The Commentariat -- December 7, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a Second Amendment challenge to [a Highland Park,] Illinois ordinance that banned semiautomatic assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.... Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented.... The ordinance, enacted in 2013..., prohibited possession of what it called assault weapons, defining them as semiautomatic guns that can accept large-capacity magazines and have features like a grip for the nontrigger hand."

Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: "A bipartisan group of negotiators worked through the weekend in hopes of striking a year-end spending deal by the end of Monday so Congress has enough time to pass the legislation before Friday and avert a government shutdown."

Alan Yuhas of the Guardian: "Hillary Clinton previewed a slew of ideas 'to rein in Wall Street' on Monday, including fines for executives whose companies break the law and an 'exit tax' on companies moving abroad.... [Clinton] outlined her proposals in part to reassure progressive voters that she has the will to fight bankers who have backed her."

Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "For the first time, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas took the top spot in an early-state poll, pulling ahead of Donald J. Trump in Iowa in a survey released on Monday by Monmouth University. Mr. Cruz, the beneficiary of a crucial endorsement by a hard-right Iowa congressman [Steve King] and the precipitous decline of Ben Carson, was supported by 24 percent of likely Republican caucusgoers in Iowa.... Mr. Trump had 19 percent, Marco Rubio had 17 percent and Mr. Carson was at 13 percent."

Alicia Caldwell of the AP: "The Obama administration will announce a new terror alert system 'in the coming days,' Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Monday. Johnson said the new alert system will better inform the public about threats to the United States, but he did not provide specific details. This will be the third terror alert system put in place by the Homeland Security Department since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks."

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors in Chicago will not file criminal charges against a police officer who shot and killed a black man last year, an incident that occurred a week before a different fatal shooting that brought national scrutiny to Chicago's police force, officials said Monday.... George Hernandez, a Chicago police officer, shot and killed Ronald Johnson III in October 2014, the week before a different officer shot and killed Laquan McDonald, a black 17-year-old."

Michael Ruane of the Washington Post: During the past six months, the government has been working to identify the "remains of hundreds of sailors and Marines who perished 74 years ago Monday" at Pearl Harbor.

Britt di Resta, in a New York Times op-ed piece, on oppo research: how it's done & how it works.

*****

Michael Shear & Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "President Obama sought on Sunday to calm a jittery American public after the terrorist attack last week in California, delivering a prime-time address designed to highlight the government's campaign against an evolving threat. Speaking from behind a lectern in the Oval Office, Mr. Obama bluntly acknowledged the heightened fears that followed attacks in Paris and in San Bernardino, Calif., which his administration over the weekend called an 'act of terrorism' that was inspired, but not directed, by members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria":

... The Washington Post has an annotated transcript here. ...

... Nahal Toosi of Politico: "... President Barack Obama's carefully scripted Sunday night address to the nation included at least one mistake. Obama said he'd requested a review of the 'visa waiver program' under which one of the suspected San Bernardino attackers arrived in the United States. But that alleged assailant, Tashfeen Malik, came under a fiancé visa; she didn't arrive under the program that waives a visa requirement.... White House officials confirmed after the speech that the president was supposed to say 'visa program,' but apparently the word 'waiver' also slipped through. The official transcript includes a correction." ...

... Peter Beinart of the Atlantic: "At the core of Barack Obama's terrorism speech on Sunday night lay a contradiction. He gave the address to convince an increasingly fearful nation that he takes the terrorist threat seriously. But he doesn't, at least not in the way his political opponents do.... Unlike Rubio, he considers violent jihadism a small, toxic strain within Islamic civilization, not a civilization itself. And unlike [George W.] Bush, he doesn't consider it a serious ideological competitor.... While Republicans think ISIS is strong and growing stronger, Obama thinks it’s weak and growing weaker." ...

... Onward, Christian Soldiers. Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Moments after Barack Obama delivered a primetime address aimed at easing Americans' fears in the wake of last week's terrorist attack in California, top Republicans condemned the president's speech as insufficient and lacking a sense of urgency in the fight against the Islamic State." CW: Ferociously rattling sabres in one hand while their trigger fingers of the other twitched ominously over imaginary nuclear red buttons, the GOP presidential candidates all vowed to remain part of the problem. Most promised to hunt down Muslims in their beds while defending the rights of American terrorist suspects to own multiple assault rifles & yuuuge ammo depots. You'll have to read Siddiqui's report for details. I stick to the overviews here. ...

... Caroline Bankoff of New York has more details of candidates' responses. ...

... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "... no one else, least of all the likes of Trump, Cruz, and Graham, has any dramatic answers either. Obama has laid out a road. Critics who have never been dealt hard questions on the subject soon reveal that their road doesn't look very different. Some have called the war against groups like ISIS a 'long war.' There are no magic bullets or buzzwords." ...

... Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "None of the Republicans used the moment of Mr. Obama's speech to take a new or surprising stand on war strategy or gun control, or offer much more than familiar partisan attacks on the president.... Mr. Obama had not even begun speaking when one Republican candidate, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, issued a statement calling on the president to use the phrase 'radical Islamic terrorism.'... Mr. Cruz pressed Mr. Obama to lay out 'a plan for decisive action for victory over evil.'... Mr. Cruz said as president he would 'direct the Department of Defense to destroy ISIS.'" ...

     ... Greg Sargent: "Taking 'decisive action over evil' and 'directing DOD to destroy ISIS' are great ideas. Why didn't anyone else think of this?" ...

