The Commentariat -- July 2, 2016

Your Friday-Afternoon-Before-a-Holiday News Dump. Charlie Savage & Scott Shane of the New York Times: "Partially lifting the secrecy that has cloaked one of the United States's most contentious tactics for fighting terrorists, the Obama administration on Friday said that it believed that airstrikes it has conducted outside conventional war zones like Afghanistan have killed 64 to 116 civilian bystanders and about 2,500 members of terrorist groups. The official civilian death count is hundreds lower than most estimates compiled by independent organizations that try to track what the government calls targeted killings in chaotic places like tribal Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya.... At the same time, President Obama issued an executive order making civilian protection a priority and requiring the government in the future to disclose the number of civilian deaths each year." -- CW

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Mr. Obama calls himself a 'night guy,' and as president, he has come to consider the long, solitary hours after dark as essential as his time in the Oval Office. Almost every night that he is in the White House, Mr. Obama has dinner at 6:30 with his wife and daughters and then withdraws to the Treaty Room, his private office down the hall from his bedroom on the second floor of the White House residence. There, his closest aides say, he spends four or five hours largely by himself." -- CW

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said Friday she would accept the recommendations from career prosecutors and FBI agents leading the probe into the use of a private email server by Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state.... While she did not promise a full recusal -- saying that 'would mean I wouldn't even be briefed on what the findings were' -- she seemed to confirm she would not veto whatever was proposed to her by those investigating the case.... Lynch said that she had 'already determined' she would accept the recommendation of career prosecutors and agents before her meeting with Bill Clinton, which she has described as a social conversation about travels, grandchildren and golf." -- CW ...

... Pamela Brown & Tal Kopan of CNN: Regarding her tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton, Lynch said at an Aspen Ideas event Friday, "'I certainly wouldn't do it again because I think it has cast this shadow over what it should not, over what it will not touch.... It's important to make it clear that that meeting with President Clinton does not have a bearing on how this matter will be reviewed and resolved.'" -- CW

Your Government at Work. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "A disabled woman was beaten bloody by federal agents during an airport security screening while on her way to undergo treatment for a brain tumor. Hannah Cohen set off the metal detector at a security checkpoint at the Memphis International Airport, and she was led away for additional screening, reported WREG-TV. 'They wanted to do further scanning, (but) ... she didn't understand what they were about to do, said her mother, Shirley Cohen. Cohen said she tried to tell agents with the Transportation Security Administration that her 19-year-old daughter is partially deaf, blind in one eye, paralyzed and easily confused -- but she said police kept her away from the security agents." -- CW ...

... Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: "Mr. Clinton's tone-deaf blunder, so easily avoided, creates more suspicion around Mrs. Clinton's email practices. No matter what the F.B.I. recommends in the case, he has provided skeptical voters with another reason to say they don't trust Mrs. Clinton." -- CW ...

... Steve Benen: "... as an objective matter, it's tough to get worked up about a casual chat at an airport between a president and an A.G. If your first reaction to Bill Clinton talking about his grandchildren is, 'I hear Ken Starr is unemployed, so let's give him something to do!' [as Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) did,] you might be a little too eager to exaggerate the significance of harmless social interaction.... For one thing, an indictment is ridiculously unlikely. For another, if Bill Clinton intended to launch some kind of back-channel pressure campaign to interfere with an investigation, he'd probably take steps less overt than a public chat at an airport." ...

... CW: If Bill Clinton wanted to urge Loretta Lynch to go easy on the Missus, he could have phoned her at home. I'll be they both have phones. If not, he could have sent her an e-mail. I hear he has a private server.

Annals of Justice, Ctd. Innocent Man Fights Justice Department -- and Wins. Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post has the story. Maryland dairy farmer Randy Sowers' groundbreaking case against a now-obsolete forfeiture law will help others get their forfeited funds back, too. Oh, & the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Sowers? He's now a private asset forfeiture consultant -- CW: a/k/a a slimeball.

Presidential Race

Nick Gass of Politico: "The Democratic National Committee unveiled a draft of its party platform Friday, calling for -- among other progressive causes -- a $15 minimum wage, free community college and abolition of the death penalty. The draft was approved last weekend in St. Louis by 13 of the 15 members on the drafting committee, with one abstention and one who missed the vote. Supporters of Bernie Sanders have expressed displeasure with the way the platform draft handles Medicare expansion, a carbon tax, a fracking ban and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.... The draft document is headed for a full vote before the 187-member platform committee on July 8 and July 9 in Orlando, Florida." -- CW ...

