The Commentariat -- October 18, 2015

Internal links removed.

Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Without a viable alternative to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), some centrist Republicans say they'd have little choice but to seek Democratic help in electing a new Speaker.... Such a scenario remains unlikely, even with the House GOP in apparent disarray.... There have been no formal discussions between the parties about the possibility of a coalition Speaker, and some Democrats have dismissed the notion out of hand."

Kevin Sack & Sheri Fink of the New York Times take a deep dive into the work of the Clinton Foundation & how its work intersected with Hillary Clinton's position as Secretary of State."

Maureen Dowd: "As enjoyable as it is seeing Sidney Blumenthal on the hot seat, Gowdy and Company should have left the email matter to another congressional committee and the Justice Department. They just couldn't stop themselves, any more than they could stop themselves from cutting Democrats out of witness interviews or from trumpeting that Clinton's aide Huma Abedin was going to testify on Friday.... Republicans are still savoring the idea of getting Hillary to raise her hand to take the oath.... But it's going to be less a showdown than a show trial. The verdict is already in. The Republicans are guilty. It's not that Hillary has gotten so much more trustable. It's just that the Republicans are so much less credible."

Elizabeth Drew, in the New York Review of Books, on the Congressional fight over the Iran nuclear deal. First of a two-part series: "The president's congressional victory on the nuclear agreement with Iran had many sources, not least of which were the nature and tactics of the opposition. It might have been more difficult to achieve if the Republicans as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allied American group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), had given any sense that they had thoughtfully considered the deal that six nations reached with Iran, or if they had offered any alternative."

Presidential Race

Alec Baldwin is pretty funny & Larry David nails Bernie Sanders; hate the way the moderator gayifies Anderson Cooper:

Dave Weigel & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post examine Sanders-style socialism & distinguish it from other socialistic ideologies & policies.

AP: In Alabama, "Hillary Clinton on Saturday said she would champion voting rights from the White House, telling African American Alabama Democrats Republican state policies were 'a blast from the Jim Crow past'. Clinton said Republicans were dismantling the progress made by the civil rights movement, and blasted Alabama governor Robert Bentley for closing driver's license offices in 31 counties where most residents are African American. Alabama requires photo identification to vote. Clinton also mocked the Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush for their opposition to restoring Voting Rights Act provisions which the US supreme court struck down." (See related story linked in Beyond the Beltway.)

T. C. Sottek of the Verge: "Harvard professor and Democratic presidential candidate Larry Lessig had what sounded like a crazy plan: run for president, pass a single bill, then leave the White House. He got enough attention for that plan to raise more than $1 million, but Lessig has since faced a Sisyphean climb toward recognition; he was excluded from the first Democratic debate, and polls very low when his name is actually given to people for consideration. Now, Lessig's campaign just looks like the average sort of crazy. He's running to serve a full term as president, because people just didn't understand the complexity of his original plan. In an essay published at The Atlantic, Lessig announced the change and explained why he was making it." ...

... John Cole of Balloon Juice: Lessig has "also begun to discuss the other issues, although not on his website. He's not too bad on the issues, I will add, but appears to be completely clueless and indifferent regarding the entire political process. Personally, I would not mind him in the debates- yank Webb and Chaffee and put in Lessig."

Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump says he doesn't flat out blame former president George W. Bush that the Sept. 11 terror attacks happened on his watch. But he can think of three reasons why one could hold Bush responsible." CW: Number 1: Immigration policy. Natch. Trump's Reason No. 2 is unfair, too: he cites the fact, correctly, that the FBI, CIA & National Security Council weren't sharing information (and there is evidence they still are not adequately doing so). But the Bush administration could not reasonably have changed that dynamic in the few months Bush had been in office before the 9/11 attacks. If anything, the onus should be on the Clinton (& earlier) administrations -- and of course on the agencies themselves.

CW: Judd Legum of Think Progress does not take the latest Trump-Bush dust-up very seriously: "On Friday, Donald Trump generated substantial controversy when he asserted that George W. Bush was president at the time of the 9/11 attacks.... Calendars from that era indicate that January 20, the day Bush was sworn in as president, occurred some time before September 11."

Meghashyam Mali of the Hill: "The Secret Service is extending protection to GOP presidential contenders Donald Trump and Ben Carson, while beefing up Dem front-runner Hillary Clinton's security, according to a report from Newsmax on Saturday. Trump and Carson will receive agents as early as next week, with each candidate being assigned approximately two dozen agents. The report cites a source close to the agency's planning."

Beyond the Beltway

AP: "Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley on Friday asked a state agency to provide driving tests in all Alabama counties one day each month, reversing a decision to permanently shutter rural driver's license offices in the face of budget cuts. The announcement to partly restore the services came after weeks of backlash over a state decision to close 31 part-time driver's license offices in rural areas. While state officials argued it was necessary because of budget cut, critics said the closures saved little money while creating a hardship for people in rural and impoverished areas of the state."

