The Commentariat -- August 5, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Brian Murphy of the Washington Post: "President Obama took sharp aim at critics of the Iran nuclear deal on Wednesday, saying many of those who backed the U.S. invasion of Iraq now want to reject an accord that showed America's ability to work with partners rather than push ahead with potentially dangerous unilateral action."
*****
Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Obama will call for the restoration of the Voting Rights Act on its 50th anniversary Thursday, the White House said. Obama will hold a teleconference to commemorate the landmark legislation and call for its renewal, following a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that voided one of its central provisions. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who rose to prominence in the 1960s as a civil rights leader, will participate.... Asked about the timing of the event, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said that 'one person's irony is another person's serendipity. Maybe there will be an opportunity for Republican candidates to discuss the right for every American to cast a vote.'...".
... Ed Kilgore: "It will tell you a lot about the GOP and about Fox News if the subject is not mentioned on Thursday night." ...
... CW: If we were a normal country, we'd be having parades to celebrate the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, just as we would have had last week to celebrate 50 years of Medicare & Medicaid, programs that have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Instead, millions of Americans will be glued to Fox "News" listening to a panel of preening jerks who not only oppose voting rights but also will tell us how we have to phase out Medicare & Medicaid "entitlements," leaving Americans with "nothing," as Jeb! puts it. ...
... A Glimmer of Hope in Oklahoma. Oklahoma! Russell Berman of the Atlantic: "Nearly a year ago, a coalition of voter-advocacy groups wrote ... to Oklahom's top elections official to deliver a stark, but not uncommon, message: The state ... was not giving citizens receiving public assistance an opportunity to register to vote, which is a requirement of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act." Then a surprising thing happened: "Last week, the coalition and Oklahoma's election board announced an agreement in which the state committed to asking any person who interacts with welfare agencies whether they want to register to vote and then to helping them through the process. That includes assistance with helping them register online."
Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama is rolling out a campaign of private entreaties and public advocacy over the next several weeks to build support in Congress for the nuclear deal with Iran, an effort to counter a well-financed onslaught from critics who have promised to use a monthlong congressional recess to pressure lawmakers to oppose the accord. In a speech at American University in Washington on Wednesday, Mr. Obama will seek to explain and defend the international agreement reached last month, which would lift some sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Iran's ability to develop a nuclear weapon." ...
... Julian Hattem of the Hill: "The highest-ranking Jewish Democrat in the House [Steve Israel (NY)], announced his opposition to the nuclear accord with Iran on Tuesday, in a blow to the Obama administration's lobbying efforts.... In addition to Rep. Israel, Reps. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) also came out against the deal on Tuesday...."
New Rule. Drew Harwell & Jena McGregor of the Washington Post: "The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday is expected to finalize a long-delayed rule forcing businesses to share their 'pay ratio.'... Once the pay-ratio rule is in place, millions of workers will know exactly how their top boss's payday compares to their own, revealing a potentially embarrassing disparity in corporate riches that many companies have long fought to keep hidden. While the average American's pay and benefits have been growing at the slowest pace in 33 years, executive wages have soared. Fifty years ago, the typical chief executive made $20 for every $1 a worker made; now, that gap is more than $300-to-$1, and growing."
Jessica Glenza of the Guardian: "The anti-abortion activist group Center for Medical Progress have released a fifth undercover video of Planned Parenthood employees discussing fetal tissue donation. The videos purport to show employees of the women's healthcare organization illegally trafficking in fetal tissue, though, like previous videos, there is no apparent evidence of such activity." See also news re: Jeb! under Presidential Race. ...
... ** Callie Beusman of Vice (Aug. 2): "... the Center for Medical Progress is a flimsy front set up by three anti-abortion extremists, one of whom has ties to violent radicals -- including the man convicted of murdering abortion provider Dr. George Tiller. And, since the Center's founding in 2013, it has potentially violated numerous federal and state laws in its single-minded quest to malign Planned Parenthood." Thanks to Victoria D. for the link. Also, read Victoria's comment in today's thread. ...
... CW: Yesterday, I misstated the Senate's Planned Parenthood vote. Two Democrats, not one, voted to defund Planned Parenthood: Joe Donnelly (Ind.) & Joe Manchin (W.Va.) Republican Mark Kirk (Ill.) voted with Democrats against the defunding measure. ...
