Somebody actually significant and principled came to the Capitol today pic.twitter.com/q3B5xtONLW
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) June 23, 2015
Malala Takes Her Message To #Congress: 'We Must Invest In #BooksNotBullets http://t.co/DJhE4TgfhL pic.twitter.com/LmXJ0bOcCS
— Malala Fund (@MalalaFund) June 23, 2015
And then, from the Washington Post:
In the wake of the Charleston shooting, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) are considering ways to renew their failed push to pass meaningful gun-control legislation…
Accepting his award on Tuesday night, a visibly emotional Toomey said that despite some of the political fallout from his conservative base, he’d “do it again in a heartbeat.” He said he does have two regrets, however. One, that the 2013 bill didn’t pass. And, “that it took me so long before I raised my voice on this very important issue,” he said…
And (h/t commentor LAMH36), “Congressional Democrats to introduce new Voting Rights Act fix“:
Congressional Democrats are expected to unveil new legislation this week, possibly as soon as Wednesday, that if passed would restore the requirement for federal approval for voting procedure changes in some states, a provision of the Voting Rights Act struck down by the Supreme Court two years ago.
The legislation, titled “The Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015,” would force any state that has had 15 or more voting rights violations in the last 25 years to be subject to federal preclearance for any change in voting procedure or law…
The bill, an ambitious piece of legislation, is a departure from the tactics employed last year during efforts to restore the preclearence provision. Legislation introduced last year would have subjected only four states to preclearence. In an attempt to attract bipartisan support, sponsors ended up losing the backing of some civil rights groups that did not believe that it went far enough.
“The previous bill we did in a way to try and get bipartisan support—which we did,” Leahy told The Nation’s Ari Berman, who first reported that the new bill will be introduced this week. “We had the Republican Majority Leader of the House [Eric Cantor] promise us that if we kept it like that it would come up for a vote. It never did. We made compromises to get [Republican] support and they didn’t keep their word. So this time I decided to listen to the voters who had their right to vote blocked and they asked for strong legislation that fully restores the protections of the VRA.”…
************
Apart from that, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Betty Cracker
Books, not bullets. Damn right. I wonder what chance the retooled VRA has of passage?
In other (infuriating) news, it turns out that taxpayers subsidize the Council of Conservative Citizens puke funnel that helped radicalize the domestic terrorist in Charleston:
After we get rid of the rebel flag, perhaps we can see about detaching hate groups like the CCC from the gubmint teat.
raven
@Betty Cracker: I know, let’s use a keywords to scan records and find these groups!
Mike J
@Betty Cracker: c4s are PACS and lobbying groups, as opposed to c3s which are your general do-gooder type charities. Donations to c4s aren’t deductible for the giver like donations to c3s are.
It would be somewhat problematic to deny a lobbying group the same rights other lobbying groups get because of the content of their speech, no matter how abhorrent it is.
Mustang Bobby
I’ve been hearing people bemoaning the removal of the Confederate flag as an attack on their “heritage.” Really? From 1789 to 1861 people in the South were Americans. The Confederacy lasted about as long as the Carter administration and was unrecognized by any other nation.
Why don’t they just come out and say, “My ancestors subjugated and terrorized a whole segment of our population for fun and profit, and they would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn’t for those meddling Yankees.”
Betty Cracker
@Mike J: Why should blatantly political groups of any stripe be tax exempt?
Patricia Kayden
@Betty Cracker: I agree with your last sentence but wonder if the government would run into the same problem that it did when Tea Bagger groups were rightfully targeted by the IRS. But of course no hate group should be tax exempt. Democrats in Congress should be jumping all over this issue.
Mustang Bobby
@Betty Cracker: Under the IRS rules, a 501 (c) 4 group must: “…operate primarily to further the common good and general welfare of the people of the community (such as by bringing about civic betterment and social improvements).” Clearly they think that ridding the world of black people will bring about civic betterment and social improvements.
ETA: My antique auto club is under the 501 (c) 4 rules as a hobby club, open to the public, so I guess the Council of Conservative Citizens sees burning a cross as a hobby event.
Schlemazel
@Mustang Bobby:
The Confederate flag should not come down because it is offensive to African Americans. The Confederate flag should come down because it is embarrassing to all Americans. The embarrassment is not limited to the flag, itself. The fact that it still flies, that we must debate its meaning in 2015, reflects an incredible ignorance. A century and a half after Lincoln was killed, after 750,000 of our ancestors died, too many Americans aren’t quite sure why.
Mustang Bobby
@Schlemazel: Exactly.
Mike J
@Betty Cracker:
good luck getting that one passed.
Schlemazel
@Patricia Kayden:
Remember it was not just bagger groups that were targeted by the IRS, it was political groups of all flavors. The fact that more liberal groups got scrutinized than conservative ones was lost in the media noise. The Congressclown leading the investigation asked the IRS to ONLY supply a list of bagger groups that were looked at.
Like getting wingnut hate groups removed from the list of terrorist groups it was a big win for the GOP
Patricia Kayden
@Schlemazel: Agreed, but unfortunately as you point out, the media played along with Conservative claims that the IRS targeted T’Bagger groups for special scrutiny and it became a “scandal”. I assume that no T’Bagger groups even lost their tax exempt status after all the brouhaha died down, which is pretty sad.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mike J:
“Tax free” is not a right Mike, it is a privilege granted by the gov’t to those who meet certain criteria. You are correct about the difficulty of policing such things, but nobody has a right to a government subsidy.
