The Commentariat -- January 17, 2016
David Sanger of the New York Times: "International inspectors confirmed Saturday that Iran had dismantled large sections of its nuclear program, as agreed in a historic accord last summer, paving the way for the lifting of oil and financial sanctions by the United States and other world powers. The announcement came just hours after Iran said it had released four Americans, including The Washington Post reporter, Jason Rezaian, as part of a prisoner swap with the United States. American officials said the two deals were negotiated separately, but Secretary of State John Kerry had made it clear in recent weeks that he was engaged in behind-the-scenes talks on the fate of the Americans, and clearly wanted the issue cleared up before the nuclear agreement went into effect." ...
... Here's the statement by IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano. ...
... Lesley Wroughton, et al., of Reuters: "The day before the Obama administration was due to slap new sanctions on Iran late last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warned U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry the move could derail a prisoner deal the two sides had been negotiating in secret for months. Kerry and other top aides to President Barack Obama, who was vacationing in Hawaii, convened a series of conference calls and concluded they could not risk losing the chance to free Americans held by Tehran. At the last minute, the Obama administration officials decided to delay a package of limited and targeted sanctions intended to penalize Iran for recent test-firings of a ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead."
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Aaron Davis & Sarah Harnack of the Washington Post: "Walmart abruptly announced Friday that it was abandoning a promise to build stores in Washington's poorest neighborhoods, an agreement that had been key to the deal allowing the retailer to begin operating in the nation's capital.... But news that Walmart would pull out of two supercenters planned for east of the Anacostia River, where its wares and jobs are wanted most, shocked D.C. leaders.... 'I'm blood mad,' D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said at a Friday news conference." CW: Corporations are people, my friend, and they lie.
Paul Egan & Tod Spangler of the Detroit Free Press: "President Barack Obama on Saturday declared a federal emergency in Flint, freeing up to $5 million in federal aid to immediately assist with the public health crisis, but he denied Gov. Rick Snyder's request for a disaster declaration. A disaster declaration would have made larger amounts of federal funding available more quickly to help Flint residents whose drinking water is contaminated with lead. But under federal law, only natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods are eligible for disaster declarations, federal and state officials said. The lead contamination of Flint's drinking water is a manmade catastrophe." CW: Yes, yes, it is. ...
... Kristen East of Politico: "Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday called on Rick Snyder to resign, charging that the Republican Michigan governor knowingly allowed a lead-poisoning crisis in Flint to continue. 'There are no excuses,' Sanders said in a campaign release. 'The governor long ago knew about the lead in Flint's water. He did nothing. As a result, hundreds of children were poisoned. Thousands may have been exposed potential brain damage from lead.'"
Presidential Race
Annie Karni of Politico: "A top surrogate for Hillary Clinton is prepping a new attack in an intensifying and increasingly personal war against rival Bernie Sanders -- calling on the 74-year-old to release his medical records before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1. Clinton defender David Brock -- founder of the Correct the Record PAC, which coordinates directly with Clinton's campaign -- is expected to hit the airwaves this weekend from Charleston, the scene of the third Democratic debate on Sunday night, and challenge Sanders to cough up a clean bill of health and doctor's note in the next 16 days, according to a Democrat familiar with his thinking.... But hours later, after this report was published and Brock's planned tactics were widely criticized on Twitter, campaign chairman John Podesta distanced himself from the surrogate's attack."
Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "Advisers to Hillary Clinton, including former President Bill Clinton, believe that her campaign made serious miscalculations by forgoing early attacks on Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and failing to undercut his archliberal message before it grew into a political movement that has now put him within striking distance of beating Mrs. Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire.... The Clintons are particularly concerned that her 'rational message,' in the words of an aide, is not a fit with a restless Democratic primary electorate. Allies and advisers of the Clintons say Mr. Sanders is clearly connecting with voters through his emotional, inspiring rallying cry that the American economic and political systems are rigged for the wealthy and powerful. By contrast, Mrs. Clinton has been stressing her electability and questioning the costs of Mr. Sanders's ideas." ...
... AND, if that's not enough, count on Maureen Dowd to think of everything else Hillary is doing wrong. Because that's what Dowd does.
... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: Donald Trump's "increasingly personal lines of attack against Mr. Cruz in a public setting mark a shift in the race for the Republican presidential nomination that started during Thursday's debate and spilled onto the campaign trail on Saturday." ...
... David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "... the Trump/Cruz ascendancy on the right is nonetheless a good thing for American politics. There are two principal reasons why: 1) It disempowers the conservative economic and media tycoons who created the malaise that fuels the anger of the GOP base.... 2) The Trump-Cruz electorate is shrinking, but the power of concentrated wealth is growing."
Donald at the Plaza. David Segal of the New York Times: "How [Donald] Trump came to own, operate and then lose the Plaza [Hotel] reveals a lot about his business style. For decades, Mr. Trump has boasted of his boardroom skills in self-exalting speeches and books. As the front-runner in the Republican presidential race, he frequently argues that his corner-office prowess uniquely suits him to negotiate with world leaders. What does this prowess look like up close? In the Plaza tale, Mr. Trump demonstrated both strengths (an ability to charm or strong-arm, as the occasion required) and weaknesses (a kind of hungry impatience that left him searching for new trophies as soon as one had been acquired). His methods as a political candidate mirror his methods as an executive, say those who have dealt with the latter and seen the former. In fact, the more you know about Mr. Trump's past, the more his run for high office looks like an effort to close the biggest deal of his life." ...
... Katie Glueck of Politico: "Hours before Ted Cruz and Donald Trump were slated to appear [in Myrtle Beach, S.C.,] at a tea party gathering, Cruz unloaded on Trump, taunting him over his poll numbers and ratcheting up attacks on his conservative credibility."
Beyond the Beltway
** Dan Kaufman in a New York Times op-ed: "SHORTLY after his exit from an abbreviated presidential run last fall, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin returned to a more successful undertaking: dismantling what remains of his state's century-old progressive legacy." Kaufman catalogues the horribles to remind us of this true American tragedy, a rolling crime against humanity.
Way Beyond
Tacos! Azam Ahmed of the New York Times: How the federales captured El Chapo.
New York Times: "Qaeda militants killed one American in an attack on two hotels and a cafe in the capital of Burkina Faso that left at least 28 people dead and 56 injured on Friday and Saturday, the State Department said on Saturday night. A State Department spokesman, John Kirby, identified the victim as Michael James Riddering."
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Reader Comments (9)
Shame on Obama for solving the Iran nuclear threat and getting release of the hostages without a war! I mean, no fun, no dead people,
what was he thinking?
I am thoroughly fed up with Maureen Dowd--nothing new, I confess. She clearly has never owned a cat--or loved and been loved by a fluffy, affectionate feline. She writes like a feline-phobe (not the right word), and obviously lacks the intuition to understand animals. I hope she does not have one.
Though I am not a Hillary fan, I do not think one has to be a hater, a la MoDo, to find fault with her campaign and her persona. Ditto President Obama. MoDo was clearly not watching when Obama shed tears over the Sandy Hook killings during his gun control speech. And, unlike the assertions of Fox News, his tears were genuine, and did not require a raw onion placed underneath his nose.
I am beginning to think it is the lack of intuition in our journalists, politicians and voters that keeps them from seeing the truth of what is in front of their faces. I do know that fear cancels creativity--and probably intuition as well. And Jeebus knows, we are the United States of Fear! Sigh....
From the Huff Post: "Donald Trump on Iran prisoner swap: 'I think I might have had something to do with it'". Another classic example of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Now from NJ. It is getting to the point where the phrase 'Christie lied' is going to be found on every page of the NJ Star Ledger. Talk about mental illness. He lies about just about everything and the fact that there is excellent proof that it is a lie never stops him. He never said 'I made a mistake", 'I've changed my position'. He just says I never said it even when there are hundreds of witnesses.
So the Christie diagnosis is a little more complicated. He definitely shows signs of NPD but the lying part is a classic example of sociopathy. We tend to use the word sociopath for any person who violates the rules but medically it is not clear. Because of prior experience, I found that sociopaths have an underlying excuse for their behavior. They believe they are victims which provides their excuse to lie and sometimes steal or even kill. So they know that they are violating the rules but have self permission. Welcome to the next election for POTUS.
