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The Commentariat -- January 8, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Megan Wilson of the Hill: "The State Department has been providing 'inaccurate and incomplete' responses to requests for emails and other documents involving former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a watchdog says in a new report released Thursday. The 29-page IG report says the leadership of the State Department 'has not played a meaningful role in overseeing or reviewing the quality' of the responses to requests for documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Fifteen years almost to the day since former President Bill Clinton left office, a newly released batch of documents from his library offers a fresh look at his later years in the White House.... The release of the transcripts also emphasized the complications for Mrs. Clinton in her second campaign.... Not only does she have her own record as senator and secretary of state to promote or defend, she is also campaigning against the backdrop of her husband's record -- often to her advantage but sometimes not, as in the last few days when Republicans focused attention on Mr. Clinton's sexual misconduct."
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Senator Richard C. Shelby, the veteran Republican from Alabama up for re-election in November [and] chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that funds the Justice Department, has summoned [Attorney General Loretta] Lynch for a Jan. 28 hearing to 'discuss the president's firearms proposals and any potential infringement on law-abiding Americans' Second Amendment rights,' he said in a letter to the attorney general."
Betsy Hammond of the Oregonian: Why does the federal government own so much land? Because that was the founders' intention: "A 1787 agreement among all 13 founding states -- that every bit of land added to the United States would be owned and controlled by a strong federal government -- was the linchpin needed before delegates went on to write the Constitution. That deal was known as the Northwest Ordinance.... Their determination that the federal government would own every shred of land brought into the new nation and dispose of or manage it as it wished was enshrined in the Constitution, in a short half-sentence in Article IV: 'The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States.'"
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Chris Mooney of the Washington Post: "A group of 24 geoscientists on Thursday released a bracing assessment, suggesting that humans have altered the Earth so extensively that the consequences will be detectable in current and future geological records. They therefore suggest that we should consider the Earth to have moved into a new geologic epoch, the 'Anthropocene,' sometime circa 1945-1964." A summary of the findings is here. The report itself is Science-subscriber firewalled.
Sarah Wheaton of Politico: "President Barack Obama confronted his critics -- both in the gun lobby and his own party -- on Thursday night as he made the case for stiffening some gun controls in a televised town hall. 'What I've said consistently throughout my presidency is I respect the Second Amendment, I respect the right to bear arms, I respect people who want to have guns for self-protection, for hunting.' Obama said. However, he added, 'everybody agrees that it makes sense to keep guns out of the hands of people who want to do others harm -- or do themselves harm.'" ...
... The New York Times story, by Michael Shear, is here. ...
... Barack Obama, in a New York Times op-ed: "I will not campaign for, vote for or support any candidate, even in my own party, who does not support common-sense gun reform. And if the 90 percent of Americans who do support common-sense gun reforms join me, we will elect the leadership we deserve." ...
... Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: President Obama's NYT op-ed was a message to Hillary Clinton. ...
... Gabrielle Giffords, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Today, five years after I was shot, we are making progress. While Congress refuses to act, many state leaders are embracing common-sense change that keeps guns out of the wrong hands. This week, we made even more progress when President Obama announced that his administration will significantly narrow the loopholes that let people buy guns without a background check. It is the right, responsible thing to do." ...
** New York Times Editors: "A president who spoke so movingly about the violent gun deaths of children here has taken on the job of sending mothers and children on one-way trips to the deadliest countries in our hemisphere. Mothers and children who pose no threat, actual or imaginable, to our security."
Frank Rich on Obama's push for small-bore gun control measures, Donald Trump's attacks on (and the press's questions about) Bill Clinton's sexual peccadilloes, & white rage.
Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: President Xi Jinping's efforts to manage China's economy have been haphazard & ineffective. ...
... Paul Krugman: "... while China itself is in big trouble, the consequences for the rest of us should be manageable.... Financial linkages may be part of the story, but one also suspects that there is psychological contagion: Good or bad news in one major economy affects animal spirits in others." ...
