The Ledes

Thursday, September 19, 2024

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.”

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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

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."

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Wednesday
Jun082016

The Commentariat -- June 9, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama on Thursday formally endorsed Hillary Clinton and called her the most qualified candidate to seek the White House, imploring Democrats to come together to elect her after a bruising party primary." -- CW 

Everett Rosenfeld of CNBC reports that "President Barack Obama officially endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president on Thursday, saying he is 'fired up' for the presumptive Democratic candidate. In a prerecorded video released Thursday, Obama latched onto the Clinton campaign's slogan, letting his supporters know that 'I'm with her,' and pledging to campaign for the presumptive nominee. The president's endorsement comes eight years and two days after Clinton did the same for him." -- Akhilleus ...


The Bern cools down? Clare Foran in The Atlantic writes that  "Bernie Sanders isn’t ready to back down yet—but the end of his campaign is in sight. Speaking outside of the White House on Thursday after meeting with President Obama, Sanders confirmed he would compete in Washington, D.C.’s Democratic primary next week. But he signaled a willingness to work with Hillary Clinton to ensure that Democrats win the White House. 'I look forward to meeting with her in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and create a government, which represents all of us and not just the one percent,' Sanders said." -- Akhilleus...


Sanity at Last. Tal Kopan of CNN: "A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that there is no Second Amendment protection for concealed weapons -- allowing states to prohibit or restrict the public from carrying concealed firearms. The en banc opinion by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could set up a new showdown on gun rights at the Supreme Court. At issue was California's law on concealed weapons, which requires citizens to prove they have 'good cause' to carry concealed firearms to get a license. Plaintiffs challenged guidelines in San Diego and Yolo counties that did not consider general self-defense to be enough to obtain a license"

...Akhilleus: Finally a court of law decides that Second Amendment rights are not absolute and unconditional. The loons will be out in force after this ruling. Foxbots are oiling their vocal cords for days and nights of incessant caterwauling. Don't overlook the fact that this ruling was delivered en banc. Had Scalia still been around that probably wouldn't have mattered much, since everyone needs a gun on their hip, but the current court makeup could make it less likely that this ruling would be overturned. NRA sociopaths must be swinging from the chandeliers. The ones made out of Colt .45s.

*************

Presidential Race

Alexander Burns, et al., of the New York Times: "Democratic and Republican leaders on Wednesday renewed their fitful efforts to impose greater order on a freewheeling presidential race and to bring to heel a pair of political renegades, Senator Bernie Sanders and Donald J. Trump, whose upstart campaigns have roiled the political establishment.... Mr. Obama is expected to meet with Mr. Sanders in Washington on Thursday and increase the pressure on the irascible Vermonter to defer to Mrs. Clinton.... Republicans face a thornier challenge in grappling with Mr. Trump, whose inflammatory comments and slapdash campaign style have alarmed party leaders throughout the race." -- CW 

CW: Gail Collins writes a very good column on how Hillary & Bernie might get together, reminding readers what diehards Hillary & some of her supporters were in 2008, even though she & Obama had few policy differences (he ended up supporting her healthcare plan instead of his own), which she & Bernie have different philosophies of government. I know many Reality Chex readers who have supported Hillary all along are furious that Bernie hasn't bowed out (and I too think he should). Collins' column may help you understand why he seems to be fighting till the last dog dies, or, as Andy Borowitz put it yesterday, till after Hillary is elected president. ...

... Brian Beutler: "... the longer [the Democratic party] remains divided between Clinton and Sanders supporters, the more marginalized and alienated Sanders’s supporters will grow, and the more attenuated Sanders’ influence — and the left’s — within Democratic politics will become. It would thus behoove him, for the sake of his own movement’s viability, to suspend his campaign quickly, with a smile, and begin the work of drawing his supporters into the Democratic fold well before the party’s convention next month." -- CW 

President Obama appeared on the "Tonight Show" last night. The full interview has not come up on the "Tonight Show"'s site yet (8:00 am ET), but it should be up within a few hours. Here's a portion of the interview:

Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "In her first Post interview since launching her campaign 14 months ago, Clinton expressed cautious hope that rival Bernie Sanders, whose candidacy produced an unexpectedly hard-fought nominating contest, would soon rally behind her. And she left open the possibility that one of his chief demands — a change in the Democratic Party’s system of superdelegates — might be met.... She begins general-election campaigning in earnest next week, with visits to the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania." The full transcript of the interview is here. CW: It's quite a good interview & a fairly quick read. If, like me, you're not a Hillary fan, you might like her better after reading the interview. ...

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "She may not be the orator President Obama is, or the retail politician her husband was. But Mrs. Clinton’s steely fortitude in this campaign has plainly inspired older women, black voters and many others who see in her perseverance a kind of mirror to their own struggles. And Mrs. Clinton’s very durability — her tenacity, grit and capacity for enduring and overcoming adversity — could be exactly what is required to defeat Donald J. Trump." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Paul Waldman: "... it's only fitting that the last impediment to reaching the pinnacle of her ambition is Donald Trump, [Clinton's] opposite in so many ways. She's the target of so much sexism; he's a spectacular misogynist. She stayed with the world's most famous cheating husband; he discards one wife after another when they hit their 40s. She assiduously studies policy to be prepared for the job; he revels in his ignorance and inexperience. She's careful and calculated to a fault; he says whatever damn fool thing pops into his head. Five months from now, we'll know whether, at long last, Hillary Clinton has reached her ultimate destination. Few people ever worked as hard, for as long, and fought through as much, in order to get there." -- CW 

Michelle Conlin & Caren Bohan of Reuters: "U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has considered the idea of serving as Hillary Clinton's running mate but sees obstacles to that choice as she prepares to endorse ... [Clinton], several people familiar with Warren's thinking told Reuters. While her thinking could evolve, Warren has concerns about joining a Clinton ticket, including the question of whether running two women would give the Democrats the best shot at defeating Republican Donald Trump, one source said." -- CW

I know Secretary Clinton pretty well.... I think she will not pick somebody that she feels in her heart isn’t ready to be president or commander-in-chief and I think Elizabeth Warren is a wonderful, bright, passionate person, but with no experience in foreign affairs and not in any way, shape, or form ready to be commander-in-chief. -- Ed Rendell, Wednesday, reminding you he's still a hunka, hunka flaming asshole

Worth noting: in 2004, John Kerry considered Rendell, who has no "foreign affairs" experience, as a running mate. But then, Rendell is a man, so he's inherently talented & doesn't need experience. After Rendell said earlier this year that Trump would lose because "there are probably more ugly women in America than attractive women," Ian Millhiser asked, "Can we all agree that Ed Rendell should never open his mouth again ever please?" Yes, we all do agree. Except Rendell. -- Constant Weader

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who this spring has delivered some of the most effective and eviscerating criticism of Donald Trump, plans in a speech Thursday to uncork a new attack.... Warren will call Trump 'a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud' who used 'racism' to attack the federal judge overseeing a Trump University lawsuit, according to excerpts of her prepared remarks. The liberal senator also will seek to saddle Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) with Trump’s racially divisive rhetoric." -- CW 

Charles Pierce has thoughts on why Bernie must get on board the Hillary train sooner (or later). Read the post, which includes this somewhat unrelated graf:

As to primary night, well, I went to bed immediately after Brian Williams on MSNBC made the following statement: 'First, we'll go to Nicolle Wallace, and then we'll go to Steve Schmidt, and then to Ben Ginsberg, and finally to Chuck Todd.' In response to a historic speech by the first woman nominated by a major party for president, the liberal network on my electric teevee set gave me the two puppet-masters behind Sarah Palin's attempt to become vice president, one of the head ratfckers of the Florida heist in 2000 who also made a cameo appearance during the Swift Boat ratfck four years later, and a newsman who has made Both Siderism into a kind of fundamentalist creed.

