The Commentariat -- August 16, 2015

Internal links removed.

AP: "Julian Bond, a civil rights activist and longtime board chairman of the NAACP, died Saturday night, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was 75. Bond died in Fort Walton Beach, Florida after a brief illness, the SPLC said in a statement released Sunday morning." (Link updated.) ...

     ... Update. Mr. Bond's New York Times obituary is here.

Julia Angwin, et al., in the New York Times: "The National Security Agency's ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States has relied on its extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: the telecom giant AT&T. While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly disclosed N.S.A. documents [from the Ed Snowden cache] show that the relationship with AT&T has been considered unique and especially productive. One document described it as 'highly collaborative,' while another lauded the company's 'extreme willingness to help.'... AT&T's 'corporate relationships provide unique accesses to other telecoms and I.S.P.s,' or Internet service providers, one 2013 N.S.A. document states."

Jodi Kantor & David Streitfeld of the New York Times: Amazon ... "is conducting a little-known experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers, redrawing the boundaries of what is acceptable. The company, founded and still run by Jeff Bezos..., has ... designed what many workers call an intricate machine propelling them to achieve Mr. Bezos' ever-expanding ambitions.... At Amazon, workers are encouraged to tear apart one another's ideas in meetings, toil long and late..., and held to standards that the company boasts are 'unreasonably high.' The internal phone directory instructs colleagues on how to send secret feedback to one another's bosses. Employees say it is frequently used to sabotage others." ...

... CW: How refreshing to know that Bezos is as cruel to white collar personnel as he is to factory workers.

Nahal Toosi of Politico: "On Saturday, Sen. Jeff Flake [Az.], possibly the only Republican in Congress open to supporting the agreement, said he won"t."

Vicki Needham of the Hill: "Sen. Sherrod Brown(D-Ohio) said Friday that he will block a trade nominee's Senate floor vote until the Obama administration makes the text of a sweeping transpacific agreement available to eligible staffers. Brown said he put a hold on the Marisa Lago, whose nomination for deputy U.S. trade representative cleared the Senate Finance Committee earlier this month but awaits a final confirmation vote from the full Senate."

Lawrence Hurley of Reuters: "A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday threw out a lawsuit brought by an Arizona sheriff who argued that President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration were unconstitutional. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a district court judge's finding that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio did not have grounds to sue."

** Esther Allen in the New York Review of Books: "... the United States is already part of Cuba, embargo or no embargo, and has been for a long, long time."

** Margo Kaplan, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Fertility clinics destroy embryos all the time.... The disparity between how the law treats abortion patients and IVF patients reveals an ugly truth about abortion restrictions: that they are often less about protecting life than about controlling women's bodies. Both IVF and abortion involve the destruction of fertilized eggs that could potentially develop into people.... Abortion restrictions use unwanted pregnancy as a punishment for 'irresponsible sex' and remind women of the consequences of being unchaste.... IVF patients make less-attractive targets because we don't challenge the expectation that women want to be mothers. Abortion, on the other hand, thwarts conservative ideals about a woman's proper role as a wife and mother.... Unlike IVF patients, who are primarily wealthy and white, women who have abortions are disproportionately poor and women of color, groups it has always been popular to condemn and regulate."

Kristina Wong of the Hill: "Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday gave a moving tribute to the four Marines and one sailor killed last month in the Chattanooga attack, drawing upon the experience of the loss of his own late son Beau, an Army major. 'I wish I were not here, for I have some sense of how hard it is for you to be here,' Biden said to their families at a memorial service in Chattanooga, Tenn., for the troops."

Ali Breland of Politico: Presidents Barack Obama & Bill Clinton "golfed with [Vernon] Jordan, the financier and lawyer, and Ambassador Ron Kirk at the Farm Neck Golf Club, according to pool reports, playing a leisurely foursome ahead of Saturday night's festivities, which will see the Obamas and the Clintons cross paths at Jordan's 80^th birthday celebrations." ...

... Mark Hensch of the Hill: Presidents Obama & Clinton also had a chance meeting at the golf club on Friday.

Presidential Race

Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: Both Hillary Clinton & Bernie Sanders "appeared at the [Iowa State F]air.... But only Sanders ... held a formal event. Appearing on the Des Moines Register soapbox, he addressed a crowd of approximately a thousand.... In marked contrast, Clinton spent about an hour walking the fairgrounds, without making a speech.... Both Democratic contenders also had to contend with ... Donald Trump, complete with helicopter, [who] made a campaign appearance. The chopper buzzed over Clinton, who looked up as people shouted 'Trump!' Sanders had to contend with more noise [from Trump's helicopter] as he spoke." ...

... Video of Sanders' speech is here. ...

... Bernie's Challenge. John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... one of the most surprising things about Sanders's rise is how little impact it appears to be having on Clinton's base.... While the former Secretary of State's popularity among the electorate at large has fallen recently, the vast majority of Democrats still think positively of her, surveys suggest.... Sanders will struggle mightily once the first two primaries are out of the way and attention switches to places like South Carolina, Nevada, and the twelve states -- eight of them in the South -- that will vote on 'Super Tuesday,' March 1st.... In trying to move beyond his white liberal base, Sanders faces a huge challenge, but it would be folly to underestimate him." ...

