Sunday
Aug232015
The Commentariat -- August 24, 2015
Internal links removed.
Nathaniel Popper & Neil Gough of the New York Times: "Stocks in the United States tumbled on Monday morning as another sell-off that started in China roiled markets around the world. Immediately after the opening bell in New York, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 1,000 points, or more than 5 percent -- one of the most precipitous such plunges in recent years. Within an hour, though, American stocks had made up much of their earlier losses and the Dow was down about 2 percent." ...
... UPDATE. "The Dow Jones industrial average plunged over 1,000 points immediately after the opening bell on Monday morning before recovering much of those losses and then dropping again nearly 600 points at the close." CW: Because Planned Parenthood. See Comments.
... Paul Krugman: "Politicians and technocrats alike want to view themselves as serious people making hard choices -- choices like cutting popular programs and raising interest rates. They don't like being told that we're in a world where seemingly tough-minded policies will actually make things worse. But we are, and they will." ...
... Zandar in Balloon Juice: "Once again, with interest rates at rock bottom, Republicans refuse to invest in government spending so they can privatize and profitize as much infrastructure as possible (which is the real problem), and they're shocked that years of Austerity Bombing hasn't created utopia yet (ask Kansas how that's going.)" ...
... "If I Were the Chair of the Fed. (As I Should Be.)" Larry Summers in the Washington Post: "A reasonable assessment of current conditions suggests that raising [interest] rates in the near future would be a serious error that would threaten all three of the Fed's major objectives: price stability, full employment and financial stability." ...
... What's the Matter with the Fed? Paul Krugman: "Pressure from the usual suspects -- the constant sniping against easy money -- may play a role. But I also suspect that a lot has to do with the urge to resume a conventional central-banker role. The whole culture of central banks involves saying no to stuff people want, taking away the punch bowl as the party gets going, having the courage to do unpopular things; everyone wants to be Paul Volcker. The Fed is really, really eager to return to that position -- and is, I fear, engaging in wishful thinking, believing much too readily that a return to normalcy is appropriate. It's not. I'm with Larry here: this attitude has the makings of a big mistake. Think Japan 2000; think ECB 2011; think Sweden. Don't do it."
Aurelien Breeden of the New York Times: "President François Hollande of France on Monday awarded the Legion of Honor, France's highest award, to three Americans and a Briton for their role in stopping a gunman on a high-speed train traveling to Paris from Amsterdam on Friday. The three Americans -- Airman First Class Spencer Stone, 23; Alek Skarlatos, 22, a specialist in the Oregon National Guard; and their friend Anthony Sadler, 23 -- received the honor in the gilded halls of the Élysée Palace, where they were joined by Chris Norman, 62, a British consultant":
Jamelle Bouie: "When we look at the first 15 years of the 21st century, the most defining moment in black America's relationship to its country isn't Election Day 2008, it's Hurricane Katrina. The events of the storm and its aftermath sparked a profound shift among black Americans toward racial pessimism that persists to today, even with Barack Obama in the White House. Black collective memory of Hurricane Katrina, as much as anything else, informs the present movement against police violence, 'Black Lives Matter.'"
Bomb-Bomb-Bomb-Iran. Michael Crowley of Politico: "Want to bomb Iran? Then support the nuclear deal. That's the provocative argument coming from Obama administration officials and other backers of the deal as they promote it before a crucial vote in Congress next month. In meetings on Capitol Hill and with influential policy analysts, administration officials argue that inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities under the deal will reveal important details that can be used for better targeting should the U.S. decide to attack Iran."
Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid gave a forceful endorsement Sunday to the nuclear deal with Iran, a key boost that provides continued momentum for preventing Congress from blocking President Obama's pact. The Nevada Democrat ... pledged to round up more support to thwart its opponents." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Race
Ed Kilgore: "OK, the Biden speculation is really getting insane. All that anyone is able to report as actual news is that some people close to Biden really want him to run for president in 2016, and he hasn't ruled it out just yet. But the same stories go on to suggest he's 90% or 95% or 99% sure to run, and then it's off to the races about his strategy and HOW HE WILL DESTROY HILLARY, which seems to be the real point of the coverage, particularly from conservative outlets." ...
... CW: This should pump the Biden-Warren fantasy. Nick Gass of Politico: "It's 'too early' to commit to another term in the Senate, Elizabeth Warren told a Boston television station in an interview aired Sunday." ...
