;)
The Commentariat -- March 9, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "The Republican National Committee on Wednesday filed two lawsuits in federal court seeking records and emails of Hillary Clinton and her colleagues at the State Department. The first suit seeks electronic records sent to and from Clinton via text or Blackberry Messenger and emails to senior aides. The second suit seeks communications between senior State Department officials, Clinton's presidential campaign and other Clinton allies after her time at State." CW: I'm pretty sure the complainants there are patriots concerned about national security. The court would do well to assume otherwise.
Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Carly Fiorina endorsed Senator Ted Cruz of Texas on Wednesday, supplying his campaign with a high-profile supporter and an eager critic of Donald J. Trump. Mrs. Fiorina, the former presidential candidate and Hewlett-Packard chief executive, took to the role quickly, appearing as a surprise guest at Mr. Cruz's morning rally in Florida." CW: How do you say, "Adios, Marco!" in Spanish?
Apropos of a brief discussion we had this morning in the Comments sections, there's this: Daniel Strauss of Politico: "The group at the center of the Koch brothers' vast political network is praising Bernie Sanders for opposing the Export-Import Bank and for his attacks on corporate welfare. Freedom Partners put out the web video highlighting its common ground with the Vermont senator ahead of Wednesday night's Democratic debate.... But a Sanders campaign official shot back, suggesting that the video was intended to hurt Sanders, by creating the perception that he is the preferred candidate of the Kochs -- an association that would be toxic in the Democratic primary." Here's the ad:
Ed Kilgore: "If Sanders somehow turns it all around and wins the nomination -- still a very long shot -- his acceptance speech in Philadelphia should begin with a heartfelt thanks to the polling industry."
Margaret Hartmann has a roundup of commentary about Michigan's Democratic primary. Biggest -- and worstest -- takeaway for me: the results suggest Clinton could lose Rust Belt states to Mr. Bizarro there. ...
A security guard watches over Trump products that later were distributed to guests at Donald Trump's presser/QVC event last night.... More on the Bizarro Presumptive GOP Nominee. Eric Levitz of New York: "After his victories in the Mississippi and Michigan primaries Tuesday night, Trump ... [spent] a solid ten minutes of his celebratory press conference defending Trump Steaks and Trump Vodka. The mogul went so far as to address the American people from beside a heaping platter of raw beef and bottles of Trump Water and Trump Wine. At one point, he held up the latest issue of Trump magazine and briefly mused on its cover story." CW: I could hear from this room of my own the gasps of horror coming from "exclusive" Republican clubs around our fair nation.
Hadas Gold of Politico: "Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski forcibly yanked Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields out of the way after his press conference in Florida on Tuesday night.... Fields was clearly roughed up by the move, [a] witness said." CW: This is wierd only because Brietbart is reputedly in the tank for Trump.
*****
Presidential Race
Primary Results
A-mazing. Patrick Healy & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders scored an upset win in the Michigan Democratic primary, according to the Associated Press, threatening to prolong a Democratic campaign that Hillary Clinton appeared to have all but locked up last week.... Mrs. Clinton ... won overwhelmingly in Mississippi, crushing Mr. Sanders among African-American voters.... On the Republican side, Donald J. Trump easily dispatched his rivals in Michigan and Mississippi, regaining momentum in the face of intensifying resistance to his campaign among party leaders." ...
... Dan Roberts, et al., of the Guardian: "Bernie Sanders pulled off his biggest win of the Democratic presidential race on Tuesday, defeating Hillary Clinton in the Michigan primary on a night which also confirmed strong anti-establishment support for Donald Trump in the battle for the Republican nomination." ...
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "In an election year that has already shattered many received wisdoms, add another one to the scrap heap: the idea that the Democratic and Republican Party establishments were finally getting a handle on the popular insurgencies that have shaken up their parties.... It seems that Sanders's economic populism and Trump[s authoritarian populism both resonated in a state that was hard hit by the Great Recession and its aftermath. Although the messages that the two insurgents are carrying differ wildly in most respects, and shouldn't be compared in terms of policy content or morality, they both claim that the existing political system is broken, and that radical measures and new leaders are needed to fix it." ...
... Steve M.: "... congratulations, GOP establishment: your anti-Trump campaign worked ... with Democrats." It turns out many Michigan Democrats voted in the GOP primary for John Kasich in an effort to stop. They did so largely because pollsters convinced them Clinton had a lock on the Democratic side.
Democrats
I knew, I knew that these polls that had us 20 or 30 points behind were wrong. -- Bernie Sanders, in an interview ...
... Yamiche Alcindor & Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "Mr. Sanders pulled off a startling upset in Michigan on Tuesday by traveling to communities far from Detroit and by hammering Mrs. Clinton on an issue that resonated in this still-struggling state: her past support for trade deals that workers here believe robbed them of manufacturing jobs.... For Mrs. Clinton, it was a stinging defeat in a state that she had made a symbol of her campaign, pledging to help the citizens of Flint overcome its contaminated water crisis in a rare display of passion and outrage from a candidate who is often reserved.... Despite Mrs. Clinton's advantages, including the support of much of the state's Democratic establishment, the Sanders campaign showed deft organization and strategy...." ...
