The Commentariat -- Nov. 25, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Hugh Naylor & Andrew Roth of the Washington Post: "NATO faced being thrust into a new Middle Eastern crisis on Tuesday after warplanes from member state Turkey shot down a Russian jet that Turkish officials said had violated their country's airspace on the border with Syria. The incident marked a serious escalation in the Syrian conflict that is likely to further strain relations between Russia and the NATO alliance.... Russia's Defense Ministry said one of at least two pilots probably died during the incident, and a marine also was killed by apparent Syrian insurgent fire during a helicopter rescue operation to retrieve the downed airmen.... Turkey called for an emergency NATO session to discuss the incident but has not invoked alliance provisions that would involve other members in its defense." ...
(CW P.S. If you can't access WashPo (or other) stories because you're not a subscriber, open Reality Chex in a private window. That will allow you to link to up to ten stories (or whatever the site's free-access limit is). If you hit the limit, close the private window & open a new one. That puts your count back at zero. I don't know if the WashPo will work around this system, but it works for now.)
... Andrew Roth, et al.: "The Kremlin sharpened its accusations Wednesday in the wake of Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane, as Moscow's top diplomat called the incident a 'planned provocation' that has dealt a major blow to already fragile relations with NATO. But Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also tamped down speculation of a military response by Russia after the jet broke apart in flames along the Turkish-Syrian border. 'We're not going to war against Turkey,' he said after talks with his Turkish counterpart." ...
... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed on the need to reduce tensions after Turkish jets shot down a Russian warplane flying near the country's border with Syria, the White House said Tuesday. Obama voiced support "for Turkey's right to defend its sovereignty" during a phone call with Erdogan, according to a White House statement." ...
... Daniel Drezner of the Washington Post: "The immediate reactions by Turkey and Russia suggest the potential for escalation [after Turkey downed a Russian jet].... So will this business get out of control? Obviously, it could -- but I don't believe it will.... Russia and Turkey are sufficiently interdependent that a serious heightening of tensions would severely impair both countries.... As strategically reckless as Vladimir Putin has been, I suspect he would not want to escalate this conflict. Doing so would involve NATO...." ...
... ** Max Fisher of Vox: "This is not the start of World War III. And I say that as someone who has voiced real concern about other ways in which Russia and the US could be dragged into an unintended escalation to war. But those conditions are not present here.... The stakes are just too low. The things at issue here are Russia's bombing of anti-Assad rebels in Syria, the sanctity of Turkish airspace, and the life of one (or possibly two) Russian pilot.... Because the Syria-Turkish border is so far from Russia or from central Europe, there is just zero risk that either side could misperceive this as the start of something bigger.... Neither Russia nor NATO could possibly believe that the other side is about to launch an invasion." ...
... Joshua Keating of Slate: "Whatever post-Paris unity there might have been in the fractious coalition of nations fighting ISIS in Syria crashed and burned on the Syria-Turkey border on Tuesday as Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian SU-24 fighter.... After Tuesday, Russia is unlikely to build on cooperation with NATO forces in Syria.... All in all, this was a good day for the Assad regime and for ISIS." ...
... Steve M.: "I'm not the one you want to turn to for expert geopolitical analysis of all this. But I'm recalling that American conservatives regard Vladimir Putin as an omnipotent demigod, a strongman able to walk into any situation and enforce his will against lesser, weaker men.... If those shot-down aircraft were American, right-wing pundits would be proclaiming (triumphantly) that Barack Obama looks fatally weak at this moment. But they won't say it about Putin -- because love is blind."
... Juliet Eilperin & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "President Obama called Tuesday for the West and its allies to stay united to destroy Islamic State and not allow fear of terrorism to undermine freedoms and values. After meeting with French President François Hollande at the White House, Obama declared 'total solidarity' with France, saying his planned trip next week to Paris for a climate change summit is a 'powerful rebuke' to terrorism. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
... David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "Crises bring out the best and worst in people, as has been demonstrated vividly this past week by the behavior of President Obama and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. Obama showed his best face in Tuesday's news conference with visiting French President François Hollande.... [Trump] appears to be inflaming the situation deliberately, to advance his presidential campaign. It's rare that we see this level of demagoguery in U.S. politics, but it's frightening. His divisive comments play so directly into the polarizing strategies of our terrorist adversaries -- who want to foment Western-Muslim hatred -- that a case can be made that he has put the country at greater risk.... It's hard to imagine that someone would put the country at greater risk for personal political benefit. But that's exactly what Trump has been doing. It's outrageous behavior, and responsible Republicans must insist that it stop." ...
... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly sees a parallel between the leadership styles of President Obama & Martin Luther King, Jr. ...
