The Commentariat -- January 2, 2016
Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: "A new study on long-term unemployment from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis found that the prospects for women over 50 darkened after the Great Recession. In 2006-7, before the downturn hit, less than a quarter of the unemployed in this group had been out of work for more than six months. By 2012-13, older jobless women accounted for half of the long-term unemployed."
** Robin Lindley of the History News Network interviews historian Christian Appy on how American exceptionalism drives foreign policy, and not in a good way. republished in Salon.
Michael Massing, in the New York Review of Books, on how the press should cover so-called philanthropy. "The tax write-offs for such contributions, however, mean that this giving is subsidized by US taxpayers. Every year, an estimated $40 billion is diverted from the public treasury through charitable donations. That makes accountability for them all the more pressing. So does the fact that many of today’s philanthropists are more activist than those in the past.... Rather than simply write checks for existing institutions, these “philanthrocapitalists,” as they are often called, aggressively seek to shape their operations." ...
... AND Bill Gates has a book blog. "As publishers have become more aware of Mr. Gates’s reviews ... they have tried to figure out how to get their new books in front of him." CW: So while Bill is spending your money messing with education or whatever, you might want to read a few of the books he recommeds.
Presidential Race
Gail Collins' New Year's quiz focusses on the presidential race.
Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton's campaign announced Friday that it raised $55 million in the final fund-raising period of 2015, and $112 million for the year. Clinton brought in $37 million in money specifically for use in the primary, the most for any non-incumbent in a non-election year, the campaign said, and $18 million for the general election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Making Al Qaeda Great Again. Tom Liddy of ABC News: "The militant group Al-Shabaab -- Al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia -- has released a recruitment video featuring ... Donald Trump. The more-than 51-minute propaganda video comes on the heels of a war of words between Trump and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton over her suggestion that the real estate mogul's controversial remarks about Muslims would be used to recruit jihadis. The video includes a clip of Trump calling for a 'shutdown' of Muslims entering the United States." ...
... Jessica Glenza of the Guardian: "... towards the end of the Rose Parade [in Pasadena, California,] ... skywriters captured public attention with messages reading 'America is great. Trump is disgusting' and 'Iowans dump Trump', dotted through a cloudless sky.”
If we awaken and energize the body of Christ -- if Christians and people of faith come out and vote our values -- we will win and we will turn the country around. -- Ted Cruz, to volunteers on a conference call Tuesday
... Steve M.: "... back in the fall, [Ben] Carson seemed to be the evangelical favorite.... But Ted Cruz and his preacher father, Rafael, out-Carsoned Carson.... Carson is fading now because he's no match for Cruz. Cruz, with his father's help, has done the best job this year of weaponizing Christianity." ...
... CW: This "body of Christ" stuff is just creepy & totally inappropriate for a political candidate to utter. A public official is supposed to serve all of the people, & that is not possible for a candidate who invokes Christianist messages as part of his campaign. When Ted uses Jesus an an instrument to "turn this country around," he means to turn it around to a Christianist nation. It's sickening.
Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "... aides to [Jeb] Bush and important allies described a long-shot plan to pull off what seems all but impossible: winning the Republican nomination for president. The plan has six elements."
Beyond the Beltway
Thomas Curwen of the Los Angeles Times: "Porter Ranch[, Calofornia,] lies closer to the gas field with the nearest homes about a mile from a well that began leaking Oct. 23. Fumes are pouring into the community, and thousands of residents have been relocated to temporary housing. Emergency crews have returned, but the work is slow. Southern California Gas Co. estimates that crews won't plug the leak at the Aliso Canyon Underground Storage Facility until at least late February, possibly until late March.... Neither the cause nor the exact location of the leak has been identified.... "
David Montgomery of the New York Times: "On a chilly, overcast day, more than 100 Texans gathered [on the south steps of the Texas state capitol building] carrying an array of holstered weaponry — Glocks, Smith & Wessons and more — to mark a change in the law that lets them openly display the fact that they are armed. The practice had been banned in Texas since 1871. Similar demonstrations were held in several other Texas cities."
