New York Times: “A body believed to be of the suspect in a Kentucky highway shooting that left five people seriously injured this month was found on Wednesday, the authorities said, ending a manhunt that stretched into a second week and set the local community on edge. The Kentucky State Police commissioner, Phillip Burnett Jr., said in a Wednesday night news conference that at approximately 3:30 p.m., two troopers and two civilians found an unidentified body in the brush behind the highway exit where the shooting occurred.... The police have identified the suspect of the shooting as Joseph A. Couch, 32. They said that on Sept. 7, Mr. Couch perched on a cliff overlooking Interstate 75 about eight miles north of London, Ky., and opened fire. One of the wounded was shot in the face, and another was shot in the chest. A dozen vehicles were riddled with gunfire.”
To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.
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New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~
~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”
New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”
Click on photo to enlarge.
~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI."
Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”
New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”
Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”
Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."
Anthony Smith of Mic.com: Donald Trump got that anti-Semitic Star of David graphic he tweeted yesterday "from an Internet message board for the alt-right, a digital movement of Neo-Nazis, anti-Semites and white supremacists newly emboldened by the success of Trump's rhetoric." CW: Trump is really plugged in to the hatemonger network. ...
... Kevin Robillard of Politico: "Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski on Sunday blamed the blowup over his former campaign's use of imagery some saw as anti-Semitic on 'political correctness.'" CW: We really must all stop being so squeamish about a presidential nominee retweeting anti-Semitic, white supremacist messages.
Kristen East of Politico: "An aide to the former president gave a statement on condition of anonymity to both CNN and The Associated Press, describing the meeting as 'entirely social in nature.'... But recognizing how others could take another view of it, he agrees with the attorney general that he would not do it again,' the aide said." CW: Really? Apology by anonymous aide? Heartfelt, I'm sure.
Annie Waldman in the New York Times: New Jersey's student loan program does not forgive debts when a student dies. In 2007, the state agency that runs the program "was caught in what amounted to a kickback scheme.... In 2010, Congress and the Obama administration decided to effectively eliminate the role of state agencies by having only the federal government lend directly to students" because many state agencies were "unwieldy, expensive and marked by scandal.... The combination of a lack of flexibility, an unwillingness to discharge loans and the state [of New Jersey]'s power to seize wages has resulted in even 'more intractable problems for our clients than predatory mortgages, deceptive car loans or illegal internet payday lending,' said David McMillin, a lawyer with Legal Services of New Jersey...." -- CW
*****
Falih Hassan & Tim Arango of the New York Times: "As Iraqis gathered late on Saturday night in central Baghdad to eat, shop and just be together to celebrate one of the last evenings of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a huge bomb exploded and killed at least 123 people, the third mass slaughter of civilians in three countries carried out by the Islamic State in recent days."-- CW
** Joseph Berger of the New York Times: "Elie Wiesel, the Auschwitz survivor who became an eloquent witness for the six million Jews slaughtered in World War II and who, more than anyone else, seared the memory of the Holocaust on the world's conscience, died on Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87." -- CW
Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "With an assist from members of the Hello Racist Facebook community, [a new Website] Hello Bigot shines a light on the racists among us -- allowing followers to spread the word via social media of the not-so-secret lives of folks who can't seem to help themselves when it comes to posting hateful memes and horrific comments." -- CW
Presidential Race
Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. interviewedHillary Clinton on Saturday morning for its investigation into whether she or her aides broke the law by setting up a private email server for her use as secretary of state, her campaign said.... The campaign declined to elaborate on the substance of the interview, which lasted about three and a half hours at F.B.I. Headquarters in Washington." -- CW ...
... The Washington Post story, by Anne Gearan & Matt Zapotosky, is here.
CW: Dan Balz of the Washington Post, BTW, has twisted his shorts in knots over the meeting between Bill Clinton & Loretta Lynch. Either that, or he's just trying to give his GOP buds some better talking points: "Bill Clinton has made a mess. It was either out of foolish indifference or plain foolishness, but it has created a terrible moment for his wife and the Democrats, and for President Obama and perceptions of the integrity of his administration." Sorry, Dan, this is pure bull. Why don't you cover the Trump child-rape case with such fervor? ...
... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker agrees with Balz: "Whatever Bill Clinton thought he was doing, he has cast a pall over what should have been his wife's most triumphant moment in politics." -- CW ...
... Also, too, Charles Pierce: "My god, is it even necessary to describe how stupid and reckless this is? For the second presidential campaign in a row, Hillary Rodham Clinton is afflicted with a husband who can't make a political move any more without breaking the china across the room.... This would be bad enough if it were only the appearance of impropriety. This exercise in Mixed Doubles Stupid actually was improper." ...
... CW: I still think the story is much ado about nothing. However, mitigating "nothing" is the fact that Bill Clinton certainly knew that the FBI would be interviewing Hillary Clintonthis weekend. That does make his decision to go "chat about the grandkids" with Lynch stoopid (or, as contributor Haley S. suggested, an attempt to derail his wife's candidacy). As for Lynch, I don't think she made a mistake. When a former president comes calling, that's a command performance. You don't, as Pierce suggested, "have ... armed agents stop him halfway up the jet-stairs." The armed agents, BTW, according to news reports, were in the room with Lynch & Clinton when they spoke. There are, in other words, independent witnesses to the "grandkids" chat.
