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Tuesday
May122015
The Commentariat -- May 13, 2015
Internal links removed.
Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senate Democrats handed
... The Washington Post story, by Mike DeBonis, is here. ...
... Greg Sargent: "... it's way premature to suggest that this means the TPP is in deep trouble.... There is still a sizable bloc of pro-TPP Democrats in the Senate who will vote Yes, if their demands are met.... Democrats want votes on four provisions at once -- fast track (which would ensure a Congressional up-or-down vote on a final deal), Trade Adjustment Assistance (which helps workers displaced by trade), a provision cracking down on currency manipulation by other countries, and a measure that would stiffen enforcement of the terms of the trade deal. [Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell only allowed a vote on the first two of these. A sizable bloc of Dems who voted No today could well vote Yes if McConnell relents...." ...
... Dana Milbank: Elizabeth "Warren masterfully undermined the trade bill, by highlighting the administration's obsessive secrecy (the details of the proposed agreement are classified) and the role of corporate interests in drafting the deal (500 non-government advisors participated, she said, 85 percent of them industry executives or lobbyists).... Senate free-traders will likely find a way to revive the bill, but Tuesday's defeat will embolden opponents in the House, where the free-trade package already faced trouble. However the trade debate is resolved, Tuesday's defeat in the Senate is likely to be a turning point, because it shows that the populists are now firmly in control of the Democratic Party.... Hillary Clinton, was not courageous enough to take a position on the trade legislation, but her silence gave Democrats more freedom to oppose it. And Democrats in Congress bristled at Obama's disparagement of opponents of the trade bill as emotional, illogical and dishonest." ...
... AND thanks again to Unwashed for highlighting the Roosevelt Institute program, which Milbank cites. ...
... "Trade Show." Charles Pierce: "... I would have to say that this afternoon's events in the Senate justify the president's snark about Senator Professor Warren's being 'a politician.' He's right. She is. And, today, she was a better one than he was.... (As far as our future leaders go, Marco Rubio skipped the vote and both of those Tea Party populist heroes, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, voted to give the tyrannical president this power.) The TPP looks like a big enough turkey all on its own, and why the president has chosen this particular issue on which to go to knives so vigorously with his progressive supporters leads me to wonder if it isn't just a way to guarantee him some nice sinecures when he leaves office in 2017." ...
... CW: I would pause to point out that President Obama has been securing his post-presidential future from Day One. When he told imperious bankers in April 2009, "My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks," I wondered why he was holding the pitchforks at bay. It didn't take long to figure it out, as again & again, he & then-Treasury Secretary Tim Geitner did Wall Street's bidding at the expense of Main Street. ...
... Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown threw a grenade into the ongoing war of words between Sen. Elizabeth Warren and President Barack Obama, a war that reached new heights with Tuesday's dramatic setback of Obama's trade agenda in the Senate. When asked how Obama was being disrespectful of Warren, Brown replied: 'I think by just calling her 'another politician.' He continued, 'I'm not going to get into more details. I think referring to her as first name, when he might not have done that for a male senator, perhaps?'" ...
... Kevin Cirilli of the Hill: "National Organization for Women (NOW) president Terry O'Neill on Wednesday called President Obama's critique of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sexist.... 'The truth of the matter is that Elizabeth is, you know, a politician like everybody else. And you know, she's got a voice that she wants to get out there. And I understand that,' Obama told Yahoo. O'Neill said Obama's 'clear subtext is that the little lady just doesn't know what she's talking about.'"
... Not to throw cold water on the Warren party, but ... Laura Barron-Lopez, et al., of the Huffington Post: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has been the public face of the Democratic Party's feud with President Barack Obama over his trade agenda. But behind the scenes, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) quietly united his party behind a strategy that resulted in a major defeat Tuesday for the president. Brown's weeks of work came to fruition when Democrats voted to block legislation that would have given Obama so-called fast-track trade authority." ...
... AND. Russell Berman of the Atlantic: "... it turns out that the president's most difficult obstacle is not Warren but Harry Reid, his erstwhile ally and the Democratic leader in the Senate." ...
