The Commentariat -- Nov. 11, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Frank Rich comments on last night's GOP "debate": "The least substantive candidates were the two leading the polls: Trump and Ben Carson, both of whom are running on sheer ego. Dealing with questions about national security and financial regulation, Carson spoke in generalities and non sequiturs that suggest he has no intention of learning the most rudimentary information he needs to execute the job he seeks. Asked, with kid gloves, to address the controversies attending his own biography, the good doctor said, 'People who know me know that I'm an honest person.' Well, that settles that! Trump also had little to offer beyond braggadocio and his usual self-congratulation on his ability to vanquish any adversary through sheer lung power and his Art of the Deal." ...

... From Hillary Clinton's campaign:

... Emily Steel of the New York Times: "More than 13 million people tuned in to Fox Business Network to watch the fourth Republican presidential debate on Tuesday night in Milwaukee, according to Nielsen ratings data provided on Wednesday by the business news network. The viewership was the most ever in the history of the business news network, but less than previous debates in the 2016 presidential race. The highest rated debate so far this campaign season was the first on Fox News in August, which drew 24 million viewers. A subsequent debate on CNN in September drew nearly 23 million viewers."

Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "Ben Carson took a shot at Bernie Sanders in an address to students at the nation's largest Christian college on Wednesday, warning against 'unscrupulous politicians' offering free college that will add to the national debt and hasten 'the destruction of the nation.' Just 12 hours after the fourth Republican presidential debate concluded Tuesday night in Milwaukee, Carson told students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., that a successful democracy depends on 'a well-informed and educated populace.'" Also, too, the Liberty U. kidz wouldn't get free tuition because Bernie would apply it only to public colleges & universities. ...

... CW: Too bad that under Ole Doc's "plan," the "populace" won't be able to afford an education. As for "Unscrupulous Bernie"'s plan, it would not "add to the national debt" & hasten "the destruction of the nation." Bernie would pay for the plan by "imposing a Robin Hood tax on Wall Street." So who's unscrupulous? Maybe your friends know you as Honest Ben Carson (see Frank Rich's comment above), but the rest of us are onto your grift. As for that picture of you & Jesus you have hanging in the front hall -- take a second look. That guy with his hand on your shoulder might just be the devil in a white nightgown.

Richard Perez-Pena & Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "Dr. [David] Kurpius[, dean of the University of Missouri's journalism department,] said in a message on Twitter late Tuesday that [Melissa] Click resigned her courtesy appointment with the journalism school during a faculty meeting that day. It was unclear whether her status within the department of communication, which is in the College of Arts and Sciences, had changed." See Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. below for links to background stories.

*****

Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "Why are so many veterans on death row?... Veterans who kill are not, by and large, hit men or members of organized crime or gangs. They very often lash out at those around them.... A third of the homicide victims killed by veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were family members or girlfriends. Another quarter were fellow service members. This record suggests that, if these veterans had received adequate mental-health care, at least some of them and their victims might have had a different fate." Thanks to Islander for the link.

Presidential Race

Philip Rucker & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "The leading Republican presidential candidates clashed sharply over immigration policy, military spending, and other intractable and emotional issues in a debate here Tuesday night, bringing into sharp relief the party's fault line between rigid conservatism and mainstream practicality." CW: "Mainstream practicality"? Really? ...

... ** For a better synopsis/blow-by-blow of the GOP "debates,' Driftglass has it all.

Glenn Kessler & Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: fact-check some of the candidates' remarks. Most play fast-&-loose with statistics. ...

Politico staffers also fact-checked the "debaters," & theirs is funnier. The one on Carly Fiorina is priceless. CW: I believe she bests Ben Carson on both sheer mendacity & resume'-plumping. And Rand Paul's climate-change-denial moment was pretty hilarious. But, hey, dinosaurs are thriving, aren't they? ...

... What the Candidates Don't Know. Jordan Weissman of Slate: International entrepreneur Donald Trump seemed unaware that China is not part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal or that it is, if anything, a U.S. plot to achieve hegemony in East Asian trade & leave China out in the cold. Also, "John Kasich appeared unaware that bank accounts are backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation during a discussion about financial industry bailouts."

Stephen Stromberg of the Washington Post: "... though Bush and Kasich did much more to demonstrate that they are reasonable policy minds, Rubio 'won' the debate. Cruz, meanwhile, did a fine job appealing to immigration ultras and anti-Fed cranks on the right -- not that anyone should be impressed." Rubio "won" because he's very good at reciting his stump speech. ...

... Or, as Frank Rich tweeted, "Fox Business's debate innovation: ask questions that allow candidates to give their stump speeches without fear of any follow up questions." ...

... Steve M.: Yeah, that's what everyone is saying. Even Ben Carson! The whole idea, after all, is to present a "debate" forum that is "a safe, nurturing space." CW: And you can bet the ratings for the ensuing so-called debates will slip. Stump speeches are boorrring.

Jonathan Chait: "In a debate where chastened moderators avoided interruptions or follow-ups, the candidates were free to inhabit any alternate reality of their choosing, unperturbed by inconvenient facts. Presumably, the general election will intrude, and the nominee will be forced to make a stronger case against what looks, at the moment, like peace and prosperity."

John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... the three moderators oversaw a lively, if not always informed, debate centered on economic issues. At times, matters of real substance intruded on the rote recitations of Obamaphobia and supply-side economics.... Throughout the debate, the candidates did a resolute job of sticking to their fantastical scripts about cutting the tax rate to ten per cent (Cruz and Carson), abolishing the payroll tax (Cruz and Paul), doubling the economic-growth rate (Bush), and somehow balancing the budget (everyone). At one point, a frustrated Bartiromo said to Cruz, 'But you haven't told us how to pay for it' -- a remark that could have been directed at virtually any of the candidates."

Jamelle Bouie of Slate: "Even ignoring [their] flubs, misstatements, and half-truths, the GOP contenders were out of step with the actual economic needs of ordinary Americans.... Candidates came out against raising the minimum wage, called for a new gold standard for currency, and pushed plans for massive upper-income tax cuts. Unlike the first Democratic debate -- when [the candidates] ... tusseled over college affordability and health care costs -- there was little in the Republican debate that spoke to the challenges of ordinary people rather than businesses."

Michael Grunwald of Politico: "At last night's Fox Business debate on the economy, Republicans had to talk about the [2008 financial] crisis. It was a reminder of why they don't like doing that." Great fun when the only two candidates who made any (but not much) sense at all -- Bush & Kasich -- are former Lehman Brothers bankers.

The New York Times' report on last night's GOP debate, by Jonathan Martin & Patrick Healy, is here.

The New York Times is liveblogging the GOP debates here. The Guardian's liveblog is here. ...

... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Fox Business will carry [tonight's GOP] debates live [at 7 & 9 pm ET]. Several cable providers are making the network available during the debates to subscribers who do not normally get it.... The network will be streaming the debate live on its website, and cable logins will not be required to watch.... The debate will also be streaming on the Fox News app, available on mobile phones and tablets." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Tuesday night's main event will be moderated by Fox Business personalities Maria Bartiromo and Neil Cavuto. In an interview with The Washington Post, they said they aimed to do better [than the CNBC moderators] -- and that they wouldn't put up with whining.... Tuesday night's debate could be a last stand for [Jeb] Bush, who came into the race as the well-funded front-runner and has never shown a fire to match his fundraising." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"They Can Have Everything!" Tom Friedman (yes, Tom Friedman) gets it very right: Donald Trump is "not, as people say, an 'anti-politician.' He's actually caricaturing politicians. And like any great caricaturist, Trump identifies his subject's most salient features and then exaggerates them. In Trump's case the feature he's identifying is the ease with which career politicians look right into a camera and lie or embellish.... Mario Cuomo famously said: 'You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.' Trump says, in effect: That's for normal hack politicians. I will campaign in fantasy and govern in prose.... So enjoy the fun of this campaign while it lasts, because the next president will not be governing in poetry or prose or fantasy -- but with excruciating trade-offs. The joke is on us."

