The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Thursday
Oct302014
The Commentariat -- Oct. 31, 2014
Internal links, defunct video, photos & graphics removed.
Robert Bukaty of the AP: "Maine health officials obtained a 24-hour court order restricting Kaci Hickox's movement after the nurse repeatedly defied the state's quarantine for medical workers who have treated Ebola patients. A judge granted the order Thursday limiting Hickox's travel, banning her from public places and requiring a 3-foot buffer until there's a further decision Friday." ...
... Nobel Laureate Backs Christie. Claude Brodesser-Akner of NJ.com: Nobel Prize-winning immunologist Bruce Beutler "reviewed [New Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie's new policy of mandatory quarantine for all health care workers exposed to Ebola, and declared: 'I favor it.'... "It may not be absolutely true that those without symptoms can't transmit the disease, because we don't have the numbers to back that up.... Even if someone is asymptomatic you cannot rely on people to report themselves if they get a fever. You can't just depend on the goodwill of people to confine the disease like that -- even healthcare workers. They behave very irresponsibly,' said Beutler.'" Beutler said of nurse Kaci Hickox, "It doesn't matter that she was afebrile -- she should be quarantined for 21 days." Beutler said he would be "a little stricter" than Christie's policy requires. ...
... Mark Santora of the New York Times: "New York officials announced on Thursday that they would offer employee protection and financial guarantees for health care workers joining the fight against the Ebola outbreak in three West African nations. The announcement was an effort to alleviate concerns that the state's mandatory quarantine policy could deter desperately needed workers from traveling overseas." ...
... Dan Mangan of CNBC: "New York City's health department said a doctor being treated for Ebola 'cooperated fully' with officials, dismissing a report that he initially lied about his movements." ...
... Charles Pierce: "I can't be the only one who thinks that the conservative nattering about Ebola is starting to reek of the same reckless pot-stirring that made the Terri Schiavo episode such a highlight of conservative intellectual activism.... And when you think of wanking, you think of the strong and steady hand of "Bobby" Jindal, the governor of Louisiana who, on Thursday, managed to dig up Irony and kill it again by warning people who have worked with Ebola overseas not to come to his state to attend...wait for it ... a conference on infectious tropical diseases." ...
... Andy Borowitz: "President Obama is coming under increasing pressure to apologize for a controversial remark that he made on Tuesday, in which he said that the nation's Ebola policy should be based on facts rather than fear. While the anti-fear tenor of Mr. Obama's comment was offensive enough to some, the President made matters worse by suggesting that science would play the leading role in guiding the nation's Ebola protocols...."
Coral Davenport of the New York Times on why Republicans keep saying they're not scientists. "'It's got to be the dumbest answer I've ever heard,' said Michael McKenna, a Republican energy lobbyist who has advised House Republicans and conservative political advocacy groups on energy and climate change messaging. 'Using that logic would disqualify politicians from voting on anything. Most politicians aren't scientists, but they vote on science policy. They have opinions on Ebola, but they're not epidemiologists. They shape highway and infrastructure laws, but they're not engineers.'"
Tom McCarthy & Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "The secretary of state, John Kerry, has condemned as 'disgraceful' a description of the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, as 'chickenshit', attributed to an unnamed US official. Kerry said on Thursday that the reported comments did not reflect his view or the view of President Barack Obama, adding that the language was 'disgraceful, unacceptable and damaging'."
There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders. -- Chief Justice John Roberts ...
... Linda Greenhouse: That's what Roberts wrote "in April of this year. His subject then was the right to spend money in politics, not the right to vote. If people conclude that the current Supreme Court majority cares more about the first than the second -- surely a logical inference — the court will have entered a dangerous place. And so -- as a conservative justice once realized in another context -- will the country." ...
... CW: I don't think you can beat the irony of Roberts' writing in McCutcheon v. F.E.C. (the $$$ case) when contrasted with his decision to allow the Texas voter suppression/poll tax statute to stand this election cycle. Roberts knows what he's doing. His decision on Texas strongly suggests that he believes the "the right to participate in electing our political leaders" extends only to citizens who can pay for it. The Texas case has not come before the Court for a full decision yet, but informed observers don't have high hopes that voters' advocates will prevail. ...
... Messin' with Texas Ain't Over Yet. Richard Hasen in TPM: "The very last sentence ... of the ... opinion issued earlier this month by a federal district court striking down Texas's strict voter identification law ... may be its most important. The court ended its opinion with a dry statement promising a future hearing on 'plaintiffs' request for relief under Section 3(c) of the Voting Rights Act.' That hearing ... has the potential to require Texas to get federal approval for any future voting changes for up to the next decade.... It may be much more important than the ruling on the voter ID law itself.... Despite the recent Supreme Court order letting Texas use its voter ID law in this election, the case is far from over, and in fact the most important ruling in the case is yet to come. Voters may get their protection from discriminatory laws yet." Read the whole post. ...
... Jamelle Bouie of Slate: "Mississippi has poor social outcomes and a threadbare safety net. It also has -- and has long had -- the largest black population in the country. And it's where slavery was very lucrative, and Jim Crow most vicious. This is not a coincidence. In Mississippi -- as in the rest of the South -- white supremacy brought a politics of racist antagonism.... What we see in Mississippi -- and, in varying degrees, the country writ large -- is what was wrought by white supremacy. A society where the racial caste system is still intact but justified by other means." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "... you can't expect people to look at a place like Mississippi and unsee the threads that tie together generations of white conservatism, and unthink the judgment that once again 'state's rights' and 'sovereignty' mean powerlessness, poverty, sickness and even an early grave for a big portion of the population."
