The Commentariat -- June 25, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Doug Palmer of Politico: "The House voted 286-138 Thursday to renew a 50-year-old worker entitlement program with overwhelming support from Democrats, who reversed themselves on the legislation after losing a battle with the White House and Republicans over a bill to “fast-track” approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.... The vote sends the bill to President Barack Obama to sign into law."

Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: "Under a bill expected to be approved Thursday by state lawmakers, schoolchildren in California will be required to receive vaccinations unless there is a medical reason not to do so. The bill would end exemptions for personal or religious reasons, which parents who oppose vaccinations routinely request. The legislation would make California the largest state by far with such sweeping requirements for vaccinations, joining West Virginia and Mississippi, which have had similar laws for years."

Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: "A fire that engulfed a small, predominantly black church in Charlotte[, North Carolina,] was set on purpose, local officials said Wednesday. Now they are trying to determine whether the act of arson was a hate crime."

Missed this one. Al Kamen of the Washington Post: "The National Park Service moved Wednesday to stop sales of the Confederate flag in federal parks...."

*****

President Obama to speak on Supremes' decision. CW: I am so happy to see Joe Biden have something to smile about. You can view Obama's remarks on C-SPAN. ...

... ** Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that President Obama’s health care law may provide nationwide tax subsidies to help poor and middle-class people buy health insurance. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion in the 6-to-3 decision. The court’s three most conservative members — Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. — dissented." ...

... The Washington Post report, by Robert Barnes, is here....

... CW: Neither the NYT nor the WashPo report initially lays out the details of the decision, but I imagine the reporters will update them soon. ...

... ** Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "The message here is clear: In this and in future litigation, judges should turn aside clever attempts to undermine the law if there is any possible way to read the law otherwise. The attorneys and activists behind this lawsuit came to the Court hoping to gut Obamacare; instead, they placed it on the strongest possible legal footing.... King is a warning to lawyers who seek to tear down laws they disapprove of through clever games.... The upshot of this holding is that a future president will not be able to turn off tax credits. Agencies do not have discretion over this aspect of Obamacare.... King not only preserves Obamacare today — it also sharply limits the scope of future cases seeking to undermine the law." ...

... Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog: "The decision closely tracked most of the arguments that the Obama administration had made in defending the nationwide availability of subsidies, in the form of tax credits.... Although many observers had thought that the outcome of this new high-stakes controversy was anything but predictable, the Roberts opinion and his oral announcement gave no hint that, for the majority of six Justices, the outcome was ever in doubt...." ...

... Lena Sun & Robert Gebelhoff of the Washington Post: Healthcare insureds express relief & joy at the Court's decision. ...

... Yeah, but who cares about millions of people? Not this guy:

"Scalia Lashes Out." Tierney Sneed of TPM: "In his dissent from the Supreme Court's decision upholding Obamacare subsidies in 34 states, Justice Antonin Scalia accused the six-vote majority of engaging in 'interpretive jiggery-pokery.'... 'Under all the usual rules of interpretation, in short, the Government should lose this case. But normal rules of interpretation seem always to yield to the overriding principle of the present Court: The Affordable Care Act must be saved,' Scalia wrote in his scathing dissent." ...

     ... CW: Shorter Scalia: Dear Fellow Supremes, If you disagree with my superior ideology, you're a deceitful idiot." ...

... Ed Kilgore enjoys "a moment of schadenfreude" as he "luxuriate[s] ... into scalded-cat reactions" to the decision. ...

... digby: "Jeff Toobin just pointed out on CNN that Roberts is still a very conservative justice and this idea that he's a 'liberal' is daft. This is just a sign of how absurdly right wing the conservative legal community has become that they would even think of pushing a daft case like this one. Roberts is just not willing to be a total intellectual whore for their hobby horses." digby also cites a few tweets from GOP presidential candidate: "judicial tyranny" (Huckabee), etc. ...

... CW: "Liberal," my ass. Either Roberts or Kennedy, or both, had to agree to hear the case in the first place, since it takes four to tango. ...

... Bloomberg rounds up responses from presidential candidates of both parties. ...

... Also see Akhilleus' documentation of winger reactions (Comment 10, below). ...

... Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Even as Republicans rose in a chorus of outrage Thursday over the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to gut the unpopular Affordable Care Act, party leaders were privately breathing a sigh of relief. Had the court gone the other way, Republicans would have faced their most serious governing challenge since taking control of both houses of Congress earlier this year." ...

... CW: The decision seems to rest entirely upon interpretation of "Congressional intent," not just on the as-written language, as some experts had argued the Court would & could do. In relying on intent rather than "plain language," the Court cites as precedent at least one opinion that Scalia wrote -- United Savings Association of Texas v. Timbers of Inwood Forest Associates, Ltd. -- & one in which he joined the majority -- FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco. A nice kick in the face to the Court's most famous slimy hypocrite. ...

... ** OMG! "Decision of the Fourth Circuit is affirmed in King v. Burwell. 6-3." Opinion by Roberts. "Six are the Chief, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan" upholding subsidies. Here's the opinion & Scalia's dissent. ....

... From the opinion: "Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them.... In this instance, the context and structure of the Act compel us to depart from what would otherwise be the most natural reading of the pertinent statutory phrase.... The Affordable Care Act contains more than a few examples of inartful drafting." ...

... "From the intro to Scalia's dissent: the majority's reading of the text 'is of course quite absurd, and the Court's 21 pages of explanation make it no less so.'... We should start calling this law SCOTUScare." CW: Remember that in cases where he agrees with the nature of the legislation, Scalia has written that an isolated phrase must be read in context. What an ass. ...

... The Supreme Court will issue one or more opinions today, beginning at 10 am ET today. ScotusBlog will begin liveblogging at 9 am ET. ...

... First opinion on Texas housing: A big win for housing & civil rights. Kennedy wrote the opinion. "Disparate impact claims are cognizable under the Fair Housing Act." Here's the opinion & dissents. ...

... Smart note from Eric Citron: "This is a good example of what's problematic with the proposition that this is a 'liberal' term. On the one hand, this is a huge victory for the left wing of the Court on a contentious issue; on the other hand, this issue does not get granted with a less conservative Court. It all depends on your baseline." ...

... Emily Badger of the Washington Post: "Civil rights groups and the Obama Administration won a major victory Thursday as the Supreme Court upheld a tool that advocates argue is essential to fighting housing discrimination and patterns of segregation that have persisted in America for decades. In the 5-4 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Court ruled that the 1968 Fair Housing Act doesn't solely ban overt discrimination in the housing market. The Court said the law can also prohibit seemingly race-neutral policies that have the effect of disproportionately harming minorities and other protected groups, even if there is no overt evidence of bias behind them." ...

