Monday
Aug052019
The Commentariat -- August 6, 2019
Late Morning Update:
Trump Dishes It Out, But He Can't Take It. Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday attacked former President Barack Obama over the latter's statement on the weekend's mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, tweeting edited quotes from Fox News hosts to make his point and again claiming he is 'the least racist person' in the world. '"Did George Bush ever condemn President Obama after Sandy Hook. President Obama had 32 mass shootings during his reign. Not many people said Obama is out of Control,"' Trump wrote online. '"Mass shootings were happening before the President even thought about running for Pres." @kilmeade @foxandfriends'." Mrs. McC: Uh, Donnie, I think you & your Fox Friends missed the point: President Obama never stoked white nationalist wet dreams. Also, Obama didn't name you; you & your Friends clearly decided the shoe fits. For once you-all were right about something.
The Unwelcome, Deadbeat Visitor. Matthew Adams & Robert Garrett of the Dallas Morning News: "Ahead of a Wednesday visit to El Paso..., Donald Trump still owes the city more than $500,000 for his expenses related to his February rally. Trump is scheduled to visit El Paso in the wake of the Aug. 3 shooting that left at least 22 people dead. The Federal Aviation Administration advised pilots of a presidential visit later this week to El Paso and Dayton, Ohio.... The Center for Public Integrity ... reports that the total with late fees is now $569,204, according to a July 18 invoice to the Trump campaign. 'It's ridiculous and unconscionable. The city of El Paso is an economically challenged community,' El Paso County Commissioner Dave Stout said of the Trump camp's failure to pay.... 'He's going to be throwing salt into the wound -- a very, very deep wound. And this community needs healing, not Donald Trump, Stout said.... Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents El Paso [and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke], also said Trump isn't welcome."
Joshua Goodman & Deb Reichmann of the AP: "The Trump administration froze all Venezuelan government assets in a dramatic escalation of tensions with Nicolás Maduro that places his socialist administration alongside a short list of adversaries from Cuba, North Korea, Syria and Iran that have been targeted by such aggressive U.S. actions. The ban, blocking American companies and individuals from doing business with Maduro's government and its top supporters, took effect immediately Monday and is the first of its kind in the Western Hemisphere in more than three decades, following an asset freeze against Gen. Manuel Noriega's government in Panama and a trade embargo on the Sandinista leadership in Nicaragua in the 1980s."
Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "Just days after mass shootings left at least 31 people dead, a bipartisan group of congressional staffers is set to go on an outing to shoot skeet alongside gun lobbyists. The event comes every year.... According to its website, the event is scheduled for August 6.... A source familiar with the event said the 'associated industry supporters' typically include members of the firearms industry, officials from the NRA, NRA lobbyists, and lobbyists working for gun companies.' They routinely attend the event to socialize with congressional staff. A second source familiar said NRA officials are not expected to attend this year." --s
John Seewer of the AP: "Facing pressure to take action after the latest mass shooting in the U.S., Ohio's Republican governor urged the GOP-led state Legislature Tuesday to pass laws requiring background checks for nearly all gun sales and allowing courts to restrict firearms access for people perceived as threats. Gov. Mike DeWine said Ohio needs to do more while balancing people's rights to own firearms and have due process during a press conference Tuesday. He outlined a series of legislative actions he wants the Legislature to take up to address mental health and gun violence.... Protesters once again shouted 'do something' -- a refrain chanted during Sunday's vigil honoring the victims -- at DeWine at the start of his Tuesday announcement.... His calls for action could be an uphill battle for the Legislature, which has given little consideration this session to those and other gun-safety measures already introduced by Democrats. DeWine's Republican predecessor, John Kasich..., also unsuccessfully pushed for a so-called red flag law on restricting firearms for people considered threats."
Vanessa Grioriadis of New York has a long bio on Ivanka Trump. Some highlights: "In her 20s, she said her favorite book was Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and she had modeled herself on its capitalist heroine, Dagny Taggart.... [T]he No. 1 thing friends from her past say about her: She isn't a 'mean person' or a 'bad person' but is simply afflicted with the same disease of narcissism as her father.... In 2003, when Paris Hilton's sex tape was leaked on the internet, Donald wouldn't stop talking about it, saying, 'Paris is laughing all the way to the bank, she's got the last laugh, she's marvelous.' Ivanka could not believe her father was not only idolizing an airhead heiress caught blowing a guy on a night-vision video but encouraging her to follow Paris's lead.... [According to a friend] 'She really has no idea she's privileged. She genuinely thinks she's earned everything she has. She goes on and on all the time about how hard she works.'" --s
E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "A government climate scientist who says the Trump administration buried a groundbreaking report he authored has left the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in protest over the 'political views' top officials allegedly imposed on his work. Politico reported Monday that Lewis Ziska, a plant physiologist who worked at USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) for more than 20 years, quit due to an increasingly political atmosphere at the agency.... USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue has similarly dismissed global warming as 'weather patterns.'... Ziska told Politico that the reason the study was buried is down to political ideology and the administration's unwillingness to embrace established climate science." --s
Reuters: "North Korea has fired two unidentified projectiles into the sea from South Hwanghae province, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.... The [North Korean] foreign ministry said the [U.S./South Korean] military drills were violations of diplomatic agreements and added that North Korea had remained unchanged in its commitment to resolve the issues through dialogue, but 'will be compelled to seek a new road as we have already indicated,' if South Korea and the United States continue with hostile military moves." --s
Vanessa Gera of the AP: "Claims that Russia orchestrated a political scandal that helped bring Poland's right-wing government to power are getting revisited as the country prepares for another election. Five years ago, unflattering recordings of Polish politicians secretly made at two Warsaw restaurants were leaked to newspapers. The resulting 'Waitergate' scandal helped topple a pro-EU government in 2015. An investigative Polish journalist and a formerly fugitive multimillionaire have recently provided fresh fuel for the idea that Waitergate was a prelude to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Reporter Grzegorz Rzeczkowski argues in a new book that Russian intelligence services bugged the restaurants on behalf of the Kremlin." --s
~~~~~~~~~~
We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred and normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don't look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people. -- Barack Obama, in a statement, Monday (full statement at the link) ...