Ha Ha. Maggie Severns & Josh Gerstein of Politico: Donald Trump "went on Sean Hannity to rant against the plaintiffs’ law firm [in the Trump U case ] for paying Hillary Clinton large sums of money for speeches.... But Trump’s lead lawyer ... Daniel Petrocelli has donated to Clinton over the years, and even contributed $2,700 to her campaign after Trump brought him on to the politically fraught case. The fact that Trump’s own lawyer ... has been an avid Clinton backer undermines his accusations of bias in the case, not only against the plaintiffs’ lawyers but also against U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel...." -- CW 

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: “'Politicians are so politically correct anymore, they can’t breathe,' Mr. Trump said in an interview Tuesday afternoon as fellow Republicans forcefully protested his ethnically charged criticism of a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit against the defunct Trump University. 'The people are tired of this political correctness when things are said that are totally fine,' he said during an interlude in a day of exceptional stress in the Trump campaign. 'It is out of control. It is gridlock with their mouths.'” CW: Yes, it's disgusting when people are so politically-correct that they won't routinely use racial slurs or vilify others on the basis of ethnicity or religion.

Jeff Shesol of the New Yorker on Donald Trump's election-night speech: "Authorship aside, the mere existence of a script, along with Trump’s success in speaking for more than fifteen minutes without uttering a single overtly racist statement, was enough for an NBC News reporter to describe the speech as  'Presidential.'... Both rhetorically and substantively, Trump flatlined [Tuesday] night. It is hard to see how this speech, or more speeches like it, will help Trump broaden his appeal.... Having turned down the volume and the heat — the elements that energize his core constituency — he revealed himself incapable, at least for the moment, of giving a credible political speech.... Trump ... has never looked less like he knows what he is doing, or where he is going, than he did [Tuesday] night." -- CW ...

... CW: If you think Shesol is wrong, consider this. Michael Bender & Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump distanced himself from his own fundraising estimate of $1 billion, refusing to commit to collecting even half that amount, and saying his campaign didn't need much money to win the White House. Trump, who has held just two major fundraising events since agreeing three weeks ago to help the party raise cash, said he would rely instead more on his own star power as a former reality-TV personality to earn free media, and has no specific goals for how much money his campaign needs." ...

     ... CW, Ctd. The main way Trump can keep getting that free media attention is by doing what he's been doing: saying outrageous things. So he either does endless, boring fundraisers with endlessly boring wealthy Republicans or he blurts out bullshit. I wonder which he'll choose. AND of course there's a reason Drumpf is claiming he doesn't need the money:

... Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "In interviews, over a dozen major Republican Party donors and fundraisers who’ve signed on to help Trump raise money said they expected Trump to net only a fraction of his original $1 billion goal, perhaps netting less than a third of that." -- CW 

The Wayback Machine Takes Us to 2009, Part 1. Jesse Singal of New York: "A truly vintage example [of Donald Trump's lying] popped up in Tuesday’s BuzzFeed article detailing Trump’s attempts to raise money from, and forge potential business relationships with, Muammar ­Qaddafi.... In [2009, in] exchange for some cash — and, evidence strongly suggests, in an attempt to bring himself closer to Qaddafi, who had access to funds and business connections Trump openly coveted — Trump allowed his estate to be partially taken over by a throng of 20 members of Qaddafi’s entourage[, and they erected a tent on the premises].... Unfortunately for this rental agreement..., 'the town of Bedford issued a stop-work order, based on a local ordinance against building temporary structures without a permit.... Later, Trump took credit for shutting the site down, saying he had asked the Libyans to leave.'” CW: Everything he says is fake. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Wayback Machine Takes Us to 2009, Part 2. Ben Adler & Rebecca Leber of Grist: "As negotiators headed to Copenhagen in December 2009 to forge a global climate pact, concerned U.S. business leaders and liberal luminaries took out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for aggressive climate action.... One of the signatories of that letter: Donald Trump. Also signed by Trump’s three adult children, the letter called for passage of U.S. climate legislation, investment in the clean energy economy, and leadership to inspire the rest of the world to join the fight against climate change." -- CW 

State of Denial, Part 1. Donald Who? Josh Marshall of TPM: "There does not seem to be any mention of Donald Trump on the official Republican Party website, gop.com. Hillary is there. Bernie is there. George H.W.Bush is there. Reagan is there. Reagan/Bush. Lincoln is there. No Trump anywhere." CW: As the TPM reader who discovered the teensy omission writes, "The fact that the Republican leadership, or rather 'leadership,' is supporting Trump has gotten a lot of attention; the funny part is that they think they can also pretend it isn’t happening." ...

... State of Denial, Part 2. Alex Griswold of Mediaite: "Conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt argued Wednesday morning that the Republican Party should make an unprecedented effort to change the Republican National Convention rules to allow them to dump Donald Trump as their nominee." ...

... State of Denial, Part 3. Winger Leon Wolf of Red State: "Rumors are starting to float around that Scott Walker is open to accepting the nomination at the convention, if the wheels continue to come off the Trump train and the rules are changed to unbind the delegate." ...

... A Dose of Realism. Steve M.: "... meanwhile, Ted Cruz has the second-highest number of delegates, as well as an overgrown debate nerd's fondness for parliamentary infighting. Oh, and I suppose the threat of convention unrest from Roger Stone and others if Trump is denied the nomination is still on the table. So Trump's not going to dethroned. The GOP can't possibly get its act together." -- CW 

Senate Races

Mark Kirk is the only GOP senator who has retracted his endorsement of Trump, but his opponent, Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D) won't let Kirk get away with his newfound "principled stand" (via Paul Waldman):

Since Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is running for re-election & has a viable Democratic opponent, I guess we should spend a little more effort to remind ourselves what a dick Chuck is ...

Jason Noble of the Des Moines Register: "U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley on Wednesday likened ... Donald Trump’s controversial remarks on a federal judge to a statement frequently made by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor before she was appointed to the high court. Trump’s insistence that the judge in a case concerning Trump University could not be unbiased because of his Mexican heritage is no more troubling than Sotomayor’s statement that a 'wise Latina' could render a better legal conclusion than a white male..., Grassley said during a conference call with Iowa reporters. Grassley is ... chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees court appointments." CW: As Grassley knows, Sotomayor conceded during her 2009 Senate confirmation process that she had made "a poor choice of words" in trying to make her point that the life experience of a judge matters. ...

... Sarah Jerde of TPM: "... Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Wednesday told NBC News that he didn't mean to 'equate' Donald Trump's attacks on a federal judge's 'Mexican heritage' with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's comment about a 'wise Latina.' 'You just can't equate the two. And I wasn't meaning to equate the two,' Grassley said. 'And I think I've said several times that I wouldn't say what, uh, Trump said. I disagree with what he said.'" CW: So, Chuck, I guess you just made "a poor choice of words" when you said Trump's attacks on Judge Curiel "is no more troubling" than Sotomayor's "wise Latina" remarks. ...

... Des Moines Register Editors: "Sen. Charles Grassley says Donald Trump's assertion that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel is incapable of being impartial due to his ethnic heritage is of little concern, even though a President Trump would nominate judges to the federal bench.... Just a few weeks ago, Grassley expressed confidence that Trump would nominate the 'right type of people' to the U.S. Supreme Court. And this week, Grassley didn’t seem at all perturbed by Trump’s remarks about Judge Curiel.... When it comes to Donald Trump, there are invertebrates that have shown more spine than Sen. Charles Grassley." (You'll have to scroll down to find this editorial, which appears beneath the one I've linked below.)

Des Moines Register Editors: "... it is surprising to see the office of Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dismiss ... the alarming number of judicial ... vacancies as a 'manufactured crisis' undeserving of public attention.... Since the Republicans took control of the Senate in 2015, confirmations have slowed to a crawl, with only 18 judges confirmed. At the same time, the president’s ability to fill vacancies on the federal courts of appeal have hit a brick wall, with GOP leaders openly acknowledging their intent to block any Obama nominees to the appeals courts."

