The Commentariat -- May 24, 2014

Internal links, obsolete audio & related text removed.

White House: "In the State Dining Room of the White House, President Obama nominates San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro as the next HUD Secretary, and current HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan as the next OMB Director":

... Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "Since becoming mayor [of San Antonio, Texas,] in 2009, [Julián] Castro, 39, has championed urban renewal and steered San Antonio through a kind of renaissance that has built new housing in areas once ignored by developers and made the city hipper and more expensive.... If he receives Senate confirmation, Mr. Castro, whose twin brother, Joaquin, is a Democratic congressman representing San Antonio, apparently would become the first housing secretary in the 48-year history of the position whose parents lived and worked in public housing projects." ...

... Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post on why President Obama is moving Shaun Donovan to OMB: "As Obama looks to his final two years -- a period in which he is not likely to have a compliant Congress -- he will need to increasingly rely on executive actions that stretch the limits of his authority. He'll probably want to push in more liberal directions on issues like climate change, immigration, civil rights, poverty and the economy. With Donovan at OMB, Obama is likely to have someone who is willing to be a partner in such efforts at a time when the administration is losing those most adept at formulating executive actions."

Your Holiday Maths Problem (Because Everyone Likes to Spend a Three-Day Weekend Doing Macro-Maths). Chris Giles of the Financial Times: "The data underpinning Professor [Thomas] Piketty's 577-page tome, which has dominated best-seller lists in recent weeks, contain a series of errors that skew his findings. The FT found mistakes and unexplained entries in his spreadsheets, similar to those which last year undermined the work on public debt and growth of Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff. The central theme of Prof Piketty's work is that wealth inequalities are heading back up to levels last seen before the first world war. The investigation undercuts this claim, indicating there is little evidence in Prof Piketty's original sources to bear out the thesis that an increasing share of total wealth is held by the richest few." ...

... Neil Irwin, now of the New York Times, links to Piketty's response to the Financial Times. in a rundown of the controversy Giles created. (Unless you're signed with the FT, their stories are usually impossible to access.) ...

... Matt O'Brien of the Washington Post: "... this doesn't seem to be a Reinhart and Rogoff situation. Their Excel errors really did change their conclusions. Piketty's don't. Unless, like Giles, you average inequality by population instead of by country -- which is debatable, at best, since Piketty is only concerned about inequality within countries." ...

... Paul Krugman: "Giles finds a few clear errors, although they don’t seem to matter much; more important, he questions some of the assumptions and imputations Piketty uses to deal with gaps in the data and the way he switches sources.... The fact that Giles [argues that Piketty's whole thesis is wrong] is a strong indicator that he himself is doing something wrong.... None of this absolves Piketty from the need to respond to each of the individual questions. But anyone imagining that the whole notion of rising wealth inequality has been refuted is almost surely going to be disappointed.None of this absolves Piketty from the need to respond to each of the individual questions. But anyone imagining that the whole notion of rising wealth inequality has been refuted is almost surely going to be disappointed."

Matthew McKnight of the New Yorker: "On Thursday, the Senate confirmed David Barron to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. As a lawyer in the Justice Department, Barron wrote the memo that gave President Obama the authority to use drones to kill terrorist suspects, including those who are American citizens.

Gail Collins: Senate Republicans block popular bipartisan legislation -- that they love! -- because that mean Harry Reid won't let them tack on partisan amendments that have nothing to do with the bill under consideration.

** In a New York Times op-ed, Dr. Sam Foote explains why he blew the whistle on VA appointment waiting times. He offers a list of reforms that would alleviate the problem.

CW: I was surprised by Akhilleus's assertion in yesterday's Comments that "In Detroit, the Kochs are working to torpedo a bankruptcy settlement that would allow municipal workers to retain some of their retirement, it would also help the city stay afloat, but neither positive outcome fits with the Koch schemes." Well, it's true. AP: "Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group supported by the Koch brothers, has launched an effort to torpedo a proposed settlement in the Detroit bankruptcy case, potentially complicating chances for completing the deal just as its prospects seemed to be improving." ...

