The Commentariat -- January 21, 2016
Everything Is Obama's Fault.
CW: I'm putting the link in the graf below at the top of today's Commentariat &, barring some really big news, leaving it here. I don't want anyone to miss the pathology of today's Republican party, exemplified & exaggerated in Sarah Palin's attempt to blame President Obama for her son's behavior. I do think it possible that Track Palin suffers from PTSD; he served in Iraq in 2008. (See this WashPo report by Phillip Bump, who notes that several factors related to antisocial behavior apply to Track.) But the determinant here sounds an awful lot like Palin Traumatic Stress Disorder. The President and Michelle Obama have worked tirelessly to help and to honor our military veterans. The gall of Sarah Palin to place responsibility for her son's drunken rampage on President Obama is unparalleled. If you wonder why I seldom link to stories about Sarah Palin, even when they are quasi-newsworthy, look no further. ...
... Obama Made My Son Punch His Girlfriend in the Face. -- Sarah Palin. Nick Gass & Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Sarah Palin addressed the 'elephant in the room' at a Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally for Donald Trump on Wednesday, linking her son Track's recent arrest on domestic violence charges to President Barack Obama's neglect of veterans." ...
... "Sarah Palin's Circle of Victimhood." Peter Beinart of the Atlantic: "In endorsing Donald Trump, Sarah Palin faced a challenge. How does a woman who has built her brand on hating cultural elites endorse a billionaire, Manhattan TV star? Her answer: by turning Trump into a victim.... The same people who screwed Palin, and who screw American troops and workers, the people who 'stomp our neck and tell us to chill,' are now savaging Donald Trump as well. But he alone, perhaps because he is a billionaire and from their elite world, may be able to stand up to them and strike a blow on behalf of the little people." See also Digby's post, linked under Presidential Race.
*****
Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Senate Democrats' plan to force Republicans to take a politically uncomfortable vote on Donald Trump's proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country fell apart Wednesday. Republicans leaders declined to strike a deal and hold a vote on the issue, leading Democrats to then filibuster legislation that would effectively prevent the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the United States.... The Wednesday vote to begin considering the refugee bill failed on a 55 to 43 tally, with 60 votes needed to advance the legislation. The bill, which the House passed last month, would suspend the admission of Syrian and Iraqi refugees until the Obama administration can certify that no one coming to the United States poses a security threat."
Lydia Wheeler of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday handed a defeat to businesses, ruling that they cannot stop a class-action lawsuit by offering to pay the full amount sought by the original plaintiff. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court sided against advertising firm Campbell Ewald that was trying to avoid a class-action lawsuit. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the majority opinion said a settlement offer that isn't unaccepted [CW Note: s/b "accepted"] does end a legal challenge, and that there is no immunity shield for federal contractors that violate both federal law and the government's explicit instructions. An unaccepted settlement offer or offer of judgment does not moot a plaintiff's case,' Ginsburg wrote.... Chief Justice John Roberts filed a dissenting opinion on which Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito joined...." ...
... New York Times Editors: "On Wednesday, the Supreme Court gave an important victory to regular Americans, ruling that companies may not avoid class-action lawsuits by offering to buy off the individual plaintiffs before they can establish a class of similarly harmed people. The 6-to-3 decision was a surprising break from a long line of extremely pro-business and anti-class-action rulings by the five conservative justices, led by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr."
Justin Gillis of the New York Times: "Scientists reported Wednesday that 2015 was the hottest year in the historical record by far, breaking a record set only the year before -- a burst of heat that has continued into the new year and is roiling weather patterns all over the world. In the contiguous United States, the year was the second-warmest on record, punctuated by a December that was both the hottest and the wettest since record-keeping began. One result has been a wave of unusual winter floods coursing down the Mississippi River watershed."
Kate Linthicum of the Los Angeles Times: "The number of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally is at its lowest in more than a decade and, for the first time in years, has probably dropped below 11 million. A new study by the Center for Migration Studies estimates that 10.9 million immigrants are living in the country without authorization. That is the lowest level since 2003 and the first time the number has dipped below 11 million since 2004. The decline, which has been documented by previous studies as well, runs counter to the widespread image on the Republican presidential campaign trail of a rise in illegal immigration."
