I Fall to Pieces

In case you haven't noticed, my efforts here have become more and more abbreviated. I'm working under terrific time constraints, not much helped by the fact that my Internet connection is not. I hope that beginning about a week from now, I'll begin doing a better job. In the meantime, I'm having an awful time. My latest catastrophe is comical -- or at least I'll think so in retrospect -- but right now feels extremely consequential.

Meanwhile, the comments to Reality Chex have been a great help -- not just the links some of you have provided, which are much appreciated -- but the jokes!

Yesterday, a realtor came to my house. He noticed the chop saw on the porch & said, "Oh, I see you have someone helping you with the fixing-up." "No," sez I, "That's my chopsaw. I was installing baseboard in the dining room." Nonetheless, as a feminist, I must say that there are times it is essential to have a man around the house. Which I don't. I need a fella today.

Also, the people at McDonalds are signing Christian songs this morning. Lovely. Maybe we need some swell atheist hymns, so I could interrupt a la "Casablanca":

The Commentariat -- June 5, 2014

Internal links removed.

Michael Shear & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "White House officials failed Wednesday night to quell rising anger and frustration in both parties on Capitol Hill after a senators-only classified briefing about President Obama's decision to free five Taliban prisoners in return for the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who military officials say walked off his base in Afghanistan five years ago. Senior defense, diplomatic and intelligence officials showed lawmakers a 90-second, classified video of Mr. Bergdahl in January that officials said raised alarms about his health and spurred action, according to several members who attended. The video showed Mr. Bergdahl distraught, incoherent and in overall very poor shape, according to the descriptions of several senators." ...

... Guardian: The town of Hailey, Idaho, has cancelled its planned June 28 celebration of Bergdahl's release "amid allegations that Sgt Bowe Bergdahl had deserted his post and fears about the security implications of protesters and supporters who had promised to turn up." ...

... Bergdahl as Metaphor. Alex Berenson in a New York Times op-ed: "The White House clearly erred by pretending that Sergeant Bergdahl was an ordinary prisoner of war and that his return would be cause for unalloyed celebration. It should have brought him home as quietly as possible, with no fanfare. Now I don't see how the Pentagon can avoid re-examining what happened on June 30, 2009.... But the anger and confusion that his release has generated seems somehow fitting, a messy and inconclusive end to a war that went on far too long without a clear purpose after the rout of Al Qaeda." ...

... A Daily Kos contributor checks out the Way Back Machine & finds a boatload of winger commentary calling for the retrieval of Bowe Bergdahl & criticizing President Obama & Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel for not bringing him back "using all means available." Now the usual suspects are of course calling for Obama's head. It works like this: if Obama doesn't do X, it's a travesty & he's a weakling; if he does something -- IMPEACHMENT! Thanks to reader Bonita for this essential link. ...

The mission to bring our missing Soldiers home is one that will never end. It's important that we make every effort to bring this captured Soldier home to his family. -- Sen. Jim Inhofe, June 2013

Releasing dangerous terrorists from Guantanamo is all part of the President's focus as he looks to solidify his legacy in these last two years of office.... He is willing to compromise our national security and our military members in harms way to get one step closer to closing Guantanamo. -- Sen. Jim Inhofe, Time column, June 5, 2014

... Adam Weinstein of Gawker reproduces the "reassessmennts" of a parade of tweetin' hypocrites. Weinstein got his stuff from Matt Binder. ...

... Dana Milbank: Right Wing World's Office of Scandals & Conspiracies is working overtime to find the multitude of links between the Bergdahl & Benghazi "scandals." "Bergdahl and Benghazi both begin with the letter 'B,' and although Afghanistan is in Asia and Libya is in Africa, both continents begin with the letter 'A.'" ...

... IMPEACHMENT! Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned Wednesday that Republican lawmakers would call for President Obama's impeachment if he released more prisoners from Guantanamo Bay without congressional approval. Republicans worry Obama may try to shut down the prison camp unilaterally after congressional opposition has repeatedly stymied efforts to pass legislation to close it." ...