Apocalypse Now, Please. Digby, in Salon: "Donald Trump is running to be a strongman.... Ben Carson is ... running as a quasi-religious leader who will be able to overcome all these obstacles through the same miraculous process that has characterized his life story.... In both cases, the people who like them are not merely attracted to the fact that these men are outsiders, but also by qualities that will ostensibly allow them to transcend the normal process of democratic government. Despite their professions of love for the constitution, these voters no longer believe in the system of government that constitution sets forth."

Get to Know Your GOP Candidates. Yesterday, contributors mentioned this Rachel Maddow segment on how Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee & Bobby Jindal spent the time during Maddow's Democratic candidates' forum. The part about the GOP candidates begins just shy of 6 min. in. It could scarcely be more disgusting. It's hard to believe that Kevin Swanson has more or less the same kind of brain as I do. Maybe President Obama should get working on those re-education camps. If you have the stomach for it, watch:

Doc Ben's Fabulous Funny Bone. Caitlin Yilek: "... Ben Carson is mocking the media's scrutiny of his past by posting fake breaking news headlines on his Facebook page. 'During his residency, Ben offended a cupcake by calling it a muffin,' reads a fake Politico headline posted on Carson's timeline." CW: Hahahaha. I just can't stop laughing. ...

... Kevin Drum points out all the discrepancies between the real psych exam hoax & Ben Carson's made-up "honesty test." "At best, the hoax happened during Carson's freshman year in Psychology 10, and he then embellished it considerably in order to make it a proper testimonial to the power of God. At worst, he simply heard about the hoax and used it as the basis for a completely invented story in his book. I don't know which. But either way, the story in his book is substantially exaggerated in ways that really matter. This is not just nitpicking." ...

... CW: Another aspect that Drum doesn't illuminate is the way Carson shifted his story this week to fit the actual event, documentation of which his campaign miraculously found. In the Gifted Hands version of his tall tale, Carson said that "the professor then told him the makeup test was a hoax designed 'to see who was the most honest student in the class.'" That is, it wasn't really a hoax, but a quasi-controlled experiment. Carson wasn't a "victim"; he was a subject of the study. But last week, on his Facebook page, Carson wrote, "On Saturday a reporter with the Wall Street Journal published a story that my account of being the victim of a hoax at Yale where students were led to believe the exams they had just taken were destroyed and we needed to retake the exam was false." (Emphasis added.) In his Gifted Hands "account," however, he did not describe himself as a victim at all, but as the winner of a test of integrity. Moreover, Carson is slyly attributing to the WSJ reporter Reid Epstein an assertion that Epstein did not make. In addition, how was Epstein supposed to check the facts on a story where Carson changed almost every fact, including the year of the event. the name of the course, the purpose of the test & the perp? Then Carson has the gall to say the paper should apologize. He's a snake. ...

... CW: Robert Bateman of Esquire backs up a statement I've made regarding Carson's claim he was offered a "full scholarship" -- or appointment -- to West Point. Bateman's detailed analysis shows that Carson's claim, including his "clarifications" this past week, was unpossible.

Jeb! Can't Handle the Small Stuff. Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly: Jeb! is supposed to be competent and experienced. His team is supposed to know what it is doing and have a shot at matching the team the Clintons will bring to the general election contest. He's supposed to have enough establishment support and resources to not have to worry about things like ballot access that can be a real challenge to cash-strapped and little-known candidates. And, yet, even in a deep red state where he's got significant establishment support, he couldn't accomplish the simple job of finding a couple of handfuls of people to serve as his delegates. It's almost sad, really." ...

... CW: Sad Jeb! needs a big, dramatic event to jumpstart his candidacy. I would suggest he go back in time & slay Baby Hitler. But Simon Maloy of Salon doesn't think Jeb! is up to that job, either.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge set in motion a process Tuesday that could result in thousands more pages of emails and other records from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's top aides being made public in the coming months as Clinton's presidential campaign rolls forward. U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras ordered the State Department to turn over 700 pages of those records to Vice News reporter Jason Leopold by December 1 and promised to set a schedule for monthly releases thereafter. He said the volume of pages the agency must produce each month would increase over time." ...

All the News That's Fit to Hypothesize. Rachel Bade of Politico: "... the FBI has stepped up inquiries into the security of the former secretary of state's home-made email system and how aides communicated over email, Politico has learned. The FBI's recent moves suggest that its inquiry could have evolved from the preliminary fact-finding stage that the agency launches when it receives a credible referral, according to former FBI and Justice Department officials interviewed by Politico."

Real News

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama will ask the Supreme Court to clear the way for his long-delayed immigration overhaul, administration lawyers said Tuesday, setting up another high-stakes legal contest in the nation's highest court over the fate of one of the president's signature achievements. The Department of Justice said in a statement that it will appeal a federal appeals court ruling that blocked Mr. Obama's plan to provide work permits to as many as five million undocumented immigrants while shielding most of them from deportation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Julia Preston of the New York Times: "Congress set up the H-1B [immigration visa] program to help American companies hire foreigners with exceptional skills, to fill open jobs and to help their businesses grow. But the program has been failing many American employers who cannot get visas for foreigners with the special skills they need. Instead, the outsourcing firms are increasingly dominating the program, federal records show. In recent years, they have obtained many thousands of the visas -- which are limited to 85,000 a year -- by learning to game the H-1B system without breaking the rules, researchers and lawyers said.... And the share of H-1B visas obtained by outsourcing firms has grown, more Americans say they are being put out of work, or are seeing their jobs moved overseas.... Lawmakers have largely overlooked the outsourcing companies' role in the visa process." CW: Because they're busy writing laws to repeal ObamaCare, curtail women's rights & Benghaaazi! ...

... WhaddidItellya? Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "The Senate parliamentarian has ruled that defunding Planned Parenthood can be part of a special Republican package repealing parts of ObamaCare, The Hill has learned. The parliamentarian on Tuesday gave word that the provision passes muster under the Senate's Byrd Rule, which means it can be attached to a reconciliation package that cannot be filibustered on the Senate floor." If only Bolton could have worked Benghaazi! into that lede. ...

... But that's not enough for the grandstanding presidential candidates. Alexander Bolton: "Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Ted Cruz (Texas) ... have forced [Mitch] McConnell's hand by announcing they will not support the House bill [described above]. They say it does not go far enough to repeal President Obama's healthcare law.... Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) ... has said he won&'t rest until ObamaCare is '100 percent repealed.'"

Cory Bennett of the Hill: "President Obama on Tuesday nominated Beth Cobert to be permanent director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), just months after the agency's previous director resigned amid likely the largest government data breach ever. Cobert has been the agency's acting director since former OPM head Katherine Archuleta stepped down, bowing to the growing calls for her firing from lawmakers claiming the OPM needed a more tech-savvy leader."

Igor Volsky, et al., of Think Progress: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Center for American Progress head Neera Tanden on Tuesday as part of his latest visit to the United States, during which he's attempting to appeal to both conservatives and progressives. In a wide-ranging forum, the hawkish prime minister invoked several of his favorite claims about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." CAP fact-checked Netanyahu's remarks. The title of the post is "10 Falsehoods that Netanyahu Told During His Appearance at CAP."

