The Commentariat -- July 29, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Afternoon News:
Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: "A University of Cincinnati police officer was indicted on murder charges on Wednesday in the fatal shooting of a driver this month. In the indictment handed down by a grand jury in Hamilton County, the officer, Ray Tensing, is accused of killing the driver, Samuel DuBose, during a traffic stop near the campus on July 19. At a news conference, the county prosecutor, Joe Deters, said that Officer Tensing 'purposely killed' Mr. DuBose after the officer lost his temper. The death of Mr. DuBose, who was black, at the hands of Officer Tensing, who is white, joined a string of recent episodes ... that have raised hard questions about law enforcement use of force, and the role of race in policing."
Chris Brennan & Jeremy Roebuck of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah [D] and four associates were indicted Wednesday on racketeering conspiracy charges stemming from several alleged schemes to misuse campaign funds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grant money to further their political and financial interests. The five schemes include accepting a $1 million illegal loan for Fattah's failed 2007 mayoral campaign from a 'wealthy supporter' and then repaying some of it using "charitable and federal grant funds" that passed through a nonprofit founded and controlled by Fattah, U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger said at a news conference."
*****
Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration has decided to give states more time to comply with proposed regulations that will require dramatic cuts in greenhouse-gas pollution from power plants, people familiar with the plans said Tuesday. The Environmental Protection Agency will give states an additional two years -- until 2022 -- to begin phasing in pollution cuts, even as the agency toughens the standards that many states will ultimately have to meet."
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Jonathan J. Pollard, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1985 for passing classified documents to the Israeli government, will be released on parole in November after 30 years in prison, a government panel decided on Tuesday. Mr. Pollard's lawyers announced the decision of the United States Parole Commission on Tuesday afternoon, and officials at the Department of Justice confirmed that Mr. Pollard had been granted parole." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Tuesday defended the Iran nuclear agreement as a 'strong deal' before skeptical members of Congress who expressed concern that it will eventually give Iran the freedom to build nuclear weapons and finance mayhem in the region. Appearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Kerry told lawmakers that it is a 'fantasy' to think that sanctions can prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons should it choose to do is." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... William Saletan of Slate presents arguments on why Kerry should STFU. Kerry is revealing way too much, Saletan says. ...
... Eugene Scott, et al., of CNN: "The longest-serving Jewish member currently in Congress announced Tuesday that he'll back the Iran nuclear deal, saying it is the best way to protect Israel. 'I believe that Israel, the region, and the world are far more secure if Iran does not move toward possession of a nuclear weapon. I believe the Agreement is the best way to achieve that,' said Democratic Rep. Sandy Levin in a statement. The support of a veteran Jewish representative, who has served Michigan for 33 years, could be significant in building momentum for Democratic backing of the deal." ...
... CW: Levin's statement ends with a poignant remembrance:
Each Member of Congress will bring both private and public life experiences to address this difficult issue. I along with my brother and late sister when we were in our teens experienced with our parents great personal joy when President Truman announced U.S. recognition of Israel. It was something that we could take hold of amidst the unfolding horrors of the years before. Israel's security has and always will be of critical importance to me and our country. I believe that Israel, the region, and the world are far more secure if Iran does not move toward possession of a nuclear weapon. I believe the Agreement is the best way to achieve that. In my view, the only anchors in public life are to dig deeply into the facts and consult broadly and then to say what you believe.
Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "A Republican congressman has filed a request to oust House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) in a new and unusual challenge to his leadership from the GOP's right flank. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) on Tuesday evening filed a 'motion to vacate the chair,' which, if successful, would force the election of a new speaker. Such a challenge has never before succeeded in the House, and only once before -- 105 years ago -- has it been attempted."
Ted-o-thon Cut Short. Dana Milbank: "Finally, Senate Republicans are standing up to the bully who terrorized them the past two and a half years.... In a broader sense, Republican senators seem to be growing in confidence that they can defy what remains of the tea party and affiliated conservative groups...."
** Jim Rutenberg in the New York Times Magazine on the "Republican activists who have systematically dismantled" the Voting Rights Act. CW: Thanks again, Supremes.
Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: More than 167,000 people petitioned the White House, arguing that Edward Snowden was "a national hero and should be immediately issued a full, free and absolute pardon." In a statement, the White House said no, thank you.
Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "A new undercover video released by opponents of Planned Parenthood on Tuesday includes graphic depictions of a technician sorting through the tissue collected after an abortion.... 'This video really shows such extremely disturbing violations of patient privacy and dignity,' Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said on a call with reporters. A new Hart Research survey released by the group showed voters don't support congressional defunding efforts.... The Obama administration's top health official, HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, on Tuesday deferred questions on the investigations to DOJ and suggested her department is not conducting its own review of Planned Parenthood." ...
... Jennifer Haberkorn & Anna Palmer of Politico: "House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) earlier this week called to halt Planned Parenthood's federal funding while Congress investigates whether the organization broke a federal ban on profiting from fetal tissue donation. The Senate plans to hold a vote on a defunding amendment from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and others that is likely to fail." ...
... CW: If you're not a friend of Planned Parenthood, you're not a friend of women. It's that simple.
Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "... Facebook, already a major player in past cycles, has been working to expand its digital dominance in the political realm. Facebook -- which has 189 million monthly users in the United States -- has pitched its tools and services to every presidential campaign in the 2016 race, not to mention down-ballot races, to showcase new features as candidates seek to reach and recruit new supporters and potential donors.... Facebook has rolled out several tools since the last presidential election to help campaigns reach voters more efficiently and effectively." CW: You must find the "tools" the campaigns are using to be invasions of privacy.
A Marine Corps lieutenant colonel is relieved of her commend, & the Marine Corps Gazette subsequently decides not to publish her essay criticizing the Corps' treatment of female Marines. C. J. Chivers of the New York Times has the backstory, & publishes the essay. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Anne Barnard of the New York Times: Turkey's President Recep Tayyip "Erdogan's stance [against Kurdish militants] presents a complication for the United States and other NATO allies. Under alliance rules, they are bound to protect Turkey from threats, and they have long listed the Kurdish militant group that fought a long insurgency in Turkey, the P.K.K., as a terrorist organization. But they are eager not to let the Kurdish issue overshadow the international fight against Islamic State militants who have seized much of Syria and Iraq and sought to inspire attacks around the world."
** Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. The New York Times' "Very Good Sources." Norm Ornstein in the Atlantic: "... the huge embarrassment over the story claiming a criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton for her emails -- leading the webpage, prominent on the front page, before being corrected in the usual, cringeworthy fashion of journalists who stonewall any alleged errors and then downplay the real ones -- is a direct challenge to its fundamental credibility. And the paper's response since the initial huge error was uncovered has not been adequate or acceptable.... Someone should be held accountable here, with suspension or other action that fits the gravity of the offense." Ornstein suggests that the government leakers, whoever they might be (Trey Gowdy), had been shopping around the criminal investigation story & the reason the Times scooped the others is that the Times didn't check its facts. ...
... Jonathan Allen of Vox has more. The Times story, he says, results from "a bureaucratic turf war between the [state] department and the intelligence community" as to what is classified or "senstive" & what is not, a disagreement which the IGs asked the DOJ to mitigate, not litigate; in other words, a boring story.
Presidential Race
Zaid Jilani of AlterNet: "Of all the arguments the Democratic establishment has thrown out against Bernie Sanders' candidacy, perhaps the most recurring one revolves around electability. 'Sure, you agree with him,' they argue, 'but he can't win.' A just released CNN poll finds Sanders out-polling all of the GOP's major candidates, though pretty much tied with Jeb Bush." ...
... Also, Too. Tuck Chodd & Mark Murray of NBC News: " The Unpopularity Contest: The numbers inside the new NBC-Marist poll tell a story beyond the horesraces in Iowa and New Hampshire. They underscore how most of the top presidential candidates are unpopular right now with the general-election audience in both states. And that's especially true for Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and (not much surprise here) Donald Trump. The one exception? Bernie Sanders."
AP: "Hillary Clinton says she will not take a position on the Keystone XL pipeline until she becomes president, citing her work on the issue as secretary of state. Clinton told voters in New Hampshire on Tuesday that she will not 'second-guess' Barack Obama's pending decision on the pipeline. She said that would not be the 'right thing to do' because the government's review of the project started during her tenure at the State Department." ...
... Alexa Corse & Shane Harris of the Daily Beast: "There is a two-month gap in Hillary Clinton's emails that coincides with violence in Libya and the employment status of a top Clinton aide, Huma Abedin.... 'There are gaps of months and months and months,' Republican Representative Trey Gowdy, chairman of the Select Committee on Benghazi, said in a March 8 interview.... In a statement to reporters, Clinton spokesperson Nick Merrill noted, 'More emails are slated to be released by the State Department next week, and we hope that release is as inclusive as possible.'"
