The Commentariat -- May 15, 2016
Matthew Nussbaum of Politico: "Elon Musks SpaceX had to sue before it got access to the Pentagon -- but now, as it promises to deliver cargo into space at less than half the cost of the military's favored contractor, it has pulled back the curtain on tens of billions in potentially unnecessary military spending. The entrenched contractor, a joint operation of Boeing and Lockheed Martin called the United Launch Alliance, has conducted 106 space launches all but flawlessly, but the cost for each is more than $350 million, according to the Government Accountability Office. SpaceX promises launches for less than $100 million.... Meanwhile, ULA is under investigation by the Pentagon for possible corrupt bidding practices and is preparing to lay off 25 percent of its workforce." -- CW
Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) on Saturday defended his use of a derogatory term toward Japanese in a cable-news appearance, saying that he was trying to critique the 'uninformed' views that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump espouses. King, who supports Trump nominally but is refusing to campaign for him, said that his use of the word 'Japs' was meant to criticize the presidential candidate's policy positions as out of line with the 'nuance' required to be the leader of the free world and more in line with a working-class man at the end of a bar espousing his worldview. 'It was basically sarcasm, satire,' King said in a telephone interview Saturday. 'Is this what [Trump] seriously thinks, or is this the guy at the end of the bar?'... King characterized Trump's views like this: 'Oh, screw them, bomb them, kill them, pull out, bring them home. You know, why pay for the Japs, why pay for the Koreans?'" -- CW
American "Justice," Ctd. Dahlia Lithwick: "On Aug. 19, 2015, 24-year-old Jamycheal Mitchell was found dead in his cell at Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Virginia.... Multiple official investigations later -- and with the videotape of his last days in prison conveniently erased forever -- the official line appears to be that 'the system' was to blame.... Mitchell's story is both horrifying and somehow unremarkable. It exposes this country's grotesque tendency to warehouse the severely mentally ill in jails -- 10 times more of them are in jails and prisons than are in state psychiatric hospitals. But it also proves the horrendous abuse and neglect these people will suffer there." -- CW
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "Surprising as it may seem for such a 'hot take' or scoop or whatever you might call it, MSNBC's Mark Halperin, who is all over your TV as a 'senior political analyst,' waited until the Friday night to make the most stunning -- and dumb -- prediction of the 2016 election season." The prediction? That Hillary Clinton will chose "a prominent Republican woman" as her running mate. -- CW
Presidential Race
Jessie Hellmann of the Hill: "Tensions were high at the Democratic convention in Nevada Saturday, with Bernie Sanders supporters demanding delegate recounts, booing Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and causing other disruptions, according to local media reports. Sanders supporters were angry over a voice vote that adopted a set of temporary convention rules as the permanent rules, according to the Las Vegas Sun. And supporters also reacted angrily to the count of delegates attending the convention, which put Hillary Clinton at an advantage. Final numbers announced later in the day showed 1,695 Clinton supporters in attendance to Sanders's 1,662." -- CW
Evelyn Rupert of the Hill: "Hillary Clinton stretched her delegate lead over Bernie Sanders by two at Nevada's rowdy Democratic convention Saturday.... Clinton now has 20 Nevada delegates to Sanders's 15 when their new delegates are combined with those awarded after the caucuses. But there was immediate backlash as the results were announced, with many Sanders supporters calling foul over the reported exclusion of Sanders supporters from the process." -- CW
Los Angeles Times Editors: "... Clinton, for all her faults -- and they range from a penchant for secrecy to a willingness to modify her positions to suit the popular mood to a less-restrained view of the use of military force than we are entirely comfortable with -- is vastly better prepared than Sanders for the presidency. She has The Times' endorsement in the June 7 California Democratic primary." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** Michael Cohen of the Boston Globe: "... in the thickets of Trump's statements..., there are the occasional views that should terrify every American -- and which speak openly to the threat that Trump represents to Americans' political freedoms. He's basically giving us a preview of how he will abuse his power as president.... What he's hinting at [in his attacks on Washington Post publisher Jeff Bezos] is that he would use the anti-trust division of the Justice Department to go after a newspaper publisher who writes stories that he doesn't like.This is a direct threat. And even if Trump has no intention of following through, he is clearly trying to intimidate Bezos and in turn The Washington Post from running negative stories about him. Indeed, Trump is trying to get Bezos to use his position as owner of the paper to influence the Post's coverage."
WCVB Boston: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren was the keynote speaker at Bridgewater State University's commencement Saturday.... After her address, Warren [said]..., 'I think that Donald Trump is a truly dangerous man.... There is some risk that he could be president of the United States." -- CW
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "The casino magnate Sheldon G. Adelson told Donald J. Trump in a private meeting last week that he was willing to contribute more to help elect him than he has to any previous campaign, a sum that could exceed $100 million, according to two Republicans with direct knowledge of Mr. Adelson's commitment." -- CW
"The Mogul & the Babe." Maureen Dowd interviews Donald Trump. He is as gracious, humble & honest as ever. (And no, the headline does not refer to Dowd.)
