The Commentariat -- Nov. 22, 2016

... President John F. Kennedy, Report to the American People on Civil Rights, June 11, 1963 ...

... CW: There is a direct line from Kennedy's speech to Trump's election. Trump is the anti-Kennedy; just ask those white supremacists featured in the video near the end of today's Commentariat.

Afternoonish Update:

Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "The strained relationship between Donald J. Trump and The New York Times took an odd path on Tuesday when a planned meeting between the president-elect and the newspaper was abruptly canceled by Mr. Trump and then quickly rescheduled. After a morning of back-and-forth statements and Twitter posts, Mr. Trump arrived at midday for a meeting with Times representatives at the paper's Midtown headquarters. Seated next to the publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., in the paper's Churchill Room, he said he had great respect for the paper but thought its treatment of him had been 'very rough.'" CW: Spoiled schoolchildren aren't this flighty. What a disaster!

Here's the follow-up to Joe Scarborough's scoop-o'the-day, linked below:

... "Never Mind." Michael Shear of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump repeatedly said Hillary Clinton's '"lies and deception' rivaled Watergate. He called her 'Crooked Hillary.' His most rabid fans chanted it over and over again at huge campaign rallies: 'Lock her up!' But on Tuesday, Mr. Trump essentially said: 'never mind,' signaling that he does not intend to pursue investigations into his rival's use of a private email server or the financial operations at the Clinton family's global foundation. In an appearance on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' program, Kellyanne Conway, the former Trump campaign manager and a senior adviser to his transition, said ... [Trump] wanted to 'move beyond the issues of the campaign' and confirmed that Mr. Trump did not want his promised Clinton investigations to take place." -- CW ...

... CW: Look for sales of sweaty, used, extra-large-sized "Lock Her Up!" T-shirts on e-bay. P.S. to Obama: You might want to issue a quiet blanket pardon to Clinton anyway. Not that Trump would ever lie to gain an advantage.

David I-Told-You-Trump-Was-a-Crook Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's charitable foundation has admitted to the IRS that it violated a legal prohibition against 'self-dealing,' which bars nonprofit leaders from using their charity's money to help themselves, their businesses or their families. That admission was contained in the Donald J. Trump Foundation's IRS tax filings for 2015, which were recently posted online at the nonprofit-tracking site GuideStar. A GuideStar spokesman said the forms were uploaded by the Trump Foundation's law firm, Morgan, Lewis and Bockius.... Such violations can carry penalties including excise taxes, and the charity leaders can be required to repay money that the charity spent on their behalf. During the presidential campaign, The Washington Post reported on several instances in which Trump appeared to use the Trump Foundation's money to buy items for himself or to help one of his for-profit businesses. But the new Trump Foundation tax filings provided little detail so it was unclear if these admissions were connected to the instances reported in The Post." -- CW

*****

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump released a two-and-a-half minute infomercial-style video on Monday that largely steered clear of his most inflammatory campaign promises to deport immigrants, track Muslims and repeal President Obama's health law. Instead, Mr. Trump offered what he called an update on his transition, which he said was working 'very smoothly, efficiently and effectively.' Reading from a script and looking into the camera, Mr. Trump vowed to focus on creating jobs, reducing regulations and combating corruption once in office." -- CW ...

... Nicky Woolf, et al., of the Guardian: Trump "said [in the video] that he was going to issue a note of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, calling it 'a potential disaster for our country'. Instead he said he would 'negotiate fair bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back'. Hours before Trump's announcement, Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, warned that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would be 'meaningless' without US participation.... be, a vocal supporter of the 12-nation agreement, appears to have failed in his recent attempts to coax Trump out of his 'America first', protectionism." -- CW

Incoming POTUS Connects with Major Media Honchos. Emily Smith & Daniel Halper of the New York Post: "Donald Trump scolded media big shots during an off-the-record Trump Tower sitdown on Monday, sources told The Post. 'It was like a f[uck]ing firing squad,' one source said of the encounter. 'Trump started with [CNN chief] Jeff Zucker and said "I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed,'" the source said. 'The meeting was a total disaster. The TV execs and anchors went in there thinking they would be discussing the access they would get to the Trump administration, but instead they got a Trump-style dressing down,' the source added. A second source confirmed the fireworks. 'The meeting took place in a big board room and there were about 30 or 40 people, including the big news anchors from all the networks,' the other source said.... 'Trump didn't say [NBC reporter] Katy Tur by name, but talked about an NBC female correspondent who got it wrong, then he referred to a horrible network correspondent who cried when Hillary lost who hosted a debate -- which was Martha Raddatz who was also in the room.'... Trump spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway told reporters the gathering went well." -- CW ...

... Hadas Gold of Politico: "The source who spoke with Politico characterized the meeting as less intense, and said the discussion included Trump expressing the possibility of a 'reset' of the tumultuous relationship between ... [Trump] and the media and that all he wants is 'fairness.'... He ... was effusive in his praise of President Barack Obama, the source added, telling the media assembled that after their White House meeting the two have spoken by phone at least twice.... Conway later on Monday hit back at the New York Post report. 'He did not explode in anger,' she said." -- CW ...

... Michael Grynbaum & Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "... after details of Mr. Trump's hectoring leaked on Monday in The New York Post, it seemed the meeting was being used as a political prop, especially after Trump-friendly news outlets trumpeted the session as a take-no-prisoners move by a brave president-elect. 'Trump Slams Media Elite, Face to Face,' blared the Drudge Report. 'Trump Eats Press,' wrote Breitbart News." -- CW ...

... Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "... he repeatedly used the words 'unfair' and 'dishonest' to describe the coverage, participants said.... The participants variously described Trump as 'combative,' 'proud,' and 'dismissive' toward the news organizations present. He also shrugged off the need for a constant pool covering him, the people said, though he did not delve into specifics. Trump has repeatedly shirked his pool, upending a long-standing tradition of the president and president-elect." -- CW ...

... CW: In other words, this was a warning to the media: Trump is the top dog, and if they don't praise him "fairly," they'll pay. BTW, the media should get over any notion the Trump administration will abide by the Federal Records Act, or fill FOIA requests. Trump's notion of federal record-keeping will be a scrapbook filled with rave reviews from Breitbart "News." ...

