The Commentariat -- August 27, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Afternoon Update:
Amy Tsang & Peter Eavis of the New York Times: "Every major stock market in the world surged higher on Thursday, helped by an unexpectedly strong economic report in the United States and a late rally in Chinese stocks."
CW: Jonathan Martin, et al., of the New York Times have a big story currently on the NYT's front page about how "Democratic leaders are increasingly frustrated by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s failure to put to rest questions about her State Department email practices and ease growing doubts among voters about her honesty and trustworthiness." Blah-blah. But a version of the AP story I linked below, which demonstrates that Clinton was treating classified documents the same way everyone at State did and had done in past administration, doesn't get a front-page link (I had to find it in a search) & doesn't appear to have made the print editions of the paper.
*****
Emily Rauhala of the Washington Post: "Chinese markets rose dramatically Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index soaring quickly in less than an hour of late afternoon trading to finish up a significant 5.3 percent. The Shenzhen Composite also closed up 3.58 percent."
Peter Eavis, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States stock markets surged late in the day [Wednesday], with the Dow Jones industrial average jumping more than 600 points after a late afternoon rally. Investors seemed to react to suggestions from a Federal Reserve official that policy makers may not raise interest rates soon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
The market slide was the fault of Obama’s failure to get tough with China, but its rebound is probably due to the GOP Congress, or something. -- Greg Sargent
Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "A group of nearly 200 retired generals and admirals sent a letter to Congress on Wednesday urging lawmakers to reject the Iran nuclear agreement, which they say threatens national security.... The letter, addressed to Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate and the House, is a response to one sent last week by three dozen retired senior military officers who support the nuclear deal.... The signatories include retired generals and flag officers from every branch of service, including a handful who were involved in some public controversies during their careers. One is retired Lt. Gen. William G. 'Jerry' Boykin, who was deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence under President George W. Bush and is now executive vice president of the Family Research Council. He had a history of making controversial speeches...."
Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "The arrests this month of four young men on charges they hacked a fellow student to death in a federally funded job training center in Miami — and another murder in St. Louis this spring — are putting a spotlight on violence inside Job Corps. The antipoverty program born during President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty to give low-income teenagers free vocational training has been beset by violence for years, with lax enforcement of discipline policies set by the Labor Department, which runs the 125 job centers around the country."
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Ellen Brait of the Guardian: "Walmart will no longer stock AR-15 rifles and other semi-automatic weapons, saying the decision is because of less demand from customers and not continued political pressure in the wake of several mass shootings in the US."
Tim Wu of the New Yorker on some of the reasons better-paid white-collar workers work such long hours.
Nick Gass of Politico: "The White House fired back Wednesday at Charles Koch after a Politico article quoted him as saying he was 'flabbergasted' by a recent attack on him and his brother by President Barack Obama during an energy speech in Las Vegas earlier this week. In his Monday speech, Obama said that 'you start seeing massive lobbying efforts backed by fossil fuel interests, or conservative think tanks, or the Koch brothers pushing for new laws to roll back renewable energy standards or prevent new clean energy businesses from succeeding — that’s a problem.' 'It’s beneath the president, the dignity of the president, to be doing that,' Koch responded in a phone interview with Politico on Tuesday. On Wednesday, during the daily briefing, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Koch’s comments do not match with reality." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Here's the President's speech at the National Clean Energy Summit:
Ed Kilgore comments on Thomas Edsall's piece on Republicans' "conception of conception," linked yesterday in the Commentariat: "Edsall is fascinated, as I have been for some time now, by the orthodox RTL [right-to-life] position that fully-fledged human beings deserving legal protection are formed at the moment an ovum is fertilized by a sperm. Among other things, this means contraceptive methods that prevent (or may prevent) the implantation of fertilized ova in the uterine wall are morally indistinguishable from a late-term abortion—or for that matter, from killing an adult human being. Lest you think that’s an exotic position, it’s what was at the heart of the Hobby Lobby litigation, since the owners of that company professed a religiously-based belief that IUDs and Plan B contraceptives included in the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage mandate are in fact abortifacients."
** "The Reactionary Soul." Paul Krugman: "Trump isn’t a diversion, he’s a revelation, bringing the real motivations of the movement out into the open." Read it.
