The Commentariat -- February 1, 2015
Internal links removed.
Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Obama administration officials and other supporters of the Affordable Care Act say they worry that the tax-filing season will generate new anger as uninsured consumers learn that they must pay tax penalties and as many people struggle with complex forms needed to justify tax credits they received in 2014 to pay for health insurance. The White House has already granted some exemptions and is considering more to avoid a political firestorm. Mark J. Mazur, the assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy, said up to six million taxpayers would have to 'pay a fee this year because they made a choice not to obtain health care coverage that they could have afforded.'"
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "LAWYERS on average are much more liberal than the general population, a new study has found. But judges are more conservative than the average lawyer, to say nothing of the graduates of top law schools. What accounts for the gap? The answer, the study says, is that judicial selection processes are affected by politics." CW: Duh. Includes a chart of various types of lawyers & judges, as well as potential presidential candidates. Elizabeth Warren is the liberal high-water mark & Rand Paul is the wingiest of presidential-wannabee wingers, according to the researchers.
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "Now, even as the economy recovers and taxpayer revenue is pouring back in, states have not restored ... funding [of public universities], and tuition keeps rising.... Total student debt now surpasses $1 trillion and is growing by the day. For the first time ever, according to a recent study, families are shouldering more of the cost of public university tuition than state governments."
Jonathan Tepperman of Foreign Affairs, in a Washington Post op-ed: "I met with [Syrian President Bashar al-]Assad on Jan. 20 in Damascus -- his first interview by an American journalist since 2013.... Superficially, Assad said many of the right things, appearing conciliatory and eager to involve Western governments in his struggle against Islamist terrorism. But underneath the pretty words, he remains as unrepentant and inflexible today as he was at the start of the Syrian civil war four years ago. Assad seems to have no idea how badly the war is going, how impractical his proposals sound and how meaningless his purported overtures are."
Buy-Bye, Debbie. Javier Manjarres of the Shark Tank: "In an audio filed obtained by the Shark Tank, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) spoke to a group of Jewish Americans in South Florida....Wasserman Schultz ... broke with President Obama by calling out 'Islamic fundamentalists' for "leading" the "global war on terror," and saying that Jews are the reason why groups like ISIS are conducting terrorist attacks....Wasserman Schultz then recalls waking up one morning to MSNBC, and to her surprise, the network aired a biased 'Palestinian perspective' and 'panoramic view of the results of the war in Gaza.'"
God News
Adelle Banks of Religion News Service: "Religious and secular advocacy groups jointly called Thursday (Jan. 29) for greater clarity by the Internal Revenue Service regarding nonprofits and political activity. In a rare combined front, leaders of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, Alliance Defending Freedom, Public Citizen and the Center for American Progress met at the National Press Club to discuss ways the tax agency could better help nonprofits know what they can and cannot do under the law."
... AND NOW, for a Somewhat Different View.... Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "During a speech earlier this month at televangelist Morris Cerullo's annual conference, Mike Huckabee said that school shootings wouldn't take place if public schools organized daily prayers, religious assemblies, Bible readings and 'chapel services.' 'Because we were bringing Bibles to school people weren't bringing guns to school, except for the deer hunters who left them in their trucks,' Huckabee said." ...
... Steve Benen: "The obvious problem with rhetoric like this is that Huckabee supports a big-government solution -- having the state force religion on public-school children -- which flagrantly ignores the First Amendment. But there are some less obvious problems, too. For example, whether Huckabee knows this or not, gun violence in schools pre-dates Supreme Court rulings on school neutrality towards religion. For that matter, under existing law, Bibles aren't prohibited in public schools at all.... Huckabee seems to believe the mere presence of religious materials will prevent wrongdoing." ...
... CW: Yo, Steve, it takes irrational arguments to justify an irrational belief system.
Daniel Burke of CNN: "In at least one big and bruising culture-war battle, the Mormon church wants to call a partial truce. Convening a rare press conference on Tuesday at church headquarters in Salt Lake City, Mormon leaders pledged to support anti-discrimination laws for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people, as long the laws also protect the rights of religious groups. In exchange, the Mormon church wants gay rights advocates -- and the government -- to back off." ...
