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.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.
Howard Schultz, the coffee billionaire, who imagined that he could attract broad support as a “centrist,” turns out to have an approval rating of 4 percent, versus 40 percent disapproval.
Ralph Northam, a Democrat who won the governorship of Virginia in a landslide, is facing a firestorm of denunciation from his own party over racist images on his medical school yearbook page.
Donald Trump, who ran on promises to expand health care and raise taxes on the rich, began betraying his working-class supporters the moment he took office, pushing through big tax cuts for the rich while trying to take health coverage away from millions.
These are, it turns out, related stories, all of them tied to the two great absences in American political life.
One is the absence of socially liberal, economically conservative voters. These were the people Schultz thought he could appeal to; but basically they don’t exist, accounting for only around, yes, 4 percent of the electorate.
The other is the absence of economically liberal, socially conservative politicians — let’s be blunt and just say “racist populists.” There are plenty of voters who would like that mix, and Trump pretended to be their man; but he wasn’t, and neither is anyone else.
Understanding these empty quarters is, I’d argue, the key to understanding U.S. politics.
There is increasing angst in the circles of the wealthy about more frequent calls from prominent Democratic politicians to raise taxes on the richest Americans. It’s not just that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wants to tax wealth itself in excess of $50 million or that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) says the marginal tax rate on income in excess of $10 million should be 70 percent. It’s not simply that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) would like to roll back the estate tax so that it begins at $3.5 million. It’s that polls show that millions of Americans support hitting the wealthy in the wallet.
How could this have happened? Here’s a thought: Blame Donald Trump. Like no one else, Trump proves that the United States’ 40-year infatuation with tax cuts and trickle-down economics was a sham. Instead of trusting the wealthiest that the money would flow down, the dollars, like heat in an apartment, always went to the top.
So I just listened to Morning Joe debate whether to give Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio a “Symbolic” victory on his Vanity Project Penis Wall O’ Racism.
I imagine you can already tell my position on this revolting development, but just in case you can’t- I’m against it.
Bob Woodward, who has journeyed from crusading journalist to Access Suck Up Hack and Toady (Bernstein will hardly talk to him anymore), was vehement in his defense of “Centrist Compromise”.
And where does that leave us Bob? In a Banana Republic Dictatorship where an idea only supported by 25% of the most racist people (plenty of other racism to go around). It is negotiating with a Terrorist, a Gangster who is obviously guilty of Treason!
Where you gonna be Bob when Mueller proves Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio is nothing but an Agent of the Russian Government, a spy? Well we can’t indict him and throw him in jail because he has the support of the most deranged Minority of a Minority Party?
Thank goodness it’s not 1940 Bob because instead of-
I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.
At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation.
The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.
Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,
We shall fight on the seas and oceans,
We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
We shall fight on the beaches.
We shall fight on the landing grounds.
We shall fight in the fields and in the streets.
We shall fight in the hills.
We shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.
You are counseling this-
We, the German Führer and Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for our two countries and for Europe.
We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again. We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two countries, and we are determined to continue our efforts to remove possible sources of difference, and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe.
…
My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour.
I believe it is peace for our time…
Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.
It is hard for me to express my utter contempt (at least in terms fitting for publication, I’m much more forthcoming in private) for the Bob Woodward, Versailles Village D.C. consensus that represents a “Centrism” of the .01% who merely wish to be left alone with the results of their 40+ years of thievery and don’t want to be bothered with judgemental expressions of any but their most obsequious slaves.
I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hand of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.
NO WALL! Not a dime you racist bastards! I want you to LOSE, and more than that I want you to be SEEN TO LOSE, as a lesson for future generations that might be tempted to adopt Facist, Racist policies like yours.
Colonel Manton, I want you to tell your men to run away.
What?
Those words. “Run away.” I want you to be famous for those exact words. I want people to call you Colonel Runaway. I want children laughing outside your door, because they’ve found the house of Colonel Runaway. And when people come to you and ask if trying to get to me through the people I love!