... David Firestone of the New York Times: "The Koch brothers, through the screeching megaphone they built known as Americans for Prosperity, condemned the [bankruptcy settlement] deal and announced plans to contact 90,000 conservatives around the state to build up pressure against it. The Associated Press reported that the group threatened to run ads against any Republicans in the legislature who voted for the deal in the coming days." ...

... Ben Snyder of Grist takes a stab at explaining the Koch boys' interest in further undermining a major American city: "Functioning cities -- like everything else the Kochs oppose, such as environmental protection and social justice -- require functioning governments. If your goal is to undermine government and collective action for the public good, then naturally you'd oppose saving Detroit. Cities are more energy-efficient than suburbs. If, like Koch industries, you make much of your money refining oil and investing in the Canadian tar sands, then it makes sense that you would favor suburban sprawl.... The right-wing hatred of cities -- whether it's for their racial and ethnic diversity, their culture of tolerance, or the way that density inspires liberal attitudes toward the common good -- is long established.... Hypocrisy doesn't much concern Koch. As The New York Times recently reported, when [David] Koch ran for vice president as a Libertarian in 1980, he was living in a rent-stabilized apartment" in Manhattan. ...

... Charles Pierce: The Koch brothers "want it all, and their [sic.] damn close to getting it, and that's why Harry Reid is right for belting them around the way he is. Civility, or the Beltway equivalent thereof, is very much beside the point."

Jeff Bezos, Mafia Boss. David Streitfeld & Melissa Eddy of the New York Times: "Amazon's power over the publishing and bookselling industries is unrivaled in the modern era. Now it has started wielding its might in a more brazen way than ever before. Seeking ever-higher payments from publishers to bolster its anemic bottom line, Amazon is holding books and authors hostage on two continents by delaying shipments and raising prices. The literary community is fearful and outraged -- and practically begging for government intervention. 'How is this not extortion? You know, the thing that is illegal when the Mafia does it,' asked Dennis Loy Johnson of Melville House, echoing remarks being made across social media."

Adam Nossiter of the New York Times: "There is a view among diplomats [in Nigeria] and with their governments at home that the [Nigerian] military is so poorly trained and armed, and so riddled with corruption, that not only is it incapable of finding the girls, it is also losing the broader fight against Boko Haram. The group has effective control of much of the northeast of the country, as troops withdraw from vulnerable targets to avoid a fight and stay out of the group’s way, even as the militants slaughter civilians.

Annals of Journalism, Ctd.

Two Jerks Call Each Other Jerks. Glenn Greenwald responds to Michael Kinsley's NYT critique of Greenwald's NSA/Snowden book. Also, not just Kinsley, but most American journalists are pawns of the U.S. government. That would include George Packer of the New Yorker, Jonathan Chait of New York & -- Greggers (CW: who arguably is not a journalist at all). ...

... Here's Packer's review, published in the British magazine Prospect. He accuses Greenwald of "a pervasive absence of intellectual integrity" and provides examples.

Senate Race

Sam Hall of the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger connects the dots between Senate hopeful Chris McDaniel & the three men arrested in connection with videotaping Sen. Thad Cochran's (R-Miss.) extremely ill wife.

Darren Nichols & Christine Ferretti of the Detroit News: "A federal judge threw U.S. Rep. John Conyers a political lifeline Friday, ordering the Detroit Democrat onto the Aug. 5 primary ballot because his lawsuit to overturn a Michigan election law is likely to succeed." Local & state officials had ruled many of the qualifying signatures gathered by Conyers' staff invalid because the signature gatherers were not registered Michigan voters.

Marie's Sports Roundup

Tami Abdollah of the AP: "Donald Sterling is turning his ownership stake in the Los Angeles Clippers over to his estranged wife [Shelly], and she is in talks with the NBA to sell the team, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday." ...

... CW: Great! Shelly Sterling will be a model NBA owner, a paragon of probity -- just as she is a model slum landlady. Kevin Armstrong of the New York Daily News (April 30): "Shelly Sterling -- who distanced herself from her spouse’s hate speech in a statement on Monday -- was accused in a 2009 deposition related to a federal discrimination lawsuit against the Sterlings of saying that Latinos were 'filthy' and that she had called one of her husband's tenants a 'black motherf-----.'" ...

