The Commentariat -- May 19, 2014
** Paul Krugman: "Timothy Geithner ... thinks he did a heckuva job.... How can people feel good about track records that are objectively so bad? ... In both Europe and America, economic policy has to a large extent been governed by the implicit slogan 'Save the bankers, save the world' -- that is, restore confidence in the financial system and prosperity will follow.... He was, if you like, all for bailing out banks but against bailing out families.... And refusing to help families in debt, it turns out, wasn't just unfair; it was bad economics." CW: Hope Geithner picks up his copy of the Times on the way to Wall Street. ...
... ** Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times: Geithner's book is unsuccessful "in making the case that he cared as much for troubled borrowers as he did for reckless banks. And he fails to answer one of the most crucial questions about the crisis: How did he and his regulatory colleagues at the Fed, with their army of researchers and high-powered economists, miss the immense and obvious buildup of risk in the financial system that led to the crisis?" ...
... CW: Nisky Guy listened to Robert Siegel's interview of Geithner on NPR. I couldn't stand to listen, but I read the transcript of a few of his remarks. I also read some comments. Here's my favorite:
The planned economic collapse has worked wonders for the Democrat Oligarchs.
Bear in mind this comment comes from one of the "smart" wingers -- someone who gets at least some of his news from NPR. You can lead a horse's ass from the Fox Swamp, but you can't make him think. ...
Matt Taibbi, in a Salon interview, on the "total moral surrender" by Obama, Geithner, et al. ...
... ALSO, be sure to read contributor safari's review of Fareed Zakaria's interview of Geithner in today's Comments.
Rebecca Kaplan of CBS "News": "White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough defended the White House reaction to the scandals emerging from Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals around the country, saying on CBS' 'Face the Nation' that President Obama 'is madder than hell - I've got the scars to prove it.' ... In a separate interview on 'Face the Nation,' American Legion National Commander Daniel Dellinger stood by the organization's insistence that [VA Secretary Eric] Shinseki should step down." With video. ...
... Josh Sweigart of the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News: "... an investigation by the Dayton Daily News found that the VA settled many cases that appear to be related to delays in treatment. A database of paid claims by the VA since 2001 includes 167 in which the words 'delay in treatment' is used in the description. The VA paid out a total of $36.4 million to settle those claims, either voluntarily or as part of a court action. The VA has admitted that 23 people have died because of delayed care...." Via Bob Schieffer.
Michael de la Merced & David Gelles of the New York Times: "AT&T formally agreed on Sunday to buy DirecTV for about $48 billion, striking a merger that will further reshape how Americans pay for television and connect to the Internet. It will join a growing list of telecommunications giants looking to consolidate their industry, creating bigger national carriers as they adapt to the shifts in broadband and video access."
E. J. Dionne: Elizabeth Warren "is, above all, a lawyer who knows how to make arguments. From the time she first came to public attention, Warren has been challenging conservative presumptions embedded so deeply in our discourse that we barely notice them." CW: Barely notice them because the Village People agree to agree. That's the system. See safari's comments on Fareed Zakaria above. Zakaria used to be a pretty acerbic observer. Then he got his Very Serious Person membership card. Adios, journalism. (Plagiarism? Not good, but not a career-buster for a VSP.)
Political Correctness, Ctd. Susan Snyder of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "In a surprising move, a commencement speaker at Haverford College on Sunday used the celebratory occasion to deliver a sharp rebuke to students who had mounted a campaign against another speaker who had been scheduled to appear but withdrew amid the controversy. William G. Bowen, former president of Princeton and a nationally respected higher education leader, called the student protestors' approach both 'immature' and 'arrogant' and the subsequent withdrawal of Robert J. Birgeneau, former chancellor of the University of California Berkeley, a 'defeat' for the Quaker college and its ideals."
Gubernatorial Races
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "The industrial Northeast enjoys a reputation as a cradle of liberalism.... But there is a notable gap: The Democratic Party has yet to elect a female governor in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island or Massachusetts. Even this year, with women running for governor in three of those states, it is uncertain that any of them will break the pattern."
Senate Race
Ron Fournier of the National Journal: Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who is challenging Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), "is an overrated candidate. Setting aside his impressive biography, he is not a strong retail politician in a state that values handshake-to-handshake combat, and Cotton's brief record in Congress falls to the right of the state's GOP mainstream. He voted against the farm bill and disaster relief while supporting the government shutdown and a plan to raise the Medicare eligibility age."
