The Commentariat -- June 18, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Mark Landler of the New York Times: Secretary of State John Kerry at least partially agrees with a letter signed by 51 U.S. diplomats critical of the Obama administration's handling of Syria. -- CW

Sara Murray of CNN: RNC Chair Reince "Priebus has spoken with GOP party chairmen in multiple states in recent days in part to get a better sense of how large the anti-Trump faction is among their convention delegations, according to two people familiar with the conversations. While Priebus has made clear in these conversations that he is not spearheading the latest push for a coup, his involvement sends a signal that the RNC is taking this effort to dump Trump seriously even as other movements have fizzled." -- CW

Comedian Hasan Minhaj calls out the do-nothing Congress to their face, notably their inaction on gun control, and they're not happy. He starts ridiculing the Congresscritters around 11 minutes in. --safari

*****

David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "With congressional leaders once again at a stalemate over how to respond to a mass shooting, the Senate's most moderate Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, is developing a compromise measure that would prevent some terrorism suspects from purchasing weapons, while sidestepping partisan flash points that have doomed similar legislation in the past and threaten to do so again next week. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, has already scheduled votes for Monday on four proposals -- two sponsored by Republicans and two by Democrats -- but all four are expected to fail in a nearly identical replay of votes last December after the attack in San Bernardino, Calif." -- CW...

...Stanley McCrystal in a New York Times op-ed: "A BATTLEFIELD on our soil. That was my reaction on Sunday, like that of so many of my fellow Americans and fellow soldiers, as I began to learn about the horror that unfolded early that morning in Orlando, Fla., when a dangerous man opened fire in a nightclub with a high-powered, military-style rifle...In 2014, 33,599 Americans died from a gunshot wound. From 2001 to 2010, 119,246 Americans were murdered with guns, 18 times all American combat deaths in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is a national crisis. And as a combat veteran and proud American, I believe we need a national response to the gun violence that threatens so many of our communities." --safari

Nathaniel Popper of the New York Times: "America is getting a new stock exchange from the most prominent critics of high-frequency trading. After months of delays and a brutal lobbying battle that divided Wall Street, the IEX Group won approval on Friday from the Securities and Exchange Commission to become the nation's 13th official stock exchange. IEX is run by the people at the center of the Michael Lewis book, 'Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt,' which profiles the early efforts of the IEX team to create a trading exchange that would be somewhat shielded from high-frequency traders. Other exchanges and trading firms had urged the S.E.C. to reject the IEX application to become an exchange." -- CW

Presidential Race

Move over, Larry David. Eighth-Grader Jack Aiello delivers a graduation speech to remember. (You'll have to pause the video at the end):

Jeff Zeleny of CNN: "Hillary Clinton's campaign is taking the reins of the Democratic National Committee, installing a new top official on Thursday to oversee the party's day-to-day operations through the general election. Brandon Davis,... [of] the Service Employees International Union, will become the general election chief of staff for the Democratic Party.... Robby Mook, the Clinton campaign manager, arrived Thursday morning at Democratic headquarters on Capitol Hill to introduce Davis to the party's staff.... [DNC Chair Debbie] Wasserman Schultz ... will remain in her position as the party's chairwoman, at least through the convention next month in Philadelphia, [but] her role diminishes with the Clinton campaign's takeover of the committee." Thanks to Forrest M. for the link.

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump rarely, if ever, acknowledges he might be losing at anything.... So it was surprising when Mr. Trump ... said on Thursday night that he is not beating Hillary Clinton in the most recent presidential polls.... Despite his historically high negative ratings, Mr. Trump suggested he has plenty of time to turn things around." -- CW

Gail Collins seems a bit skeptical of Donald Trump's claims about the wonderful things he did to help 9/11 responders & victims.

Shane Goldmacher of Politico: "Billionaire businessman Donald Trump appears to have paid zero, or near-zero, in personal income taxes in at least two more years in the early 1990s, according to records from New Jersey's gambling authorities reviewed by Politico. Trump's avoidance of income taxes as described in the documents was not illegal but the result of significant losses his hotel and casino holdings sustained during an economic downtown. 'Welcome to the real estate business,' Trump said in an email, responding via his spokeswoman, when asked about not paying income taxes in the early 1990s.... The Washington Post has previously reported that Trump paid zero in income taxes for two years, in 1978 and 1979, when he turned over his tax returns to apply for a casino license in New Jersey." ....

     ... CW: Don't tell me a billionaire who pays "zero or near-zero taxes" for at least four years is a patriot. He's a moocher, way worse than those lazy bastards lying around in the "hammock of complacency & dependence" who so aggravate Paul Ryan.

Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: "Trump's relationship with [Vladimir] Putin and his warm views toward Russia, which began in the 1980s when the country was still part of the Soviet Union, have emerged as one of the more curious aspects of his presidential campaign.... The overwhelming consensus among American political and national security leaders has held that Putin is a pariah who disregards human rights and has violated international norms in seeking to regain influence and territory in the former Soviet bloc.... Trump has conveyed a different view, informed in part through his business ambitions.... On the campaign trail, Trump has called for a new partnership with Moscow.... The relationship is setting off alarms in pro-Western capitals -- and in the U.S. foreign policy community." -- CW

Bianca Ocasio of Politico: "Donald Trump has spent the week stating his support for the LGBT community..., remarking that he is a better ally than Hillary Clinton, whom he has repeatedly attacked for accepting donations from governments hostile to LGBT rights on behalf of the Clinton Foundation.... But a photo posted to Twitter on Thursday night showed [Trump] with ... Robert Jeffress, a pastor from Dallas known for his anti-LGBT sentiment.... Trump retweeted the image on Friday. The ... pastor in February 2015 was quoted as saying the gay rights movement 'will pave the way for that future world dictator, the Antichrist, to persecute and martyr Christians without any repercussions whatsoever.'" CW: Hmm. Maybe the Antichrist is a'comin', after all, & Jeffries just posed for a picture with him.

