The Commentariat -- July 10, 2016

Darlene Superville & Kathleen Hennessey of the AP: President Obama has arrived in Madrid for a shortened visit, his first to Spain. "Obama noted the 'difficult week' as he made small talk Sunday with King Felipe VI after arriving at Spain's Royal Palace for a meeting." -- CW ...

... Mark Landler & Rick Lyman of the New York Times: "President Obama, acknowledging that the trans-Atlantic alliance faces an unprecedented array of threats from terrorism, migrant flows and an aggressive Russia, said on Saturday that 'in good times and in bad, Europe can count on the United States -- always.... We haven't simply reaffirmed' the alliance, Mr. Obama said at a news conference. 'We're moving forward with the most significant reinforcement of collective defense any time since the Cold War.' Mr. Obama spoke in Warsaw at the end of a NATO summit meeting that illustrated how radically the global security situation has changed since he took office in 2009." -- CW ...

... Evelyn Rupert of the Hill: "President Obama said Saturday that he is 'concerned' by the FBI assessment that the State Department has acted carelessly in handling classified information.... But he cast the problem as a government-wide struggle to keep up technology and the fast-paced flow of information." -- CW

... Greg Jaffe & Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: President Obama, "speaking on Saturday at the NATO summit here, suggested that the licensed gun in the car of Philando Castile, who was shot by police in Minnesota during a routine traffic stop, had contributed to the tragedy there.... On the gun issue, he said the polarization in the country pitted 'a very intense minority' against the 'majority of Americans who actually think we could be doing better when it comes to gun safety.'... Obama said some of the protesters in Dallas, a large city in a state where people can openly carry weapons with a license, were armed during the march. 'Imagine if you are a police officer and you are trying to sort out who is shooting at you and there are a bunch of people who have got guns on them,' he added." -- CW ...

... Michael Barbaro & Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "Black Lives Matter now faces perhaps the biggest crisis in its short history: It is both scrambling to distance itself from an African-American sniper in Dallas who set out to murder white police officers and trying to rebut a chorus of detractors who blame the movement for inspiring his deadly attack." CW: The "chorus of detractors" is stupid. Peaceful protest is an American institution, & that's what most protesters in Dallas & elsewhere were doing -- protesting peacefully against grave injustice. ...

... Steve Kenny of the New York Times: "DeRay Mckesson, who has become a national voice for the Black Lives Matter movement, was arrested Saturday night in Baton Rouge, La., while protesting the death of Alton Sterling. Mr. Mckesson filmed his own arrest while broadcasting the protest on Periscope." -- CW ...

... Brian Murphy & Ashley Cusick of the Washington Post: "Across the country, more than 120 people have been arrested since Friday in protest marches and rallies in more than a dozen cities following a week of searing images: videos stemming from the deaths of two black men fatally shot by police -- in Baton Rouge and Minnesota -- and later downtown Dallas streets erupting in sniper gunfire that would leave five police officer dead." -- CW ...

... Jon Swaine & Tom Dart of the Guardian: "Dallas police searched in vain for a suspicious man spotted in its headquarters on Saturday evening amid fresh threats to the city's officers and renewed anti-police violence protests across the country. Amid heightened security in Dallas, Swat team officers and dog units scoured a multi-level parking garage connected to the police force's building. An explosive device and a shotgun were used to gain entry to locked passages, according to police." -- CW ...

... Jon Swaine: "The Dallas police department has defended its decision to use a robot to kill the gunman who fatally shot five of its officers, saying the controversial method was used only 'as a last resort'. Amid disquiet about the potential legal implications of the killing, the department also gave the first public details of the model of robot and type of explosive device they used against Micah Johnson, a 25-year-old army reserve veteran." -- CW ...

... Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "A lawyer for the suburban police officer who fatally shot a black man during a traffic stop said on Saturday that the race of the driver, Philando Castile, played no role in how his client responded, and that the officer 'was reacting to the presence of a gun' when he opened fire. The comments from the lawyer, Thomas Kelly, provided the fullest accounting yet of Officer Jeronimo Yanez's version of the shooting Wednesday night, even as many details remain unclear.... Officer Yanez is Latino." -- CW ...

... Carla Johnson & Steve Karnowski of the AP: "Philando Castile ... had been pulled over at least 52 times in recent years in and around the Twin Cities and given citations for minor offenses including speeding, driving without a muffler and not wearing a seat belt. He was assessed at least $6,588 in fines and fees, although more than half of the total 86 violations were dismissed, court records show.... The records show no convictions for more serious crimes." -- CW ...

... Reese Dunklin & Juliet Linderman of the AP: "The gunman who killed five police officers at a protest march had practiced military-style drills in his yard and trained at a private self-defense school that teaches special tactics, including 'shooting on the move,' a maneuver in which an attacker fires and changes position before firing again. Micah Johnson, an Army veteran, received instruction at the Academy of Combative Warrior Arts in the Dallas suburb of Richardson about two years ago, said the school's founder and chief instructor...." -- CW ...

