The Commentariat -- Sept. 18, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve announced on Thursday, after a two-day meeting of its policy-making committee, that it would keep interest rates near zero as officials assess the impact of tighter financial conditions and slower global growth on the domestic economy. Janet L. Yellen, the Fed's chairwoman, described the decision as a close call." ...

... Neil Irwin of the New York Times: "What comes through in both the written materials the Fed released Thursday, and in Ms. Yellen's comments in a news conference, is the sense that they want just a little more assurance ... that their underlying assumptions are correct."

Danielle Ivory & Bill Vlasic of the New York Times: "General Motors went a long way on Thursday toward clearing the legal morass stemming from its decade-long failure to disclose a deadly safety defect in millions of older small cars. In simultaneous announcements, the automaker said it had resolved two substantial avenues of litigation: a criminal investigation by the Justice Department, and hundreds of private lawsuits filed by victims of a faulty ignition switch that has been linked to at least 124 deaths."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "By any measure, President Obama's effort to train a Syrian opposition army to fight the Islamic State on the ground has been an abysmal failure. The military acknowledged this week that just four or five American-trained fighters are actually fighting. But the White House says it is not to blame. The finger, it says, should be pointed not at Mr. Obama but at those who pressed him to attempt training Syrian rebels in the first place -- a group that, in addition to congressional Republicans, happened to include former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton."

Julia Preston of the New York Times: "White House officials announced the start of a nationwide campaign on Thursday to encourage legal immigrants to become American citizens, which could add millions of voters to the electorate in time for the presidential election next year. With about 8.8 million legal residents in the country who are eligible to become citizens, White House officials said they were trying to make it easier to complete the final steps to citizenship.... Federal figures [show] that about 60 percent of immigrants eligible to naturalize are Latino and about 20 percent are Asian, both groups that voted overwhelmingly for President Obama. Nearly a third of legal permanent residents eligible to naturalize are Mexican." CW: Hey, hand 'em voter registration cards & maps to their polling places with those citizenship certificates. Seriously, Democratic voter registrars should station themselves outside naturalization offices.

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Democrats blocked a resolution disapproving the Iran nuclear deal for a third time Thursday, sealing a major foreign policy victory for President Obama. Senators voted 56-42 against ending debate on the resolution of disapproval, falling short of the 60 votes needed on the procedural motion." ...

... Burgess Everett of Politico: "Mitch McConnell should have taken Harry Reid's deal on Iran, GOP Sen. Jeff Flake said in an interview Thursday. The Arizonan said that it 'does not make sense' to hold repeated procedural votes on Iran that are sure to fail, as the Senate is doing on Thursday with amendments that would require Iran to recognize Israel and release Americans held in Iran."

Jordain Carney: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday officially teed up an initial vote for next week on legislation to restrict abortions after 20 weeks. The Republican leader filed cloture on a motion to proceed to the House-passed legislation. Under Senate rules, the Senate will take a procedural vote on the proposal on Tuesday."

Rebecca Shabad & Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "House GOP leaders are trying to convince their rank and file it would be a bad move to risk a government shutdown over blocking funding for Planned Parenthood. At a closed-door conference meeting on Thursday morning, leadership presented their members with polling from the House GOP's campaign arm showing Republicans would be blamed for a government shutdown."

You People Are Even Crazier than I Am. Lauren French of Politico: Winger California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock announced Wednesday he was resigning from the conservative House Freedom Caucus, saying the group's hardball tactics had undermined conservative goals rather than advancing them. The departure comes as the group is locked in a heated battle with Republican leaders about the direction of the party and is threatening to attempt to strip Rep. John Boehner of his speakership."

Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled against ObamaCare's birth control mandate in a decision that could invite a Supreme Court review. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that four Christian nonprofits should not have to comply with the ObamaCare rule that all employer healthcare plans include contraception options or face a fee. While employers can seek exemptions to the law, the court argued that doing so poses a 'substantial burden; on that organization's religious rights. The decision is particularly important because it directly contradicts another federal court's ruling."

Mary Hudetz of the AP: "The Obama administration has agreed to pay hundreds of Native American tribes nearly $1 billion to settle a decades-old claim that the government failed to adequately compensate tribes while they managed education, law enforcement and other federal services. The Interior Department announced the proposed $940 million agreement in Albuquerque on Thursday along with leaders from the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Zuni Pueblo and Ramah Chapter of the Navajo Nation."

