The Commentariat -- January 7, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Matt Apuzzo & Al Baker of the New York Times: "The mayor will appoint an independent civilian to monitor the New York Police Department's counterterrorism activities, lawyers said in court documents Thursday as they moved to settle a pair of lawsuits over surveillance targeting Muslims in the decade after the Sept. 11 attacks. The agreement would restore some of the outside oversight that was eliminated after the attacks, when city leaders said they needed more flexibility in conducting investigations. In the years that followed, the Police Department secretly built files on Muslim neighborhoods, recorded sermons, collected license plates of worshipers, and documented the views of everyday people on topics such as drone strikes, politics and foreign policy."

Ross Douthat analyzes Donald Trump's chances of winning the GOP presidential nomination, & says it's not likely to happen. CW: His basic argument is not original, and it is, IMHO, plausible ONLY IF one assumes the party poo-bahs are disciplined enough to get together in a dark room & pick a nominee from among the so-called "moderates" left standing. This is not an assumption I would make inasmuch as the party does not have anything like a boss or even a central organization. (No, Prince Rebus, you are not the boss of them. And neither are you, Ayn Rand Paul Ryan.)

*****

Super Emergency! My mouse expired (nope, not the battery). I'll be back after a trip to BestBuy. I'm just no good at the keypad thing. -- Constant Weader ...

     ... Update: Got a new mouse just like the old mouse, who has been unceremoniously buried.

President Obama will conduct a townhall-style forum on "Guns in America," to air live tonight at 8:00 pm ET.

... Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: "In an email..., Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough echoes [President] Obama's more-optimistic-than-ever theme and lists some of what's likely to be on Obama's brag list: December's budget agreement; the Iran nuclear deal; increased domestic oil production together with new environmental regulations; peaks in high school graduation rates and health insurance coverage; drops in unemployment, crime and incarceration rates." ...

... ** Michael Grunwald in Politico Magazine: President "Obama is often dinged for failing to deliver on the hope-and-change rhetoric that inspired so many voters.... But a review of his record shows that the Obama era has produced much more sweeping change than most of his supporters or detractors realize.... What he's done is changing the way we produce and consume energy, the way doctors and hospitals treat us, the academic standards in our schools and the long-term fiscal trajectory of the nation. Gays can now serve openly in the military, insurers can no longer deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions, credit card companies can no longer impose hidden fees and markets no longer believe the biggest banks are too big to fail. Solar energy installations are up nearly 2,000 percent, and carbon emissions have dropped even though the economy is growing." CW: Helpful essay; horrible artwork.

Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Congressional Republicans made good Wednesday on a central campaign pledge from the 2014 midterms, delivering a bill repealing the health care reform law they loathe to President Obama's desk, forcing a certain veto. The bill passed 240 to 181, with one House Democrat supporting the bill and three Republicans opposing it, after passing the Senate 52 to 47 last month. Neither margin is large enough to override a veto.... The bill also blocks Planned Parenthood from receiving federal health care funds.... Meanwhile, the bold agenda [Speaker Paul] Ryan has promised awaits."

** Dana Milbank: "On Wednesday, the first legislative day of the year, House conservatives gathered with reporters for their monthly 'Conversations with Conservatives.' When the questioning turned to the armed rebellion in Oregon against the authority of the federal government, these representatives of the United States stood with the rebels.... Not one of the 10 or so Republican House members on the panel criticized the takeover.... The Republican majority began the year not by governing but with an ostentatious show of its hostility toward government." Read the whole post. As Milbank makes clear, House Republicans, including Speaker Paul Ryan, do not know the difference between civil disobedience & sedition. CW: This is shocking.

Greg Sargent: "With leading Republicans all condemning President Obama's new executive actions on guns, Democrats are gleefully pouncing on video of House Speaker Paul Ryan in 2013 saying that Congressional action to close the loophole in our background check system is 'reasonable' and 'obvious.' Ryan's statement yesterday about Obama's executive actions described them as an effort to 'trump the Second Amendment' and an affront to the nation's founding values.... If only Ryan were in a position where he might help make [a legislative fix] happen right now. Of course, Ryan would likely argue that, even if most House Republicans wanted to close the background check loophole -- which they almost certainly don't -- it would be an impossibility because they Can't Trust Obama." ...

... Nicholas Kristof: "President Obama shed tears on Tuesday as he called for new gun safety measures, and some critics perceived weakness or wimpishness. Really?.... We should all be in tears that 225,000 Americans have already died of gun violence in his seven years in office.... It's worth a cry that a 'peaceful' America during Obama's tenure has lost roughly as many lives to gunfire as Syria has in civil war.... The states with the most restrictive gun laws have the lowest gun death rates (including suicides).... Republican candidates are politicizing what should be a public health issue, and they are scaring Americans into buying more guns, which magnifies the problem and causes more carnage."

Linda Greenhouse on a 1989 Supreme Court decision that "continues to immunize government from the kind of accountability that common sense and justice would seem to require." The government is not responsible for its ineptitude or indifference to protecting citizens from each other, even if the unprotected citizens are children.

Somini Sengupta, et al., of the New York Times: "The United Nations Security Council condemned North Korea for its nuclear test on Wednesday, but there was no evidence yet that the North's most powerful backer, China, was willing to stiffen sanctions in a way that could push the unpredictable country to the point of collapse or slow its nuclear progress.... White House officials ... said that initial data from its monitoring stations in Asia were 'not consistent' with a test of a hydrogen bomb."

Presidential Race

Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "Using strikingly similar pitches, Hillary Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Martin O'Malley tried their best ... on Wednesday to persuade a room full of Nevada Democrats to support their bids to be the next Democratic presidential nominee. The sold-out event, the Battle Born Battleground First in the West Caucus Dinner, was hosted by the state Democratic Party and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the minority leader.... They each spent time trying to differentiate themselves, but saved their harshest criticism for Republicans."

** Karen Tumulty & Frances Sellers of the Washington Post: "The ghosts of the 1990s have returned to confront Hillary Clinton, released from the vault by Donald Trump and revved up by a 21st-century version of the scandal machine that almost destroyed her husband's presidency.... The fresher case being made is that Hillary Clinton has been, at a minimum, hypocritical about her husband's treatment of women, and possibly even complicit in discrediting his accusers. And it is being pressed at a time when there is a new sensitivity toward victims of unwanted sexual contact, and when one of the biggest news stories is the prosecution of once-beloved comedian Bill Cosby...." ...

... CW: If Hillary Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee, she -- and/or Bill -- will have to do better than ignore this matter. It will be difficult to get the women's vote while ignoring the serial sexual abuser in the room.

