Sunday
Nov152015
The Commentariat -- Nov. 16, 2015
Internal links & defunct videos removed.
Afternoon Update:
Josh Gerstein & Nick Gass of Politico: "CIA Director John Brennan said on Monday that officials had 'strategic warning' about the terrorist attacks in Paris that claimed the lives of more than 130 and injured hundreds more, also saying that Islamic State likely has more operations in the pipeline." ...
... The Syrians Are Coming! The Syrians Are Coming! Kyle Blaine of BuzzFeed: "Several state governors announced on Monday that they will not accept Syrian refugees following the attacks in Paris, citing concerns for security. The governors of Louisiana, Indiana, Massachusetts, Texas, and Arkansas announced measures on Monday to stop or oppose Syrian refugees from resettling in their states. Alabama and Michigan made similar announcements on Sunday." CW: Not even Christian Syrians, Bobby Jindal? I know that the requirement to grandstand makes you stupid, but I'd be surprised if there were "legal means" for a state to kick out a person because of his refuge status. ...
... Ed Kilgore: "... the dumbest reaction we’ve heard, by far, and it seems to be the most common from Republican governors and presidential candidates, is to treat Syrian refugees as putative terrorists, or worse yet, to distinguish them by religious tests. This last proposal is the signature 'idea' of the Great Big Grown-Up and Establishment icon Jeb Bush. Ted Cruz, more predictably, thinks that’s an excellent suggestion as well." See President Obama's reaction to this dumb idea, below, as well as other commentary on it. ...
... Peter Beinart of the Atlantic: "According to the French government, the Islamic State perpetrated Friday’s attacks. [Marco] Rubio, however, said what occurred in Paris is a 'clash of civilizations.' But ISIS isn’t a civilization. In parts of Iraq and Syria, it’s a self-declared, though unrecognized, state.... Rubio ... is ... doing exactly what the Islamic State wants: He’s equating ISIS with Islam itself." ...
... Hans von der Burchard & Laurens Cerulus in Politico Magazine: "Officials said the Paris plot increasingly looked like it was hatched in the Belgian capital. 'It’s likely we’re dealing with a network,' said Françoise Schepmans, the mayor of the Molenbeek-Saint-Jean commune [in Brussels], or district. The possible presence of a terrorist den, barely a couple kilometers from the city’s European quarter, has added sharp urgency to oft-voiced concerns about radicalization within Belgium’s Muslim community and the government’s track record on counterterrorism."
Crackpot Rep. Steve King (RTP-Iowa) endorses crackpot Sen. Ted Cruz for president.
*****
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama on Monday lashed out at Republican presidential candidates who suggested that religious tests be given to refugees seeking to enter the United States out of a fear of letting terrorists into the country. Mr. Obama said it was shameful for Jeb Bush ... to have suggested that the United States only let in Christian refugees, not Muslim ones. 'That’s not American. That’s not who we are,' Mr. Obama said during a news conference at the Group of 20 summit meeting in Turkey. 'We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.'” See more linked under Presidential Race below. ...
... Fear Itself. Paul Krugman: "... the biggest danger terrorism poses to our society comes not from the direct harm inflicted, but from the wrong-headed responses it can inspire.... Again, the goal of terrorists is to inspire terror, because that’s all they’re capable of. And the most important thing our societies can do in response is to refuse to give in to fear." And why leading GOP fearmongers should never be president. ...
... Jeremy Stahl of Slate: "French officials received multiple warnings about Paris attacker Omar Ismail Mostefai before Friday’s terror attack but Turkey didn’t get a response from French authorities until after the attack, a Turkish official said on Monday. 'On Oct. 10, 2014, Turkey received an information request regarding four terror suspects from the French authorities,' a Turkish official told the New York Times. 'During the official investigation, the Turkish authorities identified a fifth individual, Omar Ismail Mostefai, and notified their French counterparts twice — in December 2014 and June 2015. Mashable also quoted a senior Turkish official as saying that Mostefai, the first gunman identified in the attack, was known to security officials and that France never followed up on shared information until after the attack took place.” ...
... Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "Intensifying pressure on the Islamic State, United States warplanes for the first time attacked hundreds of trucks on Monday that the extremist group has been using to smuggle the crude oil it has been producing in Syria, American officials said. According to an initial assessment, 116 trucks were destroyed in the attack, which took place near Deir al-Zour, an area in eastern Syria that is controlled by the Islamic State." ...
... Anthony Faiola, et al., of the Washington Post: "Police in France and Belgium staged more than 160 anti-terrorism raids on Monday as authorities expanded crackdowns and cast their nets wider for suspects in the Paris attacks, including the alleged mastermind who also could have links to last summer’s foiled plot aboard a high-speed train. The intense manhunt for the possible lead plotter — identified by France as Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud — came as clearer portraits emerged of the network behind Friday’s carnage that left at 132 people dead and scores wounded." ...
... Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "A video released by an Islamic State sub-group appears to show militants in Iraq praising the Paris shootings and warning that a similar attack could take place in Washington." ...
... Nathan Pemberton of New York: New York City "Police Commissioner William Bratton responded to the Paris attacks by reassuring New Yorkers that the NYPD is preparing for a similar type of attack here. 'We still remain the number one terrorist target in the world, we believe,' he told ABC 7 yesterday." ...
... Alissa Rubin & Anne Barnard of the New York Times: "France bombed the Syrian city of Raqqa on Sunday night, its most aggressive strike against the Islamic State group it blames for killing 129 people in a string of terrorist attacks across Paris only two days before. President François Hollande, who vowed to be 'unforgiving with the barbarians' of the Islamic State after the carnage in Paris, decided on the airstrikes in a meeting with his national security team on Saturday, officials said." ...
... The Washington Post story, by David Nakamura & Karen DeYoung, is here. ...
... Anthony Faiola & Souad Mekhennet of the Washington Post: "European authorities staged an international manhunt Sunday for a 26-year-old 'dangerous individual,' one of three brothers involved in the deadly attacks on Paris, even as an image took shape of a larger network of terrorists that could involve as many as 20 plotters. At least eight assailants in three death squads are thought to have directly carried out Friday’s assault.... Six detonated their suicide belts. Police shot and killed one. French police on Sunday issued an urgent alert and released a photo of an eighth suspect: the 5-foot-7-inch Salah Abdeslam, a Belgian-born French national." ...
... Qassim Abdul-Zahra of the AP : "Senior Iraqi intelligence officials warned members of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group of imminent assaults by the militant organization just one day before last week's deadly attacks in Paris killed 129 people, The Associated Press has learned. Iraqi intelligence sent a dispatch saying the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had ordered an attack on coalition countries fighting against them in Iraq and Syria, as well as on Iran and Russia, through bombings or other attacks in the days ahead. The dispatch said the Iraqis had no specific details on when or where the attack would take place, and a senior French security official told the AP that French intelligence gets this kind of communication 'all the time' and 'every day.'" ...
... AP: "Lebanon has detained seven Syrians and two Lebanese suspected of involvement in planning terrorist attacks, including a twin bombing last week, and smuggling extremists into the country. Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk announced the arrests Sunday, three days after a twin suicide attack in a southern Beirut suburb killed 43 people and wounded more than 200." ...
... Michael Shear & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "For President Obama, the short-term response to the terrorist was straightforward and relatively easy: The American military and intelligence agencies provided information to help French warplanes bomb Islamic State targets on Sunday in the group’s stronghold in northern Syria." ...
... Theodoric Meyer of Politico: "The White House vowed no major shift in U.S. strategy in the fight against the Islamic State on Sunday in the wake of the terrorist attacks on Paris, despite clamors for change from key Republicans. Making the rounds on the major Sunday morning news shows, President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said there would be an 'intensification' of U.S. war efforts against the Islamic State, but no major shift in U.S. strategy, such as sending large numbers of combat troops to Iraq and Syria to fight ISIL." ...
