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
Tuesday
Jun302015
The Commentariat -- July 1, 2015
Internal links & defunct videos removed.
Afternoon Update:
Amanda Becker & Emily Stephenson of Reuters: "Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has raised about $45 million since she entered the 2016 race in April, her campaign said on Wednesday. More than 90 percent of Clinton's donations were in amounts of $100 or less, a campaign aide said, emphasizing the Democratic front-runner's broad-based grassroots support. The campaign did not release the total number of donors so far."
Robin Givhan of the Washington Post: "More than 728,000 people signed a Moveon.org petition calling on Macy's to ditch the Donald -- to sever its ties with Donald Trump, the real estate mogul-turned-celebrity designer-turned-Republican presidential candidate. And Wednesday morning, national department store chain announced that it was doing just that.... Trump responded with his own statement, suggesting that he was breaking up with them first anyway.... Once the Trump-branded merchandise is gone from the stores, that's it. Collectors can still purchase his menswear -- on sale! -- via the Macy's website. The decision does not effect the Ivanka Trump collection, which Macy's also sells."
Gretel Kauffman of the Christian Science Monitor: "An escaped murderer that was captured 22 days after breaking out of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., is claiming that he and his partner in crime used only hacksaw blades to cut through steel cell block walls."
Dana Hedgpeth of the Washington Post: "The White House said Wednesday it is lifting its longstanding ban on cameras and taking photos on its public tours."
*****
Sarah Wheaton of Politico: "Obamacare is the law of the land, President Barack Obama says, and it's time for Republicans who oppose it to move on. That's the message Obama intends to send during a visit to Tennessee on Wednesday, as he takes a victory lap just six days after the Supreme Court upheld the legislation that created Obamacare...."
Gregory Korte of USA Today: "The United States and Cuba will announce an agreement Wednesday to open embassies in each other's capitals, formally re-establish diplomatic relations for the first time since 1961, senior administration officials said Tuesday. President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry will make the announcement Wednesday morning, said the three officials...."
Jared Bernstein, in a Washington Post op-ed: "By significantly increasing the salary threshold below which salaried workers get overtime pay, President Obama just took a big step toward updating a critical labor standard with the potential to boost the paychecks of millions of middle-wage workers, many of whom should be getting overtime but are not.... You'd be very hard pressed to come up with a rule change or executive order -- i.e., non-legislation -- to lift the pay of this many middle-wage workers. That's important, because we live in a time when the bargaining power of many who depend on their paychecks is much diminished relative to the clout and power of those whose income derives from their wealth portfolios."
Mint Press photo.Wesley Lowery, et al., of the Washington Post: "Nationwide, police have shot and killed 124 people this year who ... were in the throes of mental or emotional crisis, according to a Washington Post analysis. The dead account for a quarter of the 462 people shot to death by police in the first six months of 2015. The vast majority were armed, but in most cases, the police officers who shot them were not responding to reports of a crime. More often, the police officers were called by relatives, neighbors or other bystanders.... More than 50 people were explicitly suicidal. More than half the killings involved police agencies that have not provided their officers with state-of-the-art training to deal with the mentally ill. And in many cases, officers responded with tactics that quickly made a volatile situation even more dangerous." CW: Also, too, remember that cops are selected for stupid.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The stunning series of liberal decisions* delivered by the Supreme Court this term was the product of discipline on the left side of the court and disarray on the right. In case after case, including blockbusters on same-sex marriage and President Obama's health care law, the court's four-member liberal wing, all appointed by Democratic presidents, managed to pick off one or more votes from the court's five conservative justices, all appointed by Republicans.... The court's conservatives ... were often splintered, issuing separate opinions even when they agreed on the outcome." ...
... * See previous commentary & links on just how "liberal" these decisions were. ...
... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Reports of the Supreme Court’s leftward turn have been greatly exaggerated. Liberals still giddy over a series of major victories at the Supreme Court last week got a bracing reality check Monday, as conservatives carried the day on key cases involving the death penalty and President Barack Obama's environmental agenda. Progressives got another signal that any momentum they were experiencing at the high court could be short-lived: the justices announced they will address the thorny issue of affirmative action next term, taking up for the second time a case challenging the University of Texas's use of race in its admissions process." ...
... ** Remember the Supremes! (TM: Kate Madison) Michael Tomasky of Daily Beast: "As we saw yesterday with the court's death-penalty and EPA rulings, it's still a long way from being a liberal court.... People should remember that if a Republican is elected president next year and has the chance to replace Kennedy and/or Ruth Bader Ginsburg with another Samuel Alito, the Obamacare and same-sex marriage standings could easily be reversed." ...
... Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "If you look at the totality of [Chief Justice John] Roberts's career, and his decade as a Supreme Court justice, two trends emerge: Roberts is exceedingly business friendly (he described the issue at stake in King as 'a question of deep economic and political significance'); and is deeply animated by a set of issues -- limiting affirmative action, voting rights, campaign finance regulations, abortion -- that by pure luck seems not to include universal health insurance. The Roberts Court has already done lasting damage on several of these fronts.... This judicial threat to liberalism won't subside, either, until a future Democratic president replaces one of the Court's existing conservatives with a liberal. The Roberts Court would give way to the Kagan Court, and the right would devote fewer resources to pursuing their agenda through the judicial system." ...
... Lydia Wheeler of the Hill: "The Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear another redistricting case out of Arizona, a day after the justices ruled that it is constitutional for states to use independent commissions to draw congressional districts. The new case, Harris v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, now looks at the constitutionality of legislative districts that were drawn up by the state's independent commission. The case was brought by a group of Republican Arizona voters who charged that the redistricting commission packed white GOP voters into over-populated districts to give minorities an advantage in Democratic districts. They claim the redistricting violated the Fourteenth Amendment's one-person, one-vote principle." ...
... Jennifer Agiesta of CNN: "Most Americans say they support each of the two major Supreme Court rulings issued late last week, and nearly four in 10 now say they view the Court as too liberal. According to a new CNN/ORC poll, 63% support the Court's ruling upholding government assistance for lower-income Americans buying health insurance through both state-operated and federally-run health insurance exchanges. Slightly fewer, 59%, say they back the ruling which made same-sex marriages legal in all 50 states. Support for each ruling is sharply divided by party, with most Democrats and independents behind both, and most Republicans opposed to both." CW: Good news for Democratic candidates. ...
... Good Catch. Ed Kilgore points out that the question the poll asked asked does not identify the decision as supporting "ObamaCare." "So the numbers CNN/ORC is showing represent another confirmation that the ideas incorporated in Obamacare are a lot more popular than the name, especially among those who are not necessarily responding to partisan cues." ...
Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Republicans appear to be closing the door on gutting the filibuster, brushing aside calls from GOP presidential hopefuls Jeb Bush and Scott Walker to consider lowering the 60-vote threshold for repealing ObamaCare. Sources close to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) say there's virtually no chance he will go along with abolishing the filibuster...."
Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Barack Obama pledged on Tuesday to 'squeeze every last ounce of progress' out of his remaining time in the White House, as his poll ratings reached a two-year high following what political commentators said was the best week of his presidency." Video of the press conference, a joint one with Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, is here.
Michael Grunwald of Politico: "Politico has obtained a draft copy of TPP's intellectual property chapter as it stood on May 11, at the start of the latest negotiating round in Guam.... The draft chapter will provide ammunition for critics who have warned that TPP's protections for pharmaceutical companies could dump trillions of dollars of additional health care costs on patients, businesses and governments around the Pacific Rim. The ... document, cluttered with objections from other TPP nations, shows that U.S. negotiators have fought aggressively and, at least until Guam, successfully on behalf of Big Pharma."
Josh Gerstein: "The State Department on Monday turned over to the House Benghazi Committee another 3,600 pages of Libya-related documents involving three top officials under former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to a spokesman for the panel's Democrats. Included in the newly-provided records are emails to or from former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, former Director of Policy Planning Jake Sullivan and Clinton's former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, the spokesman said." ...
... Josh Gerstein: "In her early months in office, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in contact with unofficial adviser Sidney Blumenthal more often and on a wider range of topics than was previously known, a set of about 3,000 Clinton emails released Tuesday night by the State Department revealed. While Blumenthal's role as a provider of off-the-books intelligence reports on Libya has stirred controversy, the newly disclosed emails show he also acted as an intermediary with officials involved in the Northern Ireland peace process and shared advice with Clinton on issues from Iran to British politics to how to blame China for the breakdown of global climate talks." ...
... Margaret Hartmann picks out "the juiciest revelations" from the State Department's release of a batch of Hillary Clinton's e-mails. Sample: couldn't figure out how to use eFax. What an idiot! I still have trouble with call-waiting -- hey, it's only been around for about three decades.
Do-Nothing Congress Dooms Puerto Rico. Danny Vinik of Politico: "With Puerto Rico spiraling toward financial disaster, [White House] spokesman Josh Earnest ... yesterday ... reiterated the White House's support for an idea to help the troubled island: Let its public corporations to go through a structured bankruptcy, the same way they can in the 50 states. In an April campaign stop, Jeb Bush said much the same thing: 'Puerto Rico should be given the same rights as the states.' With both [President] Obama and [Gov.] Bush behind the same plan, you might expect it to have decent odds on Capitol Hill. You'd be wrong. Puerto Rico's non-voting delegate, Pedro Pierluisi, introduced such a bill in the last Congress, but it never even received a vote in committee."
