The Commentariat -- April 19, 2016
I need help here. -- Constant Weader
Unrelated Note: I may have to start removing all stupid comments, which is a shame, because I make stupid comments, too. Anyway, I have neither the time nor the interest to check the ISPs associated with every suspicious comment, so I may unfairly remove some comments by people who are merely lazy, inarticulate or mean-spirited. And I actually am sorry about that as the stupid is occasionally amusing. But now is the season of my discontent, which will have to suffice as a good enough reason to cut the crap.
Afternoon Update:
Susanne Craig of the New York Times: "Over the past several months, Donald J. Trump has crisscrossed the country making dozens of campaign stops..., often in his sleek Cessna jet.... The plane’s registration is expired.... Dozens of those flights were made after Jan. 31, when the registration expired.... The F.A.A. warned Mr. Trump that the Cessna's registration was set to expire [& had expired].... It costs only $5 [to register the plane]...." CW: Luckily for Trump, he's Flying While White. If he were a black guy with an expired car registration, which costs more to renew, he could end up in jail -- or dead.
States Pressured to Restore Planned Parenthood Funding: Stephanie Armour in the WSJ writes "The Obama administration on Tuesday warned states that halting Medicaid funding to organizations because they provide abortion services could put them in violation of federal law, putting pressure on states to restore funding stripped from Planned Parenthood Federation of America." Akhilleus: Confederate law breaking never ends.
Rachel Bade of Politico: "House Democratic leaders on Tuesday morning blasted GOP leaders for the collapse of a Puerto Rico rescue package last week amid Republican infighting, accusing the GOP of putting conservatives ahead of the Caribbean Island's needs. In a series of morning press conferences, top Democrats knocked the GOP for failing to negotiate with them on the measure, which is intended to prevent Puerto Rico from defaulting on hundreds of millions in debt." -- CW
Moriah Balingit of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court in Richmond has sided with a transgender high school student, saying that he can proceed with his lawsuit arguing that his school board's decision to ban him from the boy's bathroom is discriminatory." -- CW
Garrison Keillor for NPR: "How did we wind up with these old people running for president?" CW: Thanks to exalto for the link. This morning I mistakenly removed exalto's link to Keillor's piece, thinking -- with some reason, albeit erroneous -- that exalto was a Calyban alias.
*****
Presidential Race
Democrats & Republicans hold primaries in New York state today. ...
... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton are the heavy favorites to win in their home state, where both have been known presences for many years. But there are some tantalizing subplots that could help direct the remaining acts of this political theater. Voting begins at 6 a.m. in parts of the state, and lasts until 9 p.m. everywhere." Haberman suggests "some things to watch." -- CW ...
... Ryan Cooper of the Week: "Donald Trump is right about one thing: The New York state voting system is a total mess. To vote in Tuesday's primary, New Yorkers who were not party members will have had to submit their change of party registration by Oct. 9, more than six months ago. Though there is a reasonable case for closed party primaries, having the deadline that far in advance is utterly unjustifiable." Read on. -- CW
Eric Levitz of New York: "... days before the Empire State's crucial primary vote, both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have come out in favor of a bipartisan Senate bill that would allow "victims of 9/11 to sue the Saudi government.... The kingdom has threatened to sell off hundreds of billions of dollars in American assets if the bill passes Congress.... The Obama administration is taking the Saudis' fury seriously...., and has expended considerable energy trying to stifle the Senate bill." -- CW (See also link to story about presidential veto threat, in Other News & Views below.)
Eric Levitz: "In a letter to the DNC, Sanders's campaign attorney Brad Deutsch accuses the Clinton campaign of 'serious apparent violations' of campaign finance laws.... Over the weekend, Politico published a report on Clinton's first-quarter campaign spending that largely affirms Sanders's complaint." -- CW ...
... Election law expert Rick Hasen says Sanders' case is weak. He suspects Deutsch's "letter is less about legality and more about feeding into the Sanders' campaign theme that Hillary Clinton is corrupt in her campaign finance dealings." -- CW ...
