The Commentariat -- August 1, 2016

Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "The United States has conducted airstrikes on the Islamic State stronghold in Sirte, Libya, the Pentagon said on Monday, the first direct U.S. military involvement in Libyan forces' battle against militants there. In a statement, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said that Libya's Western-backed unity government had requested air support as forces under its command battle to reclaim the coastal city of Sirte, which has become an Islamic State stronghold since militants seized it last year." -- CW

Michael Wines of the New York Times: "...since the Supreme Court's 5-to-4 ruling in the voting-rights case, Shelby County v. Holder, critics argue, the blatant efforts to keep minorities from voting have been supplanted by a blizzard of more subtle changes. Most conspicuous have been state efforts like voter ID laws or cutbacks in early voting periods, which critics say disproportionately affect minorities and the poor. Less apparent, but often just as contentious, have been numerous voting changes enacted in counties and towns across the South and elsewhere around the country. They appear as Republican legislatures and election officials in the South and elsewhere have imposed statewide restrictions on voting that could depress turnout by minorities and other Democrat-leaning groups in a crucial presidential election year." ...

... CW: Wines couches his report in the "critics say" caveat, the go-to evasion of both-sides "journalism." He goes on to report instance after instance of actual voter suppression. So once again, the New York Times features journalistic malpractice on its front page. ...

... Oh, P.S. Driftglass highlights Chuck Todd's Luminous Contribution to Both-siderism. -- CW

Michael Rosenwald of the Washington Post: "The modern era of mass shootings began [in Austin, Texas,] on a searing summer day in 1966. Just before noon, from high atop the University of Texas Tower, an ex-Marine sharpshooter named Charles Whitman leveled his rifle over the railing ... and fired at will for 20 minutes -- the time it took for students and residents to fetch their own high-powered rifles and shoot back, helping an unprepared and outgunned police force.... On Monday, survivors will attend the unveiling of a memorial on the 50th anniversary of Whitman's rampage, which left 17 dead and more than 30 wounded. That same day, Texas becomes the nation's eighth state to allow students to brings guns onto university campuses and, in some cases, into classrooms and dorms.... Gun rights advocates are delighted." -- CW ...

... Rebecca Onion of Slate: "A graduate class at the University of Texas at Austin has put together a new website about the mass shooting at the [University of Texas].... The result is an intriguing suite of essays, accompanied by archival documents, biographies of the shooting victims, and a timeline of mass shootings." -- CW

Presidential Race

 Alicia Parlapiano & Adam Pearce of the New York Times: "... half of the primary voters chose ... candidates [other than Clinton or Trump]. Just 14 percent of eligible adults -- 9 percent of the whole nation -- voted for either Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton." -- CW

Steve Coll of the New Yorker: "American Presidential elections reduce the country's complexity to a binary choice. This year's is admittedly not the happiest one. The revival, on the big screens at the Convention hall, of the Clinton family's political 'narrative' was at times exhausting, evocative of Argentina. Still, there can be no doubt that Hillary Clinton is deeply qualified to serve as President, whereas Donald Trump has proved himself a transparently serious threat to the Constitution. Attached to Clinton's candidacy are the futures of Supreme Court jurisprudence, European and Asian security, the health of American pluralism, and the rule of law. 'It truly is up to us,' Clinton observed. The worry is whether, in this hot summer of disequilibrium, her country is adequate to the task." -- CW ...

... Jill LePore of the New Yorker attended both conventions & talked to the people there, including, or especially, the protesters. -- CW

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton is heading to heavily Republican Nebraska on Monday in search of a single electoral vote. In a move that suggests the Democratic presidential nominee is taking nothing for granted against Republican Donald Trump, Clinton has scheduled a late afternoon rally in Omaha, a moderate pocket of an otherwise conservative state. Here's why: Nebraska is one of only two states that awards part of its electoral votes based on outcomes in congressional districts.... In 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) edged out GOP nominee John McCain in the 2nd Congressional District, which includes Omaha, picking up exactly one of the 270 electoral votes needed to secure the presidency." -- CW ...

... Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "As Hillary Clinton closed out her three-day bus tour with a stop in Columbus, Ohio, she had a dire warning for voters: ..."I don't want folks to be misled, to listen to the rhetoric and the demagoguery. I think Donald Trump poses a serious threat to our democracy, and it's going to be up to all of us to repudiate the hatefulness.'... The comments came at the tail end of her journey through two battleground states -- Ohio and Pennsylvania -- with stops focused on swing or Republican voters. Clinton traveled with her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.), and his wife, Anne Holton. Former president Bill Clinton joined the group for several stops on the tour." -- CW

Director Comey said my answers were truthful, and what I've said is consistent with what I have told the American people, that there were decisions discussed and made to classify retroactively certain of the emails. -- Hillary Clinton, interview on "Fox News Sunday," July 31, 2016

As we have seen repeatedly in Clinton's explanations of the email controversy, she relies on excessively technical and legalistic answers to explain her actions. While Comey did say there was no evidence she lied to the FBI, that is not the same as saying she told the truth to the American public -- which was the point of [Chris] Wallace's question.... Although Comey did say many emails were retroactively classified, he also said that there were some emails that were already classified that should not have been sent on an unclassified, private server. That's the uncomfortable truth that Clinton has trouble admitting. -- Glenn Kessler, Washington Post

Jonathan Mahler of the New York Times: "During Tim Kaine's six years in Richmond's local government, he became known for his commitment to the city's African-Americans. But there were also stumbles as he began to fashion himself as the centrist conciliator that he is known as today, trying to steer a middle path in a majority-black city drenched in Confederate history." -- CW

Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Charles Koch on Sunday forcefully shot down the possibility that he would support ... Hillary Clinton in this year's White House race, calling such an idea 'blood libel...,' comparing the notion to false accusations throughout history that Jews killed Christian children for ritualistic purposes. 'At this point, I can't support either candidate,' Koch said...." -- CW

Steve Benen: "On Monday, Sept. 26, the major-party candidates -- and any third-party candidate with more than 15% support in national polls -- will meet for the first of three ... [debates]. What's unclear is whether or not Donald Trump will agree to participate.... On 'Face the Nation' yesterday, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort [said]..., '... He [Trump] said he wants to participate in it.... So, we're going to sit down with the commission in the next week or so and we're going to start talking to them.' In other words, it sounds as if Team Trump sees the existing schedule as the starting point for negotiations.... Hillary Clinton has already agreed to participate in the three scheduled debates." -- CW