... CW: Worth noting, as Krugman does not: if we have another recession in 2016, or even a mini-recession, as a direct or indirect result of China's economic woes, welcome President Trump or Cruz or Rubio. One thing American voters are not: economists. They think if their cousin loses his job or WalMart raises the price on Tostitos, it's the president's fault.
Presidential Race
Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "The political arm of Planned Parenthood will endorse Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire on Sunday, a Clinton campaign official confirmed. The endorsement marks the first time in the organization's 100-year history that Planned Parenthood Action Fund has endorsed a candidate in a primary."
... there is a big difference between me and everybody else running on both sides. I'm the only person running who says my goal and my pledge is to raise incomes, not raise middle-class taxes. I will not raise middle-class taxes. -- Hillary Clinton, in Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 4, 2016
... it's absurd for Clinton to claim that she is the only candidate in either party to have a plan to both raise incomes and not raise middle class taxes. The Republicans all say they won't raise taxes -- and every candidate promises to raise incomes.... This is an example of actually believing your own spin, no matter how absurd. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post
I haven't been able to find a trustworthy comparative analysis of Clinton's plan v. other candidates' economic plans. But there is no question that Democrats' plans are friendlier to low- and middle-income Americans than are any of the Republicans' plans, no matter what the candidates claim. In addition, Sanders has said he would raise taxes -- mostly but not exclusively on the wealthy -- in order to provide services that would increase opportunities for low- and middle-class Americans. (His most substantial tax hike on the middle-class -- to pay for single-payer health insurance -- obviously has a huge offset: it eliminates the cost of private health insurance.) Kessler doesn't bother to analyze any of the candidates' plans; instead, he relies on talking points. To criticize Hillary for her talking point while relying on other candidates talking points doesn't make sense. I give him 4 Pinocchios. -- Constant Weader
Ali Vitali & Andrew Rafferty of NBC News: "After a day's worth of drama over the crowd size at Donald Trump's rally here Thursday, the Republican presidential front-runner's campaign attempted to bar anyone who did not pledge their support from attending his event. But that didn't stop a number of protesters from disrupting the event held just blocks from Sen. Bernie Sanders' campaign headquarters. On multiple occasions, pro-Sanders or anti-Trump activists made themselves known to the auditorium, one group even moving towards the stage with a 'dump Trump' sign before being escorted out. Trump said those who made it into his rally at a 1,400-seat auditorium were 'very lucky' after his campaign distributed 20,000 free tickets." ...
... Margaret Hartmann: "Trump responded to the interruptions with his characteristic grace and generosity. He helpfully pointed out the unruly audience members, directed his security to move faster, and diagnosed one protester with a substance-abuse problem. He also had a great suggestion for deterring such goon-ish behavior. 'Throw him out into the cold,' Trump said. 'Don't give them their coat. No coats! Confiscate their coats!"' It's a pretty light sentence, compared to a Trump-endorsed beating." ...
... Dan Carter of the New York Times: "... there are striking similarities between [Donald] Trump and George C. Wallace.... What both share is the demagogue's instinctive ability to tap into the fear and anger that regularly erupts in American politics.... [Running for president in Northern-state primaries,] he was a pioneer in the use of code words to attack African-Americans while seldom mentioning race.... Attacks by the mainstream media only strengthened his support.... The Alabama governor's success in mobilizing white working-class voters forced other candidates -- particularly Nixon -- to adapt a housebroken version of his rhetoric and policies. Mr. Wallace may have begun his career as a New Deal Democrat, but the way he appealed to these predominantly Democratic voters by channeling their frustrations against the federal government did much to pave the way for Ronald Reagan's more genial anti-government ideology." ...
... ** Anne Pluta of 538: "One way to understand Trump's longevity is to look more closely at his supporters. Trump's backers tend to be whiter, slightly older and less educated than the average Republican voter. But perhaps more importantly, his supporters have shown signs of being misinformed. Political science research has shown that the behavior of misinformed citizens is different from those who are uninformed, and this difference may explain Trump's unusual staying power.... The difference between the [misinformed & the uninformed] is stark.... The most misinformed citizens tend to be the most confident in their views and are also the strongest partisans.... Attempts to present corrections and generate counterarguments to the group's beliefs only strengthened their opinions." ...
