The Commentariat -- Jan. 12, 2016

Josh Lederman of the AP: "President Barack Obama will deliver a final State of the Union address Tuesday brimming with optimism -- far more than most Americans possess."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court seemed poised on Monday to deliver a severe blow to organized labor. The justices appeared divided along familiar lines during an extended argument over whether government workers who choose not to join unions may nonetheless be required to help pay for collective bargaining. The court's conservative majority appeared ready to say that such compelled financial support violates the First Amendment.... The best hope for a victory for the unions had rested with Justice Antonin Scalia, who has written and said things sympathetic to their position. But he was consistently hostile on Monday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... ** Dana Milbank: "Just in time for the 2016 election, the Roberts Court has found yet another way to stack the deck in favor of the rich. By all appearances at Monday's argument, the five Republican-appointed justices are ready to upend a 40-year precedent guiding labor relations in favor of a new approach that will deplete public-sector unions' finances and reduce their political clout. The case, from California, involves arcane issues of 'agency fees' and member opt-outs, but make no mistake: This is about campaign finance, and, in particular, propping up the Republican Party.... The only real counterweight to Republican super PACs in this new era is union money. And the Supreme Court is about to attack that, too." Read the whole column.

Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times: "A military veteran persuaded a federal appeals court Monday to overturn his conviction for wearing a medal he didn't earn. An 11-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said a portion of a federal law that made it a crime to wear an unearned military medal violated freedom of speech rights. The panel found that wearing a medal conveys a message, which is protected by the 1st Amendment."

Jared Bernstein in the Washington Post: "One of the most destructive ideas in poverty policy is what supporters, such as House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, call 'opportunity grants' and what the rest of us call block grants.... The main reason this idea is so destructive is that it undermines the essence of the safety net.... So back off Jeb! et al. SNAP works. In fact, it ... works for a lifetime, as research tracking children who received nutritional support when they were kids finds a spate of positive outcomes in adulthood...." ...

... Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post:In reality, block-granting is just a way federal politicians can strip poor people of much-needed services without actually taking the blame for the resulting suffering.... In recent decades, Washington has created 13 block-grant programs targeting low-income Americans. According to a recent Center on Budget and Policy Priorities study, in all but one case the program shrank substantially in inflation-adjusted terms. This happened despite initial assurances that block-grant programs would get the same funding as the programs being replaced.... Just throwing up your hands and telling the states 'I dunno, you fix it' isn't leadership. It's cowardice."

Niraj Chokshi of the Washington Post: "From Republican front-runner Donald Trump to evangelical Franklin Graham, many on the political right are pointing to the shocking wave of sexual assaults in Germany as a justification of their concerns of Muslim immigration." See also Tim Hume's CNN report linked under Way Beyond the Beltway.

Michael Ruane of the Washington Post: "Almost 75 years after they were killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, the remains of five U.S. sailors who perished when their battleship was sunk have been identified, the Pentagon said Monday. The five men, who were exhumed last year from their graves in Hawaii and examined in special military laboratories, were among 429 sailors and Marines killed when the USS Oklahoma was torpedoed and capsized. They had been buried as 'unknowns.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "The father of the billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch helped construct a major oil refinery in Nazi Germany that was personally approved by Adolf Hitler, according to a new history of the Kochs and other wealthy families. The book, 'Dark Money,' by Jane Mayer, traces the rise of the modern conservative movement through the activism and money of a handful of rich donors: among them Richard Mellon Scaife, an heir to the Mellon banking fortune, and Harry and Lynde Bradley, brothers who became wealthy in part from military contracts but poured millions into anti-government philanthropy." ...

... Nazi Boyz. Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "... Mayer writes that the family patriarch, Fred Koch, admired German discipline so much in the 1930s that he hired a fervent Nazi as a governess for his eldest boys. 'Dark Money' suggests that the experience of being toilet trained by a Nazi may have contributed to Charles Koch's antipathy toward government today."

** Kevin Drum: "My Right to Die."

Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "George Washington University's president announced Monday that the honorary degree presented to Bill Cosby in the 1990s would be revoked,... GW's decision was an about-face from the position the university took in the fall...."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. The Whims of a Wealthy Young Man. Ravi Somaiya of the New York Times: "Chris Hughes, the Facebook co-founder who bought The New Republic in 2012 and prompted a revolt among staff members and contributors when he tried to remake it, said on Monday that he had decided to put the magazine up for sale." ...

... "Chainsaw Chris." Josh Marshall of TPM: "... it's hard not to see this as a perfect inversion of the classic private equity model: a few years of transformative ownership in which his team managed to radically increase costs while completely destroying the company's brand equity.... The New Republic, as anything like what it's been for a century, was never going to be a profit-making operation, certainly not a vertically integrated media cineplex or whatever they were trying to make it.... I will say that having decided to upend the entire operation and trigger a radical disruption and disjuncture with its history going back a generation, it seems a bit precipitous and unlovely for Hughes to kick it to the corner now and deprive it of the deep pockets which is now really its only asset." ...

... Scott Lemieux in LG&M: "... it's not a shock that [Hughes's] attempt to bring a TOTALLY DISRUPTIVE new proactive paradigm to a field he knew nothing about was a spectacular failure on its own terms. (I hope his next move isn't to get involved with higher ed.)"

Presidential Race

Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "Hillary Clinton ... and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who are locked into close primary races in Iowa and New Hampshire, sharpened their attacks on one another over gun control, tax policy and Wall Street reform at the Iowa Black and Brown Forum, hosted by Univision at Drake University in Des Moines on Monday.... Yet the presidential forum drew as many laughs as contrasts.... When asked if it was 'off-brand' for a democratic socialist to live in a mansion like the White House, Sanders replied: 'I would consider it more like public housing.'" ...

