonesing but we'll survive. If need help in any way, all you need to do is say the word. I'm sure you can our assistance.
Some readers here are watching the Ken Burns' series on the Roosevelts. Here is an interesting piece by Mason Williams: What Ken Burns doesn't understand about the Roosevelts.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119478/ken-burns-roosevelt-documentary-reviewed
Meant to say "I'm sure you can count on our assistance." Sometimes the fingers can't keep up and the eyes don't recognize the errors/omissions during review before hitting Create Post.
(I wish my day job wouldn't occupy so much of my time.)
Coming in late on this one, since I've been on the road myself. (Yesterday seemed one of the most accident-prone bad luck days to be on the highway).
@Marie, no one, but no one—except for 'round-the-clock, fully staffed national/international news organizations—do 24/7 what you do as an individual.
In my work, which knows no time limits and demands research and double-checking for clients—I appreciate how you are always current with the major stories, and in addition, find the "not usual sources" to connect with further follow-ups. This is time-consuming to the nth degree. Only someone with an absolute passion (which I suspect you possess) would output daily what a staff of twenty could barely sustain!
And, that's not me 'cow-tailing' you!!!!!!
You deserve more breaks! While we have all come to thrive on a daily diet of you and RC, we can handle it if you want to taper!
@p.d.Pepe: Thank you so much for the link to the New Republic piece on The Roosevelts. I think the main point about the glossing over of the mechanics of why and how programs got enacted in favor of a focus on the personalities of the protagonists is well-taken. As is this comment from the article:
"As a historical documentary film, “The Roosevelts” is a triumph, at least on par with anything in Burns’s oeuvre and a crowning achievement also for writer Geoffrey Ward, whose standing as one of America’s greatest living storytellers it reaffirms.
The film is symphonic in its attention to detail and its development of themes and variations. The three personalities at the center of the story practically spring from the screen, thanks to a happy marriage of insightful biography and extraordinary archival richness."
While I'm glad to have Krugman on our side of the climate change debate, IMHO he's dangerously oversimplifying the threats to climate change.
His entire post seems to center around the question of emissions of greenhouse gases and the consumption of fossil fuels. While this is certainly a principal driver of climate change, it's far and away the sole culprit we're facing as consequential factors of climate change.
Just for one example, Krugman doesn't mention that the meat industry is another huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. And as the world population grows and developing countries develop, they too want a taste of that meat. Meat production is soaring and sees no slow down in sight.
http://www.unep.org/pdf/UNEP-GEAS_OCT_2012.pdf
Overfishing, primary forest destruction, overconsumption, growing populations in developing countries, the cynical corporate trick of planned obsolescence, etc. It's the systemic plunder of the planet led globally by neoliberal capitalism that must be altered if climate change is to be averted. Capitalists (and people in general) around the world are more concerned with their bottom line than their impact of the planet. While it's good to hear Krugman's analysis that the carbon emission problem could be resolved without the economy screeching to a halt, it's but a large piece in the complex puzzle. His essay seems to overlook the larger picture.
@safari: Thanks. Your points are well-taken. What I imagine is a sort of reversal-of-fortunes, in which people in poorer-countries-grown-richer will demand more beef & other polluting foods, while -- increasingly -- "enlightened" (& I use the term loosely) people in developed countries will consider it a status system to eat only sustainable, low-polluting foods. The trend began in developed countries decades ago & is has become more widespread.
I would submit that it also would be "cheap" to reverse the overconsumption trend: it's a matter of getting people to change their habits & alter their perceptions of high-status behavior. Now where are the Koch Brothers of Foraging?
One more thing: Some U.S. products seem to me to have a longer shelf-life than they used to. When I was young, people -- even people who weren't at all wealthy -- would buy a new car every year. This wasn't just because of the status of owning the newest model; it was because, for instance, Ford really did stand for Fix Or Repair Daily. Now people regularly keep their cars for a decade. Subjectively, it seems to me that the design of the models (& I might be wrong) changes less over years. When I got rid of my 12-year-old car in 2008 (needless to say, I still have its replacement), it did not look particularly outdated. I did sell it because its planned obsolescence had started to kick in -- this & that just kept needing repairs.
