The Commentariat -- June 16, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

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."

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."

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."

*****

Michelle Boorstein, et al., of the Washington Post: "A draft of a major environmental document by Pope Francis says 'the bulk of global warming' is caused by human activity -- a perspective aligned with most climate scientists but still highly controversial to some Americans. In the draft, portions of which were translated by The Washington Post, the pope takes climate change deniers to task and calls on 'humanity' to take steps -- including changing manufacturing and consumption trends -- to turn back the clock on global warming. He backs the science behind climate change, citing 'a very considerable consensus that points out we are now facing a worrisome warming of the climate.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CW: This is bad news for "I Am Not A Scientist" Roman Catholic GOPers. Should be fun to watch Marco finesse this one. ...

... Emma Green of the Atlantic: "The official copy of the encyclical doesn't come out until Thursday, but on Monday, the Italian magazine L'Espresso leaked an Italian version, which Church officials are calling a 'draft.'... [His Holiness was not amused.] Considering that Latin America and Africa are Francis's two biggest 'constituencies,' it's no wonder that the environment is a point of pressing concern for the global Church: Climate change affects those who are poor and live in developing countries much more intensely than those who live in the developed world. Francis is coming out against climate change, yes. But he's mostly continuing the focus of his entire papacy: speaking for the world's poor."

Good News for Women & Families. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from North Carolina officials seeking to revive a state law that had required doctors to perform ultrasounds, display the resulting sonograms and describe the fetuses to women seeking abortions. The Supreme Court's one-sentence order, as is the custom, gave no reasons. Justice Antonin Scalia noted a dissent, also without saying why. 'The state cannot commandeer the doctor-patient relationship to compel a physician to express its preference to the patient,' Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote in December for a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va. 'This compelled speech, even though it is a regulation of the medical profession, is ideological in intent and in kind.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Lydia Wheeler of the Hill: "While delivering the decision in the immigration case Kerry v. Din on Monday, [Justice] Scalia listed the justices who dissented from the opinion and, instead of saying 'Ginsburg,' said 'Goldberg.'" CW: Well, there was a Justice Goldberg -- back in 1965 -- & he very well might have joined the dissent. So Goldberg, Ginsburg? Meh. All those liberals are the same.

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that a business can fire an employee for using medical marijuana even if the employee is off-duty at the time, a decision that could have far-reaching ramifications in a state that has decriminalized most marijuana use." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Here's the Denver Post story, by Alicia Wallace & Jordan Steffen.

Paul Kane & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "After successful Democratic efforts to block the president's trade package, [President] Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) spoke by phone and consulted their respective top lieutenants as they tried to find a path to success, according to senior aides.... No one is declaring the trade agenda dead, but as long as [Hillary] Clinton and [Nancy] Pelosi -- two of the most influential voices with the party's base -- decline to help the president secure the votes, its prospects are pretty dim." ...

... Here's the New York Times story, by Carl Hulse & Gardiner Harris. ...

... CW: Turns out I wasn't fair to Larry Summers yesterday, as further down his column, "Summers also provided a series of reasons to be skeptical of the [TPP] treaty, however...." (Translations of Summersese by John Cassidy of the New Yorker.) ...

... Robert Reich: If the TPP is dead, it's because "most Americans no longer support free trade.... In recent years the biggest gains from trade have gone to investors and executives, while the burdens have fallen disproportionately on those in the middle and below who have lost good-paying jobs.... The American economy looks increasingly arbitrary, as CEOs of big firms now rake in 300 times more than the wages of average workers, while two-thirds of Americans live paycheck to paycheck." Reich (& others) have repeated experiments that demonstrate that "When a game seems arbitrary, people are often willing to sacrifice gains for themselves in order to prevent others from walking away with far more -- a result that strikes them as inherently wrong." Increasingly, that how Americans view trade deals: their own gains are too small to justify giving the wealthy an ever bigger piece of the pie. ...

... In a (Loosely) Related Social Science Experiment ...

... Occupy, Capuchin-Style. Re: a discussion we had in the Comments section yesterday, contributor Whyte Owen adds this scientific study, interpreted by Frans de Waal, of natural reactions to perceived inequality:

... As Akhilleus points out, there's one big difference between the Capuchin & Occupy experiences: the lab patrol does not storm the lab in riot gear to pepper-spray & arrest the cuke-tossing Capuchin protester.

Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times: A judicial ruling in favor of AIG could cause the government not to bail out too-big-to-fail institutions in the future. "Maurice Greenberg, the company's former chief executive and one of its largest shareholders..., sued the government on behalf of shareholders, contending its takeover was illegal and unfair to investors. The judge largely sided with Mr. Greenberg, confounding many legal experts who considered the case a long shot.... He determined that the takeover of A.I.G. was orchestrated to 'maximize the benefits to the government and to the taxpaying public.'... Still, the judge did not award any monetary damages to Mr. Greenberg, making it a moral victory, but not an economic one."

