Tuesday
Apr122016
The Commentariat -- April 13, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Eric Levitz of New York: "... it doesn't really matter whether [Donald] Trump has good reason to feel cheated -- what matters is that his supporters think he does. The more Trump can stoke the sense that he's been victimized by a corrupt Establishment, the more politically difficult it will be for the party to deny him the nomination on a first ballot." -- CW
Jonathan Chait: John Kasich schools Talmudic scholars on Old Testament. CW: Maybe Kasich should have studied up on Proverbs 26:12: "Do you see a person wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him."
*****
Burgess Everett of Politico: "Under relentless criticism from his Democratic foes, GOP Sen. Pat Toomey [R] lingered with Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland into the evening on Tuesday for a meeting that lasted more than an hour." CW: Toomey emerged from the meeting to make a series of stupid remarks, as was anticipated. ...
... 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]?" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration said a compromise floated by the Supreme Court to resolve objections from religious organizations to providing their employees with contraceptives would work only if it was clear that the women would receive the coverage through other means, and if it ended the controversy. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. told the court ... a modification would be acceptable only if the court ruled that it would satisfy the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and if it halted lawsuits from groups that say providing contraceptive coverage would make them complicit in sin." -- CW
Renae Merle of the Washington Post: "Federal regulators said Wednesday that five of the country's largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, still don't have credible plans for winding down their operations without taxpayer help if they start to fail. These so-called 'living wills' are a critical requirement of the 2010 financial reform package, Dodd-Frank, aimed at a preventing a repeat of the taxpayer bailouts that took place during the financial crisis. The regulators found various problems with the plans submitted by Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, J.P. Morgan Chase, State Street, and Wells Fargo." -- CW ...
... The New York Times story, by Peter Eavis, is here. -- CW
Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "Tens of thousands of Verizon workers on the East Coast walked off the job on Wednesday after the company and two labor unions failed to reach a new agreement by a 6 a.m. deadline set by the unions, more than eight months after their contracts expired. The Verizon strike, involving about 36,000 workers, is one of the largest in recent years. The workers, who are resisting proposed cuts to pension benefits and rule changes that would make it easier for the company to outsource work, are expected to picket hundreds of Verizon facilities from Virginia to Massachusetts." -- CW
Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The FBI cracked a San Bernardino terrorist's phone with the help of professional hackers who discovered and brought to the bureau at least one previously unknown software flaw.... The researchers ... were paid a one-time flat fee for the solution." -- CW
Paul Waldman, in the Washington Post: "... no matter which Republican ends up being the presidential nominee, cutting taxes for the wealthy will be at the absolute top of the agenda. Even Donald Trump, who has been happy to buck Republican orthodoxy on a variety of issues, issued a tax plan the greatest benefits of which went to the wealthy -- just like every other candidate.... Meanwhile, media coverage continues to suggest that Paul Ryan represents some kind of sober alternative to the presidential candidates. But he has long advocated slashing the top rate from its current 39.6 percent down to 25 percent, which would represent an enormous giveaway to the wealthy.... In this election, just like in every other election, Democrats will charge that Republicans only want to help the rich. It’s an effective attack, mostly because it's true...." -- CW
"Free Trade" vs. Ordinary People. Daniel Gross, in Fortune: "Why bashing free trade is paying off from Trump and Sanders.... It's not trade itself that is the problem -- it's the indifference to the long-term impacts of trade and an unwillingness to share its benefits [with workers]." Via Paul Waldman. -- CW
Matt Richtel & Fernanda Santos of the New York Times: "Fires, once largely confined to a single season, have become a constant threat in some places, burning earlier and later in the year, in the United States and abroad.... A leading culprit is climate change. Drier winters mean less moisture on the land, and warmer springs are pulling the moisture into the air more quickly.... Decades of aggressive policies that called for fires to be put out as quickly as they started have also aggravated the problem. Today's forests are not just parched; they are overgrown." -- CW
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. (Also linked yesterday.)
