The Commentariat -- Nov. 27, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Ashley Southall of the New York Times: "A man climbed over a fence in front of the White House on Thursday as President Obama and his family were inside celebrating Thanksgiving, the Secret Service said. The breach exposed how vulnerable the White House grounds remain.... The service identified the man who climbed over the fence on Thursday as Joseph Caputo. Agents apprehended him on the North Lawn around 2:45 p.m., moments after he cleared the fence, said Robert Hoback, a spokesman for the Secret Service. Mr. Caputo is facing criminal charges.... He was draped in an American flag and was carrying a binder in his mouth as he scaled the fence. Once inside the perimeter, Mr. Caputo raised his arms and dropped to his knees, before lying on the ground. The White House was placed on lockdown for about three hours...." ...
... The Washington Post story, by Lynh Bui & Ashley Halsey, is here. ...
Cheryl Thompson & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "... at least 48 people ... have died in the United States since January -- about one death a week -- in incidents in which police used Tasers, according to a Washington Post examination of scores of police, court and autopsy records.... More than half of the 48 suffered from mental illness or had illegal drugs in their system at the time. At least 10 were Tasered while handcuffed or shackled. Only one was female. Nearly 55 percent of the people who died were minorities."
Ken Vogel & Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Senate Republicans plan to insert a provision into a must-pass government funding bill that would vastly expand the amount of cash that political parties could spend on candidates, multiple sources tell Politico. The provision ... would eliminate caps on the amount of cash that parties may spend in coordination with their candidates.... Campaign finance watchdogs argue that it would allow wealthy donors to exercise even more influence with members of Congress."
Brianna Ehley of Politico: "The spate of mass killings over the past year reignited mental health reform efforts in both chambers of Congress.... But the Senate's No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, has been working behind the scenes to drum up support for his own mental health legislation, which includes language endorsed by the National Rifle Association.... His critics say the legislation actually loosens restrictions on gun purchases, under the umbrella of mental health reform.... His push ... is creating a wedge in the bipartisan coalition that had been trying to keep mental health clearly separate from any legislation touching on the politically volatile issue of guns."
Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) "is siding with [seafood industry] employers [and against labor advocates & the Obama administration,], spurred by a desire to protect her state's seafood companies at a time when pollution, warming water and competition from companies in Southeast Asia have taken a toll."
Glenn Greenwald in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: "Bodies were still lying in the streets of Paris when CIA operatives began exploiting the resulting fear and anger to advance long-standing political agendas. They and their congressional allies instantly attempted to heap blame for the atrocity not on Islamic State but on several preexisting adversaries: Internet encryption, Silicon Valley's privacy policies and Edward Snowden." CW: Greenwald cites two former CIA directors, but no active CIA officials or spokespeople. Do ex-directors qualify as "CIA operatives"?
Paul Rosenberg, in Salon, psyches out the pathology of the "Daddy party": "Nothing made them feel more like helpless infants than seeing Obama act presidential -- especially when he reached out to them, inviting a mature response, which they were utterly incapable of, boxed in by their own intricate structure of lies about him, prisoners of their own dark projections.... They couldn't govern their way out of a paper bag. In fact, they're really the baby party. All they can do is finger-point and fear-monger. That's it."
Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "The river of ice that hugs Mount Grinnell's high ridges ... may be the most accessible glacier in all of North America.... But if you want to see it, you'd better hurry. Grinnell Glacier is disappearing -- fast. This crescent-shaped glacier in Montana's northern Rockies had been contracting for decades because of warming temperatures. Lately it has been shrinking at a breathtaking clip, losing as much as a 10th of its mass in a single year. As early as 2030, scientists say, it may no longer exist."
Shan Li of the Los Angeles Times: "The holiday shopping season got off to a brisk start Thursday as consumers gobbled their turkey dinners then gorged on Thanksgiving shopping.... Several chains opened Thursday afternoon or evening Many retailers in hopes of luring shoppers with doorbuster deals ahead of Black Friday...." ...
... BUT. Vauhini Vara of the New Yorker: "In the past couple of years..., retailers have tended to take a determinedly pro-frenzied-consumerism approach to Black Friday, beginning their sales earlier and earlier, so that they have eventually impinged on Thanksgiving Day. The phenomenon became so pervasive that it even got a name, Black Friday Creep.... But R.E.I.'s statement this year [video below] is actually part of what appears to be a slowdown in the creep.... This year, it seems, some brick-and-mortar retailers have begun to feel that whatever benefit they get from early openings isn't worth the trouble.... The widespread availability of good deals on the Internet has diminished the appeal of all that sales-bin arm wrestling -- and, in fact, has made it seem a bit unsavory."
