The Commentariat -- July 6, 2014
Internal links, photo removed.
Barton Gellman, et al., of the Washington Post: "Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from U.S. digital networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post. Nine of 10 account holders found in a large cache of intercepted conversations, which former NSA contractor Edward Snowden provided in full to The Post, were not the intended surveillance targets but were caught in a net the agency had cast for somebody else."
New York Times Editors: "... the real [IRS] scandal is what Republicans did to cripple the agency when virtually no one was looking. Since the broad Tea Party-driven spending cuts of 2010, the agency's budget has been cut by 14 percent after inflation is considered, leading to sharply reduced staff, less enforcement of the tax laws and poor taxpayer service. As the economist Jared Bernstein noted recently in The Washington Post, a weakened I.R.S. enforcement staff will be unable to make a dent in the $385 billion annual gap between what taxpayers owe and what they pay -- an unintended tax cut, mostly for the rich, that represents 11 percent of this year's spending.... The nation's highest-income taxpayers, many of whom donate generously to Republican politicians to keep their taxes low...' are getting their money's worth from lawmakers who debilitate revenue collection while claiming to be deeply worried about the budget deficit.... The budget cutters are also trying to prevent the agency from performing its new job of collecting higher taxes on the rich to pay for health care reform, and distributing health insurance subsidies for low- and moderate-income people...."
Rick Jervis of USA Today: "Gov. Rick Perry told a U.S. House field hearing Thursday that President Obama should deploy the National Guard to secure the Texas border and should send thousands of undocumented child immigrants back to their home country. He also called on the federal government to reimburse Texas the $500 million that he said the state has spent on securing the border since 2005."
CW: There are many reasons the tuition is too damned high, but Peter Lunenfeld, writing in Salon, identifies one of them seldom mentioned: Ronald Reagan.
Dahlia Lithwick & Sonja West in Slate: "While the court has told us that we are not allowed to question the sincerity of corporations' professed religious beliefs, we remain free to question the sincerity of the court's pinky promise that the Hobby Lobby decision would have a limited scope." ...
... CW: So far the Roberts Court has rewritten the first two Amendments of the Bill of Rights. Next term: the Five Dancing Supremes will rule that the 47 percent will be required to quarter soldiers in their homes.
Steve M. responds to John Harwood of the New York Times, who wonders if Republicans will learn, as Bill Clinton did in 1992, how to take back the presidency. "Republicans have learned that the presidency is worth winning, but it's not mission-critical -- they bottled up Clinton, they bottled up Obama, they'll undoubtedly bottle up Hillary Clinton. They've lost the popular vote in five of six presidential cycles and look where we are: hedge fund managers still pay a lower tax rate than teachers, guns laws have become less stringent in much of America, the notion of human-created climate change still can't be the basis of federal legislation, our immigration policy still isn't reformed, abortion is subject to more and more restrictions in state after state.... That's just for starters. That's a pretty solid record of victory for the right." ...
Jamelle Bouie in Slate: Republicans aren't talking about the 47 percent anymore, but they're still thinking it: "... the basic idea -- that some number of Americans were lazy 'takers' addicted to welfare and entitlements -- never subsided. You can see it in the anger over Thad Cochran's win in the Mississippi Senate primary -- with opponents furious over his appeal to so-called 'moochers' -- and in the backlash to the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act; conservatives demanded women 'pay for their own birth control,' as if insurance coverage were an unearned benefit."
... Laura Clawson of Daily Kos: "The South is America's poverty belt, and Republicans want to make all of America more like the South." ...
... CW: This map kinda puts the lie to the GOP Takers Theory (see Jamelle Bouie post, linked above. While most of these impoverished states are "taker" states, many of the poor white voters in those states are Tea Party through-&-through. Rather than turning people into "Democrat" lie-abouts waiting for their gummit checks, poverty or near-poverty makes many people stingy, fearful, bigoted & superstitious. It makes them Republicans "clinging to their guns & religion," one might say.