Annals of "Justice," Ctd. Ashley Southall of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that Louisiana could keep an inmate locked up for the 1972 murder of a prison guard and said prosecutors may try him a third time for the killing. The three-judge panel of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit decided 2 to 1 to reverse a lower-court ruling ordering the release of the inmate, Albert Woodfox, and barring state prosecutors from retrying him. Mr. Woodfox has served more than 40 years in solitary confinement." ...

... Charles Pierce States the Obvious: "Woodfox was in solitary at Angola for 43 freaking years. That's not American jurisprudence. That's a dungeon out of medieval Europe. He's old and he's sick. If the Louisiana authorities waste time and money retrying this case, when all the witnesses are dead, they deserve every bit of waste-fraud-and-abuse scorn that gets heaped on imaginary welfare queens and their imaginary Cadillacs. Put an ankle bracelet on the guy, if you must, and let him go home."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Mizzou Journalism Prof Uses Force to Shut Down Free Press. Austin Huguelet & Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "A video that showed University of Missouri protesters restricting a student photographer's access to a public area of campus on Monday has ignited discussions about press freedom.... Protesters blocked [the] view [of photographer Tim Tai,] and argued with him, eventually pushing him away.... [The videographer,] Mark Schierbecker..., approached a woman, later identified as an assistant professor of mass media, Melissa Click.... When he revealed that he was a journalist, Ms. Click appeared to grab at his camera. She then yelled, 'Who wants to help me get this reporter out of here? I need some muscle over here.'... The dean of the Missouri School of Journalism, David Kurpius, said in a statement on Tuesday that the school was 'proud' of the way Mr. Tai handled himself.... He also noted that Ms. Click is a faculty member of the communications department, which is separate from the journalism school. He said she holds a 'courtesy appointment' with the journalism school that faculty members would take 'immediate action' to review." ...

... Melissa Click, Professor of Inanity. Bethania Markus of the Raw Story: "Revoking Click's courtesy appointment [to the School of Journalism] only prevents her from teaching journalism classes. According to the Federalist, Click's current research involves, '50 Shades of Grey readers, the impact of social media in fans' relationship with Lady Gaga, masculinity and male fans, messages about class and food in reality television programming, and messages about work in children's television programs.'" CW: Where do i sign up? ...

... Jim Fallows of the Atlantic: "The point the photographer makes is that they're all standing on public property, and just as they have a First Amendment right to protest, he has a First Amendment right to record what is going on. And, as he points out, to document it for history.... What struck me as the encounter intensified was his unflappable, always polite, but unrelenting insistence on his First Amendment rights, as they are insisting on theirs.... Sincere congratulations to someone who this morning had no idea he would be in the national eye. But he turned out to be, and behaved in a way that reflects credit on him and the calling of news-gathering. Update Admiration as well to Mark Schierbecker, the video journalist who recorded the entire episode." ...

... Steve M.: "... in America, those protesters [are] far from the only people who think they can banish non-allies from their 'safe space.' And the conservative counterparts of those protesters think their 'safe space' should be the whole damn country."

Beyond the Beltway

Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: New York "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo plans to unilaterally create a $15 minimum wage for all state workers, making New York the first state to set such a high wage for a large group of public employees." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

AP: "University of Missouri police say the department has arrested a suspect accused of making online threats against black students and faculty."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The European Union set new guidelines Wednesday requiring that Jewish settlements clearly label export products as coming from occupied territories. Israeli leaders condemned the move as discriminatory and warned relations could suffer with its biggest trading partner."

AP: "Russia has circulated a document on ending the nearly five-year-old Syrian conflict that calls for drafting a new constitution in up to 18 months that would be put to a popular referendum and be followed by an early presidential election. The document ... makes no mention of Syrian President Bashar Assad stepping down during the transition -- a key opposition demand. It only mentions that 'the president of Syria will not chair the constitutional commission.'" ...

... AP: "A Russian proposal to end Syria's conflict that would include early presidential elections faced opposition from both sides on Wednesday, as deep divisions remained over the fate of President Bashar Assad."

New York Times: "Myanmar's military establishment on Wednesday acknowledged the victory of the country's democracy movement led by the Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, raising hopes for a peaceful transfer of power after five decades of military domination."

AP: "Russia will counter NATO's U.S.-led missile defense program by deploying new strike weapons capable of piercing the shield, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday. Putin told defense officials that by developing defenses against ballistic missiles Washington aims to 'neutralize' Russia's strategic nuclear deterrent and gain a "decisive military superiority."

AP: "Church bells tolled and officials laid wreaths across Europe on Armistice Day on Wednesday to pay tribute to the millions of soldiers killed during World War I. Thousands of people lined the Champs Elysees boulevard in Paris to see President Francois Hollande lay a wreath at the Arc de Triomphe, where an eternal flame burns aside France's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 10, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Fox Business will carry [tonight's GOP] debates live [at 7 & 9 pm ET]. Several cable providers are making the network available during the debates to subscribers who do not normally get it.... The network will be streaming the debate live on its website, and cable logins will not be required to watch.... The debate will also be streaming on the Fox News app, available on mobile phones and tablets." ...

... David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Tuesday night's main event will be moderated by Fox Business personalities Maria Bartiromo and Neil Cavuto. In an interview with The Washington Post, they said they aimed to do better [than the CNBC moderators] -- and that they wouldn't put up with whining.... Tuesday night's debate could be a last stand for [Jeb] Bush, who came into the race as the well-funded front-runner and has never shown a fire to match his fundraising."

Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: New York "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo plans to unilaterally create a $15 minimum wage for all state workers, making New York the first state to set such a high wage for a large group of public employees."

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama will ask the Supreme Court to clear the way for his long-delayed immigration overhaul, administration lawyers said Tuesday, setting up another high-stakes legal contest in the nation's highest court over the fate of one of the president's signature achievements. The Department of Justice said in a statement that it will appeal a federal appeals court ruling that blocked Mr. Obama's plan to provide work permits to as many as five million undocumented immigrants while shielding most of them from deportation."

*****

Dan Diamond of Vox: "Politicians might battle over the 'real' unemployment rate, but don't be fooled: The BLS data is trusted by economists.... Obama can now argue that under his watch, unemployment has been cut in half [from 10 to 5 percent].... President George W. Bush inherited 4.2 percent unemployment in January 2001. That rate had grown to 7.8 percent when he left office eight years later and hit 8.3 percent in the first full month of Obama's presidency.... Bush made the decision to enact major tax cuts, launch two wars overseas, and spend about $1 trillion on homeland security -- and each one of those moves significantly increased the US deficit and contributed to a weaker economy. Meanwhile, Obama's January 2009 stimulus package and the March 2010 Affordable Care Act clearly affected the economy, too, and seemingly in more positive ways."

Ron Johnson Continues Successful Five-Year Effort to Prove He's America's Stupidest Senator. Elise Foley & Roque Planas of the Huffington Post: "It's not so bad to deport children to what was until recently the murder capital of the world, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)..., Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs chairman..., said Friday, since Honduras is 'a beautiful country' with 'gorgeous resort zones.'" CW: Why do you kids hang out in those "gorgeous resort zones" instead of living in hovels surrounded by thugs & murderers?

Josh Gerstein & Seung Min Kim of Politico: "A federal appeals court has rejected President Barack Obama's effort to move forward with a series of executive actions he announced last year seeking to give quasi-legal status and work permits to millions of illegal immigrants. The 2-1 ruling Monday from the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit is a defeat for the Obama administration, but one that may have come just in the nick of time to give the Supreme Court the chance to revive Obama's attempt to make it easier for many immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally to live and work here.... Delay in the issuance of the appeals court's ruling was raising doubt about whether the Supreme Court would have an opportunity to resolve the case in time to allow Obama to move forward with the programs before leaving office." ...

