The Commentariat -- April 26, 2014
Internal links, obsolete videos removed.
Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The United States and other members of the Group of Seven will impose new sanctions against Russia as early as Monday because it continues to support separatist actions in Ukraine, White House officials said Saturday. President Obama, traveling through Asia, has been consulting with U.S. allies about the worsening situation in Ukraine, where a peace agreement struck a week ago has yet to defuse tensions." ...
... Josh Rogin of the Daily Beast: "The Kremlin has ended high-level contact with the Obama administration, according to diplomatic officials and sources close to the Russian leadership. The move signals an end to the diplomacy, for now. 'Putin will not talk to Obama under pressure,' said Igor Yurgens..., a close associate of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. 'It does not mean forever.'" ...
... AFP: " Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called the Internet a 'CIA project' and warned Russians against making Google searches. Putin assured a group of young journalists that the Internet was controlled from the start by the CIA and its surveillance continues today."
Perhaps the Most Insidious Way the Plutocracy Is Taking Control. Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "In effect, [the] Walton [Family Foundation] has subsidized an entire charter school system in the nation's capital, helping to fuel enrollment growth so that close to half of all public school students in the city now attend charters, which receive taxpayer dollars but are privately operated. Walton's investments [in Washington, D.C.] are a microcosm of its spending across the country.... Analysts often describe Walton as following a distinct ideological path. In addition to giving grants to right-leaning think tanks like the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, the Walton foundation hired an education program officer who had worked at the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC]."
Edmund Zagorin in the American Prospect: "Race-blind admissions are affirmative action for whites.... No group experiences more affirmative action than white people. Michigan's formal pro-white affirmative action policy, colloquially known as 'legacy preference,' puts the children of alumni ahead of other applicants. It unquestionably favors the white and the wealthy, at the expense of the poor and the black. Outside of the U.S., legacy admissions mostly went the way of feudalism. But at many U.S. universities, and especially at Michigan, legacy admissions amount to an eternal parade of white pride.... And legacy doesn't even scratch the surface of the biggest instrument of racial discrimination...: standardized testing.... Standardized testing is literally the example given in sociological texts to define the term "institutional racism'."
Abby Rapoport of the American Prospect: "By appointing [Deborah Leff,] an advocate for defendants' rights, as the new pardon attorney, the Obama administration has signaled it is serious about commuting drug offenses."
Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "... the Navy brass is reeling over this week's disclosure that one of its most prominent pilots is under investigation for allegedly fostering a culture of sexual harassment, hazing and lewd behavior. The pilot, Capt. Gregory McWherter, is the former commander and public face of the Blue Angels, the Navy's elite flight squadron. Less well known is the fact that until Friday, he also was president of the Tailhook Association, a nonprofit aviator fraternity that despite its past disgrace still draws thousands to its annual convention.... On Friday, however, he submitted his resignation as president of the Tailhook Association...."
"Party of Guns." James Hohmann of Politico: "At the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Indianapolis Friday, six potential Republican candidates for president touted their pro-gun bona fides and pledged allegiance to the Second Amendment."
Ashley Parker & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Speculation about Speaker John A. Boehner's intentions in overhauling the nation's immigration laws intensified Friday after he mocked the most conservative House members for thwarting his attempts to fix the system, shore up the borders and address the legal status of the country's 11 million illegal immigrants. For Mr. Boehner of Ohio, who expressed his frustrations at a Rotary Club luncheon in Ohio on Thursday, it was the latest in a series of bracing comments that White House officials and activists said could be an indication that he was willing to buck opposition in his own party and move ahead on immigration." CW: I'm not holding my breath. But if Boehner does break with the Tea Party on immigration, Nancy Pelosi will do the heavy lifting. Again.
... Otherwise, a Great Day for the GOP
Ed O'Keefe & Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) has been secretly indicted by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, according to people familiar with the case. The indictment is expected to be unsealed in the coming days. A person briefed on the case said Grimm was indicted by a grand jury empaneled by the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn and that his attorney had been in talks with prosecutors." ...
