The Commentariat -- July 20, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Afternoon Update:
Burgess Everett of Politico: "Influential Republicans called it 'inappropriate' and an 'affront' to Americans that President Barack Obama took his nuclear accord with Iran to the United Nations before a congressional vote, with Sen. Marco Rubio dubbing July 20 as 'Obama's Capitulation Monday.' On Monday morning, the U.N. Security Council unanimously backed the pact to scale back Iran's nuclear ambitions and begin loosening some sanctions, the same day that the 60-day congressional review clock began ticking on Capitol Hill. Though Congress has the ability to block lifting congressional sanctions on Iran that are a key portion of the deal, members of both parties are frustrated that the vote for international economic relief for Iran comes two months before a pivotal congressional vote.... Asked Sunday on 'Meet the Press' if this move jams Congress, [Secretary of State John] Kerry responded: 'Absolutely not. We specifically, to protect the Congress, put in a 90-day period before [the U.N. resolution] takes effect. So nothing will change,' Kerry said." See also Akhilleus's comment in today's thread.
Josel DelReal of the Washington Post: "Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to apologize to military families Monday during his first public comments since the flamboyant real estate mogul mocked his military record in a campaign event Saturday. 'I think he may owe an apology to the families of those who have sacrificed in conflict and those who have undergone the prison experience in serving their country,' McCain said on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' Monday, stressing that prisoners of war serve honorably. 'Somehow to denigrate that in any way, their service, I think is offensive to most of our veterans.'"
Russell Contreras of the AP: "Citing sprawl development and a need for more Mexican-American elected officials, 'Breaking Bad' actor Steven Michael Quezada said he is jumping in a heated race for county commissioner in Albuquerque, New Mexico." Quezada is a Democrat.
*****
Nick Gass of Politico: "The United Nations Security Council unanimously agreed to the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers on Monday. The resolution, which will expire in 10 years, also allows for a 'snap back' mechanism for U.N. sanctions to go back in place in case Iran reneges on the agreement." ...
... Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, in a round of interviews that aired Sunday, defended the deal they negotiated with Iran, saying that it leaves the Middle East safer and that there is no viable alternative. 'The real fear of that region should be that you don't have the deal,' Kerry said in an interview on CNN's 'State of the Union.'"
Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Three days after four marines and a sailor were killed by a gunman with Middle Eastern roots and a father who was once on the terrorism watch list, the chairman of the House homeland security committee heralded US successes against 'over 60' would-be terrorist attacks by 'Isis followers' in the last year. Of the attack in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Michael McCaul said: 'What keeps us up at night are really the ones that we don't know about and I'm afraid that this case really falls into that category.'" ...
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "In an America held hostage by the gun lobby, radicalized lone-wolf terrorists can get their hands on deadly weapons and mountains of ammunition just as easily as disturbed post-adolescents, delusional military subcontractors, virulent racists, and anybody else.... According to officials, at least some of the weapons in Abdulazeez's possession were obtained legally.... In an era of domestic terrorism, gun laws are turning into a national-security issue." ...
... Alan Zarembo of the Los Angeles Times: "Seeking tighter controls over firearm purchases, the Obama administration is pushing to ban Social Security beneficiaries from owning guns if they lack the mental capacity to manage their own affairs, a move that could affect millions whose monthly disability payments are handled by others.The push is intended to bring the Social Security Administration in line with laws regulating who gets reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.... About 4.2 million adults receive monthly benefits that are managed by 'representative payees.'" The VA uses such a system.
Kiss the Ring, Ignore the Message. Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "When Pope Francis comes to Capitol Hill in September, he will be the first pontiff to address a joint meeting of Congress, where more than 30 percent of the members are Catholic. The visit will fulfill a long-held dream of [Speaker John] Boehner, who says only his working-class roots as a bar owner's son are more essential to his core than his Catholic upbringing. He has extended offers to popes for the last 20 years, and Francis, after taking nearly a year to consider, was the first to accept. The pope's visit comes with inherent tension for many Republicans, including those who are Catholic."
