The Commentariat -- Dec. 23, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

For more on Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (RTP), see Akhilleus's commentary in today's thread. While Bevin is hurting thousands of Kentuckians, there is irony in his hurting the very people who probably voted for him: low-income state workers.

*****

Bill Scher in Real Clear Politics: "Presidential scholars have a term to describe the typical experience of a chief executive who wins re-election to the White House. It's called the 'second-term curse.' There's evidence for it. Midway through their second terms, George W. Bush suffered Hurricane Katrina and the Iraqi quagmire, Bill Clinton was impeached, Ronald Reagan was staggered by the Iran-contra scandal,and Richard Nixon was run out of town. At the risk of jinxing our current president with one year left to go, he appears to have broken the curse." Via Steve Benen, whose commentary is worth reading, too.

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "... President Obama released letters he had received from gay members of the military thanking the president for repealing the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy exactly five years ago. Mr. Obama promised in a corresponding Facebook post that he would spend the remainder of his presidency looking for ways to combat discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.... Mr. Obama's victory lap on the 'don't ask, don't tell' anniversary came amid criticism from some Republicans and conservatives that he has not done enough to support the military. Conservative news outlets reacted with outrage on Monday after the president allowed himself to be photographed celebrating a golf shot at the start of his two-week Hawaiian vacation, but did not make any comments to the news media about the death just hours earlier of six American soldiers in a suicide attack in Afghanistan." ...

... CW: "Conservative news outlets reacted with outrage" should be the sentence of the decade. Google it, & you get dozens of entries on unrelated topics, "conservatives reacting with outrage" to whatever. Also, Ms. Davis, a single Facebook entry does not constitute a "victory lap." It's true that President Obama has been on a bit of a victory lap, using year-end events like his press conference to tout his administration's accomplishments. A "lap" is a series of actions, not a single incidence. Pardon my pedantry.

Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "... President Obama is starting to come around on pardons, or at least on commutations.... Obama is moving in the right direction, but he has a long way to go.... Over the last year of his Presidency, his Administration should publish the names of people being considered for pardons.... This public airing might well save Obama from making some poor choices, but it will also guarantee him a measure of political protection.... The pardon power, with its roots in the monarchy, allows a President to go big -- and that's exactly how Obama should go."

Keith Alexander, et al., of the Washington Post: "More than 50 police officers involved in fatal shootings this year had previously fired their guns in deadly on-duty shootings, according to a Washington Post investigation.... The Post also found that an additional 45 officers had previously been involved in non-fatal shootings. The findings concerned many law enforcement experts, who said that most officers never fire their weapons on the job. The analysis also exposed another gap in the federal government's oversight of fatal police shootings nationwide: the absence of a system for tracking multiple shootings by individual officers.... In most cases, the person killed was armed and the shootings were found to be justified by authorities or were still under investigation."

Our Crooked Congress Prospers. Charles Pierce: "Buried in the budget deal that now has emerged from Congress is a provision by which the IRS will be actively forbidden from enacting new rules in 2016 to rein in the obvious scams in which most of the 501(c)4's engage. I don't care how loudly the flying monkeys howl at Speaker Paul Ryan for 'betraying' them by striking a deal at all, this is the real joker in the deck, and the fact that this principle was so easily bargained away says a great deal about the people in power from both political parties. They have accepted the new reality of legalized influence-peddling and are finding ways to prosper in it. This, I guess, is another New Normal in our politics."

William Frey, in the Washington Post, demonstrates how a Supreme Court decision for the plaintiff in the voting rights case Evenwel v. Abbott , who want legislative districts to be based on voters, not residents, would result in strongly skewing districts in favor of older, white citizens.

Thomas Edsall of the New York Times discusses political correctness, & it turns out everybody, from President Obama on down to Donald Trump, thinks political correctness is an outrageous disruption of free speech. ...

... CW: Edsall doesn't bother to discriminate among the types of so-called political correctness. There's a big difference between criticizing the "coddling of college students" (Obama) & calling women "fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals" (Trump). Edsall lumped together average people who don't like to have to "be careful" what they say around "certain people" & Ben Carson's complaint that "'political correctness' bears the responsibility for the criticism he ... faced ... when he said he would 'not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation.'" Anway, Edsall, as he does quite often, exhibits the downside of both-siderism. Dana Milbank (column linked yesterday) did a much better job of capturing how Trump, Carson & the whole winger crowd have abused the term political correctness & used it as a catchall to criticize all manner of supposed liberal policies.

