The Commentariat -- May 26, 2014

Internal links, obsolete video & related text removed.

E. J. Dionne on the history of Memorial Day. "As we honor our war dead, let us pause to consider how we are discharging our obligations to their legacy."

Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "President Obama arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday for an unannounced visit to mark ­Memorial Day with U.S. troops, now in the final months of America's longest war, and to begin final discussions over the size of the U.S. force that will remain beyond the end of the year."

Constant Weader: On this particular Memorial Day, I specially honor two veterans who died recently:

     My husband, Aldo Scaglione, who was a partisano -- an Italian citizen who fought on the side of the Allies. Since he was fighting his own government, Aldo was in danger all through the period of his service and had a least one close call. He & his fellow partisani liberated several villages near the end of the war; he said they were lucky the Germans were sick of fighting, as the partisani, armed with their crummy American rifles, were no match for German soldiers.

     My uncle, Frank Waterhouse, who flew 35 missions over France in 1944, including a flight on June 5 several flights before D-Day & a bombing mission on D-Day. Frank became a SAC test pilot after WWII & was also a helicopter pilot who (for a short time) held the world speed record for helicopters, a record he set while crossing the Amazon, ca. 1946.

     Please feel free to share your own remembrances.

Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: "Christopher [Martinez] died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the N.R.A. That's true. That the killer in question was in the grip of a mad, woman-hating ideology, or that he was also capable of stabbing someone to death with a knife, are peripheral issues to the central one of a gun culture that has struck the Martinez family and ruined their lives. (The shooter, Elliot Rodger, had three semi-automatic handguns that, according to the Los Angeles Times, he'd purchased legally.)... It would be nice if the President, who knows all this perfectly well, put aside his conciliatory manner and his search for consensus and just said it. Speak up, Mr. President! Speak plainly. Just say, 'Last night, I heard Chris's dad. He's right.'" ...

... Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "... signs of Rodger's troubles, which grew increasingly frequent in recent months, failed to trigger decisive action from his mental-health providers, his roommates, his longtime friends or sheriff's deputies, who had three separate encounters with him over the past 10 months." ...

... Amanda Hess of Slate: "Rodger's language is familiar to anyone who's spent time exploring the Pick-Up Artist or Men's Rights Activist communities.... Rodger was also allegedly a member of PUAHate.com, a website for men who feel they've been tricked by the Pick-Up Artist pyramid scheme, which takes men's money and promises to teach them how to have sex with women.... It is disturbing, if not surprising, that [these groups] are using these murders to reinforce their hatred of women and 'Beta' men, and to cement their own status at the top of the pyramid." ...

... Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "A website popular with the online Pick-up Artist community responded to Elliott Rodger's murderous Santa Barbara rampage, saying it could have been avoided if Rodger had 'game,' like they profess to possess, before concluding that 'more people will die' unless society provides men with more 'sexual options.'" ...

... Katie McDonough of Salon: "... this anger -- this toxic male entitlement -- isn't contained to random comment boards or the YouTube videos of disturbed young men. It's on full view elsewhere in our culture. Earlier this week, a writer for the New York Post quoted a member of a men's rights group as the sole source in a report on Jill Abramson's ouster at the New York Times.... These views about women and violence are replicated in our criminal justice system. They filter into our media. This is what makes Rodger's misogynistic vitriol so terrifying -- the fact that in many ways it's utterly banal."

Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "Hospital systems around the country have started scaling back financial assistance for lower- and middle-income people without health insurance, hoping to push them into signing up for coverage through the new online marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act."

Benjamin Weiser & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "A prominent hacker set to be sentenced in federal court this week for breaking into numerous computer systems worldwide has provided a trove of information to the authorities, allowing them to disrupt at least 300 cyberattacks on targets that included the United States military, Congress, the federal courts, NASA and private companies, according to a newly filed government court document. The hacker, Hector Xavier Monsegur, also helped the authorities dismantle a particularly aggressive cell of the hacking collective Anonymous, leading to the arrest of eight of its members in Europe and the United States.... The court document was prepared by prosecutors who are asking a judge, Loretta A. Preska, for leniency for Mr. Monsegur because of his 'extraordinary cooperation.'"