Jonathan Chait: "Donald Trump appeared on the national political stage almost eight years ago. Only then he was called 'Sarah Palin.' ...The rise of Trump has given many Republicans...a different perspective on these very same questions. Trump's candidacy has given them the chance to debate the merits of an ignorant demagogue, rather than defend him reflexively." --safari

Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Dozens of Republican convention delegates are hatching a new plan to block Donald Trump at this summer's party meetings, in what has become the most organized effort so far to stop the businessman from becoming the GOP nominee. The delegates are angered by Trump's recent comments on gun control, his racial attacks on a federal judge and his sinking poll numbers. They are convinced that Trump is an insufficiently conservative candidate and believe they will find enough like-minded Republicans within the next month to change party rules and allow delegates to vote for whomever they want, regardless of who won their state caucus or primary. -- Akhilleus (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

How the Japanese envision a President Trump (lots of imagination, but pretty scary) --safari

Senate Races

Ken Vogel of Politico: "Charles Koch, facing questions about his commitment to political spending, late last month donated $3 million to a super PAC spending heavily to protect the Republican Senate majority, according to a Federal Election Commission report set to be filed in the coming days.... Koch's donation marks his first significant check of the 2016 election cycle. It's especially notable because he has increasingly expressed frustrations with the political process, and with ... Donald Trump, in particular." -- CW

Marco, Marco, Marco, Back, Back, Back? Tal Kopan of CNN: "Florida Rep. David Jolly on Friday announced he will pull out of the Republican primary to replace Sen. Marco Rubio. Jolly instead will for reelection to his seat in Congress, citing 'unfinished business' in an email to supporters Friday afternoon. He said he had been convinced to run for Senate by insiders who told him redistricting made his reelection to the House too difficult, but decided he wanted to continue doing the job he has. The move, though, comes as Rubio has in recent days signaled he might accede to pressure to run for reelection to his seat." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

...Akhilleus: Unfinished business my ass. House Republicans haven't done anything in years. What's so important now?...

...Ed Kilgore: "It's becoming more and more likely that ... Marco Rubio will reverse his long-standing commitment to retire from the Senate -- you know, that chamber whose votes he so regularly missed while running for president -- this year...But Rubio's reelection is a much dicier propositionthan it would have probably been had he never run for president.... Maybe Rubio will make a comeback, but if he doesn't, one of the most promising political careers in recent history could run aground quickly." -safari

Beyond the Beltway

The Sunshine State. Arturo Garcia of RawStory: "Florida Assistant State Attorney Kenneth Lewis was suspended on Friday after insulting the city of Orlando on his Facebook page, WESH-TV reported. Lewis first posted the disparaging remarks on Sunday, hours after the mass shooting attack at the Pulse nightclub that left 49 people dead and 53 others injured. 'The entire city should be leveled. It is void of a single redeeming quality. It is a melting pot of 3rd world miscreants and ghetto thugs.'" --safari

Way Beyond the Beltway

Right Wing Extremism Around the World. BBC: "Police investigating the killing of MP Jo Cox have said they are prioritising inquiries into the suspect's possible links to right-wing extremism. Mrs Cox, 41, was shot and stabbed outside her constituency surgery in West Yorkshire on Thursday. A 52-year-old man has been arrested. The BBC understands Nazi regalia was recovered at suspect Tommy Mair's home. -- Akhilleus (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dom Phillips of the Washington Post: "Just weeks before it stages the 2016 Olympic Games, the state government of Rio de Janeiro has declared a 'state of public calamity in financial administration' and warned that the situation is so dire it impedes the locale's ability to meet Games commitments. The Olympics start Aug. 5 with Brazil already facing an impeachment trial of suspended President Dilma Rousseff, a public health crisis over the Zika epidemic and a deepening recession." -- CW

Rebecca Ruiz of the New York Times: "Russia's track and field team has been barred from competing in this summer's Rio Games because of a far-reaching doping conspiracy, an extraordinary punishment without precedent in Olympics history. The global governing body for track and field, known as the I.A.A.F., announced the decision on Friday, ruling in a unanimous vote that Russia had not done enough to restore global confidence in the integrity of its athletes. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

     ... Akhilleus: The Russian doping scandal goes all the way to the top, meaning the government has been involved and is running the program, likely with full knowledge of Vladimir Putin. No wonder Trump loves this guy.

News Ledes

AP: "An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced six people, including two Al-Jazeera employees, to death for allegedly passing documents related to national security to Qatar and the Doha-based TV network during the rule of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi." -- CW

Washington Post: "Belgian authorities conducted a sweeping round of anti-terrorism raids late Friday and early Saturday, arresting 12 people in an investigation that prosecutors said required 'immediate intervention.'" -- CW

The Commentariat -- June 17, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Dozens of Republican convention delegates are hatching a new plan to block Donald Trump at this summer's party meetings, in what has become the most organized effort so far to stop the businessman from becoming the GOP nominee. The delegates are angered by Trump's recent comments on gun control, his racial attacks on a federal judge and his sinking poll numbers. They are convinced that Trump is an insufficiently conservative candidate and believe they will find enough like-minded Republicans within the next month to change party rules and allow delegates to vote for whomever they want, regardless of who won their state caucus or primary.

