The Commentariat -- May 22, 2016

Michael Crowley of Politico: "Obama's visit comes at a moment when U.S. and Asian officials fear the region is entering a newly dangerous atomic future, threatening Obama's vow to roll back the spread of nuclear arms and possibly touching off an Asian nuclear arms race...Most strikingly, Pentagon planners worry that Japan and South Korea might explore developing nuclear arms of their own for the first time." --safari...

...Gardiner Harris & David Sanger of the New York Times: "When President Obama arrives [in Vietnam] early Monday, his task ... [is] to create a partnership that seemed unlikely even three years ago. Since then, China's expansion in the South China Sea has deeply shaken a new Vietnamese government. While the leadership here has not let up on its repression of its people -- the police have beaten protesters in demonstrations over an environmental disaster -- it now appears more interested in playing one superpower off against the other, perhaps even giving the Pentagon some rotating access to key Vietnamese ports.... It could throw Beijing off balance in the daily shadowboxing over who will dominate one of the world's most strategically vital waterways." -- CW

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... over the course of [this] year, [President] Obama's approval numbers changed -- quickly, and a lot. In Gallup's most recent weekly average, Obama is at 51-45 -- the exact opposite of where he was on Jan. 1 and a 12-point swing since then. Among the groups that have seen the biggest increases in approval of Obama since last May are Hispanics, people under 30, women and people who identify their political ideology as 'independent.'" -- CW

David Atkins of the Washington Monthly: "[T]he most glaring and infuriating evidence of the willful failure to prosecute the gang of thieves and criminals on Wall Street comes from David Dayen's tremendous new book Chain of Title. Dayen recounts in painstaking, meticulous detail how the entire banking industry violated every precept of property law in what has become known as the robo-signing scandal or more neutrally the 'foreclosure crisis.'...Time and time again, Holder and the Obama Administration deliberately chose to stonewall investigations or to accept meager cash settlements for obvious illegal activity when criminal securities fraud prosecutions could easily have been undertaken." --safari

Kevin Sullivan of the Washington Post writes a compelling piece on the "patriot" movement, focusing on one particular loony-toon. CW: What is readily apparent is the inherent selfishness, greed & paranoia that drives the movement. This struck me: "He followed his mother's advice and stayed away from politics: She taught him young that registering to vote was just a way for the government to call you to jury duty." That's right: basic civic responsibilities -- voting & jury service -- are tools of government oppression. The "patriot" movement is a howling misnomer. And, as so often goes unsaid, it's racist.

Presidential Race

Lois Beckett & Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "For years seen as a losing battle, the push for gun control has become a central conflict of the 2016 presidential election, and part of a broader struggle between competing visions of policing, justice and racism in America." -- CW ...

... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "The day after Mr. Trump received the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, Mrs. Clinton assailed her probable general election rival as pandering to the group.... Speaking in a ballroom full of mothers who had lost children to gun violence, Mrs. Clinton defended her position on gun control and her promise to overhaul the criminal justice system." -- CW

Maureen Dowd: "Hillary says Sanders needs to 'do his part' to unify the party, as she did in 2008. But even on the day of the last primaries in that race, when she was the one who was mathematically eliminated unless the superdelegates turned, she came onstage to Terry McAuliffe heralding her as 'the next president of the United States.' She then touted having more votes than any primary candidate in history as her fans cheered 'Yes, she will!' and 'Denver!'" ...

     ... CW: Thanks, Ed! MoDo: Former Pennsylvania "Gov. Ed Rendell said Trump's obsession with '10s' and D-cups would 'come back to haunt him and give Democrats wins because 'there are probably more ugly women in America than attractive women.'"

Jill Filipovic in a Washington Post op-ed: "... Hillary has pledged that Bill wouldn't be on traditional first lady duty -- he'd be in charge of fixing the economy, not picking out the flowers and china for state dinners. But why shouldn't he pick the china? If one goal of a Hillary Clinton presidency is to challenge traditional gender roles, then her husband should flout them, too. The best way he could do that is by taking on the domestic issues facing women and children that are too often derided as 'softer' than economic or foreign policy topics -- and, yes, doing the stereotypically feminine work of party planning and decorating, too. A first man managing the White House household would be just as groundbreaking as a female president." ...

     ... CW: Does anybody think Bill Clinton is capable of managing the household help? Maybe he could get Ed Rendell to help him weed out all the "ugly" applicants.

Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "Doubling down on his feud with the Democratic Party leadership, Senator Bernie Sanders said that if elected president, he will not reappoint Democratic National Committee chairwoman, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. He made the comments during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper that is set to air on Sunday. Mr. Sanders also said he was supporting Tim Canova, a law professor who has begun an insurgent campaign against Ms. Wasserman Schultz for her South Florida congressional seat. They will face off in a primary this summer." -- CW

David Atkins: "Contrary to conventional wisdom, the drawn out Democratic primary and the consolidation of the Republican field behind Trump is actually helping Democrats overall by encouraging progressive voter turnout and registration in the large state contests that remain, including and especially in California...As long as Sanders stays away from personal attacks on Clinton, the ongoing primary should be a boon to Democrats in the remaining primary states." --safari

Bruenigate. Kristen East of Politico: "A progressive blogger was fired Friday for referring to a Hillary Clinton ally as a 'scumbag,' igniting a fiery social-media exchange between the two and other high-profile writers who are at odds over the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. The comment from Matt Bruenig, who wrote about philosophy and political economy at liberal think tank, Demos, came after a Twitter back-and-forth between Bruenig and Joan Walsh, a writer for The Nation, on a piece Walsh wrote, which is entitled, 'Bernie Sanders is hurting himself by playing the victim.'" -- CW ...

... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "... to many, [this contretemps] reflects something larger, the latest in a series of efforts by the forces of centrist liberalism to stifle more left-wing voices in order to serve the interests of capitalism. Or, at minimum, the latest in a series of moves by allies of Hillary Clinton to keep Bernie Sanders' political revolution down." -- CW

Gideon Resnick of The Daily Beast: "After floating a series of ridiculous Vice Presidential picks, [Ben] Carson was axed from Trump's selection team, sources close to the campaign told The Daily Beast. According to sources close to Trump's campaign, Carson was demoted after Trump specifically wanted him to head up the VP selection team. He submitted names that he thought would be valuable picks and inevitably lost his top spot days later...In the absence of a person to head up the operation, embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski stepped in and took over the spot." --safari

Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "A powerful array of the Republican Party's largest financial backers remains deeply resistant to Donald J. Trump's presidential candidacy, forming a wall of opposition that could make it exceedingly difficult for him to meet his goal of raising $1 billion before the November election. Interviews and emails with more than 50 of the Republican Party's largest donors, or their representatives, revealed a measure of contempt and distrust toward their own party's nominee that is unheard of in modern presidential politics." -- CW

Lindsey Bever of the Washington Post: "A day after Donald Trump told people at the National Rifle Association that Hillary Clinton would strip away their right to bear arms, the Republican seemed to suggest on social media that his opponent, who he thinks totes a hard line on gun control, should disarm her Secret Service team. 'Crooked Hillary wants to get rid of all guns and yet she is surrounded by bodyguards who are fully armed,' Trump tweeted Saturday morning. 'No more guns to protect Hillary!'" CW: This is the sort of ignorant absolutism Gloria discusses in today's Comments. Meanwhile, we're waiting for Drumpf to declare Mar-a-Lago a "gun-free zone." Which it ain't. Everything about the guy is fake...

...Sarah Wheaton of Politico: "With its last-minute decision to formally endorse Donald Trump, the National Rifle Association put itself out in front of the fight for Republican party unity.... But not all NRA members are eager to fall in line." Seems some members don't trust Trump's recent embrace of gun-rights absolutism. CW: As for me, I get a kick out of how Drumpf has sold himself as the only candidate who isn't beholden to "Washington lobbyists," then turns around & prostrates himself in front of the nation's most powerful lobbying firm. Everything about the guy is fake.

Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: "The American Republic stands threatened by the first overtly anti-democratic leader of a large party in its modern history -- an authoritarian with no grasp of history, no impulse control, and no apparent barriers on his will to power.... If Trump came to power, there is a decent chance that the American experiment would be over." -- CW

... AND the media will be complicit: Neal Gabler, Bill Moyers.com at Salon: "While Republicans have worked tirelessly to destroy the public's confidence in government -- to the point where government now barely functions -- they also have been working to destroy public confidence in the idea of an objective media...[because] they have an impossible time with fact and truth." -- LT

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. CW: I'm a bit late linking Steve M.'s critique of "Morning Joe"'s interview of the Call-in Guy. But you should read it anyway. These so-called Morning Joe "interviews" of the Call-in Guy are akin to the way you "interview" Uncle Fred during Thanksgiving dinner. You just let him say whatever crackpot ideas come forth because he's too irrational to try to correct. Fortunately, Uncle Fred is unlikely to become POTUS. The Call-in Guy? He has a real shot.

