The Commentariat -- May 21, 2016

Peter Hermann, et al., of the Washington Post: "A uniformed Secret Service officer shot and critically wounded a man who brandished a gun outside the White House Friday afternoon, authorities said.... In [a] statement, the agency said the man refused numerous orders to drop the weapon and was shot. Two law enforcement officials said he was shot once in the chest and rushed to a hospital in critical condition. Authorities said a firearm was recovered.... The shooting ... prompted a massive police response near the executive mansion, where hundreds of tourists and bystanders were milling about. The Secret Service placed the White House on lockdown and rushed to secure Vice President Biden 'within the complex.'..." -- CW ...

... The New York Times story, by Julie Davis & Michael Schmidt, is here.

Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "Major changes to nutrition labels on food packages became final on Friday, with calorie counts now shown in large type and portion sizes that reflect how much Americans actually eat. It was the first significant redrawing of the nutrition information on food labels since the federal government started requiring them in the early 1990s." Michelle Obama announced the final rule. -- CW

Presidential Race

Hillary Clinton, in a Washington Post op-ed: "In every state in the country, child care for two kids now costs more than the average rent." Clinton proposes a series of measures to ease the burdens on working parents. ...

     ... CW PS: If you're interested in knowing Donald Drumpf's childcare plan, here it is in a nutshell: "It's not expensive for a company to do it. You need one person or two people, and you need some blocks and you need some swings and some toys."

Amie Parnes of the Hill: "In public, Hillary Clinton's aides and allies have kept their anger checked, decrying the rowdy outbursts at Nevada's state convention last weekend but saying they believe [Bernie] Sanders will ultimately do the right thing by helping to unite the Democratic Party. Behind the scenes, however, they are seething that statements by the Vermont senator are just making matters worse by further alienating his supporters from Clinton.... The continued combat on the left is also complicating Clinton's efforts to fully turn her attention to presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who is reveling in the Democratic feuding. 'This is the worst-case scenario and the one people feared the most,' said one Clinton ally and former Clinton aide." -- CW ...

... Here's Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg on the same topic in a post titled, "Sanders, Defiant on the Stump, Quietly Reassures Democrats on Unity." -- CW ...

... Jonathan Chait: "... it is at least possible that Sanders is getting carried away in a messianic fervor that he will not walk away from readily. A recent New York Times story described numerous Sanders staffers as 'disheartened' by the campaigns 'near-obsession with perceived conspiracies on the part of Mrs. Clinton's allies.'... Sanders has a longstanding habit of attributing any disagreement with his policies as the result of corruption...." -- CW ...

... Mark Hensch of the Hill: "Bernie Sanders's supporters have secured permits for four demonstrations near July's Democratic National Convention, according to a new report. The events will rally support for Sanders's message while Democrats select their presidential nominee in Philadelphia, according to The Wall Street Journal." -- CW

Sahil Kapur: "Hillary Clinton believes a 2008 Supreme Court ruling that is the linchpin of an individual's right to own a gun was 'wrongly decided,' her policy adviser told Bloomberg Politics on Friday. 'Clinton believes Heller was wrongly decided in that cities and states should have the power to craft common sense laws to keep their residents safe, like safe storage laws to prevent toddlers from accessing guns,' Maya Harris, a policy adviser to Clinton, said in an e-mailed statement." ...

... Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump called on Friday for an end to gun-free zones in the United States and accused Hillary Clinton of seeking to let violent criminals out of prison, putting law-abiding citizens at risk, as he accepted the endorsement of the National Rifle Association at its annual convention.... 'Crooked Hillary Clinton is the most anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment candidate ever to run for office,' he said at the N.R.A.'s convention here. 'She wants to abolish the Second Amendment. She wants to take away your guns.' Although Mrs. Clinton has called for tightening restrictions on guns, she has not called for overturning the Second Amendment." -- CW ...

