The Commentariat -- Nov. 19, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Aurelein Breeden, et al., of the New York Times: "Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Belgian militant suspected of orchestrating the Paris terrorist attacks, was killed in a police raid in the northern Paris suburb of St.-Denis early Wednesday, the French authorities announced on Thursday. The confirmation of Mr. Abaaoud's death followed fingerprint analysis, the Paris prosecutor, François Molins, said in a statement. Mr. Abaaoud's body was heavily riddled with wounds from gunfire and a grenade detonated during the raid. 'We do not know at this stage whether Abaaoud blew himself up or not,' Mr. Molins's office said" ...
... Anthony Faiola, et al., of the Washington Post: "...French lawmakers gave their backing to extend state-of-emergency powers for three months even as officials across Europe sought suspected plotters in the Paris bloodshed and suggested other sites could be targets, including St. Peter's Basilica." ...
... Karen DeYoung & Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "French President François Hollande called on world powers Wednesday to overcome their 'sometimes diverging interests' to unite in the fight against the Islamic State. On Tuesday, he will make his case in Washington to President Obama and then travel to Moscow with the same message for President Vladimir Putin.... So far, U.S.-Russian cooperation extends only to 'deconfliction' notifications to ensure that their warplanes are not operating in the same airspace at the same time. The Obama administration remains leery of Putin's eagerness to form a grand military coalition, to include intelligence sharing, against the Islamic State...." CW: Look for Hollande to be greeted like Lafayette. ...
... Michael Memoli of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama insisted Thursday that any political solution to end the bloody Syrian civil war must include Bashar Assad stepping down from power, rebutting Russian suggestions that the U.S. could bend on a key demand in the interests of aligning efforts to take on Islamic State.... 'It is unimaginable that you can stop the civil war here when the overwhelming majority of people in Syria consider him to be a brutal, murderous dictator,' Obama said. 'He cannot regain legitimacy.'... Obama has said that Assad's status remained a sticking point to such coordination with Russia...." ...
... Steven Mufson & William Booth of the Washington Post: "Belgian authorities had close contact with some of the men believed to be behind the bloody terrorist attacks in Paris last week, a pattern that raises questions about how the suspects could slip through the fingers of law enforcement officials. Over the past year, Belgian security forces tapped at least one bomber's telephone and briefly detained and interviewed at least two other suspects -- one for his travels to Syria and the other for his radical views, according to law enforcement officials here." ...
... Anthony Faiola, et al., of the Washington Post: "A massive police raid Wednesdays killed the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks during a blitz-style sweep, two senior European intelligence officials said, after investigators followed leads that the fugitive militant was holed up north of the French capital and could be plotting another wave of violence. More than 100 police and soldiers stormed the building during a seven-hour siege that left two dead including the suspected overseer of the Paris bloodshed, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian extremist who had once boasted he could slip easily between Europe and the Islamic State strongholds in Syria." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... BUT. Lilia Blaise, et al., of the New York Times: "When it was all over, the police had swept eight people into custody and found at least two mangled bodies. [Abdelhamid] Abaaoud had not been taken alive, the authorities said -- and it was not clear whether one of the bodies was his. 'I am not able to give you the definitive number and identities of the people who were killed,' the Paris prosecutor, François Molins, said, adding that neither Mr. Abaaoud nor Salah Abdeslam, another suspected Paris attacker who has been on the loose, was among those arrested." ...
... Today's Guardian's liveblog on the aftermath of the Paris attacks is here. ...
... Rouba El Husseini of AFP: "The Islamic State group said Wednesday it had killed a Chinese and a Norwegian hostage, as French and Russian air strikes on its Syrian stronghold were reported to have left 33 fighters dead." ...
... Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "French media reported that the woman who set off a suicide blast as security forces closed in Wednesday during an anti-terrorism raid in Saint-Denis was Hasna Aitboulahcen. The 26-year-old French citizen was a cousin of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected architect of the Paris attacks." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
David Graeber of the Guardian: "Not only has [Turkey's President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan done almost everything he can to cripple the forces actually fighting Isis; there is considerable evidence that his government has been at least tacitly aiding Isis itself.... How could Isis be eliminated? In the region, everyone knows. All it would really take would be to unleash the largely Kurdish forces of the YPG (Democratic Union party) in Syria, and PKK (Kurdistan Workers' party) guerillas in Iraq and Turkey." Thanks to Keith H. for the link. ...
... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "... one lesson of Iraq (and Libya) is that wars are always more complicated than they sound and often create new sanctuaries — which then also, somehow, must be destroyed." ...
... Rukimini Callimachi & Robery Mackey of the New York Times: "The Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for the downing of a Russian passenger plane over the Sinai Peninsula last month, released an image that purports to show the improvised explosive device used to kill all 224 people aboard the flight from Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. In the latest issue of Dabiq, the Islamic State's glossy online magazine, first disseminated through Telegram, an encrypted messaging app, a picture shows what ISIS says were the components of an IED: A Gold Schweppes Pineapple tonic water can and two devices containing wires that appear to be the detonator and the switch." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Frank McGurty of the AP: "New York City police are aware of a newly released Islamic State video that suggests that the largest U.S. city was a potential target of attacks such as those in Paris last week, but that there are no current or specific threats, the department said on Wednesday." ...
