The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Friday
Jul312015
The Commentariat -- August 1, 2015
Internal links removed.
White House: "In this week's address, the President celebrated the fiftieth birthdays of Medicare and Medicaid, which together have allowed millions to live longer and better lives":
Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Trade negotiators from the United States and 11 other Pacific nations were headed toward failure Friday, with difficult talks on the largest regional trade agreement ever breaking down over protections for pharmaceutical companies and access to agriculture markets on both sides of the Pacific. Negotiators will return to their home countries to obtain high-level signoffs for a small number of final sticking points on the agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, with bilateral talks reconvening soon. But the breakdown is a setback for the Obama administration, which had promoted the talks here as the final round ahead of an accord...."
Sam Stein of the Huffington Post: "The White House and allied groups are preparing a robust campaign to protect President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran during August recess.... As a method of persuasion, organizers are choosing a two-pronged message. The vote, they will argue, is not just a choice between war and peace; it is also a moment that could torpedo careers years after the fact. 'This is comparable to the Iraq War resolution vote,' said Zack Malitz, campaign manager at CREDO Action, echoing the group's message to lawmakers. 'If you vote the wrong way, it will haunt you for the rest of your career.'" (Hillary Clinton.) ...
... Julian Hattem of the Hill: "Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz appeared to break with President Obama on Friday, by denying that congressional Democrats are getting 'squishy' on the nuclear deal with Iran. Instead, Moniz appeared confident the deal would avoid a death knell on Capitol Hill and would go into effect later this year. 'Squishy? I wouldn't use that term,' Moniz told reporters at the White House."
Burgess Everett & Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "Republicans are rallying behind a bare-knuckle strategy to strip Planned Parenthood's government support via a must-pass fall spending bill, a momentum shift that dramatically increases the chances of a government shutdown fight this fall. What started out as a push from socially conservative firebrands like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and 18 House members on Wednesday, is spreading to include more centrist members of the Senate GOP. On Thursday, Arizona Republican John McCain, who often tacks to the middle in the Senate, not only backed a plan to link Planned Parenthood defunding with spending legislation, he suggested the move was inevitable.... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has scheduled a standalone vote on defunding the organization for next week, but it will fail amid Democratic resistance and may only temporarily satisfy the party's right flank." ...
... Laura Bassett of the Huffington Post: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) fast-tracked a bill to defund Planned Parenthood on Friday because of an undercover video of a Planned Parenthood doctor discussing the donation of fetal tissue after abortions. But McConnell was one of many Republicans who voted to lift a ban on fetal tissue donations after abortions in 1993 -- the very move that legalized Planned Parenthood's actions." ...
... Joan McCarter of Daily Kos: "By they way, McCain supported federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, so this must just be him being all mavericky again." ...
... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "A budget measure that strips funding from [Planned Parenthood] 'is certainly something that would draw a presidential veto,' press secretary Josh Earnest said. 'We have routinely opposed the inclusion of ideologically driven riders' in budget bills, Earnest added." ...
... ** Mark Stern of Slate: "Stem cells hold terrific promise for the treatment -- and, eventually, the defeat -- of ALS. The most useful stem cells are found in fertilized embryos and fetuses, where they haven't yet developed into specialized cells.... The first Food and Drug Administration -- approved clinical trials to treat ALS with fetal stem cells are already underway. Any treatment derived from fetal tissue is many years away at best, but the early research has been a success.... One of the many discoveries researchers made in preparing for the first trial was that fetal stem cells seemed to be the best stem cells for ALS treatment.... a woman's decision to donate her aborted fetus to medical research -- and Planned Parenthood's willingness to transfer the fetal material -- is deeply commendable." ...
