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
Monday
Jul132015
The Commentariat -- July 14, 2015
Internal links & defunct videos removed.
Afternoon Update:
The New York Times is updating reactions to the international nuclear agreement with Iran. "The Iran nuclear deal was welcomed by world leaders like David Cameron of Britain, Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Pope Francis." ...
... Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton took her campaign to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, where she made overtures to Congressional Democrats and spoke cautiously -- and with a potential eye toward the future -- about the Iran nuclear deal announced earlier in the day." ...
... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Statements from [GOP] White House hopefuls warned of nuclear chaos in the Middle East, criticism of President Obama's abilities as a negotiator, and calls on Congress to stop the deal in its tracks." ...
... Julian Borger of the Guardian outlines the key points of the agreement. ...
... Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "In a remarkable reversal, the goal of freezing Iran's progress toward a weapons capability was achieved not with warplanes but with handshakes."
*****
President Obama spoke this morning about the Iran deal:
... David Sanger & Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "Iran and a group of six nations led by the United States have agreed to a historic accord to significantly limit Tehran's nuclear ability for more than a decade in return for lifting international oil and financial sanctions against Iran, a senior Western diplomat involved in the negotiations said on Tuesday. The deal, which President Obama had long sought as the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency, culminates 20 months of negotiations. A formal announcement of the agreement was expected later on Tuesday, when foreign ministers from Iran and the six nations it has been negotiating with will meet at a United Nations complex in Vienna." ...
... The Guardian is liveblogging developments. ...
... This guy -- this president and Secretary Clinton and Secretary Kerry -- when someone disagrees with their nuanced approach, where it's all kind of so sophisticated it makes no sense. You know what I'm saying -- big-syllable words and lots of fancy conferences and meetings -- but we're not leading, that creates chaos, it creates a more dangerous world. --Jeb! last week
In case you were wondering the the Doofus is qualified to be president. -- Constant Weader
... David Sanger: "For President Obama, the deal struck Tuesday morning with Iran represents ... a bet that by defusing the country's nuclear threat -- even if just for a decade or so -- he and his successors would have the time and space to restructure one of the United States' deepest adversarial relationships. Mr. Obama will be long out of office before any reasonable assessment can be made as to whether that roll of the dice paid off.... Nothing in the deal announced Tuesday eliminates Iran's ability to eventually become a nuclear threshold power -- it just delays the day.... [When] Mr. Obama [said in] his first inaugural address ... [that he would] 'extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist,' even to governments 'who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent,' there was little doubt that he had Iran's leaders in mind. At the time, it was also meant as a signal that the era of George W. Bush had ended, and that a renewed reliance on diplomacy had begun."
The price of nuance is uncertainty. The price of simpleness is war. -- Constant Weader
... Peter Beaumont of the Guardian: "Israel's prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, moved pre-emptively to denounce the deal on Iran's nuclear programme, even before the details had emerged. Heading a chorus of condemnation from Israeli politicians -- including members of his rightwing coalition -- Netanyahu said the emerging agreement was a 'capitulation', and a mistake of historic proportions.... Netanyahu's combative comments came as criticism of his handling of the diplomacy around Iran has grown over the past two days, as a deal appeared increasingly imminent. Leading the charge have been Netanyahu's political opponents, among them Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party, who denounced Netanyahu's diplomatic campaign as a 'colossal failure'." ...
... Michael Crowley of Politico: "During their 2008 battle for the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton argued bitterly about Iran. When Obama said he would meet with Iran's leader without preconditions, Clinton called him 'reckless and naïve.' After Clinton threatened to destroy Tehran if it used nuclear weapons against Israel, Obama likened her to George W. Bush. But now, Clinton and Obama are inextricably linked on the subject, thanks to the nuclear deal reached in Vienna today. As her former rival's secretary of state, Clinton helped to launch the historic diplomacy with Iran. And, should she succeed him as president, its fate could depend on how committed Clinton is to making it work." ...
... Nahal Toosi of Politico: "... the presidential candidates who have threatened to cancel the deal -- so far all of them Republicans -- can keep their promise by using the presidency's executive authority to reimpose suspended U.S. sanctions on Iran and withdrawing from panels involved in implementing the accord. That abrupt approach may be quick, but it also carries risks. For one thing, a sudden U.S. withdrawal could anger the European and Asian countries also involved in the deal, making them less inclined to reimpose their own sanctions on a country they consider an alluring trading partner. The international business community may resist efforts to once again seal off a youthful, well-educated nation with vast energy reserves. And Iran could respond to the U.S. move by resuming elements of its nuclear program, which the West has long suspected is aimed at making weapons. 'If we try to reimpose sanctions on Iran and no one follows, then we have the worst of all worlds,' said Robert Einhorn, a former Iran nuclear negotiator at the State Department."
Aristocracy Issue. Today we have a President-for-Life, a Candidate-for-Life & a Columnist-for-Life. Sadly, none of these fellows is the One Anointed by God who buys his shirts at Kohl's for practically nothing (which is apparently a presidential qualifier). (See full Walker announcement speech, linked below).