Suzanne Daley & Niki Kitsantonis of the New York Times: "The Greek government has signaled to its creditors that it is willing to accept many of the terms of a bailout package that it had earlier rejected, if they are part of a broader deal to address the country's funding needs for the next two years, officials said on Wednesday. The development raised the prospect of progress in resolving a financial crisis that has sent shudders through global markets and deeply strained European unity." ...
... Finally Feeling His Inner Krugman. Julie Davis & Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "President Obama said Tuesday that he was trying to prod European leaders to salvage a deal to keep Greece in the eurozone, even as his government was bracing for the possible consequences of a once unimaginable divorce. 'It is an issue of substantial concern,' Mr. Obama said just hours before Greece missed a debt payment to the International Monetary Fund of 1.5 billion euros, or about $1.72 billion. 'I've spoken to my European counterparts, encouraging them to find a path towards a resolution.'... Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew spoke by telephone Tuesday with the finance ministers of three important eurozone countries -- the Netherlands, Italy and France -- as part of the administration's push to soften Europe's stance." ...
... Here's the Guardian's liveblog of developments.
Presidential Race
Silver-Tongued Serpent. Tom Moran, editorial-page editor of the Star-Ledger, who has covered Chris Christie for 14 years: "Don't believe a word the man says.... My personal favorite:... [In] the 2009 campaign..., the public workers unions asked him if he intended to cut their benefits. He told them their pensions were 'sacred' to him. 'The notion that I would eliminate, change, or alter your pension is not only a lie, but cannot be further from the truth,' he wrote them. 'Your pension and benefits will be protected when I am elected governor.' He then proceeded to make cutting those benefits the centerpiece of his first year in office.... In February, Christie claimed that he was a personal friend of the King of Jordan, which would allow him to accept gifts without limit.... Christie and his clan ran up a hotel bill [in Jordan] of $30,000. He had met the king once, at a political dinner.... He is a remarkable talent with a silver tongue. But if you look closely, you can see that it is forked like a serpent's." ...
... New York Times Editors: "On his new website, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey portrays himself as a guy who gets attacked for 'telling it like it is,' but that's what his mom told him to do from her deathbed.... There are lines between brash and belligerent, between open and obnoxious, and, most important, between 'telling it like it is' and not telling the truth. Mr. Christie crosses those lines all the time.... Just three weeks ago, Mr. Christie bragged that his pension reforms had won a major court victory, when in fact the court ruled them unconstitutional.... Mr. Christie said in announcing his candidacy on Tuesday that he would provide 'growth and opportunity for every American.' But as governor he has increased the tax burden on the working poor while vetoing a bill to raise the minimum wage to a paltry $8.50.... [His] own constituents say by an overwhelming majority that he has done a bad job, should not run for the White House and would make a bad president." ...
... Elspeth Reeve of the New Republic: "... how can the New Jersey governor run on this real-talk-from-a-loud-jerk platform when Donald Trump has already been performing a wonderful sendup of it for weeks? The parody is supposed to follow the real thing, not preempt it.... This is the problem when style is your substance. An actual television star can swoop in and do your bit better than you can." ...
... Shane Goldmacher of the National Journal: "As Chris Christie announces his bid for the White House, he's expected to lean heavily on the support and network of Ken Langone, a billionaire Republican donor and one of Christie's most visible and vocal backers. But in an interview with National Journal on the eve of Christie's launch, Langone, a cofounder of Home Depot with a Forbes-estimated net worth of $2.7 billion, said he would not be dipping into his personal fortune to write the kind of massive, eight-figure check to Christie's super PAC that would instantly change the complexion of the 2016 race."
Gerry Mullany of the New York Times: "Jeb Bush ... and his wife, Columba, reported adjusted gross income of $7.3 million on his 2013 tax return, the last of 33 years of returns he released on Tuesday. The return showed that he paid $2.9 million in federal taxes on that income.... The effective tax rate of 40 percent that Mr. Bush paid compares with the 13.9 percent rate that Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, reported paying in 2010, a figure that drew widespread criticism." ...
