The Commentariat -- March 10, 2014
Anthony Faiola & Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "The head of Ukraine's new pro-Western government will meet with President Obama this week, the White House announced Sunday, as a defiant Russia took further steps to consolidate its hold on the Crimean Peninsula. The announcement of Wednesday's meeting in Washington with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk came as pro-Russia forces extended their reach in Crimea, surrounding a border post in the far west and blocking Ukrainian TV broadcasts to the heavily-Russian-speaking region.... There were reports of more troop movements into Crimea, with officials in Kiev estimating that 18,000 pro-Russian forces had fanned out across the region...." ...
... Tim Sullivan & Yuras Karmanau of the AP profile Sergey Aksyonov, Crimea's new prime minister: "'He wasn't a criminal big shot,' said Andriy Senchenko, now a member of Ukraine's Batkivshchyna party, which was at the forefront of the Kiev protests that led last month to the downfall of pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych. Senchenko described Aksyonov as a 'brigade leader' in a gang that was often involved in extortion rackets." CW: So he's a professional thug. The GOP should love this guy. ...
... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "When this crisis got underway two weeks ago, it seemed absurd that the United States and Russia might go to war over the fate of Ukraine. But both of their leaders have stumbled and bumbled so badly in the meantime, and the exit-ramp is so littered with bombs and barricades, nothing seems impossible." ...
... Kevin Drum: "... to suggest that [Putin] was motivated by weakness in US foreign policy is flatly crazy. He was motivated by fear; by shock over the speed of events in Kiev; by a sense of betrayal when the February 21 agreement collapsed; by nationalistic fervor; by domestic political considerations; by provocative actions from the new Ukrainian parliament; by an increasing insularity among his inner circle; and by just plain panic." ...
... Send in the Crazy. A critical reason for Putin's aggression has been President Obama's weakness. That Putin fears no retribution. Their policy has been to alienate and abandon our friends and coddle and appease our enemies. You better believe that Putin sees in Benghazi, four Americans are murdered and nothing happens, no retribution. You better believe that Putin sees that in Syria, Obama draws a red line and ignores it. -- Ted Cruz, on "This Week"
... Daniel Politi of Slate: "Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Fox News that there was little chance Ukraine would be able to get back control of Crimea. 'I do not believe that Crimea will slip out of Russia's hands,' Gates said in an interview on Sunday. 'You think Crimea's gone?' Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked. 'I do,' the former defense secretary replied. Gates also went on to defend Obama, noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin 'invaded Georgia when George W. Bush was president -- no one accused George W. Bush of being weak or unwilling to use military force.'" CW: Could be good news for Ukraine. Gates, an expert on Russia, gets a lot wrong about Russia & other stuff.
Paul Krugman: "... moving American policies part of the way toward European norms [of reducing inequality] would probably increase, not reduce, economic efficiency.... What's good for the 1 percent isn't good for America."
Sadhbh Walshe of the Guardian on slavery today -- not uncommon, & hiding in plain sight. CW: I don't mean to minimize the misery of modern slavery, but it seems to me to be an extension of the way many "respectable" corporations -- like WalMart & (especially) Amazon -- treat their "non-slave" workers. Modern-day slavery in the U.S. is a matter of degree.
Erica Goode of the New York Times: "In a little-noticed outcome of President Obama's Affordable Care Act, jails and prisons around the country are beginning to sign up inmates for health insurance under the law, taking advantage of the expansion of Medicaid that allows states to extend coverage to single and childless adults -- a major part of the prison population."
E. J. Dionne: "If conservative rethinkers such as [Paul] Ryan have more than rhetorical and tactical differences with [Ted] Cruz, they have yet to prove it." ...
Canadians are so polite, mild-mannered, modest, unassuming, open-minded. Thank God my family fled that oppressive influence before it could change me. -- Texas Sen. Ted Cruz
More funny stuff from the annual Gridiron Dinner here.
... Charles Pierce did do a fine takedown of Sarah Palin. We should, of course, carry Palin's performance past Palin, as Pierce does: " She is in perpetual tantrum, railing against her betters, which is practically everyone, and volunteering for the job of avatar to the country's reckless vandal of a political Id. It was the address of a malignant child delivered to an audience of malignant children." Thanks to Rockygirl for the link.
David Dayen at the New Republic: The Federal Reserve gives a subsidy, which "comes in the form of a 6 percent dividend, paid on stock that over 2,900 banks purchase to participate in the Federal Reserve system. Very few places where ordinary Americans park their money offer such a risk-free benefit. In 2012 (the last year with available data), the Fed gave away $1.637 billion in dividends to banks, tax-free in the majority of cases. And the Fed has been doing this for the last 100 years. It's one of the many unknown ways the Fed extends special benefits to Wall Street."
