Krugman's Biggest Lie

By Marie

I am not linking Paul Krugman's column today, but you all know where to find it. I did write a comment on the New York Times page. I held back in hopes my comment might be published, but I recognize I have an iffy chance of making the cut. Here's what I wrote, in as circumspect a way as possible:

This is the most shocking column I have ever read in the New York Times. You have accused Bernie Sanders of being a racist who thinks, you know, that black people should get only 3/5ths of a vote.

That is a flat-out lie.

As even a casual observer of politics knows, Sanders is doing what every single candidate in a contested race does: puts his best spin on his relative position. Candidates who are 20 points down in polls will say, "I think we're going to surprise the pollsters, blah-blah. We'll pull this thing out." Every once in a great while, fact follows spin. (See Sanders, Michigan.)

There's a double irony here in that you accuse Sanders of being anti-black in the same week Hillary Clinton (and, as further irony would have it, Bill De Blasio [whom Krugman cites as a swell example of an anti-racist]) made a joke based on the hyper-racist assumption that "colored people" are lazy. When criticized for this jaw-dropping lapse, Clinton blamed De Blasio.

Since I don't know much about economics, I have relied on your analyses. Perhaps I've misplaced my trust. I'm wondering now if "every word you write is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'" Because this column is a lie.

Addendum: BTW, if you want to know how Krugman's column should have been written, Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg provides a good example.

The Commentariat -- April 15, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Marc Tracy of the New York Times: On Jackie Robinson Day, the City of Philiadelphia apologizes to Robinson for the way the Phillies treated him to racist taunts at the beginning of his first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers. CW: This took awhile. The incidents occurred in 1947, & Robinson died in 1972.

Matt O'Brien of the Washington Post takes a whack at Time's wacky (vote Repubican!) cover story. CW: Indeed, the cover story is so bad that it has given room for each of the columnists I've cited to take a unique tack.

*****

Presidential Race

Patrick Healy & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders, seizing on potential vulnerabilities for Hillary Clinton in the coming New York primary, repeatedly savaged her ties to wealthy donors and Wall Street banks during their debate on Thursday night, delivering a ferocious performance that Mrs. Clinton countered with steely confidence and her own sharp elbows." -- CW

Ed Pilkington & Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "The bitter struggle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination erupted into fractious and at times personal attacks on Thursday night as the simmering animosities between the two candidates burst onto a Brooklyn stage." Includes highlights video, which is better than CNN's, posted below, but the Guardian's is not currently embeddable (is that a word?). -- CW

The Washington Post provides an annotated transcript of the debate. -- CW

Glenn Kessler & Michelle Lee of the Washington Post fact-check some of the statements & misstatements the candidates made. -- CW

Greg Sargent: "From the outset of this campaign, Bernie Sanders has sometimes seemed reluctant to ... say outright that Hillary Clinton's policy positions are the direct result of her reliance on corporate contributions and her profiting from Wall Street speaking fees.... At last night's debate -- and in a very tough new ad released this morning -- Sanders made it as explicit as you could want that he does believe this to be the case":

David Graham of the Atlantic: "Sanders's problem is that though he delivered a sparkling performance and out-debated Clinton at nearly every turn, it's not enough. He trails Clinton in popular votes and pledged delegates, to say nothing of superdelegates. The tied national polls he cites are meaningless, since there's no national primary. Sanders needs a knock-out -- though even that probably wouldn't give him the nomination -- and tonight, he won the bout on points." -- CW

I do believe that Israel ... has every right to destroy terrorism. But in Gaza there were 10,000 wounded civilians and 1,500 killed. Was that a disproportionate attack? The answer is, I believe, it was. As somebody who is 100 percent pro-Israel, in the long run, if we are ever going to bring peace ... we are going to have to treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity. -- Bernie Sanders, in last night's debate ...

... Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "That's a big deal. It's also ... a low bar.... Sanders's position could cost him in New York, because everything he's said could alienate pro-Israel voters. But he has prompted the most substantive debate about Israel this election cycle, and is the first national politician in a long, long time to have enlarged the discourse surrounding this issue." -- CW

Charlieg at Daily Kos: "A closing speech for the ages," followed by a standing ovation, set to music. Motivational even if you've heard the Bernie Sanders stump speech multiple times. -- LT

Rebecca Traister of New York shares what most Democrats probably are feeling about now: "... since there's no reason for either [candidate] to drop out, I guess we'll just keep wading through this foul swamp. But I wish it didn't have to be so unpleasant; I wish we could all do better. Let's make the American Democratic primary great again." -- CW

The Democrats debate Thursday at 9:00 pm ET on CNN. Here's where you can watch (or hear) the debate. ...