Paul Krugman: "How did things go so wrong [with the European economy]? The answer is that this is what happens when self-indulgent politicians ignore arithmetic and the lessons of history.... I'm talking about ultra-respectable men in Berlin, Paris, and Brussels, who have spent a quarter-century trying to run Europe on the basis of fantasy economics.... Europe is paying a terrible price for this monstrous self-indulgence." ...
... CW: I know European politicians are not nearly as dependent upon their richy-rich friends as are American pols, but it appears to me Europe's wealthy creditors have many friends in the grand halls of government. I don't believe Merkel, Cameron, et al., & their ministers are too damned dumb to understand rudimentary macroeconomics. Neither are they clueless about the contrasting results of post-WWI & -WWII economic policies. Instead, I think they're doing what their creditor friends say & making convenient excuses about it, in the same way the few intelligent Republicans do here. If Barack Obama could buy into "belt-tightening" rhetoric & policies during a deep recession, why expect better of Europe's political hacks?
Azam Ahmed of the New York Times: "After more than a half-century defined by mistrust and rancor, the United States officially reopened its six-story embassy in the Cuban capital on Monday, the culmination of many months of negotiations to overcome decades of historical enmity and to restore diplomatic relations between the two nations.... The official celebration to inaugurate the American Embassy will not take place until later in the summer, when Secretary of State John Kerry plans to visit, to formally raise the flag and install the new signage." ...
... Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "Diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba have been officially restored, with Cuba's foreign minister set to take the hugely symbolic step of raising his country's flag at a newly designated embassy in Washington later on Monday. Bruno Rodríguez, visiting the US capital for the first time in his life, will conduct the ceremony at the mansion which has not functioned as an embassy for more than 50 years."
Manuel Roig-Franzia & Karen Heller of the Washington Post: Bill Cosby's "strategy of suppressing coverage of sexual-assault accusations has unraveled in stunning fashion. The comedian's own words, included in hundreds of pages of his recently disclosed deposition in a civil lawsuit filed against Cosby by one of his accusers, are being pored over by lawyers who say his admission under oath to supplying drugs to possible sexual partners will bolster efforts to sue him for tens of millions of dollars. They also might be used by law enforcement officials to prosecute the comedy icon, who has not been tried in criminal court, although that possibility could be more remote because of statutes of limitations."
Annals of Journalism. Dawn Ennis of the Advocate: "NBC News pulled out its Nightly News anchor chair Saturday night for Thomas Roberts, the rugged and dashing MSNBC host who came out when it was still considered career suicide. With millions watching, Roberts made history, as the first out anchor of an evening newscast on any of the major TV networks."
Presidential Race
Annie Linskey of the Boston Globe: "Through some combination of political skill, fortuitous timing, well-tuned messaging, and sheer luck this has become the Summer of Sanders -- in which an unkempt 73-year-old man who isn't even a member of the Democratic Party is mounting the strongest challenge to the Democratic establishment. He's gone from being dismissed as a fringe candidate to having a huge early impact on the primary." ...
... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Bernie Sanders drew more than 11,000 people to a rally Saturday night in downtown Phoenix -- the largest crowd to date for a presidential candidate whose audiences have been swelling in recent months. The Vermont senator ... got a rock-star-like reception from supporters who streamed into a cavernous lower-level room of the city's convention center." ...
... David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: Bernie Sanders went to Congress in 1990 in large part because the NRA backed him. ...
... Martin Pegelly: "Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders returned to the issue of police brutality against African Americans on Saturday, after their appearances at a presidential forum at Netroots Nation in Phoenix were disrupted by angry protesters." ...
... Chris Moody of CNN: "Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley apologized on Saturday for saying 'All lives matter' while discussing police violence against African-Americans with liberal demonstrators." ...
