The Commentariat -- Nov. 29, 2015

Internal links removed.

CW: My postings will probably be rather sketchy over the next couple of days, but I'm hoping to be back in the saddle by early Tuesday.

Kyle Balluck of the Hill: "Colorado Springs, Colo., Mayor John Suthers said in an interview Sunday [on ABC's 'This Week'] that the fatal shooting spree at a Planned Parenthood clinic in his town appears to be an act of domestic terrorism." CW: That's a fairly gutsy admission for a Republican. (Suthers is a former Colorado attorney general & U.S. attorney who headed up the state's anti-terrorism unit after 9/11.) Maybe he didn't get the memo that he was just supposed to talk about the guy's mental illness & too bad the Planned Parenthood ladies weren't all armed with pretty pearl-handled pistols to shoot the killer. ...

... Alleged Colorado Gunman Cites Republican Talking Points,
Sources Say ...

... ** Pete Williams & Andrew Blankstein of NBC News: "In one statement, made after the suspect was taken in for questioning, Dear said 'no more baby parts' in reference to Planned Parenthood, two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case told NBC News. But the sources stressed that Dear said many things to law enforcement and the extent to which the 'baby parts' remark played into any decision to target the Planned Parenthood office was not yet clear. He also mentioned President Barack Obama in statements." CW: (A neighbor of Dear's has said, according to several reports, Dear approached him with anti-Obama literature. CW: What we need now is for national news outlets to print headlines like the one above. But of course they won't. ...

... AP: "Attorney General Loretta Lynch is calling the shootings in Colorado Springs a crime against women receiving health care services at Planned Parenthood." ...

... ** Valerie Tarico: "On November 27, a mass shooting left three dead and nine wounded at a Planned Parenthood clinic just miles from the headquarters of the Religious Right flagship, Focus on the Family. Was the shooting exactly what conservative Christian presidential candidates and members of congress wanted? Maybe, maybe not. But it is what they asked for. Republican members of the Religious Right incited violence as predictably as if they had issued a call for Christian abortion foes to take up arms. Inciting violence this way is called stochastic terrorism: 'Stochastic terrorism is the use of mass communications to incite random actors to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable. In short, remote-control murder by lone wolf.'” Thanks to asa watcher for the link. Also see commentary in yesterday's Comments thread. ...

... The Ultimate Inequality. Peter Holley of the Washington Post: Another white (alleged) murderer emerges alive after a shootout with police, while police gun down innocent black people like 12-year-old Tamir Rice & John Crawford III (shot by police in a WalMart while not pointing a toy gun at anybody). ...

... Emily Atkin of Think Progress: "Approximately 10 hours after a gunman went on a shooting rampage at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, only two presidential candidates have issued statements expressing support for either the three victims or the women’s health organization. Of the 17 candidates, only former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have put out public statements in response to the massacre, which lasted approximately five hours and resulted in the deaths of one police officer and two civilians." Meanwhile, at 8 pm ET Friday, hours into the siege, Marco Rubio sent a tweet that read, "Stay warm this winter with our new cold-weather bundle. Shop now and save!"In an update, Atkin notes that Ted Cruz sent out a "prayers" tweet Saturday morning. Meanwhile, at 8 pm ET, Marco Rubio sent a tweet that reads, "Stay warm this winter with our new cold-weather bundle. Shop now and save!" ...

... Yeah BUT, at least one Republican spoke out. Daniel Politi of Slate: "While police officers were still engaging with the shooter at the Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs on Friday, one Republican lawmaker apparently thought the best thing to do was criticize the organization during an interview on CNN. 'We saw these barbaric videos, and that was something that many of us have a legitimate concern about,' Rep. Adam Kinzinger [Illinois] said. He was, of course, referring to the widely discredited videos that claim to show Planned Parenthood executives profiting from harvesting fetal tissue. Kinzinger also criticized Planned Parenthood for issuing a statement on the incident that broadly criticized 'extremists' and 'a poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism.'" He also demanded an apology from Planned Parenthood if it turned out the shooter was not targeting the organization. "Many were quick to blast not only Kinzinger but also CNN for inviting a known Planned Parenthood critic while police were still trying to apprehend the gunman." ...

... Kevin Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post: Robert Lewis "Dear, 57, the man in custody in connection with Friday’s shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, appears to have been a malcontent who drifted from place to place. In the past couple of years, in addition to [a] shack [in Black Mountain, North Carolina], he also lived in a mobile home in another town in North Carolina and a camper in Colorado, which he shared with a woman who moved with him from the East Coast.... He had a history of run-ins with neighbors and police, including arrests for cruelty to animals and being a 'peeping Tom.' He was not convicted in either case." ...

... Kevin Mitchell of the Denver Post has more on Dear's background. The New York Times story, by Julie Turkewitz & Benjamin Mueller, is here. The Times story also has reactions from residents who were in the vicinity of the shooting & stand-off. ...

