The Commentariat -- Sept. 26, 2015

Internal links removed.

Julie Davis, et al., of the New York Times: "President Obama said Friday that he had reached a 'common understanding' with President Xi Jinping of China to combat 'cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property,' but made it clear that wide areas of disagreement remained over how to stop an escalation of Chinese cyberthefts and the possibility of an American response. With Mr. Xi standing beside him at a Rose Garden news conference, Mr. Obama referred to the cyberattacks against American targets and said, 'I indicated it has to stop.' But he also hailed progress with China on climate change and the nuclear accord with Iran, and said that both he and Mr. Xi were committed to pressing ahead against the North Korean nuclear problem, which has defied solution for more than 20 years." ...

... Ellen Nakashima & Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "President Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged Friday that neither of their governments would conduct or condone economic espionage in cyberspace.... But U.S. officials and experts said that it was uncertain whether the accord would lead to concrete action against cybercriminals. The agreement, reached in talks Thursday night and Friday morning between Obama and Xi, has the potential -- if enforced -- to confront one of the most significant threats to U.S. economic and national security and an irritant for American corporations trying to protect their intellectual property. The pact also calls for a ministerial or Cabinet-level process aimed at ensuring compliance." ...

... CW: Who knows whether or not either side will wholly comply with this agreement? But it bears repeating that Republicans like Marco Rubio & Scott Walker accused President Obama of "appeasement" for even trying to reach an accord. Donald Trump criticized the state dinner, saying Xi deserved nothing more than "a double size Big Mac" because he was ruining our economy. The GOP, not surprisingly, confuses insults with diplomacy. ...

... Brad Plumer of Vox: "Here in Washington, DC, you'll often hear conservatives argue that there's little point in the United States acting on global warming, because China is the world's largest polluter and will never do anything to rein in its carbon emissions. But that line's looking increasingly silly. On Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that his country would enact a national cap-and-trade system to limit carbon emissions, starting in 2017." ...

... Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker: "It was hard to avoid the irony. The leader of China -- nominally, at least, a Communist country — came to Washington and announced that his government was adopting a market-based approach to curbing carbon emissions. Meanwhile, to reduce its carbon emissions, the unreservedly capitalist U.S. of A. is relying on regulations issued by a centralized bureaucracy." Wait, wait, more irony: Saint Ronald of Reagan first adopted cap-&-trade in the 1980s, but his devoted acolytes have turned against the concept & have blocked all U.S. attempts to implement a program here. Kolbert suggests that if it works in China -- which it may not -- Republicans may embrace cap-&-trade once again. Right. Because Republican policy is so reality-based. ...

... The Washington Post's Reliable Source: "Gatekeepers of the silver screen and Silicon Valley were out in full force at the state dinner in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Giants of the industry, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook, rubbed elbows with Robert Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Company, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation.... The president's head table was packed with boardroom elites -- the coveted seats were filled exclusively with CEOs and their spouses, making for a group whose combined net worth tops $49 billion...."

Julie Pace of the AP: "The Obama administration is announcing a $300 million program to drastically reduce HIV infections in girls and young woman in 10 sub-Saharan African nations hard hit by the virus. Administration officials are aiming for a 25 percent infection reduction in females between ages 15-24 by the end of next year and a 40 percent reduction by the end of 2017."

Zippity Doo Dah:

... Anna Palmer, et al., of Politico: "Speaker John Boehner's resignation has set off an intense round of jockeying for all four House leadership slots, setting up what's expected to be a hypercompetitive internal party battle in the middle of a key stretch of the legislative session this fall. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is expected to run for speaker, and no other Republican has come forward to challenge him yet.... It's unlikely he'll be unopposed.... Among those who are expected to run for majority leader, or are at least thinking about it, include Georgia Rep. Tom Price, chairman of the Budget Committee; Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the current majority whip; House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington; and Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, who runs the Rules Committee and is former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee."...

... Lauren French of Politico: on "conservatives' plan to expolit Boehner's exit:... The members of the House Freedom Caucus have the broad outlines of a plan -- unify behind their fellow conservatives who have the best shot of securing a leadership position, and, in a sign that headaches over a potential government shutdown are not over, keep up the fight to defund Planned Parenthood." ...

... Shane Goldmacher of Politico: "Movement leaders and activists see the downfall of the House speaker as a coup that's been years in the making -- and one whose momentum they hope will now yield not only more rigidly conservative leadership in Congress but a Republican presidential nominee that is one of their own. The GOP civil war, in other words, is raging as much on the 2016 stage as it is in Washington." ...

... "The Inmates Are Officially Running the Asylum." Charles Pierce: "So, Trey, Louie, Darrell, Mark Meadows, Virginia Foxx, and de facto Speaker Cruz, congratulations. You got him. You're the dog that caught the car. Your entire congressional party is now a third-rate evening drive-time talk show. Have fun. Try to leave a little of the country intact for the rest of us." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "Conservatives are already brandishing Boehner's scalp. Marco Rubio was supremely lucky to be speaking at the Value Voters Summit when word of the Speaker's resignation came out, and so he got to announce it to the assembled Christian Right activists as though it was some sort of joint accomplishment in which he shared. And Ted Cruz, who really did have something to do with the development, gloated openly the minute he could." ...

... Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "Conservatives rush to dance on John Boehner's grave" -- five weeks before the interment. ...

... In an extraordinary late-day encounter Thursday, Speaker John Boehner re-creates for Robert Costa of the Washington Post & Jake Sherman of Politico the moment he met Pope Francis earlier in the day. Boehner of course began sobbing when he saw the Pope: "'So. So, the pope puts his arm around my left arm,' he said as he pulled my arm up to his shoulder. Boehner was now fully committed to acting it out. "'Hold on, hold on," he said as I pulled my arm away. "Let me finish. The pope says to me, "Please pray for me. Please pray for me," Boehner repeated as he dipped his head. 'He said, "Please pray for me."'" CW: Three sheets to the wind, no doubt. ...

... Jake Sherman & others at Politico have more on what was behind Boehner's decision to retire from the speakership & his House seat. ...

... Eric Cantor, in a New York Times op-ed, writes that John Boehner & conservatives are great patriots but Tea Party hardliners are insane: "... a number of voices on the right began demanding that the Republican Congress not only block Mr. Obama's agenda but enact a reversal of his policies. They ... pronounced that congressional Republicans could undo the president's agenda -- with him still in office, mind you -- and enact into law a conservative vision for government, without compromise. Strangely, according to these voices, the only reason that was not occurring had nothing to do with the fact that the president was unlikely to repeal his own laws, or that under the Constitution, absent the assent of the president or two-thirds of both houses of Congress, you cannot make law. The problem was a lack of will on the part of congressional Republican leaders." CW: Not recommended, because the rest of the essay is about how great Boehner & conservatives are. See also Nisky Guy's commentary in today's thread. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Boehner had the misfortune of leading, or attempting to lead, his party in an era when it had run up to the limits of crazy, where the only unexplored frontiers of extremism lay beyond the reach of its Constitutional powers." CW: It is pretty hilarious that people who boast about their fealty to the Constitution, and never go outside without a copy of it in their breastpockets, have done all that they can to undermine its core structure. ...