... Brian Fung of the Washington Post: "The NRA is facing internal division as its members argue that the group did not do enough to defend gun owners' rights by speaking out on behalf of Philando Castile of Falcon Heights, Minn., who was shot to death during a traffic stop.... Castile had a valid permit to carry a gun. He also reportedly informed the officer who shot him that he was armed in an attempt to head off a misunderstanding. The NRA appeared to drag its feet on the Falcon Heights shooting, taking more than a day and a half to address it publicly. When a statement was posted on the NRA Facebook page, the group obliquely referred to 'reports from Minnesota.' It neither named Castile directly nor took a position on the shooting." CW: I can't imagine why. ...

It took me a long time, and a number of people talking to me through the years to get a sense of this. If you are a normal, white American, the truth is you don't understand being black in America and you instinctively under-estimate the level of discrimination and the level of additional risk. -- Newt Gingrich, Friday ...

... Leon Neyfakh of Slate: "Gingrich wasn't the only conservative who was moved on Friday to break the rules of conservative discourse.... It is surprising and intriguing to see such rhetoric from the right, especially on the day after the murder of five police officers. It's enough to make you think even the most sturdy-seeming ideologies can be dislodged in times of crisis -- and that, as horrendously sad as this week has been, it may end up being some sort of turning point." -- CW

Mike Zapler of Politico: "Longtime Democratic Rep. Corrine Brown will step down from her role as ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee until a federal corruption case filed against her Friday is resolved, Democrats said. The Florida congresswoman and her chief of staff were charged with 24 counts of wrongdoing. Federal prosecutors say she used her position in Congress to solicit money to a phony education group and spent the money on car repairs, vacations, and lavish events." -- CW

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Poland stands and needs to continue stand as an example for democratic practices around the world. -- President Obama

Poland is and will be an example of democracy for the whole world. -- "Translation" by the nation's top public broadcast station

... Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: Polish television, which is effectively controlled by the government, censored President Obama even as he was obliquely criticizing the government for, um, censoring the media: "'More work needs to be done,' Obama said [at a press conference]. 'And as your friend and ally, we've urged all parties to work together to sustain Poland's democratic institutions.' But viewers of Telewizja Polska, the main public broadcaster..., [heard] 'Concerning the issue of the constitutional tribunal, [Obama] said he is sure that spreading democratic values in Poland will not stop.'... More than 100 journalists have been dismissed or have resigned from Poland's public broadcaster this year.... Shortly after the [Polish Law & Justice] party took office, it changed laws giving Poland's Finance Ministry the direct power to appoint the head of the broadcaster." -- CW

Gabriel Sherman of New York: "In my 2014 biography of [Roger Ailes]..., I included interviews with four women who told me Ailes had used his position of power to make either unwanted sexual advances or inappropriate sexual comments in the office.... In recent days, more than a dozen women have contacted [Gretchen] Carlson's New Jersey-based attorney, Nancy Erika Smith, and made detailed allegations of sexual harassment by Ailes over a 25-year period dating back to the 1960s when he was a producer on The Mike Douglas Show.... Taken together, these stories portray Ailes as a boss who spoke openly of expecting women to perform sexual favors in exchange for job opportunities.... Six of the women agreed to speak with New York publicly for the first time." -- CW ...

... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: Roger Ailes is a chicken-shit slimebag. (Or words to that effect.) -- CW

Presidential Race

Maureen Dowd, who certainly reinforced my sense of Billary Clinton back in the day, nails them again: "... the Clintons, who are staying true to their reputation as the Tom and Daisy Buchanan of American politics. Their vast carelessness drags down everyone around them, but they persevere, and even thrive. In a mere 11 days, arrogant, selfish actions by the Clintons contaminated three of the purest brands in Washington -- Barack Obama, James Comey and Loretta Lynch -- and jeopardized the futures of Hillary's most loyal aides.... The Clintons work hard but don't play by the rules. Imagine them in the White House with the benefit of low expectations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CW: And why would they change? Back in the White House, they will again be the most powerful couple in the world. Their methods of shady dealings, parsing the truth down to the meaning of the word "is," & naked arrogance have got them where they are. And where we're not. ...

... The Wages of Clinton Connections. Evan Halper of the Los Angeles Times: Democrats on the House's Benghaaazi! committee accidentally released a document which revealed, in redacted testimony that was easily cut & pasted into readable text, that Clinton consigliere Sidney Blumenthal received "about $200,000 a year" for occasional advice to organizations controlled by Clinton supporter David Brock. The transcript "shows that Republicans did, indeed, leverage their subpoena of Blumenthal for political gain.... And for Democrats, the exchange exposes once again the absurd amounts of money people in the orbit of the Clintons sometimes seem to rake in just for, well, being in the orbit of the Clintons." -- CW

John Wagner & Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton, in moves aimed at securing an endorsement from Bernie Sanders, on Saturday highlighted her support for a 'public option' in health insurance and proposed additional funding for community-based centers championed by her rival for the Democratic nomination." -- CW ...

