OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2015
Germany, a can-do refugee nation
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Power goes to the
political spenders
D
Voters need to let elected leaders
know they are watching
etails continue to emerge
about the 2,242-page gr-
ab-bag of a budget passed by
Congress in the waning hours
of its ignominious 2015 session.
Secretive political contributors
turn out to have been a key ben-
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furious deal-making.
When citizens learn a bud-
get has been passed, we mostly
imagine a straightforward docu-
ment detailing how many dollars
will be spent on national defense
and a cornucopia of govern-
ment programs. But beyond this,
members of Congress stuff it full
of other goodies and baddies,
many with only a tangential rela-
tionship with spending.
Thanks to a couple of these
sneaky maneuvers, the IRS and
the Securities and Exchange
Commission will be blocked
from making new rules to force
more public disclosure of the
anonymous campaign contri-
butions that are warping the
American democratic process.
The ability of “dark money”
groups and corporations to in-
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unchallenged at least through the
2016 election.
University of California,
Irvine, law Prof. Rick Hasen,
writing at electionlawblog.org,
notes “these provisions will en-
sure that the American public
has much less information than
it needs to make informed and
responsible choices about who
is funding the groups that are
spending hundreds of millions of
GROODUV WR LQÀXHQFH RXU IHGHUDO
elections.”
In the online news source
Vox, reporter Andrew Prokop
concedes that Democrats won
some important victories in the
budget deal, but notes they either
agreed to defending dark money
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went on behind the scenes here.
But it is clear that though dark
money spending has overwhelm-
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in recent years, Democrats are
learning fast,” Prokop observes.
Hasen agrees: “Democrats
have not been the leaders on the
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that Democratic leaders would
like the base to think it is. And
that failure of leadership starts at
the top, with President Obama.
Nothing much will change
about any of this until voters
realize political spending deter-
mines who wins and loses in our
economy, courts and corridors
of power. Pay attention and take
every opportunity to tell elected
leaders that you are watching
and will vote based on what they
do to make sure all citizens get
an even break in elections.
By ROGER COHEN
New York Times News Service
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The United States, fear-ridden,
has passed the torch.
Throughout
the extraordi-
nary process
that has seen
roughly 1 mil-
lion refugees
DUULYH LQ *HU-
many this year,
Chancellor An-
gela Merkel has
had a consistent
Roger
refrain: “Wir
Cohen
schaffen das”
— “We can do
this.” The gesture in question is the
most extraordinary redemptive act by
any European nation in many years.
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derstood. They have understood that
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checkpoints, place your family in
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trudge across Europe in search of a
home is not a desperate decision. It
is a reasonable decision if the alter-
native is to see your children blown
up by a barrel bomb or your daugh-
WHUUDSHGE\DMLKDGLVW3RVWZDU*HU-
mans are reasonable people.
The United States would have
had to admit about 4 million ref-
ugees this year to take in a similar
proportion of its population. It has
fallen more than 3.9 million short of
that mark.
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are from Syria. The United States has
admitted about 1,900 refugees from
Syria over the past four years. Yes,
you read that right. President Barack
Obama has now pledged to resettle
10,000 Syrian refugees — a decision
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two dozen Republican governors ea-
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or “Middle Eastern” with terrorist.
Whatever happened to “the home
of the brave”?
Set aside the fact that the Syrian
crisis cannot be disentangled from
the spillover of the Iraq war, and
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is engaged. Set aside the fact that
Obama said in 2011 that President
Bashar Assad must step aside, and so
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Set aside the presidential “red line”
not upheld in 2013. Even then, by
any reasonable measure, the U.S.
response to the Syrian refugee crisis
has been pitiful.
For a land of immigrants peopled
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war, famine or hardship, it has been
especially pitiful.
Mexican immigrant in his
labeled himself “a clean
employ.
hands freak,” called hand-
You have to hand it to
shakes a “terrible custom”
him: He divines character
and said that the obliga-
verybody pees.
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tion to engage in them was
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could
or
would.
Through
one of the great curses of
a public service campaign by the
celebrity like his.
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Even so, a kidney doc-
thought it a needless statement of the imprisonment in Vietnam,
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obvious until Donald Trump brought KRUURULQ&OLQWRQ¶VXVHRID
his latest outburst.
“Urine is sterile,”
toilet, dysfunction in each
me to my senses.
Frank
Maya
Rao, an assistant
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Bruni
Apparently some people think sweat.
professor of nephrology
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at Columbia University,
Those last two items
to them. Apparently Trump is in this underscore his bizarre obsession SRLQWHG RXW ³,W¶V QRW µGLVJXVWLQJ¶
category.