... Update: Reports on Trump's dressing-down of electronic media bigwigs all noted that he would meet with New York Times editors and reporters today. Not any more. Kyle Balluck of the Hill: "... Donald Trump said early Tuesday morning that he cancelled a meeting with the 'failing' New York Times. Trump said in a tweet that the meeting's 'terms and conditions' were changed at the last moment. 'Not nice,' he added.... 'Perhaps a new meeting will be set up with the @nytimes. In the meantime they continue to cover me inaccurately and with a nasty tone!' [Trump tweeted later.]... The Times ... released a statement saying it did not change any of the meeting's terms, and only refused to agree to Trump's request to squash an on-the-record sessions." ...

     ... CW: That is, the "last-moment change" was Trump's, not the Times'. But this is not a complete lie on Trump's part; he used the passive voice -- "the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice." -- to strongly imply it was the Times, not he, who changed the terms. Are we supposed to see this new "Art of the Lie" as an improvement over his usual bald-faced lies?

Annie Gowen of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's company has partnered with Indian developers to create more business ventures than in any other foreign nation or territory, a Washington Post analysis of financial filings shows. In doing so, the Trump Organization has forged deals with leading moguls here, and with a billionaire politician. One Trump-branded project is under investigation for land-acquisition irregularities, among several projects in India now prompting conflict-of-interest concerns.... [Trump] is involved in at least 16 partnerships or corporations here. Those business interests -- and the financial relationship with a leading member of the governing party -- will be a significant backdrop to Trump administration policy toward the world's most populous democracy -- and toward its warily hostile neighbor, Pakistan." -- CW ...

... "The Greatest Grift of All." Paul Waldman explains how Trump & the Family Unit will use the presidency to really strike it rich. It all sounds "like a modern version of the way medieval kings would expect all the landowners to come to the castle bearing trunks of gold to pay proper respect, lest they incur his wrath. And you may be wondering: Does Trump really think he can get away with this? Yes he does.... If people are saying it's unprecedented and inappropriate and vulgar for him to be using the White House to enrich himself, is Donald Trump going to care? Why should he? He got away with everything else, didn't he?" See also Lisa's comment at the top of today's thread. -- CW ...

... AND Trump started his foreign ops grift immediately ...

Josh Marshall & Catherine Thompson of TPM: "For a number of years, Trump and his Argentine partners have been trying to build a major office building in Buenos Aires. The project has been held up by a series of complications tied to financing, importation of building materials and various permitting requirements. According to a report out of Argentina, when Argentine President Mauricio Macri called ... Trump to congratulate him on his election, Trump asked Macri to deal with the permitting issues that are currently holding up the project. This comes from one of Argentina's most prominent journalists, Jorge Lanata, in a recent TV appearance." Trump & the Argentine Embassy have both denied Trump & Macri discussed his Buernos Aires project. -- CW ...

     ... CW: We'll never know for certain, since Trump failed to follow protocol, or even contact the State Department about taking calls from world leaders until a number of days after the election, so no one provided a readout of the Trump-Macri conversation. In general, whenever Trump mentions another country, he's quick to boast about his business interests there. So at the very least, Trump reminded Macri that he had a project pending in Buenos Aires. AND, as Ben Walsh, et al., of the HuffPost report, "Macri's father, Franco, was a construction magnate and worked with Trump in New York in the 1980s. Macri ... told Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun on Monday that Trump's daughter (presumably Ivanka) was also on his congratulatory call." Given all that, we'd be silly to think Trump did not mention the Buenos Aires project to Macri. Of course he (or Ivanka) did. I'll bet Trump & his partners get those permits pronto. ...

... In a follow-up post, Josh Marshall notes that President Macri also has denied discussing the permitting issue with Trump. "Macri's denial is important. But we should bear in mind that Macri has about as much interest in confirming such a conversation as Trump himself does." To give you a better idea of what people who know Trump think of him, Marshall adds this aside:

As TPM's Catherine Thompson noted back in August, Macri's father Franco had dealings with Trump in the early 1980s when the elder Macri (a construction tycoon) tried to break into the New York real estate business. Indeed, things got so intense between Franco Macri and Trump that when Mauricio (the current President) was kidnapped and thrown into a coffin by unknown kidnappers, Franco Macri at first thought Trump was responsible for the kidnapping.... To be clear, the kidnappers were later captured and there is no evidence whatsoever that Trump was involved in anyway. (Emphasis added.)

... THEN, there's this ...

... Danny Hakim & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "When ... Donald J. Trump met with the British politician Nigel Farage ... shortly after the election..., he encouraged Mr. Farage and his entourage to oppose the kind of offshore wind farms that Mr. Trump believes will mar the pristine view from one of his two Scottish golf courses, according to one person present. The meeting ... raises new questions about Mr. Trump's willingness to use the power of the presidency to advance his business interests.... 'He did not say he hated wind farms as a concept; he just did not like them spoiling the views,' said Andy Wigmore, the media consultant who was present at the meeting.... [Wigmore said] Mr. Trump 'did suggest that we should campaign on it' and 'spurred us in and we will be going for it.'" Trump's spokesperson Hope Hicks first denied the conversation took place; then, when presented with Wigmore's assertions, "declined repeated requests for comment." -- CW ...

... The Audacity of Spin. Laurel Raymond of Think Progress: "Kellyanne Conway, a Senior Advisor to ... Trump, said people should focus less on Trump's conflict-of-interest and more on the 'sacrifice' he's making to his business career by becoming president." -- CW ...

... Adam Liptak of the New York Times reports on the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. A useful read, since we're going to be hearing more about this. ...

... Harper Neidig of the Hill: "A Republican congressman is criticizing Donald Trump over apparent conflicts of interest stemming from the president-elect's business empire, likening them to accusations made against Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail. 'You rightly criticized Hillary for Clinton Foundation,' wrote Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) on Twitter Monday night. 'If you have contracts w/foreign govts, it's certainly a big deal, too.'... The message was in response to a tweet from Trump complaining about coverage of his business ties in foreign countries and how they could present a conflict of interest while he's in office. 'Prior to the election it was well known that I have interests in properties all over the world,' Trump tweeted. 'Only the crooked media makes this a big deal!'" -- CW ...