... CW: A couple of commenters have mentioned this disgusting diatribe by Joe Scarborough, so here it is (Joe begins about 36 sec. in). Mika is no Elizabeth Warren:. We've discussed elsewhere the distortions & outright lies Joe embeds in his holier-than-thou remarks:
Julie Davis of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel intensified his campaign against the nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers on Tuesday, denouncing it as a fatally flawed and dangerous accord and charging that proponents are trying to muzzle criticism of it with deceitful claims. 'As a result of this deal, there will be more terrorism, there will be more attacks, and more people will die,' Mr. Netanyahu said in a webcast viewed by thousands of American Jews. 'This is a very dangerous deal, and it threatens all of us.'"
Presidential Race
Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "The FBI has begun looking into the security of Hillary Rodham Clinton's private e-mail setup, contacting in the past week a Denver-based technology firm that helped manage the unusual system, according to two government officials. Also last week, the FBI contacted Clinton's lawyer,David Kendall, with questions about the security of a thumb drive in his possession that contains copies of work e-mails Clinton sent during her time as secretary of state." ...
... CW: At first blush, this story seems to be well-reported, albeit, like so many reports of this nature, it relies in part on anonymous sources. All those "declined to comment"s suggest the gist of the story is accurate. One would think that the administration would have had a handle on how all sensitive material was being transmitted electronically. Either it did not -- as it appears -- or Clinton & other officials who had access to her e-mail account knowingly evaded the "known" system.
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Gov. John Kasich of Ohio is in and former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is out of Fox News's Republican debate on Thursday night in Cleveland, officials with the network said Tuesday, resolving the mystery of which lower-polling candidates will make the cut for the first debate of the 2016 presidential contest.... The others included in the lineup are Donald J. Trump, former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ben Carson, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey." I just love that this is the Times' top story (at 7:30 pm Tuesday). ...
... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Fox added a 5 p.m. candidate forum that will air prior to the main debate. Derisively referred to as the 'kiddie table' debate, it will include former Texas governor Rick Perry (at 1.8 percent), former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum (1.4), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (1.4), businesswoman Carly Fiorina (1.3), Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C., 0.7), former New York governor George Pataki (0.6) and former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore (0.2). Former IRS commissioner Mark Everson, who filed a complaint about the selection process with the FEC, will not be included." ...
... Harry Enten of 538: "National surveys haven't been great at predicting the results of primary elections. In fact, the candidate leading in a February to July polling average has become the nominee just seven of 12 times in open primaries since 1980.... It turns out the best individual predictor of the eventual results has been early New Hampshire polling...." (Footnotes deleted.)
I look forward to being FoxNews 5pm debate for what will be a serious exchange of ideas & positive solutions to get America back on track. -- A Sarcastic Commenter Rick Perry
The Doofus, Ctd. Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Jeb Bush on Tuesday questioned the need for the federal government to spend $500m on women's health annually.... 'You could take dollar for dollar -- although I'm not sure we need a half a billion dollars for women's health issues -- but if you took dollar for dollar, there are many extraordinarily fine, federally sponsored community health organizations to provide quality care for women on a wide variety of health issues. But abortions should not be funded by the government -- any government, in my mind.'... Bush's comments sparked instant backlash from Democrats and pro-choice advocates, including Hillary Clinton, who responded on Twitter by calling her Republican opponent 'absolutely, unequivocally wrong.'... Bush attempted to walk back the comments in a statement issued shortly after his appearance at the convention, saying he 'misspoke' and intended to question the funding specifically for Planned Parenthood and not women's health in general." In his "correction," he said, "I was referring to the hard-to-fathom $500m in federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood -- an organization that was callously participating in the unthinkable practice of selling fetal organs." ...
... CW: (a) Planned Parenthood is not "participating in the unthinkable practice of selling fetal organs," so his "correction" is predicated on a big fat lie. (b) As we know, the federal government doesn't fund most abortions, but they do pay for abortions in the case of rape, incest or the health of the mother. So whether or not Jeb! knows that Planned Parenthood does not receive federal funding for most abortions -- and it's not at all clear he does know that -- he is going beyond current federal law in opining that "abortions should not be funded by the government." ...