Other News & Views

Adam Goldman & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration believes that about 12 detainees released from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have launched attacks against U.S. or allied forces in Afghanistan, killing about a half-dozen Americans...." -- CW 

David Herszenhorn & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Thursday will roll out a national security agenda as part of his effort to shape the Republican Party platform.... The document is long on themes and short on specifics, serving as a potential template to counter some of the more contentious proposals made by Mr. Trump and as a rebuke to the Obama administration.... House Republicans, in a document to be unveiled Thursday morning at the Council on Foreign Relations, charge that the United States is far less safe than when President Obama took office in 2008, and that the nation’s stature has diminished.... At the same time, the to-do list put forward by the Republicans in many ways tracks policies and strategies that the Obama administration has had in place for most of the last eight years...." CW: So, whiny, finger-pointing plagiarism. Very impressive. ...

... Steve Benen does a number on Paul Ryan's "Better Way"/"More Poverty, Please" plan, which Ryan rolled out Tuesday. CW: Benen thinks Ryan was lucky that the rollout came at the height of Donald Trump's racist meltdown, but I have a feeling Ryan wanted to keep it a secret: obviously, the headlines in Wednesday's papers would be about the results of the Democratic primary races, long-envisioned to be the day Clinton would secure the number of pledged delegates to win the nomination. Ryan's "More Poverty, Please" nonsense would never be the top story.

Matthew Pennington of the AP: "Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Congress Wednesday that his nation and the U.S. have overcome 'the hesitations of history' and called for ever-stronger economic and defense ties between the two countries.... Modi's address followed years of being shunned in the U.S. because of religious violence in his home state. Underscoring the turnabout, it came a day after a White House meeting with President Barack Obama and preceded a lunch Modi will have in the Capitol with congressional leaders and a reception hosted by the House and Senate foreign affairs committees." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wherein the excellent representatives of Utah, Sen. Orrin Hatch & Rep. Jason Chaffetz shrug at armed insurrection. Charles Pierce: "We had the Bundys, and we had the Bird Sanctuary Dudes, and now, as The Washington Post reports, in Utah, we have people who are openly threatening the civil authorities with open revolt. It's over a place called Bears Ears, out of which the president wants to create a national monument under the Antiquities Act, which he has a perfect legal right to do.... But the real news is that the congressional delegation from Utah seems to be blithely unconcerned with the possibility of armed insurrection over the issue. Because, as you know, tyranny! [CW Translation: "Because ... Obama!"]

Charles Pierce: "Tom Cotton weaponized a dying woman's final days in order to 'inflict special pain' on the president. Tom Cotton is a petty, sadistic swine who has the basic conscience of a cholera outbreak. He should be shamed from office, and he should be shunned by decent people. God, I hope there's a hell, and that it's as advertised by Dante." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Justice Thomas Is Blind. Linda Greenhouse: Justice Clarence Thomas's dissent in Foster v. Chatman, in which the Court ruled 7-1 to overturn a murder conviction of a black man by an all-white Georgia jury "was one of the most bizarre performances I have witnessed in decades spent observing the Supreme Court." Here's one mind-boggling argument: "“New evidence should not justify the relitigation of Batson claims.” (That is, claims that lawyers made peremptory challenges in jury selection on the basis of race.) CW: Right. Because who cares about evidence?

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: Mohamad Khweis, an American who "joined and then quickly fled the Islamic State terrorist organization, after which Kurdish peshmerga forces captured him..., will be charged in federal district court in Alexandria with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, according to U.S. officials familiar with the case.... While U.S. prosecutors have charged at least 85 people across the country with Islamic State-related crimes, Khweis — the first American to have been captured on the battlefield — presents an atypical case." Khweis was in the news a while ago for telling Kurdish TV that life as an ISIS fighter was "very, very hard." -- CW 

Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "A former CIA officer who was accused of taking part in an illegal counter-terrorism programme said she is facing imminent extradition to Italy from Portugal after a high court in Lisbon rejected a last-minute legal appeal. Sabrina de Sousa, a 60-year-old former CIA officer who was convicted in absentia in Italy in 2009, faces a four-year prison term for her alleged role in the kidnapping of a radical Egyptian cleric named Abu Omar, who was grabbed off the street in Milan by CIA officials in 2003 and sent to Egypt, where he was imprisoned, interrogated and allegedly tortured." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Keith Alexander of the Washington Post: Roy L. Pearson Jr, "an administrative judge who in 2005 filed a $54 million lawsuit against a [Washington, D.C.,] dry-cleaning business over a pair of missing pants, becoming a national symbol for frivolous litigation, could face disciplinary action by the D.C. Court of Appeals for alleged misconduct in the case.... On June 3, a three-person hearing committee for the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility found Pearson committed two ethics violations of interfering with the administration of justice and presenting arguments not supported by facts or law.... A final decision could take months." -- CW 

Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post: "Washington National Cathedral, one of the country’s most visible houses of worship, announced Wednesday that it would remove Confederate battle flags that are part of two large stained-glass windows honoring Confederate generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. Cathedral leaders said they would leave up the rest of the windows — for now — and use them as a centerpiece for a national conversation about racism in the white church. The announcement comes a year after the cathedral’s then-dean, the Rev. Gary Hall, said the 8-by-4-foot windows have no place in the soaring church as the country faces intense racial tensions and violence, even though they were intended as a healing gesture when they were installed." -- CW 

Beyond the Beltway

William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "The powerful leader of the union that represents New York City correction officers, whose alliances with mayors and governors have afforded him broad influence, was arrested on federal fraud charges on Wednesday, according to court papers. The charges against the union leader, Norman Seabrook, and a second defendant, Murray Huberfeld, a hedge-fund financier, stem from the first major criminal case linked to one of several corruption investigations focused on the campaign fund-raising of Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sam Levin & Julia Wong of the Guardian: Brock Turner, the former Stanford U. swimmer convicted of sexual assault & given a lenient sentence, in a statement to the judge, "placed blame on ‘alcohol’ and ‘party culture.’... The Guardian has published a portion of Turner’s statement that illustrates, as the victim described in her original statement, the ways in which Turner 'failed to exhibit sincere remorse or responsibility for his conduct'.” -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

William Booth of the Washington Post: "A top Israeli minister said he wants the government to take complete control of more than half of the West Bank and remove the Palestinian residents of the territory. While traveling with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a state visit to Russia on Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel told the Times of Israel that the world should forget about a Palestinian state." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Simon Denyer of the Washington Post: "A U.S. spy plane has been buzzed by Chinese jets as it flew over the East China Sea, with one of the fighter planes approaching in an 'unsafe' manner, the U.S. military said, after the second similar incident in three weeks. China responded by accusing the United States of 'hyping' the incident but said the real problem was U.S. surveillance planes flying too close to its territory." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Comments Off
Tuesday
Jun072016

The Commentariat -- June 8, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "She may not be the orator President Obama is, or the retail politician her husband was. But Mrs. Clinton's steely fortitude in this campaign has plainly inspired older women, black voters and many others who see in her perseverance a kind of mirror to their own struggles. And Mrs. Clinton's very durability -- her tenacity, grit and capacity for enduring and overcoming adversity -- could be exactly what is required to defeat Donald J. Trump." -- CW

Jesse Singal of New York: "A truly vintage example [of Donald Trump's lying] popped up in Tuesday’s BuzzFeed article detailing Trump's attempts to raise money from, and forge potential business relationships with, Muammar ­Qaddafi.... In [2009, in] exchange for some cash -- and, evidence strongly suggests, in an attempt to bring himself closer to Qaddafi, who had access to funds and business connections Trump openly coveted -- Trump allowed his estate to be partially taken over by a throng of 20 members of Qaddafi's entourage[, and they erected a tent on the premises].... Unfortunately for this rental agreement..., 'the town of Bedford issued a stop-work order, based on a local ordinance against building temporary structures without a permit.... Later, Trump took credit for shutting the site down, saying he had asked the Libyans to leave.'" CW: Everything he says is fake.