... Emily Bazelon of Slate: "Obama promised to close Guantánamo. Why is he releasing dangerous detainees and ignoring the rest?"...

... CW: Don't know what all the fuss is about. Gitmo is like a resort. Especially compared to Illinois.

Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post recounts the incredible Senate confirmation hearings testimony of Michael Boggs, one of President Obama's nominees to the federal bench. Read the whole column, including the last two grafs. CW: I don't think you'd buy a used car from this guy, much less expect him to conduct a fair trial.

Juergen Baetz & John-Thor Dahlburg of the AP: "Russian President Vladimir Putin was kept out of Wednesday's summit of world leaders but dominated the meeting as President Barack Obama and his counterparts from the G-7 group of major economies sought the Kremlin chief's renewed cooperation to end the Ukraine crisis."

"A Scandal in Search of a Victim." Michael Cohen, former Guardian columnist, in Yahoo! News: In his NBC interview last week, Edward Snowden "asked: If the U.S. government 'can't show a single individual who's been harmed in any way by this reporting, is it really so grave?' This was one of the interview's most unintentionally revealing moments because, while the agency's domestic data gathering raises serious privacy concerns, Snowden's question can be turned back on him. Can he point to a single American who's been harmed by the NSA's actions? One of the more striking takeaways from a year of stories about the NSA is that they have turned up no evidence to suggest that Americans' privacy rights are being systematically violated or that NSA-collected metadata is being used to target political enemies. None."

Annals of Journalism, Ctd.

** "Iraq Everlasting." Frank Rich on a novel by Michael Hastings titled The Last Magazine, to be published posthumously. Hastings -- and Rich -- skewer the so-called liberal journalist whose Iraq War boosterism included deriding the few prominent writers who opposed the war. Thanks to MAG for the link.

Michael Hastings has never served his country the way [Gen. Stanley] McChrystal has. -- Lara Logan of CBS "News"

We now know that Hastings served both his country and profession with more honor than Logan, who later maimed her own career and '60 Minutes' by perpetrating a Benghazi hoax. -- Frank Rich ...

... Hadas Gold of Politico: "Lara Logan is officially back to work at '60 Minutes' after a seven-month leave of absence, CBS News spokesperson Sonya McNair confirmed." ...

... Update: Charles Pierce reckons what with the Bergdahl & Benghazi "scandals" warming up, this is a mighty good time to put Logan back to work making up stuff. ...

... Driftglass sez "I Told You So."

Katie McDonough of Salon: "For all of his talk of giving feminists credit for their work, [New York Times abstinence columnist Ross] Douthat is not interested in having a serious conversation about misogyny or male sexual entitlement. The norms he clings to rest too heavily on both. He just dresses this position up with lots of appeals to good faith and the search for common ground. Because maybe if you say feminists are sometimes right about some things enough, no one will notice that you've spent the rest of your column making the exact opposite point."

More Fake Journalism. Joe Coscarelli of New York: MoDo's mojo tour guide warned her about edible weed. "'She got the warning,' Matt Brown told the Denver Post's Cannabist blog. 'She did what all the reporters did. She listened. She bought some samples -- I don't remember what exactly. Me and the owner of the dispensary we were at and the assistant manager and the budtender talked with her for 45 minutes at the shop.'"

A Little Bit of Americana. "Openly Racist" in New York -- and proud of it. With video.

Senate Races

If Mississippi did what the tea party claims they want ... we would become a Third World country, quickly. We depend on the federal government to help us build our highways. We depend on the federal government to fund our hospitals, our health-care system. We depend on the federal government to help us educate our students on every level.... [I was born in a hospital that] wasn't built by the taxpayers of Mississippi, it was built with federal money that was collected from taxpayers in New York and Chicago and L.A. and San Francisco. -- Rickey Cole, Mississippi Democratic party chair ...

... Gail Collins: "Voters dealt a stunning rebuke to their courtly Republican senator, Thad Cochran, who is famous for his ability to direct federal cash in Mississippi's direction.... Now he's headed for a messy runoff with a fiery state legislator who opened his campaign by announcing: 'For too long we've been addicted to federal monies.' ... Federal spending accounts for 46 percent of all the state's revenue: defense contracts, Social Security, farm aid, highway building, you name it.... One thing the Mississippi Republican establishment and the Tea Party seem to agree on is that you're not supposed to remind people that their state is way more dependent on Washington than the average food stamp recipient."

