The Commentariat -- June 6, 2015
Internal links removed.
Nicole Perlroth, et al., of the New York Times: "The same Chinese hackers who breached the records of at least four million government workers through the Office of Personnel Management appear to have been responsible for similar thefts of personal data at two major health care firms, Anthem and Premera, according to cybersecurity experts. The multiple attacks, which began last year and were all discovered this spring, appear to mark a new era in cyberespionage with the theft of huge quantities of data and no clear motive for the hackers.... the attackers seem to be amassing huge databases of personal information about Americans. Some have high-level security clearances, which the Office of Personnel Management handles, but millions of others do not, and the reasons for their records being taken have puzzled investigators." ...
... Brian Bennett & Richard Serrano of the Los Angeles Times: "The investigation into the cyberattack on computers at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is proceeding on the theory that the hack was directed by the Chinese government and aimed at uncovering sensitive, personal information that could have been used to blackmail or bribe government employees to obtain secrets, officials said Friday. Social Security numbers, email addresses, job performance reviews and other personal information of about four million government workers were siphoned out of the computer servers, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity...."
Jacob Weisberg of Slate: "Rather than leaving [Edward] Snowden's status as a problem for his successor, [President] Obama should make resolving his case part of his presidential legacy as well. His Justice Department could offer Snowden a plea bargain, under which he would not serve prison time in exchange for his cooperation. Or the government could charge Snowden under the standard laws covering disclosures of classified information by government officials.... Snowden clearly broke the law in revealing government secrets. But he did so for valid reasons and with an outcome that now has the endorsement of both the legislative and executive branches. That is reason enough for Obama to show him mercy."
Ashley Halsey of the Washington Post: "In a scathing self-examination, federal regulators acknowledged Friday that for years they failed to adequately address a 57-cent defect in an ignition switch that killed 109 people and injured more than 200 others. The ignition-switch problem, which could prevent air bags from deploying, endured for a dozen years before General Motors recalled 2.6 million cars last year."
Your Tax Dollars at Work. Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "A senior National Weather Service official helped write the job description and set the salary for his own post-retirement consulting post -- then came back to the office doing the same job with a $43,200 raise, the agency's watchdog found. The deputy chief financial officer also demanded that he be paid a $50,000 housing allowance ... in violation of government rules for contractors, one of numerous improprieties in a revolving-door deal sealed with full knowledge of senior agency leaders, according to an investigation by the Commerce Department Inspector General's office.... His procurement of his own post-retirement job appears to be commonplace throughout the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the Weather Service's parent agency."
White House: "In this week's address, the President recognized Immigrant Heritage Month, an occasion that allows us to celebrate our origins as a nation of immigrants":
Gilad Edelman of the New Yorker: "... a legal system formally blind to race is just as often blind to racism." Or How to Get an All-White Jury while Pretending Not to be Racist. Turns out that is pretty easy.
Mark Stern of Slate on how a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit came to strike down some of the worst provisions of Idaho's anti-abortion laws. And, yes, there's an heroic woman at the center of the story: Jennie Linn McCormick, a poor, single mother who terminated her own pregnancy because there were no abortion clinics in her vicinity. And then kept fighting for the rights of other women.
Joel Gehrke of the winger National Review is worried about all the ways a win for the plaintiffs in King v. Burwell could backfire on Republicans & make them "complicit" in extending ObamaCare. Via Paul Waldman. ...
... Paige Cunningham of the wingnut Washington Examiner: "Millions of Americans could lose Obamacare subsidies under a Supreme Court ruling this month, but many in the GOP don't need their votes anyway. That's a major political calculus for Tea Party Republicans, who are likely to resist any efforts to extend the subsidies, even temporarily. They're much more worried about angering their base by appearing to concede to Obamacare than whether a handful of constituents lose their subsidies." CW: Yeah, so who cares?
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A Democratic legal fight against restrictive voting laws enacted in recent years by Republican-controlled state governments is being largely paid for by a single liberal benefactor: the billionaire philanthropist George Soros." CW: This is an excellent example of how not to write a declarative sentence.
Presidential Election
... Clinton begins speaking about 18 min. in. ...
New York Times Editors give Hillary Clinton two thumbs up for her push for expanding voting rights: "it is very encouraging to see Mrs. Clinton championing this central democratic principle so early in the campaign. President Obama said very little on voting rights until deep into his second term.... Making voting easier for all eligible voters should be the epitome of a nonpartisan issue. Unfortunately, stopping people from voting has become a key part of the modern Republican playbook." ...
... Charles Pierce: "The speech that Hillary Rodham Clinton gave at Texas Southern University on Thursday regarding the right to vote even was better than I expected it to be.