... MEANWHILE, Dana Milbank thinks President Obama should sound more like a warmonger to motivate the nation. CW: Really, Dana? ...
... Washington Post Editors: "Bigotry has a long history in the United States, and it may come as only a mild surprise that it showed its snarling face in Fredericksburg[, Virginia,] last week, just four days after the Nov. 13 slaughter in Paris. But even mild surprise is unwarranted given the toxic rhetoric of presidential candidates and governors, mainly Republicans, who have vilified Muslims since that terrorist attack. When Donald Trump, Ben Carson and others suggest it is all right to discriminate against Muslims or Muslim refugees, the signal is widely received." ...
... Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post responds to anonymous attacks directed at her because she is Jewish. CW: Good for her. These are precisely the sort of attacks that Donald Trump & Ben Carson provoke for personal political gain. First they came for the Muslims; then they came for the Jews. ...
... Update: See also John Kasich's ad embedded under Presidential Race below. ...
... The Entertainer. Jamelle Bouie: "... while Trump has been explicit with his nativist, and now racist, rhetoric, he's not an innovator. If large numbers of Republicans are responsive to Trump's vitriol, it's because he echoes -- in less coded terms -- the discourse of much of right-wing media. In conservative entertainment, race panic sells.... Of course Trump would sound off on immigrant crime and disloyal Muslims and criminal blacks. He is fundamentally an entertainer, and in conservative entertainment, those are the money shots: The stories that capture attention and drive ratings." Bouie cites examples of right-wing race-baiting. ...
... Sergio Pecanha & Rebecca Lai in the New York Times: "All of the Sept. 11 attackers entered the United States using tourist, business or student visas. Since then, most of the attackers in the United States claiming or appearing to be motivated by extremist Islam were born in this country or were naturalized citizens. None were refugees." Just another fact to irritate (& be rejected by) the Super-White Republican party. ...
... Oh yeah? So what? Patricia Zengerle of Reuters: "Nearly one-third of the Republicans in the House of Representatives signed a letter calling on party leaders to ensure that a must-pass spending bill block any use of federal funding to resettle refugees from Syria and nearby countries, the bill's sponsor said on Tuesday. Seventy-four of the 246 House Republicans signed the letter, which was circulated by Republican Representative Brian Babin." ...
... digby: "So it appears that [Speaker Paul] Ryan is already being 'Boehnered' by the right wing, fueled by talk radio xenophobes who are working themselves into the same anti-immigrant frenzy over Muslims in our midst at their ongoing froth about undocumented migrant workers from Mexico and Central America. Let's see if he can deal with them any better than Boehner did. I doubt it."
Matt Apuzzo & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "For more than a year, a rare coalition of liberal groups and libertarian-minded conservatives has joined the Obama administration in pushing for the most significant liberalization of America's criminal justice laws since the beginning of the drug war. That effort has had perhaps no ally more important than Koch Industries.... Now, as Congress works to turn those goals into legislation, that joint effort is facing its most significant test -- over a House bill that Koch Industries says would make the criminal justice system fairer, but that the Justice Department says would make it significantly harder to prosecute corporate polluters, producers of tainted food and other white-collar criminals." CW: Looks as if the Koch boyz want to be sure they can't be prosecuted for their various dodgy stunts.
Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "A top House lawmaker’s confrontation with government researchers over a groundbreaking climate change study is provoking a national backlash from scientists, who say his campaign represents the most serious threat Congress has posed to scientific freedom. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, has subpoenaed scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and demanded that they turn over internal e-mails related to their research. Their findings contradicted earlier work showing that global warming had paused, and Smith, a climate change skeptic, has accused them of altering global temperature data and rushing to publish their research in the June issue of the journal Science." CW: Calling Smith a "climate change skeptic" is like describing yourself as a "unicorn skeptic." ...
... David Roberts of Vox (Nov. 22): "Republican chair Lamar Smith has escalated his war with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists; he is now openly accusing them of scientific fraud.... The committee's top Democrat, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.) has called Smith's investigation a 'partisan witch hunt.'"
Joseph Goldstein & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The American airstrike that destroyed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz last month was the result of human errors, failures in procedure and technical malfunctions, according to military officials who have been briefed on the military's internal investigation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Obama administration asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday not to allow a monthlong delay that could jeopardize the justices' issuing a ruling this term on whether to lift an injunction blocking a key part of President Barack Obama's immigration legacy: his plan to offer quasi-legal status and work permits to millions more illegal immigrants. In a letter to the high court's clerk, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. urged the court to reject a request Monday from Texas and 25 other states for a 30-day filing extension. Such extensions are routinely granted by the court, but doing so in this case would push arguments in the case from this year to next under normal procedures -- leaving a major part of Obama's immigration policy in limbo until around the time he is set to leave office."
