The Commentariat -- August 29, 2015

Internal links removed.

Campbell Robertson & Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: "Returning [to New Orleans] Friday 10 years after this city was inundated, former President George W. Bush painted a rosy picture of the recovery since Hurricane Katrina, saying that the devastation had 'sparked a decade of reform' in public schools and declaring, 'New Orleans is back, and better than ever.' Visiting one of the schools that became a charter in those early years after the storm, Mr. Bush focused on education, citing the failings of the city's public schools before Hurricane Katrina, and the marked improvement since." ...

... Campbell Robertson: In Mississippi, then-Gov. Haley Barbour took from the poor & uninsured to give to a pet project: renovating & expanding the Port of Gulfport. Barbour's administration "projected 2,586 permanent maritime jobs by 2015" in the renovated port. "According to its most recent federal filing, the port has roughly 470 fewer jobs than it had at the time of Mr. Barbour's 2007 request. Of the 1,300 direct new jobs the port is supposed to have created, it can claim 99." ...

... CW Projection: This is the kind of "jobs success" we can expect if the Keystone XL pipeline goes in. "A study by the Perryman Group, a firm commissioned by TransCanada to examine the potential economic impact of the project, predicts that anywhere between 250,348 and 553,235 permanent jobs will be created." Politifact puts the number of permanent jobs Keystone XL is likely to create at 50. So it's somewhere around half-a-million or 50. ...

... Peter Whoriskey of the Washington Post: "Starchitects" can't design cheap housing. Actor Brad Pitt's project to create affordable, attractive housing for New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward was a fail when it came to the contributions of top architects. "... the vast majority of the homes built so far came from designs created by other, lesser-known architects that Pitt hired." ...

... Here's a 2011 critique of the Pitt project by San Francisco architect Mark English. (Rebecca Firestone of English's firm did the write-up.) CW: I'm pretty damned sure that with a quadrille pad & a trip to the neighborhood & chats with residents, I could come up with a much cheaper, more pleasing design than any of these big shot pros did. And I wouldn't build them on site; I'd prefab them in a big old, convertible warehouse right there in the Ninth. In fact, Habitat for Humanity & other charity groups did just that (albeit they used Chinese drywall, & eventually did major renos to remove & replace the corrosive sheetrock.)

Ha Ha! Just kidding. Occupants way more equal than you.Mark Sherman & Sam Hanenel of the AP: "The Supreme Court ... can keep protesters off its marble plaza without violating their constitutional rights, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The inviting 20,000-square-foot, open-air plaza can remain a protest-free zone because the court has an interest in preserving decorum and the idea that judges are not influenced by public opinion and pressure, said a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.... The decision reversed a lower court ruling that declared unconstitutional a law prohibiting protests on the plaza." ...

... CW: Funny how it's okay for protesters to right smack-dab get in the faces of private individuals entering a Planned Parenthood clinic to seek medical attention, but it's not okay to get even within potential earshot of the public officials who are the Supremes. Because decorum. There's an inverse relationship between the power of the protested & the free-speech rights of the protester.

Julian Hattem of the Hill: "A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a lower court ruling against the National Security Agency's controversial collection methods. The ruling from the three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reverses the lower court's decision, which in December of 2013 declared that the NSA's bulk phone data collection was unconstitutional." CW: Two of the judges on the three-judge panel are Reagan appointees (one an infamous partisan) & one a Dubya appointee well-known for her winger views.

Timothy Easley of the AP: Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk Kim Davis wants the Supreme Court to absolve her from having to do her job of issuing marriage licenses. Because gay people. According to her lawyer, Davis wants "asylum for her conscience." "Davis cannot be fired because she is an elected official. The Legislature could impeach her, but that is unlikely given that many state lawmakers share her beliefs. The Republican president of the state Senate spoke at a rally last week in support of Davis." CW: Oh, please. If you're a vegan clerk, should you be granted "asylum for your conscience" so your county can quit granting fishing & hunting licenses? Should a Roman Catholic building inspector be "forced" to grant a church construction permit to a band of heathen Baptists? Davis has a right to her bigoted beliefs & her religious convictions, but she does not have the right to enforce them on others.

Jennifer Liberto of Politico: "As a tumultuous week in the markets came to a close, central bankers meeting in the Grand Tetons on Friday to discuss inflation confronted an unfamiliar sight: Hundreds of critics from the left and right gathering to attack the central bank's policies at its summer getaway in the mountains. The shocking appearance of activists at the usually quiet retreat is a sign of a growing battle over when and whether the Fed should raise interest rates."

CW: I haven't been covering Bobby Jindal much because he's as likely to be our next president as are Jim Gilmore and I, but I'm sorry I missed this:

It is therefore with disappointment that I read of the White House's plans to make this visit part of a tour for your climate change agenda. I understand that your emphasis in New Orleans will -- rightly -- be an economic development, the temptation to stray into climate change politics should be resisted.... While you and others may be of the opinion that we can legislate away hurricanes with higher taxes, business regulations and EPA power grabs, that is not a view shared by many Louisianans. -- Bobby Jindal, in a letter to President Obama, reported August 26

... Well, President Obama disappointed Bobby, & Charles Pierce is very unkind to the governor with an advanced degree in science from Oxford U.

