The Commentariat -- June 25, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Doug Palmer of Politico: "The House voted 286-138 Thursday to renew a 50-year-old worker entitlement program with overwhelming support from Democrats, who reversed themselves on the legislation after losing a battle with the White House and Republicans over a bill to “fast-track” approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.... The vote sends the bill to President Barack Obama to sign into law."
Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: "Under a bill expected to be approved Thursday by state lawmakers, schoolchildren in California will be required to receive vaccinations unless there is a medical reason not to do so. The bill would end exemptions for personal or religious reasons, which parents who oppose vaccinations routinely request. The legislation would make California the largest state by far with such sweeping requirements for vaccinations, joining West Virginia and Mississippi, which have had similar laws for years."
Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: "A fire that engulfed a small, predominantly black church in Charlotte[, North Carolina,] was set on purpose, local officials said Wednesday. Now they are trying to determine whether the act of arson was a hate crime."
Missed this one. Al Kamen of the Washington Post: "The National Park Service moved Wednesday to stop sales of the Confederate flag in federal parks...."
*****
President Obama to speak on Supremes' decision. CW: I am so happy to see Joe Biden have something to smile about. You can view Obama's remarks on C-SPAN. ...
... ** Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that
... The Washington Post report, by Robert Barnes, is here....
... CW: Neither the NYT nor the WashPo report initially lays out the details of the decision, but I imagine the reporters will update them soon. ...
... ** Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "The message here is clear: In this and in future litigation, judges should turn aside clever attempts to undermine the law if there is any possible way to read the law otherwise. The attorneys and activists behind this lawsuit came to the Court hoping to gut Obamacare; instead, they placed it on the strongest possible legal footing.... King is a warning to lawyers who seek to tear down laws they disapprove of through clever games.... The upshot of this holding is that a future president will not be able to turn off tax credits. Agencies do not have discretion over this aspect of Obamacare.... King not only preserves Obamacare today — it also sharply limits the scope of future cases seeking to undermine the law." ...
... Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog: "The decision closely tracked most of the arguments that the Obama administration had made in defending the nationwide availability of subsidies, in the form of tax credits.... Although many observers had thought that the outcome of this new high-stakes controversy was anything but predictable, the Roberts opinion and his oral announcement gave no hint that, for the majority of six Justices, the outcome was ever in doubt...." ...
... Lena Sun & Robert Gebelhoff of the Washington Post: Healthcare insureds express relief & joy at the Court's decision. ...
... Yeah, but who cares about millions of people? Not this guy:
"Scalia Lashes Out." Tierney Sneed of TPM: "In his dissent from the Supreme Court's decision upholding Obamacare subsidies in 34 states, Justice Antonin Scalia accused the six-vote majority of engaging in 'interpretive jiggery-pokery.'... 'Under all the usual rules of interpretation, in short, the Government should lose this case. But normal rules of interpretation seem always to yield to the overriding principle of the present Court: The Affordable Care Act must be saved,' Scalia wrote in his scathing dissent." ...
... CW: Shorter Scalia: Dear Fellow Supremes, If you disagree with my superior ideology, you're a deceitful idiot." ...
... Ed Kilgore enjoys "a moment of schadenfreude" as he "luxuriate[s] ... into scalded-cat reactions" to the decision. ...
... digby: "Jeff Toobin just pointed out on CNN that Roberts is still a very conservative justice and this idea that he's a 'liberal' is daft. This is just a sign of how absurdly right wing the conservative legal community has become that they would even think of pushing a daft case like this one. Roberts is just not willing to be a total intellectual whore for their hobby horses." digby also cites a few tweets from GOP presidential candidate: "judicial tyranny" (Huckabee), etc. ...
... CW: "Liberal," my ass. Either Roberts or Kennedy, or both, had to agree to hear the case in the first place, since it takes four to tango. ...
... Bloomberg rounds up responses from presidential candidates of both parties. ...
... Also see Akhilleus' documentation of winger reactions (Comment 10, below). ...
... Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Even as Republicans rose in a chorus of outrage Thursday over the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to gut the unpopular Affordable Care Act, party leaders were privately breathing a sigh of relief. Had the court gone the other way, Republicans would have faced their most serious governing challenge since taking control of both houses of Congress earlier this year." ...