...and more insane news keeps a-coming: "Trump suggests he could pick Scott Brown as his running mate:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/01/16/trump-suggests-he-could-pick-scott-brown-as-his-running-mate/
Scott is pretty! Donald likes pretty! gotta have a pretty ticket!
Oouf! Me, I'm pretty fed up!
Such great news about Iran releasing American prisoners. Twas a boost on this Sunday morning where once more one reads the MoDo column of mischief and mayhem and realizes it might have featured Hillary, but it was really, once more, about Maureen getting her "Barry licks" in. She apparently still doesn't get Obama or because she never got invited to the big house for afternoon tea, she's pissed at the President and sticks it to him every chance she gets. She fails to understand that NO Democrat, dog or cat, could have changed the scenario that played out and is still running regarding the disregard the Republicans have for anyone sitting behind that Presidential desk that isn't of their party. And that Obama somehow takes on a feline persona (in Dowd's world) because he hasn't growled and chewed off the nuts of his opponents is indicative of her ignorance, as @Kate says, of not knowing much about CATS.
A sign of the times:
"The latest scientific research, published in the journal Nature, suggests that air pollution now kills more people a year than malaria and HIV combined, and in many countries accounts for roughly 10 times more deaths than road accidents.
According to the WHO, air quality is deteriorating around the world to the point where only one in eight people live in cities that meet recommended air pollution levels."
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/16/world-heslth-organisation-figures-deadly-pollution-levels-world-biggest-cities
I haven't had the grit to hold my nose and read Dowd more than once or twice since Bush II, when she had numerous appropriate targets for her snark. I see some are much tougher-minded than I, but since I gather (second-hand) her comments are still more personal than policy directed, and since most Democrats, even those I disagree with, are more likable than most Republicans, just doesn't seem worth it.
The headlines alone are sufficient to annoy me...like those about the Malheur and the continuing Flint fiasco, the latter of which have reminded me about the lead pipes which supposedly accounted for the fall of Rome. That suggestion about Rome's decline has been discounted, but this morning I wonder if there might have been something to it, after all, and if here centuries later and a continent away lead has not poisoned more than Flint.
Since lead poisoning's symptoms include a decline in mental function and memory loss in adults, is it possible that we might have a simple explanation for why nearly half the population is so inclined to do dumb things over and over?
We took the lead out of the paint and the gasoline but apparently far too late for some.
Certainly for Governor Snyder and the Bundy gang.
"TEHRAN — Less than 24 hours after lifting sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program, the Obama administration announced Sunday that it was imposing new sanctions on Iran for violating United Nations resolutions against ballistic missile tests."
That darn Obama administration, according to all the Republican candidates, lets Iran get away with everything while the US is weak, feckless, hasn't a clue what to do––terrible foreign policy–-don't know beans about how to get all those monsters we want to destroy. BUT–-- looks to me we gots a man with a master plan but just you wait––we'll hear something negative.
When you can't change reality, you can always change the discourse.
"After running as a man last time around, Hillary Clinton is now running as a woman."
Is The Do-Do (with sincere apologies to that poor extinct & flightless bird) *that* unaware of her misogyny? (rhetorical)
@ Kate Madison -
I enjoyed reading your analysis of Ms. Dowd & her offering. (I am also not a fan of HRC.) I've long been scratching my head - lest I yank my hair from its roots - as to why she remains on the roster.
For several years (several years ago), I was an employee of the New York Times. Kindly note, this was a *low*-paying/*low*-level job which, nevertheless, positioned me in close contact with executives, the occasional visiting celebs or government folk and journalists.
"Oh The Things I Learned!". LOL
When I've the time and inclination, I direct myself to - and most enjoy (Mea Culpa, but I have found that a dose Schadenfreude can go a long way as a temporary balm applied to our Nation's/World's upheaval) - the preponderance of negative feedback her columns invite.
And still wonder, after all this time, why/how she manages to maintain - and abuse - her bully pulpit.