... Worse than Mitt. Margaret Hartmann of New York: "Bush's speedy response actually shows some progress, since it took him days to come up with the correct answer after he suggested in May that he would have invaded Iraq in 2003 even 'knowing what we know now.'... In the past three months, Bush declared 'immigrants are more fertile,' said Americans 'need to work longer hours,' and discussed a Medicare 'phase out.'... The severity and regularity of Bush's flubs have drawn comparisons to the last GOP presidential nominee.... Bush is one of the few candidates with a background in finance, but unlike Romney's long and successful career at Bain Capital..., Bush spent seven years advising Lehman Brothers and Barclays [which took over what was left of Lehman], and was present as the former collapsed in 2008." Also, Bush is faring worse in polls than Romney did at a comparable point in his campaign. ...
... BTW, for word-salad fans, here's how Jeb! led into his pronouncement that the federal government is overspending on women's health care: "The argument against this is, well, women's health issues are going to be -- you're attacking, it's a war on women, and you're attacking women's health issues." I defy anyone to definitively tell me what that means.
... For a rundown of how Planned Parenthood is funding & how they spend those funds, Janell Ross of the Washington Post has the numbers. Apparently it is too much to ask of presidential candidates that they be familiar with issues their own parties is raising. ...
... In another post, Ross points out that women's healthcare costs typically exceed men's costs: "... these costs are so significant that in the years before the Affordable Care Act outlawed the practice in 2014, health insurance companies regularly charged women more for coverage, anticipating both more frequent use of their health-care benefits than ... men...." CW: Ross doesn't mention it, but one reason for this disparity is that "women bear the majority of the social, economic, and health-related burdens associated with contraception." Obviously, Jeb!, you lying, ignorant doofus, when it comes to contraception, men & women both benefit from Planned Parenthood's services for women. ...
... Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post thinks Jeb! raises an important issue: "How many dollars are too many dollars for women's health issues?"
... Fortunately, some men do take responsibility for contraception. ...
... Too Much Information. Isabelle Taft of Politico: "... at a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire Tuesday morning ... [Chris Christie] explained to a diner full of voters, 'I'm a Catholic, but I've used birth control, and not just the rhythm method'":
... CW: Christie was not discussing his view on Planned Parenthood here. Instead, "Near the two-hour mark of the event, a man cited three Bible verses to raise arguments in support of environmental conservation and ending wars abroad." So his justification for his anti-environmental, pro-war stances is his sex life. Excellent.
** Jonathan Chait: "It must be galling for the party regulars to prostrate themselves helplessly before the base, purging any hint of independent thought, only to watch [Donald Trump,] a formerly pro-choice, libertine if not liberal, Democratic donor, waltz into the lead.... His affect supplies his appeal -- he is strong, mad, and, above all, unapologetic in a world that demands he apologize. Trump is not the spokesman for an idea at all, but the representation of undifferentiated resentment."
After Gawker published one of Donald Trump's cellphone numbers as payback for Trump's releasing Sen. Lindsey Graham's phone number, he recorded a new voicemail message for the phone:
When Lindsey Graham's cell number was released to the public, his response was to set the cell phone on fire and destroy it with a bat, an ax and a cinder block ... which is actually not good for the environment. Donald Trump turns the number into a campaign announcement that has received within the first few hours tens of thousands of calls. Now do you see the difference between Donald Trump and the rest of the field? -- Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who apparently is not too busy boning up on marital law or suing the Daily Beast
Copy of Lindsey Graham tweet:
Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Ted Cruz Anti-Iran Deal Site Accidentally Links To Big Photo Of Ass Instead Of Senator [Maria Cantwell]'s Twitter Account." CW: Yeah, maybe "accidentally."
In yesterday's Comments thread, Akhilleus wrote, "American presidential politics truly has become a cheap carny sideshow." CW: I can't imagine why he would say such a thing.
Beyond the Beltway
AP: "A sheriff in Mississippi says authorities are searching for two men who fired gunshots from a vehicle at soldiers at a military facility. No injuries were reported.... The soldiers were training at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center in Hattiesburg.... U.S. Special Forces Command designated Camp Shelby as one of the sites where a multi-state military training exercise, 'Jade Helm 15', was expected to take place, according to The Army Times.... Authorities say they are still looking for two white males who allegedly fired from [a red Ford Ranger] and fled in the vehicle." CW: The revolution has begun. The shots heard 'round the world, & all.