... The New York Times is liveblogging the debate. The Guardian's liveblog is here. ...

     ... CW: Sounds like the Bickersons are throwing the everyday dishes at each other. Maybe the "I NY" mug collection. I'm not watching this show. I don't like the "tone." Besides, I'm in the middle of watching this teevee drama series that centers on fratricide -- seems more uplifting.

Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "The Democratic Party and the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will sue the state of Arizona over voter access to the polls after the state's presidential primary last month left thousands of residents waiting as long as five hours to vote." -- CW

Evan Halper & Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times: "... no small number of [Sanders supporters] are lashing out in ways that are not particularly helpful to his campaign. There is the activist in Chicago who unleashed a movement to 'harass' superdelegates backing Clinton, with an online 'hit list' complete with delegate phone numbers and some home addresses. There are the online trolls who have come to be known as 'Bernie bros,' who attack journalists, politicians and fellow voters they perceive to be pro-Clinton with misogynistic, often vulgar attacks. There are the campaign surrogates -- some of them high-profile -- who use language the campaign finds itself having to walk back." CW ...

... Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "The Sanders campaign ... [announced] on Tuesday that Simone Zimmerman would be its national Jewish outreach coordinator.... On Thursday, Senator Bernie Sanders;s campaign suspended Ms. Zimmerman, 25, after revelations that she had used vulgarities in Facebook posts about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Hillary Clinton. The suspension, hours before a Democratic presidential debate in Brooklyn, made for an embarrassing misstep for Mr. Sanders...." CW ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: "Bernie Sanders on Thursday repudiated the remarks of a surrogate who used the phrase 'corporate Democratic whores' on Wednesday night during the Vermont senator's rally in Washington Square Park, after Hillary Clinton's campaign demanded an disavowal from the candidate." CW: Yeah, see, you really can't call the only female presidential candidate a whore. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

...On Hillary's Latin American foreign policy and more specifically the coup d'état in Honduras (2009). For the first video setting up the context, click here: --safari

Hit Job. Dana Milbank: Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), chair of the House Isn't That Special Benghaaazi! Committee, "after blowing through several previous deadlines he set, has said to expect a final report 'before summer,' and Republicans say they are drafting it now.... Gowdy last month stopped giving Democrats transcripts of witness interviews. This move, ostensibly to prevent leaks, diminishes the minority's ability respond to allegations contained in the majority report." -- CW

CW: Because the candidates themselves are doing nothing newsworthy, the New York Times decided to devote some online pride-of-place front-page space to the graphic on the left. Inside, Matt Flegenheimer assesses Clinton, Trump & Sanders on various aspects of New-Yorkiness.

George Bennett of the Palm Beach Post: "Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski grabbed a reporter’s arm against her will, but there's insufficient evidence to pursue a misdemeanor battery charge against him, Palm Beach County prosecutors have concluded. 'Although there was probable cause to make an arrest, the evidence cannot prove all legally required elements of the crime alleged and is insufficient to support a criminal prosecution,' Assistant State Attorney Adrienne Ellis wrote in a 'No File' memo explaining prosecutors' decision not to pursue the battery charge filed last month by Jupiter police." -- CW ...

... Charles Pierce: "Tell you what we should do. Next time we're all swanning about Palm Beach, let's all pick a woman at random and yank her arm so hard that we leave bruises and she nearly falls down. Because, apparently, it's open season for that stuff down there." -- CW

Nick Gass: "In a defiant op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday evening, [Donald] Trump opined that the process through which delegates are selected and allocated is part of the same system that has 'rigged' trade, economic and immigration policies against Americans." -- CW ...

... John McCormick of Bloomberg: "Meeting behind closed doors, party leaders in Indiana on Wednesday selected 27 delegates, with most expected to be opposed to [Donald Trump], even though the state's voters won't cast primary ballots there for nearly more three weeks. As the calendar advances closer to the July national convention, it will become more common to have states like Indiana pick delegates before ballots are cast. That could buttress accusations by [Trump] ... and his allies that the system is rigged." -- CW ...

