The Commentariat -- Dec. 17, 2013

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A Federal District Court judge ruled on Monday that the National Security Agency program that is systematically keeping records of all Americans' phone calls most likely violates the Constitution, and he ordered the government to stop collecting data on two plaintiffs' personal calls and destroy the records of their calling history. In a 68-page ruling, Judge Richard J. Leon of the District of Columbia called the program's technology 'almost Orwellian' and suggested that James Madison, the author of the Constitution, would be 'aghast' to learn that the government was encroaching on liberty in such a way." The ruling is here. ...

... It's Not Over Til the Supremes Sing. Frederic Frommer of the AP: “'This is the opening salvo in a very long story, but it's important symbolically in dispelling the invincibility of the metadata program,' said Stephen Vladeck, a national security law expert at the American University law school.... Robert F. Turner, a professor at the University of Virginia's Center for National Security Law, predicted Leon's decision was highly likely to be reversed on appeal. He said the collection of telephone metadata -- the issue in Monday's ruling -- already has been addressed and resolved by the Supreme Court." ...

... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "The National Security Agency went into Judge Richard Leon's courtroom with a powerful precedent on its side. In its 1979 decision in Smith v. Maryland, the Supreme Court held that individuals do not have a 'reasonable expectation of privacy' in the numbers they dial on their phone.... The central insight of Judge Leon’s opinion is that technology has so transformed our world that it requires an entirely different constitutional privacy regime. Whatever the wisdom of Smith on the day that it was decided, its conception of what constitutes a 'reasonable expectation of privacy' imagined a world where government surveillance was relatively unusual and impossible to execute on a massive scale. New realities require new assumptions. And if the courts do not know the difference between science fiction and scientific fact, then we will forfeit our liberties as Americans." ...

... Scott Lemieux, in the American Prospect, analyzes Judge Leon's decision. ...

I acted on my belief that the N.S.A.'s mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts. Today, a secret program authorized by a secret court was, when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans' rights. It is the first of many. -- Edward Snowden, in a statement distributed by Glenn Greenwald

... CW: Steve M., in his commentary on the case, expresses views on Snowden, Greenwald, et al., jibe with mine. It's a good idea to remember that, particularly in ultra-controversial issues, there are not only at least two sides to the story, those on both/all sides might be shmucks. ...

... Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian refutes key points of the "60 Minutes" NSA story (see yesterday's Commentariat). ...

(... Dylan Byers of Politico: "Lara Logan and Max McClellan, the '60 Minutes' journalists who were put on a leave of absence following their now-retracted report on Benghazi, are set to return to the program early next year...." CW: Well, why the hell not?) ...

... AFP: " The White House Monday renewed its demand for Edward Snowden to return home to face trial, after a top spy official floated the idea of an amnesty deal to plug his damaging intelligence leaks." ...

... Paul Owen of the Guardian: "Edward Snowden has offered to help Brazil investigate US spying on its soil in exchange for political asylum, in an open letter from the NSA whistleblower to the Brazilian people published by the Folha de S Paulo newspaper." CW: Apparently Snowden would rather winter in Rio than in Moscow. Perfectly understandable. ...

... Andy Greenberg of Forbes: "... an NSA staffer who contacted me last month and asked not to be identified ... offered me a very different, firsthand portrait of how Snowden was seen by his colleagues in the agency's Hawaii office: A principled and ultra-competent, if somewhat eccentric employee, and one who earned the access used to pull off his leak by impressing superiors with sheer talent.... According to the source, Snowden didn't dupe coworkers into handing over their passwords, as one report has claimed. Nor did Snowden fabricate SSH keys to gain unauthorized access, he or she says. Instead, there's little mystery as to how Snowden gained his access: It was given to him. 'That kid was a genius among geniuses,' says the NSA staffer." ...

... Oliver Knox of Yahoo! News: "Apple, Twitter, Netflix, Google, Facebook, Yahoo … a phalanx of top executives from leading tech companies meets Tuesday with President Barack Obama to discuss the impact that his controversial spying programs have had on online commerce. Obama will host the group in the Roosevelt Room of the White House one day after a federal judge decreed that NSA bulk collection of telephone data likely violates the Constitution." CW: Awwwkward.