Rachel Bade of Politico: "... Clinton put herself out at the Iowa State Fair Saturday, embracing the masses that engulfed her. The 2016 Democratic contender shook hands and took selfies with total strangers, listened to Iowans' personal stories of struggle and even met a young boy's show cow. She gave people hugs, patted babies on the head, munched on a grease-dripping pork chop and waved to cheering crowds on balconies as they called out her name. It's a world of difference from Clinton's last White House bid, when she was criticized here for seeming too-cool-for-school to mingle with what she now calls 'everyday Americans.'" ...

... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton hit back at Jeb Bush on Saturday over his accusation that the Obama administration's handling of the withdrawal of 10,000 troops in Iraq had facilitated the rise of the Islamic State now sweeping violently through Syria and Iraq." ...

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton picked up an endorsement Friday from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the third union to weigh in on a Democratic primary fight in which labor finds itself divided. The decision by the union, which represents 600,000 members, came just days after National Nurses United, the country's largest nurses union, sided with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)...."

MEANWHILE, Edward-Isaac Dovere, et al., of Politico: "With his blessing, confidants to Vice President Joe Biden have begun strategizing about travel to early primary states and identified potential donors who could bankroll a campaign even as he remains undecided about whether to pull the trigger on a late-entry 2016 run for president. The moves are a sign that after months of speculation, Biden is taking a few significant if small steps toward a presidential campaign, according to sources familiar with the discussions. Biden's strategy, the sources say, would be to focus on South Carolina while almost writing off New Hampshire, where both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have considerable footholds."

David Sanger of the New York Times: "If the diverse group of candidates competing for the Republican presidential nomination agree on one thing when describing how they would engage with the world if they made it to the White House, it is this: If only the United States were stronger, and more feared, the country would not feel threatened by the Islamic State, manipulated by Iran or challenged by a rising China.... But after that, finding any consensus on how they would exercise American power differently from President Obama, or a Democratic opponent in 2016, much less how they would define an alternative Republican foreign policy, gets a bit messy."

... Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Billionaire businessman Donald Trump offered kids helicopter rides in a show of wealth as he bragged Saturday that he is willing to spend $1 billion on his presidential campaign. 'I'm turning down so much money,' Trump said at a press conference kicking off his weekend trip to Iowa to visit the State Fair, with his black helicopter emblazoned with 'Trump' and children standing in the background." ...

... Maureen Dowd interviews Donald Trump. ...

... Trump shares his thoughts about his rivals -- Republican & Democratic -- with MoDo.

... Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: Donald "Trump's rise and persistence as a presidential candidate has been credited to name recognition, to voter anger and to a specific contempt for the Republican Party establishment. But he is also the candidate talking most directly about the loss of manufacturing jobs to foreign countries." This makes him attractive to working people, among them some Democrats.

Mahita Gajanon, et al., of the Guardian: "Jeb Bush has come under fire from human rights groups after declining to rule out the US resuming the use of torture if he became president. '[Bush is] wrong, and he's perpetuating a myth that torture works,' aid Sarah Dougherty, a senior fellow at Physicians for Human Rights. 'We have a very large, thoroughly exhaustive research report saying that torture did not work.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors on Friday said former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell should be sent to prison while he pursues a challenge before the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that his public corruption convictions had 'withstood searching and exhaustive review' and that he no longer deserved bail.... Prosecutors [said] that McDonnell's most significant argument -- that he neither performed nor promised to perform any so-called official acts for [Jonnie] Williams -- had been rejected 19 times and that the Supreme Court was unlikely to agree to review his case."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The United States said Sunday that it would withdraw two Patriot missile-defense batteries from southern Turkey this fall, a sign that the Pentagon believes the risk of Syrian Army missile attacks has eased since the Patriots were deployed in 2013. Officials said the antimissile systems would be needed elsewhere to defend against threats from Iran and North Korea.... If needed in a crisis, the batteries and their 250 troops could be rushed back to Turkey 'within one week' to fulfill an American and NATO commitment to Turkey's air defenses."

New York Times: "The Obama administration has delivered a warning to Beijing about the presence of Chinese government agents operating secretly in the United States to pressure prominent expatriates -- some wanted in China on charges of corruption -- to return home immediately, according to American officials. The American officials said that Chinese law enforcement agents covertly in this country are part of Beijing's global campaign to hunt down and repatriate Chinese fugitives and, in some cases, recover allegedly ill-gotten gains."

AP: "An Indonesian airliner carrying 54 people went missing Sunday after losing contact with ground control during a short flight in bad weather in the country's mountainous easternmost province of Papua...."

AP: "Authorities pulled more bodies from a massive blast site at China's Tianjin port, pushing the death toll to 112 on Sunday as teams rushed to clear dangerous chemicals and prosecutors prepared an investigation into those responsible for the disaster. More than 700 people were injured and 95 people, including dozens of firefighters, are missing after a fire and rapid succession of blasts late Wednesday hit a warehouse for hazardous chemicals in a mostly industrial area of Tianjin, 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Beijing."

The Commentariat -- August 15, 2015

Internal links removed.

Witch Hunt Washout. Samantha Lachman of the Huffington Post: "The Planned Parenthood Federation of America stressed Friday that multiple investigations into its state affiliates have fallen flat, as the reproductive health organization battles allegations that it has illegally profited from fetal tissue donations for research.... Probes -- in Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts and South Dakota -- have found area Planned Parenthood affiliates to be in full compliance with state laws and regulations.... Probes in other states, like Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas, are unlikely to reveal evidence of illegal tissue donation practices, since those states' Planned Parenthood centers either don't participate in a tissue donation program, don't even have a center actively performing abortions in the state or are barred by state law from donating tissues in the first place." Via Paul Waldman. ...

