The Commentariat -- June 21, 2016
Afternoon Update:
As I Was Saying.... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump regularly boasts that he is self-funding his presidential bid, but new campaign finance filings show that he is also shifting plenty of money back to himself in the process. According to documents submitted to the Federal Election Commission, Mr. Trump, whose campaign has just $1.3 million cash on hand, paid at least $1.1 million to his businesses and family members in May for expenses associated with events and travel costs." CW: So the campaign has just enough money to pay the Trump family this month. How conveeenient. See my comment, below, on Josh Marshall's post. ...
... Paul Waldman: "... when the entire rationale for your campaign rests on your ability to obtain and manage money, stories like the ones we're now seeing about Trump are likely to stick in people's minds." -- CW
*****
Feminist in Chief. Ann Friedman of New York: "'I may be a little grayer than I was eight years ago,' President Obama told a room of 5,000 at the White House's United State of Women summit last week, 'but this is what a feminist looks like.'... I couldn't help but notice, though, that the 'here's what we still need to do' portion of his speech bore a striking resemblance to the promises he made to women on the campaign trail in 2008.... Obama has spent the past eight years doing his best to push for big, necessary cultural and economic shifts in the face of entrenched institutions and hostile opponents. And he mostly failed.... For the kind of progress we want, we need politicians at every level who look like feminists. We need business leaders who look like feminists. And we need activists." --safari
Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "The Senate on Monday failed to advance four separate measures aimed at curbing gun sales, the latest display of congressional inaction after a mass shooting.... Eight days after a gunman claiming allegiance to the Islamic State killed 49 people in an Orlando, Fla., nightclub, the Senate deadlocked, largely along party lines, on amendments to block people on the federal terrorism watch list from buying guns and to close loopholes in background check laws. Families of gun violence victims looked on from the Senate chamber as the votes were held." -- CW ...
... Dana Milbank: "Lawmakers have known for a long time that those suspected of terrorist activities can legally buy guns, but the Republican majority, putting Second Amendment absolutism above modest national-security considerations, is refusing to fix the problem.... And Monday night..., Republicans responded [to Democrats' 'no-fly/no-buy' legislation] as if President Obama himself were going door-to-door, confiscating every American's guns.... Monday night was the best chance yet to block would-be terrorists from getting guns, and, as before, the Republican majority chose not to act." -- CW ...
... Matt Zapotosky & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The FBI on Monday released a partial transcript of the conversations Orlando gunman Omar Mateen had with hostage negotiators and police dispatchers, and their dialogue reinforces that the 29-year-old was at least partly inspired by the Islamic State and intent on inflicting stunning destruction.... Initially, the department redacted references to the Islamic State and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The decision to do that drew intense criticism from Republicans.... The FBI and the Justice Department later released details of one exchange that included explicit mention of the Islamic State." The transcript, some of it translated from Arabic, is here. -- CW
Michelle Cottle of The Atlantic: "[Paul] Ryan's beloved agenda -- the one his wonkish heart has been dreaming of and laboring over and counting on to define his speakership -- has been something of a PR bust, yet another sad casualty of this election cycle's Trumpsanity.... At this rate, Ryan should consider not even bothering to prepare remarks for the rollouts of the final two agenda pieces (health care and taxes). He might as well just wait and see what kind of verbal atrocities Trump commits during those news cycles." --safari
We must not pretend that the countless people who are routinely targeted by police are 'isolated.' They are the canaries in the coal mine whose deaths, civil and literal, warn us that no one can breathe in this atmosphere.... They are the ones who recognize that unlawful police stops corrode all our civil liberties and threaten all our lives. Until their voices matter too, our justice system will continue to be anything but. -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Utah V. Strieff, dissent
... Aviva Shen of Think Progress:"The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that police can still arrest someone for an outstanding warrant even if they had no right to stop the person in the first place. The opinion, authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, reverses a Utah Supreme Court order to suppress evidence discovered by a police officer during an illegal stop...The ruling, according to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, is essentially giving the green light to police to continue stopping and arresting black and brown people for little to no reason beyond their race and class. In a searing dissent joined in part by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sotomayor describes a police state that regards black and brown Americans in particular as 'second-class citizens.' She issues a direct warning to those Americans whose profiling the court has sanctioned." --safari ...
