The Commentariat -- Sept. 21, 2015

Internal links removed.

Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "The Obama administration will increase the number of refugees the United States is willing to accept in 2017 to 100,000, a significant increase over the current annual worldwide cap of 70,000, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday.... Under the new plan, the U.S. limit on annual refugee visas would be increased to 85,000 in 2016. The cap would then rise to 100,000 the following year."

Nahal Toosi of Politico: "The Obama administration has been quietly in touch with the Vatican about ways that Pope Francis can help free three Americans imprisoned in Iran -- a major source of friction as President Barack Obama and Iranian leaders finalize their nuclear deal."

Seung Min Kim & Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "As they rally behind a long-awaited measure that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, GOP lawmakers are tying their messaging to the teachings of the Catholic Church, which opposes the practice. And the presence of Pope Francis on Capitol Hill this week shines an even brighter spotlight on the legislation, which has long been a top priority of advocacy groups thatoppose abortion."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "President George W. Bush sought to retroactively authorize portions of the National Security Agency's post-9/11 surveillance and data collection program after a now-famous incident in 2004 in which his attorney general refused to certify the program as lawful from his hospital bed, according to newly declassified portions of a government investigation.... Newly disclosed passages of a report by inspectors general of six agencies suggest that the confrontation in the hospital room came after the Justice Department identified several problems, including a 'gap' between what Mr. Bush had authorized the N.S.A. to collect and what the agency was collecting in practice." ...

... BTW, Dubya will be lecturing the intelligence community next month, likely for a generous stipend. CW: I'm sure the spooks will learn a lot.

Margaret Atwood, in the Guardian, on the history & meanings of freedom.

Joseph Goldstein of the New York Times: "Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan, particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally 'boy play,' and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene -- in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records."

David Sedaris in the New Yorker on the right to marry. It's David Sedaris. Laugh. Cry.

Chris Buckley & Jane Perlez of the New York Times: "Often described as the most powerful leader of the Chinese Communist Party in generations, [President] Xi [Jinping] is to arrive in the United States on Tuesday facing economic headwinds and growing doubts about his formula for governing -- a sharp contrast with the image of unruffled control he projected when he hosted President Obama last year.

Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd.

Our Legal Drug Cartels. Andrew Pollack of the New York Times: "Specialists in infectious disease are protesting a gigantic overnight increase in the price of a 62-year-old drug that is the standard of care for treating a life-threatening parasitic infection. The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager [Martin Shkreli]. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars.... Turing's price increase is not an isolated example. While most of the attention on pharmaceutical prices has been on new drugs for diseases like cancer, hepatitis C and high cholesterol, there is also growing concern about huge price increases on older drugs, some of them generic, that have long been mainstays of treatment." ...

     ... CW: Contributor MAG pointed out this story yesterday. As she wrote, "Nah! We don't need no regulations, the free market takes care of things nicely." I wish our socialist, communist dictator president would swoop in today & nationalize every damned drug company, from Pfizer to Granny's Amazing Elixir, Inc.

"It's the Bank Profits, Stupid." Paul Krugman: Banks are pressuring the Fed to raise interest rates. "... when you see ever-changing rationales for never-changing policy demands, it's a good bet that there's an ulterior motive. And the rate rage of the bankers -- combined with the plunge in bank stocks that followed the Fed's decision not to hike -- offers a powerful clue to the nature of that motive. It's the bank profits, stupid.... Low rates are bad for bankers.... It's widely assumed that bankers have special expertise on economic policy, although nothing in the record supports this belief. (The bankers do, however, have excellent tailors.)"

Presidential Race

Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "... Hillary Rodham Clinton, a former secretary of state, said Sunday that U.S. efforts to train and equip Syrian rebels have failed and that many of the threats she foresaw from the Syrian conflict have come to pass.... Clinton, appearing on CBS's 'Face the Nation,' said that the Obama administration's announcement that it will take in 10,000 Syrian refugees is 'a good start' but that the United States should increase the number to 65,000 because of the scale of the refugee crisis after nearly five years of conflict."

Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "'I am very disappointed that Dr. [Ben] Carson would suggest that a Muslim should not become president of the United States,' [Sen. Bernie] Sanders said in a statement released late Sunday. 'It took us too long to overcome the prejudice against electing a Catholic or an African-American president. People should be elected to office based on their ideas, not their religion or the color of their skin.'" See Carson's remarks below. ...

... Colin Powell, October 2008:

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Rand Paul won the straw poll at the Mackinac Island Republican Leadership Conference, a show of organizational strength for a candidate who has seen his presidential hopes fade. Paul led with 22 percent, followed by Carly Fiorina with 15 percent, John Kasich with 13 percent, and Ted Cruzwith 12 percent. Trailing them were Jeb Bush with 9 percent, Marco Rubio with 8 percent, and Donald Trump with 6 percent. Further back: Ben Carson received 5 percent and Scott Walker finished with 2 percent.... The straw poll is electorally meaningless, but it is an exercise in political organizing and several campaigns worked the halls of the Grand Hotel aggressively -- especially Paul’s."

