The Commentariat -- Dec. 20, 2015

Internal links removed.

Presidential Race

Thank you, good night, and may the force be with you. -- Hillary Clinton, closing the debate

Philip Rucker & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "The Democratic presidential candidates presented competing visions for defeating Islamic State terrorists and clashed passionately at a debate here Saturday night over tax policy, the power and wealth of Wall Street, gun control and other domestic issues."

Dan Roberts & Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "Deep divisions between the Democratic presidential candidates opened up in New Hampshire on Saturday night, as Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders sparred over military intervention in the Middle East, healthcare, taxes and their support for big business."

Alan Yuhas of the Guardian highlights key points that emerged during the debate.

Jonathan Martin & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton largely looked past her Democratic rivals in Saturday night's debate, instead repeatedly assailing the Republican field, led by Donald J. Trump. She called Mr. Trump a threat to the nation's safety, saying he was fast 'becoming ISIS' best recruiter.' Deflecting persistent attacks from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland over gun control, Wall Street and foreign military entanglements, she accused Mr. Trump of undermining the fight against terrorism."

CW: It struck me that one person who didn't get much mention during this debate was Barack Obama.

The Guardian is liveblogging the debate. The Los Angeles Times' liveblog is here. ...

... The Washington Post is running an annotated transcript.

He is becoming ISIS's best recruiter. They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists. -- Hillary Clinton, during the debate ...

... Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Hillary Clinton has claimed that ISIS is showing videos of Donald Trump's comments about Muslims in an effort to 'recruit more radical jihadists.'... It is unclear whether the former secretary of State was speaking metaphorically or had evidence to back up the specific charge that footage of Trump was being used." ...

... Louise Jacobson of PolitiFact: "We were unable to find any evidence to support this. The Clinton campaign did not provide any evidence that this is already happening -- only that it could be happening, or that it may in the future. If ISIS was using Trump for recruitment videos, we would expect a frenzy of media coverage over it."

Here's the Washington Post's fact-check of claims candidates made during the debate.

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "... Bernie Sanders apologized to Hillary Clinton on Saturday night for his campaign's inappropriate viewing of proprietary voter information that was gathered by her campaign.... Sanders was critical of the DNC's response -- temporarily shutting off his campaign's access to the database -- which he said he said had the effect of 'crippling our campaign.'" CW: Very disappointing. I was hoping for a childish brawl.

Hadas Gold of Politico: "Whether grilling Bernie Sanders for details of his single-payer health proposal or nearly leaping out of her chair to challenge Hillary Clinton on the merits of her proposed no-fly zone in Syria, ABC's Martha Raddatz was an animating force of Saturday's Democratic debate."

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: How to Watch the Debate: "On television: ABC is kicking off its programming at 8 p.m. eastern and the two-hour debate is expected to start around 8:30 p.m. Online: The debate will be streaming on www.abcnews.com/live and it will be available for viewing on the network's mobile apps, and on Apple TV, Roku and Xbox One. Login credentials or other forms of authentication will not be required. On the radio: People who prefer hearing but not seeing the political action can listen to the debate on ABC Radio. Social media: Facebook and Twitter will be buzzing with #DemDebate chatter for anyone looking to monitor the conversation surrounding the debate in real-time." ...

... CW: Also, too, you can watch it on a New York Times page.

Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "... intentional or not, O'Malley and Sanders are right...: A small ABC audience helps Clinton, who leads the nominating race by 25 points nationally and by about that same amount in Iowa (New Hampshire is closer). She's the default nominee and has been for, well, years. For voters to latch on to someone else, they need to see someone else. And to see someone else, they need to be watching Bernie and Martin, not Dorothy and Toto."

Amber Phillips of the Washington Post previews some of the issues that may come up in Saturday's Democratic debate. Tops on her list: the voter data breach. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The Democratic National Committee laid out a detailed timeline Saturday of what happened when Senator Bernie Sanders's campaign aides gained access to and copied Hillary Clinton's proprietary voter data during a technological glitch, revealing new details to explain why it had blocked Mr. Sanders's team from seeing its own data.... During Saturday night's debate, Mr. Sanders repeated his complaint that the punishment was unfair, but he also apologized to Mrs. Clinton. His campaign also said Saturday that it had suspended two aides over the matter. It had earlier fired its national data director." ...

... The DNC's defense of its actions -- described above as a timeline -- is here. ...

... ** David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "... it's undeniable that the Sanders campaign gleaned valuable information.... It's also quite clear that most of the statements the Sanders campaign made as the story progressed -- from the claim that the staffers only did it to prove the security breach, or that only one staffer had access -- were simply not true.... In this context, it made sense for Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC to suspend the Sanders campaign's access to the data until it could determine the extent of the damage, and the degree to which the Clinton campaign's private data had been compromised. As it turns out the ethical breach by Sanders operatives was massive, but the actual data discovery was limited.... The Sanders camp's reactions have been laughable.... The Clinton camp did nothing wrong in any of this. Sanders campaign operatives did, and then Wasserman-Schultz compounded it by overreacting." ...

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: [Bernie] "Sanders's supporters responded to the dispute [with the DNC & the Clinton campaign] by opening their wallets. By the end of the day Friday, the campaign had collected more than $1 million, the vast majority of it over the Internet, according to the person close to the campaign...." ...

... Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Bernie Sanders has gotten more individual donations than any other presidential candidate ever through the campaign's off-year -- topping President Barack Obama's mark of 2,209,636 donations through Dec. 31, 2011 -- his team announced following Saturday night's Democratic debate. Sanders passed Obama's re-election total during the debate, his communications director Michael Briggs said."

Since we're talking about the Democrats' debate, might as well reprise the last GOP debate:

Apparently, this actual ad ran during the airing of SNL:

... Wolf in Sheep's Clothing. Steve M.: "On one level, this is cringe-inducing. On another level, the ad ... makes him seem like a harmless suburban dad.... The jokes are the usual tiresome right-wing attacks -- Lois Lerner! Obamacare! -- but done up this way, they seem almost gentle.... Cruz has been working hard to make himself seem human and relatable.... This is scary. Cruz could be the nominee, and much of the public really might fall for this sort of thing and imagine that he's not really a bad guy, and certainly not the dangerous extremist he actually is.... Because most people don't follow politics very closely, Cruz's awfulness is not self-evident to the broad public." ...

... Whaddaya Mean, "Dangerous Extremist"? Kevin Cirilli of Bloomberg: "... Ted Cruz said Saturday that he wants one of the Senate's most vocal opponents of illegal immigration as his homeland security secretary. 'For anyone who wonders, "Can we really secure the border?" I've got three words for you: Secretary Jeff Sessions'; Cruz told a Saturday rally in the Alabama, the state that Sessions has represented for four terms in the Senate." CW: In 1986, Ronald Reagan couldn't get out of committee Sessions' nomination to a federal judgeship. Maybe the Senate wouldn't confirm Sessions to a Cabinet post either. Of course it was a very different Senate back in the day; for one thing, Sessions wasn't a member.

Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Donald Trump doubled down Friday on his love for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and said there's 'a lot of truth' to earlier comments he made about the U.S. killing people like Russia." Includes audio, sadly, absent a British accent (see yesterday's Commentariat). ...

... Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Saturday that anyone who criticizes the warm compliments he has swapped with Russian President Vladimir Putin is simply 'jealous as hell.' Although Putin has been accused of a lengthy list of human rights violations, Trump has maintained that Russia could be a powerful partner for the United States -- and one that could help the country save some money." ...

... Benjamin Oreskes of Politico: "Four years ago Mitt Romney... definitively stated that Russia was America's biggest 'geopolitical foe.' This week, the far-and-away Republican poll leader Donald Trump gave Vladimir Putin a big, wet kiss.... Trump's warm embrace of the Russian president has shocked and alarmed the Republican establishment.... As the United States and its allies try to beat back Russia's intrusions into Ukraine and Syria, Trump has ruffled countless feathers by cozying up to the Russian leader.... 'Important distinction: thug Putin kills journalists and opponents; our presidents kill terrorists and enemy combatants,' Romney tweeted."

Ashley Parker of the New York Times: Jeb!'s "strategy to save his faltering campaign now involves attacking Mr. Trump, forcefully and frequently.... Nonetheless, Mr. Bush still sits in single digits in the polls, and New Hampshire has become a must-win state for him." ...

... OR, as Joanna Walters of the Guardian suggests, Jeb!, after asserting that "you can't insult your way to the presidency" a la the Donald Trump model, tries to insult his way to the presidency by calling Trump a "jerk" & other stuff.

Other News & Opinion

** Andrew O'Hehir of Salon on the U.S. political landscape. Hint: it's mighty bleak. I'm sure some of you can find nits to pick with O'Hehir's assessment, but I find it depressingly accurate.

** Carlos Lozada of the Washington Post: "Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America explains the U.S. today.

Eric Yoder of the Washington Post: "President Obama has finalized a pay raise for federal employees in January, the last step in a year-long process that started and ended at the same number, 1.3 percent. Obama issued an order Friday evening making the raise effective for most federal employees, as of the first full biweekly pay period of the new year, which will start Jan. 10 for most." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "In an interview with Foreign Policy magazine published Friday, [former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel] said he remains puzzled why [Obama] White House officials tried to 'destroy' him personally in his last days in office, adding that he was convinced the United States had no viable strategy in Syria and was particularly frustrated with National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who he said would hold meetings and focus on 'nit-picky' details." The interview is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "For the past two years, the Pentagon has acknowledged having a severe problem with sexual assault in the ranks. Military leaders have promised Congress, the White House and their own troops that they are redoubling efforts to protect victims and punish offenders. But those pledges­ have been undermined by a string of previously undisclosed cases­ in which soldiers entrusted with key roles in the campaign against sexual assault and harassment have, in turn, been accused of committing those very offenses, according to a Washington Post investigation.... Last year, the [Army] fired or reassigned 588 people from their jobs as victim counselors, military recruiters and 'positions of trust' after background checks revealed a history of sex crimes, child abuse, drunken driving and other offenses."

Michael Rosenwald of the Washington Post: "Spooked by a year of high-profile rampages, hundreds of companies and organizations ... are racing to train their workers how to react to a shooter in their workplaces. And after decades of telling employees to lock down and shelter in place, they are teaching them to fight back if evacuating is not an option. The idea: Work as a team to disrupt and confuse shooters, opening up a split second to take them down. The paradigm shift in response -- from passive to active -- has been endorsed and promoted by the Department of Homeland Security."

Where Assault Rifles are "Good, Clean Fun." Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "In his Oval Office address on Dec. 6, [President] Obama expressed the exasperation shared by millions of Americans: How can we not limit weapons that can kill dozens in minutes? Why would any sport shooter need extra hand grips and a magazine holding 30 or even 100 cartridges? Many gun enthusiasts express deep exasperation of their own. They argue that most non-shooters do not understand the technology and appeal of modern weapons that are widely used for target shooting and, increasingly, hunting. They say proposed bans would do nothing to prevent crime or even lessen the toll of mass shootings.... Variants of the AR-15 design, a civilian version of the military's M-16 without the capacity to fire in automatic bursts, have in recent years been the highest-selling rifles in the country...."

Brian Bennett, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "The Pentagon is considering increasing the pace and scope of cyberattacks against Islamic State, arguing that more aggressive efforts to disable the extremist group's computers, servers and cellphones could help curtail its appeal and disrupt potential terrorist attacks. Military hackers and coders at Cyber Command, based at Fort Meade, Md., have developed an array of malware that could be used to sabotage the militants' propaganda and recruitment capabilities, said U.S. officials...." ...

     ... CW: Weirdly, I think this is kinda what Donald Trump has in mind when he says he wants to "shut down parts of the Internet," even though he doesn't know what he's talking about. Hillary Clinton, who admitted she didn't know how to cut off ISIS's lines of communication, suggested something similar in last night's debate, tho she isn't stupid enough to have described the process as "shutting down parts of the Internet."

Beyond the Beltway

Elahi Izadi of the Washington Post: "Old Dixie Highway is no more in Riviera Beach, Fla. Instead, motorists are driving on President Barack Obama Highway. Riviera Beach officials renamed the portion of the highway in their city limits, and the new sign carrying the name of the nation's first black president went up Thursday. Old Dixie, officials said, paid homage to an era that glorified slavery." CW: Old Dixie Highway is the main street of many towns along Florida's east coast. Here's hoping other towns get with the Riviera Beach program. (But I'm not counting on it.) (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

AP: "Kenyan authorities are interrogating several suspects who were on an Air France flight from Mauritius to Paris that was forced to land early Sunday in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa after a device suspected to be a bomb was found in a lavatory. A few passengers are being questioned, said Kenya's Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery, speaking at a press conference at the Mombasa airport. Bomb experts are inspecting the device to see if it was an explosive, he said."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 19, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Amber Phillips of the Washington Post previews some of the issues that may come up in tonight's Democratic debate. Tops on her list: the voter data breach.

Eric Yoder of the Washington Post: "President Obama has finalized a pay raise for federal employees in January, the last step in a year-long process that started and ended at the same number, 1.3 percent. Obama issued an order Friday evening making the raise effective for most federal employees, as of the first full biweekly pay period of the new year, which will start Jan. 10 for most."

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "In an interview with Foreign Policy magazine published Friday, [former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel] said he remains puzzled why [Obama] White House officials tried to 'destroy' him personally in his last days in office, adding that he was convinced the United States had no viable strategy in Syria and was particularly frustrated with National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who he said would hold meetings and focus on 'nit-picky' details." The interview is here.

Elahi Izadi of the Washington Post: "Old Dixie Highway is no more in Riviera Beach, Fla. Instead, motorists are driving on President Barack Obama Highway. Riviera Beach officials renamed the portion of the highway in their city limits, and the new sign carrying the name of the nation's first black president went up Thursday. Old Dixie, officials said, paid homage to an era that glorified slavery." CW: Old Dixie Highway is the main street of many towns along Florida's east coast. Here's hoping other towns get with the Riviera Beach program. (But I'm not counting on it.)

"My Fair Donald." Prejudice & vitriol sounds evah-so much more palatable when delivered with an upper-crust British accent. British English comedian and actor Peter Serafinowicz provides the voice. Thanks to MAG for the link:

*****

White House: "In this week's address, the President celebrated the end of the year tradition of list-making with a year-in-review list of his own":

Sarah Parvini, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "During a stop on their way to Hawaii for the holidays, [President] Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama came to [San Bernardino to] meet privately with the families of the 14 victims killed two weeks ago in the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001."