... Ed O'Keefe & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Jeb Bush has made more than $29 million since he left the Florida governor's office in 2007 -- vastly increasing his personal wealth through a combination of speaking fees, lucrative seats on corporate boards, investments and a consulting contract with a global bank that paid $2 million per year.... Bush did not release his tax returns from 2014, or the personal financial disclosure required of presidential candidates, that would show his current assets.... On Tuesday, Bush wrote an online message that sought to cast his income as evidence of his deep experience in business -- and to cast his tax payments as evidence of problems in the U.S. tax code.... [Whine Alert!] 'I think I speak for everyone, no matter your tax rate: We need to get more money back in your pocket and less in the federal kitty,' he wrote in a message explaining the release of his tax returns.... [Also, IRS forms are too hard to complete.] On average, Bush gave 1.47 percent of his gross adjusted income each since leaving office to charity." ...
... "Jeb's Wealth to Riches Story." Eli Stokols of Politico: "While acknowledging his 'good fortune,' Bush focused his written explanation of his tax returns on what he sees as a broken system in which he had to fork over much of his income over several decades to Uncle Sam.... The tax rant and voluminous disclosure gives Bush a chance to talk about his wealth ... on his own terms, while delivering a dig at [Hillary] Clinton, who is still under fire for her exclusive use of a personal email account while serving as secretary of state.... The staging and packaging of this document dump was a sleight of hand aiming to distract from the disclosures themselves -- the fact that Bush is very much a one-percenter who has aggressively monetized his family connections to amass significant wealth amid a recession -- and from several bad business dealings with questionable associates that have already been well-chronicled." ...
... CW: Stokols' account is remarkably anti-Bush, especially for Politico, the GOP's BFF.
Paul Waldman: "In a field that has grown to 16 Republican presidential candidates (once Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Ohio Gov. John Kasich make their candidacies official), [Donald] Trump is now in second place pretty much wherever you look.... There's a genuine danger for the GOP in his presence that goes beyond the simple fact that he makes the party look silly (which he certainly does). More than any other candidate, Trump is telling Latinos that the Republican Party doesn't like them.... ([He] will almost certainly be included in the upcoming debates, by the way).... Trump may be a comical buffoon who stands almost no chance of getting the nomination, but by the time he's done, the bile he spews could get his fellow Republicans dirty as well. ...
... Hadas Gold of Politico: "Donald Trump filed a $500 million lawsuit against Univision on Tuesday for breach of contract and defamation, making good on last week's promise to punish the network for reneging on what he described as an 'iron-clad' $13.5-million contract for broadcast rights to Trump's Miss Universe Organization pageants." CW: Most likely that "ironclad" contract contains a morals clause, & it will be easy to argue that Trump violated it by besmirching the network's viewers & some participants in the pageant itself. Morals clauses typically include language forbidding either party "to shock, insult or offend the community."
Today's Clown Prince. Riley Snyder of the AP: "Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul met with southern Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy on Monday during a question-and-answer session in the town of Mesquite with about 50 supporters and activists interested in land rights.... 'I think almost all land use issues and animal issues, endangered species issues, ought to be handled at the state level,' he said in an interview with The Associated Press.... Bundy told the AP: 'In general, I think [Paul & I are] in tune with each other.' He added: 'I don't think we need to ask Washington, D.C. for this land. It's our land.'" CW: Li'l Randy is more unhinged than I thought. ...
... Adam Lerner of Politico: "Rand Paul met privately with Cliven Bundy on Monday, the Nevada rancher and anti-government activist told Politico. The encounter came after Bundy attended an event for the Kentucky senator's presidential campaign at the Eureka Casino in Mesquite, Nevada. When the larger group dispersed, Bundy said, he was escorted by Paul's aides to a back room where he and the Republican 2016 contender spoke for approximately 45 minutes." ...
... CW: So Paul -- who is running for president of the United States, thought it would be a good idea to initiate a meeting -- and presumably curry favor -- with Bundy, a local leader of the "state sovereignty" movement, a deadbeat rancher who refuses to pay the federal government more than $1MM in grazing fees, & who has said, "I don't recognize the United States government as even existing." It's just mindboggling how far these wingers will go. Unfortunately, Li'l Randy & Big Ron have a history of advocating for these anti-American wackadoodle causes. ...
... Karoli of Crooks & Liars has more on the connections between Bundy -- and of course, now, Rand Paul -- & terrorism. "Rand Paul, sit down. You now are disqualified not only for the office of President, but also Senator. Go join your daddy at the lunatics' table."
... Bethania Markus of the Raw Story: Paul "had thrown his support behind the rancher in 2013, calling the federal government's actions 'overreach.' But he withdrew it after the New York Times reported Bundy made racist remarks about blacks.... But Paul seemed ready to court him again on Monday." ...
... Charles Pierce: "We're all supposed to be hiding under our beds this week because of 'increased chatter' about ISIL that is 'more intense than any time since 9/11,' but Rand Paul gets to meet with a guy who summoned armed resistance to legitimate authority because he wants to freeload on government land.... I know the folks I'm most worried about."
McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed interviews Ted Cruz. Cruz may not be doing all that well in GOP presidential polls, but he's a social media phenom. And he'll tell you so. ...
... Also, he's a quick study. Ben Smith of BuzzFeed, in an e-mail to TPM: "He came by for this long interview with McKay and then [producer Emily Anderson] kidnapped him for 10 minutes and somehow persuaded him to do this [Simpsons video, below].... He did these impressions like it was his job... He very briefly prepped with his staff and then just killed it." ...
... Forget the Green Eggs; Ted's All Ham. Sam Weiner, et al., of BuzzFeed: "With voice actor Harry Shearer leaving the show, we got Sen. [Ted] Cruz to audition for popular characters like Ned Flanders and Mr. Burns." CW: Fucking hilarious:
Beyond the Beltway
Jeffrey Collins of the AP: "An African-American church in South Carolina that was burned down by the Ku Klux Klan in 1995 caught fire again Tuesday night, though authorities said it was too soon to say what caused the latest blaze, which broke out on a night of frequent storms. No one was believed to be inside at the time. The fire at the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal church in Greeleyville broke out at a time when federal authorities are investigating conflagrations at several other predominantly black churches -- including one Friday at a church near Aiken, South Carolina -- but so far the fires don't appear to be related." ...
... ** Sarah Kaplan & Justin Moyer of the Washington Post: "The reason black churches remain a target: Because black churches have always remained a symbol of hope in the darkness." A brief history of white supremacist animosity toward black churches.
CBS-Atlanta/AP: "One man has been arrested after a fight over the Confederate flag in front of the South Carolina Statehouse. The brawl started about 7:15 p.m. Monday when about a dozen vehicles with Confederate flag supporters pulled up in front of the Statehouse and stopped in the middle of the street... About 10 of the flag supporters clashed with about 30 people who were on the Statehouse grounds protesting the flag...."
Tracy Seipel & Jessica Calefati of the Contra Costa Times: "In a historic decision that could reverberate nationwide, [California] Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed a bill mandating that almost all California schoolchildren be fully vaccinated, regardless of their parents' personal or religious beliefs. By signing Senate Bill 277 into law, Brown pushed the Golden State -- long a bastion of liberal vaccine exemptions -- into an odd political alliance with two conservative states, Mississippi and West Virginia."
NEW. MacKenzie Elmer of the Des Moines Register: "For the price of a $5 raffle ticket, Van Meter[, a suburb of Des Moines, Iowa,] is offering its residents a chance to use a police Taser on a city official. City Hall is selling the tickets as part of a public safety fundraiser. The raffle winner will get the chance to use a Taser on City Administrator Jake Anderson or Councilman Bob Lacy at the Van Meter Fire Association Street Dance on July 18." ...
... Via Charles Pierce: "In their infinite wisdom, or out of their indomitable lassitude, the American people have given the state of Iowa the right of prima nocte in the selection of our presidents.... Holy hell!"
Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: The Girl Scouts of Western Washington (state) received a $100,000 donation -- which would cover about a third of their operating budget -- but it came with the stipulation that the donation not support transgender girls. So the Scouts sent the money back. This week, they get up an Indiegogo page, & they've already recouped the $100K. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Miranda Blue of Right Wing Watch: "The head of Alabama's court system, an employee of notoriously anti-gay Chief Justice Roy Moore, has sent a letter to Gov. Robert Bentley and other state elected officials urging them to defy the Supreme Court's marriage equality ruling or else 'become complicit in the takeover by the wicked,' reports AL.com."
Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) over a religious freedom executive order that he says protects opponents of same-sex marriage from government pressure."
How to Set up a False Equivalency -- and a Whiney, Fake "Grievance." Susanna Kim of ABC News: "A man in Louisiana is asking for an explanation from Walmart after his request for a Confederate flag cake at one of its bakeries was rejected, but a design with the ISIS flag was accepted.... Chuck Netzhammer said he ordered the image of the Confederate flag on a cake with the words, 'Heritage Not Hate,' on Thursday at a Walmart in Slidell, Louisiana. But the bakery denied his request, he said. At some point later, he ordered the image of the ISIS flag that represents the terrorist group.... A spokesman for Walmart told ABC News, 'An associate in a local store did not know what the design meant and made a mistake. The cake should not have been made and we apologize.'" ...
... CW: I follow the news, & I had no idea what the ISIS flag looked like, other than not-a-dildo. I certainly wouldn't expect a WalMart baker to recognize it or be able to read Arabic. Netzhammer set up the Baker; he should be ashamed of himself for tricking a hapless, underpaid WalMart employee, not "asking for an explanation." Asshole. ...