She's a very dishonest person. I have one of the great temperaments. I have a winning temperament. She has a bad temperament. She's weak. -- Donald Trump, contrasting his "temperament" with Hillary Clinton's

David Sanger & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump on Sunday offered a muddled explanation of his views about the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia and its continued efforts to undermine Ukraine's control of other parts of the country, and he amplified his earlier suggestion that, if elected president, he might recognize Russia's claim and end sanctions against it.... Not since 1976, when President Gerald Ford committed a major gaffe in one of his debates with Jimmy Carter, declaring that 'there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe,' has the issue of American support of Eastern European states, both those in NATO and those outside it, emerged as a major presidential campaign issue." -- CW ...

... Atlantic: ": Speaking to ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Trump said of Russian President Vladimir Putin, 'He's not going into Ukraine, OK? Just so you understand. He's not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down and you can put it down, you can take it anywhere you want.' Stephanopoulos pointed out that Russia had already annexed Crimea. The response was classic Trump: This is all proof of how terrible Obama is, but also it's not really so bad. He confirmed that he would consider recognizing the annexation: 'But, you know, the people of Crimea, from what I've heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were.'... At first glance, this looks like a classic example of Trump just not really knowing what he's talking about.... But on closer glance..., in his worldview, Russia seizing sovereign territory in violation of international law is acceptable. He even parrots the Kremlin line that Crimeans have a right to self-determination -- further evidence of a close alignment between Putin and Trump." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Aaron Rupar of Think Progress: "Trump's line on Crimea is essentially the same one being pushed by Russian media. The New York Times reported that the referendum [on whether to annex Crimea to Russia] took place while the peninsula was being occupied by 'heavily armed Russian troops.' Western leaders denounced the vote as illegal." -- CW

#Trumpelthinskin, Ctd. Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "... Donald Trump on Monday said the country needs to focus on radical Islamic terrorism following the candidate's attacks on Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. 'Mr. Khan, who does not know me, viciously attacked me from the stage of the DNC and is now all over T.V. doing the same - Nice!' Trump tweeted Monday. 'This story is not about Mr. Khan, who is all over the place doing interviews, but rather RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISM and the U.S. Get smart!'" -- CW ...

... Rebecca Savransky: "Families of fallen service U.S. members are demanding ... Donald Trump apologize for his 'offensive' and 'anti-American' comments. The group of Gold Star families on Monday wrote a letter to the billionaire condemning his treatment of the family of U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq. 'Ours is a sacrifice you will never know...,' the group said in a letter published Monday on VoteVets.org." -- CW ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "In a remarkable and lengthy rebuke of his party's nominee, Senator John McCain sharply criticized Donald J. Trump's comments about the family of a fallen Muslim Army captain, saying, 'While our party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us.'... 'In recent days, Donald Trump disparaged a fallen soldier's parents,' he wrote of the parents, Khizr and Ghazala Khan. 'He has suggested that the likes of their son should not be allowed in the United States -- to say nothing of entering its service. I cannot emphasize enough how deeply I disagree with Mr. Trump's statement.'" -- CW ...

... Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump faced mounting criticism from leaders of his own party Sunday, as a confrontation between the Republican nominee and the Muslim American parents of a soldier killed in Iraq continued to consume the presidential race." -- CW ...

I've had a flawless campaign. -- Donald Trump, on ABC News

... Alexander Burns, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump reeled on Sunday amid a sustained campaign of criticism by the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq and a rising outcry within his own party over his rough and racially charged dismissal of the couple. The confrontation between the parents, Khizr and Ghazala Khan, and Mr. Trump has emerged as an unexpected and potentially pivotal flash point in the general election. Mr. Trump ... has repeatedly answered the Khan family's criticism with harsh and defensive rhetoric.... He earned no reprieve with his complaints that Mr. Khan had been unfair to him or with his repeated attempts to change the subject to Islamic terrorism.... Mr. Trump on Sunday morning made a third attempt to deflect Mr. Khan's criticism, writing on Twitter that the real issue at stake in the election was terrorism. And he continued to complain that Mr. Khan had been unfair to him." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Noah Bierman of the Los Angeles Times: "Trump could have let the moment pass, or simply praised [the Kahn family's] sacrifice without confronting them, as other politicians have done when met by military families ... [as did Hillary Clinton on Fox "News" Sunday when asked about parents who faulted her for their sons' deaths in Benghazi, Libya]. On Sunday, as the controversy festered, Trump complained on Twitter that 'I was viciously attacked by Mr. Khan at the Democratic Convention. Am I not allowed to respond? Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!'" -- CW ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic: "In late 1953, Senator Joe McCarthy turned his red-baiting crusade toward the Army, accusing it of being stocked with Communists. McCarthy and his chief counsel, Roy Cohn, had miscalculated, and the reaction doomed McCarthy's crusade and career. Decades later, Cohn became a close friend of a young real-estate developer named Donald Trump. If Cohn's protégé learned anything about from him about why it's unwise for a politician to go to war with the U.S. Army, it isn't showing today." -- CW ...

... Wait, Wait! There's More. Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate: "Trump adviser and friend Roger Stone escalated things way, way further than all but the most cynical/drug-addled among us could have imagined: [In a tweet, Stone writes,] 'Mr. Khan more than an aggrieved father of a Muslim son- he's Muslim Brotherhood agent helping Hillary'. The link [Stone provides] goes to an article on a low-budget conspiracy site.... Roger Stone ... appears to have been Donald Trump's primary political adviser for decades." -- CW ...

... Huh. A Muslim Brotherhood infiltrator? Not according to winger Charles Hurt, writing in the Hill. He says Hillary Clinton "duped" nice-guy Khizr Khan into "smearing Donald Trump," which was a neat trick because "it was was her vote that sent Capt. Khan to his death." (CW: See also my thanks to mike pence, below.) ...