Rachel Abrams of the New York Times: "A group of community and labor organizations is accusing Walmart of inappropriately using the nonprofit Walmart Foundation to help reduce local opposition to its expansion efforts in some urban areas.... The group argued in a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service dated Monday that the Walmart Foundation violated terms of its tax-exempt status.... The Walmart Foundation's contributions in some cities rose steadily as Walmart tried to curry local support and gain access in those markets, according to the complaint. The foundation donated just over $200,000 to organizations in Los Angeles in 2008 and 2009, the complaint said, but raised that amount to $1.4 million in 2011, just as plans to open a store were getting underway. In 2013, the year that store opened, donations dropped to about $230,000."

Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: "In her first interview since being accused of misrepresenting her racial background and stepping down as an N.A.A.C.P. official, Rachel A. Dolezal did not back down on Tuesday, stating 'I identify as black,' although she comes from a white family. When Matt Lauer of NBC's 'Today' show asked, 'When did you start deceiving people?' Ms. Dolezal would not concede that she had done so." ...

... Richard Perez-Pena: Rachel Dolezal, "the head of the N.A.A.C.P. chapter in Spokane, subjected to national scrutiny and ridicule after it appeared she lied about her own racial background, announced Monday that she was quitting that post." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

** Daniel Sharstein in the New York Times Magazine on the history of American whites passing for black & Dolezal's somewhat anachronistic choice to do so. ...

... Jelani Cobb of the New Yorker: "Rachel Dolezal is not black — by lineage or lifelong experience — yet I find her deceptions less troubling than the vexed criteria being used to exclude her." ...

... Adolph Reed, in Common Dreams, takes a similarly nuanced view of Dolezal's racial identity. He is mighty put out by the identity police. ...

... The Shallow Prejudice of Charles Pierce. CW: A reminder, in case it has slipped your notice, that Charles Pierce doesn't care about women -- in general. Pierce is a superb wordsmith who raises snark to an art form, but his sexism is largely unmitigated. When he uses it to belittle women, the result should discomfit the reader. ...

... The Smoking Gun: "The NAACP official who today resigned in the face of evidence that she masqueraded as black once sued Howard University for denying her teaching posts and a scholarship because she was a white woman, The Smoking Gun has learned. Rachel Dolezal, 37, who headed the NAACP's Spokane, Washington chapter, sued Howard for discrimination in 2002, the year she graduated from the historically black college with a Master of Fine Arts degree."

Paul Waldman explains mainstream media bias to Republicans: "Mainstream outlets are frequently biased, but mostly toward sensationalism."

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Best Retraction Ever. Ahiza Garcia of TPM: "The Athens[, Georgia,] Banner-Herald on Monday was forced to post a retraction to its website saying, 'the sun has not exploded' after mistakenly announcing 'the sun just exploded.' The website of the Athens, Ga. newspaper, OnlineAthens.com, said an 'unauthorized updated news item' was posted after the site was the 'victim of an online miscue.' The paper said that the incident was being investigated."

Presidential Race

Patricia Mazzei & Amy Sherman of the Miami Herald: "Jeb Bush took the stage Monday at the nation's largest and most diverse university, the embodiment of working-class Miami's aspirations, and declared himself the best presidential candidate to help all Americans build a better life for themselves and their families." ...

... Nate Cohn of the New York Times: Jeb Bush "has not won the invisible primary, the behind-the-scenes competition for elite support that often decides the nomination, and he has not even emerged as a favorite of the party's large block of more moderate voters. He starts in a weaker position than not only his brother in 1999 or his father in 1987, but also Mitt Romney in 2011.... Perhaps most important, it's surprisingly hard to find prominent elites who support Mr. Bush.... Much of the Republican elite has serious reservations about whether Mr. Bush is the best candidate to face Mrs. Clinton.... His favorability ratings and standing against her are dismal." ...

... Catherine Ho of the Washington Post: Jeb Bush peppered his campaign announcement with criticisms of Washington insiders & lobbyists, but "Several of Bush's financial backers and supporters are Washington veterans and his deep ties to K Street will likely boost the former Florida governor's ability to raise big money and allow him to tap into a well of veteran policy advisers for his campaign. His list of allies in the influence world include the heads of big lobby shops, Republican lawmakers-turned-lobbyists and longtime advisers to the Bush family." ...

... Dana Milbank: Jeb! runs away from Bush. ...

... Charles Pierce: "Honest to god, if you listened to the speech, which was written very well and delivered with the kind of smug WASP brio that so often eluded that chap who Jeb (!) bumped into back in the Aughts, you would believe that history began in January of 2009. He did make a little wink and a nod to the 'first president I met on the day I was born, and the second one I met on the day I came home.' But, beyond that, you'd have thought he was found in a basket in the bullrushes along the banks of the Kennebec River." ...

