The Commentariat -- March 12, 2016
President Obama spoke at a Democratic fundraiser in Austin, Texas, last night:
... Niraj Chokshi of the Washington Post reports on some of the more serious remarks the President made about the state of the Republican party.
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Presidential Race
Extreme, Bizarre Revisionist History. No, people, Republicans do not have a lock on it:
It may be hard for your viewers to remember how difficult it was for people to talk about HIV/AIDS in the 1980s. And because of both President and Mrs. Reagan, in particular, Mrs. Reagan, we started national conversation when before no one would talk about it, no one wanted to do anything about it, and that too is something that really appreciated, with her very effective, low-key advocacy, but it penetrated the public conscience and people began to say 'Hey, we have to do something about this too.' -- Hillary Clinton, Friday, speaking to MSNBC in the environs of Reagan's funeral ...
... Eric Levitz of New York: "Clinton's Iraq War vote was a big mistake, but it's possible that she's never been more wrong than she is here. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the first medical report about HIV in 1981. President Reagan gave his first major public address on the subject in 1987. In 1984, after more than 3,000 Americans had been killed by the virus, the notion that the president may have given the matter any thought was cause for laughter in the Reagan White House.... When the Reagan administration finally did start 'the national conversation' about the disease six years and 25,000 deaths into the crisis, he made sure to note that the 'final judgment' on the souls of the dead was 'up to God.'" ...
It's almost tempting to interpret this as withering, devastating sarcasm. The Reagans 'started a national conversation about AIDS' in the same sense that George W. Bush 'started a national conversation' about Iraq. -- Sam Biddle of Gawker
Marie Antoinette did some incredible LOW KEY ADVOCACY for the French Underclass. -- Dan Fishback, a writer and performer, on Twitter
... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "She faced a swift and fierce backlash, and issued a contrite apology within hours." ...
While the Reagans were strong advocates for stem cell research and finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease, I misspoke about their record on HIV and AIDS. For that, I'm sorry. -- Hillary Clinton, apologizing for her praise of the Reagans' work on AIDS, praise she repeated in a tweet
... Matt Yglesias of Vox comes to Hillary's & Nancy Reagan's defense, sort of. ...
... CW: Hillary Clinton was an adult in the 1980s. She had access to newspapers & TV news. Her husband was a politician & usually the governor of Arkansas. How Clinton can have missed the incessant public cries for the Reagan administration to address the AIDS crisis in a meaningful, serious way, & the continual criticisms of Reagan's failure to do so, I cannot imagine. She must know something about Nancy Reagan the rest of us don't know. ...
... Like the rest of us, Kevin Drum is flummoxed: "I can't imagine why Clinton said something so dumb and inflammatory, and I can't imagine she was pandering to anyone. What the hell caused her to momentarily lose her senses over this?" ...
... CW: The one thing I can think of is this: Hillary Clinton & Andrea Mitchell (to whom she was speaking) belong to the same Elite Schmooze Club, & Nancy Reagan of course was one of them. The Schmooze Club knows no political, ideological boundaries, & its members praise each other all the time. You see it at public & quasi-public events. If you care to surf C-SPAN for the introduction portions of policy forums or other events where people of various political persuasions appear, Schmooze Club etiquette is on full display. Usually, but not always, the encomiums fall somewhere within the range of the truth, even as they gloss over the actual whole truth. As Drum & other noted, apparently Nancy did encourage Ronnie a bit to take AIDS more seriously after the death of her friend Rock Hudson (whom she refused to help when he was dying of AIDS & asked her for assistance). So there was that teeny grain of truth to Hillary's remarks. Maybe Hillary got caught up in the funereal moment -- the prime venue for this kind of laudatory half-truth -- & forgot she wasn't just talking to her Schmooze Buddy Mrs. Greenspan but also to all of us non-Club members. (This explanation, lame tho it may be, does not cover the tweet Hillary or her campaign sent out, making the same claim about Nancy's endeavors for AIDS victims.)
ABC News: "Hillary Clinton won the Northern Mariana Islands' Democratic caucuses, according to the commonwealth's Democratic Party. Clinton won four delegates in addition to a previously pledged superdelegate. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won two delegates."
