The Commentariat -- March 14, 2016
Afternoon Update:
David Fahrenthold & Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: "A North Carolina sheriff's office is investigating whether ... Donald Trump's actions at a Fayetteville, N.C., rally last week 'rose to the level of inciting a riot,' according to a statement from the department's lawyer.... The statement said the sheriff's office was also looking into further charges against John Franklin McGraw, 78, who allegedly was the man seen sucker-punching a protester as that person was being led out of the Trump rally by police. In addition, Mitchell said, the office was investigating how its own deputies reacted -- or didn't -- during the incident." CW: Huh. Drumpf has said President Drumpf would look into prosecuting Hillary Clinton because "she seems to be guilty." Maybe he'll end up being the one behind bars. I just hope that can get him an orange jumpsuit that perfectly matches his hair.
Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "The Republican National Committee (RNC) is teaming up with a prominent conservative advocacy group to block President Obama's effort to nominate a justice to the Supreme Court. The RNC has formed a task force to launch radio and digital attack ads, petitions and media appearances to back up Senate Republicans, who have pledged not to hold hearings or votes on Obama's replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia."
Hadas Gold of Politico: "Two more staffers for Breitbart have resigned from the company, citing the website's pro-Donald Trump stance. National security correspondent Jordan Schachtel and associate editor Jarrett Stepman sent their resignations to management on Monday afternoon. '... Some of us have been fighting behind the scenes against the party-line Trump propaganda for some time, but without any success, unfortunately,' Schachtel said in a statement. "Breitbart News is no longer a journalistic enterprise, but instead, in my opinion, something resembling an unaffiliated media Super PAC for the Trump campaign. I signed my contract to work as a journalist, not as a member of the Donald J. Trump for Presidentmedia network...."
Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "Bernie Sanders, campaigning at a feverish pace on Monday, made last-minute pitches to supporters on the eve of crucial primaries, holding five rallies in four states as he seized on his anti-trade message to rally people to turn out to vote on Tuesday."
Wow! Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has ordered the start of a military withdrawal from Syria, where Russian forces have been bombing insurgent enemies of the government for five months, Russia's state news media reported Monday....The United Nations special envoy on the Syria conflict, Staffan de Mistura, resumed his efforts on Monday to broker a peace deal between [Syrian President Bashar al-]Assad’s forces and the array of insurgent groups aligned against him." ...
... CW: Count the hours till Donald Trump takes credit for this.
The Alternate Reality of Drumpf Jose DelReal & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump ... insist[ed] during an event [in Hickory, N.C.,] that violence has not been an issue [at his rallies]. 'The press is now going, they're saying, "Oh but there's such violence." No violence. You know how many people have been hurt at our rallies? I think, like, basically none except maybe somebody got hit once,' Trump said at Lenoir-Rhyne University after several protesters were escorted out during the first of three interruptions. 'It's a love fest. These are love fests,' Trump added later. 'And every once in a while ... somebody will stand up and they'll say something.... It's a little disruption, but there's no violence. There's none whatsoever.'"
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Sarah Palin ... canceled a planned campaign event in Florida to support Donald J. Trump on Monday because her husband was hospitalized after a snow machine accident, according to Mr. Trump's campaign." CW: My apologies. It was on the front page of the NYT, so I kinda have consider this news.
Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "The Justice Department on Monday called on state judges across the country to root out unconstitutional policies that have locked poor people in a cycle of fines, debt and jail.... In a letter to chief judges and court administrators, Vanita Gupta, the Justice Department's top civil rights prosecutor, and Lisa Foster, who leads a program on court access, warned against operating courthouses as for-profit ventures. It chastised judges and court staff members for using arrest warrants as a way to collect fees. Such policies, the letter said, made it more likely that poor people would be arrested, jailed and fined anew -- all for being unable to pay in the first place."
Matthew Daly of the AP: "Nearly two years after it was created, the House Benghazi Committee is ... promising a final report 'before summer' that is certain to have repercussions for Democrat Hillary Clinton's bid for the presidency.... 'The only real deadline is the presidential election' in November, said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the Benghazi panel and a longtime Gowdy critic."
The Wisdom of Joe. Joe Scarborough, in a WashPo op-ed, says Trump's Chicago spectacle was deliberate. He wishes the protesters had been more articulate.
Jeffrey Collins of the AP: "A white former state trooper pleaded guilty Monday to assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature for the 2014 shooting an unarmed black driver seconds after a traffic stop. Ex-Trooper Sean Groubert faces up to 20 years in prison.... He will serve some prison time. The shooting was captured on dash-cam video from the trooper's patrol car and shocked the country, coming during a wave of questionable police shootings. The video shows Levar Jones walking into a convenience store in September 2014 when Groubert gets out of his patrol car and demands Jones' driver's license. Jones turns back to reach into his car and Groubert fires four shots. Jones' wallet is seen flying out of his hands.
*****
Forget the depressing news. As D.C. Clark points out in today's Comments, today is a very special Pi Day: 31416, one that, obviously, occurs only once a century (tho last year aficionados ignored the rounding error & celebrated 31415).