Via Politico.
Julie Bosman, et al., of the New York Times: "A top aide to Michigan's governor referred to people raising questions about the quality of Flint’s water as an 'anti-everything group.' Other critics were accused of turning complaints about water into a 'political football.' And worrisome findings about lead by a concerned pediatrician were dismissed as 'data,' in quotes. That view of how the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder initially dealt with the water crisis in the poverty-stricken, black-majority city of Flint emerge from 274 pages of emails, made public by the governor on Wednesday. The correspondence records mounting complaints by the public and elected officials, as well as growing irritation by state officials over the reluctance to accept their assurances." ...
... John Wisely, et al., of the Detroit Free Press: "House Minority Leader Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills, said he was very disappointed with redactions in the e-mails and the fact Snyder only released what he said were his own e-mails, instead of all Flint-related e-mails to and from officials in the executive office. The first e-mail in the file released by Snyder is from Michael Gadola, then Snyder's legal counsel, and includes 2 1/2 pages of blacked-out text." ...
... Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "... as in New Orleans, unravelling what went wrong in Flint will probably require more than the release of e-mails and a prime-time apologia. The headwaters of Flint's crisis are not located in the realm of technical errors; rather, there are harder questions about governance and accountability in some of America's most vulnerable places." ...
... Matt Latimer in a New York Times op-ed: "EVER since I became a conservative as a teenager growing up in the city of Flint, Mich., I've heard again and again from Republican leaders about their commitment to minorities and the poor.... If only Republicans would get a chance to prove it. That chance has arrived in a big way. Unfortunately, my party is not taking it.... The Republicans were never there, until 2011, that is, when the first of four state-appointed emergency managers was brought in by the Snyder administration to address the city's financial woes.... Flint was not mentioned in the last Republican debate. Though Ben Carson, a Detroit native, on Tuesday blamed local Flint officials for the troubles.... I don't believe it's impossible for conservatives to help a place like Flint. But first you have to show up." ...
... CW: Wake up, Matt. The victims of Republican "management" in Flint are those "urban," "blah" people that your party counts on to serve as bogeymen -- the oppressors of the nice, white people in the GOP's basest of bases.
Presidential Race
Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "With the help of the Simon and Garfunkel song 'America,' Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has released a powerful 60-second commercial in Iowa that seeks to remind his supporters how far he, and they, have come -- and to inspire them anew to caucus for him on Feb. 1.... Mr. Sanders has created an ad with a vastly different feel from anything else seen in the race since Mrs. Clinton announced her candidacy in a hope-filled two-minute video":
... Greg Sargent: "... it's worth noting that the differences between Sanders and Clinton go beyond policy, to the very core of how change can be secured. Clinton has come to see politics as essentially a form of trench warfare. Clinton's closing ad in Iowa vows to 'stop the Republicans from ripping all our progress away,' an implicit acknowledgment that a new Democratic president (whoever it might be) would be deeply constrained from realizing his or her agenda.... Clinton acknowledges the true nature of the structural impediments to change; that the country is deeply divided ideologically; and that we will probably remain stuck in a grueling holding pattern for years -- meaning legislative advances will be ground out on the margins, thorough difficult, painstaking efforts to peel off Republicans and forge compromises that will look dirty and will really, really suck." ...
Jessica Taylor of NPR: "Hillary Clinton dismissed a report that emails she sent on her private email server contained a high level of classified material. Speaking to NPR's Ari Shapiro in San Antonio on Wednesday, the Democratic presidential candidate continued to maintain that she 'never sent or received any material marked classified' while at the State Department 'and that hasn't changed in all of these months.'" ...
... Anita Kumar of McClatchy News: "Hillary Clinton's spokesman accused the Intelligence Community Inspector General Wednesday of working with Republicans to attack the Democratic presidential front-runner. 'I think this was a very coordinated leak,' Brian Fallon said on CNN. 'Two months ago there was a ... report that directly challenged the finding of this inspector general, and I don't think he liked that very much. So I think that he put two Republican senators up to sending him a letter so that he would have an excuse to resurface the same allegations he made back in the summer that have been discredited.' The comments came after Inspector General Charles McCullough III told senators that he believes at least several dozen of emails Clinton sent and received while she was secretary of state contained classified material at the highest levels, according to a letter obtained by McClatchy." ...
