Tuesday
Apr142015
The Commentariat -- April 15, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon News:
Disqualified! Robert Barnes & Dan Morse of the Washington Post: "John G. Roberts Jr. showed up for jury duty in Rockville[, Maryland].... [He did not mention] his own line of work, which would be listed on a questionnaire. He then talked with attorneys and the judge privately at the bench. Roberts was not selected, and left court without comment.... Justices are often called for jury duty ... but rarely chosen."
CW: Sorry, I kept meaning to run this NYT story by Patricia Cohen, which is now two days old: "The idea began percolating, said Dan Price, the founder of Gravity Payments, after he read an article on happiness. It showed that, for people who earn less than about $70,000, extra money makes a big difference in their lives. His idea bubbled into reality on Monday afternoon, when Mr. Price surprised his 120-person staff by announcing that he planned over the next three years to raise the salary of even the lowest-paid clerk, customer service representative and salesman to a minimum of $70,000."
*****
Jonathan Weisman & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved legislation granting Congress a voice in negotiations on the Iran nuclear accord, sending the once-controversial legislation to the full Senate after President Obama withdrew his opposition rather than face a bipartisan rebuke. Republican opponents of the nuclear agreement on the committee sided with Mr. Obama's strongest Democratic supporters in demanding a congressional role as international negotiators work to turn this month's nuclear framework into a final deal by June 30. The bill would mandate that the administration send the text of a final accord, along with classified material, to Congress as soon as it it completed. It also halts any lifting of sanctions during a congressional review and culminates in a possible vote to allow or forbid the lifting of congressionally imposed sanctions in exchange for the dismantling of much of Iran's nuclear infrastructure. It passed 19 to 0." ...
... Mke DeBonis & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "A Senate committee, with tentative White House support, unanimously advanced legislation Tuesday that would give Congress the power to review a potential nuclear deal with Iran but only after negotiations are completed by a June 30 deadline." ...
... Mike Lillis of the Hill: "House Democratic leaders are quickly jumping aboard legislation empowering Congress to review an emerging nuclear deal with Iran. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) endorsed the Senate bill on Tuesday, shortly after it passed unanimously through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had rejected an earlier version of the Senate proposal, said she'll also back the measure." ...
... Karen DeYoung, et al.: "Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that Tehran was negotiating a comprehensive nuclear deal with world powers, not the U.S. Congress, and called a Senate committee's vote to give Congress the power to review any potential deal a domestic U.S. matter. The Iranian leader, speaking in a televised speech in the northern Iranian city of Rasht, also repeated earlier statements that his country will not accept any comprehensive nuclear deal with world powers unless all sanctions imposed against it are lifted." ...
... The New York Times Editors call the Senate panel's move "reckless": "Congress has formally muscled its way into President Obamas negotiations with Iran, creating new and potentially dangerous uncertainties for an agreement that offers the best chance of restraining that country's nuclear program. ...
... Greg Sargent tries to explain why the White House is tentatively supporting the bill. ...
... Dana Milbank: "There are plenty of good reasons to be suspicious about the tentative deal the Obama administration and international partners negotiated with Tehran. But as Secretary of State John Kerry gives classified briefings on the deal to lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week, the criticism coming from Republicans and from Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Israel is tangled by inconsistencies and logic discrepancies. The one constant: They are opposed to what Obama is doing -- whatever it is.... [For example,] in criticizing Obama's agreement last week, Netanyahu said sanctions -- sanctions he had said weren't working -- had 'proven effective' against Iran."
Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved sweeping changes in the way Medicare pays doctors, clearing the bill for President Obama and resolving an issue that has bedeviled Congress and the Medicare program for more than a decade. The 92-to-8 vote in the Senate, following passage in the House last month by a vote of 392 to 37, was a major success for Republicans, who devised a solution to a complex policy problem that had frustrated lawmakers of both parties. Mr. Obama has endorsed the bill, saying it 'could help slow health care cost growth.' The bill, drafted in the House in negotiations between Speaker John A. Boehner and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader, also extends the Children’s Health Insurance Program for two years, through 2017."