... Harry Enten of 538: "Bernie Sanders made folks like me eat a stack of humble pie on Tuesday night. He won the Michigan primary over Hillary Clinton, 50 percent to 48 percent, when not a single poll taken over the last month had Clinton leading by less than 5 percentage points. In fact, many had her lead at 20 percentage points or higher. Sanders's win in Michigan was one of the greatest upsets in modern political history. Both the FiveThirtyEight polls-plus and polls-only forecast gave Clinton a greater than 99 percent chance of winning.... Sanders ... can breathe a deep sigh of relief that all the states in the Deep South have already voted." ...
... Greg Sargent: "Clinton finished the night with more delegates than Sanders did, because delegates are awarded proportionately, and he only beat her by 50-48 in Michigan, while Clinton crushed Sanders in Mississippi. Given her current delegate lead, last night's outcome probably won't pose a serious obstacle to winning the nomination." ...
... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "One thing that happened is that Clinton underperformed with black voters in [Michigan].... Part of the problem may be the economic issues central to Michiganders' concerns.... The state has shed a ton of manufacturing jobs over the last 25 years, thanks in part to free-trade agreements like NAFTA.... In a recent national poll, the thing people worried about most with Clinton's candidacy was her connection to Wall Street.... Black voters are her (ahem) trump card and economic issues her Achilles heel." ...
... Ed Kilgore thinks Bernie's Michigan win was less about free trade & more about demographics. ...
Driftglass: "it turns out that Bill Clinton's 1992 election strategy of 'focusing like a laser' on the economy still has enormous resonance 24 years later with people who have been screwed, blued and tattooed by our rigged system. Senator Sanders took that message to America's capital of de-industrialization and tomb of he American dream and told them that settling for a future of triangulation, crooked trade deals and amnesty for Wall Street hoodlums wasn't good enough anymore. And voters responded."
Michigan: With 3 percent of the vote counted, the state is leaning Sanders. With 75 percent reporting, Michigan is still leaning Sanders. This is remarkable. Clinton certainly may win the state. She was heavily favored going in; recent polls showed her beating Sanders by 20 to nearly 40 points. No recent polls showed Sanders even close. With 92 percent reporting, the AP has called the race for Sanders. He has only a two-point lead.
Mississippi: With no precincts reporting, the AP has called the state for Clinton.
Republicans
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. "Trump Infomercial Captivates Networks." Hadas Gold of Politico: "Millions of viewers tuned into to cable news networks during the prime 9 p.m. EST hour likely expecting to hear some candidate speeches. What they got, on CNN, Fox, and MSNBC, was one candidate talking for 45 minutes: Donald Trump. All three networks stuck with Trump's long press conference even as it veered into sales pitches for his own product lines, despite the fact that Hillary Clinton, who had won the Mississippi primary in a landslide and was neck-and-neck in Michigan, spoke at the same time. They also mostly ignored Bernie Sanders' speech, which occurred in the 8 p.m. hour and John Kasich's speech, which happened during Trump's event."
Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) was shut out of delegates from voting in four states voting on Tuesday after poor performances in Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan and Mississippi."
Scott Lemieux in LG&M: "I haven't been kind to [Marco Rubio's] campaign but this really is astonishingly terrible. Kasich at least will lose with some dignity; Rubio went down trying to out-asshole Trump. (Say this for Christie: at least he could pull of[f] the murder part of the murder/suicide strategy.) [Rubio] would have to overperform the polls like Sanders even to salvage his home state, and not only is he no Sanders I'm not sure he's even Fred Thompson."
Hawaii: Trump won the caucuses, receiving 42 percent of the vote with 100 percent reporting. Cruz followed with 33%. Rubio received 13% & Kasich 11%.
Idaho: With 19 percent of precincts reporting, the state is leaning Cruz. With 60 percent of the vote counted, the AP has called the state for Cruz.
Michigan: With less than one percent of the vote counted, the Times reports the state is leaning Kasich. Oops. Now with 2 percent counted, Michigan is leaning Trump. With 25 percent reporting, the AP has called the race for Trump. Trump now has 38 percent, Kasich 26%, Cruz 23%, & Rubio 9%. Sorry, Marco.
Mississippi: With less than one percent of precincts reporting, the state is leaning Trump by a wide margin. The AP has now called the state for Trump, still with less than one percent reporting. With 23 percent reporting, Trump had 49 percent of the vote, followed by Cruz with 35%, Kasich with 9% & Rubio with 5%.
The New York Times has full results here. Times reporters are liveblogging the results.
