The Commentariat -- December 6, 2015

Mario Trujillo of the Hill: "President Obama will discuss the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings and the broader threat of terrorism on Sunday night in a rare prime time address from the Oval Office. The address at 8 p.m. will hit on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) and how the terror threat has "evolved, and how we will defeat it," according to the White House." CW: I was just thinking he should do this. And I hope he tells Republican presidential candidates & other loudmouths to STFU. ...

Peter Baker & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times :"'We have moved to an entirely new phase in the global terrorist threat and in our homeland security efforts,' Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, said in an interview on Saturday. Terrorists have 'in effect outsourced attempts to attack our homeland. We've seen this not just here but in other places. This requires a whole new approach, in my view.'... Mr. Johnson said the government should continue to augment airline security by placing more agents in overseas departure airports and further toughen standards for the visa waiver program that allows visitors from certain friendly nations easy entry into the country. He and other officials said the government needed to reach out even more to Muslim communities to help identify threats that might otherwise escape notice." ...

... Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "The intelligence community told President Obama during a briefing Saturday that the suspects in the San Bernardino, Calif., shooting were not part of an 'organized group' or 'terrorist cell,' the White House said in a statement." ...

... Faith Karimi, et al., of CNN: "ISIS on Saturday hailed the two people who massacred 14 people in Southern California this week as 'supporters' of the terror group -- a message that came after U.S. investigators said they suspect one of the shooters professed loyalty to the Islamist network. The terror group's official Iraq-based station made the declaration days after Wednesday's San Bernardino shooting that also left 21 injured, but -- notable for a group quick to claim attacks -- did not say the couple were members or that ISIS was responsible." ...

... Abby Phillip, et al., of the Washington Post: "Early on Saturday, law enforcement authorities raided a home next door to one where the Farook family once lived in Riverside, Calif. According to a law enforcement official, the raid targeted Enrique Marquez, who is thought to have bought the two military-grade rifles used in the attack. Both weapons were modified in a way that allowed them to be used with greater lethality, suggesting extensive planning for the attack. Marquez, who has not been charged with a crime, has checked himself into a nearby mental health facility." ...

... Missed this one. Dan Frosch & Ashby Jones of the Wall Street Journal: "The weapons were illegal under California law because they were modified and violated the state's ban on assault weapons, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said on Thursday.... While they were originally sold legally, with magazine locking devices commonly known as bullet buttons, the rifles were subsequently altered in different ways to enhance them, according to Meredith Davis, a special agent with the ATF." CW: To read this story, unless you have a WSJ subscription, you'll have to Google it. ...

... Tim Craig & others at the Washington Post try to profile Tashfeen Malik, the San Bernardino shooter. ...

... Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "The president of Liberty University[, Jerry Falwell, Jr.,] ... urged students during the school's convocation Friday to get their permits to carry concealed weapons.... 'I've always thought that if more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in,' he says, the rest of his sentence drowned out by loud applause while he said, 'and killed them.'... Falwell said that when he referred to 'those Muslims,' he was referring to Islamic terrorists, specifically those behind the attacks in Paris and in San Bernardino.... A spokesperson for Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) sent the following statement on Saturday: 'My administration is committed to making Virginia an open and welcoming Commonwealth, while also ensuring the safety of all of our citizens. Mr. Falwell's rash and repugnant comments detract from both of those crucial goals,' McAuliffe said." Read the whole article to get a better idea of what a flaming ass Falwell is. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... CW: It seems Marco Rubio, who never knows what's he talking about unless it's his parents' humble occupations, criticized Democratic candidates for going on & on about gun control but never mentioning "bomb control." The sick-funny thing is, as Steve M. points out, President Clinton did try to introduce some bomb control: "a requirement that traceable 'taggants' be included in explosives. The NRA was having none of it, and therefore neither was the GOP." Obviously, taggants won't deter a bomber, but they can help authorities catch him. And Republicans are against that. As one of Steve's commenters wrote, Democrats should -- accurately --portray Republicans as soft on crime. Well, how 'bout soft on terrorism, too. ...

... Andy Parker in the New York Daily News: "On Aug. 26, our daughter Alison was murdered on live television here in Virginia.... [Coupled with the House's refusal to address gun control measures,] the Senate vote Thursday that defeated a measure to deny known or suspected terrorists the ability to obtain firearms and explosives and you have what amounts to, in my opinion, TREASON. These cowards would rather cash their NRA checks than protect our families and our country."

Keith Laing of the Hill: "President Obama signed into a law a five-year, $305 billion highway bill on Friday, with just hours to spare before the scheduled expiration of the nation's road and transit spending. Funding had been set to expire at midnight."

Never Mind. Nahal Toosi of Politico: "More than half of the House Democrats who voted to restrict the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the U.S. appear to be having second thoughts. At least 26 of the 47 Democrats who supported the measure have signed on to a letter urging House Speaker Paul Ryan not to include it in a must-pass omnibus spending bill likely to be voted on in the coming days, according to groups helping arrange the missive." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Missed this, too. Sarah Wheaton of Politico (Dec. 4): "President Barack Obama held an unannounced meeting with gun control advocates former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, on Friday and discussed his administration's 'ongoing effort to address gun violence in America,' according to a White House statement. The meeting, which did not appear on the president's public schedule, had been planned in advance of the shooting attack Wednesday in San Bernardino.... The White House meeting also included senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who is overseeing the process of drafting possible executive actions to prevent gun violence -- a topic that came up during the discussion...."

Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "The Supreme Court denied a request from the activist behind the Planned Parenthood sting videos to block a federal judge's order to turn over the names of people who supported his work. Lawyers representing David Daleiden had asked Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy on Friday evening to block the order from the district judge, which was upheld by an appeals panel Thursday."

