The article was published in 2012 before Ukraine's neo-Nazis became good guys by virtue of fighting pro-Russian Ukrainians
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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In the News
This is the full interview video of the interview of President Obama by Tom Friedman. It is a interview worth watching. Since I don't live in New York and don't read the Times on a daily basis, I thought rest of us would like this link. The video is 47 minutes long.
President Obama invited me to the Oval Office Saturday afternoon to lay out exactly how he was trying to balance these risks and opportunities in the framework accord reached with Iran last week in Switzerland. What struck me most was what I’d call an “Obama doctrine” embedded in the president’s remarks. It emerged when I asked if there was a common denominator to his decisions to break free from longstanding United States policies isolating Burma, Cuba and now Iran. Obama said his view was that “engagement,” combined with meeting core strategic needs, could serve American interests vis-à-vis these three countries far better than endless sanctions and isolation. He added that America, with its overwhelming power, needs to have the self-confidence to take some calculated risks to open important new possibilities — like trying to forge a diplomatic deal with Iran that, while permitting it to keep some of its nuclear infrastructure, forestalls its ability to build a nuclear bomb for at least a decade, if not longer.
Below are the key parameters of a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program that were decided in Lausanne, Switzerland. These elements form the foundation upon which the final text of the JCPOA will be written between now and June 30, and reflect the significant progress that has been made in discussions between the P5+1, the European Union, and Iran.
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No one, I think, would ever have denied that Maurice Bessinger was a man of faith.
And he wasn’t particularly a “still, small voice” man either; he wanted everybody in earshot to know that slavery had been God’s will, that desegregation was Satan’s work, and the federal government was the Antichrist. God wanted only whites to eat at Bessinger’s six Piggie Park barbecue joints; so His servant Maurice took that fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1968 decided that his religious freedom argument was “patently frivolous.”
Until the day he died, however, Bessinger insisted that he and God were right. His last fight was to preserve the Confederate flag as a symbol of South Carolina. “I want to be known as a hard-working, Christian man that loves God and wants to further (God’s) work throughout the world as I have been doing throughout the last 25 years,” he told his hometown newspaper in 2000.
As the nuclear talks with Iran enter the final stretch, and as the media coverage reaches the point of hysteria, it is useful to step back a bit and offer a few observations about how to approach the kinds of revelations and arguments that we might expect in the coming days or weeks.
Here are five things to watch out for.
Want to see a look of pure hatred? Pull out an EBT card at the grocery store.
States are now trying to pass bill that will dictate what people can buy with their EBT card.
Anger toward those living below the poverty line seems to only be increasing. Maine and Missouri have proposed bills limiting residents’ food choices if they use SNAP. Missouri House Bill 813 would bar the state’s 930,000 food stamp recipients from using their benefits to buy cookies, chips, soda, energy drinks, steak and seafood. (The legislature also implemented mandatory drug testing for TANF applicants in 2011.) If the bill becomes law, a Missourian can’t buy a can of tuna with an EBT card. Tortilla chips to go with salsa? Nope. Flank steak — tough, stringy and the only cut of beef I can afford — is off-limits, too. Who are these people, and what makes them think that what we eat is their business? And given that the average food stamp allotment in my state in 2013 came out to just $1.41 per person per meal, I wonder if they understand that recipients couldn’t buy lobster if they wanted to.
They keep forgetting there are people with special needs when it comes to what they can eat. Many people with disabilities are on TANF that are suffering from heart disease and other medical problems that they are expected to eat sea food.
It would be a head ach for the grocery stores to try to comply. These old ladies think they are standing in line now with Wix, just wait until they have to put up with groceries being scanned first to make sure that they are allowed or having to have them taken off the tape and out of the bags. There are a lot of grey areas when it comes to food classification.
When you are poor you can't give your kids much so it is nice to buy some cookies or chips for them to snack on because you just rented a $2 movie from Red Box and it is special occasion.
Not all these people are like me, that has the equipment or the skills to make super nice baked goods. Some are working poor with very little time. I am making chocolate covered Easter eggs today and gum drops.and most of the ingredients came from the food bank. Did you know you can make gum drops from jello? Of coarse not and neither do the poor. The candy gods was smiling on me today and sent me a recipe for them via facebook. I have a bunch of crushed taped together boxes of jello that need to be used.
I am so tired of these hateful people.
(link via Digby)
Tagging Hillary completely based on her work on Armed Services & stint as wartime Secretary of State tends to ignore her Senate record. Perhaps time to reassess.
Mario was a hero of mine.
82
Well at 65, a lot of heroes are dead.
ha
Well, it appears the DEATH PANEL argument is gone.
The Supremes just denied an appeal.