... Margaret Hartmann: With that tweet, "Trump has confirmed that he doesn't actually care about creating a clear line between his business and the presidency -- which means that there will likely be no line.... As New York's Eric Levitz put it, 'The only constraints on Trump's freedom to leverage his public power for private profit is political disapproval and his own sense of shame.' And suffice it to say the man who presented himself as a major donor to a charity for children with AIDS, though he hadn't given a dime, doesn't have a lot of shame." -- CW ...

... ** Josh Marshall (Nov. 21): "At a minimum, we use this construct ['conflict of interest'] on the assumption that people are acting in good faith and not advancing their private interests with the powers of their office.... The concept simply doesn't apply well when you are talking is a public official who is by design using their public office for profit. Everything we've seen from ... Trump so far suggests this all comes so naturally to him that at some level he doesn't even see anything wrong with it. Indeed, this shouldn't be surprising since it matches with his entire career, in which he has used every angle on offer - publicity, stardom, connections with government officials, etc. - to make money or as tools he can leverage to make money for his private businesses." -- CW

Road to the West Wing Is a Heritage Trail.  Katie Glueck of Politico: "A year ago, the political arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation dismissed Donald Trump as a big-government enthusiast and left-wing sympathizer. Now, the Heritage Foundation has emerged as one of the most influential forces shaping ... Donald Trump's transition team, embedding the veteran Washington group into the operation of a candidate who ran loudly against the Beltway." -- CW

Harper Neidig: "MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' is reporting that ... Donald Trump will not pursue investigations intoHillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server or her family's charity foundation. 'Source tells @Morning_Joe @realDonaldTrump won't pursue investigations into @HillaryClinton for private email server use/Clinton Foundation, Joe Scarborough's show tweeted Tuesday morning." CW:: Don't give up, Hillary haters; you still have Jason Chaffetz! ...

... Oh, And Judicial Watch. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Lawyers for Hillary Clinton are opposing a conservative group's demand that she provide more details about the creation of the private server that hosted her email account while she was secretary of state. Last month, Clinton answered written questions that a federal judge authorized Judicial Watch to ask in connection with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit related to her email set-up." Judicial Watch didn't like her answers. -- CW

New York Times Editors: "Mr. Trump raged on Twitter, falsely accusing the cast [of 'Hamilton'] of harassing Mr. Pence and demanding an apology. Mr. Trump's itchy Twitter finger, however, fell silent when 200 or so white nationalists of the 'alt-right' movement gathered on Saturday ... a few blocks from the White House -- to celebrate his election with a very public coming-out party filled with racist and anti-Semitic filth.... Given the danger of violence and bigotry these groups pose, why would Mr. Trump, who was so offended by the 'Hamilton' cast's plea for tolerance, remain silent?" CW: Obviously because Trump's heart is with his white supremacist supporters. He is what they are, if somewhat more circumspect -- so far.

William Cohen & Gary Hart in a New York Times op-ed: "Predictably, much of the focus [on Trump's "plans"] is on the domestic changes his election may bring. But serious foreign policy experts and institutions must process the implications of his victory and the Brexit vote and place them within the lessons of the post-World War II world." -- CW ...

... SO, there's this:

... Trump Already Needling Conservative British Government. Nicky Woolf & Jessica Elgot of the Guardian: "... Donald Trump, has suggested that the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, should be the UK's ambassador to the US. 'Many people would like to see [@Nigel_Farage] represent Great Britain as their Ambassador to the United States,' Trump tweeted on Monday evening. 'He would do a great job!'... But a Downing Street spokesman said: 'There is no vacancy. We already have an excellent ambassador to the US.'... It is unprecedented for an incoming US president to ask a world leader to appoint an opposing party leader as ambassador, and the statement puts [PM Theresa] May in a difficult position.... Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British ambassador to Washington, said [in a tweet]..., 'UK ambassador in DC exists to defend UK interests in US, not US interests in UK.... Can't have foreign presidents deciding who our [ambassador] should be.'" CW: And Queen Elizabeth has to be gracious to our Dictator-in-Waiting.

Chris Isidore, et al., of CNN: "Protecting ... Donald Trump and his family is costing New York City more than $1 million a day, according to three city officials. And those costs won't necessarily drop significantly once he moves to the White House. That's because Melania Trump and their 10-year old son Barron expect to stay at their home at Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan, at least until the end of the school year. And Donald Trump has indicated he plans to return home regularly, especially while they're still here. Adding to the expense is the cost of police assigned to Trump's adult children and his grandchildren, who are also receiving Secret Service protection, John Miller, NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence & counterterrorism, told WCBS Monday. All of them live in the city, and all are entitled to receive Secret Service protection." -- CW

Tom LoBianco of CNN: "The Federal Election Commission is asking the campaign of Donald Trump to correct more than 1,000 errors in its latest financial filing. The FEC determined that the Trump campaign accepted close to 1,100 donations, which amounted to roughly $1.3 million, that violated one of a handful of campaign finance laws. In some cases, the Trump campaign accepted donations from groups that had not registered properly with the FEC. But in the majority, donors blew right past legal donation limits, the commission wrote in a letter to the Trump campaign sent Monday." -- CW

Bernie Finally Reads Donald's "Infrastructure Plan," Discovers It's a Scam. Yousef Saba of Politico: "Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders blasted ... Donald Trump's proposed infrastructure plan on Monday, calling it a 'scam' and 'corporate welfare.' 'Trump's plan to repair our infrastructure is a scam that gives massive tax breaks to large companies & billionaires,' Sanders wrote on Twitter, embedding a link to an article he published on Medium.com. 'Trump would allow corporations that have stashed their profits overseas to pay just a fraction of what the companies owe in federal taxes,' Sanders continued in another tweet, adding, 'And then he would allow the companies to 'invest' in infrastructure projects in exchange for even more tax breaks.'" -- CW

Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "It's been less than two weeks since [Donald Trump] won the election, and already he's entangled himself in a series of conflicts of interest that could easily rise to the level of a constitutional crisis.... But the solutions being bandied about all have a fatal hurdle in common: They'd require a Republican Congress to take a stand against Trump.... Democrats will have to mount a sustained campaign to expose Trump's corruption in a way they failed to do throughout the 2016 campaign.... Creating wedges that separate Trump from his base is one of the Democrats' most urgent tasks going forward, and a fresh argument about corruption is the way forward.... What the opposition needs is a strong, ongoing argument that his corruption is integrally linked to policies that go against ordinary people." ...