... ** Driftglass: "For the organizers [of the Netroots Nation meeting,] this was stepping-on-their-own-dick failure of historic proportions. Honestly, I have never understood why the Netroots crew cannot seem to learn a single damn thing from outfits like CPAC, which draws huge crowds, big-time press coverage and which no first-tier (or second-tier... or third-tier...) Republican candidate would dare miss. But for whatever reason, each year the Netroots' crew manages to make themselves less influential than the year before. And this time -- as the moderator abandoned his duties entirely and turned the proceedings over to the protesters -- they may have hit Peak Irrelevance." Driftglass goes on to weave the Netroots story into his Sunday showz takedown. CW: An excellent piece for our never-ending "Annals of 'Journalism' Ctd. feature.
Free Market Fail. Gabriel Sherman of New York: "What this year's primary shows is that -- at least when it comes to presidential elections -- the GOP is at risk of becoming less of a political party and more like a talent agency for the conservative media industry. Jumping into the race provides a (pseudo)candidate with a national platform to profit from becoming a political celebrity.... With her 2008 breakout, Sarah Palin ... made being a potential primary contender a full-time job.... As this year's ballooning GOP field shows, there are many long-shot candidates who are seeking to follow her path.... These candidates have made six- and seven-figure paydays even before the first ballot is cast.... It's ironic that Republicans are now fretting that their media-driven primary is damaging the party's electoral prospects. They are, after all, the party of the free market. What is more free than a candidate earning millions from the primary process?"
Dana Bash of CNN: "In a weekend interview with Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker about whether the Boy Scouts should allow gay troop leaders, CNN's Dana Bash asked Walker, 'Do you think being gay is a choice?' 'I don't have an opinion on every single issue out there. To me, that's, I don't know,' Walker answered. 'I don't know the answer to that question.'... Reminded that presidents of the United States are actually honorary presidents of Boy Scouts of America, Walker responded that he would have 'plenty much more significant issues to deal with as president.'" CW Reminder: Walker is not a scientist. ...
... Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "Walker also said his campaign was doing well because, 'I actually answer questions,' to which the CNN host quickly replied, 'But you're not answering this one.'"
I believe that scouting would be better off if they didn't have openly gay scoutmasters. -- Rick Perry, on "Meet the Press" yesterday
Donald Trump doubles down on his anti-McCain meme in a USA Today op-ed: "Thanks to McCain and his Senate colleague Bernie Sanders, their legislation to cover up the VA scandal, in which 1,000+ veterans died waiting for medical care, made sure no one has been punished, charged, jailed, fined or held responsible. McCain has abandoned our veterans. I will fight for them. The reality is that John McCain the politician has made America less safe, sent our brave soldiers into wrong-headed foreign adventures, covered up for President Obama with the VA scandal and has spent most of his time in the Senate pushing amnesty. He would rather protect the Iraqi border than Arizona's. He even voted for the Iran Nuclear Review Act of 2015, which allows Obama, who McCain lost to in a record defeat, to push his dangerous Iran nuclear agreement through the Senate without a supermajority of votes. A number of my competitors for the Republican nomination have no business running for president." ...
... Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump refused to apologize on Sunday for ridiculing Senator John McCain's war record in Vietnam and accused Mr. McCain of stoking outrage, even as Mr. Trump's comments continued to draw anger and calls from some Republicans for him to quit the 2016 presidential race." ...
... Margaret Hartmann of New York has a fine roundup of the "anger" of Trump's GOP adversaries. According to Jeb!, the Donald is a lot like that divisive fellow Barack Obama, whereas Jeb! welcomes everybody with open arms & hugs & kisses. ...
... CW: For a peek into the hypocrisy of suddenly "outraged" Republicans, see yesterday's Comments. ...
... Juan Cole: "Trump is a one-man advertisement for campaign finance reform, socialism and banning casinos. Whatever circumstances made him a plausible candidate for president should be immediately changed to make sure that kind of thing never happens to our country again. But in addition, I think all the Republicans who say they are outraged at Trump's comments need to step up and apologize to John Kerry if they didn't, as McCain did, defend him from the swiftboaters." ...
