The Commentariat -- March 21, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Julie Davis & Damien Cave of the New York Times: "President Obama and President Raúl Castro discussed a path toward normalizing relations, a shift begun in late 2014 when, in a stunning announcement, they embarked on the restoration of full diplomatic relations":

Mark Landler & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton pledged on Monday that she would stand unyieldingly with Israel and warned that her potential Republican rival, Donald J. Trump, would be an unreliable partner for one of America's closest allies. In a rock-ribbed speech in Washington that previewed how she might confront Mr. Trump on foreign policy in a general-election campaign, Mrs. Clinton said, 'We need steady hands, not a president who says he's neutral on Monday, pro-Israel on Tuesday, and who-knows-what on Wednesday.'"

Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump revealed part of his foreign policy advisory team and outlined an unabashedly noninterventionist approach to world affairs during a wide-ranging meeting Monday with The Washington Post's editorial board.... Trump said that U.S. involvement in NATO may need to be significantly diminished in the coming years, breaking with nearly seven decades of consensus in Washington."

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "As [Donald] Trump arrived in [Washington, D.C.,] to deliver a speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, [Elizabeth] Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, said Mr. Trump had skipped out on debts, managed scam businesses and used bankruptcy laws to keep his father's empire afloat." ...

... Jordain Carney of the Hill has more on Warren's Twitter strikes against Trump.

*****

The Obamas tour Old Havana. Reuters photo.

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba appeared together on Monday morning, kicking off the first official talks between their two governments after decades of Cold War hostility." ...

... Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Obama starts his first full day in Cuba on Monday in the Plaza of the Revolution, where Fidel Castro once delivered stem-winding speeches denouncing U.S. imperialism. Obama's presence there, to lay a wreath at the monument to 19th century Cuban independence hero José Martí, underscores the remarkable nature of his visit. At the nearby Revolutionary Palace, Obama will then be officially welcomed to Cuba with full honors by President Raúl Castro." ...

     ... CW: I don't know that "Revolutionary Palace" is an oxymoron, but it certain is an irony. ...

... Julie Davis & Damien Cave of the New York Times: "President Obama touched down in Cuba on Sunday, becoming the first American leader to visit in nearly nine decades. His trip, the result of a stunning policy reversal 15 months ago, holds the potential to forge closer ties between longtime adversaries and exorcise one of the last ghosts of the Cold War." ...

     ... The Times is liveblogging the Obamas' visit. ...

... President Obama spoke yesterday at the newly-opened U.S. embassy in Cuba:

... David Muir of ABC News & President Obama wear matching outfits for an interview in Havana (altho Muir forgot his flag pin):

... Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "Cuban police forcibly broke up a pro-democracy demonstration and arrested several dozen activists on Sunday, just hours before Barack Obama was to arrive in Havana to become the first US president to visit Cuba in almost 90 years. The protesters, from the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) and other opposition groups, were bundled into buses and police vans after a shouting match with pro-Castro supporters during their usual weekly demonstration near the Santa Rita church." ...

... "A Different American President." Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly on what may have been the genesis of thawing relations between the U.S. & Cuba. CW: It matters that we have a president who can see beyond a narrow American perspective & doesn't need his knee to jerk before he opens his mouth.

New York Times Editors: "It is rare for an American president to skewer a friendly government publicly. But that's what President Obama did last week in presenting a well-considered analysis of troubles in the relationship with Saudi Arabia.... There is little time left in the president's term to rethink how the United States and Saudi Arabia can move forward together. That task will largely belong to his successor."

Sarah Wheaton of Politico: "Vice President Joe Biden blamed both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for lacking the political will to find peace during a speech on Sunday to the country's largest pro-Israel political organization. Biden, who cited his decades of working on the issue, told the annual Washington gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that he's never been so pessimistic, even as he reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to its alliance with Israel and expressed new hopes for Israeli cooperation with its other Arab neighbors."

Mitch McConnell Has a New Excuse. Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "Supreme Court justices are nominated by the president and appointed with the advice and consent of the National Rifle Association, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).... In response to a question from ['Fox "News" Sunday'] host Chris Wallace, who asked if Senate Republicans would consider the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court after the election if Hillary Clinton prevails, McConnell responded that he 'can't imagine that a Republican majority in the United States Senate would want to confirm, in a lame duck session, a nominee opposed by the National Rifle Association [and] the National Federation of Independent Businesses.'" ...

... Jeff Toobin in the New Yorker: President Obama's Supreme Court "nominees, all fine choices, reflect his boundless faith in the meritocracy.... The Garland nomination also revealed the President's distaste for the vulgar realities of politics.... Obama's tenure has been disastrous for Democrats. The Party has gone from a Senate caucus of sixty members to forty-six, and from a substantial majority in the House of Representatives to a seemingly permanent minority. In the states, Democrats have lost ten governorships and nine hundred and ten legislative seats. This is not all Obama's fault, of course, but it rarely seems his concern, either -- as it was not, apparently, in his nomination of Garland.... The greatest Justices have always understood that politics, defined broadly, undergirds much of the Court's work.... It's only right to mention, as the President did not, the real reason that [Garland] will not be confirmed: because there aren't enough Democrats in the Senate to confirm him." ...

When you have a sharply political, divisive hearing process, it increases the danger that whoever comes out of it will be viewed in those terms. If the Democrats and Republicans have been fighting so fiercely about whether you're going to be confirmed, it's natural for some member of the public to think, well, you must be identified in a particular way as a result of that process. -- Chief Justice John Roberts, February 3, 2016 ...

... Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Last month, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. delivered some blunt remarks about the Supreme Court confirmation process. The Senate should ensure that nominees are qualified, he said, and leave politics out of it. The chief justice spoke 10 days before Justice Antonin Scalia died, and he could not have known how timely and telling his comments would turn out to be. They now amount to a stern, if abstract, rebuke to the Republican senators who refuse to hold hearings on President Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick B. Garland." Video of Roberts' speech & an unedited transcript are here.

