The Commentariat -- July 5, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Mark Landler of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said on Tuesday that the bureau would not recommend criminal charges in Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information, lifting an enormous legal cloud from her presidential campaign.... But Mr. Comey rebuked Mrs. Clinton as being 'extremely careless' in using a personal email address and server for sensitive information, declaring that an ordinary government official could have faced administrative sanction for such conduct. To warrant a criminal charge, Mr. Comey said, there had to be evidence that Mrs. Clinton intentionally sent or received classified information -- something that the F.B.I. did not find. 'Our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,' he said at a news conference."-- CW ...
... The full transcript of Comey's remarks, as prepared, via the Washington Post, is here. ...
... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress with "what you need to know about why ... charges [against Clinton] were never a realistic possibility." -- CW ...
... Nick Gass of Politico: "Donald Trump weighed in on the FBI's announcement that it would not recommend charges be brought against Hillary Clinton.... 'The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment,' Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.... Trump reiterated his claims of a rigged system in a subsequent tweet." ...
... CW: Really? Petraeus gave classified material to his girlfriend, who was not a federal employee, not cleared to receive classified matierial, & who carried the stuff around on an unsecured laptop &, I imagine, on flashdrives or other devices.
** Jonathan Chait: Hillary Clinton "is the 'most corrupt candidate ever,' [Trump] claims. Corruption is indeed a plausible line of attack against Clinton -- or, at least, it would be, if the opposing candidate was anybody other than Donald Trump, who may actually be the most corrupt presidential candidate ever. It should be conceded that the evidence against Clinton is fairly damning.... ... The case against Hillary Clinton is that her administration might be corrupted around the margins.... Trump is flamboyantly corrupt in ways that run to the very core of his identity and prospective governing choices.... Trump has not merely intermingled campaigning with his business interests; the two are one and the same." -- CW
Nick Gass: "Donald Trump's campaign has at various times banned publications like Politico, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed News and others from covering its events. But when journalists convene in Cleveland in less than two weeks, none of those outlets will be shut out of Quicken Loans Arena, the director of the House Daily Press Gallery told the Washington Examiner in an interview published Tuesday." CW: I wonder if Trump will be able to keep the press in a pen, which would be a first at any modern-day major-party convention.
*****
Fourth of July, 2016, Washington, D.C., "1812 Overture":
... Update. Or Not. Scandal on Capitol Hill! Emily Yahr of the Washington Post: "If you were watching Washington's Fourth of July fireworks outside on Monday night and also happened to catch PBS's broadcast of 'A Capitol Fourth,' you might have noticed something looked … a little off. The actual weather in Washington was cloudy and misty.... But on 'A Capitol Fourth,' the annual concert special that airs live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, many of the fireworks (primarily in the second half of the display) looked glorious in a clear sky.... Another giveaway? On TV, you couldn't see the construction scaffolding on the Capitol building, which has been there for many months.... As soon as the show ended, producers from Capital Concerts owned up to the fact that not all of its footage was from the live fireworks show.... 'We showed a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years. It was the patriotic thing to do,' the 'Capitol Fourth' account tweeted." ...
... The Management regrets it inadvertently foisted a hoax upon Reality Chex readers. No word yet if that's really the National Symphony Orchestra, et al., performing the "1812 Overture."
President Obama celebrates the 4th at the White House, winding up with an off-key rendition of "Happy Birthday" to daughter Malia:
... Update. If you thought this video of President Obama and Malia Obama looked ... a little off, the White House has owned up to the fact that the Obamas always visit Kenya on the 4th of July weekend and staff substituted footage from a 2007 birthday party for Jenna Bush. "It was the patriotic thing to do," the White House account tweeted.
If you are wondering why Confederates/Trumpbots think they are the "true patriots" & the rest of us are "politically-correct" rabble, here's your answer. It's hardwired into our history. ...
... The American Stain. Robert Parkinson, in a New York Times op-ed: "The Declaration [of Independence]'s beautiful preamble distracts us from the heart of the document, the 27 accusations against King George III over which its authors wrangled and debated.... The very last one '' the ultimate deal-breaker -- was the most important...: 'He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.' In the context of the 18th century, 'domestic insurrections' refers to rebellious slaves.... In fact, Jefferson had originally included an extended attack on the king for forcing slavery upon unwitting colonists.... [But] the Continental Congress cut out [Jefferson's argument against slavery].... This idea -- that some people belong as proper Americans and others do not -- has marked American history ever since.... This notion comes from the very founders we revere this weekend. It haunts us still." ...