... The War on Women, Ctd. Paul Waldman: "In the Planned Parenthood tapes, what one actually sees ... [is] a failed attempt at a sting.... Republican politicians ... have used the tapes as an opportunity to go after Planned Parenthood..., [not to stop] fetal tissue research.... You have to look at their motives to understand what they're up to.... Republicans have always hated Planned Parenthood, not only because it provides abortions but because it's a forthright advocate on behalf of women's rights to control their own reproductive lives.... Abortion opponents barely care at all about the 'babies' they supposedly want to save, because their real interest is in controlling women's lives and limiting their autonomy. Nothing is more horrifying to a certain kind of conservative than a woman who has sex because she wants to, and does so without being punished for her sin; witness the recent turn in conservative circles not just against abortion but even against contraception.... I'm guessing not too many of Ben Carson's fans will turn away from him now. He's as committed as ever to taking away women's reproductive rights, and that's what really matters." ...

... CW: I would add this. These Republicans especially want to control poor women's reproductive rights. Confederate control freaks take perverse pleasure in bullying not only women in general but specifically women who are least able to defend themselves. They hate Planned Parenthood particularly because it provides healthcare services to women who can't afford to get these services elsewhere. Most of these confederate men think it's quite all right for their own wives & girlfriends to practice contraception, or to get abortions if contraception fails. Republican women like Carly Fiorina have the same attitude; "There is no good reason for birth control to be free," she has said. That is, reproductive health care should be means-tested. Women & girls have to earn reproductive rights. Women's rights are human rights? Hah! In Right Wing World, some are more human than others.

Tierney Sneed of TPM: "In blocking an Alabama requirement that abortion providers have admitting privileges -- an anti-abortion mandate that is closing clinics in states across the country -- a federal judge pointedly used a line from Justice Samuel Alito during this year's Supreme Court lethal injection case. The opinion issued Thursday evening by U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson, a Carter appointee, was a narrow one: it gave a single abortion clinic in Tuscaloosa temporary relief from the state's admitting privileges requirement. 'By closing down operations at the Center, the regulation seems to impose severe and, in some cases insurmountable, obstacles on women who seek abortions in this State in several ways,' Thompson ruled." Justice Alito's comment came in the Court's ruling on the use of drugs in executions.

White House: "In this week's address, the President spoke about the work the Administration is doing to enhance trust between communities and law enforcement in the year since the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson":

Adam Goldman & Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "The leader of the Islamic State personally kept a 26-year-old American woman as a hostage and raped her repeatedly, according to U.S. officials and her family. The family of Kayla Mueller said in an interview Friday that the FBI had informed them that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the emir of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, had sexually abused their daughter, a humanitarian worker.... The disclosure that Mueller was raped by Baghdadi adds to the grim evidence that the exploitation and abuse of women has been sanctioned at the highest levels of the Islamic State. The sexual enslavement of even teenage girls is seen as religiously endorsed by the group and regarded as a recruiting tool."

Anna Fifield & Yuki Oda of the Washington Post: The emperor & prime minister of Japan appear to disagree on the country's military future. "Japan's emperor expressed his 'deep remorse' Saturday over his country's actions during World War II, strengthening his usual statement of regret on the anniversary of the end of a particularly ignominious period in Japanese history.... In previous addresses, [Emperor Akihito has appeared to voice his displeasure with [Prime Minister Shinzo] Abe's efforts to reinterpret Japan's constitution and put the country on what he calls a more 'normal' military footing by allowing Japanese troops to fight abroad in certain circumstances."

William Branigin of the Washington Post: "U.N. human rights experts expressed grave concern Friday about Iran's continued detention of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and called on authorities in Tehran to release him immediately."

Presidential Race

Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: The Iowa State Fair provides a soapbox for presidential candidates. Hillary Clinton & Donald Trump will attend the fair today, but both are skipping the soapbox, Trump because it's sponsored by the Des Moines Register, a paper with whom he's feuding. Sixteen other candidates have showed or will shop up at the fair.

Michael Schmidt & David Sanger of the New York Times: "F.B.I. agents investigating Hillary Rodham Clinton's private email server are seeking to determine who at the State Department passed highly classified information from secure networks to Mrs. Clinton's personal account, according to law enforcement and diplomatic officials and others.... To track how the information flowed, agents will try to gain access to the email accounts of many State Department officials who worked there while Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state, the officials said. State Department employees apparently circulated the emails on unclassified systems in 2009 and 2011, and some were ultimately forwarded to Mrs. Clinton. They were not marked as classified, the State Department has said, and it is unclear whether its employees knew the origin of the information. The F.B.I. is also trying to determine whether foreign powers, especially China or Russia, gained access to Mrs. Clinton's private server.... " ...

... CW Note: I don't think it's coincidence that when the Times put a grown-up reporter -- David Sanger -- on the story, the onus shifted from Clinton to others at State. ...

... Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "The controversy over [Clinton's] private e-mail setup has moved into a new and, potentially, more serious phase. What had begun five months ago as a relatively narrow question about proper archiving of public records has become a bigger, more politically dangerous one: Whether the then-secretary of state and her close aides, in choosing to use a private e-mail system, disregarded common sense and may have put sensitive information at risk of falling into the wrong hands.... The issues around Clinton's e-mails have also intensified as it has become clear that a number of her statements defending her actions now appear to be false." ...

