The Commentariat -- July 22, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Afternoon Update:
Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Dylann Roof, the man suspected of killing nine people at a historically black church in Charleston, S.C., last month was indicted on Wednesday on federal hate crime and other charges, including some that carry the federal death penalty, two law enforcement officials said on Wednesday. Mr. Roof, 21, already faces nine counts of murder in state court and could face the death penalty there. But Justice Department and F.B.I. officials have said the Charleston shooting was so horrific and racially motivated that the federal government must address it."
Stephen Ohlemacher & Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the AP: "The trustees that oversee Social Security said the disability trust fund will run out of money in late 2016, right in the middle of a presidential campaign. That would trigger an automatic 19 percent cut in benefits. The report said the fund faces 'an urgent threat' that requires prompt action by Congress. There is an easy fix available: Congress could shift tax revenue from Social Security's much larger retirement fund, as it has done in the past. President Barack Obama supports the move. But Republicans say they want changes in the program to reduce fraud and to encourage disabled workers to re-enter the work force."
Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "The Washington Post appealed to the United Nations on Wednesday to help secure the release of jailed reporter Jason Rezaian, accusing the Iranian government of flagrant human rights violations in a year of 'arbitrary and unlawful' detention of the veteran journalist, company officials said. A petition filed before the U.N. Human Rights Council sought to increase the international pressure on the Iranian government over its treatment of Rezaian, whose 365 days in prison as of Wednesday amount to the longest incarceration by far of any Western journalist held by the Islamic republic."
In a Washington Post op-ed, Secretaries John Kerry & Ernest Moniz make their case for the international nuclear deal with Iran.
*****
Josh Lederman of the AP: "Brushing off his 'chest-beating' critics, President Barack Obama accused opponents of the Iran nuclear deal Tuesday of being the same people who rushed the U.S. into an ill-fated war in Iraq. As he sought support for the deal from U.S. veterans, he said the deal's foes were merely popping off soundbites that accomplish nothing.Obama assumed a confident yet combative tone at the Veterans of Foreign Wars' national convention in Pittsburgh, where he also said he was still not satisfied with the care being provided by Department of Veterans Affairs":
... Halimah Abdullah of NBC News: "Veterans ripped a sign that read 'The Emperor Benghazi Has No Clothes' from a protester's hands as a group gathered for President Barack Obama's speech on veterans' issues in Pittsburgh. The tussle occurred as the president spoke to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars about stressing the need to honor soldiers' service."
Brian Murphy of the Washington Post: "President Obama vowed Tuesday that his administration is 'not going to relent' until Iran releases three Americans held in custody, including a Washington Post journalist reaching the one-year mark of his detention. Obama also demanded clear information from Tehran to assist in finding the whereabouts of a former FBI agent and CIA contractor last seen in Iran."
Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "President Obama embarks on a trip to Africa this week that includes a controversial stop in Ethiopia, where the authoritarian government has come under sharp international criticism for its handling of political dissent. The Ethiopia visit has raised hackles among human rights advocates who question the administration's level of concern about human rights...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "The US secretary of state, John Kerry, has used an unusually emotional interview to reveal he walked away from nuclear talks with Iran on three separate occasions, insisting that the claim that he was too eager to seal a deal was 'one of the dumbest criticisms I've ever heard in my life'":
... Also linked yesterday afternoon. ...
... Oren Dorell of USA Today: "As the Senate opens a two-month congressional review of the nuclear agreement with Iran on Thursday, opponents of the deal are spending tens of millions of dollars to rally the American public and U.S. lawmakers against it. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran, United Against a Nuclear Iran and the Republican Jewish Coalition are among groups that will spend between $20 million and $40 million to blast the deal with TV commercials that began airing last Friday, social media ads and new websites that include alleged flaws in the agreement and contact information for members of Congress." ...
