The Commentariat -- August 19, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Elana Schor & Josh Funk of Politico: "... Elizabeth Warren offered a public apology Monday to Native Americans over her past claim to tribal heritage, directly tackling an area that's proved to be a big political liability. 'Like anyone who has been honest with themselves, I know I have made mistakes,' the Massachusetts senator said at a forum on Native American issues in this pivotal early-voting state. 'I am sorry for the harm I have caused.' Monday's remarks were an effort to move past the fallout from her past claims of tribal ancestry, which culminated in a widely criticized release of a DNA analysis last year. The issue nearly derailed her campaign in the early days as ... Donald Trump began derisively referring to her as 'Pocahontas.'... The detailed policy agenda to help Native Americans that she released last week helped her secure a warm reception from attendees at the tribal forum."
"I Call the Shots at Fox." Bianca Quilantan of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Sunday slammed his preferred news network over recent unfavorable poll results, saying: 'There's something going on at Fox [News], I'll tell you right now. And I'm not happy with it.' Trump's comments to reporters in New Jersey were in response to a question about the network's recent survey showing the president losing head-to-head matchups against four of the top Democratic presidential primary candidates.... He also ... signaled a warning about the the general election cycle. 'And I think Fox is making a big mistake,' the president said when asked about the polling and the network's leadership. 'Because, you know, I'm the one that calls the shots on that -- on the really big debates.'" Missed this yesterday.
Chris Rodrigo of the Hill: "Attorney General William Barr on Monday announced he had removed the acting director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons one week after the death of Jeffrey Epstein. Dr. Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, who previously occupied the role between 1992 and 2003, will take over as the new director. The death of Epstein, who was accused of sex trafficking, has led to scrutiny of the Metropolitan Correctional Center where he was in custody."
Ashley Southall of the New York Times: "The New York City police officer whose chokehold was partly blamed for Eric Garner's death in police custody in 2014 was fired from the Police Department on Monday, ending a bitter, five-year legal battle that had cast a shadow over the nation's largest police force and the city it protects. The police commissioner, James P. O'Neill, dismissed the officer, Daniel Pantaleo, just over two weeks after a police administrative judge found him guilty of violating a department ban on chokeholds. Mr. Garner died on July 17, 2014, after Officer Pantaleo tackled him from behind, then, along with other officers, pressed him down on the pavement. Captured on video, the arrest and Mr. Garner's last words -- 'I can't breathe' -- gave impetus to the Black Lives Matter movement." Here's the Daily Beast story. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So what it takes to get fired from the NYPD is murdering a person in broad daylight on a public street, with numerous witneses & a video camera rolling for a misdemeanor, non-violent offense (selling loose cigarettes).
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A commenter is no longer receiving notifications of his own & follow-up comments. If you are having the same trouble, please let me know, either in today's Comments section or via e-mai to constantweader@gmail.com I'll see if Squarespace can correct the glitch. Problem self-corrected. Looks as if it was a lo-o-o-ong Squarespace delay. -- Thank you, Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump, confronting perhaps the most ominous economic signs of his time in office, has unleashed what is by now a familiar response: lashing out at what he believes is a conspiracy of forces arrayed against him. He has insisted that his own handpicked Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell, is intentionally acting against him. He has said other countries, including allies, are working to hurt American economic interests. And he has accused the news media of trying to create a recession.... The president's broadsides follow a long pattern of conspiratorial thinking.... Mr. Trump was frustrated by the news media's coverage of his rally in New Hampshire. He repeatedly complained about misleading pictures of empty seats, or that attendance at the arena had beat Elton John's record crowd there, but no one was covering it." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, Haberman makes Trump seem like a petulant whiney-baby. But, for the most part, all she had to do was string together a list of Trump's most recent childish, false complaints.
Allan Smith of NBC News: "Top White House economic advisers on Sunday dismissed growing concerns that the U.S. economy is headed for a recession. National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro appeared on a series of Sunday political talk shows to defend the president's handling of the economy -- particularly the ongoing trade war with China -- and to downplay recent warning signs that the economy could be headed towards a downturn.... 'Meet the Press' host Chuck Todd pointed out that in [December] 2007, just before the onset of the Great Recession, Kudlow wrote that 'there's no recession coming' and the pessimistas were wrong.'"
