The Commentariat -- Sept. 3, 2015

Defunct video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "A federal judge [in Ashland, Ky.,] on Thursday ordered a Kentucky clerk jailed for contempt of court because of her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The clerk, Kim Davis of Rowan County, was ordered incarcerated after a hearing here before Judge David L. Bunning of Federal District Court." ...

... Mike Wynn & Chris Kenning of the Louisville Courier-Journal: "The court is expected to reconvene at 1:45 p.m. [CT], when Davis' deputies will tell the judge whether they will comply with the order or risk jail."

AP: "The white man accused of killing nine black churchgoers during a Bible study will face the death penalty, according to court documents filed Thursday. The documents said prosecutors would pursue the death penalty against Dylann Roof, 21, because more than two people were killed, and that others' lives were put at risk."

Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump will sign a pledge Thursday to support the GOP nominee in next year's general election, effectively ruling out a third-party or independent run, according to two Republicans familiar with the move." ...

... Paul Waldman: "Since the pledge would be happily violated by the only candidate who it was designed to constrain in the first place, it has little practical significance. But it does make the Republican Party look pathetic. They're so scared of the guy leading their primary race (as well they should be) that they have to beg him to pinkie-swear that he won't turn around and screw them over in the general election...."

Deflategate Punctured. Ken Belson of the New York Times: "In a major setback for the N.F.L., New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady prevailed in his battle to have his four-game suspension overturned on Thursday, as a federal judge reversed a ruling by Commissioner Roger Goodell to bench one of the league's biggest stars in a dispute over underinflated balls he used in a January championship game. Judge Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court in Manhattan did not rule on whether Brady tampered with the footballs in a bid for competitive advantage. Instead, he focused on the narrower question of whether the collective bargaining agreement between the N.F.L. and the players union gave Goodell the authority to carry out the suspension, and whether Brady was treated fairly during his attempt to have his suspension overturned."

*****

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland on Wednesday came out in support of President Obama's Iran nuclear accord, the 34th Democrat in favor. Her decision gave Mr. Obama the votes needed to assure the deal will survive a congressional challenge.... With momentum on their side, the White House and Senate Democrats hope to find seven more votes next week to filibuster the Republican resolution of disapproval. That would ensure the resolution would never leave the Senate, and Mr. Obama would not be forced to use a veto." ...

... Carl Hulse & David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "One after another, lawmakers pointed to the warnings from foreign leaders that their own sanctions against Iran would be lifted regardless of what the United States did. But the president's potentially legacy-defining victory -- a highly partisan one in the end -- was also the result of an aggressive, cooperative strategy between the White House and congressional Democrats to forcefully push back against Republican critics, whose allies had begun a determined, $20 million-plus campaign to kill the deal." ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "With President Obama securing the votes Wednesday needed to assure the Iran nuclear accord will survive congressional challenge, Republicans are considering legislative options to counter the deal, including the possible reimposition of sanctions the agreement is supposed to lift."

... Julie Davis of the New York Times: In Northwest Alaska, "climate change is not a political talking point or a theoretical scientific phenomenon but a punishing everyday reality. Some communities are sinking into the water, as erosion and melting permafrost wash away their foundations. It was here that President Obama arrived on Wednesday to deliver his alarm-sounding message about the warming of the planet -- a phenomenon occurring twice as quickly in Alaska as in the rest of the United States -- bringing with him promises of new aid for Arctic communities whose shorelines and infrastructure are crumbling because of rising temperatures. In a history-making stop -- the first presidential visit to Arctic Alaska -- Mr. Obama delivered a speech laying out new federal efforts to help these communities cope with coastal erosion and high energy costs and, in some extreme cases, relocate altogether." ...

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The Army announced Wednesday that it is opening its legendary Ranger School to women on a full-time basis, following the historic graduation last month of two female soldiers. The school, with headquarters at Fort Benning, Ga., has been a centerpiece of the military's ongoing research on integrating women into more jobs in combat units."

Я Kidz Я Dum. Nick Anderson of the Washington Post: "Scores on the SAT have sunk to the lowest level since the college admission test was overhauled in 2005, adding to worries about student performance in the nation's high schools."

E. J. Dionne on violence & racism: "... politicians and, yes, even political commentators have an obligation: to try to make things better, not worse. There is always a choice between the politics of resentment and the politics of remedy." So Ted Cruz -- who is also a big fat liar -- & Bill O'Reilly should STFU or change their tactics.

Welcome, Plaintiffs! Linda Greenhouse: Conservative judges find creative ways to establish "standing" in order to allow plaintiffs to bring suits against the Obama administration "modern regulatory state."

A 180-Foot Pope. Emily Rueb of the New York Times: The Diocese of Brooklyn has commissioned "possibly the largest hand-painted mural of [Pope] Francis ever done" at 494 Eighth Avenue. The billboard "towers over Madison Square Garden, where Francis will celebrate a Mass on Sept. 25...." CW: It's no 900-foot Jesus but still pretty cool.

Anemona Hartocollis, et al., of the New York Times: "Desperate migrants poured into the Keleti train station in Budapest on Thursday morning but were prevented from traveling to Germany as Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, said that the migration crisis was a 'German problem' and that Europe had a moral duty to tell migrants not to come. The comments by Mr. Orban, and the scenes of chaos at Keleti, which has emerged as a potent symbol of Europe's struggle to come to terms with the migration crisis, highlighted Europe's lack of preparedness to cope with an influx of refugees from Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere." ...

... Rick Lyman & Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times: "A ragged metropolis of thousands of weary and bedraggled migrants continued to rise [in Budapest, Hungary,] on Wednesday in the labyrinth of underground passageways outside Keleti train station. The Hungarian authorities, saying they were merely obeying European migration regulations, continued to keep migrants out of the station, despite having allowed thousands onto westbound trains on Monday. At the same time, the desperate migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Afghanistan -- most of them hoping to reach Germany -- continued to pour over the Hungarian border from Serbia. The construction of a razor-wire fence seems to have barely slowed them down." ...

... Ishan Tharoor of the Washington Post: "Twelve migrants thought to be Syrian refugees were feared to have drowned off the coast of the Greek island of Kos on Wednesday after the boats carrying them sank. A number of bodies washed ashore on a beach in the Turkish resort town of Bodrum, probably connected to the disaster. The images of the dead, captured by Dogan News Agency, soon circulated on social media. They included, most hideously, photographs of children.... The scale of the Syrian refugee crisis is hard to grasp: About 11 million people (half of Syria's population) have either died or fled their homes since the Syrian conflict began in 2011. About 4 million of that number have been forced out of the country."

