The Commentariat -- August 13, 2015

Internal links removed.

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday that he had been given a diagnosis of cancer. 'Recent liver surgery revealed that I have cancer that is now in other parts of my body,' Mr. Carter, 90, said in a statement. 'I will be rearranging my schedule as necessary so I can undergo treatment by physicians at Emory Healthcare. A more complete public statement will be made when facts are known, possibly next week.'"

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "... new genetic tests confirm for the first time that [Nan] Britton's daughter, Elizabeth Ann Blaesing, was indeed [President Warren] Harding's biological child. The tests have solved one of the enduring mysteries of presidential history and offer new insights into the secret life of America's 29th president.... The Nan Britton affair was the sensation of its age, a product of the jazz-playing, gin-soaked Roaring Twenties and a pivotal moment in the evolution of the modern White House.... Never before had a self-proclaimed presidential mistress gone public with a popular tell-all book."

** Charles Blow: "Police abuse is a form of terror.... The black community's response to this form of domestic terror has not been so different from America's reaction to foreign terror." ...

... ** In a moving essay published in the Washington Post, Malcolm Graham writes that the murder of his sister Cynthia Graham Hurd in the Emanuel AME church massacre should be memorialized with more than the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse. "That might mean opposing restrictive laws that prevent minorities in America from voting or pushing states to expand Medicaid and embrace the Affordable Care Act or fighting bias in the courts, which place too many African Americans behind bars for long sentences for minor offenses or before their cases have been heard." Graham is not optimistic. ...

... Contributor safari, via Scott Kaufman of Salon, brings to our attention this video lecture by Ty Seidule, head of the department of history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, who demonstrates that slavery was the central cause of Southern states' secession & the ensuing Civil War:"

     ... See also safari's critique at the top of today's thread.

Jonathan Chait: "Black Lives Matter has had enormous success in driving police reform and raising awareness of racism, and has, on the whole, changed the country for the better. Liberals believe that social justice can be advanced without giving up democratic rights and norms. The ends of social justice do not justify any and all means. When we're debating which candidates are progressive enough to be allowed to deliver public speeches, something has gone terribly wrong."

Stephanie Armour of the Wall Street Journal: "The Obama administration has notified two states that took steps to halt Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood Federation of America that they may be in conflict with federal law. The law requires that Medicaid beneficiaries may obtain services, including family planning, from any qualified provider.... Three states said last week they will block hundreds of thousands of dollars from Planned Parenthood: Alabama and Louisiana moved to block funds under Medicaid, the state-federal health program for the poor, while New Hampshire's Executive Council is blocking state funding, so its move isn't subject to federal oversight. Planned Parenthood currently doesn't perform abortions in Louisiana but does in the two other states." Firewalled, so Google the story.

No, Mitt, et al., ObummerCare Is Not a Jobs-Killer. Max Ehrenfreund of the Washington Post: "President Obama's health-care reform hasn't meant less time on the job for American workers, according to three newly published studies that challenge one of the main arguments raised by critics of the Affordable Care Act. One provision of the law ... requires businesses with more than 50 employees to offer health insurance to those working at least 30 hours a week. That mandate took effect this year. Republicans, and some Democrats, worried that employers would look for ways to get around the mandate.... So far, though, researchers say employers have not changed how they hire and schedule their worker in response to the law." CW: I thought if you cried wolf three times, no one would ever listen to you again. The fable is way too optimistic.

Frank Rich on Chuck Schumer's "no" vote on the Iran deal: "... Schumer, for all his ostentatious deliberation, garbled the actual terms of the deal when announcing his opposition to it.... The whole exercise has been both disingenuous and cynical. But I can't find a single person who expected anything else from Schumer.... You can bet he would have come out for the deal in a second if he had calculated that voting "no" threatened his own political ambitions." Also, a good mini-essay on Donald & the Disappointments.

Kevin Drum: The Washington Post editors want President Obama to be nicer to people who compare him to Neville Chamberlain. "The Washington Post is unhappy with the 'certitude' with which President Obama is defending the Iran nuclear deal. Normally, the Post would prefer more certitude in Obama's foreign policy, but whatever.... [But, given Republicans' unanimous & unreasoned opposition to the international Iran deal,] Obama's best hope is to appeal at least partly to partisanship in order to keep enough Democrats in line to get the deal approved."

Slaves of New York. Jennifer Schuessler of the New York Times: "New York City’s slave market was second in size only to Charleston's. Even after the Revolution, New York was the most significant slaveholding state north of the Mason-Dixon line. In 1790, nearly 40 percent of households in the area immediately around New York City owned slaves -- a greater percentage than in any Southern state as a whole, according to one study." Joseph McGill, founder of of the Slave Dwelling Project, is bringing attention to this history. "Slavery in Southampton, the oldest English settlement in New York, dates almost to its founding in the 1640s.... Census records show that by 1686, roughly 10 percent of the village's nearly 800 inhabitants were slaves, many of whom helped work the rich agricultural land." ...

... CW: It has never before occurred to me that my early American ancestors, who lived in Massachusetts & other parts of New England, were slaveholders. Almost certainly, some were.

Timothy Cama of the Hill: "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning both an internal and outside investigation into how agency contractors caused a spill of 3 million gallons of mine waste in Colorado."

Presidential Race -- Big Dick Edition*

* As in Trump, Schindler, Weiner.

Panic! Niall Stanage & Kevin Cirilli of the Hill: "Democrats are worried that the furor over Hillary Clinton's private email server will be prolonged and intensified after her sudden move to hand it to the FBI. The [move] ... left Democrats scratching their heads as to why the former secretary of State had resisted turning over the server for months. Coupled with new polls that suggest Clinton is vulnerable, Democrats are nearing full-on panic mode.... The pattern seen in the email controversy -- months of stonewalling followed by an eventual concession -- has stoked worries about her flaws as a candidate. The slew of unimpressive poll numbers is exacerbating the situation. Some have shown slippage against her main left-wing rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Others have indicated her losing swing states against possible Republican opponents. Still others have revealed continuing weakness in her ratings on trustworthiness and favorability." CW: This is the Hill's top story this morning. ...

... Tom Hamburger & Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "The e-mail server used by Hillary Rodham Clinton when she served as secretary of state was turned over to the FBI late Wednesday afternoon from a private data center in New Jersey, according to an attorney familiar with the transfer.... The FBI's request for information about Clinton’s e-mail system followed a referral from the intelligence community's inspector general to the Justice Department in July.... In addition to obtaining the old server, the FBI recently obtained a thumb drive in the possession of Clinton's lawyer, David Kendall, that contained copies of work e-mails kept on the server.... On Wednesday, [Clinton's] campaign worked to reassure donors and supporters.... In a blast e-mail, the campaign's communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, said 'this kind of nonsense comes with the territory of running for president.'" ...

Greg Gordon, et al., of McClatchy News: Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), "... the chairman of the Senate's homeland security committee, has asked a small, 13-year-old Denver technology company that managed tens of thousands of emails for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to describe what measures it took to safeguard national security information." CW: Has absolutely nothing to do with presidential race or with Johnson's Senate race, where early polls showed him trailing former senator & Democratic challenger Russ Feingold. ...

... Rachel Bade of Politico: "Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's most trusted confidante, is increasingly becoming a central figure in the email scandal that's haunting her boss on the campaign trail.... The Senate Judiciary Committee claims to have a well-informed but unnamed tipster who says Abedin is or has been investigated for criminal misconduct by the State Department inspector general...." CW: At least Bade admits her sourcing is irresponsible partisan gossip. But, hey, let's put it out there anyway. Clinton Rule: Where there's smoke.... Also, since it's Big Dick Day, let us not forget Mr. Huma Abedin. ...

... Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Hillary Clinton's campaign went into damage-control mode -- again as the latest twist in the long-running saga over her private email use while serving as secretary of state opened up the Democratic front-runner to attacks on what GOP rivals called 'criminal' behavior.... 'Did she commit a crime? Yes. Will they prosecute it? Perhaps no,' Donald Trump said in an interview Tuesday night.... Neither Bernie Sanders nor Martin O'Malley -- who frequently draw contrasts with Clinton -- came near criticizing her email use...." ...

... CW: When I read the Politico story yesterday, I thought I should check around to see if Clinton was really in trouble. Wow, yes! writes John Schindler of the Daily Beast: "The Spy Satellite Secrets in Hillary's Emails. These weren't just ordinary secrets found in Clinton's private server, but some of the most classified material the U.S. government has.... People found to have willfully mishandled such highly classified information often face severe punishment. Termination of employment, hefty fines, even imprisonment can result.... Claims that they 'didn't know' such information was highly classified do not hold water and are irrelevant. It strains belief that anybody with clearances didn't recognize that NSA information." ...

... So who is John Schindler, whom the Daily Beast IDs as "a security consultant and a former National Security Agency counterintelligence officer."? J. K. Trotter of Gawker (July 2014): "Remember John Schindler, the conservative talking head, retired NSA spook, and Naval War College professor who briefly went incognito after screenshots of (what appear to be) his penis leaked onto the Internet? While he has since reappeared to Twitter -- where he first drew attention for defending domestic spying and criticizing Edward Snowden -- he has refused to comment on the mysterious emails, sent to the Naval War College by an unnamed blogger, that prompted the school to place him on leave, and his penis under official investigation." Critical of Ed Snowden? Sort of. "From nearly the outset I've stated that Snowden is very likely an agent of Russian intelligence...." A pompous blowhard? Yeah.

Gabriel Debenedetti: "In a bid to climb his way into the thick of the presidential race, Democrat Martin O'Malley will launch a three-week, more than 15-stop tour of Iowa on Friday to promote a set of new policy proposals...."

Eliza Collins of Politico: "Donald Trump has seized a commanding lead in Iowa, drawing nearly double the support of his closest competitor, in a new poll by CNN and ORC.... The poll, which was conducted after last Thursday's debate..., showed Trump leading the Republican field with 22 percent among Iowa caucus-goers. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson came in second with 14 percent, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who until recently was leading polls in Iowa, came in at 9 percent." CW: Bear in mind that the Iowa caucuses are 5-1/2 months away & that caucuses can be highly volatile, with individual caucus-goers changing their votes as the meetings proceed. In fact, only 15 percent of those polled indicated they had "definitely decided" on a candidate. As Nate Silver often notes, early poll numbers are not particularly predictive of the eventual winner. "Our emphatic prediction is simply that Trump will not win the nomination. It's not even clear that he's trying to do so." In the linked post (Aug. 11), Silver explains his reasoning. ...

... Steve M. comments on the poll results. There's a gender divide. Also, too, Iowa Republicans seem to like the non-pols better than the professional politicians. CW: I would note, tho, that if you add up the results for all of the pols, they top those of Trump & Carson, with 60% for pols & 36% for non-pols. ...

... Paul Waldman explains why insurgent candidates like Bernie Sanders & Donald Trump seldom win the nomination. "... the one insurgent candidate in the last few decades who actually won his party's nomination: Barack Obama. In 2008 he was new and different and exciting, but he also played an extraordinarily skilled inside game, garnering the support of colleagues in the Senate, key African-American members of the House, and party activists all over the country. And it turned out that Obama and the people who worked for him outperformed Hillary Clinton's campaign at all the things one normally expects the insider candidate to excel at...."

When Whiney Boys Collide. Jose DelReal & Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: Rand Paul & Donald Trump hurl insults at each other. "Trump's initial response came several hours after Rand Paul's presidential campaign released an aggressive attack video Wednesday questioning Trump's conservative bona fides.... The Paul campaign said the ad would run in New Hampshire and Iowa through the weekend." Here's the ad, which was released online yesterday:

... Colin Campbell of Business Insider: "Asked about the ad during CNN interview later in the day, Trump defended his record.... Trump dismissed Paul's other attacks as 'old stuff' and then trashed his opponent. 'You look at a guy like Rand Paul: He's failing in the polls, he's weak on the military -- he's pathetic on military,' he said.... 'I actually think he's a far better doctor than he is a senator.' He also pointed to last week's indictment against pro-Paul political operatives working for a super PAC supporting his campaign. The indictment was related to their 2012 work on the campaign of Paul's father, Ron. 'Rand's campaign is failing. Hasn't his whole team been indicted?' Trump asked. "So he's a mess -- there's no question about it.'" ...

... Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno said Wednesday that he disagrees with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's idea that the United States should go into Iraq and seize oil being used to fund the Islamic State militant group, saying that there are limits on what military power can do. Odierno's comments came in a wide-ranging briefing with reporters at the Pentagon as he prepares to retire as the Army's top officer after 39 years of service." ...

... The Howard Stern Primary. In light of Donald Trump's criticism of Megyn Kelly's appearance on Howard Stern's radio show some while back, Chris Moody of CNN reviewed some of Trump's conversations with the shock jock. Trump "field[ed] questions about everything from the size of his genitalia to premature ejaculation, sleeping with another man's girlfriend and his wife's bathroom habits. He's also criticized several women for their body shape, described the time he watched a celebrity sex tape, fondly recalled days before the rise in sexually transmitted diseases made condoms necessary and once compared a shrinking economy to a woman's contractions in pregnancy.... A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on this story."

Everything was going great in Iraq and victory had been achieved, until Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton threw it all away. Nothing is the fault of Republicans, or of the people who supported and launched the Iraq war, the single worst foreign policy decision in American history. George W. Bush made no mistakes that might have any lessons for us, and the answer to every foreign policy challenge is to be more bellicose and more eager to use military force. -- Paul Waldman, summarizing Jeb!'s big foreign-policy speech

... ** Fred Kaplan of Slate: Jeb Bush's "40-minute [foreign-policy] speech, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, was a hodgepodge of revisionist history, shallow analysis, and vague prescriptions." CW: Jeb!'s understanding of Syria is just as profound as his brother's grasp of Iraqi politics, so naturally he proposes -- if vaguely -- to invade Syria with tens of thousands of U.S. troops -- & who knows? -- throw cash out of helicopters. Whatever. Anyway, he's planning another "successful" surge in Syria and/or Iraq or someplace around there! I'd suggest he go back to the drawing board, but I wouldn't trust him around a pencil sharpener. What a doofus. ...

... Would-Be Bush III Would Be Bush III. Steve Benen: "His brother caused an international catastrophe, and the former governor is outraged by the way in which the Obama administration cleaned up his brother's mess. That's the Jeb Bush message in 2016 in a nutshell. According to the GOP candidate -- or at least the Bush/Cheney advisers who wrote the speech for Jeb's teleprompter -- the war in Iraq just wasn't long enough.... Gone are the days in which the Florida Republican declares himself his 'own man,' driven by his 'own ideas.'... Jeb Bush has, for reasons that deny reason, embraced his brother's foreign policy as his own."

Mary Spicuzza, et al., of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Gov. Scott Walker approved $250 million in public money for a Milwaukee Bucks arena Wednesday, paving the way for a Common Council vote on the proposal next month.... The bipartisan legislation commits taxpayers to paying half the cost of the $500 million arena over the next 20 years in exchange for the team remaining in Wisconsin's largest city. The governor ... made no changes to the bill with his powerful veto pen." ...