This is interesting to me.
A BIG, A GREAT BIG, LIE OF THE REPUBS.
Hospitals, Insurance Companies, HBO's have all had death panels installed.
The entire idea is bullshite.
the end
This is a fascinating read. Justice Stephan Johnson Fields is on the top of the list. You will never guess who else has made the list.
Citizens United ruling took some basis from a descent by Fields that corporations are people. This article gives an incite into this man and four others that probably should not have been on the bench.
I cannot believe that a U.S. president would ever try to interfere with the elections of a sovereign nation, right fellow libs?? :) From the link:
"[The President] can't say he has a business-like relationship or that it isn't personal when his entire political machine, virtually, some of the top people in his political operation, were in Israel on the ground trying to defeat Netanyahu, which is unprecedented," Rubio said of Obama on Tuesday in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
"He didn’t send anyone in any other country to try to influence the outcome of those elections," Rubio, a potential 2016 contender, added.
Obama attempted to play down the friction with Netanyahu earlier in the day Tuesday, saying their differences weren't personal but over substantive policy issues. He described their relationship as "very businesslike."
"[W]hat he’s saying is absurd in terms of it not being personal. That sounds pretty personal to me," Rubio said.
He has been busy in Iowa stumping and is back in Maryland to meet with supporters.
O’Malley is aggressively trying to position himself as a progressive and forward-looking alternative to Hillary Rodham Clinton, the presumptive frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, who could make her candidacy official as early as next month.
In Iowa, O’Malley sounded at times very much like a Democrat loved by the party’s liberal base -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) -- calling for Wall Street reform and an array of policies to help an increasingly pinched middle class.
There has been a dispute about a rock formation that is in the way of a new highway in Iceland It is believed to be an elf church. The Lord of the Rings is based on this mythology. The people of Iceland takes this seriously.
A large crane was used to relocate the outcrop in two pieces - the larger one weighing 50t - closer to similar "elf-dwellings", the Morgunbladid daily reports. Work on the highway project on the Alftanes peninsula, near Reykjavik, was halted by Iceland's Supreme Court in 2013 after campaigners said it would disturb a protected area of untouched lava and culturally important "elf habitat". According to the Friends of Lava group, this included the 12-foot-long jagged rock considered to be the legendary Ofeigskirkja - a church or chapel used by the Huldufolk ("hidden folk"), derived from the elves of pagan Norse myth.
The deadlock was broken through the mediation of a local woman and self-declared seer, Ragnhildur Jonsdottir, who called for a "pact between elves and men". "The rock will be moved next to other beautiful and similar rock formations, thus creating a unified whole," Iceland's roads commission said in a press releaseannouncing the work, which was carried out on Wednesday. Commenting to Morgunbladid, Ms Jonsdottir said the elves had one and half years to prepare for their church's transfer, and would be happy in their new surroundings.
He is the first one for the Republican bench to officially announce. His announcement is no real surprise.
In a 30-second video released via Twitter, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination,
I wasn't sure where to put this analysis by Peter Baker of the the NYTs because it's more than a month old. Baker writes about how Obama, like many if not all of his predecessors, has wrestled with the inherent tensions between his authority as executive and commander and chief, and the constitutional authority Congress has to oversee and in some cases authorize or reject executive action in matters dealing with foreign policy. Didn't think it was worth a separate post, but I do think it's useful resource for anyone wishing to gain a better understanding of the the issues underlying continued deliberations concerning the president's AUMF request on ISIL, and of course as we are poised to address analogous separation of powers issues more directly if there is an agreement with Iran and the role to be played by Congress has not yet been resolved.
This is excerpted from the book HRC: State Secretes and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton.
Clinton faced the task of raising money for the US Pavilion at the World's Fair that was held in Shanghai in 2010. The Chines was upset that the US had no plans to build one. Hillary made it happen with the help of the right people.
Villarreal acknowledged that “we could have done much better” with two or three years to put it together. “We made the most that we could, given the limitations,” he said. “At the end of the day, the question is ‘Did ordinary Chinese enjoy it?’ and the answer is ‘Absolutely.’”
“I’m just relieved,” Hillary said when she arrived, adding a lukewarm assessment of the pavilion itself: “It’s fine.”
Years later an iconic photograph of Hillary speaking in the rain at the construction site hung on the wall of the reception area outside Balderston’s office, a testament to the first major project of the State Department’s version of the Clinton Global Initiative. American and Chinese officials knew that it was a minor miracle that Hillary had been able to secure financing and build the pavilion in the first place, which was a major sign of respect for China. The Clinton family contact list had been invaluable for Bagley, Balderston, and Villarreal as they dialed angel donors directly. They “went to a lot of people in the network, the givers and funders network,” said a senior Hillary adviser.