Darren Sands of BuzzFeed: "Black Lives Matter activists, including select members of Campaign Zero, met with top White House officials on Wednesday, a senior administration official confirmed to BuzzFeed News. Activists met with senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, as well as Roy Austin, the deputy assistant to the president for urban affairs, and a collection of White House officials. The meeting focused on law enforcement and community policing with an emphasis on how to increase public safety locally. ....

... Charles Pierce seems to think wingers will find this outrageous. ...

... CW: I'd say this is an example of what Pierce had in mind.

Michael Memoli of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama hailed the courage and quick thinking of three high school friends who helped avert tragedy on a Paris-bound train last month as they came to the White House on Thursday, where he labeled them 'the very best of America'":

Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who faces a possible life sentence for endangering the troops who searched for him after he left his Afghanistan base in 2009, at the time had a 'severe mental disease or defect,' one of his lawyers said Thursday. The diagnosis was made later by an independent Army psychiatry board, said the defense lawyer, Lt. Col. Franklin D. Rosenblatt of the Army. Because of his psychological problems, Sergeant Bergdahl washed out of Coast Guard basic training three years earlier, Colonel Rosenblatt said, and had to obtain a waiver to join the Army."

Presidential Race

I would hope that the Republicans -- and particularly the Republicans in the House, led by Speaker Boehner -- would not put our country and our economy in peril pursuing some kind of emotionally, politically charged, partisan attack on Planned Parenthood to shut our government down.... If they want to shut down the legal provision of abortion services, then they've got a bigger problem, because obviously Planned Parenthood does not use federal dollars to do that. -- Hillary Clinton, to Wolf Blitzer yesterday

Russell Berman of the Atlantic: "The Republican National Committee is not ready to commit to having an undercard debate the next time around, spokesman Sean Spicer said on Thursday. RNC officials will be watching the race unfold over the next few weeks to see if any candidates drop out, and how many."

"The Hunger Games." Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "In addition to the fact that [Republicans] have no obvious candidate to consolidate behind, the fractured field is leaving each favored contender vulnerable to other dark horses who are happy to maul and obstruct them.... The biggest victim of this phenomenon is Jeb Bush, who not only has to fend off minor threats, but is also engaged in a clearly unwinnable rhetorical war with Trump.... Over and over again during the debate, Bush attempted to assert himself against Trump, as if to demonstrate by example that Trump has mischaracterized his lack of vigor. He failed every time."

Paul Krugman: "... all of the G.O.P. candidates are calling for policies that would be deeply destructive at home, abroad, or both. But even if you like the broad thrust of modern Republican policies, it should worry you that the men and woman on that stage are clearly living in a world of fantasies and fictions.... If the discussion of economics was alarming, the discussion of foreign policy was practically demented.... The only candidate who seemed remotely sensible on national security issues was Rand Paul, which is almost as disturbing as the spectacle of Mr. Trump being the only voice of economic reason." ...

... New York Times Editors: "It felt at times as if the speakers were no longer living in a fact-based world where actions have consequences, programs take money and money has to come from somewhere. Where basic laws -- like physics and the Constitution -- constrain wishes. Where Congress and the public, allies and enemies, markets and militaries don't just do what you want them to, just because you say they will."...

... Charles Pierce: "What we saw ... was the triumph of fiction over fact, of fantasy over reality. In other words, what we saw was the most fitting tribute to Ronald Reagan ever produced. Congratulations, one and all. The final fealty of the Republican Party to total and complete bullshit has been sworn.... If Carly Fiorina is adjudged to be the winner of a debate simply because of how 'crisply' she delivered lies about Planned Parenthood, or how 'forcefully' she responded to a cartoon like Donald Trump, or how 'sharply' she presented her nonsense about reining in Vladimir Putin with 'aggressive military maneuvers' on his borders, then there is a problem in the political process that is metastasizing by the hour. Ronald Reagan was the index patient for that problem." .../p>

... Tim Egan: Carly Fiorina "is the embodiment of the unfairness, the rigged game that hurts so many average working people.... [Jeb!] Bush did expose [Donald] Trump for what should be his greatest weakness, something that's been largely overlooked by the surface-obsessed press. The guy is a casino operator. He made a lot of money separating suckers from their money. And then, through his bankruptcies, he eventually failed at that -- one of the most rigged schemes in the world. He lost in his own game of loser's poker."