Hanna Trudo of Politico: "Vice President Joe Biden started off the first week of the New Year with a confession: He regrets not running for president. 'I regret it every day, but it was the right decision for my family and for me,' he told an NBC affiliate in Connecticut on Wednesday."

Sam Wang of Princeton: There are "suggestive implications about who is likely to be the eventual Republican nominee. (Spoiler: rhymes with Grump.)

"Yes, It Works in Practice, But Does It Work in Theory?" Steve Benen: The American auto industry had its best year ever last year -- after nearly tanking completely in 2008. In 2009, "President Obama took a gamble on an unpopular [auto industry bailout] plan, which fortunately worked beautifully.... In 2015, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, and Donald Trump all voiced opposition to the White House's rescue policy from 2009. Yes, they know Obama's approach worked. No, they don't care."

... "Trump's Low-Energy Campaign." Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "Trump, who once derided Jeb Bush for lacking energy, has done fewer campaign swings than any of his top-tier rivals -- 100, versus, for example, Bush's 172 -- and while others have only increased the pace, Trump has barely expanded his schedule. Next week, he'll stage a rare Sunday rally." ...

... Birtherism, Ctd. Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "Sen. John McCain questioned whether Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who was born in Canada, is eligible to be president. McCain, who has long clashed with Cruz in the Senate, said on KFYI Wednesday that 'it's worth looking into' whether Cruz is a natural born citizen, a requirement to be president. The assertion comes the day after Donald Trump, whom Cruz is leading in polls in Iowa, told The Washington Post that Cruz's birthplace could be 'very precarious' for the GOP.... McCain said Wednesday the issue is different [from his case -- he was born in the Panama Canal Zone --] because the Canal Zone was a territory and U.S. Military base and there was precedent set when Barry Goldwater, who was born in Arizona when it was a territory, ran for president.... Legal scholars have said Cruz meets the requirement of natural born citizenship, though it is untested in the courts. Sen. Rand Paul, who is also seeking the Republican nomination, also brought up the issue Wednesday, stating Cruz is eligible to be prime minister of Canada." ...

... Alex Griswold of Mediaite: Trump has flipflopped twice on Cruz's eligibility to be president. CW: Yeah, so what? As contributor Marvin S. has remarked, the only real true thing is what Donald says at the moment he says it. ...

He has had a double passport. -- Donald Trump, on Ted Cruz's eligibility for the presidency

There's no such thing, far as we could tell, as a "double passport." We suspect Trump was suggesting Cruz had obtained both one U.S. and a Canadian one--though our requests for factual backup drew no replies from Trump representatives.... Trump didn't provide and we didn't find evidence that Cruz, who relinquished his dual citizenship in 2014, ever carried passports for the U.S. and Canada--nor, Cruz's camp advises, did he ever apply for a Canada passport. -- Gardner Selby of PolitiFact

... Dana Bash & Abigail Crutchfield of CNN: "Sen. Ted Cruz ... on Wednesday accused President Barack Obama of wanting to take Americans' guns away despite his assurances otherwise. 'He's not telling the truth,' Cruz said flatly during an interview with CNN aboard his campaign bus.... Cruz defended posting a picture of the President wearing military style garb on his campaign website, with the caption 'Obama wants your guns.' 'It is actually quite accurate. This is the most anti-gun president we've ever seen,' Cruz said." CW: Yeah, except, say, Ronald Ray-gun.

A Pretty Face. Jonathan Chait: Marco Rubio is no moderate Republican, no matter what his friends, his rivals & the press claim. He is a pragmatist (CW: I would say "opportunist") who toes the party line, whatever it may be at the moment. He "is the embodiment of the Republican donor class’s conviction that it needs to alter nothing more than its face." ...

... "Cuban Heels." Tina Nguyen of Vanity Fair: Marco Rubio looks pretty silly in his new boots, especially because he wore them with a Ralph Lauren pullover & black dress slacks, look ridiculous. ...

... Scott Bixby of the Guardian: "A chance tweet from a New York Times political reporter [Michael Barbaro] and former fashion correspondent spurred snark from Senator Ted Cruz's communications director ('A vote for Marco Rubio is a vote for men's high-heeled booties'), teasing from fellow Senator Rand Paul ('Cute new boots!')...."

Beyond the Beltway

David Montgomery of the New York Times: "The state trooper who arrested Sandra Bland, the Chicago-area woman who three days later was found hanged in her cell at the Waller County jail, has been indicted on a perjury charge, a special prosecutor here said Wednesday. Hours after the indictment was announced against the trooper, Brian T. Encinia, the Department of Public Safety said that the state police agency 'will begin termination proceedings to discharge him.' The charge against Trooper Encinia, a Class A misdemeanor, was announced at the end of a day of grand jury deliberations. It carries a possible penalty of one year in jail and a $4,000 fine, prosecutors said."

Tony Barboza of the Los Angeles Times: "Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday ordered new regulations, including stepped-up inspections and safety measures, for all natural gas storage facilities in California in response to the continuing leak that has displaced thousands of people in the Porter Ranch neighborhood of Los Angeles.... The requirements are part of a series of orders issued by Brown as he declared a state of emergency stemming from a leaking well at SoCal Gas' storage facility in Aliso Canyon. For more than 10 weeks a damaged well has released large amounts of planet-warming methane and emitted sulfur-like odors that have sickened residents with nosebleeds, headaches and other symptoms."

Claire Landsbaum of New York: "In a move that directly defies the Supreme Court's decision last June, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore issued a court order Wednesday that bans lower judges in Alabama from issuing same-sex marriage licenses.... Moore has a long and sordid history of putting his personal beliefs before the law."

Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "New York mayor Bill de Blasio announced an executive order on Wednesday to raise the minimum wage for city employees to $15 an hour in a move he labeled 'a milestone towards a fairer city'. His plan, which will involve a pay increase for 50,000 workers, will phase in the new pay level for the city's public employees and workers at contracted agencies by the end of 2018 and is a step towards the mayor's stated goal of a $15 minimum hourly wage for the whole city."

Paloma Esquivel of the Los Angeles Times: "The man accused of providing two rifles used in the Dec. 2 mass shooting in San Bernardino pleaded not guilty to charges against him in federal court Wednesday. Enrique Marquez Jr. was indicted last week by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, lying about the rifle purchases, marriage fraud and lying on a visa application."

Tom Hays of the AP: "A U.S. citizen already accused of going to Pakistan to train with al-Qaida was charged Wednesday with helping build explosives for a 2009 suicide attack on an American military base in Afghanistan. A revised indictment charges Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh with conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and other crimes. He is to appear Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn; there was no immediate comment by his lawyer. The charges stem from an attack on Jan. 19, 2009...."