... That's it for the day. Another long national (unnecessary) nightmare is over. The Court will issue more opinions tomorrow & Monday. ...

... Robert Pear & Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times have a good overview of how the ACA subsidies work; ergo, what is at stake in the Supreme Court's upcoming opinion. CW: As for me, I can't get over the extreme cruelty of the Supremes' even taking King v. Burwell in the first place -- it takes four of them to agree to hear a case -- then dragging out issuing an opinion until the end of days. ...

... Greg Sargent on the crux of the various GOP plans to deal with the fallout of a King victory: "It would be 'unfair' to abandon those who lose subsidies, so Republicans should pursue a contingency they know will fail to restore those subsidies, because it will allow them to blame Obama!"

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to legislation granting President Obama enhanced power to negotiate major trade agreements with Asia and Europe, sending the president’s biggest end-of-term legislative priority to the White House for his signature. The vote was 60 to 38. Senators then approved legislation assisting workers dislocated by international trade accords, attaching it to a popular African trade measure that will go to the House on Thursday for a final vote. House Democrats signaled they would support the worker-assistance measure, which they voted down two weeks ago in a tactical bid to derail the trade authority bill."

White House: "Speaking in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, President Obama lays out the findings of the U.S. Hostage Policy Review and the outlines of what U.S. policy will be moving forward. June 24, 2015":

Matt Lewis, formerly a columnist for the notorious Daily Caller & now a writer for the Daily Beast: "The injection of Southerners into the Republican coalition — a coalition they ultimately came to dominate — couldn’t help but change the image of the GOP. There were racial, cultural, political, and even religious implications. Republicans captured the South, yes, but the South also captured the GOP. There were no doubt many salutary benefits to this arrangement — most obviously, an electoral boon that lasted for decades. But it also guaranteed we would eventually see a day of reckoning." CW: He makes a good point. Conservatism isn't necessarily about racism, sexism, classism, intolerance & cruelty, even though its underlying principles are designed to promote economic inequality, aristocracy & oligarchy.

Jeremy Borden, et al., of the Washington Post: "The federal government is likely to bring hate-crime charges against the gunman accused of killing nine parishioners in a Charleston, S.C., church last week...."

Nicholas Kristof: "... the movement [to deep-six the confederate flag] is in some ways chimerical. It’s about a symbol — and now the progress on the symbol needs to be matched by progress on racial inequality in daily life.... So, sure, good riddance to Confederate flags across the country! And then let’s swivel to address the larger national disgrace: In 2015, so many children still don’t have an equal shot at life because of the color of their skin."

Jeremy Borden & Brian Murphy of the Washington Post: "Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley ordered that Confederate flags be taken down from the state capitol grounds. The Birmingham News reported that workers arrived 'with no fanfare' early Wednesday to remove the flags.... At South Carolina’s statehouse, workers placed a black drape over a second-floor window — blocking the view of a Confederate battle flag at a nearby Civil War memorial — before thousands of mourners were expected to view the body of slain state senator, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Josh Marshall of TPM: "The United States Army maintains at least ten military bases - including some of the largest - named in honor of Confederate generals. There is a unique irony in the United States Army, which lost hundreds of thousand of soldiers defeating the Confederacy, naming its biggest military compounds for generals who helped with the killing.... If it is inappropriate to have a statue of Jefferson Davis in the Kentucky capitol building [as Mitch McConnell suddenly noticed this week!] can it really be appropriate for our largest Army bases to be named after Confederate generals? As of now, the Pentagon says there is 'no discussion' of renaming those bases."

John Cassidy of the New Yorker: In a photo that appeared on his Facebook page, Dylann Roof is holding in his left hand a confederate flag, in his right hand a "a semiautomatic .45-calibre Glock 41 handgun.... According to news reports, Roof bought the pistol on April 11th, eight days after his twenty-first birthday.... Despite the fact that Roof was arrested earlier this year on a minor drug charge, the purchase appears to have been perfectly legal.... What about banning the Glock and other deadly weapons — or, at least, restricting them to rifle ranges and other secure areas? Where is the national movement to do this?" ...

... E. J. Dionne: "What’s needed is a long-term national effort to change popular attitudes toward handgun ownership. And we need to insist on protecting the rights of Americans who do not want to be anywhere near guns.... But as long as gun control is linked to ideology and party — and as long as the National Rifle Association and its allies claim a monopoly on arguments about individual rights — reasonable steps of this sort will be ground to death by the Washington Obstruction Machine."

Boehner v. the Tea Party. Scott Wong & Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his allies are charging ahead with their effort to punish conservatives who have been a thorn in leadership’s side — a purge that is roiling the GOP conference. The latest victim is Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, who could be stripped of his title as GOP freshman class president on Thursday morning.... While the Speaker has lashed out at conservative rebels before, the latest intraparty purge has been particularly aggressive, this time targeting members of the new, conservative House Freedom Caucus who voted against the rule."

Jeff Stein of Newsweek: "Chinese hackers have in recent months penetrated an untold number of FBI agents’ personnel files, Newsweek has learned, in a breach with potentially dangerous national security implications."

Etiquette Rule #1: Don't Diss the Host. Liam Stack of the New York Times: "An activist interrupted President Obama on Wednesday at a White House event celebrating L.G.B.T. Pride Month to demand an end to the deportation of L.G.B.T. immigrants. The activist was escorted from the room amid a chorus of boos and jeers from the assembled guests. The activist, Jennicet Gutiérrez, who is transgender and says she is in the country illegally, interrupted Mr. Obama shortly after he began speaking, calling from the back of the room, 'President Obama, release all L.G.B.T.Q. immigrants from detention and stop all deportations!'” ...

... CW: President Obama began his remarks with "This is a rowdy crowd!" Gutiérrez interrupts the POTUS about a minute later. POTUS tells Gutiérrez "You're in my House. Its not respectful when you get invited to somebody's ... Can we escort this person out. You can either stay & be quiet or well have to take you out.... Can we have this person removed, please?... If you're eating the hors d'ouevres ... & drinking the booze...."

Timothy Cama of the Hill: "Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy will be held accountable for the federal land grazing fees and penalties he owes, [Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, whose department includes BLM,] said."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dylan Byers of Politico: "Fox News chief Roger Ailes has signed a new multi-year contract with 21st Century Fox, laying to rest any speculation that he would leave following Rupert Murdoch's decision to step down as CEO. The company announced Thursday that Ailes, 75, will continue to serve as chairman and CEO of Fox News and Fox Business Network, and chairman of Fox Television Stations. The news was announced by Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch, who stated that Ailes would "jointly report" to all three — clearing up previous confusion around the chain of command." ...