     ... Tapper sounds like he's calling an actual horse race. ...

... Eric Bradner of CNN: "Carly Fiorina shot into second place in the Republican presidential field on the heels of another strong debate performance, and Donald Trump has lost some support, a new national CNN/ORC poll shows." CW: Even if she is a lying sack of shit. ...

... Carly Fiorina Is an Accomplished Flim-Flam Artiste. Amy Chozick & Quentin Hardy of the New York Times: At last week's debate, "Mrs. Fiorina said a prominent venture capitalist who pushed for her firing at Hewlett-Packard in 2005 had recently taken out a full-page newspaper ad saying that he had been wrong to do so and that she had been 'a terrific C.E.O.' What Mrs. Fiorina did not mention was that the ad -- which cost roughly $140,000 -- was paid for by the 'super PAC' supporting her presidential candidacy." CW: So the "prominent venture capitalist," who happens to be the totally wacko Tom Perkins, did not "take out an ad"; Fiorina's superPAC did. Nice fake endorsement, Carly. ...

... (Sam Gustin of Time [February 2014]: "Tom Perkins..., who ... compar[ed] the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany to the way rich people are treated in the United States, on Thursday offered a provocative idea about how to 'change the world.' During an interview with a Fortune magazine journalist, Perkins said that only U.S. taxpayers should be able to vote in elections. But that's not all. Perkins went on to say that wealthy people should get more votes than others because they pay more in taxes.") ...

... Ali Elkin of Bloomberg: "Carly Fiorina said Sunday that neither she nor Hewlett-Packard should be faulted for the sales of millions of HP printers in Iran when such business was prohibited by U.S. law. Appearing on Fox's Fox News Sunday, Fiorina said that despite being the CEO of HP when the Iranian sales took place via a third party, she was unaware them."

Ali Elkin: "Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on last week's controversial comments about Muslims.... 'We have radicals that are doing things,' he said. 'It wasn't people from Sweden that blew up the World Trade Center.' Trump also declined several times during the ABC interview to say that he believed [President] Obama was born in the U.S." ...

... Here's a presidential poll that hasn't received enough attention. Andy Borowitz: "Two days after asserting that President Barack Obama was a foreign-born Muslim, a guy who asked Donald Trump a provocative question at a New Hampshire rally is now the front-runner in the Republican race for President, according to a new poll." CW: Seems realistic. ...

... ** Frank Rich: "In the short time since Trump declared his candidacy, he has performed a public service by exposing, however crudely and at times inadvertently, the posturings of both the Republicans and the Democrats and the foolishness and obsolescence of much of the political culture they share. He is, as many say, making a mockery of the entire political process with his bull-in-a-china-shop antics. But the mockery in this case may be overdue, highly warranted, and ultimately a spur to reform.... His passport to political stardom has been his uncanny resemblance to a provocative fictional comic archetype.... Trump's ability to reduce the head of his adopted party to a comic functionary out of a Gilbert-and-Sullivan operetta is typical of his remarkable success in exposing Republican weakness and hypocrisy."

... CW: I'd like to know what it is about Islam that Carson imagines is "inconsistent with our Constitution," while Christianity -- including Ben Carson's fundamentalist brand of Christianity -- apparently is "consistent with our Constitution." Of course, Chuck didn't bother to ask. I know journalism is not Chuck's job, but maybe he could have mentioned this: ...

... no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. -- Article VI, U.S. Constitution

Oh, snap, Ben. What is "not consistent with our Constitution"; i.e., what is unconstitutional, is your dingbat religious test. -- Constant Weader

... Oh, Update. Here's Carson's answer. Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "... Ben Carson is standing by his view that a Muslim should not be president of the United States, telling The Hill in an interview on Sunday that whoever takes the White House should be 'sworn in on a stack of Bibles, not a Koran.'... 'I do not believe Sharia is consistent with the Constitution of this country,' Carson said. 'Muslims feel that their religion is very much a part of your public life and what you do as a public official, and that's inconsistent with our principles and our Constitution.' Carson said that the only exception he'd make would be if the Muslim running for office 'publicly rejected all the tenants of Sharia and lived a life consistent with that.'" CW: Yo, Ben, you know what else is not "consistent with our Constitution?": much of the Mosaic Law; i.e., the first five books of your Bible. By the Theory of Ben, it appears only nontheists are qualified to be president because all religions have rules that are not predicated on or consistent with U.S. Constitutional law. ...

... Ben Carson's campaign says he didn't say what he said. ...

... Steve M.: "Anyone who continues to think that the questioner at Trump's rally was a plant meant to embarrass Trump is nuts. Trump thinks this sort of talk wins him votes -- he's had a couple of days to revise and polish his message, so if he thought this was harmful to him, he'd back down, but he's not doing that. And Trump is almost certainly correct in his assessment of Republican voters. Carson also knows that Islamophobia sells to the GOP voter base, so that's what he's delivering. I don't think Fiorina will be able to keep up. You probably don't know this, but a lot of people on the right do: A few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, Fiorina made a speech that praised Islam." ...

