Tuesday
Oct062015
The Commentariat -- October 7, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Anne Barnard & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "The Russian military, sharply escalating its military intervention in Syria, launched 26 medium-range cruise missiles on Wednesday from four warships in the Caspian Sea, while providing air support for a ground offensive by pro-government forces. Russian officials said the missiles [[ which traveled more than 900 miles, through Iranian and Iraqi airspace -- struck 11 targets in Syria, but they did not specify which groups were hit."
Ashley Parker & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Though [Donald Trump] ... still leads the Republican field in national polls, Mr. Trump's ability to command both voter and news media attention simply by being his outlandish, bombastic self is starting to wane."
Ben Adler of Grist, in the Washington Post: "The GOP's increasing preference for callow, reckless candidates represents a culmination of the anti-government, anti-politics, anti-intellectual direction of the conservative movement. Although it overlaps with the GOP's rightward shift, it presents a unique threat to American democracy because it espouses not mere preference for smaller government, but a visceral hatred of functioning government and the practice of politics. This mindset abhors concessions to objective reality, expertise or political adversaries domestic and foreign."
AND a note from Charles Pierce which I missed during my unintended stay in the Palmetto State: "... South Carolina's performance on dam safety [is] as leaky and unsafe as the dams themselves. I mean, 4.3 fulltime employees to monitor and inspect 550 dams, 162 of which were classified as 'high-hazard.'... Every single member of the South Carolina congressional delegation save one voted against a relief package for the victims [of Hurricane Sandy]. This list includes presidential candidate Lindsey Graham, lop-headed Benghazi gumshoe Trey Gowdy, and Joe (You Lie!) Wilson. And it's not difficult at all to summon up the fact that the entire Republican party denies that an increasingly deranged climate is causing increasingly deranged weather."
*****
I'm back in the saddle again. Thank you to those who filled in for me. -- Constant Weader
Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department is set to release about 6,000 inmates early from prison -- the largest one-time release of federal prisoners -- in an effort to reduce overcrowding and provide relief to drug offenders who received harsh sentences over the past three decades, according to U.S. officials. The inmates from federal prisons nationwide will be set free by the department's Bureau of Prisons between Oct. 30 and Nov. 2. About two-thirds of them will go to halfway houses and home confinement before being put on supervised release. About one-third are foreign citizens who will be quickly deported, officials said." ...
... CW: So that's the good news. Most of the rest of today's links are evidence of how fucked-up this country is. Quite discouraging. But, you know, have a nice day.
Tierney Sneed of TPM: "Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Rules Committee..., will offer an amendment to abolish Congress' special committee on the Benghazi, in a move that simultaneously hits Republicans on Planned Parenthood and on House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) Benghazi 'gaffe.' According to a spokesperson for ... Slaughter, [she] will offer the amendment Tuesday evening while the committee debates a bill to form a special committee to further investigate Planned Parenthood." CW: Yeah, that should pass.
digby brings us up to speed on Jason Chaffetz: "The son of a man once married to Kitty Dukakis, wife of 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael, Chaffetz started off as a Jewish Democrat, then converted to Mormonism during his last year of college in Utah -- and Republicanism when former President Ronald Reagan was hired as a motivational speaker for Nu Skin, the 'multi-level marketing' company (think Amway) which employed Chaffetz for a decade before he entered politics. He worked as chief of staff for the famously moderate Gov. Jon Huntsman [who characterized Chaffetz as a "power-hungry" "self-promoter"] and then beat the very conservative Representative Chris Cannon by running against him from the right in the 2010 Tea Party electoral bloodbath." ...
... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Heading off a potential Constitutional clash, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that anti-abortion activists can hand over unreleased undercover sting videos and outtakes subpoenaed by a House committee even though a court order remains in place barring those activists from releasing the materials publicly. U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick said Tuesday that he would not prevent activist David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress from complying with the subpoena issued last month by House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz." ...
... In Other Important Judicial News.... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The [Supreme C]ourt announced on its first day of the new term Monday something that previously had seemed unnecessary to spell out: ... lawyers cannot pay someone to hold a spot for them [in the attendance line] when the court has a big argument -- or even send one of the firm's lowly associates." (No link.)
Erica Goode & Benedict Carey of the New York Times: "As mass shootings have become ever more familiar, experts have come to understand them less as isolated expressions of rage and more as acts that build on the blueprints of previous rampages. Experts in violence prevention say that many, if not most, perpetrators of such shootings have intensively researched earlier mass attacks, often expressing admiration for those who carried them out. The publicity that surrounds these killings can have an accelerating effect on other troubled and angry would-be killers...." ...