... Dana Milbank: "... it was [Pope] Francis who, in his address to Congress, gave deeper meaning to why Boehner could no longer be the public servant he wanted to be with the no-compromise caucus over which he presided. Francis advised lawmakers to 'guard against the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil,' and he said the world 'demands that we confront every form of polarization which would divide it into these two camps.'... I watched Republicans join in the applause of this sentiment. But they have practiced the very opposite of what the pope preached. Theirs has been a reign of no compromise -- and of no confidence in Boehner when he tried to sacrifice for the common good." ...

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker writes a balanced post mortem to Boehner's career. (CW: If Carly Fiorina wants to know what an actual rags-to-riches story is, she should read Boehner's bio & quit pretending her fake secretary-to-CEO story is equally compelling.) ...

... Gail Collins bids farewell to John Boehner, but she saved her best material for Marco Rubio: "The right-wing Value Voters Summit burst into applause when Senator Marco Rubio announced the resignation news. 'I'm not here today to bash anyone,' Rubio said, slightly inaccurately. 'But the time has come to turn the page ... and allow a new generation of leadership in this country.' Rubio is always promising to usher in an era of fresh new ideas, which appear to involve lowering taxes on the wealthy."

White House: "In this week's address, on "National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day," the President spoke about the importance of preventing and treating substance use disorders":

Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Francis, who will address thousands of Spanish-speaking families at Independence Mall here on Saturday, has in his visit to the United States become a virtual patron saint of suffering migrants. He hugged immigrant children in New York, and in Washington accepted a letter from a young girl seeking legalization for her parents.... Since 2014, Philadelphia has refused to comply with requests from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to detain undocumented offenders, unless the government presents a judicial warrant and the person in question has been convicted of a first- or second-degree offense involving violence.... At Old St. Joseph's Church, the Rev. Philip Florio said he expected the pope to preach 'welcome the stranger at your door' and reject the round-them-up and ship-them-out approach of Mr. Trump, at the mention of whose name the priest theatrically slid away on the pew." ...

... Rachel Zoll & Michael Sisak of the AP: "... Pope Francis headed to Philadelphia on Saturday for a visit expected to focus more heavily on ordinary Catholics and their families. The pope took off from New York's Kennedy Airport for the City of Brotherly Love, where he will take part in a weekend of activities, including a Vatican-organized rally that will culminate in an outdoor Mass for 1 million people." ...

... philly.com is liveblogging Pope Francis's visit today to Philadelphia. ...

... NBC New York: "Pope Francis celebrated Mass at Madison Square Garden Friday evening, offering a challenge to urban dwellers to care for the disenfranchised who live in "deafening anonymity" amid the wealth and bustle of 'our great avenues.'... The pope's sermon capped off a whirlwind day that included a speech before the United Nations, a multi-faith service at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, a visit with Harlem school children and a ride through Central Park before adoring and emotional crowds. As he did in many part of his visit, Pope Francis stopped to bless children with special needs at the Garden." Includes video. ...

... Not Exactly a Walk in the Park. Joe DeLessio of New York: "After visiting a Catholic elementary school in East Harlem, Pope Francis rode through Central Park in his Popemobile [Friday] afternoon in a procession that was expected to draw some 80,000 people." Includes snapshots taken by people in the crowd. ...

... Marc Santora & Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "After standing alone and taking in the vast void where thousands of people lost their lives in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, Pope Francis on Friday lamented 'a mind-set which knows only violence, hatred and revenge' and warned against the kind of 'rigid uniformity' of belief that leads to fanaticism." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker argues that all popes, including Francis, are anti-liberal. "He appears to be genuinely and, on his own terms, understandably more concerned about protecting the continuities of his organization than with getting absolute justice for its victims."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Matthew Dickinson: "... by focusing on ... 'Trump's blowhard improvisation', and failing to place polls in their historical context, the media has [sic!] both contributed to his polling support and made it far easier for Trump to avoid answering the difficult questions regarding the specifics of his policy beliefs, and how he proposes to implement them. This does a disservice to voters and, I think, to Trump himself." Via Greg Sargent.

Presidential Race

The Petraeus Connection. Bradley Klapper of the AP: "The Obama administration has discovered a chain of emails that Hillary Rodham Clinton failed to turn over when she provided what she said was the full record of work-related correspondence as secretary of state, officials told The Associated Press Friday.... The messages were exchanged with retired Gen. David Petraeus when he headed the military's U.S. Central Command.... They began before Clinton entered office and continued into her first days at the State Department. They largely pertained to personnel matters and don't appear to deal with highly classified material, officials said, but their existence challenges Clinton's claim that she has handed over the entirety of her work emails from the account."

Clown v. Clown. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "After training his fire for much of the summer on former Gov. Jeb Bush, Donald J. Trump has found a new favorite Republican rival to taunt: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. But Mr. Rubio is proving capable of giving it back. And Mr. Trump also discovered on Friday that some conservatives do not respond as kindly when the insults are directed toward Mr. Rubio.... 'You have this clown, Marco Rubio,' Mr. Trump began, in a speech to the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit [in Washington, D.C]. 'And I've been so nice to him.' Before he could go further, though, the audience of social conservatives let out a cascade of boos."

Ed Kilgore on Jeb!'s "free stuff" for black people: "... this is the old 'Plantation' meme, according to which Democrats have ensnared people by the diabolical means of helping them stay alive and make ends meet, as opposed to 'empowering' them with benign neglect. This sort of rap coming from the scion of a rich and powerful family might go over better if he were preceded by some commitments to letting African-Americans vote and abandoning mass incarceration as a social control mechanism and taking seriously complaints about police misconduct. As it is, it's just free rhetoric."

Senatorial Election

Hadas Gold & Elena Schneider of Politico: "Illinois GOP Sen. Mark Kirk's campaign is pushing back and getting ahead of a supposed, yet-to-be published report from the Chicago Tribune that alleges Kirk verbally and physically abused staffers. The campaign sent a dossier of information, emails and screenshots to the in-state political blog Capitol Fax to refute the story."

Beyond the Beltway

Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who went to jail this month for refusing to follow the law and issue a marriage license to a gay couple, was given an award at Friday night's conservative Values Voter Summit. Tony Perkins, of the Family Research Council, presented Davis with a 'Cost of Discipleship Award' that compared her with Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Abraham Lincoln because, like them, she 'pursued justice at great personal cost.'" ...