     ... CW: If you missed out on some developments in the continuing e-mail saga, the WashPo piece linked above provides a good overview &, IMO, a fair assessment. ...

You may have seen that I recently launched a Snapchat account. I love it. Those messages disappear all by themselves. -- Hillary Clinton at the Wing Ding Dinner in Clear Lake, Iowa

... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: Four Democratic presidential candidates -- Clinton, Sanders, O'Malley & Chafee -- showed up at the annual Clear Lake, Iowa, Wing Ding Dinner, a Democratic fundraising event, to ding the GOP candidates. Democrats are doing the Iowa State Fair this weekend, too.

Jason Horowitz of the New York Times asks Bernie Sanders & his colleagues to assess Sanders' role as a legislator.

The Washington Post editors cite these GOP candidates for signing Grover Norquist's "make-believe" no-new-taxes pledge: Gov. Chris "Tell It Like It Is" Christie (N.J.), "Ben Carson, Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), businesswoman Carly Fiorina, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), former Texas governor Rick Perry, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.)." They credit Jeb! with refusing to sign (so far & in the past). No mention whatsoever of the current frontrunner Whatsizname. "To sign a pledge is to make a reckless promise that locks politicians into an arbitrarily restrictive budget policy, no matter what circumstances time brings, and ignores the reality that is bearing down on the nation."

Jeb! Joins Torture Team. Simon Maloy of Salon: Jeb! says he won't rule out torturing our perceived enemies; Marco Rubio, John Kasich & Rick Perry say torture is an excellent technique, Ben Carson says whom we torture is our business. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham, all say "torture is immoral and entirely unjustified." CW: Donald Trump is totally into torture, telling ABC News earlier this month that waterboarding "doesn't sound very severe."

Philip Rucker & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "When Jeb Bush stepped up onto the fabled soapbox at the Iowa State Fair on Friday, fairgoers pelted him with questions about the legacy of his brother.... And his father.... And one of his foreign policy advisers, Paul D. Wolfowitz, the architect of his brother's war in Iraq. And about the war itself.... This was supposed to be the week when Bush would finally lay out his own thoughts on how to combat the Islamic State terror group and put Hillary Rodham Clinton on the defensive -- and wrest himself from his family legacy in the process. But over several days, it has become evident that his ideas on the subject are remarkably similar to George W. Bush's ideas and that he firmly believes that Democrats ... deserve the blame for the unrest in Iraq and neighboring Syria.... Most Americans still believe the Iraq war was a mistake and are opposed to new military engagement -- making Jeb Bush's approach to national security risky." ...

... Larry Wilmore examines Jeb!'s foreign policy:

Freeedom! Carly & the Crazy. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "GOP presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina said Thursday that parents should not be forced to vaccinate their children against [communicable] diseases like measles and mumps, although she added that public school systems can forbid unvaccinated children from attending.... Fiorina's comment came in response to a question from a mother of five children who said that because of her religious beliefs, she will not allow her children to receive any vaccines that were created using cells from 'aborted babies.'... Fiorina said that when it comes to 'these more esoteric immunizations' for diseases that are not contagious or communicable, school districts should not be allowed to mandate that children receive the vaccination." CW: Because what parent wouldn't prefer have her children get sick & die rather than submit to the horrors of medical research?

Citizen Trump. Liam Stack of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump ... has been summoned to serve [as a juror] in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, and plans to report there on Monday morning,said Michael Cohen..., special counsel to Mr. Trump."

Since some of the GOP's presidential candidates speak at grade-school level (see yesterday's Commentariat), it seems appropriate that Bill Maher has produced a new picture book that explains women to GOP men in childish verse. Thanks to Victoria D. for the link:

Beyond the Beltway

Mary Klas in the Tampa Bay Times: "Florida's legal bill to defend Gov. Rick Scott grew Wednesday, as the governor's office released documents showing he has agreed pay lawyers $300,000 for defending him in two open government cases that were settled. The legal fees are on top of the nearly $1 million taxpayers have already spent to defend the governor and Cabinet in the cases. This month, Scott agreed to pay Tallahassee attorney Steven R. Andrews $700,000 to end a lawsuit alleging that the governor and several members of his staff violated state law when they created private email accounts to shield their communications from the public and then withheld the documents.... In June, Scott and the Cabinet agreed to pay $55,000 to St. Petersburg lawyer Matthew Weidner as well as public records advocates and media organizations, including the Tampa Bay Times, to settle another lawsuit.... The two settlements were the first time a sitting governor has used taxpayer money to end public records cases pending against him. The decision has outraged public records advocates and others." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. ...

... Bill Cotterell of Reuters: "'He's playing fast and loose with our Constitution and we're paying the cost, both literally and figuratively,' Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation, said of Scott. Petersen noted that Scott, a wealthy former hospital executive, spent about $71 million of his own money getting elected." ...

... CW: Scott made those millions ripping off federal taxpayers in "the largest Medicare fraud in the nation's history." Do you expect him to treat state taxpayers any better?

Inscription on the monument Bobby Jindal is trying to save.