... Seems WalMart agrees. In their statement, they said, ""It's unfortunate that one customer sought to take advantage of an associate who did not know the flag or its meaning." CW P.S. I see in the photo accompanying the linked Al Jazeera story that Netzhammer has hand-painted on his Kawasaki bike, "Team Redneck."
News Ledes
U.K. Telegraph: "Sir Nicholas Winton, who organised the rescue of Jewish children from the Holocaust in 1939, has died aged 106, his family said. Winton earned himself the label 'Britain's Schindler' for saving the lives of 669 children by sending them from Prague to London by train." ...
... UPDATE: Winton's New York Times obituary is here.
Al Jazeera: "At least 130 bodies have been found after an Indonesian air force C-130 crashed in a residential neighbourhood in the city of Medan on the northern island of Sumatra, according to military officials. The plane came down on Tuesday hitting empty residential buildings after bursting into flames shortly after takeoff."
New York Times: "Record numbers of people crossed the Mediterranean Sea in a bid to reach the shores of Europe in the first six months of this year, and most of them were entitled to be resettled as refugees under international law, the United Nations said Wednesday."
AP: "Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday that Julie Hamp, its first female managing officer, had resigned following her arrest last month on suspicion of illegally importing the painkiller oxycodone into Japan. Hamp, a U.S. citizen, leaves Toyota about a month after she relocated to Tokyo to become the Japanese automaker's chief communications officer. Her appointment was part of a drive by the company to diversify a male-dominated, mostly Japanese executive line-up."
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Reader Comments (17)
..."People should remember that if a Republican is elected president next year and has the chance to replace Kennedy and/or Ruth Bader Ginsburg with another Samuel Alito, the Obamacare and same-sex marriage standings could easily be reversed." ...
Now, more than ever, REMEMBER THE SUPREMES! (Especially considering the potential Republican nominees crowding the Clown Caravan! Can you imagine who Ted Cruz or Mike Huckabee would appoint? Eeek!)
It occurs to me that most states' rights arguments are simply way stations on the path to the reductio ad absurdum that would inevitably lead us to the proposition that in any social order the individual has the absolute right to write and act on his or her own rules, regardless of the harmful consequences to any other family/tribal/state or national member.
In this view "freedom" and "anarchy" are synonyms.
Wonder if Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, et. al. have noticed. Or if they care.
Usually when a candidate is running for President, his choice of a key note speaker is someone whom the candidate is close to or/and can deliver a positive speech about the candidate and the issues he supports. Romney's choice of Christie as his key note speaker at the Republican convention of 2012 was a big mistake. According to Dan Baltz who has written a political book, Christi insisted that his video depicting him at the shore after Sandy with his family touting how he would fight for us like he fought the storm be shown before he spoke. The handlers said there wouldn't be enough time––"make time" was the response or otherwise he would nix on the speech. They made time. And Christie rambled on for twenty-five minutes before he even mentioned Romney's name . The speech was all about him, Christie. According to Dan, this pissed off a whole lot of Republicans who stepped miles back from backing Christie.
I love the fact that Tom Moran can tell the truth about Christie's lies. Many believe him because he is so good at convincing –-that "shut up and sit down" makes some folks tingle–-probably reminds them of their parents or some persnickety nun. The uptick is that in the end he will be seen for what he has tried so hard to conceal– a prick of the first order.
And on to Ted Cruz, actor extraordinaire ( he remembers fondly his performances in his salad days) who fancies himself as not one Simpson character, but the whole lot of them. Cross your fingers that he'll pass muster, be hired, and forget all about his foray into the role of a lifetime.
Last night on Chris Hayes' Robert Reich was comparing the Republican and Democratic big pack donors. The difference between them, he says, is that the Republicans, like the Kochs, are in it for themselves–-to enlarge their largesse whatever that may be; the Democrats are more prone to give for environmental reasons, women's issues, labor, etc. Nothing we don't know, but always good to hear from a respected source.
@Marie: Thanks for your link to that Cartoon contest piece. I even find many of their regular cartoons throughout the magazine not the least bit funny or clever and some I don't understand at all. Years ago I howled at most of them. I will also add that a lot of their fiction of late is not to my liking–-some I think is just plain weird. BUT–-the New Yorker has a terrific bunch of journalists who write in depth articles and for that reason I subscribe.
PD,
I think the Simpsons character most suited to Cruz's mien and temperament is Krusty the Clown, Bart Simpson's favorite cynical and manipulative entertainer who is all about himself.
Here's Cruz as Krusty responding to the recent SCOTUS ruling on marriage equality.
Place: "Stand With Rand" HQ.