Tom LoBianco & Elizabeth Landers of CNN: "Bernie Sanders' campaign on Tuesday sued Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, accusing the Republican of quietly changing a law in an effort to block 17-year-olds from voting in the state's presidential primary next week.... 'The secretary of state has decided to disenfranchise people who are 17 but will be 18 by the day of the general election,' Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver told reporters in Detroit Tuesday afternoon. 'Those people have been allowed to vote under the law of Ohio, but the secretary of state of the state of Ohio has decided to disenfranchise those people to forbid them from voting in the primary that is coming up on March 15.'"
George Zornick of the Nation: "In Sunday's Democratic debate Hillary Clinton assailed Senator Bernie Sanders for opposing, in January 2009, the release of Troubled Asset Relief Program funds that were used in part to bail out General Motors and Chrysler.... Sanders objected strenuously to the charge, and said Monday that Clinton 'went out of her way to mischaracterize my history.'... Eight Democratic senators voted the same way as Sanders.... When The Nation reached out to each [still-sitting] senator on Monday, both Cantwell's [Wash.] and Wyden's [Oregon] offices pushed back on the idea that their vote was 'against' saving the auto industry, and echoed Sanders's broader concerns about what was happening at the time with TARP money." Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), the only other still-sitting Democratic senator who voted against TARP, did not respond. ...
... CW: When auto bailout funds were a separate issue, Sanders voted for them. He voted against them when they were (an unspecified) part of the Wall Street (TARP) bailout. Clinton voted for TARP each time. PolitiFact labels Clinton's attack on Sanders on this issue half-true.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Adam Johnson of AlterNet, in Common Dreams: "In what has to be some kind of record, the Washington Post ran 16 negative stories on Bernie Sanders in 16 hours, between roughly 10:20 PM EST Sunday, March 6, to 3:54 PM EST Monday, March 7 -- a window that includes the crucial Democratic debate in Flint, Michigan, and the next morning's spin.... All of these posts paint his candidacy in a negative light, mainly by advancing the narrative that he's a clueless white man incapable of inning over people of color or speaking to women. Even the one article about Sanders beating Trump implies this is somehow a surprise -- despite the fact that Sanders consistently out-polls Hillary Clinton against the New York businessman.... The Washington Post was sold in 2013 to libertarian Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who is worth approximately $49.8 billion." ...
... Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly: "... it's hard for me to avoid the impression that this was at the direction of the [Washington Post] management under the guidance of senior editors.... The media, particularly the media that covers national politics, does a pretty good job of playing whack-a-mole with anyone who moves a centimeter outside the Overton Window.... However you feel, this ain't liberal bias." ...
... CW: If you're wondering what the Overton Window is, here's your answer. I hadda look it up a while back.
Katrina vanden Heuvel of the Nation in the Washington Post: "when it comes to foreign policy, there is little question that Sanders is closer to Obama's sensibility than is Clinton. One revealing 'tell' is that Clinton's criticism of Sanders echoes the attacks she leveled at Obama in 2008.... Clinton, as Vice President Biden noted, is by temperament an 'interventionist.'... Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, share a perspective of 'skeptical restraint.'... Sanders is not a pacifist."
Bullshit. -- Donald Trump, on climate science
I have the best words. -- Donald Trump
Everything you need to know about voting for Trump, expressed in one of Donald's best words. -- Constant Weader ...
... Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "A coalition of Florida mayors has pleaded for presidential candidates to be asked about climate change and sea level rises during forthcoming debates in Miami, fuelling criticism of the 'ridiculous' lack of questions on the subjects in TV debates so far. The group of 21 mayors, comprising Democrats and Republicans, has written to the moderators of the Democratic and Republican TV debates to argue it would be 'unconscionable for these issues of grave concern for the people of Florida to not be addressed'."
Thomas Mann & Norm Ornstein in a Washington Post op-ed: "... the radicalization of the Republican party -- not just in terms of ideology but also in an utter rejection of the norms and civic culture underlying our constitutional system -- ... has been the most significant and consequential change in American politics in recent decades.... Today, incredibly, it's even worse than it was.... Donald Trump, America's equivalent of European right-wing populists and possibly the most miscast presidential front-runner for a major party in American history, makes a mockery of the Republican establishment agenda and presages the GOP's possible break-up. It is a self-inflicted wound, but one with disastrous consequences for us all."
Dana Milbank: "Complaining about the media is an easy applause line for conservatives, and the news business no doubt deserves some blame for Trump's rise. But if Cruz, Rubio and other GOP leaders are looking for the real culprits, they should start with themselves.... To blame the news media now for the GOP leaders' own failings compounds their cowardice."
Among all of the wacky Trump enterprises, like Trump Steaks & Trump Mortgage (launched just before the financial crisis), you had to know there was a nutritional supplement scam in there somewhere. Sure enough there was. In late 2009, with the recession in full swing, Trump started what Ian Tuttle of the National Review calls a "get-rich-quick scheme" that straddled "the fine line between a multi-level marketing strategy and a pyramid scheme.... If the Trump Network belongs on the ever-expanding chronicle of Trump failures (Trump Airlines, Trump Mortgage, Trump Magazine, and many more), it's with an important qualification: The Trump Network's losers were not Donald Trump, but mainly the more than 21,000 people who invested in the company as recruiters, hoping to make it big, swayed entirely by Donald Trump's promises." Via Paul Waldman. ...