... Alan Berlow, in a New York Times op-ed: The National Rifle Associaton is a very effective advocate for gunrunner & other criminals.
James Surowiecki of the New Yorker: "Foreign competition has played a central role in holding down retail prices in industries ranging from automobiles to consumer electronics. It's time drug prices were subject to the same rules. [F.D.A. rules exploiter Martin] Shkreli[, the C.E.O. of Turing Pharmaceuticals,] has said ... that Turing will roll back the Daraprim price increase. But the fate of toxoplasmosis sufferers shouldn't depend on the egomaniacal whims of a 'pharma bro.'"
Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "With the United States struggling to account for an airstrike that decimated a Doctors Without Borders hospital, the American commander in Afghanistan on Tuesday took responsibility for the sustained bombardment of the medical facility, which he said took place in response to an Afghan call for help. The commander, Gen. John F. Campbell, said the strike was the result of 'a U.S. decision made within the U.S. chain of command.' General Campbell, in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, offered few new details about the attack, which lasted for more than a half-hour and killed 22 patients and hospital staff members in northern Afghanistan on Saturday. He said the details of what took place would come out in an investigation now underway." ...
... Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "Shifting the US account of the Saturday morning airstrike for the fourth time in as many days, Campbell reiterated that Afghan forces had requested US air cover after being engaged in a 'tenacious fight' to retake the northern city of Kunduz from the Taliban. But, modifying the account he gave at a press conference on Monday, Campbell said those Afghan forces had not directly communicated with the US pilots of an AC-130 gunship overhead." ...
... ... Robert Burns of the AP: "The deadly U.S. attack on a hospital in Afghanistan, which U.S. officials have called a 'mistake,' leaves open the possibility that the decision to open fire exceeded the authority under which American forces have operated since their combat mission ended nearly a year ago, officials say." ...
... Deb Reichmann of the AP: Campbell "recommended on Tuesday that President Barack Obama revise his plan and keep more than 1,000 U.S. troops in the country beyond 2016, just days after a deadly U.S. airstrike "mistakenly struck" a hospital during fierce fighting in the north." ...
... CW: Would somebody please explain to Campbell that the more troops we have in Afghanistan (or anywhere), the more likely massive fuck-ups. Also too, history suggests concludes that no outsider military effort in Afghanistan will be successful. (Of course a ramped-up U.S. presence that does provide a nice career move for Gen. Campbell. He'd rather command 5,000 troops than 1,000.) I won't say wars are never won, but they seldom are. If you doubt that, look at the results of the American Civil War. Yeah, the North "won." That's why we have today's Republican Tea party, where an openly-racist candidate may become the GOP presidential nominee, a white nationalist is likely to become House majority whip & a political ideology that once might have been aptly called "conservative" is now more accurately called "confederate." ...
... Jon Lee Anderson of the New Yorker makes my point: "The victims of the hospital airstrike are only the latest casualties in an ongoing Afghan war in which the Taliban, once again, are major players, and now seem as likely to win back power as they once appeared to have lost it."
Craig Whitlock & Brian Murphy of the Washington Post: "Russia and the United States tentatively agreed Tuesday to resume talks on how to prevent conflicts between their warplanes in the skies over Syria, even as concerns mounted about the potential for a broader confrontation in the Middle East between the two powers. After days of complaints from U.S. and NATO officials about a lack of cooperation and risky maneuvers by Russian warplanes, Russia's Defense Ministry offered to hold another round of discussions with the Pentagon on avoiding a midair disaster or a hostile encounter involving their fighter jets, drones and other aircraft over Syria."
Desmond Butler & Vadim Ghirda of the AP: "In the backwaters of Eastern Europe, authorities working with the FBI have interrupted four attempts in the past five years by gangs with suspected Russian connections that sought to sell radioactive material to Middle Eastern extremists.... Criminal organizations, some with ties to the Russian KGB's successor agency, are driving a thriving black market in nuclear materials in the tiny and impoverished Eastern European country of Moldova, investigators say. The successful busts, however, were undercut by striking shortcomings: Kingpins got away, and those arrested evaded long prison sentences, sometimes quickly returning to nuclear smuggling...."
Presidential Race
Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "Vice President Joe Biden has less support in the polls than Bernie Sanders and hasn't raised a single dollar for a presidential campaign. Yet if Mr. Biden does decide to seek the presidency, he will pose a greater challenge to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. In Mr. Biden, Mrs. Clinton would have an opponent who could threaten her hold on the coalition of moderate voters and party elites that seems to have the advantage in this race over the party's white, liberal activist wing, which now supports Mr. Sanders."