Emily Atkin of Think Progress: "A libertarian think tank has sued the White House over a video that claimed global warming might be tied to last year's extreme cold spell, commonly referred to as the 'polar vortex.' The Competitive Enterprise Institute's lawsuit filed Wednesday says White House Office of Science and Technology director John Holdren was wrong when, in the January video, he cited a 'growing body of evidence' linking the so-called 'polar vortex' to climate change." ...
... CW: Maybe John Boehner, who is once again looking for a lawyer to sue President Obama for shredding the Constitution or something, should hire the CEI's lawyers, who seem to be able to file the most frivolous of suits against the White House.
Gail Sullivan of the Washington Post lists a number of reasons why Apple CEO Tim Cook's coming out as gay is important. CW: I'll have to admit I thought "meh" when his Bloomberg Businessweek op-ed hit the ether, but Sullivan changes my mind.
Paul Krugman: "... the West has, in fact, fallen into a slump similar to Japan's -- but worse. And that wasn't supposed to happen. In the 1990s, we assumed that if the United States or Western Europe found themselves facing anything like Japan's problems, we would respond much more effectively than the Japanese had. But we didn't, even though we had Japan's experience to guide us." ...
... Michael Sauga in Der Spiegel elaborates on Krugman's theme: "... the crisis of capitalism has turned into a crisis of democracy. Many feel that their countries are no longer being governed by parliaments and legislatures, but by bank lobbyists, which apply the logic of suicide bombers to secure their privileges: Either they are rescued or they drag the entire sector to its death." An excellent piece (4 pp.); thanks to Unwashed for the link. ...
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Shaun King of Daily Kos: "When Don Surber, editorial columnist for Charleston's Daily Mail, called [Ferguson, Mo. police shooting victim] Mike Brown an 'animal' who deserved to 'be put down,' and referred to protestors as 'packs of racists,' [in a Facebook post] he crossed a line.... Today Surber was fired by the Daily Mail for his incendiary comments...." Brad McElhinny, editor & publisher of the Daily Mail, announced Surber's dismissal in a blogpost on the paper's site.
Charles Pierce remembers Tom Menino, Boston's longest-serving mayor, who died Thursday: "Menino was a puzzlement only to those delicate souls who mistake syntax for intelligence. He became mayor just as Boston was emerging from the very last vestiges of its parochial past -- insular neighborhoods which did not welcome outsiders, which might simply mean someone who moved there from another parish in Dorchester." ...
... President Obama remembers Tom Menino.
Jon Stewart welcomes a new advertiser to the "Daily Show":
November Elections
Gregor Aisch & Josh Katz of the New York Times take a deep dive into the numbers. ...
... Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "The polls have generally underestimated Democrats in recent years, and there are reasons to think it could happen again. In 2010, the polls underestimated the Democrats in every competitive Senate race by an average of 3.1 percentage points, based on data from The Huffington Post's Pollster model. In 2012, pre-election polls underestimated President Obama in nine of the 10 battleground states by an average of 2 percentage points."
Nate Cohn: "Democratic efforts to turn out the young and nonwhite voters who sat out the 2010 midterm elections appear to be paying off in several Senate battleground states. More than 20 percent of the nearly three million votes already tabulated in Georgia, North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa have come from people who did not vote in the last midterm election, according to an analysis of early-voting data by The Upshot." ...
... CW: Want to help? Make Tuesday "Take a Lazy Democrat to Lunch Day." And swing by her polling place on the way to the restaurant.
Brian Beutler: Democrats have known since their big wins in 2008 that 2014 would be a tough year for Senate Democrats, so stop blaming President Obama. "... even a good, well executed campaign strategy usually can't overwhelm the basic nature of the electorate."
Mike Dorning & Lorraine Woellert of Bloomberg News: "The U.S. economy has posted its strongest six months of growth since 2003, news that usually would be a boon to the party in power heading into congressional elections. Yet President Barack Obama and Democrats haven't been able to take credit for the gains. On Election Day, they're at risk of losing control of the Senate, though it is the Republicans who have blocked measures aimed at strengthening growth. That's because Americans say they don't feel the progress in their daily lives and they blame both parties for the political deadlock in Washington. The U.S. government's failure to address the economy's main weakness -- stagnant middle-class earnings -- damages Democrats the most."
... See also this piece by Emily Mahaney of Glamour magazine, where this video -- produced in support of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund's Women Are Watching campaign -- first appeared.
Joe Coscarelli of New York: "If you've ever wondered where the endless font of gun-nut paranoia comes from, try the National Rifle Association's magazine, America's 1st Freedom. In a special election issue headlined 'Chaos at Our Door? A Dangerous World Is Closing In' and illustrated with an Islamic State fighter, NRA chief fearmongerer Wayne LaPierre writes a column warning Americans to 'Vote Your Guns in November.'... 'On Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 4, we will defend our right to defend ourselves because we have no other choice. We will vote our guns! We will vote our freedom! And we will prevail!" That might be the scariest idea of all." ...