CW: Michael "Heckuva Job Brownie" has a long whine in Politico Magazine decrying his unfair press treatment. But you should forget about the whining & read, especially, the first section, where he writes about the negligence of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (D) (now residing in a federal pen) & Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. My recollection is that Brownie is essentially correct about these two.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. "The Trumpification of the News." E. J. Dionne: "Television is a business like any other, but journalism in a democracy is supposed to be about more than that. Nowhere is the tension between financial and public imperatives more obvious than in the massive coverage of the Trump spectacular and the parsimonious attention given to anything serious any other candidate might say. But hey, how often does a serious speech about our economic troubles win ratings for anyone?" ...
... Amanda Marcotte, in TPM: "Donald Trump has reignited his sexist harassment campaign against Megyn Kelly, and the folks at Fox News are, in seemingly coordinated fashion, striking back. Fellow Fox News hosts and pundits are asking Trump to cool it, and even Roger Ailes has released a statement calling Trump’s abuse 'unacceptable' and 'disturbing.' It’s almost touching, watching all these conservative media people who usually profit at peddling sexism choose, this time at least, to join together in an effort to stop this one particular instance of it. It’s also going to backfire.... You can’t tell people, day in and day out, that nothing is more fun than putting some mouthy broad in her place and then get upset when they continue to think it’s fun, even when the mouthy broad is one of yours."
Presidential Race
John Wagner of the Washington Post: "... Bernie Sanders is about to make a direct pitch to the Democratic Party establishment: Consider me, not Hillary Clinton. Sanders huddled with advisers at his home [in Burlington, Vermont,] Wednesday to chart what he describes as the second phase of a campaign that has exceeded all expectations but still lacks the infrastructure and support from the party elites that could help him compete with Clinton on a national level."
Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "The possibility that Vice President Biden may jump into the 2016 presidential campaign is convulsing the network of wealthy Democrats that financed President Obama’s two White House bids, galvanizing fundraisers who are underwhelmed by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s performance. A wide swath of party financiers is convinced that Biden will make a late entry into the race, and a sizable number are contemplating backing him, including some who have signed on with Clinton, according to more than a dozen top Democratic fundraisers nationwide." ...
... Guardian: "Joe Biden confirmed he is considering whether to run for president in his first publicly aired comments on whether he would seek the Democratic nomination. The US vice-president, in a conference call with Democratic National Committee members, said he was trying to decide whether he could give 'my whole heart and my whole soul' to a run for the White House, but also alluded to the burden that had been placed on his family by the death of his son, Beau Biden." CNN has audio clips & remarks from Hillary Clinton:
... Arit John of Bloomberg: "... Vice President Joe Biden ... polls better nationally against the leading three Republican candidates than Hillary Clinton, and has a higher favorability rating, too." CW: I'd call these polls pretty meaningless. The press has not been hounding Biden nor pointing out his negatives, of which there are many; that would change if he ran for president, & his polling would plummet.
... Ed Kilgore: "The more you look at the Biden bandwagon, it looks more like a ghost ship being pulled through the mist by a combination of hungry political reporters, Hillary haters (including most of the conservative media), and Delaware-based Friends of Joe.... [Biden's] leaping into the race now would be not a rescue, but a demolition mission. For starters, it would be received bitterly by the many Democratic women who figured HRC’s final assault on the political glass ceiling was a natural follow-up to Obama’s historic presidency. And worse yet, it’s hard to imagine Biden would have any compelling rationale for a candidacy that did not depend on feeding MSM and GOP attacks on her character. ...
... Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Former Senator Tom Harkin, a fixture in Iowa Democratic politics for over four decades, discouraged Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday from entering the presidential race, suggesting that Hillary Rodham Clinton, if elected, could name him to a top diplomatic post instead. Mr. Harkin, who served with Mr. Biden in the Senate for nearly 25 years and is now supporting Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, said the vice president should not risk ending his career with what would be a third bid for the presidency." ...
