Month: July 2017

 
From Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger:

A few days ago, Hui Chen (the chief ethics officer and head of the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division for the Department of Justice) resigned. She resigned because she could no longer prosecute businesses for violating the same corruption rules that the Trump administration is also engaging in. She told The Hill:

“To sit across the table from companies and question how committed they were to ethics and compliance felt not only hypocritical, but very much like shuffling the deck chair on the Titanic.”

“Even as I engaged in those questioning and evaluations, on my mind were the numerous lawsuits pending against the President of the United States for everything from violations of the Constitution to conflict of interest, the ongoing investigations of potentially treasonous conducts, and the investigators and prosecutors fired for their pursuits of principles and facts.”

“Those are conducts I would not tolerate seeing in a company, yet I worked under an administration that engaged in exactly those conduct. I wanted no more part in it.”

Now we have another ethics watchdog resigning. Walter Schaub Jr. (the director of the Office of Government Ethics) submitted his resignation last Thursday.

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From The Moderate Voice:

When journalists talk about so-called “evangelical voters”, the former are doing the public a disservice. That is because the word evangelical has nothing to do with politics.

An evangelical is a believer in Messiah Jesus who strives to share the Gospel message with those who have not yet heard it or read it. Such a believer can do so without ever being involved in political issues.

If evangelicals register to vote in elections, then they don’t have join any political party. If they do join one, then they can join any political party – including the Democratic Party – and still be evangelicals.

When journalists say “evangelical voters”, what they mean is “church-going voters who mix religion with politics”.

This mixing of religion with politics is detrimental to evangelism. In a blog post immediately following the election of President Donald Trump, Reverend Thabiti Anyabwile has this to say…

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• Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post does not have kind words for the Chicago School of Economics.
   
• Iron Knee at Political Irony loves free markets, but does not join conservatives in worshiping unregulated economic fundamentalism.
   
• Frances Langum reports that current Energy Secretary and former Texas Governor Rick Perry also loves the free market and has no clue how it works. No clue.
   
• Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger briefly imagines President Trump’s State of the Union address.
   
• At The Moderate Voice, Shaun Mullen explores the role in Trump’s Russia-Gate of a previously unknown player who testifies from the grave.
   
• This week’s note in Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’ comes from The Hill where Ross Rosenfeld urges liberals to be less civil when confronted by right wing lies: confrontationally honest, even if honesty doesn’t seem polite.
   
• Every once in a while some conservative will opine that slavery was actually a good thing. Black conservatives generally disagree. One exception is Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, who thanks “God and white people” for slavery. tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors brings us video of a Fox News interview in which the good Reverend explains the period in American history in which black people had it worse.
   
• Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara at Principled Perspectives argues that free highschool education was never a cause of economic and technological advance. His primary argument is that plenty of progress happened before high schools were provided.
   
  Well, yeah, I suppose. The communal use of fire, the invention of the wheel, language, writing, started a lot of progress. No high school in those days. Also, Mr. LaFerrara found his schooling quite boring. How can anyone argue against that compelling logic?
   
• Jon Perr at PERRspectives reviews the history of health care policy. He finds that, when policies change over the objections of opponents, the reaction varies. Some opponents are sore losers who try to sabotage. Some try to make new health care policies work, even when they had opposed the changes. Apparently both sides are not the same in this. It turns out political party does matter.
   
• T. Paine, at Saving Common Sense, seemingly arguing for church supremacy over secular rule, recalls the oft told story of Thomas More. One common error among my brother and sisters in Christ, when it comes to religion, is to mistake government neutrality with hostility, then to regard that perceived hostility as persecution.
   
  I am happy to see my friend Mr. Paine concede that “we, as Americans, should be free to exercise our religious faith.” As he documents state interference with Christian worship, he inadvertently supports our own tradition, separation of church and state. He finds examples of interference – persecution? – in Sweden, which officially supports Christianity, and Wales, which funds Christian churches.
   
  I recall a state legislator in South Carolina once rising in mock support of efforts to have the state support Christian beliefs. She could support establishing a state religion as long as it was her Presbyterian Church.
   
• North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz urges active, Church-going Christians to have the courage to follow Jesus in a world in which there often seems to be “no distinction between the supposed ‘ambassadors for Christ,’ and the sycophantic shills for a President without morality.” Even if that means following Jesus out of the building and away from their church.
   