     ... CW: Heer's argument is similar to one Steve M. made last week: that Clinton's campaign was so busy painting Trump as a bad person, they forgot to point out he would be a bad president. ...

... OR Democrats could follow Tulsi Gabbard's lead. Jessie Hellmann of the Hill: "Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) vowed to work with Donald Trump on the issues that matter to the American people, following a meeting between the two Monday at Trump Tower.... Gabbard and Trump met in New York City to discuss U.S. policy in Syria, she said in a statement, though some have speculated she is under consideration to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations." She supported Bernie Sanders in the primary. -- CW ...

... More Beknighted Democrats Emerge. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "At least a half-dozen Democratic electors have signed onto an attempt to block Donald Trump from winning an Electoral College majority, an effort designed not only to deny Trump the presidency but also to undermine the legitimacy of the institution. The presidential electors, mostly former Bernie Sanders supporters who hail from Washington state and Colorado, are now lobbying their Republican counterparts in other states to reject their oaths -- and in some cases, state law -- to vote against Trump when the Electoral College meets on Dec. 19. Even the most optimistic among the Democratic electors acknowledges they're unlikely to convince the necessary 37 Republican electors to reject Trump -- the number they'd likely need to deny him the presidency and send the final decision to the House of Representatives. And even if they do, the Republican-run House might simply elect Trump anyway. But the Democratic electors are convinced that even in defeat, their efforts would erode confidence in the Electoral College and fuel efforts to eliminate it.... The group is also contemplating encouraging Democratic electors to oppose Hillary Clinton and partner with Republicans in support of a consensus pick like Mitt Romney or John Kasich." -- CW ...

... Hamilton! Peter Beinart of the Atlantic doesn't see the Electoral College as those Democratic electors do: "Americans say they revere democracy. Yet they also revere those rights -- freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms -- that the government's least democratic institutions protect. Americans rarely contemplate these contradictions. If they did, they might be more open to preventing Donald Trump from becoming the next president, the kind of democratic catastrophe that the Constitution, and the Electoral College in particular, were in part designed to prevent.... It is 'desirable,' Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 68, 'that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of' president. But is 'equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station.' These ... electors would be 'most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.' And because of their discernment ... 'the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.'... The framers were particularly afraid of the people choosing a demagogue." -- CW ...

... ** The USA Is Not a Democracy. Ed Kilgore: "... the overall partisan imbalance between the party that keeps winning the presidential popular vote and the party that keeps winning everything else is entirely the product of a system that systematically violates the supposedly sacrosanct principle of voter equality. As right-wing talk-radio types love to insist, the United States is a republic, not a democracy. And that has created an abiding problem for the Democratic Party." CW: BTW, Clinton's lead in the popular vote is now more than 1.6MM & counting. AND, per the Cook Report, Clinton is on track to garner some 2.5MM more votes than Trump, putting her about even, at 65MM votes, with Obama 2012. Democrats should not whine about it; rather, they should tout it every time Trump claims he has a "mandate" for one of his draconian plans.

The Bavarian Prince Who Sealed Our Fate. AP: "A handwritten letter has been found in a German archive in which ... Donald Trump's grandfather unsuccessfully fought his expulsion from the country for failing to perform mandatory military service. Bild newspaper on Monday printed the 1905 letter located by an historian, in which Friedrich Trump wrote Bavarian Prince Luitpold begging the 'well-loved, noble, wise and just' leader not to deport him. Luitpold rejected the 'most subservient request.' Trump's grandfather was born in Kallstadt, then part of Bavaria, and immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager without performing his military service. It was after he'd made his fortune there and tried to resettle in Germany that he was ordered expelled...." CW: So draft-dodging for profit is a family tradition.

Helaine Olen of Slate: "It was just this spring that millions of Americans learned they were in for a big raise courtesy of the Obama administration's long-awaited updating of the federal rules for overtime pay. They can enjoy it while it lasts -- if they even receive it at all. It's looking increasingly likely that a rollback of the overtime rules are squarely in the sites of congressional Republicans and the incoming Trump administration." Olen explains how the rule works & why the Obama administration was remiss in not implementing it sooner. ...

     ... CW: This is one more GOP dirty trick that Democrats should advertise, but -- other than a few impassioned floor speeches by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, et al., I doubt the party will bother. Democrats lose not because their policies are bad but because their strategies are. The voting public will have no idea what hit them because Democrats won't tell them.

Here's a video of Richard Spencer's speech at the alt-right convention in Washington, D.C. At the top, many in the audience raise their arms in Nazi salutes when Spencer calls on them to "Hail Trump":

KDKA Pittsburgh: "According to a new study from Stanford University, about 82% of middle schoolers couldn't distinguish between an ad labeled 'sponsored content' and a real news story on a website. That percentage is based on 7,804 students from middle school through college. Many students judged the credibility of news tweets based on how much detail they contained or whether a large photo was attached, rather than on the source." ...

     ... CW: If you wonder how Americans could vote for Trump, therein lies your answer. Partly because of a deficient public education system, adults aren't much more savvy than those clueless kids. I have no idea how I learned that the NYT, for all its lapses, is more reliably accurate than conspiracy nutjob Alex Jones, but it is a fundamental something you & I know that half of Americans don't.