     ... Update: According to ESPN, Shelly Sterling isn't planning to remain owner for long. Ramona Shelburne of ESPN: "Disgraced Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has agreed to allow his wife, Shelly, to negotiate a sale of the team, sources with knowledge of the situation told ESPN. Shelly Sterling and her lawyers have been negotiating with the NBA since commissioner Adam Silver banned her husband from the NBA for life on April 29 for making racially charged comments on an audiotape."

News Ledes

Life & Death in the U.S.A.: Los Angeles Times: "A law enforcement source told The Times that Elliot Rodger is the suspected gunman responsible for a shooting rampage in the Isla Vista neighborhood near UC Santa Barbara that left seven people dead, including Rodger. Santa Barbara County sheriff's officials, who have not identified the man suspected of shooting and running people down with his BMW, said they believe the rampage was premeditated. They have said they are looking at a video titled 'Elliot Rodger's Retribution' in which a young man who identifies himself on his blog as a student in Santa Barbara threatens violence." ...

     ... AP Update: "A Hollywood director believes his son was the lone gunman who went on a shooting rampage near the University of California, Santa Barbara that killed six people -- weeks after the family had called police about disturbing YouTube videos he had posted, his lawyer said Saturday.... Alan Shifman -- a lawyer who represents Peter Rodger, one of the assistant directors on 'The Hunger Games'. -- issued a statement on behalf of the family saying they believe Rodger's son, Elliot Rodger, was the shooter."

AND in Belgium. BBC News: "A gunman has shot dead two men and a woman at the Jewish Museum in the Belgian capital Brussels. A fourth person was seriously wounded, emergency services said. The attacker arrived by car, got out, fired on people at the museum entrance, and returned to the vehicle which then sped away, Belgian media report."

Streaking Obama. Washington Post: "A man walked up to a White House entrance on Pennsylvania Avenue on Friday afternoon, stripped naked and assaulted an officer who tried to subdue him, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service."

The Commentariat -- May 23, 2014

Internal links, graphic removed.

Ed Snowden Day

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to rein in the National Security Agency's sweeping collection of telephone records, approving scaled-back legislation that sharply divided the technology sector and civil libertarians but united the White House, conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats. The 303-to-121 vote sent an unambiguous signal that both parties are no longer comfortable with giving the N.S.A. unfettered power to collect bulk surveillance data. A year ago, a divided House nearly voted to strip all money from the N.S.A. for such surveillance, over the protests of the Republican leadership."

Jason Leopold of the Guardian: "A top-secret Pentagon report to assess the damage to national security from the leak of classified National Security Agency documents by Edward Snowden concluded that 'the scope of the compromised knowledge related to US intelligence capabilities is staggering'. The Guardian has obtained a copy of the Defense Intelligence Agency's classified damage assessment in response to a Freedom of Information Act (Foia) lawsuit filed against the Defense Department earlier this year. The heavily redacted 39-page report was prepared in December...." The redacted report is here.

Michael Kinsley reviews Glenn Greenwald's book No Place to Hide for the New York Times: "It's a great yarn, which might be more entertaining if Greenwald himself didn't come across as so unpleasant.... In 'No Place to Hide, Greenwald seems like a self-righteous sourpuss, convinced that every issue is 'straightforward,' and if you don't agree with him, you're part of something he calls 'the authorities,' who control everything for their own nefarious but never explained purposes.... In his mind, he is not a reformer but a ruthless revolutionary -- Robespierre, or Trotsky. The ancien régime is corrupt through and through, and he is the man who will topple it." Read the whole review.

Rebecca Shabad of the Hill: "Edward Snowden will appear in his first TV interview with a U.S. news outlet next Wednesday, NBC News announced Thursday. 'NBC Nightly News' anchor Brian Williams traveled to Moscow this week for a wide-ranging interview that will air in an hourlong special at 10 p.m. ET on May 28. 'Williams' in-person conversation with Snowden was conducted over the course of several hours and was shrouded in secrecy due to Snowden's life in exile since leaking classified documents about U.S. surveillance programs a year ago,' NBC News said."