Robert Barnes & Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday takes up a long-running political fight about whether Virginia lawmakers redrew the state's congressional map to protect the commonwealth's lone African American congressman -- or to make sure he was not joined by a second."

Cecilia Kang of the New York Times: "Amazon has emerged as one of the tech industry's most outspoken players in Washington, spending millions on this effort and meeting regularly with lawmakers and regulators. Amazon has pushed officials to allow new uses for commercial drones, to extend the maximum length of trucks, to improve roads and bridges and to prop up a delivery partner, the United States Postal Service.... Amazon and [Jeff] Bezos, its chief executive, have other interests in Washington, too. Amazon is now a major government contractor with a $600 million cloud computing partnership with the C.I.A. And Mr. Bezos's ownership of The Washington Post, which he bought in 2013, gives him a foothold in the political and media circles of Washington." ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. BUT, but, that's not why Bezos said he bought the Post. In fact, he said he never even thought of it, till Donald Graham, the Post's CEO, approached him thru an intermediary. "Mr. Bezos was ultimately convinced that The Post, which he called a national institution, could be brought into the digital age by leveraging the technical expertise and knowledge that he had gained over his decades spent building Amazon into a global technology company." See, nothing whatever to do with arm-twisting Congress.

Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: "A recent study in the journal PLOS Currents: Outbreaks found fifty U.S. cities where the ... [Zika virus-carrying] mosquito Aedes aegypti would be able to survive in the upcoming summer months. Nine of those cities, home to an estimated 14 million people, could have a 'high abundance' of the virus-carrying mosquitoes by July, the study says, and the mosquito could be a problem as far north as New York."

Drumpf, Drumpf, Everywhere. Daniel Benaim & Perry Cammack, in the New Republic: "Across Europe, we are seeing hyper-nationalist figures emerge with several common features. They demonize minorities, immigrants, and gays and lesbians, and express nostalgia for a simpler (read: less diverse, less democratic) time. They vilify conventional politicians as feckless and political opponents as traitors. They celebrate the crushing of dissent and flirt with violence. They play on nativist rejections of European unity, NATO, and other transnational projects that underpin the liberal international order and that have done so much in the last half-century to promote stability in Europe and lift hundreds of millions out of poverty worldwide."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. News Avoidance. Driftglass watches the Sunday showz: "Being a Beltway journalist must be exhausting these days, what with so much news to avoid mentioning and so many scary things not to talk about."

Presidential Race

NEW. Steven Shepard of Politico: "Bernie Sanders has won a primary of American Democrats living abroad, according to a press release. The group Democrats Abroad, which held a 'Global Presidential Primary' earlier this month, announced the results on Monday: Sanders won 69 percent of the vote, compared to just 31 percent for Hillary Clinton. The Democratic National Committee grants Democrats Abroad 13 pledged delegates, who will be allocated according to the results: 9 for Sanders, and 4 for Clinton."

Anne Gearan & Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "... Hillary Clinton and her allies have begun preparing a playbook to defeat Donald Trump in a general-election matchup that will attempt to do what his Republican opponents couldn't: show that his business dealings and impolitic statements make him unfit to be commander in chief."

John Wagner & Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Sen. Bernie Sanders ... outraised [Hillary] Clinton for the second month in a row, pulling in $43.5 million to her $30.1 million, according to a Sanders campaign official. But the new figures also indicate that he plowed through far more cash, spending $40.9 million to her $34.3 million. That left the senator with $17.2 million in the bank as March began, while Clinton had $30.8 million."

NEW. Nick Gass of Politico: Donald Trump "appears to want the nomination even if he cannot amass a majority of the requisite delegates. For the Republican Party's national chairman [Reince Priebus], on the other hand, the process is the process, and even Donald Trump is no exception. Therein lies the conflict that threatens to tear the party asunder...." Trump says his possible failure to garner a majority of delegates was caused by the party's having so many presidential candidates: "'It's very unfair..., because of the fact that there's so many candidates and so many candidates are grabbing delegates.'" CW: Shame on the other guys for being so unfair. ...

... Ryan Struyk & Nicki Rossell of ABC News: "RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said he no longer thinks a contested convention is an extreme hypothetical and party officials are trying to be transparent to 'take the mystery away from what an open convention looks like,' he said on ABC News' 'This Week' Sunday."

Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his team's insistence that campaign manager Corey Lewandowski behaved appropriately while forcefully engaging with a protester at a rally here in Tucson on Saturday afternoon, commenting that local police and security appeared 'a little lax' at the event.... 'I give him credit for having spirit. He wanted them to take down those horrible profanity-laced signs.'" ...

... Your Lyin' Eyes. Ali Vitali of NBC News: "The Donald Trump campaign has denied that its manager [Corey Lewandowski] grabbed a young protester's collar at an Arizona rally on Saturday." CW: So Lewandowski doesn't "have spirit"?? Also, too, at least by the time the videographer recorded the scene, the protester wasn't carrying a sign at all, much less a "profanity-laced" one. ...

... Ken Vogel & Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "Donald Trump's campaign blamed an unidentified man for manhandling a protester at a Saturday afternoon rally in Tucson, but ... the man was in fact part of Trump's own security detail.... The unidentified man ... was captured on video, alongside Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, engaging in what appears to be a heated conversation with a young protester. Lewandowski can be seen grabbing the collar of the protester, who is subsequently pulled backward forcefully." ...

... Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "... Donald Trump said on Sunday that protesters should take some of the blame for the incidents at his rallies. 'These are professional agitators, and I think that somebody should say that when a road is blocked going into the event so that people have to wait sometimes hours to get in, I think that's very fair and there should be blame there, too,' he said on ABC's 'This Week.'" ...

