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
Sunday
Jun162013
The Commentariat -- June 17, 2013
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Arizona may not require documentary proof of citizenship from prospective voters, the Supreme Court ruled in a 7-to-2 decision on Monday. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, No. 12-71, said a federal law requiring states to 'accept and use' a federal form displaced an Arizona law.... The decision ... effectively affirmed a 2010 ruling from a three-judge panel that included Justice Sandra Day O'Connor...." The decision is here. Justices Thomas & Alito dissented. More details from Tejinger Singh of SCOTUSblog.
Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "President Obama on Monday opened a three-day diplomatic trip to Northern Ireland and Germany ... with young residents of [Belfast, Northern Ireland]..., urging them to build on the peace that America helped broker 15 years ago." The AP story, by Jim Kuhnhenn, is here.
Shawn Pogatchnik of the AP: "British Prime Minister David Cameron says leaders gathering Monday for the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland should reach speedy agreement on trade and tax reforms, and draw inspiration from the host country's ability to resolve its own stubborn conflict."
David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Obama's top foreign policy aides said Sunday that they planned to press Iran's newly elected president to resume the negotiations over his country's nuclear program that derailed in the spring. But while the election of the new president, Hassan Rowhani, a former nuclear negotiator who is considered a moderate compared with the other candidates, was greeted by some administration officials as the best of all likely outcomes, they said it did not change the fact that only the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would make the final decision about any concessions to the West."
Ramzy Mardini, who served in the Bush II State Department, in a New York Times op-ed: President Obama should not have listened to President Clinton's opinion on Syrian intervention. "The Syrian revolution isn't democratic or secular; the more than 90,000 fatalities are the result of a civil war, not a genocide -- and human rights violations have been committed on both sides. Moreover, the rebels don't have the support or trust of a clear majority of the population, and the political opposition is neither credible nor representative. Ethnic cleansing against minorities is more likely to occur under a rebel-led government than under Mr. Assad.... And finally, a rebel victory is more likely to destabilize Iraq and Lebanon...." ...
... Robert Fisk of the UK Independent: "... a military decision has been taken in Iran -- even before last week's presidential election -- to send a first contingent of 4,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad's forces against the largely Sunni rebellion that has cost almost 100,000 lives in just over two years. Iran is now fully committed to preserving Assad's regime...."
** Jill Lepore writes an absolutely fascinating little "history of privacy" in the New Yorker and concludes by highlighting the "paradox of an American culture obsessed, at once, with being seen and with being hidden, a world in which the only thing more cherished than privacy is publicity. In this world, we chronicle our lives on Facebook while demanding the latest and best form of privacy protection -- ciphers of numbers and letters -- so that no one can violate the selves we have so entirely contrived to expose." The article is particularly interesting to me because Lepore wraps her story around the British government's invasion of the privacy of Italian radical Giuseppe Mazzini, a friend of my family's. ...
... "Snoop Scoops." Rick Hertzberg of the New Yorker: "The N.S.A. programs represent a troubling increase in state power, even if — so far, and so far as we know -- they have not occasioned a troubling increase in state wrongdoing. Obama's 'difficult questions' have a new urgency." ...
... Ewen MacAskill, et al., of the Guardian: "Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their British government hosts, according to documents seen by the Guardian. Some delegates were tricked into using internet cafes which had been set up by British intelligence agencies to read their email traffic. The revelation comes as Britain prepares to host another summit on Monday -- for the G8 nations, all of whom attended the 2009 meetings.... The evidence is contained in documents -- classified as top secret -- which were uncovered by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden...." ...
... Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "British and American spy agencies monitored the e-mails and phone calls of foreign dignitaries at two major international summits in London, according to a new trove of documents supplied by Edward J. Snowden ... and disclosed by the Guardian newspaper." ...
... CW: Once again, Snowden has revealed classified information that the public does not need to know and which could harm national security by destabilizing international relations. That the Brits & the U.S. spy during international conferences is hardly a shocker, & this revelation does not expose any wrongdoing. Snowden has trashed his pretense of patriotism. At the same time, as contributor Ken Winkes suggested in a comment a few days ago, he has also exposed one of the weaknesses of libertarianism -- when every citizen makes his own rules, he undermines his own state. ...
