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Unpacking the Dumbest Thing Said by a GOP Congressman About the Debt Ceiling

Mother Jones

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Congratulations, Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.): You just said the most ridiculous thing anyone in the House of Representatives has uttered about the debt ceiling in…at least a few days. Griffith, asked by the Capitol Hill daily The Hill about the urgency of raising the debt ceiling, suggested the nation might be better off if it defaulted—even if that triggered a new recession and perhaps a global economic crisis—than if it continued to spend money at the current rate. He’s not the only Republican congressman to make this claim (Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) suggested a default would calm global markets). But Griffith’s spin was, to put it charitably, unique:

We have to make a decision that’s right long-term for the United States, and what may be distasteful, unpleasant and not appropriate in the short run may be something that has to be done. I will remind you that this group of renegades that decided that they wanted to break from the crown in 1776 did great damage to the economy of the colonies. They created the greatest nation and the best form of government, but they did damage to the economy in the short run.

This is an absolutely backward understanding of US history. Breaking away from Great Britain was indeed a hugely disruptive economic event—so much so that it almost proved to be the nation’s undoing. States were swimming in debt and unable to pay soldiers, who in turn staged open rebellions, which, in turn, prompted politicians to get together to come up with a better governing document.

The central problem was that the nation had basically no access to credit, because it was $77 million in debt with no real means to pay it back. (It owed about $12 million of that to foreign creditors.) The solution, as outlined in Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton’s First Report on the Public Credit, was to absorb all state-level debts (totaling about $25 million), issue new bonds to fund the federal government and allow it to start borrowing money again, and then raise tariffs to pay off the debt.

Griffith’s right that the revolution caused an economic mess, but he should’ve read the next chapter in his history book—America didn’t get out of that economic mess until it had demonstrated to foreign creditors it was good on its word. Whether that’s still the case is up to Griffith and his colleagues.

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Unpacking the Dumbest Thing Said by a GOP Congressman About the Debt Ceiling

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America’s Newest Culture War: Football

Mother Jones

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According to a guest speaker at this weekend’s Values Voters Summit in Washington, DC, the NFL’s concussion crisis is a myth cooked up by overzealous researchers and a willing media, the nation’s most popular sport is under attack from an increasingly soft population, and President Obama might have turned out differently—and smoked a lot less pot—if he’d found the structure and discipline of the gridiron growing up. Welcome to the newest front in the culture war: the War on Football.

Football is, as they say here in DC, having a bit of a moment right now. Last week, male college football analysts griped about the appointment of a woman, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to the sport’s first playoff committee. President Obama became the latest major figure to suggest that the Washington NFL franchise to change its name to something less racist. And on Tuesday, PBS aired a new report on the sport’s concussion crisis, touting research that connects football-related head trauma to long-term brain damage and early death. It was only a matter of time before football joined abortion, porn, and radical Islam as topics of discussion at the annual social conservative soiree.

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America’s Newest Culture War: Football

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When Spruce Beetles Attack!

Mother Jones

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Since the late 1990s, mountain pine beetles have swept through millions of acres of forest in the Rockies, turning hillsides of trees a rusty red and then grey as they populate trees and kill them. In Colorado, this outbreak seems to have peaked in 2008 and 2009; but just as one species slowed, another—the spruce beetle—has picked up steam. A new University of Colorado study published in Ecology reveals how drought was the driver of the rise in spruce beetle activity and resulting tree deaths in Colorado’s high-elevation forests in recent years. The drought is in turn linked to changes in sea surface temperatures that are expected to continue for decades to come. In the long-term, such massive insect infestations could dramatically diminish North American forests’ ability to retain water and sequester carbon—meaning trees will be less effective at balancing out the human toll on the environment.

So far, fewer acres of trees have been affected by spruce beetles than mountain pine beetles, but there are more spruce forests in Colorado than Lodgepole pine, so there’s “no reason to expect the percentage mortality to be less or acreage affected to be any less” than it was for the mountain pine beetle epidemic, said Tom Veblen, coauthor of the study and a geography professor at CU.

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When Spruce Beetles Attack!

