The Commentariat -- January 5, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Representative Steve Israel, a New York Democrat who led political messaging for his party in the House, will not run for re-election, he said Tuesday. Mr. Israel, a seven-term congressman from Long Island with centrist leanings, led the campaign effort for House Democrats in the 2012 and 2014 election cycles and was seen as one of his party's top strategists."
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "With tears streaming down his face, President Obama on Tuesday condemned the repeated spasms of gun violence across America as he announced new executive actions intended to reduce the number of mass shootings, suicides and killings that have become routine in the nation's communities." ...
... You'll tear up, too:
Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "At least 52 people in the United States were killed by domestic extremists in 2015, the highest number in two decades, according to a report released Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism."
Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Most of the Republican presidential contenders and their allies are now waging campaigns focused on fear -- bombarding voters with ominous television spots that warn of national security threats and amping up their alarming rhetoric on the stump.... The candidates are scrambling to out-muscle one another, offering dark assessments of the Obama administration's fight against violent extremists and warning that their rivals are ill-equipped to take up the cause."
Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "Jeb Bush, who promised to run for president by showing voters his heart, is making an especially personal appeal in New Hampshire on Tuesday, where he plans to discuss his daughter's struggles with addiction. Speaking at a forum on addiction and the heroin epidemic at Southern New Hampshire University in the afternoon, Mr. Bush will not only unveil his drug control strategy but also talk about how his family has intimately experienced the ravages of addiction."
Melissa Eddy of the New York Times: "German authorities said on Tuesday that coordinated attacks in which young women were sexually harassed and robbed by hundreds of young men on New Year's Eve in the western city of Cologne were unprecedented in scale and nature. The assault, which went largely unreported for days, set off a national outcry after the Cologne police described the attackers as young men 'who appeared to have a North African or Arabic' background, based on testimony from victims and witnesses. More than 90 people have filed legal complaints, the police said on Tuesday."
*****
David Nakamura & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration on Monday unveiled a series of new executive actions aimed at reducing gun violence and making some political headway on one of the most frustrating policy areas of President Obama's tenure. The package, which Obama plans to announce Tuesday, includes 10 separate provisions, White House officials said. One key provision would require more gun sellers -- especially those who do business on the Internet and at gun shows -- to be licensed and would force them to conduct background checks on potential buyers.... 'The gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage, but they can't hold America hostage. We can't accept this carnage in our communities,' Obama said in a Twitter message Monday evening, referring to the National Rifle Association." ...
... Here's the White House "fact sheet" on the new regulations. ...
... Michael Shear & Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "President Obama said on Monday that in the next several days he planned to take executive actions on guns that were 'well within' his legal authority and were supported by the majority of Americans. Speaking to reporters after a meeting in the Oval Office with Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and other top federal law enforcement officials, Mr. Obama declined to specify the actions he would take to keep guns from criminals, mentally ill people and others":
... Gregor Aisch & Josh Keller of the New York Times: "More guns were sold in December than almost any other month in nearly two decades, continuing a pattern of spikes in sales after terrorist attacks and calls for stricter gun-buying laws, according to federal data released on Monday. The heaviest sales last month, driven primarily by handgun sales, followed a call from President Obama to make it harder to buy assault weapons after the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif." ...
... Rebecca Leber of the New Republic: "Republicans are furious at President Obama for giving them what they asked for to curb gun violence. Even before the full details of Obama's executive actions on gun violence came out on Tuesday, Republican leaders in Congress and the 2016 presidential field condemned him. Yet tucked into Obama's plan for strengthening gun sales reporting, sharing interstate records, and accelerating background check data is precisely what they have long demanded: A focus on mental health." ...
... IOKIYAR. Digby, in Salon, reflects on House Speaker Paul Ryan's views on executive orders. Funny, if you think paradicmatic hypocrisy is funny.
Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced Monday that federal immigration authorities apprehended 121 adults and children in raids over the New Year's weekend as part of a nationwide operation to deport a new wave of illegal immigrants. The families taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were living in Georgia, Texas and North Carolina, Johnson said in a statement. They are being held temporarily in federal detention centers before being deported to Central America.... The raids were the first in a broad operation by the Obama administration that is targeting hundreds of families for deportation who have crossed the southern U.S. border illegally since the start of last year. The operation, first reported by The Washington Post, is the first large-scale effort to deport families fleeing violence in Central America, authorities said."
Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times: "In [a] new poll, conducted by The New York Times and the Kaiser Family Foundation, roughly 20 percent of people under age 65 with health insurance nonetheless reported having problems paying their medical bills over the last year. By comparison, 53 percent of people without insurance said the same.... In recent years, health plans have come with growing deductibles and narrowing networks of providers, provisions devised to lower the cost of premiums. Those features have made health insurance accessible to a larger share of the population, but may also be leaving more insured Americans vulnerable." ...
... Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times suggests some needed fixes to ObamaCare. CW: Of course, these won't happen. Because Republicans.
Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention need 'considerable work' before the government's top public health agency can achieve a culture of safety at its laboratories, according to a new report."
Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times: "The California Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for the Legislature to place an advisory measure on the November ballot asking voters their views on campaign spending. The court had previously blocked the measure after a conservative group challenged it, arguing lawmakers were not legally entitled to put advisory propositions before voters. The proposition asks voters whether there should be a federal constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United vs. FEC, which permitted unlimited corporate and union spending for federal candidates."
Norm Ornstein of the Atlantic details the factors he thinks led to "Trumpism." However the election turns out, Trumpism itself is not going to go away. Do read the Paulson-Geithner-Summers section. CW: It's worth noting, as Ornstein does not, that the rise of the Tea party began with a protest against helping homeowners burdened with underwater mortgages, a program which -- as Ornstein does remark -- "was never fully implemented." At Geithner's direction, the Home Affordable Refinancing Program -- created on paper in early 2009 -- went dark until 2012, an election year.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jennifer Robison of the Las Vegas Review-Journal: "The Connecticut newspaper publisher at the center of a national media-ethics firestorm is no longer managing the Las Vegas Review-Journal or its parent company. Michael Edward Schroeder has left his position as manager of the Review-Journal, as well as manager of News + Media Capital Group LLC, the Delaware company that bought the RJ for $140 million on Dec. 10. Schroeder, who was introduced to RJ staffers as the newspaper's new 'manager' the day the sale closed, 'will have no role whatsoever with regard to the paper,' said Mark Fabiani, a spokesman for the family of Sheldon Adelson, which owns News + Media." ...
... Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "The revelation came just hours after the staff of The Review-Journal met with David J. Butler, the executive editor of The Providence Journal, who was brought in by management to discuss guidelines on how to cover Mr. Adelson and his corporate interests, according to a reporter at the meeting."
Call Me Pythia. CW: As I predicted yesterday morning, the headline to Greg Sargent's Monday morning post changed sometime during the day. Old headline: "Donald Trump's new TV ad: Make America great by keeping the darkies out." New headline: "Donald Trump's new TV ad: Make America great by keeping the dark hordes out." Of course "darkies" is fixed in the URL.
Presidential Race
Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "Eight years after aggressively defending his wife during her first presidential campaign, Bill Clinton was unusually understated and subdued on Monday during his first solo swing back in New Hampshire for Hillary Clinton, restraining himself even in the face of taunts from Donald J. Trump." ...
... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "As her husband tried to stay on message in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton embarked on a 'River to River' tour of Iowa on Monday, with six events across the state over two days. With a new Republican-led effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act potentially up for a vote this week in Congress, Mrs. Clinton focused her remarks on her plans to preserve, but improve on, President Obama’s sweeping health care plan."