... Katie Glueck of Politico: "... there's little evidence that the Donald Trump-fueled tempest over Ted Cruz's eligibility to run for president is fading away, forcing the Texas senator to field questions about passports and his parents on national television, just three weeks before the Iowa caucuses." ...
... Nick Gass of Politico: "Ted Cruz fired back at John McCain on Thursday, a day after his Senate colleague had deemed valid questions about whether the Texas senator is eligible for the presidency because of his place of birth. McCain, he declared, is trying to help another senator's run -- Marco Rubio." ...
... About Those Cuban Heels. Jonathan Chait: Marco Rubio's opponents "are trying to make Rubio's boots imply something deeper about his character: that he is a lightweight, unmanly, lacking the angry urgency needed at the moment. The boots are a synecdoche. Sunny and optimistic can be turned into callow, naïve, and even effeminate." CW: The Rubio version of "mom jeans."
Jeb!'s Biggest Backer Thinks He's a Doofus. Jonathan Swan of the Hill: "Former AIG chairman Hank Greenberg is reportedly distancing himself from a $10 million donation made to Jeb Bush's super-PAC. Just hours after The Wall Street Journal reported the large donation from Greenberg -- which would have made him one of the most generous contributors in the 2016 race -- the businessman has reportedly backtracked, attributing the donation to his company and giving less than complimentary assessment of Bush's performance on the campaign trail. 'Listen, I like Jeb Bush. Sorry he's not living up to expectations but that's the reality of it.'" ...
... "Jeb Crow." Neely Tucker of the Washington Post writes an excellent piece on Governor Jeb!'s executive action to end affirmative action in Florida. If you want to know what kind of president Jeb! would be, here's your answer: cunning in his objectives, stupid & nasty in executing them. Why, it's as if he's Dick Cheney & Dubya in one.
Eliza Collins of Politico: "Responding to a question from Fox News' Sean Hannity Thursday night, Reince Priebus said he was confident he could pull his party together even if Texas Sen. Ted Cruz or real estate mogul Donald Trump win the nomination. 'One hundred percent. You know the unifying thing about what I have to do is no matter who you're for everyone can agree that we have to have a national party and infrastructure that has its act together ... everyone is gonna get behind whoever the winner is,' Priebus said.... Earlier Thursday, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush declined multiple times to commit to voting for Trump if he was his party's nominee."
Beyond the Beltway
Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post: "A federal panel on Thursday imposed a new congressional map [on Virginia] that gives Democrats a chance to pick up a seat in the Richmond area in this year's election. The decision stems from the judges' ruling last year that Virginia's map illegally packed African American voters into the district of Rep. Robert C. 'Bobby' Scott (D) at the expense of their influence elsewhere."
Les Zaitz of the Oregonian: "Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward, backed up by two other sheriffs, met face-to-face Thursday with protest leader Ammon Bundy to try to bring a peaceful end to a weeklong occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. 'I'm here to offer safe escort out,' the sheriff told Bundy. 'Go back and kick it around with your folks.'... But later Bundy told reporters that the protesters won't leave until federal land in the county is turned over to residents to manage on their own." ...
... Denis Theriault of the Oregonian: Oregon "Gov. Kate Brown on Thursday offered her strongest remarks yet on armed militants' six-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, calling the action 'unlawful' and demanding the group 'decamp immediately.'" ...
... David Neiwert in a Washington Post op-ed: "Not punishing the Bundys for the Nevada standoff led to the occupation in Oregon.... If federal law enforcement authorities had taken their roles as stewards of the rule of law seriously, many of these players would be facing justice in federal courts right now, instead of opportunistically raising hell out in poverty-stricken rural areas. Certainly, there is no small irony in the fact that the tepid response from federal authorities demonstrates how little resemblance they have to the tyrannical thugs the Bundys say they are. But it also shows how just that accusation, when wielded by white conservatives, can cause federal law enforcement to back down." ...