Juan Cole: Receb Tayyip "Erdogan's negative divide and rule has brought Turkey to the brink of chaos. A hot war with the PKK is ongoing. HDP offices have been bombed. The Syria proxy war, supporting hard line fundamentalists allied with al-Qaeda versus Russian-backed forces, is ongoing. Press freedom, always precarious, has evaporated. A Russian economic boycott is being imposed. Whether Erdogan can still manage to become president for life is unclear. But his negative, violent divide-and-rule tactics are producing a bigger question, of what kind of Turkey he will be president of. One thing is clear. The so-called Turkish model is dead.... Turkey's downward spiral has regional implications." Thanks to safari for the link.

Election 2016

Historian Sean Wilentz, in a long & very readable Rolling Stone essay, invokes history (natch!) to argue that the election "will be one of the most pivotal moments of our time." ...

... CW: Presidential-year elections would be far less "pivotal" if Democrats, so-called independents & the other-directed would learn to vote in every Congressional election as well as in state & local off-year elections.

Amy Chozick of the New York Times on the long, complicated & often acrimonious relationship between Hillary Clinton & Rahm Emanuel.

Republican candidates criticize New York Times editorial, say every red-blooded (pale-skinned) American should be walking around with semi-automatic weapons to mow down terrorists. Or something. ...

Michael Barbaro & Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "The Republican candidates for president angrily demanded on Friday that the United States face up to a new world war, one that has breached its borders, threatened the safety of Americans and brought the menace of Islamic terrorism deep into the homeland.... Republicans have raced to fill the role of the terror-combating commander in chief, sometimes with a mix of bravado and bluster and oneupmanship.... Their language was almost apocalyptic.... For all the heated expressions from Republicans..., they favored symbolism over specific policy prescriptions." ...

     ... Steve M. rips apart Barbaro & Gabriel's reporting on Clinton. CW: My favorite part is where they wrote, "Democrats seemed to offer a more muddled response." What they mean by "muddled," as far as I can tell from the context, is that Democrats didn't say, "First, kill all the Muslims." I suspect that when Mike & Trip realized they had reported that Republican candidates were using "apocalyptic language," "bravado" & "bluster," they had to obey the Both-Sides Goddess & find a negative way to describe Democrats' responses, too.

Words Matter. Patrick Healy & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The dark power of words has become the defining feature of [Donald] Trump's bid for the White House to a degree rarely seen in modern politics, as he forgoes the usual campaign trappings ... and instead relies on potent language to connect with, and often stoke, the fears and grievances of Americans. The New York Times analyzed every public utterance by Mr. Trump over the past week.... The transcriptions yielded 95,000 words and several powerful patterns, demonstrating how Mr. Trump has built one of the most surprising political movements in decades and, historians say, echoing the appeals of some demagogues of the past century. Mr. Trump's breezy stage presence makes him all the more effective because he is not as off-putting as those raging men of the past, these experts say." ...

     ... CW: Pretty fascinating. both in content & in the Times' willingness to forego their he-said/she-said formula & call a demagogue a demagogue. ...

... digby adds a modifier: "He is a fascist demagogue. And to a whole lot of Americans what he's saying is music to their ears. And other right wing leaders, like Ted Cruz and Jerry Falwell Jr (an alleged Christian minister) are right there with him." digby runs down some of Trump's newer, outrageous remarks. ...

... Today provides yet another good example of Trump's inflammatory, name-calling but otherwise substance-free rhetoric. Jeremy Herb of Politico: "Donald Trump says the country's 'tremendous problem' with radical Islamic terrorism will get solved once President Barack Obama 'gets the hell out' of office. Trump slammed the president Sunday for not using the term 'radical Islamic terrorism' to describe the terror attacks in Paris and this past week's mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, hitting on a frequent Republican criticism of the Obama administration's language used to describe terrorism." ...

... CW: Because demonizing everyone of the Muslim faith will definitely end terrorism & turn Daesh into mush. When will Trump start calling Falwell the Younger a radical Christian terrorist? (See Falwell's call-to-arms against Muslims, linked above.) ...

... Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "More than two dozen people were escorted from [Donald Trump's campaign] event at Dorton Arena [in Raleigh, North Carolina,] for various forms of protest, causing the candidate to stop his stump speech about 10 times until the shouts and boos subsided."

Bradford Richardson: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is pointing to this week's shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., as evidence that female refugees from Syria should not be allowed in the country." ...

... No Country for Men. CW: I am pointing to the shooting attack at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs as evidence that men from the United States should not be allowed in the country. Deport 'em all. (See also Standoff at Neenah, below, & Steve M.'s commentary.)

Beyond the Beltway

AP: "A standoff at a motorcycle shop in Wisconsin ended Saturday with one person dead, a police officer injured and one person in custody, authorities said. Police said shots were reported at Eagle Nation Cycles on Neenah's Main Street shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday, along with a report that hostages had been taken. Police responded and nearby homes and businesses in Neenah, about 85 miles northwest of Milwaukee, were evacuated." ...

... When a Guy with a Gun Has Seller's Remorse. According to unconfirmed information the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel received from the shopowner's attorney, the shooter was some guy who had sold his bike & wanted it back. The bike was in the shop for repairs. ...

     ... Update. Cary Spivak, et al., of the Journal Sentinel: "After most of the hostages were released, one person inside the shop exited with a gun and was shot by police when he ignored demands to drop it, and died later, said Police Chief Kevin Wilkinson. He noted that investigators were still trying to sort out a confusing situation." ..