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Republican activists chose party unity over 'never Trump' resistance Saturday, with party leaders in one state after another pressuring their members [to] fall in line behind the presumptive nominee -- and even punishing those who refused.... In Nebraska, this meant overwhelming passage of a resolution that indirectly scolded conservative Sen. Ben Sasse for leading the #NeverTrump movement and scuttling a countermeasure to condemn 'degrading remarks toward women, minorities and other individuals' by presidential candidates. In Maryland, it meant the ouster of a veteran Republican committeeman -- Louis Pope -- by Citizens United chief David Bossie, a conservative activist who's close to Trump...." -- CW
Kyle Balluck of the Hill: "Donald Trump early Sunday blasted a report in The New York Times [linked here yesterday] about how he has treated women in private.... [Trump] called it a 'lame hit piece' on Twitter, adding that he provided 'many names' of women he helped that were not used in the article." -- CW
Nick Gass of Politico: Donald Trump "said he has spoken with Rudy Giuliani about heading a commission looking at immigration problems in the U.S." CW: Excellent. I feel reassured now. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
What American toddlers already have learned from Donald Trump:
Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "A band of exasperated Republicans -- including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a handful of veteran consultants and members of the conservative intelligentsia -- is actively plotting to draft an independent presidential candidate who could keep Donald Trump from the White House. These GOP figures are commissioning private polling, lining up major funding sources and courting potential contenders.... The effort has been sporadic all spring but has intensified significantly in the 10 days since Trump effectively locked up the Republican nomination."
Dana Milbank eats his words. Literally, as they say. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jeff Greenfield in Politico Magazine: "Whether Trump or Clinton is elected, the new veep will be a weakling, eclipsed either by a massive ego or a super-powerful First Husband." -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Alan Blinder of the New York Times: Charlotte, North Carolina, is not so fond of its former & once-popular mayor, Pat McCrory, now that he has become governor & a champion of gender discrimination. -- CW
News Ledes
New York Times: "Julius La Rosa, the celebrated 1950s singer who reinvented himself as a television, stage and nightclub performer after his young career was thrown into turmoil by a bizarre and humiliating on-the-air firing by Arthur Godfrey before a national audience, died on Thursday at his home in Crivitz, Wis. He was 86."
Washington Post: "Madeleine LeBeau, a French actress who fled Nazi-occupied Europe for Hollywood, where she made the best of a small role as the scorned girlfriend of Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine in 'Casablanca,' died May 1 in Estepona, Spain. She was widely reported to be 92." -- CW
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GOD'S BREW
Since it's Sunday I wanted to call on God and ask him what the heck he thought about all this political flapdoodle. We met at a quiet bistro in the far side of the town where we could look out and admire the flowering Azaleas, Dogwoods and Oriental Pears. So, God, I said, "I know you're retired, but I'm curious as to your take on all this human activity surrounding our political season plus the rest of the world's ills––it must break your heart."
God put his head down, wiped his mouth after taking a sip of Starbuck's dark French roast, and said:
"Already broken––long ago."
He did manage to give a few views on the Republican candidate and the party itself using words like splenetic, scaramouch, mountebank , and abattoir; God is nothing if not well versed in colorful vocabulary, but "smite" was absent in this conversation. When He finished his coffee, he was finished with me. He looked extremely tired, mentioned He had been having trouble sleeping of late. I said I could well understand why.
Suddenly He was gone––poof!–-only a faint scent of Old Spice lingered in the air. Ray, the waiter, came to get the check and we got to talking about Trump and Ray said he thought for many people Trump was like God. "I KNOW God, I said, "Trump is no God!
At that moment, out of the blue, I heard God's voice whisper in my ear:
"Thank God!"
Here's a Brief, but Spectacular tour of innovations through the years:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/upshot/what-was-the-greatest-era-for-american-innovation-a-brief-guided-tour.html?emc=eta1
Apropos to the article above:
Mark Twain to Walt Whitman, 1889
What great births you have witnessed! The steam press, the steamship, the steel ship, the railroad, the perfected cotton-gin, the telegraph, the phonograph, the photograph, photo-gravure, the electrotype, the gaslight, the electric light, the sewing machine, & the amazing, infinitely varied & innumerable products of coal tar, those latest & strangest marvels of a marvelous age. And you have seen even greater births than these; for you have seen the application of anesthesia to surgery-practice, whereby the ancient dominion of pain, which began with the first created life, came to an end in this earth forever; you have seen the slave set free, you have seen the monarchy banished from France, & reduced in England to a machine which makes an imposing show of diligence & attention to business, but isn't connected with the works. Yes, you have indeed seen much—but tarry yet a while, for the greatest is yet to come. Wait thirty years, & then look out over the earth! You shall see marvels upon marvels added to these whose nativity you have witnessed; & conspicuous above them you shall see their formidable Result—Man at almost his full stature at last!—& still growing, visibly growing while you look. In that day, who that hath a throne, or a gilded privilege not attainable by his neighbor, let him procure his slippers & get ready to dance, for there is going to be music.…
RE the rowdy Nevada convention (and a Sunday anti-sermon).
As reported here before, on many occasions Bernie supporters' enthusiasm too often slips from rowdy to rude to downright riotous....and it's too bad, not only because the behavior is wrong in the sense that it is childish and uncivilized, but also because I see a practical, political downside to it...
If that misbehavior rises from some kind of religious Bernie fervor, a belief that Bernie is the only true savior, that there is no other true faith, and to turn to anyone else as election heaven nears is sacrilege or heresy, then we're all in a heap of trouble.
Those self-righteous true believers will get ya every time.