Vindu Goel of the New York Times: On Thursday Facebook "announced that it would give a privacy checkup to every one of its 1.28 billion users worldwide. Facebook ... will also change how it treats new users by initially setting their posts to be seen only by friends. Previously, those posts were accessible to anyone. And it will explain to both current and new users that setting their privacy to 'public' means that anyone on the Internet can see their photos and messages."

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department's decision to charge Chinese officers was approved at very high levels of government and was undertaken, officials say, because talks had brought little progress. Both efforts -- diplomacy and criminal prosecution -- are part of a broader effort by the Obama administration to hold China accountable for what officials say is a growing campaign of commercial cyberspying.... The approach dates to early 2012. At a White House meeting, 'the message was sent from the president himself,' one senior U.S. official said.... The result was a series of measures taken not only by Justice and State, but also by the departments of Defense and Homeland Security."

Brendan Sasso of the National Journal: "The House approved an amendment Thursday that would delay the Obama administration's plan to give up oversight of certain technical Internet management functions. In a 245-177 vote, the House attached the legislation to the annual defense authorization bill. Seventeen Democrats joined the Republicans in approving the measure. The House then voted to pass the full defense bill, which included a number of other amendments.' ...

... Martin Matishak of the Hill: "The leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday unveiled a $514 billion defense bill that differs in several ways from the version approved by the House."

Obama 2.2 Kate Zezima of the Washington Post: "President Obama is scheduled to announce Friday that he will nominate San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro as the next secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Castro will replace Shaun Donovan, who Obama will name as head of the White House Office of Management and Budget...."

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "The Internal Revenue Service said Thursday that it has delayed and is revamping new rules intended to curb political activity by tax-exempt groups and that were proposed after the agency was accused last year of targeting Tea Party groups. The I.R.S. said it made the decision after receiving 150,000 comments -- both positive and negative -- about the proposal, the biggest public response to any proposed rule in its history. The decision postpones public hearings originally expected for this summer." ...

... Molly Redden of Mother Jones: "Arkansas is witnessing what may be the most expensive political ad campaign in state history: $1.5 million-worth of glowing TV spots hailing Tom Cotton, a Republican congressman who's running against Democrat Sen. Mark Pryor. The race could decide which party controls the Senate. But no one knows who's paying for this giant ad buy -- and that's partly because the group behind those ads may have flaunted IRS law in order to conceal the identities of its donors."

Jordain Carney & Stacy Kaper of the National Journal: "the sheen of shame over the VA's failures spreads across time and party affiliation. It stains the legacies of presidents as far back as John F. Kennedy and condemns past Congresses whose poor oversight allowed the problem to fester. The VA itself is also not without fault, as bureaucracy and intransigence let the department deteriorate to the point the problem became nearly impossible to fix. So who really broke the VA? In sum, it's a failure with many silent fathers." CW: Quite a helpful summary. ...

CW: I meant to post video yesterday of President Obama's Wednesday presser on the VA problem. It's here.

I don't want to be critical of the president, but he waited 23 days before he responded, and I think he should have done it sooner. -- Former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kansas), a veterans' advocate

... Here Carney & Kaper offer some solutions for the VA's health management problems. As they write, "None of them involve floor speeches or finger-pointing." ...

     ... That goes for you, too, John Boehner. ...

     ... And you, Kevin McCarthy. ...

... Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said Thursday that he intends to remain on the job to address allegations of mismanagement and delayed care for military veterans, adding that he has not offered his resignation to President Obama because of the recent controversy." ...

... Paul Waldman: "The controversy over the Veterans Health Administration offers an opportunity for some positive change."

Hear that? ... That's the sound of people opening their electric bills to discover they've nearly doubled.... An 80 percent cost hike? That's something we better get used to if extreme new Obama administration power plant regulations take effect. -- Radio ad sponsored by the National Mining Association regarding EPA regulations on new coal-plant carbon emissions

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "The NMA has seized upon a high-end wholesale estimate for 'full recapture' carbon capture and sequestration technologies which the EPA specifically rejected -- and then leveraged that factoid to make a wholly unsupported claim that the same increase would be reflected in retail prices. The EPA's proposed regulations, along with other factors, may boost the cost of electricity, but the NMA should not rely on such bogus, hyped evidence to make its case."