Anne Gearan: "Hillary Clinton will attempt to paint Donald Trump as a callous and irresponsible businessman with a campaign stop next week in Atlantic City, site of shuttered Trump casinos." -- CW
Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "Saturday morning, Donald Trump tweeted out a graphic attacking Hillary Clinton as corrupt.... [The graphic] overlays a six-pointed star, which looks a lot like a Star of David, on a pile of money.... The idea that politicians are controlled by Jewish money is one of the defining tropes of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. The apparent subtext of the graphic is that Hillary Clinton is corrupt, and that the source of the corruption is the Jews.... About two hours after the first tweet, he sent out a new version of the graphic which replaced the six-pointed star with a circle. He deleted the six-pointed star tweet about an hour later." CW: Includes reproduction of graphic, which I won't post.
Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "On the 2016 campaign trail, Donald Trump has insisted that he is worth more than $10bn. However, a statement filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission by Wells Fargo Securities on Trump's behalf in 2012 indicated that the real estate developer was then worth less than half that, with comparatively few of the liquid assets that may now [be needed to] finance his campaign for president.... A a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo, insisted the 2012 filing was correct." -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Harper Neidig of the Hill: "Arizona now has the strictest regulation on welfare of any state. A new law enacted Friday prohibits low-income families from receiving cash assistance from the Temporary Aid to Needy Families program for more than a year, according to the Arizona Republic. The state legislature approved the law last year in the midst of a budget crisis, but the state has since recuperated and had a modest surplus this year. Arizona's Democratic minority fought to keep the current limit of two years...." -- CW
Graig Graziosi & Jerod MacDonald-Evoy of the Arizona Republic: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Arizona Attorney General's Office have arrested an 18-year-old Tucson man they say conspired to carry out acts of terrorism against government buildings in Maricopa and Pima counties. Mahin Khan was arrested in Tucson following an investigation by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, according to the FBI. He was booked into Maricopa County jail on suspicion of conspiring to commit terrorism." -- CW
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Rees Shapiro of the Washington Post: Court documents, including the Rolling Stone reporter's extensive notes, show that there were red flags -- even before publication of the story -- that the supposed victim was lying when she claims fraternity boys at the University of Virginia gang-raped her. -- CW
Way Beyond
Ishaan Tharoor of the Washington Post: "U.S. State Department officials confirmed Saturday that an American was among the hostages killed in the attack [on a Dhaka, Bangladesh, restaurant]. The identity of the victim, however, was not released.... At least one of the assailants has been taken into custody, according to reports." -- CW ...
... Emily Reyes, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "Three students from American universities were among the victims of an armed attack at a restaurant in Bangladesh early Saturday, university and foreign officials confirmed." -- CW
Rukmini Callimachi of the New York Times: "For the Islamic State terrorist group, which broadly advised operatives it sent to Europe to kill 'anyone and everyone,' the group's tactics in Bangladesh have seemed more controlled. In the past nine months, it has claimed 19 attacks in the South Asian country, nearly all of them targeted assassinations singling out religious minorities and foreigners.... They included hacking to death a Hindu man, stabbing to death a Shiite preacher, murdering a Muslim villager who had been accused of converting to Christianity and sending suicide bombers into Shiite mosques.... A closer look ... suggests a group that is tailoring its approach for different regions and for different target audiences." -- CW
Ed Vulliamy of the Guardian: Tens of thousands of upper-crusty Brits marched in the streets of London in the "March for Europe." "At the end of the march, in Parliament Square, protesters listened to speakers including Bob Geldof and Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker as well as politicians..." -- CW
Your Friday-Afternoon-Before-a-Holiday News Dump. Charlie Savage & Scott Shane of the New York Times: "Partially lifting the secrecy that has cloaked one of the United States's most contentious tactics for fighting terrorists, the Obama administration on Friday said that it believed that airstrikes it has conducted outside conventional war zones like Afghanistan have killed 64 to 116 civilian bystanders and about 2,500 members of terrorist groups. The official civilian death count is hundreds lower than most estimates compiled by independent organizations that try to track what the government calls targeted killings in chaotic places like tribal Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya.... At the same time, President Obama issued an executive order making civilian protection a priority and requiring the government in the future to disclose the number of civilian deaths each year." -- CW
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Mr. Obama calls himself a 'night guy,' and as president, he has come to consider the long, solitary hours after dark as essential as his time in the Oval Office. Almost every night that he is in the White House, Mr. Obama has dinner at 6:30 with his wife and daughters and then withdraws to the Treaty Room, his private office down the hall from his bedroom on the second floor of the White House residence. There, his closest aides say, he spends four or five hours largely by himself." -- CW
Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said Friday she would accept the recommendations from career prosecutors and FBI agents leading the probe into the use of a private email server by Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state.... While she did not promise a full recusal -- saying that 'would mean I wouldn't even be briefed on what the findings were' -- she seemed to confirm she would not veto whatever was proposed to her by those investigating the case.... Lynch said that she had 'already determined' she would accept the recommendation of career prosecutors and agents before her meeting with Bill Clinton, which she has described as a social conversation about travels, grandchildren and golf." -- CW ...