Annals of Journalism. Ken Ritter of the AP: "The editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal capped more than a week of turmoil sparked by the sale of Nevada's largest newspaper to the family of casino magnate and Republican party kingmaker Sheldon Adelson with an announcement on Tuesday that he's stepping down. Mike Hengel stunned the newsroom with word that he had accepted a voluntary buyout, according to several staff members who took to Twitter after the announcement."

Presidential Race

Patrick Healy of the New York Timeslooks back on the year in presidential campaigning.

Bernie Sanders, in a New York Times op-ed: "To rein in Wall Street, we should begin by reforming the Federal Reserve, which oversees financial institutions and which uses monetary policy to maintain price stability and full employment. Unfortunately, an institution that was created to serve all Americans has been hijacked by the very bankers it regulates."

Fox Business Gets Down to Business. Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "As few as six candidates could make the next GOP presidential debate stage in January, as Fox Business Network's new criteria could drastically shrink the field less than a month before the Iowa caucuses.... Using current RealClearPolitics averages, Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Ben Carson, former Gov. Jeb Bush (Fla.), and Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.) currently sit in the national top six.... That would relegate Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), Carly FIorina, and Gov. John Kasich (Ohio) to the undercard debate...."

Nick Corasantini & Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Soaring advertising costs in early primary states are compelling major 'super PACs' to realign their tactics, de-emphasizing costly broadcast commercials in favor of the kind of nuts-and-bolts work that presidential candidates used to handle themselves. They are overseeing extensive field operations, data-collection programs, digital advertising, email lists, opposition research and voter registration efforts.... Originally conceived as a vehicle to raise and spend unlimited money on television, the most expensive part of a White House run, the groups now are seeking to relieve campaigns of much of the vital infrastructure that candidates would otherwise have to assemble and manage themselves." ...

... CW: Now I'd like one of you brilliant legal scholars -- maybe you, John Roberts, because I'm pretty sure you never miss a day of Reality Chex -- explain to me how compiling e-mails lists & collecting other data, etc., constitutes "free speech." It's one think to say, "I like Ted"; quite another to skulk around looking for Marco's lovechild.

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's tax plan would benefit the wealthiest Americans the most while saddling the economy with trillions of dollars in new debt, according to an analysis released on Tuesday by the Tax Policy Center.... Despite the populist tone of his campaign, Mr. Trump's plan appears to open new loopholes that would allow the well-off to shave their tax bills and could debilitate the economy as lawmakers look for requisite spending cuts.... While Mr. Trump said that billionaires like himself would be hit the hardest under his plan, the Tax Policy Center disagrees." ...

Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post: "Trump's support is deeper than we want to admit." ...

... Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: Donald Trump's saying it was 'too disgusting' to talk about Hillary Clinton's bathroom break & "that she had got 'schlonged' by Barack Obama ... was another example of his mastery in exploiting the psychological biases of conservatives...." It turns out that research shows conservatives are more easily "disgusted" than liberals & don't like talking/thinking about private parts. ...

     ... CW: I have always thought this was the main reason conservatives are so often anti-gay; they just don't like being reminded about nasty, dirty sex, & when they do speak of sex, they joke about it and/or treat it in terms of conquest & power dynamics -- the kind of "discourse" you might have engaged in when you were in 7th grade. We've already learned that Trump uses a third-grader's vocabulary. His disengagement with facts & truth also are childish. His simplistic ideas -- build a wall, make the Mexicans pay -- & ignorance of Government 101, his insults, his schoolyard bullying & his love of glitz -- almost everything about him suggests remarkably arrested development. He models his followers -- people whose sociopathy is rooted in their failure to grow past grade-school intellectual & social developmental levels. No, Donald, you are not "like very, very smart," and neither are your supporters. ...

     ... Apparently, Trump also considers women's breasts to be private parts, & the mere mention of their biological function also is "disgusting." Although Trump thinks it important to have "a young and beautiful piece of ass" at his disposal, the women function as symbols of his power, not as sexual, or -- God forbid -- romantic partners. This is the same dynamic you see in his comment that Barack Obama "schlonged" Hillary Clinton. "Schlong" as verb is not idiomatic Yiddish; Trump appropriated the noun to describe a real political power struggle in ruthless sexual terms: a young black man conquering/raping an older white woman. This of course plays into the false stereotype of young black men as dangerous sexual predators -- so Trump's coinage of "schlonged" is a two-fer. Trump's hatred of Obama is pathological -- Trump sees Obama as a potent young black man who would conquer/rape those pieces of ass Trump parades as power trophies. Trump's pathetic birtherism foray was all about his own sexual insecurity. Thanks to Victoria D. for the link to Nina Bahadur's Huffington Post piece on 18 things Trump has said about women. That will be 5 cents, please. ...

