The Commentariat -- May 12, 2015
Internal links removed.
Contributor Unwashed points us to a Roosevelt Institute panel discussion going on now (9: 15 am ET) about how government rules & laws could lower income inequality. "Speakers include: Senator Elizabeth Warren, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz and panel of expert economists and strategists." You can listen in here. Stiglitz says the TPP is another move to increase corporate power & income inequality. He whacks the President for his "nasty" remarks about TPP opponents.
Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Obama administration gave conditional approval on Monday for Shell Gulf of Mexico, Inc. to start drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean this summer. The approval is a major victory for Shell and the rest of the petroleum industry, which has sought for years to drill in the remote waters of the Chukchi seas, which are believed to hold vast reserves of oil and gas.... The Interior Department decision is a devastating blow to environmentalists, who have pressed the Obama administration to reject proposals for offshore Arctic drilling. Environmentalists say that a drilling accident in the icy and treacherous Arctic waters could have far more devastating consequences than the deadly Gulf of Mexico oil spill of 2010...."
Dana Milbank: "The vast majority of lawmakers in [President Obama's] own party oppose him on trade legislation. Yet rather than accept that they have a legitimate beef, he shows public contempt for them -- as he did in an interview with Matt Bai of Yahoo News released over the weekend.... The fast-track legislation faces its first test Tuesday with a vote in the Senate, and it looks to be a squeaker.... If Obama loses on trade, blame should go to the twin pillars of detachment that have underpinned his presidency: insularity and secrecy." ...
... Greg Sargent interviews Sen. Elizabeth Warren about the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. ...
... Jared Bernstein & Dean Baker in the Washington Post: "... the TPP contains no currency provisions, meaning there are no enforceable rules in the deal that would prevent our trading partners from managing their currency so that it stays low relative to the dollar.... Previous research has found that a few of the countries in the TPP have a history of managing their currency to subsidize their exports. We estimate that currency interventions by Japan, Malaysia and Singapore have cost us 250,000 to 320,000 jobs annually over the past few years.... Although we strongly disagree, the administration has quite clearly argued that we are helpless in the face of these interventions." ...
... ** David Dayen in Salon: "It's beneath the dignity of the Presidency to so aggressively paint opponents as not just wrong on the facts, but hiding the truth on purpose. Warren has responded without using the same indecorous tactics. Unfortunately, I don't have the same self-control. So by way of response, here are ten moments where the Presidentor his subordinates have lied -- call it 'misled' or 'offered half-truths' or whatever; but I'm in an ornery mood so let's just say lied -- about his trade agenda." CW: Read 'em all.
Andrea Peterson of the Washington Post: "The USA Patriot Act has been at the nexus of the debate over privacy and civil liberties since it was passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But a looming legislative deadline, a recent court ruling against a controversial program that collects the details of millions of Americans' phone calls and a filibuster threat mean that the government's spying abilities face an uncertain future.... Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is advocating for an extension of Section 215 through 2020. But that would likely push the issue to the Supreme Court to settle. On the other side of the debate, long-time government surveillance critic Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) threatened in an interview with MSNBC to filibuster a short-term extension of the law 'unless there are major reforms like getting rid of this bulk phone record collections.'" ...
... David McCabe of the Hill: "Seven tech groups are backing a bill that would reform provisions of the Patriot Act some say are responsible for unreasonable government surveillance. 'Public trust in the technology sector is critical, and that trust has declined measurably among both U.S. citizens and citizens of our foreign allies since the revelations regarding the U.S. surveillance programs began 2 years ago,' the groups say in the letter written to House leaders endorsing the USA Freedom Act.... The letter was signed by the Information Technology Industry Council, the Internet Association, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, BSA|The Software Alliance, TechNet, Reform Government Surveillance and the Software & Information Industry Association." ...