Beyond the Beltway

Cyper Punks. Olga Khazan of The Atlantic: "Through the early 2000s, skinheads and other groups would host dozens of events per year with hundreds of attendees, she says, but now there are only a handful of those rallies each year. Jessie Daniels, a sociologist who studies cyber racism, has also noticed that racist groups are now much more active online than in the streets. 'People online are talking about the same kinds of things that used to happen at the rallies, but now they're doing it completely through the web,'" --safari

Way Beyond

Eyes on Austria. Philip Oltermann of the Guardian: "A majority vote tonight for Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party (FPÖ) would not only confront the EU with a far-right president in its midst for the first time, butcould send Austria on a journey towards becoming an autocratic, illiberal state more akin to Viktor Orbán's Hungary than Angela Merkel's Germany." --safari

Juan Cole: "What do Israel's Arab neighbors think about the political earthquake that struck PM Binyamin Netanyahu's cabinet on Thursday and Friday? ...Making the Egyptians deal with [Avigdor] Lieberman is a slap in the face to Cairo, given that he once suggested destroying the Aswan Dam and sweeping the Egyptians into the sea...The pan-Arab leftwing London daily, al-Quds al-`Arabi, reported that circles around [Egyptian President] al-Sisi were 'shocked' at the prospect of having to work with Lieberman, and that they consider his appointment a 'red line' after he threatened them with genocide." --safari

Jon Boone & Sune Engel Rasmussen of the Guardian: "The leader of the Afghan Taliban has been killed by a US drone strike in an area of Pakistan hitherto off-limits for the remote-controlled aircraft, sources confirmed on Sunday...Mullah Mansoor had been killed by an attack in the southern Pakistani province of Balochistan in an operation involving multiple drones...The killing of the Taliban leader is likely to have major ramificationsboth for efforts to kickstart peace talks and for the often stormy relationship between the US and Pakistan." --safari

The Commentariat -- May 21, 2016

Peter Hermann, et al., of the Washington Post: "A uniformed Secret Service officer shot and critically wounded a man who brandished a gun outside the White House Friday afternoon, authorities said.... In [a] statement, the agency said the man refused numerous orders to drop the weapon and was shot. Two law enforcement officials said he was shot once in the chest and rushed to a hospital in critical condition. Authorities said a firearm was recovered.... The shooting ... prompted a massive police response near the executive mansion, where hundreds of tourists and bystanders were milling about. The Secret Service placed the White House on lockdown and rushed to secure Vice President Biden 'within the complex.'..." -- CW ...

... The New York Times story, by Julie Davis & Michael Schmidt, is here.

Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "Major changes to nutrition labels on food packages became final on Friday, with calorie counts now shown in large type and portion sizes that reflect how much Americans actually eat. It was the first significant redrawing of the nutrition information on food labels since the federal government started requiring them in the early 1990s." Michelle Obama announced the final rule. -- CW

Presidential Race

Hillary Clinton, in a Washington Post op-ed: "In every state in the country, child care for two kids now costs more than the average rent." Clinton proposes a series of measures to ease the burdens on working parents. ...

     ... CW PS: If you're interested in knowing Donald Drumpf's childcare plan, here it is in a nutshell: "It's not expensive for a company to do it. You need one person or two people, and you need some blocks and you need some swings and some toys."

Amie Parnes of the Hill: "In public, Hillary Clinton's aides and allies have kept their anger checked, decrying the rowdy outbursts at Nevada's state convention last weekend but saying they believe [Bernie] Sanders will ultimately do the right thing by helping to unite the Democratic Party. Behind the scenes, however, they are seething that statements by the Vermont senator are just making matters worse by further alienating his supporters from Clinton.... The continued combat on the left is also complicating Clinton's efforts to fully turn her attention to presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who is reveling in the Democratic feuding. 'This is the worst-case scenario and the one people feared the most,' said one Clinton ally and former Clinton aide." -- CW ...

... Here's Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg on the same topic in a post titled, "Sanders, Defiant on the Stump, Quietly Reassures Democrats on Unity." -- CW ...

... Jonathan Chait: "... it is at least possible that Sanders is getting carried away in a messianic fervor that he will not walk away from readily. A recent New York Times story described numerous Sanders staffers as 'disheartened' by the campaigns 'near-obsession with perceived conspiracies on the part of Mrs. Clinton's allies.'... Sanders has a longstanding habit of attributing any disagreement with his policies as the result of corruption...." -- CW ...

