The Commentariat -- Nov. 24, 2014
Internal links, defunct videos & related text removed.
Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is stepping down under pressure, the first cabinet-level casualty of the collapse of President Obama's Democratic majority in the Senate and the struggles of his national security team amid an onslaught of global crises. The president, who is expected to announce Mr. Hagel's resignation in a Rose Garden appearance on Monday, made the decision to ask his defense secretary -- the sole Republican on his national security team -- to step down last Friday after a series of meetings over the past two weeks, senior administration officials said. The officials described Mr. Obama's decision to remove Mr. Hagel, 68, as a recognition that the threat from the Islamic State would require a different kind of skills than those that Mr. Hagel was brought on to employ." ...
... Missy Ryan & Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel submitted his resignation Monday, bowing to pressure from the White House to step down after less than two years in the job in what could portend a broader shakeup among President Obama's national security team.... Hagel will remain as defense secretary until Obama can pick a replacement, who must also be confirmed by the Senate. Possible contenders include Michele Flournoy and Ashton Carter, former high-ranking defense officials during Obama's first term who were passed over for the top job in favor of Hagel two years ago." ...
... David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "... the pattern of corruption and patronage in the Iraqi government forces threatens to undermine a new American-led effort to drive out the extremists, even as President Obama is doubling to 3,000 the number of American troops in Iraq."
Christi Parsons of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama argued Sunday that his plan to suspend enforcement of U.S. immigration law for certain violators won't clear the path for a future Republican president to take similar executive actions regarding tax laws he or she doesn't like. In an interview on the Sunday show 'This Week,' ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked the Democratic president whether one of his successors, unable to get Congress to cut taxes, could simply opt to look the other way if wealthy people decided not to pay a percentage of their capital gains tax."
Sunday with Lindsay
Rebecca Shabad of the Hill: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday said Republicans are partially responsible for not passing comprehensive immigration reform. 'Shame on us as Republicans for having a body that cannot generate a solution to an issue that's national security, that's cultural, that's economic,' Graham said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' The Senate has passed an immigration bill three times, Graham said...."
Benghaaazi! Rebecca Shabad: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday blasted a House GOP-led investigation that recently debunked myths about the 2012 Benghazi attack. 'I think the report is full of crap,' Graham said on CNN's 'State of the Union.'... After Graham was asked whether the report exonerates the administration, he initially ignored the question, and then eventually said 'no.'" ...
... Catherine Herridge & Pamela Browne of Fox "News": "Graham, along with his two Republican colleagues, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, have been outspoken advocates of a special investigation, because they say then-acting director of the CIA Mike Morell misled them about his role in crafting the so-called media talking points that blamed an opportunistic protest gone awry for the assault." ...
... Steve M.: "The preferred Beltway narrative is that responsible establishment Republicans make up the majority of the party, and all they really want to do is 'show they can govern,' but they have to keep fending off a few pesky extremists, and they occasionally have to make extremist noises themselves to fend off primary challenges from the right. Oh, please.... The reality is that the entire Republican Party is crazy -- the differences are just in degree.... The crazies in this case are three of the most prominent establishmentarians in the Senate.... No, Benghazi isn't going away."
Rebecca Shabad: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday did not rule out a 2016 presidential bid. 'I'm thinking of trying to fix illegal immigration and replacing sequestration. I will let you know if I think about running for president. It's the hardest thing one could ever do. You go through personal hell. You have got to raise a ton of money. I'm nowhere near there,' he said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' Asked if his response could be labeled as a 'maybe,' Graham nodded and said, 'That's what it was.'" ...
... CW: Super! I'm running for First Lady. My competition is stiff: Kelly Ayotte, John McCain & Joe Lieberman, ferinstance. Pick me! Pick me, Lindsey, darlin'!
Lost & Found, Rachel Bade of Politico: "An Internal Revenue Service watchdog has located an estimated 30,000 of the lost Lois Lerner emails, according to a source familiar with the matter. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration told congressional staffers Friday the emails belonging to the most controversial figure in the IRS controversy were located on disaster recovery tapes." CW: Yo, Darryl Issa! We can hardly wait for some new selective leaks.
Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Senator is calling for a declaration of war against the Islamic State, a move that promises to shake up the debate over the military campaign in Iraq and Syria as President Obama prepares to ask Congress to grant him formal authority to use force." ...
... CW: Never mind that it's mighty unusual for Congress to declare war at all -- it has only done so five times -- and the country has never declared war on a group of revolutionaries, as opposed to a nation-state (no, the war on terror, the war on drugs & the war on Christmas don't count). ...
... Margaret Hartmann: "For months, Rand Paul has been trying to shake claims that he is an isolationist like his father. His recent op-ed 'I Am Not an Isolationist' didn't do the trick, so this weekend the Kentucky senator told the New York Times that he wants to formally declare war against ISIS.... As the Congressional Research Service explains, the former [declaring war] would automatically give the president broad wartime powers, while the latter [authorization to use military force] would not." ...
... CW: So for a guy all worried about Obama's "imperial presidency," it doesn't make a lot of sense to give this President broader powers, including for instance, the authority to suspend habeas corpus. But then, as I pointed out this weekend, Rand Paul says whatever comes to his addled mind, & historical context & accuracy are immaterial. As a Senator who is unfamiliar with American history, Paul is a disgrace; as a President, he would be truly dangerous.
New York Times Editors: "Now that they will dominate both houses of Congress, Republicans are planning to dismantle the Affordable Care Act piece by piece instead of trying to repeal it entirely. They are expected to hold at least one symbolic vote for repeal in the next session so that newly elected Republicans who campaigned against the law can honor their pledges to repeal it. But Republican leaders know they don't have the supermajorities needed to override a presidential veto, so they will try to inflict death by multiple cuts. All of the provisions they are targeting should be retained -- they were put in the reform law for good reasons." ...
... Moops! A Tale of Two Laws. John Harwood of the New York Times writes a very good piece contrasting the way (1), in 1997, Congress & the President cleaned up ambiguities & other technicalities in the 1996 welfare reform act, and (2) the current Congress will not cooperate in any way to amend the ACA. This, of course, has left the Grumpy Old Men on the Supreme Court to interpret & re-legislate even obviously-mistaken language. ...
... Charles Blow: "This hostility and animosity toward this president is, in fact, larger than this president. This is about systems of power and the power of symbols. Particularly, it is about preserving traditional power and destroying emerging symbols that threaten that power. This president is simply the embodiment of the threat, as far as his detractors are concerned, whether they are willing or able to articulate it as such."
** Now Let Us Pause for some Good News. Diane Cardwell of the New York Times: "The cost of providing electricity from wind and solar power plants has plummeted over the last five years, so much so that in some markets renewable generation is now cheaper than coal or natural gas." ...
... Impossible! Lewis Page of the U.K. Register: "Two highly qualified Google engineers who have spent years studying and trying to improve renewable energy technology have stated quite bluntly that renewables will never permit the human race to cut CO2 emissions to the levels demanded by climate activists. Whatever the future holds, it is not a renewables-powered civilisation: such a thing is impossible."
Paul Krugman: "... one of the most striking aspects of economic debate in recent years has been the extent to which those whose economic doctrines have failed the reality test refuse to admit error, let alone learn from it. The intellectual leaders of the new majority in Congress still insist that we're living in an Ayn Rand novel; German officials still insist that the problem is that debtors haven't suffered enough. This bodes ill for the future. What people in power don't know, or worse what they think they know but isn't so, can very definitely hurt us."
CW: "60 Minutes" had a good segment last night on the U.S.'s crumbling infrastructure. I embedded it here, but it was messing up other videos, so I've removed it. You can view it here.