... Pamela Brown & Tal Kopan of CNN: Regarding her tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton, Lynch said at an Aspen Ideas event Friday, "'I certainly wouldn't do it again because I think it has cast this shadow over what it should not, over what it will not touch.... It's important to make it clear that that meeting with President Clinton does not have a bearing on how this matter will be reviewed and resolved.'" -- CW
Your Government at Work. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "A disabled woman was beaten bloody by federal agents during an airport security screening while on her way to undergo treatment for a brain tumor. Hannah Cohen set off the metal detector at a security checkpoint at the Memphis International Airport, and she was led away for additional screening, reported WREG-TV. 'They wanted to do further scanning, (but) ... she didn't understand what they were about to do, said her mother, Shirley Cohen. Cohen said she tried to tell agents with the Transportation Security Administration that her 19-year-old daughter is partially deaf, blind in one eye, paralyzed and easily confused -- but she said police kept her away from the security agents." -- CW ...
... Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: "Mr. Clinton's tone-deaf blunder, so easily avoided, creates more suspicion around Mrs. Clinton's email practices. No matter what the F.B.I. recommends in the case, he has provided skeptical voters with another reason to say they don't trust Mrs. Clinton." -- CW ...
... Steve Benen: "... as an objective matter, it's tough to get worked up about a casual chat at an airport between a president and an A.G. If your first reaction to Bill Clinton talking about his grandchildren is, 'I hear Ken Starr is unemployed, so let's give him something to do!' [as Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) did,] you might be a little too eager to exaggerate the significance of harmless social interaction.... For one thing, an indictment is ridiculously unlikely. For another, if Bill Clinton intended to launch some kind of back-channel pressure campaign to interfere with an investigation, he'd probably take steps less overt than a public chat at an airport." ...
... CW: If Bill Clinton wanted to urge Loretta Lynch to go easy on the Missus, he could have phoned her at home. I'll be they both have phones. If not, he could have sent her an e-mail. I hear he has a private server.
Annals of Justice, Ctd. Innocent Man Fights Justice Department -- and Wins. Rachel Weiner of the Washington Posthas the story. Maryland dairy farmer Randy Sowers' groundbreaking case against a now-obsolete forfeiture law will help others get their forfeited funds back, too. Oh, & the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Sowers? He's now a private asset forfeiture consultant -- CW: a/k/a a slimeball.
Presidential Race
Nick Gass of Politico: "The Democratic National Committee unveiled a draft of its party platform Friday, calling for -- among other progressive causes -- a $15 minimum wage, free community college and abolition of the death penalty. The draft was approved last weekend in St. Louis by 13 of the 15 members on the drafting committee, with one abstention and one who missed the vote. Supporters of Bernie Sanders have expressed displeasure with the way the platform draft handles Medicare expansion, a carbon tax, a fracking ban and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.... The draft document is headed for a full vote before the 187-member platform committee on July 8 and July 9 in Orlando, Florida." -- CW ...
... Greg Sargent: "The latest draft of the Democratic Party platform ... will show that Bernie Sanderswon far more victories on his signature issues than has been previously thought." -- CW
Nick Gass: "Hillary Clinton's campaign reported Friday that it had raised more than $68.5 million for Hillary for America, the Democratic National Committee and state parties in the month of June. Of that total, $40.5 million went to the campaign, while the remaining $28 million went to the DNC and state parties through the Hillary Victory Fund and the Hillary Action Fund, putting Clinton's total cumulative fundraising at $288 million for the campaign and $90 million for the joint fundraising agreements." -- CW
NEW. Lisa Bloom in the Huffington Post: "An anonymous 'Jane Doe' filed a federal lawsuit against ... Donald Trump last week, accusing him of raping her in 1994 when she was thirteen years old. The mainstream media ignored the filing. If the Bill Cosby case has taught us anything, it is to not disregard rape cases against famous men.... In covering a story, a media outlet is not finding guilt.... These allegations are credible. They ought not be ignored. Mainstream media, I'm looking at you." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link.
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump ... met with Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana on Friday, according to two people briefed on the meeting, adding to speculation that the conservative governor is among the finalists to be Mr. Trump's running mate.... The choice, which Mr. Trump ... had initially envisioned revealing in dramatic fashion at the Republican National Convention is now expected to come as early as next week. The change, according to two people familiar with the planning, was driven largely by concerns that the intense media coverage of the selection could potentially drown out Mr. Trump's appearance at his own convention." ...
... CW: And that would be a shame. Besides, I was hoping Trump would line up all the pageant contestants on the convention stage, make them answer stupid questions, then shout "You're fired!" at Newt & Chrisco, etc., until there was only one apprentice standing. Hell, even I would watch that. ...
