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
Oct022014
The Commentariat -- October 3, 2014
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd.
President Obama delivered an address at Northwestern University about the economy. He does an excellent job of dancing around the real issues, which IMO, are income & wealth inequality, although he does at least give it a mention:
... CW: If I were a business major who didn't know much -- that is, if I were one of the people in the President's audience yesterday --I would still not have the slightest idea that our wonderful capitalist system is sucking the life out of ordinary workers. These business students, who will go on to become the next generation of meritocrats, will repeat the same mistakes of this generation of meritocrats. A gutsy president, who has nothing to lose since he's not running for re-election -- as he points out in his address -- would set the kids straight. Instead, this address was mostly an embarrassing exercise in hubris, a catalogue of how little the President actually understands about the dynamics of capitalism, which he calls "the greatest force for prosperity and opportunity the world has ever known." It made me sick. I'm sticking with this guy:
No, this is not a Photoshop job. This is an actual artifact in a museum in Asia Minor. No doubt a great economist of the ancient world."Depression Denial Syndrome." Paul Krugman explains why "Bill Gross, the so-called bond king," made a spectacular error -- he failed to listen to Paul Krugman, the so-called economics king, about the "liquidity trap," a function of the depressed economy. Gross, instead, listened to the inflation alarmists, & his goose was cooked.
The Bank Dick. Neil Irwin of the New York Times: Ben Bernanke's bank turned him down for a loan to refinance his home mortgage. Ben & Neil seem to think the reason for this is that (a) credit is tight, (b) lenders now have to follow Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac's "strict standards" for loans, (c) Ben changed not just his job but his type of employment & the banking system is so inflexible that it ignores Ben's fabulous earnings & income potential. ...
... Wherein the Constant Weader Explains Banking & Capitalistic Principles to the Former Chair of the Federal Reserve & Renowned Economics Professor: I've got news for Ben & Neil. Any one or more of those "reasons" for the loan denial may be the bullshit excuse(s) the loan officer told Ben his loan was denied. But the real reason is that Ben & Mrs. Ben took out their mortgage in 2004, when interest rates were higher than they are now. This of course is the reason the Bernankes wanted to refinance: they wanted to pay a lower interest rate. The lower rate is precisely why the bank denied the deal. See, banks are all into this thing called "maximizing profit." And reducing the profit they would make off Ben & Mrs. Ben is antithetical to that business model. Ben, you gave the banks billions of "free money" while you were working your last gig, but that doesn't mean any of those bankers is motivated to be all thankful & cut you a break they won't cut anyone else. They're dicks, Ben, each & every one of them, & you're the asshole they're fucking over this time (to put it in the vernacular). Neil says you make up to $250K a pop for speaking engagements, Ben. So go make a couple-a-three more of those speeches like the one you were making when you revealed your bad luck at the bank, then pay off the damned mortgage altogether.
Jessica Silver-Greenberg, et al., of the New York Times: "A cyberattack this summer on JPMorgan Chase compromised the accounts of 76 million households and seven million small businesses, a tally that dwarfs previous estimates by the bank and puts the intrusion among the largest ever. The details of the breach -- disclosed in a securities filing on Thursday -- emerge at a time when consumer confidence in the digital operations of corporate America has already been shaken. Target, Home Depot and a number of other retailers have sustained major data breaches. Last year, the information of 40 million cardholders and 70 million others were compromised at Target, while an attack at Home Depot in September affected 56 million cards."
We need to be more like Disney World. We need to be more friendly, inviting. -- Former Disney World worker Julia Pierson, on the Secret Service, after she became director (CW: no, I didn't make this up) ...
... Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: Former Secret Service Director Julia "Pierson was elevated to the top spot 18 months ago to put an end to business as usual, after a dozen agents were implicated in a night of carousing with prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, on the eve of an official visit by Obama. But while the administration dubbed Pierson a fresh start and a new direction for the agency, she was a deeply entrenched part of its culture. A 30-year veteran of the agency, Pierson had served as director Mark Sullivan's chief of staff and then assistant director before taking over." Read the whole article. ...