... Andy Borowitz: "Moments after its conclusion on Sunday night, President Obama's speech about combating ISIS came under heavy criticism from people with zero better ideas." CW: I told you you couldn't satirize these people. Borowitz's lede is no different from the line I cited from Healy's NYT report.

... Missy Ryan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Law enforcement agents Sunday again searched the home of a man suspected of providing San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook with the military-grade rifles he and his wife used to gun down 14 people, expanding the investigation into the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001.... [Enrique] Marquez, who works as a Walmart security guard, checked himself into a mental health facility Friday; it is not yet clear whether he has already been questioned by authorities or if he will be charged.... On Sunday, Italian publication La Stampa published an interview with Farook's father, also named Syed, in which he said his son had harbored anti-Semitic animosity." ...

... Ted Bridis of the AP: "The U.S. government's ability to review and analyze five years' worth of telephone records for the married couple blamed in the deadly shootings in California lapsed just four days earlier when the National Security Agency's controversial mass surveillance program was formally shut down. Under a court order, those historical calling records at the NSA are now off-limits to agents running the FBI terrorism investigation even with a warrant.... Under the new law, passed in June, investigators still can look for links in phone records but they must obtain a targeted warrant to get them directly from phone companies...." ...

... CW: While we're all ringing out hands over presidential candidates' irresponsible statements about gun control & the Congress's refusal to enact curbs on even rapid-fire assault weapons for terror suspects, we shouldn't forget the third branch of government's role in this mass-murderous situation. Dorothy Samuels of the Brennan Center is here to remind you that Nino's majority opinion in Heller v. D.C., "was less in sync with the founding generation than with the top priority of" the NRA & "was an aggressive exercise in mendacity" which "upend[ed] the well-established meaning of the Second Amendment" and "made the country less safe and less free."

Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker has a long piece on the division within the Republican House.

Monica Davey & Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "The Justice Department plans to begin a far-ranging investigation into the patterns and practices of the Chicago Police Department, part of the continuing fallout over a video released last month showing the police shooting of Laquan McDonald, a person familiar with the case said Sunday. The investigation, similar to those of troubled police departments in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, could be announced as early as this week."

David Gans of the New Republic: "... with two cases from Texas, including a second trip to the Supreme Court for the Fisher case, [conservative organizer & financer Ed Blum] is hoping to rewrite the Fourteenth Amendment's broad guarantee of equality, seeking to sharply limit affirmative action on college campuses and deny unnaturalized immigrants, children, and others equal representation in state legislatures.... In Evenwel [v. Abbott], Blum's team insists that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to draw districts on the basis of the state's voter population, not its total population. In other words, only a subset of the population is entitled to representation in state legislatures. Blum’s argument is that unnaturalized immigrants, children, and other who lack access to the ballot should not be counted for purposes of legislative representation, which would unquestionably result in a major shift in political power away from urban population centers toward the whiter, more rural areas of the state. No court in history has ever accepted Blum's radical claim...."

Brady Dennis & Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Former president Jimmy Carter told a large Sunday school class he was teaching that there are no signs of the cancer in his liver and brain months after his melanoma diagnosis, a family friend in attendance said."

Paul Krugman: There's a good chance the Federal Reserve is making a mistake by raising interest rates. "I suspect, however, that [Fed] officials have been worn down by incessant criticism of their policies, and want to throw the critics a bone. But those critics have been wrong every step of the way. Why start taking them seriously now?" ...

... CW: I believe Larry Summers says the same thing, but you'd have to be the sharpest kid in his Econ 482 class to correctly interpret his WashPo op-ed. But nice try, Larry, at connecting with the masses. ...

... Jared Bernstein in the Washington Post (Dec. 4), on why the Fed will likely raise interest rates: "... there are a lot of data saying 'don't raise.' On the other side, unemployment is low, job growth is solid and steady, the economic expansion is 'mature' (it's been in place for over six years) and the Fed's got a seven-year itch they're about to scratch."

AP: "The National Park Service and the U.S. Navy plan to hold a joint memorial service Monday to mark the 74th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. The joint service is a rehearsal for what is expected to be a much bigger memorial service next year to mark the 75th anniversary of the attack by Japan that killed over 2,400 Americans and brought the U.S. into World War II, KITV TV reported (http://bit.ly/1R3z7aA)."

Sarah Marquis of NOAA (Dec. 3): "NOAA and University of Hawaii archaeologists today released rare images of a U.S. Navy airplane sunk during the opening minutes of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on Oahu on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II. Minutes before attacking Pearl Harbor, Japanese Imperial Navy aircraft bombed the nearby U.S. Naval Air Station on the east coast of Oahu. Twenty-seven Catalina PBY "flying boats" on the ground or moored on Kāne‛ohe Bay were destroyed, and six others were damaged."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

... we just can't underestimate -- this is the reason why the elected officials take on Trump and it doesn't help and, in fact, it helps Trump in a way, because people have a deep distrust of our elected officials, confidence and honesty and in some ways, frankly, after the last decade, you'd say having a distrust in political elites and financial elites is warranted. -- Bill Kristol, "a chief architect of the Bush Administration 'Lie America Into Iraq' strategy" (TM Driftglass), on ABC News "This Week"

Driftglass locates the appropriate response to Kristol's remark.

