The Commentariat -- June 19, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Sari Horwitz & Jerry Markon of the Washington Post: "The gunman charged with killing nine people in an African American church was unrepentant during a confession to police, even after almost backing out of what he called his 'mission' because church members were so nice to him, according to law enforcement officials and others briefed on the investigation. Dylann Roof not only confessed to causing the Wednesday night carnage in Charleston, but said he wanted his actions known, said the law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is unfolding." ...

... Alan Blinder & Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: "In an emotional confrontation, relatives of people killed in a shooting at a storied black church here directly addressed the suspect in court on Friday, one after another, tearfully offering forgiveness, and hope that he would confess and repent."

Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration on Friday announced plans to tighten fuel-economy standards for heavy trucks, buses and vans, taking aim at a transportation sector that contributes a quarter of the greenhouse-gas pollution emitted by U.S. vehicles each year." ...

... Here's Jon Stewart's monologue from last which contributors applauded in the Comments:

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: On a fundraising trip to Southern California, President Obama reminded Democrats "'When I ran in 2008, I in fact did not say I would fix it. I said we could fix it,' Obama told an audience of about 250 at a fundraising event here at the stately hillside home of film mogul Tyler Perry. 'I didn't say, 'Yes, I can.' I said, 'Yes, we can.'"

Amateur Hour with Jeb! Tierney Sneed of TPM: A day after giving a speech in which he discussed the Charleston massacre, Jeb Bush said he didn't know if the attack was racially motivated." (CW: Had to check with Roger Ailes, I guess.) "Soon after..., Bush spokesman Tim Miller said on Twitter that 'of course' the former governor thought the attack was racially motivated." CW: Bush's spokesman knows what Bush thinks, but Bush doesn't know what Bush thinks. ...

... Jonathan Chait gets why GOP candidates are skeert to admit that white cops or other groups are racists -- they need the racist vote, after all -- but "Neither Jeb Bush nor other Republicans need the votes of racist murderers to win an election. It would be very easy to identify a confessed white-supremacist murderer without doing violence to the overall conservative worldview." ...

     ... CW: I know! I know! It's because their own inflammatory rhetoric & the beliefs of their racist followers are just barely south of violence. These politicians encourage not only racism, but also the means to carry out racist attacks. The entire confederate worldview is a violent, racist tease. Given the environment the confederates have created & nourished, they dare not say anything that might reveal their culpability.

... Lindsey Graham is a little ambivalent about flying the confederate flag. "It's who we are," he says, but at the same time he acknowledges "it's time for people in South Carolina to revisit that decision [to fly the flag]." ...

Liz Kruetz & Rick Klein of ABC News: "Hillary Clinton didn't call The Donald out by name, but she suggested in an interview Thursday that comments like ones the real estate tycoon-turned-Republican presidential candidate made during his recent announcement speech could 'trigger' events like this week's church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina."

Allesandra Stanley of the New York Times: Brian Williams' "'Today' interview was expected to be a sincere but pro forma act of contrition to clear the air before Mr. Williams goes back to work and Lester Holt takes over his former job. (Parts of the interview are set to air on NBC's 'Nightly News.') Instead, it was a tortured mea culpa that didn't close a chapter. Mostly it raised more questions and gave hardened media scolds another chance to castigate a man who has been punished plenty."

*****

CW: Another day I'm falling down on the job. I'll be traveling today, so nothing more till much later. To anyone who fills in the blanks, thank you.

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "The Senate on Thursday passed a $600 billion defense policy bill that would rein in pension costs, ban the use of torture and authorize lethal offensive weapons for Ukraine. But it then immediately rejected a measure to pay for it, the first battle in a spending fight that could end in a government shutdown this fall."

Jennifer Steinhauer: "The House on Thursday again approved a measure to give President Obama accelerated negotiating authority to pursue a sweeping, legacy-building trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim nations, part one of a complex legislative strategy devised by Republicans to get a trade package to Mr. Obama's desk. Led by Republicans, with the support of a few Democrats who support the trade deal, the House passed the trade promotion authority measure, 218 to 208. It will now be sent back to the Senate, where a more narrow band of Republicans and Democrats will be asked to approve it after already passing their own bill that included protection for workers, a provision favored by Democrats." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Henry Louis Gates in a New York Times op-ed: "I have no doubt that had the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney lived, he would have become known -- and celebrated -- across our country for his leadership, rather than sealed immortally in tragedy, one more black martyr in a line stretching back to the more than 800 slave voyages that ended at Charleston Harbor." ...

... Douglas Egerton, in a New York Times op-ed on "The Lives of Denmark Vesey": "In the coming days, the world will find out more about Dylann Storm Roof and his state of mind. But to dismiss him as simply a troubled young man is to disregard history. For 198 years, angry whites have attacked Emanuel A.M.E. and its congregation, and when its leaders have fused faith with political activism, white vigilantes have used terror to silence its ministers and mute its message of progress and hope." ...

... Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times has more on the history of Emanuel AME church. ...

... Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "... many civil rights advocates are asking why the attack has not officially been called terrorism. Against the backdrop of rising worries about violent Muslim extremism in the United States, advocates see hypocrisy in the way the attack and the man under arrest in the shooting have been described by law enforcement officials and the news media." ...