Karen DeYoung: "President Obama has decided to lift the U.S. designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, a decision that removes a principal impediment to establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and accepts that Havana's role as an agent of revolution has long since slipped into history. The long-awaited action, which was announced by the White House in a message to Congress on Tuesday, follows a pledge made by Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro last December to move toward normalized relations." ...
... The Miami Herald story, by Mimi Whitefield, is here.
Happy Tax Day! Your Tax Dollars at Work. AP: "US Drug Enforcement Administration agents attended sex parties with prostitutes while stationed overseas as far back as 2001, according to a report released Tuesday. Money to pay prostitutes at a farewell party for a high-ranking DEA official was included in an 'operational budget' that used government funds for the party, the report said. DEA agents also rented undercover apartments in Colombia and used them for parties with prostitutes, the DEA said in an internal report. Excerpts of the DEA report were released by the House Oversight committee.... Representative Trey Gowdy, a Republican, called it 'stunning' that no one had been fired in the wake of the allegations. [MIchele] Leonhart, who has been the DEA's top official since 2007 and was deputy for three years before that, responded that civil service protections make it difficult to fire DEA agents." ...
... Happy Tax Day! The House GOP Bill to Ensure a Permanent American Aristocracy. Dana Milbank: "On Tuesday afternoon, the House Rules Committee took up H.R. 1105, the 'Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015,' with plans to bring it to a vote on the chamber floor Wednesday -- Tax Day. It is an extraordinarily candid expression of the majority's priorities: A tax cut costing the treasury $269 billion over a decade that would exclusively benefit individuals with wealth of more than $5.4 million and couples with wealth of more than $10.9 million.... This is the ultimate perversion of the tea party movement, which began as a populist revolt in 2009 but has since been hijacked by wealthy and corporate interests.... Never in the history of plutocracy has so much been given away to so few who need it so little." See also safari's & Patrick's comments in today's thread. CW: Democrats should get every GOP candidate for any federal office on the record on this. Then hammer each & every one of them who favors it, either by vote or declaration.
Max Ehrenfreund of the Washington Post: The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides data on how Americans spend their money, by economic class. Sadly for Republicans, "... the bureau doesn't have data on lobster and filet mignon...."
Jay Weaver of the Miami Herald: "Charged just weeks ago in a political corruption case with a U.S. senator[, Bob Menendez (D-N.J.)], West Palm Beach eye doctor Salomon Melgen was arrested late Tuesday on new Medicare fraud offenses involving more than $190 million in billing to the taxpayer-funded program. Melgen, recognized as one of Medicare's top billers in the nation, collected more than $105 million in reimbursements based on substantial 'fraudulent' claims for eye injections and other treatments between 2008 and 2013, according to an indictment."
Annals of "Justice," Ctd. Charles Pierce: "Something has gone permanently squirrelly with law-enforcement in this country. There is the change in attitude by which police increasingly feel and behave like an occupying army in American cities. There is the preposterous increase in available armament. On a wider scale, there is the triumph at all levels of government of an attitude that we will not tax ourselves, ever, for anything, even our own safety. So we wind up with traffic cops who look on, ahem, certain citizens as resources to be pillaged, or we wind up with septuagenarian insurance salesmen empowered to shoot people in the street under color of law, because they were willing to buy guns and ammo privately for a public purpose. This is Kafka rewritten by Grover Norquist and Bozo The Clown. You get what you pay for, and we're not willing to pay for anything any more." ...
... CW: Actually, Charles, U.S. law enforcement has always been "squirrelly." And much worse. ...
... Michael Miller of the Washington Post: "... as many as 120 African-American men on Chicago's South Side ... were allegedly tortured by [Chicago Police Commander Jon] Burge between 1972 and 1991.... On Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the establishment of a $5.5. million fund for these victims. The compensation would 'close this book, the Burge book on the city's history,' Emanuel said according to the Chicago Tribune."