... Steve M.: "Also, please note that even though a cop had to go to the hospital, the suspect was taken into custody alive. So I'm betting the suspect is a white guy, not a Muslim (or a black person). Therefore, it's just another day in America -- shots were fired, citizens were terrorized, but the culprit was a regular American, so it's cool."

The Thin Blue Line -- Accessories After the Fact. Monica Davey of the New York Times: "... at least five other officers on the scene that night [of the police killing of teen Laquan McDonald] corroborated a version of events similar to the one Officer [Jason] Van Dyke, now charged with murder in the shooting, gave his supervisors: that Mr. McDonald was aggressively swinging his knife and was moving toward the police, giving Officer Van Dyke no choice but to start shooting."

The Commentariat -- December 5, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "The president of Liberty University[, Jerry Falwell, Jr.,] ... urged students during the school's convocation Friday to get their permits to carry concealed weapons.... 'I've always thought that if more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in,' he says, the rest of his sentence drowned out by loud applause while he said, 'and killed them.'... Falwell said that when he referred to 'those Muslims,' he was referring to Islamic terrorists, specifically those behind the attacks in Paris and in San Bernardino.... A spokesperson for Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) sent the following statement on Saturday: 'My administration is committed to making Virginia an open and welcoming Commonwealth, while also ensuring the safety of all of our citizens. Mr. Falwell's rash and repugnant comments detract from both of those crucial goals,' McAuliffe said." Read the whole article to get a better idea of what a flaming ass Falwell is.

Never Mind. Nahal Toosi of Politico: "More than half of the House Democrats who voted to restrict the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the U.S. appear to be having second thoughts. At least 26 of the 47 Democrats who supported the measure have signed on to a letter urging House Speaker Paul Ryan not to include it in a must-pass omnibus spending bill likely to be voted on in the coming days, according to groups helping arrange the missive."

*****

White House: "In this week's address, the President offered his condolences to the families and community of the victims of the San Bernardino shooting":

** CW: digby, following Richard Engle of NBC News, has by far the most sensible take on the probable motivations of the San Bernardino mass murderers. Engle: "So there is not an indication that this is a sleeper cell, that this someone who was planted by ISIS, that was years in the making. More likely it was someone in the United States, unhappy with the way they were living, unhappy with the way they were seen, became radicalized there and founded, was part of a cell in the United States." digby: "... everyone needs to take a breath and recognize that this is likely no different than all the other mass shootings we've had this year." Read the whole post for the rationale behind their tentative conclusion. ...

     I'd add this: Farook had a good job, & all indications are that his co-workers, who were of various ethnicities, treated him with respect. It's possible of course that he didn't see it that way; he could have spent five years in a state of perpetual resentment for real & perceived slights. Malik seems to have had little contact with Americans. I have no idea how much this couple followed U.S. politics. Maybe they never heard of Donald Trump. But just as Carly Fiorina & all those other anti-Planned Parenthood lying loudmouths almost certainly moved Robert Dear to attack the Colorado Springs clinic, it is quite likely that the party of Trump's virulent anti-Muslim rhetoric -- including Trump's Muslim registry/mosque surveillance musings -- was part of the mix that motivated Farook & Malik. In my view, their easy access to guns & ammo, thanks to Republicans, was a convenient means, but it is likely that right-wing racism & religious intolerance was a contributing motivation. ISIS propaganda was apparently the direct inspiration for this terrorist attack, but Republican rhetoric reinforced & validated that propaganda. I see GOP fingerprints all over the San Bernardino rampage. ...

... Michael Schmidt & Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: "The woman who, with her husband, killed 14 people in San Bernardino pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a Facebook post the day of the attack, officials said Friday, and the F.B.I. announced it was treating the massacre as an act of terrorism.' The investigation so far has developed indications of radicalization by the killers, and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations,' the F.B.I. director, James Comey, said at a news conference here. But, he said: 'so far we have no indication that these killers are part of an organized larger group, or form part of a cell. There's no indication that they are part of a network.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon with a lede which did not include the FBI's decision to treat the massacre as a terrorist act.) ...

... Eli Saslow & Stephanie McCrummen of the Washington Post provide an account of how the shooting went down, according to survivors who were in the room. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Kevin Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post: "American Muslims say they are living through an intensely painful moment and feel growing anti-Muslim sentiment after the recent Islamic State attacks in Paris and this week's San Bernardino shootings.... Many Muslims said fear of Islam is being fueled by the heated rhetoric of Republican presidential candidates, particularly businessman Donald Trump, who has called for surveillance of some mosques and requiring Muslims to register with the government.... Research by Pew and CAIR shows that apprehension about Islam has increased sharply with the rise of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, in the past two years, especially since the group's highly publicized beheadings of foreign journalists and aid workers began in August 2014." ...

Ravi Somaiya of the New York Times: "The New York Times is running an editorial on its front page on Saturday, the first time the paper has done so since 1920, calling for greater regulation on guns in the aftermath of a spate of mass shootings." ...

     ... New York Times Editors: "The attention and anger of Americans should also be directed at the elected leaders whose job is to keep us safe but who place a higher premium on the money and political power of an industry dedicated to profiting from the unfettered spread of ever more powerful firearms. It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency. These are weapons of war, barely modified and deliberately marketed as tools of macho vigilantism and even insurrection.... Certain kinds of weapons, like the slightly modified combat rifles used in California, and certain kinds of ammunition, must be outlawed for civilian ownership." ...

... Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: "Having instructed us that the first of this week's mass shootings was free from any ideological taint at all -- that the Planned Parenthood killings were the work of a lone nut, completely uninfluenced by their rhetoric -- the Republican candidates then ordered us to understand that the next mass shooting was nothing but ideology, that the horrific killings in San Bernardino were, as Ted Cruz instantly insisted, an act of Islamic terrorism that should place us in a 'time of war.'... The collective responsibility that all Americans share is the responsibility of allowing too many people to have too many guns; guns of a kind that no civilian ever needs can be bought in this country by almost anyone who wants one.... Those who put weapons into the hands of anyone who wants them are complicit in what happens when they do.... So there will be ever more mass gun murders, some to be accepted blankly as the cost of liberty, others to become the occasion for surrendering liberty to a militarized state.

... Steve M. Peggy Noonan is the "real" victim of the San Bernardino attack: liberals are picking on her & her confederates. CW: I especially like the advice of NMMNB commenter Lit3Bolt: "If I was any Democratic candidate..., I would continuously hammer all Republicans as soft on crime, soft on terrorism, soft on child safety. The Right wants ISIS radicals to buy guns and slaughter your children. The ads write themselves." ...

... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "White House press secretary Josh Earnest lashed out at Republicans who 'stood up once again with the NRA [National Rifle Association] and in the face of common sense' to block measures to expand background checks and bar individuals on terrorist watch lists from purchasing firearms." ...

... New York Times Editors: "The evolving situation has forced Republican leaders and presidential candidates to contort themselves: talking tough on terrorism, yet ignoring the fact that the two were armed to the teeth with two .223-caliber assault rifles and two 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistols, and hundreds of rounds, all purchased legally. While the nation suffered through the shock of another bloody massacre, on Thursday every Senate Republican except Mark Kirk of Illinois voted against legislation to prevent people on the F.B.I.'s consolidated terrorist watchlist from purchasing guns or explosives.... Since the Paris attacks, Republicans have been trying to outdo each other in describing how they'd crack down on global terrorism. But when a mass shooting at home calls attention to laws that put guns into the hands of suspected terrorists, they ask for a moment of silence, while taking action that speaks volumes." ...

... Gail Collins: "The San Bernardino murderers were wielding assault rifles, with which they were able to fire an estimated 65-75 bullets in rapid succession. Assault weapons, which seem to be the armament of choice for mass shootings, used to be illegal under a law that expired in 2004. If the law had stayed on the books, how many victims would have survived in San Bernardino, or at the elementary school in Newtown, Conn.? Given the fact that semiautomatic weapons are totally inappropriate for either hunting or home defense, some of us would love to trade them for the possibility of reduced casualties next time somebody decides to go on a rampage." ...

... David Roberts of Vox explains why confederates think they need those guns & ammo & why "reason" & evidence will not dissuade them. ...

... Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Jana Kasperkevic of the Guardian: "Stocks of two major gun-makers surged on Thursday morning, the day after a shooting in San Bernardino, California, left 14 people dead. More than an hour after the stock markets opened, Smith & Wesson stocks were up by 2.62%. Stocks of Sturm, Ruger & Co were up 1.67%. Gunmakers saw their stock rise even as the overall stock market fell on concerns that the Federal Reserve would raise interests later this month." ...

... Tim Egan: "By next week, with the professional football playoff picture starting to take shape, and the holiday festivities in full swing, we'll have this San Bernardino thing figured out. And we'll hope that it doesn't happen again tomorrow. But it will happen tomorrow -- on average, one multiple-victim shooting a day. Every day. It will make sense in the only country where mass killings make sense."

David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans have finally fulfilled their long quest to pass legislation repealing President Obama's landmark health care law, and Congress will soon send the measure to the White House, where it might have a chance of being folded into origami or a fleet of paper airplanes, but no possibility of being signed into law."

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The United States has been eliminating a mid- to high-level Islamic State figure every two days, on average, contributing to President Obama's decision to send a new Special Operations force to Iraq to intensify efforts to locate and kill militant leaders there and in Syria, a senior administration official said Thursday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Here is Norah O'Donnell's full interview of President Obama regarding climate change:

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Scavenger Hunt Edition. Scott Collins & Richard Winton of the Los Angeles Times: "On Friday morning, up to 100 journalists began rummaging around the house formerly occupied by the married couple who carried out a mass shooting on Wednesday in San Bernardino. And as that bizarre scene was playing out live on TV, critics -- on Twitter and elsewhere -- let out a collective yowl.... Reporters at the scene -- including from the Los Angeles Times -- said the couple's landlord used a crowbar to pry open the door of the home.... A mob scene ensued, with reporters and camera crews from CNN and MSNBC -- and a few non-media passersby -- rifling through the townhome.... [The Redlands police] "department stepped in to protect the rights of the dead persons' relatives and insure the property was secure. The scene was then closed." ...

... As Cowichan wrote in yesterday's thread, "... here were these msnbc ghouls rummaging through the detritus of the shooter's home. Revolting!!" ...

... digby: "... MSNBC (among others) gathered outside the apartment of the San Bernardino attackers, helped the landlord pry off the plywood on the door and raced in live to rummage through everything in there. They even showed the license and social security card of the shooter's mother in close-up on live TV. They ... showed pictures of unknown people to the entire country.... This was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen a network broadcast live." ...

... Katherine Krueger of TPM: "After MSNBC treated viewers on Friday to a live look inside the San Bernardino shooters' apartment, the network said they 'regret' showing photos of children and identification cards during the live broadcast."