And in Florida, when Jeb Bush was governor, state officials conducted a deeply flawed purge of voters before the presidential election of 2000."
Yeah, she went there. That purge -- which is estimated to have eliminated over 12,000 eligible voters from the rolls in a primary that Bush's dim brother won by a margin of 537 -- was central to the Republican effort to keep the election in Florida within the margin of shenanigans, thereby enabling the Supreme Court to hand the White House to C-Plus Augustus and thereby inaugurate eight full years of utter calamity. That HRC tracks the campaign of voter-suppression back to that ur-event is not merely faithful to history, but also a remarkably shrewd maneuver." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "Clinton's embrace of voting rights ... serves to demonstrate to the party's core constituents something elemental, and true: At the current moment, there is only one party that respects their rights as citizens." Chait runs through the GOP's objections to expanding voting opportunities, & they are transparently bogus. ...
... Brian Beutler of the New Republic: Clinton's "strategy involves staking out a variety of progressive issue positions that enjoy broad support, but it's not as straightforward as simply identifying the public sentiment and riding it to victory. The key is to embrace these objectives in ways that makes standard Republican counterspin completely unresponsive, and thus airs out the substantive core of their ideas: Rather than vie for conservative support by inching rightward, Clinton is instead reorienting liberal ideas in ways that make the Republican policy agenda come into greater focus." ...
... Chris Christie bites, making a case that only Fox "News" viewers would buy. Salvadore Rizzo of the Bergen Record: New Jersey "Governor Christie lashed out at Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail Friday, saying her new push to expand voter rolls across the country was a ploy designed 'to commit greater acts of voter fraud.'" ...
... Paul Waldman: "Looks like it's time for some traffic problems at the polling place." ...
... AND Rick Perry Is Still Stupid. Caitlin MacNeil of TPM: "On 'Fox and Friends' Friday morning, Perry ... brought up the requirement to present a photo ID in order to fly on commercial airplanes numerous times while defending his voter ID law. 'When I got on the airline to come up here yesterday, I had to show my photo I.D. Now, Hillary Clinton may not to have had to show an ID to get on a airplane in a long time...' he said. 'She's on a private jet,' Brian Kilmeade, one of the 'Fox and Friends' co-hosts, jumped in to say." CW: It seems Perry is arguing that the reason Clinton doesn't see the need for photo IDs is that she doesn't have to show her ID when she flies on noncommercial planes. Congratulations, Rick. This is even dumber than the fake voter-fraud "rationale." ...
... Steve M.: "... Perry apparently thinks only people who do fly, or can afford to fly, should be able to vote. In 2003, a Department of Transportation survey noted that 'About one out of five adult US residents (18 percent) reported that they had never flown on a commercial airline. Compared to flyers, non-flyers were much more likely to.'"
Robert Costa & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "The presidential candidacy of Ben Carson, a tea party star who has catapulted into the top tier of Republican contenders, has been rocked by turmoil with the departures of four senior campaign officials and widespread disarray among his allied super PACs.... Carson's associates ... [said] the retired neurosurgeon's campaign chairman, national finance chairman, deputy campaign manager and general counsel have resigned since Carson formally launched his bid last month in Detroit. They have not been replaced, campaign aides said.... [Carson's] his campaign has been marked by signs of dysfunction and amateurism.... Two independent super PACs designed to help Carson are instead competing directly with Carson's campaign for donations and volunteers, while campaign chairman Terry Giles resigned last month with the intention of forming a third super PAC." ...
... Neil Irwin of the New York Times explains how a successful campaign is organized. However, when you're a know-it-all like Ben Carson, running under God's direction, you really don't have to bother with all that. It looks as if God is pushing for a return Fox "News" gig for Dr. Ben. Or God is a bad CEO.
Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: Former Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn on the GOP presidential candidates: "says that Rand Paul scares him to death, Ted Cruz and Scott Walker are not ready for primetime, Rick Perry is not capable enough, and America will not elect another Bush to be president. Of all the candidates, he said Marco Rubio is his favorite." Quite an entertaining read. ...
... CW: Coburn really doesn't like Ben Carson. He said in the Sirius XM radio interview which Kaczunski cited that he had 'a personal bone to pick with him on integrity that I witnessed.' The former senator said Carson was asked not to attack President Obama in his National Prayer Breakfast speech but said 'his speech was nothing but an attack on the president.'" In December 2014, Coburn said, "I wouldn't vote for Ben Carson."
To put herself to sleep, Gail Collins repeats factoids about the 2016 presidential candidates.
Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: "John Edwards will never be president, but everyone running for the job today is cribbing from his campaign." CW: Tankesley covered Edwards in the 2008 campaign, & it sounds as if he still has a man-crush on Edwards. Edwards' campaign policy package was just a repackaging of standard Democratic ideals designed to appeal to a wide populace, so it's hardly a surprise that today's Democratic candidates are repackaging these ideals once again.