Todd Frankel of the Washington Post: "Europe's top antitrust czar on Wednesday is expected to formally accuse Google of violating antitrust rules by directing users of its Web search to the company's own products." ...
... Update: James Kanter & Mark Scott of the New York Times: "The European Union's antitrust chief on Wednesday formally accused Google of abusing its dominance in web searches to the detriment of competitors and began official proceedings into whether its Android smartphone software forces phone makers to favor the company's own service and applications."
On the 150th anniversary of the death of Abraham Lincoln, if you want to know more, Jaime Fuller of New York provides numerous sources. Oddly enough, Fuller does not include Marco Rubio's op-ed, referenced below.
Presidential Race
Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling for changes to the nation's campaign finance system, saying here Tuesday that she would support a constitutional amendment if that's what it takes to fix what she called a 'dysfunctional' system." ...
... Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "Hillary Clinton said campaign finance reform would be a central plank of her presidential bid on Tuesday, revealing a determination to reinvent her political profile as a more humble, populist figure for the 2016 election.... In a sign her advisers want to break with the past, and win over progressives on the left of the party, Clinton incorporated campaign finance reform into what is a solidly populist economic platform." ...
... Fun tidbit about Hillary's "road trip" to Iowa, via Lewis: "The former first lady, it turns out, has not driven her own vehicle since 1996." Anne Gearan of the WashPo describes her travel mode as "a chauffeured van." CW: In view of Hillary's long-held preference for "chauffeurs," it's just as well she didn't take my advice to drive the van.
... More Fun & Games. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "On Monday, graphic designer Rick Wolff created a typeface he calls 'Hillary Bold' or 'Hillvetica.' It uses the same (weird) look and feel of the logo from the Hillary Clinton campaign for president, which became (in)famous shortly after her campaign went public on Sunday.... Wolff ... was kind enough to let us use his typeface (plus a few extra characters) for a little tool that will allow you -- yes, you! -- to make your own Hillary Clinton-style campaign slogan." Fill in the blank near the bottom of the post. ...
... You Are about to Witness a New Brand of Journalism -- Scooby Chasers. Or Maybe Scoobirazzi:
HILLARious. Brian Beutler of the New Republic, who seems at least half-serious: "Because Hillary Clinton is white and no longer young, a strain of political thought holds that she might lack Barack Obama's inherent appeal to new and minority voters.... The challenge, then, is to make sure Clinton's age and ethnicity don't discourage Obamais youthful, diverse supporters from turning out in November 2016. Fortunately, there's an easy way to make sure that doesn't happen. Clinton simply has to select Barack Obama as her running mate." Beutler argues -- along with the aid of some legal scholars -- that it's totally Constitutional. CW: I'm pretty sure this would go down well. ...
... CW: Of course, this could work, and it would be unquestionably Constitutional....
... Caveat: I don't doubt there's a contingent in the GOP who would argue that since the founders had men in mind for every elected office, girls are not qualified to run in any contest, save beauty pageants. After all, under Article II of the Constitution, "The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years...." If Hillary is elected president, look forward to suits challenging her chromosomal qualifications. The litigants will accomplish one thing: making birthers appear comparatively rational. ...
... Not That Wingers Are Sexists: "Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: Don Feder of the World Congress of Families is out today [Tuesday] with a column [link fixed ]titled 'Top Ten Reasons Why Hitlery Will Never Be President,' in which he calls the former secretary of state 'a frustrated, middle-aged feminist who's perpetually incensed.' Feder, decrying Clinton as an elitist and a radical ideologue, ends his piece by asserting that Clinton will be brought down by 'the hideousness factor.' The 'pro-family' activist writes that 'Lyndon Baines Johnson was the last profoundly ugly candidate to be elected president,' adding that 'voters don't want a leader who looks frazzled or frumpy.'" See Dreamboat on left. ...