... Samuel Kleiner & Tom Zoellner in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: "Munich analogies refuse to die. The habitual Munichization of conservative foreign policy thinking long ago reached the point of self-parody, but it won't go away.... The most courageous acts on the part of statesmen aren't necessarily those that concede nothing. Like Kennedy rejecting LeMay's call for airstrikes, courage can be resistance to an irrevocable hard line. The nuclear deal with Iran, like any deal, has its risks. But Obama undoubtedly exercised statesmanship in bringing it to completion. It deserves reasoned consideration, which is nothing like what these Republicans automatically hollering about Munich are offering." ...
... Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "Republicans have an Iran problem: They are politically wedding themselves to something that is, in practice, going to be very difficult or impossible for them to do. Unless something substantial changes on the ground -- maybe Iran is caught in a major violation and refuses to fix it -- American opponents of the Iran deal are probably not going to be able to kill it." But Munich!
Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "A six-year highway bill crafted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was in limbo Tuesday after lawmakers rejected a motion to move forward with the measure in a 41-56 vote. Democrats voted in unison against proceeding to the 1,030-page bill, arguing they had no time to review the complicated legislation. Eleven Republicans also voted against the motion."
Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "An anti-abortion group has released a second undercover video of an official at a Planned Parenthood affiliate discussing the costs associated with harvesting fetal tissue for medical research. The edited video, which runs for over eight minutes, is the second surreptitious recording to be released by activist group Center for Medical Progress." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Tara Culp-Ressler of Think Progress provides background bullet points on the Center for Medical Progress. CW: Here's another one: the name of their organization is the opposite of what it is; they probably got the idea from Peacemaker missiles.
** Barney Frank Explains Marriage & Freeedom to the Easily-Outraged. (Portland Press-Herald): "In the spirit of conciliation, I want to offer reassurance to those who reacted to the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision with a mix of outrage and horror: It will have no effect on how you live your lives. This is not a prediction of what will happen in the future. It is a distillation of the nearly 12 years of experience in Massachusetts since our Supreme Judicial Court issued the forerunner of this ruling in 2003. No member of the clergy has had to participate in any marriage she or he found sinful, immoral or even offensive. No house of worship has been forced to open any of its premises ... for ceremonies that contravene their religious tenets."
... CW: Frank's column may seem elementary, almost comical, to you, but to the Easily-Outraged, it's startling news.
American "Justice," Ctd. New York Times: A Long Island judge sets bail at $500,000 for a man charged with causing traffic fatalities while driving under the influence. In December, the same judge set bail at $250 (no more zeroes) for a friend of his who also was charged with causing a traffic fatality while intoxicated.
Presidential Race
Annie Karni of Politico: During Hillary Clinton's livechat Monday, HuffPost reporter asked Clinton, "'Senator Mitch McConnell said about you today: "The gender card alone isn't enough.... How do you respond to an attack like that?' Clinton's response -- a riposte that the gender card is being played 'every time Republicans vote against giving women equal pay, deny families access to affordable child care or family leave, refuse to let women make decisions about their health or have access to free contraception' -- was a forthright appeal for women's votes...." Clinton's campaign later produced this video, literally playing the gender card.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: "Gov. John R. Kasich, a blunt-spoken and unorthodox Republican who bucked his party by expanding Medicaid under President Obama's health care law and says politicians must 'reach out and help those who live in the shadows,' announced Tuesday that he was joining his party's long list of candidates for president. Mr. Kasich, 63, became the 16th prominent Republican to enter the 2016 field." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Get to Know Your Presidential Contenders. Digby profiles John Kasich, a candidate "even more ridiculous than Donald Trump."
** Jonathan Weisman of Slate on Jeb!'s boring, 'radically conservative" economic proposals: "... his positions seem to be GOP boilerplate mixed with a dash of hardcore conservative fantasy, all dressed up with some rhetorical gimmicks. Bush might be the grown-up in the room. But you have to consider the room."