Presidential Race
Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "... Donald Trump has postponed his Monday night rally scheduled in Florida and will instead hold an event in Ohio. Trump was planning to hold an event Monday night at Trump National Doral. Instead, the candidate will hold a 'massive rally' in Youngstown, Ohio, according to the campaign."...
... CW: I don't doubt that the Trump campaign chose Youngstown because the Youngstown area is "the most racist region in America." ...
... Sunday, Trump held a rally in Bloomington, Illinois.
Judd Legum of Think Progress: When Donald Trump told Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press" Sunday that he was considering paying the legal fees of John McGraw, the guy who sucker-punched Rakeem Jones at a Trump rally, he was expressing support for "a man who threatened to murder a non-violent protester.... In another appearance on Sunday on Fox News, Trump was played the video of McGraw's murder threat. Although Trump made sure not to endorse the specific threat, he immediately attacked Jones and defended McGraw. Whether or not Trump ultimately provides McGraw with financial support he is already providing him with substantial rhetorical support."
Sean Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post: "A defiant Donald Trump touched off a political maelstrom Sunday that didn't spare his Republican and Democratic presidential rivals, as he threatened to encourage supporters to stage protests against Sen. Bernie Sanders and drew escalating criticism from GOP opponents desperate to slow him ahead of Tuesday's crucial nominating contests."
Rosie Gray & McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed: "Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields and editor-at-large Ben Shapiro are resigning from the company over the site's handling of Donald Trump's campaign manager's alleged assault on Fields.... Fields and Shapiro informed Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon of their decision Sunday night."
Jonathan Chait: "Last month, I made the case that a Donald Trump nomination would be better for America than the nomination of one of his Republican rivals. I no longer believe that."
Maggie Haberman & Alexander Burns of the New York Times wrote a somewhat entertaining piece for Sunday's paper in which they try to trace the genesis of Donald Trump's presidential ambitions. Guess what? Trump is Obama's fault, according to Haberman & Burns. They argue that Trump was so hurt by President Obama's needling him at the 2011 White House Correspondents' dinner that he decided to gain some respect by running for president. Trump denies Obama hurt his feelings. ...
... MEANWHILE, Jamelle Bouie also says Trump is all Obama's fault. Suddenly finding the country led by a black president -- a guy who seemed to come out of nowhere (or Kenya!) -- white voters, especially less-educated ones, panicked. They realized/feared they had lost their dominance in the American hierarchy. They want to go back to the days when affirmative action was for whites only & "hope Trump will restore the racial hierarchy upended by Barack Obama." Bouie has done the research to support his point, but it sure is pathetic.
John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "To many members of minority groups, the sight of Trump and Trumpism atop a national ticket would represent a grievous insult to their dignity, and a potential threat to their well-being; to many moderates, liberals, and leftists of all backgrounds, it would represent a moral outrage. The anti-Trump forces won't stand back and let him parade around the country unopposed. They will exercise their democratic right to protest against him and what he represents, and some of them will be disruptive." CW: Frankly, the whole Republican party represents a grievous insult to American dignity. Period.
Paul Krugman: "The truth is that the road to Trumpism began long ago, when movement conservatives -- ideological warriors of the right -- took over the G.O.P. And it really was a complete takeover. Nobody seeking a career within the party dares to question any aspect of the dominating ideology, for fear of facing not just primary challenges but excommunication." ...
... Greg Sargent (linked above): "Another way to put all of this: Maybe Trump is proving to be better at misleading GOP base voters than GOP establishment figures are."
The Hollow Man. Charles Blow: Ben "Carson’s endorsement [of Donald Trump] further tarnished his already tarnished reputation. He validated and rubber-stamped a grandiloquent fascist who is supported by a former grand wizard. All Carson's calls for civility were in that moment proven hollow.... But the more I thought about it, the more sense it began to make. Carson and the real estate developer are not so different from one another in this predilection for outrageous utterances, it's just that one smiles and the other scowls." CW: You forgot the grifter part, Charles.
Rosalind Helderman & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "Documents and interviews reveal the personal role Trump played in negotiating [a deal to manufacture & market men's clothing under his label]. Participants said they could not recall him expressing a preference that products be made in the United States." And they're not. "Donald J. Trump Collection shirts -- as well as eyeglasses, perfume, cuff links and suits -- are made in Bangladesh, China, Honduras and other low-wage countries.... Trump's rivals and critics say he is a hypocrite, enriching himself with overseas labor while blasting the practice for political gain." ...
... Greg Sargent explains how Trump turns revelations like this -- which might devastate anyone else's candidacy -- into arguments for his election.
Charles Pierce opposes in-house protests against Trump: "Having watched almost every second of the appalling events of the weekend just passed, I have a modest suggestion for all the groups working in rough alliance to keep the Republic out of the hands of a vulgar talking yam. Stay out of the buildings."
Hallie Jackson of NBC News: "Mitt Romney will campaign with John Kasich Monday at two stops in Ohio.... Romney is not expected to endorse the Ohio governor during the campaign swing, the source said, but it will be the first time Romney has campaigned on behalf of a Republican candidate this cycle." ...
... Also, I didn't bother to mention it, but John Boehner (you remember him) endorsed John Kasich Saturday. Not exactly earthshattering.
