Wednesday
Jun242015
The Commentariat -- June 24, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
President Doody.Unpossible! Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "Jeb Bush, who is struggling in the polls in Iowa, may find his salvation in New Hampshire. Yet another poll of New Hampshire voters shows him leading the passel of nearly 20 Republican candidates for the 2016 presidential nomination. Mr. Bush ... was backed by 14 percent of respondents in a Suffolk University poll released Tuesday; the surprise was that his nearest competitor was Donald J. Trump..., who captured the support of nearly 11 percent of those surveyed." ...
... CW: Also, I noticed in the photo accompanying the story that Donald doesn't have orange hair anymore. Maybe the gray makes him seem more presidential to the lumpenproletariat, although I do believe Republicans would vote for Howdy Doody if the Koch boys were the ones pulling the strings.
Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "Gov. Bobby Jindal, who became Louisiana's first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction but whose popularity has plummeted as the state struggles with a $1.6 billion shortfall, announced on Wednesday that he is running for president in 2016.... The announcement was made online, and Mr. Jindal plans a late-afternoon announcement event outside New Orleans." ...
... Here's "a special announcement from Bobby Jindal."
Jeremy Borden & Brian Murphy of the Washington Post: "Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley ordered that Confederate flags be taken down from the state capitol grounds. The Birmingham News reported that workers arrived 'with no fanfare' early Wednesday to remove the flags.... At South Carolina's statehouse, workers placed a black drape over a second-floor window -- blocking the view of a Confederate battle flag at a nearby Civil War memorial -- before thousands of mourners were expected to view the body of slain state senator, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney...."
*****
Scott Shane of the New York Times: "Since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremacists, antigovernment fanatics and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims: 48 have been killed by extremists who are not Muslim, compared with 26 by self-proclaimed jihadists, according to a count by New America, a Washington research center.... On several occasions since President Obama took office, efforts by government agencies to conduct research on right-wing extremism have run into resistance from Republicans, who suspected an attempt to smear conservatives."
Our ancestors were literally fighting to keep human beings as slaves, and to continue the unimaginable acts that occur when someone is held against their will. I am not proud of this heritage. -- South Carolina State Sen. Paul Thurmond (R), the son of segregationist U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond
Campbell Robertson, et al., of the New York Times: "What began as scattered calls for removing the Confederate battle flag from a single state capitol intensified with striking speed and scope on Tuesday into an emotional, nationwide movement to strip symbols of the Confederacy from public parks and buildings, license plates, Internet shopping sites and retail stores." ...
... Greg Blustein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Gov. Nathan Deal said Tuesday he wants a redesign of a state-sponsored license plate featuring the Confederate flag emblem, as a growing list of other Southern governors call for similar changes. The Republican stopped short of calling for the Sons of Confederate Veterans tags to be phased out or eliminated entirely, as the leaders in North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee announced Tuesday. He said the redesign, though, would seek to eliminate the bigger visage of the flag that covers the background of the entire tag. The change, he added, wouldn't require legislative action.... Earlier Tuesday, Deal said he wouldn't support any changes to the license plate and contended that both he and his Democratic opponent Jason Carter said during the campaign they didn't have a problem with the license plate.... (Carter said during the campaign that drivers had the right to sport the emblem as an expression of free speech. He tweeted Tuesday that the plate should be replaced with one honoring the civil rights movement.)" ...
... Mike Pare of the Chattanooga Times Free Press: "Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam [(R) Tuesday] ... said that he wasn't aware that the flag is stamped on some plates, but 'I'd be in favor of discontinuing it.' Haslam signed the bill approving the Confederate license plates for motorcycles on March 14, 2012. The bill passed the state Senate and House by wide margins. The vote in the Senate was 27-3, and in the House voted 82-6 in favor, with one person voting present.... Later, in Nashville, the Republican governor said he favors removal of a bust of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest from Tennessee's state Capitol. But the governor noted that's not his decision alone to make." ...
(NNDP: "Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was (obviously) named for his father and grandfather. His grandfather was named for Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, and General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, the superintendent of West Point who quit to take command the first Confederate army at Fort Sumter, at the start of the American Civil War." People from all over the nation are suggesting he be removed from the Senate, noting it's not their decision to make alone.)