Annals of "Justice," Ctd. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "A [white] police officer in Alabama proposed murdering a black resident and creating bogus evidence to suggest the killing was in self-defence.... Officer Troy Middlebrooks kept his job and continues to patrol Alexander City after authorities there paid the man $35,000 to avoid being publicly sued over the incident." The city attorney claimed the city's insurance company made the decision to settle. CW: You may want to read this. The police chief said it was all okay because Middlebrooks wasn't going to kill the man himself; he was just urging the man's brother to kill him & telling the brother how to cover up the murder.
Michael Cooper of the New York Times: "The Metropolitan Opera said on Tuesday that the new production of Verdi's 'Otello' that will open its season next month will not use blackface makeup on the white tenor singing the title role, breaking with a performance tradition of more than a century.... Long after most theater companies stopped using dark makeup for their Othellos -- seeing it as an uncomfortable vestige of minstrelsy -- leading opera companies around the world continued to use dark makeup for their Otellos."
Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: "Shipments of hunting trophies are still allowed by United Parcel Service, a UPS spokeswoman told The Washington Post on Tuesday, noting that the global shipping giant follows U.S. and international laws, not public opinion, in determining what it will and won't ship." ...
... AP: "An American doctor accused of killing a lion in an illegal hunt in Zimbabwe said on Tuesday that he had complied with all rules and regulations, filled out all the necessary paperwork and obtained the correct permits."
News Ledes
New York Times: "There are 'very strong presumptions' that the airplane part that washed ashore last week on the French island of Réunion in the western Indian Ocean came from the missing [Malaysian Airlines Flight 370] Boeing 777, an official said on Wednesday at a Paris news conference after experts inspected the object."
Bloomberg: "The trade deficit in the U.S. widened in June as the strong dollar lifted imports and hobbled exports, representing a hurdle for economic growth. The gap grew by 7.1 percent to $43.8 billion, the largest in three months, Commerce Department figures showed Wednesday...."
Guardian: "Radical cleric Anjem Choudary has been charged with encouraging support for Islamic State, Scotland Yard has said. Choudary, 48, of Ilford, faces a charge of inviting support for a proscribed organisation, namely Isis."
BBC News: "Russian freediving champion Natalia Molchanova is feared dead after going missing on Sunday. The 53-year-old was diving for fun off Formentera, a Spanish island near Ibiza, when she failed to surface. Search efforts have been continuing but it is feared she may have been caught up in strong underwater currents." The Washington Post story is here.
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Reader Comments (20)
The unjust attack on Planned Parenthood is incredibly painful and looks like it will go on and on. My guess it is an effective attack - Americans are such suckers for misinformation and clever propaganda campaigns. So my suggestion is to just shut it down - announce that tissue donation is from this moment on ended. PP healthcare services are essential - the tissue donation is secondary and not essential. The loss of that service is very regrettable but let's not let PP be the next Acorn. And let's not waste thousands of dollars fighting lawsuits. Those dollars are needed to provide healthcare.
Victoria, I think you are in a leadership position. Has anyone suggested this tactic?
Christie's non rythm method of birth control? I suspect he leaves the gag on the nightstand and leaves the bag off his head.
@Haley Simon: As long as medical researchers need fetal tissues, I hope more women will donate them & more medical facilities will make them available to research. If any good comes of this perfidy, it will be that it makes more young women aware that the fetal tissue they donate has the potential to advance medical science & save lives.
What we need right now is more research institutions vocally standing up to Republicans, defending Planned Parenthood, & explaining in layman's terms their needs for fetal tissue donations.
There is no reason to retreat, & every reason to fight. As I've said before, this is not about abortion; it's about shaming women & an organization dedicated to providing their essential healthcare needs.
Marie
In reply to Haley Simon:
With all due respect, one does not defeat bullies by surrendering. Like it or not, one must stand up and fight back. Some we win, some we lose. The trick is to understand which is which.
"The argument against this is, well, women's health issues are going to be -- you're attacking, it's a war on women, and you're attacking women's health issues." I defy anyone to definitively tell me what that means. -CW
Seeing as ¡Jeb! lacks the ability to think about more than one thing at once, I believe I can decode his wordspeak. He he trying to speak simpleton and straight-forward but then mid-sentence got all flustered with his hatred for libruls and dissent and anyone who disagrees with his cemented mindset; thus the incoherence. What we need here is thus a connector between the two passionate ideas to create a sense of fluidity, and, well, comprehension.