Matthew Pennington of the AP: "Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Congress Wednesday that his nation and the U.S. have overcome 'the hesitations of history' and called for ever-stronger economic and defense ties between the two countries.... Modi's address followed years of being shunned in the U.S. because of religious violence in his home state. Underscoring the turnabout, it came a day after a White House meeting with President Barack Obama and preceded a lunch Modi will have in the Capitol with congressional leaders and a reception hosted by the House and Senate foreign affairs committees." -- CW

Charles Pierce: "Tom Cotton weaponized a dying woman's final days in order to 'inflict special pain' on the president. Tom Cotton is a petty, sadistic swine who has the basic conscience of a cholera outbreak. He should be shamed from office, and he should be shunned by decent people. God, I hope there's a hell, and that it's as advertised by Dante." -- CW

Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "A former CIA officer who was accused of taking part in an illegal counter-terrorism programme said she is facing imminent extradition to Italy from Portugal after a high court in Lisbon rejected a last-minute legal appeal. Sabrina de Sousa, a 60-year-old former CIA officer who was convicted in absentia in Italy in 2009, faces a four-year prison term for her alleged role in the kidnapping of a radical Egyptian cleric named Abu Omar, who was grabbed off the street in Milan by CIA officials in 2003 and sent to Egypt, where he was imprisoned, interrogated and allegedly tortured." -- CW

William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "The powerful leader of the union that represents New York City correction officers, whose alliances with mayors and governors have afforded him broad influence, was arrested on federal fraud charges on Wednesday, according to court papers. The charges against the union leader, Norman Seabrook, and a second defendant, Murray Huberfeld, a hedge-fund financier, stem from the first major criminal case linked to one of several corruption investigations focused on the campaign fund-raising of Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat." -- CW

Sam Levin & Julia Wong of the Guardian: Brock Turner, the former Stanford U. swimmer convicted of sexual assault & given a lenient sentence, in a statement to the judge, "placed blame on 'alcohol' and 'party culture.'... The Guardian has published a portion of Turner's statement that illustrates, as the victim described in her original statement, the ways in which Turner 'failed to exhibit sincere remorse or responsibility for his conduct'." -- CW

William Booth of the Washington Post: "A top Israeli minister said he wants the government to take complete control of more than half of the West Bank and remove the Palestinian residents of the territory. While traveling with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a state visit to Russia on Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel told the Times of Israel that the world should forget about a Palestinian state." -- CW

Simon Denyer of the Washington Post: "A U.S. spy plane has been buzzed by Chinese jets as it flew over the East China Sea, with one of the fighter planes approaching in an 'unsafe' manner, the U.S. military said, after the second similar incident in three weeks. China responded by accusing the United States of 'hyping' the incident but said the real problem was U.S. surveillance planes flying too close to its territory." -- CW

*****

Presidential Race

My mother believed that life is about serving others. And she taught me never to back down from a bully, which it turns out was pretty good advice. -- Hillary Clinton, in her victory speech last night

(BTW, this is true. Years ago, I heard her tell the story that when some neighborhood bully picked on her, her mother told her to go back out & punch him. -- Constant Weader )

Shane Goldmacher of Politico: "Hillary Clinton triumphantly claimed the Democratic nomination for president on Tuesday, calling for party unity to stop Donald Trump as she became the first woman in U.S. history to lead a major-party ticket. Thanks to you, we've reached a milestone, the first time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee,' she announced to thunderous applause at her Brooklyn headquarters." -- CW

... Clinton begins speaking at about 10 min. in:

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Clinton ... is the perfect candidate to stand up to Trump's politics of resurgent sexism. She has spent many years honing her response to precisely the kinds of attacks that Trump will use against her.... Trump practices dominance politics, which involves intimidating rivals. But Clinton happens to be the type of person that Trump himself is intimidated by: a strong woman.... If Clinton wins in the fall, she'll be a feminist heroine twice over: not just the first female president, but also the president who squashed the most repellent sexist in American public life." -- CW

... Patrick Healy & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "... Mr. Sanders refused to yield, insisting that he would continue his campaign and barely acknowledging her achievement." -- CW ...

... Michael Barbaro & Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "... despite the crushing California results that rolled in for him on Tuesday night, despite the insurmountable delegate math and the growing pleas that he end his quest for the White House, Senator Bernie Sanders took to the stage in Santa Monica and basked, bragged and vowed to fight on. In a speech of striking stubbornness, he ignored the history-making achievement of his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, who became the first woman in American history to clinch the presidential nomination of major political party." CW: Yo, Bernie, time to move on. You still have a pretty, pretty good job. ...

... Greg Sargent: "In interviews with me..., two of Sanders's most important supporters in Congress -- Senator Jeff Merkley and Rep. Raul Grijalva, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus -- said Sanders would have to accept the inevitably of Clinton's nomination, and begin the process of getting behind her." -- CW ...

... Philip Rucker & Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "A handful of people are expected to play key roles in brokering peace between the two warring campaigns, including President Obama, Vice President Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).... Warren ... is seen by other leaders of the party as uniquely credible and positioned to play one of the most influential roles in bridging the Clinton and Sanders divide." -- CW

... Andrew Prokop of Vox: Sanders' "speech didn't contain any criticism of Clinton, and emphasized the importance of defeating Donald Trump.... However, he also hammered home the importance of all the issues he's been campaigning on for the past year -- and, really, for decades.... But ... plans can change. Back in 2008, after all, Hillary Clinton did take a few days after the conclusion of primary voting to finalize her decision to end her campaign. And Sanders has a meeting with Obama set up for this Thursday, in which the future of his own effort will surely be discussed." -- CW ...

... Edward-Isaac Dovere & Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "There's no strategist pulling the strings, and no collection of burn-it-all-down aides egging him on. At the heart of the rage against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, the campaign aides closest to him say, is Bernie Sanders." -- CW ...

... Andy Borowitz: "Upping the ante in his quest for the White House, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders vowed on Tuesday night to continue battling for the Democratic Presidential nomination even if Hillary Clinton is elected President of the United States." -- CW

Eli Stokols of Politico: "Mired in a weeklong controversy over his racially charged comments about the Mexican heritage of the American-born judge handling a Trump University lawsuit, [Donald] Trump shifted into general election mode by unleashing new attack lines on Hillary Clinton and promising more to come.... Trump stood behind a podium and spoke from a teleprompter, eschewing his familiar off-the-cuff vernacular and delivering a more refined, scripted sales pitch that portrayed his signature bombast in a more flattering light.... Just as Clinton is securing the Democratic nomination amidst controversy over her heavy reliance on superdelegates, Trump made an overt play for the supporters of her rival, Bernie Sanders, noting that they share an opposition to free trade." -- CW ...

... Isaac Chotiner of Slate: "Donald Trump's attempt on Tuesday night to give a relatively normal political speech was, on its own terms, a success. Trump read from a teleprompter, kept the personal attacks to a minimum, and discussed actual issues by using about as many policy details as he can muster (not many.) The speech was a reminder that if Trump were even just a tad more normal or contained, he would have a real chance against Hillary Clinton in November. But he isn't, and he probably doesn't.... Trump has tried this before.... And yet, within days, each and every time he has gone back to being the man he further revealed himself as this week: a bigot and racist with no self-control, a nasty streak, and a contempt for the press." -- CW ...

... Ryu Spaeth of the New Republic: Donald Trump said last night that he was going to give a "major speech, 'probably Monday,' and will go over 'all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons.'... Trump, as usual, is ditching the subtlety and billing his speech as simply a 'major' attack on the Clintons. Get ready to revisit that time Hillary murdered Vince Foster!" -- CW

Primary Results

The New York Times has today's full results here.

Democrats

California. With less than one percent of the vote counted, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders by 61.6 percent to 37.5 percent. With 88 percent counted & with Clinton ahead 56 percent to 43, the AP has not called the race. With 93 percent counted, the AP declared Clinton the winner; she has 56 percent of the vote to Sanders' 43 percent.