... Julian Hattem of the Hill: "The National Security Agency isn't making any policy changes following a sweeping federal court ruling against its bulk collection of Americans' phone records last week. Instead, NSA Director Adm. Michael Rogers said in his first public comments since Thursday's ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that the ball was back in Congress's court, and it was up to lawmakers to consider how the agency should proceed."
Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Obama administration on Monday put health insurance companies on notice that they must cover all forms of female contraception, including the patch and intrauterine devices, without imposing co-payments or other charges. In the last month, the National Women's Law Center and the Kaiser Family Foundation issued separate reports that found that insurers often flouted a federal requirement to provide free coverage of birth control for women under President Obama's health care law."
Simon Miloy of Salon makes fun of "Wall Street tycoons advis[ing] Democrats that the UK elections show people hate it when you say mean things about banks." ...
... Scammers R Us. Peter Eavis of the New York Times: "... on Monday, in the starkest of terms, a federal judge ... ruled that two banks misled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in selling them mortgage bonds that contained numerous errors and misrepresentations. 'The magnitude of falsity, conservatively measured, is enormous,' Judge Denise L. Cote of Federal District Court in Manhattan wrote in a scathing 361-page decision. The ruling came in a closely watched case brought by the government against the Japanese bank Nomura Holdings and Royal Bank of Scotland. They were the only two of 18 financial firms that took their case to trial, arguing that it was the housing crash, and not deceptive loan documents, that caused the bonds to collapse. The other firms -- including Goldman Sachs and Bank of America -- settled, together paying nearly $18 billion in penalties but avoiding a detailed public airing of their conduct."
"Swindle Our Troops!" -- GOP. Zach Carter of the Huffington Post: "House Republicans are again attacking measures aimed at protecting U.S. troops from predatory lending practices, two weeks after a similar GOP effort failed." Via Paul Waldman.
Sarah Wheaton of Politico: "The Barack Obama presidential library will be built in his adopted hometown of Chicago, the Barack Obama Foundation announced in a video message posted online Tuesday. A bid by the University of Chicago, where Obama taught constitutional law before turning to politics, beat out rival proposals from Hawaii and New York to host the location of Obama's presidential archives and museum." ...
Diaper Boy Not Feeling the Love. Manu Raju of Politico: "Within the chummy confines of the U.S. Senate, [Sen. David] Vitter [R-La.] has emerged as one of the most disliked members. The second-term senator's effort to kill the federal health care contribution [to Members of Congress & their staffs], worth several thousand dollars [each] to lawmakers and their staffers, is a big part of it. But the two-year drive, his [Senate] critics say, symbolizes an operating style that Vitter's critics complain is consumed with public relations, even for an ambitious member of Congress: speeding in and out of meetings, railing about issues on the Senate floor but doing little to execute behind the scenes, firing off news releases left and right. In an institution in which the inside game is critical, Vitter doesn't even pretend to bother with it.... His unpopularity in the Senate hasn't translated to his poll numbers: One survey in December showed four in five Republicans viewed him favorably." He's likely to win his bid for governor of Louisiana.
American "Justice," Ctd. Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "A former Central Intelligence Agency officer on Monday was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on espionage charges for telling a journalist for The New York Times about a secret operation to disrupt Iran's nuclear program. The sentence was far less than the Justice Department had wanted. The former officer, Jeffrey A. Sterling, argued that the Espionage Act, which was passed during World War I, was intended to prosecute spies, not officials who talked to journalists. He asked for the kind of leniency that prosecutors showed to David H. Petraeus, the retired general who last month received probation for providing his highly classified journals to his biographer." ...
... Marcy Wheeler talks to the Real News about the Sterling case. Pretty fascinating. Thanks to Victoria D. for the lead:
Pew Research Center: "The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining, while the number of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion is growing, according to an extensive new survey by the Pew Research Center. Moreover, these changes are taking place across the religious landscape, affecting all regions of the country and many demographic groups. While the drop in Christian affiliation is particularly pronounced among young adults, it is occurring among Americans of all ages. The same trends are seen among whites, blacks and Latinos; among both college graduates and adults with only a high school education; and among women as well as men." ...