My first link of the day, which comes courtesy of Victoria D., because it made us both laugh out loud, is this:

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Kim Davis, the clerk of Rowan County, Ky., who was embraced by Christian conservatives because of her resistance to same-sex marriage, said Friday that she would shun her Democratic Party roots and become a Republican." CW: Mrs. Kentucky Republican 2015 was scheduled to speak before the Values Voters Summit, an organization of, by & for the kind of extremists Pope Francis warned about. I believe the inspiration behind Mrs. Davis's miraculous conversion is what is known in the religious biz as an epiphany. Hallelujah, Sister! It's a Grand Old Party.

Excuse me now, while I see what's going on in the world.

News Lede

AP: "A New Jersey high school star quarterback died after suffering an injury on the field, school officials said on Saturday. Evan Murray of Warren Hills Regional High School, a three-sport athlete, died after he was hurt in a game against Summit High School on Friday night. Murray had been the football team's starting quarterback for three years."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 25, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Marc Santora & Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "After standing alone and taking in the vast void where thousands of people lost their lives in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, Pope Francis on Friday lamented 'a mind-set which knows only violence, hatred and revenge' and warned against the kind of 'rigid uniformity' of belief that leads to fanaticism":

Also, there are a number of links to stories (marked NEW), which I added fairly late in the morning.

*****

** Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Speaker John A. Boehner, under intense pressure from conservatives in his party, will resign one of the most powerful positions in government and give up his House seat at the end of October, throwing Congress into chaos as it tries to avert a government shutdown. Mr. Boehner made the announcement in an emotional meeting with his fellow Republicans on Friday morning." CW: Thanks to Victoria D. for the link. As Victoria points out, Boehner made this announcement just as Pope Francis was at the U.N. & President Obama was welcoming China's President Xi. Maybe Boehner saw this timing as his best hope of burying a bombshell. ...

... Mike DeBonis & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "The shocking move means there's unlikely to be a government shutdown next week. Following Boehner's announcement, House Republicans said there was agreement to pass a clean spending bill to avert a government shutdown. Several members of the Freedom Caucus, the conservative group which led the revolt against Boehner's leadership, said they will now support the spending bill without demands to defund Planned Parenthood attached to it.... [Boehner's] likely successor is House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the No. 2 GOP leader who has been in office less than 10 years.... Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Friday he didn't want the job."

NEW. Julie Davis & Jane Perlez of the New York Times: "President Obama on Friday rolled out an elaborate White House welcome for President Xi Jinping of China, projecting a strong partnership between the world's two largest economies even as the leaders prepared to hash out a range of contentious disputes." ...

... China's Authoritarian Regime More Responsible than U.S. GOP. Julie Davis & Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "President Xi Jinping of China will make a landmark commitment on Friday to start a national program in 2017 that will limit and put a price on greenhouse gas emissions, Obama administration officials said on Thursday. The move to create a so-called cap-and-trade system would be a substantial step by the world's largest polluter to reduce emissions from major industries, including steel, cement, paper and electric power. The announcement, to come during a White House summit meeting with President Obama, is part of an ambitious effort by China and the United States to use their leverage internationally to tackle climate change and to pressure other nations to do the same." ...

... Michael Greenstone of the New York Times: "Since [1970], the Clean Air Act has repeatedly been challenged as costly and unnecessary. As a fight brews over President Obama's new use of the law to address global warming, it's worth re-examining the vast difference the law has already made in the quality of the air we breathe, and in the length of our lives. Numerous studies have found that the Clean Air Act has substantially improved air quality and averted tens of thousands of premature deaths from heart and respiratory disease."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The White House plans to announce on Thursday that President Obama will meet next week with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, ending a long period in which the American leader refused to meet with his counterpart from the Kremlin, a senior administration official said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

NEW. Somini Sengupta & Jim Yardley of the New York Times: "A day after making history as the first pontiff to address Congress, Pope Francis on Friday morning issued a sweeping call to the United Nations for peace and environmental justice, as he placed blame for the exploitation of natural resources on 'a selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity.' Standing before the General Assembly in his first speech here, Francis endorsed United Nations efforts to reach a global compact to fight poverty and climate change. He also chided world powers for putting political interests ahead of human suffering in the Middle East." ...

... Here's the English translation of Francis's speech to the U.N., as prepared for delivery. ...

... Pope Francis's schedule for today, via USA Today:

8:30 a.m. -- Pope Francis meets with the United Nations General Assembly. It's the 70th anniversary of the U.N.

11:30 a.m. -- A multireligious service is held at the 9/11 Memorial Museum.

4 p.m. -- The pope visits Our Lady Queen of Angels School in East Harlem.

5 p.m. -- He will lead a procession through Central Park. About 80,000 tickets were awarded by the city in a lottery pick.

6 p.m. -- Mass is held in Madison Square Garden. The chair he will sit on was built by mostly immigrant day laborers. Young men at Lincoln Hall Boys Haven in Lincolndale built the altar.

Marc Santora & Sharon Otterman of the New York Times: "In his first visit to New York City, the center of global finance and capitalism, Pope Francis used his remarks on Thursday evening to encourage the hundreds of clergy members, brothers and nuns gathered in St. Patrick's Cathedral to live humbly and resist the temptation to treat their ministries as businesses, with success measured strictly by the bottom line.... They were pointed, if fatherly, remarks that echoed the themes he has stressed in his papacy but ones that resonated all the more in a newly renovated cathedral surrounded by the luxurious shops of Fifth Avenue." ...

... Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post: "Less than an hour after Francis made the first papal address to the U.S. Congress, in which he urged some of the nation's most powerful residents to break their political paralysis and accept immigrants as their own children, Francis arrived at St. Patrick's [in downtown Washington, D.C.,] to greet some of the nation's least powerful at a ceremony involving hundreds of homeless people.... Francis grinned when the crowd of nearly 300 homeless roared their pleasure at his arrival to bless their meal...." ...

Gary Emerling of US News: "Toward the beginning of his address, Francis alluded to religious extremism, noting that 'no religion is immune' from it.... '... We must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind,' [Francis said].... The remarks echo those delivered -- albeit with more explicit historical references – by President Barack Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast in February.... Obama's comments were criticized as 'offensive,' 'wrongheaded' and detached from present-day reality." ...

     ... digby: "The idea that all religions have the capacity to be barbaric in the name of God is indisputable. Not that right wingers care. In fact, they don't even care about religion, unless it's a useful tool for their ideology. That point has become obvious over the past few days as we've seen them trashing the Pope like he was the fourth Dixie Chick." ...

... ** Lisa Miller of New York: "Pope Francis is the Barack Obama of the Papacy." ...