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Last week, he said this of Hil- In early November, Daniel Lippman with an elementary-school child and
ODU\ &OLQWRQ¶V PLGGHEDWH EDWKURRP of Politico noted that Trump had ZH¶UHWDONLQJDERXWFRRWLHV´
Trump is routinely — and rightly
EUHDN³,NQRZZKHUHVKHZHQW,W¶V ³UHPDUNHG RQ 5XELR¶V SHUVSLUDWLRQ
GLVJXVWLQJ,GRQ¶WZDQWWRWDONDERXW at least eight times in the last seven — tagged as a playground bully, but
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weeks.” On two of those occasions, WKDWSKUDVHGRHVQ¶WGRIXOOMXVWLFHWR
+H GLGQ¶W VSHFLI\ ZK\ %XW LW¶V Trump suggested that sweating his arrested development, his potty
GLI¿FXOWWR¿QGDQ\WKLQJLQGHFRURXV would put Rubio at a disadvantage mouth and the puerile nature of his
DERXW&OLQWRQ¶VEHKDYLRUXQOHVV\RX in negotiations with Vladimir Putin, vulgar bleats.
He taunts people for being un-
see it as entirely volitional and utter- ZKRZRXOG¿QGKLPWRRVRJJ\
ly controllable — something you do
7KH ÀXLGV RI ZRPHQ LQ SDUWLF- popular, for being unattractive, for
to indulge yourself, something that ular rattle Trump. When a lawyer physical disabilities. The altitude of
can be put off for hours or forever, an who was questioning him during a his debate vocabulary is only milli-
emblem of your weakness. I guess in 2011 deposition asked for a break so meters above “I know you are, but
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that she could leave ZKDW DP ,´ ZRUGV WKDW KH¶OO VXUHO\
“low energy” people
room and pump utter before this is all over.
Apparently the
Last week, he not only cringed at
need to go.
breast milk for her
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That would make
3-month-old
daugh-
some
sense, given how
ter, he was unhinged. her loss in the 2008 presidential elec-
fantastical his cos-
³<RX¶UH GLVJXVW- tion by substituting a phallic verb for
people
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ing,” he berated her, the word defeated.
think that according to a story This, ladies and gentlemen, is
where thousands of
Muslims in New Jer-
in The Times earli- \RXU 5HSXEOLFDQ IURQWUXQQHU ,W¶V
the laws
sey publicly cheer
er this year by Mi- probably too late to teach him man-
the fall of the World
Barbaro and ners but maybe not to teach him bi-
of urology chael
Trade Center; where
Steve Eder. Then he RORJ\:KHQ\RXLPELEHÀXLGV\RX
a stretch of the Poto-
don’t apply stormed out of the H[FUHWH ÀXLGV VRPHWLPHV WKURXJK
sweat, often through urine.
mac River alongside
deposition.
to them.
And while “the typical person
a Virginia golf club
More
famous-
of his magically be-
O\ KH UHÀHFWHG RQ goes to the bathroom every three or
comes a Civil War site; where his 0HJ\Q.HOO\¶VLQWHUURJDWLRQRIKLP four hours,” said Matthew Rutman,
own net worth changes by an order DW WKH ¿UVW 5HSXEOLFDQ SUHVLGHQWLDO a urologist at Columbia, that fre-
of billions from one moment to the debate by saying that “you could see TXHQF\LQFUHDVHVIRUVRPHRQHZKR¶V
next, in accordance with his need to there was blood coming out of her ROGHU ZKR¶V HQGXULQJ VWUHVV ZKR¶V
puff up his chest.
eyes, blood coming out of her wher- ingesting caffeine. In other words,
for most presidential candidates.
:K\ ZRXOGQ¶W LW DOVR EH D SODFH ever.”
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where people relieve themselves
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intent on a messiness that they can toward it — lies at the intersection ULGLFXOH$QGLW¶VXSWRYRWHUV,VWKDW
DYRLG"0D\EH7UXPSUHDOO\GRHVQ¶W of his misogyny and his fastidious- the kind of exceptionalism you want
pee. Maybe he outsources that to a QHVV +H¶V D JHUPRSKREH ZKR RQFH in the White House?
As Cubans lag, our
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here are many ways of sum-
ming up Fidel Castro and
Cuba. One way would be: Fidel
and Raul Castro were good at
running a revolution, but they
have failed utterly at running a
country. Or, Fidel Castro peaked
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hill ever since.
The New York Times reported
on Dec. 20 that Raul Castro is
upset that Cuban physicians are
leaving for the U.S. in consider-
able numbers. Castro wants to
change that in the next round of
negotiations.
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in educating physicians. Cuba
has exported them to other Latin
American countries, which pay
Cuba in oil and cash. One Cuban
physician told the Times it was
“modern-day slavery” for the
Cuban physicians.