... Mark Hensch of the Hill: "Bernie Sanders's supporters have secured permits for four demonstrations near July's Democratic National Convention, according to a new report. The events will rally support for Sanders's message while Democrats select their presidential nominee in Philadelphia, according to The Wall Street Journal." -- CW

Sahil Kapur: "Hillary Clinton believes a 2008 Supreme Court ruling that is the linchpin of an individual's right to own a gun was 'wrongly decided,' her policy adviser told Bloomberg Politics on Friday. 'Clinton believes Heller was wrongly decided in that cities and states should have the power to craft common sense laws to keep their residents safe, like safe storage laws to prevent toddlers from accessing guns,' Maya Harris, a policy adviser to Clinton, said in an e-mailed statement." ...

... Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump called on Friday for an end to gun-free zones in the United States and accused Hillary Clinton of seeking to let violent criminals out of prison, putting law-abiding citizens at risk, as he accepted the endorsement of the National Rifle Association at its annual convention.... 'Crooked Hillary Clinton is the most anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment candidate ever to run for office,' he said at the N.R.A.'s convention here. 'She wants to abolish the Second Amendment. She wants to take away your guns.' Although Mrs. Clinton has called for tightening restrictions on guns, she has not called for overturning the Second Amendment." -- CW ...

... Here's Trump's subtle way of reminding you that Hillary Clinton doesn't have a penis; ergo, she doesn't have the "equipment" to be president:

... Hunter of Daily Kos: "But perhaps the bigger news of the day was Trump's insistence, during the speech, that as president he would 'get rid of' gun-free zones: boom, blam, done. This always goes down very well, even at the National Rifle Association's leadership forum, which is itself a ... gun-free zone. And Trump's own properties are 'gun-free zones' as well, because even racist ex-butlers aren't stupid enough to want yahoos with loaded rifles tromping through the lobby." CW: In case you haven't noticed, it turns out there is no #RealDonaldTrump. Every fucking thing he says is phony. ...

... CW: After reading Gail Collins' column about Deadeye Donald, you may want to switch your vote to Trump. Not only is he going to Make America Great Again, he will keep us safe by personally shooting all the terrorists just as they are about to attack. Donald's system seems a lot more efficient than all that Homeland Security stuff. Also, too, why waste money on Secret Service agents when Deadeye can foil every assassination attempt with one shot? For a guy who says he doesn't drink, Donald sure sounds like the drunk at the end of the bar. ...

     ... One thing is clear: your choice in November will be between a candidate who believes in sensible gun legislation & one who thinks citizen-on-citizen shootouts are the sensible means to keep the peace. So please don't go all Ralph Nader & tell us there's no difference between the major-party candidates. (See also the candidates' competing childcare plans -- if you can call urging private companies to buy "some swings & some toys" a "plan.")

** Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "The last time information from Donald Trump's income-tax returns was made public, the bottom line was striking: He had paid the federal government $0 in income taxes. The disclosure, in a 1981 report by New Jersey gambling regulators, revealed that the wealthy Manhattan investor had for at least two years in the late 1970s taken advantage of a tax-code provision popular with developers that allowed him to report negative income. Today ... Trump regularly denounces corporate executives for using loopholes and 'false deductions['] to 'get away with murder' when it comes to avoiding taxes.... Trump's personal taxes are a mystery. He has refused to release any recent returns, meaning the public cannot see how much money he makes, how much he gives to charity and how aggressively he uses deductions, shelters and other tactics to shrink his tax bill." -- CW

Unemployed Former High Executioner Looking for Work. Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who once called Donald Trump 'a cancer on conservatism,' said Friday he would be willing to serve as the presumptive Republican nominee's vice president." -- CW

Jayne Mayer of the New Yorker: "Amateurish spies like James O'Keefe III attempt to sway the 2016 campaign." CW: "Amateurish?" Your 12-year-old would be more polished spy than O'Keefe. In the LOL "sting of myself" Mayer highlights, O'Keefe "forgot to hang up the phone" & revealed in a recorded voicemail to a George Soros-funded organization a part of his inchoate, hairbrained plot to infiltrate the Soros operation. O'Keefe would be hilarious if he weren't occasionally dangerous. He provides plenty of material for budding screenwriters in the vein of "Get Smart" meets "Dumb & Dumber."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. He Was For It Before He Was Against It. Aaron Rupar of Think Progress: Joe Scarborough praises Call-in Guy D. Drumpf for being "consistent" on Libya even though Trump has done a 180 on Libya. "Later in the show, however, Scarborough attempted to correct the record...," but only after the Clinton campaign "reminded" Scarborough of Trump's urging the U.S. to "... immediately go into Libya, knock this guy [Gaddafi] out very quickly, very surgically...." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