... CW: Here is the portion of Jefferson's "original Rough draught" to which Parkinson refers. It is remarkable:
he [George III] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, & murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.
... MEANWHILE. Clare Foran of the Atlantic: "The United Kingdom's historic vote to leave the European Union ... has sparked interest in the far-fetched idea that U.S. states might win independence from Washington, D.C. Separatist groups are especially optimistic that Americans will be open to the idea of secession amid a presidential election that has witnessed a groundswell of populist discontent.... The improbable dream of secession is alive and well across the country and across the political spectrum. In the wake of the Brexit referendum, calls for secession everywhere from Alaska to New Hampshire have cropped up on social media." -- CW ...
... AND, in Washington, D.C. ... Lois Beckett of the Guardian: "Nearly two weeks after House Democrats staged a historic sit-in to demand action on gun control legislation, the Republican speaker of the House has agreed to hold a vote on a single gun-related bill: a measure to allow the attorney general to delay the sale of a gun to a suspected terrorist for three days, similar to a Senate measure backed by the National Rifle Association.... Nancy Pelosi slammed the legislation on Friday as 'a toothless NRA bill that will do nothing to keep our communities safe', and promised that Democrats would continue to fight for tougher gun control laws, including expanded background checks on gun sales." -- CW ...
... Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is planning to disrupt the House when members return as part of a push for more action to stop gun violence, according to a memo obtained by the Washington Examiner." -- CW
Bernard Avishai in the New Yorker, on Elie Wiesel, whose moral authority, Avishai poses, was marred by his support for Israeli aggression. -- CW
Washington Post Editors: Tesla's "Autopilot" system is not really an autopilot. "... the model [in which a Florida driver was killed by a semi the system did not detect] was not designed to be and should not have been considered to be fully self-driving. The car's semi-autonomous systems, which use onboard sensors to guide it away from hazards, were not advanced enough to steer and brake the car without the driver paying continuous attention and correcting when necessary." -- CW
Presidential Race
... Thanks to Patrick for the link. These ads seldom make me feel warm & fuzzy, though I'll have to admit I loved Bernie Sanders' "America" ads, if mostly for Simon & Garfunkel. But did they affect my vote? Nah.
Wherein David Brooks Casts a Vote for Bernie Sanders. (Well, Not Really): "The big historical context [of current British & American politics] is this: Something fundamental is shifting in our politics. The insiders can't see it. Outsiders get thrown up amid the tumult, but they are too marginal, eccentric and inexperienced to lead effectively. Without much enthusiasm, many voters seem to be flocking to tough, no-nonsense women who at least seem sensible: Angela Merkel, Hillary Clinton and, now, the Conservative Party front-runner, Theresa May. We probably need a political Pope Francis-type figure, who comes up from the bottom and understands life there, but who can still make the case for an open dynamic world, with free-flowing goods, ideas, capital and people." ...
... CW: Actually, Brooks, this isn't a shift; it's an expression of what's been visible all along & you -- being a proud insider -- couldn't see it.
El Pilkington & Mona Chalabi of the Guardian: "A Guardian call-out to online readers in the US asking them to reflect on the race so far was met by a barrage of criticism on the tone and substance of the world's most important election.... Resoundingly, the largest group of participants pointed to climate change ... [as] the 'one issue ... you wish the presidential candidates were discussing more'.... They noted that much of the Republican debate has either focused on blatant denial that climate change even exists or on how to unpick Barack Obama's attempts to fight global warming, while on the Democratic side both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have raised the issue but have rarely pushed it to the top of the political agenda." -- CW
Tim Devaney of the Hill: "WikiLeaks on Monday published more than 1,000 emails from Hillary Clinton's private server during her time as secretary of State about the Iraq War.... WikiLeaks combed through the emails to find all the messages that reference the Iraq War.... The development comes after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said last month the website had gathered 'enough evidence' for the FBI to indict Clinton." Assange said that would never happen as long as Loretta Lynch was AG. -- CW
Kyle Balluck of the Hill: "Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is attacking Donald Trump for ... [his] response to a tweet that critics say included anti-Semitic imagery. 'Donald Trump's use of blatantly anti-Semitic image from racist websites to promote his campaign would be disturbing enough, but the fact that it's part of a pattern should give voters major cause for concern,' Sara Bard, the campaign's director for Jewish outreach, said in a statement on Monday. 'Now, not only won't he apologize for it, he's peddling lies and blaming others,' she added." -- CW
Chris Mooney of the Washington Post: Donald Trump attempted to defend his use of a six-sided star superimposed upon $100 bills to criticize Hillary Clinton as corrupt. He tweeted, "Dishonest media is trying their absolute best to depict a star in a tweet as the Star of David rather than a Sheriff's Star, or plain star!'" CW: Except the original tweet was undoubtedly a copy of a graphic that appeared on white supremacists' sites. Also too, sheriff's badges, unlike the Star of David Trump tweeted, usually have circles at the ends of the points. So, not surprisingly, Trump is the Biggest 4th of Ju-Liar. ...