Adele Stan of the American Prospect: "While [debate moderator Jake] Tapper, with an occasional assist from his colleague Dana Bash and radio host Hugh Hewitt, did hit the hot buttons -- Planned Parenthood funding, immigration, Iran, same-sex marriage, Donald Trump's remarks about Carly Fiorina's face -- the questions read more like a greatest hits list of GOP bloviation points than prompts for serious discussions of issues.... And as is too often the case in such debates, blatant lies uttered by candidates were left unchallenged.... The evil genius of Fiorina ... is her uncanny ability to play the gender warrior within the GOP while promoting the party's misogyny."

I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, to watch these tapes. Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says, 'We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.' -- Carly Fiorina, making up stuff during the debate

... ** digby, in Salon: "... much of what Fiorina says is either untrue or incoherent, which her polished style of rapid-fire answers containing long lists of memorized specifics obscures.... Considering her very loose relationship with the truth, her failed record as a businesswoman which left thousands of people's lives in ruins and her cavalier attitude about paying her debts, it's awfully ironic that the lines she delivers with the most righteous passion are harsh criticisms of Hillary Clinton's honesty and trustworthiness. That's something else she has in common with Trump -- chutzpah." ...

... Steve Benen: "... as a substantive matter, Fiorina, who's running for president despite never having held public office, spoke with great confidence and poise, but generally seemed clueless. Her rhetoric about Planned Parenthood was plainly at odds with reality. She said it takes 'two-thirds of the states' to ratify a constitutional amendment, but it actually takes three-fourths. Her comments about the criminal justice system were simply untrue. She insisted that Democrats, who've been pleading with Republicans for years to pass immigration reform, 'don't want' to pass immigration reform. Her defense of her failed tenure at HP was hard to take seriously. Her rhetoric about foreign policy was 'bizarre.'... By some measures, a candidate who gets caught making so many bogus claims over the course of just one debate should wake up to brutal headlines about a disqualifying performance. But by contemporary rules, presidential hopefuls are judged less like candidates for the White House and more like performers...." ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: "Fiorina, appearing on ABC's 'Good Morning America' earlier Thursday, responded to numerous media fact-checks (including from Politico) by saying that 'rest assured,' she had seen what she described during the debate. [CW: Because everybody except Carly is delusional.]...Planned Parenthood Action Fund shot back with a memo and a letter to Fiorina on Thursday. 'The images show nothing like what Carly Fiorina said they do, and they have nothing to do with Planned Parenthood. The video footage that she claims exists -- and that she 'dared' people to watch -- does not exist,' Planned Parenthood spokesman Eric Ferrero said in a memo released via email Thursday. 'We have a word for that: It's a lie. And it's not the first time Carly Fiorina has lied.'" ...

... Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post: Carly "Fiorina's past political history suggests that her struggles at HP could be a campaign killer. In 2010, Fiorina was running surprisingly close to California Sen. Barbara Boxer (D), who was struggling in a strong election cycle for Republicans nationally. Then, Boxer ran this ad focused on Fiorina's time at the helm of HP.... The ad functioned as a sort of knock-out punch for Boxer even in a year where Republicans claimed victories all across the country:

Words Fail Me (Amended Below):

     ... The Ethnic-Cleansing Candidate. Juan Cole: "The corporate media focused more on the statements about Obama and Trump's unwillingness to challenge them than on the demand for ethnic cleansing of millions of US citizens. They even twisted themselves in pretzels with their headlines about Trump 'failing to challenge' the man. That allegation is an abject lie, since Trump very clearly reacted to the charge with approval by saying that 'we need' this question.... More important than the birther allegations is that Trump accepted the premise of the man that Muslim-Americans might be conducting terrorist training camps on US soil for the purpose of training to kill Americans, and that a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Americans of Muslim faith is required ('get rid of'). He promised to look into the issue." ...