Esther Lee of Think Progress: "A jury acquitted two former sheriff's deputies of involuntary manslaughter on Friday after the death of a black college student inside a Savannah, Georgia jail holding cell on New Year's Day. Matthew Ajibade, 22, died from blunt force trauma after he was tasered several times while strapped in a restraint chair. A Chatham County Superior Court jury did convict the former deputies of lesser charges: Jason Kenny was found guilty of cruelty to an inmate, while Maxine Evans was found guilty of public records fraud and three counts of perjury for lying in her grand jury testimony."

Way Beyond

Jeremy Keehn of the New Yorker discusses the Canadian parliamentary elections, which will be held tomorrow. Keehn focuses on Justin Trudeau, the leader of the Liberal party. ...

... Jim Dwyer of the New York Times has more on the Canadian elections.

News Lede

New York Times: "A military airstrike in northwest Syria has killed the leader of a shadowy Qaeda cell that American officials say has been plotting attacks against the United States and Europe, the Pentagon announced on Sunday. The leader, Sanafi al-Nasr, a Saudi citizen, was the highest-ranking leader of a network of about two dozen veteran Qaeda operatives called the Khorasan Group, and the fifth senior member of the group to be killed in the past four months. His death was announced in a Pentagon statement describing Thursday's operation, which American officials said was a drone strike."

The Commentariat -- October 17, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "Barack Obama blocked off the prospects for future oil drilling in the Arctic on Friday, imposing new lease conditions that make it practically impossible for companies to hunt for oil in the world's last great wilderness. The Department of Interior said it was canceling two future auctions of Arctic offshore oil leases in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, and turned down requests from Shell and other oil companies for more time on their existing leases." CW: Now check out Marco Rubio's energy plan -- story linked under Presidential Race.

Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: "Given the gains that have flowed to those at the tip of the income pyramid in recent decades, several economists have been making the case that the government could raise large amounts of revenue exclusively from this small group, while still allowing them to take home a majority of their income. It is 'absurd' to argue that most wealth at the top is already highly taxed or that there isn't much more revenue to be had by raising taxes on the 1 percent, says the economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel in economic science, who has written extensively about inequality. 'The only upside of the concentration of the wealth at the top is that they have more money to pay in taxes,' he said." CW: Gosh, you'd almost think the NYT had become a librul newspaper. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed: "Wayne Simmons, a TV military analyst who was charged this week with lying about having worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, hoodwinked not only Fox News, but the Pentagon. Media coverage of Simmons's arrest has focused on his TV analysis for Fox News, but Simmons was also involved in a Pentagon program for military analysts that gave them direct access to top officials during the George W. Bush administration.... A source who worked in [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld's Pentagon said that Simmons was indeed part of the program, and that he met with Rumsfeld himself.... The story to me is not, 'Fox has a hack on to talk about whatever.' It's more like, this guy was given access to senior officials."

Brian Beutler on "the enormous role coincidence played in saving the country from another near-catastrophe, or outright default:'... We owe the prospect of an uneventful debt limit resolution to a deus ex machina. Boehner's heir presumptive, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, abandoned the race for speaker to the tune of Yakety Sax, denuding the House Benghazi Committee along the way and compelling Boehner to consider increasing the debt limit -- either without precondition, or as part of a genuinely bipartisan agreement -- before he leaves Congress." ...

... Sophia Tesfaye of Salon: "'I do think that we're cooked as a party for quite a while as a party if we don't win in 2016,'" Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus told the conservative Washington Examiner. 'I think that we have become, unfortunately, a midterm party that doesn't lose and a presidential party that's had a really hard time winning,' Priebus concluded, adding, 'we're seeing more and more that if you don't hold the White House, it's very difficult to govern in this country.'" ...

... CW: Sorry, but that doesn't make sense. Yes, Republicans lost the last two presidential elections, but they lost in 2008 largely because of the economic downturn & in 2012 because there was an incumbent Democrat running. They control both houses of Congress & the Supreme Court. They control 70 percent of all state legislative bodies, and 31 governorships (to the Democrats' 18).

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Huma Abedin, Hillary Rodham Clinton's longtime personal aide, testified behind closed doors for eight hours on Friday before the Republican-controlled Benghazi committee, as Mrs. Clinton and House Democrats continued to try to discredit the panel for what they say are efforts to undermine her presidential bid. Ms. Abedin said in a brief news conference that she had answered all of the committee's questions, but she declined to address what she said and did not criticize the panel." ...

... Rachel Bade of Politico: "A partisan feud broke out during Friday's closed-door testimony by a top Hillary Clinton adviser, as Democrats blasted the GOP-led Benghazi panel for summoning the witness in the first place while conservative activists circulated emails they said showed the aide's testimony was relevant."