"The argument against this is, well, women's health issues are going to be ((under attack)), it's a war on women, and you're attacking women's health issues."
Thanks to years of teaching English to foreigners, I can pretty much read between the lines of any verbal diarrhea.
Apparently Jeb! is not a philologist with his use of word salad.
Akhilleus could teach him a thing or three!
@safari: Thanks for the help.
"The argument against this is, well, women's health issues are going to be -- you're attacking, it's a war on women, and you're attacking women's health issues." -- Jeb!
In Jeb's remark, there is neither a defined subject nor a defined predicate, although mid-sentence (or whatever that list of words is), Jeb turns what appears to be the subject into a predicate.
When he launches into this remark, the predicate is "this," whatever the meaning of "this" is. In his "construction" (and I use the term loosely) the subject appears to be "women's health issues." But then Jeb! uses the passive voice -- "are going to be" -- so he avoids defining the subject. "Women's health issues "are going to be" what?
Then, as you point out, Jeb! switches gears, & "you" becomes the subject, i.e., the attacker, whoever "you" are. "Women's health issues" -- previously the subject -- turns into the predicate. Someone is attacking them.
I guess Jeb! can't bring himself to say, "Democrats will claim Republicans are attacking women's health issues." Maybe he's afraid Democrats will pull a Mitt Romney & just lop off that "Democrats will claim" part & run ads showing Jeb! saying, "Republicans are attacking women's health issues."
When you think about it, Jeb! has provided a fine example of how his brother got into the Iraq War -- by switching subject & predicate (and changing the verb tense). The pretense was "Iraq will attack us," where Iraq is the subject & "us" is the predicate. The fact was "We attacked Iraq."
Sometimes word salad is the product of fuzzy thinking. Sometimes it's a tactic.
Marie
Re: Jeb's clumsy, crazy salad sentences which aren't nearly as colorful as his brother's, but it makes one wonder whether there's a genetic component to their disability.
This whole deleterious cry of outrage by the Republicans regarding fetal tissue is bogus, but it has long legs that have been able to extend to this media frenzy so that everyone and his brother can weigh in. (watch Morning Joe have a hissy fit over this). What is needed, perhaps, are people with ALS to convene in our nation's chambers and hold up their signs saying how fetal tissue may save lives. (Although the presence of Bob Dole wheeled onto the senate floor didn't change the voting for the Disability Act). It's no use to try and have a debate over this because it's a sham in the first place. Shame is the only way to go here. Elizabeth Warren did a pretty good job of it on the senate floor yesterday, but the aforementioned M.J. castigated her for "insulting his intelligence." We need to go deeper to reveal their (the ones that voted yay) real reason for the defunding of PP–––a coalition of men and women who have been helped enormously by this program to come forth and proclaim "How can you turn your back on me, sir?"
Or––women en masse marching with signs that say, "(names of Republicans) HATE WOMEN." Or/and some interviewer with balls enough to ask the question, "Why do you have such low esteem for women, but are so passionate for the unborn?"
And also most important is this: "What we need right now is more research institutions vocally standing up to Republicans, defending Planned Parenthood, & explaining in layman's terms their needs for fetal tissue donations." CW
I only need 3 letters to defend fetal tissue research: ALS.
I posted my stance on this a few days ago, since I have ALS. I saw Scarborough's rant on MJ. It made me sick.
One reason Planned Parenthood is being targeted so viciously is symbolic: they are the Cecil the Lion of women's health care, an enormous trophy for Republicans able to land a fatal blow. What they would do when millions of women are suddenly without contraceptive and other medical care is a mystery, even to them. They have no plan any more than they had one for Iraq.
In response to Haley's comment, this is not about fetal tissue transfer. If it was, Republican senators would propose a new law imposing additional constraints on the practice. Instead, they jumped immediately to the perennial "defund Planned Parenthood" response.
There are many troubling things about the current crisis but one of the biggest for me is that the press often gives legitimacy to the vile people who perpetrated this fraud, painting the issues as a sort of "he said, she said." In reality, David Daleidin and his accomplices are no better than terrorists, as this article lays out.