John Stanton of BuzzFeed: "Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's presidential campaign Thursday defended his plan to block New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu's efforts to remove statues to confederate soldiers -- including one which celebrates a white supremacist insurrection that left 32 people dead, including a number of police officers.... The Battle of Liberty Place is unique in that it specifically celebrates the efforts of white supremacists to overthrow the post-war government."

Andrew Kirell of Mediaite: "One month after their video of a Kentucky clerk refusing to issue a marriage license went viral, gay partners David Ermold and David L. Moore returned to that same government office, cameras in tow, and filmed yet another rejection."

Josh Replogle of the AP: "An internal affairs investigation was underway Friday after a 47-second video emerged showing a Miami police officer putting a handcuffed young man in the back of a cruiser and then jumping on top of him." Both the officer & the young man are black. ...

The Commentariat -- August 14, 2015

Internal links removed.

Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Cuba on Friday morning to attend a flag-raising ceremony at the American Embassy.... Three retired Marines who lowered the American flag when the embassy was closed in 1961 will present another to be raised by the Marines now assigned to the diplomatic post.... The embassy ceremony ... will be streamed live on the State Department website.... In the afternoon ... Mr. Kerry will have an opportunity to talk with Cuban human rights proponents and political activists at a reception at the official residence of Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who is serving as the top American diplomat in Cuba until an ambassador is nominated and confirmed." ...

... Francisco Jara of AFP: "US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Cuba Friday to raise the American flag over the newly reopened US embassy, a symbolic capstone on Washington's historic rapprochement with Havana."

"What If Barack and Bibi Are Both Right? Jim Fallows & his readers present "a set of theories for what's really behind opposition to the Iran deal in Israel and the U.S." ...

... Jonathan Weisman & Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "Some of the wealthiest and most powerful donors in American politics, those for and against the accord, tried to get a word in with [Sen. Chuck] Schumer. [They succeeded.] Now, approaching a vote on President Obama's most important international priority, the fight is expanding, with tens of millions of dollars flowing into ad campaigns, and contributors leveraging access to undecided Democrats." ...

... Gershom Gorenberg, who lives in Israel, in the American Prospect: "To keep their seats safe, Chuck Schumer and [Rep.] Brad Sherman [D-Calif.] are willing to make Israel much less safe."

Emily Badger of the Washington Post: "Last week, the Department of Justice argued ... in a statement of interest it filed in a relatively obscure case in Boise, Idaho, that could impact how cities regulate and punish homelessness. Boise, like many cities -- the number of which has swelled since the recession -- has an ordinance banning sleeping or camping in public places. But such laws, the DOJ says, effectively criminalize homelessness itself in situations where people simply have nowhere else to sleep.... By weighing in on this case, the DOJ's first foray in two decades into this still-unsettled area of law, the federal government is warning cities far beyond Boise and backing up federal goals to treat homelessness more humanely."

Emily Steel of the New York Times: "The letters of the day on 'Sesame Street' are H, B and O. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit group behind the children's television program, has struck a five-year deal with HBO, the premium cable network, that will bring first-run episodes of 'Sesame Street' exclusively to HBO and its streaming outlets starting in the fall.... After nine months of appearing only on HBO, the shows will be available free on PBS, home to 'Sesame Street' for the last 45 years. It is an unexpected union: the nonprofit behind a TV show created to teach children in underserved communities matched with the premium cable network that targets affluent adults with innovative programming." ...

... CW: If you want to know what's wrong with Republicans' defunding every entity of any social value, here's an example (altho PBS overpays its CEO, IMHO). Steel doesn't mention the GOP's repeated efforts to cut public broadcast funding. In 2012, Barack Obama did:

Boston Globe: "Three months ago, Harvard student Aran Khanna was preparing to start a coveted internship at Facebook when he launched a browser application ... that used data from Facebook Messenger to map where users were when they sent messages. The app also showed the locations, which were accurate to within three feet, in a group chat.... The app capitalized on a privacy flaw that Facebook had been aware of for about three years.... Within three days, Facebook asked Khanna to disable the app ... [and] deactivated location sharing from desktops.... And the company that Mark Zuckerberg famously launched from his Harvard dorm room withdrew its internship offer from this Harvard student, who apparently made the mistake of...launching an app from his dorm room."

Paul Krugman: "China is ruled by a party that calls itself Communist, but its economic reality is one of rapacious crony capitalism.... China's economy is wildly unbalanced, with a very low share of gross domestic product devoted to consumption and a very high share devoted to investment. This was sustainable while the country was able to maintain extremely rapid growth; but growth is, inevitably, slowing as China runs out of surplus labor. As a result, returns on investment are dropping fast.... China's leadership keeps imagining that it can order markets around, telling them what prices to reach. And that's not how things work.... If [China's] leadership is really as clueless as it has been looking lately, that bodes ill, not just for China, but for the world as a whole."

Presidential Race

     ... Via Driftglass in a post titled, "Gloria in Excelsis Both Siderism."

Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "US vice-president Joe Biden is nearing an imminent decision on whether to challenge Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination as supporters report a surge in interest from potential backers.... Biden is on vacation this week on Kiawah Island in South Carolina -- an important early-voting primary state -- but a source close to his thinking confirmed a recent Wall Street Journal report that he has been using part of the trip to sound out friends and family." CW: "nearing an imminent decision?" I myself am soon-to-be close to nearing an impending imminent decision that's just around the corner. ...

