;)
The Commentariat -- June 4, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Steve M. uncovers shocking news! Headline: "Muhammad Ali gave Muslin prayer book to the President!" You see, you see, Obama was a Muslim just as the wingers said. Oh, wait. The president Ali gave the prayer book to was Ronald Reagan. Never mind. We all know Saint Ronald of Reagan was no secret Muslim.-- CW ...
... Charles Pierce: Ali "embodied the country, in all its historic, inherent contradictions, in all its promises, broken and unbroken, and in all of its lost promises and hard-won glories. He insisted on the rights that the country said were his from birth and, in demanding them, freed himself to enjoy them, and freed the country, if only for a moment, to be something more than even the Founders thought it would be." -- CW
*****
White House: "In this week's address, the President discussed his return to Elkhart, Indiana, the first town he visited as President and one that was among the hardest-hit by the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes":
** Nikos Konstandaras, editor of the Greek daily newspaper Kathimerini, in the New York Times: "... politics is a set of variations of the war between personal ambition and collective need, often at odds with each other but also with the potential for creative coexistence. The stakes are always high.... Strongmen exploiting their celebrity, projecting uncompromising bravado, harnessing popular discontent with promises to overturn the current order, have always been a basic ingredient of politics.... Donald J. Trump, Vladimir V. Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Rodrigo Duterte (the newly elected president of the Philippines who promises mass murder of 'criminals'), have one thing in common: Each bases his power on public support. However despotic they are, no one can deny that they (Mr. Trump excepted, so far) were elected.... They are products of democracy, even as they undermine its institutions and its norms, like oligarchs or dictators of predemocratic times." -- CW
Josh Lederman of the AP: "President Barack Obama shortened the sentences Friday of 42 people serving time for drug-related offenses, continuing a push for clemency that has ramped up in the final year of his administration. Roughly half of the 42 receiving commutations Friday were serving life sentences." -- CW
AP: "President Barack Obama has signed into law a measure meant to bolster protections for Native American children placed into the tribal foster care system. The measure signed Friday requires background checks before foster care placements are made by tribal social services agencies. The agencies will review national criminal records and child abuse or neglect registries in any state in which a would-be foster parent has lived in the preceding five years." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Here in America we don't let our differences tear us apart. Here in America we don't give in to our fears, we don't build walls to keep people out. -- Michelle Obama, at CCNY, Friday ...
... David Chen of the New York Times: "In tones both aspirational and political, Michelle Obama on Friday used her last commencement address as first lady to salute graduates of the City College of New York as 'living, breathing proof that the American dream endures,' while also criticizing 'name-calling' leaders who engage in 'anger and intolerance.' Mrs. Obama did not specifically mention Donald J. Trump.... But her intent could not have been clearer as she warned that 'leaders who rule by intimidation -- leaders who demonize and dehumanize entire groups of people -- often do so because they have nothing else to offer.'" -- CW
Fiscal Policy Matters. Jared Bernstein: "In an unexpectedly downbeat jobs report, employers added only 38,000 jobs last month, the worst month for job gains since employment started recovering in 2010.... The negative report surely puts the nail in the coffin of a Fed rate hike at their meeting later this month.... With borrowing costs still as low as they are, a smart move by policy makers would be to quickly start up an infrastructure program, perhaps in the critically important areas of water safety or our long-ignored public school facilities." CW: See also President Obama's weekly address.
Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I'm not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality.... If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn't have to draft me, I'd join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I'll go to jail, so what? We've been in jail for 400 years. -- Muhammad Ali, at a fair housing rally in Louisville, Kentucky, ca. 1967
... New York Times: "Muhammad Ali, the three-time world heavyweight boxing champion who helped define his turbulent times as the most charismatic and controversial sports figure of the 20th century, died on Friday in a Phoenix-area hospital. He was 74." -- CW ...
... New York Times: "The president and Michelle Obama ... issued a statement Saturday on the death of Muhammad Ali." -- CW ...