     ... CW BTW: If you are looking for some context on Clinton's Iraq War vote, Fred Kaplan has it (Feb. 4, 2016). It wasn't exactly Bloody Hillary waving a sword & calling for Saddam's head. ...

... Greg Sargent: "Donald Trump's continuing war with the Khan family -- which Trump inexplicably continued to keep in the news this morning with a series of new tweets -- raises the specter of a brutal trap for Republicans.... If Republicans don't break off their support for Trump's candidacy now, they run the risk of having no choice but to do so after Trump sinks even further into wretchedness and depravity, to a point of true no return.... As Peter Wehner, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, put it: 'Trump is a man of sadistic cruelty. With him there's no bottom.' If ... Republicans such as [Paul] Ryan will have [to cut Trump loose] not in defense of their own principles, but because events forced them to." -- CW ...

... Kim Soffen of the Washington Post: After Khizr Khan raised his pocket-copy of the Constitution, "sales of the little book are skyrocketing. A $1 edition of the pocket Constitution printed by the nonpartisan National Center for Constitutional Studies became the second-bestselling book on Amazon. It remains there today. It's not just sales; Google searches for the document increased more than tenfold on Friday compared to the daily average of the previous month." -- CW

Another Trump Conspiracy Theory. Connor O'Brien of Politico: "Donald Trump is slamming Michael Bloomberg's endorsement of Hillary Clinton, speculating that the former New York mayor cut a deal with the former secretary of state to get a job in any new Clinton administration. 'Personally, I think he made a deal with Hillary, where ... he gets a job,'... [Trump] said in an interview airing Sunday on ABC News' "This Week." CW: Dark, evil forces are conspiring against the noble mogul; there's no other possible explanation. Except paranoia.

Matthew Nussbaum of Politico: "With an imaginary letter, a disputed invitation and controversial comments about a fallen soldier's parents, Donald Trump's weekend was not going well even before he seemed to endorse the Russian annexation of Crimea, in opposition to U.S. policy and international law. This was a weekend ... [that] seemed to demonstrate all of the flaws -- trouble with the truth, an inability to let criticism go unanswered and a lack of knowledge of world affairs -- that Republicans fear Trump will be unable to put behind him and that Democrats hope will be the billionaire's undoing come November." CW: So being a lying, thin-skinned, ignorant bully is maybe not so presidential?

Rebecca Sinderbrand of the Washington Post: "... after [Donald Trump] and nine others were trapped in an elevator at the Mining Exchange Hotel [in Colorado springs,] 'The firefighters were able to secure the elevator, open the top elevator hatch, lower a ladder into the elevator, which allowed all individuals to self-evacuate, including Mr. Trump, onto the second-floor lobby area,' fire spokesman Steven Wilch told Colorado station KRDO in a Saturday report.... If you think that's the sort of thing that might prompt him to mention the fire department in his remarks at that event..., you're right! 'We have a fire marshal that said we can't allow more people,' Trump said, as the crowd booed. '... The reason they can't let them in is because they don't know what they're doing.' [He].. said that Fire Marshal Brett Lacey was "probably a Democrat, probably a guy that doesn't get it.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Cyra Master of the Hill: "Indiana Gov. Mike Pence defended his running mate in a statement Sunday night, blaming President Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for the 'disastrous decisions' that led to the death of Capt. Humayun Khan in Iraq.... 'Captain Khan gave his life to defend our country in the global war on terror. Due to the disastrous decisions of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, a once stable Middle East has now been overrun by ISIS...,' Pence said." ...

... CW: Thanks for putting everything in perspective, mike. When Kahn was killed in Iraq in 2004, Barack Obama was an Illinois state senator & Hillary Clinton was a U.S. senator. It's true Clinton voted to allow President Bush to go to war against Iraq, if necessary, but so did you, mike. Clinton has repeatedly called the vote a mistake; you have not. (Note: Clinton was also among the majority of Democratic senators who voted to fund the Iraq War; John Kerry, John Edwards & Teddy Kennedy were among the 12 [including one then-Independent] who voted nay.) In addition, David Graham of the Atlantic reminds us, "Trump supported the war in Iraq, though he has repeatedly claimed he did not." One thing I wish you would clear up: exactly when was the Middle East "stable"? As far as I know, war, unrest, & shifting borders have characterized the region since prehistoric times.

Steven Myers & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: Trump campaign manager Paul "Manafort's influence in [Ukraine] was significant, and his political expertise deeply valued, according to Ukrainian politicians and officials who worked with him. He also had a voice in decisions about major American investments in Ukraine, said a former spokesman for Ukraine's foreign ministry, Oleg Voloshyn, who also ran as a candidate in the new bloc Mr. Manafort helped form.... It is not clear that Mr. Manafort's work in Ukraine ended with his work with Mr. Trump's campaign." -- CW

Show Us the Returns! New York Times Editors: No issue "is more important for voters to keep in mind than the failure of Mr. Trump to disclose his full income tax returns, something he is not likely to do by Election Day. He is the first major party candidate since 1976 -- since Watergate, essentially -- to deny voters that vital measure of credibility.... Mr. Trump has not hesitated to attack the I.R.S. as 'very unfair,' but now he stands before the voters using the agency as a shield against disclosure.... Mr. Trump's contention that there's nothing to learn from his tax returns should be a red alert to voters." -- CW

Driftglass codes Trump. -- CW

Paul Krugman: "... the great majority of ... not-crazy Republicans are still supporting Mr. Trump for president.... No non-crazy person, even on the right, thinks that this president is acting like a dictator, or that the woman he wants to succeed him would threaten basic liberty. On the other side, anyone watching her opponent has to be very, very worried about his authoritarian streak." ...

... CW: I hope Krugman is just pretending he has no idea what's going on. Congressional Republicans have been all about power & showed almost no interest in governance at least since Newt Gingrich rose to power within the GOP Congressional ranks.