Paul Krugman: "... on the core issue of providing jobs for people who really should be working, at this point old Europe is beating us hands down despite social benefits and regulations that, according to free-market ideologues, should be hugely job-destroying.... The truth is that European-style welfare states have proved more resilient, more successful at job creation, than is allowed for in America's prevailing economic philosophy."

Joshua Schneyer, et al., of Reuters: "Efforts to stop oil trains are a new battle front for several major environmental groups that have campaigned to block the Keystone XL pipeline from bringing crude south from Canada's oil sands. With Keystone in limbo, U.S.-bound rail shipments of Canadian oil have risen 20-fold since 2011, the U.S. Congressional Research Service estimated."

South Carolina Slavery News. David Wren of the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Sun News: "Reginald Wayne Miller, the president of Cathedral Bible College, was arrested Thursday on accusations that he forces foreign students at his school to work long hours for low wages and then threatens to revoke their student visas if they complain or fail to comply with his demands." Via David of Crooks & Liars.

Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "The CIA's top officer in Kabul was exposed Saturday by the White House when his name was inadvertently included on a list provided to news organizations of senior U.S. officials participating in President Obama's surprise visit with U.S. troops. The White House recognized the mistake and quickly issued a revised list that did not include the individual.... The Post is withholding the name of the CIA officer at the request of Obama administration officials...."

David Herszenhorn & Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "The disruption of presidential balloting by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine justifies tougher American sanctions against the Kremlin, said Senator Kelly Ayotte, who along with other Republicans has sharply criticized the Obama administration's response to Russia's actions in Ukraine."

AFP: "In swiftly punishing Thailand's military for seizing power, the United States is looking beyond short-term interests as it braces for prolonged strife in its oldest Asian ally. Within hours after the army took control of Thailand on Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the coup as having "no justification" and urged the quick restoration of democracy and press freedom. The United States suspended $3.5 million in defense assistance, or about a third of its total aid to Thailand, and canceled ongoing military exercises with the kingdom -- a vital US ally for decades, including in the Vietnam War."

Senate Race

Scott Kaufman of the Raw Story: "Ben Sasse, who is widely expected to to win the seat being vacated by Sen. Mike Johanns in November..., believes that the 'government cannot force citizens to violate their religious beliefs under any circumstances' [and] authored a dissertation while at Yale documenting the number of times the government did just that -- and how the unintended consequences of doing so were key to mainstreaming conservative politics."

News Ledes

Fox 40 California: "A man opened fire on three women early Saturday after the women refused to have sex with him and his friends, according to the Stockton Police."

Washington Post: "A top Nigerian military official said Monday that the government knows the whereabouts of several hundred kidnapped girls but cannot reveal their location and cannot use force to rescue them, according to the Web site of the Ogun state television service."

Guardian: "The US secretary of state, John Kerry, said that Sunday's presidential elections in Ukraine sent a 'clear message' that the country's people want to 'live in a united, democratic and peaceful Ukraine anchored in European institutions'."

Washington Post: "Ukrainian billionaire Petro Poroshenko prepared to take over as Ukraine's leader Monday, vowing to end hostilities in the east with Moscow's cooperation, as pro-Russian separatists fought gun battles with Ukrainian forces at Donetsk's international airport." ...

     ... Reuters Update: "Ukraine launched air strikes and a paratrooper assault against pro-Russian rebels who seized an airport on Monday, even as its newly elected leader vowed to reassert control in the east and refused to negotiate with 'terrorists'." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "The new Ukrainian government struck the separatists in this eastern province with a major military offensive on Monday, battling them over an important provincial airport in ground fighting that lasted for hours. The rebels were left scattered and shaken, just one day after a successful national election they had tried to disrupt."

The Commentariat -- May 25, 2014

Internal links removed.

Tim Noah of NBC News: "... there's no reason to believe veterans' wait times to see a VA doctor exceed, on average and to any significant degree, non-veterans' wait times to see a private-sector doctor. Inadequate access to health care is a VA problem. But it's a national problem, too."