Griff Witte & Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "Pressure to change Europe's dysfunctional asylum system grew on Saturday as the continent awoke to an impassioned call from the United Nations Secretary General [Ban Ki-moon] for governments to do more to address a never-before-seen influx of men, women and children that shows no sign of abating despite the rising risks.... In an implicit rebuke to European leaders who have squabbled for months while doing little to resolve the crisis, he called for governments to offer 'comprehensive responses, expand safe and legal channels of migration and act with humanity, compassion and in accordance with their international obligations.'" ...

... The New York Times series on the migrants continues.

White House staff say the boss is having an eventful late-term presidency. CW: They're not wrong:

... CW: Your Weekly Hagiography is usually so saccharine that I don't embed it, but if you can ignore the rah-rah, these videos -- which usually are published on Fridays -- are often fairly interesting.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. CW Mea Culpa. Orin Kerr of the Washington Post, with whom I often disagree, is right about this: Adam Liptak's New York Times story, linked here yesterday, on Justice Clarence Thomas's heavy reliance on other people's writing was misleading. I looked at Liptak's "evidence" & thought so, too, but I linked the story anyway because I'm a partisan hack. I should have at least noted that where Liptak presented the basis for his analysis, the data showed that while Thomas was the most-copying justice, the difference between his practices & those of other justices was pretty small, in fact, no more than "a rounding error," as Kerr puts it, in one statistical analysis. So I apologize. Liptak was unfair. So was I. This was crap journalism & crap linking. And I know better.

Presidential Race

Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton staked her claim on Friday to lead Democrats in 2016 and beyond, delivering a fiery speech to hundreds of party officials in which she attacked Donald J. Trump and other Republicans for 'hateful' remarks -- 'The party of Lincoln has become the party of Trump,' she said acidly -- and pledged to rebuild the Democratic political machine to help candidates win races nationwide. But if Mrs. Clinton was seeking to unify Democrats behind her, two of her rivals for the nomination -- Martin O'Malley, the former Maryland governor, and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont -- ... used their speeches at the Democratic National Committee's summer meeting to aim unusual broadsides at the party overtly and Mrs. Clinton implicitly." ...

... Patrick Healy: "Taking his outsider message into the heart of the Democratic establishment, Senator Bernie Sanders ... challenged hundreds of the party's leaders on Friday to embrace his candidacy, warning that the huge crowds of supporters he has drawn may not vote for Democratic candidates in 2016 unless he is at the top of the ticket." ...

... Patrick Healy & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Martin O'Malley ... deliver[ed] a fiery speech Friday that condemned his party's leadership for what he called a process 'rigged' to help Hillary Rodham Clinton -- namely, curtailing the number of presidential primary debates. Accusing party leaders of trying to keep Democratic ideas hidden as the Republican presidential candidates spew 'racist hate' from their debate lecterns, Mr. O'Malley ... questioned the decision to hold 'four debates and four debates only' before the first four states finish voting." ...

... Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) believes the Democratic Party is using its limited primary debate schedule to rig the nomination process. 'I do,' Sanders reportedly responded when asked Friday whether he agrees with former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's assertion that the debate system is 'rigged.' The two Democratic presidential candidates were speaking at the summer meeting of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in Minneapolis on Friday. 'This sort of rigged process has never been attempted before,' O'Malley said in his speech earlier Friday."

Nick Gass of Politico: Hillary Clinton told reporters she was trying to do a better job of "explaining to people what's going on" with her e-mails. CW: Yeah, the press could do a better job of this, too.

Eugene Scott of CNN: "Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told reporters Thursday that he attends a church in Manhattan, but the church released a statement saying the real estate developer is not an 'active member.'" CW: Despite Trump's & the media's history of scrutinizing & hypothesizing on President Obama's religious beliefs & practices, I find "investigative journalism" of this sort creepy & invasive even when Trump is the subject. It's true that Trump's attempts to bolster his religious creds deserve attention, but I think the Marble Collegiate Church erred in releasing information about Trump's affiliation with the church. Besides, one could attend a church every Sunday & not be a member, so the church statement isn't even dispositive. Also, many people "feel" they're affiliated with a certain religion or particular church, even if they never or seldom show up for services.

Ed Kilgore: Peggy Noonan talked to three Americans -- well, one of them is a Dominican-born deli-worker, & another a DJ on a Spanish-language station, so iffy Americans -- & found out "Trump is the Tribune of the People [Kilgore's characterization]. But it's not real clear which side she's on. Maybe neither, being an objective journalist and all." Also, the Dominican guy "says the Spanish-language call-in radio station he listens to is a hotbed of Trump support, and that listeners sided with The Donald in his altercation with Jorge Ramos, because they're legal immigrants and they hate the illegal kind." The DJ backed up Domincan guy. CW: Now, I'm sure Trump was right: he's going to get the Hispanic vote. All the "legals" -- the only ones who can vote except for all the "illegals"/voter-fraudsters -- love him! ...

... Keith Brekhus of PoliticsUSA: "On the same morning [Wednesday] that Trump was bragging that he would win the Hispanic vote, a newly released Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 81 percent of Hispanic voters had an unfavorable opinion of Trump, compared to just 13 percent who viewed him favorably." ...

... Still Feeling Those Good Vibrations. CW: Sorry, pollsters. I totally trust Pegs on this. Just as I did when, the day before the 2012 election, she predicted Romney would win, no matter what the Nate Silvers were saying because "All the vibrations are right.... There's the thing about the yard signs. In Florida a few weeks ago I saw Romney signs, not Obama ones. From Ohio I hear the same. From tony Northwest Washington, D.C., I hear the same." The Trump movement is not just vibes; it's fucking tectonic plate shifts: "Something is going on, some tectonic plates are moving in interesting ways."