... CW: The decision seems to rest entirely upon interpretation of "Congressional intent," not just on the as-written language, as some experts had argued the Court would & could do. In relying on intent rather than "plain language," the Court cites as precedent at least one opinion that Scalia wrote -- United Savings Association of Texas v. Timbers of Inwood Forest Associates, Ltd. -- & one in which he joined the majority -- FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco. A nice kick in the face to the Court's most famous slimy hypocrite. ...
... ** OMG! "Decision of the Fourth Circuit is affirmed in King v. Burwell. 6-3." Opinion by Roberts. "Six are the Chief, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan" upholding subsidies. Here's the opinion & Scalia's dissent. ....
... From the opinion: "Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them.... In this instance, the context and structure of the Act compel us to depart from what would otherwise be the most natural reading of the pertinent statutory phrase.... The Affordable Care Act contains more than a few examples of inartful drafting." ...
... "From the intro to Scalia's dissent: the majority's reading of the text 'is of course quite absurd, and the Court's 21 pages of explanation make it no less so.'... We should start calling this law SCOTUScare." CW: Remember that in cases where he agrees with the nature of the legislation, Scalia has written that an isolated phrase must be read in context. What an ass. ...
... The Supreme Court will issue one or more opinions today, beginning at 10 am ET today. ScotusBlog will begin liveblogging at 9 am ET. ...
... First opinion on Texas housing: A big win for housing & civil rights. Kennedy wrote the opinion. "Disparate impact claims are cognizable under the Fair Housing Act." Here's the opinion & dissents. ...
... Smart note from Eric Citron: "This is a good example of what's problematic with the proposition that this is a 'liberal' term. On the one hand, this is a huge victory for the left wing of the Court on a contentious issue; on the other hand, this issue does not get granted with a less conservative Court. It all depends on your baseline." ...
... Emily Badger of the Washington Post: "Civil rights groups and the Obama Administration won a major victory Thursday as the Supreme Court upheld a tool that advocates argue is essential to fighting housing discrimination and patterns of segregation that have persisted in America for decades. In the 5-4 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Court ruled that the 1968 Fair Housing Act doesn't solely ban overt discrimination in the housing market. The Court said the law can also prohibit seemingly race-neutral policies that have the effect of disproportionately harming minorities and other protected groups, even if there is no overt evidence of bias behind them." ...
... That's it for the day. Another long national (unnecessary) nightmare is over. The Court will issue more opinions tomorrow & Monday. ...
... Robert Pear & Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times have a good overview of how the ACA subsidies work; ergo, what is at stake in the Supreme Court's upcoming opinion. CW: As for me, I can't get over the extreme cruelty of the Supremes' even taking King v. Burwell in the first place -- it takes four of them to agree to hear a case -- then dragging out issuing an opinion until the end of days. ...
... Greg Sargent on the crux of the various GOP plans to deal with the fallout of a King victory: "It would be 'unfair' to abandon those who lose subsidies, so Republicans should pursue a contingency they know will fail to restore those subsidies, because it will allow them to blame Obama!"
Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to legislation granting President Obama enhanced power to negotiate major trade agreements with Asia and Europe, sending the president’s biggest end-of-term legislative priority to the White House for his signature. The vote was 60 to 38. Senators then approved legislation assisting workers dislocated by international trade accords, attaching it to a popular African trade measure that will go to the House on Thursday for a final vote. House Democrats signaled they would support the worker-assistance measure, which they voted down two weeks ago in a tactical bid to derail the trade authority bill."
White House: "Speaking in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, President Obama lays out the findings of the U.S. Hostage Policy Review and the outlines of what U.S. policy will be moving forward. June 24, 2015":
Matt Lewis, formerly a columnist for the notorious Daily Caller & now a writer for the Daily Beast: "The injection of Southerners into the Republican coalition — a coalition they ultimately came to dominate — couldn’t help but change the image of the GOP. There were racial, cultural, political, and even religious implications. Republicans captured the South, yes, but the South also captured the GOP. There were no doubt many salutary benefits to this arrangement — most obviously, an electoral boon that lasted for decades. But it also guaranteed we would eventually see a day of reckoning." CW: He makes a good point. Conservatism isn't necessarily about racism, sexism, classism, intolerance & cruelty, even though its underlying principles are designed to promote economic inequality, aristocracy & oligarchy.
