The Commentariat -- August 24, 2015

Internal links removed.

Nathaniel Popper & Neil Gough of the New York Times: "Stocks in the United States tumbled on Monday morning as another sell-off that started in China roiled markets around the world. Immediately after the opening bell in New York, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 1,000 points, or more than 5 percent -- one of the most precipitous such plunges in recent years. Within an hour, though, American stocks had made up much of their earlier losses and the Dow was down about 2 percent." ...

     ... UPDATE. "The Dow Jones industrial average plunged over 1,000 points immediately after the opening bell on Monday morning before recovering much of those losses and then dropping again nearly 600 points at the close." CW: Because Planned Parenthood. See Comments.

... Paul Krugman: "Politicians and technocrats alike want to view themselves as serious people making hard choices -- choices like cutting popular programs and raising interest rates. They don't like being told that we're in a world where seemingly tough-minded policies will actually make things worse. But we are, and they will." ...

... Zandar in Balloon Juice: "Once again, with interest rates at rock bottom, Republicans refuse to invest in government spending so they can privatize and profitize as much infrastructure as possible (which is the real problem), and they're shocked that years of Austerity Bombing hasn't created utopia yet (ask Kansas how that's going.)" ...

... "If I Were the Chair of the Fed. (As I Should Be.)" Larry Summers in the Washington Post: "A reasonable assessment of current conditions suggests that raising [interest] rates in the near future would be a serious error that would threaten all three of the Fed's major objectives: price stability, full employment and financial stability." ...

... What's the Matter with the Fed? Paul Krugman: "Pressure from the usual suspects -- the constant sniping against easy money -- may play a role. But I also suspect that a lot has to do with the urge to resume a conventional central-banker role. The whole culture of central banks involves saying no to stuff people want, taking away the punch bowl as the party gets going, having the courage to do unpopular things; everyone wants to be Paul Volcker. The Fed is really, really eager to return to that position -- and is, I fear, engaging in wishful thinking, believing much too readily that a return to normalcy is appropriate. It's not. I'm with Larry here: this attitude has the makings of a big mistake. Think Japan 2000; think ECB 2011; think Sweden. Don't do it."

Aurelien Breeden of the New York Times: "President François Hollande of France on Monday awarded the Legion of Honor, France's highest award, to three Americans and a Briton for their role in stopping a gunman on a high-speed train traveling to Paris from Amsterdam on Friday. The three Americans -- Airman First Class Spencer Stone, 23; Alek Skarlatos, 22, a specialist in the Oregon National Guard; and their friend Anthony Sadler, 23 -- received the honor in the gilded halls of the Élysée Palace, where they were joined by Chris Norman, 62, a British consultant":

Jamelle Bouie: "When we look at the first 15 years of the 21^st century, the most defining moment in black America's relationship to its country isn't Election Day 2008, it's Hurricane Katrina. The events of the storm and its aftermath sparked a profound shift among black Americans toward racial pessimism that persists to today, even with Barack Obama in the White House. Black collective memory of Hurricane Katrina, as much as anything else, informs the present movement against police violence, 'Black Lives Matter.'"

Bomb-Bomb-Bomb-Iran. Michael Crowley of Politico: "Want to bomb Iran? Then support the nuclear deal. That's the provocative argument coming from Obama administration officials and other backers of the deal as they promote it before a crucial vote in Congress next month. In meetings on Capitol Hill and with influential policy analysts, administration officials argue that inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities under the deal will reveal important details that can be used for better targeting should the U.S. decide to attack Iran."

Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid gave a forceful endorsement Sunday to the nuclear deal with Iran, a key boost that provides continued momentum for preventing Congress from blocking President Obama's pact. The Nevada Democrat ... pledged to round up more support to thwart its opponents." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Ed Kilgore: "OK, the Biden speculation is really getting insane. All that anyone is able to report as actual news is that some people close to Biden really want him to run for president in 2016, and he hasn't ruled it out just yet. But the same stories go on to suggest he's 90% or 95% or 99% sure to run, and then it's off to the races about his strategy and HOW HE WILL DESTROY HILLARY, which seems to be the real point of the coverage, particularly from conservative outlets." ...

... CW: This should pump the Biden-Warren fantasy. Nick Gass of Politico: "It's 'too early' to commit to another term in the Senate, Elizabeth Warren told a Boston television station in an interview aired Sunday." ...

... AND this. Nick Gass: "Vice President Joe Biden has picked his new communications director: Kate Bedingfield, a former spokeswoman for John Edwards' 2008 campaign who recently served as the top film industry flack in Washington. 'She will be a key adviser to me, a terrific asset to our office, and an important member of the entire White House organization,' Biden said in a statement." ...