... Burgess Everett & Manu Raju of Politico: "Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who rallied his caucus to reject the fast-track measure on a procedural vote, has already floated a plan to find a way out of the impasse by offering to drop a customs bill, which includes anti-currency manipulation language,from his party's list of demands.... 'I suggest the way we move forward is to have a program where we have all of these bills discussed at the same time,' Reid said. 'Everybody should just take a deep breath. I think there's probably a way we can move forward with this.' But with little more than a week before the Memorial Day recess and several expiring laws still to be addressed, the immediate future of Obama's trade agenda is uncertain."
Kathryn Wolfe of Politico: "An Amtrak train from Washington, D.C., to New York City derailed Tuesday night in Philadelphia, killing at least six people and injuring dozens -- on the eve of a House markup of a bill that would slash the passenger rail service's budget.... The version approved earlier by [the] appropriations subcommittee contains language that would slash Amtrak's funding to $1.13 billion, less than the roughly $1.4 billion it typically receives annually. Democrats had already been expected to take a run at boosting the bill's funding for Amtrak, but the debate at Wednesday's markup is sure to take on more urgency in light of the crash.... Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a critic of the FRA's oversight of train safety, tweeted that he and others 'will need a quick, thorough investigation to determine the cause.'" See also yesterday's & today's News Ledes.
Bill McKibben in the New York Times: "THE Obama administration's decision to give Shell Oil the go-ahead to drill in the Arctic shows why we may never win the fight against climate change. Even in this most extreme circumstance, no one seems able to stand up to the power of the fossil fuel industry. No one ever says no.... A quarter century ago, scientists warned that if we kept burning fossil fuel at current rates we'd melt the Arctic. The fossil fuel industry (and most everyone else in power) ignored those warnings, and what do you know: The Arctic is melting.... If we're to have any chance of meeting even Mr. Obama's weak goal of holding temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, we have to leave most carbon underground."
David Gelles & Brian Chen of the New York Times: "Verizon Communications agreed on Tuesday to buy AOL for $4.4 billion in an all-cash deal that will see today's king of mobile acquire the one-time king of media.... Verizon and AOL want to put content and new advertising technology on today's most ubiquitous computing device, the mobile phone. In AOL, Verizon acquires a company that has developed valuable technology for serving mobile video and advertising." ...
... Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times explains the rationale behind the deal: it is "... just the latest corporate reaction to a staggering shift in the way people across the globe get their news and entertainment. Over the last couple of years, we have collectively decided to use our phones to reach the Internet more than we ever used our computers to do."
Jessica Roy of New York: "The Environmental Protection Agency has partnered with several other federal agencies to address the public-health concerns at nail salons. Along with the Food and Drug Administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the Small Business Administration, the EPA will 'develop a plan to assess and improve regulations, programs, and outreach strategies to ensure nail salon worker health and safety,' according to a statement from the agency. The news comes a week after the New York Times ran an explosive story detailing the dangerous and exploitative conditions of many nail salons in New York."
Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post: "With her commencement address at Tuskegee University, first lady Michelle Obama showed that her husband isn't the only one in the White House with a facility for searing and soaring speeches. In word and tone, Obama gave voice to the frustrations and hopes of African Americans in this country. Her words were powerful and forcefully delivered without apology. Coming after what we have witnessed in Ferguson and Baltimore, Obama's speech at the historically black institution has added resonance. Of course, Obama's truth-telling was met with the usual and predictable harangues from the reactionary right." ...
... Here's the transcript of Michelle Obama's speech. ...
Yes, Republicans Are Stupid. Anne Helms of the Charlotte Observer: Irresponsible Republican guy who is going blind blames President Obama for his own irresponsibility & for South Carolina's failure to accept the Medicaid expansion. Via Josh Marshall. CW: BTW, liberals are giving the irresponsible Republican guy the what-for on his GoFundMe page. However, as one commenter points out, he can't see to read the comments. Maybe his wife, who is as stupid as he is, will read them aloud to him.