... Michael Calderone of the Huffington Post: "With the Secret Service under fire for a series of security lapses in presidential protection, there is one journalist who seems to have all the information. The White House, Congress and even Julia Pierson, who just resigned as director of the Secret Service, all learned details of the controversy from Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig. Why did members of the embattled agency turn to the press with concerns rather than pursuing the proper bureaucratic channels? 'I think they trusted The Washington Post more than they trusted their headquarters' leadership,' Leonnig said in an interview with The Huffington Post." ...
... Michael Bender & Margaret Talev of Bloomberg News: "The final straw wasn't something Pierson did. It was what she didn't do: Brief the president on how a man with a gun and criminal record wound up riding in an elevator beside him." CW: Yup, that one really stood out for me, too, especially since she told a House committee that she briefed the President on "100 percent" of presidential security breaches. ...
... Oh, and about those wingers being all upset at "liberal" Peter Baker of the NYT for writing a story suggesting Republicans' "concern for the President's safety" just might contain a political component? Here's this from Bender-Talev story: "[Wednesday] morning, Republicans were on the move, turning the security lapses into a political issue. In a news release, the National Republican Senatorial Committee connected them to the Obamacare rollout, underestimating the threat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and the failures at the VA medical centers to say Democrats were 'asleep at the wheel.'" ...
... David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "Almost as soon as President Obama decided that Julia Pierson had to go as director of the Secret Service, he knew exactly whom he wanted to replace her. On Wednesday, the president and first lady Michelle Obama, aides said, personally recommended to White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough that the administration reach out to former special agent Joseph Clancy, who retired in 2011 after serving as chief of Obama's protective detail for two years."
... NBC News: "The Iraq war veteran accused of jumping the White House fence, dashing into the building with a knife and reaching the East Room before he was tackled pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a three-count federal indictment."
Everything Is Obama's Fault. Leon Panetta Dumps on Obama Again. In a Time opinion piece, which is an excerpt from his new book Knife Fights: A Memoir of Backstabbing in War & Peace (or something like that), Panetta says "the President's team" couldn't be bothered to negotiate a deal to keep U.S. troops in Iraq, as much as he -- Leon Panetta, Superhero -- urged the callow White House youths to muscle the Iraqis. "... without the President's active advocacy, al-Maliki was allowed to slip away. The deal never materialized. To this day, I believe that a small U.S. troop presence in Iraq could have effectively advised the Iraqi military on how to deal with al-Qaeda's resurgence and the sectarian violence that has engulfed the country." So ISIS.
Katie Thomas & Rachel Abrams of the New York Times: "In just five months at the end of last year, doctors and other health care professionals made more than $212 million on speaking and consulting engagements for drug and device makers, according to data released on Tuesday by the federal government."
A "privileged white guy" who goes by the handle of eodell "whitesplains" racism to offended racist white guys. Also what offended racist white guys should do about it. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. Send a copy to all your friends on the Supreme Court. This is a concept with which they are petulantly unfamiliar.
Beyond the Beltway
Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "Thirteen abortion clinics in Texas were forced to close immediately after a federal appellate court on Thursday sided with Texas in its yearlong legal battle over its sweeping abortion law and allowed the state to enforce one of the law's toughest provisions while the case was being appealed. The decision by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, will have a far-reaching effect on abortion services in Texas, lawyers for abortion providers said. The ruling gave Texas permission to require all abortion clinics in the state to meet the same building, equipment and staffing standards as hospital-style surgical centers, standards that abortion providers said were unnecessary and costly, but that the state argued improved patient safety."
Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's chief of staff left a voice-mail message for a Democrat who was on the verge of quitting the General Assembly in June, saying that the senator's daughter might get a top state job if he stayed to support the governor's push to expand Medicaid, according to descriptions from three people who heard the recording. Then-Sen. Phillip P. Puckett wound up resigning, flipping control of the chamber to Republicans and thwarting McAuliffe's signature goal of expanding health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Puckett's abrupt exit came amid accusations that Republicans had enticed him to leave with job offers for himself and his daughter, triggering an ongoing federal investigation and inflaming partisan passions in Richmond." CW: Is the stupidest part leaving a bribe on a voicemail?
Elections Matter. Yamiche Alcindor of USA Today: "More than 3,000 people have registered to vote in Ferguson, Mo., since the death of Michael Brown -- a surge in interest that may mean the city of 21,000 people is ready for a change."