... New York: "TV channels are dropping their regularly scheduled programs to air specials honoring The Greatest. Michael Mann's sublime film Ali, starring Will Smith (giving what he still considers to be his finest performance), is also streaming on HBO.... Here are the upcoming programs, which will be updated as more are announced." -- CW
Dave Zirin of the Nation: " What Muhammad Ali did -- in a culture that worships sports and violence as well as a culture that idolizes black athletes while criminalizing black skin -- was redefine what it meant to be tough and collectivize the very idea of courage." -- CW
You, Too, Could Get a Ph.D. in Kochonomics. Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: Charles "Koch's donations have fueled the expansion of a branch of economic research that aligns closely with his personal beliefs of how markets work best: with strong personal freedom and limited government intervention. They have seeded research centers, professors and graduate students devoted to the study of free enterprise, who often provide the intellectual foundation for legislation seeking to reduce regulations and taxes.... Koch's academic giving has now landed him at the center of a white-hot debate over freedom and speech on campus. His critics accuse Koch, 80, of corrupting the academy with his money, pushing students and faculty to embrace a small-government philosophy that they say benefits Koch financially." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Race
Jose DelReal & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Democrats and Hispanic activists said Friday that they are increasingly alarmed by a spate of violence at Donald Trump rallies instigated by anti-Trump protesters, fearing that the incidents -- widely viewed on television and social media -- will only help the GOP candidate and undermine their attempts to defeat him.... Democrats and liberal activists said the acts were aberrations out of step with largely peaceful anti-Trump demonstrations. 'It's deplorable, no matter who's doing it,' Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton told CBS News Friday." -- CW ...
... BUT the Violence Will Continue. Dara Lind of Vox: "Donald Trump's campaign has become a locus for confrontation and instability, and that attracts the sort of people who see violence as an acceptable way to get things done.... There are people who feel Trump's rise puts their lives in danger. And many people make decisions about what actions are 'appropriate' differently when they feel personally under threat.... Much of the mass media (specifically television) really does cover Donald Trump without interruption, and doesn't pay much attention to peaceful anti-Trump protesting. Only when protests get tense, confrontational, or violent do the cameras start rolling." -- CW
Jonathan Martin, et al., of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton's blistering new assault on Donald J. Trump has mollified many Democrats alarmed about the closer-than-expected presidential race -- while inflaming Republican fears that Mr. Trump's improvisational style and skeletal campaign will prove inadequate in repelling the type of attack Mrs. Clinton unleashed on Thursday." -- CW
Gail Collins: "Hillary Clinton made a great speech this week.... The bottom line was that America can choose her, or give the nuclear codes to a guy no sane person would put in charge of policing a parking lot.... While Clinton's experience as secretary of state is certainly a plus, her longtime hawkishness should be a minus. She needs to tell the country what she's learned about the limits to American power...." -- CW .
Tim Egan on "Bernie's last stand." CW: Egan has been happy to dismiss Bernie Sanders throughout the political season, & he does so again in today's column, but he does concede that "If Sanders were to concede at last after Tuesday, even if he won California, he could boast of having moved the Democratic Party to the populist left." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Lindsey Elefson of Mediaite: "Just as [Trump] did [Thursday] when he tried to claim that he never spoke out in favor of Japan getting its own nuclear arsenal, he tried to insist that everything Clinton said about him in her speech was a lie.... She responded with a link to her site, The Briefing. That link leads to a quote-by-quote breakdown of her speech. Each assertion made about Trump's beliefs is backed up with a link to the interview or press conference during which he said it." -- CW ...
... Here's Clinton's breakdown, via Barbara Morrill of Daily Kos.