... Christian Nation. To Steve M.'s point: Even John Kasich, the supposed moderate candidate, is afraid to say adherence to an Islamic faith is not a presidential disqualifier. Chuck asks Kasich, "Would you ever have a problem with a Muslim becoming president?" Kasich's response is Walkeresque: "You know, I mean, that's such a hypothetical question.... You've got to go through the rigors, and people will look at everything. But, for me, the most important thing about being president is you have leadership skills.... Those are the qualifications that matter to me." ...

... One More Abortion Restriction. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "The Ohio governor John Kasich has said he will sign a state bill currently under debate that would ban abortions carried out because a child has Down's syndrome." ...

... John Kasich Doesn't Care if Black Families Have Enough to Eat. Hannah Levintova of Mother Jones: As a Congressman, Kasich tried to restrict food stamp eligibility to three months in any three-year period. When Congress allowed state waivers to that restriction, Kasich manipulated food-stamp eligibility in Ohio so that "urban counties and cities, most of which had high minority populations, did not get waivers.... A USDA study released earlier this month ranked Ohio among the worst states in the nation for food security. The state has the highest rate of food insecurity in the Midwest and the sixth highest rate nationally." ...

     ... CW: This is one of the bajillion real ways Republicans manage to discriminate against minorities without blatantly calling them names or making accusations against them. I think I'd rather be called a nigger on a full stomach than get a sympathy card from a fellow who let my children starve to death. Hypocrtical prick.

So Long, Scottie. From Eric Bradner's CNN report, linked above: "Five other candidates received less than one-half of 1 percentage point support: former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former New York Gov. George Pataki and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Jim Yardley & Azam Ahmed of the New York Times: "Standing in the symbolic heart of political Cuba, Pope Francis on Sunday began his first full day in the island nation with an outdoor Mass at Revolution Plaza attended by President Raúl Castro and other leaders, and later met with the country's former leader, Fidel Castro." ...

... The AP has "the latest" on Pope Francis's visit to Cuba. "The latest," at this time is 6:30 pm ET Sunday. I don't know whether or not the report will be updated.

Griff Witte of the Washington Post: "The radical leftist party that stormed to a historic victory in January and then governed Greece through a tumultuous seven months won a convincing new mandate in elections on Sunday, giving it another chance to lead a country still mired in economic ruin." ...

... Suzanne Daly of the New York Times: "Alexis Tsipras, who won election as Greece's prime minister in January on an anti-austerity platform that he was later forced to abandon, was returned to power by Greek voters on Sunday, many of them saying that he had fought hard to get them a better deal from the country's creditors and deserved a second chance at governing."

William Booth & Anna Fifield of the Washington Post: "Asylum seekers whose journey had been slowed by bickering among Balkan countries began to arrive in Austria en masse Sunday, just one border away from the ultimate destination for many refugees, Germany. Thousands of economic migrants and war refugees walked across the border from Hungary into Austria on Sunday, while hundreds more crossed from Slovenia."

News Lede

New York Times: "Two Americans held hostage for months by rebels in Yemen were freed on Sunday and quickly flown to safety in nearby Oman, which helped the United States secure the release of the men, American officials said. Along with the Americans, a British citizen and three Saudis were also freed by the Houthi rebels, who ousted the government of Yemen this year and are now facing a campaign of airstrikes led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the United States."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 20, 2015

Internal links removed.

** "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration." Ta-Nehisi Coates writes the Atlantic's cover story: "American politicians are now eager to disown a failed criminal-justice system that's left the U.S. with the largest incarcerated population in the world. But they've failed to reckon with history. Fifty years after Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s report 'The Negro Family' tragically helped create this system, it's time to reclaim his original intent." ...

... CW: One thing Coates doesn't mention in this long & worthy essay is a peculiar lack of impact incarcertation has on the black community. That is, if incarceration becomes so common that every family has a son or nephew or brother in jail -- as is currently the case -- there is no shame to it. Yes, there are all the downsides Coates enumerates, but there is little or no social ostracism or embarrassment associated with incarceration. And why would there be? As Li'l Randy pointed out in the GOP debate (in one of its few high points), when Jeb! smoked weed, there were no consequences. And you can bet if Jeb! was dealing to his posh friends (and I have no reason to think he was), the consequences would have been minimal, too. Not so for a black kid living in an impoverished area. When a white guy tells me he's been in jail, I assume he did something bad. When a black man tells me he's served time, I figure there's about a 50-50 chance he did something bad, & I give him the benefit of the doubt. (I heard these admissions dozens of times when I was registering voters in Florida in 2008.) ...

... David Margolick, in the New York Times Book Review, pans Wil Haygood's book Showdown, about the appointment of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. I would give Margolick's review a good review, however, as it's quite informative.

David Sanger of the New York Times: "The United States and China are negotiating what could become the first arms control accord for cyberspace, embracing a commitment by each country that it will not be the first to use cyberweapons to cripple the other's critical infrastructure during peacetime, according to officials involved in the talks." ...