... Most Self-Absorbed Person in U.S. Does Not Want to Appear Self-Absorbed. Jeremy Peters & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "With just over two weeks until the Republican National Convention opens in Cleveland, Donald J. Trump's preparations for what is usually a polished and highly choreographed affair are looking a lot like the Trump campaign itself: chaotic, freewheeling and unpredictable.... 'What they've asked me to do is to speak all three nights. I turned it down,' he said in an interview.... 'Everybody wants that,' he insisted. But he said he demurred for fear of looking too self-absorbed. 'I don't want people to think I'm grandstanding -- which I'm not,' he said, before adding, almost reflexively, 'But it would get high ratings.'" -- CW
The #NeverTrump Movement Gets a Court Challenge. Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Carroll 'Beau' Correll, one of Virginia's 49 GOP convention delegates, filed suit in federal court in Richmond on June 24 challenging a state law binding him to the results of the March 1 primary.... Eight Virginia Republican delegates supporting Trump ... with the support of the Trump campaign ... sought to intervene in a lawsuit in federal court in Virginia, arguing in their filing that Correll's suit is an 'eleventh-hour attack on a longstanding state law.'..." -- CW
Instead of Giving to Charity, Charity Gives to Trump. David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Four years ago, at a charity fundraiser in Palm Beach, Donald Trump got into a bidding war at the evening's live auction. The items up for sale: A Denver Broncos helmet, autographed by then-star quarterback Tim Tebow, and a Tebow jersey. Trump won ... with a bid of $12,000. Afterward, he posed with the helmet.... But Trump didn't actually pay with his own money. Instead, the Susan G. Komen organization ... got a $12,000 payment from ... the Donald J. Trump Foundation. Trump himself sent no money. (In fact, a Komen spokeswoman said, Trump has never given a personal gift of cash to the Komen organization.)... At the time of the auction, Trump had given none of his own money to the foundation for three years running. The Washington Post discovered this unusual payment -- a charity apparently buying sports memorabilia for a super-wealthy man -- this week.... Three experts on tax law questioned whether Trump had violated IRS rules against 'self-dealing' -- which are designed to keep nonprofit officials from using their charities to help themselves." -- CW
... Digby, in Salon: "Trump has said over and over again that he 'errs on the side of security' which is his catch-all justification for banning immigration and profiling people on the basis of religion, giving power back to the police because crime is rampant,' allowing proliferation of guns everywhere in society, torture, summary execution and a variety of other 'Putinesque' policies. He calls this attitude 'anti-PC' and common sense. Others call it unAmerican. But it's a mistake to think that Trump's authoritarian tendencies are in reaction to current events. They are his nature.... Trump does not recognize constitutional limitations or civil liberties." -- CW ...
... CW: Besides Donald Trump, who the hell would say, "We're with the Constitution 100 percent"? Once again, Trump has uttered a string of common words likely never before spoken. He's a very odd person. ...
... Eric Levitz of New York: "On Thursday night in New Hampshire, Trump reiterated his belief that America should hold itself to the same standard as a fascist death cult. Asked by local station NH1 to respond to Senator John McCain's claim that torture is 'not the American way,' Trump replied: 'Well, it's not the American way to have heads chopped off and have people drowning in steel cages ... And so we can have our disagreements, but we're going to have to get much tougher as a country.... We're going to have to do things that are unthinkable almost.' It's worth remembering that, for the Republican standard-bearer, ordering the military to hunt down and kill the wives and children of suspected terrorists falls under the 'thinkable' column."(Emphasis original.) ...
... CW: Also worth remembering: this is a person with absolutely no moral compass. ...
... Marc Racicot, former governor of Montana & former chair of the RNC, in a Washington Post op-ed: "... every one of those 13 million people [who voted for Donald Trump in the primaries] has a right to be heard and their thoughts fairly and honestly considered. But ... I cannot endorse or support their decision to express their frustration, anger and disappointment by selecting Trump as the Republican nominee for president.... I cannot endorse or support Trump for president. And I offer my prayer for a second miracle in Cleveland." -- CW
Ashley Parker & Maggie Haberman: "Donald J. Trump's campaign experienced two more departures this week when two staff members who handled surrogate operations resigned, including one who was hired less than two weeks ago.... The departures of the two aides underscore the disorder that continues in the Trump campaign, as the presumptive Republican nominee and his team struggle to grow into a professional, streamlined operation.... On Thursday, the campaign also let go ... a digital consultant, who had similarly been hired less than a week before." ...
... CW: Last month, Trump quasi-publicly dissed one of those who resigned, Erica Freeman. Trump, speaking to some of his surrogates, including former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, accused Freeman of sending a "stupid letter" & labeled her "not so smart." Trump then said he didn't know Freeman.
** Dana Milbank: "This is the hypocrisy at the heart of the Trump campaign, now under [Paul] Manafort's undisputed control. Manafort's inspiration, which Trump has embraced, is to portray Clinton as the embodiment of the establishment. But Manafort (not unlike Trump) has been the voice of the wealthy and the well-connected for four decades, building a fortune by making common cause with the world's most avaricious.