... The New York Times story, by Michael Shear & Julia Preston, is here. ...

... Greg Sargent figures that, besides the untold hurt the appellate court's decision rains down on millions of residents, the Supreme Court's decision could drop a "massive bomb" on the GOP in next year's elections.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday ruled for a police officer who shot and killed a fleeing suspect from a highway overpass. The court's decision was unsigned and issued without full briefing and oral argument, an indication that the majority found the case to be easy. In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the ruling endorsed 'a "shoot first, think later" approach to policing.'... A [Texas] state trooper, Chadrin L. Mullenix, took a position on a highway overpass, where he was told to 'stand by' and 'see if the spikes work first.' Mr. Mullenix instead fired six shots, killing Israel Leija[, who was fleeing by car from police who had attempted to arrest him minutes earlier.] The car then hit the spike strip and rolled over twice."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is a stickler for evenly distributing the workload of the Supreme Court, but he plays favorites among his eight colleagues when assigning the court's most important decisions. Not surprisingly, Roberts calls his own number more than anyone else's and assigns the next-highest number to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the pivotal justice on the ideologically divided court, according to a new study by Harvard law Prof. Richard J. Lazarus published in the Harvard Law Review." (Also linked yesterday.)

Eric Yoder of the Washington Post: "Salaries of federal employees continue to lag behind those of similar private-sector jobs by 35 percent on average, an advisory committee has said in presenting what amounts to the latest data point in a long-running debate over how the two sectors compare."

... MEANWHILE. Rupert Neate of the Guardian: "Pity Wall Street's bankers. Their year-end bonuses are expected to fall by 5 to 10% this year -- the first drop since 2011, according to a survey released on Monday. But before you reach for the tissues, realise the average bonus (on top of salary) paid to New York's 167,800 bankers last year was $172,860. The average US household income last year was $53,657, according to the US Census." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tom Krisher of the AP: "Volkswagen is offering $1,000 in gift cards and vouchers as a goodwill gesture to owners of small diesel-powered cars involved in an emissions cheating scandal. The offer announced Monday goes to owners of 482,000 cars in the U.S., many who are angry at the company because they paid extra for the cars to be environmentally sensitive without losing peppy acceleration.... The offer also includes free roadside assistance for the diesel vehicles for three years.... Volkswagen already is offering $2,000 to current VW owners to trade in their cars for new vehicles, and the gift cards and vouchers would add $1,000 to that." CW: I can't figure out from the story how a VW owner can use these "gift cards" other than on buying a new VW or Audi. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jonathan Ferziger & Margaret Talev of Bloomberg: "President Barack Obama told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that while their differences on the Iran nuclear pact are 'no secret,' their countries must work together in fighting terrorism and seeking peace with the Palestinians. The split between the two leaders is on the 'narrow issue' of the nuclear agreement with Iran, Obama said as he met with Netanyahu in the Oval Office Monday for the first time in 13 months. 'We don't have a disagreement on making sure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon,' he said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Dana Milbank: "Earlier this year, the Israeli prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] did more than any of his predecessors over nearly 70 years to turn his country into a partisan political issue in the United States.... Now, as Netanyahu visits the United States, he decided to accept, on the same day he met [President] Obama in the Oval Office, an award from a group of neoconservatives at the American Enterprise Institute who applaud his stand against the Obama administration. The acceptance of the award, which has previously gone to, among others, Dick Cheney and Antonin Scalia, led the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg to conclude that 'Netanyahu has decided to troll Obama.'"

Rebecca Ruiz of the New York Times: "Top Russian athletes, including Olympians and winners of prestigious events like the Chicago marathon, have for years participated in a systematic doping program that involved some of Russia's sports officials, the World Anti-Doping Agency said on Monday.The agency released a lengthy report here that described a pervasive doping culture among Russia's sports programs, evoking notorious drug regimes like the state-run doping system of East Germany." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rainforest Trust: "On Sunday, November 8, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala will approve the creation of a 3.3 million-acre national park at Sierra del Divisor, protecting an immense expanse of Amazon rainforest. The new park -- which is larger than Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks combined -- strategically secures the final link in a 67 million-acre Andes-Amazon Conservation Corridor, forming one of the largest contiguous blocks of protected areas in the Amazon, and is vital to protecting one of the planet's last remaining strongholds for wildlife biodiversity and indigenous communities." Via the New York Times.

Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "The leader of the free world now has a personal Facebook page, and more than 45,000 people clicked 'like' on it in the first hour it was live on Monday. It seems unlikely that a man whose daily schedule often includes meetings with world leaders and briefings on national security will have much time to post pictures of his meals or comment on pet photos. But as The Times reported this week, Mr. Obama now has a 20-member social media team at the White House that aims to bring more spontaneity and accessibility to the presidency, a position that has become highly choreographed and constricted in modern times." For all you Facebook fans, the President's page is here.

Commie cups?It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas Everywhere but Starbucks. Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post: "Like everything connected to Christmas, this year's 'War on Christmas' freakout has arrived early.... Starbucks won't feature tree ornaments or snowflakes or reindeer like it did on its old winter cups. Because those totally said birth of Jesus, right?... The devout went wild. One after another, folks declared on Facebook and other social media that they've had their last nonfat vanilla latte." ...

... Doodle Your Own Baby Jesus. Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "'Starbucks REMOVED CHRISTMAS from their cups because they hate Jesus,' Joshua Feuerstein, who described himself as an evangelist, Internet and social media personality, wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.... The protests were so loud that Starbucks sought on Sunday to clarify its decision to remove the holiday symbols. In a statement on its website, the company said it took its cue from 'customers who have been doodling designs on cups for years. This year's design is another way Starbucks is inviting customers to create their own stories with a red cup that mimics a blank canvas,' the company said.... The cups, however..., Starbucks said..., featured 'a two-toned ombré design, with a bright poppy color on top that shades into a darker cranberry below.'" ...

Maybe we should boycott Starbucks.... If I become president, we're all going to be saying "Merry Christmas" again. That I can tell you. That I can tell you! Unbelievable. -- Donald Trump, yesterday

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

CW: If the Huffington Post is to be taken seriously as a news outlet, (1) their editors will put stories about Donald Trump back on the political page (they moved him to the entertainment page some while back). And (2) their reporters will stop asking ridiculous questions like, "Say, Jeb!, if you could go back in time to kill baby Adolf Hitler in his crib, would you do it?" (And we would not have to suffer an equally-ridiculous answer like "Hell yeah, I would! You gotta step up, man.") What? Are you all 10-year-olds?

Rees Shapiro of the Washington Post: "The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity chapter at the University of Virginia filed a $25 million lawsuit Monday against Rolling Stone magazine, which published an article in 2014 that alleged a freshman was gang raped at the house during a party."

AND Charles Pierce awards the Sunday showz prize to Chuck Todd. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee will bring the eight leading contenders together at a time when two are confronting questions about their pasts, one faces mounting doubts about his seriousness, and another who began the race as a favorite is under intense pressure to show he can be as forceful as he was cracked up to be. Yet their ability to address those problems could actually depend on whether Fox Business Network, the host of the debate, fails to deliver on its promises for a policy-driven evening focused on sober economic issues." ...

... Craig Gilbert of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "Wisconsin is a striking showcase for the GOP's dominance of state governments across the country and its iron grip on the U.S. House of Representatives.... It's no accident we're having a GOP debate here."