... Julie Pace & Vladimir Isachenkov of the AP: "World leaders vowed a vigorous response to the Islamic State group's terror spree in Paris as they opened a two-day meeting in Turkey on Sunday, with President Barack Obama calling the violence an 'attack on the civilized world' and Russian President Vladimir Putin urging 'global efforts' to confront the threat. But beyond the tough talk and calls for action, there was little indication of how leaders intended to escalate the assault on the extremist group." ...
... Julian Hattem of the Hill: Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), "the head of the House Homeland Security Committee, warned on Sunday that 'gaping holes' within U.S. defenses make the nation vulnerable to attacks similar to Friday’s violence in Paris.... 'We have hundreds of Americans that have traveled' to Iraq and Syria, he added. 'Many of them have come back as well. I think that’s a direct threat.'” ...
... Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "President Obama still plans to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the country over the next year, despite terrorist attacks in Paris, at top aide said Sunday. 'We’re still planning on taking in Syrian refugees,” White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said on 'Fox News Sunday.' 'We had very robust vetting procedures for those refugees.'” ...
... Lauren Carroll of Politifact: "Last week, President Barack Obama said the Islamic State is 'contained' -- a comment that has been scrutinized in the wake of the deadly attacks in Paris that have been attributed to the terrorist group.... [Presidential advisor Ben] Rhodes said that when Obama said ISIS was contained, he 'was responding very specifically to the geographic expansion of ISIL in Iraq and Syria.' Looking back at Obama’s interview where he made this comment, it is quite clear that it’s within a narrowly defined scope: ISIS’s territorial expansion in Iraq and Syria. He did not rule out the potential for a terrorist attack, and he also made it clear that the United States’ anti-ISIS efforts are a work in progress. References or suggestions that Obama claimed ISIS no longer presents an active threat are incorrect. Further, experts told us that Obama is right that ISIS hasn’t expanded in the region in recent months, though this doesn’t give a full picture of ISIS’s global reach." CW: This is precisely what I wrote a coupe of days ago. Yet I have seen many straight reports -- not to mention screaming accusations from the usual suspects -- that present as a factual commonplace that Paris proved Obama was wrong.
Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "President Obama has praised the protesters whose stand against racism at the University of Missouri resulted this week in the resignation of the institution’s president and the announcement that its chancellor would step down at the end of the year. 'I think it is entirely appropriate for students in a thoughtful, peaceful way to protest what they see as injustices or inattention to serious problems in their midst,' the president told ABC’s host George Stephanopoulos in an interview recorded on Thursday and broadcast, in part, on Sunday morning."
Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate GOP leaders had hoped to move a House-passed package repealing parts of the controversial healthcare reform law before Thanksgiving. But that plan has been shelved amid party turmoil. Senate Republican sources say the measure, which has encountered opposition from conservatives and moderates, albeit for different reasons, will have to wait until after Thanksgiving. Some say it could slide into next year." CW: Gee, obstructing is getting to be just as hard as legislating.
Jacob Brownowski, in the conclusion of an episode of the 13-part BBC series "The Ascent of Man" (1973). Thanks to D. C. Clark for the link:
Presidential Race
John Wagner of the Washington Post: "... Bernie Sanders highlighted his support Sunday for a plan to provide three months of paid leave after a family has a child and challenged ... Hillary Rodham Clinton to embrace the same legislation. Clinton has spoken out strongly in favor of providing workers with paid family leave but also stressed her commitment in recent days to not raising taxes on the middle class to pay for new initiatives."
Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "The day after a debate in which Democratic presidential candidates tangled over the causes of Islamic State terrorism but not how to confront it, Hillary Rodham Clinton offered a more forward-looking view of American leadership in response to the threat. 'We have to be rallying our partners and allies, pulling countries off the sidelines,' Mrs. Clinton said on Sunday.... Mrs. Clinton offered no specifics. But she suggested a more proactive approach than she had in the debate, when she dodged a question about whether the Obama administration had underestimated the Islamic State...." ...