BillinGlendaleCA
Hmmm, Bill Kristol up next on Morning Hoe, off goes the TV.
Mike J
@OzarkHillbilly: I never said anyone had a right to it. I did say that you can’t use content based rules to determine who gets them.
Mustang Bobby
@BillinGlendaleCA: I would rather dive head-first into my own vomit than watch him.
Elizabelle
@BillinGlendaleCA: Morning Joe makes it so hard to watch them. Tuned in and heard Bernie Sanders will be interviewed today. Awwright!
But: you had Joe on whining that you could find swastika merchandise on ebay, but not the confederate flag. Then he said he was joking.
Then segment on Bobby Jindal’s prospects. (Please.) Then Bill Kristol: TV’s on mute.
That’s over. Now we have some author on saying Obama has made us less safe strategically. Mute again.
Wondering if I should hang around in event Bernie’s ever on, because it would involve putting up with Joe. And his fees fees seem to be hurt today.
Morning Joe is more repellant than my day with Fox News.
Elizabelle
@Mustang Bobby: At least it would be yours!
Seems to be an awful show today. And Joe is in a world of butthurt, it would seem.
But would like to see how Bernie Sanders handles them …
Mike J
@Elizabelle:
You can’t really dust for vomit.
satby
@Schlemazel: This. I’ve been calling it the “flag of treason” since LGM started using the term “the War of Treason in Defense of Slavery” as their term for the Civil war. It’s ridiculous that the historical revisionism was allowed to get that far, and that everyone understands exactly what someone displaying that rag means, but we’ve mostly been lax in confronting it.
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle: Whenever I read comments like yours, I’m so grateful that I gave up Morning Joe long ago. Don’t miss it at all. Now I listen to Steve Harvey and Stephanie Miller in the mornings, which is a much better way to start my days. Scarborough didn’t seem so bad when he first started on MSNBC. I even used to watch his show when it was on during primetime and it was known as “Scarborough Country”.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mike J: To quote you:
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Does the new Voting Rights Act legislation apply to all 50 States? It’s still more needed in the old Confederacy but Scott Walker and other republican governors North of the Mason Dixon line have been trying very hard to expand the voting rights restrictions of the old Confederacy nationwide, so I’d say something that covers all 50 States is necessary at this point. Also…I think it makes it easier to sell if all States are treated equally – there’s no limit to the amount of butthurt Dixie is capable of if they feel like they’re being singled out, and their reps will use that as an excuse to vote against.
Germy Shoemangler
BillinGlendaleCA
@Patricia Kayden: I remember when Stephanie’s dad made AMEX commercials, “Do you know who I am?”.
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden: Good call, Patricia. I cannot even find a listing to say what time the Sanders interview will be.
It’s an awful show.
OT: last night was beautiful, after the storm passed. Bright golden yellow light — brilliant and almost eerie, with green tinge to the clouds at sunset. My neighbors were out, saying it was like being in a movie dream sequence. It was like a color filter was in use.
Wish I’d grabbed my camera! Stayed out, walking around for an hour or two. Air was so fresh. Lots of leaves and tree branches down. Violent storm.
Today is forecast to be gorgeous too.
Elizabelle
@BillinGlendaleCA: Remind me again who Stephanie’s dad is? Part of a comedy duo? Don’t recall …. Bob and Ed?
Mike J
@OzarkHillbilly: The law that creates the 501c4 designation extends rights to groups that meet the standard for that designation. That standard can’t be based on what they have to say.
Germy Shoemangler
@Germy Shoemangler: whoops, sorry. I now see that Coulter’s comments were highlighted in the thread below.
Disregard.
(She should be disregarded)
Betty Cracker
@Mike J: According to the IRS, hate groups CAN be stripped of tax exempt status. At least, that’s what the linked article claims.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: Barry Goldwater’s running mate in 1964.
Elizabelle
@BillinGlendaleCA: Indeed.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mike J:
There you go again, calling a privilege a “right”. You seem to have difficulty understanding what a “right” is. You find Rights in the constitution, not in laws passed by Congress. Laws can be repealed by a simple majority vote and the signing of a President. A “right” can only be taken away by the extremely laborious process of amending the Constitution.
I don’t mean to be pedantic, but there is a BIG difference.
Baud
I wonder how this Confederate flag thing will play out for the GOP long term. What value do they provide to the bulk of their voters other than a vigorous defense of racial privilege? I could see a George Wallace type run by somebody. Cruz, maybe?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: Congressman William Miller of New York.
Baud
Alright, who’s the mole who leaked our game plan to Rush and Newsmax?
OzarkHillbilly
Freddie Gray suffered a “high-energy injury” while riding in a Baltimore police van and the failure of officers to follow procedures makes the death a homicide, according to an autopsy report obtained by the Baltimore Sun.
Shit? Meet fan.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Who ever did that should be subjected to 24 hours of Rush on video Clockwork Orange style.