... Patrick Phillips of WCSC Charleston: "Charleston Police are investigating a Facebook video of an apparent interaction between one of their officers and a group of African-American children. The video begins with children using graphic language towards a police officer who is driving by in his cruiser. At the end of the video, the officer appears to say, 'Don't go to church and get hurt,' before driving away." CW: What's wrong with this story, beyond the officer's reaction?: Phillips doesn't bother to cite the race of the cop though he notes the race of the children. Why? Because there are "people" and there are "African-American people." Phillips, and his editor, if he has one, are no doubt unaware of their own racist mindsets.

Presidential Race

John McCormick of Bloomberg: "Bernie Sanders is gaining on Hillary Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire, with an appeal as an issue-oriented protest vehicle potentially capable of slowing any coronation of the popular front-runner. In simultaneous surveys, the U.S. senator from Vermont received nearly a quarter of support from likely Democratic caucus and primary voters in the states that host the first presidential nomination balloting early next year, cutting sharply into Clinton's still-huge lead."

Carry Him Back to Old Virginny. Yes, friends, there is a potential Democratic candidate who has an affinity for Old Dixie, and that candidate is Jim Webb. "Webb has weighed in on his Facebook page, writing that '[t]his is an emotional time and we all need to think through these issues with a care that recognizes the need for change but also respects the complicated history of the Civil War.' He calls for “mutual respect” and says the flag shouldn’t be used 'as a political symbol that divides us,' but does not take any clear stance on the flag publicly displayed on the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... if this is Webb’s final word on the subject, I think he’s disqualified himself from serious consideration as a Democratic candidate for president. It’s not entirely news that Webb’s admirable record in the Senate is sometimes overshadowed by conservative cultural attitudes he’s advanced in the past, often, like this one, a product of his stubborn self-identification with the bad as well as the good aspects of the Scots-Irish people from whom he (and for that matter, I) descended. It’s really just too bad." ...

... Here's Webb's Facebook entry.

** Frank Rich: Today’s neo-Confederate GOP politicians, vying for primary votes in Dixie 150 years after Appomattox, proved themselves to be laughable cowards. Confronted with the simplest of questions – should a state capitol display a flag that stands for slavery, racism, and treason? – they hedged (all of them), spouted gibberish (Ted Cruz), or went into hiding (Rand Paul).... This combination of disingenuousness and spinelessness on a no-brainer issue should disqualify all of them from the White House."

Paul Waldman: "... it may be no accident that most of the Republican governors currently running for president aren’t popular at home. They’re products of today’s Republican Party, where unflagging commitment to conservative doctrine is what counts as success.... Practical achievements like improving the health of your state or even fostering strong job creation are all well and good, but they have to take a back seat to ideological achievements like crushing a labor union, fighting Obamacare, or resisting tax increases." ...

... Gail Collins has a super piece that helps explain why: she demonstrates how "effective" the GOP governor-candidates' "jobs creation" programs are -- although if bestowing taxpayer-funded gifts upon corporations is their purpose, then these governors have very effective economic development programs.

Jonathan Easley of the Hill: Not-President "Mitt Romney is asserting himself as a leader of the Republican Party at a time when the GOP lacks a true standard-bearer. As the huge field of Republican contenders begins the long slog to the party’s 2016 nomination, Romney is working to connect select candidates with his vast political network, urging the party to learn from his past mistakes, attacking Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and taking forceful stances on controversial issues."

Scott Walker in a CNN opinion piece: Kill ObamaCare, by any means. “Governors across the country have been clear: If the Supreme Court strikes down the Obama executive overreach, we will not bail out Obama at the expense of the American people.... If the high court rules in favor of the administration, Obamacare will continue, unchanged. And that means the Republican House and Senate must redouble the fight to repeal and replace Obamacare.”

Well, 80,000 people failed a background check last year or two years ago. Nine thousand were felons on the run from the law and not one of them was arrested or prosecuted. Absolutely, if I get to be president of the United States, you fail a criminal background check, you try to buy a gun when you’re not supposed to, you’re going to meet the law head on. – Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), interview on CNN, June 19

This is emerging as a 'zombie claim' — something that keeps popping up even after it has been debunked.... While there is no comprehensive nationwide survey of fugitive prosecutions, the state-level data from Virginia and Pennsylvania clearly shows that fugitives have been arrested as a result of the Brady law. Pennsylvania alone indicated that it has arrested about a 100 fugitives a year in the past 17 years. Yet Graham persists in falsely claiming that 'not one of them was arrested or prosecuted.' -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post

President Doody.

Unpossible! Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "Jeb Bush, who is struggling in the polls in Iowa, may find his salvation in New Hampshire. Yet another poll of New Hampshire voters shows him leading the passel of nearly 20 Republican candidates for the 2016 presidential nomination. Mr. Bush ... was backed by 14 percent of respondents in a Suffolk University poll released Tuesday; the surprise was that his nearest competitor was Donald J. Trump..., who captured the support of nearly 11 percent of those surveyed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CW: Also, I noticed in the photo accompanying the story that Donald doesn't have orange hair anymore. Maybe the gray makes him seem more presidential to the lumpenproletariat, although I do believe Republicans would vote for Howdy Doody if the Koch boys were the ones pulling the strings.

The Most Superficial, Witless President in Living Memory. Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: George W. Bush "doesn’t miss much about the [POTUS] job (it was pretty rough go), but he does miss the showers on Air Force One and the personal pastry chef. Yes, we can see how that would be plenty incentive for Jeb Bush to go for it." Also misses saluting soldiers.

Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "Gov. Bobby Jindal, who became Louisiana’s first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction but whose popularity has plummeted as the state struggles with a $1.6 billion shortfall, announced on Wednesday that he is running for president in 2016.... The announcement was made online, and Mr. Jindal plans a late-afternoon announcement event outside New Orleans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Here's "a special announcement from Bobby Jindal." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Paul Waldman especially enjoyed Bobby's "completely bizarre announcement video." ...

... CW: Not completely bizarre if you consider this. McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed: "The most viral headline this year with the Louisiana governor’s name in it was published in The Onion: 'Bobby Jindal Not Sure He Willing To Put Family Through 2-Month Presidential Campaign.'” You might want to read Coppins' whole piece on Jindal's plan to win. It's pretty sickening. Example: He thinks being the "Duck Dynasty" candidate is a winning strategy. ...

... Even the WashPo editors think so.

