Thursday
Mar032016
The Commentariat -- March 4, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Nick Gass of Politico: "Ben Carson is suspending his bid for the presidency, the retired neurosurgeon announced Friday, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. 'Even though I might be leaving the campaign trail, you know there's a lot of people who love me, they just won't vote for me. But I will still continue to be heavily involved in trying to save our nation,' he said." CW: Very reassuring.
Nick Gass: "Donald Trump has pulled out of the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, opting to campaign in Kansas and Florida instead.... While Trump had spoken at past CPAC events, his speaking slot this time drew backlash from conservative critics who had accused event organizers of being in the tank for the Manhattan real-estate magnate.... Politico reported Wednesday that Trump has donated more than $100,000 to the ACU [which sponsors CPAC], including a $50,000 check in 2015.... On Thursday, National Review reported on efforts to stage a walkout during Trump's speech, coming from a tri-corn hat-wearing CPAC attendee from Georgia named William Temple."
Max Ehrenfreud of the Washington Post: "Whatever critics might say about failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney, everyone at least agrees that he has done well for himself as a businessman. There is no such consensus regarding Donald Trump.... A recent analysis suggests the extent of Trump's underperformance is vastly greater than previously recognized. The new results emphasize the degree to which Trump has relied on his family's wealth and connections in order to create his fortune."
... The quality of the GOP presidential debate last night was such that Charles Pierce thought it best to begin the discussion with a photo of some Klansmen on a Ferris wheel. ...
... Margaret Hartmann provides video of some of of the more newsworthy moments of the debate, with commentary. Here Marco shows he can be fast on his feet, riffing off Trump's answers to questions about his flipflopping wherein he extolled the importance of "flexibility":
TMZ: "A construction worker found a knife buried on the perimeter of the former O.J. Simpson estate ... and it's currently being tested by the LAPD in a top secret investigation ... law enforcement sources tell TMZ.... We're told a construction worker found the knife years ago.... The weapon is a folding buck knife. Our law enforcement sources say the construction worker took the knife to the street, where he saw an LAPD cop. He told the officer where he found the knife and the cop took it. Turns out the cop -- who worked in the traffic division -- was off duty at the time, working security for a movie shoot at a house across the street on Rockingham. Our sources say the officer took the knife home and kept it ... for years." Read on. Via New York.
*****
Presidential Race
The Big Dick Debate. Patrick Healy & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, fighting for their political lives, relentlessly demeaned and denounced Donald J. Trump at Thursday's debate, all but pleading with Republicans to reconsider nominating a candidate with a long history of business failures, deep ties to the Democratic Party and a taste for personal insults.... But the debate in Detroit also deteriorated at times into the kind of junior high school taunts that have startled many Republican elders but done little to dent Mr. Trump's broad appeal. At one point, as Mr. Trump and Mr. Rubio traded insults over their manhood, Mr. Trump recalled Mr. Rubio's innuendo that Mr. Trump's 'small hands' correlated with another part of his anatomy. Mr. Trump, who has boasted about his sexual exploits, insisted that nothing was small about him. 'I guarantee you,' Mr. Trump continued with little subtlety, 'there's no problem. I guarantee you.'" ...
History Timeout. [He is] a hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman. -- Thomas Jefferson, disparaging opponent John Adams' manhood, 1800 presidential election
The original intent of the Founders was to render dick jokes in elegant prose with references to Greek mythology. -- Constant Weader
... CW: Still, in my lifetime, I've never seen a headline akin to this one at CNN: "Donald Trump defends size of his penis." ...
... Greg Sargent argues that Trump's big schlong moment is the essence of his campaign -- and his success. ...
... Adam Peck of the New Republic: "The remaining candidates on stage -- who have openly begun plotting ways to derail Trump's campaign at a brokered convention -- all pledged to support the Republican nominee, even if that nominee is ultimately Trump." ...
... Nick Gass of Politico: "Donald Trump's GOP primary rivals on Thursday night said that the billionaire businessman is unfit to be president. Then they pledged they would support his run for president if he's the Republican nominee." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "For long, long minutes Rubio beat up on the Donald as a con man and Cruz savaged him as a crypto-Democrat, the two lines of attack regularly reinforced by the moderators and converging in the impression that Trump's a terrible gamble, even for the people who are most attracted to him. From long experience during this campaign, it would be foolish to assume the debate damaged Trump's standing significantly. But if it didn't, perhaps the man is indeed bulletproof. He did seem uncharacteristically flustered at times. It's unlikely Rubio -- who for the second debate in a row got into long insult-laden cross-talk exchanges with Trump -- or Cruz helped themselves that much.... Meanwhile, Kasich was either smart or lucky enough to ignore the carnage and speak for himself, though if he loses Ohio, he will be dumped from the convention cabal unceremoniously for failure to bring delegates to the table." ...
... Driftglass liveblogs the debate. Another classic. ...
... Here's the Guardian's liveblog of the Republican presidential debate. The New York Times' liveblog is here. ...
... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times on where you can watch/hear Thursday's GOP debate.
Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's playing members of the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat. -- Mitt Romney, at the University of Utah, Thursday ...
... The Farce Be With Us. Steve M.: "Almost overnight, the response of Republican establishmentarians to the Donald Trump threat has changed from deer-in-the-headlights catatonia to bouncing-off-the-walls frenzy; denial wasn't working, so now, probably too late, the party insiders are going all in on a 'stop Trump by any means necessary' strategy.... I'm shocked that this seems to be the GOP plan -- not just because it's going to enrage the already angry (and occasionally violent) Trump mobs, but also because it would require the party to do something it couldn't do even though it needed doing months ago: make a freaking decision. So Trump is probably safe." ...
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "The dump-Trump movement has a clear and convincing message -- he's a dangerous charlatan -- but it doesn't have a candidate." Neither does it have a platform that can appeal to the pitchforks crowd drawn to Trump.
... Alexander Burns & Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "A divided Republican Party erupted into open and bitter warfare on Thursday as its two previous presidential nominees delivered an extraordinary rebuke of its current front-runner, Donald J. Trump, warning that his election could put the United States and its democratic system in peril.... The mounting hostility between Mr. Trump and traditional party leaders has pushed the party to the edge of rupture.... [Mitt Romney] evoked the specter of totalitarianism, saying Mr. Trump embodied a 'brand of anger that has led other nations into the abyss.'" ...
... Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, delivered a sweeping point-by-point indictment of Donald Trump on Thursday and implored Republicans to reject the businessman's candidacy in an election 'that will have profound consequences for the Republican Party and, more importantly, for the country.'" ...
... The New York Times has the full text of Romney's speech, as delivered, here. If you want to watch the speech, PBS has video here. ...
... Jamie Gangel & Eric Bradner of CNN: "Mitt Romney has instructed his closest advisers to explore the possibility of stopping Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention, a source close to Romney's inner circle says.... 'It sounds like the plan is to lock the convention,' said the source." CW: The video that currently accompanies the story is good; it juxtaposes Romney's & Trump's remarks about each other in 2012 with their remarks today. ...
... Josh Marshall of TPM has the full video of "a gushing Mitt accepted Trump's endorsement and praised him to the stars" in 2012. ...
... They Just Don't Get It. Paul Waldman: "If Donald Trump could have asked for one person to attack him, the person whose criticism would reinforce all the arguments Trump makes for his own campaign, he could hardly have done better than Mitt Romney. Romney's speech today, no matter what the merits of its particulars, is a microcosm of the entire effort now underway by party insiders to find some way to get rid of Trump. Too little, too late, and offered by precisely the wrong people, it will probably produce the exact opposite of its intended effect." ...
... Shane Goldmacher of Politico: Romney "made startlingly clear how hopelessly divided the Republican Party remains in terms of actually slowing the Manhattan billionaire's march to the nomination.... [Romney] would not endorse any of Trump's three remaining opponents.... In failing to back a single Trump alternative, Romney essentially called for a Republican civil war to wage through this summer, a retrenchment for an irreparably divided GOP in hopes of outmaneuvering Trump at a contested convention where party elites still control some levers of power.... Moments after he finished speaking, Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, seconded Romney's speech. 'I share the concerns about Donald Trump that my friend and former Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, described,' McCain said in a statement." ...
... McCain's full statement is here. ...
... Clash of the Moguls. Charles Pierce: "Far be it from me to minimize the entertainment value inherent in watching two legacy multi-millionnaires going to the mattresses, each trying to out Common Man the other in the public square. And let me also say in fairness that most of what Willard Romney said about He, Trump in his Declaration of Disapproval Thursday morning was smack on the button. This is the speech that will launch 1000 attack ads from now until the first week in November." (CW: Also, too, John McCain, legacy Navy man, on accounta marrying up, couldn't remember how many houses he owned.) ...
... Jonathan Chait: "While depicting Trump’s business career as a fraud, Romney failed to mention or explain why he had solicited and accepted Trump's endorsement four years before. (If his business career was not the credential, then was it Trump's birtherism that attracted Romney?) More importantly and incoherently, Romney [[ even while assailing Trump as an authoritarian goon -- declined to rule out supporting him if he gets the nomination.... This is an awful prospect for the party -- professional Republicans conspiring to deny the nomination to the popular choice, who would storm out and bring his supporters with him." ...
... Paul Krugman: "Yes, [Trump is] a con man, but they all are. So why is this con job different from any other? The answer, I'd suggest, is that the establishment's problem with Mr. Trump isn't the con he brings; it's the cons he disrupts.... I find the prospect of a Trump administration terrifying, and so should you. But you should also be terrified by the prospect of a President Rubio, sitting in the White House with his circle of warmongers, or a President Cruz, whom one suspects would love to bring back the Spanish Inquisition." ...