"Observers" upset NBC keeps putting Hillary Clinton on air. It's a conspiracy coordinated effort! ...
... Tom Hamburger & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "The FBI's probe into the security of Hillary Rodham Clinton's e-mail has expanded to include a second private technology company, which said Tuesday it plans to provide the law enforcement agency with data it preserved from Clinton's account. The additional data, provided by Connecticut-based Datto Inc., could open a new avenue for investigators interested in recovering e-mails deleted by the former secretary of state ... that have caught the interest of GOP lawmakers." ...
... ** Matt Yglesias: Emailgate reminds us [linked fixed; thanks to Nancy] of Hillary Clinton's capacity to be an effective president. Yeah, she's a shady character -- we already knew that -- but that's what it takes to get one's way in Washington. ...
... The full interview is here. (It begins at 12:16 min. in [after lotsa ads].)
Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: "So in the past week or so, it seems that people [i.e., political junkies] have decided that Marco Rubio is going to be the GOP nominee. Tomasky assesses Rubio's perceived advantages & disadvantages & concludes the Democratic nominee can beat him handily. ...
... Ed Kilgore: Tomasky "might have added that the Marco Rubio we see today is not the Marco Rubio we could see in early March after a desperate Jeb Bush has unloaded about $30 million in vicious, hateful ads in Florida media markets just prior to the Sunshine State's winner-take-all primary. I don't know what if any dirt Team Jeb has on Rubio, but I have zero doubt they will use whatever they've got."
Second-Tier Bro. Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "So seemingly uphill is the battle that Jeb Bush faces in [South Carolina], the third state to vote for president next year, that even an appearance by his brother, George W, who is still popular with Republicans across the country, may barely move the needle, said one senior political operative who spoke on condition of anonymity owing to ongoing work with multiple campaigns.
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Ben Carson ... said on Tuesday that victims of mass shootings should not be timid during attacks, imagining that if he were facing a raging gunman, 'I would not just stand there and let him shoot me.'... Like many Republican presidential candidates who have sought to express sympathy for the victims while maintaining their support for gun rights, Mr. Carson appeared to struggle to address the issue with sensitivity." ...
... Jose delReal of the Washington Post: "... Ben Carson attracted criticism Tuesday for appearing to suggest in an interview that the victims of last week's tragic school shooting in Oregon should have acted more forcefully to prevent the attack." ...
... Charles Pierce: Of all the curious motivations on the modern American Right, the Imaginary Superhero Delusion is one of the most interesting. "'Fi were only there, with my trusty shootin' 'arn, there'd be dead crazy person all over the walls." This condition is usually manifest only among outlaw TV pundits and the comment sections of certain websites. It's truly weird to hear it coming from a guy who, right now, is chasing down Donald Trump in the backstretch. On almost any issue of public policy, Doctor Ben is about eight bulbs short of a chandelier. ...
... Pierce also called our attention to libertarian columnist (and she's not considered a nut case!) Megan McArdle's bright idea (enunciated in 2012) on how to stop gunmen with repeating guns: everybody rush at them! I can't link her original piece because the page keeps messing up my cheap laptop, but Jonathan Chait gave McArdle the "Worst Newtown Reaction Award." Pierce suggests her for Carson's running mate. Apparently, some school districts think rushing the shooter is an excellent idea & are teaching the kiddies to do just that. Un-fucking-believable. The trouble with the U.S. is Americans.
... Nick Gass of Politico: Carson used the same interview of slam President Obama for "politicizing" the Oregon shooting by visiting the families of the victims. Obama will meet privately with the families in a side trip to a previously-scheduled series of West Coast fundraising event. Carson's "posts on Facebook and Twitter holding a sign proclaiming '#IAmAChristian' went viral over the weekend, in reference to some witness accounts that the gunman asked victims to stand up and identify themselves if they were Christian before they were shot, though police did not confirm or deny the accounts." CW: Gosh, somehow I didn't catch the virus. ...
... On "The View," Carson doubled down on his assertion that "Hitler" could happen in the U.S. Ha ha. Carson's campaign manager says Carson should cut that out. ...
... CW: If you want to know how a guy with Carson's "gifted hands" could get so nutty, David Corn provides a clue: it's the reading list.
Donald Trump granted an hour-long interview to Robert Costa, Philip Rucker & Dan Balz of the Washington Post. CW: I suppose this is a must-read. I skipped it. ...
... Juan Cole explains to Donald Trump that dictatorship is not a stable form of government that makes nice neighbors & model citizens. ...