... Here's Trump's subtle way of reminding you that Hillary Clinton doesn't have a penis; ergo, she doesn't have the "equipment" to be president:

... Hunter of Daily Kos: "But perhaps the bigger news of the day was Trump's insistence, during the speech, that as president he would 'get rid of' gun-free zones: boom, blam, done. This always goes down very well, even at the National Rifle Association's leadership forum, which is itself a ... gun-free zone. And Trump's own properties are 'gun-free zones' as well, because even racist ex-butlers aren't stupid enough to want yahoos with loaded rifles tromping through the lobby." CW: In case you haven't noticed, it turns out there is no #RealDonaldTrump. Every fucking thing he says is phony. ...

... CW: After reading Gail Collins' column about Deadeye Donald, you may want to switch your vote to Trump. Not only is he going to Make America Great Again, he will keep us safe by personally shooting all the terrorists just as they are about to attack. Donald's system seems a lot more efficient than all that Homeland Security stuff. Also, too, why waste money on Secret Service agents when Deadeye can foil every assassination attempt with one shot? For a guy who says he doesn't drink, Donald sure sounds like the drunk at the end of the bar. ...

     ... One thing is clear: your choice in November will be between a candidate who believes in sensible gun legislation & one who thinks citizen-on-citizen shootouts are the sensible means to keep the peace. So please don't go all Ralph Nader & tell us there's no difference between the major-party candidates. (See also the candidates' competing childcare plans -- if you can call urging private companies to buy "some swings & some toys" a "plan.")

** Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "The last time information from Donald Trump's income-tax returns was made public, the bottom line was striking: He had paid the federal government $0 in income taxes. The disclosure, in a 1981 report by New Jersey gambling regulators, revealed that the wealthy Manhattan investor had for at least two years in the late 1970s taken advantage of a tax-code provision popular with developers that allowed him to report negative income. Today ... Trump regularly denounces corporate executives for using loopholes and 'false deductions['] to 'get away with murder' when it comes to avoiding taxes.... Trump's personal taxes are a mystery. He has refused to release any recent returns, meaning the public cannot see how much money he makes, how much he gives to charity and how aggressively he uses deductions, shelters and other tactics to shrink his tax bill." -- CW

Unemployed Former High Executioner Looking for Work. Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who once called Donald Trump 'a cancer on conservatism,' said Friday he would be willing to serve as the presumptive Republican nominee's vice president." -- CW

Jayne Mayer of the New Yorker: "Amateurish spies like James O'Keefe III attempt to sway the 2016 campaign." CW: "Amateurish?" Your 12-year-old would be more polished spy than O'Keefe. In the LOL "sting of myself" Mayer highlights, O'Keefe "forgot to hang up the phone" & revealed in a recorded voicemail to a George Soros-funded organization a part of his inchoate, hairbrained plot to infiltrate the Soros operation. O'Keefe would be hilarious if he weren't occasionally dangerous. He provides plenty of material for budding screenwriters in the vein of "Get Smart" meets "Dumb & Dumber."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. He Was For It Before He Was Against It. Aaron Rupar of Think Progress: Joe Scarborough praises Call-in Guy D. Drumpf for being "consistent" on Libya even though Trump has done a 180 on Libya. "Later in the show, however, Scarborough attempted to correct the record...," but only after the Clinton campaign "reminded" Scarborough of Trump's urging the U.S. to "... immediately go into Libya, knock this guy [Gaddafi] out very quickly, very surgically...." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

OK. OK Governor Not Completely Stupid. Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin vetoed a controversial bill Friday that would have made it a felony for doctors to perform abortions, saying she felt the bill was too vague and unable to withstand a legal challenge. Fallin's decision came a day after lawmakers in the state approved the unprecedented bill, well before a deadline for her to sign the measure, veto it or allow it to become law without her signature." - CW

Ultimate "Today in Responsible Gun Ownership" Story. Maxine Bernstein of the Oregonian: "Portland Police Chief Larry O'Dea is under state investigation for accidentally shooting a friend in the back during an eastern Oregon hunting trip last month. O'Dea was on vacation April 21 in Harney County when he fired his .22-caliber rifle, striking a friend once in the lower left side of his back, according to police and Harney County dispatch records. O'Dea on Friday called it a 'negligent discharge.' He was off-duty at the time. Retired Portland police Sgt. Steve Buchtel, a former head of firearms training at the Police Bureau, was with O'Dea and called 911 at 4:37 p.m. that day." -- CW