... Mehashyam Mali of the Hill: "The intelligence community on Sunday rejected claims from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and reports that suggested analysts were able to listen to domestic phone conversations without warrants. 'The statement that a single analyst can eavesdrop on domestic communications without proper legal authorization is incorrect and was not briefed to Congress,' said the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in a statement." ...
... CW: In an interesting autopsy on how CNET had to walk back -- & eventually repudiate -- its story that the NSA can listen to your every phone call, Steve M. of No More Mister Nice Blog takes this overview, which I share: "There's a lot to dislike about this approach to national security. There's plenty to be appalled at. But the government really isn't as interested in most of us personally as some of us seem to want to believe." ...
... Ultimately, the real problem is that Ike's "military-industrial complex" is now the "military-industrial-financial-spying complex," & most Congressmembers, absent campaign finance reform, are beholden to at least one arm of the behemoth. Booz Allen has been a big campaign contributor, in the last few years, giving much more to Democrats than to Republicans. So when Congressman X has to decide whether or not the Ed Snowdens of the company should be able to access (and scoop up) top secret data, Mr. X is more concerned with pleasing Booz Allen than he is with shoring up national security. I have no confidence that Congress -- even a quasi-responsible Congress, which we certainly don't have now -- is capable of making decisions in the public interest on this or on a host of other issues. ...
... Ben Geman of the Hill: "White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said President Obama will make more remarks about National Security Agency telephone data and internet surveillance programs in the coming days. McDonough, speaking on CBS on Sunday, said Obama holds the privacy of Americans 'sacrosanct' and is seeking to strike the right balance between civil liberties and securing the country against the threat of terrorist attacks."
Paul Krugman: "Last week the International Monetary Fund, whose normal role is that of stern disciplinarian to spendthrift governments..., argued that the sequester and other forms of fiscal contraction will cut this year's U.S. growth rate by almost half, undermining what might otherwise have been a fairly vigorous recovery. And these spending cuts are both unwise and unnecessary. Unfortunately..., Christine Lagarde, the fund's head, called on us to 'hurry up with putting in place a medium-term road map to restore long-run fiscal sustainability.' ... The whole argument for early action on long-run fiscal issues is surprisingly weak and slippery.... Influential people need to stop using the future as an excuse for inaction. The clear and present danger is mass unemployment, and we should deal with it, now."
The Word According to Cheney
I think he's a traitor. I think he has committed crimes in effect by violating agreements given the position he had. I think it's one of the worst occasions in my memory of somebody with access to classified information doing enormous damage to the national security interests of the United States. -- Dick Cheney on Ed Snowden
Evidently it slipped Cheney's memory that -- almost certainly at Cheney's behest -- his top aide Scooter Libby revealed the name of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame in retaliation for her husband's revelation that one of the major pieces of 'evidence' Cheney cited for going to war in Iraq was fake. -- Constant Weader
Josh Israel of Think Progress: "Former Vice President Dick Cheney (R), whose false statements helped propel the United States into an eight year war in Iraq, said Sunday that citizens should simply 'trust' the federal government on matters of privacy and security. In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Cheney laughed off questions about why federal surveillance of phone records need be kept secret, suggesting that since the people who authorize the program are elected by voters, voters should simply trust their judgment." CW: I usually follow the rule, "If Dick Cheney likes it, it can't be good." ...
... AND exactly how does Cheney's "trust" in the government jibe with this remark, made in the same interview? -- Erik Wasson of the Hill: Cheney "said Obama's alleged handling of the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya and the IRS harassment of conservatives means that people had weakened the president. 'I don't think he has credibility,' Cheney said." So, um, we should trust our top elected official on massive secret surveillance but not on anything else?
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warns that the GOP will go into a "demographic death spiral" if they don't pass immigration reform:
... The Grim Reaper? Esther Lee of Think Progress: "Sen. Marco Rubio (R- FL), the architect of a comprehensive immigration bill that would legalize 11 million undocumented immigrants, refused to say on Sunday whether he supports the legislation he helped draft. He instead claimed that the measure does not have strong border enforcement provisions and would not receive bipartisan support." ...
... Related AP story, by Philip Elliott, here. ...