Jim Newell of Salon plays “If I Were A Conservative Voter." Turns out I would love Ted Cruz who always tells me that the Bible & the Constitution justify my righteous anger at Washington RINO sellouts, & I would not be fond of elitist snob Jeb! who hangs with CEOs & regards me as a hapless rube who needs civilizing.
Mike Allen of Politico: "Fox News is opening its 5 p.m. debate to all the announced Republican candidates who fail to make the cut for the Aug. 6 prime-time event, removing a requirement that participants reach at least 1 percent in polling. The change amounts to an insurance policy for candidates who were in danger of being disqualified from the vital first debate ... -- Carly Fiorina, former New York Gov. George Pataki and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).... The 9 p.m. debate will include the 10 candidates with the highest average in national polls, as determined by Fox News. The 5 p.m. forum will now include all the rest." ...
... CW: If I had to vote in the GOP primary, I'd vote for Lindsey Graham, & not just because he represents my last chance to be FLOTUS. Knowing as I do that Lindsey would love to lead us into World War III, I still think he's the best-qualified GOP presidential candidate & the only one who meets the minimum IQ threshold (as it appears in Article II of the Constitution:
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years and who shall not have attained an Intelligence Quotient of at least One hundred, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.)
Erik Wemple updates Donald Trump's media strategy in the wake of his consigliere's threats against a Daily Beast reporter. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Ed Kilgore: "... almost immediately, (a) Ivana Trump came to her ex-husband's defense, hinting that she might have exaggerated..., and saying he'd be a great president, blah blah blah; and (b) some Trump spox disclaims any association with [gangster lawyer Michael] Cohen's comments to the Beastly duo. For dessert, somebody discovered an old tweet with Cohen posing between two 'great Americans,' Hillary Clinton and Patrick Kennedy, and [Donald] Trump fans are beginning to speculate that he tried to sabotage Trump on Hillary's behalf! So ... it gets turned into a story ... about one a them gold-digging women who make up rape allegations they later abandon, and the lyin' liberal loser journalists -- perhaps in league with Hillary! -- who use that to smear The Donald." ...
... ** McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed: "Was this really the best goon money could buy? Cohen's outburst was, in fact, emblematic of the loyalists who have long populated The Donald's inner circle. Trump's key lieutenants tend to fit the same consumer profile as his discount luxury-brand targets: They are men with middle- and working-class roots; lacking in elite credentials; mesmerized by made-for-TV displays of lavish wealth." CW: Entertaining reading that incidentally backs up my assessment [offered a few days back] of the source of Trump's popularity. ...
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker is sticking with his earlier prediction: "Sooner or later, Trump's act will start to seem old, even to G.O.P. voters."
Rebecca Berg in Real Clear Politics: "Scott Walker has insisted he will be able to 'compete anywhere in the country' ... but, at a private event in St. Louis on Sunday, Walker said he does not plan to compete in Florida, contradicting his own public assertions that he would not skip that primary." Via Paul Waldman.
Alex Isenstadt of Politico autopsies Rand Paul's campaign. CW: Don't worry, Li'l Randy. I'm sure you'll pick up a lot of votes with your effort to defund Planned Parenthood. BTW, there's a reason your supporters are overwhelmingly male. What's up next? A move to repeal of the 19th Amendment?
Terrence Dopp of Bloomberg: "Residents in U.S. states that have legalized marijuana should toke up while they still can, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said. 'If you're getting high in Colorado today, enjoy it,' Christie, a Republican campaigning for the 2016 presidential nomination, said Tuesday during a town-hall meeting at the Salt Hill Pub in Newport, New Hampshire. 'As of January 2017, I will enforce the federal laws.'" ...
... EXCEPT, digby points out, Christie now is also a states' rights guy. Also a God guy. CW: I'm a little confused about whether or not Christie thinks God backs the Second Amendment. I could look it up, but I don't care much about Chris Christie's theological musings. ...
... CW BTW: I found out the other day that some confederates -- like the chair of Oklahoma's Republican party -- object to the pledge of allegiance because of the "one nation, indivisible" part. I supposed the "United" part of "United States" rankles these patriots, too. Confederates are also Pre-Constitutionalists.