... Anthea Butler in a Washington Post op-ed: "While white suspects are lone wolfs [suffering from mental illness] ... violence by black and Muslim people is systemic, demanding response and action from all who share their race or religion. Even black victims are vilified.... There was a message of intimidation behind this shooting, an act that mirrors a history of terrorism against black institutions involved in promoting civil and human rights. The hesitation on the part of some of the media to label the white male killer a terrorist is telling." ...

... Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "After a tense overnight manhunt, Roof was nabbed about 250 miles to the north in Shelby, N.C., after a local florist said she recognized him and his car from news reports." ...

... The AP has more on Debbie Dills, the florist who first saw Roof in his vehicle near Shelby. She followed him & got a plate number, while her boss, Todd Frady, whom she had phoned, called local police. ...

... Karen Attiah of the Washington Post: "The danger in invoking the myth of the presupposed racial tolerance of millennials (and subsequent generations) is that it works to absolve today's society of actively confronting and undoing the damage of the legacy of slavery, segregation and institutionalized racism.... It ignores how the cold logic of racism, white supremacy and anti-blackness has worked for generations and how it continues to work." ...

... Michael Safi, et al., of the Guardian: "The 21-year-old accused of killing nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, had been 'planning something like that for six months', his roommate has revealed, as friends recalled Dylann Roof's tirades against African Americans 'taking over the world' and his desire to ignite 'a civil war'." ...

... CW: It is appropriate that on the day we heard the news of this racist mass murder, the Supreme Court gave the state of Texas the right to refuse to allow the confederate flag to be emblazoned on license plates. It is also notable that four confederate justices dissented, & that Clarence Thomas, the only black justice, & one who almost never sides with the more liberal justices, did so in this case. Will the proximity of their published dissent to the racist terrorism in South Carolina shame them? Nah. ...

... ** Cristian Farias of New York more eloquently makes the connection: "Rarely does a decision of the Supreme Court -- often shrouded in legal formalisms and procedural abstractions -- meet so directly with a real-time tragedy in the headlines. But Walker is such a case: Vox reports that even now, a Confederate flag still flies in the South Carolina statehouse."

And, just as one cannot burn down someone's house to make a political point and then seek refuge in the First Amendment, those who hate cannot terrorize and intimidate to make their point. -- Clarence Thomas is a lonely dissent in Virginia v. Black, 2003

South Carolina statehouse.

... Schuyler Kropf of the Charleston Post & Courier: "The Confederate flag flying at the Statehouse in Columbia became part of the Charleston church shooting story Thursday after the U.S. and South Carolina flags were lowered in mourning but the [confederate flag] was left flying at its full height." ...

... Tim Murphy of Mother Jones: The confederate flag "was removed from the Capitol dome after massive protests in 2000, and as part of a compromise, relocated to the Confederate memorial. But the flag's origins in Columbia are a remnant of segregation, not the Civil War -- it was first flown over the Capitol in 1962 in response to the civil rights push from Washington. Despite the most recent incident of racial violence, don't expect the flag to come down any time soon. When Republican Gov. Nikki Haley was asked about it at a debate during her 2014 re-election campaign, she argued that it was a non-issue.... In a photo posted by the New York Times, the alleged gunman, Dylann Storm Roof, is seen posing in front of a car with a license plate bearing several iterations of the flag."

... Ta-Nehisi Coates of the Atlantic: "Roof's crime cannot be divorced from the ideology of white supremacy which long animated his state nor from its potent symbol -- the Confederate flag.... The flag that Roof embraced, which many South Carolinians embrace, does not stand in opposition to this act -- it endorses it. That the Confederate flag is the symbol of of white supremacists is evidenced by the very words of those who birthed it: 'Our new government is founded ... upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.'" ...

... Jason Horowitz, et al., of the New York Times, sort of profile Dylann Roof. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It is in our power to do something about it. I say that recognizing the politics in this town foreclose a lot of the avenues right now. But it would be wrong for us not to acknowledge it. And at some point it's going to be important for the American people to come to grips with it. -- Barack Obama

... J. M. Ashby of the Bob & Chez Show: South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) is all choked up & mystified about how this could have happened in a state where "we love each other." ...

... Dave Weigel of Bloomberg: "Kentucky Senator Rand Paul told a crowd of social conservatives that a 'sickness' in the country was responsible for the mass shootings in South Carolina, adding that the problem 'isn't going to be fixed by your government..'" ...

... Matt Wilstein of Mediaite: Lindsey Graham says Roof was probably a guy just looking for Christians to kill. ...

... Brendan James of TPM: "Presidential candidate and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) on Thursday called the attack by a white gunman on a historic black church in Charleston, S.C. part of a broader assault on 'religious liberty' in America. 'It's obviously a crime of hate. Again, we don't know the rationale, but what other rationale could there be?' Santorum said on the New York radio station AM 970." CW: Maybe you boys should check the news & find out. Well, okay, not your preferred source of "news":

... Carimah Townes of Think Progress: "After the shooting..., Fox & Friends advocated for more guns, arguing people could've defended themselves if they were armed. 'Had somebody in that church had a gun, they probably would have been able to stop him,' host Steve Doocy remarked. 'If somebody was there, they would have had the opportunity to pull out their weapon and take him out.'" ...

... Also see Akhilleus's comments on Fox "News"'s coverage of the massacre in yesterday's thread. ...