Presidential Race
Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "As Hillary Rodham Clinton moves steadily toward what Democrats now see as an inevitable campaign for president in 2016, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is readying a dissent from the left. Sanders has been traveling the country to explore the possibility of running his own campaign in 2016.... He already has plenty of questions about whether the former senator and secretary of state is what he believes the times demand." CW: Oddly, Bernie (b. 1941) has said nothing about Hillary's (b. 1947) age, nor has he expressed concern about her severe brain damage. Fortunately, we have Priebus & Rove to take up the slack. ...
... Brian Knowlton of the New York Times: "Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, insisted on Sunday that Hillary Rodham Clinton's health and age were fair targets for inquiry ahead of a possible 2016 presidential run, as both he and Karl Rove, the Republican strategist who injected those questions into the debate, suggested that such scrutiny might dissuade her from running." CW: Priebus also asserted that -- like all women of a certain age -- Hillary lied about her age; that is, until she became brain-dead. ...
... CW: If you want to understand where Obama went wrong, it was in his determination to do everything Hillary would have done. (See Geithner reviews above.) A Hillary presidency would be an Obama presidency, writ slightly larger. Hillary may charm you with her advocacy for women & children's issues -- as Sanders mentions -- but her economic policies would do more to harm women & children than any sweet little childcare programs, etc., would begin to address.
Let's All March in the Neo-Con Parade. Steve Peoples of the AP: "Courting powerful Jewish donors for the second time in two months, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called Sunday for a more aggressive foreign policy that defends American values abroad -- even 'in some very messy, difficult places.'"
Beyond the Beltway ...
... Where Accepted Science = Political Propaganda. Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "... the Republican-controlled Legislature made Wyoming, where coal and oil are king, the first state to reject the [new national science] standards, which include lessons on human impact on global warming. The pushback came despite a unanimous vote by a group of Wyoming science educators urging acceptance. Wyoming was the first state to say no.... A House committee in Oklahoma last week voted to reject the standards, also in part because of concerns about how climate change would be taught. Amid a growing cascade of studies documenting melting ice caps and rising temperatures, schools are increasingly teaching students about climate change and the new guidelines, known as the Next Generation Science Standards, have been adopted so far by 11 states and the District of Columbia. They assert that human activity has affected the climate." CW: Proven science: Jesus walked on water, Virgin birth, and when it rains God is crying.
News Ledes
Washington Post: "The Justice Department is charging members of the Chinese military with conducting economic cyber-espionage against American companies, U.S. officials familiar with the case said Monday, marking the first time that the United States is leveling such criminal charges against a foreign country. Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to make the announcement at a news conference Monday morning."
Reuters: "Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered military forces to return to their permanent bases after drills in three regions bordering Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Monday. Putin's office said he had issued the order because the spring maneuvers were over. The move could also be intended to ease tension in Russia's standoff with the West over Ukraine before Kiev holds a presidential election on Sunday." ..
... New York Times: "... with less than a week to go until a presidential election [in Ukraine, Petro] Poroshenko[, a pro-Western billionaire and] ... a confection magnate known as the Chocolate King, [is] the heavy favorite, likely to avoid a runoff with his strongest opponent, former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko.... The growing air of inevitability around Mr. Poroshenko, who has deep business interests in Russia..., has presented the Kremlin with the prospect of a clear negotiating partner, apparently contributing ... to a softening in the stance of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia."
CNN: "China has evacuated more than 3,000 of its citizens from Vietnam and is sending ships to retrieve more of them after deadly anti-Chinese violence erupted last week over a territorial dispute between the two countries."
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Reader Comments (19)
I heard Robert Siegel's interview with Tim Geithner on Monday as I was driving somewhere.
http://www.npr.org/2014/05/12/311886167/for-geithner-financial-crisis-was-like-landing-a-burning-plane
It was difficult concentrating on the driving. Geithner's comments struck me as a study in the passive voice. Somehow, banks became powerful and there was nothing that could be done.
The passage that almost made me drive off the road was when he said: "I think you should think about this slightly differently. This was not a crisis caused by financial innovation on a massive scale. It wasn't a crisis caused fundamentally by a set of new fancy things that in retrospect seemed very risky. It was a crisis caused because we had a long period off confidence." Nothing about the removal of the regulations.