... Hannah Levintova of Mother Jones lists seven "big gun fights to watch on election day.... The National Rifle Association, continuing a long-running strategy of campaign spending, earmarked over $11 million for this year's elections -- but for the first time in decades the nation's leading gun lobby is facing some truly formidable opposition."
Margaret Hartmann: "After days of constant campaigning, Senator Elizabeth Warren has mixed up Vermont and New Hampshire, Michelle Obama has called Representative Bruce Braley "Bruce Bailey," and now Mitt Romney has flubbed the position of North Carolina's Republican Senate nominee. While introducing Thom Tillis on Wednesday, Romney described him as 'a man who as secretary of state has demonstrated what he can do to make things happen for the people of this great state.' Tillis is actually the state House speaker." CW: Luckily. nobody's paying attention to the midterms.
Red States/Blue States. Monica Davey of the New York Times: "... Republicans are hoping to add Iowa and Arkansas to the states entirely under their control as well as to break the Democrats' lock on power in places like Colorado and here in Minnesota. Democrats view the governors' races in Wisconsin, Kansas and Michigan as among their best hopes of defeating a Republican incumbent and regaining at least some voice in those Republican-held state capitals, and are pouring energy and money into final efforts to get out the vote. The trend toward one-party control of statehouses has made the states a testing ground for party policies in an era of gridlock in Washington."
Colorado. Why I Hate Polls. Quinnipiac University: "With strong support from men, U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, the Republican challenger in the Colorado U.S. Senate race, leads U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, the Democratic incumbent, 46 - 39 percent among likely voters, with 7 percent for independent candidate Steve Shogan, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Another 7 percent are undecided." ...
... Denver Post: "A poll conducted this week shows Gardner [R-Personhood] at 46 percent and Udall [Uterus (D)] at 44 percent -- a narrow edge within the four-percentage-point margin-of-error. ...
... PPP: "Mark Udall and Cory Gardner are both getting 48% of the vote, with just 4% of voters remaining undecided."
Kentucky.
Mitch McConnell's going to go to the wire, because he is vehement about not standing for anything. And he has a good long track record about not standing for much other than keeping the campaign dollars flowing. And that is not inspiring to ordinary Americans, to conservatives, even to base Republicans. -- Ken Cuccinelli (RTP), former Virginia attorney general
Louisiana. Chuck Todd & Carrie Dann of NBC News: "Louisiana Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu said Thursday that the issue of race is a major reason that President Barack Obama has struggled politically in Southern states.... Noting that the South is 'more of a conservative place,' she added that women have also faced challenges in 'presenting ourselves.'... The comment prompted a fiery response from Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, who called it 'remarkably divisive.' 'She appears to be living in a different century,' he said in a statement." CW: Bobby Jindal appears to be living in a different world a/k/a Right Wing World, where reality is too inconvenient to credit. "The issue of race," as Landrieu delicately puts it, is a major reason for everything in the South. See Jamelle Bouie's post above. ...
... The Cluelessness of the Chuck. Charles Pierce: "Notice, however, that my man Chuck Todd then follows up with a question designed to take the sting out of Landrieu's outburst of inconvenient truth. 'What's interesting there is other Democratic folks that I've talked to in the Senate they use different language,' Chuck Todd said on Thursday's broadcast of NBC's Nightly News. 'Mark Pryor told me the president just doesn't understand rural America.' Let's all chip in and buy my man Chuck Todd an Enigma machine."
Maine. Jim Fallows on the three-way gubernatorial race. Fallows is the classiest of fellows.
Nebraska. Serial Killer Endorses GOP Candidate. Allisa Skelton of the Omaha World-Herald: "Convicted killer Nikko Jenkins endorsed U.S. Rep. Lee Terry during a court appearance Wednesday. His shackles clanked as he waltzed to his seat and said: 'Vote for Lee Terry, guys. Best Republican ever.'... Terry has linked his Democratic opponent, State Sen. Brad Ashford, to Jenkins' release from prison and his killing spree."
New Hampshire. Tim Buckland of the New Hampshire Union Leader: "U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown got in the last punches in what was the final round of their debates before Tuesday's election." ...
... Where in New Hampshire Is Sullivan County? Scott Brown isn't sure. But ObamaCare:
... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "The exchange gave the impression that Brown didn't know where Sullivan County was, which is particularly bad since there are only ten counties in the state. However, Pindell apologized after the debate upon learning that Brown was right, sort of. Sullivan County is both north and west of Concord, and Mount Sunapee is partially located there (though the ski area is in Merrimack County). ...
... CW: When you contrast Brown's response to the question with Shaheen's, it's obvious that Shaheen knows her New Hampshire geography intimately & knows the various regional issues. Brown, on the other hand, said he's "been there," where "been there" seems to mean "skiied Mount Sunapee which is right close to Sullivan County."
Presidential Election
Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post writes a terrific column on Hillary Clinton's attachment to big banks. "In the winter of 1932-1933, as President-elect Franklin Roosevelt was assembling his Cabinet, he was lobbied to appoint a leader of the J.P. Morgan investment bank, then headquartered at 23 Wall St., to a top post at Treasury. Roosevelt refused -- categorically. 'We simply cannot go along with 23,' he told an aide. Roosevelt's refusal should become a standard to which Democratic activists hold all their presidential candidates."