... Emma Green of the Atlantic: However, 44 percent of those who don't identify with a particular religion still say that religion is very or somewhat important to them.
Andrew Kirell of Mediaite: "In response to anti-Islam activist Pamela Geller's controversial 'Draw Muhammad' cartoon contest, liberal comedian and commentator Dean Obeidallah announced a 'Draw Your Favorite Islamophobe' contest this Saturday on his Sirius XM radio show.... 'You pick, draw it, take a photo of it and send it to me at submissions@thedeansreport.com. The winner will be announced on my show this coming Saturday and receive a tasty falafel (or a gift certificate up to $10 to a restaurant in your area that serves falafels),' the website read."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh alleged in a long-rumored 10,000-word story published Sunday [and linked in yesterday's Commentariat] that the United States and Pakistan lied about major details about the 2011 raid that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but the CIA and White House are both rejecting his account.... A CIA official told The Washington Post that Hersh's story is 'utter nonsense.' White House spokesman Ned Price said it had 'too many inaccuracies and baseless assertions' to fact-check each one, and added that the premise that bin Laden was killed in 'anything but a unilateral U.S. mission is patently false.'" ...
... Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "The former Navy SEAL who says he killed Osama bin Laden is slamming a new report that challenges the White House's account of the mission, calling it 'garbage.' 'The story that I read, the part from [Seymour] Hersh, was full of lies,' Rob O'Neill said on Fox News's 'Shepard Smith Reporting.'" ...
... Max Fisher of Vox: Hersh's "allegations are largely supported only by two sources, neither of whom has direct knowledge of what happened, both of whom are retired, and one of whom is anonymous. The story is riven with internal contradictions and inconsistencies. The story simply does not hold up to scrutiny.... Hersh produces no supporting documents or proof, nor is the authority of either source established." ...
... Jon Schwarz & Ryan Devereaux of the Intercept: "R.J. Hillhouse, a former professor, Fulbright fellow and novelist whose writing on intelligence and military outsourcing has appeared in the Washington Post and New York Times, made the same main assertions in 2011 about the death of Osama bin Laden as Seymour Hersh's new story in the London Review of Books -- apparently based on different sources than those used by Hersh.... The Intercept cannot corroborate the reporting of either Hillhouse or Hersh..., nor can we rule out the possibility that Hersh's sources based their beliefs on Hillhouse's writing. In reporting that appears to back up major elements of that of Hillhouse and Hersh, NBC today asserted that a Pakistani intelligence officer 'walk in' told the CIA about bin Laden's location in the year before the raid on his compound." ...
... Hillhouse called Hersh's piece is "either plagiarism or unoriginal."
... Matthew Cole, et al., of NBC News: "Two intelligence sources tell NBC News that the year before the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, a 'walk in' asset from Pakistani intelligence told the CIA where the most wanted man in the world was hiding - and these two sources plus a third say that the Pakistani government knew where bin Laden was hiding all along." ...
... Dylan Byers of Politico: "Seymour Hersh's alternative history about the killing of Osama bin Laden was offered to and declined by The New Yorker, where Hersh is a regular contributor, years before its publication in the London Review of Books...." ...
... Steve M. on why the right won't want to defend Seymour Hersh: "One reason the story is unsatisfying to the right is obvious right away: If Hersh's version of how the U.S. learned about bin Laden's whereabouts were to prove true, it would end forever the discussion of whether torture had anything to do with bin Laden's death, and not in the right's favor."
Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: Pseudojournalist Mark Halperin apologizes for using an interview to pelt Ted Cruz with Cuban-stereotype questions. And it wasn't just Ricky Ricardo-type questions: "... Halperin requested that the senator do his 'very good and very respectful imitation' of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), another presidential candidate. Cruz declined. He also declined to welcome Sanders to the race 'en Español.'" CW: How bad does a major-media "journalist" have to be to actually victimize Ted Cruz? Halperin-bad. ...
... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "The prize for the most racist interview of a 2016 candidate goes to Bloomberg's Mark Halperin."
Presidential Race
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: Hillary Clinton, who helped write the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, is now keeping mum on the agreement. ...
Whatever the merits of the TPP, this issue has become a surrogate within the party for a larger debate about corporate power and fairness, which puts her in a difficult spot. She was the [secretary of state] when these negotiations began, and the previous Clinton administration was closely identified with trade. But it is a volatile issue, and supporting it could add to fears on the left that she is too oriented toward big business and give additional impetus to a potential primary challenger. -- David Axelrod
Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: Bill Clinton does not intend to participate -- much -- in Hillary Clinton's campaign, but he'll still be in the public limelight, giving speeches for the Clinton Foundation & to other groups "to pay the bills," etc.
Michael Bender of Bloomberg: "He may be a staunch critic of President Obama's executive orders on immigration, but Jeb Bush wouldn't rush to repeal them if he's the next White House resident. In an interview scheduled to air Monday night on Fox News, Bush suggested that he would wait until a new law was in place before overturning Obama's actions." ...
In response, Bobby Jindal promised to hold an exorcism in the Oval Office to drive out any hints of Barack Obama that might remain. -- Paul Waldman
Mark Halperin isn't interested in any of that. He is trying to get commitments from Bush & Ted Cruz to participate in a Latin-American cookoff. -- Constant Weader
... Alex Isenstadt & Ken Vogel of Politico: Jeb Bush & Karl Rove have long disliked each other. Now, they're involved in a clash for cash: "As Bush intensifies fundraising for his Right to Rise super PAC, expected to reach $100 million by the end of this month, he finds himself approaching many of the same contributors as Rove, whose American Crossroads super PAC is also financially dependent on many of the givers who have long supported the political causes and campaigns of the extended Bush family network." CW: I'd really like to see a fistfight.
"Christie's Big Appetite." Mark Lagerkvist of New Jersey Watchdog: Gov. Chris "Christie spent $360,000 from his state allowance during his five years in office. More than 80 percent of that money, or $300,000, was used to buy food, alcohol and desserts, according to a New Jersey Watchdog analysis of records released by the governor's office.... On 58 occasions, Christie used a debit card to pay a total of $82,594 to Delaware North Sportservice, which operates the concessions at MetLife [Stadium, where the New York's Giants and Jets play their home games].... To avoid a potential scandal that could embarrass their rising political star, the New Jersey Republican State Committee reimbursed the Treasury in March 2012 for Christie's purchases from 'DNS Sports.'" Christie halved his grocery store expenditures after he had Lap-Band surgery.
Republicans Are Weird. Adam Lerner of Politico: "No candidate likes being hounded by opposition researchers, but one member of Rand Paul's team has a peculiar way of expressing his distaste. At a townhall event Monday for Rand Paul in Londonderry, New Hampshire, the Kentucky senator's political director for the state, David Chesley, licked the camera of a tracker sent by American Bridge, a left-leaning opposition research group."
... So peculiar, yes, but definitely not as scary as the naked Michigan Democratic state senator who took several rifle shots at his ex-wife -- see Beyond the Beltway below.
Senate Race
On, Wisconsin! Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is A-okay with a constituent's repeatedly calling the POTUS "a Muslim terrorist."
Beyond the Beltway
Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "Dean G. Skelos, the majority leader of the New York State Senate, agreed on Monday to step down from his leadership post after his arrest last week on federal corruption charges. The move followed days of escalating pressure on Senator Skelos, 67, who has proclaimed his innocence and sought to stay on as the chamber's leader."