... Donald Trump May Have Paid Less in Taxes than You Did. David Cay Johnston in USA Today: "There's a big story in the tax returns that Donald Trump claims he cannot release because of what he describes as a routine audit.... Our lawmakers have magically transformed income taxes into a source of wealth for many in the donor class.... Tax rules ... require you to depreciate, or reduce, the value of buildings over time, even if the market value of the structures is going up. If your depreciation is greater than your traditional income from work and businesses, Congress lets you report negative income. If these paper losses are just a dollar more than traditional income, it wipes out your income taxes for the year.... If Trump's returns show he has paid no income taxes in some years, that could be a reason he has not yet released details." ...
Charles Pierce: Trump's security team is now focusing on "intelligence work." "... we're a little overdue for an explanation of exactly how closely the people whose salaries we pay -- Secret Service, local law-enforcement -- are working with the Trump campaign's 'intelligence' operatives.... I'm not comfortable at all with the notion that people with genuine badges are working hand-in-glove with what are little more than glorified casino bouncers.... Actual law enforcement is supposed to protect everyone in the crowd. The Trump campaign is already dangerously militarized. That is one of the slipperiest slopes there is."
Worst Person in the World. Keith Olbermann is so upset with the Donald that he writes in a Washington Post op-ed: "I'm moving out. Not moving out of the country -- not yet anyway. I'm merely moving out of one of New York's many buildings slathered in equal portions with gratuitous gold and the name 'Trump.' Nine largely happy years with an excellent staff and an excellent reputation (until recently, anyway) -- but I'm out of here." ...
... Thanks, Mitt! Donovan Slack of USA Today: "... a new poll finds that ... [Mitt Romney]'s attacks [on Trump] might have helped Trump more than hurt him, at least with Republican voters tasked with choosing this year's nominee. The Morning Consult survey found 31% of registered GOP voters are more likely to vote for Trump given Romney's speech, while 20% are less likely. Another 43% said it didn't have an impact either way." ...
... Congratulations, President Obama! Not everything is totally your fault. Sure, last week Bobby Jindal blamed you for the rise of Donald Trump, but this week conservative pundit Josh Kraushaar of the National Journal placed the blame for Trump partially on -- Al Franken! Steve Benen: "As Kraushaar sees it, had Franken lost his close 2008 race, Democrats would have been 'forced to negotiate with Republicans' on measures such as health care reform, which would have created a more cooperative and less toxic political climate. By bringing access to affordable health care to 20 million Americans, the argument goes, Obama sparked a political backlash." President Obama could not have got the ACA passed, Kraushaar argues, without Franken's 60th vote. "Kraushaar would have readers believe that congressional Republicans were ... ready to work with the Democratic White House.... Anyone who covered politics at all in the early part of the Obama era knows how profoundly wrong this is."
Erik Wemple: CNN has egg on its face over its claim that Marco Rubio's campaign was having an "internal debate" about whether or not the candidate should drop out before the Florida primary, so as not be embarrassed by a loss in his home state. ...
... Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed; "Marco Rubio said Tuesday that CNN made up a report that some Rubio advisers think he should drop out of the presidential race before the Florida primary." ...
... CW: You'd almost think someone at CNN was working for Ted Cruz's campaign. In January, when CNN said Ben Carson was going home on the day of the Iowa caucuses, the Tailgunner's campaign spread the rumor among caucus-goers that Carson was dropping out of the race. Carson & Cruz were fighting for the same evangelical voters. Now this:
... Alex Griswold of Mediaite: "The Marco Rubio campaign is once again accusing GOP rival Ted Cruz of dishonesty, this time after his Hawaii campaign spread a story claiming that Rubio's advisors were telling him to leave the race." ...
.. ** Tampa Bay Times Editors: "Vote for me to stop Donald Trump. That is Sen. Marco Rubio's message to Florida voters this week as the Republican establishment desperately tries to prevent the billionaire from winning the Republican nomination for president and completing a hostile takeover of the party. It's a weak argument from a weak candidate who is not prepared to be president." The editorial goes on to list Marco's failures & assess his character. CW: These people know Marco. And they think he's a jerk. ...
... Dara Lind of Vox: "Ted Cruz is more interested in winning the Republican nomination than stopping Donald Trump from winning it. [CW: No kidding.] And that's very bad news for the stop-Trump strategy in Florida.... And to keep his chances alive, Cruz is willing to kneecap Rubio in Florida and hand the state to Trump." CW: Ted would kneecap his own daughter if it would help make him POTUS.
