The Commentariat -- April 28, 2014

Internal links removed.

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "On Sunday, President Obama visited Malaysia to underscore how much has changed in the last 16 years -- not least in this country's attitude toward the United States, which has evolved from deep-seated suspicion to a cautious desire for cooperation. Citing negotiations for a trans-Pacific trade accord, a formal agreement to cooperate in halting the spread of nuclear equipment, and the international search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, Mr. Obama said, 'We're working more closely together than ever before.'" ...

... Emily Rauhala of Time: "On Monday morning, local time, the U.S. and the Philippines signed a 10 year pact that will give U.S. planes, warships and troops more access to the archipelagic nation. The U.S. will not reestablish a permanent base, but will rotate troops through. The deal, officially called the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, took eight months of negotiation, and gives some substance to the Obama's administration's 'pivot' to Asia."

Andrew Taylor of the AP: "Congress gets back to work Monday after a two-week vacation, and it's looking like lawmakers will do what they do best: the bare minimum."

A Congressional Perp Surrenders. Paul Kane & Adam Goldman of the Washington Post: "Rep. Michael G. Grimm (R-N.Y.) surrendered Monday morning to federal authorities in New York as he faces multiple charges connected to a restaurant business he operated before entering Congress in 2011, according to sources familiar with the long-running probe into the lawmaker's finances. Grimm spent much of the weekend hunkered down, bracing for the unveiling of the federal charges, which were due to be disclosed after his surrender. He turned himself in to the FBI at an undisclosed location Monday morning and was taken to Lower Manhattan for processing."

Julie Creswell & Robert Gebeloff of the New York Times: "... in 2012, according to federal data, $4.1 million from Medicare coursed through the office in a modest white house on Ocean Avenue [in Brooklyn]. In all, the practice treated around 1,950 Medicare patients that year. On average, it was paid by Medicare for 94 separate procedures for each one. That works out to about 183,000 treatments a year, 500 a day, 21 an hour. What makes those figures more remarkable, and raises eyebrows among medical experts, is that judging by Medicare billing records, one person did it all. His name is Wael Bakry, and he is not some A-list cardiologist, oncologist or internist. He is a physical therapist.... Physical therapy has become a Medicare gold mine.... Federal authorities say the borough [of Brooklyn] is a national hot spot for Medicare fraud, particularly fraud involving physical therapy."

"Welfare Queens of the Purple Sage." Paul Krugman: "... at the heart of the [Cliven Bundy-BLM] standoff was a perversion of the concept of freedom, which for too much of the right has come to mean the freedom of the wealthy to do whatever they want, without regard to the consequences for others.... In many cases [the BLM] doesn't even charge enough to cover the costs that these private activities impose. In effect, the government is ... subsidiz[ing] ranchers and mining companies at taxpayers' expense.... Some of the people profiting from implicit taxpayer subsidies manage, all the same, to convince themselves and others that they are rugged individualists. But they're actually welfare queens of the purple sage. And this in turn means that treating Mr. Bundy as some kind of libertarian hero is, not to put too fine a point on it, crazy." Read the whole column.

Guns for the Kiddies. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "The National Rifle Association on Sunday offered young children free membership and the opportunity to win a high-powered rifle or shotgun. A 'Youth Day' at the influential gun lobby group's annual convention in Indianapolis was scheduled to culminate with a prize draw in which participants could take home a WBY-X rifle or shotgun supplied by Weatherby, a major firearms manufacturer and a sponsor of the event. All were also given a free six-month youth membership of the NRA. Media were banned from covering Youth Day." CW: What? The NRA isn't proud of giving guns to children?

Richard Kahlenberg, in the New Republic, reviews Place and Race, by Sheryll Cashin. "The achievement gap by income is twice the gap by race.... Cashin proposes giving a leg-up in college admissions to students of any race who grow up in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods and attend high poverty schools." Read the whole review.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: " In a major test of how to interpret the Fourth Amendment in the digital age, the Supreme Court on Tuesday will consider two cases about whether the police need warrants to search the cellphones of the people they arrest.... The justices are not always savvy about technology. At last week's argument over whether an Internet streaming service is lawful, Justice Antonin Scalia seemed to think HBO is a broadcast rather than a cable channel."