... Making Up Stuff. Abby Phillip & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "After days of attacking Sen. Bernie Sanders over his record on guns, Hillary Clinton on Monday expanded her critique of the Vermont Senator to include his health-care plan. Speaking at an event in Iowa, Clinton pointedly contrasted her health-care plan with Sanders's, claiming that his proposal would turn over health insurance to Republican governors." ...

... Paul Waldman: "Sanders says he has no idea what she's talking about, because he hasn't proposed turning health insurance over to the states, other than a general commitment to a federal single-payer program. Indeed, he doesn't have an actual health care plan at all. Also strange: I always assume that when Clinton comes out with a new line like this, her campaign has polled it within an inch of its life, but I find it hard to believe that a single-payer plan isn't quite popular with Democratic voters." ...

... Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Intensifying her gun control argument against Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton will accept the endorsement of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence at a campaign stop in Ames, Iowa on Tuesday, according to a campaign aide." ...

... Bernie Becker of Politico: "Hillary Clinton [Monday] proposed a 4 percent surtax on the highest-earning Americans, as she seeks to boost taxes for the wealthiest Americans. The proposal, which she announced in Iowa, would raise an estimated $150 billion over a decade, a Clinton aide said, and comes after the Democratic front-runner said that she would build on the so-called Buffett Rule that seeks to ensure that the middle class doesn't pay a higher tax rate than top earners.... Clinton's camp says she will roll out more proposals this week to force the wealthy to pay more in taxes." CW: Obviously, the latest intra-party polls shook up Hillary. ...

     ... Update. CW: Gee, Bernie agrees with me. (He so often does.) Liz Goodwin of Yahoo News: "Sen. Bernie Sanders accused Hillary Clinton of taking an increasingly aggressive stance against him because she's nervous that he is beating her in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. 'It could be that the inevitable candidate for the Democratic nomination may not be so inevitable today,' Sanders said at the Iowa Brown & Black Forum in Des Moines Monday night."

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge has dismissed a pair of lawsuits aimed at forcing the government to act more aggressively to recover emails that Hillary Clinton kept on a private server while serving as secretary of state. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled Monday that the suits filed by two conservative organizations are moot because the State Department and the National Archives have done all they are legally required to do to obtain messages pertaining to her four-year tenure as America's top diplomat." ...

... Josh Gerstein: "The State Department has agreed to process for public release an archive of 29,000 pages of emails longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin sent or received on a private account while working as deputy chief of staff to Clinton from 2009 to 2013."

Nick Gass of Politico: "Donald Trump on Monday pleaded, with slight jest, for the FBI to go after Hillary Clinton for exclusively using a private email server which she was secretary of state, declaring that he would rather run against Bernie Sanders in the general election." ...

... Benjamin Wallace-Wells in the New Yorker: "In many ways, [Donald Trump's] argument is that government should be run more directly by élites. Trump's complaint with Washington is that it sends 'political hacks' to negotiate with foreign countries, rather than ... the smartest guys on Wall Street.' Trump's version of the Oval Office is one in which Carl Icahn will appear from behind a door to solve any crisis. What strange form of populism is this?"

David Corn of Mother Jones: "On Friday night, New York Times columnist David Brooks, a mild conservative, and I were on the PBS Newshour, and our discussion of [Ted] Cruz's recent surge in Iowa really ticked off some within the right-wing press.... I don't know about Brooks, but I was besieged on Twitter by conservatives who hurled angry how-dare-you tweets at me. Some accused me of committing a hate crime (the victims: Christians). But this was yet another exercise of false right-wing outrage, and a demonstration of rather poor reading comprehension on the right." ...

... CW: Okay, I guess I have to run this (I avoided it yesterday):

     ... ** UPDATE: In today's NYT column, Brooks eviscerates Ted Cruz. You wouldn't let Cruz take out your garbage or clean your gutters after reading Brooks' column.

Adam Nagourney of the New York Times: Jeb! was a lousy candidate in 1994, too, when he ran -- and lost -- for governor of Florida. Then, he had the excuse of being a rookie. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

And Then There Were Seven. Steven Shepard & Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina have been booted to the undercard in Thursday night's Republican primary debate as the number of main-stage candidates was cut to seven by stricter polling criteria. Paul, who is struggling to gain traction in the presidential race, immediately cried foul, and vowed to not participate in the event. Fox Business Network, which will televise the sixth GOP presidential debate this week, announced the debate fields on Monday evening, after weeks of speculation that Paul would for the first time not make the cut for the primetime event. The seven candidates who will appear on the main stage in North Charleston, S.C., are Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and John Kasich. Kasich qualified as a result of his strength in New Hampshire." ...

... Speaking of Fiorina, as we seldom do nowadays ... Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Carly Fiorina says she finds it odd it took so long for Ted Cruz to renounce his Canadian citizenship, and listed his renouncement in 2014 as one of the reasons people are so fed up with politicians."

Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg: "The super-PAC supporting Jeb Bush plans to spend nearly $3 million on a TV ad campaign painting Marco Rubio as 'just another Washington politician' who has repeatedly changed his mind on immigration. The ad campaign by Right to Rise PAC represents an escalation of a long-simmering feud between the two Floridians vying for the Republican presidential nomination. The ad will run starting Monday night in Iowa and South Carolina, and on Fox News nationally...."

CW response to D.C. Clark, in today's thread: Total disqualifer:

Beyond the Beltway

David Roberts of Vox: The Aliso Canyon gas leak "is widely being hailed as the worst environmental disaster since the BP oil spill. And SoCal Gas says the leak likely won't be contained until March at the earliest." Roberts explains the details. ...

Another American Tragedy. Paul Kix of the New Yorker on how a wrongful conviction in Texas led to criminal justice reform. And Rick Perry signed the bills!