... Chauncey DeVega in Salon: "... a local Charleston reporter asked a group of African-American activists, community leaders what the black community could do to prevent events like the mass shooting at Emanuel Baptist. This bizarre moment continued with the reporter ... suggest[ed] that the black community gives comfort to 'snitches,' thus wondering if black folks will in fact turn in a white domestic terrorist who had killed at least nine people."

"I'm Sorry." Margaret Hartmann of New York: Brian Williams is embarking on an apology tour.

Presidential Race

** Paul Krugman masterfully takes down Jeb!onomics, or, as the boy's old man used to say, "voodoo economics." Hilariously, Jeb! is portraying the housing bubble that brought on the Great Recession as a good thing & a feather in his cap.

Matt Taibbi: "The 47 Funniest Things about Donald Trump."

Species Megalomaniac. Species Megalopyge.

News Lede

Guardian: "The European Central Bank provided just enough support on Friday to stave off the collapse of the Greek banking system as political and financial pressure was piled on Athens before a crisis summit of eurozone leaders on Monday."

The Commentariat -- June 18, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday again approved a measure to give President Obama accelerated negotiating authority to pursue a sweeping, legacy-building trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim nations, part one of a complex legislative strategy devised by Republicans to get a trade package to Mr. Obama's desk. Led by Republicans, with the support of a few Democrats who support the trade deal, the House passed the trade promotion authority measure, 218 to 208. It will now be sent back to the Senate, where a more narrow band of Republicans and Democrats will be asked to approve it after already passing their own bill that included protection for workers, a provision favored by Democrats."

Jason Horowitz, et al., of the New York Times, sort of profile Dylann Roof. ...

... Also see Akhilleus's comments on Fox "News"'s coverage of the massacre.

*****

From the NYT liveblog, @ 11:24 am ET: "The police in Charleston say they will hold a news conference shortly, as reporters in the region report that Dylann Storm Roof has been captured in Shelby, N.C." See related stories below.

*****

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that messages displayed on specialized license plates are a form of government speech, and Texas is free to reject a proposed design that features the Confederate flag. Justice Clarence Thomas, the court's only African American justice, split with fellow conservatives and joined the court's liberals in the 5 to 4 decision. The majority held that the design proposed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) would not simply reflect the views of the motorist who purchased it." ...

... CW: I'm late to this. ScotusBlog is liveblogging decisions coming down today. So far there have been five, none of them the "biggies" we've been waiting for, tho at least a couple that will garner some MSM reporting; e.g., "Holding: Texas's specialty license plate design constitutes government speech, and thus Texas was entitled to refuse to issue plates featuring the proposed Confederate Veterans' design." -- a 5-4 decision, opinion by Breyer. ...

... ScotusBlog Wrapup: "The Court issued six opinions today. That means they have eleven left to issue. We expect them back to issue more opinions on Monday morning, and we'll start the live blog early that day. We don't know which day after Monday will be the next opinion day, but we'll let you know as soon as we hear."

Jason Horowitz, et al., of the New York Times: "A white gunman opened fire Wednesday night at a historic black church in [Charleston, South Carolina’s] downtown, killing nine people before fleeing and setting off an overnight manhunt, the police said. At a news conference with Charleston's mayor early Thursday, the police chief, Greg Mullen, called the shooting a hate crime." ...

... New Lede: "The gunman wanted in the killing of nine people at a prayer meeting at a historic black church in this city's downtown area was taken into custody Thursday morning in North Carolina. Charleston's police chief, Greg Mullen, said the suspect, Dylann Storm Roof, 21, had been caught about 200 miles away, in Shelby, N.C., a town west of Charlotte. His arrest came about 14 hours after the shooting." ...

... The Statesman's story is here. The paper is reporting that the church's pastor is among those killed. "The shooter remained at large Thursday morning and police released photographs from surveillance video of a suspect and a possible getaway vehicle." ...

... The Washington Post now has a liveblog here. AG Loretta Lynch "said that the Justice Department has opened a hate crime investigation and that the FBI and other agencies were participating in the investigation, which is being led by the Charleston Police Department.: ...

... The Guardian is liveblogging developments. The police have released images of the suspect -- a young, slim white guy -- and his vehicle. ...

... Update: The Guardian has a new liveblog here. ...

... Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "The longtime mayor of Charleston [-- Joseph P. Riley, Jr. (D) --] called Thursday for bolstered gun-control laws hours after an assailant opened fire in a historic African American church, killing at least nine people.... ''I personally believe there are far too many guns out there, and access to guns, it's far too easy. Our society has not been able to deal with that yet.'" ...

... ** Robert Costa, et al., of the Post: "Police widened the search Thursday for a gunman who opened fire and killed nine people during a prayer service at a historic African American church here, and the U.S. Justice Department announced it would investigate the attack as a hate crime. A federal law enforcement official identified the gunman as Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old from Columbia, S.C. He was still at large more than 13 hours after the Wednesday night shooting. ...

... Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post on the storied history of the church & its congregation. ...

... CW: I'm sure over on Fox "News," they're emphasizing that this mass murder is "the work of a lone gunman." No, it is not. It is the work of our culture of racism & violence. It plays out in lesser ways a thousand times a day. It is so common that most such incidents don't make the news. Hatred of the other, acceptance & even glorification of violence -- that is who we are. We are a brutal nation. ...

... For instance, the Anniston, Alabama, city manager says there's nothing the city can do about the fact that two of its white police officers are active members of a racist hate group, & the police chief, according to one of racists -- who is a lieutenant on the force -- says the chief "thinks pretty much" as he does. ...