... Michael Crowley, et al., of the New York Times: In a speech this morning, President* Trump said, "'In one voice our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy''... But Mr. Trump stopped well short of supporting the kind of broad gun control measures that activists and Democrats have sought for years, instead calling for stronger action to address mental illness, violence in the media and in video games, as well as 'the perils of the internet and social media.'... Mr. Trump took no questions, and did not repeat his call on Twitter earlier in the morning for Republicans and Democrats to work together to strengthen background checks for prospective gun buyers, but his proposal to link new gun control measures with immigration restrictions is likely to leave Democrats sternly opposed." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Several commentators noted that Trump never once in his speech referred to Hispanics or Latinos. ...
... What the Over-the-Hill Gang Is Saying about the Massacres in El Paso & Dayton:
(1) May God bless the memory of those who died in Toledo. -- Donald Trump, 73, in the only ad-lib in his teleprompter speech yesterday: ...
(2) Emily Larsen of the Washington Examiner: "... speaking to donors at a high-dollar fundraiser in San Diego on Sunday night, [Joe] Biden, 76, mistakenly referred to the shootings as 'the tragic events in Houston today and also in Michigan the day before,' but later corrected himself, according to a pool report."
... Jack Mirkinson of Splinter: "On Monday morning..., Donald Trump gave a speech at the White House about the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton which was so at odds with everything he has said and done throughout his political career that it might as well have been coming from an alternate universe. Using the halting somber tones he incongruously adopts when reading off a Teleprompter after mass tragedies, Trump ... plodded through all the phrases presidents are expected to deploy at times like these.... 'America weeps for the fallen,' Trump said in a monotone. For someone who had, just hours earlier, ranted about the 'fake news' media helping cause these atrocities, it felt more than a little hollow.... 'In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy,' said the man who laughed when a person at one of his rallies suggested shooting immigrants. 'Hate has no place in America,' said the man who happily oversaw chants of 'Send her back!' about a black woman he doesn't like." ...
... "Trump Made It Easier for the Mentally Ill to Get Guns." Corky Siemaszko of NBC News: "... Donald Trump responded to the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings by insisting Monday that 'mental illness pulls the trigger not the gun,' but shortly after taking office he quietly rolled back an Obama-era regulation that would have made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns.... It came after the House and Senate, both of which were Republican-controlled at the time, passed a bill, H.J. Res 40, which revoked the Obama-era regulation.... The Obama rule that Trump nullified had added people receiving Social Security checks for mental illnesses and people deemed unfit to handle their financial affairs to the national background check database." ...
White supremacy is not a mental illness. We need to call it what it is: Domestic terrorism. And we need to call out Donald Trump for amplifying these deadly ideologies. -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Monday
... Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "In his re-election campaign, Mr. Trump has spent an estimated $1.25 million on Facebook ads about immigration since late March, according to data from Bully Pulpit Interactive, a Democratic communications firm that is tracking the digital advertising of presidential candidates. Those ads represent a significant portion of the roughly $5.6 million that Mr. Trump has spent on Facebook advertising during that period. Most of the [2,000+] 'invasion' ads began running between January and March, though a few dozen began running in May. Many of the ads began with a blunt message -- 'We have an INVASION!' -- and went on to say, 'It's CRITICAL that we STOP THE INVASION.'... Mr. Trump, through his speeches, tweets and campaign ads, has elevated the idea of an 'invasion,' once a fringe view often espoused by white nationalists, into the public discourse." ...
... This is a pirated video, so it will probably come down soon. Thanks to PD Pepe for the link.
... Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Surrendering to political necessity, Trump gave a brief speech on Monday decrying white supremacist terror: 'In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.' He read these words robotically from a teleprompter, much as he did after the racist riot in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.... Back then, it took about a day for the awkward mask of minimal decency to drop; soon, he was ranting about the 'very fine people' among the neo-Nazis.... If history is any guide, it won't be long before the president returns to tweeting racist invective and encouraging jingoist hatreds at his rallies. In the meantime, everyone should be clear that what Trump said on Monday wasn't nearly enough." ...
