The Commentariat -- Nov. 9, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

John Eligon & Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: "Amid a wave of student and faculty protests, primarily over racial tensions, that all but paralyzed its flagship campus here, the president of the University of Missouri system resigned Monday, urging everyone involved to 'use my resignation to heal and start talking again.' The president, Timothy M. Wolfe, had grown increasingly isolated, with opposition to his leadership reaching a crescendo in the last few days: The faculty council issued a statement of concern about him; football players said they would refuse to play until he left, potentially costing the university millions of dollars; the university's student government on Monday demanded his ouster; and much of the faculty canceled classes for two days, in favor of a teach-in focused on race relations."

... The St. Louis Post-Dispatch story, by Stephen Deere, is here. With video of Wolfe's resignation announcement. See also story linked in Beyond the Beltway below.

Rebecca Ruiz of the New York Times: "Top Russian athletes, including Olympians and winners of prestigious events like the Chicago marathon, have for years participated in a systematic doping program that involved some of Russia's sports officials, the World Anti-Doping Agency said on Monday.The agency released a lengthy report here that described a pervasive doping culture among Russia's sports programs, evoking notorious drug regimes like the state-run doping system of East Germany."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is a stickler for evenly distributing the workload of the Supreme Court, but he plays favorites among his eight colleagues when assigning the court's most important decisions. Not surprisingly, Roberts calls his own number more than anyone else's and assigns the next-highest number to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the pivotal justice on the ideologically divided court, according to a new study by Harvard law Prof. Richard J. Lazarus published in the Harvard Law Review."

Tom Krisher of the AP: "Volkswagen is offering $1,000 in gift cards and vouchers as a goodwill gesture to owners of small diesel-powered cars involved in an emissions cheating scandal. The offer announced Monday goes to owners of 482,000 cars in the U.S., many who are angry at the company because they paid extra for the cars to be environmentally sensitive without losing peppy acceleration.... The offer also includes free roadside assistance for the diesel vehicles for three years.... Volkswagen already is offering $2,000 to current VW owners to trade in their cars for new vehicles, and the gift cards and vouchers would add $1,000 to that." CW: I can't figure out how a VW owner can use these "gift cards" other than on buying a new VW or Audi.

Rupert Neate of the Guardian: "Pity Wall Street's bankers. Their year-end bonuses are expected to fall by 5 to 10% this year -- the first drop since 2011, according to a survey released on Monday. But before you reach for the tissues, realise the average bonus (on top of salary) paid to New York's 167,800 bankers last year was $172,860. The average US household income last year was $53,657, according to the US Census."

Jonathan Ferziger & Margaret Talev of Bloomberg: "President Barack Obama told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that while their differences on the Iran nuclear pact are 'no secret,' their countries must work together in fighting terrorism and seeking peace with the Palestinians. The split between the two leaders is on the 'narrow issue' of the nuclear agreement with Iran, Obama said as he met with Netanyahu in the Oval Office Monday for the first time in 13 months. 'We don't have a disagreement on making sure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon,' he said." ...

... Peter Baker & Jodi Rudoren of the New York Times: "As [Benjamin] Netanyahu arrives at the White House on Monday for his first visit in more than a year, both [he & Barack Obama] have reasons to put the past behind them. They will discuss a new security agreement and ways to counter Iran. But few believe their relationship can ever be more than coolly transactional."

AND Charles Pierce awards the Sunday showz prize to Chuck Todd.

*****

** Elias Isquith of Salon posts a fascinating interview of New York Times reporter Charlie Savage, who has written a book, 'Power Wars: Inside Obama's Post-9/11 Presidency." The two took a "look at how bureaucracy, chance, politics and technology have so profoundly shaped [the Obama administration's] legacy. Alongside discussing what Obama really promised on the campaign trail in 2008, [they] also talk about the outsized influence of late-2009's failed 'underwear bomber,' and why the president has less control over the prosecution of leaks from his administration than you may suspect."

Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly is surprised he agrees -- to some extent -- with Ross Douthat on the reason white working-class Americans are experiencing an increase in suicides, alcoholism & drug use. Longman: "I think the best analogy I've seen for this is that white Americans have been playing the game on the lowest difficulty setting. Like a video game that allows you to start off as a beginner and advance to expert, people who have never had to deal with the worst the economy can bring are not as well prepared to deal with ever-increasing levels of adversity. What we're seeing is a lot of folks who are just giving up and turning to alcoholism and opioids because they don't have experience with playing the game on the expert level." ...

... Paul Krugman with some empirically-based suggestions on what is not causing high white despair & mortality. (Sorry, Ross, Krugman is not buying your "family values" argument.) "I know I'm not the only observer who sees a link between the despair reflected in those mortality numbers and the volatility of right-wing politics."

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "As Republicans across the country mount an aggressive effort to tighten voting laws, a group of former aides to President Obama and President Bill Clinton is pledging to counter by spending up to $10 million on a push to make voter registration automatic whenever someone gets a driver's license. The change would supercharge the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, known as the 'motor voter' law, which requires states to offer people the option of registering to vote when they apply for driver's licenses or other identification cards. The new laws would make registration automatic during those transactions unless a driver objected."

Your Tax Dollars at Work. Jerry Markon of the Washington Post: "Heaving under mountains of paperwork, the government has spent more than $1 billion trying to replace its antiquated approach to managing immigration with a system of digitized records, online applications and a full suite of nearly 100 electronic forms. A decade in, all that officials have to show for the effort is a single form that's now available for online applications and a single type of fee that immigrants pay electronically. The 94 other forms can be filed only with paper." CW: Makes Healthcare.gov look like a miracle.

Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "Greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere reached another grim milestone earlier this year as carbon dioxide levels surpassed the symbolic threshold of 400 parts per million across much of the planet, the premier global meteorological association confirmed in a report to be released Monday. Figures compiled by the World Meteorological Organization showed strong growth -- and new records -- in the concentrations of all three of the most important heat-trapping gases, continuing a long-term trend with ominous implications for climate change, the group said."

