The Commentariat -- Feb. 28, 2016
Afternoon Update:
There Will Be Chaos. Peter Holley of the Washington Post: "Former CIA director Michael Hayden believes there is a legitimate possibility that the U.S. military would refuse to follow orders given by Donald Trump if the Republican front-runner becomes president and decides to make good on certain campaign pledges. Hayden, who also headed the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005, made the provocative statement on Friday during an appearance on HBO's 'Real Time with Bill Maher.' Trump, fresh off a string of primary victories, has yet to secure his party's nomination, but Hayden said the candidate's rhetoric already raises troubling questions.... During his appearance on 'Real Time,' Hayden cited Trump's pledge to kill family members as being among his most troubling campaign statements."
Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: The Army still is not allowing members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots to be buried in Arlington Cemetery, reasoning that they were not technically part of the armed services. "... the WASPs wore uniforms, carried weapons, had access to classified information and saluted their superiors. Along with training men to fly bombers, the WASPs flew fighter planes from military bases to ports, where they were shipped to battle overseas. At least three dozen of them died or were killed while serving." Rep. Martha McSally (R-Az.), a fighter pilot herself, has introduced legislation to change that. The bill has more than 100 co-sponsors. "On Thursday, the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs sent the bill to the House floor."
Jonathan Chait: Donald Trump repeatedly tells Jake Tapper of CNN that he "knows nothing" about David Duke & white supremacist groups who have endorsed or supported his candidacy. "Possibly Trump is making a clever historical reference that he will later explain when he reveals that his entire political profile from 2011 through 2016 was a form of guerrilla theater designed to smoke out the widespread appeal of Republican racism. Or else, more likely, he is even stupider than anybody previously believed." Thanks to MAG for the link.
Linda Greenhouse (pub. 2/27) on "abortion exceptionalism" & the Texas case to be argued this Wednesday in the Supreme Court. A 4-4 tie would leave Texas's restrictive law in place. Greenhouse urges the justices to consider the facts. CW: At least four of them likely will. That ain't enough.
*****
Presidential Race
Amy Chozick & Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "Drawing overwhelming support from the African-American voters who deserted her here eight years ago, Hillary Clinton won her first resounding victory of the 2016 campaign in South Carolina on Saturday, delivering a blow to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont as their fight turns to the 11 states where Democrats vote on Tuesday." ...
... Abby Phillip, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Hillary Clinton is projected to win the Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina, according to exit polls and early returns -- a victory that showcased Clinton's durable support among black Democrats, and raised questions about Sen. Bernie Sanders's ability to compete with her in the South." ...
... Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "The result positions Mrs. Clinton for a sweep of the South in a few days on Super Tuesday and puts the burden on Mr. Sanders to post decisive victories elsewhere. If he does not -- and the polls, at least so far, are not encouraging -- Mrs. Clinton seems likely to amass a significant and possibly irreversible lead." ...
... David Graham of the Atlantic: "The networks called the election as the polls closed at 7 p.m., and Clinton was set to win by a huge margin -- more than 47 percent, with almost all the votes counted. The victory all but clears the way for Clinton to coast to the Democratic nomination.... In her remarks in Columbia, Clinton seemed to declare the primary battle over, and she began looking ahead to the general-election battle.... 'Despite what you hear, we don't need to make America great again. America never stopped being great,' Clinton said. 'But, we do need to make America whole again. Instead of building walls, we need to be tearing down barriers'": ...
... Jim Newell of Slate: "South Carolina -- not Iowa -- was where Sen. Barack Obama began the run of wins that built up his insurmountable delegate lead over Clinton in 2008. It appears as if it will serve the same purpose this time around in Clinton's favor." ...
... ** Ari Berman of the Nation tells the horrifying story of South Carolina's voter-ID law. It makes you want to cry. And if you think Gov. Nikki Haley maybe isn't so bad because she supported removing the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds, you'll think again. ...
... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "As voters made their way to the polls Saturday in South Carolina -- where Bernie Sanders was expected to get trounced in the Democratic presidential primary -- the candidate was 1,000 miles away [in Austin, Texas], in what seemed an alternate universe. More than 10,000 adoring supporters showed up and cheered the Vermont senator's every sentence at an outdoor rally on a gorgeous day here. Sanders boasted about how he was going to beat Donald Trump 'soundly' in the general election. And before leaving stage, he was beaming as he sang 'This Land is Your Land' with the daughter of Willie Nelson and granddaughter of Woody Guthrie":
... Max Ehrenfreund of the Washington Post: "Bernie Sanders is right: Bill Clinton's welfare law doubled extreme poverty.... Hundreds of thousands of Southern families are living on less than $2 in cash a day as a result of legislation President Bill Clinton signed in 1996, according to new research by Johns Hopkins University's Kathryn Edin and University of Michigan's Luke Shaefer.... The profound and enduring consequences of that law, and of the rest of Clinton's policies on poverty, are only just becoming clear.... Sanders said that the number of people living in extreme poverty has doubled under President Clinton's reforms. If anything, that was an understatement.... While the poorest of the poor have suffered, other low-income Americans have benefited. Many experts think Clinton's policies reduced poverty overall." Sanders voted against the law, a law which Hillary Clinton actively supported.
Madame NeoCon. Jo Becker & Scott Shane of the New York Times have a long, two-parter on Hillary Clinton's pivotal role in the Libyan crisis. "This is the story of how a woman whose Senate vote for the Iraq war may have doomed her first presidential campaign nonetheless doubled down and pushed for military action in another Middle Eastern country. As she once again seeks the White House, campaigning in part on her experience as the nation's chief diplomat, an examination of the intervention she championed shows ... her expansive approach to the signal foreign-policy conundrum of today: whether, when and how the United States should wield its military power in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East." Part 2 is here. CW: This report is a vivid reminder, too, that Hillary is not just Bernie Lite. She is someone who has been twice persuaded that Middle Eastern revolutionary "leaders"/elites can & will put together a democratically-governed state. ...
Leslie Picker of the New York Times: "Warren E. Buffett took aim on Saturday at the 'negative drumbeat' of this year's presidential campaign, saying that the view that children today would not live as well as their parents was 'dead wrong.' In his annual letter to shareholders, the billionaire investor -- who has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president -- wrote that 'the babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history.'"
** Alexander Burns, et al., of the New York Times: "In dozens of interviews, elected [Republican] officials, political strategists and donors described a frantic, last-ditch campaign to block Mr. Trump -- and the agonizing reasons that many of them have become convinced it will fail. Behind the scenes, a desperate mission to save the party sputtered and stalled at every turn." ...
... CW: This bit from the report is especially hilarious: "At a meeting of Republican governors [February 20], Paul R. LePage of Maine called for action. Seated at a long boardroom table at the Willard Hotel, he erupted in frustration over the state of the 2016 race, saying Mr. Trump's nomination would deeply wound the Republican Party. Mr. LePage urged the governors to draft an open letter 'to the people,' disavowing Mr. Trump and his divisive brand of politics." On Friday "LePage endorsed Trump, saying he could be "one of the greatest presidents' and "I was Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular. So I think I should support him because we're one of the same cloth." Yeah, Monsieur LePew, you've "deeply wounded the Republican party," too, so that's one of the ways you're Donald Trump. ...
... Dara Lind of Vox writes that the LePage lipflop shows why the GOP can't stop Trump: "... the most damning thing about the New York Times' LePage anecdote: he suggested that governors get together and write an open letter, but the other governors apparently weren't willing to go that far. If the person who is willing to stick his neck out to stop Trump defects to the pro-Trump side, who, exactly, do Republicans expect is going to stop him?" ...
... Daniel Drezner of the Washington Post: "Trump is winning because no significant Republican coalition seriously tried to oppose him when there was still time for it to work. And the reason no powerful Republican coalition emerged to stop him is that the GOP believed all the analysts who said Trump had no chance.... While the field of candidates was crowded, Trump posed what economists call a collective action problem. It was in everyone's general interest for someone to attack Trump -- but it wasn't in anyone's specific interest to do it or to draw Trump's fury in response (ask Bush, whom Trump mocked mercilessly until he finally quit)." ...
... Josh Marshall of TPM: "The problem is Republican voters. Look at the polls and you see that in virtually every state in the country between 30% and 50% of GOP voters currently back Trump. And only unicorn thinking supports the idea that the 70% to 50% who do not constitute some sort 'anti-Trump' faction. That's the problem, not Trump himself.... Republican elected officials have increasingly coddled, exploited and in some cases - yes - spurred their voters penchant for resentment, perceived persecution, apocalyptic thinking and generic nonsense.... Trump is very little different from the average candidate Republicans elected in 2010 and 2014, in terms of radical views and extreme rhetoric." ...
