The Commentariat -- June 9, 2014
Photos & related text removed.
Try to Explain Away This One, Wingers (assuming initial reports are somewhat accurate). Brian Nordli, et al., of the Las Vegas Sun News: "Hours after a man and woman killed two police officers at an east Las Vegas pizza restaurant and then gunned down another victim at a nearby Wal-Mart before killing themselves, a picture of the shooters began to emerge. Residents at an apartment complex where it appeared the two lived together said they had a reputation for spouting racist, anti-government views, bragging about their gun collection and boasting that they'd spent time at Cliven Bundy's ranch during a recent standoff there between armed militia members and federal government agents.... 'They were handing out white-power propaganda and were talking about doing the next Columbine, [Brandon] Moore[, a resident of the complex,] said."
It would have been offensive and incomprehensible to consciously leave an American behind, no matter what. -- Secretary of State John Kerry ...
... Brian Knowlton of the New York Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that he felt confident the five Taliban detainees freed in a swap for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl posed little risk to Americans, adding that Qatari officials were not the only ones monitoring them -- and that while the five might be able to return to the battlefield, 'they also have the ability to get killed doing that.' Mr. Kerry, in some of his first public remarks on the exchange, struck a decidedly tough tone, dismissing as 'baloney' the suggestion that terrorists would have new incentive to kidnap Americans. He also hinted, without offering details, that the United States had the means to monitor the Taliban members...." ...
... Shashank Bengali & Hashmat Baktash of the Los Angeles Times: "... not all [the Taliban exchanged for Bergdahl] were hard-core militants. Three held political positions in the Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 and were considered relative moderates. A fourth was a mid-level police official, experts say. The fifth, however..., Mohammed Fazl, was chief of staff of the Taliban army and is accused of commanding forces that massacred hundreds of civilians in the final years of Taliban rule before the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.... 'Fazl is the only one of the five to face accusations of explicit war crimes and they are, indeed, extremely serious,' Kate Clark of the Afghanistan Analysts Network,a Kabul-based research group, wrote in a commentary published Wednesday." Also, John McCain doesn't know WTF he's talking about. ...
... Something McCain Didn't Consider. Jeremy Herb of Politico: "Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, the former chief of the U.S. Central Command, said on Sunday the prisoner swap for Army Sgt. Bowe Berdgahl will give the U.S. military more freedom to carry out missions against the Taliban and Haqqani Network. Appearing on CNN's 'State of the Union,' Mattis said U.S. commanders in Afghanistan always lived with the concern that Bergdahl would be killed in retaliation for a U.S. offensive against the Taliban." More military missions. That should thrill McCain.
New York Times: Waaah, Waaah, Waaah. CW: These critics might have a point if they hadn't spent the last several years making an agreement more difficult. ...
... Greg Sargent lets Sen. Chambliss explain why the Obama administration accidentally forgot to notify Congress of the impending prisoner swap:
It's kind of puzzling as to why they did not let us know in advance that this was going to happen. -- Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), yesterday
Chambliss said he 'absolutely' would have raised 'holy Hell' publicly had he gotten wind of the proposed released of five Taliban officials in a prisoner swap. -- Chambliss, last week
Puzzle solved. -- Constant Weader
[President Obama] broke the law, but I believe that the law itself is unconstitutional. Article II [of the Constitution] makes him the commander in chief of the armed forces. These people were in the custody of the armed forces. -- Former Bush II Attorney General Michael Mukasey, on "Fox 'News' Sunday"
... Zachary Warmbrodt of Politico: "A law requiring the president to notify Congress 30 days before freeing detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is unconstitutional, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Sunday.... Mukasey, who served in the George W. Bush administration, has been critical of the deal, calling it 'ghastly,' and in the interview that aired Sunday said the military should 'act swiftly' to investigate Bergdahl's actions after he left his base in Afghanistan." ...
