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The Commentariat -- June 15, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Democrats Have Had Enough. ('bout Time.) Burgess Everett & Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) launched a talking filibuster on the Senate floor -- which was quickly joined by fellow Democrats -- in an effort to pressure Republicans to accept legislation that would deny suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms and require universal background checks.... Murphy, a top gun-control advocate whose home state saw the massacre of 20 school children at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012, launched the filibuster, and was immediately backed up by colleagues Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) -- the same day presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with the National Rifle Association." --
... CW Note: The link is to an updated (or different but related) story. The lede: "As Sen. Chris Murphy and his Democratic allies held the Senate floor and filibustered into Wednesday evening to force a debate on gun control, negotiations on legislation to prevent suspected terrorists from buying firearms were breaking down behind closed doors."
But if they succeed, it will be Trump who will take the credit: 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.'"
The NRA, of course, says it's not their policy to sell weapons to terrorists, but that's a lie. In fact, it's their policy to sell assault weapons to anyone with the cash to pay for them. Their current position is that the FBI has to prove that someone purchasing any kind of weapon is a threat and they only have 72 hours to do it. Clearly that would not have prevented the Orlando massacre. One commenter to the NPR story asked how it is that Trump and the Republicans have to go to the NRA to ask permission for any kind of gun control no matter how tepid and ineffectual. Good point. However, if there is the smallest accommodation, due largely to the current Democratic filibuster, Trump will happily take credit since his poll numbers are dropping due to his attacks on the entire Muslim world as well his oral servicing of NRA poobahs. I'm sure he has to wait in line for that honor.*****
Kevin Liptak of CNN: "President Barack Obama on Tuesday unleashed a blistering verbal assault on Donald Trump...Obama, sounding infuriated at critiques of his foreign policy, pushed back against criticism for not using the term 'radical Islamic terrorism.'... 'What exactly would using this language accomplish? What exactly would it change?' Obama asked during remarks at the Treasury Department. 'Would it make ISIL less committed to try and kill Americans?'...'Would it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by this? The answer is none of the above,' he said. 'Calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... The New York Times report, by Patrick Healy & Thomas Kaplan, is here. ...
Shouting "Radical Islamists! Aieee!" is probably not a reasonable strategy, but it's all Trump has. Prepubescent caterwauling doesn't stand up very well in the face of rational, adult thought. ...... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: President Obama's remarks "turned into perhaps the most important address he has given this year. Indeed, historians may look back on it as one of the defining speeches of his Presidency." -- CW ...
... New York Times Editors: "In a speech on Tuesday to update the nation on the battle against the Islamic State, given against the backdrop of the Orlando, Fla., massacre, President Obama gave the most powerful rebuke yet to the increasingly unreasonable and dangerous ravings of ... Donald Trump.... On Thursday, the president plans to travel to Orlando to bring solace to grieving families and a stricken city. It is all but impossible to imagine the Republicans' leading presidential contender offering similar leadership, or having the ability to bring unity from tragedy. Which is a sign of how far the party has fallen, behind the banner of Donald Trump." -- CW (More under Presidential Race below.) ...
... Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill are standing apart from their presumptive presidential nominee yet again -- but this time in the aftermath of a major terror attack on the American homeland, an event that historically has brought parties together, not driven them apart.... [Trump's speech Monday] drew fresh condemnations from House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who called Tuesday for 'a security test, not a religious test' for immigrants. 'I do not think a Muslim ban is in our country's interest,' he told reporters. 'I do not think it is reflective of our principles, not just as a party but as a country.'" -- CW ...
... Erica Werner of the AP: "Dismayed Republicans scrambled for cover Tuesday from Donald Trump's inflammatory response to the Orlando massacre, while President Barack Obama and Democrat Hillary Clinton delivered fiery denunciations that underscored the potential peril for the GOP. Republican hopes are fading for a new, 'more presidential' Trump as the party's divisions around him grow ever more acute.... One senior Senate Republican, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, went so far as to suggest Trump might not end up as the party's nominee after all." -- CW
Jonathan Chait: "The post-Bush-doctrine Republican Party is no longer guided by an idealistic and impractical vision for defeating radical Islam. All it has left is a residue of fear and nationalism, ripe for manipulation by a demagogue. The logic of Trump's conquest of the Republican Party is most glaringly obvious when it is splayed against the backdrop of the terrorist threat. He has taken control of an empty vessel and steered it toward its only possible course." -- CW
Rep. Jim Hines (D-Conn.), in a Washington Post op-ed: "Instead of staying in the House chamber Tuesday night, I walked out of the moment of silence, joined by some of my colleagues. Other Democrats who remained in the chamber tried to get Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) to act on gun control legislation. To no avail. Congress exists to reflect the will of the people. The vast majority of Americans support measures such as universal background checks, keeping people on the no-fly list from purchasing weapons and limits on how ferocious a weapon a civilian can own. But Congress offers only silence." -- CW ...