... Clare Foran of the Atlantic has more on the dispute. -- CW
Ron Brownstein of the Atlantic: Bernie "Sanders's rise in national surveys has upended one of the most durable patterns of the primary system in both parties since the mid-1970s. This far into the race, the candidate who has accumulated the most delegates through the early contests almost always has also led in national polls among voters in their party. But in several recent national public surveys, Sanders has surged to virtually tie, or even slightly surpass, Clinton, who has led among both pledged and unpledged delegates since late February.... As advisers in both camps acknowledge, Sanders's national gains means that he arrives in each new state with a bigger and broader base of support than he enjoyed earlier in the contest." -- CW
Eliza Collins of Politico: "The Clinton campaign has a question for Bernie Sanders: Are you to becom[ing] 'a Ralph Nader and try to destroy the party?' Clinton's chief strategist Joel Benenson accused Sanders of issuing attacks that hurt the Democratic Party in an interview with CNN's 'New Day' on Tuesday, the day of the New York primary." CW: Yeah, right.
Wherein New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio blames Bernie Sanders for the controversy over that "colored people time" skit De Blasio & Hillary Clinton did. CW: Congratulations, Bernie. You've become Obamacized. Now everything is your fault.
** David Dayen in the New Republic: "The actual transcript [of Hillary Clinton's Goldman Sachs speeches] is unnecessary because we already have enough in the public domain to know the real issue with these speeches: the rapport and camaraderie between political leaders and financial institutions, which results in a frame of mind that accepts their arguments and privileges their views." Read on. -- CW
CW: I know everything the candidates say today is bound to be stupid, but this might be the stupidest. Eliza Collins: "Donald Trump has some thoughts about Hillary Clinton saying she carries hot sauce in her bag: She's 'phony' and 'pandering.'" -- CW
Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "If the polls are right, [Donald Trump] will dominate in New York on Tuesday and in the coming races across the Eastern Seaboard. He could win nearly all of the delegates at stake -- keeping him on a narrow path toward the Republican nomination. That would set him up for what will probably be the most important test of the race: Indiana on May 3.... It's hard to avoid the conclusion that his quest to reach a majority of delegates before the convention could all turn on Indiana." -- CW
Michael Daly of The Daily Beast: "The night before the vital New York primary, at a large campaign rally in Buffalo, Donald Trump got the date of the September 11 attacks wrong.'I was down there, and I watched our police and our fireman, down there on 7/11, down at the World Trade Center right after it came down.'" --safari ...
... CW @safari: Maybe Trump was at a 7-11, enjoying a Big Gulp.
Ken Vogel & Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "In a shakeup that's roiling Donald Trump's presidential campaign, the GOP front-runner told senior staffers at a Saturday meeting that he wants his recent hires Paul Manafort and Rick Wiley to take the reins in upcoming states, giving them a $20-million budget for key contests in May and June, according to three sources with knowledge of the meeting."-- CW ...
... Major Garrett of CBS News: "Paul Manafort, hired last week to be the convention manager, will now run the Trump campaign, with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski reduced to a role that amounts to body man and scheduler." -- CW ...
... Marc Caputo of Politico: "Donald Trump's [CW: now former] campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was cleaning up one political mess in Florida when he walked himself into another, launching an error-filled attack on the state's GOP chairman and revealing his camp's internal goal for delegate accumulation." -- CW
Danielle Allen, in a Washington Post op-ed, takes apart Donald Trump's long whine in the form of a Wall Street Journal op-ed. For some odd reason, Allen characterizes Trump's complaint as an unprincipled "crafty assemblage of sophisms meant to throw sand in people's eyes." -- CW
Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "A longtime Republican consultant who has been harshly criticized by Donald J. Trump filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit on Monday accusing him and his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, of making false statements that harmed her professionally and personally. The consultant, Cheri Jacobus, accused Mr. Trump and Mr. Lewandowski of libeling her by depicting her as a disappointed job-seeker who turned on Mr. Trump after he declined to hire her." -- CW
Jason Silverstein of the New York Daily News: "Illma Gore, the creative mind behind the infamous painting of Trump in the buff -- and with a tiny penis -- says Trump's legal team has threatened a lawsuit over her dismaying depiction of GOP presidential front-runner." -- CW
Jonathan Mahler of the New York Times: When tenants of rent-contolled apartments at 100 Central Park South fought Donald Trump, he tried every ruthless trick in the book to take possession of their homes. "The battle played out for years in courtrooms and the New York news media, becoming a kind of parable of the limits of 1980s capitalist ambition in the social democratic city." -- CW
**How to Hack an Election. Jordan Robertson, Michael Rey & Andrew Willis of Bloomberg. This fascinating article (published March 31) centers around the "Karl Rove" of Latin America, Juan José Rendón, and the main hacker Andrés Sepúlveda. While it focuses on Latin America, the article ends with this: "Last year, based on anonymous sources, the Colombian media reported that Rendón was working for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Rendón calls the reports untrue. The campaign did approach him, he says, but he turned them down because he dislikes Trump (...)But Rendón says he's in talks with another leading U.S. presidential campaign -- he wouldn't say which -- to begin working for it once the primaries wrap up and the general election begins."