... Evan McMorris-Santoro of BuzzFeed: "Donald Trump 'has discovered that women go to the bathroom and it's very upsetting for him,' [Bernie] Sanders told a large crowd of laughing college students.... 'He must have a very unusual relationship with women,' Sanders said. He noted that he too took a pit stop at the debate."

Behind Closed Doors. Mike Allen of Politico: "In June, Ted Cruz promised on NPR that opposition to gay marriage would be 'front and center' in his 2016 campaign. In July, he said the Supreme Court's decision allowing same-sex marriage was the 'very definition of tyranny' and urged states to ignore the ruling. But in December, behind closed doors at a big-dollar Manhattan fundraiser..., [Cruz] assured a Republican gay-rights supporter that a Cruz administration would not make fighting same-sex marriage a top priority."

Beyond the Beltway

AP: "Republican Kentucky governor Matt Bevin ordered the state to prepare new marriage licenses that do not include the names of county clerks, in an attempt to protect the religious beliefs of clerk Kim Davis and other local elected officials.... 'The requirement that the county clerk's name appear on marriage licenses is prescribed by Kentucky law and is not subject to unilateral change by the governor,' the [ACLU] says.... Davis and her supporters had asked [former Gov. Steve] Beshear [D] to issue a similar executive order. Beshear had refused, arguing only the state legislature had the authority to change the state law requiring the contents of the marriage license form."

AP: "A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that Utah can cut off federal funds to the state's Planned Parenthood organization, a move the Republican governor ordered after the release of secretly recorded videos by an anti-abortion group. The ruling from US district judge Clark Waddoups reversed an earlier decision.... His ruling allows Utah to cut off funds ... while the organization still pursues its lawsuit against the state."

Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post: Virginia "Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) announced Tuesday that Virginia will no longer recognize concealed carry handgun permits from 25 states that have reciprocity agreements with the commonwealth. Under the policy, Virginians with a history of stalking, drug dealing or inpatient mental-health treatment cannot obtain a permit in a state with comparatively lax laws and carry a handgun legally at home." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Voting Saves Lives. CW: If you recall, Herring won election by "a mere 165 votes out of more than 2 million cast." This is why you vote Democratic, even if the candidate isn't super-progressive.

Way Beyond

New York Times: "For the first time, Iraqi forces engaged Islamic State fighters within the city center of Ramadi on Tuesday, reaching the edge of the inner government district in an attempt to seize the critical western provincial capital after months of approach and maneuvering, officials said."

Tim Arango of the New York Times: "On land and at sea, Turkey's borders, long a revolving door of refugees, foreign fighters and the smugglers who enable them, are at the center of two separate yet interlinked global crises: the migrant tide convulsing Europe and the Syrian civil war that propels it. Accused by Western leaders of turning a blind eye to these critical borders, Turkey at last seems to be getting serious about shoring them up. Under growing pressure from Europe and the United States, Turkey has in recent weeks taken steps to cut off the flows of refugees and of foreign fighters who have helped destabilize a vast portion of the globe, from the Middle East to Europe." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rick Lyman of the New York Times: "Interviews with aid workers and dozens of refugees making their way across a half-dozen countries revealed a widespread fear of the Bulgarian authorities. They talked of rough or violent behavior by border guards, who will register and fingerprint the migrants -- meaning they have to stay in Bulgaria while their cases are adjudicated -- or push them back into Turkey. The Bulgarian government, which like its counterparts in many other Central and Eastern European capitals has been far less welcoming of refugees than those in most of Western Europe, dismissed suggestions of systemic efforts to intimidate refugees."

News Lede

New York Times: "A Walmart truck driver who crashed his tractor-trailer into a vehicle carrying the comedian Tracy Morgan, critically injuring Mr. Morgan and killing another passenger, was indicted on Wednesday by a New Jersey grand jury on charges of manslaughter, vehicular homicide and aggravated assault."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 22, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Tim Arango of the New York Times: "On land and at sea, Turkey's borders, long a revolving door of refugees, foreign fighters and the smugglers who enable them, are at the center of two separate yet interlinked global crises: the migrant tide convulsing Europe and the Syrian civil war that propels it. Accused by Western leaders of turning a blind eye to these critical borders, Turkey at last seems to be getting serious about shoring them up. Under growing pressure from Europe and the United States, Turkey has in recent weeks taken steps to cut off the flows of refugees and of foreign fighters who have helped destabilize a vast portion of the globe,from the Middle East to Europe."

Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post: Virginia "Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) announced Tuesday that Virginia will no longer recognize concealed carry handgun permits from 25 states that have reciprocity agreements with the commonwealth. Under the policy, Virginians with a history of stalking, drug dealing or inpatient mental-health treatment cannot obtain a permit in a state with comparatively lax laws and carry a handgun legally at home." ...