... ** Ken Dilanian of the AP: "The transmission of now-classified information across Hillary Rodham Clinton's private email is consistent with a State Department culture in which diplomats routinely sent secret material on unsecured email during the past two administrations, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press. Clinton's use of a home server makes her case unique.... But it's not clear whether the security breach would have been any less had she used [the standard unsecured] department email. The department only systematically checks email for sensitive or classified material in response to a public records request.... In fact, the State Department's unclassified email system has been penetrated by hackers believed linked to Russian intelligence.... Clinton also had access to a classified messaging system, but it's not widely used at the State Department." (Emphasis added.) ...
... CW: If this report is correct, and I have no reason to think it isn't, it should put an end to all the breathless hyperbole (I'm talking to you, Michael Schmidt & Ron Fourier & every bozo personality at Fox "News"). But of course it won't. As Dilanian points out, "everybody does it" is not the optimal defense, but it surely puts Clinton's e-mail practices in context.
New York Times: "Priorities USA, the 'super PAC' supporting Mrs. Clinton, has released a digital ad that uses Mr. Trump’s statements to paint the entire Republican presidential field as hostile toward immigrants, focusing in particular on Jeb Bush and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. The super PAC will start airing the 30-second spot, titled 'This Is the Republican Party,' in Colorado, Florida and Nevada, states with large Hispanic populations":
... AND here's a long trailer to a documentary "abUSed: The Postville Raid," which contributor safari linked this morning. As safari writes, "... the documentary is a damning portrait of what reality would be like across this country if the Confederates were to assume the Presidency and enact their extremist policies":
Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has offered his strongest hint yet that he will not run as an independent in the 2016 US presidential election, saying 'it’s not something I want to do' should he fail to win the Republican nomination.... The Huffington Post, meanwhile, reported that Trump had told 'several top Republicans' he would swear off an independent run. It also reported a 'top Republican source' as saying the party would not necessarily regard such a move as the end of the matter, given the impulsive nature of Trump’s campaign." ...
... Jenna Portnoy & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "The Virginia Republican Party is considering requiring a loyalty oath from presidential primary contenders — a move widely considered an early sign of GOP skittishness about Donald Trump’s campaign. State party officials are debating whether to require candidates to pledge their support to the eventual nominee and promise not to run as a third-party candidate — as Trump has hinted he might do.... Politico reported that North Carolina is considering a similar loyalty oath rule." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Dana Milbank: "Wednesday was Women’s Equality Day, the anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave American women the right to vote 95 years ago. And how have Republicans marked this egalitarian milestone? Why, with another bimbo eruption.... More telling than [Donald] Trump’s latest disparagement of women [-- in this case, his latest attacks on Fox 'News' host Megyn Kelly --] or his flip rejection of [Fox 'News' chief Roger] Ailes’s demand for an apology, is the reaction from the rest of the Republican presidential field: virtual silence.... Trump is acting like a sexist and a bigot — and the rest of the candidates are, with occasional exceptions, too timid to call him what he is. Over the weekend, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus even praised the contribution made by Trump’s candidacy. 'I think it’s a net positive for everybody,' he said in a radio interview."
Clash of the Titans! Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "The 2016 campaign is only the latest manifestation of decades of discord between Trump and the Bush family. Since the gilded 1980s, when Trump and George H.W. Bush rose as forces in their respective spheres, the relationship between Trump and the Bushes has been a melodrama — veering between displays of public affection and acerbic insults. At the core, there are clashes of style, manner and class between the Bushes — a patrician clan of presidents, governors and financiers who have pulled the levers of power for generations — and Trump, a hustling New York City deal-maker who turned his father’s outer borough real-estate portfolio into a gold-plated empire." CW: This is actually a fun read, if you enjoy trash-talking the Bushes.
Carrie Dann of NBC News: "Jeb Bush says that Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, who was escorted out of a press conference held by Donald Trump on Tuesday night, should have been 'treated with a little more respect.'" ...