... Katherine Faulders & David Caplan of ABC News: "A man captured on video punching and kicking a protester at a Donald Trump rally in Tucson, Arizona, was charged with assault with injury, police said. The man, identified as Tony Pettway, 32, was arrested inside the Trump event and charged with the misdemeanor before being released, the Tucson Police Department said. The incident began when an anti-Trump protester -- wearing an American flag shirt and carrying a sign that read 'Trump is Bad for America' -- was being escorted out by law enforcement.... In a video posted on Twitter, the Trump supporter appears to have tried to grab the poster out of the protestor's hand and proceeded to punch and kick him." ...

... NEW. Caitlin Cruz of TPM: "Officials confirmed late Sunday night that the 32-year-old man arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor assault at a Donald Trump rally in Tucson is an airman assigned to a nearby base. Captain Casey Osborne, 55th Fighter Wing Chief of Public Affairs, said in a statement to KOLD that Tony Pettway is 'an airman assigned to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base,' which is miles from downtown Tucson." ...

So this is appropriate. Brendan O'Connor of Gawker: "Last week, the New Hampshire Secretary of State released the list of delegates who will represent the state at the Republican National Convention in July. One of the alternates for the Trump campaign is Gerald DeLemus, who is currently facing federal indictment over his alleged involvement with the Bundy family.... Despite a powerful current of support for Trump in the patriot movement, the Republican frontrunner has been careful not to explicitly court militant right-wing radicals." CW: It isn't "courting" militants to select one of them as a(n alternate) delegate. It's more like the consummation of a marriage, where the courting part is done. Trump might have named DeLemus as a regular delegate but for the fact that DeLemus may still be in jail at convention time.

Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League, in Time: The ADL will "... redirect the amount of funds that Trump contributed to ADL over the years specifically into anti-bias education programs that address exactly the kind of stereotyping and scapegoating he has injected into this political season." Trump, according to Greenblatt, has given the ADL $56,000 "in the past decade or so."

"The Big Short," by Barry Blitt.

Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: "The Republican establishment began losing its party to Donald Trump on May 24, 2000, at 5:41 p.m., on the floor of the House of Representatives. Urged on by their presidential standard-bearer, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, and by nearly all of the business lobbyists who represented the core of the party's donor class, three-quarters of House Republicans voted to extend the status of permanent normal trade relations to China. They were more than enough, when added to a minority of Democrats, to secure passage of a bill that would sail through the Senate and be signed into law by President Bill Clinton.... The 2000 vote effectively unleashed a flood of outsourcing to China, which in turn exported trillions of dollars of cheap goods back to the United States. Over the next 10 years, economists have concluded, the expanded trade with China cost the United States at least 2 million jobs. It was the strongest force in an overall manufacturing decline that cost 5 million jobs."

The Naked Truth. Frank Rich: "... of all the emperors whom Trump has revealed to have few or no clothes, none have been more conspicuous or consequential than the GOP elites. He has smashed the illusion, one I harbored as much as anyone, that there's still some center-right GOP Establishment that could restore old-school Republican order if the crazies took over the asylum.... While it's become a commonplace to characterize Trump's blitzkrieg of the GOP as either a takeover or a hijacking, it is in reality the Establishment that is trying to hijack the party from those who actually do hold power: its own voters."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "There is always a mutually beneficial relationship between candidates and news organizations during presidential years. But in my lifetime it's never seemed so singularly focused on a single candidacy. And the financial stakes have never been so intertwined with the journalistic and political stakes.... Just as [Donald Trump's] success at the polls is pushing the Republican Party to reassess its very identity and break with long-held traditions, he is using his ratings power to push the news media to break from its mission of holding the powerful, or really just him, accountable. In other words, to loosen its standards.... On March 8..., all of the cable news networks showed Mr. Trump's 45-minute-long primary night news conference in full. While Mrs. Clinton's victory speech went uncovered, Mr. Trump used the time to hawk Trump Steaks and Trump Wine. That was new."

Beyond the Beltway

There Is No Justice in Jindaland. Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "The constitutional obligation to provide criminal defense for the poor has been endangered by funding problems across the country, but nowhere else is a system in statewide free fall like Louisiana's, where public defenders represent more than eight out of 10 criminal defendants. Offices throughout the state have been forced to lay off lawyers, leaving those who remain with caseloads well into the hundreds. In seven of the state's 42 judicial districts, poor defendants are already being put on wait lists; here in the 15th, the list is over 2,300 names long and growing." ...

... CW: And for all that, for negligence that descends to the level of an continual Constitutional violation, Bobby Jindal thought he had the qualifications & experience to be POTUS. Being a Republican means never having to say you're a failure.

Claire Landsbaum of New York: "... when [Mississippi] state officials retire, they can take all the leftover money in their campaign fundraising accounts with them. A recent review by the Associated Press found that, of the 99 state officials who retired in the past few years, as many as 25 pocketed more than $1,000 in the process, and at least four took more than $50,000. Mississippi is one of five states -- along with North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Virginia -- where these sorts of withdrawals are legal, as long as state and federal income taxes have been paid on the sum.... Running for office in Mississippi, winning, and pocketing thousands of donor dollars sounds like the world's best retirement plan." ...

... CW: I'll bet Marco Rubio is wishing he had run for Mississippi state ethics commissioner instead of POTUS. Julie Bykowicz of the AP: "Wealthy donors handed over $25 million last month to a super PAC backing then-Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio. And the candidate's official campaign had its best month yet, raising about $9.6 million."

The Commentariat -- March 20, 2016

Justin Grieser of the Washington Post: "This year's spring equinox is the earliest since 1896. For the rest of the 21st century, the March equinox will arrive continually earlier with each passing leap year. Beginning in 2044, the equinox will be on March 19 (UTC) on every leap year until 2100. The earliest equinox of the 21st century will be in 2096, arriving midday on March 19."