There is tremendous benefit to be gained from fetal research. Most of the research is done on second trimester fetuses, which are rarer and probably more difficult for the women undergoing them. It must be reassuring to some of these women that the result of the process can be used for some good.
In response to Haley's specific points, as far as I can tell no one in PP has suggested halting transfer of tissue. It is only done by a small number of affiliates by the way, in just a few states.
My relationship to our local PP and through them to the national has spanned some thirty years, starting as a Board member. My experience with everyone I have met is that they are sincere, compassionate, knowledgeable, and dedicated; also very hard workers. I recommend to any interested to get to know your local PP and find out how you can help support them.
A Few Bits RE: Stem Cell Research . . .
@ PD Pepe's ' . . . the presence of Bob Dole wheeled onto the senate floor . . . ' -
Michael J. Fox's appearance/s were, sadly (understatement), just as effective as Dole's. Although Fox did reel-in - nay, initiate - much needed attention.
(While it's been said that Fox, at some point, appeared to back-track in his support - or was it only his belief in the near-future efficacy of Stem Cells specific to Parkinson's Disease? - he has, since, expressed support for continued research. I am second-hand familiar with this condition: He may "simply" be exhausted from his efforts, which have been gargantuan, and focusing, now, on his own personal battle.)
Here, in The Big Apple, Sloan Kettering perseveres with their "Tri-Institutional Stem Cell Initiative.
If of interest, the following 2 sites:
https://www.mskcc.org/research-areas/programs-centers/tri-institutional-stem-cell-initiative
https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/treatments/cancer-treatments/blood-stem-cell-transplantation/approach
The Mourning Joe whine about Elizabeth Warren was as expected as a murderer's protests of innocence. As for "insulting his intelligence", this is impossible. You can't insult what's not there.
But the larger question is how is it that a small minority of Confederate naysayers and liars have so much power. How is that a relatively small group of gun humpers can terrify lawmakers into further supporting a warped mentality that guarantees more, and more frequent, massacres of innocent Americans? How is it that a small group of historical revisionists can bully their way to changing standards of Advanced Placement History curricula? How is it that a tiny band of religious zealots and Confederates who are always going on about the importance of personal choice, curtail the choices of millions of women and deny them essential care? How is that a small group of begrudgers and haters proceed with 50 or 60 votes to deny millions of Americans healthcare? And get away with it?
Money, certainly plays a role, but more importantly few, especially in the media, are willing to call them on it. These groups are so used to getting their way and saying the most outrageous things and never having to defend themselves or their positions. So that when an Elizabeth Warren finally gets in their faces and calls them on their invidious and scurrilous behavior, they are outraged and demand apologies and retractions and punches in the face and jail sentences and who the hell knows what else.
This morning on NPR I heard a reporter talking to host David Greene about the changes the bullied College Board had made to try to mollify Confederate screamers who demanded that all references to America not being exceptional and perfect and god's gift to the planet be removed immediately from all AP course material. And so, they did it. And the reporter goes on to say that this just restores "balance". What balance? If you adjust what kids learn to correspond to what Confederates want them to believe, how is that balanced?
Any listener not overly familiar with the issue would have to assume that maybe the "liberal" approach was, in fact, "radical" and "extreme" as Confederates, and NPR, have painted it.
Confederates know how to play the game. They are organized, committed and obsessed with winning. The first comment to the NPR story is from a guy who uses Jefferson's picture as an avatar and complains that the changes still aren't good enough! That as long as there is the slightest negativity connected to the depiction of a newly white-washed AP American History, it's still not up to Confederate snuff and will not stand.
This is a pattern seen over and over and over. We've all become so used to wingnuts getting their way on so many issues, against the desires of millions of Americans, with little to no complaints from the press, that when someone like Senator Warren stands up and kicks these schmucks in the balls, eyes on all sides pop.
Last night Frontline ran a show about the power of the NRA. In it they showed a clip of Charlton Heston (giddily described by one of the NRA lackeys as Moses handing down the law--a force no one can withstand) describing the Columbine massacre as, well, unfortunate, but not good enough to trump FREEEDOM. He also trotted out the standard line that they've been using to dismiss the almost monthly gun massacres since then (and that was 15 years ago!), that these things are nothing more than blips on the radar, unconnected, random, isolated events. Nothing to worry about, and certainly nothing that deserves the horror of any form of regulation.