(beat)
Is in any way a good idea, I want you to tell them your name. Look, I’m angry, that’s new. I’m really not sure what’s going to happen now.
The anger of a good man is not a problem. Good men have too many rules.
Good men don’t need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.
That was the Doctor. He’s much more diplomatic than I am. Churchill said this-
In this crisis I think I may be pardoned if I do not address the House at any length today, and I hope that any of my friends and colleagues or former colleagues who are affected by the political reconstruction will make all allowances for any lack of ceremony with which it has been necessary to act.
I say to the House as I said to ministers who have joined this government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering.
You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea, and air. War with all our might and with all the strength God has given us, and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.
You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs – Victory in spite of all terrors – Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.
Let that be realized. No survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge, the impulse of the ages, that mankind shall move forward toward his goal.
I take up my task in buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. I feel entitled at this juncture, at this time, to claim the aid of all and to say, “Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.”
He’s also much more diplomatic than I am.
The Republican Party and Republicanism must be crushed like a bug. Torn out root and branch. No compromise of weakness is acceptable. Squeemish Republicans with a ‘(D)’ squishes and the minuscule 4% who identify as ‘Socially Liberal but Economically Conservative’ may avert their eyes and make meally mouthed platitudes while the work is done, but done it must be.
La terreur n’est autre chose que la justice prompte, sévère, inflexible; elle est donc une émanation de la vertu ; elle est moins un principe particulier, qu’une conséquence du principe général de la démocratie, appliqué aux plus pressants besoins de la patrie.
Not the ground I would have chosen but strong none the less. If you can’t say stripping babies from their mother’s arms and throwing them into Concentration Camps to die is unacceptable what will you do?
Wait until they come for you?
Sie kamen, um die Kommunisten, und ich nicht sprechen, weil ich kein Kommunist war.
Dann kamen sie für die Gewerkschafter, Und ich sprach nicht heraus – weil ich nicht ein Gewerkschafter war.
Dann kamen sie für die Juden, und ich wollte nicht sprechen heraus – weil ich nicht ein Jude war.
Dann kamen für mich – und niemand mehr da ist, für Mich zu sprechen.
What did Lincoln say?
A house divided against itself can not stand. I believe this government can not endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
FDR plans to ‘pack’ the Supreme Court; Byron de la Beckwith convicted of killing civil rights leader Medgar Evers; The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour premieres; William S. Burroughs and Hank Aaron born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.
It is truly amazing how fast the wheels are coming off for Unindicted Co-consprirator Bottomless Pinocchio.
Oh that. Look, I could catch you up on the plot which is extremely complicated and involves about 10 love triangles as well as umm… magic you know so it requires a thorough suspension of disbelief. There’s also a Basic Cable level of Sex and Violence, Brakebills is not Hogwarts. What I really want to point out is how talented the Actors are, it’s not like Cop Rock where they break out in song every episode, only once in a while. They’ve also done a passable rendition of “One Day More” from Les Misérables.
But you probably want to know what’s causing the sparks coming off the bottom of the Radio Flyer.
Senate Republicans appear to be in a panic about President Trump’s threat to declare a national emergency to realize his unquenchable fantasy of a big, beautiful wall on the southern border. Republicans are reportedly worried that such a move could divide them, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has delivered that warning to Trump in private conversations.
Republicans have good reason to be deeply nervous. Here’s why: According to one of the country’s leading experts on national emergencies, it appears that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) can trigger a process that could require the GOP-controlled Senate to hold a vote on such a declaration by Trump — which would put Senate Republicans in a horrible political position.
Trump reiterated his threat to declare a national emergency in an interview with CBS News that aired over the weekend. “I don’t take anything off the table,” Trump said, adding in a typically mangled construction that he still retains the “alternative” of “national emergency.”
