Monday
Apr112016
The Commentariat -- April 12, 2016
Afternoon Update:
I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected. -- William T. Sherman, 1884
Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "In an attempt to silence those who keep insisting he should be the next Republican nominee for president, Speaker Paul D. Ryan will hold an unusually formal news conference Tuesday afternoon to once again rule out his candidacy...." -- CW
... New Lede: "After a month of speculation and pleas ranging from the comic to the mildly desperate, Speaker Paul D. Ryan held an unusually formal news conference Tuesday afternoon to rule out once and for all, he said, his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president. 'Let me be clear,' Mr. Ryan said. 'I do not want nor will I accept the nomination of our party.' He added that he had a message for convention delegates: 'If no candidate has the majority on the first ballot, I believe you should only turn to a person who has participated in the primary. Count me out.'"
David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, played host to Judge Merrick B. Garland, President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, in the Senate dining room on Tuesday morning. Yogurt parfait was not the point. But what was [the point]?"
Trudy Ring of Out: "The Vatican is replacing its controversial ambassador to the U.S., who arranged the meeting between Pope Francis and antigay Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis last fall. Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò will leave the position of apostolic nuncio, the equivalent of an ambassador, and will be replaced by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, a French-born clergyman who is currently the nuncio to Mexico, Catholic magazine America reports, citing Sandro Magister, a blogger who covers the Vatican." CW: Another of Francis's not-so-subtle, but diplomatically unspoken, messages.
*****
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Nathaniel Popper of the New York Times: "Goldman Sachs has completed a $5.1 billion settlement with state and federal officials over the bank's role in the subprime mortgage crisis. Goldman is the last of the big American banks to reach a settlement with the national working group that was set up in 2012 to investigate how Wall Street exacerbated the mortgage bubble and ensuing financial crisis. Goldman said in January that it had put aside money to cover a $5 billion settlement." -- CW ...
Why is this man smiling?Capitalism Is More Awesomer. Tax Breaks for the Rich & Infamous. Nathaniel Popper: "State and federal officials said on Monday that Goldman Sachs would pay $5.1 billion to settle accusations of wrongdoing before the financial crisis. But that is just on paper. Buried in the fine print are provisions that allow Goldman to pay hundreds of millions of dollars less -- perhaps as much as $1 billion less -- than that headline figure. And that is before the tax benefits of the deal are included. The bank will be able to reduce its bill substantially through a combination of government incentives and tax credits." ...
... CW: Tax incentives???? Is that like time off for bad behavior? What's my tax incentive for paying off my traffic ticket? Oh, nothing. But Goldman structures a billion bucks in breaks into its fine. Unbelievable. I'd say Goldman's CEO is really Lloyd BlankFine. Hell, maybe the DOJ really believed Lloyd was doing God's work when he scammed investors, put people out of th streets & upended the world's economy. Drumpf of the Good Brain could learn a thing from Lloyd. And let's not forget Lloyd is Too Big to Jail. ...
... Alan Pyke of Think Progress: Goldman "will be able to write off $1.8 billion worth of consumer relief actions that Goldman must take under the settlement.... The same goes for $875 million in payments to settle related cases brought by [state attorneys general].... Less than half of the total sticker price -- $2.385 billion -- is structured as a civil penalty, which is generally not deductible. The settlement papers do prohibit Goldman from seeking FDIC reimbursement for any of the deal's costs, but that language does not rule out simple deductions." -- CW
Brian Rosenthal of the Houston Chronicle: "Federal regulators on Monday sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for allegedly committing securities fraud, the same charge he is fighting in a state criminal court. The civil lawsuit, filed Monday in an East Texas federal court by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, alleges that Paxton raised nearly $1 million for a Collin County technology startup without disclosing to the investors that he was being compensated to promote the company.... A Paxton lawyer indicated the attorney general would not be settling." -- CW
Mary Troyan of the Tennessean: "The U.S. Senate voted Monday to confirm Nashville attorney Waverly Crenshaw Jr. to a U.S. district court judgeship in Tennessee's Middle District. The 92-0 vote followed a smooth but slow confirmation process for Crenshaw, who becomes the second African-American federal judge on active status in Tennessee. President Obama nominated Crenshaw 14 months ago...." -- CW