At some point, we have to deal with the fact that there are at least two candidates [Trump & Cruz] who could utterly destroy the Republican bench for a generation if they became the nominee. We'd be hard-pressed to elect a Republican dogcatcher north of the Mason-Dixon or west of the Mississippi. -- Josh Holmes, former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
Eugene Emery & Louis Jacobson of PolitiFact: "In a new television ad [embedded on the Commentariat yesterday] -- his campaign's first -- ... Donald Trump shows footage of dozens of people swarming over a border fence.... Trump's television ad purports to show Mexicans swarming over 'our southern border.' However, the footage used to support this point actually shows African migrants streaming over a border fence between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla, more than 5,000 miles away." ...
... Ali Vitali, et al., of NBC News: "Asked about the video, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told NBC News, 'No s***, it's not the Mexican border but that's what our country is going to look like. This was 1,000 percent on purpose.'" ...
... Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: "... Trump's hate, his theories, his xenophobia and bigotry, and his intimations of deceit and foreign infiltration at the highest levels of the White House -- it's all a thousand per cent on purpose." ...
... Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "Donald Trump's new ad echoes the anti-immigrant campaign that doomed the California GOP. Explaining the Trump phenomenon is difficult for anyone who doesn't recognize that racism is still widespread in America, and harder still for anyone of the 'both sides' bent, who can't admit that its main political outlet runs through the Republican Party." ...
... So leave it to John Dickerson of Slate, who is also the star of CBS's "Face the Nation," to praise the ad. And you wonder why I don't watch the Sunday showz.
As former NRA Statesman of the Year, I will fight to protect the 2nd Amendment. A clear contrast to @HillaryClinton. -- Jeb Bush (@JebBush) ...
CW: At least John Cassidy of the New Yorker was horrified by Donald Trump's cutting off funds for medical care for his seriously-ill nephew in retaliation for a lawsuit brought by the infant's father. Not too many other professional commentators remarked on the report, although Melissa Cronin of Gawker is also appalled.
Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "According to Politico reporter Shane Goldmacher, [Marco] Rubio responded to a query about missing Senate votes by saying, 'We're not going to fix America with senators and congressmen.' Being a senator is one of the most powerful political jobs in America. If Rubio feels that the Senate isn't fulfilling his sense of purpose, he might want to look into other professions — maybe teaching or medicine." CW: I suspect that for Marco, medicine would be too trying, if only because Dr. Rubio would have to show up for work maybe four days a week. He already has a teaching job, so I'd suggest he stick with that -- the hours are short.
Oops! Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "A spokesman for Jeb Bush's campaign told BuzzFeed News on Monday that Bush had 'mistaken and conflated' his story about receiving the National Rifle Association's 'statesman of the year' award. The former Florida governor has told the story on several occasions, saying he received a rifle from then-NRA president Charlton Heston and was the recipient of the group's 'statesman of the year' honor in 2003.... The Sarasota Republican Party in Florida does hand out out an annual 'statesman of the year' award, the most recent receipt being Donald Trump." ...
... CW: There's your difference between Jeb! & Donald. Jeb!'s campaign admitted he plumped his resume'. When Trump gets caught in these types of fibs & lies, he denies thelies & blames the media for misreporting the "facts."
The Second Amendment to the Constitution isn't for just protecting hunting rights, and it's not only to safeguard your right to target practice. It is a Constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny -- for the protection of liberty. -- Ted Cruz ...
... Dana Milbank: "Several of the Republican presidential candidates have been encouraging lawbreaking, winking at it or simply looking the other way.... Flirting with extremists helps conservative candidates harness the prodigious anger in the electorate." ...
... Ted & Marco Find Their Voices. Igor Bobic & Samantha-Jo Roth of the Huffington Post: "... Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) urged a peaceful resolution to the armed occupation of a federal building in Oregon.... 'Every one of us has a constitutional right to protest, to speak our minds, but we don't have a constitutional right to use force of violence or threaten force of violence on others,' Cruz told reporters before a campaign event in Iowa.... Rubio similarly urged the armed militants to pursue a more peaceful means of protest. 'You can't be lawless. We live in a republic,' the Florida Republican told Iowa radio station KBUR on Monday. 'There are ways to change the laws of this country and the policies. If we get frustrated with it, that's why we have elections...."