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Senior House members said Sunday that there was a mounting consensus among American intelligence officials that a bomb brought down the Russian charter jet that crashed last month in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, killing all 224 people aboard. 'I think there's a growing body of intelligence and evidence that this was a bomb -- still not conclusive -- but a growing body of evidence,' Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on the ABC program 'This Week.' Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and the chairman of the Homeland Security subcommittee on terrorism and intelligence, went further [CW: as he always does!], saying on the same program that intelligence officials he had spoken to believed that the Islamic State or an affiliate was behind the crash." ...

... Brian Ross, et al., of ABC News: "New evidence in the investigation of the Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt indicates an inside man may have helped to plant an explosive device on board, aviation security officials told ABC News. Investigators today will be scrutinizing surveillance tape and employee records at Egypt's Sharm el Sheikh airport, from which the Russian jet took off, looking for a ramp worker who authorities say may have been recruited by ISIS to plant a bomb on the plane."

Presidential Race

Michelle Goldberg of Slate: "In general, the Bernie Sanders campaign has been overwhelmingly positive for American politics. It has, however, unleashed a minor plague of progressive white men confidently explaining feminism to the rest of us. Some of them rail against identity politics, while others use the language of intersectionality, a great boon to white men who want to inveigh against 'white feminism' without losing their left-wing street cred. Some just sound like surly conservatives complaining that affirmative action is racist. All are united in outrage that anyone could ever see a hint of sexism at work in the intense hatred that Hillary inspires among their ilk."

Shawna Thomas of NBC News: "... Dr. Ben Carson continued to defend his recollection of his past on NBC's 'Meet the Press' amid mounting questions about biographical discrepancies.... When asked about whether he was ready for the intense scrutiny and vetting of a presidential campaign, Carson said he was but pushed back on whether what he is experiencing is fair. 'I have always said that I expect to be vetted, but being vetted and what is going on with me..., you know, I have not seen that with anyone else.... Carson said this kind of scrutiny is born out of the 'secular progressive movement in this country.'... Yesterday, the campaign said he's raised $3.5 million in the past week. In a tweet, Carson attributed this cash infusion to "media bias.'" ...

... CW: Yes, I'm pretty sure the "secular progressive" press has never raised any questions about Hillary Clinton's past (cattle futures, Whitewater, e-mail server) or Bernie Sanders' (unemployed radical hippie). Those secular progressives are just picking on you, Doc, because you're a religious reactionary. ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "Ben Carson is outraged that the media is [sic!] taking him seriously. A few months ago, Ben Carson was happily comparing things to Nazi Germany, saying appalling things about Muslims, and making wild claims about his near brushes with death. While the other candidates tangled with Donald Trump, the amiable pediatric neurosurgeon was free to focus on turning his moderately successful presidential campaign into a lucrative business venture. But a funny thing happened on the way to the bestseller list. Several polls showed Carson pulling ahead of Trump nationally, and suddenly the media started asking questions about the incredible tales from Carson's made-for-TV life.... Carson ... blasted the media's behavior in general, noting that they never scrutinized Barack Obama so harshly -- then running down a list of various scandals from 2008 that disprove his point.... [Carson] admitted on This Week that not everything he's written is accurate. 'Well, show me somebody, even from your business, the media, who is 100 percent accurate in everything that they say that happened 40 or 50 years ago,' he said." ...

... CW: Yo, Doctor Ben, you wrote Gifted Hands in or before 1987, not 40 or 50 years after the events you invented. But we already know from your tithing tax plan that you're not that good at math. Many of us may exaggerate our personal stories over time, & we do try to figure out how isolated events shape & alter our lives. Lots of people look for "hand of God" explanations, though probably a presidential candidate should not. Few of us borrow incidents from newspaper accounts (see Kevin Drum's entry, linked below) or insert ourselves, Forrest Gump-style, into real events (Detroit riots). Or just make up stuff out of whole cloth. ...

... Charles Blow: "Carson has pushed back on the biographical charges with more verve that he has exhibited at any of the debates. That is because the biographical charges don't simply threaten the Carson campaign, they threaten Carson the corporation -- the former I have always contended was simply a vehicle for the latter. Has no one else wondered why Carson's chief media surrogate isn't his campaign manager or communications director, but his business manager, Armstrong Williams? Carson may no longer be a practicing physician, but he is a full-time profiteer.... Media observers seem to me too focused on Ben Carson the candidate. I remain focused on Ben Carson the enterprise, and apparently, so is he." ...

... ** "An Unfit Candidate Struggles under Intense Scrutiny" -- an excellent post by Simon Maloy of Salon: "... the Republican Party and its voters have declared war on the very concept of competent, reliable governance, which has provided space for 'outsider' candidates who are manifestly unfit for the office of the presidency to seize the GOP electorate and retain a firm hold on it." ...

On Saturday a reporter with the Wall Street Journal ... published a story that my account of being the victim of a hoax at Yale where students were led to believe the exams they had just taken were destroyed and we needed to retake the exam was false. The reporter claimed that no evidence existed to back up my story. Even went so far as to say the class didn't exist. Well here is the student newspaper account of the incident that occurred on January 14, 1970. Will an apology be coming. I doubt it. -- Ben Carson, Facebook ...

Read on, people. -- Constant Weader ...

