The Commentariat -- June 11, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "The United States is considering establishing additional military bases in Iraq to combat the Islamic State, the top American general said on Thursday, a move that would require at least hundreds more American military advisers to help Iraqi forces retake cities lost to the militant Sunni extremist group. President Obama's decision this week to send 450 trainers to establish a new military base to help Iraqi forces retake the city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, could signal the beginning of similar efforts in other parts of the country, said Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."
Emily Steel & Ravi Somaiya of the New York Times: "Rupert Murdoch, the 84-year-old chief executive of 21st Century Fox, is planning to hand over the reins of the media conglomerate to his son James, two people briefed on the plans said Thursday. The elder Mr. Murdoch will remain at the company as executive chairman, and his son Lachlan is moving from Australia to Los Angeles to become co-executive chairman, the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. The exact timing for the changes is unclear...."
Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "... the [Bernie] Sanders campaign has hired Blair Lawton, who served as field director in Iowa for the Run Warren Run effort, which announced it was shutting down last week." ...
... Ken Thomas of the AP: "Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called on Democratic presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday to say exactly where she stands on President Barack Obama's trade agenda now that Congress is considering it." ...
... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton, at a major outdoor rally planned for Saturday, will directly address concerns that have emerged in the early weeks of her candidacy, telling voters they can trust her to fight for the middle class and stressing that she cares about their problems, several people briefed on her plans say. The speech, at an event shaping up to be the most ambitious public gathering undertaken by the campaign..., will be shaped by symbolism as she seeks to make the case for why she should be president. It will be held in New York City on an island named for Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the shadow of diverse middle-class neighborhoods, as Mrs. Clinton tries to evoke the legacy of the New Deal...."
Michael Isikoff the Yahoo News: "A watchdog group today asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the National Rifle Association for failing to disclose $33.5 million in political expenditures on its tax returns over a six-year period. In a letter to the IRS and a separate one to the Federal Election Commission, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) cited a recent story in Yahoo News as evidence of what it believes are multiple violations of campaign finance and tax laws by the country's premier gun-rights group."
Craig Jarvin & Colin Campbell of the Raleigh News & Observer: "In a matter of minutes, the state House on Thursday morning overrode the governor' veto of the same-sex marriage bill that allows magistrates to decline to perform marriages. The Senate overrode the veto earlier this month, and now it is law. As a result, magistrates and employees of registers of deeds can opt out of performing marriage duties if they cite a religious objection. County offices in North Carolina must have established hours for performing weddings, as well."
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Jad Mouawad & Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Obama administration on Wednesday said it would regulate greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes, a move that could significantly strengthen President Obama's environmental legacy but that also presents major new challenges for the airline industry. The Environmental Protection Agency found that emissions from airplanes endanger human health because of their contribution to global warming. That finding does not yet impose specific new requirements on airlines, but instead requires the agency to develop the new rules, as it has done for motor vehicles and power plants." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
What a Mess. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "With a final House showdown coming on Friday on President Obama's push for accelerated power to pursue a sweeping trade agreement, the vote brokering has begun -- and it is all tilting to the right.... The legislative changes clearly show the fate of the president's expanded trade-negotiating power rests with Republicans, not Democrats, even more so because Republicans have blocked provisions favored by pro-trade Democrats."
Burgess Everett of Politico: "As Senate Democrats stiffen their resolve to block Republican spending bills, Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) put it plainly on Wednesday morning: 'We're headed for another shutdown.' 'They did it once, they're going to do it again,' Reid said of Republicans. 'They want to wait until the fiscal year ends and then close up government.'"
Steven Overly of the Washington Post: "A House appropriations bill unveiled Wednesday would prevent the Federal Communications Commission from using government funds to implement net neutrality regulations until after a series of legal disputes are settled. That could delay the controversial policy, which allows the agency to regulate the Internet like a public utility, for an untold number of years. For net neutrality enthusiasts, that essentially spells a death sentence." ...
... Tim Stark of the New Republic: "House Republicans' safety plan for Amtrak: videotape the next derailment rather than prevent it.... As industry experts note, U.S. rail has one of the worst safety records in the world because of how little it spends on its rail networks. When a reporter asked House Speaker John Boehner about Democratic protests over Amtrak funding cuts, he called it a 'stupid question.'"
Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) clashed with President Obama's healthcare chief [Sylvia Burwell] at a hearing Wednesday over preparations for a looming Supreme Court decision on ObamaCare.... The hearing was supposed to be about the HHS budget, but Ryan nixed that topic, citing Obama's speech on Tuesday strongly defending ObamaCare.... Ryan said, 'Whatever the Supreme Court decides later this month, I think the lesson is absolutely clear: ObamaCare is flat busted.' The top Democrat, Rep. Sandy Levin (Mich.), hit back at Ryan. 'What's busted is not the ACA, but your attacks,' he said. 'Endless attacks, never coming up with a single comprehensive alternative all these years, so you are armchair critics while millions have insurance who never had it before.... It's your allies who brought the suit that will deprive them of insurance,' Levin said." ...
... Tough Love. Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times: "An adverse court ruling could strip an estimated 6.5 million people of subsidies worth some $21 billion a year, forcing many of them to give up insurance they acquired thanks to Obamacare. [Paul] Ryan seemed to think that would be a good thing, or at least that providing subsidies so people can have coverage is a bad thing. The federal government, he said, 'has sent millions of subsidies out the door, putting millions of people at risk.' Interesting outlook: He's saying that helping people puts them at risk, and a lawsuit backed by the Republican establishment that would strip away that assistance will be good for them." ...
... Dana Milbank: "Five years after the [Affordable Care Act]'s passage, the nation has moved on -- only 1 in 20 Americans thinks health care is the top problem facing the country, a fifth of the number during the Obamacare debate -- but lawmakers have hardly changed their talking points at all." The House Ways & Means Committee held a hearing Wednesday, & things did not go well. Milbank reiterates some of the back-and-forth. It wasn't pretty. ...
... Joan McCarter of Daily Kos: "It all boils down to the only thing congressional Republicans have been able to agree on as a strategy to respond to a bad outcome in King: Blame Obama." Not so fast, Joan ...
... They Have a Secret Plan! Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg: "Congressional Republican leaders say they have a fallback plan ready to go if the Supreme Court cripples a core component of Obamacare this month. But the details of the plan are being kept secret. 'We'll have a plan that makes sense for the American people," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday in a radio interview with The Joe Elliott Show." CW: It's so secret none of the leaders know what it is, but Mitch sure wants to assure the Supreme confederates they're free to gut ObamaCare on the flimsiest of excuses. ...
... Marie's Doom-&-Gloom Prediction: Pundits generally agree on the obvious: that President Obama's speech this week on the ACA was intended to influence the Supreme Court. As I've written elsewhere, I believe Obama knew the gist of the Supremes' 2012 ACA decision before the Court announced it. So if the President is still the recipient of courthouse leaks, the latest leak may have compelled him to speak forcefully in the ACA's defense. If these suppositions are correct, they mostly likely mean that the Supremes' decision is or may be in flux, & it's not looking good. Since Chief Justice Roberts has a history of moving the laws rightward incrementally, I'm thinking that this time around he's moving the ACA right -- into the dustbin of history. I fervently hope everybody gets to mock me for being so wrong. ...
... Blame Obama! Paul Waldman fears that Americans may be gullible & ignorant enough to buy the GOP's argument that President Obama is at fault for cancelling the health insurance subsidies. "All that many people will know is that people are losing their insurance, and it has something to do with ObamaCare."
Gail Collins: "It's been a dismal stretch for a woman's right to choose."
Family Values. E. J. Dionne: "I will be haunted for a long time by Saturday's funeral for Beau Biden.... Beau Biden's sister, Ashley, and his brother, Hunter, spoke with a power and an authenticity about love, devotion and connection that said more about how irreplaceable family solidarity is than a thousand speeches or sermons.... So many of the issues related to family are more complicated (and less about ideology) than the angry, direct-mail style of discourse we are accustomed to on these matters would suggest."
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... papers from [Dennis] Hastert's congressional years suggest that there was more than a touch of hypocrisy in Hastert's long record as a staunch social conservative."
David Sanger & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "Investigators say that the Chinese hackers who attacked the databases of the Office of Personnel Management may have obtained the names of Chinese relatives, friends and frequent associates of American diplomats and other government officials, information that Beijing could use for blackmail or retaliation. Federal employees who handle national security information are required to list some or all of their foreign contacts.... Investigators say that the hackers obtained many of the lists, and they are trying to determine how many of those thousands of names were compromised."
Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "Russia has been conducting nearly nonstop naval exercises in the Baltic Sea -- including on 26 of 30 days in April, according to Lithuanian officials -- and it is regularly probing Baltic airspace with its warplanes. They keep up constant pressure just to show they have influence,' [Lithuania's energy minister, Rokas] Masiulis said. 'It is all part of the general atmosphere of provocation and rising tensions in the region.'"
Paul Richter of the Los Angeles Times: "Secretary of State John F. Kerry will travel to Europe this month for the final days of nuclear negotiations with Iran although he is still hospitalized 11 days after he broke his leg in a biking accident, a senior administration official said Wednesday."
Anna Yukhananov of Reuters: "The World Bank on Wednesday cut its global growth outlook for this year and urged countries to 'fasten their seat belts' as they adjust to lower commodity prices and a looming rise in U.S. interest rates. Kaushik Basu, the World Bank's chief economist, said the Federal Reserve should hold off on a rate hike until next year to avoid worsening exchange rate volatility and crimping global growth."
Kip Chipman of Bloomberg: "JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon took aim at U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a critic of large banks, as he expressed broad concerns about leadership in Washington. 'I don't know if she fully understands the global banking system,' Dimon, speaking Wednesday at an event in Chicago, said of [Warren].... Still, he said he agrees with some of her concerns about risks." CW: Of course she doesn't understand global banking, Jamie. She's just a girl. And girls' brains aren't wired for manly stuff like high finance. But you know, we often know a creep when we meet one.
Paul Krugman takes account of what he got right & what he got wrong in making predictions over the past decade. ...
... Paul Waldman: "This kind of accountability is dangerous to those of us in the pundit industry and must be stopped in its tracks."
"The Godfather of Clickbait." John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "The death of Vinnie Musetto, a former editor at the New York Post who wrote the famous headline 'HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR,' has already attracted quite a few notices, including complimentary pieces in the Times, the Guardian, and the Post itself.... An aging hippie who wore his hair long, dressed in black, and, in the later part of his career, also reviewed movies, he saw headline writing as an art form, albeit a rough-and-ready one.... In combining succinctness, irony, and absurdism, the Post's headlines fashioned a model that editors at popular Internet news sites, in their never-ending efforts to attract clicks, often seek to emulate."
AND Vladamir Putin shows up late -- again -- for his meeting with Pope Francis.
Presidential Race
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Former President Bill Clinton has made millions of dollars giving paid speeches since he left office, but he said on Wednesday that if his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, won the White House, he would no longer take money for talking. Speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative America meeting in Denver, Mr. Clinton said that continuing his paid speaking engagements would attract too much attention, but that he still planned to talk to groups about subjects that mattered to him." ...
... Jonathan Chait explains in some detail to Ron Fournier & David Brooks, et al., why Hillary Clinton's path to the White House is not "bad for America." ...
... CW: We should all get over this idea that any president -- by dint of her or his election -- has a "mandate" to force his policy prescriptions on the country. The only "mandate" is bringing along a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate & majorities in the House & on the Supreme Court. We have three branches of government for a reason, whether we like it or not, & each of the three branches is supposed to exercise its will, whether we like it or not. The concept of a presidential mandate implies a sort of imperial presidency, where the other branches kowtow to the preferences of a person who collected more Electoral College votes than his opponent(s). Yes, they should find ways to reach comity on important matters of state (which is something John Roberts did in upholding the ACA, for instance), but when a president's opposition meets on his Inauguration Day to plot his undoing, his popular mandate is kaput unless he has the necessary votes in Congress & the support of the Supreme Court. The vaunted Founders created a system not so much of checks-and-balances, but of competing interests clashing. It may be a lousy system, but it's the one we'll have in the foreseeable future.
Brendan James of TPM: "After an interview in which she incorrectly stated the presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was a dual-Israeli-US citizen, NPR's Diane Rehm told TPM she made 'a mistake' and got the information from Facebook." CW: I guess Rehm missed my post yesterday in which I noted that "Facebook is not a news source." Probably shouldn't have to explain that to journalists. ...
... Our pal Dylan Byers has a transcript of the full exchange between Rehm & Sanders. Rehm wrote to Politico that she had obtained a list of U.S politicians with dual U.S.-Israel citizenship not from Facebook but from "a Facebook comment." Good grief! Contribute to NPR! They need your help.