... MEANWHILE. Hilary Stout of the New York Times: "... many of the nation's largest retailers abruptly decided this week to stop selling merchandise tied to the Confederate battle flag. One by one, beginning with Walmart on Monday night, companies including Sears/Kmart, eBay, Amazon, Etsy and Google Shopping disavowed, sometimes in strong moral terms, merchandise that has been sold quietly for decades.... More than 29,000 such offerings could be found on the Amazon website Tuesday morning, including bikinis, shower curtains, ceramic coasters, cupcake toppers and even a tongue ring.... Yet even as companies were vowing to discontinue the items, sales of them were soaring. Confederate flags jumped to the top of Amazon's Patio, Lawn & Garden category, with purchases of some items spiking by more than 5,000 percent.... A number of smaller companies refused to stop selling Confederate-related merchandise, no matter how controversial." CW: Read the whole article. I especially liked the part about "Wildman's, a jumble of a shop in Kennesaw, Ga." ...
... David Goldman of CNN: "It seems like you can buy anything on Amazon. But there are actually a large number of products that the company doesn't allow in its online store. Amazon, has a list of 32 banned or restricted categories of merchandise.... Many of the products that Amazon bans are illegal in many or all states.... Notably, Amazon also bans 'offensive products,' which include 'products that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual or religious intolerance or promote organizations with such views.... Despite Amazon's policies, banned items continually slip through. For instance, Amazon has had something of an on-again / off-again Nazi problem over the past several years. Though the company has banned Nazi flags, swastikas and other symbols, items keep popping up on the store." ...
... Steve M.: "The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway has posted an unstructured, meandering, relentless whiny diatribe about the growing movement to take down flags and other items that honor the Confederacy. She ... compares the orderly removal of Confederate flags and statues to the destruction of ancient Buddhas by ISIS." Steve goes on to demonstrate why "No modern movement conservative has any standing whatsoever to lecture anyone else on intolerance." ...
... Travels of the Confederate Flag. Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "... the flag is surprisingly common in southern Italy, just one of many foreign locations where the flag has been reappropriated for local purposes.... It appears some see a historical parallel at work, pointing toward their own absorption into the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 and the perceived economic and political problems since then.... A more direct historical link can be found in Brazil, where 10,000 Confederate supporters emigrated after the end of the Civil War. The descendents of these people still gather to celebrate their heritage at the yearly Festa Confederada..., an event that includes country music, Southern food and the proud display of Confederate flags.... European extremist political groups have been known to fly the Confederate flag, too. European skinheads and neo-Nazis have sometimes adopted the Confederate flag, especially in Germany, where the swastika and other symbols of Nazi Germany are officially banned by law." ...
... Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post does an in-depth critical analysis to winnow out the 50 worst U.S. state flags. ...
... Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called Tuesday for Congress to expand background checks for gun purchases in the wake of a shooting in Charleston, S.C., last week that left nine dead." ...
... Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "In the wake of the Charleston shooting, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) are considering ways to renew their failed push to pass meaningful gun-control legislation.... If the two senators team up to tackle any facet of gun control, it would mark a significant shift in the political debate nearly a week after nine people were killed at a Bible study group in downtown Charleston, S.C. President Obama noted last week that once again, someone got a gun who shouldn't have had access to it." ...
... Here's the 911 call to the Shelby, N.C. police that led to Dylann Roof's capture. And here's the police dashcam recording of the arrest. ...
... Insane America. CW: In looking for these I made the not-surprising discovery that confederate wingers are treating the mass murder as a hoax perpetrated by Jews &/or the CIA or somebody, Roof is an actor played by Macauley Culkin (Culkin is 35 years old, but never mind) or a young actor called John Christian Graas, & Dylann Roof's father specializes in faking mass murder scenes, & "Game of Thrones," & false flags and and and. And they're coming to take our guns, tra la.
NEW. The White House will release on Wednesday a presidential directive and an executive order that will allow the government to communicate and negotiate with terrorist groups holding Americans hostage, a source briefed on the matter told CNN. While the government will maintain its policy of not making 'substantive concessions' to captors or paying ransoms, the White House will announce that officials will no longer threaten with criminal prosecution the families of American hostages looking to pay ransoms to their relatives' captors, according to a senior administration official." ...
... Lawrence Wright of the New Yorker on five American families' secret efforts to rescue their relatives held hostage in the Middle East.
NEW. Ari Berman of the Nation: "Two years ago, on June 25, 2013, in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court invalidated the centerpiece of the Voting Rights Act. [Wednesday], congressional Democrats will introduce an ambitious new bill that would restore the important voting-rights protections the Supreme Court struck down. The Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015 would compel states with a well-documented history of recent voting discrimination to clear future voting changes with the federal government, require federal approval for voter ID laws, and outlaw new efforts to suppress the growing minority vote."