Governor Yahoo!. Mark Katz of the WNYC: "Gov. Chris Christie has criticized Hillary Clinton in recent days over her use of private email to do State Department business. But the only email he provided to the Legislature last year came from his private Yahoo account.... Both New Jersey and federal guidelines say government business should not be conducted over personal email accounts.... But Christie insists Clinton's transgression is unique in that she maintained a private server...." CW: IOKIYAR. Also, too, a Yahoo! account could never be hacked & Yahoo would never share your e-mails with the NSA even if it cost them $250K a day in fines. I have no idea if Clinton's private server is "more private" than Christie's, but the odds are it is.

Rats Abandoning the Sinking Ship Doofus. Alex Isenstadt & Marc Caputo of Politico: "Three top Jeb Bush fundraisers abruptly parted ways with his presidential campaign on Friday, amid internal personality conflicts and questions about the strength of his candidacy, Politico has learned. There are different versions of what transpired."

Beyond the Beltway

Erik Ortiz of NBC News: "A former New Hampshire prep school student accused of raping a freshman girl as part of a campus tradition was acquitted Friday of the most serious charges against him. Owen Labrie ... was acquitted of the three felony rape charges and of misdemeanor simple assault. He was convicted on three counts of misdemeanor sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child and a felony count of using a computer to seduce a minor under 16, which requires him to register as a sex offender." ...

... Mark Stern of Slate explains how New Hampshire's statutory rape law determined the verdict.

Annals of "Justice," Ctd. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "A young black man arrested by police in Portsmouth, Virginia, on the same day that one of the city's officers fatally shot an unarmed black 18-year-old, has been found dead in jail after spending almost four months behind bars without bail for stealing groceries worth $5. Jamycheal Mitchell, who had mental health problems, was discovered lying on the floor of his cell by guards early last Wednesday, according to authorities. While his body is still awaiting an autopsy, senior prison officials said his death was not being treated as suspicious." CW: No, I guess not.

"Guns Everywhere." AP: "Authorities are investigating after a shooting at Savannah State University killed a student and prompted a lockdown at the Georgia school Thursday night. A statement posted on the university's website identified the deceased as Christopher Starks, a 22-year-old junior from the Atlanta area. The statement says he died at a hospital of gunshot wounds sustained during an altercation at the student union." ....

... Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Christopher Jamal Starks, was in the Student Union at Savannah State University when he was shot during an altercation Thursday night, according to police." ...

... CW: In 2013, Georgia had the highest rate of gun deaths of any state in the nation. So in 2014 the Republican-led legislature passed the "Guns Everywhere Law," a/k/a the "Safe Carry Protection Act," & Gov. Nathan Deal (R) signed it into law in April 2014. I doubt the students at Savannah State are feeling safe & protected now. Another horrible, stupid waste of life.

Making Eye Contact with Police While Black. Leon Neyfakh of Slate: White Dayton, Ohio, police officer tails black driver because the driver had made "direct eye contact" with him. Of course, cops also will claim that avoiding eye contact with police is suspicious behavior. CW: I think there's a straight line from police assumptions about black people to the GOP Everything-Is-Obama's-Fault syndrome.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Thai authorities arrested a foreign man Saturday they said had been holed up in a suburban apartment with bomb-making equipment and stacks of passports, the first possible breakthrough in the deadly bombing at a Bangkok shrine nearly two weeks ago."

New York Times: "An Egyptian judge on Saturday handed down unexpectedly harsh verdicts in the trial of three journalists from the Al Jazeera English news channel, sentencing them to at least three years in prison on charges that human rights advocates have repeatedly dismissed as political in nature. The journalists, Mohamed Fahmy, Baher Mohamed and Peter Greste, had said they were expecting to be exonerated or sentenced to time already served. Egyptian officials have strongly suggested they were eager to be rid of the case, which had become a source of international embarrassment for the government...."

Washington Post: "Tropical Storm Erika was losing its punch as it drenched Haiti and the Dominican Republic early Saturday, but it left devastation in its path, killing at least 20 people and leaving another 31 missing on the small eastern Caribbean island of Dominica, authorities said."

The Commentariat -- August 28, 2015

Internal links, defunct videos (and related text) removed.

Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "President Obama came to ... [New Orleans] on Thursday to make a case for his entire presidency: that when disaster strikes, the federal government should help not only to rescue the stranded but also to rebuild better and fairer than before. 'The project of rebuilding here wasn't just to restore the city as it had been,' Mr. Obama said to several hundred people at a new community center in the once-devastated Lower Ninth Ward. 'It was to build a city as it should be -- a city where everyone, no matter what they look like, how much money they've got, where they come from, where they're born, has a chance to make it.' The president explicitly linked New Orleans's recovery from Hurricane Katrina, which struck 10 years ago this month, to the nation's recovery from the 2008 recession."

Lydia DePillis of the Washington Post: "... the National Labor Relations Board ... voted Thursday to redefine the employee-employer relationship granting new bargaining powers to workers caught up in an economy increasingly reliant on subcontractors, franchisees and temporary staffing agencies.... In a case that drew intense lobbying by both business and union groups, Democratic appointees on the panel split 3-2 with Republicans to adopt a more expansive definition of what it means to be an 'joint employer,' making it more difficult for companies to avoid responsibility through various forms of outsourcing."

