LONDON — The price of oil surged Friday on concerns that Iran might respond to the killing of its top general by the United States by disrupting global supplies of energy from the Mideast.
If
sustained, the rise in oil prices could lead to more expensive car
fuel, heating and electricity bills, stifling the global economy at a
time when it is already slowing.
One thing I am thankful for during this particular cycle is that there is no cable news channel blaring in my household. Just because the rest of America is being bombarded with war opinions from people who should be in prison doesn't mean you have to listen to it too. Most people's TVs still come with an off button. Might as well make use of it while you still can.
Meanwhile, your Democratic Presidential candidates are weighing in. That includes those among them who have been a troop.
Mayor Pete
doesn’t oppose the Trump administration assassinating an Iranian
government official on Iraqi territory, he’s just not sure is was done
in the best way. This sort of response is why
democrats might be the worst opposition party in history. https://t.co/G1ta3phb47
Pete is just going to accept, on its face, the premise that the US launching an assassination attack on a high ranking Iranian military and government officer is a justified action. Anything he says after that is pointless. It would be one thing if it were just Pete. But it's also coming from everyotherDemocrat to have weighed in so far.
Sanders took a different tone, one drawn from a wing of the party that has opposed American wars since Vietnam.
“Trump's
dangerous escalation brings us closer to another disastrous war in the
Middle East that could cost countless lives and trillions more dollars,”
Sanders said in a statement, after noting his opposition to the Iraq
war and without mentioning Soleimani by name. “Trump promised to end
endless wars, but this action puts us on the path to another one.”
Gotta love the way they write, "a wing of the party that has opposed American wars since Vietnam," as if that's a bad thing.
Former Vice President Joe Biden
assured rich donors at a ritzy New York fundraiser that “nothing would
fundamentally change” if he is elected.
Biden told donors at an event at the
Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan on Tuesday evening that he would not
“demonize” the rich and promised that “no one’s standard of living will
change, nothing would fundamentally change,” Bloomberg News reported.
Biden’s assurance to donors in New York came shortly after his appearance at the Poor People’s Campaign Presidential Forum in Washington on Monday.
Well, okay, maybe that's not going to be enough to get it done. Usually, cozying up to wealthy donors is good for a candidate's staying power. We could pick at this as an example of the "saying the quiet part loud" faux-pas but that's not typically a campaign killer either.
Speaking at a New York fundraiser Tuesday
evening (June 18), he pointed to long-dead segregationist senators James
Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia to argue that
Washington functioned more smoothly a generation ago than under today’s
“broken” hyperpartisanship.
"We
didn't agree on much of anything," Biden said of the two men, who were
prominent senators when Biden was elected in 1972. Biden described
Talmadge as "one of the meanest guys I ever knew" and said Eastland
called him "son," though not "boy," a reference to the racist way many
whites addressed black men at the time.
Yet even in that Senate, Biden said, "At least there was some civility. We got things done."
But it looks like at least some of the other Democratic candidates this year are willing to hang on tot their principles for once see if they can score some quick points lighting up Joe.
Sen. Cory Booker, one of two major black
candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, said Biden's
"relationships with proud segregationists are not the model for how we
make America a safer and more inclusive place for black people and for
everyone," and he called for the Biden to apologize.
"I
have to tell Vice President Biden, as someone I respect, that he is
wrong for using his relationships with Eastland and Talmadge as examples
of how to bring our country together," the New Jersey Democrat said in a
statement that was especially notable coming from a candidate who
entered the 2020 primary with a sunny message, vowing to highlight "the
best of who we are and not the worst."
New
York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a fellow Democratic presidential
candidate and a white man who is married to a black woman, also offered a
sharp retort. "It's 2019 & @JoeBiden is longing for the good old
days of 'civility' typified by James Eastland," de Blasio tweeted
Wednesday, along with a picture of his family. "Eastland thought my
multiracial family should be illegal."
The
mayor added that "it's past time for apologies or evolution" from
Biden, whom de Blasio cast as "out of step with the values of the modern
Democratic Party."
Not Cedric Richmond, though. He's already on board as a Biden campaign spokesperson and isn't ready to jump ship just yet.
Cedric Richmond, Biden's campaign
co-chairman and former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus,
pushed back, saying Biden's opponents are deliberately ignoring the full
context of his argument for a more functional government.
"Maybe
there's a better way to say it, but we have to work with people, and
that's a fact," Richmond said, noting he recently dealt with President
Donald Trump to pass a long-sought criminal justice overhaul. "I
question his racial sensitivity, a whole bunch of things about his
character ... but we worked together."