Beyond the Beltway

Bull Connor Methods Come to North Dakota. Julia Wong of the Guardian: "Twenty-six people were hospitalized and more than 300 injured after North Dakota law enforcement officers trained water cannons, teargas, and other 'less-than-lethal' weapons on unarmed activists protesting against the Dakota Access pipeline in below-freezing weather on Sunday night, according to a group of medical professionals supporting the anti-pipeline movement. The Standing Rock Medic & Healer Council said that injuries from the 'mass casualty incident' included multiple bone fractures from projectiles fired by police, a man with internal bleeding from a rubber bullet injury, a man who suffered a grand mal seizure, and a woman who was struck in the face with a rubber bullet and whose vision was compromised. The majority of the patients suffered hypothermia, a result of being soaked by water cannons, the group said. Civil rights groups are decrying the use of water cannons in below-freezing weather." ...

     ... CW: I'm just speculating, but I suspect that the majority of the injured were Sioux. For those of you clinging to the hope that the U.S. cannot become like Nazi Germany, there's this from the report:

The use of water cannons against protesters invokes images of African Americans being bombarded with fire hoses during the civil rights movement, but the crowd control tactic was developed in Germany in the 1930s, according to the ACLU. ...

... Alleen Brown of the Intercept has more on police attacks on protesters. CW: President Obama should get the National Guard, under his control, to disperse local "law enforcement."

Carrying Jobs to New Castle. David Leonhardt of the New York Times: Delaware's Democratic governor, Jack Markell, has been working with some success to keep & create jobs for the state's blue-collar workers. One way he's done so is through innovative programs at New Castle's William Penn High. CW: It all sounds fine, but if Penn's grads can't pass the U.S. citizenship test, then Markell is not doing his whole job. If I were the Education Goddess, I would give students who couldn't pass the test provisional diplomas, and I'd keep night school classes open year-round for those who wanted to clean up their ignorant-citizen status.

Voters should be able to choose their representatives, not the other way around. -- Wisconsin Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, Monday ...

... Todd Richmond of the AP: "Federal judges struck down Wisconsin's Republican-drawn legislative districts as unconstitutional on Monday, marking a victory for minority Democrats that could force the Legislature to redraw the maps. The three-judge panel didn't order any immediate changes to district boundaries, instead saying they would give state attorneys and the voters who challenged the old maps 45 days to offer suggestions. State lawyers plan to appeal the 2-1 ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, but for now the decision offers hope for Democrats who have been in the minority for six years and lost more ground in this month's elections.... The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to come up with a legal standard for deciding when redistricting becomes unconstitutional gerrymandering." -- CW

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Police in San Antonio said Monday that they had arrested a man wanted in the ambush killing of an officer fatally shot a day earlier. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said during a briefing that a SWAT team had arrested Otis Tyrone McCain. According to McManus, McCain was arrested without incident following a sprawling manhunt sparked by the killing of Detective Benjamin Marconi, who was slain while writing a traffic ticket in front of police headquarters on Sunday morning." -- CW

Black Men Can't Speak

Laurel Raymond argues in Think Progress that the "Trump circus" -- in this case, Donald Trump's feud with Broadway actors -- is a "distraction": "... setting both the traditional media and social media chasing after boos at a Hamilton performance, Trump is also distracting everyone from the damaging, substantive moves he has made since being elected." 

Not really. And if you read Charles Blow's column today, he will help you understand why. Trump's choices may feel "like a small collection of poor judgments and reversible decisions," Blow writes, but they signal "an enormous menace inching its way forward and grinding up that which we held dear and foolishly thought, as lovers do, would ever endure."

I would argue that this applies to Trump's little tantrums as much as it does to his policy prescriptions -- awful -- and personnel choices -- worse.

Look at who and what Trump is attacking in his anti-"Hamilton" tweets. The actor who spoke out to mike pence -- Brandon Victor Dixon -- is black. Most of the cast he spoke for also are racial minorities. Dixon's point -- that the Trump administration must recognize the diversity of the nation & serve all equally -- scarcely seems controversial to us. Even pence, not exactly Mr. Civil Rights, says he "wasn't offended by what was said. I will leave to others whether that was the appropriate venue to say it."

Trump's objection -- and demand for an apology -- also seemed to be venue-based: "The Theater must always be a safe and special place.The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!"

But it was not the "venue" that troubled Trump (and perhaps pence). It wasn't that Trump thinks the theatre should be nothing more than a fun place to enjoy meaningless fluffy musical comedies. (This is how media critics at the New York Times and Washington Post interpreted it.) Rather, it was the profession of the speaker.

Dixon is an actor. He is a performer. Since Trump is both of these as well, most white people miss the point. Trump appears to be whining person-to-person. But if you grew up in the South, or nearly anywhere in mid-century America, you'd know better. Black performers, once they gained hold in particular art forms and sports games, became acceptable -- if they stuck to their professional roles. Wealthy white people flocked to hear Lena Horne perform at Miami's Fontainebleau Hotel, but she wasn't allowed to stay there. My racist neighbor used to love to watch Nat King Cole's 15-minute TV show, but she sure as hell would not have let her daughter date anyone who looked like Cole. I watched girls swooning over Sam Cooke, the same girls who would have spat on any child of color who might try to integrate our whitey-white school. Hank Aaron used to dress up as an African diplomat and feign a "foreign" accent so he could get into toney Washington, D.C.-area restaurants when the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves were on the road.

Remember when Trump complained about President Obama's saying that "Muslims are ... our sports heroes"? “What sport is he talking about, and who?” Trump asked, implying that Obama had invented the sports-hero thing to make the Islamic faith more acceptable. Trump didn't even recognize that he had personally met Muslim sports heroes like Muhammad Ali & Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It never occurred to Trump these stellar athletes -- these performers -- had lives outside their sports. Of course when Trump met these Muslim-Americans, it was in the context of their professions. Likely, they did not say anything to him outside that narrow frame. Nor should they, in Trump's view.

This is Trump's attitude. A person of color does not have a right to speak out -- even politely, as Dixon did -- to a white man, particularly a white man who holds a position of authority. A black actor may entertain, but his "rights" end with his performance. He may not express any notion that suggests he is in some sense equal to a powerful white man. In Trump's view, it is acceptable for Dixon to play a white man, minstrel style, but he cannot -- in real life -- speak on a par with white men. A black actor must know his place. He is not a person but a role-player. When Dixon stepped out of his role to directly verbalize the message of the play, he made the theater both "unspecial" and "unsafe," according to Trump. Real black men are "dangerous intruders" into "real America's" beautiful, "special" space. 

