The Commentariat -- August 4, 2015

Internal links & defunct videos removed.

Joby Warrick & Steve Mufson of the Washington Post: "Opponents of the Obama ­administration's Clean Power Plan prepared Monday for all-out war against the carbon-cutting regulation, blasting the measure publicly while accelerating behind-the-scenes efforts to stop its implementation. On the day of the rule's official adoption, key lawmakers and industry groups sharpened their rhetorical attacks and vowed to battle the measure in Congress and in the courts. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stood before the Senate to declare his intention to 'do everything I can to fight' the regulation, which is chiefly designed to reduce reliance on coal to generate power." ...

... Coral Davenport & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "In the early months of 2014, a group of about 30 corporate lawyers, coal lobbyists and Republican political strategists began meeting regularly in the headquarters of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ... to start devising a legal strategy for dismantling the climate change regulations they feared were coming from President Obama. The group [is] headed in part by Roger R. Martella Jr., a top environmental official in the George W. Bush administration, and Peter Glazer, a prominent Washington lobbyist...." ...

... Edward Rosenfeld of CNBC: "President Barack Obama unveiled his plan to tackle greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants on Monday, potentially kicking off a legal battle between regulators and coal industry supporters. Calling the plan 'the single most important step America has ever taken in the fight against global climate change,' Obama emphasized that the regulation was about the present -- not just the predictions of forward-looking models." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... Adam Vaughn of the Guardian: "Hundreds of businesses including eBay, Nestle and General Mills have issued their support for Barack Obama's clean power plan, billed as the strongest action ever on climate change by a US president.... The rules are expected to trigger a 'tsunami' of legal opposition from states and utilities who oppose the plans, which will significantly boost wind and solar power generation and force a switch away from coal power. Republican presidential hopefuls moved quickly to voice their opposition, saying they would be economically damaging. But 365 businesses and investors wrote to 29 state governors to strongly support the rules, which they said would benefit the economy and create jobs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Michael Grunwald of Politico: "If you're really ranking them, the Clean Power Plan is at best the fourth-strongest action that [President] Obama has taken to combat climate change, behind his much-maligned 2009 stimulus package, which poured $90 billion into clean energy and jump-started a green revolution; his dramatic increases in fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks, which should reduce our oil consumption by 2 million barrels per day; and his crackdown on mercury and other air pollutants, which has helped inspire utilities to retire 200 coal-fired power plants in just five years.... Nevertheless, the new plan is already being hailed by environmentalists, denounced by industry, and hyped by the media as a bombshell. It doesn't fit the narrative to suggest that the plan is really kind of eh. It only fits the available facts." ...

... Ron Brownstein of the National Journal: "The conservative Republican-dominated red states most ideologically resistant to federal regulation in general also tend to be the states most reliant on carbon-intensive fuels (particularly coal) for their electricity. They're also the most invested in the existing fossil-fuel economy. By contrast, the blue Democratic-leaning states most ideologically sympathetic to [President] Obama's efforts against climate change also tend to be less reliant on coal for their electricity and less integrated into the fossil-fuel economy.... All 10 of the states that emit the most carbon per megawatt-hour of electricity generated voted for Mitt Romney over Obama in 2012.... Obama by contrast, carried ... nine of the 10 states with the absolute lowest emissions.... Notwithstanding [deep] concessions [to fossil-fuel dependent states], several Republican governors have already signaled that they do not intend to submit plans for reducing their state's carbon emissions to the EPA, as the rule requires."

Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "GOP lawmakers in Congress will make their first explicit move Monday to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood after a series of undercover videos raised questions about its practice of harvesting tissue for research from aborted fetuses. The Monday evening procedural vote on a Senate bill to immediately halt funding to the group is expected to fail. Democrats have vowed to filibuster the bill, and Republicans have thus far been unable to peel off enough support to counter it." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... ** New Lede: "Senate Democrats on Monday blocked a Republican-backed effort to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood following the release of undercover videos raising questions about its practice of harvesting tissue for research from aborted fetuses. The 53-46 procedural tally fell short of the 60 votes needed to proceed with a bill that would immediately halt funding to the group." ...

... Tierney Sneed of TPM: "Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) announced he had ended the state's Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood in response to an anti-abortion 'sting' video campaign against the reproductive health service.... The move comes despite the fact that the two Planned Parenthood clinics in Louisiana do not provide abortion....

     ... Times-Picayune: In his announcement, Jindal claimed, "'multiple videos have surfaced showing Planned Parenthood Federation of America senior personnel and other employees describing how they actively engage in illegal partial birth abortion procedures and conduct these abortions in a manner that leaves body parts intact so that they can later be sold on the open market.'... Planned Parenthood has 30 days to appeal. The administration said the contract gave either party the right to cancel the contract at will after providing written notice." CW: Jindal's assertion is a flat-out lie. So-called partial-birth abortions are illegal, & Planned Parenthood doesn't do them. ...

... Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "By attempting to capitalize on the videos in an unscrupulous way, conservatives have unleashed political forces Republicans can't control. Anti-abortion zealots are now demanding that Republicans in Congress refuse to appropriate money for government operations unless Planned Parenthood's funding is abolished -- a new test of Republican pro-life bona fides." ...

... Amanda Marcotte in Slate: "... this dog-and-pony show is less about defunding Planned Parenthood and more about giving Republican politicians a chance to reassure their base that they, too, hate the idea of low-income women obtaining affordable reproductive health care. If Republicans are smart, they'll move on -- at least until the next time the anti-sex police decide there's some new fake thing they're all outraged over.... We should all be alarmed that a bunch of charlatans can snap their fingers and get congressional Republicans to come crawling." ...