Kate Mather of the Los Angeles Times: "Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck has recommended criminal charges against an officer who killed an unarmed homeless man in Venice, marking the first time as chief that Beck has called for charges in a fatal on-duty shooting. LAPD investigators concluded that Brendon Glenn was on his stomach, attempting to push himself off the ground, when Officer Clifford Proctor stepped back and fired twice, hitting the 29-year-old in the back, Beck told The Times." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Luke Hammill of the Oregonian: "Militants presiding over an armed occupation of a federal bird sanctuary destroyed a portion of a fence Monday afternoon that they said was installed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- using the agency's own equipment." ...

... Fedor Zarkhin of the Oregonian: "Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward accused militias Monday of harassing law enforcement officials and federal employees. Though there haven't been physical threats, he said, the alleged behavior is clearly meant to intimidate.... Since the occupation began, there have been reports of law enforcement being followed home or watched, Sheriff Ward said in a written statement."

The LePage Fan Club Has a New Member. Sara Jerde of TPM: "Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke on Friday said Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) was right to say that drug dealers, who Duke referred to as 'Puff Diddies,' who travel from New York defile white women in the state."

Way Beyond

Tim Hume, et al., of CNN: "Gangs of men have attacked and injured two Pakistanis and a Syrian man in Cologne, Germany, in the aftermath of an unprecedented wave of mob sex assaults on women in the city on New Year's Eve. Cologne police said a gang of 20 men attacked at least six Pakistani nationals Sunday, with two of the victims hospitalized. Five men later attacked and injured a man of Syrian descent, police said." CW: So now I'm waiting for Donald Trump & Franklin Graham to propose banning German immigrants -- or maybe Christian immigrants, if we find out members of these gangs are Christians. Oh, hell, just build that wall around the whole damned country.

News Ledes

AP: "Mexico is investigating the meeting that then-fugitive drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman held with Sean Penn and actress Kate del Castillo in October to see if any crimes were committed."

AP: "A suicide bomber detonated a bomb in the heart of Istanbul's historic district on Tuesday, killing 10 foreigners -- most of them German tourists -- and wounding 15 other people in the latest in a string of attacks by the Islamic extremists targeting Westerners.... Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the bomber was a member of IS and pledged to battle the militant group until it no longer 'remains a threat' to Turkey or the world."

Los Angeles Times: "Oil prices tumbled to their lowest level in 12 years Tuesday -- at one point dropping below $30 a barrel -- in response to fears of slumping demand in China and a strengthening U.S. dollar."

The Commentariat -- January 11, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court seemed poised on Monday to deliver a severe blow to organized labor. The justices appeared divided along familiar lines during an extended argument over whether government workers who choose not to join unions may nonetheless be required to help pay for collective bargaining. The court's conservative majority appeared ready to say that such compelled financial support violates the First Amendment.... The best hope for a victory for the unions had rested with Justice Antonin Scalia, who has written and said things sympathetic to their position. But he was consistently hostile on Monday."

Michael Ruane of the Washington Post: "Almost 75 years after they were killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, the remains of five U.S. sailors who perished when their battleship was sunk have been identified, the Pentagon said Monday. The five men, who were exhumed last year from their graves in Hawaii and examined in special military laboratories, were among 429 sailors and Marines killed when the USS Oklahoma was torpedoed and capsized. They had been buried as 'unknowns.'"

Kate Mather of the Los Angeles Times: "Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck has recommended criminal charges against an officer who killed an unarmed homeless man in Venice, marking the first time as chief that Beck has called for charges in a fatal on-duty shooting. LAPD investigators concluded that Brendon Glenn was on his stomach, attempting to push himself off the ground, when Officer Clifford Proctor stepped back and fired twice, hitting the 29-year-old in the back, Beck told The Times."

Adam Nagourney of the New York Times: Jeb! was a lousy candidate in 1994, too, when he ran -- and lost -- for governor of Florida. Then, he had the excuse of being a rookie.

*****

Dan Lamothe & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: President & Michelle Obama's guest list for the State of the Union address 'reflects the president's determination to adopt a defiant pose during his speech to the nation. While the first lady's box provides a visual representation of what he has done in office, it also shows where lawmakers have blocked his agenda: One seat will be left vacant to symbolize the Americans killed and injured by guns each year. White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said in an interview that the first lady's guests represent both the trajectory of Obama's presidency and the role everyday citizens have had in shaping it."

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama has invited a Syrian refugee to sit in the first lady's box for the State of the Union address on Tuesday, the White House said Sunday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Margaret Talbot of the New Yorker: "In part, [President] Obama is trying to reframe the gun discussion not as a Second Amendment issue but as one of public health."

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "The Senate returns to Washington on Monday, opening a 2016 in which Republicans will move cautiously on the legislative front to try to protect their endangered incumbents and their Senate majority. The first order of business is to approve the long-delayed nomination of Luis Felipe Restrepo of Pennsylvania to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, a relatively rare vote on an appeals court judge given Republican reticence to allow President Obama to fill more judicial vacancies in his final months."

Jeffrey Jones of Gallup: "In 2015, for the fifth consecutive year, at least four in 10 U.S. adults identified as political independents. The 42% identifying as independents in 2015 was down slightly from the record 43% in 2014. This elevated percentage of political independents leaves Democratic (29%) and Republican (26%) identification at or near recent low points, with the modest Democratic advantage roughly where it has been over the past five years."

Paul Krugman: "... none of the dire predicted consequences of [President Obama's] policies have materialized. It's not just that overall job creation in the private sector -- which was what Mr. Obama was supposedly killing -- has been strong. More detailed examinations of labor markets also show no evidence of predicted ill effects. For example, there's no evidence that Obamacare led to a shift from full-time to part-time work, and no evidence that the expansion of Medicaid led to large reductions in labor supply."