... Josiah Hesse & Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "On Saturday, Colorado Springs mayor John Suthers told reporters authorities were not ready to discuss a possible motive for the shooting, but said people could make 'inferences from where it took place'.” ...

... The Colorado Springs Gazette: "Robert Lewis Dear ... is in jail on a no-bond hold. Dear’s first court appearance scheduled for Monday at 1:30...."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "... on Sunday night [President Obama] arrives in Paris, hoping to make climate policy the signature environmental achievement of his, and perhaps any, presidency.... In Paris, Mr. Obama will join more than 120 world leaders to kick off two weeks of negotiations aimed at forging a new climate change accord that would, for the first time, commit almost every country on Earth to lowering its greenhouse gas pollution. All year, Mr. Obama’s negotiators have worked behind the scenes to fashion a Paris deal.... During the course of the Paris talks, Republicans in Congress are planning a series of votes to fight Mr. Obama’s climate agenda. More than half the states are suing the administration on the legality of his climate plan. And all the Republican presidential candidates have said that they would undo the regulations if elected."

Katie Williams of the Hill: "President Obama and his daughters on Saturday visited an independent Washington bookstore as the first family marked Small Business Saturday...."

Presidential Race

Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton will unveil the largest plank of her economic agenda in the coming weeks, proposing hundreds of billions of dollars in spending, primarily on infrastructure projects, according to campaign aides."

Politico: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's campaign for the Republican nomination gained some traction late Saturday with an endorsement from New Hampshire's Union Leader, traditionally the most respected newspaper voice in the first-in-the-nation primary state.... The Union Leader endorsed Newt Gingrich in 2012, and John McCain in 2008."

The New, "Diplomatic Donald." Reuters: "... Donald Trump on Saturday reframed his claim that he saw Muslims in Jersey City, New Jersey, cheering the attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001 by asserting the sentiment was shared worldwide. 'Worldwide, the Muslims were absolutely going wild,' the real estate mogul said at a campaign rally in Sarasota, Florida.... 'I would never mock a person that has a disability,' Trump told the cheering crowd.... [He] urged his audience to be polite to a heckler who briefly brought the Sarasota event to a halt. 'Be nice to the person. Don’t hurt the person,' he instructed the crowd, which cheered him loudly when he told security personnel to escort the heckler from the room. 'Do you see how diplomatic I’ve become?'... In the past five days, he dropped 12 points from 43 percent to 31 percent [in a Reuters/Ipsos], although he continues to hold a wide lead over his competitors.”

CarsonCare! Doc Ben's Excellent Plan. Isaac Arnsdorf & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Long before he considered a presidential bid..., [Ben Carson] envisioned building [a charity] into an endowment that would generate enough interest income to cover uninsured patients expenses for neurological surgeries and other medical costs. He even pitched the idea to a congressional subcommittee in 2006.... But ... the national fund did not materialize, and over nine years of operation, Angels of the OR [Operating Room] generated less than $150,000 for patient care.... Angels of the OR spent $1.03 million during its life span, and at least 53 percent of its funds went to salaries and fundraising costs, according to Politico’s review of its records.... Experts in nonprofit management ... said Angels of the OR never developed a sound business plan and spent much of its early income on fundraising and personnel rather than patients." CW: So another Ben Carson scam.

Beyond the Beltway

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "... a small group of rich [people] — not just from Chicago, but also from New York City and Los Angeles, southern Florida and Texas — have poured tens of millions of dollars into the state [of Illinois], a concentration of political money without precedent in Illinois history. Their wealth has forcefully shifted the state’s balance of power. Last year, the families helped elect as governor Bruce Rauner..., who estimates his own fortune at more than $500 million. Now they are rallying behind Mr. Rauner’s agenda: to cut spending and overhaul the state’s pension system, impose term limits and weaken public employee unions.... The families remaking Illinois are among a small group around the country who have channeled their extraordinary wealth into political power, taking advantage of regulatory, legal and cultural shifts that have carved new paths for infusing money into campaigns. Economic winners in an age of rising inequality, operating largely out of public view, they are reshaping government with fortunes so large as to defy the ordinary financial scale of politics."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 28, 2015

Internal links removed.

Julie Turkewitz & Jack Healy of the New York Times: "A gun battle erupted inside a Planned Parenthood center here on Friday when a man armed with an assault-style rifle opened fire and began shooting at officers as they rushed to the scene. The authorities reported that three people were killed, a police officer and two civilians, and nine were wounded before the suspect finally surrendered more than five hours after the first shots were fired. A police official in Colorado Springs, who was not authorized to speak, identified the man in custody as Robert Lewis Dear, 59. No other information about him was available." ...

... President Obama's statement. ...