NotMax
@Baud
Aw, Rush done gone and spoiled the surprise.
He’s such a killjoy.
Patricia Kayden
@Germy Shoemangler: She’s “colored” so still a foreigner to folks like Coulter. Look how they hounded President Obama about his birth certificate to the point that many Republicans to this day still believe he was born in Kenya.
Kay
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
They were singled out because of past performance and because voting is unique. The potential harm has to be prevented because it can’t be remedied after tha fact. “An” election is a one-shot deal. The harm compounds too, because if political power is gained thru suppressing votes the group that were suppressed then don’t have the means to address the harm- they don’t have elected representatives.
It isn’t theoretical, either. That’s exactly what happened in the south. They couldn’t vote which then made it impossible to change the laws that made it impossible for them to vote. That’s why “preclearance” for bad actors. The south earned it.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: @NotMax:
This is the worst thing to happen since the gay agenda was leaked.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Dammit! With Rush on the case we are doomed! Dooooooooomed I say.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: Did Rush say why the Left would go after the American flag? What problem would the majority of liberals have with it? That’s a weird claim to make, even for someone as wacky as Rush.
The bitterness of losing the Confederate flag battle must be crushing him. I cannot wait for the SCOTUS decision on same sex marriage. We’re going to be awash in Conservative tears, possibly for years to come.
WereBear
Unlike Mustang Bobby’s pool, that’s a body of water I’ll gladly splash in.
RSA
Not entirely on-topic, but via an acquaintance on Facebook I saw this article about the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Sample quote:
It’s good to know that some of your political opponents are extraordinarily stupid.
Elizabelle
@BillinGlendaleCA: William Miller’s obit in the NYTimes, from June 1983. Interesting guy. It mentions the Amex commercial.
[Born 1914 in Lockport, NY, upstate and not far from Niagara Falls. High school debater, U Notre Dame, law school and law practice but went into the army as a private in WW2, later to OCS …]
[Miller had endorsed Nixon in 1960, when Rockefeller was interested in the nomination.]
FWIW, William Miller himself was Catholic. Interesting, in light of JFK. Doubt he pummeled the president over religion.
Miller left politics and returned to his law firm. Wife Stephanie, 1 son, 3 daughters, including Stephanie C. Miller of Los Angeles.
You can see where debating with her father would sharpen a young person’s skills.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden:
To be fair, if you dig enough, you’ll find some lefty type who opposes the U.S. flag. Just like the New Black Panthers are a real group.
Mike J
@Betty Cracker: National Alliance was a 501(c)3, not a 4. They weren’t stripped of their status because they were a hate group (and clearly, they were a hate group) but because their newsletter didn’t meet the standard of being “educational” that was required for them under 501(c)3. Even then, the court had to tread lightly to develop a test that was content neutral.
As a 501(c)4, this newer batch of racists don’t need to be educational. They’re a “social welfare” organization, and the even the IRS isn’t very clear on what that means:
Any test for whether they are a legit social welfare org would have to be content neutral, even when their idea of “benefit to the community” is horrible to all sane people.
Kay
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
No one else complains about it outside the south. Chicago had a bad reputation for screwing with rules that dictate having different languages on ballots in areas where there are voters who use those languages. So it was gaming by one earlier immigrant group that had political power to exclude a later immigrant group in wards or neighborhoods. It was european immigrants versus (later) Asian immigrants. They get watched. They haven’t made it a national whine fest. They behaved badly so they must be monitored. Actions have consequences.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
I think these new “social welfare” groups have done more damage than Citizens United.
debbie
@Mustang Bobby:
There wouldn’t be any Southern “heritage” without slavery, period. The South — those who long to look back — should take a lesson from Germany about moving on and doing better.
debbie
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Wish I had cable so I could watch him twist himself into pretzels justifying his support of the Confederacy. The venality of this man knows no bounds.
Baud
Jindal is announcing today!
debbie
@Baud:
In BeckWorld, that would be Michelle Obama.
NotMax
@debbie
Breakneck pace ahead now to reconstruction.
Of flagpoles.
NotMax
@Baud
The world will let out a collective “Meh.”
Betty Cracker
@Mike J: I’m just pointing out that the IRS official quoted in the article seems to take a different view regarding the untouchability of the CCC. I’m not a lawyer or tax expert, so I don’t know. But granting tax exempt status to blatantly political organizations — let alone hate groups with a political agenda — fails the common sense test, IMO.
Baud
@NotMax:
I think that’s his campaign slogan.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
Tell me about it. I look out my window and I see future Christmas trees everywhere.
Elizabelle
@Mike J:
@debbie:
Is there a case for these “social welfare” groups? Perhaps they should all lose their tax exemption, wherever they fall on the political or cultural spectrum.
WereBear
@Baud: His bumper sticker would say:
Bobby…
MomSense
@Elizabelle:
The law concerning 501c4 groups is very strict but unfortunately the rule is not. The significance of rule making is under appreciated.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Don’t forget that trying to figure out what all these groups were up to is what got the IRS into trouble.
ETA: The c4s almost seem like they were created for abuse. Deductions to them aren’t tax deductible (like they are for legitmate c3s), so there’s no benefit to the donor, other than political influence.