Beyond the Beltway
Jean Hopfensperger of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "The Ramsey County Attorney's office filed criminal charges Friday against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for 'failing to protect children' from an abusive priest. The charges stem from the archdiocese's oversight of former priest Curtis Wehmeyer, who is now serving a prison term for abusing two boys while he was pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church in St. Paul." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
On D-Day, our crew took off at 2 a.m. in a formation of 36 B-24s. The pilot was a man named Beckham. We thought we were following the lead element. But when the sun came up, we didn't see anybody; we couldn't find our group. We had been following a light, but the light was some other group. It's a wonder a whole mess of people didn't run into each other that night. We unloaded our bombs after daylight close behind the lines. -- Co-pilot Frank Waterhouse, who was 19 years old on D-Day, from an oral history
News Ledes
New York Times: "Two convicted murderers serving life sentences in adjoining cells staged an elaborate escape from New York's largest state-run prison overnight, fooling guards with makeshift dummies made out of sweatshirts and using power tools to drill a tunnel through the prison's 30-foot-tall walls, officials said. The men remained on the loose late Saturday as a broad swath of law enforcement authorities conducted an extensive manhunt...."
Washington Post: "More than 400 people came midday Saturday to the National World War II Memorial [in Washington, D.C.] for the 71st anniversary of D-Day, the massive landing and battle on the coast of France."
AP: "Jurors on Friday convicted a female Los Angeles police officer of felony assault for repeatedly kicking a handcuffed woman who later died. The jury of 11 women and one man reached its verdict after about two days of deliberations in the trial of Officer Mary O'Callaghan, 50. She pleaded not guilty to assaulting a civilian in the 2012 arrest of Alesia Thomas, 35.
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MESSAGE TO BEN CARSON FROM GOD:
Yo, bro, stop bringing me into your bid for glory and exclaiming my name, as though you and I are buddies. I am NOT your buddy, been too busy to hang with someone like you who, I'm sorry to have to say, is screwing up my plans for moving humans up a notch. I'm FOR gay marriage––you are not; to call Obama, someone I help in every way possible, a psychopath, makes me spittin mad!; to call the AFCA the worst program since slavery sends me off the rails since I still am grieving about the Civil War and flog myself nightly for not doing more; and finally, though only because I have to tend to other matters,
your nasty statement that the U.S. is like Nazi Germany makes you sound like a Mad Hatter. My plate is full, sir, no room there for the likes of you. If you are wondering why your handlers are leaving, look no further than my influence––I can still manage to work a few nifty tricks. Go back to cutting up people––at least you were doing MY work in that field.
Sincerely, GOD ( whom you can trust to tell it like it is on good days)
Regarding yesterday's thread about banks, I can speak from experience here. A couple of years ago, I needed to take $9000 out of the bank. When I had done this maybe a decade ago and called the credit union to ask if they had it on hand, they said Of Course, no need to call. This time, I was looked at in horror, told there wasn't that much cash on hand, and that I had to go to a different branch. I had to sign forms, hand over ID to be scanned, and was looked at by everyone there like a criminal.
That's not the end of the story. Now, whenever I go to deposit a check over maybe $1000, the teller gets a screen that makes him or her read carefully and then call a manager over. I get asked various mild questions. I have no idea what is going on with all of this, but it seems clear that my finances are of great interest to somebody.
Nisky Guy,
One of the things that is happening with banks (which does not require an often appropriate conspiratorial frame of mind to suss) is that banks have gotten far better at taking money in than they are at giving it out.
One of their practices is to place a hold on large out of state deposits. They will accept the deposit, occasionally as you say asking a few questions, but then tell you you cannot access that money for 72 hours of so, leaving time for the check to "clear." The annoyance for me is that I can call a phone company, let's say, to pay a bill, give them an account and check number and the cash will be withdrawn from my account almost before I've hung up the phone.
All that means is that the bank has your money longer than you do and multiplied by millions of transactions this common discrepancy means big bucks for them.
Just one of the many reasons to despise banks, especially large ones.
Dropkick Murphy, the American Celtic punk band, are royally pissed that Scott Walker is choosing their music for his intro at the Iowa Freedom Summit on Saturday. This is not the first time Scott has used their music. Apparently Walker's people (and maybe Walker himself) aren't aware the band is PRO-union and very liberal. They have sent a message to Walker telling him to stop using their music "because we hate you." You can't be more blunt than that.
@Nisky: Sorry you are are having problems with your C.U. Our experience with our C.U, has been nothing but positive. One of the pluses of banking with a C.U. is supposed to be easier than dealing with the big banks. Perhaps look for a different one?