The Stupid Party. Conservative Max Boot, in a New York Times op-ed: "The Republican embrace of anti-intellectualism was, to a large extent, a put-on. At least until now.... The trend has now culminated in the nomination of Donald J. Trump, a presidential candidate who truly is the know-nothing his Republican predecessors only pretended to be.... In a way, the joke's on the Republican Party: After decades of masquerading as the 'stupid party,' that's what it has become. But if an unapologetic ignoramus wins the presidency, the consequences will be no laughing matter." -- CW

Dave Weigel & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator who became one of Bernie Sanders's most passionate surrogates, confirmed Sunday night that she has been offered a spot on the Green Party's 2016 ticket. She hasn't decided whether to accept it.... Turner attended the Democratic National Convention as a Sanders surrogate, expecting to second his nomination for president. She was blocked by Clinton's campaign. That, and the roiling controversy over the Democratic National Committee's hacked emails, may have made Turner more receptive to the Green Party pitch." CW: Nice work, Clintonistas!

Way Beyond the Beltway

Yesim Dikmen & David Dolan of Reuters: "Turkey dismissed nearly 1,400 more members of its armed forces and stacked the top military council with government ministers on Sunday, moves designed by President Tayyip Erdogan to put him in full control of the military after a failed coup. The scale of Erdogan's crackdown - more than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and schools have been either detained, suspended or placed under investigation since the July 15-16 coup - has unnerved Turkey's NATO allies, fuelling tension between Ankara and the West." ...

... CW: Not to dismiss the importance of Erdogan's takeover, but it's useful to view it in the context of U.S. politics. If you watch the video accompanying the Reuters story, you'll see that Erdogan & Donald Trump share not only the same autocratic bent but also the same interior decorator. Isn't Trump's preference for what contributor Patrick called the "Louis Farouk" style all the proof you need that Trump would become a repressive dictator?

The Commentariat -- July 31, 2016

I did not intend to do an Afternoon Update today, but Patrick posted a link that was too much to ignore:

Rebecca Sinderbrand of the Washington Post: "... after [Donald Trump] and nine others were trapped in an elevator at the Mining Exchange Hotel [in Colorado springs,] 'The firefighters were able to secure the elevator, open the top elevator hatch, lower a ladder into the elevator, which allowed all individuals to self-evacuate, including Mr. Trump, onto the second-floor lobby area,' fire spokesman Steven Wilch told Colorado station KRDO in a Saturday report.... If you think that's the sort of thing that might prompt him to mention the fire department in his remarks at that event..., you're right! 'We have a fire marshal that said we can't allow more people,' Trump said, as the crowd booed. '... The reason they can't let them in is because they don't know what they're doing.' [He].. said that Fire Marshal Brett Lacey was "probably a Democrat, probably a guy that doesn't get it.'" -- CW

Alexander Burns, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump reeled on Sunday amid a sustained campaign of criticism by the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq and a rising outcry within his own party over his rough and racially charged dismissal of the couple. The confrontation between the parents, Khizr and Ghazala Khan, and Mr. Trump has emerged as an unexpected and potentially pivotal flash point in the general election. Mr. Trump ... has repeatedly answered the Khan family's criticism with harsh and defensive rhetoric.... He earned no reprieve with his complaints that Mr. Khan had been unfair to him or with his repeated attempts to change the subject to Islamic terrorism.... Mr. Trump on Sunday morning made a third attempt to deflect Mr. Khan's criticism, writing on Twitter that the real issue at stake in the election was terrorism. And he continued to complain that Mr. Khan had been unfair to him." -- CW

Have you even read the Constitution? -- Khizr Kahn, at the Democratic convention

... Mr. Khan who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things. -- Donald Trump, in a statement

I read all the way to Article 12, and it doesn't say anything about freedom of speech or freedom of religion, okay? But I personally have a god-given right to misquote Mr. Kahn and say many other inaccurate things. -- Donald Trump, in his twisted little mind (no link)

Atlantic: ": Speaking to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Trump said of Russian President Vladimir Putin, 'He's not going into Ukraine, OK? Just so you understand. He's not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down and you can put it down, you can take it anywhere you want.' Stephanopoulos pointed out that Russia had already annexed Crimea. The response was classic Trump: This is all proof of how terrible Obama is, but also it's not really so bad. He confirmed that he would consider recognizing the annexation: 'But, you know, the people of Crimea, from what I've heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were.'... At first glance, this looks like a classic example of Trump just not really knowing what he's talking about.... But on closer glance..., in his worldview, Russia seizing sovereign territory in violation of international law is acceptable. He even parrots the Kremlin line that Crimeans have a right to self-determination -- further evidence of a close alignment between Putin and Trump." -- CW

*****

Presidential Race

Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "On the second day of a three-day bus tour through Pennsylvania and Ohio, Hillary Clinton continued a balancing act: painting a relatively rosy picture of national progress under President Obama -- in contrast to Donald J. Trump's grim appraisal of the country's state -- while insisting there is much more to be done.... Winding westward through Pennsylvania, with plans to cross into Ohio late Saturday, Mrs. Clinton has emerged from the party's four-day showcase to pitch herself, at least in part, to voters with a history of antipathy toward Democrats." ...

... CW: Sorry, Hillary, if you want to draw the top headlines, you have to insult more people, whine more & make up more lies. P.S. Quit rigging the system & being so unfaaaair to Donald, who has been sacrificing for his country all his life by donating jobs to people (especially foreigners, and except maybe for that little part where he doesn't pay his workers and contractors and investors but skims off the top for himself). ...

Houston Chronicle Editors endorse Hillary Clinton. "The Chronicle editorial page does not typically endorse early in an election cycle.... We make an exception in the 2016 presidential race, because the choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is not merely political.... Any one of Trump's less-than-sterling qualities - his erratic temperament, his dodgy business practices, his racism, his Putin-like strongman inclinations and faux-populist demagoguery, his contempt for the rule of law, his ignorance - is enough to be disqualifying. His convention-speech comment, 'I alone can fix it,' should make every American shudder. He is, we believe, a danger to the Republic." -- CW ...