Gregory Korte of USA Today: "Public health officials used their strongest language to date in warning about a Zika outbreak in the United States, as the Obama administration lobbied Congress for $1.9 billion to combat the mosquito-borne virus. 'Most of what we've learned is not reassuring,' said Dr. Anne Schuchat ... of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 'Everything we look at with this virus seems to be a bit scarier than we initially thought.'" -- CW
...Natalie Morin of Healthgrove: 50 American Cities Most at Risk of Zika Virus - top three: Miami, Orlando, Tampa -- LT
Peter Overby of NPR: "Police needed most of Monday afternoon to arrest all of the sit-down protesters outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington at a demonstration in favor of changing the rules on political money voting rights and redistricting. More than 600 turned out for the protest, and more than 400 were arrested in the sit-in at the Capitol steps, U.S. Capitol Police reported. The nonviolent protest was led by Democracy Spring, a coalition of more than 100 progressive groups. The protest was cheery and peaceful." -- CW
Black & White & Shades of Gray. Jamelle Bouie takes a nuanced look at the anti-crime law that caused Bill Clinton to wrangle with protesters last week. "... in the 1994 crime bill we have a complicated story of fear, racism, good intentions, and cynical political maneuvering." -- CW
Aaron Schock's Capitol Hill office.Jake Sherman & Anna Palmer of Politico: "Four House financial staffers were subpoenaed to testify in front of a grand jury in the central district of Illinois, the same court where former Rep. Aaron Schock is the subject of a closed-door probe.... [The House has not acknowledged that the staffers] were subpoenaed to testify about Schock, but the former Illinois congressman has long been the subject of grand jury hearings in the central district of Illinois in Springfield." -- CW
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Charles Pierce: "Andrew Sullivan has ... resurrected himself because Democracy Demands It. Anyway, he was on with Chris Matthews the other night and, prior to calling Ta-Nehisi Coates a Marxist, he was trembling in his boots over the campaign of He, Trump and he cited Ted Cruz as a marginally acceptable alternative because the Tailgunner is 'a man of the Constitution.' So much so that, had the Tailgunner had his way with the document, Andrew couldn't get married and any hotel owner in America could refuse him service because Jesus, that's why. Please, God, save the old charter from its friends." ...
... CW Note: Sullivan is coming to (or is already there; I don't know) New York magazine, so there will be one part of the magazine's online edition which I can skip.
Juan Cole in his blog, Informed Comment: "Congress passed the Hate Crime Statistics Act in 1990 (...) I thought it might be useful to compare the year 2000, Bill Clinton's last in office, with 2013 and with 2014, the last two for which statistics are available, to see how the nation has changed. Unsurprisingly, there has been an eight-fold increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes during these 14 years." --safari
Presidential Race
Nick Gass & Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Hillary Clinton on Monday hit Bernie Sanders on immigration, she hit him on guns, and she claimed that there's a 'growing level of anxiety' in the Vermont senator's not-quite-so-longshot campaign for the White House. Sanders' ... chief aide doubled down on attacks on Clinton's fitness to be president, saying she's experienced 'on paper' but suggesting that might not be enough. And Sanders himself went after Clinton's environmental record, an especially sore point for her. The Democratic race has taken a turn for the nasty as Clinton and Sanders explore their newfound aggressiveness, each suddenly willing to get personal...." -- CW ...
... Glenn Blain, et al., of the New York Daily News: "Goldman Sachs just handed Bernie Sanders $5 billion reasons to keep pushing rival Hillary Clinton for transcripts of her paid Wall Street speeches. The Vermont senator -- accusing Goldman Sachs of 'fraud' -- jumped on Monday's announcement that the banking giant will pay out $5 billion in a massive settlement of its deceptive mortgage practices. Sanders, speaking at an Albany rally..., noted that Clinton gave three speeches to Goldman Sachs in recent years. But she won't share with the public what she said at the private gatherings, Sanders stressed." -- CW
New York Daily News: "While speaking with the New York Daily News editorial board, Hillary Clinton checked off several areas in which she agreed with and applauded President Obama. However at the end of the interview she made a point of raising a topic that had not been asked about. She stated her view that the Obama administration should grant the $90 million in anti-terror funding for New York that various politicians in the state have been asking for." A transcript of the full interview, which took place April 9, is here. -- CW ...