Hillary Clinton, Terrorista Extraordinaire. You couldn't get the truth out of Hillary if you waterboarded her. -- Barry Bennett, Donald Trump advisor
But doesn't that conflict with Trump's pledge to bring back waterboarding because it's so effective? -- Paul Waldman
Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg: "Where is the Republican pushback to Hillary Clinton's vicious attack on Donald Trump's foreign-policy qualifications? It's virtually absent, as several commentators noticed.... For one thing, Trump barely has a campaign so far.... There's another facet to the lack of a united party response to Clinton's speech. It's a consequence of the grudging, minimal support he's been getting from high-profile Republicans." -- CW
Rebecca Carroll of the Guardian: "... Donald Trump has been fairly straightforward regarding how he feels in general about black people in America -- he failed to swiftly and effectively disavow former KKK grand wizard David Duke in May, referred to the Black Lives Matter movement as 'trouble' last fall, and during the course of his campaign other things have surfaced, such as his idea to air a 'white v black' season of The Apprentice. Publicly, however, his most brazen racist remarks have been directed primarily at Muslims (a relatively small percentage of whom are black) and Mexicans.... Trump, though, comes across as if black people are not even worthy of his overt racism." -- CW ...
... Ooh, Rebecca, you're so wrong. Why, just today ... Reena Flores of CBS News: "Donald Trump called out 'my African-American over here' during a rally in Redding, California Friday, pointing to a supporter in the crowd. 'We had a case where we had an African-American guy who was a fan of mine,' Trump said at a campaign event Friday afternoon. 'Great guy, in fact I want to find out what's going on with him. You know what I'm -- Oh look at my African American over here.'" -- CW
We are building a wall. He's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico. The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings. Rulings that people can't even believe. This case should have ended years ago in summary judgment. -- Donald Trump, on CNN, Friday (Emphasis added.) ...
... Louis Nelson of Politico: "Pressed by CNN's Jake Tapper, Trump repeated his claim that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel's Mexican heritage creates 'an inherent conflict of interest.'... 'But he's an American,' Tapper responded.... Later in the extended back-and-forth on the issue, the CNN host asked Trump whether his assertion that Curiel's heritage makes him unable to do his job is 'the definition of racism.' Trump said it was not." -- CW ...
... Actual Journalism. Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "In all, Tapper made an astounding 23 follow-up attempts.... He finally got a straight answer out of" Trump. ...
... In the video above, we hear Trump boasting that other attorneys general dropped their inquiries into Trump "U." Well, yeah:
... Payoff & Payback. Harper Neidig of the Hill: "Attorneys general in Florida and Texas who declined to pursue lawsuits against the now-defunct Trump University received political contributions from Donald Trump, according to an Associated Press report.... A political fundraising committee supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi [R] received a $25,000 donation from the Donald J. Trump Foundation just days after her office had announced it was looking into joining a multi-state lawsuit against Trump University. Her office later dropped the inquiry, citing a lack of evidence.... Trump donated $35,000 to the successful gubernatorial campaign of then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott [R] three years after a probe into the university's 'possibly deceptive trade practices' was dropped by his office when the university agreed to cease its Texas operations." -- CW
... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: Judge Gonzalo Curiel, when he was a federal prosecutor in California, went into hiding for a time because he was a target of a Mexican drug cartel. CW: This is an aspect of Curiel's career that I haven't emphasized, though it has been reported in a number of reports I linked. And of course it makes Donald Trump's repeated attacks on Curiel all the more disgusting -- as if anything could shame Drumpf. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Josh Marshall of TPM: "It's that mix of grievance and desire to reclaim what is being taken away, that desire for revenge that has been the centerpiece of Trump's campaign from the outset, far more than any sort of economic arguments or anything else.... Having a major party presidential candidate running an explicit racist campaign is quite new. Again, the attacks on Judge Curiel is entirely of a piece with everything Trump has shown us since he kicked this campaign off...." -- CW ...
... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. CW: Just to remind you, Bloomberg is paying Mark Halperin the big bucks to explain that Trump's attacks on Judge Curiel are not "racial" because "Mexico isn't a race."
Dictator-in-Chief. Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post (June 2): "... Donald Trump swung back hard at the PGA Tour on Wednesday for moving a golf tournament from his course in Miami to Mexico, and he sounded an ominous warning about how he would respond to such decisions as president.... 'Think of it: They moved the PGA Tour -- moved the World Golf Championship -- from Miami, where they're furious, to Mexico City. Not good. But that's okay. Folks, it's all going to be settled, you vote for Donald Trump as president. If I become your president, this stuff is all going to stop.'" CW: Anyone who thinks this guy isn't dangerous is a fool. Unfortunately, there's a fool born every minute, & millions of them are of voting age.