Lori Montgomery & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Despite a concerted attack by conservative advocacy groups, a bipartisan deal to roll back sharp spending cuts known as the sequester appeared on track to clear the Senate after a growing number of Republicans declared their support for the measure. On Monday, Sens. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah) and Johnny Isakson (Ga.) added their names to a list that included Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Susan Collins (Maine) and Ronald H. Johnson (Wis.)." ...

     ... Washington Post UPDATE: "A bipartisan deal to roll back sharp spending cuts known as the sequester easily cleared a procedural hurdle in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday as enough Republicans joined Democrats to gain the votes needed to proceed to a final passage. Senators agreed 67 to 33 to end debate and proceed to final vote on the budget agreement. Twelve Republicans joined with the 55 members of the Senate Democratic caucus to proceed to a final vote, which could come as soon as Tuesday evening if Senate Republicans agree to speed things up. Otherwise, the chamber is likely to send the measure to the White House late Wednesday."

Obama 2.0. Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "The Senate confirmed Jeh C. Johnson on Monday as secretary of homeland security, the fourth person to lead the sprawling domestic safety agency since its inception after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Johnson, 56, the former general counsel for the Pentagon, won confirmation on an overwhelming vote, 78 to 16, as the Senate continued churning through an end-of-session batch of nominees to fill President Obama's Cabinet and the federal judiciary." ...

... MEANWHILE. Peter Schroeder & Bernie Becker of the Hill: "Stinging from Senate Democrats' gutting of the filibuster, Senate Republicans will use their private caucus lunch Tuesday to decide on their strategy for holding back a string of nominees."

Greg Sargent: "As of now, over two dozen states are not opting in to Obamacare's Medicaid expansion, thanks largely to hostility to the law among GOP governors who are turning down huge sums of federal money that could otherwise go towards expanding coverage to their own constituents. Result: untold numbers risk falling into a 'Medicaid gap,' making too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid, yet too little to qualify for subsidies on the exchanges. We now have a new look at the consequences of this: Millions will likely remain uninsured, and racial and geographic disparities in access to coverage will worsen. Two new studies released by the Kaiser Family Foundation today illustrate this in new detail."

Josh Barro of Business Insider: "Conservatives have no idea what to do about recessions.... Conservatives favor the same set of economic policies when the economy is weak and when it is strong.... The implication is that conservatives believe there is nothing in particular the government should do about economic cycles....As with health care and bank regulation, economic recessions are a policy question to which conservatives have not the wrong answer, but no answer." ...

... Paul Krugman has a most interesting follow-up/rejoinder to Barro's post.

Daniel Strauss of TPM: "In a new fundraising email, the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF) said House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is targeting conservatives in the same way that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status." CW: One little problem with the SCF analogy: the IRS was not targeting conservatives. But there never was a winger who let the facts get in the way of a good fundraising ploy. ...

... Alex Rogers of Time: “The Tea Party wants to avenge Paul Teller. Teller was fired last week from his post as executive director of the Republican Study Committee, a congressional group that steers the right-wing agenda, after allegedly leaking private conversations over the course of years to outside political groups.... A lawmaker in the RSC leadership ... told Time ... the RSC fired Teller after he leaked details of a December 5 meeting where [Paul] Ryan outlined aspects of the forthcoming budget deal.... The lawmaker stressed that it was not a first time offense. In 2011, during the debt-ceiling showdown, Teller reportedly was caught sending emails to outside groups in an attempt to tank a Boehner proposal. Members chanted 'Fire him, fire him!' when they found out, according to Politico."

Yahoo! News: "The federal government has spent nearly $1 million studying romance in popular culture, according to a new report [by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)] that targets government waste. The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded $914,000 to help fund the 'The Popular Romance Project' since 2010, an ongoing culture study that explores 'the fascinating, often contradictory origins and influences of popular romance as told in novels, films, comics, advice books, songs, and internet fan fiction.'" CW: So maybe I need a New Rule on Reality Chex commentary: Literary fiction, no; bodice-rippers, yes.

Jim Yardley & Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Pope Francis moved on Monday against a conservative American cardinal [Raymond Burke] who has been an outspoken critic of abortion and same-sex marriage, by replacing him on a powerful Vatican committee with another American who is less identified with the culture wars within the Roman Catholic Church." ...

... Philip Pullella of Reuters: "The oldest gay rights magazine in the United States named Pope Francis its 'Person of the Year' as the pontiff marked his 77th birthday on Tuesday by inviting homeless people to join him for breakfast in the Vatican." The Advocate story -- which explains how the editors made their choice -- is here.