Jenna Johnson & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "As [Donald] Trump has become the defining character of this GOP primary, the race itself has seemed to take on elements of Trump's personality -- in particular, his aggressive, seemingly shameless rejection of the idea that he has ever been wrong. The influence is particularly strong in [Carly] Fiorina and [Ben] Carson, the two outsiders who rose in Trump's slipstream.... Like Trump, some of these outsiders' most memorable debate moments have come while uttering statements that turned out to be exaggerated or untrue. And, like Trump, they have played to a distrustful electorate by criticizing the fact-checkers, and refusing to acknowledge any facts were wrong. So far, it's working.... This dynamic -- candidates dodging questions about their honesty, and attacking the questioners instead -- was much less prominent in the only Democratic debate of the 2016 election so far." ...

... CW: Really? Let's not pretend Donald Trump is the inspiration for Fiorina's & Carson's lies. Both have been liars for decades. But it's nice to see a "news" story point out the candidates are lying' & denyin'. ..

... Steve M.: "Ben Carson has acknowledged that he didn't get the facts straight when he told us about that Yale exam he took a second time, but he blamed the co-author of his memoir Gifted Hands." His unreliable ghostwriter was Cecil Murphey, who also ghostwrote some "heaven tourism" books & coauthored a faith-healing book. "Should you trust a book written by this guy? Should you trust the biographical account of a presidential candidate who'd collaborate with a guy like this?" ...

... CW: Um, didn't Carson have editorial control of the text? Puh-leze. ...

... Andrew Kaczynski, et al., of BuzzFeed: "A former staff member of the Yale Record says that he recalls many of the details of a prank that Dr. Ben Carson wrote about in an autobiography.... In an interview with BuzzFeed News on Monday, Curtis Bakal, an editorial assistant at the satirical Yale Record who says he helped write the fake test, said he was '99% certain the way Carson remembers it is correct.'" CW: Several key details, including the year of the prank & the central point of Carson's story, are at odds with Bakal's "99 percent certainty." Whether Carson borrowed the whole story or was actually taken in by the hoax in his first semester at university, its purpose was not, as Carson claims, a Diogenes-like effort to Find the One Honest Man at Yale: Me, Ben Carson....

** ... James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "Ben Carson doesn't understand what running for president entails.... On [the] Sunday shows, the retired neurosurgeon asserted repeatedly that no one has ever been vetted like he's being right now. That is not backed up by the facts.... Carson's complaints also sounded silly because they were uttered as many reporters were poring over Marco Rubio's credit card receipts from a decade ago...." Read the whole story. ...

... The Chicago Tribune's editorial board really does a number on Carson. The board faults him for his fabrications, for his pretending that the media has singled him out, & for his lack of understanding of policy issues" "his plan for Medicare and Medicaid indicated 'he doesn't understand the concept of insurance,' according to Gail Wilensky, who ran the federal programs under President George H.W. Bush." The Trib is still a conservative paper, isn't it?

War Stories, Ctd. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Since he was a boy, Senator Ted Cruz has said, all he wanted to do was 'fight for liberty' -- a yearning that he says was first kindled when he heard his father's tales of fighting as a rebel leader in Cuba in the 1950s, throwing Molotov cocktails, running guns and surviving torture.... But the family narrative that has provided such inspirational fire and biographical heft to Mr. Cruz's speeches, debate performances and a recently published memoir is, his father's Cuban contemporaries say, an embroidered one.... In interviews, Rafael Cruz's former comrades and friends disputed his description of his role in the Cuban resistance. He was a teenager who wrote on walls and marched in the streets, they said -- not a rebel leader running guns or blowing up buildings.... There is no question that Rafael Cruz ... was beaten in 1957 at the hands of agents for Fulgencio Batista, the Cuban dictator.... The reason Mr. Cruz was arrested, however, is less clear, and he has offered different explanations...." Although Rafael has claimed his was arrested for trying to recruit a person who turned out to be a Batista informant, Cubans who remember the event say he was arrested for carrying a pistol.

Maggie Haberman & Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Seething with anger and alarmed over [Marco] Rubio's rise, aides to [Jeb] Bush ... and his allies are privately threatening a wave of scathing attacks on his former protégé in the coming weeks, in a sign of just how anxious they have become about the state of Mr. Bush's candidacy."

Kira Lerner of Think Progress: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) vetoed legislation Monday that would have added 1.6 million new voters to the state's rolls and made New Jersey the third state in the country to adopt automatic voter registration. After sitting on the 'Democracy Act' for almost five months, the governor and Republican presidential candidate vetoed his second voting rights-related bill in three years...."

... Brent Johnson of NJ.com: "Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican presidential candidate who has touted his Second Amendment credentials on the campaign trail, rejected [i.e., vetoed] a gun control bill Monday despite a plea from former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords urging him to sign it. Christie conditionally vetoed the measure (A4218), which would have tightened a New Jersey law that bans convicted domestic violence offenders and those subject to a domestic violence restraining order from possessing a firearm.... In his veto message, Christie suggested toughening penalties for those convicted of domestic abuse, as well as making it easier for victims to obtain their own guns.... Conditional vetoes allow the state Legislature to vote upon Christie's suggested changes to a bill and send it back to the governor for his approval." CW: Because there's nothing better than a family shoot'em-up. ...

... BUT, hey, Christie is against bestiality. CW: A brave stand, buddy.

Beyond the Beltway

John Eligon & Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: "Amid a wave of student and faculty protests, primarily over racial tensions, that all but paralyzed its flagship campus here, the president of the University of Missouri system resigned Monday, urging everyone involved to 'use my resignation to heal and start talking again.' The president, Timothy M. Wolfe, had grown increasingly isolated, with opposition to his leadership reaching a crescendo in the last few days: The faculty council issued a statement of concern about him; football players said they would refuse to play until he left, potentially costing the university millions of dollars; the university's student government on Monday demanded his ouster; and much of the faculty canceled classes for two days, in favor of a teach-in focused on race relations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... The St. Louis Post-Dispatch story, by Stephen Deere, is here. With video of Wolfe's resignation announcement. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post on how the University of Missouri's football team took down the school's president. It's about the money. ...

... Steve M. "... conservative critics have countered that the [football players &] students [who fought for President Wolfe's resignation] are 'cowardly liberal lazy douchebags' (Leon H. Wolf at RedState) and charged that the students 'declared at University of Missouri that white people must be fired for being white' (the Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro); the school's College Republicans compared the protesters to Islamist terrorists: .... I'd compare them to House Republicans.... These students ... did exactly what the conservative movement did to [John] Boehner: they applied pressure until he realized that his position was untenable.... The defenestration of Boehner was, as I recall, hailed by conservatives as a great moment for American liberty, even though he'd been duly elected by both the voters of his district and the very House Republicans who went on to toss him out the window." CW: The Rule: when white confederates revolt, it's a "great moment for American liberty"; when black people revolt, they're "cowardly liberal lazy douchbag terrorists." ...

... AND, let's be clear, this was not exclusively a revolt of black football players & a few sympathetic white liberaly lazy douchbag students. Columbia Daily Tribune: "The same day University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe announced his resignation, the deans of nine different MU colleges requested the dismissal of Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin. In a letter sent Monday to Wolfe and the UM Board of Curators, the deans said they wanted to express 'our deep concern about the multitude of crises on our flagship campus' and call for Loftin's dismissal. Previously, faculty of two departments sent similar letters calling for Loftin's resignation. ...

... SO THEN ... Columbia Daily Tribune: "About six hours after University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe resigned because of racial tensions on campus, MU Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin said he will transition to a new role. Loftin spoke at the conclusion of a lengthy UM Board of Curators meeting and said he would transition effective Jan. 1 to a new role as director for research facility development.... Donald Cupps, chairman of the Board of Curators..., announced a series of initiatives to address the racial climate of the UM System campuses. The initiatives will be implemented in the next 90 days, Cupps said." ...

... Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post: "Tim Wolfe's resignation Monday as the University of Missouri System president came after months of escalating racial tension surrounding high-profile incidents on the flagship campus in Columbia, Mo., and student criticism about the administration's response. Here's a rundown of what happened leading up to Wolfe's announcement that he was stepping down from his post leading the four-campus system."

Way Beyond

Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "After days of conflicting signals about his attitude toward the European Union, Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday formally outlined his approach to negotiations with other member countries ahead of a crucial referendum that will determine whether Britain stays in the 28-nation bloc. His demands included a safeguard to prevent countries that use the euro from discriminating economically against Britain, which has retained the pound; a stronger role for national parliaments in European Union decision-making; and an end to Britain's legal commitment, as a signatory to European Union treaties, to pursue 'ever closer union,' which conservatives see as a threat to national sovereignty." ...

... Guardian coverage, in the form of a liveblog, is here.

Guardian: "Egyptian investigative journalist Hossam Bahgat has been freed from military custody following his arrest for 'publishing false news'."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 9, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

John Eligon & Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: "Amid a wave of student and faculty protests, primarily over racial tensions, that all but paralyzed its flagship campus here, the president of the University of Missouri system resigned Monday, urging everyone involved to 'use my resignation to heal and start talking again.' The president, Timothy M. Wolfe, had grown increasingly isolated, with opposition to his leadership reaching a crescendo in the last few days: The faculty council issued a statement of concern about him; football players said they would refuse to play until he left, potentially costing the university millions of dollars; the university's student government on Monday demanded his ouster; and much of the faculty canceled classes for two days, in favor of a teach-in focused on race relations."

... The St. Louis Post-Dispatch story, by Stephen Deere, is here. With video of Wolfe's resignation announcement. See also story linked in Beyond the Beltway below.

Rebecca Ruiz of the New York Times: "Top Russian athletes, including Olympians and winners of prestigious events like the Chicago marathon, have for years participated in a systematic doping program that involved some of Russia's sports officials, the World Anti-Doping Agency said on Monday.The agency released a lengthy report here that described a pervasive doping culture among Russia's sports programs, evoking notorious drug regimes like the state-run doping system of East Germany."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is a stickler for evenly distributing the workload of the Supreme Court, but he plays favorites among his eight colleagues when assigning the court's most important decisions. Not surprisingly, Roberts calls his own number more than anyone else's and assigns the next-highest number to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the pivotal justice on the ideologically divided court, according to a new study by Harvard law Prof. Richard J. Lazarus published in the Harvard Law Review."

Tom Krisher of the AP: "Volkswagen is offering $1,000 in gift cards and vouchers as a goodwill gesture to owners of small diesel-powered cars involved in an emissions cheating scandal. The offer announced Monday goes to owners of 482,000 cars in the U.S., many who are angry at the company because they paid extra for the cars to be environmentally sensitive without losing peppy acceleration.... The offer also includes free roadside assistance for the diesel vehicles for three years.... Volkswagen already is offering $2,000 to current VW owners to trade in their cars for new vehicles, and the gift cards and vouchers would add $1,000 to that." CW: I can't figure out how a VW owner can use these "gift cards" other than on buying a new VW or Audi.

Rupert Neate of the Guardian: "Pity Wall Street's bankers. Their year-end bonuses are expected to fall by 5 to 10% this year -- the first drop since 2011, according to a survey released on Monday. But before you reach for the tissues, realise the average bonus (on top of salary) paid to New York's 167,800 bankers last year was $172,860. The average US household income last year was $53,657, according to the US Census."

Jonathan Ferziger & Margaret Talev of Bloomberg: "President Barack Obama told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that while their differences on the Iran nuclear pact are 'no secret,' their countries must work together in fighting terrorism and seeking peace with the Palestinians. The split between the two leaders is on the 'narrow issue' of the nuclear agreement with Iran, Obama said as he met with Netanyahu in the Oval Office Monday for the first time in 13 months. 'We don't have a disagreement on making sure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon,' he said." ...

... Peter Baker & Jodi Rudoren of the New York Times: "As [Benjamin] Netanyahu arrives at the White House on Monday for his first visit in more than a year, both [he & Barack Obama] have reasons to put the past behind them. They will discuss a new security agreement and ways to counter Iran. But few believe their relationship can ever be more than coolly transactional."

AND Charles Pierce awards the Sunday showz prize to Chuck Todd.

*****

** Elias Isquith of Salon posts a fascinating interview of New York Times reporter Charlie Savage, who has written a book, 'Power Wars: Inside Obama's Post-9/11 Presidency." The two took a "look at how bureaucracy, chance, politics and technology have so profoundly shaped [the Obama administration's] legacy. Alongside discussing what Obama really promised on the campaign trail in 2008, [they] also talk about the outsized influence of late-2009's failed 'underwear bomber,' and why the president has less control over the prosecution of leaks from his administration than you may suspect."

Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly is surprised he agrees -- to some extent -- with Ross Douthat on the reason white working-class Americans are experiencing an increase in suicides, alcoholism & drug use. Longman: "I think the best analogy I've seen for this is that white Americans have been playing the game on the lowest difficulty setting. Like a video game that allows you to start off as a beginner and advance to expert, people who have never had to deal with the worst the economy can bring are not as well prepared to deal with ever-increasing levels of adversity. What we're seeing is a lot of folks who are just giving up and turning to alcoholism and opioids because they don't have experience with playing the game on the expert level." ...

... Paul Krugman with some empirically-based suggestions on what is not causing high white despair & mortality. (Sorry, Ross, Krugman is not buying your "family values" argument.) "I know I'm not the only observer who sees a link between the despair reflected in those mortality numbers and the volatility of right-wing politics."

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "As Republicans across the country mount an aggressive effort to tighten voting laws, a group of former aides to President Obama and President Bill Clinton is pledging to counter by spending up to $10 million on a push to make voter registration automatic whenever someone gets a driver's license. The change would supercharge the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, known as the 'motor voter' law, which requires states to offer people the option of registering to vote when they apply for driver's licenses or other identification cards. The new laws would make registration automatic during those transactions unless a driver objected."

Your Tax Dollars at Work. Jerry Markon of the Washington Post: "Heaving under mountains of paperwork, the government has spent more than $1 billion trying to replace its antiquated approach to managing immigration with a system of digitized records, online applications and a full suite of nearly 100 electronic forms. A decade in, all that officials have to show for the effort is a single form that's now available for online applications and a single type of fee that immigrants pay electronically. The 94 other forms can be filed only with paper." CW: Makes Healthcare.gov look like a miracle.

Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "Greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere reached another grim milestone earlier this year as carbon dioxide levels surpassed the symbolic threshold of 400 parts per million across much of the planet, the premier global meteorological association confirmed in a report to be released Monday. Figures compiled by the World Meteorological Organization showed strong growth -- and new records -- in the concentrations of all three of the most important heat-trapping gases, continuing a long-term trend with ominous implications for climate change, the group said."

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Senior House members said Sunday that there was a mounting consensus among American intelligence officials that a bomb brought down the Russian charter jet that crashed last month in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, killing all 224 people aboard. 'I think there's a growing body of intelligence and evidence that this was a bomb -- still not conclusive -- but a growing body of evidence,' Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on the ABC program 'This Week.' Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and the chairman of the Homeland Security subcommittee on terrorism and intelligence, went further [CW: as he always does!], saying on the same program that intelligence officials he had spoken to believed that the Islamic State or an affiliate was behind the crash." ...

... Brian Ross, et al., of ABC News: "New evidence in the investigation of the Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt indicates an inside man may have helped to plant an explosive device on board, aviation security officials told ABC News. Investigators today will be scrutinizing surveillance tape and employee records at Egypt's Sharm el Sheikh airport, from which the Russian jet took off, looking for a ramp worker who authorities say may have been recruited by ISIS to plant a bomb on the plane."