Montana. With less than one percent of the vote counted, Hillary Clinton is leading Bernie Sanders by 49.3 to 45.3 percent. With 91 percent reporting, the AP has called the race for Sanders; Sanders has 50.5 percent of the vote, Clinton 45.

New Jersey. With less than one percent of the vote counted, Hillary Clinton is leading Bernie Sanders 55.3 to 44.7 percent. With 3 percent of the vote counted, Clinton is leader 60-40 percent. With 13 percent counted, the AP has called the race for Clinton; she has 58.7 percent of the vote to Sanders' 41.3 percent.

New Mexico. With 20 percent of the vote counted, Hillary Clinton is leading Bernie Sanders 52.3 to 47.7 percent. With 70 percent of the vote counted, the AP has projected Clinton as the winner; Clinton has 53.3 percent to Sanders' 46.7 percent of the vote.

North Dakota. With 4 percent of the vote counted, Hillary Clinton is leading Bernie Sanders 68.8 to 25 percent. With 43 percent of the vote counted, Sanders is leading Clinton 62.6 to 26.9. With 60 percent of the vote counted, the AP has called the race for Sanders; he leaders Clinton 64.3 to 26.4 percent.

South Dakota. With 20 percent of the vote counted, Hillary Clinton is leading Bernie Sanders 54.6 to 45.4 percent.

Republicans

California. With less than one percent of the vote counted, Donald Trump leads with 79.5 percent of the vote, followed by John Kasich with 9.1 percent & Ted Cruz with 7.4 percent. With one percent of the vote counted, the AP has declared Trump the winner.

Montana. With less than one percent of the vote counted, Donald Trump is leading with 71 percent of the vote, followed by Ted Cruz with 9.8 percent & John Kasich with 8.1 percent. The AP has called the race for Trump.

New Jersey. With less than one percent of the voted counted, Donald Trump has 77.5 percent of the vote, followed by John Kasich with about 13 percent & Ted Cruz with about 9 percent. The AP has declared Trump the winner; with 4 percent of the vote counted, Trump has 83.4 percent.

New Mexico. With 19 percent of the vote counted, Donald Trump is leading with 71.7 percent, followed by Ted Cruz with 10.9 percent & John Kasich with 9.8 percent. The AP has called the state for Trump.

South Dakota. With 21 percent of the vote counted, the AP has declared Donald Trump the winner; he has 67 percent of the vote, followed by John Kasich with 16.9 percent & Ted Cruz with 16.3 percent.

Gail Collins: "... if [Hillary Clinton] could go into the past to tell someone that she'd been nominated for President of the United States, it would be her mother." -- CW

Shane Goldmacher: "Hillary Clinton ... has launched a new website aimed at courting disaffected GOP voters. The website, republicansagainsttrump.org, was registered on May 27 and launched on June 2, according to domain registration records. The Clinton campaign only appears to have begun buying ads to promote the site more recently." -- CW

Yamiche Alcindor & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders plans to lay off at least half of his campaign staff Wednesday as his battered presidential bid continues despite Hillary Clinton's being declared the presumptive Democratic nominee, two people close to the campaign said Tuesday." -- CW

Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times: "California voters faced a tough time at the polls Tuesday, with many voters saying they have encountered broken machines, polling sites that opened late and incomplete voter rolls, particularly in Los Angeles County. The result? Instead of a quick in-and-out vote, many California voters were handed the dreaded pink provisional ballot -- which takes longer to fill out, longer for election officials to verify and which tends to leave voters wondering whether their votes will be counted." -- CW

Glenn Greenwald of the Intercept: "... the Associated Press ... surprised everyone by abruptly declaring the Democratic Party primary over and Hillary Clinton the victor.... AP claims that superdelegates ... privately told AP reporters that they intend to vote for Clinton, bringing her over the threshold. AP is concealing the identity of the decisive superdelegates.... This is the perfect symbolic ending to the Democratic Party primary: The nomination is consecrated by a media organization, on a day when nobody voted, based on secret discussions with anonymous establishment insiders and donors whose identities the media organization -- incredibly -- conceals. The decisive edifice of superdelegates is itself anti-democratic and inherently corrupt.... For a party run by insiders and funded by corporate interests, it's only fitting that its nomination process ends with such an ignominious, awkward, and undemocratic sputter." -- CW

I do not feel that one's heritage makes them incapable of being impartial, but, based on the rulings that I have received in the Trump University civil case, I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial. -- Donald Trump, in a statement Tuesday

It's Our Fault for "Misconstruing" Trump's Totally Non-Racist Remarks. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump, who said last week that a Mexican-American judge was biased against him because of his heritage, said on Tuesday that his remarks had been 'misconstrued' and that he did not think that the judge's ethnicity created a conflict of interest.... 'It is unfortunate that my comments have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage,' Mr. Trump said. 'I am friends with and employ thousands of people of Mexican and Hispanic descent.'... Mr. Trump, who did not apologize for the remarks, continued to express doubts about Judge Curiel, noting that he was appointed to the federal bench by President Obama." -- CW ...

... Jose DelReal & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Trump said he will no longer comment on the case." CW: We'll see how long that lasts. ...

... Trump's statement is here. ...

... Trump: "I'm sorry you thought my racism against Judge Curiel was racist." Dara Lind of Vox: "... when it comes specifically to Curiel, Trump's argument, from the beginning, is that Curiel's pride in his ethnicity -- and, specifically, his membership in a Latino lawyers association (which Trump's campaign appears to have confused with a mainstream Latino advocacy organization) -- makes him unusually likely to oppose Trump's immigration policy and therefore Trump himself.... Furthermore, the statement continues to imply that Curiel is biased against Trump because Trump wants to keep out 'drugs and illegal immigrants' -- implying that Curiel must not want to do these things." -- CW

... Kevin Drum reads three sentences of Trump's statement: "You have the whining, the lying, the passive voice rowback, and the faux sorrow that this has become such a divisive issue, all in just a few sentences. It's vintage Trump, folks." -- CW ...

... William Saletan of Slate: "Based on the statement's sloppiness -- grammatical mistakes, revisited grudges, and nonsense terms such as 'Hispanic descent' -- it looks as though Trump wrote (or dictated) the statement himself. This is how he thinks about ethnicity and fairness, not under interrogation by journalists, but in his own considered words. It's damning." -- CW ...

... Eric Levitz of New York: "So, the GOP nominee should soon be back on the high road he was taking before the Trump University case crept into the headlines -- accusing Bill Clinton of rape and Crooked Hillary of murdering Vince Foster. -- CW ...

... David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Tuesday called Donald J. Trump's criticism of a federal judge of Hispanic heritage 'the textbook definition of a racist comment' and said he 'regrets' the remark. But Mr. Ryan also reiterated his support for Mr. Trump.... 'I disavow these comments -- I regret those comments that he made,' Mr. Ryan said after announcing a new Republican anti-poverty initiative in Anacostia, an overwhelmingly black neighborhood in Washington." -- CW ...

... Yo, Paul, You're the Racist! Tierney Sneed of TPM: Jeffrey Lord, "a top surrogate for Donald Trump, said Tuesday that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) was 'playing the race card' for condemning Trump's recent attacks on a federal judge because of his Mexican heritage. 'Speaker Ryan is wrong and Speaker Ryan has apparently switched positions and is supporting identity politics, which is racist,' Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord...." -- CW ...

What happens is you begin to develop a cult of personality where an authoritarian is right because he is right. -- Van Jones to Jeffrey Lord, on CNN, Tuesday

Exactly. -- Constant Weader

... And You, Too, Gonzalo. Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "... it turns out Curiel is actually the racist, according to Lord, since he belongs to a group of Latino attorneys 'that is all about discriminating against non-Latino lawyers.'" Other CNN panelists & host Anderson Cooper pummeled Lord for his remarks. -- CW ...