... ** Molly Ball of the Atlantic on "why Pope Francis sounds like a Democrat.... There are plenty of progressive priests, just as there are plenty of conservative ones.... (And unlike a rank-and-file priest, Francis is a head of state who conducts foreign policy.)... But what makes Francis different is really a matter of which Catholic beliefs he has elevated to the level of communal concerns -- public policy -- and which he has framed as individual choices. To Francis, sharing wealth and fixing global warming are matters that governments should address, while not committing homosexual acts or having abortions are individual choices he endorses. (As he famously put it: 'Who am I to judge?') This is quite different from the American Catholic church, which has poured its political energy into laws banning gay marriage and restricting abortion." ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: The only members of the Supreme Court to attend Pope Francis's address to Congress were "Chief Justice John Roberts..., justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor. Roberts, Kennedy and Sotomayor are all Catholics, while Ginsburg is Jewish." CW: Kinda makes you think Nino, Sam & Clarence are cafeteria Catholics, even tho Francis is totally with them on denying women reproductive rights, one of their favorite things. I'd guess all that helping the poor & the immigrants Jesus stuff was too much for them. ...

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in. -- Jesus (Matthew 25:35

... David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "What's fascinating, watching Xi, Obama and Putin on the same global stage with Francis, is that the political leaders seem to crave the authenticity that the religious leader commands so effortlessly.... [Francis] is teaching us about the nature of power in a world where social media can create an intimate bond with even the grandest figure. This bishop of Rome has unusual impact because he disdains the throne." ...

... ** Charles Pierce writes an excellent piece on the Pope's address to Congress.

Jakes Sherman, et al., of Politico: "House Republican leaders will move next week to approve a 'clean' government spending bill -- and avert a shutdown -- but only after they hold a vote on a measure to bar federal funding for Planned Parenthood, according to multiple sources familiar with the GOP's plan. The move, which comes as conservatives are weighing whether to try to remove John Boehner as House speaker, was discussed at a closed GOP leadership meeting Thursday. It involves a legislative tactic called an 'enrollment correction,' which essentially changes the text of a bill that has passed the House and the Senate. But it would ultimately be a meaningless exercise: The Senate would reject the measure, and President Barack Obama has said he will veto any spending bill that tries to defund Planned Parenthood." ...

... Burgess Everett & Seung Min Kim of Politico: "The Senate will start voting Monday to avert a government shutdown, leaving the House to either accept it or force federal agencies in Washington to shutter their doors. After a government spending bill that would also defund Planned Parenthood went down in flames on the Senate floor on Thursday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ... and set up votes for next week that would keep the government open through Dec. 11 without touching Planned Parenthood.... It was clear by the disastrous result for a conservative-backed plan, devised by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), that there is scant Senate support for a government spending bill that would also defund Planned Parenthood. Eight Republicans voted against the Cruz plan, including presidential rival Rand Paul..., who called the bill 'business as usual' while reiterating that he supports defunding Planned Parenthood." ...

... Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Democrats, and even some Republicans, slammed Thursday's vote, suggesting it was a waste of time with less than a week left before government funding expires and federal workers are furloughed.... Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday's vote was the latest in a line of Republican 'publicity stunts.'"

... Ted's Stunt o'the Day. Jordain Carney: "Democrats on Thursday blocked a push by Sen. Ted Cruz to rename the street in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington after a Chinese dissident. The Texas Republican ... tried to get unanimous consent to pass a resolution that would name the street in front of the embassy 'Liu Xiaobo Plaza' after Liu Xiaobo, a human rights activist currently imprisoned in China. It would also make the embassy's address '1 Liu Xiaobo Plaza.'... 'I can only infer it has political implications because the president of China is due to arrive here tomorrow,' [Sen. Dianne Feinstein said]. The California Democrat added, 'Maybe people don't believe diplomacy makes a difference, but I do.'"

... Ted's Stunt o'the Week. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Ted Cruz is gearing up for another showdown with Republican leaders in Congress.... [Cruz] is deploying arguments similar to those he used two years ago in rallying Tea Party lawmakers to block a government funding measure. Back then, the focus was on ObamaCare. Now, it's on Planned Parenthood. Cruz has invited House conservatives to meet in his Dirksen Building office while ratcheting up criticism of GOP leaders in recent days.... He published an op-ed in Politico on Wednesday calling on leaders to pass piecemeal bills funding parts of the federal government but not Planned Parenthood, similar to a strategy the GOP tried in 2013."

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve still intends to raise its benchmark interest rate this year, barring unpleasant surprises, the Fed chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, said on Thursday."

Jeffrey Fisher in a New York Times op-ed: "ON Monday, the Supreme Court will meet in private to perform one of its most consequential -- yet least appreciated -- functions: choosing the cases it will hear.... An explanation for the court's decision is almost never given, nor is it customary to indicate how the individual justices voted.... The justices should lift the veil of secrecy that shrouds this power.... In light of the Supreme Court's significant role in shaping so much of our national policy, it does not seem too much to ask to know which justices are putting which issues on the court's docket. Indeed, these votes are more consequential than anything said at oral argument.

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Paul Krugman: "There are, it turns out, people in the corporate world who will do whatever it takes, including fraud that kills people, in order to make a buck. And we need effective regulation to police that kind of bad behavior, not least so that ethical businesspeople aren't at a disadvantage when competing with less scrupulous types.... We used to know it, thanks to the muckrakers and reformers of the Progressive Era. But Ronald Reagan insisted that government is always the problem, never the solution, and this has become dogma on the right.... This week Jeb Bush, who has an uncanny talent for bad timing, chose to publish an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal denouncing the Obama administration for issuing 'a flood of creativity-crushing and job-killing rules.' Never mind his misuse of cherry-picked statistics, or the fact that private-sector employment has grown much faster under President Obama's 'job killing' policies than it did under Mr. Bush's brother's administration." ...

... NEW. New York Times: "Government regulators said Friday that they planned to step up the testing requirements of cars in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal. The Environmental Protection Agency, which disclosed last week that it had learned that Volkswagen diesel cars had equipment to evade smog-testing standards, said it had sent a letter to manufacturers of gasoline and diesel cars saying that regulators would be looking for so-called defeat devices in all vehicles." ...

... Peter Whorisky of the Washington Post: "Volkswagen has admitted it designed cars to cheat pollution tests, but the trouble with diesel emissions probably goes beyond just one automaker, according to tests of other manufacturers. Road tests of more than a dozen popular models from several manufacturers showed that the raw nitrogen oxide emissions from the cars were on average seven times European standards, according to a little-noticed October report from the same outfit that flagged the VW problems. Most of the models in the October report have not been publicly identified. One of the cars tested is the BMW X3, which had emissions calculated at 11 times the European limit, according to the testing company."

Sophia Kishkovsky of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia telephoned the singer-songwriter Elton John, who had asked for a meeting with him to discuss the status of gay rights in Russia. Mr. John announced in an Instagram post last week that Mr. Putin had called him. But the story that circulated on social media turned out to be a hoax: Mr. John had been the victim of a prank call by two satirists, Vladimir Krasnov and Alexey Stolyarov, who posed as Mr. Putin and an interpreter. Evidently, the Kremlin decided it was a good idea after all."

Presidential Race

Andrew Prokop of Vox: Does "the party decide" who its presidential nominee will be? Well, yeah, usually, when there's an obvious choice.

Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was the lone Democratic presidential hopeful -- and the only Jewish contender -- in the House chamber for Pope Francis's speech. When he left, he was beaming, as the pope had cited an American Catholic whom Sanders had plenty of praise for." Dorothy Day, Sanders said, "was a valiant fighter for workers, was very strong in her belief for social justice, and I think it was extraordinary that he cited her as one of the most important people in recent American history. This would be one of the very, very few times that somebody as radical as Dorothy Day was mentioned." For more on Sanders' reaction to Francis's address, see Charles Pierce's post linked above.

Reuters: "During a hearing on the NSA, Republican Senator Tom Cotton asked [NSA chief Admiral Mike] Rogers a series of questions related to [Hillary] Clinton's use of a private email server at her home for communications as secretary of state. Rogers said he did not want to be dragged into the issue, but Cotton said he wanted the NSA director's 'professional opinion.' Cotton asked whether Rogers considered the communications of top advisers to the president, even those that are unclassified, a top priority for foreign spy agencies. 'Yes,' Rogers responded." ...

... Tim Stark of Politico: "... Rogers had tried to duck the subject when Cotton asked what he would do if the U.S. secretary of state had asked him about setting up a private server. 'You really want to drag me into this?' Rogers answered. Then he said he would advise the secretary to comply with any applicable regulations."

"Empty Chairs." Artwork by Mic Smith of the AP.Trump Temper Tantrums, Ctd. Eliza Collins of Politico: "Donald Trump is not happy with the Associated Press photographer who took a picture showing a significant number of empty chairs at a South Carolina event on Wednesday -- so unhappy he called him a 'f***ing thief,' according to the Daily Mail. Trump's remarks about wire photographer Mic Smith follow a rough couple of days for his relationship with the press. On Wednesday, he said he would no longer appear on Fox News, which responded that Trump 'doesn't seem to grasp that candidates telling journalists what to ask is not how the media works in this country.' Later, he agreed to a meeting with Fox News CEO Roger Ailes to discuss 'differences of opinion,' the network said in a statement." ...

Ironies Never Cease. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: Donald Trump wants the FCC to fine Rich Lowry for making a "politically incorrect" comment on Fox "News": "Let's be honest: Carly cut his balls off with the precision of a surgeon -- and he knows it." "Trump won't have much luck getting Lowry to pay up for his anatomical comment, as the Federal Communications Commission only polices indecent programming on terrestrial radio and broadcast television -- not cable television...." ...

... Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Marco Rubio struck back at Donald Trump on Thursday, labeling Trump as a 'touchy and insecure guy' who's not informed on the issues.... Trump singled out Rubio in two campaign stops in South Carolina this week, labeling him a 'lightweight,' sweaty, and financially unsuccessful." CW: You might want to pause to think about how Democratic presidential candidates make schoolyard personal attacks against each other. Oh, they don't.

Charles Blow: Ben "Carson says in low register what others shout in anger, and he gets a bit of a pass because of the discordant message and method of delivery. Just because a person is soft-spoken doesn't mean that he is well-spoken.... Carson knows that his outrageous antics in his role as the anti-Obama are a most profitable enterprise. He mixes political critique with Christian theological messaging to rake in quite a bit of money on the lecture circuit.... As a political figure, his stature is diminished as he reveals himself to be intolerant, bordering on soft bigotry, and also reckless and needlessly inflammatory. No one can discount what Carson accomplished professionally, but those accomplishments must now stand shoulder to shoulder with this new persona: whisper-soft purveyor of hyperbolic hucksterism."

Eli Stokols of Politico: "Carly Fiorina is doubling down on her controversial[*] claim that videos show 'babies are being butchered' by Planned Parenthood, writing off anyone who challenges her on the point as part of the 'liberal media.'... 'Interestingly, no one has denied that babies are being butchered for their body parts at Planned Parenthood clinics and elsewhere,' she said as supporters clapped. 'They're trying to have a conversation about a technicality about a video tape. The character of this nation cannot be about butchery of babies for body parts.'"

     * CW Note to Eli: Replace "controversial" with "disproved." Note to Carly: No, a "lie" is not a "technicality." And there's nothing in the record anywhere that Planned Parenthood is involved in "butchery of babies for body parts," you lying sack of shit.

My story, from secretary to CEO, is only possible in this nation, and proves that everyone of us has potential. -- Carly Fiorina, second GOP debate, Sept. 16

A free Stanford education -- her father was dean of the law school -- led to Fiorina's subsequent opportunities. That "secretary" job was a typical college-student summer job. "In telling her only-in-America story, she conveniently glosses over the only-for-Fiorina opportunities and options beyond what the proverbial mailroom worker has." -- Michelle Lee of the Washington Post

Fiorina's "Horatio Alger" story began at birth. Her father was a law school professor then, & later dean of prestigious law schools. He became friendly with Richard Nixon, who later appointed him deputy attorney general & appellate court judge. He had an undergraduate business degree, & his specialty was tax law. (He was on the three-judge panel that appointed Ken Starr as Whitewater special prosecutor.) Fiorina also benefited from timing. She came up through the business ranks at exactly the time most major businesses were making particular efforts to put women in managerial & executive positions. Fiorina was successful in her own right, but within the subset of people with unique advantages. Being a recipient of numerous breaks that eventually led to her trashing a successful tech company is not all that impressive or unique a resume.

** Jonathan Chait: "Like all of the non-Trump Republican candidates, Jeb Bush's economic strategy is built around a program of regressive, debt-financed tax cuts, just as it was under the last Republican administration. In a very clever interview, John Harwood repeatedly asks Bush why he is pursuing this course despite its repeated failure. Bush's attempts to respond reveal the tangle of denial, non-falsifiability, and cant that undergird the party's unshakable commitment to voodoo economics." CW: Harwood eats Jeb! alive, & Chait provides the relish. ...

... Jeb!, Professional Retread. Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Jeb Bush said here Thursday night that Republicans can win more African American voters by emphasizing a positive message that does not involve promising 'free stuff,' a remark that bore echoes of comments by Mitt Romney that drew criticism in 2012." CW: Jeb! is so lacking in originality & so clueless that he copies even his predecessors' gaffes. ...

... Jaime Fuller of New York: "Jeb Bush showed that not only is he determined to defend and honor the foreign-policy record of his brother, he is also so adamant on being the 2016 Establishment presidential pick that he is willing to bring back the campaign strategies that Mitt Romney, who is not president, used in 2012. And by 'strategies' we of course mean, 'off-the-cuff remarks that were widely condemned.'"

Mark Hensch of the Hill: Rick Santorum, a Roman Catholic, says Pope Francis's stated interest in combatting climate change is just a means of scoring new converts who might like that kind of stuff. "'The Vatican and the Pope are not climate scientists,' Santorum said." ...