... one in three American women was having an abortion when it was illegal; and one in three is having an abortion now.... If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament. -- Gloria Steinem, to Emma Brockes of the Guardian

Gail Collins: "It's incredible that we've built a society that relies on women in the labor force yet makes no discernible effort to deal with [child care].... In 1971, Congress passed a bipartisan bill that would have made quality preschool education available to every family in the United States that wanted it, with tuition based on the family's ability to pay. Also after-school programs for older children. Forty-four years ago! Richard Nixon vetoed it, muttering something about 'communal approaches to child rearing.' You may be stunned to hear that while the Republicans talk endlessly about ginning up the American economy, the idea of helping working mothers stay in the labor force does not come up all that often. Although Ben Carson has described preschool as 'indoctrination.'" ...

... CW: Get over it, Gail. When are you going to learn that "family values = patriarchy"?

White House: "In this week's address, the President highlighted the problems in our criminal justice system":

Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times: "A federal judge ruled Friday that Texas officials can continue to deny U.S. birth certificates to the children of immigrants who cannot supply required identification because they entered the country illegally.... In his ruling denying an emergency order sought by families, Judge Robert L. Pitman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio ... noted the families' attorneys had 'provided evidence which raises grave concerns regarding the treatment of citizen children born to immigrant parents,' [but] he said the court needed more evidence before issuing the emergency injunction they had sought." Pitman is an Obama appointee.

"Thanks, Obama!" Peggy Noonan blames President Obama for Donald Trump's success. Really: "He was a literal unknown, an obscure former state legislator who hadn't completed his single term as U.S. senator, but he was charismatic, canny, compelling. He came from nowhere and won it all twice. All previously prevailing standards, all usual expectations, were thrown out the window. Anyone can run for president now...." (No link.) ...

... Steve Benen: "For one thing, the president wasn't a 'literal unknown.'... It's true that Obama only had 12 years of experience in public office when he was elected president, but (a) that's triple the number of years Mitt Romney had under his belt; (b) it's largely consistent with the historical average for modern American presidents; and (c) and it's more than many of the leading Republican presidential hopefuls have this year...." ...

... Steve M.: "Who really lowered the bar?... I'd say it's the party that put George W. Bush and Dan Quayle on two tickets each. I'd say it's the party that gave respectful consideration to presidential aspirants such as Pat Robertson, Alan Keyes, Pat Buchanan, Michele Bachmann, and Herman Cain. And I say it's the party that made Sarah Palin its vice presidential candidate, then made her a superstar. If the bar's low, Peggy, your party's voters are the reason."

CW: I probably pay way too little attention to Hollywood given the role films play in cementing our perceptions of "norms." One of those norms is extreme gender-bias, exhibited most dramatically in the types of films that Hollywood produces: they're almost all male-oriented, & of those, most are geared to appeal to teenaged boys. In that vein, the films' producers are extremely ageist: for instance, earlier this year, the actor "Maggie Gyllenhaal was told by a Hollywood producer that she was too old, at 37, to play the love interest of a 55-year-old man. Hollywood offers women fewer jobs, on-screen & off. And when women do get work, no matter how important their role in a film, it is likely they will be paid less than their male co-stars. Ergo, this story about actor Bradley Cooper's plan to do something about that is worth noting.

Presidential Race

Gabriel Sherman of New York: "Joe Biden is running for president -- a fact that has been obvious, and true, for weeks. He spent the week continuing to phone key Democrats in early voting states and huddle with his kitchen cabinet.... If you look closely at Biden's recent public activity, it looks very much like that of other candidates in the weeks before they declared. Most obviously, there has been no direction from him to shut down any talk of running.... When a sitting vice-president works the phones after his party's debate stressing that he is not ruling out running for president, that is the activity of a man running for president." ...

"No, He Can't." Jamelle Bouie: Yo, Bernie, there will be no revolution. Bouie cites the "Obama revolution" as evidence. CW: I think he's absolutely right.

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "In an interview with Bloomberg, [Donald] Trump was asked how he would demonstrate compassion during a crisis such as a hurricane or attacks on the World Trade Center. Saying that he has more heart and is more competent than the leaders who dealt with those tragedies, Mr. Trump then criticized the former president. 'When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time,' Mr. Trump said. Blaming 9/11 on Mr. Bush is taboo for Republicans and has largely been off-limits for Democrats. Pressed on whether he really meant to blame the attacks on Mr. Bush, the billionaire developer did not back down.... Jeb Bush on Friday called Mr. Trump 'pathetic' for daring to attack his brother in such a way." ...

How pathetic for to criticize the president for 9/11. We were attacked & my brother kept us safe. -- Jeb! ...