Beyond the Beltway

Jan Skutch & Dash Coleman of the Savannah Morning News: "Two former sheriff’s deputies and a contract health-care worker at the Chatham County jail were indicted Wednesday on felony involuntary manslaughter and related charges stemming from the Jan. 1 death of Mathew Ajibade, 21, at the jail. But despite the nine-count indictment in the well-publicized case, some were upset at the grand jury’s lack of felony murder charges, and protesters downtown Wednesday pressed for accountability and larger community discussions about racism — while also calling for Sheriff Al St Lawrence to step down."

Odd News. John Koblin of the New York Times: "PBS said on Wednesday that it was postponing a future season of 'Finding Your Roots' after an investigation revealed that the actor Ben Affleck pressured producers into leaving out details about an ancestor of his who owned slaves. PBS will not run the show’s third season until staffing changes are made, including hiring a fact checker, it said. The show, which is hosted by the Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., traces family histories of celebrities and public figures, and has run for two seasons. The concern about Mr. Affleck’s relative surfaced in the WikiLeaks cache of hacked Sony emails after Mr. Gates asked a Sony executive for advice about a 'megastar' who wanted to omit a detail about a slave-owning ancestor." ...

... CW: At least it turns out that this particular Wikileaks hack did have more than one public benefit. (It also demonstrated -- as if we didn't know -- Hollywood's rampant sexism. And Ben Affleck is an asshole. All of us have ancestors who were jerks, ne'er-do-wells or out-and-out monsters.

The Commentariat -- June 24, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

President Doody.Unpossible! Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "Jeb Bush, who is struggling in the polls in Iowa, may find his salvation in New Hampshire. Yet another poll of New Hampshire voters shows him leading the passel of nearly 20 Republican candidates for the 2016 presidential nomination. Mr. Bush ... was backed by 14 percent of respondents in a Suffolk University poll released Tuesday; the surprise was that his nearest competitor was Donald J. Trump..., who captured the support of nearly 11 percent of those surveyed." ...

... CW: Also, I noticed in the photo accompanying the story that Donald doesn't have orange hair anymore. Maybe the gray makes him seem more presidential to the lumpenproletariat, although I do believe Republicans would vote for Howdy Doody if the Koch boys were the ones pulling the strings.

Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "Gov. Bobby Jindal, who became Louisiana's first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction but whose popularity has plummeted as the state struggles with a $1.6 billion shortfall, announced on Wednesday that he is running for president in 2016.... The announcement was made online, and Mr. Jindal plans a late-afternoon announcement event outside New Orleans." ...

... Here's "a special announcement from Bobby Jindal."

Jeremy Borden & Brian Murphy of the Washington Post: "Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley ordered that Confederate flags be taken down from the state capitol grounds. The Birmingham News reported that workers arrived 'with no fanfare' early Wednesday to remove the flags.... At South Carolina's statehouse, workers placed a black drape over a second-floor window -- blocking the view of a Confederate battle flag at a nearby Civil War memorial -- before thousands of mourners were expected to view the body of slain state senator, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney...."

*****

Scott Shane of the New York Times: "Since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremacists, antigovernment fanatics and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims: 48 have been killed by extremists who are not Muslim, compared with 26 by self-proclaimed jihadists, according to a count by New America, a Washington research center.... On several occasions since President Obama took office, efforts by government agencies to conduct research on right-wing extremism have run into resistance from Republicans, who suspected an attempt to smear conservatives."

Our ancestors were literally fighting to keep human beings as slaves, and to continue the unimaginable acts that occur when someone is held against their will. I am not proud of this heritage. -- South Carolina State Sen. Paul Thurmond (R), the son of segregationist U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond

Campbell Robertson, et al., of the New York Times: "What began as scattered calls for removing the Confederate battle flag from a single state capitol intensified with striking speed and scope on Tuesday into an emotional, nationwide movement to strip symbols of the Confederacy from public parks and buildings, license plates, Internet shopping sites and retail stores." ...

... Greg Blustein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Gov. Nathan Deal said Tuesday he wants a redesign of a state-sponsored license plate featuring the Confederate flag emblem, as a growing list of other Southern governors call for similar changes. The Republican stopped short of calling for the Sons of Confederate Veterans tags to be phased out or eliminated entirely, as the leaders in North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee announced Tuesday. He said the redesign, though, would seek to eliminate the bigger visage of the flag that covers the background of the entire tag. The change, he added, wouldn't require legislative action.... Earlier Tuesday, Deal said he wouldn't support any changes to the license plate and contended that both he and his Democratic opponent Jason Carter said during the campaign they didn't have a problem with the license plate.... (Carter said during the campaign that drivers had the right to sport the emblem as an expression of free speech. He tweeted Tuesday that the plate should be replaced with one honoring the civil rights movement.)" ...

... Mike Pare of the Chattanooga Times Free Press: "Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam [(R) Tuesday] ... said that he wasn't aware that the flag is stamped on some plates, but 'I'd be in favor of discontinuing it.' Haslam signed the bill approving the Confederate license plates for motorcycles on March 14, 2012. The bill passed the state Senate and House by wide margins. The vote in the Senate was 27-3, and in the House voted 82-6 in favor, with one person voting present.... Later, in Nashville, the Republican governor said he favors removal of a bust of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest from Tennessee's state Capitol. But the governor noted that's not his decision alone to make." ...

(NNDP: "Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was (obviously) named for his father and grandfather. His grandfather was named for Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, and General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, the superintendent of West Point who quit to take command the first Confederate army at Fort Sumter, at the start of the American Civil War." People from all over the nation are suggesting he be removed from the Senate, noting it's not their decision to make alone.)

... MEANWHILE. Hilary Stout of the New York Times: "... many of the nation's largest retailers abruptly decided this week to stop selling merchandise tied to the Confederate battle flag. One by one, beginning with Walmart on Monday night, companies including Sears/Kmart, eBay, Amazon, Etsy and Google Shopping disavowed, sometimes in strong moral terms, merchandise that has been sold quietly for decades.... More than 29,000 such offerings could be found on the Amazon website Tuesday morning, including bikinis, shower curtains, ceramic coasters, cupcake toppers and even a tongue ring.... Yet even as companies were vowing to discontinue the items, sales of them were soaring. Confederate flags jumped to the top of Amazon's Patio, Lawn & Garden category, with purchases of some items spiking by more than 5,000 percent.... A number of smaller companies refused to stop selling Confederate-related merchandise, no matter how controversial." CW: Read the whole article. I especially liked the part about "Wildman's, a jumble of a shop in Kennesaw, Ga." ...

... David Goldman of CNN: "It seems like you can buy anything on Amazon. But there are actually a large number of products that the company doesn't allow in its online store. Amazon, has a list of 32 banned or restricted categories of merchandise.... Many of the products that Amazon bans are illegal in many or all states.... Notably, Amazon also bans 'offensive products,' which include 'products that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual or religious intolerance or promote organizations with such views.... Despite Amazon's policies, banned items continually slip through. For instance, Amazon has had something of an on-again / off-again Nazi problem over the past several years. Though the company has banned Nazi flags, swastikas and other symbols, items keep popping up on the store." ...

