The Commentariat -- May 25, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Mitch Smith & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "The city of Cleveland has reached a settlement with the Justice Department over what federal authorities said was a pattern of unconstitutional policing and excessive use of force, people briefed on the case said Monday."

Darlene Superville of the AP: "President Barack Obama on Monday saluted Americans who died in battle, saying the country must 'never stop trying to fully repay them' for their sacrifices. He noted it was the first Memorial Day in 14 years without U.S. forces engaged in a major ground war."

Jeff Amy of the AP: "U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran -- the Mississippi Republican whose 2014 primary campaign drew national attention over an aspiring blogger's photos of his bedridden wife -- has married his longtime aide, his office said Monday. The wedding to Kay Webber took place privately Saturday in Gulfport. The senator's former wife, Rose Cochran, died in December at age 73 from dementia after living in a nursing home for 13 years. Political blogger Clayton Kelly took pictures of a bedridden Rose Cochran in April 2014, and officials say he intended to use the images to advance allegations that the senator was having an inappropriate relationship with Webber."

Charles Blow: "Memorial Day may be a time for us to consider the evolution of this day: a day established by a disadvantaged population to honor war heroes who now belong to a military whose members are increasingly being drawn from a disadvantaged population." ...

Emmarie Huetteman of the New York Times: "Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said Sunday that Iraqi forces had demonstrated 'no will to fight' against the Islamic State, blaming them for a retreat that led to the terrorist group's victory in capturing the Iraqi city of Ramadi. While that critical assessment of Iraqi security forces has been voiced in Congress and by policy research institutes, Mr. Carter's remarks on CNN's 'State of the Union' were some of the administration's strongest language to date about Iraq's repeated inability to hold and take back territory from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. 'They were not outnumbered. In fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force and yet they failed to fight and withdrew from the site,' he said."

Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: "Because blacks hold a disproportionate share of [government] jobs, relative to their share of the population, [local, state & federal] cutbacks [since 2008] naturally hit them harder." ...

... CW: Cohen's story illuminates an important aspect of conservatives' hatred of government: they see it as of black people, by black people, & for black people. As far as they're concerned, government jobs are egregious means of raising blacks into the middle class, & in confederates' limited worldviews, they figure raising one group lowers everybody else. Confederates don't hate only "lazy black people living on the dole"; they despise working black people, too, especially those mid-or high-level bureaucrats who can exercise some power over white people. Breitbart's attack on Shirley Sherrod is a classic example: obviously, Breitbart knew Sherrod's real message was a lesson in nondiscrimination, so they edited out that real message to turn her into -- however briefly -- a symbol of government of, by and for black people. In addition, their purposeful edit was meant to make her into a surrogate for President Obama -- the black dude in the White House who would lower the boom on white people.

Paul Krugman: "A growing number of economists, looking at the data on productivity and incomes, are wondering if the technological revolution has been greatly overhyped -- and some technologists share their concern.... A funny thing happened on the way to the techno-revolution. We did not, it turned out, get a sustained return to rapid economic progress." CW: Oddly, Krugman does not mention the fact that U.S. workers' productivity has skyrocketed, but the corporate bosses -- not the workers -- have scooped up the lions' share of the gains:

Via Mother Jones.

Presidential Race

On this Memorial Day, Sam Tanenhaus of the New York Times, in Blumberg, relates the history of the Party of War (not that many in the party actually have participated in these wars). As the GOP presidential candidates all scramble to be the most muscular advocates for American military might, Tanenhaus writes, "Welcome back George W. Bush. Put down the paintbrush and grab the bullhorn. It's your party again." Thanks to safari for the link.

Matt Viser of the Boston Globe: "Jeb Bush, who has a longtime relationship with [Kennebunkport, Maine,] where generations of Bushes have vacationed, is having a house built for him at the family compound on Walker's Point, with a wraparound porch and expansive views of the Atlantic Ocean. The home, on a 1.3-acre site assessed by the town at $1.4 million, was initiated for him by his mother and father.... But as he tries to appeal to middle-class Americans in his likely Republican presidential campaign -- and distinguish himself as his own man ... -- having a vacation home erected on a spit of land in coastal Maine could be a vivid reminder of the complications facing his campaign." CW: I don't see a place for a car elevator.

The Jeb Cottage, under construction.

Beyond the Beltway

Ralph Ellis & Eliott McLaughlin of CNN: "Cleveland police tried to give peaceful protesters the space to exercise their First Amendment rights following the Michael Brelo verdict, but some of them crossed the line several times, resulting in 71 arrests, city officials said Sunday."