... Greg Sargent: "The latest draft of the Democratic Party platform ... will show that Bernie Sanders won far more victories on his signature issues than has been previously thought." -- CW

Nick Gass: "Hillary Clinton's campaign reported Friday that it had raised more than $68.5 million for Hillary for America, the Democratic National Committee and state parties in the month of June. Of that total, $40.5 million went to the campaign, while the remaining $28 million went to the DNC and state parties through the Hillary Victory Fund and the Hillary Action Fund, putting Clinton's total cumulative fundraising at $288 million for the campaign and $90 million for the joint fundraising agreements." -- CW

NEW. Lisa Bloom in the Huffington Post: "An anonymous 'Jane Doe' filed a federal lawsuit against ... Donald Trump last week, accusing him of raping her in 1994 when she was thirteen years old. The mainstream media ignored the filing. If the Bill Cosby case has taught us anything, it is to not disregard rape cases against famous men.... In covering a story, a media outlet is not finding guilt.... These allegations are credible. They ought not be ignored. Mainstream media, I'm looking at you." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link.

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump ... met with Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana on Friday, according to two people briefed on the meeting, adding to speculation that the conservative governor is among the finalists to be Mr. Trump's running mate.... The choice, which Mr. Trump ... had initially envisioned revealing in dramatic fashion at the Republican National Convention is now expected to come as early as next week. The change, according to two people familiar with the planning, was driven largely by concerns that the intense media coverage of the selection could potentially drown out Mr. Trump's appearance at his own convention." ...

     ... CW: And that would be a shame. Besides, I was hoping Trump would line up all the pageant contestants on the convention stage, make them answer stupid questions, then shout "You're fired!" at Newt & Chrisco, etc., until there was only one apprentice standing. Hell, even I would watch that. ...

... Most Self-Absorbed Person in U.S. Does Not Want to Appear Self-Absorbed. Jeremy Peters & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "With just over two weeks until the Republican National Convention opens in Cleveland, Donald J. Trump's preparations for what is usually a polished and highly choreographed affair are looking a lot like the Trump campaign itself: chaotic, freewheeling and unpredictable.... 'What they've asked me to do is to speak all three nights. I turned it down,' he said in an interview.... 'Everybody wants that,' he insisted. But he said he demurred for fear of looking too self-absorbed. 'I don't want people to think I'm grandstanding -- which I'm not,' he said, before adding, almost reflexively, 'But it would get high ratings.'" -- CW

The #NeverTrump Movement Gets a Court Challenge. Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Carroll 'Beau' Correll, one of Virginia's 49 GOP convention delegates, filed suit in federal court in Richmond on June 24 challenging a state law binding him to the results of the March 1 primary.... Eight Virginia Republican delegates supporting Trump ... with the support of the Trump campaign ... sought to intervene in a lawsuit in federal court in Virginia, arguing in their filing that Correll's suit is an 'eleventh-hour attack on a longstanding state law.'..." -- CW

Instead of Giving to Charity, Charity Gives to Trump. David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Four years ago, at a charity fundraiser in Palm Beach, Donald Trump got into a bidding war at the evening's live auction. The items up for sale: A Denver Broncos helmet, autographed by then-star quarterback Tim Tebow, and a Tebow jersey. Trump won ... with a bid of $12,000. Afterward, he posed with the helmet.... But Trump didn't actually pay with his own money. Instead, the Susan G. Komen organization ... got a $12,000 payment from ... the Donald J. Trump Foundation. Trump himself sent no money. (In fact, a Komen spokeswoman said, Trump has never given a personal gift of cash to the Komen organization.)... At the time of the auction, Trump had given none of his own money to the foundation for three years running. The Washington Post discovered this unusual payment -- a charity apparently buying sports memorabilia for a super-wealthy man -- this week.... Three experts on tax law questioned whether Trump had violated IRS rules against 'self-dealing' -- which are designed to keep nonprofit officials from using their charities to help themselves." -- CW

One of the great, great instruments ever written, ever conceived -- we're with the Constitution a hundred percent. -- Donald Trump, using the "royal we," Thursday ...

... Digby, in Salon: "Trump has said over and over again that he 'errs on the side of security' which is his catch-all justification for banning immigration and profiling people on the basis of religion, giving power back to the police because crime is rampant,' allowing proliferation of guns everywhere in society, torture, summary execution and a variety of other 'Putinesque' policies. He calls this attitude 'anti-PC' and common sense. Others call it unAmerican. But it's a mistake to think that Trump's authoritarian tendencies are in reaction to current events. They are his nature.... Trump does not recognize constitutional limitations or civil liberties." -- CW ...