Jack Healy of the New York Times: "... after two weeks of demonstrations and a fierce backlash across Colorado and beyond, the Jefferson County[, Colorado,] school board scrapped a plan that sought to teach students the 'benefits of the free-enterprise system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights' while avoiding lessons that condoned 'civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.' Instead, the board voted 3 to 2 to adopt a compromise that would allow community members, students and teachers to join the experts who already conduct curriculum reviews for the school district." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.
Tara Culp-Ressler of Think Progress: "The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit against Alabama this week in an attempt to overturn what the group suggests may be the most radical parental consent law in the country. Under a new law that went into effect this summer, minors who are seeking to bypass their parents' consent to get an abortion are essentially put on trial. The state is allowed to appoint a lawyer for their fetus and call witnesses to testify about the teenager's character."
November Elections
Lauren Carroll of Politifact: Iowa GOP Senate nominee Joni "Ernst said [her opponent, Democrat Bruce] Braley, 'threatened to sue a neighbor over chickens that came onto (his) property.' Some might not like the way Braley and his wife handled a dispute with a neighbor -- by going to the neighborhood association and then consulting the association's lawyer. Even so, there is no material evidence that Braley threatened a lawsuit against the neighbor or was even considering one. Even the neighbor says that." CW: I have paid scant attention to the chickenshit debate (I linked one story at least a month ago), but it remains a big deal in the Senate race, with Republicans successfully characterizing the minor neighborhood squabble as a "character" issue. Now, what about the "character" issue of repeatedly lying about your opponent?
Steve Benen: "For a guy who’s been talking about 'personhood' for six years, it’s interesting to see how much Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) is struggling to explain himself." Benen demonstrates what a dishonest, creepy extremist Gardner is. ...
... CW: But never mind. In November, Coloradans may choose him over U.S. Senator Mark Udall. Pema Levy of Newsweek: "The two latest polls show Gardner stealing the lead from Udall, one by a whopping eight points."
Aviva Shen of Think Progress: "Arkansas Attorney General candidate Leslie Rutledge is crying foul over the cancellation of her voter registration form. Rutledge, the Republican nominee for Attorney General, was kicked off the voter rolls after it was discovered that she failed to cancel previous voter registrations in Washington, DC and Virginia, and re-register in Pulaski County when she moved. Pulaski County Clerk Larry Crane, a Democrat, said he was legally obligated to remove her after receiving a letter flagging this issue.... Rutledge and Republican groups are calling the removal a 'dirty trick' that was politically motivated. But what happened to Rutledge is in fact very common, and becoming even more common after the state implemented a number of strict voter restrictions. CW: Gotta go find my head. I laughed it off. ...
... digby: "That's right. It's protecting legitimate voters from vote fraud when it's done to the you-know-whos. [Link fixed.] It's a 'dirty trick' when it happens to a nice Republican lady." CW: Make that a nice white Republican lady.
News Ledes
New York Times: The Islamic State has released another video of a beheading -- this one of a middle-aged British aid worker, Alan Henning, who was abducted last year from the ambulance he had driven into Syria to offer lifesaving help."
Washington Post: "The U.S. job market rebounded in September as the economy added 248,000 jobs..., a reassuring sign of the nation's recovery. The unemployment rate crossed a key threshold for the first time in six years, falling to 5.9 percent."
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Reader Comments (13)
@ mae finch
Kissinger's blind hubris is indeed frightening, and on a global scale. His smug assuredness in his political calculations coupled with his place in power to pull the levers of war and mass manipulation have empowered anti-democratic, subversive forces across the globe. I always felt uneasy that Obama was willing to be seen in public with Kissinger, knowing all the wretchedness he unleashed through his policies. But then again Obama has failed to take the moral high ground in various respects, as the video posted today attests to our awesome expanding economy today, without mentioning the asterisk that nearly all growth has been syphoned into the bank accounts of the .05%.
Had Kissinger acted to "smash Cuba", who knows what could have happened in the larger arena of the Cold War. It would have taken a Vietnam mentality of "destroying the country to save it" because Castro had the entire island behind him during the 70s as his socialist experiment was in the ascendant and Cuban lives were improving overall.