Let's see what President Obama says about Nancy Reagan's work on AIDS. Oh, nothing:
Chicago Politics, Bernie-Style, & a Rahm Referendum. Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Top campaign surrogates [for Bernie Sanders] have been dispatched to Chicago, and Sanders is running two separate television ads critical of [Chicago Mayor Rahm] Emanuel in an attempt to highlight [Hillary] Clinton's connections with the mayor." ...
... Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "A group of 17-year-olds in Ohio has successfully persuaded a state judge to allow them to vote in the state's primary on Tuesday. The ruling comes after Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont sued Ohio's top elections official, Secretary of State Jon A. Husted, in federal court on Tuesday arguing that Mr. Husted had 'arbitrarily' discriminated against young black and Latino voters by not allowing 17-year-olds who will be 18 by the general election in November to vote in the primary on Tuesday. On Friday, an Ohio state judge ruled that the teenagers can vote in the primary as well as in congressional, legislative and mayoral races. Mr. Husted has vowed to appeal...." ...
... Also from Flegenheimer's report: At a Sanders rally in Toledo, Ohio, "Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio announced her endorsement" of Sanders.
Clinton & Sanders, back in the day. Photo via the Week.... Paul Waldman on how the very different political histories of Bernie Sanders & Hillary Clinton explain each of their unique strengths & weaknesses now.
Patrick Reis & Eliza Collins of Politico: "Nineteen delegates are on the line Saturday when the D.C. Republican party holds its caucus, which will be conducted at a lone polling place a few blocks from the White House in the Loews Madison Hotel."
Jason Williams of the Cincinatti Enquirer: "Donald Trump is no longer planning a rally in Downtown [Cincinatti] on Sunday afternoon. The Secret Service security supporting the GOP presidential front runner's campaign could not complete its preparation work in time to hold the event at the Duke Energy Convention Center, said Eric Deters, a local spokesman for Trump's campaign." In an update, Williams writes, "... Trump has scheduled a campaign stop at the Savannah Center in West Chester on Sunday at 2 p.m." CW: West Chester, a new, upscale suburb of Cincinatti, about 22 miles from the Cincinatti city center. Ha ha. The median house size is about 3,500 sq.ft. The West Chester population is 83 percent white; in Cincinatti, it's slight less than 50 percent white. ...
... CBS News: "A CBS News journalist covered all of Friday night's events until he himself was detained.... Sopan Deb was on the floor of the arena as tensions built - raw emotions on both sides. He interviews both protesters and Trump supporters.... Deb says he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed, without notice or warning. Illinois State Police charged him with resisting arrest although there is no sign of that on the video [he was shooting]." Includes video you should watch. In a taped segment, you can hear Deb attempting to show the cops his press credentials. He said an officer held him down on the ground by placing his boot on Deb's neck. ...
... Arturo Garcia of the Raw Story: "A scheduled rally for Donald Trump's presidential campaign in Chicago on Friday was postponed. A spokesperson for the GOP presidential front-runner cited safety concerns for the 'tens of thousands gathered in and around' the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavillion." ...
... Update. Monica Davey & Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "With thousands of people already packed into stands and music blaring to warm up the crowd, Donald J. Trump's campaign abruptly canceled his rally [in Chicago] on Friday night over security concerns as protesters clashed with his supporters inside an arena where he was to speak. Minutes after Mr. Trump was to have taken to a podium on the campus of a large, diverse public university just west of downtown, an announcer suddenly pronounced the event over before it had begun. Hundreds of protesters, who had promised to be a visible presence here and filled several sections of the arena, let out an elated, unstopping cheer. Mr. Trump's supporters, many of whom had waited hours to see the Republican front-runner, seemed stunned and slowly filed out in anger.... Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich, condemned the disruptions, but said Mr. Trump was responsible for the tenor of his rallies. Mr. Cruz said Mr. Trump 'affirmatively encourages violence.'" ...
... Jenna Johnson & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The decision [to scrub the rally] immediately sparked nasty verbal and physical fights between protesters and Trump supporters.... soon as the cancellation was announced, shoving matches broke out between the two groups, and police tried to break up one scuffle after another. Everyone moved outside, and the crowd grew in numbers and the altercations continued.... The Chicago Police Department said it was informed shortly before 6:30 p.m. that the Trump campaign had canceled the event, an announcement that took the department by surprise, according to the police chief." According to the Trump campaign, Trump consulted with police before making the decision. CW: So Drumpf, who during Thursday night's debate answered a question about his antipathy to Muslims by praising cops, doesn't even play well with the police. ...