Tom Boggioni in AlterNet: "Saying he did nothing wrong, a Virginia police officer resigned from the Fredricksburg[, Virginia,] Police Department after body-cam video showed him using his Taser, and then pepper-spray, on an unresponsive black man sitting in his car. According to the WHOP, 34-year-old David Washington was having a stroke at the time of the incident.... In the video, [Officer Shaun] Jurgens is seen walking up to Washington's car and using his Taser on him, without warning, as he sits at the wheel of his car staring forward. After another officer opens the door of the car, Jurgens sprays a massive amount of pepper spray into the face of Washington, who barely flinches. Jurgens can then be heard yelling, 'Get out the car. Get out the car, or I'm going to f*cking smoke you. Get out the car, right now. We ain't playing.'" ...

     ... CW: The whole world has been watching the shame of police violence against black Americans, yet so many cops are oblivious to all (or else they're defiantly brutal). Still today, there's "nothing wrong" with tasing, pepper-spraying & threatening the life of a person of color. ...

... AND speaking of racist cops, Maricopa, Arizona, County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is emailing his "followers" to send him cash to help him pay personal legal bills he says he is accumulating on accounta his failure to notice a few little court orders "that slipped through the cracks" & which prohibited him from targeting Latinos in various creative "policing" tactics. CW: Well, count me out, Joe.

News Lede

New York Times: "Texas marked 24 counties as disaster areas on Monday as drenching rains and violent weather swept through that state and Oklahoma, forcing thousands of people from their homes and killing at least three."

The Commentariat -- May 24, 2015

Internal links removed.

Aw, Poor Mitch. As Ye Sow, so Shall Ye Reap: the Misadventures of Mitch. Jennifer Steinhauer & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: ... as senators raced for the airport on Saturday after a six-week session that ended in disarray, they left behind a wreck of promises made by Mr. McConnell on how a renewed Senate would operate. Mr. McConnell has found himself vexed by Democratic delaying tactics he honed in the minority, five presidential aspirants with their own agendas and a new crop of conservative firebrands demanding their say." CW: Quite an enjoyable read. Steinhauser & Weisman really let McConnell have it. ...

... Dustin Volz & most of the National Journal's reporting staff, though more circumspect than the Times reporters, demonstrate how McConnell screwed up the vote. As Harry Reid remarked, "'That's what happens when you try to jam everything in just a short period of time.'... When asked if anything would change next Sunday, Reid said, 'I don't know, you'll have to ask Rand Paul [and] the Republicans.'" CW: I kind of enjoy the fact that this is an All-Kentucky Show. And, BTW, Li'l Randy's amendments -- for which McConnell refused/didn't have time to schedule a vote -- sound like pretty good ones. They certainly deserved Senate consideration. Also, both stories suggest that Randy is just grandstanding for fun & profit -- and he is doing that, too -- but I think there's a big measure of sincerity here, at least by politicians' standards.

... Julian Hattem & Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "The Senate is preparing for a last-minute attempt to save expiring portions of the Patriot Act, but it may already be too late. The Obama administration is already starting to end the National Security Agency's (NSA) bulk collection of Americans' phone records, after legislative inaction forced the upper chamber to kick the can until next Sunday -- mere hours before the laws expire. Without congressional approval, the White House failed to ask the secretive Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court to renew the program by a Friday deadline." ...

... Salon excerpts a portion of a book titled After Snowden, etc." by Hodding Carter III, in which Carter, a long-time journalist & former Carter (no relation) administration official, reveals that he has changed his mind about Ed Snowden. He blames much of the mainstream media for attacking, rather than embracing, Snowden's contributions.

Anna Palmer of Politico: "Unions are keeping their fight against a trade bill alive. The AFL-CIO and its allies are organizing dozens of events over the Memorial Day recess to keep the pressure on House Democrats and Republicans as the chamber nears consideration of 'fast track' trade legislation."

Campbell Robertson & John Schwartz of the New York Times: A new peer-reviewed report puts most of the blame for the failure of New Orleans' levees during Hurricane Katrina on the Army Corps of Engineers, largely, though not entirely, absolving local politicians, lobbyists & Congress.