... CW: Sen. Tom Cotton (RTP-Ark.) immediately dashed off an open note to China's President Xi Jinping telling him he needed to understand that in our constitutional system, the POTUS is essentially powerless, so any so-called agreement his government might reach with the Obama administration is not worth the rice paper it's written on. Cotton told reporters it was a snap to write his missive to Xi. "I just changed the name of the addressee in the letter I wrote to the Iranian ayatollahs. International diplomacy is much easier than you might think."

Mimi Whitefield, et al., of the Miami Herald: "Pope Francis began his historic trip to Cuba with a message of solidarity and reconciliation. After his flight from Rome touched down Saturday afternoon at Jose Martí International Airport in Havana, the pontiff greeted the Cuban people by noting that this year marks the 80th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between Cuba and the Holy See." ...

... Jim Yardley, et al., of the New York Times: "... as he arrived in Havana on Saturday, the first stop of a nine-day papal trip to Cuba and the United States, Francis faced a new challenge altogether: Having helped open up Cuba to the world, the first Latin American pope must now try to fully open up Cuba to the Roman Catholic Church.... Francis was greeted at the airport by President Raúl Castro and children who welcomed him with flowers."

Presidential Race

Mario Trujillo of the Hill: "Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz repeatedly attempted on Saturday to quiet an audience of 4,000 in New Hampshire who called for more Democratic primary debates. During her opening speech at the New Hampshire Democratic Party Convention, she interrupted her prepared remarks on at least two occasions to address chants of 'more debates' and 'we want debates.'... C-SPAN cameras broadcasting live panned to audience members holding posters that called for more that half a dozen debates in the 2016 presidential primary."

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Obama is throwing more punches at the Republicans vying to take his place in the White House as the 2016 campaign enters a busy fall. Obama this week went after GOP front-runner Donald Trump, as did Vice President Biden, who is considering his own presidential bid.... A White House official said there are not yet any major strategic discussions underway about Obama's role in the 2016 campaign. But the aide also expects the president to defend his record against GOP attacks and boost the Democratic nominee."

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Vice President Joe Biden's last-minute decision to score some facetime with powerful black leaders may do little to shake their strong inclination toward Hillary Clinton. But among the rank-and-file attendees at Saturday's prayer breakfast hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, the Democratic primary is still a wide open fight. Biden earned several warm ovations from the admiring crowd, and he held court for 20 minutes while breakfast was served, posing for selfies with dozens of fans and turning on his classic, toothy charm as he clasped hands with well-wishers and slapped the backs of strangers angling to get close to him." ...

... Matthew Speiser of Business Insider: "Vice President Joe Biden's aides have begun suggesting to donors that he's more inclined to run for president than not, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. The aides say their talks have shifted largely from whether he's going to run to when he's going to announce, sources told the Journal, noting that he could still change his mind if his grief over his recent son's death becomes overwhelming."

Bernie Sanders appeared on Stephen Colbert's show Friday night. You can watch a clip here. The entire segment is here, beginning about 25 min. in. You'll have to watch quite a few capitalist commercials before the segment begins. ...

... Missed this, which aired Sept. 16:

Worse Than Trump. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson says in an interview airing Sunday that he doesn't believe the United States should have a Muslim president because Islam is inconsistent with the Constitution."

Muchas Gracias, Don Donaldo. Eliza Collins of Politico: "Hispanic activists have two words for Donald Trump -- thank you.... While many activists find his comments downright offensive, they also see an opportunity. Trump has managed to get Latinos engaged with the 2016 race, and activists plan to exploit that to the fullest extent possible.

Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him? I don't think so! -- Donald Trump tweet, Saturday, in response to across-the-board criticism of his response to a man who said President Obama was a Muslim & "not an American," then asked how we could "get rid of" Muslims in this country

... Update. Trump Discovers First Amendment Prohibits Disagreement with Others. Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "In front of several hundred evangelical Christians on Saturday, Donald J. Trump took a dig at Senator John McCain for a well-known incident in which Mr. McCain took away a microphone from a woman to correct her after she said that Barack Obama was an Arab.... He told the Iowa crowd that if he had ... corrected the man..., he would have been attacked for violating the man's right to free speech." ...

... How is Donald Trump like George W. Bush? Neither one can think of any mistakes he's made. ...

... Update. M. J. Lee & Noah Gray of CNN: "Donald Trump on Saturday responded to a question from CNN about whether Muslims pose a danger to the country, saying: 'I love the Muslims. I think they're great people.'... During a question-and-answer session with students..., one student ... asked whether the billionaire businessman would consider putting a Muslim in his Cabinet or on his ticket. 'Oh, absolutely,' Trump responded. 'No problem with that.'"

How to Lose Wacko AND Sane Voters. Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Jeb Bush responded Friday night to Donald Trump's decision this week not to correct a questioner who said President Obama is a Muslim who is 'not even an American.' 'Barack Obama is a talented man -- and by the way he's an American, he's a Christian -- his problem isn't the fact that he was born here or what his faith is,' said Bush in a speech here. 'His problem is that he's a progressive liberal who tears down anybody that disagrees with him.'" ...