E. J. Dionne, without mentioning her name, presents the argument for a Hillary Clinton presidency. It's a rather weak argument. ...
... Jeff Greenfield, in Politico Magazine, in more specific terms, on why Hillary is hardly the ideal "anti-Trump": "First, Hillary Clinton commands little trust among an electorate that is driven today by mistrust. Second, her public life the posts she has held, the positions she has adopted (and jettisoned) define her as a creature of the 'establishment' at a time when voters regard the very idea with deep antipathy. And finally, however she wishes it were not so, however much she argues that she represents the future as America's first prospective female president, Clinton still embodies the past, just as she did in 2008 when she lost to Barack Obama.... If the discontent with the economy persists in the fall..., there is no Democrat more in the cross-hairs of an angry electorate than Clinton. Everything from her Wall Street financial links to her work as secretary of state become targets of opportunity. Those targets, further, are independent of the more obvious vulnerabilities...." Read the whole article. ...
... CW: When voters express their antipathy to "Washington politicians," I think maybe what they mean is "snobs." And Hillary Clinton is a snob. Trump, ironically, comes across as a guy they'd like to have a beer with (he doesn't drink) & who made it big despite his humble outer-borough roots (oh, & something like a $200MM inheritance). Even when his words don't match his actions -- like when complaints about trade deficits while selling clothing made in foreign factories (see above) -- it's only because he is forced to work within a corrupt system of of the Clintons' making.
... Over the weekend, Driftglass tried to track down the time & place of a supposed "town hall" in Springfield, Illinois, featuring Hillary Clinton. No luck. "Dear Clinton Campaign and MSNBC -- You don't get to call it a 'Town Hall' if you won't tell anyone in the damn 'town' where the damn 'hall' is." Much later, Driftglass learned that the fake town hall would be held at the Old State Capitol & that "a limited number of tickets ... had already been given out." MEANWHILE, Ted Cruz was hosting a rally in the same area with a "y'all come on down" invitation. So says Driftglass, "Dear Clinton Campaign and MSNBC -- when you are losing an open-door-and-welcome-one-and-all contest to Ted Cruz, you are hanging on way too tight. Also for what it's worth. no Bernie Sanders event I ever heard of ever turned away the great unwashed."
Salon excerpts a chapter of Thomas Frank's book Listen, Liberal. The chapter is devoted to Bill Clinton's "centrist" presidency. CW: Frank tends to be a bit over-the-top, but his assertions here comport with my memory of the Clinton administration. I thought it was terrible. Frank alludes to Hillary Clinton's promotion of her husband's anti-liberal philosophy. Can she have changed over the years? Of course. I just don't think she has. I'll admit Obama is no Bernie, but he learned some of his anti-liberal views from Clinton people: Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Rahm Emanuel, Bill Daley, etc. What passes for pragmatism is an elitist disdain for ordinary Americans. ...
Rachel Bade of Politico: "A State Department staffer who oversaw security and technology issues for Hillary Clinton is refusing to answer Senate investigators' questions about the former secretary of state's use of a private email server -- marking the second time an ex-State employee has declined to talk to lawmakers. John Bentel, a now-retired State employee who managed IT security issues for the top echelon at the department, declined to be interviewed by GOP staff on the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, according to a letter obtained by Politico." CW: This is being treated as Big News; that's the only reason I'm linking it.
Other News & Views
Edward-Isaac Dovere & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "As soon as President Barack Obama announces a Supreme Court nominee from his short list -- which is now set -- the White House and its allies will unleash a coordinated media and political blitz aimed at weakening GOP resistance to confirming the president's pick. Administration allies have already started putting a ground game in place. Obama campaign veterans have been contracted in six states -- New Hampshire, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where GOP incumbents are most vulnerable, plus Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley's Iowa." ...
... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress on the ugly counter-attack, parts of which the right is already rolling out, against the President's nominee. Millhiser shows how the attacks undermine not just the nominee but our Constitutional rights.
Jared Bernstein in a New York Times op-ed: "... we should welcome the end of the era of [free trade agreements], which had long devolved into handshakes between corporate and investor interests on both sides of the border, allowing little voice for working people. With such noise behind us, we might be ready to foster the next generation of advanced production and help our exporters fight back against currency manipulators. That would be more productive than fighting tooth and nail over the next big trade deal."
Colin Dickey of the New Republic: "As the political debate over gun control stagnates and stalemates..., white men will continue to display AR-15s openly and brazenly, threatening mosques and people they don't like in the name of the Second Amendment, like the slave patrols of the Antebellum South. Mass shooters will continue to walk around with guns drawn, law enforcement powerless to stop them until they start firing. Black men and women and young children will continue to be shot on sight for holding pellet guns, or for any vague movement that might be later classified as 'reaching for a waistband.'"
CW: If, like me, you don't watch the Sunday morning showz, you can rely on Driftglass to tell you what you missed, even when he doesn't watch in real time. (So what, it ain't real anyway.)