... New York Times Editors: "Holy Mitt, what a meltdown. Add this one to Donald Trump's lengthening list of firsts: He's forced a Republican Party reckoning overdue for years, all in a few days. It took the Trump-dominated Super Tuesday contests to awaken Republican leaders to the fact that the darkest elements of the party's base, which many of them have embraced or exploited, are now threatening their party. Last week, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, elected to the Senate partly on their appeal to extremists, seemed to realize that they weren't attractive enough to win Mr. Trump's crowd.... It is an excellent thing that the Republican leaders have noticed the problem they've fostered, now embodied in the Trump candidacy. But until they see the need to alter the views and policies they have promoted for years, removing Mr. Trump will not end the party's crisis." ...
... Danny Vinik of Politico: "'If Donald Trump's plans were ever implemented, the country would sink into a prolonged recession,' Romney said. He then rattled off a list of domestic policies, from Trump's tax plan to his health care proposals, that would hurt the economy.... But as a policy argument it is closer to surreal: the policies Romney is complaining about, if you look at them closely, are strikingly similar to a candidate the mainstream GOP proudly stood behind just 4 years ago. His name was Mitt Romney." ...
... Paul Waldman (at CNN): In 2012, "Romney ran a campaign that was utterly demagogic and dishonest. It may not have been quite as appalling as what Trump is doing now, but in many ways it was similar, the only difference being that Trump says out loud what Republicans such as Romney prefer to imply.... [Romney] may not have charged that Obama's birth certificate was fake, but he spent an awful lot of time trying to convince people that the President just wasn't really one of us.... Romney aired a stunningly dishonest ad charging falsely that Obama had removed work requirements from welfare.... ('You wouldn't have to work. They just send you your welfare check.')... That kind of rhetoric always has plausible deniability.... What they find so disturbing about Trump [is that] he doesn't bother with subtlety, or try to find ways to activate voters' prejudices while being able to claim he doesn't know what's going on." ...
... CW: What the GOP "establishment" & Trump's opponents really object to his style, not his "substance." It isn't just that he's crude; the calibre of attacks on President Obama & Secretary Clinton by Republicans across the board are evidence of that. It isn't just that he's a bigot; almost every elected Republican has his ways of signaling the bigot class that he's one of them. It isn't just that he's an outsider; Mitt was happy to embrace the Birther-in-Chief in 2012. It isn't just that from time-to-time he espouses some "liberal" ideas; when convenient, Republicans all pay lip service to ideals Democrats share -- look how riled they became (after a couple of days of hemming & hawing) over the Confederate flag in the wake of the mass murder of black South Carolinians. It isn't that they object to the few policy positions he has put in writing; these proposals are boilerplate-Republican. And so forth. Nope, it's that Trump portrays Republican values & policies in a manner that exposes them for what they are. He is a living, breathing cartoon of the GOP, a farcical, telltale personification of the heart of the party of Reagan. The Republican party is Dorian Gray, & Trump is the picture in the attic, dusted off & brought out into the light of day. ...
... ** Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg: "Trump proves racism no longer needs to be subtle.... [Former Speaker of the House John] Boehner and other Republicans were not averse to stirring up racial resentment. But they did so in a manner that racially aggrieved whites had come to accept -- with a subtlety that implicitly respected the 'norm of equality' even as it undermined it. Trump's success may signal a new frontier.... Trump represents a clear preference for tribalism over outreach and integration. Yet much of the party's agenda appears to mimic that preference." ...
... Stephen Stromberg of the Washington Post: "... even though [Romney] said the right things about Trump, he dignified a series of Republican pathologies, many of which play into the Trump phenomenon.... Romney also essentially endorsed a strategy to defeat Trump.... Even if [the strategy] does work, however, Romney and everyone else in the GOP 'establishment' would not have washed away the moral stain that Trump has already left on the party. They would have to contemplate their role in encouraging the forces that have boosted him. Even as Romney condemned Trump as a fundamental threat to the nation, he gave credence to Republicans' wide-ranging hysteria about Hillary Clinton." ...
... McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed reports on what led Romney to decide to launch a major attack against Trump. ...
... Tom Levenson in Balloon Juice: "R-Money being who he is, the reason he gave for the urgency in stopping Trump was not for The Donald's sin of describing Republican views and gut-feelings accurately, but because it would ensure a Clinton presidency -- and that family is, of course, simply too gauche, too nouveau for true representatives of better-established dishonest money to accept. But thanks anyway, [former] Governor! Plenty of good stuff there for ads in the fall. Or, as the man said: please proceed." ...
... Tara Golshan of Vox: "Looking back to when Romney sought his endorsement in 2012, Trump quipped to a crowd in Maine on Thursday: 'I could've said, "Mitt, drop to your knees," and he would've dropped to his knees." ...
... CW: Several pundits, including one cited in Golshan's piece, called the "drop to your knees" remark "a blow job reference." It could be, but I don't think so. Trump said Mitt "begged" him for an endorsement in 2012. Dropping to one's knees is the gesture of a supplicant, consistent with begging. In the vernacular of people of a certain age (like Trump), it would not connote preparation for felatio. Trump is a straightforward vulgarian; we need not look for implied vulgarities. Update: A couple of minutes into the debate, Trump boasted that his penis was yuuuuge. ...
... Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times: "When Donald Trump talks about health care, he sounds as if he wants to do something different from the rest of the Republican field. But his health care plan, released Wednesday night, looks a lot like what his competitors have already presented.... [His] policies, which are quite similar to those proposed by Mr. Trump's rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, would mean millions of Americans would lose their health insurance, especially the low-income people whom Mr. Trump talks about wanting to protect. There is no bullet point for helping the people who fall through the cracks, or for preventing Americans from dying 'on the sidewalk.'... He may describe himself as more compassionate and generous on health care than his rivals, but there's a huge gulf between that rhetoric and the practical consequences of his policies." ...
... CW: This is similar to his economic "plan," which is just as bad as all the other Republican candidates' "plans" & would devastate the economy. ...
... Update: Greg Sargent expands on Romney's unintended indictment of Republican economic plans: "Romney faulted Trump's plan for ballooning the deficit while 'refusing to reform entitlements.' This is apparently a reference to Trump's promise not to cut entitlements. Translating Romney's argument, what he's really doing is attacking Trump as irresponsible for promising deficit-busting tax cuts for the rich without proposing to pay for them by cutting social insurance for the elderly."
Tim Egan: "Trump has unleashed the beast that has long resided not far from the American hearth, from those who started a Civil War to preserve the right to enslave a fellow human to the Know-Nothing mobs who burned Irish-Catholic churches out of fear of immigrants.... Trump's people ... are sick and tired of tolerance." ...
... CW BTW: Trump now has a spokeswoman who goes by the name of Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I refuse to believe this is her real name. She must be a pseudonymic character in the manner of Dickens (a la Master Bates of Oliver Twist), whose nom-de-campaign is designed to portray the candidate as a person-of-the-people in the mold of Sarah Palin, an evangelical pop-politician following in the footsteps of Mike Huckabee, but, in the end, a true populist like Bernie Sanders. Nobody knows branding like Trump knows branding. ...
... Update/Correction: Contributor P.D. Pepe informs us Sarah Huckabee Sanders is not only a real person, she comes by the Huckabee honestly: she's Mike Huckabee's daughter. Here's more on that. Still, Dickens lives!
... Here's an anti-Trump ad produced by the conservative Our Principles superPac, launched & partially funded by the Ricketts family, owners of the Chicago Cubs. Trump has threatened to air the family's dirty linens.
Shane Goldmacher: "Marco Rubio's path to the Republican nomination short of a contested convention has narrowed to nearly nothing as his campaign and allies reboot their strategy to prepare for months of guerrilla warfare to deny Donald Trump a clean, pre-convention victory. The math for Rubio is daunting. After getting thoroughly routed on Super Tuesday, Rubio is in so deep a delegate hole that he would now need to win roughly two-thirds of all the remaining delegates to guarantee his nomination ahead of Cleveland...."
Hostage Crisis Resolved. Eric Levitz of New York: "Chris Christie said at a press conference Thursday that he is not being held hostage by Donald Trump.... Of course, when you think about it, isn't that exactly what a hostage would say?"
Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "A day before the Michigan primary on Tuesday, Senator Bernie Sanders will be the focus of a live one-hour, prime-time event in Detroit. The host? Fox News. Bret Baier announced ... on Thursday night that the Sanders campaign had agreed to the town-hall-style broadcast. The Clinton campaign was invited, but 'is unable to attend due to a conflict in her campaign schedule,' according to a release from the network."
Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The revelation that the Justice Department has granted immunity to a former State Department staff member who worked on Hillary Clinton's private email server is a likely indication that the investigation is nearing a conclusion, but should not be read as a sign that the leading Democratic presidential candidate is going to face criminal charges, legal experts said." ...
... Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "A former aide to Hillary Clinton has turned over to the F.B.I. computer security logs from Mrs. Clinton's private server, records that showed no evidence of foreign hacking, according to people close to a federal investigation.... The security logs bolster Mrs. Clinton's assertion that her use of a personal email account to conduct State Department business ... did not put American secrets into the hands of hackers or foreign governments."
Senate Race
Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "With Senator Charles E. Grassley [R-Iowa] under attack for his handling of the Supreme Court nomination process, a formidable Democratic challenger will run against him this November, the most significant sign yet that Democrats see the court and the candidacy of Donald J. Trump as twin liabilities for Republicans. Patty Judge, a former Iowa lieutenant governor and state agriculture secretary, is expected to announce her challenge this weekend to Mr. Grassley, who is seeking a seventh Senate term and had previously been seen as having little opposition to re-election." ...
... Jason Noble of the Des Moines Register: "Judge, 72, is a rural Democrat with a long electoral history in Iowa. She would enter what is expected to be a four-way Democratic primary, with the winner almost certain to face Grassley in the November general election.... Judge told The Des Moines Register late last week that she was considering a run, largely because of Grassley's stance on the court vacancy. 'I don't like this deliberate obstruction of the process,' she told the Register last week. 'I think Chuck Grassley owes us better. He's been with us a long time. Maybe he's been with us too long.'"