... A Noun, a Verb & 9/11. New York Times Editors: During the debate, Hillary Clinton's "effort to tug on Americans’ heartstrings [by reminding viewers she represented New York on 9/11] instead of explaining her Wall Street ties — on a day that the scars of 9/11 were exposed anew — was at best botched rhetoric. At worst it was the type of cynical move that Mrs. Clinton would have condemned in Republicans. She should make a fast, thorough effort to explain herself by providing a detailed plan for how she would promote measures protecting middle-class Americans from another financial crisis." ...
... Jennifer Epstein of Bloomberg: "Former President Bill Clinton insisted [at a Democratic barbecue in Ames, Iowa,] Sunday that his wife doesn’t deserve to be attacked by her fellow Democratic candidates for her relationship with Wall Street as opponents on both sides of the aisle jump to attack her defense those ties.... Speaking at the same barbecue, [Martin] O’Malley, who on Saturday night called the comments a 'gaffe,' said [Hillary] Clinton 'sadly invoked 9/11 to try to mask' the influence that Wall Street has had on her. 'But she doesn’t have to mask it. It is what it is,' he said. 'That is the sort of economy, that is the sort of economic advice that she would follow.'” ...
... Mme. La Gaffe. Abby Phillip & Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Toward the end of the latest Democratic presidential debate over the weekend, [Hillary Clinton] was asked about the rash of campus protests and whether she would encourage more of them.... 'I come from the ’60s, a long time ago,' she told moderator John Dickerson. 'There was a lot of activism on campus.'... Sunday morning, conservative Web sites had assembled multiple competing videos of the 1960s remark, their only disagreement coming over whether to add a clip from 'Back to the Future' or a lava lamp.... Republicans believe they have a new round of ammunition. Party Chairman Reince Priebus called Clinton’s remarks on 9/11 a 'new low' and a 'bizarre attempt to deflect attention from her ties to her wealthy donors.'”
Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "It took less than an hour after Nielsen ratings revealed a disappointing 8.5 million person audience for last night’s CBS Democratic debate before campaigns resumed their griping about the Democratic National Committee’s debate schedule — a point of contention that’s threatening to flare up yet again.... The complaints are just the latest in a series of tense exchanges between the national party committee and the campaigns not belonging to Hillary Clinton. Many Democrats and Republicans have accused the party of shielding the front-runner by scheduling the debates at times — such as Saturday evenings — that are likely to draw fewer viewers than the GOP events, which the DNC routinely denies."
Al Hunt of Bloomberg, in the New York Times: "The tragedy in Paris is roiling American politics, bolstering the Republican right’s anti-immigration demands in the short run and perhaps ultimately enhancing Hillary Rodham Clinton and her credentials as the candidate with experience.... [Donald] Trump has largely set the agenda and dominated the dialogue on immigration; other candidates have followed." ...
... Après Paris. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "The assault on Paris has thrust national security to the heart of the presidential race, forcing candidates to scramble and possibly prompting voters to reconsider their flirtations with unconventional candidates and to take a more sober measure of who is prepared to serve as commander in chief.... Republicans, whose primary is far more volatile, may now ask whether candidates like [Ben] Carson, who claimed at one point that China was becoming involved in Syria, and Donald J. Trump, who suggested the battle against the Islamic State could be left to Russia, are wise choices in a world where Western capitals can be made into killing fields.... While Mr. Carson ... has struggled with policy before, his inability to answer a straightforward question three times on 'Fox News Sunday' about whom he would first call to put together a military alliance to confront the Islamic State appeared more consequential than it might have before Paris." ...
... The Full Palin. I would say the reason is because you can articulate intelligent options and because you know how to work with other people and utilize the incredible resources that we have available to us. You know, I've had an opportunity in recent weeks to talk to a lot of incredible people who have a lot of experience getting their lifetime experience. I talked to Henry Kissinger and got his whole perspective on those areas. -- Ben Carson, on why he would be a better president than Hillary Clinton
I also have a lot of experience getting my lifetime experience. Don't we all? Once I went to a cocktail party & Henry Kissinger was there. However, I avoided any chance to hear first-hand "his whole perspective on those areas." And not because I was worried he had cooties. -- Constant Weader
... Ben Carson wouldn't allow Syrian refugees into the U.S. because his "big frontal lobes" tell him not to. ...