... CW: Earlier this week, my high school stadium illustrated the demise of Marco's candidacy; yesterday my college alma mater U of I - Chicago put a big crimp in the Donald's modus operandi. I'm feeling like a time-traveling, virtual Forrest Gump. ...
Part of the problem and part of the reason it takes so long [to kick them out] is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore. There used to be consequences. There are none anymore. These people are so bad for our country. You have no idea, folks; you have no idea.... They contribute nothing. Nothing. And look at the police, they take their lives in their hands. -- Donald Trump, at a St. Louis rally Friday morning
I expect "these people" who "contribute nothing" are black. -- Constant Weader
... Sasha Goldstein, et al., of the New York Daily News: "Donald Trump's divisive hate tour exploded in violence Friday with a bloody stop in St. Louis and chaos in Chicago -- while the tone-deaf hate-monger denied his role in the madness. The fury filled day began with clashes outside St. Louis' Peabody Opera House, leaving one man bloodied and another charged with assault." ...
... Bethania Markus of the Raw Story: "A demonstrator at a St. Louis rally for GOP front runner Donald Trump had his face bloodied and was taken to an ambulance by police officers, according to video posted online and the New York Daily News. The African-American man is a locally-known activist named Anthony Cage. He became a local activist against police violence and racism after the killing of unarmed black teen, Michael Brown, in 2014, by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson." With photos & video. ...
... Before the Chicago fiasco, Sam Stein & Dana Liebelson of the Huffington Post wrote a piece cataloging Trump rally violence. "Racial slurs, nasty rhetoric and violence at Trump rallies have become commonplace against protesters, bystanders, and reporters. Assaults are committed not only by rowdy Trump fans, but by the staff he employs to keep the events safe. But rather than denounce these incidents, Trump is making them part of his brand, and uses them to rev up crowds." ...
... Here's Rachel Maddow on the same topic, aired just after Trump cancelled his Chicago rally. Thanks to Victoria for the link:
... CW: Trump keeps promising to pay the legal costs for his followers who beat up on protesters. Let's see if he pays to defend John McGraw, the white guy who sucker-punched black protester Rakeem Jones in Fayetteville, N.C., then said "Next time, we might have to kill him." ...
... Steve M.: "... even if there's really bad violence at Trump rallies, the Republican rank and file will assume the victims deserved it. And I'm not sure the even moderate whites will find that this violence shocks their consciences. Trump is playing with fire. But he's not going to get burned at the ballot box -- not with the voters he's trying to reach." ...
... Gail Collins attempts her usual fun take on the clown parade, but Trump finally has managed to shake her out of Erma Bombeck mode: "He's going all the way. Running for president on an anti-Muslim platform. Good God." ...
... Hate Speech, the New Normal. The Washington Post Editors have had enough, too: "THE REPUBLICAN presidential race, the headlines tell us, suddenly turned civil and substantive this week.... Donald Trump merely stated that 'there is tremendous hate' among 'large portions' of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims. 'We better solve the problem before it's too late,' Mr. Trump said. A debate is not civil when it includes this kind of ignorant stereotyping. It is not substantive when such rank prejudice earns inadequate protest from the others onstage. In fact, it is a measure of how crude Mr. Trump has made GOP politics that the front-runner's hateful spewing seems increasingly normal." ...