     ... The P. T. Barnum Candidate. CW: There is an alternate reading here, & it relies on the way Trump says, "We need this question." He laughs when he says it. Let's stipulate that Trump is a racist. He's a real-life Archie Bunker (like Donald, a Queens character), albeit a richer one. But I think what you see in that laugh (13 seconds in) is a fleeting failure to stay in character. Almost immediately, Trump catches himself & pretends the jerk has made intelligent remarks & asked a worthy question. Trump says his people will be looking into the guy's insane charges & (maybe) into how to "get rid of" Muslims. One could argue that Trump no more endorses the guy's remarks than you endorse your Uncle Fred's Thanksgiving dinner harangue when you just roll your eyes instead of wasting your time telling Fred he's a jackass. Trump does not, as Cole suggests, endorse a Muslim Holocaust the way he has promised a Central American Trail of Tears. What we've been witnessing lo these many months is performance completely devoid of conviction. Why doesn't Trump go into detail about how he's going to deport 11 million people? Because he has no intention of doing so. When he originally made the statement, his only plan was to garner more publicity. But since he is preternaturally unable to back down from any of his ludicrous remarks, as his poll numbers rose & a Trump presidency began to seem vaguely possible, he's had to stick with statements he knows are ridiculous. That horrifying little jerk who is willing to say in public that we need to "get rid of" Muslims is, in a way, a lot more scary than Donald Trump. Trump is a joker. He is laughing at all of us. That guy is real, & he (figuratively) lives next door to me. The problem, of course, is that Trump's Big Joke encourages him.

Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "Ben Carson holds the top spot in the Michigan GOP primary, according to a poll released by Marketing Resource Group (MRG) on Wednesday. Carson, who was born in Detroit, draws 24 percent in the Great Lake State, followed by Donald Trump at 22 percent, former Florida governor Jeb Bush at 8 percent and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee at 6 percent. The retired neurosurgeon polls particularly well with women voters in the state...." CW: Toljaso. That soothing bedside manner is a hit with the ladies.

Burgess Everett: "Many of the Republican candidates on the debate stage Wednesday night joined in a full-throated endorsement of Ted Cruz's damn-the-torpedoes strategy to defund Planned Parenthood, even if it means shutting down the federal government. But two candidates who'll soon be casting votes on the matter were noticeably silent: Sens. Marco Rubio and Rand Paul."

... Jonathan Chait: "... the most frightening and consequential fallout from the debate was the near-consensus that George W. Bush had, in fact, handled his duties as commander-in-chief splendidly. Jeb Bush's most passionate and crowd-pleasing moment came when he insisted, in the face of Trump's criticism of the Iraq War, that his brother had 'kept us safe.' Bush's campaign considered this rallying moment of the party faithful so successful that, [Thursday], it leaned into that moment and made it the centerpiece of Bush's post-debate message.... It is bizarre to center your defense of Bush having 'kept us safe' with a photograph of him standing on the rubble from the worst domestic mass-casualty attack in American history, one that took place under his watch." ...

... CW: As someone else pointed out (sorry, I can't recall who), in the photo, Dubya is standing atop the dead bodies of some of the people he "kept safe." I have never understood why pundits right & left considered his bullhorn moment a brilliant, moving expression of the American character, our modern-day equivalent to Shakespeare's St. Crispin's Day speech.

The Doofus Sawbuck.... Peter Alexander & Carrie Dann of NBC News: "Jeb Bush might be changing his mind about his statement that he'd like to see former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the $10 bill.... Bush instead said that he'd like to see the American people decide which woman deserves to be on U.S. currency, suggesting that a question about the bill during the second GOP presidential debate Wednesday night was not 'the most relevant thing in the world.'" CW: Because women, especially American women, are not very "relevant." I mean, who cares? This is the same Doofus who said in August, "I'm not sure we need half a billion dollars -- for women's health issues." ...

... "Wallets Full of Women." Ann Friedman of New York on all the candidates' choices. Funny, as long as you forget one of these anti-feminists (& that definitely includes Carly) could become president.

Beyond the Beltway

AP: "A friend of the alleged Charleston church shooter was arrested Thursday, more than a month after authorities told him he was under federal investigation for lying to them and failing to report a crime, an official close to the probe said. Joey Meek, 21, was arrested Thursday, the official told the Associated Press, speaking only on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly talk about the case." ...

... Avery Wilks of the (South Carolina) State reports here.