Camila Domonoske of NPR: "President Obama wrapped up 2015 by taking another round of questions from the press. At the traditional end-of-year news conference Friday afternoon, Obama began with a list of achievements, including the legalization of same-sex marriage across America and progress made toward addressing global climate change":

Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "President Obama commuted the sentences of 95 drug offenders Friday, more than double the number of commutations he granted earlier this year in July, in an effort to reduce prison crowding and give relief to drug offenders who were harshly sentenced in the nation's war on drugs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Bill Chappell of NPR: "President Obama has signed a $1.1 trillion funding bill that will keep the federal government running until Sept. 30, 2016. Earlier on Friday, the Senate gave final congressional approval to the bill, which includes nearly $700 billion in tax breaks." ...

... David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Congress on Friday morning overwhelmingly gave final approval to a sweeping, year-end fiscal package that includes a $1.15 trillion spending measure as well as $620 billion in tax breaks for businesses and low-income workers. The bill now goes to the White House, where President Obama has said he will sign it." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) "said Friday that he would block the nomination of the Navy's second-ranking civilian leader until the service reconsiders its decision not to punish a prominent admiral accused of retaliating against several whistleblowers.... The move ... escalates the pressure on Navy leaders to take action against Rear Adm. Brian L. Losey, the commander in charge of the service's SEAL teams and other elite units.... Losey, a prominent figure in the military's secretive Special Operations forces, once commanded SEAL Team 6, the clandestine unit known for killing terrorist targets such as Osama bin Laden. He now leads the Naval Special Warfare Command and previously served as a top military aide to the White House."

Julia Preston of the New York Times: Rep. Robert Goodlatte (R-TP-Va,), "the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is raising new questions about the fiancé visa granted to the Pakistani woman who with her husband carried out the massacre in San Bernardino, Calif., saying her application shows she may not have met a core requirement for the visa.... Mr. Goodlatte is a fierce critic of the Obama administration and has argued that visa vetting is lax."

David Chen of the New York Times: "When Hunter College High School announced in March that it had received a $1 million donation -- the largest ever in its century-long history -- from a member of the Class of 2001, many graduates were stunned to learn who the young donor was: Martin Shkreli, a multimillionaire pharmaceuticals executive.... If the charges against Mr. Shkreli are true, his flunking out of Hunter, the prestigious Upper East Side school known for its Ivy League-bound students, was just the first in a series of failures that he would try to overcome with money, his own or other people's.... When asked this week whether Hunter was considering returning the money, a press officer declined to comment." ...

... Guardian: Community Solutions, a homeless charity "that was given a donation worth thousands of dollars by notorious pharmaceuticals entrepreneur Martin Shkreli has said it is giving the money back on moral grounds." ...

... Sarah Karlin of Politico: "Martin Shkreli, who became a lightning rod for criticism about drug price gouging, resigned as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company announced this afternoon, a day after he was charged in a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme unrelated to the company." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Reuters: "After deliberating for most of the year, Isis Pharmaceuticals has announced it will change its name to avoid being confused with the militant group Islamic State, also known as Isis. The biotechnology company said it will be called Ionis Pharmaceuticals starting 22 December and also changed its stock exchange ticker symbol to 'IONS' from 'ISIS'."

Christian Davenport of the Washington Post tells the story of Blake Percival, the whistleblower who exposed USIS for doing background checks on only a portion of the federal government hirees the company had contracted to vet. "USIS, the government contractor that had done the background checks on Edward Snowden and Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis, filed for bankruptcy and went out of business." After four-and-a-half years, Percival just received a $6 million award for reporting USIS, which had fired him for trying to end their practice of dumping cases the company was hired to investigate. "After the attorneys' cut, Percival's share before taxes would be $3.3 million, he said." (Also linked yesterday.)

Liberals Can Be Creeps, Too. Anna Merlan of Jezebel: "Major progressive public relations firm FitzGibbon media abruptly shut down [Thursday] amid numerous allegations that its founder Trevor FitzGibbon sexually harassed and sexually assaulted female staffers. One woman who says she was harassed during a job interview said Friday that FitzGibbon obliquely propositioned her for sex and demanded nude photos of her, and when she declined, the job offer disappeared." ...

... Here's an earlier, related story by Merlan.

Somini Sengupta & David Sanger of the New York Times: "For the first time since the nearly five-year-old Syrian civil war began, world powers agreed on Friday at the United Nations Security Council to embrace a plan for a cease-fire and a peace process that holds the distant prospect of ending the conflict. A resolution adopted unanimously by the Security Council reflected a monthslong effort by American and Russian officials, who have long been at odds over the future of Syria, to find common national interests to stop the killing, even if they cannot yet agree on Syria's ultimate future."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

James DeHaven, et al., of the Las Vegas Review-Journal: "Just over a month before Sheldon Adelson's family was revealed as the new owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, three reporters at the newspaper received an unusual assignment passed down from the newspaper's corporate management: Drop everything and spend two weeks monitoring all activity of three Clark County judges. The reason for the assignment and its unprecedented nature was never explained. One of the three judges observed was District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez, whose current caseload includes Jacobs v. Sands, a long-running wrongful termination lawsuit filed against Adelson and his company, Las Vegas Sands Corp., by Steven Jacobs, who ran Sands' operations in Macau." ...

... Ravi Somaiya & Barry Meier of the New York Times: "The assignment was handed down by corporate management over the objections of the newsroom, the paper reported. No reason was specified for the assignment, the paper's editor, Michael Hengel, said in an interview on Friday, and the material, which the paper said amounted to 15,000 words, was never published."

Margaret Sullivan, the New York Times' public editor: "A Times article Sunday reported that the U.S. government had missed something that was right out there in the open: the jihadist social-media posts by one of the San Bernardino killers.... It was certainly damning -- and it was wrong.... The executive editor, Dean Baquet ... said that some new procedures need to be put in place, especially for dealing with anonymous sources, and he said he would begin working on that immediately.... He said [the reporters'] sources apparently did not know the difference between public and private messages on social-media platforms.... The Times need to fix its overuse of unnamed government sources. And it needs to slow down the reporting and editing process.... If this isn't a red alert, I don't know what will be." (Emphasis added.) (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CW: Excellent. The Times is relying on anonymous sources so ignorant don't know the difference to a private e-mail & a public Facebook post. And nobody at the Times thought even to ask for the URLs of the alleged public postings to see for themselves that they actually existed (which they didn't). This is incredible. I've been a source for reporters at less prestigious newspapers than the Times, & the reporters always check out my tips or allegations. I would be horrified if they didn't. ...

... digby: "'Mr. Baquet rejected the idea that the sources had a political agenda that caused them to plant falsehoods. "There's no reason to think that's the case," he said,' [citing Sullivan]. That ... is just absurd. There is every reason to think that law enforcement sources who consistently leak erroneous information that is politically harmful to one party might have a political agenda. It's certainly happened before." ...

... Hunter of Daily Kos: "... the New York Times helped lead the nation to war by promoting false stories from 'anonymous' sources that merely sought to use the paper as an influential mouthpiece for their own claims -- an effort the Times eventually, begrudgingly itself admitted the error of -- and for us to be back in that same position now, with editors still quite certain in multiple front-page stories that their 'sources' didn't mean any harm by passing on the incendiary-but-false information -- suggests that such editorial skepticism is remarkably difficult to come by." ...

