The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - April 2014

Maybe I've just been paying more attention but there seems to be a lot of breaking news in the past couple of weeks - much of it rotten, some of it good, and some of it downright ugly.  Let's start with a few good news items.

The Good

Score a few for the good guys in the battle against voter suppression. "A federal judge in Milwaukee struck down Tea Party Governor Scott Walker’s voter identification bill, agreeing with opponents that it unfairly targets poor and minority voters.  The long-awaited decision by United States District Judge Lynn Adelman officially invalidates the Wisconsin law....The ruling is an important step in protecting voting rights in this country.  [Americans Against the Tea Party website, April 29]  According to the Associated Press, "The ruling could set a precedent for similar legal challenges in Texas, North Carolina and elsewhere.  There are 31 states with laws in effect requiring voters to show some form of identification, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.  Seven states have strict photo ID requirements similar to the one a state judge struck down in Arkansas last week; that decision has been appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court.  Pennsylvania’s Voter-ID law has been put on hold because of court challenges."  The Wisconsin Attorney General plans to appeal.  We'd better hope that the appeal doesn't get to the democracy-challenged Roberts' court before the November elections - we already know what that conservative majority think about the need to protect voting rights.

Voter ID law map is from burntorangereport.com website, Nov 27, 2013

Not all decisions made by the Roberts' court are bad.  Here's one that is actually good: the Supreme Court upheld the EPA's cross-state pollution law.  As reported in the Huffington Post/AP on April 29: "On Tuesday, the court upheld a rule adopted by the EPA in 2011 that would force polluting states to reduce smokestack emissions that contaminate the air in downwind states. Power companies and several states sued to block the rule, and a federal appeals court in Washington agreed with them in 2012.  The Supreme Court reversed that decision."  The vote was 6-2 with two conservative justices joining in the majority decision and one recusing himself.   

Our Earth Day 2014 post quoted Marc Barasch: "There are a million stories of our fellow creatures being kind to us for no good reason."  Here's a recent one from the waters off New Zealand.  "A group of dolphins apparently came to the aid of a British long-distance swimmer just in the nick of time.  Adam Walker was on a 16-mile swim in the choppy waters of New Zealand's Cook Strait on April 22 when he spotted a great white shark beneath him, Yahoo! News reports. A pod of 10 dolphins quickly surrounded him and stayed by his side until the shark swam off." [Huffington Post, April 26 - video]

The Bad
Harassment because she wants to develop a safer gun?  Yup, that was the reaction of some "gun enthusiasts" when Belinda Padilla attempted to market and sell a new .22-caliber handgun that uses a radio frequency-enabled stopwatch to identify the authorized user so no one else can fire it. From a Daily Kos post on April 28: "Someone posted her cellphone number on an online forum for gun enthusiasts....Then someone snapped pictures of the address where she has a P.O. box and put those online, too."  Hunter's commentary on the Daily Kos: "Her crime was the supposition that some gun owners might want a safer gun, which is all it took for a wave of outraged 'enthusiasts' to come surging toward her house like a tsunami of stupid...If we try to make a gun that your children can't find and play with and accidentally fire into some other child's skull, we will have lost an important piece of America. If we try to make a gun for police departments that only officers can fire and not people who might be attacking them, well now that takes some of the sport out of it, doesn't it?"

Gaza's Ark is a Palestinian ship that is being rebuilt in an attempt to challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza.  The organizers (a group of Palestinian activists and international campaigners from Canada, Australia and the United States) are trying to export some Gaza-made goods to the outside world.  It was scheduled to set sail in mid June.  Now thanks to the attack, the trip will be delayed.  Al Jazeera reported on April 29th: "An explosion has damaged a boat docked at a fishing harbour in Gaza, nearly a month and a half before it was to set sail to defy Israel's naval blockade on the Gaza Strip.  The explosion happened early on Tuesday after "the guard received an anonymous call that the boat would explode in a few minutes," Mahfouz Kabariti, a spokesman for Gaza's Ark, the coalition that had funded the boat's building...After spending two years building the boat, Gaza's Ark had planned the boat's first sailing test next week.The explosion caused damage to the engine and the hull as it partly sank. Divers were sent to assess the extent of the damage." The humanitarian crisis caused by this blockade is making Gaza nearly uninhabitable.  Why the nations of the world allow it to continue is beyond comprehension.  It is collective punishment and, as such, a crime against international law.

The Ugly
Sarah Palin was at it again this past weekend.  Speaking to a crowd of NRA supporters, she advocated torture as form of baptism: "Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists."  Besides offending Christians by comparing torture to a sacrament, Palin's comments are a cause of concern for another reason.  Conor Friedersdorf writes in a post on TheAtlantic.com that he wouldn't have subjected readers "to this especially inane nostalgia for Bush-era war crimes if not for what it could portend. Palin is a pandering publicity hound. She has a keen sense of what sorts of red meat the GOP base will eat up. For its part, the audience seemed receptive."

Last week Georgia's governor signed into law the worst gun-carrying legislation in the country.  "Included are provisions that allow residents who have concealed carry permits to take guns into some bars, churches, school zones, government buildings and certain parts of airports."  [CNN, April 23]  This in a state that already ranks ninth in the country for gun homicides.  So earlier this week, right in the spirit of the Georgia gun law, a gun-brandishing man showed up at a Little League game, intimidating parents and children.  A Raw Story April 26 post describes the scene: "A Georgia man panicked parents and children at a local park and baseball field by randomly walking around and displaying his gun to anyone he encountered in the parking lot.  According to witnesses who spoke with WSB-TV, the man wandered around the Forsythe County park last Tuesday night showing his gun to strangers, telling them “there’s nothing you can do about it.” Police report they received 22 calls to 911 reporting the man.  After deputies arrived, they questioned the man who produced a permit for the handgun. According to authorities, since the man made no verbal threats or gestures, they couldn’t arrest him or ask him to leave."  Not even a disorderly conduct charge?  I'm pretty sure the average Georgia drunk tank resident didn't do much worse than this guy.