Springtime for Castro. Oliver Knox of Yahoo! News: "When Pres. Barack Obama arrives in Havana on Sunday, it will be at the head of what amounts to a different kind of U.S. invasion. There will be air power: Airlines clamoring to be able to run direct flights to Cuba. There will be naval power: Cruise lines launching routes to Cuba. Marriott, looking to become the largest hotel chain in the world through a merger with Starwood, wants to establish a beachhead. And the president has potentially enlisted tens of thousands of infantry by recently loosening restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba to such an extent that, while a ban on simple tourism remains on the books, it's easy, in practice, to travel there to take in the sights.... 'We're trying a new approach,' White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Friday. 'Our approach now is that the president of the United States ... is going to sit down with the leader of Cuba and say, "You need to do a better job of protecting the human rights of your people.'" ...

... Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama and his family will arrive in Cuba on Sunday afternoon aboard Air Force One and receive a red-carpet welcome from a country that has been a bitter adversary of the United States since before he was born."

CLICK ON CARTOON TO SEE LARGER IMAGE.... Brian McFadden of the New York Times on Republican senators' excuses for not holding hearings for Merrick Garland. If you've been following the hoohah, you'll know that every frame is spot-on.

New York Times: "... the Zika virus has begun spreading through Puerto Rico, now the United States' front line in a looming epidemic. The outbreak is expected to be worse here than anywhere else in the country. The island, a warm, wet paradise veined with gritty poverty, is the ideal environment for the mosquitoes carrying the virus. The landscape is littered with abandoned houses and discarded tires that are perfect breeding grounds for the insects. Some homes and schools lack window screens and air-conditioning, exposing residents to almost constant bites." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Astrid Galvan of the AP: "Standing in front of the tall, steel fence that divides the United States and Mexico, presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders on Saturday vowed to keep immigrant families together during a visit to Arizona, which holds its primary next week. Sanders was accompanied by Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada and U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva. He started the day walking along a small street next to the Nogales-Morley Gate Port of Entry, where he spoke with two young immigrants about their struggles to obtain legal status in the United States."

Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Republican leaders adamantly opposed to Donald J. Trump's candidacy are preparing a 100-day campaign to deny him the presidential nomination, starting with an aggressive battle in Wisconsin's April 5 primary and extending into the summer, with a delegate-by-delegate lobbying effort that would cast Mr. Trump as a calamitous choice for the general election."

CBS/AP: "Thousands of protesters gathered in front of one of Donald Trump's signature Manhattan buildings Saturday to protest the GOP front-runner, CBS New York reports." The protesters gathered Saturday in Manhattan's Columbus Circle, across from Central Park, with a heavy police presence. Demonstrators chanted: 'Donald Trump, go away, racist, sexist, anti-gay.' They marched across south Central Park to Trump Tower, the Fifth Avenue skyscraper where Trump lives. Then they marched back to Columbus Circle for a rally."

Robert Costa & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump will host a group of nearly two dozen top Republicans on Monday afternoon for an off-the-record gathering that his allies hope will improve his relationship with the congressional GOP and the party's Washington establishment...."

Arizona Daily Star: "... at the Tucson Convention Center, [Donald Trump] was repeatedly interrupted by protesters before they were escorted out by police and security. Trump called a protester a 'real disgusting guy' and complained they are 'taking away our First Amendment rights.' The removal of that man temporarily halted the rally action, and the crowd started chanting 'USA! USA!'" ...

     ... CW: It's worth noting that Mitch McConnell & Co. are preventing President Obama from appointing a Supreme Court justice so that a guy who hasn't an elementary understanding of the First Amendment can make the appointment. The First Amendment does not protect Trump & the Trumpbots from being shouted down by individuals; it prevents the Congress from passing laws that abridge free speech. ...

... Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, is under heavy scrutiny after video footage surfaced Saturday showing him and another unidentified man forcefully engaging with a demonstrator at a rally [in Tucson, Arizona]. of the Washington Post: The video shows Lewandowski and the man reaching for a young protester in the stands amid a large group of anti-Trump demonstrators congregated in a section of the Tucson Convention Center. The protester was pulled backward, the footage shows, and aggressively began to push the man to Lewandowski's left."

Meg Wagner of the New York Daily News: "A man inside a Donald Trump rally in Arizona Saturday was caught on cell phone video violently punching and kicking a protester who was being led from the event. The disturbing melee occurred around 3 p.m. in Tucson -- amid a chanting, rabid crowd that booed as a group of protesters made their presence known. In the video, an adult male starts punching a protester -- who can't be clearly seen amid the crowd. When the protester falls, the man was caught wildly kicking at the body while people try to pull him away." ...

Dan Nowicki & Yvonne Sanchez of the Arizona Republic: "... Donald Trump swaggered into Arizona again Saturday, repeating his promises to build a border wall, renegotiate U.S. trade deals and generally 'make America great again.'... As he addressed the thousands gathered in Fountain Hills Park, Trump made a final pitch ahead of Arizona's presidential primary on Tuesday. Trump was joined on stage by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, former Gov. Jan Brewer and Treasurer Jeff DeWit. Former Arizona lawmaker and 9/11 'truther' Karen Johnson prayed to open the event.... Trump's angry tone endured throughout his shorter-than-usual 30-minute speech, which also focused on immigration-related themes." ...

... Edward Hilmore of the Guardian: "Protesters blocked roadways leading to a Donald Trump rally in Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday, ahead of an event where the Republican frontrunner for president would appear alongside Joe Arpaio, the 83-year-old sheriff best known for his hardline views on immigration."