... CW: Yes, Hillary, because what New Yorkers need is NYPD officers parading around in riot gear & policing "Muslim neighborhoods" to check for terroristy-looking people.
What Were They Thinking? Ashley Feinberg of Gawker: "Coming off her husband's hard to watch exchange with Black Lives Matters protestors last week, you'd think Hillary Clinton would be extra sensitive to anything that could even potentially paint her as racist right now. Which makes her and Bill de Blasio's ill-advised joke about 'C.P. time' or 'colored people time' at a dinner this week all the more bizarre." -- CW ...
... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "... a comedy routine between Hillary Clinton and Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York managed to cause a storm of controversy over a racially charged joke":
Greg Sargent: "Hillary Clinton’s secret weapon against Bernie Sanders: Democratic voters." New York state & a number of other states will hold "closed primaries"; that is, where party crossovers or independents are not permitted to vote. Since many of Sanders' voters have been independents, while more of Clinton's core supporters are registered Democrats, Clinton has an advantage in these states which Sanders may not be able to overcome. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Dana Milbank: "This could be the first time in 160 years when a major American political party splits, and [Reince] Priebus, the young technocrat from Wisconsin brought in to improve the Republicans' infrastructure, is in over his head.... There is no good option for Priebus now, except perhaps to resign if [Donald] Trump secures the party nomination.... History is unlikely to remember kindly a Republican chairman who turned the party of Lincoln over to a populist demagogue or to an ideologue loathed even by Republican colleagues." -- CW
Matea Gold & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "The already freewheeling Republican presidential contest is fast turning into a personal persuasion game as the candidates pursue no-holds-barred efforts to lock up delegates -- and there are relatively few limits on how far they can go.... State and federal anti-bribery laws would probably forbid delegates to sell their votes outright, although it is unclear how those statutes apply to those who are private citizens rather than elected officials." -- CW
Ari Melber of NBC News: "Donald Trump blasted the GOP's delegate rules Sunday, saying a 'corrupt' system is denying him delegates in states he won. According to a new NBC analysis, however, Trump has benefited far more than Ted Cruz under the party's arcane rules for allocating delegates. Trump now leads the Republican field with 756 delegates -- or 45 percent of all delegates awarded to date. Yet he has won about 37 percent of all votes in the primaries, according to the NBC analysis, meaning Trump's delegate support is greater than his actual support from voters." -- CW
More Trumpertantrumps. John Santucci & Candace Smith of ABC News: “Speaking to a crowd of thousands, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump slammed the presidential primary process.... He invoked the Louisiana GOP primary, in which Trump won the popular vote but tied with rival Sen. Ted Cruz for delegates. 'I end up winning Louisiana and then when everything is done I find out I get less delegates than this guy that got his a[ss] kicked, OK? Give me a break. Really disgust[s] me. So it's a very sick system,' he said. Trump got 41.4 percent of the popular vote, while Cruz garnered 37.8 percent.... Trump continued his tirade by invoking another state in which he lost a delegate battle; Colorado. Cruz got all 34 delegates in that state without a popular vote, although delegates themselves were voted on.... 'If I go to the voters of Colorado, we win Colorado so it's a crooked, crooked system,' he said." -- CW
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Angry Donald Trump supporters have been giving an earful to Colorado Republican party chair Steve House after Ted Cruz shut out Trump in last week's delegate selection convention. -- CW
Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Republican Sen. Cory Gardner [Colo.] says Donald Trump has a 'diminishing future' after his loss to Ted Cruz in Wisconsin's primary last week.... Gardner said Trump's recent losses were not the result of some conspiracy, but rather voters were turning against him." -- CW
Trump's Kids Won't Be Voting for Him. Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "... Ivanka Trump missed the deadline to register to vote for her dad in New York. Ivanka's failure to follow New York's non-complicated voter registration rules to change her affiliation from independent to Republican (to vote in the closed primary) is remarkable, given that she's been the public face of her father's get-out-the-vote efforts. She made nearly half a dozen campaign videos on the importance of registering to vote... Her brother Eric also forgot to register." CW: So I guess Donald didn't force the heirs to take that Hitler-y pledge. Oops, I see Akhilleus covered this yesterday.
Donald Trump goes on Fox "News" teevee show. Finds host more racist than he is. Well, It's Bill O'Reilly. What did you expect? -- CW ...