He talked about "the system outgrowing the regulations." Robert Siegel did bring up the point that the finance people helped remove the regulations and Geithner didn't acknowledge that fact.
Woe is he.
Back in the good ole days The Zombies––no, not those dead people–– the band, put out a piece called "Time of the Season." It's refrain was "Who's your Daddy–––is he rich like me?" Today Cass Sunstein (married to Samantha Powers) tells us in his essay in the New Republic about Richard Epstein, the man who made libertarians wrong about the constitution. "Everyone knows who Rand Paul's father is but in an intellectual sense Richard Epstein is his Daddy."
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117619/classical-liberal-constitution-richard-epstein-reviewed
Re: Proven Science
Also must add that Heaven is air-conditioned 365 days a year at a comfortable 67° (wind powered?) where everyone gets a complementary white robe that in retrospect looks strikingly familiar to what them mooslims like to wear. In stirking constrast Hell is an eternally hot and humid purgatory where sinners are forced to walk around endlessly with mud butt because, like Communist Cuba and Venezuela, toilet paper is hoarded by the greedy bourgeoisie. Yes, even Hell has social classes, but currency is measured in soullessness, not dollars. Correlations?
I caught a bit of Geitner's interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN yesterday. Reading his body language and tone of voice I wasn't convinced even he believed the shit he was saying about helping the common man, being a man of the people, bullshit, etc. Fareed didn't even attempt to hold his feet to the fire, it was buddy buddy all the way through. Surprise.
At the end, Fareed asked if Geitner would ever come back to work as a public official, and he said that he did his public service as an American and wouldn't want to face the pressure of the 300 Americans again..... Yeah 300, not 300 million. Fareed had to correct him and they had a little sinister laugh together.
My mind instantly drifted to the charts of the 300 richest families (the effective Oligarchy) and the explosion of wealth inequality.
Faux pas, simple gaffe, Freudian slip... I had a sinister laugh too.
@Safari; Timmy probably first thought of the thirty guys he had to answer to and then broadened out to say three hundred in hopes of sounding inclusive. Yea, Tim's concerned about me and you and the other 298 feeder fish out there. One time he looked out his limo's darkened window and saw a group of unemployed homeless people and said to himself, "I wonder if you could bundle those poor performing assets and sell them with a no risk computer generated algorithm?" Then the light changed and he and his limo moved on to more fulfilling pastures. "Maybe houses", he thought.
@safari: Wow––love the sinister laugh bit. Martin Amis tells the tale of the trope he and Hitchens devised: "sinisterballs" meant no vehement assertions of a left wing tendency.
I saw Geitner on Charlie Rose––Timmy is timing his talk shows to a T in order to hawk his book––but I could stomach only fifteen minutes. Never could stand Geitner's cadence much less his messages. His gaffe––well, we COULD call it a slip, I suppose, of 300, is not only really very funny, it's so revealing–– and your mind, safari, going to our hotsi-totsi Oligarchy is exactly where one's mind should go if one is paying even a little bit of attention.
A thought from pop culture. Perhaps Geitner was trying to make a funny by comparing "The 300" ala Frank Miller and King Leonidas to Americans in general. Geitner is a guy whose nervous frightened demeanor stands out in a crowd. For me, the reference fits.
Safari,
Zakaria's question should have been "Timmy, old boy, would you ever consider public service at some point in the future?" since one could hardly interpret Geithner's recent Wall Street two-step as a service to the public.
That is, unless you consider the Forbes 400 (or the Geithner 300) "the public".
He served those to whom he was beholden and whose company he seeks and keeps. A select group that does not include any of us, or the vast majority of the 300 million he forgot about. The funny (sad) thing is that you probably witnessed the very first time Geithner truly thought about that other 299,999,700 he was supposed to be concerned about.
Conveniently, for him, it was a thought easily dismissed with a chuckle.
Everybody does it! It's the as-bad-as-you thought-I-was-underneath-it-all-I'm-just-a-humble-bootstrapping-guy* autobiography, i.e.,: Robert Rubin, Sandy Weill, Pete Petersen, Tim Geithner, Alan Greenspan (who couldda've seen the bubble), etc.
*and I deserve every boatload of money I make.