... CW: This might be a good place to remind everybody, including all boneheaded members of Congress, that Planned Parenthood gets no federal funding for abortions. Period. These bozos are not voting to defund abortions; they're voting to defunds mammograms, contraceptive aides & other healthcare services. Update: Elizabeth Warren made this point on the Senate floor yesterday. Listen to Warren's speech, & bear in mind that a short time later Joe Manchin & 52 Republicans voted against women anyway, including those who claim to support women's rights like Susan Collins, Kelly Ayotte & Lisa Murkowski. Shame on them.

Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Sen. Chuck Schumer is teaming up with another Schumer -- actress and comedian Amy -- on Monday to push for stricter gun-control laws. The two Schumers held a news conference in New York to unveil a new proposal drafted by the senator meant to prevent violent criminals, abusers and those with mental illnesses from obtaining guns. The push comes in the wake of the shooting in Lafayette, Louisiana, last month at a screening of Amy Schumer's new movie 'Trainwreck,' where two women were killed and at least nine other people were injured." Chuck Schumer & Amy Schumer are cousins. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nahal Toosi of Politico: "More than 120 wealthy Democratic donors have written to the party's leadership in Congress to express support for the Iran nuclear deal, the latest move in a fierce battle for votes on the historic agreement. The letter, whose signatories include Hollywood producer Norman Lear, several retired ambassadors and members of the uber-wealthy Democracy Alliance donor network, warns lawmakers that scuttling the deal 'would put us back on a path to a nuclear-armed Iran, another costly military campaign -- or both.'" ...

... Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "Persian Gulf monarchies issued a cautious endorsement on Monday of the accord Secretary of State John Kerry negotiated last month to constrain Iran's nuclear program. 'This was the best option among other options,' said Khalid al-Attiyah, the foreign minister of Qatar, who hosted a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council that Mr. Kerry attended." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eric Segall: "With no cameras in their courtroom, secret votes on which cases to hear (and why), no rules on when or even if their taxpayer-funded papers become public, and no review of individual decisions whether or not serving on a case would be improper, we are worlds away from an open and transparent Supreme Court of the United States." Via Paul Waldman.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Margaret Sullivan, the New York Times' public editor addresses the paper's "tortured history" of coverage of Hillary & Bill Clinton. Times executive editor Dean Baquet told her, "If you look at our body of work, I don't believe we have been unfair." Sullivan noted, "But the Times's 'screw-up,' as Mr. Baquet called it, reinforces the need for reporters and their editors to be 'doubly vigilant and doubly cautious.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post is not impressed with Sullivan's "wishy-washy" column. He notes that the original Times story, 11 days old on Monday, still contains the error that two inspectors general sent the DOJ a security referral; only one of them sent a referral, according to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). Sullivan has not addressed this likely error. Since Times editors granted Sullivan access which they denied other media reporters, she should have (a) done a better job, & (b) been willing to talk to reporters. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Paul Waldman: "... the spasm of speculation over a Biden run that happened in the last couple of days is absurdly overblown." Waldman credits the rumor to the grafs that followed "the ankle-deep river of bile directed at Bill and Hillary Clinton that is characteristic of most of what [Maureen] Dowd writes." Waldman likes the Onion's running gag about Biden. Here are links to recent stories (the sources possibly vetted by Michael Schmidt of the New York Times) which do kinda suggest Biden may not be presidential material. However, none of these Biden spoofs makes him out to be as big a nitwit as the idiot featured below are in reality.

Jeremy Peters & Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "After weeks of preparing for a smash-mouth debate with Donald J. Trump, 14 Republican candidates found themselves instead Trump-less but sandwiched into a constricting format on Monday night, delivering strikingly uneven performances just days before the first big test of the presidential primary contest. Rather than making the other contenders look more presidential, however, the event, at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., seemed to shrink the candidates." Jeb Bush proved particularly maladroit. ...

... The Union Leader report by Dan Tuohy, which is exceptionally boring, is here. Should you care to waste two hours plus, you can still watch Losers' Big Night Out here. OR save yourself the time & read P. D. Pepe's summary in today's Comments. ...

... Gabriel Sherman of New York: "[Tuesday] around 5 p.m., Fox News executives are scheduled to gather in Roger Ailes's second-floor conference room at the network's midtown headquarters to decide who will be the next president of the United States the lineup of candidates who will participate in the first Republican debate on Thursday in Cleveland.... Based on the five most recent polls that meet Fox's standards, [Donald] Trump will be center stage flanked by Jeb Bush and Scott Walker. On the bubble, it's looking like Ohio governor John Kasich will edge out Rick Perry for the final spot. If current numbers hold, the remaining prime-time participants will be: Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie, Ben Carson, and Rand Paul." ...

... Paul Singer of USA Today: "Former IRS commissioner Mark Everson, a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, will file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Monday alleging that he is being unfairly excluded from the first debate, he told USA TODAY. Everson is arguing that election law requires debate organizers to set 'pre-established and objective standards' for inclusion, and that Fox News has not met that requirement for Thursday's debate in Cleveland." ...

... Joe Strupp of Media Matters: "Veteran presidential campaign correspondents and media experts are criticizing Fox News' unprecedented role as a gatekeeper in the Republican primary."