Bananas! Kevin Draper of the New York Times: "After two mass shootings over the weekend that killed 31 people and wounded dozens more, powerful Republicans, including the president, blamed an old boogeyman: video games.... Researchers have extensively studied whether there is a causal link between video games and violent behavior, and while there isn't quite a consensus, there is broad agreement that no such link exists.... 'The data on bananas causing suicide is about as conclusive,' said Dr. [Chris] Ferguson [who led a group that developed an American Psychological Association statement on the effects of video games on violent behavior]. 'Literally. The numbers work out about the same.' The Supreme Court has also rejected the idea. In striking down a California law that banned the sale of some violent video games to children in 2011, the court savaged the evidence California mustered in support of its law."
The Lonely Republican Truth-teller. Chris Rodrigo of the Hill: "A Republican state senator from Nebraska on Sunday accused the GOP of helping to enable white supremacy. 'The Republican Party is enabling white supremacy in our country,' state Sen. Kevin McCollister (R) tweeted. 'As a lifelong Republican, it pains me to say this, but it's the truth,' McCollister continued. 'I of course am not suggesting that all Republicans are white supremacists nor am I saying that the average Republican is even racist. What I am saying though is that the Republican Party is COMPLICIT to obvious racist and immoral activity inside our party.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Bill Hutchinson, et al., of ABC News: "The suspect in the killing rampage at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, allegedly cased the store, looking for Mexicans to kill before he came back and unleashed a barrage of gunfire that left 22 people dead and more than two dozens injured, law enforcement officials told ABC News. The latest twist in the investigation of the mass shooting came just hours after doctors in El Paso confirmed that two more victims had died from bullet wounds suffered in the Saturday morning massacre -- increasing the death toll to 22. The suspect ... told investigators following his arrest that he allegedly set out to kill as many Mexicans as he could, according to authorities. On Monday, law enforcement officials told ABC News that [Patrick] Crusius case the Walmart, going inside on Saturday without any weapons, apparently to size up the clientele inside the store, which is about 5 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.... Crusius [then] exited the store and allegedly armed himself."
Ali Soufan in a New York Times op-ed: "I see disturbing parallels between the rise of Al Qaeda in the 1990s and that of racist terrorism today. White supremacists, like their Islamist counterparts, explicitly seek to use violence to create a climate of fear and chaos that can then be exploited to reshape society in their own image. Their recruitment videos share an emphasis on the lifestyle they purport to offer recruits -- one of 'purity,' militancy and physical fitness.... One group for neo-Nazis, founded by a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, has taken the analogy to its logical conclusion, calling itself 'The Base' -- a direct translation of the meaning of the word Al Qaeda. The organization also uses similar black flag imagery. The Base maintains an online library of terrorist manuals; the Al Qaeda publication Inspire taught the Boston bombers how to build pressure-cooker explosives.... Many of our allies have already changed their own laws to allow more robust investigations of domestic terrorists."
Annals of White Nationalist "Journalism." Courtney Hagle of Media Matters: "The shooter who killed 20 people and injured dozens in El Paso, TX, over the weekend first posted online a document outlining the white nationalist 'great replacement' theory to which he subscribed. Fox News has long mainstreamed this theory's rhetoric.... Fox hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, who both have a history of pushing white nationalism and bigotry on cable airwaves, blatantly push the theory that white Americans are being replaced through immigration to the benefit of Democrats. Variations of the white supremacist 'great replacement' theory have also appeared on other Fox programs.... On her Fox show, Laura Ingraham fearmongered that Democrats 'want to replace you, the American voters, with newly amnestied citizens and an ever increasing number of chain migrants.'... On his Fox show, Tucker Carlson fearmongered about immigrants replacing an aging American population. He asserted that he isn't 'against the immigrants' but rather 'for the Americans' because 'nobody cares about them. It's like, shut up, you're dying, we're gonna replace you.'" Hagle cites many similar remarks by Fox hosts & guests.
Daniel Newhauser of Vice News: "Before he killed nine people in a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, early Sunday, Connor Betts was deeply involved in the misogynistic, male-dominated 'goregrind' or 'pornogrind' extreme metal music scene. It has a regional following in the Midwest and is known for sexually violent, death-obsessed lyrics and dehumanizing imagery depicting women. Over the past year, the 24-year-old shooter occasionally performed live vocals in the band Menstrual Munchies, which released albums titled '6 Ways of Female Butchery' and 'Preeteen Daughter Pu$$y Slaughter,' with cover art showing the rape and massacre of female bodies. He also performed with a group called Putrid Liquid.... One of Betts' bandmates, Jesse Creekbaum, 25, is taking the recordings down. He says he's removing them out of fear the vulgar music he produced will make a cult hero out of the murderer...."...
