The Commentariat -- October 17, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "Barack Obama blocked off the prospects for future oil drilling in the Arctic on Friday, imposing new lease conditions that make it practically impossible for companies to hunt for oil in the world's last great wilderness. The Department of Interior said it was canceling two future auctions of Arctic offshore oil leases in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, and turned down requests from Shell and other oil companies for more time on their existing leases." CW: Now check out Marco Rubio's energy plan -- story linked under Presidential Race.
Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: "Given the gains that have flowed to those at the tip of the income pyramid in recent decades, several economists have been making the case that the government could raise large amounts of revenue exclusively from this small group, while still allowing them to take home a majority of their income. It is 'absurd' to argue that most wealth at the top is already highly taxed or that there isn't much more revenue to be had by raising taxes on the 1 percent, says the economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel in economic science, who has written extensively about inequality. 'The only upside of the concentration of the wealth at the top is that they have more money to pay in taxes,' he said." CW: Gosh, you'd almost think the NYT had become a librul newspaper. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed: "Wayne Simmons, a TV military analyst who was charged this week with lying about having worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, hoodwinked not only Fox News, but the Pentagon. Media coverage of Simmons's arrest has focused on his TV analysis for Fox News, but Simmons was also involved in a Pentagon program for military analysts that gave them direct access to top officials during the George W. Bush administration.... A source who worked in [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld's Pentagon said that Simmons was indeed part of the program, and that he met with Rumsfeld himself.... The story to me is not, 'Fox has a hack on to talk about whatever.' It's more like, this guy was given access to senior officials."
Brian Beutler on "the enormous role coincidence played in saving the country from another near-catastrophe, or outright default:'... We owe the prospect of an uneventful debt limit resolution to a deus ex machina. Boehner's heir presumptive, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, abandoned the race for speaker to the tune of Yakety Sax, denuding the House Benghazi Committee along the way and compelling Boehner to consider increasing the debt limit -- either without precondition, or as part of a genuinely bipartisan agreement -- before he leaves Congress." ...
... Sophia Tesfaye of Salon: "'I do think that we're cooked as a party for quite a while as a party if we don't win in 2016,'" Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus told the conservative Washington Examiner. 'I think that we have become, unfortunately, a midterm party that doesn't lose and a presidential party that's had a really hard time winning,' Priebus concluded, adding, 'we're seeing more and more that if you don't hold the White House, it's very difficult to govern in this country.'" ...
... CW: Sorry, but that doesn't make sense. Yes, Republicans lost the last two presidential elections, but they lost in 2008 largely because of the economic downturn & in 2012 because there was an incumbent Democrat running. They control both houses of Congress & the Supreme Court. They control 70 percent of all state legislative bodies, and 31 governorships (to the Democrats' 18).
Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Huma Abedin, Hillary Rodham Clinton's longtime personal aide, testified behind closed doors for eight hours on Friday before the Republican-controlled Benghazi committee, as Mrs. Clinton and House Democrats continued to try to discredit the panel for what they say are efforts to undermine her presidential bid. Ms. Abedin said in a brief news conference that she had answered all of the committee's questions, but she declined to address what she said and did not criticize the panel." ...
... Rachel Bade of Politico: "A partisan feud broke out during Friday's closed-door testimony by a top Hillary Clinton adviser, as Democrats blasted the GOP-led Benghazi panel for summoning the witness in the first place while conservative activists circulated emails they said showed the aide's testimony was relevant."
... one in three American women was having an abortion when it was illegal; and one in three is having an abortion now.... If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament. -- Gloria Steinem, to Emma Brockes of the Guardian
Gail Collins: "It's incredible that we've built a society that relies on women in the labor force yet makes no discernible effort to deal with [child care].... In 1971, Congress passed a bipartisan bill that would have made quality preschool education available to every family in the United States that wanted it, with tuition based on the family's ability to pay. Also after-school programs for older children. Forty-four years ago! Richard Nixon vetoed it, muttering something about 'communal approaches to child rearing.' You may be stunned to hear that while the Republicans talk endlessly about ginning up the American economy, the idea of helping working mothers stay in the labor force does not come up all that often. Although Ben Carson has described preschool as 'indoctrination.'" ...
... CW: Get over it, Gail. When are you going to learn that "family values = patriarchy"?