... Kristen East of Politico: "Former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Saturday endorsed Donald Trump for president. Trump has made immigration a central issue in his campaign for president, vowing to build a wall along the southern border of the United States and promising to have Mexico pay for it. 'For years I pleaded with the federal government to do their job and secure our border. Today, we can elect a President who will do just that -- Donald J. Trump,' Brewer said in a statement released by Trump's campaign." ...
... CW: Brewer is perhaps best known for wagging her finger at President Obama, then calling him "thin-skinned." So hardly a surprise that she would support a racist for president. ...
... CW: AND I thought maybe MAG was kidding about this when she mentioned it in yesterday's Comments. But no, it's true. Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed: "Jean-Marie Le Pen, the larger-than-life founder of France's far-right Front National party, endorsed Donald Trump on his Twitter feed on Saturday. If I was American I would vote for Donald Trump,' Le Pen tweeted. 'May God protect him!'... Le Pen has faced legal sanctions more than once for Holocaust denial and for other controversial statements. Over the decades, he has repeatedly made disparaging remarks about minorities.... A Trump spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment." ...
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "For more than eight months, amazingly enough, few of Trump's rivals in the G.O.P. race, or the news organizations that were covering his campaign, bothered to seek answers to ... questions [about Trump's business record], which, in fact, cover only a subset of the pertinent issues raised by Trump's long career. Apart from a few jibes in the early debates about some of his casinos seeking bankruptcy protection, the Republican front-runner had been getting off pretty much scot-free." ...
... Stephanie Saul of the New York Times has a short piece on Donald Trump's now-defunct bait-&-switch scheme previously known as "Trump University." Marco was right when he said in Thursday's debate, "There are people that borrowed $36,000 to go to Trump University..., and you know what they got? They got to take a picture with a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump." ...
... Kevin Sullivan & Mary Jordan of the Washington Post: "In the sharpest official Mexican government comments to date on Republican front-runner Donald Trump..., Foreign Affairs Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu, Mexico's top diplomat..., called Trump's policies and comments 'ignorant and racist' and his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border 'absurd.'... As for Mexico paying for Trump’s proposed wall, she said: 'It is not a proposition we would even consider. It is an impossible proposition.'"
Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas -- released summary pages of their tax returns from the last several years Saturday evening, an effort to raise pressure on billionaire Donald Trump to do the same just days before Super Tuesday in the Republican presidential nominating battle. Rubio and his wife, Jeanette, made $2.29 million from 2010 to 2014 and paid $526,092 in taxes.... Cruz's campaign reported several hours later that the senator from Texas and his wife, Heidi, earned $5.05 million over the last four years and paid $1.45 million in taxes. Both candidates released only the first two pages of returns for the years 2010 to 2014, which provide summary information but drew criticism immediately from Democratic partisans who cited the decision of Hillary Clinton and other presidential candidates to release multiple years of full tax returns. Without the full returns, key details about Cruz's and Rubio's family financial dealings -- such as precise sources of income, deductions and amounts donated to charity -- were not revealed." ...
... CW: I'm waiting for Trump to turn over a fake "summary" of his tax returns by his fake accountant, just as he did with his LOL fake doctor's report.
... Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: Marco continues his anti-Trump schtick. "As in Dallas, where his extended riff on Trump's spelling, wealth, age and bladder control turned viral, Rubio used the Oklahoma City speech to humiliate the front-runner.... In his current messaging, which is being fine-tuned from stop to stop Rubio casts Trump as not only an imbecile but a rip-off artist and a wimp.... While Rubio attacked Trump, national cable networks played his speech live -- a favor granted constantly to Trump, rarely to anyone else. When Rubio switched tacks to deliver his positive stump speech, the networks cut away." ...
... Elliot Smilowitz of the Hill: "Rubio on Saturday continued his mockery of rival Donald Trump, going after the businessman's spelling errors and 'spray tan' at a campaign event in Kennesaw, Ga. 'You guys wanna have a little fun today?' Rubio mischievously asked the crowd, holding up his cell phone. 'Last night he was actually pretty calm after I punched him around a little bit,' he said of Trump. 'He's learning how to spell, I guess. But he's flying around on Hair Force One and tweeting.'" With video.