... Top Xenophobe Sez People in U.S. Should Stick to English. BUT His Backers Can't Master the Language. Eliza Collins of Politico: "Grammarly, a writing-enhancement website, looked at comments by the candidates' supporters on the official Facebook pages to find out who was making the most mistakes and who was making the fewest. The clear winner was Democratic contender Lincoln Chafee, who's barely registering at the polls, but whose supporters -- the small number of them that there are -- made just 3.1 mistakes per every 100 words. The clear loser? Donald Trump. His supporters registered a whopping average of 12.6 mistakes per 100 words, putting the Republican front-runner dead last among the 19 campaigns. Democrats fared better overall, with their backers making an average of 4.2 mistakes out of every 100 words. Republicans' supporters made more than double that with 8.7." The Grammarly report is here. ...
... CW: Hardly surprising when Trump himself has a great deal of difficulty putting together an English-language sentence:
... The full text of Trump's "sentence" is here. The GOP is now fully Palinized.
Beyond the Beltway
Tierney Sneed: "In a lengthy blog post published on his presidential campaign website Tuesday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) claimed the father of Oregon gunman Chris Harper Mercer was a 'complete failure' and demanded that he apologize for the shooting. In the blog post -- titled 'We fill Our Culture With Garbage, And We Reap The Result' -- Jindal blamed the prevalence of mass shootings in America on 'deep and serious cultural decay in our society,' jumping from a condemnation of violence in media and a reference to abortion to a discussion of the reported absence of the father of ... Harper Mercer in the young man's life.... Jindal went on to call out 'shallow and simple minded liberals' for blaming 'pieces of hardware for the problem.'"
News Ledes
New York Times: "The United States Coast Guard will suspend its search for survivors of the cargo ship El Faro at sunset Wednesday, officials told the crew's family members. The Coast Guard made the decision after searching six days for the 33 crew members of El Faro, a 790-feet commercial tanker that went missing last week during Hurricane Joaquin. The ship set sail on Sept. 29 and two days later reported that its engine had failed and that it was taking on water and listing 15 degrees."
New York Times: "Tomas Lindahl, Paul L. Modrich and Aziz Sancar were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for having mapped and explained how the cell repairs its DNA and safeguards its genetic information."
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Reader Comments (8)
So in the latest mass shooting, the GOP "elite" has gone from, "stuff happens" (Jeb!), to "the idiots just stood there and took it, I would've pulled a Chuck Norris" (Carson), to "fuck his dad" (Jindal). Otherwise, collective should shrugs.
From the NY Times piece linked about, "Mr. Carson appeared to struggle to address the issue with sensitivity." Yeah, I'd say that goes for the whole lot.
Some despicable suits indeed.
Or, as Charles Pierce puts it (referring to Bobby Jindal): "Please Punch this Man in the Dick."
The link to the Matt Yglesias piece goes to a Juan Cole story about Trump. I think this might be the one you meant for Matt Y:
http://www.vox.com/2015/10/6/9461021/hillary-clinton-executive-power
"I would not just stand there and let him shoot me."
Dear crazy, pathetic Ben Carson:
Yes you would. It's called paralyzing fear. I've been held at gunpoint and I can assure, brain surgeon or inferior shlub, you cannot fcking move. You might collect your wits after two or three minutes, but you'd be dead by that time.
What is wrong with you? Please stop embarrassing yourself, your family and this country.
p.s. to my last comment:
This is a perfect example of the narcissism displayed by all the Republican candidates. Tough guys who think they are somehow different than the rest of us, that they have superpowers. Every new statement coming out of Carson's mouth is dumbfounding. Kinda like being held at gunpoint. Takes you a few minutes to gather yourself.
Nancy, you are right about your diagnosis. Narcissism involves not only the total belief in how wonderful I am but the total belief that no one else on earth matters. The fact that Jebhead thinks that (someone else) getting killed is no big deal and Carson had no idea he just insulted all of victims and their families (and most other human beings) tells it all. Their minds have absolutely no connection to any other person. And lets not forget that Fiorina has not the slightest problem lying because no one else can figure out the truth.
We are talking about seriously mentally ill people who want to be POTUS.
@Marvin Schwalb-
If being a narcissistic sociopath is being seriously mentally ill, then not only Republican POTUS candidates--but almost all the House and Senate Republicans--are seriously mentally ill. I would not quibble with that.
My questions are about the gullible American Republican voters--those who are not themselves narcissistic sociopaths. How is it that they can be swayed by such obvious misanthropy and craziness? All I can surmise is: Terminal Stupidity/ Critical Thinking Disability (TSCIT). Perhaps that should be a new DSM diagnosis. It certainly is rampant in our most "exceptional" country. Maybe even the "diagnosis du jour."
Kate, makes sense which means no Republican agrees.