The Commentariat -- Dec. 8, 2013

** David Simon, creator of "The Wire," on the "horror" of "two Americas." An extract, published in the Guardian, of a speech he delivered on the growing divide between rich & poor. CW: His take jibes perfectly with my own views.

Ezra Klein: "Obamacare’s real promise: if you lose your health-care plan, you can get a new one." Klein goes thru the list of ways Americans are vulnerable to losing their plans. "Virtually the only people whose health coverage is reasonably safe are those on fee-for-service Medicare and some forms of veterans insurance. And even there, enrollees are only safe until the day policymakers decide to change premiums or benefit packages." Thanks to contributor Ken W. for the link. ...

... BUT/AND. This is refreshing. Spero News: "Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said universal health care should be available to all Americans [sic.]. He was speaking at a charity event for prostate cancer survivors in Seattle. Powell told the audience that countries in Europe, Canada and South Korea offer universal, single-payer health care and said he often asks why the United States has not implemented the same system. 'Whether it's Obamacare, or son of Obamacare, I don't care,' Powell said. 'As long as we get it done.'" ...

... Chad Terhune of the Los Angeles Times: "Raising concerns about consumer privacy, California's health exchange has given insurance agents the names and contact information for tens of thousands of people who went online to check out coverage but didn't ask to be contacted." ...

... Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval ... is the only Republican governor whose state is both running its own health insurance exchange this year and expanding its Medicaid program under the health law. He's arguably doing more to put the Democrats' signature law into place than any other Republican.... Even after sticking his neck out on Obamacare -- which few others in his party would consider amid fear of a conservative backlash -- Sandoval is overwhelmingly popular in Nevada. State lawmakers backed his Obamacare approach on a bipartisan basis, and he's cruising toward reelection next year with no formidable opponent in sight." ...

Donkey Hotey.... Robert Farley of FactCheck.org: "House Speaker John Boehner says his premiums will double, and his deductible will triple, under the Affordable Care Act. That's true, but it is misleading to compare Boehner with the 'many Americans seeing their costs go up,' as his spokesman Brendan Buck has put it. Boehner's experience with the Affordable Care Act is extremely atypical compared to most Americans. His rates -- which include the cost of insuring his wife -- are doubling because of the couple's age and high income, and a special provision in the law that forced members of Congress out of their employer-sponsored plans.... Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas -- who is 25 years younger than Boehner -- will pay about half of what he is now paying."

Another Big Pharma Rip-off. Peter Whorisky & Dan Keating of the Washington Post explains how pharmaceutical company Genentech, a division of the Roche Group, is raking in more than $1 billion a year for a drug that is nearly identical to one of their own drugs that sells for 1/40th of that price. "Roughly 80 percent of U.S. sales are paid for by Medicare and its beneficiaries."

** Alec MacGillis of the New Republic: "Those media hysterics who said Obama's presidency was dead were wrong. Again.... this has been an especially inglorious stretch for Beltway hyperventilators. First came the government shutdown and the ensuing declamations about the crack-up of the Republican Party. Then, with whiplash force, came the obituaries for the Obama presidency. The Washington press corps has been reduced to the state of the tennis-watching kittens in this video":

Bradley Klapper & Darlene Superville of the AP: "President Barack Obama said Saturday he believed the chances for a comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran are 50-50 or worse, yet defended diplomacy as the best way to prevent Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons."

AP: "The National Security Agency on Friday said its tracking of cellphones overseas is legally authorized under a sweeping U.S. presidential order. The distinction means the extraordinary surveillance program is not overseen by a secretive U.S. intelligence court but is regulated by some U.S. lawmakers, Obama administration insiders and inspectors general."

Maureen Dowd reflects on President Woodrow Wilson, sexy lover & confirmed racist.

Thomas Bishop of Media Matters has an excellent rundown of right-wing criticisms of Pope Francis. Many are likening him to Satanic cult leader Barack Obama. Can't get worse than that. The ever-tasteful Rush Limbaugh shrieked, "The pope, ripping Ronaldus Magnus. The pope, ripping trickle-down economics. And Obama's having an orgasm. Jeremiah Wright is beside himself. Jeremiah Wright thought he was Obama's preacher, now [the] pope somehow has co-opted Obama." ...