Presidential Race

Michelle Goldberg of Slate: "In general, the Bernie Sanders campaign has been overwhelmingly positive for American politics. It has, however, unleashed a minor plague of progressive white men confidently explaining feminism to the rest of us. Some of them rail against identity politics, while others use the language of intersectionality, a great boon to white men who want to inveigh against 'white feminism' without losing their left-wing street cred. Some just sound like surly conservatives complaining that affirmative action is racist. All are united in outrage that anyone could ever see a hint of sexism at work in the intense hatred that Hillary inspires among their ilk."

Shawna Thomas of NBC News: "... Dr. Ben Carson continued to defend his recollection of his past on NBC's 'Meet the Press' amid mounting questions about biographical discrepancies.... When asked about whether he was ready for the intense scrutiny and vetting of a presidential campaign, Carson said he was but pushed back on whether what he is experiencing is fair. 'I have always said that I expect to be vetted, but being vetted and what is going on with me..., you know, I have not seen that with anyone else.... Carson said this kind of scrutiny is born out of the 'secular progressive movement in this country.'... Yesterday, the campaign said he's raised $3.5 million in the past week. In a tweet, Carson attributed this cash infusion to "media bias.'" ...

... CW: Yes, I'm pretty sure the "secular progressive" press has never raised any questions about Hillary Clinton's past (cattle futures, Whitewater, e-mail server) or Bernie Sanders' (unemployed radical hippie). Those secular progressives are just picking on you, Doc, because you're a religious reactionary. ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "Ben Carson is outraged that the media is [sic!] taking him seriously. A few months ago, Ben Carson was happily comparing things to Nazi Germany, saying appalling things about Muslims, and making wild claims about his near brushes with death. While the other candidates tangled with Donald Trump, the amiable pediatric neurosurgeon was free to focus on turning his moderately successful presidential campaign into a lucrative business venture. But a funny thing happened on the way to the bestseller list. Several polls showed Carson pulling ahead of Trump nationally, and suddenly the media started asking questions about the incredible tales from Carson's made-for-TV life.... Carson ... blasted the media's behavior in general, noting that they never scrutinized Barack Obama so harshly -- then running down a list of various scandals from 2008 that disprove his point.... [Carson] admitted on This Week that not everything he's written is accurate. 'Well, show me somebody, even from your business, the media, who is 100 percent accurate in everything that they say that happened 40 or 50 years ago,' he said." ...

... CW: Yo, Doctor Ben, you wrote Gifted Hands in or before 1987, not 40 or 50 years after the events you invented. But we already know from your tithing tax plan that you're not that good at math. Many of us may exaggerate our personal stories over time, & we do try to figure out how isolated events shape & alter our lives. Lots of people look for "hand of God" explanations, though probably a presidential candidate should not. Few of us borrow incidents from newspaper accounts (see Kevin Drum's entry, linked below) or insert ourselves, Forrest Gump-style, into real events (Detroit riots). Or just make up stuff out of whole cloth. ...

... Charles Blow: "Carson has pushed back on the biographical charges with more verve that he has exhibited at any of the debates. That is because the biographical charges don't simply threaten the Carson campaign, they threaten Carson the corporation -- the former I have always contended was simply a vehicle for the latter. Has no one else wondered why Carson's chief media surrogate isn't his campaign manager or communications director, but his business manager, Armstrong Williams? Carson may no longer be a practicing physician, but he is a full-time profiteer.... Media observers seem to me too focused on Ben Carson the candidate. I remain focused on Ben Carson the enterprise, and apparently, so is he." ...

... ** "An Unfit Candidate Struggles under Intense Scrutiny" -- an excellent post by Simon Maloy of Salon: "... the Republican Party and its voters have declared war on the very concept of competent, reliable governance, which has provided space for 'outsider' candidates who are manifestly unfit for the office of the presidency to seize the GOP electorate and retain a firm hold on it." ...

On Saturday a reporter with the Wall Street Journal ... published a story that my account of being the victim of a hoax at Yale where students were led to believe the exams they had just taken were destroyed and we needed to retake the exam was false. The reporter claimed that no evidence existed to back up my story. Even went so far as to say the class didn't exist. Well here is the student newspaper account of the incident that occurred on January 14, 1970. Will an apology be coming. I doubt it. -- Ben Carson, Facebook ...

Read on, people. -- Constant Weader ...

... Kevin Drum: "More Ben Carson news today! You remember Doc Carson's story about the psychology test hoax that proved he was the most honest man at Yale? Well, Carson says it really happened, and the proof is ... a piece from the Yale Daily News about a parody issue of the News published by the Yale Record. Apparently the parody issue announced that some psychology exams had been destroyed and a retest would be held in the evening. Hilarious!... It's clear that Carson's account is substantially different from the parody. He says the class was Perceptions 301 [not Intro. to Psychology 10(, as the Yale Record reported)]. He says 150 students showed up [not several]. He says everyone eventually walked out [because they were dishonest, not because they saw it was a hoax]. He says the professor showed up at the beginning, and then again at the end. He says the professor gave him ten dollars. None of that seems to have happened. And yet -- it certainly seems likely that this is where Carson got the idea for his story. He remembered the hoax, and then embellished it considerably to turn it into a testimony to the power of God.... It seemed like a strange story for Carson to invent, and it turns out he didn't. He took a story he recalled from his Yale days and then added a bunch of bells and whistles to make it into a proper testimonial." [Bracketed entries above by Brad DeLong] ...

... CW: Some actual expert on "perceptions" -- preferably someone with a medical degree -- should tend to Ole Doc. The man needs help. So do his gullible acolytes. I would guess that the fake psych test story is Carson's own "politically correct" way of getting back at the rich, white legacies who looked down their noses (or who Carson thought were looking down their noses) at the poor, black scholarship kid. Not only was Carson more honest & worthy than all of them put together, according to his story, his "honesty" was a gift that God granted to him alone. The true "chosen one" at Yale was not to be found among those entitled richy-rich snobs (whom Satan had chosen?), but in the unassuming, Jesus-like hero Ben Carson. Carson says BlackLivesMatter is "sickening" because it "bullies" people, but Carson has his own, more subtle, socially-acceptable & personally-beneficial method of crying discrimination. That will be 5 cents, please. ...

... Steve M. has a less cynical theory about Carson's "misremembering": "Did he actually fall for this hoax? I ask because I was a naive college student. Like Carson, I didn't have parents who attended college and I made it to one of the Ivies.... I look back and recall missing what to other people would have been obvious cues. Maybe that's what happened to Carson...." Steve also notes that the incident Carson borrowed took place when he was a freshman, not when he was a junior, as he claimed in Gifted Hands. In addition, the Yale Record story says the hoax exam was essentially the same as the real exam; Carson claimed the hoax test was "incredibly difficult," & that's why the 150 "dishonest" students walked out. ...

... MEANWHILE, Ophelia M. sends news from Easter Island:

... CW: Hey, it is called Easter Island. There's your proof, or at least proof enough for Ole Doc Carson. You may think Ophelia's contribution is a hoax like that Yale Intro to Psych 10 exam of yore, but Doctor Ben sees things you don't. ...

... Ana Maria Cox, in the Daily Beast, looks as Ben the Pyramid Guy from a Christian's point of view: "You can see [Carson's] 'thug' tale as self-aggrandizing, but to me it is strangely self-denying -- on some level, a kind of blasphemy. In making up a story filled with drama, he has failed to credit God for the original and true, if subtle, miracle within Carson: that a soft-spoken, nerdy young man born in inner Detroit did not have to become a thug at some point, that he was wise and respectful of his own potential without needing God to perform a parlor trick.... I think it cheapens the idea of miracles to think that humans needed one to create the pyramids, or that Carson needed one to put his life on the right track. It speaks to a lack of faith in humans -- and, in some sense, God. His creation is so much more awe inspiring than Carson seems to realize."

