The Commentariat -- March 5, 2014
The Guardian's liveblog of the crisis in Ukraine is here.
Steve Erlanger & Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times: "A top European Union official said Wednesday that the group is prepared to offer an aid package to Ukraine worth as much as $15 billion over the next two years. Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the union's executive arm, said Wednesday it will include 1.6 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in loans and 1.4 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in grants from the E.U. as well as 3 billion euros ($4.1 billion) in fresh credit from the European Investment Bank." ...
... Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "NATO members held emergency talks about the crisis in Ukraine on Tuesday and pledged their 'solidarity,' but there were signs of division in Europe over how to respond to Russia's intervention in Crimea. Among the biggest obstacles to consensus: Fears dating to the Cold War are running up against the economic clout of the new Russia." ...
... New York Times: "A senior United Nations diplomat who was sent to the Crimea region of southern Ukraine to assess the Russian military takeover there was threatened by armed men at gunpoint on Wednesday, and aborted his visit a day after it had begun. The diplomat, Robert Serry, was confronted by a group of 10 to 15 gunmen as he left a meeting at a naval facility in Simferopol, the capital of the Crimea region, according to an account of the incident provided by ... the United Nations deputy secretary general." ...
... Josh Gerstein & Burgess Everett of Politico: "Despite Russian President Vladimir Putin's history as a tough-as-nails leader bent on restoring Russia's sphere of influence, the U.S. intelligence community failed to read the signs when it came to Ukraine. That has members of Congress asking why there was no clear warning that Russia would respond militarily to the abrupt departure of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych by sending troops into Crimea -- and what intelligence agencies plan to do about the oversight.... A range of lawmakers and intelligence community experts are puzzled about why U.S. intelligence agencies seem to have misjudged Putin's intentions and whether the lack of warning fits a pattern of other significant intelligence shortcomings in recent years." ...
... Eli Lake of the Daily Beast: "Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told The Daily Beast Tuesday that he was ordering a review of the intelligence analysis that produced what was in retrospect a flawed assessment: that the buildup of Russian troops on Ukraine's border was simply a bluff by Vladimir Putin." ...
... Steve Holland of Reuters: "President Barack Obama spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday about the situation in Ukraine and discussed a potential resolution to the crisis, a senior Obama administration official said. The officials also said Obama would not attend a G8 summit scheduled for Sochi, Russia, in June unless there is a Russian reversal in the Ukraine crisis." ...
... President Obama answered a reporter's question yesterday re: the situation in the Ukraine. (See also the top of yesterday's Commentariat):
... Ruby Cramer of BuzzFeed: "Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the ongoing crisis in Ukraine at a fundraiser in California on Tuesday, comparing Russia's decision to issue passports in the Crimean region to the 'population transfers' carried out by Nazi Germany before World War II." ...
... Karen Meeks of the Long Beach Press Telegram: "Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday compared recent actions by Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine to those implemented by Adolf Hitler in the late 1930s." ...
... CW: I think we want to be really careful about electing someone as president who, as the most recent secretary of state, throws around Hitler analogies during an international crisis. I think it's all right for you to make Hitler comparisons, for pundits to do so, for newspaper editors & for academics. But the country's top diplomat? Big Fucking Mistake.
... Kathy Lally & Will Englund of the Washington Post: "Russian President Vladimir Putin offered a vigorous defense Tuesday of Russian intervention in Ukraine, saying the pro-Russian former government in Kiev was illegally overthrown and that the man he regards as Ukraine's legitimate president asked him for military help. But he also asserted that the troops wearing unmarked uniforms in Crimea are local self-defense groups -- not Russian forces, as observers on the scene have said. President Obama and Secretary of State John F. Kerry both rejected Putin's assertions Tuesday, with Kerry charging during a visit to Ukraine that 'Russia has been working hard to create a pretext for being able to invade further.'" ...
... Fox "News": "When informed by a reporter of Putin's claim, Kerry -- who arrived in Kiev on Tuesday -- smiled and said, 'He really denied there were troops in Crimea?'" ...
... Bob Gates to McCain & Co.: STFU. David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "Distilled to its essence, his message would be...: Cool it, especially when it comes to public comments. 'I think considerable care needs to be taken in terms of what is said, so that the rhetoric doesn't threaten what policy can't deliver,' Gates explained.... Russian President Vladimir Putin 'holds most of the high cards' in Crimea and Ukraine as a whole. U.S. policy should work to reinforce the security of neighboring states without fomenting a deeper crisis in which Putin will have the advantage.... Gates said that Obama is correct to avoid loose talk about military options....