... Dana Milbank: Senate Republicans have a plan to increase the number of abortions. "There already is a ban on federal funding of abortion, with rare exceptions, at Planned Parenthood or anywhere else. The federal funds Senate Republicans propose taking away from Planned Parenthood are used largely to provide women with birth control.... If Planned Parenthood were denied funding, this means hundreds of thousands of women, if not millions, would over time lose access to birth control." CW: I find a lot to object to in Milbank's column, but his central point -- that Senate Republicans' overreaction to the sting videos would result in more abortions -- is accurate. ...
... CW: The thread running through all of this is the insane, depraved disregard for human life -- of women, of their male partners, of their families, & of course of people who suffer from or who will later contract debilitating illnesses that embryonic & fetal cell research & treatment has the potential to mitigate or cure. To what end this appalling reckless indifference? Rand Paul gains a percentage point in the GOP presidential polls? Ted Cruz has a "cause" in another fundraising letter?
... Makes me realize another great thing about our nation's libertarian beginnings: early Americans were also unfettered by science & technology. Ah, for those happy days of leeches & covered wagons.
Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: "The Justice Department said Friday that the juvenile justice system in St. Louis County, Mo., treats black youths far more harshly than whites, and deprives all low-income youths accused of crimes -- no matter what race -- of their basic constitutional rights. Youths from poorer families who are accused of crimes get little or no chance to challenge their detention, dispute the charges against them, or receive meaningful help from lawyers, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division reported after a 20-month investigation. Its report is based on data on 33,000 cases over three years."
Anne Blythe of the Raleigh News & Observer: "U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder interrupted attorneys numerous times with questions during closing arguments Friday at the North Carolina voting rights trial.... The trial is the first full test of voting measures adopted after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which invalidated Section 5 of the landmark Voting Rights Act. The judge asked state attorneys why lawmakers had curbed or ended programs that had been so popular among black voters.... Schroeder told the attorneys he struggled to find a baseline for measuring what registration should be." ...
... CW: Based on his questions outlined in Blythe's report, Schroeder -- a Bush II appointee -- seems like a dimwitted (or sly) ole white boy unless many of his questions were rhetorical. Here's an example: "He turned challenger arguments on their head, asking whether the previous legislative votes that established early voting and same-day registration might have been discriminatory to white voters." Yeah, if you let all the black people vote, that's so unfair to white slackers. Once you're a judge, you can say whatever ignorant, bigoted things pops into your head.
Of Big Cats & Fat Cats. An Economics Lesson Courtesy of the Carcass of Cecil. Max Ehrenfreund of the Washington Post: How can a neighborhood dentist afford to go around the world slaughtering animals at $55K a pop? "Dentists in some places ... earn more than the average doctor.... The average general dental practitioner took in $181,000 in 2013, according to the dental association, compared to $175,000 for a family doctor, according to WebMD Medscape's annual compensation report.... [These figures take costs into account.] In the rest of medicine, insurers have an important function in limiting costs and promoting quality. The market power of Medicare and major national insurance companies allows them to insist on better rates for their customers when they negotiate with doctors and hospitals." ...
... Paul Krugman: "For many years conservatives have insisted that the problem with health costs is that we don't treat health care like an ordinary consumer good; people have insurance, which means that they don't have 'skin in the game' that gives them an incentive to watch costs. So what we need is 'consumer-driven' health care, in which insurers no longer pay for routine expenses.... As it turns out, many fewer people have dental insurance than have general medical insurance; even where there is insurance, it typically leaves a lot of skin in the game. But dental costs have risen just as fast as overall health spending, and it may be that the reduced role of insurers actually raises those costs.... more skin in the game is not just useless but actually counterproductive." ...
... CW: Almost makes you wonder if capitalism is awesome. ...
... Darryl Fears & Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post: "On Friday, officials in Zimbabwe said they intended to press ahead with a request to extradite Palmer for killing a lion known as Cecil just outside a sanctuary where the animal was protected. Later, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it had finally contacted Palmer, a dentist who had shuttered his practice in Minnesota a few days ago and disappeared. The Fish and Wildlife agency's law enforcement office said that a representative for Palmer 'voluntarily reached out to the service' Thursday afternoon and that its 'investigation is ongoing.'... [Palmer] "may have trouble avoiding extradition."