... Steve Benen: "In the larger context, note that when the Obama administration moves the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See closer to the Vatican, the right deems it 'anti-religion.' When conservative[s] slam the pope's economic views, that's fine."

Senate Race

Separation of Church & State? Not in Arkansas. This is perhaps the most cringe-worthy ad ever by a major Democratic candidate -- beating out Joe Manchin's shot at the cap-&-trade bill:

... The National Republican Senatorial Committee criticized Pryor by pointing to a remark he made last year: "The Bible is really not a rule book for political issues. Everybody can see it differently." The NRSC asks, "So is the Bible Mark Pryor's compass...? Or is it really not a good rule book for political issues and decisions made in the Senate? Guess it depends on which Mark Pryor that you ask." Via Tal Kopan of Politico. ...

... CW: In a humorous twist, the spokesman for GOP senatorial candidate Tom Cotton shot back: "That is an incredibly bizarre and offensive email from the NRSC's press secretary. We should all agree that America is better off when all our public officials in both parties have the humility to seek guidance from God." Yeah, it's always a good idea to argue about religion. ...

... Frank Bruni: "... while it's tempting to attribute this silliness to a Southern politician's need to appeal to the Christian fundamentalists prevalent in that region, the Arkansas episode is indicative of how thoroughly Americans from coast to coast let religion permeate public life."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Protesters in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, toppled the city's main statue of Lenin on Sunday and then pounded it into chips with a sledgehammer as a crowd chanted and cheered. The destruction of the statue was a cathartic moment in the biggest day of demonstrations so far against President Viktor F. Yanukovich's turn away from Europe."

AP: "A powerful storm system that spread hazardous snow, sleet and freezing rain widely across the nation's midsection rumbled toward the densely populated Eastern seaboard on Sunday, promising more of the same. Forecasters said the potent system already blamed for numerous power outages and thousands of weekend flight cancellations elsewhere, has Virginia and other Mid-Atlantic states in its icy sights before the Northeast is up next."

New York Times: "Atomic experts representing the United Nations nuclear watchdog landed in Tehran on Saturday to inspect a plant recently opened to them, after access was denied for years."

AFP: "South Korea Sunday declared an expanded air defence zone that overlaps with one announced by China and covers a submerged rock disputed by the two countries, as tensions rise over competing territorial claims."

AFP: Israeli "Economy Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday proposed that Israel annex parts of the West Bank under its full military control where most Jewish settlers live."

AP: "Thailand's main opposition party resigned from Parliament on Sunday to protest what it called 'the illegitimacy' of a government with which it can no longer work. The move deepens the country's latest political crisis one day before new street demonstrations that many fear could turn violent."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 7, 2013

"In this week's address, President Obama shames the Party of Scrooge:

Gene Robinson makes a strong case for raising the minimum wage: "President Obama should specify a number --- at least $10 an hour -- and go out on one of his barnstorming tours. Democrats should make the issue a central theme of the 2014 campaign. I believe the public would respond, which means that, ultimately, Republicans would respond. The president has a long agenda. This is where he should start."

Charles Pierce has a fine tribute to Nelson Mandela. ...

... Peter Beinart in the Daily Beast: "In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan placed Mandela's African National Congress on America's official list of 'terrorist' groups. In 1985, then-Congressman Dick Cheney voted against a resolution urging that he be released from jail. In 2004, after Mandela criticized the Iraq War, an article in National Review said his 'vicious anti-Americanism and support for Saddam Hussein should come as no surprise, given his longstanding dedication to communism and praise for terrorists.' As late as 2008, the ANC remained on America's terrorism watch list, thus requiring the 89-year-old Mandela to receive a special waiver from the secretary of State to visit the U.S." ...

... Ta-Nehisi Coates of the Atlantic: "... William F. Buckley -- intellectual founder of the modern right -- effectively worked as a press agent for apartheid.... Apartheid would ultimately draw some of America's most celebrated conservatives into its orbit. The roster includes Grover Norquist, Jack Abramoff, Jesse Helms..., Jeff Flake..., Jerry Falwell ... [and] Pat Robertson.... When you see a Tea Party protestor waving the flag of slavery in front of the home of the first black president, understand that this instinct has been cultivated. It is still, at this very hour, being cultivated." ...