Hadas Gold of Politico: "OpenSecrets.org, the non-profit which tracks federal campaign contributions and lobbying by lobbying firms, individual lobbyists, industry, federal agency, and bills, has been denied a credential to attend the Republican National Convention and is airing its grievances publicly.... They have been approved for credentials to the Democratic National Convention, pending sign off from the Secret Service." -- CW
Pema Levy of Mother Jones: "As the Republican convention in Cleveland approaches, several delegates from Pennsylvania who support Donald Trump say they are planning on bringing their guns with them to the GOP gathering.... They say they are worried about possible violent protest and even an attack from ISIS." -- CW
Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: Corey "Lewandowski is bad television. He remains prone to spouting fiction and doesn't stay on-topic, grinding segments to a halt as CNN hosts have to correct his misinformation or interject to steer the conversation back to the point." CW: No kidding. As one wag put it (more or less) last week, Lewandowski hasn't changed jobs; he's just collecting his paycheck from a different outfit.
Beyond the Beltway
Patrick McGreevy of the Los Angeles Times: California "Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday signed six gun-control bills into law, including a requirement that ammunition purchasers undergo background checks. The governor vetoed five other measures, including an expansion of the use of restraining orders to take guns from people deemed to be dangerous." -- CW
Way Beyond
Julfikar Manik, et al., of the New York Times: "Gunmen detonated explosives and took a number of people hostage on Friday night at a restaurant in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, setting off a bloody standoff with the police in the city's diplomatic district. Hours into the standoff, in which two police officers were killed, the Islamic State issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack." -- CW ...
... New Lede: "Bangladeshi Army troops moved in on Saturday to end an 11-hour standoff at a restaurant in Dhaka, the capital, after gunmen stormed into the building, detonated explosives and took at least 20 people hostage on Friday night." ...
... Newer: "The authorities said 20 hostages, including many foreigners, had been killed on Friday night. Most were 'brutally killed' with sharp weapons, the military said."
News Lede
Guardian: "Michael Cimino, the director of the Vietnam war classic The Deer Hunter and the infamous epic western Heaven's Gate, has died. He was 77." -- CW
Mario Trujillo of the Hill: "President Obama on Thursday signed into law a bill to strengthen the government's open records laws. The legislation to update the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) made it over the finish line after years of delays, which were partly blamed on behind-the-scenes opposition in the administration. The changes would put the force of law into a 2009 Obama directive urging agencies to err on the side of disclosure when handling open records requests." ...
... CW: I don't get that part about "behind-the-scenes opposition in the administration," & Trujillo doesn't bother to explain it. If President Obama signed a directive consistent with the bill, why was his administration against it?
Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carterrepealed the Pentagon's long-held ban on transgender people serving in the military Thursday, ending a year-long process that was bogged down by internal conflict and concerns among senior service officials about how the change could be made. Carter said at a news conference that the policy change will take place over the next 12 months.... Beginning Thursday, however, service members can no longer be involuntarily separated from the services solely on the basis of being transgender, he said. Carter said. 'We have to have access to 100 percent of America's population for our all-volunteer forces to be able to recruit from among them the most highly qualified -- and to retain them.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Akhilleus: Screaming to start in....3, 2, 1.
Tom LoBianco & Ryan Browne of CNN: "A devastating new report by military investigators released Thursday found that the 10 sailors captured by Iranians in January suffered from 'failed leadership' at all levels on a mission that was plagued by mistakes from beginning to end. 'This incident was the result of failed leadership at multiple levels from the tactical to the operational,' investigators wrote in the detailed, partially redacted, report. The report found the crews were poorly prepared, their boats not properly maintained, communication almost entirely lacking, and their conduct after being captured by the Iranians wasn't up to military standards." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Nine officers and enlisted sailors -- including a captain and the commanding officer of the boats -- face discipline, with some being relieved of command because of the episode, which embarrassed the service and occurred just hours before President Obama gave his last State of Union address." -- CW ...
... Akhilleus: But this incident, at least partially the fault of "failed leadership" on the part of Navy commanders, was used as a screaming point by a horde of right-wingers. Louie Gohmert (R-Texit) wanted to go to war, and without waiting for any clarification or additional information, demanded that we start bombing Iran "immediately". Contrast that and similar childish meltdowns with the measured and adult responses to a vastly more dangerous situation back in 1968, the taking of the USS Pueblo by the North Koreans. Although there was much consternation over the event, no one of either party demanded we start a war in order to assuage their personal pique.
Emily Atkin of Think Progress: "There will be a vote on gun control in the House of Representatives. On Thursday -- one week after nearly 170 House Democrats staged a historic sit-in protest on the House floor demanding a vote on on gun control legislation -- Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said he will allow a vote on a bill to prevent suspected terrorists from buying guns.... Exactly which bill the House would take up was unclear.... If the bill is too weak, there is a possibility that House Democrats will continue to protest in one way or another until a better bill is brought to a vote." --safari
Dana Milbank: "A day after the House Benghazi committee released a final report that left Hillary Clinton relatively unscathed, conservative activists ... [met to criticize] ChairmanTrey Gowdy for failing to deliver the goods.... Herein lies a lesson for Republicans who are perpetually trying to appease the far right: It's a fool's errand.... John Boehner named the Benghazi committee because activists were dissatisfied that seven previous congressional investigations had failed to uncover major scandal material. Now an eighth has produced more of the same -- and the agitators are as agitated as ever.... [One accused] Gowdy himself [of being] in on the Benghazi conspiracy." -- CW
Paul Glasteris of the Washington Monthly: "[S]traight off her high-profile campaign appearance Monday with Hillary Clinton, Sen. Elizabeth Warren gave a keynote address about industry consolidation in the American economy.... [S]he extended her critique to the entire economy, noting that, as a result of three decades of weakened federal antitrust regulation, virtually every industrial sector today ... is under the control of a handful of oligopolistic corporations...." Glasteris thinks the nature of speech in its synthesis of economic policies, "has the possibility of changing the course of the [presidential] campaign." Includes video and text of the speech. --safari
Mitch Smith & Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday blocked an Indiana law that would have banned abortions based solely on a fetus's disability or genetic anomaly, suggesting that it was an illegal limit on a woman's long-established constitutional right. Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, of Federal District Court for Southern Indiana, also held up a state ban on abortions motivated solely by a fetus's race or sex. In the preliminary injunction, Judge Pratt said limiting the reasons for an abortion was 'inconsistent with the notion of a right rooted in privacy concerns and a liberty right to make independent decisions.'" CW: Pratt is an Obama appointee.
Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "A federal judge blocked -- less than an hour before it was to go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday -- a Mississippi law that would have given a wide range of special protections only to those who oppose same-sex marriage. In a 60-page ruling, Judge Carlton W. Reeves of United States District Court said the law created 'a vehicle for state-sanctioned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.' And by setting aside particular beliefs for protection as opposed to religions conviction in general, the law unconstitutionally 'put its thumb on the scale to favor some religious beliefs over others.' He concluded by issuing a preliminary injunction against the law from taking effect." CW: Judge Reeves is an Obama appointee. ...
... Dear Sanders Hardliners: Had the judges in the above two cases been Republican appointees, there's a good chance the decisions would have gone the other way. Get off your high horses & vote for the e-mail gal. -- Constant Weader
Hilarious Hypocrisy. Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "On Wednesday, the conservative Heritage Foundation announced what appeared to be an abrupt shift in position on one of the most contentious issues in American constitutional law. Heritage now supports a 'constitutionally protected right to privacy.'... Heritage's Edwin Meese, who previously served as attorney general under President Reagan, labeled the right to privacy 'nonconstitutional.' This has been the position of Roe v. Wade's most prominent opponents for as long as most lawyers can remember -- a principled position that the Fourteenth Amendment right to privacy is not protected by the Constitution, and that it should be scrapped by the Supreme Court. And now they have abandoned that principled position. Because they don't like trans people." --safari
On Populism. Jonathan Chait: "There are innumerable reasons to object to Donald Trump as a human being and prospective president of the United States. But yesterday, President Obama picked a strange one: that Trump is a phony populist.... Obama's assumption is that populist means a politician who promotes economic and social opportunity. But that is not really what the term means. The ideological definition of populist means traditionalist on social issues and interventionist on economic policy -- the opposite of libertarianism.... Populists believe the government has been captured by evil and/or corrupt interests, and that it can be recaptured by a unified effort by the people (or, at least, their people).... Is Trump a populist? The substantive definition is difficult to measure, since Trump is so slippery about his positions.... Even less convincing is Obama's attempt to define himself as a populist -- a label I have never heard him claim before, and for good reason." --safari
Bill Vlasic & Neal Boudette of the New York Times: "... the driver of a Tesla Model S electric sedan was killed in an accident when the car was in self-driving mode. Federal regulators, who are in the early stages of setting guidelines for autonomous vehicles, have opened a formal investigation into the incident, which occurred on May 7 in Williston, Fla. In a statement, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said preliminary reports indicated that the crash occurred when a tractor-trailer made a left turn in front of the Tesla, and the car failed to apply the brakes." -- CW
Garrison Keillor, in the Washington Post: "It's enlightening to see that Brits can be just as dense as anyone else.... And will we be next? The Trumpster went around banging his dishpan, whooping it up for ignorance and superstition.... Anyway. Now we shall turn to celebrating our Amerexit of 1776.... There is a new generation coming of age that is not so interested in race, sexual identity, ethnic origin, religion, all the hot buttons that demagogues have successfully pushed for years. While Britain tries to build back the old walls, the Northern Irish can join up with the Republic of Ireland and thereby rejoin the E.U., as they evidently wish to do. That would be something to behold.... Don't give up hope. The Trumpists shall pass. God save America." -- CW ...
... Tim Egan: "... on this upcoming Independence Day, at a time when Trump's response to our better angels is to go small, mean and tribal, an American ideal is in peril. Not open borders, which is something the United States hasn't had since 1875, but open minds.... The sun never sets on a stupid idea. And [the Brexit] vote to stop the spinning globe and get off at 1952 is among the stupidest. Britain is cracking up now because it followed the crackpots. The United States could make the same mistake -- rejecting free trade, and rejecting a welcome mat for free people.... [Trump is] counting on the same contagion of stupidity that infected Britain to carry him." -- CW
Presidential Race
TarmacGate. Predictable (and Predicted). Mark Landler of the New York Times: "An airport encounter this week between Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and former President Bill Clintonhas welled into a political storm, with Republicans asserting that it compromised the Justice Department's politically sensitive investigation into Hillary Clinton's email practices while she was secretary of state." ...