    ... CW: Actually, Rick, you ignorant blowhard, they are. Jeff Nesbitt of US News: "A team of leading scientists and Nobel laureates at the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences provided the underpinning for [Pope Francis's climate encycical] based on the very latest research and scientific reasoning. It's world-class science and more than enough justification for any papal policy work." Francis himself has a master's degree in chemistry. And you don't.

Beyond the Beltway

Murder for Hire. AP: "A former German army sniper was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday after he was caught in a sting operation that tested whether ex-soldiers would kill a federal agent. Dennis Gogel, 29, was sentenced by US District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan, who said a long prison sentence was necessary to deter other soldiers from thinking they could use specialized skills they learned in the military to commit crimes once they were civilians.... The judge ... said she doubted his claim that he did not know he was signing up to commit assassinations when he agreed to join a crew protecting a drug organization."

Tierney Sneed of TPM: "A Pennsylvania lawmaker objected to accusations that he had invited a white supremacist to testify in front of a committee by clarifying that the witness was merely a white nationalist. The witness, Robert 'Bob' Vandervoort, appeared at a hearing Monday on a bill to make English the official state language, the Patriot-News reported, prompting state Rep. Leslie Acosta (D) to allege that the committee had invited a white supremacist.... The Southern Poverty Law Center has described Vandervoort as being tied 'to white nationalist groups.' But, as the Patriot-News noted, the center characterizes white nationalist groups as espousing 'white supremacist or white separatist ideologies.'" CW: However you label Vandervoort, he's the kind of racist Republican legislators hang with.

News Ledes

USA Today: "Stocks jumped at the open Friday after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said improving economic conditions should allow policymakers to begin raising interest rates this year."

Bloomberg News: "The world's largest economy expanded more than previously forecast in the second quarter, boosted by gains in consumer spending and construction that may help the U.S. withstand a global slowdown. Gross domestic product rose at a 3.9 percent annualized rate, compared with a prior estimate of 3.7 percent, Commerce Department figures showed Friday in Washington."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 24, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The White House plans to announce on Thursday that President Obama will meet next week with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, ending a long period in which the American leader refused to meet with his counterpart from the Kremlin, a senior administration official said."

*****

Peter Baker & Jim Yardley of the New York Times: "Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of 1.2 billion Catholics, challenged Congress and by extension the mightiest nation in history on Thursday to break out of its cycle of polarization and paralysis to finally use its power to heal the 'open wounds' of a planet torn by hatred, greed, poverty and pollution. Taking a rostrum never before occupied by the bishop of Rome, the pontiff issued a vigorous call to action on issues largely favored by liberals, including a powerful defense of immigration, a critique of the excesses of capitalism, an endorsement of environmental legislation, a blistering condemnation of the arms trade and a plea to abolish the death penalty." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... anyone looking for this Pope's support in culture wars had to be hastened by his criticism of polarization and his attack on all sorts of religious 'fundamentalism' (not a term often used in Catholicism)."

... Here's the transcript of Pope Francis's speech to Congress. ...

... USA Today: "10 a.m. -- The Senate and House welcome the pope in a joint session. He will make the first-ever address to Congress, which will broadcast live on the Capitol's West Front. This speech will be one of four he will hold in English. The remaining 14 speeches on his U.S. trip will be in his native Spanish." ...

... The Washington Post is liveblogging Pope Francis's activities. ...

... NEW. Gregory Korte of USA Today: "Pope Francis made an unscheduled stop to visit the Little Sisters of the Poor Wednesday, a move that Vatican officials said was intended to send a message of support in the nuns' battle against Obamacare. The religious order of Catholic sisters is suing the Obama administration over a provision of the Affordable Care Act that the administration has interpreted as requiring the sisters to purchase health insurance with birth control coverage." ...

... Sarah Bailey, et al., of the Washington Post: "In his first Mass in the United States, Pope Francis on Wednesday canonized a 18th-century Spanish missionary who spread Christianity across California but who also was controversial for overseeing the mistreatment of Native Americans who joined his flock. A throng of worshipers celebrated the Rev. Junípero Serra's elevation to sainthood -- the first canonization on U.S. soil -- during a late-afternoon Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Northeast Washington." ...

... Sabrina Siddiqui & Lauren Gamino of the Guardian: "A group of protesters greeted Pope Francis outside St Matthew's cathedral in Washington on Wednesday with a message to ordain female priests into the Catholic church or risk treating them as second-class citizens." ...

... Abigail Ohlheiser, et al., of the Washington Post: "Pope Francis told American bishops Wednesday that the offenses of the Catholic church's sex abuse scandal must never be repeated.... Francis's somber words for the bishops came in stark contrast to the joyous popemobile circuit along some of Washington's historic avenues just minutes before, where he greeted thousands, kissed babies and blew kisses to the crowd." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Here's the transcript of Francis's remarks to the bishops. ...

... Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "... Pope Francis ... made it clear Wednesday that he does not intend to sidestep the deeply divisive issues that are roiling this country -- and indeed, that he plans to fully employ his voice and influence as the spiritual leader of nearly 80 million Roman Catholics in the U.S. Amid the pageantry of a welcoming ceremony on the White House lawn, the first pope from the Americas introduced himself as 'the son of an immigrant family. I am happy to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by such families.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Shep Shames the Fox "News" Audience. Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "As many conservatives fret over Pope Francis' views on climate change and income inequality ahead of his Thursday speech before Congress, Fox News host Shepard Smith chided those individuals who have criticized the pope for talking about "political" issues."

I don't know what we expect to hear from an organization's leader like the pope of the Catholic Church, other than protect those who need help, bring in refugees who have no place because of war and violence and terrorism. These seem like universal truths that we should be good to others who have less than we do, that we should give shelter to those who don't have it. They're the words of the pope, they're the feelings of the president. And people who find themselves on the other side of that message should consult a mirror, it seems like. Because I think that's what we're supposed to do as a people, whatever your religion.

... Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones: "Pope Francis survived his visit to the White House this morning without anyone flashing boobs at him. That news might come as a surprise to conservatives, who for the past week have been attacking President Barack Obama for indecorously inviting LGBT activists and a liberal nun to attend the pope's speech at the White House." ...

... Gail Collins on what she learned in Catholic school. "I remember one priest who told us that when Christ was dying on the cross, he sadly envisioned us Catholic girls sinning in the back seat of a car. 'Aren't there any other sins?' I asked one day." ...

... Nicholas Kristof: "The excitement about Francis is about his tone as much as his substance, and he shares many of the conservative social values of his predecessors. To me, one of the most striking shifts that go beyond tone is one that has commanded almost no notice: his calls for animal rights. 'We must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God's image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures,' he declared in his encyclical on the environment. 'The Bible has no place for a tyrannical anthropocentrism.'"