... Paul Waldman: "That $250 million that taxpayers will be spending for the benefit of a single private enterprise just happens to be the same amount that Walker succeeded in cutting from the state's university system this year.... One of the Bucks owners, Jon Hammes, is a national finance co-chairman of Walker's campaign and has given $150,000 to a Walker super PAC.... One might have expected more from a politician who is basing his presidential campaign on his eagerness to 'fight.'... But it turns out that he's only interested in fighting people like union members. Extortionist plutocrats, not so much.... Walker's justification -- that ponying up for the stadium will be worth it because of the economic impact -- has been disproven by just about every analysis of stadium financing.... It's another reminder that the principles of small government and fiscal responsibility that conservative politicians like Walker pledge their fealty to are highly contingent on who's benefiting and who's being hurt."

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Asked how he may appeal to Republicans who ... are uneasy about his support for a pathway to legal status for illegal immigrants, support for the Common Core education standards and his expansion of Medicaid in Ohio with money from the Affordable Care Act, [Ohio Gov. John Kasich] defended himself on each issue. And then he uncorked an impassioned argument about his party's need to redefine conservatism,' [in a brief meeting with reporters in Derry, New Hampshire]. In an echo of the religious-based defense he has made of his Medicaid expansion, an argument that irritates many small-government conservatives, Mr. Kasich said, 'I think conservatism is about giving everybody a chance, demanding personal responsibility, but allowing people to pursue their God-given purpose.'"

Beyond the Beltway

John Mura & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "A county clerk [in Morehead, Kentucky,] is apparently defying a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Two same-sex couples seeking licenses left the Rowan County courthouse empty-handed Thursday morning.The Rowan County clerk, Kim Davis, who says her Christian faith bars her from authorizing same-sex marriages, has refused to issue any licenses, either to same-sex or heterosexual couples...."

Way Beyond

Carolina Hawley of BBC News: "Swedish prosecutors will drop their investigation into sexual assault allegations against Julian Assange on Thursday because of the statutes of limitation, the BBC has learned. The Wikileaks founder still faces the more serious allegation of rape. But prosecutors have run out of time to investigate Mr Assange for sexual assault because they have not succeeded in questioning him. He denies all allegations and has said they are part of a smear campaign."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "A new forecast from NOAA says this El Niño is 'significant and strengthening,' with the potential to become very strong -- even rivaling the strongest on record. This is the strongest forecast NOAA has issued so far this year." ...

     ... The Los Angeles Times story is here. The New York Times story is here.

Washington Post: "A warehouse in the Chinese port city of Tianjin erupted in a series of explosions late Wednesday, killing 44 people and spewing massive fireballs and billowing clouds of smoke into the night sky. The blasts, which were powerful enough to register on earthquake monitoring scales, came from a warehouse storing 'dangerous and chemical goods' that had caught on fire, state media reported."

The Commentariat -- August 12, 2015

Internal links removed.

American "Justice," Ctd. Abu Ghraib, Stateside. Michael Schwirtz & Michael Winerip of the New York Times: "For days after [two men escaped from an upstate New York prison], corrections officers carried out what seemed like a campaign of retribution against dozens of Clinton inmates, particularly those on the honor block, an investigation by The New York Times found. In letters reviewed by The Times, as well as prison interviews, inmates described a strikingly similar catalog of abuses, including being beaten while handcuffed, choked and slammed against cell bars and walls. They were also subjected to harsh policies ordered by the State Department of Corrections.... More than 60 inmates have filed complaints with Prisoners' Legal Services of New York, an organization that assists indigent prisoners.... No prisoners have yet been linked to [the escapees]. Indeed, it is prison employees who have been implicated: One has pleaded guilty to aiding the escape; another faces criminal charges; nine officers have been suspended; and the leadership of the prison, in Dannemora, has been removed."

A New York Times reader named Barack Obama writes a letter to the editor in response to Jim Rutenberg's essay on the myriad attempts across the decades to undermine the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

David Lauter of the Los Angeles Times: "When the Affordable Care Act took effect in October 2013, there were 14 states in which more than 1 in 5 adults lacked health insurance; today only Texas remains, according to data released Monday.... Texas, whose officials have strongly resisted cooperation with the new law, had the highest level of residents lacking insurance before the law took effect and has made among the least progress of any state.... Most of the states that continue to have high levels of uninsured residents have declined Medicaid expansion, which many Republican governors and state legislators oppose."

Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "When the bipartisan advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran decided last week to mobilize opposition against the nuclear deal with Tehran, Gary Samore knew he could no longer serve as its president. The reason: After long study, Mr. Samore, a former nuclear adviser to President Obama, had concluded that the accord was in the United States' interest. 'I think President Obama's strategy succeeded,' said Mr. Samore, who left his post on Monday.... As soon as Mr. Samore left, the group announced a new standard-bearer with a decidedly different message: Joseph I. Lieberman.... Mr. Samore's quiet departure as president of the organization ... is resonating among the small community of experts who have pored over the agreement." ...

     ... CW: Steve M. tells us that Donald Trump has embraced the epithet "Donald the Whiner." Ha! The Donald will never, ever match Joe Lieberman's mastery of the Art of the Whine. ...

... Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Three dozen retired generals and admirals released an open letter Tuesday supporting the Iran nuclear deal and urging Congress to do the same. Calling the agreement 'the most effective means currently available to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,' the letter said that gaining international support for military action against Iran, should that ever become necessary, 'would only be possible if we have first given the diplomatic path a chance.' The release came as Secretary of State John F. Kerry said U.S. allies were 'going to look at us and laugh' if the United States were to abandon the deal and then ask them to back a more aggressive posture against Iran.'" The letter is here. ...

... John Brenahan of Politico: "... Sen. Chuck Schumer has been quietly reaching out to dozens of his colleagues to explain his decision and assure them he would not be whipping opposition to the deal, according to Democratic senators and aides." CW: Yeah, then he tells them all the reasons he'll vote against the deal. But that's not lobbying!

Sarah Latimer & Abby Phillips of the Washington Post: "... a citizen militia group known as the Oath Keepers ... all of them white and heavily armed -- said they were in [Ferguson Monday night] to protect someone who worked for the Web site Infowars.com, which is affiliated with talk-radio conspiracy theorist and self-described 'thought criminal against Big Brother' Alex Jones.... The Southern Poverty Law Center ... describes the Oath Keepers as a 'fiercely antigovernment, militaristic group.' 'The core idea of the group is that its members vow to forever support the oaths they took on joining law enforcement or the military to defend the Constitution,' reads the SPLC site. 'But just as central is the group's list of 10 'Orders We Will Not Obey,' a compendium of much-feared but entirely imaginary threats from the government -- orders, for instance, to force Americans into concentration camps, confiscate their guns, or cooperate with foreign troops in the United States.'" ...

... CW: Latimer & Phillips do mention the Oath Keepers' founder Stewart Rhodes, but they don't say that Rhodes is a former Ron Paul Congressional & campaign staffer, as Akhilleus noted in yesterday's thread. Rhodes founded the group in the spring of 2008 because he was worried about a President "'Hitlery' Clinton, in her 'Chairman Mao signature pantsuit.' Would readers [of his blog], he asked, obey orders from this 'dominatrix-in-chief' to hold militia members as enemy combatants, disarm citizens, and shoot all resisters?'" Justine Sharrock wrote in Mother Jones in 2010. ...