Trump does have the power to declare such an emergency under the post-Watergate National Emergencies Act, which also requires him to identify which other specific statute delegating emergency powers he’s invoking. Trump is expected to rely on one of several statutes that authorize military officials, in a presidentially declared emergency, to redirect funds for purposes that are either “essential to the national defense” or support “use of the armed forces.”
But Pelosi has a much more immediate way to challenge Trump’s declaration. Under the National Emergencies Act, or NEA, both chambers of Congress can pass a resolution terminating any presidentially declared national emergency.
Elizabeth Goitein, who has researched this topic extensively for the Brennan Center for Justice, tells me that if Pelosi exercises this option, it will ultimately require the Senate to vote on it in some form as well. The NEA stipulates that if one chamber (Pelosi’s House) passes such a resolution, which it easily could do, the other (McConnell’s Senate) must act on it within a very short time period — forcing GOP senators to choose whether to support it.
Alternatively, Goitein notes, the Senate could vote not to consider that resolution or change its rules to avoid such a vote. But in those scenarios, the Senate would, in effect, be voting to greenlight Trump’s emergency declaration.
The NEA lays out a timetable for this process, and by Goitein’s reading, it would all take place within the protracted period of barely longer than a month. “In short, there could be 36 days between introduction of the resolution in the House and a vote on the Senate floor,” Goitein told me, “but that vote would have to happen,” and once it did, one way or the other, it would put senators “on record.”
A Democratic leadership aide tells me the House might opt for this move if Trump takes the plunge. “The House will vigorously challenge any declaration that seeks an end run around Congress’s power of the purse,” the aide says.
Republicans themselves have let it be known that they fear this scenario. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), an adviser to McConnell, has said that a Senate vote on any Trump-declared national emergency would be inevitable, and McConnell has told Trump that Congress might have to act in such a fashion. Both of these appear to be references to a scenario like the one outlined above.
Both men have also said this would deeply divide Republicans. One unnamed Republican senator even told the Washington Examiner that Trump would suffer major defections in such a vote.
GOP senators would have to decide between going on record in favor of a presidential declaration of a national emergency for something that everyone knows is based on false pretenses, a move that would be opposed by two-thirds of the country, or opposing it and possibly forcing a Trump veto (which they then would have to decide whether to override), enraging Trump’s base.
You get ’em Nancy. Make their lives as difficult as possible.
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.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.
The structural problems we need to solve lie at the roots of American society.
Over the last month, we’ve learned just how much racism is too much to sustain a career in American politics.
It took almost 16 years for House Republicans to reprimand Steve King of Iowa for his frequent expressions of explicit racism, stripping him of his committee assignments. The catalyst? An interview with The New York Times in which he expressed sympathy with racist ideas. “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King said.
Compare that slow-moving response with the quick dismissal of Michael Ertel, the Republican secretary of state in Florida, who resigned the same day that photos of him in blackface were revealed to the public. Taken at a Halloween party in 2005, they show Ertel with a painted face and a costume that make clear he was mocking survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
The reaction after the discovery of a racist image on the medical school yearbook page of Ralph Northam, the governor of Virginia, has been almost as swift. As the world now knows, the photo, taken at a party in 1984, shows one person in blackface and another dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, both holding beers and gazing at the camera. Northam initially said he was in the photo, although he couldn’t say which figure he was. He later backtracked, claiming he wasn’t in it and vowing to finish his term. [..]
Put these examples together and you can begin to discern a standard: In American politics, lawmakers can get a pass for almost anything short of open allegiance to racist ideologies or the explicit use of racist imagery.
There is a logic to this dynamic, even as it produces absurd results, like forceful condemnations of racism from a Virginia Republican Party that fielded an unapologetic neo-Confederate for Senate just over three months ago or calls for Northam’s resignation from a Republican National Committee that otherwise stands firmly behind President Trump.
Corporate self-indulgence has become an enormous problem for workers and for the long-term strength of the economy.
From the mid-20th century until the 1970s, American corporations shared a belief that they had a duty not only to their shareholders but to their workers, their communities and the country that created the economic conditions and legal protections for them to thrive. It created an extremely prosperous America for working people and the broad middle of the country.