It is all right for a Broadway musical to portray the country as one of diversity or even to implicitly or explicitly criticize the country for its failure of diversity, but it is not all right for an actor of color to jump out of his play-acting role to express, in his own words, those same sentiments. Racial diversity is now acceptable to Trump as an abstract fiction, particularly if only those who get to watch the joke are people who can afford $1,000-a-seat tickets. The rich theatre-goers are people, Trump assumes, who won't be fooled into believing the fictional message. Diversity is not acceptable as reality.

When Trump hires as his lead "team" racists Steve Bannon, Jeff Sessions and Mike Flynn, he is expressing the very same belief that his tweets on the "Hamilton" musical convey. Yes, what Trump does is more important than what he says. But in this case, word and deed are perfectly consistent. Trump's beef with "Hamilton" is not a distraction; it is an expression of his actions. White supremacy is of the essence of the scheme.

P.S. Trump continued to tweet, berating the entire cast & the play itself.

The Commentariat -- Nov. 21, 2016

Guardian: "President Barack Obama has warned Donald Trump he won't be able to pursue many of his more controversial policies once he is in office. In his final international speech before he leaves the White House in January, Obama said he could not guarantee Trump would not try to implement controversial positions he took during campaign but he could guarantee 'reality will force him to adjust' how he approaches the issues. Speaking at the Apec meeting in Peru, Obama also said he did not intend to become his successor's constant critic -- but reserved the right to speak out if Trump or his policies breached certain 'values or ideals'." -- CW ...

... AFP: "The US president, Barack Obama, has urged greater efforts to end violence in war-torn Syria in brief talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as concern mounts over a ferocious regime bombing campaign in rebel-held parts of Aleppo. Obama made the comments to his Russian counterpart on Sunday on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Peru in what could be their last meeting before the US president leaves office in January. It was the first time they had met since the US presidential election and the shock victory of Donald Trump, who has pursued a far warmer relationship with Putin than Obama did." -- CW

Michael Schmidt & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump has turned the vital, but normally inscrutable, process of forming a government into a Trump-branded, made-for-television spectacle, parading his finalists for top administration positions this weekend before reporters and the world. The two days unfolded like a pageant, with the many would-be officials striding up the circular driveway at Trump National Golf Club here, meeting Mr. Trump below three glass chandeliers at the entrance and shaking hands while facing the cameras. To build suspense, Mr. Trump offered teasing hints about coming announcements. 'I think so,' he said about whether he would make any appointments on Sunday. 'I think so. It could very well happen.'... By the evening, however, Mr. Trump had announced no appointments, leaving reporters waiting on the cold, gusty day to speculate about Mr. Trump's brief comments." -- CW

The Selling of the Presidency, 2016 ff.

Ayesha Venkataraman, et al., of the New York Times: "In a telephone interview, Atul Chordia, one of the developers who met last week with Mr. Trump, played down the appointment as a 'two-minute' congratulatory conversation in which no business was transacted and no new projects were discussed. But newspapers in India reported it as a business meeting, illustrated with a photograph of the beaming real estate executives -- Atul Chordia, Sagar Chordia and Kalpesh Mehta -- flanking the future president, and indicated that the builders and Mr. Trump's organization are planning further collaborative real estate projects. Sagar Chordia confirmed to The New York Times on Saturday that this account of the meeting in New York -- which included discussions with the Trump family about possible additional real estate deals -- was accurate.... [Ethics lawyers] agreed the activities created the appearance that Mr. Trump and his business partners are using his status as a way to profit.... The Chordia family, which has close ties to Sharad Pawar, the chief of India's Nationalist Congress Party, is particularly enthusiastic in its embrace of Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump has made targeted appeals to Indian-Americans for financial support, holding a major fund-raising event in October in Edison, N.J., a city with a large number of Indian residents, where Mr. Trump called himself a 'a big fan of Hindu.'" -- CW ...

... Drew Harwell & Anu Narayanswamy of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's company has been paid up to $10 million by the [Trump Towers Instalbul's] developers since 2014 to affix the Trump name atop the luxury complex, whose owner, one of Turkey's biggest oil and media conglomerates, has become an influential megaphone for the country's increasingly repressive regime. That, ethics advisers said, forces the Trump complex into an unprecedented nexus: as both a potential channel for dealmakers seeking to curry favor with the Trump White House and a potential target for attacks or security risks overseas.... Ethics experts ... are now warning of many others, found among a vast assortment of foreign business interests never before seen in past presidencies. At least 111 Trump companies have done business in 18 countries and territories across South America, Asia and the Middle East.... Some ... deals ... were launched as recently as Trump's campaign, including eight that appear tied to a potential hotel project in Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Arab kingdom that Trump has said he 'would want to protect.' Trump has refused calls to sell or give his business interests to an independent manager or 'blind trust,' a long-held presidential tradition designed to combat conflicts of interest." -- CW ...

... They've Got Ethics! Ha Ha Ha. Jon Swaine & Alan Yuhas of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's most senior advisers said on Sunday that he would not illegally use the White House for personal profit, as concerns mounted that he was already mixing business interests and official duties. Trump's vice-president-elect and chief of staff moved to reassure the public even as it emerged that he had been meeting overseas business partners between interviews for cabinet roles and making corporate pitches to foreign diplomats. 'I think during the presidency there will be the proper separation,' [mike pence] told CBS's Face the Nation.... Pence spoke after the Economic Times reported that Trump met last week in Trump Tower with three business partners who are building Trump-branded apartments in India.... Trump's children Eric and Ivanka also met with at least one of the Indian partners, the New York Times reported. The meeting ... followed news that dozens of foreign diplomats attended a sales pitch last week at Trump's new hotel in downtown Washington DC. Ivanka Trump, who is an executive vice-president of the Trump Organization, also joined her father last week for a meeting at Trump Tower with Shinzo Abe, the prime minister of Japan. Ivanka's jewelry company had previously advertised a $10,800 gold bracelet that she wore during a TV interview...." -- CW ...