Judd Legum of Think Progress: "... a major new study [conducted in Austrailia] finds that kids raised by same-sex couples actually do a bit better 'than the general population on measures of general health and family cohesion.' ... The lead researcher, Dr. Simon Crouch, noted that in same-sex couples parents have to 'take on roles that are suited to their skill sets rather than falling into those gender stereotypes.' According to Crouch, this leads to a 'more harmonious family unit and therefore feeding on to better health and well being.'" ...
... CW: Not mentioned in Legum's piece nor in the abstract of the study -- I presume that the vast majority of children reared by same-sex couples were planned. Thus, the parents are -- on average -- better prepared to accommodate their children than are many heterosexual couples who become accidental parents.
Brendan Nyhan in the New York Times: Climate change & evolution deniers aren't ignorant of the facts; they just don't believe them. "Once people's cultural and political views get tied up in their factual beliefs, it's very difficult to undo regardless of the messaging that is used."
Mark Stern of Slate: "... as more and more states find marriage equality foisted upon them by a judicial mandate, [a] discordance in rights presents something of a ticking time bomb for the LGBT movement. Currently, Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation with both gay marriage (thanks to a federal judge) and no employment protections for gay people. But ... several other states also boast same-sex marriage while lacking hospital visitation, adoption rights, or housing protections for sexual minorities.... And when the Supreme Court almost inevitably legalizes marriage equality nationwide, the chasm between gay marriage and broader LGBT equality is going to expand rapidly in dozens of red states." ...
... CW: Let's face it: living in a red state -- except maybe in a university town (think Austin, Texas) or upscale resort community (Jackson Hole, Wyoming) is always going to suck.
News Ledes
New York Times: "The Israeli police have arrested a group of Israeli suspects in connection with the kidnapping and killing of a Palestinian youth from East Jerusalem who was found beaten and burned in a Jerusalem forest last week, a spokesman for the Israeli police said Sunday. After days of near silence about the case, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned what he called a 'horrific crime' and pledged that the perpetrators would 'face the full weight of the law.'" ...
... The Washington Post story is here.
New York Times: "With mystery enveloping a German intelligence service employee accused of spying -- reportedly for the United States -- German officials and commentators on Sunday angrily demanded a response from Washington, warning that an already troubled relationship was at risk of deteriorating to a new low."
Reality Chex Travel Advisory. Guardian: "Passengers using airports that offer direct flights to the US may be forced to switch on their mobile phones and other electronic devices to prove to security officials that they do not contain explosives, it was announced on Sunday.... The new measure is the first to be confirmed since Jeh Johnson, the US Homeland Security secretary, warned last week that enhanced security checks would be implemented imminently at 'certain overseas airports with direct flights into the United States'." CW: So charge your cellphone before leaving for the airport.
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Reader Comments (8)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/world/middleeast/power-struggles-in-middle-east-exploit-islams-ancient-sectarian-rift.html?google_editors_picks=true&_r=0. Clearly, this ancient Islamic rift is something "The Amazing Cheney and Doofus Donald Rumsfeld" couldn't be bothered about. I just finished "Kite Runner". What I wouldn't give for these two empty suits to have a modicum of curiosity about the world outside so as to read "Kite Runner". What can you say: These two learned from the master asshole - Henry Kissinger. We embarrass ourselves as a great nation when we hold these three up as great citizens.
Daily Kos’s Steve Singiser’s analysis of the Quinnipiac poll.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/06/1311280/-Why-that-Worst-President-Quinnipiac-poll-is-catnip-for-right-wingers-but-essentially-meaningless?showAll=yes
John Boner confirms he's a huge dick in his whimsical op-ed that utterly lacks any substantive claims as to WHY he "must now sue the President."
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/06/opinion/boehner-obama-lawsuit/index.html?iref=allsearch
You would think he would take this opportunity to spell out his detailed case, give us the serious claims of Executive overreach that merit poisoning our national politics to a higher concentration and further embarrassing ourselves on the international stage.
But hélas! Boner, in due form, lacks any substance whatsoever besides fishing for right wing talking points about jobs, the economy and of course the Sacred Constitution.
And, and to top it off, he ends it with this gem...