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A Fantastic Journey Into the Mind of Collage Artist Wangechi Mutu

Mother Jones

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“The power for me is to keep the story of the female in the center, to keep discussing and talking about women as protagonists,” Wangechi Mutu said in a video introduction to A Fantastic Journey, her recent exhibition at Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art. For the casual art fancier who happens upon it, as I did this summer, the exhibition was like embedding in Mutu’s mind: Black globes of crumpled plastic hang on strings suspended from the ceiling, a looping video of the artist devouring cake flickers on the floor, and triumphant warrior women occupy magnificent collage landscapes on the walls.

Mutu, a Brooklyn transplant via Nairobi, deploys mixed media to grapple with themes of consumerism and colonization, of gender and race—and war. Her large, lush collages draw from images familiar to us, such as magazine photos of bare flesh and car engines, which she transforms into works that are mysterious, beautiful, and somewhat terrifying. Her animated short, The End of eating Everything, done in collaboration with the singer Santigold, depicts a colossal machine/beast/planet feeding on black birds while floating in a vast industrial dead space. In an interview discussing the piece, Santigold praised Mutu for her “explosive renewal” of artistic expression at a time when vapid materialism dominates the popular culture.

A Shady Promise The Speyer Family Collection, New York. © Wangechi Mutu.

Mutu’s work has shown all over the globe, from New York’s MOMA to London’s Tate Modern. On Friday, her Fantastic Journey continues with an opening at the Brooklyn Museum. Mutu took a break from installing to speak with me about warrior women, consumerism, and why magazines are the “fecal matter of society.”

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A Fantastic Journey Into the Mind of Collage Artist Wangechi Mutu

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6 Ways the World Is Reacting to the Shutdown and Debt Ceiling

Mother Jones

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The government shutdown and the threat of default are making Americans angry, and for good reason. As it turns out, a bunch of foreign governments and international political movements aren’t too happy about our political situation, either. Here are some of the powerful people abroad who are shaking their heads—if they’re not straight-up laughing at us.

1. China is very worried about the whole debt-ceiling thing. Beijing is “naturally concerned about developments in the US fiscal cliff,” Zhu Guangyao, China’s vice finance minister, told reporters, adding that it is Washington’s “responsibility” to not default and ruin Chinese investments. China holds $1.28 trillion in US Treasuries.

2. So is Japan. China and Japan are the two biggest foreign creditors of the US. So they are pulling hard for America to raise the debt ceiling from its current $16.7 trillion. “The US must avoid a situation where it cannot pay, and its triple-A ranking plunges all of a sudden,” Taro Aso, Japan’s finance minister, said. “The US must be fully aware that if that happens, the US would fall into fiscal crisis.” Japan holds $1.14 trillion in US Treasuries.

3. An Egyptian government official is inconvenienced. Diplomat and ambassador Mahmoud Karem wasn’t pleased with the incredibly long lines at Washington’s Dulles International Airport that were caused by the government shutdown. “It’s true that two other international flights landed at about the same time, but I would expect Washington to be prepared for that,” he said. “We had to stand in the line for three hours, there was no place for the old people to sit, and children were crying…It was very bad for America’s image.”

4. The Taliban is trolling us. The Taliban—the violent Islamist movement responsible for much bloodshed, many human rights violations, mediocre, chauvinist poetry, and inadvertent falcon conservation—sees the shutdown as another instance of American evil. “The American people should realize that their politicians play with their destinies as well as the destinies of other oppressed nations for the sake of their personal vested interests,” the Taliban said in a statement. “Instead of sucking the blood of their own people…Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars should be utilized for the sake of peace.”

The statement also describes the shutdown-related closure of the Statue of Liberty, and a decline in tourist revenue in Washington, DC.

5. Russia’s Pirate Party wants to help out NASA. Due to the government shutdown, many government websites have gone dark. The Pirate Party of Russia—a political party formed in 2009 dedicated to copyright and patent reform, online privacy rights, and government transparency—wants at least one of them back. Here’s their statement, posted on October 3:

To NASA, USA
from Pirate Party of Russia

Dear Madame/Sir,

We do care about the situation around your web site and the budget crisis in USA. Thereby we would like to offer you bulletproof collocation or dedicated servers on our hosting platform till the end of the crisis. We stand for Internet privacy, and as the result you would not have to worry about programs such as PRISM and other illegal activities of secret services of different countries. Your traffic, your activity and the activity of your users will be in safety.