Way Beyond

Keith Bradsher & Amy Tsang of the New York Times: "Trading was halted for the day on China's stock market for the second time this week, as stocks plummeted on Thursday over concerns about the country's currency and the health of the economy. Trading stopped after only 29 minutes and didn't reopen, with the main index in Shanghai down 7.3 percent. Other Asian markets slumped as well." ...

     ... New Lede: "The market turmoil in China spread around the world, as global investors grew more anxious about the country's currency and the health of its economy."

Kate Connolly of the Guardian: "Cologne's mayor has been widely criticised for suggesting that women 'keep at an arm's length' from strangers to avoid sexual harassment, after scores of women were sexually abused and mugged in the city during new year celebrations." CW: Because, yes, ladies, it's all your fault if you go out & about on New Year's Eve & a bunch of thugs rob, sexually assault & beat you.

News Ledes

CBS News: "Two Iraqi-born men were arrested Thursday in Houston and Sacramento in an ongoing terrorism investigation, according to prosecutors. In a statement late Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's office in Sacramento identified the suspect there as Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, 23, who faces a federal charge of making a false statement involving international terrorism."

AP: "13 miners are still stuck in an elevator 775 feet underground at a central New York salt mine near Ithaca and emergency crews are working on a rescue. Four have been rescued and are being evaluated by medical personnel. Emergency management officials say rescue equipment is on the scene and the miners aren't in danger." ...

... CW: Once a Great Nation. I had no idea there were actual salt mines in the Land of the Free. However, "trapped in a salt mine" seems like the proverbial canary in the mine announcing, in its final, weak Tweet, the coming Republican dystopia. ...

... AP Update: "All 17 miners who were stuck hundreds of feet below the surface in an elevator at the deepest salt mine in the western hemisphere have been rescued. Cargill Inc spokesman Mark Klein says the last two miners were raised to the surface by a crane around 8.30am Thursday at the mine in the central New York town of Lansing."

The Commentariat -- January 6, 2016

Anna Fifield of the Washington Post: "World leaders sternly criticized North Korea Wednesday for carrying out a fourth nuclear test, an explosion that Pyongyang claimed was a much more powerful hydrogen bomb test. The United Nations Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting in New York on Wednesday to discuss the international response to the test, which North Korea called an 'H-bomb of justice' that it needed for defense against the United States, labelling the U.S. 'the chieftain of aggression.'" ...

... David Sanger of the New York Times: "North Korea declared Tuesday night that it has detonated its first hydrogen bomb, a weapon far more powerful than it has set off previously, a claim that, if true, would dramatically escalate the nuclear challenge from one of the world's most isolated and dangerous states. In a brief announcement, about an hour after seismic detectors around the world picked up a 5.1 magnitude seismic event along the country's northeast cost, officials said that the test was a 'complete success.' But it is difficult to tell whether that boast is true, and it may be weeks or longer before detectors sent aloft by the United States and other powers can determine what kind of test was conducted."

Second Amendment rights are important, but there are other rights that we care about as well. And we have to be able to balance them. Because our right to worship freely and safely -- that right was denied to Christians in Charleston, South Carolina. And that was denied Jews in Kansas City. And that was denied Muslims in Chapel Hill, and Sikhs in Oak Creek. They had rights, too. Our right to peaceful assembly -- that right was robbed from moviegoers in Aurora and Lafayette. Our unalienable right to life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- those rights were stripped from college students in Blacksburg and Santa Barbara, and from high schoolers at Columbine, and from first-graders in Newtown. First-graders. And from every family who never imagined that their loved one would be taken from our lives by a bullet from a gun. -- President Obama, yesterday ...

... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "With tears streaming down his face, President Obama on Tuesday condemned the repeated spasms of gun violence across America as he announced new executive actions intended to reduce the number of mass shootings, suicides and killings that have become routine in the nation's communities." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... You'll tear up, too:

... Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post on President Obama's "substantive case for action." ...

... New York Times Editors: "The current fight over gun control ... is a howling storm of misrepresentation, sadly almost entirely from one side. This week's developments fit the pattern.... Given the situation, it's hard to imagine a serious conversation about guns as long as politicians in thrall to the gun lobby choose to misrepresent what supporters of gun safety laws are actually saying. Those supporters, by the way, include the 90 percent of Americans who favor universal background checks for gun buyers." ...

... CW: Sorry, NYT, those fearmongering GOP liars-for-hire are just doing the job the NRA paid them to do:

... Eric Levitz of New York: "... on Tuesday, Obama sent one more shiver down the spine of Red America, shooting Smith & Wesson stock to an all-time high in the process." CW: It isn't Obama's actions -- which if truth be known, are highly popular &/or noncontroversial -- that are spiking gun sales; it's the Fear of Obama promoted by the politicians who lie for the NRA. ...

... Ted is Cruzing for a bonus. This is a screenshot of an actual page on Ted's Website. You can sign up for fundraising letters here:

(... CW: I'm not sure if this is a first, but it may be, of a U.S. senator Photoshopping a U.S. president to put the president in a menacing (and ridiculously untrue) light. The Senate, which prides itself on its supposed dignity, should censure Ted. ...)

... Here's the Proof. Scott Wong & Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "Congressional Republicans are scrambling for a way to halt President strong> Obama's new unilateral actions on gun control.... 'We will be using every tool in the toolkit to stop him,' said one senior Republican lawmaker who is close to leadership. 'All options are on the table.'... Privately, some GOP lawmakers said they didn't think Obama's actions on guns amount to much. 'Frankly, our initial review of the president's orders is there is not a lot of substance there,' said one Republican who requested anonymity. But the lawmaker said party leaders are under enormous pressure from the National Rifle Association and other gun rights activists to take a stand against Obama. In a statement, [Speaker Paul] Ryan, a gun owner and avid deer hunter, blasted Obama's executive actions, calling them 'a form of intimidation that undermines liberty' and violates the Second Amendment. The Speaker vowed that Congress would 'conduct vigilant oversight' and predicted the actions would 'no doubt be challenged in the courts.'" ...

... OR, as Paul Waldman succinctly puts it, "If everyone screams 'He's coming for your guns!' then gullible rubes will flock to gun stores to buy more before the Great Confiscation takes place, which means more profits for the gun manufacturers who are the NRA's benefactors. Nice racket." ...

... Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post: "Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) said 'Obama is obsessed with undermining the Second Amendment,' while Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) averred, 'We don't beat the bad guys by taking away our guns. We beat the bad guys by using our guns.'... House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) criticized the president for a 'dangerous level of executive overreach' and for circumventing congressional opposition -- as though Congress has been working feverishly to reduce gun violence.... It is one thing to be in the pocket of the National Rifle Association. It is another to do nothing and then assume a superior posture of purposeful neglect, as though do-nothingness were a policy and smug intransigence a philosophy.... In a civilized society, more guns can't be better than fewer." ...

... AND not to distract you from the actual issue here ... but Steve M. has uncovered wingers' Conspiracy Theory of the Day: President Obama used some kind of device -- an onion, No More Tears, Ben-Gay, whatever -- to induce those tears he shed discussing murder victims. Because thinking about six-year-olds being gunned down by a madman could not possibly induce tears in a "fascist." Also, too, if you cannot be convinced that a product called "No More Tears" produces tears on demand, you're never going to make it in Right Wing World.

Jessica Taylor of NPR: "South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will deliver the GOP's response to President Obama's State of the Union address next Tuesday, feeding speculation that the Indian-American Republican could be a possible vice presidential pick."

Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Democrats and immigrant-rights groups have turned against the Obama administration in an uproar over recent deportation raids, likening the president to bombastic GOP front-runner Donald Trump and warning him that the controversial strategy will tarnish his legacy on immigration.... Still, aside from a small handful of comments, congressional Democrats have largely been quiet about the raids, which were disclosed shortly before Christmas but confirmed by administration officials only on Monday. Congressional aides blamed the holiday recess, and advocates said there will likely be increasing pressure on Democratic lawmakers to rebuke the Obama administration over the raids." ...

... David Leopold in a CNN opinion piece: "The administration's plan [to round up & deport recent undocumented immigrants] is shocking, outrageous and just plain wrong. This is something we would expect from a President Trump, not President Obama.... It's morally repugnant to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into local communities to arrest and detain vulnerable families, including women and children, and deport them to places where their lives will be threatened by unspeakable violence...."

Kristina Wong of the Hill: "House Republicans will start listening sessions Thursday to discuss a measure authorizing the use of military force against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.... The sessions will be held by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.), whose committee would have jurisdiction over the authorization, according to a committee aide on background.... The sessions will be among Republican members of the committee for now. They are intended to gauge what Republicans would like to see in a new AUMF, and not to produce a concrete proposal." CW: "Listening sessions"? When have House Republicans ever listened to anybody? ...

... CW: Well, maybe I'm wrong. To show they are progressive, innovative & open to new & different ideas House Republicans are, they're going to do something unprecedented today: vote to repeal ObamaCare!

Eduardo Porter of the New York Times: "White non-Hispanics are the only ethnic group that leans Republican, according to a study of party affiliation by the Pew center. White men who have not completed college favor the G.O.P. over the Democratic Party by 54 to 33 percent.... As Matthew Yglesias at Vox suggests, many white Americans are most likely drawn to Mr. Trump's xenophobic, anti-immigrant message because they agree with it.... Americans owe their unusually minimalist state in large measure to racial mistrust. As the economists Alberto Alesina and Edward Glaeser put it in an important paper, European countries are much more generous to the poor relative to the United States mainly because of American racial heterogeneity." ...

... CW: My favoritest part of Porter's column is his calling white non-Hispanics an "ethnic group." It's about time. My second favoritest part is the point that this group, to which I belong, is an outlier. I do get special interests, & I certainly have some special interests of my own. What I don't get is skin color, gender, religion or sexual orientation as a special interest, except insofar as these factors are treated to "special oppression." But for politicians & the legal system to privilege white Christian straight guys as they do has never made sense to me. And, BTW, the white Christian straight guys who get this are fairly heroic, in my view, given the cultural history & present condition of this country. So, thanks to all the white Christian straight guys who do not cling to an accident of birth as a special right to be preserved at the expense of other Americans. ...

... It's easier to understand why Republicans are always accusing Democrats of instigating "class warfare" when you realize, as Ed Kilgore points out, that the Republican party itself suffers from acute class warfare, the prominent result of which is the candidacy of Donald Trump whose popularity among the hoi polloi has torn the party asunder. ...

... CW: I do have some bad news for the suckers who have found their Pied Piper in the Donald: that tax plan of his really is a boon for him & his fellow billionaires, &, as he said (and later denied), he really does think wages are too damned high. Like the rats of Hamelin, you bigoted doofuses are about to be drowned in the river of doom & despair.

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "At least 52 people in the United States were killed by domestic extremists in 2015, the highest number in two decades, according to a report released Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Sandhya Somashekhar & Steven Rich of the Washington Post: "On the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, Las Vegas police cornered Keith Childress Jr., who was wanted for a number of violent felonies. They opened fire on the 23-year-old after he refused to drop the object in his hands, which turned out not to be a gun but a cellphone. And with that, the nation logged what is likely its final police shooting death of 2015, a year that saw 984 such killings, well more than double the average number reported annually by the FBI over the past decade.... Police killed blacks at three times the rate of whites when adjusted for the population where these shootings occurred. And although unarmed black men represent percent of the U.S. population, they made up nearly 40 percent of those who were killed while unarmed. Regardless of race, about a quarter of those killed displayed signs of mental illness."

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "U.S. Homeland Security and intelligence agencies are analyzing computer code from what appear to be one of the first known cyberattacks that resulted in an electrical power outage -- this one in Ukraine. The Dec. 23 incidents, which lasted several hours and affected tens of thousands of people, were reported by Ukraine power authorities in the capital region and in the western part of the country."

Presidential Race

Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "Hillary Clinton urged moderate gun owners to band together against the National Rifle Association during an MSNBC interview [by Chris Matthews] on Tuesday after Barack Obama's morning statement on tighter gun control."

My opponent says that as a senator, she told bankers to 'cut it out' and end their destructive behavior. But, in my view, establishment politicians are the ones who need to cut it out. The reality is that Congress doesn't regulate Wall Street. Wall Street and their lobbyists regulate Congress. We must change that reality, and as president, I will. -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, in Manhattan, Tuesday ...

... Yamiche Alcindor & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in a fiery speech on Tuesday laid out his plan to break up 'too big to fail' commercial banks and pointedly attacked Hillary Clinton for taking speaking fees from the financial industry and, in his view, not going far enough in her plan to regulate Wall Street. The criticism of Mrs. Clinton was some of Mr. Sanders's strongest to date, and came after he had frequently refrained from such direct attacks."

Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Most of the Republican presidential contenders and their allies are now waging campaigns focused on fear -- bombarding voters with ominous television spots that warn of national security threats and amping up their alarming rhetoric on the stump.... The candidates are scrambling to out-muscle one another, offering dark assessments of the Obama administration's fight against violent extremists and warning that their rivals are ill-equipped to take up the cause." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Siders of the Sacramento Bee: "Ted Cruz has surged to a statistical tie with Donald Trump among Republicans in California, while Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina have tumbled in this late-voting state, according to a new poll." ...

... digby: "California rarely matters in presidential primaries because it happens so late in the cycle but this year it might be different for Republicans. They could easily still be in the thick of it in June.... California wingnuts are among the wingnuttiest of all wingnuts. Luckily for those of us who live here they are in a minority and likely to stay that way as long as they remain so wingnutty. If Trump and Cruz are still sparring over who hates immigrants the most by the time they get here it should be a very good year for Democrats."

Ken Vogel & Daniel Samuelsohn of Politico: "Donald Trump's rivals cling to the hope that the surprise GOP presidential front-runner lacks the know-how to lure supporters to the polls, but Politico has learned that his campaign several months ago assembled an experienced data team to build sophisticated models to transform fervor into votes."

Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump described voter fraud as a rampant problem during a rally on Tuesday night, even though the number of proven cases is minuscule. 'Look, you've got to have real security with the voting system,' Trump said during a campaign event in western New Hampshire. 'This voting system is out of control. You have people, in my opinion, that are voting many, many times. They don't want security, they don't want cards.'" ...

Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Donald Trump says it would be 'very interesting' to ask Bill Clinton how he was different from Bill Cosby."

... Trump Birthism, Redux. Robert Costa & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump said in an interview that rival Ted Cruz's Canadian birthplace was a 'very precarious' issue that could make the senator from Texas vulnerable if he became the Republican presidential nominee. 'Republicans are going to have to ask themselves the question: "Do we want a candidate who could be tied up in court for two years?" That'd be a big problem,' Trump said when asked about the topic. 'It'd be a very precarious one for Republicans because he'd be running and the courts may take a long time to make a decision.... A lot of people are talking about it and I know that even some states are looking at it very strongly, the fact that he was born in Canada and he has had a double passport.'" ...

Jim Newell of Slate: Ted Cruz thinks Donald Trump is too soft on immigration.... "'And in fact, look, there's a difference. He's advocated allowing folks to come back in and become citizens. I oppose that.' He then name-checks Congress's two most cherished anti-immigration conservatives, Rep. Steve King and Sen. Jeff Sessions, as collaborators on his immigration plan." ...

... Ted Cruz's weird anti-immigration ad, which is running in New Hampshire:

... Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Aside from the fact that most journalists are not normally dressed in wingtips and suits, the economic effect of illegal immigration cannot easily be summarized as a 'calamity.' Some studies have found immigrants who arrived illegally lowered the wages of American-born adults without a high school diploma. But other studies have concluded that immigration is often an overall boost to local economies, because the presence of new workers creates demand for housing, food and other essentials."

"Rubio Can't 'Slime His Way to the White House.'" Philip Rucker & Robert Costa: "As Chris Christie's establishment rivals seize on his blue-state governing record, the New Jersey governor punched back here Tuesday with the kind of bluntness that had been his trademark.... Sen. Marco Rubio charged that Christie has been too closely aligned with President Obama..., echoing twin attack ads aired here by his allied super PAC. Meanwhile, allies of Ohio Gov. John Kasich filled mailboxes in New Hampshire with a biting pamphlet that reads, 'Chris Christie: Tough talk. Weak record.' 'I just don't think Marco Rubio's going to be able to slime his way to the White House,' Christie said. 'He wants to put out a whole bunch of negative ads? Go ahead....'"

Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "Jeb Bush, who promised to run for president by showing voters his heart, is making an especially personal appeal in New Hampshire on Tuesday, where he plans to discuss his daughter's struggles with addiction. Speaking at a forum on addiction and the heroin epidemic at Southern New Hampshire University in the afternoon, Mr. Bush will not only unveil his drug control strategy but also talk about how his family has intimately experienced the ravages of addiction." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update. Ashley Parker: "On Tuesday, Mr. Bush spoke of how his family dealt with his daughter's difficulties, which became uncomfortably public when he was governor of Florida.... Mr. Bush has said he first checked with his daughter, now 38 and in recovery, before sharing her story, which he did at a forum on heroin addiction." ...

... Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "... Jeb Bush apologized Tuesday night for conflating his gun rights record by suggesting that he received an award from the National Rifle Association that doesn't exist." CW: Jeb! is a jerk, but he's not a crazy jerk, like Republicans' favorite presidential candidate. ...

... Super Media Man. Mark Murray of NBC News: "Jeb Bush and his allies have now spent $49 million in advertisements, including $23 million in New Hampshire and another $10 million in Iowa, according to data from NBC News partner SMG Delta." CW: Congratulations to media outlets in New Hampshire & Iowa. They should get together & give Bush a nice consolation prize after he loses. He likes getting prizes & will brag about them even if he forgets what they were or who gave them to him.

Congressional Race

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Representative Steve Israel, a New York Democrat who led political messaging for his party in the House, will not run for re-election, he said Tuesday. Mr. Israel, a seven-term congressman from Long Island with centrist leanings, led the campaign effort for House Democrats in the 2012 and 2014 election cycles and was seen as one of his party's top strategists." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

We are doing the same thing as Rosa Parks did. We are standing up against bad laws which dehumanize us and destroy our freedom. -- Ammon Bundy (@Ammon_Bundy) tweet, January 6, 2016

... Justin Moyer of the Washington Post: "To be clear: Rosa Parks ... was protesting legally sanctioned discrimination. She was willing to be arrested -- to serve time and expose an unjust system. Bundy, armed and possibly dangerous, takes a quite different position. He says his protest won't 'end until we get our public lands back,' denying the federal government's role in land management -- a legally dubious position. And, crucially, he doesn't seem willing, as Parks did, to nobly march into a jail cell. Quite the opposite. As he put it: 'If force is used against us we will defend ourselves.'" ...

.... Les Zaitz of the Oregonian: "Steps are in motion to resolve militants' occupation of a federal compound outside of town, Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward said Tuesday. 'There are things being done,' Ward said. 'It's not visible to the public.' The sheriff sought to assure the community and the country that police aren't sitting back and leaving the group of about 20 militants with a free hand.... Police so far haven't cordoned off the refuge, about 30 miles southeast of Burns, or taken any other steps against the militants, such as cutting off electricity to the compound." ...

... Quoctrung Bui & Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times on why the federal government owns so much land in the Western states.