Helaine Olen in Slate: "Whether they appealed to lower-, middle-, or upper-income shoppers, department stores once epitomized our seemingly limitless consumer economy. Now they're experiencing what economists call a long-term cyclical decline. According to market researcher IBISWorld, sales across the entire department-store category, which includes everything from high-end retailers like Bergdorf Goodman to lower-end establishments such as Walmart (a place few of us think of as a department store at all) fell by a 4.5-percent annual rate between 2010 and 2015."
Bob Cesca in Salon: "It’s difficult to think of another annual occasion that combines American excess with American indignity more than the day after Thanksgiving.... Rather than building stronger middle- and working-class incomes to keep up, our politics and our corporate culture have collaborated on a humiliating work-around: cheaper crap that you might have to fight for.... Adding insult to injury, The Wall Street Journal and Kiplinger.com discovered that Black Friday deals aren't very good ones."
Josh Harkinson of Mother Jones: "The people who organized the largest-ever Black Friday demonstrations against Walmart last year are leaving their protest signs at home this year. Instead, they're launching a campaign to support 1,000 food drives around the country to help struggling Walmart workers. Making Change at Walmart's 'Give Back Friday' campaign kicked off on Tuesday with the launch of a national TV ad campaign urging people 'to help feed underpaid workers'..."
Adam Chandler of the Atlantic: "Football has never been more popular, but public interest in the concussion epidemic is only growing.... According to a ongoing PBS Frontline project, NFL players have already suffered 108 concussions through 11 weeks of play this season. While the league has instituted new protocols, just this week they were criticized as insufficient after Case Keenum, the quarterback for the St. Louis Rams, failed to be removed from the game after suffering a concussion on Sunday.
Today's History Lesson. Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "The Statue of Liberty was originally designed to be a Muslim woman, the Smithsonian Institution's magazine says. An article on the government-administered museum's blog, Smart News, claims one of the designers of Lady Liberty drew inspiration from monuments in Egypt and originally intended to construct a veiled female peasant on the Suez Canal....The design of the project was eventually altered to the Roman colossus...." ...
... This history lesson should allay Stephen Colbert's concerns. Thanks to Colbert for helping ICE identify terrorists hiding among the refugee applicants (& GOP presidential candidates). Also, thanks to D. C. Clark for the link:
Presidential Race
Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "A day after he was widely rebuked for mocking a reporter with a physical disability..., Donald Trump on Thursday denied that he had done so and accused the reporter of 'using his disability to grandstand.' Trump also demanded an apology from the New York Times, the reporter's employer, which earlier in the week issued a statement condemning Trump for ridiculing 'the appearance of one of our reporters.'" See yesterday's Commentariat for more on this story, including a link to a Guardian video which shows Trump clearly mocking the reporter's disability. Scum. ...
... Judd Legum of Think Progress: To "prove" his claim that "thousands & thousands" of New Jersey "Arabs" were cheering as the Twin Towers fells, Donald Trump linked in a tweet to a page in "Infowars.com, a conspiracy website that pushes the idea that 9/11 was an inside job.... Even Infowars' article doesn't support Trump's claim that thousands of Muslims were celebrating on 9/11. It's simply a woman who claims she saw a 'pocket' of Muslims celebrating." ...
... Tim Egan: "Donald Trump's reign would be a police state. He has now outlined a series of measures that would make the United States an authoritarian nightmare. Trump is no longer entertaining, or diversionary. He's a billionaire brute, his bluster getting more ominous by the day." ...
... Jamelle Bouie: "In the past week..., 'Donald Trump as fascist' has gone from hyperbolic to mainstream.... Alone and disconnected, [Trump's] rhetoric isn't necessarily fascist. Some of it, in fact, is even anodyne. But together and in the person of Donald Trump, it's clear: The rhetoric of fascism is here. And increasingly, the policies are too. The only thing left is the violence." ...
... In seeking to define fascism, Bouie relies on this 1995 New York Review of Books article by Umberto Eco. Eco was a decades-long friend of my husband's, & among those partisani Eco describes in the first grafs of his essay was my husband Aldo Scaglione. And, yes, one can definitely see Trump in many of the elements of "ur-fascism" Eco describes. ...