Sunday Roundup - April 27, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and, in brief, the ongoing Republican efforts to deny affordable health insurance to Americans, Jon Stewart's take on the Cliven Bundy ranch showdown, the states-led effort to decide the Presidency on the basis of the national popular vote, and the giant Antarctic iceberg that is now entering the open seas.

Israelis Walk Away from the Table

From the antiwar.com website

The Israeli walk-out comes as no surprise but is still something of a disappointment.  The Kerry-driven peace talks were going nowhere and were scheduled to end later this month.  The incredible "reason" the Israelis gave for abandoning the talks a few days early was the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Palestinian Authority.  After continuing to build illegal settlements on Palestinian land in the midst of the peace talks, after demanding that the Palestinian authority abandon the Palestinian right of return and acknowledge Israel as a "Jewish state", after reneging on the fourth and final round of freeing Palestinian prisoners, the Israelis decided that they had had enough.  So the Kerry talks are dead and Palestinians may need to turn to international organizations such as the International Criminal Court for justice and statehood.

Juan Cole, in an Informed Comment post on April 24, writes of the move that prompted the Israeli withdrawal from the talks:  This week the Fateh Party (secular Arab nationalist) of Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas met in Gaza with members of the Hamas Party (fundamentalist Muslim), seeking a reconciliation and a government of national unity.  The two sides agreed that in 5 weeks a government of national unity will be appointed by Mahmoud Abbas. There will then be new elections for a president and parliament, to be held no later than 6 months after the new government is sworn in.  Cole reminds us of something seldom mentioned in the Western press - the reason the two sections of Palestine are politically separated: In January 2006, the fundamentalist Hamas Party won the parliamentary elections. This outcome was not acceptable to Israel and the Bush administration, and they connived with the secular Palestine Liberation Organization to overthrow the Hamas government in the West Bank, in which they succeeded. A similar attempt at a coup in the Gaza Strip failed, however. Gradually journalists and politicians have forgotten who was elected and who made the coup, so that you often see the Hamas government in Gaza described as the one that came to power by force. Rather, it is the remnant of the decision the electorate made in 2006.  In 2007 Israel put Gaza under a severe blockade, including its civilian population, which has destroyed the economy, created massive unemployment, and caused a majority of families to be food insecure. It is illegal for an Occupying power to impose collective punishment on a civilian population for which it has responsibility.

Water shortage in the Gaza Strip -  PressTV file photo

Zvi Bar'el writing in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz asks why the Palestinian reconciliation is driving the Israeli government into a panic, pointing out the contradictions inherent in Israel's refusal to engage in dialogue with Hamas.  The discussions with the PLO that led to the Oslo Accords were begun when the PLO was defined as a terrorist organization and had not recognized Israel.   Another contradiction in Israeli policy is that they objected to talks with Hamas "because it was a terror group and served as an Iranian agent in the region. But when Hamas cut itself off from Iran and moved to join the PLO, Israel used it as an excuse to stop the peace negotiations with the Palestinians and blame Abbas for the talks’ collapse."  Bar'el sums up the situation: The reconciliation will lead Hamas and Islamic Jihad into coalition with the PLO, making them an inseparable part of the formal framework that signed the Oslo agreements. It is possible of course that the new PLO will move to revoke these agreements unilaterally. But so far no inclination has been reported on Hamas’ part to condition its joining the PLO on revoking the agreements.  On the contrary, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has stated that there is no contradiction between the peace talks and the reconciliation agreement. This could indicate an agreement between Fatah and Hamas to maintain the peace talks, as [Hamas po;itical leader] Meshal made clear already in 2012, when the basic reconciliation agreement between the two movements was ratified.  The dilemma that Abbas has laid at the US and Israeli doorstep is this: If they want to advance a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, they cannot demand to neutralize Hamas and at the same time claim that Abbas does not represent all of the Palestinians.  Israel is expected to cut ties with the unity government and the US will likely turn a cold shoulder towards it.  Bar'el concludes: the European Union and Arab states, most of which support the reconciliation, will have to make a decision. Will they allow some 5 million Palestinians to be left with no services, no funds and no hope of a political horizon, or will they take this opportunity to shape reality in the Middle East, rather than merely observe from the side?

Who knows?  Perhaps a break in the talks will lead each side to reconsider its position and maybe peace and justice will eventually come to all in that troubled land.  The makings of an agreement are clear. Palestinians, including Hamas, recognize Israel and renounce the use of violence in their pursuit of statehood.  Israel stops taking land from the Palestinians, removes the blockade on Gaza, and drops the demand that it be recognized as Jewish state (or somehow guarantee the Palestinian right of return in a Jewish state).  Until an agreement on the final borders of a viable Palestinian state can be reached, the Arab League and Europe step up and support the Palestinians.  They have been stateless since 1948.  It's long past the time when they are due some justice.

Links
A new comprehensive UN report on the situation in the Gaza Strip says the besieged territory will not be “livable” in 2020 unless immediate action is taken to improve the humanitarian situation there. [PressTV, April 25]

Americans for Peace Now statement on the pause in discussions [APN website, April 25]

In Brief
Back in February, news broke of Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal's efforts to make sure that no governor of Georgia could ever decide to take Medicaid expansion, giving the legislature veto power over any future governor's decision to do so. But it's not just Deal. Kansas's Gov. Sam Brownback (R) is doing it too.  Georgia and Kansas have left a combined 487,000 residents uncovered under Obamacare because they refused to expand Medicaid. And, though the law remains unpopular, a recent poll found that majorities of Georgians (54 percent) and Kansans (55 percent) support Medicaid expansion. [Daily Kos, April 22]

New York has become the latest state to join an agreement that would transform the U.S. presidential election. Under the compact for a National Popular Vote, states across the country have pledged to award their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote. [Democracy Now, April 17]

Jon Stewart's hilarious take on the Cliven Bundy ranch showdown [Daily Kos, April 22]

And our climate change article of the week comes from Reuters: Scientists are monitoring an iceberg roughly six times the size of Manhattan - one of the largest now in existence - that broke off from an Antarctic glacier and is heading into the open seas.  [Reuters, April 23]

Earth Day 2014

Consider the following propositions:

1. Life exists only because the material conditions on Earth happen to be just right for its existence;

2. Life defines the material conditions for its existence and makes sure that they stay there.

- James Lovelock & Sidney Epton, "The Quest for Gaia", 1975

The first Earth Day in April, 1970 was celebrated shortly after James Lovelock began his work on the Gaia Hypothesis. He formulated the hypothesis in the 1960's as a result of work he had done for NASA on the detection of life on Mars.  In February 1975, he wrote an article for New Scientist magazine with Sidney Epton called "The Quest for Gaia", wherein they explained and developed the hypothesis. It became Lovelock's life work and, in 2009, the then ninety-year-old scientist wrote The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning. 