... Katrin Bennhold of the New York Times: "The Paris attacks, the deadliest in France to date, have sharpened the focus on the inability of security services to monitor the large and growing number of young European Muslims who have fought alongside the Islamic State or to spot terrorist plots in their early stages, even when the participants are well known to them. It appears so far that as many as six of the assailants who killed 129 people with guns, grenades and suicide bombs at six sites last Friday were Europeans who had traveled to Syria and returned to carry out attacks at home -- precisely the nightmare scenario security officials have been warning about for the past two years." ...
... Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "House Republicans are moving forward with a plan that would prevent Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering the United States unless the government can verify they don't pose a security a threat.... But the Obama administration on Wednesday issued a veto threat, arguing the legislation 'would provide no meaningful additional security for the American people' and only 'create significant delays and obstacles in the fulfillment of a vital program that satisfies both humanitarian and national security objectives.'" ...
... "Regular Disorder." Dana Milbank: "Three weeks ago, Paul Ryan accepted the speaker's gavel with a vow to return to 'regular order,' in which the Congress runs by deliberation rather than fiat and lawmakers have loose rein to amend and shape legislation.... That dream died about 10:15 p.m. Tuesday night. That's when House leaders announced they would take up a never-before-seen piece of legislation, written that very day, to rewrite the rules of the U.S. refugee program for those coming from Syria and Iraq. There had been, and would be, no hearings or other committee action before the legislation was rushed Thursday to the House floor, where no amendments would be allowed. H.R. 4038, the 'American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act' (a contrivance to produce the abbreviation 'SAFE Act') ... was drafted in response to panic whipped up by Republican presidential candidates after the terrorist attacks in Paris."
... Profiles in Cowardice, Ctd. Cameron Joseph & Larry McShane of the New York Daily News: "The NRA -- and their gun-loving Republican cohorts -- are refusing once more to stop terrorists intent on getting armed in the U.S.A. A legal loophole allows suspected terrorists on the government's no-fly list to legally buy guns, but a bill to fix that will likely wither on the vine. The federal Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act, even in the wake of last week's terrorist killing of 129 people in Paris, remains a long shot due to its rabid pro-gun opponents.... More than 2,000 suspects on the FBI's Terrorist Watchlist bought weapons in the U.S. over the last 11 years, according to the federal Government Accountability Office."...
... Seung Min Kim of Politico: "A core group of Senate Democrats are preparing a response to the terrorist attacks in Paris, in an effort to focus attention on what the Democrats say are more pressing potential security threats even as Congress remains largely focused on the nation's refugee resettlement program. The plan, according to a source close to the negotiations among Democratic senators, would reform the visa waiver program and shut off the so-called 'terror gap,' which would specifically bar members of terrorist organizations from possessing or buying firearms. The source noted that the Democrats' plan would not endorse pausing the current refugee resettlement program...." ...
... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the third ranking member of the Senate Democratic leadership, on Tuesday said it may be necessary to halt the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States. Republicans immediately seized on Schumer's comment, which breaks with other Democrats who have argued against halting the program." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... ABC News: "French President Francois Hollande today promised that 'France will remain a country of freedom,' defending his decision to honor a commitment to accept migrants and refugees despite Friday's deadly terrorist attacks in Paris." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
** Juan Cole: "Top ten reasons governors are wrong to exclude Syrian refugees." Something to commit to memory to try to shut down your Neanderthal relatives at Thanksgiving. Yeah, I know, good luck with that.
... ** Lydia DePillis of the Washington Post: "... would keeping refugees out actually make anybody safer? Few experts deny that it's possible for terrorists to conceal themselves among large crowds of refugees in some areas -- for example, Al-Shabaab has infiltrated the flow of Somalis fleeing conflict into Kenya. But even fewer think that sealing off borders is likely to prevent future attacks, either." ...
... The Center for American Progress outlines the 21 steps a refugee must pass through to gain refugee status in the U.S. ...
... The other day a contributor asked about sponsoring a Syrian refugee. In the U.S., it can't be done. Canada has a private-sponsorship program. ...
... Paul Waldman: "It took about a day and a half for Republican politicians to move from 'What happened in Paris was awful!' through 'Barack Obama is weak on evildoers!' to 'Terrorist foreigners are coming to kill your children!'... [The] hurricane of xenophobia and cynical opportunism makes for a truly odious display. But sadly, it's also good politics for Republicans, at least in the short term.... Someone who wanted to come to the U.S. to commit a terrorist act could do so with a student visa or a tourist visa; there'd be no point in going through the lengthy, multi-layered vetting process to gain refugee status, which ... requires up to a two-year wait."
... Paul Krugman: "It took no time at all for the right-wing response to the Paris attacks to turn into a vile caricature that has me feeling nostalgic for the restraint and statesmanship of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney." Krugman points to remarks by "the reasonable wing of the modern right." ...
... Dionne Searcey & Marc Santora of the New York Times: "Boko Haram, the militant group that has tortured Nigeria and its neighbors for years, was responsible for 6,664 deaths last year, more than any other terrorist group in the world, including the Islamic State, which killed 6,073 people in 2014, according to a report released Wednesday tracking terrorist attacks globally."
Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve, setting aside its habitual reticence, is issuing increasingly explicit warnings that it is likely to start raising its benchmark interest rate in December."
Gail Collins: "In honor of the coming vacation travel season, the Senate is working on a bill that would loosen the requirement that pilots take medical examinations.... 'The U.S. Senate has an excruciatingly difficult time doing anything, and here they're dismantling something that's been working pretty well,' complained Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.... More than two-thirds of his colleagues are co-sponsors.... The bill's lead sponsor, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, is a very enthusiastic 81-year-old pilot who starred in an exciting airborne adventure about five years ago, when he landed his Cessna at an airport in Texas despite A) The large 'X' on the runway, indicating it was closed, and B) The construction crew working on said runway, which ran for their lives when he dropped in.... Some small-minded observers suspect he also has personal skin in the game, what with having had quadruple bypass heart surgery and all."
