The Commentariat -- December 6, 2015
Mario Trujillo of the Hill: "President Obama will discuss the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings and the broader threat of terrorism on Sunday night in a rare prime time address from the Oval Office. The address at 8 p.m. will hit on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) and how the terror threat has "evolved, and how we will defeat it," according to the White House." CW: I was just thinking he should do this. And I hope he tells Republican presidential candidates & other loudmouths to STFU. ...
Peter Baker & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times :"'We have moved to an entirely new phase in the global terrorist threat and in our homeland security efforts,' Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, said in an interview on Saturday. Terrorists have 'in effect outsourced attempts to attack our homeland. We've seen this not just here but in other places. This requires a whole new approach, in my view.'... Mr. Johnson said the government should continue to augment airline security by placing more agents in overseas departure airports and further toughen standards for the visa waiver program that allows visitors from certain friendly nations easy entry into the country. He and other officials said the government needed to reach out even more to Muslim communities to help identify threats that might otherwise escape notice." ...
... Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "The intelligence community told President Obama during a briefing Saturday that the suspects in the San Bernardino, Calif., shooting were not part of an 'organized group' or 'terrorist cell,' the White House said in a statement." ...
... Faith Karimi, et al., of CNN: "ISIS on Saturday hailed the two people who massacred 14 people in Southern California this week as 'supporters' of the terror group -- a message that came after U.S. investigators said they suspect one of the shooters professed loyalty to the Islamist network. The terror group's official Iraq-based station made the declaration days after Wednesday's San Bernardino shooting that also left 21 injured, but -- notable for a group quick to claim attacks -- did not say the couple were members or that ISIS was responsible." ...
... Abby Phillip, et al., of the Washington Post: "Early on Saturday, law enforcement authorities raided a home next door to one where the Farook family once lived in Riverside, Calif. According to a law enforcement official, the raid targeted Enrique Marquez, who is thought to have bought the two military-grade rifles used in the attack. Both weapons were modified in a way that allowed them to be used with greater lethality, suggesting extensive planning for the attack. Marquez, who has not been charged with a crime, has checked himself into a nearby mental health facility." ...
... Missed this one. Dan Frosch & Ashby Jones of the Wall Street Journal: "The weapons were illegal under California law because they were modified and violated the state's ban on assault weapons, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said on Thursday.... While they were originally sold legally, with magazine locking devices commonly known as bullet buttons, the rifles were subsequently altered in different ways to enhance them, according to Meredith Davis, a special agent with the ATF." CW: To read this story, unless you have a WSJ subscription, you'll have to Google it. ...
... Tim Craig & others at the Washington Post try to profile Tashfeen Malik, the San Bernardino shooter. ...
... Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "The president of Liberty University[, Jerry Falwell, Jr.,] ... urged students during the school's convocation Friday to get their permits to carry concealed weapons.... 'I've always thought that if more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in,' he says, the rest of his sentence drowned out by loud applause while he said, 'and killed them.'... Falwell said that when he referred to 'those Muslims,' he was referring to Islamic terrorists, specifically those behind the attacks in Paris and in San Bernardino.... A spokesperson for Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) sent the following statement on Saturday: 'My administration is committed to making Virginia an open and welcoming Commonwealth, while also ensuring the safety of all of our citizens. Mr. Falwell's rash and repugnant comments detract from both of those crucial goals,' McAuliffe said." Read the whole article to get a better idea of what a flaming ass Falwell is. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... CW: It seems Marco Rubio, who never knows what's he talking about unless it's his parents' humble occupations, criticized Democratic candidates for going on & on about gun control but never mentioning "bomb control." The sick-funny thing is, as Steve M. points out, President Clinton did try to introduce some bomb control: "a requirement that traceable 'taggants' be included in explosives. The NRA was having none of it, and therefore neither was the GOP." Obviously, taggants won't deter a bomber, but they can help authorities catch him. And Republicans are against that. As one of Steve's commenters wrote, Democrats should -- accurately --portray Republicans as soft on crime. Well, how 'bout soft on terrorism, too. ...