Michael Schmidt: Georgia sheriff's deputies repeatedly Tasered a man, handcuffed in the back seat of a car, until he died. The man's family had called 911 for medical assistance after his behavior became erratic & violent. The Times has video footage, obtained from the offiders' bodycams. -- CW

Way Beyond

William Booth of the Washington Post: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attempts to remake his governing coalition have set heads spinning -- dumping his well-regarded defense minister to possibly bring aboard a polarizing maverick with few friends in Washington. Definitely out: Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, who resigned his post on Friday. On the way to the door, Yaalon blasted Netanyahu, saying he has lost confidence in the prime minister's decision-making and morals. Maybe in: Avigdor Lieberman. He's a former foreign minister and current leader of an ultranationalist political party built around the 1 million Russian-speaking immigrants to Israel." -- CW ...

... Lieberman's In. Juan Cole: "Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu bolstered his majority and rid himself of a troublesome voice of conscience Thursday by appointing the extremist Avigdor Lieberman minister of defense. This move strengthened Netanyahu's hand politically, removing a critic in the form of Moshe Yaalon, the previous minister of defense. But it also sent a signal to Israel's officer corps, which has been showing distinct unease at Netanyahu's march of the country into Mussolini territory." -- CW

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The U.S. military has conducted an air strike against Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, the Pentagon said on Saturday. In a statement, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said that the attack on Mansour took place on Saturday 'in a remote area of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.' A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity..., said that President Obama had authorized the operation.... The official said that Mansour, who emerged as the Taliban leader in 2015, was 'likely killed.'"

AP: "A small fire shut down a generating tower Thursday at the world's largest solar power plant, leaving the sprawling facility on the California-Nevada border operating at only a third of its capacity, authorities said. Firefighters had to climb some 300 feet up a boiler tower at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California after fire was reported on an upper level around 9:30 a.m., fire officials said. The plant works by using mirrors to focus sunlight on boilers at the top of three 459-foot towers.... But some misaligned mirrors instead focused sunbeams on a different level..., causing electrical cables to catch fire, San Bernardino County, California fire Capt. Mike McClintock said."

Thank You

By Marie

As many of you noticed, safari & Akhilleus kept Reality Chex going while I was on the road. They did a fine job of it, too. I did not specifically ask them to help out; unlike me, I gather they both have real jobs and other real commitments and interests that take up a lot of real time. Nevertheless, both made significant contributions over the past week.

Here's the point where I have to wonder where the hell everybody else was. There are six other contributors who know how to do what safari & Akhilleus did. In addition, everybody who reads Reality Chex knows how to provide links to stories in the Comments section, as a few contributors did.

I'm not sure if you can call yourself a liberal -- and I know you can't describe yourself as a Sanders-style democratic socialist -- if you're happy to regularly take advantage of this site but you're unwilling to support it with a few contributions.  

P.S. If you comment on a news story or opinion piece that has not been linked here, for Pete's sake, provide a link. Even if you're commenting on a news event you saw on TV or heard on the radio, it's highly likely the story also made it into print. I used to accommodate "Random Reader Remarks" by trying to track down the stories the writers might have referred to. But I resent having to babysit adult commenters so I've pretty much quit doing that -- although I did it yesterday, and I'll do it again if someone comments or hints at some event that might be newsworthy.

The Commentariat -- May 20, 2016

Paul Krugman writes what is probably a pretty good column about President "Obama's War on Inequality," but I didn't get to read it because Krugman insulted me in the first sentence. You know where to find him.

"Shame!" Rachel Bade and Ben Weyl of Politico: The House erupted in chaos Thursday morning with Democrats crying foul after Republicans hastily convinced a few of their own to switch their votes and narrowly block an amendment intended to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from discrimination. It was an unruly scene on the floor, with Democrats chanting 'shame!' after GOP leaders just barely muscled up the votes to reject, 212-213, an amendment by Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) that would have effectively barred federal contractors from getting government work if they discriminate against the LGBT community. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Akhilleus: Apparently Paul Ryan pulled a fast one to change the outcome of the vote by ignoring House rules including informing members of exactly which cowardly bigots changed their vote at the last minute. Darrell Issa was one. Disgraceful.