"Fool me once..., shame on you. Fool me... You can't get fooled again!" Charles Pierce: The right conned conservative federal Judge Richard Posner once (on voter IDs). Apparently, Posner will not be had again. He ruled unconstitutional a Wisconsin law requiring abortion providers to have local hospital admitting privileges. ...
... More on the ruling from Becca Andrews of Mother Jones.
David Sanger & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "Four months after a historic accord with Tehran to limit its atomic ambitions, American officials and private security groups say they see a surge in sophisticated computer espionage by Iran, culminating in a series of cyberattacks against State Department officials over the past month." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Hey, here's a surprise. After exhaustive research & analysis of decades of polling data, National Bureau of Economic Research scientists confirm that Southern white Republicans are & were racists. Who knew?
Juliet Eilperin: "President Obama on Tuesday awarded the nation's highest civilian honor to 17 Americans, including Hollywood stars, a prominent Republican environmentalist, two baseball legends and several civil rights pioneers":
... Juliet Eilperin & Philip Bump of the Washington Post: How President Obama's awards of the Medal of Freedom differ from President George W. Bush's.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Kevin Drum on the media's euphemisms for Donald Trump's lies: "You can call Trump's statements lies or fabrications or even falsehoods if you insist on being delicate about it. But you can't call them questionable or controversial or salesmanlike or disputed or even faulty. The man is a serial, pathological liar. Isn't it about time for the journalistic community to work up the courage to report this with clear eyes?"
Presidential Race
The Thanksgiving Poll. Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "Donald Trump leads PPP's newest poll by a wide margin...on which candidate Americans think would be the most likely to say something inappropriate at the table and ruin Thanksgiving Dinner.... When it comes to which Presidential candidate people would actually like to have over for Thanksgiving Dinner Clinton wins out with 24% to 18% for Carson, 17% for Trump, 11% for Sanders, 8% for Cruz, and 6% each for Bush and Rubio.... By a 27 point margin Republicans say they disapprove of the President's executive order last year pardoning two Thanksgiving turkeys (Macaroni and Cheese) instead of the customary one." No link.
... CW: Last year, the New York Times story on the pardon of Macaroni & Cheese ran with the headline "An Executive Action Unlikely to Be Faulted." Obviously, the "liberal East Coast elite" paper doesn't know Republicans.
AP: "Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Tuesday that her use of the term 'illegal immigrants' was a 'poor choice of words' and she pledged not to use it anymore, responding to criticism from immigration activists. The Democratic presidential frontrunner was asked about her use of the term to describe people who are in the US illegally during a question-and-answer session on Facebook held by Telemundo. The question came from Jose Antonio Vargas, a filmmaker and journalist whose organisation, Define American, has said the terminology is offensive and asked all presidential candidates to stop using it.... During a town-hall meeting in New Hampshire earlier this month, Clinton said she voted 'numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in.'"
Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "Democratic presidential contender Martin O'Malley unveiled a healthcare plan on Tuesday that emphasized strengthening Obamacare but avoided any mention of the single-payer healthcare plan championed by rival Bernie Sanders."
A Noun, a Verb & 9/11. Also, Trump Has SuperVision. Brendan O'Connor of Gawker: "On Monday, Donald Trump claimed to have watched people jump to their deaths from the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001: 'Many people jumped and I witnessed it, I watched that. I have a view -- a view in my apartment that was specifically aimed at the World Trade Center.'... Trump Tower is just over four miles away from the World Trade Center." ...
... More from Jeremy Diamond of CNN. Includes video report. ...
... Reality Is a Massive Conspiracy. Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "In an interview today with Breitbart News, Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski defended his candidate's bogus claim that he saw on TV 'thousands and thousands' of Muslim Americans in New Jersey holding celebrations on 9/11 to applaud the attacks. No footage or reports of such an event exist, and initial press reports about small 'rooftop celebrations' were later declared to be 'unfounded.' However, Lewandowski said that reports of the (nonexistent) celebration do in fact exist and that the Trump campaign provided that material to media outlets which, according to Lewandowski, have refused to air it as part of a massive anti-Trump conspiracy." ...
... Jim Dwyer of the New York Times turns to John Farmer, then attorney general of New Jersey & later a member of senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission, to "definitively debunk" Trump's claim of Muslims dancing in New Jersey streets on 9/11/2001: "'We followed up on that report [of 9/11 celebrations] instantly because of its implications,' he [said]. 'The word came back quickly from Jersey City, later from Paterson. False report. Never happened.'" ...