... Nicholas Riccardi of the AP: Donald "Trump's national campaign is largely staffed by an insular circle with little experience in the complexities of presidential politics. The Colorado debacle has revealed another factor holding back the billionaire front-runner as he tries to lock down enough delegates to clinch the nomination: the inexperience of his supporters." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Bible Study Today with Donald Trump

Well, I think many. I mean, you know, when we get into the Bible, I think many. So many. And some people -- look, an eye for an eye, you can almost say that. That's not a particularly nice thing. But you know, if you look at what's happening to our country, I mean, when you see what's going on with our country, how people are taking advantage of us, and how they scoff at us and laugh at us. And they laugh at our face, and they're taking our jobs, they're taking our money, they're taking the health of our country. And we have to be firm and have to be very strong. And we can learn a lot from the Bible, that I can tell you. -- Donald Trump, reciting a phrase from his favorite Bible verse

But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. -- Exodus 21:23-24 (NIV)

You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.... Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. -- Jesus, Sermon on the Mount, according to Matthew 5:38-39, 42 (NIV)

So Trump is not a Christian. Glad we cleared that up. -- Constant Weader

For Bible Study with John Kasich, see yesterday's Commentariat. Also this:

... Charles Pierce: "On behalf of every single Christian all the way back to James The Just, I would like to apologize to our Jewish brothers and sisters on behalf of John Kasich, who knows not what he does, and in a big way, too." CW: Thanks, Charles, but most Christians (and not-Jews, such as I) are as ignorant of Jewish traditions & Old Testament texts as is Kasich.

Benjy Sarlin of MSNBC: "Donald Trump is taking over Reddit. Seemingly out of nowhere, the site dubbed 'the front page of the Internet' has been flooded with pro-Trump material over the last two months." -- CW

Caitlin MacNeil of TPM: "Megyn Kelly on Wednesday night confirmed that she met with Donald Trump on Wednesday morning, and said that she was able to 'clear the air' with the Republican presidential frontrunner after he has repeatedly slammed the Fox News anchor." CW: Just thought you'd like to know. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Arnold Isaacs, in the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's call to bar Muslims from entering the country got all the attention, but an even uglier thread of anti-Muslim bigotry exists inside Ted Cruz's campaign. The team of foreign policy advisers he announced on March 17 ... includes some of the most fanatical anti-Muslim activists in America." -- CW

Katie Zezima & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post on how Ted Cruz plans to win the nomination. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eliza Collins of Politico: "Ted Cruz refused to say if he would support so-called personhood bills in an interview with MSNBC's Chuck Todd, according to a partial transcript released by the network ahead of Thursday's broadcast." -- CW ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: "Ted Cruz has no regrets about calling Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a liar on the Senate floor last July, [he suggested during a taping of an interview with Chuck Todd].... Todd asked, 'He lied to you -- you still stand by it?' 'Every word I said there was true and accurate. No one has disputed a word I said,' Cruz said. 'The reaction in the Senate is, 'How dare you say that out loud?' They're not upset that somebody lied to them. I mean, that's the amazing thing.'" -- CW ...

So This Is Totally Surprising. Lauren Fox of TPM: "Ted Cruz's Senate outreach isn't going well.... Cruz has been reaching out both by phone and in person to make appeals to senators.... But despite Cruz and his allies' efforts, senators don't seem willing to take the leap for Cruz especially after watching their first choice candidates fizzle out on the trail." -- CW

Ted Is Worried about Body Parts Again. Katie Zezima: "Sen. Ted Cruz said North Carolina acted within its rights to enact a law banning anti-discrimination protections for gay, lesbian and transgender people.... 'I'm not terribly excited about men being able to go alone into a bathroom with my daughters. And I think that is a perfectly reasonable determination for the people to make,' he said." -- CW

Wherein newlywed Ted buys 100 can of Campbell's chunky soup. We'll let Heidi tell it. -- CW (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... AND, unless you're an "effete cultural elitist" like Steve M., you may find the Cruzes' performance "pretty adorable." In fact, it appears that even Mother Jones reporter Hannah Levintova is not an effete cultural elitist. -- CW

E.J. Dionne on the Great White "Moderate" Hope, John Kasich: "In his speech Tuesday, he proposed a balanced budget; a freeze on most federal regulations; tax cuts for individuals and businesses; sending 'welfare, education, Medicaid, highway infrastructure and job training' programs back to the states; a guest worker program; and fixes to Social Security that would certainly involve some cuts. In other words, he reprises the same agenda conservatives were offering in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. It's an approach that even many in the GOP -- particularly working-class Trump supporters -- see as inadequate. It also happens to be a variation on Ryanism." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Other News & Views

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama will announce on Friday his support for opening the market for cable set-top boxes, singling out the devices in millions of homes as a clunky and outdated symbol of corporate power over consumers as he introduces a broad federal effort to increase competition. In an unusual step, Mr. Obama will weigh in personally on a pending proposal at the Federal Communications Commission, filing comments that encourage it to loosen cable companies' grip on the boxes. And he will sign an executive order calling on every federal agency to send him proposals within 60 days for steps they can take to promote competition in a range of industries and better protect consumers." CW: Good news for cable consumers.