"How I Spent My Summer Vacation" By Donnie Trump "I Mostly Played Board Games."
Last Week, Trump Played "Monopoly." Zack Budryk of the Hill: "White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow confirmed on Sunday that the Trump administration is 'looking at' purchasing Greenland following reports of its interest last week." The Washington Post story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jan Olsen of the AP: "Greenland is not for sale and ... Donald Trump's idea of buying the semi-autonomous Danish territory in the Arctic from Denmark is 'an absurd discussion,' Denmark's prime minister said. Mette Frederiksen, who was visiting the world's largest island to meet Premier Kim Kielsen, told reporters: 'Greenland is not Danish. Greenland is Greenlandic. I persistently hope that this is not something that is seriously meant.' Frederiksen said Sunday that the Arctic, with resources that Russia and others could exploit for commercial gain, 'is becoming increasingly important to the entire world community.'... Trump is expected to visit Denmark Sept. 2-3 as part of a trip to Europe." ...
... Now Trump Is Playing "Battleship." Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump has suggested to national security officials that the U.S. should station Navy ships along the Venezuelan coastline to prevent goods from coming in and out of the country, according to 5 current and former officials who have either directly heard the president discuss the idea or have been briefed on Trump's private comments.... Trump has been raising the idea of a naval blockade periodically for at least a year and a half, and as recently as several weeks ago, these officials said. They added that to their knowledge the Pentagon hasn't taken this extreme idea seriously, in part because senior officials believe it's impractical, has no legal basis and would suck resources from a Navy that is already stretched.... Trump has publicly alluded to a naval blockade of Venezuela. Earlier this month he answered 'Yes, I am' when a reporter asked whether he was mulling such a move. But he hasn't elaborated on the idea publicly."
Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Tom Barrack and Donald Trump have been friends and confidants for more than three decades.... But the intimate relationship between the wealthy California investor and the president has fractured so badly that the two no longer speak, current and former White House officials say. The key issue driving the two men apart: Barrack's role as chairman of the president's 2017 inauguration fund, which is under investigation by prosecutors.... 'The president was really surprised to read all about the inauguration and who was trying to buy access and how, because the president doesn't get any of that money,' said [an] official." Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: Quite a touching story.
Who Knew International Law Could Be So Complicated? Megan Specia of the New York Times: "An Iranian oil tanker held for six weeks after being impounded left Gibraltar on Sunday, days after the authorities there rejected a request from American officials to turn the vessel over to them.... The [U.S.] Justice Department said that multiple parties affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran, which the United States has designated a foreign terrorist organization, were believed involved.... But on Sunday, the Gibraltar government rejected the American request. It said that the warrant had relied on broad United States sanctions against Iran that were not applicable in the European Union.... It was unclear whether the United States intended to seize the vessel now that it has left Gibraltar." The Reuters story is here.
Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, was a founding member of a group more than a decade ago that described undocumented immigrants as 'foreign invaders' responsible for 'serious infectious diseases, drug running, gang violence, human trafficking, terrorism.' The group, State Legislators for Legal Immigration, was established in 2007, when an immigration revamp was being hotly debated in Congress. Its founding principle was that undocumented immigration represented an invasion of the United States on par with foreign invasion that should justify invoking war powers under the Constitution -- extreme rhetoric Cuccinelli has continued to use in recent years, and that has been adopted by ... Donald Trump and other Republicans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Eric Schlosser in The Atlantic: "The immigration raid last week at seven poultry plants in rural Mississippi was a perfect symbol of the Trump administration's racism, lies, hypocrisy, and contempt for the poor. It was also a case study in how an industry with a long history of defying the law has managed to shift the blame and punishment onto workers.... According to a recent study by the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University, 'The industrial produce and animal production and processing systems in the U.S. would collapse without the immigrant and migratory workforce.' The handful of multinational companies that dominate our food system are hardly being forced to employ immigrant workers. These firms have for many years embraced the opportunity to exploit them for profit.... What Trump has described as an immigrant 'invasion' was actually a corporate recruitment drive for poor, vulnerable, undocumented, often desperate workers." --s
Azam Ahmed of the New York Times: "... a ... staggering number of Central Americans [are] fleeing violence and dysfunction -- and ... the Trump administration is waging ... a dogged fight to keep them out. Across Latin America, a murder epidemic is underway. Most years, more than 100,000 people are killed, largely young men on the periphery of broken societies, where gangs and cartels sometimes take the place of the state. The turmoil has forced millions to flee the region and seek refuge in the United States, where they confront a system strained by record demand and a bitter fight over whether to accept them.... Violence against women, and domestic violence in particular, is a powerful and often overlooked factor in the migration crisis. Latin America and the Caribbean are home to 14 of the 25 deadliest nations in the world for women.... And Central America, the region where most of those seeking asylum in the United States are fleeing, is at the heart of the crisis.... Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions ... issued a decision last year to try to halt victims of domestic violence, among other crimes, from seeking asylum.... Then, last month ... William P. Barr, went further" and determined to halt whole families.