... Michael Biesecker & Julie Smyth of the AP: "High school classmates of the gunman who killed nine people in Dayton, Ohio, say he was suspended years ago for compiling a 'hit list' and a 'rape list,' and questioned how he could have been allowed to buy the military-style weapon used in this weekend's attack. The accounts emerged after police said there was nothing in the background of 24-year-old Connor Betts that would have prevented him from purchasing an AR 15-style rifle with an extended ammunition magazine.... A former cheerleader, the woman said she didn't really know Betts and was surprised when a police officer called her cellphone during her freshman year to tell her that her name was included on a list o potential targets.... The male classmate, who was on the track team with Betts, said Betts routinely threatened violence toward other students. 'Most people avoided him,' the man said. 'He would say shocking things just to get a reaction. He enjoyed making people feel scared.'" ...
... Campbell Robertson & others of the New York Times report more about the Dayton shooter's background & what happened Saturday night. ...
... And That Brings Us to Mitch McConnell. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Monday, a picture appeared on Instagram, apparently taken by a group of young men supporting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at the Fancy Farm, Kentucky political picnic. [The young men are wearing T-shirts that say 'Team Mitch.'] The picture showed them gathered around a cardboard cutout of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), with one of them gripping the cutout's throat to look as if he was strangling her[.]... Other supporters of McConnell set up a display of tombstones depicting both former Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland and Democratic Senate challenger Amy McGrath." Mrs. McC: Ah, boys will be boys and all. Oh, wait. ...
... Matthew Choi of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's campaign tweeted out a photo of satirical tombstones over the weekend..., hours after the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.... The tombstones named Amy McGrath, his main Democratic opponent in the 2020 Senate race for Kentucky, as well as Judge Merrick Garland, whose nomination to the Supreme Court he blocked during the last year of Barack Obama's presidency.... The tweet was shared as details of the El Paso shooting were still developing.... 'Hours after the El Paso shooting, Mitch McConnell proudly tweeted this photo. I find it so troubling that our politics have become so nasty and personal that the Senate Majority Leader thinks it's appropriate to use imagery of the death of a political opponent (me) as messaging,'" McGrath wrote in a tweet featuring the photo of gravestones McConnell tweeted. McConnell's campaign manager Kevin Goldman chastized McGrath for "politiciz[ing] a tragedy." Right. ...
... Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that Republicans are prepared 'to work in a bipartisan, bicameral way to address the recent mass murders which have shaken our nation,' but his statement made no mention of any timeline to do so - and it didn't mention the word 'guns.' Democrats have called on McConnell to call the Senate back in session to take up legislation to tighten background checks.... McConnell issued a statement later in the day that said 'Senate Republicans are prepared to do our part,' but also indicated they were in no rush." AND ...
... Here's Why. Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "The National Rifle Association spent $1.6 million during the first half of the year lobbying members of the House and Senate against laws that would enact stricter background checks for people looking to buy guns, according to disclosure reports. One of the dozens of bills targeted by the NRA is H.R. 8, a bipartisan proposal that passed the Democratic-controlled House in February and has yet to be taken up by the Republican-controlled Senate. The second-quarter filing shows that NRA lobbyists continued their efforts against the bill after its passage in the House. The lobbyists also looked to make changes to the Background Check Expansion Act from Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut.... The NRA's PAC, the National Rifle Association of America Victory Fund, gave the reelection committee of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky $4,950 in June, according to Federal Election Commission documents." ...
... #MassacreMitch. Ewan Palmer of Newsweek: "... Mitch McConnell is receiving criticism in the wake of two mass shootings within less than 24 hours over his apparent failure to help impose stricter gun control laws. More than 120,000 tweets have been sent using the #MassacreMitch hashtag after at least 20 people were killed at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and a further nine people killed in a shooting around 13 hours later in Dayton, Ohio. Many Twitter users expressed their anger towards McConnell for blocking a Senate vote on a bill passed by the House of Representatives in February which would require full background checks to be run against every person who wishes to purchase a gun. Others also accused McConnell of costing people's lives by pandering to the NRA due to the donations he and the Republican party receive from the lobbying group."
Victoria Bekiempis of the Guardian: "Cesar Sayoc, who in March admitted to mailing more than one dozen bombs to prominent critics of Donald Trump before the 2018 midterm elections, was sentenced in New York to 20 years in prison on Monday. A fanatical Trump supporter, Sayoc ... sent 16 crude explosives to 13 intended victims across the US, prosecutors said. None of the bombs, which prosecutors called 'improvised explosive devices', exploded.... As his life declined, [Sayoc's lawyers] argued, the penniless Sayoc turned to spiritual candles and self-help books -- including Trump's writing. 'The books by Donald Trump really resonated with him,' said defense lawyer Ian Marcus Amelkin. 'Then he kind of became obsessed with Donald Trump. Sayoc spent money on 'Trump-branded' suits and ties. 'He looked up to the president, as a father figure,' Amelkin said. 'He watched Fox News ... he was expressing a lot of hateful ideas and conspiracy theories.'"
Trade Wars Are Easy to Win. Fred Imbert of CNBC: "Stock futures tumbled on Monday night, adding to Wall Street's losses from its worst day of 2019 amid intensifying trade-war fears. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures traded 508 points lower, implying a loss of 630.74 points at Tuesday's open. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also indicated sharp losses. If these losses remain, the Dow's two-day decline would amount to more than 1,300 points." ...