... CW: AND it's not as if this is all way-back-when & let's be fair, Ron Paul can't be blamed for the actions of some former staffer who went off the deep end. As Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch reported in April of this year, "... Ron Paul is starring in a new film about the threat of martial law in America which includes calls to join the extremist Oath Keepers militia." Oath Keepers is promoting & helping to finance the film. The film's director, James Jaeger, heads a "research institute" that "serves as a clearinghouse for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, blaming Jews for the Holocaust and accusing them of child murders." I'm certainly not into blaming the son for the sins of the father, but if you want to know whence Li'l Randy derives his enthusiasm for curbing the NSA & demilitarizing the police, it isn't coming from some liberal itch he's scratching; these are tenets of Oath Keepers like the fellows who showed up in Ferguson to "protect citizens." In addition, Li'l Randy & Oath Keepers were joint supporters of notorious rancher-outlaw Cliven Bundy, the Oath Keepers with firearms aimed at federal agents. Randy distanced himself from Bundy only after Bundy's racist comments came to light, but still -- months after that -- Randy initiated a 45-minute meeting with Bundy to discuss property rights.

Tom Lighty of the Chicago Tribune: "Sen. Mark Kirk, who has needed help with some everyday tasks such as preparing meals and physically getting around since suffering a debilitating stroke in 2012, put his live-in caregiver onto his campaign payroll, according to records and interviews. While on Kirk's payroll, the caregiver twice came under criminal investigation -- convicted in one case while the other is still pending in court. Kirk's placement of his caregiver -- who had no prior campaign experience -- onto his campaign staff raises questions about whether Kirk used political donations to pay for personal expenses. Campaign finance records show that Kirk for Senate had paid his caregiver a salary totaling more than $43,000 from August 2013 through the end of 2014. Federal law says campaign funds cannot be used for expenses that would occur regardless of whether the person were running for or holding office."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Gabriel Sherman of New York writes an amusing tale of how Roger Ailes chose Donald Trump over Fox "News"'s biggest star, Megyn Kelly. (Not amusing: "... Kelly has told Fox producers that she's been getting death threats from Trump supporters.") "Ailes offered Trump the chance to do a special on Kelly's prime-time show to clear the air -- an offer Trump flatly refused. 'Donald was sufficiently pissed off that there was no way that was happening,' a person familiar with the call told me. According to the source, Trump's ire was especially stoked after Howard Stern called to tell him about a 2010 interview in which Kelly joked about her breasts and her husband's penis." ...

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "Fox issues unconditional surrender." ...

... Roger's Dilemma. Jonathan Mahler of the New York Times: "To demonstrate its seriousness about vetting the Republican candidates, [Fox News] has to subject Mr. Trump to rigorous questioning, as Ms. Kelly did Thursday night. At the same time, Fox cannot afford to alienate Mr. Trump -- or, more important, the network's core audience. Fox News viewers view the channel as an alternative to a media they see as leaning left. If the network pushes too hard against Mr. Trump, it risks being seen as part of the mainstream media, rather than the antidote to it. In this sense, Fox is facing the same dilemma as the G.O.P. establishment with respect to the party's current front-runner."

"Are You Kidding Me?" Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly takes on WashPo columnist (and David Brooks' "liberal" friend) Ruth Marcus who today attacks a "hardened & embittered" President Obama for his "intolerance" of opposition of the Iran nuclear deal: "We need to freeze this Ruth Marcus column in amber so that it never perishes. Future generations will not believe that it actually existed if they can't see it with their own eyes. It is probably the purest form of wankery that has ever been constructed. I thought I had seen Peak Beltway Trolling, but I had not seen anything."

Presidential Race

Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "For the first time a poll has Vermont senator Bernie Sanders ahead in the crucial early primary state of New Hampshire. A poll released by Franklin Pierce University and the Boston Herald shows Sanders leading former secretary of state Hillary Clinton by 44% to 37% in New Hampshire among Democratic primary voters." ...

... ** Dara Lind of Vox has an excellent piece explaining why BlackLivesMatter has attacked Bernie Sanders (& Martin O'Malley) -- and why they're not getting to Hillary Clinton. Lind covers all the bases. CW: I still oppose the BlackLivesMatter tactic of stifling Sanders, but I do understand -- and would support -- the group's motivation in targeting Sanders. This is similar to women's criticism of the civil rights movement -- black women (in fact women of every color) actively supported the fight for racial equality, but when it came to gender equality, leaders of the civil rights movement were mostly silent or blatantly sexist. The idea that a rising tide floats all boats is just as noxious to marginalized groups, who want more than the crumbs from the tables of progressive policymakers, as it is to opponents of GOP trickle-down oligarchonomics.

Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton's attorney has agreed to provide the FBI with the private server that housed her e-mail during her four years as secretary of state, Clinton's presidential campaign said Tuesday. Her attorney also has agreed to give agents a thumb drive containing copies of thousands of e-mails that Clinton had previously turned over to the State Department.... The development ... came the same day that a top intelligence official whose office has been reviewing some of Clinton's e-mails informed congressional leaders that top-secret information had been contained in two e-mails that traveled across the server. The finding, contained in a letter sent to leaders of key oversight committees, marked the first indication from government officials that information regarded as top secret ... may have passed across Clinton's server.... A State Department spokesman late Tuesday described the top-secret designation as a recommendation and said they had not been marked classified at the time, but said staffers 'circulated these e-mails on unclassified systems in 2009 and 2011 and ultimately some were forwarded to Secretary Clinton.'" ...

... Groundhog Day. Steve M.: Hillary Clinton is having a bad day. In fact, every day until Election Day 2016 may be a a bad day: "Where's the passionate base of support to push back against negative coverage?"

Larry Lessig's Challenge: "Make Democracy Possible"

Jared Bernstein, in the Washington Post: During the GOP debate, the only candidate who had anything substantive to say about improving the economic prospects of poor & middle-class Americans was Ohio Gov. John Kasich. And no wonder: "Dress it up any way you like, the heart of conservative economic policy is still 'trickle-down,' exactly the wrong prescription in the age of inequality. Apparently, there's no debating that point."

Katrina vanden Heuvel of the Nation in a Washington Post op-ed: "Three years after [Mitt] Romney lost the women's vote by a double-digit margin, in part because of his support for defunding Planned Parenthood, the presidential debates last week made clear Republicans have only become more disrespectful toward women's bodies, more deranged in their hatred of Planned Parenthood and more dismissive of female voters.... The position that was once a liability for Romney has now become a litmus test for GOP contenders."

Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico on how superPACS allow unpopular candidates to stay in the race. CW: For Republicans, this may be a case of "be careful what you wish for."

I gave to many people before this/ When they call, I give. And you know what, when I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me. -- Donald Trump, during the GOP presidential debate last week

... independent expenditures do not lead to, or create the appearance of, quid pro quo corruption. -- Justice Anthony Kennedy, Citizens United majority opinion, 2010

... Vulgarians at the Gate. Charles Pierce: "How is anything Donald Trump said as purely vulgar as watching presidential candidates audition for the Koch Brothers or for international vice lord, Sheldon Adelson?How is anything he has said about the country more vulgar than the fact that we now judge the success or failure of a campaign by how much money it has raised from how many places?... How is anything he's done more vulgar than watching Jeb (!) Bush delay the announcement of his candidacy because he needed more time to work the thin edges of what remains of the law regarding political fundraising. Vulgar? Donald Trump had a thirty year head start on most of these clowns."

... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "After days in which Donald J. Trump engaged in a tense war of words with Megyn Kelly over her questioning of him at last week's Fox News debate, he spent Tuesday trying to steer the campaign conversation toward policy issues." ...