But over the past several decades, corporate boardrooms have become obsessed with maximizing only shareholder earnings to the detriment of workers and the long-term strength of their companies, helping to create the worst level of income inequality in decades.
One way in which this pervasive corporate ethos manifests itself is the explosion of stock buybacks. [..]
Between 2008 and 2017, 466 of the S&P 500 companies spent around $4 trillion on stock buybacks, equal to 53 percent of profits. Another 30 percent of corporate profits went to dividends. When more than 80 percent of corporate profits go to buybacks and dividends, there is reason to be concerned.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
World War II’s Yalta Conference; O.J. Simpson found liable for the murders of his ex-wife and her friend; Patty Hearst kidnapped; the Massachusetts gay marriage ruling; aviator Charles Lindbergh born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
Let’s get this out of the way first. There is no team in the NFL I despise more than the Patsies, not even the ‘Boys. So my rooting is entirely with the Scams despite the fact they stole the Super Bowl from the ‘Aints (who are at least tolerable) through bad officiating.
And the NFL as an Institution is nothing more than a Blackface Minstrel Show where the only real thing is the Traumatic Brain Injury Owners inflict on their Slaves.
This has become a secular holiday and a corrupt display of late stage capitalism through relentless marketing. Only the naked advertisements will hold my attention as I find Throwball in general intensely soporific (also Football, give me some Curling or Darts).
So close.
Anyway, this year’s controversy is whether Gladys Knight ought to be singing at all much less “Anacreon In Heaven“.
Once heard it can not be unheard. Just saying.
The headliner is Maroon 5. Maroon 5!!! Who are they again? Go back and watch House. Not even my best.
And all because of Kaepernick and his knee problem.
WE’RE STILL HERE! WE’RE STILL HERE! Obviously, Brady is referring to his aging, decrepit, cheating-ass squad’s progression to the big game. But, imagine you didn’t know anything about football, or who Tom Brady was, or anything like that. You would think that you were watching some square-jawed grifter throwing red meat to the hogs at an alt-right rally, screaming at the libs who thought Nancy Pelosi and her gender warriors were gonna keep DECENT AMERICAN FOLKS from BEING HERE.
Of course, even if you do know stuff about Brady you may still think he’s on his way to pursuing this line of grifting. He flashed a red MAGA hat, an accoutrement that is gaining more and more traction as a symbol of white nationalism in America, in his locker back in the primary days. He wasn’t the only one! Patriots’ Coach Bill Belichick wrote a goddamn letter to Trump right before the end of the campaign that basically amounted to an endorsement, that Trump then read on
stage. And Pats’ owner Robert Kraft is also his pal, and was even shouted out at Trump’s pre-Inauguration dinner in D.C. for his most deep-pocketed donors.
…
The people I am sitting here roasting for their support of Trump have tried to run the same playbook. Brady backed off a little when his wife clearly told him to, said that he didn’t actually have political opinions at all, that actually he was “a positive person,” and that Trump was just his friend he supported because he always supports his friends, even if he did think it would be cool if he won. I’m not actually with him, he’s just my friend is somehow even more unnerving in its way, because what kind of weirdo do you have to be to be friends with Donald Trump? Is he a fun guy to hang out with? Is Brady really so vacant that he hangs out with this doddering fool for access to golf courses? If Brady really does want to satisfy the Daniel Radcliffes of the world, wouldn’t he find it in his heart to distance himself from the president everyone hates? But he doesn’t, presumably because he sees nothing wrong with it, because his worldview lines up with that of our racist president.
Kraft insists he doesn’t agree with Trump’s rhetoric on Kaepernick, but it’s not as if he’s cast the man aside. Belichick won’t even deign to answer a question on that matter, because he is a robotic psychopath who only thinks and talks about football.