American conservative Daniel Larison in the American Conservative: Scott "Walker may think that he is getting the upper hand in the primaries by positioning himself as the most aggressive hard-liner, but in the process he is revealing that he has extraordinarily bad judgment on these issues and confirming that his lack of foreign policy experience is a major liability for him. Why should voters trust him with the presidency when he is eager to boast about his readiness to start an illegal war against a country that just negotiated an agreement with the U.S. and its allies?... A preventive war against Iran would be entirely unjustifiable, unnecessary, and illegal under international law.... There is no difference in practice between a war that is called 'preventive' and what a previous generation condemned as a war of aggression." Thanks to Keith H. for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Lincoln Caplan of the New Yorker: "Someday, a novelist with Wisconsin roots will tell the story of [Scott] Walker's engagement in squalid politics -- and whether it carried him to the White House. Now, however, it is possible to document the close ties between the national network of major conservative donors backing Walker and the conservative lobbying groups that turned the Wisconsin court into a political tool, which forfeited much of its remaining legitimacy with last week's ruling [in which the conservative justices dismissed Walker's 'criminal scheme' to flout campaign finance laws]." Confederates in other states are planning to use the decision to argue against any & all campaign finance laws.
Breaking. Donald Trump Is Still a Jerk. Nick Gass & Adam Lerner of Politico: "On Tuesday, [Donald] Trump ramped up his attacks on ... [Sen. Lindsey Graham] -- who made headlines Monday for calling the Donald a 'jackass' -- and even gave out Graham's private phone number. Trump began his rambling diatribe by calling Graham a 'lightweight' and an 'idiot.' 'He doesn't seem like a very bright guy. He actually probably seems to me not as bright as Rick Perry. I think Rick Perry probably is smarter than Lindsey Graham,' Trump added, riffing on prior insults he had lobbed at the former Texas governor." ...
Trump as Lounge Lizard. Jonathan Capehart: Al Sharpton recalls a conversation with James Brown that illustrates what Donald Trump doesn't get: "When you get on the main stage, Reverend, whatever you did to get out the lounge don't do that on the main stage." ...
... Amy Chozick & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "In the rarefied world of New York moguls, Rupert Murdoch never thought much of Donald J. Trump.... 'When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?' Mr. Murdoch wrote on Twitter on Saturday after Mr. Trump mocked [John] McCain for having been captured as a pilot during the Vietnam War. On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal, the crown jewel of Mr. Murdoch's print company, News Corporation, published a scathing editorial calling Mr. Trump a 'catastrophe.' And The Post's front page screamed, 'DON VOYAGE,' under a headline declaring, 'Trump is toast.' Mr. Trump responded by trashing The Journal on Twitter."
Beyond the Beltway
ABC 7 Chicago: "An appeals court vacated five convictions and threw out the sentence of former Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday afternoon. The rest of Blagojevich's convictions were affirmed by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.... Trial Judge James Zagel could reduce the sentence, but guidelines also would permit him to leave it unchanged."
Michael Graczyk of the AP: "A police dashboard video released Tuesday shows that a Texas state trooper tried to pull a black motorist out of her car, then drew his stun gun and threatened her after she refused to follow his orders during a traffic stop. The roadside encounter swiftly escalated into a shouting confrontation as the officer attempted to drag 28-year-old Sandra Bland from her vehicle, with the officer at one point saying, "I will light you up," as he held the stun gun. Days later, Bland was found dead in a jail cell...."
Meg Wagner of the New York Daily News: "A Florida gun shop owner has banned Muslim customers from his store. Andy Hallinan declared Florida Gun Supply in Inverness a 'Muslim-free zone' Saturday in response to a Kuwait-born gunman's shooting rampage in Chattanooga that killed four Marines and a sailor." In a news video accompanying the story, the reporter says the DOJ is investigating. ...
... Paul Waldman: "Did he do it in front of a Confederate flag? Why yes, he did."
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Reader Comments (16)
Edgar Doctorow was my professor & neighbor.
NYU's English department occupied a couple of floors of a stuffy old building on University Place. (It's since moved, I think). After some security scares, the university placed a guard in the cramped vestibule of the building, & people entering had to sign in, although the guards often waved professors through.
