The Commentariat -- December 1, 2015
Internal links removed.
Angela Keane & Justin Sink of Bloomberg: "The U.S. will meet commitments to help finance developing nations' efforts to reduce carbon pollution, President Barack Obama said, challenging congressional Republicans who have fought most of his environmental policies.... 'My expectation is that we will absolutely be able to meet our commitments,' Obama said Tuesday at a news conference in Paris. 'This is part of American leadership, by the way. This is part of the debate that we have to have in the United States more often. Too often American leadership is defined by sending troops somewhere.'" ...
... Sylvie Corbet & Angela Charlton of the AP: "... leaders of poor nations most affected by climate change are sharing their stories of global warming with leaders of some of the richest on Tuesday. The encounters -- French President Francois Hollande met African leaders and President Barack Obama was meeting envoys from island nations -- highlighted one of the biggest debates among delegates negotiating an international climate agreement: how much rich countries should help poor ones cope adapt to global warming and reduce their emissions." ...
... AP: "U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy says the House will not go along if President Barack Obama tries to commit taxpayer money to support a climate accord reached in Paris.... McCarthy suggested that a must-pass year-end spending bill currently in the works could become the vehicle for language blocking any such expenditure." ...
... Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "President Obama told world leaders who gathered northeast of Paris on Monday for a climate conference that the United States is at least partly to blame for the life-threatening damage that environmental change has wrought, and he urged world leaders to join him in fixing the problem.... Mr. Obama also repeated an argument, lampooned by some Republicans, that the climate conference was a fitting response to the terrorist attacks that cost the lives of 130 people in and around Paris on Nov. 13. 'What greater rejection of those who would tear down our world than marshaling our best efforts to save it,' he said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) CW: Can hardly wait for the GOP response to Obama's admitting U.S. culpability on climate change: "Weak!" "Hates America!" _______Fill in______
... As the World Burns. Eliza Collins of Politico: "Republican presidential candidates and their allies made fun of President Barack Obama's comments about climate change in Paris on Monday. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, during a town hall in Iowa, said Obama 'apparently thinks having an SUV in your driveway is more dangerous than a bunch of terrorists trying to blow up the world.'" Et-cetera.
... The Times has a running commentary on the Paris talks. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Devin Henry of the Hill: "The White House is pushing congressional Republicans to formally authorize military action against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and institute new rules to prevent terrorism in the United States.... Speaking in Paris, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday that Congress needs to implement a series or proposals rather than engage in politically motivated posturing that is 'wrong, dangerous and falls far short of what the America people deserve.'" ...
... Michael Dougherty of the Week: "Conservatives today are incensed that President Obama didn't plunge America deeply into a needless war in Syria two years ago.... But two years ago, it was conservative opposition to a needless war in Syria that stopped Obama from plunging in. This history is clear. It is undeniable. But many of my fellow conservatives, when faced with the choice of acknowledging reality or deriding a Democratic president as weak and feckless, will always and infallibly choose the latter."
Greg Sargent: "It looks increasingly likely that some time in the next few days or weeks, the GOP Congress may realize a longtime dream of Republicans: Pass something that seriously guts Obamacare. The health law won't actually be repealed, of course, since President Obama will veto such a measure. But that alone -- forcing Obama to veto a repeal bill -- is deemed a worthy goal in and of itself."
The New York Times editors call for the resignations of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy & Cook County Prosecutor Anita Alvarez over their self-interested cover-up of the (alleged) police murder of Laquan McDonald. "Around the time the freelance journalist Brandon Smith filed suit for release of the dash-cam video, on Aug. 5, 2015, the Chicago Police Department told him that it had already received, and rejected, 14 other Freedom of Information Act requests for the evidence." ...
... CW: Let's hear from President Obama on his support for & employment of Rahm Emanuel. Now would be a very good time for him to get over the "Chicago-style politics" his critics accuse him of practicing. ...
... Bill Ruthhart of the Chicago Tribune: "On Tuesday, Emanuel will seek to quell some of the growing chorus of criticism by announcing a task force his administration says 'will review the system of accountability, oversight and training that is currently in place for Chicago's police officers,' according to a brief news release issued late Monday. Appointing a committee to look into an issue is a tried-and-true tactic elected officials long have employed to buy time and breathing room when faced with a scandal or crisis." ...