Dan Barry of the New York Times: "More than six years after their rescue from virtual servitude, in which they worked for little pay in a turkey processing plant while living in a decrepit Iowa schoolhouse, more than two dozen men with intellectual disabilities will share nearly $600,000 owed to them, after a federal court order issued Thursday in Dallas. The ruling, by Chief Judge Jorge A. Solis of United States District Court, overrode a confidential arrangement that would have redirected hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to the men, in unpaid court judgments, to the heirs of their former employers, the owners of a Texas-based company called Henry's Turkey Service." ...

Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed: "Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant [R] and Attorney General Jim Hood [D] believe the state's ban on adoptions by same-sex couples remains constitutional -- even in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's recent marriage rulings -- the two men asserted in federal court late last week." CW: Apparently every single discriminatory statute, ordinance & administrative regulation will have to get a Supreme Court reading before it becomes unconstitooshunal.

Cristian Farias of the Huffington Post: "A federal appeals court on Thursday turned away a request filed by lawyers for Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, and chastised Davis' attorneys for not adhering to the rules of the court.

Nicole Hensley of the New York Daily News: "What appears to be a viral Tide commercial spoofing religious freedom advocates such as Kentucky's Kim Davis is only an advertising company's pitch to Procter & Gamble.... The 30-second spot directed by TinyGiant's Mark Nickelsburg appears to be a hat tip to a whirlwind of legal sparring in Rowan County as Davis repeatedly refused to grant same-sex couples marriage licenses, but it's only a coincidence. The idea behind the commercial, however, was conceived in January and wasn't taped until weeks before the Supreme Court’s ruling in June, Nickelsburg told the Daily News. 'Kim Davis did not inspire it at all,' Nickelsburg said, but 'there's truth to comedy,' he added."

Dave Blanton of the Kings Mountain (North Carolina) Herald: "Eugene Holmes, who is running for mayor of Kings Mountain, bluntly states that he doesn't want the job. 'I don't want to be mayor no more than I want to fly,' said Holmes, who on the ballot lists his first name as 'Sherlock.'... 'In my administration I would do just like Mrs. Davis did in Kentucky,' said Holmes, referring to Kim Davis, the Rowan County, Ky., clerk.... (The City of Kings Mountain does not issue marriage licenses.)... ''I would get the D.A. to swear out a warrant on any man who says he's gay. Sodomy is a crime, a felony in the state of North Carolina. What's wrong with eradicating homosexuals? We should jail them, throw them all in jail!' said Holmes.... 'I don't know about my chances in this thing,' said Holmes...." CW: No shit, Sherlock. Via the Raw Story.

Way Beyond

Amer Cohadzic & Danica Kirka of the AP: "Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said Friday his nation is overwhelmed by a huge influx of migrants and will redirect people toward Hungary and Slovenia as they move north in hopes of reaching more prosperous European countries. It wasn't immediately clear how Croatia's move would solve the situation since both Hungary and Slovenia are taking steps to keep migrants out, deepening a crisis as people seek a route to refuge."

William Booth, et al., of the Washington Post: "European nations once friendly to refugees abruptly yanked their welcome mats Thursday, as Germany considered slashing its benefits and Croatia announced it was closing most of its road links with Serbia 'until further notice.'... In a 128-page draft law produced by the German Interior Ministry..., the government would speed asylum procedures, cut cash benefits, hasten deportations and punish those with false claims and phony paperwork.... Croatia's decision to close roads across its border with Serbia raised the risk of pushing asylum seekers into the area's fields and forests, which are littered with land mines left over the 1990s Balkan War."

Comments

[D.C.Clark]

Re women on U.S. currency:

President Paul could put Ayn Rand on a three dollar bill.

But if we consider non U.S. citizens the field opens considerably. There are so many good conservative women in world history: Lucrezia Borgia, Catherine de Medici, and of course, Marie Antoinette. Replace "E Pluribus Unum" with "Let them eat Twinkies". The possibilities are endless.

[Akhilleus]

Holy moley. I don't even know where to start.

Sometimes I run across something that piques my interest and I start down that hole. Then something else pops up, often something stupid, , too stupid to ignore, which is followed in its turn by even worse stupidity. And if all this stupid remained just that, something ridiculous, like a funny bug hopping across the backyard, it would be fine. But the kind of stupid bred in Right Wing World isn't a funny bug, it's a vicious, mindless monster spreading dis-ease along with disease.