Martin Matishak of the Hill: "An internal Veterans Affairs Department report states that about one-third of the veterans waiting to receive medical care from the agency have already died. A review of veteran death records provided to the Huffington Post found that, as of April, 847,822 veterans were awaiting healthcare and that of those, 238,647 were already deceased. The report was handed over by Scott Davis, a program specialist at the VA's Health Eligibility Center in Atlanta. He also sent copies to the House and Senate VA panels and to the White House."
Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The Pentagon is finalizing a plan to allow transgender people to openly serve in the military beginning early next year, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said Monday."
Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama announced on Monday that he was commuting the sentences of 46 federal drug offenders, more than doubling the number of nonviolent criminals to whom he has granted clemency since taking office.... In a letter written to each of the inmates in which he personally notifies them that their sentences have been commuted, Mr. Obama says he has chosen them out of the thousands who apply for clemency because 'you have demonstrated the potential to turn your life around.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... The Washington Post has brief profiles of the 46 people whose sentences President Obama has commuted.
Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The executive committee of the Boy Scouts of America has unanimously approved a resolution that would drop the group's ban on openly gay leaders, a key step that sends the resolution to the organization's national board later this month. If the national executive board ratifies the change when it meets on July 27, it would become official Scouts policy, a little more than two months after the organization's president [-- former Defense Secretary Robert Gates --] cast the ban as an existential threat to the group." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Catherine Thompson of TPM: "Wake Up, Sheeple! The Military Exercise That Drove Texas Insane Is Finally Here. The multi-state U.S. military training exercise dubbed 'Jade Helm 15,' which has spawned myriad conspiracy theories and vexed public officials who struggled to allay the concerns of constituents, is finally here. The 'unconventional warfare' exercise is scheduled to begin Wednesday and run until Sept. 15. Training is planned for certain areas of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. California, Colorado and Nevada had originally been listed as areas where the training was to take place but have since been left out." CW: I'm quaking in my jack-boots. If I'm not immediately turned into a pod-person, I'll try to let you know what it's like in my re-education camp. Toward the end, I'll probably tell you it's absolutely wonderful. USA, USA! Obama, President-for-Life!
Le jour de gloire est arrivé!:
... Thanks to D. C. Clark for reminding us that today is Bastille Day. Ken Walsh in U.S. News: President "Obama also is scheduled to speak Tuesday at the annual NAACP convention in Philadelphia and discuss the criminal justice system, focusing on what he considers the excessive incarceration of African-American men, an Obama adviser said."
Columnist-for-Life. Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "It is a testament to the Washington Post opinion page's tolerance for a diversity of viewpoints -- even when those viewpoints are offensive or rooted in objectively false claims -- that the paper continues to publish [George] Will's column."
Presidential Race
By Paul Jamiol."Primary Amnesia." Jeff Greenfield, in Politico Magazine, reminds us how early primary campaign indicators gave little hint of the final results. CW: My Trump Bouffant is already falling flat.
Perry Bacon of NBC News: "... the policy ideas [Hillary] Clinton articulated [in her economics speech Monday] were generally of the more establishment wing of her party. Many of the proposals, like expanding sick leave for workers and preschool for young children, have been staples of President Obama's agenda. Increasing Social Security benefits, breaking up large banks, creating tuition-free college, all ideas proposed [by Bernie] Sanders and backed by [Elizabeth] Warren, went unmentioned by Clinton. The former secretary of state avoided proposing a drastic overhaul of Wall Street regulations, unlike another Clinton opponent, ex-Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. Clinton's team has suggested the former secretary of state is listening closely to the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. But she also avoided many of the ideas he has laid out to fix the economy: increasing marginal tax rates for the wealthy, investing more than $1 trillion on an infrastructure program that would employ lots of American workers, and making aggressive attempts to rein in CEO pay.... Clinton did not take a position on the [Trans-Pacific Partnership] agreement.... Her speech was a kind of populism-lite." ...
... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones has the abridged Hillary speech: policy prescriptions minus the fluff. ...
... Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone: "... much of what Clinton proposed sounded like it was written by Bob Dole's economic team, including her promise to 'push for broader business tax reform to spur investment in America.'... But Clinton didn't leave the Democratic base out in the cold. Many of her most specific policy proposals are unmistakably progressive." ...
... Charles Pierce: "... this speech, at least, was not the clean break from the past that she really needs." CW: Get over it, Charles. Hillary is no Bernie. Bernie is the guy everybody hoped Barack would be. If you voted for Obama in a 2008 primary, you voted against the person who is still Hillary. ...
... Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: "There are very few unspoken rules among major-party candidates for president, and Bernie Sanders is breaking one of them. He's saying that America's leaders shouldn't worry so much about economic growth if that growth serves to enrich only the wealthiest Americans.... 'Unchecked growth -- especially when 99 percent of all new income goes to the top 1 percent -- is absurd,' he said. 'Where we've got to move is not growth for the sake of growth, but we've got to move to a society that provides a high quality of life for all of our people....'"
Greg Sargent: Democratic candidates should relish the contrast between their brand of international diplomacy & GOP candidates' belligerent postures. (See Lindsey Graham quote below.)