... Kristen Welker of NBC News: "Vice President Joe Biden is spending part of his South Carolina vacation calling close friends to discuss a potential 2016 run, a longtime Democratic operative and a source close to Biden who had an extensive phone call with him this week confirmed to NBC News." ...

... CW Update. Now I know it must be true, because I read it in the New York Times. ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "The Clinton campaign has a little rocket booster that's probably kept stored in a small case near the entrance to its Brooklyn headquarters. It's labeled 'Joe Biden backers,' and as soon as the vice president announces that he doesn't plan to run for president -- assuming he doesn't, of course -- Team Clinton can break it out, fire it up, and widen the lead over Bernie Sanders by another couple of points." ...

... Former Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), in a Des Moines Register op-ed, endorses Hillary Clinton. ...

... Jamelle Bouie: "What's important about the email story -- what makes it so damaging for Clinton -- is that it highlights a key weakness (her secrecy and evasiveness), suggests misconduct, and is ongoing. So far, there's no end to the email saga, just a series of small revelations. Each one prompts a day's worth of coverage, and each one gives Republicans a chance to emphasize her least appealing qualities.... That Clinton used private email at all shows her flexible approach to rules and regulations and a secretive reflex for conducting official business.... She should have used her official email account, as a way to prepare for the worst and avoid undue scrutiny." ...

... Speaking of Drip, Drip. Chris Strohm of Bloomberg: "The FBI is seeking to determine whether data from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server may still exist elsewhere, a U.S. official said.... Barbara Wells, an attorney for Platte River Networks, a Denver-based company that has managed Clinton's private e-mail since 2013, said in a phone interview Thursday that the server turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation 'is blank and does not contain any useful data.' But Wells added that the data on Clinton's server was migrated to another server that still exists. She ended the interview when questioned further, declining to say whether the data still exists on that other server and who has possession of it." ...

     ... CW: From the get-go, I have believed Clinton's staff must have backed up her correspondence & other material. It doesn't make sense not to do so, especially for material of such importance. I myself have backed up my vital correspondence re: crafts projects, travel plans & gossip about the neighbors. In addition, I've learned -- from watching too many teevee crime shows -- that law enforcement can often recover a scrubbed drive (in about 60 seconds, in fictional stories).

... Steve M. makes a strong case that Hillary Clinton's campaign is living in fantasyland. In his "don't panic" memo, campaign manager Robby Mook claims that "the reality is that the GOP brand continues to erode by the day." Steve counters, "It's always like this -- the public may not agree with the GOP on issues, and may have been repulsed by the recent words and deeds of prominent Republicans, but the brand always gets refreshed, and the political mainstream always tells us that there's no rot under the new coat of paint." ...

... The memo is here. ...

Ed Kilgore: "I'd say it's likely the memo was aimed as much at the MSM as any other 'elites.' It went pretty heavily into the demographic and geographical advantages any Democratic candidate is likely to have in a presidential general election. That's a little surprising coming from a well-known semi-'centrist' front-runner, since it suggests somebody like Sanders could win as well. But perhaps it's really intended to undermine the panicky thought that Democrats needs to pull somebody else into the race (presumably Joe Biden) in case HRC's troubles worsen."

... Or some other candidate ...

Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Supporters of Al Gore have begun a round of conversations among themselves and with the former vice president about his running for president in 2016, the latest sign that top Democrats have serious doubts that Hillary Clinton is a sure thing." ...

     ... Update. Michael Hirsh & Kate Bennett of Politico: "Despite some hopeful speculation among Democrats that Al Gore might jump into the 2016 presidential race in the face of Hillary Clinton's troubles, people close to the former vice president and Democratic nominee say he's not considering it."

Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "For many Americans, the Trump presidential campaign amounts to a billionaire talking endlessly, and entertainingly, on television. But here in Iowa, it's another story. Trump is trying to beat the politicians at their own game, building one of the most extensive field organizations in the Republican field. The groundwork laid by Trump's sizeable Iowa staff, with 10 paid operatives and growing, is the clearest sign yet that the unconventional candidate is looking beyond his summer media surge and attempting to win February's first-in-the-nation caucuses." ...

... Jack Shafer of Politico: "In the August 6th Republican candidates debate, Trump answered the moderators' questions with linguistic austerity. Run through the Flesch-Kincaid grade-level test, his text of responses score at the 4th-grade reading level.... All the other candidates rated higher, with Ted Cruz earning 9th-grade status. Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, and Scott Walker scored at the 8th-grade level. John Kasich, the next-lowest after Trump, got a 5th-grade score.... Trump's rejection of 'convoluted nuance' and 'politically correct norms,' mark him as authentic in certain corners and advance his cred as a plainspoken guardian of the American way.... The role Trumpspeak has played in Trump's surging polls suggests that perhaps too many politicians talk over the public's head when more should be talking beneath it...." ...

... CW: This is fascinating. The two candidates whose poll numbers rose after the big boys' debate were -- Trump & Kasich.

Presidential Candidate Exposed as Medical Doctor, Researcher. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Ben Carson defended the use of fetal tissue for medical research Thursday, after a blog published excerpts of a 1992 paper describing work the neurosurgeon-turned-presidential candidate carried out using aborted fetuses. In an interview with The Washington Post, Carson called the revelation 'desperate,' and ignorant of the way medical research was carried out.... Carson, who has risen in primary polls since last week's debate, is among the Republicans who've condemned Planned Parenthood.... In a July interview on Fox News, after the first videos broke, Carson said that there was 'nothing that can't be done without fetal tissue' and that babies aborted at 17 weeks were clearly human beings.... Asked [by the WashPo] if Planned Parenthood should cease its fetal tissue distribution, Carson demurred. He still favored defunding the group, but would not call for the end of fetal tissue research so long as the fetal tissue was available." ...