Get rid of Mexicans. Get rid of Muslims. Arrest the blacks. Tell women to shut up. Tell gays to go to hell. They're going anyway. But first, put them all in jails. The president is a Muslim. The president wasn't born here. The president is a tyrant who loves terrorists. Get rid of healthcare. Especially healthcare for women. And poor people. Start a war with Iran. Arrest brown skinned kids with Mooslim sounding names for making a science project teachers and cops can't figure out. Must be bad, right? Besides, science is all liberal lies. Black activists are thugs. A police chief tells his officers to shoot first. Especially at those thugs. Planned Parenthood makes a fortune selling baby brains which they remove while the baby is still alive and screaming. We know. It's on those doctored videos. Video doesn't lie. Texas is being taken over by Obama. He's coming for our guns. And our FREEEDOMS. Muslims are taking over the country. Can't you see it?? Change the laws so Christians don't have to do anything they don't feel like doing. Only it's just for Christians. Save Israel. Not because we like Jews. We don't give a shit about Jews, but we need Israel for the end of the world. The Bible tells us so. Build a wall to keep out Mexicans. Build a wall to keep out Canadians. Cut taxes even further for the rich. Destroy workers' rights to anything. Blame teachers for everything. Give poor children nothing. End public education and let private for-profit businesses like those run by the Bush family have it all. Kill food stamps. Make anyone on government assistance take drug tests. Kick the poor as hard as you can. Then kick them again. Just because we can. Fire some missiles over Russia to show Putin who's boss. Bomb Iran. Bomb Syria. Bomb Iraq. Again.

It's fucking exhausting.

And everything in that long-ass paragraph is complete bullshit. Everything.

It makes you want to weep for this country.

The machinations started with Nixon, got far worse with Reagan, hit escape velocity with Bush and Cheney, and now we're beset by a large percentage of crazy, angry, vicious, hateful people egged on by craven politicians, self-promoters, and a Potemkin media.

And worst of all? That long list of bullshit? Plenty of people believe it sight unseen. This is why Confederate candidates feel like they can say anything they want. Anything. Just make it up. On the spot. "Get rid of Muslims? Oh yeah. Lot's of bad shit out there. We'll look into it." "Hundreds of thousands of protesters wanted to kill me, but I stared them all down and now I can defeat ISIS in my sleep."

It's gonna be a long year. And that monster is getting bigger by the day.

[Akhilleus]

D.C.,

Putting Ayn Rand on US currency poses some serious questions. For instance, Rand would never want to be on a whole number bill, like a three or ten or twenty or even a hundred. Whole numbers are for plebes; predictability is for the sheep. She'd want to be on a $3.56 bill. That would give a proper kick up the backside to all those Bartleby-like CPA's and IRS drones.

And you'd have to remove "In God We Trust". Rand was an atheist. Given her jaundiced view of human nature, that assertion would have to be changed to "Trust No One". And should she be on any currency sporting the motto "E Pluribus Unum", it would, by all rights, have to be replaced with "E Pluribus Me", especially considering Rand's extraordinary egocentrism, a state of being in which everyone lived to serve her wants and needs and she served no one.

Now that I think of it, if Doofus II wants to put a foreign born woman on the ten, since no American woman strikes his fancy, he should probably shoot for Eva Braun. After all, she represents the sort of political scheme his family has always preferred. And his grandfather, Prescott Doofus, was so fond of doing business with Uncle Adolf, congress had to pass a special law telling him to cut the shit since it didn't look good, the Bush Crime Family helping a foreign government to make money while that same government was killing American soldiers.

Details, details, details.

Wonder who Trump would put on the ten. Zsa Zsa Gabor? Or maybe Eva Gabor. Oh wait! I know who he'd pick.

[Akhilleus]

In my earlier haste, I omitted perhaps the biggest loaf of dung in my litany of bullshit, the "My brother kept us safe" lie.

There's no need to go into much detail here. The particulars are depressingly familiar; how an incurious dolt of a little boy who had the presidency dropped in his worthless lap, a loser who had failed at everything he had done in life, including--and especially--his military service, failed miserably at the biggest and most important test he ever had: keeping Americans safe from danger even though a warning of attack had been laying on his desk. What did he do? Insulted the messenger, took a nap, then went on vacation.

