The Commentariat -- Feb. 23, 2015
Internal links removed.
** Paul Krugman: Education is the new Bowles-Simpson: "... whatever serious people may want to believe, soaring inequality isn't about education; it's about power." ...
... Lawrence Mishel, in a New York Times op-ed: "Contrary to conventional wisdom, wage stagnation is not a result of forces beyond our control. It is a result of a policy regime that has undercut the individual and collective bargaining power of most workers. Because wage stagnation was caused by policy, it can be reversed by policy, too." ...
... Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Robert Reich: "The rise of 'independent contractors' Is the most significant legal trend in the American workforce -- contributing directly to low pay, irregular hours, and job insecurity. What makes them 'independent contractors' is the mainly that the companies they work for say they are. So those companies don't have to pick up the costs of having full-time employees. But are they really 'independent'? Companies can manipulate their hours and expenses to make them seem so. It's become a race to the bottom." Thanks to Janicefor the link.
Juan Williams in the Hill: "After a terrible, bone-breaking accident and two eye surgeries, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the former Senate Majority Leader, is scheduled to be back on Capitol Hill this week. Somehow the bruised Reid looks good compared to the new Republican Majority Leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.). In just over a month, McConnell has come to look like the beaten man. He is on the brink of breaking his promise to avoid shutting down government agencies.... 'It's not a good start for the future,' Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) conceded. 'But hopefully we'll get it put together.'" ...
Rebecca Shabad of the Hill: "Lawmakers will begin returning to Washington on Monday with only five days left to prevent a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)." ...
... Here's Jeh Johnson Scaring Me Again. John Bacon & David Jackson of USA Today: "The secretary of Homeland Security warned shoppers at Minnesota's iconic Mall of America and similar venues to be vigilant in the wake of new terrorist threats. 'I'm not telling people to not go to the mall,' Secretary Jeh Johnson said Sunday on NBC's Meet The Press. 'I think that there needs to be an awareness.'... Hours later, department spokeswoman Marsha Catron said in a statement, 'We are not aware of any specific, credible plot against the Mall of America or any other domestic commercial shopping center.'" ...
... Really, Marsha? Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "The Mall of America has increased its security after a video online purported to show al Shabaab, a terrorist group associated with al Qaeda, threatening to attack the Minnesota mall, according to multiple news reports. The group called for an attack similar to the one it carried out in the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. According to USA Today, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are both aware of the threat." ...
... Oh, for Pete's Sake. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "The US homeland security secretary on Sunday seized on a new threat of attacks against western shopping centres by Islamist terrorists to pressure Congress to avert a partial shutdown of his department and agree to a funding deal. Jeh Johnson said a propaganda video released by al-Shabaab on Saturday calling for strikes on the Mall of America in Minnesota, Oxford Street and two Westfield malls in London, and Canada's West Edmonton Mall, showed 'all the more reason why I need a budget'."
Kevin Cirilli of the Hill: "President Obama is expected to speak to the AARP on Monday afternoon to discuss retirement-related issues, according to multiple sources familiar with the speech. Obama's remarks come as his administration has put new emphasis in recent weeks on considering regulations -- dubbed 'fiduciary standards' -- for the financial advice industry that are vehemently opposed by the business community. A senior House staffer and two financial services industry sources each said they expect Obama to discuss the new regulations, which administration officials are expected to move ahead with any day."
Reid Wilson of the Washington Post: "Governors of those 34 states, even the Republicans who oppose the Affordable Care Act, say they are concerned at the chaos that could ensue if the court rules the federal subsidies unconstitutional." Via Greg Sargent.
Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: Police are using cell-tower simulators, called Stingrays, to collects "information not just about a criminal suspect's communications but also about the communications of potentially hundreds of law-abiding citizens.... A gag order imposed by the FBI -- on grounds that discussing the device's operation would compromise its effectiveness -- has left judges, the public and criminal defendants in the dark on how the tool works.... So far, there is virtually no case law on how the Fourth Amendment -- which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures -- should apply to this technology."
Truth-Deniers. Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post: "Over the weekend, Greenpeace released a batch of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act that showed [aerospace engineer Willie] Soon received more than $1.2 million from Exxon Mobil, Southern Company, the American Petroleum Institute and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.... Conservatives denounced the weekend's revelations regarding Soon's funding. Blogs cited the reports as further evidence of a concerted campaign to silence scientists like Soon, who they say need to seek alternative avenues of funding thanks to the establishment.
Gail Collins interviewed Justice Ruth Ginsburg for the Times Sunday Review, & I missed it. Collin's column is delightful.
Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "Giuliani must have muted the sound whenever Obama spoke. He certainly has every right to his opinion about the tenor of the president's remarks. But he has no business claiming something that is so factually incorrect -- or easily disproved."
Jeff Toobin in the New Yorker: "... since [Rudy] Giuliani's disastrous run for the Republican Presidential nomination, in 2008, he has become a national embarrassment of a distinctive type.... At one level, one could see Giuliani's statements as simply incorrect.... But Giuliani's attacks on the President are not principally meant as assertions of fact. They are meant to tap into a deep wellspring of American political thought, one defined by the Columbia historian Richard Hofstadter five decades ago. In an article in Harper's, Hofstadter described 'the paranoid style in American politics,' which he said was characterized by 'heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy.'"