Joni Ernst, the Dirty Water Candidate. David Firestone of the New York Times: "Joni Ernst, the winner of the Iowa Senate Republican primary on Tuesday, has a briefcase full of the usual shopworn, hard-right policies.... But one of her positions ... demonstrates a particularly pernicious and little-known crusade of the modern Republican Party: she opposes the Clean Water Act. She called it one of the most damaging laws for business.... Iowa's waterways are notoriously dirty, the result of runoffs from vast livestock operations and crop fertilizer."

Presidential Race 2016

I know I have a decision to make. But part of what I've been thinking about, is everything I'm interested in and everything I enjoy doing -- and with the extra added joy of 'I'm about to become a grandmother,' I want to live in the moment. At the same time I am concerned about what I see happening in the country and in the world. -- Hillary Clinton, to People magazine ...

... AFP: Renowned feminist "Vladimir Putin waded into US politics Wednesday describing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- and possible 2016 presidential candidate -- as 'weak' in some sarcastic comments about women. 'But maybe weakness is not the worst quality for a woman,'" he said.

The Sporting News

Margaret Hartmann of New York: "On Wednesday [Donald Sterling], the racist Los Angeles Clippers owner, agreed to drop his lawsuit against the NBA and allow the team to be sold to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer for $2 billion. Sterling's attorney, Maxwell Blecher, said he 'has made an agreement with the NBA to resolve all their differences,' so it appears that Sterling will not be sued or fined $2.5 million by the league (though he's still banned for life).

News Ledes

New York Times: "The European Central Bank cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low on Thursday and, in an unprecedented attempt to stimulate the euro zone economy, said it would begin charging interest on deposits held by the bank. The so-called negative deposit rate has never been tried on such a large scale and is a bid to push down the value of the euro and encourage banks to invest excess cash rather than hoarding it in central bank vaults."

Washington Post: Chester "Nez, the last of 29 Navajo 'code talkers,' died Wednesday. He was 93."

New York Times: "The government [of Ireland] and the police are coming under increasing pressure to open an investigation into allegations that a Roman Catholic religious order secretly buried up to 796 babies and toddlers born to unmarried mothers in a septic tank over several decades. Speaking in the Irish Parliament on Wednesday, the minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Charlie Flanagan, called the discovery of what is described as an unmarked grave as 'deeply disturbing and a shocking reminder of a darker past in Ireland when our children were not cherished as they should have been.'"

The Commentariat -- June 4, 2014

Internal links removed.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama met on Wednesday for the first time with the newly elected president of Ukraine and pledged American support for efforts to stabilize a country.... Mr. Obama used the meeting to announce that the United States would increase nonlethal aid to Ukraine with $5 million worth of night-vision goggles, body armor and communications equipment sought by its security forces. He praised President-elect Petro O. Poroshenko, saying that Mr. Poroshenko 'understands the aspirations and hopes of the Ukrainian people' and represents a better future for his country."

Adam Goldman & Scott Wilson of the Washington Post report on the debate inside the Obama administration re: the retrieval of Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier held by the Taliban. ...

... Boehner Checks Off His Umbrage-Taking Chore of the Day. John Parkinson of ABC News: "House Speaker John Boehner called on the Obama administration today to clarify not only what steps it took to finalize the exchange of five Taliban detainees for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, but also 'what steps the president has taken to guarantee this exchange is not a signal that it is open season on our fellow citizens, both military and civilian personnel, serving our country abroad.'" ...

... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "The White House has apologized to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for failing to alert her in advance of a decision to release Taliban commanders from Guantanamo Bay. Feinstein told reporters that she received a call from Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken on Monday evening apologizing for what the administration is calling an 'oversight.'" ...