Chris McGreal of the Guardian: "A judge in Las Vegas has ruled that a lawsuit involving accusations of graft and organised crime ties to casinos owned by the multibillionaire and Republican party funder, Sheldon Adelson, will be heard in the US. The decision raises the prospect of Adelson facing difficult questions about his business practices following allegations by a former chief executive of his highly profitable casinos in the Chinese enclave of Macau that a well-known triad crime figure was used to bring in high-rolling gamblers and of influence peddling with Chinese officials.... [The case could] have a bearing on the 81-year-old billionaire's considerable political influence." CW: Yeah, because Scott Walker, et al., won't take his money.

God News

Joan Walsh of Salon: Last week was a bad week for the family-values crowd. "The entire Republican field is united on the inferiority of gay families, but hails parents like the Duggars, who let their son prey on his sisters for a year without going to authorities. Meanwhile, Fox News remains silent about the behavior of [Bill] O'Reilly, [who ignored & abused his own family,] because his angry white patriarch shtick is the core of its brand. The NFL is now more sensitive to the concerns of women’s rights advocates than Fox is." ...

... Emma Margolin of MSNBC: Mike Huckabee is standing by the Duggar parents, who covered up their son's sexual abuse of his sisters and other young girls. Akhilleus wrote about this last week. Because god will forgive them or something. CW: I hate that this "news" has crept into the political sphere, but when you have an entire political party that has aligned itself with the fundamentalist right, it seems inevitable.

Steve Benen: The religious right doesn't seem to care about First Amendment freedoms when a minister is arrested & taken into custody by exercising her religious freedom to officiate at a same-sex wedding in Alabama where "a federal judge ruled Thursday that same-sex couples have the right to marry in every Alabama county, but the ruling is on hold pending the Supreme Court's verdict in a related case." Yo, Ben Carson, where are you? (See story linked under Presidential Race.) ...

Presidential Race

Patrick Healy & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "As President Obama grapples with the unnerving territorial gains of the Islamic State last week, the Republicans eyeing the White House are struggling to put forward strategies of their own. The most detailed ideas have come from [Lindsey] Graham, a United States senator from South Carolina who is on the Armed Services Committee, yet he ranks so low in polls that it is unclear if he will qualify to participate in the coming candidate debates."

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Ben Carson won the straw poll at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference Saturday, demonstrating his popularity among conservative activists at one of the party's traditional presidential cattle call events. Carson... finished first with 25 percent. He was followed by Scott Walker, who received 20 percent, and Ted Cruz at 16 percent. Chris Christie and Rick Perry tied at 5 percent, with Jeb Bush narrowly behind. Marco Rubio tied with Bobby Jindal and Rand Paul at 4 percent." ...

... Christian Nation. Ahiza Garcia of TPM: "Ben Carson ... told Republicans on Saturday that they shouldn't allow the government to encroach on their religious liberties. Carson's comments came during the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Oklahoma City. 'Don't let the secular progressives drive God out of our lives,' Carson said. 'We have to stop letting them bully us.... We back down too easily. It's an important part of who we are.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Ida Lieszkovszky of Cleveland.com: "A judge ruled Saturday morning that Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo is not guilty of two charges of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the Nov. 29, 2012 police chase and shooting that ended in the deaths of two people. Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge John P. O'Donnell said that while Brelo did fire lethal shots at Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, other officers did as well. O'Donnell also concluded that Brelo was not guilty of the lesser included offense of felonious assault because he was legally justified in his use of deadly force." ...

... Adam Ferrise of Cleveland.com: "Demonstrators on Saturday reacted with anger after the not guilty verdicts in Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo's trial. Some three to four dozen protestors carrying signs outside the Cuyahoga County Justice Center expressed anger but said they would remain calm following the verdicts." ...

... Patrick Cooley of Cleveland.com has the backstory. ...

... Kimbriell Kelly & Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post write more about how the killings of Russell & Williams went down & on the history of the case. "The Department of Justice began investigating Cleveland police in March 2013 following a string of 'highly-publicized' use-of-force incidents. The investigation ended in 2014, concluding that the department 'engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force.' Officials with Justice and Cleveland are working to develop reforms overseen by a monitor. After the judge's verdict, the Civil Rights Division at Justice, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office issued a joint statement that said they would review testimony and evidence from the trial and 'collaboratively determine what, if any, additional steps are available and appropriate.' That review is independent, the statement said, of the federal pattern and practice investigation."

Timothy Phelps of the Los Angeles Times: "Subtle changes made in the criminal charges against six Baltimore police officers could reflect weaknesses in the hurriedly filed case arising from the death of Freddie Gray, legal experts say. A grand jury on Thursday presented its indictment against the officers. Though it largely mirrored the original charges filed by State's Atty. Marilyn Mosby, the revisions renewed complaints that Mosby moved too quickly and overcharged the officers."