... Grumpy Not Happy with Doc, Dopey & Sleazy, et al. McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed is on to something here: "From the beginning, [Jeb] Bush has insisted his decision about whether to undertake a presidential run in 2016 would depend on his answer to one question: 'Can I do it joyfully?' But now, as he officially launches his campaign at a Monday afternoon rally in Miami, Bush's pursuit of the presidency seems destined to be a grinding, grumpy ordeal -- permeated with disdain for the trivial demands of campaign pageantry, and rooted in a sense of duty to save the GOP from a field of candidates he seems to regard as unprepared or unserious. Joylessness wafts off Bush wherever he goes, from the photo ops on his just-completed tour of Europe to the grip-and-grins on the campaign trail in New Hampshire." ...

... Steve M.: "Jeb Bush is officially in the presidential race -- and the reviews from his own party are abysmal.... What is Jeb talking about that makes Republican voters want to stand up and cheer? McCain and Romney identified the hottest of hot-button issues. Jeb hasn't -- and what's more, he doesn't seem to want to. He's in trouble."

Dr. Sigmund Frist Mitt Romney, Millionaire Psychiatrist Examines Hillary from Afar. Nick Gass of Politico: "'Well, I thought the text touched the various places she needs to touch to try and keep her base intact. Somehow when you see her on a stage or when she comes into a room full of people, she's smiling with her mouth but her eyes are saying, "Where's my latte?" It just doesn't suggest that she believes everything she's saying,' Romney said on Monday on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' speaking via satellite from Salt Lake City. He also expressed skepticism that Clinton will be able to sell her populist message 'when she makes in one hour a multiple of what an average American will make in a year.'" CW: That's at least 47 percent rich, Mitt. ...

... Steve M.: "And yes, just to be clear, Mitt Romney is accusing someone else of flip-flopping, insincerity, and saying stuff just to mollify base voters in a political party." ...

... Laura Clawson of Daily Kos: "For some reason, Mitt Romney thinks he has the public affection and trust to be an effective attack dog against Hillary Clinton. Instead, he's a hilarious attack dog."

... Without reference to the above video, Elias Isquith of Salon comments on the upsides & perils of Clinton's "fighter" meme. CW: What Isquith doesn't mention is that that are plenty of "values" on which the majority of Americans agree: they just don't agree on how best to optimize the environment for furthering these American "values." As long as Hillary sticks to portraying herself as a fighter for well-accepted "values" -- like the Four Freedoms she emphasized -- I think her strategy will be effective. ...

... Anne Gearan & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton further distanced herself Monday from a massive Asia-Pacific trade deal that she helped shepherd as secretary of state, opening a rift between the Democratic front-runner and the Democratic president she hopes to succeed. 'I will judge what's in the final agreement, but I hope that it can be made better,' Clinton said during a news conference with reporters here.... She twice avoided answering whether she still supports the 'fast track' negotiating authority Obama seeks or will want the same powers if she becomes president." ...

... Michael Schmidt, Hillary Clinton's Official New York Times Attack Dog: "Emails that a longtime confidant to Hillary Rodham Clinton recently handed over to the House committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, raise new questions about whether the State Department and Mrs. Clinton have complied with a series of requests from the panel. The emails, provided by Sidney Blumenthal, a close adviser to Mrs. Clinton, include information about weapons that were circulating in Libya and about the security situation in Benghazi in the year and a half before the attacks. The committee has asked the State Department and Mrs. Clinton several times in the past year for emails from her and other department officials about 'weapons located or found in' Libya and about the decision to open and maintain a diplomatic mission in Benghazi.... State Department officials said that they had complied only with requests and subpoenas related directly to the attacks because the committee's demands were too broad." ...

... Rebecca Traister of the New Republic on "the new, old Hillary": "Most striking is Clinton's willingness to showcase an older iteration of her professional persona: the one that was so unpalatable when she debuted it nationally, 25 years ago.... America didn't like the woman who admired Saul Alinsky very much. So in an attempt to gain power, she changed. But it's also on us, and our longstanding lack of appetite for women who threaten or trouble us." ...

... Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "The feud between Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the news media escalated on Monday, when the reporter designated by the traveling press to cover Clinton's events [in New Hampshire] was denied access. David Martosko, the US political editor at The Daily Mail, was scheduled as the so-called 'pool' reporter for Clinton's visit through New Hampshire. But when he arrived at the gathering spot for the traveling press corps on Monday morning, Martosko was turned away by a Clinton staffer who said the reporter was no longer the approved pooler for the day's events." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Karoli of Crooks & Liars: "David Martosko's 'professional' background is colorful, to say the least. Before Martosko was exiled to The Daily Mail, he was the editor of Tucker Carlson's hack site, the Daily Caller. He set about the work of ratfcking with a purpose there, lying about Senator Robert Menendez and hookers in order to try and knock Menendez out of contention." ...

... Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones (March 2015): "Before Daily Caller Editor in Chief Tucker Carlson hired him in 2011 -- a controversial choice given Martosko's previous arrests and lack of experience in journalism -- Martosko spent a decade working for Richard Berman, a longtime PR operative behind a number of industry-backed campaigns." ...

... Digby: "If you are wondering why people think the news media is boring and useless, this would be why. I understand why reporters would be miffed over this sort of thing. But they really should stop and think about whether anybody else in the country could possibly give a damn about it." ...

... CW: Hard to understand why digby isn't as concerned about Freeeedom of the Press as is Dylan Byers: "The Hillary Clinton campaign denied access to the print pool reporter on Monday, reigniting reporters' longstanding concerns about the campaign's commitment to running an open and transparent campaign."

CW: Love the latest letter from Bernie (no link), which begins,

One of the biggest mistakes President Obama made once he was in office was, after mobilizing millions of Americans during his brilliant 2008 campaign, to basically tell those supporters, 'Thank you, I'm going to sit down with John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and take it from here.' I will not make that mistake.

CW: To my great surprise, it turns out that the Trump for President tease is really all about self-promotion & braggadocio. Robert Costa & Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Donald J. Trump, the billionaire real-estate mogul, on Tuesday will release a summary of assets that total about $9 billion as part of his likely entry into the race for the Republican presidential nomination, according to people familiar with his plans.... Trump's declared assets are more than double the estimate of his net worth by Forbes, which currently pegs his net holdings at $4.1 billion. That figure would make him the wealthiest Republican contender." Note: Trump isn't necessarily lying about his assets. He could have something in the neighborhood of $5BB in liabilities.

Beyond the Beltway

Presenting the Bobby & Grover Budget Comedy Act. Jonathan Weismann of Slate: "... [Louisana Gov. Bobby] Jindal created a fake fee for students, and a fake tax credit to balance it out, which ultimately leads to no money changing hands, but apparently satisfies whatever agreement Jindal struck with [tax nazi Grover] Norquist to preserve the illusion that he didn't raise taxes. 'It's an embarrassing bill to vote for,' one Republican state representative told the New York Times, demonstrating the sort of candor that only becomes possible once your own party's governor has alienated the vast majority of his state and abandoned all pretense of rational policymaking in pursuit of an inevitable also-ran performance in the GOP primary." CW: As for me, I'm not letting Bobby & his sidekick Grover appear in Kate Madison's Amazing Clown Carnival (see yesterday's Comments), no matter how side-splitting their routine.

Mark Gethfred & Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "The Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis and a deputy bishop resigned on Monday after prosecutors recently charged the archdiocese with having failed to protect youths from abuse by pedophile priests. In statements released Monday morning, the archbishop, John C. Nienstedt, and an auxiliary bishop, Lee A. Piché, said they were resigning to help the archdiocese heal." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

Guardian: "An Egyptian court has upheld a death sentence against the ousted president Mohamed Morsi in a trial stemming from his escape from prison during the 2011 uprising that forced Hosni Mubarak from power. Tuesday's ruling reaffirms an initial decision in the case in May, in which Morsi and more than 100 others were sentenced to death."

Washington Post: "The Islamic State was routed Monday from one of its key strongholds on Syria's border with Turkey after its defenses crumbled and its fighters either defected or fled, raising new questions about the group's vaunted military capabilities. The fall of the town of Tal Abyad to a Kurdish-Syrian rebel force backed by U.S. airstrikes came after just two days of fighting...."

The Commentariat -- June 15, 2015

Internal links removed.

Michelle Boorstein, et al., of the Washington Post: "A draft of a major environmental document by Pope Francis says 'the bulk of global warming' is caused by human activity -- a perspective aligned with most climate scientists but still highly controversial to some Americans. In the draft, portions of which were translated by The Washington Post, the pope takes climate change deniers to task and calls on 'humanity' to take steps -- including changing manufacturing and consumption trends -- to turn back the clock on global warming. He backs the science behind climate change, citing 'a very considerable consensus that points out we are now facing a worrisome warming of the climate.'" ...

... CW: This is bad news for "I Am Not A Scientist" Roman Catholic GOPers. Should be fun to watch Marco finesse this one.

Good News for Women & Families. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from North Carolina officials seeking to revive a state law that had required doctors to perform ultrasounds, display the resulting sonograms and describe the fetuses to women seeking abortions. The Supreme Court's one-sentence order, as is the custom, gave no reasons. Justice Antonin Scalia noted a dissent, also without saying why. 'The state cannot commandeer the doctor-patient relationship to compel a physician to express its preference to the patient,' Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote in December for a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va. 'This compelled speech, even though it is a regulation of the medical profession, is ideological in intent and in kind.'"