... Kevin Drum: "More Ben Carson news today! You remember Doc Carson's story about the psychology test hoax that proved he was the most honest man at Yale? Well, Carson says it really happened, and the proof is ... a piece from the Yale Daily News about a parody issue of the News published by the Yale Record. Apparently the parody issue announced that some psychology exams had been destroyed and a retest would be held in the evening. Hilarious!... It's clear that Carson's account is substantially different from the parody. He says the class was Perceptions 301 [not Intro. to Psychology 10(, as the Yale Record reported)]. He says 150 students showed up [not several]. He says everyone eventually walked out [because they were dishonest, not because they saw it was a hoax]. He says the professor showed up at the beginning, and then again at the end. He says the professor gave him ten dollars. None of that seems to have happened. And yet -- it certainly seems likely that this is where Carson got the idea for his story. He remembered the hoax, and then embellished it considerably to turn it into a testimony to the power of God.... It seemed like a strange story for Carson to invent, and it turns out he didn't. He took a story he recalled from his Yale days and then added a bunch of bells and whistles to make it into a proper testimonial." [Bracketed entries above by Brad DeLong] ...

... CW: Some actual expert on "perceptions" -- preferably someone with a medical degree -- should tend to Ole Doc. The man needs help. So do his gullible acolytes. I would guess that the fake psych test story is Carson's own "politically correct" way of getting back at the rich, white legacies who looked down their noses (or who Carson thought were looking down their noses) at the poor, black scholarship kid. Not only was Carson more honest & worthy than all of them put together, according to his story, his "honesty" was a gift that God granted to him alone. The true "chosen one" at Yale was not to be found among those entitled richy-rich snobs (whom Satan had chosen?), but in the unassuming, Jesus-like hero Ben Carson. Carson says BlackLivesMatter is "sickening" because it "bullies" people, but Carson has his own, more subtle, socially-acceptable & personally-beneficial method of crying discrimination. That will be 5 cents, please. ...

... Steve M. has a less cynical theory about Carson's "misremembering": "Did he actually fall for this hoax? I ask because I was a naive college student. Like Carson, I didn't have parents who attended college and I made it to one of the Ivies.... I look back and recall missing what to other people would have been obvious cues. Maybe that's what happened to Carson...." Steve also notes that the incident Carson borrowed took place when he was a freshman, not when he was a junior, as he claimed in Gifted Hands. In addition, the Yale Record story says the hoax exam was essentially the same as the real exam; Carson claimed the hoax test was "incredibly difficult," & that's why the 150 "dishonest" students walked out. ...

... MEANWHILE, Ophelia M. sends news from Easter Island:

... CW: Hey, it is called Easter Island. There's your proof, or at least proof enough for Ole Doc Carson. You may think Ophelia's contribution is a hoax like that Yale Intro to Psych 10 exam of yore, but Doctor Ben sees things you don't. ...

... Ana Maria Cox, in the Daily Beast, looks as Ben the Pyramid Guy from a Christian's point of view: "You can see [Carson's] 'thug' tale as self-aggrandizing, but to me it is strangely self-denying -- on some level, a kind of blasphemy. In making up a story filled with drama, he has failed to credit God for the original and true, if subtle, miracle within Carson: that a soft-spoken, nerdy young man born in inner Detroit did not have to become a thug at some point, that he was wise and respectful of his own potential without needing God to perform a parlor trick.... I think it cheapens the idea of miracles to think that humans needed one to create the pyramids, or that Carson needed one to put his life on the right track. It speaks to a lack of faith in humans -- and, in some sense, God. His creation is so much more awe inspiring than Carson seems to realize."

Every signer of the Declaration of Independence had no elected office experience. -- Ben Carson

Every signer of the Declaration of Independence had no federal elected office experience (emphasis added). -- Ben Carson, after the Washington Post & others disproved Carson's claim

Both the initial and the revised versions of Carson's claim are far off base. About half or more of the declaration's signers had held elective office previously, a reality that severely undercuts Carson's overall point that the drafting of the Declaration of Independence showed how a lack of political experience can produce landmark political achievements. As for his later addition of 'federal' to the comment, this makes the claim nonsensical, since there was no federal government prior to the signing of the declaration. -- Louis Jacobson of PolitiFact

Not only that, signing a protest letter to the king is hardly the equivalent of running a nation. I'll grant that Carson -- and nearly everybody else -- is able to petition the government. It is not a qualification for holding elected office. Carson's premise was nonsensical even if the signers had not held elective office. -- Constant Weader

... Ali Elkin & Ros Kransy of Bloomberg: "... Ben Carson 'will have to explain a lot of things away' given questions about whether parts of his life story have been exaggerated or fabricated, rival White House hopeful Donald Trump said Sunday." ...

... "I Can Take a Joke." Willa Paskin of Slate: Donald Trump's appearance on "Saturday Night Live" "is perfect for Trump, who gets to affably take his punches for being racist, which only makes his racism appear less virulent, a boon to him and his voters.... Trump was getting teased for imagining he can save the world. With insults like that, he has no need for compliments." CW: Couldn't agree more. Mildly spoofing racism or empty promises or whatever in the presence of a perp who graciously participates in the joke serves only to normalize the outrageous beliefs & remarks. Such "satire" is enabling & permission-granting. ...

... James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly: "With Donald Trump hosting, Saturday Night Live jumped to its biggest overnight rating since 2012." CW: So, you know, screw those minority & immgrant protesters who were appalled by Trump's appearance.

"Rubionomics." Jonathan Chait: "Last week, Citizens for Tax Justice, a liberal think tank that uses mainstream economic tax modeling, analyzed Marco Rubio's tax-cut plan. Thirty-four percent of the benefits of the plan would go to the highest-earning one percent of Americans.... Rubio's proposal deliberately provides some benefits to Americans of modest income.... All told, Rubio's plan would reduce federal revenue by $11.8 trillion over the next decade. The entire [George W.] Bush tax cuts cost about $3.4 trillion over a decade, making the Rubio tax cuts more than three times as costly.... Oh, and Rubio has also called for an amendment to the Constitution requiring a balanced budget every year. Oh, one more thing: Among the Republican presidential candidates, Rubio is widely considered to be a moderate on fiscal issues.... The party's 'mainstream' economic thinking now lies at a point far beyond what used to be considered its fringe. It is a party that has lost all contact with reality, and continues to drift farther and farther over the horizon." ...

... Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg: "After strong debate performances, [Ted] Cruz and [Marco] Rubio -- both 44-year-old Cuban Americans -- saw their poll numbers rise and interest from donors jump. They are now locked in a third-place tie, according to a national Los Angeles Times poll ahead of Tuesday's debate in Milwaukee. As a result, Cruz and his allies have begun zeroing in on Rubio.... The Texas hardliner's mischievous branding of Rubio as a 'moderate' is the first shot in a showdown that may unfold in the coming days of the campaign. The label 'moderate' may seem anodyne, but in the context of modern Republican primaries, it is generally meant as an insult.... [Rubio's] Senate voting record is anything but moderate, featuring routine opposition to bipartisan deals to avert government shutdowns and debt default, as well as rejecting popular Democratic-led proposals such as raising the federal minimum wage and toughening equal pay for women laws." ...

... CW: Also, too, Rubio favors banning abortion even in cases of rape & incest. Someone who favors burdening a woman or girl with bearing & rearing her attacker's child is no moderate. Laura Chapin of US News (March 2015): "Cruz ... opposes abortion for victims of rape and incest. He also labels forms of contraception such as Plan B 'abortifacients', which isn't scientifically or medically correct." ...

... Days of the Jackass. Katie Zezima & Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "The list of GOP politicians and operatives willing to take open shots at [Ted] Cruz has grown long: Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, former House speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio), Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), fellow Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Sen. John Thune (S.D.), former senator Tom Coburn (Okla.) -- and on and on. Cruz does not appear to be bothered.... On the trail, the Texas Republican fondly recounts his skirmishes. His campaign blasts out fundraising e-mails quoting the critical words.... In other words, Cruz's status as persona non grata has become part of his political persona: He uses the enmity of others to paint himself as an outsider...."

Wrong Answer. Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "Carly Fiorina is defending her decision not to correct a man who characterized President Obama as a 'black Muslim'... and said 'he doesn't want this country to get ahead.'... at a diner in New Hampshire. Fiorina said it wasn't her job to defend the president.... 'I've said on many occasions: President Obama tells me he's a Christian; I take him at his word,' she said on Fox News on Friday. 'But the truth is, President Obama isn't on the ballot.'" ...

... Better Answer. "Well, he is black; he says so himself. But he isn't Muslim; he says he's a Christian, & I don't doubt him. Let's be clear, though; there's nothing wrong with being a black Muslim. This country embraces people of all faiths & people of no faith. But on that other matter: President Obama has said time & again that he wants this country to get ahead. I believe him. Like all of us here, President Obama is a patriot. Where I disagree with him is in the ideas & policies he has for moving the country forward. His ideas aren't working all that well. My ideas & proposals are better." Really, Carly, what's so hard about that? You've had plenty of time to think about it since you blew it, & all you can come up with is, "I don't have to defend anybody who isn't running for president"? Pretty stupid. And decidely not presidential. Or vice-presidential. Or undersecretary-of-commerc-ial.

Beyond the Beltway

Scott Gleeson of USA Today: "More than 30 football players at the University of Missouri will not participate in any practices or games until Missouri System president Tim Wolfe resigns or is terminated. Several black team members announced their decision to strike on social media Saturday night and Missouri's Legion of Black Collegians posted a statement on behalf of the team with a picture of players unified in support of the boycott. Wolfe's response to a series of racist incidents has been considered inadequate by many students who believe racism has poisoned the campus. A graduate student, Jonathan Butler, announced earlier in the week he was going on a hunger strike until Wolfe was removed. The most recent racist incident came Oct. 24 when a swastika was drawn with human feces on a college dorm's white wall.... Junior cornerback John Gibson tweeted that the Tigers' coaching staff and white teammates were also in support of the strike. And offensive lineman Paul Adams, a white player, expressed his support publicly on Twitter."

Relevant to yesterday's Comments:

By Randall Munroe. Thanks to D. C. Clark.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "A Jordanian police officer opened fire Monday at a U.S.-backed training center, killing at least four people including two American government contractors, officials said. The gunman also was killed. The shootings appeared to mark a return of terrorism-linked bloodshed as Jordan marked the 10th anniversary of deadly hotel bombings."

Washington Post: "Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy predicted a landslide victory on Monday as tallying continued in Burma's historic elections, with some in the military-backed ruling party beginning to speak of defeat."

New York Times: "A 43-year-old man was shot and killed and two others were wounded in a shooting inside a subway station at Eighth Avenue and 35th Street in Manhattan, by Pennsylvania Station, shortly before 6:15 a.m. Monday...."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 8, 2015

Internal links removed.

Washington Post Editors: The House's transportation bill robs the Federal Reserve's piggy bank. That's a banana-republic move. And Paul Ryan is proud of it.

Who could have guessed this was coming? Maureen Dowd: "I am here, my puzzled readers, to help interpret the latest Oedipal somersaults of our royally messed up Republican royal family. Like many uptight, upper-class families, the Bushes seem oddly unable to directly confront tensions and resentments and talk to each other candidly.... It's remarkable that two presidents who went to war with the same Iraqi dictator can bluntly talk to each other only through a biographer."

Gail Collins: Women running for elective office have to be more qualified & more "likable" than men who run.

Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "Volkswagen is expected to offer cash to the owners of diesel cars in the United States this coming week as it steps up an effort to recover some of the good will it lost after admitting in September that the vehicles were programmed to cheat on emissions tests."