Ted Cruz: Republicans Must Nominate a Wacko-Bird. Jonathan Topaz of Politico: "Sen. Ted Cruz on Thursday took a thinly veiled shot at Jeb Bush, saying that Republicans will ensure a Hillary Clinton presidency if they run a more moderate candidate in 2016. Appearing on CNBC, the Texas Republican and tea party favorite was asked about Bush and said that presidential candidates from the party's establishment wing -- like Arizona Sen. John McCain in 2008 and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in 2012 -- consistently fail to turn out millions of voters.... A Washington Post/ABC News poll earlier this month showed Bush leading a crowded GOP primary field, with Cruz finishing in ninth." CW: Cruz also noted that no GOP presidential nominee named Ted Cruz had ever lost the presidency.
Paul Waldman on Chris Christie's "persona": "... you know where you don't get too many chances to show what a tough guy you are? Iowa. Campaigning for the caucuses is an interminable process of trooping from living room to senior center to VFW hall, meeting people in small groups, looking them in the eye and asking them for their votes.... Being tough just isn't part of that show, and if the biggest part of Christie's appeal is that he can talk like an extra from Goodfellas when somebody challenges him, he isn't going to get very far." ...
... CW: In Iowa, New Hampshire, wherever, Christie will be viewed as an outsider. If he roughs up the locals -- even the dimwitted locals -- the neighbors will take it personally. In New Jersey, Christie may be a jerk, "but he's our jerk." That won't be the case when he moves out-of-state. If Christie can't control himself -- and neither Waldman nor I thinks he can -- his presidential aspirations will be toast. Also fun to watch: the debates (which the Republican National Committee is planning to limit). Will Chris Christie order Ted Cruz to "sit down & shut up"? Will he punch out Marco Rubio? Will he grab Rand Paul by the hair?
Beyond the Beltway
Stephen Deere of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "If a behind-the-scenes effort is afoot to force out Chief Thomas Jackson and disband his police force, neither he nor his department is going quietly -- nor quickly.... On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called for 'wholesale changes' within the Ferguson Police Department, while speaking at a public forum in Washington. He declined to offer any specific recommendations, noting that Ferguson police were still under a U.S. Department of Justice investigation.... Jackson called it 'irresponsible' for Holder to comment about conclusions Justice Department investigators analyzing his department have made while their investigation is ongoing, especially while 'he is telling others to "shut up" about leaks.'"
News Ledes
Reuters: "The ringleader of a beating ritual that led to the death of a Florida college marching band member was convicted on Friday of manslaughter and felony hazing, the first case to go to trial in an incident that drew national attention to hazing abuses. A jury convicted percussionist Dante Martin, 27, for his role in a November 2011 ritual involving the Florida A&M University's celebrated 'Marching 100' band that led to the death of Robert Champion, a 26-year-old drum major." ...
... CW: Why are these college students so old?
Los Angeles Times: "Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, part of a commercial space venture founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, crashed during testing Friday, according to a Mojave Air and Space Port spokesperson and the FAA. At least one person was killed." MSNBC is saying two were injured as well.
New York Times: "Less than a day after restricting the movements of a nurse who treated Ebola victims in West Africa, a judge in Maine has lifted the measures, rejecting arguments by the State of Maine that a quarantine was necessary to protect the public. Within an hour of the decision, state troopers who had been parked outside the nurse's house for days had left. The order, signed on Friday by Judge Charles C. LaVerdiere, the chief judge for the Maine District Courts who serves in Kennebec and Somerset counties, said the nurse, Kaci Hickox, 'currently does not show symptoms of Ebola and is therefore not infectious.' The order requires Ms. Hickox to submit to daily monitoring for symptoms, to coordinate her travel with state health officials, and to notify them immediately if symptoms appear. Ms. Hickox has agreed to follow the requirements." Thanks to James S. for the link.
AP: "Eric Frein, 31, appeared gaunt and battered as he answered yes or no questions and listened as a judge read the criminal complaint detailing the Sept. 12 attack that killed Cpl. Bryon Dickson and critically wounded Trooper Alex Douglass."
Washington Post: "Russia agreed Thursday to resume selling natural gas to Ukraine, ending a cutoff.... The stopgap deal will secure critical energy supplies for Ukraine through March and will also help assure European countries that their own natural gas supply will not be disrupted during chilly winter months."
Share Article
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.
Reader Comments (34)
Fallows listened. Thanks Marie.
So let me get this straight,according to Christie and the Noble Laureate every person exposed to Ebola has to be locked up. That means all of the physicians and nurses treating patients in the US, the ambulance drivers and who knows who else.
No? Only such people from Africa, you know the D w o B, the real experts get locked but the inexperienced locals don't.
My favorite comment was the idea that if your going to be stuck for 21days, go to Europe for vacation. Does anyone realize that most of the people treating people in Africa come from countries that are not scared shit of everything.
Marvin, most of the countries of the world don't politicise fear for profit. We're exceptional in that regard.
Pathos, Inc. Report:
McClatchy reports that two-thirds of Kentucky voters are very happy with their voting choices. The Turtle now leads Alison (won't tell) Grimes by 5% and growing. Guess Kenny the Cooch's invective is not going to keep Old Turtle Head from winning. Don't know if I will have the stomach to watch election returns Tuesday night--especially if Udall loses in Colorado. He is really a good guy.