Two Salon columnist, Andrew O'Hehir here & Elias Isquith here, take Glenn Greenwald's side against Michael Kinsley & George Packer who critique Greenwald's book (and personality).

Has Cake, Eats It, Too. AP: "Robert Gates, the new president of the Boy Scouts of America, said Friday that he would have moved last year to allow openly gay adults in the organization but said he opposes any further attempts to address the policy now.... 'I would have supported having gay Scoutmasters, but at the same time, I fully accept the decision that was democratically arrived at by 1,500 volunteers from across the entire country.'"

Jodi Rudoren of the New York Times: "Pope Francis called 'urgently' on Saturday for a 'peaceful solution' to the Syrian crisis and a 'just solution' to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as he started a three-day sojourn through the Holy Land at a time of regional turmoil and tension."

Eric Lach of TPM: "The creationist Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky. plans to unveil a new attraction this weekend: a world-class Allosaurus skeleton. But unlike other museums, where dinosaur skeletons are used to 'indoctrinate our kids with belief in evolution,' according to the institution, the Creation Museum's skeleton will serve as 'a testament to the truths found in God's Word.'" Via Steve Benen.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Pope Francis inserted himself directly into the collapsed Middle East peace process on Sunday, issuing an invitation to host the Israeli and Palestinian presidents for a prayer summit at his apartment in the Vatican, in an overture that has again underscored the broad ambitions of his papacy."

New York Times: "With their country caught in a fierce tug-of-war between Russia and the West over a new security order, Ukrainians elected Petro O. Poroshenko as president on Sunday, turning to a pro-European billionaire to lead them out of six months of wrenching turmoil, including a continuing separatist insurrection in the east."

Los Angeles Times: "Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department officials Sunday identified the first three victims of the Isla Vista rampage, each found fatally stabbed Friday night inside an apartment not far from the UC Santa Barbara campus. Now, all the attacker's victims have been identified, and they were all UCSB students." The Times currently has several related stories on its front page.

AFP: "Afghan President Hamid Karzai was offered a meeting with President Barack Obama at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul but declined, a US official said Sunday."

The Commentariat -- May 24, 2014

Internal links, obsolete audio & related text removed.

White House: "In the State Dining Room of the White House, President Obama nominates San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro as the next HUD Secretary, and current HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan as the next OMB Director":

... Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "Since becoming mayor [of San Antonio, Texas,] in 2009, [Julián] Castro, 39, has championed urban renewal and steered San Antonio through a kind of renaissance that has built new housing in areas once ignored by developers and made the city hipper and more expensive.... If he receives Senate confirmation, Mr. Castro, whose twin brother, Joaquin, is a Democratic congressman representing San Antonio, apparently would become the first housing secretary in the 48-year history of the position whose parents lived and worked in public housing projects." ...

... Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post on why President Obama is moving Shaun Donovan to OMB: "As Obama looks to his final two years -- a period in which he is not likely to have a compliant Congress -- he will need to increasingly rely on executive actions that stretch the limits of his authority. He'll probably want to push in more liberal directions on issues like climate change, immigration, civil rights, poverty and the economy. With Donovan at OMB, Obama is likely to have someone who is willing to be a partner in such efforts at a time when the administration is losing those most adept at formulating executive actions."

Your Holiday Maths Problem (Because Everyone Likes to Spend a Three-Day Weekend Doing Macro-Maths). Chris Giles of the Financial Times: "The data underpinning Professor [Thomas] Piketty's 577-page tome, which has dominated best-seller lists in recent weeks, contain a series of errors that skew his findings. The FT found mistakes and unexplained entries in his spreadsheets, similar to those which last year undermined the work on public debt and growth of Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff. The central theme of Prof Piketty's work is that wealth inequalities are heading back up to levels last seen before the first world war. The investigation undercuts this claim, indicating there is little evidence in Prof Piketty's original sources to bear out the thesis that an increasing share of total wealth is held by the richest few." ...

... Neil Irwin, now of the New York Times, links to Piketty's response to the Financial Times. in a rundown of the controversy Giles created. (Unless you're signed with the FT, their stories are usually impossible to access.) ...