Beyond the Beltway
Lenny Bernstein & Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "Republican Rick Snyder called himself #onetoughnerd when he swept into the Michigan governor's office in 2010, winning election easily after pledging to run the state more like the businesses that generated his substantial wealth.... Yet now, as he prepares for congressional hearings on the water-contamination debacle in Flint, Mich...., no fewer than three efforts to recall him are formally underway, and a special prosecutor is investigating whether the governor or others in his administration should face criminal charges. Some people want him jailed."
In the South, They're Still Whistling Dixie. Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Public sentiment is mixed, but support for Confederate symbols remains."
Way Beyond
Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "German voters on Sunday appeared to send a message to Chancellor Angela Merkel: Close the door on migrants. Her center-right Christian Democratic Party suffered universal setbacks in local elections -- in a vote widely seen as a referendum on Merkel's humanitarian stance allowing vast waves of migrants to cross German borders."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Lloyd S. Shapley, who shared the 2012 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science for work on game theory that has been used to study subjects as diverse as matching couples and allocating costs, died on Saturday in Tucson. He was 92."
New York Times: "An American fighting for the Islamic State was captured in northern Iraq early Monday morning, according to Kurdish and American officials. The American, identified by Kurdish officials as a young man from Virginia, was captured near the city of Sinjar, which Kurdish forces retook from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, in November."
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Reader Comments (39)
"Support for Confederate symbols remains." I've said it before and I don't know if I said it here, but make doggy poop plastic bags with the confederate flag on them. I'm thinking that would be a pretty unambiguous rejection of that damn symbol.
On another note: As I think about the Drumpf supporters, I can't help but think they are the doppelgängers (a couple generations removed) who tried to tar and feather Linus Pauling. They do the same thing now with their climate change denial; they do the same thing with violence as their first resort. When I read the anti-Hillary-isms out there, I think she would have come down on the right side with Linus. I say ease off, because she's not elected yet and the bastards on the other side are really bad this time. By what I say, I don't want to turn a single voter off from casting their ballot for her.
So, it's 2 AM and I can't go back to sleep. Thank you Herr Trump.
From truth Dig
“It’s not a threat, it’s not a threat. It’s not a threat at all!” Trump declared when asked by Tapper about the tweeted message. “My people have said we ought to go to his rallies, when liberals and super-liberals, I don’t even call ’em liberals. ... These people are bad people that are looking to do harm to our country. These people come into mine. … They’re being arrested and all sorts of things are happening to them. There’s a horrible thing going on in the media. We are treated so unfairly, and I’m treated so unfairly.”
Not so subtle threats to unleash his "Brown Shirts". Kristallnacth can't be too far off.
And for gawd sake, when are you going to start using these "best words" you keep boasting about? Maybe Ms. Palin could start writing your press releases.
Citizen Dan
@Citizen: The idea that we should not criticize a politician running for office because she's perceived as the least-bad option is antithetical to democratic ideals. The people I think would make better presidents chose not to go for it, and the ones who did run were all -- like the rest of us -- flawed, if in different ways.
I voted for Bernie Sanders because he most closely represents my views of what would be, in a more enlightened environment, the best possible outcome for the country. That doesn't mean I think he'd make a great president, given the actual environment, or that he even has a real shot at getting the job. I'm not exactly the Oracle of Delphi, but the one thing I can predict with near certainty is that we're going to get a lousy president. In November, I'll vote for the lesser of two lousies. In the meantime, I'm going to squawk about it.
Marie
On a lighter note:
Happy Pi Day! It's a once in a century this year - 31416.
I'll be making pizza, and blueberry pie for desert.
@ D.C.
It is a happy day for π, if you round up. Taking it out a few more decimals, I think π "moment" occurred last night at 22:14:13 ± 0.5 sec.
I was asleep so I missed it.
Re: Pi Day.
During his senior year at Yale, while taking a remedial geometry class, George W. Bush tried to correct his tutor when she told him about Pi R squared, "That's the stupidest thing I ever heard.Everyone knows pie are round."
An amazingly anectodal view on the GOP cancerous tumor growing from within, starring Nikki Haley:
First, Nikki Haley accidently connects the latest egregious hate crimes to GOP ideology and its brainwashed foot soldiers...
""I just want to be honest about the leader we have now," she told the almost exclusively senior-citizen crowd. "After seeing what happened in Chicago. After seeing what happened in North Carolina, after seeing what happened in Ohio, we are are seeing a division that is not us. That is not who we are as Republicans. And we are seeing a division that is dangerous. We are seeing a division that's got hate to it. And I want to tell you what that division can mean."
She reminded the audience of Walter Scott, an African American man who was shot and killed by a police officer last April in North Charleston.......Then Haley brought up the mass shooting a few months later at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston."
Then, she refuses to openly denounce the man she just claimed could lead directly to more KKK marches and mass shooting hate crimes.
"But as with Rubio, who couldn't bring himself to say he wouldn't support Trump as the nominee, Haley hedged just enough to undermine the whole thing. "It's not that I think there's anything wrong with Mr. Trump (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)," she said, acknowledging the large number of Trump supporters in the room. "He's a supporter. He supported me in my race. It's just lack of judgment."
Then, while simultaneously decrying those creating social divisions and sowing political discord, she blames it on......guess who???