... Eli Stokols of Politico: "... interviews with GOP consultants, party officials and the largest conservative super PACs point to an emerging narrative [portraying Hillary Clinton as] a wealthy, out-of-touch candidate who plays by her own set of rules and lives in a world of private planes, chauffeured vehicles and million-dollar homes. The out-of-touch plutocrat template is a familiar one: Democrats used it to devastating effect against Republican Mitt Romney in 2012. While Hillary Clinton's residences in New York and Washington may not have car elevators, there's still a lengthy trail of paid speeches, tone-deaf statements about the family finances and questions about Clinton family foundation fundraising practices that will serve as cornerstones of the anti-Clinton messaging effort." ...
... Paul Waldman argues this likely won't work: "When you have a rich candidate advocating policies that benefit the rich, the personal details and the policy arguments complement and enhance one another. When there's a dissonance between the two, it isn't quite as compelling.... What Republicans can do, though, is enlist the news media to help them in their task. If they establish this now as one of their key arguments against her, reporters will be on the lookout for events and moments that reinforce it...." (See Anne Gearan's WashPo piece linked above: "She visited a small coffee shop ... in the city of Le Claire.... After greeting the shop owners, Clinton ordered a Masala Chai tea, plus a Caramellow latte and a glass of water.") CW: Masala Chai? Tea? Really? Next time, Hillary, ask for "coffee, regular," even if that might mean with cream (in NYC) because "coffee, black" might seem overly-ethnic. Already, you can see how much Hillary needs me to advise her campaign, my failure to consider road safety in my van-driving advice notwithstanding. ...
... Andy Borowitz: "With a stop in Iowa on Tuesday, the Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton officially embarked on a nineteen-month marathon of looking concerned. Sitting with patrons at Jones Street Java House, in Le Claire, the former Secretary of State listened intently, sipped from a cup of coffee, and nodded her head at appropriate junctures, flawlessly reënacting a brief scene from her first campaign video." ...
(... CW: As we now know, a bit of misreporting on Andy's part. That's not coffee; that's chai tea.) ...
... Michael Schmidt of the New York Times, who is obsessed with has been covering the Benghaaaazi! e-mail story: "Hillary Rodham Clinton was directly asked by congressional investigators in a December 2012 letter whether she had used a private email account while serving as secretary of state, according to letters obtained by The New York Times. But Mrs. Clinton did not reply to the letter. And when the State Department answered in March 2013, nearly two months after she left office, it ignored the question and provided no response." ...
Scranton Times-Tribune: "The grave- stone of Hugh Rodham, Hillary Clinton's father, was found toppled over in the Washburn Street Cemetery, police said."
MEANWHILE, in the Biggest Liar Contest:
And so our leaders put us at a disadvantage by taxing and borrowing and regulating like it was 1999. -- Marco Rubio, campaign announcement speech, Monday
The problem with the senator's statement is that the government is neither taxing, nor borrowing, nor regulating like it did in 1999. In fact, in 1999 there was a surplus, shrinking the debt owned by the public. Taxes were much higher in 1999 -- 19.2 percent of gross domestic product, versus 16.7 percent in 2013, with President Barack Obama agreeing to permanently extend the Bush-era tax cuts for 99 percent of taxpayers at the end of 2012. As for regulating, 1999 was notable in part for repealing key sections of the Glass-Steagall Act. -- Steven Dennis, Roll Call
... Jonathan Chait, who covers the same territory Dennis does: In his latest economic plan, "Rubio's elimination of the estate, interest, dividends, and capital gains taxes would go far beyond the Bush administration's most plutocratic dreams. It is also true that Rubio plans to cut taxes for some middle-class families. But obviously that lost revenue has trade-offs, which he has failed to specify. The massive revenue hit would require very large cuts to existing programs. Given his party's propensity to aim the bulk of its tax-cutting at the programs that direct their biggest benefits to Americans of modest incomes, there is no plausible way to imagine Rubio's plan would do anything but engineer a massive upward redistribution of resources.... Paradoxically, the incoherence of Rubio's plan is an asset. Because its effects cannot be precisely measured, reporters and pundits describe it in vague and frequently positive terms that flatly contradict its actual features. This reality is ... is a feature [of Rubio's plan]. His full, unapologetic embrace of tax cuts for the rich has allowed him to surge back into contention." ...