... Here's Farmer in a New Jersey Star-Ledger op-ed. Thanks to Marvin S. for the link:
We in America have had fewer foreign fighters than Europe precisely because we have not isolated and stigmatized the Muslim community. To begin to do so now is a serious mistake. In the short term, it may, by playing on voters' apprehensions, be appealing politically. In the long-term, it will, by isolating an entire community, play into the hands of ISIS recruiters, who seek out the alienated and dispossessed among Muslim youth. Whatever the message, it is just plain wrong to cite thousands of Muslims dancing in Jersey City or Paterson on 9/11 as support. That simply never happened.
... Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "Welcome to the most combustible presidential campaign in recent memory. [Donald Trump's] angry rhetoric -- on subjects like undocumented Mexican immigrants, political correctness and 'thugs' in Baltimore -- has made his run a magnet for disaffected supporters and for identity politics protesters determined to steal the spotlight and disrupt his events. Trump's relish for confrontation, where other politicians would seek to minimize it, has only fueled the fire. 'Isn't a Trump rally much more exciting than these other ones?' Trump said on Wednesday as police escorted a protester yelling, 'Trump's a racist' from a rally in Worcester, Massachusetts. 'That kind of stuff only adds to the excitement.'..." ...
... Nick Gass of Politico: "The super PACs going after Donald Trump are making a 'bad, bad decision,' the candidate's special counsel and adviser [Michael Cohen] warned Tuesday morning, saying that if the reports are true, 'it changes everything.'... Trump has repeatedly held the threat of running as an independent candidate over the Republican Party throughout the course of the campaign, remarking as recently as Sunday that he would not rule out a third-party bid despite having signed the pledge and announcing it with a press conference at Trump Tower in September. 'I'm going to have to see what happens. I will see what happens. I have to be treated fairly,' he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on 'This Week.'" ...
... Charles Pierce: "Rich (Sparkle Pants) Lowry, editor of America's oldest journal of white supremacy," the National Review, looks to history to explain Donald Trump, & discovers the Donald is the reincarnation of Andrew Jackson! "And so long as he slaughters enough Indians to make the white people feel safe. In light of recent events, I do not find this parallel encouraging, although I do give Ol' Plasterboard credit for doing it without any balls." ...
... CW: Say, couldn't we put Trump on the $20 bill & dispense with Old Hickory (as well as all this girly talk about putting a woman on a U.S. bill)? According to Trump's female employees, he's, like, a feminist leader ahead of his time, even if his means of discipline are a tad sexist (which he denies, of course).
... Caitlin Yilek of the Hill: "Jeb Bush on Tuesday criticized front-runner Donald Trump's comments about Black Lives Matter protesters and Muslim-Americans, accusing the billionaire of trying to 'create a grievous kind of culture.'... The former Florida governor slammed Trump for claiming that thousands of Muslim-Americans in New Jersey cheered as the World Trade Center fell on Sept. 11, 2001, and said the roughing up of a Black Lives Matter protestor would never happen at one of his events."
Ben Jacobs: "Without ever leading in a single poll, Ted Cruz has become the frontrunner in Iowa. The Texas senator and conservative firebrand has closed the gap on real-estate mogul Donald Trump and is now trailing Trump by only a margin of 25% to 23% in the Hawkeye State, according to a poll released on Tuesday by Quinnipiac University. But, more than that, Cruz has been notching up key endorsements in Iowa and positioning himself to win the state's first-in-the-nation caucuses on 1 February." CW: Those Iowa Republicans sure know how to pick a president: first Trump, then Carson, now Cruz. Not that their choice in 2012 -- Rick Santorum, by a nose -- wasn't excellent. ...
... Shane Goldmacher of Politico: "The political operative behind the nonprofit that just began attacking Ted Cruz in Iowa is a Marco Rubio backer who served as a co-host of a fundraiser for the Florida senator last week.... The new anti-Cruz ad hits the Texas senator for his support of the USA Freedom Act, which restricted the National Security Agency's bulk collection of phone metadata.... Rubio has attacked Cruz for the same vote." CW: Just a coincidence, I'm sure. Because it would be wrong unlawful for Marco to coordinate with a 501(c)4 nonprofit that -- coincidentally -- supports his candidacy. ...
... BUT then, that's what Marco & his friends do. Mark Murray & Leigh Ann Caldwell of NBC News: "Conservative Solutions Project, an outside group promoting Republican Marco Rubio's presidential campaign, has spent nearly $8.5 million in TV ads.... Unlike a Super PAC, Conservative Solutions Project doesn't have to disclose its donors because it exists as a tax-exempt social welfare group under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code. But it's precisely that tax-code designation that has campaign-finance watchdogs alleging the Conservative Solution Project ads are illegal -- because they are benefitting an individual presidential candidate rather than advancing the social welfare.... The website for Conservative Solutions PAC is all about Rubio's presidential campaign.... Maybe most striking of all, NBC News has obtained at least two advertising filings with the Federal Communications Commission in which Conservative Solutions Project appears to describe its advertising as being on Marco Rubio's behalf."