Beyond the Beltway
John Glionna & Jason Wilson of the Guardian: "Federal authorities are planning to cut off the power of the wildlife refuge in Oregon that has been taken over by militia, exposing the armed occupiers to sub-zero temperatures in an effort to flush them out.... 'After they shut off the power, they'll kill the phone service,' the government official added. 'Then they'll block all the roads so that all those guys have a long, lonely winter to think about what they've done.' Snowstorms are expected in the wilderness surrounding the refuge on Tuesday, which is some 30 miles from the town of Burns. At night, temperatures are forecast to plummet to -8C (18F).... [Ammon] Bundy has repeatedly said the group is prepared for the long-haul. However during a tour of the site on earlier in the day, the Guardian was shown a food storage room that did not look like it could sustain a dozen men for more than a few weeks." CW: Nice to see the feds are taking our (no-brainer) advice. ...
... Les Zaitz of the Oregonian: "Two militants occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge issued a video appeal Monday for supporters to join them 'to prevent any bloodshed.'" ...
... Carissa Wolf & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The FBI is leading the investigation into the armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon and says it will work with local and state authorities to seek 'a peaceful resolution to the situation.'... Federal authorities said they would not elaborate on how they plan to respond.... Both ranchers [at the center of the original dispute] -- Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven -- reported to federal prison on Monday." ...
... Russ Choma of Mother Jones: "... not long ago, Ammon Bundy sought out [and received] help from the government he now decries and received a federal small-business loan guarantee. Ammon Bundy runs a Phoenix-based company called Valet Fleet Services LLC, which specializes in repairing and maintaining fleets of semitrucks throughout Arizona. On April 15, 2010 -- Tax Day, as it happens -- Bundy's business borrowed $530,000 through a Small Business Administration loan guarantee program. The available public record does not indicate what the loan was used for or whether it was repaid.... The government estimated that this subsidy could cost taxpayers $22,419. Bundy did not respond to an email request for comment about the SBA loan. " Ammon also wrote a Facebook post in which he was critical of the government's involvement of business -- CW: I guess like giving businesspeople loan guarantees. ...
... CW: Runs in the family. Cliven Bundy, of course, also received substantial help from the federal government when it allowed him to graze his cattle on federal land -- for a fee, which he didn't pay. ...
... ** Charles Pierce: "In a small place in Oregon, the essential compact of the United States of America has come apart.... It began, as so many noxious elements of our politics did, with the Reagan Administration. It began with a man named Ron Arnold, and a Secretary of the Interior named James Watt, and in something called the Wise Use movement with which the Republican party ... allied itself for its political advantage in the western part of the country." ...
... ** Paul Waldman: "Sean Hannity practically made [Cliven] Bundy his Fox News co-host for a couple of weeks. Their bizarre claims about the government and the means they were using to lodge their complaints -- an armed standoff -- were validated and promoted again and again by the media outlets conservatives rely on for their news.... The Bundys' actions can be viewed as an outgrowth of conservative rhetoric over the years of Barack Obama's presidency.... The line between mainstream rhetoric and that of the radical fringe disappeared, with popular television hosts and backbench Republican House members spouting conspiracy theories about FEMA concentration camps and the Department of Homeland Security stockpiling ammunition in preparation for some horrific campaign of repression. Nearly every policy with which conservatives disagreed was decried as the death of freedom itself.... Now combine that with the way so many Republicans talk about guns -- not just as a tool of self-protection, but as something whose essential purpose is to intimidate government officials." ...
... Gene Robinson: "What do you think the response would be if a bunch of black people, filled with rage and armed to the teeth, took over a federal government installation and defied officials to kick them out? I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be wait-and-see. Probably more like point-and-shoot. Or what if the occupiers were Mexican American? They wouldn't be described with the semi-legitimizing term 'militia,' harking to the days of the patriots. And if the gun-toting citizens happened to be Muslim, heaven forbid, there would be wall-to-wall cable news coverage of the 'terrorist assault.' I can hear Donald Trump braying for blood." ...