... Steve M.: "The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway has posted an unstructured, meandering, relentless whiny diatribe about the growing movement to take down flags and other items that honor the Confederacy. She ... compares the orderly removal of Confederate flags and statues to the destruction of ancient Buddhas by ISIS." Steve goes on to demonstrate why "No modern movement conservative has any standing whatsoever to lecture anyone else on intolerance." ...

... Travels of the Confederate Flag. Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "... the flag is surprisingly common in southern Italy, just one of many foreign locations where the flag has been reappropriated for local purposes.... It appears some see a historical parallel at work, pointing toward their own absorption into the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 and the perceived economic and political problems since then.... A more direct historical link can be found in Brazil, where 10,000 Confederate supporters emigrated after the end of the Civil War. The descendents of these people still gather to celebrate their heritage at the yearly Festa Confederada..., an event that includes country music, Southern food and the proud display of Confederate flags.... European extremist political groups have been known to fly the Confederate flag, too. European skinheads and neo-Nazis have sometimes adopted the Confederate flag, especially in Germany, where the swastika and other symbols of Nazi Germany are officially banned by law." ...

... Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post does an in-depth critical analysis to winnow out the 50 worst U.S. state flags. ...

... Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called Tuesday for Congress to expand background checks for gun purchases in the wake of a shooting in Charleston, S.C., last week that left nine dead." ...

... Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "In the wake of the Charleston shooting, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) are considering ways to renew their failed push to pass meaningful gun-control legislation.... If the two senators team up to tackle any facet of gun control, it would mark a significant shift in the political debate nearly a week after nine people were killed at a Bible study group in downtown Charleston, S.C. President Obama noted last week that once again, someone got a gun who shouldn't have had access to it." ...

... Here's the 911 call to the Shelby, N.C. police that led to Dylann Roof's capture. And here's the police dashcam recording of the arrest. ...

... Insane America. CW: In looking for these I made the not-surprising discovery that confederate wingers are treating the mass murder as a hoax perpetrated by Jews &/or the CIA or somebody, Roof is an actor played by Macauley Culkin (Culkin is 35 years old, but never mind) or a young actor called John Christian Graas, & Dylann Roof's father specializes in faking mass murder scenes, & "Game of Thrones," & false flags and and and. And they're coming to take our guns, tra la.

NEW. Sunlen Serfaty & Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "The White House will release on Wednesday a presidential directive and an executive order that will allow the government to communicate and negotiate with terrorist groups holding Americans hostage, a source briefed on the matter told CNN. While the government will maintain its policy of not making 'substantive concessions' to captors or paying ransoms, the White House will announce that officials will no longer threaten with criminal prosecution the families of American hostages looking to pay ransoms to their relatives' captors, according to a senior administration official." ...

... Lawrence Wright of the New Yorker on five American families' secret efforts to rescue their relatives held hostage in the Middle East.

NEW. Ari Berman of the Nation: "Two years ago, on June 25, 2013, in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court invalidated the centerpiece of the Voting Rights Act. [Wednesday], congressional Democrats will introduce an ambitious new bill that would restore the important voting-rights protections the Supreme Court struck down. The Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015 would compel states with a well-documented history of recent voting discrimination to clear future voting changes with the federal government, require federal approval for voter ID laws, and outlaw new efforts to suppress the growing minority vote."

Rachel Maddow, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Whether or not you like activism from your Supreme Court justices, this court's aggressive interventionism has established these nine men and women as the dynamic, creative and disruptive center of U.S. policy.... This court has shown a voracious appetite for finding cases with the potential to disrupt settled policies.... As goes the next president, so goes the court." Maddow notes that elite political donors are far more interesting in the type of appointees the next president will make than is the general public. CW: While I'm aware that some Reality Chex readers would fall among the "elite political donor" class, it's obvious that our commenters -- Kate Madison! -- big donors or not, are far more aware of the importance of judicial appointments than is the average voter.

Reuters: "A US district judge in Wyoming has granted a request by four states and several energy industry groups to temporarily block new federal rules governing fracking on public lands. The interior department rules due to come into force on Wednesday would require companies to provide data on chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, and to take steps to prevent leakage from oil and gas wells on federally owned land."

Samuel Gibbs of the Guardian: "Privacy campaigners and open source developers are up in arms over the secret installing of Google software which is capable of listening in on conversations held in front of a computer. First spotted by open source developers, the Chromium browser -- the open source basis for Google's Chrome -- began remotely installing audio-snooping code that was capable of listening to users. It was designed to support Chrome's new 'OK, Google' hotword detection -- which makes the computer respond when you talk to it -- but was installed, and, some users have claimed, it is activated on computers without their permission."

Martyn Williams of Computerworld: "The U.S. Navy is paying Microsoft millions of dollars to keep up to 100,000 computers afloat because it has yet to transition away from Windows XP. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, which runs the Navy's communications and information networks, signed a $9.1 million contract earlier this month for continued access to security patches for Windows XP, Office 2003, Exchange 2003 and Windows Server 2003. The entire contract could be worth up to $30.8 million and extend into 2017." These products are so obsolete, "Microsoft has stopped issuing free security updates but will continue to do so on a paid basis for customers like the Navy." ...

... More from Eugene Kim, et al., of Business Insider. ...

... CW: That's news to me. I thought the Navy was using the Apple I:

     ... In related news, the U.S. Navy has announced it would spend upwards of a billion dollars to raise the ironclad USS Monitor & return it to service.

Kim Willsher of the Guardian: "The French president, François Hollande, is holding an emergency meeting of his country's defence council after claims that American agents spied on three successive French presidents between 2006 and 2012. According to WikiLeaks documents published late on Tuesday, even the French leaders' mobile phone conversations were listened to and recorded." ...

... AFP: "France's president, François Hollande, has described reported spying by the US on senior French officials as unacceptable and said Paris would not tolerate actions that threaten its security. Hollande released the statement after an emergency meeting of ministers and army commanders on Wednesday, following WikiLeaks revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on the last three French presidents."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Mike Allen of Politico: "Fox News will not renew its contract with Sarah Palin, whose bombastic appearances have been a cable staple since the former Alaska governor's failed run on John McCain's ticket in the 2008 presidential election cycle." ...

... Steve M.: "Fox soured on Palin a long time ago." Read Steve's post, if only for the Palin quote. ...