Better Ted than Trump. Tierney Sneed of TPM: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell turned down an opportunity to comment on his personal beef with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to implicitly criticize Donald Trump and said he is 'increasingly optimistic' that there were would be a contested GOP convention in Cleveland." -- CW
Julian Hattem of the Hill: "Officials within Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) office refused to meet with Muslim advocates on Monday, they claimed, after a controversial adviser for Cruz's presidential campaign accused the advocates of pushing 'the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood.' In a contributor's op-ed published on The Hill's website, Frank Gaffney warned that 'organizations associated with Islamic supremacism' are seeking to 'dominate' an advocacy day on Monday on Capitol Hill." -- CW
Steve M.: According to Ted Cruz's anti-gay marriage logic, states should be able to prevent interracial marriages, too. CW: And people from different religions, too. And people over the age of 60. And citizens of other countries. And people with freckles. Whatever.
The Dildo Factor. Amanda Marcotte in Salon: "This is the constant theme in Cruz's opinions on the subject of sexuality and family life: If it limits sexual pleasure and channels people into traditional gender roles, it's good, but if it allows people to enjoy sex for non-procreative reasons, it's bad.... His brand-new pro-dildo stance is completely out of step with his entire history of backing multiple efforts to chip away at policies and technologies that allow women and LGBT people to conduct their private sex lives on their own terms." -- CW
New York Times Editors: "Central to the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz has been the claim that the Affordable Care Act has been a complete failure, and that the only way to save the country from this scourge is to replace it with something they design. It's worth examining the big myths they are peddling about the Affordable Care Act and also their ill-conceived plans of what might replace it." The editorial goes on to debunk some of the myths. -- CW
Cruz of Gold. Ben Walsh in the Huffington Post, reminds Republicans (and everyone else) why they hate Ted Cruz. "He told CNBC on Friday that he wants to push America back to the gold standard. This is a hare-brained policy that no other country uses and not a single surveyed economist thinks is a good idea. Under the gold standard, a dollar is worth a certain amount of gold." Oh, and just so you know, Donald Trump loves the Gold Standard as well. Akhilleus: Where is William Jennings Bryan when you need him? Cruz has declared that "...the Fed should get out of the business of trying to juice our economy..." Oh, okay. Then we can let commodities investors and hoarders monkey with it instead. Sounds reasonable.
Scariest Headline of the Week. Walter Shapiro in Roll Call: "How Liz Cheney Could Pick the Next President." Okay, it's an unlikely -- but not impossible -- turn of events. And we've already seen how things worked out when her dad picked the next vice president (his choice, of course, being himself). -- CW
Trump's No Competition Bid for NY Governor. This morning on NPR, Ed Cox, chairman of the Republican Party of New York revealed that Donald Trump was seriously considering making a bid for the Republican nomination for governor in 2014 but would only do it if the party bosses handed him the nomination. He didn't want to have to compete against any other candidates. When told that's not the way it works, apparently, there was a bit of a Trumper tantrum. -- Akhilleus
The Past is Prologue. The Estimable Rick Pearlstein, writing in Salon, believes that the rise of Trumpism calls for a rewrite of American conservatism. Nazi rallies in Madison Square Garden, Klan riots in Queens, racial profiling, housing discrimination, lawsuits, Roy Cohn, vigilantism, and the birth of right-wing hate radio are all intimate parts of the Education of Donald. -- Akhilleus
A Real Estate Empire's Racist Foundations. Pearlstein's piece includes a fascinating bit of historical trivia, which in this case is anything but trivial. Eminent American folksinger Woody Guthrie once put into lyrics his belief that "...Old Man Trump knows/Just how much/Racial Hate/he stirred up..." when Fred Trump, Donald's father, established what Guthrie refers to as a "that color line" at his housing projects. The lyrics were uncovered recently by Will Kaufman, a professor of American Literature. -- Akhilleus
Other News & Views
Dana Milbank: "The Supreme Court's choice: chaos or more chaos." -- CW ...