Edward Wong, et al., of the New York Times: "President Xi Jinping of China announced on Thursday that he would reduce the country's military personnel by 300,000, using a parade marking 70 years since the end of World War II to present the People's Liberation Army as a force for peace and regional stability. The Chinese military has more than two million members, and Mr. Xi has embarked on an accelerated modernization of the armed forces, which would shift spending from the traditional land forces to more advanced sea and air forces, which require fewer but better trained personnel."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Par for the Course. CW: Ben Terris, the Washington Post reporter most famous for accidentally ending Rep. Aaron Schock's career by marvelling at Schock's taxpayer-funded "Downton Abbey" office decor, now has a piece on Donald Trump's golf game, citing different sources who claim he cheats (or doesn't cheat). I wasn't going to link the story till I read digby, who cites this graf from Terris's report:

Trump has shown that his candidacy is immune to the types of attacks that can bring down normal Republican candidates. He's on record mocking a war hero and praising Nancy Pelosi, he's advocated for higher taxes, donated to Democrats and called for single-payer health care. None of that has mattered. But does his golf history provide opponents with the opening they need? ...

... digby: "They have totally accepted the fact that calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, proposing to deport millions of people (including American children), talking about women like dirt, starting trade wars and real wars isn't something that would bring down 'normal' Republican candidates. That's just par for the course these days. Praising nancy Pelosi, however, would 'normally' bring down any candidate."

Presidential Race

I am not a populist. But Bernie Sanders, he's doing a helluva job. -- Joe Biden, at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser in Miami

... Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Wednesday declined to say whether she and Vice President Joe Biden discussed a potential joint 2016 ticket during a meeting late last month. 'It was a long conversation,' she said after pausing briefly when asked during an event at Suffolk University in Boston whether the subject was brought up even jokingly."

Thanks, GOP! Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "... as she seeks the Democratic presidential nomination, [Hillary] Clinton is struggling with declining poll numbers, questions about her honesty and doubts about her ultimate electability. And once again her Republican rivals are allowing her to turn their own words against them in ways that could help win over some of her skeptics. Branding Mexicans as rapists, calling the children of immigrants 'anchor babies,' decrying abortions for rape and incest victims, threatening to shut down the government over federal aid to Planned Parenthood -- Republicans are giving Mrs. Clinton a political advantage as she tries to divert attention from her woes and bounce back from a politically challenging summer." ...

... Carol Leonnig & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post:Bryan Pagliano, "a former State Department staffer who worked on Hillary Rodham Clinton's private e-mail server tried this week to fend off a subpoena to testify before Congress, saying he would assert his constitutional right not to answer questions to avoid incriminating himself." The letter to the House Benghaaazi! committee from Pagliano's attorney "quoted a Supreme Court ruling in which justices described the Fifth Amendment as protecting 'innocent men ... "who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances."'.... The committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), complained yesterday that [chairman Trey] Gowdy [RTP-S.C.] unilaterally issued the subpoena. He said the subpoena of a low-level aide is one of several signs that Gowdy is using the committee for the political purpose of trying to smear a Democratic presidential candidate."

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders is on the verge of signing a joint fund-raising agreement with the Democratic National Committee, his aides said, a week after Hillary Rodham Clinton entered such an arrangement with the party."

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in a Washington Post op-ed, contrasts Donald Trump's & Bernie Sanders' responses to uncomfortable public challenges: "Two roads diverged in a political wood, and one man took the road of assaulting the Constitution and soon will be lost forever. The other will be a viable candidate who, regardless of whether he wins the nomination, will elevate the political process into something our Founding Fathers would be proud of." ...

     ... Donald Trump's response to Abdul-Jabbar, handwritten on a copy of the essay: "Dear Kareem, Now I know why the press always treated you so badly -- they couldn't stand you. The fact is that you don't have a clue about life and what has to be done to make America great again! Best wishes, Donald Trump." Includes photo of Trump's note. ...

     ... Abdul-Jabbar: "Trump's response to my piece is the best, though inelegant, support for my claims. Here again, he attacks a journalist who disagrees with him, not by disputing the points made but by hurling schoolyard insults such as 'nobody likes you.' Look behind the nasty invective and you find an assault on the Constitution in the effort to silence the press through intimidation."

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Responding to growing pressure from party donors and officials to dissuade Donald J. Trump from mounting an independent campaign for president, the Republican National Committee on Wednesday asked each of the party's presidential candidates to sign a statement vowing not to run as a third-party candidate. With little warning, committee officials called and emailed campaign representatives requesting that they put in writing what every candidate, except for Mr. Trump, has already pledged to do." ...

     ... The Politico story, by Alex Isenstadt, is here.

I like Jeb. He's a nice man. But he should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States. -- Donald Trump

Because speaking to people in their first language is so rude, even if it helps win elections. -- Constant Weader

Donald Trump is trying to insult his way to the presidency.... To say you can only speak English is kind of ridiculous, if you think about it.... This is a diverse country. We should celebrate that diversity and embrace a set of shared values. Mr. Trump doesn't believe in those shared values. He wants to tear us down. He doesn't believe in tolerance. He doesn't believe in the things that have created the greatness of this country. -- Jeb!, Thursday

... Turns out Jeb! isn't feuding only with the Donald. He is also heavily into a smackdown contest with Stephen Colbert. In English!

Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Ohio Gov. John Kasich said he backs a 'reasonable' federal minimum wage increase Tuesday, becoming one of the few GOP presidential candidates to do so.... He declined to get into the specifics of a proposed increase, noting Ohio's 'gradual' minimum wage that moves with the consumer price index."

Peter Suderman of the libertarian Reason: Scott "Walker is running a pandering, cringe-worthy campaign marked by a consistent inability to clearly articulate, and stick to, his own positions.... This is the Walker campaign playbook: Say something awkward or ill-advised, watch as the media swarms to cover it, then insist that there was never anything to see.... This sort of flip-flopping, what might generously be called policy confusion, has dogged Walker's campaign essentially from the moment it began." CW: And that's what a would-be supporter thinks.

Ed Kilgore: Ben Carson's soothing bedside manner masks the crazy.

Danica Coto of the AP: "Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio is scheduled to visit the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico this week, his staff said Tuesday.... Rubio's one-day visit will coincide with that of Democrat Hillary Clinton." CW: Oh noes! I hope they don't set & bad example & speak Spanish there!

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said on Wednesday that the government should respect the beliefs of the Kentucky county clerk who has denied marriage licenses to same-sex couples, saying society needs to accommodate public officials who object to carrying out duties they say violate their religious beliefs." CW: Yo, Marco, there already is a way to respect her beliefs: just like any conscientious objector, she can refuse to serve & quit her job. Do you think the military paid conscientious-objector draftees when they refused to serve? Pandering is so often blatantly stupid.

As a public official, comply with the law or resign.... The rule of law is the rule of law.... I appreciate her conviction, I support traditional marriage, but she has accepted a job where she has to apply the law to everyone.... -- Sen. Lindsey Graham, on the right-wing Hugh Hewitt radio show (no link), thus inadvertently demonstrating that Marco hasn't met the minimum qualifications to be president

Gubernatorial Race

Philip Bailey of the Louisville Courier-Journal: "Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin said during a national conference call Tuesday he fully supports Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis' right to refuse gay couples seeking marriage licenses. 'I absolutely support her willingness to stand on her First Amendment rights,' he said. 'Without any question I support her.'The strong defense of Davis' actions underscores how the GOP nominee hopes to make the fight over gay marriage a centerpiece of the 2015 governor's race, which polling shows is a tight race between him and Democratic nominee Jack Conway." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "Bevin does, however, have a broader vision: like his junior senator, Rand Paul, he's talking about getting government out of the marriage business altogether.... It may take Bevin a while to explain to regular Kentuckians that they should no longer be in state-sanctioned marriages because some county clerk wants to get paid to do some but not all of her job.