Chelsea Marcius, et al., of the New York Daily News: "Veteran NBC employee Frank Scotti says he helped Bill Cosby deliver thousands of dollars to eight different women in 1989-90 - including Shawn Thompson, whose daughter Autumn Jackson claimed the actor was her dad. The ex-aide also tells the Daily News he stood guard whenever Cosby invited young models to his dressing room, which eventually led him to quitting after years on the job."
Beyond the Beltway
Skinhead Ira Hansen in happier days.Hoorah! Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story "The embattled incoming speaker of the Nevada State Assembly notified his colleagues Sunday morning that he was withdrawing as Speaker Designee, saying, 'Politics of personal destruction win. I need to step down,' reports Nevada journalist Jon Ralston. Assemblyman Ira Hansen (R), who was recently elected as the legislature's next speaker, had come under fire for a series of columns he had written over the years for the Sparks Tribune. In one of his columns, Hansen had written, 'The relationship of Negroes and Democrats is truly a master-slave relationship, with the benevolent master knowing what's best for his simple minded darkies.'" ...
... CW: I believe that would be the "politics of self-destruction," White Boy. Here's Hansen's full statement, via Ralston. Bear in mind, Hansen's history of racist, homophobic, sexist remarks wasn't a secret that just came out in theme media last. Nevada's Republican state legislators knew who this guy was, & they picked him as their leader anyway. That choice is as much or more of a stain on Nevada as is Hansen himself.
White America's Mayor. White police officers wouldn't be there if you weren't killing each other. -- Rudy Giuliani, on "Meet the Press," to Michael Dyson, who is black (video at the link)
... Danielle Paquette of the Washington Post: "Most murder in the United States is intra-racial, according to data from the Justice Department: White people are more likely to kill white people, and black people are more likely to kill black people. Nearly 84 percent of white victims from 1980 to 2008 were killed by white assailants, the department's numbers show. During the same period, 93 percent of black victims were murdered by someone of the same race."
Brian Stelter of CNN: "Practically every journalist covering the death of Michael Brown would like to interview Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed Brown. In the pursuit of that interview, several high-profile television anchors have secretly met with Wilson, according to sources at several TV networks. All of the meetings were off th record, meaning the anchors could not describe what was said."
... Today in Responsible Gun Ownership. Evan Perez & Shimon Prokupecz of CNN: In St. Louis, "a woman appears to have accidentally fatally shot herself in the head with a gun bought to prepare for possible Ferguson-related unrest according to sources briefed on the police investigation.... [Her] boyfriend, who wasn't identified, told police that the couple had bought a gun because of fears of unrest related to the pending grand jury decision on the shooting of Michael Brown, the sources said.... He told investigators that as they drove late Friday night, the victim waved a gun, jokingly saying the couple were ready for Ferguson, the sources said. He ducked to get out of the way of the gun and accidentally rear-ended another car. He said the accident caused the gun to go off and she was struck by a bullet in the head."
CW: Haven't had a chance to read the story, but Deborah Sontag's piece in the New York Times on the growing opposition to big oil in North Dakota looks interesting.
Presidential Election
Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: Hillary "Clinton's views on many crucial issues [-- Keystone XL, NSA snooping -- ] remain opaque. She seems to be repeating the same mistake that she made in 2008, when the inevitability of her candidacy overwhelmed its justification."
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Reader Comments (18)
Narcissism, a basic qualification to become a politician. It's just wonderful. You are never wrong.
Re the Ryan Lizza piece on Hillary Clinton. An excellent read. Do not miss it!
You all probably already know about the DFA 2016 Democratic Presidential Poll. No surprises here--for Progressives anyway. The below is from Daily Kos.
..."From DFA: Senator Elizabeth Warren has placed first in Democracy for America's first 2016 Presidential Pulse Poll of its members nationwide with over 42% of respondents encouraging her to run for President.Even more importantly, by placing presumptive 2016 front runner Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a close third (23%) to Senator Bernie Sanders (24%), Democracy for America members have confirmed that the race for the Democratic nomination is far from locked among the progressive activists who form the grassroots base of the party."
http://politics.suntimes.com/...
