The Commentariat -- January 4, 2015
Internal links removed.
CW: Just had a three-plus-hour power outage because ... two whole inches of snow. More snow expected today -- more power outages anticipated. If I can borrow MAG's sled dogs to get out to my car to load it with stuff, I'll be traveling most of the week. This is my way of saying, "Expect snow delays on Reality Chex."
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama plans to make an aggressive push to tout his economic policies ahead of his State of the Union address on Jan. 20, starting with a swing through three states after he returns to Washington early Sunday from two weeks of vacation in Hawaii."
Senate Democrats Win Popular Majority! Really. Dylan Matthews of Vox: "On Tuesday, 33 US senators elected in November will be sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden -- including 12 who are new to the chamber. The class includes 22 Republicans and 11 Democrats, a big reason why the GOP has a 54-46 majority in the Senate overall. But here's a crazy fact: those 46 Democrats got more votes than the 54 Republicans across the 2010, 2012, and 2014 elections." Matthews doesn't pull any punches when contemplating what to do about it: "The Senate is a profoundly anti-democratic body and should be abolished." Okey-doke.
On wealth inequality, Dylan Matthews shreds Harvard economist Greg Mankiw. CW: Mankiw's stunningly stupid argument is a paradigm of how conservatives -- even presumably "smart" ones -- pervert the most basic, widely-known realities (historical & otherwise) in service of their own insupportable schemes & beliefs. ...
... Funny, short post by Scott Lemieux in LGM on "The Ongoing Influence of Michele Bachmann's Historical Theories." (You have to read Matthews' post on Mankiw to understand Lemieux.)
Edward Kleinbard, in a New York Times op-ed: "While seemingly arcane, the change [to dynamic scoring] could have significant, negative consequences for enacting sustainable, long-term fiscal policies.... Economists describe [a recent GOP effort at dynamic scoring] as 'making counterfactual assumptions'; the rest of us call it 'making stuff up.'"... The Republicans' interest in dynamic scoring ... comes from political factions convinced that tax cuts are the panacea for all economic ills. They will use dynamic scoring to justify a tax cut that, under conventional scorekeeping, loses revenue. When revenues do in fact decline and deficits rise, those same proponents will push for steep cuts in government insurance or investment programs, because they will claim that the models demand it." ...
... Vicki Needham of the Hill: "Senate Democrats are warning Republicans to tread carefully with their selection of a budget scorekeeper for the new Congress, saying they will 'strongly object to any effort to politicize this important office.'"
Rosalind Helderman & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "In the strange four months of enforced limbo that have separated [Bob] McDonnell's shocking guilty verdict from his much-anticipated sentencing Tuesday, the former Republican governor has in some ways presided over an extended wake for his own once-promising political and personal future.... The probation office has calculated that sentencing guidelines call for him to spend between 10 and 12 1/2 years in prison. Prosecutors have endorsed that recommendation, and judges in the Eastern District of Virginia accept probation office guidelines in 70 percent of cases."
A Discriminating Dress Code. Igor Bobic of the Huffington Post: "Oklahoma residents are concerned that a proposed bill would make it a crime to wear a hooded sweatshirt, or hoodie, in public on many occasions, according to local news station KFOR. The wearing of hoods or similar head coverings during the commission of a crime has been against state law since the 1920s, with the original intent of curbing violence perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan. But the new proposal would also ban an individual from intentionally concealing 'his or her identity in a public place by means of a robe, mask, or other disguise' even if he or she were not involved in a crime. Violation of the proposed law would constitute a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine up to $500." CW: The good news: the law would exempt hoods worn for "minstrel shows," among other occasions. Really. Might be a good idea for black teens to carry banjos during inclement weather.
Andrew Higgins & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "An investigation by The Times into the final hours of President Viktor F. Yanukovych's rule [of Ukraine] shows that he was not so much overthrown last year as cast adrift by his own allies, and Western officials were just as surprised by the meltdown as anyone else."
Digby on Mario Cuomo's "Tale of Two Cities" convention speech. CW: I think digby gets it exactly right. ...