... ** Tim Egan: Ammon "Bundy's not leaving, he says, until land that we own — that is, every American citizen -- is taken from us and given to some unnamed private entity. Yes, it's comical -- white privilege mixed with a 'Hee Haw' parody. The only thing Bundy and his fellow burglars have accomplished thus far is to leave behind enough evidence for prosecutors to file numerous criminal charges against them. But this Gang That Can't Protest Straight is not far removed from a better-dressed crowd in Congress pushing for radical change in the nation's public land endowment. Earlier this year a group led by Representative Rob Bishop, the Utah Republican who is chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, announced plans to 'develop a legislative framework for transferring public land to local ownership and control.'" CW: Egan very neatly summarizes the real motivations behind the Bundy Rebellion 2.0.
... Scott Lemieux: Paul LePage, the man for people who feel that Donald Trump's race-baiting is too subtle and dignified:
... Randy Billings of the Portland Press Herald: Maine "Gov. Paul LePage made a racially charged comment in Bridgton on Wednesday night during one of his regular town hall meetings.... LePage responded to a question about how he was tackling substance abuse in Maine. He began talking about how much of the heroin is coming into Maine from out-of-state drug dealers. 'These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty -- these types of guys -- they come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home... Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue we have to deal with down the road.' LePage's comment drew widespread condemnation, including from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton." ...
... CW: As a white person, I feel much better knowing that when "my people" abuse drugs, it's the fault of badass black dudes, & when innocent white girls accidentally get pregnant, its because these same badass black dudes came up from the big city & knocked 'em up. Thanks, Maine, for bringing us this nostalgic return to classic, extreme early-20th-century racist stereotyping. I'll bet Shifty wears a zoot suit. ...
... Steve M.: At the same time LePage was explaining the "real reason" for his state's drug-abuse problem, "the RNC ... launched a new racial diversity initiative.... Sorry, Reince. You keep buying different brands of diversity lipstick and applying them to your pig of a party, but at the end of the day, your party is still a pig."
Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors in DeKalb County, Ga., will seek a criminal indictment of the police officer who in March 2015 fatally shot Anthony Hill, an Afghanistan war veteran who was naked and unarmed when he was killed."
Stephanie Gosk, et al., of NBC News: "Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder refused Thursday to say when he knew the Flint water crisis — children being poisoned by lead from their drinking taps -- was being mishandled.... But an internal email obtained by Virginia Tech researchers shows that the governor's office knew months ago that Flint's families had reason to be worried about the problem and the response." ...
... Ryan Cooper of the Week: "Flint started drinking water from the Flint River -- but ended up contaminating children with a poisonous heavy metal. Governor Rick Snyder has declared a state of emergency, and the federal government is investigating. Why on Earth did they do this? Austerity. Aside from the obvious humanitarian disaster, this is a stark demonstration of austerity's false economy.... Lead poisoning is one of the lesser-known great evils of the 20th century. Most notably it may have even caused a great crime wave, as basically the entire population was subjected to minor aerosol lead poisoning from leaded gasoline, resulting in lower IQs and poorer impulse control across the population -- and therefore higher crime."
News Ledes
Los Angeles Times: "Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, one of the world's most sought-after drug lords, has been captured, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced Friday."
Reuters: "An Islamic State militant executed his mother in public in the Syrian city of Raqqa because she had encouraged him to leave the group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Friday. The woman in her 40s had warned her son that a U.S.-backed alliance would wipe out Islamic State and had encouraged him to leave the city with her."
New York Times: "In an impressive sprint at 2015's end, employers added 292,000 workers to their payrolls in December, the government said on Friday, punctuating a year of healthy growth. The unemployment rate stayed at 5 percent last month, the Labor Department said, but that was mostly because large numbers of people went looking for work."
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Reader Comments (8)
Lawrence Tribe, the eminent law professor who had Cruz, Obama and John Roberts as students, says that the issue of "natural born citizen" in regards to the Presidency of the US is not settled and that Cruz is wrong in thinking it is.