... AND this. Nick Gass: "Vice President Joe Biden has picked his new communications director: Kate Bedingfield, a former spokeswoman for John Edwards' 2008 campaign who recently served as the top film industry flack in Washington. 'She will be a key adviser to me, a terrific asset to our office, and an important member of the entire White House organization,' Biden said in a statement." ...
... BUT Charles Pierce thinks he knows what Warren is up to: "Even with Bernie Sanders in the race and tearing up the countryside, the Senator Professor doesn't think the putative frontrunner is doing enough on the issues to which the Senator Professor has devoted her entire career and that, therefore, those issues are not playing a big enough role in the campaign so far. This goes along with something we've been saying around here for a while now. You dismiss the Senator Professor's political chops at your peril. This move is how you broker power from where you are at the moment, and not where people want you to be."
Bernie Becker of the Hill: "Martin O'Malley, a Democratic presidential candidate, said Sunday that Republicans and the media are raising 'legitimate' questions about Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. O'Malley, a former two-term Maryland governor, said the questions surrounding Clinton's email habits as secretary of State aren't allowing Democrats to talk about the economic issues worrying voters."
White Men in White Man's Party Worry White Man Will Damage White Man's Party. Molly Ball of the Atlantic: "... many Republican strategists, donors, and officeholders fret that the harm [Donald Trump is doing to the party] goes deeper than a single voting bloc. Trump's candidacy has blasted open the GOP's longstanding fault lines at a time when the party hoped for unity. His gleeful, attention-hogging boorishness -- and the large crowds that have cheered it -- cements a popular image of the party as standing for reactionary anger rather than constructive policies."
Evan Osnos of the New Yorker takes a long gander at Donald Trump & his white nationalist coalition. "Ever since the Tea Party's peak, in 2010, and its fade, citizens on the American far right -- Patriot militias, border vigilantes, white supremacists -- have searched for a standard-bearer, and now they'd found him." ...
... Greg Sargent: "The question of what to do about the 11 million is the fundamental underlying policy dilemma that is at the core of the whole immigration debate. And it's one many Republicans have refused to reckon with seriously for years now. They've called for more 'enforcement of the law' while taking care to avoid saying whether this means they want maximum deportations. And they've claimed to be open to legalization at some point later without meaningfully defining what conditions must be established first. This is roughly where [Scott] Walker is now. Trump has unmasked those evasions for what they are." ...
... The Party of Destruction. CW: Maybe Donald Trump knows how to build a wall (which at best would create an inconvenience to those wishing to sneak into the U.S., not an impenetrable impediment), but for the most part the GOP knows only how to tear down things, not how to build positive programs for Americans. They want to repeal the ACA, wreck Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid & other social welfare programs, defund Planned Parenthood & the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, eradicate regulations on business & industry. etc. They have no plans to do anything; all they know how to "do" is undo. So let's not be all surprised that they have no idea how to cope with millions of residents they want to disappear. ...
... Katy O'Donnell of Politico: "Donald Trump has boldly touted his independence from big donors, in June proclaiming 'I'm using my own money' during his presidential announcement speech, and holding forth his multi-billion-dollar net worth as proof that he can't be bought by the 'special interests' that bankroll -- and 'control' -- the campaigns of his rivals. But ... he tacitly gave approval to the Make America Great Again PAC by attending a fundraiser the group held in New York last month."
We have wonderful Border Patrol people. They can do their job, but they're not allowed to do the job. People are walking into the country [and] nobody even knows where they come from. They walk right past guards that are told not to do anything. -- Donald Trump, on ABC's "This Week"
Really? Fact-checker, please. -- Constant Weader
At Mobile, Alabama rally, Trump fans yelled "White power!" multiple times ... throughout the event."
If I'm going down, then Bush is going down with me. He's not going to be president of the United States. -- Donald Trump, to a friend
Flippity Flop Flop Flip. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "... Scott Walker appears to have yet again shifted his stance on allowing the children of illegal immigrants to automatically gain U.S. citizenship. In an interview on ABC News' 'This Week' on Sunday morning, Walker said he does not want to alter the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states that 'all persons born or naturalized in the United States ... are citizens of the United States.' Nearly a week ago, Walker said he wants to end birthright citizenship, and he would not say then whether he agrees with the 14th Amendment." Johnson provides more-or-less an hour-by-hour account of Walker's changing, conflicting, stonewalling & garbled stated "positions" last week. CW: This guy makes even the Decider & the Doofus brothers look smart. (Also linked yesterday.)