Right Wing Extremism Around the World. BBC: "Police investigating the killing of MP Jo Cox have said they are prioritising inquiries into the suspect's possible links to right-wing extremism. Mrs Cox, 41, was shot and stabbed outside her constituency surgery in West Yorkshire on Thursday. A 52-year-old man has been arrested. The BBC understands Nazi regalia was recovered at suspect Tommy Mair's home. -- Akhilleus

Marco, Marco, Marco, Back, Back, Back? Tal Kopan of CNN: "Florida Rep. David Jolly on Friday announced he will pull out of the Republican primary to replace Sen. Marco Rubio. Jolly instead will for reelection to his seat in Congress, citing 'unfinished business' in an email to supporters Friday afternoon. He said he had been convinced to run for Senate by insiders who told him redistricting made his reelection to the House too difficult, but decided he wanted to continue doing the job he has. The move, though, comes as Rubio has in recent days signaled he might accede to pressure to run for reelection to his seat." ...

Unfinished business my ass. House Republicans haven't done anything in years. What's so important now?

Rebecca Ruiz of the New York Times: "Russia's track and field team has been barred from competing in this summer's Rio Games because of a far-reaching doping conspiracy, an extraordinary punishment without precedent in Olympics history. The global governing body for track and field, known as the I.A.A.F., announced the decision on Friday, ruling in a unanimous vote that Russia had not done enough to restore global confidence in the integrity of its athletes.

The Russian doping scandal goes all the way to the top, meaning the government has been involved and is running the program, likely with full knowledge of Vladimir Putin. No wonder Trump loves this guy.

*****

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "One by one on Thursday, inside an arena in downtown Orlando where friends and relatives of the victims of the nation's deadliest mass shooting had congregated, Mr. Obama embraced mourners sick with loss. He told them that the nation stood with them and that his own heart was broken, offering words of comfort for a tragedy that he confessed he could not fathom.... His visit to Orlando came four days after the massacre. Accompanied by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr...., the two men took turns hugging and grieving with the scores of people who lost sons, daughters, siblings, partners and friends.... In an emotional statement to reporters before he returned to Washington, Mr. Obama said the encounters with mourners underscored his determination to change the debate over gun restrictions and enact the sort of measures that might have prevented the tragedy." -- CW

Erica Werner of ABC News: "The slaughter in Florida and an attention-grabbing filibuster in the Senate did little to break the election-year stalemate in Congress over guns Thursday, with both sides unwilling to budge and Republicans standing firm against any new legislation opposed by the National Rifle Association.... Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., derided [Sen. Chris] Murphy's [D-Conn.] filibuster as a 'campaign talk-a-thon' that did nothing but delay potential votes.... It's the same exercise the Senate has engaged in time and again after mass shootings.... But Democrats have been unable to turn the tide of public opinion [favoring gun control] to their purpose because the NRA is able to mobilize and energize voters who will threaten to vote lawmakers out on the gun issue alone. This past week, the NRA made robo-calls in Pennsylvania urging people to contact their senators and 'express their strong opposition to any new gun control laws.' In the GOP-controlled House, Republicans had no plans to act on guns and Democrats were unable to force any action...." -- CW ...

... New York Times Editors: "Few places on earth make it easier than the United States for a terrorist to buy assault weapons to mow down scores of people in a matter of minutes.... Yet yet the N.R.A. ... clings to the absurd fantasy that a heavily-armed populace is the best way to keep Americans safe. That failed in Orlando, where an armed security guard was on the scene but could not stop the slaughter. The gun industry lobbyists may be beyond reason, but the lawmakers have a duty to respond to their constituents. Unfortunately, after each new massacre, far too many offer nothing more than condolences and moments of silence. That silence is killing us." -- CW ...

... How an Unhinged, Grumpy Old Man (and Sore Loser) Runs for Re-election. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) ... said President Obama was 'directly responsible' for the terror attack in Orlando due to his failure to combat the rise of the Islamic State terror group. McCain's statement goes beyond the criticism of Obama that has been leveled by his Republican colleagues in the Senate, and it follows remarks made this week by presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.... In a statement released Thursday afternoon after the comments were publicized, McCain said he 'misspoke.'... The likely Democratic nominee in [McCain's Senate] race, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, issued a statement Thursday saying McCain 'cross[ed] a dangerous line in comments that undermine our Commander in Chief on national security issues -- at the very moment the president was in Orlando to comfort victims' families.'" -- CW ...

     ... Michael McAuliff of the Huffington Post: "McCain has long blamed Obama for the quagmire in the Middle East while ignoring the previous president’s rush to war in Iraq, which set off the conflicts that gave birth in 2004 to the group now known as ISIS or ISIL as a branch of al Qaeda, which used the conflict to gain a foothold in Iraq." -- CW ...

...Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "There's a good reason why McCain would ignore guns and focus on foreign policy. According to data from the Center of Responsive Politics, no member of Congress has received more direct and indirect support from the National Rifle Association than the $7.7 million that has gone to McCain over the course of his career." --safari...