Presidential Race
Nate Silver: "The Electoral College just isn't worth worrying about much. If you see analysts talking about the 'blue wall,' all they're really saying is that Democrats have won a bunch of presidential elections lately -- an obvious fact that probably doesn't have much predictive power for what will happen this time around. I'm not saying Clinton is doomed. Rather, I think the 'fundamentals' point toward her chances being about 50-50."
An Audience of One. Jaime Fuller of New York: At the Roosevelt Institute event mentioned above, "... Hillary Clinton was rarely mentioned during either of these rollouts, but as she is the one presidential candidate progressives are most determined to move to the left, it was obvious she was the intended audience."
Ed O'Keefe & Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "A nonprofit group allied with former Florida governor Jeb Bush is playing a more expansive role in his current political operation than previously known, housing several top policy advisers who are expected to join his eventual campaign.... Bush's reliance on the nonprofit as he prepares for a likely presidential bid puts him on untested legal ground, cloaking who is paying the salaries of his expected advisers.... A landmark 2002 law bans a candidate from directly or indirectly establishing an organization that is not subject to federal contribution limits.... But a polarized Federal Election Commission is unlikely to scrutinize the maneuver, campaign finance experts said.... 'This is another example of how he is running roughshod over campaign finance law,' said Larry Noble, senior counsel at the Campaign Legal Center." ...
... Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register: "No Iowa Straw Poll for Jeb Bush. The likely Republican presidential candidate will instead attend a competing event, the RedState Gathering in Atlanta, the day of the Iowa event.... Bush ... is the first well-known Republican in the 2016 presidential field to officially opt out of the straw poll, a nationally renowned event that has drawn significant criticism over the years." ...
... Roger Simon of Politico: "... to fully appreciate the importance of Jeb's revelation that George W. will be his chief adviser when it comes to the Mideast, you've got to keep in mind that Jeb's entire campaign is built around one selling point: Jeb is the smart one in the family." ...
... Confederate Byron York of the Washington Examiner:"If Jeb Bush sticks to his position -- that he would still authorize war knowing what we know today -- it will represent a step backward for the Republican Party.... As for whether Hillary Clinton would have authorized the invasion 'knowing what we know now' -- it's hard to believe that Jeb Bush is serious when he says she would. Of course she wouldn't. Nor would others involved in the decision [including Karl Rove].... Congress would not have authorized war if lawmakers knew there were no WMDs.... Jeb's statement is likely to resonate until he either changes his position or loses the race for the Republican nomination. Should he become the nominee, the issue will dog him into the general election campaign." ...
... Say Wha'? So already we're getting the "misheard-the-question" defense. CW: See if you have trouble understanding the question: Megyn Kelly of Fox "News": "Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion?" Jeb: "I would." ...
... And here's Kelly giving Jeb cover, suggesting "knowing what you know now" was a concept too difficult for Jeb to grasp. ...
... Wait, Wait, There's More Backpedalling. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Jeb Bush on Tuesday sought to arrest a chorus of criticism from Democrats and some conservatives after he told an interviewer that, knowing what history has since shown about intelligence failures, he still would have authorized the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Calling in to Sean Hannity's syndicated radio show, Mr. Bush said he had misunderstood a question that one of Mr. Hannity’s Fox News colleagues, Megyn Kelly, had asked him in an interview shown on Sunday and Monday nights. 'I interpreted the question wrong, I guess,' Mr. Bush said. 'I was talking about, given what people knew then.'... When Mr. Hannity asked about the 2003 Iraq invasion again, in yes-or-no fashion, Mr. Bush said he did not know what the answer would have been, saying, 'That's a hypothetical.' Then, he seemed to go out of his way to absolve his brother, former President George W. Bush, who ordered the invasion: 'Mistakes were made, as they always are in life,' Mr. Bush said."
So, not too bright, but no hearing loss. I think I'd have stuck with "say what?" -- Constant Weader
I want to directly answer your question, because that's what I do. If we knew then what we know now and I were the president of the United States, I wouldn't have gone to war. But you don't get to replay history. -- Chris Christie, to CNN's Jake Tapper yesterday
... Jonathan Chait: "Chris Christie, attempting to convince Republicans that his presidential campaign remains alive, has released his economic plan to 'raise growth and incomes.' The centerpiece is to stimulate spending in the snack sector. Ha, not really -- that would make more sense than Christie's actual plan, which is to give rich people an enormous tax cut."