Time: Last week
Campaign Advisor: "Listen, Rand, we're being overshadowed by these crazy Supreme Court rulings and now this idiot Trump is running around saying he'll be the best president ever and calling Mexicans rapists and murderers. They LOVE him! We gotta do something."
The Little One: "Okay, okay, lemme think. People who love us hate the government, right?
CA: "Yeah.....some."
TLO: "No....all."
CA: "Er....okay. So?"
TLO: "We find someone else who hates the government even more and we do some kind of photo op thingy with him."
CA: "And what will that do?"
TLO: "Are you stupid? They hate government. He hates government. They love him. I love him, they'll love me. See?"
CA: "Er....okay...I guess that works. Sort of. Who do you have in mind?"
TLO: "That guy who threatened to kill people if they tried to make him pay the money he owes the government."
CA: "Cliven Bundy? He's a loony-toon. He said he was gonna put women in the front line so they'd be killed first."
TLO: "So what? I kidnapped a woman once, got her high and made her worship some guy I made up. Teabaggers will love this."
CA: "I'm not so sure....Isn't the government still going after this guy for money he actually owes them?"
TLO: "Ahhh...see? That's where my brilliance comes in. I say 'But the government doesn't actually own this land. YOU do, Cliven! The government actually doesn't own ANYTHING! We can do whatever we want!'"
CA: "........?"
TLO: "It's settled!"
You might think this sounds a tad insane. And it is. The fact that he did it might also make you think he is off his rocker. And he is. But he's still considered a "Serious Person". For that matter, Donald (Watch out for those Messicans!) Trump has come in second in polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, which could mean several things, one of which is that the GOP field is so lacking in truly serious people or any serious thought that people being polled have decided to say "Well, fuck it all..."
Rand Paul is toast. He's an idiot if he thinks hanging out with moocher, scofflaw, and traitor Cliven Bundy makes him look presidential. It makes him look like a fool. And the money guys, if they thought he was a sketchy bet before, will be locking the doors and rolling up the sidewalks when he comes calling.
It's settled.
@AK: I don't watch the Simpsons so I don't know much the characters. Looks like you may be right about Cruz being like Krusty, but only, I think, in the cynicism and manipulation. Krusty's voice in that clip is more like Trump's or maybe even Christie's.
And thinking about blowhards, I suddenly remembered that ole Southern stentorian George Wallace who, when referring to demonstrators during the Civil Rights era who would lay down in front of LBJ"s limo, said: "I tell you when November comes, the first time they lie down in front of MY limo, it'll be the last one they'll ever lay down in front of because their day os OVER! This got delirious ovations just like Trump and Christie get when they spout their aggressive flapdoodles. Wallace then picked up speed and ended his speech with this: "We don't have riots here in Alabama. They start a riot down here, first one of 'em to pick up a brick gets a bullet in the brain, that's all."
By the by–-a fun fact: A man whose last name was Turnipseed was responsible for the auto accident that killed James Dean. A Tom Turnipseed was George Wallace's right hand man. Same guy?
PD:
According to the Google machine the person who collided with James Dean, causing his early demise, was a Donald Turnupseed, not a Tom Turnipseed. Close but no cigar.
@PD Pepe: I'll bet you're just as good at using the Google machine as is Unwashed. If you're going to speculate on a conspiracy to commit murder here on Reality Chex, please have some basis in fact more compelling than "similar name."
Marie
This Week in the GOP Clown Van
So what's going on over in Never Never Land? What's up with those 235 presidential hopefuls?
Well a few of them have been making breaking news....or maybe that should be breaking the news. Breaking something, anyway.
So, let's see...
Rand Paul is canoodling with racist, terrorist, secessionist, and moocher Cliven Bundy. Way to go, Randy! That'll show 'em.
Chris Christie, well known bully, liar, braggart, and all around loud mouth has been screaming that he will bring integrity and responsibility back to the Oval Office. Ohhh-kaaay.
Ted Cruz is auditioning to be a cartoon character. It's a lock, Ted.
Donald Trump is insulting and suing every Mexican he comes across. You go, Donald. How to sew up the Latino vote!
Bobby Jindal is mumbling something about religious freedom.
Scott Walker is in hiding.
And the rest are all running around screaming about being forced to be gay or something.
All in all, a good week.
If you're a Democrat.
The composite cartoon character of all GOP candidates is Cartman:
https://youtu.be/z0-KZS1dDyw
Thank you PD.
I hadn't known much about Tom Turnipseed, but after reading a bit about him, the clouds have momentarily parted and I feel the kind of optimism for us as a nation and as human beings I felt last week after the SCOTUS decisions on healthcare and marriage.