... Molly Ball of the Atlantic: "Four months into his crazed foray into presidential politics, Trump is still winning this thing. And what could once be dismissed as a larkish piece of political performance art has seemingly turned into something darker. Pundits, even conservative ones, say that Trump resembles a fascist. The recent terrorist attacks in Paris, which some hoped would expose Trump's shallowness, have instead strengthened him by intensifying people's anger and fear.... This is the thing Trump knows: You can stand around fretting about truth and propriety and the danger of pandering to baser instincts. Or you can give the people what they want." ...
... Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "As much as they've awakened to the threat that Trumpism poses to their party, Republicans and the conservative intelligentsia lack the self-awareness -- or perhaps the temerity -- to acknowledge that though they now resent it, they've been courting it all along."
Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Ben Carson, who is facing increasing scrutiny over his grasp of foreign policy, is traveling to Jordan on Friday to visit Syrian refugees, in order to gain an understanding of the pressing issue and to polish his candidacy.
Beyond the Beltway
Elizabeth Bruenig of the New Republic: The state of "Texas is demanding that Christian groups stop taking in Syrian refugees. The groups say that's a violation of the Constitution." CW: Huh. Turns out freeedom of religion (or freeedom of Christianity) is important to Texas's Christianist officials only when conveeenient.
Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: "While the trend in much of the United States is moving toward decriminalization or legalization of marijuana, Virginia is heading in the opposite direction: sharply rising arrest totals for possession of pot, and a disproportionate number of black people arrested in the commonwealth, according to a new study based on state data reported to the FBI."
Way Beyond
Nicole Winfield & Tom Odula of the AP: "Visiting one of Nairobi's many shantytowns on Friday, Pope Francis denounced conditions slum-dwellers are forced to live in, saying access to safe water is a basic human right and that everyone should have dignified, adequate housing."
Andrew Roth of the Washington Post: "Russian President Vladimir Putin told French President Francois Hollande in the Kremlin on Thursday that Russia is 'prepared to work with you' in combatting the Islamist militants who have inflicted devastating attacks on both countries. Hollande flew to Moscow to enlist Putin in a joint campaign against the Islamic State in Syria, but the prospects for close coordination between wary nations are problematic." ...
... Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "The downing of a Russian warplane by Turkey threatened to lead to a wholesale breach in the countries' relations on Thursday, with the Kremlin preparing to sever economic ties and Turkish officials saying they had no reason to apologize."
Annie Gowen of the Washington Post: "... life in Bangladesh’s crowded capital has changed significantly since a string of terrorist attacks this year, including shootings claimed by the Islamic State that left two foreigners dead and a third, an Italian missionary, seriously wounded. Many have stopped walking or bicycling to work in favor of company cars. An international AIDS conference was postponed and other events canceled."
Kevin Sieff of the Washington Post: "In his first full day in Africa, Pope Francis spoke to the many millions reeling from a string of terrorist attacks, condemning the way young people have been 'radicalized in the name of religion to sow discord and fear.' That message -- like the rest of his comments [in Nairobi, Kenya.] on Thursday -- spoke to both global and local concerns, shifting between lamentations for a perilous time, globally, in history and the threats facing Kenya as its economic and geopolitical strength grows."
Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times: "Miss Canada, otherwise known as Anastasia Lin, a 25-year-old actress and classically trained pianist ... has been denied a Chinese visa to attend the monthlong [Missi World] pageant, presumably because of her outspoken advocacy for human rights and religious freedom in China."
AP: "The French national anthem played by a military band has closed the ceremony honoring those killed in the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris.... The tightly secured ceremony paid homage to the 130 people, overwhelmingly young adults, killed when Islamic extremists struck the national stadium, bars, restaurants and a concert hall."
"Europe the Unready." Paul Krugman: There is a "slow-motion disaster now overtaking the European project on multiple fronts."
News Ledes
BBC News: "The Democratic Action party [of Venezuela] says Luis Manuel Diaz[, a regional leader of the party.] was killed by a man who approached the stage after a public meeting in central Guarico state. Opposition leaders blamed militias supporting the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). President Nicolas Maduro denied this and said an inquiry had been launched."
AP: "Malian special forces have arrested two men over last week's attack on a luxury hotel in the capital that killed 19 people, according to a statement distributed Friday morning. The statement identified the two Malians, both arrested in Bamako, but provided no other details on their background or their potential roles in the attack."