We will look for you, we will find you, and we will kill you. -- Liam Neeson character Marco Rubio, on U.S. enemies, 2014
... Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg: Today Marco Rubio will make his "first major foreign policy speech of his presidential campaign, where he is expected to complete a dramatic shift from moderate to ultra-hawk."
Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "How depressing is it that, out of the more than a dozen announced or prospective Republican candidates for president in 2016, only one, Carly Fiorina, is a woman. Even more depressing: that Fiorina, as long-shot as her candidacy is, would not be taken even semi-seriously were it not for her gender.... It is the height of chutzpah to imagine that she is remotely qualified to be president. Or, since it's the more likely endgame, for vice president either."
Beyond the Beltway
Everett Rosenfeld of CNBC: "Moody's downgraded Chicago's credit rating down to junk level 'Ba1' from 'Baa2.' The announcement, which the ratings agency released Tuesday afternoon, cited a recent Illinois court ruling voiding state pension reforms. Moody's said it saw a negative outlook for the city's credit."
AP: "A Texas inmate has been executed for the killings of his 15-year-old girlfriend, her mother and her grandfather nearly 13 years ago in Houston. Derrick Dewayne Charles received a lethal injection on Tuesday after the US supreme court rejected last-day appeals and wouldn't stop his execution. He's the seventh prisoner put to death this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state."
Mary Spicuzza & Bill Glauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said Tuesday that Madison Police Officer Matt Kenny won't face criminal charges in a fatal shooting [of Tony Robinson] that sparked protests in Madison and drew national attention as the country grapples with police shootings of unarmed black men."
Way Beyond
Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "Members of Russi's political opposition published a posthumous report by the politician Boris Y. Nemtsov on Tuesday that documented the deaths of 220 Russian soldiers in the fighting in southeastern Ukraine, even though the Kremlin denies being involved in the war there. The report, which goes into various clandestine aspects of the war in Ukraine, became particularly noteworthy after Mr. Nemtsov, an opponent of President Vladimir V. Putin, was assassinated in February.... After the fatal shooting of Mr. Nemtsov in central Moscow, the police detained five ethnic Chechens as suspects. But the investigation stalled there, as is the case in almost every politically tinged killing in Russia, and quickly dropped out of the headlines."
Ian Traynor of the Guardian: "European plans for a military campaign to smash the migrant smuggling networks operating out of Libya include options for ground forces on Libyan territory."
News Ledes
Philadelphia Inquirer: "At least five people were killed and dozens injured, six critically, when a northbound Amtrak train derailed Tuesday night in Port Richmond[, a Philadelphia neighborhood]. In the moments after the derailment, scores of emergency personnel swarmed over more than a half-dozen toppled train cars, trying to reach the dazed, the injured, the dying.Some people were reported trapped in the train, and crews were cutting into the cars to try to free the injured.... At a briefing early Wednesday morning, with [Pennsylvania Gov. Tom] Wolf at his side, [Philadelphia] Mayor [Michael] Nutter gave the grim numbers: In addition to the five dead, 65 people were taken to area hospitals, primarily Temple University Hospital. Six were in critical condition." ...
... Washington Post Update: "At least six people were killed and 50 or more were injured Tuesday night when an Amtrak train that originated in Washington derailed in Philadelphia."
... Philadelphia Inquirer: "A National Transportation Safety Board 'Go Team' is scheduled to arrive at the crash scene later Wednesday morning. The Federal Railroad Administration said it also was sending at least eight investigators to the scene of what is believed to be the deadliest crash on the Northeast Corridor since 16 were killed when an Amtrak train collided with a freight train near Baltimore in 1987." ...
... Washington Post: What it was like inside the train.
Reuters [May 8]: "International inspectors have found traces of sarin and VX nerve agent at a military research site in Syria that had not been declared to the global chemical weapons watchdog, diplomatic sources said on Friday.... 'This is a pretty strong indication they have been lying about what they did with sarin,' one diplomatic source said. 'They have so far been unable to give a satisfactory explanation about this finding.'" Via the New York Times, which covers the story today.