Presidential Race
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton pulled out a tight victory over Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary in Missouri, officially sweeping the states that held primary contests on March 15, while Donald J. Trump was declared the winner in a close race with Senator Ted Cruz on the Republican side. Both candidates appeared to score narrow victories in Missouri, but under the state's elections laws, the vote totals were not official until now." -- CW
Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), in a New York Times op-ed: "... I have decided to become the first member of the Senate to support my colleague Bernie Sanders for president." -- CW
Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Sen. Bernie Sanders and his boosters are intensifying their courtship of convention delegates who could determine the winner of the Democratic presidential nomination this year, prompting some party leaders and supporters of front-runner Hillary Clinton to claim harassment.... The Sanders campaign says it has no connection to the efforts of outside supporters to lean on superdelegates...." -- CW
The New York Daily News Editors endorse Hillary Clinton. -- CW
Tom Hayden of The Nation: Anti-war and civil rights activist and ex-Sanders supporter Tom Hayden thoroughly highlights the pros and cons of both candidates in his explanation for why he changed his support in the California Democratic primary to Hillary Clinton. "I have a variety of concerns about both candidates' campaigns. But I intend to vote for Hillary Clinton... for one fundamental reason - race." -- LT
Hillary Clinton's Clever Math Trick. [Bernie Sanders] frequently says, 'We're a small, rural state, we have no gun laws.' Here's what I want you to know. Most of the guns that are used in crimes and violence and killings in New York come from out of state. And the state that has the highest per capita number of those guns that end up committing crimes in New York come from Vermont. -- Hillary Clinton, April 11
Vermont does provide the highest per capita number of guns tied to crimes in New York.... [But] the per capita calculation is skewed by Vermont's small population.... The number of crime guns in New York from Vermont is so small that it could even be attributed to one or two bad actors.... Clinton has carefully crafted her talking point to find the particular government data that support her point, which gives a wildly different view than how trafficking flows are tracked.... The difference between this point using per capita calculation and the raw number (1 percent of crime guns with source states identified in 2014 came from Vermont) is so stark that it creates a significantly misleading impression to the public. -- Michelle Yee of the Washington Post -- CW
CW: If, like me, you were waiting for Hillary Clinton to apologize or something for participating in the "colored people's time" skit, here's the or-something. Eliza Collins of Politico: "In an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine published on Tuesday, Clinton was asked if the skit was 'inappropriate,' or whether critics were indeed 'missing the point,' as De Blasio had put it. 'Well, look, it was Mayor de Blasio's skit,' she responded. 'He has addressed it, and I will really defer to him because it is something that he's already talked about.'" ...
... Update. Brendan O'Connor of Gawker: Hillary Clinton wasted no time at all throwing Bill de Blasio under the bus for that 'C.P.T.' joke." -- CW
Elizabeth Hinton, Julilly Kohler-Hausmann & Vesla Weaver in a New York Times op-ed: "When confronted about her husband's pivotal support for the [1994 crime] bill, Hillary Clinton argued, even as she admitted the legislation's shortcomings, that the bill was a response to 'great demand, not just from America writ large, but from the black community, to get tougher on crime.' Yet the historical record reveals a different story.... Punitive crime policy is a result of a process of selectively hearing black voices.... It's not just that those demands were ignored completely. It's that some elements were elevated and others were diminished.... When blacks ask for better policing, legislators tend to hear more instead." -- CW
Jeremy Peters & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump and his allies are engaged in an aggressive effort to undermine the Republican nominating process by framing it as rigged and corrupt, hoping to compensate for organizational deficiencies that have left Mr. Trump with an increasingly precarious path to the nomination. Their message: The election is being stolen from him. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump berated the politicians he said were trying to stop his nomination and denounced the Republican Party, which he cast as complicit in the theft." -- CW
Bob Cusack of the Hill: "Donald Trump on Tuesday slammed the chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), claiming the party's system for selecting its presidential nominee is a 'scam' and a 'disgrace.' During an exclusive interview with The Hill at Trump Tower, Trump said, 'It's a disgrace for the party. And Reince Priebus should be ashamed of himself. He should be ashamed of himself because he knows what's going on.'" ...
... CW BTW: Trump's whining about the delegate process is all part of his teevee schtick. Because his staff is so incompetent, it is possible that Trump didn't know how the system worked until Priebus laid it out for him a couple of weeks ago. But, if he didn't know then, he knows now. And he's had ample opportunity & certainly the wherewithal to go out & hustle his own delegates. (He can make more "charitable contributions"/free golf outings -- this time to convention delegates.) Trump is shedding crocodile tears designed to rile his base of know-nothings. Yes, the game is "rigged," as Trump claims. It's supposed to be. Its very purpose is to avoid having a nominee like Trump. ...