     ... CW: Meanwhile, it's okay for Jeb! to claim President Obama is "incompetent," a failed leader, has created "chaos" in the world, lost the Iraq War that Dubya won, capitulated to Iran, threatened Israel's security, enabling ISIS, causing Washington gridlock, etc. etc., and also too uses too many "big-syllable words." See, that's not "tearing down" Obama; it's just stating facts.

... Do as I Say, Not as I Do. Eli Stokols of Politico: "Jeb Bush ... vowed in his first policy speech as a presidential candidate last June to halt the 'revolving door' between Congress and K Street.... But the promise was undercut both by the audience to which Bush spoke -- which included numerous lobbyists from his days as governor -- and by the intensity with which Bush replenished his personal bank accounts upon leaving office by cashing in on the connections he had made.... After two terms as governor, Bush left office in 2007 with a net worth of just $1.3 million -- but within seven years, according to a Politico analysis of his financial disclosure forms, he had built it up to $24.89 million. His new wealth was driven by income from consulting work and a dozen board seats on the firms of people with significant business interests before the state while he was governor -- including more than $12 million from firms that earned millions in fees when Bush redirected $350 million of Florida public workers' retirement funds into venture capital investments run by major donors to his brother and his campaigns." ...

... All My Delusions. Chas Danner of New York: "In a speech kicking off the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, Jeb first criticized Hillary Clinton's foreign policy record, asking the crowd to 'name a country in the world where our relationship is better today than the day that Hillary of Clinton became secretary of state.' He then claimed that he would be able to lead a stronger foreign policy for the nation, and that 'I know how to do this because, yes, I am a Bush. I happened to see two really good presidents develop relationships with other countries.'"

Andrew Prokop of Vox: "Over the last few weeks, the news for Scott Walker's presidential campaign has been getting grimmer and grimmer..... Word of money problems often serves as the canary in the coal mine -- signifying an imminent campaign collapse.... If Walker already isn't paying his consultants, fundraising has likely fallen well short of expectations, and the campaign has committed to much more spending than it can afford.... In person, Scott Walker simply isn't compelling or attention-grabbing. I argued nearly a year ago that Walker's lack of charisma would be his biggest problem 'in a world where primary candidates rise and fall in the polls based partly on their performance in televised debates.'" ...

... CW: It isn't so much his lack of "charisma," but his lack of intelligence & competence that defeated Scott Walker. Voters may or may not want a president they'd like to have a beer with, but they'd like one who doesn't take three days to come up with three different answers to a simple yes-or-no question, then deny he ever gave the first two answers. How Walker ever succeeded in Wisconsin, I'll never know, because besides being dumb & incompetent, he's a nasty piece of work.

Beyond the Beltway

Adam Beam of the AP: "In a court filing Friday, the attorney for one of [Kim] Davis' employees said he believes Davis has again violated a federal court order by altering marriage license forms.... In a separate court filing on Friday, attorneys for the gay couples who sued Davis appear to agree and say they are 'exploring legal options.'... When she returned to work, Davis altered the marriage forms by removing her name, making deputy clerk Brian Mason initial the form instead of sign it, and then requiring the form to be notarized.... Mason's attorney, Richard Hughes, told The Associated Press on Friday after filing a status report with the judge ... it was 'really bizarre' that Davis would alter the forms. 'Unless she's got a really good reason, and I'll certainly be patient and wait to hear it, the only inference I personally can draw from it is she is trying to circumvent the court's order,' he said.... Also Friday, the attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union said in a court filing that the changes on the form require Mason to issue the licenses 'in his capacity as a "notary public" rather than a deputy clerk of the Rowan County Clerk's Office,' changes that 'do not comply' with the court's order to not interfere with her employees who issue the licenses."

Post Script. It Was a Hoax! Anthony, in ArtVoice, takes a close look at young Ahmed Mohamed's clock & discovers that "Ahmed Mohamed didn't invent his own alarm clock. He didn't even build a clock." Instead, he took apart an old Radio Shack clock & put it in a pencil box. ...

     ... CW: I didn't link to this story when I first read about it because I thought it was much ado about nothing. Then the President, Hillary Clinton & others weighed in, & I felt obligated to cover it. Now we're back to my original take: it's much ado about nothing. Even I could take the clockworks out of a 1980s fake-woodgrain box & insert it in a cooler-looking pencil box. (I actually did something similar last week. I have not been arrested & the President has not invited me to his place.) I think Ahmed has talent, but at this point his talent is artistic, not technological.

Way Beyond

Sewell Chan & Palko Karasz of the New York Times: "Thousands of migrants poured into Austria on Saturday after being bounced around countries overwhelmed by their arrival and insistent that they keep moving. Hungary -- which had taken the most draconian and visible measures to turn back the exodus, notably the construction of a razor-wire fence along its border with Serbia -- partly caved Friday evening. It grudgingly allowed at least 11,000 migrants to enter from Croatia, and then sent them by bus and train to processing centers along its border with Austria."