... Telegraph: "A video released through the Taliban's media arm appears to show the moment Bowe Bergdahl, the US soldier who spent five years in captivity, is released [no link]":

... Jake Tapper of CNN: "Former Army Sgt. Evan Buetow was the team leader with Bowe Bergdahl the night Bergdahl disappeared.... Within days of his disappearance, says Buetow, teams monitoring radio chatter and cell phone communications intercepted an alarming message: The American is in Yahya Khel (a village two miles away). He's looking for someone who speaks English so he can talk to the Taliban. 'I heard it straight from the interpreter's lips as he heard it over the radio,' said Buetow. 'There's a lot more to this story than a soldier walking away.'" ...

... CW: Gee, I was so impressed that our excellent media so quickly located so many of Bergdahl's former mates. To a man, they describe him as a deserter or traitor. So I guess it must be true. Or maybe, just maybe somebody is writing this plotline:

     ... Rosie Gray & Kate Nocera of BuzzFeed: "A former Bush administration official who was hired, then resigned, as Mitt Romney's foreign policy spokesman played a key role in publicizing critics of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the released prisoner of war. The involvement of Richard Grenell, who once served as a key aide to Bush-era U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton and later worked for Romney's 2012 campaign, comes as the Bergdahl release has turned into an increasingly vicious partisan issue." ...

     ... ** Adam Weinstein of Gawker has more. BTW, from a New York Times story that featured the soldiers' beefs: "Pentagon officials say those charges are unsubstantiated and are not supported by a review of a database of casualties in the Afghan war." ...

... Charlie Savage & Andrew Lehren of the New York Times: "... a review of casualty reports and contemporaneous military logs from the Afghanistan war shows that the facts surrounding the eight deaths [Bergdahl's critics are attributing to the search for him] are far murkier than definitive — even as critics of Sergeant Bergdahl contend that every American combat death in Paktika Province in the months after he disappeared, from July to September 2009, was his fault." ...

... Jack Shafer of Reuters: "... instead of facing an Army court-martial for allegedly deserting his post on June 30, 2009, Bergdahl finds himself facing a brisk public court-martial in the press.... The press ... has a responsibility to cover Bergdahl's alleged desertion and its fallout. But whatever Bergdahl's alleged transgressions, his guilt or innocence should be determined by the military, not the media. Bergdahl also deserves something better than being treated as a political pawn by the Republicans who have brought the full weight of their tongues down on President Barack Obama." ...

... Tom Kludt of TPM: "Conservatives Go From Zero To Impeachment In Record Time On Bergdahl." ...

... CW: This column, by Alan Gomez of USA Today, is appearing in local newspapers across the country under the headline "Is It Ever Right to Negotiate with Terrorists?" But in the local paper where I am today, the piece gets a banner headline that better matches the content: "U.S. Has Long Negotiated with Terrorists." ...

... Paul Waldman, in the Washington Post: "... even when they have a reasonable complaint about a decision President Obama has made, Republicans are so quick to jump on the train to Crazytown that they undermine their own legitimate arguments."

Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "The new director of the National Security Agency says he believes whistleblower Edward Snowden was 'probably not' working for a foreign intelligence agency, despite frequent speculation and assertion by the NSA's allies to the contrary. In one of his first public remarks since becoming NSA director in April, Admiral Michael Rogers, who also leads the military's cybersecurity and cyberattack command, distanced himself on Tuesday from contentions that Snowden is or has been a spy for Russia or another intelligence service." CW: Read the whole story. Rogers sounds like less of a dick than Keith Alexander, the previous NSA director. Admittedly, Alexander set a high standard of dickery.

** CW: Once again Akhilleus has surprised me with some essential information that had eluded me; this time it was the source of the Koch family fortune. (See yesterday's Comments.) Yasha Levine, writing in AlterNet, has the story (pub. April 2010): "The secretive oil billionaires of the Koch family ... would not have the means to bankroll their favorite causes had it not been for the pile of money the family made working for the Bolsheviks in the late 1920s and early 1930s, building refineries, training Communist engineers and laying down the foundation of Soviet oil infrastructure."