(The reverse is true of electronics. A teevee, for instance, used to be a major investment, & when something went wrong, you called the repairman. Now, you can't get monitors repaired. I had a combo TV-computer monitor of which I was very fond, & when lightening zapped it, I tried to repair or replace it. No one -- including the factory -- would repair it, & the model was long out of production.)
Marie
To secede or not to secede.
I was halfway hoping that the secessionists in Scotland would win the day yesterday and break off from the UK. The idea was that a "yes" vote for separation might have encouraged the secessionist yahoos in this country who grow bug-eyed at the mention of guv'mint. Make that damned guv'mint.
Baggers from Texas to South Carolina have been waving the flag of secession, seemingly in earnest, since a certain dark-skinned gentleman entered the White House. Of course it has nothing to do with race, right? And the Civil War was simply an argument over states' rights. Enslaving human beings and forcing them into a life of hard (free) labor in order to improve the economy of those states had nothing to do with it.
But people in Scotland who voted "no" did so because they thought they'd be better off where they are. The arguments for seceding were pretty strong, but they did not carry the day. The arguments in red states in this country screaming about secession are not nearly as strong and tend to be of the inflammatory sort, heavy on wingnut ideology but low on factual understanding of exactly how well they could fare as independent states.
But they've all got plenty to say about it, that's for sure. Cliven Bundy even threatened to kill government agents if they set foot on his, er, I mean, on government land. Government land purchased with tax monies paid for by all of us but used by only one person, Cliven Bundy, who contributed not a dollar in compensation for use of that land. Mighty secessional of him, ain't it?
Now old Cliven has become the poster boy of those on the right who hanker for their FREEDOMS from the tyrannical guv'mint (and want to know more about "your basic negro"). But only at certain times are we able to see how they really feel about government.
Take Cliven himself. It appears that, recently, a number of his cows, who were not fenced in and obviously not being cared for, wandered out onto a highway where a car collided with one of them severely injuring the driver. Now that driver is suing Mr. Independent Let's All Secede Right the Fuck Now. And what does he do to show his manliness and his independence from the guv'mint?
Like all good wingnuts, he rejects any personal responsibility, because responsibility is only for lesser beings. And who does he come running to for help? The government, of course. He's trying to steer the responsibility from himself to the state government who, he claims, should be responsible for making sure HIS cattle are properly fenced in.
Way to go Cliven. How to show your rugged cowboy individualism and independence from the damned guv'mint.
But Cliven is only one of millions of red state moochers and takers. It's pretty well known that the worst takers, those states who get far more than they give, are all heavily Republican red states. Some of them get over three dollars for every dollar they give to the government, and still some of them wail about getting the government off their backs. It reminds me of a woman I once heard at a public hearing who was outraged that her tax dollars were being used to fill in potholes. "Why am I responsible for that?" she screamed. "The government should pay for that."
Ahh...yeah.
So whenever you hear talk of secession from red state haters, think of it as a chance to warm yourself. It's all hot air. Just wingnut fantasy preening and crazy talk. They would never have the ability, or the balls, to actually do it. Mooching has become a way of life. You'd have better luck prying a drunk away from the bottle.
You expected something different?
Oops, forgot the links.
This land, which is actually the government's belongs to me unless some kind of responsibility is needed, in which case I demand that them guv'mint fellers I threatened to shoot bail me out.
Top 10 Red State Moochers. And mooch they do.
Safari raises an excellent point about the environmental impacts of meat production. I recently watched a documentary investigating the cost of raising beef, both in its impact to the land and to global warming. I had no idea how bad it was.
The UNEP report Safari provides is an excellent one. This one, from Stanford, is a bit shorter but no less eye opening.
Just think of the environmental cost of that hamburger you had for lunch yesterday. You need land to graze the cattle. And you need fresh water and additional land to raise the feed, then processing plants to slaughter and prepare the meat. Runoffs containing antibiotics and pesticides from these steps pollute the water table.
According to the Stanford study, meat production accounts for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions. And that's just today. Meat production is expected to double by 2020, and with it, the emissions and additional consequences to the environment.
66% of arable land is currently used to grow feed for livestock. 8% is used to grow food for humans.
That salad's looking better all the time.
Marie,
Repair shops used to serve as an index of relative economic health of the country.
In a down economy, people would tend to hold on to appliances and repairable items; toasters, radios, etc, on the fritz would go to the repair shop. In good times, people would toss that busted toaster and get a new one.
