The Commentariat -- March 27, 2016
Presidential Race
Primary Results -- Democrats
Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders handily defeated Hillary Clinton on Saturday in the Washington State and Alaska caucuses, infusing his underdog campaign with critical momentum and bolstering his argument that the race for the Democratic nomination is not a foregone conclusion. Mr. Sanders found a welcome tableau in the largely white and liberal electorates of the Pacific Northwest...." ...
... Lisa Lerer of the AP: "Bernie Sanders has scored three wins in Western caucus contests, giving a powerful psychological boost to his supporters but doing little to move him closer to securing the Democratic nomination. While results in Washington, Alaska and Hawaii barely dented Hillary Clinton's significant delegate lead, Sanders' wins underscored her persistent vulnerabilities within her own party, particularly with young voters and liberal activists who have been inspired by her rival's unapologetically liberal message."
Alaska. With 100 percent reporting, Sanders won with 82 percent of the caucus vote. Clinton received 18 percent.
Hawaii. With 88 percent reporting, the AP has called the race for Sanders, who so far has 71 percent of the caucus vote. Clinton has 29 percent. With 100 percent counted, the totals are Sanders 70, Clinton 30.
Washington State. With 100 percent reporting, Sanders won with 73 percent of the caucus vote. Clinton received 27 percent.
David Sanger & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times interviewed Donald Trump for 100 minutes about foreign policy issues. They attempt to synthensize Trump's views: "In Donald Trump's worldview, America comes first and everybody else pays.... Mr. Trump explained his thoughts in concrete and easily digestible terms, but they appeared to reflect little consideration for potential consequences around the globe. Much the same way he treats political rivals and interviewers, he personalized how he would engage foreign nations, suggesting his approach would depend partly on 'how friendly they've been toward us,' not just on national interests or alliances." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... The reporters provide a summary, or "highlights," of the interview here. The full, edited transcript is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)...
... CW: Trump has found a clever way to avoid answering questions about international policy where he has no idea whatsoever: "I wouldn't want to say. I wouldn't want them to know what my real thinking is." Well, it beats, "And when they ask me who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan I'm going to say, you know, I don't know. Do you know?" Trump is on his way to winning the nomination, & who knows where Herman Cain is now? Don't tell me Republican voters aren't discerning. BTW, if you think Trump speaks like a 7th-grader because he is aware that's the best way to reach the great unwashed to whom he appeals, forget that. He uses just about the same level of language & lack of nuance when speaking to David Sanger, a highly-knowledgeable international policy reporter. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Devil in a Blue Suit. Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "On Saturday night, just as every year on the day before Easter, Mexicans gathered on street-corners and church squares to celebrate the holy week and set fire to their Judases, a popular ritual in this heavily Catholic country. Those demons are typically forked-tongue devils and flaming dragons, and often, like this ear, reviled politicians.... [This year], that would be Donald J. Trump. (J for Judas?)... All this Judas burning is a symbolic way to destroy evil, a night of catharsis by way of pyrotechnics. The ceremonies take place across Mexico, a symbolic way to destroy evil before Easter." ...
... Jessie Hellmann of the Hill: Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta "says GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are 'irresponsible,' 'dangerous' and a risk to national security.... Panetta, who has endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton for president, went after the GOP candidates after remarks they made in the wake of the Brussels terrorist attacks this week. 'Both Trump and Cruz's approaches are the kind of shoot-from-the-hip slogans that demonstrate what I fear is stunning lack of knowledge about national security and fundamental values,' Panetta said during a conference call with reporters Friday, according to ABC News."
Other News & Views
Breakthrough! GOP Senators Tentatively Agree to Do a Teeny Part of Their Jobs. Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed: "Senate Republicans and the White House are signaling a tentative point of agreement on a key part of President Obama's Supreme Court nomination process: the nominee questionnaire.... Traditionally, the Senate Judiciary Committee sends a personalized questionnaire for Supreme Court nominees to the White House. This time, the White House has not received one from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democratic member of the committee. Nonetheless, on Friday evening, Grassley's spokesperson, Beth Levine, told BuzzFeed News that the Republicans 'assume the administration will fill out the standard questionnaire submitted for judicial nominations.'" CW: Yes, we'll all excited that the Senate may allow the White House to fill out a form.