"But leadership is being able to say we are a country that needs to unite. We have had a divider-in-chief for seven years. We don't need another."
And this, ladies and gentlemen, has been a modern day lesson on GOP "leadership". The, 'bright' stars, if you will.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2016/03/nikki-haley-donald-trump-mother-emanuel
I heard one of Drumpf's Brownshirts this morning yelping about how his First Amendment rights were being squashed by evil liberals protesting der Fuhrer's incitement to violence during one of his Bund rallies.
Here's how it goes. Protesting against Trump is an affront to his and his supporters' rights. Beating up those protesters who try to voice their opinions on the matter is not an attempt to abridge their First Amendment rights.
It's just the right thing to do. And besides. They got it comin' for openin' their stupid mouths.
Forever victims. Forever stupid. Getting more dangerous by the hour.
On an even lighter note, although mentioning "The House of Cards" is hardly a "lighter thing." Just wanted to alert MAG whose affection (and mine) for Joel Kinnaman, the actor who played Holder in "The Killing" has now appeared in the newest season of HoC. I hardly recognized him–– he be all spiffied up––he plays the contender for the Presidency––has a hot wife and two children. This last season was shot before the Trump debacle, but it eerily corresponds.
... MEANWHILE, Jamelle Bouie also says Trump is all Obama's fault. ... " -- white voters, especially less-educated ones, panicked. They realized/feared they had lost their dominance in the American hierarchy."
I'm surprised at you, Marie, and at Jamelle Bouie. It is not Obama's FAULT that we now have Donald Trump. It is Donald Trump's fault. To say it is Obama's fault is to imply he knowingly ginned up fear and panic in the stupidest sect in the nation.
White voters, especially less educated ones did not PANIC. They were told to panic. These people aren't smart enough to have initiative as a character trait. They are authoritarians who wait for someone to tell them what to do.
@Nancy - I think you are misinterpreting Marie's blurb. I read it as: "Yet another person is putting forward this stupid argument!" The last line of the blurb says it all. CW writes: "Bouie has done the research to support his point, but it sure is pathetic."
@Akhilleus: Speaking of Dubya & pi(e), here is a poem of sorts composed of actual G.W.B. quotes. Sorry, Anonymous, you're not getting any well-deserved royalties for your compilation:
MAKE THE PIE HIGHER
by George W. Bush
I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
and potential mental losses.
Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.
Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!
@Nancy: I should have hoped that you would know me well enough by now to know that I don't blame President Obama for the color of his skin. Neither does Bouie, who is black. Bouie's argument, if you read it, is that the more overt widespread racism that we're seeing now is a reaction to having a black president. White confederates can't handle the idea that a black man is the boss of them. Indeed, as Bouie points out, one reason the reactionaries are willing to accept the notion that "everything is Obama's fault" is that they can't believe a black person can be competent enough to lead the nation. He can't really be president; he must have somehow tricked us; ergo, he's a secret Muslim born in Kenya who "knows what he's doing" when he tries to "make America weaker."
Their prejudices run way deeper than affirmative action or pro-immigration policy. They think white people are superior to other races, & all the evidence to the contrary upends their worldview.
We'll see the same reaction to women if Hillary Clinton becomes president. Because only men are tough enough to lead. Just you wait till President Clinton II wears a pink pantsuit: no respect for the office, trying to weaken the nation in the eyes of the world, blah blah, Bill is really running the country, she stole the election, blah-blah.
Marie Burns
@PD Pepe: Thanks for the info on Joel Kinnaman (a Swedish actor). I absolutely did not recognize him in "House of Cards" as the same actor who starred in "The Killing," & I've seen both series from start to finish.
Marie
Is it possible that Dubya was playing a deep game that I was too dimwitted to discern during his illegitimate Presidency... and still don't?
After all, he was a master of strategery and I'm not.
At this point I could say the same about the entire Republican Party and its antics. Safari's welcome contribution of Haley's "explanation" didn't do much to clarify.
Maybe Rance will give me a call this morning and explain it all.
Otherwise will have to wait for tomorrow evening's post-primary-mortem. That should do it.
A few words on HRC (all the best ones, doncha know?)
I've been reading a number of appeals to cut Hillary some slack, that the Nancy Reagan "remembrance" was just a glitch, an example of her "misspeaking" and that we all make mistakes so we should give her a break.
Sure we should. If she had misspoke. But misspeaking is something more like switching words inadvertently so as to cloud or confuse your intended meaning. For instance, if you said you were concerned about the nuclear bomb tests by South Korea when you clearly meant North Korea. Going on an extended story about how someone (the Reagans) did something they not only never did, but something they demonstrably detested, such as my recalling that my grandfather, who as a boy in Ireland, was severely maltreated by the British, was a huge fan of fox hunting and royal family trivia, is different.
That would clearly not be misspeaking. That would be....well, something else entirely. I'm not sure what it was in Hillary's case. And suggesting that she was caught unawares doesn't seem to fly either. I don't know for a lead pipe cinch when Clinton found out about Nancy Reagan's demise but I'm guessing she had a little bit of time to sort out what she might say knowing for sure that she would probably be asked about it. So to forego the usual tried and true pap ("A great lady, loved her husband, blah, blah, blah...") and launch into an alternate history excursion is weird even if you factor in the Clinton penchant for poll tested statements. (And what polling data would indicate that the public would love to hear about Nancy Reagan's bold moves to stem the rise of AIDS?)