... Emily Crockett of Vox: "At a Monday vigil in Salt Lake City for the victims of the Orlando shooting, Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox [R] gave a moving, tearful speech apologizing to the LGBTQ community for treating them poorly in his early life, and expressing gratitude to them for helping him realize the error of his ways." -- CW

... The New York Times story, by David Victor, is here. ...

... Frank Rich: "Republican politicians always speak warmly of the LGBT community after its members are the victims of a horrific crime. Nonetheless, it took [Speaker Paul] Ryan until Tuesday to acknowledge that gay people -- or 'the gays,' as Trump calls them -- were targeted in Orlando. It took Rick Scott, the Republican governor of Florida, until Wednesday. There's nothing to suggest that such politicians' belated expressions of sympathy with the gay victims of a terror attack will change their anti-LGBT acts of public policy." -- CW ...

... Holly Yan, et al., of CNN: "The Orlando shooter and his wife exchanged text messages during the Pulse nightclub rampage, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told CNN.... [Noor] Salman is coming under increasing scrutiny.... Salman apparently gave conflicting accounts about what she knew of Mateen's intentions in the hours before the attack, authorities said." -- CW ...

... Katie Zavadski, et al., of the Daily Beast: Omar Mateen was a poor student who had a violent temper & was often disciplined in school. CW: I find it creepy that news organizations have quickly gotten hold of a person's grade-school records. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to see a report in the newspaper of my 6th-grade shenanigans. ...

... David Brooks, who bills himself as a "public intellectual," has another, well, God-awful column about god & religion. But he gets this much right: "For the religious person it's about God. For the terrorist, it's about himself. When Omar Mateen was in the midst of his rampage, he was posting on Facebook and calling a TV station. His audience was us, not the Divine." -- CW

... Tony Dokoupil of NBC News: The family of Eugene Stoner, who invented the AR-15, said he never intended it for civilian use. "The ex-Marine and 'avid sportsman, hunter and skeet shooter' never used his invention for sport. He also never kept it around the house for personal defense. In fact, he never even owned one. And though he made millions from the design, his family said it was all from military sales.... [The family's] comments could also bolster a groundbreaking new lawsuit, which argues that the weapon is a tool of war -- never intended for civilians." -- CW ...

... digby: "I have been asked how I, as a civil libertarian, could support using the watch list and the no-fly list to keep people from buying guns. My answer is this: I don't think owning guns are a fundamental civil right so if an innocent person is denied a gun, I just don't care.... I believe the right to travel is fundamental, however, so there should be a reformation of the no-fly list and the terrorist watch list should have rights of due process as well. Innocent people should not be caught in a Kafkaesque black hole where they have no right to defend themselves." -- CW...

...Kate Briquelet of The Daily Beast: "Since the Pulse nightclub mass shooting early Sunday, at least 125 people have died in shootings and 269 were injured by guns, statistics show. Five of those incidents were mass shootings, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit tracking America's gun violence. The alleged motives behind the killings are startling." --safari

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "More than 50 State Department diplomats have signed an internal memo sharply critical of the Obama administration's policy in Syria, urging the United States to carry out military strikes against the government of President Bashar al-Assad to stop its persistent violations of a cease-fire in the country's five-year-old civil war. The memo ... says American policy has been 'overwhelmed' by the unrelenting violence in Syria. It calls for 'a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process.' Such a step would represent a radical shift in the administration's approach to the civil war in Syria, and there is little evidence that President Obama has plans to change course." -- CW

The War on IQs. David Freedman of The Atlantic: "As recently as the 1950s, possessing only middling intelligence was not likely to severely limit your life's trajectory. IQ wasn't a big factor in whom you married, where you lived, or what others thought of you.... The 2010s, in contrast, are a terrible time to not be brainy.... Even in this age of rampant concern over microaggressions and victimization, we maintain open season on the nonsmart. ... Rather than looking for ways to give the less intelligent a break, the successful and influential seem more determined than ever to freeze them out." --safari

American "Justice", Ctd. Abby Haglage of The Daily Beast: "Four years after chemistAnnie Dookhanwas arrested for falsifying evidence at Massachusetts' state drug lab, less than 1 percent of the 24,000 cases she may have tampered with have been reviewed. Dookhan's story -- of how she tainted drug evidence in criminal investigations on a massive scale -- has been well-documented by local media. But lost in the focus on the chemist herself are the more than 20,000 defendants who may have been wrongfully convicted thanks to her mishandled results." --safari

Bryce Covert of ThinkProgress: "Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) has had enough of the growing movement to drug test poor people who need government assistance. So on Tuesday, she's introducing a bill that she says will make things fairer. Her 'Top 1% Accountability Act' would require anyone claiming itemized tax deductions of over $150,000 in a given year to submit a clean drug test.... Her office has calculated that the people impacted will be those who make at least $500,000 a year. 'By drug testing those with itemized deductions over $150,000, this bill will level the playing field for drug testing people who are the recipients of social programs,' a memo on her bill notes." --safari

Presidential Race

Michael Crowley of Politico: "Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state under George W. Bush, says he will vote for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, in one of the most dramatic signs yet that Republican national security elites are rejecting their party's presumptive nominee. Armitage, a retired Navy officer who also served as an assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan, is thought by Clinton aides to be the highest-ranking former GOP national security official to openly support Clinton over Trump." -- CW

Two Reports on the Same Event:

1. Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: Bernie Sanders is still running for something. -- CW ...

