The Commentariat -- March 12, 2016

President Obama spoke at a Democratic fundraiser in Austin, Texas, last night:

... Niraj Chokshi of the Washington Post reports on some of the more serious remarks the President made about the state of the Republican party.

*****

Presidential Race

Extreme, Bizarre Revisionist History. No, people, Republicans do not have a lock on it:

It may be hard for your viewers to remember how difficult it was for people to talk about HIV/AIDS in the 1980s. And because of both President and Mrs. Reagan, in particular, Mrs. Reagan, we started national conversation when before no one would talk about it, no one wanted to do anything about it, and that too is something that really appreciated, with her very effective, low-key advocacy, but it penetrated the public conscience and people began to say 'Hey, we have to do something about this too.' -- Hillary Clinton, Friday, speaking to MSNBC in the environs of Reagan's funeral ...

... Eric Levitz of New York: "Clinton's Iraq War vote was a big mistake, but it's possible that she's never been more wrong than she is here. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the first medical report about HIV in 1981. President Reagan gave his first major public address on the subject in 1987. In 1984, after more than 3,000 Americans had been killed by the virus, the notion that the president may have given the matter any thought was cause for laughter in the Reagan White House.... When the Reagan administration finally did start 'the national conversation' about the disease six years and 25,000 deaths into the crisis, he made sure to note that the 'final judgment' on the souls of the dead was 'up to God.'" ...

It's almost tempting to interpret this as withering, devastating sarcasm. The Reagans 'started a national conversation about AIDS' in the same sense that George W. Bush 'started a national conversation' about Iraq. -- Sam Biddle of Gawker

Marie Antoinette did some incredible LOW KEY ADVOCACY for the French Underclass. -- Dan Fishback, a writer and performer, on Twitter

... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "She faced a swift and fierce backlash, and issued a contrite apology within hours." ...

While the Reagans were strong advocates for stem cell research and finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease, I misspoke about their record on HIV and AIDS. For that, I'm sorry. -- Hillary Clinton, apologizing for her praise of the Reagans' work on AIDS, praise she repeated in a tweet

... Matt Yglesias of Vox comes to Hillary's & Nancy Reagan's defense, sort of. ...

... CW: Hillary Clinton was an adult in the 1980s. She had access to newspapers & TV news. Her husband was a politician & usually the governor of Arkansas. How Clinton can have missed the incessant public cries for the Reagan administration to address the AIDS crisis in a meaningful, serious way, & the continual criticisms of Reagan's failure to do so, I cannot imagine. She must know something about Nancy Reagan the rest of us don't know. ...

... Like the rest of us, Kevin Drum is flummoxed: "I can't imagine why Clinton said something so dumb and inflammatory, and I can't imagine she was pandering to anyone. What the hell caused her to momentarily lose her senses over this?" ...

... CW: The one thing I can think of is this: Hillary Clinton & Andrea Mitchell (to whom she was speaking) belong to the same Elite Schmooze Club, & Nancy Reagan of course was one of them. The Schmooze Club knows no political, ideological boundaries, & its members praise each other all the time. You see it at public & quasi-public events. If you care to surf C-SPAN for the introduction portions of policy forums or other events where people of various political persuasions appear, Schmooze Club etiquette is on full display. Usually, but not always, the encomiums fall somewhere within the range of the truth, even as they gloss over the actual whole truth. As Drum & other noted, apparently Nancy did encourage Ronnie a bit to take AIDS more seriously after the death of her friend Rock Hudson (whom she refused to help when he was dying of AIDS & asked her for assistance). So there was that teeny grain of truth to Hillary's remarks. Maybe Hillary got caught up in the funereal moment -- the prime venue for this kind of laudatory half-truth -- & forgot she wasn't just talking to her Schmooze Buddy Mrs. Greenspan but also to all of us non-Club members. (This explanation, lame tho it may be, does not cover the tweet Hillary or her campaign sent out, making the same claim about Nancy's endeavors for AIDS victims.)

ABC News: "Hillary Clinton won the Northern Mariana Islands' Democratic caucuses, according to the commonwealth's Democratic Party. Clinton won four delegates in addition to a previously pledged superdelegate. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won two delegates."

Let's see what President Obama says about Nancy Reagan's work on AIDS. Oh, nothing:

Chicago Politics, Bernie-Style, & a Rahm Referendum. Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Top campaign surrogates [for Bernie Sanders] have been dispatched to Chicago, and Sanders is running two separate television ads critical of [Chicago Mayor Rahm] Emanuel in an attempt to highlight [Hillary] Clinton's connections with the mayor." ...

... Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "A group of 17-year-olds in Ohio has successfully persuaded a state judge to allow them to vote in the state's primary on Tuesday. The ruling comes after Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont sued Ohio's top elections official, Secretary of State Jon A. Husted, in federal court on Tuesday arguing that Mr. Husted had 'arbitrarily' discriminated against young black and Latino voters by not allowing 17-year-olds who will be 18 by the general election in November to vote in the primary on Tuesday. On Friday, an Ohio state judge ruled that the teenagers can vote in the primary as well as in congressional, legislative and mayoral races. Mr. Husted has vowed to appeal...." ...

     ... Also from Flegenheimer's report: At a Sanders rally in Toledo, Ohio, "Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio announced her endorsement" of Sanders.

Clinton & Sanders, back in the day. Photo via the Week.... Paul Waldman on how the very different political histories of Bernie Sanders & Hillary Clinton explain each of their unique strengths & weaknesses now.

Patrick Reis & Eliza Collins of Politico: "Nineteen delegates are on the line Saturday when the D.C. Republican party holds its caucus, which will be conducted at a lone polling place a few blocks from the White House in the Loews Madison Hotel."

Jason Williams of the Cincinatti Enquirer: "Donald Trump is no longer planning a rally in Downtown [Cincinatti] on Sunday afternoon. The Secret Service security supporting the GOP presidential front runner's campaign could not complete its preparation work in time to hold the event at the Duke Energy Convention Center, said Eric Deters, a local spokesman for Trump's campaign." In an update, Williams writes, "... Trump has scheduled a campaign stop at the Savannah Center in West Chester on Sunday at 2 p.m." CW: West Chester, a new, upscale suburb of Cincinatti, about 22 miles from the Cincinatti city center. Ha ha. The median house size is about 3,500 sq.ft. The West Chester population is 83 percent white; in Cincinatti, it's slight less than 50 percent white. ...

... CBS News: "A CBS News journalist covered all of Friday night's events until he himself was detained.... Sopan Deb was on the floor of the arena as tensions built - raw emotions on both sides. He interviews both protesters and Trump supporters.... Deb says he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed, without notice or warning. Illinois State Police charged him with resisting arrest although there is no sign of that on the video [he was shooting]." Includes video you should watch. In a taped segment, you can hear Deb attempting to show the cops his press credentials. He said an officer held him down on the ground by placing his boot on Deb's neck. ...

... Arturo Garcia of the Raw Story: "A scheduled rally for Donald Trump's presidential campaign in Chicago on Friday was postponed. A spokesperson for the GOP presidential front-runner cited safety concerns for the 'tens of thousands gathered in and around' the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavillion." ...

     ... Update. Monica Davey & Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "With thousands of people already packed into stands and music blaring to warm up the crowd, Donald J. Trump's campaign abruptly canceled his rally [in Chicago] on Friday night over security concerns as protesters clashed with his supporters inside an arena where he was to speak. Minutes after Mr. Trump was to have taken to a podium on the campus of a large, diverse public university just west of downtown, an announcer suddenly pronounced the event over before it had begun. Hundreds of protesters, who had promised to be a visible presence here and filled several sections of the arena, let out an elated, unstopping cheer. Mr. Trump's supporters, many of whom had waited hours to see the Republican front-runner, seemed stunned and slowly filed out in anger.... Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich, condemned the disruptions, but said Mr. Trump was responsible for the tenor of his rallies. Mr. Cruz said Mr. Trump 'affirmatively encourages violence.'" ...

... Jenna Johnson & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The decision [to scrub the rally] immediately sparked nasty verbal and physical fights between protesters and Trump supporters.... soon as the cancellation was announced, shoving matches broke out between the two groups, and police tried to break up one scuffle after another. Everyone moved outside, and the crowd grew in numbers and the altercations continued.... The Chicago Police Department said it was informed shortly before 6:30 p.m. that the Trump campaign had canceled the event, an announcement that took the department by surprise, according to the police chief." According to the Trump campaign, Trump consulted with police before making the decision. CW: So Drumpf, who during Thursday night's debate answered a question about his antipathy to Muslims by praising cops, doesn't even play well with the police. ...

     ... CW: Earlier this week, my high school stadium illustrated the demise of Marco's candidacy; yesterday my college alma mater U of I - Chicago put a big crimp in the Donald's modus operandi. I'm feeling like a time-traveling, virtual Forrest Gump. ...

Part of the problem and part of the reason it takes so long [to kick them out] is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore. There used to be consequences. There are none anymore. These people are so bad for our country. You have no idea, folks; you have no idea.... They contribute nothing. Nothing. And look at the police, they take their lives in their hands. -- Donald Trump, at a St. Louis rally Friday morning

I expect "these people" who "contribute nothing" are black. -- Constant Weader

... Sasha Goldstein, et al., of the New York Daily News: "Donald Trump's divisive hate tour exploded in violence Friday with a bloody stop in St. Louis and chaos in Chicago -- while the tone-deaf hate-monger denied his role in the madness. The fury filled day began with clashes outside St. Louis' Peabody Opera House, leaving one man bloodied and another charged with assault." ...

