“Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
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Trevor Timm: As quietly as possible, the government is renewing its assault on your privacy
Having failed to secure an anti-encryption bill, the FBI and justice department are now engaged in a multi-pronged attack on all sorts of other privacy rights
In Congress, Senate Republicans are pushing for a vote this week on controversial new warrantless surveillance measures that would let the FBI use unconstitutional National Security Letters to get email records and internet browsing history from countless US citizens – without going to a judge or court at all. The Senate leadership is bringing the measure up to vote by invoking the Orlando attack, despite the fact that we know the FBI had no problem surveilling the Orlando killer when he was previously investigated. It is a blatant attempt to exploit the tragedy in order to gain powers the FBI has long asked for (powers, by the way, the FBI is already reportedly using, despite the justice department telling them it’s basically illegal).
The justice department, meanwhile, is busy attempting to implement a new rule for the court system that would make it much easier for the FBI to hack into computers worldwide – including those of hacking victims. Using the obscure process for amending the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the department has convinced the courts that they should be able to get one warrant to potentially hack thousands of computers, and shouldn’t have to comply with the normal rules involving getting the court order in the jurisdiction where the crime occurred.
Paul Buchheit: The Growing Case for Massive Taxes on the Rich
While candidates bicker and Congress stagnates and the rest of us dwell on the latest shooting tragedy, the super-rich enjoy the absence of attention paid to one of our nation’s most destructive issues.
The richest Americans are takers of social benefits. Yet they complain about paying 12% to 20% in taxes, even as respected researchers estimate an optimal revenue-producing rate of 80% to 90%, and even with the near-certainty that higher marginal tax rates will have no adverse effects on GDP growth.
The super-rich pay little in taxes because, as Senator Lindsey Graham said, “It’s really American to avoid paying taxes, legally…It’s a game we play…I see nothing wrong with playing the game because we set it up to be a game.” In reality, it’s a game of theft from the essential needs of education, infrastructure, and jobs.
David Dayen: Hope for those in debt: Can a non-profit help put predatory payday lenders out of business?
Earlier this month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed rules on the massive payday loan industry. CFPB wants to force lenders to test borrowers’ ability to actually pay back loans, and limit re-borrowing, which creates a spiral of debt and exorbitant fees.
Both supporters and critics of the rule agree that it will probably force many payday lenders to close, ending 400 percent annual interest rates and immoral price-gouging. But while lenders might go away, the need for small-dollar loans won’t. [..]
But there’s another option active in Oakland. At the infamous Fruitvale Station, the mass transit plaza where police tragically killed Oscar Grant on New Year’s Eve 2008, the non-profit Community Check Cashing offers borrowers with credit scores under 650 small-dollar loans and financial services, at a fraction of the normal cost.
It costs $15 to cash a $500 check at a typical check-cashing store. Community Check Cashing charges $6.25. On an initial $300 payday loan, they charge $23, as opposed to $45 from the big boys. A one-year installment loan can be had for one-fifth the going rate. Community Check Cashing can do this because, as a non-profit, they only need to be self-sustaining.
Eugene Robinson: Trump’s Attacks on Freedom of Religion
Donald Trump apparently wants to institute something akin to Jim Crow discrimination against Muslims, including those who are citizens of the United States. Is this what the Republican Party wants as well?
What’s your opinion about legalized religious bigotry, House Speaker Paul Ryan? How about you, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell? Do Republican quislings agree with the man they have endorsed for president? They should never again speak of the hallowed traditions of the Party of Lincoln, because those ideals are being spat upon by the presumptive nominee. The GOP is now the Party of Trump.
On Sunday, “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson reminded Trump that last year he had raised the idea of “profiling” for Muslims and asked him to elaborate. Trump’s response: “Well, I think profiling is something that we’re going to have to start thinking about as a country. Other countries do it,” he said, naming Israel, and “we have to start using common sense.”
Pinning Trump down on any specific proposal is difficult because he is all over the map, often contradicting himself in the course of a single sentence. But from the rest of that interview, in the context of what he has previously said about Muslims, it is all too clear what he means.
Mark Weisbrot: Should I Stay or Should I Go? Brexit, Extortion, and the Path to Reform
There is a Mafia-like quality to the threats emanating from EU officials, who are acknowledged to be contemplating how much punishment they can mete out to the U.K. if the people should dare to vote the wrong way. “Vote remain, and nobody gets hurt,” so to speak. Or, as The New York Times headline yesterday put it, “E.U. Countries Warn Britain on ‘Brexit’: You’ll Pay if You Leave Us.”
It is reminiscent of the European authorities’ threats, and ultimately the European Central Bank’s shutdown of the Greek banking system, in the attempt to force Greeks to vote “yes” in a referendum last July 5 on further austerity. The defiant Greeks voted “no” with a 62 percent majority, but their government was subsequently beaten into submission.
So EU officials are demonstrating once again not only their contempt for democracy, but their shamelessness as extortionists. “This is how democracies die,” writes Ambrose Evans Pritchard in an eloquent explanation of his choice to vote for Brexit. The Guardian’s economics editor Larry Elliott notes, “The eurozone is economically moribund, persists with policies that have demonstrably failed, is indifferent to democracy, is run by and for a small, self-perpetuating elite.”
Amanda Marcotte: The damage has been done: As Trump barrels toward defeat, he’s dragging the GOP to the extreme right on race
Barring some kind of miraculous turnaround, it appears that the Donald Trump campaign is not just a failure, but a bona fide catastrophe.
New FEC filings show that Hillary Clinton has over 30 times as much money as he does, a situation that is unlikely to change, as reports suggest Trump is unwilling to do the boring work of fundraising. The campaign fired Corey Lewandowski as campaign manager, the kind of high profile panic reaction that tends to dissuade would-be donors even more. His campaign has a staff of 70 people, compared to the 700 currently in Clinton’s employ.
The Trump campaign is, as Jonathan Chait likes to call it, a garbage fire. More than that, there’s indications that, like most Trump endeavors before it, it’s a scam. Trump’s M.O., as reporting on everything from Trump University to his casino investments shows, is to dazzle gullible people into giving him money with a bunch of lies, and then to take the money and run, leaving his victims holding the bag.
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