Other News & Opinion
Eli Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Health officials in the United States have advised pregnant women who are scheduled to attend the Olympic Games in razil to reconsider their plans because of the Zika virus epidemic. In a travel advisory released on Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said women who are pregnant in any trimester should “consider not going to the Olympics."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "MSNBC intends to part ways with host Melissa Harris-Perry after she complained about preemptions of her weekend program and implied that there was a racial aspect to the cable-news network's treatment, insiders at MSNBC said. Harris-Perry refused to appear on her program Saturday morning, telling her co-workers in an email that she felt 'worthless' to the NBC-owned network. 'I will not be used as a tool for their purposes,' wrote Harris-Perry, who is African American. 'I am not a token, mammy or little brown bobble head. I am not owned by [NBC executives] or MSNBC. I love our show. I want it back.'"
Beyond the Beltway
Lenny Bernstein & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: Despite two outbreaks of Legionnaire's disease in & around Flint, Michigan, "no government agency has tested the water supply for the legionella bacteria that cause the infection, which flourished as the beleaguered city's tap water was being poisoned by lead.... Corrosion encouraged the growth of legionella bacteria, which flourish in warm water that contains flakes of iron -- a nutrient for the bacteria -- from aging pipes."
James Queally of the Los Angeles Times: "Three people were stabbed, including one who was critically wounded, and 13 were arrested when a Ku Klux Klan rally in Anaheim erupted in violence Saturday, police said.... Six Klansmen and seven protesters were arrested following the fracas, Wyatt said.... Brian Levin, director of CSU San Bernardino's Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, said he was standing next to the man in the Grand Dragon shirt when a crowd of protesters carrying weapons swarmed the Klansmen. A brawl broke out and one of the Klansmen was knocked to the ground and kicked. Levin said he later saw the man's arm bleeding. Levin said he pushed the Klan leader away as the violence continued and a protester was stabbed. Levin said he asked the man, 'How do you feel that a Jewish guy just saved your life?' 'Thank you,' the man replied, according to Levin.... The Klan has a long and troubling history with the city. Klansmen were once the dominant political force in Anaheim, holding four of five City Council seats before a recall effort led to their ouster in 1924."
Way Beyond
Liz Sly & Zakaria Zakaria of the Washington Post: "The unthinkable happened in Syria on Saturday as an internationally mandated truce unexpectedly took hold across much of the country, raising hopes that the beginning of an end to the five-year-old crisis may be in sight. There were scattered skirmishes and bursts of artillery fire across some of the front lines, a car bomb killed two people in the province of Hama, and Syrian government warplanes dropped barrel bombs on a village in Idlib province, without causing casualties. But for the first time in as long as anyone can remember, the guns were almost completely silent, offering Syrians a welcome respite from the relentless bloodshed that has killed in excess of a quarter of a million people."
News Lede
New York Times: "Wesley A. Clark, a physicist who designed the first modern personal computer, died on Monday at his home in Brooklyn. He was 88.... Mr. Clark's computer designs built a bridge from the era of mainframe systems, which were inaccessible to the general public and were programmed with stacks of punch cards, to personal computers that respond interactively to a user. He achieved his breakthroughs working with a small group of scientists and engineers at the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the late 1950s and early '60s."
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Reader Comments (11)
Watching Adolf's performances and the reaction of the his audience it is apparent that this isn't politics, it's reality TV. I doubt if any of his followers have a clue or an interest in any policy issues. No, this is just being part of the game. So let's give it the correct title, not Trump for POTUS, but Keeping Up With the Trumps!
Oh, and BTW Trump's plan to make new laws to sue the media says it all. He has absolutely no clue what the first amendment says about anything. In fact he has no clue that there is a thing called the Constitution. I have said it before and I will say it again. He knows nothing because he already knows everything. Not just a narcissist but seriously delusional and seriously mentally ill.
Two weeks ago, John Oliver did a segment on the horrific and racist voter ID laws, but he went beyond the Ari Berman article linked above, to show where voter fraud actually takes place - and not surprisingly, by proponents of voter ID requirements. (My apologies if this was already posted).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHFOwlMCdto
Quality, in-depth journalism from a comedy team.