... Bethania Markus of the Raw Story: "A demonstrator at a St. Louis rally for GOP front runner Donald Trump had his face bloodied and was taken to an ambulance by police officers, according to video posted online and the New York Daily News. The African-American man is a locally-known activist named Anthony Cage. He became a local activist against police violence and racism after the killing of unarmed black teen, Michael Brown, in 2014, by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson." With photos & video. ...

... Before the Chicago fiasco, Sam Stein & Dana Liebelson of the Huffington Post wrote a piece cataloging Trump rally violence. "Racial slurs, nasty rhetoric and violence at Trump rallies have become commonplace against protesters, bystanders, and reporters. Assaults are committed not only by rowdy Trump fans, but by the staff he employs to keep the events safe. But rather than denounce these incidents, Trump is making them part of his brand, and uses them to rev up crowds." ...

... Here's Rachel Maddow on the same topic, aired just after Trump cancelled his Chicago rally. Thanks to Victoria for the link:

     ... CW: Trump keeps promising to pay the legal costs for his followers who beat up on protesters. Let's see if he pays to defend John McGraw, the white guy who sucker-punched black protester Rakeem Jones in Fayetteville, N.C., then said "Next time, we might have to kill him." ...

... Steve M.: "... even if there's really bad violence at Trump rallies, the Republican rank and file will assume the victims deserved it. And I'm not sure the even moderate whites will find that this violence shocks their consciences. Trump is playing with fire. But he's not going to get burned at the ballot box -- not with the voters he's trying to reach." ...

... Gail Collins attempts her usual fun take on the clown parade, but Trump finally has managed to shake her out of Erma Bombeck mode: "He's going all the way. Running for president on an anti-Muslim platform. Good God." ...

... Hate Speech, the New Normal. The Washington Post Editors have had enough, too: "THE REPUBLICAN presidential race, the headlines tell us, suddenly turned civil and substantive this week.... Donald Trump merely stated that 'there is tremendous hate' among 'large portions' of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims. 'We better solve the problem before it's too late,' Mr. Trump said. A debate is not civil when it includes this kind of ignorant stereotyping. It is not substantive when such rank prejudice earns inadequate protest from the others onstage. In fact, it is a measure of how crude Mr. Trump has made GOP politics that the front-runner's hateful spewing seems increasingly normal." ...

... Elements of a Con Game -- The Trump "University" Review. Michael Barbaro & Steve Eder of the New York Times: "Interviews and documents show that employees of Trump University at times applied pressure on students to offer favorable reviews, instructed them to fill out the forms in order to obtain their graduation certificates, and ignored standard practices used to ensure that the surveys were filled out objectively. 'It's absolutely a con, said [Robert] Guillo, who spent $36,000 on Trump University classes and later requested a refund. 'The role of the evaluations were a defense against any legal actions. They anticipated those actions.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Brain Surgeon Testifies Trump Has a Brain. Sean Sullivan & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, throwing his support to the GOP front-runner in a 45-minute joint appearance where Trump said he doesn't see a need for any more televised debates. Carson ... said he and Trump have 'buried the hatchet' after trading nasty words during the primary. He also said there are 'two different' Trumps: the one the public sees and a more 'cerebral' Trump in private." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Valerie Strauss, a Washington Post's education reporter: "Donald Trump ... declared that Carson was going to help him with education issues because he knows so much about them." Strauss looks into how much of an education expert Carson is: his Website is full of inaccurate information [CW: no doubt gleaned from other Wingnut Websites] about education programs, testing, school performance, etc., & he has shown such a lack of familiarity with the basic structure of K-12 education that Strauss thinks he has no idea that charter schools are public schools & that Congress has repealed No Child Left Behind. CW: So there's your new Secretary of Education. And don't be thinking, "Oh, well, Ole Doc is smart; he'll learn on the job." This is a guy whose own adviser said he was incapable of grasping any information about American international policy. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Quinn Hilyer of the National Review: "Dr. Ben Carson has just made a hypocrite of himself and done great damage to the country by endorsing the moral monster, Donald Trump. Carson has spent an entire campaign pleading for honor and decency and decorum, only to endorse a man who is the crassest, most vulgar, most deceitful person in the race -- a man who has repeatedly attacked in the most vicious ways, and lied about, every other candidate in the race. Trump is a man who has repeatedly incited violence at his rallies, saying that protesters should be punched out and carried away on a stretcher, and promising to pay the legal bills of those who throw the punches." ...

... Kevin Drum: "Ben Carson has been grifting the conservative movement for years. He knows the main chance when he sees it, and right now Trump offers him the best prospect of staying in the spotlight and selling more books. I wonder if Trump will make him stand obediently behind him during his next rally, like he did with Chris Christie?" ...

(... CW: I think Ben Carson is a true believer, a fundamentalist's fundamentalist Christian. So how in his mind does he justify this never-ending grift? If he took a really good look in the mirror, he'd see more of an anti-Christ figure than a saint. I realize his belief system requires him to constantly reject evident facts, but it's extra-weird that he -- any many other self-identifying super-Christians -- ignores his own decidedly anti-Christian life choices. ...)

... Ravi Somaiya of the New York Times: "Earlier this week, a reporter for the website Breitbart News said that she had been dragged down by the arm as she was asking Donald Trump a question at a campaign event at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla. Another reporter present said that the Breitbart reporter, Michelle Fields, had been grabbed by Corey Lewandowski, Mr. Trump's campaign manager.... Mr. Trump's campaign has continued to vehemently deny that Mr. Lewandowski grabbed Ms. Fields.On Friday, according to the Jupiter Police Department, Ms. Fields filed a police report alleging 'battery-simple (touch or strike).'” ...

... How the Trump Machine Stands up to Hysterical Women. Gabrielle Bluestone of Gawker: "New video from the Donald Trump press conference Tuesday appears to show Donald Trump's campaign manager grabbing the reporter he swore he didn't grab.... The video also appears to invalidate a theory advanced by Fields' own employer, Breitbart, which today published a story by Joel B. Pollack concluding there was no way Lewandowski could have done it." ...

... Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed: "Breitbart spokesman Kurt Bardella is no longer working with the company in the wake of controversy over Donald Trump's campaign manager allegedly roughly handling one of the site's reporters.... Asked if it would be fair to say he was parting ways with Breitbart because he disagrees with its handling of the situation with Michelle Fields, Bardella said 'It would be fair for you to say that' but that he wasn't going to."

... Janell Ross of the Washington Post responds to Trump's racially-coded responses regarding violence at his rallies. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eli Stokols of Politico: "Marco Rubio on Saturday said he is no longer sure he can support Donald Trump should he become the GOP presidential nominee following the protests and unrest sparked by a planned Trump rally in Chicago. 'I don't know,' the Florida senator said, pausing in despair.... 'I already talked about the fact that I think Hillary Clinton would be terrible for this country, but the fact that you're even asking me that question ... I still at this moment intend to support the Republican nominee, but ... it's getting harder every day.'" ...

... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "Perhaps you heard the news that Jeb Bush met with Cruz, Rubio and Kasich on Wednesday in Florida prior to the debate last night. If Erick Erickson is to be believed, they have hatched a 'stop Trump' plan. It all comes down to this: 1. Marco Rubio gets Florida. 2. John Kasich gets Ohio. 3. Ted Cruz gets Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina."

Eli Stokols & Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Marco Rubio, desperate to save his presidential campaign in his home state, is adopting the Mitt Romney strategy -- asking Republicans hoping to stop Donald Trump to support his rival, John Kasich, in Ohio. 'John Kasich is the only one who can beat Donald Trump in Ohio,' Rubio said.... The flip-side of that strategic gambit is to convince any voters in Florida not backing Trump to support him in Tuesday's primary. 'I'm the only one who can beat Trump in Florida,' Rubio said during a press conference Friday morning.... 'We were going to win in Ohio without his help, just as he's going to lose in Florida without ours,' said Kasich campaign spokesman Rob Nichols." CW: Either Kasich didn't understand Jeb!'s memo or he doesn't negotiated with the terrifieds.

Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Speaking to reporters at a local Republican dinner outside Chicago, where Mr. Trump had just canceled a rally..., [Ted] Cruz began by saying that the 'protesters who took violence into their own hands' were responsible for the episode. 'But in any campaign, responsibility starts at the top,' Mr. Cruz continued. 'And when you have a campaign that disrespects the voters, when you have a campaign that affirmatively encourages violence, when you have a campaign that is facing allegations of physical violence against members of the press, you create an environment that only encourages this sort of nasty discourse.' BUT also everything is Obama's fault: because he "sought to divide us on racial lines, on ethnic lines, on religious lines, on class lines." ...

     ... CW: See, if President Obama weren't so blackity-black-black (or, more accurately, half-blackity-black, but let's not get into math & the fractions that divide us), that old white guy would not have felt the need to cold-cock a black guy at a Drumpf rally this week, & Corey Lewandowski would not have had to shove around a white reporter. Really, Mr. President, stop being so damned black. You're scaring the nice white peoples. ...