How to Make a Billion Dollars. Short a company, then lobby for its demise. Michael Schmidt & others report for the New York Times on hedge fund billionaire William Ackman's extraordinary efforts to bring down the nutritional supplement fim Herbalife.
Greg Palast in TruthDig: "... under a new Post Office plan endorsed by [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren, the P.O. would team up with commercial banks to cash in on payday predation, exempting themselves from the Warren rules.... The Post Office projects it can suck $8.9 billion a year from America's poorest if they can just get into this payday loan racket." ...
... CW: If, as Palast claims (rather obliquely) at one point that the USPS would charge 34 percent interest, then obviously it's a ripoff. And he's right about this: "Instead of letting American Express run tests on us, Senator, why not let post offices partner with not-for-profit credit unions to offer real banking services, not usury, to the public?" David Dayen wrote in January why USPS banking services are a great idea. Michelle Chen, writing for Bill Moyers' Journal is all for it, too, though she does caution about the type of relationship the USPS might develop with big banks.
White Shoes & Handcuffs. James Stewart in the New Yorker: "Many law firms have failed over the years, but none as spectacularly as Dewey & LeBoeuf, the namesake 'global super firm' of the former Republican Presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey. On Thursday, Cyrus Vance, Jr., the Manhattan D.A., unveiled lengthy indictments charging Steven Davis, the firm's former chairman; Stephen DiCarmine, its executive director; and Joel Sanders, its chief financial officer."
Andrew Solomon of the New Yorker interviews Peter Lanza, the father of mass murderer Adam Lanza.
Sarah Posner in Politico Magazine: "Persecuted, which opens in theaters May 9, is a political thriller about an evangelist facing down a government threat to destroy religious freedom in America.... Persecuted screened this week at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington, D.C., and it couldn't have found a more sympathetic audience. The tribulations of the evangelist, not so subtly named John Luther, seem calculated to capitalize on conservative claims that a tyrannical government is infringing on their religious freedom." ...
... CW: You might want to read Posner's review in conjunction with the piece by Amanda Marcotte on the right's persecution fantasies, which I linked a couple of days ago.
Local News
Cowboys & Indians. The Sooners' Oklahoma land grab isn't over yet. Also, Jim Inhofe, always in there for anything despicable. David Rogers of Politico reports.
News Ledes
New York Times: "The mystery of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 deepened on Monday when a sweeping search failed to find any sign of the jetliner near its last known location, leaving experts to puzzle over how a Boeing 777 with 239 people aboard could have vanished without a trace. The search was set back by a number of false leads that seemed to underline how little investigators have been able to pin down about the progress of the flight." ...
... Guardian: "Confusion mounted on Monday over the identities of the two passengers travelling with stolen passports aboard missing flight MH370 after reviews of CCTV footage prompted a Malaysian official to describe them as resembling a black Italian footballer. Civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told reporters in Kuala Lumpur that the men, who had been travelling on stolen Italian and Austrian passports, were 'not Asian looking' and may have been part of a stolen passport syndicate."
Washington Post: "Russia and its sympathizers seized control of more Ukrainian military bases and facilities in Crimea on Monday while Moscow issued threatening statements about eastern Ukraine that signaled Russia's intention to play a significant role in the country's future. At least four Ukrainian military bases, including one stocked with missiles, were overrun by armed men in uniforms who say they are members of local self-defense units, which are typically under the command of Russian military officers. The headquarters of the Ukrainian naval fleet had its electricity cut, and the director of a military hospital was ousted and a replacement installed by the pro-Russian militia that took over." ...
... AFP: "Russia has deliberately sunk three of its own ships to block Ukrainian navy vessels entering a lake off the Black Sea, officers say, highlighting Moscow's determination to wear down the morale of Kiev's forces in Crimea." ...
... Reuters: "Russian President Vladimir Putin defended breakaway moves by the pro-Russian leaders of Crimea on Sunday in a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron, according to the Kremlin."
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Reader Comments (7)
Thank you, Marie, for linking Andrew Solomon's brilliant piece on Peter Lanza, the mass murderer's father.
He brings up the complexity, the essential incomprehensibility, of mass murder; and he brings up the many dimensions of devastation murder brings. Finally: an intelligent consideration of the issue.
What came to mind is a poem (in the public domain, I am sure), but I have forgotten the author (Housman?):
Good people, do you love your lives
and have ears for sense?
Here is a knife like other knives
which cost me eighteen pence.
I need but touch it to my heart
and down will come the sky;
Earth's foundations will depart
and all YOU folk will die.
Ted Cruz, like many liars, sometimes inadvertently allows truth to escape at odd times, like the Washington Gridiron Club dinner.
So, according to Cruz he is neither polite, mild-mannered, modest, unassuming, or open-minded. Well that's true on all counts. In fact, he's just the opposite. He's Rude, bellicose, egotistical, pretentious, and intolerant.
Sounds just about right for Tailsniffer Ted.
