The latest evidence that Iraq is not cured. Coordinated attacks in a dozen Iraqi towns killed more than 100 people, making Monday the deadliest in the country so far this year.
** OBAMA THIS WEEKEND. President Barack Obama is in California and Nevada.
On very short notice, Obama dramatically altered his weekend schedule and flew on Sunday to Colorado to honor the victims of the horrific mass shooting at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises.
He then flew to San Francisco.
At 8:25 AM Pacific, Obama departs San Francisco, California on Air Force One en route Reno, Nevada.
At 9:10 AM Pacific, Obama arrives in Reno, Nevada.
At 9:35 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at the 113th National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars at the Reno Sparks Convention Center.
At 11 AM Pacific, Obama departs Reno, Nevada en on Air Force One route Oakland, California.
At 11:50 AM Pacific, Obama arrives in Oakland.
At 12:20 PM Pacific, Obama attends a campaign event at the he Scottish Rite Center in Oakland.
At 2:35 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at a private residence in Oakland.
At 4:55 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Fox Theatre in Oakland.
Obama will spend the rest of the night in San Francisco.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Syria, Iraq, AfPak, and the South China Sea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time. The time in Manila, on the South China Sea, is fifteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
** THE DARK KNIGHT SHOOTINGS: “ALL IT TAKES IS A LITTLE PUSH.”
“You see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little … push.”
-The Joker
The Dark Knight, 2008
Make no mistake. I like The Dark Knight Rises, which I saw in a midnight screening in California as horrific events were unfolding in Colorado, very much. And I do not believe that movies force people to be crazy, or even that movies are the principal source of violent images in the culture. There’s too much real news for that. But even a movie can become a focal point for irrationality and rage, and a telling index of the culture.
Just before the unconscionable shootings during the first public showing of The Dark Knight Rises, not far from the site of the Columbine massacre of 1999, something ominous took place around the launch of this excellent film. Movie critics who dared to give it bad reviews received unprecedented amounts of vitriol from commenters on the popular Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator site, including death threats. For the first time, the site shut down the comments section.
That none of these furious folks had actually seen the movie before they clicked publish on their viciousness mattered not a bit. In an us vs. them world, the world of politics and media in America today, of instantaneous judgments of complex matters and casual boorishness in debate, they were chomping at the bit to lash out.
As to what precisely motivated the evident shooter in Colorado, that remains to be seen. But he was clearly very angry, had no respect for others, and lashed out in the most shocking manner possible.
This is a culture with too much anger, too little reflection, and too many guns.
About the guns. Many are saying it’s time to get rid of guns. That might be a better world, but it’s not going to happen. Pretending it might does no good.
But that doesn’t mean that assault rifles have to be tolerated. There is simply no good reason why assault rifles have to be available.
The Colorado shooter entered that movie theater carrying an AR-15 assault rifle, a shotgun, and two pistols, with the assault rifle his primary weapon.
His AR-15 is the civilian version of the M16, in one form or another the principal rifle of the U.S. Armed Forces since the Vietnam War. I know this weapon. I earned the Navy expert rifleman medal (the actual non-PC name of the award) shooting the M16.
The AR-15, which is what the rifle was called before it was bought by the U.S. military, and the M16 are essentially the same weapon. With one difference. Only the M16 can fire automatically, in what most people think of, without getting into the technical weeds, as machine gun mode. (Though the AR-15 can be converted to full auto, and you can look that up on the ever helpful Internet.)
But even if is “only” semi-automatic, the AR-15 can deliver a devastating stream of rapid fire rounds, and much more accurately than the popular AK 47, which has far more recoil. I’m a gun owner, but I can’t imagine why anyone would need one outside a combat zone. A real one, that is, not one in some very misguided or deranged person’s head.
There’s certainly no true sport in hunting with one. For a good shot, it’s much too easy.
So what happens next?