Dana Milbank: "The gap between those who vote in GOP primaries and the rest of the electorate is growing.... This Republican sliver of the electorate, growing isolated and angry, is inclined toward exotic views. Trump, rather than causing the insanity Paul speaks of, is exploiting it."

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "... the Huckabees and Cruzes simply cannot compete with Donald Trump..., [whose] "novelty and lack of normal political constraints is what is allowing him to run circles around his competitors who had hoped to play in the Crazy space. Showmanship, lack of touch with reality, and a palpable handle on the grievance and unrestrained self-assertion that is at the center of modern Republican base politics have made Trump, for now, almost impossible to outdo in a crowded field." (CW: Maybe Marshall will change his tune when he sees Ted's Second Amendment Bacon. See below.) ...

... OR, as David Brooks, America's Explainer, puts it: "Never before have we experienced a moment with so much public alienation and so much private, assertive and fragile self-esteem." CW: However did this happen? ...

... Joanne Freeman, in a New York Times op-ed, explains to America's Explainer that the moment is not exactly as unprecedented as he asserts: "Politicians have always resorted to dumb claims, blatant insults, bold exaggerations and baldfaced lies to gain press coverage and win votes.... Such grandstanding was particularly blatant in the mid-19th century, an era with a political climate much like our own." Back in the day, such extremism resulted in the Civil War. ...

... Greg Sargent: "David Brooks argues this morning that Trump's 'allure' is rooted in how voters 'feel,' i.e., 'alienated,' 'frustrated,' and 'angry.'... But here's another possibility: what if a key source of his appeal is that a lot of Republican voters agree with what he's saying about the issues?"

Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian: "Food safety experts and gun experts have warned against cooking bacon on the barrel of a machine gun, after Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz released a video showing him doing just that." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Turns out Machine Gun Bacon is not an original recipe. (At the end of the linked video [at the end of Caitlin Cruz's story], chef Dustin Ellermann rubs his hands together & giggles, "Let's go kill some more pigs." Presumably with a machine gun. ...

... Steve M. has a lot more on Dustin Ellermann, Ted's inspirational mentor. Read it & vomit. Upset about rumors that officials were confiscating militia members' weapons during the Bundy Ranch confrontation, Ellermann asked "What happened to America?" Good question. Remember, this guy -- who also wrote in favor of Texas secession -- isn't just an evangelical gun nut (who runs a Christian children's camp where he teaches the kids to shoot up the countryside for Jesus), he's serving here as a model for a U.S. senator & presidential candidate.

Oh, Gawker is back. Sam Biddle: "Last month, American reality show entertainer turned American political system entertainer Donald Trump publicized presidential rival Sen. Lindsey Graham's cell number, urging his supporters to 'try it.' In the spirit of open and fair political debate, we now bring you Trump's number." A commenter writes, "He doesn't even have a (212) number? I thought he was rich. Poser." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "Trump.com, the official website for Donald Trump's organization, was hit by hackers [Monday] who posted a message to Jon Stewart praising him in his final week hosting The Daily Show. The Twitter account @TelecomixCanada is apparently responsible for the hacked message...."

... Punked. Neetzan Zimmerman of the Hill: "Harvard Lampoon tricks Trump with fake endorsement." The Crimson story, by Mariel Klein, is here. CW: That is, I think it's the Crimson story.

Punked. Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Wisconsin governor Scott Walker encountered what looked like a group of young supporters during a campaign stop on Monday at a [Manchester, N.H.,] pizza shop, only to be presented with a fake check from the billionaire Koch brothers by a group of climate activists.... 'I'd like to present you with this check from the Koch brothers for climate denial,' [Tyler] McFarland, 23, told Walker." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton turned himself in to law enforcement officials on Monday in the face of felony charges on securities fraud." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Caroline Bankoff of New York: "In response to the uproar over the death of Cecil, Delta Airlines has announced that it will no longer ship hunting trophies that come from lions, leopards, elephants, rhinoceroses, and buffalo. Delta (the only American carrier that flies directly to Africa) joins Lufthansa, Emirates Airlines, and British Airways -- all of whom pledged to stop transporting various exotic-animal parts this spring, before it was cool. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that Air France, KLM, Iberia, IAG Cargo, Singapore Airlines, and Qantas have 'signaled' a willingness to do the same."

CW: I didn't read Jake Halpern's profile/interview of Darren Wilson, Michael Brown's killer, but I read enough excerpts to know Wilson is a classic racist. Black lives matters? No so much.

Possibly Not the Best Application of Law Enforcement Tactics. ACLU: "A deputy sheriff shackled two elementary school children who have disabilities, causing them pain and trauma, according to a federal lawsuit filed today by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Children's Law Center, and Dinsmore & Shohl. The children, an 8-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl, were so small that the school resource officer, Kenton County Deputy Sheriff Kevin Sumner in Covington, Kentucky, locked the handcuffs around the children's biceps and forced their hands behind their backs, the lawsuit charges."

News Ledes

New York: "The FBI arrested three North Carolina men on Saturday for allegedly planning to go to war with the United States when the government imposed martial law."

AP: "Two people were killed and more than 20 injured when a circus tent collapsed in a storm during a performance in New Hampshire. Authorities said about 100 people were inside the tent at the Lancaster Fairground, about 90 miles north of the state capital in Concord, when it fell down on Monday."