Elizabelle
@debbie: Joe Scarborough is in awful form today.
He was grousing for a while about whether we would end up going back and removing statues of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington too. They owned slaves.
Later, Bill Kristol was starting some comment about liberals erasing history and threw in a “George Orwell” no less — and then the mute button hit and blessed relief.
Show has been toilet-strength obfuscation today. Poor Jonathan Capehart, wandering around in the wreckage. And a few black South Carolina politicians. One floated the idea Gov. Haley could ask the flag of treason be pulled down for repairs (“it’s looking a little worn”) while State Senator Pinckney’s body lies in rest. Taking the flag down for repairs in within the governor’s purview.
OTOH, maybe we should be happy that Joe’s in such bad spirits.
Now he’s back looking for swastikas for sale on ebay. Fuck him.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Absolutely. More please.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: What? He’s a daddy again?
NotMax
@WereBear
A step up from one proclaiming “BJ!”
debbie
@Elizabelle:
I used to watch the Fox Sunday news show and Kristol always pissed me off — more than George Will and Peggy Noonan combined. Kristol’s smugness always turned me into a momentary anti-Semitic Jew. I’m better off not seeing him, I know.
Elizabelle
@debbie: We all are better off without William Kristol. Shame on those who drag him on for “balance.” Shame.
WereBear
@Elizabelle: Who isn’t better off without Bill “Always Wrong” Kristol? No one uses him for his true purpose; knowing what NOT to do.
Gene108
@Elizabelle:
Sawstika’s can be found for sale in many parts of the world. You may pay international shipping and handling charges, but they are out there.
It is an ancient symbol and many parts of the world really have never had an issue with Nazi’s, so there’s no negative connotation there.
Maybe some folks, well versed in international history realize some guy half way around the world used it on his flag 80 years ago and did bad things, but otherwise no one has a bad view of the symbol.
Elizabelle
Bernie Sanders is up in a few. They’re running out of runway.
They’ve spent too much time discussing Joe’s butthurt and GOP candidates (Jindal!!) today. Maybe it’s every day, though. Don’t watch MoJoe, and this episode reminds me why.
Elizabelle
Maybe it’s just Bernie’s schedule, but find it interesting he’s on so late in the segment. Means they can’t spend time discussing …
Bernie’s on!
debbie
@Gene108:
And yet, what can explain how some people (Kristol) get so upset over the Swastika even as they justify the Stars and Bars?
Gene108
@Elizabelle:
I cannot stand watching those shows in the morning. I do not know how people do it.
I would be in a terrible mood all day.
Elizabelle
Bernie points out he’s made combating big money his life’s work, in politics, big pharma, wall street, military …. sets him apart from HRC.
Elizabelle
@Gene108: Fleeing as soon as show is over. And not watching again tomorrow. You are correct.
Elizabelle
Barnicle asks about NRA and gun topics:
“I come from a state that has virtually no gun control.” Says his NRA rating is probably D-. Voted against assault weapons and for background checks.
Incorrect to say that I do not have strong positions on gun control. And that he will be discussing it further.
Elizabelle
Dutiful interview. No news. TV’s off.
Gene108
@debbie:
What is more ironic, for a lack of a better word, is the white supremacists who run around with Confedreate Flags are often violently anti-Semitic.
Does Kristol realize he’s sticking up for a symbol used by people, who firmly believe Hitler was right for “taking the Jews to task” for “stabbing Germany in the back” during WW1 and the Jews own the global banking system, as well as use the blacks to consolidate their power over media, banking, academia, etc. in order to subvert the ideas of good Christian Americans?
Hell, Kristol’s old enough to know there were jobs the East Coast upper class WASP’s would not let Jews do or owned companies that would not employ Jews.
He is pandering to an audience that does not care for him at all.
I do not get it, other than to be contrarian to get attention.
Elizabelle
LOL. NY Times cannot count. Or type. Or proofread. Or something. Obit of James Horner:
At bottom of page:
link: http://nyti.ms/1SIrhRZ
Baud
@Elizabelle:
To be fair, six is almost never four.
ThresherK
Reading CJR’s article Can Politico rise again? and wondering, “Again?”
Sample (and I can’t tell if this is written seriously):
I read CJR because Politico sucks, and I want CJR to acknowledge that they understand that, amidst their written-for-journos articles about new ways to remain vital, engage readers, and not fall into the same tiger trap continually, Politico sucks.
Baud
@ThresherK:
Interesting. I hadn’t heard that Politico was in trouble.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Politico and Morning Joe in a bad way, on the same day. Sounds like win to me!
bemused
People like Haley and many others say the flag should come down because it taints their true southern heritage. Yet they really can’t tell the world why they are so proud of their southern heritage without the reeking cloud of racism permeating their doctrine. If they have talked about the positive attributes of their southern heritage, I must have missed it.
A huge culture factor is that they have always deeply resented northerners or anyone outside the south telling them what to do or believe or how behave. To be fair, the “you’re not the boss of me” attitude can be found everywhere in this country. I’ve heard plenty of that from people in blue state MN.
NotMax
Just FYI.