AND There's This. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "When Nebraska started the process of picking delegates, Trump's campaign was nowhere to be found.... Party officials say they saw virtually no organization by the mogul's campaign last week when Republicans in all 93 Nebraska counties held local conventions.... Party officials say they saw virtually no organization by the mogul's campaign last week when Republicans in all 93 Nebraska counties held local conventions.... Because there was little resistance, many county conventions became Cruz pep rallies, according to interviews with party insiders and convention attendees." -- CW
Tony Cook of the Indy Star: "After expressing reservations about Donald Trump, some of Indiana's delegates to the Republican national convention say they've received threatening messages from a few of the GOP front-runner's supporters.... 'Wrong side Kyle,' said one email [to delegate Kyle Babcock, who said he didn't think Trump would be a good general-election candidate]. 'Hope the families well. Your name and info was sent to me on a list that is going public. Think before you take a step down the wrong path, the American people want to have faith in your but it looks like a future in hiding is more appealing.' The email was signed, 'The American.'" -- CW ...
... Steve M.: "... it's quite possible that there'll be little to no bloodshed [from Trump supporters]. I suspect the contempt is going to be expressed the modern, cowardly way -- doxxing, threats, maybe a swatting attack or two. Female Trump opponents will probably receive very specific threats of brutal sexual violence. But it'll all be done from the comfort of Mom's basement, or wherever else these people use their laptops and phones. A number of politically angry right-wingers have engaged in genuine violence in this century, but it's much more common for conservatives -- and white male louts in general -- to try to be risk-averse intimidators." -- CW
... BUT there was this. Kenneth Wagner & Meg Wagner of the New York Daily News: "A fiery Donald Trump supporter slapped a [CW: black] protester in the face during a rambunctious rally in Albany on Monday -- and the blowhard billionaire did nothing to stop the brawl, choosing instead to compare demonstrators at the event to ISIS.... After a tense standoff, [a man who self-identified as] Mike lunged at the protester and smacked him in the face twice. The protester was eventually removed from the rally... 'I have my personal rights and my personal space,' Mike told the Albany Times-Union after the rally. 'They're going to start yelling about some bulls[hi]t, I'll snatch your ass up.'" -- CW
Salvatore Colleluori of Media Matters: On Monday, "New York radio host Mark Simone and ... Donald Trump questioned whether Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is eligible to run for president because 'he was born in Canada.'... Simone brought up a hearing by the New Jersey secretary of state to determine Cruz's eligibility...." CW: It would be hilarious if Republicans went thru all these machinations to nominate Cruz, after which a court somewhere ruled that he was ineligible to be POTUS. ...
... Well, That Pipe Dream Didn't Last Long. Brent Johnson & Jonathan Salant of NJ.com: "... Ted Cruz is a 'natural-born citizen' under the U.S. Constitution and therefore can run in the June 7 New Jersey primary, a [New Jersey] state administrative law judge said Tuesday.... A group of New Jersey residents and a Catholic University of America law professor insisted that Cruz, born in Canada to an American mother and a Cuban father, did& not meet the constitutional requirements to be president." -- CW
Ben White of Politico: "On the campaign trail, [Ted Cruz] has railed against Wall Street 'crony capitalism,' ripped giant banks as 'too big to fail' and wrapped himself in populist garb.... But now he's desperate: Cruz, who has already received $12 million in support from the financial industry, needs Wall Street money more than ever.... So Cruz and his wife Heidi, currently on unpaid leave from her Goldman Sachs executive position, will gather with donors in New York next week to refill the coffers.... 'Anybody who is really politically aware knows that it's ultimately better to have Cruz go down in flames than for Trump to go down in flames. People are coming around to that. Cruz probably won't take down the House and Senate with him.'... said a senior banker...." -- CW
Karoli Kuns of Crooks and Liars: David Barton, dominionist and Ted Cruz Super PAC head, wants Christians to 'take control of government.' This is why Ted Cruz is, in many ways, more terrifying than Donald Trump. Trump is a secular fascist. Cruz is a religious zealot as well as a fascist who thinks the United States government should be a theocracy." -- LT
...Hannah Levintova of Mother Jones: Ted Cruz's dominionist minions, a preacher and two real estate entrepreneurs, offer a glimpse of how far the candidate could go in rolling back LGBT protections. -- LT
"Onerous rules" trip up more Trumps. Why is life so unfair to these people? -- CW
Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "... Ted Cruz is close to ensuring that Donald Trump cannot win the GOP nomination on a second ballot at the party's July convention in Cleveland, scooping up scores of delegates who have pledged to vote for him instead of the front-runner if given the chance.... The GOP race now rests on two cliffhangers: Can Trump lock up the nomination before Cleveland? And if not, can Cruz cobble together enough delegates to win a second convention vote if Trump fails in the first?" -- CW
Priscilla Alvarez of the Atlantic: John Kasich keeps on keepin' on. -- CW
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, an aide to Mr. Ryan said." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
... 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.'" ...