K-Men. Jane Mayer of the New Yorker comments on Ken Vogel's big scoop about the "Koch Intelligence Agency." The boyz have been doing covert surveillance on perceived enemies for a long time.
Brady McCombs of the AP: "A Utah county prosecutor said Wednesday he is investigating U.S. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada in connection with a pay-to-play scheme involving two former Utah attorneys general. Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings, a Republican, said in a statement that he's looking into allegations related to the Democratic senator. Rawlings declined to disclose the allegations.... Reid, who hasn't been charged, fired back at Rawlings in a statement from his spokeswoman Kristen Orthman. She said Rawlings is using "Sen. Reid's name to generate attention to himself and advance his political career, so every few months he seeks headlines by floating the same unsubstantiated allegations."
Presidential Race
Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "On Thursday..., Hillary Rodham Clinton will deliver an in-depth speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York about her national security proposals and how she would combat the Islamic State...." ...
... Matea Gold, et al., of the Washington Post: "Over four decades of public life, Bill and Hillary Clinton have built an unrivaled global network of donors while pioneering fundraising techniques that have transformed modern politics and paved the way for them to potentially become the first husband and wife to win the White House. The grand total raised for all of their political campaigns and their family's charitable foundation reaches at least $3 billion, according to a Washington Post investigation." The reporters provide an in-depth look at how the Clintons did it. ...
... Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Following comments that his city should reject refugees in the way the U.S. interned Japanese-American citizens during World War II the mayor of Roanoke, Virginia, has lost his spot on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's Virginia Leadership Council. Davis Bowers had been on the Virginia committee since early October.... A Clinton campaign spokesman slammed Bowers' comments in a statement." See related story linked under Beyond the Beltway.
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Dogged for months by questions about being a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, Senator Bernie Sanders will address the subject of his political philosophy head on in a long-awaited speech on Thursday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
William Saletan of Slate: "Guilty Until Proven Christian. For Republicans, if you are Muslim, you are out of luck." Saletan amasses the bigoted remarks that have come out of the mouths of GOP presidential candidates. His post is one appalling list of horribles.
Ben Carson has a plan to defeat ISIS, which the Washington Post has published. CW: (1) I'll eat my surgical cap if Ben Carson wrote what the headline describes as "My Plan"; (2) most of the plan is "we have to beat them"; (3) jamming their social media, which Carson suggests, might be something worth trying. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update. Toljaso. Plus Ole Doc Tells Another Big Fib. Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "A foreign policy adviser whom Ben Carson publicly distanced himself from after the adviser criticized Mr. Carson's grasp of the Middle East provided input for an opinion column Mr. Carson published online in The Washington Post on Wednesday about defeating the Islamic State. The campaign called the adviser, Duane R. Clarridge, on Monday for help with the opinion piece that was conceived to counter poor impressions Mr. Carson had made in a 'Fox News Sunday' interview the day before.... Mr. Carson said on Tuesday evening in an interview on 'PBS NewsHour' that Mr. Clarridge ... was 'not my adviser."" ...
Ben Carson -- Lying, Pandering Coward. CW: Last week I gave Carson kudos for suggesting that Republicans -- including then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, BTW -- overreached in inserting into Terri Schiavo's right to die with dignity. Turns out I spoke too soon. Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "... Ben Carson on Wednesday sought to walk back a controversial comment he made last week about the ethical and legal battles surrounding Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who died in 2005 amid a protracted family dispute over keeping her alive in a vegetative state.... 'When I used the term "much ado about nothing," my point was that the media tried to create the impression that the pro-life community was nutty and going way overboard with the support of the patient,' he [said Wednesday]." You can chalk that up as One More Doc Ben Lie. Here's what he actually said last week: "We face those kinds of issues all the time, and while I don't believe in euthanasia, you have to recognize that people that are in that condition do have a series of medical problems that occur that will take them out. Your job [as a doctor] is to keep them comfortable throughout that process and not to treat everything that comes up." ...
... Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "Happy Geography Awareness Week!... Ben Carson's presidential campaign ... Tuesday night ... took to social media to share a map of the United States in which five New England states were placed in the wrong location. The campaign deleted the Twitter and Facebook posts Wednesday morning after media outlets and social media users pointed out the error." Also, he gave part of Virginia to Maryland. CW: Yeah, I trust the Middle East plan of a guy who can't find Massachusetts. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "Nine things that happened during Donald Trump's visit to Worcester[, Massachusetts.] The presidential candidate cursed, promised, joked and called a protester fat." ...
... Greg Sargent: Donald Trump keeps upping the ante in his anti-immigration crusade, and Republican voters apparently view that as evidence of "strong leadership." ...
... Christopher Massie of BuzzFeed: "Donald Trump said on Wednesday that, if he or somebody else with a gun had been present during last Friday's attacks in Paris, things would have gone differently. 'So they were just shooting people: "Next! Next!"' the former reality TV star told Boston radio host Jeff Kuhner. 'Just people were totally defenseless. If you had a guy like you or me, or some other guys in that room that had guns, it wouldn't have been that way....' Trump made the comments after saying that, because of French gun laws, 'nobody had a gun' to shoot the attackers, adding that 'the only ones that had the guns are the bad guys.'" CW: I want me one a those Donald Trump Action Hero dolls. Or, better yet, a video game where you run up points on how many guys with assault rifles & bombs strapped to their chest the Donald takes out with his little platinum-plated pistol. (The game does not allow the terrorists to hit anyone, of course.) ...