Beyond the Beltway

Ryan Felton of the Guardian: Kim Davis is "not the only defecting clerk in Kentucky. Two other clerks, Casey Davis of Casey County and Kay Schwartz of Whitley County, are also still refusing to perform same-sex marriages." CW: Yo, Ryan, Kentucky clerks don't perform marriages; they issue marriage licenses. That's a difference with a distinction. According to Kentucky law (which still has a specific prohibition against same-sex marriage).

Marriages shall be solemnized only by clergy, justices and judges of the Court of Justice; retired justices and judges of the Court of Justice, except those removed for cause or convicted of a felony; county judge/executives; such justices of the peace and fiscal court commissioners as the Governor or the county judge/executive authorizes, and certain religious societies.

... Scott Lemieux in LG&M: "It may seem like cheap shot to bring up her serial marriages, but I don't think it is. The tendency to be more rigorous about enforcing biblical principles when they impose burdens on others than when they impose burdens on you is one of the many reasons we don't want state officials selectively applying the law according to their own 'principles.'" ...

... CW: Exactly right. There are plenty of people, no doubt some of them license-issuing clerks, who genuinely believe divorce is a sin & remarriage to another person is a worser sin, as some major churches like the Roman Catholic one hold. But those clerks, however deep their religious convictions, cannot deny a license to someone like Kimmy there who applied to marry her second husband after divorcing her first husband while pregnant with the children of her third husband.

She's not being asked to perform a sacrament, she is tasked with ascertaining that the people in front of her, the couple in front of her, have a legal right to get married and to provide them with that license. She is not a minister. She actually thinks she works for God there in the county courthouse, when she actually works for Caesar -- and someone needs to acquaint her with that fact. -- Dan Savage, on Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis

CW: Finally (I wish), here's another problem for Kim of God, & it might be the biggest, baddest one there is: her oath of office:

I ... do swear that I will well and truly discharge the duties of the office of .............. County Circuit Court clerk..., and that I will not knowingly or willingly commit any malfeasance of office, and will faithfully execute the duties of my office without favor, affection or partiality, so help me God.

     ... As Dan Savage might put it, she swore to God she would carry out Caesar's law. In the Gospel of Mark 12, Jesus makes the clear distinction. Paul, in Romans 13, is even more direct:

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.... For the one in authority is God's servant for your good.... But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

     ... The authors of these rules wrote them specifically to inoculate believers like Kim from fear of following secular (Caesar's) laws that did not comport with their own Christian views. Since she doesn't seem to read the New Testament much (& I have a feeling she doesn't check in here), somebody should tell Kim.

Lynh Bui & Ovetta Wiggins of the Washington Post: "Six officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray will have separate trials, a judge decided Wednesday, one of three rulings issued during the first Circuit Court hearing in the closely watched case. Judge Barry G. Williams also denied defense motions to dismiss charges against the officers or force Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby and her staff to recuse themselves from the case."

More in Responsible Gun Ownership. Reuters: "A 19-year-old Texas man who was posing with a gun for a social media selfie photo accidentally shot himself and died from the wounds, Houston police said on Wednesday."

News Ledes

AFP: "Embattled Guatemalan President Otto Perez announced his resignation Thursday, after a warrant was issued for his arrest for allegedly masterminding a huge fraud scheme."

New York Times: "Five Chinese Navy ships were sailing in international waters of the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska on Wednesday, in what Pentagon officials said was the first such foray by Beijing. The move came on the last day of President Obama's three-day visit to Alaska.... The White House said that the intent of the Chinese operation was unclear, but that the Pentagon had not detected any threatening activities."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 2, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "President Obama all but clinched victory for his Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, as two Democratic senators threw crucial support behind the landmark accord. The announcements by the senators, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Chris Coons of Delaware, came a week before the Senate was to formally debate a Republican resolution disapproving the agreement between Iran and six world powers. Mr. Obama would veto any such resolution, and with further announcements of support for the accord expected as soon as Wednesday, any move to override him would almost certainly fail. Mr. Coons's decision in particular is likely to have resonance with the few remaining undecided Democrats."

Peter Eavis & David Jolly of the New York Times: "Stock markets around the world tumbled again on Tuesday, dashing hopes that financial markets would calm down after two weeks of turbulence. Investors appear to be growing more nervous about the strength of the global economy. China released a weak report on manufacturing on Tuesday, and an influential international policy maker sounded a downbeat note on the outlook for Asian economies."

Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "The CIA and U.S. Special Operations forces have launched a secret campaign to hunt terrorism suspects in Syria as part of a targeted killing program that is run separately from the broader U.S. military offensive against the Islamic State, U.S. officials said. The CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) are flying drones over Syria in a collaboration responsible for several recent strikes against senior Islamic State operatives, the officials said. Among those killed was a British militant thought to be an architect of the terrorist group's effort to use social media to incite attacks in the United States, the officials said." CW: I guess it isn't secret any more.

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama on Wednesday will pledge to step up government aid for Arctic communities whose shorelines and infrastructure are crumbling as warming seas melt their foundations, intensifying his administration's effort to cope with the effects of climate change where they are being felt most acutely. Venturing north of the Arctic Circle to Kotzebue, where he will become the first sitting president to visit Arctic Alaska, Mr. Obama will announce federal grant programs to help villages there cope with coastal erosion and high energy costs, and, in some extreme cases, relocate altogether, the White House said." ...

President Obama near the Exit Glacier, viewed from Kenai Fjords National Park. AP photo via the Guardian.... Issi Lapowsky of Wired: "Over the next few days, the President will be posting photos [on Instagram] of his trip to Alaska -- photos we're told he's taking himself -- where he'll be meeting with world leaders to discuss the pressing problem of climate change."

Melinda Deslatte of the AP: "The U.S. Justice Department told a federal judge that Gov. Bobby Jindal's decision to oust Planned Parenthood from Louisiana's Medicaid program appears to violate federal law by denying Medicaid patients the right to choose their health care providers. In a court filing, the agency said the Jindal administration hasn't offered 'sufficient reasons' to keep Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast's clinics in New Orleans and Baton Rouge from receiving Medicaid payments. Removing Planned Parenthood from the Medicaid program 'without providing any justification related to (the organization's) qualifications to provide medical services would violate Louisiana's obligations under the Medicaid statute's "free choice of provider" provision,' the Justice Department wrote." ...

... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "With the calls to stop funding for Planned Parenthood, a visit to New Orleans and Baton Rouge suggests that it would not be as easy to do without the nonprofit centers as some Republicans and their anti-abortion allies say. Other states would face similar problems. Louisiana is among a number of states counted as medically underserved: It has a large poor and unhealthy population, with high rates of unintended pregnancies, a shortage of health professionals and too few who will accept Medicaid, as Planned Parenthood does."