Julian Hattem of the Hill: "Global intelligence officials’ failure to detect this month's deadly attacks across Paris may be in part due to increased scrutiny on government spying, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) claimed on Tuesday. 'It's not a coincidence that this happened in the aftermath of restricting these programs and, remember, also demoralizing the intelligence community,' the Republican presidential contender said in a discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations.... Christie appeared to cast blame for the failure on both a global aversion to government surveillance following the 2013 leaks from government whistleblower Edward Snowden, and the Senate's controversial report last year blasting the CIA's past use of 'enhanced interrogation techniques.'" Because it upset intelligence operatives so much they couldn't do their jobs or something. CW: Maybe Christie should read the NYT report by Andrew Higgins, linked under Way Beyond below. Belgian officials knew how dangerous some of these perps were; they just didn't do anything about it. Not that Christie isn't a big expert on international affairs, which, BTW, he says he is. Because 9/11.
Beyond the Beltway
John Eligon & Ashley Southall of the New York Times: "Two men were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the overnight shootings of five people during a Black Lives Matter protest outside a police station, the Minneapolis Police Department said. One suspect, a 23-year-old white man, was arrested in Bloomington, a suburb of Minneapolis, at about 11:20 a.m., the police said in a statement. The other, a 32-year-old Hispanic man, was arrested about 45 minutes later while in his vehicle in South Minneapolis." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... New Lede: "As the police arrested three people on Tuesday in connection with the shooting of five people during a Black Lives Matter protest outside a police precinct here, demonstrators returned to the street with renewed vigor, vowing not to cower in fear of what one organizer called 'an act of terrorism.'"
Alex Johnson of NBC News: "A few hundred protesters closed a major Chicago intersection Tuesday night after authorities released a 'disturbing' dashcam video of the moment a cop shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times last year." ...
... Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "A Chicago police officer has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of a 17-year-old last year, authorities said Tuesday. The charges were announced a day before the city plans to release a video that captured the shooting, footage that officials worry could lead to intense protests." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update. NBC Chicago: "Chicago officials on Tuesday released 'graphic' and 'chilling' video showing an officer [Jason Van Dyke] fatally shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times. The footage has been described as something that 'will tear at the hearts of all Chicagoans.'... In the moments before the video was made public, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy called for peace and calm." Includes video. ...
... How Could This (Alleged) Murder Have Happened? Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: Jason "Van Dyke, a white 14-year veteran of Chicago's police force, has been accused of misconduct 17 times before, according to data from the University of Chicago and the journalism non-profit Invisible Institute. The database, published less than a week before the announcement that Van Dyke would be prosecuted, details tens of thousands of complaints against Chicago police officers that weren't previously made public. Fewer than five percent of the allegations resulted in disciplinary actions for the officers; none of the 18 complaints against Van Dyke led to a penalty.... The allegations against Van Dyke include 10 complaints of excessive force, including two incidents where he allegedly used a firearm, causing injury. He was also accused of improper searches and making racially or ethnically biased remarks. Four of the allegations were proven factual, but Van Dyke's actions were deemed lawful and appropriate."
New York Times Editors: "Student protesters at Princeton performed a valuable public service last week when they demanded that the administration acknowledge the toxic legacy of Woodrow Wilson, who served as university president and New Jersey governor before being elected to the White House. He was an unapologetic racist whose administration rolled back the gains that African-Americans achieved just after the Civil War, purged black workers from influential jobs and transformed the government into an instrument of white supremacy.... The overwhelming weight of the evidence argues for rescinding the honor that the university bestowed decades ago on an unrepentant racist." ...
... ** Gordon Davis, in a New York Times op-ed: Woodrow Wilson was "an avowed racist. And unlike many of his predecessors and successors in the White House, he put that racism into action through public policy. Most notably, his administration oversaw the segregation of the federal government, destroying the careers of thousands of talented and accomplished black civil servants -- including John Abraham Davis, my paternal grandfather." ...
... Here's more compelling testimony from NYT readers.
Alexandra Samuels in USA Today: "Following alleged social media threats against students of color, Western Washington University, located in Bellingham, Wash., announced classes on all of Western's campuses are suspended Tuesday, effectively canceling classes through the Thanksgiving break.... A law enforcement investigation is underway."