The NRA Is Very Sorry It Leaned Slightly toward Reasonable for a Few Seconds. (You might call it a misfire.) Sam Frizell of Time: "The National Rifle Association has walked back its apology for the actions of pro-gun activists who carry loaded assault weapons in public places to protest gun restrictions, with a top official calling a previous critique of so-called open carriers 'a mistake.'"

Tom Edsall: Some conservative writers oppose the Tea Party's tax-slashing obsession, but these "reformers" are not likely to prevail till Republicans begin losing their base of white workers.

MoDo in Wonderland. When in Denver, don't try the Alice B. Toklas brownies. Maureen Dowd experiences a terrifying high; others have been sickened -- or worse. ...

... John Cole of Balloon Juice thinks MoDo is stupid. She should have been out taking in the Colorado scenery instead of sitting alone in her hotel room with a candy bar that said, "Eat me." He has a point, but I can imagine many people -- perhaps myself included -- being equally as stupid. ...

... Margaret Hartman: MoDo lights up Twitter. Don't miss the tweets. Some reimagine the column as if Peggy Noonan wrote it.

Primary Races

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "There was no clear winner early Wednesday in the most hard-fought Republican Senate primary race this year, with the six-term incumbent Thad Cochran of Mississippi and his Tea Party-backed challenger, State Senator Chris McDaniel, running neck and neck after a night of lead changes.... In Iowa, state party officials were heartened by the victory of State Senator Joni Ernst. Winning support from both mainline Republicans and the party's more conservative voters, Ms. Ernst took more than 50 percent of the total against four opponents. She only needed 35 percent to avoid having the nomination settled at a state convention."

The Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger story, on the Cochran-McDaniel race, is here.

Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register on Joni Ernst's victory.

Senate Race

Noah Bierman & Todd Wallack of the Boston Globe (June 2): Scott Brown, candidate for U.S. Senate representing New Hampshire, & formerly (thanks to Elizabeth Warren) Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), received stock worth $1.3 million (at the time) from a Florida start-up which is a self-proclaimed firearms manufacturer -- but somehow sells hairspray instead. "Global Digital Solutions Inc. does not yet sell or make guns. It has no revenue, no patents, no trademarks, no manufacturing facilities, and no experience developing weapons, according to its most recent corporate filings.... It is the kind of company, with scant assets and a shifting business model, that some financial professionals warn investors to steer away from. The company, instead of selling firearms, has churned out press releases to attract small investors, including the one about Brown joining the firm, and issued millions of shares of stock to fund its operations." The company has a "virtual office" as a prestigious West Palm Beach address. You could get the same prestigious address, too, for $299/month. ...

... Bierman & Wallack: Brown defends his deal. "The report [linked above] prompted one of Brown's opponents in the GOP primary, Bob Smith, former US senator, to call on Brown to file a financial disclosure form with the US Senate. Last month, Brown obtained permission to delay filing his form until Aug. 9, one month before the Republican primary. Smith and [Sen. Jean] Shaheen [D] have filed their paperwork." ...

... Charles Pierce: "It seems that our old pal McDreamy, in the wake of getting his ass kicked into the Housatonic by Senator Professor Warren, was stuck for some pocket change, and engaged his big brain in a get-rich-quick scheme so shameless that it would have embarrassed Ralph Kramden." ...

... CW: Brown is like some stock cartoon naif -- a handsome, gullible buffoon who gets everything wrong in obvious, comical fashion, but the girls love him anyway because ... handsome. Maybe he's our Candide.

Presidential Race 2016

Whenever Hillary speaks (including remarks like "No comment"), somebody writes it down & it ends up on the front page or a magazine cover.

News Ledes

Guardian: "The US has said it is looking forward to working with the government of the Egyptian president-elect Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, while urging him to carry out human rights reforms. The US president, Barack Obama, will speak with the former army chief in the coming days, the White House said in a statement."

New York: "Initially, the NYPD just wanted V. Stiviano to go away, but apparently they now believe her claim that she was assaulted by two men on Sunday night. Dominick Diorio, a 40-year-old Long Island man, has been charged with assault as a hate crime and aggravated harassment for allegedly punching Stiviano in the face and shouting racial slurs outside the Gansevoort Hotel."