... Too bad those "big frontal lobes" seldom help Ole Doc come up with coherent thoughts. Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "Speaking on 'Fox News Sunday,' Carson could not name a specific country or leader he would call to assemble an international coalition to counter the Islamic State, despite being asked three times by host Chris Wallace.... He suggested that he would shoot down a Russian plane if it violated a U.S.-led no-fly zone over Syria, even when told that the decision could prompt Russia to shoot down a U.S. plane in response.... And he continued to argue that China is directly involved in the Syrian conflict...." CW: Ole Doc should have listened to the Democratic debate. Bernie Sanders -- without being specifically asked -- named a whole lot of countries that he thought should be active in the fight to destroy ISIS. Hey, Doc, here's an idea: why not call France? Or, more specifically, Francois Hollande? One would think that while discussing an attack on Paris, Carson could remember that Paris is in France & France is a country & a NATO ally. But I guess not. Carson's hands are gifted; his mind, not so much.
... Linda Qiu of PolitiFact: "Multiple media outlets ... took Carson’s remarks to mean that Chinese troops are in Syria. But the Carson camp forwarded us a statement refuting that interpretation. Rather, his actual point was that China is providing "various military weapons and equipment that Syria is using in the current conflict," according to the statement which also included several links to articles on that point.... However, Carson seems to be backtracking. On Nov. 11, the day after the debate, a top Carson adviser spoke specifically about 'Chinese military advisers' in Syria when defending Carson’s remarks.... [Carson's] claim appears to be lifted from unconfirmed blog posts and a news report by a Lebanese news site. China and the White House have denied that Chinese troops are in Syria, and experts told us there’s no evidence to the contrary. Even if Carson meant something less than a military presence, China seems to be taking a hands-off approach to the conflict in Syria." ...
Well, if we established a no-fly zone and we make clear the rules, if [the Russians] violate it, that’s why you have a no-fly zone. That’s the very definition of a no-fly zone. You can’t fly there.... And, you know, we’ll see what happens. -- Ben Carson, calmly explaining he would provoke a war with Russia to see how it turns out
CW Translation: International relations are easy: the U.S. sets rules for the rest of the world & explains those rules in babytalk. Then, well, who knows? Kaboom!
Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "In light of the terrorist attacks in Paris..., Marco Rubio on Sunday said the US should not take in more Syrian refugees. The Florida senator had previously signalled openness to relocating some of the millions fleeing the Syrian civil war to American shores. On Sunday, as other Republican candidates rushed to condemn the Obama administration over its policy on Syria and Islamic State and its willingness to increase such admissions – and as the GOP governor of Michigan said his state would not after all welcome any Syrian refugees – he switched course." ...
... ** Jonathan Chait: According to Marco Rubio, " the Muslim faith as a whole is equivalent to Nazism, and violent jihadi terrorists are the equivalent of the Nazi leadership. Rubio has a knack for grasping the midpoint of Republican Party doctrine at any given moment, and his comments reflect the party’s renewed conviction that the war against terrorists must be defined in the broadest possible terms.... The United States is not actually at war with Islam. Non-extremist Muslims account for the lion's share of the victims of jihadist terror, and are needed as allies in the conflict.... And yet, since the Bush administration departed the scene, Republicans have jettisoned [George W.] Bush’s cautious strategy of distinguishing between Islam and its violent minority." ...
... Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "Sen. Ted Cruz Sunday continued to call for Muslim refugees from Syria to be barred from entering the United States but opening the borders to displaced Christians, arguing there is not a 'meaningful risk' that Christians will commit terrorist acts." ...
... Katie Glueck of Politico: Ted Cruz "has more cash than any other Republican candidate. He is organized in every county in the first four voting states. And he has served up one strong debate performance after the next. Now, not three months from primary season, rivals concede they have begun to fear Ted Cruz has an increasingly clear path to the Republican nomination."
David Edwards of the Raw Story: "... Jeb Bush said over the weekend that the U.S. should respond to the terrorist attacks in Paris by carefully screening out Syrian refugees who are not Christians." CW: Yeah, i doubt there are many non-Christian Syrians. ...