Doctorow taught only in the fall semester, as I recall, & his courses were in the evenings. One evening Doctorow & I arrived at the same time. I urged him in ahead of me as I assumed that he, especially because he was the building's most famous visitor, would not be subjected to the sign-in.
I was wrong. The guard, whom I recognized as a regular, made Doctorow wait in line along with a dozen other people. It was winter, & we were all wearing sweaters & coats; the tiny room was stifling. Doctorow & I exchanged a few pleasantries, but he was clearly annoyed at the delay. When he got to the front of the line, he signed in hurriedly & made a beeline for the elevator.
As I signed in, I whispered to the guard, "That guy who was ahead of me in line -- that's E. L. Doctorow. He teaches here. And he's a famous writer." I figured I was doing the guard a favor, cluing him in so he wouldn't make Doctorow wait in line again.
Instead, the guard looked a me with alarmed incredulity. "Whaddaya mean, famous writer?" he asked, looking at me as if I might be one of those security risks the university was worried about. Then he pointed to the sign-up sheet, where Doctorow had scrawled his name, now just above mine. "Look at that," he said. "That man can't write."
The next time I saw Doctorow, I told him about my exchange with the guard. He was highly amused. It's in the eye of the beholder, baby.
Marie
Oooooh, Rupert Murdoch doesn't care for Donald Trump's "bombastic" and contentious style? So when did Mr. Phone Hacking Page Three Vicious Rightwing Blackjacking Thug become the soul of decorum and impeccable conduct?
The guy who pays Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity doesn't like bombast and impolite behavior??
Oh, please. These people inhabit such insular worlds of their own vile creation and then wonder why everyone else doesn't immediately get their genius and insights.
Marie,
Doctorow should have been more attentive when learning the Palmer Method in grade school. Although now that I think of it, the nuns taught me that way and my handwriting these days is atrocious. Even my wife can't read it.
Although my father was a big fan of historical novels, I wasn't. I think it was probably the snobbishness (or ignorance) of a callow youth who thought reading actual, as opposed to fictionalized history was the ticket to a learned life. Silly me. After reading "Ragtime", I was hooked. I devoured historical fictions and today find myself carefully doling out (lest I burn through them too quickly and find myself bereft) novels in Patrick O'Brien's superb Aubrey-Maturin series which describe a great arc covering the operations of the British Navy during and after the Napoleonic wars. Great stuff. I'm approaching expert status in 19th century naval terminology whereas at the start, expressions like "abaft the beam" left me feeling daft and mean.
Now, no longer an insufferable history snob, I can appreciate that the best writers of straight history also tend to be accomplished storytellers. So I can thank Doctorow for helping to bring about that particular epiphany.
By the by, I read that, in his days as an editor, Doctorow worked with both Ian Fleming and Ayn Rand (John Galt with a license to kill?). He must have had a couple or three superior anecdotes about the writers he edited including James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, and William Kennedy, all of whom, upon further reflection, took a crack at historical fiction.
Anyway, great story. I can only wonder what would have happened to that guard had he made Donald Trump sign in then criticized his handwriting. Trumpy would have tried to purchase NYU outright just to fire the guy.
And now for some crazy.
With media outlets going full bore All Trumpy All the Time (the guy spits out tweetable insults by the dozen every day; only the strong can resist), the other candidates have to find ways to call attention to their own clownish bona fides. So Li'l Randy puts on a manly shirt and picks up a (child sized?) power saw and assaults the tax code. Seriously? This is the sort of spot produced for small town shysters and used car salesmen. Next....
Okay, so up now is the Tailgunner. Ted Cruz is pee-ohed. Is he evah.
He feels the need to highlight the victim status of evangelicals (zzzzzzzzz...so what else is new?) who are being overrun by the gay hordes and who claim not to be bigots except that gays and anyone who talks to them without quoting the Bible to their faces are all going straight to hell. One has images of an army of gays and lesbians on horseback, dressed in Mongol regalia riding into quiet, peaceful, fundie churches decapitating--and victimizing, natch--every white Christian in sight.