... Markets Plunge. Ana Swanson, et al., of the New York Times: "The trade war between the United States and China entered a more dangerous phase on Monday, as Beijing allowed its currency to weaken, Chinese enterprises stopped making new purchases of American farm goods and President Trump's Treasury Department formally labeled China a currency manipulator. The escalation shook world markets as nervous investors looked for safe places to park their money. Wall Street suffered its worst day of the year, with the S&P 500 closing down nearly 3 percent. Selling was especially heavy in the trade-sensitive technology, consumer discretionary and industrial sectors. Yields on United States Treasuries, which fall as prices rise, dropped as investors sought safety in government-backed bonds. Benchmark indexes in Asia and Europe also fell." ...
... Dan Primack & Felix Salmon of Axios: "U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday night declared China to be a currency manipulator, just hours after the Chinese government allowed the yuan to slip below a 7-to-1 dollar ratio for the first time in over a decade.... This is a further ratcheting up of trade tensions between the two countries, and also marks the first time any U.S. president has used the currency manipulator label since 1994." ...
Saleha Mohsin of Bloomberg News: "While the U.S. Treasury Department's determination is largely symbolic, as the potential punishments are a shadow of the steps Trump has already taken against China, it underscores the rapidly deteriorating relationship between the world's two largest economies. The move immediately roiled markets, with S&P 500 Index futures sliding more than 1% Tuesday in Asia. The yuan slid further in offshore trading."
Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "A federal judge signaled Monday he's considering removing the Mueller report's redactions. During more than two hours of oral arguments in Washington, District Judge Reggie Walton appeared on several occasions to side with attorneys for BuzzFeed and the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center, which are seeking to remove the black bars covering nearly 1,000 items in former special counsel Robert Mueller's final 448-page final report.... The judge, an appointee of President George W. Bush, sounded increasingly skeptical of the government's arguments pressing him to leave the redactions untouched." ...
Sometimes the body does what the head wants. -- Judge Reggie Walton, questioning the necessity of all the redactions in the Mueller report ...
... Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "Judge Walton ... suggest[ed] that the DOJ officials tasked with making the FOIA exemptions could have been following directions from higher-ups.... Walton in particular raised concerns about Attorney General William Barr's initial handling of Mueller's report, indicating that he believed there were discrepancies in how Barr characterized the report and the former special counsel's actual findings. 'I do have some concerns because it seems to me difficult to reconcile the contents of the Mueller report and statements made by the attorney general' about the report, Walton said. The judge pointed to a letter authored by Barr weeks ahead of the report's release that said Mueller determined there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election and Barr's suggestion that the president was cleared by the report. Mueller has since stated that his office did not investigate collusion but instead whether any Trump campaign officials conspired with Russians in 2016. And the former special counsel has repeatedly stated that his report does not exonerate President Trump.... [Walton] noted the high level of public interest in the case -- and the inevitable prospect that whatever ruling he issues will be appealed -- in saying h will work to make a decision soon."
Congressional Race 2020. Laura Barron-Lopez of Politico: "Rep. Kenny Marchant announced Monday he will not seek reelection next year, adding another member to the rapidly growing House GOP retirement list and opening a newly competitive Dallas-area seat.... Marchant's seat is a top target for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which plans to invest in flipping a slate of Texas seats occupied by Republicans that have rapidly shifted to the left in recent years. Marchant won reelection last year by only 3 percentage points against a Democratic candidate who spent only $96,000 for the entire cycle.... Marchant, first elected in 2004, is the fourth Texas Republican to decide against running again in 2020 and the 11th House Republican to announce retirement."
News Lede
New York Times: "Toni Morrison, the 1993 Nobel laureate in literature, whose work explored black identity in America and in particular the experience of black women, died on Monday at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, her publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, said in a statement. She was 88."
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Reader Comments (25)
And take that, Red States....
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-agriculture/u-s-farmers-suffer-body-blow-as-china-slams-door-on-farm-purchases-
I feel sorry for some individual farmers and their families, but still can't forgive these states for what they collectively did to the rest of us.
More farmer subsidies coming soon, I'd guess. We have plenty of money from all those tariffs just lying around, and there's that proposed five billions dollar cut from food stamps to increase the vast pile of extra cash in the national treasury.
Oh wait, the food stamp program is a farmer subsidy, too....
For those here who are able to avert their eyes from the cynical performers of the hour, I recommend this lucid new essay by Michael Hudson:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/08/michael-hudson-global-warming-and-u-s-national-security-diplomacy.html
Prof. Hudson explains why an effective Green program must go beyond the environmental issue to take on an array of wealthy vested interests (oil, MIC, and national security.)
"A Green program cannot succeed without confronting the National Security state’s mentality aiming at U.S. oil supremacy. U.S. national security has become a war threatening the security of the entire globe. Threatening to freeze countries in the dark if they do not follow U.S. policy and isolate Iran and Russia, the United States is burning itself up along with the rest of the planet."