... Andrew Prokop of Vox: "On Saturday morning, Hillary Clinton released a new health care policy proposal that emphasized several major progressive priorities, including a public option and increased funding for community health centers.... In a press call after Clinton's announcement, [Bernie] Sanders described her health care proposal as an 'extremely important initiative' and 'an important step forward' -- and emphasized that it was made 'after discussions with our campaign.' Sanders also praised Clinton's new plan to encourage free tuition at public universities, which she announced Wednesday." -- CW ...

... Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "Amid boos from the sidelines, allies of Hillary Clinton and President Obama on Saturday beat back an effort by the Bernie Sanders campaign to have the Democratic Party officially oppose a congressional vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal." -- CW ...

... Dave Weigel: "The Democratic Party endorsed a 'reasoned pathway to future legalization' of marijuana and called for the drug to be downgraded in the Controlled Substances Act, in a tense and unexpected victory for supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders." -- CW

Nightmare Scenario. Oliver Milman of the Guardian (July 8): "Bernie Sanders has been invited to continue his underdog bid for the White House by the Green party's probable presidential candidate, who has offered to step aside to let him run. Jill Stein, who is expected to be endorsed at the party's August convention in Houston, told Guardian US that 'overwhelming' numbers of Sanders supporters are flocking to the Greens rather than Hillary Clinton." CW: I swear to god, if you do this, Bernie, I'm going to stop recycling, start eating nothing but methane-producing beef & tuna from dolphin-snaring nets, & buy a '58 DeSoto or a humungus Winnebago to drive on unnecessary trips every damned day.

Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "After weeks of focusing on a group of current and former elected officials in his search for a running mate, Donald Trump is increasingly intrigued by the idea of tapping retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn to project strength and know-how on national security, according to four people familiar with the vetting process. Flynn, a registered Democrat but fierce critic of President Obama, previously ran the Defense Intelligence Agency." -- CW ...

... Might Not Matter Whom Trump Chooses. Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed: "Anti-Trump delegates are preparing a rules change proposal that would chart a path for delegates to choose their own vice presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention, instead of voting for Donald Trump's choice." -- CW

Way Beyond the Beltway

Dana Priest of the Washington Post: "American war correspondent Marie Colvin was deliberately targeted and killed by artillery fire in 2012 at the direction of senior Syrian military officers seeking to silence her reporting on civilian casualties in the besieged city of Homs, according to a civil lawsuit filed Saturday on behalf of her sister and other heirs." The allegations in the suit are "based on information from high-level defectors and captured government documents...." -- CW

Nicola Slawson of the Guardian: "The hopes of more than 4.1 million people who signed a petition calling for a second referendum on the EU have faded, after a response from the government saying it was a once in a generation vote'." -- CW

The Commentariat -- July 9, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Maureen Dowd, who certainly reinforced my sense of Billary Clinton back in the day, nails them again: "... the Clintons, who are staying true to their reputation as the Tom and Daisy Buchanan of American politics. Their vast carelessness drags down everyone around them, but they persevere, and even thrive. In a mere 11 days, arrogant, selfish actions by the Clintons contaminated three of the purest brands in Washington -- Barack Obama, James Comey and Loretta Lynch -- and jeopardized the futures of Hillary's most loyal aides.... The Clintons work hard but don't play by the rules. Imagine them in the White House with the benefit of low expectations." ...

... CW: Why would they change? Back in the White House, they will again be the most powerful couple in the world. Their methods of shady dealings, parsing the truth down to the meaning of the word "is," & naked arrogance have got them where they are. And where we're not.

*****

Fred Barbash, et al., of the Washington Post: "Vigils and protests, small and large, restrained in some places, rowdy in others, swept across the nation overnight as one of the worst weeks of racially-charged violence in recent memory ticked down to a merciful end." -- CW ...

... Manny Fernandez, et al., of the New York Times: "The heavily armed sniper who gunned down police officers in downtown Dallas, leaving five of them dead, specifically set out to kill as many white officers as he could, officials said Friday. He was a military veteran who had served in Afghanistan, and he kept an arsenal in his home that included bomb-making materials.... Jeh Johnson, the Homeland Security secretary, said in New York that there was apparently just one sniper, though there were so many gunshots and so many victims that officials at first speculated about multiple shooters." -- CW ...

... Joel Achenbach, et al., of the Washington Post: "... President Obama plans to cut his trip to Europe short by one day, returning from Spain on Sunday night so he can travel to Dallas early next week.... Police said Friday that Micah Xavier Johnson, a black 25-year-old believed to be from the Dallas area, was the attacker. Dallas Mayor S. Mike Rawlings told the Associated Press Johnson used an AR-15 assault weapon in the ambush.... 'At this time, there appears to have been one gunman with no known links to or inspiration from any international terrorist organization,' Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Friday afternoon." -- CW ...

... The New York Times is liveblogging developments. ...