Nabih Bulos, et al., of the Los Angeles Times, in the Chicago Tribune: "Syrian militias armed by different parts of the U.S. war machine have begun to fight each other on the plains between the besieged city of Aleppo and the Turkish border, highlighting how little control U.S. intelligence officers and military planners have over the groups they have financed and trained in the bitter 5-year-old civil war. The fighting has intensified over the past two months, as CIA-armed units and Pentagon-armed ones have repeatedly shot at each other as they have maneuvered through contested territory on the northern outskirts of Aleppo, U.S. officials and rebel leaders have confirmed." CW: What we need right now is for President Cruz to get in there & carpet-bomb them all. Sorry, innocent bystanders. You see, there are easy answers.
Stephanie Goodman of the New York Times: "Facing a storm of criticism over its plan to show a documentary about the widely debunked link between vaccines and autism, the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday pulled the film from its schedule next month. In a statement, Robert De Niro, a founder of the festival, wrote: 'My intent in screening this film was to provide an opportunity for conversation around an issue that is deeply personal to me and my family. But after reviewing it over the past few days with the Tribeca Film Festival team and others from the scientific community, we do not believe it contributes to or furthers the discussion I had hoped for.' The film, 'Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe,' was directed and co-written by Andrew Wakefield, the author of a study that was published in the British medical journal The Lancet and then retracted in 2010. Mr. Wakefield's medical license was also revoked over his failure to disclose financial conflicts of interest and ethics violations."
Beyond the Beltway
John Myers & Liam Dillon of the Los Angeles Times: California "Lawmakers and labor unions have struck a tentative deal to raise the statewide minimum wage to $10.50 an hour next year and then gradually to $15, averting a costly political campaign this fall and possibly putting California at the forefront of a national movement. The deal was confirmed Saturday afternoon by sources close to the negotiations who would speak only on condition of anonymity until Gov. Jerry Brown makes a formal announcement as early as Monday."
Ian Lovett of the New York Times: "When the University of California's Board of Regents unanimously adopted a statement condemning anti-Semitism on its campuses, it became the first public university system to do so since the push for economic boycotts of Israel emerged on campuses across the nation. But the measure -- an attempt to combat hostility toward Jewish students amid this growing opposition to Israel -- softened a proposed flat-out condemnation of anti-Zionism, or opposition to the creation of a Jewish state."
Sarah Posner in the Washington Post: "The South Carolina Senate on Thursday passed a controversial bill targeting refugees in the state, prompting concern that it may portend a wave of anti-refugee legislation around the country, particularly in the tense climate following the terrorist attacks in Brussels. The bill, if passed by the South Carolina House and signed into law by Gov. Nikki Haley, would require refugees' sponsors to register them in a database maintained by the state's Department of Social Services. It would also impose strict liability on a refugee's sponsor if the refugee, at some point in the future, commits a terrorist or criminal act." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... CW: I'd like to be a confederate so I could sit up nights thinking up draconian, repressive bills to punish minorities & women. Still, I'm not sure my best efforts could have dreamed up this one, which aims not to punish any miscreant refuges but the likely kindhearted people who took them in. Of course the idea of the legislation is to intimidate the kindhearted to the point that they fear helping others. Welcome to Right Wing World. Next stop, Trumpsylvania.
Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow -- But Cops. Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post: Four New York City plainclothes policemen cuffed & placed in an unmarked car Glen Grays, a black USPS worker. They left his postal truck unattended. Cellphone "footage was released this week by Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams, who said Grays had been 'carrying out his normal duties' as a mail carrier when he got out of his truck and 'a vehicle passed by him, almost striking him. He made comments to the vehicle, as any New Yorker would,' Adams said at a news conference Wednesday. 'The occupants of the vehicle [-- the plainclothesmen --] stopped, backed up when he was crossing the street delivering the package.'... Grays, who said he was issued a summons for disorderly conduct, is engaged to a New York police officer.... Adams ... said that after the police vehicle drove away, it rear-ended another car and that Grays, who wasn't placed in a seatbelt, was injured in the crash." CW: New York's finest are there to protect & serve, people. If, in the course of a half-hour one of them happens to nearly kill a pedestrian, then rear-end a vehicle, well, you know, driving in NYC is a bitch.