Senate Race

Annie Linskey of Bloomberg News: "Former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown plans to move to New Hampshire, the latest sign that he's considering a U.S. Senate bid there, which would complicate Democrats' effort to hold their majority in the chamber." Brown has a buyer for his Wrentham, Massachusetts home, & he owns a vacation home in New Hampshire.

Local News

NEW. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: In "the sudden closure, over four days, of a pair of access lanes from Fort Lee, N.J., onto the George Washington Bridge into New York ... Democrats see a potential scandal that could permanently harm Republican Gov. Chris Christie...." CW: Sounds like a long shot to me. Democrats &/or the press will have to come up with a smoking gun that proves Christie ordered the lane closings, then lied to cover up his involvement. So far, no smoke.

Emma Dumain of Roll Call: "The House Ethics Committee will launch a formal investigation into alleged misconduct by Rep. Trey Radel, the panel's top Republican and Democrat announced Monday.... Radel has been on leave since late last month, when news broke that he had been arrested in the District of Columbia for cocaine possession. He is now checked into a rehab clinic in Florida, where he says he is getting help for his addiction issues that will enable him to get back to work -- despite the many calls in and out of his home state for him to step down." The committee probably won't take any action against Radel.

News Ledes

Boston Globe: "A Harvard student trying to get out of a final exam admitted to the FBI that he sent a bomb threat that forced the university to evacuate multiple buildings and rattled the campus, federal officials said Tuesday. Instead of going home for winter break, 20-year-old Eldo Kim was arrested Tuesday and held overnight on federal bomb hoax charges. He is scheduled to appear in US District Court on Wednesday...."

New York Times: "Tunisia ... has once again broken new ground with a political deal between longtime enemies among the Islamists and the secular old guard. The deal, announced over the weekend, aims to put in place an independent caretaker government until new elections next year, marking the first time Islamists have agreed in the face of rising public anger to step back from power gained at the ballot box."

AFP: "British police on Monday said they had finished examining new information about the 1997 death of Diana, princess of Wales, but had found 'no credible evidence' she was murdered. Scotland Yard police headquarters announced in August it was checking the credibility of recently received information about the deaths of the princess and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, including an allegation that she was murdered by a British military figure."

*

The Commentariat -- Dec. 16, 2013

In his column, Paul Krugman follows up on his recent blogpost on economic inequality: "... inequality is rising so fast that over the past six years it has been as big a drag on ordinary American incomes as poor economic performance, even though those years include the worst economic slump since the 1930s. And if you take a longer perspective, rising inequality becomes by far the most important single factor behind lagging middle-class incomes." ...

... Larry Summers sees inequality as one of the reasons for "stagflation": "Consumption may be lower because of a sharp increase in the share of income held by the very wealthy and the rising share of income accruing to capital." CW: IMHO, this is a poorly-written, jargonistic, meandering column, unsuitable for a general readership. Summers may be accustomed to being the smartest guy in the room, but I doubt he's often the best writer in the room. ...

... Kay, in Balloon Juice, on a New York Times op-ed by American Enterprise Institute "public intellectual" Arthur Brooks: "If [conservatives are] defending on income inequality, and they are, they know it's a political problem. That's good news. Shifting blame for income inequality to public schools and public school teachers means they think they have to explain income inequality away somehow, and they are casting around for an excuse that doesn't implicate conservatives, conservatism, or anyone who is at all wealthy or powerful in government or the private sector.... You have to love the logic that says a problem that was partially caused by the deliberate and careful dismantling of any rights, protections or leverage for workers will be solved if we take away rights, protections and leverage from the small group of middle class workers who retain them, like teachers."

Kathleen Geier of the Washington Monthly: Unemployment has a "catastrophic effect on personal happiness," studies find.

Noam Scheiber of the New Republic attempts to define populism & deprive anti-populists of their broadsides against it. "... when powerful economic interests are involved, the burden of proof should fall on self-interested elites rather than popular opinion, whereas Third Way proposes something akin to the opposite. That's not a trivial difference. It's the schism that's increasingly defining the Democratic Party."