Reuters: "Amazon on Monday agreed to pull advertisements for a new television show featuring Nazi-inspired imagery from New York City's subway system, hours after Mayor Bill de Blasio called on the company to do so. The advertisements for The Man in the High Castle completely wrap the seats, walls and ceilings of one train on the busy shuttle line that connects Times Square and Grand Central terminal.... An MTA official ... said Amazon had asked for the shuttle train advertisements, but not the posters, to be removed.... Frank Spotnitz, the show's creator and executive producer, told Entertainment Weekly he agreed with critics that the advertisements could be seen as offensive.... 'If they had asked me, I would have strongly advised them not to do it.'" (See also yesterday's Commentariat.)
Way Beyond
Worse than Washington. Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "As Brussels remained locked down for a fourth day, facing what the authorities say is its own imminent terrorist threat, the failure to stop two brothers clearly flagged as extremists before the Paris carnage highlighted the tribal squabbles of a country that holds the unenviable distinction of going without a functioning government for 541 days. Flemish nationalists, ever eager to show that Belgium in its current form does not work, have jumped on the mess, with Karl Vanlouwe, a member of the Belgian Senate, writing in the newspaper Le Soir on Tuesday that '20 years of laxity' by the French-speaking Socialist Party had turned Brussels into a 'rear base of Islamic barbarity.'"
Eric Cunningham of the Washington Post: "A powerful explosion tore through a bus carrying elite security guards for Tunisia's president in the heart of the capital, Tunis, authorities said Tuesday, killing at least 11 people in what appeared to be the latest militant attack in the North African country." (Also linked yesterday.)
News Lede
Attention, Costco Shoppers. E. coli in the Salad Cooler. Washington Post: "Federal health officials are investigating an outbreak of deadly E. coli bacteria that has sickened 19 people in at least seven states, mostly in the west.... Preliminary evidence suggests that rotisserie chicken salad made and sold in Costco Wholesale stores in several states is the likely source of this outbreak, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
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Reader Comments (17)
In addition to the NYT report, John Farmer, the NJ AG at the time posted a more complete report on the Trump lie in the NJ Star Ledger.
"I was in charge in N.J. on 9/11 and Trump's claims never happened".
http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/11/nj_attorney_general_on_911_says_trumps_jersey_city.html#incart_most_shared-news
Will Trump ever admit he lied?
What is it going to take to finally have Trump's followers tell him, "You're Fired!" To date they delight in this man's bombast, his disregard for anything resembling the truth, his sophomoric blather that gets them all tingly and aroused. Why not turn his rhetoric of fear of all them "Others" coming to get you with, "If you elect this man we will most likely be in another world war." Tell his sign waving lemmings that now more than ever we need someone at the helm who can deal seriously and intelligently with this volatile world. Fight fear with fear––would that do the trick?
Putin's comment about being stabbed in ––what was it? his heart? No, just remembered––the back. Yeah, right. Poor put upon Putin––Turkey warned the Russians quite a few times to get out of their space––they obviously didn't think Turkey would retaliate. Such delicate maneuvers we are seeing played out here. Can you imagine how the above man in question would have operated?
Why are we so consistently surprised by the love shown to a man who says what a large minority of people in this country want to hear? I'm so tired of people whose chief source of happiness is causing others discomfort. If you can't be content on this Earth unless gay people or brown people or black people or female people are suffering, then perhaps your next stop should be the psychiatrist's couch.
Stirring commentary lately. Thanks.
The best and the worst...
The best thing that could happen is for Le Donald to run as an independent, thus ensuring a Democrat is elected.
The worst: Le Donald continues to get ever more looney, making the eventual nominee seem moderate and rational by comparison, thus garnering the votes of everyone from the right of center to the lunatic fringes.
Could this be a strategy? Le Donald as stalking horse? Are the Oligarchs capable of conceiving such a ploy? The smart ones just might be. In fact it sounds a lot like the Gingrich - Rove 51% solution:
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, and those are damn good odds." ~ Amarillo Slim
Or am I coming down with the Conspiracy Disease?
"I’m going to have to see what happens. I will see what happens. I have to be treated fairly," Donald (Mr. Fairness) Trump on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
Funny, in'it, how vicious, racist Confederates like Trump, who spew hatred and lies in an attempt to demonize others for personal gain demand to be treated fairly? Or else.
I, for one, would be thrilled to see Mr. Fairness depart the ranks of the obviously insane to set up an even more insane third party run. Republicans could have their very own Ralph Nader. And good luck to them, I say.
Let's see, that could give us a Cruz or Rubio GOP ticket (Christ, just imagine the choices for VP!), Clinton for the Dems, and a Trump/Palin ticket for the Independent Ignoramus Racist Party.
Nader's run was all ego and Trump's would be no different. But look, kids, all he wants is to be treated fairly. Especially by those who coddle thugs, niggers, and filthy Arabs, all of whom hate America and deserve to be waterboarded til their eyeballs pop out.
Because fairness and decency are the cornerstones of the Confederacy.