     ... In his post, Steve cites Gabriel Sherman, who reported that "Fox producers called Palin and her husband 'The Bitch' and 'The Eskimo.'" So sexist and racist. What an excellent outfit young Murdoch is inheriting.

Presidential Race

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "... Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday called the flag 'a symbol of our nation's racist past.' Speaking at an African-American church just outside Ferguson, Mo..., Mrs. Clinton made a forceful plea to remove the Confederate flag wherever it flew.... 'It shouldn't fly there. It shouldn't fly anywhere,' Mrs. Clinton said of South Carolina.... 'How do we make sense of such an evil act -- an act of racist terrorism perpetrated in a house of God?'" she asked. CW: Not just the past, Hillary.

Margaret Hartmann: "2016 Republicans reveal they were against the confederate flag all along." CW: Not sure if 2016 is the year or the number of GOP presidential candidates.

Randy Got the Memo. Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul says he believes the Confederate battle flag is 'inescapably a symbol of human bondage and slavery' and needs to go.... Paul added it was obviously a decision for South Carolina to make but said if he were in South Carolina he would vote to get rid of it." ...

... Wow! Even Li'l Randy's old pal, former staffer & ghostwriter Jack Hunter, the "Southern Avenger," who used to wear the confederate flag as a mask, got the memo." ...

... ** Seems those two ole boys are mighty creative. Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Many of the quotes attributed to the Founding Fathers in two of Rand Paul's books are either fake, misquoted, or taken entirely out of context, BuzzFeed News has found." Via Charles Pierce.

Andy Borowitz: The Center for Disease Control is tracking the epidemic of GOP presidential candidacy. "While scientists disagree about how running for President spreads from person to person, most epidemiologists believe that a candidacy needs an environment rich in narcissism and delusion -- plus a host to feed on, ideally a sociopathic billionaire."

Illustration by DonkeyHotey.Reid Epstein of the Wall Street Journal: "Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is set to announce Wednesday that he is running for the Republican nomination for president, in a long shot bid that will rely on wooing the socially conservative voters who dominate early primary states." ...

... AP: "Gov. Bobby Jindal isn't seeking to have the Confederate battle flag stripped from a Louisiana-issued license plate for the Sons of Confederate Veterans." ...

... Here's what Jessica Taylor of NPR thinks you should know about Jindal.

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Chris Christie is in the final stages of preparing his 2016 presidential bid, with a formal announcement possible as soon as next week, according to several sources familiar with the discussions.... Earlier this month, Christie dropped another hint that he was nearing a run. While campaigning in New Hampshire, the governor said that his family -- one of the last major hurdles to his entering the race -- was on board. 'This is about me now,' he said." CW: Isn't it always about you, Chris?

Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "As Gov. Scott Walker prepares to announce his campaign for president next month, promising to bring what he calls 'big bold leadership' to Washington, as he did in Wisconsin, he faces a cloud over that story line: Republicans back home are in revolt. Leaders of Mr. Walker's party, which controls the Legislature, are balking at his demands for the state's budget. Critics say the governor's spending blueprint is aimed more at appealing to conservatives in early-voting states like Iowa than doing what is best for Wisconsin." ...

... Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) plans to sign two new laws on Wednesday that expand the rights of gun owners by removing a 48-hour waiting period for those looking to purchase a firearm and allowing off-duty or retired police officers to carry concealed weapons at public schools. This action [which Walker will highlight at at a ceremony at the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office] will come one week after a suspected gunman shot and killed nine people in an African American church in South Carolina, yet again prompting a national discussion about gun laws in the U.S." ...

     ... We now break for a Chuck Todd Excuse Alert: "Laurel Patrick, a spokeswoman for the governor, said this bill-signing was scheduled and announced about two weeks ago, several days before the shooting occurred in South Carolina."

Justin Carissimo of the U.K. Independent: "Artist Dalton Javier Avalos Ramirez created a piñata of Donald Trump for fellow Mexicans to take their frustrations out on. Mr 'Piñateria' Ramirez told The Independent that he created Mr Trump's paper-mâché and cardboard look-a-like in one day and was inspired by his controversial presidential campaign announcement speech. 'They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime,' Mr Trump said in at Trump Tower in New York City. 'They're rapists and some, I assume, are good people....'" CW: I'm waiting for Donald to boast that Mexicans are buying Trump idols.

Beyond the Beltway

Justin Fenton of the Baltimore Sun: "Freddie Gray suffered a single 'high-energy injury' to his neck and spine -- most likely caused when the police van in which he was riding suddenly decelerated, according to a copy of the autopsy report.... The state medical examiner's office concluded that Gray's death could not be ruled an accident, and was instead a homicide, because officers failed to follow safety procedures 'through acts of omission.'" ...

Anita Chabria of the Guardian: "A proposed 'shoot the gays' ballot initiative in California that called for the execution of state residents on the basis of their sexuality has been quashed by a judge, sparing voters from the possibility of having to debate it during fall elections. Judge Raymond Cadei of the Sacramento superior court wrote that the measure, called the 'Sodomite Suppression Act', was 'patently unconstitutional' in a ruling filed on Monday and released on Tuesday."

Tal Alroy of CNN: "The Stonewall Inn, the site of the 1969 Stonewall riots and an iconic bar in the LGBT community, on Tuesday was unanimously granted landmark status by a vote of New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission." CW: About time.

Odd News. Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: A Virginia man won a $500,000 defamation & malpractice suit against two doctors who made degrading & insulting comments about him during his colonoscopy. Although the patient did not hear the conversation because the anesthesiologist had sedated him, he had inadvertently recorded their remarks on his cellphone. CW: Makes you wonder what derogatory remarks doctors make about you when you're out cold. I'm sure dissing the patient is common smalltalk during routine procedures.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Breaking his long silence on Wednesday, the 21-year-old man convicted of the Boston Marathon bombing acknowledged his guilt, apologized to his victims and stood to hear a judge formally impose a penalty of death by execution." ...

... NPR: "Convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has apologized to the victims and the survivors of the deadly 2013 attack. 'I am sorry for the lives that I've taken, for the suffering that I've caused you, and the damage that I've done,' he told the court today in Boston prior to the judge imposing the sentence on him." ...

... The Boston Globe reports Judge George O'Toole's sentencing remarks.

New York Times: "While nothing to brag about, the economy's performance in early 2015 was not quite as bad as the number-crunchers in Washington had thought. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2015, an upward revision from the 0.7 percent contraction reported last month."

Grub Street: "New York City officials have launched an investigation of [Whole Foods] because, they say, the city's Whole Foods stores 'routinely' overcharge for products. The Department of Consumer Affairs alleges the overcharging happens because of inaccurate weights marked on prepacked groceries and claims the practice dates back to at least 2010."