Addendum:

D. C. Clark reckons this clip is essential to today's Comments discussion:

News Ledes

New York Daily News: "A senior White House advisor was struck and killed by a car when he lost control of his bicycle while participating in a charity bike ride raising money for cancer. Jacob Thomas Brewer, 34, was entering a sharp bend in Mt. Airy, Md., when the married father and senior policy advisor crossed into an oncoming car's lane late Saturday afternoon, Howard County police said." ...

... Hill: "President Obama on Sunday mourned the loss of a top White House staffer who was killed in a bicycle crash."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 19, 2015

Internal links removed.

Michael Gordon & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "As the first Russian combat aircraft arrived in Syria, the Obama administration reached out to Moscow on Friday to try to coordinate actions in the war zone and avoid an accidental escalation of one of the world's most volatile conflicts. The diplomatic initiative amounted to a pivot for the Obama administration, which just two weeks ago delivered a stern warning to the Kremlin that its military buildup in Syria risked an escalation of the civil war there or even an inadvertent confrontation with the United States. Last week, President Obama condemned Russia's move as a 'strategy that's doomed to failure.'" CW: I was thinking earlier today that the only possibility of a solution to the Syrian crisis would come via an agreement between Russia & Western powers. What that solution might be, however, escapes me as the Syrian population itself is fanatically fractured. ...

... Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times: "As key nations tighten their borders, thousands of migrants and asylum seekers hoping to enter Western Europe are now bottled up in the Balkans, placing precarious new burdens on a region of lingering sectarian divisions that is exceptionally ill prepared to handle the crisis that has been shunted to it. More than 17,000 migrants have entered Croatia since Wednesday, and were essentially trapped there, having been blocked from Hungary, sent packing from Serbia and unable to move on to Slovenia. The migrants have become a sloshing tide of humanity, left to flow wherever the region's conflicting and constantly changing border controls channel them."

Jonathan Soble of the New York Times: "In a middle-of-the night vote that capped a tumultuous struggle with opposition parties in Parliament, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan secured final passage of legislation on Saturday authorizing overseas combat missions for his country's military, overturning a decades-old policy of reserving the use of force for self-defense." CW: Not a great day for peace.

White House: "In this week's address, the President discussed the significant progress we have made in our economy since the financial crisis seven years ago this week, and the steps we can take to build on that momentum and strengthen the economy for the long term":

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "President Obama is nominating Eric K. Fanning, a close civilian adviser to Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, to be the secretary of the Army, an appointment that would make him the first openly gay secretary of a military branch. Mr. Fanning has been the acting under secretary of the Army as the current secretary, John McHugh, prepares to leave his post." CW: Sooner or later, a person's sexual orientation will not appear in a lede. ...

... Oh, or in the headline, as it appears in the WashPo: "Obama to nominate first openly gay service secretary to lead the Army."

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The Army general who carried out an investigation last year into the alleged desertion of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl believes that a jail sentence would be 'inappropriate,' despite the massive search caused by him walking away from his unit's outpost in Afghanistan. Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl testified Friday in Bergdahl's case that he found the soldier 'unrealistically idealistic' about other people and remorseful for the massive search his actions caused."

Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "The House passed two abortion-related bills Friday, including one that would strip federal health-care funding from Planned Parenthood for one year, but it remains unclear whether the votes would appease conservatives who have threatened a government shutdown over the organization." ...

... Gail Collins on the confederates' fight for unplanned parenthood.

Joe Nocera on the GOP jobs-killing extremists who refuse to allow a vote to reauthorize the U.S. Export-Import Bank "... led by the House Financial Services Committee's chairman, Jeb Hensarling.... The Ex-Im Bank, which insures and sometimes finances export sales, had to stop making deals at the end of June, when its reauthorization deadline came and went."

Coral Davenport & Stewart Ewing of the New York Times: "The Obama administration on Friday directed Volkswagen to recall nearly a half-million cars, saying the automaker illegally installed software in its diesel-power cars to evade standards for reducing smog."

** Wendell Berry, in the Louisville Courier-Journal (Sept.10): "Obama's election has brought about a revival of racism.... The President must be opposed, not on this or that issue, but upon all issues. This opposition is often expressed in tones of contempt, not only of the President himself, but of the office he holds so long as it is held by him.... Elected officials or candidates seeking the support or the votes of racists do not need to question the authenticity of Mr. Obama's birth certificate or to call him a Muslim, a communist, a nazi, or a traitor. They need only to stand silently by while such slurs and falsehoods are loudly voiced in public by others.... Their silence declares that no truth or dignity is worth as much as a vote.... This subtilized racism is not only a perhaps unignorable lure to Republican politicians; it can also be noticeably corrupting to Democrats. In Kentucky, for example..., if the President comes into the state to visit, some Democratic candidates ... become conspicuously busy elsewhere.... The paramount fact of this moment in the history of racism is that you don't have to denominate the President by a recognized racial slur when his very name can be used as a synonym." CW: Many thanks to contributor Janice for bringing Berry's essay to our attention. ...