John Timmer of ArsTechnica: "This week, the US Department of Energy released a report that looks back on the state of wind power in the US by running the numbers on 2018. The analysis shows that wind hardware prices are dropping, even as new turbine designs are increasing the typical power generated by each turbine. As a result, recent wind farms have gotten so cheap that you can build and operate them for less than the expected cost of buying fuel for an equivalent natural gas plant.... 2018 saw about 7.6 GigaWatts of new wind capacity added to the grid, accounting for just over 20 percent of the US' capacity additions. This puts it in third place behind natural gas and solar power." --s
Pat Rynard of Iowa Starting Line interviews the only person who attended Rep. Steve King's town hall Saturday -- a hung-over student who is a Democrat & declined to have her picture taken with King "mostly because I plan to run for office and I don't need a picture of Steve King and I [me!] shaking hands...."
Presidential Race
M.J. Lee & Gregory Krieg of CNN: Elizabeth "Warren's efforts to make amends and rebuild her relationships with the Native American community ... have gone far beyond ... apologies, according to CNN's interviews with almost a dozen people. They have included private meetings with tribal leaders, seeking counsel from Native Americans friends, and, on Friday, the release of a set of ambitious policy plans aimed at helping Native people. That outreach will unfold in public on Monday, when Warren speaks at length alongside tribal leaders at a conference hosted by the Native voting rights group, Four Directions, in Sioux City, Iowa." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In case you've forgotten, this is what a leader is supposed to do, and often does, when he's made a mistake & inadvertently insulted someone or some group.
Greg Olear in Medium: "The Republican base doesn't care about sex crimes -- unless they involve the Clintons, that is.... Not only do they not believe women, they actively seek to destroy them, as state legislatures have demonstrated in Georg[ia], Alabama, Ohio, Missouri, and elsewhere. It is unlikely that these rank misogynists will be swayed by the dalliances of the late Jeffrey Epstein, however deplorable, unless they somehow implicate Bill Clinton.... As horrible as it is to relate, the fact is that as long as the focus is on sex crimes, Trump -- and his undearly-departed chum Jeffrey Epstein -- will not be damaged. Again: his base does not care.... The only way to get selfish people to hop to is to demonstrate that Trump and his cronies are ripping off — stealing from -- the American people. From them. It's all about the money." --s
Jenna McGregor of the Washington Post: "The organization representing the nation's most powerful chief executives is rewriting how it views the purpose of a corporation, updating its decades-old endorsement of the theory that shareholders' interests should come above all else. The new statement, released Monday by the Business Roundtable, suggests balancing the needs of a company's various constituencies and comes at a time of widening income inequality, rising expectations from the public for corporate behavior and proposals from Democratic lawmakers that aim to revamp or even restructure American capitalism.... The new statement puts an official stamp on a more stakeholder-driven approach to governance that some CEOs have individually advocated for in recent years. It comes more than two decades after the lobbying group, in a 1997 document about corporate governance principles that it has periodically updated, took an explicitly shareholder-first stance." ...
... The CNBC story is here. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. In today's Comments, Ken seems a bit skeptical of this miraculous reform.
Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "A new Google policy that was meant to rein in deceptive advertising by 'crisis pregnancy centers' has a loophole that is allowing the centers to continue to post misleading ads on the search engine.... The loophole means only users who are specifically searching under the term 'abortion' will be provided information on Google's website about whether a particular health care clinic does -- or does not -- offer the procedure to women. If a user searches under other terms, like 'free pregnancy test' or 'pregnancy symptoms', no such information appears under the advertisements for the same clinics." --s
Russian Mafia Comes to Arizona. Alison Steinbach of the Arizona Republic: "A proposal to build an aluminum smelting facility ... along the highway connecting Wenden and Salome[, Arizona,] would bring a new industry to the area [and 30 jobs].... Residents, meanwhile, fear it will also bring a host of problems.... Plus, they have questions about the business owners' backgrounds.... [The aluminum company] Technocon is headed by Jacob Gitman, who is known in some legal documents as Yakov Gitman. He was born in the Soviet Union and attended university in Moscow before moving to the United States around 1990.... Jacob Gitman, his companies and his business associates have faced multiple lawsuits alleging fraudulent business dealings.... Jacob Gitman also managed until 2011 Suncoast Air Cargo with Anatoly Golubchik. In 2014, Golubchik and his business partners were convicted of laundering $100 million as part of a 'Russian-American organized crime ring' and a 'racketeering conspiracy' involving primarily Russian and Ukrainian individuals and various shell companies.... Gitman's wife Alisa is a real estate agent for Sib Realty, which sells condos at multiple Trump properties in Florida." --s
The Royal Duke of York (He had a cache of girls. He met them in New York, as Mummy clutched her pearls.) The Daily Mail publishes a video & still shots of Britain's Prince Andrew waving goodbye to a young woman at the front door of Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan mansion in December 2010. "By then Epstein ... was on a child sex offender register, yet one observer told The Mail on Sunday that several of the women leaving and entering the home while Andrew was apparently inside 'looked very young indeed'." Via the Washington Post. ...
... "We Are Not Amused." Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "'The Duke of York has been appalled by the recent reports of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged crimes. His Royal Highness deplores the exploitation of any human being and the suggestion he would condone, participate in or encourage any such behavior is abhorrent,' Buckingham Palace said in a statement, according to multiple reports." Mrs. McC: "Appalling" & "abhorrent," yes. But hard to dismiss with a royal tut-tut.
Mack Lamoureux & Ben Mackuch of Vice News: "A neo-Nazi group focused on providing paramilitary-style training to far-right extremists has been conducting a massive recruitment drive and claims to have already conducted live-fire training with its members. The Base [the translation of Al-Qaeda in English], which is connected to extreme-right groups the Atomwaffen Division and the Feuerkrieg Division, has been promoting its growth on social media with photos announcing its presence in major cities across North America, including New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle, and in Europe, South Africa, and Australia.... 'The Base is particularly dangerous because of [its] focus on developing and sharing skills useful for terrorism and guerilla warfare, such as ambushes, weapons training, and making explosives,' [Joshua] Fisher-Birch [of the Counter Extremism Project, a U.S.-based terrorism watchdog] said. 'This is a radical group that not only wants violence, but is preparing for it.'" --s
Another of the "Very Fine People" at Charlottesville. Jon Haworth of ABC News: "An Ohio man has been arrested for making threats toward a local Jewish community center in New Middletown. James Reardon Jr., 20, has been charged with telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing and is being held in the Mahoning County Jail on $250,000 bond with a court hearing planned for Monday morning. On Friday, the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force raided Reardon's house and seized a cache of weapons and ammunition, including dozens of round of ammo, multiple semi-automatic weapons, a gas mask and bulletproof armor.... Police initially became aware of Reardon on July 11 when he posted a video on Instagram of a man shooting a semi-automatic rifle with sirens and screams in the background. He tagged the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown in the post.... Reardon is an avowed anti-Semite and white nationalist and attended the deadly 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, according to WYTV." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Dakin Andone, et al., of CNN: "Authorities this weekend announced they had foiled three potential mass shootings after arresting three men in different states who expressed interest in or threatened to carry them out. All three cases were brought to authorities' attention thanks to tips from the public.... In Connecticut, 22-year-old Brandon Wagshol was arrested after authorities said he had expressed interest in committing a mass shooting on Facebook, according to a statement from the FBI and the Norwalk Police Department.... Tristan Scott Wix of Daytona Beach, Florida, was arrested in a Winn-Dixie parking lot on Friday after he sent his ex-girlfriend a series of disturbing texts in which he allegedly threatened to commit a mass shooting, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said. The ex-girlfriend alerted authorities.... And in Ohio, 20-year-old James Patrick Reardon was arrested for allegedly threatening to carry out a shooting at a Youngstown Jewish community center."