Eric Schmitt & Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "As the United States prepares to intensify airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria, the Arab allies who with great fanfare sent warplanes on the initial missions there a year ago have largely vanished from the campaign.... Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have shifted most of their aircraft to their fight against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Jordan, reacting to the grisly execution of one of its pilots by the Islamic State, and in a show of solidarity with the Saudis, has also diverted combat flights to Yemen. Jets from Bahrain last struck targets in Syria in February, coalition officials said. Qatar is flying patrols over Syria, but its role has been modest."

Presidential Race

Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Deep disregard for the news media has allowed candidates to duck, dodge and ridicule assertions from outlets they dislike and seek the embrace of those that are inclined to protect them. Today, it seems, truth is in the eyes of the beholder -- and any assertion can be elevated and amplified if yelled loudly enough.... In many ways, Mr. Trump has set the tone for the embroidery: His grandiose and sweeping claims have generated an entirely new category of overstatement in American politics. Several of his statements are so outlandish that they cannot even be disproved.... Mr. Trump, to be sure, utters plenty of refutable claims. (PolitiFact has rated 40 percent of his statements 'false.')"

"Gifted Grifter," Ctd. Kevin Drum on why Ben Carson tells those whoppers: "He needs to exaggerate how violent he was when he was young. And after he finds God, he needs to exaggerate how great everything turned out. This culminates in the absurd story about his psychology class [detailed in Drum's post, in the Wall Street Journal & elsewhere]. No one who's not an evangelical Christian would believe it for a second. But evangelicals hear testimonies like this all the time. They expect testimonies like this, and the more improbable the better. So Carson gives them one.... Not all of Carson's deceptions follow this pattern. But several of them do. And they were far from unnecessary. Carson needed to sell his story to evangelicals, and that required a narrative arc as formulaic as any supermarket romance novel. So he gave them one." CW: It was all a con to sell books; now it's a con to sell himself as POTUS. ...

... That Time I Saved the White Kids. Emma Margolin of MSNBC: "As Republican presidential front-runner Dr. Ben Carson plays defense on accounts that he was offered a full scholarship to West Point and had been a youth so troubled that he once tried to stab a friend, new reports of biographical inaccuracies are coming to light and threatening to undo the core of his campaign. During the aftermath of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, for example, Carson -- then, a junior at Detroit's Southwestern High -- claims to have heroically protected a few white students from anger-fueled attacks by hiding them in the biology lab, where he worked part time. But The Wall Street Journal could not confirm the account through interviews with a half-dozen of Carson's classmates and his high school physics teacher. All of the students remembered the riot, but none could recall white students hiding in the biology lab." And so forth. ...

... Sarah Posner of Religion Dispatches: "Carson seems certain that using the 'secular progressive' straw man to insulate himself from criticism will work with voters.... It may work with a Republican base conditioned to distrust the media as shills of the left and enemies of religion.... As Ed Kilgore and David Corn have documented, many of Carson's beliefs have long roots in the conspiratorial American right dating back to the Cold War, so he's tapping into a deep well. But as Heather Parton [digby] has repeatedly pointed out, Carson's method of attacking his perceived enemies (even the National Review!) undermines his reputation as a soft-spoken, reliably nice guy, the crucial underpinning of his candidacy." ...

... Dave Weigel ... in defiance of the facts, [Ben] Carson professed ignorance on the debate stage about any 'relationship' with [Mannatech, a snake-oil "dietary supplement" company]. He spent two days following the debate denouncing the questions about Mannatech as 'propaganda.' And his most ardent supporters don't care.... The commercial breaks on talk radio and the sidebars of conservative Web sites brim with products that promise life without diabetes, memory improvement and the elimination of stubborn belly fat. Some companies, like Mannatech, come off as merely overzealous in the promise of what some nutrients can do. Others spin amazing yarns about cures foretold in the Bible or suppressed by the government." Meanwhile big PhARMA & "secular progressives" are "suppress[ing] the truth about medicine." CW: Neither logic nor reason, neither facts nor scientific evidence will stop Doc Ben. He & his followers do not live in the same world I do.

Here's Trump's SNL monologue. CW: Couldn't stand to listen. I'll wait till next week when SNL invites Ole Doc to host. He'll probably tell Bible stories instead of delivering a regular monologue; then appear in a skit where he plays Jeremiah Wright predicting the End Times & condemning Barack Obama to hell; then in another where he plays a grizzled old codger sitting out on his rocker (or off his rocker, whatever) & blowing up at all the liberal lies he's reading in his daily newspaper: climate change, ObamaCare is working, the old folks love their Medicare. I'm pretty sure he could pull it all off & still be standing to smile that creepy benign grin of his at sign-off. Meanwhile, thanks, SNL, for giving the Donald more publicity. He really needed it:

... This seems to be the media critics' a/k/a political reporters', consensus: Michael Barbaro & Emily Palmer of the New York Times: "... it was a stilted and sometimes unfunny performance, suggesting Mr. Trump is most at ease when hosting his own, seemingly never-ending TV show, rather than appearing as a guest host on somebody else's."

Jeremy Peters, et al., of the New York Times: "Newly released credit card statements from the years when Senator Marco Rubio was a young Florida legislator on the fast track to leadership show a pattern of falling behind on payments while mingling personal and political spending, disclosures that reinforce the image of a politician who has long struggled with messy finances, at home and in his career." ...

... Marc Caputo of Politico: "On Saturday, [Marco] Rubio released his 2005 and 2006 [American Express] statements that showed he only spent $65,000 on party business. That's far less than other Republican leaders who succeeded him in the Florida House. And it's just about half of the $117,000 Rubio himself charged on his party credit card after he became Florida House speaker in 2007-08.... Including that previously leaked batch of charges and the $65,000 worth of expenses Rubio disclosed today, he spent a total of $182,000 over the four years he had the card from January 2005 until November 2008. From swank Las Vegas hotel rooms to Disney World conferences to pricey dinners, the charges show the perks of professional politicking as well as the pitfalls encountered by the at-times financially careless young legislator during a boom-time economy." ...

... Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: Rubio's credit card "scandal" isn't much of a scandal.

Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "Entertainment shows are usually a safe haven for presidential candidates .... That's not exactly how it went for Republican Carly Fiorina on ABC's 'The View' on Friday. Fiorina got major pushback from the show's all-female cast when responding to a question about how she can be both pro-women and anti-abortion rights...." Video segments are embedded in yesterday's Commentariat.

Beyond the Beltway

Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Gov. Terry McAuliffe [D-Va.] intends to make another push for Medicaid expansion despite intense opposition from Republicans, who retained full control of the General Assembly in elections last week.... When asked if his plan involved a new hospital tax, McAuliffe said it was too soon to share details. But he indicated that it would require hospitals to contribute money in some way, which would then be leveraged to bring a larger amount back to the hospitals."

Campbell Robertson of the New York Times:Mississippi Confederates are still loving their Confederate state flag.

News Lede

New York Times: "After five decades of military rule and a series of rigged or canceled elections, voters in Myanmar took part in what many described as their first genuine election."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 7, 2015

Internal links removed.

** Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "President Obama on Friday announced that he had rejected the request from a Canadian company to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline, ending a seven-year review that had become a flash point in the debate over his climate policies. Mr. Obama's denial of the proposed 1,179-mile pipeline, which would have carried 800,000 barrels a day of carbon-heavy petroleum from the Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast, comes as he is seeking to build an ambitious legacy on climate change." CW: Thanks to Akhilleus for the heads-up. AND thanks to John Kerry, who nixed the pipeline. President Obama's announcement is worth a listen. (Also linked yesterday.)

... Big Surprise. Nick Gass & Eliza Collins of Politico: "Republican presidential candidates reacted forcefully to President Obama's announcement rejecting the construction of TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline Friday, calling it politically motivated acquiescence to environmentalists and damaging the U.S. economy." ...

... ** Bill McKibben in the New Yorker: "The fossil-fuel industry -- which, for two centuries, underwrote our civilization and then became its greatest threat -- has started to take serious hits. At noon today, President Obama rejected the Keystone Pipeline, becoming the first world leader to turn down a major project on climate grounds. Eighteen hours earlier, New York's Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that he'd issued subpoenas to Exxon, the richest and most profitable energy company in history, after substantial evidence emerged that it had deceived the world about climate change." Read on. ...

... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City said this week that he would run millions of dollars in political television ads against four state attorneys general who are suing the Obama administration over regulations on power plant emissions.... [The ads] amount to a defense of the White House over its Clean Power Plan, which has been met with opposition, primarily -- but not only -- from Republican officials.... The ads will run in Missouri, Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin, and target Republicans and Democrats. The lone Democrat in the group, Chris Koster of Missouri, is running for governor next year."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Friday announced that it would again address a clash between religious freedom and access to contraception. The case concerns regulations under President Obama's health care law that require most employers to provide free insurance coverage for contraceptives to female workers. The regulations say the insurance must cover preventive services, including all forms of contraception approved for women by the Food and Drug Administration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rebecca Riffkin of Gallup: "Americans' satisfaction with the way the healthcare system works for them varies by the type of insurance they have. Satisfaction is highest among those with veterans or military health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and is lower among those with employer-paid and self-paid insurance. Americans with no health insurance are least satisfied of all." CW: Gee, maybe somebody could think up a way for everybody to have a government-backed healthcare plan so millions & millions of Americans could be happier (Bernie Sanders).

Ashley Halsey of the Washington Post: "As investigators search for the cause of a plane crash that killed 224 people over the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday and Russia suspends all flights to Egypt, U.S. officials said they are taking unspecified precautionary measures to enhance the security of flights from the Middle East."

Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "Children of same-sex couples will not be able to join the Mormon Church until they turn 18 -- and only if they move out of their parents' homes, disavow all same-sex relationships and receive approval from the church's top leadership as part of a new policy adopted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In addition, Mormons in same-sex marriages will be considered apostates and subject to excommunication, a more rigid approach than the church has taken in the past."

Presidential Race

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Because the Democratic National Committee has not approved [an] event [Friday evening] as an official debate, the First in the South Presidential Candidates Forum, hosted by the South Carolina Democratic Party and Representative James E. Clyburn, cannot present the candidates onstage at the same time. Instead, the moderator, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, will question each candidate individually." Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders & Martin O'Malley will participate. It will begin at 8 pm ET. ...

... Update. Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "Hillary Clinton moved to the left on Friday night as the Democratic frontrunner took stronger and more impassioned stances than in the past on police violence and corporate influence in the United States. Before a lively crowd of nearly 3,000 in South Carolina, the former secretary of state struck some of her most populist tones of the campaign while participating in what was possibly the strangest televised live event of the election season so far. In a format that was three parts talk show to one part game show, the candidates faced probing inquiries as well as random questions pulled from sealed envelopes as they sat almost knee-to-knee with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow in front of a boisterous campus audience." ...

... Update. Amy Chozick: "Senator Bernie Sanders used a Democratic primary forum in South Carolina on Friday to try to reach out to black voters and make the argument that he is the candidate best suited to address the needs of a demographic that overwhelmingly favors Hillary Rodham Clinton, his chief rival for the nomination." ...

... Evan McMorris-Santoro of BuzzFeed with three takeaways from the forum. Includes video clips.

Let's Watch the E-MailGate Hotair Balloon Fizzle. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The U.S. intelligence community has retreated from claims that two emails in Hillary Clinton's private account contained top-secret information, a source familiar with the situation told Politico.... Concerns about the emails' classification helped trigger an ongoing FBI inquiry into Clinton's private email setup." ...