This guy is now the front-runner. He should be held to account just like me. He should be asked — as he was yesterday — how are you going to pay for it? Why do you think this is not going to be — prove to me that it's not impractical. Explain to me how you're going to stop all the remittances without violating peoples' civil liberty. Go through these questions and what you'll find is that this guy doesn't have a plan. He's appealing to peoples' angst and their anger. I want to solve problems so that we can fix this and turn immigration into what it's always been: An economic driver for our country.... There are some people running, they're really talented about filling space. About saying big things. They think that volume in their language is a, some kind of a version of leadership. Talking is not leadership. Doing is leadership. That's what we need. -- Jeb Bush, at a townhall meeting in Pensacola, Florida, Wednesday
Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), told pastors Tuesday that he would do his best to make sure the government could not be funded if that funding included any taxpayer support for Planned Parenthood -- but that any attempt to blame him for a government shutdown that could result would be 'nonsense.'"
Senate Race
Mary Pols of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald: "Gov. Paul LePage has again told a Boston radio host that he is considering a run for the U.S. Senate in 2018 against incumbent Angus King.... During Tuesday’s taping, LePage donned a hat bearing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s slogan, 'Make America Great Again.' He also referred to himself as 'Baby Donald.'... He also got in a jab at the press corps: 'The daily newspapers in Maine are so bad you can’t even believe the obituaries,' LePage ... [said].” CW: What a card! Disappointed there were no more "jokes" about how stupid the French are.
Beyond the Beltway
Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "The Mormon Church announced Wednesday that it would continue its close association with the Boy Scouts for now, ending speculation that it would sever ties because of the Scouts’s decision last month to let openly gay men and women serve as leaders.... 'At this time, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will go forward as a chartering organization of B.S.A. and, as in the past, will appoint scout leaders and volunteers who uphold and exemplify church doctrine, values and standards,' the statement said.... In July, bowing to growing legal and public pressures, the governing board of the Boy Scouts of America voted to permit openly gay adult leaders.... But in a compromise aimed at preventing defections by religious conservatives — including the Mormons, who are the largest single sponsor of Boy Scout units — the board said that local sponsors with religious objections could select volunteer leaders in accordance with their own beliefs. At the time, the response from the Mormons was unexpectedly sharp and included a threat to leave the Scouts anyway." CW: So now they've calmed down a tad, & they're just going to go on excluding gay leaders. Special.
Way Beyond
Anemona Hartocollis of the New York Times: "Tens of thousands of migrants and refugees, mostly fleeing unrest in the Middle East and Afghanistan, are desperately pushing their way through the Balkans as they try to reach Hungary before it seals its border. A team of New York Times journalists has met up with some of these migrants to document their journey." ...
... Alison Smale of the New York Times: "The partly decomposing bodies of at least 20 people assumed to be migrants being smuggled across Europe were found in a truck abandoned on a highway east of Vienna on Thursday, the police said."
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Reader Comments (21)
@Ak and all:
Want to take a look into Trump-led, xenophobic reality regarding the repeal of the 14th Amendment?
Your mention of Woody Guthrie's song "Deportee" got me thinking about an excellent documentary that also uses his song "This land is your land."
I'd seen it a few years ago but unfortunately it didn't get much attention in the US. It tells the story of one of the biggest immigration raids in the US centered in a small rural community in Postville, Iowa in 2008. The ICE raid had captured almost 400 (mostly Central American) immigrants working for a meatpacking plant in the town, and the subsequent processing and deportation ripped apart lives and families and stigmatized those that were there legally. The testimonies of how they were treated is a national shame for us all, and I could only imagine the untold horrors that would occur if Winger authorities were given a green light to racial profile and round up anyone potentially here illegally. Trump/Jindal/Walker/whoever would probably assign ol' Sheriff Arapio as the Decider.
The subsequent local uprising against the injustice of the capture and processing of the immigrants shows that while there is an small appetite for this crazy Trump talk of deporting everyone, local realities are much different. The large majority of these immigrants were only looking to work and feed their families, and has been discussed here already. The "rapists, drug-carrying mules" are the GOP's modern day "Cadillac Welfare Queens", that is to say, a mostly dystopic fantasy to keep their electorate scared and angry. They just have to refresh their scapegoats every few elections.
Regardless, the documentary is a damning portrait of what reality would be like across this country if the Confederates were to assume the Presidency and enact their extremist policies. We'd make headlines all over the world for sure, but for entirely the wrong reasons. The damage of those images could be irreversible to our ultimate soft power ideal of the American "melting pot." Watching colored people across the country run for cover as black helicopters and Army-outfitted agents chase them down and chain them up would be a serious deterrent for illegals to enter, but possibly an even bigger deterrent to those who want nothing to do with such an insane police state.