... Elements of a Con Game -- The Trump "University" Review. Michael Barbaro & Steve Eder of the New York Times: "Interviews and documents show that employees of Trump University at times applied pressure on students to offer favorable reviews, instructed them to fill out the forms in order to obtain their graduation certificates, and ignored standard practices used to ensure that the surveys were filled out objectively. 'It's absolutely a con, said [Robert] Guillo, who spent $36,000 on Trump University classes and later requested a refund. 'The role of the evaluations were a defense against any legal actions. They anticipated those actions.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Brain Surgeon Testifies Trump Has a Brain. Sean Sullivan & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, throwing his support to the GOP front-runner in a 45-minute joint appearance where Trump said he doesn't see a need for any more televised debates. Carson ... said he and Trump have 'buried the hatchet' after trading nasty words during the primary. He also said there are 'two different' Trumps: the one the public sees and a more 'cerebral' Trump in private." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Valerie Strauss, a Washington Post's education reporter: "Donald Trump ... declared that Carson was going to help him with education issues because he knows so much about them." Strauss looks into how much of an education expert Carson is: his Website is full of inaccurate information [CW: no doubt gleaned from other Wingnut Websites] about education programs, testing, school performance, etc., & he has shown such a lack of familiarity with the basic structure of K-12 education that Strauss thinks he has no idea that charter schools are public schools & that Congress has repealed No Child Left Behind. CW: So there's your new Secretary of Education. And don't be thinking, "Oh, well, Ole Doc is smart; he'll learn on the job." This is a guy whose own adviser said he was incapable of grasping any information about American international policy. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Quinn Hilyer of the National Review: "Dr. Ben Carson has just made a hypocrite of himself and done great damage to the country by endorsing the moral monster, Donald Trump. Carson has spent an entire campaign pleading for honor and decency and decorum, only to endorse a man who is the crassest, most vulgar, most deceitful person in the race -- a man who has repeatedly attacked in the most vicious ways, and lied about, every other candidate in the race. Trump is a man who has repeatedly incited violence at his rallies, saying that protesters should be punched out and carried away on a stretcher, and promising to pay the legal bills of those who throw the punches." ...
... Kevin Drum: "Ben Carson has been grifting the conservative movement for years. He knows the main chance when he sees it, and right now Trump offers him the best prospect of staying in the spotlight and selling more books. I wonder if Trump will make him stand obediently behind him during his next rally, like he did with Chris Christie?" ...
(... CW: I think Ben Carson is a true believer, a fundamentalist's fundamentalist Christian. So how in his mind does he justify this never-ending grift? If he took a really good look in the mirror, he'd see more of an anti-Christ figure than a saint. I realize his belief system requires him to constantly reject evident facts, but it's extra-weird that he -- any many other self-identifying super-Christians -- ignores his own decidedly anti-Christian life choices. ...)
... Ravi Somaiya of the New York Times: "Earlier this week, a reporter for the website Breitbart News said that she had been dragged down by the arm as she was asking Donald Trump a question at a campaign event at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla. Another reporter present said that the Breitbart reporter, Michelle Fields, had been grabbed by Corey Lewandowski, Mr. Trump's campaign manager.... Mr. Trump's campaign has continued to vehemently deny that Mr. Lewandowski grabbed Ms. Fields.On Friday, according to the Jupiter Police Department, Ms. Fields filed a police report alleging 'battery-simple (touch or strike).'” ...
... How the Trump Machine Stands up to Hysterical Women. Gabrielle Bluestone of Gawker: "New video from the Donald Trump press conference Tuesday appears to show Donald Trump's campaign manager grabbing the reporter he swore he didn't grab.... The video also appears to invalidate a theory advanced by Fields' own employer, Breitbart, which today published a story by Joel B. Pollack concluding there was no way Lewandowski could have done it." ...
... Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed: "Breitbart spokesman Kurt Bardella is no longer working with the company in the wake of controversy over Donald Trump's campaign manager allegedly roughly handling one of the site's reporters.... Asked if it would be fair to say he was parting ways with Breitbart because he disagrees with its handling of the situation with Michelle Fields, Bardella said 'It would be fair for you to say that' but that he wasn't going to."
... Janell Ross of the Washington Post responds to Trump's racially-coded responses regarding violence at his rallies. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Eli Stokols of Politico: "Marco Rubio on Saturday said he is no longer sure he can support Donald Trump should he become the GOP presidential nominee following the protests and unrest sparked by a planned Trump rally in Chicago. 'I don't know,' the Florida senator said, pausing in despair.... 'I already talked about the fact that I think Hillary Clinton would be terrible for this country, but the fact that you're even asking me that question ... I still at this moment intend to support the Republican nominee, but ... it's getting harder every day.'" ...
... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "Perhaps you heard the news that Jeb Bush met with Cruz, Rubio and Kasich on Wednesday in Florida prior to the debate last night. If Erick Erickson is to be believed, they have hatched a 'stop Trump' plan. It all comes down to this: 1. Marco Rubio gets Florida. 2. John Kasich gets Ohio. 3. Ted Cruz gets Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina."