The Denver Post gathered statements from public & private officials. CW: Nearly every one was "prayers, blah-blah-blah." Here are two exceptions, cited in part:

We need to call the threats of violence and the intimidation of health care providers and patients what it is — domestic terrorism. And more public officials in Colorado and across the country, not just advocacy groups and the people on the front lines, need to take a stand opposing domestic terrorism and supporting women's health. -- Karen Middleton, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado

This clinic is part of the Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains affiliate, which was featured in one of the highly-edited smear videos released this summer. Since that video, the affiliate has seen an increase in protesters and death threats against one of their doctors. -- National Abortion Federation

... Ashley Feinberg of Gawker: "While Colorado police were apprehending the Planned Parenthood shooting suspect Friday night, Fox News was busy ensuring its level of discourse met our most base expectations. Which, of course, amounts to little more than: Thanks, Obama.... Frequent Fox News contributor, former NYPD cop, and professional smear-man Bo Dietl was commenting on the then-active crisis unfolding in Colorado when he had what can best be described as incomprehensible, waking stroke." Dietl's comment or whatever is cited in full. ...

... Steve M.: "Dietl's reply, as the Gawker post notes, is war-porn word salad -- but the point he makes is clear enough. It's also clear that Dietl isn't going off on a rant on his own volition -- the segment is set up to raise this issue.... So the Obama administration expressed some skepticism about police militarization, therefore a Planned Parenthood siege proves that Ialamicists are going to kill us all. In reality, as the Denver Post reports, heavy equipment was used to deal with this situation.... This is what Roger Ailes considers the most important mission of Fox News: to mine every single news story for a real or imagined examples of liberal evil and perfidy." ...

... D. R. Tucker in the Washington Monthly: "This case may prove yet again that in America, we always have to be on guard for heavily armed, self-radicalized religious extremists who believe they have the right to take lives in the name of their faith and who pose a perpetual threat to homeland security — and I’m not talking about ISIS." ...

... CW: There's this headline from Leon Wolf of Red State: "Planned Parenthood Shooter Finally Convinces Leftists that Beliefs Matter." No link. ...

... Nina Liss-Schultz of Mother Jones: "The attack comes amid an exponential increase in threats and violence against abortion providers since the release of a series of viral — and widely debunked — videos.... Since the release of the Center for Medical Progress' videos that purport to show Planned Parenthood selling fetal issue, harassment, threats, and attacks against abortion providers, their staff, and facilities have surged dramatically across the country, according to new numbers from the National Abortion Federation." ...

... From the Colorado Springs Gazette, linked below: 7:30 pm MT, Nov. 27: "UCCS has confirmed Garrett Swasey, 44, a six-year veteran of the UCCS Police, was killed in Friday's shooting." ...

... From the Colorado Springs Gazette, linked below: 7:00 pm MT: "Lt. Catherine Buckley of the Colorado Springs Police Department confirms two civilians and a UCCS police officer died in Friday's shooting. Four civilians and five officers were transported to hospitals with gunshot wounds. All are in good condition." ...

... From the Colorado Springs Gazette, linked below: 6:00 pm MT: "Multiple news outlets are reporting fatalities in Friday's shooting at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood building. Gazette news partner KKTV reports that a University of Colorado at Colorado Springs officer was killed; 9News in Denver reported that one officer and one civilian are dead." ...

... Jennifer Shutt & Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Vicki Cowart, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains, released a statement expressing sympathy for those involved and urging restraint given how much is not yet know about why the shooting took place. 'We don't yet know the full circumstances and motives behind this criminal action, and we don't yet know if Planned Parenthood was in fact the target of this attack,' she said. 'We share the concerns of many Americans that extremists are creating a poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism in this country.'” ...

... Also from the Politico report: "Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) tweeted "Please join me offering thoughts & prayers to family & friends of the UCCS police officer & civilian killed during the #CentennialBlShooting." CW: Lamborn, who is a lying, reactionary Planned Parenthood foe, can't even bring himself to acknowledge that the massacre took place at a Planned Parenthood clinic. He is as guilty as anyone for spreading the lies that well may have inspired the shooter. So there's Doug, asking you to pray for victims of his own hate speech. ...

... Lindsey Bever, et al., of the Washington Post: "A suspect is in police custody following an hours-long ordeal at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., where at least five police officers and six civilians were injured in a shooting Friday. 'The perpetrator is in custody,” Mayor John Suthers declared just after 5 p.m. local time — more than five hours after an active shooter was first reported at the health-care clinic.... Police described the gunman as a stocky, bearded white male wearing a trench coat and armed with 'a long gun.'... At least 11 people were transported from the scene to local hospitals, officials said. Their conditions were not known, and no fatalities were reported at the time of the suspect’s capture.” ...

... Noel Black & Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "A gunman inside a Planned Parenthood center [in Colorado Springs, Colorado,] was exchanging gunfire with the police, the authorities said on Friday, after an hours long shooting spree that left at least eight people injured including four officers. People in the surrounding buildings, including the clinic, were told to shelter in place." (Same link as updated NYT story by Turkewitz & Healy above.) ...

... The Denver Post story, by Jesse Paul & others, is here. Includes video report. ...

... The Colorado Springs Gazette is posting live updates. ...

... Sadie Gurman of the AP: "Police were searching for a gunman Friday who opened fire near a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs." ...