Senate Race
Yeah, They Really Tweeted That. Katherine Krueger of TPM: "The National Republican Senatorial Committee deleted a tweet Tuesday afternoon attacking Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a double amputee, for 'not standing up for our veterans.'... Duckworth[, who is challenging Sen. Mark Kirk (R) for the Illinois Senate seat,] is a U.S. Army veteran of the Iraq War who lost both of her legs in combat.... Asked for comment, an NRSC spokeswoman provided TPM a statement criticizing the media for covering the tweet."
Other News & Views
Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "The loss of a single justice, Antonin Scalia, has blown up the [Supreme C]ourt and reshuffled everything. It's the early days yet, and much of the evidence of newish, liberalish outcomes at the court lies in routine housekeeping matters: unsigned orders and withdrawn appeals. Still, it's safe to say the high court is no longer going to be a candy store for pro-business and socially conservative litigants.... And despite most of the justices' eagerness to keep the court off the ballot in November, the sudden frailty of the conservative bloc and the almost giddily emboldened left reveal how high the stakes will be in the general election."
Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama, resigned to his failure to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, is looking past his time in office and weighing a plan that would preserve at least the principle of a two-state solution for his successor to pursue."
Looking Good. Michael Shear of the New York Times: President "Obama's latest medical report shows him to be five pounds lighter than he was at the time of his last physical exam, in June 2014, with a slower resting heart beat, lower blood pressure and a reduced cholesterol level. Mr. Obama, 54, was examined by Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, last month. Dr. Jackson said that Mr. Obama no longer smoked but occasionally used nicotine gum." ...
... Here's Dr. Jackson's report. Unlike Donald Trump, who says Obama is a "terrible president who happens to be an African-American," it would appear that the President does not write his own fake medical reports. As a result, nowhere in the Obama report does it state that Mr. Obama is "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency." In fact, he well may be, & if he had the kind of gumption Trump has, he would have slipped that into the report.
Tea Party Boy & Only Friend of Ted Mike Lee (Utah) says he placed a hold on the Senate bill to provide aid to Flint, Michigan, because Flint residents "have all the government resources they need." Bryce Covert of Think Progress reports. ...
... Erik Loomis of LG&M: "Mike Lee, Family Values Republican, is a horrible human being.... This is truly a senator of the New Gilded Age, where government aid to give people clean water creates dependency and a generation of slackers who don't know how to pull themselves up by their bootstraps."
Alec MacGillis has a lo-o-ong New Yorker piece on the "carried interest" or private equity tax loophole. He focuses on how it has benefitted Washington, D.C. billionaire David Rubenstein. "Many of today's Wall Street philanthropists win the public's esteem by giving away money that, without the loophole they've fought to protect, would not all have been theirs to donate."
Faith Karimi & Steve Almasy of CNN: "The Secret Service detained a suspect in the shooting of an Idaho pastor after the man threw several objects over the White House fence, authorities said. Kyle Andrew Odom was taken into custody without incident Tuesday night in Washington, Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee White said. Odom is suspected of shooting Pastor Tim Remington on Sunday, a day after he [Odom? Remington? CW Update: turns out the answer is Remington] led the prayer at a weekend campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz. The pastor was found Sunday afternoon in the parking lot of the Altar Church in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. He had several gunshot wounds but is expected to survive."
Beyond the Beltway
Julie Turkewitz & Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "Investigators said Tuesday that Oregon state officers acted properly when they shot and killed LaVoy Finicum, one of the activists occupying a wildlife refuge in Oregon, but federal officials have opened an inquiry into the actions of F.B.I. agents for not disclosing that they also fired shots during the confrontation." ...
... Les Zaitz of the Oregonian: "An FBI agent is suspected of lying about firing twice at Robert 'LaVoy' Finicum and may have gotten help from four other FBI agents in covering up afterward, authorities revealed Tuesday. The bullets didn't hit Finicum and didn't contribute to his death, but now all five unnamed agents, part of an elite national unit, are under criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. Inspector General Michael Horowitz is leading the independent inquiry. The remarkable disclosure came as a team of local investigators released findings that two state troopers shot Finicum three times in the back during the chaotic scene at a police roadblock Jan. 26. One bullet pierced his heart, an autopsy showed."
Charles Pierce: "The latest chapter in this sad saga [of Kansas] came when the state's Supreme Court began to rule that, all Randian wet-dreams aside, Kansas had an obligation to fund its public schools at a decent level." So how did the legislature respond? By funding the schools? Nope. They started working up plans to facilitate the impeachment of supreme court judges for "attempting to usurp" the legislature's power.
News Ledes
AP: "Iran test-launched two ballistic missiles Wednesday emblazoned with the phrase 'Israel must be wiped out' in Hebrew, Iranian media reported, in a show of power by the Shiite nation as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visited Jerusalem."
New York Times: An Islamic State detainee currently in American custody at a temporary detention facility in Erbil, Iraq, is a specialist in chemical weapons whom American military officials are questioning about the militant Sunni group's plans to use the banned substances in Iraq and Syria, defense officials said."