We love Mars!

Thanks, guys.

6. South Korea’s central bank wants Republicans to knock it off with the shutdown. The Bank of Korea, the South Korean central bank, is similarly agitated about the shutdown and the US debt-ceiling fight. “The global economy will sustain its modest recovery going forward, but the heightening of uncertainties surrounding the US government budget bill and debt ceiling increase,” the BOK statement reads.

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6 Ways the World Is Reacting to the Shutdown and Debt Ceiling

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Why Do These Democrats Keep Voting for the GOP’s Shutdown Gimmicks?

Mother Jones

Republicans in the House of Representatives have had a consistent strategy during the government shutdown: Go small. In a rare display of unity from a fractured caucus, GOPers have passed a series of small bills that would fund agencies like the National Park Service and National Institutes of Health, while continuing to oppose any larger continuing resolution to fund the federal government. The idea was simple: Give Democrats the choice of either splitting ranks, or casting votes against popular (and emotionally resonant) programs.

“I say to Harry Reid in the Senate, bring this up for a vote!” said Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) at a press conference touting the House’s bill to fund NIH cancer clinics. “Don’t take hope away from those families! Don’t take hope away from those moms!”

But House Republicans have had company. Some two dozen Democrats have voted for all or most of the nine Republican continuing resolutions, joining their colleagues to support sequestration-level funding for the NIH, National Park Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, District of Columbia, National Guard, veterans benefits, nutrition assistance, Food and Drug Administration, and Head Start.

In some cases, the reasons for doing so seem straightforward. Fifteen of those Democrats crossover votes are included in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Frontline’ list of the seats it will focus on defending in 2014, and eight serve in districts carried by Mitt Romney in 2012. (Arizona Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick is the only Democrat from a red district to toe the party line completely on the continuing resolution votes.) That’s the best explanation for the votes of Reps. Cheri Bustos (Ill.), Brad Schneider (Ill.), Joe Garcia (Fla.), Scott Peters (Calif.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), Ami Bera (Calif.), Raul Ruiz (Calif.), Ron Barber (Ariz.), Patrick Murphy (Fla.), Mike McIntyre (N.C.), Jim Matheson (Utah), Suzan DelBene (Wash.), Sean Maloney (N.Y.), Pete Gallego (Texas), and John Barrow (Ga.).

And two Democratic congressmen—Reps. Bruce Braley of Iowa and Gary Peters of Michigan—represent otherwise blue districts but have entered competitive Senate races.

That leaves six Democrats—Reps. Jared Polis (Colo.), Stephen Lynch (Mass.), Bill Foster (Ill.), Dan Lipinski (Ill.), Dave Loebsack (Iowa), and John Garamendi (Calif.)—from relatively safe districts, all of which Obama carried by double digits in both 2008 and 2012, who crossed party lines to support Republicans’ gimmick funding plan. So what gives?

Polis supports Democratic efforts for a clean continuing resolution, spokesman Brian Branton says, “but until that happens, he will work to make sure that our government is funded and our agencies reopen. Jared is proud to have supported a bipartisan bill that would reopen our National Parks so that the many jobs that revolve around tourism and Rocky Mountain National Park, in areas like Estes Park in Colorado, are safe.” Megan Jacobs, Foster’s spokeswoman, struck a similar note, emphasizing that while Foster opposed a piecemeal approach, “he believes if we have the opportunity to get some people back to work and services back on track, we should.” Garamendi, who voted for six mini-funding bills, released a statement on Thursday calling on Boehner to knock it off: “This is embarrassing for our country and makes our international partners nervous.”

If public opinion is any indication, though, things are looking up for the Democratic defectors. Public opinion polls have swung wildly against Republicans since the shutdown began. And on Thursday, there were signs of growing momentum for a bipartisan plan to restart the federal government, led by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). Maybe House Democrats really can have it all.

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Why Do These Democrats Keep Voting for the GOP’s Shutdown Gimmicks?