Beyond the Beltway
New York. Ashley Southall of the New York Times: "An administrative judge, in a 46-page opinion obtained by The New York Times, found [the] explanation 'Officer Daniel Pantaleo gave in explaining how he killed Eric Garner to be] 'implausible and self-serving.' The judge, Rosemarie Maldonado, who has recommended that Officer Pantaleo be fired, concluded that he had been 'untruthful' during the interview, according to the opinion that grew out of a departmental trial that ended in June." Here's a Huffington Post summary of the Times story.
Way Beyond
Hong Kong. Verna Yu & Lily Kuo of the Guardian: "An estimated 1.7 million people in Hong Kong -- a quarter of the population -- defied police orders to stage a peaceful march after a rally in a downtown park, after two months of increasingly violent clashes that have prompted severe warnings from Beijing and failed to win concessions from the city's government. Huge crowds filled Victoria Park on Sunday afternoon and spilled on to nearby streets, forcing police to block traffic in the area. Torrential rain came down an hour into the rally, turning the park into a sea of umbrellas. At the same time, protesters walked towards Central, the heart of Hong Kong's business district, and surrounded government headquarters. Police had turned down a plan for Sunday's march submitted by the Civil Human Rights Front group and gave permission only for a rally in the park. Those defying the ban risked being charged with unlawful assembly, which can lead to up to five years in prison." (Also linked yesterday.)"
U.K. Karla Adam & Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "An increasingly likely 'no-deal' Brexit could wreak havoc on Britain's economy, infrastructure and social fabric, the government says in classified documents leaked to a British newspaper. The costs of food and social care would rise, while medicines could be delayed, the Sunday Times reported. Border delays would interrupt fuel supplies. Ports would suffer severe disruptions and recover only partially after three months, leaving traffic at 50 to 70 percent of the current flow. Those are some of the effects predicted by 'Operation Yellowhammer,' which the newspaper said was compiled this month by Britain's Cabinet Office and available to those with 'need to know' security clearances." ...
... Rowena Mason of the Guardian: "Downing Street has reacted with fury to the leak of an official document predicting that a no-deal Brexit would lead to food, medicine and petrol shortages, with No 10 sources blaming the disclosure on a hostile former minister intent on ruining Boris Johnson's trip to see EU leaders this week. The leaked document, detailing preparations under Operation Yellowhammer, argues that the most likely scenario is severe extended delays to medicine supplies and shortages of some fresh foods, combined with price rises, if there is a no-deal Brexit on 31 October. It said there would be a return to a hard border on the island of Ireland before long and a 'three-month meltdown' at ports unable to cope with extra checks. Protests could break out across the UK, requiring significant police intervention, and two oil refineries could close, with thousands of job losses, according to the documents."
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Reader Comments (17)
A disturbing window into one of the byways of the Pretender's world (ours):
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/18/us/indiana-farmers-market-white-supremacy.html?
My solution: Leave 'em alone.
Just don't buy their vegetables, as long Congress or the Supremes don't decide that boycotts aren't a legal exercise of consumer choice.
Can't interfere with the primacy of commercial interests, you know.
And this:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/19/the-ceos-of-nearly-two-hundred-companies-say-shareholder-value-is-no-longer-their-main-objective.html
If you believe that, have I got a deal for you!
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/19/opinion/argentina-macri-elections.html?
Many have said that states are our political and social laboratories, where we run policy experiments to see how many people we can help or hurt.
Kansas, anyone?
The IMF has been doing that in South America and elsewhere across the globe for decades.
Not everyone has gotten the Business Roundtable's cheery new message....
Exactly, Ken.
My BS and MS degrees are both from the UNLV College of Business. I remember years ago, when I first started there, we were taught that modern corporations had a much more expansive vision of what it meant to be a stakeholder. Corporate stakeholders, we were taught, included not just the shareholders, but the employees and the communities in which the corporations existed. Given the global nature of business activity, corporations now understood that a multitude of opinions and interests had to be taken into account when conducting their affairs.
Or so we were taught.
So I raised my hand and asked the professor this question: "Can those multitudes of other stakeholders - those apart from the shareholders - can they fire the board of directors?"
"Of course not," he replied.
"Then I don't think any interest will ever eclipse that of the shareholders," said I.