... OR, as the headline writer at TPM put it, "Paul Ryan To GOP: I Know I'm Awesome, But I Can't Be Your President." -- CW
Manu Raju & Deirdre Walsh of CNN: "A number of high-profile Republicans, fearful of a potential melee in Cleveland this summer, are considering skipping the Republican National Convention and campaigning back home instead." -- CW ...
... Alex Leary of the Tampa Bay Times: "Jeb Bush will not attend the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, his spokeswoman said Tuesday." -- CW
Senate Race
Edward-Isaac Dovere & Kevin Robillard of Politico: "In an unprecedented and forceful move, President Barack Obama's administration is slamming a new gun control-themed ad from a super PAC backing Rep. Donna Edwards for Senate in Maryland, calling it 'misleading' and demanding it be pulled down.... Wednesday morning, Working for US PAC spokesman Joshua Henne followed up with a statement saying the group would delete Obama from the ad -- but not pull the ad itself." -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Ha! Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Gov. Pat McCrory [R] of North Carolina, whose state has been the subject of withering criticism since its legislature passed a law limiting bathroom use by transgender people and eliminating anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender people, on Tuesday retreated from his full-throated defense of the measure.... Mr. McCrory signed the bill immediately after it was passed. But on Tuesday, he signed an executive order altering the equal employment policy for state workers to cover discrimination claims related to sexual orientation and gender identity. He said he would urge lawmakers to reverse course and allow people to bring discrimination cases in state court.... Mr. McCrory ... is seeking re-election this fall.... The effects of Mr. McCrory's order are modest. The most disputed provision of the law, which limited bathroom access for transgender people, will stand." -- CW ...
... The Raleigh News & Observer story, by Craig Jarvis, is here. With video. -- CW ...
Bruce Schreiner & Adam Beam of the AP: "Kentucky's Democratic attorney general sued the state's Republican governor on Monday, arguing he overstepped his authority when he ordered budget cuts for state colleges and universities without the approval of the state legislature. Attorney General Andy Beshear, the son of a former governor, followed through on his threat to file a lawsuit challenging [Gov. Matt] Bevin's 'blatant violations' of law by unilaterally cutting 4.5 percent, or $41 million, from the state's colleges and universities in the last three months of the fiscal year." -- CW
David Montgomery of the New York Times: "A panel reviewing the Texas jail where a 28-year-old black woman, Sandra Bland, was found dead three days after being arrested last July has called for major changes in the treatment and medical screening of inmates." -- CW
Joe Heim of the Washington Post: Meet Matthew Heimbach, a 25-year-old white nationalist & Trump supporter who was the main guy pushing Kashiya Nwanguma, 21, a black student, out of a Trump rally in March. "Heimbach's supporters cheered his actions, praising him for standing up to the protesters. But for those who have been tracking his rise, the video raised new worries about Heimbach. Some compare him to David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard and the country's best known white nationalist.... Heimbach foresees the United States being divided into autonomous racial states with white Christians free to live apart and outside the control of any federal authority." -- CW
Way Beyond
AP: "Organized crime prosecutors raided the offices of the Mossack Fonseca law firm Tuesday looking for evidence of money laundering and financing terrorism following a leak of documents about tax havens it set up for wealthy international clients." -- CW
Megan Messerly & Daniel Rothberg of the Las Vegas Sun: "Electric car company Faraday Future is scheduled to break ground this afternoon on its Southern Nevada [3.4 million-square-foot] production plant...Faraday Future executives, Gov. Brian Sandoval, North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee and Clark County commissioners Steve Sisolak and Marilyn Kirkpatrick are expected to attend... the state's economic development board approved $215.9 million in tax incentives for the company [that includes] a series of protective measures for the state in case Faraday should go belly up." -- unwashed. The facility will be located about 60 miles from the notorious Bundy Ranch.