I asked Gates what he thought about the criticism of Obama by McCain and Graham. 'They're egging him on' to take actions that may not be effective, Gates warned. He said he 'discounted' their deeper argument that Obama had invited the Ukraine crisis by not taking a firmer stand on Syria or other foreign policy issues. Even if Obama had bombed Syria or kept troops in Iraq or otherwise shown a tougher face, 'he still would have the same options in Ukraine. Putin would have the same high cards.' Gates, a Republican himself, urged the GOP senators to 'tone down' their criticism and 'try to be supportive of the president rather than natter at the president.' ...
... Sorry, Bob. Obama Derangement Syndrome Is Incurable. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday [sic. CW: actually, "Tuesday"] that the United States's failure to hold anyone accountable for the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, contributed to the Russian incursion into Ukraine last week." CW: Got that? Putin would not have wanted to strengthen his hold on the Crimea but for Obama's failure to solve a Libyan murder case. Makes sense. Benghaaaazi! always makes sense to severely-afflicted ODS sufferers. ...
... Elias Isquith of Salon: "With Graham having definitively and unquestionably established that many if not most of the awful things that have happened in the world since Sept. 11, 2012, can be blamed on Benghazi, the good folks on Twitter -- on both the left and the right -- were more than happy to help Graham substantiate his argument further with other examples of the Benghazi attack's expansive repercussions." Isquith posts a slew of tweets blaming Benghazi for other stuff. ...
... MEANWHILE, "America's Mayor" reminds us what a really scary guy he is. It turns out "dictator" is just another word for "leader." Thanks to contributor Julie for the link:
... Brian Beutler of Salon: "... Republicans ... reverse engineered the crisis and miraculously found that its catalysts all happen to substantiate their previously held obsessions and grievances -- and from a handful of journalists #slatepitching or getting taken in by this spin. For Palin it's Obama's moral equivalence, but for Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, it's Benghazi, for Rudy Giuliani it's that Obama lacks Putin's impressive testicular fortitude (see Syria), and for much of the GOP, it's Obama's inability to understand geopolitics as well as that foreign policy redoubt Mitt Romney.... To swallow any of this you need to believe that Putin would've begged off but for some unrelated historical curiosity that by pure coincidence happens to be the subject of some long-standing GOP obsession or political attack."
President Obama spoke yesterday about his FY 2015 budget:
... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "President Obama on Tuesday sent Congress an election-year budget request that reflects Democratic ideals, emphasizing increased spending on domestic initiatives for education, public works and research paid for by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and some corporations, rather than continued budget-cutting. Mr. Obama's budget for the 2015 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 is mostly a familiar volume that seeks, for the sixth time, to balance investments to help the economy and spread economic opportunities, against continued spending cuts and tax increases to continue reducing annual deficits. But the theme of this year's budget reflects Mr. Obama's call to have the nation address the growing inequality of incomes and economic opportunity." ...
... Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "President Obama unveiled an ambitious $3.9 trillion budget blueprint Tuesday that seeks billions of dollars in fresh spending to boost economic growth but also pledges to tame the national debt by raising taxes on the wealthy, slashing payments to health providers and overhauling the nation's immigration laws."
Lyin' Ryan Keeps on Lyin'. Steve Benen on that 204-page report on poverty that the GOP loves because it gives them the "scientific data" they need to slash "entitlement" programs: "The Fiscal Times' Rob Garver ... interviewed some of the same economists cited in [Paul] Ryan's paper in support of his thesis. Many of the experts 'had reactions ranging from bemusement to anger at Ryan's report, claiming that he either misunderstood or misrepresented their research.' ... What he's done is look for a new way to reframe his own plan: he still supports letting struggling families fend for themselves with a weak, shredded safety net, but the Wisconsin Republican wants Americans to perceive this as compassionate.... Ryan also wants to add an intellectual veneer to his plan...." ...
... Despite his misappropriation of academic findings which led Ryan to conclude -- to everyone's surprise -- that federal poverty programs "are not only failing to address the problem. They are also in some significant respects making it worse," Igor Volsky of Think Progress thumbs through the 200+ pages & finds Ryan admitting that numerous anti-poverty programs have helped millions of needy Americans, um, escape poverty.