If the past is any guide, not much. We’ll learn a lot more than we really want to know about the accused shooter, a UC Riverside grad who was a doctoral student in neuroscience at the University of Colorado.
The media will obsess and kvetch, as it has done with every sensational crime since the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, when it found the formula, and people will talk and talk.
Will there be new limits on assault rifles? I’d like to think so. But the federal assault weapons ban expired in 2004, and no attempt to reinstate it has so much as reached the floor of Congress.
There is an assault weapons ban in California, and specifically on the AR-15, but there seem to be some ways around it.
Even last year’s near assassination of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords led to nothing.
Hopefully, this time around will be different.
As for this being a culture of too much anger and too little reflection, well, I had thought the vitriol peaked in the reaction against the rise of Barack Obama. In 2008.
That proved to be, er, overly optimistic.
But I suspect there will be fewer online calls for the outright deaths of movie critics.
Oh, and The Dark Knight Rises? It’s a fascinating and provocative film, which I’ll discuss very fully in a forthcoming essay.
It shattered The Avengers’ box office record for opening midnight screenings but its performance does seem to be affected by the tragedy surrounding it. Still, it will flourish. The film is just too intriguing for it not to. …
** FROM THE JERRY FILES – MONDAY. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
However, I do expect Brown to be on hand tonight at President Obama’s fundraiser at the Fox Theater in Oakland.
Brown had the Fox Theater, a landmark in disarray when he became mayor of Oakland, thoroughly renovated.
It is now the home of one of Brown’s charter schools, the Oakland School for the Arts.
It was also the site of his 2010 victory party.
Brown is also going through a raft of legislation, as well as dealing with the unexpected $54 million in two special funds generated by user fees of the state Parks and Recreation Department. Neither is part of the state’s general fund.
The top two officials in the department are now out, and there are red faces all around.
It’s interesting to note, however, that less than half of that money could be readily used to prevent the closure of parks, since most of it is in an account having nothing to do with parks.
So the funds wouldn’t have gone all that far in keeping parks open over the past few years.
And the larger issue of the parks, which have a billion dollar-plus of unfunded needed improvements, is not addressed at all by the hidden funds.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama discusses the tragedy in Colorado, its victims, and those who survived them and are struggling to recover.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE DARK KNIGHT SHOOTINGS: “ALL IT TAKES IS A LITTLE PUSH” and THE DARK KNIGHT FALTERS AGAINST A GRITTY BOND VILLAIN (OR TWO), HIMSELF, AND US.
** OBAMA THIS WEEKEND. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
He received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He has no scheduled public events on the weekend.
Obama and conservative Republican opponent Mitt Romney both suspended their active campaigning in the wake of the horrific shootings very early Friday morning in Aurora, Colorado.
Both Obama and Romney have very active and expansive weeks coming up.
Romney embarks on an international tour which will take him to Britain, Israel, and Poland.
He kicks things off on Tuesday in an address at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno, Nevada. There he will lay out his geopolitical vision.
Following the Reno speech, Romney heads to London. He will spend a few days in the UK, raising money and holding meetings with British leaders, including Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband.
Romney will also attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in London, which are on July 27th, as well as some of the early sporting events.
From there, Romney goes to Israel, where he will meet with his old business colleague, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, and other members of the country’s conservative government. He will also meet with leaders of the Palestinian Authority.
After Israel, Romney moves on to Warsaw, where he wraps up his trip meeting with Polish leaders. Poland is the least pro-Obama country in Europe, and its leaders are perturbed about his “re-set” policy with Russia and his backing away from basing the controversial missile shield project — ostensibly aimed at Iran — in Poland.
Romney will deliver major addresses in Jerusalem and Warsaw.
For his part, Obama will have a very active campaign week, focusing mainly on the West.
He will have the customary plenty of time and flexibility in his schedule to manage geopolitical crises.
On Monday, Obama will travel to Reno, Nevada to address the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention and to hold campaign events.