In between Lovelock's early work on Gaia and his latest book, of course, were the lunar missions that gave us those awe-inspiring photos of the Earth, beautiful and vulnerable in the void of space. Carl Sagan's "pale blue dot" is still the only confirmed home of life, intelligent or otherwise, in the universe. Here, life has filled every nook from the depths of the oceans to volcanic vents to the fissures in rocks. Organisms can require oxygen or not. They can live in temperatures below the freezing point and above the boiling point of water . They can live in acidic environments or basic. They live in water or in deserts. They can live under tremendous pressure and can resist ionizing radiation. Lovelock's hypothesis proposes that these organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a self-regulating, complex system that contributes to maintaining the conditions for life on the planet.  Lovelock's "final warning" is that the complexity of the living Gaia system is significant and important, that computer modeling that does not take it into account can lead us astray, and that "Until we all feel intuitively that the Earth is a living system, and know that we are part of it, we will fail to react automatically for its and ultimately our own protection."

Native American culture has a respectful, almost sacred, stance towards the natural world and the creatures that share it with us. A quote often attributed to the Duwamish Chief Seattle reflects an attitude of stewardship towards the world - “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”. There's a phrase in the Lakota language "Mitakuye Oyasin" that translates to "all are related" and reflects the Lakota belief in a universal interconnectedness. What affects one, affects all.   

William Wordsworth, in his magnificent poem "Tintern Abbey" (actually, the full title is "Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting The Banks Of The Wye During A Tour. July 13, 1798"), writes of an almost mystical unity.  When contemplating the nature, he feels

"A presence that disturbs me with the joy

Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime

Of something far more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,

And the round ocean and the living air,

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;

A motion and a spirit, that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,

And rolls through all things."

Earth Day is a good time to pause and reflect on this interconnectedness of all life. Marc Ian Barasch discusses this in his 2005 book, Field Notes on the Compassionate Life. He relates the story of a Colorado boy who became lost in the woods in the dead of winter. As hypothermia was setting in, the boy tried to chase away two huge elks that he saw nearby. He lost consciousness and would surely have died had not the two elks slept up against him warming him through the cold night. Barasch continues, "There are a million stories of our fellow creatures being kind to us for no good reason...There are inexplicable ways compassion radiates through the world; some spirit of sympathy drawn toward any distress." Barasch relates experiments that show even plants to be sensitive to painful or sad thoughts and memories.  He concludes that perhaps "our ultimate human assignment is to extend our sense of kinship beyond family and clan and strangers to all other creatures...Acknowledging a sentient world might make us kinder, gentler citizens of a planet that has already had to endure more than its share of our cruelties."

I'll close with a final thought from Barasch's book that could perhaps guide and inspire our efforts over the coming year. "Given our shaky collective plight, knowing Nature's 'value' may not be enough; we may need to love it."

Images

Earth from Space (Apollo 17) from NASA

Gray wolf from US Fish & Wildlife Service (Gary Kramer)
Tintern Abbey from Destination Envy website/Drive Wales page
Deer in winter woods is from Conservation Fund website (Reggie Hall)
Polar bear on ice floe is from ZME Science website

Sunday Roundup - April 20, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the Iran nuclear talks, the Ukraine  agreement, the passing of Gabriel García Márquez, and Pope Francis' Easter Urbi et Orbi blessing.  

Iran Nuclear Talks
Hardliners on all sides of the Iran nuclear talks have put pressure on the negotiators trying to hammer out an historic agreement.  On Wednesday April 16, Reuters reported on Iranian hardliners' stepped up criticism of the nuclear talks:  The hardliners, unsettled by the shift to a more moderate foreign policy since President Hassan Rouhani took office in August, have repeatedly criticized the talks in recent months but Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei backs them....In their latest charge, critics of the negotiations leaked an audio recording purporting to show Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi criticizing Rouhani's view of the nuclear program, the official IRNA news agency reported.  Araghchi,[ a key negotiator in the talks that produced the November interim deal,] lashed out at his critics on Wednesday, saying the audio filed was "selected and distorted" and urging them not to play politics with what he called Iran's nuclear rights...Foreign Minister Javad Zarif told Reuters he did not fear opposition from hardliners and was optimistic about reaching a comprehensive agreement with world powers by the July 20 deadline.

Hardliners aside, Iran continues to reduce its nuclear enrichment capabilities as demanded by the West.  Reuters/The Star Online (Malaysia) reported on Thursday's release of the IAEA's monthly update: The monthly update by the International Atomic Energy Agency , which has a pivotal role in verifying that Iran is living up to its part of the accord, made clear that Iran so far is undertaking the agreed steps to curb its nuclear programme.  The IAEA update noted that Iran has cut its most sensitive nuclear stockpile by nearly 75 percent and diluted half of its higher-grade enriched uranium reserve to a fissile content less prone to bomb proliferation. A planned facility needed to convert low-enriched uranium gas (LEU) to a non-weaponizable oxide has been delayed, likely due to technical issues.  Western diplomats said earlier that this matter was of no immediate consequence as Iran's commitment concerns the size of the reserve towards the end of the deal, in late July, meaning it has time both to complete the site and convert enough LEU.