... Esther Lee of Think Progress: "... it is much more difficult for immigrants to enter the U.S. than it is for a U.S. citizen -- like the killer -- to purchase the gun they need to commit atrocities." -- CW ...
... Anderson Cooper interrogates Florida AG Pamela Bondi (R) on her legal fights against LGBT people. CW: She acquits herself fairly well, especially given what may be her actual prejudices & the SOB she works for:
... Speaking of the SOB she works for, here's how Gov. Rick Scott addressed a reporter's question about gun control, posed after he gave a hearts-and-prayers/act-of-terrorism supposed press conference following the Orlando massacre:
Pete Williams, et al., of NBC News: "The Orlando gunman's wife has told federal agents she tried to talk her husband out of carrying out the attack.... Omar Mateen's wife, Noor Zahi Salman, told the FBI she was with him when he bought ammunition and a holster, several officials familiar with the case said. She told the FBI that she once drove him to the gay nightclub, Pulse, because he wanted to scope it out.... Authorities are considering filing criminal charges against Noor for failing to tell them what she knew before the brutal attack, law enforcement officials say, but no decision has been made." -- CW
Emily Crockett of Vox: "One of the best predictors of future violent behavior, researchers say, is past violent behavior. And a crucial warning sign -- one too often ignored -- is domestic violence against intimate partners and other family members.... The majority of what could be called 'mass shootings' are all too predictable -- and many victims are the women and children who find themselves entangled in the lives of violently abusive men." -- CW ...
... Lisa Wade, republished in the New Republic: "... in my mind, [Omar] Mateen's crime didn't displace [Brock] Turner's. Yet the media simply replaced one outrage with another, moving our attention away from Stanford and toward Orlando, as if these two crimes were unrelated. They're not.... Sexual violence [on college campuses] is perpetrated disproportionately by 'high-status' men -- fraternity men and certain male athletes in particular. These men are more likely than other men to endorse the sexual double standard.... They are also more likely to promote homophobia, hypermasculinity and male dominance; tolerate violent and sexist jokes; endorse misogynistic attitudes and behaviors; and endorse false beliefs about rape.... Omar Mateen's crime is related to this strand of masculinity.... Anti-gay hate crimes, like violence against women (Mateen also reportedly beat his ex-wife), are tied closely to rigid and hierarchical ideas about masculinity that depend on differentiating 'real' men from women as well as gay and bisexual men." -- CW
Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "House GOP leaders won't allow a vote this week on a proposal to ensure that federal contractors can't discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity." -- CW
Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "On Tuesday, the Senate approved an expansive military policy bill that would for the first time require young women to register for the draft. The shift, while fiercely opposed by some conservative lawmakers and interest groups, had surprisingly broad support among Republican leaders and women in both parties.... The debate will now pit the Senate against the House, where the policy change has support but was not included in that chamber's version of the bill."...
... CW: The young cavalier Righty-Right-Right Honorable Sir Ted Cruz, Knight Errant, rose to defend the delicate ladies -- and make sure they knew their place. This is odd, because Sir Ted wants to make sure everybody has a gun, including men accused or convicted of acts of violence against women, & terrorist suspects.
Annals of Journalism. J. K. Trotter of Gawker: Billionaire Peter Thiel's vendetta against Gawker (and possibly other media outlets since he's not revealing what lawsuits he's bankrolling) continues: "Last week, Thiel's lawyer-for-hire, Charles J. Harder, sent Gawker a letter on behalf of Ivari International's owner and namesake, Edward Ivari, in which Harder claims that ... [a] story [about Donald Trump's hair] was 'false and defamatory.'" -- CW
Presidential Race
Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Russian government hackers penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee and gained access to the entire database of opposition research on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, according to committee officials and security experts who responded to the breach. The intruders so thoroughly compromised the DNC's system that they also were able to read all email and chat traffic, said DNC officials and the security experts.... The networks of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were also targeted by Russian spies, as were the computers of some Republican political action committees, U.S. officials said. But details on those cases were not available.... Some of the hackers had access to the DNC network for about a year, but all were expelled over the past weekend in a major computer cleanup campaign, the committee officials and experts said." CW: Nice going, Debbie.