... Benjamin Wallace-Wells of the New Yorker: The #RealDonaldTrump has been a racist for decades. "The Curiel story shows that Trump is not playing a part. There is no Trump character, just Trump the man." -- CW

Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times: "Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., facing a big challenge from Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said Tuesday he will not support ... Donald Trump after earlier saying he would back him. 'I cannot and will not support my party's nominee for President regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party,' Kirk said in a statement, in which he also said Trump did not have the temperament to command the U.S. military or take control of nuclear weapons." -- CW

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday doubled down on his skepticism of Donald Trump, saying he currently doesn't believe he'll support ... [Trump] in November. 'As of now, unless he changes significantly, I can't see myself voting for Donald Trump,' Flake told reporters, according to Bloomberg News, on Tuesday." -- CW

Niels Lesniewski of Roll Call: "Sen. Marco Rubio wants to make clear that if he speaks at the Republican National Convention this July, he will not be on stage as a Donald Trump surrogate. 'I may not be asked to speak, but if I am at a convention or any Republican gathering for that matter, what I would communicate is the things I believe in,' Rubio said Monday. He said that no one has reached out to him about a potential speaking slot." -- CW

Nick Gass of Politico: "Donald Trump has the 'right' to express his opinion about the U.S. federal judge presiding over Trump University lawsuits, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie asserted Tuesday, defending the presumptive Republican nominee from criticism after he remarked that Judge Gonzalo Curiel would not be fair to him because of his Mexican heritage." CW: Another good reason for #NeverTrump: he would probably make the severely ethically-challenged Chrisco his attorney general.

Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "The Iowa state senator David Johnson became the first elected official to leave the Republican party over Donald Trump on Tuesday, likening the presumptive nominee's campaign to the rise of Adolf Hitler. Johnson announced that he was changing his registration to No Party after Trump levelled accusations of bias at Judge Gonzalo Curiel, an American judge of Mexican heritage who allowed the release of some unflattering documents from a case against Trump University." -- CW

** Ezra Klein: Donald Trump's "most salient characteristic is that he operates entirely without shame.... This is the danger Trump poses to the American political system, even if he loses. He is normalizing the abnormal. He is redefining what is acceptable to do and say in American politics.... Americans are protected by our constitutional right to free speech. But we are also protected by norms around the kind of speech that is acceptable, particularly from those in public life.... As often as not, our real protection is found not in laws but in norms." -- CW

He's a Lying Braggart, But He's Our Lying Braggart. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "... many of Trump's fans don't actually think he will build a wall -- and they don't care if he doesn't. Many also don't think that Trump as president would really ban foreign Muslims from entering the country, seize oil controlled by terrorists or deport 11 million illegal immigrants. They view Trump's pledges more as malleable symbols than concrete promises, reflecting a willingness to shake things up and to be bold." -- CW

Getty images, via Vanity Fair. ... Melena Ryzik of the New York Times: "At the moment that Hillary Clinton was all but clinching the Democratic nomination for president, Meryl Streep was on a stage in Central Park, impersonating Donald J. Trump. In orange face makeup and pompadoured hair, Ms. Streep ... did a more than credible version of the presumptive Republican nominee, down to the pursed lips and low-hanging belly. She got the braggadocio-inflected voice, too, even while singing." Thanks to MAG for the lead. -- CW

Congressional Race

Lynn Bonner of the Raleigh News & Observer: "U.S. Rep. George Holding of Raleigh defeated a fellow incumbent -- and a Donald Trump ally -- in one of the most-watched congressional primaries in the nation. Rep Renee Ellmers' defeat in the GOP contest marks a major fall for a politician who was once a television political show staple and who worked to recruit Republican women to run for office. Holding presented himself as more conservative than Ellmers.... Holding challenged the 2nd Congressional District incumbent, Ellmers, after Holding's 13th District was moved from the Triangle to the Triad when the legislature redrew the districts in response to a federal court ruling." -- CW

Other News & Views

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The Senate passed legislation Tuesday evening that will overhaul the way the federal government regulates every chemical sold on the market in the United States. The bipartisan accord represents the most sweeping environmental measure to pass Congress in a quarter-century. The bill, which drew support from the chemical industry, trial lawyers and many public health and environmental groups, updates a 40-year-old law long criticized as ineffective.... The measure, which President Obama is poised to sign into law, grew out of an effort that the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) launched with [Sen. David] Vitter [R-La.] and Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) in 2012. The bill passed the House by an overwhelming margin late last month, but Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) put a hold on it that delayed its passage." -- CW ...

... The Importance of Being Randy. CW: If you're wondering why Li'l Randy put a hold on an environmental bill that Jim Inhofe & Jeff Merkley [D-Ore.] could agree on, the answer is that he's a remarkably slo-o-o-w reader, as Eilperin reported in May. As an aide to Inhofe pointed out, she had "carried and birthed a child in the same amount of time in which Rand Paul could have raised objections to the few lines in this bill that he is now calling 'rushed.'" He did it because he could.

Missy Ryan & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The White House issued its second veto threat against a massive annual defense bill on Tuesday, naming a long list of provisions that administration officials said would tie President Obama's hands on crucial national security matters.... 'The bill attempts to micromanage [the Defense Department] by impeding the Department's ability to respond to changing circumstances, directing overly prescriptive organizational changes, preventing the closure of Guantanamo, and limiting U.S. engagement with Cuba, and includes provisions that set an arbitrary limit on the size of the President's National Security Council staff,' [the Office of Management & Budget] said.... The administration threatened last month to veto the House version of the bill, citing lawmakers' steps to boost defense funding despite budget caps. Obama vetoed the original version of last year's bill, only his fifth veto since he took office in 2009, but he later signed an amended version into law." -- CW

Aviva Shen of Think Progress: "Three months after apologizing for calling poor people 'takers,' House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) unveiled his plan to make life harder for them.... The plan includes a bevy of policies designed to make it much harder for people in need to access federal programs: tougher work requirements for food stamps, housing aid, or cash welfare; eliminating benefits conservatives believe are making improper payments; cutting Social Security; eliminating funding for early childhood education lifeline Head Start; sealing off tax credits from some low-income families; and further allowing states to cut certain programs as they see fit." CW: Thanks, Paul, for getting those lazy bastards up out of their hammocks.

Gary Legum of Salon: Sen. Tom "Cotton kept this hold [on Cassandra Butts' nomination to be ambassador to the Bahamas until she died] for two reasons. The first is that he is a nasty, small-minded, arrogant, repugnant, self-righteous, testosterone-fueled warmongering jackhole with an over-inflated sense of his own value both to the nation's political process and humanity in general. Second, Cotton is a perfect creature of what the Republican Party has evolved into over the last 40 years.... It is a party with no coherent ideological beliefs, no governing philosophy, and no interest in developing either beyond the usual platitudes about cutting taxes and keeping government small. It is a party of nihilism. It is a party of angry toddlers stamping their feet and holding their breath until they either get what they want or turn blue." -- CW

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The investigation that led CIA Director David Petraeus to resign and ultimately plead guilty to a criminal charge of mishandling classified information also uncovered evidence that he discussed highly classified information with journalists, according to a court document obtained Tuesday by Politico. Requesting a search warrant for Petraeus' Arlington, Virginia home in 2013, an FBI agent told a federal magistrate the agency had two audio recordings in which the retired four-star Army general spoke with reporters about matters that authorities believed were 'top secret.'" -- CW

News Ledes

New York Times: "Two Palestinian gunmen posing as restaurant patrons opened fire on civilians in a popular Tel Aviv cafe on Wednesday night, killing four people and reigniting fears of terrorism in Israel just as a recent wave of Palestinian attacks had seemed to be waning."