News Lede
ABC News: "The Texas teenager who was at the center of an international manhunt was ordered to stay in jail for nearly two years after his first appearance in adult court today. Ethan Couch, who allegedly violated the terms of his probation from a deadly 2013 drunken-driving case by missing a court-mandated check-in, was sentenced to 180 days in jail for each of the four charges he faces. The jail time is set to be served consecutively, meaning he will be in jail for 720 days."
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Reader Comments (22)
More laundry. I believe that these are just tiny glimpses of the trillions going missing into the very private bank accounts of very very few people. This corruption wipes percentage points off the GDP of every country in the world. It not only prevents the obvious functioning of government, and the building of schools, hospitals, roads, etc, but poisons governments, jurisprudence, and business everywhere. Money gets parked in places like New York, London, Paris, in empty buildings, in farmlands in Africa, pushing constructive users out and forcing costs up for everyone. The billions going to individuals is not and can not be spent, so sits in banks in various guises. These people are not the robber barons of old, who built businesses and spent their wealth, but are the most despicable despots and criminals who build nothing, but acquire wealth by stealing it off their people. And the middle men of course. RICO indeed!
Re the earlier comments on Secretary Clinton and Bill de Blasio's C.P. Time joke. I couldn't bring myself to watch the video as the headline was sufficient enough to leave me SMH (shaking my head). What were they thinking? They are two very intelligent individuals who should know better than that.
Now for some background. I was born in a small town (Old Glory, Zip 79540; you can Google it) in West Texas in 1939. We had only two African-Americans in our little community, Jim the 10X Ranch work hand and his wife Mary who was the ranch owners' maid and cook. They would drive the ranch tractor to our farm house, which was adjacent to the ranch, to purchase eggs and butter from my mom. From my six year old's remembrance, they were friendly to we six kids, courteous to my parents and well thought of by the people of the community. But everyone, including my dad (also named Jim), called Jim 'Nigger Jim' to his face. These people were friends and neighbors, parents of my young classmates and people that I remember fondly and think well of; and I don't think any of them thought that calling him that was wrong.
When I was about twelve (1951) I asked my dad why the 'colored' kids who lived across the street from the public school at the nearby County Seat, had to ride a bus 30 miles to attend the 'Hamlin Consolidated Colored School'? His answer – "That's just the way it is." But I knew that it wasn't right. Continuing in my growth and education in the ways of the world, I saw the racial biases up close, learned the code words and could hear the dog whistles. I had high hopes that racial biases and hatred would lessen over time but life in the age of President Obama has unfortunately revealed how misbegotten my hopes were.
I was introduced to the term 'CPT' by a good friend and co-worker in Baltimore. She being an African-American felt that she needed to educate me to the customs of the 'colored world' when she learned that I had been invited to a mutual friend's ordination as a deacon in his church. She said to me 'you know that you will probably be the only white face in the church, don't you?' I said that I did, and I was. Knowing how precise I was about starting meetings on time, she just wanted to share that her community was not as exacting about their start times. After that I heard the term CPT quite frequently. I had been let in on their secret. And CPT seemed to be used openly among the African-American community in Baltimore. I could and did use the term in talking with my AA friends there but would have never used it with someone I didn't know.
@ ogjerry: Thanks for your contribution. From the conversation in yesterday's thread, I suspected that "colored people's time" was a phrase that black people used, but -- as Akhilleus pointed out -- one has to be black to use it. For others to use it is a slur.
Marie
..."Clinton has carefully crafted her talking point to find the particular government data that support her point, which gives a wildly different view than how trafficking flows are tracked."
An example of why I detest (but will vote for) Hillary Clinton. She is sneaky in the way some of the most hated girls in junior high were, because of her insinuations and half-truths. I have no faith that she will not follow her neocon friends in putting boots on the ground in Syria--and will most certainly suck up to Bibi---by having him an early visitor at the Oval Office. She and Big Dog are masters at triangulation, so I would not be surprised if she reversed her self on TPP and got some new military operations going in the Middle East. Let us face it: Hillary is Empire. It is the way she was trained, and she buys it that the U.S. is the First and the Best. Yikes! Get me out of here! BUT....."Remember the Supremes!"