... The Supreme Court is all tied up. Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "...Maybe the judicial branch is about to get karate chopped in the face by the ugliest political fight of the year. Arguments on Monday in United States v. Texas...certainly suggest a 4-4 tie is not just in the cards but also highly likely. Such a ruling would choke both the executive branch and the court, without affording much clarity or direction about the real scope of executive powers." --safari ...
... Nina Totenberg of NPR: Justice "Kennedy, who has in the past has written opinions in favor of giving the executive broad powers on enforcement, seemed dubious in this case. He said 4 million people is a lot of people and it seems that to give them quasi-legal status should be a legislative decision, not an executive decision." -- CW
Kevin Liptak & Antoine Sanfuentes of CNN: "Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is expected to announce this week that Alexander Hamilton's face will remain on the front of the $10 bill and a woman will replace Andrew Jackson on the face of the $20 bill, a senior government source told CNN on Saturday." -- CW
Have a Bad Weekend Doing Your Taxes? Blame H&R Block. Helaine Olen of Slate: "Tax day has become uncommonly time-consuming and miserable, and we can assign much of the blame to the lobbying muscle of the tax-prep industry, which has used its clout to stymie efforts to simplify our taxes." -- CW
American Politics, Inc. Anna Palmer & Brianna Gurciullo of Politico: "Republicans have been struggling for months in the shadow of Donald Trump to get corporate sponsors to pony up for their convention. Now Democratic fundraisers are feeling their pain, too.... The competition for dollars this year is more intense than ever. Donors are no longer limited in how much they can give to candidates and national party committees, but some may be feeling taxed by all the requests." --safari
Tevi Troy in Politico: "One of the most spectacular fissures of this already dramatic political season has been the messy, public divorce of the Republican intelligentsia from the party's suddenly energized populist voter base...but this year's split between intellectuals and the rank-and-file GOP goes beyond the front-runner. In fact, neither of Trump's remaining rivals, Ted Cruz nor John Kasich, is particularly cozy with the conservative intelligentsia.... If this divide deepens, it would mark the end of a romance between conservative intellectuals and the voters who propel their candidates into office that goes back several decades." --safari ...