And yet now, he and his supporters, and his brother Doofus II, claim he passed that test with pennants flying. A veritable Hector, Protector of Troy, fending off vicious attacks of Achaean armies and swarming hordes of fierce Myrmidons, exposing himself to dangers beyond the ken of other mortals.

But Marie's invocation of the St. Crispin's Day speech being in any way compared to Bush's Bullhorn Bullshit boils the blood anew. The entire premise of this speech, on the advent of the Battle of Agincourt, is the king's reveling in the solitary state in which he and his small army had found themselves, and the understanding that they will do their duty no matter what, and if alive at the end, in victory, will enjoy the honor thereby bestowed even as "gentlemen in England now a-bed" will cower and flee whenever the lowest of "these happy few" declaims that he was there on Crispin's Day.

The despicable fact is that The Decider was not only a-bed somewhere in America when his contemporaries were doing their duty in the jungles of Southeast Asia, but he was hiding under the covers. Both he and Cheney were hiding, craven cowards, afraid for their rotten lives. And when it came time for their War of Choice, they did not enter into that battle in any honorable way as Shakespeare's Henry did. They lied and bullied and threatened. They handed down ultimatums and whined and cajoled. They never said "Faith coz, wish not one man more..." Instead, when the planes struck, The Decider sat there frozen in fear and confusion and indecision. Then got on a plane and flew in the opposite direction as fast as he could while Cheney ran for his hidey hole.

Honor?

These two are the antithesis, the nadir of honor, the complete absence of honor. The only ones they kept safe were themselves.

Shakespeare's word for those who act so ignobly is vile. These two are much closer aligned to Edmund, Iago, and Richard III than Henry V.

Rather than "Thanks, Georgie, for keeping us safe", a better greeting might be "Methink’st thou art a general offence and every man should beat thee."

[Akhilleus]

Oooh man, that Boxer ad about Carly Liarina is bombshell material. It just goes to show you that Confederates don't care about facts or history. Why was Newt Gingrich given another go 'round in the last election? I predict that if the current batch of losers don't grab the brass ring, a passel of them will be back in four years no matter how shiftless and incompetent they are.

[Akhilleus]

The Littlest Con Man.

Li'l Randy (has anyone seen him lately?) has by EOB today, Friday, to fork over the quarter mil he swore he already sent to the Kentucky Republican Party bosses to pay for that rule changey thingy he did in order to circumvent state law which said he could run for the senate or the White House, but not both. Bad Toupée said he'd already paid that money but the KY GOP said ixnay to that and please send it over pronto. Like today.

It doesn't look like he's been raking in gigantic campaign donations so that quarter mil might not be the chump change it would be for Trumpy or Doofus.

Anyway, since he's polling just above 0%, it might be money not all that well spent, but given the fact that his dad has been running for the presidency since D-Day and has never gotten much above a percent or two, Li'l Randy will likely hold on, demanding that everyone take him seriously.

Which will be hard while he's still wearing those big floppy shoes and the giant red carnation that squirts water.

But hey, have at it, little guy.

[D.C.Clark]

Akhilleus,

Nice rants. But you also omitted to mention that climate change is a gigantic hoax perpetrated by a vast leftist conspiracy intent on destroying our country. These conspirators have spent billions perniciously influencing 99% of the world's climate scientists to support this fraud, while cruelly suppressing those dedicated to exposing it. Those courageous few, funded by benevolent energy companies, are Selfless Patriots defending our true national interests.

[Akhilleus]

Okay, just one more before I'm arrested under anti-trust laws for monopoly practices.

I see where Confederates in the House of Irrational Bullshit Controlled by Trolls, Idiots, and Religious Morons, has passed a couple of bills aiming to end women's healthcare provided by Planned Parenthood, using as its excuse the lies spread by haters and propagated by Confederate presidential candidates.