... CW: Not only is Rubio a fraud, as Brian Beutler outlined the other day, Chait asserts reporters are falling for the scam. ...
... It matters not what century he's reminiscing about, Marco gets his American history assbackwards. Apparently, he penned an op-ed for Monday's USA Today, misremembering Abe Lincoln. Ed Kilgore responds: "Aside from the obvious mischaracterization of Obama;s 'ideas,' it takes a lot of damn gall to lecture an African-American about Lincoln's legacy, which was one of an 'united America' achieved by violent suppression of a rebellion by people who sounded uncomfortably like many of today's Republicans in their conceptions of liberty, states rights and Constitutional originalism." ...
... ** Steve M. The Rubio/Bush Sword Story: Preppiness Made More Ridiculous (and Vaguely Homoerotic)." CW: Once again, Rubio gets "an F in post-World War II history." So does Rubio's secret-society sponsor Jeb Bush. You'll have to read Steve's post. I cannot do justice in a brief graf to the ignorance, vapidity & "vaguely homoerotic tendencies" of these jackasses. Steve, however, has it down. The story would be 
-hilarious if not for the possibility that one of these clueless ideologues could become POTUS. ...
... Charles Pierce insists that the musical accompaniment here is mandatory. So we'll oblige:
... With unintended irony, Rubio says he is running for president "grounded by the lessons of our history." (See video clip in linked story.)
... Steve M. digs up more startling news about Marco. "Marco Rubio, who defines himself as a Catholic, nevertheless has regularly attended a Protestant Miami megachurch, Christ Fellowship," a virulently anti-gay church where Pastor Rick Blackwood preaches that the theory of "Evolution is fundamentally an attack by Satan on the glory of God." Steve wants to know: "Does Marco Rubio think evolution is satanic? Jeremiah Wright's most intemperate language got hung around Barack Obama's neck -- will anyone ask Rubio if he repudiates the more extreme things Blackwood and his colleagues say? And if not, press corps, why not?" ...
... CW: It's true that Marco is not a scientist, man, & one need not be a scientist to qualify for the Top Job. But the POTUS does have to accept established scientific theory (and have at least a vague grasp of American history). ...
... AND if Rubio ever understood anything about macroeconomics, he used that knowledge to oppress the poor. Perry Bacon of MSNBC: "Marco Rubio aggressively tried to push Florida to the political right during his two-year stint as speaker of the state's House, often warring with the more moderate Republicans who ran the Florida Senate and then-Gov. Charlie Crist, a centrist Republican." His big "legacy" agenda was to abolish Florida's progressive property tax & replace it with a regressive sales tax hike.
Beyond the Beltway
Marc Santora & Nate Schweber of the New York Times: "More than two decades after Rosean S. Hargrave was convicted of murdering an off-duty correction officer in Brooklyn, a judge on Tuesday afternoon ordered him released from prison, saying that his trial was deeply flawed and unfair. The case against Mr. Hargrave was built, in part, on the work of Detective Louis Scarcella and his partner, Stephen W. Chmil, and it is one of dozens of cases that have come under review since accusations emerged that Mr. Scarcella once framed an innocent man."
News Ledes
Washington Post: "U.S. Capitol Police said that a small gyrocopter with one occupant landed on the West Lawn of the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon. One person has been detained, Capitol Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider said in an e-mail.... The Tampa Bay Times wrote about Doug Hughes, a 61-year-old mailman from Florida, who planned to fly to the Capitol." Includes Hughes' own video. ...
... Here's more from the WashPo on Hughes' brilliant plan. ...
... CW: If this is the kind of mail carrier we have in Florida, no wonder the USPS can't seem to get all my mail to me.
