The Commentariat -- May 2 & 3
All internal links removed.
Lynh Bui & Dana Hedgpeth of the Washington Post: "Six Baltimore police officers have been charged with several counts, including one who was charged with second-degree murder, in the high-profile death of Freddie Gray, who died from injuries suffered in police custody, State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby said Friday. Mosby said warrants have been issued for the arrest of the officers, including a lieutenant and a sergeant. Gray suffered a spinal injury after he was arrested April 12 and died after riding in a police transport van that made several stops. The charges against some of the officers include involuntary manslaughter, assault, failure to render aid and other counts." The Post is liveblogging events following the charges. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Paul Waldman: "Perhaps this prosecution -- and whatever reforms might happen in the near future -- would have occurred if the protests had stayed peaceful. There's no way to know for sure. But you don't have to approve of rioting to acknowledge that in this case it may well have led to results." ...
... Gene Robinson: "Police had no legitimate reason to arrest [Freddie Gray] in the first place. The ostensible charge against Gray -- that he had an illegal switchblade -- was false, according to Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby. The folding knife found in his pocket was of a design that is perfectly legal under Maryland law, Mosby said.... Now does everyone understand the anger in Baltimore?" ...
... Christopher Hooton of the Independent: "Kevin Moore, the man who filmed Freddie Gray's brutal arrest, has now himself been arrested following 'harassment and intimidation' from Baltimore police. Moore was arrested at gunpoint last night along with two other members of Cop Watch, a group dedicated to filming and documenting police work.... Moore claims that despite having co-operated with two detectives in the Baltimore Police Department's Office of Internal Oversight and given them the video, police posted his photo and told the public that he was 'wanted for questioning', asking people to identify him." ...
... Carimah Townes of Think Progress: "Moore says he was protesting with Ferguson cop watchers on North Avenue, shouting obscenities and wearing an Anonymous mask. Once the group left, officers arrested them without issuing a citation or explaining what the charges were." ...
... Nikita Stewart & Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "All over Baltimore in the early hours after Ms. Mosby's speech, residents found themselves gripped by unexpected emotion. Crowds of young men who had spent the past few days and nights protesting in anger were instead smiling, bounding up and down, shouting 'Freddie, Freddie, Freddie!' Drivers honked their horns; teenagers pumped their fists. Some residents even found a way to play a recording of Ms. Mosby's speech, outside to passing crowds."
... Margaret Hartmann: "The other prisoner [who rode in the van for a short time with Freddie Gray], 22-year-old Donta Allen, came forward on Thursday and confirmed that he heard banging when he got in the van.... But in an interview with WJZ, Allen said police are misconstruing his words, and he's angry that the report was leaked. 'They trying to make it seem like I told them that, I made it like Freddie Gray did that to hisself [sic],' he said. 'Why the [expletive] would he do that to hisself?'... Allen claims that when they got to the station, he heard police say, 'We got him, we gave him a run for his money.'" ...
... MEANWHILE. Steve M.: "The right has a new Eric Holder." Congratulations, Marilyn Mosby. CW: Whew! Just when you thought wingers wouldn't know what to do when Eric Holder left the building way last week.
Joe Davidson of the Washington Post: "The House and Senate Republican budget plan announced this week would continue hits on government workers, as expected, with cuts that could lighten their wallets by up to $194 billion..... Given the [House Oversight C]ommittee's oversight, however, federal pension benefits and the Federal Employees Health Benefits program are likely targets." CW: A budget President Walker would love.
Department of Transportation: "U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx today announced a final rule for the safe transportation of flammable liquids by rail. The final rule, developed by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), in coordination with Canada, focuses on safety improvements that are designed to prevent accidents, mitigate consequences in the event of an accident, and support emergency response."