... CW: And people wonder why Rachel Dolezal identifies as black. I believe I'll be black today, too.

Jim Yardley & Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "Pope Francis on Thursday called for a radical transformation of politics, economics and individual lifestyles to confront environmental degradation and climate change, as his much-awaited papal encyclical blended a biting critique of consumerism and irresponsible development with a plea for swift and unified global action."

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "... the Treasury has announced that a portrait of a woman, to be determined soon, will grace the $10 bill. The note will continue to have some image, also to be determined, of the current $10 honoree, Alexander Hamilton a founding father (there were, of course, no mothers) and Treasury secretary to President George Washington.... Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, who by law makes the selection of an honoree, will disclose his choice by the end of the year. The new note will appear in 2020 -- the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.... The Treasury has invited the public to use the hashtag #TheNew10 'to spread the word about the redesign.' Also, Mr. Lew and other officials will solicit the public's ideas in round-table discussions and town-hall meetings."

Jake Sherman, et al., of Politico: "The process [to pass legislation authorizing TPP fast-track] is likely to begin in the House on Thursday, when the chamber plans to vote to give Obama fast-track trade authority to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the largest trade agreement in history. If it passes, [Mitch] McConnell would then take up the measure next week, hoping to win the support of at least a dozen Senate Democrats to send it to the president's desk. The Senate would then amend a separate trade bill with TAA, a program to aid workers who lose their jobs due to trade deals, sending the measure to the White House for final approval.... The entire process hinges on support from Senate and House Democrats who support free trade but insist that the government also provide aid and job training to help workers hurt by foreign trade."

Jaime Fuller of New York: "Loretta Lynch was formally sworn in as attorney general [Wednesday].... Lynch was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor -- on a bible owned by Frederick Douglass. When Lynch mentioned this to President Obama on the stage of the Warner Theater in Washington, with friends and family in the audience, he replied, 'That's pretty cool'":

... CW: Obama sure doesn't understand the Constitution the same way Tom DeLay understands the Constitution. Maybe they're working off different editions. (See yesterday's Commentariat.)

Dana Milbank: Once again, Congress -- through no fault of the House leadership -- took up an action to do something ... and chose to do nothing.

Robert Pear of the New York Times: interviews David King, the ignorant, selfish winger who is the "King" in King v. Burwell: "Millions of people are waiting anxiously for the Supreme Court to decide the fate of President Obama's health care law with a ruling this month on health insurance subsidies. But David M. King, a plaintiff in the case, is not among them.... But Mr. King said that he was not really worried about the outcome of the case, King v. Burwell, because as a Vietnam veteran, he has access to medical care through the Department of Veterans Affairs." CW: In other words, he likely did not have standing to bring the suit. At least one of the three other plaintiffs may have standing, though. ...

... Sharon Begley & Caroline Humer of Reuters: "As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to rule on whether people in 34 states can continue to receive Obamacare health insurance subsidies, economists are projecting billions of dollars in lost healthcare spending for hospitals, drugstores and drugmakers if the justices say the payments are illegal." ...

... Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "House Republican leaders on Wednesday presented their members with the outlines of a plan that would respond to a Supreme Court decision negating federal subsidies that help people buy ObamaCare plans. The House GOP plan would give block grants to states that want them as a way to replace the subsidies, according to lawmakers leaving the meeting." ...

... digby: "... they are saying that whatever they do it will be to 'protect' the Obamacare recipients. Which sounds good until you hear the next part: from the terrible Obamacare law.... The Republicans, being completely without shame and totally comfortable with hypocrisy, take special delight in such word games. They know it's absurd but that's what makes it so great: they [tie] the Democrats up in knots trying to untangle the absurdity." ...

... Turns out there's a reason Republicans suddenly want to "protect Americans from ObummerCare." Jonathan Cohn of the Huffington Post: "... a new report suggests the impact [of a win for the plaintiffs in King] would fall disproportionately on their own constituents, rather than those in Democratic districts -- by a margin of 2-to-1.... Some 4.2 million of those who would lose tax credits live in congressional districts with Republican representatives.... Just 2.1 million live in Democratic districts.... It's not at all surprising that Republican districts would have more affected people, since the states where officials wanted nothing to do with Obamacare tend to have more conservative voters. Those are also the states where Republican lawmakers have been able to draw district lines in ways that boost their numbers in Congress." ...

... BUT Jeffrey Young of the Huffington Post explains what the GOP plan really is: "Congressional Republican leaders have promised for months they would be ready if the Supreme Court wipes out Obamacare subsidies for millions of consumers. At separate closed-door meetings in the House and Senate Wednesday, those leaders laid out a framework for their response, and totally repealing the law is the key feature, as it has been for more than five years." Via Greg Sargent.

Holy Moly! Whatever happened to our "Christian nation"? As the confederates line up to diss Pope Francis, Steve Benen notes, "It wasn't long ago Republicans like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal argued that leaders from the faith community should 'rise up and engage America in the public square with Biblical values.... The time has come for pastors to lead the way and reset the course of American governance.'" ...

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic has a fascinating article on how conservative Roman Catholics of the William Buckley era dealt with a papal encyclical they didn't like. It did not go well. Blood was shed. Even now, "Anticipating a rout in the cultural wars, traditionalist Catholics are toying with the idea of secession.... It would mean foreswearing attempts to influence politics, disassociating oneself from engagement with mainstream culture as much as possible, and creating intentional communities that try to abide by strict church teachings." CW: Okay then, buh-bye.