Think I may just hibernate in the rainy, chilly, Pacific Northwest--knowing that Oregon Democrats are going to win.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/10/30/245267_poll-two-thirds-of-kentucky-voters.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
Interesting article in Der Spiegel titled "The Zombie System: How Capitalism Has Gone Off the Rails."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/capitalism-in-crisis-amid-slow-growth-and-growing-inequality-a-998598.html
In an interview on Morning Edition just now, a Colorado voter said he was voting for Gardner because "Udall voted with Obama almost all the time." The phrase is everywhere, fill in the name of the candidate as needed. This is what you get when you have a major "news" organization whose business model is to make everything the president does look bad: "Are Low Gas Prices are Hurting the Economy?"
Democrats are afraid to stand up and and say "Yes" because of this arrogant wave of partial-fact propaganda. And the corruption of what is means to participate in the voting process noted above is truly disheartening. Earlier this week I heard someone on the radio arguing that yes, money is a strong indicator of election outcome, but more money means more people are supporting that candidate. I worked the rest of the afternoon with the radio off.
Somehow some think of Africa as a country––one country instead of a continent with many countries. We now have stories floating around where a person coming from one of those countries NOT infected with ebola, not anywhere near those countries infected, are treated like pariahs: A teacher was prevented from teaching–-told to stay home for 21 days (counted as her sick days?) and here in Ct., a student at Milford High in Milford who went to Nigeria for her Aunt's wedding was not allowed back in school. Her parents sued–-she's back in school as of yesterday.
I find it extraordinary that we have health officials disagreeing with the proper procedures in this ebola conundrum. And we wonder why people are confused. What we don't wonder about is how this is catnip for the wingers who delight in anything that produces fear and ultimately can blame Obama.
PD Pepe a large pat of this non-existent epidemic is the fact that we are dealing with Africa. Never mind the ignorance of Americans about the continent. The fact that the majority of its people have the same color as the POTUS is the driving force behind this scare. If Ebola struck Europe we would barely notice.
It's easy to point fingers and much harder to actually do the work, but I have to say the Democrats have done a poor job of selling themselves as a group. Every time a Democrat addresses anyone there should be a rollout of things that have improved since Bush: low unemployment, high stock market, consumer confidence up, gas prices down, most have health insurance, regulations to protect environment...The whole Republican strategy has been to propagandize that Obama has done a poor job and therefore Democrats must be voted out. By cringing and running away, Dems have fallen right into that trap. Even if they don't believe Obama has been successful, they should damn well act as if he were. God knows the Republicans, if the tables were turned, would be doing that. Democrats should get speaking and messaging lessons in preparation for 2016.
I second what Victoria said.
@P.D.Pepe writes, "I find it extraordinary that we have health officials disagreeing with the proper procedures in this ebola conundrum."
One thing we've learned from the U.S. experience with Ebola is that we don't have much experience with Ebola. This is largely a political problem: "rich" nations weren't willing to spend much on Ebola research because the disease was confined to poor countries in Africa. We're playing catch-up now, and it's not surprising that there is disagreement among experts about how the disease spreads, especially since the virus is capable of mutating.
I linked to a New Yorker piece a week or two ago about some of the research being conducted at Harvard on the Ebola genome; reading between the lines (and sometimes on the lines) made me skeptical that anybody has a "best answer" on how to cope with Ebola.
At this point, I think "reasonable caution" is the "best answer." Therefore, if I were Kaci Hickox, ferinstance, I would be abiding by Maine's quarantine, both for health reasons (hers & others) & for political reasons. I take seriously Beutler's warnings, tho I still think New Jersey was over-the-top cruel in confining her to an unheated tent without a real toilet, any shower, or comfortable clothing. Beutler certainly could be wrong, & he says as much. But in the event he is right, ignoring home quarantines seems irresponsible to me. (And, no, a nurse doesn't know more than an expert researcher like Beutler.)
Marie
@Victoria D. I'm with @Jack Mahoney.
Marie
The reaction to Tim Cook's uncloseting says much about ourselves and the mental space we inhabit as 2014 wanes.
Untold generations of homosexuality's dark secrets, once exposed to our 21st century light, don't seem so dark anymore, and what was once deemed a perversion and a crime in only a few decades is being transformed into a right. That's the good news we justly applaud.
The not so good news is what Cook didn't have to say. As long as he was in the uncloseting mode, there was so much more he could have said about himself and his company.
In his revelation there was nary a whisper about how many billions in taxes Apple has avoided paying to the United States and to the EEUnion, nor how those unpaid taxes render stillborn the potential opportunities, rights and freedoms of millions, gay and straight alike. Nor did he say what he plans to do about his company's Romneyesque approach to taxation: as little as legal and damn the consequence to others.
For those unfamiliar with Apple's monstrous tax avoidance:
"....According to a report from the US Senate last year on Apple's tax practices the deals with Ireland "facilitated the shift of $74 billion in worldwide sales income away from the United States to Ireland where Apple has negotiated a tax rate of less than 2%".
( http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-could-owe-8-billion-in-tax-in-europe-2014-9#ixzz3HjYlbet}
So what does Cook's revelation say? In 2014 there is little or no shame in one's sexual orientation. Nor should there be. That's real progress.
But shameful business practices are still kept in the closet whose door can only be pried partly ajar by detailed Senate investigations, through the powers of subpoena and oath.
Now that Mr. Cook is in the revelatory mood, I'm waiting for him to freely expose his company's dark business secrets to the light of day.