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Reader Comments (14)
"The first foreign policy speech given by a major Republican presidential prospect, Jeb Bush, in mid-February, was notable for its display of ignorance about the world and its menaces—unfortunately a common Republican characteristic. Among these was the claim that the army of the Islamic State numbers some 200,000 men under arms, 10 times the number generally accepted in professional and intelligence circles.
Mr. Bush said the Islamic State is a new phenomenon. Actually, it derives from the so-called al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, whose existence in 2003 was notoriously cited as a motive for invading Iraq.
Bush also blamed President Barack Obama for the continuing shambolic condition of Iraq, claiming that he refused to keep American troops there after 2011. In fact, Obama had nothing to do with it. The U.S. withdrawal was dictated by the 2008 Status of Forces agreement between the Iraqi government and ... President George W. Bush."––––William Pfaff
Now I am a little person–-a "regular folks" kind of citizen, but I happened to know the aforementioned information that Jeb obviously didn't. If that doesn't scare you, well... And given that the rest of the Con-feds running for President ( whose myth-addiction is rich with fantasy and taradiddles) let's cross both our fingers and toes that none will ever put their hand on that very heavy sacred text and pledge to run our country to the best of their ability.
Last night Al Hunt, of Bloomberg news interviewed Penny Pritzker, our Secretary of Commerce about the TPP. She was most persuasive. I've been trying to find the transcript, but so far no luck. (Her brother, by the way, is hosting Hillary Clinton's meet and greet in Chicago this weekend.) Obama has been working on this deal for years Penny tells us, which means that yes, he feels not only strongly about it but is frustrated that his democratic allies are finding fault that he sees as not understanding it fully. If that is the case then he needs to persuade them by debate, by helping them get into the weeds of the thing and I guess he hasn't done that yet. The other business of treating Warren rudely is silly, I think. Not too long ago we heard how Obama is such a cool customer––passive almost. Guess what! ain't like that no more.
@PD Pepe: I didn't find a transcript, but the video is here.
Marie
@Marie: Much appreciated.
Was just reading about the Amtrack derailment––such a disaster. It seems we have had numerous rail accidents ( oil convoys) of late. Life is so precarious––you get on a train to get to a destination just like you've done for years and wham! It takes courage to continue to think you may be lucky to get where you'd like to go. When something like this happens you tend to take stock (as we do after all disasters) but somehow it fades and then it's business as usual. A pity, that.
Re Amtrak: "There but for fortune"...
Just missed it, would have been on that train this morning. Will not be seeing Wolf Hall after all.
Juanito Arbuto is not the only guy who has "misheard" questions directed at whether or not he would follow a terrible path after all the facts were in. Here are some others.
Announcer: J. Bruce Ismay, knowing what you know now, that doing a slalom run through an iceberg field in the North Atlantic would sink your ship and send 1,500 souls to an icy grave, would you do it all again?
Ismay: Of course I would. Do you think I look better in heels or flats?
Announcer: King Philip II, considering that you bet the house on invading England with an armada which put Spain in hock for three generations, lost a third of your country's entire fleet and the cream of its naval officers sending Spain into a tailspin it never recovered from, would you do it again?
Philip II: I think so, but could you repeat the question?
Announcer: Crowned heads of Europe, 1914, given the devastation wrought on all of you, the deaths of millions, the end of most European monarchical systems, and the bloody carnage imposed on your subjects, would you do it all again, sit back and let events take over after your old pal Franz Ferdinand and his wife were shot?
Crowned heads of Europe: Si! Certainement! Ja! Da! Why the bloody hell not? War first, we always say.
New campaign slogan for Juanito: "Not the only idiot in history!"
PD,
I know that Penny Pritzker has been an Obama supporter for a long time. She was the financial chair of his first campaign. But even though she supports Democrats, her family has not been kind to Democratic constituents, having the reputation as union busters and supporters of anti-union causes (that execrable charter school bullshit).