     ... Voting Saves Lives. CW: If you recall, Herring won election by "a mere 165 votes out of more than 2 million cast." This is why you vote Democratic, even if the candidate isn't super-progressive.

*****

** Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "In the past decade, Missouri has been a natural experiment in what happens when a state relaxes its gun control laws.... In the first six years after the state repealed the requirement for comprehensive background checks and purchase permits, the gun homicide rate was 16 percent higher than it was the six years before. During the same period, the national rate declined by 11 percent. After ... controll[ing] for poverty and other factors that could influence the homicide rate..., the result was slightly higher, rising by 18 percent in Missouri.... Before the repeal, from 1999 to 2006, Missouri's gun homicide rate was 13.8 percent higher than the national rate. From 2008 to 2014, it was 47 percent higher.... Other measures suggested that criminals had easier access to guns after the permit law was repealed." ...

     ... CW: Those sanctimonious right-to-lifers are killing our children as surely as if they pulled the triggers themselves.

David Remnick of the New Yorker writes a readable, engaging profile of John Kerry, which contributor Diane recommended yesterday. CW: My favorite sentence: "As a diplomat, Kerry is duty-bound to describe raw reality in upholstered platitudes." I have thought for decades that Kerry represented noblesse oblige in its finest form. Yes, he can be an insufferable bore, but he means well & he works hard at it.

Rebecca Kheel of the Hill: Human Rights Watch, "a leading human rights organization, is urging Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to investigate the U.S. bombing of a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan as a potential war crime."

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is setting up the Senate for an early 2016 fight over the acceptance of refugees in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. Don Stewart, a spokesman for the Republican leader, said that McConnell 'confirmed for the Speaker that the Senate will take up and consider legislation concerning the security of the refugee admission process, in particular, refugees from Syria, in the first quarter of next year.'"

American "Justice"/Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Michael Corkery of the New York Times: "... debt buyers are using the courts to sue consumers and collect debt, then preventing those same consumers from using the courts to challenge the companies' tactics.... The use of arbitration by the companies is the latest frontier in a legal strategy orchestrated by corporations in recent years. By inserting arbitration clauses into the fine print of consumer contracts, they have found a way to block access to the courts and ban class-action lawsuits, the only realistic way to bring a case against a deep-pocketed corporation."

Peter Henning of the New York Times: "The indictment of Martin Shkreli ... was described by a F.B.I. official as the 'securities fraud trifecta of lies, deceit and greed.'... What makes the case interesting is that a lawyer, Evan Greebel, has been charged as an accomplice for not protecting his corporate client that Mr. Shkreli is accused of using essentially as a personal piggy bank.... When legal advice pushes over the line into enabling fraud, then a lawyer can wind up on the wrong side of the law." ...

... Samantha Masunaga of the Los Angeles Times: "South San Francisco drug company KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Monday that it terminated its chief executive, Martin Shkreli, last week. KaloBios also said Shkreli resigned from his position on the company's board of directors." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

CW: Shkreli seems to be working on amassing particulars for an insanity defense.

Ovetta Wiggins & Bill Turque of the Washington Post: "The NAACP on Monday filed a federal civil rights complaint against Maryland, alleging that the state discriminated against African American residents in Baltimore when Gov. Larry Hogan killed the Red Line rail project and diverted state money to road and bridge projects elsewhere." ...

... CW: This is a reminder that there are many, many ways to discriminate against the have-nots, & poor public transportation is one way that often goes unnoticed. There's nothing worse for the environment, BTW, than crummy or nonexistent public transportation systems. And a good public transportation system is one way governments can provide a big boost to the economy -- not that Republicans can grasp this highly complex concept. ...

... MEANWHILE. Luz Lazo of the Washington Post: "The planned Metro station in Alexandria's growing Potomac Yard community is officially part of the region's passenger rail system. The cheapest home for sale in Potomac Yard was more than half a million bucks in 2012. And so it goes.

Rick Noack of the Washington Post: "On Tuesday, the number of refugees and migrants that arrived in Europe this year passed the one million mark, according to the International Organization for Migration."

The Trump Card

Part 1. Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better. Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "In a country that has become not just polarized, but also atomized; in which we root unwaveringly for our own political 'teams' composed of those who look, think, vote and raise children exactly as we do; and in which we treat opposing viewpoints as motivated by malice or stupidity rather than honest disagreement, perhaps it is not so surprising that so many Americans have come down with a serious case of dictator envy, a longing for a political strongman (such as, say, Donald Trump) who will put our neighbors in their place and skirt the pluralistic niceties and nonsense of democracy." ...