... God News
While we always owe our bishops' words respectful attention and careful consideration, the question whether to engage the political system in a struggle to have it adopt certain articles of our belief as part of public morality, is not a matter of doctrine: it is a matter of prudential political judgment. -- Gov. Mario Cuomo (D-N.Y.), at the University of Notre Dame, September 1984
... Jim Fallows on Mario Cuomo's other important 1984 speech: "That was the second speech I want to mention, a year earlier,* at Notre Dame, in which the very publicly Jesuitical Governor Cuomo talked about the separation of church and state, in a speech titled 'A Catholic Governor's Perspective.' You can watch the whole thing via (non-embeddable) C-SPAN report here.... you can read the full text from Notre Dame's archives, here.... Among politicians of the past generation-plus seen as national-level contenders, he was the most accomplished and engrossing public thinker. (This is also Obama's strength, and presumably he will overtake Cuomo through the scale of the issues he has been involved in.)" ...
... * CW: As noted above, Cuomo gave the speech at Notre Dame in September 1984, a few months after the Democratic National Convention speech, not "a year earlier," as Fallows writes. ...
... David Gibson of Religion News Service: "Cuomo was also just as famous for elaborating a rationale by which Catholic politicians like himself could be personally opposed to abortion but could still support and defend a legal right to abortion.... Now, a new generation of Catholics conservatives -- mainly Republicans -- invoke the same kind of 'personally opposed' ethos to part ways with their church on issues like economic and foreign policy, the death penalty and immigration reform.... Cuomo even anticipated conservatives' adoption of his stance when he asked if he would have to follow the bishops' teaching on economic justice 'even if I am an unrepentant supply sider?'... Ironically, Cuomo's vision may have won out since nearly all Catholic politicians are cafeteria Catholics now -- picking and choosing which Catholic teachings they want to highlight." CW: Gibson points out how Cuomo's stance on abortion differed from, say, Marco Rubio's Pope-dissing.
Frances D'Emilio of the AP: "Pope Francis named 15 new cardinals Sunday, selecting them from 14 nations, including far-flung corners of the world such as Tonga, New Zealand, Cape Verde and Myanmar, to reflect the diversity of the church and its growth in places like Asia and Africa. Other cardinals hail from Ethiopia, Thailand and Vietnam. Another is form Sicily, where the Church in recent decades has been galvanizing public rejection of the Mafia."
Reuters: "One of Germany's most famous landmarks, Cologne Cathedral, will be plunged into darkness on Monday evening in protest at a march by a growing grass-roots anti-Muslim movement through the western German city, cathedral authorities said. The rise of the group, Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA), has shaken Germany's political establishment, prompting Chancellor Angela Merkel to say in her New Year address that its leaders were racists full of hatred and citizens should beware being used." ...
... Al Jazeera: "Swedes expressing solidarity with Muslims have staged manifestations after a series of recent attacks on mosques. In the city of Uppsala, where anti-Muslim rhetoric was scrawled onto a mosque wall on Thursday, hundreds of people pasted red paper hearts and messages of support onto the building's entrance ahead of Friday prayers. A day before the so-called love bombing, police said a Molotov cocktail was hurled at the mosque without causing a fire. Earlier this week, a mosque in Eslov in the south suffered partial damage after a blaze that police suspect was arson. And on Christmas Day, five people were injured when a petrol bomb was thrown through a window of a mosque in the town of Eskilstuna."
Sally Morrow of Religion News Service posts photos of "the winners of the 2014 International Awards Program for Religious Art & Architecture, given out by Faith & Form, the interfaith journal on religion, art and architecture." ...
... Nice enough, but give me a good old-fashioned gothic (or neo-gothic) church any day. I attended a carol singing at St. Peter & Paul's Chapel in Concord, New Hampshire, a week or so before Christmas, and it was magical. At left is a shot of the interior.
David Segal of the New York Times: When United Airlines lost a monk's ticket, his fellow monk was outraged, & the order used their Website as a vehicle to get United to make things right with God. ...
... Maybe they should have posted a Gregorian chant. Here's one of my favorite Web videos:
... Singer/songwriter/performer Dave Carroll eventually also effected a happy ending, thanks to the video & subsequent publicity. United, not so much. ...