... CW: I continue to think the virulent opposition to President Obama is about tribalism. Racism, sexism, homophobia, Christianism (all all the other "ism"s are subsets of tribalism. Tribalism itself is a function of individuality, a group affirmation of our own selves. The more people are like me, the better they are. Each of us needs to feel special & laudable, even if we are fairly ordinary. Simply being unique, which each of us is, is not enough. We seek out others who will affirm our superiority. So when a celebrity like Donald Trump says of a completely reprehensible asshole, "I like this guy," as he did of the fellow who wanted to "get rid of" Mooslums -- including Obama -- Trump knew what he was doing. Trump was affirming that jerk's personal excellence. Right now that jerk is at home boasting to his fellow jerks that a prominent presidential candidate is "looking into" ways to deal with the "problems" the civic-minded jerk brought to the fore. The jerk is momentarily special within his own tribe. For Trump, as for the the jerk, mission accomplished. An ideal transaction has occurred, wherein both parties "won." That we as a nation lose every time such a transaction occurs, is immaterial to both of them. ...

... CW BTW: Nobody, including Trump, said a word about the next questioner Trump called on; he described CNN as the "Clinton News Network." Sexism, if just subtle enough, is so common that it does not merit comment. ...

... ** Catherine Thompson of TPM: "White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on Friday spoke out forcefully against Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's failure to correct a voter who called President Barack Obama a Muslim, turning his criticism into a harsh indictment of Republicans at large":

... Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: "Trump ... went well beyond not defending the President: he affirmed an attack on the millions of Muslim Americans who are as much a part of the national community as anyone else." ...

... Brian Beutler: "There's no sense in giving Trump a pass on this, but it's worth keeping in mind that this isn't a Trump problem. It's ... a Republican politician problem. The Republican interest in Trump's dishonorable conduct is deeply selective.... These outbursts spill over into racist conspiracy theories frequently enough that the politicians really ought to have pat reprimands at the ready.... And Trump isn't even close to the only politician who fails this test...."

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post provides some background on those Islamic "terrorist training camps." CW: I found Bump's report pretty interesting, because for many years I owned a cottage in the same town as the "national headquarters" of Muslim terrorism, & the only times I felt in any sort of danger was when white murderers escaped from local prisons (which they did with some regularity). That is, the scary people around Deposit, New York, look a lot more like that Trump fan than like the Muslim terrorists of his imagination.

... when the Pope chooses to act and talk like a leftist politician, then he can expect to be treated like one. -- Rep. Paul Gosar (RTP), a Roman Catholic

... Mike DeBonis: "Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) said in an op-ed published Friday on Townhall.com that he" is boycotting Pope Francis's address to Congress. Because climate change, Islam, persecuted Christians, etc. CW: I'm sure Gosar will be missed. Thanks, Arizona! ...

... CW: It won't matter to Gosar (who asked for & was denied a private audience with the Pope for the purpose of scolding His Holiness & giving him Gosar-vetted talking points), but for the hell-bent infidels who are interested in knowing what Francis will be doing in the U.S., the New York Times has published his general schedule here. ...

... Gosar reminds Hunter of Daily Kos that "... all the elements for the ascension of true fascism are now in place among the top ranks of the American right. The adaptation of pseudo-'Christian' rhetoric to promote movement goals (expansionist interventionism, hyper-nationalism, xenophobia, a focus on 'true' members of the nation versus the undesirable intellectual, political, religious and ethnic 'others') while actual Christian thought is marginalized as "leftist" and even dangerous...." CW: The scariest people in the U.S. are not Mooslums living in the countryside; they are so-called Christians wielding power in Washington, D.C.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: In the person of Jeffrey Lord, a former Reagan political operator, CNN has its very own paid Trump supporter. Lord doesn't think Trump should apologize for letting that jerk claim that President Obama was a foreign Muslim until Barack Obama apologizes for not leading his congregation to fire the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. CW: That doesn't even makes sense. But then, why should a Trump supporter make sense? It's not his job. And why should CNN suddenly stop hiring political hacks? That would completely upend their "news" model.

Presidential Race

Lisa Mascaro & Evan Halper of the Los Angeles Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton's rivals in the Democratic primary have been demanding for weeks that the party hold more presidential debates than the scant six that are planned, and on Friday they got a big boost when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said she agrees with them.... When asked about the schedule, Clinton campaign officials have repeatedly said it is not up to them, that it is controlled by the Democratic National Committee. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has repeatedly said the issue is closed. But Pelosi's comments put more pressure on the DNC to reopen it."

Washington Post Editors: "Instead of the responsible discussion one would hope to hear from those asking to be entrusted with the fate of the country, the candidates [at Wednesday's GOP presidential debate] by and large exacerbated the threat of a shutdown with inflammatory pandering on the subject of Planned Parenthood. Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina all seemed willing to force a government shutdown based on invective and deceptive claims.... Mr. Cruz labeled the family planning provider an 'ongoing criminal enterprise' and said the videos show Planned Parenthood officials 'bartering and selling the body parts of human beings ... essentially [confessing] to multiple felonies.' Mr. Christie referred to the 'systematic murder of children in the womb to preserve their body parts.' Ms. Fiorina challenged President Obama and Hillary Clinton to view the tapes and 'watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.' Those characterizations are false."