This Turnipseed fellow was quite remarkable. Yes, he certainly did serve as executive director of George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign. And before that, he was director of a group in South Carolina working to legitimize the new segregated private schools popping up to help white families escape the horror that Brown v Board of Education had finally brought to the Palmetto State, allowing black children to attend public schools with whites.
But a funny thing happened to Turnipseed. As a childhood friend wrote of his upbringing among genteel whites in Alabama, "You'll have a strong sense of privilege, of your own special place near the center of things. And unless you're extremely lucky, blessed with a quirky and aberrational understanding of fairness, you'll also be a racist."
Turnipseed, whose grandfather was a KKK member also had a cousin, Morris Dees, who co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center, a fairly unusual family tree which perhaps helped him to see both the problem and the solution.
He and his wife eventually came to see the injustice of the system of which they had been a big part. He sought out the liberal wing of the Democratic Party in the 70's and fought against everything he had stood for previously. Quite a story. "Turnipseed became a populist politician, a champion of have-nots, whose stridency, in the end, was his undoing."
They came for him. The Reagan era Republicans. The racists. The haters. Lee Atwater. During a race for a South Carolina congressional seat, Atwater crafted one of his most vicious smears. "...in his earnest effort to end the stigma of mental illness, [Turnipseed] had previously disclosed that he had been treated for depression with shock therapy as a young man." Atwater got reporters to wonder why anyone would vote for someone who had been "hooked up to jumper cables". The Jumper Cables tag stuck. He lost.
But in so many ways Tom Turnipseed won. He overcame the kind of bred in the bone racism that cripples so many and still warps our nation.
In some ways this transformation reminds me of Bobby Kennedy's after his trip to see first-hand the face of poverty in the south. Kennedy was stunned and shaken by what he saw and it changed him from the privileged scion of a wealthy family to a champion of the poor.
I think there must have been quite a few like Kennedy and like Tom Turnipseed who were able to see past the comfortable myths that supported their early days, to the kind of life too many Americans are forced to endure, to see past the discrimination and the hate.
We sure could use a lot more of those today.
You see? You never know what you can learn out here.
D.C.,
Wow. Cartman should run. He'd beat all those guys.
Good call.
My favorite South Park episode was the one in which Kenny and Cartman ask the character Chef why a priest would want to stick something up their butts.
Thanks to unwashed and Achilleus for unearthing the Turnipseed mystery–-one that frankly didn't interest me much –-it was that unusual name that I found interesting. No speculation about murder here unless Donald T. plowed into Dean on purpose. But, yes, Achilleus, see what a little googling can do. good stuff!
Still thinking about the Supremes, trying to make sense of their recent decisions. The threads are a bit tangled, but starting from my earlier comment today (last night?) about the road to anarchy the Right is paving in the name of Freedom, I think it's possible to sort a few of them out.
If we take a simplistic focus on individual Rights as the starting point and combine that with the court's heedless extension of those Rights to corporations, most of their recent opinions make sense.
Gay marriage? Merely a matter of individual Rights, unlikely to affect corporate profit, so we're for it even if it offends some of our Catholic colleagues.
The ACA? Good for, very good in fact for corporations, so a done deal. (Wonder how they'd deal with Medicare for All?)
More stringent controls on power plant emissions? No way; that would limit profit, just as would--from an earlier decision-- encouraging class action lawsuits. Thumbs down.
Now next year's docket and the Right to Work and not pay dues case the Court has taken on: Here, along with Marie, I'd guess we'll likely see the Court's so-far evident animus toward unions demonstrated once again, again in the name of individual freeedom!, in this case, let's call it the Right to Freeload.
As I suggested earlier, the problem with all this freedom (speech and religion, so far) extended to corporations by itself limits the freedom left over for employees, that is individuals, and as we've seen the Court doesn't care.
But when the individual Rights argument can be used to extend corporate and organizational power even further by weakening unions, the only organizational counterweight to them, the Court is all for it.
So much for Freeeedom.
AK, a tiny request: When you include your excellent links like the one to Krusty, will you please choose "open tab in new window"? I saw the link, clicked the "x" to close it, and realized that I would have to get back into RC to read the rest of your commentary. Thanks.
Jack,
Sure. I think I can do that.
@AK & Jack Mahoney: Actually, you can't do that. I tried it, & it didn't work. So I contacted the Squarespace gurus, & they said the Comments don't have the facility to throw the link to a new window, as I almost always do in links in the body of the Commentariat. (Exception: if I leave in a link original to the linked story, it may or may not open in a new window, depending upon the way the original site set up the link. I could modify the original links to open a new window, but I don't take the time to do that.) The html code is target="_blank" , which is included at the end of, and inside, the brackets < > of the link, but it just won't work in the Comments.
Marie