... Jordan Sargent of Gawker: "This is, of course, a grand conservative fantasy: the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a big orange buffoon with a gun, or whatever. Trump is bringing that fantasy to its most logical extreme, daydreaming about whipping out a pistol and taking out terrorists armed with machine guns. All of this is to say that if Donald Trump had stood up in the crowd at the Bataclan he would been murdered immediately, and his stupid James Bond fantasy nonsense is an insult to those who really did die there." ...
... Still, compared to the Donald, Tailgunner Ted turns out to be a wuss:
... Dare & Double-Dare You, Obummer. Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: Sen. Ted Cruz, responding to President Obama's criticism of Republican rhetoric of the Islamic State, challenged the president to a debate on refugee policy. 'If you want to insult me, you can do it overseas, you can do it in Turkey, you can do it in foreign countries but I would encourage you, Mr. President, come back and insult me to my face. Let's have a debate on Syrian refugees right now,' Cruz said Wednesday." CW: A debate? With a befuddled weakling? C'mon, Ted.
Ben Brody of Bloomberg: "Jeb Bush elaborated Wednesday on his proposal to put a limited number of U.S. ground troops in combat against the Islamic State. One day after the Florida governor told Bloomberg's Mark Halperin that the U.S. is 'going to have to have ground troops' to fight the terrorist group, Bush, speaking at The Citadel, a military college in South Carolina, urged the U.S. to go beyond the bombing sorties already underway in the region." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Charles Pierce: "John Kasich, the sensible choice for sensible Republicans, all three of them. He has managed in his own 'moderate' way to come up simultaneously with the worst original idea of the 2016 presidential campaign.... Pass the Balanced Budget Amendment but leave enough room for Radio Free Jesus. Kasich has lost his mind. Leave aside the obvious First Amendment Establishment problems this idea has in this country. The one thing that the Middle East doesn't need is more Judaeo-Christian proselytizing."
Beyond the Beltway
Mahita Gajanan of the Guardian: "The mayor of Roanoke, Virginia, has invoked President Franklin Roosevelt's decision to place Japanese Americans in internment camps during the second world war as a way to justify keeping Syrian refugees out of the US. 'I'm reminded that President Franklin D Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to Americans from Isis now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then, Mayor David Bowers said in a statement released on Wednesday." CW: Because the internment of innocent Americans was such a high point in our history that the U.S. Congress officially apologized for it & paid reparations to the victims. Bowers is a Democrat. And evidently dumber than a post. ...
What did occur in the wake of Pearl Harbor was an irrational response to wartime hysteria, and I would say that the way that the local discourse is going on right now is we're allowing the word, the notion of Syrian refugees, to be conflated with terrorism. -- Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.)
... Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times: "A Virginia mayor ignited a backlash Wednesday after he cited America's mass detention of Japanese Americans during World War II as support for his call to deny Syrian refugees the opportunity to resettle in the United States." ...
... Jeff Guo of the Washington Post: "Its well-known now, of course, that the Japanese-Americans posed little security threat. But what might surprise casual readers of history is that even back then, the government knew this was a low-risk population. Declassified military documents show that the nation's leaders embarked on this vast incarceration project mostly to quell the fears of the the public."
David Boucher of the Tennessean: "A top Tennessee Republican lawmaker believes the time has come for the National Guard to round up any Syrian refugees who have recently settled in the state and to stop any additional Syrian refugees from entering Tennessee. 'We need to activate the Tennessee National Guard and stop them from coming in to the state by whatever means we can,' said House GOP Caucus Chairman Glen Casada, R-Franklin, referencing refugees." CW: So who's scarier -- Syrian refugees or Casada? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Possible American Terrorist Shuts Down College for Weeks, No Reaction from Congress, GOP Candidates. AP: "Washington College in Maryland announced on Wednesday it would be closed through the Thanksgiving holiday while authorities continue searching for missing 19-year-old sophomore Jacob Marberger."
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Reader Comments (32)
So lets see, we want to make sure no terrorists come to America. Since most of the Paris group were citizens of France, doesn't it make sense to stop all French citizens from coming to America?
TV Tigers populate the Republican right and they are the targets of the occupants of the candidates clown car. Five thousand dead and thirty thousand maimed so far are not represented in the Republican right and the invasion Syria would be painless to the war hawks. No one on the right need be killed as we depend on a battered volunteer army. We are unable to provide for our veterans now, think what will happen when we double our legacy problems.
If a complete victory is achieved over there, a few dozen nuts operating out of an apartment in Belgium can conspire with bitter losers in Detroit, Dearborn, and the City to harm Americans.
You call this a lose, lose.
Keep the troops home. Support those fighting over there and provide air power. Infiltrate, profile, harass and spy on sympathizers in our midst. Expect and encourage assistance from Muslims that want to succeed in America.
If we treat the Muslim communities in this country with fairness the ISIL influence will end.