... Ramsey Cox of the Hill: "Senators are girding for a contentious floor fight next week over more than 100 immigration reform amendments that will be crucial to determining whether the chamber approves comprehensive legislation. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has warned members to prepare for a long slog in dealing with the deluge of amendments -- including the prospect of weekend votes -- in a bid to pass immigration reform before the July 4 recess." Cox lists six contentious amendments that would have major impacts on the Senate bill. ...
... Eric Lipton & Julia Preston of the New York Times: "A surge in migrant traffic across the Southwest border into Texas has resulted in a milestone: the front line of the battle against illegal crossings from Mexico has shifted for the first time in over a decade away from Arizona to the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. This shift has intensified a bitter debate under way in the Senate over whether the border is secure enough now, or ever will be, to move ahead with legislation that could give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already here."
Congressional Race<
Frank Phillips & Michael Levenson of the Boston Globe: "Democrat Edward J. Markey holds a solid lead over his Republican rival, Gabriel E. Gomez, as the two enter the final week of the special US Senate campaign, according to a new Boston Globe poll. Markey, who has driven up concerns about his GOP opponent with a barrage of hard-hitting television ads, leads Gomez 54 percent to 41 percent, with only 4 percent of the respondents saying they were still undecided about whom to support in the June 25 election."
Your Louis Gohmert Weekly Reader
Evan McMurry of Mediate: "On the House floor on Friday, Texas Representative Louie Gohmert accused various federal agencies of aiding Islamic terrorists organizations such as the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America in their attempts to enact Sharia Law.... Gohmert accused the Obama administration of changing policy so that the FBI, State Department, and others had to 'partner with' CAIR and ISNA, rather than treat mosques as terrorist recruitment centers.... 'They want Sharia law to be the law of the land, not our Constitution.'"
The Putin Report -- The Ring Caper
News Ledes
New York Times: "Pharmaceutical companies that pay rivals to keep less-expensive generic versions of best-selling drugs off the market can expect greater federal scrutiny after a Supreme Court ruling on Monday. In a 5-to-3 vote, the justices effectively said that the Federal Trade Commission can sue pharmaceutical companies for potential antitrust violations, a decision that is likely to increase the number of generic drugs in the marketplace and benefit consumers.... Justice [Stephen] Breyer's decision, which was joined by Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, reversed a decision of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which had thrown out the F.T.C.'s case.... Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote a dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. recused himself from the case."
AP: "The United States and Cuba will resume talks this week on restarting direct mail service despite a deadlock between Washington and Havana over detainees that has largely stalled most rapprochement efforts.... U.S. and Cuban diplomats and postal representatives will meet in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday for technical talks aimed at ending a 50-year suspension in direct mail between the United States and the communist island."
New York Times: "Turkish authorities widened their crackdown on the antigovernment protest movement on Sunday, taking aim not just at the demonstrators themselves, but also at the medics who treat their injuries, the business owners who shelter them and the foreign news media flocking here to cover a growing political crisis threatening to paralyze the government of Prıme Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan." ...
... AP: "Turkish trade unions urged their members to walk out of work Monday and join demonstrations in response to a widespread police crackdown against activists following weeks of street protests." ...
... Reuters Update: "Turkish riot police backed by water cannon faced off with around 1,000 trade union workers in the capital Ankara on Monday, after a weekend of some of the worst clashes since anti-government protests erupted late last month." ...
... Reuters: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday she was shocked at Turkey's tough response to anti-government protests but she stopped short of demanding that the European Union call off accession talks with the candidate country. 'I'm appalled, like many others,' Merkel said of Turkey's handling of two weeks of unrest that began over a redevelopment project in an Istanbul park but has grown into broader protest Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government."
AP: "Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who was allowed to travel to the U.S. after escaping from house arrest, said Monday that New York University is forcing him and his family to leave at the end of this month because of pressure from the Chinese government. The university denied Chen's allegations."
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Reader Comments (10)
Re: Can I speak to you for a moment in private? Anybody remember when the State Department built a new embassy in Moscow? The fine quality local contractors stuffed it so full of bugging devices that in the end the US torn the building down. The British being the British of course the internet cafes were echo chambers. British citizens are some of the most video-tracked people in the West from what I have read. Most street intersections in most cities and towns in England are on camera 24/7 and there are computer controlled links to follow people of interest as they cross town from camera to camera. And that's for your average "Snug the jointer" you can well imagine the interest in a working diplomat. What's secure these days? Nothing. You want to keep a secret? Don't tell anybody.