@Kate Madison: My feelings exactly. I am annoyed by feminists who claim that Hillary's low-trust quotient is the product of sexism -- if you don't trust Hillary, you must be a misogynist/bro or a self-loathing woman.
I don't trust Hillary because she's a nasty, lying, scheming bitch. And she isn't even that good at it. If she were, she wouldn't keep getting caught, as she did this time.
Also today, I love the way she blames the help for her misstep. I don't doubt that the CPT "joke" was De Blasio's idea, but why couldn't she and/or her staff see it beforehand & just say no way? And how very gracious of her to finger a guy who just endorsed her without accepting any responsibility for her own participation. The buck stops way over there. Hope De Blasio is comfy under the bus.
And, yes, of course I'll vote for her in November.
Marie
@KateM: It's a two-fer, both start with the letter C.
It's Cruz and Cuccinelli, becoming grate together. (No, I didn't make a typo!)
Did you spot the mention within the NYTimes story on "Trump charges RNC rigging" in the link CW provided that also referred to your former (as I recall) " little boy next door " who is back in the political game. "...There, Mr. Cruz has an advantage. His campaign recently hired Ken Cuccinelli , a conservative former attorney general of Virginia and a veteran of the state’s internecine Republican battles, to oversee its effort to send pro-Cruz delegates to Cleveland." More to the story .
And, going on for a three-fer... in other news, the Clinton CPT comedy routine, as for many, initially went over my head when the story broke...I hadn't a clue. In retrospect it's a stunning misstep, nothing funny about it at all.
PAUL RYAN'S LAST STAND:
I do not want
I will not seek
I will not accept
I cannot be
I only see
My itty bitty job (really?)
for me––period––
end of story.
Mayor Bill DeBlasio told Chris Hayes "it was satire! The whole show was satire!"–––so there. End of story.
What hasn't been an end of story has been the trajectory of my favorite bete noire, Phyllis Schafly, who at 91 is still thriving and striving to make a difference albeit this time she has upset her own apple cart. Her story goes all the way back to when Prescott Bush had endorsed Rockefeller for president who was running against Barry Goldwater, the very, very conservative Phyllis took a shine to since very right conservatism was right up her alley. Unfortunately for Rockefeller who had divorced his wife of long standing, married a young woman–– who left her children and husband ––it was a death knell. Schafly had written "A Choice Not an Echo"––a conservative hand book spelling out those very conservative values ––values that Goldwater would implement. AND–––"do we want a president that divorces the woman who has stood by him all these years, bore him children, in order to marry a ..." and so forth. LBJ stepped in to save the day and with his daisy chain ad he clinched it. Schafly was , of course, furious so while she was fighting to stop the ERA from passing she organized the Eagle Forum that eventually had chapters in 20 states. Throughout the years Phyllis has been working hard to make our world her world but now it appears that world is in turmoil. After she endorsed Trump––six members, one being her own daughter, of the E.F. had a rogue board meeting and decided to oust the founder, Phyllis, who is accusing the board of a hostile takeover––"they are trying to wrest control of E.F. from me."
Schafly may just be a victim of her own success.
To go on a little more about Zika:
Yesterday it was pointed out that the 3 most at risk cities for Zika are in the deep south, which makes logical sense - these are the cities closest to the mosquito vector.
But the way they calculated the risk also included sexual contacts, not just mosquito bites. So New York City is rated #5, not because there are marshes and lots of sources where mosquitos can breed; but because there is a huge local population and a projected 10 to 20 million visitors from places with Zika already infecting those places. The chances of sexual transmission are good, with the peak time projected to be in July.
@Victoria: I think there is a great deal of travel between Puerto Rico & New York City, which may account for much of the City's high risk factor.
Marie
Re: colorful language that may offend : Here's Richard Pryor––someone I will always miss––in one of SNL's sketches :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2u1bpXVGHE
Intriguing thread of morality running through today's postings and comments.
Though I remember "A Choice, Not an Echo" well, proudly and prominently displayed as it was on my father's bookshelf the year I entered college, and have thought encountered Schafly and her family's work many times since, I was unaware of her part in derailing the Rockefeller candidacy until I saw the Maddow segment last night.