If memory serves, this is the New Jersey flag firm at which G.H.W. Bush held the photo op he afterwards described as a step too far.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: Agreed. That’s why I made sure to say “most Liberals”. There are extreme folks on the Left who probably hate America and hate its flag. Rush should have to explain why he thinks the rank and file Leftwingers would hate the American flag to the same degree that they hate the Confederate flag. He’s just being bitter.
Geeno
@BillinGlendaleCA: So he WAS sort of part of a comedy duo.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gene108:
Classic Stockholm Syndrome.
NotMax
Bad link in #88. (Typing at 3 a.m.)
Fixed.
debbie
@Gene108:
Adding to that irony is the fact that American Jews were early supporters of civil rights in the 1960s. Not so much today, apparently.
ThresherK
@debbie: “Kristol’s smugness always turned me into a momentary anti-Semitic Jew.”
Did not know his creed. So, for reasons which have nothing to do with his religion, I hate a Jewish person.
I can add that to my similar loathing of Charles Krauthammer, who has earned my enmity in a way no other wheelchair-bound person ever has. All while he was sitting behind a desk.
(I’ve been a big fan of Digby’s writing before she admitted to being a woman. With me, it really is about the content.)
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: The hilarious part is that 6 is not 5 either which was the original # cited.
debbie
@ThresherK:
More like it’s a case of witnessing him totally disregard the compassion which is part of the religion.
Betty Cracker
@debbie: Are you suggesting that Kristol is representative of American Jews’ political leanings? If so, I disagree.
Elizabelle
@debbie: That’s true. One of Dylann Roof’s complaints about Jews was they agitated blacks.
It’s in his — well, cribbed from the CCC’s — manifesto.
Patricia Kayden
@debbie: I’m not sure that I would say that because Bill Kristol is a rightwing Jew that means that most Jews do not support civil rights. Remember that most Jews still vote for Democratic Presidential candidates. I do not believe that Kristol is representative of Jewish voters at all.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jewvote.html
Frankensteinbeck
@Germy Shoemangler:
By our standards. By technical legal dictionary standards. However, white conservatives believe that in every real and moral sense they are natives. They are ‘Americans’ and this is their land. They absolutely believe this. Haley’s parents are non-white immigrants, thus she is an immigrant. This generation, last generation, six generations ago – it’s moot. She comes from immigrant stock, not true American stock, by their definition. They argue frequently and in public that merely being born in America shouldn’t make you a citizen.
@Patricia Kayden:
Not wacky at all, or even new. They believe we hate America. They say it all the time. They believe whites are America. They know they can’t say that out loud, but if you look at how they use the word ‘Unamerican’ it’s quite clear. If you define America that way, going from taking down the Confederate flag to taking down the American flag is not a big stretch. Somebody burned the American flag in the 80s, so they already have it in their heads that liberals hate the American flag. And they’re not entirely wrong that we hate everything they think is America.
@Gene108:
Moot. He knows he’s white and he’s safe. Jews are not going to be major targets anytime soon, and nobody he knows does more than tell an occasional Jew joke he probably finds funny himself. He’s free to grind blacks into the dirt without fear of ever suffering the same.
Elizabelle
@debbie: Obviously Kristol is a monster and an outlier.
Re Civil rights: talking about that in the US, or maybe it’s a comment on how Israelis treat the Palestinians?
WereBear
@Patricia Kayden: True. I would consider Kristol a token if it were not for the fact that his minority status is not immediately apparent.
So he’s just a sellout.
NotMax
As it is an Open Thread –
Patricia Kayden
@Frankensteinbeck: “Somebody burned the American flag in the 80s, so they already have it in their heads that liberals hate the American flag.”
Which is ironic since Roof is photographed burning the American flag and he’s far from a Lefty.
Elizabelle
OK. Per LA Times, James Horner won SIX Grammys and 2 Oscars. RIP. Gone too soon. Ironically, one of his last unreleased projects is National Geographic’s “Living in the Age of Airplanes.” Narrated by Harrison Ford.
Frankensteinbeck
@Patricia Kayden:
Yeah, but they don’t give a damn about facts. They’ve cherry picked a couple that support their prejudices, and will ignore any others you offer as if you were spouting gibberish. It’s rather like their treatment of the Bible, and I’m sure those two facts are connected.
debbie
@Betty Cracker: @Patricia Kayden: @Elizabelle:
No, Kristol’s not representative, but those sharing his views are far more numerous than they were back in the 1960s. And they’re far more vocal.
WereBear
@Frankensteinbeck: It is a theory of my own (as far as I know) that leisure and technology have given art to the people in a much greater measure than in previous millenia, and our imagination powers have grown as a result.
But the dystopian twist is how easy it makes it for people like our modern conservatives — to build a mutual dream world, and then insist upon living in it.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
No, I’m talking about American Jews, then vs. now. I also have a feeling that any animus being expressed in Israel is at partially the result of the number of East Coasters who emigrated to Israel as settlers.
NotMax
@WereBear
A major drawback to castles in the sky as a residence is that stepping outside tends to be be injurious, even fatal.
rikyrah
EVIL ASS MUTHAPHUCKA
……………….
SEE IT: South Carolina pol says Charleston shooting victims ‘waited their turn to be shot’
BY Jason Molinet
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, June 24, 2015, 3:02 AM
A South Carolina politician asked about the Confederate flag flying outside the statehouse instead took aim at the victims of last week’s church massacre.