Timothy Cama of the Hill: "A federal judge in North Dakota acted late Thursday to block the Obama administration's controversial water pollution rule, hours before it was due to take effect. Judge Ralph Erickson of the District Court for the District of North Dakota found that the 13 states suing to block the rule met the conditions necessary for a preliminary injunction, including that they would likely be harmed if courts didn't act and that they are likely to succeed when their underlying lawsuit against the rule is decided. The decision is a major roadblock for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers, who were planning Friday to begin enforcing the Waters of the United States rule, expanding federal jurisdiction over small waterways like streams and wetlands."

Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "Officials at Planned Parenthood mounted an aggressive defense in a letter to Congress on Thursday, offering evidence from an outside investigator that undercover videos targeting the women's health organization were heavily edited and should be considered unreliable. The letter, written by the ­organization's president, Cecile Richards, comes as four congressional committees are pursuing investigations into allegations that Planned Parenthood sells ­fetal tissue for profit, which is prohibited by law, and that it has changed its abortion procedures to extract better specimens. The accusations stem from an elaborate undercover investigation by antiabortion activists, who recorded Planned Parenthood employees while posing as representatives of a tissue procurement company." ...

... Joan McCarter of Daily Kos: "The investigators looked at the first four of the videos released ... and concluded that 'the manipulation of the videos does mean they have no evidentiary value in a legal context and cannot be relied upon for any official inquiries' unless C.M.P. provides investigators with its original material, and that material is independently authenticated as unaltered.' Their analysis suggests that even the long, supposedly unedited versions of the video also show signs of manipulation, as do the transcripts. In one case, the transcript provided by CMP omits as many as 4,000 words.... That should be enough to stop congressional investigations. It won't be." ...

... digby: "The Planned Parenthood jihad is underway and fact[s] don't matter to the Republicans.... Here are the facts as they see them. Women are the worst mass murderers in the history of the world":

Supreme Plagiarist. "A Supreme Court Justice of Few Words, Some Not His Own." Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Justice Clarence Thomas has not asked a question from the Supreme Court bench since 2006. His majority opinions tend to be brisk, efficient and dutiful. Now, studies using linguistic software have discovered another Thomas trait: Those opinions contain language from briefs submitted to the court at unusually high rates.... In the last decade, nine majority opinions shared 25 percent or more of their language with one party's brief. Justice Thomas signed five of them. Taking account of both parties' briefs in those cases, four opinions overlapped more than 30 percent of the time. Justice Thomas signed all four." CW: Let's face it; this guy hasn't even been phoning it in for the last decade.

Amy Tsang & Peter Eavis of the New York Times: "Every major stock market in the world surged higher on Thursday, helped by an unexpectedly strong economic report in the United States and a late rally in Chinese stocks." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama's sanctions chief will arrive in Israel on Friday to defend the nuclear containment deal with Iran and try to reassure a government and public deeply opposed to the accord that the United States is still prepared to inflict severe financial penalties on Tehran for its sponsorship of terrorism and support for military proxies. The Obama aide, Adam J. Szubin, the top Treasury Department official who helped negotiate the accord between Iran and six world powers, will meet with Israeli government officials and foreign policy experts to make his case during a three-day trip...."

Anemona Hartocollis & others of the New York Times continue their reporting on the thousands of "migrants and refugees ... fleeing unrest in the Middle East and Afghanistan" on their way to Europe. CW: These are amazing stories of greater-than-Biblical proportions. ...

... Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "Austrian authorities launched an international probe Thursday into the deaths of more than 70 suspected migrants, with white-suited forensic experts still struggling to count the decomposed corpses left by a tragedy that immediately touched off a new round of recriminations over Europe's handling of an escalating refugee crisis." ...

     ... Update: "Austrian officials announced that three suspects were taken into custody in Hungary in connection with the decomposing bodies found in the back of a truck parked on the side of the main highway between Vienna and Budapest on Thursday. Those arrested included an unnamed Bulgarian national believed to be the truck's owner. Another Bulgarian citizen and a third man with a Hungarian identity card were also taken into custody."

Ad Fail. How Many DNC Staff Does It Take to Screw up a Web Page? Leo Shane of the Military Times: "Democrats' election outreach efforts to veterans may need to start with a refresher course on what U.S. troops look like. For starters, they don't wear Polish military uniforms. Until Thursday, the Democratic National Committee's 'Veterans and Military Families' website had as its only picture a shot from White House photographers during President Obama's visit to Warsaw in 2011."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "New poll showing Clinton beating everyone is reported as bad news for Hillary." ...

... AND the Reality Chexie for the Stupidest Poll Report by a News Outlet Goes to Julian Hattem of the Hill: "A vast majority of the public would oppose the White House moving forward with the nuclear deal with Iran without the support of Congress, according to a new survey released by an organization critical of the deal. The poll, released by Secure America Now, found that 82 percent of Americans -- including large majorities in both parties oppose the White House granting billions of dollars in sanctions relief 'without the approval of Congress.' The survey also showed that, when informed about 'secret side deals between Iran and the U.N. monitoring agency,' 61 percent of people thought that Congress should vote to kill the deal. Just 16 percent said it should be approved, despite the existence of the side deals. The results could be troubling for supporters of the agreement.... Secure America Now has run television ads urging Congress to oppose the deal." ...

... The pollsters, BTW, were McLaughlin & Associates (a bit on their track record here) & Caddell Associates, with too many mentions to mention, but here's one. Anyhoo, congrats, Julian. Now go back to journalism school.