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Here’s Who Profits If the Government Defaults

Mother Jones

If House Republicans don’t agree to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and a default ensues, the economic effects would be “catastrophic,” in the words of Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. The nation’s borrowing costs would spike, as would interest rates for average Americans, and the stock market would plummet. But not everyone will lose if a default causes an economic catastrophe. Here’s who could profit from a financial calamity:

1. Short sellers: Most folks invest in stocks and bonds hoping the value of their investments will increase. But there’s also money to be made by short selling—betting that the value of a stock or bond will drop. Short selling is an investment strategy that’s typically employed by sophisticated investors and financial firms, but technically anyone can do it. Investors who bet that the value of US Treasury securities will dip would likely profit. Because a default could cause the US stock market to crash, shorting almost any US stock could make you money. In fact, you can even invest in specific mutual funds that specialize in short selling. “It’s a very powerful and disillusioning feeling to know that smart rich people can make money even when America goes over Niagara Falls in a barrel,” says Jeff Connaughton, a former investment banker and White House lawyer during the Clinton administration.

2. Investors in gold and silver: Gold and silver typically rise in value when when the stock market is volatile, because they hold their value better than paper money or other assets. The price of both metals rose this week as default fears heightened.

3. Bitcoin investors (maybe): The value of this untraceable virtual currency has tracked closely with gold over the past year, suggesting that it could serve as a more stable investment during a financial crisis.

4. Currency traders: Traders who bet that the US dollar will decrease in value relative to foreign currencies stand to profit off of a US government default.

5. Pawn shops: If the effects of a default are catastrophic, stocks will plummet, pension funds could dry up, credit card interest rates will rise, and jobs will be lost. Though credit markets may freeze up, as they did in the wake of the 2008 meltdown, pawn shops ought to do well, as they did following the last crisis.

6. Bankruptcy lawyers: See above.

7. Mortgage servicers: Mortgage rates typically rise and fall along with Treasury rates. If a default causes a spike in interest rates, home owners could see their monthly mortgage bills soar, causing some homeowners to default on their loans and wind up in foreclosure. You’d think this would be bad news for all parties involved—families, lenders, investors, mortgage servicers. But the latter actually turn a good profit by foreclosing on people; investors take the losses, while servicers make back all the money they’re owed in a foreclosure sale, plus all sorts of fees borrowers have to pay on their delinquent loans.

8. The canned and freeze-dried food industries: Doomsday preppers are already getting ready for the collapse of civilization that could result from a financial meltdown by stocking up on pork and beans and freeze-dried meals.

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Here’s Who Profits If the Government Defaults

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Just Look at These Great Old Photos of Glenn Gould, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Billie Holiday

Mother Jones

I love words. Sling ’em with ’em all day, matter of fact. But when I pick up a photo book, I want the images to do the lifting. Or to put that in musical terms, I’d rather listen to the song than read the sheet music. Keeping Time: The Photographs of Don Hunstein, a wonderful new retrospective from Insight Editions, accomplishes exactly that. There’s a short foreword by Art Garfunkel (oh, great, now I’ve got “Mrs. Robinson” stuck in my head!) and a foreword and afterword by New York Times pop music critic Jon Pareles, but the rest of this coffee table must-have is all meat and potatoes, showcasing the mostly unseen and intimate images of Hunstein, who spent three decades as Columbia Records’ official photographer. From Pareles’ biopic foreword:

“There was nothing metaphysical about what I did,” he said in conversation with the music producer Leo Sacks who edited the collection. “I’d just like to think I had a good eye for detail, that I captured the moment at hand. But mostly, I just did my job.”

Lucky for Hunstein (who is still alive and kicking), that job involved being a fly on the wall as the musical geniuses of his generation went about their work. Being a label photographer as opposed to, you know, those unpredictable press hounds, he had the opportunity to be around when his subjects had their guards down, at ease in their creative element, laughing or hamming or frustrated or lost in thought. Hunstein’s M.O. was to pretty much vanish into the background.

“Discretion was the better part of valor. Shoot, then disappear. I never photographed during takes. I never wanted to be in the way, to be intrusive. I hope I never was.”