... Andy Parker in the New York Daily News: "On Aug. 26, our daughter Alison was murdered on live television here in Virginia.... [Coupled with the House's refusal to address gun control measures,] the Senate vote Thursday that defeated a measure to deny known or suspected terrorists the ability to obtain firearms and explosives and you have what amounts to, in my opinion, TREASON. These cowards would rather cash their NRA checks than protect our families and our country."
Keith Laing of the Hill: "President Obama signed into a law a five-year, $305 billion highway bill on Friday, with just hours to spare before the scheduled expiration of the nation's road and transit spending. Funding had been set to expire at midnight."
Never Mind. Nahal Toosi of Politico: "More than half of the House Democrats who voted to restrict the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the U.S. appear to be having second thoughts. At least 26 of the 47 Democrats who supported the measure have signed on to a letter urging House Speaker Paul Ryan not to include it in a must-pass omnibus spending bill likely to be voted on in the coming days, according to groups helping arrange the missive." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Missed this, too. Sarah Wheaton of Politico (Dec. 4): "President Barack Obama held an unannounced meeting with gun control advocates former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, on Friday and discussed his administration's 'ongoing effort to address gun violence in America,' according to a White House statement. The meeting, which did not appear on the president's public schedule, had been planned in advance of the shooting attack Wednesday in San Bernardino.... The White House meeting also included senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who is overseeing the process of drafting possible executive actions to prevent gun violence -- a topic that came up during the discussion...."
Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "The Supreme Court denied a request from the activist behind the Planned Parenthood sting videos to block a federal judge's order to turn over the names of people who supported his work. Lawyers representing David Daleiden had asked Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy on Friday evening to block the order from the district judge, which was upheld by an appeals panel Thursday."
Juan Cole: Receb Tayyip "Erdogan's negative divide and rule has brought Turkey to the brink of chaos. A hot war with the PKK is ongoing. HDP offices have been bombed. The Syria proxy war, supporting hard line fundamentalists allied with al-Qaeda versus Russian-backed forces, is ongoing. Press freedom, always precarious, has evaporated. A Russian economic boycott is being imposed. Whether Erdogan can still manage to become president for life is unclear. But his negative, violent divide-and-rule tactics are producing a bigger question, of what kind of Turkey he will be president of. One thing is clear. The so-called Turkish model is dead.... Turkey's downward spiral has regional implications." Thanks to safari for the link.
Election 2016
Historian Sean Wilentz, in a long & very readable Rolling Stone essay, invokes history (natch!) to argue that the election "will be one of the most pivotal moments of our time." ...
... CW: Presidential-year elections would be far less "pivotal" if Democrats, so-called independents & the other-directed would learn to vote in every Congressional election as well as in state & local off-year elections.
Amy Chozick of the New York Times on the long, complicated & often acrimonious relationship between Hillary Clinton & Rahm Emanuel.
Republican candidates criticize New York Times editorial, say every red-blooded (pale-skinned) American should be walking around with semi-automatic weapons to mow down terrorists. Or something. ...
Michael Barbaro & Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "The Republican candidates for president angrily demanded on Friday that the United States face up to a new world war, one that has breached its borders, threatened the safety of Americans and brought the menace of Islamic terrorism deep into the homeland.... Republicans have raced to fill the role of the terror-combating commander in chief, sometimes with a mix of bravado and bluster and oneupmanship.... Their language was almost apocalyptic.... For all the heated expressions from Republicans..., they favored symbolism over specific policy prescriptions." ...
... Steve M. rips apart Barbaro & Gabriel's reporting on Clinton. CW: My favorite part is where they wrote, "Democrats seemed to offer a more muddled response." What they mean by "muddled," as far as I can tell from the context, is that Democrats didn't say, "First, kill all the Muslims." I suspect that when Mike & Trip realized they had reported that Republican candidates were using "apocalyptic language," "bravado" & "bluster," they had to obey the Both-Sides Goddess & find a negative way to describe Democrats' responses, too.