... Gary Legum of Salon: The Times story "feeds the general climate of paranoia and fear of Muslims that has taken hold in the country, particularly on the right wing.... Mistakes of this sort are like tossing gasoline on a fire." ...

... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "The New York Times has attached a three-paragraph editor's note to a front-page Sunday story on the abilities of the U.S. government to surveil the online communications of the San Bernardino, Calif., assailants, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik.... There's a problem here.... The New York Times is attempting to preserve the structure and feel of a story about federal government misfeasance in a world where there appears to be little or no misfeasance. Consider the new-look lede: It appears to fault immigration officials for failing to uncover Malik's online views on jihad. Well of course they failed in that pursuit: Those views were expressed in private -- and quite possibly encrypted -- communications. There should be no expectation that they would be uncovered by immigration officials.... This is an attempt to retrofit a factually poisoned article with replacement parts that don't fit." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Alvin Chang of Vox: "'Tis six days before Christmas and at 8 o'clock at night, Democrats have a debate -- and viewership may be light. But seriously, folks, debates have never been scheduled like this before.... Usually the national parties want people to see their candidates onstage, which is why we've never had a debate this close to Christmas, much less on a Saturday. It is free media.... Republican debates are garnering record viewership, and it's paying off as far as engaging their party." The most charitable explanation is that the DNC is incompetent. "But there's some speculation that the Democratic National Committee scheduled debates on times people don't watch specifically to protect frontrunner Hillary Clinton." ...

... Deck 'em All with Boughs of Holly (or other available bludgeons). CW: Yes, but tonight, maybe Hillary & Bernie will get in a fight! ...

Ben Jacobs & Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign has regained access to the Democratic party's master voter file after a day of conflict and litigation between the insurgent Vermont senator and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).... In a statement, the campaign announced that the DNC 'capitulated' and expressed its confidence that it would be able to return to normal by Saturday morning.... The lawsuit filed with a federal court in Washington reveals that the agreement to use a shared computer system for voter registration and supporter data included a provision for a 10-day notice period for any changes to access." ...

... Maggie Haberman & Nick Corasantini of the New York Times: "A fight between the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Party's leadership went public on Friday, on the eve of the year's final primary debate, as the Sanders camp accused the party of actively trying to help Hillary Clinton." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... New Lede: "A fight between the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders and the Democratic leadership went public on Friday as the party punished the campaign over a data breach and the Sanders camp sued the party and accused it of actively trying to help Hillary Clinton.... Late Friday night, the national committee and the Sanders campaign said they had come to an agreement to restore the campaign's access to the voter file by Saturday morning. The D.N.C., however, will continue to investigate the breach, according to a statement from the chairwoman, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida." ...

... Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "Brian Fallon, a Clinton campaign spokesman, called into CNN [Friday] night, very angry about the reported 24 separate intrusions by the Sanders campaign. He said this was a clear 'act of theft, stealing data from the Clinton campaign,' and Sanders isn't living up to that 'different kind of campaign' he promised. 'They were very productive,' Fallon told Wolf Blitzer. 'They were like kids in a candy store, Wolf. They had about 40 minutes where they ran wild.'" ...

... Ruby Cramer of BuzzFeed: "Hillary Clinton’s campaign is calling for rival Bernie Sanders to undergo an 'independent review' following the data breach that her top officials described on Friday evening as theft and a possible 'violation of the law.' Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, and spokesman, Brian Fallon, laid out the demands in a conference call with reporters on Friday...." ...

... Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Bernie Sanders' campaign on Friday threatened to sue the Democratic Party for suspending its access to the national voter database, saying the move threatens to undermine the Vermont senator's presidential run. Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager, held a press conference on Friday in which he described how the Democratic National Committee was unfairly choking off the 'lifeblood' of the campaign." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Maryalice Parks, et al., of ABC News: "Now, it has come to light that the Sanders staffer may have downloaded and exported the Clinton campaign's data, and it may have been more than one Sanders staffer that accessed the information, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said today. Sanders campaign officials defended themselves during a news conference today, saying they are running a 'clean' campaign and that they in fact 'alerted' the DNC two months ago that campaign data was available to others." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Greg Sargent: "... based on what we know at this point about what happened, preventing the Sanders camp from accessing voter data for any meaningful length of time is not tenable.... One point that can be made right now is that the DNC needs to restore Sanders' access to the data as quickly as possible." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "PPP's newest national Republican primary poll finds Donald Trump holding his largest lead yet in the wake of Tuesday night's debate. He's at 34% to 18% for Ted Cruz, 13% for Marco Rubio, 7% for Jeb Bush, 6% for Ben Carson, 5% for Chris Christie, 4% each for Carly Fiorina and Mike Huckabee, 2% each for John Kasich and Rand Paul, 1% each for Lindsey Graham and Rick Santorum, and less than 1% each for Jim Gilmore and George Pataki.... To put some of these findings about real modern day issues and Trump voters in context, 41% of his voters think Japanese internment was a good thing, to 37% who don't. And 41% of his supporters would favor bombing Agrabah to only 9% who are opposed to doing that. Agrabah is the country from Aladdin." ...

... Elizabeth Brown of Reason suggests six other fictional countries "we should bomb once we're done with Agrabah." Ferinstance, Candyland: "Obesity epidemic, hello." ...

... Eric Peoples: "We should set up a no fly(ing carpet) zone at least." Via Daily Kos.

** Dana Milbank cites some horrible, bigoted messages he received from Trump backers after he wrote that Trump was a bigot & a racist. And, no, his mail wasn't all against "Mo-slimes," as some writers called Muslims. Because Milbank is Jewish, he was treated to many slurs of Jews, too. "... the Trump-backers' venom is without precedent. His supporters surely aren't all bigots -- but he is bringing the bigoted in from the cold.... Is this what Republicans stand for? Is this conservatism?" ...

... CW: Milbank's column puts the lie to the notion that fear is the basis for Republicans' "unease" with a pluralistic society in which they are about to become a minority. Milbank's "correspondents" are consumed with hatred for all manner of people they perceive to be somewhat unlike themselves. No one who can be "otherized" -- and almost all of us can be -- is immune to their animosity. Trump -- and to only a slightly lesser extent, the entire Republican establishment -- has made hatred of "others" not just acceptable but desirable. It's "traditional." Republicans are "real Americans." The party has been running on bigotry for decades. All Trump has done is more clearly expose the twisted soul of the party.

Gail Collins: "Modern tradition holds that you can't win Iowa (first in the nation!) without selling your soul on ethanol.... This season, the trick for Republicans is to oppose the ethanol program on principle, while simultaneously making it clear they don't intend to do anything about it.... The most hard-core anti-ethanol candidate is Ted Cruz.... 'Oil companies give him a lot of money,' [Donald] Trump sniped.... The Cruz campaign says its man is a principled enemy of 'all energy-specific subsidies.' This is arguably true if you buy the extremely convenient theory that humongous tax breaks don't count."

David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: For a "consistent conservative," Ted Cruz changes his mind a lot.

