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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."
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Reader Comments (8)
I ran across this reference while shuffling through some tax files. I wonder if the theocrats in places like Florida and NC, and those other states which seem dedicated to harassing poor people, especially women, have studied it.
Isaiah 10: 1-4
"1-4 Doom to you who legislate evil,
who make laws that make victims—
Laws that make misery for the poor,
that rob my destitute people of dignity,
Exploiting defenseless widows,
taking advantage of homeless children.
What will you have to say on Judgment Day,
when Doomsday arrives out of the blue?
Who will you get to help you?
What good will your money do you?
A sorry sight you’ll be then, huddled with the prisoners,
or just some corpses stacked in the street.
Even after all this, God is still angry,
his fist still raised, ready to hit them again."
Thanks, Patrick, a perfect message for those self-righteous legislators who will be showing up in their Sunday finest on the highest Christian holy day to "pray as the hypocrites do... to be seen by others." (Matthew 6:5)
In the meantime, I wonder what Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley will be teaching his Sunday school class today. I'm pretty sure there are some apt verses for him there in the Bible. He probably won't go with 1 Corinthians 5, where Paul (the reputed author, & in any event a writer much disturbed by all things sexual) warns against not just "fornication" but even association with "fornicators."
I'm going to read on. Because I peaked ahead & discovered that One Corinthian found a friend, & then there were Two Corinthians. Did they fornicate? We'll have to ask Deacon Trump.
Marie
As the end of an era comes to a close, I'd like to join the chorus in praising CW as she has provided us all with an invaluable public service which is starkly absent in our manufactured world: a reliable source of daily education and a realist view of our world, with a strong emphasis on the warts and the parasites.
I, too, came across RC thanks to Marie's comments in the NYT right after I'd moved abroad as a recent University graduate. Your site has been a daily source of knowledge and civic understanding of the country that I thought I knew and has helped me better explain the complexities of our culture to curious outsiders who inevitably pick my brain once they realize I make up the minority group of "open-minded" Americans abroad. I wasn't nearly as involved in politics before, but you're masterful ability to shine your spotlight and shame the shameful has provided a catalyst for my own political self-education.
I'll mostly miss this site for all of the seemingly back page stories that you highlight so adeptly, weaving the anecdotes into a larger narrative of American politics writ large. A while back you'd mentioned that you were considering giving up your tireless talents, so I had begun the acceptance that one day I'll be on my own to track down all these stories and make proper sense of them all. Inevitably I'll miss many, but you've been a great example to all your followers and have indirectly trained a new generation of muckrakers to unearth the parasites, put them on display, and, most importantly, arm ourselves with knowledge to make the case against them. For that, we are all grateful.
Maybe, just maybe, before closing down your forum for the last time (or passing the baton?), you could be so kind as to enlighten us a little further on how exactly you go about this "labor of love" as it was described before. Myself, as well as others I'm sure, will continue trying to round up the days' news ourselves in a delirious denial that this magical service is no longer done for us. If you could therefore impart some of your journalistic expertise with the rest of us as to how you strategically approach such a monumental task, it would be enormously appreciated.
And to all the civilized and poignant comments that add the cherry to the cake, they too will leave fond memories. Every once in a while a commenter comes along and leaves us with such a gem that I've been compiling a list of "greatest hits" in my email for future reminiscence. I've been coming back so methodologically over the years, I can usually even pick up who's writing the comment before even looking at the name, based on argumentation structures and word use.
Whether it's @Kate Madison's psychological readings and invocations of "Yikes", @Ken's near Socratic method of reasoning and argumentation, @Marie's matter-of-fact analysis and hyper-linked evidence, @Ak's prodigious vocabulary and masterful skewering of all things Confederate, @PD's personal anecdotes and picturesque prose, and so on... you've all added your grains of insight to the betterment of the whole. Teamwork at its best, and for a most noble cause.
It is interesting to put the Washington State caucus results in some perspective. In a state with a population of over 7 million, total turnout at the caucuses was 26,345 (source: Politico). Caucusing is a prolonged process (ours went from about 9-12 although the official start time was 10 am) which doesn't end there. It is simply the launching pad for the next level, a county-wide caucus, which will probably waste most of Sunday May 1st (I get to go, lucky me).