... Right Wing World Rule: If two or more Democrats speak to each other, it's a conspiracy. Congressional investigation Recusal required. -- CW ...
... Update. Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "... Loretta E. Lynch plans to announce on Friday that she will accept whatever recommendation career prosecutors and the F.B.I. director make about whether to bring charges related to Hillary Clinton's personal email server, a Justice Department official said. Her decision removes the possibility that a political appointee will overrule investigators in the case. The Justice Department had been moving toward such an arrangement for months ... but a private meeting between Ms. Lynch and former President Bill Clinton this week set off a political furor and made the decision all but inevitable." ...
... CW: Really? FBI Director Comey is a political appointee: President Obama nominated him. But, you know, Comey is a Republican, so that makes it all okay ...
I do not believe my impartiality can reasonably be questioned. If it is reasonable to think that a Supreme Court Justice can be bought so cheap, the Nation is in deeper trouble than I had imagined. -- Justice Antonin Scalia, 2004, refusing to recuse himself from a case about Vice President's Dick Cheney's failure to turn over documents, a case the Court agreed to hear three weeks after Scalia & Cheney went on an extended hunting trip ("In the end, Scalia supported Cheney.")
... They Misunderestimated. Julian Hattem of the Hill: "The Obama administration on Thursday asked a federal court to delay until October 2018 the release of 14,000 pages of emails from aides to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In a court filing on Wednesday, administration lawyers said the State Department miscalculated the amount of material it would need to process the documents as part of a lawsuit with the conservative organization Citizens United." -- CW
In fact, that could be a Mexican plane up there. They're getting ready to attack. -- Donald Trump, speaking in Manchester, New Hampshire, as a plane flew overhead
... Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "... Donald Trump on Thursday pointed to a plane flying above his event and said it could be a Mexican plane preparing to attack." The event was in New Hampshire. ...
... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... there is a concern among many in the party that no matter how much Mr. Trump's aides try to harness his message, there are limits to how much he will adjust.... Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager who had championed a 'let Trump be Trump' approach and whom Mr. Trump fired less than two weeks ago, showed up at the speech, startling reporters. It wasn't clear whether Mr. Lewandowski, a New Hampshire resident, had met with Mr. Trump." ...
... CW: Trump must be unaware that Mexico is an ally & that the President of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto met to sign a climate accord with President Obama the previous day. Otherwise, why would he posit that a plane observed flying over New Hampshire, for Pete's sake, might be a stealth Mexican warplane, apparently undetected during its trip across the U.S.? This might be the first time in American history that a major party's (presumptive) nominee accused a friendly government of opening armed hostilities against the U.S.
World's Greatest Businessman Unable to Subtract 9 - 4. Christina Wilkie of the Huffington Post: "Donald Trump on Thursday responded to a landmark Supreme Court ruling earlier this week on abortion, telling radio host Mike Gallagher that if Trump had been president, the court would have reached a different decision. 'Now if we had -- Scalia was living, or if Scalia was replaced by me, you wouldn't have had that, OK? It would've been the opposite,' Trump said of the ruling, which struck down a restrictive Texas abortion law. The death in February of Justice Antonin Scalia left the high court with only eight justices.... The remaining justices issued three rulings this spring that were deadlocked, 4-4. But the abortion decision Trump was talking about wasn't one of them." The decision was a 5-3 split. If Trump had nominated a rabid anti-abortion yahoo to replace Scalia, the decision would have been 5-4 against Texas. -- CW...
... Also, Unfamiliar with Elementary Statistics. We have thousands of people standing outside trying to get in, and they're great people and they have such spirit for the country and love for the country, and I'm saying, you know, "Why am I not doing better in the polls?"... But you know, you have to understand, your show, no, but many shows it's just a constant hit from mainstream media, no matter what you do, it's always a negative. -- Donald Trump, Thursday
CW Translation: Thousands of people come to my rallies, so polls showing me losing the presidential race are the products of a media conspiracy.
Nasty & Nastier. Robert Costa & Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's campaign has begun formally vetting possible running mates, with former House speaker Newt Gingrich emerging as the leading candidate, followed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. But there are more than a half dozen others being discussed as possibilities, according to several people with knowledge of the process.... The contenders under the most serious consideration ... have been asked by attorney Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. to answer more than 100 questions and to provide reams of personal and professional files that include tax records and any articles or books they have published. Culvahouse, a former White House counsel who is managing the vetting for Trump,... vetted then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for the GOP vice-presidential nomination...." CW: I'm sure he'll do a good job. Among the questions: "How many New Jersey Mooslums cheered from the rooftops on 9/11?" (possible advantage: Chrisco) & "What is the raunchiest thing you did with your wife?" (advantage: Newt). ...
... Eric Levitz of New York: "Donald Trumpis vetting New Jersey governor (and possible Trump hostage) Chris Christie as a potential running mate, according to separate reports for CNN and the New York Times. Normally, an established politician with a national platform wouldn't tie his brand to a figure 70 percent of the country despises. Generally speaking, presidential nominees don't select running mates who could actually hurt the ticket's standing in their home states. But Donald Trump and Chris Christie are two men with no good options." --safari ...
