Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from> around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
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Cas Muddle: Hate crimes are as American as apple pie
Do the names Elijah Coverdale, Kathy Finley or Tywanza Sanders sound familiar? Probably not. And yet you are almost certain to know the names of the men who killed them. Elijah Coverdale and Kathy Finley were two of the 168 people killed in the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995, still the most deadly case of domestic terrorism in US history, whereas Tywanza Sanders was among 9 people killed in the church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. As so often happens in the case of crimes, particularly those committed by the far right, the perpetrators are humanized in multiple news stories that follow the attack, while the victims are reduced to cold and impersonal statistics.
Last month the FBI released its latest hate crimes statistics, showing a nearly 23% increase in religion-based hate crimes and a 37% spike in anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2017. Almost 60% of victims were targeted because of their (perceived) ethnic or racial identity, some 20% because of their (perceived) religion, almost 16% because of the (perceived) sexuality, and 2% because of their disability or gender. In part because of their definition, hate crimes have a predominantly (far) rightwing motivation. However, even in the more neutrally defined case of political violence and terrorism, far-right ideology is the dominant motivation, and far-right terrorism is on the rise.
Paul Waldman: An end to the shutdown depends entirely on Trump’s hurt feelings
We’re heading into the sixth day of a government shutdown that is just beginning to hurt the 800,000 federal workers who are impacted. Everyone seems dug in to their position. So how does this end?
The answer will depend, unfortunately, on President Trump’s feelings.
Let’s not forget that last week the Senate passed a funding bill that could have easily passed the House, and by all accounts, Trump was ready to sign it. But then Fox News hosts began criticizing him for not demanding funding for a border wall, and like a schoolyard bully who hears the crowd saying “What are ya, a wimp?,” he decided that he had to shut down the government or risk humiliation.
There’s a genuine policy difference here, of course: Trump wants a border wall and Democrats (joined by some Republicans) don’t. But if that’s all it was, a compromise wouldn’t be too hard to find. The trouble is that in his own mind, Trump has made the conflict intensely personal. As he told troops in Iraq on Wednesday, “We want to have strong borders in the United States. The Democrats don’t want to let us have strong borders — only for one reason. You know why? Because I want it.” As far as he’s concerned, this is all the more reason that he can’t compromise. If it’s personal, then he has to win and his opponent has to lose.
Jennifer Rubin: Trump flubs another routine presidential task
President Trump has an uncanny knack for making a mess of simple, traditional functions every other president has managed to carry out with ease. Talk to a child about Christmas? Yikes — a “marginal” disaster. Go to Europe to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I? He skips one event rather than wilt in the rain and sulks through another. The worst anti-Semitic massacre in U.S. history? He whines about getting his hair wet and keeps campaigning. Visit the troops (finally) in Iraq? Oh boy.
Trump has the obnoxious habit of using American military personnel as props, an audience for highly partisan attacks. Every other person to hold the office has understood that the military must be beyond politics; the apolitical military is a critical difference between Western democracies and thuggish regimes. Worst of all, Trump deployed the troops at the border in pre-election stunt to rile up his xenophobic base. [..]
So on his belated, first visit to a war zone, Trump once more flubbed a routine presidential task, politicizing his speech (complete with partisan attacks on Democrats on his favorite topic, the border) and even signing “Make America Great Again” hats for the troops, despite regulations prohibiting military personnel from engaging in political events.
Ted Kennedy Jr.: Hiring People With Disabilities Is Good Business
For years, companies have maintained low expectations about hiring people with disabilities. Most of these companies believed that employees with disabilities could not perform well in the workplace and that actively hiring them would drag company performance and profits down.
Thankfully, over time, many employers have come to understand that these perceptions are untrue. And new research strongly suggests that the opposite — that hiring people with disabilities is good for business.
A recent study has shown, for the first time, that companies that championed people with disabilities actually outperformed others — driving profitability and shareholder returns. Revenues were 28 percent higher, net income 200 percent higher, and profit margins 30 percent higher. Companies that improved internal practices for disability inclusion were also four times more likely to see higher total shareholder returns.
Charles Gaba: The Chart That Shows the Price Tag for Trump’s Obamacare Sabotage
The Affordable Care Act is still in effect, and the 2019 open enrollment period just ended for most Americans. The recent ruling by a Texas judge declaring the act invalid doesn’t change that.
But the Trump administration and Republicans are still undermining the health law.
People who earn too much to qualify for financial assistance for policies purchased through the A.C.A.’s health insurance exchanges or directly from insurers — five million now enrolled, including three to four million enrolled off-exchange — will pay for that sabotage in higher premiums. (Another nearly five million are uninsured and priced out of the market.) In the graphic below, I estimate how much more these unsubsidized enrollees will have to lay out in 2019 than they would have if not for the Trump administration’s actions.