State Rep. Bill Chumley appeared to insist the nine black victims gunned down by 21-year-old mass murder suspect Dylann Storm Roof inside Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston on June 17 could have put up more of a fight.
“These people sit in there and waited their turn to be shot,” Chumley told CNN reporter Drew Griffin on Tuesday.
“That’s sad…that somebody in there with the means of self-defense could have stopped this. And we’d have less funerals than we’re having,” Chumley continued.
“Why didn’t somebody just do something?” he asked. “You got one skinny person shooting a gun. We need to do what we can.”
Griffin, flabbergasted, interrupted the veteran politician
EVIL ASS MUTHAPHUCKA
……………….
SEE IT: South Carolina pol says Charleston shooting victims ‘waited their turn to be shot’
BY Jason Molinet
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, June 24, 2015, 3:02 AM
A South Carolina politician asked about the Confederate flag flying outside the statehouse instead took aim at the victims of last week’s church massacre.
State Rep. Bill Chumley appeared to insist the nine black victims gunned down by 21-year-old mass murder suspect Dylann Storm Roof inside Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston on June 17 could have put up more of a fight.
“These people sit in there and waited their turn to be shot,” Chumley told CNN reporter Drew Griffin on Tuesday.
“That’s sad…that somebody in there with the means of self-defense could have stopped this. And we’d have less funerals than we’re having,” Chumley continued.
“Why didn’t somebody just do something?” he asked. “You got one skinny person shooting a gun. We need to do what we can.”
Griffin, flabbergasted, interrupted the veteran politician
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pol-charleston-victims-waited-turn-shot-article-1.2268962
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pol-charleston-victims-waited-turn-shot-article-1.2268962
Shana
@Elizabelle: Yeah for today’s forecast! My hot flashes appreciate the low humidity. I may actually have the energy to clear the yard of branches that fell last night, and Hubby got off on his rescheduled flight this morning after last night’s was cancelled.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Wow, talk about victim blaming!
JPL
@rikyrah: wow
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear:
I don’t mind their wanting to live in it, my problem is their insistence that I live in it too.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
………………..
Jim Webb Is the Only Presidential Hopeful Who Won’t Comment on the Confederate Flag Controversy
The former Virginia senator has defended the Confederate Army in the past.
—By Max J. Rosenthal and Tim Murphy
| Tue Jun. 23, 2015 6:46 PM EDT
By now, every 2016 presidential contender from both parties—those announced, those undeclared—has weighed in on the Confederate flag controversy that erupted after last week’s mass shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, except for one: Democrat Jim Webb.
A former senator from Virginia, Webb has defended the Confederate Army and the rebel flag in the past. But on Monday, when contacted by the Washington Times,he declined to comment on the ongoing controversy over whether the Confederate banner should continue to fly on the grounds of the state Capitol in South Carolina. On Tuesday, Webb’s spokesman, Craig Crawford, told Mother Jones in an email that Webb “just has not been on the habit of commenting on news of the day. He’s not an official candidate.” Webb has previously said he plans to make an official announcement on running for president by the end of June.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/06/jim-webb-confederate-flag-south-carolina
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: I hope statements like this make Chumley unelectable in the future. Some of his constituents who may have chosen not to vote previously should turn out and turn him out of office.
Wonder if that could be another silver lining from this tragedy. Get the bad guys on the ropes. Do it for Senator Pinckney and his prayer circle.
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
I think the real animus is based on the anti-war flag burning of the 1960s.
rikyrah
Malala is an inspiration.
WereBear
@NotMax: Like they say in real estate, “Location, location, location.” :)
WereBear
@rikyrah: I guess he showed us who he was.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle: Now he’s back looking for swastikas for sale on ebay. Fuck him.
He should be looking for swasitkas flying from government buildings in Germany. I’m guessing he won’t find them. I wonder if even members of the Valkyrie plot (Rommel, I believe?) have public memorials?
Even making allowances for the fact that he’s Bill Kristol, Wrong-Way’s apparent attachment to the “cause” is fucking weird.
Shana
@Betty Cracker: I agree. Bill Kristol is, unfortunately, a member of my synagogue, as is Elliot Abrams of Iran-Contra fame. While we never get politics from our pulpit the vast majority of our congregants are, like the vast majority of Jews in America, liberal and Democratic.
Thankfully, neither of them show up for services very often. Hubby goes every week we’re in town so he knows.
Frankensteinbeck
@debbie:
I think it may depend on age. One Hell of a lot of conservatives are stuck in the 80s, obsessed with welfare queens, desperate to get Ronald Reagan back, trying to revive the Cold War, and scared that they’ll be turned gay. That flag burning was a major event, the perfect kind of conservative major event where you don’t remember the circumstances, just that there was an outcry about liberals burning the American flag. Conservatives old enough to remember Vietnam may still hold that grudge, but I think most of them now are just waiting for it to be Morning In America again.
debbie
Glenn Beck’s outdone himself today. He started off predicting the end of the United States would begin when the Supreme Court ruled for gay marriage. He then stated he was considering suing the Miami Herald for this article:
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article25360141.html
Not two minutes later, he launched into an attack on Obama because of his association with Valerie Jarrett, whose parents had FBI files showing they were “hardcore Communists” (no mention of J Edgar Hoover’s witch hunts).