Everything Bad Is Obama's Fault, Ctd. Ricardo Alonso-Zaldiver & Jennifer Agiesta of the AP: "An Associated Press-GfK poll ... found a striking level of unease about the [Affordable Care Act] among people who have health insurance and aren't looking for any more government help.... Employers trying to control their health insurance bills have been shifting costs to workers for years, but now those changes are blamed increasingly on 'Obamacare' instead of the economy or insurance companies."

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times on the do-nothing Congress, which this year was way worse than usual. ...

... Do-Nothing Congress to Continue Doing Nothing in 2014. Reid Wilson of the Washington Post: "After the Senate reconvenes in January, observers say, the coming year is unlikely to yield significant legislative action. Democrats will probably advance measures intended to draw political contrasts with Republicans -- including a proposal to raise the minimum wage and a number of smaller bills that they say would boost jobs and strengthen the economy. None of those measures are likely to win Republican votes or spur action in the GOP-controlled House."

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), the second-ranking Senate Democratic leader, said Sunday that Republicans jockeying for the White House in 2016 and Tea Party challengers in 2014 have imperiled the budget deal. Durbin estimated that Democrats will lose three members of their caucus on the vote, which means they'll need at least eight Republicans to cross the aisle and vote with them. The challenge Democratic leaders face in trying to round up the vote has been compounded by the outspoken opposition to the deal from Republicans weighing presidential bids and a slew of Republican primary races in 2014." ...

... NEW. Brian Beutler of Salon has an excellent piece on the Senate dynamics vis-a-vis the budget bill. ...

We also don't want to have shutdown drama so we can focus on replacing Obamacare, so we can focus on showing better ideas and what this is coming in. 'Cause we don't think people like this law and we don't think it's gonna get any more popular. -- Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), on why Republicans think the budget deal he cut is so great ...

... Wait. It Gets Worse. Damian Paletta of the Wall Street Journal: "House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) signaled that Republicans would not raise the debt ceiling next year without some sort of concessions from Democrats, saying lawmakers were still crafting their strategy. 'We, as a caucus, along with our Senate counterparts, are going to meet and discuss what it is we want to get out of the debt limit,' Mr. Ryan said on Fox News Sunday. 'We don't want "nothing" out of the debt limit. We're going to decide what it is we can accomplish out of this debt limit fight.'" ...

     ... CW: I hope you see what Ryan is threatening here. Congress passes legislation that requires expenditures. It passes appropriations bills that do not cover those expenditures. Then Ryan says Congressional Republicans should "get something" for failing to pay their own bills. If Democrats do not reward them for their profligacy, they'll damage the government's credit & threaten world markets. This kind of sabotage is qualitatively similar to Snowden's. Both men are proud of their dirty tricks; both are self-aggrandizing saboteurs. The main difference is that Snowden didn't target any particular Americans, while Ryan intends to help the rich & hurt the poor.

     ... Update. Ed Kilgore: "... the White House and congressional Democrats are ... going to have to be willing to look Paul Ryan in the eye and ... say: 'We'll see you in Hell, Granny-Starver, before we give you a thing in exchange for a debt limit increase.' ... You don't say 'Ho-Ho-Ho' to a man threatening to blow up the economy if he isn't allowed to liberate more people from the terrible affliction of government assistance with trifles like food and shelter."

John Miller of CBS "News" goes inside the NSA & delves into "the Snowden Affair," Parts 1 & 2:

He was taking a technical examination for potential employment at NSA. He used a system administrator privileges to go into the account of the NSA employee who was administering that test, and he took both the questions & the answers & used them to pass the test. -- Rick Ledgett, head of the Snowden task force

So, if true, a despicable little fraud from the git-go. -- Constant Weader

... Greg Mitchell of the Nation has a good rundown of the criticisms of Miller's story. ...

... NEW. Dylan Scott of TPM: "... the Daily Beast and Huffington Post have reported in recent days that Miller was under consideration for a job at the NYPD in an intelligence or counterterrorism role. On Monday, the New York Post's Page Six reported that Miller was on the verge of taking such a job. Miller, who had previously worked for new NYPD chief Bill Bratton in New York as a spokesperson and Los Angeles as counterterrorism chief, did not mention any pending career move during the segment." Thanks to James S. for the link.

Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "Suspected Boston marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was tormented by voices in his head, according to the Boston Globe, which published the results of a five-month investigation into the attack on Sunday.... According to the 18,000-word report, Tsarnaev brothers were coequals in planning the twin bombings that killed four and wounded more than 260 others. And despite suspicions that Tamerlan made contact with Islamist radicals during a 2012 visit to Kyrgyzstan, the paper concludes the brothers' violence was 'more likely rooted in the turbulent collapse of their family and their escalating personal and collective failures.'" The Globe report is here.

** Jeff Toobin in the New Yorker: "The oxymoronic quest for humane executions only accentuates the absurdity of allowing the death penalty in a civilized society. It's understandable that Supreme Court Justices have tried to make the process a little more palatable; and there is a meagre kind of progress in moving from the chair to the gurney. But the essential fact about both is that they come with leather straps to restrain a human being so that the state can kill him. No technology can render that process any less grotesque." Toobin writes a brief history of U.S. methods of execution.

Mark Thompson of Time: "President Obama nominated  Vice Admiral Michelle Howard for a fourth star Friday, becoming the first woman in Navy history to attain the rank -- assuming Senate approval -- of full admiral. She currently serves as deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans, and strategy. She has been tapped to serve as vice chief of naval operations, the Navy's second-ranking officer, and a single step below the chief of naval operations, the service's top officer."

James Carroll has the cover story for the New Yorker on Pope Francis's first year as pontiff. "'Who am I to judge?' With those five words, spoken in late July in reply to a reporter's question about the status of gay priests in the Church, Pope Francis stepped away from the disapproving tone, the explicit moralizing typical of Popes and bishops. This gesture of openness, which startled the Catholic world, would prove not to be an isolated event. In a series of interviews and speeches in the first few months after his election, in March, the Pope unilaterally declared a kind of truce in the culture wars that have divided the Vatican and much of the world." ...

Pope Francis appears to be a decent fellow -- a mensch -- and a sincere advocate of goodwill and peace on Earth. But who am I to judge? -- Barry Blitt, who drew the New Yorker cover

Local News

In my oath it says I'll uphold the U.S. Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Colorado. It doesn't say I have to uphold every law passed by the Legislature. -- Sheriff John Cooke of Weld County, Colorado, on why he doesn't have to enforce Colorado's new gun safety laws ...

... Colorado -- Where the Wild West Is Still Wild. Erica Goode of the New York Times: "Some [Colorado] sheriffs ... are refusing to enforce the [new gun] laws, saying that they are too vague and violate Second Amendment rights. Many more say that enforcement will be 'a very low priority,' as several sheriffs put it. All but seven of the 62 elected sheriffs in Colorado signed on in May to a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the statutes."

Justice Robert's pen & Obamacare has done more damage to the USA then the swords of the Nazis,Soviets & terrorists combined. -- North Carolina State Sen. Bob Rucho, in a tweet ...

... Josh Israel of Think Progress: "Rucho was a primary sponsor of a bill this year to prohibit North Carolina from setting up a health insurance exchange or participating in the Medicaid expansion. About 377,000 North Carolinians would be eligible for Medicaid coverage if the state were not refusing to take part." ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "This is Rucho's most controversial tweet to date, though not for lack of trying. Since joining the site in October, Rucho has asked what the president is 'smoking' and marked the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination by declaring 'JFK could have been the founder and leader of the Tea Party. The real democrat party has been hijacked.'"

The Dumbest Bush Is Yet to Come. Will Weisert of the AP: "George P. Bush, Jeb Bush's 37-year-old son..., is launching his political career by running for Texas' little-known but powerful land commissioner post. But rather than campaigning on the mainstream Republicanism embodied by the family name, Bush says he's 'a movement conservative' more in line with the tea party. As if to underscore the point, he says he draws the most inspiration not from the administrations of his grandfather, George H. W. Bush, or his uncle, George W. Bush, but from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who engineered the 1994 Republican takeover of that chamber." CW: What this country needs is a Newt clone.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Ray Price, who was at the forefront of two revolutions in country music as one of its finest ballad singers and biggest hit makers, died on Monday at his home in Mount Pleasant, Tex. He was 87."

NBC News: John C. Beale, "the EPA's highest-paid employee and a leading expert on climate change, deserves to go to prison for at least 30 months for lying to his bosses and saying he was a CIA spy working in Pakistan so he could avoid doing his real job, say federal prosecutors."