But how are you going to get jobs for them? Many of them are ill-educated and have tattoos on their foreheads. -- Bill O'Reilly, on black job-seekers
Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "Meet the Trump bros: White, affluent frat guys who think they're a persecuted minority." -- CW
Nick Gass of Politico: "Larry Flynt, whose Hustler studio in 2008 brought the world the political pornographic satire 'Who's Nailin' Paylin,' announced Monday that Donald Trump will be the subject of his latest porn parody video, titled simply 'The Donald.'... All Republican members of Congress will receive a free copy, Flynt said in the press release, and it goes on sale to the public on Tuesday." -- CW
Alvin Chang of Vox: "We expect conservative presidential candidates to propose tax cuts, which in turn means less spending.... Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have plans that give massive tax cuts, but if you do the math, you realize their plans are quite irresponsible." A creative illustration of their unrealistic ideas. -- LT
Jonathan Chait: "Paul Ryan's shadow campaign for the presidency is well under way, and the visible portion peeking above the surface... Ryan has gone to enormous lengths to demonstrate to the national media that he truly and deeply loves poor people.... But however Ryan feels about poor people in his heart, the boundaries of his policy commitments lead inescapably to the result that he is going to massively reduce the amount of money the government spends on helping poor people. If Ryan didn't share these priorities, he wouldn't be the leader of the Republican Party, and insiders would be casting their eyes somewhere else for an alternative to Trump and Cruz." ...
... BUT: Steve M. is beginning to think Ryan isn't running for president: "The Ryan pseudo-campaign really might be the GOP establishment's way of running a third-party campaign without actually putting another presidential candidate on the ballot.... The marketing of Ryan is an upward stretch for the Republican brand, an attempt to regain sophisticated customers. Ryan is the ideal embodiment of this campaign, because the non-right-wing press loves him and will happily sell him to middle-of-the-road voters." -- CW ...
... Paul Waldman agrees with Steve. Ryan is running for the 2020 nomination: "... the best outcome for Ryan is as follows. He turns away all the entreaties, remaining noble and above the fray. Then the party, led by Trump or Cruz (or maybe even someone else) goes down to a crushing defeat in the fall. Even if that happens, Republicans will probably hold on to the House, making Ryan the most important Republican in the country for the next four years, leading the charge against yet another President Clinton." -- CW ...
... "Why Ryan Won't Run." Jake Sherman of Politico: "The backdrop of all his denials is the political reality that Ryan would likely lose. Most public polling has him faring relatively poorly in a potential matchup with Clinton. Of course, polls shift, but Ryan would be forced to launch and run a presidential campaign in three months. His experience from 2012 would help, but even the most talented campaigner would be at a disadvantage on such a compressed timetable." -- CW
AND Ben Carson Is Still Ben Carson. Andrew Kaczynski: "Ben Carson said in a radio interview last week that his support for Donald Trump is purely pragmatic, adding that he wouldn't support Trump if the stakes in the election were not so high." ...
... CW: Carson, who endorsed Trump, is supposedly a Trump campaign surrogate. I'm thinking Carson found out Trump isn't going to name him veep.
Beyond the Beltway
I'm not an extreme liberal.... But on this issue, I can't wrap my brain around it.... I hate guns.... It was a large caliber gun. A .45, [that killed Smith]. It was designed back during World War I.... It will kill someone within four or five seconds after they are struck. You bleed out.... We could go online and get 10 of them, and have them shipped to our house tomorrow. I don't believe that was the intention when they allowed for the right for citizens to bear arms. -- Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints coach, reacting to the killing of former Saints player Will Smith ...