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that a business can fire an employee for using medical marijuana even if the employee is off-duty at the time, a decision that could have far-reaching ramifications in a state that has decriminalized most marijuana use."

Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: Rachel Dolezal, "the head of the N.A.A.C.P. chapter in Spokane, subjected to national scrutiny and ridicule after it appeared she lied about her own racial background, announced Monday that she was quitting that post."

Mark Gethfred & Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "The Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis and a deputy bishop resigned on Monday after prosecutors recently charged the archdiocese with having failed to protect youths from abuse by pedophile priests. In statements released Monday morning, the archbishop, John C. Nienstedt, and an auxiliary bishop, Lee A. Piché, said they were resigning to help the archdiocese heal."

Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "The feud between Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the news media escalated on Monday, when the reporter designated by the traveling press to cover Clinton's events [in New Hampshire] was denied access. David Martosko, the US political editor at The Daily Mail, was scheduled as the so-called 'pool' reporter for Clinton's visit through New Hampshire. But when he arrived at the gathering spot for the traveling press corps on Monday morning, Martosko was turned away by a Clinton staffer who said the reporter was no longer the approved pooler for the day's events."

*****

** Our Long National Nightmare Is Over. Paul Krugman: Democratic politicians have returned to being Democrats. Krugman suggests several factors that explain why. "... you can describe all of this as a move to the left, but there's more to it than that.... Democrats are adopting ideas that work and rejecting ideas that don't, whereas Republicans are doing the opposite.... Something important is happening, and in the long run it will matter a great deal." ...

... Krugman's old pal Larry Summers didn't get the memo. (In fact, Krugman takes a dig at Summers, tho of course Krugman is too polite to name him.) In a Washington Post op-ed, Summers tells us the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal is absolutely fabulous, & the Congress's failure to send a clean bill to the President is almost as bad as 100 years ago when the Senate rejected the League of Nations. Can World War III be far behind?

Odd News. Brad Meltzer in the New York Daily News: The Secret Service told me that when "Reagan was President, he carried his own gun.... A .38. Reagan used to hide it in his briefcase and take it on Air Force One." CW: Which should serve to demonstrate how safe packing heat keeps you.

Presidential Race

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Hillary Clinton, facing criticism from rivals for her silence on a stalled international trade agreement, spoke out Sunday during a campaign stop in Iowa, urging President Barack Obama to collaborate with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and craft a deal more palatable to Democrats":

The president should listen to and work with his allies in Congress starting with Nancy Pelosi, who have expressed their concerns about the impact that a weak agreement would have on our workers to make sure we get the best strongest deal possible. And if we don't get it, there should be no deal.

Dylan Stableford of Yahoo News: "A day after Hillary Clinton formally kicked off her 2016 presidential campaign with a speech at a rally on New York's Roosevelt Island, current and would-be rivals on both sides of the political aisle took aim at the former secretary of state on Sunday morning talk shows." ...

... Adam Desiderio of ABC News: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took a swipe at Hillary Clinton today, saying he doubts whether the Democratic presidential candidate knows the concerns of 'real Americans.' Christie ... said Clinton's speech during her campaign rally Saturday in New York City sounded like it was put together by 'liberal political consultants.' 'I thought Elizabeth Warren wasn't running for president,' Christie said in an exclusive interview on ABC's 'This Week.'" With video. ...

... Mark Hensch of the Hill: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Sunday that Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is the only 2016 GOP presidential candidate with foreign policy stances that are worse than Hillary Clinton's." ...

... Mark Hensch: "Barely hours after Hillary Clinton's campaign launch in New York on Saturday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) used footage from the event for an ad that mocks Clinton as a politician of the past":

Michael Barbaro & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: Jeb Bush will announce his candidacy today at 3 pm ET at a public college in the Miami area. " ... he will offer himself as a messenger of optimistic conservatism, uninterested in the politics of grievance, obstructionism and partisanship that, in his eyes and those of his allies, have catapulted less accomplished rivals, like Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, to national prominence." ...

... Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post profiles Bush's political metemorphosis from "head-banging conservative" to less-obnoxious conservative. It was a change of style, not a change of ideology. ...

... Favorite Son? Maybe Not. Joshua Green of Politico: "Jeb Bush's big political credential, and his presumed strength in the presidential campaign he'll launch on Monday, is the broad appeal he demonstrated over two terms as Florida governor -- doubly important given the critical role Florida's primary will play in winnowing the GOP field.... But he may not be nearly as strong in Florida as his reputation suggests. A Bloomberg Politics study conducted with University of Florida political scientist Daniel A. Smith found that nearly three-quarters of Florida's 12.9 million currently registered voters have never even seen Bush's name on a ballot.... By contrast, 92 percent of Floridians who voted when Marco Rubio was last on the ballot, in 2010, are still registered." ...