... BUT Charles Pierce thinks he knows what Warren is up to: "Even with Bernie Sanders in the race and tearing up the countryside, the Senator Professor doesn't think the putative frontrunner is doing enough on the issues to which the Senator Professor has devoted her entire career and that, therefore, those issues are not playing a big enough role in the campaign so far. This goes along with something we've been saying around here for a while now. You dismiss the Senator Professor's political chops at your peril. This move is how you broker power from where you are at the moment, and not where people want you to be."

Bernie Becker of the Hill: "Martin O'Malley, a Democratic presidential candidate, said Sunday that Republicans and the media are raising 'legitimate' questions about Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. O'Malley, a former two-term Maryland governor, said the questions surrounding Clinton's email habits as secretary of State aren't allowing Democrats to talk about the economic issues worrying voters."

White Men in White Man's Party Worry White Man Will Damage White Man's Party. Molly Ball of the Atlantic: "... many Republican strategists, donors, and officeholders fret that the harm [Donald Trump is doing to the party] goes deeper than a single voting bloc. Trump's candidacy has blasted open the GOP's longstanding fault lines at a time when the party hoped for unity. His gleeful, attention-hogging boorishness -- and the large crowds that have cheered it -- cements a popular image of the party as standing for reactionary anger rather than constructive policies."

Evan Osnos of the New Yorker takes a long gander at Donald Trump & his white nationalist coalition. "Ever since the Tea Party's peak, in 2010, and its fade, citizens on the American far right -- Patriot militias, border vigilantes, white supremacists -- have searched for a standard-bearer, and now they'd found him." ...

... Greg Sargent: "The question of what to do about the 11 million is the fundamental underlying policy dilemma that is at the core of the whole immigration debate. And it's one many Republicans have refused to reckon with seriously for years now. They've called for more 'enforcement of the law' while taking care to avoid saying whether this means they want maximum deportations. And they've claimed to be open to legalization at some point later without meaningfully defining what conditions must be established first. This is roughly where [Scott] Walker is now. Trump has unmasked those evasions for what they are." ...

... The Party of Destruction. CW: Maybe Donald Trump knows how to build a wall (which at best would create an inconvenience to those wishing to sneak into the U.S., not an impenetrable impediment), but for the most part the GOP knows only how to tear down things, not how to build positive programs for Americans. They want to repeal the ACA, wreck Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid & other social welfare programs, defund Planned Parenthood & the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, eradicate regulations on business & industry. etc. They have no plans to do anything; all they know how to "do" is undo. So let's not be all surprised that they have no idea how to cope with millions of residents they want to disappear. ...

... Katy O'Donnell of Politico: "Donald Trump has boldly touted his independence from big donors, in June proclaiming 'I'm using my own money' during his presidential announcement speech, and holding forth his multi-billion-dollar net worth as proof that he can't be bought by the 'special interests' that bankroll -- and 'control' -- the campaigns of his rivals. But ... he tacitly gave approval to the Make America Great Again PAC by attending a fundraiser the group held in New York last month."

We have wonderful Border Patrol people. They can do their job, but they're not allowed to do the job. People are walking into the country [and] nobody even knows where they come from. They walk right past guards that are told not to do anything. -- Donald Trump, on ABC's "This Week"

Really? Fact-checker, please. -- Constant Weader

At Mobile, Alabama rally, Trump fans yelled "White power!" multiple times ... throughout the event."

If I'm going down, then Bush is going down with me. He's not going to be president of the United States. -- Donald Trump, to a friend

Flippity Flop Flop Flip. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "... Scott Walker appears to have yet again shifted his stance on allowing the children of illegal immigrants to automatically gain U.S. citizenship. In an interview on ABC News' 'This Week' on Sunday morning, Walker said he does not want to alter the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states that 'all persons born or naturalized in the United States ... are citizens of the United States.' Nearly a week ago, Walker said he wants to end birthright citizenship, and he would not say then whether he agrees with the 14th Amendment." Johnson provides more-or-less an hour-by-hour account of Walker's changing, conflicting, stonewalling & garbled stated "positions" last week. CW: This guy makes even the Decider & the Doofus brothers look smart. (Also linked yesterday.)

Cap'n. Cruz Leads Another Battle in the War on Women. Katie Zezima & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "... Ted Cruz, who has assiduously courted evangelicals throughout his presidential run, will take a lead role in the launch this week of an ambitious 50-state campaign to end taxpayer support for Planned Parenthood -- a move that is likely to give the GOP candidate a major primary-season boost in the fierce battle for social-conservative and evangelical voters." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

In a Las Vegas Review-Journal op-ed, Columba Bush sucks up to Miriam & Sheldon Adelson, manages to mention Jeb! Via Politico.