... Grimm, in happier days (January 2014):
Lauren French of Politico: "The House Ethics Committee is investigating whether retiring Rep. Steve Stockman's campaign committee violated federal law. The investigation over reporting errors sent to the Federal Election Commission was made public by the Texas Republican's office on Friday."
Flunked GOP How-to-Talk-to-the-Ladies Class. Manu Raju of Politico: "Det Bowers, a pastor challenging Lindsey Graham in the South Carolina GOP Senate primary, once blamed women for causing most divorces -- even when husbands are unfaithful to their wives. During a sermon on the Book of Peter delivered at the Christ Church of the Carolinas, Bowers said it was an 'abominable idolatry' when wives love their children more than their husbands, arguing that's what causes divorces most of the time. He added that in the 'vast preponderance' of situations where men are adulterous, women are to blame because they have showered too much emotion on their children instead of their husbands."
A Great Day for the GOP A'Way Out West
You People Are So Unfair. Daniel Strauss of TPM: Sean Spicer, "a top spokesman for the Republican National Committee, got heated during an interview Friday on CNN, saying Republicans have been unfairly linked to Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his racist remarks." With video. ...
... CW: Right. Prominent Republicans -- including three who see themselves as presidential material -- endorsed Bundy's views, & GOP house organ Fox "News" made Bundy their cause celebre, but there are no "links" whatsoevah to the Republican party. ...
... Christopher Hooks of the Texas Observer "points & laughs" at how prominent Texas politicians Sen. Ted Cruz (might run for president), AG Greg Abbott (running for governor), Gov. Rick Perry (might run for president) reacted to Cliven Bundy's racist comments. ...
I took this boot off so I wouldn't put my foot in my mouth with the boot on.... But you know, when you talk about prejudice, we're talking about not being able to exercise what we think and our feelings. We don't have freedom to say what we want. If I call -- if I say negro or black boy or slave, I'm not -- if those people cannot take those kind of words and not be offended, then Martin Luther King hasn't got his job done then yet. They should be able to -- I should be able to say those things and they shouldn't offend anybody. I didn't mean to offend them. -- Cliven Bundy, yesterday
So, black people or Martin Luther King, Jr. -- who's been dead for nearly half a century -- are taking away Bundy's freedom of speech. 'Those people' have a helluva a lot of nerve taking offense at his derogatory, racist comments. -- Constant Weader
... ** Hilarious Craigslist ad via Betty Cracker of Balloon Juice. ...
... Gail Collins weighs in. To protect the ecosystem, those cattle should be banned from federal lands. ...
... Caty Enders of Esquire visits the Bundy Ranch. Creepy-funny. Or just creepy.
A Great Day for the GOP in New Jersey
Lisa Brennan of Main Justice: "The Securities and Exchange Commission has joined with the Manhattan District Attorney's office to investigate possible misuse of Port Authority of New York and New Jersey funds by Gov. Chris Christie.... Two SEC Enforcement Division lawyers in the New York regional office are examining the manner by which the Christie administration apparently steamrolled the agency's top in-house counsel into creating a legal justification in 2011 allowing the New Jersey governor to grab $1.8 billion of Port Authority tax-exempt bonds to fix the aging Pulaski Skyway bridge and other neglected state roadways.... But the justification for the diversion may have constituted fraud." ...
... Scott Raab of Esquire elaborates.
Bad News for ALEC & the Koch Boys
Steven Mufson & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "In state capitals across the country, legislators are debating proposals to roll back environmental rules, prodded by industry and advocacy groups eager to curtail regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gases. The measures ... have been introduced in about 18 states.... The new rules would trim or abolish climate mandates -- including those that require utilities to use solar and wind energy, as well as proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules.... But the campaign -- despite its backing from powerful groups such as [Koch-funded] Americans for Prosperity -- has run into a surprising roadblock: the growing political clout of renewable-energy interests, even in rock-ribbed Republican states such as Kansas."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, the No. 2 official in the South Korean government, apologized and offered to resign on Sunday, as the country remained angry and saddened over the sinking of a ferry that left 302 people, a vast majority of them high school students, dead or missing."