... Chris Megerian of the Los Angeles Times: On the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton Tim Kaine has proved to be an effective surrogate. "With an 'aw, shucks' demeanor, he skewered Republican nominee Donald Trump and never failed to tell the audience how much he likes and trusts Clinton, a candidate who has struggled with voters in both of those crucial departments." -- CW

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump suggested in an interview with ABC News that the Muslim mother of a United States soldier killed in Iraq had let her husband do all the talking at the Democratic National Convention because she was not 'allowed' to speak.... When Stephanopoulos said that [Khizr] Khan had pointed out that his family would not have been allowed into the United States under Mr. Trump's proposed ban on Muslim immigrants, the candidate replied, 'He doesn't know that.' And when asked what he would say to the grieving father, Mr. Trump replied, 'I'd say, "We've had a lot of problem with radical Islamic terrorism."' Mr. Stephanopoulos also noted that Mr. Khan said that Mr. Trump had 'sacrificed nothing,' and had lost no one. 'Who wrote that? Did Hillary's scriptwriters?' Mr. Trump replied. 'I think I've made a lot of sacrifices. I've worked very, very hard. I've created thousands and thousands of jobs[, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I've had tremendous success. I think I've done a lot].'" -- CW ...

     ... New Lede (with additional reporting by Richard Oppel): "Donald J. Trump belittled the parents of a slain Muslim soldier who had strongly denounced Mr. Trump during the Democratic National Convention, saying that the soldier's father had delivered the entire speech because his mother was not 'allowed' to speak. Mr. Trump's comments, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News that will air on Sunday, drew quick and widespread condemnation and amplified calls for Republican leaders to distance themselves from their presidential nominee." ...

     ... Jose DelReal & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Republican Donald Trump lashed out Saturday at two Muslim American parents who lost their son while he served in the U.S. military in Iraq and who appeared at the Democratic National Convention last week, stirring outrage among critics who said the episode proves that Trump lacks the compassion and temperament to be president.... [Trump's] remarks drew strong rebukes Saturday -- but only silence from several senior GOP leaders, including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the vice-presidential nominee, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence." CW: Don't tell me Donald Trump hasn't served our country. Not only did he go to military school, not only did he evade sexually-transmitted diseases (which is just like serving in a war zone), he's now the leader of a whole brigade of chickenshits. ...

... NEW. Ghazala Kahn responds to Donald Trump in a Washington Post op-ed. -- CW ...

... Mary Bruce of ABC News: Khizr & Ghazala Kahn respond to Donald Trump's smearing them. Includes video. -- CW ...

... AND contributor Gloria adds: "... on the subject of silenced women, we would like to hear your wives speak, comrade trump. They are gagged by you and your lawyers." -- CW ...

... Ezra Klein: "Trump listened to a speech by the bereaved father of a fallen Muslim soldier and used it to slander the fallen soldier's family. That was his response. That is his character.... This is what I mean when I write that the 2016 election isn't simply Democrat vs. Republican, but normal vs. abnormal.... I honestly do not understand how a human being can respond to a family that lost their son for this country by saying that he has sacrificed too, he's worked really hard, he's built 'great structures,' he's had 'tremendous success.' -- CW ...

... Joe Cunningham of the right-wing Red State: "Just so we're clear, that is Donald Trump saying his years spent as a business man means he has made sacrifices like the type Khan was referring to. A man gave his life for his country while serving overseas, and Donald Trump believes that his efforts to make himself rich are comparable. One soldier made the ultimate sacrifice and one egomaniac gained money and influence. That's his argument." -- CW ...

... Nick Eilerson of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump complained Friday that Hillary Clinton and her fellow Democratic cronies were rigging this fall's presidential debates by scheduling them alongside NFL games. That claim was easy to disprove -- the debate schedule was determined almost a year ago by a private group made up of both Democrats and Republicans. On Saturday, Trump doubled down on his bogus grievance.... 'I'll tell you what I don't like,' Trump told George Stephanopoulos. 'It's against two NFL games. I got a letter from the NFL saying, "This is ridiculous.'"... The NFL says it never sent him a letter." -- CW ...

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "Donald Trump gave his first hint [Friday] night that he might try to get out of the Fall presidential debates. I have thought for months that he'd likely try to get out of them.... I suspect Trump will start claiming that that the process is 'rigged' because Gary Johnson and Jill Stein aren't included.... Trump didn't so much debate in the Republican primaries as use them with some skill to enact a series of dominance rituals at the expense of his opponents.... He can't help picking fights.... Even if he eventually agrees to participate in one or more of the debates, he will try mightily to force some change or break some dishes in order to assert dominance over the process." -- CW

Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: "... scholars of the presidency say that Barack Obama, George W. Bush and their predecessors have added so many powers to the White House toolbox that a President Trump could fulfill many of his promises legally -- and virtually unchecked by a Congress that has proven incapable of mustering much pushback for decade.... Presidents already have the power to do much of what Trump has proposed.... A president who might act unilaterally was one of the chief fears expressed in the original debates about the Constitution." -- CW

Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "... after almost two weeks of Conventions, there is one area of Republican foreign policy that Trump has completely reinvented in his image: the Party's posture toward Russia. There is almost no issue on which Trump has been more consistent than his interest in strengthening ties with Vladimir Putin and clearing away the obstacles that have hindered the U.S.-Russia relationship.... If he is President, there will be little that a Republican Congress can do to stop Trump’s embrace of Russia." -- CW ...

... Alan Yuhas of the Guardian recounts at least some of "the lies Trump told this week." Yuhas explores Trump's various comments about his Russian Connection, which is worth a read as he includes some background that isn't commonly reported. -- CW ...

... (CW: Remember during the last presidential race when Steve Benen kept a running tally of Mitt Romney's lies & contradictions? Ha! He'd have to hire a staff of 17 to keep up with Trump's lies.)

Paul Musgrave, in a Washington Post op-ed: "The United States and Russia (or the Soviet Union) have meddled in elections because it has served their national interests and because the inherent risk has often paid off.... But the Soviets never successfully intervened in a U.S. election, because no major political figure wanted to be associated with the Soviet Union. Collaboration would have been unthinkable. Until this past week, one might have thought a similar taboo would prevent candidates from capitalizing on foreign efforts to influence U.S. elections.... Regardless of whether this document leak resulted from a foreign government's actions, Trump's response has once again weakened the foundation of American democracy." -- CW

Ezra Klein contrasts the Democratic & Republican conventions:

CW: Yesterday I mentioned that Charles Koch, who reportedly refused a meeting with Donald Trump, appeared to be more principled than McConnell & Ryan. But that doesn't mean he & his brother have been embarrassed into becoming decent human beings, using their vast wealth for the common good. ...

Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "The Koch political network, which has steadfastly refused to engage in the 2016 presidential contest, plans to invoke ... Hillary Clinton in paid messages to voters as part of its campaigns supporting GOP Senate candidates, top officials said Saturday.... But [Mark] Holden[, who chairs the funding arm of Kochs' political network] said the network has no plans to run an explicit campaign opposing Clinton's efforts to reach the White House, saying: 'We are going to differentiate on policies alone. It's not going to be anti-Hillary.'" ...

... CW P.S. Holden denies knowledge of any discussions about meeting with Trump. As for Trump, well, he's Trump. Gold reports, "Moments before Holden addressed reporters, Trump -- who had been in Colorado Springs for a rally Friday -- tweeted ... 'I turned down a meeting with Charles and David Koch.... Much better for them to meet with the puppets of politics, they will do much better!"

Other News & Views

How to Succeed in Business: Vote in Democrats. Jacob Hacker & Paul Pierson in a New York Times op-ed: "Red states dominated by Republicans embrace cut and extract. Blue states dominated by Democrats do much more to maintain their investments in education, infrastructure, urban quality of life and human services.... Blue states are generally doing better [economically].... This red-blue divergence is all the more striking because red states still receive much more in federal spending relative to the federal taxes their residents pay. In other words, blue states are generally outperforming red states even while heavily subsidizing them.... We should remember that the key drivers of growth are science, education and innovation, not low taxes, lax regulations or greater exploitation of natural resources." -- CW

Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: In their decision to strike down North Carolina's voter suppression law, the judges "point to a 'smoking gun' in North Carolina's justification for the law, proving discriminatory intent. The state argued in court that 'counties with Sunday voting in 2014 were disproportionately black' and 'disproportionately Democratic,' and said it did away with Sunday voting as a result." (CW: Read that twice; it's hard to believe lawyers for the state would argue the state wasn't discriminating by asserting the state's intent was to discriminate against black voters.) And there's more: legislators requested data to find out what kinds of IDs blacks were unlikely to have, so they made sure "that the only acceptable forms of voter identification were the ones disproportionately used by white people." They also learned from the research that black voters disproportionately took advantage of the first days of early voting, so they eliminated those days. Gov. Pat McCrory (R[eprihensible]) said the state would appeal the court's ruling. ...

     ... CW: I wonder if any of this is making it through the steel trap door that guards Chief Justice John Roberts' mind.

The Commentariat -- July 30, 2016

Presidential Race

Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "Computer systems used by the campaign of Hillary Clinton ... were hacked in an attack that appears to have come from Russia's intelligence services, a federal law enforcement official said on Friday. The F.B.I. said that it was examining reports of 'cyberintrusions involving multiple political entities' but did not identify the targets of the attacks. That statement came on the same day that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats' fund-raising arm, said its computer systems had been hacked." -- CW ...

... Ellen Nakashima & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "The Clinton presidential campaign said Friday that an 'analytics data program' maintained by the Democratic National Committee had been hacked but that its computer system had not been compromised, denying news reports Friday that the campaign had become the third Democratic Party organization whose systems had been penetrated." -- CW

Ann Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton kicked off a three-day, swing-state bus tour on Friday with a rally ... in the same city [Philadelphia] where she accepted the Democratic party's presidential nomination Thursday night.... Clinton and [Tim] Kaine will now travel by bus through Pennsylvania and Ohio, two states that are critical battlegrounds in the November election." -- CW ...

     ... CW: I thought both Kaine & Clinton did a good job. Worries about Kaine's speaking style seem much overwrought.

James Downie of the Washington Post: "... Clinton's [convention] speech got the job done. It was -- and I mean this as a compliment -- a competent speech, with the surprisingly controversial argument that a president needs to be competent.... In raising the issue of competence, Clinton's speech made the general election less like a contest of Republicans and Democrats and more a fight between intelligence and irrationality." -- CW ...

... Frank Rich on Clinton, Trump & Kaine. Always a good read. -- CW ...

... Gail Collins & Arthur Brooks discuss the Democratic convention. You might want to skip Brooks' entries. -- CW ...

Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Khizr Khan, the father of a fallen Muslim American war hero who powerfully denounced Donald Trump's rhetoric and policies at the Democratic National Convention..., Friday night urge[d] Republican leadership to distance themselves from the GOP nominee.... Delivering what he described as 'the other half' of his Thursday address on MSNBC's 'The Last Word,' Khan ... tearfully singled out House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a plea to 'repudiate' the rhetoric and policies of Trump." -- CW ...

... Richard Oppel of the New York Times writes another story on Democratic-convention speaker Khizr Khan. Khan's speech "electrified the convention and turned Mr. Khan into a social media and cable news sensation." Khan, who holds as advanced degree from Harvard Law, wrote his own speech without assistance from a speechwriter or Michelle Obama:

... CW: Speaking of Michelle Obama, somebody should explain plagiarism to confederates. Mark Hensch of the Hill: In a tweet,Sean Spicer, the chief strategist of the Republican National Committee (RNC), accused Hillary Clinton of plagiarizing Alexis de Toqueville in her convention speech when she repeated the bromide, "America is great because it is good." I'm all surprised that Spicer hasn't called for a cease-and-desist from Donald Trump for plagiarizing Ronald Reagan's widely-used campaign slogan, "Let's make America great again." Dan L., in a comment he made here a couple of days ago, may have provided the best lesson on plagiarism, though his quip was probably way too subtle for the boneheads of Right Wing World: "Loved Michelle's speech.... I do question her claim of growing up on a goat farm in southern Slovenia though." ...

... Conservative Josh Barro of Business Insider: "Khan demanded to know whether Donald Trump had even read the Constitution, pulled out his pocket copy, and offered to lend it to Trump. I watched this moment live and was awed by it. I watched it again Friday morning, and I cried ... because it was even necessary for someone to stand up at a party convention and explain why that candidate is wrong. I am angry at Donald Trump, and I am angry at the people who voted for him. But most of all I am angry at the senior Republicans who are standing by and acting as if this is fine -- endorsing him in the belief that he will lose but that standing together will stem the loss of congressional seats, or endorsing him in the hope that he will grow up if he wins." ...