... Charles Pierce: "... there is not now a bigger fake in national politics than Paul Ryan, who went to high school and college on my dime -- You're welcome, dickhead -- who's never had a real adult job outside of government and/or wingnut welfare, and who nonetheless believes that government money blunts the work ethic of everybody except him." ...
... CW: I'd say the whole 204 pages can be summed up in one unintentionally ironic footnote: "The Official Poverty Rate does not include government transfers to low-income households." Got that? You can't factor in income received from government poverty programs, because they raise people out of poverty. And Ryan's whole fucking point is that poverty programs don't raise people out of poverty. So Aunt Maude has zero income because she lives on Social Security & food stamps & Medicaid. Or Cousin Joe has zero income because he's living on unemployment benefits. That footnote is the Rosetta Stone of Ryan's report. It's all you need to know to dismiss the whole report as a sham.
** Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "The Central Intelligence Agency's attempt to keep secret the details of a defunct detention and interrogation program has escalated a battle between the agency and members of Congress and led to an investigation by the C.I.A.’s internal watchdog into the conduct of agency employees. The agency's inspector general began the inquiry partly as a response to complaints from members of Congress that C.I.A. employees were improperly monitoring the work of staff members of the Senate Intelligence Committee...." ...
... CW: I find this the most intriguing story of the day. It also demonstrates that Bernie Sanders was not grandstanding when he asked James Clapper whether or not the NSA was spying on members of Congress.
Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "The outgoing director of the National Security Agency lashed out at media organizations reporting on Edward Snowden's surveillance revelations, suggesting that British authorities were right to detain David Miranda on terrorism charges and that reporters lack the ability to properly analyze the NSA's broad surveillance powers. General Keith Alexander, who has furiously denounced the Snowden revelations, said at a Tuesday cybersecurity panel that unspecified 'headway' on what he termed 'media leaks' was forthcoming in the next several weeks, possibly to include 'media leaks legislation.'"
Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "A Palestinian peace deal could open up economic growth across the Middle East, Binyamin Netanyahu told US supporters on Tuesday, but is still held back by security concerns and a lack of recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. In the most upbeat of recent comments during his trip to Washington, the Israeli prime minister highlighted the potential regional benefits of the US-led peace process, even while making it clear he believed significant hurdles remain. 'I am prepared to make a historic peace with our Palestinian leaders,' he told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual conference in Washington." CW: I wonder what Bibi's game is here?
Beyond the Beltway
Reuters: "The Arkansas House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to fund the state's so-called 'Private Option' medical insurance program that has drawn interest from lawmakers in other states as an alternative to Obamacare. The measure, which had earlier passed the state Senate, received 76 votes, one more than necessary in the 100-member House. This ended a more than week-long standoff over the health insurance program for lower-income residents." ...
... Here's the Arkansas Times story, by Max Brantley. Still don't know how Josh Miller voted; he's the $1MM Medicaid patient who opposed the expansion because some Arkansans are loafers who would use healthcare benefits to buy drugs. ...
... The Blue Hog Report reprinted a very good letter to Miller from one of his constituents, Carol Balderree. CW: Balderree thinks we live -- or should live -- in a "Christian nation," but this Christian lady sure understands that everyone is deserving of affordable health care. Via Max Brantley.
Tom Loftus & Chris Kenning of the Louisville Courier-Journal: "Kentucky will fight a federal judge's ruling ordering the state to recognize gay marriage -- but without the help of Attorney General Jack Conway [D], who says he refuses to defend discrimination.... Moments after the announcement, Gov. Steve Beshear [D] released a statement saying the state would hire outside counsel to appeal U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II's ruling that Kentucky must recognize same-sex marriages legally performed outside the state.... Beshear said he'll seek a stay of Heyburn's order pending the appeal...." ...
... The New York Times story, by Trip Gabriel, is here.