I hope I can be forgiven for adding little to the conversation here except for noticing contributions by rare minds who seldom speak in public:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/18/turkey-cut-islamic-state-supply-lines-erdogan-isis
David Graeber is one of few real radicals we have. All gardeners understand the necessity of going to the root. Best,
Keith Howard
For how to sponsor refugees in Canada you can find the officialese swamp @ http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/pub/ref-sponsor.pdf
Simply put you cannot sponsor a refugee yourself. If you have 5 like-minded and affluent friends you can form a group of 5, jump through the hoops, and, if there are no undotted i's or uncrossed t's in your application in 28 months (according to gc.ca) you'll be licenced to sponsor someone registered as a refugee by the UN or just any old Iraqi or Syrian who hasn't been convicted of murder in the last 5 years as people from those 2 hellholes have special status. . Otherwise you can be directed to an existing sponsorship group which is usually church or ethnic or service club based. and join them in sponsoring a family. It usually means total financial support for at least a year. Even tho they may qualify for government support programs your group is their guarantor that they will not just end up as wards of the state You aren't just setting them up financially but are expected to guide them on the road to citizenship.
Sounds cumbersome but it weeds out the well-intentioned fools and potential slavers and has worked well for thousands.
@Keith H. Graeber's piece doesn't sound radical to me. From what little I know about the situation -- and it is very little -- I think Graeber's assertions ring true. Thanks for the link.
Marie
I have no adequate words for what many of the Republican candidates are advocating re: the refugee matter. I feel such anger and am so ashamed that this country's potential runners for President would have such heartless, stingy, bigoted, stupid, ...can we call them beliefs? Certainly would be a stretch to call them ideas. When you think these politicians can go no further in their moronic messages they trump their cards once more. I really and truly despair.
And the polls? People are still rallying round these creatures? Plus, according to these polls a goodly portion of the populace now wants boots on the ground in Syria––a disastrous decision. And I wonder about polls––how do they get their information? More people do not have landlines and we have a law that bans autodialing to cell phones.
Jill Lepore gives us an interesting tidbit about the word "poll": It used to mean the top of your head. Ophelia says of Polonius, "His beard as white as snow: All flaxen was his poll." When voting was in its infancy––assembled people were asked to yea or nay–-counting votes relied on counting heads.
Joshua Hammer, writing in NYRB tells us that "Boko Haram arose in Borno State (Nigeria) in the northeast, one of the poorest and least developed parts of the country. It began as a peaceful movement that called for the adoption of a purer form of Islam and criticized the government's corruption. But over a decade––in response to military brutality, jihadist ideology, and the utter passivity of Nigeria's federal government––it transformed itself into one of the world's most murderous terrorist groups."
@Marvin: Your comment/ question is perfect!
The reaction of the GOP as well as some Democrats like Chuck Schumer and that guy from Roanoke, VA to the Paris attacks/Syrian refugee crisis is not only vile and shameful, but as is pointed out by Juan Cole and others, is also illogical and not based in fact.
Re the discussion about sponsoring a refugee family, I pulled up the webpage of a very good refugee resettlement program here in Connecticut, called IRIS (Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services.) If it weren't clear across the state, I would volunteer there, as I'm an ESL tutor. However, it appears that working through an agency such as this, community-based groups can sponsor and support a family. If nothing else, we can donate as a counter to the xenophobes. Here is a link to their webpage:
http://www.irisct.org/cosponsor.html
Linked on the IRIS homepage is an article from the September 15 issue of the Boston Globe about the resettlement program. It not only profiles a Syrian family's story, but also includes a moving story of how a US navy veteran of the Afghanistan conflict became a case worker for IRIS. I think it speaks strongly of the case for loving your enemy. (Hmmm. . . . where have we heard that before?)
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/09/15/from-suffering-syria-safety-conn/gTWUNZg8ziPvgGKKb9FGhL/story.html?s_campaign=bostonglobe:socialflow:facebook
@Janice. Thank you. There are quite a few organizations in the U.S. that help refugees who are settling here. Here's one of them. My recommendation to people who want to help is to Google their state + helping refugees (or something like that). If you find one or more that seem to offer the kinds of services you support, check them out with the Charity Navigator to see if each has a good rating.
Marie
When did we become such cowering jellyfish? When did we become so fearful of three year old babies and their mommas? When did we become so frightened of words like "Syrian"? I should clarify that the fear rests almost uniquely with Confederates and their whiny baby allies in right-wing media.
Aren't these the same rough-tough, shoot-em-up cowboy hard guys always talking about guns and weapons and "dead or alive" and "bombing the shit of people"? Now they're pooping their diapers because a baby might be coming from Syria? What about hard guy Donald Trump who claims it all would have been different if he had been over in Paris with his arsenal stuffed down the front of his pants where his balls should be. Now he wants a giant wall built around the entire country--not just the Mexican border--so he can hide from Syrians, Mexicans....anyone who isn't like him.
Oh, they're spies, they're terrorists, they're fifth columnists, they're plants, ISIS will be moving their entire operation to Camden, disguised as three year old babies! They were frightened out of their minds by the US Army--the freakin' United States Army--while running a training program in big, tough talking Texas.
The most startling fact I came across in the Juan Cole piece, linked above, is this: "...since 2001, the US has admitted roughly 750,000 refugees and none, zero, nada have been accused of involvement in domestic terrorism aimed at the US homeland..."
Not one out of three quarters of a million. But the thought of refugees fleeing a conflict we helped to start makes these tough guys climb in bed and pull the sheets over their heads.
Where's the braggadocio now? Where's the "dead or alive" bullshit? No. Ted Cruz's idea of manliness is daring the president to meet him "face to face". That's not how it works douchebag. You want the president to stop calling you a coward? Stop being one. It's that simple. Show some moral fortitude. After all, there would be no humanitarian crisis, no refugees, no ISIS, if it weren't for Republicans and the supporters of The Decider's War of Choice.