Cap'n. Cruz Leads Another Battle in the War on Women. Katie Zezima & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "... Ted Cruz, who has assiduously courted evangelicals throughout his presidential run, will take a lead role in the launch this week of an ambitious 50-state campaign to end taxpayer support for Planned Parenthood -- a move that is likely to give the GOP candidate a major primary-season boost in the fierce battle for social-conservative and evangelical voters." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
In a Las Vegas Review-Journal op-ed, Columba Bush sucks up to Miriam & Sheldon Adelson, manages to mention Jeb! Via Politico.
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Reader Comments (12)
I've been away for many a day because I have a house full of family (from Germany and else where) that will be with us for two more weeks––however––a quiet moment here to comment on something from yesterday. A commenter from Maureen Dowd's column about Trump liken him to Sinclair Lewis' Buzz Windrip (from "It Can't Happen Here") . Buzz, like Trump, was a stand-up comic who regaled and hypnotized Depression era crowds with a word salad that was part xenophobia, part zombie economics, and part flag-waving nationalism. But last week I happened to catch the CNN bio of a real populist demagogue––Morton Downy Jr. I had forgotten about him, but he appeared on T.V. during the late 1980s and was the first of his kind. He had all the trappings of a Buzz Windrip, but much more dangerous. He shouted at guests he disagreed with, called them foul names, got into fist fights, loved saying, "I say what people are thinking but won't say." The crowds loved him–-ratings for his show soared. But eventually he crashed and burned: he faked his own assault –-said skin heads did it–-but when the truth emerged he lost his base. His fans loved him because he "was telling the truth" they believed. When they found out he lied, he lost them.
What will it take for the Donald's "white power" fans to finally see through the facade, to finally quit him? Something, I think, more drastic than faking a beating by skinheads.
Listened to Obama's speech from yesteryear (linked yesterday) and thought it remarkable and wonderful (thanks Marie for digging that up). Many of us here have commented at his comedic ability (talk about a stand-up comic!) but here we also see his skill in telling a story with an actor's flair. When he talked about his relationship with Frank Marshall Davis, the poet friend of his grandfather's, he didn't read what Frank told him about going off to college:
"...they'll train you so good you'll start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that shit. they'll give you a corner office and invite you to fancy dinners and tell you you're a credit to your race. until you want to actually start running things, and then they'll yank your chain and let you know that you may be well-trained, a well paid nigger, but you're a nigger just the same. Go to college, but keep your eyes open."
A late response to Marie's fine review of the tenuous connections so many Confederate candidates for president have with the brand of citizenship they hold most dearly: the fantasy kind "real" Americans hold, granted them jointly by George Washington and Jesus (and not necessarily in that order).
It's another example of Confederates who, like Paul Ryan, having benefited from some established legal precedent, wish to add a codicil that prevents millions from enjoying the same rights that have propelled them to their seats of power and plenty. Pull up the ladder boys, those left in the hold will serve as dunnage on our ship of hate. Does anyone doubt that not a single one of these candidates would hesitate to gleefully bolt the doors to the lower decks of the Titanic preventing the tired, poor, huddled masses from reaching the deck and at least having a chance to live?
Many of us are first, second, third or fourth generation Americans, which means most of us wouldn't be here if it were up to these jamokes, all of whom benefited by a Constitutional amendment they would now extirpate with prejudice.
In a way, if you take away the names from the backgrounds Marie offers, the people in these stories sound like millions of other Americans. The difference being that these particular individuals, some of whom are only Americans because of the laws they now want to eviscerate, want to make sure there are no more who can enjoy the benefits that allowed them citizenship.
To paraphrase the ever quotable Rick Santorum, a third of all young people in America today would not be in America today if the Confederates had their way.
PD,
Funny you mention Sinclair Lewis. I was thinking this weekend that Trump may turn out to be a kind of Elmer Gantry character. Trumpy isn't as overtly a Bible beater as most of the other bug-eyed religious freaks on the Clown Train, but he does what Gantry did very well. He's able to tap into a strain of fanaticism with religious overtones. If you think about it, Confederates share a kind of religious fervor. The Confederate Ideology has many of the defining characteristics of religion, so what we have is a two-fer. The actual religion of hatred, fanatical right-wing Christian fundamentalism, combined with the political-social religion of Confederate Ideology.