... Ben Collins, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Micah Johnson, 25, of Mesquite, Texas was identified by police as the sniper who shot 12 people during a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Dallas on Thursday night. According to his Facebook profile, Johnson identified as a black nationalist. Activists at Thursday’s night Black Lives Matter march, however, said that the shooter behind the deadliest day for American law enforcement since 9/11 was not part of their protest." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Sam Thielman of the Guardian: "For what experts are calling the first time in history, US police have used a robot in a show of lethal force. Early Friday morning, Dallas police used a bomb-disposal robot with an explosive device on its manipulator arm to kill a suspect after five police officers were murdered and seven others wounded." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CW: Some while back, in the midst of some other true American horror story, I hypothesized that pretty soon other nations would be issuing travel warnings to their citizens planning to travel in the U.S. Now, it's happened, and it isn't some stupid political trick. Aaron Davis of the Washington Post: "... following deadly police shootings this week of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota -- and an ambush of white officers in Texas -- [the government of the Bahamas, where 90 percent of the residents are black,] on Friday advised its residents to be extra careful if they choose to ... travel here. The reason: 'recent tensions in some American cities over shootings of young black males by police officers.'" -- CW ...

... David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "... members of the Congressional Black Caucus ... demanded that Republicans allow votes to tighten the nation's gun laws." ...

... Duh. German Lewis of Vox: "In the aftermath of the mass shooting in Dallas that killed multiple police officers, there is one thing policymakers could do to prevent the number of deaths of officers on the line of duty: limit access to guns.... A study from 2015..., published in the American Journal of Public Health..., found that states with more gun ownership had more cops killed in homicides: Every 10 percent increase in firearm ownership correlated with 10 additional officers killed in homicides over the 15-year study period." -- CW ...

... Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "It is a vision at the heart of the modern gun movement: the more that society makes the threat of violence available to us, the safer we will be. In forty-eight hours this week, the poisonous flaw in that fantasy has been exposed from multiple angles.... [The NRA's] Its official Twitter feed, which often draws attention to cases of police questioning gun owners for exercising the right to carry, said nothing, even as the silence became conspicuous.... It was an awkward exposure of what is usually left unsaid: the organization is far less active in asserting the Second Amendment rights of black Americans than of white ones.... The Dallas ambush has also exposed an uncomfortable fact for the gun-rights movement: for decades, even as it maintains its abstract tributes to law enforcement, it has embraced a strain of insurrectionist rhetoric, overtly anti-government activism that endorses the notion that civilians should have guns for use against American police and military." -- CW ...

... Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: "By having a widely armed citizenry, we create a situation in which gun violence becomes a common occurrence, not the rarity it ought to be and is everywhere else in the civilized world.... Guns allow the fringe to occupy the center.... [Thursday] night's tragedy was also the grotesque reductio ad absurdum of the claim that it takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun." -- CW ...

... Patrick, in today's Comments, identifies yet another way in which "good guys with guns" hinder actual law enforcement: after an incident, numbskulls parading around strapped with weaponry immediately become "persons of interest" whom police have to nab & detain even as the "bad guys with guns" remain at large. -- CW

... Brandi Grissom of the Dallas Morning News: "Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called protesters who ran away from the hail of bullets that rained down on Downtown Dallas on Thursday night 'hypocrites' during an interview Friday on Fox News. 'All those protesters last night, they turned around and ran the other way expecting the men and women in blue to protect them. What hypocrites!' an audibly emotional Patrick said." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Confederate columnist Matt Lewis of the Daily Caller looks into the camera: "In the era of Facebook Live and smart phones, it's hard to come to any conclusion other than the fact that police brutality toward African-Americans is a pervasive problem that has been going on for generations.... It would be hard to overestimate the impact that smart phone cameras have had on forcing us to grapple with the fact that this is, in fact, a very real (and all-too-common) problem." CW: A late bloomer, to be sure, but good for Lewis. Via Paul Waldman.

Endless Witch Hunt. Brian Beutler: "If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results, then Republicans lost their minds chasing the Clintons down rabbit holes years ago.... What we witnessed Thursday was part of a pattern that goes back more than 20 years. A Clinton does something -- in some cases innocuous, in this case worthy of criticism -- and her political nemeses respond completely out of proportion." -- CW

Moriah Balingit of the Washington Post: "Ten additional states are suing the Obama administration to stop a directive that requires schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms aligned with their gender identity under the threat of losing federal funding, bringing the total number of states challenging the guidance to 21." -- CW

Annals of "Jurnalism," Ctd. MAG thought it was pretty funny yesterday when some piss-ant right-wing outfit couldn't spell Cincinnati in a chyron. But what if some news behemoth like New York Times couldn't spell the subject of its front-page story, even when the subject is a common word in news stories? (BTW, as of 6:30 am ET, that headline was up for at least six hours .) ...

... John Koblin of the New York Times: "Lawyers for the Fox News chairman Roger Ailes filed a motion on Friday arguing that the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by a former anchor, Gretchen Carlson, should be moved from a New Jersey Superior Court into federal court and submitted for arbitration. Mr. Ailes's lawyers said Ms. Carlson's suit, which they called a 'tar-and-feather campaign,' was a breach of her contract. The contract, they said, included a confidentiality agreement stipulating that any disputes should first go into arbitration." CW: So, let's see, the boss allegedly commits a series of unlawful acts against an employee, then allegedly retaliates against the employee when she complains to him about it (and other unlawful acts), then claims she breached her contract by suing him for committing the unlawful act & retaliation. Sounds reasonable.