Mika Brzezinski is often pretty silly & shallow. Not this time:
... ** Unsurprisingly, Israelis are offended, too. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Reuters: "Los Angeles city council has voted unanimously to ban the possession of large-capacity gun magazines, following San Francisco to become the second major city in California to take that step. The law prohibits Los Angeles residents from possessing a handgun or rifle magazine that fits more than 10 rounds."
Jesse McKinley of the New York Times on how & why prison worker Joyce Mitchell helped two murderers escape from an upstate New York prison.
News Ledes
Guardian: "The Federal Reserve on Wednesday continued to pave the way for an increase in interest rates as early as September. The US central bank left its key interest rate unchanged at near zero -- where it has been since the 2008 financial crisis -- but once again signalled that rates will rise later this year. While the Fed chair, Janet Yellen, has left little doubt that rates will rise this year, the Fed left itself wiggle room as it has set no timetable and said rates would only be raised if the economy continues to improve and unemployment continues to fall." ...
... The Fed's statement is here.
New York Times: "A large object that appeared to be an airplane part washed up Wednesday on the shore of Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean, prompting speculation that it might be debris from Flight 370, the Malaysia Airlines jetliner that disappeared in March 2014." ...
... AP UPDATE: "Air safety investigators have a 'high degree of confidence' that aircraft debris found in the Indian Ocean is of a wing component unique to the Boeing 777, the same model as the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared last year, a U.S. official said Wednesday."
New York Times: "After months of speculation, Afghan officials announced Wednesday that they were now certain that the Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, died in Pakistan in 2013."
Guardian: "Binyamin Netanyahu ... has approved the immediate construction of hundreds of settlement units in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in an effort to stave off a growing threat posed by pro-settler parties in his rightwing coalition government. The issue was brought to a head on Wednesday by a supreme court ruling that two buildings in the West Bank settlement of Beit El -- built on private Palestinian land without permits -- should be destroyed, despite Netanyahu's opposition."
Washington Post: "An Albuquerque 911 dispatcher has resigned after audio was released of him hanging up on a 17-year-old as she tended to a friend who was shot at the party. The victim, 17-year-old Jaydon Chavez-Silver, later died.... Emergency responders had already been dispatched to the house before [the dispatcher] hung up." Includes 911 audio.
Minneapolis Star Tribune: "A big-game hunter from the Twin Cities found himself at the center of an international firestorm Tuesday over the death of a beloved lion in Zimbabwe, but said he regrets killing the animal and believed his guides were leading him on a legal hunt.... Earlier Tuesday, the Telegraph newspaper of London identified [dentist Walter] Palmer as the hunter who shot Cecil and reported that he paid $54,000 for the hunt. The Telegraph said the lion was illegally lured out of Hwange National Park, where it had protected status, and onto a neighboring game farm, where Palmer was on safari." ...
... Salon: Yelp contributors are whacking Palmer.
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Reader Comments (27)
My niece and her partner have just returned from a 2 week tour of China. She brought me an official copy of Chairman Mao's iconic little red book. I'm looking forward to inviting a couple of my right wing friends over, leaving it lying about where they can't help seeing it. "Oh, that? Just something I enjoy looking at now and then."
Her trip report: Great Wall is, well, great. Tour was too rushed at interesting sites, e.g. Tiananmen Square. Every visit to any place where anything was produced, was an excruciatingly long QVC style infomercial and high pressure sales pitch. They're glad they went, but wouldn't do it again.
Scores of millions suffered and died in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, to establish communist ideological purity and purge all remnants of capitalism. Was it also part of the plan to create a trap for fleecing western tourists? What would the Chairman think? Perhaps the little red book will tell me.
In the three most powerful countries the world has ever known: Soviet communism has become a Russian kleptocracy, Chinese communism a capitalist sweat shop, and American democracy a plutocratic oligarchy. And we're frightened of better relations with Cuba? Or, for that matter, Iran? Just be patient...
"Money doesn't talk. It screams."
How could anyone kill Cecil the Lion? (see right-hand Ledes column) I just don't get hunting just to hang a trophy on a wall and I never will. Cecil was beautiful.
Having been on the road a lot over the weekend I was again struck with our highway system that perhaps is the most democratic system we have. It doesn't matter who you are you have got to follow the rules of the road or pay the consequences. All those cars staying in their lanes (for the most part); all those vehicles chugging along giving right of way when necessary; all those signs giving information to help you navigate. I tried to think of another system as democratic, but couldn't come up with one.