Eli Stokols & Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Marco Rubio, desperate to save his presidential campaign in his home state, is adopting the Mitt Romney strategy -- asking Republicans hoping to stop Donald Trump to support his rival, John Kasich, in Ohio. 'John Kasich is the only one who can beat Donald Trump in Ohio,' Rubio said.... The flip-side of that strategic gambit is to convince any voters in Florida not backing Trump to support him in Tuesday's primary. 'I'm the only one who can beat Trump in Florida,' Rubio said during a press conference Friday morning.... 'We were going to win in Ohio without his help, just as he's going to lose in Florida without ours,' said Kasich campaign spokesman Rob Nichols." CW: Either Kasich didn't understand Jeb!'s memo or he doesn't negotiated with the terrifieds.
Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Speaking to reporters at a local Republican dinner outside Chicago, where Mr. Trump had just canceled a rally..., [Ted] Cruz began by saying that the 'protesters who took violence into their own hands' were responsible for the episode. 'But in any campaign, responsibility starts at the top,' Mr. Cruz continued. 'And when you have a campaign that disrespects the voters, when you have a campaign that affirmatively encourages violence, when you have a campaign that is facing allegations of physical violence against members of the press, you create an environment that only encourages this sort of nasty discourse.' BUT also everything is Obama's fault: because he "sought to divide us on racial lines, on ethnic lines, on religious lines, on class lines." ...
... CW: See, if President Obama weren't so blackity-black-black (or, more accurately, half-blackity-black, but let's not get into math & the fractions that divide us), that old white guy would not have felt the need to cold-cock a black guy at a Drumpf rally this week, & Corey Lewandowski would not have had to shove around a white reporter. Really, Mr. President, stop being so damned black. You're scaring the nice white peoples. ...
... AND speaking of black & white & Chicago & Nancy Reagan, there was that time "when she telephoned from a fundraising event in Chicago in 1980. 'Oh Ronnie,' she enthused, 'I wish you could be here to see all these beautiful white people ... black and white people, I mean.'" R.I.P., Nancy. The beautiful Black Person in the White House has been saying nice things about you.
The National Review Editors endorse Ted Cruz for president.
Other News & Views
Sari Horwitz, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Obama is finalizing his decision on a Supreme Court nominee to replace the late Antonin Scalia and appears to have narrowed his choice to three candidates, according to people with knowledge of the vetting process. The three under consideration are Merrick Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; Sri Srinivasan, a judge on the same court; and Paul Watford, a judge on the California-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Obama said this week that he wanted to make a decision quickly, and his announcement could come as early as next week, the sources said." ...
... CW: So disappointing he's overlooked my neighbor's favorite: Judge Judy. First of all, a lot of people think she's already on the Supreme Court, so her appointment to an actual seat would go practically unnoticed. Second, she'd whip the asses of those old farts on the Judiciary Committee if they tried to deprive her of a hearing. A President known for his pragmatism should be more pragmatic here.
Jemima Kiss of the Guardian: "Barack Obama today attempted to heal a rift between the technology community and the government, saying the two sides must engage constructively to build technologies that balance individual privacy with the government's obligation to keep people safe. Addressing a small and enthusiastic audience at the SXSW festival, Obama told the 2,400 festival-goers, technologists, local politicians and media that the American constitution and bill of rights are a system designed to protect the public from government overreach." ...
... Joe DeLessio of New York: "Delivering a keynote address at South by Southwest Friday, President Obama said he couldn't discuss the ongoing battle between Apple and the FBI over access to the iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook. But the president ... took a stand against pro-Apple 'absolutism.' Said Obama, via Chris Welch of the Verge: 'What will happen is, if everybody goes to their respective corners, and the tech community says, "either we have strong perfect encryption or else it's Big Brother and an Orwellian world," what you'll find is that after something really bad happens, the politics of this will swing and it will become sloppy and rushed and it will go through Congress in ways that are dangerous and not thought through.'" ...
... Video of President Obama's full conversation is here.
... CW: I see the President is still promoting macroeconomic hoohah. Here he misinforms a new generation: "There is growing inequality because of globalization." Right. Because if only we didn't import Chinese toys, rich Americans wouldn't get tax breaks.