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so anemic, with a declining pop-
ulation, that Cuba has physicians
with little to do. And the disparity
between what a Cuban physician
makes at home or would earn in a
developed economy is wide.
The Times reported that, “The
number of Cuban medical profes-
sionals who defected for residen-
cy in the United States reached a
record this year, putting a crimp
in the newly restored relations be-
tween the two countries and forc-
ing Cuba to scramble to stop the
exodus.”
One year after President
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being pummeled from both ends
of the political spectrum — to
revisit his Cuban policy. The
Times editorial page urges that
the opening to Cuban physicians
be narrowed. Writing in The Wall
Street Journal, Mary Anastasia
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opening to Cuba has done noth-
ing for Cuban dissidents and that
Cuba is being intransigent on
talking seriously about money
owed to people and businesses
whose property was seized in the
Cuban Revolution.
There are at least a couple mes-
sages in this. One is to Americans
who are convinced their own
nation is heading to ruin. If that
is that case, why are so many
Cubans, Mexicans and refugees
from other nations so eager to
reach our shores?
Like all totalitarian societies,
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ideology the party elite in power.
Even within the framework of
Communism, Cuba is hopeless-
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whose pragmatic despots built an
economic engine. If Cubans can-
not see prosperity or the opportu-
nity for growth, its relations with
the U.S. will be lopsided.
*HUPDQ\ KDV VWHSSHG LQ :LU It is a personal matter. The last time
schaffen das — we can do this. The Europe was awash in millions of ref-
can-do spirit has made a trans-Atlan- ugees was in 1945 as the Third Re-
tic crossing.
ich collapsed. It is a historical matter.
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books was already assured. She was the decision required statesmanship
the woman who over a
— that quaint, almost
forgotten word — and
decade steered a united
*HUPDQ\ WR D VHOIDV- Whatever the conviction that any
risk of terrorism could
surance striking for a
country that, even at the happened be managed.
One million refu-
turn of the century, was
to ‘the
gees change the land-
still uncertain if it could
scape. They are in su-
allow itself a modicum
home
permarkets. They are in
of pride. But with her
of the
hospitals. They are in
decision this year to ad-
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mit Syrian and other ref-
brave’? VFKRROV
been accepting, despite
ugees, she has become a
the huge cost. A far-
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ure, certainly the equal of such post- ULJKWSDUW\PD\EHQH¿WEXWWKHFRQ-
ZDU *HUPDQ JLDQWV DV .RQUDG$GH- sensus is this had to be done.
As a result, over the next genera-
nauer, Helmut Schmidt and Helmut
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WKHPEHFDXVHKHU*HUPDQ\LVLWVRZQ ger, more vital, more dynamic, more
master whereas theirs was still under open country. Abdulfattah Jandali,
a Syrian immigrant known as John,
degrees of American tutelage.
“She does not want to be — she was the biological father of Steve
refuses to be — the person who wit- -REV 3HUKDSV D IXWXUH 6\ULDQ*HU-
nessed a serious fracture of the Euro- man Jobs has just entered school.
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pean Union,” Julian Reichelt, the ed-
itor in chief of Bild Online, told me. pean partners, including Britain. A
“She will throw money at a problem, Europe-wide program for refugees
DV ZLWK *UHHFH 6KH ZLOO DGPLW DQ LVQHHGHG*HUPDQ\FDQ¶WWDNHLQDQ-
unlimited number of refugees. And other million in 2016.
“There is no real plan beyond
she will go down in history as a great
European who defended the Union buying time to get the rest of Europe
on board,” Reichelt said.
no matter what.”
In a grim year, Merkel has re-
When Merkel decided last sum-
mer to admit the refugees, she avert- deemed the Europe that once closed
ed violence that might have spilled LWV IURQWLHUV WR -HZV ÀHHLQJ *HUPD-
out of control. Critics within her own Q\:KHQDWXQL¿FDWLRQ.RKOVSRNH
Christian Democrat party portray her of a “blooming landscape” in the for-
as emotional. But for a leader com- PHU(DVW*HUPDQ\KHZDVGHULGHG
mitted to preserving the European %XWLWFDPHWRSDVV*HUPDQ\FDQGR
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idea, her decision was rational.
5DLVHG LQ (DVW *HUPDQ\ VKH another story. Fear and electoral pol-
owes her freedom to European unity. itics constitute an explosive brew.
Blood, sweat and Donald Trump
By FRANK BRUNI
New York Times News Service
T
Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP Photo
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, speaks with Greek Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras during a round table meeting an EU summit in Brussels,
Dec. 18. Throughout the extraordinary process that has seen roughly 1
million refugees arrive in Germany this year, Chancellor Angela Merkel
has had a consistent refrain: “Wir schaffen das” — “We can do this.”