... CW: I'll bet Trey is having a sad today. Say, where's Michael Schmidt of the New York Times? He broke the story -- and it was a story, as in tall tale -- that two inspectors general had requested a criminal inquiry into Clinton's e-mails on accounta her sending top-secret info to her yoga-class friends & a wedding planner. You might think Schmidt & the Times would be all over this new "wrinkle." But apparently Schmidt's sources are limited to Trey Gowdy & Trey Gowdy. Because not a peep from the Times 12 hours after Politico dropped the Gerstein post.

** "Gifted Grifter." Every Day a New Lie. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Ben Carson's campaign on Friday admitted, in a response to an inquiry from Politico, that a central point in his inspirational personal story was fabricated: his application and acceptance into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.... West Point ... has no record of Carson applying, much less being extended admission.... Also, according to West Point, there is no such thing as a 'full scholarship' to the military academy, as Carson represented in his book.... When presented with these facts, Carson's campaign conceded the story was false.... Carson has said he turned down the supposed offer of admission because he knew he wanted to be a doctor and attending West Point would have required four years of military service after graduation.... Carson repeated his West Point claim as recently as Aug. 13, when he fielded questions from supporters on Facebook." CW: Read the whole story: it's a typical boy's pipedream, not one a man relates as a factual event of his youth. The fact that Carson has continued to repeat it makes me think he came to believe his boyish pipedream. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Update 1. Steve Eder of the New York Times: "In an interview with The New York Times on Friday, Mr. Carson said: 'I don't remember all the specific details. Because I had done so extraordinarily well you know I was told that someone like me -- they could get a scholarship to West Point. But I made it clear I was going to pursue a career in medicine. It was, you know, an informal "with a record like yours we could easily get you a scholarship to West Point."'... , In a Facebook post in August responding to a question, he wrote that he had been 'thrilled to get an offer from West Point.'" (Also linked yesterdzay afternoon.)

... Update 2. Rachel Stoltzfoos of the Daily Caller: "'The campaign never "admitted to anything,"' a spokesman for Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson told The Daily Caller News Foundation in response to a hit by Politico claiming his campaign admitted to 'fabricating' a key point about his West Point story. 'The Politico story is an outright Lie,' Doug Watts told TheDCNF." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Update 3. The Emperor Strikes Back. Steve Eder: "On Friday night, in a combative news conference in Florida in which he showed rare flashes of anger, Mr. Carson gave no ground and challenged the news media on its ethics and balance. In a mocking tone, he said reporters had not investigated President Obama, as a candidate in 2008, so intensely. 'Don't lie,' Mr. Carson said, cutting off a reporter asking a question about West Point. He predicted that the scrutiny would be a boon to his campaign, saying voters 'understand that this is a witch hunt'":

     ... Eder, Ctd.: "... just a couple of hours after the news conference, another report, in The Wall Street Journal, challenged events Mr. Carson has recounted. One of them, recalled in 'Gifted Hands,' involved a psychology class he said he had attended at Yale University, called Perceptions 301. Mr. Carson described the professor's conducting an honesty experiment on the class and wrote that he was the only one who passed, prompting The Yale Daily News to take his picture. But no photo identifying Mr. Carson as a student appeared in the newspaper's archives, The Journal reported, and a Yale librarian told the newspaper that there was no psychology course by that name or class number during Mr. Carson's years at Yale." ...

All fiction may be autobiography, but all autobiography is of course fiction. -- Shirley Abbott

... Eliza Collins of Politico: "Ben Carson, in an agitated press conference Friday night, denied that he had ever claimed receiving a 'full scholarship' from West Point. 'I never said that I received a full scholarship. Nowhere did I say that,' Carson said. 'Politico as you know, told a bold-faced lie.'... But the retired neurosurgeon did say he got a scholarship offer -- more than once. In his 1996 autobiography 'Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story,' Carson wrote on page 67 that after a dinner with a prominent U.S. general he was 'offered a full scholarship to West Point.'... " He repeated the remark, in those same words, a few grafs later. "In an October interview with TV host Charlie Rose, Carson said he 'was offered full scholarship to West Point.'" ...

... Dave Weigel & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "The Politico story seemed to mischaracterize a small but key detail in the way Carson has told the story. In many cases, Carson implied only that he received a formal offer from West Point. He never said explicitly that he had been accepted or even that he had applied.... By mid-afternoon, Politico posted a new version of its story that no longer included the wording that Carson had 'fabricated' a part of his biography. Later in the day, the news site posted an editor's note stating that the story should have made clear that Carson never claimed to have applied for admission to West Point.... Carson also made a similar claim [in another book about another school].... 'The University of Michigan had offered me a scholarship, but I wanted to go farther from home,' he wrote in his 1999 book, 'The Big Picture.' A spokesman for the University of Michigan, Rick Fitzgerald, said he could not confirm that account. The university no longer has records from that time." ...

... Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: Carson's "story held up until now. But in retrospect, it is clear that it doesn't stand up to scrutiny. The process to getting into West Point requires applicants to obtain a nomination, most commonly from their congressman, senator or vice president of the United States. The secretary of the Army -- an appointed civilian leader -- also can nominate a student for consideration, but the service's four-star chief of staff -- Westmoreland from July 1968 through June 1972 -- is not eligible to do so." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "Now that the Carson campaign is hotly denying that it 'admitted' and 'fabrication' of facts to Politico, we're getting deeply into a crossfire of mendacity claims, with some conservatives who originally thought the 'story' might be a problem for Carson now backing into a posture of defending him and attacking Politico.... I suspect the real referees in this and similar disputes are the conservative evangelicals who know little or nothing of the man's Bircher ideology and just see him as a Christian servant-leader with a distinguished career and a common touch.... Something tells me they do not place a lot of faith in Politico." ...