But give it time. Biden sounds almost like he's trying to fail early. He's not. This is just who he is. Which is why it is extremely difficult to imagine he's going to make it all the way to the nomination this year. At some point he's going to cancel himself... if he hasn't already.
Don't worry about Cedric, though. He's got plenty of optionsavailable for later.
NEW ORLEANS, LA–
This Saturday, November 22, Louisiana leaders and members of Congress
from across the country will participate in more than 30 “Meet Me At the
Polls” events around the state, where they will remind voters about the
importance of voting early and highlight Senator Mary Landrieu’s record
of fighting and delivering for Louisiana.
“We will never stop fighting to raise the minimum wage, ensure we have
quality schools for our children, or provide affordable health care to
all working families,” Senator Landrieu said. “This weekend, thousands
of Louisianians will join our campaign by voting early and, together, we
will continue to fight so every Louisiana family has the opportunity to
build a prosperous future.”
The “Meet Me At the Polls” initiative was created to call voters to
action, while highlighting the importance of early voting in the runoff
election. More than 30 events this weekend will be spearheaded by
Terrebonne Parish Councilmember Arlanda Williams and Louisiana
Democratic Party Chair Karen Carter Peterson. U.S. Senator Cory Booker,
U.S. Congressman Cedric Richmond, and Democratic National Committee
Secretary and Mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, are only a
few of the headliners of “Meet Me At the Polls.”
The most high profile participant in the "rallies" is Senator Booker (D-NJ). Booker's star has been rising steadily as he's become better and better at pushing whatever horseshit agenda the big banks ask him to much the same way Mary has done for big oil over the years. Booker also just got finished voting against Mary's Keystone gambit this week. Anyway, so have fun capturing that magic.
Meanwhile Wannabe Senator Frankenberry is rallying alongside Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) today in Gonzales and in Kenner. The two will spend most of their time telling really big lies about immigration, probably.
You see, when Cassidy claims that Mary Landrieu “voted against
stopping executive amnesty,” what he really means is that Landrieu,
along with 67 other Senators, voted in favor of the Comprehensive
Immigration Reform Bill.
Guess who else voted for that bill? I’ll give you a hint: He was a member of the so-called “Gang of Eight.” Remember them?
No, it wasn’t John McCain, though he supported the legislation and
has campaigned for Cassidy. And it wasn’t Lindsay Graham, who
co-authored the bill and worked tirelessly to ensure its passage. After
the bill passed, Graham told Politico (bold mine), “I consider this an astounding success. You could ratify a treaty or override a veto. This is as good as it gets in the Senate.”
Before the final vote, the legislation’s chief authors
took turns defending the bill and reflecting on the hard-fought path
toward reform. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) spoke of the ups and down of
his 12-year fight on behalf of undocumented immigrants brought to the
United States as children. And Rubio detailed the journey of his parents as they emigrated from Cuba. “Here in America, generations of unfulfilled dreams will
finally come to pass,” Rubio said on the Senate floor. “That’s why I
support this reform.”
Remember, this legislation is the very same thing
that Cassidy is attacking Landrieu for supporting, and tomorrow, he
will be campaigning with one of the bill’s most prominent supporters and
co-authors. “[I]nstead of saying Landrieu ‘represents Barack Obama’ on
the immigration issue,” FactCheck.org reported, “the Cassidy ad could just as easily have said her vote ‘represents’ Graham or Rubio.”
One way to understand Mitch Landrieu's "Aspen Ideas" brand of ideology is to keep an eye on his counterpart celeb-Mayors in other parts of the country. We've mentioned Cory Booker before but outgoing NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg is another one Mitch often seeks to emulate.
While media like to play the scary number game -- $20 billion in
unfunded pension liabilities – this comes to about to about 0.5 percent
of the city’s GDP over the next 30 years, the time period in which the
shortfall would have to be made up. The city could of course raise this
much revenue, but the current mayor Rahm Emanuel thinks it would be too
inconvenient. And hey, these are just contracts with workers, not
obligations to people who really matter.
Emanuel’s cavalier attitude toward contracts with the city’s workers
apparently does not apply to its other contracts, for example its deal
with Morgan Stanley to lease its parking meters for 75 years. The city
arguably received less than half the market price for this long-term
lease, but Emanuel apparently thinks the city can still afford to honor
its contract with the huge Wall Street bank.
Contracts with Wall Street types always seem to draw more respect
than contracts with workers. Folks may recall that when AIG was bankrupt
and effectively a ward of the government, we were told by the Obama
administration (where Emanuel was then chief of staff), that it had to
pay out $165 million in bonuses to its senior staff. Many of the AIG
employees, who had taken the company into bankruptcy, pocketed hundreds
of thousands of dollars from these bonuses.