Using his powers of sincerest wonkery, Speaker Ryan has discovered that Trump is a bigot. What a surprising development! Who knows what other hidden truths he'll uncover. -- Paul Waldman ...
... Cristina Marcos of the Hill : "Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Friday disavowed Donald Trump's accusation that a judge handling lawsuits against Trump University has a conflict of interest due to his ethnicity. A day after endorsing Trump, Ryan during an interview ... criticized the remarks the presumptive GOP presidential nominee made earlier this week." CW: Nice try, Paulie. You bought him, he's yours. There's a no-return policy on Trumps. And don't pretend you picked up the racist package by mistake -- that's the product's biggest selling point. In fact, it's the only model.
Beyond the Beltway
Mark Berman & Mark Guarino of the Washington Post: "Officials [in Chicago] released a huge array of videos and police reports Friday from about 100 open investigations into police shootings and use of force, a sharp reversal in a city still reeling from the impact of long-withheld footage showing an officer fatally shooting a teenager." -- CW ...
... The New York Times report is here.
Way Beyond
James McAuley of the Washington Post: "A grim succession of shipwrecks and drownings in the Mediterranean Sea this week has highlighted a shift in migrant smuggling operations away from relatively safer routes into Europe and sparked recriminations about whether European governments are doing enough to stem the flow. The rising death toll spiked Friday with the discovery of more than 100 drowning victims off the Libyan coast, as rescuers searched for survivors of at least two other stricken boats in waters off Crete and Egypt. The new wrecks padded a toll estimated to exceed 1,000 this week." -- CW
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Reader Comments (7)
"I have a dream, baby"–––like Gypsy Rose Lee's mother's dream for her daughter–––the strip tease I'm dreaming about is: Hillary gets in the White House and appoints Conzalo Curiel for the S.C. Wouldn't that be a kicker, leaving the poor duck plucked thin, his plume of feathers, like Gypsy's, covering only the intimate parts.
@MAG: thanks for the recommendation of that book on the Armenian genocide. My husband tells me he was once friends with an Armenian whose family managed to escape the horror and come to America. This man worked very hard to make it in this country and managed to have a successful photo shop business. But he never got over the genocide and talked about it frequently.
"The Greatest" is gone. In an age of so many boastful, but often mediocre, athletes (and politicians and celebrities) who spend more effort on self promotion rather than walking the walk, it's a sad day to see the last of a guy who backed up his words both in and out of the ring, who never wavered, even when stripped of his title and his ability to make a living at his chosen occupation. Just think of Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio and Mitch McConnell all bowing down so quickly and easily before the Golden Calf of hatred and lies.
Then think of Muhammed Ali. Not a one of them are good enough to hold his jock.
@AK: "Then think of Muhammed Ali. Not a one of them are good enough to hold his jock."
You got that right! The words of Ali posted above are so courageous and beautiful and true blue that to be reminded of them takes your breath away.
Many, many thanks for posting the Ali You Tube and quote. I've sent them to my 17 year old granddaughter who will be voting for the first time this fall. She did a school report on Viet Nam, a portion of which was an interview with grandparents. The report and school term are over, but this grandma hopes the lessons never cease. Lord knows Muhammad Ali taught us a few - if only we were smart enough to listen.
Speaking to the 2016 graduating class at MIT " Matt Damon " in wrapping up his speech, also quoted one of the philosophy giants.
“As the great philosopher Benjamin Affleck once said, ‘Judge me by how good my good ideas are. Not how bad my bad ideas are.’ You’ve got to suit up in your armor. You’ve got to get ready to sound like a total fool. Not having an answer isn’t embarrassing. It’s an opportunity.”
Yeh! I'd buy an embroidered pillow with that italicized statement!
Wrong word, Bernstein (linked above). Clinton's attack was not "vicious." To me, vicious implies out-of-control and perhaps underhanded. Scathing or withering would do the job and not transfer the crazy to Hillary.
@NiskyGuy: Tell that to Bernstein!