Reity O'Brien, et al., in the Daily Beast: "Federal judges aren't supposed to hear cases in which they have a financial stake. Dozens do it anyway.... In all, the Center [for Public Integrity] identified 24 cases where judges owned stock in a company with a case before them. In two other instances, the judges had financial ties with law firms working on cases over which they presided."

Missed This. David Streitfeld of the New York Times (April 24): "Four of the largest technology companies tentatively settled on Thursday a class action brought by 64,000 of their engineers, who accused them of agreeing not to solicit one another's employees. The amount of the settlement was not released, but people with knowledge of the deal said it was in the neighborhood of $300 million. The companies, which are some of the world's richest, must think that is a bargain." ...

... Kevin Roose of New York: "... Silicon Valley's top-level executives often behave as a cartel -- displaying more loyalty to each other, across company lines, than to their own employees -- and that Steve Jobs was a particularly feared cartel leader with a retributive streak.... In tech..., collusion was the status quo. As the pretrial documents show, executives at these firms made blanket promises not to recruit each others' employees for years, causing thousands of their workers to lose out on opportunities they might otherwise have had."

E. J. Dionne: "The creativity of the National Rifle Association and other organizations devoted to establishing conditions in which every man, woman and child in our nation will have to be armed is awe-inspiring.... Nowhere else in the world do the laws on firearms become the playthings of politicians and lobbyists intent on manufacturing cultural conflict. Nowhere else do elected officials turn the matter of taking a gun to church into a searing ideological question. But then, guns are not a religion in most countries."

When Dumb & Dumber Are One & the Same

Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists. -- Former half-governor & vice-presidential runner-up Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), speaking at the NRA convention

Do you know why those clownish little Kumbaya-humming fairytale-inhaling liberals want to be tough all of a sudden and control your guns? It's 'cuz guys like Al Franken and Harry Reid, they are not satisfied with just taking your money and your job, your truck and your property and your rights, your healthcare -- they didn't want to just stop at that. -- Palin again

The Sporting Life

Kyle Wagner of Deadspin: "Deadspin has acquired an extended, 15-minute version of the conversation between Clippers owner Donald Sterling and his then-girlfriend V. Stiviano. If the original nine-minute tape acquired by TMZ left any questions about Sterling's opinions regarding minorities, the audio here should remove all doubt that he's a doddering racist with views not too far removed from the plantation."...

... Adolfo Flores & Bettina Boxall of the Los Angeles Times: "An audio recording said to be of Clippers team owner Donald Sterling making racist statements is authentic, and a woman named V. Stiviano did not release it to any news outlets, her attorney said in an e-mail Sunday to the Los Angeles Times. The 15-minute recording is part of a one-hour conversation between Sterling and his client, V. Stiviano, attorney Mac Nehoray said in the e-mail. Nehoray, of the Calabasas-based Nehoray Legal Group, is representing Stiviano in a civil lawsuit brought against her by Sterling's wife, Rochelle." ...

... Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post: Clippers owner Don Sterling's racism has "surely been common knowledge among NBA owners and executives for years, as far back as 1983 when he allegedly called his own players the N-word.... [His racism emerged in] sworn testimony in a 2002 slumlording case against Sterling for discriminating against tenants, not just blacks, but also Hispanics, who he called lazy drunks, and Koreans, who he deemed too powerless to complain, according to statements compiled by Deadspin.com.... That's the only way to eject Sterling from the league: through a backroom deal forged by the owners." ...

... CW: All of which makes me wonder why the NAACP was going to give Sterling a lifetime achievement award. ...

... How the Super-Rich "Pay" for Their Transgressions. Robert Silverman of the Daily Beast: "The NBA will likely suspend L.A. Clippers owner over his racist remarks and 'encourage' him to sell the team -- and it's not inconceivable the sale will earn him a $988 million profit." ...