• Michael Kinsley defends the New York Times as the mother of all papers sells space on a luxury cruise where the fabulously wealthy can meet the columnists and reporters whose articles they have been reading.
   
• Infidel753 uses this past week of independence, amidst a discouraging national environment, to remind us that setbacks are nothing new, and never final. I have had similar thoughts.
   
• nojo at Stinque gets weird and provides a strange introduction to a link through time, space, and a national American sport.
   

Chris Christie, the Snow, and the Beach

Most of us are values voters. When we decide our candidate is a real jerk, we support someone else.

That can give us hope.

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From Max’s Dad:

For the hundredth time it needs to be said, and its not fake news, that this man, Donald Trump, is a disgrace to the United States of America. Not only as President (shudder) but as an American citizen, and lastly as a human being. And now it’s time to say this. If you still think this man is funny, or right about his classlessness, or an effective leader, or you just like him cuz he pisses off “libtards” well then you are also a disgrace to this nation and to your humanity. I wouldnt say you are all stupid, though woo, watching you Trumpers speak out loud on television doesnt help your IQ case much, but you do have a choice. You’re either just plain dumb, or you’re just a plain old bitter asshole. Your choice MAGA maniacs.

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From Bjork Report:

…by singling out media outlets whom he hates and our intelligence community whom he distrusts. Hmm…a so-called president who openly appears to dislike his own country, appears not to appropriately represent his own country, then openly acknowledges that to world?

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From Earth-Bound Misfit:

In the last few years, you might have noticed things going on. New facilities have been built. Existing facilities have been expanded.

They are doing that because they have more money coming in. The “why do they have more money” is fairly plain: Obamacare. More people have insurance, hospitals are treating fewer people without insurance. People without insurance often don’t pay or cannot pay. Or if they were solvent, a medical crisis would drive them into bankruptcy (the hospital doesn’t get paid). Everyone else who could pay, whether by insurance or because they’re rich, subsidized all that.

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From Julia Reinstein at BuzzFeed:

In celebration of the 4th of July, National Public Radio tweeted out the Declaration of Independence in a series of more than 100 tweets on Tuesday.

This follows an NPR tradition in which the text has been read aloud on Morning Edition every 4th of July for the past 29 years.

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Wondering why a few conservative friends are less than impressed.

 
The election of 1962 in the city of Newark, New Jersey, was ugly. It got to be a contest of ethnic prejudice. The city was mostly black, but black people were pretty much powerless. The majority were confined to the Central Ward. The opportunity for gerrymandering was a great temptation for those in power, and who very much wanted to stay in power.

There were 50 members on the city council. Only 6 of those 50 were black. Black people were, to put it plainly, not a political consideration.

The contest for mayor was considered to be between Irish and Italian neighborhoods. Leo Carlin was the incumbent mayor. He represented the Irish power structure.

The mayor was challenged by Hugh Addonizio. Addonizio was considered a sort of unification candidate. He was Italian who lived in an Irish neighborhood. He was married to an Irish spouse. He was a war hero with roots in Newark going way back. His father was the owner of a successful clothing business.

It was an unequal contest. Mayor Carlin had used every bit of his power to promote city building projects. That made him popular in the business community.

Addonizio pointed out that those building projects were an invitation for official corruption. He was the honest outsider running against the machine.

Still, Carlin’s business backers and community ties gave him an edge. Just to be sure, he began stressing his ethnic background. He warned Irish crowds that a vote for Addonizio would be a vote against one of their own. They didn’t want an Italian in office, did they?

Carlin’s lead grew. He began to look like a sure thing.

Then God intervened.

It was later called the Storm that Swallowed the Jersey Shore. Snow covered everything. Then snow covered the snow, then covered the snowbanks with more snow. Up and down the Atlantic coast, 45,000 buildings were demolished. It was 72 hours of white hell.

At the time, I lived several hundred miles north of New Jersey. I remember, as a kid, walking through plowed sidewalks that had become narrow valleys of snow. It was like walking through a series of hallways.

Newark was hard hit. So Mayor Carlin took quick action. He put qualified people in charge, then took off for Florida.

Those Newark residents who were without electric power and who could get hold of a newspaper, saw pictures of their mayor wearing trunks sitting next to a swimming pool in Miami. The beverage he drank may have been lemonade.