Jeff Weiner of the Orlando Sentinel: "A judge has granted a temporary protective injunction against U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson after his wife filed paperwork accusing the Orlando congressman of shoving and injuring her during an incident this past weekend. Lolita Grayson's petition for the injunction, dated Monday, says her husband pushed her against a door, causing her to fall to the ground, during a confrontation Saturday at their home on Oak Park Road near Windermere. In a statement, Alan Grayson's press secretary, Lauren Doney, wrote that the allegations 'are absolutely false, completely unfounded, and clearly designed to vilify and harm Congressman Grayson.' ... The incident comes just less than two months after Lolita Grayson filed a divorce petition stating that their marriage of nearly 24 years was 'irretrievably broken.'"
Texas Primary Races
Ronnie Crocker of the Houston Chronicle: "The Republican lieutenant governor's race, the nastiest and most competitive of the primary season, is set to go another round. State Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston and incumbent David Dewhurst will compete in a May 27 runoff.... Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn held off challenger Steve Stockman, a U.S. representative from Friendswood, in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. George P. Bush, the grandson of one president and nephew of another, was victorious in the Republican primary race [for] ... Texas land commissioner. He will face Democrat John Cook, a former El Paso mayor, in November."
Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "Establishment Republican leaders on Tuesday defeated challenges from the right in a statewide primary election as conservatives inspired by Senator Ted Cruz largely failed to topple mainstream incumbents, and a race for lieutenant governor headed for a runoff. Two Republican leaders in Congress -- Senator John Cornyn and Representative Pete Sessions -- and a number of other Republicans in the House overcame opponents backed by Tea Party activists."
Ben Jacobs of the Daily Beast: "Tuesday night will mark the end of one of the most stunningly dishonest political campaigns in American history: that of Steve Stockman for Senate. Stockman's campaign seemed to violate every ethical and social norm in politics.... The entire campaign came across as a strange grift...." CW: IMHO, the entire Tea Party movement is one massive grift. Stockman is merely among the worst of the worst.
Senate Race
Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times: "To score political points, Republican Rep. Tom Cotton said repeatedly that he'd forego the congressional health insurance plan and sign up on the new health exchanges. It was only fair, he said. But now it appears he's gotten himself a low-cost grandfathered plan outside the exchange. The [Sen. Mark] Pryor [D] campaign has compiled Cotton's changing stories on insurance purchases...."
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Reader Comments (15)
..""Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday [sic. CW: actually, "Tuesday"] that the United States's failure to hold anyone accountable for the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, contributed to the Russian incursion into Ukraine last week."
Oh shit! I am sooo tired and bored with these Republican sickos carrying on about Benghaaaaazi! How stupid does one have to be to keep listening to this insidious crap? (Please do not answer; it is too depressing!)
Okey dokey, ass wipes: we know Obama is a half-breed and an "illegal" Prezident! What's new? Do you really think you can hold the public's attention much longer with your same old, same old? Please--give it a rest. Be the good old rich boyz you are--take your Risperdal--and shut the fuck up! Better yet, sleep it off.
Thank you.
Republicans confuse me!
Chris Hayes played a portion of a Fox interview with Giuliani last night. In the interview Giuliani said, “Putin decides what he wants to do, and he does it in half a day, right? He decided he had to go to their parliament — he went to their parliament, he got permission in 15 minutes.” Say what? Can you imagine the hysterics if President Obama ever tried to make such a move! Dictator! Dictator! Impeach!!! Here's the Giuliani interview: http://www.salon.com/2014/03/04/rudy_giuliani_unlike_obama_putin_is_%E2%80%9Cwhat_you_call_a_leader%E2%80%9D/
Also, on Chris Hayes a clip of an interview on Fox News with Sarah Palin, "People are looking at Putin as one who wrestles bears and drills for oil. They look at our president as one who wears mom jeans". Putin and Palin, soul mates!
@Julie. Thanks. It's pretty clear Giuliani has no respect for our Constitution. Of course Putin got parliamentary approval "in 15 minutes." The Russian parliament (in this case the upper house) is not a real deliberative body but a rubber stamp for the Russian president. When our own Congress has acted as an effective rubber stamp, you see what happens: the Iraq War.
As for Palin, her comments are no different from the type of intellectual ruminations one hears from junior-high-school mean girls.
Marie
Julie,
The love affair between Republicans and Putin (ooooh....so manly, wrestles bears, so decisive, he imposes his will with dispatch and macho coolness, and in fifteen minutes too!) offers anyone who cares to take a peek, a look directly into the slimy core of their lizard brains.