     ... AND speaking of black & white & Chicago & Nancy Reagan, there was that time "when she telephoned from a fundraising event in Chicago in 1980. 'Oh Ronnie,' she enthused, 'I wish you could be here to see all these beautiful white people ... black and white people, I mean.'" R.I.P., Nancy. The beautiful Black Person in the White House has been saying nice things about you.

The National Review Editors endorse Ted Cruz for president.

Other News & Views

Sari Horwitz, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Obama is finalizing his decision on a Supreme Court nominee to replace the late Antonin Scalia and appears to have narrowed his choice to three candidates, according to people with knowledge of the vetting process. The three under consideration are Merrick Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; Sri Srinivasan, a judge on the same court; and Paul Watford, a judge on the California-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Obama said this week that he wanted to make a decision quickly, and his announcement could come as early as next week, the sources said." ...

     ... CW: So disappointing he's overlooked my neighbor's favorite: Judge Judy. First of all, a lot of people think she's already on the Supreme Court, so her appointment to an actual seat would go practically unnoticed. Second, she'd whip the asses of those old farts on the Judiciary Committee if they tried to deprive her of a hearing. A President known for his pragmatism should be more pragmatic here.

Jemima Kiss of the Guardian: "Barack Obama today attempted to heal a rift between the technology community and the government, saying the two sides must engage constructively to build technologies that balance individual privacy with the government's obligation to keep people safe. Addressing a small and enthusiastic audience at the SXSW festival, Obama told the 2,400 festival-goers, technologists, local politicians and media that the American constitution and bill of rights are a system designed to protect the public from government overreach." ...

... Joe DeLessio of New York: "Delivering a keynote address at South by Southwest Friday, President Obama said he couldn't discuss the ongoing battle between Apple and the FBI over access to the iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook. But the president ... took a stand against pro-Apple 'absolutism.' Said Obama, via Chris Welch of the Verge: 'What will happen is, if everybody goes to their respective corners, and the tech community says, "either we have strong perfect encryption or else it's Big Brother and an Orwellian world," what you'll find is that after something really bad happens, the politics of this will swing and it will become sloppy and rushed and it will go through Congress in ways that are dangerous and not thought through.'" ...

... Video of President Obama's full conversation is here.

     ... CW: I see the President is still promoting macroeconomic hoohah. Here he misinforms a new generation: "There is growing inequality because of globalization." Right. Because if only we didn't import Chinese toys, rich Americans wouldn't get tax breaks.

Elements of a Con Game -- Manufacturing VA "Scandals." Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "At [Thursday] night's debate in Miami, the Republican candidates - as they have all primary season - attacked the VA health care system and demanded its radical restructuring. Few viewers were aware, however, that the candidates were following a script written by the Koch brothers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Alicia Mundy has the full story: "Working through the CVA [Concerned Veterans for America], and in partnership with key Republicans and corporate medical interests, the Koch brothers' web of affiliates has succeeded in manufacturing or vastly exaggerating 'scandals' at the VA as part of a larger campaign to delegitimize publicly provided health care. The Koch-inspired attacks, in turn, have provided the pretext for GOP candidates to rally behind the cause -- only recently seen as fringe -- of imposing free market 'reforms on the federal government's second largest agency." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Peter Hermann, et al., of the Washington Post: "The mysterious death of [Mikhail Lesin,] the Kremlin-connected businessman -- found two days after he failed to show at an exclusive Washington fundraiser -- is fueling conspiracy theories around the globe. Speculation ranges from Lesin being targeted by a political or financial rival to being the victim of a mundane bar fight."

Beyond the Beltway

Lead, Lead Everywhere. Marc Santora & David Chen of the New York Times: "On Wednesday, water at 30 of Newark's 67 schools was shut off after being found to contain high levels of lead. The move left state and school officials trying to reassure nervous parents that they had the situation under control, even as questions swirled about how the problem had been handled in the first place. The potential danger of lead exposure was something school officials in Newark had been aware of for years, and the district had installed lead-reduction filters on water fountains and kitchen prep sinks, particularly in schools built before 2006.... But it took a crisis in Flint, Mich., to focus attention on the issue of lead contamination in Newark, New Jersey's largest city." Previous "solution": Just let the taps & drinking fountains run a while.

Lynchings as "Humor": "I Didn't Like the Gumbo." Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post: A couple complained to the NAACP (for some odd reason) after they went to Joe's Crab Shack (a national chain) in Roseville, Minnesota, & found themselves seated at a table into which had been laminated a blow-up of an early-20th century photograph of the hanging of a black man. The "joke"? The hanged man says, "All I said was 'I didn't like the gumbo.'" Ha ha. The restaurant removed the image after the NAACP's complaint & apologized, but the head of the Minneapolis NAACP says Joe's parent company, Ignite Restaurant Group, has not made a commitment to survey its other restaurants for offensive material. CW: To be clear, the photo depicted a public hanging, not a lynching. But still. The story raises questions not answered about how this image got there, & how long & why it stayed.

AP: "A man suspected of intentionally driving a snowmobile into teams of two mushers near the front of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race was arrested Saturday in a Yukon River village. Arnold Demoski, 26, of Nulato was arrested on suspicion of assault, reckless endangerment, reckless driving and six counts of criminal mischief."

Way Beyond

The Assassins' Cold Feet. Lorenzo Tondo of the Guardian: "Mario Cuomo, the former governor of New York, was targeted for assassination by the Sicilian mafia during a trip to Italy in 1992, according to an imprisoned Cosa Nostra hitman. Maurizio Avola, 54 -- who is currently serving a life sentence for his part in 43 murders and 40 armed robberies -- told the Guardian that mobster bosses planned an ambush involving about a dozen gunmen armed with assault rifles and explosives. The attack was only called off when the scale of Cuomo's security detail became apparent, he said."

Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "Israel Kristal is 112 years and 178 days old. That's quite an achievement. On Friday, representatives of Guinness World Records came to his home in Haifa, Israel, to officially give him a certificate. He's now officially the world's oldest living man." He has lived a remarkable life, even surviving Auschwitz.

The Commentariat -- March 11, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Elements of a Con Game -- The Trump "University" Review. Michael Barbaro & Steve Eder of the New York Times: "Interviews and documents show that employees of Trump University at times applied pressure on students to offer favorable reviews, instructed them to fill out the forms in order to obtain their graduation certificates, and ignored standard practices used to ensure that the surveys were filled out objectively. 'It's absolutely a con, said [Robert] Guillo, who spent $36,000 on Trump University classes and later requested a refund. 'The role of the evaluations were a defense against any legal actions. They anticipated those actions.'"

Elements of a Con Game -- Manufacturing VA "Scandals." Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "At last night's debate in Miami, the Republican candidates - as they have all primary season - attacked the VA health care system and demanded its radical restructuring. Few viewers were aware, however, that the candidates were following a script written by the Koch brothers." ...

... Alicia Mundy has the full story: "Working through the CVA [Concerned Veterans for America], and in partnership with key Republicans and corporate medical interests, the Koch brothers' web of affiliates has succeeded in manufacturing or vastly exaggerating 'scandals' at the VA as part of a larger campaign to delegitimize publicly provided health care. The Koch-inspired attacks, in turn, have provided the pretext for GOP candidates to rally behind the cause -- only recently seen as fringe -- of imposing free market 'reforms on the federal government's second largest agency."

Brain Surgeon Testifies Trump Has a Brain. Sean Sullivan & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, throwing his support to the GOP front-runner in a 45-minute joint appearance where Trump said he doesn't see a need for any more televised debates. Carson ... said he and Trump have 'buried the hatchet' after trading nasty words during the primary. He also said there are 'two different' Trumps: the one the public sees and a more 'cerebral' Trump in private." ...

... Valerie Strauss, a Washington Post's education reporter: "Donald Trump ... declared that Carson was going to help him with education issues because he knows so much about them." Strauss looks into how much of an education expert Carson is: his Website is full of inaccurate information [CW: no doubt gleaned from other Wingnut Websites] about education programs, testing, school performance, etc., & he has shown such a lack of familiarity with the basic structure of K-12 education that Strauss thinks he has no idea that charter schools are public schools & that Congress has repealed No Child Left Behind. CW: So there's your new Secretary of Education. And don't be thinking, "Oh, well, Ole Doc is smart; he'll learn on the job." This is a guy whose own adviser said he was incapable of grasping any information about American international policy.

Janell Ross of the Washington Post responds to Trump's racially-coded responses regarding violence at his rallies.

*****

Presidential Race

Jonathan Martin & Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "After 11 adversarial debates, the two chief antagonists to Donald J. Trump on Thursday night largely abandoned their strategy of brutally attacking him, choosing instead to use their final face-off before next week's round of big Republican primaries to project gravitas and champion conservative positions on trade, jobs and Israel. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, whose candidacy is on the line in his state's primary on Tuesday, passed up easy chances to challenge Mr. Trump on immigration and foreign visas, and he stopped insulting the front-runner after his recent jabs backfired. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who is running second to Mr. Trump in many states, stuck to policy at first but gradually turned tougher against Mr. Trump, eventually saying he would be a disaster as the Republican standard-bearer." ...