... Hunter Schwartz of the Washington Post: "Two days after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced it backed some nondiscrimination legislation, Idaho became the first heavily Mormon state to consider such a bill, and legislators there, including some who are Mormons, voted it down. The House State Affairs Committee voted 13-4 to hold a bill in committee that would have added sexual orientation and gender identity to the Idaho Human Rights act, in effect killing the bill Thursday. The committee includes five Mormons, all of whom voted against it."
Selena Hill of the Latin Post: "Pope Francis made another landmark move in Vatican history by recently holding a meeting with a Spanish transsexual man and his fiancée. Pope Francis reportedly invited Diego Neria Lejárraga, a 48-year-old Spanish man who was born with a female anatomy, to a private meeting after Lejárraga wrote him a letter explaining that he was ostracized at his local parish in the western Spanish city of Plasencia."
Jill Tucker of the San Francisco Chronicle: "A Catholic priest, new to San Francisco and no stranger to controversy, has banned girls from acting as altar servers at Mass, a decision that sets his parish apart from all others in the archdiocese. The Rev. Joseph Illo, pastor at Star of the Sea Church since August, said he believes there is an 'intrinsic connection' between the priesthood and serving at the altar -- and because women can't be priests, it makes sense to have only altar boys." ...
... CW: Illo's edict is consistent with the views of Cardinal Raymond Burke & the New Emangelization Project, "formed to confront what it calls a 'man crisis' in the Catholic Church."
David Gibson of Religion News Service: "Billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch ... are ... nearly doubling their investment in the business school of Catholic University of America, which is overseen by the U.S. bishops.... The grant fits with the Kochs' strategy of funding business and other programs at universities around the country.... But from the moment the first CUA donation was announced in the fall of 2013, many Catholic theologians and others raised questions about why the only pontifical university in the country would take so much money from the Kochs."
Antonia Blumberg of the Huffington Post: "Twenty-six percent of Americans and 27 percent of self-described sports fans believe God plays a role in determining which team will win a sporting event. Even more -- 53 percent of Americans and 56 percent of sports fans -- say God rewards faithful athletes with good health and success." ...
... CW: This is as close as I'm coming to Super Bowl coverage, unless Jesus actually carries the ball for the winning touchdown, then beams up a few of the faithful.
Presidential Race
According to Maureen Dowd, last year Mitt Romney went to Sundance to see the documentary about his 2012 run & suddenly got a bright idea: next time he could run as Himself instead of as one of those Fake Mitts he's so accustomed to adopting. CW: I don't know that we would have liked the real Mitt any better than the Fake Mitts; for some reason they all have the same policies.
Bowling for Billions. Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida plunged into all-out battle this weekend for the biggest unclaimed prize in American politics and the decisive advantage that could go with it: the billion-dollar donor network once harnessed by Mitt Romney. In hundreds of phone calls that began even before Mr. Romney formally announced on Friday that he was forgoing a third bid for the presidency, allies of Mr. Christie and Mr. Bush began putting polite but intense pressure on Mr. Romney's supporters to pick a side."
Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) accused Jeb Bush of hypocrisy after The Boston Globe reported the former Florida governor was a heavy marijuana smoker while at an elite prep school. [Globe story also linked in yesterday's Commentariat.] Bush opposed a Florida medical marijuana ballot initiative last year even though he partook liberally of the herb while in high school.... 'I think that's the real hypocrisy, is that people on our side, which include a lot of people who made mistakes growing up, admit their mistakes but now still want to put people in jail for that,' [Paul] said. 'Had he been caught at Andover, he'd have never been governor, he'd probably never have a chance to run for the presidency,' he added." ...
... CW: This part is fun.