The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling. Larry Summers in the Washington Post: "Because of China's scale, its potential volatility and the limited room for conventional monetary maneuvers, the global risk to domestic economic performance in the United States, Europe and many emerging markets is as great as any time I can remember. It is time for policymakers to hope for the best and plan for the worst." See also Emily Rauhala's story linked under Way Beyond.

Elizabeth Bruenig of the New Republic: "On Monday, January 11, the Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a case that began working its way through California courts in the spring of 2013. Ostensibly concerned with protecting the free speech rights of public sector workers, Friedrich's outcome will in reality decide the viability of public sector unions in the future." ...

... Noam Scheiber of the New York Times looks at the anti-union moneybags/groups backing the Friedrichs case.

Judith Shulevitz of the New York Times: "As Marx might have said had he deemed women's work worth including in his labor theory of value (he didn't), 'reproductive labor' (as feminists call the creation and upkeep of families and homes) is the basis of the accumulation of human capital. I say it's time for something like reparations.... The universal basic income is a necessary condition for a just society, for it recognizes the fact that most of us -- men, women, parents and nonparents -- do a great deal of unpaid work to sustain the general well-being.... Basic income proposals are sprouting up again, from the right as well as the left." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Yanan Wang of the Washington Post: "Mark Zuckerberg gets baby vaccinated. Anti-vaxxers go nuts." Zuckerberg's Facebook page announcing the trip to the doctor received more than 70,000 comments, both for & against vaccinations. CW: Maybe it's a coincidence, but the first anti-vaxxer comment Wang cites showed a poor command of English by someone I would guess is an English-speaker.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Ravi Somaiya of the New York Times: After Rolling Stone published an interview of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera in an essay by actor Sean Penn, "questions have been raised about the ethics for the magazine in dealing with Mr. Guzmán, a criminal being sought on charges of drug trafficking and murder, and in allowing him to approve what would ultimately be published about him.... The reporting and editing of the article were closely held, in part, to avoid the authorities.... As for giving Mr. Guzmán final approval over the article, [Rolling Stone founder Jann] Wenner said: 'I don't think it was a meaningful thing in the first place. We have let people in the past approve their quotes in interviews.'... Steve Coll, the dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, said he was concerned by the editorial approval offered to Mr. Guzmán. But, he said, 'scoring an exclusive interview with a wanted criminal is legitimate journalism no matter who the reporter is.'" ...

... Peter Holley of the Washington Post: Mexican journalists note the dangers they have faced covering Guzman & his cartel. "... nobody prints anything without cartel approval, including -- it would seem -- Sean Penn." ...

... Andy Borowitz: "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the terror group known as ISIS, has cancelled a long awaited meeting with the actor Sean Penn, a spokesman for the group announced on Sunday. The spokesman gave no reason for the abrupt cancellation, but said that al-Baghdadi no longer felt that meeting with Penn would be 'prudent.'"

Driftglass: "It must have been a great relief for NBC's Shuck Todd to finally give up trying to walk upright and get 'answers' from Donald Trump and instead content himself with tossing softballs, nodding at the reply and then moving on. The rest of us are screwed, of course, but when has that not been true?"

Presidential Race

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "There are two significant presidential debates over the next seven days, falling as the races hurtle toward the first casting of votes. Each debate will take place in Charleston, S.C." CW: The Republican debate is Thursday night. I won't be watching because the candidates make me sick. The Democratic debate is Sunday night. I won't be watching because "Downton Abbey." Which is how the Debbie Wasserman-Schultz planned it.

Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "White House chief of staff Dennis [sic.] McDonough on Sunday said President Obama will not endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary race.... He added that Obama will be 'out there' campaigning after the primary to support the eventual nominee." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Kyle Cheney of Politico: "President Barack Obama has met privately with Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton several times in recent months, but his chief of staff said Sunday that he's powwowed with her chief rival, Bernie Sanders, too. 'He has seen Senator Sanders, both with the Senate Democratic Caucus and privately,' Denis McDonough said on NBC's Meet the Press. 'And so, we'll continue to do that. He's obviously a leading senator in our caucus and we'll continue to do just that.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Kyle Cheney: "Hillary Clinton continued to thrash Bernie Sanders ... over his past support for legislation cheered by the NRA that protects gun manufacturers from liability for shootings. 'I think he has been consistently refusing to say that he would vote to repeal this absolute immunity from any kind of responsibility or liability,' she said Sunday on 'Face the Nation' on CBS, noting that she joined President Barack Obama in opposition to the legislation while they were both in the Senate.... Sanders sought to defend his record on guns separately during an appearance on ABC's 'This Week.' He argued that his support for the earlier legislation was partly because of how 'complicated' it was, and he said he's open to revising it to ensure that large manufacturers can be penalized if they deliver guns they know are being used in crimes." ...

... Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "Hillary Clinton on Sunday defended instructing an aide to send information to her through a 'nonsecure' channel, saying the data she requested was not classified and accusing her presidential rivals of seeking to score political points over a non-issue."

... AP: "... Planned Parenthood is endorsing Hillary Clinton in the race to become the Democratic presidential candidate, but says that will not mean negative campaigning against her primary opponents.... Accepting the endorsement on Sunday in New Hampshire, Clinton sought to energise her Democratic base with a passionate pledge to always protect reproductive rights. She painted a dark picture of women's health care under a Republican president, singling out two of the top Republican contenders."

Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords will endorse Hillary Clinton, a person familiar with her plans confirmed." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Maggie Haberman: "Hillary Clinton holds a three-point edge over Senator Bernie Sanders in Iowa, a tightening of the race with roughly three weeks until voting begins, according to a new set of surveys of likely voters from NBC/The Wall Street Journal/Marist." Haberman also reports other polling results. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jonathan Easley: "... Hillary Clinton said Sunday that attacks against her husband over past infidelities and allegations of sexual abuse 'won't work,' calling them a 'dead end' and a 'blind alley' for her rivals. Speaking Sunday on CBS's 'Face the Nation,' Clinton was asked to respond to an ad released last week by GOP front-runner Donald Trump in which he sought to highlight Bill Clinton's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinskey [sic.]. 'If he wants to engage in personal attacks from the past, that's his prerogative. So be it," Clinton said...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Hadas Gold of Politico: "ABC is cutting off their partnership with the New Hampshire Union Leader for the Republican primary debate on Feb. 6, an ABC spokesperson has confirmed. The paper was set to have a co-branding relationship for the debate, though it was going to be a comparatively minor role, without any representative on stage asking questions on behalf of the newspaper. In a series of tweets on Sunday, [Donald] Trump took credit for ABC's move, saying he asked for ABC to remove the paper from the debate."

Ben White of Politico: "Many economists say Donald Trump's proposals -- from big import tariffs to mass deportations -- would hurt the very demographic that supports him in the greatest numbers: less educated voters struggling in a tepid U.S. economy. If Trump policies actually went into effect, these economists say, prices for goods lower-income Americans depend on could soar and a depleted low-end labor force could trigger a major downturn.... [In addition,] according to the Tax Policy Center, Trump's tax plan would reduce federal revenue by $9.5 trillion over the next decade. It would also provide an average $1.3 million tax cut for the top 0.1 percent of earners, the Tax Policy Center found. The Trump campaign has disputed these findings." ...

... Bradford Richardson: "Donald Trump says President Obama's irresponsible use of executive orders has paved the way for him to also use them freely if he wins the presidential race. 'I won't refuse it. I'm going to do a lot of things,' Trump said when asked if he would use executive orders in an interview Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... digby, on Trump's praising North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un for his brutality: "This isn't actually a joke. It's not really a Reality TV show. This guy has millions of Americans cheering him and what he's saying very clearly is that America needs a strongman dictator. Him.... What's amazing is that most of the people who are supporting him also wave around the Constitution like it was handed down directly from God." ...

... CW: Taking together all of his various promises & his admiration for notorious despots, it is clear that Trump thinks the U.S. presidency also is or should be an absolute, unchecked position of power. It's not possible to know what he would actually do if he became president, but there's every reason to think he would try to run roughshod over the other branches of government, the military, the administrative bureaucracy & the Constitution. I'm not certain impeachment could pry him out of the White House. ...

     ... ** Update: In a Salon piece, Digby catalogues some of Trump's authoritarian pronouncements. We haven't heard a parade of horribles like this in a long time..

Birtherism, Ctd. Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "The legal and constitutional issues around qualification for the presidency on grounds of US citizenship are 'murky and unsettled', according to [Laurence Tribe,] the scholar cited by Donald Trump in his recent attacks on Ted Cruz.... Tribe taught both Cruz and Barack Obama at Harvard Law School.... In his emails to the Guardian, Tribe discussed Cruz's own approach to constitutional issues, noting that under 'the kind of judge Cruz says he admires and would appoint to the supreme court -- an "originalist" who claims to be bound by the historical meaning of the constitution's terms at the time of their adoption -- Cruz wouldn't be eligible because the legal principles that prevailed in the 1780s and 90s required that someone be born on US soil to be a "natural born" citizen."'" Read on. ...

... Bradford Richardson: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says the upper chamber won't issue a resolution on whether Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is constitutionally eligible to run for president.... The Senate previously issued a resolution confirming then-nominee John McCain's eligibility to serve as president. The Arizona senator was born on a [U.S.] military base in Panama to American parents." ...

... CW: Because senators really don't like Ted & would enjoy watching him twist in the wind. ...

... The Cheez Stands Alone. Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Having broken with Trump, Cruz finds himself almost friendless in the Republican Party. And now that Trump has made Cruz birtherism an issue, many others are eager to join in the pile-on." ...

... Kristen East of Politico: "In an interview this weekend with PBS, [NYT columnist David] Brooks tells host Judy Woodruff that Cruz’s world is 'combative,' 'angry,' and 'apocalyptic.' And while he continues to rise in state and national polls, Brooks said other candidates, like Marco Rubio, are starting to use similar rhetoric.... Co-panelist David Corn, the Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones, said he believed the satanic tones actually come from Cruz's dad, Rafael Cruz, who is an evangelical pastor."

Gary Legum of Salon: "This weekend, a few of the Republican candidates for president gathered at the Jack Kemp Foundation to discuss which one of their administrations would screw over poor people the hardest.... There were the usual conservative buzzwords for fighting poverty: empowerment, education (by providing school vouchers, of course), expanding opportunity.... [Jeb] Bush illustrated what everyone should by now know: The GOP has no ideas."

Beyond the Beltway

Benjamin Mueller & Nate Schweber of the New York Times: "Three teenagers suspected of taking turns raping an 18-year-old woman at a Brooklyn playground after ordering her father to leave her side were taken into custody on Sunday, a law enforcement official said.... Charges against them were pending.... The father ran to get help, but the police official said it took him roughly 20 minutes to come upon two officers in a patrol car.... In an area filled with public housing high-rises, delis and other stores, it is unclear why the father was not able to get help from bystanders or call the police. The Police Department said in a statement on Sunday night that no one called 911 in connection with the attack, and that the officers 'immediately responded and located the victim' after being alerted by the father.... Elected officials also questioned whether the police notified the public quickly enough after the attack."

Luke Hammill of the Oregonian: "As law enforcement has continued to take a 'wait-them-out' approach to the occupation [of the Malheur wildlife refuge], more and more outsiders -- many of them armed -- have descended on this remote corner of Eastern Oregon. Many of them are well-meaning and want to help bring the situation to a peaceful resolution. Some are reveling in the international media attention. Others are inspired by the militants and have come to join the protest. Few, if any, of them have been welcomed with open arms by law enforcement." ...