The book seems to be a good read.
By adding a poison pill to legislation implementing the latest Minsk agreement, the Ukrainian government has effectively guaranteed a resumption of the civil war
Regardless of whether you think Snowden is a hero, a traitor, or something in-between, I think you might find this possibility interesting…
Looks like Netanyahu's rather foul and downright ugly campaign will put him on top of principal challenger Isaac Herzog after the final polls from last week seemed to suggest that Netanyahu's Likud Party was in free-fall. Now, absent extraordinary circumstances, even though President Rivlin could give Herzog first crack at forming a coalition--and I think it's fair to do that since these are elections Bibi called two years before elections were required to be held and, to me, he should be held to a higher standard, i.e. Herzog's strong showing reflects dissatisfaction with the incumbent and so he should get a crack at putting something together. Probably won't happen, but then it's too bad I think. Rivlin is calling a for a unity coalition, but Bibi said no way -- in campaign -- now it's after the campaign, etc. Joint Arab bloc looks to be performing well and could possibly finish third in the popular vote.
Kind of bummed about this actually. Guess I had my hopes up that Herzog was going to get a shot. Still possible, remotely so, but damn. Rough days coming.
Here's some other links:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4638134,00.html
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-Elections/In-victory-speech-Netanyahu-says-h...
It's interesting watching Dolce & Gabana square off with Elton John on artificial conception & gay parenting for 2 reasons:
1) they take completely opposite views on the matter
2) as a straight guy, I'm not supposed to give my opinion (unless just possibly if that opinion matches Elton's - otherwise I'll be shunned and ostracized - free to agree as always)
okay, maybe 3) typically in popular culture we'd associate D&G's views with the GOP. How to reconcile this with gay fashion designers? blame it on their religion? certainly one angle. How religious are gay people allowed to be?
Am curious if we're able to address these contentious issues outside the straight-jacket of narrow framing.
[to be open, I tilt towards Elton's view, but I still like people to be allowed their own opinions without shaming or having a correct one rammed down their throats]
Your thoughts?
This trade agreement, like previous international trade agreements, like NAFTA, is not a partisan issue. On just about every other piece of legislation that the Obama Administration has introduced to Congress, the Republican majority has stood fast against it. However, in this instance, Congress appears to be strangely united in its efforts to pass a secret bill that they have not even been allowed to read.
I guess the Times thought they should bring this up since that started the whole email scandal for HRC. It did take JEB only 7 years to turn his over to the state. I know there is at least a dozen of them from me. I wasn't happy with him and I told him that often. Maybe the Times is trying to walk all this back. After all it only took HRC 4 months to get all of her's to the State Dept.
But it took Mr. Bush seven years after leaving office to comply fully with a Florida public records statute requiring him to turn over emails he sent and received as governor, according to records released Friday.
Mr. Bush delivered the latest batch of 25,000 emails in May 2014, seven and a half years after leaving the Statehouse and just as he started to contemplate a potential run for the White House, according to a newly disclosed letter written by his lawyer.
Josh Marshall has done a really nice job over the last couple of weeks covering the complex national election taking place in Israel. This is Josh's latest piece, centered on slow but steady recent increases in support for Herzog's Zionist Union Coalition (which combines Herzog's Labor and Tzipi Lipni's Kadima parties) to the point where he looks to be the front runner by about three or four seats in the popular vote. Israel's president Rivlin will then decide which of the candidates is most likely to perform a governing coalition. And then the fun begins. With a lead of the current magnitude for Herzog over Netanyahu, and because of the general state of things (both with the domestic economy and because at some point enough Israelis will not accept poor US relations), Rivlin would have grounds to let Herzog try first. Rivlin and Bibi have a history btw. The only reason to hesitate is because the ability to build a coalition depends on how all of the other parties did and what they are willing to accept to become part of a coalition. It is a web of chaos and likely to take a couple of months to resolve.
Per my comments on PP's thread...
Just a few weeks ago, President Obama was being praised across Latin America for his decision to re-establish relations with Cuba, while President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela appeared increasingly isolated — a wobbly, unpopular leader resorting to ever more aggressive tactics to confront an economic crisis and clamp down on the political opposition.
But with Mr. Obama’s declaration this week that Venezuela is an “extraordinary threat to the national security” of the United States, that dynamic may be coming undone.
Suddenly, the United States is being cast again in the familiar role of the hemispheric bully trying to push around its smaller neighbors. And Mr. Maduro has taken on the mantle of victim, stirring up patriotic support at home, setting the opposition on the defensive and declaring that “we will never kneel before this arrogant empire that attacks and threatens” his country.