... Jen Gunter: "While opining on the uselessness of fetal tissue research to Megyn Kelly Dr. Carson neglected to mention his own paper ... published ... in 1992. The materials and methods describe using 'human choroid plexus ependyma and nasal mucosa from two fetuses aborted in the ninth and 17th week of gestation.'... As a neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson knows full well that fetal tissue is essential for medical research. His discipline would have a hard time being w[h]ere it is today without that kind of work. What is even more egregious than dismissing the multitude of researchers whose work allowed him to become a neurosurgeon is the hypocrisy of actually having done that research himself while spouting off about its supposed worthlessness." ...

... Carson justifies his own use of fetal tissue because his "intent" was not to "kill babies." CW: So let's get this straight: it is fine to use fetal tissue in medical research, but it morally reprehensible to procure & provide the fetal tissue the noble researchers use. Maybe Dr. Carson -- an evangelical Christian -- believes "dead babies" will fly into the lab on their tiny angel wings.

... Unfuckingbelievable. Andrew Kirell of Mediaite: "Appearing on Fox's Your World on Wednesday afternoon, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson suggested Planned Parenthood places its clinics in black neighborhoods as a method of controlling that population.... Carson told [host Neil] Cavuto: 'I know who [Planned Parenthood founder] Margaret Sanger is. I know that she believed in eugenics and that she was not particularly enamored with black people.... 'One of the reason that you find most of their clinics in black neighborhoods is so that you can find a way to control that population,' he continued. Indeed, Sanger's views on 'birth control' found overlap with the eugenics movement of her time (Sanger passed away in 1966), though the many differences have been repeatedly pointed out by Planned Parenthood itself." ...

     ... Charles Pierce: "This is Alex Jones stuff without the Oathkeepers. This is simply drool with verbs. He's in second place [in Iowa]. Behind Donald Trump."

Breaking. Iraq War Proclaimed a Great Success. I'll tell you, taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a pretty good deal.... I'm not saying this because I'm a Bush. I'm proud of what [George] did to create a secure environment for our country. -- Jeb Bush, in Iowa Thursday

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "After first saying that invading Iraq was awesome and then slinking back to 'if the intelligence hadn't fooled us', now Jeb Bush is back to saying that 'taking out' Saddam Hussein was a 'pretty good deal.'... Jeb will never get past this issue.... Even the language has that weird brand of tough guy braggadocio that can't break free of the yacht basin or even quite want to. Swaggering Biff." ...

... Sometimes a Doofus is a Lying Sack of Shit. Here is (clip) that LSoS saying, "The Iraqis wanted it to happen," where "it" refers to renegotiating Dubya's agreement for the withdrawal of U.S. troops so we could stay forevah & keep the peace. Just the opposite was true. Fred Kaplan: "... Obama did send emissaries -- among them former aides to George W. Bush -- to seek an amendment to allow a few thousand residual forces. The Iraqi government refused. Unless Obama wanted to re-invade the country, there was nothing to be done." Or, as top Army Gen. Ray Odierno put it in his "exit interview," if the U.S. had kept troops in Iraq against the wishes of the Iraqi government, "We would have been in violation of international law." Also, too, Jeb! has visited Guantanamo & observed, "this is not a torture chamber." So, nice place to stay. ...

... Paul Waldman: "What Iraq needed to secure its future was the one thing Americans couldn't give it: a political reconciliation.... It was the Maliki government's relentless sectarianism that created the opening for the Islamic State to emerge. And this is perhaps the most dangerous thing about Bush's perspective on Iraq, which can also be said of his primary opponents. They display absolutely no grasp of the internal politics of Iraq, now or in the past, not to mention the internal politics of other countries in the region, including Iran.... This was one of the key failures of imagination that led to the Iraq disaster in the first place." Read Waldman's recitation of the terms of the "good deal." ...

... AP: "Jeb Bush has declined to rule out the US resuming the use of torture -- with the Republican presidential hopeful saying brutal questioning methods might be justifiable and necessary in some circumstances.... 'I don't want to make a definitive, blanket kind of statement,' Jeb Bush told an audience of Iowa Republicans, when asked whether he would keep in place or repeal President Barack Obama's executive order banning so-called enhanced interrogation techniques by the CIA.... Jeb Bush said he believed the techniques were effective in producing intelligence but that 'now we're in a different environment.' He suggested there may be occasions when brutal interrogations were called for to keep the country safe. 'That's why I'm not saying in every condition, under every possible scenario,' Bush said. Later on Thursday in Iowa, Bush said there was a difference between enhanced interrogation and torture but declined to be specific. 'I don't know. I'm just saying if I'm going to be president of the United States you take this threat seriously.'"