Rachel Maddow, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Whether or not you like activism from your Supreme Court justices, this court's aggressive interventionism has established these nine men and women as the dynamic, creative and disruptive center of U.S. policy.... This court has shown a voracious appetite for finding cases with the potential to disrupt settled policies.... As goes the next president, so goes the court." Maddow notes that elite political donors are far more interesting in the type of appointees the next president will make than is the general public. CW: While I'm aware that some Reality Chex readers would fall among the "elite political donor" class, it's obvious that our commenters -- Kate Madison! -- big donors or not, are far more aware of the importance of judicial appointments than is the average voter.
Reuters: "A US district judge in Wyoming has granted a request by four states and several energy industry groups to temporarily block new federal rules governing fracking on public lands. The interior department rules due to come into force on Wednesday would require companies to provide data on chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, and to take steps to prevent leakage from oil and gas wells on federally owned land."
Samuel Gibbs of the Guardian: "Privacy campaigners and open source developers are up in arms over the secret installing of Google software which is capable of listening in on conversations held in front of a computer. First spotted by open source developers, the Chromium browser -- the open source basis for Google's Chrome -- began remotely installing audio-snooping code that was capable of listening to users. It was designed to support Chrome's new 'OK, Google' hotword detection -- which makes the computer respond when you talk to it -- but was installed, and, some users have claimed, it is activated on computers without their permission."
Martyn Williams of Computerworld: "The U.S. Navy is paying Microsoft millions of dollars to keep up to 100,000 computers afloat because it has yet to transition away from Windows XP. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, which runs the Navy's communications and information networks, signed a $9.1 million contract earlier this month for continued access to security patches for Windows XP, Office 2003, Exchange 2003 and Windows Server 2003. The entire contract could be worth up to $30.8 million and extend into 2017." These products are so obsolete, "Microsoft has stopped issuing free security updates but will continue to do so on a paid basis for customers like the Navy." ...
... More from Eugene Kim, et al., of Business Insider. ...
... CW: That's news to me. I thought the Navy was using the Apple I:
... In related news, the U.S. Navy has announced it would spend upwards of a billion dollars to raise the ironclad USS Monitor & return it to service.
Kim Willsher of the Guardian: "The French president, François Hollande, is holding an emergency meeting of his country's defence council after claims that American agents spied on three successive French presidents between 2006 and 2012. According to WikiLeaks documents published late on Tuesday, even the French leaders' mobile phone conversations were listened to and recorded." ...
... AFP: "France's president, François Hollande, has described reported spying by the US on senior French officials as unacceptable and said Paris would not tolerate actions that threaten its security. Hollande released the statement after an emergency meeting of ministers and army commanders on Wednesday, following WikiLeaks revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on the last three French presidents."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Mike Allen of Politico: "Fox News will not renew its contract with Sarah Palin, whose bombastic appearances have been a cable staple since the former Alaska governor's failed run on John McCain's ticket in the 2008 presidential election cycle." ...
... Steve M.: "Fox soured on Palin a long time ago." Read Steve's post, if only for the Palin quote. ...
... In his post, Steve cites Gabriel Sherman, who reported that "Fox producers called Palin and her husband 'The Bitch' and 'The Eskimo.'" So sexist and racist. What an excellent outfit young Murdoch is inheriting.
Presidential Race
Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "... Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday called the flag 'a symbol of our nation's racist past.' Speaking at an African-American church just outside Ferguson, Mo..., Mrs. Clinton made a forceful plea to remove the Confederate flag wherever it flew.... 'It shouldn't fly there. It shouldn't fly anywhere,' Mrs. Clinton said of South Carolina.... 'How do we make sense of such an evil act -- an act of racist terrorism perpetrated in a house of God?'" she asked. CW: Not just the past, Hillary.
Margaret Hartmann: "2016 Republicans reveal they were against the confederate flag all along." CW: Not sure if 2016 is the year or the number of GOP presidential candidates.
Randy Got the Memo. Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul says he believes the Confederate battle flag is 'inescapably a symbol of human bondage and slavery' and needs to go.... Paul added it was obviously a decision for South Carolina to make but said if he were in South Carolina he would vote to get rid of it." ...