Responsible Gun Ownership, Ctd. AP: "A man shot and killed his wife and two others in his home in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve before his son wrestled the gun away and fatally shot him in a chain of events apparently set off by a dispute over a washing machine." ...
Responsible Gun Ownership, Ctd. Eric Dolan of the Raw Story: "A 20-year-old University of North Texas student crashed into an electrical pole in Denton early Friday morning after being shot in the head in an apparent road rage incident."
AP: "The death of a man whose plane clipped one building before smashing into another in the heart of downtown Anchorage was a suicide, a spokeswoman for his family said on Friday." The pilot, who was a member of the Civil Air Patrol, flew a CAP plane in the unauthorized flight.
Way Beyond
Carlotta Gall of the New York Times: "Many of the extremist groups [in North Africa] are affiliates of Al Qaeda, which has had roots in North Africa since the 1990s. With the recent introduction of Islamic State franchises, the jihadist push has been marked by increasing, sometimes heated, competition. But, analysts and military officials say, there is also deepening collaboration among groups using modern communications and a sophisticated system of roving trainers to share military tactics, media strategies and ways of transferring money." CW: And now we know these horrible people have a new recruiter -- Donald Trump.
Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: " executed 47 people convicted of terrorism-related offenses on Saturday, including suspected members of Al Qaeda and a prominent cleric and government critic from the country’s Shiite minority. The executions ... followed a year in which at least 157 people were put to death, the most in two decades in the conservative Muslim kingdom."
Simon Denyer of the Washington Post: "Chinese President Xi Jinping has carried out the most far-reaching anti-corruption campaign in Communist Party history — and, at the same time, the harshest crackdown on free speech in decades. Now he is tightening the screws further, outlawing internal dissent within the party through new disciplinary rules that have led to the firings of an academic, a newspaper editor and a senior police officer for 'improper discussion' of government policy.... To his critics, the move carries disturbing echoes of the dark days of Mao Zedong. Xi, they say, has surrounded himself with sycophants who can deliver only good news. He is undermining the ideas of collective leadership and 'intraparty democracy' that the Communist Party had adopted — and trumpeted — after Mao’s death, and replacing them with a return to one-man rule."
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Reader Comments (7)
Sky-Writing Above Rose Parade = "Trump Is Disgusting"
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/trump-disgusting-rose-parade-217282
@Ophelia M.: This might interest you.
Marie
The guys went to a movie yesterday, so I was left to do some binge surfing. A few days late but the Comediennes in Cars....with Seinfeld and Obama was priceless. It was so worth it to hear Obama reply to a question from Seinfeld about being tired of some of his counterparts. Obama said yeah, sometimes after they leave, he just has to say that was really dumb and annoying. The President, per usual has a great sense of humor and is thoroughly self deprecating. (The series is pretty funny.)
I also looked through the year in photos from the WH. Pretty clear that Obama really likes kids. No fake plastered on smile for the baby shots. He gets right on the floor with them.
OMGoodness!
Thank you (understatement), Marie.
Have only time to speedily skim before heading out . . .
But I will deeply *inhale* the content - lovely photo of Brodsky & Baryshnikov - once I've returned & can give this gem its proper due.
This was/is so very thoughtful of you.
Ophelia
Dexter Filkins does a superb piece of journalism in his New Yorker piece on Jeb and the Everglade problem in Florida. We not only get into the weeds of the environmental protection angle, but we learn something about how Jeb is seen by others who have worked with him.
"Nathaniel Reed, an Assistant Secretary of the Interior in the Nixon Administration, a friend of President George H.W. Bush, and a prominent Florida environmental activist, told me, "Jeb wouldn't listen to anyone. He's the most thin- skinned son of a bitch I've seen. If you criticize him, he never forgets it."
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/04/swamped-the-political-scene-dexter-filkins
Ran across this year's-end gold mine.
http://news.yahoo.com/scalia-dismisses-concept-religious-neutrality-speech-202953789.html. Scalia: providing impetuous to rebut religious blather for 30 years and counting. He's a typification that old men are the root cause of the world's problems and that the term "homo sapiens" is a misnomer.