... Presidential Race
Robert Costa & Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "Mike Huckabee is leaving Fox News to decide whether he wants to run for president. The Republican former governor of Arkansas said that Saturday night's episode of 'Huckabee' is the last.... An early test for Huckabee's 2016 ambitions will begin later this month when he goes on a national tour to tout his new book, 'God, Guns, Grits and Gravy'...."
News Ledes
Boo-Yah! ESPN: "Stuart Scott, a longtime anchor at ESPN, died Sunday morning at the age of 49."
AP: "Thousands of uniformed police officers from across the U.S. are expected to attend the funeral Sunday of the second New York Police Department officer fatally shot with his partner in their patrol car two weeks ago. Buddhist monks will lead a Chinese ceremony for Officer Wenjian Liu, followed by a traditional police ceremony with eulogies led by a chaplain. The funeral follows a somber wake the day before as mourners lined up for blocks on a cold, rainy day to pay their respects."
AFP: "Weather was the 'triggering factor' in the crash of AirAsia Flight 8501 with icing likely causing engine damage, Indonesian officials said, as rough seas Sunday hampered the search for bodies and the sunken wreckage."
Guardian: "North Korea has furiously denounced the United States for imposing sanctions in retaliation for the Pyongyang regime's alleged cyber-attack on Sony Pictures. North Korea's foreign ministry reiterated that it did not have any role in the breach of tens of thousands of confidential Sony emails and business files and accused the US of 'groundlessly' stirring up hostility towards Pyongyang. He said the new sanctions would not weaken the country's 1.2 million-strong military."
AP: "Maine's former top drug prosecutor who fled to New Mexico after he was convicted of child pornography charges is appealing his nearly 16-year prison sentence." CW: Apparently the former prosecutor, James Cameron, like so many Americans, was unaware that New Mexico is one of the United States.
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Reader Comments (5)
So Mike Schmuckabee has decided to do Jeb Bush a favor by reminding even Republicans that Bush is the only candidate that does not appear to have any serious mental illness. (Note that I used the word 'appear'.)
I definitely LOL'ed at "God, Guns, Grits and Gravy”. What a telling combination of nonsensical symbolism and sausage-making. I expect to find it on the $1 bargain book shelf right after the elections.
Thomas Frank has an informative piece on the capture of Venture Capital on America's beloved fast food restaurants. I knew the big ones were ultimately financed by vulture capitalists à la Romney, but I hadn't realized that it's grown in such a grand scale. I clearly didn't pay much attention when I was younger, but the panoramic view that Frank gives on the systems (financial, economic, social, cultural) definitely provokes a change in perspective. And as he points out, even making the ideological choice of skipping Wall Street and supporting the "Mom and Pop's" diner is becoming consistently blurred.
http://www.salon.com/2015/01/04/chain_restaurants_are_killing_us_billionaire_bankers_minimum_wage_toilers_and_the_nasty_truth_about_fast_food_nation/
@Safari, your link above was incomplete but I finally found the Salon article.
"... Chain restaurants are killing us: Billionaire bankers, minimum-wage toilers and the nasty truth about fast-food nation.
Re; Jesus Arena, God Stadium, Holy Tritity Center, St. Peter' Raceway, and my favorite, Noah's Aqua center.
Thanks for the pictures of this years winners of worship architecture.
Nothing inspires like a church spire.
Today we worship in stadiums built with civic bonds with the profits going to the corporate owners of the public buildings.
If I did, I would worship at the altar of a lesser god, Wrigley Field. But change is coming, lights and a massive screen.
I am surprised that of the buildings featured none had
the almighty pixel as the center point of view.
Who said, "when ever two people are gathered in my name, there I'll be." I think it was Al Davis, late owner of the Oakland Raiders.
Bill Moyers retirement is a loss. But I don't think we should forget that he has some partisan history that is not all that glorious when he worked for LBJ - nothing worthy of jail, just the usual nasty political smears during the era of Hoover and the Viet Nam war.
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/08/style/chronicle-938190.html
Long time ago, but still...."Communist" smears and searching for "homos" still leave a nasty taste.