... Steve M. studies history & discovers why Trump is leaning toward Cap'n. Chrisco (and, I would add, Newt). Once asked by an "Apprentice" producer why he didn't fire a fat contestant "who was a buffoon and a fuckup," Trump said, "Everybody loves a fat guy. People will watch if you have a funny fat guy around. Trust me, it's good for ratings." -- CW
Ed Kilgore of New York: "With [Wednesday]'s remarkable shrieking diatribe about the perfidy of globalization and international trade deals, tellingly delivered in a former Pennsylvania steel town, Donald Trump seems to be making a big strategic gamble. Without question, this speech deeply offended, perhaps terminally, a lot of the old Chamber of Commerce type Republicans.... Offsetting that, Trump presumably believes, could be a crucial sliver of the vote in trade-impacted Rust Belt states..., voters who might have even supported Bernie Sanders or similar anti-trade labor-oriented Democratic pols in the recent past.... The bottom line is that Trump better hope he can convince the millions of business-oriented Republicans who imbibed free-trade ideology from infancy to vote for him on other issues. Otherwise his big Rust Belt gamble is likely to fail." --safari
Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Long before Mr. Trump announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, roiling the 2016 election with his pugnacious style and speeches in which he has branded many undocumented immigrants as rapists and murderers, he had proved himself in New York as an expert political provocateur with an instinct for racially charged rhetoric." -- CW ...
... Via Democracy Now, a conversation with Wayne Barrett, who has been following Trump's shenanigans since his arrival on the Manhattan scene. Keep these things in mind whenever Dirty Donald grumbles about "Crooked Hillary". --safari
Dirty Trickster-in Chief. Joseph Tanfani of the Los Angeles Times on Donald Trump's personal but secretive role in undermining an American Indian tribe's attempt to run a casino in New York, especially through the use of vicious and untrue attack ads. "Hundreds of pages of records from a New York agency's investigation into the ad campaign, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, reveal new details about Trump's covert fight against the tribe. It was unusual not only for how deeply involved he was, but for the sharp tone of the attacks and the elaborate attempt to conceal his role.... The ads hit hard, highlighting news about crimes involving Mohawks to question whether the tribe was fit to run a casino. 'Now the Mohawks want state approval of a $500 million casino ... opening the door for organized crime,' said one ad." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Akhilleus: The guy who regularly tries to insult Senator Elizabeth Warren by calling her "Pocahontas" isn't anti-American Indian. He just wanted to make sure that it was his mob guys who got all the gambling money from New York. Such a wonderful president he'll make.
Aram Roston of BuzzFeed: "At Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach resort he runs as a club for paying guests and celebrities, Donald Trump had a telephone console installed in his bedroom that acted like a switchboard, connecting to every phone extension on the estate, according to six former workers. Several of them said he used that console to eavesdrop on calls involving staff." He also allegedly listened to some conversations between staff & guests. -- CW
Michael Levenson of the Boston Globe: "... conspiracy theories have always been part of the American political landscape and are believed by more than 55 percent of the public -- a group that cuts across race, gender, income, and political affiliation, according to researchers and polls.... What’s unusual ... is to have the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties using his stature to push such theories out of the realm of supermarket tabloids and e-mail chain letters and into the political mainstream.... 'In my estimation, what he's doing is very scary,' said Joseph E. Uscinski, a political scientist at the University of Miami who noted that conspiracy theories are often espoused by despots. '... He has a lot of power..., and conspiracy theories in the hands of powerful people generally lead to deleterious consequences.'" -- CW
Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post: "Many [Trump supporters] proudly say he won them over by 'telling it like it is' and 'not being politically correct' with his racist, xenophobic and nativist presidential campaign. So, I'm hardly surprised that [Trump's] followers ... lead the pack in thinking that African Americans are 'less "intelligent" than whites' (32 percent), 'more "lazy" than whites' (40 percent), 'more "violent" than whites (nearly 50 percent) and 'more "criminal" than whites (nearly 50 percent).... Still, it stings when you see how little folks think of you and your people and how that manifests itself in harmful ways." -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Christie Still Excels at Day Job. Samantha Marcus of NJ.com "Gov. Chris Christie late Thursday declared a state of emergency and ordered state officials to plan a shutdown of all ongoing work paid for by the nearly broke Transportation Trust Fund. Christie's order came at the end of a day where the state Senate refused to take action on his offer to raise the gasoline tax by 23 cents a gallon in exchange for a 1-cent reduction in the sales tax." -- CW
Way Beyond
Another Price of Brexit. James Stewart of the New York Times: "Unless Britain finds a way to undo its decision to leave the European Union, London's days as the pre-eminent global financial capital, ranked even ahead of New York, may be numbered. I spoke this week to several high-ranking executives at major financial institutions that collectively employ tens of thousands in London. While none of them have any immediate plans to move their European headquarters from Britain's capital, all agreed they would eventually shift a significant number of highly paid employees to cities that remain in the European Union." Stewart ranks the contenders. ...
... CW: Before reading Stewart's rankings, I picked Frankfort as the obvious choice. But Stewart made a better pick, for the reasons he states.
;)
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