He did live photography, too, but preferred the recording studio setting, which was “less distracting”—never mind the rare portraits it enabled. And although he was limited to his label’s clients, there was no shortage of greatness there. As Pareles writes…

Hunstein photographed Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk. He photographed Glenn Gould, Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Pablo Casals, Igor Stravinsky, Philip Glass, Plácido Domingo, Yo-Yo Ma. He Photographed Barbra Streisand, Perry Como, Robert Goulet. He photographed Aretha Franklin, Mathalia Jackson, Janis Joplin, Sam Cooke, Labelle, Teddy Pendergrass, Minnie Riperton, Luther Vandross. He photographed Allen Ginsberg and Langston Hughes. He photographed Johnny Cash, George Jones, Charlie Daniels, the flying Burrito Brothers. He photographed Pete Seeger, Simon and Garfunkel, the Byrds, Joan Baez, Phoebe Snow; and, extensively, Bob Dylan, including Dylan’s first two album covers.

That’s merely a partial list.

So you’d like to actually see some of these images? I completely understand. Let’s put some vinyl on the phonograph and have a look, shall we? And, mind you, this is but a tiny sampling of the treasures you’ll find in this 200-plus page retrospective. (If you happen to live near Bethel, New York, you can catch a museum exhibition of Hunstein’s photos that runs through year’s end.)

Billie Holiday recording Lady in Satin, New York City, December 1957.
Don Hunstein © 2013 Sony Music Entertainment

Tony Bennett at a Miami nightclub, December 1957.
Don Hunstein © 2013 Sony Music Entertainment

Debuting songs from The Fabulous Johnny Cash at a Nashville press party, February 1959.
Don Hunstein © 2013 Sony Music Entertainment

Mahalia Jackson at a Rotary International Convention, New York City, June 1959.
Don Hunstein © 2013 Sony Music Entertainment

Johnny Cash during the recording of Ride This Train, October 1959.
Don Hunstein © 2013 Sony Music Entertainment

Aretha Franklin at her first Columbia recording sessions, New York City, August 1960.

Don Hunstein © 2013 Sony Music Entertainment

Boxer Cassius Clay with soul man Sam Cooke, New York City, March 1964.
Don Hunstein © 2013 Sony Music Entertainment

Bob Dylan, June 1965. Don Hunstein © 2013 Sony Music Entertainment

Paul Simon, left, and Art Garfunkel, London, October 1966.
Don Hunstein © 2013 Sony Music Entertainment

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Just Look at These Great Old Photos of Glenn Gould, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Billie Holiday

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Dan Snyder to Native Americans: We’re Cool, Right? Native Americans to Dan Snyder: Redacted

Mother Jones

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Dan Snyder, the owner of Washington’s pro football team, wrote a letter to season ticket holders yesterday to once again defend the franchise’s racist name. Snyder, who in May said he’d “never” change the moniker, focused on the team’s long history—mentioning three times that it has been in existence for 81 years—and argued that it “was never a label. It was, and continues to be, a badge of honor.” He also argued, in a bit of marketing wizardry, that the name “is a symbol of everything we stand for: strength, courage, pride, and respect.”

Snyder went beyond lauding the positive symbolism of the Redacted brand, though. Like ESPN columnist Rick Reilly before him, Snyder cited a poll from the Annenberg Public Policy Center that found that 90 percent of Native Americans didn’t find the team’s name offensive. He also pointed to a Richmond Times-Dispatch story in which a writer contacted three Native American tribal leaders in Virginia; none of them was offended by the name.

“I’ve listened carefully to the commentary and perspectives on all sides, and I respect the feelings of those who are offended by the team name,” Snyder wrote. “But I hope such individuals also try to respect what the name means, not only for all of us in the extended Washington Redskins family, but among Native Americans too.”

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Dan Snyder to Native Americans: We’re Cool, Right? Native Americans to Dan Snyder: Redacted

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These Preppers Are Ready for Zombies, Nukes…and the Debt Ceiling

Mother Jones

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At least someone on the Right is taking the debt ceiling seriously: preppers. With the federal government seven days away from reaching its borrowing limit, survivalists—and the $500-million-a-year industry that caters to them—are on high alert, taking to message boards, podcasts, and YouTube to urge their countrymen to stock up on freeze-dried food and ammunition, absent fast congressional action.

Mac Slavo, writing at SHTF Plan, short for the prepper mantra “Shit Hits the Fan,” put it bluntly in a post on October 4: “The end result is going to widespread financial and economy destruction, a meltdown of the U.S. dollar, and a collapse of our very way of life as tens of millions of Americans will be instantly impoverished.”

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These Preppers Are Ready for Zombies, Nukes…and the Debt Ceiling

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