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The New York Times front page 45 years ago today. Neil Armstrong photographed raising the American flag on the moon. pic.twitter.com/QPGljx7Pe8
— NYT Photo (@nytimesphoto) July 21, 2014
Ahead on the July 21, 2014 Maddow show
Tonight's guests:0
- Kimberly Marten, professor of political science specializing in Russian affairs at Barnard College and Columbia University
- Michael Kiefer, senior reporter for the Arizona Republic
And here's executive producer Bill Wolff with a preview of tonight and a soundtrack tribute to one of this weekend's passings:
Monday's Mini-Report, 7.21.14
Today's edition of quick hits:
* Rising death toll: "Four Israeli soldiers and 10 Palestinian militants were killed inside Israeli territory Monday morning, Israeli military officials said.... As diplomatic pressure for a cease-fire mounted on the conflict's 14th day, the Palestinian death toll topped 500 and the number of Israeli soldiers killed hit 25, more than twice as many as in Israel's last Gaza ground operation in 2009. Two Israeli civilians have also died from rocket and mortar fire."
* Ukraine: "After days of obstruction, Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine reached an agreement with Malaysia on Monday to surrender the flight recorder boxes of the Malaysia Airlines jetliner downed by a surface-to-air missile last week, and allowed the bodies of the victims to be evacuated by train."
* UN: "The United Nations Security Council, increasing pressure on Russia over the downing of a jetliner of Ukraine, adopted a resolution Monday calling for investigators to have unfettered access to the crash site and demanding a cease-fire in the area."
* Related news: "Iran has turned all of its enriched uranium closest to the level needed to make nuclear arms into more harmless forms, the UN nuclear agency says."
* Good question: "In Ukraine, American and other foreign investigators have thus far been unable to secure the access they need. 'Separatists are removing evidence from the crash site,' Obama said. 'All of which begs the question, what exactly are they trying to hide?'"
* Giving diplomacy more time: "Iran, the United States and the five other countries negotiating the future of the Iranian nuclear program have agreed to a four-month extension of the talks, giving them more time to try to bridge major differences over whether Tehran will be forced to dismantle parts of its nuclear infrastructure, according to a statement released early Saturday in Vienna by all seven nations."
* Border crisis: "The number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border in recent weeks appears to be dropping substantially, the White House said Monday. While an average of 355 unaccompanied children crossed the Rio Grande every day in June, an average of 150 migrant children per day were apprehended crossing the border over the first two weeks of July, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said."
* Gun violence: "An 11-year-old girl in Chicago was shot and killed late last week when a stray bullet flew through a window and struck her in the head during a sleepover at a nearby friend's house.... In addition to [sixth grader Shamiya Adams], 21 other people were shot in a 12-hour span from Friday afternoon to early Saturday morning."
* More on this on tonight's show: "The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Saturday that Arizona must divulge information about the drugs and executioners it will use to put a man to death Wednesday or the execution will not go forward."
Russia's U.S. standing plummets, still more popular than Congress
It wasn't too long ago that Russia was fairly popular in the minds in the American mainstream. The latest poll from CNN suggests that's changed rather dramatically.
Most Americans say Russia is directly or indirectly responsible for the downing of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner over eastern Ukraine, and unfavorable opinions of Russia have surged, according to a new national poll. [...]According to the poll, just 19% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Russia, down from 41% in February. Fifty-seven percent of the public saw Russia in a positive way in a 2011 CNN/ORC survey. Seventy-eight percent of those questioned say they have an unfavorable opinion of Russia, a surge of 23 percentage points since February.
That's almost impressive, in a way. It takes real effort to go from 41% to 19% favorability in the course of five months.
But what stands out for me is a CNN poll from a few weeks ago that said Congress has a 14% approval rating.
Let's pause to appreciate what this is telling us.
Public attitudes on foreign policy clear as mud
Politico's latest poll focused exclusively on voters in states and districts with the most competitive Senate and House races, and on foreign policy, voters' attitudes lean heavily in one direction.
Amid deepening violence across Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Americans are recoiling from direct engagement overseas and oppose U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine by large margins, according to a POLITICO poll of 2014 battleground voters.Asked whether the U.S should do more to counter Russian aggression in Ukraine, just 17 percent answered in the affirmative.... More than three-quarters of likely voters say they support plans to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2016. Only 23 percent oppose the plan.Forty-four percent of likely voters favor less involvement in Iraq's civil war, versus 19 percent who favor more involvement and 23 percent who say the current level of involvement is appropriate.... Likely voters prefer less involvement in Syria's civil war over more involvement, 42 percent to 15 percent.
The results aren't even close. The public heard quite a bit from Dick Cheney, and John McCain, and Lindsey Graham, and a cavalcade of Republican lawmakers who seem to dominate the airwaves -- but voters are running in the other direction.
Less than a fifth of these "battleground" voters are buying what McCain & Co. are selling. We're looking at an electorate that wants less of a confrontation in Iraq, less of a presence in Afghanistan, less engagement in Iraq, and less involvement in Syria.
And yet, the exact same poll also included this result: "On the issue of foreign policy specifically, voters say they trust Republicans over Democrats by 7 points, 39 percent to 32 percent."
Got that? Americans clearly reject the Republican foreign policy on Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. Americans also say they're inclined to trust Republicans on foreign policy.
You can almost hear the staffers at the DNC banging their heads against their desks. Americans agree with Democrats on foreign policy, but trust Republicans on foreign policy. If that doesn't seem rational, that's because it isn't.
Obama advances anti-discrimination policy with executive order
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, after already having passed the Senate, has 206 co-sponsors in the House, including lawmakers from both parties. It's tough to argue against the bill -- under federal law, employers can legally fire employees if they're gay, or even if they think the employees are gay. ENDA would make such discrimination illegal, and with 206 co-sponsors, all that's needed is a floor vote.
But that's not going to happen. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has said he will not allow the House to express its will on the legislation, falsely claiming, "People are already protected in the workplace."
A month ago, President Obama got tired of waiting for GOP leaders to allow a vote and directed his staff to craft an executive order to advance ENDA's goals with federal contractors. Today, he made policy by signing it.
Six years after promising to do so, President Barack Obama added his signature on Monday to an executive order barring LGBT discrimination by federal contractors. He also went further and formally amended a separate executive order to include workplace protections for transgender employees of the U.S. government."I know I’m a little late,” said Obama, referring to the near-30 minute delay of Monday’s signing ceremony (though some might argue that it was a delay of six years and 30 minutes). “Many of you have worked for a long time to see this day come.”
The Washington Post's report added, "The universe of workers potentially affected by the order is at once wide-reaching and narrow. 'Obama's executive order will apply to the 24,000 companies designated as federal contractors whose 28 million workers make up a fifth of the country's workforce,' writes Jonathan Capeheart. On the other hand, 92 percent of the largest contractors already have some sort of protection for sexual identity, and 58 percent already have protection based on gender identity."
By any measure, this is no small change. It does, however, lead to the Hobby-Lobby-related question: if a private corporation's executives support discrimination for religious reasons, are they exempt from the new Obama administration policy?