I found the story of Wyatt Cenac's beef with Stewart interesting. I tried to listen to the podcast, but couldn't stand the long intro––really awful. Jon makes fun of everybody––his relentless riff on McConnell–-"shell bearing reptile"–-imitating Mitch's Elmer Fudd voice; Jon's Lindsey Graham is a swishy, fan waving southern gentleman; Jon's Trump is a thug from the Bronx. His voices for Jewish friends and family are hilarious. Stewart is an actor at heart and is really, really good at portraying various and sundry –-that's what he does! Cenac having problems with Stewart's "tone" when making fun of Cain is strange. Some of our finest black comedians did riffs on all sorts of people using all sorts of speech patterns––drunks, crazy uncles, panhandlers, etc. If you can't laugh at yourself or your kind then that sour thing in your gut is gonna fester.
PD Pepe:
Don't have time to enumerate all the similarities I see in them to your riff on roads and highways (thanks in large part to the former Republican Party), but how about our public schools, elementary, secondary and university?
Just to say that those unenumerated similarities are precisely the reasons the Koch-Confederates would like to get rid of them...
@PD Pepe: As Cenac pointed out, it's all right for a Jew to do stereotypical Jewish "voices" (tho I'll admit when Stewart does them, he makes me uncomfortable), just as it's all right for a black comedian to do stereotypical black impressions. (I usually don't find these very funny, except that ones that somehow elevate or celebrate the butt of the jokes, like Flip Wilson's "Geraldine," whom I regarded as a comic form of a powerful black woman operating within the then-operative constraints of her cultural environment.)
What's not so fine is when one group stereotypes another. That is what Cenac was objecting to, & I think he's right. You can mock your own & you can mock the establishment; you can't mock other minorities. (Think Paula Deen's son with his Ricky Ricardo impersonation.) The fact that Stewart's impressions made Cenac uncomfortable surely means that Stewart's impressions of Cain were objectionable to many black people.
Marie
Thank you, Marie, for posting the Zimbabwe narrative. (I had just finished reading the account of Cecil from The New York Times - a "beheading", no less.) Yet another illustration of rampant, self-justified greed and the utter absence of empathy for living - animal or human - beings.
Marie has, in three successive links, created a kind of Confederate syzygy (sans celestial bodies). These posts illuminate the contours of 'bagger aggression on the one hand, possible diminution on the other, and long-term Confederate power that has been gathering in the offing for a generation and is now approaching critical mass, whereupon democracy, American style, is quickly being warped becoming unstable, perhaps past the point of no return, a point that might not be of such concern except for one very large obstacle: The Supreme Court.
First we learn that Republicans are "standing up to the bullies". Very nice. About time. Since 2012, these big strong men have been cowering under the covers afraid that Cruz and his blackhearted ilk would send the mob after them with pitchforks and Bibles. So while it's nice to see Orrin Hatch and John Cornyn stand up to Cruz and Lee, not that long ago, Hatch declared, on Fox and Fiends (where else?), that "We wouldn’t be where we are without [the Tea Party]. The fact of the matter is I’ve been a tea party person I think since before the tea party came into existence." Very brave, Orrin. And this guy has been talked about as a possible Supreme Court justice.
And in an interview with Glenn Beck, John Cornyn genuflected before the droolers, saying "I think the TEA Party has been the best thing that’s happened to the conservative movement in recent years. In 2010, we could not have picked up 7 Senate seats without the TEA Party". Between then and now, now that they've redefined political courage to be what you discover when everyone is on your on side, they let idiots like Cruz run wild, hiding under their desks while the 'baggers shut down the government and increased the hatred, divisiveness, and dysfunctionality in congress by orders of magnitude. Where was all this courage then?
But even as it appears that 'baggers are starting to lose their mob mojo, we now have a congress full of these pests, burrowed in like ticks, and, as John Boehner is constantly discovering, they're here not to build up or accomplish anything worthwhile, or govern, or enact useful legislation. They're here to tear down. To complain. To disparage. To destroy. And there's a lot of damage they can do still.
And the first place they can do it is at the polls where Republican election skullduggery is approaching industrial efficacy.