Sean Sullivan & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: Marco Rubio "often seems to advocate two positions at once. He tells voters that he has a personal view on the subject -- whether abortion, immigration, Syrian refugees or gay marriage. But he also has a view of what is politically possible. Which, usually, is not what he personally wants. That tactic allows Rubio to offer two right answers to the same question, and lets him carve out wiggle room on topics where none seemed possible.... But the extent of his equivocation on key issues has left many Republicans, including his supporters, wondering what he really believes." ...

... CW: Besides, it doesn't matter too much what Marco thinks, because as a senator, half the time he doesn't vote anyway. No, that's not an exaggeration. ...

... Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Marco Rubio missed Friday's Senate vote approving a massive $1.8 trillion end-of-the-year spending bill and tax package -- a day after he suggested that he could try to slow the legislation down. The Florida Republican ... was the only 2016 contender to miss the vote, which is the Senate's final vote of the year. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), three other presidential candidates, all voted against the legislation. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a fourth GOP presidential candidate from the Senate, backed the bill.... [Rubio] has missed more than half of the Senate's votes since October." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Rebecca Shabad of CBS News: "Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, on Friday defended his decision to skip a major vote in the Senate that afternoon to fund the government through September, and he took a swipe at a GOP rival [Rand Paul] who called on him to resign from Congress.... 'Here's the other point about Senator Paul.... He's the only person running who likes politics so much, he's running for two offices at the same time. I mean he wants to be a senator and president,' Rubio said."

Beyond the Beltway

Lisa Foderaro of the New York Times: "... some critics [of Donald Trump's] are demanding that his name be removed from ... a state park. The park is in Westchester and Putnam Counties in New York, straddling the Taconic State Parkway. Called (no surprise) Donald J. Trump State Park, the property was donated to the state in 2006 after Mr. Trump's plan to develop a golf course there was derailed by environmental and permitting roadblocks. Since then, the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation has made virtually no investment in the 435-acre park, which has no dedicated maintenance staff and, unlike most Trump properties, exudes a feeling of decay and abandonment."

Matt Grubs & Chris McKee of KRQE Albuquerque: Gov. Susana Martinez (R-N.M.) told a 911 dispatcher to "call off" the cops who were responding to a noise complaint at a Santa Fe hotel where the governor was holding a staff party. "On several occasions, Martinez pressures the dispatcher and hotel staff to reveal the identity of who made the complaint. The dispatcher and hotel staff refuse." Martinez later apologized for her "mistake." "The Governor also denies that she was intoxicated during the incident."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Kurt Masur, the music director emeritus of the New York Philharmonic, who was credited with transforming the orchestra from a sullen, lackluster ensemble into one of luminous renown, died on Saturday in Greenwich, Conn. He was 88."

New York Times: "An airstrike that mistakenly killed Iraqi troops on Friday was carried out by an American plane, United States officials said on Saturday. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said he had expressed his condolences to the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi. Mr. Carter did not offer a detailed explanation for the errant airstrike, which the Iraqi government said killed at least nine Iraqi soldiers, but said, 'It seemed to be a mistake that involved both sides.'"

The Commentariat -- Dec. 18, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Congress on Friday morning overwhelmingly gave final approval to a sweeping, year-end fiscal package that includes a $1.15 trillion spending measure as well as $620 billion in tax breaks for businesses and low-income workers. The bill now goes to the White House, where President Obama has said he will sign it." ...

... Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Marco Rubio missed Friday's Senate vote approving a massive $1.8 trillion end-of-the-year spending bill and tax package -- a day after he suggested that he could try to slow the legislation down. The Florida Republican, who is running for president, was the only 2016 contender to miss the vote, which is the Senate's final vote of the year. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), three other presidential candidates, all voted against the legislation. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a fourth GOP presidential candidate from the Senate, backed the bill.... [Rubio] has missed more than half of the Senate's votes since October."

Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "President Obama commuted the sentences of 95 drug offenders Friday, more than double the number of commutations he granted earlier this year in July, in an effort to reduce prison crowding and give relief to drug offenders who were harshly sentenced in the nation's war on drugs."

Edda Lederer & Cara Anna of the AP: "U.N. Security Council members have reached agreement on a resolution they plan to adopt on Friday endorsing the way forward on a possible end to Syria's civil war, Russia's deputy foreign minister said."

Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Bernie Sanders' campaign on Friday threatened to sue the Democratic Party for suspending its access to the national voter database, saying the move threatens to undermine the Vermont senator's presidential run. Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager, held a press conference on Friday in which he described how the Democratic National Committee was unfairly choking off the 'lifeblood' of the campaign." ...

... Maggie Haberman & Nick Corasantini of the New York Times: "A fight between the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Party’s leadership went public on Friday, on the eve of the year's final primary debate, as the Sanders camp accused the party of actively trying to help Hillary Clinton."

... Maryalice Parks, et al., of ABC News: "Now, it has come to light that the Sanders staffer may have downloaded and exported the Clinton campaign's data, and it may have been more than one Sanders staffer that accessed the information, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said today. Sanders campaign officials defended themselves during a news conference today, saying they are running a 'clean' campaign and that they in fact 'alerted' the DNC two months ago that campaign data was available to others." ...

... Greg Sargent: "... based on what we know at this point about what happened, preventing the Sanders camp from accessing voter data for any meaningful length of time is not tenable.... One point that can be made right now is that the DNC needs to restore Sanders' access to the data as quickly as possible."

Margaret Sullivan, the New York Times' public editor: "A Times article Sunday reported that the U.S. government had missed something that was right out there in the open: the jihadist social-media posts by one of the San Bernardino killers.... It was certainly damning -- and it was wrong.... The executive editor, Dean Baquet ... said that some new procedures need to be put in place, especially for dealing with anonymous sources, and he said he would begin working on that immediately.... He said [the reporters'] sources apparently did not know the difference between public and private messages on social-media platforms.... The Times need to fix its overuse of unnamed government sources. And it needs to slow down the reporting and editing process.... If this isn't a red alert, I don't know what will be." (Emphasis added.) ...

... CW: Excellent. The Times is relying on anonymous sources so ignorant don't know the difference to a private e-mail & a public Facebook post. And nobody at the Times thought even to ask for the URLs of the alleged public postings to see for themselves that they actually existed (which they didn't). This is incredible. I've been a source for reporters at less prestigious newspapers than the Times, & the reporters always check out my tips or allegations. I would be horrified if they didn't. ...

... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "The New York Times has attached a three-paragraph editor's note to a front-page Sunday story on the abilities of the U.S. government to surveil the online communications of the San Bernardino, Calif., assailants, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik.... There's a problem here.... The New York Times is attempting to preserve the structure and feel of a story about federal government misfeasance in a world where there appears to be little or no misfeasance. Consider the new-look lede: It appears to fault immigration officials for failing to uncover Malik's online views on jihad. Well of course they failed in that pursuit: Those views were expressed in private -- and quite possibly encrypted -- communications. There should be no expectation that they would be uncovered by immigration officials.... This is an attempt to retrofit a factually poisoned article with replacement parts that don't fit."

Christian Davenport of the Washington Post tells the story of Blake Percival, the whistleblower who exposed USIS for doing background checks on only a portion of the federal government hirees the company had contracted to vet. "USIS, the government contractor that had done the background checks on Edward Snowden and Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis, filed for bankruptcy and went out of business." After four-and-a-half years, Percival just received a $6 million award for reporting USIS, which had fired him for trying to end their practice of dumping cases the company was hired to investigate. "After the attorneys' cut, Percival's share before taxes would be $3.3 million, he said."