More on the inequality factor: there's them that's got it and us that don't. Nearly through reading Michael Gross's "House of Outrageous Fortunes" about the building of super luxury condo: 15 Central Park West. The who's who of its occupants and the nonchalant attitude re the meager mid-million price tags to the soaring eight digit sale that was topped with the Russian oligarch's purchase of Sandy Weill's penthouse apartment ($88-million) for "his daughter" is mind-boggling—but add in the five-figure monthly maintenance charges, the maid(s), the private chef (the 'servants' apartments available on lower floor w/o views of Central Park fetch upwards of $2.5-mil). Oh, and most are just secondary residences—with other homes boasting multi-million price tags scattered around the globe.
The over-the-top life styles and bad boy (usually guys, not always) behavior of many of these uber-plutocrats is beyond cringe-worthy. Obviously, these masters of the universe have circled the Maybachs in a prime location. Wonder when they'll construct the moat?
Here's a funny aside, the building is next door is the glitzy (of course) Trump International (at Columbus Circle). Apparently, Trump wanted to call it the Trump International Tower, but his lawyers advised against. Some acronyms aren't good for the brand!!!!
Marie,
Concerning your link to the story about how Wyoming is on the verge of rejecting the scientific method, basic chemistry, electromagnetism, gravity, and, oh, what the hell, logic itself, in favor of fairy tales.
The conflation of religious beliefs with observations of the phenomenal world and the replacement of provable scientific explanations with turn-around-and-touch-the-ground mumbo-jumbo gives me an opportunity to quote the excellent Amanda Marcotte on some of the many myths religious people, especially fundamentalists, hold about certain other groups who happen to think science is pretty OK:
"Atheists are routinely asked how people will know not to rape and murder without religion telling them not to do it, especially a religion that backs up the orders with threats of hell. Believers, listen to me carefully when I say this: When you use this argument, you terrify atheists. We hear you saying that the only thing standing between you and Ted Bundy is a flimsy belief in a supernatural being made up by pre-literate people trying to figure out where the rain came from. This is not very reassuring if you’re trying to argue from a position of moral superiority."
They're still trying to figure out that rain thing, and a lot of other stuff besides. "The tide goes in, the tide goes out, who can explain it?"
Wingnuts hate a lot more than just science, but it's still a big bogeyman for them.
Re: the reference to Elizabeth Warren's ability to create and present a cogent argument.
The art of the argument is a lost one. The reason is the death of follow up questions posed by interlocutors with a well thought out position of their own who take umbrage at the idea that someone who agrees to sit for an interview can just sling the shit and not offer the viewers a single sheet of toilet paper as protection against unchecked verbal defecation. Five minutes watching any Fuzzy Gregory performance crystallizes that idea.
Arguments today take on the form of "This is what it is because I say it is". This is the form of "argumentation", such as it is, favored by "intellectuals" like Paul Ryan who, at least, recognize the need to offer something to back up their assertions. Most don't, but Ryan, to play out the part, usually offers something he made up on the spot. The problem is no one calls these people on it; on anything. Most politicians today don't even bother to make shit up. They simply make a statement and think that's all they have to do. And mostly, it suffices because no one seems to care one way or the other. Five minutes later, baseless assertions are being reported and repeated across the echo chamber as "news".
At least in academia where publications must be peer reviewed, and in the field of law (with horribly glaring exceptions--lookin' at you John Roberts) one has to think about counter arguments and be able to support one's views against all comers. Not so in the world of politics. Not anymore, at least. If Timmy Geithner ever had to stand for the kind of questioning his tenure demands, he'd probably stand up and walk out, "The idea! Harumph!". Plenty of Republicans do that, or simply go on the attack when asked to make a clear and supportable argument based on, ya know, facts.
Forget Lincoln-Douglas. We don't even get Tom and Jerry.
"I know you are, but what am I" is what passes today for sophisticated repartee. Most contemporary political disputation makes Beavis and Butthead look like Kant and Hume.
So more power to Warren. She's a species of public intellectual that has all but disappeared.
The Salon piece on Matt Taibbi's new book, linked above, is well worth a read. You won't really find out anything you didn't already know but Taibbi's point about how a bifurcated system of justice is rigged to make sure the little guys do time but the really big crooks skate off to write their memoirs furthers the idea that we live in a morally bankrupt society.