AP: "A former White House chef for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush drowned in a New Mexico mountain stream, and his death was ruled an accident, authorities said Tuesday. The determination followed several days of mystery about the death of Walter Scheib, who vanished during a solo hike in the mountains of northern New Mexico and was found dead Sunday night after a weeklong search. There was no sign of foul play, State Police Sgt. Elizabeth Armijo said. Scheib recently moved from Florida to Taos. He was 61."

New York Times: Greek "Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faced anger and resistance on Tuesday from members of his own radical left political party, complicating his efforts to strike a deal this week with Greece's creditors, as some lawmakers and party officials criticized concessions by the Greek side and expressed doubts about voting for a deal in Parliament."

New York Times: "James Horner, the prolific composer whose vaulting theme music for 'Titanic' earned him two Oscars and became the best-selling orchestral soundtrack ever, died on Monday morning when the single-turboprop plane he was flying solo crashed and burned in the Los Padres National Forest in Southern California. He was 61. Late Tuesday, Mr. Horner's spokesman, the Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency, confirmed that he was the pilot of the EMB 312 Tucano that crashed in northern Ventura County. He lived in Calabasas, near the Santa Monica Mountains."

The Commentariat -- June 23, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The Senate narrowly voted Tuesday to end debate on legislation granting President Obama enhanced negotiating powers to complete a major Pacific trade accord, virtually assuring final passage Wednesday of Mr. Obama's top legislative priority in his final years in office.The procedural vote, 60 to 37, reached the minimum threshold needed, but final passage will require only 51 votes."

Eric Yoder of the Washington Post: "The computer upgrade that federal officials tout as having detected -- although not prevented -- a massive breach of information on federal employees is itself at high risk of failure, according to a new internal audit. The independent inspector general's office within the Office of Personnel Management is conducting a thorough review of the upgrade but issued a 'flash audit alert' to top agency leaders 'to bring to your immediate attention serious concerns we have' that require 'immediate action.'" ...

... CW Suggestion: Cut a deal with Ed Snowden to get him to lead a time to design a hack-proof (or at least hack-averse) system.

*****

NEW. Charles Pierce predicts the future: "Now, of course, we will hear a lot of ahistorical braggadocio about how it was Republicans who freed the slaves, and passed the civil rights acts in the 1960s, Party Of Lincoln and all that. And we will hear about how great we are in general because we have all come together to agree that, in 2015, we decline to further glorify the symbol of a bloody insurrection launched in defense of chattel slavery. We rock. We are so very awesome. I give it a couple of weeks before the conventional wisdom congeals that we have 'moved past the controversy' and we can all get back to gutting the Fair Housing Act and undermining voting rights and performing all the rites and rituals that have come to mark the Day of Jubilee." ...

... Oliver Knox of Yahoo News: "President Barack Obama on Friday will deliver the eulogy for pastor and South Carolina state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, one of the nine victims of the mass shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston last week. Vice President Joe Biden will also attend the service." ...

... The White Supremacy Party. Michael Wines & Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times: "The Council of Conservative Citizens opposes 'all efforts to mix the races,' and believes 'that the American people and government should remain European in their composition and character.' It would severely restrict immigration, abolish affirmative action and dismantle the 'imperial judiciary' that produced, among other rulings, the 1954 Supreme Court decision that integrated American education.... Now the massacre of nine black parishioners in a Charleston, S.C., church has propelled the organization, which in recent years seemed in decline, back onto the national stage and embroiled the Republican Party in new questions about its ties to the group." ...

... Olivia Nuzzi & Jon Avlon of the Daily Beast have more on the history of the Council of Conservative Citizens & their friends in high places.

... "The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning." Claudia Rankine in a New York Times front-page essay: "Black Lives Matter, the movement founded by the activists Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, began with the premise that the incommensurable experiences of systemic racism creates an unequal playing field. The American imagination has never been able to fully recover from its white-supremacist beginnings." ...

     ... CW Correction: Actually, this is a NYT Magazine piece, which the Times had on its online front page, as it often does with Magazine pieces. ...

... Wonders Never Cease. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican presidential candidate from South Carolina, will call on Monday for the Confederate battle flag to be removed from the state's Capitol, according to a source familiar with his decision. Mr. Graham is expected to make the announcement during a 4 p.m. news conference with Gov. Nikki Haley, who is also expected to call for the flag's removal, The Post and Courier of Charleston reported on Monday. The paper also said South Carolina's other senator, Tim Scott, a Republican, would call for the flag to come down.... Mr. Graham initially said that he would be fine with it being taken down but acknowledged that the flag was 'part of who we are.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Update: Frances Robles, et al., of the New York Times: "Gov. Nikki R. Haley called on Monday for South Carolina to do what just a week ago seemed politically impossible -- remove the Confederate battle flag from its perch in front of the State House building here. She argued that a symbol long revered by many Southerners was for some, after the church massacre in Charleston, a 'deeply offensive symbol of a brutally offensive past.'" ...

... Calculated Rectitude. Eli Stokols & Katie Glueck of Politico: "After a weekend that proved to be a political disaster for the GOP -- Republican presidential candidates were knocked back on their heels..., top party officials and several campaigns quickly fell in line behind the decision to remove the flag. And for South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Lindsey Graham and the state's new Republican Party, the wrenching debate provided an opportunity, both politically and economically.... On Saturday evening..., Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wasn't yet ready to say whether he thought the Confederate flag was a symbol of racism, saying he had been asked by 'a number of people' to hold off on expressing his views. Asked who made that request, Walker replied that he'd spoken with Haley, and suggested she was preparing to take action." ...

... Clay Chandler of the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger: "Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn said Monday night that the Confederate emblem in the state's official flag has to go.... It's the first time a Mississippi Republican elected official has publicly called for the removal of the emblem that served as the battle flag flown by the Confederate army during the Civil War. Later, it was adopted by anti-Civil Rights groups." ...

... NEW. Nick Gass of Politico: "A day after South Carolina's governor repudiated the Confederate battle flag, the drive to eradicate the divisive Civil War symbol is expanding to new targets. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Tuesday said he was taking steps to remove the Confederate flag from his state's license plates, saying the image sends the wrong message to the rest of the world." ...

     ... CW: Luckily, the Supremes just decided that would be cool. ...

... M. J. Lee of CNN: "Walmart and Sears, two of the country's largest retailers, will remove all Confederate flag merchandise from their stores.... As of Monday afternoon, Walmart.com carried the Confederate flag as well as attire featuring the flag's design, such as T-shirts and belt buckles.... [Sears] does not currently sell confederate flags at its stores, Sears Holdings spokesman Chris Brathwaite told CNN." ...