The Declaration of Independence 2016. Aaron Davis of the Washington Post: "For the first time since the Founding Fathers carved out the nation's capital from swampland, the District [of Columbia] will not ask the federal government for permission to spend its money. Instead, it will use local tax dollars as it sees fit, just as 50 states do. There is one problem -- Congress treats the District as a federal agency.... And Congress has warned that an insurrection by the city would violate the Constitution. So the city's spending plan will serve a second purpose -- a declaration of independence by the District of Columbia. The six-inch-thick city budget will be a clear challenge to the 'absolute supremacy' that Congress has wielded over the District since it was created in 1790." -- CW

The Nuns' Story. Richard Schragger, et al., of Slate: "This week, the Little Sisters of the Poor told the Supreme Court that they are finally willing to let the government accommodate their religious beliefs.... And they are joined in this turnabout by the numerous other religious nonprofits participating in the litigation.... In a case argued last month, Zubik v. Burwell, the order of nuns challenged the government's efforts to work around their religious objections to paying for health insurance that covers contraception.... The court might have to accept the Little Sisters' word that there is a difference [between the government's plan and the Supreme Court's suggested alternative], but there might also be strategic reasons for their embrace of the court's proposed alternative." -- CW

Steve Lohr of the New York Times: Microsoft "is suing the Justice Department, challenging its frequent use of secrecy orders that prevent Microsoft from telling people when the government obtains a warrant to read their emails. In its suit, filed Thursday morning in Federal District Court in Seattle, Microsoft's home turf, the company asserts that the gag order statute in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 -- as employed today by federal prosecutors and the courts -- is unconstitutional." -- CW

"How Plutocrats Cripple the IRS." Martin Lobel of the American Prospect: "Plutocrats, the richest 0.1 percent of Americans, get the most benefit from a weakened IRS. Because they have the money, the lawyers, the lobbyists, the accountants, and the secret campaign funds, they are able to ensure that the IRS won't have the resources to effectively collect the money they owe to it. Plutocrats do this by devising tax shelters too complex for the IRS to challenge at an acceptable cost, and by having allies in Congress who intimidate the IRS from issuing tough regulations and who cut IRS funding to prevent adequate enforcement." -- CW

The Art of the Title. Lauren Fox of TPM: "Blown Budget Deadline Shows Ryan's Got A Boehner-Sized Problem" --safari

Jessica Valenti of the Guardian: "I've been writing online long enough to not attach my value as a person or writer to strangers' opinions, but it would be a lie to say that the cumulative impact of being derided daily isn't damaging. It is. It's changed who I am on a fundamental level. And though I'd still like to think of myself as an optimistic person, being called a 'cunt' or 'whore' every day for a decade leaves its mark." -- CW

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Matt Yglesias of Vox: "Time magazine decided to troll economically literate Americans this week with an alarmist cover story about the national debt." Yglesias goes on to partially explain why the entire Time premise is stupid. ...

... Jordan Weissmann of Slate finds even more reasons the Time cover story is bogus. For one thing, there's "the cover's tag line ... -- 'Make America Solvent Again.' A company, or a person, is technically insolvent when debts outstrip assets.... More colloquially, you'll hear someone is insolvent when his or her debts are so onerous they can't possibly be paid. The federal government is not insolvent. Not now. Not any time soon." -- CW ...

... CW: And here's another thing, which neither Yglesias norWeismann mentions: much of this is "debt" we owe ourselves. While the percentage of U.S. debt held by foreign investors is increasing, U.S. entities still hold about two-thirds of the national debt. So we, the American people, or as trolls like to say, "our grandchildren," are the creditors. So that means American creditors' grandchildren will be the beneficiaries. And so will we "debtors," because, as Yglesias does point out, we're benefitting from the services we've "bought" with our debt. ...