New York Times: "Antigovernment militants in eastern Ukraine on Saturday rebuffed international calls for the release of a group of European military observers, but suggested that they would consider a prisoner exchange. The military observers -- at least seven officers reportedly from Germany, Poland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Denmark -- were detained on Friday at a rebel checkpoint at the edge of this city while traveling with a Ukrainian military delegation, which was also held. The militants have accused the observers of espionage."
AFP: "US troops arrived Saturday in Lithuania, part of a US contingent of 600 sent to the region to reassure NATO allies amid the escalating Ukraine crisis. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite hailed the arrival of American forces as a 'deterrence measure' in the region where alarm has risen over Russia's actions in Ukraine."
Reuters: "President Barack Obama said on Saturday the United States did not use its military might to 'impose things' on others, but that it would use that might if necessary to defend South Korea from any attack by the reclusive North." ...
... New York Times: "Opening the first visit to Malaysia by a U.S. president in nearly half a century, Barack Obama looked ahead Saturday to economic and security talks with Prime Minister Najib Razak, who leads a southeast Asian nation with an important role in Obama's efforts to forge deeper ties with the region."
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Reader Comments (3)
"In effect, [the] Walton [Family Foundation] has subsidized an entire charter school system in the nation’s capital, helping to fuel enrollment growth so that close to half of all public school students in the city now attend charters, which receive taxpayer dollars but are privately operated. Walton’s investments [in Washington, D.C.] are a microcosm of its spending across the country...."
It's interesting that while the Walton's freely invest millions in ideological driven educational enterprises, Wal-Mart is unwilling to pay many of its employees enough to disqualify them from receiving food stamps. As has been well reported, a substantial number of Wal-Mart employees depend on food stamps to feed their families. In Ohio, which keeps records of food stamp recipients by employer, Wal-Mart led the pack in numbers of employees on food stamps last year; by some estimates over 7000 employees comprising 15% of the work-force. It is fair to say these numbers are repeated in states across the country. Wouldn't it be a better investment of Walton dollars to pay its employees fairly?
Re: Cliven Bundy. I grew up in the West and was around people like him. He really is hurt by the backlash. He doesn't understand why people like him are chastised when they speak their mind. He thinks he's just stating the way things are, rather than the way he thinks they are. He's lived in his cocoon far too long and I don't think he realizes the rest of the country (you know the one that doesn't exist) has moved on.
My mother's second husband was the Sheriff of Union County. He would have felt right at home with ol' Cliven. Oregon county sheriffs have little police power; the State Police have most of it. They mostly serve court papers and take custody of prisoners. Still, he was of a type. To me, he was embarrassing to be around in public because of the outrageous things he said in a loud voice.
Victoria D: The answer depends on how rhetorically your question was intended.
Paying employees adequately a "Better investment" for the Waltons? Certainly not. Their business model works perfectly--for them. The Walton enterprise receives between 6 and 7 billion in yearly subsidies to their underpaid employees, subsidies that while not intended as such, in effect keep a pool of what amounts to wage slaves in bondage. People can "afford" to work for Walmart only because we subsidize them to do so, a system that works out very well indeed for the Waltons, whose profit last year was, I think I read, around 17 billion.
Taken a step further, the Waltons then use some of this taxpayer subsidized profit to tear down the system that provides them with it, another instance of the Right's economic jujitsu, using the strength of your enemy against himself, in this case the Left's sense of compassion.
The Left's compassion is also its weakness, for it's the worker safety net itself which cynical employers like Walmart to in turn abuse. I'd heard CA was discussing a special tax on employers like Walmart who use the state to subsidize their workforce, but I don't know if it ever got beyond the talking stage. Probably not; it makes so much moral sense.
No surprise that there is a definite historical myopia at work on the Right. The current generation of Waltons wants to destroy the ideological and moral underpinnings of the economic system that made their fortune possible. Short term, it's a brilliant plan. It's making them even richer. But since they don't seem to understand (or care?) where their wealth come from, long term, it's unsustainable. When taxes are even lower, when the safety net is gone, when people can't possibly survive on the pittance The Waltons pay, where will they find a subsidized pool of workers to exploit?
But then capitalism has never been very good at the long term, has it? Didn't someone say something about it containing the seeds of its own destruction?