... A Loaded Cigar. Lesley Clark of McClatchy News: "Former [Minnesota] Gov. Jesse Ventura says former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had a box of [Cuban] cigars delivered to his Minnesota office to keep him from complaining that that the embargo against Cuba made the cigar aficionado feel 'like a criminal.' The claim -- which Ventura says dates to when the two were both in office -- came as Ventura spoke with former Donald Trump senior advisor Roger Stone on his Ora.TV 'Off The Grid' show.... He said Bush approached him and told him 'keep it down, I'll send you all the Cuban cigars you need.'... Stone suggested the alleged incident was an example of 'elite deviance: There's a group in this country that is so wealthy and so powerful and so politically connected that the laws don't apply to them.' The cigars, however, weren't Cuban, but Dominican, Bush's campaign says.... Bush has been a staunch supporter of the embargo and opposes President Barack Obama's recent efforts to restore diplomatic efforts with Cuba.... Ventura ... has long advocated for lifting the embargo." ...

... Marc Caputo of Politico: "Former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura said Thursday he was 'astounded' that Jeb Bush's campaign would deny a decades-old gift of Cuban cigars. The controversy centers on a box of Romeo y Julieta cigars Bush gave Ventura after a meeting of governors at the White House, where Ventura complained to then-president Bill Clinton about the 'ridiculous' Cuban embargo and how it should be lifted.... 'What happened to the truth?' Ventura said in a phone interview [with Politico]. 'They're trying to say that he sent me a box of Dominicans?...Why would they send me a box of Dominican cigars when I could go buy them in any cigar shop?'... Is there a chance that the cigars he got were actually from the Dominican Republic? 'No,' Ventura told Politico. 'The cigar box was sealed and the cigars each came in a silver tube that said "Cuba" on the side.'" ...

... Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Black Lives Matter has gone bipartisan. Protesters from the grass-roots movement disrupted a town hall event featuring former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in Las Vegas late Wednesday, expanding their targets after having focused in recent weeks on the Democratic presidential contenders. The disruption happened after Bush responded to a question about racial justice, saying 'we have serious problems and these problems have gotten worse in the last few years. Communities, people no longer trust the basic institutions in our society that they need to trust to create, to make things work.' Advocates in the audience then started chanting 'Black Lives Matter' as Bush left the auditorium, according to The Las Vegas Sun." CW: It isn't clear from either report whether Bush ended the session because he was through talking or left because BlackLivesMatter protesters shouted him down.

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio unabashedly promotes his expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare, shows little appetite for relitigating culture-war battles like same-sex marriage and offers not much more than a shrug when asked about Hillary Rodham Clinton's turning over her email server to the F.B.I." His approach is working in New Hampshire. "Just a month after entering the race, Mr. Kasich is rising in the polls in New Hampshire, winning head-turning endorsements and drawing new voters to his events who were impressed with his debate performance last week."

Amy Chozick & Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "... many Republicans, preparing to potentially confront [Hillary] Clinton in a general election, are looking anew at [Carly] Fiorina, who rose from being a secretary to running the giant technology company HP, as the party's weapon to counter the perception that it is waging a 'war on women.'" ...

... Julie Alderman of Media Matters complains that Chozick & Gabriel "ignor[ed] how [Fiorina's] policy positions are actually harmful to women." Alderman cites a number of Fiorina's anti-woman policy prescriptions. Thanks to Diane for the link. ...

     ... CW: Alderman's complaint isn't quite true. Quite a ways down in the article, the Times reporters write, "Mrs. Fiorina, an adherent of the Silicon Valley meritocracy where she spent most of her career, believes that while employers cannot discriminate based on gender, they should be able to decide how much employees are paid. She is against federally mandated paid maternity leave, a position the Democratic National Committee portrayed as being 'worse than the maternity leave policy in war-torn Afghanistan.'" These are two of the issues Alderman cited (and thus implied the Times ignored). The Times story also notes that Fiorina is an anti-feminist. I don't think the Times is obligated to list every one of Fiorina's positions that work against women, though they should have mentioned her rabid opposition to Planned Parenthood & reproductive rights.

Beyond the Beltway

Edmund Mahony & Matthew Kauffman of the Hartford Courant: "After a sweeping two-year review, the state Supreme Court outlawed capital punishment in Connecticut Thursday, saying the state's death penalty no longer comports with evolved societal values and serves no valid purpose as punishment. The 4-3 decision would remove 11 convicts from Connecticut's death row and overturn the latest iteration of the state's death penalty, a political compromise effective April 2012 that barred death sentences going forward but allowed the execution of inmates already sentenced."

Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "A state appeals court in Colorado ruled Thursday that a baker could not cite religious beliefs in refusing to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples. The decision[, which was unanimous,] is the latest in a series of similar rulings across the country.... Lawyers for the cake shop said the appeals panel 'got it wrong' and that they would probably appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court.... [The baker, Jack "Phillips, told [a gay couple] that he could not design and bake a wedding cake for them because it would violate his Christian convictions, although he would be happy to sell them other baked goods."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered his remorse for all those who died as a result Japan's World War II actions on Friday -- the eve of the 70^th anniversary of his country's surrender -- but avoided explicitly repeating the apologies of his predecessors."

CBS News: "Pentagon sources tell CBS News that reports are 'credible' that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) likely used mustard gas against Kurdish fighters in Iraq."

AP: "Greek lawmakers approved their country's draft third bailout in a parliamentary vote Friday that relied on opposition party support and saw the government coalition suffer significant dissent. The vote came after a marathon all-night session marked by procedural delays and acrimonious debate over the three-year, about 85 billion-euro ($93 billion) rescue package that includes harsh spending cuts and tax hikes."