... Paul Waldman: The tweet isn't the problem. It's a symptom of the problem. "Donald Trump appeals directly to the worst in us, and the worst of us." -- CW
We are going to be so tough, we are going to be so smart and so vigilant, and we're going to get it so that people turn in people when they know there's something going on.... People have to turn people in. And if they don't turn them in, we are going to have more of these things. -- Donald Trump, in Denver last week, complaining about how "political correctness" prevents people from ratting on their terrorist neighbors
Palin Redux. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump met in New Jersey on Monday with Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, as he screens potential running mates in a series of meetings.... According to a source briefed on the meeting, both Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump's chief strategist who is handling much of the vice presidential search, and Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman, also attended.... In a post on Twitter on Monday, Mr. Trump praised Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, another military veteran who some Republicans hope will be chosen by Mr. Trump." -- CW
President Envy. Kyle Balluck: "Donald Trump is criticizing President Obama's use of Air Force One to travel to a campaign event in North Carolina on Tuesday with Hillary Clinton.... 'Why is President Obama allowed to use Air Force One on the campaign trail with Crooked Hillary? She is flying with him tomorrow. Who pays?'... A White House official told a Time magazine reporter that the Obama administration, like previous administrations, follows 'all rules and regulations to ensure that the [Democratic National Committee] or other relevant political committee pays what is required for the President to travel to political events.'" CW: Gee, I wonder why Trump doesn't have an ex-president or two to campaign for him.
The Übermensch. Conservative writer Peter Wehner in a New York Times op-ed: "This fulsome embrace of Mr. Trump [by evangelicals] is rather problematic, since he embodies a worldview that is incompatible with Christianity.... Time and again Mr. Trump has shown contempt for those he perceives as weak and vulnerable -- 'losers,' in his vernacular.... Mr. Trump embodies a Nietzschean morality rather than a Christian one.... Evangelical Christians who are enthusiastically supporting Donald Trump are signaling, even if unintentionally, that this calling has no place in politics and that Christians bring nothing distinctive to it -- that their past moral proclamations were all for show and that power is the name of the game." Thanks to Marvin S. for the link. -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Amanda Marcotte, in Salon: "Pulling back the curtain, one finds that the movement to transfer federal lands to state ownership is being funded and driven by conservative business groups that want that land to be turned over to corporate interests to be exploited for profit, even if doing so destroys the environment.... [The plan:] First, get the lands out of federal hands into state hands. Then, wait for the inevitable state budget crisis. Then, buy the resource-rich land, turning it from a beautiful, publicly accessible slice of nature into a resource extraction site.... The amount of sleaze and dishonesty in the propaganda effort is truly stunning. [The perps produce] the kind of propaganda that snakes its way down to people like the Bundys and their supporters, convincing them that the existence of national forests is somehow hurting them." -- CW
Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: Those "cheap political tricks" are getting expensive. "Lately..., the ammo required in ... culture wars has proved costlier than politicians, or their constituents, may have counted on. In North Carolina, legislators last week voted to transfer $500,000 from the state's emergency response and disaster relief fund to pay for litigation of the so-called bathroom bill.... Legal fees are likewise mounting in states that have attempted to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds (which often turns out to violate federal Medicaid law), to implement constitutionally dicey restrictions on abortion access, or both.... In some cases, such legal expenses are peanuts compared with the broader economic costs of these culture-war laws.... Any time legislators pass a law already facing a major legal challenge in another state, they should have to set aside funding for its defense." -- CW
Way Beyond
Aurelien Breeden of the New York Times: "A parliamentary inquiry has identified multiple failures by the French intelligence services before the two devastating terrorist attacks that struck the country in 2015, lawmakers said on Tuesday. At a news conference in Paris, the lawmakers who took part in the inquiry urged the French authorities to overhaul the organization of its intelligence services by replacing the overlapping and sometimes competing agencies with a unified structure that could share intelligence more efficiently." -- CW
News Lede
Washington Post: Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, "a former member of the Virginia National Guard, was arrested Sunday and accused in federal court of plotting a domestic terrorist attack on behalf of the Islamic State, authorities announced Tuesday." ...