... Paul Krugman doesn't even try. In a post titled "No Time for Credibility," he points out that "the lead article [is] by James Grant -- signatory of the infamous 2010 letter warning Ben Bernanke that his policies would cause inflation and debase the dollar, crusader for a return to the gold standard." -- CW ...

... Alan Pyke of Think Progress: "Time Magazine wants to take America backwards from this fragile new willingness to entertain the idea that the world's richest society might be able to buy its poor people some nice things. To do so, it's paying Ron Paul's favorite whackobird to sell readers on the fiction that the national debt is going to come due in some immediate, personal way for individual Americans." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

Dave Boucher, et al., of the Tennessean: Tennessee "Gov. Bill Haslam [R] vetoed the controversial bill Thursday that would have made the Holy Bible the official state book of Tennessee. Haslam cited an opinion issued in 2015 by Attorney General Herbert Slatery that said the bill could violate the state and federal constitutions. 'In addition to the constitutional issues with the bill, my personal feeling is that this bill trivializes the Bible, which I believe is a sacred text,' Haslam wrote in a letter to House Speaker Beth Harwell." -- CW

Greg Blustein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia "Gov. Nathan Deal said the uproar in North Carolina and Mississippi over new laws that critics say curb gay rights should give supporters of the 'religious liberty' measure in Georgia second thoughts, and warned that he's willing to pull out the veto pen again next year if similar legislation lands on his desk." -- CW

**NEWS FLASH** Daniel Tepfer of The Stamford [CT] Advocate: "...Superior Court judge [Barabara Bellis] Thursday refused to toss out the lawsuit by the families of the Sandy Hook victims against the manufacturer of the gun used by Adam Lanza to kill the 26 school children and teachers in December 2012...[Bellis] ruled that the federal law protecting gun makers from lawsuits does not override the 'legal sufficiency' of the claims by the Sandy Hook families that the gun used by Lanza should never have been made available for sale to civilians...the lawsuit will go on and all sides are to report to her courtroom on April 19 for a status conference." -- unwashed (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nah, this guy couldn't be a crook.Tom Dart of the Guardian: "The Texas Rangers are examining claims that [the state's Secretary of Agriculture Sid] Miller misused taxpayer funds by flying to Oklahoma to receive the 'Jesus shot', reportedly a $300 injection said to cure chronic pain for life. The injection is only available from a physician known as 'Dr Mike', whose medical license in Ohio was revoked after he was convicted of multiple felonies including healthcare fraud and tax evasion. The Rangers have also been asked to consider allegations that Miller spent about $2,000 in state and campaign funds to fly to Mississippi and compete in a rodeo." CW: Apparently every elected official is Texas is an (alleged) crook. This one is also a colossal jerk.

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Finding that a juror had not lied in order to serve at the trial, a judge on Thursday denied a motion to reverse the conviction of Peter Liang, the former New York police officer found guilty of manslaughter in the 2014 shooting of Akai Gurley in a housing project stairwell." -- CW

Poor people aren't "entitled" to luxurious diapers: --safari

Sam Stanton & Diana Lambert of the Sacramento Bee: "UC Davis contracted with consultants for at least $175,000 to scrub the Internet of negative online postings following the November 2011 pepper-spraying of students and to improve the reputations of both the university and Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, newly released documents show.... Some payments were made in hopes of improving the results computer users obtained when searching for information about the university or Katehi, results that one consultant labeled 'venomous rhetoric about UC Davis and the chancellor.'" CW: Just pepper-spray the Googles, please.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Lorne Cook & John-Thor Dahlburg of the AP: "Belgium's transport minister resigned Friday after a secret European Union report detailing lapses in airport security oversight was leaked in the wake of the deadly March 22 bombings at Brussels Airport and subway. Prime Minister Charles Michel said after his talks with Transport Minister Jacqueline Galant, 'the minister presented her resignation to the King and the King accepted it.'" -- CW

Ian Austen of the New York Times: "The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced legislation on Thursday to legalize physician-assisted suicide for Canadians with serious medical conditions." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

Palm Beach Post: "Friday marked the first time a human died at the hands of an animal at the Palm Beach Zoo, officials said at a news conference Friday night. Stacey Konwiser, the zoo's lead tiger keeper, died at about 3 p.m. after an encounter with a male Malayan tiger in the cats' 'night house,' where they are fed and where they sleep." -- CW

Hope Y'all Like Huckabee!

By Funny or Die, via LT:

Updated post for the 2016 North Carolina Music Festival: