The Commentariat -- Dec. 12, 2015

Internal links, defunct audio & video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Matt Apuzzo, et al., of the New York Times: "Tashfeen Malik, who with her husband carried out the massacre in San Bernardino, Calif., passed three background checks by American immigration officials as she moved to the United States from Pakistan. But none uncovered what Ms. Malik had made little effort to hide -- that she talked openly on social media about her views on violent jihad. She said she supported it. And she said she wanted to be a part of it.... Had the authorities found the posts years ago, they might have kept her out of the country. But immigration officials do not routinely review social media as part of their background checks, and there is a debate inside the Department of Homeland Security over whether it is even appropriate to do so." CW: Hmm, seems "appropriate" to me.

Sewell Chan of the New York Times lists some of the key elements of the climate change agreement being voted on in Paris today.

*****

White House: "In this week's address, the President praised our country’s resilience in the face of terrorism, and discussed how we will keep America safe":

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Early Saturday morning, United Nations officials said they had reached agreement overnight on new language for the final draft of the pact, which would be released publicly at 11:30 a.m. Paris time. The officials also said that the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, hoped to bring that text up for a final approval by Saturday." ...

     ... Update: "Delegates on Saturday were presented with the final draft of a landmark climate accord that would for the first time commit nearly every country to lowering planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions as a way to help stave off the most drastic effects of climate change. The document was made available midafternoon, after several delays while negotiators wrangled behind the scenes to nail down final details." ...

     ... New Lede: "With the sudden stroke of a gavel on Saturday night, representatives of 195 countries reached a landmark climate accord that will, for the first time, commit nearly every country to lowering planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions to help stave off the most drastic effects of climate change."

... Joby Warrick & Chris Mooney of the Washington Post: "Diplomats from 196 countries prepared to vote Saturday on a far-reaching climate accord that seeks to halt the rapid growth of man-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and prevent a dangerous warming of the planet." ...

... The Guardian is running a liveblog of developments & reactions.

Burgess Everett & Seung Min Kim of Politico: "After weeks of withering criticism from comedian Jon Stewart, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell guaranteed on Friday that a health care bill for 9/11 first responders will be included in a must-pass, year-end spending deal. Stewart has barnstormed Capitol Hill and blanketed the media, including his old show this week, in an all-out lobbying campaign for the roughly $8 billion measure." ...

... Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: "The House on Friday passed a stop-gap spending bill that will give Congress until the middle of next week to complete a deal on a year-end appropriations package needed to fund the government. The measure passed in a voice vote after minimal debate. The Senate passed the legislation by voice vote on Thursday.... Negotiators plan to work through the weekend as they continue to haggle over what policy riders should be attached to the legislation and how to handle a separate package of tax breaks for businesses and individuals that will likely be attached to the bill or moved at the same time." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether states can make it a crime for motorists suspected of drunken driving to refuse breath, blood or urine tests. Thirteen states have such laws. The court took up the question in three cases: one from Minnesota and two from North Dakota, which were consolidated for a single argument."

** Dexter Thomas of the Los Angeles Times: "Many black scientists are feeling annoyed this week over comments made by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.... 'Most of the black scientists in this country don't come from schools like the University of Texas,' Scalia said from the bench. 'They come from lesser schools.'... Chanda Prescod-Weinstein[, a theoretical cosmologist (no, that doesn't mean she's studying the value of make-up),] ... noted a 2010 study of MIT faculty that showed that 59% of all underrepresented minorities in science departments came from either MIT, Harvard or Stanford. Other schools that were highly represented were similarly prestigious universities, such as UC Berkeley and Yale. The University of Texas, which Scalia suggested was too fast-paced for some black students, was not on the list."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Andrew Pollack of the New York Times: "Martin Shkreli is once again provoking alarm with a plan to sharply increase the price of a decades-old drug for a serious infectious disease. This time the drug treats Chagas disease, a parasitic infection that can cause potentially lethal heart problems.... Mr. Shkreli has said he hopes to obtain such a voucher by getting the Chagas disease drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for sale in the United States. Critics say that it would be another case of the system being abused by awarding a voucher not for developing a new drug but merely for obtaining F.D.A. approval of a drug already used in tropical countries." ...

... CW: Capitalism really is not this awesome. Pardon me for stating the obvious, but there oughta be a law against this type of rank thievery. That there is not is an indictment of our laissez-faire Congress. They can repeal ObamaCare dozens of times, but they won't do a thing against drug-company gouging of insurance companies, sick people & insurance premium-payers. Martin Shkreli's greatest service to his country should be to get Congress off its collective ass to stop Martin Shkreli & his ilk.

Ian Lovett, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal investigators believe that more than any other witness, [Enrique] Marquez, a convert to Islam, has 'held the keys' to understanding what motivated Mr. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, and may shed light on whom they were in contact with in the years leading up to the attack, according to one senior law enforcement official."

CBS News: "Treasury Secretary Jack Lew won't be deciding which woman to feature on the next $10 dollar bill until 2016, after initially saying he would finalize a pick by the end of the year...."

Jerry Markon of the Washington Post: "The United States and Cuba said Friday that they will re-establish direct mail service between the two countries for the first time in more than a half century, the latest sign of thawing relations between the long-time adversaries. In separate statements, the State Department and the Cuban embassy in Washington said the agreement was reached Thursday during discussions in Miami. It calls for a pilot program to provide mail flights between the United States and Cuba, rather than routing mail through a third country as has been done for decades."

Presidential Race

Nolan McCaskill & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Ben Carson on Friday blasted the Republican National Committee following a Washington Post report that nearly two-dozen establishment party figures were prepping for a potential brokered convention as Donald Trump continues to lead most polls.... 'If the leaders of the Republican Party want to destroy the party, they should continue to hold meetings like the one described in the Washington Post this morning,' Carson said in a statement released by his campaign.... 'If it is correct, every voter who is standing for change must know they are being betrayed. I won't stand for it,' said Carson, who added that if the plot is accurate, 'I assure you, Donald Trump won't be the only one leaving the party.'" ...

... Christopher Massie of BuzzFeed: "Rand Paul said on Friday that, if the Republican establishment tries to block an outsider candidate from winning the party's nomination through a brokered convention, 'there'll be war within the party and they'll destroy the party.'" CW: In case you forgot, Li'l Randy is still running for president. ...

... The statisticians at 538 discuss the probability of a contested GOP convention & of the chances they'll all go play poker in Vegas tonight. ...

... BUT. Ian Millhiser of Think Progress explains how the party regulars could trump Trump. "With many candidates still in the race, and Trump commanding a strong plurality -- but nowhere near a majority -- in the polls, it's easy to imagine a scenario where Trump wins more primary votes than any other candidate but still lacks enough delegates to lock up the nomination. Indeed, the delegate math seems to favor the establishment." CW: If party poobahs dumped Trump, it would make Ben Carson as mad as H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks, which would in turn terrify Reality Chex contributor Ophelia M. (see yesterday's Comments thread.) ...

... AND McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed reports on a "secret plan to nominate Mitt Romney from the convention floor." CW: Just because he lost to President Obama doesn't mean the Mittster couldn't best, say, Hillary Clinton. He's still handsome & presidenty-looking; he's got that 47-percent thing going for him; he's got the self-deportation (super-humane!); and best of all, he has a secret weapon to beat a female candidate: "binders full of women"!

** Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), who was born in a World War II U.S. internment camp for Japanese-Americans, responds to Donald Trump's favorable invocation of the camps. Read the whole story. CW: And I take back some, if not all, of the nasty things I've said over the years about former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wy.).

Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner: "For decades, liberals have created a caricature of Republicans as being more about bombast and white resentment than substance and principles. Should Donald Trump win the GOP presidential nomination, it would help validate this cartoonish portrait. That's why those who work to elect Republicans and advance conservative policy ideas are recoiling from his dominance in polling. It's why liberals are greeting his rise with 'I told you sos' and why their allies in the media are perfectly content to promote Trump and allow him to define the GOP electorate." CW: Klein is a conservative writer. I love the part about the how the liberal media are part of the left-wing conspiracy promoting Trump just to make Republicans look bad. Via Paul Waldman.

Olivia Nuzzi of the Daily Beast went out & talked to some people who have made campaign contributions to Donald Trump. Entertainment-wise, Trump has nothing on his supporters.

Press Association, in the Guardian: "The PGA Tour is to consider alternative venues for the WGC-Cadillac Championship following Donald Trump's latest controversial comments. The Championship is to be staged at Trump's National Doral in Miami in March but may be moved elsewhere after 2016. The announcement comes after the course's owner Trump ... caused widespread anger and consternation by calling for a 'total and complete' ban on Muslims entering America." ...

... Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday vowed to issue an executive order to mandate the death penalty for anyone who kills a police officer.... [He was] speaking to a New Hampshire crowd alongside the New England Police Benevolent Association, shortly after the group voted to endorse Trump." ...

... ** "What You See Is What You Get." Mark Bowden, in Vanity Fair, remembers "a long, awkward weekend" he spent with Donald Trump in November 1996, as part of his research for a Playboy profile of Trump: "Trump struck me as adolescent, hilariously ostentatious, arbitrary, unkind, profane, dishonest, loudly opinionated, and consistently wrong. He remains the most vain man I have ever met. And he was trying to make a good impression.... His behavior was cringe-worthy.... Time after time the stories he told me didn't check out.... It was hard to watch the way he treated those around him, issuing peremptory orders.... Trump remains the only person I have ever written about who tried to bribe me.

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "Conspiracy promoter Alex Jones & Donald Trump "shared a microphone, and some common ground, last week in what may have been a dubious first -- the first time a leading presidential candidate has been interviewed by a media figure from the far extremes.... Trump finding common ground with Jones is in keeping with Trump's own rocky relationship with facts and credible information during the campaign. Many of Trump's more controversial assertions since he declared for president have come from the murky swamp of right-wing, libertarian and flat-out paranoid sources that have proliferated and thrived as the Internet and social media have grown." ...

... CW: It's absolutely terrific -- and high time -- for the MSM to call out Trump's mendacity. Farhi's labelling of Trump as a serial truther is a good first step. Just fact-checking his individual lies is not enough.

What mass deportation might look like:

... This can't be right. Trump said deportation would be "very humane."

Coming to Black-and-White TV: "Ted Cruz's Amateur Hour." -- New York Times Editors: "His favorite line on ISIS seems to be, 'We will carpet-bomb them into oblivion,' which he said in Iowa last week. His irresponsible chatter is of a piece with most Republican presidential candidates, who are busy offering phony prescriptions for the biggest foreign threat the United States faces.... 'Carpet-bombing' is a term used by amateurs trying to sound tough. Indiscriminate bombing has never been a military strategy, and it would be senseless in an age of 'smart' weaponry and precise targeting. In Syria and Iraq, mass bombing would kill hundreds of innocent civilians and fuel radicalization. That's why military leaders utter the term 'carpet-bomb' only while laughing at Mr. Cruz.... Ted Cruz ... decries terrorists' taking of innocent lives while agitating for bombing that would kill thousands of noncombatants and radicalize thousands more. What he's saying shows an utter lack of fitness to command America's armed forces." ...

... Ted Cruz's Amateur Hour, Episode 2. Emily Atkin of Think Progress does an excellent job of debunking exceptional climate scientist Ted Cruz. At a hearing of the Senate's Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness, which Ted chaired, he came up with some downright laughable "facts." But then this is what happens when you get your climate "facts" from Michelle Bachmann's favorite science sites.

Beyond the Beltway

Paloma Esquivel, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "A fire Friday at a mosque appears to have been intentionally set, authorities say, and has prompted condemnations and alarm in this Riverside County community and beyond. The fire at the Islamic Society of the Coachella Valley mosque is one of several incidents over the past week that officials are investigating as possible backlashes to the San Bernardino terrorist shootings. Late Friday, authorities said they had detained someone but released no additional details."

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "A Muslim woman was nearly shot Thursday as she left a Florida mosque, and another woman was nearly run off the road. Someone fired at least one gunshot at the woman as she drove away from the mosque in east Tampa, near Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, reported WTSP-TV. She was not injured, and police have not identified or arrested a suspect. Another Muslim woman reported a man threw rocks and other items at her and tried to run her off the road as she drove away from a mosque in New Tampa."

Seriously Not Helpful. Shaun Boyd of CBS Denver: "A board member for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado has resigned after urging people to kill supporters of presidential candidate Donald Trump. Loring Wirbel's Facebook post was captured by The Daily Caller -- a right-leaning online newspaper. The post states, 'The thing is, we have to really reach out to those who might consider voting for Trump and say, "This is Goebbels. This is the final solution. If you are voting for him I will have to shoot you before Election Day." They're not going to listen to reason, so when justice is gone, there's always force....'"

William Rashbaum & Susanne Craig of the New York Times: "Dean G. Skelos, the former majority leader of the New York Senate, and his son were found guilty of federal corruption charges on Friday, a quick and devastating follow-up punch to the State Capitol, which has seen two entrenched leaders convicted and removed from office in less than two weeks. The jury in Federal District Court in Manhattan took roughly eight hours over two days to reach its verdict against Senator Skelos, 67, and his son, Adam B. Skelos, 33, finding them guilty of all eight bribery, extortion and conspiracy counts."

Alan Pyke of Think Progress: "Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) likely knew that there was unreleased video evidence of Officer Jason Van Dyke killing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald within 50 days of the shooting, internal emails obtained by NBC Chicago indicate. The emails show Emanuel staffers discussing the existence of dashcam video of the killing in early December of last year, as Emanuel's re-election effort was entering the home stretch. The city sought to suppress the video for over a year before a judge forced Chicago to release it to the public last month." ...

... Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly: "You'd really have to be stupid not to see through the scam Emanuel pulled to conceal police misconduct in the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald until after he had been safely reelected. I mean, we now know that his office was apprised of the fact that there was video footage at least two months before election day. And even if it isn't yet completely established that Emanuel knew by then that the police were engaged in a cover-up, the totality of the rest of the record is crystal clear. Emanuel joined in the cover-up.... Either he covered up a murder or he's the kind of steward of the people's tax money who allows $5 million dollars [paid to the McDonald family right after Emanuel's re-election] to be handed out without asking why. I think calls for his resignation are totally legitimate."

Ben Fenwick & Alan Schwartz of the New York Times on the black women whom former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw raped & sexually abused in other ways. When Janie Liggins filed a complaint, her "story sounded similar to a previous complaint, leading investigators to uncover a dozen more tales of poor, vulnerable black women being exploited, and in some cases raped, by a young officer of mixed race.... The accusations against Mr. Holtzclaw were particularly grave, and distinct, involving what prosecutors described as a pattern of preying on women whose allegations would be considered less credible." ...

... Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: "One day after Daniel Holtzclaw was convicted of several sex crimes, including rape, two of the 13 women who said they were victimized by him discussed their violent encounters with the former Oklahoma City police officer." ...

... Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post has more on Janie Liggins, "J.L." in her story.

Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "More than seven in 10 residents of Kentucky want their new governor, Matt Bevin, to keep the state's expanded Medicaid program as it is, according to a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. And more than half of respondents described Medicaid as important for themselves and their families, underscoring the program's substantial reach in the state and the challenges Mr. Bevin may face if he seeks to scale back or modify it." CW: But, you know, we voted in the guy who promised to gut the program. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "The gunslinging bystander who drew national attention when she opened fire at fleeing shoplifters in a Home Depot parking lot [in Michigan] vowed Wednesday that she will never help anyone again." CW: Well, see, she made a mistake & she learned her lesson. Now if she see's a drowning puppy or a house on fire she'll just walk on by. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

Washington Post: "Polling stations have closed, ending a historic day in which women for the first time took part in Saudi Arabia's elections, marking another step at reforms in a country that still imposes strict rules such as a ban on women driving."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 11, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: "The House on Friday passed a stop-gap spending bill that will give Congress until the middle of next week to complete a deal on a year-end appropriations package needed to fund the government. The measure passed in a voice vote after minimal debate. The Senate passed the legislation by voice vote on Thursday.... Negotiators plan to work through the weekend as they continue to haggle over what policy riders should be attached to the legislation and how to handle a separate package of tax breaks for businesses and individuals that will likely be attached to the bill or moved at the same time."

Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "More than seven in 10 residents of Kentucky want their new governor, Matt Bevin, to keep the state's expanded Medicaid program as it is, according to a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. And more than half of respondents described Medicaid as important for themselves and their families, underscoring the program's substantial reach in the state and the challenges Mr. Bevin may face if he seeks to scale back or modify it." CW: But, you know, we voted in the guy who promised to gut the program.

Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "The gunslinging bystander who drew national attention when she opened fire at fleeing shoplifters in a Home Depot parking lot [in Michigan] vowed Wednesday that she will never help anyone again." CW: See, she made a mistake & she learned her lesson. Now if she see's a drowning puppy or a house on fire she'll just walk on by.

*****

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Thursday night's draft text of a new climate change accord skates on the edge of historical significance, and we won't see the next version of it until Saturday.... The ultimate measure of whether the Paris pact is a success or a failure is whether it will send a market signal for investors to take their money out of fossil fuels and put it into low or zero-carbon energy sources. If it does do that, then the Paris accord will play a major role in transforming the global economy from dependence on fossil fuels to reliance on renewable energy, and thus save the world's population from catastrophic climate impacts. If it doesn't send a market signal, the Paris deal is basically just an expression of political goodwill."

"A Christmas Miracle -- A Bipartisan Bill":

... Cory Turner of NPR: "... the bipartisan bill being signed was the Every Student Succeeds Act -- a long-overdue replacement of the unpopular federal education law known as No Child Left Behind. The new law changes much about the federal government's role in education, largely by scaling back Washington's influence. While ESSA keeps in place the basic testing requirements of No Child Left Behind, it strips away many of the high stakes that had been attached to student scores. The job of evaluating schools and deciding how to fix them will shift largely back to states. Gone too is the requirement, added several years ago by the Obama administration, that states use student scores to evaluate teachers. The new law, which passed the House and Senate with rare, resounding bipartisan support, would also expand access to high-quality preschool." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

AP: "President Barack Obama's advisers are finalizing a proposal that would expand background checks on gun sales without congressional approval. White House adviser Valerie Jarrett says the president has asked his team to complete a proposal and submit it for his review 'in short order.' She says the recommendations will include measures to expand background checks." ...

... Lauren French of Politico: "House Democrats are adding a controversial new demand to the government funding talks: ending a 19-year old ban on gun violence research by the federal government. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi D-Calif.) announced Thursday that Democrats will insist that the research ban be removed from law as part of the $1.1 trillion omnibus that Congress needs to pass by next week to fund the government." CW: Yes, Lauren, science is quite "controversial." ...

... Elizabeth Harris of the New York Times: "Gov. Dannel P. Malloy [D] of Connecticut announced on Thursday that he would sign an executive order that would bar people on federal terrorism watch lists from buying firearms in the state. Mr. Malloy said Connecticut would become the first state in the nation to have such a measure." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Thomas Gibbons-Neff & Adam Goldman of the Washington Post: "An investigation that once focused primarily on the husband and wife responsible for killing 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif..., continues to expand as the FBI questions an ever-growing network of people with ties to the couple." ...

... Richard Serrano, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "An examination of digital equipment recovered from the home of the couple who killed 14 people in San Bernardino last week has led FBI investigators to believe the shooters were planning an even larger assault, according to ... sources." ...

... Mark Hosenball & Alexandria Sage of Reuters: "Islamic militant groups ignored contact attempts from Pakistan-born Tashfeen Malik in the months before she and her husband killed 14 people..., probably because they feared getting caught in a U.S. law enforcement sting, U.S. government sources said on Thursday. Disclosures of her overtures to extremists abroad surfaced as the investigation of the Dec. 2 shooting rampage in San Bernardino ... appeared to take a new turn with divers searching a small lake near the scene of the massacre." ...

... Reuters: "The White House on Thursday said it was possible it would ask Congress to reform the fiancée visa program that allowed California shooter Tashfeen Malik to enter the United States, but not until more was learned from the probe of the shooting."

** Paul Krugman: The "ugliness [of bigotry] has been empowered by the very establishments that now act so horrified at the seemingly sudden turn of events. In Europe the problem is the arrogance and rigidity of elite figures who refuse to learn from economic failure; in the U.S. it's the cynicism of Republicans who summoned up prejudice to support their electoral prospects. And now both are facing the monsters they helped create." ...

... Tim Egan: "The Republican Party is now home to millions of people who would throw out the Constitution, welcome a police state against Latinos and Muslims, and enforce a religious test for entry into a country built by people fleeing religious persecution. This stuff polls well in their party, even if the Bill of Rights does not.... What [Donald Trump has] done is to give marginalized Americans permission to hate. He doesn't use dog whistles or code. His bigotry is overt. But the table was set by years of dog whistles and code. The very 'un-American' sentiment that Republican elders now claim to despise has been a mainstay of conservative media for at least a decade." ...

... CW: Egan is underestimating the timeframe. Republican candidates have been stoking racial animus &/or homophobia since Strom Thurmond abandoned the Democratic party. Every GOP presidential nominee after Eisenhower has relied on Nixon's "southern stragegy" except Jerry Ford (as far as I can recall). He lost to a southerner. Republicans don't just rely on the racist vote; they make racism & other forms of bigotry acceptable. When Trump followers say their candidate "is saying things others won't say," this is what they mean. ...

... Trumpism, Medieval-Style. Sara Lipton in a New York Times op-ed: "In the decades around 1100, a shift in the focus of Christian veneration brought Jews to the fore.... Preachers and artists began to dwell in vivid detail on Christ's pain. Christ morphed from triumphant divine judge to suffering human savior. A parallel tactic, designed to foster a sense of Christian unity, was to emphasize the cruelty of his supposed tormentors, the Jews.... Ferocious anti-Jewish rhetoric began to permeate sermons, plays and polemical texts.... The first records of large-scale anti-Jewish violence coincide with this rhetorical shift.... Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Jews were massacred in towns where they had peacefully resided for generations. At no point did Christian authorities promote or consent to the violence.... It was repeated and dehumanizing excoriation that led those medieval Christians to attack people who had long been their neighbors." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

... But some of those kids will have to go to "slow college" (even if Michelle Obama did go to Princeton & Harvard & saw her efforts pay off). ...

... "Scalia Was Wrong." Sigal Alon in the Washington Post: In a comprehensive study, I found "that the beneficiaries of race-based affirmative action at elite American institutions are better integrated academically and socially by the end of their first years in college, compared to their counterparts from socioeconomically underprivileged backgrounds who attended less selective schools, and are more likely to complete their bachelor's studies.... The beneficiaries of preferential treatment in college admissions ... thrive at elite colleges. They would not be better off attending less selective colleges instead." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Yanan Wang of the Washington Post: "Scalia was referring to a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the case, which details a notion popular among affirmative action opponents: the 'mismatch' theory.... The most prominent articulation of mismatch theory comes from Richard Sander.... [His] assertions have been widely disputed...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Anemona Hartocollis of the New York Times: "... proponents of the 'mismatch effect' say that large allowances based on a student's race are harmful to those who receive them.... Oren Sellstrom, one of the lawyers on a brief attacking the mismatch theory, said that 'there is a vast body of social science evidence that shows exactly the opposite of what the mismatch theory purports to show, that actually minority students who benefit from affirmative action get higher grades at the institutions they attend, leave school at lower rates than others, and are generally more satisfied in higher education, and that attendance at a selective institution is associated with higher earnings and higher college completion rates.' Mr. Sellstrom called the mismatch theory 'paternalistic,' and said that the concern Mr. Scalia's remarks raised for him was that, 'At root he does not believe that students of color belong at elite institutions. I hope that's not the case, but the tenor of the remarks certainly suggests that that is underlying his thinking.'" ...

... Paul Campos in Salon: "Something that has been obscured by the outcry over Scalia's rhetoric is that this argument -- that affirmative action is bad for its putative beneficiaries ... -- is, from a legal standpoint, completely irrelevant to the issue before the Supreme Court... The legal issue in the case is whether affirmative action programs such as that being employed by the University of Texas are unconstitutional, not whether they are a good idea." CW: C'mon, Paul. Scalia just wanted to make the point, since the moment seemed ripe, that black people are dumb & should stick to ag schools where they will happily learn the art of plowing behind a mule. ...

... Andy Borowitz: "A new study conducted by legal scholars indicates that Justice Antonin Scalia would fare better if he served as a judge at a court that was 'less advanced' than the United States Supreme Court.... 'If Scalia were reassigned to a "slow track" institution such as a town traffic court, that would be better for everyone,' the study recommended." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Al Baker of the New York Times: "Most British police officers are unarmed, a distinction particularly pronounced here in Scotland, where 98 percent of the country's officers do not carry guns. Rather than escalating a situation with weapons, easing it through talk is an essential policing tool, and is what brought a delegation of top American police officials to [Scotland]...." ...

... Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post: "For the past three years, every police recruit in the state [of Washington] has undergone ... training at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, where officials are determined to produce 'guardians of democracy' who serve and protect instead of 'warriors' who conquer and control. Gone is the military-boot-camp atmosphere. Gone are the field exercises focused on using fists and weapons to batter suspects into submission. Gone, too, is a classroom poster that once warned recruits that 'officers killed in the line of duty use less force than their peers.'"

Richard Oppel & John Koblin of the New York Times: "Sergeant [Beau] Bergdahl recounted his experience publicly for the first time in the premiere episode of the second season of the podcast 'Serial,' which was released at 6 a.m. Thursday. In interviews with the screenwriter Mark Boal, he explained in his own words why he had left his base in June 2009, an action that prompted a manhunt involving thousands of troops and led him to spend nearly five years in brutal captivity under the Taliban." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "Volkswagen said on Thursday that its emissions cheating scandal began in 2005 with a decision to heavily promote diesel engines in the United States and a realization that those engines could not meet clean air standards. What followed was a textbook example of what happens when ambition combines with weak internal controls and ethical standards, the company acknowledged as it presented a preliminary report of its investigation into the origins of the scandal." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Washington Post is moving this weekend from its building on 15th St. NW. With video. (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race

"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." Matt Yglesias of Vox: "... because there are more Democrats than Republicans in America, Philip Bump of the Washington Post reckons that there are actually slightly more Sanders supporters in America than Trump supporters.... In terms of analyzing broad trends in American life, the Sanders phenomenon is probably more significant than Trumpism. Trump's supporters, after all, are older than the average Republican, while Sanders's are younger than the average Democrat. The Trump movement is benefiting from an exceptionally chaotic situation among mainstream Republicans, while Sanders is up against the strongest non-incumbent frontrunner in American political history.... The values that Sanders reflects are likely to grow stronger in future cycles, while Trumpism is likely to grow weaker." Thank you, Matt Yglesias & Monty Python. ...

... Gary Sernovitz, a private-equity banker, in the New Yorker: "If you agree with the Democrats that Wall Street should be reformed..., [Hillary] Clinton's more comprehensive solution better grasps the world of finance today [than does Bernie Sanders']. Not only are Sanders's bogeybanks just one part of Wall Street but they are getting less powerful and less problematic by the year. 'It ain't complicated,' Sanders said during the debate. But Clinton is right: it is.... Sanders's bank-breaking solution doesn't seem attuned to the changes [in Wall Street]." Neither plan addresses all of the problems.

Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Hillary Clinton and her allies have seized on Donald Trump's call for a ban on Muslims entering the country to define the 2016 election as an existential battle between the Democratic front-runner and the dangerous forces of 'prejudice and paranoia' as epitomized by Trump -- but also echoed by the rest of the Republican field. 'Their language may be more veiled than Trump's, but their ideas are not so different,' Clinton asserted in Salem, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, a message repeated frequently in a wave of campaign trail lines, fundraising emails, web videos, and surrogate appearances following Trump's proposal." ...

... He's Not Funny Any More. Amy Chozick & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... since Mr. Trump's response to the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif., Mrs. Clinton and her campaign, confounded by his continued strength in the polls, have had to rethink how they handle Mr. Trump and what his candidacy, and the anger in the electorate that has fueled it, means for her chances in 2016." ...

... Ryan Cooper of the Week: "Liberals should not downplay the dangers of Trump extremism.... Trump represents a tipping point in the continual radicalization of the Republican Party -- only this time on race and prejudice. As the infamous Lee Atwater quote demonstrates, conservatives have feared to traffic in overt prejudice since the civil rights movement. But Trump is running the most nakedly bigoted campaign since George Wallace in 1968 at least. A critical mass of Republican voters ... have completely abandoned themselves to prejudice.... If Trump wins the Republican nomination, he" could win the election. ...

... Megan Thee-Brenan of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump occupies his strongest position yet in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, yet nearly two-thirds of American voters say they are concerned or frightened about the prospect of a Trump presidency, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News nationwide poll." ...

... Katie Rogers & Victor Mather of the New York Times: "Muhammad Ali, one of the most famous athletes in American history and a convert to Islam in the 1960s, returned to the public spotlight Wednesday night to say that political leaders have a responsibility to foster understanding about his religion.... In a statement delivered to NBC, Mr. Ali did not speak about Mr. Trump directly but addressed his message to 'Presidential Candidates Proposing to Ban Muslim Immigration to the United States.' 'We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda,' he said in the statement. 'They have alienated many from learning about Islam.'... Mr. Trump has also questioned President Obama's affirmation that Muslim Americans are some of the nation's sports heroes."

Robert Costa & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "Republican officials and leading figures in the party's establishment are now preparing for the possibility of a brokered convention as businessman Donald J. Trump continues sit atop the polls and the presidential race. More than 20 of them convened Monday for a dinner held by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, where the prospect of Trump nearing next year's nominating convention in Cleveland with a significant number of delegates dominated the discussion, according to five people familiar with the meeting.... Several longtime power brokers argued that if ... [Trump] storms through the primaries, the party's establishment must lay the groundwork for a floor fight, in which the GOP's mainstream wing could coalesce around an alternative, the people said." ...

... The Wages of Bigotry. Adam Schreck & Jon Gambrell of the AP: "The image and name of American presidential hopeful Donald Trump was gone on Friday from much of a Dubai golf course and housing development amid the uproar over his comments about banning Muslims from traveling to the United States.... Some of his deals appear to be in jeopardy, with the company behind the Trump Towers in Istanbul now saying it is "assessing" its partnership with the Republican presidential front-runner." CW: That's odd, because Trump says his many Muslim friends here & abroad have been cheering on his anti-Muslim proposals. ...

... He's So Vain, He Prob'ly Thinks This Post Is About Him. Sara Jerde of TPM: "... Donald Trump said Thursday that the White House press secretary's comment about his 'fake' hair was 'disgusting.'" CW: In the same breath, Josh Earnest said that Trump's remarks about Muslims disqualified him as to be president, but what upsets Trump is Earnest's comment about his hair.

Maggie Haberman & Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Senator Ted Cruz, who has carefully avoided public criticism of Donald J. Trump, said this week at a private fundraiser that the real-estate developer is facing a 'challenging question' about whether he has the 'judgment' to be president.... Inside a conference room Wednesday in a Madison Avenue office, with about 70 people pressed around a table, Mr. Cruz gave his assessment of the race, lumping Mr. Trump with another candidate whose supporters the Texas senator hopes to poach, Ben Carson." Includes audio of the meeting. ...

     ... Steve M. suspects this is a "leak" engineered by the Cruz campaign because Ted is too cowardly to come out & criticize Trump publicly. CW: Whether or not the NYT is shilling for Ted, Cruz is not "cowardly." If it's a team Cruz leak, then Ted is sending a signal to the party; either way, Ted is shrewd not to criticize the rivals whose voter bases Cruz hopes to cannibalize. ...

     ... Update. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump made clear that he considered Mr. Cruz's remarks as an attack and warned that he would regret the decision." ...

... Kira Lerner of Think Progress: "Buddy Pilgrim, [Ted] Cruz's national director for faith and religious liberty, endorsed Christian minister and former Tea Party politician E.W. Jackson Sr. on Wednesday, promising Cruz's support for Jackson's plan to 'rescue America's inner cities' from the 'new epidemic of black on black violence and murder.'... The solutions Jackson proposes and Cruz supports include many extremist, anti-gay, and racially offensive stances. Jackson's vitriolic rhetoric was denounced when he ran for office in 2013.... Earlier this month, Cruz participated in a teleconference hosted by Jackson and answered a question posed by a fringe anti-gay leader about the 'gay agenda.' Cruz responded by calling the U.S. Supreme Court's decision legalizing gay marriage 'one of the greatest threats to our democracy we had seen in modern times.' Cruz went on to criticize President Obama for being 'more interested in promoting homosexuality in the military than he is in defeating our enemy.'" ...

... Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "The National Organization for Marriage, a group that was founded to stop marriage equality but has since embraced other anti-LGBT causes, announced today that it has endorsed Ted Cruz for president.... It comes as no surprise that Cruz earned the right-wing group's support, as he has accused the gay community of waging a 'jihad' against religious liberty, likened the Obergefell ruling on marriage equality to 'Nazi decrees' and vowed not to enforce the court's ruling if elected president." ...

... Niall Stanage of the Hill: "Three candidates for the Republican nomination have broken away from the rest of the pack, and two of them -- ... Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz -- give the GOP establishment nightmares. That leaves the third member of the trio, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, potentially well placed to pick up the support of center-right Republican voters who are looking for someone to stop Trump and Cruz at almost any cost." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "The centrality of Trump has framed the Republican campaign as a binary question of Trump against whichever contender emerges as the non-Trump. Instead, the race may well be condensing into a three-way contest between Trump, Marco Rubio, and Cruz. Ben Carson, who has previously absorbed a large share of the Evangelical vote, has swiftly declined, allowing Cruz to rise into the top tier.... Washington Republicans despise Cruz, but they could learn to live with him, and it's entirely possible that they will need to do just that." ...

... John Stanton of BuzzFeed: "Sen. Ted Cruz and three other Republican senators voted on Thursday against a non-binding Senate resolution affirming that the United States does not use religious tests for immigrants seeking admission into the country. The resolution, which is an amendment to a maritime security bill..., passed [in committee] 16 to 4, with Sens. David Vitter [R-La.] and Thom Tillis [R-N.C.] joining [Jefferson Beauregard] Sessions [R-Ala.] and Cruz in opposing the language." Sessions cast Cruz's vote in proxy as Cruz did not attend the meeting.

Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times: "Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign has been crowing lately about the blow he supposedly scored against the Affordable Care Act. 'Only one candidate has actually done significant damage to Obamacare,' boasts his campaign website.... These claims are a little overheated, wholly misleading and spectacularly cynical.... As health insurance guru Richard Mayhew of Balloon-Juice points out, the Rubio rider is worse than an innocuous complication for the ACA; it actually will cost taxpayers money. That's because (among other things) the disappearance of the co-ops will reduce competition in their old markets, raising premiums and requiring the government to spend more in premium subsidies for the buyers eligible for them -- more than 80% of the buyers." ...

... See also Jonathan Cohn on the same subject, a post which contributor P. D. Pepe highlighted yesterday. ...

... CW: If your health insurance premiums have risen, don't blame ObamaCare; blame that smarmy little turd Marco. ...

... Jamelle Bouie: Marco Rubio is running a lackluster campaign with "infrequent appearances [in early states] and [a] paltry field operation." CW: Maybe he's still hoping to be Scott Walker's VP choice.

Senate Race

Christopher Massie of BuzzFeed: "California Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez said on Wednesday that 'between 5 and 20%' of Muslims 'have a desire for a caliphate and to institute that in any way possible,' including the use of terrorism.... Sanchez, who is running for Barbara Boxer's open Senate seat, added that this group of Muslims was 'willing to use and they do use terrorism.'... Update: In a statement, Sanchez said, 'I strongly support the Muslim community in America and believe that the overwhelming majority of Muslims do not support terrorism or ISIS. We must enlist the voices of the Muslim community in our fight against ISIS instead of alienating them through fear-mongering and discrimination.'" ...

... Christopher Cadelago of the Sacramento Bee: "A dynamic speaker who sometimes veers off-script, Sanchez has in the past been forced to later explain her comments and actions. In May, she apologized after making a mocking cliché of American Indians."

Beyond the Beltway

"Rahm Emanuel Is in Deep, Deep Trouble." Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "Thanks in part to a series of missteps by the mayor after the shooting, exacerbated by a longer-term failure to address more systemic problems with Chicago's police department, Emanuel appears to have lost much of the city's trust. His approval rating has hit a record low of 18 percent, and 51 percent of residents think he should resign, according to a new poll from the Illinois Observer.... In every new twist and turn of the McDonald shooting, Emanuel has appeared to act only after he was backed into a corner by political pressure." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Kyle Schwab of the Oklahoman: "Jurors on Thursday night found a former Oklahoma City police officer guilty of sexual offenses involving eight victims and chose punishments that could mean he will never go free. 'I didn't do it!' Daniel Ken Holtzclaw shouted inside the Oklahoma County courtroom as he was handcuffed after the verdicts were read. Holtzclaw, of Oklahoma City, was charged with 36 counts that accused him of sexually assaulting 13 black women between December 2013 and June 2014 while he was a police officer. Holtzclaw was fired in January.... An appeal is expected."

William Wan of the Washington Post: "A grand jury in Louisiana indicted two Marksville[, Louisiana,] city deputy marshals Thursday in a shooting last month that killed a 6-year-old autistic boy and critically wounded his father.... According to Associated Press and local media, the police report includes a statement from a witness, Marksville Police Sgt. Kenneth Parnell III, as well as description of a video shot from a body camera Parnell was wearing. 'The body camera video is approximately 13 minutes and 47 seconds long. At approximately 26 seconds into the video, the driver, Christopher Few's empty hands are raised and visible when gunfire becomes audible,' the report said, according to the Associated Press."

A Kollege Klannish Khristmas. Mike McPhate of the New York Times: "The Citadel said on Thursday that it was investigating the events behind images on Facebook that showed seven cadets at the Charleston, S.C., military college with white pillowcases on their heads, evoking a likeness to the Ku Klux Klan. Lt. Gen. John W. Rosa, the president of the Citadel, said in a statement that he found the posting 'offensive and disturbing.'... 'Preliminary reports are cadets were singing Christmas carols as part of a "Ghosts of Christmas Past" skit,' General Rosa said." ...

... Jaime Fuller of New York: "At least eight cadets at the Citadel ... were suspended after social-media posts showing them with white pillowcases on their heads started circulating on the internet.... Shortly after the shooting in Charleston last June, Citadel leaders voted to remove the Confederate flag from the campus chapel. According to an article in The Post and Courier from last month, it is still there, and alumni are still campaigning for it to be removed." Includes photo.

Expect to be reading many more news items like this one from the New York Daily News: "A customer at a Herald Square restaurant burst into an anti-Muslim tirade, slapping one worker than busting glass partitions with a chair while a Muslim woman in Brooklyn was kicked by a man who called her trash, police sources said."

Way Beyond

Rob Gillies of the AP: "The first Canadian government plane carrying Syrian refugees arrived in Toronto late Thursday where they were greeted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is pushing forward with his pledge to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February. The welcome given to the military flight carrying 163 refugees stands in stark contrast to the United States."

Home by Christmas. Ilya Arkhipov & Henry Meyer of Bloomberg: "U.S. President Barack Obama, facing criticism at home over his Islamic State strategy, is turning out to be right with his prediction that Vladimir Putin's own campaign in Syria will descend into a quagmire. Many senior officials in Moscow underestimated how long the operation in support of Bashar al-Assad would take when Putin entered Syria's civil war on Sept. 30 and no longer talk in terms of just a few months, with one saying the hope now is that it won't last several years. With the mission in its third month, Putin is pouring materiel and manpower into Syria at a pace unanticipated by lawmakers already struggling to meet his spending goals. The plunging price of oil is sapping revenue and prolonging Russia's first recession in six years...." ...

... Kevin Drum: "Blowhards are the same the world over, I guess. Always convinced that their wars will be short and victorious, and never willing to listen to anyone else. They just don't learn." CW: Don't you worry, Kevin. Donald Trump will "bomb the shit out of" ISIS. And if Donald doesn't get the top job, Ted Cruz "will carpet bomb [ISIS] into oblivion. I don't know if can glow in the dark, but we're going to find out." No blowhards here.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Lebanese news services reported on Friday that the youngest son of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi[, Hannibal Qaddafi]..., had been abducted in Lebanon by militants apparently seeking to avenge a prominent Lebanese Shiite cleric who disappeared in Libya in the 1970s."

AP: "This year's Nobel Peace Prize winners, the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, collected their award in Norway on Thursday, appealing for international cooperation to make the global fight against terrorism a top priority."

Washington Post: "Two of corporate America's oldest institutions, chemical giants Dow Chemical and DuPont, will merge into a $130 billion behemoth -- and then split again into three companies -- in one of the largest megadeals of the year, the companies said Friday.... The resulting company, DowDuPont, will be split after 18 to 24 months via tax-free spin-offs into three independent, public companies focused on agriculture, including seeds and pesticides; materials, including coatings, plastics and industrial chemicals; and specialty products, including chemicals key to the electronics, biosciences and health industries."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 10, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

"A Christmas Miracle -- A Bipartisan Bill":

... Cory Turner of NPR: "... the bipartisan bill being signed was the Every Student Succeeds Act -- a long-overdue replacement of the unpopular federal education law known as No Child Left Behind. The new law changes much about the federal government's role in education, largely by scaling back Washington's influence. While ESSA keeps in place the basic testing requirements of No Child Left Behind, it strips away many of the high stakes that had been attached to student scores. The job of evaluating schools and deciding how to fix them will shift largely back to states. Gone too is the requirement, added several years ago by the Obama administration, that states use student scores to evaluate teachers. The new law, which passed the House and Senate with rare, resounding bipartisan support, would also expand access to high-quality preschool."

Elizabeth Harris of the New York Times: "Gov. Dannel P. Malloy [D] of Connecticut announced on Thursday that he would sign an executive order that would bar people on federal terrorism watch lists from buying firearms in the state. Mr. Malloy said Connecticut would become the first state in the nation to have such a measure."

Richard Oppel & John Koblin of the New York Times: "Sergeant [Beau] Bergdahl recounted his experience publicly for the first time in the premiere episode of the second season of the podcast 'Serial,' which was released at 6 a.m. Thursday. In interviews with the screenwriter Mark Boal, he explained in his own words why he had left his base in June 2009, an action that prompted a manhunt involving thousands of troops and led him to spend nearly five years in brutal captivity under the Taliban."

Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "Volkswagen said on Thursday that its emissions cheating scandal began in 2005 with a decision to heavily promote diesel engines in the United States and a realization that those engines could not meet clean air standards. What followed was a textbook example of what happens when ambition combines with weak internal controls and ethical standards, the company acknowledged as it presented a preliminary report of its investigation into the origins of the scandal."

The Washington Post is moving this weekend from its building on 15th St. NW. With video.

"Rahm Emanuel Is in Deep, Deep Trouble." Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "Thanks in part to a series of missteps by the mayor after the shooting, exacerbated by a longer-term failure to address more systemic problems with Chicago's police department, Emanuel appears to have lost much of the city's trust. His approval rating has hit a record low of 18 percent, and 51 percent of residents think he should resign, according to a new poll from the Illinois Observer.... In every new twist and turn of the McDonald shooting, Emanuel has appeared to act only after he was backed into a corner by political pressure."

"Scalia Was Wrong." Sigal Alon in the Washington Post: In a comprehensive study, I found "that the beneficiaries of race-based affirmative action at elite American institutions are better integrated academically and socially by the end of their first years in college, compared to their counterparts from socioeconomically underprivileged backgrounds who attended less selective schools, and are more likely to complete their bachelor's studies.... The beneficiaries of preferential treatment in college admissions ... thrive at elite colleges. They would not be better off attending less selective colleges instead." ...

... Yanan Wang of the Washington Post: "Scalia was referring to a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the case, which details a notion popular among affirmative action opponents: the 'mismatch' theory.... The most prominent articulation of mismatch theory comes from Richard Sander.... [His] assertions have been widely disputed...." ...

... Andy Borowitz: "A new study conducted by legal scholars indicates that Justice Antonin Scalia would fare better if he served as a judge at a court that was 'less advanced' than the United States Supreme Court.... 'If Scalia were reassigned to a "slow track" institution such as a town traffic court, that would be better for everyone,' the study recommended."

*****

"Inequality Is Now Killing Middle America." Joe Stiglitz in the Guardian: "This week, Angus Deaton will receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics 'for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare.' Deservedly so. Indeed, soon after the award was announced in October, Deaton published some startling work with Ann Case in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences -- research that is at least as newsworthy as the Nobel ceremony. Analysing a vast amount of data about health and deaths among Americans, Case and Deaton showed declining life expectancy and health for middle-aged white Americans, especially those with a high school education or less. Among the causes were suicide, drugs, and alcoholism."

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama on Wednesday called for Americans to reject 'bigotry in all its forms' and keep pressing for equality 'no matter what ugliness might bubble up,' appearing to use the 150th anniversary of the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery to challenge the incendiary anti-Muslim politics espoused by Donald J. Trump. At a ceremony at the Capitol attended by congressional leaders and civil rights activists, Mr. Obama sought to place the end of slavery in the broader context of the nation's troubled history, saying the issue 'was never simply about civil rights; it was about the meaning of America, the kind of country we wanted to be'":

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "A majority of the Supreme Court justices seemed unpersuaded on Wednesday that an affirmative action plan at the University of Texas was constitutional. But the member of the Supreme Court who almost certainly holds the crucial vote, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, devoted almost all of his questions to exploring whether the case should be returned to the trial court to allow the university to submit more evidence to justify its use of race in deciding which students to admit. By the end of the unusually long and tense argument, Justice Kennedy indicated that the Supreme Court might have all the evidence needed to decide the case. That could mean that the Texas admissions plan is in peril and that affirmative action at colleges and universities around the nation may be in trouble as well." ...

... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday once again displayed its deep divide over when race can be considered in college admission decisions, in a contentious hour and a half of oral arguments about a limited race-conscious plan used by the University of Texas at Austin. There seemed little doubt that the decision would come down to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. He has never voted to uphold an affirmative action program but seemed less convinced than the court's other conservatives that he had all the information needed to pass judgment on UT's program." ...

... ** Amanda Marcotte, in Salon: "This is a case that should have been laughed out of court years ago, but instead, this is the second time -- second time! -- it's being presented in front of the Supreme Court.... Instead of telling her where to shove it, the Supreme Court sent Fisher's case back to the appeals court. Now she and her lawyers are back again. This time, they've tweaked their argument a bit, trying to argue that diversity itself is an illegitimate goal for schools and, to add a bit of extra nastiness sauce to it, they're claiming that diversity is bad for students of color." ...

... Black Kids Are Stupid, Says Kindly Justice. Tierney Sneed of TPM: "In the oral arguments Wednesday ..., Justice Antonin Scalia -- a well known critic of affirmative action -- suggested that the policy was hurting minority students by sending them to schools too academically challenging for them. Referencing an unidentified amicus brief, Scalia said that there were people who would contend that 'it does not benefit African-Americans to -- to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a less -- a slower-track school where they do well.... Most of the black scientists in this country don't come from schools like the University of Texas. They come from lesser schools where they do not feel that they're -- that they're being pushed ahead in -- in classes that are too -- too fast for them,'..." ...

... CW: This is the first time in decades, as far as I'm aware, that a Supreme Court justice has overtly embraced a racist rationale for his opinion, tho I suppose the record may show that Scalia has said stuff like this before. Scalia, the son of Italian immigrants, attended two elite private schools: Georgetown & Harvard. Maybe those schools should have turned him down & suggested he go to CCNY, where he'd do better mingling with his "ethnic friends." ...

     ... Update: The Times editors, in the editorial linked below also note that Scalia's premise "has not gotten such a full airing at the Supreme Court since the 1950s." It is of course ironic that Scalia's paternalistic, racist notion was articulated during a hearing on a suit brought against a program that attempts to reduce built-in racial disparities. Just amazing. And a fine argument for term-limiting justices & judges. ...

... Charles Pierce: "And, right there beside Scalia, Justice Clarence Thomas (Holy Cross '71) sat, and said nothing." ...

... Separate But Inferior. A Perfect Response to Alito & Scalia. Frankly, I don't think the solution to the problems with student body diversity can be to set up a system in which not only are minorities going to separate schools, they're going to inferior schools. -- Gregory Garre, attorney for the University of Texas

... New York Times Editors: "Justice Scalia and the other conservative justices may prefer to ignore the systemic effects of racism and segregation in America, but they do not disappear that easily. The University of Texas, like countless other schools around the country, is already extremely restricted in what it can to counteract those effects. The court should not make the job even harder." ...

... Scott Lemieux in the Guardian: "If the US supreme court rules otherwise in the Fisher, not only will 'lesser schools', as Scalia termed them, not benefit from increased African American admissions, schools like UT and African American students will both suffer -- and the Fishers of the world won't win either. They'll just lose their last excuse for their own mediocrity."

Linda Greenhouse: "Over the dissenting votes of Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, the court let stand a lower court's ruling that [a] ban [on assault weapons], adopted in 2013 by the city of Highland Park, was consistent with the right to gun ownership under the Second Amendment, as interpreted by the Supreme Court.... It's too soon to conclude that the Supreme Court's unwelcome transformation of the Second Amendment has reached a pivotal moment.... But what happened this week does underscore something important about the court's current dynamic: the chasm on the conservative flank between, on the one hand, two justices who embrace all-out judicial activism and, on the other, those who are willing to wait and see."

George Aisch & Josh Keller of the New York Times: "Fear of gun-buying restrictions has been the main driver of spikes in gun sales, far surpassing the effects of mass shootings and terrorist attacks alone, according to federal background-check data analyzed by The New York Times. When a man shot and killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., gun sales did not set records until five days later, after President Obama called for banning assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.... 'President Obama has actually been the best salesman for firearms,' said Brian W. Ruttenbur, an analyst with BB&T Capital Markets, a financial services firm." ...

... CW: Now I know for sure I'm not a "normal" American. Nothing in President Obama's speeches has compelled me (or even made me think) to rush out to get my hands on the last assault rifle on the shelf.

Mark Mazzetti & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "As American intelligence agencies grapple with the expansion of the Islamic State beyond its headquarters in Syria, the Pentagon has proposed a new plan to the White House to build up a string of military bases in Africa, Southwest Asia and the Middle East. The bases could be used for collecting intelligence and carrying out strikes against the terrorist group's far-flung affiliates."

FBI Director James Comey, at a Senate hearing Wednesday, on the San Bernardino killers. See also yesterday's Commentariat:

... Adam Goldman & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Comey was critical of anti-Muslim rhetoric, saying that it is not helpful when law enforcement officials are trying to work with communities in the United States to combat terrorism. He said that for the Islamic State and other terrorist organizations, it is part of their strategy to convince Muslims that the United States is hostile to them.... The FBI is trying to determine whether there is any connection between an earlier potential plot by Farook and his former neighbor, Enrique Marquez, and the arrests in 2012 of four men in Riverside, Calif. The men were charged with plotting to kill Americans in Afghanistan."

... Yes, this guy might be a terrorist. Nancy Dillon & Larry McShane of the New York Daily News have more details on Enrique Marquez, a long-time friend of Syed Farook: "Enrique Marquez, 24, remained a free man Wednesday as the investigation into the ISIS-inspired slaughter continued -- but it appeared he faced imminent arrest, a source told The News. 'Looks like it,' said the source, saying there was no indication that the transfers ... [were] done with the legally required paperwork."

Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Robert L. Dear Jr. was charged with 179 counts on Wednesday, including first-degree murder, in connection with the deadly shooting rampage last month at a Planned Parenthood clinic. Bearded, unkempt and cuffed at the legs and arms, Mr. Dear frequently disrupted the proceedings in state court here, shouting out declarations of anger and defiance. 'I'm guilty. There's no trial. I'm a warrior for the babies,' he yelled at one point. 'Let it all come out. The truth!' he yelled at another. As Judge Gilbert A. Martinez discussed a pretrial publicity order, Mr. Dear shouted: 'Could you add the babies that were supposed to be aborted that day? Could you add that to the list?'"

Jamiles Lartey of the Guardian: "The risk of being killed during a police incident is 16 times greater for individuals with untreated mental illness than other civilians, according to a new report by the Treatment Advocacy Center (Tac). The report suggests that a variety of institutional and policy failures have often left law enforcement as the only available resource to deal with people in mental health crisis, sometimes with fatal results."

Presidential Race

Julian Hattem of the Hill: "President Obama does not receive briefings about the FBI's investigation into the personal email setup Hillary Clinton used as secretary of State, bureau Director James Comey said on Wednesday" at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Gail Collins: "... when you think of Missouri, give a fond mental shout-out to [State Rep.] Stacey Newman. And remember her lesson -- when it comes to civil liberties, there's currently far more concern in this country over the right to buy weapons than there is over a woman's right to control her own body. All the major Republican candidates for president are pretty much on the same page when it comes to firearms.... All the major candidates are also opposed to giving women any rights whatsoever when it comes to terminating a pregnancy.... The current debate on the Republican side has slid so far to the right that the moderates are people who do not want to force rape victims to carry the fetus to full term."

Gregory Krieg of CNN: "Facing harsh criticism for his proposal to temporarily halt Muslim immigration to the U.S., Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was acting in the Islamic community's best interests. 'I'm doing good for the Muslims,' Trump told Don Lemon in an interview for 'CNN Tonight.' 'Many Muslim friends of mine are in agreement with me. They say, "Donald, you brought something up to the fore that is so brilliant and so fantastic.'"... Trump said he was not likely to wage a third-party candidacy, but the billionaire businessman would not rule it out."

Jerusalem Post: "... Donald Trump is planning a visit to the Temple Mount when he comes to Israel for the first time at the end of the month.... A security source said Trump would probably not be allowed to visit the Temple Mount, the Post's sister publication Ma'ariv reported. The source said that when the current wave of terrorism began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu banned all politicians from visiting the site. The source added that Trump's visit is meant to be a provocation, so security forces are likely to bar him from ascending the mount. Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected Trump's remarks regarding Muslims, but officials suggested his December 28 meeting with Trump would go ahead as planned." ...

... Marissa Newman & Raphael Ahren of the Times of Israel: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on December 28, amid calls by a growing number of lawmakers to block the GOP front-runner from entering the Knesset or the country. The meeting was scheduled two weeks ago, prior to Trump's widely criticized proposal of a blanket ban on Muslims entering the United States...." ...

... UPDATE. Peter Beaumont of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has said he will 'postpone' a trip to Israel and a meeting with the country's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, until 'after I become president of the US'.... The cancellation is a blow to Trump with Israel treated as a regular campaign stop for many US presidential candidates." The cancellation comes after 37 MPs signed a letter asking that Trump be barred from entry & Netanyahu further distanced himself from Trump's remarks about Muslims. CW: Also, based on the Jerusalem Post piece above, it looks as if Trump would not have been able to make good on his announced plan to visit the Temple Mount. ...

     ... CW: Funny, because wasn't it just last week that Trump was boasting to Republican Jews that he was a great negotiator just like all of them? So when a few, mostly opposition, MPs say they want to nix a Trump visit, he just folds. Maybe Trump is running a disciplined campaign, as Schwartzman & Johnson of the WashPo claim in an article linked below, but he sure looks like a cardboard cowboy. If he can't even negotiate himself into Israel, where the Prime Minister agreed to meet with him, how is he going to negotiate with Congress, much less the U.S.'s traditional foreign foes? Sorry, Trumpbots, your guy (who also couldn't best those awesome CNN "negotiators" who refused to pay his $5mm ransom demand) is not a "strongman." ...

... Reuters: "... Donald Trump's anti-Muslim comments cost him business in the Middle East on Wednesday, with a major chain of department stores halting sales of his glitzy 'Trump Home' line of lamps, mirrors and jewellery boxes." ...

... Damien Gayle, et al., of the Guardian: "Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon[, First Minister of Scotland,] has moved to sever all Scottish government business links with Donald Trump. The first minister withdrew Trump's membership of the GlobalScot business network, run by Scottish Enterprise, with immediate effect." On the bright side, he can still travel to Britain, over the objections of tens of thousands of Brits. ...

... "So What? They're Muslim." Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "While defending Donald Trump's proposed ban on Muslims visiting the United States during a debate with CNN's S.E. Cupp, Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson dismissed Cupp's assertion that a ban on all Muslims goes too far.... Pierson [said] ... that 'never in United States history have we allowed insurgents to come across these borders.' 'No one's talking about allowing insurgents,' Cupp hit back. 'You're talking about not allowing regular Muslims. That's what you're talking about.' 'Yes, from Arab nations,' Pierson replied. 'You know what? So what? They're Muslim.'" ...

... John McCormick of Bloomberg News: "Almost two-thirds of likely 2016 Republican primary voters favor Donald Trump's call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S., while more than a third say it makes them more likely to vote for him. Those are some of the findings from a Bloomberg Politics/Purple Strategies PulsePoll, an online survey conducted Tuesday, that shows support at 37 percent among all likely general-election voters for the controversial proposal put forward by the Republican front-runner." ...

... digby: "Being fearful of lunatics with guns randomly shooting people [is] completely rational. These things happen with terrifying frequency in our country. What isn't rational is that these Trump people are only afraid of this when a Muslim is on the other side of the semi-automatic weapon. Otherwise it's just the price of freedom. This is nuts. But then these Republican voters have been working themselves into a frenzy for quite some time." ...

... Paul Schwartzman & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "... while it may seem like a lurching, chaotic campaign, Trump is, for the most part, a disciplined and methodical candidate, according to a Washington Post review of the businessman's speeches, interviews and thousands of tweets and retweets over the past six months." ...

... ** Kareem Abdul-Jabar of Time: Donald "Trump is ISIS's greatest triumph: the perfect Manchurian Candidate who, instead of offering specific and realistic policies, preys on the fears of the public, doing ISIS's job for them.... While Trump is not slaughtering innocent people, he is exploiting such acts of violence to create terror here to coerce support." Abdul-Jabbar is one of those Muslim-American sports figures Trump claims he never heard of, even tho he's met them & posed for photos with them. ...

... New York Times Editors: "The Republican rivals rushing to distance themselves from his latest inflammatory proposal -- a faith-based wall around the country — have been peddling their own nativist policies for months or years. They have been harshening their campaign speeches and immigration proposals in response to the Trump effect. Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush want to allow only Christian refugees from Syria to enter the country, and Mr. Cruz has introduced legislation to allow states to opt out of refugee resettlement.... The racism behind the agenda of the right wing on immigrants and foreigners has long been plain as day." ...

... He's a Jerk, But He's Our Jerk. Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "... as his statements grow more repellent and his opponents slowly become more willing to criticize him (very slowly in some cases), 'Will you support Donald Trump if he is the GOP nominee?' is the question every Republican is getting.... If you're saying on one hand that he's 'entirely unsuited to lead the United States' (John Kasich), or that his plan to ban Muslims from coming to the country 'is not what this party stands for. And, more importantly, it's not what this country stands for' (Paul Ryan), or that he's 'unhinged' (Jeb Bush), or that he's 'a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot' (Lindsey Graham), then it's awfully hard to say on the other hand that if he's your party's nominee for president, you'll be right at his side. Yet that's exactly what Republicans are saying, even if not in so many words." ...

... Kasie Hunt & Jordan Frasier of NBC News: "Jeb Bush on Wednesday called Donald Trump "Barack Obama - the other version of it," as he campaigned in New Hampshire with a surrogate who's said he'd vote for Hillary Clinton over Trump.... He was making the point Obama has divided the country in a way that's similar to Trump." CW: Or at least that was the reporters' best guess. ...

     ... OR. Driftglass: "Jeb(!) reduced to saying random words."

... Steve Benen: "Jeb Bush told MSNBC's Chuck Todd yesterday that the Trump campaign is relying on 'dog-whistle proposals to prey on people's fears.' That's half-right -- Trump is clearly preying on people's fears, but these aren't 'dog-whistle proposals'; they're the exact opposite. The whole point of dog-whistle politics is subtlety and coded language. Trump's racism, however, is explicit and overt. 'So what? They're Muslim' is less of a dog whistle and more of a bullhorn." ...

... Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: Conspiracy theorist "Jeb Bush on Tuesday questioned whether GOP presidential rival Donald Trump made a deal with ... Hillary Clinton to get elected to the White House. 'Maybe Donald negotiated a deal with his buddy @HillaryClinton. Continuing this path will put her in the White House,' the former Florida governor tweeted. trump, however, has repeatedly dismissed those charges, noting that he has attacked Hillary Clinton hard throughout his campaign."

I used to think [guns] needed to be registered, but if you register them they just come and find you and take your guns. -- Conspiracy theorist Ben Carson (via Gail Collins)

Beyond the Beltway

Margaret Hartmann of New York has a summary of the latest news from Chicago, which includes the initiation of a recall effort to oust Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Way Beyond

Brian Murphy of the Washington Post: For the first time in Saudi Arabia, women are allowed to run for political office, & this Saturday, to vote. The government still bars women from driving cars.