Jeremy Borden, et al., of the Washington Post: "The federal government is likely to bring hate-crime charges against the gunman accused of killing nine parishioners in a Charleston, S.C., church last week...."
Nicholas Kristof: "... the movement [to deep-six the confederate flag] is in some ways chimerical. It’s about a symbol — and now the progress on the symbol needs to be matched by progress on racial inequality in daily life.... So, sure, good riddance to Confederate flags across the country! And then let’s swivel to address the larger national disgrace: In 2015, so many children still don’t have an equal shot at life because of the color of their skin."
Jeremy Borden & Brian Murphy of the Washington Post: "Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley ordered that Confederate flags be taken down from the state capitol grounds. The Birmingham News reported that workers arrived 'with no fanfare' early Wednesday to remove the flags.... At South Carolina’s statehouse, workers placed a black drape over a second-floor window — blocking the view of a Confederate battle flag at a nearby Civil War memorial — before thousands of mourners were expected to view the body of slain state senator, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Josh Marshall of TPM: "The United States Army maintains at least ten military bases - including some of the largest - named in honor of Confederate generals. There is a unique irony in the United States Army, which lost hundreds of thousand of soldiers defeating the Confederacy, naming its biggest military compounds for generals who helped with the killing.... If it is inappropriate to have a statue of Jefferson Davis in the Kentucky capitol building [as Mitch McConnell suddenly noticed this week!] can it really be appropriate for our largest Army bases to be named after Confederate generals? As of now, the Pentagon says there is 'no discussion' of renaming those bases."
John Cassidy of the New Yorker: In a photo that appeared on his Facebook page, Dylann Roof is holding in his left hand a confederate flag, in his right hand a "a semiautomatic .45-calibre Glock 41 handgun.... According to news reports, Roof bought the pistol on April 11th, eight days after his twenty-first birthday.... Despite the fact that Roof was arrested earlier this year on a minor drug charge, the purchase appears to have been perfectly legal.... What about banning the Glock and other deadly weapons — or, at least, restricting them to rifle ranges and other secure areas? Where is the national movement to do this?" ...
... E. J. Dionne: "What’s needed is a long-term national effort to change popular attitudes toward handgun ownership. And we need to insist on protecting the rights of Americans who do not want to be anywhere near guns.... But as long as gun control is linked to ideology and party — and as long as the National Rifle Association and its allies claim a monopoly on arguments about individual rights — reasonable steps of this sort will be ground to death by the Washington Obstruction Machine."
Boehner v. the Tea Party. Scott Wong & Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his allies are charging ahead with their effort to punish conservatives who have been a thorn in leadership’s side — a purge that is roiling the GOP conference. The latest victim is Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, who could be stripped of his title as GOP freshman class president on Thursday morning.... While the Speaker has lashed out at conservative rebels before, the latest intraparty purge has been particularly aggressive, this time targeting members of the new, conservative House Freedom Caucus who voted against the rule."
Jeff Stein of Newsweek: "Chinese hackers have in recent months penetrated an untold number of FBI agents’ personnel files, Newsweek has learned, in a breach with potentially dangerous national security implications."
Etiquette Rule #1: Don't Diss the Host. Liam Stack of the New York Times: "An activist interrupted President Obama on Wednesday at a White House event celebrating L.G.B.T. Pride Month to demand an end to the deportation of L.G.B.T. immigrants. The activist was escorted from the room amid a chorus of boos and jeers from the assembled guests. The activist, Jennicet Gutiérrez, who is transgender and says she is in the country illegally, interrupted Mr. Obama shortly after he began speaking, calling from the back of the room, 'President Obama, release all L.G.B.T.Q. immigrants from detention and stop all deportations!'” ...
... CW: President Obama began his remarks with "This is a rowdy crowd!" Gutiérrez interrupts the POTUS about a minute later. POTUS tells Gutiérrez "You're in my House. Its not respectful when you get invited to somebody's ... Can we escort this person out. You can either stay & be quiet or well have to take you out.... Can we have this person removed, please?... If you're eating the hors d'ouevres ... & drinking the booze...."