Presidential Race

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton on Friday rejected the F.B.I.'s assertion that she had been 'extremely careless' with classified material as secretary of state, offering her first public comments on the matter since the Justice Department closed its inquiry without bringing charges against her this week. In interviews on CNN and MSNBC..., Mrs. Clinton insisted Friday that she did not intentionally send or receive any classified information through her private account. She also appeared to be spreading the responsibility to her State Department staff." -- CW ...

... M.J. Lee of CNN: "Hillary Clinton on Friday called for the nation to come together in the aftermath of an ambush that killed five police officers in Dallas, Texas, warning that this 'absolutely horrific event' -- coupled with a series of recent shootings involving police officers -- 'should worry every single American.... We must do more to have national guidelines about the use of force by police, especially deadly force.' Clinton also called on communities across the country to show more 'respect' to the police, as she paid tribute to the officers who risked and lost their lives in Dallas.... But Clinton also warned that there was a 'terrible disconnect' between police officers and the people they are meant to protect. She explicitly stated that some African-Americans are dying as a result of 'systemic' and 'implicit bias.'" -- CW

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "'I personally know I have work to do...; a lot of people tell pollsters they don't trust me,' [Hillary] Clinton said in a speech to the Rainbow/Push Coalition on June 27. 'It is certainly true I have made mistakes,' she said a moment later, adding, 'So I understand people having questions.'... The snippet of introspection last week from Mrs. Clinton, a candidate not known for public soul-searching, may have signaled an important shift in how she and her campaign hope to ... get skeptical voters to trust her...." -- CW

Thomas Tracy & Graham Rayman of the New York Daily News: "On Friday morning a rep from Donald Trump's Manhattan organization asked ... [NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton] to let the candidate speak to a 3 p.m. roll call at the NYPD Midtown North Precinct. The request came in the wake of the murders of five Dallas police officers Thursday during a protest over police shooting. But ... Bratton strongly rejected the idea. 'Our interest is staying out of the politics of the moment, and not to provide photo ops," he told reporters." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Traveling in Style -- on Other People's Money. Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "At a glittering 2008 gala hosted by Gucci to benefit Madonna's charity, Donald Trump bid more than $100,000 for a trip to Paris, earning him press from New York to London. But most of the money he used wasn't his. It came from his foundation, to which he had donated just $30,000 that year. The bid fits a pattern: Trump takes credit for splashy charitable acts to which he in fact gives relatively small sums." The IRS would have required the Trump Foundation to report the trip -- whether Trump took it himself or gave it to a friend or family member -- because it was "self-dealing." But it didn't. -- CW

Way Beyond the Beltway

House of Cards. Griff Witte of the Washington Post: "It has only been two weeks since the world awoke to the news that Britain had done the unthinkable, voting to exit the European Union.... With chilling efficiency, the main players in the drive for an exit have now themselves been forced to take their leave. If you haven't been following closely, here's a quick summary of what's befallen the actors in this very British drama." -- CW

News Ledes

New York Times: "Sydney H. Schanberg, a correspondent for The New York Times who won a Pulitzer Prize for covering Cambodia's fall to the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and inspired the film 'The Killing Fields' with the story of his Cambodian colleague's survival during the genocide of millions, died on Saturday in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He was 82." -- CW

New York Times: With a win at Wimbledon today, Serena "Williams tied Steffi Graf's Open-era record for Grand Slam singles titles, gaining her 22nd with a 7-5, 6-3 victory. The win left her two short of Margaret Court's overall record of 24 Grand Slam titles from 1960 to 1973. The Open era began in 1968." -- CW

USA Today: "Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the late famed 'American Sniper,' overstated the number of medals he was awarded for heroism, according to a Navy investigation released Friday.... Kyle had made other, unverifiable claims, including his account of shooting dozens of rioters in New Orleans in the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina.... He was killed in 2013 by a veteran he had mentored."

The Commentariat -- July 8, 2016

CW: I didn't intend to do an afternoon update today, but Dan Patrick was too much to ignore:

Brandi Grissom of the Dallas Morning News: "Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called protesters who ran away from the hail of bullets that rained down on Downtown Dallas on Thursday night 'hypocrites' during an interview Friday on Fox News. 'All those protesters last night, they turned around and ran the other way expecting the men and women in blue to protect them. What hypocrites!' an audibly emotional Patrick said."