The Commentariat -- August 3, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Edward Rosenfeld of CNBC: "President Barack Obama unveiled his plan to tackle greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants on Monday, potentially kicking off a legal battle between regulators and coal industry supporters. Calling the plan 'the single most important step America has ever taken in the fight against global climate change,' Obama emphasized that the regulation was about the present not just the predictions of forward-looking models." Here's a clip:

... Adam Vaughn of the Guardian: "Hundreds of businesses including eBay, Nestle and General Mills have issued their support for Barack Obama's clean power plan, billed as the strongest action ever on climate change by a US president.... The rules are expected to trigger a 'tsunami' of legal opposition from states and utilities who oppose the plans, which will significantly boost wind and solar power generation and force a switch away from coal power. Republican presidential hopefuls moved quickly to voice their opposition, saying they would be economically damaging. But 365 businesses and investors wrote to 29 state governors to strongly support the rules, which they said would benefit the economy and create jobs."

Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "GOP lawmakers in Congress will make their first explicit move Monday to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood after a series of undercover videos raised questions about its practice of harvesting tissue for research from aborted fetuses. The Monday evening procedural vote on a Senate bill to immediately halt funding to the group is expected to fail. Democrats have vowed to filibuster the bill, and Republicans have thus far been unable to peel off enough support to counter it."

Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "Persian Gulf monarchies issued a cautious endorsement on Monday of the accord Secretary of State John Kerry negotiated last month to constrain Iran's nuclear program. 'This was the best option among other options,' said Khalid al-Attiyah, the foreign minister of Qatar, who hosted a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council that Mr. Kerry attended."

Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Sen. Chuck Schumer is teaming up with another Schumer — actress and comedian Amy -- on Monday to push for stricter gun-control laws. The two Schumers held a news conference in New York to unveil a new proposal drafted by the senator meant to prevent violent criminals, abusers and those with mental illnesses from obtaining guns. The push comes in the wake of the shooting in Lafayette, Louisiana, last month at a screening of Amy Schumer's new movie 'Trainwreck,' where two women were killed and at least nine other people were injured." Chuck Schumer & Amy Schumer are cousins. ...

... Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian: "Food safety experts and gun experts have warned against cooking bacon on the barrel of a machine gun, after Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz released a video showing him doing just that."

Oh, Gawker is back. Sam Biddle: "Last month, American reality show entertainer turned American political system entertainer Donald Trump publicized presidential rival Sen. Lindsey Graham's cell number, urging his supporters to 'try it.' In the spirit of open and fair political debate, we now bring you Trump's number." A commenter writes, "He doesn't even have a (212) number? I thought he was rich. Poser."

Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Wisconsin governor Scott Walker encountered what looked like a group of young supporters during a campaign stop on Monday at a [Manchester, N.H.,] pizza shop, only to be presented with a fake check from the billionaire Koch brothers by a group of climate activists.... 'I'd like to present you with this check from the Koch brothers for climate denial,' [Tyler] McFarland, 23, told Walker."

Margaret Sullivan, the New York Times' public editor addresses the paper's "tortured history" of coverage of Hillary & Bill Clinton. Times executive editor Dean Baquet told her, "If you look at our body of work, I don't believe we have been unfair." Sullivan noted, "But the Times's 'screw-up,' as Mr. Baquet called it, reinforces the need for reporters and their editors to be 'doubly vigilant and doubly cautious.'" ...

... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post is not impressed with Sullivan's "wishy-washy" column. He notes that the original Times story, 11 days old on Monday, still contains the error that two inspectors general sent the DOJ a security referral; only one of them sent a referral, according to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). Sullivan has not addressed this likely error. Since Times editors granted Sullivan access which they denied other media reporters, she should have (a) done a better job, & (b) been willing to talk to reporters.

Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton turned himself in to law enforcement officials on Monday in the face of felony charges on securities fraud."

*****

Greg Sargent on how President Obama's Clean Power Plan is likely to play out in the upcoming national elections. "Given that this would combine Obummer Mandates with a new effort at international engagement that many GOP primary voters will likely oppose, it could perhaps make Obama's climate push even more ideologically toxic to Republicans, requiring the GOP candidates to outdo one another in their zeal to oppose it." ...

... New Rules. Eric Holthaus of Slate: The Obama administration's climate-change policy is fairly lame.

Two key legislators -- Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) & Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) -- have come out in favor of the Iran nuclear deal. Via Greg Sargent.

The New Kochs, Ctd. Ken Vogel of Politico: "Charles Koch, in a Sunday afternoon speech to conservative donors and GOP dignitaries, compared the causes of his conservative political and policy operation to the American Revolution, the abolitionists, suffragettes and civil rights crusaders. 'They all sought to overcome an injustice. And we, too, are seeking to right injustices that are holding our country back,' Koch said on the second day of a summit he and his brother David Koch convened the at the St. Regis Monarch Beach luxury resort, which drew 450 rich conservatives, as well as numerous leading Republican politicians.... For the Koch network, the cause is reforming the criminal justice system, and reducing government spending and regulation that conservatives believe limits prosperity for all Americans. Or, as Koch put it Sunday, 'we aim ... to remove the shackles preventing all Americans, especially the disadvantaged, from pursuing their dreams.'" CW: Yes, the "disadvantaged" should be free to sell arms to Iran, pollute the environment & have offshore accounts, too. ...

... Matea Gold & James Hohmann write the Washington Post story. CW: I'm all dewy-eyed.

CW: Yesterday, I pointed to a Reuters story about how Donald Trump's companies regularly hire low-wage foreign workers under the barely-regulated H-2 temporary visa program. I missed this excellent BuzzFeed investigative piece (July 24) on how the H-2 visa program "works": "The H-2 visa program invites foreign workers to do some of the most menial labor in America. Then it leaves them at the mercy of their employers. Thousands of these workers have been abused -- deprived of their fair pay, imprisoned, starved, beaten, raped, and threatened with deportation if they dare complain. And the government says it can do little to help."