... Jarrett Bell of USA Today: "In the aftermath of the senseless shooting on Saturday night that left former defensive end Will Smith dead -- and Smith's wife Racquel wounded -- amid a beef linked to a traffic accident, [Sean Payton] the New Orleans Saints coach is pleading for more gun control." -- CW
David Moye of the Huffington Post: Because of North Carolina's anti-LGBT law, "a popular porn website is banning all computers from 'The Tar Heel State.' XHamster.com has been refusing to serve anyone from North Carolina since 12:30 p.m. EDT, Monday.... The extreme measures will stay in place until North Carolina repeals House Bill 2, a law passed on March 23 that effectively prevents cities and counties in the state from passing rules that protect LGBT rights." -- CW
Marcel Harmon, in Salon, explains Gov. Brownback's latest attempts at privatizing education in Kansas with a big assist from ALEC. --safari
Casey Williams of The Huffington Post: "Major fossil fuel companies and trade groups shell out nearly $115 million a year to oppose efforts to reduce carbon emissions, according to a new report from the British research organization Influence Map...These figures dwarf the amount spent by supporters of climate change legislation, which is estimated at about $5 million annually...They're also bigger than sums spent by other major advocacy groups, like the pro-gun lobby, which reportedly spent nearly $10 million to 'influence' Congress in 2014." -- unwashed. Do I smell a waft of RICO in the air?
Sarah Nir of the New York Times: Over the weekend, thieves carved a hole in the roof of a Brooklyn branch of HSBC, tunneled into the vault & stole $280,000 or more. CW: This is so low-class. It would have been wiser & more lucrative for the perps to just get jobs with the bank & do their thievery the usual way.
Way Beyond
Steven Erlanger & Sewell Chan of the New York Times: "Prime Minister David Cameron of clashed with the opposition Labour Party in Parliament on Monday over tax havens and his inherited wealth, and, in a spirited debate over economic fairness set off by the disclosures in the Panama Papers, defended the right of Britons to 'make money lawfully' as long as they paid their taxes." -- CW
Griff Witte of the Washington Post: "... when faced with an unparalleled influx of migrants and refugees, [Denmark] has taken a nasty turn. In that respect, Denmark has company: Across Europe, a once-tender embrace of those fleeing conflicts on the continent's doorstep has evolved into an uncompromising rejection.... But as Europe walls itself off, the continent is left to reckon with what's become of its long-cherished humanitarian beliefs. And to many in Denmark, the chasm between reputation and reality looks particularly gaping." -- CW
Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "Even after Russian President Vladimir Putin's sudden March 14 announcement that cut short Russia's Syrian deployment, officials said they would maintain a muscular presence on twin air and naval bases in coastal Syria. But the current level of activity would suggest that the pullout has been minor at best, despite last month's fanfare and Russian officials' insistence that they have withdrawn from Syria. Returning aviators were greeted with bouquets and brass bands, while military officials declared victory." -- CW
Jasmine Lee of the New York Times provides some explanation of Why the Russian Economy Is Tumbling: "[Putin's]...pulling troops from Syria, reducing a military intervention that has cost Russia $482 million so far...Increased defense spending -- at the expense of education, health care and infrastructure -- has been a part of Russia's return to the world stage...Now, the expansion has ceased. Russia recently announced plans to decrease its defense budget by 5 percent this year." -- unwashed
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Reader Comments (18)
This Denmark story is heartbreaking. Helping refugees makes you a criminal––unbelievable! What would happen if you refused to pay the fine? On another level it reveals the happy valley life of the Danes is held by a very thin thread. Could we say something stinks in the land of Denmark?
Viewed part one of Ken Burn's "Jackie Robinson" on PBS last night. Since this country is so crazy nuts in love with sports and sport figures, this documentary would be extremely beneficial for it to be shown in schools throughout this fine land. It's racism which is shown in all its ugly manifestations would resonate in a way the young could really relate to. Because it's the young we hope will be better than we were (although that 26 yr, old right wing Dane doesn't look too promising). It's powerful messages after all this time are still with us yet we can see how far we have come.
@unwashed–-RICO? Vat ist dis?
@PD Pepe: RICO is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. unwashed suggests the law could be used to prosecute the fossil fuels cartel.
unwashed probably isn't serious; lobbying -- or colluding to lobby -- isn't one of the crimes specified under the act. Too bad. If it were, we might have a Congress that addressed the needs of the people instead of the wishes of special interests.
Use the Googles.
Marie
@PD,
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (aka RICO) that has been used against the mob.