Interestingly, Kissinger actually admitted to a mistake in his last memoirs regarding Cuba in Angola, in that he had always considered Cuba as acting as a proxy on the orders of the Soviet Union by sending hundreds of thousands of Cuban troops to Angola. Kissinger could never imagine that Cuba actually acted alone, with no initial support from the Soviet Union, while the only strategic advantage was to fight for independence against Apartheid and empirical oppressive forces for a pseudo-nation half a world away. For Kissinger, wars are fought for the spoils, economic and financial. Resources are secured, and neoliberal capitalism continues unabated. Fighting for independence, against oppression...? That's only for fairly tales, a convenient narrative to feed the masses.
Kissinger had no idea about the vast operations that Cuba was conducting across the African continent. From Algeria to Angola, Cuba carried the mantle of liberation while indirectly fighting against the so-called 'leaders of the free world'. But somehow I don't think these historical events will ever make it into our high school textbooks.
This interview with Professor Piero Gleijeses gives a good overall picture to the story and mentions Kissinger's admission. His two books are brilliantly written on Cuba in Africa in the 70s and 80s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNpXUC391vc
I loved the "whitesplaining" article. Now we need a woman to "girlsplain" the awful sexism of those CRNC ads to those duds (not dudes) who made them.
Safari,
You are so right. It's a good bet details of Revolutionary Cuba's African foray will not make it into American textbooks.
Maybe what best defines us is what we are willing to learn. And maybe what we are willing to learn, to invite in or merely to let past our ideologic defenses, is what brings us the biggest reward, whether it be food, sex, money, adulation, the approval of our immediate family, anything makes us feel good about ourselves or doesn't bother us too much.
Unfortunately our values are such that for most what makes us feel good has little or nothing to do with book learning.
That why I'm grateful when there's any evidence at all that someone cares enough to fight about what history we teach in our schools, even when the motivation to do so rises on the idiot side of their brain.
This morning's NYTimes report on Colorado conniptions warmed my heart:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/us/after-uproar-colorado-school-board-retreats-on-curriculum-review-plan.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHeadline&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Such fights are too rare. The result? A society that drifts along, content with a diet, as Marie alludes above, of economic and historical pablum that nourishes and sustains nothing above the ears.
Victoria,
I'm afraid they wouldn't get it. They're stuck decades in the past. If that wedding dress spot is any indication of their thinking, they're back in 40's, and probably subscribe to the premise expounded by the Tom Hanks character in "A League of Their Own" when he cavemansplained the following: "Ballplayers? I don't have ballplayers! I have girls. Girls are for sleeping with after the game. Not for coaching during the game."
Interestingly enough, I've uncovered a video taken secretly during a meeting of the CRNC:
This will give you a much clearer sense of what you'd be up against.
About 2:10 into the video, they get a surprise visit from three Republican members of the House of Representatives. I think that's Louie Gohmert on the far right.
While we're considering the impossible, what if Republicans actually did want to know something about black people that didn't come from the bigoted brains of people like Rush Limbaugh, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Jeff Sessions, Rick Perry, Cliven Bundy, or Haley Barbour.
If so, they might want to know that
White people love food stamps too,
that
White people like fried chicken,
that
there's such a thing as white on white crime as well
and that
Historically, those who have tried to help black people don't always have it easy.
However, even after all that, they may still end up....
Like this guy.
There's more here.
@AK:
Cute video link. Of course, Louie Gohmert is ALWAYS on the far right :^)
Corey Gardner explains death:
Reporter: Rep. Gardner, could you help us understand your statement that someone shot and killed by an NRA open carry nutbag who was strutting around, hammered, in a local supermarket, is different from someone who died from cancer after his insurance company cut him off?
Gardner: Oh, they're very different.
Reporter: How? They're both dead, aren't they?
Gardner: Well, of course, there are technical differences. It's too difficult to explain to someone who hasn't my experience as a Republican congressman.
Reporter: Try.
Gardner: First of all, one man died because he was shot but the other died from cancer. You see? Very different. Ex-TREME-ly different.
Reporter: But they're both dead, right?
Gardner: You're twisting my words here.
Reporter: But....
Gardner: That's all. I have to go. The country needs me...