Jack Hitt of Mother Jones: "Police Shootings Won't Stop Unless We Also Stop Shaking Down Black People." CW: Hitt is right about that of course, but what his story inadvertently reveals is a huge flaw in the low-tax libertarian philosophy. Many local governments have chosen to lower property taxes & raise revenue instead via fines for minor vehicle & home infractions -- from failures to signal to cheesy miniblinds (really). Police & code enforcement officials are expected to earn their wages by citing citizens, & for some odd reason, they tend to cite poorer citizens. I don't doubt that the city councilmembers who have developed this flawed structure ran for office on low-tax platforms, & voters chose them for that very reason. As Hitt points out, carried to its logical extreme (and municipalities do carry it to the extreme), it is often more costly to demand payment (by jailing those who can't pay) than it would have been not to fine the citizens in the first place.

Paul Krugman: After writing a post criticizing "crotchety crank" Ron Paul's ever-erroneous wacko economic theories -- which he is now selling in video format! -- "I've received some mail from Ron Paul admirers deeply angered by the suggestion that they are not engaged in deep intellectual argument. By and large the mail reads like this:

Dear shmak, Paul Krugman!
Stop insulting Ron Paul!
You are low level Socialist/Liberal who should be jailed
for Life
your insulting writing style.
Ron Paul is Real Man with Capital M
and you are nobody!

     ... CW: I suspect Krugman is unfair to these writers. I'm sure he cleaned up their spelling.

Paul Krugman in the New York Times Book Review: Don't bother to buy Thomas Picketty's "new" book, because it's really 15 years old & doesn't reflect recent economic changes, new data & revised scholarship, even his own.

Ellen Brait of the Guardian: "Several New York retailers, including Walmart, Sears and Amazon, have agreed to remove realistic toy guns from their shelves and pay $300,000 in penalties as part of a settlement with the state. State attorney general Eric Schneiderman announced on Monday that his office had found over 6,400 toy guns sold from 2012 to 2014 that violated preexisting New York laws, which ban the sale of black, blue, silver, or aluminum toy guns. Instead, these must be brightly colored or translucent."

Presidential Race

Carrie Dann of NBC News: "Days before the first Republican debate, Donald Trump has surged into the national lead in the GOP primary race, with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush following, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows. Trump is the first choice of 19 percent of GOP primary voters, while 15 percent back Walker and 14 percent back Bush. Ten percent support retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson." ...

... Steven Thomma of McClatchy News: "... the McClatchy-Marist Poll has temporarily suspended polling on primary voter choices out of concern that public polls are being misused to decide who will be in and who will be excluded. The Marist Institute for Public Opinion, which conducts the national survey, said the debate criteria assume too much precision in polls in drawing a line between candidates just a fraction apart, presume that the national polls being averaged are comparable, and turn the media sponsoring most of the polls from analysts to participants."

He's the Doofus, Not the Donald. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's surge in the polls has been met with barely concealed delight by Jeb Bush and his supporters. Mr. Trump's bombastic ways have simultaneously made it all but impossible for those vying to be the alternative to Mr. Bush to emerge, and easier for Mr. Bush, the former Florida governor, to position himself as the serious and thoughtful alternative to a candidate who has upended the early nominating process.... Mr. Trump has essentially frozen the rest of the field." Trump is peeling off potential Scott Walker voters, in particular.

Kevin Cirilli of the Hill: "Donald Trump is assembling a team of political strategists and campaign staffers charged with sustaining his lead in the Republican presidential polls. While strategists say Trump still got a ways to go to catch up to his rivals for the White House, he is taking aggressive steps to build a political machine, particularly in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire." ...

... Laura Reston of the New Republic: Donald Trump is a candidate in the longstanding American tradition of Know Nothings. CW: Worth nothing [Oops! That was a Freudian typo; s/b "worth noting"]: Reston's little history lesson reminds us anew that the Northeast has never been immune to racist sentiments. ...

... Mistakes Were Made. Emily Atkin of Think Progress: "... Donald Trump said on Sunday that more power should be given to the police. 'It's a massive crisis,' Trump said on Meet the Press, when asked about the concerns of the Black Lives Matter movement. 'Some horrible mistakes are made. At the same time, we have to give power back to the police, because crime is rampant.'" ...

... Black People Are All Alike. Emily Atkin: "In an interview with ABC News on Sunday..., [Donald Trump] said Americans wouldn't elect another black president for a long time because of Obama's 'poor standard.'... ' think that he has set a very low bar and I think it's a shame for the African American people." CW: Okay, no more white presidents because Warren Harding, Andrew Johnson, George W. Bush, etc. Sorry, Donald. I'm going for the best-qualified Inuit. ...

... Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "The Trump campaign confirmed to the Guardian on Sunday that longtime aide Sam Nunberg had been fired, after Business Insider reported on an eight-year-old social media post. In 2007, a post on Nunberg's Facebook page referring to the veteran civil rights campaigner Al Sharpton read: 'Meeting Rev Sharpton today, no joke -- he will tell him that his daughter is N---!'" CW: Good to hear that Trump won't abide racism.