... CW: And excuse me while I blame these insane acts of violence on every person who has lied about Planned Parenthood, including the makers of the recent faked videos, the Members of Congress & other politicians who have smeared Planned Parenthood for no reason other than their own political gain. That would include Carly Fiorina. Not fair? I think it is. ...

... News Corpse in Daily Kos: "Once again, the people who watch Fox News are demonstrating their appalling lack of decency and, ironically in this case, respect for human life.... In the heat of this live crisis the Fox News website is hosting some of the most nauseating responses imaginable. They run the gamut of hateful rhetoric from anti-choice extremism ('Too bad the abortion doctor and the nursing staff weren't all killed.') to overt racism ('I know this isn't PC....but n***gers are just plain bad news.'). Never mind that there is little information about the shooter or his motives (he has been identified in one report as a white male), the Fox News audience is focused entirely on their inbred hostilities toward minorities, women, and President Obama, whom some are accusing of setting this up."

Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "Republicans are eyeing an upcoming government spending bill as their best leverage for pausing the Obama administration’s refugee resettlement program in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris. Some GOP lawmakers are already saying they'll vote against the catchall spending bill, known as an omnibus, if it doesn't block funds for refugee resettlement for people coming from Syria and nearby regions in the Middle East." ...

By Brian McFadden, published in Daily Kos.

Dana Milbank: Even though the Affordable Care Act requires insurers to cover mental health issues on parity with physical illnesses, too few mental health professionals are willing to see patients. "... psychiatrists, many of whom stopped taking insurance because of the paltry reimbursements, have yet to rejoin the system.... Thankfully, a bipartisan group in Congress is trying to fix this. The 'Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act,' introduced by Rep. (and psychologist) Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) and Rep. (and psychiatric nurse) Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.), attempts, among other things, to reinforce community mental-health programs. It has 165 co-sponsors and has already cleared a commerce subcommittee. Similar legislation by Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) attempts to expand the mental-health workforce. 

Alex Byers of Politico: "The National Security Agency will no longer be able to collect phone records in bulk starting Nov. 29, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement Friday. The program's closure was required by the USA Freedom Act, signed by President Barack Obama in early June. The program was allowed to continue since then as part of a six-month wind-down period, in which intelligence officials could create and test a new phone records program where the government can only obtain records connected to a specific entity like a person or device that is associated with a foreign power or terrorist group."

Peter Hermann & Rees Shapiro of the Washington Post: "A Connecticut man who police say draped himself in an American flag and scaled the White House fence on Thanksgiving Day left a suicide note with friends he had been staying with in Virginia, according to court documents unsealed Friday. D.C. Superior Court Judge Errol R. Arthur ordered the suspect, Joseph Anthony Caputo, 23, to undergo an emergency psychiatric evaluation at St. Elizabeths Hospital."

Presidential Race

GOP Candidates Find New Way to Be Racists. Abby Phillip & Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "... many GOP presidential candidates are calling for an end to one of [the 'war on drugs''] central tenets — by agreeing with Democrats to treat low-level drug offenders rather than incarcerating them. The Republicans are selective, however, about who is deserving of their compassion. Several GOP presidential contenders have advocated treating the nation’s growing heroin epidemic as a health crisis, not a criminal one. But most stop short of advocating the same approach to other drug laws, notably those involving marijuana and crack cocaine, which disproportionately affect African Americans.... The heroin epidemic has overwhelmingly hit whites. It has also skyrocketed to the top of voters’ lists of political priorities in the same bands of America — rural states, the suburbs and notably the early voting state of New Hampshire — that track directly with where Republicans must perform well to win back the White House next year."

The Gray Lady Is Shocked (And Cannot Type Those Words that Are the Subject of Her Story). Matt Flegenheimer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A little more than two months before the voting begins, the [Republican] candidates have charged into what appears to be the inaugural profanity primary, wrought by an overstuffed field of competitors vying for attention and the specter of a foul-mouthed Manhattanite perched atop the polls.... The outbursts make clear the extent to which Mr. Trump, the election’s clear pacesetter in vulgarity, continues to dictate the tenor of the race. the outbursts make clear the extent to which Mr. Trump, the election’s clear pacesetter in vulgarity, continues to dictate the tenor of the race. The outbursts make clear the extent to which Mr. Trump, the election’s clear pacesetter in vulgarity, continues to dictate the tenor of the race.... Such frequent, deliberate cursing by presidential candidates addressing campaign audiences in this election cycle seems to be without modern precedent."

Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "The presidential campaign is reigniting the battle over importing prescription drugs from Canada, with all of the leading Democratic candidates endorsing the idea. Calls for allowing people to buy directly from Canadian pharmacies are also intensifying from some Republicans in Congress, including Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) and Chuck Grassley (Iowa). But the drug industry remains dead-set against allowing importation, and it's unclear whether voter support will translate into legislative action."

Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "A Reuters poll released Friday finds that GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump has dropped 12 points in less than a week, his largest single poll-to-poll drop since he took the primary lead in July. Trump was still the favorite among 31 percent of Republicans in a rolling Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from Nov. 23 to Nov. 27, but down from 43 percent support registered on Nov. 22." ...

I have the world's greatest memory. It's one thing everyone agrees on. -- Donald Trump, October 28

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The New York Daily News released an archived news article on Friday that seemed to contradict a claim by Donald J. Trump that he knew nothing about a reporter whose disability Mr. Trump appeared to mock at a rally earlier this week. The reporter, Serge Kovaleski, said Thursday that he covered Mr. Trump numerous times while he was at The Daily News, including on a daylong maiden voyage of the now-defunct 'Trump Shuttle' in 1989. 'Donald and I were on a first-name basis for years,' [Kovaleski] said...." ...

Serge Kovaleski must think a lot of himself if he thinks I remember him from decades ago — if I ever met him at all, which I doubt I did. He should stop using his disability to grandstand and get back to reporting for a paper that is rapidly going down the tubes. -- Donald Trump ...

... Maggie Haberman: "'Now the poor guy, you ought to see this guy,' Mr. Trump said [at a South Carolina rally], before jerking his arms around and holding his right hand at an angle.... In his statement on Thursday, Mr. Trump maintained that he had never met Mr. Kovaleski. 'I have no idea who this reporter, Serge Kovalski [sic], is, what he looks like or his level of intelligence,' Mr. Trump said."

Taylor Luck, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Ben Carson arrived in the Jordanian capital on Friday afternoon with plans to tour two Syrian refu­gee camps over the next day, according to several people familiar with the trip.... The trip comes ... veiled in secrecy and uncertainty about his purpose and his schedule."

Elizabeth Preza of Mediaite: "Former mayor of New York Mike Bloomberg told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz 'says some of the stupidest things' he’s ever heard about climate change. 'Even the right-wing crazies no longer say climate change isn’t real. They say "it’s natural, it’s not business, not man-made,'” Bloomberg told Amanpour....

Beyond the Beltway

Aamer Madhani of USA Today: "Protesters took to the streets in the midst of Black Friday shopping on Chicago's iconic Magnificent Mile as they continue to make their push for broad reforms in the Windy City in the wake of a police video showing a white police officer fatally shooting a black teenager 16 times.... Friday's protests drew hundreds that crowded North Michigan Avenue, a shopping strip that includes high-end retailers ... on traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year." ...

** American "Justice," Ctd. Conor Friedersdorf of the Atlantic: "As [Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke] faces murder charges, there remains a need to demand accountability for the Chicagoans complicit in the injustice he perpetrated.... Protestors want accountability for investigators whose inexplicable slowness allowed Van Dyke to remain on desk detail and to collect a paycheck from taxpayers. And the civic derelictions of duty run even deeper. They implicate Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the city council, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, rank-and-file cops, Pat Camden, who leads Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police, and members of the press who credulously report police-union talking points." Read the full article. ...

... Robinson Meyer of the Atlantic: "Would body cameras have made justice speedier for Laquan McDonald? Not without new laws.... With the exception of the metropolitan police in Washington, D.C., no major American city — not New York, not Los Angeles, not Houston, Miami, or Baltimore — allows people recorded by body cameras to have access to footage of themselves. These cities prohibit access to footage even if someone on film, or a survivor from their immediate family, is filing a complaint.... The crimes that the city of Chicago committed in the case of Laquan McDonald appear to go much further than its handling of open-records law. But this is not the last time that the city or its civic servants will commit those crimes."

In the Spirit of the Season. David Boroff & Nicole Hensley of the New York Daily News: "Call it Black-eye Friday. Brawls broke out at Walmart retail stores and other shopping centers across the country on Thursday evening, the official start of 'Black Friday.' In Kentucky, Texas and Louisiana, tempers flared among shoppers as law enforcement agencies struggled to keep control." CW: Do read Bob Cesca's piece, linked in yesterday's Commentariat.

A Turkey for Your Vote. Ashley Parker of the New York Times: Libre, a Koch-funded group, handed out turkeys & offered free flu shots to Miami Hispanics in exchange for the recipients giving the group their personal information. "Libre, reflecting the Koch’s views, supports a broad overhaul of the immigration system, including a path to citizenship. It waged a campaign in support of the Senate’s 2013 immigration effort, including airing in excess of $1 million in television ads.... But the group has also ... rais[ed] concerns about some of President Obama’s more sweeping executive actions on immigration, and by pouring money into House races to help defeat two Hispanic lawmakers — Pete P. Gallego of Texas and Joe Garcia of Florida, both Democrats — because they supported the president’s health care plan, among other issues Libre opposes." ...

... CW: Maybe somebody should have told the Koch boyz that under ObamaCare, of which they're so opposed, most insurance plans pay for flu shots with no co-pay.