... Ha Ha. Brad DeLong catches Team Jeb comparing his revamped campaign to Pickett's charge. As DeLong puts it: "Jeb Bush: I want to send a message that my campaign is like a disastrous and profoundly stupid attack that costs three casualties for every one inflicted.... As George Pickett said of Robert E. Lee -- the general who ordered the charge -- 'That man destroyed my division!'" CW: Aw, maybe they meant the charge of the Light Brigade."

Mark Hensch: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the defeat of President Obama's trade legislation in the House on Friday was the right outcome for average Americans. 'The House has put a kibosh on the Trans-Pacific [Partnership],' he said at a rally at Drake University in Des Moines late Friday, according to The Des Moines Register. 'Our trade policies over the last 40 years .. have been a disaster,' Sanders said. 'TPP is a continuation of these disastrous trade policies.' 'Today, the good side won,' he added."

Beyond the Beltway

** Surprise! Gun Control Works. Jeff Guo of the Washington Post: "... researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the University of California, Berkeley, say that Connecticut's [1994] 'permit-to-purchase' law was actually a huge success for public safety. In a study released Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health, they estimate that the law reduced gun homicides by 40 percent between 1996 and 2005. That's 296 lives saved in 10 years.... There is a 40 percent gap ... between the expected number of gun-related homicides and the actual number of gun-related homicides."

Robert Roldan of the Louisville Courier-Journal: "Community members and activists are questioning a Louisville Metro Police officer's use of deadly force against an African man in Old Louisville on Saturday afternoon. But Police Chief Steve Conrad said the man, who he said was thought to be an African man in his mid-30s, was shot twice in self-defense after he allegedly picked up a metal flag pole and swung at the officer outside a convenience store." The video is here.

Thanks to contributor MAG, we now can answer the burning question, Whatever happen to Scott Brown, short-time senator? He is working as an unpaid intern in a bike shop. Really. Also, too, he's giving advice to GOP presidential candidates on how to win in New Hampshire. I hope they're listening. I do want to warn MAG & other Mainers that Scottie is still living very, very close to Maine, the state of his birth.

ELSEWHERE in New Hampshire. WGME: "A New Hampshire man wants to defy an Islamic prohibition on depicting the prophet Muhammad in pictures and plans to host a 'Draw Muhammad' art contest in August. Jerry Delemus, a 60-year-old former Marine, says the freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment trumps any religion's limitations on such expression." ...

... CW: WGME might have said a little more about Delemus: He ran for "Constitutional sheriff" of Strafford County, New Hampshire (and lost), he is/was planning to form "a militia as a bulwark to protect the general population from despotism or tyranny," & was "the founder of Rochester's Glenn Beck-inspired 9/12 Project." In 2014, "Jerry DeLemus grabbed his Gadsden flag and raced to Bunkerville, Nevada to support [Cliven Bundy] in his confrontation with federal officials. When he arrived, the former Marine sergeant was appointed commander of the growing armed militia and was featured in numerous news reports and videos." His wife Susan, a former state representative, is a notorious birther.

The Commentariat -- June 14, 2015

Internal links removed.

Greg Jaffe & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "As President Obama was weighing how to halt Islamic State advances in Iraq, some of the strongest resistance to boosting U.S. involvement came from a surprising place: a war-weary military that has grown increasingly skeptical that force can prevail in a conflict fueled by political and religious grievances. Top military officials, who have typically argued for more combat power to overcome battlefield setbacks over the past decade, emerged in recent White House debates as consistent voices of caution in Iraq. Their shift reflects the paucity of good options and a reluctance to suffer more combat deaths in a war in which America's political leaders are far from committed and Iraqis have shown limited will to fight." ...

... CW: Obviously, there are many in the military who join up because they want to go forth & conquer people, especially people who don't look like them. But today there are also a lot of military members who are there because they needed jobs. These members may not see as desirable the kind of warmongering "support" they get from nearly every GOP candidate. Maybe we'll see the Democratization of the military in the coming election.

Eric Schmitt & Steven Myers of the New York Times: "In a significant move to deter possible Russian aggression in Europe, the Pentagon is poised to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 American troops in several Baltic and Eastern European countries, American and allied officials say. The proposal, if approved, would represent the first time since the end of the Cold War that the United States has stationed heavy military equipment in the newer NATO member nations in Eastern Europe that had once been part of the Soviet sphere of influence. Russia's annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine have caused alarm and prompted new military planning in NATO capitals."

Maureen Dowd: Everything President Obama does is wrong, Also, he does it the wrong way. Also, nobody likes him except maybe a couple of racists in the Congressional Black Caucus. Also, all the world's problems are his fault. CW BTW: For further proof of Obama's culpability in every single thing that has happened in the world since 2008, see Steve Benen's post about Jeb Bush under Presidential Race. ...