Confederates Were Right -- Science Is Bunk. Jacob Kastrenakes of the Verge: "A huge, collaborative research project attempted to recreate 100 studies that were recently published in major psychology journals, and it found that only 39 of those studies' results could be replicated. That could mean that the studies were wrong in the first place, but researchers say that the findings tell more about the difficulty of designing a reproducible study than the accuracy of the studies themselves. Studies need to be reproducible so that scientists can confirm their effects.... In part, that's to catch scientific fraud, but it's also simply to make scientific findings more trustworthy."

Presidential Race

Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "All of the Democratic Vice-Presidents that Biden grew up watching eventually became Democratic nominees for President: Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, and Al Gore. If Biden decides to forego a run for the Oval Office, he will be the first Democratic Vice-President unable to secure his party's nomination in sixty-three years." Lizza goes on to explain numerous reasons that Biden would fare poorly against Clinton in a primary race. "It's much more likely that the Vice-President is not actually preparing a campaign against Clinton, but rather readying himself as a replacement if something wildly unexpected destroys her candidacy. In that sense, Biden is being shrewd. He can't beat Clinton, but he can set himself up as the Party's insurance policy in case of her collapse."

Betty Cracker of Balloon Juice: "Hillary Clinton talked about women's issues, comparing the views of backwards, Bible-humping, god-bothering, patriarchal fanatics in the GOP race with the views of anti-modern, Koran-thumping, god-bothering, patriarchal fanatics in terrorist groups.... She specifically name-checked Bush, Rubio and Kasich." ...

Extreme views about women? We expect that from some of the terrorist groups. We expect that from people who don't want to live in the modern world. But it's a little hard to take coming from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States.... They espouse out of date and out of touch policies. They are dead wrong for 21st Century America. -- Hillary Clinton, Thursday

CW: Jonathan Martin, et al., of the New York Times have a big story currently on the NYT's front page about how "Democratic leaders are increasingly frustrated by Hillary Rodham Clinton's failure to put to rest questions about her State Department email practices and ease growing doubts among voters about her honesty and trustworthiness." Blah-blah. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) But a version of the AP story I linked yesterday, which demonstrates that Clinton was treating classified documents the same way everyone at State did and had done in past administration, doesn't get a front-page link (I had to find it in a search) & doesn't appear to have made the print editions of the paper. ...

... David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "Does Hillary Clinton have a serious legal problem because she may have transmitted classified information on her private e-mail server? After talking with a half-dozen knowledgeable lawyers, I think this 'scandal' is overstated. Using the server was a self-inflicted wound by Clinton, but it's not something a prosecutor would take to court.... 'It's common knowledge that the classified communications system is impossible and isn't used,' said one former high-level Justice Department official.... There's no legal difference whether Clinton and her aides passed sensitive information using her private server or the official 'state.gov' account that many now argue should have been used. Neither system is authorized for transmitting classified information."

GOP Candidates = "Crash Test Dummies." Paul Krugman: "Nowhere is there a hint that any of the G.O.P. candidates understand [sic!] the problem [causing global market swings], or the steps that might be needed if the world economy hits another pothole.... Scare stories involving Chinese ownership of U.S. debt have been a Republican staple for years.... And you can see why. 'Obama is endangering America by borrowing from China' is a perfect political line, playing into deficit fetishism, xenophobia and the perennial claim that Democrats don't stand up for America! America! America! It's also complete nonsense, but that doesn't seem to matter.... One side of the political aisle has been utterly determined to learn nothing from the economic experiences of recent years."

Tierney Sneed of TPM: "Attendees at a Republican fundraiser in Colorado Wednesday say that House Speaker John Boehner called Sen. Ted Cruz a 'jackass,' the Daily Caller reported.... Boehner said that the 2016 presidential race kept 'that jackass' away from Washington....Cruz has long had a reputation for being a thorn in Boehner's side, having led a government shutdown over Obamacare for 2013 and publicly causing leadership headaches on various occasions." CW: See, even the Orange Man can be right once in awhile. ...

... Jackass Returns to Washington, Brings Jackass Buddy, Plans Huge Jackass Rally. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump revealed Thursday that he's been coordinating with Ted Cruz for a joint appearance at an event opposing the Iran deal in Washington. 'We are talking to Ted Cruz, who is a friend of mine and a good guy, about doing something very big over the next two weeks in Washington,' the billionaire businessman said after a rally in South Carolina. 'It's essentially a protest against the totally incompetent deal that we're making with Iran.'" ...

... Not to worry, the Anti-Trump is coming to town, too. Tim Egan contrasts Trump with Pope Francis.

Hunter Walker of Bloomberg: "Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump recently called the Bible his 'favorite book' while on the campaign trail, but he apparently doesn't want to discuss it in interviews. Trump was asked to name 'one or two of your most favorite Bible verses' during an interview on Bloomberg's television show 'With All Due Respect' Wednesday.... 'I wouldn't want to get into it because to me that's very personal. You know, when I talk about the Bible, it's very personal, so I don't want to get into verses,' Trump said.... Later in the interview, host John Heilemann asked Trump if he was 'an Old Testament guy or a New Testament guy.' 'Probably equal,' Trump said."

     ... CW: Okay, let's assume Trump has never actually read his "favorite book." It's still stupid to ask a presidential candidate to pick a "most favorite" Bible verse. If you're not sure it's stupid, let me just add that the questioner was Mark Halperin. Case closed. ...