Presidential Race

Simon Maloy of Salon: "As Trump endures in the polls, I think more and more about the political significance of the child migrant crisis of the summer of 2014.... The House GOP ... passed legislation that would have expedited deportations of children crossing the border, and separate legislation that would have ended the White House's deferred-action program for undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children.... That ugly display was followed up by a government-funding fight in which Republicans ... threatened to shut down the Department of Homeland Security if Obama didn't roll back his executive orders halting deportations for certain classes of undocumented immigrants. There was no chance of either of these legislative gambits working. They were all about sending a message: deport everyone. And now the party's voters are flocking to a candidate who is the loud, crude embodiment of that message."

For those of who have found Ben Carson's candidacy so incompetent that you wondered about his surgical skills, wonder no more:

... Bob Christie of the AP: "Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson said Friday that this week's mass shooting in Southern California should end the debate over whether Syrian refugees can safely be screened. The retired neurosurgeon told a pro-business group made of lawmakers from across the nation that if it turns out the woman involved was fully vetted by federal officials and cleared to enter the U.S. it should help end the refugee debate. 'Now if that vetting resulted in missing someone who carried out such a horrendous crime that should be the end of the argument right there,' Carson said." ...

     ... CW: If Ole Doc knew anything about our visa process -- which has been much in the news lately -- he would know that, as Rebecca Shabad of CBS News reported yesterday, "Even though there are multiple layers to the vetting process, White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Friday said the standards to obtain a K-1 visa are 'not as strict' as those faced by refugees entering the U.S."

... Seeing Stars. History According to Doc Ben. CW: Here's an hilarious aside I missed from Carson's scripted speech before the Republican Jewish Coalition: Alex Shepard of the New Republic: "Speaking to the group about Hyam Salomon, Carson said, 'Salomon gave all his funds to save the U.S. Army [during the American Revolution] and, some say, no one knows for sure, that's the reason there's a Star of David on the back of the one dollar bill.'... Salomon was one of the Continental Army's main financiers. But he didn't give all of his money to George Washington and, more importantly, there isn't a Star of David on the one dollar bill." ...

... Jordyn Phelps of ABC News: "There is a conspiracy theory that a design of stars arranged above the eagle on the U.S. seal printed on the bill forms a Jewish star and that this was done as a way to thank Salomon for his generosity. But the Numismatic Bibliomania Society's Wayne Homren says there's no evidence to suggest any truth to support the theory that the stars were intentionally arranged to represent the Jewish star, let alone that it was done in Salomon's name." ...

... Steve Benen: "Apparently, Carson believes that if you look at the back of a dollar bill -- on the right, just above the eagle -- you'll see stars in a shape resembling the Star of David.... Alas, like so many of the Republican candidate's off-the-wall theories, this one is not rooted in reality."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Jane Perlez of the New York Times: China has established its own international bank to finance regional infrastructure projects. "The United States worries that China will use the bank to set the global economic agenda on its own terms, forgoing the environmental protections, human rights, anticorruption measures and other governance standards long promoted by its Western counterparts. American officials point to China's existing record, of loans to unstable governments, construction deals for unnecessary infrastructure, and villagers abruptly uprooted with little compensation."

The Commentariat -- December 4, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The woman who helped carry out the shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., on Wednesday had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a Facebook posting, according to federal law enforcement officials. There is no evidence the Islamic State directed the woman, Tashfeen Malik, and her husband Syed Rizwan Farook, to launch the attacks, which killed 14 and wounded 21, the officials said. But the Facebook post has led investigators to believe that the couple took inspiration from the group, they said." ...

... Eli Saslow & Stephanie McCrummen of the Washington Post provide an account of how the shooting went down, according to survivors who were in the room.

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The United States has been eliminating a mid- to high-level Islamic State figure every two days, on average, contributing to President Obama's decision to send a new Special Operations force to Iraq to intensify efforts to locate and kill militant leaders there and in Syria, a senior administration official said Thursday."

*****

The theme of today's Commentariat, as it is on many a day, is "Republicans Are Endangering Your Health & Safety." -- Constant Weader

Paul Krugman: "We're looking at a [Republican] party that has turned its back on science at a time when doing so puts the very future of civilization at risk. That's the truth, and it needs to be faced head-on[, especially by both-sider journalists]. ...

... Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker: "The best that can be hoped for during the next week in Paris is that the rest of the world ignores the U.S.'s Republican leaders. Would that we had that luxury here at home.... Congressional Republicans rail against the federal government; then, with their own antics, confirm their worst criticisms. (Who, nowadays, would make the case that Americans should have faith in Washington?)" ...

... The GOP Then & Now. Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "... formerly classified documents from the Bush [I] and Reagan administrations obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and released on Wednesday by the National Security Archive ... portray senior officials in the two Republican administrations pressing for an aggressive response to international environmental issues of the day -- including, during Bush's term, climate change.... The assertive posture contrasts with the positions taken this week by leading Republican presidential contenders, several of whom publicly mocked [President] Obama's efforts to secure an international climate treaty in Paris. The GOP-controlled House voted Tuesday to block the administration's signature regulation to cut greenhouse-gas pollution from U.S. power plants."

** Matthew Rosenberg & Dave Philipps of the New York Times: "In a historic transformation of the American military, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said on Thursday that the Pentagon will open all combat jobs to women. 'There will be no exceptions,' Mr. Carter said at a news conference." ...

... So far Republicans aren't screaming, but they are warning that the move may mean young women have to register for the draft. CW: I don't see why.

Ian Lovett, et al., of the New York Times: "The married couple who police say killed 14 people at a social services center had built more than a dozen pipe bombs and stockpiled thousands of rounds of ammunition, officials said Thursday, and they fired as many as 150 bullets at victims and police officers in a rampage that shattered a quiet day and ended in their own deaths. The F.B.I. is treating the shooting as a potential terrorist act, though they are far from concluding that it was, two law enforcement officials said Thursday. The suspects' extensive arsenal, their recent Middle East travels and evidence that one had been in touch with people with Islamist extremist views, both in the United States and abroad, all contributed to the decision to refocus the investigation." (Also linked yesterday, with a different lede." ...