Maybe they're still out to get cows in Chicago after all this time but you'd think in New Orleans we'd have a little more patience. But Club Aspen is as post-regional as it is "post-partisan" which is one reason electoral politics in any of these cities is starting to feel less fun than it used to.
I'd take some time to describe to you how busy I am today but that would just waste this one quick moment I've got to say anything at all. Also, it would (mostly) be a lie. Everyone knows I'm not really busy. Just disorganized.
Here are some things I wanted to link to this week but couldn't get to.. for whatever reason.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida State University researchers have made an unusual catch in the Gulf of Mexico: a cold-water shark typically found in Arctic waters.
Dean Grubbs of Florida State's coastal and marine research laboratory says it's the first documented catch of a Greenland shark in the Gulf.
Guess BP was right about the possibility of Gulf Walruses after all.
Only two months after he switched back to the Republican Party, Elbert Guillory has become a spokesman (an “honorary chair”) of a political action committee called Free At Last PAC. And if you visit their website or watch their two online commercials, you’ll likely be under the impression (among other things) that Guillory himself launched this PAC in order to encourage African-Americans to run for office as Republicans. (I have some serious problems with what Guillory says in these online commercials, but I’ll get to that in a second). FoxNews, the Weekly Standard, the Christian Post, and others erroneously reported that Elbert Guillory was the principal of Free at Last PAC.
The truth is, Free At Last PAC (which was obviously named after a famous Negro spiritual) appears to have been created and is now managed by a white conservative political activist and Louisiana Family Forum Vice Chairman, a guy named Derek Babcock. If you closely follow Louisiana politics, you may remember Mr. Babcock. He ran a stupidly mean-spirited (and losing) campaign for State Senate a couple of years ago, and fortunately, his website is still online
Presumably, Mr. Guillory, as an honorary chair of this PAC and as an elected official, won’t ever be financially compensated for his voluntary involvement. But it remains unclear whether Mr. Babcock, as director, hopes to draw a salary. Either way, though, Babcock’s PAC seems like a sham.
Read this one carefully. It tracks very closely with the kind of "dragonslaying" movement that has swept the New Boss in in New Orleans to the very loud misguided cheers of the credulous.
James was a working class ward politician whose Tammany Hall-style crimes were comparatively petty. That made him the type of public official that is regularly lampooned in the entertainment world and typically derided by elites as icons of what Time’s Joe Klein infamously called “the angry hot-house of inner-city” politics. That nasty code – “inner city” – also extends to James’ corruption. His crimes were portrayed as decidedly “inner city,” involving sums in the low thousands from mostly local cronies rather than national elite powerbrokers.
By contrast, Booker has a different public image. With a suburban upbringing and Oxford pedigree, he has carefully crafted a political image that is pro-Wall Street, “new economy”-ish, proudly worshipful of wealth – and decidedly not “inner city.” Indeed, as one tech entrepreneur told the Times in explaining why Booker’s wealthy tech donors gave the Newark mayor a company, “It feels like he’s one of us.”
The same goes for Booker’s money: it isn’t the much-denigrated Inner City Graft, it is the much-vaunted Mahogany Paneled Conference Room Graft from rich dudes in bucolic places like Silicon Valley.
Such white-collar graft comes not in four-digit wads of cash, and doesn’t go to ward bosses like James. It instead tends to come in five, six or even seven digit checks and stock certificates to professional politicians who use anodyne terms like “public-private partnership.” Importantly, the money in the latter form of corruption doesn’t come from local parochial hundred-thousand-aires easily punished when things get a bit too embarrassing. It tends to come from mega millionaires and billionaires with the same pedigree and elite credentials as Booker – and those aristocrats rarely ever get punished, lambasted or humiliated with the “corruption” label because they own much of the media and most of the political system.
The result of the double standard is the oxymoron whereby the kind of cash-in-the-envelope corruption James embodied is routinely vilified, ridiculed and prosecuted, while the kind of stock-options-in-the-portfolio corruption Booker evinces is completely ignored, trumpeted as smart politics, and/or openly touted as an “asset.”
In this new Gilded Age, this double standard between what is seen as acceptable and unacceptable corruption is hardly exclusive to New Jersey.
The Saints did, for the man who helped lend generations of fans a singular narrative voice through the deepest lows and richest highs of the team he adores, the team he once feared would forever leave the city.
“That’s it, that’s it,” he said as the clock wound to zero and he pressed down on the mike. “Final score: The Saints 28, Raiders 20.”
Romig folded up his glasses and slid them in his pocket, then leaned into the mike one last time.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s been fun. Good night. Love ya.”