Marie, yes we don't know all the details of the Ebola story. But again, why are we quarantining the healthcare people from Africa but not the US. Christie and Beutler want Kaci locked up but no mention of the people doing the same things she did in Africa in the US. Try to convinced the world to lock up the doctors and nurses from Bellevue Hospital!
Yes I agree we should be careful but not crazy. Remember that no one that Mr. Duncan came in contact with has Ebola except nurses who dealt with him when he was seriously ill. Note that the nurse that traveled all over the place before she showed symptoms infected no one.
My view is that Kaci should be allowed to take a bike ride and have a pizza. She should not be allowed to bite the waitress.
Nice video of what it means to be a young woman in 2014. But someone tell me. When are they going to stop making their voices go UP at the end of every sentence? The first part sounds so confident. It's like they're not really sure when they get to the end.
@Nancy: That's the "Valley Girl" inflection, which I hoped would last only a generation. As you suggest, it makes women (some men also have acquired the habit) sound tentative & unsure of themselves. It started out as a fad -- a cool inflectional tic -- which should have been good for about a summer. Unfortunately, it has persisted. Like you, I find it both dismaying & annoying.
Marie
Without getting too psychoanalytical, it strikes me that people on Halloween dress up either as something they're not--as far away from their personality as possible, or something or someone they'd like to be, or maybe someone they'd like others to see them as.
This is just a short list of the some of the attendees and their possible disguises at tonight's Wingnut Costume Ball. Should be a scream. Sorry I wasn't invited. I'd go as Ronald Reagan.
And so:
Paul Ryan wanted to go as Bernie Madoff. One fraud impersonating another. But he may go as John Galt instead. He's memorized all of Galt's speeches and will see if he can spout them off non-stop. That'll be him in the corner with one of the Koch brothers.
In order to remind people that he really, really IS a speaker, John Boehner will dress up as Nancy Pelosi.
Mitch McConnell as Parson Weems' George Washington: "Father, I cannot tell a..." oh, never mind.
Ted Cruz as the Evil Queen in Snow White. "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the most presidential of all?"
Li'l Randy will go as Fabio Lanzoni. A guy with real hair. And lots of it.
Chuck Todd can't decide if he's going as Edward R. Murrow or Matt Drudge. There really isn't much difference between them, right?
Scott Walker will go as himself but will bring along the other Koch brother dressed as Diogenes who will, at regular intervals, proclaim that in Walker he has finally found an honest man. Instead of a lamp, Diogenes had better be carrying plenty of barf bags.
Sarah Palin will go as Clara Barton; such a caring soul, after all.
Ann Coulter might go as Emma Goldman. Or maybe Eva Braun. She hasn't decided.
Rush Limbaugh will dress up as Medgar Evers. That'll shut up those whiny blahs.
Dick Cheney will go as a Sherman Tank. Someone will have to remind him that firing off live rounds is not cool at a costume party.
Wayne LaPierre as man of peace and non-violence Mahatma Gandhi? But where would he hide his Glock wearing only a loincloth and shawl? And does anyone really want to see that shit in the first place?
Chris Christie will go as Albert Schweitzer. He's still trying to figure out where to put that caduceus. My suggestion? Up his ass.
George W. Bush will be going as a president. He pretended to be one for eight years. Why stop now?
Happy Halloween, all.
Oh, hey...I just remembered. There's a clip on Youtube of The Decider and Laura Bush at an earlier Wingnut Halloween party.
Check it out:
Can you pick out which one is Dubya?
"Ancient Grains! Jeez, people will buy anything. CW PS: Unless you're a scientist with specific knowledge about the benefits of ancient grains as opposed to say, oats, don't write in & bitch about my ignorance. We all have our pet peeves, rational & irrational. Fad foods -- in fact, fads in general -- are one of mine." That's like a big, fat curve ball that didn't break; I gotta take a swing at it. Two things with food stuff: what it is and where it came from. Cherrios would like you to believe that GMO, hyper-processed ancient grains are some magic panacea for the other shit they sell. Nope. Good food is in part a function of the biota and micronutrients ingested/absorbed during plant and animal growth. Stockyards, engineered feeds, and fumigant/pesticide treated fields and crops allow you to get the macro nutrients like fats, carbos, sugars and minerals. Industrial food production doesn't seem to acknowledge micronutrients unless they have the widely understood name "vitamin" attached. Too bad. There's lots more micronutrients that are essential. The sales and marketing and front office guys in the food business may as well be in the tobacco business. Industrial food production needs to be regulated like tobacco because of the hundreds of GRAS (generally recognized as safe) chemicals that FDA allows processors to add to our food with little or no testing. And no, regulating small businesses out of business in the food business through onerous 'food safety' regulations isn't the same. So, in sum, ancient grains are different stuff, same shit when it comes vetted by the IFT (Institute of Food Technologists) which is supported by Big Food.
@Citizen 625: Are you "a scientist with specific knowledge about the benefits of ancient grains"? If so, please give us a hint of your credentials. Otherwise, I'm thinking I'll remove your comment because it's no more expert than my prejudice.
Marie
@Ken Winkes, I'd like to take issue with your characterization of Apple and Romney paying the minimum in taxes.
When we expect corporations to behave like moral human beings we miss the point. A corporation exists for one reason: to maximize profit right now. A corporation exists only as long as it is profitable to its owners.