Hanna Trudo of Politico: "Hours after announcing his candidacy for president, [Scott] Walker took to the airwaves in an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News to defend his anti-union track record of success in his home state, as well as attempt to refute remarks made against him. The left claims they're for American workers, and they've got lame ideas, things like minimum wage,' Walker said. 'We need to talk about how we get people skills and qualifications they need to get jobs that go beyond minimum wage.'" ...
... Tim Alberta of the National Journal: "Walker has mastered the art of governing in a manner that mobilizes the party faithful while campaigning in a way that doesn't scare off moderates, independents, and even some Democrats. This misdirection has been the source of much of Walker's political success.... In a National Journal magazine profile last year, the governor's friends and foes alike remarked on his unique ability -- demonstrated over the past two decades -- to wrap a fierce ideological agenda in a neighborly, nonthreatening persona.... According to Walker allies, he's going to pursue exactly the opposite strategy Romney used in 2012. Whereas Romney started in the middle and moved rightward throughout primary season, Walker is starting on the right and will shift toward the middle." ...
... Josh Kraushaar of the National Journal: No, Scott Walker doesn't have the crossover appeal he claims to have. "Walker's success [in winning Wisconsin elections] had as much to do with the political calendar and the state's polarized electorate as it did with crossover appeal. He won only 6 percent of Democratic voters in his 2014 reelection. Many African-American voters simply stayed home during Walker's gubernatorial campaigns, while a disproportionate number of college students sat out the contentious June 2012 recall election -- which took place after campuses' spring semester concluded. That's not likely to repeat itself if he's the GOP presidential nominee." ...
... Brian Beutler: "... Walker's biggest liability may be this: He is incredibly dull. Not just plodding-speaker dull, though he's often that, too, but an actually boring person.... His boringness is encapsulated by this sequence of 37 incredibly boring tweets, going back more than four years." CW: Here's a typical tweet "Drove my car over to get an oil change @ a place near our home & then got groceries." Beauter: "Walker abbrevi8es like a tween. His life turns on snow, dairy, hot ham, Kohls, haircuts, Packers, Badgers, and watching American Idol while eating chili." ...
... Steve M.: on why the "elite media" won't cover for Walker the way they did for Dubya: "I think Walker will try to lull the press into thinking he's a moderate, and I think the press would like to be lulled into thinking the GOP nominee is a moderate, but I don't think Walker can pull it off. But it won't be for a good reason. It'll be because the press thinks Walker is an unsexy stupid hick." Read the whole post. ...
... CW: Steve doesn't say so, but his thesis suggests that the "elite media" would cover for Jeb! just as they did for Dubya. Hillary could learn something from Steve's post & Dubya's interaction with the boyz on the bus: she could start sitting on the press bus & yukking it up with the people who are going to characterize her on the pages of American journals. She could have a no-policy rule, & just talk about the grandbaby & that time she came under enemy fire in Bosnia. She does have to figure out a way to make the press like her.
... CW: Walker's tweets remind me of one-sided phone conversations I often overhear in restaurants -- an elderly lady calls a friend (or relative) & relates every thing she has done that day: she got up at 7:45, she had oatmeal for breakfast, & so forth. Tomorrow's "conversation" will be just like today's, unless she goes nuts & has wheat toast. Her own daily routines seem to be all that animate her. I always feel sorry for these poor, dull-witted, self-centered old gals. I don't feel sorry for Scott Walker. ...
... If you have forgotten why Walker wasn't graduated from Marquette, Annie Laurie cites an old WashPo report that looked into it. CW: Here's a hypothesis: At the end of four years, Walker, despite his comments to the contrary, was a full year short of credits to graduate. I don't know what percentage of his studies his parents financed, but most parents would pull the plug after four years of their son's pursuit of a four-year degree. ...
I am certain: This is God's plan for me and I am humbled to be a candidate for President of the United States. -- Scott Walker, in an e-mail to supporters
... Peter Montgomery of Right Wing Watch: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker ... has sent an email to activists declaring that his presidential run 'is God's plan for me.' 'My relationship with God drives every major decision in my life,' starts the note, which is clearly designed to appeal to Religious Right voters who make up a major part of the GOP base vote, particularly in the early primary states Iowa and South Carolina." ...
... CW: Were I a believer, like the folks on Scottie's mailing list, I would be mighty put off by a fellow who claimed he was God's chosen one. ...
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who announced his presidential bid on Twitter this morning and will have a launch event later today in Waukesha, has sent an email to activists declaring that his presidential run "is God's plan for me."
... Colin Campbell of Business Insider: "A contact-lens and eyeglass company is having a blast after realizing its logo shares similarities with that of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R) presidential campaign. Both Walker's campaign and America's Best Contacts and Eyeglasses feature a cartoonish, four-part American flag logo as the "E" in their names. The same flag icon is also their stand-alone logos when the text is removed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
CW: MIKE HUCKAB
and RICK P
RRY must be among Scottie's rivals who are really pissed they didn't think of this first.
Ezra Klein: "Quite a bit of Bush and the GOP's economic agenda really does revolve around pushing Americans to work longer hours or more years. But the means differ sharply by class. For the rich, Republicans want to push them to work more through tax cuts; for the poor and middle class, Republicans want to push them to work more through social service cuts. Bush has endorsed raising the Social Security retirement age, which would push workers to spend more years in the labor force, and repealing Obamacare, which makes it easier for workers to retire early. Republicans want to sharply cut Medicaid and food stamps, and perhaps add a work requirement to one or both programs. At the same time, tax cuts on the rich continue to be core to the Republican agenda. This, too, is an effort to increase the time Americans spend working -- in this case, by giving the well-off reason to work more hours, more jobs, or more years."