I highly recommend checking out the trailer and watching the documentary if possible (it's not easily found on the internets unfortunately...).
Here's the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQHbFxUGMxs
@safari: Thanks. As far as I can tell, the only way to watch the full documentary at home is here, & it costs 5 bucks for 3 days only of a low-res streaming video.
Thanks for pointing this out. This would indeed be Trump's Amerika, but writ huge. Horrifying.
Marie
Safari,
Pretty chilling stuff. Imagery that one connects with totalitarian states, not the US. At least not the US we'd like to think we live in. I was struck by the difference between the calm anodyne, bureaucratic description of the events on the ground by Marcy Forman, who directed the ICE attack (that's what it was), and the stories related by people who were actually there, being dragged out, chained like dogs, threatened with beatings, being separated from their children with no way to make a living and no food for their small children.
But as much as some of us might be appalled by this kind of assault, there are plenty--the Trumpists--who feel the treatment these immigrants received was way too light. I wanted to look up Marcy Forman, get a little more background on her, and I ran into the standard internet dichotomy.
First I found a glowing report on her career that appeared in the Home for Supporters of Bush War Crimes, aka the Washington Post. She is presented as a combination of Joan of Arc and Dick Tracy. Then I found a piece on some wingnut site operated as a portal for all manner of virulent hatred, by right-wing superstar Debbie Schlussel, a real piece of work, who takes Forman to task for being too nice to immigrants. Interestingly, these piece represent two sides of the Confederacy. The bad and the horrible. There are no other options these days on the right.
No one is suggesting that the problem of undocumented immigrants is not important. It is. There is likely no perfect solution. When is there ever? But there are some solutions we can discuss. Some options. Or could, if the other side wasn't wedded to magical thinking and fantasy solutions: gigantic walls, and nation wide round ups and 24/7 deportations as long as it takes to evict 11 million people.
But this is the problem with so many issues before us today. Confederates insist that the only solutions are theirs. But their solutions to most all difficult problems before the public are unworkable bits of fantasia. On the problem of a woman's right to control her own body, their answer is NO. Never. And that's final. Discussion? No. Immigration? Deport everyone then build a 50,000 ft 3,000 mile long wall. Economics? End taxation. Foreign affairs? Bomb everyone. Education? The Bible. End of story.
These aren't solutions. They are dreamscape fantasies. Never-Never Land bullshit. These people live in a bubble and refuse to talk about anything that might threaten their sacred world view. They refuse discussion, respect, or any form of compromise.
There simply has to be a better way to handle the problem of undocumented or illegal immigrants. Confederate solutions are ridiculous. Not to mention stupid. And we're wasting so much time repeating the droolings of “El hombre del peluquín”, as the Spanish news outlets have taken to calling Trumpy. The Toupée Man. One might think they were referring to Li'l Randy, but his ship has dropped below the horizon.
Trumpy's is hull up with all batteries blazing. The press is stupefied. The country is paralyzed. Millions are petrified. Because as bad as the WaPo point of view typically is, Trump is moving the country further and further into the arms of rampaging lunatics like Schlussel.
This land is not your land.
Today's column is going to take me most of the day to read, with all of its interesting stories and links. Now I see that the comments are going to be equally time-consuming!
Too bad it's such a beautiful late summer day here in Wisconsin, where Scott Walker's plummeting poll numbers and flailing campaign (previously "Reform, growth, safety" but now refocused on "protest, passion, and (!)policy") are cheering up the suffering citizens. It's also move-in day at the UW, always an optimistic and fun time.
Anyway, thank you Marie, for your diligence in gathering daily news and opinion. It is always one of the highlights of my day to read Reality Chex.
@Nadd2: If you have a good enough wifi connection, sit outside & read. Lovely day in these parts, too; unfortunately, I'm spending the afternoon mounting a range hood (wiring! -- just my forte) & building a base for a pull-out kitchen cabinet. But, hey, I'm doing some of the work outside.