... Kevin Drum: "... here's what [Carson] said in August: 'I was the highest student ROTC member in Detroit and was thrilled to get an offer from West Point. But I knew medicine is what I wanted to do.' Come on, folks. 'An offer from West Point' is the same as 'being accepted at West Point.' It's obvious what he was saying here, and it's equally obvious it isn't true." Friday, Carson told the NYT, "'Because I had done so extraordinarily well you know I was told that someone like me -- they could get a scholarship to West Point. But I made it clear I was going to pursue a career in medicine. It was, you know, an informal "with a record like yours we could easily get you a scholarship to West Point."'... But for the past two decades it's not what Carson has said. It's not even close. There's a world of difference between (a) someone telling you that you could probably get into West Point and (b) actually getting into West Point. Carson is a nutcase, a policy buffoon, and at the very least, a serial personal embellisher. With a guy like that, you just know more stuff is going to come out." ...

... CW: For more commentary on Cadet Carson, see afternoon updates to yesterday's Commentariat. ...

... CW: digby, in a post I also linked yesterday, highlighted an October exchange between Ben Carson & John Harwood. After Carson said President Obama reminded him of a psychopath because he lied about the unemployment rate (actually, Obama accurately cited Labor Department stats, but, you know, who cares?), Carson defined "psychopath": "... they tend to be extremely smooth, charming people, who can tell a lie to your face with complete -- it looks like sincerity, even though they know it's a lie." This describes Carson to a T. I do wonder how Carson became such an expert on psychopathology. ...

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Ben Carson is fast becoming a tragic figure. He's a man of genuine merit, yet he's tarnished his reputation through his inability to resist fantastic ideas -- and to make up fantasies about his own life. He stands as proof of the fact that intelligence is unconnected to morality." Heer explains why that is. ...

... Don't Know Much About His-to-ry. Robert Schlesinger of US News elaborates on how wrong Carson is about the Founders being "citizen-statesmen" with no experience in elected office. ...

... A model, dating to about 2200 B.C.E., of an actual Egyptian granary. In the British Museum. Via Binjamin Appelbaum of the New York Times. (Sorry, couldn't get the link to Appelbaum's Twitter account to work.) Commenter Wendy Morris thought the model appeared to be "a square-looking pyramid.") ...

... Like Appelbaum, Markos Moulitsas is not taking Ben Carson seriously enough. (And that was before Carson's Friday Flameout 2.0.)

"Family Ties," Season 3, Episode 7: Jeb is stunned by a book about Poppy. Steve M.: How could Jeb not be prepared for the publication of [George H.W. Bush's biography]? How could he not have consulted with his father and learned what his father told [biographer Jon] Meacham, and then carefully crafted a response? For that matter, why did Poppy, a cagey old political pro, get into these matters with Meacham at all when he knew there were still presidential races to be run by the Bush family? This crisis in the Bush campaign was as predictable as the 'would you have invaded Iraq?' question. And, of course, Jeb bungled that as well. It seemed as if he had no idea it was coming. The same can be said for this book."

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Marco Rubio, looking to capitalize on a wave of momentum, is pushing to win the support of a former rival: Scott Walker.... Walker, though, is not planning on making an immediate endorsement of anyone in the GOP field.... While Walker has been courted by a number of Republican candidates since his exit, those close to the Wisconsin governor say Rubio is the first to formally ask him for his endorsement."

Eliza Collins: The Ladies of "The View" confront their lovely guest Carly Fiorina. ...

... Jordyn Phelps of ABC News: "Carly Fiorina did not correct a New Hampshire man [Friday] who called President Obama a 'black Muslim.' 'He doesn't want this country to get ahead,' the man said to Fiorina as she shook hands with a group of mostly undecided voters at Foodee's restaurant in Milford. 'He doesn't. He's a Muslim. He's a black Muslim.' '"Well, uh, it's time to do something different in many ways,' Fiorina said before moving on to shake the hand of the next prospective voter."

Governor's Race

Greg Hilburn of Gannett News: "Democrat state Rep. John Bel Edwards has cut a TV ad attacking Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter specifically about Vitter's prostitution scandal for the first time during the Louisiana gubernatorial campaign.... Edwards' ad will run statewide beginning Saturday, which coincides with the early voting period. Election Day is Nov. 21.":

... Julia O'Donoghue & Kevin Litten of the Times-Picayune discuss in some detail the bases for & implications of the ad. ...

... Kevin Litten: "Louisiana Republicans are not happy with Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne's decision to endorse Democratic candidate John Bel Edwards for governor over Republican David Vitter."

Beyond the Beltway

James McKinley of the New York Times: "At a time when most city and state agencies are struggling with budget constraints, [Manhattan D.A. Cyrus] Vance[, Jr.,] has secured a windfall of $808 million from criminal penalties against three international banks accused of violating United States sanctions — HSBC, Standard Chartered and BNP Paribas.... Because by law it must be spent on criminal justice projects, it has transformed Mr. Vance into a kind of Santa Claus for the law-enforcement world, with a sack filled with new programs and equipment."

Liam Stack of the New York Times: "Two police officers have been arrested on charges of second-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of a 6-year-old boy during a pursuit of his father in a sport utility vehicle in central Louisiana, the state police said Friday. The officers, Norris Greenhouse Jr. and Lt. Derrick Stafford, who were placed on administrative leave after the chase on Tuesday, also face charges of attempted second-degree murder...."

Isaac Stanley-Becker & Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: Yale University decides Black Lives Matter, after all.

Way Beyond

Austin Ramzy of the New York Times: "President Xi Jinping of China met with Ma Ying-jeou, the president of Taiwan, on Saturday in the first ever encounter between the leaders of the neighbors and longtime rivals, an act both sides described as a breakthrough gesture meant to promote peace and mutual prosperity.

News Lede

Washington Post: "A former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin and prominent political figure was found dead on Thursday in a Dupont Circle hotel room, according to the Russian Embassy in Washington. The spokesman confirmed Russian media reports that Mikhail Lesin, a former press minister and ex-executive of Gazprom-Media, died in D.C." Cause of death unknown.