... Hillary Clinton, in an essay on her Website, titled "What President Obama's Legacy Means to Me": "If you take a step back and look at all America has achieved over the past eight years, it's remarkable to see how far we've come. But you'd never know it from listening to the Republicans. They're quick to demonize and demean President Obama. At the last GOP presidential debate, two candidates referred to him as a 'child.' [CW: because even they didn't dare say "boy"] That kind of racially coded rhetoric has no place in our politics. Instead of insulting our president, we should be thanking him. Republicans aren't just harshly criticizing the president. They're threatening to undo just about everything he has achieved." ...
... Tina Nguyen of Vanity Fair: "A last-minute town-hall-style event, announced Wednesday by CNN and scheduled to take place just one week before the Iowa caucuses, could be a saving grace for Hillary Clinton, whose presidential campaign has faced an unexpectedly formidable challenge from Democratic rival Bernie Sanders. The prime-time gathering will air Monday at nine P.M., a huge change from the three debates that the Democratic National Committee scheduled on inconvenient weekend nights.... With ... setbacks growing more worrisome, Clinton has seized on a new strategy: clinging as hard as possible to the Obama brand, and casting Sanders as someone who would undo his legacy." ...
... Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Democrats backing Hillary Clinton, nervously eyeing Senator Bernie Sanders's growing strength in the early nominating states, are turning to a new strategy to raise doubts about his candidacy, highlighting his socialist beliefs to warn that he would be an electoral disaster who would frighten swing voters and send Democrats in tight congressional and governor's races to defeat.... And after months of ignoring Republican cheerleading for Mr. Sanders, Mrs. Clinton's campaign has started aggressively highlighting how much the opposition is openly providing him aid and comfort -- mostly recently in a new ad by Karl Rove's group American Crossroads that echoes Mr. Sanders's attacks on Mrs. Clinton's ties to Wall Street." ...
... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "... in recent weeks, the scandals of the 1990s and [HIllary] Clinton's role in them have taken on a life of their own, delivering an unexpected headache to a campaign predicated on inspiring female voters. Mrs. Clinton had hoped to galvanize women late last month in her critique of [Donald] Trump, [whom she said had 'a penchant for sexism']. Instead, two weeks before the Iowa caucuses, her campaign has found itself trying to shore up support among women as discussions about past Clinton scandals have moved from conservative critics to broader public consciousness.... Now that the stories are resurfacing, they could hamper Mrs. Clinton's attempts to connect with younger women, who are learning the details of the Clintons' history for the first time."
Bob Cesca, who's a serious liberal, in Salon, weighs Sanders' v. Clinton's chances to win a general election. He's leaning toward not taking the Bernie gamble. ...
... CW: Although it's likely I'll vote for Sanders (in Florida), I'm mindful that a vote for Bernie might be akin to a vote for Ralph Nader (which I wasn't stupid enough to do).
Amy Sherman of Politifact: Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie "Wasserman Schultz says the party came up with a debate schedule 'to maximize the opportunity for voters to see our candidates.' Wasserman Schultz's best point is that the Democrats largely scheduled their debates with TV networks, which means viewers without cable can see them. But other than that, her statement is very disingenuous. There are six Democratic party debates compared with 11 scheduled for the Republicans, and half of the Democratic debates are on weekends -- including one the weekend before Christmas and another on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. If the Democrats had wanted to 'maximize' opportunities for viewers, the party could have added more debates, scheduled them on weekdays and avoided holidays." CW: Nice to know Politifact isn't as gullible as Debbie thinks we are.