... John Branch of the New York Times: "In a silent sign of solidarity, [Clippers] players shed their warm-up jackets together before the [playoff] game and placed them in a pile at midcourt, revealing red, long-sleeved team shirts worn inside out to obscure the team's name. And while they wore the Clippers' blue jerseys during the game, each player also wore black socks and black wristbands":

"Northwestern's shame." Ian Crouch of the New Yorker: "You can make your voice heard. You can change the world. These are the kinds of opportunities élite universities promise prospective students in their glossy brochures. On Friday, the scholarship players on Northwestern University's football team gathered to do just that, in a historic vote on the question of unionization. Northwestern should have supported these players' right to a fair process just as eagerly as it celebrates their accomplishments on game days. Instead, according to several reports this week, school officials waged an organized campaign with a single goal: to sway the players toward voting no."

Presidential Race

I have a source that told me that if Jeb Bush decides not to run, that Mitt Romney may actually try it again. -- Bob Schieffer of CBS "News"

Ben White & Maggie Haberman of Politico: "The darkest secret in the big money world of the Republican coastal elite is that the most palatable alternative to a nominee such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas or Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky would be [Hillary] Clinton, a familiar face on Wall Street following her tenure as a New York senator with relatively moderate views on taxation and financial regulation."

Congressional Elections

Jonathan Chait: "Maybe the election won't be about ObamaCare, after all."

Sasha Issenberg, in the New Republic, thinks he has the formula for Democrats to win midterm elections: "Raise the dollars and secure the volunteer commitments. Then go and turn out those who are already on your side but won't show up without a friendly nudge." CW: Kind of a no-brainer.

News Ledes

New York Times: "President Obama, declaring that Russia was continuing to bully and threaten Ukraine, said [in Manila] on Monday that the United States would impose additional sanctions on Russian individuals and entities, as well as freezing some exports of military technology. The announcement, during a visit by Mr. Obama to the Philippines, was widely expected." ...

... Guardian: "The mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, was fighting for his life on Monday after unidentified gunmen shot him in the back as he went for a morning swim. Gennady Kernes, 54, was undergoing emergency surgery in hospital, his office said."

AP: "A judge in Egypt on Monday sentenced to death 683 alleged supporters of the country's ousted Islamist president, including the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader, the latest in mass trials that have drawn international condemnation and stunned rights groups. The same judge also upheld the death penalty for 37 of 529 defendants sentenced in a similar case in March, though he commuted the rest to life imprisonment."

Daily Beast: "If there's no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict soon, Israel risks becoming 'an apartheid state,' Secretary of State John Kerry told a room of influential world leaders in a closed-door meeting Friday. Senior American officials have rarely, if ever, used the term 'apartheid' in reference to Israel, and President Obama has previously rejected the idea that the word should apply to the Jewish state. Kerry's use of the loaded term is already rankling Jewish leaders in America...."

Reuters: "Tornadoes ripped through the south-central United States on Sunday, killing at least 17 people in Arkansas and Oklahoma and wiping out entire neighborhoods, authorities said as rescue workers searched in darkness for survivors."

Washington Post: "Frank Phillips, a Knox County[, Tennessee,] Sheriff's officer was fired Sunday night after a series of pictures taken by photographer John Messner were published in the Daily Mail in Britain. They showed an officer identified by the Sheriff's office as Phillips grabbing 21-year-old college student Jarod Dotson around the neck and squeezing until he fell to his knees."

The Commentariat -- April 27, 2014

Maureen Dowd: "When the younger stars of the G.O.P. race to embrace a racist anarchist lionized by Sean Hannity, it underscores the party's lack of leadership or direction." ...

... Charles Blow: "... I refuse to let Bundy's fantasies about slavery and projections about 'Negroes' be given over to predictable political squabbling. The legacy of slavery must be liberated from political commentary. Casual, careless and incorrect references to slavery, much like blithe references to Nazi Germany, do violence to the memory of those who endured it, or were lost to it, and to their descendants." ...

... CW: Blow wrote, "America must live with the memory of what its forefathers -- even its founding fathers — did." That's hardly news. But what struck me is this: the right's fascination with the founders, their adherence to originalism, their donning of Tea Party tricorns, etc., is not in spite of the fact that many of the founders were slaveholders. It is because of it. They revere the founding fathers because they were white, they were men, they were propertied, and they had but the slightest qualms about subjugating or slaughtering people of color. What the Tea Party admires about the founders is what Blow -- and others -- call "America's original sin." ...

