Whims of a Weaver

ICYMI: Recapping the News (1/26/14-1/30/14) January 30, 2014

Welcome (back) to my new weekly segment highlighting events, news, and commentary that I find to be significant and largely overlooked (for instance, I won’t be over-analyzing the State of the Union coverage). Reminder: it is by no means comprehensive. Here’s a quick rundown of some major news stories and commentary from the last week that probably flew under your radar:

Polling the News

• Public Policy Polling released a new poll highlighting viewership and attitudes towards TV news sources. Highlights:
  1. Fox News is the most trusted news source (35%)…but also the least (33%). GOP: 69% say Fox News is their most trusted news source.
  2. Democrats turn to PBS (21%), ABC (18%), and CNN (18%), showing a broader spectrum of support. In fact, at least 60% of Dems trust PBS, CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS.
  3. “Republicans hate MSNBC (38% least trusted) a lot more than Democrats like it (12% most trusted).
  4. Colbert vs. O’Reilly. Bill O’Reilly leads Stephen Colbert in a hypothetical Presidential contest, 38% to 35%.
• My thoughts: the left’s “inflation” of Fox News’ importance doesn’t really look like an inflation. On the other hand, the right enjoys bashing MSNBC well beyond the network’s apparent scope.
• Meanwhile, Gabriel Sherman new bio of Fox News chief Roger Ailes has been getting attention. Former Bush aide David Frum discusses the bio and Fox, leading with “Viewers don’t want to be informed. Viewers want to feel informed.”

Politics

• From…myself. An analysis of problems Democrats face because of our own self-awareness and approach.
• President Obama received a lot of attention this week for his apparent readiness to “go it alone” on domestic policy issues. Over at Mother Jones, Kevin Drum thinks that’s just spin, as evidenced by the “exhaustive list of seven things Obama said he’d do on his own.” Drum: “This wasn’t a declaration of independence. Obama knows perfectly well that there isn’t much he can do without Congress’s help, and for the most part he avoided confrontational language.”
• David Rothkopf’s framing on President Obama’s speech because 1) I like David Rothkopf and 2) you have to see the picture at the top.

Race

• Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald: “On Race, Conservatives are Silent.” I want to see conservatives step up on race because liberals get ignored or jeered for “playing the race card” or being “anti-white.”
• Ian Bremmer: % of U.S. men arrested at least once by age 23 (non-traffic crimes): White – 38%, Hispanic – 44%, Black – 49%
• The Los Angeles Times has sad numbers (taken from 2009) to share regarding race and gun violence.
  1. “The rate of gunshot-related hospitalizations for African American males was 10 times that of white males.”
  2. “Blacks ages 15 to 19 were 13 times more likely than their white peers to be injured by gunfire.”
  3. “And 70% of all black children hospitalized for gun injury (compared with 32% of all white children injured by firearms) were classified as victims of assault.”

Economics

• My generation: “Highly Educated, Highly Indebted.” Yup.
• Douglas Elliott from the Brookings Institute (which was deemed the #1 think tank in the world, this week) relates three key policy areas that he expects to heavily influence the global economy this year. “Volatility is opportunity.”
• Also from Brookings, a discussion of trade policy recommendations because, not surprisingly, that didn’t make it into the State of the Union.
• The Economist wonders if “It’s like 1997 all over again” for emerging markets. For students of economics, that’s a worrisome notion.
• Last week, billionaire Tom Perkins wrote in to the Wall Street Journal to “call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its “one percent,” namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the “rich.”” I noted at the time that all of the commentators on the WSJ website agreed. This week: the Journal‘s editorial board heartily agreed, decrying “liberal intolerance” and using the opportunity to greatly stretch the topic and bash Democrats across the country. Expect The Onion to run a piece headlined “WSJ to Liberals: You’re Poor and We Hate You.”
  1. And this week from Forbes: “Seemingly lost on a GOP desperate to not seem heartless is that income inequality is unrelentingly beautiful…were they more economically astute, they’d complain that inequality hasn’t increased enough…When income and wealth inequality are growing, unease in our lives is shrinking.” Do all of the out-of-touch people live in the same bubble? I mean is it big enough for them, their egos, AND their bank accounts?

International

• As the European Union seeks to expand trade with Cuba, some commentators are taking note of Cuban reform. The U.S. has maintained a trade embargo with Cuba since the Kennedy administration. Personally, that seems ludicrous considering the initial reason for the embargo –ties to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union has obviously disbanded, regrouped, and become a U.S. trading partner since then. The embargo is a now silly relic of a bygone era.
• Democratic Senators Gillibrand, Coons, and Manchin have backed off from the push for new Iran sanctions. President Obama is urging Congress to step back and allow for an attempt at negotiations. Iran has strongly indicated that they will not take a seat at the table if new sanctions are enacted.

Foreign Policy

• As Ukraine is rocked by protests and government resignations (including the Prime Minister this week), four former Ambassadors to Ukraine wrote in to the New York Times with recommendations for quick and meaningful U.S. policy.
• Charles Kenny: “Could Britain’s Past Be America’s Future?” Kenny thinks so and is heartened by the prospect: “The message is clear: You can have relative decline and absolute progress all at the same time. There is a clear and positive lesson to be learned by the American people from Britain’s imperial retreat.”
  1. I touched on that exact question three and a half years ago: “Over the past several years, I’ve espoused the view that the United States would do well to revert to the British model of rolling back empire after World War II.”

Sports

• “Killer B” Lance Berkman, the great long-time Houston Astro and one of my favorite baseball players, is retiring after 15 seasons in MLB. Berkman finishes 4th all-time in home runs by a switch-hitter. Jon Heyman from Sports Illustrated calls him an “interesting” Hall of Fame case. For now, I’ll just say that it’s been a pleasure and I hope he enjoys retirement.
• Not retiring: Pirates pitcher A.J. Burnett. However, Burnett is expected to test the free agent market.
• Canisius guard Billy Baron was named national player of the week in college basketball.

Random

• The Doctor has a new look!
• From Twitter: “Someone just spent $24,300 on armor for their guinea pig…” Ezra Klein: “What? My guinea pig fights many battles.” The armor was designed for the noble guinea pig “Lucky” and later sold to benefit the Metropolitan Guinea Pig Rescue in Virginia.
  
• From Twitter: baby birds’ “First Flight” (obligatory cute pic)
• From Politico: “A petition to deport Justin Bieber has enough signatures to require a White House response.”
• Portugal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs is named Machete. Now you have an answer for the next time someone asks you “hey, how come no one ever picks on Portugal?”
• Weekend Song: As a tribute to Peyton Manning, here is “Omaha,” from the stellar Counting Crows album “August and Everything After.”

Enjoy the Super Bowl!