... Wow! Even Li'l Randy's old pal, former staffer & ghostwriter Jack Hunter, the "Southern Avenger," who used to wear the confederate flag as a mask, got the memo." ...
... ** Seems those two ole boys are mighty creative. Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Many of the quotes attributed to the Founding Fathers in two of Rand Paul's books are either fake, misquoted, or taken entirely out of context, BuzzFeed News has found." Via Charles Pierce.
Andy Borowitz: The Center for Disease Control is tracking the epidemic of GOP presidential candidacy. "While scientists disagree about how running for President spreads from person to person, most epidemiologists believe that a candidacy needs an environment rich in narcissism and delusion -- plus a host to feed on, ideally a sociopathic billionaire."
Illustration by DonkeyHotey.Reid Epstein of the Wall Street Journal: "Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is set to announce Wednesday that he is running for the Republican nomination for president, in a long shot bid that will rely on wooing the socially conservative voters who dominate early primary states." ...
... AP: "Gov. Bobby Jindal isn't seeking to have the Confederate battle flag stripped from a Louisiana-issued license plate for the Sons of Confederate Veterans." ...
... Here's what Jessica Taylor of NPR thinks you should know about Jindal.
Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Chris Christie is in the final stages of preparing his 2016 presidential bid, with a formal announcement possible as soon as next week, according to several sources familiar with the discussions.... Earlier this month, Christie dropped another hint that he was nearing a run. While campaigning in New Hampshire, the governor said that his family -- one of the last major hurdles to his entering the race -- was on board. 'This is about me now,' he said." CW: Isn't it always about you, Chris?
Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "As Gov. Scott Walker prepares to announce his campaign for president next month, promising to bring what he calls 'big bold leadership' to Washington, as he did in Wisconsin, he faces a cloud over that story line: Republicans back home are in revolt. Leaders of Mr. Walker's party, which controls the Legislature, are balking at his demands for the state's budget. Critics say the governor's spending blueprint is aimed more at appealing to conservatives in early-voting states like Iowa than doing what is best for Wisconsin." ...
... Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) plans to sign two new laws on Wednesday that expand the rights of gun owners by removing a 48-hour waiting period for those looking to purchase a firearm and allowing off-duty or retired police officers to carry concealed weapons at public schools. This action [which Walker will highlight at at a ceremony at the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office] will come one week after a suspected gunman shot and killed nine people in an African American church in South Carolina, yet again prompting a national discussion about gun laws in the U.S." ...
... We now break for a Chuck Todd Excuse Alert: "Laurel Patrick, a spokeswoman for the governor, said this bill-signing was scheduled and announced about two weeks ago, several days before the shooting occurred in South Carolina."
Justin Carissimo of the U.K. Independent: "Artist Dalton Javier Avalos Ramirez created a piñata of Donald Trump for fellow Mexicans to take their frustrations out on. Mr 'Piñateria' Ramirez told The Independent that he created Mr Trump's paper-mâché and cardboard look-a-like in one day and was inspired by his controversial presidential campaign announcement speech. 'They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime,' Mr Trump said in at Trump Tower in New York City. 'They're rapists and some, I assume, are good people....'" CW: I'm waiting for Donald to boast that Mexicans are buying Trump idols.
Beyond the Beltway
Justin Fenton of the Baltimore Sun: "Freddie Gray suffered a single 'high-energy injury' to his neck and spine -- most likely caused when the police van in which he was riding suddenly decelerated, according to a copy of the autopsy report.... The state medical examiner's office concluded that Gray's death could not be ruled an accident, and was instead a homicide, because officers failed to follow safety procedures 'through acts of omission.'" ...
Anita Chabria of the Guardian: "A proposed 'shoot the gays' ballot initiative in California that called for the execution of state residents on the basis of their sexuality has been quashed by a judge, sparing voters from the possibility of having to debate it during fall elections. Judge Raymond Cadei of the Sacramento superior court wrote that the measure, called the 'Sodomite Suppression Act', was 'patently unconstitutional' in a ruling filed on Monday and released on Tuesday."
Tal Alroy of CNN: "The Stonewall Inn, the site of the 1969 Stonewall riots and an iconic bar in the LGBT community, on Tuesday was unanimously granted landmark status by a vote of New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission." CW: About time.
Odd News. Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: A Virginia man won a $500,000 defamation & malpractice suit against two doctors who made degrading & insulting comments about him during his colonoscopy. Although the patient did not hear the conversation because the anesthesiologist had sedated him, he had inadvertently recorded their remarks on his cellphone. CW: Makes you wonder what derogatory remarks doctors make about you when you're out cold. I'm sure dissing the patient is common smalltalk during routine procedures.