David Sanger of the New York Times: "Just a day before the arrival of President Xi Jinping of China for a meeting with President Obama that will be focused heavily on limiting cyberespionage, the Office of Personnel Management said Wednesday that the hackers who stole security dossiers from the agency also got the fingerprints of 5.6 million federal employees. The attack on the agency, which is the main custodian of the government's most important personnel records, has been attributed to China by American intelligence agencies, but it is unclear exactly what group or organization engineered it. Before Wednesday, the agency had said that it lost only 1.1 million sets of fingerprints among the more than 22 million individuals whose records were compromised."

Niall Stanage of the Hill: "The federal government has begun planning for the possibility of a shutdown, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday. Earnest said it was 'only prudent to begin such planning,' and lamented that this was 'a process that we have unfortunately become all too familiar with.'" ...

... Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: It costs more to shut down the government than to keep it open. "The last time this happened, for 16 days in October 2013, the White House put a price on it: 6.6 million days of lost work, $2 billion in back pay for 850,000 federal employees who did no work and 120,000 private-sector jobs gone." ...

... New York Times Editors: "The Republican obsession with [Planned Parenthood] seems to come to this: denying women, especially poor women, the health care they need; pandering for primary votes among Tea Party regulars; and obstructing the budget process and the smooth functioning of government. Quite a record."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd.

Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "Martin Winterkorn resigned as chief executive of Volkswagen on Wednesday, taking responsibility for an emissions cheating scandal that has gravely damaged the carmaker's reputation and may spread to the German economy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Danny Hakim & Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Long before Volkswagen admitted to cheating on emissions tests for millions of cars worldwide, the automobile industry, Volkswagen included, had a well-known record of sidestepping regulation and even duping regulators. For decades, car companies found ways to rig mileage and emissions testing data. In Europe, some automakers have taped up test cars' doors and grilles to bolster their aerodynamics. Others have used 'superlubricants' to reduce friction in the car's engine to a degree that would be impossible in real-world driving conditions." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Nathan Pemberton of New York posts some of the VW & Audi ads falsely touting the cars' "clean diesel."

"Pharma Bro." Michael Miller of the Washington Post: "Although [Martin] Shkreli has delivered different, at times conflicting statements about why his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised the price of Daraprim, his answer has often boiled down to this: because of capitalism. It's unlikely that Shkreli set out to stir a debate about the limits of the American economic system, but that's effectively what he has done. The controversy comes at a time of broad concern over inequality in this country." ...

... Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "Shkreli's actions were shocking for a simple reason: It was an unusual moment of complete transparency in health care, where motives, prices and how the system works are rarely ever talked about so nakedly.... Pharmaceutical companies that make new therapies often justify prices by saying they will recoup the investment needed to research, develop and gain approval for new drugs. With Daraprim, all that money had already been spent, so radically hiking its price seems to some more the tack of a hedge-fund manager..., analysts said. Even PhRMA, a trade group that frequently finds itself defending the industry against critics, pointed out that Shkreli's company, Turing, was not a member and slammed the door on him."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Variety: "Tribune Media's flagship TV station WGN-TV Chicago has apologized for including an offensive image in a Tuesday night report on the Yom Kippur holiday. The station's 9 p.m. newscast aired a report on the holiday ... that included an image of the star of David with 'Jude' in the center. That symbol was used as the badge that Jews in concentration camps and elsewhere in Germany were forced to wear during the Nazi regime." CW: WGN, BTW, stands for "World's Greatest Newspaper," the motto of its Chicago Tribune. parent company.

Presidential Race

Nick Gass of Politico: "Next year's general-election presidential debates will be in Ohio, Missouri, Nevada and Virginia, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced Wednesday. The first general-election debate will be held Sept. 26, 2016, at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Washington University in St. Louis will host the second general-election debate on Oct. 9, 2016.... The final presidential debate will be hosted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on Oct. 19, 2016, with Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, as the backup site. Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, will host the VP debate on Oct. 4, 2016."

The Candidate Who Wasn't There. Michele Richinick of Newsweek: "Vice President Joe Biden, who has not declared his intention to run for president, ranked No. 2 -- ahead of liberal firebrand Bernie Sanders -- as Democrats' first choice for the next leader of the U.S., according to a [Bloomberg Politics] poll published Wednesday."

Kevin Drum: "By all the evidence, Hillary is telling the truth. She just told her staff to delete personal emails and turn over the rest to the State Department. There was nothing more to it. But no one's reporting it that way. Peculiar, isn't it?"

The White Boys' Game. Steve M. explains the Republican party to befuddled WashPo reporters: "If you're not a white male, to attain success with the Republican Party's voter base you're expected to specifically renounce the politics of inclusion. Thus we have Cruz and Jindal, both immigrants' sons, rejecting birthright citizenship. We have Marco Rubio now saying we shouldn't even consider a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in the next decade. We have Ben Carson accusing the Black Lives Matter movement of 'bullying.' We have Carly Fiorina refusing to name a woman she'd like to see on the $10 bill.... If you want to succeed in the GOP as a woman or person of color, you need to embody the message that acknowledging unequal treatment of certain groups is a liberal plot. That's why there's no contradiction between a diverse Republican presidential field and the torrent of hate and disrespect we've seen from the candidates and voters."

NEW. Greg Sargent: "Republican primary voters keep telling reporters that they feel attracted to Donald Trump's presidential candidacy because he 'tells it like it is.'... Of course, telling people that the way to 'make America great again' is to immediately deport 11 million people, which Trump will do with ease, is not 'telling it like it is,' it constitutes lying to them on multiple levels.... The Trump candidacy's Big Lie: never mind the policy details, never mind the separation of powers, never mind the profound disagreements between the parties. Everything will be easy and terrific." ...

... Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump was never exactly a happy warrior, but with some of his Republican rivals gaining on him, he is showing clear signs of discontent." ...

... Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump no longer wants to be America's birther-in-chief. In a Monday interview with Fox News -- which might have been his last -- Trump said that questions about President Obama's citizenship 'began' with Hillary Clinton, 'when she was running against him.'... This was not Trump's first dabble with birther revisionism.... And more and more conservatives have settled on the Trump line -- that the questions about Obama's citizenship were so slimy that they obviously came from the Clinton camp.... The problem: This is simply not true. Clinton's campaign, one of the most thoroughly dissected in modern history, never raised questions about the future president's citizenship. The idea that it did is based largely on a series of disconnected actions by supporters of Clinton...." ...

... NEW. Trump's Sexist Comment of the Day. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump said during a campaign speech Wednesday that Hillary Rodham Clinton is 'shrill,' raising his voice several octaves to get the point across." ...

... Kira Lerner of Think Progress: "Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has no idea what he would do to combat rising drug prices, but he does know how to launch a vicious personal attack. In a press conference in Columbia, South Carolina on Wednesday, Trump sharply criticized the former hedge fund manager who has become known as the 'Pharma bro,' telling ThinkProgress the man is a 'disgrace' and a 'spoiled brat.'... When pressed on what he would do to address the issue, he again avoided the question. 'Probably at some point the public is going to get him to reduce it somewhat,' he said." ...