I thought this message from Chris Hayes last night worth listening to two times over:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chris-hayes-donald-trump-racist-rhetoric-shootings_n_5d493b0be4b0d291ed0605bb
In the 'who knew' department, Ohio Rep. Candice Keller (R-Ohio)
knows the real reasons for all the mass shootings and------some of
the reasons are drag queen advocates, same sex marriage, open
borders (?), Obama, hating veterans, kneeling at sports events,
and on and on.
She left out moon pies, convertibles and palm trees.
But no mention of the fact that assault weapons do cause mass
murders. They aren't called assault weapons for nothin'. They're
not called protection weapons so being referred to as assault
weapons should explain it to even the daftest in our midst.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ohio-politician-blames-mass-shootings-
103223388.html
I'm wondering: Trump's reading from the teleprompter is so inept, so pathetic and so like someone who has just learned HOW to read, could it be that he needs glasses but is too vain to wear them? He probably would distain contacts because he won't face needing them? Whatever the reason his rendering of whatever he reads is tantamount to puerile bull pocky. Where is the passion, where is the anger, where were the right words for this carnage? And to put the icing on this sorry dump cake, he ends with:
"May God bless the memory of those who died in Toledo." I can well imagine those in Toledo thought for a moment, "oh, christ, there is a shooting here, too." But back to the God blessing––what does that mean exactly? How about the victim's loved ones and the country itself blessing the fallen. Trump's platitudes of late re: this "God" blessing this and that makes me sick. There should be fury–-there should be outrage–-any president worth his salt should have... oh, lordy, it's like a broken record–-over and over. Talk about shooting for the moon.
@Keith: Thanks for the link, I think. I'm even more depressed now given the extent to which our current industrial, financial, political, and social systems will need to be revamped in order to save the planet from ourselves.
One reason it may never happen is that the world's largest military runs on oil, whether it's bunker, diesel or avgas. If it were a country the US defense establishment would be ranked as the 55th worse polluter in the world.
On the other hand I think that all that fuel-burning military hardware will be for nothing. The next war will likely be over cyberspace.
Yessss, Forrest!
Off-topic: I am just now reading the New Yorker piece on Al Franken and getting angry all over again-- losing the Senate has been a fatal blow for democracy, as it continues to be the place legislation goes to die. That woman flat-out lied, conspiring with right-wing yahoos deliberately to do so. No winger can be trusted ever.
I heard this morning that the Nebraska lawmaker is being told by his cohorts that he is a RINO and should hit the bricks. He's a brave man to speak out...
More truth-telling on guns from some other R's.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-06/republicans-fear-extinction-in-the-suburbs-over-gun-control
Could that messy coalition of haters better known as the current Republican Party be painting themselves into another political corner?
Funny, the things you remember.
Ivanka's admiration for "Atlas Shrugged" reminded me of a scene from the book, which I read in my late teens back in the mid 60's.
Dagny Taggart gets ravished by Hank Rearden in a railroad tunnel on what must have been a comfortable bed of rr ties. At least, that's the way I remember it.
Whether I have that memory right or not, I know why I remember it.
I wonder if that scene stood out for Ivanka, too, and what it might have meant to her.
Ali Soufan's piece linked above rhymes with the analysis of MSNBC contributor Frank Figluzzi, an ex-FBI agent specialized in counterintelligence. He's gone on teevee the last few days explaining that the dynamics giving rise to the white nationalism threat today reminds him of extremist Muslim clerics ginning up social misfits to go jihad and find a purpose in their directionless lives; ergo, on national teevee we have an professional American intel agent openly comparing the current president of the US "aka 'Land of the Free', 'the Beacon of Light'...[insert laudy symbol here]" to a radical mullah arousing the darkest instincts of his supporters to join a white power jihad.
This is, truly, for better or probably worse, an incredible time to be alive.
@PD Pepe: Yes, your take of Telepromptr Trump is a far better analysis than the first headlines that appeared in the Times and Wapo shortly after the speech. I supposed they were trying to be 'kind' since as bad as it was...it was somewhat less bad than readings before. Almost seemed they wanted to throw Trump a bone. He reads without comprehension. Struck me that behind the scenes people have been telling him he needs to improve because of all the comments that follow one of these performances and have drilled him to read better, more smoothly (sorta). Maybe Ivanka? But, he doesn't have that ability. Later on pieces in the Times and Wapo were less generous in their initial consideration and started to take his speech apart.
@KenW: I, too, read Atlas Shrugged as a teenager...and thought it was WOW a powerful story. Decades later I picked up another copy and started to read. I couldn't get past six pages before I threw it in the trash. Realized that's where it belonged.
@small s: Read through the lengthy and unflattering piece on Ivanka yesterday in the New York magazine online. Wonder when the Tweet storm will begin? It was brutal.
@safari: The difference between white nationalist jihadists & Muslim jihadists of course is the color of their skin. Millions of Americans are terrified of most Muslims -- including of the vast majority of Muslims who are just normal people -- but they're good with the Jihadist-in-Chief. Because white. I find the Media Matter story about Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, et al., ultra-scary; these two bigots are the personifications of what's wrong with this country.