... What Were They Doing Then? Michael Miller & Fred Barbash of the Washington Post: "Christmas [1967], as Donald Trump was celebrating the holiday with his family, McCain was starving in a prison camp called 'The Plantation.'" The only violence Trump faced was at the hands of angry tenants of his father's rental properties. Ah, the heroics of rent-collecting. "As Trump made plans to buy and refurbish bankrupt hotels, McCain was staving off death in a prison dubbed 'The Hanoi Hilton.' And as McCain continued to refuse special treatment, The Donald actively courted it." ...
... Maggie Haberman & Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "It was an improvised fit of pique, roundly and vigorously denounced by his rivals all weekend, that exposed the biggest vulnerability of Mr. Trump's campaign for president: It is built entirely around the instincts and grievances of its unpredictable candidate -- and does not rely on a conventional political operation that protects presidential hopefuls from themselves." ...
... Andy Borowitz (satire): "Presidential candidate Donald Trump revealed a little-known episode of personal heroism from his youth on Saturday, telling an Iowa audience that he narrowly avoided capture in Vietnam by remaining in the United States for the duration of the war." Thanks to D. C. Clark for the link.
Beyond the Beltway
Sharon McCloskey of NC Policy Watch: "Attorneys and parties in the voting rights trial return to federal court in Winston-Salem this morning to continue presenting testimony and other evidence to U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder. During week one of what's expected to be a multi-week trial, attorneys for the parties challenging the sweeping voting restrictions adopted in 2013 unfolded their case with personal stories from voters who struggled to vote as a result, along with testimony from experts about the intent and the impact of the election law changes."
"America's Craziest Governor Goes off the Rails." Colin Woodard in Politico Magazine: Maine Gov. Paul "LePage [R] -- a pugnacious, hot-headed, sometimes vulgar Tea Party-style conservative -- is facing a bipartisan investigation into potential abuse of power, a nascent impeachment effort by opponents in the lower State House chamber, and a federal lawsuit by the outgoing Democratic House speaker, who has accused the governor of blackmailing a non-profit school into revoking their job offer to him. Meanwhile, leaders of the Republican-controlled state Senate and many Republicans in the House have turned on the governor, helping overturn hundreds of his vetoes and line-item vetoes in lightning-paced voting sessions, sometimes at a rate of one every 25 seconds. His veto of the bipartisan budget was overturned, narrowly avoiding a state government shutdown. An aggressive attempt to appropriate wider veto authority for his office has been rebuffed by lawmakers and legal experts, but still threatens to plunge the state into a constitutional crisis."
"I love my country. It's the government I'm afraid of." Be sure to read Elizabeth's comment in today's thread.
Way Beyond
We Are Not Amused. Josh Halliday & Louise Osborne of the Guardian: "Buckingham Palace has refused to be drawn into the debate over the royal family's private archives amid mounting pressure to release historical documents following the publication of a video showing the Queen performing a Nazi salute in the 1930s.... Palace aides launched an inquiry on Sunday into the leak of the 17-second home movie.... Respected historians said that releasing some of the material, which stretches back over 250 years, would add to the country's knowledge of the Queen and provide important historical context to the links between some leading royals and the Third Reich before the second world war.... The black-and-white footage is believed to have been filmed by the Queen's father, the future King George VI, on the family's Balmoral estate in Scotland in 1933 or 1934. It shows the future Queen -- then aged six or seven raising her right hand in the air as the Queen Mother does the same. The group were apparently being encouraged by the future King Edward VIII."
... Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: "I's a reminder of how many viewed Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party throughout the 1930s -- as amusing, even admirable, but not yet the abhorrent force we now know them to be."
News Ledes
Guardian: "Fifa has fired the starting gun on the race to succeed Sepp Blatter as president of the scandal hit organisation, setting the election for 26 February next year. The announcement came as it emerged that it was increasingly likely that Uefa's president, Michel Platini, would stand for the role."
Reuters: "Construction company Mitsubishi Materials Corp ... became the first major Japanese company to apologize for using captured American soldiers as slave laborers during World War Two, offering remorse on Sunday for 'the tragic events in our past.' A company representative offered the apology on behalf of its predecessor, Mitsubishi Mining Co, at a special ceremony at a Los Angeles museum."