Tina Nguyen of Mediaite: "In the past few months, the Capitol Hill Police has recorded at least three instances where their officers accidentally left their loaded Glocks in bathrooms.... Roll Call, which broke this mindblowing tale of stupidity, reports that two of the guns were found in the Capitol office complexes itself: one in the bathroom of the Capitol Visitors Center, casually wedged into a toilet seat cover dispenser. One was reportedly picked up by an 8-year-old boy touring Speaker John Boehner's office with his parents. (Let's repeat that: An 8-year-old tourist found a Glock in Boehner's office.) The third Glock was discovered casually chilling in the open at the Capitol Police headquarters building." ...
... Hannah Hess of Roll Call: "Unlike a gun with a traditional safety, a Glock will fire if the trigger is pulled -- making the young boy's alleged discovery of a gun in Boehner's office particularly concerning."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jonathan Chait: "Now that he is no longer the chairman of the Federal Reserve and is now a blogger, Ben Bernanke is free to point out certain obvious truths he couldn't say previously, such as the fact that The Wall Street Journal editorial page is run by crazy people. Bernanke is not quite putting it in those terms, alas, but his blogging career is young. In response to a Journal editorial calling for higher interest rates to tame inflation, Bernanke notes that the Journal has been wrongly forecasting higher inflation for nine years now." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Annie Lowrey of New York: "David Brooks is not buying your excuses, poor people.... I am going to leave the reductive argument about social norms and social mobility aside. Nobody should take it seriously, particularly not when it is based on a bizarre misreading of federal data on poverty." ...
... Dean Baker has an excellent explanation of why Brooks is "just mak[ing] crap up...." ...
... CW BTW: Pretty much everything Baker explains was available to Brooks on the Internets long before he made up this crap. For instance, here, where Glenn Kessler gives 3 Pinocchios to a similar analysis by Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. or in this PolitiFact rebuttal to Very Serious Budget Guru Paul Ryan.
... Sean Illing of Slate: "For Brooks, the problem with poor people is that they're immoral. It's not because they're structurally disadvantaged, or because their local economies have collapsed, or because jobs have been shipped overseas, or because they attended chaotic schools, or because their parents worked multiple jobs for unlivable wages, or because the material demands of existence occupy the bulk of their time. Nope, it's because of poor 'social psychology.' That's the kind of explanation that could only be offered by someone oblivious to his own advantages. And Brooks has been peddling it for years." ...
... Driftglass: "The astute reader will note that whenever Mr. Brooks lectures gassily and from far, far away about the plight of The Poors, he is never shy about using his amazing moral x-ray vision to penetrate their lives and communities and pronounce judgement on these children of a lesser God." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "Sad thing is no telling how many people will read Brooks' column and whether or not they absorb the exact numbers or understand their misleading character, they'll retain the vague impression that everybody knows you could cash out anti-poverty programs and save everybody a lot of money -- or hell, maybe just kill the programs outright and keep the change instead of giving it to po' folks who are incorrigible unless somebody gets in there and makes them behave." ...
... CW: I've said it before, & I'll say it again. David Brooks is the reincarnation of the Peter Sellers character, Chauncey Gardner, "the soft-headed Washington, D.C. gardener who is mistaken for an insightful businessman, and whose 'simple brand of wisdom' is misread as profundity." But Brooks, of course, is way meaner. A thanks to the writers cited above who don't "just make crap up." Brooks is a disgrace.
