The Commentariat -- April 20, 2015
Internal links removed.
Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Turning disgust with billionaire super PAC benefactors into a platform that moves voters has been an elusive goal for activists seeking to curb the massive sums sloshing through campaigns. But five years after the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision -- which held it was unconstitutional to ban independent political spending by corporations and unions, and helped set off a financial arms race -- there are signs that politicians are beginning to confront a voter backlash." ...
... Joshua Replogle of the AP: "The letter carrier who caused a full-scale security review in Washington when he violated national airspace by landing his gyrocopter on Capitol Hill expressed frustration Sunday that his message wasn't getting through.... 'We've got bigger problems in this country than worrying about whether the security around DC is ironclad,' [Doug] Hughes told The Associated Press. 'We need to be worried about the piles of money that are going into Congress.'"
Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: After President Obama called the delay in Senate confirmation of Loretta Lynch "embarrassing," Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said on CNN Sunday that the "issues" which Senate Republicans used as an excuse to stall her confirmation would likely be resolved within the next few days.
Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "... the nation's 1.3 million active-duty service members are in a special bind, virtually powerless to hold accountable the health care system that treats them. They are captives of the military medical system, unable, without specific approval, to get care elsewhere if they fear theirs is substandard or dangerous. Yet if they are harmed or die, they or their survivors have no legal right to challenge their care, and seek answers, by filing malpractice suits."
Frances Robles & Shaila DeWan of the New York Times: "Walter Scott's death has focused attention not just on police violence, but also on the use of jail to pressure parents to pay child support, a policy employed by many states today. Though the threat of jail is considered an effective incentive for people who are able but unwilling to pay, many critics assert that punitive policies are trapping poor men in a cycle of debt, unemployment and imprisonment.... The Obama administration is trying to change some of these policies, proposing to rewrite enforcement rules to require that child support orders be based on actual income and consider the 'subsistence needs' of the noncustodial parent, to bar states from allowing child support debt to accrue while parents are incarcerated and to finance more job placement services for them."
Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Medicare ... imprint[s] Social Security numbers on more than 50 million benefit cards despite years of warnings from government watchdogs that it placed millions of people at risk for financial losses from identity theft. That is about to change, after President Obama signed a bill last week that will end the use of those numbers on Medicare cards."
Rebecca Leber of the New Republic: Five years after BP's Gulf disaster, deepwater drilling is just as dangerous. ...
... Josh Israel of Think Progress: "... while scientists continue to observe ongoing [ecological] problems [in the Gulf], a BP spokesman appeared on ABC's This Week on Sunday suggesting the remaining oil no longer poses a risk to humans or the aquatic ecosystem." Ignore those tar balls, people!
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court signaled Friday that it is unlikely to allow President Barack Obama's request to go ahead with a new round of relief for illegal immigrants, making it likely that the White House will have to take its legal case to the Supreme Court within days.... By the time the court session wrapped up, it appeared likely the appeals judges will rule, 2-1, against the administration's request for a stay of a district court injunction...."
Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "The Canadian Supreme Court, unlike the United States' Supreme Court, understands that sectarian prayer is sectarian." Also, their Santa Claus outfits are superb.
Daniel Politi of Slate: "President Obama offered support for decriminalizing medical marijuana, as well as an overall change in the way the country deals with drug offenders, during an interview scheduled to air on Sunday night as part of a CNN special on marijuana."
If you didn't read Steve Coll's piece on dangerous Congressional Republicans, linked yesterday, back up & read it. Coll backs up what I've said in the past, but -- unlike me -- he's something of an expert.
Paul Krugman: The Greek economic crisis is still a crisis, & creditors are still behaving badly.
Presidential Race
Jim Newell of Salon reported from Nashua, New Hampshire, the weekend's temporary center for crazy. Not surprisingly, some of the crowd were even whackier than speaker John Bolton.
Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Calling voters 'folks' and boasting about his cut-rate suits from Jos. A. Bank, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker campaigned vigorously in New Hampshire over the weekend, citing his polarizing labor policies and urging Republican primary voters to resist pleas for moderation in a party that has lost the last two presidential elections. Walker's brash, populist pitch was a direct shot at his better-heeled GOP rivals and the likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton...."
Elliot Smilowitz of the Hill: "Just days after announcing a 2016 run for the White House, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has already received more than $40 million in donations, according to Reuters." ...