... CW Note: The Trib has nixed my link above, but I got there via a link in Item 10 of this Mother Jones story by Brandon Patterson. Patterson provides a quick rundown of recent news regarding the case.
CBS/AP: "Fifty-seven-year-old Robert Lewis Dear appeared before a judge in a brief video hearing on Monday, standing next to public defender Daniel King. He's the same lawyer who represented Colorado theater shooting gunman James Holmes.... Judge Stephen J. Sletta has sealed court documents in this case. The order was made available Monday after being issued Friday, the day of the attack. Such documents detail evidence gathered by investigators that justify arresting suspects and searching property."
Sarah Ferris of the Hill: Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) who head the special committee designed to convict investigate Planned Parenthood is not even about Planned Parenthood because the resolution establishing the committee does not specifically mention Planned Parenthood even those others -- including Speaker Ryan -- have said the committee is specifically charged to look into federal dollars Planned Parenthood receives.
... CW: So here's my question. Do they take lessons on how to tell whoppers with a straight face before or after they're elected to Congress? ...
... digby: "Hey, if you don't want to get shot, don't go to a Planned Parenthood clinic. That's pretty much what these anti-abortion leaders told Irin Carmon at MSNBC.... They just think that Planned Parenthood is dismembering living babies for profit and that it's perfectly natural for someone to want to kill them. And if someone happens to be there to support a friend it's unfortunate collateral damage. You can decide for yourself whether it matters that one of our major political parties is completely cowed by these terrorists." ...
... Rebecca Traister of New York: "That Democratic politicians are daring to draw connective lines between Republican language -- [Sen. Bernie] Sanders's 'bitter rhetoric' -- and the violence enacted this weekend represents a bold strategic shift. It could be the beginning of a reversal that has been a long time coming: the association of 'life' -- as in [Sen. Barbara] Boxer's evocation of the 'life-saving health care' provided by Planned Parenthood -- with reproductive-rights activism, and violence as the domain of those who stand between women and access to legal, high-quality health services, including abortion."
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The Senate on Monday signed off on a new administrator for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) amid a growing Syrian humanitarian crisis. Senators voted 79-7 to confirm Gayle Smith to lead the agency, seven months after President Obama nominated her for the post.... Despite the bipartisan consensus around her nomination, Smith was delayed over partisan fighting on unrelated issues. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) ... said earlier this year that he would block all State Department nominations because of his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal."
Politico: "House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday officially invited President Barack Obama to deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, Jan. 12."
Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the Washington Post: "The United States has delivered more than $260 million in non-lethal military equipment to help the government of Ukraine in its fight against a Russian-backed insurgency, but some of the U.S.-supplied gear meant to protect and transport Ukrainian military forces is little more than junk.... It is unclear how much of the material sent to Ukraine is secondhand and antiquated. The U.S. government has also sent new equipment, such as night vision and first-aid kits. Troops there have also received advanced equipment such as counter artillery, counter mortar radars, and communications gear."
Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "The International Monetary Fund on Monday designated the Chinese renminbi as one of the world's elite currencies, a major milestone that underscores the country's rising financial and economic heft. The decision will help pave the way for broader use of the renminbi in trade and finance, securing China's standing as a global economic power. Just four other currencies -- the dollar, the euro, the pound and the yen -- have the I.M.F. designation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: Economist Thomas Piketty says "Inequality is a major driver of Middle Eastern terrorism, including the Islamic State attacks on Paris earlier this month -- and Western nations have themselves largely to blame for that inequality.... Within [Middle East] monarchies, he continues, a small slice of people controls most of the wealth, while a large -- including women and refugees -- are kept in a state of 'semi-slavery.' Those economic conditions, he says, have become justifications for jihadists, along with the casualties of a series of wars in the region perpetuated by Western powers."