Timothy Cama of the Hill: "Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy will be held accountable for the federal land grazing fees and penalties he owes, [Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, whose department includes BLM,] said."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dylan Byers of Politico: "Fox News chief Roger Ailes has signed a new multi-year contract with 21st Century Fox, laying to rest any speculation that he would leave following Rupert Murdoch's decision to step down as CEO. The company announced Thursday that Ailes, 75, will continue to serve as chairman and CEO of Fox News and Fox Business Network, and chairman of Fox Television Stations. The news was announced by Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch, who stated that Ailes would "jointly report" to all three — clearing up previous confusion around the chain of command." ...
... Patrick Phillips of WCSC Charleston: "Charleston Police are investigating a Facebook video of an apparent interaction between one of their officers and a group of African-American children. The video begins with children using graphic language towards a police officer who is driving by in his cruiser. At the end of the video, the officer appears to say, 'Don't go to church and get hurt,' before driving away." CW: What's wrong with this story, beyond the officer's reaction?: Phillips doesn't bother to cite the race of the cop though he notes the race of the children. Why? Because there are "people" and there are "African-American people." Phillips, and his editor, if he has one, are no doubt unaware of their own racist mindsets.
Presidential Race
John McCormick of Bloomberg: "Bernie Sanders is gaining on Hillary Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire, with an appeal as an issue-oriented protest vehicle potentially capable of slowing any coronation of the popular front-runner. In simultaneous surveys, the U.S. senator from Vermont received nearly a quarter of support from likely Democratic caucus and primary voters in the states that host the first presidential nomination balloting early next year, cutting sharply into Clinton's still-huge lead."
Carry Him Back to Old Virginny. Yes, friends, there is a potential Democratic candidate who has an affinity for Old Dixie, and that candidate is Jim Webb. "Webb has weighed in on his Facebook page, writing that '[t]his is an emotional time and we all need to think through these issues with a care that recognizes the need for change but also respects the complicated history of the Civil War.' He calls for “mutual respect” and says the flag shouldn’t be used 'as a political symbol that divides us,' but does not take any clear stance on the flag publicly displayed on the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "... if this is Webb’s final word on the subject, I think he’s disqualified himself from serious consideration as a Democratic candidate for president. It’s not entirely news that Webb’s admirable record in the Senate is sometimes overshadowed by conservative cultural attitudes he’s advanced in the past, often, like this one, a product of his stubborn self-identification with the bad as well as the good aspects of the Scots-Irish people from whom he (and for that matter, I) descended. It’s really just too bad." ...
... Here's Webb's Facebook entry.
** Frank Rich: Today’s neo-Confederate GOP politicians, vying for primary votes in Dixie 150 years after Appomattox, proved themselves to be laughable cowards. Confronted with the simplest of questions – should a state capitol display a flag that stands for slavery, racism, and treason? – they hedged (all of them), spouted gibberish (Ted Cruz), or went into hiding (Rand Paul).... This combination of disingenuousness and spinelessness on a no-brainer issue should disqualify all of them from the White House."
Paul Waldman: "... it may be no accident that most of the Republican governors currently running for president aren’t popular at home. They’re products of today’s Republican Party, where unflagging commitment to conservative doctrine is what counts as success.... Practical achievements like improving the health of your state or even fostering strong job creation are all well and good, but they have to take a back seat to ideological achievements like crushing a labor union, fighting Obamacare, or resisting tax increases." ...
... Gail Collins has a super piece that helps explain why: she demonstrates how "effective" the GOP governor-candidates' "jobs creation" programs are -- although if bestowing taxpayer-funded gifts upon corporations is their purpose, then these governors have very effective economic development programs.
Jonathan Easley of the Hill: Not-President "Mitt Romney is asserting himself as a leader of the Republican Party at a time when the GOP lacks a true standard-bearer. As the huge field of Republican contenders begins the long slog to the party’s 2016 nomination, Romney is working to connect select candidates with his vast political network, urging the party to learn from his past mistakes, attacking Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and taking forceful stances on controversial issues."
Scott Walker in a CNN opinion piece: Kill ObamaCare, by any means. “Governors across the country have been clear: If the Supreme Court strikes down the Obama executive overreach, we will not bail out Obama at the expense of the American people.... If the high court rules in favor of the administration, Obamacare will continue, unchanged. And that means the Republican House and Senate must redouble the fight to repeal and replace Obamacare.”