Way Beyond

Danny Hakim & Douglas Dalby of the New York Times: "Ireland became the first nation to approve same-sex marriage by a popular vote, sweeping aside the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church in a resounding victory Saturday for the gay rights movement and placing the country at the vanguard of social change. With the final ballots counted, the vote was 62 percent in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, and 38 percent opposed." ...

... It's worth checking out the front page of the Irish Times.

Sondos Asem, an Egyptian political activist, in a Washington Post op-ed, discusses her work in Egypt & the death sentence which an Egyptian court imposed upon her & others, including former President Mohamed Morsi. Asem is in Britain.

The Commentariat -- May 23, 2015

All internal links removed.

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "After vigorous debate and intense last-minute pressure by Republican leaders, the Senate on Saturday rejected legislation that would end the federal government's bulk collection of phone records. With the death of that measure -- passed overwhelmingly in the House earlier this month -- senators then scrambled to hastily pass a short-term measure to keep the program from going dark when it expires June 1 but failed. The disarray in Congress appeared to significantly increase the chances that the government will lose systematic access to newly created calling records by Americans, at least temporarily, after June 1.... The measure failed in the Senate 57 to 42, with 12 Republicans voting for it, shortly after midnight because [Rand] Paul, a candidate for the White House, dragged the procedure out as he promised to do in fund-raising tweets and emails." ...

... CW: I read Steinhauer's lede three times, & I still didn't get it. ...

... Mike DeBonis & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Senators left Capitol Hill early Saturday morning without taking action to extend or replace a controversial surveillance program set to expire at month's end, paralyzed by a debate over the proper balance between civil liberties and national security. In an after-midnight vote, the Senate turned back a House-passed bill that would end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of private telephone records, the only legislation that offered a smooth transition ahead of a June 1 deadline.... That led Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to recall senators to the Capitol a day earlier than planned, on May 31, for a rare Sunday session hours ahead of the deadline." ...

... Alan Rusbridger, et al., of the Guardian: In an interview with the Guardian, "Edward Snowden has hailed landmark shifts in Congress and the US courts on NSA surveillance but cautioned that much more needs to be done to restore the balance in favour of privacy. He also warned this was only the beginning of reform of the NSA, saying there are still many bulk collection programmes which are 'even more intrusive', but expressed hope that the Senate would act to curb the NSA, saying retention of the status quo is untenable."

Danielle Ivory, et al., of the New York Times: "Justice Department investigators have identified criminal wrongdoing in General Motors' failure to disclose a defect tied to at least 104 deaths, and are negotiating what is expected to be a record penalty, according to people briefed on the inquiry.... Former G.M. employees, some of whom were dismissed last year, are under investigation as well and could face criminal charges."

Deborah Sontag of the New York Times: "In what appeared to be a reversal of his predecessor's position, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas wrote to Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch last week to assure her that his state intended to abide by national standards to prevent, detect and respond to prison rape 'wherever feasible.'... But the Justice Department said late Thursday that it had rejected his assurance. Texas, which has a high rate of reported sexual abuse against inmates, is expected to be financially penalized for a second straight year for failing to follow the procedures that the federal government has established to document progress in eliminating prison rape." CW: No doubt Lynch's actions are part of the federal government's plan to declare martial law in Texas. She'll probably release a bunch of alleged rape victims & have them do their Count of Monte Cristo thing under all the Texas WalMarts.

Dana Milbank: "After more than three decades of income growth for the wealthiest 10 percent and stagnation for everybody else, the top 3 percent now has more wealth than the bottom 90 percent.... An International Monetary Fund study released in March found that the decline in union membership has been responsible for half of the rise in the share of income going to the top 10 percent.... Straws in the wind suggest a building backlash."

CW: I do not know how I missed it, but last week Frank Rich wrote a marvelous feature piece on race riots. There are few writers of English prose who can so seamlessly wrap their personal stories into the broader cultural context (without making the piece All About Me). ...

     ... The photo that accompanies Rich's essay is striking. Looking at it, I thought, "This photographer should get a Pulitzer." Then I noticed that the credit went to someone named Devin Allen, with no affiliated media outfit designated. So I looked up Allen. Here's another post on Allen. (Its author, Charise Frazier, & her copywriter should look up the meaning of "notoriety.") And another. I hope most of those media who used Allen's photos have paid him handsomely.