... CW: When Clarence Thomas looks in the mirror in the morning, he must see a Southern white police chief.
... "A Wise Latina" Dissents. The Washington Post report, by Robert Barnes, is here. Barnes focuses on Sotomayor's dissent: "Her 12-page opinion explained 'the talk' that black and brown parents have with their children about police interactions, invoked Ferguson, Mo., and, without direct acknowledgment, referenced the sentiments of the Black Lives Matter movement." You can read the dissent in full in the opinion, linked in Aviva Shen's post. ...
... ** Fruit of the Poisoned Tree. Mark Stern of Slate has a good explanation of the Court's 5-3 decision (Breyer joined the conservojustices) & cites portions of Sotomayor's dissent. "Sotomayor's dissent is not just an effective rebuttal to the Strieff majority (though it surely is that). It is also a brutal and necessary indictment of an increasingly conservative court's repudiation of the Constitution's most important safeguards against police misconduct -- and a reminder that this weakening of Fourth Amendment freedoms has especially dire consequences for America's minority and low-income communities." -- CW
Ian Milhiser of Think Progress: "Barring extraordinary events, the eight justices of the Supreme Court will begin a three month summer vacation next week. Before they go, however, they need to resolve a little over a dozen cases, including an attack on the Obama administration's immigration policies, a major challenge to affirmative action, and the most significant abortion case to reach the Supreme Court since the right to choose's near death experience in 1992.... Fortunately for abortion providers, the possibility that Texas will win outright in Whole Woman's Health appears to have died with the late Justice Antonin Scalia. " --safari
Jessica Lenza of the Guardian: "An experimental vaccine for the Zika virus is due to begin human testing in coming weeks, after getting the green light from US health officials.... There are currently no licensed drugs or vaccines for Zika." --safari
Oliver Holmes of the Guardian: "At least 185 environmental activists were killed last year, the highest annual death toll on record and close to a 60% increase on the previous year, according to a UK-based watchdog. Global Witness documented lethal attacks across 16 countries.... The most deadly industry to protest against was mining, with 42 deaths in 2015 related to anti-mining activities. Agribusiness, hydroelectric dams and logging were also key drivers of violence, Global Witness found, and many of the murders occurred in remote villages deep within rainforests." --safari
Presidential Race
Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton plans a one-two punch this week to first paint Donald Trump as reckless and misguided in his approach to the economy and then present what her campaign is calling a thematic argument about why her ideas and programs are better. Clinton will attempt to pick apart Trump's economic policies in an address [in Columbus, Ohio,] Tuesday that is roughly patterned on the point-by-point attack she launched on Trump's national security ideas earlier this month." -- CW
Wherein Trump Posits that His Supporters Are Ashamed to Admit They'll Vote for Him. Steve Benen: "Over the weekend, Trump [said] that the latest polling shows he's 'essentially even' with Clinton, which is true if you define 'even' as 'not particularly close.'... We shouldn't necessarily believe the polling, he's arguing, because Americans who intend to vote for Trump are too embarrassed to admit it when asked for their preference in surveys." -- CW ...
... On the Other Hand. Gabriel Sanchez & Alan Abramowitz in the Washington Post: "In 2012, many polls underestimated how many minorities would vote and how many would vote for [President] Obama.... Unfortunately, some pollsters may be making the same mistakes in 2016 -- and thereby underestimating Hillary Clinton's lead in the polls.... Several polls suffer from flaws in how they sample Latinos." -- CW ...
Gabriel Debenedetti & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "The abrupt ouster of Lewandowski, less than one month prior to the Republican National Convention, suggested that Trump's recent slide in the polls -- and the growing evidence that his campaign has fallen far behind in executing general-election fundamentals -- has finally sparked a rethinking of the campaign's approach, beginning at the top. 'If it signals that Donald Trump is taking his responsibility to pivot to a general election posture seriously, then it is good news,' said Michael Steel, a former adviser to Jeb Bush and John Boehner. 'If not, it's continuing the narrative of chaos and division that has marked his candidacy so far.'" -- CW ...