But the sight of these people climbing over one another trying to prove to their constituents which one of them is the biggest coward is an abysmal embarrassment.
But cowardice has become woven into the Confederate fabric. The Texas conniptions and crying jags last summer over Army drills were mortifying. The other day 41 sheriffs from Colorado--sheriffs! the guys who love to portray themselves as throwbacks to the old west, Wyatt Earp and Buffalo Bill, Bat Masterson--begged the president, pretty please, with gunpowder on top, to not send a few prisoners from Gitmo to the prison they all like to call the Alcatraz of the Rockies (they just love those tough sounding names, don't they?). Please, please, pleeeeze. We can't handle the thought of those bad guys sitting in a SuperMax cell. Wah-wah-wah. What a bunch of pussies.
Fear has been their go-to emotion. Fear of this, fear of that. But mostly fear of fantasies. They don't care about gun violence or global warming, things that are worth being concerned about. Nope. But now fear lives comfortably among them. It's taken up residency. It's their constant companion, even if it's fear of invisible shadows.
Vote for me! I'm the biggest jellyfish of 'em all. With me in the White House, we'll all be hiding under the covers, behind the wall.
Just a thought about Ted, the Cowardly Cruz, and his notion of letting in only Christians from Syria.
When I was a kid in parochial school, the nuns used to ask us "If Jesus walked by you on the street, would you recognize him?" The idea, which I thought then was pretty good, was whether we could recognize Jesus in some poor or homeless person (refugee?). Another way of asking if we could recognize the good in other people.
Cowardly Cruz would never get that chance.
Besides, if he kept out everyone but Christians, Jesus, a Jew, would never make the cut.
So much for the saintly Christians now ruling in Right Wing World.
I have said this before but there is nothing more seriously stupid than the NYT or any other MSM posting the happy photo of the dead terrorist.
I am sure there are lots of other losers who want an easy way to be famous. The media and the Republicans (and some Dems) are really making ISIS happy.
Instant gratification and infantile logic on the right.
Psychologists have done studies around games like peek-a-boo played with babies. At a certain point, if an object disappears, from the baby's point of view, it no longer exists, evidenced, I'm guessing, by the absolute surprise and delight on the infant's face when it reappears from behind the back. At some point however, and this can happen at a very young age, babies realize that the object has not ceased to exist. It's just somewhere else, and the goal then is to find it.
The problem with Confederates is, they never get to step two.
Dealing with problems in the Confederacy is simple. Make it go away or pretend it doesn't exist. Someone commits a crime? Put him in prison. For as long as you can. Certain people piss you off? Build a wall. Deport them. Bomb them. Kill them. Problem solved. Your demographic is shrinking by the day? Don't bother to adjust your way of thinking, simply make it so the other side can't vote. Take away their rights and challenge their ability to exercise their franchise. In other words, make them go away. Problem has ceased to exist. Irrefutable scientific evidence points to global warming. Simply say it isn't so. Problem solved.
And like infants, there is no future. There is no tomorrow. Everything is immediate. Today is the only day that matters. Dirty diapers must be changed. Right now. Ba-ba, right now. So instant gratification is the order of that day.
Thus, laws are passed with no thought of how this will play out next year, and five or ten years from now. Because a more nuanced, thoughtful approach to problem solving is too much work. And it may actually be beyond them. Not to mention the fact that they won't be able to see results immediately. You drop a bomb, you can see the explosion, see the blood, see the shattered limbs. SOOOO satisfying. But diplomacy? A coordinated foreign policy whose goal is to head off potential conflict? That shit is way too slow and no one will vote for something they can't see right away, like bombs being dropped on the right people, correct?
So rather than considering the effect of 1.) starting an illegal war that kills and displaces millions and which 2.) creates the conditions necessary for insurgency, hatred, and desire for revenge in future generations, it's much more satisfying to drop bombs and let the next generation worry about the fallout. And much more satisfying to demonize the people whose lives you have uprooted. Fuck 'em. Besides, if you don't let them in, you can't see them, so those problems don't exist. Rather than attempt to address the problems of unemployment, substandard housing and education, we'll let some Americans descend into hopelessness and if they commit a crime, lock their asses up for 10 or 20 years. Problem solved. You can't see them anymore. They don't exist. A lot of crime? Build more prisons.
The fundamental quality of Confederate problem solving lies in their inability to transcend an infantile world view. The problem for the rest of us is that too many of these babies are making laws and setting policy. Not long ago, we had two of the biggest babies dropping bombs to satisfy their need for instant gratification. Now other infants want to have their fun.
The hitch we're seeing from the Syrian refugee crisis is that some of these babies may finally be getting to step two. The missing objects are reappearing in a much different form. And boy, are these babies getting scared.
Peek-a-boo!
OpEd piece by former secretary General of Interpol in NYTimes makes a case for undoing the Schengen Agreement's ease of entry and crossing borders. It is obvious it isn't workable and safe ANYMORE . Open access just allows the ease with which those planning harm and terrorist acts can move about freely.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/19/opinion/europes-welcome-sign-to-terrorists.html
A thought, since passport control was quite effective in the past...maybe the idea of a US passport for identity purposes for ALL US citizens isn't a bad idea. I know, many object to the idea of an 'identity card'...but, perhaps its time has arrived.
It could be issued and also be an identifier not only as a legal resident for travel, it becomes your voter registration ID. Hell, we're all tracked in multi-digital ways already.
Hey, southern state fuggedaboutit closing all those driver license/voter registration places & denying voter rights!