Allison Manning of the Boston Globe: "A former Millis[, Massachusetts,] police officer who was facing felony charges after police said he lied about a shooting and bomb threat was found dead in his home on Thanksgiving, according to the Norfolk County district attorney’s office. Bryan Johnson, 24, had been indicted last week on charges related to the hoax. Johnson told police on Sept. 2 that he was in his cruiser when a driver in a pickup truck shot at him twice, leading the police officer to drive his cruiser into the woods."

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "An enraged Waffle House customer shot and killed a waitress early Friday who asked him not to smoke."

Andrew Husband of Mediaite: "The famous dancing traffic cop of Providence, Rhode Island was fired after he organized a protest against the Black Lives Matter movement. According to the Providence Journal, Tony Lepore organized a protest of a local Dunkin’ Donuts coffee shop after a worker there wrote #BlackLivesMatter on a cop’s coffee cup in October. He was terminated as a result."

Way Beyond

Andrew Roth of the Washington Post: "The Kremlin on Friday played down the possibility of a grand coalition with the West to strike the Islamic State in Syria, despite personal visits by French President François Hollande to both Washington and Moscow following a spate of horrific terrorist attacks tied to the terrorist group. 'At the moment, unfortunately, our partners are not ready to work as one coalition,' Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s personal spokesman, told reporters during a conference call on Friday." ...

>Ceylan Yeginsu of the New York Times: "Turkey took steps on Friday to calm relations with Russia over the shooting down of a Russian warplane this week, calling for a presidential-level meeting, possibly at the climate talks in Paris next week. 'I would like to meet Putin face to face in Paris,' President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech on Friday, referring to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. 'I would like to bring the issue to a reasonable point. We are disturbed that the issue has been escalated.'”

The trouble with naming your daughter after Egypt's most important ancient goddess.

The Commentariat -- Nov. 27, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Ashley Southall of the New York Times: "A man climbed over a fence in front of the White House on Thursday as President Obama and his family were inside celebrating Thanksgiving, the Secret Service said. The breach exposed how vulnerable the White House grounds remain.... The service identified the man who climbed over the fence on Thursday as Joseph Caputo. Agents apprehended him on the North Lawn around 2:45 p.m., moments after he cleared the fence, said Robert Hoback, a spokesman for the Secret Service. Mr. Caputo is facing criminal charges.... He was draped in an American flag and was carrying a binder in his mouth as he scaled the fence. Once inside the perimeter, Mr. Caputo raised his arms and dropped to his knees, before lying on the ground. The White House was placed on lockdown for about three hours...." ...

     ... The Washington Post story, by Lynh Bui & Ashley Halsey, is here. ...

Cheryl Thompson & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "... at least 48 people ... have died in the United States since January -- about one death a week -- in incidents in which police used Tasers, according to a Washington Post examination of scores of police, court and autopsy records.... More than half of the 48 suffered from mental illness or had illegal drugs in their system at the time. At least 10 were Tasered while handcuffed or shackled. Only one was female. Nearly 55 percent of the people who died were minorities."

Ken Vogel & Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Senate Republicans plan to insert a provision into a must-pass government funding bill that would vastly expand the amount of cash that political parties could spend on candidates, multiple sources tell Politico. The provision ... would eliminate caps on the amount of cash that parties may spend in coordination with their candidates.... Campaign finance watchdogs argue that it would allow wealthy donors to exercise even more influence with members of Congress."

Brianna Ehley of Politico: "The spate of mass killings over the past year reignited mental health reform efforts in both chambers of Congress.... But the Senate's No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, has been working behind the scenes to drum up support for his own mental health legislation, which includes language endorsed by the National Rifle Association.... His critics say the legislation actually loosens restrictions on gun purchases, under the umbrella of mental health reform.... His push ... is creating a wedge in the bipartisan coalition that had been trying to keep mental health clearly separate from any legislation touching on the politically volatile issue of guns."

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) "is siding with [seafood industry] employers [and against labor advocates & the Obama administration,], spurred by a desire to protect her state's seafood companies at a time when pollution, warming water and competition from companies in Southeast Asia have taken a toll."

Glenn Greenwald in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: "Bodies were still lying in the streets of Paris when CIA operatives began exploiting the resulting fear and anger to advance long-standing political agendas. They and their congressional allies instantly attempted to heap blame for the atrocity not on Islamic State but on several preexisting adversaries: Internet encryption, Silicon Valley's privacy policies and Edward Snowden." CW: Greenwald cites two former CIA directors, but no active CIA officials or spokespeople. Do ex-directors qualify as "CIA operatives"?

Paul Rosenberg, in Salon, psyches out the pathology of the "Daddy party": "Nothing made them feel more like helpless infants than seeing Obama act presidential -- especially when he reached out to them, inviting a mature response, which they were utterly incapable of, boxed in by their own intricate structure of lies about him, prisoners of their own dark projections.... They couldn't govern their way out of a paper bag. In fact, they're really the baby party. All they can do is finger-point and fear-monger. That's it."

Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "The river of ice that hugs Mount Grinnell's high ridges ... may be the most accessible glacier in all of North America.... But if you want to see it, you'd better hurry. Grinnell Glacier is disappearing -- fast. This crescent-shaped glacier in Montana's northern Rockies had been contracting for decades because of warming temperatures. Lately it has been shrinking at a breathtaking clip, losing as much as a 10th of its mass in a single year. As early as 2030, scientists say, it may no longer exist."

Shan Li of the Los Angeles Times: "The holiday shopping season got off to a brisk start Thursday as consumers gobbled their turkey dinners then gorged on Thanksgiving shopping.... Several chains opened Thursday afternoon or evening Many retailers in hopes of luring shoppers with doorbuster deals ahead of Black Friday...." ...

... BUT. Vauhini Vara of the New Yorker: "In the past couple of years..., retailers have tended to take a determinedly pro-frenzied-consumerism approach to Black Friday, beginning their sales earlier and earlier, so that they have eventually impinged on Thanksgiving Day. The phenomenon became so pervasive that it even got a name, Black Friday Creep.... But R.E.I.'s statement this year [video below] is actually part of what appears to be a slowdown in the creep.... This year, it seems, some brick-and-mortar retailers have begun to feel that whatever benefit they get from early openings isn't worth the trouble.... The widespread availability of good deals on the Internet has diminished the appeal of all that sales-bin arm wrestling -- and, in fact, has made it seem a bit unsavory."

Helaine Olen in Slate: "Whether they appealed to lower-, middle-, or upper-income shoppers, department stores once epitomized our seemingly limitless consumer economy. Now they're experiencing what economists call a long-term cyclical decline. According to market researcher IBISWorld, sales across the entire department-store category, which includes everything from high-end retailers like Bergdorf Goodman to lower-end establishments such as Walmart (a place few of us think of as a department store at all) fell by a 4.5-percent annual rate between 2010 and 2015."

Bob Cesca in Salon: "It’s difficult to think of another annual occasion that combines American excess with American indignity more than the day after Thanksgiving.... Rather than building stronger middle- and working-class incomes to keep up, our politics and our corporate culture have collaborated on a humiliating work-around: cheaper crap that you might have to fight for.... Adding insult to injury, The Wall Street Journal and Kiplinger.com discovered that Black Friday deals aren't very good ones."

Josh Harkinson of Mother Jones: "The people who organized the largest-ever Black Friday demonstrations against Walmart last year are leaving their protest signs at home this year. Instead, they're launching a campaign to support 1,000 food drives around the country to help struggling Walmart workers. Making Change at Walmart's 'Give Back Friday' campaign kicked off on Tuesday with the launch of a national TV ad campaign urging people 'to help feed underpaid workers'..."

Adam Chandler of the Atlantic: "Football has never been more popular, but public interest in the concussion epidemic is only growing.... According to a ongoing PBS Frontline project, NFL players have already suffered 108 concussions through 11 weeks of play this season. While the league has instituted new protocols, just this week they were criticized as insufficient after Case Keenum, the quarterback for the St. Louis Rams, failed to be removed from the game after suffering a concussion on Sunday.

Today's History Lesson. Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "The Statue of Liberty was originally designed to be a Muslim woman, the Smithsonian Institution's magazine says. An article on the government-administered museum's blog, Smart News, claims one of the designers of Lady Liberty drew inspiration from monuments in Egypt and originally intended to construct a veiled female peasant on the Suez Canal....The design of the project was eventually altered to the Roman colossus...." ...

... This history lesson should allay Stephen Colbert's concerns. Thanks to Colbert for helping ICE identify terrorists hiding among the refugee applicants (& GOP presidential candidates). Also, thanks to D. C. Clark for the link:

Presidential Race

Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "A day after he was widely rebuked for mocking a reporter with a physical disability..., Donald Trump on Thursday denied that he had done so and accused the reporter of 'using his disability to grandstand.' Trump also demanded an apology from the New York Times, the reporter's employer, which earlier in the week issued a statement condemning Trump for ridiculing 'the appearance of one of our reporters.'" See yesterday's Commentariat for more on this story, including a link to a Guardian video which shows Trump clearly mocking the reporter's disability. Scum. ...

... Judd Legum of Think Progress: To "prove" his claim that "thousands & thousands" of New Jersey "Arabs" were cheering as the Twin Towers fells, Donald Trump linked in a tweet to a page in "Infowars.com, a conspiracy website that pushes the idea that 9/11 was an inside job.... Even Infowars' article doesn't support Trump's claim that thousands of Muslims were celebrating on 9/11. It's simply a woman who claims she saw a 'pocket' of Muslims celebrating." ...

... Tim Egan: "Donald Trump's reign would be a police state. He has now outlined a series of measures that would make the United States an authoritarian nightmare. Trump is no longer entertaining, or diversionary. He's a billionaire brute, his bluster getting more ominous by the day." ...