Marie
In a link posted above, Ted Cruz promises (don't know if he crossed his heart and hoped to die....oh wait, he has no heart) Confederate preachers that he will kill the government (stop all funding for the government) if a penny goes to Planned Parenthood.
First let's forget about the usual Cruz gasconade, he's promised all sorts of extravagant bon-bons to wingnut whackos and has never delivered. Let's concentrate on what this all means.
First, the fact that these preachers are drooling at the idea that Cruz is promising to kill the government in order to force the country to bend to their religious beliefs indicates that they care much more about their religion than they do the country they live in. And, okay, that's probably true of a fair number of religious people. Many would say god before country. But it also indicates a profound disrespect for others in the country, for those whose belief systems do not align with theirs. This is the more serious offense. And Cruz abets this offense and does so on an appalling scale.
Charlatans like Cruz are encouraging people to throw off their civic responsibilities and attempting to force the rest of us to bow to the religious beliefs of the few. Nearly everything he does is discolored by religion, or at least by his cynical employment of it.
Enough of this bullshit.
Everyone is free to worship as they see fit. Or not. But no one has the right to force the rest of the country to abide by tenets we neither believe nor care about. That's unAmerican, and in my opinion, treasonous. Abortion is the law of the land. Planned Parenthood offers a better life for millions of women and their families.
So fuck off, all you Bible beating assholes.
(not holding my breath here...)
And I (state your name) swear to be an authoritarian douchebag...
This business of loyalty oaths I find to be truly icky. The Republican Party in Virginia wants Donald Trump to swear to be loyal to the Republican Party. Oooooh-kaaay.
But to what end? To make sure he doesn't bolt, of course. (Here we'll set aside the very real possibility that Trump is truly loyal only to Trump and would happily abridge his oath if it were in his interest.) But can one force loyalty that isn't there in the first place? And not for nothin' but Virginia has a history of loyalty oaths that have not always had the best interest of the United States in mind.
Here's where we move from the concept of loyalty, which has been called the heart of all virtues, as a virtuous oath to a pledge with more pragmatic or prophylactic functions and with more or less legal power. If you are forced to take an oath for employment, then breaking your oath will mean losing your job and perhaps legal encumbrances as well. Loyalty oaths to companies are meant to protect the company, not ennoble the taker of the oath.
It's the not the same as a pledge, as with the Pledge of Allegiance, which is a promise to abide by something, in this case the idea of the United States of America. The oath has an even more serious element to it. And a loyalty oath has, for me at least, something of an authoritarian air to it. During his run for re-election, The Decider forced anyone coming to hear his campaign speeches, such as they were, to take a loyalty oath. An oath to him personally. If that's not authoritarian, I don't know what is. And if you didn't pledge your troth to Dubya, you didn't get in. How's that for a pure expression of an anti-democratic campaign?
Even though loyalty oaths are legal and have some history in the US, they smack of something dark, something reeking of sects and cults, especially when used to enforce loyalty that may not be there to begin with. I'm not opposed to oaths of office. For the most part, office holders are asked to take an oath that they will faithfully execute their duties and protect the Constitution, either the federal or state version. I don't have a problem with that.
I dunno. I suppose I should parse this more carefully, there's a lot to consider: the historical, philosophical, moral elements of oaths, for instance. I just feel that a forced oath of loyalty to a political personage or party strikes me as suspect. And weird.
What do you guys think?
@Akhilleus: re Cruz: I think Krugman, in one short post, captures the heart of the problem -- confederates are all a bunch of phonies concerned only with "conserving" their privilege.
This conservatism can be born of a long line of privilege. as with the Bushes. or from hard-won privilege, a la Cruz. It tends to come out a little more smoothly when uttered by Bushes, partly because they're more comfortable in their well-established palace & partly because they've learning finishing-school manners. Cruz, even tho he's well-educated & an expert debater, doesn't hide his crude, grasping id as well as the Bushes do, & of course Trump doesn't even try. They're all narcissists, perhaps to about the same degree, but Jeb!, for all his inarticulate stuttering, has noblesse oblige built into his DNA. Ergo, even though he's a Doofus, he's a less brazen one.