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Reader Comments (16)
Just a thought, but I'm surprised there isn't more commentary out there about the Koch octopus network they had been boasting about for so long, about how they basically mimicked the entire Republic National Committee and loaded it with even more cash and more extremists.
The GOP has been flirting with these forces long enough, as has been discussed in rich detail on this great site, but the billionaire ideologues who have never backed away from admitting their hands were actively raiding all the cookie jars have gotten scant if any press about how their hundreds of millions of hate money have contributed to our national dilemma. Any articles I've come across have only discussed their strategic investments (or lack thereof) to bend the electorate to their will of a Randian utopia.
Maybe it's because those articles already exist, as it had already become clear that their shadow apparatus looming over the GOP's was whipping up serious Tri-Corns and demonizing any functioning government as "capitulation". One has to wonder if they're sitting on their money right now, watching in horror as their Libertarian dreams turn into a Drumpf nightmare? Most certainly not, but their willingness to declare themselves financial Kingmakers in U.S. politics makes them a liable target when diagnosing some of the major ills in American society.
And on another note, I was watching a debate on France 24 (sorry, can't find the link) where Trump came up in the converstation and there was an Iranian reporter at the table. She was asked how average Iranians were discussing Trump's success back home. She said everyone in Tehran is comparing him to Ahmadinejad. Substance free, never listened to advisors, spewed hate and contempt, and divided both the international community and the national society. So add that one to the list....
@safari: Last week Reuters wrote that the Koch boys were sitting out the GOP primary race, claiming they're opposed to Trump but don't want to waste their $$$ on negative ads because none of the negative coverage of Trump has made any difference.
It will be interesting to see what the boys do in the general election, inasmuch as Donald Self-Funded Trump will have to seek financial support for the general. The Kochs are super-savvy about investing in local races, & it's possible they'll put most of their money there if it turns out they really, really don't like Trump (which may not be the case -- I'll be they think they can negotiate with him).
At any rate, their Dominance in local elections is largely why we have the Congress we do. And that makes a helluva a difference.
Marie
Thanks for posting the David Cay Johnston piece. It's well worth a read if you want a little bile along with morning coffee.
--
P.S. Thanks for the update about HG Wells. I've had his Outline of World History for years. Readable history never goes out of style. Barbara Tuchman.
An explanation for why "we" aren't getting why the working class " supports Trump. (See NYTimes).
"Their economic discontent — born of the mismatch between expectations based on an earlier America, where plenty of blue-collar jobs offered a decent standard of living, and the more cutthroat reality they face today..." Trump proposes tariffs and walls as an insufficient solution.
In the smart commentary by Akhilleus, he sharply exposes the problem of blinder-wearing confederates and those who just purposely ignore the country's infrastructure needs. It is inexcusable how this is being ignored. Congested and poorly maintained roads, failing bridges don't get their attention. Makes me wonder, it must be so teddibly, teddibly frustrating when their limo hits a pot hole or two or three, or they're held up in traffic jams and previously half-hour drives become hour-and-a-half expeditions. What don't they get?
As to privatization (of roads/prisons/charter schools) driven by 'successful businessmen'—it is apparent who benefits and how this further deepens the division between haves and have nots—with the public suckered in to paying for it all anyway.
Yesterday Michigan showed its support for Trump. (and Bernie, too), but...it is getting harder to understand. Wake up people! Snap out of it! Four years ago, many of us were dismayed by the political candidates and their agendas, and how it appeared they were appealing to many. Comments here and elsewhere were concerned about the low info voter. Fortunately, Obama was voted in a second term with a significant majority.
But, this time around, at this stage...things look more troubling.
I hope I'm wrong.
Over on CNBC online the headline is: "Jack Welch: This is craziest thing Trump says" says CRAZY Jack Welch " "The craziest thing that ever comes out of Donald Trump's mouth is 'lying Ted,'" Welch said, referring to Trump's refrains in debates and on the campaign trial.
"Ted Cruz is the one guy … [who] does what he says," according to former GE CEO and supporter of Cruz. Wait to read more...it gets worse.
Welch's entire argument is sickening.
So Trump is still soaring high above the other contenders except for Cruz whose snake like crawl to victory presents minimal problems so far. I'm starting to envision Trump as a great big orange balloon that has been prodded, pricked and poked time and again, but still manages to float higher and higher and I wonder what, if anything, will come along and cause the deflation–– a big bird collision in the guise of his tax evasions or the Trump U. lawsuit scheduled for this summer? We know that he represents the harvest of the conservative seeds sown decades ago, but this is a whole new brand of rotten tomatoes whose followers are eating instead of throwing. Oh, for seeing that tiny shred of orange latex hanging from a tree––make it happen soon!
That whole auto bailout business seems to me is a matter of judgement and heeding the Stone's message. Hillary voted for it both times, while Bernie only once. Obviously Hillary thought it crucial that we save the auto industry; Bernie thought so too, but because the second vote's bill was lumped in with stuff he disdained, he refused to vote for it.