Trump may, like Gantry, be shown to be a charlatan but unlike Gantry, he has that another bullet in his gun, his hold on ideological Confederates. So far they've allowed him his flights of rationality, and that may catch up with him, but for now, like Gantry and Windrip (never read that book, but might have to put it on the list), he appeals to base instincts masquerading as moral rectitude.
The Littlest Liar
So there was this law in the State of Kentucky that the Little One didn't like. It said you can't run for two seats at the same time. Li'l Randy threw a fit. He stomped his little feet. He gnashed his little teeth. He rolled his little eyes. He even thought of blowing his little top. But that little wig's been through enough.
Instead, he bought himself a new law.
Or did he?
The Kentucky GOP told Paul they would change the rules to get him to stop gnashing his little teeth and stamping his little feet and rolling his little eyes but he'd have to pay for it. He told them, in his most unctuous, oleaginous manner, that suuuuuuurrrrre he'd pay for it (wink-wink).
The powers that be figured it would cost a cool half mil to keep Li'l Randy from crying wee-wee-wee all the way home, so the Little One said he'd fork over $250,000 now and give them another $200,000 in the fall and a few more bundles of bribery money after that. In fact, he said in numerous press releases that he had already paid the first part of the fee for the fix:
"U.S. Sen. Rand Paul has transferred $250,000 to the Republican Party of Kentucky as a down payment on the presidential caucuses he has asked the party to conduct..."
But....he lied.
Surprised?
In fact, he hasn't paid them jack. A story in the Louisville Courier Journal from late last week reported that he hadn't paid them a red cent.
"Despite what he said in a letter to members of the Republican Central Committee days ago, Sen. Rand Paul has not transferred $250,000 to the Republican Party of Kentucky to help pay for the presidential caucuses Paul is seeking."
And as of yesterday. He was still stiffing them. He got what he wants. But there apparently is a catch. He has to pay up by Sept. 18 or the circus there goes back to being a reg'lar primary. But that doesn't change the fact that he's a manipulative, lying little douchebag.
"Sen. Paul reaffirmed his intent to pay for the caucus" and I love you and the check is in the mail. He should just come out and say "I don't have it on me but I'll get it to you shortly." But, hmmm, that might make him sound like this guy.
These people have the ethics of a turnip. The bad thing is that when this little piece of shit charlatan gets his whiny little ass kicked in the presidential race, he may still be around to hypocritize and generally stink up the atmosphere in congress for another six years with the stamping of his little feet and the gnashing of his little teeth.
Otherwise he'd have to sail off to where the wild wigs are.
The Party of No Can Do
Marie's riff about all the things the GOP wants to tear down highlights a defining characteristic of that party, a strident verity since the Age of Ronnie.
One big reason the GOP is the Party of No is that they are also the Party of No Can Do.
Over the last three Republican administrations, the watchword has been incompetence. They can hardly say good morning without it being in the middle of the night.
We need government spending to get out of a financial crisis? Great! Austerity! Diplomacy is the right call? Fuck that. WAR! The United States is a democracy? Not anymore. Revoke voting rights every chance you get. Republicans have a problem attracting women voters? No problem. Attack Planned Parenthood, make abortion next to illegal, and talk about Legitimate Rape. Same thing with Hispanic voters? Deport their relatives, call them all rapists and build a wall. Repeal and replace the ACA? A law that took years, thousands of hours, hundreds of people, and scores of hearings to create? Not to worry. Check out this plan I came up with on the back of a Wendy's menu. Took me fifteen minutes. Fifteen WHOLE minutes. My kids helped.
If you can't do anything, your best bet is to say No to everything.
They are the greatest bunglers in US history. BUT they don't have a very well organized opposition. And they have a multitude of media outlets screaming every day about what great clothes all these would-be emperors are swanning around town in.
And they also have a stranglehold on state legislatures that enable them to gerrymander their incompetence back into power for years to come.
Plenty more No Can Do in our future, folks.
That piece Marie linked in the "New Yorker" is truly scary. Whether the Donald believes what his followers do is immaterial. He's unleashed a dark force that was always there. They've coalesced around his lies and exaggerations. He's riding the tiger and had better not fall off.
Good News Bad News Department.
So you've probably heard that the stock market has been acting up, or down, and today, up again, as the case may be (thanks, Apple....at least for now).
Anyway. This morning on NPR an economics professor was asked whether the market uproar could presage another Big One. His answer (which I may have to steal) was that the stock market has predicted ten of the last three recessions.
That made me feel a little better. Until I read this.