Last week, I brought a four year old laptop to a repair shop for work. I was told the manufacturer didn't make certain parts anymore and wasn't supporting any repairs on this particular model number. Four years old. This isn't unusual, especially in the electronics market where latest, greatest, and newest often means forget trying to find parts for your previous latest and greatest doohickey. They ain't makin' 'em anymore.
I'll try fixing the thing myself. I just thought it would be easier, considering the time involved and the specialized tools. There are still off market places you can go to find certain parts, it's just that they don't make it easy to do it. And if you want it done, you'll probably have to do it yourself.
It used to be that people would take a car in for an oil change and new grease. Not anymore. Bearings are sealed now. Grease guns aren't even made anymore. Cars are being made better and they do last longer, but the idea of built-in obsolescence is still alive and well.
It also used to be, when I was a kid, that the label "Made in Japan" meant "Piece O' Shit". Now, that's just as often the case with "Made in America", that's if you can find anything actually made in America these days.
Here's some more backup on the Cliven Bundy story which @Akhilleus highlights. This, from Gary Legum of Wonkette, And this from the Las Vegas Review Journal. According to a spokesperson for the State of Nevada, "it is always the responsibility and liability of the owners to control their animals.” Bundy is now suing the driver of the car in which the woman who is suing Bundy was injured. The driver's offense? Killing Bundy's stray steer.
A lot of what passes for conservatism or libertarianism is your standard textbook-definition sociopathy.
Ha ha. Makes me think they'll be a'changin' the textbook definition of sociopathy in Texas.
Marie
I don't know, Marie. "Sociopathy" is a pretty big word for a Texas textbook.
Safari & CW: The Krugman piece is good as far as it goes. While it is true that there are many sources of greenhouse gasses, including all current refrigerants, warming is just one element of a much, much larger problem, which is driving the anthropocene mass extinction, already well underway. Perhaps the reason we are not already toast is that most of this overpopulated world cannot afford to pollute, except via their sewers, which are a major factor in aquatic and marine life declines. Never mind overfishing and destructive aquaculture. As economies grow, that will change. I commented to the PK piece that he understands exponentials well enough to know that growth of any kind is unsustainable, but for some reason NYTimes has blackballed my comments. From an earlier comment to this forum, the reason the Swiss can live so well at high density is that they can afford to import from the polluters. I have lived in even more dense Belgium, and ditto - and remember where they got their wealth. We continue to extract from the biosphere, without net replacement, at a relentlessly accelerating rate. One of the problems with PK and most liberal politicians, even our esteemed senators Franken and Klobuchar, is the use of the term "renewables" which conflates with biofuels, which they support, one of the most pernicious scams of the current era. Again, if we do nothing about the population exponent, we are whistling in the wind.
For any wanting to read a scientifically rigorous book on the fate of our small planet, without sentiment and well referenced, David Quammen's "The Song of the Dodo, Island biogeography in an age of extinction" is about the best and clearest treatment of the issue I have read.
Two more points: CW is the most valuable source of information on the web, bar none. And if we lose comments by Ak, I'll descend into serious withdraw.
Boy, do I understand built-in obsolescence? It was highly recommended that I get an extended warranty on my car (this was in the late 90's). I did. It wasn't cheap. I remember it being well over $2,500. Until the day, it just stopped on I-95. After limping to a gas station a few miles down the highway where it had to be flat-bedded to the dealer the next day. It turned out to be a major heat-pump something-or-other failure. It cost around $2,900 for the repair. Oh, yeah...my 'extended warranty' had expired about a week earlier. Talk about timing!
My current car just celebrated its 12th year! Yes, I think many of us are keeping our cars longer. Also, I understand you can now buy the 'new car smell' in a spray can!
Just finished reading Jonathan Chait over at NY magazine ( http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/09/have-republicans-finally-gone-too-far-in-kansas.html ) on Sam Brownback's wonderful experiment gone wrong. A lesson there for Democrats, but they're apparently not getting it!
And speaking of sociopathy, let's play a little word association. What do you think of when you read the following?
Right-wing propaganda, creationism, subpar, myths, racism, indoctrination, lies, promotion of unregulated capitalism, promotion of Christian theocracy, and finally, incoherence.
What's that you say? Did I hear someone say "public education in Texas"?