Karen Tumulty & Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Mitt Romney's decision to forgo a third try at the White House has settled the question of whether the 2016 GOP presidential field has a front-runner -- bestowing a coveted status on former Florida governor Jeb Bush that also raises new challenges and perils.... Two questions about Bush will be answered only by running: Will he be able to build a state-of-the-art campaign operation for a digital age? And does he have the retail political skills to prevail in early states such as Iowa and New Hampshire, which are a repetitive grind of town-hall meetings, living-room receptions and candidate forums?"
Scott Walker goes from 'Who?' to "Wow!" -- Kathy Obranovich of the Des Moines Register
... Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register: "Presidential stage newcomer Scott Walker, the conservative reform pit bull who inspired death threats from the left [CW: or so he says], has become the one to watch in the race for the Republican nomination a year out from the Iowa caucuses. At 15 percentage points, he leads a big, tightly packed field of potential contenders in a new Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll of likely Republican caucusgoers. The caucuses are scheduled for Feb. 1, 2016."
Beyond the Beltway
John Marzulli of the New York Daily News: "The family of slain Bronx teen Ramarley Graham agreed to accept $3.9 million from the city [of New York] Friday to settle their wrongful death lawsuit.... The settlement comes amid an ongoing federal investigation by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara into possible civil rights violations against the NYPD cops involved in the Feb. 2, 2012 fatal shooting. Officer Richard Haste, who fired the fatal shot after chasing Graham, 18, from the street into his home, was initially indicted by the Bronx district attorney for manslaughter, but a judge threw out the case on a legal technicality. A second grand jury declined to indict the cop." Graham was black. Haste is white.
News Lede
Hill: The Pentagon announced Saturday that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been officially 'pushed out' of the Syrian border town of Kobani."
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Reader Comments (17)
The Rumble post: a collection of immoral, totally narcissistic, disgusting piles of crap. There is not one that is remotely qualified to be dog catcher. Now that they are starting to go after each other, let the fun begin.
I read the Boston Globe article and I didn't find it nearly as frightening as the accounts of Romney's youthful character. He (Jeb) sounded like a lot of snotty, athletic good looking 16 year olds. A bit of a bully, liked pot, long hair, and not a great student. Hell, there is a lot about my 16 year old self that isn't very commendable and one antic that still shames me. Of course I'm not fit to be president but that is not because of my history as a 16 year old. Further, the story of his trip to Mexico, while not quite as selfless as if he signed up for Docs Without Borders, and his academic turnabout following falling in love with Columba is rather charming. Granted, it's not hard to fall in love with a beautiful girl when you are 16, but to stay in love and consequently act with more maturity is somewhat remarkable.
I would never vote for Jeb, but it won't be because of this article in the Boston Globe. I am surprised that some find it damaging. We've got to do better than this if we want to keep the WH. Keep in mind Hillary has just been tarred with another horror story thanks to Bill's poor choice of friends.
And on the matter of funding public university, in 2014 Rutgers 'University' spent $26 million of money on sports. Not research, not teaching, not patient care - football! A perfect example of why our higher education which used to lead the world is falling apart. The land of the free and the home of the duh!
Here's an interesting NYT article on the importance of blue states in choosing the Republican presidential candidate. Important takeaway...watch out for a bunch of southern red states early primaries. Such a change makes it more possible to wind up with a very conservative candidate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/upshot/the-surprising-power-of-blue-state-republicans.html?action=click&contentCollection=U.S.®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article&abt=0002&abg=1
@Haley Simon: Thanks for making the comparison. I agree that I found the portrait of Romney shocking, while that of Jeb is, as you say, more-or-less your usual high-school Richy-Rich jock-jerk. Of course, there may be more to come on Bush. In any event, neither was the type of boy I chose to befriend when I was in school -- my favorites were the guys who were stars of some kind but were nice to those who weren't. It struck me that they were pleasant by nature, not because they had to be.
I'm not surprised Jeb doesn't remember the bullying incidents. (Romney's -- way harder to forget.) I remember a kid in junior high who was cruel to me. (The nastiness was verbal, not physical.) He became a star football player in high school, & neither of us had anything to do with each other. I assumed he thought I wasn't good enough to speak to him, & I thought he was a complete asshole.