This is preamble to the next shutdown of the government perpetrated by stupid, stupid, stupid, lying Christians who have no interest in the fact that Planned Parenthood is forbidden by law to use federal monies for abortions, nor do they care about any of the following:

"'This bill is dumb, it’s foolish, and it’s mean-spirited,' said Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.). 'The bill is based upon lies and exaggerations. If you want to have a truthful debate, then let’s talk about the 400,000 Pap smears, the 500,000 breast exams, the 4.5 million STD and HIV tests that Planned Parenthood does each year.'"

Why don't they care about any of that? Because they don't give a rat's ass about women or their needs, that's why. And Carly Liarina, shame, shame, shame on her, abets this ignorance.

And just a sidebar here. In the aftermath of the GOP Mud Fight, aka debate (it's no such thing; it's kids in the schoolyard calling each other names and saying "I know you are but what am I?") Politico published a reasonably well researched fact check of at least a few of the many lies spewed during the...whatever the hell it was.

One of the lies they exposed was Carly Liarina's description of a baby lying on a table, kicking and alive, as debauched Planned Parenthood vampires talked about keeping it alive long enough to suck out its brain so they could sell it on Ebay. The Politico reporter, after doing some research, declared this an out and out lie.

And yet the next day (!!!), another Politico article conveys the news that Planned Parenthood was accusing Liarina of lying, the very act thing they determined she had done. But....

But this piece is written in a distinctly stinky-ass "he said, she said" style, with no mention of the fact that Liarina's contention had already been fact checked and found (big surprise) to be a complete lie. The writer makes it appear as if Liarina has her point and Planned Parenthood has a different one and they have no idea who's right.

This is the sort of absolutely disgusting "reporting" that has helped drive this country into the rut we currently inhabit, where liars can say whatever they want with few worries that anyone will call them on it. When a "news outlet" on one day writes that Candidate X has lied but then the next day suggests that she or he may have a point, there is virtually no baseline on which to measure veracity.

And I guess that's all I got for today.

Monopoly over.

[Akhilleus]

D.C.,

Ain't it da truth.

[Akhilleus]

Sorry, the Frankel quote from the last rant comes from a WaPo article, here.

[Janice]

One of my favorite essayists, Wendell Berry, had an op-ed in last Sunday's Lexington Herald-Leader on the revival of racism that has occurred since President Obama's election in 2008. While the essay focuses on the Confederates' contempt for Obama, and the dog-whistling techniques they have employed both to gain votes and to defeat his policies, I think the real danger in this is that, as Marie noted above in referencing the PT Barnum candidate, it's encouraging "horrifying little jerks" to think that their beliefs are mainstream.

"Elected officials or candidates seeking the support or the votes of racists do not need to question the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate or to call him a Muslim, a communist, a Nazi or a traitor.

They need only to stand silently by while such slurs and falsehoods are loudly voiced in public by others. To the racist constituency, their silence is a message that secures votes. Their silence declares that no truth or dignity is worth as much as a vote."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/09/13/4033962_wendell-berry-the-new-racism-embodied.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

[Akhilleus]

Janice,

Hear, hear.

I have always admired Berry for his political and moral stances (in addition to his improvement of our lit'ry life). He came out against the Vietnam War long before it was fashionable, and he did it in the heartland of the south.

As for those who stand by silently while "horrifying little jerks" (love that expression) fly their racist banners high and dare anyone to question their atrocious posture, like, f'rinstance Trumpy the Off Key Trumpet, I have nothing but contempt. Trump demonstrates his complete lack of ethical standing with such calculated passivity in the face of vile ignorance and hatred.

And it's not as if I've ever thought he was leadership material (see my last 20 Trumpy rants), he got where he is not just by being a bully, but by cannily manipulating both his supporters and his opponents. It's always been about money and power for him. Which, I suppose, is acceptable to some, meaning such cynical manipulation and otiose morality in raw capitalist engagements is not considered beyond the pale (vide the Kochs).

But in the area of political leadership where it has to be about more than just fucking your enemies, stripping them of their assets, and racking up points with bankers and lawyers, such a disgustingly depraved disposition, especially when one is sure the speaker is a verminous ignorant lowlife, marks one as not a leader, but as a cynically sycophantic follower, obsequious to haters and racists, one who has no problem toadying to moralistic trollops.

He has had his time in the spotlight. He's been able to burnish his braggadocio and sneer his way past the tough questions. But when it counts, when the voice of moral authority is needed, his trumpet squeaks and rasps like a busted kazoo.