... Matt O'Brien of the Washington Post: "... this doesn't seem to be a Reinhart and Rogoff situation. Their Excel errors really did change their conclusions. Piketty's don't. Unless, like Giles, you average inequality by population instead of by country -- which is debatable, at best, since Piketty is only concerned about inequality within countries." ...

... Paul Krugman: "Giles finds a few clear errors, although they don’t seem to matter much; more important, he questions some of the assumptions and imputations Piketty uses to deal with gaps in the data and the way he switches sources.... The fact that Giles [argues that Piketty's whole thesis is wrong] is a strong indicator that he himself is doing something wrong.... None of this absolves Piketty from the need to respond to each of the individual questions. But anyone imagining that the whole notion of rising wealth inequality has been refuted is almost surely going to be disappointed.None of this absolves Piketty from the need to respond to each of the individual questions. But anyone imagining that the whole notion of rising wealth inequality has been refuted is almost surely going to be disappointed."

Matthew McKnight of the New Yorker: "On Thursday, the Senate confirmed David Barron to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. As a lawyer in the Justice Department, Barron wrote the memo that gave President Obama the authority to use drones to kill terrorist suspects, including those who are American citizens.

Gail Collins: Senate Republicans block popular bipartisan legislation -- that they love! -- because that mean Harry Reid won't let them tack on partisan amendments that have nothing to do with the bill under consideration.

** In a New York Times op-ed, Dr. Sam Foote explains why he blew the whistle on VA appointment waiting times. He offers a list of reforms that would alleviate the problem.

CW: I was surprised by Akhilleus's assertion in yesterday's Comments that "In Detroit, the Kochs are working to torpedo a bankruptcy settlement that would allow municipal workers to retain some of their retirement, it would also help the city stay afloat, but neither positive outcome fits with the Koch schemes." Well, it's true. AP: "Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group supported by the Koch brothers, has launched an effort to torpedo a proposed settlement in the Detroit bankruptcy case, potentially complicating chances for completing the deal just as its prospects seemed to be improving." ...

... David Firestone of the New York Times: "The Koch brothers, through the screeching megaphone they built known as Americans for Prosperity, condemned the [bankruptcy settlement] deal and announced plans to contact 90,000 conservatives around the state to build up pressure against it. The Associated Press reported that the group threatened to run ads against any Republicans in the legislature who voted for the deal in the coming days." ...

... Ben Snyder of Grist takes a stab at explaining the Koch boys' interest in further undermining a major American city: "Functioning cities -- like everything else the Kochs oppose, such as environmental protection and social justice -- require functioning governments. If your goal is to undermine government and collective action for the public good, then naturally you'd oppose saving Detroit. Cities are more energy-efficient than suburbs. If, like Koch industries, you make much of your money refining oil and investing in the Canadian tar sands, then it makes sense that you would favor suburban sprawl.... The right-wing hatred of cities -- whether it's for their racial and ethnic diversity, their culture of tolerance, or the way that density inspires liberal attitudes toward the common good -- is long established.... Hypocrisy doesn't much concern Koch. As The New York Times recently reported, when [David] Koch ran for vice president as a Libertarian in 1980, he was living in a rent-stabilized apartment" in Manhattan. ...

... Charles Pierce: The Koch brothers "want it all, and their [sic.] damn close to getting it, and that's why Harry Reid is right for belting them around the way he is. Civility, or the Beltway equivalent thereof, is very much beside the point."

Jeff Bezos, Mafia Boss. David Streitfeld & Melissa Eddy of the New York Times: "Amazon's power over the publishing and bookselling industries is unrivaled in the modern era. Now it has started wielding its might in a more brazen way than ever before. Seeking ever-higher payments from publishers to bolster its anemic bottom line, Amazon is holding books and authors hostage on two continents by delaying shipments and raising prices. The literary community is fearful and outraged -- and practically begging for government intervention. 'How is this not extortion? You know, the thing that is illegal when the Mafia does it,' asked Dennis Loy Johnson of Melville House, echoing remarks being made across social media."