Florida's Pro-Cancer Law. New York: "Florida is the latest state to effectively defund Planned Parenthood and enact stricter regulations on abortion providers. Florida had already cut off any state funding for actual abortions, so this law went after preventive care provided by abortion-performing organizations. Essentially this means women who need things like cancer screenings, pap smears, and birth control, cannot seek it from providers like Planned Parenthood, which says it serves 67,000 women in Florida each year. During discussion of the bill in the state senate, the law's proponents provided a list of alternative places Florida women could seek providers, most of which turned out to be medical professionals, like dentists, who had no particular expertise with women's health." CW: Need a pelvic exam, dear? Ask the dentist. ...
... Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Yes, it's a war on women."
CW: Unless you're a rich, white, straight, Christian guy, the only parts of the country where the government might be on your side are on the coasts, West & Northeast. Even there, you'd better watch out. Ask Glen Grays about that.
Way Beyond
NEW. Griff Witte, et al., of the Washington Post: "The investigation into last week's deadly attacks in Brussels extended farther across Europe on Sunday after Italian police arrested a new suspect thought to have helped Islamic State militants slip into Western Europe unnoticed. Italian police said late Saturday that they had arrested an Algerian man suspected of providing several Islamic State supporters with false identification documents, allowing them to evade authorities as they plotted attacks in Belgium and France."
NEW. Tim Arango of the New York Times: "The indictment of a prominent Turkish businessman unsealed last week has made an unlikely hero of a man most Turks had never heard of: Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, who brought the charges against the tycoon, Reza Zarrab. In recent days, as news of Mr. Zarrab's arrest circulated [in Turkey], Mr. Bharara became a social media sensation among Turks who have increasingly lost confidence in the independence of their country's institutions, particularly the judiciary, after a Tuesday morning post on Twitter: 'Reza Zarrab to soon face American justice in a Manhattan courtroom.'... Mr. Zarrab, a flamboyant gold trader who is married to a Turkish pop star, was once a constant in the gossip pages of [Istanbul]'s newspapers. He became a household name in Turkey in late 2013 when a corruption inquiry became public with dawn police raids against Mr. Zarrab, several other businessmen and the sons of three cabinet ministers."
Albert Aji of the AP: "Government forces backed by Russian airstrikes drove Islamic State fighters from Palmyra on Sunday, state media and an opposition monitoring group said, ending the group's reign of terror over a town whose famed 2,000-year-old ruins once attracted tens of thousands of visitors. Government forces had been on the offensive for nearly three weeks to try to retake the central town, which fell to the extremists last May. Their advance marks the latest setback suffered by IS, which has come under mounting pressure on several fronts in Iraq and Syria."
Michael Birnbaum & Griff Witte of the Washington Post: "Belgian authorities announced Saturday that they had charged a man in connection with this week's suicide bombings, saying they believe he participated in the attacks. Two others were also charged with terrorism-related offenses. The man, identified by a European official as Fayçal Cheffou, appeared before a judge after he was detained Thursday night while sitting in a car in front of the Belgian prosecutor's office.... Prosecutors did not say whether Cheffou -- whom they identified only as 'Fayçal C.' -- was the third man [in the airport surveillance videos circulated after the attacks]. Belgium's Le Soir newspaper reported that he was, citing an unidentified source...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Lede
Washington Post: "An American airlines pilot was arrested Saturday on the runway as shocked passengers looked on after he failed a breathalyzer test at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Flight 736, scheduled to leave Detroit about 7 a.m. en route to Philadelphia, was immediately canceled, according to ABC affiliate WXYZ. A transportation security agent was the first person to spot the pilot acting suspiciously, the station reported. Minutes before the flight was to take off, airport police were called."