After Donald Trump kicked journalist Jorge Ramos out of his press conference in Iowa earlier this week, this is what happened in the hall outside the meeting room:

... Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "Trump's range as a performer is often described as vaudevillian, and that description should be applied to his world view as well. He often appears to be reënacting conversations about other countries that took place a century or two ago." ...

Negotiating with Japan, negotiating with China, when these people walk into the room, they don't say, 'Oh, hello, how's the weather, so beautiful outside, isn't it lovely? They say, 'We want deal.' -- Donald Trump, in Dubuque, Iowa, mimicking Asians ...

Margaret Hartmann of New York: "Former House majority leader Eric Cantor, who lost his seat last year in a shocking primary upset, has returned to the world of national politics by endorsing Jeb Bush for president.... According to Time, Cantor was wooed by Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, and Chris Christie before he settled on Bush." ...

Who wants the endorsement of a guy (@EricCantor) who lost in perhaps the greatest upset in the history of Congress? -- Donald Trump, in a tweet

Dana Milbank on Jeb!'s congenital "misspeaking" syndrome. Also, Jeb! complains with each new gaffe that it "was taken out of context." A nice trip down the Bush family malapropism lane.

Margaret Hartmann: "... on Thursday in Little Rock, Arkansas, Ben Carson made an interesting admission. "They tell you that there's a war on women," he said. 'There is no war on women. There may be a war on what's inside of women, but there is no war on women in this country.'... Ladies, take comfort in the fact that politicians aren't fighting you, they're just waging war on some of your non-vital organs."

The Commentariat -- August 27, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Amy Tsang & Peter Eavis of the New York Times: "Every major stock market in the world surged higher on Thursday, helped by an unexpectedly strong economic report in the United States and a late rally in Chinese stocks."

CW: Jonathan Martin, et al., of the New York Times have a big story currently on the NYT's front page about how "Democratic leaders are increasingly frustrated by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s failure to put to rest questions about her State Department email practices and ease growing doubts among voters about her honesty and trustworthiness." Blah-blah. But a version of the AP story I linked below, which demonstrates that Clinton was treating classified documents the same way everyone at State did and had done in past administration, doesn't get a front-page link (I had to find it in a search) & doesn't appear to have made the print editions of the paper.

*****

Emily Rauhala of the Washington Post: "Chinese markets rose dramatically Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index soaring quickly in less than an hour of late afternoon trading to finish up a significant 5.3 percent. The Shenzhen Composite also closed up 3.58 percent."

Peter Eavis, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States stock markets surged late in the day [Wednesday], with the Dow Jones industrial average jumping more than 600 points after a late afternoon rally. Investors seemed to react to suggestions from a Federal Reserve official that policy makers may not raise interest rates soon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

The market slide was the fault of Obama’s failure to get tough with China, but its rebound is probably due to the GOP Congress, or something. -- Greg Sargent

Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "A group of nearly 200 retired generals and admirals sent a letter to Congress on Wednesday urging lawmakers to reject the Iran nuclear agreement, which they say threatens national security.... The letter, addressed to Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate and the House, is a response to one sent last week by three dozen retired senior military officers who support the nuclear deal.... The signatories include retired generals and flag officers from every branch of service, including a handful who were involved in some public controversies during their careers. One is retired Lt. Gen. William G. 'Jerry' Boykin, who was deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence under President George W. Bush and is now executive vice president of the Family Research Council. He had a history of making controversial speeches...."

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "The arrests this month of four young men on charges they hacked a fellow student to death in a federally funded job training center in Miami — and another murder in St. Louis this spring — are putting a spotlight on violence inside Job Corps. The antipoverty program born during President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty to give low-income teenagers free vocational training has been beset by violence for years, with lax enforcement of discipline policies set by the Labor Department, which runs the 125 job centers around the country."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Ellen Brait of the Guardian: "Walmart will no longer stock AR-15 rifles and other semi-automatic weapons, saying the decision is because of less demand from customers and not continued political pressure in the wake of several mass shootings in the US."

Tim Wu of the New Yorker on some of the reasons better-paid white-collar workers work such long hours.

Nick Gass of Politico: "The White House fired back Wednesday at Charles Koch after a Politico article quoted him as saying he was 'flabbergasted' by a recent attack on him and his brother by President Barack Obama during an energy speech in Las Vegas earlier this week. In his Monday speech, Obama said that 'you start seeing massive lobbying efforts backed by fossil fuel interests, or conservative think tanks, or the Koch brothers pushing for new laws to roll back renewable energy standards or prevent new clean energy businesses from succeeding — that’s a problem.' 'It’s beneath the president, the dignity of the president, to be doing that,' Koch responded in a phone interview with Politico on Tuesday. On Wednesday, during the daily briefing, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Koch’s comments do not match with reality." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Here's the President's speech at the National Clean Energy Summit:

Ed Kilgore comments on Thomas Edsall's piece on Republicans' "conception of conception," linked yesterday in the Commentariat: "Edsall is fascinated, as I have been for some time now, by the orthodox RTL [right-to-life] position that fully-fledged human beings deserving legal protection are formed at the moment an ovum is fertilized by a sperm. Among other things, this means contraceptive methods that prevent (or may prevent) the implantation of fertilized ova in the uterine wall are morally indistinguishable from a late-term abortion—or for that matter, from killing an adult human being. Lest you think that’s an exotic position, it’s what was at the heart of the Hobby Lobby litigation, since the owners of that company professed a religiously-based belief that IUDs and Plan B contraceptives included in the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage mandate are in fact abortifacients."