When we met at our 20th high-school reunion, he approached me as if I were his long-lost love. He just gushed at how delighted he was to see me again. Say what? I'm certain he had no recollection of how nasty he'd been to me in junior high & how dismissive in high school. It shocked me to learn this jerk could act like a normal adult. Nonetheless, I got rid of him as politely as possible. I really didn't want to spend 4 minutes with a guy -- no matter how pleasant then -- who had treated me shoddily years before.
Nope, the bullies conveniently forget their bad behavior. But their victims remember it forever. The victims' remembrances make for illuminating reading during campaign season.
Marie
Re; the God line. God favored Seatle to win by seven, then he found a bone in his salmon at the tony Seattle seafood restaurant he was dining at last night with the devil. The devil is backing New England because the headcoach is a close personal friend. After damning the waiter to a life as a successful movie actor God flip flopped on his pick and is now going with New England and the devil over Seatle by two.
I got two words for those that think being a good Christian helps as a pro athlete; "Tim Tebow"
John Ellis Bush is the perfect candidate for the Regressive Party.
He's bilingual which means he can lie in two languages, a real
advantage over some of the others.
And with so many nitwits vying for top dog, I'll bet there's gonna
be many, many Republican voters suffering from electile dysfunction.
Reading the piece on the right under "Infotainment" about how Comcast renamed a customer "Asshole" for having the temerity to try (try!) to cut the cable reminded me of a piece I heard on Tom Hartmann's show some months back. I vaguely remembered that another Comcast customer had to spend a strikingly extended amount of time with a "service agent" just to cancel his cable. The audio was recorded by that customer and it went viral. Anyway, a quick Google search revealed that Hartmann had written an excellent column entitled, "Which is Worse - Government or Corporate Bureaucracy?" He makes an interesting point in this larger issue, and also has some good suggestions about the specific problem of cable provider overreach and how it could be curbed.
http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2014/07/which-worse-government-or-corporate-bureaucracy
They say "Jeb Bush." We say "Terri Schiavo."
@Victoria D.: Thanks for the reminder about corporate bureaucracy, as if any of us needed reminding, since we all have multiple horror stories to tell.
My beef with the government is that there are no other choices. If the USPS doesn't deliver your mail -- my Florida branch does so only when the carrier feels like it -- you can't just say "I'll privatize" & expect everyone who sends you mail to spend about $10 bucks on a private carrier for every piece of mail. Some important mailers -- like the tax collector -- wouldn't do that even if you sent them a prepaid envelope.
Unfortunately, in the New Gilded Age (and before this, too), the same is true of many quasi-private corporations. If I get mad at my power company, I can't just stick a wind turbine in the front yard. I can't drop the only company that provides cell service to my area, etc.
Even when there are private options, it can be that none of the choices is very good. Look at all the jokes about the quality of AT&T service, for instance. Many of the jokesters, however, are still struggling along with AT&T because for one reason on another, AT&T is their best of a number of bad options.
I still have a bank account with Bank of America -- which I despise -- because changing banks is easier said than done. To make my life easier, I leave most of my bill-paying to BoA via automatic transfers, but then that practically binds me to the account.
By some standards, I live on Easy Street. But I don't find it easy. Gilda got it right when she said, "It's always something."
Marie
Haley,
I agree, as Marie points out, that Romney's high school viciousness surpasses Jebbie's bullying. My larger point in linking the Globe article, which I should have been more clear about, was to direct attention to the a general similarity of attitude infecting Romney, and all the Bushes. None of them seem bound, in the slightest, by rules or regulations which are for the little, lesser people. Romney and the Bushes (and the Kochs and the Wall St. Masters of the Universe) grew up and operate in a universe in which they never pay the piper, are never called for their misdeeds, are bailed out and then treated like royalty for their mistakes.