Most of those who did have power had television. There was extensive coverage of Mayor Carlin enjoying his sunny vacation while voters were stuck in their homes, glancing worriedly through windows at the descending white mountain of cold suffering.

When election day came, Mayor Carlin became Citizen Carlin. Hugh Addonizio was the new Mayor of Newark.

I thought about Mayor Carlin when snow hit Newark again a few years ago in 2010. Cory Booker was Mayor. He was not in Florida. Newark residents, stuck in their homes, watched on television or saw the internet, as Mayor Booker pushed through the snowy streets of their city. They saw him delivering diapers, shoveling snow, aiding in a medical emergency, even helping to deliver a baby. They listened as he begged for volunteers, then saw him lead those volunteers to residents who needed help.

Mayor Cory Booker became very-very-popular-Mayor Cory Booker.

I was amazed at the political resiliency of Governor Chris Christie in 2010. As Cory Booker multi-tasked on the streets of Newark, Governor Christie saw reports of that historic snow storm as it approached, and took off for Disney World. His Lieutenant Governor, Kim Guadagno, saw reports of the same approaching storm and took off for vacation in sunny New Mexico.

For some reason, perhaps some permutation of the news cycle, or some overriding local news story, the jaunt to Disney World did not seem to affect the popularity of the Governor.

Perhaps voter tolerance had grown past the point at which a single snowstorm can provoke the electorate. Or maybe citizens simply required a double dose of symbolic abuse.

The Governor has been at war with the New Jersey legislature of late. They had failed to pass the state budget that state law requires of them. They had gotten no leadership, no guidance of any kind, from the Governor. He had, however, offered an incentive.

He closed all state run public beaches. Then, on the beach outside of his home, he and his family went on a lonely outing, relaxing in the sun. They had the entire public shore at Island Beach State Park, all of it, all to themselves.

The Governor denied the story. Well, he sort of denied it.

I didn’t get any sun today.

Governor Chris Christie, July 2, 2017

But New Jersey’s most widely circulated newspaper, the Star-Ledger, had sent a photographer up in a plane. Statewide news outlets carried the photos of the Governor lounging in a beach chair.

Could it get any worse? A spokesperson for the Governor explained that the Governor had been telling the absolute truth – I didn’t get any sun today – because he had been wearing a baseball cap. Yeah, that would make it worse.

It is an astonishing bit of public relations. All of New Jersey is in a state of outrage. In the Governor’s defense, he and his family and any guests are allowed because he actually owns a house next to the beach. Well, actually, it’s a house provided to the Governor by the taxpayers of New Jersey. The Governor explained:

The Governor is allowed to go to his residences. And I’m at my residence.

News outlets carried footage of Governor Christie … how to put it … kind of gloating about going where he had ordered nobody else be allowed to go.

The Governor has a residence at island beach. Others don’t. That’s the way it goes. Run for governor, and you can have the residence.

It seemed like a sort of doomsday political move, about the worst possible. Then it turned out that the worst was just arriving. Six other families with cottages next to that same beach were ordered out. If they did not vacate their homes, Governor Christie would have them arrested.

If Chris Christie had been plotting against himself, he would seem to have succeeded in political self-destruction. He remains popular among 15% of New Jersey voters. That is not a misprint. Fifteen percent.

Times do change in politics. Just look at Newark’s mayors.

Newark’s Mayor Hugh Addonizio turned out to be much more corrupt than the Mayor he accused of corruption. His take went past six figures. He was convicted and eventually served five years of a ten year sentence. He is still known as Newark’s Million Dollar Mayor.

Newark’s Mayor Cory Booker turned out to be the one for whom Diogenes had been searching, lantern in hand, all those thousands of years. Pathologically honest, Cory Booker is now known as Senator Booker.

Newark’s Mayor Leo Carlin was known from 1962 onward as Newark’s Son of Florida.

And New Jersey Governor Chris Christie? The man photographed with family enjoying themselves on an otherwise vacant beach, the one who had his neighbors evicted from their homes?

He is not known as a straight-arrow Senator. That would be Cory Booker.

He is not known as a corrupt Million Dollar Mayor. That would be Hugh Addonizio.

He is not known as Newark’s Son of Florida. Newark’s Son of Florida would be Leo Carlin.

If anything, Chris Christie may be known by New Jersey residents as their very own Son-Of-a-Beach.

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