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Some good news: USA wins the International Math Olympiad for the first time in 21yrs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/math-olympiad-usa-win_55ac7f83e4b065dfe89ea295?
In my little New Hampshire town this weekend, the local historical museum had its annual Revolutionary Days celebration, complete with a (small-scale) reenactment of a battle between a British and Colonial foot regiments. (The British won.) This got me thinking about war, of course, as well as governments' part in war. That tied in with a 60-something man I saw at the farmer's market a few days earlier, and his T-shirt stretched across his well-fed paunch that read: "I love my country. It's the government I'm afraid of." The simple response to such stupidity is, If you truly had to fear your government, you wouldn't be wearing that shirt. And if you would prefer living in a country with a fearsome government, try China. Or Egypt. Or any territory controlled by ISIS.
And all of that finally got me around to remembering a memoir I edited a few years ago, by a woman born in Ukraine in 1940. The memoir was largely about her father, born around 1900. One Sunday in 1918, soldiers of the White Army (or it could have been the Red; he ended up fighting for both) rode into his small farming village in eastern Ukraine after church. They gathered all the able-bodied men and boys and told them they'd been drafted. To further get their point across, they stood 3 or 4 of the men up against the church and shot them. When Stalin later took control, the father narrowly escaped being sent to Siberia for illegally marketing produce from his farm. All of his family survived the Great Famine, except for his mother, who starved to death because she gave her food allotment to her grandchildren. When WWII began, the German Army "drafted" him. He was wounded, sent to a field hospital, and deserted. As the Russian Army advanced from the east, the German soldiers and the citizens in the Russians' path fled west. Entire villages were emptied. The family ended up in a German labor camp. When the war was over, they should have been sent to the eastern part of Germany that the Soviet Union controlled, but sympathetic US soldiers allowed them to stay in the west.
Could that man with the T-shirt even conceive of living such a life? Do the conspiracy-addled idiots in Texas understand the difference between their own military conducting "war games" for 60 days in their state, and a foreign military riding into town and saying, "You're ours now," and shooting a few of them to get the point across?
So many Americans, isolated in their safe communities with a government they do not have to fear, simply don't have a clue.
Re: the hypocrisy in politics: I think it takes a kind of ruthlessness to become a politician. I think one has to acquire an especially tough skin in order to take the blows that are sure to come. But yesterday's comments covering the Kerry, Max C., McCain smearing are above and beyond––indicative of ugly, ugly stuff that is hateful and egregious. I remember then well.
I agree with Juan Cole: Whatever procedures that enabled Trump to become a viable candidate needs to be changed.
Last night watched one of my favorite films: "The Candidate" from 1972 in which a young Robert Redford is running against a much older dyed in the wool Republican of long standing.Redford, as the democrat Bill McKay (ForA BETTER WAY–-BILL MCKAY) doesn't want to play the political games, like Bernie, he speaks the truth as he sees it, but in the end he is overwhelmed by it all and at a photo shoot collapses in laughter. He wins though and the four words uttered by him at the end are "What do we do now?" What indeed.
@Elizabeth: I am always surprised at how often political opinions confront us in the normal course of our daily lives.
Friday, a conservative man I know stopped by my New England home & in the course of our conversation mentioned that he had just received some medical attention. He'd been without health insurance for a number of years & now has coverage via ObamaCare. He began complaining about all the forms he had to fill out at the doctor's office & how "the government wanted me to tell them my religion." I had to disabuse him of that idea & remind him how fortunate he was to be able to finally get insurance again. "Well, I like to blame the government for everything," he said. "Yeah, well, blame 'em for that federal highway you drove on to get here," sez I.
Sunday a conservative friend from Florida phoned me, & in the course of that conversation he said he had just had potentially lifesaving surgery for a recurring condition. He also had not had insurance for several years because most of his medical problems were recurring & therefore insurance companies wouldn't cover them. I asked him if he was on Medicare now. "Nope, not eligible till the end of this year. I got my policy through healthcare.gov." I decided not to rub his nose in it because I think his revelation was also an admission of sorts.