... BTW, Kessler gave Democratic Senate nominee Alison Grimes three Pinocchios for this remark, which she made during her nomination victory speech: "Never gone without a pay raise for himself, [Sen. Mitch McConnell] quadrupled his net worth on the backs of hardworking Kentuckians that can't afford it." Kessler argues that since McConnell received the bulk of his wealth from an inheritance his wife received, it has nothing to do with "hardworking Kentuckians." Really, Glenn? McConnell has taken the lead in efforts to reduce and/or repeal the "death tax." As a result, the McConnells lost little of their inheritance to estate taxes. Who takes up the slack? Well, "hardworking Kentuckians" -- and other taxpaying Americans, of course. ...

     ... Update: Kessler responds, "McConnell has certainly voted repeatedly to eliminate estate taxes, but in 2007 there was still a fairly hefty estate tax, so his wife would have still paid at least a million dollars in taxes on the inheritance. Don't know how much she inherited but it's between $5 million and $25 million, and there was still a 45 percent rate after a $2 million exemption in place then. So that's between $1.3 million ($5 million gift) and $10.2 million ($25 million) in taxes."

Diane Barnes of the National Journal: "A senior U.S. envoy accused Russia of giving its Syrian ally international cover for its alleged past use of chemical weapons against opponents. Ambassador Samantha Power leveled the assertion on Thursday, after Moscow and Beijing blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council proposal for the International Criminal Court to examine possible violations of international law in Syria's 3-year-old civil war. More than 160,000 people have died in the conflict, a British watchdog organization said this week."

Paul Krugman: "The truth is that the European project -- peace guaranteed by democracy and prosperity -- is in deep trouble; the Continent still has peace, but it’s falling short on prosperity and, in a subtler way, democracy.... It's terrifying to see so many Europeans rejecting democratic values, but at least part of the blame rests with officials who seem more interested in price stability and fiscal probity than in democracy."

** Gene Robinson: "What's happening in the Republican primaries is less a defeat for the tea party than a surrender by the GOP establishment, which is winning key races by accepting the tea party's radical anti-government philosophy.... The tea party's extremism and obstructionism live on." ...

     ... Frank Rich made the same point a couple of days ago.

CW: There is a real 47 percent. They are not Romney's lazy bums looking for government handouts. Still, most are likely in need of assistance from social services. They're the 47 percent of unemployed Americans who, according to a survey, have given up looking for work.

Marie's Pro Sports Roundup

Steve Kastenbaum of CNN: President "Obama on Thursday became the first sitting president to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in upstate New York." ...

... BUT professional sports are great! Ask the under- or unpaid NFL cheerleaders. Julia Lurie & Nina Liss-Schultz of Mother Jones: "Jiggle Tests, Dunk Tanks, and Unpaid Labor: How NFL Teams Degrade Their Cheerleaders." Thanks to safari for the link. ...

... Maybe white sports moguls should STFU when it comes to musings on racism.

Today in Gun News. Coming to you from an undisclosed location. CW: I have learned from my various recent visits to McDonald's & Wendy's (my Internet service is down) that a prime reason for the Second Amendment is to provide old farts with an endless store of boring hunting stories. Check out the "Federalist Papers." I am pretty certain that's what the Founders had in mind. Wendy's & McDonald's may post-date Constitutional deliberations, but old farts telling endless boring hunting stories pre-date recorded history.

Senate Race

Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "After a string of humbling defeats in Republican primaries this spring, the tea party's last best hope to oust a lawmaker is in Mississippi. But things are not going well for the movement's Chris McDaniel, who is challenging longtime senator Thad Cochran. The race has been roiled over the past week by a bizarre incident in which a pro-McDaniel blogger was arrested in connection with taking an illicit photo of Cochran’s bedridden wife, Rose, who has dementia and lives in a nursing home. More arrests were made on Thursday, including a Mississippi tea party activist who is closely connected to McDaniel."

Goeff Pender & Sam Hall of the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion Ledger: "The vice chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party and one other suspect have been arrested in connection with the photographing of the bedridden wife of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. Attorney Mark Mayfield, a vice chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party and an officer with the Central Mississippi Tea Party, was arrested Thursday by Madison police.... District Attorney Michael Guest confirms that Richard Sager of Laurel is the second person arrested today in relation to the Rose Cochran photo scandal.... Authorities have said John Mary of Hattiesburg has been charged with conspiracy, but he will not be kept in custody because of a medical condition."