New York Times: "Maria Sharapova> was suspended for two years by the International Tennis Federation on Wednesday for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance. Sharapova, 29, the agency monitored its usage for a year. Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam champion whose ranking has dropped to 26th because of injuries and her suspension, is the highest profile tennis player to have a positive doping test." -- CW

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Monday
Jun062016

The Commentariat -- June 7, 2016

Presidential Race

** Hope Yen, et al., of the AP: "Striding into history, Hillary Clinton will become the first woman to top the presidential ticket of a major U.S. political party, capturing commitments Monday from the number of delegates needed to become the Democrats' presumptive nominee.... Campaigning this time as the loyal successor to the nation's first black president, Clinton held off a surprisingly strong challenge from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.... Clinton ... reached the 2,383 delegates needed to become the presumptive Democratic nominee on Monday with a decisive weekend victory in Puerto Rico and a burst of last-minute support from superdelegates." -- CW ...

... Maggie Haberman & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Mr. Sanders, who had vowed to stay in the race until the convention, said in a news conference on Monday that he 'hoped to win' in California, but added, 'Let's assess where we are after tomorrow before we make statements based on speculation.'" -- CW ...

     ... Update: Amy Chozick & Patrick Healy of the New York Times have a more expansive story, published early this morning, on Clinton's win. -- CW ...

... Melanie Mason of the Los Angeles Times: "It was the biggest news of the Democratic primary season.... But neither [Hillary Clinton] nor rival Bernie Sanders seemed much interested in acknowledging it.... Neither candidate wants the perception of a settled contest to muffle their supporters' turnout Tuesday in California's close race." -- CW ...

... Cyra Master of the Hill: "Shortly after The Associated Press updated its delegate count and declared Hillary Clinton the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, a spokesman for Bernie Sanders slammed the media's 'rush to judgment.' 'It is unfortunate that the media, in a rush to judgment, are ignoring the Democratic National Committee's clear statement that it is wrong to count the votes of superdelegates before they actually vote at the convention this summer,' spokesman Michael Briggs said Monday night." -- CW ...

... Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Bernie Sanders had a testy moment with a reporter [-- Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times -- in Emeryville, California,] Monday when he was asked whether he sees his refusal to cede the Democratic presidential nomination to rival Hillary Clinton as 'sexist.'" -- CW

Benjamin Siegel of ABC News: "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi endorsed Hillary Clinton for president this morning on 'Good Morning America' before her home state's primary today. 'I'm a voter in California and I have voted for Hillary Clinton for president of the United States and proud to endorse her for that position,' the Democratic superdelegate said, though adding 'it's not over until it's over.'" -- CW

Nick Gass of Politico: "Should the FBI not recommend an indictment of Hillary Clinton following its investigation of the setup of her private email server, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) on Monday said he and his Republican colleagues would 'probably' accept the outcome." --safari

Hillary Clinton's campaign responds to Donald Trump's attacks on Judge Gonzalo Curiel: "

... Seth Meyers does a better job:

... Kevin Cirilli, et al., of Bloomberg: "An embattled Donald Trump urgently rallied his most visible supporters to defend his attacks on a federal judge's Mexican ancestry during a conference call on Monday in which he ordered them to question the judge's credibility and impugn reporters as racists.... When former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer interrupted the discussion to inform Trump that his own campaign had asked surrogates to stop talking about the lawsuit in an e-mail on Sunday, Trump repeatedly demanded to know who sent the memo, and immediately overruled his staff. 'Take that order and throw it the hell out,' Trump said.... [Trump's top campaign aides reviewed the memo before a staffer sent it.] A clearly irritated Trump told his supporters to attack journalists who ask questions about the lawsuit and his comments about the judge. 'The people asking the questions -- those are the racists,' Trump said. 'I would go at 'em.'" -- safari ...

This [-- Trump's attacks on Judge Curiel --] is the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy. If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it. There'll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary. -- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

... Daily Beast: "Marco Rubio is 'very disturbed' by Republican nominee Donald Trump's racist comments about a judge overseeing the Trump University case.... However, his remarks largely came off as scolding Republican voters for having not selected him as the nominee: 'This is not the choice I wanted us to have, obviously. I ran myself,' he said. 'This is the voice our voters have given us for this primary.'" --safari ...

... Patrick Healy, et al., of the New York Times: "In an unusually coordinated series of attacks leveled from congressional offices and the Senate floor, in state capitols and sidewalk protests, Democrats excoriated Mr. Trump as racist and demanded that Republicans either stand behind his comments or condemn him and even rescind endorsements of his candidacy.... No prominent elected Republican came to Mr. Trump's defense unreservedly. And others found themselves wondering aloud what it would take -- what Mr. Trump would have to say or do -- for Republicans who have endorsed him to start jumping ship." -- CW ...

If this dude wasn't the presumptive presidential nominee of one of the two major parties right now, I swear this would be a 'let's talk about taking Gramp's checkbook and car keys away before something terrible happens' incident. -- Annie Laurie of Balloon Juice ...

... Benjy Sarlin, et al., of MSNBC: "Donald Trump is a candidate without a campaign -- and it's becoming a serious problem. Republicans working to elect Trump describe a bare-bones effort debilitated by infighting, a lack of staff to carry out basic functions, minimal coordination with allies and a message that's prisoner to Trump's momentary whims.... Trump's comments against the judge horrified many supporters, but the real estate mogul rebuffed efforts by campaign staff, donors and party officials to back off the incendiary claim this weekend, per sources, telling them he was unwilling to look like he had caved to pressure." -- CW ...

He [Judge Gonzalo Curiel] is giving us very unfair rulings, rulings that people can't even believe. This case should have ended years ago on summary judgment. The best lawyers -- I have spoken to so many lawyers -- they said, this is not a case. This is a case that should have ended. -- Donald Trump, interview on CNN's "State of the Union," June 5

Curiel made a straight-forward legal judgment as to whether two sides agreed or disagreed on facts, and whether or not they should be presented to a jury.... Trump also overlooks that Curiel, in his November 2015 ruling, did grant him partial summary judgment. Trump can disagree with the judge's decision all he wants, but Curiel didn't really have a choice: the students provided evidence that could dispute Trump's reason for requesting a summary judgment. So Curiel had to do his job -- and let the case go forward to a jury. -- Michelle Lee of the Washington Post

... Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "[U]nlike the lawyers who tried to bounce black and female judges from civil rights cases, Trump isn't trying to toss Judge Curiel off a case about race. He's declaring that no judge from any ethnic or racial background Trump has insulted can ever hear any case involving him.... This isn't just racism. It attempts to turn the victims of Trump's racism into the de facto racists in order to try to gain a more sympathetic judiciary.... But here's the larger issue the Republican nominee's attacks on Judge Curiel highlights: It is actually a part and parcel of a broader GOP assault on judicial independence that predates Trump and transcends the recent racism directed at Curiel." Read on. --safari ...

When I want something I get it. When I call, they kiss my ass. It's true. -- Donald Trump, at an Iowa rally in January ...

... Jeff Horwitz, et al., of the AP: "Florida's attorney general [Pam Bondi (R)] personally solicited a political contribution from Donald Trump around the same time her office deliberated joining an investigation of alleged fraud at Trump University and its affiliates.... The money came from a Trump family foundation in apparent violation of rules surrounding political activities by charities.... After the check came in, Bondi's office nixed suing Trump, citing insufficient grounds to proceed.... The timing of the donation by Trump is notable because the now presumptive Republican presidential nominee has said he expects and receives favors from politicians to whom he gives money.... More than 20 people requested help from the Florida attorney general's office in obtaining refunds from Trump University and affiliates.... The documents complicate prior claims by Bondi's office that she received only one consumer complaint...." -- CW ...