Sarah Soper, in a New York Times op-ed, on "what it's like to be a 'girl' in the lab. "A 2014 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that on average, male scientists train fewer women than female scientists do. This trend is exaggerated for elite male scientists.... So as long as the scientific enterprise continues to be populated by people who might find it amusing to hold forth on the 'trouble with girls,' women will receive inferior mentoring, compared with their male colleagues, which will lead directly to inferior career outcomes. That is the real trouble."

You Are Entitled to Unlimited Crappy Service. Brian Fung of the Washington Post: "The Federal Communications Commission slapped AT&T with a $100 million fine Wednesday, accusing the country's second-largest cellular carrier of improperly slowing down Internet speeds for customers who had signed up for 'unlimited' data plans. The FCC found that when customers used up a certain amount of data watching movies or browsing the Web, AT&T 'throttled' their Internet speeds so that they were much slower than normal. Millions of AT&T customers were affected by the practice.... AT&T implemented the practice in 2011, prompting thousands of customers to complain to the FCC, according to an agency statement.... AT&T disputed the charges." (Also linked yesterday.)

Mike Isaac & Natasha Singer of the New York Times: "In what could prove to be a ruling with serious implications for the on-demand economy, the California Labor Commission has ruled that an Uber driver should be classified as an employee, not an independent contractor." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Alison Griswold of Slate explains how the ruling could be "Uber's worst nightmare."

Housing Prices Stabilize. Neil Irwin of the New York Times: "Now, by a wide range of measures, nationwide home prices look relatively normal when compared with incomes, rents and other fundamentals -- and are rising at similar low, single-digit rates. In contrast to the periods of irrational optimism and pessimism, the market is settling into a balance in which buyers are comfortable spending what they can afford given their income and savings, but aren't willing (or able to persuade lenders) to stretch beyond that." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lori Aratani of the Washington Post: Washington D.C.'s Metro "central train control center -- tasked with ensuring the safety of thousands of passengers moving through the nation's second busiest rail system -- is chronically understaffed, chaotic and filled with distractions, according to a federal report released Wednesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Brian Stelter of CNN: "NBC and [Brian] Williams have come to a tentative agreement that will keep Williams at the network after his six-month suspension ends in August.... Williams will not be returning to the "NBC Nightly News" anchor chair, the people said. Instead he will have a new role; the details of it are unknown to all but a very small number of executives.... Lester Holt, Williams' fill-in for the past 4 months, will become the permanent anchor of 'Nightly News.'" ...

... Emily Steel, et al., of the New York Times: "Mr. Williams is expected to move to a new role primarily at the cable news network MSNBC, probably in a breaking-news capacity in the beginning...."

Presidential Race

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "... as she pursues the Democratic presidential nomination, Mrs. Clinton is confronting a stark reality: Building support for her candidacy must sometimes come at the expense of Mr. Obama, and sometimes even at the expense of the policies they had both pursued in the White House." ...

... They're a'Going Fishing, Too. Ken Vogel & Rachel Bade of Politico: "A particular focus during Tuesday's closed-door deposition [of Clinton pal Sidney Blumenthal] was a network of groups founded by Clinton enforcer David Brock that -- Politico has learned -- paid Blumenthal more than $10,000 a month as they defended Hillary Clinton against conservative attacks, first while she was secretary of state and then as she prepared for and ultimately entered the presidential campaign.... 'The Republicans asked more about what our groups do to debunk their false claims about Benghazi than about the attacks in Benghazi? That sounds like a bizarre waste of time,' Brock said. 'All our work is made public.'"

 ... Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico on how Democrats' & labor's positive views of Bernie Sanders are shaping Hillary Clinton's campaign. ...

... CW: We may never know, but there certainly could be a connection between Hillary's visit to North Charleston Tuesday & the mass murder of members of a black Charleston church.

Frank Rich: "The Bush candidacy seems like an artificial conceit, a summer franchise sequel that ...

... Andrew Kaczynski & Ilan Ben-Meir of BuzzFeed: "Mike Murphy, the longtime Jeb Bush confidant and consultant who is heading the Right to Rise super PAC, told a group of donors on a conference call Wednesday that they had so far raised $17 million in the Tri-State [New York] area to support Bush's campaign for the presidency.... Murphy said the number the SuperPAC would be filing by the next July reporting deadline would give opponents 'heart attacks' and discourage their rivals' donors from opening their wallets."

The Ugly American. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: As a budget crisis looms in Wisconsin, Scott Walker takes a taxpayer-funded six-day del>vacation trade mission to Quebec. "Walker's four foreign trips in five months stand out. He now sprinkles details of his world travels into his stump speeches. While in Canada, Walker suggested that he had qualms about drinking the water in other countries he had visited." CW: Yeah, that's really showing your foreign policy creds, Scottie, & demonstrating what a great diplomat you are, too. The other countries he's visited were Britain, Germany, France & Spain, none of which is likely to serve up non-potable water, & certainly not in the fancy hotels where he stays. Oh, and he lies about his meetings with foreign leaders, too:

At a donor retreat hosted by Mitt Romney last week, Walker said in a speech that British Minister David Cameron told him that he was dissatisfied with President Obama's leadership. Cameron's staff quickly denied Walker's account, telling Time that Cameron did not make such a remark and does not feel that way. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... CW: I've been trying to think who Scottie reminds me of. Now I remember: George W. Bush. Same dull intellect. Same lack of curiosity. Same expression -- simultaneously dimwitted and smug. Same penchant for saying really stupid things. (At least Bush had competent speechwriters, so he didn't weave the really stupid things into his prepared texts.) If you wonder what kind of a president Scottie would be, you need look no further than Dubya. Kinda funny that there's a candidate in the race who is more like Dubya than the candidate who is Dubya's brother.