CW: As the termites crawl out of the woodwork to chew up the international Iran agreement, let's give Lindsey Graham a heads-up for setting the chew bar high. Josh Rogin of Bloomberg: "The newly announced deal between Iran and six world powers is 'akin to declaring war on Israel and the Sunni Arabs,' and will be a huge problem for Hillary Clinton, according to GOP presidential candidate and Senator Lindsey Graham, who promised to not uphold the deal if he is elected next year."
The End of Marriage as We've Known It for a Couple of Weeks. Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg: "Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Monday he wants a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman in all 50 states, less than three weeks after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.... The remarks put Santorum to the right of rivals such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who are pushing a different kind of constitutional amendment that would allow states to decide whether to allow or ban same-sex marriage...." ...
... Dana Milbank: "Polls put Rick Santorum in 11th place out of 15 Republican presidential candidates. Given that next month's debate will accept only the top 10 candidates, that's like being the 11th person in line for a 10-man lifeboat.... Had they used the same standards in the debates last time [2012], 'I wouldn't have been included and yet I was on the way to winning the Iowa caucuses. So to me, it's a miscarriage.'" ...
... Alex Pappas of the Daily Caller: "As reigning victor of the Iowa caucuses, Rick Santorum is arguing he should be guaranteed a spot on the Republican presidential debate stage regardless of his polling numbers. 'I call it the Masters exemption,' the former Pennsylvania senator said during an hour-long discussion with The Daily Caller on Monday. After winning the Masters, professional golfers automatically receive a invitation to compete for the rest of their lives." CW: I think it would be GREAT if Santorum appeared in every GOP presidential debate till the end of his days. Santorum, BTW, won the the caucuses by 34 votes. That surely qualifies him as Candidate-for-Life.
TMZ: "Donald Trump tells TMZ he is contacting the FBI to investigate threats just made by a man claiming to be the son of escaped Mexican drug lord El Chapo. Trump is reacting to a tweet reportedly made by El Chapo's son, in which he blasts Trump for saying El Chapo is 'everything that's wrong with Mexico.' The tweet was written in Spanish, with the rough English translation, 'Keep f***ing around and I'm gonna make you swallow your bitch words you f***ing whitey milks***tter (that's a homophobic slur).'" CW: I do think TMZ is the proper outlet for Trump News. ...
... Caitlin Cruz of TPM: "One of the nation's most prominent immigration hardliners said on Sunday that Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump needs to develop some tact when peddling his harsh anti-immigrant beliefs. Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) told the Denver Post that the real estate mogul 'needs to be a little bit more artful' when talking about his views on immigration. Tancredo has had an extreme obsession with immigration and border issues. Some highlights include his claim that then-Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was a member of the 'Latino KKK' for her membership with National Council of La Raza and that Miami was becoming 'a Third World country.'"
Beyond the Beltway
David Goodman of the New York Times: "New York City reached a settlement with the family of Eric Garner on Monday, agreeing to pay $5.9 million to resolve a wrongful death claim over his killing by the police on Staten Island last July, a lawyer for the family said."
This Is Sensible. Katherine Krueger of TPM: "An all-Republican county commission in Missouri voted unanimously Monday to observe a full calendar year of 'mourning' after the Supreme Court's gay marriage decision, a protest that will include lowering flags to mark the somber occasion. Flags at the Dent County Courthouse and Judicial Building will now fly at 'below half-staff' on the 26th day of every month from July 2015 until July 2016, the Salem News reported, to mark the day SCOTUS handed down the ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide."
Way Beyond
Dave Graham & Alexandra Alper of Reuters: "The dramatic escape on Saturday of the world's most notorious drug lord [Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman] has raised pressure on Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to curb corruption and the drug gangs that play an outsized and violent role in his country.... Members of the ruling party and opposition alike are convinced that the escape had to have been an inside job. The mile-long tunnel would have required noisy digging equipment and produced tons of dirt to be disposed of, they note. Moreover, the tunnel came up exactly under the shower in Guzman's cell, which suggests that the drug lord's accomplices had detailed information about the prison's design."
News Ledes
AP: "Greece's finance ministry says the draft bill needed to start talks on Greece's third bailout has been submitted to Parliament. The bill will be discussed Wednesday and voted on later than night. It includes reforms to Greece's consumer tax."
AP: "Italy's finance minister says that only Italy, France and Cyprus supported a compromise deal with Greece, while the rest of the eurozone nations fell in behind Germany's hard-line position."
Share Article
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.
Reader Comments (23)
CW: I'm reposting this comment by Akhilleus from late Monday:
And Now a Werd From Prime Minister Buttinsky.
News of a deal between Iran, the US, and various other powers has Bibi waxing bilious, bilious, I say.
For the last few days, he's been stomping around declaiming that if the Iran nuclear deal goes through, it will be the end of the world. Holy Guacmole! Not the End of the World! I hate that!