Words Matter. Patrick Healy & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The dark power of words has become the defining feature of [Donald] Trump's bid for the White House to a degree rarely seen in modern politics, as he forgoes the usual campaign trappings ... and instead relies on potent language to connect with, and often stoke, the fears and grievances of Americans. The New York Times analyzed every public utterance by Mr. Trump over the past week.... The transcriptions yielded 95,000 words and several powerful patterns, demonstrating how Mr. Trump has built one of the most surprising political movements in decades and, historians say, echoing the appeals of some demagogues of the past century. Mr. Trump's breezy stage presence makes him all the more effective because he is not as off-putting as those raging men of the past, these experts say." ...
... CW: Pretty fascinating. both in content & in the Times' willingness to forego their he-said/she-said formula & call a demagogue a demagogue. ...
... digby adds a modifier: "He is a fascist demagogue. And to a whole lot of Americans what he's saying is music to their ears. And other right wing leaders, like Ted Cruz and Jerry Falwell Jr (an alleged Christian minister) are right there with him." digby runs down some of Trump's newer, outrageous remarks. ...
... Today provides yet another good example of Trump's inflammatory, name-calling but otherwise substance-free rhetoric. Jeremy Herb of Politico: "Donald Trump says the country's 'tremendous problem' with radical Islamic terrorism will get solved once President Barack Obama 'gets the hell out' of office. Trump slammed the president Sunday for not using the term 'radical Islamic terrorism' to describe the terror attacks in Paris and this past week's mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, hitting on a frequent Republican criticism of the Obama administration's language used to describe terrorism." ...
... CW: Because demonizing everyone of the Muslim faith will definitely end terrorism & turn Daesh into mush. When will Trump start calling Falwell the Younger a radical Christian terrorist? (See Falwell's call-to-arms against Muslims, linked above.) ...
... Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "More than two dozen people were escorted from [Donald Trump's campaign] event at Dorton Arena [in Raleigh, North Carolina,] for various forms of protest, causing the candidate to stop his stump speech about 10 times until the shouts and boos subsided."
Bradford Richardson: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is pointing to this week's shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., as evidence that female refugees from Syria should not be allowed in the country." ...
... No Country for Men. CW: I am pointing to the shooting attack at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs as evidence that men from the United States should not be allowed in the country. Deport 'em all. (See also Standoff at Neenah, below, & Steve M.'s commentary.)
Beyond the Beltway
AP: "A standoff at a motorcycle shop in Wisconsin ended Saturday with one person dead, a police officer injured and one person in custody, authorities said. Police said shots were reported at Eagle Nation Cycles on Neenah's Main Street shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday, along with a report that hostages had been taken. Police responded and nearby homes and businesses in Neenah, about 85 miles northwest of Milwaukee, were evacuated." ...
... When a Guy with a Gun Has Seller's Remorse. According to unconfirmed information the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel received from the shopowner's attorney, the shooter was some guy who had sold his bike & wanted it back. The bike was in the shop for repairs. ...
... Update. Cary Spivak, et al., of the Journal Sentinel: "After most of the hostages were released, one person inside the shop exited with a gun and was shot by police when he ignored demands to drop it, and died later, said Police Chief Kevin Wilkinson. He noted that investigators were still trying to sort out a confusing situation." ..
... Steve M.: "Also, please note that even though a cop had to go to the hospital, the suspect was taken into custody alive. So I'm betting the suspect is a white guy, not a Muslim (or a black person). Therefore, it's just another day in America -- shots were fired, citizens were terrorized, but the culprit was a regular American, so it's cool."
The Thin Blue Line -- Accessories After the Fact. Monica Davey of the New York Times: "... at least five other officers on the scene that night [of the police killing of teen Laquan McDonald] corroborated a version of events similar to the one Officer [Jason] Van Dyke, now charged with murder in the shooting, gave his supervisors: that Mr. McDonald was aggressively swinging his knife and was moving toward the police, giving Officer Van Dyke no choice but to start shooting."