Presidential Race

David Sanger of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton said on Sunday that the Islamic State had become 'the most effective recruiter in the world' and that the only solution was to engage American technology companies in blocking or taking down militant websites, videos and encrypted communications. 'You are going to hear all the familiar complaints: "freedom of speech,"'; Mrs. Clinton said in an hourlong speech and question-and-answer session at the Saban Forum.... Mrs. Clinton said, 'We need to put the great disrupters at work at disrupting ISIS.'... It was the second time in two weeks that Mrs. Clinton ... had thrown herself into the brewing battle between Silicon Valley and the government over what steps should be taken to block the use of Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and a range of encrypted apps that are adopted by terrorist groups. Mrs. Clinton's comments echo recent White House calls for what would amount to a cease-fire with technology firms after the revelations by Edward J. Snowden...." ...

     ... Vanessa Williams of the Washington Post: "... Hillary Clinton said Sunday that the United States is 'not winning' the battle against the Islamic State and called on Congress to update the use-of-force authorization passed after Sept. 11, 2001, to give President Obama more options to fight the militant group. But she stopped short of calling for a declaration of war." ...

... In a New York Times op-ed, Hillary Clinton outlines her plan to "rein in Wall Street." CW: If I were a Wall Street banker, I'd be pleased to know Hillary was on my side. Clinton is as likely to "rein in Wall Street" as Rick Santorum is to preside at a gay marriage. ...

... CW: If you think it is only right-wing dingbats who can't remember the past (Ralph Nader), whose "thinking" doesn't get much past bumper-sticker slogans (Hillary Clinton is "strikingly dishonest"; "why buy a cow when you can get the milk for free?") & whose rigidly ideological views are both nutty & disastrous, read Shane Ryan, who is apparently a regular at Salon now. His proposal -- & his "reasons" -- to "just let the Republicans win" are way past stupid. P.S. I don't care for Hillary Clinton, & I voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 primary. So I understand the "feeling" Ryan has, but it does not translate into reasonable action, just as I have a "feeling" I'd like to box Ryan's ears, but I wouldn't do it.

Rebecca Leber of the New Republic: "Bernie Sanders rolled out a 16-page climate change plan on Monday that combines many of his long-held environmental positions, like dropping fossil fuel subsidies and banning offshore drilling, with a couple of new ideas.... What truly separates Sanders's plan from those of the other Democratic candidates, though, is its emphasis on special interests and big money in campaigns (which fits into the larger themes of Sanders's campaign). The U.S. can't take necessary action on climate change, Sanders says, until polluters lose their stranglehold on the political process." CW: And that's the truth.

E. J. Dionne: "Republicans are having trouble taking on Trump not only because they welcomed his support in the past and not only because they have often embraced (in a less colorful and direct way) many of the themes he is accenting, but also because they have delivered next to nothing to their loyal white, working-class supporters."

Patrick Healy: "Donald J. Trump is having trouble keeping some details straight about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Three times during the last week Mr. Trump, the leading Republican presidential candidate, has made remarks that do not align with the timeline [of what actually happened]." ...

     ... CW: Read Healy's post. I'll bet you remember more-or-less what time of day the planes hit the World Trade Center, even if you didn't see victims jumping to their deaths from your Manhattan penthouse four miles away. The fact that Trump seems to think the planes hit the Towers at "dinner" or "lunch" time suggests he has no memory at all of 9/11, but maybe watched news reports later in the day or in the days that followed. It is quite possible that the guy who says he has "one of the all-time great memories" is suffering from some form of progressive dementia, a disease that presents in the form of "memory disorders, personality changes, and impaired reasoning." And no, I'm not kidding. ...

... Patrick Healy: "Mr. Trump ... said on CBS's 'Face the Nation' that Americans have been too politically correct regarding Muslims and repeated his disgust over reports that neighbors did not contact authorities with concerns about the California couple, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, out of fear that it could be considered racial profiling. Mr. Trump, who has called for mosques to be monitored and for a database to track Muslims, made his clearest statement yet in support of racial profiling...." Trump rivals Chris Christie, John Kasich & Jeb Bush disagreed with Trump's call for racial profiling. ...

... CW: This Daily Caller post (Dec. 3) appears to be the report Trump is referencing. According to numerous media reports, Farook & some friends often worked on restoring cars in his garage. In addition, the Farooks had a new baby. So the so-called "suspicious activity" -- working in the garage & receiving "quite a few packages" -- have innocent explanations. As for a neighbor's claim that the police may have been called to settle a domestic dispute, I'd say the authorities already knew about that, if it happened. A few neighbors' reports of "suspicious activities" sound like hindsight to me. Trump, then, has proposed a sweeping plan to curtail the rights of millions of Americans because of a Daily Caller post says a few neighbors didn't report the Farooks for the same kinds of "suspicious activities" most of us engage in from time to time: working in the garage & getting several packages over the course of a few days.

Reasons terrorist suspects should be able to buy arsenals full of guns & ammo:

     (1) David Edwards of the Raw Story: "... John Kasich warned over the weekend that people on the terrorist watch list should be able to buy guns or it could 'tip somebody off' that they are being watched." ...

     (2) Katie Valentine of Think Progress: "Marco Rubio said Sunday that people on the U.S. government's No-Fly list should still be able to purchase guns, because the list is full of 'everyday Americans' who are on the list by accident. 'The majority of the people on the No-Fly list are often times people that just basically have the same name as somebody else, who doesn't belong on the No-Fly list,' he said on CNN's State of the Union.... When [Jake] Tapper said he didn't think it was accurate that a majority of people on the No-Fly list were there by mistake, Rubio said he thought it was a 'very significant number.'" ...