There seems to be a small logical problem with second sentence, but I can't quite put my finger on it. -- Paul Waldman

... Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate: "This is entering the realm of the surreal. He's now putting the words attacked and kept us safe in the same sentence! Jeb Bush is one step away from citing 9/11 as evidence that George W. Bush prevented 9/11." ...

... Gary Legum of Salon: "Let's face it: Jeb sucks at this whole running-for-president thing, and he's just wasting our time now.... He'll keep going, out of stubbornness, delusion or both. But as the race stands now, there is nothing left for him to do but make his concession speech. Or, seeing as how he can't open his mouth without gibberish pouring out of it, have someone else do it for him."

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "CNBC will allow the Republican presidential candidates 30-second opening and closing statements at a debate this month, bowing to the demands of Donald J. Trump and other leading candidates that they be allowed to introduce themselves." ...

... Married to the Mob. Robert O'Harrow of the Washington Post: "Throughout his early career, Trump routinely gave large campaign contributions to politicians who held sway over his projects and he worked with mob-controlled companies and unions to build them.... No serious presidential candidate has ever had his depth of business relationships with the mob-controlled entities.... Trump's donations were ... cited by the organized crime task force's report as an example of the close financial relationships between developers and City Hall.... Trump also dealt with mob figures in Atlantic City, where he was pressing to go into the casino business, according to court records, gaming commission reports and news accounts."

He's Not a Scientist, Man. Jeremy Peters & Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Senator Marco Rubio traveled on Friday to eastern Ohio, with its vast underground natural gas deposits, and laid out an energy policy that would rely on drilling and hydraulic fracturing and roll back many of the most aggressive components of President Obama's environmental agenda. Mr. Rubio said he would immediately allow construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline to go forward, which Mr. Obama has yet to commit to. Mr. Rubio would also permit more offshore oil and gas drilling, which the president has already expanded, and effectively nullify an international climate change accord the administration is pursuing." ...

... CW: Rubio, who represents Florida, is not running for re-election to the Senate. In response to a question by a young man wearing a Miami University sweatshirt, Rubio said he didn't know what would happen first under his plan: oil spill residue covering Florida's beaches, or water covering the whole peninsula. In an exchange that grew somewhat heated, Rubio repeatedly questioned the young man's claim that Miami University was in Ohio. ...

... Mary Jordan of the Washington Post: "The tensions between the [Rubio & Bush camps] hit a new high this week as Rubio's campaign bragged that its 'smart budgeting and fiscal discipline' left more money in the bank 'than Jeb Bush for President' and other campaigns. Bush's top spokesman fired back Friday on Twitter, pointing to a report that said Rubio’s campaign inflated its numbers and adding a stinging rebuke: 'Lying about budgets. Guess Marco picked up something in the Senate.' Heightening the drama of this once unthinkable showdown between mentor and protege is that it may be decided in Florida...."

Simon Maloy of Salon takes a look at what-all Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, et al., consider "tyrannical," acts or conditions, against which patriots must take up arms: gay rights & ObamaCare figure prominently. Further, the evil despots have infiltrated all three branches of government: the presidency, the Congress (the entire Democratic caucus), the Supreme Court. "... so much of the conservative movement has come to define 'tyranny' as 'something the Democrats did that I disagree with.' They actively encourage conservative voters to believe that they're being persecuted and having their rights stripped away as part of a broader agenda to purge religious liberty from the land. When you pair that message with a passionate call to arm oneself to defend against the voiding of your rights, you're crossing into insurrectionist territory...." See also today's comments along this vein. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Question of the Day: Is this GOP presidential candidate (a) posturing, or (b) stupid?

I've been spending more time going after Bernie and socialism because I don't want America to succumb to the notion that there's anything good about socialism. I think it's not an accident of history that most of the times when socialism has been tried that attendant with that has been mass genocide of people or any of those who object to it. Stalin killed tens of millions of people. Mao killed tens of millions of people. Pol Pot killed tens of millions of people. When you have a command economy, when everything is dictated from one authority, that's socialism, but it doesn't come easily to those who resist it. -- Rand Paul

Beyond the Beltway

Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times: "The California Supreme Court refused Friday to review the conviction of a Riverside County boy who at age 10 killed his neo-Nazi father, letting stand a ruling that said someone that young can knowingly waive their legal right to remain silent. The court, meeting in closed session, voted 4 to 3 against hearing the case, with the three justices appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown dissenting, according to an order issued Friday.... Court records said [the boy] Joseph was of low-average intelligence, suffered from attention deficit disorder, had been exposed to many illicit drugs when his mother was pregnant and had been kicked out of several schools for violent behavior." ...