Expecting a corporation to pay more than the absolute minimum is asking a dog to swing from limb to limb or a bear to shinny through a five-inch drain pipe. It's not going to happen because if it does the corporation will find itself a new CEO and CFO.
No, the issue isn't with the humanity of the corporation; it's those of our representatives who pass laws that allow corporations to escape from paying taxes. Hey, I've heard good arguments for eliminating corporate taxes entirely; if that's your goal, be up front about it. Explain to the people where the money will come from.
The system now is that corporations are expected to pay a percentage of profits, but there seem to be a myriad of ways of tinkering with that profit number. I believe that much of the early research in this area was done by movie studios who promised stars a percentage of the net profits.
As long as the law contains wiggle room that would allow Chris Christie to use a Hula Hoop we can pine and shry as much as we would like about corporations taking advantage of the laws when that's exactly what any corporation's accountant is paid to do.
Change the laws. Make it difficult to impossible to hide profits. Enforce the laws. Jail a few tax evaders.
Marvin is absolutely correct about the provenance of the hysteria surrounding a non-existent epidemic. The Ebola "Crisis" being whipped up by Fox and the Republican Party is beginning to resemble the polio epidemic in the mid 20th century, a real epidemic that killed thousands of Americans every year up until the Salk vaccine was developed in the mid 50s.
Had the Ebola situation, like polio, begun in Europe and the United States, and furthermore, had it happened during a Republican administration, we would be not be seeing this kind of hysteria. Bill O'Reilly and his ilk would be laughing at anyone who said we should take seriously a virus that had killed only one person and affected only a handful of others, all of whom were cured. There would be no screaming about incompetence, about quarantines, about mixed messages, about fear and loathing.
Just more of the same Republican racism. It usually boils down to one of a couple of things with these people: hatred or greed.
The Party of Assholes.
But don't worry, the anti-science haters in the Republican Party may soon add the polio vaccine to the list of things they're against. If it helps average Americans, they usually are against it, whatever it is.
No real issue taken, Jack. In fact, you make my point, perhaps better than I did.
"When we expect corporations to behave like moral human beings we miss the point. A corporation exists for one reason: to maximize profit right now. A corporation exists only as long as it is profitable to its owners."
Absolutely true. Corporations are sociopathic entities that we have created to behave in the amoral, often sociopathic way they do as if they were somehow separate from ourselves and hence not our responsibility. It's a convenient fiction, a lie we tell ourselves so we can sleep at night.
Unfortunately that lie also infects the legislators you would burden with setting things right. In a Congress increasingly beholden to massive corporate profit and individual wealth, the same absence of humanity is present and, with rare exceptions, morality equally absent.
Re Kaci & Ebola...I'm on the same page as Charlie Pierce is today!
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Return_To_Yesterday
I have to say that, like others here on RC who have expressed dismay with the current crop of Democrats, I am mightily disappointed in their fear of being connected with President Obama, just as much as I was dismayed by an earlier crop of Democrats who ran as fast as they could from the liberal or progressive labels.
When they were in power, Bush and Cheney and their Republican gangsters constantly whined about all the roadblocks they faced, all those working against them. Compared to what Obama has had to deal with, Bush and Cheney were lolling in those famous Paul Ryan hammocks on the beach. So what did Bush do with a huge approval rating and enormous congressional and media support? Took us into a made up war then crashed the economy.
One measure of the success of a presidential administration is the famous question "are you better off today than you were before?". There is no way anyone can say they were better off under Bush. And if for no other reason, Obama's healthcare reform has created, in one fell swoop, a better life for tens of millions of Americans and their families. Bush ensured death, deformity, and economic paralysis for tens of millions of Americans. Any questions?
Against tremendous odds, Obama made life better. Better for millions and millions of Americans. Not many presidents can make that claim. And to run away from that amazing achievement (and yes, yes, he's not the guy many of us hoped he be--who is?), smacks of cowardice. And so does refusing to talk about the massive sea change this country has undergone in just a few years.
It's letting the liars and the haters have the floor while you sit meekly in your chair and hope just a few people, pretty please, come out to vote for you.
There's a difference between campaign strategy and moral cowardice.
Just awful.
Jack,
Ken does have a point here.
Yes, corporations are in the business of making money. No one questions that. But it's not an all or nothing proposition. Or at least, it shouldn't be. If it were, we, as a nation, would make sure that there were no impediments to profit. But there are. We, as humans with a moral center (at least some of us), see the problem with unfettered greed and allowing avarice to trump everything else. Air would be unbreathable, water undrinkable, industrial accidents would claim tens of thousands of lives every year, safety features for toys, cars, for anything, would be optional at best. These things aren't the case because we, as a society, deemed it necessary to curtail profits in the interest of the welfare of humans and the planet we live on.
Corporations certainly are in business to make money. But they also should exist as entities that can contribute something more to the fabric of society than just quarterly increases for their stockholders.
Corporations in other countries have found ways to make sure they can be profitable and still find ways to exist within their societies as something more than vultures.
Anytime we try to reduce our interests to a single goal, a single end result, whether it be profits, or religious hegemony, or war, we run the risk of undermining our own humanity.
CEOs do have a responsiblity to their shareholders. But their companies, especially if they're going to demand the rights of personhood, should demonstrate the kind of responbility that personhood requires of the rest of us, one to the others.
Just my opinion.
And one more thing.