Every signer of the Declaration of Independence had no elected office experience. -- Ben Carson

Every signer of the Declaration of Independence had no federal elected office experience (emphasis added). -- Ben Carson, after the Washington Post & others disproved Carson's claim

Both the initial and the revised versions of Carson's claim are far off base. About half or more of the declaration's signers had held elective office previously, a reality that severely undercuts Carson's overall point that the drafting of the Declaration of Independence showed how a lack of political experience can produce landmark political achievements. As for his later addition of 'federal' to the comment, this makes the claim nonsensical, since there was no federal government prior to the signing of the declaration. -- Louis Jacobson of PolitiFact

Not only that, signing a protest letter to the king is hardly the equivalent of running a nation. I'll grant that Carson -- and nearly everybody else -- is able to petition the government. It is not a qualification for holding elected office. Carson's premise was nonsensical even if the signers had not held elective office. -- Constant Weader

... Ali Elkin & Ros Kransy of Bloomberg: "... Ben Carson 'will have to explain a lot of things away' given questions about whether parts of his life story have been exaggerated or fabricated, rival White House hopeful Donald Trump said Sunday." ...

... "I Can Take a Joke." Willa Paskin of Slate: Donald Trump's appearance on "Saturday Night Live" "is perfect for Trump, who gets to affably take his punches for being racist, which only makes his racism appear less virulent, a boon to him and his voters.... Trump was getting teased for imagining he can save the world. With insults like that, he has no need for compliments." CW: Couldn't agree more. Mildly spoofing racism or empty promises or whatever in the presence of a perp who graciously participates in the joke serves only to normalize the outrageous beliefs & remarks. Such "satire" is enabling & permission-granting. ...

... James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly: "With Donald Trump hosting, Saturday Night Live jumped to its biggest overnight rating since 2012." CW: So, you know, screw those minority & immgrant protesters who were appalled by Trump's appearance.

"Rubionomics." Jonathan Chait: "Last week, Citizens for Tax Justice, a liberal think tank that uses mainstream economic tax modeling, analyzed Marco Rubio's tax-cut plan. Thirty-four percent of the benefits of the plan would go to the highest-earning one percent of Americans.... Rubio's proposal deliberately provides some benefits to Americans of modest income.... All told, Rubio's plan would reduce federal revenue by $11.8 trillion over the next decade. The entire [George W.] Bush tax cuts cost about $3.4 trillion over a decade, making the Rubio tax cuts more than three times as costly.... Oh, and Rubio has also called for an amendment to the Constitution requiring a balanced budget every year. Oh, one more thing: Among the Republican presidential candidates, Rubio is widely considered to be a moderate on fiscal issues.... The party's 'mainstream' economic thinking now lies at a point far beyond what used to be considered its fringe. It is a party that has lost all contact with reality, and continues to drift farther and farther over the horizon." ...

... Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg: "After strong debate performances, [Ted] Cruz and [Marco] Rubio -- both 44-year-old Cuban Americans -- saw their poll numbers rise and interest from donors jump. They are now locked in a third-place tie, according to a national Los Angeles Times poll ahead of Tuesday's debate in Milwaukee. As a result, Cruz and his allies have begun zeroing in on Rubio.... The Texas hardliner's mischievous branding of Rubio as a 'moderate' is the first shot in a showdown that may unfold in the coming days of the campaign. The label 'moderate' may seem anodyne, but in the context of modern Republican primaries, it is generally meant as an insult.... [Rubio's] Senate voting record is anything but moderate, featuring routine opposition to bipartisan deals to avert government shutdowns and debt default, as well as rejecting popular Democratic-led proposals such as raising the federal minimum wage and toughening equal pay for women laws." ...

... CW: Also, too, Rubio favors banning abortion even in cases of rape & incest. Someone who favors burdening a woman or girl with bearing & rearing her attacker's child is no moderate. Laura Chapin of US News (March 2015): "Cruz ... opposes abortion for victims of rape and incest. He also labels forms of contraception such as Plan B 'abortifacients', which isn't scientifically or medically correct." ...

... Days of the Jackass. Katie Zezima & Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "The list of GOP politicians and operatives willing to take open shots at [Ted] Cruz has grown long: Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, former House speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio), Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), fellow Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Sen. John Thune (S.D.), former senator Tom Coburn (Okla.) -- and on and on. Cruz does not appear to be bothered.... On the trail, the Texas Republican fondly recounts his skirmishes. His campaign blasts out fundraising e-mails quoting the critical words.... In other words, Cruz's status as persona non grata has become part of his political persona: He uses the enmity of others to paint himself as an outsider...."

Wrong Answer. Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "Carly Fiorina is defending her decision not to correct a man who characterized President Obama as a 'black Muslim'... and said 'he doesn't want this country to get ahead.'... at a diner in New Hampshire. Fiorina said it wasn't her job to defend the president.... 'I've said on many occasions: President Obama tells me he's a Christian; I take him at his word,' she said on Fox News on Friday. 'But the truth is, President Obama isn't on the ballot.'" ...

... Better Answer. "Well, he is black; he says so himself. But he isn't Muslim; he says he's a Christian, & I don't doubt him. Let's be clear, though; there's nothing wrong with being a black Muslim. This country embraces people of all faiths & people of no faith. But on that other matter: President Obama has said time & again that he wants this country to get ahead. I believe him. Like all of us here, President Obama is a patriot. Where I disagree with him is in the ideas & policies he has for moving the country forward. His ideas aren't working all that well. My ideas & proposals are better." Really, Carly, what's so hard about that? You've had plenty of time to think about it since you blew it, & all you can come up with is, "I don't have to defend anybody who isn't running for president"? Pretty stupid. And decidely not presidential. Or vice-presidential. Or undersecretary-of-commerc-ial.

Beyond the Beltway

Scott Gleeson of USA Today: "More than 30 football players at the University of Missouri will not participate in any practices or games until Missouri System president Tim Wolfe resigns or is terminated. Several black team members announced their decision to strike on social media Saturday night and Missouri's Legion of Black Collegians posted a statement on behalf of the team with a picture of players unified in support of the boycott. Wolfe's response to a series of racist incidents has been considered inadequate by many students who believe racism has poisoned the campus. A graduate student, Jonathan Butler, announced earlier in the week he was going on a hunger strike until Wolfe was removed. The most recent racist incident came Oct. 24 when a swastika was drawn with human feces on a college dorm's white wall.... Junior cornerback John Gibson tweeted that the Tigers' coaching staff and white teammates were also in support of the strike. And offensive lineman Paul Adams, a white player, expressed his support publicly on Twitter."

Relevant to yesterday's Comments:

By Randall Munroe. Thanks to D. C. Clark.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "A Jordanian police officer opened fire Monday at a U.S.-backed training center, killing at least four people including two American government contractors, officials said. The gunman also was killed. The shootings appeared to mark a return of terrorism-linked bloodshed as Jordan marked the 10th anniversary of deadly hotel bombings."

Washington Post: "Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy predicted a landslide victory on Monday as tallying continued in Burma's historic elections, with some in the military-backed ruling party beginning to speak of defeat."

New York Times: "A 43-year-old man was shot and killed and two others were wounded in a shooting inside a subway station at Eighth Avenue and 35th Street in Manhattan, by Pennsylvania Station, shortly before 6:15 a.m. Monday...."