Other News & Views
Adam Liptak & Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "In a significant victory for the Obama administration, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Thursday refused to block an Environmental Protection Agency regulation limiting emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants. The decision comes three weeks after the full Supreme Court, in a highly unusual move, blocked another major Obama administration rule that would limit planet-warming greenhouse gas pollution from coal plants.... The order was issued solely by Chief Justice Roberts, who did not refer the question to the full court.... Thursday's decision is an indication that Justice Scalia's death has altered the balance of power on the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court had voted, 5 to 4, on the climate change stay, issued Feb. 9. Justice Scalia was in the majority, and his vote in that case was one of the last he cast before he died."
Joe Biden, in a New York Times op-ed: "... I was so surprised and saddened to see Republican leaders tell President Obama and me that they would not even consider a Supreme Court nominee this year. No meetings. No hearings. No votes. Nothing. It is an unprecedented act of obstruction.... If they love the Senate as much as I do, they need to act."
Tracy Wilkinson of the Chicago Tribune, in the Miami Herald: "Secretary of State John F. Kerry has canceled a trip to Cuba two weeks before President Barack Obama visits the communist-ruled nation as diplomats haggle over which Cuban dissidents the president will be allowed to meet."
History Timeout. Glenn Garvin of the Miami Herald: That time President Calvin Coolidge went to Cuba, a tale of "drunken debauchery, inebriated idiocy, salacious smuggling and even unnatural acts with Key lime pies." And botched diplomacy.
Greg Jaffe & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Over lunch with a small group in Milwaukee, President Obama on Thursday said he plans to stay in Washington for a couple of years after his presidency so that his youngest daughter can finish high school."
Tim Mak of the Daily Beast: "As Republican presidential hopefuls gather in Detroit for a critical post-Super Tuesday debate, Sen. Mike Lee [RTP-Utah] is stalling plans to alleviate [Flint, Michigan]'s drinking water crisis -- a disaster that has a disproportionate and devastating impact on the poor and the young. Lee is using a Senate tactic used to gum up the works known as a 'hold,' which is generally kept secret so the lawmaker can remain anonymous. But two senior Senate sources confirmed to The Daily Beast that Lee is behind the maneuver to stall an utterly uncontroversial provision." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. As Akhilleus pointed out, Lee is Ted Cruz's only buddy in the Senate.
Michelle Boorstein & Julie Zauzmer of the Washington Post: "A Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania announced Thursday that it will post the names online of priests credibly accused of sexually abusing children, a decision that came two days after a dramatic grand jury report alleged a decades-long cover-up.... The report relied on a secret archive at the Altoona-Johnstown diocese, which dates back to the 1950s and was opened up this summer when authorities obtained a search warrant. The grand jury interviewed surviving priests and their alleged victims, and compiled a 147-page account detailing accusations against more than 50 religious leaders including priests and teachers."
Beyond the Beltway
Sam Levin of the Guardian: "The FBI escalated its investigation into Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's 2014 standoff with the federal government Thursday with sweeping raids across the country that resulted in 12 arrests, including that of a Donald Trump campaign coalition co-chair in New Hampshire[: Jerry DeLemus]. Two of Bundy's sons were also among those arrested, amid signs that federal authorities are ramping up their efforts against the ultra-conservative, anti-government movement that also inspired the armed standoff in Oregon earlier this year.... The latest arrests mean five members of the Bundy family, Cliven included, are in jail awaiting trial." Thanks to Haley S. for the lead. ...
... CW: Jerry DeLemus, & his wife Susan, a state representative, are well-known New Hampshire kooks. No reputable candidate for state or national office would have anything to do with either of them.
Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "Oregon has become the first US state to pass laws to rid itself of coal, committing to eliminate the use of coal-fired power by 2035 and to double the amount of renewable energy in the state by 2040. Legislation passed by the state's assembly, which will need to be signed into law by Governor Kate Brown, will transition Oregon away from coal, which currently provides around a third of the state's electricity supply. At the same time, the state will also require its two largest utilities to increase their share of clean energy, such as solar and wind, to 50% by 2040. Combined with Oregon's current hydroelectric output, the state will be overwhelmingly powered by low-carbon alternatives to fossil fuels."
Michael Wines of the New York Times: "The poisoning of Flint[, Michigan]'s children outraged the nation. But too much lead in children's blood has long been an everyday fact in Cleveland[, Ohio,] and scores of other cities -- not because of bungled decisions about drinking water, but largely because a decades-long attack on lead in household paint has faltered. It is a tragic reminder that one of the great public health crusades of the 20th century remains unfinished.... In most cities, the lead threat is confined largely to poor neighborhoods with scant political clout. There is little official urgency -- and increasingly, little money -- to address it." New York City is a notable exception.