2. NEW. Or Not. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "During his 23-minute speech live-streamed across the country, Sanders sounded very much like a candidate prepared to drop out of the Democratic presidential race." -- CW

Robert Kagan in a Washington Post op-ed: "Even as they call [Donald Trump] a 'textbook' racist and acknowledge his scant regard for the rule of law, Republican leaders assure voters that the U.S. system of checks and balances will contain their candidate's authoritarian impulses. Congress and the judicial system will keep Trump under control. History and recent events suggest that is a risky proposition.... Never before has a presidential candidate given more reason to fear that he will run roughshod over democratic institutions and abuse the vast powers of the presidency for personal ends.... Anyone looking to Congress to curb the excesses of a President Trump will have to count on the Democrats. Is that the Republican message: Don't worry about Trump, Democrats will protect you? To hope that the judicial system will check Trump may be equally fanciful.... Today, Americans can't simply rely on the system to save them from the possibility of a fascist president. And they certainly can't count on the Republicans who produced this threat in the first place." -- CW ...

... Frank Rich: "... , a year in, there's no point in hoping that feckless Republican elites can or will do anything to stop [Trump]." (Linked above.)

Donald Trump wants to make TV great again. -- Kevin Drum ...

... Coming Soon -- The Trump "News" Channel. Sarah Ellison of Vanity Fair: Donald "Trump is ... considering creating his own media business, built on the audience that has supported him thus far.... He has also discussed the possibility of launching a 'mini-media conglomerate' outside of his existing TV-production business, Trump Productions LLC.... Trump, [a] person close to the matter suggests, has become irked by his ability to create revenue for other media organizations without being able to take a cut himself.... Hope Hicks, Trump's spokeswoman, adamantly denied that such conversations have occurred." -- CW ...

... Jonathan Chait: "... if this is Trump's plan, it makes sense. Perhaps he grasps a truth the official Republican Party has refused to acknowledge: The conservative base is a subculture.... It rejects the moral values of the larger society and wallows within its own imaginary world, in which Barack Obama is a foreign-born agent of anti-American interests, global warming is a lie concocted by greedy scientists or perhaps the Chinese, and hordes of foreigners are rendering the United States unrecognizable." -- CW ...

... Paul Campos is LG&$: "That this is even a plausible hypothesis (and it is) is yet another example of how certain famous cinematic satires can now be enjoyed as prophetic documentaries":

Seth Stevenson of Slate: "Slate reached out to find people who'd worked on The Apprentice during Trump's tenure.... What do they recall about Trump's on-set behavior? It's a lot like his campaign behavior." --safari note: Some pretty revealing quotes included in the interviews. More confirmation that Trump is a disgusting human being.

Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "There are essentially two Republican parties right now: the Party of Donald J. Trump and the Party of House Speaker Paul Ryan -- who has, nonetheless, endorsed Trump for President. One of the ways in which members of the Ryan faction delude themselves is by believing that Ryan's policies would dominate if Trump were President and Ryan remained Speaker of the House." -- CW ...

... "Party before Country." Tim Egan: "They will remember, a century from now, who stood up to the tyrant Donald Trump and who found it expedient to throw out the most basic American values -- the 'Vichy Republicans,' as the historian Ken Burns called them in his Stanford commencement speech.... In this week of trial and tragedy, Trump showed us how he would govern -- by fear, by intimidation, by lies, by turning American against American, by exhibiting all the empathy of a sociopath." -- CW

Meghan Keneally of ABC News on a year of Donald Trump flip-flops. -- CW

Zoya Sheftalovich of Politico.eu: "He once called the Belgian capital city Brussels 'a hellhole,' but U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has changed his tune. 'Belgium is a beautiful city,' Trump said during a rally in Atlanta, Georgia Wednesday. It should be noted that Belgium is a country, not a city." --safari ...

... Ryan Cooper of the Week: "If elected, [Donald Trump] would almost certainly displace Andrew Johnson as the worst president in American history.... Even his image as an enormously successful businessman is an outright fraud.... Aside from xenophobia and racism, [scamming people] is pretty much all Trump knows." -- CW

Sorry I failed to embed this sooner -- CW:

Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "As thousands of Donald Trump supporters streamed out of an evening rally [in Greensboro, North Carolina,] this week, they walked past a handful of vendors from Ohio selling simple white T-shirts featuring Hillary Clinton, Monica Lewinsky and a vulgar joke. The back of the shirts read: 'TRUMP THAT B[ITCH]!... At most of Trump's rallies, there is a palpable hatred of Clinton in the air...." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

In Touch Weekly: "... some members of the Stanford swim team had long been suspicious of Brock Turner, the former Stanford swimmer convicted of sexual assault on an unconscious woman]. Brock's arrest wasn't surprising to anyone on the team. From the beginning, the women swimmers had found him to be very, very odd. Brock would make comments to the women such as 'I can see your t--s in that swimsuit,'" a Stanford swim team insider exclusively reveals, adding that one elite swimmer vowed to never be alone with Brock after witnessing him get drunk at a party. 'He was warned by upperclassmen on the team to scale back on the partying, but he just didn't listen.'" Via Gabriella Paiella of New York. -- CW

Way Beyond

Ma'an News Agency, via Juan Cole: "A controversial new anti-terrorism law passed the Israeli Knesset on Wednesday, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which will grant the Israeli state far-reaching powers in cases of suspected 'terrorism,' in a move a member of the Joint List called 'draconian and unacceptable.' According to Haaretz, the new Israeli law would apply only within Israel and includes a provision expanding the definition of terrorist organization membership to include 'passive members' who are not actively involved in any group, but can now be indicted by Israeli authorities." --safari