... Ben Mathis-Lilly & Elliot Hannon of Slate, 7:35 pm ET: "After notifying the families, the San Bernardino County coroner's office released the names of the 14 victims killed on Wednesday." ...

... The Los Angeles Times has biographical information on some of the victims. ...

... Thomas Gibbons-Neff, et al., of the Washington Post: "The story of the shooters doesn't fit with the profiles of hundreds of others who have killed large numbers of fellow human beings. To start with, one of the two shooters was a woman -- Farook's wife of less than two years, Tashfeen Malik, 27 -- exceedingly rare for such cases." ...

... Joan Walsh, now of the Nation: "Our prolonged gun control stalemate reflects the far-right's deep distrust of democracy, and it's worsened by a party that panders to that paranoid base. Increasingly this right-wing fringe believes it's going to need its guns to overthrow an illegitimate government -- especially the one run by gun-grabbing Barack Obama.... a large but poorly organized majority of Americans support sensible gun-control laws. But they don't get what they want, because one of our two major parties panders to its lunatic fringe." ...

... CW: Walsh portrays distrust of democracy as "the real reason we can't have gun control." I don't think that's right. The real reason is the lede sentence in Elizabeth Bruenig's brief post, linked below. ...

... Scott Martelle of the Los Angeles Times: "The law of the land, regrettably, is that the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution protects an individual's right to own a gun. But not a blanket right to own any kind of gun, and the San Bernardino killings showed yet again the kind of fast, massive carnage that comes with firing military-style weapons with magazines of cartridges at defenseless victims. That such guns can be sold legally to civilians is an atrocious idea, and renewing the federal assault weapons ban that lapsed in 2004would be a good place to start attacking the problem." ...

... CW: Yes, why not an assault weapons ban? Oh, here's why:

... Elizabeth Bruenig of the New Republic: "For gun executives, mass shootings equal profits." ...

... Joshua Holland of the Nation: "Perhaps the most frightening thing we know about gun violence comes from a study conducted by researchers at Duke, Harvard, and Columbia that was published earlier this year in the journal Behavioral Sciences and the Law. It found that almost one in 10 Americans who have access to guns are also prone to impulsive outbursts of rage.... The researchers also found that those who own many firearms are significantly more likely to exhibit signs of uncontrollable anger than people who own just one.... Very few among that group had been diagnosed with the kinds of mental illness that would be unearthed in a standard background check...." ...

... Max Ehrenfreund of the Washington Post: "Premeditated mass shootings in public places are happening more often, some researchers say.... In general, though, fewer Americans are dying as a result of gun violence -- a shift that began about two decades ago.... This decline in gun violence is part of an overall decline in violent crime." ...

... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "The Senate on Thursday passed legislation repealing the core pillars of ObamaCare, taking a major step toward sending such a bill to the president's desk for the first time.... The measure passed 52 to 47 after the Senate voted to significantly strengthen the bill originally passed by the House and brought straight to the floor by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The House will need to approve the amended legislation before it can be sent to the White House.... Democrats were ... unable to block the GOP measure, which was brought to the floor under budget reconciliation rules that prevented a filibuster." ...

... Kelsey Snell & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The Senate on Thursday voted down two gun control proposals put forward by Democrats in response to this week's deadly shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., in a series of votes that highlighted the intractable party divide over how to respond to gun violence. The Senate rejected a measure from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to expand background checks for guns purchased online and at gun shows on a 48 to 50 vote and an amendment from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to prevent people on the terror watch list from purchasing firearms on a 45 to 54 vote.... Still, it remains the closest the Senate has come to a consensus on gun control and will likely remain a big part of the debate." ...

... CW: Well, of course, GOP senators voted against these measures: the proposals are horridly restrictive & unfair, & the amendments' sponsors are both left-wing radicals. ...

... Reena Flores of CBS News: Speaker "Paul Ryan pushes mental health bill after San Bernardino shooting.... The House speaker touted legislation introduced by Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pennsylvania, that would revamp the country's mental health systems." ...

... Christi Parsons & Michael Memoli of the Los Angeles Times: "White House officials are seeking a way to use executive authority to close the so-called gun show loophole that allows thousands of people to buy firearms each year without a background check, but complicated legal issues have slowed the process.... One option for Obama is to set a threshold for the number of guns a person would be allowed to sell without obtaining a license."

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The Senate on Thursday rejected an amendment to the ObamaCare repeal bill that would have allowed federal funding for Planned Parenthood. The measure sponsored by three Senate Republicans would have stripped language from the bill blocking federal funds for Planned Parenthood. It fell short by 3 votes, 48-52." CW Translation: Senate Republicans (and Joe Manchin [D-W.Va.]) voted to block funding for Planned Parenthood.

Scott Wong & Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday he plans to roll out a long-awaited replacement plan for ObamaCare in 2016, lifting healthcare reform to the top of the House GOP's agenda in a presidential election year. 'There are many things to do, but most urgent is to repeal and replace ObamaCare,' Ryan said. 'We think this problem is so urgent that, next year, we are going to unveil a plan to replace every word of ObamaCare.'" CW: He also promised a pony to every little girl whose parents weren't lolling in the hammock of complacency.