States of Execution. Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Lawmakers in Florida voted on Thursday to revamp the state's death penalty statute, a move that came nearly two months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down its current capital punishment statute as unconstitutional.... Meanwhile, a judge in Alabama also ruled that her state's capital sentencing setup was unconstitutional, citing the same Supreme Court ruling that struck down Florida's death penalty."
Educating Texans. Yanan Wang of the Washington Post: "A Texan who called [President] Obama a gay prostitute may soon control what goes in children's textbooks." Mary Lou Bruner, a retired teacher who has published many wacko views on her Facebook account, is likely to win election to the Texas State Board of Education.
News Lede
Bloomberg: "Employers added more workers in February than projected but wages unexpectedly declined, dashing hopes that reduced slack in the labor market was starting to benefit all Americans. The 242,000 gain followed a 172,000 rise in January that was larger than previously estimated, a Labor Department report showed Friday. The jobless rate held at 4.9 percent as people entered the labor force and found work. Average hourly earnings dropped, the first monthly decline in more than a year."
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Reader Comments (15)
The debate last night was abysmal––a lack of substance and a lack of credence. The desperation Rubio, Cruz and Kasich display is hard to watch. Except for the tawdry testicular talk that even school boys would best, these debates have been reduced to rehearsed rhetoric ––no there there.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is Mike Huckabee's daughter and you can bet Jesus sits comfortably on her right shoulder.
The next primary/caucus states include the three on life support: Louisiana whose former Governor, Booby––sorry, Bobby Jindal left the state in shambles. John Bel Edwards (D) who took over the reins tells us they have the largest fiscal crisis in the history of the state. In order to bring his state back to life he has had to close schools, hospitals, college football, hospice care, and University systems.
The next is in Brownback territory, Kansas, a state that has failed financially––when Brownback began his governorship the state had a surplus––now even Dorothy wouldn't be able to feed Toto in the custom he's used to.
Finally we have Michigan where Snyder has not only fucked up financially, but is complicit in the poisoning of his people.
So–––happy trails, buccaneers, can't wait to hear what yo'all have to say in them states that are on their last legs.
Grassely isn't the only one who will be challenged by a female (he, by the way, should retire, or be beat by Judge––-he's no longer effective), John McCain is being challenged by Ann Kirk Patrick who has already started running ads featuring Trump at his worst and McCain backing him up––"Do we want someone more loyal to his party than to his country?" Of course now that McCain has changed his mind about Trump––Ann might have to take a different tactic. I'm still waiting for John to finally admit his mistake about Palin.
@PD Pepe: Thanks for the info on Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Hard to believe she's a real person.
Marie
No Mirrors.
The Mittens Romney Comedy Half Hour was a scream. The Rat proves that, in spite of all his ill gotten wealth, there are no mirrors in his house. He does not own a one.
His "takedown" of the Trumperor was sad. And stupid.
Some things that bother The Rat about The Orange Headed Clown: "The bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny..."
Wow. So bullying...chasing down a fellow student because Romney considered him gay (and not alone, by the way, like all bullies, he needed his posse of sycophantic fellow homophobes) then getting his queer bashing buddies to hold the kid down while Romney cut off his hair.
Greed...Romney made millions at Bain Capital by flipping businesses, in many cases, profitable businesses giving full employment and benefits to thousands of workers and their families. His plan for personal enrichment? Take functioning companies, buy them up, fire all the employees, steal their retirement money, then chop up the business and sell it off piecemeal. Greed like you read about.
The showing off. Romney had no problem strutting up to microphones to lie through his teeth about Barack Obama during his failed bid (the second failed bid) for president, and at one point, he took credit for the resurgence of the Detroit auto industry, claiming that he not only supported the bailout (he did not, but he did publish an op-ed piece declaring "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt!") but was personally responsible--not Obama--for its success. He actually had nothing to do with it.
Misogyny. Binders of women. Support for the Todd Akins of the GOP. Virulently anti-choice. 'nuff said.
And then the bit about how Trump can't be trusted because he inherited his money. Romney got nothing from his dad? A millionaire auto company executive, governor of Michigan and member of the Nixon cabinet. Money is only one thing kids can inherit from their parents. The kind of leg up and connections Romney got from his dad were similar to that of another guy born on third base who protested to everyone who would listen that he had hit a triple, the Decider. And don't forget that unlike plenty of grad students who had to work to support themselves while in school (my hand is raised), Prince Rat and the Lady Ann supported themselves by selling stock given them by daddy. "What time shall we have the tea served, my dear? I must resume work on my dissertation about keeping those awful poor people in their place."
Then Romney goes on, laughably, to raise red flags about the end of democracy being in sight if the Trumperor becomes the party's nominee: a party that has single-handedly fought to destroy democracy for a generation, a party that works day and night to deprive millions of voters of their rights as citizens of a democratic republic, a party that rigs elections, steals votes, institutes phony voter ID laws to prevent Americans from voting, a party that gerrymanders the living shit out of every state they control, the better to make elections, ie the signal act of democracy, irrelevant.