Ukraine
Some progress was made on resolving the crisis in the Ukraine.  The Guardian reported Thursday: The US, Russia, Ukraine and the European Union have reached agreement on a series of immediate steps aimed at pulling eastern Ukraine back from the brink of war.  The deal, clinched after a dramatic extended meeting in Geneva, calls for the disarming of all illegal groups. In the next few days they would have to vacate all the government buildings and public spaces they have occupied over the course of the crisis.  In return, the protesters in eastern Ukraine would be offered amnesty for all but capital crimes and the government in Kiev would immediately start a process of public consultation aimed at devolving constitutional powers to the provinces.  However, pro-Russian groups in eastern Ukraine are staying put for the time being.  The Guardian reported Friday: Pro-Russian groups in eastern Ukraine have accused the authorities in Kiev of violating an agreement to defuse tensions across the country, adding that they have no intention of leaving buildings they have occupied...At a press conference on Friday..., Denis Pushilin, the self-styled leader of the Donetsk People's Republic, said his supporters would stay put until a referendum on the region's future status took place. The current pro-western government in Kiev was illegitimate, he said...Pushilin – speaking from the occupied regional administration building in central Donetsk – said that Kiev had already violated the Geneva deal by refusing to withdraw its military units from eastern Ukraine. 


Gabriel García Márquez
Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, the greatest Latin American writer of the 20th century, passed away Thursday at the age of 87.   His "magical realism" works are his best known.  In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature "for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts". Tributes poured in from around the world for the beloved author.  And beloved he was.  In the late 1990's, I was in Cartagena, where he maintained a home even during his many travels abroad. Painted on a rock wall not far from the Caribbean Sea were the words "Te amo Gabo".  Originally a law student, "Gabo" turned to journalism and eventually to fiction.  His breakout novel was "One Hundred Years of Solitude", published in 1967.  He counted Bill Clinton and Fidel Castro among his many admirers.  Because of his outspoken anti-imperialist views, García Márquez was denied travel visas to the US for many years.  The ban was lifted by Bill Clinton after he became President.

The City Paper (Bogotá) writes: García Márquez was among the vanguard of the ‘Latin American Boom,’ a literary movement to which Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes and Mario Vargas Llosa also belonged.  García Márquez’s use of magical realism, a style in which events are so extraordinary and unbelievable they seem fantastical, inspired a generation of writers and drew readers into an unforgettable world filled with poetry and imagination...“Gabo,” as he was affectionately known in Colombia, will be sorely missed in Colombia and abroad. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has declared 3 days of mourning for the passing of this native son of letters. 

The Scotsman writes of One Hundred Years of Solitude: García Márquez combines miraculous and supernatural events with the details of everyday life and the political realities of Latin America. The characters are visited by ghosts, a plague of insomnia envelops Macondo, a child is born with a pig’s tail and a priest levitates above the ground....García Márquez, a stocky man with a quick smile, thick moustache and curly hair, said he found inspiration for the novel by drawing on childhood memories of his grandmother’s stories - laced with folklore and superstition but delivered with the straightest of faces.  The Scotsman article concludes with this tribute from Colombian pop star Shakira: “Your life, dear Gabo, will be remembered by all of us as a unique and singular gift, and as the most original story of all,” Colombian pop star Shakira wrote on her website alongside a photograph of her hugging Garcia Marquez.


Urbi et Orbi (to the city and to the world)
Happy Easter!  Pope Francis delivered the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing after celebrating the Easter liturgy. Under clear blue skies in Rome, Pope Francis gave his Urbi et Orbi ("to the city and to the world") blessing.  At the heart of his message was a call to live the Good News of the Gospels in our treatment of the most vulnerable:  "In every human situation, marked by frailty, sin and death, the Good News is no mere matter of words, but a testimony to unconditional and faithful love: it is about leaving ourselves behind and encountering others, being close to those crushed by life's troubles, sharing with the needy, standing at the side of the sick, elderly and the outcast."  He prayed for the vulnerable and for peace throughout the world. As reported in Deutsche Welle:     The holiest day in the Christian calendar attracted more than 100,000 people to the square to hear the Pope speak on Sunday at mid day.  Easter celebrations in Rome again sent out the message of social solidarity which has characterised Pope Francis' papacy since it began last year.  He made reference to killings and violence around the world, including in Nigeria, Ukraine and Jerusalem and urged warring sides in Syria to negotiate "boldly."


Images
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is from El Espectador.
Pope Francis giving the "Urbi et Orbi" blessing is from La Corriere della Sera/L'Osservatore Romano

In Brief
"The Guardian and the Washington Post have been awarded the highest accolade in US journalism, winning the Pulitzer prize for public service for their groundbreaking articles on the National Security Agency’s surveillance activities based on the leaks of Edward Snowden." [The Guardian, April 14]

El Espectador, a Colombian newspaper for which Gabriel García Márquez wrote, has an extensive appreciation of his life, including a time line, slide shows and images.

Complete English text of Pope Francis' Urbi et Orbi Blessing [Huffington Post/AP, April 20]

Voter Suppression 2014

"There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the voter Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit a franchise that we see today."  

- Former President Bill Clinton, July 2011

Besides the threat to democracy from the Roberts Court's decisions removing restrictions on campaign financing (Citizens United and McCutcheon), there is an even more blatant and direct threat in the numerous state laws aimed at suppressing voter turnout.  Republicans quickly realized after the 2008 election of Barack Obama that voter turnout was a key to his successful bid for the Presidency.  They began a widespread effort to suppress the vote in states that they held - starting with voter ID laws, then purging voter rolls, then making it more difficult to register, then reducing early and absentee voting and, then, Obama's initiative to make voting easier notwithstanding, making it more difficult for people to make it to the polls.  I don't think even Republicans believe their original canard of enacting these laws to "prevent voter fraud," which is less common than shark attacks.  The suppression of the vote is nothing less than an assault on the most basic democratic right. 