... What's in a Name? Part 1. Theodoric Meyer: "Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush said on Sunday, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Paris, the U.S. should 'declare war' on the Islamic State, which is blamed by the French for the deadly attacks." CW: I don't think Congress can issue a declaration of war against a non-state, even if it calls itself a "state." ...
... What's in a Name? Part 2. Mitt Romney writes an op-ed for the Washington Post saying President Obama isn't doing enough to fight ISIS. First, one really must call ISIS "radical Islamists." Then Obama must do stuff (that it appears he's already doing.) And stop letting those Syrian immigrants into Western Europe. And everything is Obama's fault.
Beyond the Beltway
Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Joseph Riley, who has been the mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, for 40 years is stepping down. "Mr. Riley, a Democrat, is among the last of a wave of progressive white Southern mayors from the 1960s and ’70s ... who accepted and promoted racial integration. His open alliances with black politicians, his hiring of the city’s first black police chief in 1982 and his march to Columbia, the state capital, in 2000 to protest the flying of the Confederate battle flag at the State House earned him a degree of enmity among some whites, who, in his early days, derisively called him L.B.J. for Little Black Joe. Some nicknames were uglier."
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Reader Comments (13)
With respect to NYT editors, "She should make a fast, thorough effort to explain herself by providing a detailed plan for how she would promote measures protecting middle-class Americans from another financial crisis." No she shouldn't. As long as Republicans can talk, talk, talk without being called upon for facts, Hillary and Bernie and the Democrats should be should be given the same fiat. Make the game be played fair or take the ball home. Most folks can recognize a pig pile when it happens. If it is a scrum without rules, that's called Dick Cheney/Don Rumsfeld Republicanism; Democrats don't need to play that game. Democrats have nothing to gain and that's why Republicans from the NYT outward want Democrats to engage in a game rigged against them; it makes more/better news to sell. Republicans don't want the government to work. The NYT should stop pretending that Democrats are like some binary of Republican do-nothing-ness.
@Citizen625: Good point. There's not a single Republican candidate who would "protect middle-class Americans from another financial crisis." And of course they would not: their "plan," to a person, is to "remove restrictive regulations."
Marie
Sorry guys but economics will be off the table for awhile. Now its the potential of ISIS to kill in one day as many Americans that we kill every day.
And to follow up on Marie's comment yesterday about religion based 'extremism' (Muslims and Christians), I am thinking of a new hypothesis (NOT a theory). Perhaps we are the intermix of two species, Homo sapiens ('wise men') and Homo stultus (stupid men).
After all everyone in the world (except Ben Carson) knows that half the population is less intelligent than the other half.
Intelligence is a complicated entity, but to me the key piece is logic. The capacity to believe the impossible is the driving force behind almost all of the world's problems. So yes, there are H. stultus people who are capable of memorizing enough to pass the exam, but my favorite number is the fact that 93% of members of the National Academy of Science are atheists. And science is logic applied to the physical world.
So the real challenge is to learn how to deal with the reality of the human mind.
And in dealing with logic, let us not forget that we panic over the death of 130 people by ISIS but ignore the 35,000 deaths by our own guns. (One of the things that drives me a little crazy is that virtually every day when I read the local NJ paper there are reports of murders and shootings which are presented as little stories on the bottom of the 20th page of the paper. You know just routine news.)
During the debate I didn't watch, Ms. Clinton's reported answer to the question about campus protests struck me as one that might get her into trouble with the doddering remnants of the hard-hat crowd, still rosily remembering a 50's that never were, so when I saw Ross Douthat had something to say about campus radicalism, thinking he'd happily pile on the poor lady whom I understand did not have a particularly good night, I checked him out for the first time in months.
As usual nothing but the usual drivel, poor reading of history and poorly constructed strawmen from Douthat, but one thing seemed to have changed. No comments, none at all. Has the Times erected a protective shield around their pet Rightist idiot, who so often invites and receives abuse from Times readers?
Anyone know?