Sarah Karlin of Politico: "Martin Shkreli, who became a lightning rod for criticism about drug price gouging, resigned as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company announced this afternoon, a day after he was charged in a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme unrelated to the company."

Here's a trailer for "The Big Short." See Krugman's column, linked below:

*****

Julie Pace of the AP: "The White House is promising President Barack Obama will deliver a 'non-traditional' State of the Union address next month, eschewing the standard litany of policy proposals for a broader discussion on the challenges facing the country." ...

... Peter Baker & Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "President Obama told a group of news columnists this week that he now realizes he was slow to respond to public fears after terrorist attacks in Paris and California, acknowledging that his low-key approach led Americans to worry that he was not doing enough to keep the country safe. But he said his refusal to send large numbers of ground forces back to the Middle East was rooted in the grim assumption that the casualties and costs would rival the worst of the Iraq war. A major recommitment of troops could result every month in the deaths of 100 Americans and $10 billion spent, the president said. Mr. Obama said that if he did send troops to Syria, as some Republicans have urged, he feared a slippery slope that would eventually require similar deployments to other terrorist strongholds like Libya and Yemen, effectively putting him in charge of governing much of the region. He told the columnists that he envisioned sending significant ground forces to the Middle East only in the case of a catastrophic terrorist attack that disrupted the normal functioning of the United States." ...

... AP: "President Barack Obama said Thursday that U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials have received no specific, credible information suggesting a potential terrorist attack against the United States. He said Americans must be vigilant this holiday season":

Richard Serrano & Richard Winton of the Los Angeles Times: "Enrique Marquez, the friend of terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook, was arrested Thursday and charged with conspiring to give material support to a terrorist plot, according to federal charges that allege the two men planned to attack Riverside Community College and a busy freeway during rush hour.... The three-count criminal complaint against Marquez represents a major development in the widening investigation of the third foreign terror attack in the U.S. this year, and the deadliest since 2001." ...

... NEW. Niraj Chokshi & Jia Lynn Yang of the Washington Post: "Marquez was cooperating with law enforcement officials in their investigation, and a newly released criminal complaint appears to show that he has turned into an open book. [The article includes] some of the most surprising and interesting details from the complaint. (You can read the entire thing here.)"

In the Spirit of the Season. Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "Hate crimes against Muslim Americans and mosques across the United States have tripled in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., with dozens occurring within just a month, according to new data. The spike includes assaults on hijab-wearing students; arsons and vandalism at mosques; and shootings and death threats at Islamic-owned businesses, an analysis by a California State University research group has found." CW: Never mind all that Prince of Peace crap. Also, too, the First Amendment protects Christianists only. ...

... OR, Just Repeal the First Amendment. Alex Griswold of Mediaite: "Conservative documentary filmmaker Ami Horowitz released a video in conjunction with Fox News showing Yale University students agreeing to sign a petition that would repeal the First Amendment":

Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: "The House on Friday passed a year-end spending bill that would keep the government funded through September and that the Senate is expected to clear for the president's signature later in the day. There was concern until earlier this morning that there would not be enough support for the bill, but last minute lobbying efforts by leadership secured far more than the needed votes. The vote was 316 to 113, with 150 Republicans and 166 Democrats supporting the measure." ...

... Scott Wong & Mike Lillis of the Hill: "The House is poised to pass a bipartisan $1.1 trillion bill to fund the government, with GOP and Democratic whip teams going into overdrive to boost their numbers before the Friday morning vote. Democratic leaders have voiced numerous objections to the package, particularly the inclusion of an end to a ban on crude oil exports and the failure to address Puerto Rico's debt crisis. But with the White House urging support -- and dozens of conservatives expected to buck GOP leaders and vote no -- the Democrats are also scrambling to convince wary rank-and-file members that the current package is the best they can get." ...

... Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: "The House on Thursday passed the tax portion of the year-end budget deal as Congress seeks to quickly wrap up its remaining business with members itching to head home for the holidays. The vote was 318 to 109.... House Republicans provided most of the needed votes, 241, to pass the tax package, which House Democratic leaders oppose because they say it is too expensive and does not do enough for low-income workers.... The House vote on the appropriations package, which will occur Friday morning, could be close. If both bills pass the House, they will be rolled into one package that the Senate is expected to clear for the president's signature as early as Friday afternoon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... ** Devin Henry of the Hill: "In a victory for the Obama administration, the spending package released by congressional leaders on Wednesday won't block American financial contributions to an international climate fund for poorer nations. The bill, greens and Democrats say, doesn't explicitly appropriate funding for President Obama's pledged contribution to the Green Climate Fund (GCF). But since the legislation doesn't formally block money for the GCF either, Obama is expected to be able to use current discretionary funding streams to send American money to it.... Democrats were able to include an amendment allowing the funding in a Senate spending bill." CW: Looks like a victory for Mother Earth. ...

... Paul Waldman: "... whether you're happy with the overall balance of line items in the [spending] bill, one thing's for sure: it will increase the deficit rather substantially.... Despite all their talk about what we're handing to the next generation and how government should balance its books just like a family does, when it comes down to actually making choices, Republicans are no more concerned about deficits than Democrats are.... All the Republicans running for president have tax plans that would send the deficit into the stratosphere.... [In contrast,] the biggest Democratic policy initiative in recent years was the Affordable Care Act, which was completely paid for through taxes and budget cuts within Medicare. The ACA not only didn't increase the deficit, it decreased it."

SOP. An Example of Why It's So Hard for Congress to Do Anything. John Bresnahan of Politico: "Sen. Richard Shelby loaded up the $1.1 trillion spending bill with pet provisions, including one measure worth hundreds of millions to a rocket manufacturer with operations in his home state.... But in an only-in-Congress twist, Shelby, a very senior member on the Appropriations Committee, still plans to vote against the sprawling omnibus package. He's citing the lack of language to restrict Syrian refugees as the reason. The move ... could make the Republican senator the unofficial chairman of the 'hope yes, vote no' caucus on Capitol Hill."

The visa scrutiny story is complicated. Ari Melber & Safia Ali of MSNBC: "Top officials at the Department of Homeland Security considered a specific policy to strengthen security screenings for foreign visa applicants' social media accounts, but the proposal was ultimately not adopted, according to an internal department memo obtained by MSNBC.... DHS officials did not dispute the internal memo [which Melber & Ali publish] when asked about it, but emphasized more recent efforts to vet social media accounts.... Current U.S. policy does not include a formula for when to vet social media. Administration officials have emphasized they are taking a 'very close look' at visa screenings. In addition, Secretary of State John Kerry recently acknowledged 'social media has placed a whole new burden and a whole new set of questions' on the process. Those concerns have continued even as FBI officials have clarified that Tashfeen Malik, the San Bernardino shooter, did not publicly post support for terrorism on social media, as some originally reported."