... CW: Why, Josh, of course Trump has read the Constitution -- all twelve articles of it, which is five more than Khan or anyone else has read.

Adam Nagourney of the New York Times compares the Democratic & Republican conventions: "Democrats were more polished.... Mr. Trump's sloppy convention was a missed opportunity, and sent up warning flares for Republicans already concerned about his capacity to grapple with the basic mechanics of American politics.... High contrast? Try night and day.... When were Americans last presented with two such starkly different views of the country as Mr. Trump's bleak portrayal of a country under siege, and Mrs. Clinton's 'best days are ahead of us' optimism?... Cleveland and Philadelphia proved [conventions] can still be riveting and influential.... [Hillary is] on her own now.... [Democrats] managed to seize what for many years have been the defining symbols of the Republican Party: God and country.... Mrs. Clinton has her party mostly behind her.... Mr. Trump's convention had the absence of prominent Republicans.... Finally, with apologies to George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, George Bush and even Bill Clinton, this convention showed once and for all that when it comes to pure political talent -- the ability to move a crowd, seize a moment, and deliver a speech that rises to a challenge -- Barack Obama laps the field." -- CW ...

... Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "... Donald Trump distanced himself from the planning of last week's Republican National Convention after the Democrats' event, which ended Thursday, posted higher television ratings for three of the four nights. 'I didn't produce the show -- I just showed up for the final speech on Thursday,' the Republican presidential nominee told The New York Times when asked about the differences between the two parties' conventions." -- CW

Fred Kaplan: Don't worry about those intelligence briefings the presidential candidates are about to get. "... according to former senior intelligence officials who have helped prepare them in the past, these briefings contain no material classified higher than Secret. And, as anyone familiar with such matters knows, nothing very sensitive is revealed in documents marked Confidential or Secret. Retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and the NSA, told me in an email that these briefings are 'very generalized treatments' designed to give nominees a broad-brush view of the global threats as the intelligence community sees them.... The director of national intelligence, currently James Clapper, prepares the briefings, though the president can set further limits on what they can and cannot reveal." -- CW ...

... Sarah Wheaton of Politico: "White House chief of staff Denis McDonough kicked off the official coordination for handing off power with a call to both presidential campaigns on Friday. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that he's 'ready to pass the baton' to Hillary Clinton. But passing the bureaucracy is a much more complicated undertaking, and now that she and Donald Trump have become their respective parties' official nominees, their campaigns are eligible for new government resources to help them prepare for transition -- even though only one of them will actually complete the process." -- CW

Maureen Dowd does a "lightning round" interview of Donald Trump. He likes President Obama -- "He's got some quality going" -- Michelle Obama & Chelsea Clinton.

Cristiano Lima: "Donald Trump late Friday accused Hillary Clinton of intentionally stacking debates against primetime programming to 'rig' the election process, despite the fact that ... the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates ... set the schedule ... last September.... The schedule includes a Sunday night debate on Oct. 9 that will air concurrently with an NFL game between the Green Bay Packers and the North Carolina Panthers." CW: This could be the first of many Hillary-rigged-debates excuses Whiney Man uses to back out of debating her. He thinks he's a great debater, but surely his campaign staff knows better. See also Marvin S.'s comment in today's yesterday's thread.

Jessie Hellman of the Hill: "Donald Trump said Friday he's 'taking the gloves off' in his general election fight against Hillary Clinton after she railed against him in her acceptance speech for the Democratic presidential nomination. 'You know, it's interesting, every time I mention her, everyone screams 'lock her up,' and you know what? I've been nice but after that performance last night, I don't have to be so nice anymore. I'm taking the gloves off," the Republican presidential nominee said at a rally in Colorado." ...

     ... Here's a list, dated July 5, of some of the "nice" things Trump has said about Hillary Clinton. They include, "erratic," "bad temperament," "dangerous," "looking very bad," "should star in a reboot of 'Liar, Liar,'" "no strength, no stamina," "totally flawed." And of course, "crooked." ...

... Louis Nelson & Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Donald Trump launched a fresh takedown of Hillary Clinton on Friday, with the Republican presidential nominee leading the effort and dispatching his surrogates to join the attack." -- CW ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... Mike Pence ... Friday morning cr[ied] foul over President Obama alluding to Donald Trump as a 'homegrown demagogue.' 'I don't think name-calling has any place in public life,' Pence said.... 'And I thought that was unfortunate that the president of the United States would use a term like that.' At almost exactly the same time as the Pence transcript was being sent out to reporters, here's what Trump was tweeting: 'Crooked Hillary Clinton mentioned me 22 times in her very long and very boring speech. Many of her statements were lies and fabrications!... "Little" Michael Bloomberg, who never had the guts to run for president, knows nothing about me. His last term as Mayor was a disaster!... Crooked Hillary said that I "couldn't handle the rough and tumble of a political campaign." Really,I just beat 16 people and am beating her!'" CW: IOKIYAR. ...

... Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "Donald Trump used Twitter, as per his habit, to respond to Hillary Clinton's acceptance speech on Thursday night. In a brief series of tweets, the Republican nominee started by attacking 'Hillary's refusal to mention radical Islam' in her speech. Trump also bashed Clinton as 'owned by Wall Street' and claimed her 'vision is a borderless world where working people have no power, no jobs, no safety'. Trump eventually concluded with 'no one has worse judgement [sic] than Hillary Clinton -- corruption and devastation follows her wherever she goes.'" -- CW ...

... Josh Voorhees of Slate: "Trump's fans can't get enough of his macho act, and the clear pleasure they derive from this particular show comes from the double meaning of the word hit.... The overarching narrative of the DNC criticism of Trump was that he is a thin-skinned bully who can't be trusted to keep his cool when provoked. And here was Trump, in effect, saying the very same thing -- to cheers." See also yesterday's Commentariat. -- CW

Ken Vogel of Politico: "Top Donald Trump donors tried to set up a meeting between the GOP presidential nominee and Charles Koch in Colorado Springs on Friday, but Koch aides rejected the entreaties, according to two Republicans with knowledge of the outreach." CW: So it would seem that Charles Koch is more principled than McConnell, Ryan, & most of the rest of the GOP establishment.