Kirkland An of the Washington Post: "Wheaton College, an evangelical college in Illinois, had placed associate professor of political science Larycia Hawkins on administrative leave after she made a controversial theological statement on Facebook that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. The school has now begun the process to fire her due to an 'impasse,' it said in a statement released on Tuesday." CW: Hawkins is a tenured professor at a school where the definition of "tenure" apparently means something different from what it does in the rest of academia.

Way Beyond

Ben Hubbard, et al., of the New York Times: "For Iraq, which barely survived years of sectarian civil war, the hostilities between Iran and Saudi Arabia could once again foil Sunni-Shiite cooperation -- and empower the Islamic State."

Melissa Eddy of the New York Times: "German authorities said on Tuesday that coordinated attacks in which young women were sexually harassed and robbed by hundreds of young men on New Year's Eve in the western city of Cologne were unprecedented in scale and nature. The assault, which went largely unreported for days, set off a national outcry after the Cologne police described the attackers as young men 'who appeared to have a North African or Arabic' background, based on testimony from victims and witnesses. More than 90 people have filed legal complaints, the police said on Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

Los Angeles Times: "Another El Niño-fueled storm -- the third this week -- moved into Southern California today, sending flood water and mud onto roadways." The page is a liveblog of storm-related events.

The Commentariat -- January 5, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Representative Steve Israel, a New York Democrat who led political messaging for his party in the House, will not run for re-election, he said Tuesday. Mr. Israel, a seven-term congressman from Long Island with centrist leanings, led the campaign effort for House Democrats in the 2012 and 2014 election cycles and was seen as one of his party's top strategists."

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "With tears streaming down his face, President Obama on Tuesday condemned the repeated spasms of gun violence across America as he announced new executive actions intended to reduce the number of mass shootings, suicides and killings that have become routine in the nation's communities." ...

... You'll tear up, too:

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "At least 52 people in the United States were killed by domestic extremists in 2015, the highest number in two decades, according to a report released Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism."

Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Most of the Republican presidential contenders and their allies are now waging campaigns focused on fear -- bombarding voters with ominous television spots that warn of national security threats and amping up their alarming rhetoric on the stump.... The candidates are scrambling to out-muscle one another, offering dark assessments of the Obama administration's fight against violent extremists and warning that their rivals are ill-equipped to take up the cause."

Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "Jeb Bush, who promised to run for president by showing voters his heart, is making an especially personal appeal in New Hampshire on Tuesday, where he plans to discuss his daughter's struggles with addiction. Speaking at a forum on addiction and the heroin epidemic at Southern New Hampshire University in the afternoon, Mr. Bush will not only unveil his drug control strategy but also talk about how his family has intimately experienced the ravages of addiction."

Melissa Eddy of the New York Times: "German authorities said on Tuesday that coordinated attacks in which young women were sexually harassed and robbed by hundreds of young men on New Year's Eve in the western city of Cologne were unprecedented in scale and nature. The assault, which went largely unreported for days, set off a national outcry after the Cologne police described the attackers as young men 'who appeared to have a North African or Arabic' background, based on testimony from victims and witnesses. More than 90 people have filed legal complaints, the police said on Tuesday."

*****

David Nakamura & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration on Monday unveiled a series of new executive actions aimed at reducing gun violence and making some political headway on one of the most frustrating policy areas of President Obama's tenure. The package, which Obama plans to announce Tuesday, includes 10 separate provisions, White House officials said. One key provision would require more gun sellers -- especially those who do business on the Internet and at gun shows -- to be licensed and would force them to conduct background checks on potential buyers.... 'The gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage, but they can't hold America hostage. We can't accept this carnage in our communities,' Obama said in a Twitter message Monday evening, referring to the National Rifle Association." ...

... Here's the White House "fact sheet" on the new regulations. ...

... Michael Shear & Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "President Obama said on Monday that in the next several days he planned to take executive actions on guns that were 'well within' his legal authority and were supported by the majority of Americans. Speaking to reporters after a meeting in the Oval Office with Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and other top federal law enforcement officials, Mr. Obama declined to specify the actions he would take to keep guns from criminals, mentally ill people and others":

... Gregor Aisch & Josh Keller of the New York Times: "More guns were sold in December than almost any other month in nearly two decades, continuing a pattern of spikes in sales after terrorist attacks and calls for stricter gun-buying laws, according to federal data released on Monday. The heaviest sales last month, driven primarily by handgun sales, followed a call from President Obama to make it harder to buy assault weapons after the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif." ...

... Rebecca Leber of the New Republic: "Republicans are furious at President Obama for giving them what they asked for to curb gun violence. Even before the full details of Obama's executive actions on gun violence came out on Tuesday, Republican leaders in Congress and the 2016 presidential field condemned him. Yet tucked into Obama's plan for strengthening gun sales reporting, sharing interstate records, and accelerating background check data is precisely what they have long demanded: A focus on mental health." ...

... IOKIYAR. Digby, in Salon, reflects on House Speaker Paul Ryan's views on executive orders. Funny, if you think paradicmatic hypocrisy is funny.

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced Monday that federal immigration authorities apprehended 121 adults and children in raids over the New Year's weekend as part of a nationwide operation to deport a new wave of illegal immigrants. The families taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were living in Georgia, Texas and North Carolina, Johnson said in a statement. They are being held temporarily in federal detention centers before being deported to Central America.... The raids were the first in a broad operation by the Obama administration that is targeting hundreds of families for deportation who have crossed the southern U.S. border illegally since the start of last year. The operation, first reported by The Washington Post, is the first large-scale effort to deport families fleeing violence in Central America, authorities said."

Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times: "In [a] new poll, conducted by The New York Times and the Kaiser Family Foundation, roughly 20 percent of people under age 65 with health insurance nonetheless reported having problems paying their medical bills over the last year. By comparison, 53 percent of people without insurance said the same.... In recent years, health plans have come with growing deductibles and narrowing networks of providers, provisions devised to lower the cost of premiums. Those features have made health insurance accessible to a larger share of the population, but may also be leaving more insured Americans vulnerable." ...

... Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times suggests some needed fixes to ObamaCare. CW: Of course, these won't happen. Because Republicans.

Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention need 'considerable work' before the government's top public health agency can achieve a culture of safety at its laboratories, according to a new report."

Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times: "The California Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for the Legislature to place an advisory measure on the November ballot asking voters their views on campaign spending. The court had previously blocked the measure after a conservative group challenged it, arguing lawmakers were not legally entitled to put advisory propositions before voters. The proposition asks voters whether there should be a federal constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United vs. FEC, which permitted unlimited corporate and union spending for federal candidates."