Marie
Elizabeth,
Most Americans enjoy lives of blissful Nirvana compared to much of the rest of the world. Worrying about how you're going to afford the payment on two brand new cars is not quite the same as worrying if your kids will ever be able to drink anything but muddy, bug infested water, or wondering if your spouse will survive an illness because there are no medical supplies and the nearest doctor lives 100 miles away.
The actor Tom Selleck has a truck pull up to a hydrant a couple of months or so and offload thousands of gallons of water in the middle of a drought because the flowers on his multimillion dollar ranch are wilting. Selleck, a wealthy actor and vocal rightwinger is frequently featured on ads for the NRA calling for action lest the evil government come and grab all the guns. This is never going to happen, except in Wingnut DelusionLand. Yet, back in the real world, Selleck has no problem taking water illegally and depriving others of their water rights. I suppose he thinks he deserves it since there are so many undeserving takers out there. Rush Limbaugh told him so. Selleck believes he lives in the perfect Confederate Land where there are minimal laws and no one can tell a real 'merican NO.
Last week there was an excellent posting on this site about the Iran agreement which pointed out the difference between a perfect deal and what could be reasonably expected in the real world. I think this is a big problem for the Confederates like your man who claims such fear of the government.
The difference is what one can reasonably expect from a government which must deal with the quotidian demands of keeping the machinery well oiled and the myriad conflicting calls for action (or inaction) by opposing political camps as opposed to the expectations of a perfect fantasy government.
In fact, if most of these people had the government they claim to want, tiny, nightwatchman style government with the most minimal responsibilities and power, they would be crying to discover that so much of what they take for granted (eg, state and federal highways, as Marie points out, clean air, fresh water, safe food and drugs, public safety) are no longer available or will be left to the safekeeping of the Sacred Private Sector, which they will happily do, for a price. How's about a toll booth every ten miles on all major highways, eh? The Perfect Confederate Government would collect no taxes either. That means nothing now funded by tax monies would exist. This list would fill the Domesday Book. And boy, would they be screaming then.
They are coddled babies, most of them. They have no idea, as you say, how bad many people have it and if they did they would STFU. I'm not saying that people have no right to complain. Of course they do. Complaining is as American as baseball. But complain about something real and something you might be able to help fix.
Why not be concerned that people are being denied their right to vote? It's the people this guy, no doubt, considers his champions who are doing that. If the government were really as corrupt as he and so many others believe, he wouldn't be able to vote either.
Grieving that you don't live in a perfect Confederate paradise where uppity blahs and mouthy feminazis know their place, where everyone has guns and no one pays taxes or has to care about immigrants or the poor, guarantees about as useless and non-productive an existence as one could imagine outside the walls of a prison.
But too many of these people are stymied by dreaming of a perfect winger paradise government which, if it ever came to fruition, would shock them to see what real deprivation is like. Of course their hope is that only The Others would be deprived.
There's always room for more delusions.
"Well, I like to blame the government for everything,"
We are the government -- We The People. Says so right on the label.
Emperors Yes; Clothes No, Pt. I
"Do you think being gay is a choice?"
".......................er......ahhh.....I dunno. Whadayou think?"
Leadership material?
It's a yes or no question and the answer from the Man Who Would be Emperor is.....he can't answer.
I guarantee if he had been asked this question at CPAC Scott Walker would have thrown great slabs of red meat to the droolers in the audience. He would have suggested that not only was it a choice, but it was the choice of evil child molesters who would seduce young people. Which is why he came out against gay scout masters as a way of "protecting children", dammit. We must protect our children against fantasy pederasts. However....we can freely associate with good child molesters, like Walker does with this guy, an actual, as opposed to make believe, sexual predator as long as they say "Jesus" and "Christian country" a whole lot.