... Donald Trump, New Feminist. Eliza Collins of Politico: "After saying last week it's worth having Congress shut down the federal government unless Planned Parenthood is stripped of its $528 million in government funding..., [Donald Trump] changed his tune. Speaking on CNN's 'New Day' Tuesday morning, Trump said that before defunding Planned Parenthood entirely, he would look at the positive aspects of the organization. 'I would look at the good aspects of it, and I would also look because I'm sure they do some things properly and good for women. I would look at that, and I would look at other aspects also, but we have to take care of women,' he said. 'The abortion aspect of Planned Parenthood should absolutely not be funded.'" The federal government does not fund the "abortion aspects." ...

... CW: This would make Donald the only GOP presidential candidate who is not screaming bloody murder about Planned Parenthood. So I say, thanks, Megyn, for creating a feminist.

Adam Nagourney of the New York Times: "Jeb Bush ... issued a blistering attack on Tuesday on the Obama administration's handling of Iraq and terrorism issues, asserting that Hillary Rodham Clinton..., had 'stood by' as secretary of state as the situation in Iraq deteriorated." CW: See Peter Beinart's "legend of the surge," linked yesterday. ...

... Eli Stokols of Politico: on why "Jeb's bid to blame Hillary for the rise of the Islamic State is fraught with peril." Here's one: "Richard LeBaron, a career diplomat who served as ambassador to Kuwait under George W. Bush, called [Jeb!'s] argument 'disingenuous.'... 'The notion that the surge worked is belied by facts after it,' said LeBaron, now a Middle East policy expert at the Atlantic Council. 'It gave us some political space to say "we're not leaving a total fiasco" when we probably were; it was really just a period in which we were able to placate and buy off some of the Sunni tribes who took our money and just waited for us to leave. The Bush administration was looking for an exit strategy; the whole country was looking to get out,' LeBaron said. 'The surge was designed to get us out of Iraq, not to keep us involved there.'"

Marco Rubio may not be a scientist, man, but he knows that a human embryo cannot turn into a cat. Marco is so impressed by his brilliant insight that he has turned it into a campaign petition/fundraiser. The quality of our presidential candidates is abysmal. Prof. Marco teaches a university course. I'm not sure if I'd trust him to teach preschoolers the ABCs.

Beyond the Beltway

Patrick McGee & Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "A white rookie police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black college football player who had broken into a car dealership in this Dallas suburb was fired Tuesday for 'inappropriate judgment' in his handling of the situation, officials said. The Arlington police chief, Will D. Johnson, said that the officer, Brad Miller, 49, had been fired for making mistakes in the fatal shooting of Christian Taylor, 19, which included entering the building without his more experienced partner and which led to an 'an environment of cascading consequences.' Mr. Miller was hired last fall and was still in training when the shooting occurred early Friday morning."

Jim Salter & Alan Zagier of the AP: "About 100 protesters gathered along West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson late Tuesday in a demonstration that was decidedly smaller and calmer than others on recent nights."

News Lede

Washington Post: "China's currency slid for a second day on Wednesday sending more shockwaves through global financial markets and raising fresh questions about the credibility of the country's economic management."

The Commentariat -- August 11, 2015

Internal links removed.

Beginning at 1:00 am today, I'm upgrading my cheap computer to Windows 10. I have no idea how long this operation will take or if I'll ever be able to get online again. So if the pickings are slim today (and tomorrow!) & the news is passing by unremarked, it's just because I'm busy yelling at an inanimate object. -- Marie

     ... Update: Looks as if it worked, with minimal disruption. I may get some surprises later. I'd recommend backing up your files before you convert, just in case, disabling Windows Firewall (& re-enabling it after you've installed Windows 10), shutting down all your apps & doing the conversion at a time you definitely won't need to use your computer.

Keep Your Government Hands Off My Medicare. Dylan Scott of the National Journal: "House Republicans will start working next year on drafting a Medicare 'premium-support' bill [to partially privatize Medicare], according to Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Kevin Brady." CW: Following well-established Republican tradition of slapping positive labels on bad deals, Brady calls his privatization plan "premium support" &/or the "personalized Medicare option." Wow! I can hardly wait to get my personalized! optional! premium! support! Thanks, GOP.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), in a New York Times op-ed: "... Republican control of Congress means constant crisis.... While Republicans have kept virtually none of their promises about how they would run Congress, one promise they have kept is their vow to use essential appropriations bills to manufacture even more crises.... Must-pass appropriations bills must not be hijacked for ideological or special-interest riders.... Senate Democrats have been calling on Republicans for months ... to sit down with us and work out a bipartisan path so that we can avoid another shutdown. So far, we've been met with nothing but silence."

Democrats, Too, Lose Fondness for Racist Icons. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "For nearly a century, Democrats have honored two men as the founders of their party: Thomas Jefferson, for his visionary expression of the concept of equality, and Andrew Jackson, for his populist spirit and elevation of the common man.... But these time-honored rituals are colliding with a modern Democratic Party more energized by a desire for racial and gender inclusion than reverence for history. And state by state, Democratic activists are removing the names of Jefferson and Jackson from party gatherings.... The Iowa Democratic Party became the latest to do so last weekend, joining Georgia, Connecticut and Missouri. At least five other states are considering the same change since the massacre in June at an African-American church in Charleston, S.C.... [These moves] underscore one of the most consequential trends of American politics: Democrats' shift from a union-powered party organized primarily around economic solidarity to one shaped by racial and sexual identity."

Jonathan Chait: Some conservative opponents of the Iran nuclear deal -- Elliott Abrams, Eli Lake & others -- are now accusing President Obama of anti-Semitism."

** Peter Beinart of the Atlantic: "Over the past decade, the foreign-policy debate in [among] Washington [Republicans] has turned upside down.... Today, hawkishness is the hottest thing on the American right. With the exception of Rand Paul, the GOP presidential contenders are vying to take the most aggressive stance against Iran and the Islamic State, or ISIS." Beinart explains Republicans' creation of the "legend of the surge," a "story line [which] has squelched the doubts about the Iraq invasion that a decade ago threatened to transform conservative foreign policy [into something realistic].... According to the legend of the surge, Iraq's collapse stems from [President Obama's decision to withdraw all U.S. troops at the end of 2011.... The problem with the legend of the surge is that it reproduces the very hubris that led America into Iraq in the first place."

Shutting Down Is Hard to Do. Kristina Wong of the Hill: "The Pentagon said Monday it will submit a plan to lawmakers on closing the Guantánamo Bay detention facility 'sometime' after Congress comes back from its August recess. 'We would expect it to go up sometime after recess," said Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis. "It's still in progress, it's very close to completion.... On Monday, the Pentagon said [Defense Secretary Ash] Carter and the Pentagon "continue to support" the president's goal of closing the facility. " (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Earlier Monday. Tim Mak & Nancy Youssef of the Daily Beast: "The White House wants to quickly cut the number of detainees at Guantánamo Bay. One man is standing in the way: President Obama's Defense Secretary, Ash Carter. Carter and the White House are increasingly at odds about how to whittle down the number of detainees held in Guantánamo Bay, hampering the administration's push to close the detention center by the end of its term." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Adam Goldman & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "As part of the plan [for shutting down the Guantanamo prison], the administration had considered sending some of the 116 detainees remaining at the prison to either a top-security prison in Illinois or a naval facility in Charleston, S.C. But during a recent video teleconference among top administration officials, Scott Ferber, senior counsel to the deputy attorney general, said the Justice Department could not support the use of the federal prison in Thomson, Ill., according to the officials according to [anonymous] officials.... Ferber said the Justice Department had made a public commitment in 2012 when it purchased the facility from the state of Illinois that it would not relocate detainees to Thomson.... [Former AG Eric] Holder's commitment, made during sworn testimony [before the Senate Judiciary Committee], was apparently overlooked by officials when the most recent plan was drawn up. Thomson is no longer being considered, and the White House is again looking at other federal facilities, officials said."