Keith Laing of the Hill: "President Obama on Wednesday knocked the Republican candidates vying to replace him next year for being 'dead set' against bailing out the U.S. auto industry in 2008 and 2009. 'It's strange to watch people try to outdo each other in talking about how bad things are. But remember...these are the same folks that would've let this industry go under,' he said during a speech to the United Auto Workers union in Detroit.... He cast the federal government's $80 billion bailout of General Motors and Chrysler as a fundamental difference between Democrats and the Republicans who are running for the White House. 'These are some of the same folks who back in Washington called our plan to save the auto industry 'the road to socialism,' he said. 'They said it was going to be a "disaster;" said "they'll run it into the ground." Those are quotes by the way, I'm not making that up. Look it up'":
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Bob Dole, the former Kansas senator and 1996 Republican presidential nominee..., said that the party would suffer 'cataclysmic' and 'wholesale losses' if [Ted] Cruz was the nominee, and that Donald J. Trump would fare better. 'I question his allegiance to the party,' Mr. Dole said of Mr. Cruz. 'I don't know how often you've heard him say the word "Republican" -- not very often.' Instead, Mr. Cruz uses the word 'conservative,' Mr. Dole said, before offering up a different word for Mr. Cruz: 'extremist.' 'I don't know how he's going to deal with Congress,' he said. 'Nobody likes him.' But Mr. Dole said he thought Mr. Trump could 'probably work with Congress, because he's, you know, he's got the right personality and he's kind of a deal-maker.'" Dole supports Jeb! for president. ...
... Gail Collins: Donald Trump has had a super week, what with Iowa Gov. Terry Bransted's (R) urging Iowa Republicans not to caucus for Ted Cruz & Sarah Palin's endorsing Trump over Cruz. ...
... ** Jonathan Chait: "... throwing in with Donald Trump is an extremely bad idea for Republicans. He is wildly unpopular among the public at large, and his mix of racism, misogyny, and flamboyant ignorance is perfectly calibrated to motivate and hold together the Obama coalition of minorities, single women, and college-educated whites.... What, then, could explain the GOP's bizarre capitulation? One possible reason is undue fear of Trump's threat to run an independent candidacy if he feels mistreated by the party.... But perhaps the more important factor at work is the rise of Ted Cruz, which has coincided with a sapping of the Republican Establishment's will to oppose Trump.... If Republicans despise Cruz so much that they allow Trump to prevail, they are making a historic mistake and choosing the devil they don't know over the one they do." ...
... Digby, in Salon: "It's tempting to look at both of these characters [-- Trump & Palin --] and write them off as jokes. They truly are ridiculous in a dozen different ways. But their combination of modern media celebrity and white nationalism is something new and potentially very powerful in American politics, if Trump manages to pull off this nomination. These conditions have been ripening for years, waiting for someone to take advantage. Trump is nothing if not a world class opportunist."
Adam Smith of the Tampa Bay Times: "Florida's Republican primary would be a Donald Trump blowout if held today, according to a Jan. 15-18 poll by Florida Atlantic University Business and Economics Polling Initiative. Trump leads with a whopping 47.6 percent support among likely Republicans, followed by 16.3 percent for Ted Cruz, 11.1 percent for Marco Rubio, 9.5 percent for Jeb Bush, and 3.3 percent for Ben Carson...." ...
... Steve M. points out that the Florida poll poses quite a challenge to the theory laid out by David Wasserman of 538 (linked here yesterday) that because "The GOP's primary calendar is surprisingly front-loaded with states friendly to insurgents like Trump and Cruz," it's possible for another candidate to break out in later primaries & win the nomination.
CW: I'm late to the party, but it's really worth your reading Driftglass's takedown of David Brooks' "plan" to defeat TrumpCruz. ...
The Tailgunner Takes Aim. Matt Flegenheimer & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: Ted Cruz has begun to attack Donald Trump, after months of declining to do so. "Perhaps the surest sign of Mr. Cruz's bind has been his sharpening tone. After months not only demurring but scolding reporters who invited him to take shots at Mr. Trump, Mr. Cruz abruptly changed course last week. He derisively said Mr. Trump embodied 'New York values,' poked fun at his knowledge of foreign affairs and suggested that he was taking his cues from Democrats." ...
... Birtherism, 2.0 Syllabus Update. Einer Elhauge, another Constitutional scholar, "close-reads" the Constitution & finds that Ted Cruz is not qualified to run for president because he does not meet the requirement of being "natural born citizen." ...
... Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: Ted "Cruz, the most ardent death penalty advocate of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's clerks in the 1996 term, became known at the court for his signature writing style. Nearly two decades later, his colleagues recall how Mr. Cruz, who frequently spoke of how his mentor's father had been killed by a carjacker, often dwelled on the lurid details of murders that other clerks tended to summarize before quickly moving to the legal merits of the case.... In interviews with nearly two dozen of Mr. Cruz's former colleagues on the court, many of the clerks working in the chambers of liberal justices, but also several from conservative chambers, depicted Mr. Cruz as 'obsessed' with capital punishment." ...
... digby: "If you read nothing else today, read this Bloomberg article about Ted Cruz's top benefactor, the certifiably looney tunes wingnut billionaire, Robert Mercer. He makes the Kochs look like Ike by comparison." ...
Beyond the Beltway
Denis Theriault of the Oregonian: Oregon "Gov. Kate Brown on Wednesday had harsh words for the federal government's handling of a 19-day occupation at the Malheur National Wildfire Refuge -- calling the response too slow and saying it's left neighbors in Harney County lacking as tensions worsen." ...
... Rebecca Woolington of the Oregonian: Neil Sigurd Wampler, "one of the protesters taking part in the armed occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, is a 68-year-old former woodworker and, according to court records and authorities, a convicted killer."
Dana Milbank: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel appeared to be gutsy when he dared to show up as a featured panelist "at the opening plenary luncheon of the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting. The topic: 'Reducing Violence and Strengthening Police/Community Trust.' But then "He didn't even mention the [police killing of Laquan McDonald] incident directly, instead proffering a variety of facts and figures indicating everything is awesome in Chicago.... Asked for an update on crime in Chicago and 'the biggest problems you currently face,' Emanuel said nothing about Topic A. 'Guns and gangs,' he answered."
Way Beyond
Alan Cowell of the New York Times: "A high-profile British inquiry into the poisoning of Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former K.G.B. officer turned critic of the Kremlin, concluded in a report released on Thursday that his murder 'was probably approved' by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and the head of the country's spy service. The finding by Robert Owen, a retired High Court judge, presented in a 328-page report, represented by far the most damning official link between Mr. Litvinenko's death on Nov. 23, 2006, and the highest levels of the Kremlin."
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Reader Comments (19)
The most pertinent statement in Bump's article is, "We can't and shouldn't try and evaluate Track Palin's mental state as amateurs from thousands of miles away, of course."
Unfortunately, he spent the bulk of the article, previous to that statement, leading the reader to conclude Palin suffers from PTSD.
I have two questions for Sarah Falin.
Did Obama send your son to war?
Is Obama responsible for your daughter's two non-marital pregnancies?
Oh crap! Just read (tho' I easily refrain most times) Douthat's romance " . WTF is this guy smoking, drinking, inhaling?
The political GOP world is totally nuts!
No blame attached, MAG, but you did prompt me to call up the Douthat piece and as I read it because it reminded me of something I've thought when reading pundits talk about the chimera of Right Wing Populism as if such a thing really existed. So thanks.
Douthat and his fellow travelers fail to make this important distinction:
Genuine, historical populism is rooted in the class consciousness expressed by that "we the people" thing, and that phrase's core meaning. We are all people, tied together as one and an injury to one, whether it be physical, social or economic, is an injury to all.
When the pundits discover Right Wing populism in any expression of fear, resentment or outrage that draws the vocal attention of a shifting mass of people worried about themselves, that noisy mass has always coalesced around a concern for self, never for the larger community.
Populism and popular are not the same words, and until the Republican Party actually acts to make all lives--not just those who happen to be rich or white--better, any claims to Republican populism must be taken with an entire boxcar of salt.
Narrow-mindedness and selfishness are far too common, but just because thousands might exhibit those traits, though one might call them popular, even voted most likely to succeed, they are and will remain the antithesis of populism.
..."Shortly after Sarah Palin left Alaska on Monday to endorse Donald Trump's candidacy in Iowa, Track was arrested and charged with assaulting his girlfriend, Jordan Loewe, in the Palin family home. According to the police report, Track struck Loewe and threatened her with a firearm."