Robert Booth, et al., of the Guardian: "The grieving husband of Jo Cox, the Labour MP shot and stabbed to death, has called on people to fight 'the hatred that killed her' as detectives investigated whether her killing was politically motivated. The 41-year-old mother of two young children was the victim of a daylight attack outside her West Yorkshire constituency surgery by a man who, according to two witnesses, shouted 'Britain first' during the assault. The ... killing ... led to the suspension of campaigning for next week's EU referendum until Saturday. Cox had taken part in a high-profile event on Wednesday supporting the remain [in the E.U.] campaign on the river Thames. Police arrested a 52-year-old man, named locally as Thomas Mair, who was described as using an 'old-fashioned' gun and a knife in the attack...." -- CW ...

... The Guardian is updating developments in the story here. ...

... Griff Witte & Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "The man detained by police in connection with the killing of a rising star of British politics had longstanding ties to a U.S.-based neo-Nazi organization and, in the past, had ordered a how-to guide for assembling a homemade gun, according to a watchdog group that tracks extremist behavior.... The Daily Telegraph also reported that [the suspect Tommy] Mair had subscribed to a South African magazine published by the White Rhino Club, a pro-apartheid group." -- CW

Paul Krugman: The Brexit vote is a choice between bad & worse.

News Lede

New York Times: "After weeks of battling the Islamic State, Iraqi forces quickly entered central areas of Falluja on Friday, as thousands of civilians fled in a new wave of displacement that has overwhelmed the ability of aid agencies to care for them. Reporting little resistance from Islamic State fighters, counterterrorism forces raised the Iraqi flag over the main government building in central Falluja, about 40 miles west of Baghdad, and they moved on to besiege the city's main hospital."

The Commentariat -- June 16, 2016

Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "By a 85-13 vote on Tuesday, the Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act for the next fiscal year.... It welcomed women into Selective Service for the first time, starting in 2018, unless that policy is stripped when the bill goes to conference.... Republicans had stopped the female draft provision in the House.... Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a military veteran opposed to women serving in combat, proposed the draft[-women] amendment during mark-up, to make a point. Expecting the amendment to fail, he voted against it, ready to argue that Democrats and other supporters of women in combat were hypocrites. To Hunter's surprise, the draft provision nearly survived." CW: See also Patrick's comment in yesterday's thread re: why drafting women is important to gender equality in the military.

Karoun Demijian of the Washington Post: "Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) ended a blockade of the Senate floor after nearly 15 hours Thursday, announcing Republican leaders had agreed to hold votes on Democrat-backed measures to expand background checks and prevent suspected terrorists from acquiring guns." CW: What is striking about the story is the no-brainer measures Republican senators say they won't support. Confederate voters have left our government in the hands of dangerously irresponsible NRA stooges. ...

...Matt Laslo of The Daily Beast: "Republicans hate terrorists, but they seem to hate gun control measures even more...Even critics argue it's major progress that some in the GOP are even considering potentially banning people on the terrorist watch and no-fly lists from buying firearms." --safari...

... Meg Anderson & Domenico Montanaro of NPR: "In an abrupt shift in message, Donald Trump indicated Wednesday that he might be taking on a Republican tenet: the party's long-standing opposition to gun control. Trump said he would talk to the NRA about not allowing 'people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns.' In typical fashion for the presumptive Republican nominee, the announcement came via Twitter: 'I will be meeting with the NRA, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns.'" -- (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ashley Parker & David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump's stance ... does not necessarily jibe with the positions of the Republican Party and the National Rifle Association, whose endorsement Mr. Trump frequently boasts about on the campaign trail. His tweet could be read to support measures pushed by Democrats and opposed by Republicans in Congress, reflecting the unusual nuances of the issue, which touches on public safety and civil rights beyond the Second Amendment." -- CW ...

... ** BFD. Gail Collins: "On Wednesday, Donald Trump took time out from vilifying Muslims and put some of the blame on gun control [even though Florida has perhaps the most permissive gun laws in the nation]. If the patrons of Pulse ... had been carrying concealed weapons, he said, they could have taken control of the situation.... Trump did not specifically say that we need to uphold Americans' freedom to drink while armed. But there doesn't seem to be any other way to interpret his argument. Also, there actually was an off-duty police officer working in the club who tried to shoot the gunman but failed.... The myth of the cool and steady shooter is one of the most cherished beliefs of the National Rifle Association and its supporters. Trump himself has bragged that if he'd been in Paris on the night of the attacks there, he would have shot the terrorists.... This is an excellent example of delusional gun thinking." -- CW...

Americans for Responsible Solutions (published June 10th): "Navy combat veteran and retired NASA astronaut Capt. Mark Kelly, the Co-Founder of Americans for Responsible Solutions, today joined with veteran leaders from across the country to announce the Advisory Committee of a new national effort, the 'Veterans Coalition for Common Sense,' to urge our country's elected leaders to do more to prevent gun tragedies." Lots of big names signed on here. --safari

Mark Hensch of the Hill: "Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said Tuesday that anti-LGBT laws across the U.S. are 'motivated' by the same hate behind Orlando's recent massacre at a gay nightclub. 'I think it's important for folks to realize the type of hate and prejudice that motivated this individual is still fed by the discrimination we have in so many states,' Merkley said on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.' 'In Florida, you can be fired from your job if you're gay or lesbian. You can be kicked out of a restaurant or theater. You can be kicked out of rental housing.'" -- CW ...