Rebecca Traister of New York: "There is no taming of the Republican who ostensibly staked out extreme positions to grab attention in the primary; there is no pivot to the center from the Democrat supposedly pulled to the left by her primary rival. Democrats and Republicans are making issues of identity and inclusion central to their campaigns, both symbolically and in terms of policy. The contest we're entering feels ever more like a civil war." -- CW
Yamiche Alcindor & Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "With little affection or trust between them, Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders met privately on Tuesday night to size each other up as they started exploring what kind of alliance they might build for the general election battle against Donald J. Trump.... Setting the stage for their meeting, Mr. Sanders used a news conference here Tuesday afternoon to call for replacing the leaders of the Democratic National Committee, eliminating the role of superdelegates in the party's nomination process, and allowing independents and last-minute registrants to vote in all Democratic primaries." CW: Okay, now Bernie is being a dick (okay, except for the replacing-Li'l-Debbie part). For the good of the country, he should get out in front & give Clinton a full-throated endorsement now. ...
... Alex Seitz-Wald of NBC News: "The carefully choreographed meeting ran for nearly two hours.... Afterwards, both candidates released nearly identical statements calling the meeting 'positive' and saying they had agreed to work together to defeat Donald Trump.... Sanders will address supporters Thursday on a teleconference.... No matter what, he has earned a place in shaping the future of the Democratic Party. This weekend, many of his top outside allies will convene in Chicago to plot the future of the Sanders movement, with or without the Vermont senator. Sanders' half-alive candidacy has left the rest of the party in a state of limbo." -- CW
** Carrie Dann of NBC News: "Hillary Clinton has won the final primary of the Democratic nomination race in the District of Columbia, NBC News projected Tuesday." -- CW ...
Ruby Cramer of BuzzFeed: "Hillary Clinton assailed Donald Trump for his 'shameful,' 'disrespectful' suggestion after the terrorist attack in Orlando, the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, that President Obama sympathized with terrorists.... 'Even in a time of divided politics,' Clinton said, 'this is way beyond anything that should be said by someone running for president of the United States.'" -- CW
Tim Devaney of the Hill: "A former Republican senator is endorsing Hillary Clinton for president after the mass shooting in Orlando, citing her support for gun control. Former Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) called for universal background checks on all gun sales and an assault weapons ban Monday in the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. 'I can't believe I'm endorsing Hillary Clinton for president, but I am,' said Pressler...." -- CW
Nazi-in-Chief. Eric Rauchway in the Washington Post: "Donald Trump greeted Twitter on Flag Day with two words in all caps: 'AMERICA FIRST!' He has made this slogan a theme for his campaign, and he has begun using it to contrast himself with President Obama, whose criticism of Trump's rhetoric on Tuesday was answered with a Trump statement promising, 'When I am president, it will always be America first.' He wasn't quite promising 'America über alles,' but it comes close. 'America First' was the motto of Nazi-friendly Americans in the 1930s, and Trump has more than just a catchphrase in common with them.... the general idea of 'America First' remains the same: The United States should arm itself against foreign threats and stay within carefully defined borders, using the might of the state only to defend a very specific, rather white idea of 'America' that excludes certain racial and religious minorities." -- CW
Ben Schreckinger of Politico : "Donald Trump responded to President Barack Obama's criticism of his rhetoric on Islam and terrorism on Tuesday night, accusing the president of directing his anger at him rather than at the perpetrator of Sunday's mass shooting in Florida.... On Monday, Trump repeatedly made vague insinuations about Obama's handling of terrorism, saying, 'He doesn't get it or he gets it better than anybody understands.'... Trump also took on ... Hillary Clinton, calling her 'no friend of LGBT Americans' and unpopular with women." -- CW
The bottom line is that the only reason the killer was in America in the first place was because we allowed his family to come here. -- Donald Trump, in his speech Monday
The bottom line is that the only reason we have Donald Trump in America in the first place was because we allowed his mother to come here. -- Constant Weader
Patrick Healy & Thomas Kaplan: "In his apocalyptic speech on Monday warning that terrorism could wipe out the United States -- 'There will be nothing, absolutely nothing, left,' ... -- Mr. Trump ... said. 'Can you imagine what they'll do in large groups, which we're allowing now to come here?'... Mr. Trump ... has intensified the power of fear in presidential politics by demonizing an entire religious group.... Judging from his speech on Monday, his statements throughout the campaign, and interviews with historians and psychologists, Mr. Trump has committed himself to denigrating, if not steamrolling, the conditioned responses that have long served to help unite the country in times of crisis...." CW: This is a straight news report.