... For an ever-so-slightly more balanced take on the defeat in the House of bill that was a prerequisite to passing TPP, we turn now to Charles Pierce: "This is not a failure of presidential leadership. It's the assertion of political power from another direction. If that unnerves the Green Room consensus, that's too bad. The president got a bad beat, not because he is a bad president, but because, on this issue, on this Friday afternoon, he found himself trying to sell something to a constituency that has changed. I think he has the good sense to realize this and to adjust his strategy accordingly. At the very least, he will realize that what happened to him and to his agenda today was a long time coming." CW: If Pierce is right, what happened in the House is a good omen.

Jill Filipovic in a Washington Post op-ed: A new generation of abortion activists in not afraid of the "A" word. At first via social media, these young women have brought discussions of abortion into the mainstream. Likely as a result, "Today, the percentage of Americans who say they're pro-choice is at a seven-year high."

Jamelle Bouie: "We don't know the entirety of [Rachel] Dolezal's story, and we will likely learn more. If it's troubling, it's at least partly because it feels like Dolezal is adopting the culture without carrying the burdens. And with the fake father and the fake children, it seems like she's deceiving people for the sake of an à la carte blackness, in which you take the best parts, and leave the pain aside."

Ewen MacAskill & James Tapper of the Guardian: "Downing Street and the Home Office are being challenged to answer in public claims that Russia and China have broken into the secret cache of Edward Snowden files and that British agents have to be withdrawn from live operations as a consequence." Privacy advocates say those no substance to the story. ...

... Tom Harper, et al., of the Sunday Times: "RUSSIA and China have cracked the top-secret cache of files stolen by the fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden, forcing MI6 to pull agents out of live operations in hostile countries, according to senior officials in Downing Street, the Home Office and the security services. Western intelligence agencies say they have been forced into the rescue operations after Moscow gained access to more than 1m classified files held by the former American security contractor, who fled to seek protection from Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, after mounting one of the largest leaks in US history." ...

... CW: Snowden has long said that he gave up all his files to journalists. Therefore, if Snowden is telling the truth, the only way Russian & Chinese hackers could have accessed Snowden's files was through journalists. This is certainly possible, but absent any "evidence" other than the claims of unnamed sources inside the British government, who obviously aren't fans of Snowden's, I wouldn't put much store in the claims at this point.

Daniel Politi: "Polar bears have made dolphins part of their diet. For the first time, scientists have observed polar bears devouring white-beaked dolphins in the Arctic and are crediting global warming for introducing these two species to each other. 'This is the first record of this species as polar bear prey,' wrote the authors of a study that was published in the Polar Research Journal."

God News

Jim Yardley of the New York Times: "On Thursday, Francis will release his first major teaching letter, known as an encyclical, on the theme of the environment and the poor. Given the pope's widespread popularity, and his penchant for speaking out on major global issues, the encyclical is being treated as a milestone that could place the Roman Catholic Church at the forefront of a new coalition of religion and science." ...

... Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "Never before, church leaders say, has a papal encyclical been anticipated so eagerly by so many.... But the leaders of the Catholic Church in the United States may be harder to win over." CW: Read on. It's hard to sum up what dunderheads the U.S. Catholic bishops are.

Steve Benen: Southern Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress says treatment of U.S. Christians (no word on who the perps are) is just like Nazi treatment of Jews in pre-Holocaust days. CW: I find this extremely disrespectful to real victims of the Holocaust. And Sean Hannity is encouraging this garbage. Take that SOB off the air, Rupert.

How to console your friend on the loss of a child: tell her it was God's idea because the poor little tyke was probably going to grow up to be Hitler or Stalin or a serial killer. Via Benen. CW: In 1984, four states picked Pat Robertson to be the GOP presidential nominee.

Presidential Race

Roosevelt Island, Saturday morning.... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a speech that was at times sweeping and at times policy laden, delivered on Saturday a pointed repudiation of Republican economic policies and a populist promise to reverse the gaping gulf between the rich and poor at her biggest campaign event to date. Under sunny skies and surrounded by flag-waving supporters on Roosevelt Island in New York, Mrs. Clinton pledged to run an inclusive campaign and to create a more inclusive economy, saying that even the new voices in the Republican Party continued to push the top-down economic policies that failed us before.'" The campaign estimated attendance at 5,500:

... Here's the transcript of Clinton's speech. ...

... Jonathan Allen of Vox: "... what [Clinton] did Saturday is appeal to voters on the core policy issues that they care about and thread them together under an overarching vision of making American more fair for everyone. And she was willing to get more specific on how to do it. So, anyone who argues Clinton came up short in articulating a vision for a different version of America wasn't paying attention.... Compared to Clinton, her Republican rivals haven't been as forthcoming on how they would try to use the power of the presidency." ...

... John Cole of Balloon Juice cites Dave Weigel's tweet on reporters' snarky reactions. Some complained that "the overflow area (the overflow area!) was not that full." ...