That's what he'd have you believe. The truth, of course, is different. A couple buy a building that used to be a church. They turn it into a bistro and rent it out as a location for weddings. They are not clergy and the building is no longer operated as a chuch. But they refuse to rent it out to a gay couple who promptly sue them.
The judge found for the plaintiffs and now they have to pay the five grand penalty. But they're going to take their ball and go home, a decision which is theirs alone. They're closing their rent-a-bistro because GAYS KILLED OUR DREAM.
And of course, this is a horrible infringement of their religious liberty. I'm sorry folks, but contrary to what Kentucky Chain Saw Randy thinks, if you operate a business and refuse service to a potential client because of their race, creed, or sexual orientation (as long as the state has advanced beyond the stone age), you can be sued.
It's no different than if you were, say, a self-certified eye doctor who saw a black person walk through his door and told him to take a hike because black people are not welcome and they can just fuck off and go blind. That person would be successfully and rightfully sued.
But we'll continue to hear about the legion of poor apocryphal bakers who have been taken out and stomped by rampaging supporters of gay rights because they won't bake a cake with giant penises or figurines of lesbian standing up on them.
Cruz will make sure to let you know all about it. It really is the most serious issue in the world right now.
And speaking of Confederate flags and Confederate idiots...
This past weekend, those enlightened folks of the KKK held a rally at the site of the recently struck South Carolina Confederate battle flag to demonstrate their support of.....er.....ahh.....heritage. Yeah, that's the ticket! Her-i-tage. Nothing else.
But they received some unexpected and unexpectedly hilarious accompaniment to their marching, marching, marching back to the antebellum south of chains and slavery, torture, rape, and whip wielding massas. You know. The Good Old Days!A musically inclined gentleman, one Matt Buck, a resident of Columbia, with a sousaphone, a sort of small tuba, walked along with them providing rousing themes for the KKK's sortie d'heritage.
Don't miss the part where he launches into Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries.
All they were missing were whoppee cushions to stand on as they began the ritual spitting out of racial epithets later on in the event.
And for my next piece, the famous Heritage Sonata for solo Sousaphone.
Just shut up already!
Okay, no more monopolizing, but I did want to send this along because I am sometimes halfway convinced that Fox shouters are only pretending to be stupid. Then I watch something like this and realize that they really ARE that stupid.
If you didn't see the truly amazing footage of an Australian man escaping an attack by two sharks during a South African international surfing competition last week, watch it. It's stunning. The announcer, upon noticing the sharks blurts out "Holy shit!"
The whole thing came to the dull witted attention of Fox and Friends, surely the most dim collection of dullards to disgrace themselves on a nationally televised TV show.
Brian (The Brain) Kilmeade wonders--and I am not making this up--why they simply don't make the sharks go away. Because sharks are so reasonable when there's lunch to be had. And nearly topping this stupidity, Elizabeth Hasselbeck is amazed that the sharks don't know that these people are world class surfers, not just yokels out for a swim waiting to be shark bait.
So what do they do, hire shark bouncers to clear the waters before an event? Ask to see their credentials? See if their dorsal fins were stamped with the little black-light ID? And should they also make sure to instruct the sharks as to the identity and social standing of potential lunch menu items?
These people get paid to be this stupid and Rupert Murdoch is worried about falling standards of courtesy? Murdoch must use the same employment agencies that advise police departments not to hire anyone with an IQ higher than room temperature.
To quote that announcer, "Holy shit!"
Back in May my husband and I attended our grandchildren's school's annual "Grandparent's Day"––-one way to show off superior and expensive education in hopes that we give more money for the coffers. (it's a private school). Many celebrities and well know artists/writers attend these things and this last May a gentleman standing a few feet away from my husband looked to him like Doctorow.
Joe: Psst! Isn't that E.L. Doctorow?
Me: where?
Joe: On my left––beard, gray hair...
Me: I thought he was dead.
Joe: No, don't think so––-
Me: I forget what he looks like. Let me ask Sarah, she should know.