Added to a few other odd things she's said lately, it makes me wonder about her and I have no intention of ceasing to hope (out loud) that she get it together. I want a candidate I can vote for without at least wondering if she's gone off the rails. I want the best candidate I can vote for. As Marie reminds us, plenty of others had a chance to pull the trigger on this race but they all declined (this is similar to the situation when Bill Clinton took his shot. The Democratic big guns all sat on the sidelines and he jumped in when everyone decided not to risk their careers by going up against Poppy Bush).
Hillary's recovered memory about Nancy Reagan, AIDS warrior, is embarrassing. She comes across as either daft or a cynical poser. Remember the "I was under sniper fire attack in Bosnia" thing?
I don't know if this fits into that category (whatever "that" was) but it doesn't sit well whatever the hell it is.
But whatever it is, it is not an example of misspeaking. A career pol like Hillary should be able to get up at 3 AM and be able to make sense, but sure I'll cut her some slack if she misspeaks in the middle of the night about getting ready to bomb South Korea, should Kim Jong-Un decide to lob a missile over an American destroyer, but if she starts wondering about why our great ally, North Korea, is trying to play Whack a Mole with our Pacific fleet, then I'm going to feel free to wonder WTF is going on. And ask questions.
I get where the appeals to back off where Clinton is concerned are coming from, I really do. And I think I cut Hillary a lot of slack, but not criticizing her for serious gaffes is not the way it's supposed to work. Careful, useful criticism is not the same as advising those mythical undecideds to vote Republican. And if she takes it well, it's a nice demonstration that she's not wedded to fictions, as are Confederates; that she can be trusted to revisit conclusions and solutions when new facts come to light.
Ya know, like a real leader.
I haven't binged through "House of Cards" yet (currently working on season one of Fargo--crazy good), but I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest that Joel Kinnaman, in his talks with Kevin Spacey's president, never once said, "Oh, snap!"
Marie,
I've always wanted a higher pie. In fact, I've yearned for higher pie. Dreamed of it! Just the other day I said to my wife "Baby, can you make that pie higher? Mine always come out low and, well, a higher pie would be.....higher."
Just another example of how The Decider's tautological words of wisdom keep edumacating us all.
An historical message about tomorrow's primaries for all US presidential candidates who are either front-runners or would be members of the global "elite":
"Beware the Ides of March........"
Islander,
The difference is that our contemporary Caesar is getting ready to have the other senators turn around and stab Cassius and Brutus (he bribed them with promises of res omnia libera-- lots of free stuff).
Hey, they're big strong guys who are getting ready to do real damage! We gotta do something. Et tu, Cruze?
Marie wrote in comments above: "We'll see the same reaction to women if Hillary Clinton becomes president."
True, but also: we'll see the same reaction to (anyone) if (a Democrat) becomes president.
The GOP Base clearly believes that Democrats can't legitimately gain office (because of who the D Base is, among other things). Therefore, any D who becomes President is a fraud, and it is the R Base's patriotic duty to hound that fraud. If the President is a woman, her election is just one more item in the fraud bill of particulars (a big item, since clearly she would have "played the gender card", which is somehow wrong).
And ... part of the long strategy of RWNJ professionals is to create a climate in which a huge number of voters just check out because of the tawdriness of it all, and because they are told over and over that their votes don't really count. When turnout goes down, GOP victories go up.
Just remember my Aunt Maggie's (b. 1908) observation: "If it weren't for the Democrats, we'd all be eating dirt." True then. True now.
Tell your friends to register.
Re: the racist group that has never accepted the legitimacy of the Obama presidency–––" White confederates can't handle the idea that a black man is the boss of them." When Harry Truman became president my father was appalled. The fact that he had been Roosevelt's vice president probably stuck in my father's craw for years, but when he finally took over the reins it was the final straw for my father who muttered something about Truman being a country hick–-how could someone who didn't even have a decent education become president? I think of that now with a deep sense of regret that someone like my father, a man of such kindness and compassion, could harbor such animosity toward someone he clearly thought beneath him, not because he was a different color or an evil doer, but because he had not the education fit for the job and yet Truman was one of the most well read presidents. What would my father have made of someone like Dan Quayle who like Bush uttered inane "isims"–––"Make the Pie Higher" gives us a taste.
Except for that memory of a President being ridiculed I think for the most part, in my youth, I respected people in authority––teachers, ministers, parents, et al. Because of the lack of media coverage in those days adult behavior stayed under wraps. Today my young grandchildren make fun of Trump, & Cruz––laugh hysterically at the Bad Lip Reading videos and yesterday my 10 yr. old granddaughter told me she didn't think Bernie had a chance. When I asked why, she said, "Because he's too unrealistic."
So we have a generation that is privy to the underside of the game and fully understand that adults have feet of clay in a way that maybe we haven't seen before. But I wonder if I may be wrong about that and because I was protected doesn't mean others were.