Lisa Miller of New York on Pope Francis's letter re: absolution for abortions (story linked yesterday): "... what's breathtaking about this move is that Francis has chosen abortion, of all things, as the issue on which to stake this vision of mercy.... He singled out abortion, which just so happens to be the most divisive culture-war issue of the past half-century -- the issue around which the politically powerful religious right coalesced..., the issue that has won and lost innumerable elections and pitted whole American tribes against one another in red-faced screaming battles of 'values.' He is making a bet that his vision of a compassionate church can overcome all of that.... Francis knows that Catholics have hardly been bystanders in this culture war, but active participants -- that is another reason his choice of cause is so stunning.... Francis is not changing doctrine. He has not condoned abortion...."

Kali Holloway of AlterNet has a long piece, republished in Salon, on how the Walton Family Foundation tried to privatize public schools in Arkansas (and do so around the country), & -- at least in the short term -- failed in their own home territory. CW: I don't think there's a bigger scam going in this country than privatization of K-12 schools, & that effort, more than any other, is why I would not vote for Jeb!. Ever.

Ken Belson of the New York Times: "In dozens of studio emails unearthed by hackers, Sony executives; ['Concussion'] director Peter Landesman; and representatives of [lead actor Will] Smith discussed how to avoid antagonizing the N.F.L. by altering the script and marketing the film more as a whistle-blower story, rather than a condemnation of football or the league."

Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "Barvetta Singletary, "a White House staffer, has been indicted on assault charges stemming from a dispute in which she allegedly fired a gun at her U.S. Capitol Police boyfriend." Singletary, a special assistant to the President, has been on unpaid leave since the White House learned of the incident.

Presidential Race

Shocking New Video Proves Hillary Clinton Is a Hardened Criminal. Dana Milbank: "Conservative activist James O'Keefe, whose undercover videos brought down ACORN and embarrassed National Public Radio, came to Washington Tuesday to unveil evidence of 'illegal activity conducted by high-level employees within Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.' He then rolled tape of ... a Canadian woman attempting to buy a T-shirt and some campaign pins at a Clinton rally. To O'Keefe, this was evidence of foreign contributions being made to Clinton -- an 'illegal activity' with a total value of $75." Then it turns out that the Clinton campaign refused to sell the shirt to the supposed foreigner (O'Keefe couldn't verify that the woman actually was Canadian -- [maybe she kept saying "eh"]), so O'Keefe's videographer bought the shirt for her. "Even in the anything-goes world of the Clinton scandal industry, though, O'Keefe's latest exercise suggests her accusers are running out of ammunition. O'Keefe's video did show evidence of law-breaking -- by his own organization."

CW: Watching Joe's Every Move. Vice President Biden is off to Miami to give a couple of speeches & attend a fundraiser. Also, "On Saturday, he turned up unannounced at an annual event given by the Sussex County Democratic Party in Delaware." Never mind that Delaware is Biden's home state & that the Miami events are routine for the Vice President, the tea leaves say these are moves toward another presidential run.

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "The organizers of the next Republican presidential debate have announced changes to debate criteria that mean former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina will almost certainly join the rest of the top-tier candidates on the main stage at the Reagan Library on Sept. 16. 'CNN reevaluated its criteria and decided to add a provision that better reflects the state of the race since the first Republican presidential debate in August,' the network announced. 'Now, any candidate who ranks in the top 10 in polling between August 6 and September 10 will be included.'" ...

... CW: Tumulty writes of one advantage to having Fiorina on the stage: "In the enormous Republican field, she is the only one who has demonstrated anything that rivals the thrust-and-parry skills of front-runner Donald Trump.... Trump dominated the main stage in Cleveland, in part because none of his rivals had any idea how to take him on." ...

... The Manly Party. Steve M.: "... now we have fifteen conservative men running against a bully named Donald Trump -- including Christie, a guy we were old for years was tough as nails. And yet the Daddy Party may believe a woman is the only person who might be able to back the bully down. Hilarious, I tell you."

Meet the Trump Voters. Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "Our new poll finds that Trump is benefiting from a GOP electorate that thinks Barack Obama is a Muslim and was born in another country, and that immigrant children should be deported. 66% of Trump's supporters believe that Obama is a Muslim to just 12% that grant he's a Christian. 61% think Obama was not born in the United States to only 21% who accept that he was. And 63% want to amend the Constitution to eliminate birthright citizenship, to only 20% who want to keep things the way they are. Trump's beliefs represent the consensus among the GOP electorate. 51% overall want to eliminate birthright citizenship. 54% think President Obama is a Muslim. And only 29% grant that President Obama was born in the United States. That's less than the 40% who think Canadian born Ted Cruz was born in the United States." ...

... Greg Sargent: "... vowing to 'make America great again' by building a wall on the Mexican border and deporting 11 million people ... is not 'telling it like it is.' It is not 'straight talk.' Yet many of [Trump's] supporters seem to enjoy being told these 'truths.' So perhaps the better way to understand what's happening here is that Trump's supporters like the story he is telling them, which is largely that immigrants are to blame for the suffering of American workers." CW: You might call it old-fashioned scapegoating. hey, at least its' "traditional." ...

... And the Winner Is.... Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "Short of sabotaging Trump by changing the rules in the middle of the race, which would risk driving him to mount an independent candidacy, the race itself will have to take on a completely new character for Trump to lose steam. Otherwise, he will win." ...

... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: Donald "Trump invited Javier Palomarez, president of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, to his Manhattan office for a meeting to clear the air. Each were joined by two staff members for a 90-minute meeting that Mr. Palomarez described as surprisingly cordial and productive." ...

Ed O'Keefe & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Jeb Bush went on the offensive Tuesday against GOP presidential front-runner and frequent antagonist Donald Trump, releasing an attack video portraying the mogul as a closet liberal and signaling that he will attempt to bring Trump down in coming weeks.... Allies of the former Florida governor insist that he had no choice but to adopt a more aggressive posture, elevating his feud with Trump to the marquee contest in the GOP primary contest." ...

... Nice work, Jeb! Your vid makes Trump look pretty good:

Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "... while almost all Republicans were upstaged by the bombast of Donald J. Trump in recent months, [Ben] Carson, a retired neurosurgeon whose low-key personality and celebrated medical career are the antithesis of a politician's usual path, gained ground as few seemed to notice."

Andy Borowitz: "Saying that 'things just didn't work out,' the billionaire Koch brothers have decided to put Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker up for sale. The Kochs, who earlier had purchased Gov. Walker with great fanfare, announced their plan to sell the politician in a terse statement from Koch Industries headquarters in Wichita." ...

... Joshua Green of Bloomberg: "... standard-issue Republican candidates such as Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who have tried to emulate Trump, typically fail and will always fail" because if they were honest & forthcoming, "it upsets the patrons and supporters they depend on for their livelihood (this is another Trump straight-talk point)." ...