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Breaking his long silence on Wednesday, the 21-year-old man convicted of the Boston Marathon bombing acknowledged his guilt, apologized to his victims and stood to hear a judge formally impose a penalty of death by execution." ...
... NPR: "Convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has apologized to the victims and the survivors of the deadly 2013 attack. 'I am sorry for the lives that I've taken, for the suffering that I've caused you, and the damage that I've done,' he told the court today in Boston prior to the judge imposing the sentence on him." ...
... The Boston Globe reports Judge George O'Toole's sentencing remarks.
New York Times: "While nothing to brag about, the economy's performance in early 2015 was not quite as bad as the number-crunchers in Washington had thought. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2015, an upward revision from the 0.7 percent contraction reported last month."
Grub Street: "New York City officials have launched an investigation of [Whole Foods] because, they say, the city's Whole Foods stores 'routinely' overcharge for products. The Department of Consumer Affairs alleges the overcharging happens because of inaccurate weights marked on prepacked groceries and claims the practice dates back to at least 2010."
AP: "A former White House chef for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush drowned in a New Mexico mountain stream, and his death was ruled an accident, authorities said Tuesday. The determination followed several days of mystery about the death of Walter Scheib, who vanished during a solo hike in the mountains of northern New Mexico and was found dead Sunday night after a weeklong search. There was no sign of foul play, State Police Sgt. Elizabeth Armijo said. Scheib recently moved from Florida to Taos. He was 61."
New York Times: Greek "Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faced anger and resistance on Tuesday from members of his own radical left political party, complicating his efforts to strike a deal this week with Greece's creditors, as some lawmakers and party officials criticized concessions by the Greek side and expressed doubts about voting for a deal in Parliament."
New York Times: "James Horner, the prolific composer whose vaulting theme music for 'Titanic' earned him two Oscars and became the best-selling orchestral soundtrack ever, died on Monday morning when the single-turboprop plane he was flying solo crashed and burned in the Los Padres National Forest in Southern California. He was 61. Late Tuesday, Mr. Horner's spokesman, the Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency, confirmed that he was the pilot of the EMB 312 Tucano that crashed in northern Ventura County. He lived in Calabasas, near the Santa Monica Mountains."
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Reader Comments (9)
Responding to a conversation from yesterday ––Kate and Ak's about in time all peoples will be so many mingled races we'll eradicate this race prejudice business. Something I've thought about a lot. I've also found it queer that many white people think blacks have corrupted their race when it is the opposite: whites have done the deed. During the good ole slave days that randy master done visit those slave cabins on a regular basis. But back to the issue of one race fits all: If and when this occurs, you can bet your bippy there will be other scales to evaluate worth. I'd like to think of that one day when we as humans can finally become the humans we strive to be, but I'm afraid I'm not that optimistic–– plus I'll be dead by then.
It is, however, gratifying that FINALLY we are addressing this racial stain that has been with us forever. It doesn't bode well, however, that sales of these confederate articles have soared–-reminds me of the gun soar after Sandy Hook.
@AK: Thanks for the P.I. song––I loved it!
@ Forest: Was quite moved by your comments.
The Marketplace of Morals (apologies to Nietzsche)
The concept of free market economies holds such a place of honor in contemporary discourse that it's hard to remember that its essential appeal, especially to small government types and haters of guv'mint in general, is illusory. There is no "free" market, at least not if one considers the definition relied upon by most winger pundits, which is a market untethered from interference (by government). So, two things. First, there is always some kind of "interference" or influence from governments whether it involves currency exchanges, safety regulations, trade embargoes, tariffs, price controls, etc. But there is perhaps even more interference from non-governmental actors. Buyers and sellers are constantly trying to finagle better deals which can often mean extra-legal activity and in other cases where large corporations are able to manipulate markets to their advantage, quite a bit of interference, all of which throws into question exactly how free those markets are.
But here we're talking about goods and services.
What about the marketplace of morals? Is there such a thing? But of course, cherie. And over the last few days we've seen a textbook example of how the market of morality works.