Obama will then travel to Oakland, California for campaign events. Obama will remain overnight in San Francisco.
On Tuesday, Obama will travel to Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington for campaign events. He will remain overnight in Seattle.
On Wednesday, Obama will travel to New Orleans, Louisiana for campaign events and to deliver remarks at the National Urban League conference. Obama will return to the White House that evening.
On Thursday, Obama will attend meetings at the White House.
On Friday, Obama will attend meetings at the White House and campaign events in Washington, DC and McLean, Virginia.
The attack which resulted in the killing of Assad’s crucial advisors and operators spurred the Syrian rebels’ wave of momentum across the country. But Assad regime forces are counter-attacking.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Syria, Iraq, AfPak, and the South China Sea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time. The time in Manila, on the South China Sea, is fifteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES – THIS WEEKEND. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events this weekend.
Brown has a significant problem on his hands in the revelation that the state Parks and Recreation Department has been hoarding funds for many years.
The amount, some $54 million, kept in special funds separate from the state’s general fund and generated from user fees, is not a significant amount in terms of solving the chronic budget crisis. Though it will undoubtedly be spun up as such by Brown opponents who thrive on public ignorance about the budget and seek to throw the state into chaos by defeating his November revenue initiative.
The deeper problem is that Brown, like Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger before, has proposed to shut down many state parks due to the budget crisis.
In addition to being a way to share the burden of rugged fiscal times, this was also an important and highly visible political signal bringing home the reality of the budget crisis.
But the hidden funds, which became apparent over the last several months as a new appointee in the department looked into things, while not significant in overall terms, were enough to prevent park closures.
So those Californians devoted to the parks, who saved many of them from closure by private fundraising activities, aren’t going to be very happy about this revelation.
If you’re holding a bake sale to help keep a nice park open, and the state parks department is sitting on more than enough funds to make that unnecessary, it does not engender happy feelings.
How did this remain unknown for so long?
The appointees who ran the parks department, including now departed director Ruth Coleman, who became chief deputy director under Governor Gray Davis and state parks director under Schwarzenegger, say they didn’t know about it.
Which is certainly not impossible.
But the state controller’s office says it did know about it, and included the funds in their annual accounting of assets.
Which raises two questions. First, why didn’t the state finance department take note of this in preparing budget proposals.
Second, why didn’t the state controller’s office aggressively bring this fact to the attention of the state finance department, not to mention leaders of the parks department, the governor’s office, legislative budget committees, and so on.
The media also fell down here.
While the state’s press corps is much diminished, with little institutional memory and much faulty recall among what does exist, there are reporters detailed to cover the state budget. Yet no one compared and contrasted among the state controller and finance department numbers.
Even though cuts to the state parks system were very controversial and high-profile stories for the last several years.
Of course, this is a press corps which largely acted as though it had no idea that the state’s budget shortfall had expanded, even though Brown and other officials made regular reports about revenue shortfalls and other budget problems. All one needed to do was add them up and there was no surprise in the least to be found in Brown’s May budget revise.
** MITT WHITMAN = MEG ROMNEY. … From my July 19th column.
** CRISES CHAOTIC AND BUBBLING: THE GULF AND THE SOUTH CHINA SEA. … From my July 17th essay.
** WHY THE CLINTONS NEED OBAMA TO WIN: UNCERTAINTY AS HILLARY PUSHES THE BIG GEOPOLITICAL PIVOT. … From my July 13th essay.
** A TICKET TO RIDE: HIGH-SPEED RAIL MOVES FORWARD ON A HISTORIC (AND BUMPY) TRACK IN CALIFORNIA. … From my July 11th feature.
** DARK KNIGHTS, AVENGERS, BONDING RETRO ACTION HEROES: HOW LONG WILL THE SUPERHERO PHENOMENON LAST? … From my July 7th essay.
** FOUNDED IN ENLIGHTENMENT, AMERICA FACES IGNORANCE AND CONFUSION AS THE CHALLENGES GROW EVER MORE COMPLEX. … From my July 2nd essay.