David Dayen of the New Republic: "Senator Elizabeth Warren has a knack for recognizing the challenges facing ordinary Americans years before the rest of the political world gets there.... The structure of employment law that served the nation over the past eight decades is fraying, shot through with loopholes that employers use to their advantage to shortchange workers.... We need to make benefits currently tied to the workplace universal and portable. Warren ... wants to universalize workers' compensation and paid time off (vacation, personal, and sick days, along with paid family and medical leave). She also wants to require Social Security payroll deductions." -- CW

Think Warren is Special? She is. And not just because she's smart, but because she uses her eyes. Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone: "The tone of American political coverage for some time hasn't matched the reality of what voters have been going through...Every four years, we whipped up audiences into a lather over the same patriotic fairy tale of political athletes...chasing the ultimate power prize, the White House. Reporters traveled tens of thousands of miles to cover these races, but not to tell stories about people they met on the road who'd lost their jobs, been bankrupted by health problems, become addicted to pills, etc."

...Akhilleus: Warren has been paying attention to something beltway geniuses, experts, docents, and retainers have not: average Americans.

Nick Gass of Politico: "Sen.Tom Cotton on Thursday slammed his colleagues' efforts to pass sweeping criminal justice reforms, saying the United States is actually suffering from an "under-incarceration problem." --safari

MIchael Shear of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Texas on Thursday excoriated the Justice Department, demanding ethics classes for the department's lawyers and ordering other sanctions for those who argued the case involving President Obama's immigration executive actions. He also ordered the government to produce a list of about 100,000 immigrants who entered illegally and who are participating in a government program that protects them from deportation. In a blistering order, Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Federal District Court in Brownsville accused the Justice Department lawyers of lying to him during arguments in the case, and he barred them from appearing in his courtroom.... A spokesman for the Justice Department said Thursday that 'we strongly disagree with the order' but declined to comment further." CW: We knew Hanen was a bigot, but now I suspect he's insane.

Declan Walsh & Kareem Fahim of the New York Times: "An Egyptian jetliner carrying 66 people from Paris to Cairo abruptly swerved, vanished from radar and plunged into the Mediterranean early Thursday, shortly before it was scheduled to land. Egyptian officials issued conflicting information about whether wreckage had been found and suggested terrorism was a more likely cause than technical failure." See also yesterday's Commentariat. -- CW ...

... The Guardian's liveblog of developments is here.

American Adventures Abroad. Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The U.S. military's top general said Thursday that the Libyan government is in a 'period of intense dialogue' that could soon lead to an agreement in which U.S. military advisers will be deployed there to assist in the fight against the Islamic State." -- CW

CBS News: "Morley Safer, the CBS newsman who changed war reporting forever when he showed GIs burning the huts of Vietnamese villagers and went on to become the iconic 60 Minutes correspondent whose stylish stories on America's most-watched news program made him one of television's most enduring stars, died today in Manhattan." He was 84. -- Akhilleus (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... The "60 Minutes" special on Safer's career, which aired Sunday, is here. (I couldn't get it to play in Firefox, but it works in Chrome.) Safer's New York Times obituary is here. -- CW

CW: If today's Opinion section is any indication, it appears the New York Times has cancelled its Opinion comments section & transferred it to Facebook. None of today's Opinion columns has a Comments facility, and there's an "invitation" on the Times' front page to "join us on Facebook." I clicked on a couple of news stories, & they don't have a Comments option, either. So, good for Mark Zuckerberg, I guess. ...

     ... Update: Must have been an NYT glitch. After MAG was able to access the NYT comments, I tried again, & they were up & running. The first comment on Krugman wasn't posted till about 11:20 am ET though, which is at least seven hours after his column appeared online.

Presidential Race

CW: There is & will be a lot of presidential polling & associated hand-wringing. I mostly will not cover this at least until we get closer to the election, but you're welcome to do so in the Comments section.

Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump is not qualified to be president:

Abby Phillip & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "In an attempt to head off an ugly conflict at its convention this summer, the Democratic National Committee plans to offer a concession to Sen. Bernie Sanders -- seats on a key convention platform committee -- but it may not be enough to stop Sanders from picking a fight over the party's policy positions." -- CW

TBogg of Raw Story: "Die-hard fans of Bernie Sanders on [Robert] Reich's Facebook page found his lack of faith in the viability of a Sanders nomination disturbing." Bernie supporters have some very valid critiques of Clinton policies. Unless they can be convinced that she will support the progressive agenda this country needs, they are willing to let the DNC suffer the consequences of ignoring their voices. -- LT

Jessica Valenti of the Guardian: "Hillary Clinton's campaign needs to explain to voters why they should care about Trump's misogyny -- and misogyny in general -- and talk about the impact it could have. Because sexism knows no party, and some of those irate male Sanders fans could make their way to Trump instead of supporting Clinton (something Trump's campaign is prepared for.)... If the Democratic elite assumes that all liberal voters are outraged by sexism, they'll be making the same devastating miscalculation the GOP elite did when they assumed Republican voters were tied to the same conservative ideals they cared about." -- CW

** Matt Taibbi writes an entertaining eulogy for the "establishment" wing of the Republican party, made up of a "surprisingly small collection of uptight lawyers, financiers and Beltway intellectuals, who'd just seen their chosen candidate, the $100 million Jeb Bush, muster all of four delegates in the presidential race. Meanwhile, candidates whose talking points involved the beheading of this same party establishment were likely to win around 2,000." -- CW

Today in Responsible Leadership from the Guy Who's Not Hitler: David Graham of The Atlantic: "Disasters serve as the crucibles in which leaders are tested, and the disappearance of EgyptAir 804 -- though less than 24 hours old -- is already serving that purpose in the presidential race. Early Thursday morning, before Egyptian authorities (or anyone else) had made any statements about possible causes for the airplane's disappearance over the Mediterranean, Trump tweeted this:

Looks like yet another terrorist attack. Airplane departed from Paris. When will we get tough, smart and vigilant? Great hate and sickness!" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Akhilleus: At least he's right about great hate and sickness. Making political hay off the deaths of 66 passengers with zero knowledge of the facts is not the best predictor of the possibility of prudent action as president.

Here's an AFL-CIO digital ad, via Greg Sargent:

Julia Preston, et al., of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump has suggested he will flesh out his ideas [on how to curb illegal immigration] in a forthcoming speech. But experts across many fields who have analyzed his plans so far warn that they would come at astronomical costs -- whoever paid -- and would in many ways defy the logic of science, engineering and law.... 'I can't even begin to picture how we would deport 11 million people in a few years where we don't have a police state, where the police can't break down your door at will and take you away without a warrant,' said Michael Chertoff.... By any tally, the costs would be enormous. The American Action Forum, a conservative-leaning research group, calculated the federal outlay to be at least $400 billion, and then only if the deportations were stretched over 20 years." ...

... CW: When Michael Chertoff deplores a Trump-style "police state," that's saying something. You may remember Chertoff. As James Petras wrote in 2012, "Chertoff headed the Criminal Division of the Justice Department (from 2001 -- 2003). During that time he was responsible for the arbitrary arrest of thousands of US citizens and immigrants of Muslim and South Asian heritage, who were held incommunicado without charge and subject to physical and psychological abuse -- without a single resident alien or Muslim US citizen linked to 9/11.... More than any other official, Michael Chertoff has been the chief architect of the 'Global War on Terror' -- co-author of the notorious 'Patriot Act' which trashed habeas corpus and other essential components of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. As Secretary of Homeland Security from 2005-2009, Chertoff promoted 'military tribunals' and organized the vast internal spy network, which now preys on private US citizens."

Mark Danner in the New York Review of Books: "However unlikely Trump's candidacy may be -- and we have seen over the past ten months how the unlikely can be overtaken by reality television politics -- such a nominee, despite his negative poll numbers among women and minorities and all the other factors that, we are told, will make his election impossible, might stand only one highly telegenic terrorist attack away from becoming the national embodiment of all our fears." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. See also the discussion of the Danner piece in yesterday's Comments. -- CW

**Robert Kagan of the Washington Post: "The Republican Party's attempt to treat Donald Trump as a normal political candidate would be laughable were it not so perilous to the republic...But the phenomenon he has created and now leads has become something larger than him, and something far more dangerous...But what he has tapped into is what the founders most feared when they established the democratic republic: the popular passions unleashed, the 'mobocracy.'" Read on --safari