Ann O'Neill of CNN: Sister Helene Prejean, "a Roman Catholic nun famous for counseling the condemned on death row took the witness stand in federal court Monday and vouched for" Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev [in his death penalty trial].... Prejean ... said she believed Tsarnaev was 'genuinely sorry' for the pain and suffering he inflicted on his victims." Prejean opposes the death penalty.
The Naked Gunman. George Hunter of the Detroit News: "State Sen. Virgil Smith [D] told police his ex-wife stormed into his house and assaulted his girlfriend before he did 'the most stupid thing in his life' -- opening fire at the ex-wife's Mercedes Benz with a rifle -- according to a police report obtained by The Detroit News. He was naked when he met her at the front door, the senator's ex-wife claims in a second police report, beat her with his fists, chased her outside and shot at her four or five times." ...
... Update. Gina Damron & Robert Allen of the Detroit Free Press: "Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Smith was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault with a gun and malicious destruction of property following the incident outside of his east side Detroit home at about 1 a.m. Sunday."
Jeff Weiner & Stephanie Allen of the Orlando Sentinel: "George Zimmerman, the former Neighborhood Watch volunteer who shot and killed Trayvon Martin in 2012, suffered facial injuries in a roadside shooting Monday near a busy intersection in Lake Mary, police said. Lake Mary Police Department Chief Steve Bracknell said the shooter is believed to be Matthew Apperson of Winter Springs -- a man who accused Zimmerman of making threats during a road-rage incident last year. No one had yet been arrested in the shooting late Monday. Zimmerman, 31, was released from a hospital in Sanford after a brief stay to treat his injuries, which were likely caused by flying glass or some other type of debris, according to his attorney, Don West.... A police spokeswoman, Officer Bianca Gillette, described Zimmerman's wounds as 'minor.'"
News Lede
New York: "An Amtrak train heading from Washington, D.C. to New York crashed in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, and at least 50 people are injured, said the front 'looks pretty bad.'"
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Reader Comments (13)
My children's prayers have been answered. I don't give a damn about the Seymour Hersh report. The action took place in Pakistan. Can you think of a country that has more need (and expectation) of subterfuge, betrayal and lies than Pakistan? Sorry, but you would have to be some kind of silly American to expect the White House or the Special Forces or the CIA to give a full honest account of such a kill operation and then to double down and cry foul because the government lied to you.
In today's Real News, (www.therealness.com), there is an interesting video on the CIA analyst who was just given 42 months in prison for whistleblowing. Further into its archives, it has a 10 part series on John Kiriakou, another CIA analyst who was the only one ever jailed for revealing that waterboarding was going on.
Is the message here that some secrets are more important secrets if you are a nobody in the power structure (which would mean that the government doesn't have to really prove its case against the nobody)?
CW Note: The correct URL is http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=13841 . I never make typos. Interview embedded above.
Saw this interesting blurb in the NYT (down the page a bit) where Joseph Stiglitz is supposed to release his report today called "Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity."
"In an interview, Mr. Stiglitz said it was not just “trickle down” economics associated with Republicans that have caused inequality, but policies advanced during the Clinton administration, in which he served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.
“I was there when some of the decisions were made, and some of them were made in good faith,” Mr. Stiglitz said. “But here we are, and let’s not point fingers.”
"The report, he said, is larger than any presidential candidate or administration and is designed to urge leaders in both parties to fundamentally rethink the decades of policies that have led to 15 years of stagnant wages for middle-class earners and an economy that favors the wealthiest Americans."
It's said that he is advising HRC on economic policy. It'll be interesting to see how the Confederates respond.
You can download the report here. I've done so but haven't read it yet. This site also states that a live stream of the panel discussion starts at 9am EDT.
I was saddened today to read that one of my favorite columnists/writers had died. Below is James Fallow's account of this splendid human being, William Pfaff, "a man I never met but felt I knew." I discovered Pfaff years ago, bought his book, "Manifest Destiny," and pretty much kept up with his works since then. For those of you not familiar with his writings perhaps the Fallow piece may pique your interest.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/05/william-pfaff-clarity-in-the-american-interest/392234/
I would offer a correction to the acknowledgement of the lead to the Sterling piece mentioned in RC today. It was from "Victoria" not me, "Victoria D."