... ** Ta-Nehisi Coates of the Atlantic: "The Confederate flag is directly tied to the Confederate cause, and the Confederate cause was white supremacy.... Over the next few months the word 'heritage' will be repeatedly invoked. It would be derelict to not examine the exact contents of that heritage.... Nikki Haley deserves credit for calling for the removal of the Confederate flag. She deserves criticism for couching that removal as matter of manners." ...

... Chico Harlan of the Washington Post: "Lee Bright, a South Carolina state senator with a Confederate flag framed above his office sofa, saw his inbox ping with hundreds of e-mails calling for the flag to come down from the statehouse grounds. He said the rebel symbol was threatened by a 'war of political correctness' run amok." ...

... Steve M. has more on Bright. ...

... See also links under Presidential Race below.

Alicia Parlapiano, et al., of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has been a conservative court. But even conservative courts have liberal terms -- and the current term is leaning left as it enters its final two weeks. The court has issued liberal decisions in 54 percent of the cases in which it had announced decisions as of June 22, according to the Supreme Court Database, using a widely accepted standard developed by political scientists." CW: Don't count on it. These "liberal" decisions, including the a possible upcoming opinion upholding same-sex marriage as a Constitutional right, may be designed to provide cover for whacking the ACA. ...

... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "... many [Republicans] say they are gleeful that the court may do with a single decision what Republican lawmakers could not accomplish in five years: cripple one of [President] Obama's signature achievements. 'This is the beginning of the end of the Affordable Care Act,' Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in an interview." ...

... Mark Blumenthal & Jonathan Cohn of the Huffington Post on why so many Americans dislike ObamaCare: "... people are holding the law responsible for all of the problems of the health care system -- including those like rising deductibles, narrowing hospital networks, or even long waits at the doctor's office that most experts believe have little or nothing to do with the law itself.... Many people assume the Affordable Care Act is to blame (or, in some cases, to thank) for the changes they are seeing. By enacting such sweeping legislation, Obama and his allies tied their law to everything that happens in health care -- good and bad and in between."

... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a Depression-era government program that allows the government to take raisins from growers to boost market prices is an unconstitutional taking of private property. The court ruled 8 to 1 that the government could not take the raisins without adequate compensation.... Justices will issue more opinions on Thursday and Friday, and end their work for the term next week." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "President Obama scrambled for votes Monday as Democratic support trickled in for his trade agenda, despite strong pressure from unions."

CW: I couldn't agree more with Larry Wilmore. A number of media outlets -- not just Fox "News" -- led their stories on Marc Maron's interview of the President with the "big news" that Obama had used the word "nigger," which, in context, was both appropriate & unremarkable.

Scott Wong of the Hill: "A band of House conservatives is discussing whether to retaliate against GOP leaders for punishing rank-and-file lawmakers who voted against a procedural vote on trade earlier this month. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), one of several conservatives targeted by leadership, said members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus will discuss whether to block legislation or try once again to oust Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) from power."

Ovetta Wiggins & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "An emotional Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan disclosed Monday that he has been diagnosed with late stage 3 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which he called 'a very advanced and very aggressive' form of cancer."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jack Mirkinson in Salon on "the racist insanity of 'Meet the Press' ... We had no right to expect better from a show that represents one of the most entrenched bastions of whiteness in the media world today. If you're looking for a symbol of why that world is in desperate, immediate need of a diversity shakeup, you would be hard-pressed to find one better than Sunday's 'Meet the Press,' because when you have more kinds of people around the table, you're more likely to avoid monumentally stupid screw-ups like the one Chuck Todd just made." CW: I can't get over Todd's idiocy. Also, too, great choice to invite David Brooks to contribute to the panel discussion. As Mirkinson notes, "If Charleston isn't enough for 'Meet The Press' to bump David Brooks, what in God's name is?"

Presidential Race

Profiles in Cowardice (and Outright Racism). Philip Rucker & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "The Republican [presidential] hopefuls mostly stammered and stumbled in response to the shootings [in Charleston, S.C.]. At first, some resisted calling the massacre racially motivated, only to reverse course when it became obvious it was. Most stopped short of calling for South Carolina leaders to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the state capitol in Columbia. Some, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, declined to comment at all. Only after South Carolina's Republican governor, Nikki Haley, emotionally declared Monday that the flag should come down did most GOP candidates join the chorus. Some also lacked sensitivity. Sen. Ted Cruz joked Friday -- less than two days after the slayings -- that in his home state of Texas, gun control means 'hitting what you aim at.' The next day, he campaigned at a shooting range. Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, by contrast, has forcefully initiated a conversation about race and bigotry in recent days." ...

... David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee declared on Tuesday that racism had been solved.... 'I keep hearing people saying we need more conversations about race,' the former Arkansas governor opined. 'Actually we don't need more conversations. What we need is conversions because the reconciliations that changes people is not a racial reconciliation, it's a spiritual reconciliation when people are reconciled to God.... It's solved!'" ...

... Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "... Mike Huckabee once refused to give a speech to the group that inspired alleged Charleston shooter Dylann Roof, but he did send them a videotaped message." After the Arkansas media got wind of Huckabee's planned speech to the racist organization, he begged off, saying, 'I will not share the stage or platform with someone who thinks the Holocaust didn't happen." CW: But no problem with the group's white supremacist mission.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Dick Van Patten, the genial, round-faced comic actor who premiered on Broadway as a child, starred on television in its infancy and then, in middle age, found lasting fame as the patriarch on TV's 'Eight is Enough,' has died."

New York Times: "The husband of a prison employee who is accused of aiding two convicted killers in their escape said the inmates threatened to kill him if she did not follow through with their getaway plan. In his first extensive remarks on the escape, the husband, Lyle Mitchell, told the 'Today' show on NBC in an interview televised on Tuesday that his wife, Joyce E. Mitchell, was drawn to the inmates by the 'attention' they gave her, but that she realized she was in over her head when they began threatening to hurt him." CW: This is mighty different from the first stories that came out, which suggested that Joyce Mitchell agreed to help the convicts on condition they would murder her husband. No way to know, I guess.

Washington Post: "James Horner, an Academy Award-winning composer best known for scoring the 1997 blockbuster 'Titanic,' is missing and feared dead after one of his planes crashed in Southern California on Monday." ...

... Hollywood Reporter: "James Horner, the consummate film composer known for his heart-tugging scores for Field of Dreams, Braveheart and Titanic, for which he won two Academy Awards, died Monday in a plane crash near Santa Barbara. He was 61. His death was confirmed by Sylvia Patrycja, who is identified on Horner's film music page as his assistant." (CW Note: the Hollywood Reporter piece predates the WashPo story.)