Neil Bush, whom many forget today, was instrumental in the Savings and Loan Scandal. As a director of Silverado Bank, he was making over half a million dollars a year for less than part-time work, but he used his position to engage in grossly negligent, illegal financial skullduggery to enrich himself and his friends. He was never found officially guilty of anything serious and paid what amounted to a parking ticket fine, even as hundreds of thousands lost everything they owned. More recently, Neil has been heading a duplicitous education scam, a con artist scheme in which he has been aided in fucking over schools, students, and their families, by his brother Jeb. Concern for the average American. Don't make me laugh.
This kind of sociopathy is rampant in the actions of these people (see: Decider, Illegal War Kills and Maims Millions so He Can Feel Good About His Despicable Manhood, Lost When He Deserted), and I'd be less inclined to be concerned about Jeb Bush if his early self indulgences and bullying were temporary. They weren't.
As James says, two words: Terry Schiavo. Bush used the tragedy of a private family to up his stock with the Confederates. Prior to that he used his position as governor of Florida to make sure thousands of eligible Florida Democrats had no chance to vote in 2000. A Civil Rights Commission investigation accused Bush and his whiny Sec'y of State, Katherine Harris, of gross dereliction of duty in allowing legal voters to be struck off the rolls for no better reason than that they were black and voted for Democrats.
Yes, it's a fact that the Republican-controlled, criminally biased Supreme Court stepped in, stopped a presidential election, and made their guy president, even though he would ultimately be declared the loser based on the real vote count, but had not Jeb made sure it would be down to a few hundred votes at that time, it would have been tougher for the Supreme Assholes to so easily initiate their coup d'etat. Had it been clear that Gore was up by 10,000 instead of down by 500, it might have been harder.
Jeb Bush, like Romney and like his brother, operates in a world in which rules are for other people. He always has, apparently.
So he may not have been chasing gay students around to knock them down and cut off their hair, but his essential sense of privilege and lack of concern for other people still makes him a terrible choice for president.
And, yes, the Mexico thing makes him more human, but it didn't cure him of his sense of being able to fuck with a presidential election and cynically manipulate the sorrow of a private family for his own personal gain.
Regarding the Bowling for Billionaires Extravaganza, I listened, head-shakingly, on Friday, to NPR giving David Brooks his weekly opportunity to distort the shit out of Confederate scheming.
Up for discussion was the news that the Kochs were ready to sink nearly a billion dollars into buying the White House, or failing that, shoving the discussion over the right-wing cliff.
Brooks, when asked about this, declared it all to be pish-posh. According to Our Miss Brooks, money is irrelevant because you can't buy elections. "They spent hundreds of millions dollars 4 years ago and almost every single candidate lost. And that's just 'cause you can't buy votes in national elections."
His conclusion was even more obtuse: "Money does not lead to actual votes."
Yes it does, Dave--that's stupid--otherwise, why would people do it? But money also decides, and already has decided, the names on the ballot, and it also helps to push the entire enterprise as far to the right as it can go. As I mentioned yesterday, the Kochs likely don't believe that Scotty Walker will win the nomination, but using him as a stalking horse, they can clear the way for someone who will happily agree to their Bircherite agenda when the taps spring open for them.
This, I'm guessing, will be the standard right-wing counter to the news of the Koch windfall for far-right triflers: "Money doesn't mean a thing. Citizens United is a canard" is their story.
And as for those triflers, Brooks made a point of gushing over those remaining after Romney was booted by the money boys he declares make no difference, as "quality candidates".
Back in the summer here's how I described those "quality candidates" and I see no reason to revise my opinion:
"So, what do we have, then?
A bully, a coward, a narcissist, a liar, a sociopath, a chiseler, a con man, an asshole, two religious nutballs, and maybe the Anti-Christ."
The storyline that money doesn't matter has been around for a while. But if that were so, why would billionaires be pouring cash into the barrels of "bullies, liars, sociopaths, narcissists, con men, kooks, and cowards"?
And more to the point, why would the black mustache-twirling schemers on the present Court make it their business to open the door to billions in untraceable money?