I wonder in these days how much critical data that a government generates is more valuable to private for-profit corporations that to other governments? The distinction between state and corporation grows ever smaller in personnel and goals and information gathered at a summit meeting on the world's economy might be more critical to big banks than little governments.
Are we the taxpayers giving up privacy, not for national security, but for "Bozo, Asswipe and Disclaimer corp." to pass on the info needed to be ahead of the stock market curve?
Knowledge before it becomes common is much more valuable than after.
I know that there are provisions in place to prevent this type of data transfer just like I know corporations are people and people can be trusted. But it is an interesting possibility, no?
Great wars, in retrospect, seem inevitable. How could the assassination of a minor archduke in the Balkans take the world to war? Oh, well, looking back, all the pieces were in place. Yes, they were, but few noticed it at the time. Talk about your domino effect. WWII erupted, like an evil phoenix, from the ashes of Versailles. Yes, yes, if only we had known what we know now, we would have told that old bugger Clemenceau to "asseyez-vous et fermez la bouche". But America was the good cop to France's bad cop so we didn't. So 20 years later, a revived and vengeful Germany invades Poland, a newly militarized Japan invades China and there we are.
We may be approaching another martial sysygy, as politics, religion, oil economics, and a myriad of national interests and recondite internecine struggles converge toward a tipping point in the Middle East. War that could make the last decade seem like a video game.
Marie posted an article from the Independent today written by the sagacious, ever vigilant Robert Fisk (pick up his "Great War for Civilization" and be amazed), a correspondent so comfortable at the crossroads of history and realpolitik that he wouldn't be allowed within 300 yards of a Fox News studio.
Fisk reports that Iran is putting boots on the ground in Syria just as the US has decided to engage in yet another Middle East adventure directly on the heels of Iraq and Afghanistan. Because both of those parties turned out so well.
Should we help the rebels? First we need to know who the rebels are and consider exactly what kind of help we're prepared to offer. Should something be done in Syria? Maybe, but I think we may have missed an opportunity to do something different--and less dangerous--prior to this. Should Americans listen to the likes of John McCain and militate for American boots on the sand once again, it won't just be against Damascus, it will now involve Tehran and likely Moscow. And like the sign says, you break that thing, you bought it.
That the Middle East is a tinderbox is an old saw by now doesn't mean that it's not true. Things could get out of hand very quickly there (look at what happened in a backwater like Benghazi). Too many Americans and even more American politicians loathe history, except the fake populist Fox-Teabagger kind, which never really happened anyway. I bet Bush nor Cheney nor Rumsfeld nor any of the neo-con masterminds could, to this day, explain the difference between Shiites and Sunnis.
We're still paying for that ignorance. We best take care that we don't run the bill up even further. Hubris and ignorance are a very expensive combo.
The dominoes are stacked and waiting.
Re: Private spies; private eyes; could I have some privacy, please?
What if the corporations of the world; good people all, were using information gathered at taxpayers expense for national security for their own ends?
If "Bozo, Asswipe, and Disclaimer Corp." uncovered data gathered at a summit meeting between governments that could be sold to other corporate personal friends for profit, would they?
Of course the answer is a "Big No" because corporations like people can be trusted, right?
@Akhilleus: if you don't mind a crooked, somewhat broken line, you can trace the Mazzini letter-reading scandal (see Jill Lepore) thru the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand to World Wars I & II. And here we are.
Marie
Marie,
Any excuse to read Jill Lepore is a welcome one, and her meditation on privacy and publicity is a welcome step back from the front lines where every utterance vibrates at the top of the voice with very little interference from the pre-frontal cortex. Because Fox news would have to close up if that were the case.
Last night I was reading Daniel Boorstin's book on the "Genius of American Politics". One observation in particular stood out, his notion that too many Americans take as gospel a kind of "preformed" Idea of America, stemming from the heads of the Founders, much like Athena burst fully formed from the head of Zeus, an idea that turns the founders into saints and modifies myth into received wisdom (just as an aside, I was appalled recently to find, while reading a short biography of Washington written for children, Parson Weems' ridiculous Cherry Tree fable. I felt obliged to point out to the child that this episode never happened. Nevertheless, its inclusion only serves to accentuate Boorstin's point of the liveliness of American Mythologies) all to be waved about by originalists and "patriots" like torches used to fire effigies of their enemies, ie, anyone who doesn't agree with their idea of America.