And scrolling down a few stories on the Salon site brings you to the story of a woman who has been sentenced to jail time by a judge for her "assault" of a police office during an Occupy Wall Street protest. The officer, according to the woman, had grabbed her breast and she reacted. No matter. Her automatic reaction was deemed punishable by jail time, mental health treatment (because you can't just send a protester of capitalism run amok to jail, they must be painted as mentally unstable), and FIVE years probation.
The judge lectured Cecily McMillan that she must accept responsibility for her actions. Just imagine if anyone had said that to George Bush or Dick Cheney, or anyone at Goldman Sachs. Fox would implode.
Also, I could be wrong, but I don't recall any followups to stories of cops tasing and beating peaceful Occupy protesters. Wonder if any of them got jail time?
And tell me again what the bankers who irresponsibly crashed the economy and cavalierly plunged us into a five year recession got?
That's right. Nothing.
Oh wait, that's not true.
They got a raise.
Not to big to fail? You can go to jail.
Ak and most folks: critical minutiae. The power of science is not provable explanations, which can never happen, but refutable explanations, which is the basis of the scientific method, invented by Galileo and developed into currency by that good Christian Michael Faraday, who never confused religion, which cannot be refuted, with science.
While we're talking about science, I read today that researchers have found a way to reverse Einstein's famous equation, E=mc², that posited energy coming from matter. The current idea is that it is now possible to go the other way and create matter from energy, or more specifically, light, the way matter was created during first few minutes of the Big Bang (which occurred a few thousand years ago according to the fundies).
So here's the plan.
I go to Home Depot. Buy a boat load of flashlights, turn them all on at once, and presto!
A new car!
Hope I can choose the color.
Better buy the Energizer batteries...
Whyte,
Good point. I shouldn't have said "provable". I should have written something like testable, reproducible outcomes that support hypothetical predictions, since there really are no true proofs, at least not in the same way there can be mathematical proofs.
Thanks for the correction.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/rutgers-condoleezza-rice-speech-051614?src=nl&mag=esq&list=nl_enl_pol_non_051914_rice-speech
Siva Vaidhyanathan (a professor at UofVa) writing in "Esquire" about the Rutgers protest against Rice. As the professor points out, it wasn't that she might say something they disagreed with. It was that the students believe that the commencement speaker should be an honorable person, which she might have been at one time, but not anymore. As MoDo opined, Condi sold out. What good is it to gain the whole world....?
I know you should forgive people, but in her case, I fid that extremely difficult.
This is the best news featuring an octogenarian since the Viagra beta trials.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/19/new-hampshire-police-commissioner-quits-obama-slur
@AK: I want to thank you once again for your posts which make me proud that you are in my world––-so much illumination comes forth that I need to don my large straw hat and sunglasses to keep out the brilliant glare. Your mention of Tom and Jerry reminded me of a conversation I was having with someone who shared my affection for all those cartoons where there was always a neat finish to thems that thought bigger was better–-and smarter–-and wiser. But like all Disney, it's fantasy and fun with that small core of truth trying to edge its way in.
Get those batteries–––color? Electric Blue––-sounds like a rock band––looks like a bird in flight.
@PD — Walt had nuttin' to do with T&J: "In its original run, Hanna and Barbera produced 114 Tom and Jerry shorts for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1940 to 1957. During this time, they won seven Academy Awards for Animated Short Film, tying for first place with Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies with the most awards in the category. " (I know CW likes proper attributions).
But, agree...they were always funny!
@James Singer re: NH's 82-year old Police Commissioner, Yep, even Romney has denounced him. The old geezer is practically in his backyard. It's been getting quite a bit of attention in the surrounding areas here in New England-but, interestingly (from my observations and readings) the story seemed to hit the national media first!
PD,
Thanks for your kind words. The fact that we're in a situation where cartoons are preferable, more authentic, and certainly more truthful than an entire political party is at once surrealistic and scary.
Public discourse has become so debased that urking out one's name, without getting it wrong, while waving a flag and shouting "Impeach" or "Benghazi !" is enough, in some districts, to guarantee a candidate an audience. Unlike cartoons, there is no hope of a satisfyingly didactic outcome such as the pain in the ass antagonist getting hit in the head with something heavy. I don't know though, that sounds like a pretty therapeutic end to many of the current electoral races. Now if only we could get one of those great sound effects to accompany said flattening,
BLAM....