... CW: There's the Koch-22: GOP candidates must be devious & evasive to please the Kochs, but to win public support, they must say things that would displease the Kochs. This works out okay if all the candidates follow a phony, evasive party script (think 2012). But an outsider candidacy like Trump's breaks the official GOP liars' code. Remember Mitt's saying that one only talks about wealth inequality "in quiet rooms." What he meant was that he & his billionaire friends might discuss these matters among themselves, but publicly politicians should talk only about realizing the American dream through hard work, innovation, freeedom, blah-blah. ...

... Walker Rule 1(f): When You Say Something Monumentally Stupid (and we're talking 5,500-mile Monument Stupid here), Pretend It Was "Just a Joke." Tierney Sneed of TPM: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said Tuesday that things had 'run amok' with reports that he was open to building a wall on the U.S.' northern border and that all the talk was 'just a joke.'"... He said Sunday that building a wall was a 'legitimate issue' to be considered." CW: Every word Walker utters is a lie, including "and" and "the." (Thank you, Mary McCarthy.)

Rick Perry's Iowa staff is down to one paid worker. Don't worry, Iowa pols. Bernie's hiring. ...

... CW: Let's hope the DOJ arrests Bobby Jindal for breaking federal law in his anti-Planned Parenthood pander (story linked above). Otherwise, if Perry leaves the race, there won't be a single GOP candidate who's currently under indictment. ...

... FINALLY, there's always room for Mitt. Via Paul Waldman. Because ...

These guys like Walker and Perry, they were big deals in their states, but you get them onto the national stage and it's a different story. It's like they were in middle school, and now they're freshmen in high school and they're getting their faces slammed in the toilets. -- A former Romney advisor

Beyond the Beltway

Ian Lovett of the New York Times: "California has agreed to an overhaul of its use of solitary confinement in its prisons, including strict limits on the prolonged isolation of inmates, as part of a landmark legal settlement filed in federal court on Tuesday. The settlement is expected to sharply reduce the number of inmates held in the state's isolation units, where inmates are often kept alone for more than 22 hours a day inside cells that sometimes have no windows, and cap the length of time prisoners can spend there."

And if [a wife] divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery. -- Jesus, according to the Gospel of Mark 10:12

Marriage is between a woman and a man; and a woman and another man; and a woman and still another man; and a woman and yet another man. But if a man shall lie down with another man and shall marry that man, or if a woman shall lie down with another woman and marry that woman, the whole fornicating lot of them will go straight to burning hell, so sayeth the Lord. -- Jesus's friend Kim, according to the Gospel of Kim 1:1-6 ...

... Welcome to Kentucky! Steven Nelson of US News: "The Kentucky county clerk facing potentially stiff penalties for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses has been married four times, raising questions of hypocrisy and selective application of the Bible to her life. The marriages are documented in court records obtained by U.S. News, which show that Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis divorced three times, first in 1994, then 2006 and again in 2008. She gave birth to twins five months after divorcing her first husband. They were fathered by her third husband but adopted by her second. Davis worked at the clerk's office at the time of each divorce and has since remarried." Emphasis added because I couldn't help it. ...

... Clare Galofalo of TPM: "U.S. District Judge David Bunning moved swiftly Tuesday after a lesbian couple asked him to find Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis in contempt.... A hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday...."

CBS Chicago: "A manhunt is underway in far north [Chicago] suburban Fox Lake, after a police officer was shot and killed while chasing three suspects on foot.... At a late-morning news conference, Lake County Sheriff's Det. Chris Covelli said, around 7:50 a.m., the officer radioed he was pursuing three suspects, after looking into their 'suspicious activity.'... Shortly after the news conference, Covelli confirmed that the officer died. The officer was identified as Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, a 32-year police veteran.... Covelli said police were conducting a ground and air search for three suspects -- two white males and a black male."

AP: "Police officers who arrived at the wrong metro Atlanta home after a report of suspicious activity shot the man who lives there, killed his dog and 'likely' shot a fellow officer, leaving him seriously wounded, authorities said Tuesday."

AP: "A white ex-police chief agreed Tuesday to plead guilty to misconduct in office in the shooting death of an unarmed black man, a far lesser offense than the murder charge that ended in two mistrials. Prosecutors agreed to drop the murder charge against 38-year-old Richard Combs, who is the former police chief of the small town of Eutawville[, South Carolina].... Authorities say Combs shot Walter Bailey in May 2011 as he tried to arrest him on an obstruction of justice charge weeks after he argued about his daughter's traffic ticket.... When Bailey came to talk to the police chief at Eutawville town hall about the traffic ticket, Combs was not threatened and could have stepped away, but fired his weapon anyway, hitting Bailey three times, prosecutors said."

Way Beyond

Griff Witte & Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Just 216 Syrian refugees have qualified for the [British] government's official relocation program, according to data released last week. (Tube trains seat about 300.) British Prime Minister David Cameron has reassured his anxious public that the total number won't rise above 1,000. As Germany prepares for an expected onslaught of 800,000 asylum applications just this year, the contrast between the two biggest powers in Europe couldn't be sharper. On a continent that is supposed to be bound together by a common set of rules and values, the impact of this summer's migrant crisis is being felt disproportionately by a handful of countries while others, such as Britain, have resisted efforts to more equitably share the burden. Britain's approach helps explain why efforts to forge a unified European asylum policy have failed, and it could become a major obstacle to agreement when top officials gather for an emergency meeting later this month."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 1, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Breaking! (Okay, it was breaking at 8:36 this morning, but it's still important. Andy Borowitz: "Saying that 'things just didn't work out,' the billionaire Koch brothers have decided to put Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker up for sale. The Kochs, who earlier had purchased Gov. Walker with great fanfare, announced their plan to sell the politician in a terse statement from Koch Industries headquarters in Wichita."

Ian Lovett of the New York Times: "California has agreed to an overhaul of its use of solitary confinement in its prisons, including strict limits on the prolonged isolation of inmates, as part of a landmark legal settlement filed in federal court on Tuesday. The settlement is expected to sharply reduce the number of inmates held in the state's isolation units, where inmates are often kept alone for more than 22 hours a day inside cells that sometimes have no windows, and cap the length of time prisoners can spend there."

*****

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama on Tuesday will propose speeding the acquisition and building of new Coast Guard icebreakers that can operate year-round in the nation’s polar regions, part of an effort to close the gap between the United States and other nations, especially Russia, in a global competition to gain a foothold in the rapidly changing Arctic." ...