The Republican momentum towards this widespread denial of voting rights was well underway by the time of the 2012 elections.  Based on the Brennan Center for Justice's October 2011 analysis, the laws in place by year end 2011 would have made it "significantly harder for more than five million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012." Even so, it was not enough to stop Obama's re-election.  Then in 2013, the Roberts Court gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act in Shelby County vs. Holder.  Encouraged by the ruling and now in control of several more state legislatures, the voter suppression effort was cranked up.  The worst voter suppression laws were passed in North Carolina the month after the Roberts Court's ruling.  As Ari Berman summarizes in his excellent article on the North Carolina law: "In short, the bill eliminates practically everything that encourages people to vote in North Carolina, replaced by unnecessary and burdensome new restrictions. At the same time, the bill expands the influence of unregulated corporate influence in state elections."  In 2013 alone, at least 93 new restrictive voting bills were introduced in 33 states.  [Brennan Center for Justice, Dec. 19, 2013] 

Dana Liebelson writing on April 9 for Mother Jones notes the absolute wrong-headedness of the Roberts Court's decison to strike down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act on the basis that "our country has changed," and that blanket federal protection wasn't needed to stop discrimination.  "States that were previously covered in some part by Section 5 moved quickly after it was invalidated." Besides North Carolina, the states of Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, Mississippi, Florida and South Carolina pushed through actions to restrict voting rights.  Liebelson continues: "We found that 8 of the 15 states [previously covered by the Voting Rights Act], or 53 percent, passed or implemented voting restrictions since June 25, compared to 3 of 35 states that were not covered under Section 5—or less than 9 percent. Additionally, a number of states not covered by the Voting Rights Act actually expanded voting rights in the same time period.  The three states not covered by the VRA that did pass restrictive laws after the decision (Kansas, Ohio, Wisconsin) are all in the hands of Republicans.  No surprise there.

In addition to the state level actions, action at the local level by politicians and operatives designed to discourage voting are also being implemented.  These actions or attempted actions range from moving polling places out of the reach of public transportation in minority districts  to attempts to squash voter registration efforts and absentee balloting to closing bathrooms at polling places.  Honestly, you just can't make this stuff up.

The road back to fairness will be a long one.  None of the Congressional efforts to restore voting rights have gone anywhere.  Being somewhat cynical, I wonder: why should any Republican support fairness in voting when the objective of their party's effort is to suppress the vote of traditionally Democratic voters? 

Some law suits have been filed - most notably in North Carolina where the ACLU and others filed in late March to overturn the voter suppression laws there.  "The suit specifically targets provisions of the law that eliminate a week of early voting, end same-day registration, and prohibit "out-of-precinct" voting. It seeks to stop North Carolina from enacting these provisions, arguing that they would unduly burden the right to vote and discriminate against African-American voters, in violation of the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause and the Voting Rights Act of 1965." [ACLU website]  The challenge is not expected to be heard until 2015, although the litigants may be able to get some provisions blocked before the 2014 midterms.  Texas and Virginia voter ID laws are also being challenged, while, on the opposite side, Arizona and Kansas are suing the Federal government "for the right to require people to provide proof of citizenship when they register to vote. A win for the states could not only make it much harder to register voters in those places.... It would also do major damage to Congress’s authority to establish minimum national standards for voting—a power that’s crucial for any effort to improve elections." [MSNBC, Jan 15]

There is no more basic right nor distinguishing feature of a democracy than the right to vote.  That right is now under attack and America is quickly losing its mantle as the chief supporter of democracy.  Let's hope we can regain some of the moral ground we have lost in the coming months and years. 

Sunday Roundup - April 13

“I believe the only way to live and to be truly successful is by collective effort, with everyone working for each other, everyone helping each other, and everyone having a share of the rewards at the end of the day.”

- Bill Shankly, Liverpool FC Manager from 1959-74

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at Russia-US relations, Syria, and the World Cup.

Russia-US Relations
The overthrow of Russia-leaning Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, the Crimean referendum to rejoin Russia, and Russia's subsequent annexation of Crimea have placed US-Russia relations in about as bad a place as they have been since the end of the Cold War.  Congressional Republicans have ratcheted up their rhetoric and seem to have lost their senses on the issue of nuclear safety.  As The Nation's editor Katrina vanden Heuvel writes on April 10: Representatives Michael Turner (R-OH) and Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Buck McKeon (R-CA) introduced a bill that, among other things, prohibits "the contact, cooperation or transfer of technology between the National Nuclear Security Administration [NNSA] and the Russian Federation until the Secretary of Energy certifies the Russian military is no longer illegally occupying Crimea, no longer violating the INF treaty, and in compliance with the CFE treaty." Engendering nuclear instability by using safety as a stick is an incredibly reckless way to approach global security.  The bill has little chance of prevailing and, even if it does, it will be vetoed by President Obama.

NASA/AFP/Getty Images (appears in Al Jazeera article)

Thankfully, the crisis in the Ukraine has not affected operations at the International Space Station.  Al Jazeera reported on April 9: While relations between American and Russian space officials have frayed because of the crisis in Ukraine, work together on the station remains the same, officials say....The Russian cargo shuttle launched Wednesday morning from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and after about four spins around the Earth it docked with the ISS, delivering food, fuel and cosmic knickknacks to one Japanese astronaut, two American astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts on board.

The Japan Times offers this take on the deterioration of relations between the two superpowers: Underlying the ferociously strong sense of grievance that prevails among the Russian people against the West is one simple, overpowering emotion: “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore” (to use the classic line from Howard Beale, the Mad Prophet of the Airwaves from the classic 1976 movie “Network”).  Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has not just seen its historic standing and interests in its ancient zone of influence, going back hundreds of years, shrink; worse, Russia’s reach has been systematically dismantled by the United States. One solemn promise after another, made to the Russians, has been forgotten, ignored or scrapped.  It is one thing to talk about other nations’ freedom and independence (and rejoice when they receive it). It is quite another matter if those powers then move deliberately to put those freed countries fully into their orbit.