** THE “MOMENTARY MEDIA” STRIKES: EPIC FAILS BY CNN AND FOX NEWS HIGHLIGHT DYSFUNCTIONALITY. … From my June 28th column.
** THE “SLOW BORING OF HARD BOARDS” IN AN ERA OF LIMITS. … From my June 27th essay.
** A RUGGED TIME FOR OBAMA’S BIG GEOPOLITICAL PIVOT. … From my June 22nd essay.
** FROM GOVERNATOR TO MOONBEAM. … From my January 3rd, 2011 feature.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil closed on Friday at $91.83 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $58 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $22 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
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| Comments (28) |
Good weekend address by President Obama on the Colorado murders.
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video of the Syria crisis.
Great speech by barack on the terrible tragedy outside Denver.
This goes down and down and down…
Jonas says:
July 21, 2012 at 11:49 am
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video of the Syria crisis.
Yikes, what strange choices to go to!!
BB:Romney embarks on an international tour which will take him to Britain, Israel, and Poland.
He kicks things off on Tuesday in an address at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno, Nevada. There he will lay out his geopolitical vision.
I don’t get it…
BB: Brown has a significant problem on his hands in the revelation that the state Parks and Recreation Department has been hoarding funds for many years.
I recovered enough from the tragedy of the Dark Knight shootings to read your HuffPost column on Romney and Whitman. Good show.
Too bad we don’t have Meg Whitman to kick around any more.
Seemed fairly flat to me, platitudinous.
Capitol Boy says:
July 21, 2012 at 12:38 pm
Great speech by barack on the terrible tragedy outside Denver.
Bloodbath.
Jonas says:
July 21, 2012 at 11:49 am
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video of the Syria crisis.
Syrian crisis video today?
Good bad news news video of the Iraq crisis.
Awesome article on the Dark Knight tragedy in Colorado. There is way too much anger and too many guns and too little thinking going on…
Terrible news video from Iraq. Again…
Indeed.
Thank you.
> Capitol Boy says:
July 24, 2012 at 11:53 am (Edit)
Awesome article on the Dark Knight tragedy in Colorado. There is way too much anger and too many guns and too little thinking going on…
Sorry, no.
> Jonas says:
July 23, 2012 at 7:19 am (Edit)
Syrian crisis video today?
Indeed.
> Jack Aubrey says:
July 21, 2012 at 3:43 pm (Edit)
Bloodbath.
Jonas says:
July 21, 2012 at 11:49 am
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video of the Syria crisis.
We do, but time moves on.
> Jack Aubrey says:
July 21, 2012 at 3:29 pm (Edit)
Too bad we don’t have Meg Whitman to kick around any more.
Thanks, I appreciate it.
> Requiem says:
July 21, 2012 at 2:23 pm (Edit)
I recovered enough from the tragedy of the Dark Knight shootings to read your HuffPost column on Romney and Whitman. Good show.
It’s rather mystifying.
> Capitol Boy says:
July 21, 2012 at 12:54 pm (Edit)
I don’t get it…
BB: Brown has a significant problem on his hands in the revelation that the state Parks and Recreation Department has been hoarding funds for many years.
They’re not strange in themselves, just wildly selective.
> Capitol Boy says:
July 21, 2012 at 12:47 pm (Edit)
Yikes, what strange choices to go to!!
BB:Romney embarks on an international tour which will take him to Britain, Israel, and Poland.
He kicks things off on Tuesday in an address at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno, Nevada. There he will lay out his geopolitical vision.
Unless Assad leaves or dies.
> Capitol Boy says:
July 21, 2012 at 12:42 pm (Edit)
This goes down and down and down…
Jonas says:
July 21, 2012 at 11:49 am
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video of the Syria crisis.
Incidentally, NWN passed 123,000 comments sometime in the past few weeks.
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