Show Me the Returns! Judd Legum of Think Progress: "ThinkProgress conducted an analysis of coverage of Trump's tax returns in major newspapers during 2016 and compared them to the coverage of Mitt Romney's tax returns in 2012.... In January 2012, under pressure from the media Romney released his 2010 tax return and a summary of his 2011 return. It was less than any other major party candidate in decades.... Nevertheless, in the first seven months of his election year, Romney generated more than twice the coverage of his tax returns -- almost all of it critical -- than Trump has generated this year.... Among those critical of Romney's failure to disclose his returns was Donald Trump himself. In a January 2012 appearance on Fox News, Trump said that Romney was being 'hurt really very badly' by refusing to release his tax returns. He implored Romney to 'release them now.'" ...

     ... CW: Clinton has released 15 years of her returns. Her campaign should attack Trump relentlessly on this. Every day in every way, Clinton should be asking, What is Donald hiding? She & her surrogates should speculate, too, on what-all might be revealed in the secret returns. Ties to Russia? Mob connections? Zero income? Huge business losses? Zero charitable contributions? Just make up stuff, the wilder the better. The Clinton campaign should needle the hell out of Trump. He'll take the bait.

Nancy Benac of the AP: "Donald Trump's flurry of offhand remarks and abrupt zingers on Russia -- praising Vladimir Putin, dismissing NATO -- have jolted the world, not to mention the U.S. presidential campaign.... The idea of fostering U.S.-Russian cooperation isn't outlandish.... It's what Trump is willing to do to achieve those goals and the way he expresses his views that have shocked many foreign policy experts. The notion of refusing to defend NATO allies who don't pay their bills, for example, or of buddying up to Putin despite his aggressive stances is jarring to Democrats and Republicans alike. And it's on the minds of foreign leaders." -- CW ...

... Tim Egan makes the case against having a despotic traitor as president. (Yes, it has come to that.) "Trump is now a national security risk, actively rooting for a foreign adversary to tamper with an American election. And very soon, he will start receiving classified briefings on that adversary. Ehhhhhcellent!" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Gail Collins has a quiz on the conventions. CW: I missed two, both of which had to do with things Donald Trump said, not that I don't hang on his every word. If you want to get all the answers right, pick the ones that have Trump ludicrously blaming somebody else for his screw-ups & potential failures. (Yeah, that should have been obvious to me. My bad.)

Other News & Views

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "The Obama Presidential Library will be built in Chicago's Jackson Park, the Obama Foundation announced Friday. 'Jackson Park will be the site of the Obama Presidential Center,' the Obama Foundation said in a statement. 'The center will be located in the heart of the South Side, which has been the home to the First Family for many years.'" -- CW ...

... Here's President Obama's statement on the selection of Jackson Park. -- CW ...

... CW: We should appreciate the irony of the first black American president's locating his library in a park named for an earlier American president who made his livelihood entirely on the backs of slaves:

In all reality, slavery was the source of Andrew Jackson's wealth. The Hermitage was a 1,000 acre, self-sustaining plantation that relied completely on the labor of enslaved African American men, women, and children. They performed the hard labor that produced The Hermitage's cash crop, cotton. The more land Andrew Jackson accrued, the more slaves he procured to work it. -- Andrew Jackson Foundation, on the official Website for the Hermitage, the Jackson family plantation

... CW: I move that Chicago rename Jackson Park "Barack and Michelle Obama Park."

Paul Blake of ABC News: "A bill that creates a federal labeling standard for foods containing genetically modified ingredients (commonly called GMOs) was signed into law by President Barack Obama today." -- CW

Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) on Friday called on Congress to return from its summer recess early to provide funding to fight the Zika virus. The call comes after officials in Florida announced earlier in the day that there is a high likelihood that the first cases of the virus being transmitted in the continental United States by mosquitoes have occurred." See also Friday's News Ledes. -- CW

Robert Barnes & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Voting rights activists scored legal victories in key presidential election states Friday, with the most important being a federal appeals court ruling that North Carolina's Republican-led legislature enacted new voting restrictions in 2013 to intentionally blunt the growing clout of African American voters. The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit was an overwhelming victory for the Justice Department and civil rights groups.... In Wisconsin, where one federal judge already had eased restrictions on voter-ID requirements, another struck additional elements of the law passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.). U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson said he would strike more of the law if he were not bound by the Supreme Court's decision that states may use properly written voter-ID laws to guard against voter fraud." CW: Peterson is an Obama appointee. Elections matter. (CW Note: This is an update of a WashPo story on the North Carolina decision, linked yesterday.) ...

... The New York Times story on the North Carolina decision, by Alan Blinder & Michael Wines, is here. Update: The Times story now also includes reporting on the Wisconsin decision. -- CW

Gabriel Sherman of New York: Fox "News"' former booking director "Laurie Luhn told the lawyers at Paul, Weiss..., the New York law firm hired by 21st Century Fox to investigate sexual-harassment allegations against [Fox 'News' CEO Roger] Ailes..., that she had been harassed by Ailes for more than 20 years, that executives at Fox News had known about it and helped cover it up, and that it had ruined her life. 'It was psychological torture,' she later told me.... New York was able to independently corroborate key details in her account, including that she was sexually involved with Ailes for many years, from sources who worked at Fox at the same time she did. Additionally, I viewed documents Luhn retained, including a copy of the $3.15 million severance agreement she signed in 2011 that includes iron-clad nondisclosure provisions." CW: Luhn's story, in Sherman's recounting, is just awful.

Beyond the Beltway

Pauline Repard, et al., of the San Diego Union Tribune: One San Diego police officer was shot dead & another critically wounded by at least two suspects whom police have captured & jailed. "Police said [the officers] had been shot several times. Investigators did not know if they had been ambushed." -- CW

John Wisely of the Detroit Free Press: "Six more state employees were charged with crimes today for their roles in the Flint Water Crisis because of negligence and arrogance, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said. 'Some people failed to act, others minimized harm done and arrogantly chose to ignore data, some intentionally altered figures ... and covered up significant health risks,' he said at a news conference today. The result, Schuette said, 'was water was poisoned.' Charged today were three employees of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Liane Shekter Smith, Adam Rosenthal, and Patrick Cook, as well as three others from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services; Nancy Peeler, Corinne Miller, Robert Scott." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)