Marvin and all,
re science vs dogma please see:
https://youtu.be/wXwj4jMnWZg
D.C.Clark, thanks for the post. It is a reminder of something I sometimes tell certain people. As an atheist I have a serious problem, I cannot find a single story or book to give me an excuse to hate or kill others.
Dr. Ben Carson has now filled in Part B of the two-part candidate disqualification prescription form. Part A was where he came up with his own theory of why the pyramids were built. No amount of information from the experts and no amount of actual data have changed his mind, leading me to wonder: What would he do in a matter of real consequence to the nation and the world?
We now have the answer in his willingness to shoot down a Russian plane. "We'll see what happens." No, experts can tell you what will happen, and it would be disastrous. Please, Mr. Carson, just go and play video games for the rest of your life. You can test out all of your theories that way without slaughtering half of humanity in the process.
History in the Confederate Bubble: Paris is Rome. The End is Nigh.
It was bound to happen; waited for it, in fact. And here it comes, delivered by the perfect messenger from the Right Wing Bubble: wingnut historian, fabulist, serial bigot (and rank adulterer) Niall Ferguson.
Ferguson, in a wildly hyperbolic piece in the Boston Globe, declares that the end is nigh and in fact it may already be too late because of squishy western democracies that aren't man enough to stomp on immigrants.
Using the same old hoary passage from Gibbon's massive "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" which paints the picture of the Goth's invading Rome, putting everyone to the sword, and barbecuing the rest, Ferguson analogizes the fall of Rome with what happened in Paris on Friday.
Now don't get me wrong. I love Gibbon's book. But Paris is not Rome. And Rome did not fall, as Ferguson suggests, in part, because they allowed immigrants to keep their native religion. Ferguson is suggesting that forced conversion be a prerequisite for any immigration. Sure. Because that will guarantee that immigrant populations will happily march off to Christian churches and not feel at all bad about being forced to surrender their heritage and culture.
Ferguson, like practically all winger "historians", cherry picks whatever factoids will fit his preconceived notion of the right's view of "How Things Should Be". For instance, he forgets, conveniently, that among Gibbon's top reasons for the fall of Rome was Christianity itself. But that wasn't all. For centuries, Rome relied on conquests and strong armies. They gobbled up surrounding countries but the continually weakening and corrupt imperial government never bothered to build on past successes. They made economic promises they couldn't keep. This depleted the armies, which made control of outlying regions more difficult and subject to abuses, even though they sprayed money at military commanders who were, by then, solely the scions of rich connected families (like the Bushes). They also eventually isolated immigrant populations and disallowed them from participating in government decisions (the very thing wingers are demanding today). The center could not hold. Gibbon outlines this decline and other historians have followed with more detailed work.
But Ferguson here decides that a decline that took centuries doesn't fit his hysterical wingnut comparison with the modern EU. Alluding to recent histories that have "discovered" to the absolute delight of Confederates, that Rome's decline wasn't centuries in the making, but happened pretty much overnight, Ferguson allows himself to take liberties with established history (Ferguson is a committed and relentless counterfactualist--see below). Suggesting that the fall of Paris/Rome happened in the blink of an eye props up his Sky has Already Fallen narrative and allows him to wag a winger finger at everyone who didn't follow his earlier demands for all out war on Islam and a closing of all borders.
These revisionist historians conjure up the sort of straw men beloved of Confederates who need an enemy, even if one doesn't exist. They take articles out of context and present suppositions as if they were considered sacred by liberal academics. And to the rescue ride Wingnuts with The Truth! Rome crashed, not over hundreds of years, but in a much shorter time frame. And LIBERALS WERE TO BLAME! Let the finger wagging begin!
Needless to say, wingnuts are over the moon about such overheated pandering to their worst nightmares. We're all gonna die and it's the fault of bleeding heart liberals (and Obama) who refuse to bomb the shit (like Trumpy) out of all enemies, real or perceived. Kill 'em all and let heaven sort 'em out.