"The legislative branch has an obligation to defend the rights and responsibilities of the American people, and America's constitutional balance of powers -- before it is too late."
Before it is too late for what Johnny boy? Before Obama intentionally destroys the entire country, leaving a nuclear wasteland as his 8 year legacy? Before Obama executive orders a change of the national bird from a bald eagle to a black crow? Before Obama executive orders all guns seized and enforces martial law? Before the nation turns gay and adopts the rainbow as our new national flag? Before he legalizes all immigrants and gives them free housing and benefits? Before the scary dark people start asking for equal treatment under the law? Before women step out of the kitchen and demand equality? Before the crazy white wingers start losing more political power while sliding into poverty status?
I find it reprehensible and disgusting that Boehner would stoop to the ranks of tea party Armaggedon-baiting that he claims to be above when discussing the crazies in his political base. In reality he's a complete capitulating coward, seemingly oblivious to the harm his party enacts as a daily grinding machine, screeching their nails and gnashing their teeth against the slow roll of national progress.
Boehner claims to have sworn an oath to the American people. In stark reality, Boehner's clearly out to cover Boehner's ass, whatever the method. To impose sanity in his asylum would require true leadership. Unfortunately he's got less balls than the giant vagina staring at me to the right as I write this.
"Tuition is too damned high." is a bomb that is going to explode one of these days. There are thirty seven million loans outstanding and the number is going up annually. Total student debt is over one trillion dollars. Eight hundred and fifty billion is government debt.
With at least thirty million debtors and their fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters damaged by this burden, almost a third of Americans are hurt by this debt directly. The rest of us suffer from the fact that these debtors cannot buy cars, houses , furniture, clothing and even dinner out.
Step one would be for all of us to demand that Elizabeth Warren's idea of refinancing this debt at the bank discount rate of three quarters of one percent be implemented.
Step two would be some big state champion getting the damaged Americans to swing an election and get the attention the problem deserves.
The number of families involved should be a powerful incentive to create a champion someplace.
Tuition and student debt should become a big political issue.
Driving an Uncle Tom's Cabin-esque Presidential "outhouse" through Norfolk, NE to celebrate our nation's freedom.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/06/obama-outhouse-float_n_5561568.html
Strangely these racist pigs couldn't identify the sponsor of the float nor could the officials confirm how it got included in the official parade. And the one shameless guy they could get to comment on the float claims it won "honorable mentions" and that if 95% of the people like it, why bow down to the 5%....
Yeah, 95% agree with your racist symbolism in YOUR OWN TWISTED WINGER BUBBLE! And applying that logic to the ammosexuals we wouldn't have armed dumbfucks walking through airports locked and loaded. Nor would we have Christian fundamentalists imposing their beliefs nationwide. Nor would we have billionaire's wills and wishes prioritized over the People. I could go on but what's the point with these people...
re. Carlyle, I'm guessing most of the RC community went to college on the cheap. My tuition at LSU in '61 was $85, and it was more than Berkeley and Ann Arbor. We had top shelf faculty and labs, and grad school was free, as teaching assistantships were abundant. It was as a prof at Iowa that I saw the rapid evolution yes, initiated by Reagan, of tuition-limited access. California is often a trend setter. However, part of the adaptive pressure was enabled by proliferation of MBA's in the offices of U presidents, deans, sponsored program, development offices and regents aids, who saw the student loan system as a way to justify tuition hikes. Up the tuition? No problem, just lettum take out more loans. Same with indirect cost reimbursement for federal grants which, in 1974 - 1980 was 37% of salaries and wages, but is now 50% - 100% of total direct costs, in the face of constant true indirects relative cost per dollar awarded. In other words, loans and indirect cost reimbursement are now revenue, and we know how MBA admin types exploit gratuitous revenue.
And 625, thanks for the Kissinger reminder.
Whyte, yeah. My tuition was 20 bucks... and I thought I was being robbed.
But that was GI Bill. Got no idea what the VA may have forked over on my behalf.
Regarding tuition: I think mine at an excellent SUNY campus was $800 per year. But students with good high school records, myself included, got it completely offset by state merit scholarships. So - free. This was Class of '70.