... AND, speaking of racists, here's the Washington Post story, by Cindy Boren, on remarks reputedly made by NBA Clippers' owner Don Sterling.  The Los Angeles Times story is here. The TMZ audio, with a transcript, is here. See also Safari's remarks in today's Comments. ...

... The CNN story, to which Safari refers, is here. President Obama, responding to a reporter's question said (as cited in the CNN story,

'When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't really have to do anything, you just let them talk. That's what happened here.' ... Obama also said Sterling's alleged comments are an example of how 'the United States continues to wrestle with the legacy of race and slavery and segregation. That's still there, the vestiges of discrimination. We've made enormous strides, but you're going to continue to see this percolate up every so often.'

      ... CW: I feel pretty sure the President was directing his remarks to Chief Justice John Roberts.

Maura Casey reviews Elizabeth Warren's memoir for the Washington Post. Casey makes the book sound like one of the few politicians' books worth reading.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "For years, the suspicion that [Vladimir] Putin has a secret fortune has intrigued scholars, industry analysts, opposition figures, journalists and intelligence agencies but defied their efforts to uncover it. Numbers are thrown around suggesting that Mr. Putin may control $40 billion or even $70 billion, in theory making him the richest head of state in world history.... Mr. Obama's response to the Ukraine crisis, while derided by critics as slow and weak, has reinvigorated a 15-year global hunt for Mr. Putin's hidden wealth." ...

... Eli Lake of the Daily Beast mocks Vladimir Putin's assertion that the Internet is a CIA operation. (See also link in yesterday's Commentariat.)

All Popes Day. Anthony Faiola & Stefano Pitrelli of the Washington Post: "Throngs of pilgrims crammed into St. Peter's Square early Sunday to watch the canonizations of John Paul II and John XXIII, a historic event bestowing sainthood on two looming figures of the 20th century who left outsized marks on the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis began presiding over the church's first twin canonizations of popes in a ceremony that apparently represents a decision by the crusading new pontiff to please both reformers and traditionalists." ...

... Anthony Faiola on saintly "miracles": "Some hope that the reforming new pope is moving to modernize the image of saints. The time has come, they say, to shift the emphasis from the mystical nature of saints toward their status as role models."

News Ledes

Guardian: "Pro-Russian separatists seized control of the TV station in the eastern city of Donetsk on Sunday, and immediately set about switching off Ukrainian TV and replacing it with Russian channels that broadcast exclusively pro-Kremlin views. A crowd of about 300 left a rally in Donetsk's Lenin Square and marched through the city centre, pulling down Ukrainian flags.... The capture of the TV tower appears to be part of an unfolding plan to shut out information critical of Moscow and replace it with Kremlin propaganda. In Slavyansk, meanwhile, rebels released one of eight European military observers kidnapped on Friday. Stella Korosheva, a spokeswoman for the town's separatist leadership, said they had freed a Swede. 'He has a mild form of diabetes so we decided to let him go.'"

New York Times: "Syria missed a revised deadline on Sunday for completing the export or destruction of chemicals in its weapons arsenal, but the government of the war-ravaged country may be only days away from finishing the job, according to international experts overseeing the process."

The Commentariat -- April 26, 2014

Internal links, obsolete videos removed.

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The United States and other members of the Group of Seven will impose new sanctions against Russia as early as Monday because it continues to support separatist actions in Ukraine, White House officials said Saturday. President Obama, traveling through Asia, has been consulting with U.S. allies about the worsening situation in Ukraine, where a peace agreement struck a week ago has yet to defuse tensions." ...

... Josh Rogin of the Daily Beast: "The Kremlin has ended high-level contact with the Obama administration, according to diplomatic officials and sources close to the Russian leadership. The move signals an end to the diplomacy, for now. 'Putin will not talk to Obama under pressure,' said Igor Yurgens..., a close associate of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. 'It does not mean forever.'" ...

... AFP: " Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called the Internet a 'CIA project' and warned Russians against making Google searches. Putin assured a group of young journalists that the Internet was controlled from the start by the CIA and its surveillance continues today."