Yes! Give that person a confederate flag pin.
The indispensable Amanda Marcotte has more on the conspiracy afoot to fuck up beyond all recognition, public schools, not just in Texas, but your kid's as well.
Here, Ms. Marcotte reviews the reviewers, the 140 Texas "experts" redesigning the Texas public school curriculum:
"Being an actual expert in politics or history practically guaranteed you couldn’t get a slot, as “more than a dozen” Texas academics with expertise who applied got denied, while conservative “political activists and individuals without social studies degrees or teaching experience got places on the panels.” Only three of the 140 members of the panel are even current faculty members at Texas universities, but a pastor who used to own a car dealership somehow got a spot."
Because capitalism, I guess. And Jesus!
As soon as they're finished with incoherence, indoctrination, and lies, they'll get to redefining "sociopathy", probably to read: "Condition exhibited by anyone who disagrees with us. Typically liberals and open-minded secularists who are all, most certainly, going to hell."
Re Judge Fisty Fuller of Alabama, this morning's Tuscaloosa News had an article saying that Gov. Robert Bentley and the first lady recommend the judge resign because "he hasn't set a good example as a leader." (Sorry no link, too hard to do on these phone thingies.)
Also, the auto manufacturer I work for has a 7-year product design cycle for major platform changes, annual model-year changes are more cosmetic in nature, quality improvements are on-going continually. OEM spare parts must be available for a minimum of 15 years per suppliers' contractural obligations.
Oops, again - contractual.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/rift-widens-between-obama-us-military-over-strategy-to-fight-islamic-state/2014/09/18/ebdb422e-3f5c-11e4-b03f-de718edeb92f_story.html?wpisrc=nl-headlines&wpmm=1
The generals! always fighting the last war. In 1963, I was in the Infantry Officer Basic Course. Several of the instructors had just returned from advisor duty in Viet Nam, proudly wearing their freshly minted Combat Infantry Badges. LBJ had promised "No Americans in combat." Oh where did those badges come from? Now this President is promising the same thing, but the generals want to put American advisors on the ground. It started small in 1963, but spiraled out of control. 500,000 Americans were sent in before we knew it, including me.
Clemanceau allegedly said "War is too important to be left to the generals." So listen very carefully, Mr. President, but make your own decisions.
But look what Clemanceau did to eastern Europe politically! Pretty much led to WWII!
Barbarossa,
Talk about trying to fight the last war...-
Millions of British soldiers were killed or wounded in the Great War because inept generals believed they were with Wellington, fighting Napoleon. There are instances of cavalry charges, led by out of touch English officers, against withering machine gun fire, that made the Charge of the Light Brigade look like a morning stroll to pick up the Sunday Times.
Many of these jamokes came home to brandy, cigars, and a Victoria's Cross.
Their men? Not so much. That is, if they came home at all.
Gombasz,
Georges Clemenceau, during the negotiations at Versailles, at which he and Wilson and Lloyd George carved up much of the world, spitefully piled wood on the bonfire that would become WWII. When told that 20 million Germans were starving in the aftermath of the war (food was being blockaded by both the French and the English), sniffed that that was 20 million Germans too many.
To add to the interesting historical snafus of 1919, an 18 year old busboy working at the Ritz sent a message to the Big Three (Wilson, Lloyd George, and Clemenceau) and their inner circle, a kind of star chamber, begging that, while they were going about redrawing the world, could they please remove the French shackles binding their country.
They never responded.
The country was Vietnam. The busboy was Ho Chi Minh.
Are we creating the next Ho Chi Minh with our current desire for Shock and Awe?
Remember, as much as war criminal and murderer Henry Kissinger likes to portray himself as a Master of the Universe, and a past master of realpolitik, Ho Chi Minh kicked his ass. Hard.
@Marie: Your comment couldn't have been phrased better, "This is what the average voter thinks President Obama should be able to do. If, by some miracle he could perfectly secure the nation, millions of Americans would still oppose him because the weather sucks or their neighbors are jerks. If it turned out Obama was the second coming of Jesus, these people would choose to be "left behind." -- Constant Weader"
Which brings me back to the topic of how much we value this site. Speaking for myself, I would happily pay a fee to keep reading it. The thought that Marie has to support the outlays to keep it going (and of course the value of her time) troubles me.