Jon Swaine, et al., of the Guardian: "The city of Ferguson, Missouri, is being forced by the Obama administration to return two military vehicles that it obtained from the Pentagon, amid widespread concern and criticism over the deployment on American streets of equipment intended for war zones. The US Department of Defense will reclaim a pair of Humvees that were given to the beleaguered St Louis suburb under a controversial program to distribute surplus weapons, vehicles and other gear, according to several government officials.... Such vehicles returned on Sunday night to West Florissant Avenue ... after a black 18-year-old was shot by officers when he allegedly opened fire on their unmarked SUV following a gunfight with several other men." ...

... Molly Redden of Mother Jones: "Documents Reveal the Fearmongering Local Cops Use to Score Military Gear From the Pentagon. Confronting school shooters and terrorists? More like patrolling Packers games, pot-heads, and the local beach."

Eliza Collins of Politico: "After an argument that ended in gunfire, a White House staffer and her boyfriend, who works for the Capitol Police, have been put on leave from their jobs.... The domestic dispute reportedly took place on the evening of Aug. 6. Barvetta Singletary, a member of the White House legislative affairs team, sent her boyfriend, who works on the dignitary protection detail, a text that invited him over, according to Roll Call. The two then got into a dispute and Singletary allegedly reached into her boyfriend's bag. According to reports, she pulled out two cellphones and his gun -- then she allegedly fired one round. It's not clear whether she had intended to shoot at her boyfriend. Neither was injured."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Ed Kilgore on how a both-sides-do-it mindset "manipulates the narrative." Kilgore cites a New York Times headline, via Jim Fallows, & an NBC blog post, whose lead writer was Chuck Todd. Both implied or accused President Obama of picking a fight with opponents of the Iran nuclear deal. CW: In the particular NYT headline Kilgore cites, via Jim Fallows, it manipulated me away from the story. I decided, based on the headline alone, that I didn't want to read another story based on the premise that Everything Is Obama's Fault. Misleading headlines work in more than one way. As for the Tuck Chodd post, I never read it.

Bill of Portland, Maine, in Daily Kos tells us today is Presidential Joke Day. He recounts some past presidents' quips.

Presidential Race

New York Times: "On Tuesday morning, [Harvard Prof. Lawrence] Lessig will announce that he will explore a protest bid for the Democratic nomination. If he can raise $1 million in small donations by Labor Day, Mr. Lessig said, he will run.... In an interview, Mr. Lessig said that after years of unfulfilled promises by Democratic candidates on the issue of money in politics, he was driven to mount a candidacy built around it."

Charles Pierce: "Shouting down Bernie Sanders does nothing to solve any problem worth fighting against.... What happened in Seattle was an embarrassment to the tradition of public protest. It was a hysterical piece of performance art that accomplished absolutely nothing toward whatever goals its performers sought to achieve. Rage is not an excuse. Frustration is not an excuse. This was a simple act of public vandalism, aimed (again) at the wrong target." CW: While I agree with Pierce, his characterization of women protesters as "hysterical" (albeit the women protesters in particular behaved horribly), is sexist. Pierce would not know this, or if he does, would defend it, because he is comfortable repeating sexist stereotypes, a point I have made before to protests among the Commentariat. ...

... Michael Kruse & Manu Raju of Politico Magazine: Bernie Sanders is "seeking the nomination of a party he caucuses with in the Senate but is not a part of, isn't a registered member of and has never been a registered member of -- a party he's spent his 40-year career beating at the polls and battering in the press.... 'I am not a Democrat,' he told the Progressive [less than two years ago], 'because the Democratic Party does not represent, and has not for many years, the interests of my constituency, which is primarily working families, middle-class people and low-income people.'"

Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... Hillary Rodham Clinton ... signed a statement over the weekend declaring 'under penalty of perjury' that she has turned over to the government all of the e-mails that were federal records. The statement, submitted Monday by the State Department to a federal court, matches what she and her campaign have been saying for months about her exclusive use of a private e-mail account and server to conduct public business." ...

Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton had planned to spend her campaign stop at a high school [in Manchester, N.H.,] on Monday focusing mainly on her plan to make college more affordable. But, like most candidates for president, she also had to take questions about the latest headline-grabbing comments from Donald J. Trump." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "If people still associate 'Clintonism' with small, narrow, incremental proposals that offer more bark than bite, then the college affordability initiative [Hillary Clinton] unveiled today in New Hampshire isn't very 'Clontonian.'"

I thought what [Donald Trump] said was offensive.... But I think if we focus on that, we’re making a mistake. What a lot of the men on that stage in that debate said was offensive.... When one of their major candidates, a much younger man, the senator from Florida, says there should be no exception for rape and incest, that is as offensive and as troubling a comment as you can hear from a major candidate running for the presidency. So the language may be more colorful and more offensive, but the thinking, the attitude toward women, is very much the same. -- Hillary Clinton, Monday, in Exeter, New Hampshire

... Here's Clinton's presser following her presentation of her college affordability plan. Unfortunately, you can't hear the questions:

... Joan Walsh of Salon adds, "... Marco Rubio, repeatedly refused to denounce Trump on 'Meet the Press' Sunday. 'I've made a decision here with Donald Trump,' he told Chuck Todd. 'If I comment on everything he says, my whole campaign will be consumed by it. That's all I'll do all day.' Of course Rubio criticized Trump for calling undocumented Mexican immigrants 'rapists and criminals' and said his comments about Sen. John McCain 'disqualified him as commander in chief.' But he won't attack Trump's misogyny. Makes sense: Rubio's apparently decided to surrender the women's vote by coming out against exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother in abortion bans." ...

... Jessica Valenti of the Guardian details some of the sexist moves & remarks the other GOP candidates have made, even as they have "between them ... enacted legislation curbing women's rights, voted against equal pay, and shamed women for having sex." CW: Mind you, this is a partial list. ...

... Laurence Lewis of Daily Kos: As Walsh reminds us, "Jeb Bush couldn't manage to criticize Trump for the ugliness of his comments, rather he focused on how Trump might hurt the party. Priorities.... The reality is that Donald Trump isn't a fringe sideshow, and while Bush is right that Trump is a threat to the Republican brand, it's not in the way he wants people to think. Trump's popularity among Republican voters reveals Republican ideology for what it is, and Republican insiders have for years played to and fueled it. What Republican insiders fear about Donald Trump isn't his own ugly misogyny, it's that he is revealing their own." ...

Kevin Cirilli of the Hill: "Donald Trump is riding several strong post-debate polls into a full schedule of campaign stops this week as he seeks to solidify his lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Trump will campaign this week in Michigan, New Hampshire and Iowa, where a new poll found him leading the GOP race with 19 percent, compared to 12 percent for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. The survey from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling [conducted August 7-9] was one of several that suggested Trump has been boosted further by his performance at Thursday's first GOP debate, bolstering confidence in an already bullish-sounding campaign." ...

... Paul Waldman: Trump supporters "have a pretty good idea of who he is, and they're behind him precisely because he doesn't talk like other politicians and he doesn't care who he insults. They aren't troubled by the prospect of him running as an independent, because they don't think too highly of their own party. And when party bigshots criticize him, they take it as evidence that he's doing something right. Trump [will] ... fall behind only when somebody else pulls ahead. That probably won't happen until a few candidates drop out and voters begin to coalesce around a small number of main contenders. As long as 16 other candidates are splitting the vote, Trump can remain on top, even if his support is finite. In other words, it's going to be a while." ...