     ... CW: Besides Donald Trump, who the hell would say, "We're with the Constitution 100 percent"? Once again, Trump has uttered a string of common words likely never before spoken. He's a very odd person. ...

... Eric Levitz of New York: "On Thursday night in New Hampshire, Trump reiterated his belief that America should hold itself to the same standard as a fascist death cult. Asked by local station NH1 to respond to Senator John McCain's claim that torture is 'not the American way,' Trump replied: 'Well, it's not the American way to have heads chopped off and have people drowning in steel cages ... And so we can have our disagreements, but we're going to have to get much tougher as a country.... We're going to have to do things that are unthinkable almost.' It's worth remembering that, for the Republican standard-bearer, ordering the military to hunt down and kill the wives and children of suspected terrorists falls under the 'thinkable' column."(Emphasis original.) ...

     ... CW: Also worth remembering: this is a person with absolutely no moral compass. ...

... Marc Racicot, former governor of Montana & former chair of the RNC, in a Washington Post op-ed: "... every one of those 13 million people [who voted for Donald Trump in the primaries] has a right to be heard and their thoughts fairly and honestly considered. But ... I cannot endorse or support their decision to express their frustration, anger and disappointment by selecting Trump as the Republican nominee for president.... I cannot endorse or support Trump for president. And I offer my prayer for a second miracle in Cleveland." -- CW

Ashley Parker & Maggie Haberman: "Donald J. Trump's campaign experienced two more departures this week when two staff members who handled surrogate operations resigned, including one who was hired less than two weeks ago.... The departures of the two aides underscore the disorder that continues in the Trump campaign, as the presumptive Republican nominee and his team struggle to grow into a professional, streamlined operation.... On Thursday, the campaign also let go ... a digital consultant, who had similarly been hired less than a week before." ...

... CW: Last month, Trump quasi-publicly dissed one of those who resigned, Erica Freeman. Trump, speaking to some of his surrogates, including former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, accused Freeman of sending a "stupid letter" & labeled her "not so smart." Trump then said he didn't know Freeman.

** Dana Milbank: "This is the hypocrisy at the heart of the Trump campaign, now under [Paul] Manafort's undisputed control. Manafort's inspiration, which Trump has embraced, is to portray Clinton as the embodiment of the establishment. But Manafort (not unlike Trump) has been the voice of the wealthy and the well-connected for four decades, building a fortune by making common cause with the world's most avaricious.

Among Manafort's boasts: representing kleptocrats Ferdinand Marcos, Mobutu Sese Seko and Kenya's Daniel arap Moi, defending Saudi Arabia's interests against Israel's and Pakistan’s against India's, and making the case for a Nigerian dictator, a Lebanese arms dealer and various and sundry Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs. He successfully lobbied to arm a Maoist rebel in Angola, needlessly extending fighting that killed thousands. -- CW

Hadas Gold of Politico: "OpenSecrets.org, the non-profit which tracks federal campaign contributions and lobbying by lobbying firms, individual lobbyists, industry, federal agency, and bills, has been denied a credential to attend the Republican National Convention and is airing its grievances publicly.... They have been approved for credentials to the Democratic National Convention, pending sign off from the Secret Service." -- CW

Pema Levy of Mother Jones: "As the Republican convention in Cleveland approaches, several delegates from Pennsylvania who support Donald Trump say they are planning on bringing their guns with them to the GOP gathering.... They say they are worried about possible violent protest and even an attack from ISIS." -- CW

Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: Corey "Lewandowski is bad television. He remains prone to spouting fiction and doesn't stay on-topic, grinding segments to a halt as CNN hosts have to correct his misinformation or interject to steer the conversation back to the point." CW: No kidding. As one wag put it (more or less) last week, Lewandowski hasn't changed jobs; he's just collecting his paycheck from a different outfit.

Beyond the Beltway

Patrick McGreevy of the Los Angeles Times: California "Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday signed six gun-control bills into law, including a requirement that ammunition purchasers undergo background checks. The governor vetoed five other measures, including an expansion of the use of restraining orders to take guns from people deemed to be dangerous." -- CW

Way Beyond

Julfikar Manik, et al., of the New York Times: "Gunmen detonated explosives and took a number of people hostage on Friday night at a restaurant in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, setting off a bloody standoff with the police in the city's diplomatic district. Hours into the standoff, in which two police officers were killed, the Islamic State issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack." -- CW ...