They worship power. They are hero worshipers and authoritarians from their Gucci clad cloven hoofs to their heads full of paranoia and power/penis envy (Lindsey Graham, having neither, is particularly in thrall). They all wet their panties when Reagan was calling for the bombing of Russia (so manly, Ron!), all that talk of evil empires and dead or alive. There are no connections between such adolescent wet dreams from Boys Adventure Stories and the world of realpolitik. No wonder they have no patience with the legislative process or any real connection with or love of the masses (voters). They crave the Great Man who will Fix It All with the pounding of his iron clad fist.
Patrick made a nice distinction yesterday when he expanded on Angela Merkel's comments about Putin being mired in his own bubble, left to the mercy of solipsistic interpretations of cherry picked facts. So too the GOP power worshipers.
I don't want to do too much psychoanalyzing of the Lizards, but I don't think it's a stretch to consider that one reason for the disconnect between their proclaimed religious beliefs and their real world actions has to do with their love and worship of power. Had they truly embraced the words and lessons of Jesus Christ, they couldn't possibly be so cold and cruel to the poor nor loving of war, wealth, and bloody revenge. I can picture many of them wishing for a revised New Testament in which Jesus, packing heat, blows away the Romans who try to crucify him and instead pounds nails into their heads and nukes Rome with a wicked cool Christian Curse of Death!!! Love loses. Power wins. Every time.
This is exactly what transpires in the Left Behind series, the insanely popular right-wing Christian dream narrative of a god who rains terror down on the enemies of those poor Christians (who lend plenty of willing hands in the bloodshed and evisceration of those enemies: women who won't obey, minorities on welfare, doctors, scientists, liberals, atheists, adherents to any religion other than fundamentalist Christianity). Power is the drug. Death and destruction is heaped upon those who don't get in line and worship that power.
Instead, they have a guy who goes willingly to his death and undergoes pain, torture, and suffering along the way. I suppose this part accounts for their victim complexes and the disconnect between the two sides accounts for their never ending anger and blinding hatred.
Whatever the reasons, it's clear that they live in their own bubble of the weird because, just as you say, if Obama had tried to impose his will on any legislative body and demand that his words be made actionable within 15 minutes, the howling would would cause mythic banshees to blanch.
Putin, for such as Palin and Giuliani, is a comic book superhero come to life. No need for reason or serious consideration of issues, no need for diplomacy or thoughtfulness. Just pull out the AK and blast away. Take what you want.
And these guys the stars of their party.
Holy shit. The country becomes more like the Lord of the Flies every day.
I read that letter to Josh Miller and you're right, it was good. What makes my blood boil is that Miller got to vote on this issue at all. He should have, as a beneficiary of Medicaid and someone who didn't have mandatory auto liability when his accident occurred, been informed (publicly on prime time TV) that he would not be eligible to vote against the very lifeline that saved his sorry pissant ass. Same goes for Paul Ryan and his Social Security idee fixe.
Re: Why not the "H" word. Marie I agree with you that the former Sec. of State should avoid dropping names when discussing foreign policy. However there is historical precedent in what "H" said concerning what the other "H" did. I think the problem with using the shock word, "H", is that most Americans don't have much interest in history and only react to the "H" word on a jerk reflex level. Moving your own population into conquered lands is a time honored method of controlling the locals and cashing in on your win. Hastings, 1066, comes to mind, the "N" word, pesky Normans.
@JJG: Yes, let's ask AmerIndians about that. Unless you are one, or unless your forebears came here involuntarily (maybe from Africa), I'd say your people are as guilty as my people of being pawns in a massive act of European aggression perpetrated on all of the Western Hemisphere.
Marie
Kate,
In addition to being permanently Benghazified, Lindsey Graham and his many Obama obsessed brethren are walking a fine line in their daily and increasingly poisonous insults lobbed at the president.
Yesterday Graham declared that whenever the President of the United States, the country's Commander in Chief, speaks on foreign policy issues (he could have said "any issue") he and the rest of congressional Republicans roll their eyes. How to be a stand up American there, Linny. Way to support the nation.
Do you recall when legitimate criticism of the criminal Bush's War of Lies was slammed as traitorous? Graham was one of those proclaiming it as such. Can you even imagine if a Democratic senator said such a thing about a Republican president working his (no chance it would be her) way through a potentially dangerous international crisis?
What's changed?