Todd Gitlin, in a Washington Post op-ed: "... Trump's bludgeoning rhetoric may be even more dangerous than [George] Wallace's. Defeat could prove to be Trump's victory, just as Barry Goldwater's 1964 rout paved the way for Ronald Reagan's ascent. Trump has opened the gates for imitators in the years to come -- not only mainstream politicians (he has already won the support of right-wing Florida Gov. Rick Scott) but nativist outliers all over."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Donald Trump is fighting efforts to hold a trial in a federal class-action lawsuit over his Trump University real-estate program either just before or after the Republican National Convention in July. Such a trial has the potential to pull Trump off the campaign trail in order to serve as a witness. And in a filing late Friday night in federal court in San Diego, lawyers for Trump said plaintiffs' lawyers are intentionally trying to schedule the trial to interfere with his presidential campaign."

I have an organization but it's largely myself. -- Donald Trump (who else?) ...

... Maureen Dowd interviews Donald Trump. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Peter Wehner in a New York Times op-ed: "That Mr. Trump's rise has occurred in the Republican Party is painful for those of us who are Republicans. That more and more Republicans are making their own accommodation with or offering outright support for Mr. Trump -- governors like Chris Christie and Rick Scott, the former candidate Ben Carson and the former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich -- makes things even worse. Because we can no longer deny what Mr. Trump is and what he represents. The prospect of turning the party apparatus over to such a person is sickening."

Kristen East of Politico: "Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Saturday broke with much of his party on Merrick Garland, saying he'd not only consider meeting with President Barack Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court -- he'd consider nominating Garland himself if he were elected president.... The comments came after Dickerson asked Kasich if he would've looked at Garland himself. Kasich also said he believes the senators should 'all sit down and meet with the guy.'"

Jeb Lund of Rolling Stone wrote a fine autopsy of Marco Rubio's brilliant career. You might think Rubio is so yesterday, it's not worth reading Lund's piece, but Lund really captures the essence of the boy who would be president because he was bored with his day job: "Rubio was a Reagan Republican in the same way that all other Republicans are Reagan Republicans: 95 percent of what he believes hasn't been updated since 1981."

Senate Race

Alexander Bolton & Scott Wong of the Hill: "Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is facing what may be the toughest reelection of his Senate career in an unpredictable presidential year, when many voters are angry with Washington. Early polls show McCain tied with his Democratic challenger, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.), at around 40 percent despite having nearly 100-percent name recognition in the state he has represented in either the Senate or House since 1983."

Beyond the Beltway

Jennifer Uffalussy of the Guardian: "A bill passed in the Florida legislature this week would effectively defund Planned Parenthood and other reproductive rights clinics by preventing state agencies from working with any organization that provides abortion care other than that for victims of rape, incest, or if the life of the woman is at risk. As the bill heads to governor Rick Scott for his signature, several state lawmakers who have insisted that plentiful alternatives exist for reproductive and sexual healthcare have cited a list of health centers that includes dentists, optometrists, and elementary schools." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

James McAuley, et al., of the Washington Post: "The man at the top of Europe's terrorism wanted list is cooperating with Belgian investigators, his attorney said Saturday, raising the prospect that he can shed light on the planning and logistics of the November attacks in Paris that exposed gaping holes in the continent's security system." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Belgium's foreign minister, Didier Reynders, said Sunday that terror suspect Salah Abdeslam, who was wanted in the terror attacks that shook Paris in November, was planning more attacks while he was hiding in Brussels."

New York Times: "the arrest in Belgium on Friday of Salah Abdeslam, who officials say was the logistics chief for the Paris attacks, offers a crucial opportunity to address the many unanswered questions surrounding how they were planned. Mr. Abdeslam, who was transferred to the penitentiary complex in Bruges on Saturday, is believed to be the only direct participant in the attacks who is still alive."

... ABC News: "Suspected Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam said he planned to commit a suicide bombing at France's main stadium but then 'backtracked' and abandoned his explosive belt, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said."

The Commentariat -- March 19, 2016

Afternoon Update:

I have an organization but it’s largely myself. -- Donald Trump (who else?) ...

... Maureen Dowd interviews Donald Trump.

New York Times: "... the Zika virus has begun spreading through Puerto Rico, now the United States' front line in a looming epidemic. The outbreak is expected to be worse here than anywhere else in the country. The island, a warm, wet paradise veined with gritty poverty, is the ideal environment for the mosquitoes carrying the virus. The landscape is littered with abandoned houses and discarded tires that are perfect breeding grounds for the insects. Some homes and schools lack window screens and air-conditioning, exposing residents to almost constant bites."

James McAuley, et al., of the Washington Post: "The man at the top of Europe's terrorism wanted list is cooperating with Belgian investigators, his attorney said Saturday, raising the prospect that he can shed light on the planning and logistics of the November attacks in Paris that exposed gaping holes in the continent's security system."

Jennifer Uffalussy of the Guardian: "A bill passed in the Florida legislature this week would effectively defund Planned Parenthood and other reproductive rights clinics by preventing state agencies from working with any organization that provides abortion care other than that for victims of rape, incest, or if the life of the woman is at risk. As the bill heads to governor Rick Scott for his signature, several state lawmakers who have insisted that plentiful alternatives exist for reproductive and sexual healthcare have cited a list of health centers that includes dentists, optometrists, and elementary schools."

*****

White House: "In this week's address, the President discussed his decision to nominate Chief Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court of the United States."

... I ask Republicans in the Senate to give Judge Garland the respect he has earned. Give him a hearing. Give him an up-or-down vote. To deny it would be an abdication of the Senate's Constitutional duty. It would indicate a process for nominating and confirming judges that is beyond repair. It would make it increasingly impossible for any President, Republican or Democrat, to carry out their Constitutional function. To go down that path would jeopardize our system of justice, it would hurt our democracy, and betray the vision of our founding. -- President Obama

The full transcript is here.

David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "The fight over the vacancy on the Supreme Court shifted from close combat in the halls of Congress to a nationwide battle on Friday as senators returned to their home states for a two-week recess and Republican and Democratic leaders began aggressively making their cases in television and radio interviews, op-ed columns and public appearances. With little hope of a confirmation hearing before the November elections, the debate over the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia is entering a critical phase -- away from the corridors of power in Washington." ...

... Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois on Friday became the first Republican senator to call for an up-or-down vote on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, saying on a Chicago radio show that his colleagues ought to 'just man up and cast a vote.'... Kirk faces what is perhaps the most difficult Senate reelection race in the nation...." ...

... George Will (Yup, George Will): "Republicans who vow to deny Garland a hearing and who pledge to support Donald Trump if he is their party's nominee are saying ... constitutional values will be served if the vacancy is filled ... by someone chosen by President Trump, a stupendously uninformed dilettante who thinks judges 'sign' what he refers to as 'bills.' There is every reason to think that Trump understands none of the issues pertinent to the Supreme Court's role in the American regime, and there is no reason to doubt that he would bring to the selection of justices what he brings to all matters -- arrogance leavened by frivolousness.... If Republicans really think that either their front-runner or the Democrats' would nominate someone superior to Garland, it would be amusing to hear them try to explain why they do." ...

     ... CW: I would not go so far as to say that Will speaks for the confederates on the Court, but he is very plugged into their club. So what Will writes well might be what John Roberts and/or Anthony Kennedy are thinking.

Abby Goodnough of the New York Times interviews women & providers who have suffered because of Texas's impossibly restrictive new anti-abortion laws. The Supreme Court is deciding the constitutionality of the law. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "Under federal law, the vast majority of schools don't have to test the water flowing out of their taps and drinking fountains, and many states and districts also do not mandate water testing at schools. Even when districts do test their water, they don't always tell parents about the problems they find. This is not a hypothetical issue, nor a new one. Acute lead contamination has been found in school water in many cities during the past 15 years, including Los Angeles, Seattle, Baltimore and the District of Columbia." ...

     ... CW: The opening phrase in Brown's report is key: schools don't test for lead because Congress decided the kids don't matter. Leaving drinking water safety to the dimwitted yokels who sit on local school boards is unconscionable. (If you're a school board member, sorry. Then again, you probably know better than I that the majority of your colleagues on the board are dimwits.) ...

The law? The law? I don't think anybody here cares about the law. -- Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), in response to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy's testimony that Congress gave the states responsibility for enforcing drinking-water standards ...

... Dana Milbank: "Now [Republican] members of Congress are blaming the EPA for failing to stop the problem -- oblivious to the irony that they and their predecessors were the ones who denied the federal government the ability to enforce drinking-water standards in the first place. It's a vicious cycle: Washington devolves power to the states. When states screw up, conservatives blame the federal government, worsening the public's already shaky faith. Having tied the hands of the feds -- in this case, the EPA -- they use the failure as justification to restrict federal power further -- thus giving more control to the states, which caused the problem in the first place." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eric Levitz of New York: Republicans must answer for Brownbackistan & Lesser Jindaland. "What has happened to these states should be a national story; because we are one election away from it being our national story. If any of these GOP candidates are [sic.] elected president, they will almost certainly take office with a House and Senate eager to scale up the 'red-state model.' Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said of Brownback's Kansas, 'This is exactly the sort of thing we (Republicans) want to do here, in Washington, but can't, at least for now.' Speaker of the House Paul Ryan's celebrated budgets all depend on the same magical growth that has somehow escaped the Sunflower State.

The Ghosts in the Machine. Matea Gold & Anu Narayanswamy of the Washington Post: There is "a growing cadre of mystery outfits financing big-money super PACs. Many were formed just days or weeks before making six- or ­seven-figure contributions -- an arrangement that election law experts say violates a long-standing federal ban on straw donors. But the individuals behind the 'ghost corporations' appear to face little risk of reprisal from a deeply polarized Federal Election Commission, which recently deadlocked on whether to even investigate such cases."

Colleen Flaherty of Inside Higher Education, republished in Slate: "Paying adjunct faculty decent wages would be prohibitively expensive, a new study finds. Even if the adjunct movement for better working conditions succeeds, most adjuncts will lose. That's one bold claim of a recent paper on the costs associated with a number of the movement's goals, such as better pay and benefits. While activists and scholars have been quick to criticize what they call the paper's inherently flawed logic, the study's authors say it is a first step in a more critical dialogue on the adjunct 'dilemma.'" ...

... CW: For a quick course on how university administrators (virtually all of whom receive six-figure salaries, plus benefits), this August 2015 Atlantic article by Laura McKenna is helpful.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Nick Madigan of the New York Times: "The retired wrestler Hulk Hogan was awarded $115 million in damages Friday by a Florida jury in an invasion of privacy case against Gawker.com over its publication of a sex tape. The wrestler, known in court by his legal name, Terry G. Bollea, sobbed as the verdict was announced in late afternoon.... The jury had considered the case for about six hours. Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker and a defendant in the case, was found personally liable, as was Albert J. Daulerio, the site's former editor in chief." Denton will appeal.

Presidential Race

Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "... Bernie Sanders> will skip next week's AIPAC conference, making him the only presidential candidate in either party not to address the major pro-Israel conference." CW: So another reason I'm glad I voted for Bernie.

John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... it is ... evident that, in the past ten months, [Bernie] Sanders has defied the pundits, alarmed the comfortable, and inspired the young. He has turned what looked to be a political coronation into a lively and hard-fought contest, forcing his opponent to modify her positions and raise her game. He has demonstrated that Presidential campaigns don't have to be beholden to big donors. And he has shown that, surprisingly enough, there is still a place in American politics for an independent-minded speaker of uncomfortable truths. What's more, he isn't done yet." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Reality Cartoon. Michael Cavna of the Washington Post: "Exactly 16 years ago [today], in an episode titled 'Bart to the Future,' the "Simpsons" predicted a Donald Trump presidency." Dan Greaney, who wrote the episode, doesn't think it's so funny any more: "He seems like a 'Simpsons'-esque figure -- he fits right in there, in an over-the-top way. But now that he's running for president, I see that in a much darker way."