Josh Marshall of TPM tries but can't quite figure out how "multiple people were involved and someone didn't say, 'Hey, this is f'ing crazy. I think we need to rethink this.'" Best explanation: "This is Mississippi."

CW: I thought I'd see of Charles Pierce weighed in on this. But Wendy's is my Internet connection just now, & apparently Wendy thinks Esquire is the sort of deviant publication that her customers have no business reading. I'll check tomorrow to see if Ronald McDonald has also blocked all access to Esquire. ...

     ... Late-Breaking Update: Pierce appreciates the entertainment value of this weird, developing story.

Beyond the Beltway

Erik Schelzig of the AP: "Tennessee has decided how it will respond to a nationwide scarcity of lethal injection drugs for death-row inmates: with the electric chair. Republican Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill into law Thursday allowing the state to electrocute death row inmates in the event prisons are unable to obtain the drugs, which have become more and more scarce following a European-led boycott of drug sales for executions."

New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D) claims he's not that Sheldon Silver. In all likelihood, he's lying.

News Lede

AP: "In the deadliest raid yet on Ukrainian troops, pro-Russia insurgents attacked a military checkpoint Thursday, killing 16 soldiers, and the interim prime minister accused Moscow of trying to disrupt the upcoming election for a new president to lead the divided country out of its crisis."

The Commentariat -- May 22, 2014

Internal links removed.

CW: I'm sitting in a McDonald's listening to old farts of the winger persuasion. I have not told a single one of them he was an ignorant asshole. Is there an award for forbearance? Or am I doing the wrong thing?

Reuters: "US House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday named the five members of her party who will serve on a special panel investigating the 2012 attack on a US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya...: Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee; Adam Smith of Washington, the senior Democrat on House Armed Services; Adam Schiff, a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Linda Sanchez of California, a Ways and Means Committee member; and Tammy Duckworth, of Illinois, who serves on the Armed Services Committee and is an Iraq war veteran." ...

... CW: As a commenter to the Reuters piece opines: "Bad move, Nancy--should have gone with Rep. Grayson's proposal to let him kamikazi the witch-hunt on his own."

There's No Free Lunch for Black People. Josh Marshall of TPM: "... the House GOP agriculture bill ... takes a small program intended provide meals to children in the school lunch program during the summer months and says it can now only be used to benefit kids in 'rural areas'. In other words, 'urban' kids are now out of luck." ...

     ... We Are All Strom Thurmond Now. CW: As contributor Ken W. remarked yesterday, "All pretense is gone." Republicans aren't just limiting their campaign appeals to white voters; they are actively & openly discriminating against blacks, Latinos & other "urban people."

An excellent -- & important -- commentary by Akhilleus in yesterday's thread on the GOP/Dubya record on veterans' services. ...

... Mark Thompson of Time adds more perspective. ...

... Adrianna McIntyre of Vox: "The failure of some states to expand Medicaid is leaving a quarter-million veterans without health insurance."

... A Pox on Both Your Houses. Brent Budowsky in the Hill: "It is inexcusable that the president said he learned about the VA crisis on television, sent his staff to tell Americans he is angry about the alleged deaths, let his press secretary dish ridiculous spin that the departure of a VA official who was already leaving represented accountability, and retreated into media seclusion on the matter until Wednesday. Republicans in Congress were no better. Every member of the House and Senate works on cases for veterans. Numerous committees have oversight duties they neglected. They, like the president, learned about this scandal from television. They, like the VA and White House staff, did nothing to prevent it. In a Congress that will be remembered for how many vacations it took, how little work it accomplished and how much taxpayer money Republicans misused investigating Democrats rather than veterans care...."

Julian Hattem & Kate Tummarello of the Hill: "The House is set to vote on a bill to curb surveillance programs at the National Security Agency on Thursday." ...