@MAG
It's my recollection that, in the past, resistance to national identity cards has come largely from the religious right, who see it as a sign of the "end times" -- giving us all numbers. I think they opposed Social Security numbers back in the day for the same reason.
Akhilleus,
The Right wing fear machine is effective because few human beings are not afraid of something. We fear the dark, we fear being alone, we fear strangers, we fear going broke, we fear literal and figurative falling, we fear illness and death. The number of specific, medically-recognized "phobias" would fill a large page with very small print. I'm not sure our language or experience provides an adequate psychological opposition.
You caused me to think beyond politics to how much our entire economic world is shaped by our fears. For only one instance, if we eliminated the fears associated with illness, death or impotency, television ad revenues would immediately drop by half. In politics and everywhere, fear is an easy sell, even to liberals.
You may be correct in calling the tough guy Koch-Confederates cowards, but I suspect they come in varying degrees of yellow. Some themselves may be unusually fearful, but others are more likely cynical manipulators of others' fears. The Right is, after all, has become the party of fear and resentment for a good reason.
I'm wondering though if even those who deliberately set our to prey on others' fears for short-term political gain might not over time get entrapped in their own narrative. They begin by doing the TV tough guy thing in public because it pleases their audience, but over time as they surround themselves with others who use the same language, they could well come to believe it. I've always wondered if Bush II would have been as offensively and wrong-headedly macho, or his Presidency as ruinous, if he had spent more time with advisors other than the bully-boys, themselves likely motivated by their own deep fears, that he chose. I see his daddy has concluded the same thing.
It is no accident that so many Right wing hawks avoided military service, never placing themselves in harm's way. They are brave as long as they can live in a fortress of them own devise, protected by stockades and moats of ideology and armies of lackeys willing to do their bidding. To them, guns are great--love those guns!--as long as they are never in the line of fire.
Fear is the most powerful motivator of all. It is always present and can easily race along a powerful feedback loop in society and in ourselves. When it grows into panic, it's hard to break the cycle. That's why courage is so rare and why FDR was absolutely correct: We--that is all of us--have nothing to fear but fear itself.
I am confused.
Le Donald tells us that armed resistance by European Jews would have prevented the Holocaust. That it would have been impossible to round up 4 million and take them away to concentration camps. Then he tells us that we need to round up 11 million people here, and take them somewhere they don't want to go.
Now the wingers tell us to put Syrians in WWII style internment camps. Do they think that Japanese citizens should have resisted being rounded up?
And all of these people are against any kind of gun control.
Is it just me? Am I missing something?
@ D.C.,
What you are missing is an entourage whose entire vocabulary consists of two words: Yes Sir.
What you have is a healthy amount of empathy and the ability to think through some of the consequences of your actions beyond the immediate result. You would never make it in R world.
@ Akhilleus: regarding the thoughtful question posed by the nuns of your childhood, I remember from my parochial school days the story of the wise men. Yeah, they followed the star to Bethlehem and brought gifts, but they also warned the Holy Family that Herod was in a slaughtering mood, and was on their tail. Thus for a few years, baby Jesus became one of those little refugees that Chris Christie is warning us to turn away from our borders.
One could hope that today's Christianists would suddenly have some sort of epiphany about loving all the little children of the world, but I'm not holding my breath.
Please watch:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2015/nov/19/you-will-not-have-my-hatred-husband-paris-victim-letter-attackers-video
Sorry, better link here:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34862437
Ken,
I do believe that the fear mongers themselves harbor not a little fear. It may just be, as it likely was with The Decider, fear of being found out, fear, in his case, of being outed as a deserter and a coward. Or, almost worse, someone who just didn't give a shit and let others do the fighting while he snorted cocaine and drank himself into a stupor in Houston nightclubs. Cheney, the same thing. When it was his turn to serve in a war he mightily supported, he had "other priorities". Yeah. Like keeping his sorry ass out of the line of fire.
I think those who wield fear the best are those who really feel it.
It's not the powerful who feel the need to stomp on others, it's the fearful. And Confederates do a truckload of stomping.
I also think you're correct about the role fear plays in all our lives. But most of us are able to tamp that fear down, to stay on top of it, to deal with it in ways that don't let it take over our lives. Confederates seem to wallow in it. It delimits their ability to think and seriously impacts logical decision making.
Keeping oneself and one's supporters constantly on the edge, constantly on the lookout for danger and fearful things that go bump in the night has got to have deleterious effects, especially on empathy, common sense, rationality, and insight.
The knee jerk reactions of Confederates to stimuli is predictable and fast acting. As someone in one of the above links pointed out, it took less than 48 hours for Republicans to go from "Isn't it terrible what happened in Paris?" to "They're coming to kill our kids!!" and initiating legislative action immediately to ward off non-existent threats. It would be funny if it weren't so sad and so exhausting.
And as soon as someone points out that what they're trying to legislate against is hogwash, they scream "Traitor!!"
Predictable. And stupid.
Janice,
Please don't. You'd pass out.
D.C.,
You're confused because you're a rational being.
Such people have no business trying to figure out the whys and wherefores of the unsolvable and recondite paradoxes of Right Wing World. You'll sprain your brain, dude. Give it up.
MAG
The idea of a national ID creeps me out. I just keep imagining people being stopped and asked 'papers please'. And what happens if you don't have them? Jail? Deportation? Fines? Further, technology is available to millions of clever people so it would be easy to reproduce fraudulent papers.
You ask yourself, could a snarling, befuddled, egotistical racist dildo-tester like Donald Trump get any more loathsome?