Another guy "protecting the peace."... Sam Levin of the Guardian: "The heavily armed rightwing groups who descended on rural Harney County in eastern Oregon on Saturday -- to protect the peace, they said -- made clear they had no intention of leaving, as the occupation of the Malheur national wildlife refuge entered its second week. Observers, meanwhile, noted that many such groups were extremist entities with histories of promoting bigotry, racism and violence."

... Luke Hammill: "In the latest bizarre turn of events surrounding the ongoing armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge, an Oregon state legislator from outside Harney County arrived here Saturday with out-of-state elected officials in tow and met with the protesters. Oregon Rep. Cliff Bentz, a Republican from Ontario, and Harney County Judge Steven E. Grasty said that they tried to warn state Rep. Dallas Heard against traveling to Burns. But Heard, a Republican from Roseburg, arrived anyway, they said, and brought officials elected to state office in Washington, Idaho and Nevada with him." ...

... Mike Rogoway of the Oregonian: "Oregon Public Broadcasting visited the [Malheur refuge] compound Friday and reported that militants appeared to be using federal computers inside the compound, machines that can be accessed only with employees' ID badges. Lists of names and Social Security numbers were visible, alongside government ID cards." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sara Burnett of the AP: "A former U.S. attorney will conduct an independent review of the division of Chicago's law department that defends police after a judge last week accused a city attorney of hiding evidence in a lawsuit over a fatal police shooting, the department's chief said Sunday.... [Mayor Rahm] Emanuel said Tuesday that he didn't think it was necessary to expand the investigation to include the city's law department. Two days later, he announced there would be an independent review, but didn't disclose details.

Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: "Two days after a Philadelphia cop was shot by a man who said he had pledged loyalty to the Islamic State, the city's police and the FBI are investigating a tip that the man was part of a group with radical beliefs that might still pose a threat."

Way Beyond

Emily Rauhala of the Washington Post: "China's stock slide showed no signs of easing Monday, steamrolling over attempts by Beijing regulators to stem a dive that has battered markets around the world. The Shanghai Composite dropped more than 5 percent, dragging down Asian and European markets and extending last week's losses."

Anthony Faiola & Stephanie Kirchner of the Washington Post: "The Islamist extremist who staged a failed attack on a Paris police station last week had been living in a home for asylum seekers in western Germany, police said, deepening fears that militants may be infiltrating Europe disguised as migrants." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "Islamic State militants attacked a shopping mall in eastern Baghdad on Monday evening, killing at least 17 people and turning the neighborhood into an urban war zone at rush hour, with helicopters hovering overhead and snipers taking positions on nearby rooftops."

New York Times: "David Bowie, the infinitely changeable, fiercely forward-looking songwriter who taught generations of musicians about the power of drama, images and personas, died on Sunday, two days after his 69th birthday."

The Commentariat -- January 10, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "White House chief of staff Dennis [sic.] McDonough on Sunday said President Obama will not endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary race.... He added that Obama will be 'out there' campaigning after the primary to support the eventual nominee." ...

... Kyle Cheney of Politico: "President Barack Obama has met privately with Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton several times in recent months, but his chief of staff said Sunday that he's powwowed with her chief rival, Bernie Sanders, too. 'He has seen Senator Sanders, both with the Senate Democratic Caucus and privately,' Denis McDonough said on NBC's Meet the Press. 'And so, we'll continue to do that. He's obviously a leading senator in our caucus and we'll continue to do just that.'"

Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords will endorse Hillary Clinton, a person familiar with her plans confirmed."

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton holds a three-point edge over Senator Bernie Sanders in Iowa, a tightening of the race with roughly three weeks until voting begins, according to a new set of surveys of likely voters from NBC/The Wall Street Journal/Marist." Haberman also reports other polling results.

Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "... Hillary Clinton said Sunday that attacks against her husband over past infidelities and allegations of sexual abuse 'won't work,' calling them a 'dead end' and a 'blind alley' for her rivals. Speaking Sunday on CBS's 'Face the Nation,' Clinton was asked to respond to an ad released last week by GOP front-runner Donald Trump in which he sought to highlight Bill Clinton's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinskey [sic.]. 'If he wants to engage in personal attacks from the past, that’s his prerogative. So be it,' Clinton said...."

Bradford Richardson: "Donald Trump says President Obama’s irresponsible use of executive orders has paved the way for him to also use them freely if he wins the presidential race. 'I won't refuse it. I'm going to do a lot of things,' Trump said when asked if he would use executive orders in an interview Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'"

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama has invited a Syrian refugee to sit in the first lady's box for the State of the Union address on Tuesday, the White House said Sunday."

Judith Shulevitz of the New York Times: "As Marx might have said had he deemed women's work worth including in his labor theory of value (he didn't), 'reproductive labor' (as feminists call the creation and upkeep of families and homes) is the basis of the accumulation of human capital. I say it's time for something like reparations.... The universal basic income is a necessary condition for a just society, for it recognizes the fact that most of us -- men, women, parents and nonparents -- do a great deal of unpaid work to sustain the general well-being.... Basic income proposals are sprouting up again, from the right as well as the left."

Mike Rogoway of the Oregonian: "Oregon Public Broadcasting visited the [Malheur refuge] compound Friday and reported that militants appeared to be using federal computers inside the compound, machines that can be accessed only with employees' ID badges. Lists of names and Social Security numbers were visible, alongside government ID cards."

Anthony Faiola & Stephanie Kirchner of the Washington Post: "The Islamist extremist who staged a failed attack on a Paris police station last week had been living in a home for asylum seekers in western Germany, police said, deepening fears that militants may be infiltrating Europe disguised as migrants."