"The New York Primary Will Be a Big Fracking Deal"
From Mother Jones -
" On April 19, when New Yorkers get their turn to vote on the country's next leader, the future of natural gas—specifically gas that comes from hydraulic fracturing—will be on many people's minds. "
http://m.motherjones.com/environment/2016/04/new-york-primary-fracking-clinton-sanders
Conventional wisdom has it that Hillary Clinton could lose to Donald Trump in the general election because she is not a talented speaker & he is. While I'll concede the former (& so does she), is Trump really such a mesmerizing speaker? I don't think so. On paper, he's awful. Take a look at just this outtake from his speech last night:
"I end up winning Louisiana and then when everything is done I find out I get less delegates than this guy that got his a[ss] kicked, OK? Give me a break. Really disgust[s] me. So it's a very sick system."
This ain't Abe Lincoln or Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton. But it's standard-issue Trump. He shows up at rallies with notes, which he usually ignores but may check from time to time, & speaks mostly off-the-cuff using the lexicon & 'tude of an angry child who didn't get "the biggest half." I don't know of any evidence he can follow a teleprompter or stay on topic if the topic isn't Trump.
I've linked reports -- one from Dana Milbank that I recall -- that describe the frenzied adoration Trump's fans show at his rallies. I think that's because his ego & petty grievances parallel their own. When they don't get what they want, even if what they want harms others, "it's very unfair."
I think/hope the market for Trump's childishness is limited. I think most people expect more in a president than what Trump has the capacity to relay to the country. And notwithstanding Trump's "very good brain," Hillary Clinton -- who can follow a teleprompter, who knows how to schmooze & who has policy ideas (however lame you may think them) that make sense & are defensible -- is in fact a better orator than he.
(If Ted Cruz is the GOP nominee, BTW, this bet is off. Cruz is a natural-born speaker.)
Marie
Two Rich White Guys Walk into a Bar...
So last night Bill (Who can explain it) O'Reilly and Donald (the blacks love me) Trump discuss (can you even use this word anymore with these people?) the "black jobs problem".
Trump promises jobs, jobs, jobs, terrific, terrific, etc. Oh, and jobs. Not like that horrible Obama person who takes jobs away and gives them to our enemies who are stupid losers.
O'Reilly interrupted Herr Drumpf to remind him that they were, after all, talking about BLACKS:
"Many of them are ill-educated, and have tattoos on their foreheads, how are you gonna...and I hate to be generalized about it, but it's true..."
PD mentioned the Jackie Robinson documentary which aired last night on PBS. A fine program, very well done. At various points the rationales for why there were no black players in the major leagues were explored. Among them came the exact same type of circular argument O'Reilly is STILL USING 70 years later!!!
1946: Well, if blacks were good enough, they'd be playing.
2016: Well, if blacks were good enough, they'd have jobs.
Leave us not forget that people like O'Reilly and his Republican cohort, in all cases, try to kill opportunities for "those" people.
So we have two stupid rich white guys who determine between themselves that blahs are a problem. But now on to more serious things....how to help the rich.
Unconscionable douchebags. I hate to be generalized about it, but it's true.
I've been enjoying no small measure of the old schadenfreude, reading about how the various flavors of Republicans have been hitting each other over the head while claiming their faction to be the only true defenders of democracy.
This is a hoot, of epic proportions, considering the immense electoral benefit all Republicans have received from a vast array of virulently anti-democratic schemes: election stealing, vote suppression, race rigging, gerrymandering on an astonishing scale, and, of course, the unchecked employment of mountains of the filthy lucre.
So it's with a tear in the eye that I feel for these sons and daughters of our democratic framers who are finding out what it's like to be on the other side of the tilted playing field for once. So unfortunate.
And especially that nice Mr. Trumpy. Although, for some reason, based on his own prodigious and quotidian chest thumping and rousing anecdotes in his book about what a tough, hard playing winnery deal makey kind of guy he is, I didn't think he'd cave so indelicately when faced with the same kind of hardball he claims to have used so successfully on "losers" he has "beaten".
The poor man. What can be done?
My first thought is to point at him and laugh. Ha!
That felt good...
I'm thinking that Clinton needs a good talking to.
What can she be thinking about that "colored people time" crack?
Here's how it works, at least in the world I've always lived in. If you are part of a group, you can make fun of yourself and others in that group. If you're not part of the group, shut your mouth and smile politely. So, I'm a Mick. I can make Irish jokes. If you ain't Irish, and unless I know you very well, put a plug in it. I can complain about my family members, but if you ain't one, or you ain't my closest friend, zip it about my family.