Elements of a Con Game -- Manufacturing VA "Scandals." Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "At [Thursday] night's debate in Miami, the Republican candidates - as they have all primary season - attacked the VA health care system and demanded its radical restructuring. Few viewers were aware, however, that the candidates were following a script written by the Koch brothers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Alicia Mundy has the full story: "Working through the CVA [Concerned Veterans for America], and in partnership with key Republicans and corporate medical interests, the Koch brothers' web of affiliates has succeeded in manufacturing or vastly exaggerating 'scandals' at the VA as part of a larger campaign to delegitimize publicly provided health care. The Koch-inspired attacks, in turn, have provided the pretext for GOP candidates to rally behind the cause -- only recently seen as fringe -- of imposing free market 'reforms on the federal government's second largest agency." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Peter Hermann, et al., of the Washington Post: "The mysterious death of [Mikhail Lesin,] the Kremlin-connected businessman -- found two days after he failed to show at an exclusive Washington fundraiser -- is fueling conspiracy theories around the globe. Speculation ranges from Lesin being targeted by a political or financial rival to being the victim of a mundane bar fight."
Beyond the Beltway
Lead, Lead Everywhere. Marc Santora & David Chen of the New York Times: "On Wednesday, water at 30 of Newark's 67 schools was shut off after being found to contain high levels of lead. The move left state and school officials trying to reassure nervous parents that they had the situation under control, even as questions swirled about how the problem had been handled in the first place. The potential danger of lead exposure was something school officials in Newark had been aware of for years, and the district had installed lead-reduction filters on water fountains and kitchen prep sinks, particularly in schools built before 2006.... But it took a crisis in Flint, Mich., to focus attention on the issue of lead contamination in Newark, New Jersey's largest city." Previous "solution": Just let the taps & drinking fountains run a while.
Lynchings as "Humor": "I Didn't Like the Gumbo." Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post: A couple complained to the NAACP (for some odd reason) after they went to Joe's Crab Shack (a national chain) in Roseville, Minnesota, & found themselves seated at a table into which had been laminated a blow-up of an early-20th century photograph of the hanging of a black man. The "joke"? The hanged man says, "All I said was 'I didn't like the gumbo.'" Ha ha. The restaurant removed the image after the NAACP's complaint & apologized, but the head of the Minneapolis NAACP says Joe's parent company, Ignite Restaurant Group, has not made a commitment to survey its other restaurants for offensive material. CW: To be clear, the photo depicted a public hanging, not a lynching. But still. The story raises questions not answered about how this image got there, & how long & why it stayed.
AP: "A man suspected of intentionally driving a snowmobile into teams of two mushers near the front of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race was arrested Saturday in a Yukon River village. Arnold Demoski, 26, of Nulato was arrested on suspicion of assault, reckless endangerment, reckless driving and six counts of criminal mischief."
Way Beyond
The Assassins' Cold Feet. Lorenzo Tondo of the Guardian: "Mario Cuomo, the former governor of New York, was targeted for assassination by the Sicilian mafia during a trip to Italy in 1992, according to an imprisoned Cosa Nostra hitman. Maurizio Avola, 54 -- who is currently serving a life sentence for his part in 43 murders and 40 armed robberies -- told the Guardian that mobster bosses planned an ambush involving about a dozen gunmen armed with assault rifles and explosives. The attack was only called off when the scale of Cuomo's security detail became apparent, he said."
Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "Israel Kristal is 112 years and 178 days old. That's quite an achievement. On Friday, representatives of Guinness World Records came to his home in Haifa, Israel, to officially give him a certificate. He's now officially the world's oldest living man." He has lived a remarkable life, even surviving Auschwitz.
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Reader Comments (17)
Thank you for posting this AIDS issue––I was just going to put a link on Dan Savages' savage assault on Hillary and the Reagan's themselves and he, too, has the video that you have given us. It makes one sick at heart.
http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2016/03/11/23698621/hillary-clinton-the-reagans-particularly-nancy-helped-start-a-national-conversation-about-hiv-and-aids
P.S. and I recall what Akhilleus said about wondering how Nancy's death would reactivate the regal Reagan legacy and we would be awash in all those brilliant mornings in America.
Once again I'm confronted with the almost absolute mystery of the human brain.
Hillary did misspeak--and how! But was it an honest mistake (possibly fed to her by an aide who used to work for Rand Paul)--even those I know who graduated from Yale Law do make mistakes--or was she so desperate to say something nice about Nancy Reagan she made it up and didn't think anyone would notice.