The Apostate Opines: David Frum, in the Atlantic, presents the problem The Guy Who isn't Hitler poses for Republicans but is waaaay off in his assessment of their abilities to do anything about it: "[Trump's] also demonstrated that he himself is a dangerous person, contemptuous of constitutional restrictions on the power of the presidency, hostile to fundamental freedoms, and worryingly impressed by foreign authoritarian rulers. To save themselves and their country, Republican politicians will have to rediscover the politician's arts of deftness, flexibility, and self-preservation --- while stealthily hastening Trump toward the defeat that almost certainly awaits him in November." ...

... Akhilleus: Frum is talking about Ryan, McConnell, and Priebus. Self-preservation they've got down. Deftness and flexibility? Not so much. This is a classic category error. These guys are not politicians, they're inept, extremist ideologues. Big difference. He does make some good points about Trump, but he assumes, incorrectly, that the above named worthies have a great concern for their country. They don't. The problem posed by Trump, for these guys, is not how to stop him from ruining the country, but how to retain their phony baloney jobs, Trump or no Trump, full stop.

The Age of Trump. Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian: "Part of it is sheer showbiz.... An underestimated part of the formula is humour.... But most powerful is the thrill Trump generates in the room, and in the audience watching on TV, when he dares reject the rules of the game.... It signals the arrival of an outsider, a maverick unbound to the old order and ready to destroy it in favour of something entirely new." --safari

Burgess Everett et al.of& Politico: "Donald Trump's newly empowered chief strategist [Paul Manafort] sought to convince top GOP congressional officials on Capitol Hill that Trump can compete for the Latino vote, exploit Hillary Clinton's weaknesses and become a Reagan-esque figure in the party, according to attendees and sources familiar with the meeting." --safari

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Days after The New York Times published a Sunday cover story chronicling instances in which Donald Trump crossed the line with women, a former Miss Universe [Alicia Machado] is sharing how ... [Trump] shamed her decades ago, even going as far as to call her 'Miss Piggy' for gaining weight.... Machado said Trump not only made her feel 'so fat,' but he also ridiculed her English-speaking ability, calling her 'Miss Housekeeping.' The model and telenovela star said her weight issues led to years of eating disorders -- anorexia and bulimia -- that required therapy." -- CW

Jonah Shepp of New York: "Donald Trump ... held a fundraiser on Thursday that he claimed would pay off the entire campaign debt of his erstwhile rival (and suspected hostage) New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, the Associated Press reports." -- CW

Josh Harkinson of Mother Jones: "A Maryland delegate selected by Donald Trump's presidential campaign for the Republican National Convention was indicted on Wednesday on federal weapons and child pornography charges. The federal indictment alleges that Caleb Andrew Bailey, 30, of Waldorf, Maryland, illegally mailed a cache of ammunition and explosives through the US Postal Service and illegally possessed a machine gun and child pornography. The indictment also further alleges that Bailey "attempted to use and did use a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct to produce child pornography." Thanks to Ophelia M. for the link. Ophelia wonders if the selection of Bailey was another of those Trump delegate "database errors." -- CW

Jonathan Chait explains to conservative "intellectuals" that the Tea party & Trump party are one in the same: a bunch of selfish, racist bastards who are afraid of the coming non-white majority. CW: It is downright amazing that these "intellectuals" need convincing; it's fine to hope the folks on your side are pure as the driven snow, but it's delusional to maintain that belief once convincing evidence against it piles up.

Maggie Haberman & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "William F. Weld, the twice-elected former Republican governor of Massachusetts, who was last seen campaigning in the 2006 Republican primary for governor of New York, now hopes to be on a national ticket as the vice-presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party.... In his first interview since accepting an invitation to be the running mate of former Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico, Mr. Weld assailed Donald J. Trump over his call to round up and deport the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally. 'I can hear the glass crunching on Kristallnacht in the ghettos of Warsaw and Vienna when I hear that, honest,' Mr. Weld said Thursday." -- CW

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Constant Weader: Last week or so, David Roberts, Steve M., Paul Krugman & others wrote about how the MSM would "normalize" Donald Trump. One of the worst political writers around, Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post, is busy proving that point. Here's the title of his post today: "5 very smart things Donald Trump has done since becoming the presumptive GOP nominee." In the past, some readers have defended Cillizza after I've criticized his superficiality. I used to think he was just an innocuous nitwit. But any writer who purposely assists Trump, as Cillizza does here, is a danger to society.