Here's an example. RCers have been considering the possible exchange rate of morality in a deal being brokered by the Supreme Court. Little Johnny and his dwarfs are proposing the following price for a specific exchange. They will give us the possibility that citizens in the LGBT camp can now have the same rights as everyone else. The cost? Healthcare. This is the right-wing marketplace of morals. But like the so called free markets, this market is not free either. First, LGBT citizens already have the right to be treated like everyone else. It says so in the Constitution. That particular moral "service", if you will, is not really theirs to offer for sale. Certainly not at the exorbitant rate of healthcare for millions. But they're hoping that's what the market will bear.
Currently there's a lot of chest thumping and huge amounts of self-regard on the right about how they're doing "the right thing" by "demanding" (they're doing no such thing, by the way; they're simply responding to a tsunami of public opinion and have made a decision not to look like the scumbag racist pigs many of them are) that the Confederate flags be removed from public buildings in the United States in states which have not been technically part of the Confederacy for a century and a half. Now, here's how this exchange of morals goes. First, does anyone believe for a millisecond that this symbol of white supremacy and treasonous secession would be on the block but for the events in Charleston? Of course not.
So the price for having the Confederate flag taken down from the statehouse in South Carolina, and for a growing number of Confederate pols lining up to say "fine by me"?
Nine bodies. That was the price. That's the cost in the right-wing Marketplace of Morals.
This happens all the time. One would think that there are some things that just make sense, like human rights. But wingers charge for these rights all the time in the marketplace of morals. What do you think they'll charge for real and meaningful immigration reform? Hmmm.....perhaps some moral decisions will never make it to market.
Here's another. Gun control.
If the cost of taking down a flag is nine dead African Americans, what do you think they'll charge for gun control? Understand now, that gun control does not mean no one can own guns. It just means a certain amount of regulation, not much different than getting a driver's license and registering a car, would be required. Just like striking the Confederate colors at public buildings doesn't mean no one can fly those things. In fact, there will likely be a huge glut of Confederate symbolism appearing to demonstrate the usual winger bullshit.
But if 20 plus dead children and tens of thousands of dead Americans every year isn't enough to purchase the morality of gun control, I'm guessing the price is too damn high. In which case, we need to re-regulate that market. That market is certainly not free. The fix is in, set by the NRA , cowardly pols, and the Supreme Court, natch.
So we'll see, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, what John Roberts and his price fixers on the Court will charge for healthcare in the right-wing marketplace of morals. I guarantee you that market is not free either.
It could cost many people their lives.
If the Confederate battle flag is part of Southern heritage shouldn't the swasika flag be honored as part of German heritage? At least it's German, while the Confederacy claimed to be a separate nation.
At least the Germans have the sense to ban the swastika flag.
Barbarossa,
Interestingly, white supremacists and skinheads in Germany where, as you say, Nazi flags are banned, and right-wing extremists in other parts of Europe, have chosen to replace the swastika with the Confederate stars and bars.
Hmmm....let me guess why they would do that.
The Confederate battle flag says "peace, love, and brotherhood"?
The Confederate battle flag says "democracy and equality"?
The Confederate battle flag says "white supremacy, violent aggression, treason, secession, and slavery for The Other"?
I just don't know!
Just a thought, but anyone still selling Confederate flags and symbols of the secessionist Civil War South will soon be making a bundle. The current talk about banning the flag and taking it down from in front of statehouses and off license plates will cause so many Confederate heads to explode that their wallets will automatically open, credit cards will spit their numbers onto web sites and auto dial any vendors who have no problem selling this stuff.
You see, before they only thought they were victims. Now they're sure.
A bonanza for suppliers to the haters and those who pretend that their interest in southern heritage can be separated from the original intent of that battle flag: to kill Americans in defense of enslaving other human beings.
Sounds like a heritage to be proud of, no?
Bobby Jindal...yaaaawnnn....is running....stretchhhhh....for....president.....
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
What the hell is wrong with me? I take no comfort in this sudden denunciation of the confederate flag. To me, this is only now possible because the murder of nine African Americans took place in a church. It's all about the fu*kin' church. Murder those same nine African Americans at a family cookout - and who cares. In fact, most would be sure that drugs were involved.
Once again, Akhilleus says it so much better than I. His analogy of the Marketplace of Morals is exactly correct - yet I dare to make one addition. Yes, the price was nine bodies, but I think those bodies had to be in a church - otherwise those damn bible-thumpers would still be defending their 'heritage'.
Please read this–-a riveting piece by Kiese Layman ("A fat black boy") "Black churches taught us to forgive white people. We learned to shame ourselves."
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/23/black-churchesforgive-white-people-shame