** "The Reactionary Soul." Paul Krugman: "Trump isn’t a diversion, he’s a revelation, bringing the real motivations of the movement out into the open." Read it.

CW: Michael "Heckuva Job Brownie" has a long whine in Politico Magazine decrying his unfair press treatment. But you should forget about the whining & read, especially, the first section, where he writes about the negligence of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (D) (now residing in a federal pen) & Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. My recollection is that Brownie is essentially correct about these two.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. "The Trumpification of the News." E. J. Dionne: "Television is a business like any other, but journalism in a democracy is supposed to be about more than that. Nowhere is the tension between financial and public imperatives more obvious than in the massive coverage of the Trump spectacular and the parsimonious attention given to anything serious any other candidate might say. But hey, how often does a serious speech about our economic troubles win ratings for anyone?" ...

... Amanda Marcotte, in TPM: "Donald Trump has reignited his sexist harassment campaign against Megyn Kelly, and the folks at Fox News are, in seemingly coordinated fashion, striking back. Fellow Fox News hosts and pundits are asking Trump to cool it, and even Roger Ailes has released a statement calling Trump’s abuse 'unacceptable' and 'disturbing.' It’s almost touching, watching all these conservative media people who usually profit at peddling sexism choose, this time at least, to join together in an effort to stop this one particular instance of it. It’s also going to backfire.... You can’t tell people, day in and day out, that nothing is more fun than putting some mouthy broad in her place and then get upset when they continue to think it’s fun, even when the mouthy broad is one of yours."

Presidential Race

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "... Bernie Sanders is about to make a direct pitch to the Democratic Party establishment: Consider me, not Hillary Clinton. Sanders huddled with advisers at his home [in Burlington, Vermont,] Wednesday to chart what he describes as the second phase of a campaign that has exceeded all expectations but still lacks the infrastructure and support from the party elites that could help him compete with Clinton on a national level."

Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "The possibility that Vice President Biden may jump into the 2016 presidential campaign is convulsing the network of wealthy Democrats that financed President Obama’s two White House bids, galvanizing fundraisers who are underwhelmed by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s performance. A wide swath of party financiers is convinced that Biden will make a late entry into the race, and a sizable number are contemplating backing him, including some who have signed on with Clinton, according to more than a dozen top Democratic fundraisers nationwide." ...

... Guardian: "Joe Biden confirmed he is considering whether to run for president in his first publicly aired comments on whether he would seek the Democratic nomination. The US vice-president, in a conference call with Democratic National Committee members, said he was trying to decide whether he could give 'my whole heart and my whole soul' to a run for the White House, but also alluded to the burden that had been placed on his family by the death of his son, Beau Biden." CNN has audio clips & remarks from Hillary Clinton:

... Arit John of Bloomberg: "... Vice President Joe Biden ... polls better nationally against the leading three Republican candidates than Hillary Clinton, and has a higher favorability rating, too." CW: I'd call these polls pretty meaningless. The press has not been hounding Biden nor pointing out his negatives, of which there are many; that would change if he ran for president, & his polling would plummet.

... Ed Kilgore: "The more you look at the Biden bandwagon, it looks more like a ghost ship being pulled through the mist by a combination of hungry political reporters, Hillary haters (including most of the conservative media), and Delaware-based Friends of Joe.... [Biden's] leaping into the race now would be not a rescue, but a demolition mission. For starters, it would be received bitterly by the many Democratic women who figured HRC’s final assault on the political glass ceiling was a natural follow-up to Obama’s historic presidency. And worse yet, it’s hard to imagine Biden would have any compelling rationale for a candidacy that did not depend on feeding MSM and GOP attacks on her character. ...

... Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Former Senator Tom Harkin, a fixture in Iowa Democratic politics for over four decades, discouraged Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday from entering the presidential race, suggesting that Hillary Rodham Clinton, if elected, could name him to a top diplomatic post instead. Mr. Harkin, who served with Mr. Biden in the Senate for nearly 25 years and is now supporting Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, said the vice president should not risk ending his career with what would be a third bid for the presidency." ...

... ** Ken Dilanian of the AP: "The transmission of now-classified information across Hillary Rodham Clinton's private email is consistent with a State Department culture in which diplomats routinely sent secret material on unsecured email during the past two administrations, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press. Clinton's use of a home server makes her case unique.... But it's not clear whether the security breach would have been any less had she used [the standard unsecured] department email. The department only systematically checks email for sensitive or classified material in response to a public records request.... In fact, the State Department's unclassified email system has been penetrated by hackers believed linked to Russian intelligence.... Clinton also had access to a classified messaging system, but it's not widely used at the State Department." (Emphasis added.) ...

     ... CW: If this report is correct, and I have no reason to think it isn't, it should put an end to all the breathless hyperbole (I'm talking to you, Michael Schmidt & Ron Fourier & every bozo personality at Fox "News"). But of course it won't. As Dilanian points out, "everybody does it" is not the optimal defense, but it surely puts Clinton's e-mail practices in context.