Trump's Fake Campaign. Even His Supporters Are Fake. Aaron Couch & Emmet McDermott of the Hollywood Reporter: "Donald Trump's big presidential announcement Tuesday was made a little bigger with help from paid actors -- at $50 a pop. New York-based Extra Mile Casting sent an email last Friday to its client list of background actors, seeking extras to beef up attendance at Trump's event."

Beyond the Beltway

Flying While Black. German Lopez of Vox: "The Institute for Justice, a national nonprofit that runs EndForfeiture.com ... is helping [a young college student, Charles] Clarke, get his money back from law enforcement, after officers seized his life's savings -- $11,000 -- in the Cincinnati airport last February under "civil forfeiture" laws. Clarke broke no laws. It is not illegal to carry large sums of cash. A law enforcement official claimed in an affidavit that Clarke's checked luggage smelled of marijuana, though they turned up no drugs or evidence of drug-related activity in Clarke's luggage. Clarke appears to be a person of color. CW: I know that last bit surprises you.

The Three Little Grinches. Benjamin Mueller of the New York Times: Three USPS workers used schemes to obtain Christmas gifts destined for underprivileged children. "Terry Jackson, Mahogany Strickland and Nickyeves Saintalbord all worked at the James A. Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, which served as headquarters for Operation Santa...."

The Commentariat -- June 17, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Unlimited Crappy Service. Brian Fung of the Washington Post: "The Federal Communications Commission slapped AT&T with a $100 million fine Wednesday, accusing the country's second-largest cellular carrier of improperly slowing down Internet speeds for customers who had signed up for 'unlimited' data plans. The FCC found that when customers used up a certain amount of data watching movies or browsing the Web, AT&T 'throttled' their Internet speeds so that they were much slower than normal. Millions of AT&T customers were affected by the practice.... AT&T implemented the practice in 2011, prompting thousands of customers to complain to the FCC, according to an agency statement.... AT&T disputed the charges."

Mike Isaac & Natasha Singer of the New York Times: "In what could prove to be a ruling with serious implications for the on-demand economy, the California Labor Commission has ruled that an Uber driver should be classified as an employee, not an independent contractor."

Housing Prices Stabilize. Neil Irwin of the New York Times: "Now, by a wide range of measures, nationwide home prices look relatively normal when compared with incomes, rents and other fundamentals -- and are rising at similar low, single-digit rates.In contrast to the periods of irrational optimism and pessimism, the market is settling into a balance in which buyers are comfortable spending what they can afford given their income and savings, but aren't willing (or able to persuade lenders) to stretch beyond that." ...

... Lori Aratani of the Washington Post: Washington D.C.'s Metro "central train control center -- tasked with ensuring the safety of thousands of passengers moving through the nation's second busiest rail system -- is chronically understaffed, chaotic and filled with distractions, according to a federal report released Wednesday."

The Ugly American. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: As a budget crisis looms in Wisconsin, Scott Walker takes a taxpayer-funded six-day vacation trade mission to Quebec. "Walker's four foreign trips in five months stand out. He now sprinkles details of his world travels into his stump speeches. While in Canada, Walker suggested that he had qualms about drinking the water in other countries he had visited." CW: Yeah, that's really showing your foreign policy creds, Scottie, & demonstrating what a great diplomat you are, too. The other countries he's visited were Britain, Germany, France & Spain, none of which is likely to serve up non-potable water, & certainly not in the fancy hotels where he stays. Oh, and he lies about his meetings with foreign leaders, too:

At a donor retreat hosted by Mitt Romney last week, Walker said in a speech that British Minister David Cameron told him that he was dissatisfied with President Obama's leadership. Cameron's staff quickly denied Walker's account, telling Time that Cameron did not make such a remark and does not feel that way.

... CW: I've been trying to think who Scottie reminds me of. Now I remember: George W. Bush.

*****

Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post lays out how Congressional Republicans will get the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement passed.

Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "More than 20 Republican senators rejected a ban on the use of cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners on Tuesday, voting against an ultimately successful measure to permanently prevent a repeat of the CIA's once secret and now widely-discredited torture program. The bipartisan amendment reaffirms President Barack Obama's prohibition of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation, which were developed by the CIA under the administration of his predecessor, George W Bush. The measure passed in the Senate, 78-21." ...

... Julian Hattem of the Hill: The ban is an "amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) [which] would limit the entire U.S. government to the interrogation and detention techniques outlined in the Army Field Manual." CW: So it's not a done deal, even in the Senate. ...

... Joshua Keating of Slate: "If the massive defense bill, with the amendment intact, reaches President Obama's desk -- which could depend on the outcome of a number of unrelated debates -- it will mark a significant step forward in the effort to restrict the use of torture, though a few ambiguities still remain."