And there's no magic bullet to fix that. Obama -- who went out of his way to be the least offensive president in American history -- is the proof. The majority of Republicans (Republican presidential candidates usually win the white vote) are pathetically tribal & parochial. They're like our own Stone-Age Taliban, living among us.
Seeing the Big Baby whine about that mean ol' black guy complaining about him and his white supremacist friends and the hatred and violence they sow, I was immediately struck (as was Marie) by the fact that Obama never once mentioned president Klansman by name. He knew good and well to whom the last real president was referring. He outed himself.
Reminds me of an episode in the fifth grade. One of my classmates, a bit of a class clown but not the sharpest of tacks, would draw something silly/stupid on the blackboard before the nun came into the room. One day Sister Marie Peter announced "Whoever has been drawing on the blackboard is going to have serious detention when I find out who it is". The entire class sat still until finally the culprit yelped "I didn't do that, sister"
Bagged.
Serious detention for Trumpy. As in impeachment, followed by prosecution for crimes against the United States and a nice orange jumpsuit to go with that pissy straw colored mop on his empty dome.
A guy can dream, can't he?
At least I don't have white supremacist dreams, as Trump and his racist pals do.
The Chris Hayes video (thanks, PD) comes across like the summation of a prosecutor, the kind that makes defense attorneys do a face palm, close their briefcases, and wish their client good luck in the slammer.
Trump even convicts himself.
On a more positive note, it was great to see President Obama stand up to be counted. I know he's been trying to do the right thing and let his successor have his day, but this shit is way out of hand. He needed to add his voice to the resistance.
And now that I think of it. Can you, in your most fevered imagination, picture Trump doing the right thing after he's out of office and shutting his pie hole while the next president runs her show? But now that I think of it, I'm not sure they allow inmates access to the Twitter machine in federal prison.
Just dropped in over on Esquire to see what Charles Pierce was about today and aha, see he has a sharp take on how the Grey Lady handled Trump's speech on unity!
"The Unity Against Racism Tour '19 lasted less than 24 hours, or only slightly longer than the offending headline stayed up on the NYT website. This was the safest bet of all time.
See: Trump Took 24 Hours to Squander the Free Ride Given to Him By The New York Times ( https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a28621692/donald-trump-mass-shootings-el-paso-dayton-new-york-times-headline/ )
@MAG: Okay, you got me to read that Ivanka profile in New York. I had a friend in junior high school who bought movie magazines, & I read some of the profiles of movie stars in her magazines. Reading about Ivanka was like reading old movie magazines. Not exactly enlightening. But I did go in to the fridge & get some bonbons (okay, dark-chocolate-covered berries) for the occasion, so finally in my dotage I can claim to be one of the useless ladies who lies around of an afternoon reading movie magazines & eating bonbons. Thanks!
You need a silk robe, feather boa and Pomeranian (with her own doggie bonbons) to complete the look.
... and fluffy mules on your feet, preferably a pastel color
Watching Donaldo reading that "Racism is bad and crazy people are killers" speech, several things were obvious.
First, he, of course, didn't write it (you guessed that, did you?). Second, this was the first time he'd seen it. He read like he was trying to translate an eye chart. Third and most importantly, he didn't believe a word of it. At least the parts about white supremacy and racism.
But for a guy who considers himself the smartest and the best at just about everything, including acting (something most con artists are pretty good at), the whole thing looked like a hostage video. Stiff, robotic, rote, disengaged at an existential level.
Christ, even Dubya could pretend to be human now and then (Cheney? Not so much). All presidents have other people write for them, even those like Obama and Clinton who are pretty smart guys and decent writers. But most of them are able to make the words their own, to put the ideas and emotions across in a way that doesn't sound like you're a kid being forced to recite a Shakespeare soliloquy and hating every second of it. Especially during a time of national crisis.
Another in the long line of examples of how this asshole believes himself to be president ONLY of his voters and racist supporters. Just compare his moribund, indifferent delivery here to the energetic bomb throwing he excels at during a rally for the droolers.
They are HIS people. Everyone else can go to hell.
Impeach. Now.
"Obama didn't name you; you & your Friends clearly decided the shoe fits."
There's a line from the novel Dune that I often have the opportunity to quote after Paul Atreides speaks of certain transgressions at a state dinner one of the guests takes offense to which his mother, Jessica responds,
"My son displays a general garment and you claim it is cut to your fit, what a fascinating revelation."
The level of refined contempt is exquisite.
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep an bear arms, shall not be infringed. Perhaps our founding fathers did not want every Tom, Dick and Harry running around with loaded flintlock muskets but thought the Minute Men should be able to respond with arms. The SCOTUS has however decided this issue, not the Constitution.
Not a gun crank, my biggest day was when my dad handed me the gun and said "don't shoot your dog." I was thirteen.
Assault, military weapons, do not belong in public hands.
Assault weapons have no legitimate use, they are designed for those killing people, planning to kill people or pretending to kill people.
Who do they pretend to kill, Black people, Hispanic people, commies, liberals, "the squad" or past presidents/. The eight or ten million owners of assault weapons deserve a lot of ridicule and should be asked who the pretend to kill.