This is even true of Bill DeBlasio. Okay, his wife is black. His kids are half black. Great. But he's white. Maybe it's fine for him to make those jokes at home, but in public in front of a bunch of mostly strangers?
Unh-unh.
I didn't grow up in the south so even though I now live there, it's not my place to make cracks about southern culture to other southerners. They can go on all they want about "crackers" and "rednecks" and "no count cousins" but me? Nope.
And anyone who thinks this shit is okay is more than "out of touch". They're dense.
Making jokes is an art. If you're a Republican politician, don't try to look hip. Forget trying to be cool. You just look stupid. If you're a politician of any stripe, forget edgy jokes. Some pols are good with the timing and the delivery (JFK, Reagan, Obama) but others just look stupid.
So forget the stupid, stupid.
Let's just get on with it.
@Akhilleus: I don't get it either. Clinton has a reputation for being cautious to a fault. She reportedly has a campaign HQ that covers half a city block. You would think that would include staff who would review her every prepared remark. Three times. Google it. Check it again.
With all that, she makes a "colored people" joke???? WTF? Who even says "colored people"?
I grew up in the Jim Crow South where it was assumed "colored people" were lazy, a holdout from the days 100 years prior when slaves would often purposely shirk their fabulous jobs. (It was a relatively safe means of protest & sabotage. Just pretend you're doing your best; pretend you don't understand the master's instructions.) But even in that Jim Crow environment, I don't think I ever heard the "CP time," & I didn't know what it meant when the brouhaha over the "joke" came up. Did Hillary know? Did De Blasio? I don't know, but it was implicit in the script of the skit that "CP" had some other meaning. And apparently some audience members knew what that other meaning was. So this was a big, stupid fuck-up, IMO.
Why hasn't she apologized? Why hasn't she claimed ignorance? Or something?
Marie
It would be helpful to know where that came from-- I grew up in the states of VA, NC and KY (after being born in Madison, WI-- parents were Badgers at the time--)and went through college in KY and have never heard of "CP time." The people I grew up around (not in my house--)would consider the words "colored people" to be the polite form of that other word, what you would say if you were not a pure redneck. Those words were never spoken in my presence, so I am curious how anyone knows that was a double meaning set of initials. I had no idea this morning when I heard it...
Hyper-Partisanship=Non-Partisanship. But Only in Right Wing World.
Confederates have been venting their fury regarding the president daring to expect his nominee for the Supreme Court to be given a hearing by the senate. You know, like the Constitution says they should. But they're running out of ideas to make their unconstitutional and intransigent (bordering on treasonous) inaction look less like unvarnished partisanship with more than a soupçon of racism.
So how's this for a piece of jaw dropping casuistry?
Winger professor Randy Barnett who teaches law (if you can call it that) at Georgetown, has a creative solution. Ya see, here's how it goes. If you get lost in the corkscrew logic, you ain't alone.
First, Merrick Garland is an eminently qualified candidate. He'd be great on the Supreme Court. He's middle of the road, not overtly liberal, and he appears to abide by strict observance of the law.
Sounds perfect, right?
Yes. For rejection.
Senate Republicans have no choice but to reject Garland, 'cause he's so good. Unnerstand? Okay, buckle in, here we go.
If he were a no-good, cheatin', immygrint lovin' lib'rul, well, naturally, Senate Republicans would reject him, but then they'd look PARTISAN. And that would be bad. Bad, bad, bad. Like really bad. But if they reject an excellent candidate who'd make a great judge, well, now it looks like they're standing on PRINCIPLE! Because Confederates are all about principle. You in the back! I heard that. No laughing.
So this is what it's all about. Hyper partisan Confederate mooks in the senate would look like, well, hyper partisan Confederate mooks if they gave Garland a hearing 'cause then, they wouldn't be standing on principle. Get it? In order to be non-partisan, they must be hyper-partisan.
This, by the way, is the guy who was recently lauding Dark Lord Scalia as the greatest juror in history. But when others at Georgetown, including some students, printed rebuttals to this opinion, Barnett, defender of unbiased opinionating, hit the roof and demanded that all rebuttals to his opinion stop at once, you hear?!? Because no one had any right, none whatsoever, to criticize the great Scalia.
Or maybe 'cause democracy. Or something.