Back in 1968 Tom Turnipseed was the executive director of George Wallace's campaign. He was a featured guest on one of MSNBC's shows last night making the comparison between Wallace and Trump–-both shouting the messages of fear of government and the "Other." After losing a previous bid for governor Wallace was determined never again to be "niggered out." His daughter, who was not featured but sent a message said she could see the resemblance between her father and Trump, but "My Daddy would not have said all those bad things about other candidates like Trump does,"
The Flint Michigan water problem is STILL a problem given that those poor people still do not have clean water. The mayor of Flint (a woman of color) had to schelp up to confront Synder –––he couldn't get his sorry ass down to Flint? My god, this man is unbelievable! The local sheriff, finally frustrated that nothing was being done took it into his own hands and managed to get more bottled water and hundreds of boxes of filters distributed to the poorest families first whose homes had no filters of any kind. What a catastrophe!
Speaking of similarities between Trump and George Wallace, Lawrence O'Donnell had a fascinating interview last night with Tom Turnipseed, the Executive Director of Wallace's presidential campaign and his wife, Judy, also a campaign staffer. Mr Turnipseed's story in its own right is interesting as he renounced his bigotry and went on to do good things. His account of how he later came to work with a prominent black attorney to lower electric rates that hurt poor people was moving. Anyway, both agree that the commonality of the two campaigns was the play on fear and appeal to racism.
@PD Pepe: Thanks for reminding us of the continuing saga of Flint's drinking water. What is your source re: the mayor, the governor & the sheriff?
Marie
A source for the story on Flint's sheriff, mayor, and the governor is Rachel Maddow's show last night:
http://on.msnbc.com/1PRKtgX
Geez! "...on second thought, maybe I was/am an ass! " Nah, he didn't say that in the response from Maine's illustrious governor.
LePage Says His Comment About Heroin Dealers Impregnating Maine’s White Girls Was a ‘Mistake’
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/01/lepage-blames-maines-heroin-woes-on-d-money.html
"the entire population was subjected to minor aerosol lead poisoning from leaded gasoline, resulting in lower IQs and poorer impulse control across the population"
Low intelligence and poor impulse control? Damn! Pretty good description of a Reactionary. Could this be a vast right wing conspiracy to breed a new generation of Republican voters?
@Marie: As to your query: Nisky provided my source. Rachel has been on this story from the get-go when nobody was covering it.
It appears that Trump needs to sleep in his own bed. When campaigning he never stays in hotels or motels like the other candidates, but jumps on his helicopter or private plane and goes back to N.Y. city where he can luxuriate in his UGE gold-framed bed. "I like to sleep in my own bed," he says.
I got to thinking about that and wondered how he might manage, if elected President, all those foreign travels where beds of all sorts and sizes will greet him. It made me think once again that this man is having the time of his life pretending he really wants this role, but secretly dreading an actual win because then he'd have to stop being a clown and actually deliver. He just wanted to prove how much clout he has, how much people love him, along with showing us that there are THOUSANDs of jamokes just like him who actually think he could lead a country.
He spent a goodly amount of time last night in icy, cold Burlington shooing out all the protesters––– "Get em out! Don't give em their coats!"Nothing of substance was heard–-it was truly a circus and fun was had by all. Fun, but sad. An empty vessel except for the ones that were filled with booze by all the excited crowd yelling "Bernie" or on the other side, "Trump." A lot of hoopla; lots of headaches the next day.
..."As president (and a lawyer and former law professor), I’ll appoint justices who will protect the constitutional principles of liberty and equality for all, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or political viewpoint; make sure the scales of justice aren’t tipped away from individuals toward corporations and special interests; and protect citizens’ right to vote, rather than billionaires’ right to buy elections." (Hillary Clinton in Boston Globe)
Thank you, Hillary! I am feeling bettah about you all the time! You obviously know how we here at Reality Chex feel about the Supremes!
So....you are definitely with us. REMEMBER THE SUPREMES!