*****

Kristen East of Politico: "Michelle Obama's State of the Union guests this year are two people who President Barack Obama met while campaigning for the Oval Office in 2008. The first lady's guests -- Edith Childs of Greenwood, South Carolina, and Earl Smith of Austin, Texas -- 'personify President Obama's time in office and most importantly, they represent who we are as Americans: inclusive and compassionate, innovative and courageous,' a White House official said in a release Saturday." ...

... Also to be one of Michelle Obama's guests: Air Force Staff Sergeant Spencer Stone, who was one of the men "who subdued a gunman in August on a Paris-bound train...." Per Jackie Calmes of the New York Times. ...

... Gregory Korte of USA Today: "The White House said Friday that one seat in the First Lady's box 'will be left empty for the victims of gun violence who no longer have a voice.' [President] Obama made the announcement in a conference call with more than 20,000 supporters to discuss gun safety." ...

... Neil Vigdor of the CTpost: Connecticut "Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will be a guest of first lady Michelle Obama for Tuesday's State of the Union address, further linking his legacy to President Barack Obama's progressive efforts on gun control." ...

... Kevin Freking of the AP: "A formerly homeless veteran from Las Vegas will sit in first lady Michelle Obama's visitor box during the State of the Union address Tuesday night. Cynthia Dias, 64, served during the Vietnam War on a hospital ship as a registered nurse and attributed her years of homelessness to post-traumatic stress disorder."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court starts the new year Monday with a politically charged battle over organized labor, only one of the controversies that are putting the ideologically divided and aging justices at the center of the presidential campaign. Already on the docket are abortion, affirmative action, the rights of religious objectors to opt out of legal obligations, and a clutch of election-law disputes that could benefit one political party over another."

Missed this. Samantha Page of Think Progress (Jan. 6): "TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, announced Wednesday it is filing a claim under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), saying that the project's permit denial was 'arbitrary and unjustified.' TransCanada is seeking $15 billion in costs and damages due to the denial, and has also filed a separate lawsuit against the U.S. in federal court. Under NAFTA, companies can sue governments that put investments at risk through regulation. If it proceeds, the case will go in front of an international tribunal. (A U.S. company sued Montreal in 2013 over a fracking ban, using the same rationale). The tribunal cannot overturn the permit denial, but it can force payment of damages."

Presidential Race

Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is doubling down on his support for President Obama's gun background-checks plan, in the face of mounting attacks from his chief Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton. In a speech Saturday, Sanders set out to 'set the record straight' on a stance that he said has become distorted."

Kristen East: Hillary Clinton's campaign released a new ad Saturday seeking to turn the arguments of the most pointed critics of her tenure as Secretary of State back against them":

... Maureen Dowd: Donald Trump is "wielding his knife on [Hillary Clinton's] most sensitive pressure point: her hypocrisy in running as a feminist icon when she was part of political operations that smeared women who told the truth about Bill's transgressions. Hillary told friends that Monica [Lewinsky] was a 'troubled young person' getting ministered to by Bill and a 'narcissistic loony toon.' Hillary's henchman Sidney Blumenthal spread around the story that Monica was a stalker...." ...

... Your Dowd Antidote. The Phases of the Bill. Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "Twenty-four years after New Hampshire voters helped to resurrect his own political fortunes, [Bill] Clinton was back in the state, appealing to them.... A gifted Republican opponent will have plenty to say about each of these accomplishments, but over-all Bill's case for his wife was a strong rebuke to the idea that she has been on a cynical crusade to gain political power simply for the sake of holding it. Just as he did for [President] Obama in 2012, Bill made a case for Hillary that was better than the candidate's case for herself." ...

... CW: "A gifted Republican opponent...." Here's one true thing: there is no Republican candidate as gifted at retail politics as is Bill Clinton. ...

... Steve M.: "... making us feel icky about the Clintons, one way or another, is going to be a key Republican tactic this year.... If Trump is the nominee, the attacks are going to be blunt and unsubtle. If it's Cruz, we'll get something subtler. But sexualized discomfort is the goal."

Patrick Healy & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "The Republican Party is facing a historic split over its fundamental principles and identity, as its once powerful establishment grapples with an eruption of class tensions, ethnic resentments and mistrust among working-class conservatives who are demanding a presidential nominee who represents their interests.... Rank-and-file conservatives, after decades of deferring to party elites, are trying to stage what is effectively a people's coup by selecting a standard-bearer who is not the preferred candidate of wealthy donors and elected officials. And many of those traditional power brokers, in turn, are deeply uncomfortable and even hostile to Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz: Between them, the leading candidates do not have the backing of a single senator or governor."

Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "Some registered voters in Iowa received robocalls Saturday from a white nationalist super PAC that urged them to support Donald Trump in the 2016 election. 'I urge you to vote for Donald Trump because he is the one candidate who points out that we should accept immigrants who are good for America,' Jared Taylor said on the robocall, paid for by the American National Super PAC. 'We don't need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated white people who will assimilate to our culture. Vote Trump.'... The robocall included two more endorsements from a conservative Christian talk show host and the head of the white nationalist American Freedom Party.... Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not immediately respond to a request for comment." ...

... Donald Trump & Michael Miller of the Washington Post & some former classmates argue over Trump's performance at New York Military Academy. ...

... Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "...Donald Trump says North Korean communist dictator Kim Jong-un deserves 'credit' for the cutthroat efficiency with which he disposes of his political foes." CW: Expect Kim to endorse Donald any day now & Donald to boast about it. If you want to know what kind of a president Trump would be, I believe the answer is embedded here. ...

... Birtherism, Ctd. Trip Gabriel & Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump sharply escalated his rhetoric about Senator Ted Cruz's eligibility to be president on Saturday, suggesting that because he was born in Canada there were unanswered questions about whether he met the constitutional requirement to be a 'natural-born citizen.'... Mr. Cruz was born in Calgary, Canada, to an American mother, which automatically conferred American citizenship. Most legal experts agree that satisfies the requirement to be a 'natural-born citizen,' a term that was not defined by the founders." ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... white Republicans -- which can often just be shortened to 'Republicans' -- support disciplining a child with spanking. In 2014, 80 percent of white Republicans agreed with [Ted] Cruz that spanking was okay.... The only region of the country in which a majority opposes spanking is New England: Very white, very Democratic New England."