... CW: Rubio might have a point, if he were a consistent defender of civil liberties. But after the Paris terrorist attack, Rubio out-Trumped Trump. He said he "doesn't just want to consider shutting down mosques, as [Donald] Trump says, but wants to shut down 'any place where radicals are being inspired.'" A week or so before that he compared Muslims to Nazis.

Beyond the Beltway

Texas Republican Party Votes against Secession. Patrick Svitel of the Texas Tribune: "In a voice vote Saturday afternoon, the [Texas] State Republican Executive Committee rejected a measure that would have put [secession] on the March 1 primary ballot.... The pro-secession measure was sent to the full body on Friday after approval by its Resolutions Committee. The ballot language before the executive committee Saturday afternoon read, 'If the Federal Government continues to disregard the Constitution and the sovereignty of the State of Texas, the State of Texas should reassert its prior status as an independent nation.'" In a nearly-unanimous vote, the executive committee also rejected a proposal to move the state convention from Dallas, which has a new anti-discrimination ordinance to which some in the party objected.

Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "A former Australian politician says his country should warn citizens about traveling to the U.S. in the wake of the San Bernardino, Calif., shooting. Tim Fischer, a former deputy prime minister who spearheaded Australia's mandatory gun buyback program in 1996, said it is time to 'call out' the U.S. on gun violence.... 'Have we not reached the stage where the Smart Traveler advice of the [Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade] needs to be muscled up?' he asked." CW: Months ago, I suggested other countries should think about warning their citizens about the dangers of travel to the U.S. It hasn't happened yet, but it is on some people's minds.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The U.S. military alleged Monday that Russian warplanes were responsible for an attack on a Syrian army position in eastern Syria, an airstrike that Syria blamed on the U.S.-led coalition battling the Islamic State militant group in the country."

New York Times: "Officials in the Chinese capital declared for the first time on Monday evening that the thick smog blanketing the city was bad enough to require a red alert, the highest level of alarm. It was the first time a code red had been sounded since Beijing announced an emergency air pollution response system with multicolored warnings in 2013. Across the city, residents braced for the onset of another 'airpocalypse' -- the term that some English speakers here use for the most toxic bouts of air pollution."

The Commentariat -- December 6, 2015

Mario Trujillo of the Hill: "President Obama will discuss the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings and the broader threat of terrorism on Sunday night in a rare prime time address from the Oval Office. The address at 8 p.m. will hit on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) and how the terror threat has "evolved, and how we will defeat it," according to the White House." CW: I was just thinking he should do this. And I hope he tells Republican presidential candidates & other loudmouths to STFU. ...

Peter Baker & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times :"'We have moved to an entirely new phase in the global terrorist threat and in our homeland security efforts,' Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, said in an interview on Saturday. Terrorists have 'in effect outsourced attempts to attack our homeland. We've seen this not just here but in other places. This requires a whole new approach, in my view.'... Mr. Johnson said the government should continue to augment airline security by placing more agents in overseas departure airports and further toughen standards for the visa waiver program that allows visitors from certain friendly nations easy entry into the country. He and other officials said the government needed to reach out even more to Muslim communities to help identify threats that might otherwise escape notice." ...

... Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "The intelligence community told President Obama during a briefing Saturday that the suspects in the San Bernardino, Calif., shooting were not part of an 'organized group' or 'terrorist cell,' the White House said in a statement." ...

... Faith Karimi, et al., of CNN: "ISIS on Saturday hailed the two people who massacred 14 people in Southern California this week as 'supporters' of the terror group -- a message that came after U.S. investigators said they suspect one of the shooters professed loyalty to the Islamist network. The terror group's official Iraq-based station made the declaration days after Wednesday's San Bernardino shooting that also left 21 injured, but -- notable for a group quick to claim attacks -- did not say the couple were members or that ISIS was responsible." ...

... Abby Phillip, et al., of the Washington Post: "Early on Saturday, law enforcement authorities raided a home next door to one where the Farook family once lived in Riverside, Calif. According to a law enforcement official, the raid targeted Enrique Marquez, who is thought to have bought the two military-grade rifles used in the attack. Both weapons were modified in a way that allowed them to be used with greater lethality, suggesting extensive planning for the attack. Marquez, who has not been charged with a crime, has checked himself into a nearby mental health facility." ...

... Missed this one. Dan Frosch & Ashby Jones of the Wall Street Journal: "The weapons were illegal under California law because they were modified and violated the state's ban on assault weapons, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said on Thursday.... While they were originally sold legally, with magazine locking devices commonly known as bullet buttons, the rifles were subsequently altered in different ways to enhance them, according to Meredith Davis, a special agent with the ATF." CW: To read this story, unless you have a WSJ subscription, you'll have to Google it. ...

... Tim Craig & others at the Washington Post try to profile Tashfeen Malik, the San Bernardino shooter. ...

... Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "The president of Liberty University[, Jerry Falwell, Jr.,] ... urged students during the school's convocation Friday to get their permits to carry concealed weapons.... 'I've always thought that if more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in,' he says, the rest of his sentence drowned out by loud applause while he said, 'and killed them.'... Falwell said that when he referred to 'those Muslims,' he was referring to Islamic terrorists, specifically those behind the attacks in Paris and in San Bernardino.... A spokesperson for Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) sent the following statement on Saturday: 'My administration is committed to making Virginia an open and welcoming Commonwealth, while also ensuring the safety of all of our citizens. Mr. Falwell's rash and repugnant comments detract from both of those crucial goals,' McAuliffe said." Read the whole article to get a better idea of what a flaming ass Falwell is. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... CW: It seems Marco Rubio, who never knows what's he talking about unless it's his parents' humble occupations, criticized Democratic candidates for going on & on about gun control but never mentioning "bomb control." The sick-funny thing is, as Steve M. points out, President Clinton did try to introduce some bomb control: "a requirement that traceable 'taggants' be included in explosives. The NRA was having none of it, and therefore neither was the GOP." Obviously, taggants won't deter a bomber, but they can help authorities catch him. And Republicans are against that. As one of Steve's commenters wrote, Democrats should -- accurately --portray Republicans as soft on crime. Well, how 'bout soft on terrorism, too. ...