This isn't the first time he's turned tail on questions any leader should be able to answer, and even if it's not a yes or no response, as long as he or she is able to describe whatever conflicts and thought processes were impeding a definitive answer, I guess I would at least give them the benefit of the doubt. But to simply run away from the question is cowardly and deceitful, nothing less.
His flacks have developed an MO that allows him to dodge any and all questions by saying that he doesn't have to have an opinion on everything. How about SOME things, Scottie?
Here are some of the things Walker had no opinion on/ when he went to London to show off his new emperor duds:
UK and EU membership, ISIS, US involvement with Ukraine rebels, anything related to foreign policy, and last but not least, he relayed, with a tip of his beautiful fantasy imperial crown, that he couldn't say anything one way or the other about evolution. At other times he's been unable to say whether the president is a Christian. He can't say what he thinks about same sex marriage either. He's also been unable to state whether or not, given the success of the auto industry after receiving government bailouts, he would have done the same.
This is not to say that he's a blank slate. We know a lot about this guy. First, that he's a liar. Second, that he's a coward, and third, that he really thinks he's something.
My favorite part of the Dana Bash interview was Walker's arrogant conclusion that the reason he's doing so well in presidential polls is that he answers questions to which Bash replied "But you're not answering this one."
In effect, here is that exchange:
SW--Wannabe Emperor: Dana, aren't my new clothes simply marvelous?
DB--CNN: Clothes? What clothes? You're naked. And not to be unprofessional, but ewwwwwww...
If only more in the media would call these frauds when they point to their dazzling raiment as proof of their fitness for office.
@Akhilleus: The question was Dana Bash's, & it was a stupid one -- like many of the "opinion" questions interviewers ask candidates. Science is pretty clear on climate change, evolution, the age of the world, sexual orientation, etc. These aren't matters of opinion, they're generally-accepted, science-based conclusions.
The form of the question should have been more like, "Since scientific research has shown that hetero- and homosexuality are genetically-determined, why did you disagree with the Boy Scouts' change of rules?"
Then, after Scottie's stupid answer, whatever it might have been, a follow-up: "How do you expect to lead the nation if you can't keep up with the general scope of established facts? Isn't it important for a leader to be conversant with & articulate about matters that might be controversial among the uninformed?"
Marie
Anyone who asserts that sexual orientation is a choice, must themselves be bisexual -- else how could they know its a choice? It's not a choice for me. I could never be intimate with another man, the idea is repellant. Thus if someone claims to have chosen their sexuality they must, at least potentially, be bi.
Yes, Akhilleus, I know the logic is flawed. But wingers are not often bright enough to see it, and its way fun to yank their chains with.
Just finished listening to John Oliver. I had watched a documentary on this same topic some time ago but before viewing, I, too, had an encounter in my super market. I was purchasing some fish and noticed a worker dumping all the sushi and other packaged fish into a large waste bucket. I went over to him and asked why he was doing what he was doing. My conversation was almost exactly like the man in the video. The food was being thrown out because of the expiration date, and no, the store does not give this to food banks. I left the store feeling frustrated, wondering why we have such a crazy system. There is, however, a huge building in our town that has been under construction for months that when completed will be the CT. food bank distribution center. I plan to find out more about how this will be implemented.
I grew up with a mother who drummed wastefulness in my dear little ear over and over. It worked. I never––well, hardly ever––waste anything resembling food. We even have a compost feeder which gives us that rich (black gold) dirt to grow our vegetables.
Doggie bags at restaurants always made sense to me, but once I was out to dinner with someone who frowned at this practice–-told me it was NOT the thing to do–-she used the word shabby. When I countered with the food being wasted, she came back with, "Who cares?" She's dead now––I'm alive and care a whole lot!
We have established multiple safety nets, many unnoticed and unremarked.
There are the familiar financial nets that range from TARP, the massive net created for our recent financial screw-ups, the FDIC and others for many of the responsible rest like you and me, welfare, the school lunch program, the ACA and Medicaid for the struggling and the outright poor. With the possible exception of the first, most of the Right doesn't like any of them. It's all about Responsibility, you know. Theirs, of course.