... New York Times reporters are liveblogging the debate. CW: I didn't watch the debate, but I followed the liveblog. By failing to bring up Donald Trump's inciting violence against black Americans at his rallies, CNN moderators committed another act of journalistic malpractice. ...

     ... CW: Update/Correction: Oops! I missed the last part of the liveblog (I thought the debate ended at 10:30, as scheduled. It didn't.) My apologies to Jake Tapper & CNN. ...

... The Washington Post's annotated transcript of the debate is here. CW: I just read the part, near the end, where Tapper questions Trump & the other candidates about the violence at Trump rallies. The responses are really sickening. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "The exchange that captured Thursday night's Republican debate -- possibly the final debate of the primary -- came when Jake Tapper asked about the violence pervading Donald Trump's campaign rallies. Tapper quoted Trump egging his supporters on to attack protestors, and indeed, Trump's own campaign manager just accosted a female reporter the other day. Trump's response was terrifying, a virtual confession of his own authoritarianism. The candidate who had called the peaceful Tiananmen Square protests a 'riot,' and who insisted without evidence that protesters had initiated violence at his speeches, rationalized attacks as a response to his supporters' anger at conditions in the country. This was the chance for Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich to make the case ... that Trump is ... a singular danger not only to their party but the country. Instead they simply echoed Trump's message. People are angry. President Obama is a menace to freedom. Police are wonderful. And that was it." ...

... Jim Newell of Slate: "Everyone applauded [Trump's] incredible hybrid of dodging and pandering, because nothing matters." ...

... Elias Isquith of Salon thought the most important moments of the debate came early when moderators asked Trump & the other candidates about Trump's remark -- made Wednesday -- that "Islam hates us." Trump refused twice to walk it back & the other candidates equivocated, although they used the term "radical Islam" instead of "Islam." CW: Anyway, it turns out the real problem is our Muslim President. BTW, reading the transcript of what these jamokes said is just as infuriating as watching them on the teevee. ...

... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The Republican presidential candidates will gather in Miami on Thursday for their last debate before voters in Florida, Ohio and three other states go to the polls next week for primary elections that could reshuffle the race. Chances are dwindling for Donald J. Trump's rivals to slow his campaign's momentum. With Gov. John Kasich of Ohio and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida under pressure to hold their home states on Tuesday, this face-off on the debate stage could prove to be decisive.... The debate will begin at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time and will air on CNN. CNN International and CNN en Español will simulcast the event."

If You Comp Me an Overnight at Your Glitzy Club, I'll Endorse You. Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Conservative favorite Ben Carson, who last week suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, plans to endorse Donald Trump on Friday morning, according to two people familiar with his thinking. The endorsement, perhaps the most high-profile nod for Trump since New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie backed him, was finalized Thursday morning when Carson met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the luxury club owned by the Republican front-runner, the people said." ...

... CW: Maybe you thought Ben Carson was a well-meaning but uninformed dingbat who was overwhelmed by the harsh realities of cutthroat politics. Nope. He's a conniving, hypocritical uninformed dingbat without an ounce of moral fiber. Listen up, Ole Doc, hanging a picture in the front hall of you & Jesus together don't mean you're a "real" Christian. Like the Jesus guy, you went into the wilderness for 40 days & 40 nights (& then some), & in the end, when the Great Satan of the Skyscrapers tempted you, you said, "Thank you, Lord, & pass the caviar." By your deeds shall you be known, Doc Ben.

It's Getting Worse. Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "A black protester [-- Rakeem Jones --] being escorted out of a Donald J. Trump campaign rally on Wednesday in Fayetteville, N.C., was sucker-punched and shoved by a Trump supporter, several videos on social media show.... Mr. Jones stumbled, then could be seen on the floor surrounded by sheriff's deputies. In some of the videos, at least two deputies who were following Mr. Jones up the arena steps could be seen walking past the man who had just punched Mr. Jones. But on Thursday, WRAL, the local NBC television affiliate, reported that a 78-year-old man, John McGraw of Linden, N.C., had been charged with assault and battery and disorderly conduct.... Later in the Fayetteville rally..., when another in a series of demonstrators was being led out, Mr. Trump himself lamented what he called 'the good old days' when someone who acted up would be carried out 'on a stretcher.'" Emphasis added. CW: Local authorities should arrest Trump, too, for inciting violence & for civil rights violations. The guy belongs in an orange jumpsuit. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Trump also complained during the Fayetteville rally that there were too few protesters & they were not troublesome enough: "It's always like one person. Can't we have a little more action than this?"' ...

     ... Update. Inside Edition: "The [old white guy] Trump supporter [John McGraw] who was filmed sucker punching a [black] protester [Rakeem Jones] during Wednesday's rally in North Carolina said: 'Next time, we might have to kill him.... We don't know who he is. He might be with a terrorist organization.'... On Thursday, officials arrested and charged McGraw with assault and battery and disorderly conduct, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office." CW: Just because Inside Edition covers it, doesn't mean it's entertainment. ...

     ... CW: The Rules According to Old White Guys: Always suspect black people of being terrorists. It's best to beat them up first & ask questions later. To rekindle the good old days, try to inflict enough bodily harm that the black terrorist suspects have to be carried out on stretchers. Maybe to the morgue. ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic was at the Fayetteville rally: "Just below the surface of a Trump rally runs an undercurrent of violence. There are few overt threats. But there are thousands of people who are deeply angry at the state of the nation, whose anger is being intensified by the speaker on stage.... What is disturbing about Trump's handling of the media at an event like this is that he knows he's playing a game -- but doesn't tell the crowd." ...

... Freedom of the Press. Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast on how Trump & his, ah, news organ Breitbart, handle the press. Nixon kept his enemies list a secret. Trump is right out there in the open, beating them up & screwing them around. And, yeah, Breitbart, that paragon of journalistic excellence is willing to throw its "girl reporter" under the bus. Ben Terris of the Washington Post has a bit more: After finding out that Terris had witnessed Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski rough up Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, Lewandowski made Terris wait for his scheduled interview, then cancelled the interview. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... It's Okay to Rough up MSM Reporters. CW: Steve M. on a point in Grove's report that jumped out at me, too: "The Daily Beast tells us, 'Lewandowski's explanation ... was that he and Fields had never met before and ... he didn't recognize her as a Breitbart reporter, instead mistaking her for an adversarial member of the mainstream media.' If she'd been from the 'adversarial' media, I guess roughing her up would have been just fine, according to Team Trump." ...

     ... Update. Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "When a protester was kicked and punched at a Donald Trump rally in November, the candidate's excuse was that the activist deserved it. Now that a reporter has been grabbed -- hard enough to leave bruises -- by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, the Republican presidential front-runner is trying an even more audacious defense: Saying it never even happened.... Fort Trump is accusing Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields -- and Washington Post reporter Ben Terris, who saw Lewandowski grab her roughly after a Tuesday-night press conference -- of fabricating the whole thing. After remaining silent on the incident for almost two days, the campaign issued a statement on Thursday afternoon, declaring Fields's accusation to be 'entirely false.'" ...

     ... Update Update. Hadas Gold of Politico: "A roughly two and a half minute audio recording of the incident obtained by Politico -- while not definitive -- supports the reporter's version of the events, which were witnessed by Washington Post reporter Ben Terris." ...

     ... AND More. Claire Landsbaum of New York: "Following the millionth GOP debate Friday night, Donald Trump told reporters he didn't believe the incident had taken place at all. 'I wasn't involved in it,' he said. 'The Secret Service was surrounding everybody, they said nothing happened, everybody said nothing happened -- perhaps she made the story up. I think that's what happened.'... Trump has taken the opportunity to turn the assault into a punch line": Trump told a female reporter, "If you go down, it's not my fault." CW: Because assaulting women is hilarious. ...

     ... CW: Maybe we shouldn't worry so much about Hillary's losing to the Donald. During the general election campaign, he won't be able to keep himself from making "jokes" like this about Hillary herself. He's already done it. All but the worst misogynists will be appalled.

Otto Von Drumpf XIV. Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's blistering critique of American trade policy boils down to a simple equation: Foreigners are 'killing us on trade' because Americans spend much more on imports than the rest of the world spends on American exports. China's unbalanced trade with the United States, he said Tuesday night, is 'the greatest theft in the history of the world.' Add a few 'whereins' and 'whences' and that sentiment would conform nicely to the worldview of the first Queen Elizabeth of 16th-century England, to the 17th-century court of Louis XIV, or to Prussia's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, in the 19th century.... Mr. Trump is bringing mercantilism back. The New York billionaire is challenging the last 200 years of economic orthodoxy that trade among nations is good, and that more is better." CW: You'll have to read Appelbaum's full report to find out why Von Drumpf -- who tells us he is very, very smart -- is so wrong. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael Gerson: "Trump is the guy your Founding Fathers warned you about.... We have reached the culmination of the founders’ fears: Democracy is producing a genuine threat to the American form of self-government.... The founders may not have imagined political parties as a check on public passions, but that is the role the GOP must now play -- as important as any in its long history. It is late, but not too late." ...