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chair of the House Oversight Committee, "Tuesday called on the government's personnel chief and her chief information officer to resign after saying that she 'failed utterly and totally' to prevent the massive hack that exposed the personal data of 4.2 million active and former employees.... Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta and the agency's chief information officer, Donna Seymour, were grilled for almost three hours by angry lawmakers from both parties.... Lawmakers noted that OPM was warned repeatedly by the agency's inspector general to make computer security upgrades, but took too long."

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. and Justice Department prosecutors are investigating whether front-office officials for the St. Louis Cardinals, one of the most successful teams in baseball over the past two decades, hacked into internal networks of a rival team to steal closely guarded information about player personnel. Investigators have uncovered evidence that Cardinals officials broke into a network of the Houston Astros that housed special databases the team had built, according to law enforcement officials. Internal discussions about trades, proprietary statistics and scouting reports were compromised, the officials said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday said it will give manufacturers three years to remove artificial trans fat from the nation's food supply, a move that the agency estimates could reduce coronary heart disease and prevent thousands of heart attack deaths each year." ...

... Hero of the Day. Brady Dennis: "No one was more pleased by the Food and Drug Administration's decision Tuesday to eliminate artificial trans fats from the U.S. food supply than Fred Kummerow, a 100-year-old University of Illinois professor who has warned about the dangers of the artery-clogging substance for nearly six decades. 'Science won out,' Kummerow, who sued the FDA in 2013 for not acting sooner, said in an interview from his home in Illinois. 'It's very important that we don't have this in our diet.'"

Todd Frankel of the Washington Post: "The world's largest underground aquifers -- a source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people -- are being depleted at alarming rates, according to new NASA satellite data that provides the most detailed picture yet of vital water reserves hidden under the Earth's surface. Twenty-one of the world's 37 largest aquifers -- in locations from India and China to the United States and France -- have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water was removed than replaced during the decade-long study period, researchers announced Tuesday."

Dahlia Lithwick on the Supreme Court's decision not to hear an appeal of the Fourth Circuit's decision to strike down a North Carolina law that required doctors to "specifically describe the fetus to any pregnant woman seeking an abortion." The Court's rejection of the North Carolina appeal does not strike similar laws in 23 other states.

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) explains the Constitution to shut-ins. McKayla Bean of Right Wing News: "'right now, the American people don't understand that the Supreme Court, when it makes a ruling, it's just an opinion if no one enforces that ruling. The Supreme Court doesn't have a police force; the Supreme Court doesn't have an army; the Supreme Court doesn't have people that can enforce their ruling.' Therefore, if conservatives 'stand up to them and invoke the Constitution, then we don't have to accept a ruling on marriage that redefines marriage.... We're sending a message to the Supreme Court that, number one, it's illegal that they have this case before them; it's not in their jurisdiction.' Proving his Constitutional prowess, DeLay argued that 'it's not in their authority to write law by ten unelected, unaccountable people, lawyers, and if -- this is a red line that we're drawing. If they rule against marriage, we will all defy them.'" ...

... CW: In other words, a man who was once one of the most powerful lawmakers in the country says law-abiding is strictly voluntary -- unless the President sends the Army after you. Please, Mr. President, send in the Army. First order of business: make Tom DeLay get gay-married. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.

Matt Bonesteel of the Washington Post: "Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber on Wednesday gave the first inclination of the size and scope of that country's investigation into wrongdoing at FIFA, saying he is investigating 53 instances of possible money-laundering related to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding processes. Lauber described his investigation, which is running parallel to one being conducted by U.S. prosecutors, as 'huge and complex' and refused to set a timetable. He did say, however, that Russia and Qatar could be stripped of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups...."

Dan McQuade of the Guardian: Electronic espionage has a long history in American sports, dating back more than a century.

Presidential Race

Hannah Fraser-Chanpong & Ellen Uchimiya of CBS News: "During a visit to South Carolina Wednesday, Hillary Clinton will introduce a plan to reduce youth unemployment. The Democratic frontrunner is encouraging businesses to hire apprentices by offering them a tax credit of $1500 per apprentice hired, according to a Clinton campaign aide. Clinton will talk about her proposal at a forum at Trident Technical College in North Charleston." Via Greg Sargent.

Matthew Daly & Steven Ohlemacher of the AP: Hillary Clinton confidant "Sidney Blumenthal, testified in a closed session before the House Benghazi committee Tuesday morning about frequent emails on Libya he sent to Clinton when she served as secretary of state." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Rachel Bade of Politico: "Sidney Blumenthal did not write or know the source of any of the Libya intelligence he passed on to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the top Clinton ally told investigators on the House Select Committee on Benghazi Tuesday in a closed-door deposition. Blumenthal, subpoenaed by the committee, also did not verify any of the intelligence he forwarded to the nation's top diplomat. Instead, Blumenthal was copying and pasting memos from Tyler Drumheller, a former CIA operative who was looking into a Libya-related business venture, and sending them to Clinton, two people familiar with his testimony told Politico." ...

... BONUS STORY: Darryl Issa tried to crash the Blumenthal depo & committee chair Trey Gowdy threw him out. Issa "stormed off." Complete with grainy video!

Grainy photo! Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Pat Leahy and Howard Dean meet with a Vermont store manager in 1993. Vermont Standard photo.... When Bernie Met Hillary. Ben Schreckinger of Politico on Bernie Sanders' many encounters & dealings with Hillary & Bill Clinton. Interesting reading.