... CW: This actually is your government at work. Not only that, according to the report, Jalloh "had told someone close to him" about his plans, & it was that person who informed authorities. Tho it ain't necessarily so, there's a fair chance that person was a Muslim. So to whoever that person is & whatever his beliefs, thank you for savings the lives of strangers. And to Donald Trump, STFU.
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Reader Comments (18)
Here is a nice generic presidential candidate ad:
http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/488972/this-is-a-generic-presidential-campaign-ad/
Psst! Rumor has it, some have suggested that it was the National Symphony Orchestra pretending to be the National Symphony Orchestra pretending to be the National Symphony Orchestra.
This NYT article about Trumps totally false claims to believe in Jesus actually tells even more about the fact that 'evangelical Christianity' is a fraud.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/05/opinion/campaign-stops/the-theology-of-donald-trump.html?ref=opinion
Marie and PD Pepe,
Thank you both for all you did to make our island 4th of July such a meaningful experience this year. Despite 19 years of formal education in the United States, months of Navy training, and years of adult education in Denmark, I had never before encountered the moving, instructive speech by Frederik Douglass. Humbling. My high school English teacher, a brilliant, phlegmatic Catholic priest, taught us that the surest sign of a truly educated person was that the person was aware of his or her ignorance. So thank you, Marie, for helping this particular reader to become a bit more aware of how much genuine knowledge and experience is out there, still to be learned, savored and, hopefully, employed.
PD Pepe, in the midst of the continuing and often distracting DT disaster, thank you for keeping your eye on young Senator TC. While I surely do not agree with many of his political positions, he has impressive personal and educational credentials. His gifts appear to include intelligence, good health and courage. He seems to have quite a record of success in his academic studies, in his commendable military service and in his political career thus far. Therefore, were I to have the opportunity to interview him, I would ask him to discuss his failures, what caused them and what he learned from them.
For an antidote to TC's political positions, I look to what Seth Moulton, the Massachusetts congressman, has to say on the particular issue being discussed. Congressman Moulton was educated at Harvard - in physics, joined the Marine Corps and served four tours in the Iraq war. Between tours he managed to acquire masters degrees in both business and public administration.
As both of you and many of the RC readers may already know, Denmark formally celebrates the 4th of July each year with a wonderful series of events in Jutland called the Rebild Festival. The speakers during the first such festival I attended included the Danish Foreign Minister. This distinguished and important political leader arrived, and departed, by bicycle!
For those who might want to read more about this annual tribute to the United States, here is a good website in English: http://www.visitaalborg.com/ln-int/rebild-celebration-4th-july-rebild-and-aalborg-gdk640881
"People need to turn people in!"
Hmmmm.... Let's see...this has been tried before hasn't it? Now where was that? Oh, wait, I know. East Germany. So now Herr Drumpf would like...no, no... Is demanding, that Americans all become members of his very own Stasi. This asshole doesn't have the faintest clue what America is all about or what it stands for. The Decider may not be evincing much support for this creep but they are both similar in their charlatanism and their shared disdain of facts and their unshakeable belief that America, and the larger world are, despite all evidence to the contrary, what they say they are.
Well, okay. I have a dangerous hater of American values plotting to overthrow the government and force us all to bow to his shoddy and shady standards: Donald J. Trump. Take him away, boys.
CNN reports FBI is not charging Hillary.
RW world will no doubt explode.
Republican FBI Director- NO CHARGES AGAINST CLINTON.
Let the conspiracy 'theories' begin!!
And BTW, 'Mr. Comey said Mrs. Clinton and her staff were “extremely careless” in their use of email.' How come he did not mention the previous Sec. of State who did the same thing.
Sometimes one can find a surprisingly excellent Op-Ed piece on a Web site that would be the last place you'd think to look. Such is the case today, with LinkedIn's CEO Reid Hoffman over on CNBC.com appalled by what's happening in the Senate right now " Hoffman takes on Mitch McConnell and his crew re the stalled Supreme court nominee process.
The very first jerk's comment was "Why does CNBC even put this rubbish on their web-site? Why do I need to read another leftie's opinion?" What else could you expect from Team Kudlow!
Re: the e-mail saga, can anyone tell me that there isn't a formal Job Description for these high level Cabinet positions? You'd think someone might have thought to include a mention among the DO's and DON'T's — e.g.; do not use private e-mail. It's happened before. No surprise there. Yes, by the comments elsewhere, Conferderate heads are exploding.
The facts as I understand them:
HRC used private email in her role as a public official.
According to the established rules, she shouldn't a done it.
But per established practice, she did only what others had done before her.
There is no evidence her private account was hacked.
There is ample evidence State Departments servers were.