New York Times: "A jury in Fall River, Mass., found Aaron Hernandez guilty of first-degree murder on Wednesday after seven days of deliberation. Mr. Hernandez was sentenced by Judge E. Susan Garsh to the mandatory term of life in prison without the possibility of parole." ...
... The boston.com story is here.
Share Article
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.
Reader Comments (13)
Aretha is definitely the Queen. Thanks so much for showing the gospel concert.
My father often said that he enjoyed paying taxes, because it meant he was finally making enough money that he needed to. Dad grew up dirt poor, in the Deep South, during the Great Depression. But he always thought being an American was a pretty good deal. Said it would have been a bargain at twice the price.
I have enjoyed the immense good fortune of being born to a good family, in the United States, in the middle of the 20th Century. This makes me one of most fortunate people who have ever lived in the history of the world. I did nothing to merit this.
Today I will file my tax returns with a smile, even though my tax rate is higher than many of the Oligarchs. How many of them, do you suppose, think being an American would be a bargain at twice the price?
Wow, let's all pat ourselves on the back today as we have finally progressed so much as a nation that we can officially take Cuba off the list of state-sponsors of terrorism. After the stream of Cuban terrorists flowing out of Cuba since Fidel took over, I'm surprised we were able to do it at all.
In other shenanigans, Dana Milbank has a good takedown of the GOP taking up a bill on Tax Day to eliminate the Estate Tax altogether, because as Paul Ryan (R-henchman) notes, it's "absolutely devastating" to family farms. Yeah, right Paul, except as Dana points out, and as everyone else in the room knows perfectly well, only 120 family farms were even included in the Estate Tax in 2013. And the only proposals the GOP has to counteract the $269 billion hole in the budget by completely killing the Estate Tax is savagely cutting social programs for the middle and lower classes.
Dana points out that the Estate Tax has existed in some form literally since the beginning of our young little Nation, 1797 to be exact. The extremist tendencies spewing out of the Plutocrat Party continue and it's really getting sickening at this point.
Overall a perfect example of who the GOP is fighting for today. No GOPer gives a flying fuck about the income inequality problems today. Not a single one. America be damned.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-push-for-a-permanent-aristocracy/2015/04/14/aa434f82-e2e5-11e4-81ea-0649268f729e_story.html?hpid=z2
Re the estate tax ("Death Tax" if you are GOP): yesterday afternoon C-SPAN covered the Norquist Americans for Tax Whatever "Tax Day" confab, held on Capitol Hill courtesy of the proprietors thereon. I heard one of the speakers, Congressman (Whatsizname) from Texas, go on about how the Death Tax was standing in the way of African Americans joining in the American Dream, because it keeps them from forming the capital necessary to pass prosperity to their children.
Once again, I say, "Holy Shit." These folks will say ANYTHING.
Also, this: Marie, we cannot express often enough our gratitude for what you do here, but from time to time we need to do so. Thanks, and happy Tax Day!
The information that Rubio, a Catholic, is attending this particular Protestant mega-church whose pastor is a guy named Blackwood whose bigotry and anti-evolution beliefs are front and center is right out of some playbook. If true, Rubio is incredibly naive, although since he has the sword of Chiang perhaps he thinks he's protected at all times from Satan's vengeance (read Democrats and some journalists). Marco is so appealing––great smile, good voice, delivers speeches with a tone of sincerity, and yet here we have a pretender––a slick Willy whose messages belie his background and "his people"––very sad.
@DC: You should send this to the NYT letter section. Wonderful!!!
@Marie: Well, if a Clinton-Obama ticket won't fly with the public, how about Clinton-Clinton? Bill and HIll, 2016. Er, make that Hill and Bill :-)
RE: the cases of flawed testimony and bungled court cases that send hundreds of innocent people to prison. Each state has a different compensation for decades of lost freedom: Missouri, for instance, gives exonerees fifty dollars a day for the time served; California, twice that much while Mass. caps total compensation at half a million dollars. In Maine, the limit is three hundred thousand no matter how long someone has served and in Florida, it's two million. Obviously the variation is arbitrary and has no logic to it. And it appears there have been countless cases of Scarcella- like framings and yet the Scarcellas' are never tried. Scum––absolute scum!