Emily Atkin of Think Progress: "Donald Trump imagines a world where regular citizens can buy automatic weapons; where gun owners can hide their weapons in any state; where there are no expanded background checks for gun purchases; and where citizens fight crime with their own assault rifles. That's at least according to Trump's position statement on guns, which he released on Friday. In it, the Republican presidential candidate laid out a vision on the Second Amendment similar to the one held by the National Rifle Association, which opposes new gun control measures and advocates instead for stricter enforcement of existing laws."

Mark Hensch of the Hill: "Donald Trump canceled his appearance Friday evening at a major campaign stop for the GOP presidential field in South Carolina as he faces criticism from both Republican and Democratic candidates over his failure to address claims that President Obama is a Muslim and 'not even an American.'" Trump's campaign claimed "a significant business transaction" prevented him from attending the event.

Patrick Healy of the New York Times: Donald "Trump said in an interview that he was prepared to spend $100 million or more to become the Republican nominee and that most of it would go to galvanizing voter support in states with early nominating contests. While he boasted last month that he would spend $1 billion if need be, he said that a realistic amount would be far less and that he would count on the national Republican Party for financial help if he became the nominee." ...

... Benjamin Wallace-Wells of New York: Donald "Trump's pledge, remarkably modest, is simply to replace one terrible set of elites with another, amazing one.... Trump is a candidate of fury in a time when, relatively speaking, no one in his base really has it too bad." ...

... Dana Milbank earns his Village People creds: "Probably the most encouraging development [during Wednesday's debate] was the candidates' willingness to support each other in calling out Trump's boorishness.... It raises hope that Trump will indeed succeed in making America great again -- by motivating Americans, even fellow conservatives and Republicans, to repudiate his nonsense." CW: Yes, won't it be grand to get back to talking about how big a tax break we should give the rich?

Jeb! The One Honest Politician Donald Trump Could Not Buy! Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post on Donald Trump's unsuccessful efforts to change Florida gaming laws: "Trump, who has made his successful business negotiations central to his presidential campaign, has never won the legal right to build a casino in Florida.... Trump has said he knows most elected officials have been bought by donors -- because he used to be the one doing the buying. But in Florida, [Jeb] Bush remained a steadfast opponent of expanded gambling [even tho Trump held a fundraiser for him]. That outcome ... highlights Trump's tendency to obscure his business failures as he portrays himself as a perpetual winner.... Trump's interest in a casino in Florida, however, has not faded. He hired a lobbyist to press for the idea again after he purchased the Doral Resort & Spa in Miami in 2012. For the past two years, Trump has backed bills in the Florida legislature that would allow the creation of 'destination resorts,' high-end casinos at a handful of luxury Miami hotels."

Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: "... uh... did anybody listen to the substance of what [Carly Fiorina] said [during the debate]?... Fiorina's military buildup would add $500 billion to an already historically huge Pentagon budget. But it's far worse than that. This woman is a crackpot warmonger who would start World War III. No -- III and IV. I could barely believe what I was hearing.... She's an absolute madwoman." ...

She's the face of income inequality and the face of corporate greed... She makes Mitt Romney look like a Democrat.... I've had 11 consecutive victories. I have run against Democrats, Republicans, men, women, people of all ages. She was by far the most mean-spirited opponent I ever had. -- Sen. Barbara Boxer, on Carly Fiorina

... Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times: "Sen. Barbara Boxer lashed out at Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina on Friday, saying that the woman she defeated in 2010 is a 'mean-spirited,' failed business leader who cared more about enriching herself than about working Americans." ...

... Sarah Kliff of Vox tried twice to get Fiorina's campaign to show her those Planned Parenthood videos Fiorina claimed during the debate she had seen, & twice failed. The campaign sent her other footage of other videos unrelated to Planned Parenthood & not necessarily of aborted fetuses. "'Rest assured, I have seen the images I talked about last night,' [Fiorina] told Good Morning America Thursday morning. If these images Fiorina says she's seen do exist, she still has not shared them." ...

... Hannah Levintova of Mother Jones (and others) found it amusing that Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz & Donald Trump suggested Rosa Parks become the first woman to appear on U.S. currency inasmuch as Parks was a board member of Planned Parenthood....

     ... CW: But their choice of Parks was even more amusing when you consider that Parks was a lifelong political activist, & hardly the meek but principled seamstress who must occupy the empty minds of Rubio, Cruz & Trump. Jeanne Theoharis in the Huffington Post (February 2013):

She worked alongside the Black Power movement, particularly around issues such as reparations, black history, anti-police brutality, freedom for black political prisoners, independent black political power, and economic justice.... She was an early opponent of the Vietnam War in the early 1960s, a member of The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom..., she protested apartheid and U.S. complicity..., and opposed U.S. policy in Central America.

News Lede

AP: "Jackie Collins, the bestselling author of dozens of novels including 'Hollywood Wives' that dramatized the lives of the rich and treacherous, has died. Publicist Melody Korenbrot says Collins died of breast cancer on Saturday in Los Angeles. She was 77."