Oh, wait. We have a black president now. A Democrat. And an increasingly subversive, childish, ignorant, and rankly partisan GOP. The good of the country be damned if they can score points on the hated nee-groe in their White House.
Putin must love his new GOP buddies. Maybe he'll send Graham an autographed jock strap. Graham can use it as in inhaler next time he has a fainting spell brought on by Benghaaaaazi.
I don't think we need to overdo the "H" connection with Putin's Crimean invasion, especially if one was hoping to rile up Ukrainians and EU types. But how 'bout the "S" guy?
Just as Putin denies there are Russian troops in Crimea (they're just neighborhood watch guys who bought uniforms that look vaguely Russian at the Sevastopol Army Navy store....), he and his henchmen (aka Russian "historians") have spent a lot of time and effort trying to deny that Putin's political ancestor, Uncle Joe, engineered a plan to deport and/or starve millions of Ukrainians in the early 30s.
Half a million, in one scheme, were forced aboard trains bound for Siberia, kicked off once there with no winter clothing or food, and left to die.
Pretty hard to forget that shit.
Secret police stormed farms and villages and pogrommed everyone in sight. Putin, naturally, doesn't like anyone talking shit about Uncle Joe. Talk of Stalin is all lies, according to Sarah Palin's and Rudy Giuliani's new boyfriend. Besides, it couldn't be genocide because peoples other than Ukrainians were killed too. Oh, hey, why didn't you say so? Millions murdered but it wasn't genocide. Check.
Also, according to Vlad the Mad, there's no "proof" that Stalin did anything of the kind because no one can present documentary evidence (S's signature on a piece of paper saying "Starve the bastards"). Just like this really isn't an invasion, it's just a few local I(vans) banding together to make sure no troublemakers grace their garden gates with disagreeable graffiti.
All of which should put Ukrainians in a very unwelcoming mode for this new Tsar of all the Russias and countries not really Russian but which could do with a little invading anyway, just because.
In any event, P is aligning himself with some very unsavory historical characters, whether that be H or S or some other T(yrant). Good thing there's no documentary evidence.
Okay, enough for now, with foreign crazy. Here's some good 'ol home grown 'merican crazy starring none other than the Queen of Kooks, Michele (my husband is NOT gay! stop saying that) Bachmann.
We haven't heard much lately from Ms. Swamp Brain, but she has crawled out from under some comfortable rock to remind us that the United States belongs to Jesus, not us, and we better not forgit it.
What's the latest Bozo Blast? Here it is, and it's a good one.
You know how the wingnuts blame Obama for everything? Bad hair days, bribery checks coming late, black people allowed to speak to their betters, rainy days, socks missing from the dryer, funny smells from the back of the fridge? Betcha didn't know he's also responsible for the End of the World. Oh yeah. That too.
According to Rep. Whackadoodle-doo, because the president has been cozying up to Al Qaeda (don't ask), and because he refuses to bend over and grab his ankles for Bibi, he has triggered End Times. And the Bible says so, smartypants. Here's her brilliant analysis. Hold on to something nailed down.
From Right Wing Watch;
"...as of today the United States is willingly, knowingly, intentionally sending arms to terrorists, now what this says to me, I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, as I look at the End Times scripture, this says to me that the leaf is on the fig tree and we are to understand the signs of the times, which is your ministry, we are to understand where we are in God’s end times history.”
“Rather than seeing this as a negative, we need to rejoice, Maranatha Come Lord Jesus, His day is at hand,” Bachmann continued. “When we see up is down and right is called wrong, when this is happening, we were told this; these days would be as the days of Noah.”
Yeah, and like that.
The not so sub subtext here is that, according to an elected official of the federal government, our duty is NOT to this country, but to Israel, because Jesus. She also lectures American Jews, who voted for Obama, on their duty. Not to the Constitution, but to the Bible.
So I guess we better make preparations. What is this, the 71st wingnut prophecy about the End of the World? In the last five years? They'll get it right sooner or later.
Hold on, I think I see a fig leaf. Where the hell is my bucket list? Fuck! Obama stole it!
Obama sells out Bibi. World to end.
Okay, I know I'm monopolizing the comments today but this is just too awesome not to pass on.