The last twenty years have vindicated my position, and nothing Jamie Dimon said this week makes me think the situation is going to change.
This weekend I ran across an old essay on the works of the French philosopher Henri Bergson. Bergson developed some intriguing ideas about the concept of multiplicity, later expanded under phenomenologists like Edmund Husserl to include the notion of simultaneity. The simple way of thinking about this is to put it in a very stripped down form: Lots of stuff happening at the same time.
For Bergson, it became a way of thinking about how humans process data (he called it "les données immédiates" -- stuff we can assume as a given that happens all at once). The theory and praxis schools of philosophy and criticism adopted the concepts of multiplicity and simultaneity to fruitfully examine the phenomena of narrative structures in things like films and the way we experience them.
Revisiting the term after scanning a laundry list of the multiple and simultaneous racist initiatives being run by Trump and his band of race-baiting, morally perverted, white supremacists, I realized that Bergson's idea takes on new meaning in the Age of Trumpian hatred.
First, let's stipulate that immigration is far and away NOT the immediate and stupendous danger it's made out to be by Trump, the Republicans, and their obsequious (but equally hateful) media handmaidens. It's a hugely trumped up (if you will) issue. Is immigration a problem? Sure. But so is childhood obesity (a much greater problem, frankly). But on a scale of 1 to 10 in a listing of the problems most in need of solving, it's about a 50.
No one is losing jobs because of immigration. They are not rapists and murderers, certainly not on the level of homegrown white people. They are not draining our resources (properly allocated and supported, in other words, parsed out fairly, corporations and the military getting only their fair share, American resources should be more than adequate; the fact that they're stretched at times and in places is more an indication of the will of Congress than actual lack of wherewithal).
I won't belabor the point by enumerating all the issues with which we should concern ourselves long before we get to immigration, but I'm pretty sure you get the point. Of course, we could address immigration alongside the more pressing concerns if it could be approached in a reasonable and rational manner. But reason and rationality have been banned by the Trump-Bannon-Miller-McConnell-Graham-crackpot hater coalition.
So then, here we are. A made up issue designed for two primary reasons, reasons that overlap but do not compete. In fact, they are quite co-dependent.
The most salient point is hatred. Hatred of the Other, the browns, the blacks, those of different heritage and religion. Hatred enlarged by fear, and further spurred on by a cowardice in leadership. The second, absolutely dependent on the first, is Trump's need to whip up hatred in his base. And for that, he uses apparatchiks like Miller.
When you think of all the avenues these people have explored to stick it to immigrants, it's both astounding and appalling. First they tried executive orders, then the wall, then bringing a military presence to the border, then using scare tactics about invasions, then going before audiences of rabid bigots and laughing about murdering immigrants, then the nuts show up with guns and start mowing down innocent men, women, and children, then we find out that Miller has, at the same time, been hectoring states to stick it to immigrants as well.
A lot of terrible shit going on at the same time. Multiplicity and simultaneity. Bergson would be horrified, I'm sure. But he wouldn't be surprised. Humans are capable of such things. We are wired to do these things.
But just think if such power was directed at solving real problems, not invented crises which drain resources and spirit.
I spotted a lede in a news feed this morning that sniffed that if only haughty liberals went to a Trump rally, they'd really learn something. Sorry. I already know what hatred looks and sounds like. It's the blank, inhuman stare of Stephen Miller and the whiny, screaming voice of Donald Trump.
I don't care to know what these people think. I already know. They voted for Trump. QED.
So what can we do?
GOTV. We vote these bastards out of office and get to work, on so many fronts, to repair the damage.
Multiplicity and simultaneity.
@Schlub: There are ways that other stakeholders can influence a corporation. Unions, of course, traditionally were supposed to speak for workers (not that they always did), but as we all know, corporations & confederates have knocked themselves out weakening unions. Consumers can boycott a company's products, but boycotts usually turn out to be pretty weak. I see Chick Fil-A is still in business. And the government can work for the people's general interest in regulating every level of business, a means confederates are doing their best to stop. It's really us against the corporate/confederate complex.
What is interesting about the Roundtable's new statement is that it is a nod, for the first time in nearly 50 years, to the New Deal's ideal of the "social contract" among business, labor & government to work toward the common good, a "contract" that business had grown tired of by the 1970s, most infamously expressed in Lewis Powell's 1971 corporate manifesto, an impetus for among others things, the formation of the Business Roundtable.