The fact that such a wondrously stupid and undisguisedly ignorant statement could still be considered a reasonable defense against gun control is simply astounding. How often have you heard MSM pundits and reporters even question it? The ones who do are held up as obvious examples of liberal media bias. After all, you can't expect them to paint these people as obvious examples of intelligence, can you?
You have to hand it to the haters, the racists, the misogynists, the fetishists, the 'baggers, and their monied backers, they've got the tactics down pat. They're smooth, they don't blink; no lies, no matter how transparent, are too disgusting for them, no amount of dirty tricks, no matter how immoral, are off limits. They play to win at all costs.
And so a small group of Confederate schemers control enormously important public debates simply by denying any debate at all. Thus, it all becomes, like the Fox "presidential debates", just another show with most of the outcomes already decided and the terms of the debate predetermined.
Progressives, liberals, and thinking Americans don't seem up to it. At the very least, they are not nearly as organized (organization tends to be an authoritarian trait). And they will get no help from media more spineless than earthworms.
At least earthworms serve a purpose.
Just wondering if Scarborough has ever invited Elizabeth Warren to debate him on his show. It's certainly very manly of him to attack her from a distance (like shooting at a lion from a great distance with high powered equipment and lights and guides) and to lecture her when she's not there (the way Newt Gingrich once pretended to cow an absent Tip O'Neill on a CSPAN feed, knowing the camera focused only on him, not the nearly empty chamber). So I looked it up.
Back in late February, Warren and Rep. Elijah Cummings were on Mourning Joe to talk about their Middle Class Prosperity Project, a series of initiatives and real world (as opposed to blue sky) proposals to reduce the egregious gap in economic well being between haves like Scarborough, and millions of Americans who are suffering under policies he supports.
He had an excellent chance to go toe to toe with Warren and duke it out, mano a mano, put his theories to the test. Did he do it?
Of course not. Just another Confederate Coward.
All full of bluster when he's in a studio with his sycophants around him. Instead he asked a couple of mealy mouthed questions about what plans, exactly (as if he couldn't imagine a one) did they have in mind to do this undoable thing. She was ready. Boy was she. You can just sense Scarborough getting down into a defensive crouch, hands over his crotch as Warren reels off numbers and statistics and lays out her plans, so simple even a dim partisan couldn't lose the trail. Instead of challenging her, he threw it to disgraced plagiarist Mike Barnicle to try to put her off her game. Barnicle asked her how in the world she ever expected to accomplish any of these wild and crazy things, to which she replied, like an exasperated fifth grade teacher trying to explain 2+2 to the class dummy, "By working at it, Mike!" WTF did you think?
God! I love Elizabeth Warren.
Interesting different POV on Cecil the lion:
http://nyti.ms/1KOMBEy
Forrest,
Alas, I don't believe my pedagogical skills would suffice to entice Jebbers from his snide, grammatically appalling approach to verbal articulation. I'd be tempted to teach him ASL but I'm afraid he'd screw up the signs and say something disgusting about someone's mother.
Good thing he's the smart one. If we were ever stuck with one of his dim bulb brothers, we'd....oh, wait.
Re: the Met's plan to put its Otellos onstage au naturel
Maybe the first good idea Peter Gelb has had since taking over the company. It certainly beats having scantily clad women performing simulated oral sex on Baron Scarpia in the second act of Tosca (at least I think it was simulated; never can tell with Gelb).
I do think there was a difference between having the tenor wear darker makeup and performers in minstrel-type blackface. Blackface acts were most often done to play up stereotypes at the expense of an entire race. Otello, as does its antecedent, highlights the otherness of the title character. His marriage to a white woman is a prime motivation for Iago to destroy him, that and the fact that Iago is an evil bastard, much more so in the Verdi/Boito version ("o d'un atomo vile son nato") than the Bard's.
That said, even though the work is a thoroughly serious examination of a black man holding power amidst white faces and intrigues, there is no more need to make him up, when one thinks about it, than there is to put lighter makeup on a black woman singing the role of Violetta, Leonora, or Elisabetta, or to try to disguise the absurdity of an extremely overweight 60 year old tenor cast in the role of a spry young man (see Pavarotti, Luciano, as Nemorino, Rudolfo, Tonio, etc.). Although I'm pretty sure most companies still do the oriental eye makeup thing for sopranos singing Cio-Cio San and Turandot, although maybe not as extreme as in the past.