Syria
In a bleak account of the possibilities for peace in Syria, Yezid Sayigh, writing for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, writes in an April 8 article: The grim truth is that for those determined to extract a diplomatic exit from the crisis under present conditions, Iran’s latest four-point peace plan is the only potentially feasible bid on the table. It calls for a general ceasefire, a national unity government composed of the regime and Syria’s “internal” opposition, the successive transfer of a wide but unspecified range of presidential powers to the government over several years, and general and presidential elections.

World Cup

Bill Shankly turned Second Division Liverpool into an English Premier League "bastion of invincibility"
Photo by Bob Thomas appears in The Far Post article

Roads and Kingdoms continues its excellent "The Far Post" series on the global soccer culture in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup.  One of the most interesting and thought-provoking in the series is philosopher Simon Critchley's March 11 piece, "Working Class Ballet", on the "spectacle, poetry and importance of professional football."  It's a personal telling of his life-long love of the sport.  Along the way, he speaks of the great Liverpool coach Bill Shankly, his memories of previous World Cups, of his relationship through the sport to his father and to his son, and the film Zidane: A Portrait of the 21st Century.  Here are a few quotes from the article, reflecting on the World Cup:
The World Cup is a spectacle in the strictly Situationist sense. It is a shiny display of teams, tribes and nations in symbolic, indeed rather atavistic, national combat adorned with multiple layers of commodification, sponsorship and the seemingly infinite commercialization...

The World Cup is an image of our age at its worst and most gaudy. But it is also something more, something bound up with difficult and recalcitrant questions of conflict, memory, history, place, social class, masculinity, violence, national identity, tribe and group....

The World Cup, then, is about ever-shifting floors of memory and the complexity of personal and national identity. But at its best it is about grace...an unforced bodily containment and elegance of movement, a kind of discipline where long periods of inactivity can suddenly accelerate and time takes on a different dimension in bursts of controlled power. 

R.I.P. - Campaign Finance Reform

In a 5-4 vote last week, the Roberts Court sounded the death knell of campaign finance reform with its McCutcheon v. FEC ruling.  "The Supreme Court...continued its abolition of limits on election spending, striking down a decades-old cap on the total amount any individual can contribute to federal candidates in a two-year election cycle."  [NYT, April 2]  If Citizens United opened the door to unlimited campaign spending, McCutcheon blows the roof off. 

“There is no right more basic in our democracy,” Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote in the opening of his opinion for the court in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, “than the right to participate in electing our political leaders.”  [NYT, April 2].  Hmm...I really wish he had said the right to vote rather than the right to contribute as much money as you want to as many people as you want.


The response to the ruling of the conservative plurality was about as expected - praised by the right and scorned by the center and left.  The Court's narrow definition of what constitutes "corruption or the appearance of corruption" bears special scrutiny.  The conservative majority on the Court reverted to an interpretation more suited to the Gilded Age in requiring quid pro quo bribery to be the low bar definition of corruption. 

Justice Breyer's dissent is a masterpiece.  "We specifically rejected efforts to define “corruption” in ways similar to those the plurality today accepts...Just as troubling to a functioning democracy as classic quid pro quo corruption is the danger that office­holders will decide issues not on the merits or the desires of their constituencies, but according to the wishes of those who have made large financial contributions valued by the officeholder.”  The Daily Kos has a good writeup on Breyer's dissent.

Here are excerpts from some of the commentaries.

The Supreme Court...continued its crusade to knock down all barriers to the distorting power of money on American elections. In the court’s most significant campaign-finance ruling since Citizens United in 2010, five justices voted to eliminate sensible and long-established contribution limits to federal political campaigns.  [NYTimes, April 2]

The Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned yet another federal law meant to check corruption and influence-peddling in national politics. The ruling shows two things: The Roberts Court’s destructive view on these matters wasn’t changed by the backlash to its Citizens United holding, and Congress must respond by designing new rules that can pass the court’s overly skeptical review.[Washington Post, April 2]

One of the best commentaries is from Dahlia Lithwick at Slate:
Without even acknowledging that it is doing so, the Roberts Five has overturned 40 years of policy and case law, under an earnest plea about the rights of the beleaguered donors who simply want to spend $3.6 million on every election cycle....I worry that the court has located itself so outside the orbit of the 99 percent that it simply doesn’t matter to the five conservatives in the majority that the American public knows perfectly well what bought government looks like and that Breyer is describing a level of cynicism that has already arrived. Worse still, I worry that it matters very little to them that we will stop voting, donating, participating, or caring about elections at all in light of this decision to silence us yet further. In which case McCutcheon is a self-fulfilling prophecy in exactly the way Breyer predicts: Money doesn’t just talk. It also eventually forces the public to understand that we don’t much matter. It silences...

I hate to take issue with the optimism of the Washington Post editorial.  I can't imagine any campaign financing rule changes or laws coming out of Congress that would pass muster before the conservatives on the court.  After all, they think that corporations have the rights of persons and that money given to politicians is free speech. 

Until there is a liberal majority on the Court, the only way to reverse the poisoning of our democracy caused by Citizens United and McCutcheon is by a constitutional amendment.  To propose an amendment requires a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress (or a request from two-thirds of the state legislatures to call a national convention).  Then three-quarters of the states will need to ratify it.  It's a tough, drawn out task but there has been some momentum underway since Citizens United - as of now 16 states have passed resolutions calling to overturn Citizens United.  Rick Weiland, the Democratic candidate for Senate in South Dakota has even proposed wording for such an amendment. "So that the votes of all, rather than the wealth of the few, shall direct the course of this Republic, Congress shall have the power to limit the raising and spending of money with respect to federal elections."  Sounds good to me.

Links
List of passed State Resolutions to reverse Citizens United [United for the People webpage]

Sunday Roundup - April 6, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at climate change and, in brief, Syria, Ukraine and the EU economy.

"Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change"

Climate Change Effects Map from IPCC "Summary for Policy Makers"

Spanish cargo ship hitting sea dyke in France during winter storm - Euronews

The second part of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report on global warming was released last week.  Computer simulations backed by empirical data "repeatedly drew causal links between the punishing natural phenomena [observed in recent years] and extended human activity."  Presenting the findings in Yokohama, IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri said: “We have assessed impacts as they are happening, and impacts on natural and human systems on all continents and oceans. And I would like to emphasise that nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change." Speaking with euronews, Daniela Schmidt, the lead author of the report, said "what our findings very clearly spell out is that since the time of the dinosaurs we have not had climate change at rates as rapid as it’s currently happening."  [euronews, April 2]

The report assesses various options for adaptation to climate change and shows that "adaptation is an option only if efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions are strengthened substantially. Without mitigation, the impacts of climate change will be devastating."  RealClimate.org has a summary of the key findings in the IPCC report.  Highlights from the post by climate scientist Wolfgang Cramer follow.

Impacts of anthropogenic climatic change are observed worldwide and have been linked to observed climate using rigorous methods. Such impacts have occurred in many ecosystems on land and in the ocean, in glaciers and rivers, and they concern food production and the livelihoods of people in developing countries - See more at: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2014/04/impacts-of-climate-change-part-2-of-the-new-ipcc-report-has-been-approved/#sthash.JFUgl8SE.dpuf

Impacts of anthropogenic climatic change are observed worldwide and have been linked to observed climate using rigorous methods. Such impacts have occurred in many ecosystems on land and in the ocean, in glaciers and rivers, and they concern food production and the livelihoods of people in developing countries - See more at: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2014/04/impacts-of-climate-change-part-2-of-the-new-ipcc-report-has-been-approved/#sthash.JFUgl8SE.dpuf

Impacts of anthropogenic climatic change are observed worldwide and have been linked to observed climate using rigorous methods. Such impacts have occurred in many ecosystems on land and in the ocean, in glaciers and rivers, and they concern food production and the livelihoods of people in developing countries - See more at: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2014/04/impacts-of-climate-change-part-2-of-the-new-ipcc-report-has-been-approved/#sthash.JFUgl8SE.dpuf

• Impacts of anthropogenic climatic change are observed worldwide and have been linked to observed climate using rigorous methods. Such impacts have occurred in many ecosystems on land and in the ocean, in glaciers and rivers, and they concern food production and the livelihoods of people in developing countries.
• "High” scenarios of climate change...will likely result in catastrophic impacts on most aspects of human life on the planet. 
• Significant reductions [in agricultural yields] are highly likely to dominate in later decades of the present century [from 2030 onwards]...The situation for global fisheries is comparably bleak...[with] a loss of marine productivity to be expected in nearly all tropical waters....
• Urban areas in developing countries will be particularly affected.  Improved urban planning, focusing on the resilience of residential areas and transport systems of the poor, can deliver important contributions to adaptation. This would also have to include better preparation for the regionally rising risks from typhoons, heat waves and floods.
• Enhanced global warming may significantly increase risks of future violent conflict.
• Economic losses will be most tangible for countries, regions and social groups already disadvantaged compared to others....[the] economic impacts of climate change will push large additional numbers of people into poverty and the risk of malnutrition, due to various factors including increase in food prices.
• There is no globally acceptable “one-fits-all” concept for adaptation....[Context-specific solutions] can provide opportunities to enhance the quality of life and local economic development in many regions – this would then also reduce vulnerabilities to climate change.

I was intrigued by the "context-specific solutions" for adaptation to climate change in the "Summary for Policy Makers"..  The tool kit for the adaptation solutions is contained in Assessment Box SPM.2 Table 1 and Table SPM.1 in the IPCC "Summary for Policy Makers."  The Assessment Box provides a summary of the major risks for each region and potential adaptation strategies.  Table SPM.1 covers everything from human development factors to ecosystem and disaster risk management to engineering, technological, and ecosystem-based options.  Will nations have the political will to prioritize the necessary actions?  Will they make the necessary effort to significantly mitigate greenhouse gas emissions?  Without this latter, the adaptation strategies will be for naught.

In Brief

“high” scenarios of climate change (those where global mean temperature reaches four degrees C or more above preindustrial conditions – a situation that is not at all unlikely according to part one of the report) will likely result in catastrophic impacts on most aspects of human life on the planet. - See more at: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2014/04/impacts-of-climate-change-part-2-of-the-new-ipcc-report-has-been-approved/#sthash.JFUgl8SE.dpuf

Syria
The transport of containers packed with 40% of Syria's chemical weapons to the port of Latakia for shipment outside the country is being has been delayed because of violence in the area.  Islamist insurgents launched an offensive in the region around March 20.  Syrian authorities have assigned forces to provide security for the convoys to deal with the increased violence in the area.  Meanwhile, the Syrian government and insurgents traded charges on chemical weapons last week.  The number of Syrian refugees who have fled to Lebanon officially topped 1 million on Thursday, highlighting the growing humanitarian catastrophe caused by Syria's civil war and the huge burden placed on its poorly prepared neighbors. [Reuters, April 2 and 3]

Ukraine
In a March 24 op-ed blog at The Guardian, Richard Norton-Taylor writes that instead of indulging in bluster and provocative rhetoric on Russia's annexation of the Ukraine, the UK and NATO commanders should make clear that NATO has no designs on the country. NATO has extended enough.  In a Le Monde Diplomatique post of April 3, Jean-Arnault Dérens and Laurent Geslin write that Ukraine’s president has fled and there is an interim government, but the power brokers who will make or break the country’s future include many of the same oligarchs who backed the last regime.  