... Andy Sullivan, et al., of Reuters: "... accounts by two Taliban sources as well as several U.S. officials and fellow soldiers raise doubt over media reports that [Bergdahl] had sought to join the Taliban, and over suggestions that the deaths later that year of six soldiers in his battalion were related to the search for him.... A Reuters reconstruction of his disappearance indicates that at the time when Bergdahl's six comrades in the 1st Battalion of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment were killed in August and September 2009, his fallen comrades were on other missions like securing the Afghan elections and, according to one U.S. military official, the period of intensive ground searches had already ended."
... Trial by Fox "News." Elias Isquith of Salon: "While speaking with former Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked if executing Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl should be 'at least on the table' once the former POW returns home." ...
We as a nation, instead of politicizing something like this, we as a nation, should look at it and say: Okay, [it's a] complex problem, how do we handle this in a way that brings us together? Because it actually makes us look weaker to our allies, it makes us look confused to our foes, and if we were very united on something like this and we just said: 'America doesn't leave its people but we do have a high standard,' then I think we'd come out better. -- Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Ret.
... Phil Stewart & Doina Chiacu of Reuters: "U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl ... [is] struggling emotionally and ha[s] not yet called his parents." ...
... CW: I hope the medics aren't letting that poor messed-up kid watch Fox "News."
Jonathan Chait: "Obama Promised to Do 4 Big Things As President. Now He's Done Them All."
** Paul Krugman: "What makes rational action on climate so hard is [not vested economic interest but] -- a toxic mix of ideology and anti-intellectualism."
Larry Summers in the Washington Post: "If American society is to become more just and inclusive, it will be necessary to craft policies that address the rapidly increasing share of income going to the rich. But it is crucial to recognize that measures to support the rest of the population in other ways are at least equally important."
Charles Blow: "One Gallup report issued last week found that 42 percent of Americans believe 'God created humans in their present form 10,000 years ago.' ... How does America remain a world leader in an increasingly technological, science-based world, when so many of our citizens -- and even our leaders, including Republicans who might run for president -- deny basic science?" ...
... CW Answer: it doesn't. Part of the solution should come from the point of origin of the problem. Ministers & priests should regularly devote sermons to explaining to their dimwitted congregations that Bible stories are STORIES.
Thomas Frank in Salon on the ever-spiraling cost of college tuition. Frank explains the cost rise in socioeconomic terms, & he blames the Reagan philosophy for starting the cost trend. But Frank doesn't suggest a solution. CW: I'm still unclear on who gets the money, though apparently too many college administrators do. (He doesn't mention that college presidents & other top administrators are wa-a-a-y overpaid.)
All Hillary All the Time, Ctd.
Chris Good of ABC News: Hillary Clinton talked to Diane Sawyer & said stuff that won't surprise you. You can watch Sawyer's Clinton special at 9 pm ET today (Monday), if you don't like surprises. Also, she'll be speaking live with Robin Roberts on ABC's "Good Morning, America" on Tuesday, so if you hate surprises in the morning, tune in. ...
... Zeke Miller has more on Clinton's book tour schedule. ...
... Other Presidential Election News
John Reynolds of the Texas Tribune: "U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz easily won the presidential preference straw poll held at the Texas GOP's state convention Saturday, crushing outgoing Gov. Rick Perry and several other early contenders for the 2016 nomination." ...
... BUT. Jay Newton-Small of Time: Big money & Washington Republicans don't like Ted Cruz.
Senate Races
Nate Silver is still predicting Republicans will take the Senate.
Beyond the Beltway
Democrat for Sale, Purchase Pending. Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Republicans appear to have outmaneuvered Gov. Terry McAuliffe in a state budget standoff by persuading a Democratic senator to resign his seat, at least temporarily giving the GOP control of the chamber and possibly dooming the governor's push to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Sen. Phillip P. Puckett (D-Russell) will announce his resignation Monday, effective immediately, paving the way to appoint his daughter to a judgeship and Puckett to the job of deputy director of the state tobacco commission, three people familiar with the plan said Sunday." ...
... CW: I'm sure Puckett will make a great tobacco commissioner, because he obviously doesn't give a flying fuck how many people get sick & die in service of his self-interest. Politicans quit their so-called public service jobs all the time to get better gigs for themselves, but this is beyond outrageous.