Part 2. Peter Holley & Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: Donald Trump "has become a great outreach tool [for white nationalists like the KKK], providing separatists with an easy way to start a conversation about issues that are important to the dying white supremacist movement.... For ... a growing number of white nationalists flocking to the campaign's circus-like tent, the billionaire sounds familiar, like a man fluent in the native tongue of disaffected whites.... During Trump's meteoric rise to the top of the Republican field, white supremacist groups have enthusiastically embraced him." CW: Bear in mind, this is a straight news story in the relatively conservative Washington Post, not something you read in the Daily Worker.

Presidential Race

Dan Merica of CNN: "Hillary Clinton will roll out a plan to combat Alzheimer's disease in Fairfield, Iowa, on Tuesday, pledging to spend $2 billion annually to fight the disease and research a cure, according to a Clinton aide." ...

... Hillary Clinton IS Fighting Dirty -- For No Good Reason. Ryan Cooper of the Week: "Instead of laying low and playing it cool, [Hillary] Clinton is running as though the race were very close, tax-baiting [Bernie] Sanders with Republican talking points, and allowing a proxy to blow up a huge fight with the Sanders campaign over a data breach. It's a mystifying and risky way to run a campaign.... A promise of no tax increases means she cannot support Kirsten Gillibrand's paid leave proposal. Clinton's stance also basically rules out badly needed increases in Social Security.... Her 2008 campaign repeatedly stooped to outright race-baiting against Obama. In the grand scheme of politics, this data-breach story is small potatoes. Yet instead of trying to smooth over the dispute -- as Sanders himself did for Clinton's email problem -- her only response was to insist on a full accounting of her campaign data.... The DNC never would have gone so far as suspending access, even temporarily, if Clinton did not tacitly approve."

... Eliza Collins of Politico: John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, went on a "Twitter spree," attacking Donald Trump for being ISIS's "Recruiter-in-Chief."

Liar of the Year. Angie Holan, et al., of PolitiFact: "In considering our annual Lie of the Year, we found our only real contenders were [Donald] Trump's -- his various statements also led our Readers' Poll. But it was hard to single one out from the others. So we have rolled them into one big trophy.... We've rated 76 percent of them Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire, out of 77 statements checked. No other politician has as many statements rated so far down on the dial."

David Lauter of the Los Angeles Times: "Donald Trump leads the GOP presidential field in polls of Republican voters nationally and in most early-voting states, but some surveys may actually be understating his support, a new study suggests." ...

... Jonathan Allen in the New York Daily News: "For the first few months, the Trump deniers ... could be called wishful thinkers. With the primaries just around the corner, as many otherwise smart political analysts keep waiting, aching, for conventional order to be restored, it's time to call them what they are: delusional. He's sitting on a double-digit lead in New Hampshire, holds a 20-point edge in South Carolina and runs 27 points ahead of his nearest competitor in Georgia. Though he's probably going to lose Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucus to Cruz, who's leading in the polls there, Trump could finish a strong second." ...

... Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump used vulgar language as he attacked Hillary Clinton during a rally on Monday night, saying her use of the restroom at the last Democratic debate was 'too disgusting' to talk about and that in 2008 she got 'schlonged' by Barack Obama when he defeated her in the Democratic primary." CW: Hard to say if these remarks would seem more dignified if delivered in a posh British accent. (See video in December 19 Commentariat.) Nonetheless, it's lovely to hear words like "schlong" being introduced into presidential discourse. ...

    ... Justin Moyer of the Washington Post conducts a "linguistic investigation" of the use of "schlong" as a verb.

... Dana Milbank: Donald "Trump and his fellow Republican presidential candidates have connected political correctness to virtually every issue.... The notion of political correctness ... has recently grown into the mother of all straw men. Once a pejorative term applied to liberals' determination not to offend any ethnic or other identity group, it now is used lazily by some conservatives to label everything classified under 'that with which I disagree.'"

... Good news for the Fourth Estate: Trump hates "some of them," but promises not to kill reporters.

... Emily Atkin of Think Progress: "On Monday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Aside from former New York governor George Pataki -- who has consistently polled at zero percent and has failed to get his name on primary ballots in multiple states -- Graham was the only person in the crowded Republican field who admitted that the planet is warming, that the warming is harmful, and that humans are the primary cause." ...

... AND. Sahil Kapur: "With Graham’s exit, the GOP field has zero candidates who support a comprehensive immigration overhaul with a path to citizenship." Via Paul Waldman. ...

... Daniel Strauss catalogues the best one-liners Lindsey Graham delivered during the undercard debates.