Zachary Warmbrodt of Politico: "Donald Trump made clear on Sunday that he's not ruling out a third-party run if his bid for the Republican presidential nomination falters. In a phone interview on ABC's 'This Week,' the billionaire businessman-turned-political celebrity said he'd have 'no interest' in running as a third-party candidate if he's 'treated fairly' by the Republican Party but 'would certainly not give that up' if he felt burned." CW: Since the Republican party is essentially impotent, this is more a warning to Roger Ailes & Fox "News" debate questioners. ...

When people are chopping off other people's heads and then we're worried about waterboarding and we can't, because I have no doubt that that works. I have absolutely no doubt.... When you see the other side chopping off heads, waterboarding doesn't sound very severe. -- Donald Trump, on ABC's "This Week with Whomever"

... CW: There really should be more violence against teachers.

E. J. Dionne: Some GOP candidates, like Jeb! & Marco, "talk about the need to restore paths to upward mobility, [but] their underlying proposals remain rooted in the thinking of the Reagan era...: that government can do little about what ails us and that the path to nirvana is still paved with tax cuts and business deregulation. But as progressive economist Joseph Stiglitz noted to me..., it's precisely the rules and policies of the past 35 to 40 years that have helped lead the middle class into its current economic impasse."

Rick Perry Discovers Government Regulation. David Dayen in the New Republic: Rick Perry inherited mortgage-lending regulations that are stricter than what even the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau promotes. Altho he wants to gut the CFPB, Perry is now touting his state's strict lending regulations, which saved Texas from the burst bubble that brought down Florida's economy just after Jeb! left the governorship. In his speech on Wall Street reform, Perry also "endorsed higher capital requirements for the largest banks so they can absorb trading losses rather than pass them on to the government. He also advocated for a firewall between investment and commercial banks, which is not unlike the Depression-era Glass-Steagall reforms now championed by the likes of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.... Even if Perry doesn't make it to the general election [and he won't], he's done the country a service by telling the truth about the value of consumer protection."

Paper Soldier. Craig Whitelock of the Washington Post: "a detailed examination of [Sen. Lindsey] Graham's military record -- much of it obtained under the Freedom of Information Act -- shows that the Air Force afforded him special treatment as a lawmaker, granting him the privileges of rank with few expectations in return. During his first decade in Congress, the Air Force promoted Graham twice even though documents in his military personnel file reveal that he did little or no work. Later, the Pentagon gave the military lawyer a job assignment in the Air Force Reserve that he highlighted in his biography for several years but never performed.... After he became a colonel, Graham began to dedicate more hours to the Reserve. He deployed for brief stints in Iraq and Afghanistan, visits timed to overlap with his travels there as a senator. For nearly a decade, however, Graham gave inaccurate public descriptions of his job assignment...."

CW: For reasons beyond me, Rick Santorum thinks this fake Hillary site, a product of his own campaign, is hilarious. I'm sticking -- so to speak -- with santorum.com

Beyond the Beltway

Hedge Clippers: "Hedge funds and billionaire hedge fund managers have swooped into Puerto Rico during a fast-moving economic crisis to prey on the vulnerable island. Several groups of hedge funds and billionaire hedge fund managers have bought up large chunks of Puerto Rican debt at discounts, pushed the island to borrow more, and are driving towards devastating austerity measures. At the same time, they are also using the island as a tax haven.... Known as 'vulture funds,' these investors have followed a similar game plan in other debt crises, in countries such as Greece and Argentina." Via Think Progress. ...

... Alice Ollstein of Think Progress: “'The reason Puerto Rico has such unsustainable debt has everything to do with the policies of austerity and the greed of large financial institutions,' said [Sen. Bernie] Sanders [I-Vt.]. He additionally noted that just seven years ago, Congress 'acted with a fierce sense of urgency to bail out Wall Street,' yet is now dragging its feet on helping the commonwealth of Puerto Rico." ...

... Paul Krugman: "... too much austerity can be self-defeating. It would, in particular, be a terrible idea to give the hedge funds that have scooped up much of Puerto Rico's debt what they want -- basically to destroy the island's education system in the name of fiscal responsibility. Overall, however, the Puerto Rican story is one of bad times that fall well short of utter disaster. And the saving grace in this situation is big government -- a federal system that provides a crucial safety net for American citizens in times of need, wherever they happen to live." ...

... Or Not. Lizette Alvarez & Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "On an island where more than 60 percent of residents receive Medicare or Medicaid -- an indicator of Puerto Rico's poverty and rapidly aging population -- the dwindling funds have set off outpourings of concern among patients and doctors, protest rallies and intense lobbying in Washington. And while the crisis is playing out most vividly today, its cause dates back decades and stems, in large part, from a vast disparity in federal funding for health care on the island compared with funding for the 50 states. This disparity is partly responsible for $25 billion of Puerto Rico's $73 billion debt, as Puerto Rico's government was forced to borrow over time to keep the Medicaid program afloat, according to economists."

The Anti-Education Governor. Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "Teachers can't hotfoot it out of Kansas fast enough, creating a substantial shortage expected only to get much worse. Why? Well, there's the low pay.... Then there's the severe underfunding for public education by the administration of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, so much of a problem that some school districts closed early this past school year because they didn't have the cash to keep operating.... The Kansas Board of Education decided in July to allow six school systems -- including two of the largest in the state -- to hire unlicensed teachers to ease the shortage.

AP: "The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, prepared on Sunday to become the latest powerful state official booked on felony charges. But unlike when Governor Rick Perry smiled for his mugshot last year, Republicans are not rushing to Paxton's defense."

AP: "A person of 'interest' was taken into custody in connection with the fatal shooting of a police officer during a traffic stop in Memphis, police said on Sunday." ...