AP: "An official Chinese newspaper on Monday accused the U.S. Navy of harassing a Chinese squadron earlier this month, shortly before a near collision that marked the two nations' most serious sea confrontation in years."

AP: "The bogus sign language interpreter at last week's Nelson Mandela memorial service was among a group of people who accosted two men found with a stolen television and burned them to death by setting fire to tires placed around their necks, one of the interpreter's cousins and three of his friends told The Associated Press Monday. But Thamsanqa Jantjie never went to trial for the 2003 killings when other suspects did in 2006 because authorities determined he was not mentally fit to stand trial, said the four."

Boston Globe: "Four buildings at Harvard University have been evacuated and police from five different agencies are on the Cambridge campus, some of them with bomb-sniffing dogs, to investigate 'unconfirmed reports' that explosives had been hidden in the buildings. No detonations of explosives have been reported." ...

     ... Update: "The bomb scare at Harvard University today was triggered by an e-mail warning that explosives had been planted in four buildings at the heart of the storied campus, according to a law enforcement official. At 2:44 p.m., the university announced that the the Science Center, the last of the four buildings, had been deemed safe."

Guardian: "The United Nations has launched an appeal for $6.5bn (£4bn) for Syria and its neighbours to help 16 million people in 2014, many of whom are hungry or homeless victims of a 33-month-old Syrian conflict that has no end in sight."

Guardian: Former Chilean President "Michelle Bachelet has promised major tax and education reforms to help ease Chile's social divisions after sweeping back to power with a huge majority in presidential elections on Sunday. The centre-left candidate won with about 62% support, the highest share of votes for any presidential candidate since the country returned to holding democratic elections in 1989."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 15, 2013

Mark Mazzetti & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "American intelligence and law enforcement investigators have concluded that they may never know the entirety of what the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden extracted from classified government computers before leaving the United States, according to senior government officials. Investigators remain in the dark about the extent of the data breach partly because the N.S.A. facility in Hawaii where Mr. Snowden worked -- unlike other N.S.A. facilities -- was not equipped with up-to-date software that allows the spy agency to monitor which corners of its vast computer landscape its employees are navigating at any given time."

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The White House systematically delayed enacting a series of rules on the environment, worker safety and health care to prevent them from becoming points of contention before the 2012 election, according to documents and interviews with current and former administration officials."

Huh. Michael Strain of the conservative American Enterprise Institute argues in the right-wing National Review in favor of an extension of the emergency federal unemployment-insurance program. He makes a rational, non-ideological economic argument. Wonders never cease.

Paul Krugman: "It has taken an amazingly long time, but inequality is finally surfacing as a significant unifying issue for progressives -- including the president. And there is, inevitably, a backlash, or actually a couple of backlashes." ...

... Kathleen Geier in the Washington Monthly on economic inequality: "... the policy fixes for economic inequality are fairly clear: a higher minimum wage, stronger labor unions, a more progressive tax system, a more generous social welfare state, macroeconomic policies that promote a full employment economy, and much more powerful government regulations, particularly in the banking and finance sector." Geier builds on Krugman's post.

Dana Milbank awards Selfies to self-centered, hypocritical Washington officials. CW: Ted Cruz might have been Fourth Runner-Up for Time's Person of the Year, but he gets first Selfie ever. And he deserves it.

Chris Geider of BuzzFeed: "A federal judge struck down Utah's criminal ban on cohabitation between a married individual and another person not his or her spouse, a prong in the state's law against polygamy. The Friday ruling did not address legal polygamy -- actually being married to multiple people -- but only what U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups referred to as 'religious cohabitation.'" CW: It was a star-studded case: the plaintiffs star in a TLC reality show called "Sister Wives"; their attorney is well-known lawyer Jonathan Turley. ...

... Turley takes to his blog to boast about his big win. CW: If I won a big case in federal court, I'd brag about it, too.

Amanda Marcotte of AlterNet, in Salon explains Christian conservative belief system & how it impacts the Christian rights' view of the U.S.: "Over and over again, right-wingers warn that all the things they hate, from pro-gay Broadway shows to immigration to multiculturalism, are not just signs of an evolving American society, but portend the actual end of it.... But really, what all these fantasies of cities burning down and impending war and destruction are expressing is a belief that the culture of white conservative Christians is the culture of America. So it follows that if they aren't the dominant class in the United States, then America isn't, in their opinion, really America anymore."