Politico: "The Senate passed the biggest transportation infrastructure bill in a decade Thursday, sending to the White House a $305 billion five-year package that keeps federal money flowing to highway, transit and rail projects -- and reopens the controversial Export-Import Bank. After years of public pleas from the construction industry, a forceful lobbying blitz backed by Big Business and labor groups, and billions of dollars in bailouts, the Senate easily passed the bipartisan bill on a 83-16 vote just hours after the House approved the measure." ...

... Keith Laing & Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "The House overwhelmingly approved a five-year, $305 billion highway bill Thursday, advancing the first long-term national transportation spending package in a decade and cementing an early legislative achievement in the Speaker Paul Ryan era. The 359 -- 65 vote comes one day before federal infrastructure funding runs out, and sets up a likely Senate vote to pass the measure before Friday's deadline. All dissenting votes were cast by Republican lawmakers. The White House has said that President Obama is planning to sign the bill."

Eric Levitz of New York: "Here's a quick rundown of the [House Committee] report's five most embarrassing revelations [about the Secret Service]. The agency let a fake congressman meet with President Obama.... They let a random Czech guy chill at George H.W. Bush's House.... Via email, agents discuss foreign trips like frat brothers planning spring break. Their current director [Joseph Clancy] misled Congress about the agency's incompetence. People hate working for the Secret Service."

Justin Salhani of Think Progress: "Anti-Muslim rhetoric, recently on display as lawmakers discuss the issue of resettling Syrian refugees, began on the fringes of the far-right and has infiltrated mainstream politics, according to a new report released by the National Security Network.... As the report points out, anti-Muslim rhetoric is becoming increasingly prominent among Republican presidential candidates." (Here's the Wikipedia page on the National Security Network, which appears to be pretty mainstream moderate-left.) ...

... John Stanton of BuzzFeed: "Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Thursday warned that the Justice Department could take aggressive action against people whose anti-Muslim rhetoric 'edges towards violence' and told the Muslim community that 'we stand with you in this.' Speaking at Muslim Advocate's 10th anniversary dinner, Lynch said since the terrorist attacks in Paris last month, she is increasingly concerned with the 'incredibly disturbing rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric ... that fear is my greatest fear.'"

Presidential Race

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton on Thursday called for gun control measures and reiterated President Obama's statement that terrorism had not been ruled out as a motive in the mass shooting the day before that left 14 people dead." ...

... Noah Bierman & Evan Halper of the Los Angeles Times: "After the shooting rampage in San Bernardino, Democrats forcefully demanded a tightening of the country's gun laws.... Republicans talked of an entirely separate policy failure, drawing on news reports that the massacre may have been spurred by religious extremists.... But it was Donald Trump who ramped up the rhetoric further than all the others. As his remarks turned to San Bernardino, Trump said [President] Obama's refusal to use the term 'radical Islamic terrorism' indicates that 'there is something going on with him that we don't know about.' The ominous comment echoed Trump's history of questioning Obama's birthplace and airing of false claims that the president practices Islam." ...

... CW: Yo, Donald, partly for the same reason government agencies don't use the term "radical Christian extremism." ...

... Daniel Strauss of Politico: "A day after the shooting massacre in California, Republican presidential contenders were utterly unapologetic about their opposition to new gun-control laws." Ted Cruz, for instance, is appearing an event this week to "unveil his 'National 2nd Amendment Coalition'" at a "shooting range ... that defines its corporate purpose as, 'to glorify God in all we do and to be a positive influence to all who come in contact with CrossRoads Shooting Sports LLC.'" Rand Paul chose the moment to introduce a bill that "would remove existing restrictive firearm ownership laws in the District of Columbia...."

"Yuge Lead." Nick Gass of Politico: "Donald Trump is the top choice of more than one out of every three Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters, according to the results of a new CNN/ORC poll released Friday. And it's not even close -- at 36 percent, Trump's closest competitor for the GOP presidential nomination is Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, at 16 percent." ...

... Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump said Thursday that he is unexcited about the upcoming primary debate and irritated by CNN's coverage of his campaign, but confirmed that he will appear at the network's GOP forum scheduled for Dec. 15 in Las Vegas.... [Trump]'s decision comes after days of hedging and complaints over his lack of compensation for being a ratings boon for media hosts of GOP primary debates. Over the weekend at a rally in Macon, Ga., he suggested that CNN should pay $5 million for him to appear." ...

... The Weakling. Kevin Drum: "There you have it, ladies and gentlemen: your master negotiator at work. The guy who'd get Mexico to pay for a wall. The guy who'd squeeze Iran like a grape. The guy who'd save us from the wily Chinese.... But when it comes to pressing CNN for a bit of chump change, he ... can't even get a face-saving little tidbit out of it. CNN told him to get lost, and he promptly folded. He was bluffing the whole time and everyone knew it." ...

... Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "Republican presidential candidates were supposed to competing for the endorsement of mega-donor Sheldon Adelson on Thursday. Instead..., in front of the crowd of influential GOP powerbrokers and donors who are members of the [Republican Jewish Coalition], bizarre moments repeatedly popped up as the two frontrunners in the race, Donald Trump and Ben Carson, both demonstrated their lack of knowledge of foreign policy in startling and astonishing ways.... Trump told borderline antisemitic jokes and ... repeatedly referenced stereotypes of Jewish business acumen and wealth in his speech." ...

You're not going to support me even though you know I'm the best thing that could happen to Israel. I know why you&'re not going to support me -- because I don't want your money. You want to control your own politician. -- Donald Trump, to the Republican Jewish Coalition ...

... Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump drew a few rare boos toward the end of his appearance at Thursday's Republican Jewish Coalition candidate forum, after refusing to say that Jerusalem should be the undivided and recognized capital of Israel." ...