David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) on Sunday suggested that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) had increased the national security of the United States by saying that President Barack Obama did not love America.... [CNN's Gloria] Borger pointed out that Giuliani's comments went beyond national security policy. 'These remarks were hateful,' she observed.... Issa replied, '... Now, the reality is I believe the president believes strongly in America, I just think he views America differently."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
Heather of Crooks & Liars: "Brian Stelter spoke to former CBS correspondent Eric Engberg about his recent post questioning Bill O'Reilly's version of events on his reporting in Argentina":
... Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast: "On the friendly territory of Media Buzz — on which host [Howard] Kurtz framed the dispute over O'Reilly's claims as a matter of 'semantics,' not facts and exaggerations -- O'Reilly spent as much time attacking his critics as defending his assertions." CW: As a matter of semantics, I won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. And the Oscar for Best Song last night. (Some quibblers might say I only watched the acceptance speeches of the "real" winners.) ...
... Video of the Kurtz segment is here. Jessica Contrera of the Washington Post reports on it, if you don't care to watch. ...
... O'Reilly Never Played Well with Others. Terrence McCoy: CBS News could hardly wait to get rid of cub reporter Bill O'Reilly, whom the news organization kicked out of Buenos Aires for being a "'disruptive force' who threatened his bureau's morale and cohesion," according to Eric Engberg. "... retired CBS national editor Sam Roberts in a Facebook thread beneath Engberg's Facebook post.... 'Dan Rather walked into my office and shut the door," Roberts wrote. 'He said, "Under no circumstances is O'Reilly to be assigned any story for the Evening News."'" When O'Reilly's agent called Roberts a few weeks later, Roberts told the agent O'Reilly should take a local station job he had been offered. "He'll never make it here," Robert told the agent." ...
... MEANWHILE, the New York Times finally gets around to O'Reilly. CW: It looks as if reporter Emily Steel has produced a good piece to put in the portfolio she presents with her Fox "News" employment application.
Jim Romenesko: "Investigative reporter Ken Silverstein has resigned from First Look Media's The Intercept after 14 months, saying he and others were hired 'under what were essentially false pretenses [by being] told we would be given all the financial and other support we needed to do independent, important journalism, but instead found ourselves blocked at every step of the way by management's incompetence and bad faith.'" From Silverstein's Facebook page, Feb. 20: "You know what's cool about being a former employee of First Look/The Intercept? That Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Betsy Reed and Pierre Omidyar all believe in Free Speech and the First Amendment so they won't mind my writing about my time working for and with them. Tentative title: 'Welcome to the Slaughterhouse.'"
Presidential Race
James Hohmann of Politico: "... being seen as a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination is testing whether the 47-year-old [Scott] Walker is really ready for the klieg lights. Since saying 'I'm going to punt' when asked about evolution in London 10 days ago, operatives from rival campaigns have begun quietly raising doubts about his preparedness. He's also taken heat from establishment Republicans for meeting with Donald Trump...." ...
... Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: Scott Walker is "making an aggressive effort to win the hearts of the party’s Christian conservatives. In doing so, he is stressing a much harder line on social issues than he did just a few months ago, when he faced a robust challenge from a well-funded Democratic woman in his run for re-election as governor. The shift in emphasis and tone is noticeable not only on abortion, but also on same-sex marriage, another issue of intense interest to social conservatives." ...
... Steve Benen: Walker "won't say whether he accepts modern biology. He won't say whether Obama loves America. He won't say whether the Christian president is a Christian. He has a record of repeatedly dodging simple, straightforward questions, which most political leaders are able to answer effortlessly. It may be debatable whether these are good questions. It's not debatable that Walker has provided cringe-worthy answers.... In recent weeks, he's made a fine impression with radical elements of the Republican Party's base, but he's simultaneously making it clear to everyone else that when it comes to genuine leadership abilities, Scott Walker is obviously not ready for prime time." ...
... Robert Samuels of the Washington Post: "The anti-union law passed [in Wisconsin] four years ago, which made Gov. Scott Walker a national Republican star and a possible presidential candidate, has turned out to be even more transformative than many had predicted.... The once-thriving public-sector unions were not just shrunken -- they were crippled." (See also Paul Krugman's column & Lawrence Samuels' NYT op-ed, linked above.)
Fracking Man. Adam Smith & Alex Leary of the Tampa Bay Times: Jeb Bush suddenly started speaking about the joys of fracking right after he & his family made big investments in -- fracking. "The technology is not just a key part of his policy on energy and the economy, but foreign policy as well..... Bush's fracking investments are not the only time his private business life has overlapped with his public policy advocacy. His work as an education reformer coincided with his financial stake in Academic Partnerships, an online higher education company." Via David Atkins. ...
... Karen Tumulty & Alice Crites of the Washington Post: Columba Bush, Jeb's wife, likes to buy expensive jewelry. Also, she's a famous tax cheat. But we knew that.
News Lede
Guardian: "Stuart Gulliver, the HSBC chief executive who has vowed to reform the crisis-hit bank, sheltered millions of pounds in a Swiss account through a Panamanian company and remains tax domiciled in Hong Kong."