"I see one widdle weenie..." The Bad Lip Reading" people have given us pure entertainment from the GOP's pure entertainment debates. This is better than any Sunday sermon and eases the anger one feels when reading so much of the news that's fit to shout about. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufGlBv8Z3NU&ebc=ANyPxKpf6szNiwaWB3wnmGnWjRGSluM-AqLKP0LxdHQpZFH1NkKBgK22FVt7qwcDRqXViRMuqn3SzpEaq4PnKGEMI24yUdn6Ug
I believe a revolution is needed in American politics, but Bernie Sanders is the wrong person to lead that effort. He talks about a progressive agenda, but when it comes to supporting candidates who propose progressive measures…small as they may be, his first inclination is to reject them as not enough; it must be 100% or not!
He totes the fact that he is an independent who votes with the democrats, but when did he ever support a democrat running for office? Not only is he not a democrat, he isn’t even neighborly. Where was he when we were trying to elect Martha Coakley who was running against Scott Brown for Ted Kennedy’s seat in The Senate? And where was he when we trying to elect Elizabeth Warren who was running against Scott Brown? Did he ever show up at a rally? In fact, did he show up for Jeanne Shaheen or Maggie Hasson in the neighboring state of New Hampshire?
The revolution that I support is the one that will turn the Senate and the House to the progressive agenda, which probably means the Democrats. Anyone who has followed politics for many years will know instinctively that, important as the President is, she is in the weakest position of the government; she doesn’t make laws or regulations; she doesn’t vote, but she can cajole and persuade, and can only get in front of a revolution that has already been developed by the people themselves. So, if Bernie isn’t President will he continue to support a peoples’ revolt? If past is any predictor of the future,….?
On this Sunday, dare one grant Hillary a little Faith, Hope and Charity?
If we agree, as the CW says, she's not simply Bernie Lite--in my estimation more likely very, very lite--might we also trust her NeoCon tendencies are lightening, too?
We invaded Iraq, boots on the ground and all, but hearkening maybe to the previous Clinton's NATO Kosovo-Balkan campaign, we only bombed the heck out of Libya, as we are now doing with ISIS. And it seems calls for rabbit out of the hat regime change are fading, too, both from the current administration and from Ms. Clinton herself.
Do we detect in that progression a lighter foreign policy hand? Is it possible we/they are finally learning something about the stubborn reality of the Middle East?
I'd like to think so.
Since it appears likely Hillary Clinton will be the nominee, I'm in a glass half full mood this AM.
The endorsements that Trump keeps accumulating say much about the guy. How does one get beneath the bottom of the barrel?
See Chait: Trump (aka Schultz "Hogan's Heroes"), "...of course, is lying when he claims to be unaware of David Duke. "
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/02/trump-knows-nothing-or-making-clever-allusion.html
Jonathan Chait wraps it up with: "...Or else, more likely, he is even stupider than anybody previously believed."
....that summation works for me!
Tho' even more (NOT) troubling questions occupy my bewildered mind, WHO does Donald's hair. Does he get up early to do the DO? How much hair spray is loaded on the Trump Air jet? With all that 'hazardous' cargo, is it safe to fly? Does he have a traveling hair stylist on the plane? Does/did said hair stylist sign a non-disclosure agreement NEVER to write a tell all book? Will there be an official White House hair stylist?
Inquiring minds really don't give a F**k.
MAG: And of course Pres. Trump will travel around the country
on "Hair Force One".
Washington Post: "Former CIA director Michael Hayden believes there is a legitimate possibility that the U.S. military would refuse to follow orders given by Donald Trump..."
Has anyone here read Hayden's new book, 'Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror'?
Saw him flogging it on the Newshour the other night
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/the-privacy-vs-security-battle-reignited/
Thinking of Nooking it. Suggestions?
Looks like coming in second to Barack Obama in South Carolina in 2008 was plenty good enough eight years later.
Relativity?
There will be a lot of it at play in this election cycle, contest to contest, state to state, and some in my own head.
Finally, a column by MoDo that expresses my thoughts completely about the cowardly behaviour of the Democratic Senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the way they treated Anita Hill during the hearings to confirm Clarence Thomas. While it's true that no Democrat voted to confirm Thomas, their shabby treatment of Hill and her female witnesses, and how easily they were cowed by Thomas cannot be forgotten nor forgiven.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/opinion/sunday/that-coke-can-is-back.html?ref=opinion&_r=0