"Fox vs. Fox." Media Matters. "Megyn Kelly criticized 'pundits' calling for the judge in the Trump U. case to step down.... Kelly went on to state that 'any litigant who moved to disqualify a judge based on his heritage would actually sanctioned, punished, by an court and it's happened in the past. Rightfully.' Kelly's critique came roughly an hour after Fox News host Bill O'Reilly called on the judge to recuse himself from the Trump U. case. From the June 6 edition of Fox News' The Kelly File." -- CW

Donald Trump, Groundbreaking Feminist. Number one, I have great respect for women. I was the one that really broke the glass ceiling on behalf of women, more than anybody in the construction industry. My relationship I think is going to end up being very good with women. -- Donald Trump, on Bill O'Reilly's show Monday

Sarah Burris of Raw Story: "Donald Trump commemorated the day by tweeting out a photo with 'D-Day 1944' at the top, saying, 'Remembering the fallen heroes on #DDay -- June 6, 1944.'...The problem is that the photo is actually from a 1943 training mission. As Mediaite cites, you can see a man in the foreground with his hands on his hips overlooking the scene. The actual invasion was bloody and violent, with bodies washing up on the beach. No one was just standing around." --safari

Hadas Gold, et al of Politico: "BuzzFeed has pulled out of an advertising agreement with the Republican National Committee over objections to Donald Trump's rhetoric.... 'We certainly don't like to turn away revenue that funds all the important work we do across the company,' [CEO& Jonah] Peretti wrote. 'However, in some cases we must make business exceptions: we don't run cigarette ads because they are hazardous to our health, and we won't accept Trump ads for the exact same reason.'" --safari

Eric Levitz of New York: "Trump has proven himself to be an intransigent ideologue. While the mogul has few (if any) genuine convictions about policy, his faith in the core tenet of his political philosophy -- that Donald J. Trump can never be wrong -- is absolute. The events of the past week have made it impossible for the Republican Party to wish away this reality." --safari

David Graham of The Atlantic: "Trump is trying to claim that he wouldn't have led Americans to war in Libya and Iraq.... Part of Trump's pitch to voters is that he stands apart from the Beltway elite, and is not beholden to the same mistaken conventional wisdom that binds its members. These two interventions, however, show how Clinton and Trump both came to the same conclusions about hitting Baghdad and Tripoli: The wars would be short, good for America, and good for the world. In both cases, they were wrong, and the major contrast between them is that Clinton was better versed in the specifics of both cases when she made her calls." --safari

CW: Here's a potentially explosive curiosity: Aaron Elstein of Crain's New York: New York City property tax bills came out last week, and they reveal that Donald Trump "gets a tax break for New Yorkers whose incomes are $500,000 a year or less." There are a few possible explanations: (a) clerical error; (b) Trump's accountant used loopholes to get his family income down to under $500K, even though he actually earned a lot more; (c) Donald & Melania earned less than $500K after taking ordinary tax breaks. Unless & until Trump releases his federal tax returns, I think it's fair to assume either (b) or (c), with (b) being the more likely. Via Kevin Drum.

Digby in Salon: "Trump was clearly rattled by more than just criticism by Clinton and the press about his comments and his fundraiser. He's edgy and he's agitated in a way we haven't seen before and it seems to mostly be centered around the questions about his business practices." ...

As the Donald Sweats. See today's comments for context.... CW: Some commentators think Trump has become so unglued that he'll withdraw from the race. Steve M. disagrees. See Also the comment to this post by Jim Snyder; it backs up what Marvin Schwalb wrote here over the weekend & what I wrote in today's comments. Also, I think if you read the tennis court scene in Mark Bowden's 1996 Playboy profile, you'll realize that Trump's apparent meltdown of today is part of a longstanding personality disorder. He reacts with "red-faced and fuming" rage to the most minor circumstances -- and of course makes worse whatever the supposed "problem" is. Trump won't quit the race because opponents or the press displease them; he's just going to call these people names.

** Dana Milbank: "A confluence of three factors has caused a sudden and sharp change in Trump's fortunes. The media scrutiny has increased significantly since he secured the nomination, and journalists, rather than chasing his outrage du jour, are digging in to report more on Trump University, Trump's stiffing of charities, his lies and his racism. Hillary Clinton has, finally, made the shift to attacking Trump vigorously over his instability. And Republicans are, belatedly, discovering that their presidential candidate wasn't putting on a show during the GOP primaries: He's an actual racist.... The things Trump is doing now -- disparaging the 'Mexican' judge, disqualifying Muslim judges, calling somebody claiming Native American blood 'Pocahontas' and singling out 'my African American' -- is very much in line with what he has been doing for the past year, and before." -- CW

Other News & Views

Appointment Delayed, Appointment Denied. Frank Bruni of the New York Times: "In early 2014..., President Obama [nominated his longtime friend Cassandra Butts] to be the next United States ambassador to the Bahamas.... When I met her last month, she'd been waiting more than 820 days to be confirmed. She died suddenly two weeks later, still waiting. She was 50 years old. The delay had nothing to do with her qualifications, which were impeccable.... At one point Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, had a 'hold' on all political nominees for State Department positions, partly as a way of punishing President Obama for the Iran nuclear deal. At another point Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, put a hold specifically on Butts and on nominees for the ambassadorships to Sweden and Norway.... Blocking her was a way to inflict special pain on the president." CW: Bruni, who is a lamebrain, blames "Washington politics" for Butts' mistreatment. Obviously, the real culprits are Senate Republicans.

John Bresnahan of Politico: "Speaker Paul Ryan and House Republicans will roll out a new plan on Tuesday to fight poverty and help Americans move up the economic ladder, yet much of this latest initiative is repackaged GOP proposals likely to win only limited support from Democrats.... The GOP recommendations include: expanded work requirements for those receiving federal welfare, food or housing assistance; more 'flexibility' for state and local governments to improve programs, although what that means isn't always fully defined; consolidation of dozens of existing federal programs into fewer, better run efforts; improved accountability for federal programs while 'rewarding' those which show the best results; more effectively target those Americans in greatest need of help; and reducing waste and duplication...." -- CW ...

... Greg Sargent has Democrats' "pre-sponse." -- CW

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear two appeals raising questions about the roles race and intellectual disability might play in capital prosecutions. One case, Buck v. Stephens, No. 15-8049, arose from a psychologist's testimony that black defendants were more dangerous than white ones.... [The other] case, Moore v. Texas, No. 15-797, raises questions about whether Texas uses outdated standards in assessing whether a defendant's intellectual disability was severe enough to bar his execution." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

Liam Stack of the New York Times: "A recall effort against a California judge [Aaron Persky] was announced on Monday in a sexual assault case at Stanford University that ignited public outrage after the defendant was sentenced to a mere six months in jail and his father complained that his son's life had been ruined for '20 minutes of action' fueled by alcohol and promiscuity.... The judge, identified by The Guardian as a Stanford alumnus, handed [Brock] Turner, a champion swimmer, far less than the maximum 14 years after he was convicted, pointing out that he had no 'significant' prior offenses, he had been affected by the intense media coverage, and 'there is less moral culpability attached to the defendant, who is ... intoxicated.'..." -- CW

Way Beyond

Dylan Matthews of Vox: "On Sunday, Switzerland became the first nation to hold a referendum on the idea of a basic income.... The measure, however, was soundly defeated.... The loss was expected; from the beginning, campaigners have framed the referendum as a chance to elevate the public profile of basic income, to force it into the public debate, rather than an effort that was likely to lead to actual constitutional change...But as a consciousness-building effort, the referendum was a clear success." --safari

Michael Slezak of the Guardian: "What's at stake here is the largest living structure in the world, and by far the largest coral reef system. The oft-repeated cliche is that it can be seen from space, which is not surprising given it stretches more than 2,300km in length and, between its almost 3,000 individual reefs, covers an area about the size of Germany. It is an underwater world of unimaginable scale...Australians are being wooed by politicians for an upcoming federal election, most of whom support policies that will guarantee the reef's destruction. This is the story of the impending death of the world's largest living structure -- whose hand it is dying by, who is staging a cover-up, and how it could be saved." --safari

News Lede

Miami Herald: "A sloppy, wet Tropical Storm Colin whipped Florida's west coast Tuesday morning as Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for parts of the state. The fast-moving storm, which made landfall at the Big Bend Monday night, had already caused some flooding as it sailed northeastward along the Gulf coast. At 5 a.m. Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said the storm was located about 110 miles northeast of Jacksonville, moving over the Atlantic at about 51 mph with sustained winds of 50 mph." -- CW

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