Mandy Patinkin on Ted Cruz. If a candidate cannot embrace Patinkin's point, s/he is not qualified for high public office. Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the link:

Beyond the Beltway

John Flesher of the AP: "A new study provides the strongest evidence yet of a link between elevated blood-lead levels in children living in Flint, Michigan, and the struggling city's water system, a pediatrician who first raised alarms about the matter said Monday."

CBS San Francisco: "A neighborhood in Richmond[, California] had to be evacuated Sunday when police say a man was making explosives in his home with the intent of harming the Muslim community.... Police removed a device from the home [in Richmond]..., and the Walnut Creek bomb squad detonated a device before neighbors were allowed to return to their homes." ...

     ... CW: Why is it I don't think the right will freak out over this particular (alleged) terrorist? ...

... Oh, and just by pure, accidental, serendipitous coincidence, the suspect -- one William Celli -- is a Donald Trump supporter.

Sarah Kaplan & Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: "Lakeisha Holloway, "the homeless woman who plowed a car into pedestrians on the Las Vegas Strip, killing at least one person and injuring dozens more, later told investigators that she was stressed out after security guards repeatedly ran her off their properties, where she'd been trying to sleep in her sedan.... Holloway is expected to be charged with murder with a deadly weapon among other charges, prosecutors said Monday."

Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "Grand jurors in Texas declined on Monday to indict anyone in connection to the July death of a Chicago-area woman, Sandra Bland, who was found hanged in her cell at the Waller County jail, one of the special prosecutors assigned to the case said."

Blame the Victims. Brittny Mejia of the Los Angeles Times: "Striking back legally against one of his many accusers, Bill Cosby on Monday filed a defamation suit against model Beverly Johnson, saying that she lied about him in an attempt to 'resuscitate her own career.'... Last week, he filed a countersuit against seven women suing him for defamation, accusing them of making false accusations for financial gain."

Way Beyond

Lindsay Murdoch of the Sydney Morning Herald: "... Brunei has banned public celebrations of Christmas, including sending festive greetings and the wearing of Santa Claus hats. Muslims seen celebrating Christmas and non-Muslims found to be organising celebrations could face up to five years jail. However the country's non-Muslims, who comprise 32 per cent of the 420,000 population, can celebrate Christmas in their own communities on the condition that the celebrations are not disclosed to Muslims." CW: Somebody might want to point out to Bill O'Reilly what a real War of Christmas looks like, but he would probably say the Brunei edict was President Obama's idea.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Besieged Afghan forces were struggling to head off a complete Taliban takeover of the critical southern district of Sangin on Tuesday, and a new deployment of British troops was rushed in to help direct an increasingly pressed battle across the surrounding province of Helmand."

Washington Post: "Iraqi forces broke into Ramadi's city center on Tuesday, pushing closer to its main government buildings in what commanders hope will be a final push to recapture the key provincial capital from Islamic State militants."...

... The New York Times story is here.

The Commentariat -- Dec. 21, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Samantha Masunaga of the Los Angeles Times: "South San Francisco drug company KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Monday that it terminated its chief executive, Martin Shkreli, last week. KaloBios also said Shkreli resigned from his position on the company's board of directors."

*****

Doyle Rice of USA Today: "The winter solstice -- marking the longest night and shortest day of the year -- is Monday night. The solstice occurs at the same instant everywhere on Earth. In the United States, it happens at 11:48 p.m. ET Monday (or 10:48 p.m. CT, 9:48 p.m. MT and 8:48 p.m. PT). In Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, that means the solstice actually comes on Tuesday."

Harry Goes Out with a Billion-Dollar Bang. Eric Lipton & Liz Moyer of the New York Times: "As congressional leaders were hastily braiding together a tax and spending bill of more than 2,000 pages, lobbyists swooped in to add 54 words that temporarily preserved a loophole sought by the hotel, restaurant and gambling industries, along with billionaire Wall Street investors, that allowed them to put real estate in trusts and avoid taxes. They won support from the top Senate Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, who responded to appeals from executives of casino companies, politically powerful players and huge employers in his state. And the lobbyists even helped draft the crucial language. The small changes, and the enormous windfall they generated [$1BB in future tax obligations], show the power of connected corporate lobbyists to alter a huge bill that is being put together with little time for lawmakers to consider. Throughout the legislation, there were thousands of other add-ons and hard to decipher tax changes."

Jonathan Chait: "People Who Were Certain Climate Change Is Fake Are Now Certain That Paris Can't Stop It." ...

... Here's one for contributor Marvin S. Jessica Prois of the New Republic: "Voluntary Birth Control Is A Climate Change Solution Nobody Wants To Talk About.... Access to voluntary birth control -- which typically means pills, condoms and IUDs -- to reduce the 40 percent of unintended pregnancies per year worldwide will cut our collective human carbon footprint, and an increasing number of countries are factoring this in to their climate change plans, experts point out."