I have a number of friends who solidly support a candidate but would never participate in a caucus, which aside from being time consuming features some personal confrontation as folks try to get others to switch candidates.
Our caucus was somewhat chaotic and disorganized, and certainly frustrating at times. It did give one some sense that this was democracy in action. But overall, I don't think it is a worthy system to determine the party nominee, and I know that many agree with me and want to return to a simple primary. Strangely, there is one here in WA state primary run by the Secretary of State, in May. It's just that the Dems won't be participating. Confusing!
@Victoria D.: According to the Washington state Democratic party, at least 230,000 Democrats participated in yesterday's caucuses. That's nearly 10 times what Politico reported.
As nearly as I can figure out, it isn't possible to tell how many voting Democrats there are in the state because it is only necessary to make a party declaration if you're going to participate in the presidential primary. At any rate, there aren't 7 million voters in Washington state; there are about 4 million. So I'll just guess that 2.5MM tend to vote Democratic (I totally made up that figure). If that's the case, then a little more than 9 percent of Washington Democrats participated.
This chart is really useful because it shows the contrast between the percentage of voters who show up for caucus vs. "regular" voting. In Kansas, which has caucuses, only 5.5 percent participated; even in Iowa, where the presidential primaries are sport, only 15.7 percent showed up. By contrast, almost 36 percent of eligible primary voters participated in the Ohio primary; in New Hampshire (which was an outlier because there the primaries are like the World Cup) 52.4 percent voted.
While we whine about voter suppression, which is awful, we should also give more consideration to the undemocratic nature of caucuses, as you do. I can certainly understand why most people don't go. Some can't go because they truly haven't the time or they're working, or they can't get a lift or they're disabled, or or or. Others could make the time but would rather spend it doing something else, & who can blame them? Not I. Some people object to the way the caucuses operate, & I'm with them, too. Were I a shy person (I'm not), I'd never dare show up.
I'm not sure how all the caucuses work, but at least some of them require people to publicly declare their candidate. I don't blame people for not wanting to do that, for any number of reasons. It's generally understood that democracy relies on the secret ballot, & the caucuses -- at least the way they're run in some states, throw that fundamental concept out the door.
In short, I'm with you. Caucuses are just one step up from the smoke-filled room of olde.
Marie
Marie, I agree whole heartedly with Safari about "enlighten us a little further on how exactly you go about this "labor of love". Some/most of us don't make the time to do something like RealityChex, but we can dream of the future. If there is any particular resource of note that has helped answer questions about putting this site all together consider passing that info along.
One fine thing about this site is that it makes the world of information flow flatter and thus, as I see it, the information is more accessible. Marie, there is a special place in my heaven for people who make meritorious information accessible and interpretable.
Turns out I'm never quite done. As Mark Twain could have said about RC, if he hadn't been referring to his smoking habit--it's easy to quit-- I've done it a thousand times. But I'm down to my last RC pack, so what the hell!
So...it's heartening to see the South Carolina legislators, all rugged individualists I'm sure, admitting and codifying the responsibility we really do have for one another. Of course, refugee sponsors should bear some responsibility for the decisions they make. We all should, and granting that, I see some logical next steps:
I imagine, now that they have the responsibility bit in their teeth, the SC legislature will be busy indeed assigning direct responsibility to parents for the behavior of their children, for just one obvious instance, with appropriate punishment attached when things go awry, of course.
Or direct responsibility assigned to the hundreds of criminals, at least those residing in SC, who hide successfully behind the legal fictions of corporate facades.
Or maybe they could even go so far as to define the responsibility which should be attached to legislators who by their actions or deliberate inaction thoughtlessly (never thoughtfully of course) harm the lives of whole classes of their fellow citizens.
Can't wait to see where those thoughtful SC legislators point their legislative gun next.
I was only twigged onto this site in the past year, but just like you long time readers I will sorely miss it. I know of no other site remotely comparable.
I can't help but think of that old curse "may you live in interesting times" as we head into the red meat of the eternal election cycle. This one reminds me of my first one in 1968, truly a "hold your nose" election.
Again, I've enjoyed the site and the comments from people far more cognizant that I on politics.