No mirrors.
Another guy with no mirrors? Marco, Marco, Marco. This morning on NPR, he had the absolute gall to castigate Trump for vulgarity. This from a nasty little pipsqueak who's been running around making dick jokes and wondering about the size of Trump's penis. Vulgarity, Little Marco?
When called on this obvious hypocrisy regarding his vulgarian charge, Rubio's response was "I know he is, but what am I?"
No mirrors. Never even heard of 'em.
Watched most of the middle of the 'debate' until I found something better to do. But, what an embarrassment to think that any of these men will be the eventual nominee.
I'm bemused by the small hand insults...always thought it was shoe size that counted!!! At any rate, hard to tell about the 'small hands' from various photographs. However, I believe they are playing off the remark of some years back by Graydon Carter (now of Vanity Fair) when he called Trump a 'short-fingered vulgarian.' Finger size aside, I'll happily go with just vulgarian!!!
Watching Trump become unglued over Trump University was fun! Rubio did get his shot when Cruz was telling Trump to '....breathe, breathe, breathe..." and there was the suggestion of doing on stage Yoga. No yoga, sayeth Trump, but...Little Marco sniped from the side on the possibility "...why not? afterall you claim you are flexible."
@Akhilleus: Amen to all that. And the joke's on Not-President Mitt. He thought the lumpinproletariat were too dumb to notice Mitt looked down his nose at them. Remember these moments?
"Asked Sunday if he follows racing Romney replied, 'Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans, but I have some friends who are NASCAR team owners,' the AP reports.
"The comments come after Romney set off a media firestorm on Friday when, following a speech on the state of the economy, he told a Detroit audience that his wife drives 'a couple of Cadillacs.'"
Trump uses his excesses as a selling point -- you, too (white Christian Americans), can have gold-plated bath fixtures when I make you all rich. Mitt had no idea that offhand comments about the ways he was "better than" the plebeians (and moochers) caused resentment & envy, not admiration.
Trump is of course selling a fantasy, & the pitchforks just might come out when the real Trumpsylvania doesn't nearly match the imaginations of his followers. Sure, he's a complete fraud, but so was Mitt. And it showed.
Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to Bernie's Scandinavian nirvana, where nothing could possibly go wrong.
Marie
It has nothing to do with anything except perhaps Trump's incessant attempts to bat away anything truthful he considers detrimental no matter how silly, but a friend from college who ended up in the New York financial world once mentioned to me, years ago, that he had been in a meeting with Donald Trump.
"What was he like?" I asked.
"The first thing I noticed was how small his hands were" he told me.
For what it's worth.
Akhilleus, So right about Romney. It makes one gag.
But the Koch-Confederates do deploy mirrors, as in smoke and....tho only directed at their marks....err, supporters. Elsewise, how to explain how those on the stage thought they could get away with the insane conclusion to last night's entertainment?
Yeah, he's a con man unfit to be President...but I'll support him, says one flim-flam man to the others.
I'd like to think that degree of bald insincerity from all three party leaders would shatter some of those mirrors and dissipate some of the smoke, but I'm not optimistic.
Maybe they are relying on all that lead in the water.
"The original intent of the Founders was to render dick jokes in elegant prose with references to Greek mythology"
Classic Marie! Gail Collins would be proud.
It is getting beyond embarrassing. It isn't just Frankenstein's monster. And the real problem is not their behavior but the fact that there is actually a person who supports it. So the real embarrassment is not the Republican politicians, it is America.
And they lie with such ease. Except Benito who states that polls show he wins over Clinton when virtually none do. Not a lie, he believes it.
So this exposes the real America where a substantial minority are ignorant, racist and scared shit of anything that doesn't look or live like themselves and desperately try to find a blame for their reality.
BEATRICE EX MACHINA
A local story: My husband and I have banked at a Credit Union located in the town we lived in for decades. After we moved twenty minutes away to another town Joe still preferred to stay with that C.U.––people there knew him––would greet him by name, he'd ask about their families, etc. But as time went on there were personel changes and the last time Joe banked there no one he knew was left. So––yesterday he went into the branch C.U. in our town and was in for a shock. He was greeted at the door by a young fella by the name of Bruce, who when Joe saw that there were no tellers and confessed his ignorance as to how to proceed, Bruce said, no problem, he'd walk him through the procedure which was to enter a small cubicle, click on some buttons, which activates a screen in which a female face instructs him how to proceed with his transactions. Now Joe and I are both products of having been brought up where "everybody knows your name" and you know your neighbors really well. In all the places we have lived since we have proceeded with that familiarity. You can well imagine poor Joe's disappointment that his transactions were being taken care of by a face on a machine. "Excuse me, but may I know your name?" he asked meekly––"Beatrice" said the face in the machine.
And we wonder where the jobs have gone––real people interacting with real people –––Joe's once, "Hi, Helen, how have you been?" has come down to Bruce and Beatrice, very polite, but poor substitutes for the REAL thing.