Now he’s defending Hillary Clinton’s “all lives matter” statement.
I’m dizzy from all the pivots.
Kathleen
@Patricia Kayden: Well, in all fairness, as Chuck Todd would say, it’s not their job to report that.
debbie
@Frankensteinbeck:
You’re right. Thanks.
Germy Shoemangler
I remember watching Kristol on one of the morning talk shows some years back. I wasn’t really familiar with him back then.
The discussion turned to Iran. The question was “what do we do about Iran?” There was some talk back and forth with the panel. Then someone turned to Kristol and asked “Should we bomb Iran?”
What happened next made me feel weird about him. His reaction to the question was “Oooh, that’d be great.” He literally cooed his answer, like a child being asked if he wanted to go to the ice cream parlor. His face took on a blissful expression and he hunched up his shoulders ever so slightly.
It was an extremely brief moment. I wish I had a clip of it. I remember thinking “WTF? Who is this guy?”
He was talking about bombing a country. Dropping bombs on a country. Terrified civilians, terrified women and children.
At that point I understood that it was an intellectual exercise for him. There was no consideration of the reality of what he was saying.
A few years later we were watching Rick Steves Europe. Rick was in Iran, talking to college students in the street. They were so nice and smart and beautiful; young ladies and men. Then I remembered Kristol, and felt fresh horror at how he’d behaved.
These people are sociopaths. Why are they on my tv?
rikyrah
Bryan Stevenson on Charleston and Our Real Problem with Race
Bryan Stevenson has spent most of his career challenging bias against minorities and the poor in the criminal justice system. He is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, based in Montgomery, Ala., an advocacy group that opposes mass incarceration and racial injustice. Stevenson is a member of The Marshall Project’s advisory board. He spoke with Corey Johnson. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
CJ: When you saw the news about the Charleston shootings, what were your thoughts?BS: Anytime I hear news of this kind of extreme violence targeting innocent people, I think immediately about the ready access to guns that so many people in this country have, and I mourn our nation’s failure to act more responsibly on limiting access to these weapons. I think it was pretty clear early on that a young white man going into a historic black church and slaughtering people in this way couldn’t be understood outside the context of our racial history of violence and terror directed at black people. And so, my thoughts about our failure to deal more effectively with that history were also right on the surface. And then, when more information came about the racially motivated character of this assault, it just confirmed all of my fears about what our failure to deal more honestly with our history of racial injustice, where that has left us.
CJ: Why do you think we keep failing on these fronts?
BS: I actually think we’ve never really tried to succeed. I really do believe that this country never committed itself to a conversation about the legacy of slavery. At EJI, we’re really focused on what slavery did to America, what lynching and terrorism did to America, what segregation and Jim Crow did to America, and we’re focused on these historical eras because we’ve just never had the conversation we needed to have. Very few people in this country have any awareness of just how expansive and how debilitating and destructive America’s history of slavery is.
The whole narrative of white supremacy was created during the era of slavery. It was a necessary theory to make white Christian people feel comfortable with their ownership of other human beings. And we created a narrative of racial difference in this country to sustain slavery, and even people who didn’t own slaves bought into that narrative, including people in the North. It was New York’s governor — in the 1860s — that was talking about the inferiority of the black person even as he was opposed to slavery. So this narrative of racial difference has done really destructive things in our society. Lots of countries had slaves, but they were mostly societies with slaves. We became something different, we became a slave society. We created a narrative of racial difference to maintain slavery. And our 13th amendment never dealt with that narrative. It didn’t talk about white supremacy. The Emancipation Proclamation doesn’t discuss the ideology of white supremacy or the narrative of racial difference, so I don’t believe slavery ended in 1865, I believe it just evolved. It turned into decades of racial hierarchy that was violently enforced — from the end of reconstruction until WWII — through acts of racial terror. And in the north, that was tolerated.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/06/24/bryan-stevenson-on-charleston-and-our-real-problem-with-race?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=opening-statement&utm_term=newsletter-20150624-208
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: Chumley must be deranged because there is no way anyone in their right mind could make such a comment. I’m speechless that a politician could say that out loud.
Elizabelle
@Germy Shoemangler:
Take down that Bill Kristol!
I would think we could agitate a bit and get him removed to Fox News wonderworld, if it becomes evident to the powers that be ($$$, as for Nikki Haley) how toxic his continued presence on ABC and Morning Joe has become.
Botsplainer
@Frankensteinbeck:
Morning in America was awesome if you were a meritorious inheritor, an S&L bond trader, a holder of significant defense based eequities, a hedge fund manager or simply enjoyed watching the sp*cs, ch*nks, n****rs and f*gs get treated like shit even as your own standard of living diminished as a result of trickle on economics. Bush the Elder wasn’t wrong about that.
For everybody else, it sucked.
Art Laffer needs to hire 24/7 armed guards for his eventual grave.
Elizabelle
For anyone in the SC area who might pay their respects, or for relatives/friends who are interested: SC Democratic Party sent this out:
Botsplainer
@Patricia Kayden:
Read between the lines – it is another dogwhistle.