OK. OK Governor Not Completely Stupid. Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin vetoed a controversial bill Friday that would have made it a felony for doctors to perform abortions, saying she felt the bill was too vague and unable to withstand a legal challenge. Fallin's decision came a day after lawmakers in the state approved the unprecedented bill, well before a deadline for her to sign the measure, veto it or allow it to become law without her signature." - CW

Ultimate "Today in Responsible Gun Ownership" Story. Maxine Bernstein of the Oregonian: "Portland Police Chief Larry O'Dea is under state investigation for accidentally shooting a friend in the back during an eastern Oregon hunting trip last month. O'Dea was on vacation April 21 in Harney County when he fired his .22-caliber rifle, striking a friend once in the lower left side of his back, according to police and Harney County dispatch records. O'Dea on Friday called it a 'negligent discharge.' He was off-duty at the time. Retired Portland police Sgt. Steve Buchtel, a former head of firearms training at the Police Bureau, was with O'Dea and called 911 at 4:37 p.m. that day." -- CW

Michael Schmidt: Georgia sheriff's deputies repeatedly Tasered a man, handcuffed in the back seat of a car, until he died. The man's family had called 911 for medical assistance after his behavior became erratic & violent. The Times has video footage, obtained from the offiders' bodycams. -- CW

Way Beyond

William Booth of the Washington Post: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attempts to remake his governing coalition have set heads spinning -- dumping his well-regarded defense minister to possibly bring aboard a polarizing maverick with few friends in Washington. Definitely out: Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, who resigned his post on Friday. On the way to the door, Yaalon blasted Netanyahu, saying he has lost confidence in the prime minister's decision-making and morals. Maybe in: Avigdor Lieberman. He's a former foreign minister and current leader of an ultranationalist political party built around the 1 million Russian-speaking immigrants to Israel." -- CW ...

... Lieberman's In. Juan Cole: "Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu bolstered his majority and rid himself of a troublesome voice of conscience Thursday by appointing the extremist Avigdor Lieberman minister of defense. This move strengthened Netanyahu's hand politically, removing a critic in the form of Moshe Yaalon, the previous minister of defense. But it also sent a signal to Israel's officer corps, which has been showing distinct unease at Netanyahu's march of the country into Mussolini territory." -- CW

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The U.S. military has conducted an air strike against Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, the Pentagon said on Saturday. In a statement, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said that the attack on Mansour took place on Saturday 'in a remote area of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.' A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity..., said that President Obama had authorized the operation.... The official said that Mansour, who emerged as the Taliban leader in 2015, was 'likely killed.'"

AP: "A small fire shut down a generating tower Thursday at the world's largest solar power plant, leaving the sprawling facility on the California-Nevada border operating at only a third of its capacity, authorities said. Firefighters had to climb some 300 feet up a boiler tower at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California after fire was reported on an upper level around 9:30 a.m., fire officials said. The plant works by using mirrors to focus sunlight on boilers at the top of three 459-foot towers.... But some misaligned mirrors instead focused sunbeams on a different level..., causing electrical cables to catch fire, San Bernardino County, California fire Capt. Mike McClintock said."

Thank You

By Marie

As many of you noticed, safari & Akhilleus kept Reality Chex going while I was on the road. They did a fine job of it, too. I did not specifically ask them to help out; unlike me, I gather they both have real jobs and other real commitments and interests that take up a lot of real time. Nevertheless, both made significant contributions over the past week.

Here's the point where I have to wonder where the hell everybody else was. There are six other contributors who know how to do what safari & Akhilleus did. In addition, everybody who reads Reality Chex knows how to provide links to stories in the Comments section, as a few contributors did.

I'm not sure if you can call yourself a liberal -- and I know you can't describe yourself as a Sanders-style democratic socialist -- if you're happy to regularly take advantage of this site but you're unwilling to support it with a few contributions.  

P.S. If you comment on a news story or opinion piece that has not been linked here, for Pete's sake, provide a link. Even if you're commenting on a news event you saw on TV or heard on the radio, it's highly likely the story also made it into print. I used to accommodate "Random Reader Remarks" by trying to track down the stories the writers might have referred to. But I resent having to babysit adult commenters so I've pretty much quit doing that -- although I did it yesterday, and I'll do it again if someone comments or hints at some event that might be newsworthy.