New York Times: "Priorities USA, the 'super PAC' supporting Mrs. Clinton, has released a digital ad that uses Mr. Trump’s statements to paint the entire Republican presidential field as hostile toward immigrants, focusing in particular on Jeb Bush and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. The super PAC will start airing the 30-second spot, titled 'This Is the Republican Party,' in Colorado, Florida and Nevada, states with large Hispanic populations":

... AND here's a long trailer to a documentary "abUSed: The Postville Raid," which contributor safari linked this morning. As safari writes, "... the documentary is a damning portrait of what reality would be like across this country if the Confederates were to assume the Presidency and enact their extremist policies":

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has offered his strongest hint yet that he will not run as an independent in the 2016 US presidential election, saying 'it’s not something I want to do' should he fail to win the Republican nomination.... The Huffington Post, meanwhile, reported that Trump had told 'several top Republicans' he would swear off an independent run. It also reported a 'top Republican source' as saying the party would not necessarily regard such a move as the end of the matter, given the impulsive nature of Trump’s campaign." ...

... Jenna Portnoy & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "The Virginia Republican Party is considering requiring a loyalty oath from presidential primary contenders — a move widely considered an early sign of GOP skittishness about Donald Trump’s campaign. State party officials are debating whether to require candidates to pledge their support to the eventual nominee and promise not to run as a third-party candidate — as Trump has hinted he might do.... Politico reported that North Carolina is considering a similar loyalty oath rule." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dana Milbank: "Wednesday was Women’s Equality Day, the anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave American women the right to vote 95 years ago. And how have Republicans marked this egalitarian milestone? Why, with another bimbo eruption.... More telling than [Donald] Trump’s latest disparagement of women [-- in this case, his latest attacks on Fox 'News' host Megyn Kelly --] or his flip rejection of [Fox 'News' chief Roger] Ailes’s demand for an apology, is the reaction from the rest of the Republican presidential field: virtual silence.... Trump is acting like a sexist and a bigot — and the rest of the candidates are, with occasional exceptions, too timid to call him what he is. Over the weekend, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus even praised the contribution made by Trump’s candidacy. 'I think it’s a net positive for everybody,' he said in a radio interview."

Clash of the Titans! Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "The 2016 campaign is only the latest manifestation of decades of discord between Trump and the Bush family. Since the gilded 1980s, when Trump and George H.W. Bush rose as forces in their respective spheres, the relationship between Trump and the Bushes has been a melodrama — veering between displays of public affection and acerbic insults. At the core, there are clashes of style, manner and class between the Bushes — a patrician clan of presidents, governors and financiers who have pulled the levers of power for generations — and Trump, a hustling New York City deal-maker who turned his father’s outer borough real-estate portfolio into a gold-plated empire." CW: This is actually a fun read, if you enjoy trash-talking the Bushes.

Carrie Dann of NBC News: "Jeb Bush says that Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, who was escorted out of a press conference held by Donald Trump on Tuesday night, should have been 'treated with a little more respect.'" ...

This guy is now the front-runner. He should be held to account just like me. He should be asked — as he was yesterday — how are you going to pay for it? Why do you think this is not going to be — prove to me that it's not impractical. Explain to me how you're going to stop all the remittances without violating peoples' civil liberty. Go through these questions and what you'll find is that this guy doesn't have a plan. He's appealing to peoples' angst and their anger. I want to solve problems so that we can fix this and turn immigration into what it's always been: An economic driver for our country.... There are some people running, they're really talented about filling space. About saying big things. They think that volume in their language is a, some kind of a version of leadership. Talking is not leadership. Doing is leadership. That's what we need. -- Jeb Bush, at a townhall meeting in Pensacola, Florida, Wednesday

Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), told pastors Tuesday that he would do his best to make sure the government could not be funded if that funding included any taxpayer support for Planned Parenthood -- but that any attempt to blame him for a government shutdown that could result would be 'nonsense.'"

Senate Race

Mary Pols of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald: "Gov. Paul LePage has again told a Boston radio host that he is considering a run for the U.S. Senate in 2018 against incumbent Angus King.... During Tuesday’s taping, LePage donned a hat bearing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s slogan, 'Make America Great Again.' He also referred to himself as 'Baby Donald.'... He also got in a jab at the press corps: 'The daily newspapers in Maine are so bad you can’t even believe the obituaries,' LePage ... [said].” CW: What a card! Disappointed there were no more "jokes" about how stupid the French are.

Beyond the Beltway

Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "The Mormon Church announced Wednesday that it would continue its close association with the Boy Scouts for now, ending speculation that it would sever ties because of the Scouts’s decision last month to let openly gay men and women serve as leaders.... 'At this time, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will go forward as a chartering organization of B.S.A. and, as in the past, will appoint scout leaders and volunteers who uphold and exemplify church doctrine, values and standards,' the statement said.... In July, bowing to growing legal and public pressures, the governing board of the Boy Scouts of America voted to permit openly gay adult leaders.... But in a compromise aimed at preventing defections by religious conservatives — including the Mormons, who are the largest single sponsor of Boy Scout units — the board said that local sponsors with religious objections could select volunteer leaders in accordance with their own beliefs. At the time, the response from the Mormons was unexpectedly sharp and included a threat to leave the Scouts anyway." CW: So now they've calmed down a tad, & they're just going to go on excluding gay leaders. Special.

Way Beyond

Anemona Hartocollis of the New York Times: "Tens of thousands of migrants and refugees, mostly fleeing unrest in the Middle East and Afghanistan, are desperately pushing their way through the Balkans as they try to reach Hungary before it seals its border. A team of New York Times journalists has met up with some of these migrants to document their journey." ...

... Alison Smale of the New York Times: "The partly decomposing bodies of at least 20 people assumed to be migrants being smuggled across Europe were found in a truck abandoned on a highway east of Vienna on Thursday, the police said."