Norm Ornstein of the Atlantic details the factors he thinks led to "Trumpism." However the election turns out, Trumpism itself is not going to go away. Do read the Paulson-Geithner-Summers section. CW: It's worth noting, as Ornstein does not, that the rise of the Tea party began with a protest against helping homeowners burdened with underwater mortgages, a program which -- as Ornstein does remark -- "was never fully implemented." At Geithner's direction, the Home Affordable Refinancing Program -- created on paper in early 2009 -- went dark until 2012, an election year.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jennifer Robison of the Las Vegas Review-Journal: "The Connecticut newspaper publisher at the center of a national media-ethics firestorm is no longer managing the Las Vegas Review-Journal or its parent company. Michael Edward Schroeder has left his position as manager of the Review-Journal, as well as manager of News + Media Capital Group LLC, the Delaware company that bought the RJ for $140 million on Dec. 10. Schroeder, who was introduced to RJ staffers as the newspaper's new 'manager' the day the sale closed, 'will have no role whatsoever with regard to the paper,' said Mark Fabiani, a spokesman for the family of Sheldon Adelson, which owns News + Media." ...

... Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "The revelation came just hours after the staff of The Review-Journal met with David J. Butler, the executive editor of The Providence Journal, who was brought in by management to discuss guidelines on how to cover Mr. Adelson and his corporate interests, according to a reporter at the meeting."

Call Me Pythia. CW: As I predicted yesterday morning, the headline to Greg Sargent's Monday morning post changed sometime during the day. Old headline: "Donald Trump's new TV ad: Make America great by keeping the darkies out." New headline: "Donald Trump's new TV ad: Make America great by keeping the dark hordes out." Of course "darkies" is fixed in the URL.

Presidential Race

Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "Eight years after aggressively defending his wife during her first presidential campaign, Bill Clinton was unusually understated and subdued on Monday during his first solo swing back in New Hampshire for Hillary Clinton, restraining himself even in the face of taunts from Donald J. Trump." ...

... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "As her husband tried to stay on message in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton embarked on a 'River to River' tour of Iowa on Monday, with six events across the state over two days. With a new Republican-led effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act potentially up for a vote this week in Congress, Mrs. Clinton focused her remarks on her plans to preserve, but improve on, President Obama’s sweeping health care plan."

At some point, we have to deal with the fact that there are at least two candidates [Trump & Cruz] who could utterly destroy the Republican bench for a generation if they became the nominee. We'd be hard-pressed to elect a Republican dogcatcher north of the Mason-Dixon or west of the Mississippi. -- Josh Holmes, former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

Eugene Emery & Louis Jacobson of PolitiFact: "In a new television ad [embedded on the Commentariat yesterday] -- his campaign's first -- ... Donald Trump shows footage of dozens of people swarming over a border fence.... Trump's television ad purports to show Mexicans swarming over 'our southern border.' However, the footage used to support this point actually shows African migrants streaming over a border fence between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla, more than 5,000 miles away." ...

... Ali Vitali, et al., of NBC News: "Asked about the video, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told NBC News, 'No s***, it's not the Mexican border but that's what our country is going to look like. This was 1,000 percent on purpose.'" ...

... Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: "... Trump's hate, his theories, his xenophobia and bigotry, and his intimations of deceit and foreign infiltration at the highest levels of the White House -- it's all a thousand per cent on purpose." ...

... Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "Donald Trump's new ad echoes the anti-immigrant campaign that doomed the California GOP. Explaining the Trump phenomenon is difficult for anyone who doesn't recognize that racism is still widespread in America, and harder still for anyone of the 'both sides' bent, who can't admit that its main political outlet runs through the Republican Party." ...

... So leave it to John Dickerson of Slate, who is also the star of CBS's "Face the Nation," to praise the ad. And you wonder why I don't watch the Sunday showz.

As former NRA Statesman of the Year, I will fight to protect the 2nd Amendment. A clear contrast to @HillaryClinton. -- Jeb Bush (@JebBush) ...

CW: At least John Cassidy of the New Yorker was horrified by Donald Trump's cutting off funds for medical care for his seriously-ill nephew in retaliation for a lawsuit brought by the infant's father. Not too many other professional commentators remarked on the report, although Melissa Cronin of Gawker is also appalled.

Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "According to Politico reporter Shane Goldmacher, [Marco] Rubio responded to a query about missing Senate votes by saying, 'We're not going to fix America with senators and congressmen.' Being a senator is one of the most powerful political jobs in America. If Rubio feels that the Senate isn't fulfilling his sense of purpose, he might want to look into other professions — maybe teaching or medicine." CW: I suspect that for Marco, medicine would be too trying, if only because Dr. Rubio would have to show up for work maybe four days a week. He already has a teaching job, so I'd suggest he stick with that -- the hours are short.

Oops! Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "A spokesman for Jeb Bush's campaign told BuzzFeed News on Monday that Bush had 'mistaken and conflated' his story about receiving the National Rifle Association's 'statesman of the year' award. The former Florida governor has told the story on several occasions, saying he received a rifle from then-NRA president Charlton Heston and was the recipient of the group's 'statesman of the year' honor in 2003.... The Sarasota Republican Party in Florida does hand out out an annual 'statesman of the year' award, the most recent receipt being Donald Trump." ...

... CW: There's your difference between Jeb! & Donald. Jeb!'s campaign admitted he plumped his resume'. When Trump gets caught in these types of fibs & lies, he denies thelies & blames the media for misreporting the "facts."

The Second Amendment to the Constitution isn't for just protecting hunting rights, and it's not only to safeguard your right to target practice. It is a Constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny -- for the protection of liberty. -- Ted Cruz ...

... Dana Milbank: "Several of the Republican presidential candidates have been encouraging lawbreaking, winking at it or simply looking the other way.... Flirting with extremists helps conservative candidates harness the prodigious anger in the electorate." ...

... Ted & Marco Find Their Voices. Igor Bobic & Samantha-Jo Roth of the Huffington Post: "... Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) urged a peaceful resolution to the armed occupation of a federal building in Oregon.... 'Every one of us has a constitutional right to protest, to speak our minds, but we don't have a constitutional right to use force of violence or threaten force of violence on others,' Cruz told reporters before a campaign event in Iowa.... Rubio similarly urged the armed militants to pursue a more peaceful means of protest. 'You can't be lawless. We live in a republic,' the Florida Republican told Iowa radio station KBUR on Monday. 'There are ways to change the laws of this country and the policies. If we get frustrated with it, that's why we have elections...."