Do recall though that my very Catholic parents were flat disgusted with Rockefeller's divorce and re-marriage, and while they, my father especially, were already drifting into Goldwater territory, I suspect that thoughts of Nelson slipping so easily between the wrong sheets did firm their Goldwater resolve.
While the ninety-one year old Schafly may seem a bit quaint today, and while some have questioned her competence following her Trump endorsement, we should remember she would not have been so successful if she had not found a ready audience for her brand of churchly (white churches only, I'd guess) conservatism. As hard as it is for me to believe, we still do not have an ERA for a reason. We have whole states that did not have the fortitude or vision to side with women's equality. Schafly and her supporters led the anti-ERA charge and as Rachel implied last night changed the Republican Party forever...
But so with the Democrats. It's not as if I am immune to moral arguments; I/we just pay attention to different ones. H and B Clinton's sleaze does bother me/us. Maybe not the sex part so much, because liberals are more willing to admit that sex exists and can even be fun, but the pursuit of all that money and the cynical stink of manipulativeness that surrounds both their careers, very much so.
I sometimes wonder if I didn't shed, rather inherited my parent's holier-than-thou streak, but just found different objects for my scorn.
As I said, not sex but greed, hypocrisy where ever it appears and the once more-hidden but now prominent racism that animates so much of what today's Republicans are up to. Just can't stand 'em. Schafly is not the only moralist among us. That the Right does not have a monopoly on virtue's pursuit should perhaps be the liberal message.
(But this old one-time Catholic boy still wonders how Rockefeller's flight from one family to another affected his children, another case of the fruit not falling all that far, I guess.)
@Ken Winkes wrote, "I sometimes wonder if I didn't shed, rather inherited my parent's holier-than-thou streak, but just found different objects for my scorn."
Some "morals" are better than others. As in so many ethical questions, I think the Golden Rule applies. If a person's actions don't hurt anybody else, I don't see much point in condemning them. I don't care what Schlafly does at home; she once advocated for a woman's wearing only Saran Wrap when greeting her husband at the door after he'd come home from a hard day at the office. Fine with me. But many of her political views are extremely harmful to others. And that's not okay.
So, no, I don't think you inherited & redirected your parents' moralizing. Instead, you looked around to see if there were any victims in some conservative policies, and you found the answer was yes. That's entirely different from tut-tutting about somebody's personal sexual habits.
Marie
Agreed, Marie.
I do believe I have chosen better objects, better maybe because they--greed, hypocrisy and racism--are tougher moral nuts to crack, built as they are into the web and woof of our public business and therefore thoughtlessly accepted by most as no more than business as usual. As many here have said, the Right is given to much easier virtue.
Another puritanical notion: Maybe the greatest sin of all is laziness,
And thanks for the reminder about the saran wrap. It's quite a picture, and I had forgotten it.
Although I have cordially hated Phyllis and her group since she derailed the ERA and before, and didn't know about the Rockefeller angle until Maddow did her piece last night, I don't know that she was the originator of the Saran Wrap schtick. A woman named Maribel Morgan wrote The Total Woman, and that was one of her recommendations for women who were learning how to subject themselves to an inferior position with regard to their husbands. I proudly never read it, but Google provided the name of the book and the author, which were VERY familiar... I never saw any of the Religious Right nonsense until we were right in the middle of it. But Phyllis sure did herself proud in the game of influencing history; I'll give her that. And I still detest her. I don't see why the "Gang of Six" is angry that she endorsed Trump. He is no better than Cruz-- to me, anyhow. I'm sure I would hate the Gang of Six in equal measure...
It is interesting to see that several GOP bigwigs do not plan to make an appearance at the Cleveland convention. Some like Jeb have no political future but the others seem to want to distance themselves from what looks likely to be a colossal clusterbump on roller skates.
@Jeanne Pitz: You're right about Morgan. I see from the Intertubes that I'm not the only one who gave Schlafly credit. The story has been attributed to many authors, including "J" & Schlafly. Joan Rivers (also attributed to Phyllis Diller) had a joke where she said she tried out the Saran Wrap thing on her husband. He took one look & said, "Leftovers again?"
Now that we've got that (not) straightened out, back to politics.