According to an eye popping piece in the NYRB by the ever astute Elizabeth Drew, Republicans are working frenetically in three areas that they hope will guarantee them years of political hegemony despite the diminishing numbers of those who agree with their policies: election fraud, gerrymandering, and unlimited, untraceable cash.
Drew suggests that Republican cheating in the 2012 elections should have prompted serious review of the structures and schemes they use to deny voters. It hasn't happened:
"In fact, in some of the major races in 2014, according to the highly respected Brennan Center for Justice, the difference in the number of votes between the victor and the loser closely mirrored the estimated number of people who had been deprived of the right to vote. And in the North Carolina Senate race, the number of people prevented from voting exceeded the margin between the loser and the winner."
Currently, one of the most successful GOP scams is the updated version of poll taxes and literacy tests, notably, the voter ID law. Voting restrictions are now in place in 32 (that's right....32) states. And get this:
"The Brennan Center estimates that 11 percent of qualified voters in the United States do not possess a government-issued photo ID or any other of the documents required by the voter ID laws."
11 percent. That's millions of voters. More than enough to ensure victory for candidates who would surely lose in a fair and open election.
These guys bring RPGs to a knife fight. Democrats have been sitting on their hands. But even when they do act, there is always the Supreme Court, waiting like vultures on a dead tree, ready to strike down any challenge to their buddies' restrictions on voting rights.
So while there may be a few chuckles now at the expense of clowns like Cruz and Lee being slapped around, congress and the federal courts are full of Confederate vermin, and their efforts to remove the democratic process from the hands of voters continues apace.
Just look at Scott Walker.
I'm really looking forward to the next 15 months or so.
I think Obama has realized that all he has to do is open his mouth and the monkey cage erupts.
"I had a good day today"
"Fuck! He sold some of our guns to Black Panthers and Mooslims!"
"The chance for living a decent life should be a possibility for all Americans."
"He's raising taxes again! Giving cars and houses and cell phones and furs and diamond rings to moochers and WE'RE paying for it!"
"Nice day, in'it?"
"WTF does that mean? Call Rush. He'll know!"
So the president mentions that were he able to run for a third term, he might win. Holy lithium, Batman, the monkeys are all the way around the bend! The Blaze\, a pipeline directly into the asshole of Glenn Beck, actually does a pretty straight report about the president's remarks that reads like it could have been copied off a wire report (it probably was). But the comments section! Mother o' Mercy!... Obama is getting ready to stop all elections by using marital law (this is a favorite with the unhinged). He's "disillusional" (like that one?) and dangerous. He's bringing AIDS back from Africa to kill white people. He'll make himself president for life. He'll get Michelle to run and then take over. And, of course, he should be shot. Then hanged. Plenty of confederate flag icons on these comments pages, by the by.
But if it were just the unhinged mental cases, it would be one thing. This third term bullshit has been going around inside the monkey cage for years and it's been given serious support and consideration by GOP bigwigs like Trey Gowdy and Mitch McConnell among many others.
And reading the comments makes me realize that there is an America out there completely foreign to me, to rational people, to reason and to fact. An America where they want nothing more than to "kill that fucking n....r" and his wife and kids. These are some sick people, no doubt, but it's the "leaders" in congress and in the media who are happily supporting such insanity. And yet they are livid whenever someone tries to tie this support to the actions of a Dylann Roof or a John Houser.
These fucking people have a lot to answer for. A lot.
Meantime, I hope the president continues to tweak the shit out of these pinheads. Maybe he can, as D.C. suggests, casually leave a copy of Mao's Little Red Book on his desk in the Oval Office. Oh, the humanity!
@Akhilleus: Thanks for the update. In yesterday's comments thread, I wrote, in part, "Also, too, just today (see clip above) President Obama said, "I actually think I'm a pretty good president.... I could win [again]." Obviously, the first open declaration of a man planning to become President for Life."
Today, you tell us wingers have made my joke a reality. You cannot, cannot parody these people.
Marie
" If you're not a friend of Planned Parenthood, you're not a friend of women. It's that simple."
It is that simple.
And although the remarks by Trumpy and Rev. Douchebag about rapists and ovens are outrageous, stupid, and hurtful, they don't actually cause any physical pain and suffering. Rand Paul's designs on Planned Parenthood, however, will, which makes him, albeit in a less ostentatious way, a bigger asshole than Trump and Huckabee put together.