Thomas Tracy & Graham Rayman of the New York Daily News: "On Friday morning a rep from Donald Trump's Manhattan organization asked ... [NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton] to let the candidate speak to a 3 p.m. roll call at the NYPD Midtown North Precinct. The request came in the wake of the murders of five Dallas police officers Thursday during a protest over police shooting. But ... Bratton strongly rejected the idea. 'Our interest is staying out of the politics of the moment, and not to provide photo ops," he told reporters." -- CW

Sam Thielman of the Guardian: "For what experts are calling the first time in history, US police have used a robot in a show of lethal force. Early Friday morning, Dallas police used a bomb-disposal robot with an explosive device on its manipulator arm to kill a suspect after five police officers were murdered and seven others wounded." -- CW

Ben Collins, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Micah Johnson, 25, of Mesquite, Texas was identified by police as the sniper who shot 12 people during a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Dallas on Thursday night. According to his Facebook profile, Johnson identified as a black nationalist. Activists at Thursday's night Black Lives Matter march, however, said that the shooter behind the deadliest day for American law enforcement since 9/11 was not part of their protest." -- CW

Jason Dearen & Curt Anderson of the Orlando Sentinel: "U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown and her chief of staff pleaded not guilty Friday to fraud and other federal offenses outlined in a grand jury indictment unsealed after an investigation into what prosecutors call a phony charity turned into a personal slush fund. Brown, a 69-year-old Democrat from Jacksonville, and Chief of Staff Elias 'Ronnie' Simmons, 50, entered pleas in Jacksonville federal court on charges of mail and wire fraud, conspiracy, obstruction and filing of false tax returns." -- CW

*****

The New York Times is liveblogging developments in Dallas, Baton Rouge & Minnesota. "A suspect in the killings of five police officers in Dallas on Thursday night was killed by a robot-controlled police bomb on Friday morning after a lengthy standoff with the police in a parking garage, Chief David O. Brown of the Dallas Police said at a news conference." ...

... Greg Jaffe & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama, addressing the tumult, anger and confusion at home, said [in Warsaw, Poland,] Friday that he was outraged by the sniper attacks on the Dallas police that left five officers dead and seven wounded, calling the carnage 'a vicious, calculated and despicable attack on law enforcement.'" -- CW ...

... The Stupid Respond. Nick Gass of Politico: "President Barack Obama's political opponents quickly piled on after news emerged that a gunman had killed five police officers in Dallas, assailing him for his focus on gun control, his overseas trip, and his treatment of the law enforcement community." -- CW ...

... Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "Four Dallas police officers were killed and seven others were wounded by snipers on Thursday night during a demonstration protesting the police shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana this week, according to Chief David O. Brown of the Dallas police. Chief Brown said the shooting was carried out by two snipers who fired down on a demonstration in the city's downtown area that until then had been peaceful. 'Some were shot in the back,' the chief said. 'We believe that these suspects were positioning themselves in a way to triangulate on these officers.' A civilian was also wounded." -- CW ...

... Claire Cardona & Hannah Wise of the Dallas Morning News: "Three Dallas police officers and one DART officer have been killed and several others were injured after shots were fired in downtown Dallas during a rally and march Thursday night. Dallas police Chief David Brown said about 8:58 p.m., at least two snipers shot 11 officers and one civilian from elevated positions during the rally in downtown.... Three other DART officers were wounded but their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, said Morgan Lyons, a spokesman for DART. About 11:30 p.m. [CT], a person of interest in a photo circulated by the city and Dallas police turned himself in, police said.... Another alleged suspect in a shootout with Dallas SWAT officers was taken into custody, police said. A suspicious package was discovered near the location of the suspect in the shootout and is being secured by the Dallas police bomb squad." -- CW ...

     ... The story has been updated to reflect developments: "A gunman who was exchanging fire with police in the El Centro College garage was reported dead shortly before 3 a.m."

... The front page of the Dallas Morning News currently has links to several related stories, but the site, at 1 am ET, has nearly crashed. -- CW ...

... Travis Andrews of the Washington Post, in an update: "Dallas police said there are at least four suspects after snipers shot at least 11 police officers, killing 4, in a downtown area of Dallas where protests had been taking place.... At a press conference at around 12:40 central time Friday, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said three of these suspects are in custody. The fourth has been in a stand-off with police on the second floor of the El Centro parking garage for 45 minutes. That suspect has fired at police.... Brown ... believes the four suspects worked together with rifles, 'triangulated at elevated positions at difference places in the downtown area' to attack police officers." -- CW ...

Guardian liveblog: "Confirmation that a fifth police officer shot in the attack has died.... [The 'person of interest' mentioned in the DMN story] is Mark Hughes, who turned himself in to police after his photo was circulated, and who has now been released." -- CW ...

... Manny Fernandez, et al., of the New York Times: "The shooting [in Dallas] occurred after President Obama, reacting with the same horror as many Americans to a grisly video of a bloody, dying man in Minnesota who was shot by the police, begged the nation to confront the racial disparities in law enforcement while acknowledging the dangers that officers face.... A few hours earlier, Gov. Mark Dayton of Minnesota, who seemed shaken by the video showing the man, Philando Castile, as he died, also pointed to the role of race. 'Would this have happened if the driver were white, if the passengers were white?' he asked. 'I don't think it would have.'... On Thursday night, demonstrators were out in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Newark and Chicago." -- CW ...

... President Obama, speaking in Warsaw, Poland:

... Mitch Smith & Matt Furber of the New York Times: "Late Thursday night, the authorities said [Philando] Castile, a 32-year-old cafeteria supervisor at a St. Paul[, Minnesota,] school, had been killed by multiple gunshot wounds, and the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. State investigators identified the officer who shot him as Jeronimo Yanez, a four-year veteran of the St. Anthony Police Department. Much remained unknown about the events leading up to the shooting, about Officer Yanez's background, and about whether the Justice Department would open a separate, federal investigation into the case." -- CW ...