Oh yeah, he also has declared that the president needs to step aside and wait for the next president to do the nominatin'. BUT he also signed a brief instructing the president that the good faith performance of his duties, under the Constitution, require him to follow the law.
Is it me? Or are these people clinically insane. "Do your duty or we'll sue you. Oops! If you try to do your duty, we'll sue you!"
This is what passes for an intellectual in the Confederacy. God help us.
Jeanne,
According to Baratunde Thurston, in a piece on HuffPo, CP Time has been around for a while. You could probably do a detailed search and come up with a more complete history, but it seems like it's a term used primarily among African Americans. I admit I had never heard it either. Correction. I had heard it once, but didn't know what it meant. It's used by a character in David Simon's tremendous visual novel "The Wire". He drops "CP time" into a sentence spoken by one of the characters, Marlo Stanfield, but at the time I had no idea what it meant and it was never explained.
I grew up in the urban north in a largely white neighborhood that bordered directly on a largely black neighborhood. There was a playground, "The Park", where we all gathered. Some white kids referred to our black cohort as "the colored kids" but my mother instructed me early on not to use that expression because it could be insulting. Insulting for me to say it, I guess she meant. I would sometimes hear the black kids use variations of it among themselves: "Mrs. Nichols is mostly nice, but sometimes she's just a mean old colored lady." I got, even early on, that it would be incredibly impolitic of me to refer to Mrs. Nichols as any kind of a colored lady, so I left it alone. Wasn't my tribe. Besides, she was always nice to me.
Quentin Tarantino, whose most recent film "The Hateful Eight" has his usual high quota of uses of the N word, must feel like it's perfectly fine for him to employ it as often as he likes. "Django Unchained", an earlier Tarantino film, reportedly had 110 instances of "nigger". I've always felt distinctly uncomfortable about this and so do a lot of reviewers, especially black reviewers. It feels gratuitous and unnecessary.(I think this is part of the problem with the Clinton-DeBlasio "joke". It felt gratuitous and unnecessary.)
The word is used now and then in the above mentioned "The Wire" but its use there feels much more organic, never for effect, or in an arbitrary manner, it's an almost documentary use of language. And it's almost always uttered by black actors.
I dunno. It's one of those things that can go both ways. It's just another example of the power of language and a reminder that as with anything else, with great power, comes great responsibility.
Language: use it wisely, children.
@Akhilleus: Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I heard the term "N time" (spelled out, of course) when I was growing up. Your comments & Jeanne's make me think "CP time" is the "polite" form of "N time."
Marie
The quote from New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton represents an unusual oasis of rationality in our gun crazed culture, propped up by NRA money and simpering, supine congressional goons.
And this is no whiny liberal rant about guns. This is an NFL coach, an organization with no dearth of weaponized testosterone and chest thumping. Payton himself served a one year suspension as punishment for his team's supposedly placing a bounty on players from opposing teams, targeting them for especially hard hits, hits bad enough to cause injury or at least put the player out of the game. This is no Casper Milquetoast wringing his hands here.
But does anyone believe that Payton himself does not now have a bounty on his head for defying the death merchants of the NRA and their lackeys in congress? He can forget about ever running for office.
Let the denunciations begin!
Thanks, AK and Marie! I have not seen The Wire, but like anything else, now that I have heard that term, it will be everywhere and I will notice it. I guess the point is: why in the world did they reference that at all?? It does defy belief. Sort of clangs in the head-- cognitive dissonance. I would think HRC can't afford crazy missteps like this--
Samantha Bee had a entertaining segment on her show last night about the NRA. Turns out that they are worried about some things falling into the wrong hands, namely their Eddie the Eagle costume. An eighteen page application and 20 day waiting period are just a few of the hoops you have to jump through. Not to worry, "I'm not a felon" is still all the background check you need for the gun show.
Eddie Eagle | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
Just thinking that there is all this discussion of the possibility of a GOP split after a contested/brokered convention but no real mention of how it could/would split. An establishment "right wing" and an insurgent "righter wing" seems evident and likely but after the bitterness in the primaries I wonder about the possibility of a further split in the extremists. I can imagine a "Trumpster" and "Cruzer" split, with perhaps the Tea Party as a third far right option.
Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE defends his company against Sander's criticisms. A most interesting read:
http://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-wire-immelt-sanders-wrong-on-big-business-0410-20160408-story.html