Maybe next year.
D.C.,
The thoughts of someone who grew up in a place where lion attacks are a real threat is certainly a different take on the Cecil killing, but I don't think it in any way absolves that Allan Quatermain scumbag.
Hunting an animal out of fear or necessity is different than luring one out of a protected area to kill it so you can hang its head on your wall.
The author also mentions that we (the US) allowed mountain lions (cougars?) to be hunted to extinction in the eastern US, but I'm pretty sure that was well underway by the middle of the 19th century (I remember reading somewhere that no mountain lions have been seen in New England for well over a hundred years) and we've since instituted laws to protect endangered species (laws Confederates are eager to trash).
Nonetheless, it's always interesting to get reports from those on the ground.
Akhilleus,
I'm with you on the scumbags. Protecting people from wildlife, and wildlife from people, over a vast territory that cannot reasonably be fenced or adequately patrolled is a daunting problem. About the only course I could suggest is to do what is possible to remove the economic incentives of enabling scumbags. Banning the transport of 'trophies' might be a good start. But, given that scumbags control most of the world's economy it's not likely to be much more. Any scumbag that can spend 6 figures to kill an animal, can doubtless spend a few more to arrange private transportation. And people will vie to provide it. 'Money doesn't talk -- it screams.'
On a lighter note (all possible puns intended) I've also seen more 60 year old, 250 pound Juliets than I care to -- one would have been more than enough. But appropriate stage makeup, in the few instances when a character's color is germane to the plot, seems ok to me. Besides Othello, the conflict between Egyptians and Ethiopians in Aida is the only other in opera that I can think of at the moment.
Ethnicity is in the eye of the beholder. One of my all time favorite Carmens is Denis Graves -- saw her in Washington with an Escamillo who was also black. Historically, to many Northern Europeans, Spaniards, Arabs, Jews, and Gypsies, even Southern Italians were all various degrees of black.
On Gelb and soft core opera: Saw Hoffman at the Met this past season. Figured some artsy connection was being made between robotic eyeballs, rose colored glasses, and pairs of exposed nipples. Didn't quite get it, I guess I'm not that artsy. On the other hand, I don't remember ever seeing an opera at Teatro Verona that didn't feature a little gratuitous female semi-nudity. Must have something to do with those warm Italian summer nights. And, of course, the benchmark: Maria Ewing's Salome...
@AK: As always there is so much to respond to after reading all your comments, but it's late and I need to get the supper on. So just a few:
On education: I have always thought that trying to protect young people from dangerous ideas (since the world is full of them) or actual history about one's country that ain't so pretty, we will produce a whole lot of gullible innocents, not tough minded realists who KNOW what they believe because they have faced the enemies of their beliefs.
I, too, watched Frontline last night and when the Sandy Hook massacre was cited I sobbed––it's still such a horror to think of all those children being gunned down–-the parent's anguish, the senselessness of all of it and being almost certain this would turn all those gun loving...but, no. To me, that is such a black mark on this country that is unforgivable.
On a lighter note your tales of Othello reminded me of my experience watching a production of such––the play, not the opera–-during my stint at a girl's college in Mo. known for its acting productions (I, for many years, was Broadway bound). The fellow who played Othello was smeared in black face and whether it was the lighting or his nervousness our Othello started dripping black droplets over and down his collar–-which was white. And that reminded me of that marvelous scene in "Death in Venice" where Aschenbach's black hair coloring dribbles down his face as he sits on the beach watching Tadzio, the young Polish boy that he covets.
Suppers goona be late.
P.D.,
Great story. A compendium of theatrical horror stories beginning with grade school pageants all the way to Broadway stage door anecdotes would be a never ending source of delight for lovers of limelit dreams and nightmares.
And TM would be most appreciative of your remembrance of that wonderful little detail from D in V that so encapsulates the tragedy of thwarted desire.
Maybe when those damaged from the clown infested GOP donnybrook are clear of the wreckage and abandon the stage to lick their wounds, you might suggest they read "Magic Mountain". That is, if any of them read.