But today, Prime Minister Buttinsky opened a Twitter account in Farsi to say so to Iran's face, and to warn again that the deal, designed to direct Iran's nuclear ambitions away from Boom-Boom, will do just the opposite and allow Iran to "take over the world" (is this guy for real?).
One problem with the Beeb's tweet? your text to show as a hyperlink It was misspelled.
How does one say "Fuck me!" in Farsi?
One would think that if someone were to open an account in another language to tell those people to eat shit and die, that a native speaker might be consulted to avoid stuff like "syntax errors", right?
Otherwise, you end up looking like this guy.
PM Buttinsky also has to deal now with Israeli groups like Yesh Atid who are calling him on all the jiggery-pokery--(™) A. Scalia--he indulged in to try to kill the Iran deal, like when he came to the US and addressed a joint session of Congress to tell the wingnuts who showed up to blow him that Obama was a baaaaaad man who didn't know what he was doing. These groups now say that since Bibi couldn't deliver on his promise to shove an andiron up the ass of this agreement, he should resign.
Ha! Fat chance.
If that were the case, it would have to follow that every Confederate asshole who showed up to hear a foreign head of state call their president a douchebag would resign too.
Waiting, waiting, waiting.....
Oh, sorry....wayting wayting, wayting.....
Akhilleus
"I am certain: This is God’s plan for me and I am humbled to be a candidate for President of the United States. -- Scott Walker, in an e-mail to supporters"
Umm...Scotty sweetheart--I think God is fuckin' with you! He also had a plan for Michele Bachmann, Mike Huckabeebee, Rick Sanitarium, and Herman Cain--to name but a few. And how did that turn out? Maybe God is a "positive psychopath" who promises good things to bad people, and sits up there on his golden throne and laughs his balls off. Or maybe he just likes shittin' around and sees a real cornfed sucker, who needs to go back to Marquette, finish his degree and stop messing up great universities. Anyway, lottsa luck, you silly prick. You're gonna need it. Some of us are gonna vote for Hillary--even though we don't much like her and think she is fairly phony. Because.....Supreme Court.
Remember the Supremes.
A year of mourning? Presumably that will include a commissioner uniform of starched and ironed white shirts, black two or three piece suits and the latest in sober ties, worn each day, all Missouri summer long...
The flag didn't make the SCOTUS decision; nor it declare a year of mourning. The flag is not the source of their unhappiness, but they'll punish it anyway. It's the Republican Way.
At the risk of stating the obvious:
When Jade Helm happens and nothing happens, the Wing Nuttery will claim it proves that only their vigilance prevented Obamageddon, double down on the crazy, reload, have a few more drinks, and go to work on the next bit of batshittery.
Oh, and Happy Bastille Day.
Allons enfants de la Patrie, Arise, children of the Fatherland,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé ! The day of glory has arrived!
Contre nous de la tyrannie, Against us tyranny's
L'étendard sanglant est levé, Bloody banner is raised,
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes Do you hear, in the countryside,
Mugir ces féroces soldats ? The roar of those ferocious soldiers?
Ils viennent jusque dans nos bras They're coming right into our arms
Égorger nos fils, nos compagnes ! To cut the throats of our sons, our women!
Damn right, praise the Lord and pass the ammo.
Dennis Ross' thoughts on the Iran deal provide an extremely useful checklist of how to think about it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/iran-deal-leaves-us-with-tough-questions/2015/07/14/7f76e3b0-2807-11e5-b77f-eb13a215f593_story.html
One of the things that he does not mention is that buying time (ten years, if this works) could allow Iran to mature in its thinking about the utility and cost of nuclear weapons. At some point, there is only one reason to have them: because some mortal enemy has them. Right now, Iran believes that Israel's probable nuclear arsenal requires them to have them. In ten years, they may have realized that Iran's possession of nucs and delivery capability will not provide them with the protection (or offensive capability) they crave, that regional nucs are a mutual suicide pact. (Yes, worry about India-Pak.) Once you own these things you become hostage to their unthinkable power, and it becomes almost impossible to get these monkeys off your national back. With ten years to think, maybe Iran will conclude that it is worth another round of negotiations to see what else they can get for deferring being stupid for another ten. If they are as accomplished rug merchants as we think they are, that's where this will go. And to the good.
Bastille Day it is! And not a moment too soon.
We're all in the mood for a little "Up Us and Fuck Everyone Else". Isn't that the theme of nearly all the Republican presidential clowns? Trump would substitute the word "kill" for "fuck" A true Republican. Rather kill than fuck.
D.C.'s post got me thinking about national anthems. It's a topic that's been of interest to me for some time. The idea of national anthems have been around pretty much since the concept of state-nations (later to evolve into nation-states--there's a difference) which flourished after the Peace of Westphalia, giving everyone a breather from the Thirty Years War. What was left of the medieval city-states was reorganized into the states that are still largely recognizable today. The new national paradigm allowed the state-nations to develop more orderly ways to kill their neighbors, and so, national anthems were born. After all, what's more useful if you're gonna try to drum up unrest and bellicosity than a good rousing chorus of "Up Us and Fuck Them"?