...Jacob Weisberg of Slate: "The Reagan Democrats have become the Trump Republicans, and signs point once again to a breach with the party they have reflexively supported for decades...The revolt of the Republican masses bears out the thesis of Thomas Frank's 2004 book What's the Matter with Kansas?" --safari
AP: "UN ambassador Samantha Power's trip to Cameroon's frontlines in the war against Boko Haram started horrifically on Monday as an armored Jeep in her motorcade struck and killed a young boy who darted into the road." -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
David Eggert of the AP: "Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder will drink Flint water at home and at work for at least a month to show to residents it is safe with the use of a faucet filter, he said Monday." -- CW
WKRN News (Nashville): "Austin Peay State University is investigating after six nooses were found hung on campus. (...) Each was a different color, collectively appearing to be organized in the colors of a rainbow. School officials say upon finding them, campus police removed the nooses 'out of concern of hate symbolism and its potential impact to the campus.'" Via The Daily Beast --safari
Joel Ebert of the Tennessean: "The [Tennessee] House sponsor of a bill that would require students in public school grades K-12 and higher education institutions to use the restroom that corresponds with their sex at birth is killing the controversial legislation. Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mt. Juliet, said Monday she plans on delaying any action on the highly contentious measure in an effort to further study the issue." -- CW
Travis Gettys of Raw Story: "A former law enforcement officer is trying to overthrow the U.S. government one county at a time by encouraging sheriffs to disobey federal laws they don&'t like. Richard Mack, the former sheriff of Graham County, Arizona, has been involved in a number of anti-government actions... His group, which claims to have several hundred sheriffs as dues-paying members, is circulating a survey intended to push other sheriffs into disregarding federal laws they believe are unconstitutional." --safari
Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: "On the day he was scheduled to face trial for murder, former Fairfax County[, Virginia,] police officer Adam D. Torres pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter Monday for shooting John B. Geer to death as he stood unarmed in the doorway of his Springfield home in August 2013." -- CW
The Secret Shame of Middle Class Americans. Neal Gabler of The Atlantic: "America is a country, as Donald Trumphas reminded us, of winners and losers, alphas and weaklings. To struggle financially is a source of shame, a daily humiliation -- even a form of social suicide. Silence is the only protection." --safari
AP: "A New York City man accused of harassing relatives of a teacher killed in the Newtown school massacre has been sentenced to two years of probation as part of a plea deal. Matthew Mills pleaded guilty Monday under the Alford doctrine to interfering with police." -- CW
Way Beyond
A Quantum Trudeau "Scandal." Will Oremus of Slate on that viral video of Canadian PM Justin Trudeau explaining quantum computing to reporters: "A Canadian blogger pointed out that Trudeau himself had suggested to reporters at the event that they lob him a question about quantum computing so that he could knock it out of the park with the newfound knowledge he had gleaned on his tour. And so Monday brought the counter-take parade ... led by Gawker with the headline, 'Justin Trudeau's Quantum Computing Explanation Was Likely Staged for Publicity.' But read on. The counter-narrative is muddy, too. -- CW
News Ledes
New York Times: "Hundreds of people were wounded and dozens were killed on Tuesday in central Kabul, as a huge explosion struck during the morning rush hour and a gun battle between security forces and militants apparently followed. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack."
USA Today: "Drenching rain, which brought flash floods to much of eastern and southern Texas on Sunday and Monday, deluged Houston, killing five and leading to scores of water rescues."
New York Times: "The actress Doris Roberts, who played Ray Romano's meddling mother in the television comedy 'Everybody Loves Raymond,' has died, a family spokeswoman said. She was 90."
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Reader Comments (20)
Making calls for Hillary this afternoon so missed your posts about George Clooney. You quoted his statement of support for Bernie, if Bernie wins the nomination (good for him, good for you).
But you omitted (boo!) his thoughtful remarks on the regrettable necessity of raising money for downticket Democratic candidates. He was mercilessly attacked by the BernieBros twittertariat for raising money and Hillary was showered with dollar bills for speaking at a Clooney fundraising event. That little Sanders guerrilla theater was pretty disgusting.
Clooney HATES raising that money; thinks it's obscene that it's a part of American politics. But he does it, nonetheless, because unilateral disarmament in the face of Koch Brother GOP super-PAC funding is just plain stupid. Meanwhile, Mr. Sanders has raised zilch for downticket Democrats bravely fighting in the trenches against the evil GOP empire.
@Calyban: Clooney made extensive remarks during his Sunday show interview; there was no way I could have reprinted everything he said.
I never republish an entire story; I just hit a highlight or two -- usually the lede, unless the lede is buried, as it often is. You've been reading Reality Chex for years now, so you should know that. The whole idea is for readers to choose the stories that interest them & read those stories. That's only fair to the authors. For me to do as you ask could violate the writers' copyrights, too.
I accept criticisms that are worthy & try to correct for them; I don't think this is one of them. So "boo!" to you, too.
Marie
P.S. It seems to me that a high percentage of your "contributions" here are wrapped in criticisms of me. That's getting a little old. mb
CW: I do realize that some people just cannot help themselves, and this particular commenter will not be commenting here again.
Ever.
A troll by any other name is still a troll.
@Safari: Thanks for highlighting this. The 'confession' article by Neal Gabler in The Atlantic is stunning. His forthrightness and willingness to expose his financial problems is quite a cautionary tale...but, even more telling and chilling are the studies he cites about the bigger and bleaker picture how the vast Middle Class lives. Down the road, this has alarming consequences.