Marie
"NO decision we make as Americans more dramatically affects the direction of our country than our choice for president.... The president reflects, but also helps define, our national values, priorities and direction." (Jeff Merkley's endorsement of Bernie Sanders)
AMEN. I absolutely love Jeff Merkley, senator from Oregon. He is the "real deal" and always "walks the walk." When he was running for his first term in 2008, I went to meet him at a small Town Hall in Newport. People were asking the usual vapid (IMHO) "I want to hear my own voice" questions, so I took a big breath and asked him if he supported shooting the CA sea lions at Bonneville Dam because they were taking too many salmon from the dam that Karl Rove had installed, leaving not enough for the peeps. He was taken aback and said he did not usually get questions like that. However, paraphrasing his words: "It is morally wrong to sacrifice animals living in their natural habitats for the sake of human greed. We must find a way to co-exist."
I am so glad Jeff Merkley has endorsed Bernie Sanders--knowing full well he will not get the nomination. I think he is making a moral statement: "The president reflects, but also helps define, our national values, priorities and direction." I know it is a stretch, but I see the same values in play as in his comment about killing the CA sea lions. Everybody deserves a fair break, and the President must help us define what those values are in making sure fairness exists.
I lost my train of thought when interrupted by a phone call, but I want to add one reason I love Oregon--in spite of the shitty weather--is that people like Jeff Merkley are leaders here. His humanistic progressive values, like Bernie's, are the truth of who he is.
P.S. I take sadistic delight that Phyllis Schafly's daughter has turned against her, and supports a candidate even more evil and cunning than her mother's pumpkin faced pond scum.
Re more on "Paul Ryan To GOP: I Know I'm Awesome, But I Can't Be Your President."...I had read somewhere yesterday about the stagecraft of Ryan's announcement to the press, the various camera angles and such, which were employed. To get a good idea of what that stagey effort entailed, check out the image that the NYTimes used with Tom Edsall's commentary today. " ryan & reagan " we go together like boids of a feather!
@Jeanne P. I believe you are right about the author. Still, I can't wipe an image of Phyllis wrapped in Saran Wrap out of my mind. Thanks alot CW for putting it there! (Since we're on ERA things, also makes me remember once passing Betty Friedan in the lobby of our apartment building who was wearing a vivid violet velour warm-up outfit! I've associated it with her forever.)
Wonder if we'll be hearing from Paul Krugman on the "Living Wills." in Friday's column?
@MAG: So I guess you're saying we won't be treated to any more pix of Paulie pumping iron with his cap on backwards or kissing catfish or smiling proudly while posing with one of the various other wildlife he just got thru offing. Such a shame.
Marie
@Marie I see a coffee table book in the offing! Paul Ryan appears to have an uncanny actualization for creating intriguing photo ops that no one else would consider. The Fish Kiss Kiss one is definitely an editor's choice for a best selling book cover ...I can see the display at Barnes & Noble now.
Paul Ryan, Master of Performance Art. Who knew!
@MAG: Maybe a calendar would be enough. But if you put it together, you won't hurt my feelings any if you don't send me an autographed editor's copy.
Marie
Mothers of Slain Black Children Campaign for Clinton.....NYT
... these mothers, many of whom did not know one another before the Clinton campaign flew them to Chicago to convene, have blanketed the primary states, appearing with Mrs. Clinton in churches and barbershops from Ohio to South Carolina. They starred in an ad that aired in Cleveland, Chicago and St. Louis. And the campaign has also paid their expenses so they could attend the Democratic presidential debates."
I am so glad to hear that Hillary is showing a heart that has not been polled (ha ha) and that she is also paying all expenses for these women to attend the Democratic National Convention. Hmmm.....since the campaign has been paying ALL of their expenses, over the many U.S. primary states, I wonder if we should thank the Banksters, the Oil Guyz, and the Frackers? They could use a little good press. No wonder Hillary has had to collect all that money from her Super Pacs. It takes a lotta bucks to be so caring and concerned. Doncha know that Bernie would nevah do this. All he wants to do is talk about inequality, fair wages, single payer health care and giving Vermont guns to New York!
Hillary will win the nomination and election in a New York Minute! Then she can get Paulie Krugman to deal with the banks, which--as we all know--are not really THE problem. All this too big to fail talk has probably been dreamed up by Bill deBlasio just to humiliate her.