Birtherizing Romney. Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "Speaking in Salt Lake City -- home to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' headquarters -- Donald J. Trump questioned Mitt Romney's membership in the faith on Friday, asking a crowd at a rally, 'Are you sure he's a Mormon?' Mr. Romney, who was the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, comes from a prominent Mormon family, and he remains popular in Utah, which has a sizable Mormon population.... Mr. Trump has questioned the religious affiliation of his rivals before, including Ben Carson..., who is a Seventh-Day Adventist. But after Pope Francis recently suggested that Mr. Trump was not Christian because of his promise to build a wall along the Mexican border, the real estate mogul took offense, saying it was 'disgraceful' for a religious leader to question someone else's faith." See also "Tactical Mitt," linked below. CW: I think it's inappropriate to call a presidential candidate a sick fuck, but it's hard not to remark that Drumpf is a sick fuck. ...

... Matt Canham of the Salt Lake Tribune reports further on Trump's speech Salt Lake City speech.

... AND, speaking of sick fucks ...

... The Bullies' Bromance. Eliza Collins of Politico: "Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County is relishing the opportunity to host Donald Trump at a rally on his own turf Saturday -- and serve as the muscle at the same time....'Here I'm gonna be kinda wearing two hats -- in charge of the security there in the town and also participating, I would imagine, with Trump in the rally, so it makes it interesting,' Arpaio said in an interview with Politico, adding that it 'is going to be a lot of fun taking care of business there.'... 'I've had demonstrations against me constantly,' he said. 'He hasn't had that many demonstrators compared to me.'... Arpaio told Politico that he's endorsed many Republicans over the years, but 'this is probably one of the endorsements that I've really been excited about because of the nature of his character and being different.... This one I got a little special excitement.'..." CW: Yeah, Joe, we pretty much know by now what gets you off. You don't need to spell it out to kid-friendly news outlets.

Elliot Smilowitz of the Hill: "... Donald Trump is firing back after conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks called for the GOP to reject Trump. 'While I have never met @nytdavidbrooks of the NY Times, I consider him one of the dumbest of all pundits- he has no sense of the real world!' Trump tweeted early Saturday morning. 'Reading @nytdavidbrooks of the NY Times is a total waste of time, he is a clown with no awareness of the world around him- dummy!' he added." ...

     ... Here's Brooks' column, published Friday. It goes like this: "Donald Trump is epically unprepared to be president. He has no realistic policies, no advisers, no capacity to learn. His vast narcissism makes him a closed fortress. He doesn't know what he doesn't know and he's uninterested in finding out. He insults the office Abraham Lincoln once occupied by running for it with less preparation than most of us would undertake to buy a sofa. Trump is perhaps the most dishonest person to run for high office in our lifetimes." Et-cetera. Extra credit for citing Psalm 73:

Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence.... They scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression. Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.

     ... CW: Brooks might have included Psalm 73:3, but it probably hit too close to home: "For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked."

Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "The editor-in-chief of a top Jewish-American newspaper is calling for a boycott of Donald Trump's speech at a major pro-Jewish conference next week. Jane Eisner of The Forward published a list& this week of suggestions for attendees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference. 'Top of the list is for AIPAC to disinvite the GOP presidential front-runner, who said he will speak Monday, or else give him a time slot between 3-3:45 a.m. or directly before Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. 'Let her eviscerate him. That'll give him a taste of what's to come,' Eisner wrote."

The Semantics of the Trumpists Are Not Strained. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: Sam Clovis, a top advisor to Donald Trump doesn't think the riots Trump is predicting should he be denied the GOP nomination are "violence": "Clovis: 'I don't think he said violence, he said riots.'... Alisyn Camerota of CNN: 'Riots are violence, by definition.' Clovis: I don't accept that." ...

     ... Update: Gail Collins notes in today's column (linked below) that Clovis is quite comfortable with violent rhetoric: this week, Clovis "demanded that Republicans 'get on the train or they're going to end up under the train,' which sounds pretty firm." ...

... I don't think he meant literal riots. I think he meant political riots. -- Chris Christie

Today in History. The Trumpists proved the absurdist theory of deconstruction. Derrida rules. -- Constant Weader

** Michael Cohen of the Boston Globe: "On the most surface level, Trump, a billionaire who brags of his business acumen and his wealthy friends, could not be more different from [George] Wallace, who regularly described himself as 'a former truck driver married to a dime-store cashier and the son of a dirt farmer.' The parallels are not in the men's personal stories, but rather in the divisive, angry, fearful, anti-elitist, and resentment-laden politics that they used to spark their presidential aspirations. George Wallace won just 13 percent of the popular vote in 1968, but he birthed to this nation the idiomatic language of antigovernment populism -- a language that would be utilized by countless Republican politicians over the next four decades. Trump represents the logical culmination of that rhetorical tradition, but perhaps also its final denouement as a politically effective feature of American politics. Trump and Wallace are two sides of the same coin, but one man represents a beginning and the other the end of the line." Cohen has written a book on the 1968 election.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Kyle Blaine of BuzzFeed: "While there are journalists who have aggressively challenged Trump -- notably Fox News' Megyn Kelly, NBC News' Chuck Todd, and CNN's Jake Tapper -- much of the coverage, including broadcasting his rallies and events live in their entirety, has been uncritical and even unfiltered, some of it conducted by interviewers unwilling or unable to provide much more than a platform for the candidate.... The Trump campaign, citing security concerns from Secret Service, dictated to the networks that their camera crews could only shoot Trump head-on from a fenced-in press pen [at campaign events]. The terms ... are unprecedented, and are more restrictive than those put on the networks by the White House or Hillary Clinton's campaign, which has had Secret Service protection for its duration. Facing the risk of losing their credentialed access to Trump's events, the networks capitulated." ...