... Adam Raymond of New York: Dr. "Paul Broun, "the former Republican representative for Georgia's tenth congressional district and 2014 senatorial candidate not only killed a lion, but he ate it.... In a 2010 Roll Call video ... he takes viewers on a tour of his office, which is decorated like an animal graveyard. Among his trophies are a Kodiak brown bear, eland, water buffalo, and yes, a lion." CW: In the video, Broun says, "Hunting is what started my political activism." That's the best anti-hunting argument I've ever heard. As Raymond reminds us, "... Broun was such an unrepentant nut-job -- he once said, 'Evolution, embryology, Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell'..."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Steve Benen: The New York Times' bogus Hillary Clinton criminal story is part of a pattern that journalists should recognize by now: "We've already documented one recent instance in which the Benghazi committee leaked deceptive information to Politico, which ran an article that had to be corrected. We've also reported on several instances in which House Republicans, in the name of congressional oversight, have also leaked information to news organizations that turned out to be deliberately misleading -- some related to Benghazi, some not."
Presidential Race
... Matea Gold & Anu Narayanswamy of the Washington Post: "More than 50 individuals and entities have shelled out at least $1 million apiece to big-money groups backing presidential candidates -- with close to half of the big donors giving to a super PAC aligned with former Florida governor Jeb Bush. With 15 months to go before Election Day, donors have already contributed $272.5 million to independent groups supporting the large Republican field, more than four times the $67 million raised through their official campaigns, according to a tally by The Washington Post.... Never before has so much money been donated by such a small number of people so early." ...
... Jeremy Bowers, et al., of the New York Times: "Today is the deadline for the outside groups known as 'super PACs' to file fund-raising reports for the first half of 2015. For the groups that have filed so far, here are the individuals and corporations that have given $1 million or more." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Janell Ross of the Washington Post: Mike Fernandez disagrees with Jeb Bush on the Affordable Care Act & on normalizing relations with Cuba. Maybe that's why Fernandez gave Jeb! only $3 million.
Ken Dilanian & Lisa Lerer of the AP: "Dozens of emails that traversed Hillary Clinton's private, unsecure home server contain national security information now deemed too sensitive to make public, according to the latest batch of records released Friday. In 2,206 pages of emails, the government censored passages to protect national security at least 64 times in 37 messages, including instances when the same information was blacked-out multiple times. Clinton has said she never sent classified information from her private email server.... There were no obviously stunning revelations in the emails released Friday.... Some of the documents could reflect favorably on Clinton.... There was no indication from emails released so far that Clinton's home computer system used encryption software.... Current and former intelligence officials have said they assume the emails were intercepted by foreign intelligence services." ...
... Dan Roberts of the Guardian : "A third of Hillary Clinton's top backers made their money from the financial services industry, according to Guardian analysis of new campaign finance disclosures released on Friday.... Separately, Clinton disclosed on Friday evening that she and her husband earned $28m in personal income last year and have paid nearly $44m in federal taxes since 2007." ...
... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign released a letter from her doctor on Friday attesting to her health and fitness for office, on a day marked by a deluge of other disclosures about her finances and a new batch of emails from her time as secretary of state." The letter is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Hillary Clinton on Friday called out her Republican rivals for approaching foreign policy 'through an outdated cold war lens'. In a speech that advocated for greater diplomatic engagement with Latin America, the Democratic presidential frontrunner also called on Congress to lift the 50-year US embargo on Cuba.... On Friday, Clinton publicly argued her case in detail for the first time in Miami -- the original home of the Cuban exile community and the backyard of two of her chief Republican opponents, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and US senator Marco Rubio." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Dave Weigel, et al., of the Washington Post: "Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton took a swipe at Republican rival Jeb Bush [in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,] Friday before a mostly African American crowd.... Speaking ahead of Bush, Clinton delivered a speech in which she invoked the Black Lives Matter movement, cited Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland and others whose deaths set off controversies. Clinton went after Bush without naming him, saying his policies would not help people trying to improve their lives. 'I don't think you can credibly say that everyone has a right to rise and then say you're for phasing out Medicare or for repealing Obamacare,' she said. 'People can't rise when they can't afford health care.' 'Right to Rise' is the name of the pro-Bush super PAC operated by his top allies." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: Clinton's remarks caught Jeb! off-guard, & he didn't rebut them when he spoke about an hour later. "Mr. Bush's aides, however, could barely hide their disgust over Mrs. Clinton's remarks, which they spoke of, bitterly, as uncivil and uncalled-for.... Despite the broadsides from Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Bush's speech was well received.... The conference Friday had offered a chance for Senator Bernie Sanders ... to appeal more directly to black voters. But his speech highlighted just how much work he still has to do." ...
... Annie Karni & Eli Stokols of Politico on why Jeb! didn't need to hit back at Clinton. Also, it would have been stupid to do so before the Urban League.
... Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: "The State Department concluded this year that Huma Abedin, one of Hillary Rodham Clinton's closest aides, was overpaid by nearly $10,000 because of violations of rules governing vacation and sick leave during her tenure as an official in the department. The finding -- which Abedin has formally contested -- emerged publicly Friday after Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) sent letters to Secretary of State John F. Kerry and others seeking more information about an investigation into possible 'criminal' conduct by Abedin concerning her pay."
Jennifer Senior of New York theorizes that Americans don't really want "authenticity" in a president: "... what voters truly want are candidates ... with a polished public persona, who actually believe their performing selves, to the point that they play those people even in private." Ergo, the steady slide of Rand Paul, "the most interesting man in politics." Senior predicts Donald Trump won't survive the primaries, either: "... he's a pathological personality, yanked straight from the pages of the DSM-5. He always speaks his mind, but the things he says are inappropriate in any context -- public, private, on the moon. He may speak to a certain portion of the GOP primary base, but in time, he too will combust ... because the electorate can tolerate screwball, unpredictable behavior for only so long." ...
... Mike Levine of ABC News: "Presidential candidate Donald Trump wants a prominent chef to pay $10 million in damages after the food star bailed on plans to open a new restaurant inside Trump's latest project in the nation's capital. A group owned by Trump -- Trump Post Office LLC -- filed a lawsuit today in federal court.... After Trump made controversial remarks in June suggesting illegal immigrants from Mexico are criminals and 'rapists,' [chef Jose] Andres backed out.... 'Mr. Andres' offense is curious in light of the fact that Mr. Trump's publicly shared views on immigration have remained consistent for many years, and Mr. Trump's willingness to frankly share his opinions is widely known,' the lawsuit states." CW: Hmmm. Apparently, that's an accurate point. Read on. ...
... ** Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Long before [Donald] Trump announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination..., he had proved himself in New York as an expert political provocateur with an instinct for racially charged rhetoric." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Jeremy Borden of the Washington Post: "The man accused of gunning down nine African Americans inside a historic black church known as 'Mother Emanuel' has told his lawyers that he currently plans to plead guilty to federal hate crime charges, attorney David Bruck told a federal judge Friday. However, Bruck said that because federal officials have not decided whether to seek a death sentence for some of these charges, he did not want to enter a guilty plea yet. As a result, the judge said he would enter a not guilty plea." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Oliver Laughland of the Guardian: "Two officers who witnessed the shooting of unarmed 43-year-old Samuel DuBose in Cincinnati will not face criminal charges, despite seemingly corroborating a false claim that DuBose's vehicle dragged officer Ray Tensing before he was fatally shot.... On Friday [county prosecutor Joseph] Deters' office announced that a grand jury had declined to bring any charges against the other two officers, after hearing testimony from both of them.... Deters said on Friday he was in full agreement with the decision." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Anne Saker of the Cincinnati Enquirer: "The union representing the University of Cincinnati police force has filed a grievance on behalf of Raymond Tensing demanding that he get his job back as an officer because the university fired him this week without due process, a union official said Friday.... [Union rep Thomas] Fehr said that Tensing was notified that the union was filing the grievance on his behalf. 'He wanted it done,' Fehr said." ...