Adam Nossiter of the New York Times: "There is a view among diplomats [in Nigeria] and with their governments at home that the [Nigerian] military is so poorly trained and armed, and so riddled with corruption, that not only is it incapable of finding the girls, it is also losing the broader fight against Boko Haram. The group has effective control of much of the northeast of the country, as troops withdraw from vulnerable targets to avoid a fight and stay out of the group’s way, even as the militants slaughter civilians.

Annals of Journalism, Ctd.

Two Jerks Call Each Other Jerks. Glenn Greenwald responds to Michael Kinsley's NYT critique of Greenwald's NSA/Snowden book. Also, not just Kinsley, but most American journalists are pawns of the U.S. government. That would include George Packer of the New Yorker, Jonathan Chait of New York & -- Greggers (CW: who arguably is not a journalist at all). ...

... Here's Packer's review, published in the British magazine Prospect. He accuses Greenwald of "a pervasive absence of intellectual integrity" and provides examples.

Senate Race

Sam Hall of the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger connects the dots between Senate hopeful Chris McDaniel & the three men arrested in connection with videotaping Sen. Thad Cochran's (R-Miss.) extremely ill wife.

Darren Nichols & Christine Ferretti of the Detroit News: "A federal judge threw U.S. Rep. John Conyers a political lifeline Friday, ordering the Detroit Democrat onto the Aug. 5 primary ballot because his lawsuit to overturn a Michigan election law is likely to succeed." Local & state officials had ruled many of the qualifying signatures gathered by Conyers' staff invalid because the signature gatherers were not registered Michigan voters.

Marie's Sports Roundup

Tami Abdollah of the AP: "Donald Sterling is turning his ownership stake in the Los Angeles Clippers over to his estranged wife [Shelly], and she is in talks with the NBA to sell the team, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday." ...

... CW: Great! Shelly Sterling will be a model NBA owner, a paragon of probity -- just as she is a model slum landlady. Kevin Armstrong of the New York Daily News (April 30): "Shelly Sterling -- who distanced herself from her spouse’s hate speech in a statement on Monday -- was accused in a 2009 deposition related to a federal discrimination lawsuit against the Sterlings of saying that Latinos were 'filthy' and that she had called one of her husband's tenants a 'black motherf-----.'" ...

     ... Update: According to ESPN, Shelly Sterling isn't planning to remain owner for long. Ramona Shelburne of ESPN: "Disgraced Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has agreed to allow his wife, Shelly, to negotiate a sale of the team, sources with knowledge of the situation told ESPN. Shelly Sterling and her lawyers have been negotiating with the NBA since commissioner Adam Silver banned her husband from the NBA for life on April 29 for making racially charged comments on an audiotape."

News Ledes

Life & Death in the U.S.A.: Los Angeles Times: "A law enforcement source told The Times that Elliot Rodger is the suspected gunman responsible for a shooting rampage in the Isla Vista neighborhood near UC Santa Barbara that left seven people dead, including Rodger. Santa Barbara County sheriff's officials, who have not identified the man suspected of shooting and running people down with his BMW, said they believe the rampage was premeditated. They have said they are looking at a video titled 'Elliot Rodger's Retribution' in which a young man who identifies himself on his blog as a student in Santa Barbara threatens violence." ...

     ... AP Update: "A Hollywood director believes his son was the lone gunman who went on a shooting rampage near the University of California, Santa Barbara that killed six people -- weeks after the family had called police about disturbing YouTube videos he had posted, his lawyer said Saturday.... Alan Shifman -- a lawyer who represents Peter Rodger, one of the assistant directors on 'The Hunger Games'. -- issued a statement on behalf of the family saying they believe Rodger's son, Elliot Rodger, was the shooter."

AND in Belgium. BBC News: "A gunman has shot dead two men and a woman at the Jewish Museum in the Belgian capital Brussels. A fourth person was seriously wounded, emergency services said. The attacker arrived by car, got out, fired on people at the museum entrance, and returned to the vehicle which then sped away, Belgian media report."

Streaking Obama. Washington Post: "A man walked up to a White House entrance on Pennsylvania Avenue on Friday afternoon, stripped naked and assaulted an officer who tried to subdue him, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service."