     ... CW: If you've watched 5 minutes of any political convention of either party in your lifetime, you'll find Gerson's argument laughable. Gerson describes the delegates as the "chosen body of citizens," a la James Madison's Federalist 10: "a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country." While it's likely that some of the GOP delegates will be wearing their tricorns in the convention hall, that is where the likeness to the Founders ends. There is not an ounce of wisdom beneath the hats of the delegates. Delegates are parochial poobahs come to party hard in the Big City, not to ponder & debate delicate determinants of our national future. They will be unable & unwilling to save the country from the grip of a demagogue.

Repulsive Senator Endorses Repulsive Senator. McKay Coppins & Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed: "Utah Sen. Mike Lee endorsed Ted Cruz for president on Thursday afternoon."

Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "Overall, the [Democratic] debate was a bummer.... But insofar as it demonstrated how well [the candidates] hold up under ... attempts to trip them up, it suggested Clinton's simply better at it. She got a lot more questions in that vein and never really stumbled. Sanders got only one such question and ended up proving some of the worst concerns about his readiness for prime time." ...

... CW: If it's fair to question Hillary Clinton about what she said during her husband's 1990s administration or even to question her about her husband's decisions, then it's fair to question Bernie Sanders about his support for totalitarian governments in the 1980s. His equivocations aren't going to cut it. Some of his views back then were disturbing, even in the context of the times. He should acknowledge that he was a radical, naive jerk in 1985, & try to demonstrate he isn't a naive jerk any more. Anyway, I'm going downtown to vote for the naive jerk today.

Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: "Fascism may have appealed to the economically insecure, but it did not appeal by giving them an economic answer. It appealed by giving them an enemy. As in France, or throughout Europe now, the extreme right flourishes not because there is insecurity but because they have an answer for insecurity: blame the Muslims (they've also blamed the Jews, though they're quieter about that right now). Or: blame the Muslims and the Mexicans. They work, in the classic manner, not by providing answers to insecurity but by blurring the lines between genuine anxieties and imaginary fears and then by offering an imaginary solution -- the Jews/Muslims/terrorists/Commies who are coming -- to the imaginary fears as though that would alleviate the real anxieties." ...

... CW: I'd like to point out that it isn't only fascists whose appeal centers on creating "enemies." Bernie Sanders can barely utter a sentence that doesn't include the words "Wall Street billionaires." He's not stupid. He does this on purpose. A difference of course is that Bernie is essentially right, although our economic problems, as he readily acknowledges, are not caused solely by financial titans. Moreover, many of Bernie's solutions not only address real economic problems; they are workable.

     ... For instance, one of his proposals that makes people roll their eyes is "free" college tuition. To two generations of Americans who never experienced such a thing & went into debt because of the high cost of college, Bernie's plan -- which he would partially finance on the backs of "Wall Street billionaires"! -- sounds like a pipe dream. But up thru the 1960s, many or most state colleges & universities charged little or no tuition to in-state residents. If we could do it then, we can do it now. Hillary Clinton, BTW, has pooh-poohed the idea, arguing, for one thing, that it isn't "fair" for taxpayers to fund the college educations of the children of the rich. But they did it back then, & nobody squawked (or even thought about squawking), so, again, we can do it now. College entrance that is merit-based rather than means-based makes a lot of sense. Besides, the wealthy, who pay more in taxes than others, would in fact be paying more for their kids' "free" tuition than would poor & middle-class parents.

Other News & Views

BBC News: "US President Barack Obama and Canada's new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have lavished praise on each other during the first official visit by a Canadian leader in nearly 20 years. At the official state dinner Mr Trudeau toasted the two nations as 'siblings'. Mr Obama raised his glass to the 'great alliance', and made several jokes about Mr Trudeau and his previous careers. 'If things get out of hand, remember the prime minister used to work as a bouncer,' said Mr Obama. In a joking reference to Canadian-born presidential candidate Ted Cruz, Mr Obama laughed 'Where else could a boy born in Calgary run for president of the United States?'"

Steven Mufson & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "President Obama said Thursday he is not responsible for the Republican Party's 'crackup' even though some GOP leaders have blamed him for Donald Trump's divisive but effective campaign for the party's presidential nomination." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Here's the full press conference:

     ... digby & President Obama agree on who's responsible for extreme political polarization.

President Obama welcomes Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada to the White House:

Andrew Dugan & Frank Newport of Gallup: "President Barack Obama earned a 50% job approval rating for the week ending March 6, his highest weekly average since May 2013." CW: Gosh, why is that? Because he's friends with Justin Trudeau? Probably not. "While it's hard to pinpoint precisely why Obama's approval rating has risen among Democrats recently, there are a number of plausible explanations. The unusual status of the Republican primary race -- exemplified in particular by front-runner Donald Trump's campaign style and rhetoric -- may serve to make Obama look statesmanlike in comparison."

KXAN Austin, Texas: "The South by Southwest Interactive Festival is kicking off on Friday. Perhaps the most anticipated event is President Obama's appearance at a Keynote Conversation. He will be talking with Evan Smith, CEO and Editor in Chief of the Texas Tribune."

New York Times Editors: "On Monday, John Cornyn, the senior Republican senator from Texas, warned President Obama that if he dares to name a successor to Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court, the nominee 'will bear some resemblance to a piñata.'... It is disgraceful for a senator to play the thug, threatening harm to someone simply for appearing before Congress to answer questions about professional accomplishments and constitutional philosophy. On Thursday, during the first Senate Judiciary Committee hearing since Justice Scalia's death last month, Mr. Cornyn and his fellow Republicans ... look[ed] like deranged obstructionists." ...

... David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Senators on the Judiciary Committee clashed openly on Thursday over filling a Supreme Court vacancy during an election year, with Republicans insisting that they were doing the right thing by refusing to consider any nominee put forward by President Obama and Democrats accusing them of shirking their constitutional duty. The Judiciary Committee chairman, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, denounced Democrats for the pressure they have brought in recent days in pushing him to convene confirmation hearings once Mr. Obama picks a nominee, which could happen as soon as next week." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Michael McAuliff & Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "... [Sen.] Lindsey Graham (S.C.), admitted Thursday a stark fact that the rest of his colleagues have tried their best to avoid: that their blockade of any Supreme Court nominee by President Barack Obama is unprecedented. And he insisted that he was going to go along with it, even though he predicted it would worsen relations between the parties and the functioning of the Senate.... 'We're headed to changing the rules, probably in a permanent fashion,' he said."

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Responding to a drug crisis that has contributed to more American deaths than car crashes, the Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a broad drug treatment and prevention bill, the largest of its kind since a law in 2008 that mandated insurance coverage for addiction treatment.... The bill was threatened by Democrats who were angered that Republicans turned away an accompanying measure to provide $600 million in extra funding to pay for some of the programs that the bill authorizes.... The fate of the legislation in the House is uncertain. A companion bill there does not have strong Republican support...." ...

     ... Empty Suits. CW: If Republicans won't fund the bill, the vote today was just a campaign ploy, giving senators an I-Care talking point while not mentioning they won't spend a dime on prevention or treatment. Maybe they can come up with a few thousand bucks to print up & distribute some Nancy Reagan Just Say No posters. That should help. Thanks, Republicans!

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department said Thursday that Apple's attempts at linking an ongoing fight over a locked iPhone to broader questions about encryption are 'a diversion,' pushing back against an argument repeatedly made by the company and its supporters in Silicon Valley. Federal prosecutors argued in a court filing that this fight is one of Apple's own making, accusing the company of having 'deliberately raised technological barriers' that are keeping the iPhone locked." ...

... Radley Balko of the Washington Post: "... the 'sneak-and-peek' provision of the Patriot Act that was alleged to be used only in national security and terrorism investigations has overwhelmingly been used in narcotics cases.... National Security Agency data will be shared with other intelligence agencies like the FBI without first applying any screens for privacy. The ACLU of Massachusetts blog Privacy SOS explains why this is important: '... In short, domestic law enforcement officials now have access to huge troves of American communications, obtained without warrants, that they can use to put people in cages. FBI agents ... can simply poke around in your private information in the course of totally routine investigations.... And we don't have to guess who's going to suffer this unconstitutional indignity the most brutally. It'll be Black, Brown, poor, immigrant, Muslim, and dissident Americans: the same people who are always targeted by law enforcement for extra 'special' attention.'"

Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the Washington Post: "The board of the Wounded Warrior Project, one of the largest veteran support organizations in the country, has fired the nonprofit's chief executive officer and the chief operating officer.... The departure of two top executives, CEO Steven Nardizzi and COO Al Giordano, comes at a time when the wounded veteran-focused organization is awash in controversy amid news reports accusing the group of wasteful spending.... According to Wounded Warrior Project tax forms obtained by a CBS News investigation, the organization spent $26 million on conferences and meetings in 2014, up from $1.7 million in 2010.... According to the charity watchdog, 'Charity Navigator,' Wounded Warrior Project only spends 60 percent of its budget on veterans.... The Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation, on the other hand, provides more than 98 percent to veterans."