... Jim Dalrymple of BuzzFeed: "Mormonism has a long, complicated history of conflict with the federal government, and that history is deeply informing the actions of the militia members and ranchers who took over a government building Saturday. God told Ammon Bundy to fight back against the government." CW: I guess it's time for Mitt to weigh in. ...
... Tad Walch of the Deseret (Salt Lake City) News: "LDS Church leaders on Monday plainly and roundly denounced a militia whose organizers cited Mormon scriptures in the months before they seized a federal facility in Oregon on Saturday." ...
... Robert Bateman of Esquire introduces you to three of the nutjobs leading the Oregon insurrection. CW: I suspect I'm giving them way too much attention.
American "Justice," Ctd. Matt Hamilton & Richard Winton of the Los Angeles Times: "A 'failure of leadership' at the Orange County district attorney's office led to repeated problems with handling jailhouse informants and helped erode confidence in cases that rely on such evidence, according to a report made public Monday. The findings, presented by a special committee created by Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas, described the office as functioning 'as a ship without a rudder' and said some of its prosecutors adopted a 'win-at-all-costs mentality.'" CW: This is the second story I've linked in as many days about major metropolitan-area district attorneys' operations that encourage some form of corruption. When you think over the years of other, similar stories you've read or heard, it's difficult to pretend our system of justice works, except by chance.
AP: "A former South Carolina police officer charged with killing an unarmed black motorist [Walter Scott] was released on bond on Monday, officials said. Circuit judge Clifton Newman in Charleston allowed a $500,000 surety bond on Monday afternoon for Michael Slager. Newman also set a 31 October trial date. Slager will have to remain in South Carolina while out on bail."
Dana Hedgpeth & Clarence Williams of the Washington Post: "The death of a 74-year-old man who suffered neck injuries during a struggle with security guards last fall at MedStar Washington Hospital Center has been ruled a homicide, authorities said Monday."
Louis Sahagun of the Los Angeles Times: "Southern California Gas Co. crews are erecting mesh screens around the utility's leaking natural gas injection well to prevent an oily mist from drifting off the site and across the nearby community of Porter Ranch, company officials confirmed on Monday." CW: That should solve the problem.
Way Beyond
Sewell Chan of the New York Times: "Kuwait recalled its ambassador to Iran on Tuesday, the latest country to side with Saudi Arabia in a widening diplomatic feud with Iran that has roiled the region, put the United States in a bind and threatened to set back the prospects for peace in Syria."
News Ledes
Guardian: "One US service member has died and two were injured in an operation in southern Afghanistan, according to the US military command in Kabul."
Weather Channel: "WSI, a division of The Weather Company, issued their January through March 2016 outlook update, and both forecast temperatures and precipitation have the fingerprints of the current strong El Niño, the strongest in 18 years, all over them. The forecast includes the potential for a significant cold snap in parts of the central and eastern states starting in the middle portion of January."
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Reader Comments (21)
@Nancy wrote yesterday that the cursor jumped around on her laptop when she typed. This is a common problem -- especially with Windows, I gather, & there's probably an easy fix to it. Google "cursor jumps around," & maybe the name of your operating system. Users have offered several solutions via adjusting their control panel settings. There also is an app some people have found helpful.
BTW, if you can't figure it out on your own & have a maintenance contract with Best Buy or a similar outfit, they'll probably guide you thru a fix over the phone.
Marie
Has the Netflix series "Making a Murderer" been mentioned here? I've watched the first two episodes and they are devastating.
There is only one 'industry' that makes less sense than health insurance- tobacco. America's true purpose, money, money, money.
I assume that when the Oregon militia peacefully leaves the federal property they illegally took over they will be arrested and sent to prison. Or am I having a delusional morning?