     ... Update: Adrian Sainz of the AP: "Tennessee police officials on Sunday identified a suspect in the fatal shooting of a Memphis police officer, and an intense search for the man is underway. Tremaine Wilbourn, 29, faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of Officer Sean Bolton, 33, on Saturday night, Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong said at a news conference.... Armstrong said Bolton interrupted a drug deal in progress.... The driver [of the vehicle in which Bolton was sitting] later turned himself in to police, and police described him as a person of interest in the case before he was released without being charged."

Way Beyond

Washington Post: "Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Sunday called a parliamentary election for Oct. 19, kicking off an 11-week campaign -- a marathon in Canada -- that is likely to focus on a stubbornly sluggish economy and his decade in power. Polls indicate that Harper's right-of-center Conservative Party, which has been in office since 2006, could well lose its majority in the House of Commons."

Farai Mutsaka of the AP: "Zimbabwe accused a Pennsylvania doctor on Sunday of illegally killing a lion in April, adding to the outcry over a Minnesota dentist the African government wants to extradite for killing a well-known lion named Cecil in early July. Zimbabwe's National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority accused Jan Casimir Seski of Murrysville, Pennsylvania, of shooting the lion with a bow and arrow in April near Hwange National Park, without approval, on land where it was not allowed."

News Ledes

Guardian: "Former City trader Tom Hayes has been sentenced to 14 years in jail after becoming the first person to be convicted by a jury of rigging the Libor interest rate. Hayes, 35, a former UBS and Citigroup yen derivatives trader, was convicted of eight counts of conspiracy to defraud."

New York Times: After being closed for five weeks, the Greek stock exchange reopened today, & prices plummeted.

AP: "Fire officials called for thousands of evacuations as numerous homes remained threatened by Northern California wildfires Monday, while more than 9,000 firefighters battled 21 major fires in the state, officials said. Wildfires were also burning in Washington and Oregon as the West Coast suffered from the effects of drought and summer heat."

The Commentariat -- August 2, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

** Coral Davenport & Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "In the strongest action ever taken in the United States to combat climate change, President Obama will unveil on Monday a set of environmental regulations devised to sharply cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from the nation's power plants and ultimately transform America's electricity industry. The rules are the final, tougher versions of proposed regulations that the Environmental Protection Agency announced in 2012 and 2014. If they withstand the expected legal challenges, the regulations will set in motion sweeping policy changes that could shut down hundreds of coal-fired power plants, freeze construction of new coal plants and create a boom in the production of wind and solar power and other renewable energy sources." ...

... Steve Mufson of the Washington Post: Mitch McConnell "has urged states to rebel against the EPA plan, just as he encouraged states to withhold their cooperation with the Affordable Care Act. In the end, ironically, the states trying to assert their opposition will sacrifice the flexibility they have under the Clean Power Plan. The EPA is setting targets, but states can come up with their own strategies. If the states refuse, only then will federal regulators impose a plan of their own. In the end, the Republican resistance to the EPA's Clean Power Plan should find little basis in law. Whatever the quality of the EPA's plan may be, it has a legal responsibility to press ahead."

... Thanks to Victoria D. (oops! did it again) for the reminder. Sadly, Republicans missed the '60s. ...

** William Saletan of Slate covered Congressional hearings about the Iran nuclear deal: "In challenging Kerry and Moniz, Republican senators and representatives offered no serious alternative. They misrepresented testimony, dismissed contrary evidence, and substituted vitriol for analysis. They seemed baffled by the idea of having to work and negotiate with other countries.... The GOP ... seems utterly unprepared to govern." If you don't have time to read the whole article, check out Item 4, an exchange between Ted Cruz & Secretary Moniz. The video below covers Cruz's questioning. Here's his MO: he takes remarks completely out of context or just makes up something, then accuses the witnesses of being ignorant or craven based on his false assertions. On his final attempt to use this pointless technique, John McCain, who chaired the hearing, cut him off:

... ** Heather Richardson, in Salon, goes a long way toward explaining how we got from issues-oriented, reality-conscious senators to Ted Cruz, et al.: "Fox News will air the first Republican presidential debates this week, choosing 10 out of 17 current candidates according to unspecified polls and permitting each candidate just one minute to answer questions. Donald Trump will hold center stage. This scenario, where a TV network calls the shots in a presidential debate and a consummate brand maker is the leading candidate, is the culmination of Movement Conservatism. Politics is no longer about policy or nuance, or even reality. It is simply a storyline designed to appeal to voters' emotions." ...

... CW: I have been debating with myself about whether or not to watch the Fox "News" "debate" or rely on media reports & analysis. What's your plan?

Nicholas Kristof: "... Conservative Republicans, indignant about abortion, are trying to destroy a government program that helps prevent 345,000 abortions a year. Inevitably in politics there are good ideas and bad ideas. But occasionally there are also moronic ideas -- such as the House Republican proposal to kill America's main family planning program, Title X.... Title X isn't directly related to the furor over video footage showing Planned Parenthood staff members speaking cavalierly about fetal tissues; the Republican effort to eliminate Title X goes back much earlier."

Sudhim Thanawala of the AP: "A federal judge in San Francisco on Friday blocked the release of any recordings made at meetings of an abortion providers' association by the anti-abortion group the Center for Medical Progress. Earlier in the week, a Los Angeles County judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the center from releasing any video of leaders of StemExpress, a California company that provides fetal tissue to researchers.... Judge William Orrick ... said absent a temporary restraining order, the federation would likely suffer irreparable injury 'in the form of harassment, intimidation, violence, invasion of privacy, and injury to reputation.' John Nockleby, a professor at Loyola Law School, said California privacy law is stricter than some other states. To record a confidential communication in California, all parties participating in it must agree to the recording."