Paul Krugman writes that politicians should be honest about trade deals. CW: That is never going to happen. There is so much at stake, so many potential winners & losers, there are few honest analysts. Economists like Krugman can shed light on the realities &, well, tradeoffs of international trade & trade agreements (see Binyamin Appelbaum's piece on mercantilism, linked yesterday, for what was an eye-opener to me), but even their work suffers from various biases & preconceptions, & because there are so many moving parts subject to so many fluctiations, some of them unforeseen, what economists might agree is a "good" trade deal one year may prove to be a bad deal the next. Politicians really don't know what they're talking about; they all start from a particular slant -- sometimes toward something as parochial as a particular business in a particular Congressional district -- and work backwards from there. The fact that they understand almost nothing about macroeconomics renders their views meaningless, except for the fact that those vews are among the ones that will prevail; some politicians, like Bernie Sanders, hold honest views, but they're based on nonsensical or fantasy-based premises. Add to that that even a "good" trade agreement is probably unenforceable & subject to myriad variables, most notably corruption, & the average citizen doesn't know what to think.

News Lede

Washington Post: "A former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin who was found dead in a Dupont Circle hotel room in November died of blunt force trauma to the head, the D.C. medical examiner's office said Thursday."

The Commentariat -- March 10, 2016

Afternoon Update:

It's Getting Worse. Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "A black protester [-- Rakeem Jones --] being escorted out of a Donald J. Trump campaign rally on Wednesday in Fayetteville, N.C., was sucker-punched and shoved by a Trump supporter, several videos on social media show.... Mr. Jones stumbled, then could be seen on the floor surrounded by sheriff’s deputies. In some of the videos, at least two deputies who were following Mr. Jones up the arena steps could be seen walking past the man who had just punched Mr. Jones. But on Thursday, WRAL, the local NBC television affiliate, reported that a 78-year-old man, John McGraw of Linden, N.C., had been charged with assault and battery and disorderly conduct.... Later in the Fayetteville rally..., when another in a series of demonstrators was being led out, Mr. Trump himself lamented what he called 'the good old days' when someone who acted up would be carried out 'on a stretcher.'" Emphasis added. CW: Local authorities should arrest Trump, too, for inciting violence & for civil rights violations. The guy belongs in an orange jumpsuit. ...

... Freedom of the Press. Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast on how Trump & his, ah, news organ Breitbart, handle the press. Nixon kept his enemies list a secret. Trump is right out there in the open, beating them up & screwing them around. And, yeah, Breitbart, that paragon of journalistic excellence is willing to throw its "girl reporter" under the bus. Ben Terris of the Washington Post has a bit more: After finding out that Terris had witnessed Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski rough up Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, Lewandowski made Terris wait for his scheduled interview, then cancelled the interview.

Otto Von Drumpf XIV. Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's blistering critique of American trade policy boils down to a simple equation: Foreigners are 'killing us on trade' because Americans spend much more on imports than the rest of the world spends on American exports. China's unbalanced trade with the United States, he said Tuesday night, is 'the greatest theft in the history of the world.' Add a few 'whereins' and 'whences' and that sentiment would conform nicely to the worldview of the first Queen Elizabeth of 16th-century England, to the 17th-century court of Louis XIV, or to Prussia's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, in the 19th century.... Mr. Trump is bringing mercantilism back. The New York billionaire is challenging the last 200 years of economic orthodoxy that trade among nations is good, and that more is better." CW: You'll have to read Appelbaum's full report to find out why Trump -- who says he is very, very smart -- is so wrong.

David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Senators on the Judiciary Committee clashed openly on Thursday over filling a Supreme Court vacancy during an election year, with Republicans insisting that they were doing the right thing by refusing to consider any nominee put forward by President Obama and Democrats accusing them of shirking their constitutional duty. The Judiciary Committee chairman, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, denounced Democrats for the pressure they have brought in recent days in pushing him to convene confirmation hearings once Mr. Obama picks a nominee, which could happen as soon as next week."

Steven Mufson & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "President Obama said Thursday he is not responsible for the Republican Party's 'crackup' even though some GOP leaders have blamed him for Donald Trump's divisive but effective campaign for the party's presidential nomination." Here's the full press conference:

President Obama welcomes Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada to the White House:

*****

Presidential Race

Patrick Healy & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders clashed vividly over immigration reform, health care and Cuba during a contentious debate Wednesday as the two Democrats appealed to Hispanic voters and tried to outdo each other in assailing Donald J. Trump. Mrs. Clinton, bruised by her surprise loss in the Michigan primary a day earlier, was on the attack throughout the debate as she sought to undercut Mr. Sanders's momentum before the next round of primaries." ...

... Apparently this memo to Hillary from the New York Times Editors, published before the debate, was lost in the mail: "If she hopes to unify Democrats as the nominee, trying to tarnish Mr. Sanders as she did in Michigan this week is not the way to go." ...

... Here's more of Clinton's mean-girl routine. Matthew Nussbaum of Politico: "Hillary Clinton said Wednesday night that Bernie Sanders is in cahoots with the billionaire conservative Koch brothers because a group affiliated with them praised Sanders for opposing the Export-Import Bank. 'The leaders of the fossil fuel industry, the Koch brothers, have just paid to put up an ad praising Senator Sanders,' Clinton said. 'You know, there are a lot of different powerful interests in Washington, I've taken them on.'" Let's go the videotape. When Ramos tried to let Clinton get away with that unfounded attack, the crowd booed: ...

     ... CW: Clinton is a barracuda, the Democrats' prettier version of Ted Cruz. If you wonder why anyone would question Clinton's trustworthiness -- a quality on which she typically scores low in polls -- there you go. Sanders is no more aligned with the Kochs than he is with Trump or Atilla the Hun. I don't mind at all her going after Sanders on points where they genuinely disagree, but this line of attack is as real as "Trump Magazine." I don't trust a word she says, including "and" & "the." ...

     ... Update: PolitiFact is fact-checking statements the candidates made in last night's debate. So far Sanders has all "Mostly True" ratings & Clinton's are all "Mostly False" or "False." ...

... German Lopez of Vox on why the Univision debate was so important. CW: And good for Democrats for holding it. I wonder why Republicans don't have a Univision debate. Oh, because they're bullies who don't have the guts to face the victims of their policies? Could be. ...

... Eric Levitz of New York: "Jorge Ramos just gave advocates for the undocumented (and, probably, some GOP ad-makers) reason to celebrate. At Wednesday night's Democratic debate in Miami, the 'Walter Cronkite of Latino America' demanded Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton answer yes or no: Would they deport undocumented children and/or adults without criminal histories if elected president? Standing before a crowd of the Sunshine State's Democratic primary voters, neither candidate could say no. Although, Hillary Clinton sort of tried to -- and she may have bought herself some wiggle-room in doing so." ...

     ... Greg Sargent tries to clarify the wiggle room. Neither Clinton nor Sanders really made any news, & Clinton was equivocal. ...

... Gail Collins on the debate(s): "Hillary Clinton is by far the best qualified candidate for president. But at this point in the campaign, you can understand why some people feel that voting for her against Bernie Sanders is like rewarding Washington for its worst behavior. In the end, Clinton is the one who knows how to make the system work. But she's just got to be clearer on how she can work against the system." ...

... The New York Times is livebloggng the Bickersons' debate. ...

... Margaret Hartmann has a rundown of the big moments. And for those like Kate M., who at the top of today's Comments sensed that Univision was on Hillary's side, this multi-million-dollar tidbit: "Univision chairman Haim Saban contributed $2.5 million to a pro-Clinton super-PAC." I wish Bernie had raised that point. ...

... Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "Univision's Jorge Ramos had a disclosure to make on Wednesday night: his daughter works for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign." ...

... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders will convene in Miami for the second Democratic presidential debate of the week on Wednesday night, ahead of big primaries in Florida and Ohio next Tuesday.... The debate begins at 9 p.m. Eastern and will be shown on Univision, CNN and Fusion." ...

... David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "This debate comes at an unexpected moment of drama in the Democratic race.... After the Michigan win, it is clear that Sanders ... has not peaked." ...

... One place you can watch the debate for free if you don't have access to CNN: the Washington Post Website. The Post is cosponsoring the debate.

Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly borrows the math & analyzes the state of the Democratic race: "1. Clinton is not on track to win the nomination outright without the help of superdelegates. On current trends, she's going to come up about 100 votes short (2,284 out of the 2,382 needed). 2. She’s unlikely to lose her pledged delegate advantage at any point, so a mass defection of superdelegates simply isn't going to happen barring some scandal or health scare. 3. Sanders cannot put much of a dent in her lead by winning narrow victories even in big important states like Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin. 4. Yet, Sanders should remain mathematically alive all the way to the convention. 5. Based on ... projections, Sanders is on track to win almost 1,800 of the 4,762 delegates to the convention. This would be 38% of the total delegates. After his upset win in Michigan last night, it's certainly realistic to believe that Sanders can do substantially better than 38%, but it's simply not realistic to believe that he can win." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "If Sanders somehow turns it all around and wins the nomination -- still a very long shot -- his acceptance speech in Philadelphia should begin with a heartfelt thanks to the polling industry." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Charles Pierce: Among Michigan auto workers, Clinton's attempt to smear Sanders with a half-truth (she did it again last night) on the auto bailout seems to have backfired. "The auto workers in Michigan have run out of patience with platitudes and easy answers. At least on one side of it, this is becoming an election for people who see past the politics all the way into their own lives. That's what I learned in Flint, anyway."