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FYI: Wikipedia: "Trader Joe's was founded by Joe Coulombe and has been owned since 1979 by a German family trust established by Aldi Nord's owner Theo Albrecht.[5] The chain has offices in Monrovia, California and Boston, Massachusetts.[6]". Joe's has the best sourcing quality for processed foods I've ever seen.
@Bergdahl: I'm sorry, but I can't get over how badly Bergdahl is being treated by especially Faux Nooz, both as an American and a retired Army officer. The US has a commitment to all members of the Armed Forces and will do everything in its power to honor that commitment. That's the key: honor. The thugs baying toward Bergdahl have no honor. It's a totally foreign concept to them.
@Barbarossa: Now imagine how wingers would treat Bergdahl if he were black.
Marie
Very curious about the way that young person is holding that gun. Does he have a double-jointed thumb on the trigger?
Ok America, the million dollar question: what's the threshold?
Gun violence is getting more media buzz these days, particularly because of the often extraordinary circumstances it's been taking place in. The approximately 30 people/day killed due to firearms is alright an enormous amount, but obviously not nearly enough for us to actually unite behind a cause and push for real change. Obviously a main factor of this could be that it's always "the other guy" that gets killed or pisses himself hiding behind behind the pretzels in Wal-Mart while the murders spray their bullets. But if these psychos continue apace, statistically "the other guy" is going to be you or someone you know. So maybe that argument will become moot.
30 person/day stat: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/31/president-obama-gun-control-push
So apparently we're going to "need" (how fucking cynical is that) some type of rapid succession of psychopathic mass killings to even jumpstart a serious conversation beyond the empty platitudes served up by our gutless elected officials (both parties). And unfortunately the inaction of Newtown has revealed an ever more cynical truth about this situation. Ni the victims (innocent school children in this case) nor the quantity (28 killed) plays a determining factor. We collectively shrugged off the mass murder of nearly 30 elementary kids. That's a high threshold for violence in a civilized country by any measure.
Up to now, the mass killings have occurred with ample time in-between the sadistic acts, long enough for the week long media loop to move on and refill the non-stop action of entertainment sound bites and other diversionary tactics.
This time around, we have the Bundy clan armed to the teeth with their delusional militias but not mass death nor blood spilled so I'm not sure if the public will remember all the way back to April (but there could be links to the recent killing so we might be dusting off the story again)...Adam Lanza's killing spree is still being analyzed by some news outlets, given that it occurred but a few weeks ago, so it still has some residual existence in the some of the public's collective memory. Now we've got anarchist vigilantes killing cops and Wal-Mart customers (another reason never to shop at Wal-Mart, the crazies congregate there, even during their killing sprees) that will probably get some press for a week or so until it fades to black too. That's 3 pretty big events directly linked to gun violence and cold-blooded murder, all in 3 months.
My hypothesis is thus that if anything were to change regarding gun laws it's going to require more spectacular events such as this; but multiple events in rapid succession so as to not fade from our short-wired memories before the next flares up. If they don't build on each other then they decay away. Otherwise, we'll continue down the path of least resistance, overstepping the innocent, bloodied carcasses on the way to perpetual social malaise.
So what's it going to take America? What's your threshold? How much can you take? Pass the soma...
The Bowe Bergdahl release has occasioned the return of flocks of vain vultures of yore, descending like opportunistic scavengers for an easy meal and a chance to strut their formerly tarred feathers once more, in the warm and cozy sunniness of the Sunday morning roadkill shows, where other like minded vermin gather to feast on the bodies of whatever carrion can be dragged in conscious, unconscious, dead, alive, it don't matter. They'll eat anything that won't come back at them.
So this weekend were treated to former Bush flack, Atty General Mike Mukasey who supplanted Alberto Gonzales, the most criminal, dishonest shyster to darken the office of Atty General since two previous Republican gangsters, Ed Meese and John Mitchell slid on their power ties to face grand juries. That Mukasey wasn't as bad as Gonzales isn't saying much. You'd pray for typhus if you'd had the bubonic plague for two years.