Beyond the Beltway

John Glionna & Jason Wilson of the Guardian: "Federal authorities are planning to cut off the power of the wildlife refuge in Oregon that has been taken over by militia, exposing the armed occupiers to sub-zero temperatures in an effort to flush them out.... 'After they shut off the power, they'll kill the phone service,' the government official added. 'Then they'll block all the roads so that all those guys have a long, lonely winter to think about what they've done.' Snowstorms are expected in the wilderness surrounding the refuge on Tuesday, which is some 30 miles from the town of Burns. At night, temperatures are forecast to plummet to -8C (18F).... [Ammon] Bundy has repeatedly said the group is prepared for the long-haul. However during a tour of the site on earlier in the day, the Guardian was shown a food storage room that did not look like it could sustain a dozen men for more than a few weeks." CW: Nice to see the feds are taking our (no-brainer) advice. ...

... Les Zaitz of the Oregonian: "Two militants occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge issued a video appeal Monday for supporters to join them 'to prevent any bloodshed.'" ...

... Carissa Wolf & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The FBI is leading the investigation into the armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon and says it will work with local and state authorities to seek 'a peaceful resolution to the situation.'... Federal authorities said they would not elaborate on how they plan to respond.... Both ranchers [at the center of the original dispute] -- Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven -- reported to federal prison on Monday." ...

... Russ Choma of Mother Jones: "... not long ago, Ammon Bundy sought out [and received] help from the government he now decries and received a federal small-business loan guarantee. Ammon Bundy runs a Phoenix-based company called Valet Fleet Services LLC, which specializes in repairing and maintaining fleets of semitrucks throughout Arizona. On April 15, 2010 -- Tax Day, as it happens -- Bundy's business borrowed $530,000 through a Small Business Administration loan guarantee program. The available public record does not indicate what the loan was used for or whether it was repaid.... The government estimated that this subsidy could cost taxpayers $22,419. Bundy did not respond to an email request for comment about the SBA loan. " Ammon also wrote a Facebook post in which he was critical of the government's involvement of business -- CW: I guess like giving businesspeople loan guarantees. ...

     ... CW: Runs in the family. Cliven Bundy, of course, also received substantial help from the federal government when it allowed him to graze his cattle on federal land -- for a fee, which he didn't pay. ...

... ** Charles Pierce: "In a small place in Oregon, the essential compact of the United States of America has come apart.... It began, as so many noxious elements of our politics did, with the Reagan Administration. It began with a man named Ron Arnold, and a Secretary of the Interior named James Watt, and in something called the Wise Use movement with which the Republican party ... allied itself for its political advantage in the western part of the country." ...

... ** Paul Waldman: "Sean Hannity practically made [Cliven] Bundy his Fox News co-host for a couple of weeks. Their bizarre claims about the government and the means they were using to lodge their complaints -- an armed standoff -- were validated and promoted again and again by the media outlets conservatives rely on for their news.... The Bundys' actions can be viewed as an outgrowth of conservative rhetoric over the years of Barack Obama's presidency.... The line between mainstream rhetoric and that of the radical fringe disappeared, with popular television hosts and backbench Republican House members spouting conspiracy theories about FEMA concentration camps and the Department of Homeland Security stockpiling ammunition in preparation for some horrific campaign of repression. Nearly every policy with which conservatives disagreed was decried as the death of freedom itself.... Now combine that with the way so many Republicans talk about guns -- not just as a tool of self-protection, but as something whose essential purpose is to intimidate government officials." ...

... Gene Robinson: "What do you think the response would be if a bunch of black people, filled with rage and armed to the teeth, took over a federal government installation and defied officials to kick them out? I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be wait-and-see. Probably more like point-and-shoot. Or what if the occupiers were Mexican American? They wouldn't be described with the semi-legitimizing term 'militia,' harking to the days of the patriots. And if the gun-toting citizens happened to be Muslim, heaven forbid, there would be wall-to-wall cable news coverage of the 'terrorist assault.' I can hear Donald Trump braying for blood." ...

... Jim Dalrymple of BuzzFeed: "Mormonism has a long, complicated history of conflict with the federal government, and that history is deeply informing the actions of the militia members and ranchers who took over a government building Saturday. God told Ammon Bundy to fight back against the government." CW: I guess it's time for Mitt to weigh in. ...

... Tad Walch of the Deseret (Salt Lake City) News: "LDS Church leaders on Monday plainly and roundly denounced a militia whose organizers cited Mormon scriptures in the months before they seized a federal facility in Oregon on Saturday." ...

... Robert Bateman of Esquire introduces you to three of the nutjobs leading the Oregon insurrection. CW: I suspect I'm giving them way too much attention.

American "Justice," Ctd. Matt Hamilton & Richard Winton of the Los Angeles Times: "A 'failure of leadership' at the Orange County district attorney's office led to repeated problems with handling jailhouse informants and helped erode confidence in cases that rely on such evidence, according to a report made public Monday. The findings, presented by a special committee created by Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas, described the office as functioning 'as a ship without a rudder' and said some of its prosecutors adopted a 'win-at-all-costs mentality.'" CW: This is the second story I've linked in as many days about major metropolitan-area district attorneys' operations that encourage some form of corruption. When you think over the years of other, similar stories you've read or heard, it's difficult to pretend our system of justice works, except by chance.

AP: "A former South Carolina police officer charged with killing an unarmed black motorist [Walter Scott] was released on bond on Monday, officials said. Circuit judge Clifton Newman in Charleston allowed a $500,000 surety bond on Monday afternoon for Michael Slager. Newman also set a 31 October trial date. Slager will have to remain in South Carolina while out on bail."

Dana Hedgpeth & Clarence Williams of the Washington Post: "The death of a 74-year-old man who suffered neck injuries during a struggle with security guards last fall at MedStar Washington Hospital Center has been ruled a homicide, authorities said Monday."

Louis Sahagun of the Los Angeles Times: "Southern California Gas Co. crews are erecting mesh screens around the utility's leaking natural gas injection well to prevent an oily mist from drifting off the site and across the nearby community of Porter Ranch, company officials confirmed on Monday." CW: That should solve the problem.

Way Beyond

Sewell Chan of the New York Times: "Kuwait recalled its ambassador to Iran on Tuesday, the latest country to side with Saudi Arabia in a widening diplomatic feud with Iran that has roiled the region, put the United States in a bind and threatened to set back the prospects for peace in Syria."

News Ledes

Guardian: "One US service member has died and two were injured in an operation in southern Afghanistan, according to the US military command in Kabul."

Weather Channel: "WSI, a division of The Weather Company, issued their January through March 2016 outlook update, and both forecast temperatures and precipitation have the fingerprints of the current strong El Niño, the strongest in 18 years, all over them. The forecast includes the potential for a significant cold snap in parts of the central and eastern states starting in the middle portion of January."