Well, 80,000 people failed a background check last year or two years ago. Nine thousand were felons on the run from the law and not one of them was arrested or prosecuted. Absolutely, if I get to be president of the United States, you fail a criminal background check, you try to buy a gun when you’re not supposed to, you’re going to meet the law head on. – Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), interview on CNN, June 19
This is emerging as a 'zombie claim' — something that keeps popping up even after it has been debunked.... While there is no comprehensive nationwide survey of fugitive prosecutions, the state-level data from Virginia and Pennsylvania clearly shows that fugitives have been arrested as a result of the Brady law. Pennsylvania alone indicated that it has arrested about a 100 fugitives a year in the past 17 years. Yet Graham persists in falsely claiming that 'not one of them was arrested or prosecuted.' -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post
Unpossible! Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "Jeb Bush, who is struggling in the polls in Iowa, may find his salvation in New Hampshire. Yet another poll of New Hampshire voters shows him leading the passel of nearly 20 Republican candidates for the 2016 presidential nomination. Mr. Bush ... was backed by 14 percent of respondents in a Suffolk University poll released Tuesday; the surprise was that his nearest competitor was Donald J. Trump..., who captured the support of nearly 11 percent of those surveyed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... CW: Also, I noticed in the photo accompanying the story that Donald doesn't have orange hair anymore. Maybe the gray makes him seem more presidential to the lumpenproletariat, although I do believe Republicans would vote for Howdy Doody if the Koch boys were the ones pulling the strings.
The Most Superficial, Witless President in Living Memory. Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: George W. Bush "doesn’t miss much about the [POTUS] job (it was pretty rough go), but he does miss the showers on Air Force One and the personal pastry chef. Yes, we can see how that would be plenty incentive for Jeb Bush to go for it." Also misses saluting soldiers.
Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "Gov. Bobby Jindal, who became Louisiana’s first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction but whose popularity has plummeted as the state struggles with a $1.6 billion shortfall, announced on Wednesday that he is running for president in 2016.... The announcement was made online, and Mr. Jindal plans a late-afternoon announcement event outside New Orleans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Here's "a special announcement from Bobby Jindal." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Paul Waldman especially enjoyed Bobby's "completely bizarre announcement video." ...
... CW: Not completely bizarre if you consider this. McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed: "The most viral headline this year with the Louisiana governor’s name in it was published in The Onion: 'Bobby Jindal Not Sure He Willing To Put Family Through 2-Month Presidential Campaign.'” You might want to read Coppins' whole piece on Jindal's plan to win. It's pretty sickening. Example: He thinks being the "Duck Dynasty" candidate is a winning strategy. ...
... Even the WashPo editors think so.
Beyond the Beltway
Jan Skutch & Dash Coleman of the Savannah Morning News: "Two former sheriff’s deputies and a contract health-care worker at the Chatham County jail were indicted Wednesday on felony involuntary manslaughter and related charges stemming from the Jan. 1 death of Mathew Ajibade, 21, at the jail. But despite the nine-count indictment in the well-publicized case, some were upset at the grand jury’s lack of felony murder charges, and protesters downtown Wednesday pressed for accountability and larger community discussions about racism — while also calling for Sheriff Al St Lawrence to step down."
Odd News. John Koblin of the New York Times: "PBS said on Wednesday that it was postponing a future season of 'Finding Your Roots' after an investigation revealed that the actor Ben Affleck pressured producers into leaving out details about an ancestor of his who owned slaves. PBS will not run the show’s third season until staffing changes are made, including hiring a fact checker, it said. The show, which is hosted by the Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., traces family histories of celebrities and public figures, and has run for two seasons. The concern about Mr. Affleck’s relative surfaced in the WikiLeaks cache of hacked Sony emails after Mr. Gates asked a Sony executive for advice about a 'megastar' who wanted to omit a detail about a slave-owning ancestor." ...
... CW: At least it turns out that this particular Wikileaks hack did have more than one public benefit. (It also demonstrated -- as if we didn't know -- Hollywood's rampant sexism. And Ben Affleck is an asshole. All of us have ancestors who were jerks, ne'er-do-wells or out-and-out monsters.