Benjamin Siegel of ABC News: "President Obama said [Donald Trump] ... is 'exploiting' Americans' anxieties about the economy and American society.... The president also called [Ted] Cruz's plan to 'carpet bomb' ISIS 'terrible for our national security.'... In a wide-ranging interview before leaving for Hawaii, Obama also discussed the fight against ISIS, and the threat the group poses to the United States.... " Here's the full interview, by Steve Inskeep of NPR:

AP: "President Obama on Sunday paid tribute to Zaevion Dobson, a 15-year-old high-school football player from Tennessee who died on Thursday night after he shielded three girls from gunfire. 'Zaevion Dobson died saving three friends from getting shot,' Obama said, using Twitter. 'He was a hero at 15. What's our excuse for not acting?'"

Anthony Faiola & Souad Mekhennet of the Washington Post: "The recent terrorist attacks in Paris have brought into sharper focus the rise of a new breed of jihadists, one that blurs the line between organized crime and Islamist extremism, using skills honed in lawbreaking in the service of violent radicalism. The Islamic State is constructing an army of loyalists from Europe that includes an increasing number of street toughs and ex-cons.... Rather than leave behind lives of crime, some adherents are using their illicit talents to finance recruiting rings and travel costs for foreign fighters even as their backgrounds give them potentially easier access to cash and weapons, posing a new kind of challenge to European authorities." ...

...AFP: "The Islamic State group may have stolen 'tens of thousands' of blank passports that it could use to smuggle its fighters into Europe as refugees, a German newspaper reported Sunday. The Welt am Sonntag cited Western intelligence sources as saying that IS could have acquired the stolen travel documents in areas of Syria, Iraq and Libya it now controls."

Presidential Race

John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "The debate was lively, informative, and civil.... And excluding, for a moment, Martin O'Malley, it reaffirmed the choice facing Democratic voters: experience, moderate reformism, and vigorous engagement abroad (Hillary Clinton) versus passion, an assault on privilege, and an abiding skepticism about overseas military engagements (Bernie Sanders)." ...

... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "When [President] Obama was mentioned [during the Democratic debate], it was generally in passing.... On foreign policy, [Hillary] Clinton distanced herself even more from Obama. As she has in the past, she noted that Obama rejected her advice on what to do about Syria when the civil war there first started.... There is a natural tension between Obama's interest in polishing his legacy and emphasizing every achievement in his final months in office and Clinton's strategic need to respond to the real problems that voters face. But if the balance gets too out of whack, Clinton risks running a campaign that seems more like a repudiation of Obama than one that defines her as his natural heir."

The Ghosts of Campaigns Past:

Chris Danner of New York: Hillary Clinton's campaign reps Sunday walked back her debate claim that Donald Trump has been a feature of ISIS recruitment videos. "... it's also worth noting that extremist expert Seamus Hughes told Reuters that ISIS's official propaganda channels haven't mentioned Trump or his comments at all, and as the Associated Press notes, ISIS-linked attackers typically point to Western airstrike campaigns in Syria as their primary motivation. So while it's possible that Trump[s comments are being used in some kind of official recruiting capacity -- and that's definitely something ISIS-watchers are worried about -- the evidence may be limited, and even if a Trump-citing recruitment video exists, Clinton's campaign seems to be making it clear that she hasn't seen it."

Paul Krugman: "... [Donald] Trump, Ben Carson, and Ted Cruz — now commands the support of roughly 60 percent of the primary electorate.... The antiestablishment candidates now dominating the field, aside from being deeply ignorant about policy, have a habit of making false claims, then refusing to acknowledge error.... Bluster and belligerence as substitutes for analysis, disdain for any kind of measured response, dismissal of inconvenient facts reported by the 'liberal media' ... have long been key elements of the [Republican] party brand.... While [George W.] Bush;s debacles in Iraq and New Orleans eventually ended America's faith in his personal gut, the elevation of attitude over analysis only tightened its grip on his party, an evolution highlighted when John McCain ... chose the eminently unqualified Sarah Palin as his running mate. So Donald Trump as a political phenomenon is very much in a line of succession that runs from W. through Mrs. Palin, and in many ways he's entirely representative of the Republican mainstream.... In case you're wondering, nothing like this process has happened on the Democratic side."

Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump defended Russian President Vladimir Putin against accusations that he has assassinated political adversaries and journalists, responding to criticism from his rivals over his embrace of praise from the Russian leader. 'Nobody has proven that he's killed anyone. ... He's always denied it...,' Trump said on ABC's 'This Week' on Sunday. 'You're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, at least in our country. It has not been proven that he's killed reporters.'" CW: Sure, Donald, because the Russian justice apparatus would definitely haul Putin before a tribunal. Read the whole story: Trump goes on about Hillary, even criticizing her for taking too long in the bathroom. There is, BTW, a good explanation for Clinton's late return to the debate podium -- it's the same one women experience all the time: restrooms for women in sports (and some other) venues are afterthoughts. Thus, Donald has added a sexist criticism to an already-sexist reality.

Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump says the Republican National Committee (RNC) should disqualify candidates from primary debates who have failed to file paperwork to get their names on the ballots in major states." CW: He's right. Except it isn't necessary to insult low-polling candidates to the make the point, as Trump does: "When you're at like, this guy [former New York governor George] Pataki, he's been at zero for months. He couldn't get elected dog-catcher in New York. The guy's at zero for months. And he keeps on staying and staying."

Queen for a Moment. Justin Moyer of the Washington Post: Even a beauty pageant can turn into disaster without Donald Trump's direction. The host of the Miss Universe pageant -- which Trump sold shortly after Univision dropped the pageant in the wake of Trump's derogatory remarks about Mexicans -- crowned the wrong woman.

Donald Trump is the Cicero -- or the 8-year-old -- of the Republican party. Shon Arieh-Lerer of Slate compiles the evidence.

Kira Lerner of Think Progress: "Six of the Republican candidates vying for the presidency ... Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Rick Santorum, and Mike Huckabee ... have signed a pledge promising to support legislation during their first 100 days in the White House that would use the guise of 'religious liberty' to give individuals and businesses the right to openly discriminate against LGBT people."

NEW. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) ended his long-shot presidential bid Monday, telling supporters in a web video that he succeeded in changing the conversation about how to fight the Islamic State." CW: Sadly, it seems certain now that I will never be First Lady. Lindsey was my last, best chance. Not that Hillary won't leave Bill & marry me. Always look on the bright side. Even if she won't let me pick out the china.

Why Ted Cruz's Senate colleagues hate him.

Beyond the Beltway

Jesse McKinley & James McKinley of the New York Times: "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said on Sunday that he would seek out and pardon thousands of people who were convicted of nonviolent crimes as teenagers but have since led law-abiding lives. Envisioned as a way to remove stubborn barriers to employment, housing and other services, the pardons would be available to anyone who was found guilty of a nonviolent felony or misdemeanor that was committed while they were 16 or 17, provided they have spent at least a decade without any additional convictions. Under his plan, Mr. Cuomo intends to invite those people to apply for -- and virtually be assured of receiving -- a governor's pardon, as long as they meet several other criteria."

Drill, Baby, Drill? Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "In recent months, at least 93 coastal communities -- from small beach towns on the Delmarva Peninsula to the wealthy and politically powerful cities of Charleston and Myrtle Beach in South Carolina and Savannah, Ga. -- have joined a revolt against a pro-drilling movement that once seemed unstoppable in the Republican-dominated South.... The Obama administration is expected to finalize by early spring a plan that could allow limited oil and gas development off the coasts of four Southeastern states -- Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. All four have heavily supported drilling in the past.... Many of the region's most prominent elected officials continue to support offshore drilling, which industry officials say would bring thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic revenue.... But other politicians, regionally and nationally, have spoken against the [Obama administration] plan."

AP: "A St Louis police officer who fatally shot 18-year-old VonDerrit Myers Jr last year has resigned after being accused of driving his patrol car while intoxicated and crashing into a parked vehicle."

Way Beyond

Sam Borden of the New York Times: "Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, two of the most powerful figures in global soccer, were barred from the sport for eight years on Monday morning after being found guilty of ethics violations. The suspensions were imposed by the independent ethics committee of FIFA, soccer's international governing body. Mr. Blatter, who is FIFA's longtime president, as well as Mr. Platini, who is the president of UEFA, European soccer's governing body, are prohibited from taking part in any soccer-related activities while barred -- a sanction which, in Mr. Platini's case, seemingly ends any chance that he will be able to run in February's special election to fill the post Mr. Blatter has already said he would vacate."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Six members of the NATO military mission in Afghanistan were killed by a Taliban suicide bomber on Monday while on patrol near Bagram Air Base, the largest remaining American military base in the country, officials said." ...

     ... New Lede: "In one of the deadliest attacks against American forces in Afghanistan this year, a Taliban suicide bomber on a motorcycle drove into a military convoy near Bagram Air Base on Monday, killing six American soldiers, United States officials said."

CNN: "Just hours after his 28-year-old grandson [Jeremy Carter] died, a shaken former President Jimmy Carter broke the news to his Plains, Georgia, church and then taught Sunday School according to the church's minister."