... Old Marco. Ana Marie Cox in the Daily Beast: "Take away Rubio's biography and look at his positions and he becomes less the voice of his generation and more Benjamin Button. If I told you about a candidate that was anti-marriage equality, anti-immigration reform (for now), anti-pot decriminalization, pro-government surveillance, and in favor of international intervention but against doing something about climate change, what would you guess the candidate's age to be? On all of those issues, Rubio's position is not the one shared by most young people. The Guardian dubbed him the 'John McCain of the millennial set,' which isn't fair to McCain, who at least has averred that climate change exists." ...
... Martin Pengelly: "Marco Rubio ... on Sunday said he did not 'believe same-sex marriage is a constitutional right'. Rubio said instead that the issue should be decided at the state level, although he did concede that 'sexual preference is something that people are born with'." CW: This is a quick "evolution" for Marco; way last week "he called homosexuality a choice." Apparently, it's a choice made in the womb. More evidence that zygotes are people, my friend. ...
... How to speak out of both sides of your mouth: It's not that I'm against gay marriage, I believe the definition of the institution of marriage should be between one man and one woman. -- Marco Rubio, to Bob Schieffer
Also, too, it's unnecessary to make sense. (See, for another example, Victoria D.'s comment in today's thread. -- Constant Weader
Nate Cohn of the New York Times: Mike "Huckabee may not be receiving much attention, but he is as important as any of the other second-tier candidates in the race, like Ted Cruz or Rand Paul. He has demonstrated appeal to a crucial bloc of Republican primary voters: the religious right. If he runs, he will be one of the most significant figures in the primary season, with the ability to deny a crucial segment of voters or even states to another candidate."
Everything Is Relative. Olivia Nuzzi of the Daily Beast: "'I don't consider myself a wealthy man,' Chris Christie said Friday in New Hampshire. That would be the same Chris Christie who, according to his tax returns, made $698,838 in 2013 -- $160,054 of which he earned as Governor of New Jersey, and $475,854 of which came from his wife, Mary Pat Christie, who works at a New York investment bank. Christie isn't rich if you're comparing him to his friends and donors, and he certainly may not feel rich in New Jersey, where his own policies have made living more expensive."
Hunter Schwartz of the Washington Post: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said his decision on whether he'll run for president depends on whether he can raise enough money, but he said there's a '91 percent' chance he will. 'If I can raise the money, I'll do it,' he said on 'Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.'"
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Ohio Gov. John Kasich continued to signal his increasing interest in running for president Sunday, saying he's waiting for a signal from God before making the call.... While he awaits that clarity, Kasich said he's been active on the trail just in case. 'I'm not going to figure [it] out laying [sic.!] in bed, hoping lightning strikes,' he said." ...
... CW: Apparently, then, lightning is a signal from God. It appears that in the U.S., God is paying closest attention to "Central Florida between Tampa and Orlando [which] is known as 'lightning alley.'" The geologists who manage the site from which I obtained this information have a lot of nerve claiming that "warm, rising air pull[ing] sea breezes from the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico" are the cause of the high frequency of lightning strikes in the region, when the real cause is God's messaging system. In any event, if Kasich is looking for a signal, he might take the kids to Disney World to up his chances of getting a signal from Thor. I do hope that somewhere in the message, God will mention that Kasich's balanced budget obsession is idiotic.
Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "'Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,' by Peter Schweizer -- a 186-page investigation of donations made to the Clinton Foundation by foreign entities -- is proving the most anticipated and feared book of a presidential cycle still in its infancy. The book, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, asserts that foreign entities who made payments to the Clinton Foundation and to Mr. Clinton through high speaking fees received favors from Mrs. Clinton's State Department in return.... Conservative 'super PACs' plan to seize on 'Clinton Cash,' and a pro-Democrat super PAC has already assembled a dossier on Mr. Schweizer, a speechwriting consultant to former President George W. Bush and a fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution who has contributed to the conservative website Breitbart.com, to make the case that he has a bias against Mrs. Clinton.... Major news organizations including The Times, The Washington Post and Fox News have exclusive agreements with the author to pursue the story lines found in the book." ...
... Either Hillary Goes or I Do. AP: "A North Carolina man's obituary asked two things of friends and family: instead of sending flowers for the funeral, give the money to charity. And don't vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Jeffrey Tayler in Salon: "Reporters should do their job and not allow any of these potential commanders-in-chief to get away with God talk without making them answer for it, as impolite as that might be. Religious convictions deserve the same scrutiny any other convictions get,or more. After all, they are essentially wide-ranging assertions about the nature of reality and supernatural phenomena. As always, the burden of proof lies on the one making extraordinary claims. And if the man or woman carrying the nuclear briefcase happens to be eagerly desiring the End of Days, we need to know."
Mark Hensch of the Hill: "Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Sunday announced that he will not run for governor in his home state.... Manchin additionally endorsed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during his CBS appearance Sunday."
News Ledes
USA Today: "The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt has moved off the coast of Yemen to prepare to intercept potential shipments of Iranian weapons to the rebels fighting the U.S.-backed government of Yemen, Pentagon officials said Monday."
Washington Post: "An intruder climbed the White House fence late Sunday night but was quickly taken into custody, the Secret Service said."
Share Article
Reader Comments (14)
So Scott Walker is running as an anti- labor populist? Color me confused!
@Victoria: GOP "populism" is purely rhetorical, requiring the employment of words & phrases like "folks," "my friend," & "real America." It's "I feel your pain" while planning to exacerbate it. The only "pain" they're willing to eliminate are union dues.
Marie
I delight in C.W's "Sics"––a grammar scold to behold! And I find the word"believe" problematic–– for instance: "I believe marriage is between one man and one woman." One can believe in tooth fairies or in individuals and so forth, but to use the word believe when you are actually stating that you are against or condemn gay marriage is fudging big time. And I'm always amused at the "one" man and one woman––how about two men and one woman or one man and twelve woman with six dogs and a few cats. Ah, words, these days one has to pay very close attention to the GOP's "I'm jest a regular fella jest like you folks." It's that old voting for Andrew Jackson over and over.
The Times has an article on a new book, "Clinton Cash," that questions donations to the Clinton's foundation, implying that there were some quid pro quos.
The article mentions the author's impeccable conservative credentials sort of late in the story. But I found this passage more unsettling, though I'm not sure why:
""....major news organizations including The Times, The Washington Post and Fox News have exclusive agreements with the author to pursue the story lines found in the book."
Victoria,
It's all about narrative. The press decides on a narrative it deems acceptable and marketable.
So Obama inherits the worst economy most Americans can ever recall. He works to turn it around. Stock markets rebound, unemployment drops, revived the auto industry, millions who have never had healthcare see a doctor for the first time, their lives immeasurably improved, accomplishes the goal of all Republicans who, when it happened (locating and killing Osama Bin Laden), proclaimed it no big deal suddenly, brought US foreign policy into the 21st (as opposed to the 9th) century, worked to end hostilities with Cuba and to develop a plan for progress with Iran, situations that have been problems for decades, aided in ouster of Gaddafi and Mubarek, repealed Don't Ask Don't Tell, ended Bush's War.
But he's the worst president ever. He's weak. He's indecisive. He's aloof. He doesn't hit the bars with the boys after work. He plays golf while the world burns. He disrespects the military by saluting while he's holding a cup of coffee in the other hand.
If all this had been accomplished by the Romney Mechanism or John McCain, they'd be making room for them on Mount Rushmore.
Too often facts don't matter, or maybe they're sniffed at but the details and more nuanced pictures that are illuminated by a more careful consideration of facts within their historical contexts are dismissed for a breezier, more cavalier embroidering of "better" narrative choices.
One other odd thing about the sentence you highlight: how is it that three media giants all have an exclusive agreement with this guy? I thought exclusive meant......well, exclusive.
Must be me.
@Akhilleus & Victoria D. A couple of related sentences stood out for me: "He writes mainly in the voice of a neutral journalist and meticulously documents his sources, including tax records and government documents, while leaving little doubt about his view of the Clintons.... But 'Clinton Cash' is potentially more unsettling [than the crap anti-Clinton screeds], both because of its focused reporting...."
I hope there really is "meticulous reporting" here, because the impression I get is that Chozick is more impressed by the style of "journalism" than by the fact that Schweizer is a Breitbart hack who is likely to be mighty good at "editing" (see Shirley Sherrod).
I'm sure I could do a left-wing hit job where I showed some relatively-moderate GOP politician had voted for some outrageous stuff, made some ridiculous remarks & took campaign cash from the usual suspects. But if I didn't balance that by acknowledging s/he often voted with Democrats, the remarks in context weren't so ridiculous & Planned Parenthood was one of her/his top supporters, then my "meticulous reporting" would just be a hit job, even though the facts I chose to present were at least technically accurate.
In a short piece, you can criticize a particular politician for a particular vote or action or remark, but in a book-length piece, the author has an obligation to present mitigating factors, if there are any.
Marie
Earth Day's a-comin' and the wingers are already frothing at the mouth. Have been for some time.