The crowd who showed up to see Rick Santorum last week at a diner in Hamlin, Iowa. The one person who showed up to meet him said she wasn't committed to Santorum. "Santorum said he saw one person as a good crowd." The other three happened in for something to eat & agreed to sit with Santorum. Des Moines Register photo.

... Nick Gass of Politico: "No one has ever asked him for anything, [Bill] Clinton said [last week], adding that he does not know if those companies were seeking favor from his wife's position as secretary of state. Political partisans and investigative journalists have not found anything particularly odious, apart from what 'Clinton Cash' author Peter Schweizer deemed as a 'smoking gun' in the pattern of behavior."

Steve M. "Mitt Romney is hosting a little shindig in Utah this weekend featuring Sheldon Adelson and half a dozen Republican presidential aspirants. Politico's Alex Isenstadt describes the gathering in non-specific terms, as an attempt to impose order on the Republican presidential race.... So, to sum up: While Romney does want to send the message that the invitees -- Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, John Kasich, and Carly Fiorina -- could all potentially have access to Adelson's millions and his own donor network, his main goal is to prevent a primary victory by 'someone ... who I find not as attractive from a policy standpoint or another standpoint.' Rand Paul, in other words."

CW: A number of media outlets have given Jeb Bush high marks for his performance during his European Vacation. Of course, any time Scott Walker sets the bar, it's going to be low. But still, what about "Waitergaite"? Steve Benen has all the details, & they're just odd. The only part that's not surprising: Jeb blames Obama. GOP Rule No. 1: When You Screw Up, blame Obama.

Beyond the Beltway

Ron Kuznia of the Washington Post: Wealthy Californians think they should get all the water they can afford. To hell with everybody else. "In April, after Gov. Jerry Brown (D) called for a 25 percent reduction in water use, consumption in Rancho Santa Fe went up by 9 percent."

Daniel Politi of Slate: "Cleveland prosecutors have released the results of an investigation into the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot and killed by a police officer.... One of the most significant appears to be that the investigators could not find a single witness who heard police officer Timothy Loehmann issue a warning before opening fire, reports the Northeast Ohio Media Group. Loehmann has said he ordered Rice to show his hands three times before opening fire." The report is here.

CW: I'd love to read this New York Times story about NYPD victim Eric Garner, but a loud Hulu ad not only plays every 30 seconds, when it starts, it throws the page back to the top. Nice job, NYT. So I quit. Update: That intrusive ad is everywhere, so no more NYT today.

Sofia Tesfaye of Salon (June 11): "Karen Fitzgibbons, a fourth grade teacher at Bennet Elementary in Wolforth, Texas, took to Facebook on Tuesday to express her frustration with the outrage in McKinney, Texas.... Fitzgibbons wrote that the she was 'ANGRY' the cop had resigned and blamed 'the blacks' for causing 'racial tension,' complaining that all the commotion had pushed her 'almost to the point of wanting them all segregated on one side of town so they can hurt each other and leave the innocent people alone.'" ...

... Jason Silverstein of the New York Daily News (June 12): "Fitzgibbons was 'relieved of her duties' due to her 'offensive, insensitive and disrespectful' post, the Frenship Independent School District announced Thursday." CW: Now she can sit home & reflect on how "the blacks" ruined her career. ...

... Andrew O'Hehir of Salon: "It is whites far more than blacks who cannot break free of the poisonous attitudes of the past.... Yet it is African-Americans who are constantly accused of fixating on ancient history, a charge presented in various ways, many of them subtler than the white-centric paranoia delivered by Fox."

News Ledes

Los Angeles Times: John "Carroll, a courageous editor whose instinct for the big story and unrelenting focus on the craft of journalism guided the Los Angeles Times to new heights, including a record 13 Pulitzer Prizes in five years, died Sunday in Lexington, Ky., of Creutzfeldt-Jakob, a degenerative brain disease. He was 73."

Daily Beast: "According to a report in the Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag, embattled FIFA President Sepp Blatter may try to stay on as president of FIFA, despite promising to step down."

AP: "The man linked to a violent assault on Dallas police headquarters on Saturday was accused two years earlier of choking his mother, then fleeing to an east Texas town where schools were locked down out of fear he would attack them as 'soft target', according to accounts from police and family members."

NBC News: "The prison worker charged with aiding in the escape of two convicted killers from a maximum-security correctional facility planned to meet the pair at midnight on the night of the escape and then leave with the escapees -- even giving them digging tools -- the district attorney said."

New York Times: "The United States carried out an airstrike in Libya early Sunday against the mastermind of the 2013 terrorist seizure of an Algerian gas plant that left 38 foreign hostages dead, American and Libyan officials said on Sunday. The Libyan government issued a statement Sunday night saying that the airstrikes killed the terrorist leader, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and 'a number' of other Libyan terrorists in the eastern part of the country."