     ... The Minneapolis Star Tribune story, by Pam Louwagie, is here. -- CW ...

Greg Sargent: Donald Trump issued a sensible, measured statement in response to the police assassinations in Dallas. CW: Forgive me, I do not believe for a moment he wrote it, & I would be surprised if he even read it.

... David Graham of the Atlantic: "The two shootings [in Louisiana & Minnesota] give a strong sense that the Second Amendment does not apply to black Americans in the same way it does to white Americans. Although liberals are loath to think of the right to bear arms as a civil right, it's spelled out in the Bill of Rights.... Black Americans may not enjoy the full protection of the Second Amendment, but technology [in the form of phones with videocams] has offered a sort of alternative -- one that may be less effective in preventing brutality in the moment, but has produced an outpouring of outrage." ...

     ... CW: Although the Supreme Court has never specifically defined photography or videography as a First Amendment right, some appeals courts have ruled that photographing or recording the words & actions of government officials -- which of course includes police -- is a First Amendment right. It's complicated. It seems that citizens, particularly minority citizens, are availing themselves of First Amendment rights even as law enforcement denies them the Second Amendment protections white people enjoy.

Paul Krugman: "To put it bluntly, the modern Republican Party is in essence a machine designed to deliver high after-tax incomes to the 1 percent.... But not many voters are interested in that goal. So the party has prospered politically by harnessing its fortunes to racial hostility, which it has not-so-discreetly encouraged for decades.... But ... we wouldn't have gotten to this point if so many people outside the G.O.P. -- in particular, journalists and self-proclaimed centrists -- hadn't refused to acknowledge what was happening.... The Republican establishment directly enabled the forces that led to Trump; but many influential people outside the G.O.P. in effect enabled the enablers." -- CW

WTLV Jacksonville, Florida: "Fifth District Congresswoman Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) has been indicted on charges likely related to her involvement with an unregistered charity in Virginia and appear in Jacksonville Federal Court Friday, multiple sources have confirmed to First Coast News.First Coast News has learned Brown will appear before a federal magistrate judge Friday afternoon." -- CW

John Berry, in a Washington Post op-ed: "The higher-profile the individual, the less likelihood, in most circumstances, of sanctions relating to security issues. In short, current security clearance policy factors in the importance of an individual in deciding whether to revoke a security clearance.... [Hillary] Clinton's use of a personal server for classified government email, without appropriate approvals and security, would normally be treated as a serious security violation.... Another problem is that there is no single agency that oversees the security clearance process for all individuals." -- CW

AND Reince Priebus is likely sending his resume' around to right-wing "think" tanks. CW: Why are we still calling them "think tanks" when the "thinkers" are all dimwits?

Presidential Race

Eric Lichtblau & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey Jr., defended himself Thursday against an onslaught of Republican criticism for ending the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, but he also provided new details that could prove damaging to her just weeks before she is to be named the Democrats' presidential nominee. At a contentious hearing of the House oversight committee, Mr. Comey acknowledged under questioning that a number of key assertions that Mrs. Clinton made for months in defending her email system were contradicted by the F.B.I.'s investigation. Mr. Comey said that Mrs. Clinton had failed to return 'thousands' of work-related emails to the State Department, despite her public insistence to the contrary, and that her lawyers may have destroyed classified material that the F.B.I. was unable to recover. He also described her handling of classified material as secretary of state as 'negligent' -- a legal term he avoided using when he announced on Tuesday that 'no reasonable prosecutor' would bring a case against her." -- CW ...

... Julian Hattem of the Hill: "Hillary Clinton did not swear an oath to tell the truth before meeting with the FBI for three and a half hours last weekend, and the interview was not recorded, FBI Director James Comey told House lawmakers on Thursday. The lack of a sworn oath does not remove the possibility of criminal penalties against Clinton if she lied to the FBI, though he said he had 'no basis to conclude' that she was untruthful." -- CW ...

... Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "The State Department said late Thursday that it will reopen an internal review into any mishandling of classified information in emails between former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and her top aides now that the Justice Department has decided she will not be prosecuted. One possible outcome of such internal reviews is that employees, even if they no longer work there, could face a range of disciplinary actions, from having notes placed in their employment files to losing their security clearances." -- CW ...