One of the jobs in my past life was as a Certified Addictions Counselor. I developed an "addicta-dar" for people who were alcohol and/or drug addicts. I will say that I have long thought that Sistah Sarah is an alcoholic. Her behavior is quite predictable and conforms with how other addicts conduct their lives. That her son, Track, has his issues with PTSD, domestic violence, drunk rampages is expectable. He is the alcoholic child of an alcoholic mother--and, possibly, an alcoholic father. Do not have enough data about "First Dude" to know.
When public figures present with crazy behavior, the American press and public love to put on "cause and effect" labels. PTSD, because of wartime experience is one--and it is most often true. However, one aspect of PTSD is addiction. We all would be shocked silly to realize how many former veterans are addicts of one sort or another. However, when one has a parent (or parents) who are untreated alcoholics and/or addicts, the percentages crash through the ceiling.
The Palin clan is an all too typical example of an out-of-control alcoholic family. Track, has learned to deal with his anxiety and anger by "using," just as his mother did. And father? Who knows? Bristol seems to be "acting out" the family craziness. I think she has been burdened by having to be the caretaker of her younger siblings, and now has two babies of her own to burden her. No wonder she is a fundamentalist crazy!
I know this analysis is overly simplistic, but time and space are limited, and I am tired and ready for bed. I do have other theories about this family, which I will go on and on about another late night. Until then: that will be 5 cents please!
@Kate Madison, et al.: There were numerous stories, from impeachable sources, like the National Enquirer, that Track Palin had a heavy substance abuse problem before he went into the service. Also, too, he did spend most of his senior year of high school in Michigan -- supposedly because that would give him a better chance at being picked up by a professional hockey team. That excuse doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but I have no idea if hockey scouts go to Alaska (one would think so). Of course the MSM wouldn't cover this kind of thing, nor should they.
Anyway, it appears irrefutable that Track has a substance abuse problem now: he's been involved in two alcohol-fueled public incidents. His military experience could have exacerbated it, but I think the chances are high (no pun intended) that he abused alcohol & drugs before going into the military.
Whatever the cause of his violent behavior -- which we will never know for a fact even if he uses it as a defense in the domestic violence case -- I am really enraged that Sarah Palin blamed President Obama for it. Palin is the parent, not Obama. If Track needed psychological counseling as a result of his service, it was up to Palin & her husband to intervene, not President Obama, for Pete's sake. Congress & the Obama administration have made these services available to veterans, free of charge. In addition, the Palin family is now (or was) wealthy -- they could have provided it. That woman is a sociopath. She owes President Obama a hundred apologies.
And what a shame Ross Douthat can't get it up for Sarah any more. There's always his blow-up doll &, we now learn, anime.
Marie
Just over at TPM and reading how John McCain respects Sarah Palin's view... Just like Trump he will never admit a mistake. Thanks, you dried up piece of shit for infecting us with the disease of Sarah Palin and pretending you didn't.
The re-emergence, only temporary one can hope, of Sarah Palin on the national scene is a stark reminder of the egregious irony that animates the Right today.
This Party of Personal Responsibility, the Party of the Makers, never the Takers, can get excited only when it dons the wingeing victim role. For them the source of every hurt, frustration, fear and disappointment can be found somewhere else, in Wall Street, in the Fed, in the liberal elites, in the White House, never in themselves.
The party that likes to think of themselves as a band of proud individualists, pleased as punch by the endorsement of a dead John Wayne, is really weakness personified.
Victimhood and the anger and resentment that flow therefrom is the emotional substrate that holds that fractured Party at all together.
That's all they have. That and money.
.
The reluctance to write about S.P. has gone out the window today. She's back into our face like an ill wind. Whether she's a drinker, a pill popper or a nose sniffer it won't really matter because she'll have plenty of defenders who will crush anyone who dares try to suggest it. Her despicable blaming Obama for her son's actions will also be defended by those that defend all matters of asininity.