... Kevin Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post have a roundup of some things known or alleged about the Orlando shooter & his wife. -- CW ...

... Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "A U.S. law enforcement official confirmed that [Orlando mass-murderer Omar] Mateen posted threatening comments directed at the United States on Facebook before the attack. The account was later taken down.... The FBI confirmed it had interviewed the wife of Omar Mateen, the 29-year-old gunman." -- CW ...

... Malia Zimmerman of Fox "News": "In the hours after he blasted his way into an Orlando gay nightclub, and with his victims lying dead or wounded around him, Omar Mateen took to Facebook to pledge his loyalty to ISIS and threaten more attacks on the civilized world..., [Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)] told FoxNews.com Wednesday." -- CW ...

... Scott Fais of News 13 Orlando: "About 45 minutes after the shooting began, the phone rang inside the News 13 newsroom. 'It was at 2:45 a.m. when I had just received the phone call of someone claiming to be the Orlando shooter,' [producer Matthew Gentili] said. '... 'I heard, "Do you know about the shooting?'" Gentili said he was aware of the shooting.... 'I'm the shooter. It's me. I am the shooter,' the person on the other end said.... 'He did it for ISIS, and he started speaking Arabic,' Gentili said." -- CW

New York Times: "In response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the government has disclosed new portions of transcripts from so-called combatant status review tribunal hearings in 2007. The documents focus on torture in the C.I.A.'s black-site prisons before the detainees were transferred to the military's wartime prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba." Transcript follows. A related story, by Charlie Savage, is here. -- CW ...

... First, Do No Harm. Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "Sensitive agency documents, declassified on Tuesday, provide a new level of detail on the intimate involvement of its medical staff during its post-9/11 torture program. Officials assigned to the Office of Medical Staff (OMS) provided precise specifications for enforcing sleep deprivation, limiting the caloric intake of detainees' food, and the proper positions for waterboarding, as outlined in a 2004 document providing 'guidelines on medical and psychological support' for torture." CW: Any licensed professionals on the "medical staff" who drew up or approved these guidelines should be stripped of their licenses, at the very least.

American "Justice" Ctd. Seth Wessler of The Nation: "This year marks two decades since the Bureau of Prisons' privatization experiment began, under the mandate of a Clinton White House and GOP-controlled Congress dedicated to 'reinventing government.' From the start, some BOP officials and lawmakers feared privatization might degrade quality. Congress ordered studies of the BOP's two pilot programs, comparing their operations to similar bureau-run facilities...Taken together, the studies that Congress had ordered showed a clear result: The experiments had failed.... The study concluded that privatization had not saved substantially on costs yet had eroded the quality of care [and] that any cost savings were eclipsed by the financial burdens of oversight.... By fiscal year 2015, the BOP's budget for private contractors was over $1.05 billion." --safari...

... Rupert Neate of the Guardian: "How long prisons will continue to be such money-spinners could depend on who wins the race for the White House. On the campaign trail Hillary Clinton has vowed to 'end private prisons and private detention centers. They are wrong.' Donald Trump, on the other hand, has called for increased outsourcing of prisons.... States spend about $8bn (£5.5bn) a year on healthcare to try and keep prisoners alive. In a bid to cut costs, more state prisons and county jails are adding healthcare to the growing list of services that are outsourced to for-profit companies." Includes stats and graphs. --safari...

... Carimah Townes of ThinkProgress: "In a growing movement largely going unnoticed by the national media, inmates all over the country are starting to stand up against the brutal conditions and abuses they have faced for decades...[T]he actions are part of a unified prisoner movement that's sweeping the country. And they're gearing up for a bigger protest that could force even Wall Street to take notice...'[W]e prisoners across the United States vow to finally end slavery in 2016,' reads a call to action posted in April. 'Our protest against prison slavery is a protest against the school to prison pipeline, a protest against police terror, a protest against post-release controls. When we abolish slavery, they'll lose much of their incentive to lock up our children, they'll stop building traps to pull back those who they've released.'" --safari

Presidential Race

Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: "... the first full-blown general-election Electoral College forecast" indicates that the presidential race "could be a blowout for Hillary Clinton." Current polling suggests the Electoral College outcome would be "Clinton 358, Trump 180." -- CW

Sam Biddle & Gabrielle Bluestone of Gawker: "A 200+ page document that appears to be a Democratic anti-Trump playbook compiled by the Democratic National Committee has leaked online following this week's report that the DNC was breached by Russian hackers. In it, Trump is pilloried as a 'bad businessman' and 'misogynist in chief.'... It appears that virtually all of the claims are derived from published sources, as opposed to independent investigations or mere rumor. It's also very light on anything that could be considered 'dirt.'..." The story reprints excerpts of the document. -- CW ...

... The full document is here. -- CW

Much of it is false and/or entirely inaccurate. We believe it was the DNC that did the 'hacking' as a way to distract from the many issues facing their deeply flawed candidate and failed party leader. Too bad the DNC doesn't hack Crooked Hillary's 33,000 missing emails. -- Conspiracy-Theorist-in-Chief Donald Trump, Wednesday ...