So thanks to NPR and the NYTimes and plenty of other "liberal" outlets for giving this asshole a regular platform for his soggy and contaminated pablum. I'm not suggesting that Confederate points of view be banned, certainly not, but at least find someone who can command logic and rationality, and who doesn't have to rely on fantasy, lies, and confidence tricks.
What liberal media?
@Akhilleus writes, "And, yes, the Mexico thing makes him more human...."
"The Mexico thing" also, to me, makes him more Republican. As the story goes, Dubya also straightened up (and became a Christian!) when Laura told him she'd leave him if he didn't quit drinking. And I think the story went that hilarious prankster-boy Mitt "got more serious" when he met Ann while they were attending proximate tony boarding schools.
This all plays into that view of "traditional family values," in which the "little woman" is given the unenviable role of "civilizing" her partner.
I was watching an old teevee show yesterday -- one of the "Inspector Morse" episodes (from the early 90s, I think) in which Morse tells a young female officer that "I've always seen femininity of a guarantor of civilization."
She responds, in part, "… I can sum up your idea of feminine qualities in one word: weakness. It's that weakness that sustains discrimination, inequality & violence in all its forms."
This may be a slight exaggeration today, but not by much. I think it's the view that Jeb & Mitt hold & act upon. They keep the little woman at home. To give her life "meaning," they allow her to step out & do some charity work & smile at political events. Maybe Columba didn't like the limitations all that much, because she "acted out" by trying to smuggle expensive dresses into the country, as I recall, while Jeb was governor (I might be wrong on that last part).
One of Mitt's solutions to poverty is "get married." He's right. But that's not how it has to be. I'm not even slightly anti-marriage (I've married quite a few times myself), but our society, our government & our economy, I think, are too geared toward marriage as a norm that must be satisfied if mother & children are to succeed. Women who don't marry are, as Mitt suggests, at an economic disadvantage. But they shouldn't be.
Republicans like Mitt & Jeb (Mutt & Jeff) cannot see past what is to what could be. They can't adapt governing strategies to reality. They're stuck in a marriage-and-family trap at a time when I think the majority of Americans don't live in traditional nuclear families.
So if Jeb's sudden attraction to Columba "humanizes" him, it also ensconces him in a pattern of being that many Americans have moved past.
Marie
Oh Marie, c'mon.
According to Mitt, women who don't marry are at an economic disadvantage for one reason alone:
They're in binders.
See? The ties that binder. That's the ticket! Jebbie and Georgie and the Rat know.
And now that we're on that topic, I will give my house to anyone who can name the spouses (cuz I sure couldn't) of Christie, Cruz, Paul, Perry, or any other wingnut candidate (except Palin and Bachmann, if she were to try again, once all the previous investigations are over).
I'm sure the little women will all be trotted out for photo ops of baking cookies and cutting eyeholes out of white sheets, but I don't think any of these women matter a whit in the scheme of things for the Confederates, no more so than any other form of window dressing. Why, Jowly's wife had to disassociate herself from a group she has belonged to for a long time so's Mitchy wouldn't look like the lying piece of shit he's always been.
Rand Paul's rug is more of a concern for the Li'l One, than his wife, apparently.
For wingers, distaff side has a lot more to do with "diss" than anything else.
While we're on money in politics, Sarah may come across as a nitwit, be she isn't when it comes to money!
The salary for the governor of Alaska is $125 k, VEEP around $250 k. Why stick with either when you can make so much more fleecing the rubes and TV networks.
Of course Spiro Agnew figured a way to pad the Veep's salary--until he got caught.
Spiro Agnew proved that in a blue state a small-time crook can win election if he runs against a bigot. Worked on Carlton Sickles campaign in the primary; sat out the general.
Re: Jeb Bush, there was an interesting article in Crooks & Liars about Bush and the Schiavo case: "Jeb Bush is a Vindictive, Untrustworthy Coward" http://crooksandliars.com/2015/01/michael-schiavo-jeb-bush-put-me-through