... Julie Davis & Steven Myers of the New York Times: "President Obama on Monday issued a global call for urgent action to address climate change, declaring that the United States was partly to blame for what he called the defining challenge of the century and would rally the world to counter it.... The president spoke at the beginning of a three-day Alaska trip choreographed to lend vivid visual justification -- in the form of receding glaciers, eroded shorelines and rising seas -- to his drive for an international accord to reduce heat-trapping emissions leading up to a United Nations summit meeting in Paris in December.... He offered scathing criticism of those who question the need for such measures or deny the science behind them, making an implicit dig at Republican presidential candidates. 'Those who want to ignore the science, they are increasingly alone,' Mr. Obama said. 'They're on their own shrinking island'":

... Dana Milbank: President "Obama went to the very top this weekend -- to 20,320 feet to be exact -- and stripped North America's highest peak of its official name of the last century, Mt. McKinley, returning it to what Alaskans had called it for centuries: Denali, or Great One. Obama's opponents immediately condemned him for acting like a dictator, taking unconstitutional action, overstepping his authority, engaging in a partisan stunt and, of course, exhibiting racial animus.... Obama is perfectly within his authority to make the change. If his opponents are really outraged, they can overrule him in Congress or they can elect a president who will change the name back. The problem with both of these is that Alaska, run by Republicans, want the name to be Denali and have been trying to make the change for decades.... There's also the small matter of conservatives claiming to support local control...; in this case, they're demanding the federal government to continue to overrule a state's wishes." ...

I'm not certain he [Obama] has the authority to have done what he did [rename Mount McKinley]; the designation was granted by law of Congress in 1917.* In a more jocular way, the guy ought to be more gracious to the guy who made it possible for him to be President. [Hawaii, Obama's home state, was annexed under McKinley's presidency.] -- Karl Rove, who says he just wrote a book about McKinley

A 1947 law gives the secretary [of the Interior] the authority to change names on her own when the board does not act in a reasonable time. -- Gregory Korte of USA Today

... Timothy Cama of the Hill: "Donald Trump promised Monday that he would return the name of North America's largest mountain to Mount McKinley, undoing President Obama's decision to call it Denali. [Trump called] Obama's act a 'great insult to Ohio.'... [Ohio Gov. John] Kasich had tweeted his opposition earlier in the day, saying Obama had overstepped the limits of his authority."

Kimberly Hefling of Politico: "Columbia University President Lee Bollinger caused a stir Monday by reportedly announcing that President Barack Obama will be coming to the New York-based campus in 2017. The Columbia Daily Spectator student newspaper reported that Bollinger made the announcement at convocation.... The university late on Monday clarified that Bollinger was not making a big reveal. 'Lee Bollinger's comment at Convocation today that he was looking forward to welcoming back Columbia's most famous alumnus only reiterated the May 12 statement by the Barack Obama Foundation that it 'intends to maintain a presence at Columbia University...' and reflected no further developments concerning President Obama's plans. White House deputy press secretary Jen Friedman ... [said] in a statement, "The President has long talked about his respect for Columbia University and his desire to continue working with them. However, at this point no decisions have been finalized about his post-Presidency plans.'"

AP: "President Barack Obama said people who attack Jews who support the Iran nuclear deal are like African-Americans who differ with him on policy and then conclude he's 'not black enough.' Obama, in an interview with the Jewish newspaper 'Forward,' was asked whether it hurt him personally when people say he's anti-Semitic." Here's the transcript of the full interview.

Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "Members of the Black Lives Matter movement have disavowed all political parties after the Democratic establishment adopted a resolution in support of the movement, which has interrupted the party's frontrunners at several campaign events in recent months. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) unanimously adopted a resolution in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement on Friday afternoon during a summer meeting in Minneapolis." ...

... ** Charles Pierce: "There is no greater mystery in politics right now than the continued employment of Debbie Wasserman Schultz as chairperson of the Democratic National Committee.... I'm damned if I can see what she's accomplished as a national chairperson.... If, as it appears, as national chairman of the president's party, she actively campaigned against a measure designed to show the support of the president's party for a monumentally important White House policy initiative, then she should have been fired from that post yesterday."

Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: Last week, on the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, Glenn Beck held an "All Lives Matter" rally in Birmingham, Alabama. Twenty thousand people showed up, but the media largely ignored it.

Schoolhouse Rock, Tea Party-Style. Rebekah Sanders of the Arizona Republic: "U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon's [RTP] Friday civics lesson to second- and third-graders at a Gilbert charter school took a dark turn, veering into nuclear warfare and suicide bombers. Some parents complained it left the children frightened and confused. Salmon's office said the congressman's remarks weren't any more shocking than the local news.... 'It should have probably just been a good civics lesson for kids who initially were excited to meet their congressman,' parent Scott Campbell told [KPHO-TV]. But when Salmon brought up the United States' negotiations with Iran, Campbell said the congressman asked, "'Do you know what a nuclear weapon is? Do you know that there are schools that train children your age to be suicide bombers?"'" CW: Baggers are not just crazy; they're scary-crazy. Keep out of reach of children.

Dick Cheney Still a Dick. David of Crooks & Liars: "Former Vice President Dick Cheney embraced his Darth Vader persona in a recent interview with CBS, arguing that politicians with 'warmth and friendliness and so forth' could not protect the country." Also said waterboarding works & the Iraq War was "the right thing to do." ...

... ** Jonathan Chait: "The overarching theme of Cheney's op-ed [in the Wall Street Journal] is that world peace has been maintained because presidents of both parties, from Harry Truman through the guy who was president before Barack Obama, believed in American goodness and strength. Now it has all been ruined by Barack Obama.... Measured by results, rather than sound bites, Cheney was the greatest thing that happened to the radical regime in Iran since it took power.... Why were sanctions [against Iran] so weak under Bush, and so much stronger under Obama? Because the Obama administration used the promise of negotiations to build strong support for sanctions.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday refused to allow a county clerk in Kentucky who objects to same-sex marriage on religious grounds to continue to deny marriage licenses to all couples, gay or straight." ...

     ... So What? Chas Danner of New York: "Today, that same woman, Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, remains defiant, citing 'God's authority' over any other, according to the Associated Press. When her office opened this morning, Davis once again refused to issue marriage licenses to two same-sex couples, and when one couple who had been denied a license for the fifth time objected, she asked them to leave her office."

Robert Barnes & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell will avoid prison while the Supreme Court decides whether to review his conviction on corruption charges, the justices decided Monday. The one-paragraph order was a dramatic -- perhaps unprecedented -- reprieve for the Republican former governor, who lost a lower-court appeal and who would have had to begin serving a two-year prison sentence without the Supreme Court's intervention. As is customary in granting a stay, the court did not explain its reasoning; none of the justices signaled disagreement."

Sliding Down the Slippery Slope. Adam Liptak: "Employers do not need to provide insurance coverage for contraception even if their objections are moral rather than religious..., Judge Richard J. Leon of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ... ruled on Monday. The case concerned a group called March for Life, which was formed after the Supreme Court recognized a constitutional right to abortion in 1973 in Roe v. Wade. The group, Monday's decision said, 'is a nonprofit, nonreligious pro-life organization.'... The government is likely to appeal the decision...." ...

... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "Judge Richard Leon is a George W. Bush appointee with a history of handing down conservative opinions. His opinion in March for Life v. Burwell is no exception.... Leon's reasoning on this issue is, frankly, hard to follow.... In essence, however, Leon appears to object to the government's decision to exempt churches and other inherently religious organizations from the birth control rules without also extending this exemption to secular employers because such a rule discriminates against secular employers. The problem with this argument is that the Supreme Court has explicitly held that when the government 'acts with the proper purpose of lifting a regulation that burdens the exercise of religion' there is 'no reason to require that the exemption come packaged with benefits to secular entities.'"