... Googling for Dollars. Jesse Singal of New York: "Professional Oppo Research on Trump Basically Just Requires Some Googling...." CW: If you can Google "Trump sucks," you too can be a "professional" oppo researcher! Copy-and-paste skills required. Apply at Democrats.org or call 202-WUT-EVER & ask for Debbie.

Sabrina Siddiqui & Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "The 'reckless' proposals floated by Donald Trump would have done nothing to prevent the carnage of the Orlando massacre, Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday. Speaking at a national security forum, Clinton ... declar[ed] Trump 'temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified' to assume the role of commander-in-chief. 'Not one of Donald Trump's reckless ideas would have saved a single life in Orlando,' Clinton said. 'A ban on Muslims would not have stopped this attack. Neither would a wall. I don't know how one builds a wall to keep the internet out,' she told an event in Hampton, Virginia." -- CW ...

Some days I expect [Trump] to come out and say, "I'm not an expert on national security, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night. Let me tell you what I think." -- Kevin Madden, a veteran GOP strategist and former adviser to Mitt Romney ...

... Yes, Trump Finds Breitbart a Good Source for Foreign Intelligence. Karen DeYoung & Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Just two days after Donald Trump implied that President Obama sympathized with terrorists, provoking a backlash that included members of his own party, the presumed Republican presidential nominee declared himself 'right,' based on a published report claiming administration 'support' for the Islamic State. In a post to his Twitter account early Wednesday, Trump said 'Media fell all over themselves criticizing what Donald Trump "may have insinuated"' about Obama. 'But he's right,' it said, linking to a story published by the conservative website Breitbart News. The story was based on a declassified 2012 cable.... But the document appears to be an initial intake of spot intelligence from the early days of the Syrian civil war. That intelligence had not yet been vetted or verified. Trump's embrace of Breitbart's interpretation of the cable fits a pattern of careless handling and circulation of facts, particularly in the realm of foreign policy." -- CW

Trump to GOP Critics: STFU. Eric Levitz of New York: Donald Trump "offered some advice to those Republicans who think the government should not discriminate against citizens on the basis of their religious beliefs. 'Don't talk. Please, be quiet,' Trump said. 'Just be quiet, to the leaders, because they have to get tougher, they have to get sharper, they have to get smarter, and we have to have our Republicans either stick together or let me just do it by myself.'" -- CW

Jamelle Blouie of Slate: "If there's anything consistent in Trump's politics, it's nativism and racial prejudice...Trump's popularity is low. It can get lower...By the time we reach the Republican National Convention, Trump might be a zombie candidate: lifeless but still shambling forward, consumed by his most animal impulses...Between now and November, there's a good chance we'll see something almost unprecedented in modern American politics: a world where the elected officials and elites of a political party are either indifferent to the fate of their party's nominee or outright antagonistic to him." --safari

Tim Mak of The Daily Beast: "The Trump Foundation, Donald Trump's nonprofit organization, is under fire for allegedly operating as more of a political slush fund than a charity. The foundation is accused of violating rules prohibiting it from engaging in politics prompting ethics watchdogs to call for public investigations. On numerous occasions this year, Trump's campaign work and his foundation work have overlapped putting himself at risk for penalties and his charity at risk of being shut down." --safari

Ken Vogel, et al., of Politico: "Donald Trump is relying heavily on the Republican Party to bolster his skeletal operation, but his campaign's relationship with the Republican National Committee is increasingly plagued by distrust, power struggles and strategic differences, according to sources in both camps." -- CW ...

... BUT. Jonathan Chait: "... for all of Trump's erratic and authoritarian impulses, and for all of the long-term brand damage he threatens, Republican insiders have made their peace with the prospect of handing him the nuclear codes" because he has quietly signaled he would give them what they want most -- irresponsible fiscal policy & confederate judges. -- CW

Ovetta Wiggins of the Washington Post: Maryland "Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said emphatically Wednesday that he does not plan to vote for Donald Trump...." -- CW

What? Equal Time? Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: Wednesday, Fox "News," CNN & MSNBC all cut away from a Trump rally to carry -- if briefly -- Hillary Clinton's speech on national security. -- CW

Senate Race

I enjoy my service here a lot. -- Marco Rubio, on his feeling about the Senate, Wednesday

That's peculiar, because for quite some time Rubio said he couldn't stand the Senate and that he'd "given up on it," which was why he didn't show up there often. -- Constant Weader

... Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who pledged for months not to seek re-election to the Senate as he waged an ill-fated campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, said Wednesday that he is rethinking that decision and could enter the race as soon as next week. Rubio said his decision followed a Sunday conversation with his friend Florida Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera (R), who is running to succeed him in the Senate, on the sidelines of the scene of the terror attack in Orlando." ...

... Marc Caputo of Politico: Sen. Marco Rubio's friend, Florida Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, who has been running for the Senate seat Rubio said he would vacate, told Rubio he should reconsider his decision not to run for re-election. "Bottom line, Lopez-Cantera said in the interview: 'Nothing has changed. I'm still running. Marco isn't.' The filing deadline for the race is June 24, when Rubio is scheduled to hold a fundraiser for Lopez-Cantera. If Rubio decides to run, Lopez-Cantera won't file. Right now, longtime friends of both men believe Rubio ultimately won’t run: The lure of a much bigger paycheck and proximity to his family will outweigh another term in the Senate." CW: They both sound like such fabulous patriots: "This is bigger than me. And this isn't about me. And it's not about you. It's about our country and this election." Lopez-Cantera told Rubio.