It may be pointed out that coporations only do what laws allow them to do, and that's correct too but plenty of them go way beyond what the laws allow, knowing full well that no one will call them on it. And if they do, they pay their fines, like the Kochs, have a nice dinner, and move on.
Another reason elections matter.
Someone really needs to send the NRA idiots a copy of the Bill of Rights, since they only have one amendment tacked up on their walls.
According to those constitutional scholars, the right to bear arms is "America's 1st Freedom"....ahh....no. It's not. At least not according to the framers. It's the SECOND amendment. Not the first. The first is...
Well, why bother, it's not like they care.
Guns for everyone!
Here's the newest last word on ebola in Maine. Kaci's out of quarentine.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/01/us/ebola-maine-nurse-kaci-hickox.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Uh oh, they've thrown down the gauntlet. Hope the wild colors come through--they are terrifying.
KATE MADISON
This is the FINAL NOTICE of your member status before the final end of month deadline of the election.
THEBIGKATE@GMAIL.COM
Answered President Obama's Call-to-Action?
## NO DONATION ##
We’ve been working non-stop for two years to get Democrats elected and THIS. IS. IT.
@Akhilleus. According to this 2010 NPR report, "the highest annual toll" for flu deaths in the U.S. was in the 2003-4 season: 48,614." If I recall, Dubya was president then. Where was the outrage?
Marie
Marie,
Quite.
But flu is not an inherently "African" health problem.
No black connection? No outrage needed.
Besides, all those people who died of the flu could have taken The Decider's "healthcare reform" advice.
Sick? No insurance? Go to the emergency room.
Talk of an Ebola "epidemic" in the US is too stupid for words but it bespeaks the kind of rampant, unthinking fear the Right loves to spread. According to the CDC, the spread of anything is not typically referred to as an epidemic until it accounts for 7.2% of all deaths in the period under consideration. I don't think a single death reaches that level. But no matter, when have facts ever bothered conservatives? If we're not actually in an epidemic, one could be right around the corner, because Obama. And Africa.
But any thoughts to developing a plan to help nip the spread of the Ebola virus in African nations where it actually IS an epidemic are out of the question. First, because blacks, and second, because fear is way cheaper and much more fun.
So no outrage for flu or gunshot epidemics, but plenty for made up bullshit.
PD,
Meant to respond to your earlier comment about "certain people" who believe that Africa is a country.
I would have thought, at one point, that anyone who really thought this would have to be either mentally disabled, or someone who dropped out of school in the second grade.
I think we've found someone who fits both requirements: John McCain's running mate, someone who could have been, as the saying goes, a single weirdly shaped mole away from the White House, the Wasilla Hillbilly herself, Mrs. Sarah (get in my way and my family will kill you) Palin.
An infamous report coming from the McCain camp, which should know, claimed that hockey mom grizzly moron Sarah (did any of her kids actually play hockey?), had no idea that Africa wasn't a country, and was startled to be told that South Africa wasn't a part of the country of Africa, but a country on its own.
Palin bitterly decries this revelation. But let's look at the facts. This is a woman who, by her own admission, doesn't read anything. EVER. Believes that Paul Revere was trying to warn the British. That the shot heard round the world was fired in Concord, NH, that the NATO bombing of Libya in 2011 was called a "squirmish", that she can see Russia from her back porch, which, if she were living in Boston, would mean, she could have watched the World Series in Kansas City without straining her eyes.
She once declared that the US needed to stand firm with our allies in....North Korea.
She is a world class imbecile. In most other circumstances, I would blow off the "I can see Russia" comment as a momentary lapse of logic, but with Palin, it's a regular thing.
SHE.IS.STOOPID.
And I have no doubt that she was confused about the political/geographical status of Africa, because republican moron.
But she is still considered an icon of the Right.
'nuff said.
AK, I agree that corporations should act as moral citizens. I seem to remember from Tony Judt's "Postwar," which I read some years ago now, that in the aftermath of World War II European societies decided to fashion themselves differently in light of the unlimited destruction unleashed by greed and nationalism. Social welfare became more a part of (as Charles Pierce might put it) the Commonwealth's duty to its citizens. Either we are all a part of the Commonwealth, or it's all a fiction to bind us to obscure loyalties and prime us to do our part when the inevitable next war is launched in Eurasia or East Asia.
I seem to remember that Judt's point was that people who were less desperate might be less eager to follow charlatans who promise glory but deliver death and destruction. In addition, countries like France and Germany that had historically been at odds went out of their way to form partnerships that would be harmed by war or even talk of war.
What was the American reaction? For most of us, none. For those who might be affected if corporations were valued as much for their social utility as for their return on investment, the John Birch Society. Just as gun nuts now yell about the Second Amendment and warm the cold hearts of gun manufacturers by doing so, the Birchers decried anything that stood in the way of unfettered license by those with money and power.
So, yes, unless laws are passed AND enforced it's all a game to those whose fortunes give them equal footing with the United States government. And as long as they can do everything they can to weaken the Commonwealth's power, we are reduced to whining that corporations should behave like social citizens. Our whining is music to their ears.
We have created a Golem that will dispassionately foul our coastal waters, dry up aquifers in California, shoot unlimited and unnamed chemicals into the ground, package economic waste and sell it to suckers as if it were the deed to El Dorado, and while all of this is happening our media will keep us hyped over Benghazi or Ebola or some blonde woman lost on Aruba.
I am not sanguine.