So it looks as if 2016 is going to be even crazier than our topsy-turvy 2015. Since Trump early on insisted that Obama wasn't legitimate––a usurper in the White House said he––the whole birth certificate, Muslim ethnicity kerfuffle (which, by the way, he has never backed down from)–– created for all those racists, nativists, and all round ignoramus' an atmosphere of hatred and fear. Reminds me of the time I was walking in the woods with my grandson looking for salamanders. You find them by lifting up large pieces of tree stubs that lay on the forest floor–––hidden until someone uncovers their location––be it a small boy or a large bear. Our country has always had these crawly creatures just waiting to be uncovered or unleashed given just a good nudge or prodding. Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe we can face all this head on and stop denying its corrosive presence.
And speaking of the latter: The horrendous problem in Flint Michigan is almost beyond belief. It took a woman who went on the internet asking for donations and organized "Bottle for Babes"–– (She got thousands of bottles of water delivered)in order for Flint to have fresh water. Meanwhile Synder (GOV) is sitting on his ass wondering how to proceed (he has already fired two administrators) but Synder, himself, needs to get into that woodshed after being walloped sound and proper––he needs to leave.
@DC: thanks much for the advice re: hooking a hose to the water heater in order to get water for the potty. We have always had wells and after the last hurricane that ran through CT. we were without electricity for almost a week (we since bought a generator). We had a pool, and probably could have taken water from there, but for some reason we never did.
This article from yesterday's Washington Post appeared in my local newspaper today, regarding a bill to defund Planned Parenthood and repeal parts of the ACA:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/01/04/obamacare-repeal-vote-to-kick-off-2016-in-the-house/
Kelsey Snell writes: "But the vote may also be one of Ryan’s only chances to send a major Republican policy bill to Obama’s desk before he leaves office."
First, this bill does not put forward policy. It tells us once again what they don't like.
Second, what are these people going to do for the next nine months? "One of Ryan's only chances to send a ... bill to Obama's desk" ?!?!? The inability to govern is strong in this one.
Marie:
Thanks for the jumping cursor tip.
Haley Simon--you can look on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel website (jsonline.com) to see tweets by their reporter who covered the Halbach murder trial as he watches Making of a Murderer. I found the tweets insipid, but I don't use Twitter and have no experience limiting my thoughts to tweet length. I often think JS reporters just don't get it, and I'm not dissuaded from that opinion now.
Cults and Contumacious Crackpots, part XXXVIII
In which we see yet again the deleterious effect of religious mythology on weak minds.
It appears that fearless patriot and defender of the konstitooshun (all two amendments of it, 2nd and 10th), Ammon Bundy, is basing at least part of his treasonous stunt in an Oregon bird sanctuary (I'll refrain from any "for the birds" references. Oh wait. I just made one. Sorry.) on a delusion stemming from his family's particularly idiomatic interpretation of Mormonism.
Bundy believes himself to be just like the mythic hero Captain Jon Moroni, a Mormon who lived in the Americas around 100 BCE after coming over from Israel with the Nephites (the who?). Actual archaeologists have yet to find a trace of Hebrew tribes in Central America, but why ruin a good story?
It is believed that the Nephites and Captain Moroni (is that a Hebraic name?) came over on the Queen Mary (must have been the OLD Queen Mary) and were very put out that the WiFi in their cabins was on the fritz and they couldn't watch Hannity clips on YeTube. They landed at Cancun and had themselves a helluva party before it was time to go work and do big things. Soon this Moroni fellow was being told by some bad guy king to bow down and kneel (presumably Bundy/Moroni's bad guy king is a certain Kenyan usurper). Moroni gave him the finger, wrote something about LIBERTY and some other stuff and soon millions of others showed up to help him beat that bad guy king, something Ammon is desperately hoping happens out in birdland.
Don't we have enough to worry about without idiots like Bundy and his boobs pumping up their treasonous bullshit with delusions of crackpot religious dementia?
But just to show you that I'm not just some liberal asshole who doesn't believe that god himself told Moroni, er, I mean, Bundy, to drive up to Oregon and take over a birdhouse, I did a little research, and whadaya know? There WAS a Moroni who stood up for the little people and called out the overreach of big shots. And here he is. (Sure sounds like a Bundy.)
Man, I love the internet.
Criminals who try to cloak their treason in bogus religious imprimaturs, not so much.