Credit where it's due!
Shouldn't we be calling it "tinkle down economics"?
I had not meant to get too deeply into the Sy Hersh piece, but as I scanned it, several things jumped out at me. I've been a longtime fan of Hersh's work. When they make movies of great investigative reporters going the extra distance to make their stories, Hersh is the real world model. His best work is meticulously sourced and backed up. When he broke the story on Abu Ghraib, Bush and Cheney and Rummy couldn't even hope to deny it, so they blamed it all on some low level schmoes. The story itself was crazy wild, I mean, staging sexual humiliation imagery, putting dog collars on prisoners, not to mention the torture and psychological violence. It could have been easily brushed aside as someone's fantasy if not for the back up Hersh provided.
This Bin Laden tale is a much different creature.
The first thing I noticed was the wild story, and it really is wild. But then again, who would have thought 20 years ago that the Supreme Court would stop a presidential election and install the candidate of their choice in the White House? But it happened. So, okay. Let's see proof of this CIA/Pakistan?White House conspiracy. There doesn't seem to be much. Then I noticed that one of sources, someone quoted liberally, is Bob Gates, self promoter and Obama hater supreme. Printing whatever the hell Bob Gates tells you without corroboration is a problem for me. Of course he comes off as the hero and everyone around him is a loser. That's Bob Gates. But that's not Sy Hersh, at least it didn't used to be.
I give him a lot of leeway because of what he's done in the past, but now I read that David Remnick, a guy I consider a pretty good editor and reporter himself, had rejected this Bin Laden conspiracy story not once, not twice, but many times, and the fact that there doesn't seem to be any evidence from anyone who was actually there doesn't bode well either. The main sources seem to be "retired officials" who were at two or three removes, at best. And that story about decimating Bin Laden's body to the point where it was in pieces, that's just not very believable. That a bunch of Navy Seals would stand there with automatic weapons and blaze away at the body of a guy who is already dead for five or six minutes, firing hundreds of rounds into him, then chucking him out, piece by piece from the chopper later pushes the boundaries of belief. I'm not saying stuff like that never happens or couldn't have happened in this case, I'm just saying if Hersh had gotten the testimony of one of those Seals on record saying that was how it went down, or if he had a copy of an official Pentagon report saying that was what happened, I'd feel better about believing it.
So I don't really know what to make of this except to say that I'm not buying it as it now stands.
If Sy Hersh really has gone over the falls, it's too bad. When he was on, there was no one better.
@Victoria D. & Victoria: Correction accomplished.
Marie
PD,
I'm sorry to hear about William Pfaff. I was a regular reader of his. Whenever his byline would appear on an op-ed page (or in NYRB) I felt obliged to read him, if for no other reason than to abate the nonsense and self-satisfied pomposity of other op-ed denizens of the day (lookin' at you George Will), but mostly to get the goods straight from someone who always seemed to know what he was talking about, even if you disagreed with him.
His writing distilled clarity out of confusion and although he was never wanton about cerebral exhibitionism (unlike the above mentioned wonder boy), the smarts and background legwork were always hard to miss. With all the out-thrust chests, embarrassing self-regard, and half-baked theorizing abroad in the fourth estate today, Pfaff's unfussy directness will be missed.
The best thing I can say about Pfaff's writing is this: after reading too many other columnists I'd either be pissed that I just wasted five minutes, or I'd be scratching my head trying to figure out what the writer was trying to say. After reading Pfaff, I always felt a little smarter.
If you have never read his stuff, check this out: The Obstacle of History. Not many people can take information you already have and rearrange it so you can see things you've never quite thought of in exactly that way.
It's not often you can say, when you see two faces on TV and one of them is Ted Cruz, that Cruz is NOT the biggest asshole.