The Commentariat -- August 23, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid gave a forceful endorsement Sunday to the nuclear deal with Iran, a key boost that provides continued momentum for preventing Congress from blocking President Obama's pact. The Nevada Democrat ... pledged to round up more support to thwart its opponents."

Flippity Flop Flop Flip. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "... Scott Walker appears to have yet again shifted his stance on allowing the children of illegal immigrants to automatically gain U.S. citizenship. In an interview on ABC News' 'This Week' on Sunday morning, Walker said he does not want to alter the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states that 'all persons born or naturalized in the United States ... are citizens of the United States.' Nearly a week ago, Walker said he wants to end birthright citizenship, and he would not say then whether he agrees with the 14th Amendment." Johnson provides more-or-less an hour-by-hour account of Walker's changing, conflicting, stonewalling & garbled stated "positions" last week. CW: This guy makes even the Decider & the Doofus brothers look smart.

Cap'n. Cruz Leads Another Battle in the War on Women. Katie Zezima & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "... Ted Cruz, who has assiduously courted evangelicals throughout his presidential run, will take a lead role in the launch this week of an ambitious 50-state campaign to end taxpayer support for Planned Parenthood -- a move that is likely to give the GOP candidate a major primary-season boost in the fierce battle for social-conservative and evangelical voters."

*****

... Ashley Southall of the New York Times: "The three Americans who subdued a gunman aboard a train to Paris are friends from their middle-school days, and two of them serve in the armed forces." ...

... Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "... sharp questions are being asked about Europe's security measures after a man who had been flagged by counterterrorism authorities as a potential risk was allowed onto the continent's vital rail system without any security checks. Spanish, French and Belgian security officials had the man, identified as 26-year-old Moroccan citizen Ayoub el-Khazzani, on their radar for more than a year."

Mark Hensch of the Hill (August 21): "The Black Lives Matter movement announced on Friday that it has an official platform for curbing police violence and reforming criminal justice in the U.S. The social activism group released its most comprehensive policy outline to date on a website titled Campaign Zero."

Amanda Marcotte in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: The anti-abortion movement relies on the principle that women are too immature, too ignorant or too "emotional" to make their own life decisions, so the state has a duty to "protect" women with anti-abortion laws. ...

... Heather Richardson, in Salon, takes a brief look at conservatives' long history of promoting white male supremacy.

Presidential Race

Deez Nuts endorses Sanders for the Democratic nomination, Kasich for the GOP nomination, & himself in the general election, showing that a 15-year-old has more sense than the majority of people eligible to vote &/or who are running for president.

Jonathan Martin & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Saturday summoned Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, to his Washington residence for a meeting, the latest indication that he is seriously considering a presidential bid. Mr. Biden and Ms. Warren met for over an hour at the Naval Observatory with no aides present, according to a Democrat briefed on the conversation."

Daniel Strauss of Politico: "As he campaigns through South Carolina, Sen. Bernie Sanders is taking more than a few shots at Gov. Nikki Haley and the state's conservative legislators on health care. In multiple speeches here, the liberal Democratic presidential candidate and Independent senator from Vermont has a one-two punch ready: South Carolina should have expanded Medicaid and the decision not to was fueled, at least in part, because President Barack Obama wants that to happen." ...

... Vanessa Williams of the Washington Post: In South Carolina, Bernie Sanders tries to increase his appeal to black voters.

Zeke Miller of Time: "Hillary Clinton's campaign offices around the country have been put on alert after at least two women approached Iowa staff under the guise of being supporters in an apparent effort to catch the campaign engaging in improper or illegal activity, a Clinton campaign official said.... A Clinton campaign official alleges that the women engaged in several efforts to entrap supporters."

Michael Barbaro, et al., of the New York Times: "A review of public polling, extensive interviews with a host of his supporters in two states and a new private survey that tracks voting records all point to the conclusion that [Donald] Trump has built a broad, demographically and ideologically diverse coalition, constructed around personality, not substance, that bridges demographic and political divides. In doing so, he has effectively insulated himself from the consequences of startling statements that might instantly doom rival candidates.... Trumpism, the data and interviews suggest, is an attitude, not an ideology." ...

     ... Steve M. cites the report as a good example of how the media sanitize Trump & his appeal to racist voters. ...

