Friday Open Thread [8.28.15]

Filed in National by on August 28, 2015

I usually don’t quote Glenn Greenwald, because I don’t like him, and don’t approve of his whole involvement in the Snowden incident, but on this issue he is right and our media should be ashamed of themselves. Everyone in that room should have turned off the cameras and walked out.

Jorge Ramos, the influential anchor of Univision and an American immigrant from Mexico, has been denouncing Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. Yesterday at a Trump press conference in Iowa, Ramos stood and questioned Trump on his immigration views. Trump at first ignored him, then scolded him for speaking without being called on and repeatedly ordered him to “sit down,” then told him: “Go back to Univision.” When Ramos refused to sit down and shut up as ordered, a Trump bodyguard physically removed him from the room. After the press conference concluded, Ramos returned and again questioned Trump about immigration, with the two mostly talking over each other as Ramos asked Trump about the fundamental flaws in his policy. Afterward, Ramos said: “This is personal. … He’s talking about our parents, our friends, our kids and our babies.”

One might think that in a conflict between a journalist removed from a press conference for asking questions and the politician who had him removed, journalists would side with their fellow journalist. Some are. But many American journalists have seized on the incident to denounce Ramos for the crime of having opinions and even suggesting that he’s not really acting as a journalist at all.

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Donald Trump revealed that “he’s been coordinating with Ted Cruz for a joint appearance at an event opposing the Iran deal in Washington,” the Washington Post reports.

Said Trump: “We are talking to Ted Cruz, who is a friend of mine and a good guy, about doing something very big over the next two weeks in Washington. It’s essentially a protest against the totally incompetent deal that we’re making with Iran.”

Trump-Cruz is the ticket.

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Caitlin Huey-Burns: “Over the past month, John Kasich has been moving in on Bush’s turf, gaining ground in the must-win state of New Hampshire. The Ohio governor is positioning himself as moderate Republicans’ viable alternative to Bush, with a more current resume and less baggage, while refraining from going after his Florida rival.”

“Bush and Trump aren’t really going after the same voters, but he and Kasich are definitely doing so. In a field this crowded, the true threat comes not from the polar opposite candidate, but the one trying to be most like you.”

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Paul Krugman:

…Go back to the politics of 2009, when the new Obama administration was trying to cope with the most terrifying crisis since the 1930s. The outgoing Bush administration had already engineered a bank bailout, but the Obama team reinforced this effort with a temporary program of deficit spending, while the Federal Reserve sought to bolster the economy by buying lots of assets.
And Republicans, across the board, predicted disaster. Deficit spending, they insisted, would cause soaring interest rates and bankruptcy; the Fed’s efforts would “debase the dollar” and produce runaway inflation.

None of it happened. Interest rates stayed very low, as did inflation. But the G.O.P. never acknowledged, after six full years of being wrong about everything, that the bad things it predicted failed to take place, or showed any willingness to rethink the doctrines that led to those bad predictions. Instead, the party’s leading figures kept talking, year after year, as if the disasters they had predicted were actually happening.

…How would the men and women who would be president respond if crisis struck on their watch?

And the answer, on the Republican side at least, seems to be: with bluster and China-bashing. Nowhere is there a hint that any of the G.O.P. candidates understand the problem, or the steps that might be needed if the world economy hits another pothole.

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Timothy Egan:

In a few weeks, Pope Francis will visit our fair land, a fitting pivot from the Summer of Trump, closing out a gluttonous episode of narcissism, rudeness, frivolity and xenophobia. For all that the orangutan-haired vulgarian has done to elevate the worst human traits a public figure can have, Francis is the anti-Trump. He has more power, media magnetism and authenticity in his lone functioning lung than Donald Trump has in his entire empire of ego.

…But for saying things that the darker elements of the Republican Party believe, but rarely voice, Trump is their clear front-runner — a dangerous moment for a troubled party. He’s drawn praise from ex-Klansmen like David Duke. The Daily Storm, a neo-Nazi website, urged its followers “to vote for the first time in our lives for the one man who actually represents us.”

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  1. fightingbluehen says:

    Try to get this song out of your head.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm9gF5Gi9x4

  2. Anonymous says:

    First, it was Bloom Energy that we are paying for, now this:
    http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2015/08/28/power-line-appeal/71338896/

    WHEN is it going to stop!!!!!