Look, it doesn’t matter if the Patriots like it or not, they are the official team of American White Nationalism, the MAGA Boys On the Field. You can’t implicitly or explicitly support Trump, who reads speeches written by Stephen Miller as a matter of course, play in a market whose sporting culture is renowned for its racism, have a decade-plus organizational obsession with undersized white receivers, and be called, no shit, the Patriots, without getting the vile Fox News Soup that poisoned half the country on your shirt. Try to put on a bib of distancing yourself, deflecting questions, telling everyone your wife told you to stop talking about it, that shit isn’t gonna work. You’re the MAGA Kid. It’s on you forever. It stalks and haunts you.
When you root for the Patriots, you are associating yourself with a virulent and revolting strain of politics that seeks to Make America Great Again—which is to say, white, European, English-speaking. And look, I understand if you’ve been rooting for Boston teams your whole life. Fandom is a hard drug to quit. But please, look at yourself, look at who these guys put out for, and reconsider. Think about if you would want to find yourself in a crowd of sweaty, white men chanting WE’RE STILL HERE while a Trump supporter egged you on. Are you one-hundred percent sure you’re comfortable with that?
Jews will not replace us? Bueller? Bueller?
It is hard to live in Stars Hollow sometimes. Die hard Patsies no matter how ill treated they are or what it says about them they ignore the cheating and racism.
Not that the Patsies are alone in their guilt, it is in fact Throwball as a whole and the Scams are as complicit as everyone else.
Yet you are mesmerized by the train wreck. Even my Therapist is a Packers fan.
It’s that time of year again where we learn that all 93 puppies from over 51 shelters and including 3 Special Needs dogs have already been adopted.
Sorry.
Some people are under the impression I don’t like dogs which is not at all true. Most of them like me too though there is this one, Luna, that my activist brother occasionally has to look after that barks every time she sees me.
She has abandonment issues due to mistreatment and my lifestyle, which consists mostly of cursing at the computer and wandering to the refrigerator at odd intervals for food, means I’m only available intermittently for emotional bonding and that’s what dogs want, all the time.
Take your neediest girlfriend ever, triple it, and that’s what Dogs are like. Yeah they’re also a pain in the ass in other ways, you have to walk them for one, but that excited door bouncing is not just, “I need to pee.” Dogs genuinely like their humans and miss you when you’re away.
And if that’s the kind of experience you’re looking for (along with the knowledge they’ll be dead in 15 years despite your best efforts and all your money) then you should have one. Emily has deeply regretted it ever since her last one died, yet I can’t persuade her to just get another one. Our pets tend to find us, we don’t go looking for them.
We also go for hyper imaginative names like “Terry” for a Terrier and “Dally” for a Dalmatian. Yep, we have a lot of fun in Stars Hollow but to make up for it the Winters are long, dark, and cold. Now walk that damn dog before they pee on the carpet.
In truth we set up a dog run which is what you do when you don’t want to strap a Taser to your dog’s neck and opt for the more civilized solution of wrapping them in chains. It’s still there, vacant, and I can never mow that part of the lawn without checking my shoes.
I could certainly make Luna love me, or at least obey me, because I know all the Caesar Milan tricks, but the question is how committed am I to that relationship? She’s not my dog, or even my brother’s, simply a stranger who sleeps over every so often.
Perhaps she senses that and it’s the source of her discontent.
The other things you should know about dogs is they like to play, practically all the time unless they’re sleeping in which case they make good footrests and bed warmers if you can stand the hair and dander. They can do amusing stuff like chase non-existent Tennis Balls but I think that a cruel trick. You can dress them in costumes and they don’t seem to mind, unlike Cats where there is always this seething resentment. Of course Cats pretty much resent everything (not unlike a teenager) which is why I like them. You don’t have to walk them either which is bonus.
Alas I am completely pet free at the moment but when I consider my sketchy attention to details perhaps it is for the best.
Puppy Bowl will repeat in a continuous loop on Animal Planet until about 6 am tomorrow and it was filmed 3 months ago. Sorry (not sorry) to ruin your illusions.