Lolita Baldor of the AP: "U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter acknowledged on Thursday that he used a personal email account to conduct some government business until 'a few months ago.' 'I should have known better,' Carter told reporters traveling with him in Irbil, Iraq, the regional capital of the Kurds. "It's not like I didn't have the opportunity to understand what the right thing to do was. I didn't do the right thing.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Thursday that his committee would conduct a review to determine whether Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter had sensitive government information on the personal email account he used to conduct a portion of his government work. 'With all the public attention surrounding the improper use of personal email by other administration officials, it is hard to believe that Secretary Carter would exercise the same error in judgment,' Mr. McCain, a Republican, said in a statement, adding that his committee had requested copies of Mr. Carter's emails to conduct the review." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... CW: Okay, Sen. McCain. That's just fine. Now where's the outrage on the Times story about the Pentagon covering up & dismissing charges that Navy SEALS abused prisoners & killed a detainee? Isn't that worse? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "While fighting grinding wars of attrition in Afghanistan and Iraq, [Navy SEALS] Team 6 performed missions elsewhere that blurred the traditional lines between soldier and spy. The team's sniper unit was remade to carry out clandestine intelligence operations, and the SEALs joined Central Intelligence Agency operatives in an initiative called the Omega Program, which offered greater latitude in hunting adversaries.... Its activities have also spurred recurring concerns about excessive killing and civilian deaths.Afghan villagers and a British commander accused SEALs of indiscriminately killing men in one hamlet; in 2009, team members joined C.I.A. and Afghan paramilitary forces in a raid that left a group of youths dead and inflamed tensions between Afghan and NATO officials. Even an American hostage freed in a dramatic rescue has questioned why the SEALs killed all his captors." As an old Navy man, Sen. McCain, you might want to look into just how this team operates & if the claimed indiscriminate killings really is "keeping us safer."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "For the first time in more than 60 years, firearms and automobiles are killing Americans at an identical rate, according to new mortality data released this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2014, the age-adjusted death rate for both firearms (including homicides, suicides and accidental deaths) and motor vehicle events (car crashes, collisions between cars and pedestrians, etc) stood at 10.3 deaths per 100,000 people. The convergence of the trend lines above is driven primarily by a sharp drop in the rate of motor vehicle fatalities since 1950.... Over the same period, gun deaths rose, but by a considerably smaller amount. Gun homicide rates have actually fallen in recent years, but those gains have been offset by rising gun suicide rates.... Innovations in gun safety are hard to come by, in large part because of Congress's longstanding ban on many types of federal gun research."

Jim Rutenberg in the New York Times Magazine, on Republican efforts to suppress the Hispanic vote in Texas & elsewhere.

Movie Review. Paul Krugman: "'The Big Short' is based on the Michael Lewis book of the same name, one of the few real best-sellers to emerge from the financial crisis. I saw an early screening, and I think it does a terrific job of making Wall Street skulduggery entertaining, of exploiting the inherent black humor of how it went down.... While the movie gets the essentials of the financial crisis right, the true story of what happened is deeply inconvenient to some very rich and powerful people. They and their intellectual hired guns have therefore spent years disseminating an alternative view that the money manager and blogger Barry Ritholtz calls the Big Lie. It's a view that places all the blame for the financial crisis on -- you guessed it -- too much government, especially government-sponsored agencies supposedly pushing too many loans on the poor.... Sure enough, 'The Big Short' has already been the subject of vitriolic attacks in Murdoch-controlled newspapers...." ...

... CW: As a refresher, you might want to read Mike Konczal's 2013 debunking of the Big Lie, which Krugman links in his column.

Several days ago, a commenter wrote that the GAO's claim that the EPA was engaging in "covert propaganda" seemed bogus. Steve Benen agrees: "... the Obama administration's EPA this week appears, at least at first blush, to have been caught up in a similar kind of controversy. The New York Times' front-page headline certainly seems dramatic: 'E.P.A. Broke Law With Social Media Push for Water Rule, Auditor Finds.'... The allegations here are pretty thin. The EPA created a social-media message, it disseminated that message, and it made no effort whatsoever to hide its authorship of the message.... Apparently, investigators at the Government Accountability Office determined that as the EPA's message worked its way around the Internet, it might not have been entirely clear that the EPA created the message. Ergo, there was a potential for 'covert propaganda.'"

Michael Crowley of Politico: "When Secretary of State John Kerry convenes Syria peace talks in New York on Friday, the fate of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad will be a main topic of debate. But despite widespread agreement that Assad has committed shocking war crimes -- and a new report chronicling the atrocities -- U.S. officials say the question of bringing Assad to justice is off the table for now. Western allies have reached a similar conclusion. While hoping Assad might face a criminal trial one day, they concede that bringing Assad to justice is a lower priority than ending the carnage in Syria as soon as possible." ...

... Charles Pierce: [John Kerry] is a statesman. [Chris Christie] is really going to make Putin pay at recess. Meanwhile, John McCain ... [has] sought refuge from his confusion in the latest production of Bad Historical Analogy Theater." ...

... CW: More & more, I see politics as a battle between grown-up & adolescent minds. As you have no doubt learned from personal experience or from critiquing your own parents, the grown-ups don't always get it right, but oftentimes they do. The teens, by contrast, nearly always get it wrong.

Presidential Race

Rosalind Helderman, et al. of the Washington Post: "Officials with the Democratic National Committee have accused the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders of improperly accessing confidential voter information gathered by the rival campaign of Hillary Clinton, according to several party officials. Jeff Weaver, the Vermont senator's campaign manager, acknowledged that a low-level staffer had viewed the information but blamed a software vendor hired by the DNC for a glitch that allowed access. Weaver said one Sanders staffer was fired over the incident. The discovery sparked alarm at the DNC, which promptly shut off the Sanders campaign's access to the strategically crucial list of likely Democratic voters.... Maintaining the master list is one of the prime responsibilities of the national party committee...." ...

     ... CW: Yeah, I'm alarmed, too. If this isn't a purposeful set-up, then the DNC used its own error to hurt the Sanders campaign. Fire Wasserman-Schultz. But make her apologize to Bernie first. ...

... Dan Merica of CNN: "The Bernie Sanders campaign staffer who was fired for accessing data unique to the Hillary Clinton campaign's vote file, told CNN on Friday that he was only trying to 'understand how badly the Sanders campaign's data was exposed' and not attempting to take data from the Clinton campaign.... He added, 'To the best of my knowledge, nobody took anything that would have given the (Sanders) campaign any benefit.'"

Alan Rappeport: "As in the previous Democratic debate, which was held at the same time as an important college football game, the candidates will clash on Saturday night with the New York Jets and the Dallas Cowboys." CW: And Christmas. Reruns of "It's a Wonderful Life" will probably get more viewers than the debate.

Jonathan Easley & Tim Devaney of the Hill: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) picked up a major endorsement Thursday from the Communications Workers of America (CWA), becoming the third national union to back him." ...

... Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "The progressive group Democracy for America will endorse Bernie Sanders, the first presidential primary endorsement in the history of the group, which boasts more than 1 million members. The Vermont senator won 88 percent of the group's online vote, far beyond the two-thirds majority needed to trigger an endorsement. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton won just 10 percent of the vote, with former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley finishing with 1 percent."

David Neiwert, in a Southern Poverty Law Center report: "Four candidates participated in [a forum organized & run by anti-Muslim extremist Frank Gaffney], three of them (Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, and Ben Carson) via videotaped messages, and one -- Rick Santorum -- in person. The procession underscored the extent to which [Gaffney's Cemter for Security Policy's] extremism has been embraced by ostensibly mainstream conservatives.... By the end of the eight-hour conference, attendees had been treated to a nonstop cavalcade of extremism and conspiracy."