Apropos of a brief discussion we had Wednesday morning in the Comments sections, there's this: Daniel Strauss of Politico: "The group at the center of the Koch brothers' vast political network is praising Bernie Sanders for opposing the Export-Import Bank and for his attacks on corporate welfare. Freedom Partners put out the web video highlighting its common ground with the Vermont senator ahead of Wednesday night's Democratic debate.... But a Sanders campaign official shot back, suggesting that the video was intended to hurt Sanders, by creating the perception that he is the preferred candidate of the Kochs -- an association that would be toxic in the Democratic primary." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Here's the ad:

Margaret Hartmann has a roundup of commentary about Michigan's Democratic primary. Biggest -- and worstest -- takeaway for me: the results suggest Clinton could lose Rust Belt states to Mr. Bizarro there. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "The Republican National Committee on Wednesday filed two lawsuits in federal court seeking records and emails of Hillary Clinton and her colleagues at the State Department. The first suit seeks electronic records sent to and from Clinton via text or Blackberry Messenger and emails to senior aides. The second suit seeks communications between senior State Department officials, Clinton's presidential campaign and other Clinton allies after her time at State." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) CW: I'm pretty sure the complainants there are patriots concerned about national security. The court would do well to assume otherwise.

The confederate Editors of the Chicago Tribune endorse Marco Rubio for the GOP nomination. Their excellent rationale: "We like his youth, his bilingual fluency and the fact that he isn't one more Republican who's been standing in line, awaiting his turn to run." They endorse neither candidate for the Democratic nomination because, they say, both are consumed with pie-in-the sky plans to give away "Free Stuff." CW: So, you know, give to the wealthy; take from the moochers & freeloaders. I'm convinced. ...

... Contributor P. D. Pepe excavated the archives & came up with this 1964 LBJ ad. It's classic camp, a contemporaneous parody of early teevee talk shows; I love the way the actor takes out a cigarette about 2/3rds of the way thru. Still, LBJ's attack on Barry Goldwater via this ad, as P.D. points out, resonates today. Thanks a lot, P.D. Great find!:

Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "At the end of a friendly town hall interview aired on Wednesday night, Fox News personality Sean Hannity asked Trump whether as president, he would pursue a criminal indictment of Clinton should Attorney General Loretta Lynch 'cover' for Clinton and avoid indicting her. 'You have to,' Trump responded, to uproarious cheering. Though the attorney general serves at the pleasure of the president, Trump's answer conflicts with 40 years of precedent. His suggestion that he would seek an indictment flies in the face of the longstanding practice of limiting White House involvement in the prosecutorial decisions made by an attorney general." ...

... CW: Sorry, Ben, President Trump don't need no stinking legal precedents. This is one more example of what authoritarian leadership looks like. I'm waiting for the Foxbots to spread the meme that the reason Hillary is running for president is so she can pardon herself & she's running specifically against Trump to avoid incarceration in the Trump Maximum Security PrisonsTM system. "We have the best jails, okay?"

A security guard watches over Trump products that later were distributed to guests at Donald Trump's presser/QVC event last night.... More on the Bizarro Presumptive GOP Nominee. Eric Levitz of New York: "After his victories in the Mississippi and Michigan primaries Tuesday night, Trump ... [spent] a solid ten minutes of his celebratory press conference defending Trump Steaks and Trump Vodka. The mogul went so far as to address the American people from beside a heaping platter of raw beef and bottles of Trump Water and Trump Wine. At one point, he held up the latest issue of Trump magazine and briefly mused on its cover story." CW: I could hear from this room of my own the gasps of horror coming from "exclusive" Republican clubs around our fair nation. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Where Even the Steaks Are Fake. Caleb Melby of Bloomberg: "When ... Donald Trump showed off a pile of beautifully marbled steaks atop a butcher board at a Tuesday campaign event, he called them 'Trump steaks.' That's true in the sense that they were steaks, and they were on a Trump property. But they weren't steaks from Trump's fabled, now defunct, Trump Steaks business. They were from Bush Brothers Provision Co., a West Palm Beach, Florida, purveyor that counts Trump-affiliated properties among its customers, said John Bush, whose family owns the company." CW: That's right. They weren't Trump Steaks; they were Bush Steaks. Small consolation for Jeb! ...

     ... Wait, Wait, There's More. The wine is fake, too. So is "Trump Magazine." CW: Maybe "Seinfeld" had a George Costanza for President episode I missed, & we're just catching a re-enactment of it now:

... Hadas Gold of Politico: "Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski forcibly yanked Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields out of the way after his press conference in Florida on Tuesday night.... Fields was clearly roughed up by the move, [a] witness said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) CW: This is weird only because Brietbart is reputedly in the tank for Trump.

Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: Jeb! "plans to meet separately with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a spokeswoman said. There are no plans for Bush to meet with businessman Donald Trump CW: I suppose Jeb!, after flaming out in the presidential race, now aims to return to his former status as "respected party elder." And the remaining candidates are all looking for endorsements. Because there's nothing that can put a contender over the top like a Jeb Bush endorsement.

Mike Perleberg of Eagle Country Online: Al Bamburger, a 75-year-old white Marine veteran caught on video repeatedly shoving & shouting at a young black woman, Shiya Nwanguma, at a Donald Trump rally in Kentucky, says he's not a racist & hes' sorry. He got caught up in the moment or something. CW: Yeah, that'll happen. Probably what a lot of the participants in Kristallnacht told themselves, too. Not that I'm making a comparison. ...

     ... Shaun King of the New York Daily News: Bamburger "should be charged criminally alongside every other person who assaulted Shiya Nwanguma on that day." ...

     ... CW: In fact, the threat of criminal charges may be what inspired Bamburger's claimed remorse. From Perleberg's report: "A Louisville Metropolitan Police spokesman said Monday that various complaints from the March 1 Trump rally remain under investigation with no charges filed yet."

Tim Murphy of Mother Jones: "The morning after finishing second to GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump in three states (Mississippi, Michigan, and Hawaii) and winning a fourth (Idaho), [Ted] Cruz kicked off the next stretch of the campaign with a rally in [Marco] Rubio's backyard -- Miami -- and he did not come in peace. As many political observers have noted, the Texas senator's pivot toward the Sunshine State is apparently motivated by one impulse: to finish off Rubio." ...

... Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Carly Fiorina endorsed Senator Ted Cruz of Texas on Wednesday, supplying his campaign with a high-profile supporter and an eager critic of Donald J. Trump. Mrs. Fiorina, the former presidential candidate and Hewlett-Packard chief executive, took to the role quickly, appearing as a surprise guest at Mr. Cruz's morning rally in Florida." CW: How do you say, "Adios, Marco!" in Spanish? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Claire Landsbaum of New York: "... during [Wednesday] night's MSNBC forum [Marco] Rubio ... admitted his own parents wouldn't have been able to enter the United States under his proposed immigration policy.... A merit-based system such as the one Rubio is proposing has faced criticism for overemphasizing formal education and employment while overlooking unpaid work women perform in the domestic sphere. It also places relatively little value on family ties, and the American Immigration Council suggests it would carry implicit age and gender biases." CW: That's how it is, see. When you want to be the last one in, you lock the door behind you. ...

... Also, too, he acknowledged that his anti-Trump schtick embarrassed his own children. Cited in the Rucker story, linked below: "In terms of things that have to do with personal stuff, yeah, at the end of the day it's not something I'm entirely proud of. My kids were embarrassed by it, and if I had to do it again, I wouldn't." ...

... Katherine Krueger of TPM: "Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) drew a 'disappointing' crowd for an event in his home state Wednesday night just days before a critical primary in the state, CNN reported. CNN's Jason Carroll, who was on the ground in Hialeah, Florida, called the crowd 'much, much smaller' than at Rubio's past events and said the 'couple hundred' supporters gathered were 'not even filling the end zone' of the high school football stadium." ...

     ... CW: This is the very same field (tho the seating is much expanded today) where young Marie Burns cheered on the Hialeah High School Thoroughbreds -- back before she turned her back on contact sports. Hialeah is now mostly Hispanic -- 92 percent of its residents speak Spanish at home. And Cuban-American Marco can't get Hialeahans to come out on a lovely day in Florida. ...

... Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "... a cloud of fatalism now hovers over [Rubio's] campaign. Aides on Wednesday tried to beat back rumors he would quit the race -- perhaps before Thursday's CNN debate in Miami. Donors exchanged grim messages about Rubio's fate in Florida, where his campaign, short on cash, is running no advertisements. New polls showed him trailing Trump here badly. Supporters in the small and subdued Hialeah crowd all but conceded defeat. 'I've been around for a long time,' said Sal Pittelli, 70. 'And you can smell the flop sweat.'"

.. Charles Gasparino of Fox Business: "Marco Rubio's troubled 2016 presidential campaigned has devolved into an all-out civil war with some major donors saying he should drop out of the race immediately, and his paid staff urging him to stay the course, the FOX Business Network has learned. The infighting has been percolating for days, people with direct knowledge of the matter say; The battle however began picking up steam after Tuesday night's poor showing by the candidate, who failed to win a single state or a single delegate in the Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii contests." Via Paul Waldman. ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "It was literally two weeks ago that the growls from Republicans worried about a possible Donald Trump nomination targeted John Kasich's presence in the 2016 presidential race as an obstacle to Marco Rubio's ascent. Those whines never made much sense; Kasich probably cost Rubio some delegates over the long term, but the real obstacle to Rubio's ascent was the same one he failed to vault on Tuesday night: Marco Rubio. It's hard to exaggerate what a debacle Tuesday night was for the senator from Florida." ...