Mrs. Bea: I think Jamie and company are scared of Elizabeth Warren and are trying to take some of the wind out of her sails.
Warren threatens to re-empower some of those very stakeholders you describe: unions, consumer groups, and governmental watchdog agencies. Groups that corporations have very effectively neutered since the days of Saint Reagan.
The pressure is on.
This forwarded from the White House newsletter which I allow to sully my inbox:
https://triblive.com/opinion/jason-wilburn-usmca-is-21st-century-enhancement-america-needs
We can expect more such arm twisting from the Pretender's PR machine.
NAFTA 2.0, startlingly similar to NAFTA 1.0 still has major problems in the areas of labor, the environment, patent extensions for pharmaceuticals and investor state dispute settlement.
I learned from an interview I conducted only last week that the Dems on the House committees that have been meeting with Litzinger have expressed their concerns but so far have gotten no more from Litzinger than polite thanks you's for your input.
Because the Pretender badly needs a win on trade (on anything?), it's possible he may instruct Litzinger to address the Dems' concerns--or the Dems may cave. The window to pass the USMCA is closing rapidly. The expert from the Washington Fair Trade Coalition believes it's this fall or not at all because there is no likelihood of approval in an election year.
I see this as a perfect opportunity for the Dems to hold the Pretender's feet to the fire.
I hope they find the backbone to do so.
So I broke down and checked out that article I mentioned about all the great things you'd learn if you went to a Trump rally (better wear a MAGA hat or they might think you're a spy and beat you up).
It's a piece in the NY Post (natch) which I won't link because, well, just because.
Anyway, the gist of it is these people are "all patriots" and they "all love Trump" and "he loves them". He talks to them as if they're his personal friends (of course he does...he's a con man, which they don't get) and they all feel like he's their guy. The writer breathlessly proclaims the many reasons Trump has achieved such a lofty position in the eyes of his fans. He comes in, tells them that they're all "good people" (he says this about Nazis too). "Then he launches into a pitch-perfect stream-of-consciousness schtick that entertains for an hour, with jokes and insults..."
Schtick and insults? This is the new barometer for wonderful political discourse?
The writer clearly has an IV injecting the Kool-Aid. She mainlines it. She repeats things like Trump's insults and lies and thinks she's making a convincing argument by finishing up with something like "...the crowd roars with approval". So, the fact that a bunch of people wearing shirts that say "Fuck your feelings" cheer is proof that Trump is a great guy and proof that I'm a loser for not getting it?
Ultimately, she decides that liberals and Never Trumpers just don't understand how great he is because they hate him.
Sez one of the Trumpbots "He’s the most powerful man in the world, yet he doesn’t feel out of reach. He feels like he’s one of us."
I'm sure people at Nuremberg felt the same about Hitler.
What the writer is really talking about is Trump as performer. Great. So he can juggle and tell jokes and spit out insults. But do we want a juggler, joker and insult dog in the White House?
This is the Great Disconnect. Just hating who your base hates and spitting on people they dislike, ripping into their favorite piñatas and telling them they're wonderful people does not make you a great president. It makes you a talented panderer and con man, maybe.
And telling me that I'm missing out on all this greatness because I hate Trump is beside the point.
I hate him because he's a dangerous, ignorant demagogue who uses his position to line his pockets, reward his friends (some of them, but not most of his voting base. They get screwed as much as many others), punish his enemies and indulge his most insecure, narcissistic, racist, amoral yearnings.
And that's what they don't get.
Which of us is really missing what's going on here?
Ken,
Backbone has been in dreadfully short supply on the Democratic side of the aisle. Would you settle for a nice pliable ligament?
Dueling judges, just sent to me by my lawyer son:
https://www.law360.com/articles/1189488?utm_source=ios-shared&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=ios-shared
Worth a read.
One of the judges seems to think that climate science should have nothing to do with the law...while he makes judgments about it.
Wonder who appointed him.
Marie wrote: "So what it takes to get fired from the NYPD is murdering a person in broad daylight on a public street, with numerous witneses & a video camera rolling..."
Yeah. After five years. And had things been reversed a bit, had Eric Garner, defending himself, gotten Pantaleo in a chokehold and killed him, Garner wouldn't have just lost his job (after five years), he'd have been sentenced to three days in the electric chair.