... GOP House Again Snatches Defeat from Victory. Steve Benen: "On Tuesday, the story looked like Comey vs. Clinton -- the FBI director didn't think the Democratic candidate broke any laws, but ... he delivered a public rebuke. Now the story is Comey vs. Republicans -- GOP lawmakers had some baseless allegations and reckless conspiracy theories, some of which targeted Comey directly, and they asked the FBI director to give testimony knocking down each of their bad arguments.... Republicans were supposed to make Clinton the scoundrel of this narrative, but [Thurs]day, they decided instead to go after the director of the FBI...." -- CW

... Eric Fehrnstrom, Mitt Romney's 2012 communications director (Mr. Etch-a-Sketch), in a Boston Globe op-ed I'm not linking, calls Hillary Clinton "the new O.J. Simpson." Ed Kilgore: "So [Fehrnstrom] doesn't bother to explain why an alleged misuse of email technology compares to a double murder, or why federal investigators deciding that the evidence did not even justify criminal charges is anything like an apparent act of jury nullification...." -- CW

Liz Kreutz & Josh Haskell of ABC News: "Hillary Clinton was planning on delivering remarks about the police-involved deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile while campaigning alongside Vice President Joe Biden in his hometown of Scranton, Penn., Friday, but that event has been postponed following the police shootings in Dallas." -- CW

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Bernie Sanders is preparing to endorse Hillary Clinton for president as early as Tuesday at an event in New Hampshire, according to several Democrats familiar with the plans." -- CW

Alan Rappeport, et al., of the New York Times: "A peacemaking summit meeting between Republican lawmakers and their renegade presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, descended on Thursday into an extraordinary series of acrid exchanges.... [Trump told Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Az.)] he had been going easy on Mr. Flake so far, but that he would ensure that Mr. Flake lost his re-election bid this year if the senator did not change his tune. Dumbstruck, Mr. Flake informed Mr. Trump that he was not up for re-election this year.... Mr. Trump called [Sen. Mark Kirk (who did not attend the meeting)] 'dishonest' and a 'loser....' Despite the tense exchanges, Mr. Trump ... met and managed to reach an accommodation with [Ted] Cruz ... [and] invited Mr. Cruz to speak at the party's national convention.... The broader meeting with Republican senators followed a more upbeat session with more than 200 Republican House members at the Capitol Hill Club." -- CW ...

... Josh Rogin of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump asked House Republicans Thursday to only 'say great things' about him in an effort to project a unified front in the presidential election." Also, Trump said, in response to a Congressman's question, "I am a constitutionalist. I am going to abide by the Constitution whether it's number 1, number 2, number 12, number 9." CW: This would be impressive, especially if the Constitution contained 12 articles. Alas, it has only seven. Apparently Trump the Constitutionalist plans to write a few more, which is an excellent idea: he can overwrite the Bill of Rights with a stream of the Articles of Trump.

Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "... as the [presidential] race has turned toward the general election and a majority of polls have shown Mr. Trump trailing Mrs. Clinton, speculation has again crept into political conversations ... that Mr. Trump will seek an exit strategy before the election to avoid a humiliating loss. Now he is refusing to rule out an even more dramatic departure, one that would let him avoid the grueling job of governing [-- after winning the election, refusing to serve as president --], return to his business and enjoy his now-permanent status as a news media celebrity." CW: Notice, in reading the story, that Trump thinks it would be pretty funny if he sent the nation reeling into a state of chaos. ...

... Jim Fallows of the Atlantic: Wednesday "evening, in Ohio, [Trump] gave what was even for him the most off-message, most (literally) deranged-seeming performance of his candidacy, and what would have been in any previous campaign a sign of very serious trouble.... This man is not well." Thanks to Haley S. for the link. -- CW

Hadas Gold of Politico: "Donald Trump has slashed his regular cable television appearances and is largely restricting himself to 'friendlier terrain' on Fox News, according to Howard Kurtz, the channel's media analyst.... According to Kurtz's report, Trump staff are not notifying him of every interview request. It's part of an effort to tamp down on the 'risk of the candidate making mistakes or fanning minor controversies.'" CW: Sticking to Fox "News"? Maybe Rogers Ailes or Steve Doocy can interview Trump about women's issues.

Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Lawsuits accusing Donald Trump of sexually assaulting a child in the 1990s appear to have been orchestrated by an eccentric anti-Trump campaigner with a record of making outlandish claims about celebrities. Norm Lubow, a former producer on the Jerry Springer TV show, has previously been involved with disputed allegations that OJ Simpson bought illegal drugs on the day Simpson's wife was murdered, and that Kurt Cobain's widow had the Nirvana frontman killed." -- CW

Way Beyond the Beltway

Heather Stewart & Rowena Mason of the Guardian: "Andrea Leadsom, the junior energy minister who shot to prominence as a leading voice in the Vote Leave campaign, has secured second place in the Conservative party leadership race behind Home Secretary Theresa May on Thursday, ensuring Britain's next prime minister will be a woman.... The two-woman shortlist will now be presented to the party's grassroots members around the country, with the winner due to be announced on 9 September, though there are calls for it to be speeded up due to the fallout from the vote to leave the EU." -- CW

News Ledes

Washington Post: "U.S. health officials confirmed Friday that a Utah resident's death late last month was the first Zika-related death in the continental United States. The Salt Lake County health department said the elderly person had an underlying health condition." -- CW

Bloomberg: "America's job market stirred to life in June as payroll growth accelerated by the most since October after a two-month lull, assuaging fears of broader cutbacks by companies. Payrolls climbed by 287,000 last month, exceeding the highest estimate in a Bloomberg survey, after a revised 11,000 gain in May, a Labor Department report showed Friday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 180,000 increase. The jobless rate rose to 4.9 percent as more people entered the labor force. Wages advanced less than projected." -- CW