AFP: "Pope Francis said he knew a lot of 'good' Marxists but was no communist himself, following criticism of his diatribes against unfettered capitalism from conservative commentators in the United States. 'Marxist ideology is wrong. But in my life I have met a lot of Marxists who are good people, so I do not feel offended,' Francis said in an interview with the Italian daily La Stampa published on Sunday." CW: "Diatribes"?? ...

... The English translation of the La Stampa interview by Andrea Tornielli is here.

Elizabeth Tenety, the Washington Post's "On Faith" editor, says that what people like about Pope Francis is what they like about Jesus.

Faux "News"

Andy Borowitz publishes children's letters to Megyn Kelly along with Kelly's responses. CW: I think Borowitz made up the kids' letters & sent them to Kelly. No doubt Borowitz is just another race-baiter, like the ones Kelly complained about yesterday. But I'm pretty sure Kelly's answers are real. Thanks to James S. for the link.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Joan Fontaine, the patrician blond actress who rose to stardom as a haunted second wife in the Alfred Hitchcock film 'Rebecca' in 1940 and won an Academy Award for her portrayal of a terrified newlywed in Hitchcock's 'Suspicion,' died at her home in Carmel, Calif., on Sunday. She was 96."

CBS "News": "Actor-writer-director Tom Laughlin, whose production and marketing of 'Billy Jack' set a standard for breaking the rules on and off screen, has died."

New York Times: "The European Union on Sunday broke off talks with Ukraine on the far-reaching trade deal that protesters here have been demanding for weeks, and a top official issued a stinging, angry statement all but accusing Ukraine's president of dissembling during the negotiations." ...

... Guardian: "Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians braved freezing temperatures and aggressive policing to return to central Kiev on Sunday to demand political change, sending a message to authorities that the crisis over the government's failure to sign an EU integration pact is unlikely to end soon." ...

... Guardian: "Senator John McCain on Sunday told thousands of Ukrainian protesters camped on Kiev's main square that Ukraine's destiny lay in Europe and that it would make Europe better." CW: Ah, a cast of hundreds of thousands. Apparently the US network green rooms are getting too small for McCain. ...

     ... UPDATE. But Wait. A sojourn in Kiev didn't stop McCain from appearing on a Sunday show. CNN: "Sen. John McCain joined CNN's 'State of the Union" from Kiev, Ukraine, on Sunday after the Arizona Republican addressed thousands of protesters who are angry over the Ukrainian government's decision to backpedal away from an agreement with the European Union." You cannot keep that man off the teevee.

CNN: "The rampage [at Arapahoe High School in Colorado] might have resulted in many more casualties had it not been for the quick response of a deputy sheriff who was working as a school resource officer at the school, [Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson] Robinson said. Once he learned of the threat, he ran -- accompanied by an unarmed school security officer and two administrators -- from the cafeteria to the library, Robinson said.... He praised the deputy's response as 'a critical element to the shooter's decision' to kill himself, and lauded his response to hearing gunshots."

Reuters: "China landed an unmanned spacecraft on the moon on Saturday, state media reported, in the first such "soft-landing" since 1976, joining the United States and the former Soviet Union in managing to accomplish such a feat."

Guardian: "The actor Peter O'Toole who found stardom in David Lean's masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia, has died aged 81...." The New York Times' obituary is here. The Los Angeles Times has a good slideshow here. ...

     ... Here's a much-expanded New York Times O'Toole obituary.

New York Daily News: "Thousands of drunken Santas went dashing through the snow under the influence Saturday, dutifully earning their places on Saint Nick's 'naughty' list. The red-faced revelers -- many from out of town -- overwhelmed parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan for SantaCon...." With photos.

AP: "... Nelson Mandela has been buried in the African ground he loved. His casket was lowered into the earth after military jets and helicopters with South African flags displayed flew over the pallbearers." The New York Times story, which includes a slideshow, is here.

AFP: "Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in New Delhi[, India,] on Saturday he no longer 'trusts' the United States, accusing the Americans of saying one thing and doing another in his troubled homeland. Karzai's statement to journalists came a day after he insisted he would not be 'intimidated' into signing a security pact allowing US troops in Afghanistan to stay on after next year."

AFP: "Iran said on Saturday that it had safely returned a monkey to Earth after blasting it into space in the second such launch this year in its controversial ballistic programme."