Marie beat me to it, but I was thinking last night that the president's affinity for the TPP as well as big bank bailouts stems in part, I will guess, from his close affiliations with the Summerses, Geithners, and yes, the Pritzkers, who had their very own banking scandal. And it's no big surprise that a Pritzker is doing some fund raising for Clinton. I know you can't run a campaign in the era of Citizens Fucked without mountains of moolah, but it's yet another example of the insidious effect of big money on the thinking of people who are supposed to make public policy and do it in a way that is as fair as possible for everyone, not just the connected and the well off.
Oh, and by the way, thanks for the new word: Shambolic.
Can't wait to use it. Might even have to go all neologismic on it. How about sham-bollix?
From the Knee Slapper Department.
Ya gotta love Jowly Boy Mitch McConnell's complete lack of self awareness (or maybe he just doesn't give a shit).
McConnell is ready to bust a gut over Harry Reid's lack of support for fast tracking the TPP, even though the president would like nothing better.
"How dare he stand in the way of the president's agenda and do whatever he can to throw stones in his pathway! The idea! It's just un-American is what it is!"
Cue eye rolling and disgusted snickering.
Akhilleus, re crowned idiots:
There is a great bit of dialog in Wolf Hall -- Cromwell is attempting to dissuade Henry from embarking on a military adventure, in pursuit of glory, by pointing out the likely disastrous consequences for the country. Henry demands to know for what other purpose the country exists, but to provide the means by which its sovereign may achieve glory. Substitute plutocrats and wealth for sovereign and glory -- plus ça change... etc
@D.C.Clark: I'm glad you missed your train. I know that "there but for fortune" feeling. I haven't been in such a situation myself, but I've been close to a couple of people who have. Those "just misses" do shatter a person's sense of "invictus."
Marie
RE: Democrats' objection to the TPP.
Thanks heaven for small favors....but these are small, indeed.
No objections I've heard are to the specific language of the "deal" that sets up corporate arbitration courts that trump national sovereignty or to the secrecy of the TPP's language itself, both of which could not be more antithetical to democracy... No vox populi here. Just vox (Akhilleus can fill in the appropriate Latin).
Ken,
I suppose it could be vox divitium, voice of the rich, or maybe vox principium, voice of the rulers. Either way, it ain't us, nullo modo.
Re: Republicans are Stupid. A continuing series...(rumor is it's been renewed for the foreseeable future, maybe indefinitely).
So, okay, I feel for this idiot, er, guy in South Carolina who is going blind because he hasn't taken care of himself and hates Obama so he never bought insurance or paid into the ACA, like the law requires him to because it's for no good li'brul moochers and blah people and other lazy asses who hate 'merica.
But now he's in the shit and he wants us to bail him out. Hmm...haven't we heard this whiny story before? You may recall that tea bagging, Obama despising sheriff from Arizona (surprise, surprise) who got sick then demanded that everyone pay his bills. Well now we have another one insisting that we all bail him out.
His wife, who doesn't work, is even more demonstrative.
"'(My husband) should be at the front of the line because he doesn’t work and because he has medical issues,' Mary Lang said last week. 'We call it the Not Fair Health Care Act.'"
Ya got that? He doesn't work and he has medical problems, so he should be able to cut in front of all those 'mericans who have done the right thing and obeyed the law. Now where have I heard that complaint before?
Oh, yeah. I remember now. Isn't that what Confederates were all saying about no good mooching blahs and immigrants and layabouts who don't work but expect others to take care of them? Sure it is. That's exactly their argument against healthcare for others. Oh, wait. Unless "others" means "me". Hey, IOKIYAR, right? (How's that for "not fair", Mrs. Lang? Get a fucking job and stop whining.)
And the best part? If this guy does go blind, we'll all be footing a much larger bill to take care of his lawless Confederate ass.
I guess that will Obama's fault too.
D.C.,
C'est vrai. Le jour de gloire est arrivé, non? Encore et toujours.
@DC: So glad you are still with us. And re: your conversation with AK–––here's an ending: (from Wolf Hall that you missed seeing–-thank goodness.)
"May I substitute the word "bite"? The saying comes to him: homo hominic lupus,––man is wolf to man."