According to Pat Robertson (who is never wrong about stuff like this), bad stock market stuff is god's punishment for Planned Parenthood. Oh, and abortion, natch. Which means, if we all go down the financial drain, it's on account-a all you ladies out there wanting control of your own bodies or some such thing. The idea! Next thing ya know, end-a the world.
And listen, Robertson has accurately predicted the end of the world all those other times it happened as well.
Also, something in the Bible, blah, blah, blah, bad stuff, September, blah, blah, blah. But mostly.....abortion, Planned Parenthood, disobedient women. You know the drill. How those uppity gays missed the blame-game (this time), I have no clue. Pat's on another misogyny kick.
So, ladies, knock that shit off. Let all those nice Republican Men tell you what to do and when and how to do it.
After all, they know what's best for all of us.
Just read Krugman on the global glut. He's right, of course, mostly.
What he did not mention but should have (tho' I don't know how his NYTimes masters would like it) is the rather obvious fact that gluts are created by either/or or both overproduction and the absence of markets. Krugman dealt with the market absence; in a weak economy there's no place for all that lovely money to go.
But the other half the of the current imbalance is an element of money's, that is profit's, overproduction, that of its unequal distribution.
I can remember times when there was a global abundance of wheat but an inadequate market for it because those who needed it did not have the means to purchase it. Hence, it had very little or no value at all. Sometimes, governments intervened and purchased the surplus and gave it away, thus restoring some balance. Our generosity to Egypt and the Soviet Union in the early 60's comes to mind.
But without government intervention, capital just accumulates in a few hands, exactly as we've seen in the last few decades, creating a situation where there is an overall weak market because the majority of consumers don't have the purchase price in their pockets. Those pockets have been picked by monopolies and an upside-down tax structure.
Bernie just called out the Kochs for their greed, an economic and political strategy that does work, but only for the few and only, historically speaking, for a short time.
In short, concentrated wealth does not create markets. Wealth must be distributed in directions other than up. Here, in China, everywhere.
Krugman sometimes says that, but this time around he didn't.
@Akhilleus: Let's see. For years, Planned Parenthood has been helping women donate fetal tissue to medical research. During that time, the market has gone up & down, up & down. And the Capitalist God never did squat. Now, suddenly, some charlatans release some videos that falsely charge Planned Parenthood with "selling baby parts." Following this, Republicans (an no doubt Pat Robertson) spread these lies about Planned Parenthood. Just today, we learn that Ted Cruz is helping lead a 50-state campaign against Planned Parenthood. Over today & Friday, markets around the world took a nosedive.
Following Robertson's "logic," it would seem that the Capitalist God is mad at Ted Cruz & Pat Robertson, not at Planned Parenthood.
Marie
P.S. Or, just possibly, the market dips & Planned Parenthood have absolutely nothing to do with each other. And the Capitalist God lives in the addled brain of Pat Robertson & gets out only when you turn on the teevee to the 700 Club station, wherever that may be.
Obviously, the economics professor on NPR is familiar with
with this remark that Krugman included in his column.
"And the stock market is a terrible guide to the economic future: Paul Samuelson once quipped that the market had predicted nine of the last five recessions, and nothing has changed on that front."
Or was 'ten out of the last three recessions' his borrow?
Always appreciated Paul Samuelson's writings, economic views, and understated wit. Not so much that of his nephew, Larry Summers.
Read the New Yorker article on Trump, and the last sentence was a good wrap up, particularly the 'drifting deeper into unreality':
"If, as the Republican establishment hopes, the stargazers eventually defect, Trump will be left with the hardest core—the portion of the electorate that is drifting deeper into unreality, with no reconciliation in sight.
@MAG: Yep, very Scott Fitzgerald: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
Marie
MAG,
As an undergrad, my basic economics textbook was Samuelson's. Today, that same course is taught by a winger economist, virulent hater of the Occupy Movement, and table setter for the one percent who has little teaching experience but years of practice as an apologist for income inequality. His favorite economist is Adam Smith, talk about beating back ceaselessly into the past.
Samuelson's book would clearly need to be updated for contemporary students, but at least his book didn't bend economic precepts to fit ideological requirements.
And speaking of Larry Summers, a serious knee slapping results whenever I hear him described as a "liberal" economist because of his connections to both Obama and Clinton. One might as well describe H.G. Wells as belonging in the vanguard of literary modernism because he once wrote a letter to James Joyce.