The Stone's Message: "You don't always get what you want but sometimes you get what you need."
And by the way––"The Nation's" editor, the lovely Katrina has been cheerleading for Bernie from the beginning. Whether this has any impact on the writers is up for grabs. I found their coverage pretty fair except they neglected to tell us more what Debbie S. said which was that sometimes you had to hold your nose and vote for a package you didn't approve of because within is the thing you feel passionate about. And especially dealing with the Republican majority in the House and Senate it was extremely difficult.
Thanks to Akhilleus for his long piece from the NYRB––I remember my fury after reading it–––infrastructure––not sexy, whatever that means, but after we discover more lead in our water, more collapsed bridges, etc. we may just wake up to the fact that this country needs some new do-overs––can we put a little lipstick on that?
Jame and Deb Fallows fly (in their own little plane that Jim operates) around our country finding cities that work.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/not-all-forgotten-american-cities-are-struggling/
Thanks for the Overton Window link. Hadn't heard of it either...but had read the wise Trollope's observations years ago in the Palliser novels, though for me their substance is long since lost to time, and have often thought during the Obama years that media outlets are not the only entity whose range is limited by what its audience will tolerate. In practice, the changing window of what a given media audience finds acceptable has its parallel in other places. That's why political targets of opportunity also shift over time.
Because Presidential politics is bedded in the art of the possible, when we consider what a President can do, we're looking at a narrower audience and a narrower window, one as wide or narrow as the sitting Congress, of nine (eight?) Supremes, but the idea is the same. A President is always threading needles; it's the size of the eye's opening that changes.
That's why I'm impatient with those who think Obama's ACA "didn't go far enough." It went as far as it could, considering the Congressional makeup, which included one prominent senate Democrat with very close ties to the medical/industrial complex and one senator whose attachment to Israel and the insurance industry in his home state wouldn't allow him to act as the Democrat he purported to be...eventually he no longer even maintained the pretense.
The fact is, for any number of reasons, Obama's Overton Window of opportunity has been very narrow over most of his term and yet he has managed to move the country in significantly new (and better) directions.
No wonder he is so roundly hated by the Koch-Confederates. That boy just wouldn't stay locked up where he belonged.
Will be interesting to see what the public will tolerate in its Window come November. Right now because the factionalism primaries always encourage, heightened this time around by general looniness of our politics, it's hard for me to tell what that Window will allow.
I just hope one of the good guys manages to crawl though.
MAG,
Jack Welch is an archetype of the "me first" type of grasping oligarch. It's funny he's not for Trump since they both represent the same kind of cook-the-books chicanery and share a self regard that makes the Kardashian clan look like medieval cloistered nuns.
Welch, you may recall, made headlines a few years ago when he declared that he believed that President Obama was lying about the unemployment figures when the numbers came in during his re-election campaign against The Rat. The October 2012 numbers were a sign that Obama policies had finally been successful in turning around the horror show produced by his predecessor, George (the Idiot) Bush, something wingnuts simply could not swallow. Welch sniped that the numbers were invented by "those Chicago guys" to make Obama look good.
Speaking of which, the country only had The Idiot to deal with because of fraud perpetrated by not only the Supreme Court Confederates who installed Bush by fiat as King, but with help from Jack Welch. At the time of the 2000 election, Welch, as head of GE, owner of NBC among many other corporations, was in the NBC newsroom on election night. A widely reported story, never conclusively proven but never disproven either, had Welch forcing NBC, which had already called Florida for Gore, to change their announcement to make it look like Bush had won Florida. We all know now that Gore won. Welch followed the lead of Bush's cousin John Ellis, then working as election night director for Fox, who called Florida before anyone else for Bush, far too soon, after being on the phone all night with The Decider and his low energy brother. How anyone still thinks this doesn't stink to high heaven, I have no idea. Anyway, Welch was simply using his influence at NBC, the company he owned, to help his guy, no matter the facts. Wouldn't any other scheming oligarch do the same?
Oh, and about those unemployment numbers: the big deal was that for the first time in ages, unemployment dropped below 8% on the strength of 114,000 jobs being added to the economy in September of that year. Curiously enough, that was almost the same number of employees fired by Welch when he took over GE. I guess he's the sort Confederates mean when they refer to richer than Croesus assholes as "job creators" to whom the rest of us must bow.
Hmmmm.....later GE had to pay through the nose when it came out the Welch was cooking their books too. Oops.
I suppose he simply believes that everyone cheats. Just like him and just like the Republicans.
No wonder he loves lying, cheating, dirty-tricks boy Cruz.
Ken,
And thanks for bringing up Trollope, giving me an excuse to quote my favorite of his characters, Glencora Palliser:
"Governments are made of men, and men are made of vanity."
Speaking of Trollope, I advise everyone to investigate this unfairly overlooked and nearly forgotten writer. You will be rewarded with Barchester Powers.
Ba-dum-bum.