But not all anthems celebrate crushing your enemies under your boot heels. You've got your "Ain't we great" anthems, "Our Country is Goooorgeous" anthems, and the "God Save Our Leader" anthems.
The oldest one I've been able to find is Japan's, based on a poem written in 905. Yikes! Japan wins that one.
Our anthem, while not quite as bellicose as France's hymn about slitting throats, is not exactly Peace Love Dove either, but it's based, as likely you all know, on an English drinking song, "To Anacreon in Heaven". Ancient Greek poet and musician, Anacreon, died while choking, according to Livy,on a grape seed. That'll teach him.
But try replacing the words of the National Anthem with these words. You can NOT get through the thing without busting up at least a few times. Especially the final lines.
The end of the original version of our anthem instructs the listener to "intwine The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine", which, in modern parlance is the equivalent of "Let's get drunk and screw". Something to think about when you see sanctimonious prigs like Santorum and Huckabee singing it with hands over hearts and patriot eyes glistening with visions of the blood of their many enemies. There in the background....drunk people humping....
And as much as La Marseillaise impels its citoyens to arm themselves against the foe, other anthems are its equal in advocating for bloodletting.
The German song "Die Wacht am Rhein", while not possessed of the same, shall we say, nationalistic sangfroid as "Deutschland über Alles"--truly a prime example of the move from nation-state to state-nation, the high point of nationalism--still wins a prize for whipping up war sentiments against the French in the mid 19th century. Bush and Cheney must love this one. It basically warns Germans that France is coming to Steal their Freeeedoms. Coming across the Rhein to do it, the bastards. And er....no such thing was happening, but whatever..."With us or against us", right? Deutscheland, Deutscheland, Deutscheland...
Anyway, here you can see the Battle of the Nationalistic Songs taking place, incidentally in a location far from both countries. Always thought the musicians at Rick's Place looked like criminals on work release. See what you think.
Enjoy. And try not to slit any throats today. But if you're in the mood, run down to your local bastille and bust out a few of those unjustly imprisoned. Maybe someone will write a song about you.
(Twilight Zone Sidebar: the new German national anthem is based on music written by Hadyn who once visited the Anacreon Society in London where he likely sang "To Anacreon in Heaven"....is that Rod Serling I see sitting with him? Do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do....)
Nice clip Marie, but IMO the all time best La Marseillaise in a movie is from Casablanca:
https://youtu.be/HM-E2H1ChJM
Tears me up every time (both heteronyms intended).
And of course we read that the Republicans (not all) as soon as they heard of the Iran deal started talking of putting the kibosh on it. Fat chance! But I got to thinking––listening to their prospective candidates for the presidency the collective message appears to be doing away with one thing or another––AFCA, gay marriage, abortion, along with a myriad of other "liberal issues." Where's the beef? I ask––you people have any nifty ideas or are you just going to waste your time being contrary (a rhetorical question.) I imagine endless hearings and boring conversations like Benghazi ! Benghazi! In the end–-or perhaps right from the beginning–-it's a matter of trust in the people who are doing the negotiations ––and in this case it has taken years––or/ and as Obama has said the facts speak for themselves.
"The price of nuance is uncertainty. The price of simpleness is war." Constant Weader
Re: Scott Walker's simpleton signature. The above quote also fits well for this man whose marching orders are taken from God and the Koch brothers. "The sun comes up, the sun goes down––don't bother me with the reasons, it doesn't matter," says Scotty, "and even as a boy, I did what I was told, and believed what I was taught and never asked the hard questions and how lucky I am to have such a pleasant face––devoid of character, some may say, but I say when I smile, the world smiles with me and in Wisconsin people love me!"
@Akhilleus. Canada did not get the memo.
Marie
@DC Clark: I love the "Casablanca" clip, too, but I've run it several times on Reality Chex.
Marie
Patrick,
An excellent point. As I've said before, by that time, say, ten years from now, nearly all of the revolutionaries and the whackos who stormed the US Embassy, and have been doing the Great Satan Tango ever since, will be dead. By then, a couple of generations of young Iranians will have grown up since the Ayatollahs took power and they are no enemies to western civilization. They will welcome relaxed restrictions and more connection with the west, more engagement.
It is the Right Wing Way to demand submission and to back people into corners. This is what's happening to the Greeks right now. Germany, who has never had a major debt it saw fit to repay, wants to humiliate Greece for standing up to the Right Wingers in the EU. For this, Greece must pay, in more ways than one. But as many have been suggesting, this could be the beginning of the end for the Eurozone. Once ideology starts trumping realpolitik, bad things can, and do, happen.
Bibi, and American Republicans, want Iran to suffer, and want to impose ever more draconian restrictions on them. It doesn't matter that Iran will never, as John Kerry correctly indicates, knuckle under to such impositions. They can't. And they won't. Such things only happen, as Kerry goes on to say, in fantasy, not the real world. Ten years after the Soviet Union initiated Perestroika and engaged the West, it ceased to exist.
Engagement, as we are now pursuing with both Iran and Cuba, is the way forward. Right Wing policies are the way into a dark and dangerous past.
So what else is new?
@kate. Woman, keep humming that Supremes tune and I'll tap my foot to the beat.