I remember the first Earth Day in 1970. Everyone in my high school convened on the bleachers of the football field behind the school. There were speeches, buttons handed out (I might still have mine in a box somewhere) and general jubilation, especially when it was announced that we were one of thousands of American schools participating in the event. Looking back on it now, it's pretty amazing that a grassroots movement (a truly grassroots movement; no Koch money or corporate money--remember, this was 1970, most of corporate America despised the environmental movement. Hey...wait, they still do!) in the pre-internet age could get 20 million Americans involved in this celebration.
In 1970 20M people represented about .5 percent of the world's population. This year over a billion people in 192 countries will participate in some form or another. And even though the number of people in the world is close to having doubled since 1970, that represents about 14% of all the people in the world.
And Confederates are PISSED!!
Looking up some Earth Day stats, I hit upon one incredible screed after another from that alternate, fact-free, and very scary place, Right Wing World, where, to hear them tell it "Earth Day is a Celebration of Misery and Death". But not just any regular ol' misery and death. The worst ever! WORSE THAN HITLER! (wait, I thought it was Obama who was worse than Hitler....never mind). So Earth Day isn't just a bad idea. Things Confederates hate are never just bad ideas. They are the worst-things-ever. Misery! Death! Horrible Shit! HITLER!
That was best selling author Michael Crichton, by the way, who declared environmentalists like Rachel Carson worse than Hitler. And, oh baby, once wingers hear the magic word "Hitler!" it's Katy bar the door. They're off and running.
To show you what I mean, check out this sentence from the Fox screed linked above:
"The death toll is in the hundreds of millions, including infanticide conducted on behalf of population control in China and preventable deaths from malaria in the Third World thanks to the banning of DDT."
See how this guy links environmentalism with Communist China and baby killing? Smooth, in'it? How, may I ask, do Chinese domestic policies connect to American environmentalists? Don't ask. You won't get an answer. You also won't see any links or statistical information, or anything else to back up the usual pants on fire claims. But laying the deaths of hundreds of millions at the feet of environmentalism caught my attention. Oh, and no idea where "hundreds of millions" came from either. CDC stats (linked below) indicate about half a million deaths from malaria. And that's a lot, but if you're figuring from the publication of "Silent Spring" in 1962, you're talking maybe 25 or 30 million. But not "hundreds of millions". I guess that's why the Chinese were brought in.
But specifically, this idiot is claiming that the "worldwide ban on DDT" by evil environmentalists is to blame.
So I looked it up.
There is no "worldwide ban on DDT". Never has been, apparently. The US deregistered DDT as a pesticide back in 1972 but the EPA certainly had no control over what was going on in Africa or Sri Lanka. Still doesn't, unless the Evil World Wide Guvmint has taken over while I was out staining the deck yesterday. Those sneaky fuckers!
Anyway, further investigation brings up several inconvenient facts for the Tree Killers. DDT, it seems, was very effective in certain areas back in the 50's and 60's (remember the clouds of DDT sprayed over neighborhoods when we were kids?). So successful it was used everywhere in addition to killing mosquitoes for malaria control. It was used as the basic crop pesticide as well. There was so much of it, mosquitoes developed an immunity to it and it stopped being used. It wasn't banned. Oops. Sorry, wingers.
In fact, the WHO still recommends limited use of DDT in some areas for indoor residual spraying. So no ban there either.
And it never seemed to work very well in sub-Saharan Africa in the first place, where most Malaria deaths occur. Apparently there is no off-season for mosquitoes in those regions. Their life cycles never end so DDT had never been considered very useful there.
There's no denying that malaria is a terrible scourge in certain regions of the world, but to blame American environmentalists for killing hundreds of millions (with no references or evidence--gut feelings and something other wingers have said a thousand--no, a hun'erd millon times!--is good enough) worldwide in an "...annual bacchanalia (Earth Day) of self abuse invented by the environmental movement to remind everyone that the human race is a pestilence upon this planet" is nothing short of pig ignorant. A bit of an insult to pigs there. Sorry, pigs.
If you really want to see just what kind of an alternate reality these jackals inhabit, read the comments below some of their anti-environment and anti-Earth Day screeds. Whew!
One commenter screams that he wants all the rivers to be poisoned, the air to be unbreathable, and the earth to die a toxic death. Just to give the environmentalists what for. And those billion people who will be celebrating Earth Day this week.
These people aren't even human.
But their addiction to narratives in which they are inarguably, unquestionably right and their enemies Hitler-level evil, no matter what the facts say, defies any and all attempts at rehabilitation back into the fold of sane humans.
Anyway, let's all enjoy Earth Day and hope the begrudgers drink some contaminated water, get lost in the smog, and run their gas guzzlers off the road.
Marie, these guys have no obligation to do shit.