Presidential Race
Thomas Zambito of NJ.com: "Former Port Authority executive David Wildstein pleaded guilty Friday to his role in the politically-motivated closure of local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge. Wildstein, 53, admitted in federal court to conspiring with former Port Authority Deputy Director Bill Baroni and Gov. Chris Christie's former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly to 'punish' Fort Lee mayor Mark Sokolich for not endorsing Christie in his re-election bid." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Kate Zernicke & Marc Santora of the New York Times: "After a 16-month federal investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane closings scandal, a judge in New Jersey on Friday unsealed indictments of two people close to Gov. Chris Christie, outlining a conspiracy to exact political vengeance against a local mayor for his failure to offer political support to the governor. Bill Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Bridget Anne Kelly, a former deputy chief of staff to Mr. Christie, were charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit fraud, including 'knowingly converting and intentionally misapplying property of an organization receiving federal benefits.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Kate Zernicke: "... an indictment released by federal prosecutors in New Jersey on Friday fills out in more detail the specifics of how and why [for the bridge closing], presenting the lengths three accused conspirators ... went to, and the delight they took, in concocting their scheme and the sham story to cover it up.... The fine-grained intricacies laid out in the legal papers show the three plotting like petulant and juvenile pranksters, using government resources, time and personnel to punish a public official whose sole offense was failing to endorse their political patron. The three were in constant contact, brazenly using government emails, their tone sometimes almost giddy." The indictment also alleges (with plenty of written corroboration) that Wildstein, with the help of other unwitting PA personnel, developed plans to maximize the impact of the closing & blame Mayor Sokolich. ...
... Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Nowhere does the indictment say Mr. Christie, a Republican, knew of the scheme or was involved in it. Yet it was a crime of political vengeance, the indictment makes clear, that was conceived in furtherance of Mr. Christie's political ambitions, and carried out in his name.... Mr. Christie faces the specter of a lengthy and embarrassing criminal trial overshadowing the 2016 presidential campaign, in which the star witness -- David Wildstein ... still maintains the governor was aware of the lane-closing plot as it happened. Even so, Mr. Christie treated the outcome of the federal investigation as a personal exoneration." ...
... New York Times Editors: "Mr. Christie can't slough these problems off on hired hands. They belong to the man in charge. [The] behavior [of his subordinates] shows Mr. Christie's inability to choose employees, to manage them and, most important, to keep them from abusing their power. His failure to do so created a culture that allowed his underlings to bully the mayor of Fort Lee.... While Mr. Christie was in Virginia on Friday morning talking about the need for trust and truth in government, Mr. Wildstein was in federal court in Newark pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and 'conspiracy against civil rights' of residents caught in the traffic jam."
... Harry Enten of 538: "Chris Christie's access lanes to the the GOP nomination are closed.... Whether or not Christie is ever charged, his position in the presidential race is already even worse than we thought it was at the beginning of the year."
Gail Collins: "Question: Sanders self-identifies as a 'democratic socialist.' Aren't people going to think that's a little extreme? Answer: This week, the governor of Texas announced he was putting a special watch on U.S. military exercises this summer, due to public speculation that the soldiers might take over the state and confiscate everyone's guns. Also, the Idaho Legislature recently killed a bill that would have provided federal aid in tracking down deadbeat dads, due to concern that it might involve the use of Shariah law. I do not want to hear you calling Bernie Sanders an extremist." ...
... Dana Milbank argues that Bernie Sanders & Martin O'Malley are making a mistake by not taking on Hillary Clinton "directly and forcefully.... The O'Malley and Sanders reticence is doing Clinton no favors. Were they to take her on, they could force her from her defensive crouch into a more populist posture. That would excite the Democratic base, and sparring with O'Malley or Sanders would get her in shape for the general election."
Beyond the Beltway
Alan Yuhas & Jana Kasperkevic of the Guardian: "Thousands of Americans set out to march under the banners of 'black lives matter' and 'no justice no peace' on Friday, merging the movement against police abuses with May Day's 124-year crusade for workers' rights. In New York, thousands rallied in downtown Manhattan, demanding 'disarm the NYPD' in the wake of the police killings of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and other black men around the country. Protesters also called for a minimum wage hike to $15, restrictions on carbon emissions and an end to tax loopholes for the wealthiest Americans." ...
... Veronica Rocha & Brittny Mejia of the Los Angeles Times: "Traffic snarled in downtown Los Angeles on Friday afternoon as street closures took effect for a May Day rally demanding immigration reform and higher minimum wages."