... CW: This stupid, offensive woman, randomly chosen, not only exemplifies Steve's point, she gives you an idea of who-all the Trump coalition includes:

... Maureen Dowd describes all the great things about Donald Trump's campaign: "... he has exploded the hoary conventions, money-grubbing advisers and fund-raising excesses of the presidential campaign, turning everything upside down, inside out, into sauerkraut." She really likes the way Trump has put Hillary & Jeb! in their places. She never once accuses Trump of being anything worse than brash. CW: So here we have a prominent NYT columnist demonstrating beyond question that she is as superficial, as nasty -- & as I've long suspected -- as racist as Trump. Maybe I should relegate MoDo to the Infotainment section in the manner of the HuffPost's Trump treatment. ...

... Lorenzo Ferrigno of CNN: Donald Trump finally walked back one of his disgusting remarks. Upon hearing that two Boston brothers severely beat a homeless man because he looked like an "Hispanic" "illegal immigrant" & justified their actions by saying, "Trump was right. All these illegals need to be deported," Trump said Wednesday it would be a shame if true, but added, "the people that are following me are very passionate. They love this country, they want this country to be great again." Friday, Trump tweeted, "Boston incident is terrible. We need energy and passion, but we must treat each other with respect. I would never condone violence." ...

... Washington Post Editors: Donald Trump's "loathsome comment on Wednesday, in which he excused violence against a Hispanic man in Boston as 'passionate' acts of 'people who are following me,' taps into a dark vein in American history and merits special attention.... Mr. Trump, under a barrage of criticism, took more than a day to retreat from his original statement.... By spewing hatred on the stump, Mr. Trump encourages it in the bleachers and on the streets, then sanctions it when it occurs." ...

... Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone: "This is the moment when Donald Trump officially stopped being funny.... when Trump surged in the polls on the back of this stuff, it caused virtually all of the candidates to escalate their anti-immigrant rhetoric.... Now the stupid wants out of its cage, and Trump is urging it on. There are a lot of ways this can go wrong, no matter who wins in 2016." ...

... Turns out those Boston thugs who want to make American great again have been illegally living in public housing. Yeah, Donald, you've got a terrific fan base: racist thugs AND moochers. ...

... Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Alabama, which hosted the largest rally of Trump's presidential campaign Friday night, had been a test kitchen for Trump-style crackdowns on undocumented workers -- and it had not gone well. In 2011, a new Republican legislature and governor enacted HB 56, the Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act.... The backlash was massive.... After Mitt Romney lost the 2012 presidential election, strategists in his own party blamed his support for the Alabama attrition policy. Those critics included Donald Trump.... To Republicans, the lesson of HB 56 was no longer that it failed. The lesson was that it had not been permitted to work, stymied by the Obama administration."

Jonathan Martin: "Senator Rand Paul, averting what would have been a blow to his waning presidential hopes, engineered a vote by the Kentucky Republican Party on Saturday to change the state's presidential nomination contest from a primary to a caucus. By making the switch, the state party effectively allowed Mr. Paul, the state's junior senator, to run both for re-election and for the presidency next year.... Kentucky state law bars candidates from seeking two different offices on the same ballot. By changing the presidential contest to a party-controlled caucus, the party has offered Mr. Paul an avenue to get around the rule." ...

You look at some of these caves [smugglers use] and things out there one drone strike, boom, and they're gone. -- Ben Carson, last week, on how to control the U.S.-Mexican border

In no way, did I suggest that drones be used to kill people. And I said that to the media at the time. Those caves can be eliminated. I'm not talking about killing people. No people with drones. -- Carson, after finding crumpled copy of Hippocratic Oath in an old jacket pocket

** IMPORTANT UPDATE: The Black Hand Mystery SOLVED! Paul Lindsay of Jeb!'s Right to Rise PAC posts the original photo of Jeb! -- before Photoshop. His left hand appears dark because he's standing right up next to a nice Republican lady, & the hand falls in the shadow of her boob. The hands, the body, the empty head -- they're all authentic Doofus. The Cedar Rapids backdrop, not so much. Via Ali Breland of Politico. ...

... CW: Whenever you get discouraged, carry on. There is always something new to discover, some secret truth revealed. The Sweet Mystery of Life has more than one answer:

... Sometimes a monster, sometimes the shadow of a boob. Life is grand, if in small ways.

Here's something grand from 20 years ago:

... CW: I don't think I fully appreciated what Donald Trump & his supporters mean by "politically correct" until I heard Barack Obama's explanation (near the end of the tape).

Beyond the Beltway

Stephen Ceasar of the Los Angeles Times (August 21): "Los Angeles County judge on Friday ruled that an antiabortion group that secretly recorded videos of abortion providers and others had a 1st Amendment right to make at least one of the recordings public. Superior Court Judge Joanne O'Donnell dissolved a temporary restraining order that had previously been imposed in state court in L.A. that prevented the release of one video taken by the Center for Medical Progress."