Re: sins of our genes; Like Victoria I too was taken by the frankness and genuine sorrow expressed by Peter Lanza, father of Adam Lanza, mass murderer. With all the concern and the expense, all the years of trying different methods of understanding, all the attempts of satisfying and connecting with a disconnected mind I can only question one thing: why the guns?
To my mind both parents of Adam never should have allowed their son around firearms. The boy had serious mental issues that were well known by both parents. If the mother found release from her troubles in shooting up targets at a gun range, she should have left the guns at the range. If the father was so intent on helping his son he would have realized his ex-wife was putting her self and others in potential harms way by having guns around. Hindsight is twenty-twenty but foresight could have seen that one coming. Did none of the mental health experts that saw Adam professionally tell either parent that unstable kids should not be around firearms?
I ended up liking Adam's dad. I feel for him. The choice of therapy by gun was, in the end, tragic for all involved. Adam's dad has to have some sense of responsibility for the carnage caused by his son.
Poor Christians. Sooooo persecuted.
A couple of weeks ago, in a run up to the delirious circle jerk at CPAC, wingnuts and Bible bangers held a "Holy Shit We're Being Persecuted (Again!)" hearing on Capitol Hill.
The usual suspects trooped in. Chief among them was a past master at persecution, one Elliott Abrams, one of the snakiest pieces of shit in US history, who helped engineer atrocities, massacres and just plain murder in support of official Reagan foreign policy. How's that for persecution? Now he's some kind of human rights panjandrum. Funny, no? Fitzgerald was wrong about second acts.
But anyway....
Predictably, the mood was hysterical and sweaty. Febrile proclamations were the order of the day. Rep. Chris Smith (R-ChristieLand), breathlessly reported that Christian persecution was rampant everywhere. Every-fucking-where, goddamit. "There's an explosion of persecution against Christians, including martyrdom, torture, and harassment of all kinds," Got that? An EXPLOSION of persecution. Not to be confused with last year's explosion of persecution or next year's or the year after that.
Seems that the most dominant religion in the world, the one that has insisted for centuries on forcing its tenets and customs and beliefs on the rest of the world on pain of death, this religion that has, for centuries, persecuted, tortured, and murdered countless other human beings for the crime of not going along with what they say, is a tad confused as to the actual nature of persecution.
But no matter. Even if they weren't being persecuted, that would be a form of persecution.
In fact, one of the hearing speakers gives the game away completely. He states that Islamic conspirators are behind the vast majority of Christian persecution, every-fucking-where, but that even if Islam were to disappear from the face of the earth tomorrow, it wouldn't matter. Christians would then be under attack from Radical Buddhism (seriously?), Radical Hinduism, and the gazillion other radical groups who hate them. What, no Radical Zoroastrianism?
The thing is, they love feeling put upon. They thrive on it. The idea of martyrdom is so entrancing that many Christians, especially the fundies, find persecution everywhere. Not being able to force their views on others is persecution. Not being able to ram Creationism into public schools is persecution. Not being able to stop the show anytime they want at public functions to insert Christian prayer is persecution. Not being able to discriminate against gays is persecution ("Christian bakers will be forced to bake Penis Cakes for gay weddings!!") Jokes about how silly all this can be are shrapnel-loaded pipe bombs lobbed at the soon-to-be martyred faithful.
This new film reveling in Christian flagellation and persecution has to fucking MAKE SHIT UP. If Christian persecution was as rampant and horrible as they all make it out to be, why resort to fantasy?
The answer, dear friends, is too, too obvious. But I'll let our old pal Henry Louis Mencken get a word in edgewise here:
"The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts. He ascribes all his failure to get on in the world, all of his congenital incapacity and damfoolishness, to the machinations of werewolves assembled in Wall Street, or some other such den of infamy."
They're all out to get us!
"How to Make a Billion Dollars". The incentives of the business system and tax system perversely make people shuffle money instead of actually practice and develop business. These titans can throw more money at politicians and everyone else is worse off. I wonder what kind of deals Teddy Cruz has with his patrons? How much was he bought for? Or how little?
Excellent interview with Matt Taibbi: “I mean, journalists should be dark, funny, mean people. It’s appropriate for their antagonistic, adversarial role.” ...continues with, "Contrast that with today, he argues, when for a lot of reporters, “the appeal of the job has more to do with proximity to power."
Definitely, where Charlie Pierce goes with his Gobshites post this morning. Yes, talking about you, Charlie Rose, et al.
More at http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/03/matt-taibbi-on-wall-street-first-look-media.html
But, Akhilleus, with all due respect to Mr. Mencken, and that is a great deal, Wall Street, more properly akin to vultures than werewolves, IS out to get us. That's its nature. Sanity's measure is its ability to distinguish real threats from the wholly imaginary.
The real enemy of religion is reality, an uncomfortable truth that fuels the Right's heightened crescendo of paranoia.