... CW: See? Sometimes Donald Trump is right. Also, he is apparently the only GOP presidential candidate who refuses to kiss Adelson's Golden Ass.

Extreme Chick Peas? Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Ben Carson, whose presidential campaign has been stymied with questions about his depth on foreign policy, addressed one of the most influential Republican Jewish organizations on Thursday but probably left few there with much confidence that his knowledge is growing. He repeatedly mispronounced the name of the extremist group Hamas, saying something that sounded more like hummus." CW: Listen to the video -- I don't think Carson's pronunciation was quite as bad as Peters makes out, & he did get the pronunciation right in the last iteration on the tape. He read his whole address, so it's possible the author, whoever s/he may be, occasionally included diacritical marks. His reading, to be sure, appears to be akin to that of a schoolboy, forced to stand in class & read his textbook for the first time. ...

... Nonetheless, Tad Friend tweets, "Ben Carson not just concerned about Hummus terror threat, but about dire situation in Baba Ghanoush and Tabouli."

If you want a really good friend, find somebody who is Jewish. -- John Kasich, on what his mother told him when he was a child

Because stereotyping people is okay, if you do it in a good way. -- Constant Weader

... MEANWHILE, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), whose "poll numbers hovering near 1 percent," continues to make sense on some issues. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "During a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition forum in Washington, Mr. Graham laid into his rivals for alienating women and minorities. He took particular issue with Senator Ted Cruz...."

If somebody is a suspected terrorist on a watch list, they can be indicted at any time, and once you're indicted, you cannot own a firearm. This is a red herring to suggest that we should have background checks for those on the terror watch list. Why aren't these people prosecuted? -- Carly Fiorina on why gun-control legislation is unnecessary

Not sure here if Fiorina doesn't understand Constitutional presumption of innocence, doesn't understand that you have to be suspecting of having actually committed a crime to be indicted & prosecuted for one, doesn't understand the meaning of the word "watch," and/or doesn't understand the concept of time, as in before-and-after. Anyway, a nice reminder of the intellectual & moral depravity of the GOP candidates. As if you needed one. -- Constant Weader

Beyond the Beltway

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Donald L. Blankenship, a titan of the nation's coal industry whose approach to business was scrutinized and scorned after 29 workers were killed at the Upper Big Branch mine in 2010, was convicted Thursday of a federal charge of conspiring to violate mine safety standards, part of a case that emerged after the accident, the deadliest in mining in the United States in decades. The verdict reached by a federal jury [in West Virginia] made Mr. Blankenship, 65, the most prominent American coal executive ever to be convicted of a charge connected to the deaths of miners. He had been accused of conspiring to violate mine safety regulations, as well as of deceiving investors and regulators; prosecutors secured a conviction on only one of the three charges. Mr. Blankenship was acquitted of making false statements and securities fraud. He faces a maximum of one year in prison on the misdemeanor conspiracy charge." ...

... Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "The most lasting legacy may reside in the trial itself: the portrait, revealed in internal memos and recordings, of a toothless regulatory system and a corporate culture that exposes the men and women of Appalachia to extraordinary risk."

Rebecca Ruiz, et al., of the New York Times: "The investigation into corruption and bribery in soccer that in May rocked FIFA, the sport's multibillion-dollar governing body, metastasized on Thursday when United States officials unsealed a new indictment that alleged an even more extensive network of criminal behavior across dozens of countries and involved some of the most powerful people in international soccer. Sixteen new defendants were identfied, with charges including wire fraud, money laundering and racketeering, aimed almost entirely at individuals from Central and South America."

Lindsay Toler of St. Louis Magazine: "A new bill from State Rep. Stacey Newman [D] attempts to tackle Missouri&'s gun violence problem by applying the restrictions placed on women seeking abortion services to all prospective firearm purchasers, such as a requirement that anyone buying a gun first watch a 30-minute video on fatal firearm injuries. 'Since Missouri holds the rank as one of the strictest abortion regulation states in the country, it is logical we borrow similar restrictions to lower our horrific gun violence rates,' Newman said in a statement." Her bill is, of course, doomed in Missouri's GOP-led legislature. ...

... Anna Merlan of Jezebel has more on the provisions of Newman's proposed bill. Among other things, the bill certainly points out how preposterous Missouri's abortion laws are.

Channeling Nino. Jonathan Oosting of MLive: "Michigan officials should 'reclaim this state's sovereignty by not recognizing or enforcing' the U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave same-sex couples the right to marry, according to a resolution set to be introduced in the state House.... 'The Supreme Court is not a Legislature,' [Rep. Tom] Hooker [R] said. 'Courts do not substitute their social and economic beliefs for the judgement of legislative bodies or elected and passed laws.'... Other speakers included Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton, who is expected to introduce a similar resolution in the upper chamber.... The non-binding resolution, if adopted, would do little to change policy in Michigan, where Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette have both said the state must recognize and enforce the Supreme Court ruling, which is the law of the land."

He Was Just Daydreaming about Killing & Eating Women. John Riley of New York Newsday: "A Manhattan federal appeals court Thursday affirmed a trial judge's decision overturning the conviction of so-called 'cannibal cop' Gilberto Valle for conspiring to kidnap and eat women, concluding that federal prosecutors, the FBI and a jury had mistaken twisted fantasies for reality." CW: Now where does Valle go to get his reputation back? Ah, well, an uplifting holiday story, all the same.

News Lede

New York Times: "The American economy created 211,000 jobs in November, the government reported Friday, a robust showing that all but guarantees policy makers at the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade when they meet this month. The unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent, unchanged from October."