So I'll leave Sarah swinging in the breeze and bring in another person whose parents were alcoholics. I have mentioned this before because I think it is a significant piece of information about someone, especially someone who is running for President. Children of alcoholics have a tough road to hoe––trust is a big issue for them among many other issues. Ted Cruz is a perfect example of this. He's running AGAINST the government––doesn't trust it. But here is a man that has played many parts––during his brief acting stint he took on various characters but it was while he was running as a conservative champion of tort reform in Texas (and now as a senator) while working as a lawyer he reaped more than $3 million while defending record setting injury awards (shades of John Edwards) that we see the tale of two Teds. And reading that long piece about Robert Mercer one gets the feeling of living in a completely different universe. Big money just wrapping itself around whatever and whomever strikes their fancy–-whether it be the loon with the urine or a Cruz with a cause.
I'm thinking of preparing for a job in the fall. Writing for advertisements for the Dem. candidate. Easy job, just take Republican quotes referring to the current GOP candidates, especially Adolf and Sen. Ooze.
Oh, but this is different...
The latest outbreak of Palinosis with its concomitant reference to addiction issues (all Obama's fault, natch), provides an opportunity to observe Confederate behavior in the wild.
It seems that winger candidates for the White House have all of a sudden discovered that--OMFG--drug and alcohol addiction is a disease and those suffering from addiction should absolutely NOT be dragged off to prison for more years than they've been alive. I mean, that's just not....er....Christian! Right? Or something. Especially if we're talking about white Republicans. Right?
But not that long ago, wingers were all manning the battlements, passing out the ammunition and arming themselves to Win the War on Drugs, just as, first Nixon and later Saint Ronald implored them to do. The Nixon/Reagan/Bush War on Drugs was really a War on Those People and long prison sentences for non-violent offenses were just what was needed to teach Those People how to behave around civilized (white) people. Harrumph.
Bush 41 touted the need for “...more jails, more prisons, more courts and more prosecutors.” For THOSE PEOPLE. In fact, during his big speech calling for billions of dollars of taxpayer money so they could lock up as many black kids as possible, Bush brandished a bag of crack cocaine which he declared (in order to make the horror even more visceral) was bought across the street from the WHITE House. What he didn't mention was that "...federal agents lured someone to the park to sell crack just so the president could say it was bought [there] (the crack seller did not even know where the White House was and had to ask for directions)."
No one but die-hard Confederates can now say that the Nixon/Reagan/Bush War on Drugs was not largely part of a race war. Bill Clinton contributed the atrocious Three Strikes policy and by "...2000, the rate of incarceration for African American males nationwide was 3457 per 100,000. In comparison, the rate of incarceration for white males was 449 per 100,000."
The best solution? Lock up those horrible nee-groes and throw away the keys. So today we have prisons bulging with inmates, the second highest incarceration rate in the world after Seychelles, a country whose prisons are full up largely from the explosion of piracy in the Indian Ocean. Higher incarceration rates than Russia, China, Cuba, far higher than police states like Myanmar! All because of Republicans' love of punishment. For certain types of people, that is.
But suddenly, things have changed.
Drugs are not just for immoral darkies anymore. In fact, it appears that it's become a white person problem across most of the country (see Marie's link yesterday to a Times story on the rampant heroin problem) and all of a sudden, draconian punishment is OUT. Long jail sentences are OUT. Compassion, kindness and peace/love/dove are the orders of the day. Why? White people. That's why. Especially winger white people.
One by one, Confederate presidential candidates have confessed to the drug problems of family members or close personal friends. Carly Liarina buried her stepson, Jeb! has a daughter who has battled addiction, Ted Cruz's stepsister died from addiction, (and Cruz, by the way, doesn't waste the opportunity to let everyone know exactly how much money he paid out of his own pocket to send his step sister's kid to a military academy when she couldn't. Even when he's shooting for sympathy he's still an asshole). Chris Christie had a friend...it goes on and on. And now Track Palin. All in dire need of understanding, not jail time.
Anyway, the rule now is kindness and treatment and compassion. Oh, the poor dears. Yes, addiction is a terrible thing. But if anyone doubts the virulence and insidiousness of racism, I give you the amazing new realization among wingers that people with addiction problems are not animals, not immoral criminals, not objects for punishment and lengthy jail sentences. Suddenly it's clear that white people--Republicans!--have addiction issues too. But this is different, of course.