Shannon Pettypiece of Bloomberg: "Wal-Mart Stores Inc., in the midst of spending $1 billion to raise employees' wages and give them extra training, has been cutting the number of hours some of them work in a bid to keep costs in check. Regional executives told store managers at the retailer's annual holiday planning meeting this month to rein in expenses by cutting worker hours they've added beyond those allocated to them based on sales projections." ...

... The New York Times Editors point to some other ways retailers manipulate schedules to shaft workers. CW: But by highlighting these unfair practices, aren't the editors destroying capitalism & jobs & all that is good?

Monica Davey & Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "Cities across the nation are seeing a startling rise in murders after years of declines.... Rivalries among organized street gangs, often over drug turf, and the availability of guns are cited as major factors in some cities, including Chicago. But more commonly, many top police officials say they are seeing a growing willingness among disenchanted young men in poor neighborhoods to use violence to settle ordinary disputes."

Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian (August 29): "An assistant professor in the law department of the US military academy at West Point has argued that legal scholars critical of the war on terrorism represent a 'treasonous' fifth column that should be attacked as enemy combatants. In a lengthy academic paper, the professor, William C Bradford, proposes to threaten 'Islamic holy sites' as part of a war against undifferentiated Islamic radicalism. That war ought to be prosecuted vigorously, he wrote, 'even if it means great destruction, innumerable enemy casualties, and civilian collateral damage'." His paper "appeared in the most recent issue of the National Security Law Journal, a student-run publication at the George Mason School of Law.... The National Security Law Journal's editor-in-chief has called the article's publication a 'mistake' and an 'egregious breach of professional decorum'." Bradford's academic creds are fake & his career checkered. CW: Congrats on a great hire, West Point. ...

     ... Via Charles Pierce: "This is just the kind of guy you want teaching young people who one day may be commanding heavy weapons platoons."

Best Year to Confess to Abortion: 2016. Sarah Bailey & Michael Boorstein of the Washington Post: "In a letter, Pope Francis said he would allow all priests to formally forgive women who have had abortions and seek absolution during the Roman Catholic Church's upcoming Holy Year."

Presidential Race

** Anne Tompkins in a USA Today op-ed: "Former attorney general Michael Mukasey recently compared the inquiry into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of State with former CIA director David Petraeus' federal conviction for the unauthorized removal and retention of classified information. As the former U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, I oversaw the prosecution of Gen. Petraeus, and I can say, based on the known facts, this comparison has no merit. The key element that distinguishes Secretary Clinton's email retention practices from Petraeus' sharing of classified information is that Petraeus knowingly engaged in unlawful conduct, and that was the basis of his criminal liability." ...

... Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "The State Department released another tranche of emails from Hillary Clinton's private server late Monday. The release -- which contained 7,000 pages of emails sent and received from 2009-2010, about topics ranging from Middle East policy to a controversial Rolling Stone cover story about American general Stanley McChrystal -- is the latest monthly instalment of messages that Clinton turned over to the State Department from her private 'homebrew' server." ...

... Peter Baker & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The [State] department initially said it had redacted information from roughly 150 emails because they contained sensitive information, then reduced that estimate to 125. The information was deleted because 'confidential' materials -- the lowest classification of government intelligence -- had been discovered in the correspondence. None of the documents were [sic!] marked classified at the time they were sent, said Mark Toner, a spokesman for the State Department. ...

... Shock! David Brooks is largely correct about Hillary Clinton. CW: I'd add this: when people vote for president, they take it personally. They're voting for their own futures as much as for the nations'. Hillary nearly won the Democratic primary in 2008 because her very candidacy suggested a hope for a country which more fully embraced women's equality. Supporters were passionate about Hillary because she was a woman, not because she was Hillary Clinton. That moment has passed. Her near-win showed Americans that on the Democratic side gender equality was a given. Hillary's agenda, as far as she has articulated, is fine with many Democrats & independents. A "fine" agenda is okay for candidates for lower offices. For president, it is not enough.

Bern-Storming. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: Bernie Sanders has expanded his campaign staff in Iowa & elsewhere. The Iowa organization "now has 53 people on staff, with a 'robust hiring plan' made possible by Mr. Sanders's fund-raising success with small donors, according to his campaign manager, Jeff Weaver. This past weekend alone, he said, the campaign's 1,700 volunteers marched out of 15 campaign offices throughout the state to knock on 17,000 doors and make 10,000 phone calls. They call it Bern-Storming."

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "For years, Republicans have run for office on promises of cutting taxes and bolstering business to stimulate economic growth, pledging allegiance to a Reaganesque model of conservatism that has largely become the party's orthodoxy. But this election cycle..., [Donald Trump] is taking a different approach, and it is jangling the nerves of some of the party's most traditional supporters.... In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on American companies that put their factories in other countries. He has suggested he would increase taxes on the compensation of hedge fund managers. And he has vowed to change laws that allow American companies to benefit from cheaper tax rates by using mergers to base their operations outside the United States." ...

... Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: "Critics, including many leading conservative economists in Washington, call Trump's plans 'nativist,' 'protectionist' and incompatible with the party's core pro-market beliefs. They also worry Trump's ideas could spread to other GOP contenders." Tankerley cites some winger economists who are all upset that Trump isn't sticking to the party line on "free-market" economics & exploiting cheap labor in other countries.

Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "Donald Trump and Ben Carson are tied for the lead of Republican presidential candidates in the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa, according to a Monmouth University poll released on Monday. The survey found Trump and Carson taking 23 percent support each.... Former business executive Carly Fiorina is in third place in the poll with 10 percent support, followed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) at 9 percent support." CW: So the top three candidates are not politicians, & the fourth is an anti-Washington loudmouth. Iowa Republicans really don't like professional pols.

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump released a chilling video Monday attacking opponent Jeb Bush for once suggesting that undocumented immigrants entered the United States as 'an act of love.'... Trump posted [the video] to Instagram and Twitter...":

... The Wimpiness of the Doofus. Jonathan Chait: "The ad juxtaposes Bush with images of undocumented immigrants who committed murder.... Bush hits back at Trump by calling him ... liberal.... So the only response to this kind of crude, dishonest nativism is to get to your opponent's right?"

Gene Robinson makes fun of Scott Canadian Wall, Chris Fedex. Bobby Invasion, not to mention Donald Deportation. "... as long as other candidates are competing to sound tougher-than-thou, as long as the conversation is about how high to build new walls and blame is ascribed to immigrants for not assimilating quickly enough, the GOP is digging itself a hole that will be hard to escape." ...

... Eliza Collins of Politico: Canadian Defense Minister Jason Kenney is not amused by the Walker Wall. Scottie, as he always does, is trying to backpedal, this time blaming unnamed "people" in "law enforcement" for "expressed" "security concerns." ...

... Dana Liebelson of the Huffington Post: "Canada responded on Monday to GOP presidential contender Scott Walker's controversial comments about building a northern border wall by pointing out that the terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks had U.S. visas." ...