... Dustin Volz of the National Journal: "A day before the House will vote on a major bill designed to rein in government surveillance, a group of blue-chip tech firms are warning that the measure falls far short of what is advertised. The Reform Government Surveillance coalition -- whose members include Google, Facebook, Microsoft, AOL, Apple, Twitter, LinkedIn, DropBox, and Yahoo -- issued a statement Wednesday announcing it was pulling its support of the USA Freedom Act. The legislation would take the storage of phone records out of government hands and keep them with phone companies."

Ernesto Londoño of the Washington Post: "The United States has deployed 80 troops to Chad to augment efforts to find the Nigerian schoolgirls recently taken hostage, the White House announced Wednesday, a significant escalation of Washington's contribution to a crisis that has created global consternation."

Robert Barnes & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court halted on Wednesday night the execution of a Missouri death-row inmate who said he is afflicted with a rare condition that means lethal injection would be likely to cause him an unconstitutional degree of pain and suffering. In an unsigned opinion with no reported dissents, the justices sent the case back to lower courts for further consideration and left open whether there was a need for an evidentiary hearing. The three-sentence order gave no reason."

Robert Bateman of Esquire: Mothers Demand Action Against Gun Violence win a big one: Chipotle restaurants nationwide have banned guns from their restaurants. "These women are doing what nobody else had managed to do before now. They are actually affecting change.... [Chipotle founder Shannon] Watts has become a target, and a heroine.... Gun advocates (most who identify themselves as such are also NRA members) have threatened her life, they have threatened to rape her, they have threatened her family, and they have demonstrated their earnestness by showing up at her house. But she has not stopped, she has not quit, and she has not backed down."

Justin McCarthy of Gallup: "Americans' support for the law recognizing same-sex marriages as legally valid has increased yet again, now at 55%." See also Beyond the Beltway.

Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "A federal court has forced the US government to reveal that it has secretly recorded dozens of force-feedings of just one Guantánamo Bay detainee, raising the prospect that the military possesses a vast video library of a practice criticised as abusive. On Wednesday, a federal judge decreed that lawyers for that detainee can view hours of his videotaped force feedings, the first time a non-government official will be permitted to view the secret recordings."

Dennis Wagner of the Arizona Republic: "Since the FBI began under President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908, agents have not only shunned the use of tape recorders, they've been prohibited by policy from making audio and video records of statements by criminal suspects without special approval. Now, after more than a century, the U.S. Department of Justice has quietly reversed that directive by issuing orders May 12 that video recording is presumptively required for interrogations of suspects in custody, with some exceptions."

Jesse Singal of New York: "... an important new paper soon to be published in American Psychologist argues that 'in present-day America, discrimination results more from helping ingroup members than from harming outgroup members.' In other words, racist outcomes can arise without much actual racism, simply through the very human tendency to help out people with whom you have something in common." ...

... CW: No surprise here. Decades ago studies showed that the only effect of the personnel interview ("Tell me something about yourself") was to make it much more likely that the person selected for the job had a lot in common with the interviewer. There a reason that "racist," "sexist," etc., go hand-in-hand with "narrow-minded"; many people just can't -- or won't try to -- see beyond their own limited orbit.

CW: Wherein Ta-Nehisi Coates demonstrates that he is living in a bubble as impenetrable as the Right Wing World reality shield. I know many of you will disagree with me, & that's fine. But the concept of reparations is crap. The discrimination Coates outlines is real, but his "solution" is nonsense. Will Coates contribute to reparations for me because women still receive unequal treatment? Or to you because ... whatever? Let's have a big reparations swap. I've linked the story only because it's the Atlantic's cover story, & people will discuss it.

Swiss Wrist, Slapped. John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... in eliciting a single guilty plea from Credit Suisse, didn't the Justice Department also have an obligation to hold its senior management to account? ... No senior executives have been charged, though." And the bank is carrying on with business as usual.

Jack Jenkins of Think Progress: "Pope Francis made the religious case for tackling climate change on Wednesday, calling on his fellow Christians to become 'Custodians of Creation' and issuing a dire warning about the potentially catastrophic effects of global climate change. Speaking to a massive crowd in Rome, the first Argentinian pope delivered a short address in which he argued that respect for the 'beauty of nature and the grandeur of the cosmos' is a Christian value, noting that failure to care for the planet risks apocalyptic consequences. 'Safeguard Creation,' he said. 'Because if we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us! Never forget this!'" CW: Presents a conundrum for that good Catholic boy Marco of Planet Rubio, where people cannot change the climate & scientists are deemed to be morons.