@MAG: What you said. And the Gablers' situation largely explains why I voted for Bernie Sanders in my state's primary, even tho I don't think he's an optimal candidate.
If you read Gabler & David Dayen's piece, linked above, you are likely to conclude that a woman who took in more in an hour than Bernie & Jane Sanders made in a year, & who identifies with bankers' arguments about underwater home mortgages, just doesn't get what stress millions of decent Americans suffer when they need a new lawnmower or have a toothache.
I've been there, done that. And I cannot exaggerate how grateful I am not to be there right now.
Maybe you're not feeling all sorry for a couple who made more than $200K in 2014, but the truth is that even with that income, the Sanders know what it means to have to make financial choices.
By the way, the Gablers probably should sell that modest house in the Hamptons & buy -- perhaps something smaller -- where housing prices are much lower.
Marie
I was going to write about that very nasty man, Carl Paladino, the one who ran for governor of N.Y. some time ago, the one who sent out all those porn photos (one of a woman having sex with a horse) and extremely racist ones depicting Obama, the one who now is rallying around Trump and urging chaos if Donald is not elected.
But after reading Neal Gabler's courageous article I feel spent. His state of affairs belonging to so many is something we have known about for many years, but never have I read such a complete history of it from someone like Gabler whom one wouldn't expect to have been in such dire straits for so long. And he is right in concluding that many are financially ignorant –––we somehow fail to teach how to manage money. The lure of buying with a card has been the downfall of many––you don't see the money––but the money sees you in the next payment. Foresight: a truly essential characteristic that is absent in those that only see the here and now. But there are millions of people who play by the workable rules and still end up in conditions beyond their control.
And what or who is going change this dynamic? What god in the machine is going to be lowered on our stage and save the days and nights of all those middle class strugglers along with the very poor and disenfranchised. Question pending. Meanwhile I'm with C.W. "this is the season of my discontent–––not exactly like Richard, but close enough.
@PD Pepe: I think Gabler also helps explain why so many "sensible" people play the lottery. They know their chances of winning are almost zero, but to them almost zero looks better than minus zero, which is where they find themselves.
Marie
Plus my study stinks because I took the P-trap out & I took the P-trap out because, honest to god, I dropped a chopstick down the drain. This is not working out to be my favorite day of all time. I did manage to get the trap back in, tho, & it looks like it might not leak. Maybe. Hillary Clinton does not know about these things. mmb
Marie, I read on...as you suggested, The Atlantic is a gold mine of excellent articles. Re: "the woman" who at times makes over two-hundred thousand an hour—she's going to have a harder time relating to those that Sanders is reaching.
The last paragraph in Dayen's piece sums it up so perfectly with the quote from Obama who got it, who gets it.: 'As Barack Obama wrote in The Audacity of Hope, “I can’t assume that the money chase didn’t alter me in some ways … your schedule dictates that you move in a different orbit from most of the people you represent.” '
A day or so ago, as I followed stories on the minimum wage, my long term memory gave me a jolt. My very first job was in the advertising dept. of a department store. The hours were 9 to 5 for six days, exception was Thursday when we worked from noon to 9. I drove twenty miles round trip each day, paid for my own parking, and had to be sure I dressed only in black. I was paid the minimum wage at the time. $1.00 an hour! (But, got a 25% store discount! Whee!)
Two years later, as a teacher, my salary was $4,000 for nine months. According to the online CPI calculator as the comparable indicates, that's about $32,100 in today's money. (Guess that works out to a multiplier of 8). Looking back to Job One at a dollar an hour, even today I'd be in the same minimum wage boat, roughly making slightly more than $7.25.
Yes, it is surprising there isn't more of a uprising—yet.
P.S. On the plus side, back then gasoline was about .27 a gallon and we no longer required horse and buggy!
Of course, my today's multiplier puts gas @$2.16 a gal. As we say around these heah parts, la plus ça change, et al....