Considering the Clintons' penchant for consulting the lay of the land before they say anything political doesn't help. If she thought she would gain something by heaping praise on the underserving, in this case I can't see what it might be. Two Republican votes? Michael Gerson and ?? Not Michael Reagan, I'd wager.
I'll never know, but that doesn't stop me from wondering. I read biographies by the bushel, currently one that chronicles Washington Irving's life. Most are well researched and littered with direct quotations from the subject him- or herself, or from someone who was present at the place and time, sometimes participating, and always observing.
But the same question often arises. I know what happened and I know what someone or many ones said about it. But I don't really know why the people portrayed did what they did.
The maddening mystery, not the rhetorical question of "what were they thinking?" remains.
Oh, noz! Yesterday disappeared!
We are still a loooong way from November. Hillary needs to get it together. Like Ken, I am baffled as to why she would give the Reagan's credit for doing anything to quell the AIDS epidemic. It's like praising J Edgar Hoover for his honesty, fairness, and transparency while running the FBI. There were plenty of other things she could have said about Nancy Reagan if she wanted to make nice with the worshippers of St Ronald. She could have mentioned her work around Alzheimer's or how she single handedly kept haute couture dress designers busy for eight years without actually paying for anything, or her humanitarian efforts to give employment to out of work astrologers. But AIDS? A few more gaffes like this and we could all be sieg heiling Drumpf next January. One would think, after all those years of involvement in presidential campaigning that she'd have at least mastered the single biggest rule: whatever you do, don't beat yourself. If the other team beats you, well, that's politics, but Jesus, don't hand it to them.
@unwashed: Take heart. It's back. It was all a dream.
Sorry, don't know how that happened, but luckily I was able to retrieve the page. Thanks for pointing it out.
Marie
HRC confabulates a story about Nancy and HIV (as Ken writes, who knows why?) and it is a big misstep with instant public refutation. Trump & confreres make up stuff several times a day, every day (as did Romney et al in their day), and it becomes, essentially, background noise. Lesson learned: make up lots of BS all the time and each instance becomes inconsequential. The public adjusts its expectations to collaborate in confabulation. Ronald Reagan was a textbook case of how it works.
@Patrick: Exactly right. With a few exceptions, Republicans never admit any of their lies & misstatements, small or large. Eventually the most repeated lies become truisms, & the media never question them: Ted Cruz can get away with blaming President Obama for yesterday's protests because "everybody knows" Obama has "sought to divide us on racial lines, on ethnic lines, on religious lines, on class lines." He says it, the "liberal" media type it. Never mind that Obama's entire career is a study in uniting Americans.
Marie
Rachel Maddow on maddowblog has an excellent demonstration of Trump's direct incitement of violence at his rallies.
(I have not mastered cut and paste, so I have to just write it):
www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/escalating-aggression-marks-trump-s-rhetoric-642743363967
It might be easier to just go to maddowblog and view the lead video.
@Patrick - Exactly right: you nailed it.
Can't let this one go--yet.
Patrick is right, of course, but I still don't see any advantage for Hillary in her error. The R's lie repeatedly either to curry favor with their deluded audience or because they themselves are prone to baying at the moon. I don't like or respect it, but I get it.
And, yes, the media are complicit. Maybe an R lying is no longer news...
But Hillary was speaking on MSNBC with its likely better educated than the usual Fox viewer audience, so she couldn't have been attempting to cozen them , and if she had--to what possible end?
Since I can't make sense of it, and since I want my representatives to make sense, it has me worried.
And if I were Ms. Clinton, I would not wait too long. Not 'til the R's begin their inevitable innuendo campaign about this incident being proof of the brain damage she clearly suffered when she fell and hit her head.
If I were she, I'd simple blame an aide--offer a small sacrifice--and be done with it.
Just a few words about Nancy's funeral ceremony––what? you ask, you watched it?? Yes, she says, I did–––out of curiosity. It was choreographed by Nancy herself and the only thing missing was the MGM lion. I felt sorry for the people who were seated early because they had to sit for hours before everyone was settled although there was lots of camaraderie among many who were sitting next to those they knew. I left them to it while I mucked out the barn and fed the pigs and by the time I returned they had begun the ceremony. Good eulogies by everyone––bottom line: Ronnie would never have been Governor of California nor President of the U.S. without Nancy. The force behind the throne. The two of them knit together as one––even their children felt like outsiders. Interesting to me is that neither Patti or Ron have children and both are divorced.