Regarding the uber strange passing on of a mystical, magical Confederate weapon (the Sword of Chang! sounds like a not very good comic book title) from Juanito to Marco, Steve M asks "Can you imagine Jerry Brown (or, say, Deval Patrick a few years ago) giving a ceremonial object to a fellow Democrat in a state legislative chamber while praising the Democrat as a "liberal warrior"? It would be regarded as completely out of bounds."
No Steve, it would be considered wiggy, weird, and downright creepy. And people would make fun of it for decades.
And not for nothin' but the whole thing smacks of the secret militaristic homoerotic club (based, no doubt on Skull and Bones, a Bush family tradition) in "Animal House". The only thing left out is the paddling of supplicants' buttocks and their cries of "thank you sir, may I have another?" (although maybe that came later, in the Secret GOP Chamber of Dark Eros, down near the boiler room).
These people are such fucking weirdos but, as Marie notes, one of these creepjobs could be the next president. Just imagine what Fox would do with this kind of B movie mystical touchy-feely bullshit had it been two Democratic candidates for president. Hannity would want them examined for dementia and Andrea Tantaros would pee herself on air, she'd be so worked up.
And leave us not forget the part where the participants, including the supposedly smart Bush, ignore the actual historical references in favor of occultish, wingnut wouldja-woo mojo humping of the Sacred Conservative Warrior thingy.
But isn't this the same sort of phenomenon whereby Paul Ryan, an economic ignoramus and charlatan is given the title of "Very Serious Person" and whose budgets, written in crayon on pages torn from the funny papers are pored over by imbeciles as if they're sacred scrolls? So now we find out that not only is Marco Rubio not a scientist, he's pretty weak on historical references, and he has a thing for homoerotic Confederate idol worship.
Wonder what his mega church pastor thinks about that?
Secret Marco. @Akhilleus: Thanks for the question. I'll bet Pastor Blackheart there would deem the Jeb & Marco show a foray into false-gods territory. When Li'l Randy was bowing down to Aqua Buddha, he was (1) a college student, & (2) clearly just kidding around -- actually, making fun of Christians, which should endear him to the GOP base. But Jeb & Marco were adults when they pulled this juvenile stunt in an official setting. If it weren't well-documented, I'd think the whole story was a hoax.
And I cannot help but find in the Secret Marco story a reminder of Secret Mark, a highly-controversial "lost" fragment of the Gospel of Mark, which contains -- homoerotic rituals! So perfect.
Marie
Just wondering how long before Confederates get back to attacking Chelsea Clinton. Hey, they can attack her baby as well, Party of the Family, and all.
You know, you really don't have much of an idea what an alternate universe wingnuts inhabit until you peek down a Confederate rabbit hole.
I happened to do a little checking up on the time that bastion of Confederate propriety and decency, Rush ("Oxy-Boy") Limbaugh made fun of 13 year old Chelsea Clinton on national TV, calling her a dog. Nice, huh? And I recalled that former presidential candidate John McCain asked the burning question on everyone's minds, "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?" Keeping it classy as ever, John. But don't forget, this is the guy who once called his wife the C word in front of a bunch of reporters. Smooth. Really smooth. This was a three-fer for McCain. The answer, "because Janet Reno is her mother" allowed McCain to state that Chelsea was ugly and so was Janet Reno, and in addition, Chelsea's dad had been having sex with his Attorney General.
Whew. Anyway, I wanted to link this stuff for anyone whose memory of such things is a bit hazy.
And then I fell down the rabbit hole.