... Jamelle Bouie: "In the past week..., 'Donald Trump as fascist' has gone from hyperbolic to mainstream.... Alone and disconnected, [Trump's] rhetoric isn't necessarily fascist. Some of it, in fact, is even anodyne. But together and in the person of Donald Trump, it's clear: The rhetoric of fascism is here. And increasingly, the policies are too. The only thing left is the violence." ...

... In seeking to define fascism, Bouie relies on this 1995 New York Review of Books article by Umberto Eco. Eco was a decades-long friend of my husband's, & among those partisani Eco describes in the first grafs of his essay was my husband Aldo Scaglione. And, yes, one can definitely see Trump in many of the elements of "ur-fascism" Eco describes. ...

... Molly Ball of the Atlantic: "Four months into his crazed foray into presidential politics, Trump is still winning this thing. And what could once be dismissed as a larkish piece of political performance art has seemingly turned into something darker. Pundits, even conservative ones, say that Trump resembles a fascist. The recent terrorist attacks in Paris, which some hoped would expose Trump's shallowness, have instead strengthened him by intensifying people's anger and fear.... This is the thing Trump knows: You can stand around fretting about truth and propriety and the danger of pandering to baser instincts. Or you can give the people what they want." ...

... Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "As much as they've awakened to the threat that Trumpism poses to their party, Republicans and the conservative intelligentsia lack the self-awareness -- or perhaps the temerity -- to acknowledge that though they now resent it, they've been courting it all along."

Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Ben Carson, who is facing increasing scrutiny over his grasp of foreign policy, is traveling to Jordan on Friday to visit Syrian refugees, in order to gain an understanding of the pressing issue and to polish his candidacy.

Beyond the Beltway

Elizabeth Bruenig of the New Republic: The state of "Texas is demanding that Christian groups stop taking in Syrian refugees. The groups say that's a violation of the Constitution." CW: Huh. Turns out freeedom of religion (or freeedom of Christianity) is important to Texas's Christianist officials only when conveeenient.

Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: "While the trend in much of the United States is moving toward decriminalization or legalization of marijuana, Virginia is heading in the opposite direction: sharply rising arrest totals for possession of pot, and a disproportionate number of black people arrested in the commonwealth, according to a new study based on state data reported to the FBI."

Way Beyond

Nicole Winfield & Tom Odula of the AP: "Visiting one of Nairobi's many shantytowns on Friday, Pope Francis denounced conditions slum-dwellers are forced to live in, saying access to safe water is a basic human right and that everyone should have dignified, adequate housing."

Andrew Roth of the Washington Post: "Russian President Vladimir Putin told French President Francois Hollande in the Kremlin on Thursday that Russia is 'prepared to work with you' in combatting the Islamist militants who have inflicted devastating attacks on both countries. Hollande flew to Moscow to enlist Putin in a joint campaign against the Islamic State in Syria, but the prospects for close coordination between wary nations are problematic." ...

... Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "The downing of a Russian warplane by Turkey threatened to lead to a wholesale breach in the countries' relations on Thursday, with the Kremlin preparing to sever economic ties and Turkish officials saying they had no reason to apologize."

Annie Gowen of the Washington Post: "... life in Bangladesh’s crowded capital has changed significantly since a string of terrorist attacks this year, including shootings claimed by the Islamic State that left two foreigners dead and a third, an Italian missionary, seriously wounded. Many have stopped walking or bicycling to work in favor of company cars. An international AIDS conference was postponed and other events canceled."

Kevin Sieff of the Washington Post: "In his first full day in Africa, Pope Francis spoke to the many millions reeling from a string of terrorist attacks, condemning the way young people have been 'radicalized in the name of religion to sow discord and fear.' That message -- like the rest of his comments [in Nairobi, Kenya.] on Thursday -- spoke to both global and local concerns, shifting between lamentations for a perilous time, globally, in history and the threats facing Kenya as its economic and geopolitical strength grows."

Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times: "Miss Canada, otherwise known as Anastasia Lin, a 25-year-old actress and classically trained pianist ... has been denied a Chinese visa to attend the monthlong [Missi World] pageant, presumably because of her outspoken advocacy for human rights and religious freedom in China."

AP: "The French national anthem played by a military band has closed the ceremony honoring those killed in the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris.... The tightly secured ceremony paid homage to the 130 people, overwhelmingly young adults, killed when Islamic extremists struck the national stadium, bars, restaurants and a concert hall."

"Europe the Unready." Paul Krugman: There is a "slow-motion disaster now overtaking the European project on multiple fronts."

News Ledes

BBC News: "The Democratic Action party [of Venezuela] says Luis Manuel Diaz[, a regional leader of the party.] was killed by a man who approached the stage after a public meeting in central Guarico state. Opposition leaders blamed militias supporting the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). President Nicolas Maduro denied this and said an inquiry had been launched."

AP: "Malian special forces have arrested two men over last week's attack on a luxury hotel in the capital that killed 19 people, according to a statement distributed Friday morning. The statement identified the two Malians, both arrested in Bamako, but provided no other details on their background or their potential roles in the attack."