... Alex Griswold of Mediaite: "Donald Trump finally laid out his plan for dealing with Iran (or ISIS?) on Fox & Friends Tuesday, recommending that the United States 'knock the hell out of them' and then 'take the oil.'" ...

... Making the Party of War More Bellicose. Steve M. "Then ... [Trump] pivots to Saudi Arabia, and implies that he might wage war on the Saudis.... And this from the guy who still says -- in the [same interview], in fact -- that he opposed the Iraq War. He's going to be the guy who makes multiple full-scale wars in the Middle East the minimal acceptable position for Jeb Bush, or whoever the eventual nominee is.... Though I should add that, given the American public's habitual amnesia with regard to the failures of the War Party..., and given Democrats' habitual incompetence at selling policies of moderation..., I'm not sure that a 'total war everywhere' policy would even be a political liability in November 2016." ...

... Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly said on Monday night that she would not apologize to Republican presidential contender Donald Trump for questioning him at last week's presidential debate on past comments he had made concerning women. 'I certainly will not apologize for doing good journalism,' she said on her program." ...

     ... The New York Times story, by Jeremy Peters & Daniel Victor, is here. ...

... Two SOBs Make Peace. Gabriel Sherman of New York: Donald Trump & Roger Ailes of Fox "News" have mended their differences. Monday "morning, Trump tweeted that Ailes called to assure him that Fox will cover him 'fairly' going forward. According to two high-level Fox sources, Ailes's diplomacy was the result of increasing concern inside Fox News that Trump could damage the network.... In recent days, Ailes got a glimpse of what a Trump-less Fox News would look like...." Fox received a boatload of pro-Trump mail, & Twitter users mostly favored Trump. "In a phone conversation, Trump told Sean Hannity that 'he was never doing Fox again.'... Trump has agreed to interviews on Fox & Friends and Hannity [Tuesday]." ...

... Jonathan Easley : "Fox News Channel president Roger Ailes says all is well between himself and Donald Trump after the real estate mogul spent days lambasting the network and anchor Megyn Kelly for the questions he received at the first Republican debate. Ailes said in a memo obtained by CNN that he had a 'blunt but cordial' conversation with Trump on Monday. 'Donald Trump and I spoke today,' Ailes said in the statement. "We discussed our concerns, and I again expressed my confidence in Megyn Kelly. She is a brilliant journalist and I support her 100 percent.'" ...

... Brian Stelter of CNN: "Donald Trump and the Fox News Channel are about to televise their dispute. Trump has been booked for a 7 a.m. Tuesday interview on 'Fox & Friends,' co-host Steve Doocy said on Twitter on Monday afternoon.... Fox has dramatically ratcheted down its coverage of Trump. It has barely covered Trump's criticisms of [Megyn] Kelly and the two other debate moderators, Chris Wallace and Bret Baier." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jon Karl of ABC News: "Donald Trump may soon do what Republican leaders have been asking the billionaire candidate to do -- pledge not to run as an independent candidate for president, a senior Trump adviser told ABC News." CW: Uh-oh, Donald is about to tell another "senior adviser," "You're fired." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "... Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky ... laid into [Donald] Trump in an afternoon conference call [Monday], calling him 'a bully' and an 'empty suit,' and comparing him to the 'emperor with no clothes.'... He started the Republican presidential debate on Thursday evening with a verbal assault on Mr. Trump's integrity, accusing him of pretending to be conservative and cozying up to the Clintons. He followed that with an op-ed in IJReview listing Mr. Trump's history of liberal positions and calling on Republican voters to fire Mr. Trump and pick a serious candidate. On Monday evening, Mr. Trump responded on Twitter, comparing Mr. Paul to a 'spoiled brat' and saying he 'was terrible at DEBATE!' [Paul's] debate performance was panned and recent polls have shown him slipping into the bottom tier of candidates."

Paul Waldman: "Jeb Bush will be making a speech on foreign policy today, and if the excerpts that his campaign released to reporters beforehand are any indication, it will embody all the thoughtfulness, nuance and sophistication that have characterized Republican foreign policy thinking in recent years.... It's looking a lot like the return of the Bush Doctrine, just with a different Bush.... [All of the GOP candidates' foreign policy prescriptions are lame.] For instance, if you read this recent manifesto from Marco Rubio, you'll learn that he plans to lead with strength, so America can be strong and full of leadership. And also strength, because that's what America needs to lead."

I think in general if anyone focuses on racial discord we're going to get more. If we focus on unity we're going to get more of that. The families of the massacre in Charleston showed us the way. -- Scott Walker, in South Carolina on the anniversary of the police killing of black teen Michael Brown

... Igor Bobic of the Huffington Post: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) says the proper way to address racial issues in America is by concentrating on what brings people together rather than focusing on "racial discord." Doing the latter, the presidential candidate argued Sunday, could risk generating even more unrest.... Other presidential candidates -- Republican and Democrat -- have called for a broader conversation about systemic racism in the nation's justice system in the wake of high-profile shootings of unarmed black men across the country. Bipartisan calls for criminal justice reform have also grown in and out of Washington...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... CW: You're so right, Scottie. If you don't talk about black people, they will go back to their quiet places, singing hymns at the church by the old plantation. Of course, they might get stopped, booked or shot by the cops on their way to church, but well, let's not mention that. ...

... Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "The idea that politicians such as Rubio and Walker should be granted the authority to tell tens of thousands of other couples how they must proceed ... if confronted with a life-threatening pregnancy..., without knowing anything about their individual medical situation, family life or religious belief, is horrendous.... Let's not overlook the fact that in the world that Rubio, Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz and others want to create, abortion would be outlawed in cases of rape and incest as well.... The increasingly lonely 'moderate' position is represented largely by Jeb Bush, who would still grudgingly allow abortion in cases of rape and incest and to protect the life of the mother, but who showed no compunction about enlisting the full power of government to impose his own personal 'pro-life' belief system on the tragic Terri Schiavo and her family."

Adios, MoFo. Shane Goldmacher of the National Journal: "Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry's campaign team in South Carolina is no longer being paid by his presidential campaign...." ...

... "If At First You Don't Secede." Jonathan Chait: "... politics are not always fair.... [Rick Perry's] new persona of reasonably thoughtful mainstream conservative has gone over no better than his old persona of overmedicated secessionist." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "At the same time, Super PACs associated with Perry reportedly still have plenty of money (they together raised $17 million), and will try to compensate for what the official campaign cannot do. So we are seeing an early test of two questions many have been asking: (1) Will failing to make the Fox News debate cut last week doom the candidates left behind (Perry just barely missed the cut)? and (2) Can a broke campaign be saved by a flush Super PAC without illegal coordination?"

Wendell Potter of the Center for Public Integrity, in Newsweek: "When It Comes to Health Care, the GOP Wannabes Know Nothing."

Congressional Race

Todd Spangler of the Detroit Free Press: "Actress Melissa Gilbert, best known for her portrayal of Laura Ingalls Wilder on NBC's 'Little House on the Prairie' in the 1970s and '80s, said Monday she will run for Congress in Michigan's 8th District -- though her campaign will have to tamp down questions about a tax bill. Gilbert, who lives in Livingston County with her husband, actor Timothy Busfield, is running as a Democrat in a district that has been a Republican stronghold in recent elections...."