... CW: Therein lies the difference between the Republican & Democratic parties. Bernie Sanders & Hillary Clinton would have the government regulate drug prices; Donald Trump would let the "free market" handle it. Trump, savvy businessman, doesn't seem to understand or acknowledge the scourge of monopolies, the raison d'être of government regulation. Like every Republican, he wants to take us back to the Gilded Age, when the U.S. had few anti-trust laws. His promise to up the taxes of hedge fund operators is, in the broad scheme, superfluous.

Snit Fit. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "In what can only be a calamity for the folks at 'Fox & Friends,' Donald Trump today signaled via Twitter that he's not going on the network.... This back-and-forth between Trump and Fox News is entering another round -- perhaps its third or fourth. ...

     ... Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "Fox hit right back against Trump on Wednesday, saying that it was a decision by the network to cancel a Trump appearance that led to Trump's so-called boycott -- and not the other way around." ...

... Maxed out on Pope Francis? Take a break while Donald Trump explains God to David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network while they visit Trump's Los Angeles-area golf course:

Well I say God is the ultimate. You know you look at this? Here we are on the Pacific Ocean. How did I ever own this? I bought it fifteen years ago. I made one of the great deals they say ever. I have no more mortgage on it as I will certify and represent to you. And I was able to buy this and make a great deal. That's what I want to do for the country. Make great deals. We have to, we have to bring it back, but God is the ultimate. I mean God created this (points to his golf course and nature surrounding it), and here's the Pacific Ocean right behind us. So nobody, no thing, no there's nothing like God.

Biblical ref. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.... And God said, 'Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.'... And God saw that it was good.... And God created Trump in his image. And God said to Trump, 'Go forth and get a great deal on the land beside the sea.' And Trump saw that it was good. And he made a great deal. With no mortgage. -- The Book of Genesis According to Trump (1:1-23)

Ryan Felton of the Guardian: Ben "Carson ... told reporters that 'political correctness' bears the responsibility for the criticism he has faced since Sunday, when he said he would 'not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation'." ...

... Ben Carson v. the Scientific Method. Paul Waldman: "... what's so odd about Carson is that science is ... the thing at which he excelled. Yet his religious beliefs are apparently so powerful that they completely overwhelm his ability to look objectively at any scientific area that might give some answers to what people once thought were purely metaphysical questions. Training in science is also training in how to think.... It isn't surprising that Ben Carson knows next to nothing about Islam; what is surprising is that, despite a career immersed in a very specialized field, he would think that he could listen to a couple of Glenn Beck rants and come to a deep understanding of a 1,400-year-old religion.... Carson's entire campaign for president is built on the rejection of knowledge and experience, in that he argues that all you need to succeed as president is common sense." ...

... Charles Pierce: "Ben Carson, brain surgeon, has lost his mind." ...

... CW: For what it's worth, here's my take: pediatric brain surgery is not just complicated, it's emotionally draining. For relief from the strains of his profession, Carson wanted the rest of his life to be easy, to provide simple answers that don't require the complexities inherent in his day job. Well, fundamentalist Christianity is super-simple. It provides black-and-white/Devil-and-God answers to all of life's burning questions. No thinking, no angst required. Sort of like knitting -- once you learn a few basic stitches, you can make a sweater to keep you warm. Simple-minded Christianity is Carson's hobby. It keeps him warm.

... Something to ponder: Whose theology is sillier -- Trump's or Carson's?

CW: Nice to see that the Houston Chronicle covered Marco Rubio's "Hitler problem."

Beyond the Beltway

** Kate Zernike of the New York Times on the town where Yogi lived. At the top, a mystery solved: the deeper meaning of "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." "People here [in Montclair, New Jersey,] are quick to point out that Yogi's fork in the road really is a fork in the road: where Edgewood Road splits with Edgewood Terrace, and, as legend has him telling his old friend Joe Garagiola, you take it -- and either way ends up at the Berras' house on Highland Avenue." Not as profound a solution to a mystery as, say, uncovering the meaning of life, but, well, grounding. Read the whole story, because therein lies a clue to that sweet mystery of life.

Steve Bittenbender of Reuters: "A federal judge on Wednesday denied Kim Davis a stay of his order requiring her office to issue marriage licenses to all eligible couples who want one.... Lawyers for couples suing Davis have said that since her return to work, the Rowan County clerk has interfered with the issuance of marriage licenses in violation of orders by U.S. District Judge David Bunning's in Louisville.... On Monday, lawyers for the couples suing Davis said she had made material changes to the marriage license forms after her return to work on Sept. 14 that left questions about their legality.... The lawyers asked Bunning to make the clerk use the previous format and reissue those given under the altered one, saying the office should be put in receivership and fines assessed if interference continues. He has not ruled on that request.

AP: "A US border patrol agent has been indicted in the fatal 2010 shooting of a teenage boy along the Arizona-Mexico border. On Wednesday a federal grand jury indicted agent Lonnie Swartz on a charge of second-degree murder. Swartz allegedly fired through the border fence into Nogales, Sonora and fatally wounded 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez on 10 October 2012."

Dan of TFN Insider: "The Travis County Republican Party here in Austin[, Texas,] dived into the deep end of the crazy pool Monday evening.... The tweet (which was removed late this morning) links to a blog post on the Conservative Daily News website. The hate-filled screed starts this way: 'Christianity is a religion but Islam is merely a satanic cult of rape, torture, murder, bestiality, and satan worship!!!!!'... It's all downhill from there, with the writer demonstrating (despite his protests) an almost unhinged hatred for Muslims. But he also attacks George W. Bush, calling the Republican former president a 'coward and traitor.' He even goes after other Christians, notably the Roman Catholic Church."

News Ledes

AP: "A 'duck boat' tour vehicle and a charter bus carrying foreign students to a college orientation event collided on a busy Seattle bridge Thursday, killing four students and injuring dozens of others."

Washington Post: "Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the leader of the FARC rebel group announced a major breakthrough Wednesday in peace talks, bringing the country to the verge of ending one of the world's longest-running wars. The dramatic announcement came in Havana, where the two sides began formal negotiations in 2012 on ending the 50-year-old conflict."

Washington Post: "More than two hundred pilgrims were killed in a crush near the Saudi holy city of Mecca, where millions are gathering for the annual hajj.... Saudi Arabia's civil defense agency tweeted that it is on the scene, sorting out the injured and dead from the throngs of people. Images from the scene show rescue workers performing chest compressions on exhausted pilgrims, who apparently collapsed from the heat or press of people. Dozens more bodies lie still on stretchers, covered in white sheets or blankets." ...

     ... New Lede: "A stampede among Muslim worshipers near the Saudi holy city of Mecca left more than 700 people dead and hundreds more injured Thursday at the height of the annual hajj pilgrimage -- the backdrop for similar tragedies in past decades.

     ... The New York Times has an updated story, putting the number of dead at at least 310.