PD,
Snyder and his implementation of anti-democratic Confederate policies is directly to blame for the cancerous water being piped into Flint homes. I did a little research on some of the background and effects of Republican policies on the lives of the people (nearly all black) in Michigan and posted it here a week ago or so (don't recall the day). Michigan, as a laboratory for preposterous and dangerous winger theories, stands right up there next to Kansas as a beacon for all to see; a message that needs to be heralded across the land:
Don't vote Republican.
Ever.
Marvin wrote:
I assume that when the Oregon militia peacefully leaves the federal property they illegally took over they will be arrested and sent to prison. Or am I having a delusional morning?
C'mon. You know the drill. These guys are far-right, anti-guv'mint, gun-toting Confederate moochers. Oh yeah. And white.
They'll never see handcuffs, never mind the inside of a cell.
Cliven Bundy owes us, the American taxpayers, a million bucks. He's still sitting on his porch, grazing his cattle on our lands, spouting out his wisdom about lazy black people, and there's not a penalty in sight for his criminal actions.
@Akhilleus: I really don't know why the BLM isn't down there auctioning off Bundy's cattle today, what with all the Defenders of the Constitooshun being so busy in Oregon.
I believe Moroni's followers who wish to name themselves in his memory should drop the "i" out of respect. The other day, Kevin Drum called them "morons with guns"; he was more correct than he knew.
Marie
I'll be curious to see how all those police who were turning their backs on Obama respond to his new gun measures, given that sensible measures to reduce the amount of free-flowing guns on the street and to keep them out of the hands of the dangerous loonies are both net positives for their profession. Will they be able to find it in their cold hearts to come out in support of Obama and his policies, or will their own law enforcement loons weasel out in front of cameras declaring that they won't be instating these sensible, potentially life-saving measures?
I'm guessing very subdued support without thanking Obama directly, followed by the greasy weasels in Confederate land declaring their opt-out of any future guvmint regulations. Because I'm optimistic.
Democrats should put on their big boy/girl panties and exploit the obvious. A photo ad with a pix of a Bundy sniper (2014 available on Internet). Lots of possible simple captions. "This is armed support for a guy who owes the U.S. in excess of $1 million. People go to prison for grand theft. They certainly go to prison for threatening law enforcement with loaded weapons."
The constituents of the right ( and I fear many others) aren't looking for facts. Narratives need only be bellicose, threatening, racist, misogynist, and ignorant. There's a breadth of personal grudges from which to choose, to make it your own and embrace it warmly. Rubio figures he'll try to grab a wider audience by throwing in a smidgen of "reasonable" even if he believes nothing of the kind. It has nothing to do with responsible governance or even patriotism.
On the President's speech - I'm glad he's no longer concerned about the "feelings" of his opposition in Congress. I especially liked his comment about hiding behind perpetrators as mentally ill instead of addressing real issues of gun access and ownership. It's effective to use a vulnerable group as scapegoats. It's a central plank in the GOP platform.
Marie,
Moronis with guns or morons with guns, these guys are still dangerous loons.
Thanks for the link to the Bateman piece on Esquire. Bateman offers some prima facie evidence as to the flat out loony-tooniness of three of Bundy's more, shall we say, passionate purloiners of public property.
One is of particular interest to students of alarming Confederate cranks, a Jon Ritzheimer. Ritzheimer is the sort of self-aggrandizing nutjob who sees himself as a full-time martyr, but one who ain't takin' no shit and could be required, at the drop of a hat (where's mine?), to "lay down his life" fer LIBERTY!!! goddammit. Funny, but after a fair number of "suicide notes" bidding farewell to his kids and 'merica, he's still alive and wasting precious oxygen.
This is the guy who posted a lengthy diatribe on YouTube about driving from Arizona (his home state: surprised?) to Michigan so's he could 'rrest a dirty Democrat who voted for 'bama's traitor pact with Eye-ran.
Somehow, after all the bluster and braggadocio, he didn't do it. Of course he blamed others for not having the balls to help him. These loser fucks always have an excuse.