Marie
@Akhileus: to many conservatives, it's Trump's lack of loyalty/fealty to the Republican Party that's so very attractive. In other words, it's a feature, not a bug. Signing an "oath" would probably cost him a lot of support.
Black Lives Only Matter if White Lives Matter First.
The Littlest Bloviator opened the hole of wisdom in his little face again and out spat his latest pronouncement sure to warm the Glockles of any white supremacist's concealed-carry heart.
"'I think they should change their name maybe, if they were All Lives Matter or Innocent Lives Matter,' [Rand] Paul told Fox News host Sean Hannity. 'But commandeering the microphone and bullying people and pushing people out of the way I think really isn’t a way to get their message across.'"
So, according to Li'l Randy, the BLM people should shut up and sit down because he's going to tell them how to do it. And that means essentially neutering their entire message, meaning black lives only matter once white lives are taken care of.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this exactly the sort of crap that BLM is trying to address?
He is a leader, that little fellow. He sure is. Step right up. The Rand Paul Express to the past. No waiting.
Good thing the Little One didn't go into advertising. His take on a catchy ad slogan might have been "Things go better with all kinds of fizzy drinks".
His ship is still hull-down and it should stay there.
This talk of oaths and pledges brought to mind a couple of quotes from Groucho Marx.
"Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member."
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies."
Too bad the current crop of Confederates lack such wisdom (and humor).
Unwashed,
What they do have is Amarillo Slim's corollary to Lincoln's maxim.
Slim sez: "You can fool some of the people all of time, all of the people some of the time, and those are damn good odds."
Been working for the GOP lo these forty years or more. They ain't about to change.
BLM have recognized (just like Rand) that the media doesn't pay much attention to polite, nuanced, informed, intelligent discussions. The news media mostly rewards negative behavior. Yelling, screaming, saying stupid or controversial things is the way to get your message out today.
What is BLM? There are at least 32 names that this abbreviation (it is NOT an acronym) stands for? Please explain.
Thanks!
MAG
BLM is Black Lives Matter movement.
@D.C.Clark Thanks for clearing that up! It's seems there is an overload of abbreviated shortcuts! I can't always keep up.
MAG
Don't feel bad. First time I saw it my bureaucratic brain reacted:
"Bureau of Land Management! WTF has that got to do with the thread?"
Sorry for the alphabet soupiness of my original BLM post. I can see where it would be a bit of a synaptic traffic jam to try to figure out why Bad Toupée might be suggesting that the Bureau of Land Management change their name and stop crowding the microphones.
Although he could have been trying to suggest the use of AMM as a new acronym for that department when dealing with the likes of his BFF (arrrggh...another acronym!) Cliven Bundy: All Moochers Matter.
The funny thing is (and I just tried this), you can type in pretty much any combination of three letters into a Google search and find an acronymic match. Sometimes five or six.
Try these:
DYT
HGH
DTY
YTD
IOT
OIT
TOI
WRT
RTW
SOC
COS
OCS
OSC
It never ENDs.
I'll try to avoid all but the most obvious in the future. HTH.
@Ak....Your initial post DID explain. It was when catching up later in the thread that I missed/forgot it. I do a lot of proofreading and rewrites for clients and always stress that the first use of an organization or company in an article be spelled in full (with the abbreviation to follow in parentheses), after that it's OK to use the abbreviation in other paragraphs.
Remember letter combinations that can be pronounced as a 'word' such as NATO, NAFTA, GATT are acronyms. If you can't say it, it's simply an abbreviation.
My clients often call me a PITA. Acronym for Pain In The Ass!
@Ak:
I'm not a texting teenager but they look like airport codes to me. CLT is one of my favorites, phonetically speaking.
Don't know if anyone will look back on here today, but thanks to Marie for posting the WaPo article about the 200 non-supporters of the Iran Nuclear treaty, I got this link from one of the commenters: http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/08/21/neoconservatives-so-wrong-for-so-long-iraq-war-iran-deal/.
After reading this Foreign Policy article and then reading my fellow commenters here about immigration and the Postville Raid, I'm sure that the same neocons error machine when it gets applied to domestic politics would be just as fallible as is it to foreign policy.