... Yesterday Akhilleus asked, "What in the hell are University police officers doing making traffic stops in the first place?" I wondered that, too. So here's the answer: Jason Williams of the Cincinatti Enquirer (July 29): "According to UC's agreement with the city, university police officers have the authority to investigate minor traffic offenses that occur outside the boundaries of the campuses.... [BUT NOW] University of Cincinnati police officers are no longer allowed to patrol off-campus streets -- fallout from this week's officer-involved fatal shooting several blocks from the main campus. President Santa Ono and other UC leaders ... said they also are reviewing an agreement between university police and Cincinnati police regarding how the departments patrol streets near UC's campuses." ...
... Zandar in Balloon Juice: "And I say 'No, no, no' to this Cincinnati Enquirer article on how Officer Ray Tensing, the UC cop that shot and killed Sam DuBose, is such a nice guy."
Antonio Olivo of the Washington Post: "A federal judge ruled Friday that Virginia can stop issuing specialty license plates that show the Confederate flag, following a recent Supreme Court decision that said such a ban does not violate the 1st Amendment. U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser said he will issue a written order to address whether the nearly 1,700 Confederate license plates currently in use in Virginia may be recalled by the state." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell should lose his pension because of his felony conviction, the state's attorney general said Tuesday. In an advisory opinion sought by Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) said that under a law McDonnell signed in 2011, the ex-governor must relinquish his benefits because he was convicted of a felony related to on-the-job conduct."
AP: "A federal judge said he would dismiss a lawsuit filed by a pregnant prisoner who sought an abortion after the woman told him during a hearing on Friday she had changed her mind and now wants to deliver the child, a reversal called 'highly suspicious' by one of her lawyers. The woman's change of heart came as a prosecutor said separately the state was shelving an effort to strip her of parental rights over the fetus and delaying prosecution on two drug-related charges while the woman enters in-patient addiction treatment at a state-certified facility."
News Ledes
USA Today: "Staggered by a $72 billion debt load, Puerto Rico was likely to miss a debt payment due Saturday, setting the stage for what could be one of the largest U.S. municipal debt restructurings. Puerto Rico's government said Friday it would not make a $58 million bond payment due over the weekend."
CNN: "Three members of Osama bin Laden's family were among four people killed in a small plane crash in southern England, British police said."
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Reader Comments (7)
If the US government didn't have specific and restrictive rules in place regarding the use of email use among specific employees until now (if that's even the case?), then surely other people in previous administrations should have found themselves scrutinized in a similar manner as that of Hillary. In reading about the eternal email dumps of Hillary which make front page news every time another release is passed to the media, they're making it look like Hillary is the only culprit to ever be so naive and reckless with sensitive information. Granted some articles do indeed shed some light on the subject, but if journalists are going to keep coming to the Hillary Email Scandal to fill their quotas, they should be required to at least mention the fact that this isn't such an anomaly unfortunately.
I'm still astonished that the cyberguards of our government didn't lay down the law on email use from day one of transitioning from paper to digital communication, but surely previous administrations should also be scrutinized. Being in the position of Secretary of State, I couldn't imagine using my personal account knowing that any one of my sources/informants/diplomats could be sending me sensitive information. That, for me, certainly makes me question her lack of judgement. But, lacking the very important nuance that she's not the only one to do this, media cycles foment the careless and irresponsible Hillary, 24/7.
I can't recall Ol' Mittens Romoney getting hassled so thoroughly by WIPING CLEAN the state computers in his office before jumping ship (I wonder what those emails said, hum? Guess we'll never know...) and I certainly haven't seen the same scrutiny over Oil Slick Scotty Walker and his SECRET EMAIL SYSTEM he used to avoid any public transparency. If his star starts to rise in the polls, then I'm really hoping some investigative journalists start prying open that dark box of degeneracy.