Will Hobson & Steven Rich of the Washington Post: "... at many of America's largest public universities, athletic departments making millions more every year from surging television contracts, luxury suite sales and endorsements continue to take money from tens of thousands of students who will never set foot in stadiums or arenas. Mandatory student fees for college athletic departments are common across the country. Often small line items of a couple hundred dollars on long, complex tuition bills, these fees make millions for athletic departments at larger colleges.... Some smaller schools charge more than $2,000 per year in athletic fees...."
Paresh Dave of the Los Angeles Times: "By doing little more than taking a photo and swiping across their smartphone screen a few times, Snapchat users on Tuesday can raise as much as $3 million to combat AIDS. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plans to donate $3 to the nonprofit group (RED) for each use of a decorative 'World AIDS Day' banner on Snapchat.... The Gates Foundation expects to close donations after 1 million uses of the geofilter. But it will donate an additional $1 million if a music video on YouTube -- starring Scarlett Johansson, Barry Manilow and Jimmy Kimmel -- is shared more than 333,000 times." ...
... CW: Evidently reporter Paresh Dave thinks this is a lovely, generous plan. Pardon me for disagreeing. Here are these billionaires announcing, "If you will jump through a hoop for me, I will give you $3. Also, you have to be rich enough to have a smartphone, & have enough time to figure out how to use Snapchat (a commercial operation) & get that banner across your photo. Here's another idea, Bill & Melinda: write a check for $3MM & send it in. Oh, wait, no publicity for you.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan says her paper should quit presenting as fact claims made by Donald Trump & his campaign. CW: Seems pretty obvious. ...
... CW: The dogged reporting of independent journalist Brandon Smith & the stenographic "reporting" of New York Times reporter Alan Rappeport makes a nice contrast, doesn't it? (And yes, I know the Times often sues to obtain documents under the FOIA.)
Presidential Race
Liz Kruetz of ABC News: "One by one [Monday] night, 13 female Democratic senators took the stage inside the packed ballroom at the Hyatt Regency in Washington, DC to raise money and announce their support for Hillary Clinton. But it was the person missing from the group who stood out most. Elizabeth Warren, the progressive lawmaker from Massachusetts, was the only female Democratic senator who wasn't at the endorsement event and fundraiser for Clinton's presidential campaign.... Clinton's campaign said it invited the 13 female senators who have endorsed Clinton to attend tonight's event, but would not say whether or not they invited Warren. They also would not comment about Warren's absence." ...
... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Evoking the investment in American infrastructure by Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, Hillary Clinton on Monday unveiled the most sprawling -- and costliest -- government program of her campaign to date. Mrs. Clinton said her five-year, $275-billion federal infrastructure program was aimed at creating middle-class jobs while investing heavily in improving the country's highways, airports and ports. Bridging the 'infrastructure gap' between the United States and developing nations like China would also eliminate red tape and fuel overall economic growth, she said." ...
... Julian Hattem of the Hill: "The State Department released its largest batch yet of Hillary Clinton's emails on Monday, part of a gradual process to put all of the messages that she claimed were work-related out for the public to see. The department released 7,800 pages of the former secretary of State's emails, including one email that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence had originally flagged as potentially containing classified information before deciding it did not contain intelligence agency information. Monday's document dump was the seventh of the process."
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders stepped off the campaign trail on Monday to have a procedure to repair a hernia. Mr. Sanders, the independent from Vermont and Democratic presidential candidate, had an outpatient procedure at George Washington University Hospital and was expected return to his Senate duties on Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Amy Davidson of the New Yorker has the first fair report of presidential candidates' reactions to last week's Planned Parenthood murders. "Do the Republican candidates think that nobody is listening to them? Are they even listening to themselves?"
Maggie Haberman & John Corrales of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump met privately on Monday with black pastors and religious figures at Trump Tower in Manhattan, where he was expected to hold preliminary discussions to seek their endorsements." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Trump thinks the fiasco was the fault of BlackLivesMatter. Nick Gass of Politico: "'I think what happened, probably, it gets publicity, unfortunately, as everything I do gets publicity, and probably some of the Black Lives Matter folks called them up and said, "oh, you shouldn't be meeting with Trump because he believes that all lives matter,'" Trump remarked." CW: It seems MSNBC's "Morning Joe" is using Trump for critical commentary on the climate summit. Good work, Joe! ...