Scotty and his message from God reminds me of the vacant dog owner, portrayed by Jennifer Coolidge, in the classic "Best in Show". As she's being interviewed while eating popcorn ("1/2 salt and 1/2 butter"), states she's "waiting for another message.....from myself".
More Koch-Confederate Presidential candidates every day. (Think we'll reach twenty?) More talking heads to tell us how tough they are, how weak-kneed Obama is, and what they don't like about the Iran nuclear deal.
I'm guessing they will say nothing new, and I will wonder again what motivates or animates them. What kind of people are they?
So I'm back to an old thought. Maybe a fruitful way to parse the rift between the Right and Left, or at least the portion of that rift that is not due to simple! gamesmanship, the autocrat party's penchant to wield power at any cost, is the (simple! again) distinction between life-and death-affirming states of mind.
If you prefer negotiation to war, affordable health insurance, clean air and water, a viable safety net for people shunted aside, ignored or harmed by a vacillating economy, it seems you must kinda like people; therefore you'd like to see them "live long and prosper" too.
If not, you don't.
The self-referencing "auto" that precedes the "crats" above, tells us why. If you think you or possibly your immediate family or, for the large-minded autocrat, tribe are the only real people on the planet, your concern is limited to them, a limitation that blinds you not only to the welfare of others but also to inconvenient economic and scientific facts that tell us that because we all share the same planet the welfare of everyone on it does matter.
There is a murderous, sometimes even suicidal, component to all behaviors of the "my way or the highway, I'll take my ball and go home" ilk. Because such behavior is reactive, if any thought at all is given to it, that thought is always short-term, never assessing the consequences that are likely to ensue a ways down the road. (Think any of the deal's critics are likely to mention the CIA coup that created the Iran that hates us?)
I'd also suggest it's no accident the death-affirming party is the one most closely allied to the ideal of an economic system made up of independent entities whose survival requires them to think only of themselves and then think only in the short-term defined by the quarterly profit and loss statement, long-term consequences be damned.
Capitalism's apologists even even talk about "creative destruction," as if it were an unalloyed good thing. Maybe in the business, if not the human, world it sometimes is. I don't know.
I just can't picture a war with Iran or eventually a nuclear exchange between Iran and Israel creating much of anything I want to see.
Parsing Bush Speak, Part the Third.
ARRRrrrggghh....again with this bullshit? Haven't we had enough of this? Egotistical bullies who indulge their love of gasconade?
And once more we're by way of having to parse the inelegant, barely intelligible speech of yet another Bush? And another one who disparages nuance. The previous one did so to a fault. Not his however. He never makes (made) mistakes, remember? If the inability to admit mistakes, even minor ones, isn't a dead giveaway to mental deficiencies, I don't know what else you'd need to hear.
As he told anyone who would listen back when he was sending Americans off to a war he lied to start (and whom he now charges a bundle just to bask in his glorious presence), The Decider "doesn't do nuance".
No shit. This is the same thing as saying "If it takes me more than three seconds to arrive at a decision, forget it." Most of us exert more brainpower thinking about what we'll make for dinner than this guy did about taking the country to war. And his brother doesn't appear much different.
In an interview with Tim Russert way back in 2004, Bush was flailing away, without the most modest appurtenances of nuanced thinking, trying to find a way to "prove" that he was right about Saddam Hussein, in spite of the fact that there were no WMD, no challenge or threat from Hussein, no plan to attack the US, and no involvement with 9/11.
Nothing Zip.Zero.
Because the Bushes are not used to someone questioning them. They've never mastered the necessary elements of argumentation, ie, stating a position then being able to back it up with something more than "because I said so". The Decider, in this interview repeatedly makes claims he has no intention (or ability) of backing up. Instead, he rests his case by saying that Saddam was "a madman" and he was "dangerous" with no understanding that you need to Back-That-Shit-Up.
And Jeb! is the same way. Perhaps not entirely as dim, but still without a care in the world that what he says has to make sense. Try this one:
“This guy — this president and Secretary Clinton and Secretary Kerry – when someone disagrees with their nuanced approach, where it’s all kind of so sophisticated it makes no sense. You know what I’m saying — big-syllable words and lots of fancy conferences and meetings — but we’re not leading, that creates chaos, it creates a more dangerous world.”
So we see the word "when" which usually indicates some conclusion, some effect. When it rains, you're likely to get wet, for instance. Nope. In Jeb! Speak that becomes "When it rains, you know what I'm saying..."
What?
Yes, yes, conversational language is often casual to the point of being poorly ordered, but this isn't a chat at the fucking barber shop where you can get away with stuff like "Hey boys, did you see that game last night? I mean Le Bron James! Right? Huh? You know what I'm talkin' about."
But when you're running for president it's expected that you've thought things through and can express those thoughts with a touch more sophistication than a guy hanging off a bar stool, that you can complete a thought in sentence form because your thought process is orderly and rational. Would you hire that barber shop guy to run the world?
Not to mention that the antecedent (this guy) is left hanging. "This guy....hey, did I tell you what happened to me yesterday...?"
So here we are again. Another Bush. More attempts to translate the untranslatable because the thinking comes from a place that doesn't abide reason or logic, not to mention correct grammar.
Never fucking never land.