See, the Nixon/Reagan/Bush drug war was waged against Those People. The drug problem today, affecting white Confederates, is not the same thing at all.
This is different...
Oh, and lest you think the same kind of compassion will now be forthcoming for non-whites, Ted Cruz is here to remind us all that in addition to it being Obama's fault, Other People are still the source of addiction problems for nice white Confederates.
@PDPepe: I too read the very well reported Bloomberg piece on Mercer. My takeaway is that while the Kochs and their ilk are merely narcissistic and selfish, Mercer is selfish and crazy. The picture of him whistling to himself at meetings and luncheons and funding individuals who promote fringe, even nutty ideas would be hilarious if it weren't for the fact that he is spending so much money on some right wing efforts that are proving successful, such as bankrolling Ted Cruz and Breitbart.com. Also that he has at least one daughter who also seems fully invested in funding winger projects, so that after he goes she may well carry on the mantle.
Citizens United has allowed the ultra rich to pursue their passions in the political arena. It's amazing how many of the wealthy are truly weird people.
Victoria, you are so right.
And the difference between the poor, unbalanced derelicts whom we do our best to ignore, who wander our streets muttering only to themselves and the equally nutty billionaires like Mercer whom our Supremes have encouraged to shout their craziness to thousands of others lies simply in their bank accounts.
Akhilleus points out the related the newly minted, kinder, gentler Republican approach to addiction, now that their own white base is OD'ing so publicly.
Turns out both Fitzgerald and Hemingway were right. The rich are different from you and me....because they have more money.
Matt Latimer, winger and former apparatchik during the Bush Debacle, wishes his party could have done more for those poor blahs in Flint: "I don’t believe it’s impossible for conservatives to help a place like Flint. But first you have to show up."
Earth to Matt: they did show up. That's the problem. Did Flint residents go out in the dead of night by their lonesome to switch their water supply from clean to poisonous? Did Flint elected officials vote to do this? Did the city make this change in opposition to the wishes of their Republican Overlords who wanted nothing but the best for them?
No, no, and no.
Republicans did show up, Matt. Poisoned water and unhealthy citizens are the result.
Oh, geez, if only we had gone into Iraq back in '03 and tried to rescue those poor brown people from that mean old Saddam Hussein. The world would be a better place today. Too bad stuff happened on its own with no help from Bush and Cheney.
Where do these fucking people come from?
What an unfortunate and continuing tragedy that a country with the history, accomplishments and potential of the United States has to waste time trying to comprehend the meaning and effect of the shrill rantings of a person of such relatively few merits.
I leave it to the articulate and highly effective leader of this website and her equally competent and thoughtful readers/commentators to choose the person...... There surely are a lot of candidates.
I can only guess it is the person who shall not be named.
I recommend this article by Linda Greenhouse on the Supreme Courtt's first Amendment zealotry and its lack of respect for its own precedent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/opinion/scalias-putsch-at-the-supreme-court.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
Thanks, Victoria D, excellent piece as usual by Ms. Greenhouse. If, no, when, this is decided in favour of the plaintiffs, will I get a discount whenever I buy anything produced by Koch Industries, so that I am not forced to contribute to their political activities? Will shareholders and employees be reimbursed the costs associated with the bros political contributions? Ms G answers my questions with a "no!" as she explains that precedent is now out the window.
Kate: Todd Palin is from Dillingham, AK, where everyone knows everyone and quite likely they're related too and by my take he looks like he's got some Yupik in him. Go and live up there. You're on to something with the substance abuse. But for the grace of God go I. One reason you never heard much about Sarah's North-Idaho-leaving-up-to-Alaska Dad is he probably puts the 'hick' into the word "racist" even if he was a school administrator and that could explain his daughter's "advancement". I don't know. But her Wasilla life of character assassination by innuendo certainly bears inspection. My take is her family needs to be left alone because they are far from the patrician upbringing with a thick lizard like skin that a Bush brings to political battle. George, Jeb have no soul; Track likely left his soul somewhere between Dillingham, Aleknagik, and Iraq and he was trying to stay on the right side of a disinterested mother. I wish him well.