... Patrick Temple-West of Politico: "Overhauling the government's ethics laws will be a top priority for ... Donald Trump in Congress next year..., Mike Pence said Sunday. Speaking on 'Face the Nation' on CBS, Pence declined to affirm that lobbyists will not serve in Trump's administration. Trump, who had campaigned on the notion that he would 'drain the swamp' in Washington, drew fire last week for initially including lobbyists on his transition team." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)

Christina Coleburn of NBC News: "Incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said Sunday on NBC's 'Meet The Press' that ... Donald Trump's team is not planning to create a Muslim registry, but would not rule anything out."

Patrick Temple-West: "... Donald Trump will prioritize repealing President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare law right 'out of the gate' once he takes office..., Mike Pence said Sunday." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Paul Krugman: "... we already know enough about his infrastructure plan to suggest, strongly, that it's basically fraudulent, that it would enrich a few well-connected people at taxpayers' expense while doing very little to cure our investment shortfall. Progressives should not associate themselves with this exercise in crony capitalism.... Cronyism and self-dealing are going to be the central theme of this administration -- in fact, Mr. Trump is already meeting with foreigners to promote his business interests. And people who value their own reputations should take care to avoid any kind of association with the scams ahead." ...

... CW: If Brad Plumer of Vox, Ronald Klain, & Krugman can uncover this con just by reading a few pages on Trump's Website, why the hell can't Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, et al.? They're not economists, but they have economists on staff. It's possible they're grifting Trump, with the aim to bait-and-switch him to an actual traditional, government-run infrastructure program. But I'm not sure they're that smart. Or maybe they know what Trump is up to & they're happy to go along. Schumer, in particular, is a friend of big banks/big investors, and Pelosi's husband Paul is one. So Maybe Democrats are conning us, too. Stay tuned. ...

... Here's Sanders on working with Trump on infrastructure. Here's Pelosi (in a post by Jonathan Chait titled "Charles Schumer and Nancy Pelosi Have a Plan to Make President Trump Popular). And here's Schumer. ...

... E.J. Dionne: "However attractive an old-fashioned let's-pass-good-stuff strategy might seem, the alarming signals emanating from Trump Tower require more than politics as usual. If Democrats do not issue very clear warnings and lay out very bright lines against the most odious and alarming aspects of Trumpism, they will be abdicating their central obligation as the party of opposition.... Before they even get to infrastructure, Democrats and all other friends of freedom must make clear that if Trump abandons the basic norms of our democracy, all the roads in the world won't pave over his transgressions." -- CW ...

Josh Marshall: "Donald Trump won the presidency promising to defend the economic interests of ordinary people from the 'crooked' elite on Wall Street and in Washington. Whether or not he believes or believed that he has rapidly allied himself with the Paul Ryan privatizers who want to eviscerate the federal programs which are the bedrock of the American middle class. Social Security and Medicare are at the top of that list. If you look at the faces in the crowds at Trump's most poisonous speeches I guarantee that you that very few of those people thought they were voting to lose their Medicare.... "It is an issue where Democrats can score a win and in doing so they will empower the opposition to defeat the Trump GOP on other critical fronts." -- CW

** Charles Blow: "This may well be the beginning of the end: the early moments of a historical pivot point, when the slide of the republic into something untoward and unrecognizable still feels like a small collection of poor judgments and reversible decisions, rather than the forward edge of an enormous menace inching its way forward and grinding up that which we held dear and foolishly thought, as lovers do, would ever endure.... Hard-line Trumpism isn't softening; it's being cemented. Increasingly, as he picks his cabinet from among his fawning loyalists, it is becoming clear that by 'Make America Great Again,' he actually meant some version of 'Make America a White, Racist, Misogynistic Patriarchy Again.'" -- CW ...

     ... Here's a telling anecdote from Blow's column: "

In October, [Trump's pick for national security advisor Michael] Flynn tweeted: '“Follow Mike @Cernovich He has a terrific book, Gorilla Mindset. Well worth the read. @realDonaldTrump will win on 8 NOV!!!.' The New Yorker dubbed Mike Cernovich 'the meme mastermind of the alt-right' in a lengthy profile. The magazine pointed out: 'On his blog, Cernovich developed a theory of white-male identity politics: men were oppressed by feminism, and political correctness prevented the discussion of obvious truths, such as the criminal proclivities of certain ethnic groups.' ...

... Jill Jacobs &Daniel Sokatch in a Washington Post op-ed: "Over the past year, we have watched as Trump's campaign trafficked in blatant anti-Semitism alongside racism, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, ableism and Islamophobia. He has empowered white supremacists and provoked a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. Trying to conduct business as usual with the Trump administration could prevent us from joining with other threatened groups to protect our neighbors.... For many Jewish organizations, it will be tempting to 'move past' the disturbing policy goals and divisive rhetoric we heard during the campaign from Trump and his team and to engage in business as usual with the new administration.... Several congratulated Trump on his victory; some expressed their faith that he would make good on his victory speech promise to 'bind the wounds of division.'... But if we take the president-elect at his word [as expressed in his policy goals] -- and we must -- we can't afford business as usual. Now is the time for principled opposition, not accommodation." -- CW

Matthew Nussbaum of Politico: "Donald Trump will live in the White House, he said Sunday, ending speculation about whether he might opt to stay in New York City and reside in Trump Tower or at one of his other properties. His wife, Melania, and 10-year-old son, Barron, will likely join him after Barron finishes the school year this spring, Trump added. 'Yes, White House,' Trump told reporters when asked about where he will live, per a pool report. Asked about plans for Melania and Barron to move to Washington, Trump added: 'Very soon. After he's finished with school.'" ...