... Jamelle Bouie of the Daily Beast: "In 1985, William F. Buckley Jr. voiced his support for South African President P.W. Botha.... In the same column, he declared, 'Where Mandela belongs, in his current frame of mind, is precisely where he is: in jail.' ... You can find George Will writing in opposition to sanctions and Jerry Falwell leading a 'reinvestment' drive to counter the push to divest assets from South Africa. The conservative movement was so invested in opposition to Mandela that decades later it has become a problem for the latest GOP generation, which represents a constituency that still hates Mandela.... To wit, when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) paid tribute to Mandela on his Facebook page, he was met with a stream of angry condemnations." ...

... ** Adam Serwer of NBC News: "... Remember that sometimes the radicals are correct, that in the heat of the moment, movements for justice can be easily caricatured by those with authority as threats to public safety, and those seeking basic rights and dignity as monstrous villains. And then after the radicals win, we try to make them safe and useless to future radicals by pretending our beloved secular saints were never radical at all." ...

Rick Santorum -- Still an Ignoramus

He was fighting against some great injustice, and I would make the argument that we have a great injustice going on right now in this country with an ever-increasing size of government that is taking over and controlling people's lives -- and Obamacare is front and center in that. -- Rick Santorum, on Mandela ...

Mandela enshrined in the new South African constitution a fundamental right to health care for all citizens, and introduced a government-funded public health care system to help cover those who could not afford the private system already in place. That was the foundation for a new universal health care system the country unveiled two years ago, which is now expanding to cover the entire country by 2026. -- Adam Peck, Think Progress

... Igor Volsky & Zack Beauchamp of Think Progress provide a timeline of how the right campaigned to undermine Mandela. And, yeah, some of those apartheidchiks are still "representing" us. ...

... Very late last night I caught a bit of a BBC conversation (they do this a lot on this show) wherein they said that Raygun said that one of the reasons he supported the white guys running the place (my words) was because they were our friends and supported us during WWII. The BBC guys said Raygun, of course, was wrong. Those white guys had been collaborators. I'm gonna try to find something on this so Marie doesn't get mad at me. -- Haley Simon, in yesterday's Comments

Mr. Botha sided with the [Nazis], joining the right-wing Afrikaner nationalists in the Ossewabrandwag, or Ox Wagon Fire Guard, which was closely related to Daniel F. Malan's Reunited National Party. A paramilitary group within the Guard, modeled after the Nazi Brownshirts, agitated against the pro-Allied government of Jan Christian Smuts." Some time later, "Mr. Botha publicly condemned the Ossewabrandwag" but he remained active in the party that sided with the Nazis till 1944. -- Joseph Gregory, New York Times obituary of P. W. Botha, 2006

Despite a growing international movement to topple apartheid in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan maintained a close alliance with a South African government [led by P. W. Botha] that was showing no signs of serious reform. And the Reagan administration demonized opponents of apartheid, most notably the African National Congress, as dangerous and pro-communist. Reagan even vetoed a bill to impose sanctions on South Africa, only to be overruled by Congress. -- Justin Elliott in Salon, 2011

Can we abandon a country that has stood beside us in every war we've ever fought, a country that strategically is essential to the free world in its production of minerals we all must have and so forth? I just feel that, myself, that here, if we're going to sit down at a table and negotiate with the Russians, surely we can keep the door open and continue to negotiate with a friendly nation like South Africa. -- Ronald Reagan, speaking in support of Botha's apartheid regime, 1981

Reagan said, you know, these people supported us in World War II. I said, Mr. President, your history is bad. These guys you're talking about -- the South African apartheid regime [which Botha led] -- most of them supported the Nazis. -- Bishop Desmond Tutu, on a private conversation he had with Reagan

Yeah, Haley, I did have to do some Googling on this, but I'm not mad. And the BBC commentator was right. -- Constant Weader

... Al Sharpton, Chris Matthews: F. W. De Klerk & other South African apartheid leaders were more patriotic than Mitch McConnell & the GOP are:

The New York Times Editors write

"Some Bankers Aren't too Big to Jail." Danielle Douglas of the Washington Post: "Since 2008, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program [SIGTARP] has pursued criminal charges against 107 senior bank officers, most of whom have been sentenced to prison. Created to supervise the government bailout of the auto and financial industries, the agency has found dozens of cases of bank executives who misused bailout funds. SIGTARP has a staff of 170, a budget of $41 million and an enforcement track record that rivals agencies twice its size. The agency's work has resulted in $4.7 billion in restitution paid to the government and victims. Lawmakers are holding SIGTARP up as a model and questioning why other agencies are not producing similar results."