News Lede

New York Times: "Militants from the Islamic State destroyed a temple in the ancient ruins of Palmyra in Syria, activists and government officials said on Sunday, continuing a pattern of destruction that they have visited upon historical sites across the territory they control there and in Iraq."

Aliens Among Us!

In a field of candidates who collectively hold such radical, xenophobic ideas against immigrant Americans, it is remarkable that so many are themselves the children of aliens.

The parents of these Republican presidential hopefuls come from exotic lands where the majority of people are communists or non-Christians, even from one country where men wear short skirts. Under the Constitution, the President of the United States must be a "natural born citizen." Do these shady birthright citizens qualify? Equally as unsettling: three candidates are married to foreign-born women. Do we really want an alien First Lady rifling through the White House silver & speaking in foreign tongues to world leaders plotting to undermine the American way?

Marco Rubio. Both of his parents were non-citizen immigrants when Marco was born. Despite Marco's claims that his parents were political refugees from Communist Cuba, the Washington Post revealed that the parents were economic opportunists who immigrated to the U.S. in 1956 during the Fulgencio Batista regime. In hopes of moving back to their native land, Marco's parents returned to Cuba several times after Fidel Castro gained power. Rubio's wife Jeanette is the daughter of Colombian immigrants. Prudent "real" Americans should question Marco's obviously shaky allegiance to the U.S. Rubio said this week that he was "open to exploring ways of not allowing people who are coming here deliberately for that purpose to acquire citizenship."

Ted Cruz was born in a socialist foreign country where his parents were working. Ted's mother Eleanor Wilson was born in Delaware to American parents. His father Rafael was Cuban-born & did not become a U.S. citizen until 2005. Meanwhile Teddy retained his foreign citizenship until last year, and then only after the Dallas Morning News outted his foreign allegiance to a nation which long threatened U.S. sovereignty and has harbored tens of thousands of enemies of the U.S. Like many a foreign spy, Ted dissembled when confronted with the facts: he claimed to have no idea he was a Canadian citizen. Ted said this week, "We should end granting automatic birthright citizenship to the children of those who are here illegally. That has been my position from the very first day of my running for the Senate." Notably, he told a different story when he was actually running for the Senate. We one-hundred-percent U.S. citizens should not trust this guy. The U.S. has already fought one Revolution to win independence from the British Empire into which Ted was born & maintained citizenship. The very purpose of the Constitutional requirement that the president be a natural-born citizen was to protect the new nation from a return to British (or other foreign) rule. Would President Ted invite another Canadian invasion? Would we soon find ourselves singing "God Save the Queen"? 

Bobby Jindal is a true "anchor baby." Both his parents came legally from India to the U.S. six months before Bobby's birth in Baton Rouge. Obviously, they sneaked into the U.S. with a fiendish plan to endow their child with birthright citizenship. Curious, isn't it, that they chose a part of the country where a lot of people speak a foreign language? Although prestigious American universities invited Jindal to do his post-graduate work here in the U.S., Jindal chose to attend a foreign university which is a font of radical thought. Jindal's wife Supriya is an immigrant from India. Yet Jindal tweeted this week, “We need to end birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants.”

Rick Santorum. His father Aldo immigrated to the U.S. from Italy when he was a child. According to Rick, his paternal grandfather -- also a U.S. immigrant -- was an acquaintance of Adolf Hitler's. Rick has close relatives in Italy who are communists. Real reds! The question is -- is Santorum a communist plant or a fascist? Santorum wants to end birthright citizenship.

Jeb Bush. Jeb! himself is a blueblood American, but his wife Columba was a Mexican who immigrated to the U.S. when she married Jeb! A known smuggler who lied repeatedly to U.S. Customs officials, Columba represents the criminal element of such concern to Republicans. While Bush calls birthright citizenship a constitutionally protected right,' he said this week that we should find a "targeted way" to "solve abuses, of people coming into the country so their children can become citizens."

Donald Trump. His mother immigrated from Scotland. Although Donald claims to be of Swedish descent on his father's side, his paternal grandfather was Friedrich Drumpf, who immigrated from Germany, not Sweden, first to New York City, then to Seattle & then to the Canadian Klondike & finally, via Germany, back to Queens. Two of Donald Trump's wives are natives of communist countries with ties to Russia & the old Soviet Union. Donald Trump says he would "end birthright citizenship" without bothering to amend the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States."

OR, maybe we could reject these exclusionary candidates & elect a Democrat who welcomes people from around the world & celebrates their contributions to our culture and our economy.