Ed O'Keefe & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: Jeb Bush's campaign began to founder almost from the get-go. "Older Bush hands also grew unhappy with rapid hiring by new advisers, and relationships frayed, according to Bush associates. And as the former Florida governor began to founder on the trail and in the polls, the discussions flared into arguments about how to divvy up money and resources between Bush's allied super PAC and his official campaign.... [There were numerous signs] of a political operation going off course -- disjointed in message and approach, torn between factions and more haphazard than it appeared on the surface. Bush's first six months as an all-but-declared candidate have been defined by a series of miscalculations, leaving his standing considerably diminished ahead of his formal entry into the race on Monday." ...
... Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: Jeb Bush thinks shame is a good way to control society's ills. In a book he co-authored in 1994, Bush wrote, "'Society needs to relearn the art of public and private disapproval and how to make those who engage in undesirable behavior feel some sense of shame.'... Scarlet A's for all sluts, please. In fact, after Bush won the governorship, Florida's legislature passed a measure nicknamed the 'Scarlet Letter' law because it required single women to publish information on their past sexual partners in a newspaper before they could put children up for adoption. The law was repealed after being struck down as unconstitutional. Bush also pines for the days of 'pillories and public dunkings,' and regrets that 'much of today's criminal justice system seems to be lacking in humiliation.'... Perhaps most astonishingly, Bush advocates using corporal punishment in public schools.... Even if Bush no longer directly embraces, say, corporal punishment, his underlying philosophy is clear, and it's consistent with attitudes we've seen among conservatives now in power in places such as Kansas and Wisconsin: that the main reason people are broke, unmarried, in prison or unemployed is because it's all just too much gosh-darn fun." CW: Wonder if he thought his wife & daughter wouldn't be such criminals if they were subjected to more shaming. ...
... Joshua Keating of Slate: "Jeb Bush would do basically what Obama's doing on Russia but more 'resolutely.'... In his speech [in Germany], Bush pivoted from calling for the U.S. to act 'more robustly' to praising Merkel for her 'efforts to be clear about sanctions as it relates to Russia.' But the hawkish actor in this situation has been Obama not Merkel."
Colin Campbell of Business Insider: "Presidential candidate and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) had an uncomfortable interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday night. Hannity, who concluded by declaring he is "like Winston Churchill," spent most of the eight-minute exchange attacking Graham. Specifically, Hannity took issue with Graham's claim that he and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow contribute to political polarization in the US. Graham made the comments last week to NBC anchor Chuck Todd.... The two repeatedly attempted to talk over one another throughout the interview." ...
... CW: Yo, Sean, Winnie was a jerk, too, in ways that for some reason remind me of you.
Lapdogs v. Watchdogs. Charles Pierce: Scott Walker & his legislative lapdogs propose to dispose of Wisconsin's independent watchdogs, because (a) they're independent, & (b) they keep catching onto Scotty's direputable, wasteful, occasionally illegal shenanigans. ...
... Colin Campbell: Scott Walker still abusing young teacher.
Rebecca Leber of the New Republic: Rand Paul: Yo, Balto, racism isn't the problem here; it's Democrats taxing small businesses. CW: Yeah, that's what I thought.
Jane Timm of MSNBC: "Republican presidential contender Ben Carson said Wednesday that if elected next year he might implement a 'covert division' of government workers who spy on their coworkers to improve government efficiency."
Tim Alberta of the National Journal: "Fox News has changed its plan for the first Republican presidential debate to give second-tier candidates some airtime after a New Hampshire newspaper announced its own competing forum for B-list contenders. According to plans announced late Wednesday, Fox now will host a 90-minute televised forum in Cleveland on the afternoon of August 6 for Republican candidates who fail to qualify for that evening's 90-minute debate." CW: Must-See TV for sure.
Senate Races
Arelis Hernandez of the Washington Post: "Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D-Md.) has won support from the Washington area Teamsters for her Maryland Senate campaign, two months after her primary rival U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) scored the first union endorsement in the contest."