Not an easy feat, but one accomplished with ease by the vile little man with the greasy toupée and even greasier soul. This guy is a despicable little shit. And probably a self-certified little shit at that.
This lion killing story is cause for me to trot out my hunting rant.
Did this guy need to kill these animals for food? I'm guessing no. He's a dentist and he spent over forty thousand dollars on this latest quest to kill animals for his own personal pleasure and aggrandizement (hard to call it anything else when you see the guy posing with his shirt off, à la Vladimir Putin, all manly-man like, holding the carcass of an animal he had just killed with his manly-man high tech weapons arrayed like the thunderbolts of Zeus next to the freshly killed creature).
I do realize that there is skill involved in shooting something that's moving, and using a bow and arrow, I'm sure, calls for even greater skill. So okay, call it a skill. But don't call it a sport. When I hear these guys referred to as "sportsmen" I want to throw something. If the animals can shoot back, then it's a sport. How long do you think Mr. He-Man Dentist would be "hunting" then?
Killing animals with specially developed high tech weapons (Palmer claims he can hit a playing card dead center from 100 yards with his carefully engineered compound bow--this ain't Robin Hood's bow and arrow) from a great distance. Using high tech equipment, trained guides, and camouflage to achieve your kill is not a sport. It's just killing something that's going about its business with no idea you're even there. You hide in the bushes and kill something 100 yards away. Some sport.
Sport is an activity in which both sides are somewhat evenly matched and either has a relatively decent chance to win, or at least inflict serious damage (physical or not). It's like claiming to be a boxer but you get to stand outside the ring and pummel the other guy with high velocity projectiles from a safe distance. Also, you have a team of guys with you to make sure you have everything you need. He has just himself.
If you want to call it a sport, here's what you do. You take your clothes off (we'll spot you a loin cloth in case ESPN is around) and you go into the jungle with your bare hands, or maybe just a knife. You attack the lion and he has just as a good a chance to rip your stupid head off as you do of knifing him in the heart. Okay? Now it's a sport. You survive that, then I won't complain about you chopping his head off to put on your wall, because he had just as good a chance of doing the same to you.
Otherwise, it's just killing something from far away so you can pretend to be a tough guy. This tough guy has been fined before for hunting infractions and there was also that little incident of sexual harassment charges from a former receptionist which he settled out of court.
Sounds like a real man.
To view the really "great white hunter" see pages 98 & 99 in
August 2015 National Geographic, or Google Kerry Krottinger
photos. Photo number 6 is truly disgusting. Can't imaging living
with this many dead animals in my den, but then my den isn't
2 stories high.
After reading a new Times article on the Big Game Dentist, I realize just what an asshole this guy is. He hunted Cecil with his high tech bow and shot him with an arrow. But the arrow didn't kill the animal. Manly Man Dentist and his band followed the lion for two days while it struggled in agony (just imagine walking around with an arrow in your side). Finally tiring of the walking bullshit, they shot and killed Cecil then decapitated him, skinned him, and left the body to rot. Fun, eh? So much for the pure experience of hunting with a bow and arrow. This is the guy who, on other websites, prides himself on never using firearms. Asshole.
This is some reprehensible shit.
And I did check out the picture Forrest suggested. Another wealthy douchebag with a room full of dead animals mounted and stuffed. "We love Africa" gushes the oil millionaire's wife. Yeah, it shows.
Miss Brooks Gets High and Does the Weirdo Watusi.
I spotted the title of Brooksie's latest steaming pile of dung. It has the typical faux-serious-academic-important sounding title "The Structure of Gratitude". A title like that should follow through and offer some semblance of the machinery (or structure, as Professor Dumbass puts it) of this specific emotion. Does he do that?
Hell no.!
Instead, he takes another hit from the bong he got while writing a story on how medical marijuana will be the end of civilization and rattles on with impenetrable drivel about the "Gift Economy" and how people don't deserve good things but the capitalist meritocracy demands that the best of us become self-sufficient makers except that those who are "present-minded" and "hyper-responsive" and who "get" gratitude and are so gratitudinally responsive because they aren't good enough to survive in the meritocracy thingy so they have to get stuff from other people which makes their "heart laugh" because they're "dispositionally grateful" which means they're thankful all the time but it's a good thing that whole meritocracy idea is a scam (that thing he just got through saying was the real measure of capitalism) and these thankful folks who just love a sunny day are happy, happy, happy and not masters of their own fate so people have to help them out because otherwise....(I'm not making this up. It really is that stupid.)