... Nate Silver plumbs the data to determine why Rubio never had any real traction. Here's a factor: "Rubio ... may be proving that there's not all that large a market for what you might call an upscale or cosmopolitan conservative. Many voters in the near-in suburbs, Rubio's best areas geographically, long ago left the Republican Party. Rubio might have the image to win them back -- young, Hispanic, optimistic -- but he doesn't have the policies, being staunchly conservative on issues such as abortion and gay marriage. Likewise, while Rubio appears to do well among nonwhite Republicans, there are very few of them voting in the primaries, and Rubio has turned away from the moderate immigration positions that once might have won him more Latino support." ...

... digby eulogizes Rubio's brilliant career: "... he will be remembered for three things and two of them happened on national TV with many millions of people watching: that weird water thing after the State of the Union and the robot glitch in the debate. Unfortunately, the other one is that he made a joke about the size of Donald Trump's 'hands.' These are not big things and certainly shouldn't knock him out of politics. (His throwback policies should.) But they might. Sometimes a politician is just 'off' and people can tell. I suspect Rubio is one of those guys." ...

... Scott Lemieux, in the New Republic, takes on the delusions of "moderate conservatives": "In singling out Trump and Cruz as the villains the Republicans must slay if they hope to regain respectability, [NYT columnist David] Brooks is in deep denial about the state of his party -- a denial that is shared by Brooks's center-right brethren.... Brooks's narrative ... founders on one problem: Substantively, there's not a dime's worth of difference between Cruz and alleged moderates like Kasich, Rubio, and Ryan. And none of them have policy agendas that are any more serious than Trump's." ...

... CW: Here's what Lemieux misses, IMHO. Brooks and other "center-right" pundits hold almost exactly the same economic views as Republican party leaders; that is, the same views as Cruz, Ryan & Kasich. They're not offended by the party's extremism; they promote it in column after column, perhaps tweaking the tax code a little to, say, encourage Americans to have more children (an excellent goal!). Their only apparent substantive differences are on social issues; they wouldn't walk across the street to avoid a gay person or a person of color. Hell, some of them are gay & some are people of color. But this is only an apparent difference: Cruz bashes gay people as a campaign tactic; in fact, he's happy to schmooze with rich gays in exchange for their campaign contributions. Trump lives in the most cosmopolitan borough of the most cosmopolitan city in the world; he isn't afraid of Muslims, blacks or Central Americans. What Brooks & Company really object to is the overt race-baiting & gay-bashing & evangelical hoohah; they can't acknowledge that their economic agenda has so little merit that it requires the unseemly pandering to & snookering of the great unwashed.

Senate Race

Greg Sargent: "... the Senate Majority PAC, which is devoted to electing Democrats to the Senate, is airing this new ad in New Hampshire, attacking Senator Kelly Ayotte for standing with the GOP refusal to consider Obama's nominee." The ad links Ayotte to Donald Trump. "There may be more ads like this one":

Other News & Views

Michael Shear & Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, met with President Obama on Thursday for the first state visit by a Canadian leader in 19 years, a diplomatic honor made possible in part by new pledges of cooperation on combating climate change. Mr. Obama and Mr. Trudeau announced Thursday morning new commitments to reduce planet-warming emissions of methane, a chemical contained in natural gas that is about 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide and that can leak from drilling wells and pipelines.... As part of the announcement, United States officials said they would immediately begin a new push to regulate methane emissions from existing oil and gas facilities...."

Nina Totenberg of NPR: "President Obama has begun interviewing candidates for the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Sources close to the process say that among those being interviewed are Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia; Judge Sri Srinivasan, of the same court; Judge Paul Watford, of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco; Judge Jane Kelly, of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals based in St. Louis; and U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who serves in Washington, D.C. The first three are considered leading contenders." CW: I hope he doesn't pick the old white guy (Garland). ...

... Jen Kirby of New York: "Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid criticized the GOP again this week, saying that its senators are falling in line with Trump, perhaps hoping that if he says the name of the Establishment's most-feared candidate enough maybe they'll budge." ...

... John Bresnahan of Politico: "With the possible exception of Donald Trump, the Supreme Court vacancy is the biggest obsession of Capitol Hill these days. That's a bad thing for Senate Republicans. The GOP's refusal to hold hearings or vote on President Barack Obama's nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia has put the party on the defensive in a way that's unlikely to change anytime soon, assuming top Republicans hold their ground. Democrats are more energized than at any time since they were swept out of power in 2014, hammering Republicans daily with the mantra 'Do Your Job!'" ...

... Lydia Wheeler of the Hill: "Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said the Senate Judiciary Committee will have a 'full-blown debate' Thursday on whether to hold a hearing on a Supreme Court nomination." CW: Really? Are we expecting great minds to be changed? ...

... Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "Adalberto Jordan, a federal judge in Miami seen as a top contender for the Supreme Court vacancy, has withdrawn his name from contention.... 'He pulled himself out of consideration,' Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida told CNN. Nelson said Jordan made the decision because of a 'personal, family situation' involving his mother."

... CW: Attorney General Loretta Lynch also took her name out of the running this week, saying the nomination process would interfere with her day job. ...

** Dorothy Samuels & Alicia Bannon of the Brennan Center, on BillMoyers.com: Alexander Hamilton gets no "respect from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley and most other GOP senators." Hamilton's writings make clear the function that he & the others authors of the Constitution envisioned for the role of the Senate & President in selecting Supreme Court justices. "... based on the historical evidence..., Hamilton and other of the Constitution's Framers would have been appalled by the confirmation antics of McConnell & Co."

** Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic writes a fascinating piece -- with a lot of insider assistance including from the POTUS himself -- on President Obama's philosophy of international relations. And there's this tidbit: After she left the State Department, Hillary Clinton criticized Obama's handling of Syria. When The Atlantic published [her remarks], and also published Clinton's assessment that 'great nations need organizing principles, and "Don't do stupid stuff" is not an organizing principle,' Obama became 'rip-shit angry,' according to one of his senior advisers.... The Iraq invasion, Obama believed, should have taught Democratic interventionists like Clinton, who had voted for its authorization, the dangers of doing stupid shit." ...

... CW: If you want to know how a smart, rational, stable person makes life-and-death decisions, Goldberg lays it out. Now think Dubya & Drumpf. The only difference between those two bozos' gut-level decision-making method is that Dubya wasn't insane. Yeah, you should be scared. About Clinton, you should worry, too. Clearly, she's not afraid to do stupid shit.

Gregg Zoroya of USA Today: "The Pentagon has deployed drones to spy over U.S. territory for non-military missions over the past decade, but the flights have been rare and lawful, according to a new report. The report by a Pentagon inspector general, made public under a Freedom of Information Act request, said spy drones on non-military missions have occurred fewer than 20 times between 2006 and 2015 and always in compliance with existing law."

Beyond the Beltway

** Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "Even though a law almost exactly like it is still being reviewed in the Supreme Court, the state of Florida just passed a massive anti-choice bill that, under the guise of supporting women's health, is aimed at cutting off as many women as possible from abortion, contraception, and STI prevention and treatment services. Most of the bill is modeled after the one in Texas, the one the court is currently reviewing, which uses medically unnecessary red tape to regulate abortion clinics out of existence."

Austin Huguelet & Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: "A bill to give some of the nation's broadest legal protections to opponents of same-sex marriage took a crucial step forward in Missouri on Wednesday, winning approval in the State Senate after Republicans used a rare procedural move to break a 39-hour filibuster by Democrats. Since the Supreme Court's ruling in June legalizing gay marriage, legislators in many states have introduced bills that they say would protect religious freedom and opponents say permit discrimination. In some respects, the Missouri bill would go beyond any law now in place, prompting challenges that could keep the issue before the courts for years."

Today in Responsible Gun Ownership: Arming Preschoolers. Peter Holley of the Washington Post: "Hours after gun-rights advocate Jamie Gilt bragged on Facebook that her 4-year-old son 'gets jacked up to target shoot,' the same child accidentally turned his mother into a target, shooting her in the back." CW: Akhilleus discussed the incident in yesterday's Comments.

Justin Moyer & Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: "A murder suspect who was the subject of a massive manhunt in the Midwest was taken into custody Wednesday, after a quadruple homicide in Kansas and another slaying in Missouri. Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino, a Mexican national who was in the country illegally, was arrested early Wednesday morning in Montgomery County, Mo., the Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a news release. He has been charged in connection to five deaths across two states." CW: Cue the Fox "News" Outrage Machine. Because there's never been an American mass murderer.

Charles Pierce: Kyle "Odom shot the preacher in Idaho because he thought the preacher was a hypersexual amphibian-humanoid Martian, and he came all the way to D.C. to warn us all about the hypersexual amphibian-humanoid Martians in Congress.... I was pondering how wonderful our system is that a guy with a felony attempted-murder warrant on him in a fairly high-profile shooting can get on a plane in Boise and make it all the way to the White House fence before anyone notices anything amiss.... Also, I am happy to live in a country where a man so desperately in need of help as this guy is has such easy access to all kinds of firearms."