William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "Dean G. Skelos, the leader of the New York State Senate, and his son are expected to be arrested on federal corruption charges next week, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The expected arrests, coming roughly three months after federal bribery and kickback charges led Assemblyman Sheldon Silver to step down as speaker, would signal an extension of the investigation into allegations of political corruption in Albany.... It is not known if Mr. Skelos, a Republican from Long Island who was first elected to the Senate in 1984, will resign his leadership post as did Mr. Silver, a Manhattan Democrat...."
Tim Egan on California in the Arid Age.
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Reader Comments (6)
Wow! What a wealth of summaries and links, on a "not much posting" weekend. Many thanks!
@NiskyGuy: What you said - I second it. Even on a "slow day" Marie can't be beat!
As to Christie, the summary of highlights from the indictment recounted in the NYT were fairly stunning to me. The plot to screw over the residents of Fort Lee in order to make their mayor look bad was far more calculated and detailed than even I had imagined it could be. And the principals gloried in the chaos and found ways to inflict more pain on the mayor as the slow-down wore on. These were truly evil public - ahem! - servants. As the Times' editorial points out, whether Christie knew or not, he hired these miscreants. I hope the press can now stop speculating on Christie's presidential chances, and move on to more productive stories.
And in other news, we had an earthquake in Western Michigan this
afternoon. Dare I say the F word? (Fracking).
There is some fracking going on in Michigan, but most of it is significantly North of the earthquake area. The following link is for the State DEC map of fracking wells past, present, and proposed:
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/hvhfwc_activity_map_new_symbols-jjv_483124_7.pdf
I don't think this includes the injection disposal wells, which I understand to be the earthquake culprits. One would think those would be close to the active wells, but that's not guaranteed.
The Kalamazoo River was the site of a major tar sands oil spill a year or two ago, but that doesn't really have anything to do with the earthquake, either.
Forrest,
Prior to intensive fracking in Oklahoma, around 2008, that state experienced 2 or 3 quakes a year measuring 3.0 or greater.
Now? They have that many at 3.0 or higher every day.
But, of course It has nothing to do with fracking.
2 or 3 a day.
No wonder wingers work so hard to try to convince people that humans have no effect on their environment.
Tom Cotton is at it again, doing his damnedest to derail US foreign policy and directly meddle in very serious affairs with Iran. If the GOP doesn't reel in these renegade tactics and curtail their ability to influence major foreign policy decisions, try to imagine what the future of US foreign policy would look like:
Here we have one ideologue, a freshmen politician with a political résumé as long as a college freshmen's, directly engaging, belittling and provoking other senior politicians, in this case a major Middle Eastern power with the ability and influence to significantly transform the region. If this political roulette is condoned, what example does that give to the next wave of politicians in the future, homebred on pseudo-facts and ideological media bubbles and "think"-tanks, storming in to Congress with a personal ego to feed and a bone to pick in today's winner-takes-all politics? Can you imagine a President trying to successfully steer American power overseas with four or five, or even fifteen Tom Cotton's twittering and twattering away at foreign senior diplomats across the world? With the Middle East on fire, a bellicose Russia, a burgeoning China throwing its weight in the South China Sea, a stagnant Eurozone with populist tendencies on the rise, and a bloody neighbor locked in a war against drug cartels, just to mention a few, can we afford to not have a unified voice when we project power abroad? Can the sending of threatening letters to foreign powers become the new normal? These are serious questions we need to ask ourselves as we move into the unchartered future where half of our political apparatus has adopted unprecedented maverick methods of undermining executive power. This demagogue is trying to take the mantle of extremism from Ted fucking Cruz in foreign policy, and with no pushback from the GOP "leadership", others will surely follow. And that should seriously concern anyone that has paid attention to politics since the inauguration of Fox "News", the rise of social media and disinformation, and the crumbling standards of mainstream media.
http://www.juancole.com/2015/05/cottons-chickenhawk-demeans.html