... Andy Parker in the New York Daily News: "On Aug. 26, our daughter Alison was murdered on live television here in Virginia.... [Coupled with the House's refusal to address gun control measures,] the Senate vote Thursday that defeated a measure to deny known or suspected terrorists the ability to obtain firearms and explosives and you have what amounts to, in my opinion, TREASON. These cowards would rather cash their NRA checks than protect our families and our country."

Keith Laing of the Hill: "President Obama signed into a law a five-year, $305 billion highway bill on Friday, with just hours to spare before the scheduled expiration of the nation's road and transit spending. Funding had been set to expire at midnight."

Never Mind. Nahal Toosi of Politico: "More than half of the House Democrats who voted to restrict the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the U.S. appear to be having second thoughts. At least 26 of the 47 Democrats who supported the measure have signed on to a letter urging House Speaker Paul Ryan not to include it in a must-pass omnibus spending bill likely to be voted on in the coming days, according to groups helping arrange the missive." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Missed this, too. Sarah Wheaton of Politico (Dec. 4): "President Barack Obama held an unannounced meeting with gun control advocates former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, on Friday and discussed his administration's 'ongoing effort to address gun violence in America,' according to a White House statement. The meeting, which did not appear on the president's public schedule, had been planned in advance of the shooting attack Wednesday in San Bernardino.... The White House meeting also included senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who is overseeing the process of drafting possible executive actions to prevent gun violence -- a topic that came up during the discussion...."

Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "The Supreme Court denied a request from the activist behind the Planned Parenthood sting videos to block a federal judge's order to turn over the names of people who supported his work. Lawyers representing David Daleiden had asked Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy on Friday evening to block the order from the district judge, which was upheld by an appeals panel Thursday."

Juan Cole: Receb Tayyip "Erdogan's negative divide and rule has brought Turkey to the brink of chaos. A hot war with the PKK is ongoing. HDP offices have been bombed. The Syria proxy war, supporting hard line fundamentalists allied with al-Qaeda versus Russian-backed forces, is ongoing. Press freedom, always precarious, has evaporated. A Russian economic boycott is being imposed. Whether Erdogan can still manage to become president for life is unclear. But his negative, violent divide-and-rule tactics are producing a bigger question, of what kind of Turkey he will be president of. One thing is clear. The so-called Turkish model is dead.... Turkey's downward spiral has regional implications." Thanks to safari for the link.

Election 2016

Historian Sean Wilentz, in a long & very readable Rolling Stone essay, invokes history (natch!) to argue that the election "will be one of the most pivotal moments of our time." ...

... CW: Presidential-year elections would be far less "pivotal" if Democrats, so-called independents & the other-directed would learn to vote in every Congressional election as well as in state & local off-year elections.

Amy Chozick of the New York Times on the long, complicated & often acrimonious relationship between Hillary Clinton & Rahm Emanuel.

Republican candidates criticize New York Times editorial, say every red-blooded (pale-skinned) American should be walking around with semi-automatic weapons to mow down terrorists. Or something. ...

Michael Barbaro & Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "The Republican candidates for president angrily demanded on Friday that the United States face up to a new world war, one that has breached its borders, threatened the safety of Americans and brought the menace of Islamic terrorism deep into the homeland.... Republicans have raced to fill the role of the terror-combating commander in chief, sometimes with a mix of bravado and bluster and oneupmanship.... Their language was almost apocalyptic.... For all the heated expressions from Republicans..., they favored symbolism over specific policy prescriptions." ...

     ... Steve M. rips apart Barbaro & Gabriel's reporting on Clinton. CW: My favorite part is where they wrote, "Democrats seemed to offer a more muddled response." What they mean by "muddled," as far as I can tell from the context, is that Democrats didn't say, "First, kill all the Muslims." I suspect that when Mike & Trip realized they had reported that Republican candidates were using "apocalyptic language," "bravado" & "bluster," they had to obey the Both-Sides Goddess & find a negative way to describe Democrats' responses, too.

Words Matter. Patrick Healy & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The dark power of words has become the defining feature of [Donald] Trump's bid for the White House to a degree rarely seen in modern politics, as he forgoes the usual campaign trappings ... and instead relies on potent language to connect with, and often stoke, the fears and grievances of Americans. The New York Times analyzed every public utterance by Mr. Trump over the past week.... The transcriptions yielded 95,000 words and several powerful patterns, demonstrating how Mr. Trump has built one of the most surprising political movements in decades and, historians say, echoing the appeals of some demagogues of the past century. Mr. Trump's breezy stage presence makes him all the more effective because he is not as off-putting as those raging men of the past, these experts say." ...

     ... CW: Pretty fascinating. both in content & in the Times' willingness to forego their he-said/she-said formula & call a demagogue a demagogue. ...