E.J. Dionne: "It was billed as a foreign policy debate, but Tuesday’s encounter among Republican presidential candidates was in large part an acting competition over who could convey the impression of being the baddest, meanest foe of the terrorists -- and of Hillary Clinton and President Obama.... There was something genuinely appalling that candidates who so often claim to be devout Christians allocated the bulk of their time to warfare, to throwing people out of our country and to walling them off." ...

... Conservative Daniel Drezner of the Washington Post: "The overwhelming bulk of what the GOP candidates had to say [Tuesday] night was pure, unadulterated horses***.... What was startling about the debate was just how so many candidates could say so many wrong things about American foreign policy in two hours.... Only two candidates didn't say anything flatly wrong about foreign policy the whole night: Jeb Bush and Rubio.... Oh, and both of them were far more hawkish on the use of force in the Middle East than the other candidates, which is less than comforting.... When it comes to American foreign policy, what was said in Vegas should stay in Vegas." ...

... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "One thing was clear from this debate. None of these nine candidates had any remotely plausible ideas on how to defeat ISIS, or prevent terrorist attacks on American soil, beyond what []President Obama is already doing -- except doing it louder, or with a scarier scowl, or maybe doing more of it." Aw, c'mon Fred, carpetbombing (Cruz), putting Petraeus i& "the warrior class" in charge again (Fiorina), prosecuting ISIS (Christie) & shutting down parts of the Internets (Trump) are plausible strategies.

Tim Egan: Climate change is "a hoax, says Donald J. Trump, with all the practiced hucksterism of the swampland salesman. He may feel different when one of his resorts is below the sea. He's got Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, rooms with a view of a tomorrow that won't answer to his bluster. His colleagues in science denial, gathered at a fake palazzo in Las Vegas, with a fake canal mimicking a real city that may soon be underwater, could have benefited from a field trip to nearby Lake Mead. This is the nation's largest reservoir, allowing a city of 1.3 million to sprout in a desert that gets about four inches of rain a year. This summer, Lake Mead fell to its lowest level since it was initially filled. It has dropped nearly 150 feet in the last 14 years." ...

... Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "Donald Trump said on Thursday it was a 'great honor' to be complimented by 'highly respected' Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond,' the GOP presidential front-runner told supporters at a rally in Columbus, Ohio." CW: Very diplomatic, Donald. Too bad you weren't so diplomatic about the leader of a country that is one of our actual allies. But then Angela Merkel did beat you out for that very important title of Time's Person of the Year. So she deserves the flak. ...

... Kevin Drum: "... this 'highly respected' man is now directly threatening American military forces in a crucial area of Syria. ...

... Colin Campbell of Business Insider: "During a Friday-morning interview with Donald Trump, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was baffled by the Republican front-runner's embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin.... 'Well, I mean, it's also a person who kills journalists, political opponents, and invades countries. Obviously that would be a concern, would it not?' Scarborough asked.... 'He's running his country, and at least he's a leader,' Trump replied. 'Unlike what we have in this country.'... Several of Trump's Republican presidential rivals criticized the billionaire businessman on Thursday for saying it was a "great honor" to receive Putin's praise." CW: Hey, if you have to kill a few opponents, invade a few countries, what the hell. That's leadership:

Brian Beutler: Marco & Ted are engaged in a duel over who is meaner to undocumented immigrants. And the winner is Donald Trump.

Tim Alberta of the National Review: "James Dobson, founder of the Christian group Focus on the Family and one of the nation's most influential evangelicals, will endorse Ted Cruz for president today, according to sources briefed on the announcement." Via Paul Waldman. CW: Buh-bye, Ole Doc Ben.

Ed Kilgore of New York: Chris "Christie was a federal prosecutor in a state near New York in the months and years after 9/11. Thanks to some revisionist history, he's recasting his prosecutorial career as one long fight against terrorism.... As Olivia Nuzzi explains in a Daily Beast column, this isn't the take on his prosecutorial career that Christie himself -- or Christie watchers -- has presented in the past, most notably when he ran for governor in 2009. Until it suddenly became convenient to his presidential campaign to put a different spin on it, Christie the prosecutor was focused like a laser on fighting crime and corruption."

Jebmentum! Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "Buoyed by an aggressive performance in Tuesday's Republican debate, Jeb Bush is intensifying his strategy of attacking Donald J. Trump's fitness for the presidency, which his aides believe is setting him apart from the sprawling field just as voters begin to make up their minds in early voting states."

A Note on the Huckster. Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign, struggling with its low standing in the polls and underwhelming fundraising, slashed the salaries of senior staffers amid the departure of its top communications aide.... Mr. Bush plans to make New Hampshire, the first primary state, his second home as the holidays approach, and to spend more than half his time there in the seven weeks before the Feb. 9 primary." ...

... Paul Waldman: "... so he should be returning soon to his other, more lucrative career of scamming old people out of their money by selling them phony Bible-based cancer cures."

In case you had any doubts, Ben Carson Is. Still. Crazy.

Beyond the Beltway

Jaime Fuller of New York: "Martin Shkreli, the pharmaceuticals CEO who raised the price of a drug that helps people with HIV or cancer from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill..., pleaded not guilty to the seven counts — which include securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud -- and was released on $5 million bond Thursday afternoon. According to CNBC, Shkreli had to give up his passport and isn't allowed to leave New York. The charges aren't related to the price-gouging at Turing Pharmaceuticals, his current company -- being the 'most hated man in America' is not necessarily illegal."

Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed: "A state court in Massachusetts has ruled that a Catholic preparatory school violated the state's antidiscrimination law when it rescinded a job offer to a man because he was married to another man. Matthew Barrett had accepted a job as Food Service Director at the Fontbonne Academy, a Catholic girls school. On his employment forms, he listed his husband as his emergency contact -- a move that led the school to rescind the job offer."

Yasmeen Abutaleb of Reuters: "Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, who opened fire on a San Bernardino holiday party earlier this month, were buried Tuesday in a quiet, graveside funeral. Many of those who attended mosque with the couple refused to attend, two mosque members said." (Also linked yesterday.)

Fear of Calligraphy. Vernon Freeman of WTVR: "Augusta County[, Virginia,] schools and all administrative offices are closing Friday December 18, after parental objections to a controversial high school geography assignment involving Arabic.... The controversy stems from a homework assignment at Riverheads High School that some parents called Islamic indoctrination."

News Ledes

AP: "Mother Teresa, the tiny, stooped nun who cared for the poorest of the poor in the slums of India and beyond, will be declared a saint next year after Pope Francis approved a miracle attributed to her intercession. The Vatican on Friday set no date for the canonization, but it is widely believed that it will take place in the first week of September to coincide with the 19th anniversary of Mother Teresa's death and during Francis' Holy Year of Mercy."

Washington Post: "American-led airstrikes killed at least 180 Islamic State fighters as local Kurdish forces­ scrambled to repel a bold, multi-pronged assault by the militants, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday. At least four coordinated attacks by more than 300 heavily armed militants kicked off the most intense fighting that northern Iraq has seen this year, illustrating the extremist group's continued potency despite a year-long air campaign by the United States and its allies."