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times profiles Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).

John Wagner & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "The Maryland official who directly oversaw the rollout of Maryland's health insurance exchange resigned Friday amid continuing technical problems that have hampered the state's online enrollment efforts. After an emergency session Friday night, the board of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange accepted the resignation of Rebecca Pearce, its executive director, and thanked her in a statement for working 'tirelessly and with tremendous dedication' for more than two years." ...

... Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic: "The ObamaCare error rate has fallen dramatically." ...

... CW: Yesterday, I linked to a piece by a right-wing writer named Peter Schweitzer who claimed -- based on White House logs & Politico's daily calendar -- that President Obama had no one-on-one meetings with HHS Secretary Sebelius between July 12, 2010, & November 30, 2013. ...

... BUT. Dylan Byers of Politico: "The White House on Friday criticized as misleading a report in Politico Magazine claiming that President Barack Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius met just once since the signing of the Affordable Care Act more than three years ago. 'The published report that was written by an advocate is based on a ridiculously false premise,' White House press secretary Jay Carney said during a press briefing. 'Cabinet secretaries don't regularly get entered into the White House visitors logs, [though] they come frequently. Kathleen Sebelius comes frequently, and she meets frequently with the president.'"

Senate Races

Scott Brown, a potential GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, who has also explored a presidential run, briefly confuses New Hampshire with Massachusetts, which he did serve as Senator. Via Aaron Blake of the Washington Post:

     Don't worry, Senator; it happens to all the best presidential candidates:

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican who was first elected to the Senate in 1978, set up a generational and ideological clash in the state's Republican primary when he announced Friday that he would seek a seventh term in 2014.... While Mr. Cochran, who turns 76 on Saturday, has the support of many leading Republicans in the state, he is already facing opposition from Chris McDaniel, 41, a state senator aligned with the Tea Party...." CW: Yes, because a guy who voted to support the South African apartheid regime, even as most Senators from his own party voted to impose sanctions against the racist South African government, is totally too liberal for Mississippi.

News Ledes

AP: "About 50 survivors of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor paused Saturday at the site to honor those killed and remember the moment that plunged the U.S. into World War II."

New York Times: Merrill Newman, "an American veteran who had been held prisoner in North Korea for more than a month, landed in the United States on Saturday after his release by the government, which cited his 'sincere repentance' for his acts during the Korean War as the reason for letting him go."

New York Times: "Flying aboard a nondescript Air Force cargo plane under the cloak of secrecy, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel landed [Afghanistan] on Saturday.... Mr. Hagel was scheduled to meet with American commanders to discuss the status of the war, with troops to offer holiday greetings and with Afghan officials to see if he could press for a breakthrough in finalizing a bilateral security agreement."

'Tis the Season

As we approach the high holy days of the Christian faith, some turn to thoughts of the Baby Jesus & the fanciful nativity narratives. There are two, one by the author of the Gospel of Matthew & one by the author of Luke. There is little correspondence between the two stories.

Others think of buying gifts for the kids:

 

Still others reckon it's a bright idea to remind Reality Chex readers of what a wise fellow the Baby Jesus grew up to be.

I'm sure there are sites where such comments are well-appreciated. This isn't one of them. So I urge you to save yourselves the trouble of passing along ideas or sayings you attribute to Jesus. (Almost all of the sayings the Gospels ascribe to Jesus came from other sources, many from Pharisaic rabbis, others from Roman & Greek philosophers, etc.)

Whether or not your comment is germane to current events, I almost certainly will zap the whole comment if a portion of it smacks of proselytizing, particularly Christian proselytizing. I have neither time nor the inclination to edit your work. If you decide to push it, I will probably err on the side of caution & remove the comment. Most commenters know how to incorporate religious beliefs into their comments without advocating for those beliefs, & most do so in appropriate contexts. If you're not sure, your comment probably crosses the line. 

Perhaps this doesn't seem fair to you. Perhaps it isn't fair. But it is what is.

Pax vobiscum.