Being the Smart One doesn't guarantee that he can add two and two. It only means that he knows it has to equal something.
And hold the nuance.
@Akhilleus: This is Jeb!'s 4th run for high public office. When he wasn't running for office, he was conducting meetings, working with legislators, making public appearances, giving speeches, answering reporters', constituents' or audience questions, or supposedly writing a couple of books.
And yet, and yet, with decades of professional speaking experience, he still can't put together a coherent sentence about his own policy. There's something wrong with this family. I'm thinking New England inbreeding.
Marie
P.S. I'm related to the Doofus family. Maybe I was saved when my mother married outside the clan. Thanks, Dad, for giving me the capacity to comprehend & occasionally use "big-syllable" words. (BTW, what are big-syllable words? Are they words with a lot of letters which make each syllable "big," [e.g., "strengths" as compared to "jeb"] or are they multi-syllabic words like "negotiation" as compared to "war"?)
Re Dueling National Anthems,
Had a fantasy just now: Scene; a cafe in Baghdad. A small group of U.S. Marine officers are gathered around a piano singing the Marine Corps Hymn ( 'From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, we will kick the nigger's asses...') Suddenly, all the Iraqis in the place start singing Ardulfurataini Watan
A Fatherland has extended (its) wing[s] over the horizon,
And wore the glory of civilizations as a scarf -
Blessed be the land of the two rivers
A Fatherland of glorious determination and tolerance.
Well, maybe not Oscar material...
Marie,
Big syllable word: FREE-DOM as opposed to freedom.
It's as good a guess as any. Not only do we need to translate this bullshit, we need to construct a new dictionary to accommodate the new definitions.
And sorry, but in-breed-ing has too many syllables. These guys stop at two, otherwise we get the crazy. "Misunderestimate". They just can't handle it when the syllable count goes too high.
But imagine trying to think through your policy choices when you're restricted to pidgin (or inbred Yankee) English.
Ugh. Ir-an. Bad. Kochs. Good. Bombs. Good. Tax-es. Bad. Me Pres-dent now. Good. Where bed-room? Must nap. When va-ca-shun? Tired. Know what mean?
D.C.,
"...wore the glory of civilization as a scarf". Great expression. I guess when you grow up in the Cradle of Civilization, you can say stuff like that.
Jeb! wouldn't have any truck with a country that said things like that. Sheee-it. That's way too high falutin' and met-a-phor-i-cal. Not to mention too many syllables! Civ-i-li-za-tion. So knock that shit off.
Besides, everyone knows the Cradle of Civilization is somewhere between Dallas and Fort Worth.
In'it?
Mourning again in America.
Meant to give a nod to Ken's comment about that "period of mourning" bullshit initiated by bigoted wingers in Missouri.
"Below half-staff"?
Oh, de pooah widdow babies must weawy be saaaaad.
WTF. Grow up, assholes. Below half-staff? What are they, 12 years old? Why aren't they also going to hold their breath until they turn blue?
Below half-staff. Because half-staff isn't good enough. It's only the thing that's done in honor of the death of a president and other notable officials or, at the president's discretion, to acknowledge a tragic national event. But that's not good enough for winger babies. Noooo....has to be lower than that. Because....? People can now get married?????
You guys remember the movie "Spinal Tap"? That parody of rock band histories where one of the band members confides that his amp goes to 11? It's a bit of a musician insider joke (amps go to 10; that's it), but so funny because it's clearly the sort of thing that would impress 12 year old metal heads.
Welcome to Missouri. Home of 12 year old Confederate bigots.
(Apparently someone (including members of the military who take this stuff seriously) took these idiots aside and told them how stupid they look. Their mourning bullshit has been temporarily set aside. Next thing you know, Fox will be crying that the Missouri winger babies had their pacifier taken away by mean liberal supporters of the homosexual agenda. And people wonder how Trump could be considered a front runner.)
@CW: Sorry, you have a link to the Doofus family, but we all have relatives (who hopefully live at distances afar) who make us cringe. I avoid all family reunions! Never did appreciate the canard: "...blood is thicker than water."
@Ak: To the son in Germany this question:
On 16 Dec 14, Phyllis Pepe wrote:
"I learned yesterday that the current German National Anthem, Das Lied der Deutschen, is actually the same anthem that has been in continual use since 1922, except that now, they only sing the third verse. It is the first verse that contains the lyric, “Deutschland über alles.”
"doesn’t über alles mean over everything? If so what does this mean exactly––Germany over everything?"
And David replied: (with inserted map of Der Deutsche Bund–1815-1866)
"Everyone associates this verse with the Nazis and their wish for European and/or world domination. The text was written in 1841 however and at this time Germany was still comprised of innumerable duchies and kingdoms. The intent of the text was to emphasize that an important goal of the liberals (our ancestors) during this period was a unified Germany, thus “Germany, Germany above all.” This slogan as well as the German Flag were symbols of the 1948 Revolution, whose failure drove our ancestors to the U.S. Unification was finally achieved in 1871."
OK. Jeb! has trouble with polysyllabic words. Just imagine him trying to speak German or Swedish or Finnish. Some of their words are longer than his sentences. Hard to believe that he could be fluent in Spanish.