Akhilleus,
Thanks for expressing more felicitously and at greater length my concerns about HRC's recent "misspeak" at the Nancy Reagan funeral. Like you I wonder (fear?) there is much more to that story, none of it good.
Trump becomes more bizarre by the day! No, make that by the moment. Is there anyone or any group that he hasn't insulted? As many commenters here and elsewhere beg the media to stop giving him the exposure. But, he's found their soft spot—more eyeballs, more clicks. I'm beginning to do what I did when the Queen of Wasilla was front & center. Ignore the articles. Though hard to escape the photos that accompany Drumpf's articles...in them, his face becoming more bloated, redder, and the tiny little piehole more twisted.
Actually, scary!
NYTimes had an interesting piece (I think it was on the 11th) about his 'friends.' Apparently, not many as I have long suspected.
@ all HoC & The Killing watchers! Yep! PD it was during the second HoC episode with Kinnaman there came a nagging something recognizable about his voice that made me pause and immediately Google! Always fun to discover actors in contrasting roles from what we know and to see them in believable new portrayals. No typecasting here.
@Ak Spoiler alert, you are correct. No, Oh snap!
Akhillius:
I think the best word for what Hillary "misspoke" is confabulation. Her series of recent tone deaf not true statements are, as you say, not just slightly off base. The content is just so wrong, like the anti-Bernie statement. I've been wondering if, in the incredible stress of the campaign, she is exhibiting the late effects of brain damage, say, from her tumble and subsequent hospitalization a couple of years ago. A tiny little bleed in just the right area can leave someone disabled even if damage is not apparent at first.
@PD Pepe: Thanks for that remembrance of your father's reaction to HST. In fact, one of the real reasons Truman trouble getting up & running was that the Harvard-educated, blue-blood Roosevelt, who had been sick & dying for some while, refused to prepare Truman for the job. Roosevelt never informed him of what was going on. Truman took the oath of office completely unaware of the Manhattan Project, for instance.
Harry may have been a hick, but his ignorance when he took office was Roosevelt's doing, not his.
Marie
Victoria,
Somebody already beat you to the brain damage thing: Karl Rove.
A couple of years ago, Rove, true to form, wondered if Hillary, because she had been wearing dark glasses that are, according to Mr. Turd Blossom "...only for people who have traumatic brain injury" whether or not she was brain damaged. (What must people think in the summertime? All those brain damaged people wearing sun glasses?)
Immediately, in classic Confederate fashion, Rove said he didn't say what he had just said. But I'm sure the next day, when the media reported his words, he could go back on Fox and say, as Trump is always doing, "Golly gee willikers, I don't know about brain damage, but everyone is saying that she has it. How that got out there, I have no clue."
I'm no neurologist but I think there would have been some signs of "brain damage" before now, but who knows? I don't know how to ascribe Clinton's recent narrative misfires but I'm not ready to go to brain damage yet. But those who are ready are legion in the Confederacy. Eric Erickson, long the soul of sagacity and integrity, rides this thing like a mechanical bull in a redneck bar.
This isn't to say it's not a possibility. I suppose it's possible that Donald Trump might even have a soul, shit-stained and twisted as it would be were one to inhabit, like some malignant spirit, that short fingered, clown tressed carcass.
I don't think Hillary "misremembered" or "misspoke." I think she got one of her twenty-something staff to find something good to say about the spiteful, entitled Nancy Reagan, and one or more of her aides did some bad research and up with the AIDS thing (they being too young to remember that stain on the Reagan years). Shows you that HRC doesn't remember what harm the Reagans did in the realm of ignoring AIDS and diminishing those who had it back then because she was likely not paying attention and cared as little about AIDS as Nancy Reagan. I wish she would have just choked it down and said, "She was a stylish little thing and my didn't she have lovely taste in china" and left it at that. I can think of no other explanation for her gaffe.
@Marie, yes I do know you better than that. That's why I was surprised at your wording "Obama's fault." Maybe "the result of Obama's presidency" or something. I guess I'm just tired of reading those two words: Obama's fault.
Okay, besides the fact of it being Pi Day, we need some good news.
It appears there is some appreciable cause for savoring a fleeting moment of sanguinity concerning Those Kids These Days (ie kids who used to run through your yard), aka Millenials.
According to a just released USA Today/Rock the Vote poll, millenials would reject the Orange Headed Clown in favor of Hillary Clinton by some pretty astounding numbers:
"In a hypothetical Clinton v. Trump contest in November, voters under 35 would choose Clinton by a crushing 52%-19%, a preference that crosses demographic lines. Among whites, she'd be backed by nearly 2-1, 45%-26%. Among Hispanics, by more than 4-1, 61%-14%. Among Asian Americans, by 5-1, 60%-11%. Among African Americans, by 13-1, 67%-5%."
Now if only they remember to vote!
Should she become the Democratic Party's candidate in the general election, recent discussion of HRC's real and perceived weaknesses heighten the importance of her VP running mate selection.
Any RC preferences (other than Elizabeth Warren)?
From The Daily Kos -
"The Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" Played at Trump Rallies - WTF?"