This allows for, in Boorstin's pungent phrase, a "penumbra of heresy" which is flexible enough for these self-apppointed Real Americans to brand anyone thought to be un-American as enemies. Boorstin goes on to point out that it's extremely rare for other countries to refer to a person or idea as un-French or un-English, but we hear references to un-American doings on a weekly, almost daily, basis.
All of this is to say that in times of fear, real or manufactured, demagogues of all stripe can play upon these fears to find a way to make themselves high priest keepers of secrets and to make the uncovering of their secrets something unholy (paging Dick Cheney).
In any event, I had to laugh when reading in the Lepore piece that the report on the Secret Department of the Post Office was....a secret.
And no, I don't mind a following a bit of a crooked path from A to Z or any point in between. Straight lines are found only in geometry text books. As my old friend Kant used to say, "No straight thing was ever made from the crooked timber of humanity."
Ain't it the truth?
I think Snowden is out of control, so to speak. He may be 29, but he acts like he's still 9. This article http://www.salon.com/2013/06/10/expert_whistleblowers_tend_to_be_conservative/
about whistle-blowers says "they tend to be conservative" in that "they expect people to do the right thing" and are shocked when they don't. We here at RC expect people to do the right thing, but aren't shocked when they don't.
I agree with Marie, he's starting to reveal things we don't need to know. If he does a document dump to the Chinese, in my opinion, that is treason, and the US should bring him back to stand trial. Who knows, he might actually be acquitted.
Ever hit send before you checked whether you hit Reply All or the wrong address was accidentally used? There's an insightful Opinion piece followed by good comments on the Times site.
"I’ve often thought that the single most devastating cyberattack a diabolical and anarchic mind could design would not be on the military or financial sector but simply to simultaneously make every e-mail and text ever sent universally public." —Tim Kreider
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/i-know-what-you-think-of-me/?hp
@ Barbarossa. I'm with you on Snowden. Initially, I thought he was really immature and full of himself. Now he's crossed over into criminal territory. He seems to be enjoying his game of "Catch me if you can", while trickling out more and more information that breaches security. Seems like he has the Guardian lapping it up.
@Ahkilleus. I have been so frustrated with the utter disregard for learning anything about the cultures of the Middle East in the service of developing competent foreign policy. The retards in Congress are pretty much stuck in the playground mentality of primary schoolers. The general ignorance isn't bad enough. It's compounded by some romantic "Don't Tread on Me" BS too.
The Middle East is in the midst of, what I think will be, a long and bloody conflict. Perhaps some countries will emerge as democracies, some not. It's a process that will respect the long historical roots of those societies. Engaging in conflict is still inextricable from religious belief. The Crusades should have taught us that's a long battle, which is still being waged. Granted movement toward modernity will speed this some, but I still think it will be a few decades before there is any long term stability in many countries. Maybe never in others. I think equipment, manpower, no fly zones, will merely speed up the initial internal conflict and put the US in a counterproductive position yet once again. No one can argue the immorality of slaughtering innocents (civilians), but how do we define "innocent" from hour to hour. That's the rub.
@Ak; re; Why can't Kant cant cant; "No straight thing was ever made from the crooked timber of humanity." On Saturday I remarked on what happened to the Ottoman Empire after the British surveyors straight-lined the remains into today's maps. Today Marie mentions "a crooked, somewhat broken line" while commenting on your brief that nothing in history is from point A to point B, there is no shining path of untangled truth. You answer with the quote above.
It's been said that carpenters spend a lifetime trying to build straight things in a curved world; unsuccessfully. A gleaned Windsor chair with nary a straight line to it looks naturally, perfectly straight to my eye.
In a nonlinear world is the straight line ever straight? Or was Kant taking that the product of a curved world can only be curved?
Maybe there is only chaos and sense can only be "straightened out" for a moment of time that is already gone.
Maybe consciousness is like a slab of polished Italian marble, swirls of color and motion trapped in unmoving, ageless mass.
@Diane. Seems to me that what the Crusades taught us was the value of sending our home-grown thugs off to pester someone else. We've appear to have been doing it ever since.