If you answer "No" you just haven't been paying attention. In an interview published today, Sour Trumpet indicated that he'd consider establishing a national registration database for Muslims. Religious profiling? What's wrong with that? Maybe he can force them all to wear crescent moon and star patches.
So, to be clear, database for guns? No way. Because the NRA and its supporters in congress support selling weapons to terrorists. And domestic abusers. And loonies. And anyone who can wrap their finger around a trigger.
Database for Muslims in America? Sure. Why not? Also, let's shut down all mosques in this country, because Trump.
Nauseating creep. And he and a serial liar are neck and neck in the race for the White House. What a fucking country.
@Haley
Once upon a time I would have said 'creeps me out", too. But, years ago speaking with European friends who said to me, "...get over it! No big deal."
Anyway, look in your wallet—if it's anything like mine I've got ID cards of all kinds already—from a driver's license to health insurance cards, Social Security to military ID, etc. I have to show identify cards all the time.
What about a future with chip implants, biometric scans? I don't expect their impact in my life time...but, who knows! We're already tracked via CCTV, E-Z-Pass, not to overlook Google cookies, need I go on..........
MAG,
Biometrics is here. When I was accepted in the Global Entry Program
http://www.cbp.gov/travel/trusted-traveler-programs/global-entry
I was given iris and fingerprint scans. New passports also have a vicinity-read radio frequency identification (RFID) chip.
http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/FAQs.html
CCTV cameras are becoming ubiquitous -- with face recognition software.
But:
What expectation of privacy does one have in a public space?
Is the internet a public space?
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects..." (Amendment IV) is really a pretty limited definition.
"...no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." is damn broad, explicit, and violated by da fuzz daily.
But MAG, what happens if you don't have your papers' Jail? Fines? Deportation? I think I'll need to understand the consequences of not having my papers, before I can get over it. And are we reassured that the penalties (surely there are penalties or why bother) are applied equally - or maybe special scrutiny is just applied to the brown people, the poor? And maybe the hope of 'equality' is the least of it. Look at how entire townships are funded by fines and fees. Don't have your papers? That will be $500, please.
And sure, most of us carry all sorts of cards (which are of little to no value as an ID) but I sure don't carry them all the time. If I'm not driving, I'll leave the whole mess at home while I walk the dog, go to the park, walk over to pick up a coffee or the cleaning.
Look at what we've become (becoming). Look at the militarized police, voter suppression, guns everywhere, hysteria over refugees, Ebola, Mexican rapists. Look at the leading Republican candidates. Would you ever have believed it? Look at the loss of newspapers and what it means about local news. Look at the end of any hope for a Democratic House. Look at the power and growth of solid Red States and the demolishing of any progressive legislation. Look at what's happened to Wisconsin - formerly a perfectly sane (and rather nice) state!
I think a required national ID is just handing these insane conservatives another cudgel with which to batter the poor, the old, the Other, or just the unlucky.
Until I see a nationwide rejection of Citizens United, Hobby Lobby, and other reactionary, fascist ideas, until I see a nationwide embrace of women's reproductive rights, voting rights, climate change, the EPA, I don't want to give these fools one more tool that will aid them in their attempt to destroy all that is good in America.
Oh. And I do wonder if this national ID will have a field where one is to enter their religion.
In Ben Carson's case, googling Syria would be an excellent start. In fact, googling lots of things would be good. Just because he's crazy, doesn't mean he doesn't occasionally have a good idea! I laughed when Andy Borowitz couldn't out parody the parody.
Akhilleus says: "When did we become such cowering jellyfish? When did we become so fearful of three year old babies and their mommas? When did we become so frightened of words like "Syrian"? I should clarify that the fear rests almost uniquely with Confederates and their whiny baby allies in right-wing media."
Here is my take on those jellyfish from 2013–-saved for info about those creatures:
Sesame Street had, and probably still does, a segment where they address
compare and contrast with a sing-song little ditty that says "One thing is
not like the other." Since many today sitting in those cushy legislative
leather seats obviously never paid mind to Big Bird or Elmo teaching them
that one thing is not like another, they have lately used Hitler, slavery,
lynching, Marx, et al. to equate things that simply have no baring on the
subject at hand. I thought of this disparity last night while reading about
jellyfish.
Most jellyfish are little more than gelatinous bags containing digestive
organs and gonads, drifting at the whim of the current. But box jellyfish
are different. They are active hunters of medium-sized fish and crustaceans,
and can move at up to twenty-one feet per minute. They are also the only
jellyfish with eyes that are quite sophisticated, containing retinas,
corneas, and lenses. And they have brains, which are capable of learning,
memory, and guiding complex behaviors. These boxers can kill you even if you
just brush past them. I know this is a leap, but I wonder if Kermit would
find some semblance of a connection between these jellyfish and the
aforementioned legislative killers swimming around in those dirty waters
that taste like bad tea. On second thought he'd dismiss it outright for the
simple reason these fish have brains that are capable of learning, have a
memory and can guide complex behaviors.
Never mind.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@Akhilleus
Help me out please. Sometime within the past few weeks you posted an admirably succinct summery of Obama's accomplishments in office. I'd like to forward the link to a wing nut of my acquaintance, but can't find it now. Got to start archiving the Best of Realitychex (have you considered a book, Marie?). TIA if not too much trouble,
DC
D.C.,
I'll see if I can locate it. I may have to add the dope slap he gave Republican pussies who are hiding in the closet from Syrian babies in diapers.