The Commentariat -- Nov. 3, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Afternoon Update:
Nick Gass of Politico: "Despite pouring millions of his vast personal fortune into politics, in an interview with MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' aired Tuesday, megadonor Charles Koch said he and his brother David are 'so far ... largely failures at buying up influence and changing the level of political rhetoric in the United States. 'But I'm kind of like Martin Luther when he was on trial and "He said, here I stand, I can do no other,'" Koch said in a taped conversation in Wichita, Kansas, with co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski." ...
... CW: Yeah, Martin Luther was a jerk, too, once he acquired some political power.
Ed Kilgore: "The whole debate debate is beginning to look like an effort spearheaded by the one candidate who probably has the most to lose from probing debate question..., Ben Carson. As HuffPost's Sam Stein reports, Team Carson would apparently prefer a 'debate' made up basically of opening and closing statements.... If you do the math with ten candidates, and assuming (as you should not) no 'leakage' via candidates exceeding their time [of 5 minutes each], you're looking at 100 minutes of non-interrupted candidate talking points. If you also, as Carson earlier demanded, a two-hour cap on the whole show, and work in commercials, yeah, there's not any time for 'debating.' This is, of course, a guy who thinks any criticism of his wacky world-view is an effort to repress him and take away his liberties...." ...
... Kevin Drum: "The whole Republican bedwetting exercise over their allegedly heinous treatment at the hands of CNBC is certainly entertaining for those of us who aren't Republicans. But Republicans themselves are now making it even more Survivor-like by splitting into two competing tribes...."
Mitch Smith & Monica Davey of the New York Times: "Federal education authorities, staking out their firmest position yet on an increasingly contentious issue, found Monday that an Illinois school district violated anti-discrimination laws when it did not allow a transgender student who identifies as a girl and participates on a girls' sports team to change and shower in the girls’ locker room without restrictions." (Missed this this morning.) ...
... MEANWHILE, in Houston, Texas, bathrooms are on the ballot today. Mark Warren of Esquire reports.
*****
President Obama signed the Budget Act of 2015 yesterday:
... Loophole Lopped. Jonelle Marte of the Washington Post: "... the budget deal that President Obama signed into law Monday gets rid of one of the key strategies that has increased lifetime Social Security benefits by up to roughly $60,000 for some high-earning couples." ...
... Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: "The budget victory party is already over for Democrats in Congress and the focus now is on preventing a government shutdown in December. Democratic leaders are anticipating a weeks-long fight with Republicans who could attach controversial provisions, like defunding Planned Parenthood, to the spending legislation that is necessary to prevent a government shutdown later this year. Their plan is to stay unified and refuse to vote on bills that they don't like.... In the coming weeks the Appropriations Committees will begin crafting an omnibus spending bill that must be signed into law by Dec. 11 to keep the government open, and Republicans have a long list of policy proposals they would like to tuck into the legislation."
... Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "... there is no shortage of political drama facing voters going to the polls in states from California to Pennsylvania. There are gubernatorial, state legislative and mayoral races whose outcomes are anyone's guess and ballot initiatives that could change the way we think about social movements like marijuana legalization and LGBT equality." Key race: Kentucky's close gubernatorial contest where Democrat Jack Conway holds a slight edge in the polls over Tea Party fave Matt Bevin who "is cruising around Kentucky in a gold Cadillac Escalade with a Donald Trump-like message that he's the man for the job because he can't be bought." Hanging in the balance: health insurance for thousands of Kentuckians. ...
... CW: If you live in a state or community that is holding elections today, get thee to the polls.
Gone, the Beloved Felon. Jake Sherman of Politico: The House has "disappeared" former Speaker Denny Hastert's portrait, which had hung outside the House floor. Somebody replaced it with a portrait of Frederick Gillett, who "was speaker between 1919 and 1925." CW: That was silly. If Republicans were going to stuff Speaker Hastert back in the closet, so to speak, they should have replaced his portrait with this one:
... CW: Now that's what I call classy.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: During oral arguments before the Supreme Court Monday in a case on race discrimination in jury selection, the justices seemed to agree "that prosecutors in Georgia had crossed a constitutional line in 1987 in their efforts to exclude all blacks from a jury that would hear a capital case against a black man, Timothy T. Foster, who was accused of killing a white woman, Queen Madge White. Prosecutors used peremptory challenges -- ones that do not require giving a reason -- to exclude every potential black juror." ...
... Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "Racism highlighted in a green marker." And one of these justices is not like the other ones: Justice Sotomayor gets personal about her wayward cousins.
Adam Liptak: "A case about false information on the Internet gave rise to a vivid and occasionally personal argument on Monday at the Supreme Court. The question in the case was whether companies that say false but seemingly benign things about consumers may be sued under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that many sorts of apparently harmless misinformation could cause damage."
Christianist Law. Michael Corkery & Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times continue their investigation of arbitration: "For generations, religious tribunals have been used in the United States to settle family disputes and spiritual debates. But through arbitration, religion is being used to sort out secular problems like claims of financial fraud and wrongful death. An investigation by The New York Times found that ... Americans are being forced out of court and into arbitration for everything from botched home renovations to medical malpractice. By adding a religious component, companies are taking the privatization of justice a step further.... Some religious organizations stand by the process until they lose, at which point they turn to the secular courts to overturn faith-based judgments, according to interviews and court records."
Sam Thielman of the Guardian: "The world's top tech companies are failing when it comes to privacy and freedom of expression, according to the most comprehensive assessment to date of their user agreement policies.... All of the firms failed to offer their users basic disclosures about privacy and censorship, according to the survey, which was conducted by the New America Foundation thinktank. One didn't even provide user agreements in the proper language. 'There are no "winners",' said the group in its executive summary. 'Even companies in the lead are falling short.'"
Lenny Bernstein & Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "A large segment of white middle-aged Americans has suffered a startling rise in its death rate since 1999, according to a review of statistics published Monday that shows a sharp reversal in decades of progress toward longer lives. The mortality rate for white men and women ages 45-54 with less than a college education increased markedly between 1999 and 2013, most likely because of problems with legal and illegal drugs, alcohol and suicide, the researchers concluded. Before then, death rates for that group dropped steadily, and at a faster pace." ...
... Ian Sample of the Guardian: "A sharp rise in death rates among white middle-aged Americans has claimed nearly as many lives in the past 15 years as the spread of Aids in the US, researchers have said. The alarming trend, overlooked until now, has hit less-educated 45- to 54-year-olds the hardest, with no other groups in the US as affected and no similar declines seen in other rich countries."
Bruce Wallace of Reuters: "The company battling to build the Keystone XL pipeline made a plea for a ceasefire on Monday, asking the Obama administration to suspend its review of the controversial infrastructure project that would bring heavy oil from Alberta to U.S. refineries. If granted by the U.S. State Department, the delay would almost certainly hand the decision for the $8 billion project to a future president rather than Barack Obama, a Democrat."
Annie Lowrey of New York: In a "fantastically sexist" Huffington Post opinion piece, "Ralph Nader mansplains monetary policy to Fed chair Janet Yellen." He tells the little lady that since she obviously can't comprehend the effects of low interest rates, she should ask her husband to explain it all to her. Also, "If you need further nudging on monetary and regulatory policies of the Fed..., why not invite Berkeley Professor Robert Reich, one of your long-time friends and admirers, to lunch on your next trip home?" to help out. (Never mind that both hubby George Akerlof & Reich would agree with the Fed's current policy.) CW: Not sure why Nader doesn't suggest Yellen put on a pretty apron & make a tuna salad for Reich, tho I suppose that's implicit. P.S. If you voted for Nader in 2000, therein is what you voted for.
Simon Bowers of the Guardian: "The US has overtaken Singapore, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands as an attractive haven for super-rich individuals and businesses looking to shelter assets behind a veil of secrecy, according to a study by the Tax Justice Network (TJN). The US is ranked third, behind Switzerland and Hong Kong, in the financial secrecy index, produced every two years by TJN. But the study noted that if Britain and its affiliated tax havens such as Jersey were treated as one unit it would top the list.... The US states of Delaware, Wyoming and Nevada have for decades been operating as onshore secrecy havens, specialising in setting up shell companies catering to overseas individuals and companies seeking to hide assets.... So far the US appears not to be cooperating with the creation of a common standard for information sharing between countries, as drawn up by the OECD."
David Morgan of Reuters: "Internet giant Alphabet Inc, the new holding company for Google, expects to begin delivering packages to consumers via drones sometime in 2017, the executive in charge of Google's drone effort said on Monday."
Jad Mouawad of the New York Times: "The Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday that it had discovered cheating software on more Volkswagen and Audi cars than previously disclosed and, for the first time, also found the illegal software in some of the carmaker's high-end Porsche models."
Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "Weeks after the Obama administration canceled a failed Pentagon program to train and arm Syrian rebels to combat the Islamic State, American officials announced a new effort to equip ground forces in Syria to fight the jihadists. But 10 days of interviews and front-line visits across northern Syria with many of the forces in the alliance, called the Syrian Democratic Forces, made clear that so far it exists in name only, and that the political and logistical challenges it faces are daunting."
'Mr. Butterfield,' Fred Thompson asked, 'are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the president?'
'I was aware of listening devices," Butterfield said, 'yes, sir.'
That question led to Nixon's unraveling and ultimately his resignation, as various crimes and cover-ups were captured on those tapes -- tapes the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled the White House had to turn over to Congress.
"The Fred Thompson Watergate Myth." Jake Tapper (August 2007), on the murky facts behind Fred Thompson's youthful star turn on the Watergate committee. Via Charles Pierce.
Presidential Race
Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Lawrence Lessig, the Harvard professor who began a late campaign for president, announced that he was ending his bid for the Democratic nomination, citing his exclusion from the debate stage."
, Ctd. Alex Isenstadt, et al., of Politico: "A day after roughly a dozen Republican presidential campaigns came together in a show of force Sunday night to protest the debate process, their fragile consensus collapsed on Monday, with a number of candidates refusing to sign on to a group letter intended to compel TV networks to bow to their demands. The defections threw the talks into disarray, and by late Monday some senior advisers to GOP candidates were beginning to doubt whether their pact would hold up at all. Just 24 hours after the Republican campaigns declared they were seizing debate negotiating power from the Republican National Committee -- and empower themselves to deal with networks -- the advisers said they were beginning to consider handing it back." CW: So. Not tough enough, after all, to stand up to -- Reince Priebus? ...
... Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "On Monday morning, the Republican presidential campaigns circulated a detailed letter they plan to send to the television networks, outlining their demands and questions before agreeing to any future debates -- everything from the temperature in the debate hall ('below 67 degrees') to no 'lightning round.' And on Monday afternoon, Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager for Donald J. Trump ... said the Trump campaign planned to negotiate directly with the networks." ...
... Robert Costa, et al., of the Washington Post: "The move by Trump, coming just hours after his and other campaigns huddled in a Washington suburb to craft a three-page letter of possible demands, thwarts an effort to find consensus.... Politically, Trump's go-it-alone strategy continues his pattern of casting himself as a master negotiator and the one contender who can take charge of a party that has lost its way.... After Trump's decision, the campaigns of Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) and Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J) confirmed that they would not sign on to the group effort. 'Stop complaining,' Christie said in a 'Fox & Friends' interview Monday morning. 'Set up a stage, put podiums up there, and let's just go.'" ...
... Hadas Gold of Politico: "'As we have for the previous three debates, the Trump Campaign will continue to negotiate directly with the host network to establish debate criteria that will determine Mr. Trump's participation. This is no different than the process that occurred prior to the Fox, CNN, and CNBC debates,' [a] spokesperson [for Donald Trump's campaign] said in a statement." ...
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama on Monday gleefully mocked the Republican presidential candidates [link fixed] who have called him weak on the world stage."
Kendall Breitman of Bloomberg: "Discussing the proposed changes to the party's presidential debates in a Monday interview with Bloomberg Politics..., Trump found a way to get in a dig at [Marco Rubio]..., saying he hoped the debate venues would be better air conditioned in the future. '[Rubio] is the one that sweats the most,' Trump said.... 'He's the youngest but I have never seen any human being sweat like that.'" With video, which is hilarious. ...
... Nick Gass of Politico: "Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a 'crazy,' 'highly neurotic woman' but the Democratic National Committee chairwoman 'negotiated a great deal' for Democratic debates, Donald Trump said Monday." ...
... Steve M. can't figure out what the new debate demands have to do with eliminating "liberal media bias": "So seated debate questioners are liberal, while True Patriot questioners are forced to stand? Or is it the other way around? Podiums are socialist, while constitutional conservatives insist on tables? Or vice versa?" And so forth. It is a puzzlement. ...
... Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "... while it's easy to mock some of these demands as petty and prima-donnish, many of them suggest a more insidious strategy: a concerted effort to extricate as much independent journalistic influence from the democratic process as possible and essentially turn the Fourth Estate into a bunch of stenographers.... Asked ... if candidates should be challenged by a free press, [Ben] Carson acknowledged, 'There's a place and time for that,' and indicated the debates were neither the place nor the time. Carson's camp has likewise proposed taking the debates out of the hands of journalistic organizations altogether and just streaming them over YouTube or Facebook. [If the candidates yet their way, they] won't have the media to kick around anymore. That's riskier than they may realize." ...
... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "... the R.N.C. rejected the option of running these debates on its own. It is the media that is paying for the events, and it is over the media's airwaves that the events are broadcast.... What the candidates shouldn't be allowed to do is tell reporters what questions to ask or what graphics to show on the screen, or have any role whatsoever in the editorial judgments of a news organization. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan's famous quip, if the G.O.P. wants that much control, then it needs to pay for the microphone." ...
... Dana Milbank offers to serve as the debate moderator of Republican candidates' dreams. ...
... Bill Curry, in Salon on what's wrong with presidential "debates," in general. Specifically, he cites last week's "debate": "The candidates behaved like a high school class with a new substitute teacher -- shouting over one another, speaking without being called on. They'd beg for extra time to finish a point; a panelist would refuse, then cave, then sit mute as they took off on some other topic. The chaos reflected the panel's dearth of preparation and experience.... All night long: A candidate would lie; a moderator would thank him for it. Lack of preparation was part of the problem but not the only part. The larger culprit is the worldview of the network's top employees... If 'pay to play' politics and global finance capitalism are our real problem, you won't find out from a question posed by a network television employee. Few ever question the soundness of the economic system...."
Miles Johnson of Mother Jones: "On Monday morning, [Jeb] Bush delivered what was widely described as a 'reset' speech -- 'Our story is about action, doing, not just talking' he said -- and he debuted the new 'Jeb Can Fix It' motto. By Monday afternoon, #JebCanFixIt had gone viral, becoming a trending hashtag on Twitter. But not necessarily in the way the campaign wanted." ...
Memeographs @memeographs BREAKING! @JebBush quits #GOP race, signs deal with @hgtv for new reality show: #JebCanFixIt!
... As a former voice of Bob the Builder I say. Can Jeb fix it? Well, he fixed the 2000 election. #JebCanFixIt http://bit.ly/1P6r4ZT ...
... digby takes a look at the New Jeb!'s big speech & asks, "Do they ever stop whining?" ...
... Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly: "... Jeb Bush this morning complain[ed] about the tone of the campaign right after he told everyone that the international effort to block Iran's nuclear ambitions will do absolutely nothing ... and that it has for the first time created a situation in which the United States is responsible for creating Israel's greatest existential crisis. Here Jeb is utilizing the same fear-mongering tactics that have wrecked the collective brain of the right and sunk his campaign. And he's endeavoring to use them to build enough 'credentials' with the deluded.... If you want to get beyond name-calling and bogus talking points and have a substantive discussion, you can't continue to try to prove your conservative bona fides by amplifying their stupid fear-mongering about Iran.... Whether you're in on the game or not, you've become a victim of epistemic closure. If you want to break out of that bubble, you have to stand with both feet outside it." ...
This Month, GOP Voters Embrace the Crazy. Mark Murray of NBC News: "Ben Carson has surged into the lead of the Republican presidential race, getting support from 29 percent of GOP primary voters, according to a brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. That's the highest percentage any GOP candidate has obtained so far in the survey." ...
Jonathan Swan of the Hill: "Sen. Marco Rubio's star turn in last Wednesday's GOP presidential debate is already paying off, with a new poll showing his numbers rocketing upward in New Hampshire. The Florida senator surged to third place, behind real estate mogul Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, in the Monmouth University poll of the state's likely Republican primary voters. While Rubio trails Trump by 13 points, he is within 3 percentage points of Carson."
News Ledes
Unleash the Chaing! AP: "Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet this weekend with his Taiwanese counterpart Ma Ying-jeou in a historic first culminating nearly eight years of quickly improved relations between the two sides, their governments said Wednesday.... Presidents of the two sides have not met since Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists lost the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong's Communists and the Nationalists rebased in Taiwan 160 kilometers (100 miles) away in 1949."
Washington Post: "Scraps of suggestive but inconclusive evidence surfaced Tuesday in the fourth day of a tense investigation into the Russian plane that flew apart over Egypt's troubled Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, killing all 224 aboard and scattering debris over seven square miles of desert."
New York Times: "Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi politician who from exile helped persuade the United States to invade Iraq in 2003, and then unsuccessfully tried to attain power as his country was nearly torn apart by sectarian violence, died at his home in Baghdad on Tuesday. He was 71."