Perhaps the Most Insidious Way the Plutocracy Is Taking Control. Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "In effect, [the] Walton [Family Foundation] has subsidized an entire charter school system in the nation's capital, helping to fuel enrollment growth so that close to half of all public school students in the city now attend charters, which receive taxpayer dollars but are privately operated. Walton's investments [in Washington, D.C.] are a microcosm of its spending across the country.... Analysts often describe Walton as following a distinct ideological path. In addition to giving grants to right-leaning think tanks like the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, the Walton foundation hired an education program officer who had worked at the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC]."

Edmund Zagorin in the American Prospect: "Race-blind admissions are affirmative action for whites.... No group experiences more affirmative action than white people. Michigan's formal pro-white affirmative action policy, colloquially known as 'legacy preference,' puts the children of alumni ahead of other applicants. It unquestionably favors the white and the wealthy, at the expense of the poor and the black. Outside of the U.S., legacy admissions mostly went the way of feudalism. But at many U.S. universities, and especially at Michigan, legacy admissions amount to an eternal parade of white pride.... And legacy doesn't even scratch the surface of the biggest instrument of racial discrimination...: standardized testing.... Standardized testing is literally the example given in sociological texts to define the term "institutional racism'."

Abby Rapoport of the American Prospect: "By appointing [Deborah Leff,] an advocate for defendants' rights, as the new pardon attorney, the Obama administration has signaled it is serious about commuting drug offenses."

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "... the Navy brass is reeling over this week's disclosure that one of its most prominent pilots is under investigation for allegedly fostering a culture of sexual harassment, hazing and lewd behavior. The pilot, Capt. Gregory McWherter, is the former commander and public face of the Blue Angels, the Navy's elite flight squadron. Less well known is the fact that until Friday, he also was president of the Tailhook Association, a nonprofit aviator fraternity that despite its past disgrace still draws thousands to its annual convention.... On Friday, however, he submitted his resignation as president of the Tailhook Association...."

"Party of Guns." James Hohmann of Politico: "At the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Indianapolis Friday, six potential Republican candidates for president touted their pro-gun bona fides and pledged allegiance to the Second Amendment."

Ashley Parker & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Speculation about Speaker John A. Boehner's intentions in overhauling the nation's immigration laws intensified Friday after he mocked the most conservative House members for thwarting his attempts to fix the system, shore up the borders and address the legal status of the country's 11 million illegal immigrants. For Mr. Boehner of Ohio, who expressed his frustrations at a Rotary Club luncheon in Ohio on Thursday, it was the latest in a series of bracing comments that White House officials and activists said could be an indication that he was willing to buck opposition in his own party and move ahead on immigration." CW: I'm not holding my breath. But if Boehner does break with the Tea Party on immigration, Nancy Pelosi will do the heavy lifting. Again.

... Otherwise, a Great Day for the GOP

Ed O'Keefe & Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) has been secretly indicted by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, according to people familiar with the case. The indictment is expected to be unsealed in the coming days. A person briefed on the case said Grimm was indicted by a grand jury empaneled by the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn and that his attorney had been in talks with prosecutors." ...

... Grimm, in happier days (January 2014):

Lauren French of Politico: "The House Ethics Committee is investigating whether retiring Rep. Steve Stockman's campaign committee violated federal law. The investigation over reporting errors sent to the Federal Election Commission was made public by the Texas Republican's office on Friday."

Flunked GOP How-to-Talk-to-the-Ladies Class. Manu Raju of Politico: "Det Bowers, a pastor challenging Lindsey Graham in the South Carolina GOP Senate primary, once blamed women for causing most divorces -- even when husbands are unfaithful to their wives. During a sermon on the Book of Peter delivered at the Christ Church of the Carolinas, Bowers said it was an 'abominable idolatry' when wives love their children more than their husbands, arguing that's what causes divorces most of the time. He added that in the 'vast preponderance' of situations where men are adulterous, women are to blame because they have showered too much emotion on their children instead of their husbands."

A Great Day for the GOP A'Way Out West

You People Are So Unfair. Daniel Strauss of TPM: Sean Spicer, "a top spokesman for the Republican National Committee, got heated during an interview Friday on CNN, saying Republicans have been unfairly linked to Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his racist remarks." With video. ...