Rubio is worried about the size of Trump's dick. Trump assures the audience it's huge. Kasich wants everyone to remember that he doesn't make dick jokes. Cruz screams "Never mind the dick jokes, the country is going down for the third time and it's all the fault of that nigger!"
But here's something no one talks about: violence against minorities, Democrats, anyone with a different opinion about the direction of the country, violence encouraged and promoted by the leading presidential contender. Violence at rallies, rallies which arise, at least nominally, from the essence of a liberal democracy, a place where citizens can gather and demonstrate their affinity for a political platform and set of policy solutions. Violence fueled, funneled, and focused by the rhetoric and actions of a single political party against anyone they consider the Others. Violence as party ideology in action. A microcosm of the world Confederates have created for themselves and insist the rest of us inhabit as well. And if we don't agree, well, that's what voter IDs are for.
But rather than concern themselves with body parts and inane, demonstrably false claims, not a one of the other candidates, at least as far as I've heard, has uttered a syllable about the way a black student was assaulted and abused at a Trump rally in Louisville, KY. The video is appalling. And the sight of an angry man wearing what appears to be a VFW hat following this woman, continuing to scream at her and shoving her to the point of almost knocking her down several times, herding her out of their midst, is reminiscent of another infamous image of a weaponized symbol of America being used to assault a black American who had done nothing wrong.
Even worse than the act, which was pretty horrible on its own, is the fact that the remaining candidates seem unaffected by such demonstrations of intolerance and racial violence. Why? Because they pretty much feel the same way.
This is not just a Trump issue, as much as the other clowns would love it to be portrayed as such. This is an unobstructed look into the diseased soul of right-wing world. A world created and sickened by wingnut hatred and fear. A world without hope, without plans for the future, excepting getting rid of everyone they hate, without any semblance of decency or humanity outside of dog eat dog. This is the lashing out of frightened Americans infantilized by Confederate lies and delusions to the point where the only seemingly reasonable answer is to hurt someone.
Jesus on the fucking mountain top, these people have a lot to answer for.
Akhilleus, RE:
"The first thing I noticed was how small his hands were" he told me."
For what it's worth . . .
A friend, whose hand was also clasped by Trump's (not my friend's choice: wrong place/wrong time), experienced the identical perception. He recently quipped - in like-response to Donnie's pronouncement (I still cannot fathom that this theme has entered presidential campaign content) - that 'anything in small hands will appear yuuuuge'.
But on a most sobering note, yet related to male hands and members:
I've known more than a few who have been sexually victimized by the clergy (and others). This Statute of Limitations *must* change - - for *all* sexual assault.
The trauma, the shame and - yes, it does truly manifest - the delayed/suppressed memory can take years to wade through the hideous fog and finally surface . . . if it ever does.
PD,
And jobs are not the only consequence or the worst.
When you combine big with faceless (I'm wondering if Beatrice is a real person or a computerized animation? Maybe not yet, but in the near future? In this case more likely just another face in the crowd of unknowns who check us out of Walmart or Target with whom we have no personal relationship ) you get distance, impersonality and anonymity, all of which eliminate the face to face checks on bad behavior we grew up with.
For the same reasons we are more prone to do bad things in the dark, our identities and those of our victims unknown, never an eyeball to eyeball or a handshake in the picture, our ever larger organizations are more likely to treat us poorly. They see us as numbers, if they see us at all, never as people.
And if we ever complain about the way we are being treated, it's harder every day to find someone who will at least pretend he or she cares.
I'm beginning to doubt morality can exist in a society where people don't know one another. I'm not sure our laws and our creaky court system are enough.
@PD and @Ken Winkes Thank you for the reminder of the personal blessings that come from living in a small village on a small island in what the Danes still romantically call The Eastern Sea (from the good old days when Copenhagen was, at least for the Vikings, the center of the known world). My very own Danish girl and I have just returned from weeks of combing the southern California coast, in glorious weather. With temperatures on our island farm still just above freezing, we needed your reminder.....
The family members, friends and strangers we met surely seemed outgoing and thoughtful. The many Hispanic and Mexican-Americans we encountered were particularly patient and helpful to two senior wanderers. But then we were in California, we did not attend any political rallies, and we did not watch much television. The air was noticeably clearer and probably cleaner than when I attended school in California - a long time ago.
Perhaps I am getting mellow, but I am optimistic about the future of the United States. For example, the very real prospect that Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas and Alito might have to answer to as many as SIX female justices is wonderful to contemplate. (Many thanks to Victoria D. for the references to those two illuminating Slate articles on the oral arguments in the recent Texas case.)
@Islander: Always good to hear from you. I appreciate your perspective on things and like to hear about what life is like for you on that Island––makes me feel the wind is still somewhat in our sails. This evening the scene from our back windows celebrate a sunset that takes my breath away––layers of light blue above a brilliant sienna with the black outlines of the tree branches in the forefront. Makes me feel alls right with the world––even only for a moment.
And I do hope your optimism turns out to be true.