I see where in Kansas, Confederates are not just around the bend, they're far beyond the bend and miles along and they're sending wingnut agents up ahead to dynamite the track. Oh wait, isn't that the track their train is running on? Never mind, they create their own reality. Even if the train jumps the track and careens down the mountainside killing everyone, it's not really happening. And if it does, it's Obama's fault.
So let's see....checks and balances, checks and balances....ahh..here it is: "By creating three branches of government, the delegates built a "check and balance" system into the Constitution. This system was built so that no one branch of our government could become too powerful."
Or stupid.
That's from congressforkids.net (don't want to make it too tough for those Confederates who have to read phonetically).
Oh, but who needs checks and balances? Say, aren't these the same jamokes who are always on about the founders and the Constitution and yadda, yadda, yadda, and how Demycraps don't respect either? But hey, getting rid of Supreme Court justices who try to act in a manner designed by the founders (even if this is at the state level, the idea should still be valid--even in Kansas) is one way to respond to not getting your own way. It's the same technique infants use.
Or criminals. Or the insane.
So now, in Brownbackistan, exercising common sense checks and balances, a system put in place by the sainted founders, is called "usurping the power of the loonies".
Ohhhhhh....kay. Remind me to stay out of Kansas. Let the stupid reign! They can't even pretend they know what they're doing.
And lest I forget, RIP George Martin.
Thanks for the ripping harpsichord bridge on "In My Life", and the orchestrations for "Eleanor Rigby"--love those cellos--and the frenetic score for "I Am the Walrus". Semolina pilchard, indeed. Not to mention the controlled chaos of the gigantic tutti glissando running up to that last thundering note in "A Day in the Life". Wagner couldn't have done it better. AM radio was never the same after that note. Nor my ears. Nor the world.
No one who lived through the Sixties can escape or deny the influence of those sounds although there are plenty who try.
They're called Republicans.
They're the ones who heard "All You Need is Love" and prayed for more napalm in southeast Asia to try to prove that wonderfully humanistic sentiment wrong.
They're still trying.
@Akhilleus: If we wonder how President Drumpf could get away with doing whatever he wanted to do, the latest move in Brownbekistan is a good indicator: if the Supremes tell him he can't do something, he would just throw 'em out, one way or another.
Might as well charge them with treason, while he's at it. Sam & Clarence can contemplate original intent on their way to the gallows. The Ghost of Nino will remind them that the Founders were fine with capital punishment, & they didn't write a damned thing into Constitution about "actual innocence." Hope they take it like real men.
As Kansas goes, so goes the nation.
Marie
Marie,
And, in accordance with their love of originalism, the hanging should be done in true 18th century fashion, the short drop method.
And while we're contemplating the inevitable, ineluctable convergence of wingnuttery with stupidity, how's this for a consequence of Confederate gun knobbery? And I don't mean unintended consequences either: 'Hours after gun-rights advocate Jamie Gilt bragged on Facebook that her 4-year-old son 'gets jacked up to target shoot,' the same child accidentally turned his mother into a target, shooting her in the back."
How d'ya like them apples, Jamie? Guess your little guy got jacked up when he picked up the loaded weapon you left in the back seat, like any good gun knobber, and shot you.
This idiot has a Facebook page called "Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense" on which she revels in her kid's love of shooting stuff. Wow. "Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense" sounds like "General Custer for Careful Planning". And like most gun knobbers, Ms. Guilt..oh, sorry, Gilt, has a thoroughly and giddily fact free basis for her belief system. On her "Gun Sense" page---sorry---must pause for peals of scornful laughter---she posts a cartoon that shows a stupid, weak-kneed lib'ral promoting gun free zones in schools. The next panel has a banner over a passel of gun knobbers offering reams of documents with the caption "Evidence You're Wrong". Next, a panel with a banner over a single like minded, sob-sister lib'ral with the caption "Evidence You're Right". Conclusion? Stupid Lib'rals are wrong. Gun knobbers are RIGHT!!! YAY for GUNS!!
...there is however no presentation of said evidence. None. It's as if you said "Here is the evidence for starting a war in Iraq!" and you held out an empty bucket with a picture of a sneering Dick Cheney inside.
And let's not even wonder about the mental capacity of a mom who takes her four year--a fucking four year old!!--old TARGET SHOOTING with LOADED FUCKING WEAPONS!!
The only real tragedy here is that she wasn't killed and that Florida officials will return this child to her "care". Seriously, if the state gives this kid back to this imbecile, there's something very wrong with the family values mantra wingers are always trumpeting.
Sorry, that's the way I feel. Because I doubt this stupid, stupid, stupid person will change her tune by a single hemisemidemiquaver.
And this cannot be counted as an unintended consequence. You give deadly weapons to a baby, teach them that shooting stuff is what REAL MEN do, don't be surprised when the little tyke shoots you in the ass. Or the back, as the case may be.
Loaded weapons for toddlers! The Republican Way!!
Wait for Ted Cruz to offer his support for Ms Gilt and his hopes that her son grows up to be a serial killer.