Yup. That's about the size of it. As Steve Benen explains in the piece linked above, Gardner has had a long time to think about how to explain why something is one thing but later, is not. But like so many other wingnuts, ideology comes first. There really is no need for rationality. Which also explains Rand Paul's many backflips, as well as Paul Ryan's and so many others.
But they've also learned that people will still vote for them regardless of their inability to be consistent or rational. As Ken suggests, feeling good about something, the general sense that one's ideology is all-important, has supplanted thought and has very little to do with actual knowledge.
Just understand that Colorado may be sending someone who cannot explain himself in the most elementary of terms, to the senate to help make the laws of the land.
We deserve the government we get.
NiskyGuy,
Ahhh...good one!
Stop the presses! GOP pol in Arkansas kicked off the voter roll because of GOP voter suppression schemes.
Doncha love it?
Here's my favorite line:
"Rutledge argued that she tried to register to vote in Pulaski County, but that the clerk’s office gave her a “change of address” form instead. 'I don’t know if I made any mistakes except listening to the clerk and I should have insisted they accept my form when they refused it,'"
Get that? Her mistake was "listening to the clerk". Whatever happened to good old fashioned do-what-you're-told-and-shut up Republican authoritarianism?
Just imagine if an eligible Democratic voter made a fuss after they had been booted off the voting rolls, telling the clerk, or whomever, to stick their bureaucratic bullshit up their ass and insisting that their form be accepted. IMMEDIATELY!
They'd be hauled off to the hoosegow and kept there until whatever election they were looking forward to had passed and the Republican candidate had won handily, because of all the other suppressed votes.
It's a mess? Well no shit it's a mess. That was the plan, wasn't it? Make things as convoluted and difficult as possible to register to vote.
If there's much more of this nonsense about eligible Republican voters being caught in their own trap, they'll just have to revisit the whole thing and simply pass a law saying that only Republicans can vote.
I mean, that's the goal anyway, isn't it? Let's just cut out the folderol about "fraud at the polls". The only thing fraudulent is the GOP's "concern" for voting legalities. If they had their way, there would be no elections at all. Wingnuts would run things in perpetuity. That is, until shit started falling apart and nothing worked anymore. But that's part of their plan too, isn't it?
Gotta love those crazy wingnuts. They're like the guy who paints himself into a corner then wants to blame the paint brush for his predicament.
@safari,
thanks for the link.
@Akh
thanks for your link.
At RC,one never knows where the conversation will turn:
running boards, "whitesplaining", videos of citizens getting tased or killed by the very people who say-We protect and serve, musical vids, Colorado coniptions and so on.
great site.
mae finch
Just a thought.
The not so funny aspect of the Arkansas voting convulsions is that this story is sure to make national news. The fact is that there has been little to nothing reported in the MSM on the systematic disenfranchisement efforts by Republicans in every state in the country. But this story will make them out to be victims (again) of those unscrupulous Democrats who will stop at nothing to win elections.
Those famous low-information voters will cluck their tongues at the horrible things Democrats do.
And can't you just hear Upchuck Todd this Sunday, floating the question of just what, exactly, Democrats have been up to in Arkansas? Little Lukie will breathlessly report on how outraged all those poor GOP apparatchiks are down in Arkansas. Now they'll have voter-gate to go along with Trooper-gate and Whitewater, and fuck-me-pink-gate.
Because, both sides do it, right?
Can it be true??
It appears Fainting Freddie, aka Lindsey Graham, according to an interview in Bill (Always Wrong) Kristol's "Weakly Standard", is seriously considering a presidential run. Of course, he'll be doing it from the wing of a B-1 bomber, ya know, just in case. The Decider can loan him his Halloween costume flight suit.
In our interview, Graham repeatedly spoke of the challenges that will face the next president because of the mistakes made under Obama. And he suggested that he might just be the one to fix them.
Right-O, Linney! Have at it, baby.
They're gonna need a bigger clown car.
Oh, and they can hire all those secret service agents about to be fired to scan the undercarriage of that clown car for ISIS bogeymen hanging on to the muffler.
Lindsey Graham running for POTUS? Delicious! Makes me want to change my registration to Republican just so I can vote for him in the primary.