White House: "In this week's address, the President highlighted the problems in our criminal justice system":
Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times: "A federal judge ruled Friday that Texas officials can continue to deny U.S. birth certificates to the children of immigrants who cannot supply required identification because they entered the country illegally.... In his ruling denying an emergency order sought by families, Judge Robert L. Pitman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio ... noted the families' attorneys had 'provided evidence which raises grave concerns regarding the treatment of citizen children born to immigrant parents,' [but] he said the court needed more evidence before issuing the emergency injunction they had sought." Pitman is an Obama appointee.
"Thanks, Obama!" Peggy Noonan blames President Obama for Donald Trump's success. Really: "He was a literal unknown, an obscure former state legislator who hadn't completed his single term as U.S. senator, but he was charismatic, canny, compelling. He came from nowhere and won it all twice. All previously prevailing standards, all usual expectations, were thrown out the window. Anyone can run for president now...." (No link.) ...
... Steve Benen: "For one thing, the president wasn't a 'literal unknown.'... It's true that Obama only had 12 years of experience in public office when he was elected president, but (a) that's triple the number of years Mitt Romney had under his belt; (b) it's largely consistent with the historical average for modern American presidents; and (c) and it's more than many of the leading Republican presidential hopefuls have this year...." ...
... Steve M.: "Who really lowered the bar?... I'd say it's the party that put George W. Bush and Dan Quayle on two tickets each. I'd say it's the party that gave respectful consideration to presidential aspirants such as Pat Robertson, Alan Keyes, Pat Buchanan, Michele Bachmann, and Herman Cain. And I say it's the party that made Sarah Palin its vice presidential candidate, then made her a superstar. If the bar's low, Peggy, your party's voters are the reason."
CW: I probably pay way too little attention to Hollywood given the role films play in cementing our perceptions of "norms." One of those norms is extreme gender-bias, exhibited most dramatically in the types of films that Hollywood produces: they're almost all male-oriented, & of those, most are geared to appeal to teenaged boys. In that vein, the films' producers are extremely ageist: for instance, earlier this year, the actor "Maggie Gyllenhaal was told by a Hollywood producer that she was too old, at 37, to play the love interest of a 55-year-old man. Hollywood offers women fewer jobs, on-screen & off. And when women do get work, no matter how important their role in a film, it is likely they will be paid less than their male co-stars. Ergo, this story about actor Bradley Cooper's plan to do something about that is worth noting.
Presidential Race
Gabriel Sherman of New York: "Joe Biden is running for president -- a fact that has been obvious, and true, for weeks. He spent the week continuing to phone key Democrats in early voting states and huddle with his kitchen cabinet.... If you look closely at Biden's recent public activity, it looks very much like that of other candidates in the weeks before they declared. Most obviously, there has been no direction from him to shut down any talk of running.... When a sitting vice-president works the phones after his party's debate stressing that he is not ruling out running for president, that is the activity of a man running for president." ...
"No, He Can't." Jamelle Bouie: Yo, Bernie, there will be no revolution. Bouie cites the "Obama revolution" as evidence. CW: I think he's absolutely right.
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "In an interview with Bloomberg, [Donald] Trump was asked how he would demonstrate compassion during a crisis such as a hurricane or attacks on the World Trade Center. Saying that he has more heart and is more competent than the leaders who dealt with those tragedies, Mr. Trump then criticized the former president. 'When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time,' Mr. Trump said. Blaming 9/11 on Mr. Bush is taboo for Republicans and has largely been off-limits for Democrats. Pressed on whether he really meant to blame the attacks on Mr. Bush, the billionaire developer did not back down.... Jeb Bush on Friday called Mr. Trump 'pathetic' for daring to attack his brother in such a way." ...
How pathetic for to criticize the president for 9/11. We were attacked & my brother kept us safe. -- Jeb! ...
There seems to be a small logical problem with second sentence, but I can't quite put my finger on it. -- Paul Waldman
... Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate: "This is entering the realm of the surreal. He's now putting the words attacked and kept us safe in the same sentence! Jeb Bush is one step away from citing 9/11 as evidence that George W. Bush prevented 9/11." ...
... Gary Legum of Salon: "Let's face it: Jeb sucks at this whole running-for-president thing, and he's just wasting our time now.... He'll keep going, out of stubbornness, delusion or both. But as the race stands now, there is nothing left for him to do but make his concession speech. Or, seeing as how he can't open his mouth without gibberish pouring out of it, have someone else do it for him."