... CW: Right. Prominent Republicans -- including three who see themselves as presidential material -- endorsed Bundy's views, & GOP house organ Fox "News" made Bundy their cause celebre, but there are no "links" whatsoevah to the Republican party. ...

... Christopher Hooks of the Texas Observer "points & laughs" at how prominent Texas politicians Sen. Ted Cruz (might run for president), AG Greg Abbott (running for governor), Gov. Rick Perry (might run for president) reacted to Cliven Bundy's racist comments. ...

I took this boot off so I wouldn't put my foot in my mouth with the boot on.... But you know, when you talk about prejudice, we're talking about not being able to exercise what we think and our feelings. We don't have freedom to say what we want. If I call -- if I say negro or black boy or slave, I'm not -- if those people cannot take those kind of words and not be offended, then Martin Luther King hasn't got his job done then yet. They should be able to -- I should be able to say those things and they shouldn't offend anybody. I didn't mean to offend them. -- Cliven Bundy, yesterday

So, black people or Martin Luther King, Jr. -- who's been dead for nearly half a century -- are taking away Bundy's freedom of speech. 'Those people' have a helluva a lot of nerve taking offense at his derogatory, racist comments. -- Constant Weader

... ** Hilarious Craigslist ad via Betty Cracker of Balloon Juice. ...

... Gail Collins weighs in. To protect the ecosystem, those cattle should be banned from federal lands. ...

... Caty Enders of Esquire visits the Bundy Ranch. Creepy-funny. Or just creepy.

A Great Day for the GOP in New Jersey

Lisa Brennan of Main Justice: "The Securities and Exchange Commission has joined with the Manhattan District Attorney's office to investigate possible misuse of Port Authority of New York and New Jersey funds by Gov. Chris Christie.... Two SEC Enforcement Division lawyers in the New York regional office are examining the manner by which the Christie administration apparently steamrolled the agency's top in-house counsel into creating a legal justification in 2011 allowing the New Jersey governor to grab $1.8 billion of Port Authority tax-exempt bonds to fix the aging Pulaski Skyway bridge and other neglected state roadways.... But the justification for the diversion may have constituted fraud." ...

... Scott Raab of Esquire elaborates.

Bad News for ALEC & the Koch Boys

Steven Mufson & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "In state capitals across the country, legislators are debating proposals to roll back environmental rules, prodded by industry and advocacy groups eager to curtail regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gases. The measures ... have been introduced in about 18 states.... The new rules would trim or abolish climate mandates -- including those that require utilities to use solar and wind energy, as well as proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules.... But the campaign -- despite its backing from powerful groups such as [Koch-funded] Americans for Prosperity -- has run into a surprising roadblock: the growing political clout of renewable-energy interests, even in rock-ribbed Republican states such as Kansas."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, the No. 2 official in the South Korean government, apologized and offered to resign on Sunday, as the country remained angry and saddened over the sinking of a ferry that left 302 people, a vast majority of them high school students, dead or missing."

New York Times: "Antigovernment militants in eastern Ukraine on Saturday rebuffed international calls for the release of a group of European military observers, but suggested that they would consider a prisoner exchange. The military observers -- at least seven officers reportedly from Germany, Poland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Denmark -- were detained on Friday at a rebel checkpoint at the edge of this city while traveling with a Ukrainian military delegation, which was also held. The militants have accused the observers of espionage."

AFP: "US troops arrived Saturday in Lithuania, part of a US contingent of 600 sent to the region to reassure NATO allies amid the escalating Ukraine crisis. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite hailed the arrival of American forces as a 'deterrence measure' in the region where alarm has risen over Russia's actions in Ukraine."

Reuters: "President Barack Obama said on Saturday the United States did not use its military might to 'impose things' on others, but that it would use that might if necessary to defend South Korea from any attack by the reclusive North." ...

... New York Times: "Opening the first visit to Malaysia by a U.S. president in nearly half a century, Barack Obama looked ahead Saturday to economic and security talks with Prime Minister Najib Razak, who leads a southeast Asian nation with an important role in Obama's efforts to forge deeper ties with the region."