AND thanks to contributor James S. for this. Dude. Max Cherney of Motherboard: "The FBI Says It Can't Find Hackers to Hire Because They All Smoke Pot."

Annals of Journalism, Ctd.

Joy Powell of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett was jailed Wednesday after being arrested in a bar at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. Jarrett, who is a weekend co-anchor on the FOX News Channel, was arrested about 12:30 p.m. at Northern Lights Grill in the main terminal, said Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission." CW: Hard drinking is a well-established journalists' tradition. Maybe Jarrett wishes he were a real journalist & really enjoys playing one on teevee.

"Clinton Allies Pressured Dems on Benghazi." Jake Sherman & Anna Palmer of Politico: "Hillary Clinton's world was so worried about a Republican investigation of the Benghazi attacks, they sent a message to House Democrats: We need backup. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) publicly considered boycotting the panel, an idea that Clinton supporters feared would leave the potential 2016 candidate exposed to the enemy fire of House Republicans. So Clinton emissaries launched a back channel campaign, contacting several House Democratic lawmakers and aides to say they'd prefer Democrats participate, according to sources familiar with the conversations. Pelosi's staff said they have not heard from Clinton’s camp." ...

... CW: Really? Exactly what piece of evidence do the reporters provide that "Clinton allies pressured Dems"? As far as I can tell, none. An actual journalistic enterprise would not publish a story based entirely on anonymous "Clinton emmissaries" in "Hillary Clinton's world." The story here is not about Clinton; it's about Politico's so-called editors. ...

     ... Update: Charles Pierce weighs in before guzzling antifreeze.

Congressional Races

Gail Collins has a hilarious take on Tuesday's primary results. Laughter may be the best remedy for coping with the sorry lot who aim to whack the poor, abolish the teaching of evolution, or whatever.

John Cassidy: "Unless something changes over the summer, the G.O.P. is likely to gain the six seats it needs to capture the Senate, which could well usher in a two-year standoff with the White House that would make the current gridlock look like a model of benign administration."

David Lightman of McClatchy News: "Women might be the Democrats' 2014 firewall, the force that holds back a Republican wave that appears to be building toward seizing control of the Senate. Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes and Georgia's Michelle Nunn won primaries Tuesday and are their states' Democratic U.S. Senate nominees, joining Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and other prominent Democratic women as competitive Senate candidates in pivotal battlegrounds."

Rebekah Sanders of the Arizona Republic: "Arizona police associations are calling on Republican Gary Kiehne to disband his campaign for Congress over remarks he made comparing police officers carrying out a wildfire evacuation to Nazi SS agents."

Kate Taylor & Megan Thee-Brenan of the New York Times: "Charles B. Rangel, the scandal-scarred Harlem congressman seeking a 23rd term in office, holds a modest but meaningful lead in his Democratic primary battle against State Senator Adriano D. Espaillat, a Dominican-American...."

Beyond the Beltway

Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania said Wednesday that he would not appeal a judge's ruling striking down Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage. With the decision, Pennsylvania became the 19th state, along with the District of Columbia, where same-sex couples are able to marry. Judge John E. Jones III of Federal District Court on Tuesday became the latest judge to throw out a series of state bans around the country, writing, 'It is time to discard them into the ash heap of history.'"

Jeremy Alford & Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "The Louisiana State Legislature on Wednesday passed a bill that could force three of the state's five abortion clinics to close, echoing rules passed in Alabama, Mississippi and Texas and raising the possibility of drastically reduced access to abortion across a broad stretch of the South."

Adam Serwer of NBC News: "The sense of inevitability surrounding same-sex marriage rights has turned the federal judiciary into something of an informal writing contest, with judges competing to write the most memorable ruling striking down state bans on same-sex marriage.

News Lede

New York Times: "The Thai military on Thursday launched a coup, declaring that it was 'necessary to seize power.' The head of the Thai Army, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, made the announcement on television flanked by senior military officers. The Thai news media reported that political officers who were attending a meeting called by the military had been detained. The coup came after the introduction of martial law on Tuesday and follows a long history of coups in Thailand."