... MEANWHILE. Anna Palmer of Politico: "As Trump packs stadiums across the country, and Cruz treks through Iowa expanding his lead, the rest of the Republican field -- desperate for traction -- debated the finer points of the earned-income tax credit, charter-school education and how the Republican Party can help alleviate poverty at the sedate -- and serious -- Kemp Forum on Expanding Opportunity.... Nobody was paying attention. And that's why the forum neatly explained the 2016 race. It lasted more than five hours, the crowd was tame and the candidates -- many of whom have struggled to break through -- spent the entirety of the session in a collegial back-and-forth discussion of vital, if mundane policy proposals that polls suggest most voters don't care a lick about."

Beyond the Beltway

So this guy showed up to "de-escalate" the situation at the Malheur refuge.Sam Levin of the Guardian: "A large group of heavily armed men showed up to the wildlife refuge occupation in eastern Oregon on Saturday, further escalating tensions and causing internal conflicts at the protests.... The men said they were with a group called the Pacific Patriot Network and were a 'neutral party', there to provide security and protection for everyone at the refuge. LaVoy Finicum, a regular spokesman for the armed militia, which has occupied the federal land since last Saturday, told the men they were not welcome or needed and that the militia was trying to minimize conflicts -- not bring more guns to the compound. Ammon Bundy, the leader of the militia, had no idea a new group of armed men would be coming, according to Todd Macfarlane, who said he was acting as a liaison between the militia and the public." ...

... Kelly House of the Oregonian is updating developments. After Ammon Bundy said he didn't want the "help" of the Pacific Patriots Network, members of the heavily-armed group began leaving the immediate area. ...

... Shakezula of LG&M: "Why PPN thought Ammo Bundy wanted them to come to MNWR is indeed a mystery. At the end of his Dec. 30 FB post he writes: 'CALL TO ACTION: All able body men and women come to Burns, Oregon on or before January 2nd. Come prepared and be willing to stand.' PPN showed up seven days after the deadline. That's not fashionably late, that's just gauche."

Bryce Covert of Think Progress: "On Friday, lawyers for [19 women] who alleged that employees of Baltimore's public housing agency demanded sex in return for critical housing repairs announced a settlement for all victims of sexual harassment in public housing. Besides a financial award between $6 million and $7.5 million, the settlement required Baltimore to fire and ban all the abusers from Housing Authority property, move the plaintiffs into livable homes. The Housing Authority also created 50 new maintenance positions with new policies and procedures, and cut down their backlog of repairs from over 4,000 to 1,500." CW: Being a poor woman of color in this country still is a sentence to perpetual indignities, both small & terrible. ...

... For Instance. Magee Hickey & Alyssa Zauderer of WPIX New York: "Police have released surveillance video of five men accused of holding a teenager at gunpoint and raping her inside of a playground Thursday in Brooklyn.... The 18-year-old was walking with her father in Osborn Playground near Hegeman Avenue when they were approached by five men. One of the men pointed a gun at the victims and told the father to leave. The father fled and called police, while all five men raped the teenager. By the time police had arrived, the suspects ran." ...

... CW: Wait a minute. Five men had time to rape a young woman in a public park before NYPD showed up? The incident took place in Brownsville, which is a poor, predominantly African-American section of Brooklyn. Maybe, just maybe, that explains it. Neither this NYC report nor another I read even comment on the time factor. Evidently, the sl-o-o-ow response time is to be expected.

Way Beyond

Azam Ahmed of the New York Times: "After long resisting requests from Washington, the Mexican government is moving toward extraditing Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo, to the United States to face drug and murder charges there, Mexican officials said on Saturday." CW: Also, less likely to escape from U.S. max security prison. ...

... While Guzman was on the run, actor Sean Penn interviewed him. Rolling Stone has published the interview along with a lo-o-o-ong prologue by Penn. Penn fancies himself an "author," which he thinks means composing an adverb-laden internal monologue. ...

... Educardo Castillo & Katherine Corcoran of the AP: "A Mexican federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to comment on the issue, told the Associated Press it was the Penn interview that led authorities to Guzman in a rural part of Durango state in October.

Erik Kirschbaum & Marcia Adair of the Los Angeles Times: "Pitched battles erupted during an anti-immigration demonstration in Cologne on Saturday between the right-wing marchers and police as tensions in Germany remained high more than a week after hundreds of women were sexually assaulted and robbed on New Year's Eve." ...

... BBC News: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel has proposed changes to make it easier to deport asylum-seekers who commit crimes, after the New Year's Eve sex attacks on women in Cologne." ...

... Der Spiegel (English): "New Year's Eve in Cologne rapidly descended into a chaotic free-for-all involving sexual assault and theft, most of it apparently committed by foreigners. It has launched a bitter debate over immigration and refugees in Germany -- one that could change the country."

News Ledes

AP: "Egypt's first legislature in more than three years, a 596-seat chamber packed with supporters of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, held its inaugural session on Sunday, signaling the completion of a political road map announced after the 2013 military overthrow of an elected Islamist president."

AP: "No ticket matched all six Powerball numbers following the drawing for a record jackpot of nearly $950 million, lottery officials said early Sunday, boosting the expected payout for the next drawing to a whopping $1.3 billion. The winning numbers -- disclosed live on television and online Saturday night -- were 16-19-32-34-57 and the Powerball number 13. All six numbers must be correct to win, although the first five can be in any order. The odds to win the largest lottery prize in U.S. history were one in 292.2 million."