Oops, did not mean to include the Suntimes link. You can find the poll results at:
New DFA 2016 Poll - HRC 3rd Place
... first in Democracy for America's first 2016 Presidential Pulse Poll of its members nationwide with over 42% of respondents ...
www.dailykos.com/.../2014/.../21/.../-New-DFA-2016-Poll-HRC-3rd-Place
Just as history is recorded by the victors, (and created by the Texas School Board) our economics is written to serve our economic order, which sorts people into winners and losers. To no surprise the rules and the official interpretation of them are written by the winners.
Tho' Krugman must understand this, he customarily pretends surprise that the Very Important People don't grasp what's really happening to our economy and certainly don't seem to notice or consider the overall effects of the policies they advocate. Maybe those policies do have an unfortunate deflationary effect on, let's say, the wages of the common worker, but the Dow-Jones, an indicator much closer to the hearts and pocketbooks (quaint word, that) of those same VIPs is doing just fine, thank you.
Where's the mystery? Capitalist economics is, by definition, self-serving and in its broad strokes provides little to think about and less reason to bother, unless you, ala Krugman, have space to fill and a deadline to meet.
Maybe most of his readers know this, (my computer wouldn't bring up the comments) and maybe that's why an increasing number of them as well as the losers and those who sympathize with or represent them are jumping on the E. Warren and S. Brown bandwagons.
They don't want to represent the VIP's or their economists.
Benghazi! Benghazi!
I not sure I ever heard of that. Who is he?
It seems Chuck Hagel will be leaving. Now we can look forward to confirmation fights for two cabinet positions:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/us/hagel-said-to-be-stepping-down-as-defense-chief-under-pressure.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=span-ab-top-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Dateline: Feb. 1, 2037, Columbia, SC
Today at the Strom Thurmond Home for the Criminally and Politically Insane, a former South Carolina senator, 83 year old Lindsey Graham, held a press conference to angrily denounce the findings of the 78th Special Commission on Finding Something--Anything--on Benghazi as complete bullshit.
Spinning wildly in his anti-gravity mobility assistance chair, Graham removed his vintage 2014 tinfoil hat (a treasured object, much in demand by collectors of Teabagger memorabilia, such as spent bullet casings, misspelled signs, and pictures of long-ago Democrats with Hitler mustaches painted on), long enough to scream:
"I've been looking for WMD, er,..I mean Benghazi conspiracies for a quarter of a century now! They're all hiding something" said Graham, waving around a stick which was tied to a rag that appeared to be an old pair of bunched panties.
"Benghazi investigations now, Benghazi investigations tomorrow, Benghazi investigations forever!"
After the press conference, the ex-senator was whisked away quickly by embarrassed attendants to his daily bath in the Dick Cheney Memorial Water Treatment room. "He'll be fine after a little "bath" and some time on the fainting couch", said one of the staff. "It's sad, really, to hear him call for John McCain, who's been dead now for 10 years, shot in the back by a drunken Bristol Palin who thought she heard him call her mom the C word, and Kelly Ayotte, who has been imprisoned for the last 15 years for insider trading, and multiple instances of election fraud, a crime made punishable by up to 20 years hard labor by a Republican congress and President Ted Cruz, himself jailed for election rigging and vote buying years ago."
"We bought him Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama bobble head dolls which he uses for target practice with his pea shooter. It calms his shattered nerves. Sad, really."
So Li'l Randy wants to let loose the dogs of war?
Great.
How 'bout we give him his wish? Strap him into a B1 bomber along with The Decider and as many other Republican chicken hawks as the thing can fit (some can be strapped to the bottom of the plane I'm guessing), then have him fly it to Syria and Iraq to bomb the shit out of ISIS. Nothing like a little hands on experience for a war monger in training. Plus he'd have the benefit of long cozy hours chatting with a genu-Ine war criminal.
The only problem is we'd have a Bush and a Paul, a couple of idiots, who would probably end up off course and bombing Paris. "Looky there, Randy, that big metal tower. You reckon that's some kinda Iz-lamm church? Whadaya call them things, musks? Let's bomb that thing! Dead or Alive!"