What he’s saying is “lazy n****rs wouldn’t help themselves, why should we give a shit?”
Botsplainer
@rikyrah:
I admire the effort, but it is a little simplistic.
The way I view it is that the dominant faction of whites in the South – the genteel Cavalier types (and to a lesser extent, the Scots-Irish with money) enjoyed a great lifestyle courtesy of stolen labor. They got to mimic the moneyed elites of Regency and Victorian England, an aristocratic status which they deemed desirable, and they didn’t have to work at it.
In order to maintain that, they HAD to continue using stolen labor, so that provided a requirement to justify it in an endless feedback loop of white superiority which justified the slavery, ad infinitum. It would have worked to gain international resignation and ultimate recognition of the regime too, had they produced a NECESSARY product, The problem for them was that cotton was replaceable through other sources, and was not an absolute necessity – other products could be used to make clothing. Same thing with sugar and indigo.
Elizabelle
Betty put up a fresh open thread. Cat with altitude involved.
Brachiator
@bemused:
I thought there was supposed to be a thing called Minnesota Nice, kinda like almost being being Canadian. Another bubble burst.
Brachiator
@debbie:
Wow. Jarrett’s Wikipedia page has been edited to play up her parents’ Commie and “Un-American” activities.
Frankensteinbeck
@Botsplainer:
Our problem, even today, is that over 50% of whites fall into this category.
EDIT – And I say this as a man who makes Ronald McDonald look dusky.
Omnes Omnibus
@Brachiator: You misunderstood the phrase. It’s more about how disagreement is expressed than anything else.
Brachiator
@Omnes Omnibus:
I was just making a morning joke. I wasn’t trying to seriously parse the phrase. Lighten up, dude.
Juju
@satby: I’ve been calling it the American swastika since I read that here somewhere a few days ago. That works for me.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
So the voting rights act applies nationwide but the Southern States are the only ones that complain about it? That sounds about right.
My understanding was that the Voting Rights Act was applicable/enforced only in the States of the old Confederacy. Given that understanding, and that Northern States seem to have governors and state legislatures who are trying to restrict the franchise too, I thought expansion would be an important safeguard. That appears to be unnecessary though.
J R in WV
@Patricia Kayden:
I really believe that racist white supremacy is a deeply rooted mental derangement. All science tells us that there is no such thing as different races or humanity. There is no way to distinguish one “race” from another scientifically. Mentally, biologically, genetically, we are all the same.
Geneticists build models of speciation, ways to understand how species come to vary, computer models that show when species begin to separate over the passage of time on a geologic scale. But when you use data derived from human beings for input into these models, they result in a null set; in other words, there are no different species of human beings.
There are different cultures, of course, but there is nothing biological or genetic about culture, in any way.
So these racist white supremacists are making a total fiction the core of their lives. In order to believe in hateful things about their neighbors. This is a mental illness, and it would be great if a cure for hatred could be developed. Not that I expect that – it would be another fantasy to expect Nazis and KKK members to become human beings!
I imagine little pills that people could take for two weeks, and it would remove their ability to generate feelings of hatred for “the others” so that they would no longer feel threatened by women, or blacks, or jews. Then I forget about it, because that’s just imagination, fiction, and there’s no point in dwelling on impossibilities.
These guys are sick puppies, and I try not to hate them for it. But it is very hard, and mostly I fail at attempts to feel regret. I am no M. L. King or Christ, I won’t ever be able to forgive monsters who slaughter as racists.
Aleta
I know this is not possible in the legal system, and it isn’t logic-based, unless a state could be held responsible for an individual’s hate crime. But each murder committed during an act of intimidation that’s a hate crime is a voting rights violation. And racist severe assaults by police are also voting rights violations. And false convictions shown to be manipulated by police and prosecutors are also voting rights violations.
That’s how my emotions see it.
Aleta
@Frankensteinbeck: I noticed that for some conservatives that I knew, the threat of Communism and nuclear attack was a formative fear. (Drills in schools where kids huddled under their desks, say. But not formative for everyone, it should go without saying.)
And, a lot of things got irrationally lumped together with Communism (long hair? homosexuality? ironic). Did this happen when HUAC was investigating artists as easy targets, or as a brain function that merged the definition of patriotism with being straight-and-narrow like a Boy Scout ? (Again ironic.)
Weren’t Catholics once considered suspect, too, for putting God above country? Yet that seems to be one of the current Commandments in the literature of some militia groups I looked at.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@J R in WV: The weird think is how clueless a lot of them are regarding their biases. I got into an online argument with some Confederate flag defenders on why it symbolizes sedition, treason, slavery and racism, and they accused me of reading the NAACP version of history because I was disputing the biased southern version. They all claimed to be not racists despite the fact that they all swallowed the “created by racist to make themselves appear not so racist” version of Civil War history and had nothing but contempt for the mainstream version, which they were convinced was the NAACP version – as though that version had to be biased on its face. I have no doubt that bias affects other aspects of their thoughts and actions – it’s the Bill O’Reily syndrome – I can’t see my own racism or the racism in those like me, ergo racism is dead.
KS in MA
@Mustang Bobby:
Good point!