What they don't have is much in the way of smarts. Critical thinking, knowledge of history, either ancient or modern, just don't sit well with Gun Totin' Men of Actshun like ol' Ritzy.
Anyway, one of his more clownish Philippics includes a "quote" from King Leonidas, the Spartan leader remembered for his stand against the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae, recounted by Herodotus in his "Histories". Ritzheimer, comparing himself to the heroic Spartan military leader, finished one of his "suicide notes" with:
"I will lay my life down..." blah, blah, blah, something, something, something, more bullshit, blah, blah..."We stayed true to our country and upheld our oath. Just as King Leonidas asked, 'Remember us!'"
Leaving aside the minor grammatical quibble that "Remember us!" is not a question, Leonidas, at least according to Herodotus (Histories, Book 7) never said it. Ritzheimer was quoting the Leonidas character from a pulpy, comic book movie version of the battle called "The 300", a gory, cartoonish movie that bears only a cursory resemblance to Herodotus' narrative. I can see why Ritzy loved this movie though, it's all about adolescent images of heroism and rough-tough Spartan soldiers/martyrs up against the effete, perfumed (read: gay) Persians. Love to kick some gay Persian butt, right? I doubt that this moron has any clue that Iran was once Persia. That would have given him a double woody, pro'bly.
Sorry to be a nitpicker but douchebags like this guy and other assholes like Li'l Randy and Cruz and Ryan who are always dropping quotes they claim are from Jefferson or Madison or Washington or some other unimpeachable sources, quotes that--somehow!--cannot be found in any written work, really piss me off.
So yes. Morons. These guys base their knowledge of political science and current affairs on what they hear on Fox or read on whackjob websites and get their history from comic books. Wonderful that ignorant loser morons like this also have huge stockpiles of weapons. And if this guy is an example of a Bundy BFF, there's a small chance--just a teensy one, mind you--that the underlying motives for this operation might not be quite as untainted by stupidity as they might hope.
PD,
Don't use chlorinated pool water to fill your toilet tank, or flush bactericides. A septic system relies on a healthy colony of shit eating bacteria to liquify solid waste.
Isn't nice to know that shit eating lower life forms have a useful function, and aren't all running for the Republican nomination?
@ D.C. Thanks--that's exactly why we didn't use pool water so my mister informs me–-duh! Your last sentence––perfect!
Tears from our President––feeling deeply grief, sorrow and frustration–- and we weep with him. And the problem is unless we get someone (who the Congress will never approve) to head the implementation of strict gun laws (the ones we have are still not followed) then we are back to square one.
And nobody––NOBODY better dare denigrate Obama's speech today––but if they do I hope they are humiliated and put down firmly and publicly.
"Keeping the darkies out": Trump immigration and foreign policy directive.
So I was not at all surprised that the WaPo, as Marie predicted, would change this headline, but I was pleased--a bit--that Sargent explained his (or one of the many Confederates now running the paper) decision for the change, ie, people complained about the terminology. Then I read this:
"My intention was solely to characterize in blunt terms what I believe is the tacit xenophobic message that Trump is trying to send with his new ad. It was not meant in any way as an endorsement of that sentiment."
First, anyone who thought that the writer was okay with Trump style bigotry did not read the piece. But characterizing Trump's message as "tacitly xenophobic" is like describing Sarah Palin as someone whose reading habits and general knowledge are only just slightly less than one might wish.
Most terrifying thing I've seen all year, a Trump rally in Lowell Mass.
I just hope there was nothing on TV that night. Trump is entertaining after all .
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/05/this-crowd-shot-from-a-donald-trump-rally-is-absolutely-eye-popping/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_trump0106-610pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
Trusting we are not yet all Bundyed out, Mother Jones has a note on the self-centered, narrow-minded Bundyites.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/01/ammon-bundy-oregon-protest-sba
They'd like to think of themselves as freebooters, twenty first century devil-may-care heros, independent, beholden to no one but themselves (and their guns), but they're in fact freeloaders pure and simple. Yes, very simple.