Regarding the "Two highly qualified Google engineers" used to support the authors assertion that renewable energy "will never permit the human race to cut CO2 emissions". http://www.cnet.com/news/google-rolls-out-a-new-design-for-its-campus-bike/. I get the above website of a pretty bicycle that looks suspiciously like a 1965 Schwinn when I type David Fork into my search bar. Ross Koningstein CV, http://www.crunchbase.com/person/ross-koningstein, makes him look like an expert at everything and a master of none to me. Lewis Page, the author of this article pooh, poohing renewables, http://www.theregister.co.uk/Author/93/, "served 11 years as a Royal Navy officer: highlights included commando training, mine clearance diving, live EOD (bomb disposal) operations and discovering genuine WMDs in 2003 (in Wales)".
Am I supposed to base my support for a carbon minimizing future on the writings of a soldier, supported by a bicycle mechanic underpinned by a gun-for-hire 'scientist'?
Oh no....
Li'l Randy and the Decider have already taken off....
The dynamic duo off to save the world from ISIS and Islam and whatever the hell else wingnuts are scared of...
The Chuck Hagel resignation, characterized as the White House's response to critics of the ebola non-crisis and the ISIS situation, sounds the loony alarm.
First, the White House, feeling it has to respond to screams from the right about the ebola non-crisis, is like the captain of a ship deciding to change course because the screaming mimis rolling around down on the deck, frothing at the mouth, want to avoid invisible sea monsters they are sure are out there somewhere.
Plus the loons have already discovered that they can huff and puff, let loose with the crazy, and get some kind of reaction because first of all, the president, I believe, still harbors some sense of responsibility toward his critics, most of whom are just barking mad and don't deserve to be told their flies are down (which they mostly are) when giving speeches on national television.
Second, the loonies can get away with saying just about anything because the MSM will listen intently, stroke their collective chin, and intone, "Why, you don't say.....men from Mars....in the Oval Office closet? Well, we'll have to look into that..."
The next two years will be the kind Confucius was referring to in that line about living in interesting times.
Whatever happened to a liberal arts education in this country? An education that prepared bright women and men to operate with confidence in their own ability to apply critical and logical thought to difficult issues, bolstered by a decent exposure to history and literature.
Alas, we have too many obvious examples of those who would lead who have neither a liberal education (as opposed to a Liberal education) nor the merest twig of capability with critical thinking.
Case in point, one Randy, Little, senator (believe it or not) from the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Li'l Randy clearly has some major holes in his education otherwise he would not be on his knees pleading for a declaration of war against crazies who aren't even really from a country, riding around in the desert in Humvees and ATVs, chopping off heads and firing missiles into poorly defended towns and villages.
If the Little One had ever read Leonard Wibberley's magnum opus, "The Mouse That Roared" he would be able to latch on to that damned elusive bit of perspective that keeps people from constantly dropping into open manholes after which stating loudly that one meant to do that.
The story of "The Mouse That Roared", a tiny European country that declares war on the US in the hopes of being quickly defeated and ending up with a bonanza in foreign aid, offers, if one reads it in a slightly darker frame, a glimpse into the future of a US-ISIS war.
In the original story--I won't go into great detail for those who already know it--the country, the Grand Duchy of Fenwick, accidentally comes into possession of a US secret weapon of all weapons and uses it to both gain international renown and to force world peace on all the nations. It's hysterically funny, largely because the author employs quite a few tenets of realpolitick in laying out the plot lines.
Anyway, the inverse of this happy ending is that a bunch of crazies riding around in the desert, after having war declared on them by the Little Brained One and his war mad cohort, come into possession of a great weapon. The Magic Macho Button. They push it, and the US loses its mind, expends trillions of dollars and thousands of lives trying to stop them doing whatever they're doing. They become famous, and to top it off, they ensure Eternal War.
Good job, Randy!