Jeb! and Sex! Nick Gass of Politico: "Jeb Bush became the latest politician to 'slow jam the news' with Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday's episode of 'The Tonight Show,' joining a list that includes President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and Chris Christie. And it was just a little ... awkward":

... See P. D. Pepe's commentary in today's thread.

... Jeb! to "Pass Judgment" on Pope. Katie Glueck of Politico: "'I hope I'm not going to get castigated for saying this by my priest back home, but I don't get economic policy from my bishops or my cardinals or my pope,' said Bush, a devout Catholic. He added that he wanted to see exactly what the Pope recommended 'before I pass judgment, but I think religion ought to be about making us better as people, less about things [that] end up getting into the political realm.'" ...

... Coral Davenport of the New York Times: Miami's "Roman Catholic archbishop, Thomas G. Wenski, is planning a summer of sermons, homilies and press events designed to highlight the threat that a warming planet, rising sea levels and more extreme storms pose to his community's poorest and most vulnerable. His sermons and speeches are meant to amplify the message of Pope Francis' highly anticipated, highly controversial encyclical on the environment.... Archbishop Wenski ... hopes that they will resonate with two members of his flock in particular: Florida's junior senator, Marco Rubio, and former Gov. Jeb Bush, both Catholics and both Republican presidential candidates." CW: Big tactical mistake, Your Excellency. Jeb! & Marco think helping the poor is for sissy liberals & communist sympathizers. When the seas rise & engulf Miami, those layabouts can swim -- or sink.

Trump's entry adds much-needed seriousness to the GOP field. -- Democratic National Committee

Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump, the garrulous real estate developer whose name has adorned apartment buildings, hotels, Trump-brand neckties and Trump-brand steaks, announced on Tuesday his entry into the 2016 presidential race, brandishing his wealth and fame as chief qualifications in an improbable quest for the Republican nomination." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Bump on Trump. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's spectacular, unending, utterly baffling, often-wrong campaign launch." Bump attempts to fact-check Trump. Eventually, he gives up. Funny. ...

... Another Fake Run? Seems Unpossible. Annie Karni & Adam Lerner of Politico: "Federal Elections Commission records show Trump has yet to file any paperwork making his candidacy official. He has 15 days to do so." ...

... Dana Milbank: "If the American Dream weren't already dead, it would have killed itself listening to Trump's 45-minute greed-is-good speech at a time when the gap between rich and poor is wider than it has been since the Great Depression." ...

... Kerry Eleveld of Daily Kos argues that Trump IS the GOP. With proofs. ...

... Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: Trump "is the hand the Republicans have dealt themselves and they're looking at possibly twenty candidates, most of whom seem to being playing some kind of long game grift, but none more offensive -- and entertaining! -- than Donald Trump. You broke it, you bought it, GOP. Gold-plated crapper and all." Entertaining read. ...

... David Corn of Mother Jones: "When Donald Trump strode on to the stage at Trump Tower on Tuesday to announce that he would enter the Republican race for president, a rock and roll anthem blared: Neil Young's 'Rockin' in the Free World.' It was an odd choice, given that the 1989 song seemed to slam a Republican administration for not giving a damn about the poor....A statement issued to Mother Jones for Young by his longtime manager Elliot Roberts suggests Young was not pleased...: 'Donald Trump's use of "Rockin' in the Free World" was not authorized. Mr. Young is a longtime supporter of Bernie Sanders.'"

... Update. Jason Newman of Rolling Stone: "When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign told Rolling Stone that the candidate was a fan of Young's music, despite their differing views, and that the track was used legally. 'Through a license agreement with [performance-rights organization] ASCAP, Mr. Trump's campaign paid for and obtained the legal right to use Neil Young's recording of 'Rockin' in the Free World' at today's event,' the spokesperson tells Rolling Stone." ...

... Neil Young? Why Trump didn't lead with this, I'll never know. The O'Jays song is the theme song for Donald's teevee shows, or so I hear:

... Steve M: "Chris Christie ... is the guy who should just hang it up if Trump really does file all the necessary paperwork.... Without Trump, Christie would be the only mouthy Northeasterner in the field. But Trump does Christie's act in a more lapel-grabbing way than Christie does. If Trump's in the debates, there's just no niche for Christie to fill." ...

... Matt Latimer in Politico Magazine: "Seven Reasons the GOP Should Fear Donald Trump. He's a nuisance, a hothead and totally unqualified. But that's what they said about Ross Perot." An enjoyable read. Unless you're Prince Rebus.

Beyond the Beltway

Tom Boggioni: "An Iowa mall cop -- with a Facebook account loaded with open-carry and right-wing memes and photos of multiple weapons -- is under arrest for shooting and killing a fellow mall worker because she filed sexual harassment complaints against him." Boggioni reposts some of the gun-nut "literature" shooter Alex Kozak had posted. CW: You can't tell me the NRA- & ALEC-written gun laws don't give these murderous jackasses a sense of entitlement to use their weapons against anyone who crosses them. I am now officially afraid to live in this country.

News Lede

AP: "A prison worker charged with helping two convicted murderers escape from a maximum-security facility had discussed with them a murder-for-hire plot..., a district attorney confirmed Wednesday. Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said at a news conference that Joyce Mitchell had talked to inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat about the possibility of them killing her husband, Lyle." CW: What a sweet person. And here I thought her complicity with these murdering SOBs was all about love.