Beyond the Beltway

Enlightenment in the Confederate Midwest: Sarah Ferris of The Hill: "Oklahoma lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill making it a felony for doctors to perform abortions, which opponents say is essentially a ban on the procedure. The Republican bill, which has been called the first of its kind nationally, will now be sent to the desk of GOP Gov. Mary Fallin. She has five days to sign or veto the bill before it automatically becomes law." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Akhilleus: Sorry ladies, the Supreme Court might say that you have the right to an abortion but they didn't say you had any right to a doctor. But hey, good luck with that coat hanger. ...

... Paul Waldman: "Coming soon: a bill that says you can have an abortion if you can stand on your head and recite pi to 100 places without any mistakes while a Republican state representative screams 'Slut!' over and over in your face." ...

... CW: If Fallin isn't completely stupid, she'll veto this unconstitutional bill.

Patrick McGreevy of the Los Angeles Times: "The [California] state Senate on Thursday approved sweeping new restrictions on using guns in California in response to the December mass shooting by two terrorists that left 14 dead in San Bernardino. Lawmakers approved 11 bills including measures mandating background checks for Californians buying ammunition and outlawing the manufacture and sale of semiautomatic rifles with detachable magazines. The bills, which next go to the Assembly for consideration, represent the most ambitious effort at gun control in decades in California, which already has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation." -- CW

Ashley Balcerzak of the Washington Post: "Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Thursday became the latest state leader to sign contentious legislation restricting civil asset forfeiture -- the process that allows police to seize and keep property suspected of being connected to illegal activity without having to convict, or even charge, the owner with a crime. Hogan's signature represents a reversal for the Republican governor, who, under pressure from high-profile law enforcement groups, vetoed a bill on the same subject last year. The General Assembly promptly overrode the veto to pass that measure and then introduced additional changes this year that limit state involvement in a federal forfeiture program and require authorities to report what they seize." CW: Kudos to Maryland's Democratic legislators.

Emily Green, et al., of the San Francisco Chronicle: "San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr resigned Thursday at the request of Mayor Ed Lee, hours after the fatal police shooting of a woman renewed questions about whether the Police Department had lost the confidence of minority communities in the city. Lee had stood by the chief he appointed in 2011 through two controversial police shootings within the past six months and revelations that a number of officers had exchanged racist and homophobic text messages. But at a late-afternoon news conference at City Hall, the mayor said that after Thursday's shooting,* he had 'arrived at a different conclusion to the question of how best to move forward.'" *The story includes details of "Thursday's shooting." -- CW

Way Beyond

Peter Baumont of the Guardian: "Israel's defence minister has announced his resignation, delivering a stinging rebuke to the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, whom he said he no longer had 'faith in'. The departure of the former defence chief Moshe Yaalon came after Netanyahu, with whom he had recently clashed, invited the hawkish ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman to replace Yaalon as part of moves to widen his fragile coalition.... Yaalon's exit could put a new dent in domestic and western confidence in the Netanyahu government. " --safari...

...safari: If anybody needs a refresher course on how extreme Avigdor Lieberman is, you check here. Consider just one of his famous quotes taken from Ben Norton of Salon: "In an interview with right-wing Israeli news outlet Ynet in February 2015, Lieberman threatened new wars in Lebanon and Gaza, insisting 'a fourth operation in the Gaza Strip is inevitable, just as a third Lebanon war is inevitable.'He made these remarks just six months after the Israeli military killed more than 2,250 Palestinians in Gaza."

The World of Walls. Uri Friedman of The Atlantic: "Clinton is suggesting that walls are useless against today's borderless threats. Obama is suggesting that the world is marching toward ever-more interconnectedness, trampling the walls in its way. Both seem to present walls as a thing of the past. In fact, though, border walls and fences are currently going up around the world at the fastest rate since the Cold War." --safari