New York Times Editors: "A recent leak of documents from the Fed shows that its staff economists have forecast more of the same modest growth and inflation for years to come. Nonetheless, the Fed seems determined to raise interest rates before the end of this year.... If it really intends to move ahead soon with interest-rate increases, it needs to explain how an economy in which wages are stagnating is as good as it gets."

Steve Benen: Rather than claim a religious exemption from directly providing contraceptive coverage under the ACA, Wheaton College of Illinois decided to stop providing any health insurance for students. They feel just terrible about it. But Jesus. CW: Yo, Wheaton, Jesus provided healthcare coverage under his trademark Miracle Plan for Believers. The plan also covered believers' family members & gay lovers (see the stories of the Syrophoenician woman & the centurion).

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) in a Huffington Post post: "The Times' Executive Editor has suggested that its reporters could not have done anything differently [in erroneously reporting requests for a "criminal investigation" of Hillary Clinton] because they relied on anonymous senior government officials, which the paper's Public Editor later explained included tips from 'Capitol Hill.' I disagree. The Times could have insisted on seeing the documents they were describing. Or, if the Times spoke with Republicans in Congress, even off the record, they could have checked their facts with me or other Committee Democrats. Unfortunately, this rush to print anonymous, unverified claims against Secretary Clinton is not unique." Cummings pretty much fingers Benghaazi! committee chair Trey Gowdy. as the Times' source.

Presidential Race

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his associates have begun to actively explore a possible presidential campaign, which would upend the Democratic field and deliver a direct threat to Hillary Rodham Clinton, several people who have spoken to Mr. Biden or his closest advisers say. Mr. Biden's advisers have started to reach out to Democratic leaders and donors who have not yet committed to Mrs. Clinton or who have grown concerned about what they see as her increasingly visible vulnerabilities as a candidate." CW: Okay, MoDo gets her way. ...

... Or maybe not. Karen Tumulty, et al., of the Washington Post: "At this point, however, Biden appears to be far from any decision...." ...

MoDo is desperately seeking Not-Hillary; she flirts with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz -- a candidate with all the credibility of Donald Trump -- then settles on Vice President Joe Biden. Along the way, MoDo compares Hillary to patriots QB Tom Brady & his Ballghaaazi stunts.

All the Candidate's Lawsuits. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge has ordered the State Department to ask Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to certify under penalty of perjury that she has turned over some of the work-related emails she kept on a private server during the four years she served as secretary of state. U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan issued the order Friday in connection with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit the conservative group Judicial Watch filed in 2013 seeking records about the employment status of Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who worked as Clinton's deputy chief of staff but later transferred to a part-time job as a so-called 'special government employee.'... State now faces about 30 lawsuits seeking some or all of the Clinton emails and playing out in front of a variety of different judges."

I will be the greatest jobs president that God every created. I will bring back our jobs from China, Mexico and other places. I will bring back jobs and our money. -- Donald Trump, presidential candidacy announcement

... Mica Rosenberg, et al., of Reuters: "... this month, one of [Donald Trump's] companies, the elite Mar-a-Lago Club resort in Florida, applied to import 70 foreign workers to serve as cooks, wait staff and cleaners. A Reuters analysis of U.S. government data reveals that this is business as usual.... Trump owns companies that have sought to import at least 1,100 foreign workers on temporary visas since 2000, according to U.S. Department of Labor data reviewed by Reuters. Most of the applications were approved.... U.S. government watchdogs have criticized the [work visa] ... programs [the Trump companies use] over the years for failing to protect foreign and American workers alike."

Beyond the Beltway

Ha! Tanya Eiserer of WFAA Dallas-Fort Worth: "A grand jury has indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton [R] on multiple felony charges, according to several sources who are familiar with the complaints. The charges will be unsealed in McKinney on Monday about noon, and a Tarrant County judge has already been appointed to preside over the case, sources told News 8.... All indications are that charge is related to Servergy, a McKinney-based company that has been under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.... This indictment comes after the watchdog group Texans for Public Justice pushed for Paxton to face felony charges beyond the fine he paid to the securities board last year." ...

... Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "In the most serious charges, first-degree securities fraud, Mr. Paxton is accused of misleading investors in a technology company, Servergy Inc., which is based in McKinney, his hometown. He is accused of encouraging the investors in 2011 to put more than $600,000 into Servergy while failing to tell them he was making a commission on their investment, and misrepresenting himself as an investor in the company, said Kent A. Schaffer, one of the two special prosecutors handling the case.... As the state's top lawyer and law enforcement officer, Mr. Paxton has made headlines for challenging the Obama administration on its immigration and environmental policies and for encouraging county clerks to refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples on religious grounds after the Supreme Court's ruling upholding same-sex marriage."

News Lede

Los Angeles Times: "The Rocky Fire exploded overnight, burning 47,000 acres as of Sunday morning and threatening 6,000 structures in [California's] Lake, Yolo and Colusa counties. The U.S. Forest Service said "fire activity dramatically progressed" late Saturday, forcing the closure of several state highways in the area. The fire is just 5% contained; about 12,000 people have been ordered to evacuate. Nearly 2,000 firefighters are battling the blaze and more are coming into the area."