     ... New Lede: "Bangladeshi Army troops moved in on Saturday to end an 11-hour standoff at a restaurant in Dhaka, the capital, after gunmen stormed into the building, detonated explosives and took at least 20 people hostage on Friday night." ...

     ... Newer: "The authorities said 20 hostages, including many foreigners, had been killed on Friday night. Most were 'brutally killed' with sharp weapons, the military said."

News Lede

Guardian: "Michael Cimino, the director of the Vietnam war classic The Deer Hunter and the infamous epic western Heaven's Gate, has died. He was 77." -- CW

Comments

[safari]

Obama's undeniably done a lot of great things, but this: "At the same time, President Obama issued an executive order making civilian protection a priority and requiring the government in the future to disclose the number of civilian deaths each year" is certainly a cynical way to leave a legacy.

If Obama was truly concerned about transparency, he would've required this disclosure the day he took office, knowing well he'd be using the drone strategy extensively. Instead, he'll lay the heat on the next president who will surely continue his drone legacy and watch the anger grow as more data is disclosed about innocent deaths.

Yet, about that next president, the article continues to note that, "The order [...] could be canceled or altered by a future president."

So I guess this is actually considered a big step in the right direction, in this new, never-ending war we're involved in these days. Wouldn't be a bit surprised if the next president tears up the new order, and leaks it to the press on a Friday evening.

It is but hundreds of extrajudicial killings of innocent civilians half way across the world we're discussing here. The new normal. Or the same normal? Forgive my cynicism, but as the "beacon of freedom and democracy" in the world, that light grows dimmer with each innocent death. I'd prefer that light grow stronger.

[carlyle]

Bill and the Attorney General probably thought there was nothing wrong with their meeting. After all, the telephone has been around for a long time and is available and is widely used for corrupt purposes.
They never considered wing nuts and the herd of media types looking for a "Gotcha".

[PD Pepe]

ALGAE BLOOM CAUSING BIG SRINK IN FLORIDA:

Legislators kowtow to sugar farmers who sweeten their coffers:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/02/us/reeking-oozing-algae-closes-south-florida-beaches.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad&_r=0

[PD Pepe]

Correction: Should be "Stink," not sprink (above––thinking perhaps of sprinkling a little of that sugar into Rick Scott's sour mindset.

And speaking of stink––here is another piece of info about you know who that is news to me. New child rape case filed against Trump. Looks like by the time we delve deeply into this man's past he will emerge less as a loon than a truly despicable human being.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-bloom/why-the-new-child-rape-ca_b_10619944.html

[Marie Burns]

@PD Pepe re: the South Florida algae bloom. Every neighborhood has a jerk, & my Florida neighborhood is no exception. This spring the jerk started building an illegal shed a few feet from the Caloosahatchie. We got a stop-work order, but that didn't stop him from painting the shed green.

One day I got a panicked call from another neighbor saying he thought the jerk had dumped the left-over green paint in the river. I checked it out, & no, it wasn't green paint; it was algae. That's how bad it is.

And, yeah, thanks, Rick Scott (and Jeb!). After being a prime mover in creating the situation, Scott has declared a state of emergency.

Marie

[Akhilleus]

Love the idea of a VP beauty pageant/Apprentice like showdown at the convention. Will they have a talent contest? Maybe Chris Christie can get on the horn and close the GW bridge. And Newt can make up vile stories about random members of the audience. But if there's a bathing suit competition, I'm outta there. I can find plenty of horror shows on Netflix and I won't have to listen to anyone repeat "crooked Hillary" 500 times.

[Marie Burns]

Please, Akhilleus. There will be a bathing suit competition, but Trump will make the all-male candidates' wives be the participants here. As he forces them out onto the fantastic stage, he'll make remarks about how this one is barely a 6 & that one has saggy breasts, & the other one has stretch marks, etc. In the end, he'll declare his (actually) stunning wife the winner (even tho she wasn't a participant), then have her take his arm (you know what he says about arm candy -- I won't repeat it here) so he can parade her around in her skimpy suit while he gloats.

Trump likes to bully men, and Melania is one of his ways to show he's better than his veep candidates. But he's a misogynist first, & that's the main point of the swimsuit competition portion of the veepstakes.

Marie

[Cakers]

@safari:
While I deplore the loss of civilian lives in drone strikes, what exactly are the options we are talking about here? Is there a conflict in the history of the world that hasn't had civilian casualties? Are we to completely stop trying to stop ISIS, Al Qaeda, etc? What about the number of innocent Japanese lives lost and/or affected by the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Didn't the US justify those by asserting they ultimately saved American lives? Does the same rationale work here? Just asking.