A legal approach would be to require registration of assault weapons and to freeze them in place. Then have huge fins for transporting or failure to register the weapon.
The gun nuts could dry fire their weapons in their cellar or garage
and kill thousands of their fantasy opponents and no one will know who they hate.
Since parsing the 2nd Amendment will surely be a parlor game between now and November 2020, I went looking for Madison's notes on the subject. While Madison's POV is not dispositive, he had a gift for drafting language that he thought reflected the views of his constitution-writing peers, as well as his thoughts on objectively good government (which, initially, included his thoughts that a Bill Of Rights was not necessary -- thoughts he changed after witnessing the ratification process.)
So, here's (from the Wikipedia page on US Bill of Rights) Madison's early draft of what became the 2nd:
"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person."
That last clause didn't make the final. But it seems to me that it shows that, for Madison at least, the amendment was all about militia. If the idea was all about a personal right to own and carry a bullet-launcher, that clause is superfluous.
So, perhaps Scalia and Thomas types would so argue: that the thought was for the personal right, not for the militia concept, which is why the clause dropped out. I would go the other way: Madison was thinking of the militia (which for the slave states were REALLY important local police organs), but the clause got dropped as unnecessary in the Bill.
I'm sure if I did serious research I would find that history and law PhD's have been founded on both sides of that question. But it seems to me pretty clear that "original" thinking was about militia guns, and not Everyman's right to carry.
Finally ... Madison was one of the Founders who had no experience leading troops. Washington, Hamilton, Knox and others who had such experience generally thought of militias as useless and unreliable in field combat and campaigning. Washington and Hamilton advocated for professional forces, which (like taxes) struck many of the founders as dangerous, prone towards development of aristocracy, expensive and unnecessary. Maybe the 2nd arose from a desire by many of the un-blooded to ensure the rights of militias so that professionals were not necessary (the states REALLY did not want to pay for military other than for tribe suppression and slave control).
So, bottom line when arguing this year, we can say that Madison, at least, initially thought of the right to keep and bear arms as for militiamen.
@Patrick: Thanks. I've read quite a bit about the Second Amendment here & there, but I don't recall reading (or at least I didn't pay attention to) that final, deleted stipulation, which appears to refer to conscientious objection. It would seem we all would be better off had it made the final draft. Very interesting.
Poor Princess Ivanka. She's such a hard worker. She has it sooooo tough.
I can see where she gets her sense that getting out of bed to go shopping is hard work. Daddy, who either spends most of his days in bed watching TV and tweeting lies or heading off to play golf whines about how hard he works. You know what? Here's a fucking shovel Donnie. Start digging. And Ivanka? Here's your IHOP apron. Get your ass in there and take some orders. And don't forget that people who drink tea use milk, not cream.
That's what most Americans do.
When I was in college, I always worked two jobs. Freshman year I worked three jobs. Graduation week came around and I was working most of the week. Classmates had numerous events and parties, none of which I had time to attend. I heard that I had become the object of some derision for having to work. Pretty much none of the people I knew in college had a job. Not even a tiny 10 hour a week job. One guy had a $500/ wk allowance deposited into his account every week by his parents. I was more than happy to take a good chunk of that during Friday night poker games. He was not a bad kid, but he didn't have a fucking clue what the real world was like. He's now CEO of a family owned corporation and, I hear, rarely makes it into the office.
The point here is that a lot of these people have no idea--not the vaguest clue--what working for a living is like. Yes, I had a scholarship, but that didn't cover living expenses and other things, food, car insurance, gas money, etc. I did have some extremely rich friends who did get it. Even though they never held a job, and had high paying positions waiting for them upon graduation, they never made fun of me for having to work.
But others did. Others like Ivanka. And her prissy, pretentious daddy. And like them, a lot of these people complained about how difficult their lives were and how hard they had to work. I used to shake my head, getting in at 11:00 pm after working seven hours then having to study, never going to the parties in Boston or New York or the Cape or spending my summers in Africa on safari, to hear these people whine about how hard they had it and how that producer in Hollywood had not yet called them back about a paid internship for the summer. I was happy to hear that that construction company I worked for as a laborer the year before was happy to have me back. And that was my second summer job. I took a shower then went to my night job. Gotta make the money while you can.
I'm certainly not alone. Most of the kids, even today, in college (even in high school), know what this is like. But for the people in charge to not have a fucking clue in hell of what life is like for average people, and presenting themselves as hard workers for having to spend time organizing a first class family trip to ski in Europe, or picking out luxury clothing to wear at a summit at which you can offer nothing, then being able to influence national policy based on their idea of what hard work and deprivation is, is unbelievable.
Life in Trump's Amerika.
In all the discussion of the 2nd amendment four words always seem to be left out and totally disregarded; "a well regulated militia".
Another minor detail about the current and future state of things I've never heard a single Republican talk about.
Correct that. Here in Northwest WA they complain about the instream flow rules that followed a state supreme court decision that get in the way of more development.
So in their patented myopic way, Republicans do care about water.
If ignoring the issue or pretending that it will just go away is a kind of caring.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/06/climate/world-water-stress.html?