@Akhilleus: "Fairness," to Trump seems to mean "no criticism of Donald Trump." "Fairness," however, does not cut both ways. It's okay for Trump to criticize his rivals, and he does. But it is "unfair" of them -- & the media -- to criticize him. Most recently he said that Ted Cruz had been very, very nice to him, so he wasn't going to criticize Cruz. Unless Cruz started moving up in the polls, he said (paraphrase). So now that Cruz is neck & neck with Trump in Iowa I guess we'll find out what Donald thinks of him.
"Thin-skinned bully" is no oxymoron.
Marie
The irony of Lamar Smith, R-Texas being able to analyze data from NOAA gave me a morning chuckle.
At this point, Trump is just amusing himself with the help of the media, irresponsible per usual. Really, giving us a better look at identifying the real numbers of racists et al in the country. The enemy you know etc. More important, he is a huge distraction to his own party in picking a GOP candidate. The more chaos, the better for Clinton's path to the WH.
Dead Horse Beating Time Again.
Marie wrote: "Those Iowa Republicans sure know how to pick a president: first Trump, then Carson, now Cruz. Not that their choice in 2012 -- Rick Santorum, by a nose -- wasn't excellent. ..."
So why Iowa? It was a bit of a fluke to start off with in 1972, but now Iowa dominates American presidential politics in ways that deform and pervert the entire contest right from the start. The fact that Iowans are so overwhelmingly white, far-right, and fundamentalist, practically guarantees that Republican candidates will be donning tinfoil hats and spewing the crazy long before the first caucus convenes.
Not to mention the fact that Iowa bears little resemblance to the country as a whole.
Demographics across the board in the US (according to the 2010 census) look like this (rounded off):
White 64%
Hispanic 16%
Black 12%
Asian 5%
Iowa:
White 89%
Hispanic 5%
Black 3%
Asian 2%
(And here let's remind ourselves that not only are the demographics cockeyed, Iowa represents less than 1% of the country's population.)
New Hampshire is even worse (but at least it's an actual primary, not a god-awful caucus):
White 92%
Hispanic 3%
Black 1%
Asian 2%
Both Illinois, New York, and New Jersey have demographics much closer to the national averages but they would never fly. The first states must be hard core right-wing. Because otherwise, it wouldn't be fair. There have been suggestions that having Texas and California vote on the same day, as the first two primaries might offer a salutary solution as well on the race for the White House.
Just think of the difference in presidential politics if candidates couldn't simply pander to the predilections and insular prejudices of far-right fundies, slinging bigoted bullshit with impunity. Just consider how the rhetoric and policy choices might change if Confederates couldn't blow off minorities and rational voters.
Understand, there's no guarantee that they would become better candidates. There might just be a switch to more dog whistle codes. But at least we wouldn't start the whole show off with Bund rallies. It's one thing to work your way down into the gutter. Quite another to kick things off with appeals to the absolute worst in human nature. Another Confederate specialty.
Shit, look at that! That horse just got up and ran off. The thing will never die.
@Diane. Agreed. I thought Jamelle Bouie made quite a smart connection between how the entertainment news biz (like Fox "News") boosts its ratings with flashy stories about scary non-white people & Trump the entertainer's adoption of that schtick. Trump has a long history as a conman, so it's not surprising that his campaign is one big con.
It's appalling of course that a presidential candidate would so blatantly abuse millions of people to further his personal interests, but as Bouie points out, that's what they do -- if usually somewhat more subtly.
Marie
@Akhilleus: Some candidates ignore either Iowa or New Hampshire, but I can't remember any successful presidential candidates who ignored both states & concentrated on later, more representative, states.
I'm not sure how much difference it would make to candidates' platforms if something forced them to appeal early-on to a wider swath of voters, especially as polarization has moved the Republican party into a nearly-exclusive hard-right posture.
Of course a lot of the Iowa-NH hype is the fault of the media. The parties schedule the primaries, but the media are not required to play along. Imagine if the media nearly ignored these two states & concentrated instead on Super Tuesday states, for instance. This might cause the GOP to skew ever-so-slightly left, altho they wouldn't have to change a thing to appeal to Oklahoma & Georgia GOP voters. In New England states like Vermont & Massachusetts there are still some moderate Republican voters, but winning or doing well in these states probably would not help a GOP candidate overall; in fact, a win in, say, Vermont, would be used to brand any candidate as a RINO.
As Diane suggests, the primaries give us a good look at what a sorry lot GOP voters are now, & they can lock a candidate into stupid. On the other hand, most American voters outside Iowa & New Hampshire, where the caucuses & primary are sport, are probably only vaguely aware of what the candidates are saying now. So they figure they can Etch-a-Sketch their way out of their craziest positions. That certainly is Marco Rubio's plan.