... digby adds a modifier: "He is a fascist demagogue. And to a whole lot of Americans what he's saying is music to their ears. And other right wing leaders, like Ted Cruz and Jerry Falwell Jr (an alleged Christian minister) are right there with him." digby runs down some of Trump's newer, outrageous remarks. ...

... Today provides yet another good example of Trump's inflammatory, name-calling but otherwise substance-free rhetoric. Jeremy Herb of Politico: "Donald Trump says the country's 'tremendous problem' with radical Islamic terrorism will get solved once President Barack Obama 'gets the hell out' of office. Trump slammed the president Sunday for not using the term 'radical Islamic terrorism' to describe the terror attacks in Paris and this past week's mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, hitting on a frequent Republican criticism of the Obama administration's language used to describe terrorism." ...

... CW: Because demonizing everyone of the Muslim faith will definitely end terrorism & turn Daesh into mush. When will Trump start calling Falwell the Younger a radical Christian terrorist? (See Falwell's call-to-arms against Muslims, linked above.) ...

... Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "More than two dozen people were escorted from [Donald Trump's campaign] event at Dorton Arena [in Raleigh, North Carolina,] for various forms of protest, causing the candidate to stop his stump speech about 10 times until the shouts and boos subsided."

Bradford Richardson: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is pointing to this week's shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., as evidence that female refugees from Syria should not be allowed in the country." ...

... No Country for Men. CW: I am pointing to the shooting attack at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs as evidence that men from the United States should not be allowed in the country. Deport 'em all. (See also Standoff at Neenah, below, & Steve M.'s commentary.)

Beyond the Beltway

AP: "A standoff at a motorcycle shop in Wisconsin ended Saturday with one person dead, a police officer injured and one person in custody, authorities said. Police said shots were reported at Eagle Nation Cycles on Neenah's Main Street shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday, along with a report that hostages had been taken. Police responded and nearby homes and businesses in Neenah, about 85 miles northwest of Milwaukee, were evacuated." ...

... When a Guy with a Gun Has Seller's Remorse. According to unconfirmed information the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel received from the shopowner's attorney, the shooter was some guy who had sold his bike & wanted it back. The bike was in the shop for repairs. ...

     ... Update. Cary Spivak, et al., of the Journal Sentinel: "After most of the hostages were released, one person inside the shop exited with a gun and was shot by police when he ignored demands to drop it, and died later, said Police Chief Kevin Wilkinson. He noted that investigators were still trying to sort out a confusing situation." ..

... Steve M.: "Also, please note that even though a cop had to go to the hospital, the suspect was taken into custody alive. So I'm betting the suspect is a white guy, not a Muslim (or a black person). Therefore, it's just another day in America -- shots were fired, citizens were terrorized, but the culprit was a regular American, so it's cool."

The Thin Blue Line -- Accessories After the Fact. Monica Davey of the New York Times: "... at least five other officers on the scene that night [of the police killing of teen Laquan McDonald] corroborated a version of events similar to the one Officer [Jason] Van Dyke, now charged with murder in the shooting, gave his supervisors: that Mr. McDonald was aggressively swinging his knife and was moving toward the police, giving Officer Van Dyke no choice but to start shooting."

The Commentariat -- December 5, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "The president of Liberty University[, Jerry Falwell, Jr.,] ... urged students during the school's convocation Friday to get their permits to carry concealed weapons.... 'I've always thought that if more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in,' he says, the rest of his sentence drowned out by loud applause while he said, 'and killed them.'... Falwell said that when he referred to 'those Muslims,' he was referring to Islamic terrorists, specifically those behind the attacks in Paris and in San Bernardino.... A spokesperson for Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) sent the following statement on Saturday: 'My administration is committed to making Virginia an open and welcoming Commonwealth, while also ensuring the safety of all of our citizens. Mr. Falwell's rash and repugnant comments detract from both of those crucial goals,' McAuliffe said." Read the whole article to get a better idea of what a flaming ass Falwell is.

Never Mind. Nahal Toosi of Politico: "More than half of the House Democrats who voted to restrict the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the U.S. appear to be having second thoughts. At least 26 of the 47 Democrats who supported the measure have signed on to a letter urging House Speaker Paul Ryan not to include it in a must-pass omnibus spending bill likely to be voted on in the coming days, according to groups helping arrange the missive."

*****

White House: "In this week's address, the President offered his condolences to the families and community of the victims of the San Bernardino shooting":

** CW: digby, following Richard Engle of NBC News, has by far the most sensible take on the probable motivations of the San Bernardino mass murderers. Engle: "So there is not an indication that this is a sleeper cell, that this someone who was planted by ISIS, that was years in the making. More likely it was someone in the United States, unhappy with the way they were living, unhappy with the way they were seen, became radicalized there and founded, was part of a cell in the United States." digby: "... everyone needs to take a breath and recognize that this is likely no different than all the other mass shootings we've had this year." Read the whole post for the rationale behind their tentative conclusion. ...

     I'd add this: Farook had a good job, & all indications are that his co-workers, who were of various ethnicities, treated him with respect. It's possible of course that he didn't see it that way; he could have spent five years in a state of perpetual resentment for real & perceived slights. Malik seems to have had little contact with Americans. I have no idea how much this couple followed U.S. politics. Maybe they never heard of Donald Trump. But just as Carly Fiorina & all those other anti-Planned Parenthood lying loudmouths almost certainly moved Robert Dear to attack the Colorado Springs clinic, it is quite likely that the party of Trump's virulent anti-Muslim rhetoric -- including Trump's Muslim registry/mosque surveillance musings -- was part of the mix that motivated Farook & Malik. In my view, their easy access to guns & ammo, thanks to Republicans, was a convenient means, but it is likely that right-wing racism & religious intolerance was a contributing motivation. ISIS propaganda was apparently the direct inspiration for this terrorist attack, but Republican rhetoric reinforced & validated that propaganda. I see GOP fingerprints all over the San Bernardino rampage. ...