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "CNBC will allow the Republican presidential candidates 30-second opening and closing statements at a debate this month, bowing to the demands of Donald J. Trump and other leading candidates that they be allowed to introduce themselves." ...
... Married to the Mob. Robert O'Harrow of the Washington Post: "Throughout his early career, Trump routinely gave large campaign contributions to politicians who held sway over his projects and he worked with mob-controlled companies and unions to build them.... No serious presidential candidate has ever had his depth of business relationships with the mob-controlled entities.... Trump's donations were ... cited by the organized crime task force's report as an example of the close financial relationships between developers and City Hall.... Trump also dealt with mob figures in Atlantic City, where he was pressing to go into the casino business, according to court records, gaming commission reports and news accounts."
He's Not a Scientist, Man. Jeremy Peters & Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Senator Marco Rubio traveled on Friday to eastern Ohio, with its vast underground natural gas deposits, and laid out an energy policy that would rely on drilling and hydraulic fracturing and roll back many of the most aggressive components of President Obama's environmental agenda. Mr. Rubio said he would immediately allow construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline to go forward, which Mr. Obama has yet to commit to. Mr. Rubio would also permit more offshore oil and gas drilling, which the president has already expanded, and effectively nullify an international climate change accord the administration is pursuing." ...
... CW: Rubio, who represents Florida, is not running for re-election to the Senate. In response to a question by a young man wearing a Miami University sweatshirt, Rubio said he didn't know what would happen first under his plan: oil spill residue covering Florida's beaches, or water covering the whole peninsula. In an exchange that grew somewhat heated, Rubio repeatedly questioned the young man's claim that Miami University was in Ohio. ...
... Mary Jordan of the Washington Post: "The tensions between the [Rubio & Bush camps] hit a new high this week as Rubio's campaign bragged that its 'smart budgeting and fiscal discipline' left more money in the bank 'than Jeb Bush for President' and other campaigns. Bush's top spokesman fired back Friday on Twitter, pointing to a report that said Rubio’s campaign inflated its numbers and adding a stinging rebuke: 'Lying about budgets. Guess Marco picked up something in the Senate.' Heightening the drama of this once unthinkable showdown between mentor and protege is that it may be decided in Florida...."
Simon Maloy of Salon takes a look at what-all Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, et al., consider "tyrannical," acts or conditions, against which patriots must take up arms: gay rights & ObamaCare figure prominently. Further, the evil despots have infiltrated all three branches of government: the presidency, the Congress (the entire Democratic caucus), the Supreme Court. "... so much of the conservative movement has come to define 'tyranny' as 'something the Democrats did that I disagree with.' They actively encourage conservative voters to believe that they're being persecuted and having their rights stripped away as part of a broader agenda to purge religious liberty from the land. When you pair that message with a passionate call to arm oneself to defend against the voiding of your rights, you're crossing into insurrectionist territory...." See also today's comments along this vein. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Question of the Day: Is this GOP presidential candidate (a) posturing, or (b) stupid?
I've been spending more time going after Bernie and socialism because I don't want America to succumb to the notion that there's anything good about socialism. I think it's not an accident of history that most of the times when socialism has been tried that attendant with that has been mass genocide of people or any of those who object to it. Stalin killed tens of millions of people. Mao killed tens of millions of people. Pol Pot killed tens of millions of people. When you have a command economy, when everything is dictated from one authority, that's socialism, but it doesn't come easily to those who resist it. -- Rand Paul
Beyond the Beltway
Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times: "The California Supreme Court refused Friday to review the conviction of a Riverside County boy who at age 10 killed his neo-Nazi father, letting stand a ruling that said someone that young can knowingly waive their legal right to remain silent. The court, meeting in closed session, voted 4 to 3 against hearing the case, with the three justices appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown dissenting, according to an order issued Friday.... Court records said [the boy] Joseph was of low-average intelligence, suffered from attention deficit disorder, had been exposed to many illicit drugs when his mother was pregnant and had been kicked out of several schools for violent behavior." ...
... CW: Writing for the majority, Justice Mortimer "Mort" Fleegan noted, "When I was a child, I regularly watched 'Law & Order.' By the time I was nine, it was clear to me that George Washington never should have revealed to his father that he chopped down the cherry tree. Despite my mother's repeated grillings, I never admitted to her that I was the one who tortured and maimed all the neighbors' small pets. I knew my rights. Every citizen, no matter his age, has a duty to know his rights."
Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times on the criminal trial of Donald Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy, "whose Upper Big Branch mine became, in April 2010, the site of the nation's deadliest coal mining disaster in nearly 40 years.... He is the first coal baron ever to face criminal charges -- the central character, prosecutors say, in a historic case of conspiracy to flout health and safety laws in pursuit of profits." Audio tapes he secretly recorded may make the case for the prosecution."
News Ledes
AP: "Thousands of migrants surged into tiny Slovenia on Saturday as an alternative route opened in Europe for them after Hungary sealed its border for their free flow, adding another hurdle in their frantic flight from wars and poverty toward what they hope is a better life in Western Europe."
AP: "Palestinian assailants carried out five stabbing attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank on Saturday, authorities said, as a month-long outburst of violence showed no signs of abating. The unrest came despite new security measures that have placed troops and checkpoints around Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. At least four assailants were killed."
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Reader Comments (6)
Perhaps what we can come away with after reading "Mort" Fleegan's statement is watching "Law and Order" at such an early age leads to judgements that are far afield of logical interpretation OR/ and torturing and dismembering all the neighborhood's small (bigger ones wouldn't be fair game?) and consistently lying about it to your mother when questioned sets you up to become a Superior judge who then can dole out superior judgements. Quite remarkable.
And speaking of poor judgements: Reince Priebus (nifty anagram) appears to have little control over his party's broken blossoms but can somehow blame it on a Republican not being president. Poor Preibus, he once met with the Donald to try and reign him in a bit, but to no avail. He has, I gather, nightmares over the fact that the front runners are loons and the others seem to be stuck in the back of the bus––the one that keeps running out of gas and emits large amounts of smoke.
The colors here in New England are breathtaking this time of year and when I walk, look up into those glorious trees, I breathe deeply. Important for us to look up at times.
@PD Pepe: Oh, crap -- another of my too-subtle jokes. I made up Mort. I find it absolutely absurd to assert that a 10-year-old can understand the consequences of waiving his rights, no matter how carefully explained, even if he knows the meaning of "you don't have to say anything." This would go double or triple or whatever for a 10-year-old with learning disabilities, as is the case here. If we believe that children generally make sensible decisions for themselves, then why can't a 10-year-old serve in the military or sign contracts or get married, or or or?
I've watched a couple of crime shows where an innocent young man -- a legal adult -- confessed to a brutal murder on the promise of some trivial perk: a visit from his mother or something like that. Sometimes an innocent person will confess on the promise to end the interrogation. Other times, the police will so convincingly "reconstruct" the crime that a gullible young man comes to believe, at least in the moment, that he did the crime in the manner the interrogator lays out.
There is scientific evidence that immature brains cannot even properly grasp criminal responsibility, let alone the nuances of criminal law. Short-term gratification is a motivator not only of crimes but also of many other actions. You can put kids in a room, place a single cookie in front of each of them & say if they don't eat that cookie, the adult will be back in a few minutes to give them second cookies. Some of the kids will "plan ahead" & wait for the double treat, but others only see that cookie right in front of them saying, "Eat me."
Anyway, I find the decision appalling. I made up Mort when I asked myself the question, "Don't these judges remember being kids? Did they think they knew what they were doing at age 10?" The only conclusion one can draw is that the Morts of this world think they always were smart. Maybe they were. But the rest of us can remember some pretty stupid things we did when we were kids.
Marie
Justice Mortimer "Mort" Fleegan! Wondered about that when I read it. Who? Where? Huh?
Now that I have the explanation, must say it's a pretty darn funny, made up name....ranks up there with my favorite cartoon character: Bernard Mergendeiler
Mort's opinion doesn't bother me near as much as the idea that a 10 year old could possibly be found guilty of murder and given a prison sentence. What a relief to read that a graduate of 13 years in the California prison system will be released at age 23. To what end?
Peggy Noonan, demonstrating her amazing flexibility, pulled her head out of a bottle and promptly stuck it up her behind. A fine show of American Exceptionalism.
@Marie and P.D. Pepe: the quote from "Mort" was so outrageous that I had to read the article. Boy was I relieved to find Judge Fleegan was a product of Marie's fertile imagination.
Still, I think the CSC should have taken the case. The satire only heightens the point. Shades of Dickens!