... Mallory Shelbourne of the Hill: "Melania Trump and her son, Barron, will not move to the White House after ... Donald Trump takes the oath of office, according to a report in the New York Post." CW: As Rockygirl predicted in yesterday's comments, "She & her son will remain ensconced in Trump Tower, emerging only when absolutely necessary." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Always Look on the Bright Side of Stats. Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Steve M. "Headline at Politico right now: 'Poll: Trump's popularity soars after election' 'Soars'" No, it didn't. What Politico calls "a dramatic uptick" is "mere parity, 46%-46%.... The Politico headline is right-wing clickbait -- and will probably become mainstream-media conventional wisdom." More accurate is the Pew Research headline: "Voters give Trump worse grades than they have for any winning candidate in recent decades." -- CW

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress are drawing up plans to take on the government bureaucracy they have long railed against, by eroding job protections and grinding down benefits that federal workers have received for a generation. Hiring freezes, an end to automatic raises, a green light to fire poor performers, a ban on union business on the government's dime and less generous pensions -- these are the contours of the blueprint emerging under Republican control of Washington in January.... Trump's election as an outsider promising to shake up a system he told voters is awash in 'waste, fraud and abuse' has conservatives optimistic that they could do now what Republicans have been unable to do in the 133 years since the civil service was created." -- CW

Jason Chaffetz Has a Clinton Conspiracy Theory, and He's Going to Prove It.

... we have one of the biggest security breaches ever.... How did they migrate all of this classified information out of the system?... Somebody had to physically take that and put it on another system. Either upload it or on a thumb drive, retype. -- Rep. Jason Chaffetz (RTP-Utah) to Tucker Carlson, Nov. 15

Chaffetz ... shouldn't insinuate, through speculation about thumb drives, that the State Department engaged in the deliberate transfer of information from classified to unclassified systems. The extensive information released by the FBI on its investigation ... provides virtually no support for this assertion, made on a nationally televised interview.... Chaffetz believes the Clinton email case was 'one of the biggest security breaches ever.' That's a matter of opinion. (Let's recall that the State Department in 2000 lost a laptop containing highly sensitive information and discovered an eavesdropping device in one of its conference rooms, resulting in the expulsion of a Russian diplomat.) -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post

See also Patrick's commentary, below.

Joseph Goldstein of the New York Times: As the finale of a conference of the alt-right in Washington, D.C., this weekend, alt-right leader Richard Spencer "railed against Jews and, with a smile, quoted Nazi propaganda in the original German. America, he said, belonged to white people, whom he called the 'children of the sun,' a race of conquerors and creators who had been marginalized but now, in the era of ... Donald J. Trump, were 'awakening to their own identity.' As he finished, several audience members had their arms outstretched in a Nazi salute. When Mr. Spencer, or perhaps another person standing near him at the front of the room -- it was not clear who -- shouted, 'Heil the people! Heil victory,' the room shouted it back. These are exultant times for the alt-right movement, which was little known until this year, when it embraced Mr. Trump's campaign and he appeared to embrace it back." -- CW

Alan Henry of Broadway World: "a Trump supporter interrupted the Saturday evening performance of Hamilton in Chicago. An audience member seated in the balcony allegedly shouted 'We won! You Lost! Get over it! F[u]ck you!' during the number 'Dear Theodosia.'" According to an audience member, "the initial disturbance began after the audience member was enraged by the line 'immigrants, we get the job done.' The majority of the audience cheered that specific line." The Trump supporter was reportedly intoxicated & scuffled with security staff as they removed him from the theater. -- CW

Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post: "At a time of continuing discussion over the role that hyperpartisan websites, fake news and social media play in the divided America of 2016, LibertyWritersNews illustrates how websites can use Facebook to tap into a surging ideology, quickly go from nothing to influencing millions of people and make big profits in the process. Six months ago, Wade and his business partner, Ben Goldman, were unemployed restaurant workers. Now they're at the helm of a website that gained 300,000 Facebook followers in October alone and say they are making so much money that they feel uncomfortable talking about it because they don't want people to start asking for loans." ...

... CW Note to Self: News Year's Resolution s/b "Start using Facebook."

Sapna Maheshwari of the New York Times: "Eric Tucker ... had just about 40 Twitter followers. But his recent tweet about paid protesters being bused to demonstrations against ... Donald J. Trump fueled a nationwide conspiracy theory -- one that Mr. Trump joined in promoting. Mr. Tucker's post was shared at least 16,000 times on Twitter and more than 350,000 times on Facebook. The problem is that Mr. Tucker got it wrong. There were no such buses packed with paid protesters. But that didn't matter. While some fake news is produced purposefully by teenagers in the Balkans or entrepreneurs in the United States seeking to make money from advertising, false information can also arise from misinformed social media posts by regular people that are seized on and spread through a hyperpartisan blogosphere. Here, The New York Times deconstructs how Mr. Tucker's now-deleted declaration on Twitter ... turned into a fake-news phenomenon." -- CW ...

... CW's Helpful Hint No. 5: If a friend or acquaintance sends you a clip or text of a sensational story that hasn't appeared in mainstream media accounts, it likely is a hoax.

Beyond the Beltway

Max Ehrenfreund of the Washington Post: "An officer was shot and killed just outside the San Antonio Police Department's headquarters around noon on Sunday. Chief William McManus said the officer, Detective Benjamin Marconi, had been 'targeted.' Detectives have not identified a motive and are working to identify the shooter...." -- CW

Way Beyond

Joanna Plucinska of Politico: "The U.K. government is deploying the Queen to reach out to ... Donald Trump and establish a good relationship with his administration after his inauguration. The Queen is expected to extend a formal invitation to Trump soon after he is sworn in as president on January 20, according to the Sunday Times." CW: Trump is hardly the first tinpot dictator Elizabeth has had to endure. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sylvie Corbet of the Washington Post: "Former president Nicolas Sarkozy conceded defeat Sunday in the primary to choose the conservative nominee for next year's presidential election in France. With more than 3.2 million ballots counted from about 80 percent of polling stations, former prime minister François Fillon had 44 percent of the vote, former prime minister Alain Juppé had 28.1 and Sarkozy had 21.1 percent. The two candidates confirmed as winning the most votes advance to the Nov. 27 runoff." -- CW

Alison Smale of the New York Times: "Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, under siege domestically but widely seen as a pillar of Western liberalism, announced on Sunday that she will seek a fourth term next year." -- CW