... Michael Schmidt & Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: "The woman who, with her husband, killed 14 people in San Bernardino pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a Facebook post the day of the attack, officials said Friday, and the F.B.I. announced it was treating the massacre as an act of terrorism.' The investigation so far has developed indications of radicalization by the killers, and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations,' the F.B.I. director, James Comey, said at a news conference here. But, he said: 'so far we have no indication that these killers are part of an organized larger group, or form part of a cell. There's no indication that they are part of a network.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon with a lede which did not include the FBI's decision to treat the massacre as a terrorist act.) ...

... Eli Saslow & Stephanie McCrummen of the Washington Post provide an account of how the shooting went down, according to survivors who were in the room. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Kevin Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post: "American Muslims say they are living through an intensely painful moment and feel growing anti-Muslim sentiment after the recent Islamic State attacks in Paris and this week's San Bernardino shootings.... Many Muslims said fear of Islam is being fueled by the heated rhetoric of Republican presidential candidates, particularly businessman Donald Trump, who has called for surveillance of some mosques and requiring Muslims to register with the government.... Research by Pew and CAIR shows that apprehension about Islam has increased sharply with the rise of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, in the past two years, especially since the group's highly publicized beheadings of foreign journalists and aid workers began in August 2014." ...

Ravi Somaiya of the New York Times: "The New York Times is running an editorial on its front page on Saturday, the first time the paper has done so since 1920, calling for greater regulation on guns in the aftermath of a spate of mass shootings." ...

     ... New York Times Editors: "The attention and anger of Americans should also be directed at the elected leaders whose job is to keep us safe but who place a higher premium on the money and political power of an industry dedicated to profiting from the unfettered spread of ever more powerful firearms. It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency. These are weapons of war, barely modified and deliberately marketed as tools of macho vigilantism and even insurrection.... Certain kinds of weapons, like the slightly modified combat rifles used in California, and certain kinds of ammunition, must be outlawed for civilian ownership." ...

... Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: "Having instructed us that the first of this week's mass shootings was free from any ideological taint at all -- that the Planned Parenthood killings were the work of a lone nut, completely uninfluenced by their rhetoric -- the Republican candidates then ordered us to understand that the next mass shooting was nothing but ideology, that the horrific killings in San Bernardino were, as Ted Cruz instantly insisted, an act of Islamic terrorism that should place us in a 'time of war.'... The collective responsibility that all Americans share is the responsibility of allowing too many people to have too many guns; guns of a kind that no civilian ever needs can be bought in this country by almost anyone who wants one.... Those who put weapons into the hands of anyone who wants them are complicit in what happens when they do.... So there will be ever more mass gun murders, some to be accepted blankly as the cost of liberty, others to become the occasion for surrendering liberty to a militarized state.

... Steve M. Peggy Noonan is the "real" victim of the San Bernardino attack: liberals are picking on her & her confederates. CW: I especially like the advice of NMMNB commenter Lit3Bolt: "If I was any Democratic candidate..., I would continuously hammer all Republicans as soft on crime, soft on terrorism, soft on child safety. The Right wants ISIS radicals to buy guns and slaughter your children. The ads write themselves." ...

... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "White House press secretary Josh Earnest lashed out at Republicans who 'stood up once again with the NRA [National Rifle Association] and in the face of common sense' to block measures to expand background checks and bar individuals on terrorist watch lists from purchasing firearms." ...

... New York Times Editors: "The evolving situation has forced Republican leaders and presidential candidates to contort themselves: talking tough on terrorism, yet ignoring the fact that the two were armed to the teeth with two .223-caliber assault rifles and two 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistols, and hundreds of rounds, all purchased legally. While the nation suffered through the shock of another bloody massacre, on Thursday every Senate Republican except Mark Kirk of Illinois voted against legislation to prevent people on the F.B.I.'s consolidated terrorist watchlist from purchasing guns or explosives.... Since the Paris attacks, Republicans have been trying to outdo each other in describing how they'd crack down on global terrorism. But when a mass shooting at home calls attention to laws that put guns into the hands of suspected terrorists, they ask for a moment of silence, while taking action that speaks volumes." ...

... Gail Collins: "The San Bernardino murderers were wielding assault rifles, with which they were able to fire an estimated 65-75 bullets in rapid succession. Assault weapons, which seem to be the armament of choice for mass shootings, used to be illegal under a law that expired in 2004. If the law had stayed on the books, how many victims would have survived in San Bernardino, or at the elementary school in Newtown, Conn.? Given the fact that semiautomatic weapons are totally inappropriate for either hunting or home defense, some of us would love to trade them for the possibility of reduced casualties next time somebody decides to go on a rampage." ...

... David Roberts of Vox explains why confederates think they need those guns & ammo & why "reason" & evidence will not dissuade them. ...

... Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Jana Kasperkevic of the Guardian: "Stocks of two major gun-makers surged on Thursday morning, the day after a shooting in San Bernardino, California, left 14 people dead. More than an hour after the stock markets opened, Smith & Wesson stocks were up by 2.62%. Stocks of Sturm, Ruger & Co were up 1.67%. Gunmakers saw their stock rise even as the overall stock market fell on concerns that the Federal Reserve would raise interests later this month." ...