... CW: Writing for the majority, Justice Mortimer "Mort" Fleegan noted, "When I was a child, I regularly watched 'Law & Order.' By the time I was nine, it was clear to me that George Washington never should have revealed to his father that he chopped down the cherry tree. Despite my mother's repeated grillings, I never admitted to her that I was the one who tortured and maimed all the neighbors' small pets. I knew my rights. Every citizen, no matter his age, has a duty to know his rights."

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times on the criminal trial of Donald Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy, "whose Upper Big Branch mine became, in April 2010, the site of the nation's deadliest coal mining disaster in nearly 40 years.... He is the first coal baron ever to face criminal charges -- the central character, prosecutors say, in a historic case of conspiracy to flout health and safety laws in pursuit of profits." Audio tapes he secretly recorded may make the case for the prosecution."

News Ledes

AP: "Thousands of migrants surged into tiny Slovenia on Saturday as an alternative route opened in Europe for them after Hungary sealed its border for their free flow, adding another hurdle in their frantic flight from wars and poverty toward what they hope is a better life in Western Europe."

AP: "Palestinian assailants carried out five stabbing attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank on Saturday, authorities said, as a month-long outburst of violence showed no signs of abating. The unrest came despite new security measures that have placed troops and checkpoints around Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. At least four assailants were killed."

The Commentariat -- October 16, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

And You Read It in the New York Times. Patricia Cohen: "Given the gains that have flowed to those at the tip of the income pyramid in recent decades, several economists have been making the case that the government could raise large amounts of revenue exclusively from this small group, while still allowing them to take home a majority of their income. It is 'absurd' to argue that most wealth at the top is already highly taxed or that there isn't much more revenue to be had by raising taxes on the 1 percent, says the economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel in economic science, who has written extensively about inequality. 'The only upside of the concentration of the wealth at the top is that they have more money to pay in taxes,' he said." CW: Gosh, you'd almost think the NYT had become a librul newspaper.

Simon Maloy of Salon takes a look at what-all Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, et al., consider "tyrannical," acts or conditions, against which patriots must take up arms: gay rights & ObamaCare figure prominently. Further, the evil despots have infiltrated all three branches of government: the presidency, the Congress (the entire Democratic caucus), the Supreme Court. "... so much of the conservative movement has come to define 'tyranny' as 'something the Democrats did that I disagree with.' They actively encourage conservative voters to believe that they're being persecuted and having their rights stripped away as part of a broader agenda to purge religious liberty from the land. When you pair that message with a passionate call to arm oneself to defend against the voiding of your rights, you're crossing into insurrectionist territory...." See also today's comments along this vein.

*****

Jeremy Scahill of the Intercept: "From his first days as commander in chief, the drone has been President Barack Obama's weapon of choice, used by the military and the CIA to hunt down and kill the people his administration has deemed -- through secretive processes, without indictment or trial -- worthy of execution. There has been intense focus on the technology of remote killing, but that often serves as a surrogate for what should be a broader examination of the state's power over life and death. Drones are a tool, not a policy. The policy is assassination.... The Intercept has obtained a cache of secret slides that provides a window into the inner workings of the U.S. military's kill/capture operations at a key time in the evolution of the drone wars -- between 2011 and 2013." ...

... AJ Vicens & Max Rosenthal of Mother Jones: "Amnesty International called for an immediate congressional inquiry into the drone program, saying the leaked documents 'raise serious concerns about whether the USA has systematically violated international law, including by classifying unidentified people as "combatants" to justify their killings.'" Vicens & Rosenthal summarize key findings of Scahill's reports.

Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "At least a dozen more people were subjected to waterboard-like tactics in CIA custody than the agency has admitted, according to a fresh accounting of the US government's most discredited form of torture. The CIA maintains it only subjected three detainees to waterboarding. But agency interrogators subjected at least 12 others to a similar technique, known as 'water dousing', that also created a drowning sensation or chilled a person's body temperature -- sometimes through 'immersion' in water, and often without use of a board."

Ken Dilanian of the AP: "American special operations analysts were gathering intelligence on an Afghan hospital days before it was destroyed by a U.S. military attack because they believed it was being used by a Pakistani operative to coordinate Taliban activity.... It's unclear whether commanders who unleashed the AC-130 gunship on the hospital -- killing at least 22 patients and hospital staff -- were aware that the site was a hospital or knew about the allegations of possible enemy activity.... The new details about the military's suspicions that the hospital was being misused complicate an already murky picture and add to the unanswered questions about one of the worst civilian casualty incidents of the Afghan war. They also raise the possibility of a breakdown in intelligence sharing and communication across the military chain of command."

Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration is predicting a meager increase next year in the number of Americans with private insurance through the Affordable Care Act -- a forecast, far below previous government estimates, that signals the obstacles to attracting people who remain uninsured."