So Mukasey, believes, in his, own very colorful phrase, that the Bergdahl trade was "ghastly". No.....Mike, my man. I'll tell you what's "ghastly", an attorney general who pushed for torturing any suspect his president thought a problem. Anyone. What's ghastly is an officer of the court advocating illegal wiretapping, because. What's ghastly is an attorney general who went out of his way to stop a rule change that would put sentencing for crack and powder cocaine on a par. The reason? Crack=urban blah people out to kill, Powder=suburban white boys out on a toot.
Finally, what's ghastly is an attorney general who stated categorically (perhaps because he worked for one of the most criminal assholes in the history of the country) that "...not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime."
How's that for ghastly?
Will these people please, please, please, just go away and STFU?
Safari,
The murder of several dozen first graders as they played in their classrooms in school isn't enough? Holy shit. If that's not enough of a threshold, what is?
There is no "enough" for these people because they posit each new atrocity as a one time only, once in a lifetime occurrence and the media goes along with it. Either that or it's just some crazy person, not one of the millions of gun fondlers (although every one of those crazies was a gun fondler themself).
That's not to say that it can't change, but we do need someone to stand up and say, à la Joseph Welch, that this is too much, things have gotten too far out of hand and at long last, it's time to return to sanity and anyone who disagrees needs to be painted as part of the problem, a supporter in full of the murder of innocents.
I don't seen anyone like that on the horizon, but I'm waiting. Because in the meantime, too much is never enough for the gun fetishists. Your dead six year old doesn't trump their ability to go out and buy seven more deadly weapons. And if you try to stop them, they will shoot you, because they stood their ground, sort of, and......er....you scared them!
And because Freedom!
Interesting (and disgusting) report from the University of Colorado concerning the increase in weasel words in US papers (NYT and WSJ) in climate-change news reports.
http://www.dailycamera.com/cu-news/ci_25918043/cu-boulder-researchers-track-hedging-language-climate-news
Two unconnected thoughts:
1. Gun violence. we learn much by example:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us/war-gear-flows-to-police-departments.html?ref=todayspaper
2. College tuition. Supply and demand rules. When, in 1974, I joined the faculty at the University of Iowa, and got my first research grant, the indirect cost reimbursement to the University was 37% of salaries and wages. So, for every dollar in the budget for personnel, the U was paid an additional $0.37 to pay for depreciation, lights, heat, housekeeping, admin, etc. When I retired a couple of years ago, it had risen to an average of $0.60 of total direct costs. The total in the biological sciences includes very expensive lab mice and cell cultures which, unlike personnel, add nothing to institutional overhead. SO, indirect cost reimbursement has evolved from reimbursement to revenue, and the consequence is all the cranes surrounding science campus buildings as deans and their minions chase that limited pot of gold. A few came out ahead, but more got left behind with costs outpacing revenue. Among consequences, deans began leaning on faculty to get multiple grants, a self-defeating proposition. Oops, got to make it up somewhere.
And then: along come the student loans. When I started at LSU (BS '64), tuition and fees ware $85/semester. Lowly U Cal and Michigan were cheaper and private schools were for the wealthy or gifted. The rest was picked up by the (state) gubmunts. Working just weekends, I finished my BS with more in the bank than when I started. Yes, Reagan et al. played a part, but into the mix came the Feds to the rescue with student loans. As states tightened the screws, the U leaderships might have said — Okay, we'll just cut services and enrollments, take that, legislators. But as the (guaranteed) loans emerged, — Okay, we'll just make it up with tuition and fees. More cranes at the U (and at the bank buildings as well).
Played right into the hands of the taxation scolds. All in all, a perfect storm of good intentions and unintended consequences.
The last two episodes of Cosmos must have created mini big-bangs in wingnut heads all over the country.
I don't know how advanced the shows were shot (must have been in the can for a while considering the spectacular special effects), but it's almost as if Tyson spent the final weeks of the show giving a very cosmic FU to the climate deniers, the fuming fundies, and the young earth morons.