In this case it's perennial hack-ass Mark Halperin, the self-promoting schlock meister who couldn't spell "gravitas" if he was looking in the mirror and had it written backwards on his forehead.
This "interview" is a disgrace, and trying to make it seem funny doesn't help.
It would be like Halperin interviewing candidate Obama and asking him to say something to Hillary in Ebonics, or asking him how he likes dem fried chicken legs, or to ask him, "C'mon, bro, favorite rapper: 50 Cent or Kanye West?"
If it wasn't so obviously racist, it would simply be juvenile and stupid. Really stoopid.
Don't waste our time, jackass. I can think of several hundred things I'd inquire of Ted Cruz before asking him if he can't wait to open a box of Cuban cigars.
In his favor, Cruz handled the whole thing with aplomb. I can only imagine the hissy fit Li'l Randy would have thrown before stomping off.
I was thinking of saying something along the lines of how outrageous it is that a Potemkin senator, frequenter of prostitutes, and hypocritical douchebag like David Vitter still has such high approval ratings among the constituents he plays like marks in a con. But that song plays more often than "Stairway to Heaven" did in the early days of AOR radio.
Something I did find interesting in the Politico piece on Vitter Marie has linked is this little tidbit, a quote from another Confederate senator, Richard Burr from NC:
“I think to some degree, it’s disingenuous to suggest to taxpayers that this is about saving money when the result is going to be to raise people’s salary to compensate them for what they’re not getting for coverage for health care,”
He's talking about the difference between what the government covers for healthcare (through the ACA) and the employer's contribution and what a burden this would be to legislative staffers if they had to foot the bill themselves.
Funny, that's almost exactly what's happening to Wal Mart employees who aren't paid a living wage. But because they don't make what legislative aides make, they can't bridge the gap on their own and so have to rely on taxpayers for help, while the Waltons fight over who gets the biggest piece of the money they saved on that scheme.
Interesting that Burr is worried about that kind of burden for well paid staffers on the Hill but doesn't seem to give a rat's ass about people who can barely put food on the table. Their employer makes a bundle and taxpayers pick up the difference.
I guess so long as you never really encounter anyone who isn't wealthy, it won't bother you.
Oh, and David Vitter IS a hypocritical piece-O-shit douchebag as well.
So there.
Pardon me while I cue up "Stairway to Heaven".
@AK: First–-glad to know you appreciated Pfaff as much as I and I think his perspective was enhanced by his having lived in Paris just as Tony Judt's was by his living there and elsewhere other than the US. Years ago after by first sojourn into Europe I came back here feeling very differently––my world had expanded and I looked at things with different eyes. One of the things Pfaff always emphasized was this country's disinterest in other countries and how many in Congress were ignorant in foreign policy.
As far as the Hirsch business––-my thinking is similar to yours. I used to cut out all his pieces from the New Yorker, much respect for his digging out the bad stuff. But this––this doesn't smell right. I listened to him last night on Chris Hayes and he appears sincere and sane, but the facts are not in his favor and I wonder why after all this time he's coming out with this.
@AK and PD-I am heartsick at what seems to have happened to Seymour Hersh. I am remembering how he broke the horror at My Lai and later, Abu Gharib. At first he was scorned--by almost everybody--particularly the MSM. Later, his reporting was confirmed by reliable sources and he brought the Pentagon war machine to its knees. And now.......
I can only think that at age 78, Sy Hersh is, perhaps, suffering the effects of age--possibly the sadness of dementia. He has always had a bit of the conspiracy theorist in him. That is why he has taken on these thankless situations in the first place. But he may have gone a place too far--if not in his head, in reality. Makes me very sad. On the other hand, I would not be completely surprised if a large part of what he writes is in some way true. After all, our CIA/Pentagon have always been lying ass wipes when it comes to matters of national security--and a lot else as well!
I just do not know what to think. I guess we'll all have to tune in tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.......