Marie
@Marie: You have from time to time written instructive comments on the role of journalists. You might be interested in a well written synopsis of an address by Linda Greenhouse on the subject. http://harvardmagazine.com/2015/11/the-journalist-as-citizen.
Best wishes for the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow to you and to all your readers and commentators.
Damn, it's just hit me, the real Le Donald:
http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Peeing-Custom-Decorative-Instruments/dp/B004TPI8T2
I mean, whaddaya, that's him, to the life. Not only his appearance, but his entire philosophy and campaign strategy. Life imitates art, or vice versa.
The following comment is from Unwashed:
This is almost too hard to believe. But then we are talking about one of the Confederate strongholds here.
Talk about hypocrisy, "We want to treat our citizens not just like we work for them, but we live with them."
Just goes to show that you can't fix stupid - voters that is.
Unwashed
Prior to "9/11", my view prominently featured The Twin Towers, which stood 1,5 miles directly south of my windows.
While I witnessed 'nearly everything', that distance spared me (unlike friends living and working in and around what would become Ground Zero), the additional horror that Trump has claimed to have witnessed.
Were his irreverence (and mendacity) not so horrific, I'd be laughing at the latest from this hateful, twisted con man.
I'm guessing he can also see Russia from his terrace.
Ophelia M.
Some perspective for the Thanksgiving dinner table should the conversation (may it not!) take a stupid, dark or angry turn:
From Centers for Disease Control 2011 stats:
Total Number of deaths: 192,945
Deaths per 100,000 population: 60.2
All poisoning deaths
Number of deaths: 48,545
Deaths per 100,000 population: 15.4
Motor vehicle traffic deaths
Number of deaths: 33,804
Deaths per 100,000 population: 10.7
All firearm deaths
Number of deaths: 33,636
Deaths per 100,000 population: 10.6
In 2013 over 46,000 died from drug overdose alone, more than 10,000 more than auto deaths in that year.
And my favorite from PolitiFact:
"If we look at deaths due to all extremist attacks on U.S. soil (note: all mounted by home-grown jihadists or racists, none by recent immigrants or those in the country illegally) the number goes up to 71. A more accurate count for gun deaths between 2005 and 2015 (inclusive) is 301,797."
So the ration of terrorist to gun death is .024 %. Eating food from Costco or Chipotle lately may have been far more likely to kill you.
Wonder why Trump, Rubio and Cruz aren't talking about these numbers?
Marie and Unwashed,
The wonderfully open greeting to a plethora of Americans and American points of view seen in that sign that "welcomes" motorists to Harris County, GA is symptomatic of so much of what passes for comity (and American values) in the Modern Confederacy.
First, the entire premise of the sign is based on one of Right Wing World's most prevalent and pernicious false choice fallacies (there are quite a lot). Most people I know, even raving liberals (know any of those?), have no problem with someone saying "Merry Christmas" or supporting the troops and the flag. I certainly don't. The suggestion is that those who don't go along with that are not just politically correct, but somehow un-American. There is no middle ground. There is no room for those who don't think it right that a governmental authority, a taxpayer funded agency, should select a particular religion to be exalted above all others--to the point where those who are not of that religion or who disagree are told to fuck off. Now THAT'S un-American.
Furthermore, the assumption that liberals, progressives, pretty much anyone who doesn't identify as Confederate, cannot, in anyone's wildest imagination support American troops, is insulting. I support the troops. But that doesn't mean I have to support the ends to which those troops are dedicated. But this is a typical winger ploy, making sure that those ends are presented as identical to the individuals being sent off to fight and die. This has almost never been the case, at least since humans stopped killing each other over access to water holes back in the late hundred thousandth century BCE.
There's just so much that is wrong with this sign, not to mention the fact that it was bought and paid for with taxpayer money, another invalid invocation of the 10th Amendment. This sign also stinks of the fake victimization that besets the winger mind. Everyone is out to get them. There is not the slightest sense of irony in the fact that the sensibility that promotes signs like this proves that these people are out to get everyone else. If you don't agree with them, kowtow to them, go along with them, then you can just GET THE FUCK OUT.
It's a sad commonplace that, in Right Wing World, the denizens of which love to characterize themselves as the only Real 'mericans, classic American values are pretty much non-existent.
Ken,
My favorite statistic about Death By Terrorist is still the figure that you have a one in twenty million chance of being killed by one.
But a one in eighty thousand chance of drowning in your own bathtub (which sounds like a crazy number....what are these people doing in that tub anyway,smoking hash?? It's not like they're all reincarnations of Jean-Paul Marat).
Well, I suppose, your best bet tomorrow is don't invite any known terrorists to your house for turkey, but if you do, insist they take a bath first.
The turkey too.