... Josh Marshall of TPM: "The real news is that Trump is broke.... Reports suggest that Trump has been unwilling to undergo the ego effacement of calling high dollar Republican donors and asking for money. His campaign has virtually no money in the bank ($2.4m at last count*).... The Trump fundraising apparatus appears to be working at the Ginsu knives level of marketing." ...
* CW: The latest FEC report has the Trump campaign's cash-on-hand at a mere $1.3MM, compared to Clinton's $42.5 MM. See the Times report linked below & also this Politico report.
... CW: Marshall argues that Trump must not be the multi-billionaire he claims to be if he can't come up with even a few million bucks at this critical time. But I don't think that's it. He hasn't come up with the money because his modus operandi is to get other people to provide the capital for his businesses schemes; he invests nothing but skims cash off the top as the businesses themselves fail. Earlier reports are that he's been doing something similar in this presidential campaign: charging the campaign for use of facilities he owns, like his aircraft. Long ago, Trump said he was probably the only candidate in history who could make money off a presidential run. Trump's model of "success" is far less dependent upon the project's viability than on his personal profit. ...
... Nicholas Confessore & Rachel Shorey of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump enters the general election campaign laboring under the worst financial and organizational disadvantage of any major party nominee in recent history, placing both his candidacy and his party in political peril.... The Trump campaign has not aired a television advertisement since he effectively secured the nomination in May and has not booked any advertising for the summer or fall. Mrs. Clinton and her allies spent nearly $26 million on advertising in June alone.... The shortfall is leaving Mr. Trump extraordinarily dependent on the Republican National Committee, which has seen record fund-raising this campaign cycle...." -- CW ...
... Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Koch-backed groups are training their resources on boosting vulnerable Republican Senate candidates.... But ... it was clear that even if the Koch network stays out of the presidential race, it could still end up being one of Trump's best assets. The Koch operation's field teams are gathering reams of information on voters in key battleground states, intelligence that filters back to the Republican National Committee and GOP candidates through a data-sharing agreement. Even more valuable is the early organizing push by the network's robust ground force, which far outstrips Trump's meager field operation...." -- CW
The Children's Hour. Gabriel Sherman of New York: Donald Trump's adult children set up Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski for a fall in a Monday morning campaign strategy meeting. "... the children peppered Lewandowski with questions, asking him to explain the campaign's lack of infrastructure.... Their father grew visibly upset as he heard the list of failures. Finally, he turned to Lewandowski and said, 'What's your plan here?' Lewandowski responded that he wanted to leak Trump's vice-president pick. And with that, Lewandowski was out.... Shortly after the meeting, Lewandowski was escorted out of the building by Trump security.... As one adviser put it to me: 'The real lesson here is everyone is expendable except for the kids. It's tribal.'" -- CW ...
... Steve M.: One of Ivanka Trump's reasons for disliking Lewandowski is that he supposedly dished some dirt to the press about her husband, Jared Kushner. "A threat to Kushner is also a threat to Donald Trump's next ego gratification scheme": a "mini-media conglomerate" which Kushner -- who already owns the New York Observer -- would run. -- CW ...
... Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "Just hours after being fired and escorted out of Donald Trump's headquarters in New York, Corey Lewandowski appeared on CNN on Monday to continue praising [Trump] ..., and defend [him] ... amid sinking poll numbers and reports of chaos within the campaign.... Many times he appeared to discuss losing his job as if he were still employed with the campaign." -- CW ...
... Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Donald Trump adviser Michael Caputo is no longer part of the presumptive Republican presidential candidate's campaign after writing a celebratory tweet that former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was fired. In response to news of Lewandowski's departure from the campaign Caputo, who runs communications for Trump's caucus team, sent out a tweet saying 'Ding Dong the witch is dead.'" --safari
Gene Robinson: "Donald Trump apparently wants to institute something akin to Jim Crow discrimination against Muslims, including those who are citizens of the United States.... He seems to believe intent can be infallibly discerned from appearance.... Trump wants to put Islamic houses of worship under special surveillance.... The Republican Party is about to nominate for president a man who manifestly does not believe in freedom of religion. Shame on the GOP officials who meekly fall in line." -- CW
Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "If Donald Trump's claims that certain of his commercial ventures benefit charity are untrue, he could be held liable under Section 349 of New York's General Business Law, which forbids deceptive business acts and practices, as well as under charitable solicitation laws, according to legal experts. In promoting products as varied as Trump University, Trump Vodka, a Trump board game and his latest book, 'Crippled America,' the businessman has declared that the proceeds would go to charity. None of Trump's proceeds from Trump University have gone to charity, and only a few hundred dollars of charitable giving related to Trump Vodka has been accounted for." --safari
Jonathan Chait & Ed Kilgore discuss whether the GOP should Dump Trump, cross their fingers and pray. -- safari
Michelle Rindels & Adam Causey of the AP: "A British man arrested at a weekend Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas tried to grab a police officer's gun so he could kill the presidential candidate after planning an assassination for about a year, according to authorities.... A complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Nevada charges [Michael] Sandford, 20, with an act of violence on restricted grounds. He was denied bail during a court appearance later in the day. His court-appointed attorney said he was living out of his car and in the country illegally after overstaying a visa." ...
... CW: Obviously, a person who attempts to assassinate the presumptive presidential nominee of a major American political party is a terrorist. In light of this incident, I propose a ban on U.S. visits by all Brits -- or, what the hell, all Europeans. Also, U.S. law enforcement must profile anyone who "looks European."
Way Beyond the Beltway
George Soros, in a Guardian op-ed, warns Britons that Brexit will make them all poorer. -- CW
Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "The Chinese government has outlined a plan to reduce its citizens' meat consumption by 50%, in a move that climate campaigners hope will provide major heft in the effort to avoid runaway global warming.... Should the new guidelines be followed, carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from China's livestock industry would be reduced by 1bn tonnes by 2030, from a projected 1.8bn tonnes in that year. Globally, 14.5% of planet-warming emissions emanate from the keeping and eating of cows, chickens, pigs and other animals -- more than the emissions from the entire transport sector." --safari
David Axe of The Daily Beast: "U.S. and Russian fighter jets bloodlessly tangled in the air over Syria on June 16 as the American pilots tried and failed to stop the Russians from bombing U.S.-backed rebels in southern Syria near the border with Jordan. The aerial close encounter underscores just how chaotic Syria's skies have become as Russia and the U.S.-led coalition work at cross-purposes, each dropping bombs in support of separate factions in the five-year-old civil war. The near-clash also highlights the escalating risk of American and Russian forces actually coming to blows over Syria, potentially sparking a much wider conflict between the world's leading nuclear powers." --safari
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Reader Comments (11)
NJ Star Ledger editorial on Trump's unavailable tax returns.http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/06/donald_trump.html#incart_river_index
The summary: "It could be that he's not paying his fair share. It could be that he's been lying about how much he gives to charity. It could be that he's not as rich as he claims. And it could be all three."
I vote for all three.
A mixed bag here: first we hear this morning that the good news that Clarence would retire after the election ain't da truth, so says Ginni, his wife of long standing. She came out today castigating the reporter who reported such nonsense.
The firing of key operatives in campaigns isn't such a big deal. I learned that many candidates have done it. Bob Dole, for instance, in 1996, fired all his top people after Labor Day. (probably a bad move since that didn't help him at all). The Trump firing might just indicate that the King is prepared to run a different kind of campaign––one that is sane and presidential, but I doubt it.
As a side note: Remember the video that captured Paul Wolfowitz slicking his hair back before he had to go before cameras? How he spit on his comb and ran it through his hair? The guy that was standing next to Paul, supposedly one of his handlers, also spit on his hands and ran it through Wolfowitz's hair––this guy has just been hired by the Trump campaign–– didn't get his name. We could call him the "slick spitter" dude. Perhaps he was hired to keep the King's head of hair in a donnish "do."