... Here are some things Donald Trump thinks are funny: Hernia operations, physical disabilities, calling the President a dumbass. If you don't think hernias & other physical impairments are funny, you're like those media critics who can't take a joke & are just trying to make an excellent humorist "look bad." ...
... Hadas Gold of Politico: "Donald Trump threatened to boycott the next Republican debate on Monday night, unless hosting network CNN donated $5 million to a charity. 'How about I tell CNN, who doesn't treat me properly I'm not gonna do the next debate, okay,' Trump said at a rally in Georgia. 'How about we do this for CNN: I won't do the debate unless they pay me five million dollars, all of which money goes to the Wounded Warriors or goes to vets?'"
Chris Christie Will Not Be Ready on Day One. But Maybe on Day Seven. If Provoked Enough. Katherine Krueger of TPM: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Monday gave a stronger rebuttal to ... Donald Trump's claims that Muslims Americans were cheering the attacks on 9/11, saying 'that didn't happen.'...The clarification comes a week after the governor said he didn't 'recall' Muslims cheering, in part because he was concerned about family and friends who were close to the attacks.... Christie's remarks came the same day Trump hit the governor on Twitter for his record of running the 'deeply troubled' state."
Ted & Marco Accuse Each Other of Once Doing Their Jobs. Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: It now appears that we are entering a period of the campaign in which the two Republican senators who may have the best shot at unseating the front-runner, Donald Trump, and winning their party's nomination are veering into a potential murder-suicide pact over who was more complicit in actually trying to get something accomplished in Washington."
Dana Milbank: "Just days before the shooting [in Colorado Springs], [Ted] Cruz trumpeted an endorsement from an antiabortion activist who once called killing an abortion doctor a 'justifiable defensive action' and who leads a group, Operation Rescue, where a colleague did prison time for a conspiracy to bomb an abortion clinic. The activist whose endorsement Cruz celebrated, Troy Newman, is also on the board of the Center for Medical Progress, which made the surreptitious Planned Parenthood videos that prompted Cruz and many other conservatives to accuse the organization of selling 'baby parts' -- the phrase Dear allegedly used." Cruz has suggested that, according to media reports, The (alleged) shooter Robert Dear might be a "transgendered leftist activist." ...
... Here's the Rachel Maddow segment which Victoria D. links in the Comments below. The portion concerning Ted Cruz begins at about 13 min. in. The whole segment is worth watch:
Last I checked we don't have a rubber shortage in America. When I was in college we had a machine in the bathroom, you put .50 cents in and voila! So yes, anyone who wants contraceptives can access them, but it's an utterly made-up nonsense issue. -- Ted Cruz, outlining his reproductive rights program
Hillary Clinton embraces abortion on demand in all circumstances up until the moment of birth. Partial-birth abortion with taxpayer funding, with no notification for parents in any circumstances -- 91% of Americans say that's nuts. -- Ted Cruz, outlining Clinton's reproductive rights program
CW Translation: Contraceptive choices should be left to the man & I can lie wildly about Clinton's position on abortion. P.S. Thanks, CNN, for not bothering to fact-check Ted's remarks.
McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed: "Jeb and his team recognized the threat posed by Rubio nearly a year ago, and took aggressive action to knock him out of 2016 contention -- with some in Bush's circle trying to smear the senator by allegedly circulating lurid, unsubstantiated rumors of infidelity.... Ever since he began to make a name for himself in Tallahassee, Rubio had been trailed by a persistent series of unsubstantiated rumors about his sex life. Jilted mistresses, sordid affairs, secret love children.... No one in the staid, starchy D.C. press corps was willing to explicitly lay out the rumors dogging Rubio -- but they gestured toward them all the time...." Adapted from a segment of a book by Coppins. CW: Let's hope the sleaziest part of the story is not that Jeb!'s people do sleazy oppo research. What this election cycle is missing is sex. ...
... Andrew Prokop of Vox: "Since there's no evidence that these rumors about Rubio have any truth to them, the mainstream press has tended not to mention them in print. But a whisper campaign like this could well lead GOP elites to be hesitant to fall behind Rubio for fear of a looming scandal."