... Kevin Drum: "Network news operations love to crow about their impact whenever they air some dramatic story that uncovers public corruption, but now they're pretending that thousands of hours of Trump coverage had no independent effect? Spare me."

Mark Hensch of the Hill: "... Donald Trump is urging his supporters to stop watching Megyn Kelly's show on Fox News. 'Everybody should boycott the @megynkelly show,' he tweeted Friday, referencing 'The Kelly File.' 'Never worth watching. [It is] always a hit on Trump. She is sick [and] the most overrated person on TV.'... A spokesperson for Fox News fired back at Trump.... 'Donald Trump's vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and his extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate who wants to occupy the highest office in the land.'... Kelly on Wednesday hosted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Trump's GOP presidential rival, on her show. She also tweeted a poll the following day showing that American women increasingly are viewing Trump unfavorably. Trump has since repeatedly referred to Kelly as 'crazy Megyn' on Twitter, accusing her of bias."

Tactical Mitt. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "While Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) headed to the second of three long-scheduled town halls in Utah, Mitt Romney announced that he'd be voting for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) in this coming Tuesday's caucuses. 'The only path that remains to nominate a Republican rather than Mr. Trump is to have an open convention,' Romney explained on his Facebook page.... '... a vote for Governor Kasich in future contests makes it extremely likely that Trumpism would prevail.'" ...

... Jessie Hellman of the Hill: "The John Kasich campaign criticized 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney for saying he will vote for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in Tuesday's Utah caucuses and then turned Romney's words from Monday back at him. 'The fact is the establishment has gotten it wrong this entire primary and it is unfortunate to see that Mitt Romney is getting bad political advice,' John Weaver, chief strategist for Kasich for America said in a statement late Friday afternoon. '... This is just the old establishment trying again to game the political system, but John Kasich's defeated the Republican establishment his entire career.'" ...

... All this has Gail Collins thinking about the Republican convention. "Some people are talking about Romney parachuting in, which gives you an idea of their level of desperation."

Congressional Races

David Wasserman of the Cook Report: "... now that it's extremely likely that the Republican Party will nominate Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, congressional Republicans are entering uncharted and potentially dangerous territory. So many assumptions have been wrong this cycle that it's difficult to be definitive about another: that the House majority won't be in play in 2016.... 'They're about to detonate a nuclear bomb on themselves,' said one savvy House Democratic strategist following Tuesday's primaries. 'If Ted Cruz is your back up plan, you're screwed.'..."

Evelyn Rupert of the Hill: "Sharron Angle, a controversial Tea Party Republican who upset the 2010 Nevada GOP primary is reviving her bid for the Senate, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports." ...

... CW: In case you've forgotten Angle, here are a few of her most remarkable views.

Beyond the Beltway

John Sepulvado of Oregon Public Broadcasting on an organized group of right-wing elected officials who supported, participated & assisted in the militant takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, several of whom also supported Cliven Bundy's armed standoff with the BLM." One of them, Michele Fiore of Nevada, is running for Congress. Thanks to safari for the link. ...

... As Sepulvado points out, "The GOP-controlled Congress is also considering legislation that would remove the Bureau of Land Management's ability to enforce the law. The author of that legislation -- Rep. Jason Chaffetz (RTP-Utah), chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee & the star of a fairly long list of horribles.

Suicide by Cop. Amanda Marcotte, in Salon, on the killing of LaVoy Finicum & its consequences: "... while the FBI agents likely did pull the trigger too quickly, overall, it's impossible for an honest viewer to conclude that Finicum is anything but the villain of this story, a man so lost in his delusions of himself as a revolutionary that he deliberately chooses to end this episode with violence instead of surrender. That he puts the life of a teen girl in danger while doing it only reinforces the sense that he was anything but a martyr."

Kate Royals of the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger: State Rep. Karl Oliver (R-Winona, Miss.) "responded to an email from a Gulfport woman saying he 'could care less' about her concerns and suggested she move out of Mississippi." Oliver tells the Clarion-Ledger that his wife is a schoolteacher. CW: She probably should have told him to write, "I couldn't care less," because I do believe that's what he meant. But then he's either a denizen of Right Wing World, where up means down & could means couldn't, or of the brave new land of Trumpsylvania, where words mean whatever. Anyhow, he said for sure his response "wasn't rude." Who are we to judge?

Way Beyond

Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "The European Union and the Turkish government struck an accord Friday to contain Europe's largest migrant crisis since World War II, agreeing to a deal that turns Turkey into the region's refugee camp and leaves untold thousands stranded in a country with a deteriorating record on human rights.... Under the deal coming into effect Sunday, virtually all migrants -- including Syrians fleeing war -- who attempt to enter Europe via the Aegean Sea will be sent back to Turkey." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Alissa Rubin & Aurelien Breeden of the New York Times: "Europe's most wanted man, Salah Abdeslam, believed to be the 10th participant in the Paris terrorist attacks of Nov. 13, was captured on Friday afternoon during a police raid in Brussels, a Belgian official said. 'We've got him,' Théo Francken, a Belgian minister, wrote on Twitter. The country's two public broadcasters, VRT and RTBF, reported that Mr. Abdeslam had been captured and had a leg injury, and that the raid was one of four carried out in the Belgian capital." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

Washington Post: "A U.S. soldier was killed near the front line with the Islamic State in northern Iraq on Saturday, becoming the second combat casualty of the war against the militants, according to the U.S. military and Iraqi officials."

New York Times: "A Boeing 737-800 from Dubai with 62 people aboard crashed early Saturday during a landing attempt at the airport in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, Russian officials said. All 55 passengers and seven crew members were killed, according to a list of victims published on the website of the Rostov regional government. Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region, said strong winds appeared to have caused the crash, but Russian officials said other factors could also have contributed."