" . . . Driven by the Trump campaign’s delusional sense of omnipotent messianic superiority, these budding Fascists probably think that this song is actually an homage to the Great One, Donald Trump. Add to that, the fact that Trump rallies are basically New Age Klan Rallies, they seem to believe that this song is their theme song.
Nothing could be further from the truth. This song is about the evils of such men as Trump and his Mighty Whitey Militia flock."
http://m.dailykos.com/story/2015/12/20/1462191/-Rolling-Stones-Sympathy-for-the-Devil-Played-At-Trump-Rallies-WTF
A Post-Script:
While The Daily Kos' "Sympathy For The Devil" was published three months ago, it felt - IMO - deserving of a fresh re-play.
@Ken - This isn't an expression of preference, but I've been getting a queasy churning lately. I suspect the governor of my fair state of New York, one Mr. Andrew Cuomo, is running for VP.
We have been treated to lots of TV ads lately about how great New York is for business, and he is also running around the state promoting a $15/hr minimum wage bill. It's as if he is trying to offer lollipops to everyone, red or blue depending on the audience.
One of the recent TV ads has a picture of Mr. Cuomo with his father, the great late Governor Mario Cuomo, a man who probably should have run for President but didn't. Young Mr. Cuomo has gone out of his way to stick it to teachers, and he waffles on cleaning up the ethics situation in our state government, where several recent leaders are now either indicted or convicted of bribery of one sort or another. There are many reasons not to choose him.
My favorite cover of "Symphony for the Devil" is by Blood Sweat and Tears (3). No, make that my favorite recording of it. Clayton-Thomas had (has) the perfect voice for it. A bargain at twice $0.99.
And, enjoy the devil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mycylXuB33U
Ophelia,
Trump's adoption of "Sympathy for the Devil", a smirking, giddily ribald tale of the power of evil to corrupt is the perfect motif for Drumpfus Donaldus. It reminds me, now that I think of it, of a brilliant (one of the many) aria in Gounod's masterpiece, "Faust" in which the devil hypnotizes his audience of Brownshirts, knuckledraggers, simpletons, and the self-important (sound like a Trump rally?) with a self-congratulatory confession of how easy it is to ensnare weak humans with the lure of money and power. Watch it (it's very short--Satan doesn't fuck around) and try not to think of the man in the white suit as Herr Drumpfus, svengali-ing the rubes with his siren calls of hatred, money, and violence, laughing at their stupidity as they thrash about to his tune.
"Et Satan conduit le bal"
And Satan leads the dance.
The fact that Trump thinks musical come-ons like "Sympathy for the Devil" are a great idea means he is either unusually honest about his appeal, or, like hosts of wingers, doesn't-have-a-fucking-clue about rock and roll, or the songs, or their meaning. Like Reagan's obtuse use of Bruce Springsteen's nihilistic anthem of hopelessness and the power of the moneyed and politically connected over average Americans, "Born in the USA", as a celebration of Reagan's fantasy of an all-white America where darkies know their place and anyone who thinks like he does will be raised up and graced with manna from Confederate heaven.
Fucking idiots.
Et Satan conduit le bal. C'est vrai. Il le fait encore.
The lies keep on comin'
Trump, today, arrogantly declared that no one has ever--EVER--been hurt at his rallies. Maybe someone who stubbed his toe, but nothing to complain about.
Wasn't it just the other day that he was crying about how his minions were being assaulted daily by blahs? "They are really dangerous and they get in there and they start hitting people, and we had a couple of big strong powerful guys doing damage..."
Satan could learn a thing or two from the Drumpfus.
@P.D. Pepe: Joel Kinnamon is playing Will Conway on H of C.? Well, you could knock me over with a feather! Would never have recognized him, a real testament to the dramatic arts. Anyway, thanks for the heads up. Loved him on The Killing (the first season was wonderful).
P.S. The lengthy scene he shares with Underwood at convention is really a hoot.
Whyte Owen -
Thank you for David Clayton-Thomas' cover of "Sympathy of the Devil". What a soulful set of pipes on that man! I am astonished (frankly, quite ashamed) that - somehow - his rendition alluded me (or am I living proof that the smoking of weed in one's younger years is destined to manifest as selective memory loss by middle-age? LOL). In any case, I so enjoyed being reintroduced to that voice of his this evening.
Akhilleus -
What a fine and unexpected (for me) analogy: The gorgeous Le Veau D'Or aria and the performances of . . . Perhaps we might also refer to him as Trompe l'oeil?
Thank you for posting the link (and what a set of pipes on René Pape!). The staging & choreography are fantastic: Would love to have seen that production.
Just below the Faust was another video of Le Veau D'Or sung, again, by Pape, to powerful perfection, but sans make-up and costume and surrounded by orchestra, conductor & chorus. I actually found this dressed-down (if one can say that about a tux) rendering far more threatening and devilish . . . and his natural coloring similar to The Drumpf's.
Total Non-Sequitur:
Returned this evening from viewing "Mustang" - an independent film from Turkey (with English subtitles). It's both beautiful and heartbreaking and its release - intentional or otherwise - was well-timed to salute last week's "International Women's Day".