Is Not a Witch Hunt! Rachel Bade of Politico: "GOP Benghazi Committee chairman Trey Gowdy blasted fellow Republican Rep. Richard Hanna on Thursday for claiming his investigation was aimed at hurting 2016 Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton." CW: One does have to wonder if a guy whose head & haircut could serve as a mold for a witch's hat is maybe the real witch (or warlock or wizard, if you prefer).

Howard Berkes of NPR & Michael Grabell of ProPublica: "Nearly 1.5 million workers in Texas and Oklahoma do not receive state-mandated benefits under heavily regulated workers' compensation and are dependent instead on alternative, largely unregulated benefits plans controlled by employers. State laws in both Oklahoma and Texas allow employers to opt out of workers' compensation and develop their own workplace injury plans. Those plans generally cover fewer injuries, cut off benefits payments sooner, control access to doctors and even impose mandatory settlements, according to an NPR and ProPublica investigation. In Oklahoma, we found that most plans blatantly violate the law, yet regulators say they are powerless to respond.... In the past 13 years legislatures in 33 states have cut benefits, made it more difficult to qualify for benefits or given employers more control over medical treatment." Read the whole story. It could happen to you. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.

The Times has not had enough of "the damn e-mails." Matt Apuzzo & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Federal agents were still cataloging the classified information from Hillary Rodham Clinton's personal email server last week when President Obama went on television and played down the matter. 'I don't think it posed a national security problem,' Mr. Obama said Sunday on CBS's '60 Minutes.'... [His] statements angered F.B.I. agents.... Investigators have not reached any conclusions about whether the information on the server had been compromised or whether to recommend charges.... Officials ... saw an instance of the president trying to influence the outcome of a continuing investigation -- and not for the first time." They blame comments by President Obama for Eric Holder's decision to let David Petraeus off the hook. ...

... CW: This story sounds mostly like a report about employees griping that the boss doesn't appreciate their hard work. Their point about Petraeus seems like a stretch, given what Obama actually said publicly. However, Holder made himself infamous for shilling for Bill Clinton in the Marc Rich parson case, so it's hardly inconceivable that he was, or thought he was, doing Obama's bidding re: Petraeus. And I sure didn't know this: Petraeus "remained an informal White House adviser." In context, I think that "remained" means "remains." That is, Petraeus still rings up President Obama & offers his advice. Or maybe he sneaks in the servants' entrance to chat with Ben Rhodes. Whatever.

Tim Egan: "... most of the tenets of what is considered democratic socialism have majority support in the United States.... This week, Donald Trump called [Bernie Sanders] a 'communist.' If so, you can find broad public support for most of the things advocated by the commie from Brooklyn.... For true socialism in action, look to the billionaire Trump. As a developer, he's tried to use eminent domain -- 'state-sanctioned thievery,' in the words of National Review Online -- to get other people's property. There's your communist.... said, 'We are not Denmark.' Nope. Not by any stretch. Denmark has a slightly higher tax load on its citizens than the United States. But it also has budget surpluses, universal health care, shorter working hours, and was recently rated by Forbes magazine as the best country in the world for business."

David Sanger of the New York Times: "The Obama administration is exploring a deal with Pakistan that would limit the scope of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, the fastest-growing on earth. The discussions are the first in the decade since one of the founders of its nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, was caught selling the country's nuclear technology around the world." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department has charged a hacker in Malaysia with stealing the personal data of U.S. service members and passing it to the Islamic State terrorist group, which urged supporters online to attack them. The charges, announced Thursday, are the first ever against a suspect for terrorism and hacking, and they represent a troubling convergence of the techniques used in cyberattacks with terrorism, U.S. officials said. Ardit Ferizi, a citizen of Kosovo, was detained in Malaysia on a U.S. provisional arrest warrant, officials said."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Make That "Fraud 'News.'" Dylan Byers, now dishing for CNN: "Wayne Simmons, a recurring guest on Fox News who claimed to have 27 years of experience with the CIA, was arrested Thursday after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he lied about his service. Simmons is accused of falsely claiming that he worked as an 'outside paramilitary special operations officer' for the CIA from 1973 to 2000. On Fox, this was often shortened to 'former CIA operative.' He was also indicted for using that false claim to gain government security clearances and an assignment as a defense contractor, where he advised senior military personnel overseas. Simmons is a familiar face to Fox News viewers.... In his appearances on Fox, Simmons regularly made extreme and factually dubious statements pertaining to terrorism and national security. Just this January, he claimed there were 'at least 19 paramilitary Muslim training facilities in the United States.'" ...

... Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "In court documents, federal prosecutors alleged that Simmons had a 'significant criminal history, including convictions for a crime of violence and firearms offenses, and is believed to have had an ongoing association with firearms notwithstanding those felony convictions.' They successfully petitioned a judge to keep Simmons' indictment sealed until his arrest today, noting that Simmons 'has a history of acting in an aggressive manner, and is likely aware of the imminent nature of the charges in this case.'" ...

... Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post has a bit more on Simmons. It sounds as if he's a very convincing liar.

Presidential Race

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "R.T. Rybak, the former mayor of Minneapolis and a vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, on Thursday accused the party's leader, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of making 'flat-out not true' statements about another top party officer, questioned her political skills and said he had 'serious questions' about her suitability for the job."

Matea Gold, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Democratic presidential contenders dramatically outpaced their Republican counterparts in the race for campaign cash last quarter, spotlighting how the parties are taking divergent paths in their pursuit of 2016 funding. The emphasis by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders on raising money directly for their campaigns has helped them amass large donor pools critical to generating the estimated $1 billion each party's candidate will need to raise by Election Day. While GOP candidates put an intense focus early in the year on raising huge sums for independent groups, many have had less success in attracting smaller donations that are the lifeblood of campaign operations...." ...

... Nicholas Confessore & Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "In the Republican and Democratic primaries alike, upstart candidates shunned by their parties' major donors are now financially competitive with -- and, in some cases, vastly outraising -- opponents who have spent months or even years wooing the big-name donors and fund-raisers who have traditionally dominated the money race.... Republicans with strong ties to the party's donor elite -- Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas -- were forced out of the race for lack of cash." ...

... CW: Notice how stories like Confessore & Lichtblau's barely hint at who the small donors are: on both sides, they are people who could have found other good uses for their $27 or $2,700 donation, but they were willing to give up something to counter those huge contributions from billionaires, contributions that are not only are a drop in the bucket but are "dropped" for personal and/or business gain.

... Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Hillary Clinton's campaign brought in $29.45 million in the third quarter, spending $25.8 million in the process -- both totals that eclipse any other candidate in the race for the second straight quarter. The campaign raised roughly $28.8 million in primary money and accepted around $691,000 in general election funds, ending the quarter with roughly $33 million cash on hand -- another mark higher than any of her rivals. But its nearly $26 million in spending was by far the biggest number of any White House aspirant...." ...

... Gabriel Debenedetti: "Bernie Sanders had $27.1 million in cash on hand at the end of the third quarter, a considerable sum that comes after a $26.2 million quarter for the Vermont senator. He has also raised more than $3.2 million since Tuesday's debate, his campaign said, with an average donation of $32.28." ...

... David Nather of Stat in the Boston Globe: "Martin Shkreli, chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals ... [and t]he man who has become the public face of rising drug prices says he has donated to presidential candidate Bernie Sanders -- who has been bashing Big Pharma on the campaign trail -- to try to get a meeting so the two can talk it out. Sanders isn't interested. His campaign said Thursday that he's giving the money to a Washington health clinic instead -- and the drug executive isn't getting the meeting." CW: Shkreli gave $2,700 to the Sanders campaign. At $750 a pill, which is the price Shkreli's charges for a tablet that cost $13.50 till Shkreli's company bought the rights, that's about the profit Shkreli made on the sale of four pills.

Paul Krugman: "Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders had an argument about financial regulation during Tuesday's debate -- but it wasn't about whether to crack down on banks. Instead, it was about whose plan was tougher. The contrast with Republicans like Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio, who have pledged to reverse even the moderate financial reforms enacted in 2010, couldn't be stronger. For what it's worth, Mrs. Clinton had the better case."

Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "In what could be the earliest snapshot of the 2016 Democratic ticket, party frontrunner Hillary Clinton stood hand in hand with former San Antonio mayor Julián Castro after receiving his endorsement at a campaign rally in his hometown. Castro, who currently serves as secretary of Housing and Urban Development, told the crowd that Clinton had a 'strong vision for America's future' and unlike Republicans, he said switching to Spanish, 'she respects the Latino community'."

Forty percent of guns are sold at gun shows, online sales. -- Hillary Clinton, at Manchester Community College, N.H., Oct. 5, 2015

By any reasonable measure, Clinton's claim that 40 percent of guns are sold at gun shows or over the Internet -- and thus evade background checks through a loophole -- does not stand up to scrutiny.... The 40-percent figure, even if confirmed in a new survey, refers to all gun transactions, not just gun sales. A large percentage of the gun transactions not covered by background checks are family and friend transactions -- which would have been exempt from the universal background checks pushed by Democrats. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "Joe Biden is still playing coy with reporters on his political plans. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Maggie Haberman: "An aide to Donald J. Trump has raised the possibility of the candidate not attending the next Republican presidential debate unless the criteria set by CNBC is changed, according to two people briefed on a conference call where the matter was discussed on Thursday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

CW: Jeb!, assuming he'll be our next POTUS, has published on his campaign Website a medical report on his health & fitness for office. Via Politico. ...