His bio says that "Peter Franz Schweizer is an American conservative author and the president of the Government Accountability Institute, a conservative investigative research organization."
Ha...."conservative investigative research organization" sounds like Wingnut School for Fables, Myths, and Shit We Hacks Feel in Our Guts.
Guys like Schweizer could spit out more pages than Tolstoy and Dickens combined and you wouldn't find a mitigating factor hidden among the mustiest footnotes.
Besides, with a name like Peter Franz Schweizer, I bet this guy is a personal friend of HITLER!!!!
@ Akhilleus: In describing President Obama as weak, indecisive, and aloof, you forgot the part about him being a tyrannical dictator. But I certainly agree, it's all about narrative.
Mohammad Javed Zarif, Foreign Minister of Iran, writes an op-ed in the Times today about moving forward on the nuclear deal and peace efforts in the middle east:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/20/opinion/mohammad-javad-zarif-a-message-from-iran.html
Mr Zarif is putting forward his assessment of the regional security situation, but I doubt many wingers will get past the third paragraph, which starts with this sentence: "With courageous leadership and the audacity to make the right decisions, we can and should put this manufactured crisis to rest and move on to much more important work." Too many Obama buzzwords.
The news that reg'lar guy Scott Walker has been royally fucking up the state of Wisconsin has taken a back seat to the chosen narratives of the media pundits, largely acceding to his "just folks" invented persona without acknowledging the inconvenient and possibly confusing overlay of his "just an incompetent asshole" actual persona.
Joan Walker's piece about the incredible incompetence and vicious partisanship that have been hallmarks of the failed Walker stewardship points to a good question.
Can and will the press show us more than just the soft soap on offer from these candidates?
We are at a pivotal moment in national politics. The cream of the Confederacy will be on display in the coming months as idiots like John Bolton join what is soon to be a field overcrowded with ideologues, religious nutjobs, fanatics, egotistical opportunists, liars, inept pretenders, and sociopaths.
It will be a shooting gallery of hard targets, a target rich environment as military types like to say. The question is how will the press react? Voters have a right to know who exactly these people are and what they believe in, not just what their press releases claim. When someone like John Bolton stands in the ring and demands that voters put him in charge, it is irresponsible in the extreme for the national and local press not to question him, his motives, his beliefs, and his opinions on all pressing matters before the public. Same with Rubio, Paul, Cruz, and those jumping in in short order.
With first team teabaggers and Confederates up on stage, it is a chance to demonstrate exactly how distorted and divisive and dangerous Republican ideology has been to this country, and how much more dangerous it could become if one of these mountebanks makes it into the White House. If the public were ever in need of truth from the media, it's now.
Think they'll do it?
Nah. I don't either.
Is he really a moron or is he trying to appeal to the morons?
So here is what presidential wannabe Marco Rubio said this weekend on the TV thingy:
"...humans are not responsible for climate change ...The question is what percentage of [climate change] is due to human activity?"
Er....ah....dude, didn't you just say humans are NOT responsible? So why does your big question ask how much they're responsible?
Is it just me?
Is Rubio trying to be clever and attempting to make an ontological distinction between "humans" and "human activity"?
No. He's an idiot. Or he's giving his best impression of someone other idiots might agree with.
(By the way, in case you're wondering, the elipses don't take out anything that would have modified or in any way ameliorated this stupidity. A four year old would be scratching her head over this one.Morons, or those appealing to morons must, at all costs, be kept far away from the White House. We saw what happened in 2000 when another moron got in there.)
Mor(e) on Oxymoron Morons
@ Akhilleus: It's what Marco does. Your example is just another iteration (I think maybe uttered in the same interview!) of the type of Marcobabble I noted above:
"It's not that I'm against gay marriage, I believe the definition of the institution of marriage should be between one man and one woman." -- Marco Rubio, to Bob Schieffer
Also, too, it's unnecessary to make sense. -- Marie
Of course, as Victoria D. pointed at the top of today's thread, all good GOP candidates have their own variations on the same theme. Scottie has even pundits & reporters impressed that he's an anti-labor populist.
Marie
Marcobabble.
I like it. Not the babbling, just the term.
Unfortunately too many in the press will give this kind of shit slinging g a pass and treat Marcobabble, ChristieCrap, Paul'sMauls, and Cruzy'sDoozys as conversations with Athenian philosophers instead of what they are: barely decipherable twaddle.
I hope Bolton hangs in there. He's the perfect headliner for GOP Crazy. I suppose there's a risk that he makes the rest of the freak show look normal - my hope is that he spreads his slime over the entire group.