... Tim Egan: "By next week, with the professional football playoff picture starting to take shape, and the holiday festivities in full swing, we'll have this San Bernardino thing figured out. And we'll hope that it doesn't happen again tomorrow. But it will happen tomorrow -- on average, one multiple-victim shooting a day. Every day. It will make sense in the only country where mass killings make sense."

David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans have finally fulfilled their long quest to pass legislation repealing President Obama's landmark health care law, and Congress will soon send the measure to the White House, where it might have a chance of being folded into origami or a fleet of paper airplanes, but no possibility of being signed into law."

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The United States has been eliminating a mid- to high-level Islamic State figure every two days, on average, contributing to President Obama's decision to send a new Special Operations force to Iraq to intensify efforts to locate and kill militant leaders there and in Syria, a senior administration official said Thursday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Here is Norah O'Donnell's full interview of President Obama regarding climate change:

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Scavenger Hunt Edition. Scott Collins & Richard Winton of the Los Angeles Times: "On Friday morning, up to 100 journalists began rummaging around the house formerly occupied by the married couple who carried out a mass shooting on Wednesday in San Bernardino. And as that bizarre scene was playing out live on TV, critics -- on Twitter and elsewhere -- let out a collective yowl.... Reporters at the scene -- including from the Los Angeles Times -- said the couple's landlord used a crowbar to pry open the door of the home.... A mob scene ensued, with reporters and camera crews from CNN and MSNBC -- and a few non-media passersby -- rifling through the townhome.... [The Redlands police] "department stepped in to protect the rights of the dead persons' relatives and insure the property was secure. The scene was then closed." ...

... As Cowichan wrote in yesterday's thread, "... here were these msnbc ghouls rummaging through the detritus of the shooter's home. Revolting!!" ...

... digby: "... MSNBC (among others) gathered outside the apartment of the San Bernardino attackers, helped the landlord pry off the plywood on the door and raced in live to rummage through everything in there. They even showed the license and social security card of the shooter's mother in close-up on live TV. They ... showed pictures of unknown people to the entire country.... This was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen a network broadcast live." ...

... Katherine Krueger of TPM: "After MSNBC treated viewers on Friday to a live look inside the San Bernardino shooters' apartment, the network said they 'regret' showing photos of children and identification cards during the live broadcast."

Presidential Race

Simon Maloy of Salon: "As Trump endures in the polls, I think more and more about the political significance of the child migrant crisis of the summer of 2014.... The House GOP ... passed legislation that would have expedited deportations of children crossing the border, and separate legislation that would have ended the White House's deferred-action program for undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children.... That ugly display was followed up by a government-funding fight in which Republicans ... threatened to shut down the Department of Homeland Security if Obama didn't roll back his executive orders halting deportations for certain classes of undocumented immigrants. There was no chance of either of these legislative gambits working. They were all about sending a message: deport everyone. And now the party's voters are flocking to a candidate who is the loud, crude embodiment of that message."

For those of who have found Ben Carson's candidacy so incompetent that you wondered about his surgical skills, wonder no more:

... Bob Christie of the AP: "Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson said Friday that this week's mass shooting in Southern California should end the debate over whether Syrian refugees can safely be screened. The retired neurosurgeon told a pro-business group made of lawmakers from across the nation that if it turns out the woman involved was fully vetted by federal officials and cleared to enter the U.S. it should help end the refugee debate. 'Now if that vetting resulted in missing someone who carried out such a horrendous crime that should be the end of the argument right there,' Carson said." ...

     ... CW: If Ole Doc knew anything about our visa process -- which has been much in the news lately -- he would know that, as Rebecca Shabad of CBS News reported yesterday, "Even though there are multiple layers to the vetting process, White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Friday said the standards to obtain a K-1 visa are 'not as strict' as those faced by refugees entering the U.S."

... Seeing Stars. History According to Doc Ben. CW: Here's an hilarious aside I missed from Carson's scripted speech before the Republican Jewish Coalition: Alex Shepard of the New Republic: "Speaking to the group about Hyam Salomon, Carson said, 'Salomon gave all his funds to save the U.S. Army [during the American Revolution] and, some say, no one knows for sure, that's the reason there's a Star of David on the back of the one dollar bill.'... Salomon was one of the Continental Army's main financiers. But he didn't give all of his money to George Washington and, more importantly, there isn't a Star of David on the one dollar bill." ...

... Jordyn Phelps of ABC News: "There is a conspiracy theory that a design of stars arranged above the eagle on the U.S. seal printed on the bill forms a Jewish star and that this was done as a way to thank Salomon for his generosity. But the Numismatic Bibliomania Society's Wayne Homren says there's no evidence to suggest any truth to support the theory that the stars were intentionally arranged to represent the Jewish star, let alone that it was done in Salomon's name." ...

... Steve Benen: "Apparently, Carson believes that if you look at the back of a dollar bill -- on the right, just above the eagle -- you'll see stars in a shape resembling the Star of David.... Alas, like so many of the Republican candidate's off-the-wall theories, this one is not rooted in reality."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Jane Perlez of the New York Times: China has established its own international bank to finance regional infrastructure projects. "The United States worries that China will use the bank to set the global economic agenda on its own terms, forgoing the environmental protections, human rights, anticorruption measures and other governance standards long promoted by its Western counterparts. American officials point to China's existing record, of loans to unstable governments, construction deals for unnecessary infrastructure, and villagers abruptly uprooted with little compensation."