Beyond the Beltway

Jon Eligon & Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "St. Louis County declared a state of emergency Monday, and braced for possible unrest, as prosecutors filed charges against an 18-year-old who was shot and critically wounded by the police overnight on the periphery of demonstrations commemorating the killing a year ago of Michael Brown, a black teenager, by a white officer. The declaration, by the St. Louis County executive, Steve Stenger, allows the county police chief, Jon Belmar, to take control of police emergency management in and around Ferguson." ...

     ... Update: "Although nightfall brought intermittent clashes between protesters and the police -- the St. Louis County police said the authorities had made 23 arrests along West Florissant Avenue -- there were few signs of widening turmoil that might draw a sterner response by local officials or Gov. Jay Nixon, who last year deployed the National Guard here." ...

     ... Update 2. Jon Swaine & Oliver Laughland of the Guardian: "Police clashed with hundreds of protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, for a second night on Monday after a day of intense protests over the use of deadly force by American law enforcement that saw 144 people arrested." ...

... Inah Oh of Mother Jones: "As demonstrators gathered in Ferguson to continue commemorating the one year anniversary of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown on Monday, five heavily-armed men belonging to a vigilante group called the Oath Keepers were spotted patrolling the streets. According to reports, the Oath Keepers said they were on the scene to provide voluntary protection to a journalist working for the site InfoWars, the conspiracy mill run by noted lunatic Alex Jones.... St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar called the group's presence on Monday both 'unnecessary and inflammatory.'"

... Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "A Washington Post reporter who was arrested at a restaurant last year while reporting on protests in Ferguson, Mo., has been charged in St. Louis County with trespassing and interfering with a police officer and ordered to appear in court. Wesley Lowery, a reporter on The Post's national desk, was detained in a McDonald's while he was in Missouri covering demonstrations.... 'Charging a reporter with trespassing and interfering with a police officer when he was just doing his job is outrageous,' Martin Baron, executive editor of The Post, said in a statement Monday. '... Wes Lowery should never have been arrested in the first place. That was an abuse of police authority.'" ...

... Scott Lemieux: "I'm not one to place a great deal of confidence in our judicial system, but there's no way this survives a First Amendment challenge. But the kind of authoritarians we're dealing with just don't care." ...

... Update. Ravi Somaiya & Ashley Southall of the New York Times: "Two reporters who were arrested while covering the protests in Ferguson, Mo., last August, were charged with trespassing and interfering with a police officer, their outlets said on Monday. The reporters, Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post and Ryan J. Reilly of the Huffington Post, were arrested at a McDonald's restaurant while covering nightly demonstrations that followed the fatal shooting of Michael Brown....

     ... Ryan Grim & Sam Stein of the Huffington Post: "The Huffington Post condemns the charges filed by St. Louis County against our Justice reporter, Ryan J. Reilly, while covering the protests in Ferguson last year. Ryan has the full support of The Huffington Post in fighting these charges.... If Wesley Lowery and Ryan J. Reilly can be charged like this with the whole country watching, just imagine what happens when nobody is." ...

... Charles Pierce: "In other words, Wesley Lowery is going to court for sitting around with intent to report something, while a platoon of armed vigilante yahoos walk the streets as though they're in Anbar Province and nobody can do anything about it except wring their hands and mumble about freedom. (Chief Belmar sounds like a pillar of Jell-O.)" ...

... Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "A police officers' group in Columbia, Mo., proclaimed 'Darren Wilson Day' on Sunday, the one-year anniversary of the officer's fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.... The effort to recognize Mr. Wilson attracted condemnation from local officials, including the chief of Columbia's police department. Robert McDavid, the mayor of Columbia, called the post 'insensitive and divisive.'" CW: What could possibly wrong with recognizing the anniversary of a young man's death by celebrating his killer? -- a killer who also has pretty well proved, in his own words, that he was a racist cop who killed his victim because of his racial bias?

Shawn Cohen & Bruce Golding of the New York Post: "NYPD cops fed up with vagrants making life miserable in the city are ... snapping photos of quality-of-life scofflaws and posting them online. The Sergeants Benevolent Association is spearheading the effort, emailing a letter to members Monday urging them and their families and friends to take pictures to document the decline of the city. 'As you travel about the city of New York, please utilize your smartphones to photograph the homeless lying in our streets, aggressive panhandlers, people urinating in public or engaging in open-air drug activity, and quality-of-life offenses of every type,' says the letter from SBA President Ed Mullins, a major critic of Mayor Bill deBlasio.... Noting that more cops are being recorded on the job, Mullins wrote, 'Shouldn't accountability go both ways?'" ...

... Robert Gebelhoff of the Washington Post: "The police union's campaign has come under fire on social media, with some criticizing the police for shaming homeless people. Others have said it might help raise awareness about the issue. Homelessness has been on the rise in New York City, rising sharply under the administration of former mayor Michael Bloomberg."

David Eggert of the AP: Rep. Todd Courser (RTP)] said he won't resign after sending an email to supporters falsely claiming he was caught having sex with a male prostitute and said in a statement released Monday "he was the target of a blackmail attempt.... 'My actions in and around these events in the email that was sent to misdirect attention were my doing both in planning and execution,' Courser said in a nearly 30-minute audio file posted on his campaign website.... He blames former staffers for conspiring with others to bring him down and vowed to learn the identity of the alleged blackmailer." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... CW: Doncha just love the way these micreants always see themselves as the victims? ...

... Paul Egan of the Detroit Free Press: Michigan Gov. Rick "Snyder [R] said House Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mt. Pleasant, is handling the situation appropriately and proactively by ordering an investigation by the House business office, which began Friday. 'This is something that does need to be investigated, very clearly,' Snyder told reporters. A possible affair between [state Rep. Cindy] Gamrat [RTP] and [state Rep. Todd] Courser [RTP], though 'not something that should happen,' is an issue for voters, not the state, to decide, Snyder said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Julie Turkewitz of the New York Times: Colorado's Animas River "has been grievously polluted with toxic water spilled from one of the many abandoned mines that pockmark the region -- a spill for which the Environmental Protection Agency has claimed responsibility, saying it accidentally breached a store of chemical-laced water. On Sunday, anger over the spill boiled over after the agency announced that the amount of toxic water released was three times what was previously stated - more than three million gallons rather than one million -- and that officials were still unsure if there was a health threat to humans or animals.... Testing by the E.P.A. -- an agency typically in the position of responding to toxic disasters, not causing them -- found that the wastewater spill caused levels of arsenic, lead and other metals to spike in the Animas River."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Greek government said on Tuesday that it had reached a deal with its international creditors for a third bailout, though a number of European officials expressed caution. The rescue plan, outlined in a 20-hour negotiating session in an Athens hotel, would provide aid worth up to 86 billion euros, or about $94.4 billion, to Greece in exchange for harsh austerity terms."

New York Times: "As China contends with an economic slowdown and a stock market slump, the authorities on Tuesday sharply devalued the country's currency, the renminbi, a move that could raise geopolitical tensions and weigh on growth elsewhere."

Missed this. New York Times (August 9): "Tyler S. Drumheller, a former senior American intelligence official who publicly asserted that President George W. Bush's administration had knowingly hyped fabricated evidence of Iraq's arsenal of biological weapons to justify the 2003 invasion, died on Aug. 2 in Falls Church, Va. He was 63.... Three years after the invasion and after his retirement from the Central Intelligence Agency, where he had been chief of the European division, Mr. Drumheller took the unusual step of publicly saying that he had warned his superiors that an Iraqi defector who claimed Iraq was equipped with mobile, lethal germ factories was mentally unstable."