... BUT. Matea Gold & Phlip Rucker of the Washington Post: "No more 'shock and awe': Jeb Bush [is] now just another presidential aspirant."

Strange Man on Book Tour Accidentally Becomes POTUS. Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "Republican presidential contender Dr. Ben Carson has put his public campaign events on hold for two more weeks to go on book tour for his new tome 'A More Perfect Union' and catch up on fundraising events." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ed Kilgore: "However you slice it, this development is going to remind the chattering classes of 2012 candidates Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich, who were frequently accused of using their campaigns to sell books and videos and so forth. Indeed, most candidates release their 'campaign books' either before or early in their candidacies, as appetizers, not ends in themselves." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Laura Clawson of Daily Kos: "I'm not sure Sarah Palin could do any better at the GOP grifter act than this." CW: And you thought Donald Trump was the big publicity hound in this campaign. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CW PS: We learn from the Confessore & Lichtblau piece linked about that Carson relies to a great extent on telemarketers to raise money. Wouldn't you love to hear the pitches they use on the gullible? The neurosurgeon has become a serious profiteer.

We're seeing our freedoms taken away every day and last night was an audition for who would wear the jackboot most vigorously. Last night was an audition for who would embrace government power for who would strip your and my individual liberties. -- Sen. Ted Cruz, Wednesday, commenting on the Democratic debate, which he did not watch

The 2nd Amendment ... is a Constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny -- for the protection of liberty. -- Sen. Ted Cruz, fundraising letter sent earlier this year

... Ed Kilgore: "... I think this sort of rhetoric is a serious matter. Why? Because Cruz is one of those presidential candidates (along with Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee for sure; the exact position of several others is unclear) who claim the Second Amendment gives Americans the right to revolutionary violence against their own government if it engages in 'tyranny' or doesn't respect our rights.... I really think Cruz, Carson and Huckabee need to be asked very specifically on the campaign trail and in debates exactly which circumstances would justify the armed insurrection they defend.... All this talk about liberal 'tyranny' also illustrates the fundamentally anti-democratic nature of 'constitutional conservatism.'... If you feel your own POV is the only legitimate set of ideas consistent with the Constitution or even the structure of the universe and the Will of God, then you are not going to be interested in compromise or limits on your exercise of power...." ...

... Well, Ed, those heavily-armed, freeedom-loving patriots are already coming thru for Tailgunner Ted. Katie Zezima & Tom Hamburger: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) reported more money in the bank than any other GOP presidential candidate as the last quarter ended, according to figures released by the Federal Election Commission Thursday. Cruz's campaign raised $12.2 million last quarter, giving him a total of $26.5 million raised during the campaign so far. He reported having $13.8 million in cash on hand, meaning he spent about 50 percent of what came in since his campaign started...."

Scott Keyes of Think Progress: "The United States criminal justice system could be improved if we sell poor people convicted of crimes into slavery, according to Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.... Huckabee's comments, which come 150 years after the 13th Amendment's adoption, appear to be the first time in modern history that a credible presidential candidate has joined the fringe call to reinstate slavery." CW: I've been ignoring Huckabee, & will continue to do so, but I thought endorsing slavery (because the Bible tells us so) was super-special. (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Winnie Hu of the New York Times: "A New York police officer who arrested a photographer on assignment for The New York Times on a Bronx street in 2012 was convicted on Thursday of falsifying a record to justify the arrest. The officer, Michael Ackermann, 32, was found guilty of a single felony count of offering a false instrument for filing.... Officer Ackermann had claimed the photographer, Robert Stolarik, interfered with the arrest of a suspect by repeatedly discharging his camera's flash in his face. A subsequent investigation found that Mr. Stolarik did not own a flash or have one on his camera at the time." CW: Just a reminder that many cops will lie on even the most trivial cases.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Hungary said on Friday that it would close its border with Croatia to migrants at midnight to control the flow of thousands of migrants and refugees across Europe." CW: I thought they did that weeks ago. I can't keep up.

Toronto Star: "... 81-year-old [Ken] Taylor, who died Thursday, made his mark as Canada's most celebrated and internationally-acclaimed ambassador: known as the moving force behind the daring 'Canadian Caper' that saw six Americans escape from Iran during the 1979-81 hostage crisis."

New York Times: "Turkish fighter jets shot down a drone aircraft close to the Syrian border on Friday after it violated Turkey's airspace, the military said in a statement. 'An aerial vehicle of unknown origin was detected inside our airspace on the Syrian border,' the statement said.... Reuters quoted an anonymous United States official as saying that American officials suspected that it was Russian."

Washington Post: "Palestinian protesters set fire to a Jewish holy shrine on the West Bank on Friday as the militant group Hamas called for another 'day of rage' against Israel, already shaken to its core by two weeks of violence."