But there are many other safety nets in our great republic which don't receive the same attention and certainly don't prompt ready Right wing "analysis." Righties think of themselves as strict Constitutionalists because their lexicon would have "freedom" be synonymous with the right to be "greedy" or "stupid," often both. Because they have the guaranteed Right to be either or both; it's in the Constitution. Just ask 'em.
So there are good nets and bad nets. The good ones like laws that render corporations responsible for almost nothing, like the Citizens United decision and restrictive voting laws that protect against voter fraud that doesn't exist, both erected as walls against the rabble, are ours.
The bad ones like environmental laws and real campaign finance reform are theirs.
We all want a net that make us feel free and safe to do what we wish, even those whose way of living often harms others.
Especially, as others have said, coddled (and I would add, white) folks who lived so thoughtlessly they never learned that business about biting the hand....
Marie,
I agree there was a better way to frame that question, but I think from the point of view of many Confederates, sexual orientation IS a choice. They talk about it all the time. In that way I think Bash's question is simply asking Walker if he agrees with the received wisdom from La La Land. The fact that he refused to do so indicates that he's not even willing to side with the idiots he's trying to cultivate. Or it could mean that he's been told not to answer anything that would make a general voting population realize what a dangerous demagogue he is and how sleazy he can be.
Good interviewers generally try to avoid questions with yes or no answers unless it's something like "do you believe in capital punishment", which then demands that the interviewer follow up with a "and please tell us why..." question.
I did like her comeback though, which points out that Walker, who prides himself on answering questions, does not, in fact, answer very many.
The problem with asking whether or not a winger candidate believes in scientific findings is a thorny one for them and most of them have found a way around it that will keep their base happy. The larger problem, and the problem the GOP has in general, is appealing to voters other than those who are already drunk on the Kool Aid.
Walker Lies to Children.
Confronted by a 13 year old girl--on video--as to whether or not he would deport her dad, who is undocumented, Walker told her that Obama should have fixed this problem but hasn't and that as president he will work with congress 'cause that's how it should be done. He neglects to mention that he has flip flopped on immigration time and again, depending on who he's talking to, and as for Obama fixing the problem, he also leaves out the part where members of his party, ya know, those in congress who are, according to Walker, supposed to work with the president, have been blocking any and all attempts at immigration reform, even the most modest ones proposed by the president.
This guy really does need a slap. I'm guessing that he will, in short order, adopt the Bush Bubble solution to pesky questions about his plans to fuck Americans. Bush made sure he was only surrounded by admirers who had to take a loyalty oath before being admitted to many campaign events. The rest of the time he simply refused to go near anyone vaguely resembling a Democrat.
This is shaping up to be one of the most disgraceful public exhibitions of lying, backtracking, lying some more, hypocrisy, and ignorance seen in a presidential election cycle. And given the fact that we have so many ignorant liars and hypocrites currently on display in the GOP Clown Train (van was too small), it's no wonder Republican apparatchiks are worried that too many Americans who normally don't pay much attention to this stuff will see exactly how extreme this party has become.
Disgraceful doesn't even come close.
I don't know if it was my imagination or what, but during the Bash interview with Walker I could swear that he started blushing while trying to wrangle out of his non-answers. His turning red in the face could be his "tell" that he's lying (ahem, dis-informing.) Kinda like a kid getting caught and being asked by his parents why he lit the neighbor's cat on fire.
Confederates (and a few Democrats) in Congress are highly annoyed that the United Nations Security Council is voting on Iran sanctions without their permission. The idea that everyone should do what they say is what got us into the Iraq situation and is a prime reason so many Republicans have been hating on the Iran agreement before so much as clapping a single rheumy eye upon said document.
I'm wondering how many pundits and pols who supported the Bush Cheney Debacle are up in arms over not just saying to hell with it and bombing Iran.
I'll bet all. The days when the US can threaten to bomb an adversary back to the Stone Age and get whatever we want is gone. Remember that was a threat bandied about by the Pentagon during Vietnam. Remind me again at what point North Vietnam threw up their hands in surrender because of that?