European Economy
The International Business Times reported on April 1 that "In the EU, the unemployment rate was recorded at 10.6 percent in February, down from 10.7 percent in January and 10.9 percent in February 2013."  The lowest unemployment rates were in Austria (4.8%) and Germany (5.1%) while the highest were in Greece (27.5% in December) and Spain (25.6%).  The European recovery from the worldwide recession has been slower in Europe than in the US - primarily because of the European emphasis on austerity/deficit reduction.  In a January 2014 analysis of the different rates of recovery that appeared in The Guardian, Mark Weisbrot wrote: "After some stimulus..., the eurozone governments...engaged in more and earlier budget tightening than the United States did; and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has shown a clear relationship between this fiscal tightening and reduced GDP growth."  France is trying to do something about this overemphasis on deficit reduction.  In an April 2 post,  Euronews reports that: "Reversing France’s economic decline is high on the list of President Hollande’s priorities and his cabinet reshuffle means a more powerful role as economy minister for outspoken leftist politician Arnaud Montebourg...The fiery Montebourg has accused the European Union of hurting growth with austerity measures he says are misguided and called the policies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel 'dangerous and suicidal'.  As industry minister, he has been openly protectionist to secure French jobs, repeatedly sided with trade unions against bosses."



Other Links
Left Bank Cafe posts on the first part of the IPCC report published in 2013 can be found at this October 3 post and this October 6 post.

Obamacare Done Good!

The open enrollment deadline has passed and it looks like about 7 million people have enrolled through the healthcare exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act.  There was a huge surge in the last days and, in spite of a couple of system shutdowns yesterday, Obamacare appears to have reached it's original (i.e., before the website problems of last October) goal of 7 million signups.

It's bound to be a major topic in the midterm elections.  Up to the end, Republicans have tried to deny the real good that it has done and, in November, they will run on a platform whose centerpiece is to repeal it.  They have nothing else to show for their most recent term.  Well I guess they can say "Hey, we only shutdown the government once!" 

It being April Fool's Day, I thought I'd present a few of the egregious and ridiculous comments recently emitted from the mouths of politicians and political commentators on the subject and then give some facts. 


With 7 million people signed up for Obamacare, Republicans are hard pressed to continue to call it a disastrous failure.   That doesn't stop them from continuing the assault against the Affordable Care Act.  On Sunday, "Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)...dismissed the White House's recent announcement that Obamacare enrollment had reached more than 6 million people, calling it a meaningless figure. 'I don't think it means anything. ... I think they're cooking the books on this,' said Barrasso on  Fox News Sunday."[Huffington Post, March 30]

Fox News “Medical A-Team” contributor Dr. Manny Alvarez, “explaining” the purpose of the Affordable Care Act: “We did it for nothing. We did it to confuse America. We did it to create a false tax. We did it to create an environment of punitive damages to people that don’t follow what the federal government tells them to do.”
Read more at http://www.newshounds.us/fox_news_outrageous_quote_of_the_week_poll_3_16_14_3_22_14_03242014#7E0Jh72SwkT5Uyq1.99

Fox News “Medical A-Team” contributor Dr. Manny Alvarez, “explaining” the purpose of the Affordable Care Act: “We did it for nothing. We did it to confuse America. We did it to create a false tax. We did it to create an environment of punitive damages to people that don’t follow what the federal government tells them to do.” [Newshounds website, March 24]

No discussion of Republican blathering would be complete without an entry from Michelle Bachmann.  Here's her take on the Administration decision to extend the deadline for people who started but did not complete their applications before midnight March 31.  "Unfortunately, it is the continuation of lawlessness from the administration,” Bachmann told Fox News’s Neil Cavuto on Wednesday. [Daily Kos, March 27]

I guess you notice a theme here.  These inane comments are all from commentary on Fox "News" shows.

Now for some facts.

In addition to the 7 million sign-ups, the ACA provided numerous improvements to health care insurance in our country- including provisions that

• Let young adults stay on their plan until 26
• Stop insurance companies from dropping you when you are sick or if you make an honest mistake on your application
• Prevent against gender discrimination
• Stop insurance companies from making unjustified rate hikes
• Do away with life-time and annual limits
• Give you the right to a rapid appeal of insurance company decisions
• Require all insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions  
• Require that all non-grandfathered health insurance plans cover preventive services (including yearly check-ups, immunizations, counseling, and screenings) at no out-of-pocket costs 
• Essential health benefits (including emergency care, hospitalization, prescription drugs, maternity, and newborn care) must be included on all non-grandfathered plans with no annual or lifetime dollar limits.

For more information on the Affordable Care Act, see the Obamacare Facts website.

Conservative groups spent millions trying to dissuade people, especially young and healthy people,  from signing up.  The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted 50 times to repeal it or change it.  Misleading Obamacare horror stories filled the airwaves.  States refused to help people understand the law.  For nearly a month at startup, the healthcare.gov site was basically non-functional.  Still 7 million people cut through the crap thrown at them and applied.  In addition to the health exchange signups, there are millions of working poor who will now qualify for Medicaid thanks to the Medicaid expansion provision of the law.

But still the work for health care coverage is not done.

The main driving force for the ACA was to provide health care coverage for those who could not afford it.  An important provision in achieving this was the Medicaid expansion.  The intent was to cover the gap between Medicaid recipients and those who could still not afford health care insurance even with a subsidy.  State expansion of Medicaid was made voluntary by the Supreme Court in its decision on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.  This decision was a game-changer

Republican governors and state legislatures, for the most part, prevented Medicaid expansion from taking effect in their state.  They did this despite the fact that the Federal government would cover about 93% of the costs for the first nine years of the expansion (2014-2022).  The CBO estimated that if all states expanded Medicaid coverage under the provisions of the ACA, 17 million people would be eligible.  

With many red states refusing to expand Medicaid at this time, between 7 and 8 million people will still not be able to afford health insurance.  States can decide to expand Medicaid at a later date.  Let's hope they do so and that public pressuring such as MoveOn.org's billboard campaign will help bring this about.  For the cost to expansion-denying states will be more than lost Federal dollars.  It will be lives. 

If the Republicans bring up their "death panel" lies again, I suggest we direct them to the January 2014 Harvard Medical School researcher's study: "Opting Out Of Medicaid Expansion: The Health And Financial Impacts."  The study estimates from 7,000 to 17,000 needless deaths per year because of these state decision to keep the working poor uninsured. [Daily Kos, March 30]

So to those GOPer's who want to make Obamacare "the issue" in the mid-terms, I say "Bring it on!"