Jelani Cobb of the New Yorker: "Some Americans are more American than others to [Donald Trump], based on their skin color and religion.... Trump's concept of graduated citizenship coexists comfortably with his insistence that collective responsibility be placed on the communities he considers suspicious.... Aas Trump, as a candidate, exemplifies, the greatest threat to American values may come from someone who was, in fact, born here." -- CW
Anora Mahmudova & Carla Mozee of Marketwatch.com: "U.S. stocks slumped Tuesday as jittery investors grappled with lower oil prices, stronger-than-expected retail sales and geopolitical concerns in Europe. Investors were given a dose of optimism in the form of better-than-expected retail sales but the start of a the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting and worries over the threat of the U.K. exiting the European Union dragged stocks lower."-- Akhilleus (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Ylan Q. Mui of the Washington Post reminds us whose undisciplined rhetoric is helping to sink US stocks. Why, it's Mr. Donald J. Trump, himself. "The potential for a British exit from the European Union -- known as 'Brexit' -- and the acrimonious U.S. presidential election are political flashpoints that could feed back into the real economy. Many analysts are predicting the United Kingdom would fall into recession if it leaves the E.U., throwing financial markets around the globe into turmoil along the way. In the United States, some economists say Trump's policies could spark a trade war with China and cost the country jobs."
...Akhilleus: And who is a big supporter of Brexit, an event that could have seriously damaging effects on US and world markets? Oh, you know who it is...This idiot just gets worse and worse.
The Man without a Dog Whistle. Paul Waldman: "What Trump doesn't seem to understand is that politicians clothe their ugliest appeals in subtle rhetoric so they can maintain deniability not just for themselves, but for those who would vote for them as well.... We want to see ourselves as reasonable, informed, and unbiased. Almost no one wants to think they're filled with hatred or prejudice. But Trump doesn't allow you to make a generous interpretation of your own motivations. If you're truly with him, you want to build those walls, keep people who don't look like you out of the country, and turn back the clock to a bygone time.... That could wind up being one of his biggest impediments to Trump winning a majority, even if his unsubtle appeal was why he won the Republican nomination." -- CW
CW: I don't think Ken Burns likes Donald Trump. Speaking at Stanford's commencement, June 12:
Beyond the Beltway (& Over the Bridge)
My e-mails? Oh, that's different. Andrea Bernstein and Max Katz of WNYC: "Gov. Chris Christie's cell phone, text messages and emails from three separate accounts are missing or have been destroyed, Bridgegate defendants allege in a pair of explosive briefs filed late Monday in federal court in New Jersey. They say Christie's taxpayer-funded lawyers are hiding information about his knowledge of the politically-motivated 2013 lane closures at the George Washington Bridge." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
...Akhilleus: Lost e-mails are only a scandal when they're connected to a Democrat, right Chris?
Paul Elias of the AP: "A Northern California judge at the center of a recall campaign after his handling of a Stanford University sexual assault case was removed from a new sexual assault case Tuesday by the local district attorney. Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen used a prosecutor's authority to disqualify a judge to block transfer of the new sexual assault case to Judge Aaron Persky." -- CW
News Ledes
AP: "Authorities were searching early Wednesday for a 2-year-old boy who was dragged into the water by an alligator near Disney's upscale Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. -- CW ...
... The Washington Post story is here. ...
... Orlando Sentinel Update: "Orange County[, Florida,] Sheriff Jerry Demings said the Nebraska boy missing after being snatched by an alligator at a hotel near Disney is likely dead. The 2-year-old child was attacked and dragged into the water by an alligator on the shores of Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa about 10:00 p.m. Tuesday night. Deputies are in the water and air, trying to recover his body." -- CW ...
... Washington Post Update: "The body of a 2-year-old boy snatched by an alligator at a Disney resort in Florida has been found, ending a desperate 18-hour search that began as a rescue operation and eventually became a grim recovery effort, officials said late Wednesday afternoon." -- CW
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