Conclusion the first: If security is the goal, the rules prohibiting private email use for public business do not comport with the reality.
The few "classified" mails she apparently sent on her private account referenced the drone program, which is widely reported in the public media. It's hard to keep something secret that goes boom.
Conclusion the second: Our government "classification" rules also do not comfort with reality.
Here I'm reminded of a friend who many years ago was serving on "Banner," sister ship of the "Pueblo." Because those ships were engaged in espionage, their location was held so secret my friend's mother never knew where he was....until the "Pueblo" was captured by the North Koreans and my friend's mother learned the location of her son's ship... from "Time" magazine.
So finally, after months and months and millions upon millions of dollars ill-spent, Benghazi ends with a whimper, as all investigations of conspiracies or alleged wrong-doing that never existed must.
But we do know one thing we wouldn't have known without Gowdy's dogged investigation. We know we know everything there is to know about HRC's email use, which is far, far more than we know about The Donald's taxes...
Maybe the Dump Trump movement will launch an investigation. That one would be fun.
Q for Ken: had HRC not used a server, but did the same things on a gmail address, would that have been a problem?
Keep in mind that almost every USG official has a non-USG e-mail address. And from time to time they send or receive messages between that personal address and USG (.gov) addresses.
William Shakespeare, in 1598, must have been predicting all of
these confederate shenanigans when he titled a play "Much Ado
About Nothing".
And there's a new TV miniseries "BrainDead", premise of which
is that microscopic alien bugs are attacking Washington DC and
consuming many of the brains in Congress and the government
appears to be in shambles. It's supposed to be fiction, but it kinda
makes you wonder, could it be based on fact.
@forrest morris: I think if you look at it seriously, you'll see that the brain-deadiness of Washington started before this country was a country & before the District of Columbia was any more than a (literal) swamp. See Robert Parkinson's essay, linked above.
Marie
To sum it up after the Bengazi 'scandal', the FBI conducted a serious investigation to see if Hillary 'intentionally' sent or received emails from terrorist organizations. In other words conducted an act of treason. So it's official, the investigation(s) were total political bullshit from beginning to end.
The best evaluation of Trump I have read so far.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-north-patterson/kidnapped-by-a-narcissist_b_10682938.html
Patrick,
Good question, and my answer is I have no idea. What do you think?
Seems to me another instance where technology has far outstripped both our ability to foresee consequences and to adjust our behavior accordingly, including the rules we craft to keep the unleashed genies in the bottle where they belong until they are truly tamed.
Our electronic communications are much like the immense firepower of today's advanced weaponry, which we house in our homes and too regularly loose on one another, and which our rules come no where near controlling.
Maybe that's what my fingers meant when they typed " do not comfort with reality" above.
I guess my fingers are not comfortable with all aspects of our technological reality either.
Obama just used this phrase in NC, "Reach for the future". Hilary could do worse. Jump on that and adopt it as a new slogan.
I think Bill, the albatross, could still redeem himself over his ego stroking chat with Lynch. Although I'm disgusted by him, he uses that "I'm everybody's favorite Bubba Uncle Bill" to his great advantage. He could conjure an aw shucks, just jawin' with my friend: hangdog-I'm sorry-harmless-friendly-contrite and turn some of the negative to Hilary's advantage. Many people slurp up that oily schtick.
I keep revisiting the Shorenstein Center report. Great analysis that remains true in the post primary period too. In true how-big-IS-Kardashian's-ass fashion, the media rushes headlong to foment a horse race. Ironic, even in the face of horror among the GOP. The mostly mostly 24/7 Trump coverage, generally, spins precious stones from nonstop crap. No follow up on the Left Hand Enterprise LLC campaign payouts and no further conversation about Trump's solicitation of foreign $s from European pols to name just a couple recent shady maneuvers.
I don't think I've ever felt so embarrassed that the world is minutely examining us mess ourselves.
We are going to be so tough, we are going to be so smart and so vigilant, and we’re going to get it so that people turn in people when they know there’s something going on.... People have to turn people in. And if they don’t turn them in, we are going to have more of these things. -- Donald Trump, in Denver last week, complaing about how "political correctness" prevents people from ratting on their terrorist neighbors
Akhilleus
I'm reminded of the 2006 German film "The lives of others". Watch it and see how this all works out.
Dan,
That film (an excellent examination of the degradation of humanity perpetrated by the sort of culture promulgated by Trump), among other totalitarian menu items prompted my original comment. Anyone interested in seeing how a society's fabric can fray, shred, and disintegrate when convulsed by the kind of paradise for paranoid snitches and fear besotted citizens promoted by the Confederate candidate for president.