Michelle Rindels of the AP: "Brian Sandoval, who gave up a lifetime appointment as a federal judge to run for Nevada governor, said Tuesday he liked the job so much that he was turning his back on a U.S. Senate bid that he would've been highly favored to win. Sandoval's decision to forgo a run for the seat held by retiring Democrat Sen. Harry Reid brings the search for the Republican nominee into sharper focus...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Jana Kasperkevic of the Guardian: "Los Angeles will officially raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020. After a third and final city council vote, workers in Los Angeles will receive incremental pay increases over the next five years that will bump their wages up from $9." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Kansas City Star Editors outline a parade of horribles inflicted on the state by the state legislature, Gov. Sam Brownback & secretary of state Kris Kobach." Thanks to safari for the link.
Ed Kilgore: "In the latest and most open demonstration that some law enforcement officers are prone to go on strike if their tactics are challenged, two unnamed Baltimore cops blandly told CNN that citizens of the city had to choose between safety from criminals and safety from the police, per a offered an apology Wednesday through his lawyer, who tried to explain the officer's actions by saying that he was under stress after responding to two earlier calls involving a suicide and a suicide attempt." ...
... Christina Veiga of the Miami Herald: Alberto Iber, "the principal of North Miami Senior High School, inadvertently injected himself into the racially charged national debate over police treatment of blacks with a social media comment — and it wound up costing him his position at the school.... Iber -- in a brief public post on a story on the Miami Herald&'s website -- ... [wrote,] 'He did nothing wrong,' Iber wrote in a comment that showed his Facebook picture, name, school and title. 'He was afraid for his life. I commend him for his actions.'... The student body at his school also is 99 percent minority, according to state records."
Way Beyond
Ewen MacKaskill of the Guardian: "UK intelligence agencies should be allowed to retain controversial intrusive powers to gather bulk communications data but ministers should be stripped of their powers to authorise surveillance warrants. That is the conclusion of a major report on British data laws published on Thursday that proposes changes to the oversight of GCHQ and other intelligence agencies. The 373-page report, A Question of Trust, by David Anderson QC, also comes in response to revelations by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden about the scale of government surveillance disclosed two years ago.... The report by the official reviewer of counter-terrorism laws, was commissioned by [Prime Minister] David Cameron in July last year." CW: So sort of like kids telling itself to do what they want to do.
Ben Quinn of the Guardian: Tim Hunt, "a Nobel laureate who said that scientists should work in gender-segregated labs and that the trouble with 'girls' is that they cause men to fall in love with them, has resigned from his position at University College London (UCL).... In a statement published on its website UCL said, 'UCL was the first university in England to admit women students on equal terms to men, and the university believes that this outcome is compatible with our commitment to gender equality.'"
News Ledes
New York Times: "Christopher Lee, the physically towering British movie actor who lent his distinguished good looks, Shakespearean voice and aristocratic presence to a gallery of villains, from a seductive Count Dracula to a dreaded wizard in 'The Lord of the Rings,' died on Sunday in London. He was 93."
NBC News: "The governor of Vermont [Peter Shumlin] issued a stark warning to the public on Thursday that the two killers who escaped from a maximum-security New York prison 'will do whatever it takes' to stay free.... Authorities said Wednesday they had reason to believe the escapees, Richard Matt and David Sweat, might have headed for Vermont." ...
... New York Times: "As the search for two convicted killers who escaped from prison over the weekend continued Thursday morning, a state highway was blocked and schools were closed in the area surrounding the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y." ...
... AP: "Investigators believe a prison employee had agreed to be the getaway driver in last weekend's escape by two killers, but she never showed up, a person close to the investigation told The Associated Press on Thursday. The person said that was one reason the manhunt was focused on the woods only a few miles from the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility.... ... Authorities believe Joyce Mitchell -- an instructor at the prison tailor shop, where the two convicts worked -- had befriended the men and was supposed to pick them up Saturday morning, but didn't." ...
... Ah, Love. Reuters: "A female prison worker being questioned by police, who are hunting two escapees from an upstate New York prison, thought she had a romantic relationship with one of them and had planned to drive the getaway car, NBC News reported on Thursday. In the end, Joyce Mitchell ...got cold feet and checked herself into a hospital for nerves on Saturday, the day the inmates were discovered missing, NBC reported...."
Washington Post: "A Chinese court sentenced the country's former security chief to life in prison on Thursday, marking the highest-level official to fall as part of a sweeping anti-corruption campaign. Zhou Yongkang became known as the biggest tiger' to be targeted in President Xi Jinping's effort to tackle power abuses across the country."
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