Holy shit!
Also, he lets us know that Everyman Brooks doesn't feel comfortable in expensive hotels that have weird shower controls (what??), he prefers cheap motels where they have irons that work. Oh, well then, when Brooks comes to town, I'll have a run by Motel 6 and say hello. Then he can write a column about the Socio-Aesthetic Response Mechanism to Water Damaged Ceiling Tiles in $35/night Motels and How Liberals Just Don't Get It.
This thing was written either in a drug or alcohol induced haze. Spark up another fattie, there, Dave, and in the meantime I wanna know just how much the Times shelled out for this mess. There must have been more than few face palms around the op-ed offices but they still printed this dreck.
Fucking weirdo.
OK, I confess: I have a mounted raven named Edgar.
Bought him from a taxidermist in Innsbruck. Still looking for a bust of Pallas Athene.
I'm just waiting for Michele Bachmann & Sarah Palin to come to Dr. Painful's defense & Paul Ryan to recruit him to run for Congress. The two can hang out sharing pix of they prey, but they'll probably be wearing different headgear; I'm pretty sure the Great White Hunter will want to wear his pith helmet, & you all know the kind of cap Fist-in-a-Fish will be wearing, brim backwards. Sadists.
Marie
I got kicked out of the Brownies for mounting a mosquito. (I think we were supposed to be working on some home economics badge at that moment, & I was deemed unserious about my future role as homemaker.) That was the end of my taxidermy career.
Marie
@D.C. Ebay will never let you down.
Marie
Thanks. Gotta be the right size, though. Not much space above my chamber door.
@CW: I must have a dirty mind 'cause I tried to picture anyone
mounting a mosquito. Didn't work.
And Ak stated earlier "Obama is getting ready to stop all elections
by using marital law". Does that mean now that same sex marriage
is law, I have to get a firearm and stop elections for Obama?
I have an aversion to firearms but I'll think of something, like
attack voters with a feather boa?
@Forrest Morris: You do have a right to bare arms.
Marie
D.C.
Above your chamber door?
In that case, nev....oh....I can't say it.
I knew a great pretender of the Brooks species who, some years ago, was thrilled to reveal to a few of us that after a lengthy world-wide search, he had come into contact with the bust of Athena. Hard pressed I was not to let out (at that moment) with the obvious persnickety snarks (which, of course received the appropriate guffaws later, during the walk to a respectably deplorable watering hole).
But I have to say that "A Taxidermist in Innsbruck" sounds as if it could be the title of a short story by William Trevor, or perhaps an essay from David Foster Wallace. "Consider the Lobster, Embalmed by a Taxidermist From Innsbruck."
Or something.
Forrest,
Damn! I knew someone would pick that up.
But I kind of like the idea of Confederates bein' a-feared of a Marital Law that didn't, as they are always so fond of saying "pick the winners".
Ha.
And Marie, "bare arms"? Girl, don't get me started! I am genetically inclined toward weak humor.
"Der Vas a Shtormtrooper from Shtuttgart..."
@D.C.Clark: You could always remodel, though you never know what you might find behind a wall.
Marie
Jimmy Kimmel does a dance on the head of Dr Painful Manly-Man, the Lion Murderer:
Nicely done.
Marie,
And if D.C. doesn't have much room for things behind the wall, he could always poe-k around for a flask of amontillado.
Oh dear, now you've done it. It's story time again:
Some years ago I took in a solid black cat. Named him Schrödinger, of course -- sort of like a psychiatrist naming a dog Pavlov. He lived long and prospered, but the sad day came when it was necessary to make that final trip to the Vet. As the fatal needle was going in, it dawned on me: Damn! We're about to kill the Schrödinger Cat! Was this going to collapse some quantum probability wave function and spin the universe into an alternative reality? Then I considered: if it did, how would we know? Sayonara Schrödinger.
Those of you who have read the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" will recall the theory that once the Cosmic Computer had fulfilled it's function: discovered the question to the ultimate answer (42), the universe would cease to exist and be replaced by something even more ridiculous. And that many believed this has already happened.
Now, tying all this together with the unsurpassed ridiculousness of the current political environment... well, you figure it out.
In any case, Schrödinger and I regret any inconvenience we may inadvertently have caused, and are also sorry if this thread has gotten way too arcane. I'm done. Now where's my towel?