This is the guy who made his name as a wingnut historian of economics, who disparaged Keynesian economics and liberal policies based on Keynes' work. His reason? Keynes couldn't care less about the future because he was gay. This is the same slur employed by a horde of wingers, including George Fucking Will and far-right historian Gertrude Himmelfarb (mother of Bill Kristol) who was "...an important transmitter of the 'Keynes the evil homo' meme."
In another flight of counterfactual winger fancy, Ferguson has written of how the world would be if Britain had simply sat out WWI and let the Kaiser hammer Europe into a Germanic Empire (the Germans weren't all that bad, he maintains). His reason? Britain wouldn't have had to spend capital and manpower helping out weak-assed continental powers and would have kept America from becoming a player in international affairs. Wingers are big on counterfactuals. Go figure. Must be that constant itch for a world of their dreams, unlike the real one.
Ferguson has also compared President Obama to the comic character Felix the Cat, (who relies on a "bag of tricks") because they're both "black and lucky". So, a guy who was beset by opponents on the right from inauguration day, largely because he's black, was "lucky". Oh, and black.
Just one more reason Ferguson's beloved on the right.
But to return to the Paris is Rome idiocy. Rome was besieged by tens of thousands of invaders when it fell, not 7 or 8 extremist criminals. And Paris does not sit at the center of an empire. It's not even the capital of the EU. Parisians do not own slaves. They don't have an emperor. They're not, to my knowledge, any more corrupt than any other western government. The rationale for these attacks is likely ideological. The Visigoth invasion was economic, survivalist, and opportunistic. And it had nothing to do with religion. Ferguson and his ilk want everyone to believe that western values are under attack by the barbarians because wimpy liberal policies have undermined the "empire". He neglects, as I've pointed out, Gibbon's conclusion that what undermined Rome, was the same sort of Christianity that wingnuts want to push onto everyone else, the kind of religious ideology that substitutes faith for facts and superstition for science and learning.
If there's any lesson to be learned from the fall of Rome, it's the danger of allowing civilization to become rotted from the inside out by extremist religion. Of any variety.
Following up on NiskyGuy's comment, I think the "Let's shoot down some Russian planes and see what happens" has to be the single stupidest expression I've heard since Darth Cheney was predicting that Iraqis would welcome us with flowers after we bombed them into the Stone Age.
Yeah, what the hell. Shoot down a dozen planes. Fuckin' Rooskies. I dare Putin to stand up to me! I'll stab him in the belt buckle and beat him over the head with my Bible. Where's that hammer I used to attack my mom? Ah...here it is...in the desk right under that picture of me with Jesus.
This guy makes Dr. Strangelove look like Gandhi.
I'm thinking about being a sponsor for a Syrian refugee family regardless of their religion. Does anyone know what the process is or who to contact?
I could go with a religious status test for refugees if every GOP office holder and candidate, from dog catcher to president, takes the MMPI and is certified not psychotic and free from character disorders including anti-social personality disorder. But then Carson would have to give up his search for Chinese takeout menus with Arabic scribbling long enough to mark the boxes. Although the "Jesus and me" portrait in his home is a Rorschach blot in itself.
Irrelevancy is going to make Carson very very angry.
Let me put the Paris attack in another, more accurate context. Here is my take: Four people running a website and other connections in Syria make contact with a Belgium loser who loves the idea of becoming famous. He connects with seven fellow Belgium and French who also want to get in the game and have sex with virgins. One of the Syrians sets them up with a source of weapons in Europe and the attack takes place. Yes ISIS may be paying the guys in Syria but the killers are locals.
So the problem is not a gigantic international conspiracy involving tens of thousands of fighters. It is just a little contact with some local citizens. In other words, just like Boston it does not require a grand scheme and note that no refugees were involved. In America it is much easier to do because the one technical problem, weapons is easy to solve. Yes we may have more terrorist attacks because we have our share of 'terrorists'. Of course American terrorists just do movie theaters and churches and since they are not Muslim they are not terrorists.
Marvin,
"...since they are not Muslim they are not terrorists."
If Rubio or Trump become president, they'll have you deported for such slander. If Carson or Cruz become president, you'd better be prepared for lethal injection.