... CW: By his own account, Scottie has been to Canada "a million times." Earlier this year, he went on a taxpayer-funded jaunt trade mission to Quebec, where he says he'd never been before. Maybe the Frenchiness of Quebec made him suddenly realize that the Canada he thought he knew so well was actually a dangerous foreign country full of radical sovereignists. At the same time, if your aim is to drum up Canadian business for your state, building a wall between Canada & said state would seem a bit counterproductive.

Your government might have grown too large if they have 48 federal SWAT teams. The Department of Education has a SWAT team. They arrested a man and handcuffed him for six hours for nonpayment of student debt. Unfortunately, it wasn't his student debt. Turns out it was his girlfriend's student debt. The Department of Agriculture has a SWAT team. You know what they arrested somebody for not too long ago? Selling milk directly from the cow. We've gone crazy. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), speech in Alaska, Aug. 25, 2015

Paul's description of federal agencies with law enforcement officers, the DOE case and the raw milk cases was inaccurate on almost all fronts. The federal government does not have 48 SWAT teams; it has one, with the FBI. There are dozens of agencies with specialized forces, or armed agents to carry out the agency's criminal enforcement -- which is not the same thing as a SWAT team. The DOE case he described was debunked after the original local report.... His second story also is inaccurate. The FDA (which he called USDA) does not have a SWAT team. The two sellers prosecuted in the case were not just penalized for selling unpasteurized milk.... The California store owner did not obtain proper licenses, and the Pennsylvania farmer was prosecuted for interstate commerce, which is illegal. -- Michelle Lee of the Washington Post

Everything Is Obama's Fault, Ctd. Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested President Obama bore some of the blame for Friday's fatal shooting of a sheriff's deputy in Houston, Texas. During a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Cruz ... said. "And I do think we're seeing the manifestation of the rhetoric and vilification of law enforcement, of police, that is coming from the president of the United States and it's coming from senior officials.'... Local authorities, including Harris County Sherriff Ron Hickman, believe [Darren] Goforth 'was a target because he wore a uniform.' Cruz suggested President Obama's condemnation of the fatal shootings of unarmed black teenagers in cities including Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland helped to inflame anti-cop sentiment."...

... Ed Kilgore: "There you have it: express concern about the police shooting black people without cause and you are inciting cop-killers. Yet in the same breath Cruz accuses of Obama of inflaming 'racial divisions.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Guardian: "A federal appeals court considering whether California's death penalty is unconstitutional because of excessive delays focused on Monday mainly on procedural issues over whether a killer's novel legal theory had been addressed by the state supreme court. In the case of a Los Angeles rapist and murderer on death row for more than two decades, three judges on the ninth US circuit court of appeals wanted to know if all appeals were exhausted in state court before a federal judge ruled last year that the death penalty was dysfunctional because of unpredictable delays that have seldom led to executions."

Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "The man charged with killing a sheriff's deputy at a suburban gas station Friday emptied his 15-round handgun into the back and the back of the head of the deputy, as witnesses watched in horror and surveillance cameras captured the shooting, prosecutors said Monday. The man, Shannon Jaruay Miles, 30, walked into a courtroom crowded with sheriff's deputies and police officers for his first court appearance [in Houston, Texas,] Monday morning...." ...

... Guardian: "The man accused of shooting and killing a suburban Houston officer has a history of mental illness and once lived in a homeless shelter, authorities said on Monday." ...

... Charles Pierce: "Over the past several weeks, a number of police officers in a number of places have been killed. Goforth's murder, however, coming on the heels of the slaughter of the Virginia news crew last week, has assumed a very large place in the national spotlight and, as such, is being used as a rally point for the unmistakable beginnings of a national backlash. It began with the very first press conference in the aftermath of Goforth's murder." ...

... CBS/AP: "After a white Houston sheriff's deputy was ambushed and fatally shot by a black man at a gas station, the sheriff linked the killing to heightened tension over the treatment of African-Americans by police, citing the 'Black Lives Matter' movement.... 'We've heard Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter. Well, cops' lives matter, too,' [Harris County Sheriff Ron] Hickman said Saturday." ...

... CW: Can a mentally-ill, serially-criminal black person murder a white cop in cold blood (with a gun he should not be allowed to own) -- and not be part of a political movement? Although Texas does not require prosecutors to show motive to prove their case, local law enforcement officials are working mighty hard to discover Miles' motive. ...

... CW: Well, this doesn't help. Nicole Norfleet of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "The president of the St. Paul police union has sharply criticized some protesters at Saturday's Black Lives Matter march to the Minnesota State Fair for what he calls a 'disgusting' chant.... Some demonstrators shouted chants criticizing police as they were being escorted by officers who cleared the way for the demonstration, said David Titus, head of the St. Paul Police Federation.... A short video posted on Twitter shows that at one point in the march, at least several protesters were at the front carrying a banner and shouting, 'Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon!' as the camera pans to show police on bikes, squad cars and a utility vehicle. 'Quite simply -- that promotes death to cops,' Titus said in a statement posted on the union's Facebook page." ...

... Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "During a segment on the Black Lives Matter movement on Monday morning, 'Fox and Friends' host Elisabeth Hasselbeck suggested that the organization be labeled a hate group. Fox brought on conservative African-American writer Kevin Jackson to discuss the Saturday Black Lives Matter protest at the Minnesota State Fair and the Friday shooting of a Texas sheriff's deputy.... 'Well they should do it, but unfortunately it's being financed by the leftists,' Jackson said in response."

Ciara McCarthy of the Guardian: "The death of a man at a jail in Texas earlier this month was caused in part by sheriff's deputies restraining him and one placing his knee on the man's back and throat, authorities in Dallas said on Monday. Joseph Hutcheson, who suffered from a heart condition and had consumed illegal drugs, died on 1 August of a homicide, according to the Dallas County medical examiner's office."

Manny Fernandez & Ashley Southall of the New York Times: "The fatal shooting of a Texas man by sheriff's deputies in San Antonio last week was captured on video that appears to show he had his hands up when the officers fired. The Bexar County Sheriff's department identified the man on Monday as Gilbert Flores, 41."

John Eligon of the New York Times: "A white supremacist was convicted of capital murder on Monday in the shooting deaths of three people a year ago at a Jewish community center and an assisted living facility in suburban Kansas City. After a weeklong trial, jurors deliberated for about two hours before convicting Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., 74, a former Ku Klux Klan leader with a history of racist and anti-Semitic actions. Proceedings to determine Mr. Miller's punishment were scheduled to start Tuesday morning. Mr. Miller could receive the death penalty."

News Lede

Washington Post: "Overwhelmed by thousands of asylum-seekers, Hungarian authorities Tuesday briefly halted rail traffic from their nation's main train station, the latest blow to borderless movement in Europe.... The asylum-seekers, many of whom are fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, hope to make it onward to Germany, which has promised shelter and sustenance for Syrians. By midday in Budapest, the train station had been reopened, but migrants were being kept away, Hungary's state-owned news agency reported."