Too bad you spent all your time in school getting high, kidnapping classmates, and reading that other idiot Rand.
So much for perspective and critical thought. I mean, just look at that horrible rug!
And so much for liberal education.
Feeling curmudgeonish today. Here is a substantial piece by Koningstein in a respected journal :
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/what-it-would-really-take-to-reverse-climate-change
Not as an expert, I nonetheless see some valid arguments. So-called renewals are a grain of sand on the beach. The only feasible tech in 2014 for zero-C electricity is nuclear which, if it completely replaced gas and coal, and if everyone got nuclear-electric cars would reduce C output by a little less than half. Agriculture? Only if fossil-based fertilizers are eliminated and electric dryers for grains. He is correct that reforestation (and prairie restoration) on a massive scale is the only route to mitigate what has already accumulated. To do this we will have to cut our animal food drastically, to where meat is a treat, not sustenance. Okay, so what is the chance that any of this is going to go anywhere?
Friedman's column on parks and reserves also deals with bandaids. Mitigating mass extinction will take much much more.
I am feeling downright wicked today, so when I received my rightwing, racist brother-in-law's "joke of the day," I forwarded it to several of my most radical friends, ccd him and bccd my sister (his poor wife). I had an immediate response--not from him, but from my sister--"OMG, he doesn't even know he is a racist!"
Here it is:
This is so disappointing,
CNN reported today that the Walt Disney film called "Jet Black" the African American version of "Snow White" has been cancelled, apparently all of the 7 dwarfs: Dealer, Stealer, Mugger, Forger, DriveBy, Homeboy and Shank, have refused to sing "Hi Ho, Hi Ho," because they say it offends black prostitutes. They also have no intention of singing " Its off to work we go"
Go figure !
Kate: it's interesting that your brother-in-law forwarded that to you since he undoubtedly knew how you would react. It occurs to me that years ago this type of "joke" would be openly shared only by people on the fringes of society. Now it has become more acceptable, perhaps due to the availability of Internet communications and no doubt spurred on by having a black POTUS. In my experience a lot of the racist and extremist emails are circulated by "old farts" - retired white guys with a lot of time on their hands, and a computer.
On another (but vaguely related) note, it seems as if the powers that be in Ferguson are stringing out their announcement as long as possible. This tactic could create greater impact than if the whole thing was handled in a more matter of fact way. Maybe that's what they want.
Victoria D: You have nailed my wing nut brother-in-law--a retired white guy with a computer, time on his hands and LOTS of money, much of which he got by screwing the government--as a defense contractor building keyboards for missiles. (Billed outrageous mailing costs, which the guvmint, of course, paid)
I, too, have the thought that crazies in Ferguson are stringing out their 15 minutes of fame, and if Darren Wilson is "not guilty," they will take credit for containing violence--should any happen. If there is no violence, they will take credit for their "incredible preparedness." In
any event, some citizens seem strangely proud of the racism in Ferguson and wonder why so many of us do not git how useless and prone to drugs and criminality Negroes (darkies) are! (This, of course, is by implication and innuendo--not spoken straight out.)
Another thought: the media "blitz" on Ferguson is all about ratings. Reminds me of when JFK, Jr. died, and it took a couple of days to find his plane. "Reporters" are on the spot interviewing everybody except 3 year olds. Prime time all the time!
The long article by Deborah Sontag re: the growing opposition to big oil destroying North Dakota's prime landscape and making life miserable for many was a great piece of journalism (mit pictures). Another sad tale of tall giants overwhelming the little people whose sling shots don't make a dent.
@AK: Here is Helen Vendler piece on bringing back the humanities––all of us here, I imagine can relate being of an age where we had that kind of education which doesn't seem relevant any longer in many cases:
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120108/save-humanities-how-fix-americas-public-school-education
Onion headline says it all "Heavy Police Presence In Ferguson To Ensure Residents Adequately Provoked"
http://www.theonion.com/articles/heavy-police-presence-in-ferguson-to-ensure-reside,37528/