I'm dubious about Justice Kennedy's dubiousness regarding the application of an executive order in the US v Texas case before the Supremes. Nina Totenberg, long-time SCOTUS reporter, states in the link above, that Kennedy is typically very open to giving the executive branch wide latitude in the application of its powers but now all of a sudden things are different? Hmmmm.....wonder why?
And the excuse for his new found skepticism is that this order involves four million people. Well, we're talking about the executive branch which has nearly 320 million constituents, in which case four million doesn't sound like a whole helluva lot. What does he think, that executive orders don't usually affect many people?
Kennedy suggests that the immigration mess should be handled by congress, not the court. Exactly. But, as Marie pointed out yesterday, the Republican controlled (can't really use the word "led") congress has refused to handle it, leaving it to a real leader to do something about a terrible ongoing situation.
This really is the party--no, the mindset, the world view--of NO. An inverted, perverted gesamtkunstwerk. We're not gonna do shit and we're not gonna let anyone else do shit either. Vote Republican!
Sly Sny and the Canaille.
Republicans really must think average Americans are stupid as shit.
So Rick Snyder, the guy whose adherence to the Confederate Playbook (Chapter three, pages 120-356: How to Fuck the Poor for Profit and Fun), has poisoned thousands of residents of Flint, MI, including babies and small children, some possibly to the point of brain damage, will now perform yet another Stupid Republican Trick and DRINK THE WATER!!
Ha!
And if you believe that one, Donald Trump has a Ground Zero 7-Eleven to sell you. I'm sure all those Flint residents will be impressed.
I can just see the 3 AM deliveries of cases of Dasani now...Hope he has a big basement. The governor's mansion in Michigan is big (8,700 square feet) but Snyder's own mansion is even bigger (10, 600 "...complete with indoor pool, movie theater and wine cellar.") so I'm sure he has plenty of space to hide the bottled water he'll be sneaking 'til the end of this stunt.
Poison thousands of people to make money and get yourself in good with Confederate big shots then announce a magic trick to make it all better.
Where do they find these jamokes?
Favorite link headline today:
"The Dildo Factor"
...right up there with the lede from the Amanda Marcotte story it points to: "Ted Cruz's Dildo Dishonesty".
Yeah....what she said.
Cruising through the Gabler article in the Atlantic, I was reminded of the Republican answer to hard times, as offered by the architect of the recent Great Recession, The Decider: Go shopping.
Those Republicans, they're just full of good ideas!
Start Wars
Bomb the Shit Out of 'Em
Mass Deportations
Build a Wall
Return to the Gold Standard
Ban Muslims
Theocracy!
Guns for Everyone
Institutionalize Racism
Economy in Ruins? Go Shopping
....oh god, I'd keep going but it's just too depressing.
Elections matter.
SLY SNY AND THE CANAILLE coming to your town soon. Tickets can be purchased on line. Great group, good drummer, and the main vocalist, Sly Sny, has a voice like a deep water gurgle. We have no idea what exactly is or what the Canaille is, but would not be surprised if it refers to another LEAD singer.
PD,
"LEAD singer"?
I do love bad puns....
As for "canaille", I got it a while back while reading something about Mark Twain, who used it in one of his typically acerbic quotes. One of those words that require just the right lexical circumstance and context (snooty Republican, eg). It's pronounced ka-nigh.
Puerto Rico Debt: Oh, which of their puppeteers will the R's support?
This from Bloomberg explains why I'm laughing (a little).
Couldn't happen to nicer Congresscritters, divided over which large pile of money they are most loyal to.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-19/puerto-rico-s-bondholders-divided-in-fight-over-federal-rescue
But wait. There are real human beings in Puerto Rico. Too bad they're just people, not hedge funds...
@AK: Great word, canaille––French––from Italian "canaglia" pack of dogs (or singular–– one bad dude American style.) Ah, what one learns from someone like you. Love it!
@Akhilleus
Just for you, an update on Governor Poindexter:
http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2015/02/michigan_gov_rick_snyder_and_w.html
The Snyders sold their mansion on Geddes Road (a block north of where I grew up) and moved uptown a year ago. They no longer have a cellar for their contraband Dasani, but apparently they have plenty of room up on the roof -- where it'll be peaceful as can be.