Andy Borowitz: "Calling criticism of her misrepresentations about Planned Parenthood 'typical left-wing tactics,' ... Carly Fiorina said, on Sunday, 'I will not be bullied into telling the truth.'"
Beyond the Beltway
Benjamin Weiser & Susanne Craig of the New York Times: "Sheldon Silver, who held a seemingly intractable grip on power for decades as one of the most feared politicians in New York State, was found guilty on Monday of federal corruption charges, ending a trial that was the capstone of the government's efforts to expose the seamy culture of influence-peddling in Albany. Mr. Silver, 71, a Manhattan Democrat, was convicted on all seven counts against him. The charges of honest services fraud, extortion and money laundering stemmed from schemes by which he obtained nearly $4 million in exchange for using his position to help benefit a cancer researcher and two real estate developers.... As a result of the conviction, he must automatically forfeit the Assembly seat to which he was first elected nearly 40 years ago." ...
... David Klepper & Larry Neumeister of the AP: "The conviction of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has shaken New York politics down to the granite foundations of the state Capitol, provoking fresh calls to overhaul a system that has stubbornly clung to its long history of corruption."
Brian Lyman of the Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser: "Alabama would pay just over $51,000 in legal fees to settle a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood Southeast over Gov. Robert Bentley's attempt to cancel the organization's Medicaid contract, under an agreement filed in federal court Monday morning.... The draft agreement, which still needs approval from U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson, says that Medicaid restored PPSE's contract after Thompson ruled against Bentley last month."
Nicky Woolf of the Guardian: "Officials have filed charges today against four men accused of shooting into a crowd of protesters in Minneapolis a week ago. Protests have been ongoing outside the precinct building since police shot Jamar Clark, an unarmed black man, just a few hundred yards down the road on 15 November. He died in hospital a day later." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: "Allen 'Lance' Scarsella, the man charged with shooting five people at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Minneapolis last week," has been identified as an adherent to the "sovereign citizens" philosophy, "a strange subculture united by little more than anti-government ideology and a sense of desperation.... According to the criminal complaint, Scarsella, who is white, spoke derogatorily about African Americans and stored racist images on his cellphone."
This is my only warning. At 10 a.m. on Monday mourning (sic) I am going to the campus quad of the University of Chicago. I will be armed with a M-4 Carbine and 2 Desert Eagles all fully loaded. I will execute aproximately (sic) 16 white male students and or staff, which is the same number of time (sic) Mcdonald (sic) was killed. I then will die killing any number of white policemen that I can in the process. This is not a joke. I am to do my part to rid the world of the white devils. I expect you to do the same. -- Jabari Dean, online posting (allegedly) ...
... Michael Pearson & Dana Ford of CNN: "A 21-year-old man was arrested Monday, accused of threatening to kill students and staff at the University of Chicago in an apparent attempt to avenge the death of Laquan McDonald, authorities said. Jabari Dean, 21 was arrested without incident. He is expected to appear in court later in the day."
Lately There Seem to be Quite a Number of Cop Stories Like The One. ...
... Denver Post, Nov. 9: "Commerce City[, Colorado] police have issued a Blue Alert as they search for the man who shot an officer in the torso Sunday.... The officer's ballistic vest stopped the bullet, and he is being treated for injuries that are not life-threatening." ...
... Denver Post, Nov. 30: "A Commerce City police officer was formally charged Monday with falsely accusing a non-existent motorist of shooting him."
Way Beyond
Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The Chinese military scaled back its cybertheft of American commercial secrets in the wake of Justice Department indictments of five officers, and the surprising drawdown shows that the law enforcement action had a more significant impact than is commonly assumed, current and former U.S. officials said.
News Lede
Washington Post: "A former wife of the Islamic State's leader was released Tuesday after more than year in custody in Lebanon as part of a prisoner swap involving Lebanese security forces held captive by militants in Syria. Lebanese authorities handed over Saja al-Dulaimi, an Iraqi who was briefly married to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the presumed head of the Islamic State. Along with Dulaimi was a group of mostly Islamist detainees, according to officials in Lebanon's military."