And Sarah said no. Too bad, we said, we could have told him how much we liked his work and maybe shared a laugh or two. I certainly would not have asked him for his autograph,( I find that a silly practice although some have made a few bucks by it) and now that I know he had terrible penmanship no one would be able to decipher it anyway.
@Ak: You amaze me––sea legs? Teddy Roosevelt woulda loved you!
When you realize that not one of the GOP candidates are presidential material––NOT ONE, mind you, it makes you wonder what kinds of politicians this country offers up and why the meagre lot?
"makes you wonder what kinds of politicians this country offers up..."
That, PD, is the question of the age. Are we seeing a pandemic of dumb? Here's a test.
Go down to your local shopping mall, have a seat, and watch the passing crowd while considering the following:
Not so long ago, if you were staging a burlesque, a comic farce, and wanted someone to portray a moron, you would dress them in baggy pants, big shoes, and put their hat on backwards. The moment this clown appeared, everyone would instantly perceive; this is the Village Idiot.
for example see:
http://tinyurl.com/nptmx8m
Quod Erat Demonstrandum
SSI, a disability insurance, is a pittance. I think confederates need to think about what they are doing. First, they should know that men under the age of 62 NEVER are approved for SSI - even if they are hemiplegic and blind (I don't mean SSDI). There is a purposely complicated process to get it if you are a man.
I would like to know how the disorganized schizophrenic, whose entire monthly SSI pittance goes to room and board at a group home, would benefit from having the money reduced. The group home would evict the schizophrenic for nonpayment. Then what?
People on SSI are genuinely disabled. They are people who don't have the wherewithal to advocate for themselves or to go to work.
I don't know how low the confederates will go, but this is pretty bad.
According to Frank Rich (over on New York mag), "The GOP Only Has Itself to Blame for Weaponizing Donald Trump"
"... Nine other GOP candidates were onstage at the Ames, Iowa, forum last weekend where he trashed McCain, and no one remembers anything anyone else there said unless it was in response to Trump. The same may well happen at the first national debate on Fox News on August 6, which is likely (because of Trump, and much to his delight) to be the highest rated primary debate in history. "
It will be YOOOOOOGE!
Today's cheap shot:
Au contraire, Victoria.
The Koch-Confederate Congresscritters are undeniable proof that many disabled persons CAN find a job.
But then you did say, "go to work," which now that I think further on it, kinda obviates what I at first thought might be funny.
D.C.,
Village Idiots International is filing a complaint, such as it is, over your suggestion that the idiot in that picture is one of them. They contend--and they should know--that the individual in that picture, although at the very least a serious candidate for village idiot, is someone who has undergone unsuccessful frontal, rearal, sideal, and underneathal lobotomies and several badly mishandled electroshock treatments. Such as they were.
The result is a crommy moronic type prone to fits of self-aggrandizement, petulance, and delusions that poor people are camped on his doorstep waiting to steal his morning papers and to imbibe whatever the milkman drops off. Hence his obsessive training with weights.
Dude, apologies are in order.
(Regular commenter Forrest Morris once provided an interesting and revealing analysis of the significance of the turned around baseball cap. I'll leave it right there.)
@Akhilleus & @Forrest Morris: Oh, crap. I can't remember what Forrest wrote about the backwards cap. One of you please remind me.
Marie
Marie.
Maybe this is it.
@Akhilleus: Re: Ryan dumbbell poses---I assume you are straight,
so here is the reason the gimme' cap is turned backwards. When you
go down on the photographer or personal trainer, the hat must be
turned around or it would get in the way. He obviously forgot to
turn it back around after that encounter, and also, he is a swallower;
because you can't keep that smirk on your face with a mouth full.
October 12, 2012 | forrest morris
Aint' Google wunnerful!
@Ken Winkes: Many thanks. Also, glad to know Reality Chex comments are Google-able.
Marie
@MAG: Thank you for directing me to the Frank Rich column. "Weaponize" accurately wraps all sorts of GOP nonsense into one arrogant persona.