AK-- I won't be reading the NY Post for any reason, but for sure the piece you describe would ruin my days for the foreseeable future. I. DO. NOT. GET. IT. and I never will. I still think it has virtually turned into a cult, and noncultists never WILL understand why the cultists have joined up. We do NOT have to stare at our navels or try to "understand their feelings" of low self-esteem and lack of opportunity-- and from here on in, I will mute any appearance by any cult members in any cafe in any state. It is to throw up...
Also I refuse to justify my hatred of that worm of a person in the people's White House.
Jeanne,
And here’s the problem. It would be one thing if Trump truly were some kind of modern day (real life?) Robin Hood, who stood athwart the bridge protecting the poor, the destitute, and those trying to just make ends meet, against the wiles and connivances and greed of the king and his Norman barons and overlords who would put out the eyes of a Saxon as soon as spit on them.
But Trump IS the king, who revels in the pain of the poor and is at great pains to strip them of all worldly goods in order to enrich his pedigreed pals.
Even more discouraging (and revealing) is the fact that the vast majority of Trumpbots are Christian (and Evangelical Christians) who peremptorily dismiss the most salient teachings of Jesus Christ, who declared that immigrants, the poor, and the despised should be welcomed with open arms and cared for as if they were family.
Instead, they cling to and obey the teachings of the anti-Christ.
Which leads me to conclude one of two things. Either they are in complete ignorance of the essential teachings of the New Testament, or they just don’t give a shit, have decided that no one else matters but them, and use religion only to wrap themselves in the cloak of hypocrisy, the better to spit on immigrants, the poor, and the despised and to cheer along with Trump and his Fox and congressional enablers.
And as far as Trump being a real life Robin Hood, the only connection he has with that personage is the name hood.
@Akhilleus: This weekend, I watched Rick Steves' special on fascism in Europe, & I was reminded of a major difference between Italian & German fascism on the one hand, & Trumpian fascism on the other. At least during the period they clawed their way to power, Mussolini & Hitler instituted quasi-progressive social programs. In Italy, that "included food supplementary assistance, infant care, maternity assistance, general healthcare, wage supplements, paid vacations, unemployment benefits, illness insurance, occupational disease insurance, general family assistance, public housing and old age and disability insurance." Hitler's National Socialist party provided similar welfare benefits. Both Mussolini & Hitler ran huge infrastructure programs that provided employment.
Trump has done nothing that is supposedly for the people. He's done the opposite, trying -- and partially succeeding -- to gut social programs. Part of his appeal was that everybody was going to get great health insurance at low cost. Zip. "Infrastructure Week" has become a running joke. For the vast majority of voters, the answer to the proverbial question "Are you better off now or were you better off four years ago?" is "Four years ago."
Trump may have copied the style of Hitler & Mussolini with his rallies & shouted lies, but he decided from the git-go that the Trump "welfare programs" would be exclusively for the rich. The European monsters had a lot more substance than Trump has ever showed.
That's why I'm cautiously optimistic that Trump will lose to "any of the above" in 2020. His base may love white nationalism, but anyone who is not a dues-paying member of the cult of Trump must feel betrayed.
Marie,
I would sooooo be with you on this ("Trump will lose to 'any of the above' in 2020"*) except that the dues-paying members of the cult of Trump are, it's very clear, stunningly unable to employ the tiniest sliver of critical thought. They are, in fact, much more like this guy.
Even worse, congressional Democrats are right there as well, begging for another whack on the ass.
*The other problem with indulging in rational thought regarding the 2020 election is the extremely dubious notion that this election will be fair and un-ratfucked.
And even should Fatty lose, he will scream bloody murder about how his glorious coronation was short-circuited by Trump haters and the Deep State.
In any rational universe, there is no way Trump should be elected Chief Pooper Scooper in the Public Garden.
But that's not where we live.
I grieve.
Okay, this is good.
And from the "real" Sherlock Holmes:
"'I say, Watson,' he whispered, 'would you be afraid to sleep in the same room as a lunatic, a man with softening of the brain, an idiot whose mind has lost its grip?'
'Not in the least,' I answered in astonishment.
'Ah, that’s lucky,' he said, 'Your name must be Melanie'"
(Okay, a bit of an edit there...)