So––the camera catches all the familiar faces: We see quite a bit of
GW Bush's reactions which I had to laugh at because he looked as if he didn't understand a word of what was being said––had an expression of utter confusion. Hillary sitting next to Laura who was next to Michelle all laughed in all the right places but Rosalynn Carter had very little affect––in fact seemed depressed. But what fun to see all the mucky- mucks––98% white and prosperous.
It was the Priest who went on and on and on with his blessings and sermon of God's love and Jesus's loving nature and how Nancy and Ronnie are now together that I finally had to bid farewell. It has been a long time since I've listened to religious renderings –––there's part of me that is still shocked that this fills so many.
Anyway––glad I watched––always good to cross over to the other side and take a sneaky peek.
@PD Pepe: I sometimes watch this kind of thing, too. The best was a sort of wake for Ted Kennedy that must have been on C-SPAN. It went on forever. Here's a highlight: former Sen. John Culver (go on to Part 2). Culver had the mourners rolling in the aisles. (I typed in "ted kennedy memorial kennedy library" to find it.)
Marie
It's instructive to take a step back and notice the enormous gulf between Confederates and most of the rest of us when it comes to outrageous fabrications. We were, all of us, appalled by Clinton's fantasy tale of Nancy Reagan's humanitarian efforts on behalf of those suffering the scourge of AIDS back in the 80's when in fact were she and Ronbo to come across a man lying on the sidewalk dying of AIDS, they wouldn't even bother to walk around him. They'd have stepped over the guy, or on him, if Nancy's astrologer warned her that they had to be off the streets by the time Jupiter was in the house of Taurus.
Confederates think nothing of the eye popping tales spun by their heroes and in fact, based on Hillary's fairy tale may already be adding to the Reagans' hagiography as I type this, painting them as the reincarnation of Albert Schweitzer and Mother Theresa.
Progressives are so wedded to a world of facts that whoppers like this one are unsettling. But not for wingers. Their sense of reality is so fluid that they see no problem with someone like Reagan imagining himself storming the gates of Auschwitz with American troops.
And it will be rich indeed if they use Clinton's unfortunate lapse to demonstrate her instability, protesting that a firm grip on reality is vital in the Oval Office, especially given the fact that their last hero to soil the White House linens invented a different reality every day and, as PD observed, didn't even seem to know what was going on as he sat at the funeral. Probably remembering the time he made that herioic bombing run in Vietnam and saved the lives of millions.
@Patrick Absolutely, Patrick has it right.
What happened to "Try not to speak poorly of the dead" Hillary was attending a funeral for Nancy; not prepared to speak, and was asked for a comment. She was probably thinking of Nancy's support for stem cell research, but, like a lot of seniors, the brain and the words don't always click into the same gears, so she misspoke. But the usual suspects, waiting and wanted to express shock and righteous indignation, ponced. No explanation allowed and no forgiveness possible, and the woman can only apologize.
@Marie: I so enjoyed the Culver story––laughed and laughed. Isn't it wonderful that some are just born story tellers and do a better job than actual comedians (Obama is a natural) And isn't it terrific that we can laugh at solemn occasions like funerals. So thank you kindly for one of the funniest tales of sailing high jinks on the treacherous sea.
Apart from the political scene & much of today's thread; e.g., the fed-upness of seeing Drumpf and his disciples receive prominent new coverage, it was lovely to read (with St. Pat's coming up in a few days) the NYTimes commentary from Tim Egan: " Irish Spring " I loved some of the quotes and comments, which made me laugh, sigh, and nod in accord, such as "W. B. Yeats sums up the Irish outlook: "As an Irishman, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.' "
“To be Irish,” said Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “is to know that in the end the world will break your heart.”
...my intro into the world of the Irish wit, wiles & wisdom came from my late husband (third generation Irish) with his sly needles, his fond recall of his immigrant Irish grandmother who was the strength and vision behind his family's future successes—makes me smile, sometimes sad, and more—often makes me think a move to Ireland would put me among people whose philosophy I know I would adore.