I found sites that defended Limbaugh's attack and another which reminded us that Sean Hannity once claimed that there were never, ever any attacks on Chelsea Clinton, but there had been plenty of attacks on poor good girl Bristol Palin. Let's forget for the time being that the Palins presented themselves as America's Perfect Christian Family and pretty much asked to be placed front and center, AND the fact that Chelsea Clinton was much younger and had never shoved her way into the limelight like Bristol Palin had.
One site claimed that it was Al Franken who was the no good dirty scoundrel for daring to remind readers, in his book on lying liars, about the Limbaugh "joke" because he got the date wrong. It was (according to this idiot--I haven't had time to fact check this claim) 1992, NOT 1993 as Franken supposedly wrote, and that made all the difference. Why? Yeah. I wondered that too. Apparently it was A-Ok to rip into a 13 year old in '92 because the Clintons had just moved into the White House and.....well, the reasoning is pure idiocy, but there you go. Somehow, attacking a kid is fine as long as you do it in the right year. We clear on that?
Politico once described John McCain's attack on an 18 year old Chelsea Clinton by saying that it was a "witty jape" on ol' John's part and he was just showing his "lighter side", but that some people just don't get that he's kidding. Right.
A little deeper into the hole, down where daylight disappears, and you had better have eaten your carrots, I find this ugly site: Hillary Clinton's Crab Lice, in which the wingnuts make it clear that HRC is not fit to be president because she is too ugly. Also, she loves her some racists. A faked quote from Margaret Sanger saying she wanted to exterminate blacks is placed next to a quote of Hillary's indicating admiration for Sanger's work. I checked this and found that wingers routinely circulate this faked quote, especially the religious nutballs who don't think women should use any form of birth control. I had never even heard of this shit, have you guys?
Sanger was not immune to controversy but her attitudes about race were generally far ahead of her time. The quote in question refers to her efforts to work with black preachers and leaders in the south when trying to talk about birth control. She wanted to make sure that their communities did not interpret her work as an attempt to "exterminate the black race", a meaning directly opposite the widely circulated Confederate version.
At this point, I had to come for air. The stench was getting to me. But really kids, most of us have no idea how truly fucked up these people are and the whacko, hateful shit they believe. And in the internet age, the hate and the lies flow freely, like sludge from an outfall pipe, and contaminate the national discourse in ways not possible even a few years ago.
Oh, man, does it stink down there.
Marie,
Secret Marco is right!
Can't you just see Marco coming to Juanito (with his unsheathed phallic sword), naked except for a linen cloth, so he could "be" with him and learn the secrets of wingnuttery?
Send THAT to his pastor and see what he thinks.
"really kids, most of us have no idea how truly fucked up these people are and the whacko, hateful shit they believe."
Unfortunately, I am one of those kids who has learned (the hard way) just how demented some of those people are and it has made me more thankful for those that aren't and more furious and frustrated at those that are and more protective of my own life and loves.
And yes, in this age of INFORMATION flowing freely and in constant flux we get not only the sludge from the bottom, but the insalubrious debris from the top on a daily basis. A good cup of tea for the Brits and the Irish seemed to do the trick to wick away these "bad things happening," but for us Mericans maybe a shot of something stronger at the end of a day will do the trick. Maybe baying at the moon would be better.
Of Coffee & Tea
Greetings, Marie, and Reality Chex Forum.
While no fan of Hillary, she enjoyed her Chai (a spiced tea, often blended with milk - cow's or soy) and Latte (coffee with milk - ditto) at "The Jones Street Java House" in Le Claire.
The venue has been described as a small "coffee shop". However, I understand it is a spot that serves a variety of "specialty" javas & chais).
HRC's selections may (?) have been recommended to her by the owners or baristas. Or, she sampled items that are both appealing to her *and* would bring more revenue than a cuppa coffee (assuming the staff would accept payment).
Even "fly-overs" are populated with folk who appreciate - and want - specialty coffees & teas.
I think that ordering just-a-cup-of-coffee at a Java House - white or black - would have been unadventurous, and possibly a disappointment to the staff.
Taking A Java Break From More Pressing News -
Ophelia M.