@safari: points well-taken. According to this PolitiFact report, the only two secretaries of state who say they regularly used e-mail were Clinton & Colin Powell. It appears that Powell, like Clinton, used a private account exclusively. And, um, he didn't save his correspondence. At all.
In Schmidt's original Times story of March 2-3 on Clinton's use of a personal account, he cites a lawyer in private practice who once was the top litigator for the National Archives: "But her exclusive use of her private email, for all of her work, appears unusual, Mr. Baron said. The use of private email accounts is supposed to be limited to emergencies, experts said, such as when an agency’s computer server is not working." So, yes, it's "unusual," because only two secretaries of state (before Kerry, who uses a State email account) used their personal email account to conduct official business. It would be helpful to add that these were the only two secretaries of state to use email AT ALL. Another way to put it: "All former secretaries of state who used email used private accounts exclusively." Oh. That's a little different.
In the second graf of his March 3 report, Schmidt wrote, "Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act." The Federal Records Act was passed in 1950, tho of course the average reader has no idea that's the case. Obviously, in 1950, the act did not address email practices. It's left up to the National Archives & the various administrations to set & update policies to comply with the act. With regard to the retention of emails, the National Archives did that in the fall of 2013. About a year later, the State Department got around to issuing a directive to comply with the law. Clinton left office in February 2013, months before the National Archives published its directive. So the Times' assertion is bullshit.
Nonetheless, since Clinton was aware of how the media would treat her, no matter what, & since she certainly always had an itch to run for president again, even if she wasn't scratching it continually, she & her staff should have made sure that like Caesar's wife, she was above reproach. This, IMHO, especially on account of the nation's propensity to accuse the Clintons of involvement in all kinds of nefarious conspiracies, would have included being extra-careful about how she archived her official correspondence.
As for the security issue, like you, I would use the government account, not because I thought it was more secure -- it's been hacked numerous times -- but to cover my ass.
Marie
Looks like Citizens United and its brethren has worked just as predicted. It's successfully united about 200 very wealthy individuals (often anonymous) and corporations proudly arrayed against the other 99% of the nation. Justice Kennedy must be very proud.
As I heard someone say the other day, if money really is speech, when you don't have any, you don't have any.
If I could concentrate only on the vast entertainment value provided by the vast Republican field's rush to the Presidency, I'd write Kennedy a letter to thank him.
Unfortunately, too much of the unwitting humor the clown train offers is unrelievedly dark.
I attended an event Thursday with speaker Johnathon Ross, M.D., MPH, a past president of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), a national health reform group of nearly 20,000 physicians and health professionals who advocate for reform. Speaking from personal experience, he commented that having "skin in the game", (copays, coinsurance) mostly increases profits for insurance companies and deaths for patients. Krugman, in pointing out that "skin in the game" has been useless in keeping costs down in dentistry, forgets to mention that it also results in low-income people having awful teeth,,, perhaps not as bad as dying for wont of medical care, but still a despicable outcome.
"....HAS worked?" Sheesh! Wish I could blame Kennedy for that too.
That's okay, Ken-- we all think/write in splats and halts and spurts, and sometimes the "subject don't agrees with the verbs..." I'm a proofreader and just as guilty as the next person in forgetting to police my own poor writin'-- Have a nice Saturday, knowing you provided the usual good stuff to think about!
Concerning money and speech: "...you don't have any (money), you don't have any (speech)".
Truer words have never been spoken. I'm sure Anthony Kennedy was thinking of this problem in the originalist mode, which has been so helpful in modern times. Someone in an 18th century pub says something you disagree with, something 15 people may have heard, you simply get up on your soapbox the next day and 15 other people will hear your side of things.
Problem solved.
Welcome to Sherwood.