So Jan Brewer vetoes the wingnuts' discrimination bill. This has triggered no end of mental instability in Right Wing World. Some have tried to paper over their hatred and intolerance with faux rationales, but others have just said "Fuck it" and traded in opposable thumbs for prehensile tails.
Check out this moron:
"Should a devout baker be required to create a cake for a homosexual wedding that has a giant phallic symbol on it or should a baker be required to create pastries for a homosexual wedding in the shape of genitallia? (sic) Or should a photographer be required to photograph a homosexual wedding where the participants decide they want to be nude or engage in sexual behavior?"
I don't know about you guys but that sounds like a helluva party to me. Genitalia pastries and penis cakes? Wow.
This idiot is the head of Tea Party Nation, Judson Phillips, 'nuff said.
Again, wow.
Could I have some of the raspberry genitalia pastry, please?
That's it for me today. Can't beat penis cakes. So to speak.
Re: We do it too; I come to this site for my mind puzzle for the day. I get an idea from what Marie or others post and I spend the day mulling it over. Today this came to mind. History is not moral. To teach history as something that is moral is to risk nationalism or simplistic understanding of the events that happened before. Here in this country we teach moral history and that might be one of problems we have understanding what is going on in the world.
JJG,
Like you I visit RC for the connections. On a fairly regular basis, Marie or one of her cogent commenters, knocks the rest of us with a poser. Today, one of those people is you.
I need a lot more space (and time) to mull over your take on history and I've already taken far more than my fair share today so I'll have to put this off until tomorrow ( I hear the groans already).
History, by its nature, invites a moral stance even if it doesn't always support it (Didacticism often being far more obfuscating than enlightening). But the collation of facts, names, places, and events is too tantalizing an exercise to stave off narrative reorganization. Once you're at narration, it's nearly impossible to mute your inner storyteller. To quote that lyric of passion, "How can I keep from singing?"
Soooooo it might be that history, as an abstract pursuit, is not intrinsically moral, but it may also be that History, as a human endeavor cannot escape moralizing or the imposition of moral judgments.
More tomorrow. (And I thought I'd have am anesthetically blank evening ahead of me.)
Re: what's Bibi cooking up? I can only imagine that he's soon expecting the newest brochure of free Mechanical Killing Machines so he has to give some public platitudes to see if they'll throw in some bonus goodies for good behavior. Otherwise he's very likely just full of shit and creating false hopes for his own cynical pleasure.
On another note, I was watching a discussion about the crisis of the perception of legitimacy of elected officials these days vis-à-vis their citizens and a philosopher made a very good point. He mentioned that since the birth of democracy a politician's role has been the REPRESENTATION of the people. Yet particularly since the rapid development of communication technology and forever changed with the advent of 24/7 news channels, this role of representation has been degraded into a role of PRESENTATION to the people.
This transformation is clear and net while watching the GOP banshees jostle for face time and sound bites while flinging feces on anything their voters might disapprove of. The presentation is well-rehearsed and they've been playing the same act since 2008. Yet these years have been wholly void of any representation of the well-being of their constituents. For today's GOP this transformation seems complete. Yet without other options, they're guaranteed a permanent role on the stage.
The above discussion by A. reminded me of Joe Pitts. (no relation.) I have the distinct pleasure of being a constituent. I write him continually. Because so many of these morons in the House are unreachable if you don't want to phone, and you aren't in his/her district, I started writing him every time I didn't like what his colleagues were up to. It became undoable, as I was writing every day. The other day, however, I wrote him when Uganda did their worst, because he, as a member of The Family, is entwined with that country. He wrote me back to say he had signed a letter in 2010 against persecution of gays. 2010. Four years ago. I chastised him for doing only that, and my husband found an interview Jeff Sharlett did with Terry Gross on NPR all about The Family (he has a book, too--) The gist of it is, these Evangelicals and evangelistic Catholics have joined forces, and a lot of people in Congress, mostly the Senate, it seems, are very interested in POWER. And have been since the 30s. They actually admire dictators for their strength and power, and would not be adverse to saying they luvs them some Putin... It's pretty insidious, and quite telling when you realize how many RWNJs are in The Family. I started with Joe Pitts, but I finish by saying that there is little that I can hope to gain in writing, as what do you do when someone believes that he is one of The Chosen? That's Joe. And Coburn. And Inhofe. And Silly Stupak...ad nauseum. Power is the Holy Grail to these people.