White House: "In this week's address, the President commemorated Memorial Day by paying tribute to the men and women in uniform who have given their lives in service to our country":

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dean Baker in FAIR: "In a Washington Post column (5/22/15), Delaware Gov. Jack Markell and Third Way president Jonathan Cowan took a swipe at the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in arguing for a set of ill-defined centrist proposals.... There is much about their piece that is wrong or misleading ... but the best part is in the last paragraph, where they tell readers, 'Nine years ago, Borders Books had more than 1,000 stores and more than 35,000 employees. Four years ago, it liquidated. Those stores ... closed because technology brought us Amazon and the Kindle.' Actually, Border Books did close in large part because the economic system is rigged against ordinary Americans. One of the main reasons Amazon has been able to grow as rapidly as it did is that Amazon has not been required to collect the same sales tax as its brick-and-mortar competitors in most states for most of its existence." CW: Three things: (1) Jeff Bezos, the billionaire who started & owns Amazon, also owns the Washington Post, which is the point of Baker's piece; (2) likely Borders wasn't the slavedriver that Amazon is;* & (3) Jack Markell has to be one of the dumbest elected Democrats in the country. Thanks to Bonita for the lead.

     ...* There are other reasons Borders failed, of course, & one of those reasons is its partnership with Amazon.

Presidential Race

CW: As usual, our own Commentariat was excellent yesterday. I particularly appreciated Akhilleus's putting the Clintons' fortune into context. As he noted, in the course of some 16 months, the accumulated earnings of all three Clintons amounted to "a third of what Robert Downey, Jr. made in a few months for making 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'." To extend Akhiilleus's commentary, I would ask: Is a former President earns $250K for a speech in which he tries to talk some fat cats & lesser richy-riches into forking over some of their millions to, say, reduce mortality rates in parts of Africa, doing pretty much the same as an oil company exec taking in a multi-million-dollar salary so he can buy a yacht, etc. -- while his company begrudgingly pays a pittance in fines for multiple safety violations until it ends up polluting the beaches, the wetlands & the oceans? And if Bill Clinton is so smart, why can't he out-earn a guy who "was a lot more interesting when he was on drugs"? ...

... (Less appreciated: Akhilleus's extensive commentary on Josh Dugger, although Akhilleus did manage to tie that repulsive, repeat child-molester to the leading lights of the Republican party, just to show you how dim those lights are. Anyhow, unless one of those dim bulbs comments on the Dugger boy, I'm leaving staying clear of him. And, no, I don't really mind Akhilleus's post on a sanctimonious punk who would tell most Reality Chex readers we were going to hell.)

Gail Collins: August 6 is "the [70th] anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and the date of the first Republican presidential debate." Collins notes that not all of 2,376 candidates will make the cut, meaning there may be no Carly Fiorina or Rick Santorum.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Henry McDonald of the Guardian: "Voters in Ireland appear to have voted strongly in favour of legalising same-sex marriage in the republic's referendum, the country's equality minister said on Saturday shortly, after counting began. 'I think it's won. I've seen bellwether boxes open, middle-of-the road areas who wouldn't necessarily be liberal and they are resoundingly voting yes,' equality minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin told Reuters at the main count centre in Dublin." ...

News Ledes

New York Times: "The United States and China on Friday escalated their dispute over contested territory in the South China Sea, after the Chinese repeatedly ordered an American military surveillance plane to abandon flights over areas where China has been building artificial islands. The continued American surveillance flights in areas where China is creating new islands in the South China Sea are intended to challenge the Chinese government's claims of expanded territorial sovereignty. Further raising the challenge, Pentagon officials said they were discussing sending warships into waters that the United States asserts are international and open to passage, but that China says are within its zone of control."

Guardian: "An inflatable dam in drought-stricken California was damaged on Thursday, causing the loss of nearly 50,000,000 gallons (190m litres) of water. Police said vandals caused 'irreversible damage' to the inflatable dam in Fremont, a city in the San Francisco Bay Area. The vandalism caused water meant for local residents to instead flow into San Francisco bay."

Washington Post: "The man convicted in the 2001 killing of federal intern Chandra Levy is likely to get a new trial after prosecutors on Friday dropped their long-standing opposition to defense efforts to have a new jury hear the case. Since 2013, attorneys for Ingmar Guandique, 34, have argued that a key witness in the 2010 trial had lied when he testified that Guandique, his onetime cellmate, confessed to him that he killed Levy."