Last night PBS featured the documentary, "Trapped" about Texas' abortion laws and how they have squeezed women's health centers into almost non existence making it extremely difficult for many women to access care. The laws that have been implemented are cruel, and draconian and are for one purpose only–-to stop abortion. Watching the Christian criers featured in the film shouting their "killing babies" business is frightening. What the S.C. is going to do with this now that we only have eight, we can only hope Kennedy comes around.
The other piece of news that caught my eye is this on going struggle to shut down GitMo. Obama faces opposition from Loretta Lynch over the White House's plan to video tape confessions. An interesting read and sheds light on how difficult this process of closing this place has been and will continue to be I bet.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-faces-opposition-from-lynch-over-guantanamo-plan_us_576924dce4b0853f8bf20a42?section=
Finally safari's posting of the debacle in Syria with our planes and Russian planes doing a dangerous dance in the skies is cause for us to tremble a bit in our American boots since the cry for intervening and putting those actual boots on the ground will lead once again to a full fledged war that we must do everything not to have happen.
I hope that when Clarence Thomas retires and sets out on one of his cherished summer vacations, he and the drunk-dialing Ginny in their expensive, well-deserved RV, in some southern state (I'm so proud), he is pulled over and given the same treatment he is so eager to impose on other people of color.
Constitution, my ass.
So how in a democracy can a political party continue to "govern" in a manner that repeatedly defies the will of the majority?
Easy. We've just seen it happen again as the Republican Senate rejected two relatively tepid Democrat-sponsored gun control measures, both supported by the majority of the citizenry.
What makes this good politics? Three things.
First, over the years the R's have made their party's moderates unwelcome, so while their tent has gotten smaller and their base has shrunk, it has also become more extreme, with the consequence that for any Congresscritter who might exhibit moderate tendencies the prospect of a primary loss is very real.
Second, since two Senators are elected from each state, the smaller states with their smaller and less urban populations are disproportionately represented. This anti-democratic bent was baked in from the beginning.
Third, at the state level, Republicans have managed to gerrymander so many Congressional districts in their favor that in many states while the total vote might favor Democrats, far more Republicans are seated in Washington. Can't blame the Founders for this one. This, we've allowed to happen.
The result is that outside the Presidency we find ourself "governed" by a purified, increasingly extreme political party that has succeeded in insulating itself from the majority's will, not beholden to it at all.
In short, the R's have built a wall--must warm their cockles--between themselves and the citizenry. It can't last, the demographic and moral pressures on the wall mount every day, but for now, it's there, and I can't see it coming down soon...
Ken Winkes, that is the most depressing thing I've read all day. And the truest. And ain't nothin' we can do about it.
@PD Pepe: Let's hope Ginni was drunk-dialing again.
@Nancy: A very pleasant thought on Clarence. I hope somebody's there to video Clarence's driving-while-black episode.
Marie
Nancy,
Had I done so, would say I aim to please.
But do think there are things we can do about it. Maybe more on that later, and ideas from others are always welcome.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/21/gun-control-debate-mass-shootings-gun-violence
The first in a Guardian series looking at gun control. It already concludes that the example of any other nation is irrelevant to the case of America the Exceptional.
Charles Pierce wrote: Our elected officials won't stop failing us on gun control. " When Our Doubt Becomes Despair "
The despicable, cowards in Congress are a national shame. Nothing will have the (mainely) Republicans do anything about gun control...even when the proposals are lightweight constraints at best.
Nothing will change.
Unless, until...one day, one or more of them is victim in a killing spree.
Watch how fast legislation takes place.
Right now they'll enjoy living in their glass houses with 8-foot fence surrounds and security cameras, guards, dogs, etc.
Meantime, "it's you get an AK-47, you get and AK-47" (paraphrasing Oprah's grand giveaway) as more dolts offer a gun when you buy a car, truck, or drawing ticket. They know no shame.
All the Nevertrump GOP really need to do is add "No Trumps allowed" to the rules, doesn't seem to hard. They could put it on the front of the club house door next to the sign that reads "Women, Minorities, Gays, Muslims, ect not welcomed here."
Gabbie Giffords was a sitting Congress person when she was shot in Tucson