Toward the end of last night's final ep, he gave five pieces of advice. Among them was a reminder that everyone makes mistakes. Even some of the greatest scientists, so we're always learning. Another was the importance of facts, question everything. A third was that things aren't true just because we want them to be or because we believe them to be so.
Oh man, the wingnut fundies must have been boiling.
And on another positive note, episodes of Cosmos have put a dent in the ratings of ABC's long running and unforgivably silly un-reality show The Bachelor (where 25 Barbie dolls meet one Ken doll and all fall in love over the span of 30 minutes. Enervating stuff, that.), and averaged about 3 million viewers each week which, as Time suggests, isn't bad considering that a quarter of the population still believes that the earth is the center of the universe.
The science of stupid.
Tyson also talked about the journey of the Voyager spacecrafts which could still be flying 100 million years from now, a calling card to any other beings in the universe. The vessels carried messages from earth including samples of music, Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, folk music, Chuck Berry, etc. This reminded me of a favorite old SNL routine set in the late 70's. The schtick was a panel of mystics who could see the future. They predict that in 3 weeks the earth would receive a four letter message from an alien race which had picked up the Voyager.
The message?
"Send More Chuck Berry".
AK,
Yes, I also watched Cosmos last night and was cheering him on, but there was also a significant reprise of (what I assume was) Carl Sagan's closing blast, "the small blue dot," which didn't pull any punches either. Sagan's voice brought back a flood of memories.
This was the only episode I saw "live" and I was impressed at how many friggin' commercials were included. It made me wonder if there was even more stuff that the edited "to fit into the available time."
And more news on the science front (that place Republicans deny exists).
A group in London this past weekend won the famed Turing Test when they were able to convince at least a third of the judges that they were indeed in communication with a real human being with a brain and a heart (how many wingnuts could pass this test?) rather than with a computer program designed to respond to questions in as human a way as possible.
Admittedly it's a bit of a lark and it does have its downsides (computers are already pretty good at getting people to do stupid human tricks on and offline), and no one is saying that there is consciousness involved here, but it's still pretty cool.
Poor Alan Turing never lived long enough to see his work with computers get anywhere near this point. Even though he was one of the first great computer science geniuses, even though his work at Bletchly Park during WWII helped break the German Enigma code (aiding immeasurably in the invasion just recently celebrated), Turing crossed a line that conservatives have drawn, permanently into the sand, by sleeping with another man. He was arrested for this horrible crime and chemically castrated. Two years later, he killed himself.
An outcome, no doubt, that would be favored by so many wingnuts nearly 65 years later.
Another reason they don't pass the "Are You a Human?" test.
Here's to Alan Turing...
Nisky Guy,
I thought the same thing when I heard Carl's voice in that segment. It's almost as if his voice had drifted off into the ether decades ago and returned, bouncing back around as bits of electromagnetic energy to be picked up by Tyson's show. Isn't there a Ray Bradbury story about that sort of thing?
It has apparently never occurred to the wingers that few will want to serve in the military if (1) They are not assured that we will make every attempt to rescue them should they fall into enemy hands; and (2) They will be treated like crap by media with an ax to grind, and publicly condemned before receiving due process. It makes me so angry, this utter contempt for America shown by the far right.
Victoria,
I think Barbarossa hits the nail right on the head when he declares that these gullions (especially the Fox poltroons) have no honor.
Because they have no concept of honor, such an insult would likely only bolster their well honed insouciance regarding ethics and morals.
And if such were an integral part of their job description, they couldn't possibly be more successful at it; scroungers mewling in the political demimonde.
@Barbarossa: Now imagine how wingers would treat Bergdahl if
he were black. (from Marie).
Now imagine how wingers would treat Bergdahl if he were black
AND gay. Or if he were just gay. Obviously, he's not black. I'm
hoping he's not gay 'cause then they would call for a dishonorable
discharge without benefits or medical help. Innocent until proven
guilty (or gay).